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Productivity Committee Minutes 04/29/2009 COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT PRODUCTIVITY COMMITTEE 4/29/09 Verbatim Minutes from Public Speaker Georgia Hiller There was discussion on Charter government preceding these remarks: Janet Vasey: What I was going to ask, is it appropriate to ask, because we have a lot of people here, for any public input or anything before we vote, um, I don't know we normally don't have an issue like this. Steve Harrison: Will you introduce yourselves down there please. (Guests stated their names.) Do you want to make any comments now Georgia? Georgia Hiller: I would like to make one comment and that is, um, to question whether the Productivity Committee has the jurisdiction to address the position. The ordinance doesn't really, um, give the committee the authority to be looking at the departments beyond those under the Board of the County Commissioners. And I just question whether or not the committee has studied the operations under the Board and looked at the, um, efficiency or lack of efficiency or lack of effectiveness, um, uh, from that angle. I really haven't seen anything come out to address the cost savings that can be achieved, uh, from within the department uh, uh, of the County Manager, which are the jurisdiction of the Productivity Committee. Commissioner Coyle: Where have you been Georgia? Georgia Hiller: I've been here. But I'd like to see, uh, where, where have the savings been? Can you tell me some of the areas where I can look to for these savings? Commissioner Coyle: Steve covered a lot of those earlier in the presentation. Georgia Hiller: I was, I didn't hear anything quantitative. I didn't see any analysis where savings were achieved. Steve Harrison: Some of those files have the numbers in them. Georgia Hiller: Can I have a copy of them? And these are current? Steve Harrison: No, this is from our study.... Georgia Hiller: Uh, right. I'm asking current. We're talking about where, where within the county uh, uh, departments, those departments under the Board of County Commissioners. Have you studied those.... Steve Harrison: We didn't look at it that way at all Georgia. We looked at it in terms of across the silos. Georgia Hiller: No, no I understand. I'm asking what has been done with respect to that because that is really your jurisdiction, that's your (inaudible). Commissioner Coyle: Well, let's deal with jurisdiction. First of all, I'm going to place my reliance on the County Attorney to tell me who has jurisdiction over what. Um, this committee has as much jurisdiction to carry out a request by the Board of County Commissioners as any other citizen in Collier County whom we might appoint. So, the jurisdiction is determined by the Collier County Commission. Georgia Hiller: Not by ordinance. Commissioner Coyle: I disagree with you and I need to have you talk to Jeff Klatzow about that. Georgia Hiller: I would love to hear his opinion. Commissioner Coyle: Give him a call. Doug Fee: I just would comment, I know we're not debating here, but having been on the committee for about a year, we just looked into the Clerk of Courts. There was a subcommittee and then we had a full committee, we cooperatively worked, and I know that in the past we've worked with the Sheriff's Department. I know that we are one, even though there may be different departments and Constitutional Officers, but I consider us all one and we cooperate with each other and I do think that they appreciate having this committee be able to help them facilitate, so I guess I don't see a difference. Georgia Hiller: Oh, I think there's a big difference here because what you guys are talking about is the elimination of the Constitutional Officers and you're talking about eliminating and Steve was talking about eliminating the Finance function, the accounting, uh, the IT function, the personnel function and consolidating everything, uh, under— bring that closer—the Sheriff or something along those lines. Urn, I mean obviously there, there is plenty of discussion here about eliminating Constitutionals as independent elected officials. Now we're talking about the you know elimination or the consolidation of fire districts or absorption of fire districts under the County. Urn, there seems to be that there's a lot of planning here that would uh, you know, affect Districts, Constitutionals and others that are beyond the departments under the Board of County Commissioners. Steve Harrison: Georgia, we uh, we've had conversations with several of the budgetary realities that descend all of the, we have them say to us, that anything that is, that anything is fair game is on the table. We're happy to sit down, with whatever helps the County. So, uh, Georgia Hiller: Even if they're, in other words they are happy to just fold and... Steve Harrison: I didn't say that. I said they're open to ideas of improvement that help the County and its' taxpayers, because we just don't have the luxury of you know funding as we were before. Change is inevitable, so... Georgia Hiller: I mean, I would just like to see you know what analysis you've done with respect to how the departments and/or divisions or whatever you call them under the Board of County Commissioners have operated and where savings you know savings can be achieved at that level. Steve Harrison: Okay. Any comments from EDC? Crystal, are you going to say anything today? Any more questions? (inaudible - muffled talking and group noises) Georgia Hiller: I will add one other thing. I have a concern that just from listening to a lot of the members on this panel that they, they seem to already have made up their mind that Charter is what we should have, urn, and I think that that's kind of a problem because we want objectivity you know and I do applaud you, Commissioner Coyle for suggesting going out to the public and getting input before any determination is made before moving on to the next step of this process. (inaudible - cell phone buzzing). Public input is essential and think the growth potential according to what Jim said and that is and it is a necessary or a given and to make sure that both sides of the harder analysis is presented so that the public can make an objective decision as to whether or not is it in their best interest. So, in your studies I think you need to both present, uh, what you see as favorable as well as what you see as unfavorable as well as what you quantify as any and all things Steve Harrison: Well, there's not going to be a lot of substandard qualifications because Sunshine Law denies us the ability to work together and there's not enough staff here to do it —that is one of the hamstrings to the policy that was decided years ago. Georgia Hiller: You can't make the statement that it's going to save money unless you can prove it. Steve Harrison: We sweat bullets to come up with uh, supportable numbers here three years ago. Any more questions? Joe Swaja: I can make a statement that I can find in any budget in the world, take 5% off it and you will not see any difference in the output. Georgia Hiller: Then they need to do that further before Joe Swaja and Steve Harrison (in unison): They do that every year as part of the budget process. Janet Vasey: I'll call the question.