With just three months before they’re required by the county charter to present a report to the County Council and mayor, some members of the Cost of Government Commission reported Thursday they’re having a hard time drumming up interest from some county departments and boards and commissions.
Commissioners reported very little feedback from officials and staff in departments to which they’d sent surveys and at least one department director declined to meet with the point person on one of the commission’s committees.
“Boards and commissions submitted very few responses,” said Chairman Michael Konowicz. “A majority of the commissions offered no response of any kind.”
The county charter authorizes the commission to “secure directly from any department, commission, board, office or any other instrumentalities of all branches of the county government or from any individual officer or employee of the county, information, suggestions, estimates, and statistics necessary to carry out its duties.”
That’s turning out to be not as simple as it sounds, commissioners said.
“In general, we’re not getting much response across the board,” said Commissioner Neal Herbert, adding “we didn’t ask for a report; we asked for initial meetings.”
Some departments and department heads have been quite cooperative, Konowicz noted. But one of the highest priority areas, the Building Division within the Department of Public Works, has presented extra challenges. It’s currently without a permanent director following the abrupt resignation of former director Ikaika Rodenhurst in June. Since then, a consultant has been hired to evaluate the problematic building permit system within the department.
Herbert said he contacted DPW to ask about meeting with the consultant, a suggestion that “was not well-received,” he said.
“We don’t know what they’re going to do,” Herbert said.
Commissioner Matthias Kusch worried that the DPW consultant’s report, which is due by the end of September, could be delayed and thus delay the Cost of Government Commission’s work, as neither the consultant nor division staff seem available to provide feedback.
“We just don’t know if we will be duplicating efforts,” Kusch said.
But Konowicz didn’t think the commission had to wait, if efforts to work with the department don’t pan out.
“Even if it is (delayed), I don’t think it’s a problem,” Konowicz said. “Multiple parties make the recommendation even stronger.”
Other priority areas after the Building Division are the Department of Information Technology, Department of Environmental Management, a countywide vehicle fleet across all departments, commissions and boards and revenue generation.