Honolulu Council Slashes Mayor’s Operating Budget
Honolulu City Council members have submitted a slew of to Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s $1.93 billion operating budget.
Budget Chair Ernie Martin told Civil Beat last week he still saw “fat that can be cut away” from the mayor’s budget.
Martin is proposing a citywide 1.5 percent reduction in departments’ overall spending, including in the office of the mayor and managing director.
He also cut funding for vacant positions across city departments, reduced overtime pay and money for personal service contracts and suspended funding for out-of-state travel. He also proposed suspending for one fiscal year the funding for membership in special groups, and limiting the amount departments can spend on electricity.
Martin proposed banning departments from using money set aside for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation on anything other than salaries, equipment and other expenses directly related to that conference. He amended the budget to require council approval of private grant agreements.
Martin’s aide said it’s difficult to determine exactly how much the City Council’s operating budget proposals would alter the mayor’s $1.93 billion spending plan. She said Martin will present a new total with his spending recommendation to the Budget Commiteee on April 12.
City Council member Tom Berg proposed removing “all the Vacant Funded Positions in the entire budget.” A Civil Beat investigation found the mayor wants to spend $44 million to fund 1,095 city jobs not filled.
City Council member Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo proposed reducing funding for salaries in the office of Culture and the Arts.
City Council Chairman Nestor Garcia proposed reduced salaries for six new jobs in the Department of Planning and Permitting. He amended the budget so that those transit-oriented development positions would cost the city $500,000, not $1 million as proposed in the mayor’s budget.
City Council member Breene Harimoto proposed limiting the number of full-time employees in the city’s new transit agency, and formalizing the reimbursement process from the agency to the city. He also proposed keeping some Department of Planning and Permitting employees in that department, rather than transferring them to the new agency.
More Money
In some cases, the City Council wants to add, or shift, the use of some funds.
City Council member Ann Kobayashi is asking for $3,000 more to rent facilities for special committee meetings outside of Honolulu Hale during regular city hours.
“Various committee items and discussion topics are particularly important to certain communities around the island,” Kobayashi wrote. “Council committees should be given the opportunity to hold special committee hearings out in respective communities.”
Areas where Martin would increase funding include funding for salaries in the managing director’s office, where he asked for the addition of a $65,000-a-year job for an agricultural liaison. (Kobayashi also requested the addition of that position, but suggested the person be paid $70,000.)
Martin requested $3,500 to replace a sign at the Kaaawa Comfort Station and $300,000 for equipment and five new jobs at city golf courses. City Council member Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo added $125,000 for the city’s Weed and Seed program, which partners with the federal government to reduce crime.
