Cayetano plan
ousts some top
state jobs

A downsizing proposal will link
departments and cut the hierarchy

By Mike Yuen
Star-Bulletin

State Budget Director Earl Anzai could be losing his job under a plan Gov. Ben Cayetano is proposing to downsize government. Or it could be state personnel Director James Takushi who goes, while Anzai remains.

Cayetano's plan also could mean choosing among Agriculture Director James Nakatani, Commerce Director Kathryn Matayoshi and Business Director Seiji Naya to head a new department and giving the other two their walking papers.

As revealed in bills before the Legislature, Cayetano's plan to make government more efficient includes merging Anzai's and Takushi's departments into a new department and combining Naya's, Matayoshi's and Nakatani's departments.

Anzai said that while the moves to consolidate departments could save taxpayers more than $1 million, the main thrust is to increase government efficiency.

"We have a Corolla budget and we can't afford to operate on a Lexus budget," he said.

It makes sense, for example, to merge Budget and Finance, personnel and Department of Accounting and General Services' accounting functions because of the similar duties those three offices perform, he said.

The new Agriculture, Commerce and Economic Development Department would have business development as its focal point, so it makes sense to spin off the Office of Consumer Protection from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Anzai said.

As most states have concluded, it is a better fit to have the Office of Consumer Protection under the attorney general's umbrella, administration officials said, because the attorney general already has authority over civil and criminal consumer-protection matters.

The cost savings with the departmental consolidations would primarily occur with layoffs at the top of the departmental hierarchy -- the elimination of directors, deputy directors, administrative officers and directors' secretaries, Anzai said.

It would be during the transition period to the new departments that it would become clearer if layoffs needed to be made at lower levels, Anzai said.

But he said he doubts there will be much duplication at the the lower levels under the restructuring.

"I don't think there's animal quarantine in DBEDT (as there is in Agriculture)," Anzai said.

The Cayetano administration's plan to downsize government is more than a year late.

Legislators, primarily then-Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Donna Ikeda (D, Hawaii Kai), in 1996 backed off from imposing their own restructuring plan when administration officials said they would have a proposal ready for the 1997 Legislature to consider.

But that proposal did not surface until now.

According to the latest state data available, the formation of an Administration Department and a General Services Department would draw from the nearly 1,500 workers now in Budget and Finance, personnel and DAGS.

The consolidations of Agriculture, Commerce and DBEDT into one department would mean pooling some 1,000 workers.

Administration officials insisted that they are not backing away from making government more open by proposing the elimination of all but two of the positions assigned to the Office of Information Practices, which issues opinions regarding the disclosure of government records.

To reassure skeptics, administration officials noted that they are proposing a new section to the law that would "expressly authorize" the attorney general and each county corporation counsel to provide opinions to agencies and the public regarding an agency's obligation to disclose information.

But, they conceded, the reduction in staffing may increase the time the public and government agencies may have to wait to get guidance and opinions from the information practices officer.

Downsizing Here's how Gov. Ben Cayetano is proposing to streamline government: Merge Budget and personnel departments with the accounting, audit and procurement functions of the Department of Accounting and General Services to create a Department of Administration; DAGS would become the General Services Department. Merge Agriculture, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and Business, Economic Development and Tourism departments into a Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Economic Development. Close the Office of Information Practices and transfer its responsibilities to the Office of the Ombudsman. Transfer the Office of Consumer Protection from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to the attorney general's office.