City Council members want Mayor Jeremy Harris to stop using borrowed money to pay for small equipment or salaries. Council wants bonds
for only large projectsMembers criticize use of
borrowed money to pay for
salaries and buy small equipmentBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comUnder a resolution to amend the city's debt and financial policies, the capital improvements budget could not be used for:
>> Purchasing equipment less than $5,000 or with a service life of less than five years. Exceptions would be made if the equipment is an integral part of a larger project costing $25,000 or more.
>> Recurring costs such as salaries of civil service employees. Contracts for engineering and design professionals under personal services contracts with a predetermined end date would be allowed.
>> Routine maintenance of existing facilities.
The proposal comes on the heels of recent budget hearings where Council members, led by Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi, criticized the administration for including the purchase of small equipment and salaries in the $475 million capital improvements budget.
Council members are looking at deleting some of those items from the capital improvements budget, Kobayashi said, and placing them in the $1.2 billion operating budget.
We need to get a better handle on how money is being spent," Kobayashi said.
The debt and financial policies, first established by the Council in 1995, technically have no effect of law but would serve as a warning to the administration that violations could result in cuts.
Administration officials did not return calls yesterday about the Council resolution.
Kobayashi, in her first go-around as Budget Committee chairwoman, said she is startled to find laptop computers, software and cameras in the administration's $20 million major equipment list for the coming year. Items valued at less than $5,000 should not be part of the capital improvements budget, she said.
Council Chairman John DeSoto said his staff went through the equipment list page by page to identify items such as numbering machines and paper shredders that are low-priced and have short service lives.
"There are a lot of small, line items," he said. "It's just absolutely absurd to go out and buy them with a credit card. You end up spending two times more."
It is also wrong to continually use capital improvement funds to pay for salaries or even to hire trainers contractually, Kobayashi said. "If they're related to certain projects, that's fine, but if it's to pay someone for day-to-day operations, I don't think that should be in the CIP budget."
"This is increasing our debt service," Kobayashi said. "This is not the most economical way to run the city, by paying salaries or buying small items with borrowed money."
City & County of Honolulu
