Harris may cut Mayor Jeremy Harris will ask members of the island's vision teams and neighborhood boards today to accept less money for their community projects in the coming budget year.
‘vision’ funds
Officials stress that the mayor
wants to hear community input firstBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comThe matter will be discussed at a workshop at 10 a.m. today at the Neil Blaisdell Center Pikake Room.
More than 4,800 vision team and neighborhood board members were sent invitations.
City Managing Director Ben Lee said the administration would like the community teams to consider accepting $1 million for vision teams and $500,000 for neighborhood boards. That is half of what the 19 vision teams and 35 neighborhood boards are getting in the current year.
Lee stressed, however, that Harris first wants to hear what the community leaders have to say before deciding whether to allot the lower amounts as part of the capital improvements budget he will submit to the City Council next March.
"It's a proposal up for discussion," he said.
Lee also noted that it will be up to the Council to decide how much to allot. "If the community wants to support $38 million ($2 million each for 19 vision teams) and to lobby the Council for $38 million, I don't think the administration is going to have any objections to that," he said.
The administration has been stung by criticism, notably from City Council members, that vision teams are out of control with some projects with lapsing funding and many yet to begin construction.
The Council has introduced legislation that would require more guidance for the teams.
According to the administration's figures, 44 of 368 vision team projects proposed over the last four years have been completed, Harris spokeswoman Carol Costa said.
An additional 95 have begun construction, while 115 are in the planning and design stage. Of the remainder, 94 projects were allocated for 2003 and not yet started, while 20 projects have lapsed for various reasons, Costa said.
Lee acknowledged that the large number of uncompleted projects is a reason the administration is suggesting funding be reduced. "We would like to focus on getting some of these projects completed," he said.
The administration also wants to cut back from the overall $455 million capital improvements budget of the current year, Lee said.
Lee also responded to criticism that the administration has taken too long getting vision projects off the ground.
Critics, he said, "just don't understand the budget process, the CIP (capital improvements projects) process, the bidding process or construction."
Lee said among the things the administration hopes to accomplish today is to "educate and inform the general public and the vision team participants why things take as long as they do."
City & County of Honolulu
