State reform
efforts advance

State government would be
reorganized under a series of bills
now in the Legislature

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By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com

Like the weather, Hawaii's state bureaucracy is something everyone talks about but never does anything about -- until now.

A series of government reform bills is moving through the Legislature, two major ones have already passed the House, and another is poised for passage late today.

One proposal, House Bill 2821, would cut the deputy directors from all state departments except for Civil Defense. Another bill, HB 2726, would collapse the Department of Human Resources within the Department of Labor, drop the Agriculture Department and put its functions under two other departments -- Commerce & Consumer Affairs and Business, Economic Development & Tourism. It would also move the Department of Accounting & General Services to the Department of Budget & Finance.

Although the bills have strong Democratic backing this year, portions of them are similar to the economic reform package pushed by the Republicans in 1997.

For instance, five years ago, the House Republicans urged that "state departments and divisions be collapsed to decrease duplication and to utilize savings when similar functions can be linked."

The GOP specifically called for folding the Agriculture Department into Commerce & Business Development. At the time, the GOP estimated that the savings would be $30 million.

This year, the Democrat version of the bill was opposed by the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture, Hawaii Government Employees Association, Farm Bureau, Agricultural Research Center, Pineapple Growers Association, and Big Island, Kauai and Maui farm bureaus.

The other bill would immediately change state government by removing the deputy directors, but has some problems, according to one state government veteran.

Kate Stanley, who served in the Legislature during the administration of former Gov. George Ariyoshi and was a deputy director under the Waihee and Cayetano administrations, said the governor needs to be able to appoint assistants.

"Any administration elected has its own vision and priorities, so you need to be able to bring in your own team to realize that vision," Stanley said.

She warned that it is likely that the new governor will be forced to ask the Legislature to restore the deputy director positions.

When Waihee was governor, Stanley added, he created a number of new administrative positions, which the state House eliminated when he left office.

However, the bills have won the support of the Government Efficiency Team, a nonpartisan, nonprofit agency that serves as a consultant to government.

"We feel there is a lot of money wasted on layers of management," said GET director Sumner Howard. "The heads of departments would be better and more quickly informed of what is happening in their departments, so better decision-making will result."

At the same time that the House has approved the reorganization bills, it is considering another bill -- introduced by Rep. Ed. Case (D, Manoa) and strongly supported by Majority leader Rep. Marcus Oshiro (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore Village) -- to form a commission to look at "core government functions."

The measure, HB 2840, would first create a commission to define the state government's core functions and then eliminate programs that are not part of that essential core.

After the commission presents its finding to the Legislature, lawmakers would only be able to approve or reject it without making amendments.

"We feel a reorganization of our state government is long overdue," Howard said.

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