City cuts vision teams' money
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
The city's 19 vision teams will no longer receive annual allotments of money to spend on community projects, Managing Director Ben Lee announced yesterday.
Initiated by Mayor Jeremy Harris in 1998 to encourage greater participation by citizens, the vision team process has won accolades for its innovative approach but has also been criticized by those who believe some teams are too narrowly focused, dominated by special interests or spend too much time deciding how to spend the money they had been allocated.
After receiving $2 million in each of the past four years, the allotment was reduced to $1 million for the 2003-04 fiscal year.
Lee said the administration still wants vision teams to come up with priority projects lists by the end of each year that will be considered for inclusion in the mayor's budget submittal to the Council the following March. But no longer will they get a guarantee of approval by the administration.
Also gone will be any allocations for neighborhood boards. Each of 32 neighborhood boards are receiving $500,000 this year after getting $1 million last year.
Eliminating the allotments would free both the council and the administration from obligations or limits to funding of vision and neighborhood board projects, Lee said, and "allows the vision groups to focus on other issues ... and not spend a lot of their time wringing their hands (over) how to best spend their money."
Lee's announcement came as the council's Budget Committee was about to consider two resolutions — one placing a two-year moratorium on funding for vision teams and neighborhood board projects, another requiring vision team and neighborhood board allocations be allowed only for the maintenance of city roads. Both proposals were deferred by the committee.
"There will be no assignment of a set dollar amount, or entitlement on a dollar amount, for capital improvements ... nor will there be any kind of dollar entitlements for neighborhood boards," Lee said.
"Over the past years, vision has focused on community and regional issues," he said. "We would like now to have the vision process broaden (its) horizons and look at islandwide issues as well. The vision process should not just be limited to bricks and mortar."
Quarterly, islandwide workshop meetings will look at issues such as crime, the economy, transportation and the environment, Lee said.
"This is a great improvement," said council budget chairwoman Ann Kobayashi, a long-time critic of vision teams. "Thank you."
Councilman Charles Djou, who introduced the resolution seeking a two-year moratorium on money, called the administration's decision a good first step. He questioned, however, the need to continue vision teams, which he believes duplicate the work of neighborhood boards.
Several neighborhood board members, who are also members of vision teams, testified that both are needed because neighborhood boards are supposed to focus on neighborhood issues while vision teams are designed to look at broader topics.
But Tom Heinrich, chairman of the Manoa Neighborhood Board, praised the move for bringing the vision process into sharper focus.
"It is not just about the money," he said.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
Correction: The administration of Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris proposed reducing funding this year for the vision teams to $1 million from $2 million and neighborhood boards to $500,000 from $1 million. An earlier version of this story suggested the City Council proposed the cut.
