City Council passes budget unanimously

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

After three months of wrestling with city budget proposals, the City Council yesterday unanimously passed a $1.169 billion operating budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 that will raise property tax rates, adult bus fares and prices for the city's pet sterilization program.

Harris said he will seek the advice of corporation counsel to determine how to deal with portions of the budget that he believes are in direct violation of the city charter.

"I can't remember another time that the budget has been so fouled up," he said.

Harris did not go so far as to say that he planned to veto the budget or take the council to court. After the budget is sent to him, he will have 10 working days to make a decision.

The unanimous vote came after council Budget Committee Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi urged colleagues to approve the document.

"If they want to bring it to the point where we have to go to court, I still stand by the work of our Office of Council Services," she said.

The council's budget is only $900,000 less than the one proposed by Harris on March 2, but included cuts to make up for rejecting fees for optional trash pickup and satellite city hall counter fees, as well as fee increases that would have affected commercial refuse haulers and tour operators who drive into Hanauma Bay.

Although Harris' proposal for a residential curbside recycling program was not approved by the council, members pointed out that they had included $340,000 for a study to come up with an acceptable recycling program by July 1, 2004.

Council Public Works Chairman Mike Gabbard said the council supports recycling and suggested that the city look to other municipalities for ideas on programs that work.

In floor drafts introduced by Gabbard, the administration attempted to persuade the council to amend their budget bill on the floor yesterday to deal with cuts that would lead to about five people in the managing director's office losing their jobs.

The amendments also would have stopped a move to shift salary financing between departments that Corporation Counsel David Arakawa said constitutes an illegal reorganization.

However, both City Council Chairman Gary Okino and Kobayashi said they had been assured by the Office of Council Services that moving the salaries for eight employees who deal with community block development grants from Budget and Fiscal Services to the Department of Community Services was legal.

Kobayashi urged the council to vote down the last-minute floor amendments.

According to Harris, some cuts made by the council were unnecessary because they had counted one $400,000 expenditure twice, so they had $400,000 they could use to restore the positions in the managing director's office and eliminate the need to close two satellite city halls and end mobile satellite city hall service to five communities.

Councilwoman Barbara Marshall, who along with Gabbard supported Harris' amendments, said she was troubled by the lateness of the changes.

"I'm concerned that all of a sudden at the 11 1/2 hour, we found $400,000 that somehow wasn't there before," she said.

Kobayashi also questioned the timing of the amendments.

"All of our meetings have been open to the public," she said. "All of our budget caucuses were open. The public was invited to participate. To now try to amend the budget without any public input goes against the grain of all of our open meetings we were having."

She said she was disappointed in the lack of cooperation from the administration, who she claims made agreements they did not stick to.

Harris, however, had harsh words for the budget process in both years that Kobayashi has chaired the Budget Committee and called for an end to the politically charged budget battles before next year.

"I think the Budget Committee's handling of the budget has been shameful. I think for the second year in a row there has been enormous chaos created, a great deal of information spread, a great deal of anxiety developing, and thousands upon thousands of hours of city employee time wasted to fix errors resulting from the council Budget Committee," the mayor said.

Harris will discuss the budget and take questions from viewers in a special live mayor's report tonight from 7 to 8 on 'Olelo channel 54.

Viewers may call 547-7840 with questions.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.