County would also spend for public safety Mayor Maryanne Kusaka proposed budget for Kaua’i County in fiscal year 2001-02 includes $82.9 million for operations and $11.5 million in capital improvements. “You will find within this budget a continued emphasis on
County would also spend for public safety
Mayor Maryanne Kusaka proposed budget for Kaua’i County in fiscal year 2001-02 includes $82.9 million for operations and $11.5 million in capital improvements.
“You will find within this budget a continued emphasis on public safety” and issues “surrounding Kaua`i Electric,” Kusaka said in her budget statement to the County Council.
Kusaka listed several factors that contribtued to this year’s budget growth:
- Use of criminal-asset forfeiture funds for purchase of equipment and furniture for the new police headquarters.
- Additional beautification funds allocated to the abandoned vehicle program.
- Special provisions for costs related to the county’s study of a possible purchase of Kaua’i Electric.
“But perhaps what is most striking about this budget is the tremendous increase in employee-related costs and collective bargaining costs over the present fiscal year,” Kusaka noted.
The mayor said the impact of increased employee benefits and collective bargaining costs will be $6.4 million, a 9 percent increase over the total operating budget for the current fiscal year.
This rise will be offse, according to Kusaka, by a 9.9 percent increase in real property assessments up to approximately $6.02 billion, compared to $5.48 billion in the current fiscal year that ends June 30.
Kusaka said the county administration is “currently preparing for a new bond issue in the amount of $31.9 million.” These funds will be earmarked for landfill expansion and siting, sewer system improvements and expansion, park improvements and building renovations.
Kusaka, addressing concern over the number of drownings and near-drownings on the island, said she hoped to have Kealia Beach fully staffed with lifeguards and fully equipped, too, by the end of this summer.
She also noted that this fiscal year was the time that the county’s water safety program transferred from the Parks and Recreation Department to the Fire Department.
Also included in this proposed budget is a permanent position for a Police Department domestic violence coordinator. For the past two years, the position was grant-funded, but that money has dried up.
Kusaka’s administration has also proposed 10 police aides to be used as guards at the new police station, because the police are required to provide holding cells for pre-arraigned detainees in their new building. Until last year, prisoners were sent to the Kaua`i Community Correctional Center, but the state has been rescinding that help.
Kusaka also proposed setting aside more than $2 million for potential legal fees and consultant costs regarding Kaua`i Electric. She called this provision “prudent.”
Kusaka also asked the council to go forward with the proposed ban on drinking alcohol overnight (from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.) in the county’s parks.
“This year,” Kusaka noted, “we moved forward with installing new fixtures in many of our park bathrooms, including Lydgate. As soon as our employees completed the installation, several were vandalized, and the money spent was literally washed down the drain.”
Kusaka said if the alcohol ban was not passed, the county might be forced to “consider the costly alternative of security guards.”
The next step in the process for the budget is a series of discussions between the administration and the council to hammer out a final budget.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
