Some county offices are planning to dramatically increase their travel budgets for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, after a rigorous phase of Zoom teleconferences replaced traditional off-island conventions previously attended by government officials and employees.

Analysis of 88 West Hawaii Today line items entitled “Travel / Conference” in the 322-page Preliminary Spending Schedule released Monday by Mayor Mitch Roth found that the overall fund travel budget was $ 856,879 in the prior year Pandemic has largely doubled to $ 1.8 million. Fiscal year 2020.

However, according to official data, most of the increases come from new federal grants, so property owners don’t have to pay the bill with their property taxes.

Treasury director Deanna Sako said a full $ 1.4 million of the planned $ 1.8 million will be paid for through federal grants. This means that the county’s taxpayers will pay $ 445,802 in the new budget, compared to $ 421,507 in the 2019-2020 period.

The county council has received the preliminary budget and will hold departmental briefing sessions for administrators over the next month to describe their operations and budgets. Roth will release his final proposed budget on May 5th, and then the council can change it and set property tax rates for the coming year.

“Given the impact COVID-19 is having on our local and global economies, the biggest challenge is to keep services going across the board,” said Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder, chairman of the council’s finance committee.

The council’s travel budget rose from $ 61,842 to $ 90,000, but Kanealii-Kleinfelder said he wasn’t sure why, as “we can’t travel anyway.”

Kohala city councilor Tim Richards said he does not see an immediate resumption of the trip, but that could change later this year. Council members are involved in both the Hawaii State Association of Counties and the National Association of Counties, groups they consider important in lobbying the federal government and sharing ideas with their peers from other regions.

Richards is feeling good about Hawaii County’s prospects.

The budget, Roth’s first since taking office, includes an operating spending plan of $ 590.8 million, just $ 4.8 million more than last year, a narrow 0.8% increase. The increase in funding comes from a 3% increase in property tax revenue due to higher values ​​that bring in an additional $ 9.9 million.

“I am optimistic about this mayor. I’m optimistic about the future, ”said Richards. “We’re not recovered – we all know that – but I like the fact that this mayor is conservative and doesn’t try to catch up all at once.”

Training is often a large part of some departments’ travel budgets.

“Many of our departments, particularly the police, have been very successful in obtaining additional grants for training,” said Sako.

Police Chief Paul Ferreira, whose travel budget rose from $ 319,297 to $ 871,670, said grants make up the majority of expenses, almost entirely devoted to training. The travel budgets for administrators and the police commission to attend conferences have been set to zero, he said.

“If we are asked to cut the budget, that is the first thing we cut,” said Ferreira. “We are not traveling this year and only very limited next year.”

Some training is mandatory for officers’ certification, he said. Much of the training is conducted via online conference calls. However, when that is not possible, the counties pool their resources to bring coaches to the state on the mainland. In this case, the officers on different islands will have to travel to the island where the trainer is located.

“We’ll always be traveling to Interisland more, but we’re not when it comes to the mainland conferences,” he said.

Some departments, such as the Research and Development Department and the Information Technology Department, have zeroed their travel budgets entirely. Others, like the Mayor’s Office of Management and the Planning Department, have cut it in half.

“Together with many other departments, we are trying to achieve more with less,” said planning director Zendo Kern. “The technology helps to become virtual. For the most part, it worked pretty well. “

Some others saw gains.

The Department of Personnel, for example, didn’t initially have a large travel budget of $ 13,657 in 2019-20, but it more than doubled to $ 32,056 for the coming year. This is because the contracts for all eight negotiating units for public workers in the district expire on June 30th.

“This is the first time in a very long time that all tariff units expire at the same time,” said HR Director Bill Brilhante. “We projected that we would be very involved in this.”

Collective bargaining is conducted at the state level, with each county having one vote at the table and the governor receiving four votes. So far, most of the negotiations have been conducted through conference call programs such as Zoom. But that could change, said Brilhante, when the state reopens.

“Fortunately we have been able to cut costs and hope we can keep that up,” he said, “but the point is that the negotiations are more productive and effective when they happen in person.”

Additional spending in the budget is $ 2.5 million, which will be distributed to nonprofit groups through a competitive process. The county increased the statutory minimum amount from $ 1 million for nonprofits to $ 2.5 million as of last year.

The county council annually selects grant recipients from a batch of applications submitted by nonprofit organizations. The council forms an ad hoc committee of four members to conduct interviews and sometimes on-site visits and to make recommendations to the council.

The council’s aid for contingencies – typically $ 100,000 per council member but reduced to $ 35,000 each last year – has also been zeroed. That money would allow council members each to have their own little pot of money to donate to nonprofits and district agencies that request it in a non-competitive process after approval by the council.

“It’s a very significant fund and important to our respective districts. In this way, we can directly help our communities and administrative departments to provide the services they need, ”said Council Chairperson Maile David. “However, I am concerned that it has been fully defused and I hope that when the amount of federal aid to the state is determined – which should be done shortly – we will have a clearer picture of where we are financially and in one Better position to address emergency funds and other budget issues. “

Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.