LIHUE — Kauai County doesn’t have a long-term financial plan, so county officials are bringing consultants on board to help form one. At the cost of $40,000, the Government Finance Officers Association will help Kauai County develop a financial vision
LIHUE — Kauai County doesn’t have a long-term financial plan, so county officials are bringing consultants on board to help form one.
At the cost of $40,000, the Government Finance Officers Association will help Kauai County develop a financial vision for the future.
The end product would be an outline of the county’s financial goals for the next five to 10 years. It would be housed in the financial department, updated annually, and presented during the budget.
“I think the harsh reality is that there really was no long-term financial planning efficiently or formally being done by the county,” said Ken Shimonishi, the county’s director of finance during a presentation at a recent County Council meeting.
The $40,000 would get the county its own personal consultant, Elizabeth Fu, a senior consultant with GFOA, flown in from Chicago to help develop that plan.
Fu said she would conduct as many workshops as it takes to get county officials on the same page, as well as work with a project team to map out Kauai’s financial future.
The project team would include members of the budget team, the county’s budget analyst and representation from the council and mayor’s office.
“We want everyone’s opinions on what the risks are, what the expectations are, and what the perceived future outlook of the county should be,” Fu said during her presentation.
The organization’s role would be to provide guidance and examples, Fu said, not to develop it for them.
“The purpose is to identify and assist in drafting financial policies in an effort to begin the long-term financial planning,” Fu said. “Financial plannings are really developed in the organization, and we’re here to help you in this process.”
GFOA’s four-part process first gathers input from county officials on values and vision. Then, the company has the project team talk with stakeholders and identify problem areas. The third step is where the policy is drafted and input is gathered from department heads, staff members, and the council. After that, input is gathered from the community before the policy is finished.
Council members praised the idea of bringing GFOA on board, especially for the price.
Councilman Ross Kagawa hailed the prospective consultation deal as a “steal” for the price and said he thought it was a great idea to go forward.
“(In) our last two budgets, we made the request for long term planning, so I’m glad it’s underway,” said Councilman Mason Chock.
The rest of the Council Members and Council Chairman Mel Rapozo both voiced their support of the idea as well.
Councilman Gary Hooser said he’s on board with the idea, but he’d like to see it mandated that long term financial planning become part of the budget process.
“In my experience, it seems like in every budget we do, it’s always like this cliff that we’re going to fall off of,” Hooser said. “If they’d planned a few years out, we’d know where those potholes are, literally, and we’d plan accordingly instead of being on the verge of crisis every year.”
Just before the Council gave the go-ahead on the project, Rapozo echoed words of caution that had been brought up previously in the meeting.
“(The long term financial plan) is useless if we don’t implement it,” he said. “In my opinion, the GFOA are the experts and we should learn from them.”
