Carlisle: We Need Fewer Jobs in the Government Sector
“If the government is overweight and unhealthy, then the private sector has to suffer the burden which is why we need more jobs in the private sector and fewer jobs in the government sector,” Peter Carlisle said at a Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii mayoral debate at the Plaza Club last week.
One thing we can take from Carlisle’s statement is that he believes in fiscal conservatism. Did he approach his job as city prosecutor with that mindset?
Civil Beat looked at the prosecutor’s office budget for the last 10 years. This doesn’t cover all of Carlisle’s 14 years as city prosecutor, but it does give a sense of whether or not his office was overweight or unhealthy.
| Fiscal Year | Number of Full-Time Positions | Amount Budgeted for Salaries | Total Office Budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| ’01 – ’02 | 280 | $11,865,836 | $13,814,936 |
| ’02 – ’03 | 279 | $13,055,425 | $15,279,900 |
| ’03 – ’04 | 284 | $13,381,428 | $15,565,453 |
| ’04 – ’05 | 285 | $13,898,341 | $16,707,337 |
| ’05 – ’06 | 294 | $14,674,208 | $18,083,647 |
| ’06 – ’07 | 289 | $13,247,519 | $18,488,838 |
| ’07 – ’08 | 298 | $15,476,796 | $18,858,806 |
| ’08 – ’09 | 289 | $15,872,484 | $19,348,621 |
| ’09 – ’10 | 289 | $15,751,167 | $19,266,104 |
| ’10 – ’11 | 289 | $14,338,735* | $17,875,392* |
*Projected budget
Judging from these numbers alone, it seems that Carlisle has done a fair job of keeping his costs under control.
Since July 2001, Carlisle increased his staff by nine people, or 3 percent. The budget for salaries grew 21 percent. During the same period, the prosecutor’s total budget rose 29 percent.
To put this in perspective, Civil Beat reported in June that under former Mayor Mufi Hannemann, Honolulu’s annual operating costs jumped 39 percent to $1.2 billion between January 2005 and July 2010. He also added 508 employees, increasing the city work force by 5 percent.
By comparison, the total budget for the prosecutor’s office grew 15 percent between fiscal year 2005 and 2010. At the same time, Carlisle’s office added 4 employees, or 1.4 percent, and his payroll increased by 13 percent.
Also worth noting is the introduction by Carlisle of “Information Charging” in 2008. The process “enables cases to be charged via the filing of an Information rather than a complaint or indictment,” according to a 2008 report on information charging by the prosecutor’s office submitted to the Hawaii Legislature.
By charging criminals this way, the prosecutor’s office cut down the bureaucracy that surrounded preliminary hearings and grand juries. For example, in a grand jury hearing, the state requires a minimum of 12 paid personnel including eight grand jurors, a judge, a clerk, a grand jury counsel and a bailiff. The state also pays for witness fees, mileage, overtime and grand jury counsel fees. When information charging is used, only three individuals are required: a detective, a prosecutor and a judge.
A table below shows that as the office implemented information charging, the number of preliminary hearings and grand jury proceedings in Honolulu shrank.
| Year | Preliminary Hearing | Grand Jury Hearing | Information Charges | Totals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 1387 | 742 | 6 | 2135 |
| 2005 | 1438 | 603 | 369 | 2410 |
| 2006 | 757 | 449 | 911 | 2117 |
| 2007 | 421 | 366 | 1180 | 1967 |
| 2008 | 363 | 363 | 929 | 1655 |
| 2009 | 394 | 342 | 1023 | 1759 |
The prosecutor’s office was not able to provide specifics on how much Honolulu saved through information charging. But it seems logical that less court time means money saved by the state judiciary.
Relative to the overall city budget, Carlisle’s office budget grew less quickly. In nine years, he added nine people to his payroll and he cut jobs after the recession of 2008.
But if we measure Carlisle’s words by how he managed the prosecutor’s office, it seems fair to say that he’s been relatively conservative with city funds.
