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Councilman James Y Arakakr December 18, 2000 Page 3 functions. It rs also responsible for administering almost all land uses rn the conservation district, which consists of almost half the land area of the state, Chap. 183C, H.R.S., plus uses on the seabed and rn the ocean The BLNR cannot be equated with a boazd that meets a few times a year and approves decisions made by management. Anyone who observes BLNR meetings would recognize that the boazd made independent decisions after considerable analysis. While I was on the boazd, the BLNR approved everything from the location of the UH West Oahu campus to easements for telephone pole anchors. In the conservation distnct, the BLNR reviewed more than 600 permit applications, including several telescopes on Mauna Kea, the restoration of the Waikiki Natatorium, Ewa Marina, and the Ke-ahole power plant. The boazd approved all departmental rules, including a complete revision of the rules for the conservation district. The boazd members went through many of the rules on a word-by-word basis. The boazd approved all CIP contracts for the DLNR and chose consultants who were hired on a contractual basis. I undertook special assignments at the request of the various chairpersons. Among other things, I personally: --negotiated a land exchange rn Kona involving property worth more than $50 million; --attended downs of community meetings, besides the regulaz board meetings; --met with lessees concerning their individual probletns; --signed contracts (along with the chairperson), ranging from hundreds to millions of dollazs, --reviewed and approved hundreds of real property appraisals; --received and reviewed most of the correspondence of the Hawaii District Land Office; --met with legislators concerning the DLNR's budget; --drafted proposed legrslauon on the Conservation district. In short, I was involved rn high-level administrative work for eight years. The DLNR has twenty times as many employees as the County Planning Department. While this was not full-time, rt was, in actual hours, the equivalent of three years full-time. I should mention that I have been working as planning director for two weeks, and many of the tasks I do are like my duties on the BLNR. Basically, I review and evaluate work done by staff that relates to land use, and set that in the context of overall policy. As for my educational background, I have a master of science degree rn environmental science, which rs, I think, a "planning-related field." I took graduate courses rn environmental impact assessment, natural resources management, ecology, and