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Councilman James Y Arakaki December 18, 2000 Page 4 environmental law In law school, I took courses in administrative law and land use law Some people use the word "administrative" to mean something much narrower than the dictionary definitions For example, some use it to mean "the details of an organization," as in the sentence "the planning director handles administrative matters for the planning commission " Let me suggest that this kind of administrative expertise is not the most important skill to look for in a planning director. Others may use the term "administrative" to mean something like "day-to-day supervision of employees " While this is one way to show administrative experience, it is not the only way (I should mention that I have supernsed employees on a daily basis in my law business for thirteen years, on my farm for the last six years, and as a National Pazk Service interpretive naturalist ) If the Charter is construed to require three years of day-to-day supervision of employees in a planning position, there will be only a handful of "qualified" individuals on the island, primarily the former planning directors and their deputies. It would be much too restrictive to limit the eligibility in this way. I don't think that the Charter Commission or the voters thought that they were limiting the job of planning director to just ttis handful of people when the Charter was amended in 2000. This question has come up before in the State. The Charter of the City and County of Honolulu has a very sirriilar administrative experience requirement for the director of the Department of Land Utiliwtion (which is much lazger than the Hawaii County Planning Department) The qualifications of Jan Sullivan were questioned when she was appointed a few years ago. The Honolulu Corporation Counsel determined that she was qualified based upon her years as a ]and use attorney, and her service on the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state boazd. She had not supervised planners on a day-to-day basis. This has been a long letter, probably much longer than necessary, but I wanted to make sure that the members of the Council had the same level of comfort on this question that Mayor Harry Kun had when he appointed me to this Job. I also wanted to give the Council a basis for interpreting this charter provision in the future. Agazn, I look forward to my confirmation hearing with you Tuesday, where I will be happy to address this and any other questions you may have Yours T ly, ~ ~ ~ Christopher J. en ~ CJY/tip PE0.SKOUNCIL