MIN CHARTER 2019-03-08 (2018-2020)

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -9 March 8, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: If you could just... MS. COLE -BROOKS: Yes? CHR. ADAMS: I want to hear what you have to say and we are just having difficulties hearing you here, so maybe speak up or move closer to the mic or something because we definitely want to hear what you have to say. MS. COLE -BROOKS: Okay. It's... It is really loud in here. Is that better over there? CHR. ADAMS: Yes. MS. COLE -BROOKS: Yes, okay. Because here everyone can hear my breathing. Okay. Okay, I will try this, so, well I hope you heard my thank you for your hard work and I feel heartened by the decisions. So to CA -18, I wanted to speak to the 70 percent allocation. I saw from the minutes that there was a concern that this money might get trapped in a sense or perhaps not utilized and so I have a recommendation for consideration as a framework and I think that it might address many concerns by doing this. First of all, rather than having a yearly deadline, setting up quarterly deadlines so that the County and (C) 3 organizations could apply for funds on a quarterly basis. Then for the 70 percent to have a sort of window. So, for instance, each quarter there might be the first month of the quarter a (C) 3 organization or organizations could apply for the funds and then if after that month period, there were still funds available, the Director of Finance could then make them available to the County. So this would accomplish several things. First it would move the money along. My understanding is that right now it can take quite a long time for organizations to get funds to do maintenance and in cases where there are things that are emergencies like invasive species that were eradicated that come back or fences down, they really need the money now. So by having a quarterly deadline and then allocations, we can move that process along quickly. Also by having a grace period that would allow (C) 3's to apply and to utilize those 70 percent. We can ensure that the money didn't languish in case it wasn't used. So I just put that out there. There is more of a description in my testimony and I think it might address your concerns from the last meeting. To just make sure this works because we are trying to make this more efficient. Briefly to CA -27, I agree with everything that everyone has said. I find it a very strange marriage and there is probably a great idea behind it but in this particular case, to combine an eminent domain the most draconian governmental instrument with the PONC funds... it just doesn't, it just doesn't work. I think it would really put a sour note on any kind of matching funds and as Toni said, in a sense, we are trying to work with landowners. We want everyone to be happy about this Page 10