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

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -9 March 8, 2019 MS. HECHT: Aloha Charter Commission members. My name is Debbie Hecht. I am the Save Our Lands Campaign Manager since 2006 for the 2% Land Fund. I sent you the proposed changes that I have been working on with Commissioner Sally Rice and others. Did you get it in your packet of information? I hope you did so that we can expedite your process today. During two campaigns for the land fund in 2006 and 2010 we heard from many people. "Why should the County buy more land, we can't even take care of what we have?" I heard this over and over. Council member Brenda Ford and I wrote the maintenance fund charter amendment to empower the stewardship groups that are already caring for the 2% lands by setting aside one quarter percent of property taxes each year in the maintenance fund which is roughly, I just did the figures, about $800,000 a year. These monies can be used only for stewardship of land purchased with 2% land fund monies. I have talked to almost every group who has received a stewardship grant. I have reviewed all the expenditures and also sent that to you, of the maintenance fund since the beginning in 2013. I have worked with and talked to staff over the years. I was on the PONC (Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Commission) Commission. Our intent of helping the stewardship grants has not come to fruition. Actually not at all. Only nine percent of all the money put in the maintenance fund since 2013 has gotten to the non -profits. That certainly wasn't what we intended. We have been working with, so, our goal by... is to strengthen the land fund by assisting the non -profits to care for these lands. This proposition, Proposition 18 that we have been working on, streamlines the stewardship application process, number two, requires the application process to be administered by the Department of Finance, they already assist one million dollar grant program that goes to the social program non -profits. The changes require the PONC Commission to help with recommendations and oversight. They allow the building, installation, renting, and maintenance of toilet facilities, sheds and structures, and they allow for creations of trails or paths. They also allow officers, board members, and employees to be paid by the non-profit for their work. Our goal is to strengthen the 2% land fund program by having more land acquired, boost the purchasing power of the fund by obtaining more matching grants, and awarding more stewardship funds to the non -profits. We have heard from staff and the non -profits over the years and we believe these proposed changes will help. That coupled along with a one full-time staff person that will work only on the land fund. We object to CA -27 which brings in eminent domain to the land fund mechanism. We object to it because it is already being done. The conservation easements, and there was no mention about conservation easements, it was only easements, are being used to acquire the land at Waikapuna which should close soon. If a full-time staff person is hired to work only on the 2% land fund program, who has real estate and conservation land experience, they will know that. All of the staff do know this. Many of the PONC Commissioners also are on the lookout for properties where it would be appropriate to use conservation easements. Page 4