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

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -9 March 8, 2019 parcels to the County Council for resolutions to purchase, in order to bring parcels into escrow and purchase, we need to have a very cooperative relationship with the landowners. Now we have had seven projects so far and we have eight more on the lands right now. That means we are dealing with a lot of different landowners and it is very much a part of what we do to make sure that we have a cooperative relationship with landowners. To have something like eminent domain hanging over the process would put an unnecessary impediment to the process and it could kill deals. If a landowner feels like "oh, I am not going to cooperate with purchasing it through open space. If you want it, you have to do eminent domain." That is not a good attitude to have. It is not a good way for us to deal with people who own land. We respect people who own land and we want everyone in the process to win. We want the owners to win. We want the community to win. We want the government to win. If we are dealing with Land Trust, we want them to win too. So, I ask you please don't include that eminent domain. It doesn't help the open space fund at all. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. If I could ask Brenda Ford and Shannon Rudolph to come to the table here in Kona, and we will start... we will continue with our testifiers in Hilo. Who do we have in Hilo? MS. MURAMOTO: Thank you Chair. Two more testifiers signed up, so we have a total of four more. Our next two will be Leslie Cole -Brooks and Tammy Spaar, both speaking on CA -18 and 27. CHR. ADAMS: Alright. Thank you. LESLIE COLE -BROOKS: Proposal No. CA -18 in support and Proposal No. 27 in opposition. MS. COLE -BROOKS: Thank you. Good Morning. Leslie Cole -Brooks here on my own behalf. First I wanted to say thank you to the Commission for the work that you have done. I was really heartened to see the results of the last meeting that CA -7 was voted down and that CA -13 and 16 weren't, did not progress. I wish I could actually see you right now so I could really thank you. It just makes me feel that the Commission is listening even though I know that it wasn't unanimous, but I feel like I am heartened by that, so thank you for your work. So, now we can get down to the task at hand which is really making sure that the PONC fund works and it is efficient, and it does what it is meant to do. So to CA -18, I am in strong support. I will stand on my written testimony. I wanted to just discuss one particular aspect. I notice looking at the minutes from the last meeting, that there was a concern about the 70 percent allocation and some questions as to whether or not that could potentially end up having the money, even with all of the best intentions put aside. Page 9