MIN CHARTER 2019-04-04 (2018-2020) - Public Hearing

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 4, 2019 sometimes, so thanks for being here. Okay so first, another thank you is for voting down CA -7. I think that really helped focus what we are doing. I know it wasn't unanimous, but I think now that we have decided not to reduce the fund, for the PONC fund, that we can just move ahead and find a way to make it work really effectively. So to CA -9, the position... that creates a staff position for the PONC, very in strong support of that. I also saw looking at the minutes... and I always read your minutes even though I am not able to stay for the meetings, and I was really gratified to see that there was unanimous support for that. So I feel like we are all on the same page in understanding that. The fact that there is money still in the fund isn't because no one is interested, or because there aren't lands to acquire that are special. I think it is because the Administration has been hard and having a staff person dedicated to that would just be so important, so I really hope that CA -9 keeps moving forward and that we get the voters to approve that. So thank you again for that and it is just a really great idea. Jumping to CA -18, first going to Department of Finance, I think is a very good idea. I think that it will... I think Finance is just... they are going to deal with the deadlines, they are going to deal with getting in the reports, they are going to deal with the auditing the (c) (3)'s to make sure they did what they said they were going to do, and I think it is just really their kuleana to do that, so I think it is the right place to put it. Also, allowing 501(c) (3)'s to use some of the monies for salary is really smart. I have worked for non -profits before and it could be so frustrating with volunteers. I don't know if any of you have ever worked with volunteers, but they are all gung ho and then life happens and then they are not there anymore. And so, it is hard for a (c) (3) to apply for a maintenance fund and then worry that maybe the volunteers that were going to help say with a fencing project or something that they got $50,000 for, aren't available anymore. So letting a (c) (3) actually use the money in a reasonable way to help with salaries would be very helpful, so really in strong support of that... that provision that is in there. The only other thing that I wanted to say about CA -18 is, I saw that the 70% got taken out. I think it was in the last hearing. I haven't seen those minutes yet, but I am a little concerned that right now there is just one deadline and that is how Parks and Recs (Recreation) does it, and so it doesn't really work that well and I guess this might not even be part of this group. It might not go in the Charter but it is just something to think about, is right now there is just one deadline so if you have something like you discover a fence is down, or you discover that invasive species you thought you had eradicated are in, you want to apply for maintenance monies now and get them and you know in three months, not a year later. So, that would be something I think that would really make that maintenance fund more effective. That if you go... you know, this is again from a 501 (c) (3) point of view, you go to review your property, the PONC fund, you've got the money for it, there it is, and you discover that the fence is knocked down or there is a fire issue, or the guinea grass has started to sprout up again, you want to be able to get the money and get in there and get it right away and not Page 4