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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -10 April 25, 2019 <br />STATEMENTS <br />FROM THE <br />PUBLIC ON <br />AGENDA ITEMS: <br />HUGH ONO: <br />The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, <br />Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. <br />CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. I know that Commissioner Bergin is excused today <br />and that Commissioner Galimba is going to be slightly late, so I appreciate all the <br />Commissioners for being here today. We have statements for the... we will start <br />with our Statements from the Public. I would ask Mr. Ono and also Ms. Harden <br />please to come to the table. <br />Again, if you could please provide your name, the agenda item or items that you <br />are speaking to, it's a three minute limit for one single agenda item. Anything <br />more than that is a five minute limit, without objection. <br />Proposal No. CA -26 in opposition. <br />MR. ONO: My name is Hugh Ono. I am representing myself and all the <br />engineers in the world I guess, but Chairman Adams and members of the Charter <br />Commission, I did submit written testimony but I would like to enhance it a bit. <br />This subject matter is very dear, passionate, and important to me and we are <br />talking about the potential of removing the requirement for the PE (Professional <br />Engineer) requirement for the Director of Public Works. <br />Let me start off by adding that you know, doctors take the Hippocratic Oath to <br />provide the level of treatment that we in the public take... expect... also, when <br />you go to a lawyer, you would expect to use a lawyer who has passed their Bar <br />Exam and not an unlicensed lawyer. While in the case of the engineers it is the <br />same thing. When you take the PE license, primarily what is the purpose of the <br />PE license is to provide for the safety, health, and welfare of the public. And so, <br />it is important to understand that when the PE Exam is put together, it is not an <br />exam to test the engineer's excellence. The measure of the exam is to test <br />minimal competency of engineers that practice so that they can perform at a level <br />that doesn't jeopardize public safety, health, and welfare. I might also add that in <br />addition to passing the exam, there is another exam that you have to take so that <br />one understands their duty to the public with regard to safety, health, and you <br />know your conduct in that matter is very, very, important. <br />I just watched a program on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) the other night <br />about attorneys and misconduct and that kind of thing and I was surprised that <br />they go through extensive training on providing the level of service that is <br />expected of attorneys to provide for good customer service to their clients. And <br />with that, I would further suggest that as an alternate, instead of removing the <br />requirement, that if the difficulty is finding candidates with the PE license, is to <br />have the position filled on an interim or an acting basis until someone can be <br />filled because basically you are looking for someone to fill that role and if you <br />can't find one... and I understand the difficulty, there is a shortage of engineers in <br />Page 2 <br />