MIN CHARTER 2019-04-25 (2018-2020)

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -10 April 25, 2019 Nature could just do what Mother Nature does and we can leave it be for a little while and focus those funds somewhere else. I think the idea of moving it from Parks and Recs to Finance is a great idea. And I am sure that my friends in Finance are going to love this next statement. I think that moving it to Finance gives you the qualified staff to make some of these decisions. To help coordinate some of these volunteer situations, to take some of that work off of the back of pure volunteers. I am a volunteer. I volunteer for lots of things and I know how much work it is to coordinate a fun run, to have a water station, to have first aid, to get the right skill of people there to know... you don't want to just go in and pull weeds. You might be pulling you know, an indigenous plant. So it does take skill. I am not negating all of this wonderful work that is happening but I am asking can we really as this County of Hawai`i Island, priding ourselves on being the last of the real Hawai`i, do we want to spend all this money in that focus right now. And so, let's just slow down and take our time on that subject. I would also like to speak on, I should disclose that I do serve on the Real Property Tax Task Force, but I am speaking completely as an individual here today. On CA -19 to do away with the minimum tax. The minimum tax might seem arbitrary because it could be that you know, a hundred dollars on something that you might think is worth more than something else, but it is the simplest way to go about it. The... I am surprised that some of the people that work in our tax department stay working for County government. They are extremely skilled and they could make a whole lot more money working in private industry, but they have public service at heart. And so when they recommend to us an idea like this, I am going with it because we just need to stick with the minimum tax. We are also dabbling into personnel management that I think that, and we are doing this both in the volunteer arena by saying who should pick the people to serve on Boards and Commissions as well as in saying who... what the minimum requirements should be. I spoke to this when I testified the other night at the public hearing. I have served on many search committees and in private industry versus... I just heard the gong... as well as at the University, and the biggest difference between private industry and government is that in private industry if you see all your resumes and applications come in and you are... nobody has got the MQs (Minimum Qualifications), then you know you have got the wrong job description and you need to rethink things. Government doesn't have that flexibility. So I am suggesting that government needs that flexibility. Government needs to... this is the Mayor's Administration. I appreciate that the County Council has a role in all of this so maybe it is correct to have some blending of County Council suggesting participants, but it is the Mayor's Administration. It is, you know, and anyone who knows me knows that Mayor Kim and I will go back and forth on a lot of subjects and never agree. So I am not just saying this for Mayor Kim. I am just saying that you have got to have the buck stop some place and so that is where it is important when you are talking about that, that it be the Mayor's responsibility. Thank you for this opportunity. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Do we have any other speakers in Kona? Page 22