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

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -10 April 25, 2019 work and are going to go out for a special election to vote. So you are talking about a fraction of a percent of the populace making law for this County and I think that's wrong. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. MR. ROEHRIG: Besides that... CHR. ADAMS: I am sorry. Go ahead. MR. ROEHRIG: Don't want to hear anymore? CHR. ADAMS: Nope...I thought you were complete. My apologies. MR. ROEHRIG: To read everything too, maybe there has got to be a condensed version when there is a... all the proposed amendments, but you are talking right now if you are going to read the stuff that we have, you are probably talking a couple of hours of reading to go through everything. To fathom it and you know, and try understand. I got problems myself trying to understand so we are here all the time... Let's see, yeah, I think I said this, the turnout for voting in this County is really small. I think it is the smallest in the State, and I think the turnout generally in the State of Hawai`i is really low when compared to the entire United States and we talked about this I think from the very get go, but so... again, I am against having extremely small percent of the population determining what the law is to govern this County. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Todd. MS. TODD: Commissioner Roehrig brings up one of the issues that I have about how we approve Charter amendments, and to do it in a special election would make it even worse. If this waits until 2020, it is a Presidential election year, usually you get a decent turnout or a better turnout at that general election. There are a lot of people who never show up at special elections, they don't show up at the primaries, they only show up at the general, and sometimes they only show up you know, for one race. But you get a better percentage. The Charter amendments are further determined by a smaller group of people then just those who show up. It is those... a majority of those who vote on the matter. So if a whole bunch of people show up and they only vote for President, but they don't vote on the Charter amendments, they don't count as noes. They don't count as yeses. They just don't count. So it is only the people who vote. So, it is even a smaller percentage than those who turnout at the election who determine whether a Charter amendment is approved and I thought that they should change that to be more like the way you change the State Constitution. That it has to be a percentage, not of those who vote on the matter, but that... a percentage of the people who turn out to vote. So that it raises the bar a little bit before you make these kinds of amendments that change our taxes, that change our structure. Page 30