Comm No 0024.120 - Testimony - CA-9 - staff for PONC fund and Maintenance fund

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the Maintenance Fund from 2013. Stewardship groups say the process has been very difficult and they have had to apply several times before receiving funding. CA -18- should ALLOW NON -PROFITS TO PAY PEOPLE TO WORK ON THE LAND. (This does not mean we pay board members for being board members) • ALL OF THE NON -PROFITS TESTIFIED THAT THEY NEEDED TO BE ABLE TO PAY PEOPLE TO WORK ON THE LAND. ONLY 6 GROUPS HAVE RECEIVED A MERE 9% OF THE MONEY DEPOSITED IN THE FUND SINCE 2013. The County has used the rest. • There is a safety, a check and balance built into this system. THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND THE Public access, open space and natural resources commission HAVE TO APPROVE THEIR STEWARDSHIP GRANT PROPOSAL. IF THEY VIOLATE THIS THEY WILL NEVER BE ALLOWED TO APPLY FOR GRANTS IN THE FUTURE. HERE IS OUR PREFERRED LANGUAGE: black is what is proposed by the Charter Commission, our proposed changes are in red: [(5)]L6j No officer, board member, or employee of the 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization or the organization that operates under the umbrella of a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization shall receive a salary or payment for labor or receive any reimbursement for the stewardship work on the project,r..a!f ttIllhuy aor . iiii.74. ' iii � to u!L` [Ill y aon aort ( III ,2 wl E2y2� t. 11LAuu "mu t tmaillll,. The 501(c)3 nonprofit shall sign an agreement so stating these conditions and submit it with the application. MAHALO! Your name SINCE OCTOBER AT THE CHARTER COMMISSION: There were 371 people that sent in email testimony on CA -7, CA -8, CA -13 and CA -27. I counted each communication. There were at least 20 people that took time out of their days to attend each of the 10 charter commission meetings and testify in person that is 200 people. These people represent the 63% of the voting public that voted 3 times to support the Land Fund Program. There were only 2 people that testified against the 2% Land Fund Program: Mayor Harry Kim and Council Chair Aaron Chung. FOR YOUR INFORMATION: BACKGROUND AND HISTORY. The SAVE OUR LANDS CITIZENS COMMITTEE HAS RUN THE 3 CAMPAIGNS AND IS POISED TO RUN A 4TH CAMPAIGN FOR NOVEMBER OF 2020- Each time the Land Fund was on the ballot- 63% of voters have voted 3 times to support the land fund. We believe that the aina is the foundation for our tourist industry, which is the biggest employer on the island. If we don't preserve the beautiful places and our ocean shores why would people come here? They could go to Waikiki and go shopping and snorkel on a dead reef. I wrote the existing legislation with Council member Brenda Ford that is in the Hawaii County Code and the Hawaii County Charter. I was appointed by Mayor Kenoi to serve on the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Commission. We learned that the government would not purchase open space and parklands. So we took the extraordinary measure to run a petition initiative drive and collected 9,600 signatures to first get the measure on the Ballot. 63% of voters approved the measure. Then Mayor Kenoi and the Council suspended deposits to the fund for 2 years. We took the next extraordinary measure to move the 2% Land Fund to the charter where it could only be undone by a vote of the people. That is why we took the huge step of setting aside 2% of property 3