MIN CHARTER 2019-06-21 (2018-2020)

Home

Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: DEBBIE HECHT: MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Bergin (here), Ms. Galimba (here), Mr. Hamano (here), Mr. Hopkins, Ms. Leithead-Todd (present), Ms. Rice (here), Mr. Roehrig, Ms. Saquing (here), Ms. Springer (here), Ms. Zelko-Schlueter (here), Chair Adams (here). Chair Adams you have nine members in attendance. The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. I'll note that Commissioners Roehrig, and Hopkins are excused. At this time I will entertain statements from the public on agenda items. I believe that we have... do we have any testifiers in Hilo? MS. KALEIMAMAHU: Good morning Chair, we have no testifiers in Hilo. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. I would ask Ms. Hecht please to come to the dais, actually to the table. Was this available to our Commissioners in Hilo? MS. HECHT: Yes. CHR. ADAMS: Great. I would note... please provide your name, the agenda item you are speaking to, three minute limit, if it is more than one agenda item, five minutes without objection. Thank you. Proposal No. CA -18 in support and Proposal No. CA -9 in opposition. MS. HECHT: The... I did, I asked Scottie to send it over to Hilo hopefully people over there have gotten the handout. My name is Debbie Hecht. I have been the campaign coordinator to the Save our Lands Committee since 2005. I have been advocating for the 2% Land Fund Program without salary, wages, or benefits to save Hawai`i Island's treasured land for our keiki and grandchildren. Sixty-three percent of voters have voted three times to support the land fund. We believe that the `Rina is the foundation for our tourist industry which is the biggest employer on the island. If we don't preserve the places and our ocean shores, why would people come here? They could go to Waikiki and go shopping and snorkeling on the dead reef. I wrote the existing legislation with Council member Brenda Ford, that is in the Hawai`i County Code and the Hawai`i County Charter, was appointed to Mayor Kenoi to serve on the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Commission. We learned that the government would not purchase open park land, so we took the extraordinary measure to run a petition initiative drive and collected 9,600 signatures to get the first measure on the ballot. Sixty-three percent of voters approved that measure and then Mayor Kenoi and the Council suspended deposits to the fund for two years. We took the next extraordinary measure to move the 2% Land Fund to the Charter where it could only be reversed by a vote of the people. That is why we took the huge step of setting Page 2