2019-10-23 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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Commissioner Gaffney volunteered to contact Councilmember Richards. Chair Bennett said he wanted to acknowledge and thank Director Kucharski for his sensitivity on the subject of cultural review and for his clarification of the process. 5. NEW BUSINESS a. Discuss recommendations to support more effective public participation and comments on agenda items, including but not limited to where on the agenda public statements and comments are appropriate. Chair Bennett said they have the authority per their rules to manage the public comment process differently. He is an ardent supporter of public participation in government and would like to make it more available in their commission. He would like a conversation on how the public can be advised on what the EMC is looking for. He believes the EMC wants commenters to make observations, recommendations, and suggestions on how the commissioners can do their work better. He also recommends they stand firm in not allowing commenters to personally attack commissioners and county staff. Ms. Mellon-Lacey said they needed to be careful about the right of free speech, but they do have the right to step in if someone becomes disruptive or out of line. Chair Bennett agreed but said that guidelines can be offered to the public to avoid personal attacks and be civil. He asked if the reception of public comments could be initiated with the reminder that commissioners are volunteers, and personal attacks against them or county employees are not welcome. Ms. Mellon-Lacey said they could put those guidelines out as long as they were not restricting the opportunity of people to speak on topics on the agenda. The chair can also interrupt a speaker who goes off an agenda topic or is uncivil and inappropriate. Chair Bennett said he did not want to propose more bureaucracy or guidelines that could be interpreted as dictatorial. As chair, he is willing to assume the responsibility of reining in commenters if they stray, and he hopes future chairs will be willing. Unless commissioners have strong feelings about having guidelines, they can leave this as is. He stands under advisement that he should be more active in the management of the public comment process. Commissioner Pequeño said he would like to solicit feedback from commenters throughout the agenda rather than having all of it at the beginning of a meeting. Chair Bennett said he would like that as well. For the next agenda, he will include a paragraph on what the commission is looking for from the public and stating that comments can be withheld on an agenda item until after the commissioners address it. Discussion was held on how to get the word out to the public about their meetings. Chelsea Jensen, a reporter with West Hawaiʻi Today, let them know the newspaper has a free calendar that can be used. The secretary was instructed to email the newspaper regarding the next meeting.