Laserfiche WebLink
BROWN: I’ll try to answer that question. The Planning Department created a <br />committee of citizens of Puna that were known to have been active in community affairs <br />in Puna and were thought to have been of high reputation to act as a review committee to <br />screen and rank the applicants that had submitted applications to be on the Steering <br />Committee. And the results of those applications or those rankings and evaluations were <br />then submitted to the Mayor for selection and appointment. <br />WATANABE: Any follow-up to that? Do you have any follow-up to that? That’s <br />good? <br />SIRACUSA: No, that was clear. <br />WATANABE: Okay. I see no other questions right at this moment. I have a <br />follow-up question to that though. In one of our letters Shipman indicated that they were <br />not a part of this process, although I guess they did indicate that they were allowed to <br />provide some input, and they are a significant landowner. So I’m wondering how is it <br />that we can see it’s a community development plan and leave out a major landowner? <br />BROWN: My understanding is that there were two applicants that had ties to <br />W.H. Shipman Limited. I wasn’t engaged with the process at the time, but my <br />understanding is that those applicants were not ranked as highly by the review committee. <br />And my understanding is, I’ve had to try to look at the old records and talked to people <br />who were engaged at that the time, and the primary one is no longer even with the <br />Department. But basically what floated to the surface seemed to be a preference to make <br />sure that we had representation from the geographic areas of Puna because it is such a big <br />district; and the issues in Volcano, and Keaau, and Pahoa and Kalapana and Kapoho, etc., <br />we needed to make sure that we had representations from all of these subdivisions. And <br />that’s what I can tell you on that right now. <br />WATANABE: Okay, thank you. <br />WALTER: May I make a clarifying comment on that? <br />WATANABE: We are going to entertain public testimony after the querying, and <br />it’s coming up shortly. I assume you are with Shipman, am I correct? <br />WALTER: Yes. But I would like to clarify what really happened on that. <br />WATANABE: You’ll have an opportunity to respond when we take testimony. <br />And I have to swear you in, etc., so let’s -. <br />OLSON: If I could weigh in on that, too. <br />WATANABE: Yes. <br /> <br />6 <br /> <br />