2009-11-06 TMALA MOHALA - Laserfiche WebLink

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CHU: Could I add -? WOODWARD: Yes, sir. If you’ll give us your name and address. I don’t believe you have. CHU: Newton Chu. WOODWARD: Okay. CHU: And I’m the partner in charge of our office over here. And I remember when the client came in and met with Jennifer and stuff, and I sat down and met with them and, you know, found out a little bit about the history and what was going on. It was very difficult for us at that time when you have a, what we call a pro se, someone who had done everything on their own but they maybe fumbled and bumbled their way into a mess and they come into your office. And, BJ, I know you, you know what I’m talking about. It’s hard to undo the past and sanitize or make it right. But what we saw in this project is that something that was a, we felt was a little unique because when we first heard about it we really didn’t know what it was, either a special treatment facility or whatever. And the more we talked with the State people, they didn’t know either. So it’s kind of a hybrid. It’s something that’s not being done in the State. But yet there were so many positive possibilities out of this to help the youth, not only on the mainland but also on our community, that we decided that, well, we will get involved with this and see if we can help them wind their way through the bureaucracy, both county and state. And it turned out you guys are the first. I mean we are taking it through you guys first; and there are other places that we’re going to have to go to make it work. But I think if you look at the big picture of what a program like this offers to our young people in our country, in our community -. In fact, part of our discussion this morning involves the granddaughter of my minister who was a runaway just this past week and just found, who’s kind of possibly a candidate for something like this so that she’s got soft issues that caused her to runaway. This is a type of treatment that would be probably better for her than going back to Hilo High. So we looked at the big picture when we evaluated the case and said, yeah, it’s a mess, yeah, they fumbled and bumbled a little bit and they’ve done something that, you know, maybe we should have spanked them a little harder. But we’ve got to start somewhere and we’re starting here to make it right. And we have told them that we have to do things to make it right, and they said they’re willing to do that; and hopefully we can keep it moving forward. It’s not, you know, it’s not a contested case.Right? It’s not something that people are saying take, well, there’s an isolated complaint which I’m sure you’re going to hear about from someone who lives somewhere else. But there are issues that we will be addressing, tough issues, and, you know, it’s my hope that we can move it forward because we do have a lot more hurdles after this Planning Commission. We do have a lot more hurdles, we understand that. But that’s the challenge. LEITHEAD TODD: Commissioners, I wanted to, you know, just point out that it was partially because of the history of this project and partially because it’s kind of unique that I had recommended a five-year limit with -. Basically by then I would assume they would have gone through Department of Health, there would be an opportunity to evaluate whether the building 19 EXHIBIT B