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SIRACUSA: Yes, that would be satisfactory.
<br />WATANABE: And I accept it as a friendly amendment.
<br />GRAHAM: Commissioner Woodward, is that acceptable?
<br />WOODWARD: No problem with that.
<br />GRAHAM: Okay, thank you. All right, we -.
<br />WATANABE: You got that, Jeff?
<br />DARROW: Right, thank you.
<br />GRAHAM: So I think we have the complete motion before us. So now let’s do
<br />discussion. If any of the Commissioners – I know we’ve been a fairly evenly split Commission
<br />on this, and I don’t know how strongly the different Commissioners hold where they are with
<br />their votes – but if anybody would like to elaborate a little bit. I have some thoughts I might put
<br />out at the appropriate time. But maybe, Commissioner Domingo, you can start?
<br />DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, you know, I certainly disagree with the
<br />intent of the motion, and of course the intent of the use of the property. If it so be that, be for just
<br />one residential parcel, one residential unit, I can accept that. But the fact that we’re branching
<br />out into something that’s beyond that of, for residential use, but it’s something that is used as a,
<br />that would fall probably in a context of a vacation rental or a short-stay arrangement, I certainly
<br />don’t feel that the proposed use and the gravesites being there is not at all compatible. I cannot
<br />accept that. I know probably it’s a moral standpoint of view or a whatever reason there may be
<br />to justify it being there. I certainly would not feel proper to go within or near a cemetery, and
<br />build a structure that would certainly take away the ambience of a place which I consider to be
<br />sacred where somebody in a family has been buried there, you know. We should put ourselves
<br />in that particular situation, I think, if you or someone in your family is buried in a plot where
<br />you’re proposing to build a bed and breakfast. Now if this was not, if this was an unknown fact,
<br />if there was no cemetery, no knowledge of there being a cemetery or whatever, and if in the
<br />process of excavating the place and they find a number of graves, you know, they find bones and
<br />everything, what would happen there today? They’d put an immediate stop to that, and they’ll
<br />call the, probably, the Hawaiian Burial Council to come and investigate, and they will cease and,
<br />cause a cease and desist order at that point, and give a strict study and research of the grave, you
<br />know. I do not take this lightly, even if it would mean just a handful of graves. But the fact that
<br />even those people who had their ancestors buried there were denied, I think they were denied
<br />entry, or they were there and they were asked to leave. So you know, with that kind of action,
<br />how much leverage or, not leverage, but how much of a chance or an opportunity would those
<br />family members have to go visit their loved ones at their gravesite, you know. And it’s certainly
<br />again diminishing the sacredness of a place where someone is buried. And I certainly would
<br />speak against the motion.
<br />GRAHAM: Thank you, Commissioner Domingo. Commissioner Woodward?
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