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HAWAII COUNTY POLICE COMMISSION <br />MINUTES — REGULAR SESSION <br />AUGUST 30, 2002 <br />HILO POLICE STATION TRAINING ROOM <br />CALL TO ORDER <br />Chair Okabe called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. <br />ROLL CALL <br />Present: Wilfred M. Okabe, Chair Also Present: <br />Horace S. Hara, Vice Chair <br />John M. Bertsch, Member <br />Peter L. Hendricks, Member <br />Daniel C. Kama, Member <br />Phoebe M. Lambeth, Member <br />Dwight K. Manago, Member <br />Walter Moe, Member <br />Peter P. Muller, Member <br />A quorum was present. <br />Lawrence Mahuna, Acting Chief <br />Thomas Hickcox, Assistant Chief <br />Wendell Paiva, Assistant Chief <br />Charles Chai, Major <br />Lincoln Ashida, Corporation Counsel <br />Josie Pelayo, Secretary <br />APPROVAL OF AGENDA <br />Commissioner Lambeth moved to approve the agenda. The motion was seconded by <br />Commissioner Manago and unanimously carried. <br />STATEMENTS ON AGENDA ITEMS (Open to the Public) <br />Corporation Counsel Lincoln Ashida explained the difference between open and executive <br />sessions, and that a person could make a statement in either session. He advised that <br />anything said in public which may be libelous, slanderous, or defamatory may subject an <br />individual to civil liability. <br />He further stated that there is a five- minute time limit to public statements, and it is at the <br />discretion of the chair. <br />DEL PRANKE came before the commission and stated that he wanted to talk about the <br />process of the chief of police selection. The acting chief of police is not a legal position. The <br />county charter puts the police chief and the deputy chief under the purview of the <br />commission. The acting chief becomes the acting chief because of police department general <br />orders. General orders does not supersede the county charter. There is no such position as <br />acting chief. A person cannot become the police chief without being vetted by the police <br />commission. <br />He told the commissioners to look at, " "Applicants must have unquestionable integrity and <br />personal stability." He further stated that the person who's in the acting chief's position is a <br />person who at one time held another police officer prisoner in her own home, condoned theft <br />within his own division, brutalized his own wife, helped in the Mathison cover -up, and <br />