2004-06-18 Police Commission Minutes

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Hawaii County Police Commissioner Regular Session Minutes June 18, 2004 Page 7 Vice Chair Manago stated that he would not be able to attend this year's conference. At the conference they have dialogue with other people on different commissions. Being that the Chair is the person who does a lot of the work, he has the best ability to see a lot of the things that they do as a commission and is able to contribute ideas. The Chair is the representative and the voice of the commission. There are a lot of things the Chair can contribute in this conference being that he has had much experience on the commission. After last year's conference, they brought back a lot of material to share with the other commissioners. Who's to say that a Chair cannot come back and make changes in two months? He is against the motion. The Chair's voice is for twelve months, not ten. Commissioner Lassiter asked who determined who goes, and if it is a shared thing, shouldn't everybody have an equal opportunity. Vice Chair Manago stated that they have had a straw pull with those who said they wanted attend. If they set this precedence, does that mean that the fifth year member should not be going to HSLEOA and state police commission conferences also? They should be consistent. If it's a waste of money, then it should be a waste of money for the HSLEOA and state police commission conferences Commissioner Lassiter stated there is a lack of communication here. Nobody bothered to communicate with her what the conferences were about. She had to guess. Chair Hara asked the maker of the motion if he would change the word NACOLE to read national, state, and local conferences. Commissioner de Silva stated that he didn't think it was appropriate. He became interested in this when he heard there was a controversy when Mr. Okabe went to the conference with only a couple meetings left in his term. After the last conference, Commissioner Manago came back with a big bag of material. If a commissioner is interested in looking at material, the more appropriate, efficient, and beneficial way to look at it would be on the internet, not from a bag. Coming back from the conference and making a short presentation will have very insignificant benefit. The argument that Mr. Manago is trying to make that Commissioner Hara would come back and make a presentation that's going to change policy for the commission is a bunch of baloney. Those who believe you attend the conference because you want to benefit the community through the Police Commission should vote for the motion. Those who believe that it's really a reward for someone for being Chairman and Vice Chairman should vote against it. Commissioner Bertsch stated that this topic has become quasi emotional. This is a topic that needs to be addressed. He's not so sure that the motion at hand is the resolution.