2006-03-02 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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Mr. Sakaguchi said he hated Hilo being the center but that the Commissioners were mostly from in or near Hilo. Ms. Stremski said she is retired and has no problem driving to meetings in other areas, but that she would go along with whatever the others wanted. Mr. Sakaguchi suggested putting this discussion on the next agenda so that at least one other member, Ms. Nicholson, would be present. Ms. Garson said this should be discussed under item 10 on the agenda, regarding proposed rule revisions. Mr. Sakaguchi said he agreed with Mr. Joseph's suggestion that a meeting date or time could be changed without changing the regulation. Mr. Miyasato asked Ms. Garson if she was the counsel for the previous Commission. Ms. Garson said she was not but that she did cover a few of the meetings. He said he wanted an idea of whether there was much public input, and Ms. Garson said there was very little. She said the prior Commission's main problem was getting a quorum. Mr. Miyasato said he feels having a quorum is more important at this point than public input and that accommodating board members in order to reach a quorum should be more important. He pointed out how Council meetings are held during the day and people manage to give their input if they so desire. The Board continued to discuss different days of the week and meeting times to try to come to a resolution. An issue also was whether a conference room would be available. It was also discussed that counsel needed to get a commitment from Mr. Ombac about whether he would stay on the Commission if they held meetings periodically on Mondays. Ms. Cushnie suggested that because at this point they have a solid core of five members, they try to maintain the 1St and 3rd Thursdays of every month as the meeting date, so that they can plan ahead, with exceptions being made to meet on an occasional Monday. She asked if anyone present was averse to meeting on Thursdays as they are now. No one was. Ms. Garson had the commission clarify that essentially it would keep the meeting schedule for the 1" and 3rd Thursdays. However, she was to see if Mr. Ombac would stay on as a member if an occasional Monday meeting were scheduled, with the hope that he eventually would be able to come on Thursdays. Ms. Cushnie said she would like to put the onus back on the Commission members not present to let them know the Commission would be as consistent as possible with Thursdays in Hilo, so they could change their schedule to accommodate the Commission, which would be easier than changing the Commission's schedule. Ms. Stremski asked if there was any hope of someone being appointed to the Commission from the 81h District, and Ms. Garson said there is still hope but she is not aware of anyone in the process of being confirmed. Ms. Garson is to put on the next agenda for discussion the meeting time. If it is decided that a meeting will be changed from a Thursday to a Monday, it needs to be announced at the prior meeting. Mr. Sakaguchi said he agreed with Mr. Miyasato that having a quorum was the first priority, and then next was finding another mechanism to get public input. So the Commission decided to also have a meeting on Monday, April 3, 2006. Ms. Cushnie suggested moving on to the next item in the agenda. 13