2007-06-13 Board of Ethics Minutes Regular Session mc

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My comment on that is, when I researched the flooding problems at Hawaiian Acres, I discovered that in 1938, the Olaa Sugar Company built a large diversion to divert flood waters away from the sugar cane fields into what was then considered wasteland. The Hawaiian Acres website states that the unpredictability regarding this flood channel is due to policy failures as well as other related geological features. The Hawaiian Acres website stated that the housing development was started in 1958, 20 years after the diversion ditch was designed by engineers. It appears that the drainage channel was probably designed appropriately for engineers for its use at the time. Twenty years later, the property was allowed to be developed without resolving the diversion channel issue. I am not certain that this can be blamed on engineers. Some of the problems may have stemmed from decisions made by previous County Councils, Planning Departments, Department of Public Works, and other agencies which allowed zoning to take place without requiring resolution of the diversion channel issue. I don't believe it was fair, courteous, or impartial for him to blame the situation entirely on engineers. It is disappointing that Mr. Jacobson continues to foster a negative public perception of engineers, and I don't believe this is fair, impartial, or courteous to the engineers in this community who work hard to uphold their obligations and duties to protect public health, safety, and welfare while providing quality projects for the people of this island. The flooding issues we currently face are the result of many contributing factors, and it is a complex issue. During the Council meetings, Mr. Jacobson has raised some very important issues and concerns regarding flooding, and I believe that if we all work together, we can mitigate a lot of the problems. It is my desire to provide my professional input to Mr. Jacobson and other councilmembers and to help develop a code that protects the public's health, safety, and welfare. It is difficult to do this when Mr. Jacobson continually makes negative, misleading statements regarding the engineering profession. These statements may result in negative consequences to the public whose safety he has sworn to protect. l have the Hawaiian Acres website where I got that information from. CHAIR: Why wasn't that document made available to us, your BURNS: - -I just created it last night. I mean —this information was a public hearing. It's all onI got the videos from the County Clerk's office and these statements that I read from Mr. Jacobson were off of the, you know CHAIR: I know for me, I might absorb more if I read it myself. BURNS: I can submit it in writing CHAIR: - -and as you were reading, I could maybe only take in a small percentage of what you read, whereas if I had the documents before me, I could better understand it. So is there a way we could have three copies made? 24