2007-10-10 Board of Ethics Minutes mc

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WHITMORE: Yeah, in a fair amount of my work. What I do a lot is - -a lot of what I call program development, which is working with entities, usually governmental entities, non profits, or university units, and helping them move from an idea to a concrete project. And very often in the course of that process, it involves grant development, grant (inaudible). CHAIR: And so do you write grants to the County? WHITMORE: Requesting funds from the County? CHAIR: Requesting funds from the County. WHITMORE: I never have and don't anticipate doing that, certainly, as part of this contract. I did write - -as part of this contract, I did write a grant proposal to the Castle Foundation, which supports some of the work we're doing, but that was again that was private, to HACBED, to support the work we're doing with the County. CHAIR: And do you ever lobby the Council? WHITMORE: No. CHAIR: And you served in no way as a lobbyist? WHITMORE: No. CHAIR: No direct links with Jane Testa in writing grants to Research and Development, requesting County funds? WHITMORE: No. That's well outside the scope of what I do with HACBED or with the Department of Research and Development. CHAIR: Those were my questions. LUM: As a Planner V, I'm not sure exactly what that job WHITMORE: I'm learning myself what that means. As I understand it, my principal responsibilities will be related to the General Plan. As you may know, the General Plan was revised and updated in 2005, and it includes a lot of very broad guidance for land use through the County. But it also provides for district - specific community development planning processes, as you may know, that are ongoing in North and South Kona, in Puna, and now in North and South Kohala. So I will because of my background that's why I'm hired, primarily, is because my background is in community -based development (inaudible) of planning, for the most part, so I understand the community side of that process very well. I have a lot of experience with it. And so I'll be both responsible for any additional General Plan revisions that may come before the Planning Department and Council. And I'm going to be responsible for developing a template for the General Plan annual reports, which is required as part of I think Chapter 15 or 16 of the General Plan. And then also, as new community development processes are initiated for different districts, and that's mostly likely going to be Ka `u and Hamakua in the near term, I will likely play a lead role in being the Planning Department's liaison with communities as they move through that planning process. I'll also have some responsibilities in that I supervise a 20