2008-02-13 Board of Ethics Minutes Regular Session

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representative, make an appointment, then I'll be there Friday and we can talk. And that's accessibility, or putting your phone number in the Tribune - Herald and saying call me if you have any concerns. My definition of accessibility, or the way that 1 operate my office —I truly believe that accessibility means understanding that everybody works, understanding that everybody has a life, every body's raising children you go to a soccer game, you go to PTSA you know, a lot of things. And one thing that's important tome in terms of accessibility is going out to that community and saying here I am. What are the concerns of my constituents? What is it that is your goal, or what is it that is your concerns and problems? And maybe we can help to facilitate solutions. Now this is all tied in, because we ran ads with my pictures for these things, okay. Now the thing is, with these meetings that we've had, we've had these talk story meetings that we call in Waimea, in Honoka `a, in Pa `auilo, in `O `okala, in Papa `aloa, in Laupahoehoe, in Pepe `ekeo, in Papa `ikou, in Ntnole, in Pauka `a, in Wainaku, in Pu `ueo. And many of those more than once. That's what I consider accessibility through this DAE Account. The second thing I want to point out to you is communication with the community and constituents. Communication, in my estimation —what that means is letting the people know when there are important events that affects your lives. Important events that affect our community as a whole. And one of the things I don't do, is I don't sit in the chair that you're sitting right now and try to make that decision for my constituents. It'simportant to me that I let them know what's going on and allow them for feedback. Now the ads that we ran with my picture includes some of these things —so just to let you folks know. It included an ad that ran — excuse me —where the County was going to auction off 700 acres of land in my community to the highest bidder. It was about the affordable housing project in Pepe `ekeo. It was about over a $10 million sewer project in the middle of Honoka `a town that's going to basically shut down the main street of Honoka'a and affect a lot of businesses and traffic. It's about the County feral pig program, where we did trapping out in the community. It's about a nearly $4 million project in Kalopa, the Sand Gulch Road Project, that basically will totally detour the traffic for several months and also affect the safety of our school buses that travel up in the Kalopa area. It was about a Papa `aloa road project where for years and years, because of the road -in -limbo issue, we did not do the roads. We wanted to get the community feedback, whether they wanted the road paved or not. It's about the Pa `auilo land sale. It's about the Council saying we are not going to auction off the land, we'd like to hear what your thoughts are as far as what we should do with the land. It's about a Haina Mill project that's going to come into the Honoka `a area. It's about crime that we've had up in Akaka Falls. We had so many break -ins, we wanted to bring the community together, say hey, how can we as a community help to solve this particular issue. It's about a resort, a proposed resort —big stuff here —that it be proposed for Hakalau, in my district. We had over 200 people show up to that meeting. It's about Mud Lane —it's about a lot of different things. But I guess the point that I want to make is not only in the talk story ads with my picture, and the announcement ads that we made for the subjects that I told you about —every single one that had to do with the absolute spirit of what the DAE fund is set up to do, which is to provide accessibility, which is to make sure that I am communicating with my constituents and my community. 1 wanted to make that portion clear. Mr. Dill? DILL: Yes, thank you, Mr. Yagong. I just —sorry to interrupt. Thanks for clarifying your intentions there. 1 just wanted to get a repeat of that policy, DAE policy number that you referenced.