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about happenings in Hamakua, so 1 make sure I read her articles, simply because —in
<br />case I miss something, she would have it in her article. I also read Lowell Kalapa, the
<br />Tax Foundation guy, because he talks about taxation in government. Very strong
<br />opinions. The way I find their ads is 1 look through the paper, and look for their picture,
<br />and I find it. And then I read their ad. Mr. Joseph - -do you know what his nickname is?
<br />Do you all know what his nickname is? 1 know because I read his article. And I read his
<br />article in Tribune - Herald. And his article is there every Monday. I don't read it all the
<br />time, but 1 do know that your nickname is the Big Dog. But his article as well has his
<br />picture on it, you see, because I don't run —I'm not —I really need to be more health
<br />conscious, you know, and that's why I don't read it all the time. However, I guarantee
<br />you this, Mr. Joseph, you have a constituency out there. Your constituency are those
<br />people that do run, that enjoy running, they enjoy health, they enjoy being healthy
<br />people, and 1 guarantee every Monday they look for your ad, your column,
<br />and they read it. The same goes for me. I am elected by the people of Council District I
<br />to be the leader, to communicate, to provide accessibility. That's what I do. And
<br />whether —maybe it's because of my ugly picture, 1 don't know —but for whatever reason,
<br />by having that, the ads that we ran, it really did make a difference as far as people
<br />getting that information. If it didn't have a positive impact, I wouldn't have continued to
<br />do it. But I did it because it did have a positive impact. You will note that, if you do read
<br />the papers, we've had several ads come out that are text ads and it doesn't have our
<br />picture on it. What we did is, back in May —I think even Lincoln and Casey will tell
<br />you —we made a decision back then, way back then, to say that, you know, we're not
<br />naive. We realize that some people may look at this as being advantageous. And that's
<br />why we made a commitment back then that from January 1 S` we would not run any ads
<br />with our picture on it, you know. We had two meetings that we did that. It was poorly
<br />attended, just to let you folks know. But we did make that commitment. So I guess my
<br />recommendation to all of, you know, you folks —or at least my thoughts on it, personal, is
<br />my hope and dream regarding this article is that you as commissioners realize that what
<br />I did wasn't ethically wrong. It's a really bad stench that comes with that word, ethically
<br />wrong, ethically incorrect. And for me, it was kind of disheartening for me to read that,
<br />because many of my constituents said, you know, amazing, Dominic you mean to tell me
<br />that you're being penalized for doing your job, that it's ethically wrong to communicate?
<br />You know, so for me, and what I hope today, is that —that at least there is that
<br />acknowledgment. Because you know, like I told the newspaper reporter, that kind of
<br />bothered me, you know. Because you know, we're just trying to just trying to do our
<br />job. Well with that, 1 can open up to any questions that you may have.
<br />CHAIR: Good, thank you, Mr. Yagong. I have several. But first let me just clarify that
<br />we're not hereto find you in violation of anything. We're just looking at what probably
<br />should have been looked at many months ago, and that is should photos run with elected
<br />official —with elected official meeting announcements. And that's the issue from today
<br />forward.
<br />YAGONG: The reason I wanted to bring it up about the —as you said, because it was in
<br />the papers, you know, and I've never had the opportunity to express my thoughts of it
<br />since then, and that's why I really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. It made
<br />me feel better, you know, to get it off my chest.
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