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FIALA: Yes, good morning, Chair and Commissioners. For almost 20 years I worked in California
<br />as a trails development program director for East Bay Regional Park District, which is actually one
<br />of the largest special districts in the United States, and got to sit in and observe P.U.D. processes for
<br />the 32 cities, two counties and ten special districts that we served, 2.5 million people. They can
<br />work very well. And they can also be very unscrupulous approach for giving development when
<br />there is strong opposition from the community, because they can circumvent public involvement.
<br />Commissioner Beaudet, to speak to your transparency comment, you are notified as a bordering
<br />property owner up to 500 feet, that would be about two houses into our 50-unit subdivision; so if
<br />you are one of these two houses, you might know about the issue, other than that you would not.
<br />Bordering subdivisions all in the vicinity would have no opportunity to have any input or
<br />knowledge about many of these meetings or decisions. And when we ask for transparency, the
<br />reason having the Planning Commissions and the County Councils involved, first of all, you have
<br />much broader dissemination of information, not just from attendance at the meetings but from
<br />newspaper coverage, from people talking to their friends, from others. It is very, very important for
<br />those of us that live in these communities to have some input on these P.U.D.’s. Now, some of the
<br />experiences I had, some of these P.U.D.’s were basically utilized, as I said, to circumvent, because
<br />rather than have a public meeting, they could go directly to a planning director or a city manager or
<br />whatever and get a decision rendered, and basically avoid the larger public review process. For us
<br />that live here on this island, our quality of life and what the homes should look like and what the
<br />development should look like near us is very important. They shouldn’t be high-density something
<br />crammed into an area where residences are on a half acre or a quarter acre lots, and those things can
<br />happen with P.U.D.’s because there is very little input often times in the process. I think the bill
<br />that’s being proposed is a very good effort, and I think that it should be tweaked a little bit rather
<br />than coming up with a full new approach to a bill, and maybe it provides that the County Council
<br />makes a recommendation to the Planning Director who then implements and still adheres to the
<br />decision process that currently is in place. The other thing I have to say, if something hasn’t, the
<br />Charter hasn’t been changed since 1961, you might want to look at it. That’s a long time and a lot
<br />of things have changed; in 1961 there was probably one stop light in Kona, and so – you know,
<br />maybe not. Either way, it’s very important to our community and to all the communities, I think, in
<br />the Kona area that there be a very transparent, a very inclusive and a very comprehensive way for
<br />the public to have input into this decision making process. And I appreciate your consideration of
<br />that.
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<br />GIFFIN: Thank you. Director.
<br />
<br />LEITHEAD TODD: Just for informational purposes, every ten years a comprehensive review of
<br />the Charter and amendments are proposed. But I think at every election that we’ve had in the last
<br />ten years, there have been Charter amendments on the ballot, because the County Council can
<br />initiate amendments, which are then put on the next regularly scheduled election for voting; so it’s
<br />been regularly and routinely updated. I believe it was amended around 1969 to do this division.
<br />And the current County Council, if they wanted to, could initiate an amendment. The problem is is
<br />that the system that we have is that amendment would not show up until the next regularly
<br />scheduled election, which would be in 2014, and, you know, that is just the way we do because we
<br />don’t do special elections just for Charter amendments.
<br />
<br />FIALA: I appreciate that. I just think that there may be a way to utilize a well-written bill that
<br />seems to be on the right track to find a way to make it work rather than start over.
<br />
<br />GIFFIN: Director?
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