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<br />Persons who are opposed to this project may petition the Land Use Commission to have a <br />contested case hearing. This will enable all concerned the appropriate due process under the <br />procedures of the Land Use Commission. <br /> <br />Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here and speak to you today. <br /> <br />AU: Question for the testifier? I have a question. Okay, prior to your involvement, through the <br />State Attorney General Office’s involvement, Ms. Lee Loy and Mr. Hong represented the <br />applicant. I’d like to know the reason why the State is getting, exact reason why the State is <br />getting involved. <br /> <br />MORRIS: I -. <br /> <br />AU: Please speak in the microphone. <br /> <br />MORRIS: There are two applicants for this special permit. One is Connections Charter School. <br />Charter Schools in Hawai‘i have nonprofits that support it for fundraising purposes. With <br />respect to financing of charter schools, charter schools don’t get as much money as the <br />Department of Education schools. So they have to, and they also don’t have the facilities that the <br />DOE schools have. So they have to be creative in how they’re going to secure facilities. Most <br />times they rent, sometimes they lease. <br /> <br />With respect to this particular application, Connections and its nonprofit initiated the special <br />permit application. We don’t represent the nonprofit, CBESS. We represent Connections. To <br />the extent that the nonprofit supports Connections, their interests are similar to Connections. <br /> <br />How we got involved in this is that, again, as the attorney, Deputy Attorney who advises the <br />charter schools, I was asked rather recently to be involved. So our involvement is triggered by <br />our clients asking for our help. We don’t inject ourselves into their matters because sometimes <br />their matters are policy matters. When questions come up, come to us, we look first to see <br />whether those questions are policy questions which the client should be addressing or whether <br />there are legal or constitutional issues for our office to be involved with. In this particular <br />instance, there are legal questions that are appropriate for us to be involved with; and that is the <br />legal requirements that are attendant to special permit applications. Does that answer your <br />question? <br /> <br />S. LEE LOY: Chairman Au, if I may? <br /> <br />AU: Yes, please go ahead. <br /> <br />S. LEE LOY: So our office, Mr. Hong and myself, was kind of hired by this, the nonprofit to <br />help guide them through this process. Based on community input and some of the concerns that <br />were being raised we felt that it was wise for Connections as a State agency to have their own <br />legal representative. That’s where the State Department of Attorney General Office steps in and <br /> 7 ATTACHMENT C <br /> <br /> <br />