|
<br />PALMA GLENNIE: I really appreciate it.
<br />
<br />GIFFIN: You’re welcome. Sir, John Betlach?
<br />
<br />BETLACH: Yes. Good morning, everyone.
<br />
<br />GIFFIN: Good morning. You may begin your testimony.
<br />
<br />BETLACH: Okay. I’m sorry, did you, were you thinking about, oh. I guess I just want to tell you
<br />a little bit about where I’m coming from. I went to a public administration school and got my
<br />MBA, so I could come and do a small farm here on the island, and then it quickly became the
<br />reality that I had to do an ag tourism thing to make it successful in a small scale, less than 100 acres.
<br />Even a lot of my farm friends have said, “You’ve got less than 100 acres, you know, you’ve got to
<br />be resourceful, you’ve got to do some, even if it’s value-added offsite, you’ve got to do something.”
<br />But I don’t see myself as an extremist. I’d say that, this last lady, she was so courageous to come
<br />up here and say stuff. I know, actually know the two people very well that, well, not very well, but
<br />I know them both, and I was surprised to see them at odds, because I thought they were on the same
<br />team, you know. Like, the person with the ag crops could sell to the person that was doing the ag
<br />tourism like that was a perfect marriage. But what I’ve found is that it’s hard for people to come
<br />together and talk. Even in my own situation things I’ve done to try to help people, my neighbors,
<br />the thing I thought where I was putting out a big mahalo was the exact opposite where I took it the
<br />wrong way and I did exactly the wrong thing that got them upset by building, putting a barrier so
<br />they couldn’t see my place. And I had contacted them eight or nine times to get their input, and
<br />then I put a barrier in, thinking I was doing the good thing. So it’s difficult; getting people to talk is
<br />a challenging thing. And I, but I think that’s what needs to happen more with this is that I really
<br />agree with the Planning Director’s assessment on a lot of the things, it’s, the one-size-fits-all thing,
<br />that’s a real big challenge. And then I also see the danger of getting things so regulated. People
<br />might not be able to fly to the island, if we let that happen with the airline industry because of the
<br />deregulation that that’s why they are able to actually carry passengers now, and that they can make
<br />their own airfares, although maybe it was better when the government set the airfares, being that
<br />$1,000 each for my family members to go to the mainland. But, so, I guess, you know, I don’t have
<br />an extreme thing, I just have some concerns. One is I think that there needs to be more
<br />communication, the Hawaiian tradition of ho‘oponopono, you know, public discussions amongst
<br />the stakeholders, because with these people that talked, I was really surprised that, you know, I
<br />would think they were pro ag tourism, and that they were raising some real nuisance things. So I
<br />think for me the greater issue of the nuisance thing, even from my own perspective being, I consider
<br />myself very pro ag tourism, the nuisance thing is big, even in regular rentals; if you have just a
<br />regular rental thing, the nuisance to your neighbor is big, regular residential, if you have someone
<br />that is not watching, they are not respectful to the neighbors with the noise thing, that’s an issue. So
<br />I think that there is, something needs to be done about the nuisance thing so that people can work
<br />something out so that, you know, that people aren’t overburdened with the noise. But at the same
<br />time, maybe they could have worked together. I’m kind of reminded of some of the elders in the
<br />county who talk about, you know, how you deal with a problem to find your character. Maybe if
<br />people got together, and instead of putting it off on the County, got together and there were talks
<br />about how can we as a community solve these problems without finger pointing or getting
<br />galvanized to work together so that there is something to deal with the noise level. I was going to
<br />say that there’s problems on all sides of the thing. One of the things that I’ve tried to do as a, in the
<br />12
<br />EXHIBIT B
<br />
<br />
|