2014-05-01HEARINGTRANSCRIPT-CONNECTIONSCBESSSPP12-138

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Another item that approached was the--about biological surveys. It was stated that Connections was going to build on the lower campus—the 30 something odd acres—it was quoted there are pristine ‘Ōhi‘a forests. And it’s not. The biological survey determined, which I have right here, that it is full of invasive species. These invasive species were generated by the establishment of the neighborhood. So, Connections wants to come in and be a, you know, to help ease this invasive problem that was caused by the neighborhood and yet they’re being accused of leveling a pristine ‘Ōhi‘a forest. That’s up north on the part that Connections is not going to develop. So, with that, in order to expedite the process, and not cause any delays, you know concerning the Ethics Commission and so forth, even though I don’t really feel that I should have to recuse myself, I’m going to recuse myself from this agenda item and hope that you folks can do the right thing. So, thank you. GONZALES: Thank you, Commissioner Henkel. Margaret. MASUNAGA: Thank you, Commissioner Henkel, and I just, for the record, I did want to state the Code section we were looking at, does apply to Commissioners, and it is Section 2-84, Conflicts of Interest, and it says in part under subsection “a,” no officer, of which a Commissioner is deemed in the definition, shall take any official action affecting a business or other undertaking in which that officer or employee has a substantial financial interest. And I did consult with my colleagues at the Office of the Corporation Counsel, including Renee Schoen and Molly Stebbins, and they did concur with me. I know it’s, you know, it’s a very divisive application but you know that was the advice that we felt needed to happen today. And I want to thank you. HENKEL: Thank you for that but you know I still wonder why I feel the circumstances of my employment and participation are the same as Mr. Ishibashi’s, and I’m wondering why the same standards didn’t apply back then. And this is in no way a criticism of Wallace by the way. GONZALES: Thank you, Commissioner Henkel, and I realize that you’re doing this in order to get this moved along. HENKEL: I want to see it move along. Commissioner Henkel recused himself at 10:51 a.m. and observed the meeting from the audience. GONZALES: Thank you. Before we go any further, if anybody hasn’t signed up to testify, please see the ladies over here on my right. We have 4,000 pages of documents from this since we’ve started. We’ve read it all. We’ve looked at it all. Please if you’re going to testify you know, make it good. I mean, we don’t need redundancy. We had enough. All right, with that, Jeff, bring us up to speed. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a continued hearing. We’ve had a number of hearings on this matter. What I would like to do is just do a brief overview of the area the application and our timeline that’s occurred up to this point. Thank you. 3 EXHIBIT F