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FOREWORD In 1963,the legislature of the State of Hawai‘i enacted Act 73 enabling the counties of the State of Hawai‘i to establish charter commissions to study their existing governments and to recommend and draft charters upon determination that a charter form of government was fit and desirable. Accordingly, the County of Hawai‘i created a charter commission whose study and work began in 1964. The initial charter, which became effective onJanuary 2, 1969, served as the “constitution” of the government of the County of Hawai‘i, and provided the basic framework for its organization and operation. It also provided for the orderly transition to the new form of government and for amendments orrevisions by ordinance or petition and by mandatory review every ten years. The first mandatory charter review was conducted in 1979 at a special election held on November 3, 1979. Ten of the thirteen proposed charter amendments were adopted by the Hawai‘i County electorate. The second mandatory charter review was conducted in 1990. The charter commission proposed eighteen charter amendments. At the general election on November 6, 1990, fifteen of the eighteen proposed charter amendments were adopted by Hawai‘i County voters. The third mandatorycharter review, conducted in 2000, resulted in sixteen proposed charter amendments. Voters adopted all sixteen amendments during the general election held on November 7, 2000. The most recent charter review,as conducted by the 2010 Charter Commission, resulted in nineteen proposed charter amendments. On November 2, 2010, the electorate approved eighteen of the nineteen proposed charter amendments. This edition incorporates the above series of amendments aswell as additional changes proposed by the county council and adopted by Hawai‘i County voters during general elections held during the interim periods between charter reviews, including the one amendment that was approved by the voters during the 2016General Election. This 2016edition of the charter, therefore, replaces all previous editions and contains all those charter provisions in effectat the time of its publication. i