1999-04-14 Charter Commission Minutes

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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 21 of 69 IRVINE: They had a lot of meetings. RAY: There were 24 regular meetings, five combined public hearing/regular meetings, and one public hearing so, you know, they had 30 meetings they publicized, so I’m not sure exactly how that works out, but I believe that was the bulk of that expense. So I don’t know that there’s that much more we can do in regard to this, but does anybody have any thoughts on it? HIGASHI: Mr. Chair, as we move along, maybe once we hire a PR firm and a executive assistant, we can then be in a better position to project a budget and reflect the will of the Commission as far as, you know, announcing our meetings and at the end promoting whatever we come up with. I think most of that money was in their promoting the Charter changes, not so much just advertising the meetings, but that’s going to happen at the end. HERKES: I wondered that, yeah. RAY: Yeah. HIGASHI: Educational function that we need to do, and I think we need to have a lot of money doing that. RAY: Yeah. Okay, just so you know, I wrote a letter on our behalf to the County Council and, basically, it said that the Commission’s presently in its organizational stage. We’re researching past Charter Commission budgets and formulating a plan of action. My understanding is that the past Commission expended $113,000, I think it was $111,000 to review the Charter, with the majority of the funds going to staff and meeting expenses. And then it refers to the appropriation request before them. It says as we get further along, we’ll notify you as to our refined budget projects, as well as to our schedule to implement the review. So I think that’s, so they clearly understand that this is very much a ballpark figure right now and that we’re, you know, we’re formulating the plan of action. HIGASHI: As soon as the session is over, the Mayor then revises his budget and resubmits the budget to the Council, is that correct, John? SANTANGELO: Yeah. HIGASHI: Do you recall it? At that time, we still have a chance to insert a more defined budget, if we choose to. RAY: Sue. IRVINE: Have we already asked for like $30,000 between now and June and then another $100,000, is that -? RAY: Right. IRVINE: Okay. RAY: Right. IRVINE: Because -. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 4-14-99.html7/1/2011