1999-04-14 Charter Commission Minutes

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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 22 of 69 RAY: Right. So in other words, theoretically, we could spend $30,000 between now and June, and if the budget’s approved with $100,000 in it, then $100,000 in the following calendar year under the appropriation that’s in the works. Okay? Okay. Format of Minutes. This discussion is to what type of minute, you know, we should have. We did receive input, I did, from former Charter Commission Members, from the head of the Department of Finance, some other folks that felt very strongly that we should have verbatim minutes so -. Yeah, Roland. HIGASHI: I have a question for Mr. Wurdeman. WURDEMAN: Yes, sir. HIGASHI: Mr. Wurdeman, if we would have official minutes, whether it’s taped, in the archives, and have the type of minutes that we’ve had in summary, would that be sufficient in protecting us in both ways? If somebody wanted to go to the archives to hear the verbatim minutes, I mean it’s there on tape. Is that -? WURDEMAN: Well, I think that would meet the letter of the law, but I think you saw Mr. Takahashi’s - . HERKES: Yeah. WURDEMAN: Letter and -. HIGASHI: What did he say? I didn’t see that. WURDEMAN: It says the intent of this Commission will, over the next 10 years, come up all the time. Minutes that are readily available and printed, I think, are much better. HIGASHI: But wouldn’t you say that the actions taken, that is what is going to be controversial rather than who said what and -? I mean it’s a two-hour meeting; it takes us two -. WURDEMAN: Believe it or not, when arguments arise over what something means in the Charter, they go back -, it’s not uncommon to go back, look at the minutes, and to find out that, you know, a certain Commissioner said something about this particular issue, and another Commissioner said something else, and then try and derive the intent of the meaning from that. Now, that doesn’t happen every day, but it happens. HIGASHI: It still ends up with the attorneys. WURDEMAN: Yeah. Attorneys do that. BESS: Roland, if I may. You know, I would second what Mr. Wurdeman’s saying. I can tell you during the time that I was with the Corporation Counsel’s Office, the verbatim minutes were very important in deciding some issues and hearing the talk going back and forth to derive intent, so I think it’s very important to have verbatim minutes in print. SANTANGELO: And I’d like -. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 4-14-99.html7/1/2011