1999-05-12 Charter Commission Minutes

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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 29 of 37 YAMASHIRO: Well, let me start with the departments, that’s probably the easiest. We have -. RAY: Okay. YAMASHIRO: Reviewed each of the departments’ proposals and, generally, we have tried to focus them on things that are necessary to improve efficiency. There’s a whole bunch of nice-to-have stuff that they were considering proposing, but we have suggested that they just concentrate on the basics and not put too many bells and whistles on the proposals because there’s going to be enough changes in the Charter, and to try to make sure that we focus on things that have -, should be done first. So I think the changes from the departments are going to be coming in. They are not a whole lot, there are a few. There are some structural changes, like I believe the basic -, the biggest structural change probably taking Wastewater out of Public Works and combining it with Water. But, generally, focusing on each of the departments, what they feel is their particular needs. Things like whether nor not we should have a Fire Commission or a Public Safety Commission were discussed. That’s up to you people. We didn’t think it was something that was necessary to continue the operation of the department; it’s something that’s -, but so I think with regards to each department, you should have a pretty concise presentation from them. RAY: Okay. YAMASHIRO: As far as I’m concerned, you know, basically, the Charter is our basic governing document for the County of Hawaii and, as such, has done pretty well for the last ten years and before that. Going through it today, I just noticed some housekeeping things, like there’s no way to fill a vacancy in office for Mayor or the Council if the vacancy is for less than two years and more than 60 days. There’s a way -. The Mayor’s Office, if there’s vacancy that’s within 60 days of the next regular election, the Managing Director serves all the way through. The next reference to a vacancy is if it’s over two years and over 60 days. There’s nothing to say what if a vacancy occurs less than two years from the next election. And I think, I guess by silence, does that mean the Managing Director serves all the way through? Or is there, you know -? Because they define vacancy in the Charter as resignation, death, and whatever, and they provide two scenarios of filling the vacancy, but nothing if it’s less than two years. In reference to the Council, it refers to vacancy occurring more than two years, which is an impossibility since the Council’s on two year terms. So that I think’s the housekeeping thing that should be addressed. Structurally, we are not suggesting any change with regards to structure of the government between the executive, administrative branch under the Mayor and the administrative branch under the Managing Director. We think, basically, the functioning has worked and can continue to work. We are looking at some changes, although I figure some of those can be done administratively. Looking at the processing of subdivisions after zoning being totally in the Public Works Department as opposed to being partly in Public Works and partly in Planning. We feel once the Council has acted on a zoning request, that is the policy decision of the County of Hawaii, and that the subdivision of the property really is a function of the engineering and the Public Works section dealing with roads, water and other things not really having to do with a Planning function. What has happened on a practical basis now, is the Public Works building inspectors go and inspect a lot being constructed. They don’t look at the setbacks, because they say the setbacks are a Planning function, and only look at the actual construction of, you know, whether or not the construction is being done in accordance with Code. So sometimes we have a building that is conforming with the Building Code, but it’s violating the setback, and that may or may not be picked up at that time sometimes. It generally gets picked up on a subsequent sale of the property when somebody comes in and says, okay, I file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 5-12-99.html7/1/2011