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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 6 of 41
<br />have a subcommittee, that’s all right, too, to me. I’m not saying that I think we all have to attend all the
<br />meetings, because all of us have different peaks and interests in certain things in the Charter anyway.
<br />And instead of burning us out to -, all of us out, like Mr. Bess said, he, personally, would like to attend
<br />every meeting. Maybe I would, too, but other people might only have an interest maybe in Public Works
<br />or Finance or whatever, Parks and Recreation. So all I’m saying is if that’s -, if they don’t want the
<br />option to attend, that’s all right with me, too. I’m not saying that they have to attend every meeting.
<br />RAY: I was thinking mainly more from a research standpoint.
<br />HERKES: Yeah.
<br />RAY: A subcommittee, right, rather than -.
<br />HERKES: Right.
<br />RAY: Yeah. Okay.
<br />BESS: Yeah, that -.
<br />BALOG: Oh.
<br />BESS: That’s what I was thinking. And, I mean, if I understand where we are here is that number one,
<br />we have set up a schedule of public hearings. That’s, you know, a heavy-duty schedule. So now what we
<br />want to try to do is we say, well, those are a lot of meetings, but maybe some of those meetings we can
<br />combine departmental comments with those. Now, one, where I’m at is that everyone’s invited to go to
<br />all of these public hearings. If they can’t make it, hard luck, that we not have committees set up to take
<br />public testimony.
<br />IRVINE: I agree.
<br />BESS: Two, that what we do is that we say, you know what, because in the interest of our time, we
<br />would accept departmental testimony, and we would specify what those dates are so everyone would
<br />know what they were, and they make their judgment as to whether or not they were going to be there or
<br />not. And then in terms of public hearing and allowing public to testify, look, we’re accepting public
<br />statements. Thank you. We’re pau with the public statements. Now we go to the departments, or we do it
<br />in reverse. But what I’m saying is that the public doesn’t really get to engage the department heads,
<br />that’s not what those are all about.
<br />RAY: Right. Okay. Ms. Herkes.
<br />HERKES: And we have more research to do than just department heads. If we talk about neighborhood
<br />boards, we want a presentation, we want research. We may not do that in Hilo, we may do it in Kona.
<br />That’s something you would invite the public to. If you want to talk about nonpartisan elections, I think
<br />we should have somebody come and talk about nonpartisan elections. There’s a lot of stuff going on as
<br />far as elections go with the census, and in 2002, we’re going to elect everybody all over again, no matter
<br />who gets elected in 2000. So there’s a bunch of stuff going on that we need some expertise,
<br />presentations from, besides department heads, and I see those being scheduled up front in the next four
<br />to five months, that you can work with any of us to start to flesh out what are our questions, what are the
<br />issues, and start to develop that calendar so that the public can come to any meeting they want to
<br />anywhere on the Island; they’ll know what the agenda is. It’s not just department heads.
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