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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 11 of 42
<br />when the wrote the Charter, Chris back here probably knows better than I do, I get the impression that
<br />they had -, the vision was that the Safety Coordinator would be kind of a, kind of a -.
<br />HERKES: A Harry Kim.
<br />WURDEMAN: Sort of a gestapo kind -, you know, if somebody gets hurt.
<br />HERKES: So I said. A Harry Kim
<br />WURDEMAN: Somebody gets hurt, and they run out there and they investigate.
<br />HERKES: Okay.
<br />WURDEMAN: And they find that there’s some kind of negligence or unsafe condition, and they just,
<br />you know, dictate, fix it, and the problem goes away. But, in practice, it hasn’t worked like that because
<br />the Safety Coordinator hasn’t had the muscle to take on, you know, the Chief Engineer, and the Parks
<br />Director, and whoever else about problems.
<br />HERKES: And, you know, actually, the Mayor is the one that takes a lot. The Mayor’s the one that’s
<br />supposed to direct them. The direction comes from the top down, that middle man, or the Managing
<br />Director. We could just move this whole section under Managing Director and solve it, or we could just
<br />take it out except for the workers’ comp. I think that part needs to be Civil Service.
<br />RAY: Okay. Well, I think we’ll be having, certainly be having more discussion on this.
<br />WURDEMAN: Okay, 7-2.2(d), the Police Commission. Presently, the Police Commission takes
<br />complaints from citizens and they have a private investigator who goes out and tries to find out what
<br />happened, reports back to the Commission. The Commission votes and either sustains, that’s the word
<br />they use, or does not sustain the complaint. Then the matter is referred over to the Department, and
<br />nothing happens or we don’t even find out what happens. Nobody knows what happens. The citizen
<br />whose complaint is sustained, I think is given a false expectation that something’s being done. And in
<br />this era of collective bargaining and union grievances and all that sort of thing, there’s no guarantee that
<br />anything will be done, and I think it’s misleading to the people. So I would -, my recommendation is that
<br />that function be removed from the Police Commission.
<br />RAY: Okay.
<br />WURDEMAN: This Water stuff’s all pretty much just semantics again.
<br />Articles XI and XII, Initiative, Referendum and Recall. There are some distinctions, as is also pointed
<br />out in the item below, 11-2(c), there are some distinctions between the two as to how to qualify. They
<br />are not big distinctions, but there are some differences. And as far as getting signatures and getting on
<br />the ballot, I would recommend there be one unified procedure for all these things to cut down on
<br />confusion.
<br />RAY: I think that’s something really worth looking at (indiscernible). I’m sure there’s a rationale for all
<br />these different, you know, percentages and whatever, different cases, but it sure is confusing to read.
<br />WURDEMAN: And a particular example I point out is this business about blank, spoiled ballots. Well,
<br />you count them, you come to your 15%; or you don’t count them. And qualified voter is defined in one
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