1999-06-23 Charter Commission Minutes

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Page 2 of 12 the mandatory program language as is in the Charter now; the responsibilities and placement of the Safety Coordinator, whether to keep that position under the Mayor or to move to the Corporation Counsel or perhaps Civil Service; responsibilities of the Police Commission; the possible establishment of a Fire Commission; expanding the jurisdiction of the Salary Commission to cover all Department Heads and Deputies; looking at the minimum qualifications for the Department Heads and Deputies; the creation of a Human Service Department for elderly services including the Office of Aging; transferring the Wastewater Division from Public Works to the Water Department; creation of a Permitting Division to consolidate all permitting functions under the Public Works Department, functions which are now jointly dealt with both in Planning and Public Works, the idea to create a more efficient one-stop shop for permitting and have the Planning Department concentrate more on planning and Public Works more on permitting. These are only some of the ideas that have been put forth and I want to stress that none of them have been discussed by the Commission. This is just strictly a one-way street so far, just input from the departments. Tonight we are in the second of six public meetings to be held around the island to get initial feedback from the general public. These meetings will go through July and also during this time we’ll be gathering and distributing internally background materials for the Commission to study. In August we hope to complete our departmental review including various Boards and Commissions that haven’t weighed in yet. We’ll also have invited speakers to address such topics as nonpartisan elections, neighborhood boards, City Manager models, etc. I anticipate, in regard to the nonpartisan elections, we’ll have a couple of people over from City and County of Honolulu to discuss their experience and feedback, probably somebody from the City/County Board as well as from the Mayor’s Office and then in September we’ll start our detail section-by-section review of the Charter and as things go, come up with proposed amendments. We will hold these meetings, as we discuss the Charter, around the island. I don’t know what the schedule will be but we will try to take the process out around the island as much as possible. Once we agree on proposed amendments, we’ll have legal staff work on the language to put those amendments on the ballot and all proposed amendments will be voted on by the public in an election in the year 2000. And so that’s basically the process. This evening we’re just taking input from the public. We’re just here to listen to you. As I said, this is just an initial pass through. We’ll be taking input throughout the process but I’d encourage you to get input in sooner rather than later, especially in writing, for the more substantive issues that you’d like us to take a look at so that we can research those thoroughly. So this evening we have three folks signed up to testify. PUBLIC TESTIMONY RAY: First, Gretchen Lawson. So please come up and we’ve got a chair set up over here and just state your name and who you’re representing. LAWSON: I’m happy to be here tonight. I had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Santangelo go over a couple of the suggestions that have already been made and so I’m going to do a couple of things; one is comment on the issues that Chairman Ray just mentioned have already come before you but I’ve got a couple of items that I’m curious about because I didn’t see them in the existing Charter and I’m not sure at a Public Hearing I should be asking questions but they’re just of interest to me. One is the idea of a separate Department of Human Services which of course for anyone that knows me, is an issue that is kind of right on in my field. I believe that there’s pros and cons - RAY: Why don’t you explain who you are and what your field is so that we understand that. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 6-23-99.html7/1/2011