1999-07-07 Charter Commission Minutes

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Page 11 of 23 MARTIN: I consider myself to be the layman on this Commission. I work in Hilo for a construction company as a mechanic. There is another mechanic that is also on the Commission with us, though. Correct me if I’m wrong. Now I heard you say that whether they be appointed and/or elected by general populace that they’re coming in with a mind set as Commissioners. Is that what you said? And you’d like us somehow to write something into the Commission, or into the Charter that would change that? BOYD: Well, I think when the Mayor appoints people to commissions, has he may well have with this and I mean no insult to anyone’s honesty or integrity, but he picks people that might have a certain perspective, a certain viewpoint and by taking him out of picture, or a she mayor, whoever, I really believe that there’s a possibility of some grass roots people getting in that would have a different perspective, that’s all. MARTIN: Okay, I hear what you’re saying and I think I do understand what you’re saying but you would have the same situation if in fact, the geographics were to be put in the Council’s hands and the Council were to appoint these individuals. You’d still have that situation where a possible mind set is looked for and/or not looked for, don’t you think? BOYD: It’s possible, yeah, but if this person’s elected and he’s from your district or area - I don’t know. You know John and I had our ups and downs. We communicated and then we didn’t and then we communicated and now we’re communicating again but I think that you have a better chance of getting in the door with your local Council person than you do with the Mayor. MARTIN: Okay, thank you. HERKES: Okay, I have another question. RAY: Steve. Sure. KUROZAWA: I just have a quick question. Your proposal about having multiple Commission Members within the district, for example, Kohala, Waimea, you know, having in Waikaloa, in this area. With that mind set, what numbers are you thinking island-wide would that involve because now there’s nine. BOYD: You’re right and I thought about that and I thought about, okay, you know, how many you’re going to need from Puna. How many are you going to need from out Ka’u way and would South Kona need an extra person and the logistics are - you know, you would have more people, that’s true. KUROZAWA: If you choose by pockets of population, you might have 30 people on the Commission basically. BOYD: You know, you’re right and I recognize that and I don’t know the answer to that. KUROZAWA: And actually, in some ways, I think what you’re doing is what, part of the answer to it is having a set number, a finite number of Commissioners and having people like yourself come and inform us of what’s really going on. Having 30 Commissioners may not help our knowledge pool basically but let me file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 7-7-99.html7/1/2011