1999-07-07 Charter Commission Minutes

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Page 6 of 23 RAY: Since Marni brought it up, Bill, in terms of the Planning Commission, the authority of the Planning Commission and also the physical jurisdiction, I know in times in the past, the idea of separate Planning Commissions for whether it’s East and West Hawaii, but I think it was more an issue of the workload, right? What was realistic for a lay volunteer group to take on, right? That it just seemed like an awful lot, right? And I know you’ve been so involved in that process over the years so do you have any thoughts or comments on both the authority issue because we’ve certainly discussed that at the County Council in the past, the idea. And you know, it works differently in different counties in the state, right? GRAHAM: Well, I don’t generally think of the Planning Commission as somebody with a lot of authority other than the SMA permits. And those are ones that are obviously controversial. RAY: And so you don’t think that is - that’s not an issue with you, their jurisdiction over the SMA permits? GRAHAM: No, it is very much an issue and for that reason, I think it is important, what you’re saying, how we deal with the Planning Commission. RAY: As far as the workload, I mean, is it your sense that the way it works now is realistic in terms of the enormous amount of research and the number of meetings. GRAHAM: I sure think it feels like the amount of work they have to do is a lot and they’re obviously getting minimal compensation for it, mileage or something like that, so you’d get better input from somebody who’s been on a Planning Commission but it seems to me, to spread the load around amongst more people like two Planning Commissions might be a helpful change. RAY: Okay. Any other questions for Mr. Graham? All right, thank you very much, Bill. Our next speaker is Lesley Patton. PATTON: Good evening. I didn’t bring anything formally prepared but I do share some of the concerns of Bill Graham and there’s sort of three or four that form a circular pattern. You could get in at any point in the circle and I’ll start off with the Planning Commission and the Water Commission. I have a strong personal preference to see these Commissioners elected. We live in a state in which there is not an actual local government and State and County are it. And as a part of the United States, this sits funny with me that the average citizen in their own community doesn’t have more actual input into the decision making process. And both the Planning Commission and the Water Commission are pretty sensitive Commissions right now. Their decisions can have some very far reaching and controversial results so I personally would favor having those be elected. The discussion that you just completed about the Planning Commission, and maybe this one body is overworked. Again, this is a function that local government could cover if we had it but that’s an issue that has to be decided at a state level, whether we can have local government. And that brings up to me, the issue you mentioned of having perhaps, considering the issue of neighborhood boards and I’ve been here 18 years now and I keep watching the news and reading the newspapers to see how the neighborhood boards work, on Oahu in particular, and they don’t satisfy me in a sense of full participation inasmuch, to my understanding, as they advise. They do the legwork for the Council, to make it possible to continue with county government rather than local government. And then, they can reach their decision, their recommendation but it can be overturned by the Council and so file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 7-7-99.html7/1/2011