1999-07-07 Charter Commission Minutes

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Page 9 of 23 answer your question? RAY: Yes. BOYD: Yes, I think you need an engineer there. Moving on to the Planning Commission would be another one where I feel as though and I should have opened with this. I believe that having appeared before the Commission so many times, the Water Commission, the people that were on the Water Commission are sincere people and I would never impugn their honesty but as this Commission is similar, you have different viewpoints, different perspectives. On Oahu, I was in real estate. I was a contractor. I did different things and I would come to the table with a different perspective were I still in those businesses. I’m not in those businesses anymore and I notice most of the commissions, if you look at them, they come to the table with a different perspective. I think we need to have more representation from different areas of the community. I don’t think native Hawaiians have been given fair shift. I don’t think environmentalists per se, have been given a fair amount of involvement in these commissions. The only reason I say that, I think that’s important because if you look at the Planning Commission, in the last five years that I’ve been following this, there’s been lawsuits against the Planning Commission and a number of them are in the Supreme Court now and they haven’t won them all and it’s all taxpayers’ money going out there and I believe if the Planning Commission had a little more balance in there and there’s a little more give and take amongst the Commission Members, some people might change their viewpoint a little. They might vote a little different but when everyone is of the same perspective, has the same viewpoint, and they don’t hear - it’s like a jury. When you go into a jury, if you’ve ever served on a jury, and sometimes you have your mind made up and then all of a sudden somebody gives you another perspective on something and you say, whoa, yeah, I didn’t think of that. And I really believe that needs to come to the Commissions. And that’s all I really have to say other than I support the fact that there either should be elected - Commissioners should be elected and the Mayor should be out of the picture and/or the elected official from that district should have something to do with the appointment of those people. I could live with that. RAY: Marni. Ms. Herkes. HERKES: Thank you, Mr. Boyd. I love your comments about the Water Commission because a lot of us have testified against the statewide Water Commission which just follows down into the County Water Commission. It’s actually the same gripe. The same concern is that individual districts are not being represented. I am kind of confused and you used Ka’u as a large district. You used Kohala as a large district. Is it your perception that it would be better if people were appointed by geographical square footage rather than numbers of people? BOYD: That’s something that I would have to give more thought to. All I know is that people in North Kohala have a different perspective about how water should be used and where it should come from, where it should go. Their thoughts on water are different than say Waikaloa or Waimea. HERKES: But not necessarily from Hilo. BOYD: Yes. HERKES: Hilo and Kohala have lots of water so that’s where the thoughts come from but it comes from people rather than the geographical square footage or square mileage. BOYD: You know, right now North Kohala is on water restriction. Those people that get surface water are on water restriction. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 7-7-99.html7/1/2011