1999-07-21 Charter Commission Minutes

Home

Page 5 of 11 climb stairs. OLESEN: That’s right. IRVINE: Can climb up curbs. I understand it’s a brand new thing which I think may revolutionize - Was that in the Advertiser? - Or something like that. OLESEN: I have the article on it. It was published in the San Diego papers too. IRVINE: Okay. So maybe we’ll get off the hook on that one. HIGASHI: Any other questions? Okay, thank you Mr. Olesen. Next speaker, Ginny Aste, Virginia Aste. For the record, if you can just state your name, Ginny. ASTE: Sure. My name is Virginia Ginny Aste. I live in Leilani Estates and how exciting really, to know that the County’s going to come into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and how very accurate you are to state the way in which the projects go out, come back and circle around within the County. Very hard to track and then also, in the hands of people who are expected to have expertise but have very little expertise. And if you want a specific example of how it costs the County money, the Keaau Community Center has an ADA ramp that goes nowhere and is unable to get anybody to anywhere. Go look at it. It costs probably $50,000 and it was put in last year. But, you know, I worked in this for a long time and I tried not to be angry or upset but I’m glad, I’m really glad to hear that you have these definite suggestions and that you are in charge now. I think that’s really wonderful, Mr. Olesen, I really do. You know, I’m really glad. You did an excellent job on the pool. I’m assuming you had very little to do with the Keaau Community Center. HIGASHI: Okay, enough for thanking the County. ASTE: I know, I know. Sorry. I want you to look into the City Manager idea. I believe that the Mayor, under the system we have now, has far too much power, is unable to regulate financially with any real responsibility, and is open to manipulation, if not outright corruption. I would like to see the Department Heads appointed by the Mayor. Excuse me, the Boards and Commission Heads appointed by the Mayor and then I would like to see nine Board or Commission Members, depending upon what the title is under the Charter, that would be appointed by the different Council Members. I think that would give us a nice balance. It would give a Board or Commission Member for each different purpose that would be specifically from each district. I’m opposed to any special elections, including one for the Charter. I think we talked about that before. I don’t have specific testimony on this because I haven’t had a chance to do the research but I’m very concerned about the functions of wastewater, solid waste, water in general and environmental quality in the County. I would like to see those, and I’ll find a model for it, perhaps combined into one department, a Department of Environmental Quality. Something of that nature where these functions would come in because it would enable us to use more Federal money and it would enable us to have some kind of enforcement of the Federal regulations. We could get a lot more help from the Federal level if we had that as a department or as a division at the County level. The last thing that I would like to request is that we add a section or a sub-section to the Charter which deals with property taxes, where we have itemized tax bills. I will find a prototype for this. I know there’s one in Laguna Hills, California and Barbara Arthur’s told me she has another one in her old file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 7-21-99.html7/1/2011