1999-08-25 Charter Commission Minutes

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Back ToPage 4 of 60 the second Special Election, so doing this to save money, I don’t think is going to be a benefit. However, nonpartisan elections serve to level the playing field for candidates, allowing all candidates of all political persuasions to go head to head in the first election, and if they prevail, to avoid the expense of the second election. Partisan primaries tend to cause candidates to need to raise more money because they must compete in a minimum of two elections, the Primary and the General. As a member of the City Council of Honolulu, and as the only Republican, I don’t think in terms of party politics. I have served as Vice Chair, as Chair of the Budget, Chair of Parks, Chair of Public Safety, virtually in every capacity that has been made available to me and I have worked with all of my colleagues. There is no division as to who is in the majority and who is in the minority, and I have been able to work my legislation through the agony and the ecstasy of three readings, a public hearing, and in most cases, have seen the legislation that I proposed become law, including the Lease to Fee Conversion Bill 91-95. A very controversial bill which the Bishop Estate worked very hard to dump and, I must say, to the credit of my colleagues who are Democrats, we did see that bill through. I think it was a very important bill although there are those who would, to this day, suggest that it is unfair and should not be consistent with the Land Reform Act of 1962, which was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1967 - the Land Reform Act of 1967. So, I think nonpartisan elections are healthy and I would strongly recommend that you consider them. So with those brief remarks, Mr. Chair and Members of the Commission, I stand ready, able and willing to respond to any questions. Anything that is too difficult to respond to, I’ll refer to David Arakawa. RAY: Thank you. David, do you want to make any introductory remarks? ARAKAWA: Council Member Felix has to catch a plane so I’ll try to keep this brief. I also am honored to be here with you, having worked with the City and County of Honolulu Charter Commission over the past little over a year, I know what type of hard work they put in and what hard work lies in front of you folks. Your dedication and your willingness to serve, I admire. I’m also sitting here next to John Henry Felix who I also respect and admire, and it’s great sitting next to one of my clients who’s not under fire or under investigation here, and is giving good advice to people. Too often when I sit next to one of my clients, it’s trouble but anyway, this is a joy. In fact it’s a good opportunity. I’ll just quickly go through the nuts and bolts. I think John Henry Felix has gone through the reasons why it was done and some of the effects of it but the 1991-1992 Charter Commission of the City and County of Honolulu put the issue of nonpartisan voting for City and County Offices, the Mayor and the Council, on the ballot. They did this and they did some research. The first thing they did is a survey of Charter issues of the 100 largest cities in the United States. So they did a survey and that survey is still available but it’s dated. It’s almost ten years old. Sixty-nine of the largest cities responded and the results on this particular issue - they did it on a number of issues they were looking at - on partisan vs. nonpartisan, they found that 23% of the largest cities had partisan elections and 77% of the largest cities in the United States had nonpartisan elections. The most common type of election, and now we’re going to get into some of the nuts file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 8-25-99.htm7/1/2011