Laserfiche WebLink
Back ToPage 7 of 60 <br />HERKES: That’s partisan, the Prosecutor’s was. With everything that has a lot of <br />positives, there are some negatives. What negatives do you see on nonpartisan <br />elections? What kinds of things would work better and what are some of the negatives <br /> <br />for nonpartisan? <br />FELIX: From my perspective, I can’t think of any negatives as it relates to my <br />association with the council. There are times that there are negatives associated <br /> <br />with my membership in the Republican Party. <br /> <br />HERKES: We all have that problem. <br />FELIX: That’s the only negativity I have and there are times that they forget that <br />I’m a Republican, or if I support my Democratic colleagues on a controversial issue, <br />there can be a bit of pilikia, but most of my problems have centered around my <br /> <br />association with the party. <br />ARAKAWA: I cheated. I had my staff to research and what happens sometimes, is - <br />let’s put it this way, in some jurisdictions that have partisan local governments, <br />when the party in power, say in Washington or State, whatever partisan party is in <br />power at that time, has special policies or programs that they’re pushing. It’s much <br />easier for the municipality to take advantage of those Federal programs or State <br />programs and sometimes, when it’s nonpartisan and the majority of the council feels <br />they don’t have to honor a certain political party, whatever party’s in power - they <br />don’t have to honor that vision or that government policy. Then they go, hey screw <br />that, we don’t care if the State has all this money, we don’t care if the Feds have <br />this money for us but we don’t - that kind of thing, and then the municipality or <br />the county might lose out on something that they could have benefitted from. I <br />wouldn’t say that I recommend or I’m a 100% behind nonpartisan because as an <br />attorney, there’s always a down side so you always got to keep that in the back of <br />your mind. Say, eh, wait a minute, there’s these down sides. But what I would say is <br />that I’ve seen it work in the two and a half years that I’ve been Corporation <br />Counsel. I don’t know what it was like before. It might have worked better before, I <br />don’t know, but in the two and a half years I was here, I see it work and it may be <br />the type of people we have. It may be a function of the type of people we have. They <br /> <br />all get along. They respect each other for the most part. <br />FELIX: In looking at the period when we had partisan elections, the council operated <br />at that time, pretty much on a nonpartisan basis. I always had a committee to chair. <br />I had an equal voice with the members of the majority party so I must say that my <br />ten year experience on the council has been very good relative to the lack of <br />partisan politics being played on a regular basis and I think that’s a very healthy <br />situation because we work together to enact the best legislation for the people of <br /> <br />the County. <br /> <br />ARAKAWA: So it didn’t really make a - <br />FELIX: It reaffirmed what we were already doing and I think that’s a very <br /> <br />interesting observation. It just came to me. <br /> <br />RAY: Gary. <br />YOSHIYAMA: Yes, just to give me some perspective here. City and County of Honolulu <br /> <br />Council Members run from single member districts. <br /> <br />FELIX: That’s correct, nine districts. <br /> <br />YOSHIYAMA: That’s a recent change? <br />file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 8-25-99.htm7/1/2011 <br /> <br />