1999-08-25 Charter Commission Minutes (2)

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minutes 8-25-99Page 14 of 60 ARAKAWA: I agree with John Henry. It’s a double edged sword. Half of my time on Neighborhood Board paperwork is spent telling them, no, you cannot take a side on this lawsuit. You cannot take a side for the tenants, renters, somebody’s, whatever it is. And so it’s kind of a double edged sword and I’m finding in the area that I live and help the community in, is that our Neighborhood Board, some members of it, don’t represent the community. They were elected. They think they’re God. They don’t talk to their church. They don’t talk to their sports coaches. They don’t talk to anybody. They just decide for themselves what they want to do and they don’t really go back to the community which is what, technically, they’re supposed to do. And they lobby votes for a certain thing and they get the majority of the votes and then they go in and grab whatever they want to ram through so, the Neighborhood Boards do work well and, like John Henry said, they serve a tremendous purpose but it can be a double edged sword. There’s this new thing called vision and I think that’s more representative of what the community wants because the Neighborhood Boards are part of the vision usually, and they listen to the everyday people that come out. FELIX: And one of the other challenges is the fact that a number, not many, but a number of individuals who aspire to become Neighborhood Board members also aspire to higher office and they often times use this as a forum to further that quest. That’s not all bad. IRVINE: No, it sounds like - FELIX: I think you should be clear as to some of the implications of this. IRVINE: I’m getting the feeling that you do pay attention to Neighborhood Boards even though they are just advisory. This Commission has been told, don’t set them up if they’re just advisory because it is difficult for people to spend a lot of time or energy on something if they think they don’t have any real power to change. But if the politicians then do pay attention to the Neighborhood Boards, then I would say they do have an influence and you’re telling us that they do? FELIX: Yes, they take a vote. The Mayor pays close attention. Council Members do. The Liquor Commission does when there’s an application for a license in a neighborhood. The Board listens to both sides and takes a vote. ARAKAWA: I’d say about 95% to 98% of the time, it follows. FELIX: Oh yes, I would say the only time that I have recommended an action contrary to the position taken by the Neighborhood Board was the Hawaii Kai incident. Just one incident because 99% of the time I go along with their recommendations. IRVINE: If a Neighborhood Board can go to the State Legislature as well, apparently, and say what they want - Is that right? And they could go to Congress in Washington if they wanted to? FELIX: They do that, yes. At the Neighborhood Boards, you’ll have a representative from the Governor’s Office, the Mayor’s Office, from the Senate, the House, from Congress sometimes. ARAKAWA: They’re all there giving reports. They’re on the agenda. FELIX: At one time, they were putting elected officials at the end of the agenda and about midnight you get pretty tired. ARAKAWA: And the Community Associations - if you’re a Community Association and you want to be on the agenda - League of Women Voters, or Save Our Surf or whatever, you file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 8-25-99.html7/1/2011