1999-08-25 Charter Commission Minutes (2)

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minutes 8-25-99Page 16 of 60 some of these huge districts down here. HERKES: It’s even more difficult - FELIX: And to have Neighborhood Boards giving you input - if you use them as a tool for two-way communications, I think it could be very beneficial because of the distances that you have to travel. HERKES: Okay. FELIX: I know my good friend, John Farias, served as a Council Member here. HERKES: He rode a horse, though. FELIX: His greatest frustration was covering these huge districts that are not that densely populated so there could be a very useful purpose in instituting such a program. RAY: John. SANTANGELO: Do you feel that the Boards tend to understand an advisory vs. a dictatorial? FELIX: I think they understand but they don’t follow and he (Arakawa) continually reminds them. Yes, he continually reminds them. I think the Commission has to take a more positive stance in that direction. I just think that they’ve been proactive enough and also, training them in the Roberts Rules of Order - the meetings sometimes just go on and on and on. They’re odd infinitum. They do need some training in how to run a meeting and how to follow Roberts Rules. There are some that are extraordinary in the way they’ve run their meetings. I mean, they’re very professional. The Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board is extremely well run because a Labor leader is the Chairman and they know Roberts Rules backwards and forwards. SANTANGELO: One of the grass roots that we have here that’s helping a lot with the schools because they’re doing a lot to have to educate the parents on how to conduct a meeting and what consensus and stuff is. That’s really nice. As a sidebar to this. We’re talking about empowerment and one of the things that came up before, like in a sign ordinance or lot areas, and I’m interested in empowerment, do you have any sort of mechanism in your Charter, in your Council, that allows people, in a smaller subdivision, to deal with the signs that are there; to deal with the kinds of things that happen? FELIX: The Neighborhood Board is the best opportunity. At the beginning of the agenda they have Community Concerns item and that’s when people come out of the woodwork to express their concerns about signs and traffic and whatever is on their minds, and they do come out. SANTANGELO: So they function somewhat like a design district or something like that? FELIX: That’s correct. RAY: Roland. HIGASHI: When the Neighborhood Board system first was created, there was great interest in the whole system and I knew people who worked in handling that Commission. Has that enthusiasm become less now? file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 8-25-99.html7/1/2011