1999-08-25 Charter Commission Minutes (2)

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minutes 8-25-99Page 18 of 60 RAY: Sure. FELIX: If this panel would ever like to look into the area of a Fire Commission. That was my initiative and I would be very willing to come over to address that issue because it has proved to be very beneficial to the Fire Department and the City and County of Honolulu. RAY: Okay, good. I appreciate that. We’re going to take a three or four minute recess while these folks leave if you want to speak with them, and then we’re going to get the Elections Division in. FELIX: Thank you very much for inviting us. This is easier than a Neighborhood Board. RECESSED The Chairman called a short recess at 3:57 p.m. RECONVENED The meeting reconvened at 4:04 p.m. RAY: I’d like to call the meeting back to order. There was a little bit of a miscommunication on Statements from the Public. We do have at least one person here who would like to make a statement. Councilman Tyler, come forward, introduce yourself. TYLER: Thank you Mr. Ray, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission. This is my first time here and I misunderstood the Chairman when he said there were no statements from the public, and I just wanted to, first of all, thank you all for serving and apologize for not having been to your meetings but they seem to coincide with our Council meetings which, for various reasons, go on longer than maybe some people would like, and I have to take some blame for that, as Mr. Santangelo knows. In any case, I wanted to suggest to you that - well, I think we all recognize that the work you’re doing is extremely important for the future of this county and any efforts that you can undertake to further publicize, in addition to the people from the press that are here, your work. It seems to me it would go a long ways in the kinds of educational things that Council Member Felix and Corporation Counsel Arakawa spoke about. And I have spoken with your Chairman about this on a couple of occasions and I just wanted to tell each of you in person that I think you have opportunities here on the island which could very much further your cause and further involve the public, whether by coming to your meetings or actually, to be forming small groups within their communities. And one of these is through the Public Access channel to possibly have your meetings televised. And second, of course, to continue to put your notices in the newspaper, maybe one week before. I know you’ve published a schedule that went on for a number of weeks, or possibly months. The second would be to put your agenda and your minutes on the County website. The County has a website and you can talk to the Data Systems person, Mr. Gail Rock and I’m sure they’d be glad to try to accommodate this, but you obviously have someone who is very efficient in terms of preparing the agenda and also the minutes, and I think it would be very helpful. And I would also like to suggest that you rotate your meetings. I was told by the Chairman that the one meeting that you had in West Hawaii, I believe I was out of file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 8-25-99.html7/1/2011