1999-08-25 Charter Commission Minutes (2)

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minutes 8-25-99Page 2 of 60 rough balance of $97,323.29 at this point. Item V. Communications. The only communication is we do have a letter from the Planning Director, Virginia Goldstein, requesting to come in before the Charter Commission on a number of issues they’d like to discuss so I think we’ll probably agendize that for our next meeting. HERKES: Mr. Ray, could I interrupt? Would you ask Ms. Goldstein to list the measures that the Planning Department has taken to open up the hearings process for the Planning Commission. I know they’ve taken quite a few measures and I’d like to know what they are. RAY: So the request is background on any steps they may have taken to - okay. Statements from the Public. There are none. Unfinished Business. We are, I guess, in a state of unfinished business in terms of our discussion so we’ll just proceed on to New Business. Today we are happy to have Vice Chair Councilman John Henry Felix from the City and County of Honolulu here today, as well as his Senior Advisor, Ron Boyer and David Arakawa, the Corporation Counsel from the City and County of Honolulu, to give us some information and to have an exchange of information on what we have agendized as Nonpartisan Elections and I’d like to stick with that discussion initially and then if you folks do want to get into some discussion on some other items that have come up, especially City Manager form of government or whatever, we can entertain that discussion as well. Mr. Felix, do you have any prepared remarks or do you want to just open this up? FELIX: I do have bullet points and I’ve shared them with the secretary for inclusion in your minutes so I will not read from prepared text but go over salient points that I think will be of interest to all of you. I’m delighted to be next to my distinguished colleague, David Arakawa, who has the enviable task of serving not only the Mayor but the City Council and I must say that he does an exemplary job in bifurcating himself as a lawyer. Although we have had differences of opinion from time to time, we respect each other and there’s never been any acrimony between us. It’s a delight to be on the Big Island. My roots are here and my mother was born in Hilo. My grandfather served as a District Judge, Manuel Souza Pacheco. Sounds like a Portuguese name, as well as Albert Mariano Felix who served as a Circuit Court Judge on this island. I speak from a very interesting perspective, and first I would like to say that I do applaud and commend each and every one of you for serving as Members of the Charter Commission. This is not an enviable task but your charge is indeed a very important one because a Charter such as yours, should not be static. It has evolve with the times. I commend you and I congratulate you and I want to thank you for inviting me to participate today. I come from a very interesting perspective, having served as the Assistant Minority Leader of the Council from 1988 to 1990, and having served as the Minority Leader from 1990 through 1992, as the only Republican on the City Council. In 1990, the Honolulu Charter Commission proposed nonpartisan Mayoral and Council elections and I was a very strong supporter of this concept, not necessarily because I was serving as the only Republican on the council and it was a rather lonely experience, because file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 8-25-99.html7/1/2011