1999-08-25 Charter Commission Minutes (2)

Home

minutes 8-25-99Page 22 of 60 we had Matayoshi, then we had Carpenter, then we had Akana, then Lorraine, then Steve, so that’s seven Mayors but out of the seven Mayors, we’ve had ten different Administrations. So there was really no long term planning. One Administration would come up with a plan then, for obvious reasons, he’s out of office. Then somebody else would come up with a new plan so we’re like yoyo’s. I don’t think that’s the way to run a department. SANTANGELO: Continuity. RAY: Marni. HERKES: That brought up a question. A Fire Commission would be appointed by the Mayor and that would mean that when the Mayor went out, the Fire Commission went out, just like the Police Commissions and all the other Commissions? QUEROBIN: Not necessarily. HERKES: Not necessarily, but usually. QUEROBIN: It will be like any other Commission, maybe one guy be appointed for a two year term, another guy be appointed for a four year term and maybe somebody be appointed for a six year term so that you’d have continuity so it wouldn’t be if the Mayor leaves, everybody leaves. If that’s the case, there’s really no need for any Commission. RAY: Daryl. KUROZAWA: I have a question. What’s your thoughts about if a Fire Chief is appointed, what kind of term are you looking at? Is it forever, or is it a two year term or five year term? QUEROBIN: He’ll be at the mercy of the Fire Commission. If he does his job, he’ll have a job. If he doesn’t do his job then it’s up to the Commission to hire and fire him. This is what the Commission is for. But what it really does, is it lessens the politics, and I don’t want to mention all the politics. But it really makes the Chief, not a free hand, but it gives him more liberty to pursue his goals and also, we have a lot of young people in the department today that will make good administrative personnel but because of the way the Civil system works, they don’t want to come up and take a chance. DARYL: I just have one short question. So aside from appointing the Fire Chief, what else do you envision the Commission doing? QUEROBIN: They will oversee the Administration, similar to the Police Commission. RAY: John. SANTANGELO: If I’m to hear you, you’re looking to, any measure at all, put performance standards in there and base this on that. QUEROBIN: Right. I think the proposal in here states the qualifications for the Fire Chief. If you look on page 2, these are some of the criteria we would like to see happen, and the Fire Chief obviously needs to have administrative skills. It’s also in there. SANTANGELO: So yes, I agree with you that there needs to be some sort of performance file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 8-25-99.html7/1/2011