1999-08-25 Charter Commission Minutes (2)

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minutes 8-25-99Page 31 of 60 YOSHIYAMA: In terms of commitment, and it’s not a dollar amount that I can put on, to go get 700 volunteers, you’ve got to start today and you’ve got to invest a lot of time, right? KOZOHARA: Right. YOSHIYAMA: So that’s what I’m trying to get at, so it’s not only dollars but some other stuff. How much effort you’ve got to put in today? KOZOHARA: Ten months would be nice but I guess we could get by with six. But if the 2000 election wasn’t coming up right around the corner - we’re preparing for the 2000 election already. George should know. I’m trying to get a polling place in Ookala and we still can’t get a polling place. We’re trying to get another polling place in Pahoa and we’re doing that right now. YOSHIYAMA: At this point in time - I don’t know if this is a question. If, using your time frame, Al, ten months, we would have a Special Election maybe, comfortably in June of the year 2000; say five months at a cost of $400,000. Is that pretty accurate? KOZOHARA: Yes. RAY: I think these are the kinds of scenarios and sense we’ve got to get. I’d just like to get this monkey off my back and have a much clearer understanding of what we’re talking about because, in my mind, it’s totally unrealistic but I don’t feel like we’re there yet in terms of having that answer. John. SANTANGELO: That was my point prior, just to clarify that. There had to be a compelling reason to overcome all this that we would have to come up with and I don’t see that as being realistic either. There was a point in my mind, maybe, but I just don’t see that. We’ve floated a lot of initiatives at this point. There’s been discussion. The public certainly hasn’t come up and said, oh my Lord, we’ve just got to have that before the next election. But I do thank you for at least being as honest as you can, and I think you’ve really tightened it up a bit to where we can have some confidence in it. You were there in ‘79 so how much experience do you have in elections? Over 20 years? KOZOHARA: 25. RAY: This body needs to have further discussions but is there anything further from these folks here this evening? Any more information? Let’s make sure we get as much information as we can from them so we can make decisions. George. MARTIN: Is there any more questions we should be asking? RAY: I feel like there are but I don’t know. YUEN: Just so I can have complete clarity on this. You don’t have, right now, machines, a whole system for counting ballots? KOZOHARA: Are you talking about the punch card system? The support for that is not there. YUEN: What happened to the system - I read - I kind of remember all these newspaper articles and the complaints about the system we had last time. Are those machines that were rented or borrowed? file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 8-25-99.html7/1/2011