1999-09-08 Charter Commission Minutes

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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 2 of 45 encumbered last year, and in this year’s budget, a balance of $95,855.01 out of a $100,000.00 encumbered. Any questions? Communications. You all have a packet of material for recent stuff as well as some research material, some stuff that different Council Members gave me, some stuff from the NACO Conference. Some pretty good stuff in here, so that’s just all for our information and review. Statements from the Public. We have one, Leonard Tanaka, representing the Planning Commission, is going to speak to general planning issues. Leonard. TANAKA: Thank you Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission. It’s good to be on this side of the pulpit for a change. I just wanted to comment a little about the concerns, I guess, that were maybe discussed or brought up by the Commission about the possibility of a second Planning Commission for West Hawaii, and I just offer some very brief comments and opinions for myself. I think that it would be not serving the County any justice by having two Commissions in that (1) I don’t think we’d have any consistency in the interpretions of the planning guidelines that we follow. As it is now, the Members of the Planning Commission often times are not in total agreement with interpretation as a single body so I can see how, possibly, a West Hawaii Planning Commission will interpret something on the SMA a little different from the Hilo Commissioners. We also have started representation from each of the Council districts as the Charter was amended. I think we need to allow that to follow through. It’s only been a few years now and we have not seen complete representation from all of the districts as of yet. I think it will take probably another two to three years before the terms of the present Commissioners expire, such that you can bring in representation from other Council districts. As an example, we have presently two Commissioners from the Hamakua area and we have two Commissioners from the Waiakea/Ka’u, so until those of us get off in those redundant areas, you will not have complete representation. Speaking of representation, I think it really comes down to that. If there is a concern by the public or Members of this Commission, I think it really comes down to representation. Right now the Mayor nominates/appoints the Planning Commissioners but it goes before the County Council for confirmation so there is a mechanism in place if people from any particular district feel uncomfortable with that representative, or basically anybody from the public, and I think we witness the power of the County Council in denying or rejecting these nominations, as we have witnessed Commissioner Balog, over here, who was volunteering to serve on the Planning Board of Appeals but was denied that by the County Council. So we already have the mechanism in place if people feel the appointments or the representatives as presented by the Mayor, are for whatever reasons, not appropriate. I received a copy of some comments from Mr. Childs and I just wanted to comment on that. He suggests two ideas, that possibly the Commission be advisory or have the appointment of the Planning Commissioners done by the County Council. I think his proposal, and then his argument against the Commission being advisory, is accurate in that it would definitely overload the County Council. There was a proposal a few years ago, as I was a new Member of the Planning Commission, to have the Commission be advisory only. And as soon as we brought up the subject or the idea that the County Council not only have full power over SMAs and use and special permits, but they also take on the geothermal permits as well, they immediately backed off. So I think his argument is right in that it would severely overload the County Council. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 9-8-99.html7/1/2011