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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 21 of 51
<br />you’re working in government, or in any business, you’ve got to think about that side too, but it’s only
<br />one factor in the overall.
<br />BALOG: Okay.
<br />RAY: Roland.
<br />HIGASHI: I notice in the layout you gave us, that in the Engineering Regulation Branch, you have a
<br />Kona operation, and in the Building Branch Administration, you have a Kona operation, but in the
<br />Planning section, there is no Kona operation, or people housed in Kona for processing. Is it because
<br />most applications would either come in through Regulatory or Building:?
<br />GOLDSTEIN: Particularly, with respect to the subdivisions, we don’t have the staff and the files and the
<br />information in our Kona office so all subdivisions are processed under the Hilo office. The Kona office
<br />does do some plan approvals but mostly, they’re tied with either CZM and/or the Planning Commission
<br />work at this point, but there’s one zoning clerk position that is from the Kona office. We aren’t
<br />reflecting it that way, but there is one.
<br />RAY: Daryl.
<br />KUROZAWA: My understanding is this change is really for two reasons; (1) to make it more efficient
<br />for the public and (2) probably, to save money for us, eventually, in the department. The one question I
<br />have, though, is if in Kona right now, you can have everybody sort of one-stop shopping in the same
<br />area, and it was probably done because you had to save money because of space, why couldn’t we do
<br />that now without restructuring everything in Hilo, especially with the plan for Kaiko’o Mall and having
<br />everything in one place eventually?
<br />GOLDSTEIN: We were thinking of doing that. We are still thinking of doing that if we ever move to
<br />Kaiko’o before any kind of formal changes can be made. The idea was that when we moved over, all of
<br />those agencies that are involved in the permitting, would be in a common area, and that common area
<br />wouldn’t include walls between the different divisions, be open, so that everybody can see everybody
<br />else working together, and that they would, therefore, not be separated. That still is the plan but it’s just
<br />which one is going to happen first.
<br />KOKUBUN: Can I add a comment to that, too, in that you know the subdivisions are not handled in the
<br />Kona office, and that’s really kind of the bulk of the applications and bulk of work that we have to
<br />handle, so I think, that’s why we’re thinking that the way the Charter is set up now, subdivisions are
<br />under the purview of the Planning Director, but, if in fact, this merger happens, it would require, and
<br />that’s what I think the consideration by this Commission is, is to take out those responsibilities for
<br />subdivision approvals and subdivision code from the Planning Director’s responsibility now. The way
<br />the Charter is actually established for the Department of Public Works, is that any other additional
<br />responsibilities that Public Works takes on, would be handled through ordinances, so the Council would
<br />have to be the body to say, okay, now subdivisions then would be a part of the responsibilities of Public
<br />Works.
<br />GOLDSTEIN: I think if you take a look at the chart, you can get the sense of where a lot of the work
<br />really is with respect to subdivisions. Under the branch and positions under Planning, there are really
<br />only two; one planner and one clerk for subdivisions, whereas in the Engineer and Regulatory Branch
<br />under Public Works, you have one, two, three engineers that have something to do with it, and then two
<br />inspectors that do the inspection on the construction for subdivisions, so we do a lot of the coordinating
<br />file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 9-29-99.html7/1/2011
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