1999-09-29 Charter Commission Minutes

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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 24 of 51 HERKES: Or what their problem is. Okay. IRVINE: I’m not sure that setting up performance measurements, or something like that, is really setting up more rules because if you look at performance measurements, it’s like one of those outcomes should be that the public is happy with what you’re doing, and for example, Solid waste, are people happy that they can only put a four foot board at a land waste unit? It’s not just making more rules. It’s trying to deal with things in an efficient manner that the public is served by the County agencies. SUMADA: I can tell you that, at least in the Building Division, they’ve had that for quite some time, as far as measurable goals. They do track the number of permits that are processed annually. They do track how long it takes to process a permit and since the Mayor came on board, that was one of his rallying cries, and he has brought processing time down considerably. So, we do have measurable goals. It may be that we’re just not advertising it well enough, per se. RAY: Other questions? Do we need Virginia and Jiro to stay here or is everybody comfortable that we’re okay in terms of their input? IRVINE: Is our Counsel going to come up with the possible wording and tell us which parts of the Charter need to be changed if we were to do this, or is Planning? What’s next? RAY: We have specific suggestions from the Planning Department. We had that submitted at the last meeting, so I guess our Counsel will have to look at that, and I guess, work with the Planning Department and Public Works to come up with some proposed language. GOLDSTEIN: Actually, just one other thought, and that is, I think most of the changes might have to come from the section on the Planning Department because the Charter already allows the other things, and other functions with Public Works get established through ordinance, which is not your kuleana, so I don’t know, it might just have to be in the Planning Department sections. YUEN: I just have one question for the Planning Director, if I could. RAY: Sure. YUEN: It’s to clarify what the proposal really is. Could you give us a master list of all types of permits that are currently issued by the Planning Department, and a check-off of which ones would go over to this new division under this proposal, and which ones would remain with the department? GOLDSTEIN: Okay, we can do that. MARTIN: Mr. Chair, before we proceed with Counsel looking into the prospect of anything, isn’t a motion needed on the floor to - RAY: We’re not at that stage right now. I just want to know - MARTIN: So you’re going to ask Counsel to fact find and we’re still not going to take a motion on the issue? HIGASHI: Maybe later in the agenda. MARTIN: Interesting. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 9-29-99.html7/1/2011