1999-09-29 Charter Commission Minutes

Home

HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 31 of 51 code enforcement, the Council is still going to have to go along with that because we have, floating out there, a subdivision ordinance that says the Planning Director signs the subdivision approvals. So if we did not specifically transfer the function to the Department of Public Works, but left it to future action by the Council and Administration, the Council would have to eventually sign off on whatever plan Administration came up with, in order to accomplish the transfer because if they just didn’t act, you would still have this subdivision ordinance that said the Planning Director issues the subdivision approvals. Similarly, in the zoning code, part of the proposal that we have here is that variances under the zoning code would also be done through the Public Works Department. The zoning code, not just the Charter, currently says that the Planning Director issues these variances, so that can only be changed by Council action. RAY: Roland. HIGASHI: Could it also be done just by an ordinance because the duties and powers and functions of the Public Director, his duties is by ordinance? Under the Charter, they don’t have a list of all the different divisions he has. YUEN: Except in this area of the subdivision code and variances. Because the Charter specifically says those come through the Planning Director, you can’t pass a proper ordinance that would say, no, forget that, and the Public Works Director should issue that. HIGASHI: It wouldn’t be allowed to just transfer the duties by ordinance? YUEN: No, because the Charter does say that those duties are with the Planning Director. HIGASHI: So if you delete it out of the Planning Director’s purview, then an ordinance would suffice? YUEN: Yes, if it were simply deleted from the Planning Department section, and I think we would also want to beef up the Public Works section a little bit to broaden their possible functions, then the Council could pass an ordinance that would accomplish any kind of reorganization of those functions, and put them wherever they wanted. RAY: Kevin, then Steve, then Marni. BALOG: Thank you. You kind of answered my question but I just got to be clear. Whether or not a Charter Amendment is passed to delete or transfer these powers, just plain delete it and leave it up to the Mayor and Council to make sure if they want to put it in Public Works, they would have to pass an ordinance, because of the zoning code, right? And even if you transfer it to Public Works, you still need to pass an ordinance because it’s still in the zoning code? YUEN: Yes, but in that latter case, the Council really is not supposed to be making a decision on whether this is a good idea or not because the voters have already done that, and if the voters say it goes to Public Works, then the Council really is supposed to change the ordinance, and really, the only reason to change the ordinance is otherwise it’s very confusing to the people who pick up the ordinance and are going to read something different than what’s in the Charter. BALOG: Because that makes a difference whether you just delete the word "subdivision" and I think it was (h) which says "charge of variances", or transfer it to the next agency. If you transfer it and it’s clear, and your advice is that the public has spoken and the Council should be following the public’s action, then that makes a difference, to me, on how we should act if we move forward. So that’s what I file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 9-29-99.html7/1/2011