1999-10-13 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 10-13-99Page 11 of 31 talked about performance standards and outcome base management, which I’m happy to report is being considered in the budget this year - HERKES: Program review. TYLER: That we can, hopefully, avoid this kind of conflict, but it’s certainly one that has to be thought of by you, as well as whoever is charged with that contracting, and perhaps, something needs to be in the Charter toward some guidelines. I don’t know. RAY: Roland. HIGASHI: On that concept of your so-called ‘probationary’ two-year and then a four-year term, say there’s a scenario that the incumbent runs for the four-year term and he gets defeated, what happens to the guy who was successful? Does he go on a two-year term again or a four-year term? TYLER: I can’t answer that question. I honestly don’t know. HIGASHI: So you think there’s a problem there? TYLER: Well, no, I just think it’s an opportunity. I don’t see it as a problem because I know it works in other venues. I didn’t raise the question, when it came up, I just asked people, now what do you do in a situation like this, and they said, oh, we solved that because, in terms of direct accountability, if the voters voted the wrong person in for whatever reason, and they want to remove that person because they didn’t expect this, or whatever it is, then during this first term, or partial term, then they can take action, but as to the mechanics of it, I’m sure you’ll be able to find something from one of those counties. Thank you very much. RAY: Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Tyler. TYLER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. RAY: Del Pranke is our other registered speaker. PRANKE: I’m Del Pranke and I’m from Puna. I really only wanted to talk about the Police Commission but the opportunity showed itself for a couple of more things. I apologize. I won’t take long. As far as changing the County government, the type of government, I would suggest that you make the Mayor a two-year elected term and see how quickly the voters approve that. The voters have voted overwhelmingly for term limits. I don’t think they want to get rid of the little bit of control they have over the Executive Branch, by being able to vote for that person. There was a recent impeachment case just a couple of days ago. Anyway, what happened was a person from one district tried to impeach people from another district. That’s not possible, using the rules of the court. The court says you must have standing, and the Charter says that you use the rules of the court for impeachment. These folks brought these charges against the County Council member. Somebody from Puna cannot impeach anybody from another district. It’s not allowed and the rules of the court would prevent that so if you have a manager-type system, the voters would be one step further removed from being able to vote for their county executive. They would not be able to vote for a county executive in that sense. I’ve gone back through the Charter Commission minutes from the first Charter Commission, between ‘64 and ‘68. They talked about this strong Mayor-Council type of government quite often in there. It’s imbedded in the County Charter, and in order to change to a different form of County government, you’re really file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 10-13-99.html7/1/2011