1999-10-13 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 10-13-99Page 21 of 31 PIERSON: Okay, came forth and this person was a political Independent from Ka’u, and Brian DeLima said, but sir, I know you as a Democrat. Have you been active at the precinct level in Democratic politics? Ah, yes. Well, sir, I think that makes you a Democrat. To this day, the records reflect that person is an Independent. How can that happen? I’m not even sure that it should make any difference if no more than this many members can be from one party. I’m not sure it makes any difference. Certainly the way it is right now, it doesn’t because they lie. BALOG: They put whatever they want on the application. PIERSON: So, that’s another thing to consider. Do we have to limit the number of people? So, it’s a really, really bad system and I would like to see, if we can’t make it better somehow, that it’s just eliminated so people aren’t fooled into thinking they’ve got some protection with this Commission and that Commission. God help us if we get a Fire Commission. IRVINE: Mr. Pierson, could I ask you one thing? I want to make a statement first. You were saying we weren’t necessarily following our rules. I think this Commission, our Chair, has been real, real careful to bend the rules, as best he can, to let everybody say whatever they want to say here, and we’re trying to get all the information we can, and on that note, if you have those ACLU guidelines on an independent commission, if it’s brief, or even if it’s longer, it could be shared with our Commission by sharing with our Assistant here, and she’ll make copies for all of us, because we’re interested in looking at everything. PIERSON: I have it. I’ll make it available, and if somehow I cannot locate it, the Police Commission has one. RAY: Any more questions? Marni. HERKES: I want to ask our legal counsel about approving minutes, about having the public approve minutes of meeting minutes. That’s not - RAY: I don’t think the question was approve. HERKES: Comment on? RAY: It was commenting or testifying. HERKES: Have we ever restricted anybody from commenting on our minutes? I mean, we put them on the web page so that everybody could see them. YUEN: No, I think that he does have a point, though, that if we are voting on the minutes from the previous meeting, and we have that vote before we take statements from the public, and a member of the public did want to object, or correct, those minutes, that they wouldn’t have a chance to before the Commission had acted on those. So I think we should move the Statements from the Public up ahead of the Minutes. It didn’t occur to me previously, and I think this only would happen, because we have been approving the minutes in a very timely manner, and so typically, we have been taking the last set of minutes. RAY: Any other questions for Mr. Pierson? Thank you. PIERSON: Thank you. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 10-13-99.html7/1/2011