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minutes 10-13-99Page 5 of 31
<br />RAY: We haven’t formally taken it up but we have discussed it and so we would appreciate the
<br />materials.
<br />TYLER: Yes, and if your staff person would contact me, we’ll get this to you.
<br />Two final items; one dealing with the possible different type of County governing system, and that is to
<br />consider a County Manager, county executive, these kinds of things. I know that I’ve spoken with some
<br />of you individually with respect to consideration of this matter. I understand that you have some
<br />materials before you today regarding one of the counties in Kentucky, and I’m sure that, based on some
<br />of the materials that Ms. Pisicchio and I shared with our Kona representative, she has probably shared
<br />those with you. I also realize that you have received a rather lengthy communication from former
<br />Council member Keola Childs, who is not in favor of a County Manager, and he gave his reasons.
<br />Therefore, I just wanted to state to you my own personal experience. In talking with fellow colleagues
<br />from other counties in the Continental United States, many of whom, it appears to be a majority of
<br />whom, use a County Manager system, and who previously had a system similar to that which we
<br />currently have. And what a huge difference it makes in terms of more accountability and direct
<br />relationships between the public and their elected officials as opposed to, really, a two-tier track that
<br />runs on and the Council and the Mayor does that, or doesn’t do that, and the Council doesn’t do this. In
<br />talking with many people over the last three years, as I’ve studied this possible proposal for this County,
<br />comments from individuals with whom I’ve spoken, seem to be quite favorably disposed towards
<br />wanting to consider this. It was not my intention to come here to go step by step through Mr. Childs’
<br />analysis, which I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Childs, and his reasons. Some of them are quite
<br />persuasive, and certainly have merit and deserve your consideration, but in my own experience, given
<br />the very positive comments I’ve heard from so many elected Council members, as well as those who are
<br />tiers of the Council, or Board of Supervisors, which are the official Mayor, the one that signs the
<br />proclamation, unties the maile and kisses the babies, that type of thing, is that it is far more equitable and
<br />fair, and more efficient in terms of getting the work of the people done, so I believe I’ve presented, at
<br />least to our Kona representative, most of my materials as well as some websites, and also to Mr. Ray,
<br />but if there’s further information that you desire from me, I’ll be happy to do what I can to provide it to
<br />you. I just ask that you consider this and I hope that the voters will have an opportunity to make a
<br />decision on this matter, one way or the other.
<br />And finally, Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission, I just wanted to state, very briefly, a
<br />thought that was recurring to me in the last three months, during recent Council meetings and
<br />Committee meetings, and that is that beginning in the month of July and continuing through, I believe it
<br />was, the month of September, the Council received it’s usual Report of Transfers, and these are transfers
<br />made in accordance with a portion of the Hawaii County Charter which the Charter affords the Mayor
<br />the opportunity to transfer, and not between departments but within departments. And I just wanted to
<br />let you know, in three of the transfers, or a number of the transfers that came, that this was subsequent to
<br />the approval of the Operating, as well as the CIP Budget; that there were transfers, and this was
<br />subsequent to our internal calculations regarding the funded balance, which played a very, very
<br />important role in balancing this year’s budget, as I’m sure you have read, or at least probably talked to
<br />some of us about, over $3,000,000.00 in transfers. Some of the individual transfers were in excess of
<br />$500,000.00 each, and I stated on the Council floor, so I’m not speaking out of school here, that I felt
<br />this was a usurping of the Council’s authority. Transfers are really meant to facilitate changes that occur
<br />after a budget is adopted but it’s not meant to take the place of appropriations, and in my own
<br />estimation, there were at least two, possibly four, transfers which were clearly circumventing the
<br />Council’s wishes not to appropriate funds for certain projects. And I would ask you, please, to consider
<br />the possibility of having some language in there, not eliminating the Mayor’s right to transfer, should we
<br />continue with a Mayor, but to limiting the amount to a reasonable amount, in order to conduct business.
<br />I know the Mayor has to make these kinds of decisions, they’re very important decisions, and I wouldn’t
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