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minutes 10-27-99Page 17 of 48
<br />easier.
<br />RAY: Well, we may not have that power.
<br />MARTIN: They do.
<br />RAY: No, they don’t. We could be talking about an ordinance out of the Council, so, we don’t have the
<br />power to implement that. But anyway, go ahead.
<br />IRVINE: Thank you for coming, and I guess I can certainly understand why the Water Department likes
<br />their pristine, clean environment and just supplying water isn’t terribly controversial on this island,
<br />although, sometimes, I guess. But, I think we really do need to look on water as a commodity, and the
<br />re-use of wastewater, and there’s a bill problem, obviously, with sewers. I don’t blame you for not
<br />wanting to take it on, but the fact that a few people are supporting the entire system, which is for the
<br />benefit of us all, keeping our water clean, and whatnot, we need to have, kind of, a global look at this. I
<br />think Honolulu, if they only kept their department together for six months, or a year, really must not
<br />have thought much about it before they went into some kind of a combination, or they wouldn’t have
<br />had that quick a divorce.
<br />The other thing that’s been mentioned is this Environmental Department, the possibility of putting
<br />sewers with solid waste. Now, my impression also is that solid waste is kind of a shambles, and that
<br />we’re now giving Public Works more work right now, with the Department of Permitting, and maybe,
<br />we need to spin all three of these off into some wonderful semi-autonomous agency that you can
<br />oversee, and clean up all our recycling problems.
<br />SANTANGELO: Jiro’s the guy.
<br />HERKES: No, we’re going to give it to Milton.
<br />IRVINE: Is there any comment? Anybody can comment on that one.
<br />RAY: Mr. Pavao, you in shock?
<br />PAVAO: I’m in shock. I guess the only thing I want to say is I have no interest in getting bigger. I just
<br />want to stay efficient.
<br />IRVINE: Yes, but you want to stay clean too, and the business of providing these other services aren’t
<br />clean. Can you imagine somebody volunteering to be on the Sewer Commission?
<br />RAY: Ms. Herkes, did you have another comment?
<br />HERKES: Yes, I did. If we bundle these together - If we bundled wastewater, drinking water, and well,
<br />several things; we could do solid waste, a whole bunch of stuff together, I would be in favor of taking
<br />that five million out of the pot, and putting it over here, and not taking it in with all of these things, and
<br />we could do that. We can put the five million that Sewers is in the hole over here, and not bring it into
<br />your department. They can collect one and a half million, so - how much is it?
<br />?: More than five million.
<br />HERKES: Okay, well, however much it is, we can take it out of the picture. That doesn’t have to go
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