|
minutes 10-27-99Page 23 of 48
<br />RAY: Because just having been on the Council, and gone through -
<br />SOUZA: I believe you were still on the Council when -
<br />RAY: I guess, the way it’s written now, that the membership shall be representative of the general
<br />geographic areas of Puna, Ka’u, Kona, Kohala, Hamakua, and Hilo, it’s very possible to have a pretty
<br />strong majority of the Commission from East Hawaii, under this present language. And, of course, being
<br />a West Hawaii resident, I’m interested in having it more tied to the Council districts, and whatever, just
<br />to make it more equitable. It seems to me, also having been a little bit involved in water issues, that there
<br />are areas of pretty significant concern in all the geographical areas, or whatever. But, you folks haven’t
<br />discussed that?
<br />SOUZA: No, not too deeply.
<br />RAY: Do you have any reason to believe that if we were to recommend that, that that would cause any
<br />problems in terms of getting representation to serve on the - I know that’s a hard question to answer. In
<br />other words, if we pegged it to the Council districts, in other words. One thing with these Boards and
<br />Commissions, it’s awfully confusing for the public, and we’re trying to establish some kind of
<br />consistency in terms of why is one this way, and why is another the other way, or whatever. So, if
<br />there’s not a reason to keep it the way it is, I personally, would be in favor of the nine Commissioners
<br />tied to the Council districts. Do you have any comment on that?
<br />SOUZA: No, I think that’d be okay too, but I can’t speak for the rest of the Commissioners.
<br />RAY: Sure, I understand, and just so you understand the process, we’re just trying to come up with
<br />some preliminary ideas that we take straw votes on, what we’re interested in, and once we do that, then
<br />we send everything out again for comment to all the departments, the Commissions, whatever, as well as
<br />go out for public hearings around the island. So, this is just really, sort of, the first pass to develop a
<br />preliminary package, so anything we come up with, you’ll have plenty of chance to discuss and have
<br />input on, and whatever. Okay?
<br />SOUZA: Thank you.
<br />RAY: Let’s take a -
<br />TSUNODA: May I (indiscernible).
<br />RAY: Yes sir, sure.
<br />TSUNODA: Again, it’s very brief comments, but I know Peter said that the Division operated in the
<br />black in 1998, and looking at doing so this year, I mean the year just ended. But, the previous six years,
<br />prior to ‘98, there was a deficit of $3.2 million in operating the Division. On top of that -
<br />RAY: Per year or over six years?
<br />TSUNODA: Over six years. It fluctuated, but six years, continued losses totaling $3.2 million.
<br />Outstanding debt service, as of June ‘98, I don’t have the ‘99 figures, it’s probably gone down a little
<br />bit, but it was in access of $38 million, so it’s a substantial amount. So what you see is a
<br />disproportionate amount of expense to sewer customers, so how we’d handle that from one department-
<br />one rate design, would be a very big challenge, because of the disproportionate expense to customer
<br />file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 10-27-99.html7/1/2011
<br />
<br />
|