1999-10-27 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 10-27-99Page 3 of 48 thing at this time? JIM: I don’t know about the concerns because I’m hearing concerns of the County and the concerns of the Native Hawaiians. That’s what I’m hearing from you, because of the laws that it has made. My suggestions to this Board, and to the County, the only one that can resolve that question is the State and the Federal government because of their compact they made of federalism, and those laws are governed. And as we understand it, through many cases, that the courts lack jurisdiction on federalism based on the compact of legislation, so therefore, I believe your County Council, at one time, went to Congress and tried to address that issue. But again, I think you need to look at the Constitution, ARTICLE 1, Section 10. It clearly tells you it takes two parties to eliminate, or remake, or re-amend the federalism compact on Section 4. And so the question to that, it’s not ours, and it’s not the Department of Hawaiian Homes, and it’s not the County, because they’re all under the County Charter. The Commissioners, Hawaiian Home Commission Act, it’s all under the provisions, so those provisions are created by bodies of government to government, and that’s the legislation of the United States and the State of Hawaii and it’s people, so it takes a referendum to do that. That’s all I can suggest, ma’am. RAY: Any other questions? Mr. Yuen, did this issue come up in the last Charter review? I don’t mean to catch you off guard. I know you don’t have total recall, close to it, but - YUEN: I’m amazed at how little recall I do have when I go back and look at the things we did. RAY: Mr. Yuen was the attorney for the last Charter Commission as well, so I was asking if this came up at the last Charter review, if he remembers. JIM: Oh, I see. Okay. YUEN: I know it’s not something that was discussed. All I can say about that is that the fact that this County consists of this island is a matter of State law, and it dates from the early 1900's that the County of Hawaii encompasses this island. RAY: Anyway, we’ll look into it. JIM: May I address that? RAY: Sure. JIM: It also states, what you just mentioned, it was carried over by the Admission Act, but I would like you to look at the Admission Act, Section 15. It clearly identified that the encumbrance on that Act is forbidden by the State legislation because of the compact, and I would like you to address that. Thank you. RAY: Okay. Thank you for coming in. Nice to see you, Patrick. That concludes our Statements from the Public. We did have a communication that Mr. Pranke would be attending but he can testify when and if he shows up. Number IV. Minutes Approval. The minutes of October 13th that were distributed. Do I have a motion to approve? HIGASHI: So moved. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 10-27-99.html7/1/2011