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minutes 12-08-99Page 24 of 31
<br />M. HERKES: They own their own utilities?
<br />N. OTTERSON: They own their own utilities. Yes, yes.
<br />J. OTTERSON: That’s quite a help for them, too.
<br />RAY: Was it always that way? They had separate -
<br />N. OTTERSON: As long as I can remember.
<br />J. OTTERSON: As long as I can remember, too.
<br />RAY: I mean, they weren’t part of a County or something?
<br />J. OTTERSON: Oh, they possibly were, but not since I recall.
<br />RAY: I’m just interested in the evolution of the government. How it all evolved.
<br />MARTIN: Since they started piping water over the hill. I’m serious. That’s when it all came into play.
<br />J. OTTERSON: And, what I’ve always been told, as far as the Mayor was concerned, is when your population gets above
<br />75,000 people, don’t count on the Mayor to be running your town.
<br />RAY: We looked at models all over the country and, unfortunately, there’s not that clear a definition. There are lots of
<br />jurisdictions that function very well as strong Mayor, and there’s lots that’s functioned very well, and for a long, long time, as
<br />City Manager type.
<br />J. OTTERSON: But you can see right here, what your Mayor has to know. Nothing.
<br />RAY: Well, like I say, you could make that same argument about Mayor Giuliani in New York City, and I think you could,
<br />probably, argue that he’s a pretty qualified guy.
<br />J. OTTERSON: Yes, but he has a Manager, though. He has a Manager
<br />RAY: Yes, and we do too. But, I think it’s all in how you use the tools at your disposal.
<br />J. OTTERSON: But, anyway, I sure would like to see you guys put this on the ballot because I have talked to many, many
<br />people about this, and, like I say, I’m not - well, in a way it is, kind of, like a crusade, and a lot of people want this on the
<br />ballot.
<br />M. HERKES: Keep talking about it. Keep advocating for it. I’m the only one that voted for this, so you keep advocating it,
<br />and I’ll keep pushing these guys, and we’ll see if we can’t get it going.
<br />J. OTTERSON: I’m not going to say if it’s a woman or a man, but I talked to a Council person last Saturday and asked her,
<br />or him, what she thought of a Manager type government. Oh, no, no, no, we couldn’t have that. We couldn’t have that.
<br />M. HERKES: Yes, but if you’d have asked him, who’s the Kona person, he’s in favor of it.
<br />J. OTTERSON: Yes. And you know what her answer was? She said, well, we wouldn’t want to do that. They’d probably get
<br />a Manager from somewhere else. We need these people to get ahead here, and I said, lady, that’s the problem right now.
<br />You’ve got a deal going like this; it’s round and round and round, and you end up with the same thing.
<br />M. HERKES: We had that discussion, and some of us decided that we have the talent here. We don’t need to go outside, but,
<br />by God, if we need to go outside, we will.
<br />file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 12-08-99.html7/1/2011
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