2000-02-05 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 02-05-00Page 7 of 66 YUEN: You mean individual wastewater systems? BESS: Water systems other than the county. Is that what you mean? SANTANGELO: No. IRVINE: I don’t know. I think, you’re right. It would be wastewater. I’d be happy to pull that particular point out right now. RAY: Right now, the State has jurisdiction over those systems, Department of Health. IRVINE: I think you’re right. RAY: So whether it’s Parker Ranch’s wastewater system or Hualalai, or whatever, that’s administered by the State. In fact, the Department of Health still has jurisdiction over cesspools and septic tanks. They’re in the process of trying to work that out to transfer it to the County now, but that’s still a State function. So we need to do our homework on how this works right now, and what makes sense in terms of proposing. IRVINE: That we could take it over if the State does get rid of it. They’re trying this year, I think, is what was my understanding. YUEN: Let me make a suggestion. I think you want to say some of the functions that would be transferred over but it’s not critical to make an exhaustive listing of those because it can be fleshed out later. You would list the major ones and then you would say whatever functions may be assigned by ordinance, because this gets to the level of detail that it’s, I think, difficult for the people sitting at this table to make a judgment in the future, as to whether the personnel - Like if individual wastewater systems do come over to the county, in actual fact, are the personnel that do those going to fit better in this new department than in the Department of Public Works. It’s hard to know sitting here right now, so I think just saying wastewater, solid waste, and recycling would cover it, and then you just say, and further functions that may be assigned to it by ordinance. There’ll have to be a follow-up ordinance that actually transfers a set of positions over. IRVINE: Can I ask that Chris’s wording, right here, would be my friendly amendment to my motion? RAY: Okay, and let’s clarify the Commission part of it, as well. That was also part of your motion. Is it your thought that this is an advisory commission to this department? IRVINE: The County folks have asked us for a commission to set sewer rates, and I would assume that this commission would be doing that sort of thing, taking the politics out of sewer rates, as well as advising on the environment. HIGASHI: So, is it an advisory group? IRVINE: I don’t know how you set that up, but that’s what Public Works, and I don’t know who all else, had testified to us from the County about the fact that the Council just has a hard time setting sewer rates. RAY: Let me ask our legal counsel. What are we actually talking about in terms of having the commission have that authority, such as the Water Department? YUEN: I’ve heard different types of commissions being discussed. One, you would say you could attach a purely advisory commission, which would help the department in, basically, community interface. They would meet with the Director of the department. They would be community people. They could be people who are in the area of recycling, or litter control, or whatever. RAY: In regard to rates, they would make recommendations. YUEN: They could make recommendations, yes. You can also set it up so that this is under a commission that has the power to set rates. You would say so in the Charter. I think then you might wind up creating a concern from the people that pay sewer charges about the responsiveness of that group to their concerns. You know, the flip side of the whole political question. It can be done, but that ties it more in with the third kind of commission, which is like the Water Commission where the organization is self-funding. Let me put it this way, though. If you have a Sewer Commission that sets the sewer file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 02-05-00.html7/1/2011