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minutes 02-09-00Page 13 of 41
<br />a system of division of land that took place inappropriately many years ago, and eventually, eventually, the County or the
<br />State must deal with this, must address this. The problem I see in having researched that, and having consulted a
<br />Constitutional Law professor on the mainland, is that the County doesn’t act within a certain given amount of time, then the
<br />parties, the plaintiffs, have fulfilled their legal obligation and they can move on to the State, and they must pursue the same
<br />process with the State, and after that, the Federal justice system will entertain a class action lawsuit.
<br />RAY: Walter, what are you suggesting that’s in the Charter to address?
<br />MOE: I am suggesting that you provide, and I can provide this for you, what work we’ve done, and what I really am saying is
<br />that the work has taken place that resulted in a resolution to address the problem, and the Mayor has said why don’t we take
<br />one community as a model, and try the establishment of a Financial Management Improvement District. And he would like to
<br />have Hawaiian Paradise Park to be considered. Now he says I need the approval of the County Council. The County Council
<br />has been requested a number of times to deal with it. They’ve chosen not to. I’m saying if you put in the Charter some
<br />language, under some provisions, that would require that in due time, I think we would serve this community well and we
<br />would avoid a lot, a lot of legal problems in the future. I have made some copies over here for your review, and you might
<br />want to look at it. I have three copies over here.
<br />HERKES: Give it to our lawyer. He says what we can put into the Charter.
<br />MOE: And this took place in 1997, that we worked on and it died. There was some heroic effort made by then Councilman
<br />John Santangelo, and John Ray, who at that time, said folks, why don’t we just vote on this thing, but it died nevertheless. So,
<br />I’d like to make you aware of that enormous problem, and trust me, it is a problem. It is one of those well kept secrets that
<br />most of us really don’t want to address or talk about. Thank you very much for your attention. I appreciate being here.
<br />RAY: Thank you Walter. Anymore public testimony? We’ll proceed with our agenda.
<br />Minutes Approval. There are none.
<br />Financial Status Report. The same as the last financial.
<br />Communications. In your packet, four e-mails.
<br />Unfinished Business. We’re going to move directly to the Salary Commission item, as we have Michael Ben and Barry
<br />Mizuno here to speak to that issue. You folks want to come up?
<br />BEN: Members of the Commission, we didn’t have any prepared statements. We came here to answer any questions you may
<br />have. I understand you folks were missing some information that we did provide. There is one thing I wanted to speak to just
<br />for your information, and it might come up in the public hearings and whatnot, but officials that we’re talking about, who we
<br />wish to confer the Salary Commission to act on the salaries - I just wanted to mention that there are four public officials who
<br />are not tied in with the Mayor’s term, and I often feel awkward when I speak of this because I’m one of those. The Director
<br />of Personnel who is appointed by the Civil Service Commission, the Director of Liquor Control who is appointed by the
<br />Liquor Commission, the Chief of Police who is appointed by the Police Commission, and the Department of Water Supply,
<br />the Manager, is appointed by the Water Commission. We do not serve at the pleasure of the Mayor. We serve at the pleasure
<br />of our Commissions, so theoretically, especially with these positions, the incumbents may be in these positions for a great
<br />number of years. My predecessor was short time, he was four years. Before him, I remember there was one Director of
<br />Personnel who was in his position for 20+ years, and conceivably, all of the incumbents that I mentioned, could be long term
<br />career Department Heads. I also wanted to make mention although I did mention the Water Manager, that person’s salary is
<br />set by the Water Commission. Why that’s so, I could not explain. I mean it’s just not specified anywhere, as to who sets the
<br />Water Supply Manager, but that’s another issue. But I just wanted to point out that there are individuals who do serve long
<br />term and we’re not necessarily co-terminus with the Mayor, or with the County Council.
<br />RAY: So, just to refresh everybody’s memory, we have some language that I submitted, draft language, in a memo form
<br />before the last meeting, and then Mr. Ben furnished us with a list of positions. We received prior testimony in regard to this
<br />item, so I’ll just open the floor for discussion or questions. Marni.
<br />HERKES: We had a question in our last meeting about the Civil Defense Director. Who sets his or her salary?
<br />BEN: Civil Defense Director is a Civil Service position, so his salary is set according to the Compensation and Classification
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