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minutes 02-09-00Page 8 of 41
<br />you to look at the big ticket items, the ones that really are going to make a difference, as opposed to some of the things that
<br />the old detail man here would like to see happen, because I know we can’t solve all these, and do an effective job. I realize
<br />that, and it came to me after studying this for about six months, saying boy, I’m going to come in with all this stuff and bring
<br />these things. And I finally said how are we going to get this stuff passed, nobody is going to understand it.
<br />RAY: George.
<br />MARTIN: Mr. Tyler, I’d like to say thank you to you for coming out and the rest of the people in the audience this evening.
<br />As far as the mention that you made on the Hawaiian concern, it was brought up. There was some individuals that came in
<br />with a discussion and made mention of, not only our Constitution but the Federal Constitution, and we did ask Counsel, not
<br />only on the legitimacy but, if there was anything that we had to worry about, and we was advised accordingly. So it was
<br />addressed.
<br />TYLER: Thank you. I appreciate it. I didn’t know whether it was and just thought I’d bring it up.
<br />RAY: Ms. Irvine.
<br />IRVINE: I have to say that I did not realize that we were pau with considering the Police Commission. I thought, at our last
<br />meeting, that -
<br />RAY: We’re not pau with considering anything. This is all preliminary.
<br />IRVINE: Okay, thank you, John. I just wanted to hear that because otherwise, I was going to move that we disband the Police
<br />Commission.
<br />TYLER: I had made a comment here, and I didn’t know if it was appropriate to say, but when I read the Charter and it clearly
<br />states that the Police Commission has the power to remove the Chief at any time with cause, and then I heard about this
<br />Opinion from the Corporation Counsel, I, kind of, went oh, man. It’s incredible because we had people come and testify, and
<br />say doesn’t anybody know what’s going on here. You’ve heard the criticisms. I’m not going to come here and talk to you
<br />about the criticism. I just think that whatever is done, if you’re going to keep the Police Commission, and create a Fire
<br />Commission, let’s give them all $3,500 a year. That sounds like a good idea. But let’s not over-complicate this. If a
<br />Commission on Public Safety is something that has been very good for Maui, even though they only have the Fire
<br />Commission, you know, let’s look at it. And maybe other jurisdictions have combined this. I don’t know, but what we don’t
<br />want to do is create another situation where we have a whole other series of complaints coming in because somebody doesn’t
<br />want to do their duty, or can’t do their duty, or whatever. I don’t know if Mr. Santangelo has mentioned this, or Mr. Ray.
<br />Something that has occurred to me as we’ve been through this William Silva case, which is painful for everybody, and it’s
<br />not over by a long shot, and I suspect we may have additional things like this in the future from other areas, but that remains
<br />to be seen. The Council constantly sees cases in Executive Session where the Police Commission has made a determination
<br />that this was done in the course of performing their duties, and I don’t know about Mr. Santangelo and Mr. Ray, but there
<br />have been some situations, to me, that I’m wondering, holy mackerel, how could that have possibly been in the course of the
<br />duties. But once the Commission makes this determination, the County, through the Council, is obligated to provide a legal
<br />representation. And I’m not an attorney, obviously, and I don’t know all the details of these situations, but sometimes I just
<br />shake my head and I’m wondering how did we ever get into this situation. This is not on any General Order. This is not a part
<br />of what a prudent person would do. And I’m just wondering how this happened. So I don’t know if you’ve considered that. I
<br />don’t know if there’s a solution to it. Certainly I’m not going to micro manage the Police Commission, but it has come up on
<br />more than one occasion. Thank you very much.
<br />RAY: John.
<br />SANTANGELO: Curtis, just one quick one on the Police Commission. It, at least occurred to me, and I think some of the
<br />other Commissioners, when we looked at it, and you talk about keep it simple, that one of the answers is what the
<br />Commission can do themselves. And it deals a lot with this micro managing, because one thing we didn’t want to do was to
<br />dink around with something that caused micro managing, and I think that Jason reported that. But if the Commission was to
<br />hire a Chief on a performance based, or some other type of contract, then it’s incumbent, and it’s built in that they review,
<br />and that means the information has to be forthcoming. And the Chief can then be handling his or her, because we’ve got
<br />some good ladies out there, department in a manner which takes care of a lot of this stuff. It doesn’t come to the Commission
<br />because his or her job is on the line based on a performance. He or she has come and said I want this to happen. I’m going to
<br />look at this on the line. You know what I’m saying, so that’s a lot of reason why -
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