2000-03-08 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 03-08-00Page 19 of 35 HIGASHI: The one other correction is the nine members representative of the nine districts that we have, or do we have nine members in there? YUEN: This goes back to the issue the Commission has not voted on yet, of what to do with the other Commissions that have one member from each Council district, if you go from nine to six. RAY: I thought we had agreed that we were going to leave it the same and you just come up with some language that would - MARTIN: I thought it was represented in the first passage that we read earlier. RAY: That would basically figure out the way to leave it the same. It’s just way too controversial to change it. HIGASHI: Maybe in a separate item in the Charter, where it refers to nine Commissioners, we can spell out present nine districts, and I think you brought it up, that if reapportionment comes around and it’s not proportionate, the Reapportionment Commission then will be engaged in re-appropriating the nine districts, something like that. RAY: No, my recollection is that we talked about some language that would describe the nine Council districts as they presently exist, something like that, because if this were to pass, there would no longer be the nine Council districts, and just get around it that way. YUEN: That’s an option. We can say that if it passes and we don’t have nine Council districts anymore, that we will keep dividing up some of the Commissions using the Council districts as they existed in the year 2000. That is an option, but I didn’t think that was voted on. MARTIN: I don’t think it was either. YUEN: And so, if you want to vote on it, then we can do that. But I thought it had been left as an open issue. MARTIN: It’s all contingent if the 6-3 were to pass. If it’s not, it’s a redundant issue, isn’t it? YUEN: Yes. RAY: Whether we vote on it or not, I thought there was consensus that that’s where we were headed with that. IRVINE: Yes, if we’re doing nine districts now then possibly continue. RAY: Okay. So if we’re going to have an Environmental Services Commission, and we’re going to have the nine districts still carry over, Roland, were you asking a question, do we want this Commission to be nine members? HIGASHI: Just to be consistent, we want it with the others. RAY: I like that, especially when you’re dealing with solid waste. I think the more diverse geographic - HIGASHI: Maybe you put five in North and South Kohala because that’s where it is. HERKES: Department of Health tells you where to put them. You don’t have a choice. You can meet all you want, but they say here, here, and here. HIGASHI: Okay, but I think the intent was to keep the nine Council districts. RAY: So, the main thing we need to work out is whether it’s advisory or not, and the Council confirmation. So, we’ll just leave that open for now? IRVINE: John, we could leave ‘advisory’ out in the first sentence, but down below it does say ‘The Environmental Services Commission shall advise’, and just leave it that way. Leave it a little bit open to let the - file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 03-08-00.html7/1/2011