2000-03-08 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 03-08-00Page 26 of 35 of how that would be filled. HIGASHI: Let’s not spell it out right now, but keep an open mind. IRVINE: I guess I don’t understand, Chris. Were you saying that this would then be a Civil Service position rather than a person appointed? YUEN: What I’m talking about is right now, you have a person who is a Safety Coordinator, and there are a number of other people in that office. The way I wrote it up is that the one person, the Safety Coordinator, that position, which is an appointed position, would be abolished, no longer exist. But the people in the office, who are Civil Service now, would have their positions transferred to the Department of Civil Service. That’s the way I wrote this up. Now, the Council can always restore that body, and put it in the Department of Civil Service, by establishing it as a Civil Service position. If you want to make it so that the Council doesn’t have to do that, we could write it up so that the position is transferred and becomes Civil Service. HERKES: In my mind, I’m looking at duties and responsibilities rather than people. (a), (b) and (c) are duties and responsibilities that are not covered in other places in the Charter. In reality, they are covered in other places. In reality, there are other people that are doing them. The people that have the equipment are doing the maintaining. The operating procedures are all being reviewed by each agency, and investigating the accidents, I’m not sure who does that. But (d), (e) and (f) are all Civil Service responsibilities that go with that Civil Service thing. YUEN: That’s the motion that was made and passed, that these kinds of things would be transferred to the Department of Civil Service. HERKES: Right. Even the inspection of the equipment and buildings would go to Civil Service? YUEN: No, and I thought the testimony about the Safety Coordinator was that they aren’t doing this now, so let’s fix it, and change it, so it doesn’t sound like they have to do it. HERKES: I see what you’re saying, and if the Council feels that that’s something that needs to be done, they can restore the position. YUEN: Let me say, like as sort of a general comment about the Charter, I think that even if you didn’t say in the Charter who is supposed to inspect County buildings, somebody would have that responsibility. You don’t have to spell out every function that the County ought to be doing in the Charter. Like the Department of Public Works, for example, it just says you have a Department of Public Works. It shall have whatever functions are assigned to it by ordinance. So I wouldn’t worry that they’re going to say, well, we don’t want to inspect County buildings anymore because they took it out of the Charter. Somebody has to do it. HERKES: Well, actually, I was more worried that you were moving that to the Civil Service, and I didn’t want that moved. RAY: Roland, any more questions on that one? HIGASHI: I’ll talk to Chris later. RAY: Number 11. Qualifications of Heads of Departments of Public Works and Water Supply. That’s the engineering. I’m sure we will be getting some testimony on this. HERKES: Negative testimony or positive? RAY: Opposing it. The Society of Engineers already called me right away. HERKES: They wouldn’t have a conflict, would they? RAY: But, I think we all understand that. Number 12. Impeachment. Chris, go over that issue that Bill Graham raised about it’s an island-wide basis for impeachment vs. if it were a district impeachment, single member, how all that - YUEN: The Commission did vote to allow people from any district to sign an impeachment petition for a district Council file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 03-08-00.html7/1/2011