2000-03-18 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 03-18-00Page 5 of 27 the Redevelopment Agency,’and so on, ‘and we’ll put it under the table.’ RAY: I apologize for that confusion. The intent was to make them as thoroughly distributed as possible. We mailed out 280 copies to community groups around the island. ROSS: Yes, the big question is going to be how many that really get picked up because of all of this, because the people in Kamuela probably didn’t have this. I don’t know. Maybe you had a stack in Kamuela, of those. I wasn’t there. But I was here in Hilo and I wanted to get whatever I could to go to the Kamuela meeting because, on that day, somebody drove me over to Kohala. I cannot drive distances, myself, any more, and then I run into this in the morning. Then I went to the County Clerk’s Office. They had one copy under the counter and I could look at it. Now, my eyes are so bad I cannot read a document like this while other people may be behind me, so on and so on. So, fortunately Mr. Arakaki came by and he said, what’s wrong. I said I would like to have a copy of this document so I can read it with the proper light, which they don’t have, and so on, at my ease, at my pace. And he immediately had another copy made from his copy and that was it, except that I went back to the Room 217 later in the day and they said, ‘oh, after all, you can have a copy because I made a call to Ms.’, I forget names easily so, the secretary and she had clued them in that, yes indeed, that was for the public. Now, these are misunderstandings that shouldn’t happen. These people have nothing to do except have that basket there, and - RAY: Mr. Ross, I already apologized for that, okay? We’re doing the best we can to get this information out, okay? ROSS: Yes, I’ll leave it to you how to handle that. So, these are just some technical things that I wanted to call to your attention, that you otherwise may not have heard. I want to say something about the Police Commission and the Police in Chapter 7. I think it’s item 16 on your list, and by the way, what I don’t understand is in the mail, I got this agenda which differs from the agenda in the paper. I don’t know what we are going to do here. I’m not going to stay after my speech. I can’t sit that long, but there is a whole list of things here on this, which may be comprised in the four items that were in the paper. I don’t know. But there are two agendas right now in circulation. And this, by the way, is not on the table here, I think. The agenda is out. What is on the table is this stuff. RAY: Summary, yes. ROSS: So this is to, sort of, (indiscernible) confusion, I clue you in on what is there. Now, about the Police Commission. In 1985, we had a Statute that was something like 30 pages long. I have it with me in case you want to see it, about the Police and Police Commission. And that Statute was not perfect. Very few are. But it was demolished. It was HRS 52. It was demolished by the Legislature, and it became 52(d) which is four pages. The only advice that our naive Legislators took was from a Commission of six people; the four Chiefs of Police, one Specialist Major of the Honolulu Police Department, and a Union man, a representative of the Union. Now that is not exactly a cross section of the population. What do you expect from such a one-sided advice. That was just gobbled up and swallowed and it disappeared, and so on, and anyway, we got this. The four Chiefs, who had the majority in this Commission, wrote that Article 52(d) in such a way that it pleased their intentions and so on, so they got things out that they didn’t like, and they gave themselves more power. That is not the idea, of course, but that’s our Legislators’ mistake. I think the Charter needs, therefore, some elaboration on that point, and I will give you, in a moment, a short list to pick from, of things that I think you might want to put a few of into the Charter. And please ask for the details if you find it necessary for understanding it because I’m going to do it in a very brief fashion. I have to tell you that many of these things come forth out of the fact that I was arrested four and a half years ago, and without resistance. On transport from the police of 20 miles, my neck was broken, and still is broken because the Neurologist claims it cannot be repaired, and my shoulder ligaments were torn in both shoulders. I was 75 years old. It was the transportation, mainly, that did it in police cars. Too small, and so on. I was hanging in it diagonally, hit my head on the seat rest of the driver, and things like that. The Kamuela Station Chief told the Police Commission investigator that the arrest, that was without a warrant or probable cause, was not really necessary. They did it for their convenience. Now, I don’t understand that we have situations where people can be arrested for the convenience of the police. I don’t see that. RAY: Are you suggesting we put that in the Charter? ROSS: I think that this is of such vital interest and it should enter into the Charter. RAY: That the Police cannot arrest someone for convenience? ROSS: Pardon? RAY: What’s the suggestion, Henry, in regard to the Charter? file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 03-18-00.html7/1/2011