2000-03-25 Charter Commission Minutes

Home

minutes 03-25-00Page 20 of 34 BARRY: What about all those that have switched the other way around, from strong Mayor to Council/Manager? The statistics on those and the cities. RAY: My understanding is that the trend is going the other way, that more folks are switching away from Council/Manager to strong Mayor form of government at this point in time. BARRY: With the Mayor with no qualifications? Not needing to have any basic - RAY: With the Mayor as the Chief Executive Officer. Anyway, let’s move on. We’ve got a lot of people to testify. BARRY: Okay. OTTERSON: One more thing. When you’ve got close to $200 million, you’ve got a lot of money there that this individual that voted, and that individual that voted - You’ve got to have somebody in there that knows how to run that budget. RAY: That’s why we have a Finance Department and a qualified head of that department, Jim, okay? So, it’s not the Mayor that runs the Finance Department. OTTERSON: But, does he have the papers to do it, or is he just somebody that walked in. Like in Planning Department, that’s a big waste right there. RAY: Okay, I think we understand where you’re coming from. OTTERSON: Okay. RAY: And it’s been well presented. Shannon Rudolph, followed by Ray Moore. RUDOLPH: Aloha. My name is Shannon Rudolph and first, I’d like to thank you all for all the reading, driving, thinking, and overall time you’ve had to spend to be a member of this Commission. And I’d also like to thank you for your web page. I’m sorry half your Commission is missing here today. Sorry that they didn’t think it important to come to Kona. Normally I would go along with any ballot measure that the people have a chance to vote on. What bothers me is the ballot wording. When the ballot wording gets too confusing, many people don’t get the chance to vote the way they think they’re voting, or they leave the measure blank because they don’t understand it. I consider these votes stolen. Many people will never forgive the Hapuna vote; yes means no and no means yes. Please make these ballot measures easily understandable. No hocus-pocus. I think I support non-partisan elections. At least I would be willing to try them. I think I support a professional Managing Director appointed by the Council, and I support the formation of an Environmental Services Department with a professionally qualified Department Head. That goes for Public Works, Water, R&D, etc. I think all Department Heads should be professionally qualified. I support an Environmental Services Commission and all other Commissions as long as Commission members come from each Council district and are confirmed by the Council. I oppose at-large Council seats. I think you’re beating a dead horse with this one. The people have spoken and spoken. I strongly oppose any changes to the Planning Commission unless it’s as an advisory change or an elected Planning Commission. They have way too much power already. Maybe the Council should have the SMA power, not Planning. I’d really like to see a Kona Planning Commission. I strongly oppose any changes to the Initiative, Recall and Impeachment. I support the added measure of Neighborhood Boards and I also support the added measure of an elected Charter Review Commission. This Commission has more responsibility than the other Commissions, and in your minutes you’ve said yourselves, that many people on County Boards and Commissions just keep getting recycled over and over. One excellent way to stop this recycling, and get more people involved in their government, is with an elected Charter Review Commission. Many U.S. counties have an elected Charter Review Commission and I think we should too. It’s really the only fair way to review the Charter. We could also have nine members instead of eleven; one from each district, saving money and saving the at-large problem. If nine people can’t get the job done, then I doubt three more will help. In closing, I’d like to take a quick straw poll to see how many of you would like to see an elected Charter Review Commission on this year’s ballot. Can you raise your hands? Well, we’ve got a few. RAY: You understand that wouldn’t take effect for ten years? file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 03-25-00.html7/1/2011