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minutes 03-25-00Page 32 of 34
<br />It’s not right. It’s our attempt to do something and get it cleaned up.
<br />RAY: Okay, thank you. Patricia Dahlheimer, followed by Jay Scharf.
<br />? He’s gone. Jay left.
<br />DAHLHEIMER: Thank you for your attention at this meeting today. I’ve been real impressed with some real thoughtful
<br />people on your committee. I’d just like to say no, no, no, and no.
<br />RAY: Are you going to attach that to numbers?
<br />DAHLHEIMER: I’m very opposed to Amendment measures number 1, 2, 6, and 10. Number 1, non-partisan elections.
<br />Number 2, the Council at-large issue. Number 6 and number 10, giving the Planning Department and Planning Commission
<br />additional powers. When there were a lot more people here, I was intending to have people to show their support or
<br />disapproval of all of these, but since we’re down to a few, I’ll just say no, no, no, and no, and thank you.
<br />RAY: Yes, we’re running into a real problem with this Planning Commission stuff. It doesn’t give them any additional power
<br />whatsoever, but obviously that’s the impression everybody’s getting, so we need to think about that. It doesn’t give any
<br />additional powers. These are existing. It’s just clarifying the language.
<br />Now, let’s go ahead and finish our public testimony. We have one more person signed up, Virginia Isbell. And we’ll entertain
<br />questions afterwards.
<br />ISBELL: Thank you very much. I’m Virginia Isbell and I’m here, not only representing the League of Women Voters, but
<br />myself. As you’ll recall, last year we appeared before you and strongly supported Neighborhood Boards, and I think that if
<br />you really study some of the things that have been said here today, and some of the reactions, much of the impact of, for
<br />instance, two-term people who go in inexperienced, could be resolved by having Neighborhood Boards, which become a
<br />training ground. On Oahu they’re elected by the people in their districts, and there are different districts. It doesn’t
<br />necessarily follow any lines politically. It also gives people an opportunity to find out what it’s like to run for office in a
<br />small area, and they find out about government. I think that’s really important. And then there would be no reason to think of
<br />four-year terms again, because the House of Representatives is two years, Congress is two-year terms, and they manage quite
<br />well. It just means that your feet are in the fire all the time, and you do have to respond, and I really like that. If you’ll notice,
<br />you don’t see the Senators around until their election year, so the other three years are not - You know, sometimes they’re
<br />around but you don’t really get much reaction. So, I want to really support Neighborhood Boards. We did request it. And if
<br />you’re going to put some of these things in here that a lot of people oppose, why not put Neighborhood Boards in and let the
<br />people decide, like you’re doing the other things. And I think that’s only fair. So I strongly support that, and I think that we
<br />would finally have more grass roots people interested in getting involved in what planning is all about in their neighborhoods.
<br />It’s a small group. Your Planning Commission is island-wide. How can they possibly know? But the elected Neighborhood
<br />Boards can be very effective.
<br />I don’t know if you have a balanced budget part in your Charter, but for the County Council to be appropriating money they
<br />don’t have would be unconstitutional in the State. You cannot go over the budget as it is put out by the Council on Finances. I
<br />forget the name of it right now. Anyway, they get together and decide how much tax money they’re going to have and that’s
<br />all you can budget. Now, if the County Council is budgeting over what they’re supposed to be, then they should have
<br />something in the Charter that says they must have a balanced budget based on the experts, and the experts are a group of
<br />people that meet separately and give the order to the Legislature, as well as could be to the County.
<br />I did want to mention that I strongly support what Keola Childs mentioned, that the language be very, very clear about the
<br />Mayor not being able to resign and then run for another four years. Frankly, I was kind of hoping you would so I could enjoy
<br />voting against him, because I think that there was a lot of people hoping that would happen because it was so irregular. But,
<br />anyway, he didn’t. But I do think that that language needs to be really, really clear.
<br />And the League doesn’t support the at-large four-year terms mostly because they feel that two-year terms give everybody a
<br />chance, and let them see how good they are, and put in Neighborhood Boards and then you’ve got something really good
<br />going.
<br />So, I’m so glad you can go home and have lunch pretty soon. Thank you.
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