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minutes 03-25-00Page 8 of 34
<br />RAY: The Board of Appeals. This was a recommendation that we came up with early on, which was tied to the idea of
<br />creating a Division of Permitting. Since we’re not recommending that, I think we probably will not be recommending moving
<br />the Board of Appeals. So, that was if we were moving all the subdivision activities to a Division of Permitting in Public
<br />Works, it was also requested by the Administration that we move the Board of Appeals. So I don’t anticipate that we’ll be
<br />bringing that one forth at this time.
<br />Department Head Qualifications. This is just going through and just trying to beef up the professional qualifications of the
<br />different Department Heads, so, this is still under discussion. We’re trying to make it more uniform but we’d also like it to be
<br />distinct, especially in regard to the County Council and/or the Salary Commission setting rates of pay for the different
<br />Department Heads. It’s always been a sore point with me, and aggravated me, that we pay all the Department Heads and
<br />Deputies exactly the same thing, for clearly what are not the same responsibilities and same qualifications. I’d like to see
<br />those pay rates reflect the actual job qualifications and responsibilities more. But anyway, that’s what these are. It’s just
<br />going through and trying to come up with some better language for professional standards.
<br />Police Commission. In the body of the Police Commission, under the Statement of Policy, we’re recommending some new
<br />language. It’s language that came out of the Fire Commission that was established by the City and County of Honolulu, and
<br />we just really liked that language, and we thought it was a good sound description, statement of policy, so we’re basically
<br />lifting some of the Fire Commission language and shifting it over to the Police Commission. So, that’s all that is about. And
<br />then a couple of additions; language requiring ‘review the department operations as deemed necessary for the purpose of
<br />recommending improvements to the Police Chief’ and requiring an annual evaluation of the performance of the Police Chief
<br />and submitting a report to the Mayor and the Council. There was a lot of discussion, especially in light of the trials going on,
<br />the litigation, the Police Department, in regard to the powers of the Police Commission under the Charter and so that was
<br />something that we looked at very closely, and we feel very strongly that the Charter is not the problem, that the Police
<br />Commission is well empowered under the Charter, and perhaps they haven’t exercised the powers they have under the
<br />Charter for a number of reasons, but we brought that to their attention in terms of our perspective of the situation. But we
<br />didn’t think there were deficiencies in the Charter regarding the powers of the Commission.
<br />OTTERSON: John?
<br />RAY: Yes, Jim.
<br />OTTERSON: Who ends up with the job of making out the reports on the Police Chief, the progress reports and all of this?
<br />Who ends up doing that?
<br />RAY: Well, we require an annual review. That’s the Police Commission.
<br />OTTERSON: Just the Police Commission.
<br />RAY: Yes.
<br />OTTERSON: If you had a City Manager, he would do it.
<br />RAY: If you look at the proposed language under the Managing Director, it does mandate that type of review for every
<br />department.
<br />OTTERSON: It’s clear cut. I’ve seen them get rid of one man that way.
<br />RAY: So, we’re moving in that direction, but not nearly as strongly as you’d like.
<br />Number 17, the Water Commission. This is a recommendation to have the nine Commission members tied to the nine single
<br />member districts vs. the present language. It ties them to broader geographical designations. It reads the District of Kohala,
<br />the District of Kona, the District of Ka’u, the District of Puna, the District of Hilo, the District of Hamakua; six districts. And
<br />the way this works out is if the Mayor is so inclined, it allows a pretty heavy weighting towards East Hawaii. The present
<br />Water Commission has 7 members from East Hawaii and only 2 from West Hawaii, so this would be addressing that
<br />situation. So that’s the only change there, and we did talk about the qualifications of the Manager. One other thing, in case
<br />you see it, our Water Commission, or Water Board, it’s titled Water Commission, and that creates a conflict in a lot of
<br />people’s minds because we have a very active State Water Commission, and a lot of people confuse when you’re talking
<br />about Water Commission, is it the State Water Commission or is it the County Water Commission. So we may, very well,
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