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minutes 04-01-00Page 19 of 22
<br />Maiapple McCullough.
<br />McCULLOUGH: Could I ask a favor? Can I be moved up because I have a meeting at noon in Hilo and I didn’t think I was
<br />going to speak, but I -
<br />RAY: Is that all right with you?
<br />GOODELL: If she makes it quick. I’ve got kids.
<br />EVANS: If you make it real quick, because I have a business I’m opening up today, and I should have been there at 9:30.
<br />McCULLOUGH: Thanks, you guys. I appreciate it. I wanted to say about Council representation, I think it should be more
<br />grass roots, not less grass roots. Nobody can convince me that less reps are better for this big island. Just no way, for many
<br />reasons.
<br />About the number of signatures for impeachment, I agree with Del that 100 is plenty good. That 3% is just going way
<br />overboard for what we need. It’s just to take it to a higher body after all.
<br />And third, I liked what Del said about all the officers of the County, including the Police Chief, being able to be impeached,
<br />because this guy isn’t going to budge. The Mayor’s backing him up and who wants him. Thanks very much.
<br />RAY: Thank you. Roger Evans.
<br />EVANS: Good morning. When I first was handed these 18 changes, and I read through them, I, kind of, thought to myself,
<br />boy, am I glad you guys aren’t working for Ford Engineering Department because it would seem that next year we will be
<br />driving Model T’s with the steering wheel in the back seat. I’m almost opposed to everything on here, but I’m going to give
<br />you some reasons why. Anytime you do something that takes away power of government from the people, I’m opposed to it.
<br />In these changes, every Council, Commission, period, I believe should be selected by the Council representative and
<br />approved by the Council body. I do not think that the Mayor should be picking these people. I think that each Council
<br />representative should be picking their representative to a Commission and then approved by the balance of the Council. And
<br />the reason for that, of course, is because we want the Council person, who represents the person in his district, responsible for
<br />the people who are on those Commissions because we can eliminate our Council representative if he does a bad job of
<br />selecting who represents us, and these Commissioners do represent us. Every two years we have a choice of whether we can
<br />get rid of him or not. The Mayor, it takes four years to get rid or him, or not. So, I think if we put the Commission in the
<br />hands of the Council representatives, that will give the people in those districts a little better chance of having control of
<br />who’s on those Commissions.
<br />Second of all, I don’t think that any Commission should be allowed, or anyone should be allowed, to take away spending of
<br />money from the County Council. Only the County Council should have the power of delegating what money goes where. It’s
<br />our tax money. I want the people I elect to control that tax money. I don’t want the Planning Department to spend any money.
<br />I want the County Council to spend the money.
<br />And then I’ll just end it up with the three things that I’m really opposed to. The non-partisan elections. You aren’t wording
<br />this as non-partisan elections. You’re wording this as one-party elections. The only way non-partisan elections work is if the
<br />candidate disassociates himself from the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Libertarian Party. And if none of those
<br />parties can financially support him, or give him manpower - the Unions can’t support the Democrats, the businessman can’t
<br />support the Republicans, if that’s the way you perceive it to be. We all have to be independent candidates with no ties to
<br />anyone, because otherwise, what happens is that in every district, the party with the most money, the party with the most
<br />power will have the candidates in the General Election. So, to change that, I believe that we should not have a Primary
<br />Election, but we should have a Nomination Election. And that’s what we have in almost every state in the United States, that
<br />we have Nomination Elections. That the Republican Party nominates their candidate for the General Election. The Democrats
<br />nominate their candidates for the General Election. What we do here, we open it up to anybody who wants to vote. All the
<br />Democrats can vote for the weak Republican candidate so their candidate has no one to run against. All the Republicans can
<br />vote for the weak Democratic candidate so their candidate has no one to run against. So, if we made it party politics, you
<br />would find that we would have a much more efficient government because now you have nine members on the County
<br />Council that don’t necessarily agree, and it’s better not to agree and to argue out the different bills that come up, the different
<br />legislation that comes up, rather than everyone sitting around saying ‘oh yeah, that’s a good idea. Yeah, I agree, I agree.’ And
<br />we don’t want that to happen and with non-partisan elections, that’s what happens.
<br />file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 04-01-00.htm7/1/2011
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