2000-04-29 Charter Commission Minutes

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Transcript of Meeting of April 29, 2000Page 1 of 64 Back To: Home Page | Table of Contents | Charter main page HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION Transcript of Meeting of April 29, 2000 Waimea Civic Center Waimea, Hawaii Attendance: J. Ray, E. Alonzo, S. Bess, R. Higashi, S. Irvine (from 9:12 a.m.), D. Kurozawa, G. Martin, J. Santangelo (from 9:18 a.m.), G. Yoshiyama, Counsel C. Yuen Absent: K. Balog, M. Herkes And 15 members of the public in attendance. The meeting was called to order at 9:10 a.m. RAY: I’d like to call the meeting to order. This is the 1999-2000 Charter Commission Special Meeting. It’s Saturday, April 29th. We’re in Kamuela, Hawaii at the Waimea Civic Center. Attendance. Commission members present at this time, myself John Ray; Chair; Roland Higashi, Vice Chair; Eddie Alonzo; Stephan Bess; Dr. Daryl Kurozawa; George Martin; Gary Yoshiyama. And our legal counsel, Chris Yuen is with us today and we’re expecting, I think, one or two more members. So, we’re going to go ahead and proceed with Statements from the Public. Make sure you are signed up to testify. We would like you to come up to the table and speak into the microphone. This is for recording purposes. All these proceedings are recorded verbatim so please come up to the table. The first person signed up to testify is Sandra Scarr, followed by Del Pranke. SCARR: Good morning. Is this on? RAY: Good morning. Yes, it’s not to amplify. It’s just to record. SCARR: Okay. My name is Sandra Scarr. I live in Kailua-Kona. I am here with a group called CERG, for equitable and responsible government. We feel very strongly that many of the recommended proposed changes to the Charter are not favorable to better government in Hawaii, and they’re not favorable to people who live on the West side, in particular. I would point out something, that has not been discussed very much, that is very much on my mind, is that the position of Mayor has much too much responsibility in the County Charter. Responsibility can also be translated to mean power, in that the Mayor gets to appoint Commissions, and in the proposed changes, would appoint the Managing Director. I think that we need changes that reflect more the elected representatives of the people in their diversity across the island, and that means relying more on the County Council and less on the Executive power of a Mayor. And I think we feel that you have not dealt adequately with that issue. And, in fact, the proposed changes in the Charter amplify that problem. I would hope that you would reconsider that. When we want representation of all the voters, we need to have less Executive power at the top, more managerial expertise, and that’s why we would favor a stronger County Manager; one selected and elected by the Council, not appointed by the Mayor. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 04-29-00.html7/1/2011