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Transcript of Meeting of April 29, 2000Page 10 of 64
<br />With that in mind, and the Commissions appointed by Council, would you envision a Council member
<br />making recommendations such as the Mayor, but then being voted on by a two-thirds, or just a simple
<br />majority, of the Council for confirmation? Because these people do, again, effect an island-wide base.
<br />Do you have a problem with that?
<br />KRIEWALD: The problem I have is that a lot of the Council people in the, God knows how many,
<br />meetings I’ve been to, seem not to listen to the Council representatives in the area it effects. The
<br />Kahakai mess is the most recent one. We had five Council people that were coming out. I don’t want to
<br />sound like I’m dividing the island, but they said we don’t care what the local citizens want. This is what
<br />we want and this is the way it’s going to be. And we had 130 people there saying give us a say, and we
<br />got nothing. And I feel that if Mr. Tyler, or if Mr. Arakaki, wants to appoint Joe Smith, let him be
<br />accountable for Joe Smith. Why should the other Council people, who know nothing about Joe Smith,
<br />have a say in it? That’s my personal opinion.
<br />SANTANGELO: That’s what we do with the Mayor. He appoints people and those Council members
<br />have something to say.
<br />KRIEWALD: I wrote many letters about this Commission, to be perfectly honest. Ms. Herkes does not
<br />represent West Hawaii. She does on this Commission, but she doesn’t in my heart, and I think the heart
<br />of West Hawaii. Every Commission meeting, every Council meeting I’ve ever been to, she has spoken
<br />against the majority of the people from West Hawaii, yet she is on this Charter Commission representing
<br />West Hawaii. That is a farce.
<br />SANTANGELO: You’re correct in saying that there’s been an overwhelming amount, in terms of the
<br />people who’ll show up here and talk to us, or write us, and you’ll have to admit, a very small minute part
<br />of the whole island, but these are the people who are getting off their duffs and coming in there, have
<br />objected to that 6-3 Council. But I would hope to instill a little other light on what you got out of the
<br />minutes. I, for one, do favor that, having served on the Council. The reason I favor that - and I may well
<br />vote to take it off because of the input, so I want you to understand that - is for me, it was creating the
<br />closest thing you could have to a bicameral. And in this country, we really failed at democracy coming
<br />out of the Revolutionary War because we didn’t have any checks and balances. A Senate was
<br />established to check and balance this House, and the way we elect the House, and the way our emotions
<br />effect that. And what I saw on the Council was I saw what I felt was bad legislation due to a fact that we
<br />didn’t have people there that were responsible and accountable to a broader base. Now, there was
<br />hybrids to that, and I would hope you’d be as open minded as you ask us to be. I mean, that really is a
<br />prerequisite. Some of us looked at Senate Districts and said well, could we make that a smaller
<br />subdivision then. And I don’t even know if the four-year was important to me so much as a greater base,
<br />so that when Mr. Tyler brought something up, there would be three other people who were accountable
<br />for that constituency. Now, that was my reasoning and that was the only thing behind my reasoning.
<br />Again, I do have to admit, you’re very correct in that we’ve had very little, if no, support for that.
<br />KRIEWALD: The bad part about this, and I hate to get in this side vs. that side, but the other thing that
<br />was told to me by Mr. Tajiri when we had him speak, and Ms. Herkes, again, was Kona’s getting all the
<br />new population and therefore, you will control the three at-large seats and dah, dah, dah. The people that
<br />are coming into Kona, very few of them vote. All the high end stuff on Kohala does not vote. When we
<br />started our mess with Bishop Estate, Keola Childs told me, he said you know, you’re talking, you have
<br />15 registered voters in Keauhou. What are you coming to me for? It means nothing. We don’t have the
<br />votes, and we won’t have until we get a substantial infrastructure of people there, that live there and
<br />want to vote. There are a lot of people that even live there full time but still keep their residency
<br />somewhere else for tax reasons. We aren’t going to get the big, broad base of votes.
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