2000-04-29 Charter Commission Minutes

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Transcript of Meeting of April 29, 2000Page 27 of 64 just ridiculous. It essentially said that if two other Council members were here, like if Mr. Santangelo was still on the Council and Ms. Leithead-Todd came, and I came up and gave you all these opinions, they ought to leave the room because it would be almost like deliberations. And personally, I don’t agree with that but we have to be able to go and testify at public meetings, not only to share what we’ve heard from our constituents, what we believe as well, and if we can represent our families, we do. So with that, I’m going to stop and I appreciate the opportunity to go on. Thank you. RAY: Curtis, we were talking a couple of nights ago and I mentioned to you the possible addition of putting something in the Charter in regard to specifying that the County Council would meet in West Hawaii, or maybe specifically in Kona so many times per year. Does that seem like a good idea? TYLER: Thank you, Mr. Ray. I forgot to comment on that. You did mention that to me. I think, in principle, it’s a real good idea. I’m trying to think about the logistics of as things move through the Council. What the Planning Commission does is they try to do the East Hawaii stuff in East Hawaii and the West Hawaii stuff in West Hawaii, and that’s very commendable, even though sometimes the results are not credible. But that’s commendable and I think in principle this is good, but how do we segregate this stuff? There are time constraints on the passage of some things, and so many days, and the Sunshine Law, and this may - I’m in favor of it in principle. I don’t know in practice. I haven’t thought it out to know from an administrative point whether we’re creating a nightmare. I suspect, as I told you the other night, Mr. Ray, that some of my colleagues would say this is a wonderful idea and others would say well, we don’t need this because we already respect the wishes of three when we want to go for a public hearing, and when a request has come it, it hasn’t really been denied. It’s sort of the sense I get of it. Not being critical again. I’m just trying to make an observation. Once again, it hasn’t come out to the public so I don’t know what the specifics of it are. In principle, I believe that since a lot of these things that come before us, in the Planning Commission, pertain to West Hawaii that maybe those items get held here, but many of these also involve changes in the Code, they’re island-wide, and each of us represents all the districts. Mr. Martin is ready to eat so I - SANTANGELO: But Curtis, if you looked at it as like equal mistreatment under the law, that you just took those Council meetings there, and if something came up that was a final vote that effected Hilo, they’d have to travel there the way West Hawaii’s had to travel to Hilo, and just let the chips fall where they may. Would you have a problem with that? TYLER: No. SANTANGELO: Okay, thanks. TYLER: No, I’ll go wherever the meetings are. RAY: George. MARTIN: Yes, I’d like to apologize for that but I do have to leave. I’ve got a plane that I’ve got to catch. I was supposed to be on it this morning and there are some subject matters I’d like to address with my Commissioners here before I leave, at some point in time. TYLER: I understand. Thank you all very much. I appreciate this opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Ray. RAY: Okay, George. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 04-29-00.html7/1/2011