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Transcript of Meeting of April 29, 2000Page 8 of 64
<br />Boards and Commissions in the County. Judge Doi made this decision, and actually it’s in the form of
<br />an injunction, that the County follow the Charter, and that’s, I think, still in force and effect. Despite the
<br />passage of time, I don’t think there’s anything that caused it to no longer be in effect. It does create a
<br />confusing situation because people will look at the State Law and say you can do that under State Law,
<br />and then people will look at the County Charter and say, well, you can’t do that under the County
<br />Charter. Mr. Wurdeman’s suggestion is that the Charter just follow the State Law so you don’t have to
<br />jump back and forth from one to the other, and I think that’s about the gist of it, the situation where it
<br />stands.
<br />PRANKE: To me, I believe that this particular part of 13(b) was an attempt to do that, to follow that, but
<br />it got confused in the writing, because it does use some of the terms. But when a person says they want
<br />to go into Executive Session, that doesn’t mean that they go into Executive Session. The Boards and
<br />Commissions still have to use the State Law which says that they must make a determination in an open
<br />session that there’s a reason to go into Executive Session, and that has to be in the minutes because
<br />they’re making the determination in an open session, and it’s a major item. It’s an item that would
<br />normally be in the minutes. The problem we have is that several times, Corporation Counsel, giving
<br />advice to the Ethics Board, and once to the Police Commission, has said we’re following the County
<br />Charter. We’re not following the State Law. And that’s not right because the County Charter here, when
<br />interpreted the way it has been interpreted by the Corporation Counsel in the past, is less restrictive than
<br />the State Law, and so it does not meet the Judge’s requirements. Going into Executive Session just
<br />because somebody asks you to should not be allowed, and because of this confusion, that’s what’s
<br />happened. We’re going to get this straightened up with the OIP but it would be just as nice to have it
<br />fixed in the Charter. Thank you.
<br />RAY: Next to testify is Walter Kriewald followed by Pete Martin.
<br />KRIEWALD: Hi. My name’s Walter Kriewald and I live in Kona, and what I just gave Mr. Ray was a
<br />printout I did, a spread sheet of where the Charter Commission meetings have been held, the attendance
<br />and the sad lack of attendance on some people and the sad lack of meetings in Kona. I also gave him
<br />some figures I got from the web which, I think, go to the heart of the proposal to go to 6-3
<br />representation. These are the receipts and the expenditures by the Council in the last election. Mr.
<br />Arakaki spent over $70,000 running unopposed. To me, this is obscene. If you go to a 6-3 make-up,
<br />what you are doing is disenfranchising three more voters, or three more places on the Council. I’ve gone
<br />back and read all the minutes that I can stay awake reading and it seems that the preponderance of
<br />testimony before this Commission has been for a single - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And what we have
<br />right now with our single Council districts isn’t broke in my estimation. I think it’s definitely in the
<br />public interest that we keep what we have. And going back through the old minutes, the theme I picked
<br />up of why you wanted to go to a 3 at-large candidates were to keep a holdover and a continuing
<br />experience in the Council. As you all know, there were only two Council people defeated who elected to
<br />run in the last election, and I think this is the way the people want it. They want the ability to say hey,
<br />we elected you. We want a change. And I think if you go to a 6-3 with the three having four-year terms,
<br />and not accountable to their districts, we’re in for trouble.
<br />I would like to see a really strong County Manager type of government. When I broached this subject to
<br />Mr. Ray and Ms. Herkes, Ms. Herkes’ response, well, you know how much these people are going to
<br />cost. And I know they cost a great deal of money. A lot of them are well over $150,000. But what we’ve
<br />wasted, in my estimation, on the Police scandal, we could have paid a County Manager for 20 years with
<br />what’s down the drain in that. We need to pay to get qualified people. I think if you go to the mainland
<br />and get a qualified person who wouldn’t be susceptible so much to the inside politics of this island, and
<br />let them run for a year or two, you might have surprising results. You might have bad results too.
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