2000-05-10 Charter Commission Minutes

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Transcript of Meeting of May 10, 2000Page 5 of 62 good and benevolent Mayor, then I think that can get us in trouble. I think our Mayor has far too much power in this County. I’m opposed to proposed amendment 10 on the Planning Commission powers. I think that ought to just be taken out too. It’s got to go through the Council, all this stuff – through our elected officials, in other words, not appointees. The 12th proposed amendment on Impeachment. I would just say no, please leave this like it is already. It’s hard enough. Don’t increase the number of people that are registered voters who are now necessary to get anyone impeached. Also, no on 13, which is Special Counsel being appointed for County officers and employees when Corp Counsel has a conflict without Council approval. This is a joke. It’s a conflict of interest all over the place. Any place but Hawaii County, this would never get on paper in black and white in front of the public because it’s so ludicrous. 14, I vote no on having a Board of Appeals move to the Corp Counsel. And I vote heavy no on the 16th proposed amendment on the Police Commission being given powers to get into the doings of the Police Department. A Police Commission, by my understanding, is supposed to serve as a check and balance over the Police Department. That means they look at stuff and say, because they can be objective, oh, this isn’t good. They’ve got to be objective. They can’t be too involved in the administration, or the running, of the Police Department because then they won’t have any objectivity. And I also vote no on the 18th proposed amendment on the Salary Commission being given power to set salaries. I think that this, as it is, established by ordinance, is just fine the way it is. I think that’s everything. I’m sorry I was so verbose and used a bad word. Thank you. RAY: Okay. Peter Martin, followed by Marshall Blann. MARTIN: Good evening members of the Commission. We have been before you a couple of times before recently talking about these issues. And the last time I was assured by a couple of members that we wouldn’t need to worry about at least one of them, the at-large. I’d like to see some show here as to how we stand on the at-large, from the members, because there’s no sense - RAY: You’ll see as soon as we vote on it. MARTIN: All right. We feel very, very strongly, many of us, not just in my group, but all over the County. Yes Marni, we do. HERKES: Some do. MARTIN: And those people who have been listening know that. I will say that should you choose to vote for 3 at-large, we will be obliged, as groups, and this is not a threat, with all due respect, to do our very best to defeat all the issues because we can’t pick out one and hope that people will remember the number. So this is very, very important. We finally have a Council which is more and more representative of all of the districts of the island. And what this is going to do, the 3 at-large, is to take that representation away. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 05-10-00.html7/1/2011