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minutes 05-31-00Page 6 of 54
<br />TYLER: They’re all changed now? Very good.
<br />RAY: They’re not yet.
<br />HERKES: They’re not changed?
<br />TYLER: Well, that’s another comment, but –
<br />RAY: They are not yet.
<br />TYLER: Anyway, this is a proposal with respect to this one. Is that correct?
<br />RAY: Yes.
<br />TYLER: Okay, thank you.
<br />With respect to the Department Head Qualifications: Where you’ll be adding new qualification for the Heads of Department
<br />of Research and Development, Parks and Recreation, and a minimum of five years administrative experience for heads of
<br />Planning, Public Works, Water and Management; I think we all know, and as you’ve stated, Mr. Chairman, the Public Works
<br />Director, or Chief Engineer as it is currently called, must be a registered professional engineer. And the same is true for the
<br />Water Department. I would suggest that just having five years experience to be a Managing Director and a Planning Director
<br />is insufficient. As I previously stated, I believe a Masters in Public Administration or a Masters in Business Administration,
<br />as a minimum, for a Managing Director. And with respect to a Planning Director, I think it should be a minimum of a
<br />Masters degree in Planning. Many County Planning Directors that I have met over the years, and I’m sure Mr. Santangelo
<br />met some of them when he was back East, have, at a minimum, a Masters. Many of them have PhD’s. I think this will really
<br />add a lot of credibility and, most importantly, a lot of ability to the department to really do planning instead of just always
<br />reacting. So I would commend that to you if you’re going to be giving further consideration to those because as we know,
<br />currently, Parks and Rec, Research and Development, among others, do not have any qualifications for Department Heads.
<br />With respect to the Police Commission: I’d just like to briefly state that I received a great deal of correspondence, telephone
<br />calls, regarding the recent meetings of the Police Commission, including a request, which I’m sure you all saw in the
<br />newspaper by Mr. Brunton, for the Council to request the Department of Justice to initiate an investigation. That’s a complete
<br />separate matter and I think it’s as a result of some really symptomatic things that have occurred. But I’m going about this in a
<br />very deliberate way to try to ascertain, well, is this going to make a different; is this something that’s important to the people;
<br />important to the Police Commission, etc. So, I just wanted to state that to you.
<br />And finally, with respect to your proposed amendments, the last one, the Mandatory Meetings of the County Council: I think
<br />you have caught the attention of the voters in West Hawaii. Those who have spoken to me have all spoken very positively
<br />about this. I would just suggest, in terms of your language, that what’s important here is you’re talking about West Hawaii,
<br />and South Kona and North Kona are not entirely West Hawaii. North Kona and South Kona and South Kohala and North
<br />Kohala and, actually, a portion of Ka’u make up West Hawaii if you’re looking at a north/south line. But at the very
<br />minimum, I would suggest your language be the Kona and Kohala geographical or judicial districts, and I’m sure your
<br />counsel can further that. I just think that if I were living in South Kohala, which is a very up and coming area producing a
<br />great deal of revenue for this county and lots of projects happening, I certainly would want to be sure that South Kohala was
<br />included. And I say that, as you know, as a resident of South Kona. So I just wanted to commend that to you and once again,
<br />thank you for the deletions.
<br />RAY: Curtis, the thought there was to establish – this was my thought – was to establish a regular presence in Kona similar to
<br />the regular presence in Hilo where folks would know that at least once every quarter, the Council would meet, basically, in
<br />Kailua and that, so for interaction of civic groups, high school people, whatever, just like people now can count on the
<br />Council in Hilo, they could count on the Council, and also having, by far, the greatest centralized bulk of the population. That
<br />was the other thought behind it.
<br />TYLER: Sure. Well, I commend you all for bringing that forward. I think it’s a very good idea. As I say, it’s caught the
<br />attention of the residents of West Hawaii, certainly those in the district that I represent that I’ve heard from. And what I think
<br />it does, it’s very simple, but at the same time, it has the tendency to really help solidify the idea that we’re one island and
<br />we’re not two counties, and that we really need to work together in collaboration. And traditionally, the seat of government
<br />has been here. We all know the reasons why it’s here, and has been here, but with the growth and changing in the population,
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