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RAY: Bob, can I ask you know, you know, what comes,to mind when you say
<br />that is the City and County with is nonpartisan, Honolulu, and they seem to be, you know, have
<br />more discord or more turnover, more change and more partisanship, you know, that this
<br />jurisdiction. And it was funny, I was having lunch with somebody today and I was, you know, we
<br />were talking about that a little bit and, you know, the -, they brought up the point that maybe
<br />nonpartisanship actually leads to less stability, you know, because as, you know, at least with the
<br />parties there's, you know, sort of more of a reason to stick together and keep the majorities
<br />together or not. And with the case with nonpartisanship, it seems to, be even, you know, more
<br />willy-nilly and more fluid or whatever. But, you know, I know you're a real observer of politics
<br />in the State and, you know, City and County is nonpartisanship, but they sure, you know, seem to
<br />be in a state of constant flux over there.
<br />BETHEA:
<br />RAY:
<br />They do, it seems to me, and maybe it wouldn't work.
<br />I don't -.
<br />BETHEA: But I sort of think of periods here where you had, you know, just people
<br />lined up based on party lines, and people felt like they were kind of forced into decisions that they
<br />didn't want to make out of, you know, basic party loyalty, and we got into this -, well, I don't
<br />know, we got into squabbles about who controlled whatever limited patronage there was available
<br />to the County Council, as some of you well remember. But that's just an observation. I think
<br />you have to think through that question, you know, whether -, I'm certainly not positive about the
<br />answer.
<br />I was also thinking about the public testimony. I don't think you're going to have people beating
<br />down the doors to testify. And quite frankly, it's good to hear it, but I don't know how much of
<br />what you hear will actually be constructive. You know, I think you need to listen, but I don't
<br />think that most people that are testifying will have opinions that are based on, you know, sound
<br />knowledge of County government and how things might work. So I always thought that you
<br />have to go out and you have to listen, and I may be basically in disagreement with Chris on this,
<br />but you're there to do a job to get -, to have better resources than the man on the street and to
<br />think about what's, you know, best for the County as a whole. And so I think you can take, and
<br />you need to take into consideration everything that you hear out there. And maybe this is one of
<br />the basic questions, but I don't think you should simply reflect what you hear. I would hope that
<br />your job goes beyond that, to try to really think it through and take advantage of the extra
<br />information that you have. That's simply a personal philosophy, and I think probably you ought
<br />to solicit opinions on that from these two people to my left. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know.
<br />Did you guys feel like there was some real very valuable things that came out of public testimony?
<br />YUEN: Well, I think that the -, from the government people, I think there was a lot
<br />of important, you know, information.
<br />BETHEA: Yeah.
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