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• ISBELL: Thank you very. much. It's been a joy. I enjoyed it. Thank you.
<br />RAY: Now, Helene Hale has signed up to speak, and if anybody else in
<br />the audience would like to speak, there are sign up forms over here on the end of the
<br />table. So, Helene is the last person signed up to speak, so we're going to take a short
<br />break after she presents to us.
<br />HALE: I would just like to say that I'm speaking as an individual. I am a
<br />member of the League, Vice President really, and I agree with the League positions as
<br />outlined by Virginia. 1'd just like to explain to you that the League hasn't gone into all
<br />these questions that you are faced with, because we have constraints of our
<br />membership and we have a very strict process. We have to study an issue for a while
<br />before we send out information to our members to get their input and their vote, and we
<br />have to have meetings. And we have had a meeting on neighborhood boards, and
<br />we did have your head of your neighborhood board executive come to us. It was
<br />organized by Marni Herkes, who's a member of our League too. And so, at any rate,
<br />but my opinions are just based on my own experience as a former member of the old
<br />Board of Supervisors and member of the County Council, and I'd just like to remind
<br />you of what Virginia was saying, and that is, that whatever you recommend, you're
<br />going to have to really explain to the people because, in the final analysis, your Charter
<br />is the Charter of the people, and has to be voted upon. And, maybe, most of you aren't
<br />old enough to remember, but I was on the old Board of Supervisors when the first
<br />Charter was presented to the people. And you may not know, but for two elections, the
<br />Charters were voted down by the people. They didn't accept any form of government
<br />except the Board of Supervisors, so that's just something to remember, that everybody
<br />is not going to agree with everything that you put forward. But, I'd also like to point out
<br />that under the old Board of Supervisors, and I'm sure you've done your homework on
<br />this, we had three Supervisors from West Hawaii, which was Kohala, Ka'u and Kona;
<br />and three from East Hawaii, which was Hamakua, Hilo and Puna, and in those days, it
<br />was very unequal because in Kona we had, maybe, one-third of the population that
<br />they had in Hilo, and so the Hilo people were really gung ho in those days to change
<br />the system. But, the Kona people kind of liked having three. It was not a one
<br />person/one vote, but even with that, it was difficult to get the people to vote in the
<br />Charter idea. But, in the old system, the Board of Supervisors was really an
<br />administrative board, but the Chairman and Executive Officer was elected at -large.
<br />The only officer in those days was elected by the whole island, and as such, the
<br />Chairman and Executive Officer functioned as the Chairman of the Board of
<br />Supervisors and also as the full-time Executive of the County, so when we tried to
<br />explain to people, we'd always say Mayor in quotes because in Honolulu it was called
<br />a Mayor, but in the neighbor islands, it was called Chairman and Executive Officer. I'm
<br />just pointing that out because in our discussion in the League, and I hadn't really
<br />thought this out before, but in our last meeting where we were discussing the six -three
<br />and your ideas of changing the composition of the Council, I was very much against
<br />the six -three, although at one time, I was for six -three. But, I was not for the three
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