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go ahead and do that. Ginger Towle. Ginger.
<br />TOWLE: I'm here representing myself, however, I belong to a number of
<br />organizations in Kona; Kona Crime Prevention, Kona Property Owners Association,
<br />and West Hawaii Humane Society, and so forth. And I seem to be one of these people
<br />that people call to find out what's going on, and 'would you please tell those people
<br />certain things', and the thing that comes to me from many people that said are you
<br />going to go to that meeting, is two main things that seem to be uppermost in people's
<br />mind is they want a County Manager and they want non-partisan voting. And those
<br />are the two things they keep coming to me. And then I came because I want to be
<br />informed, and if I can help in any way. Unfortunately, most of the public don't come
<br />forward. They tell somebody 'would you tell those guys'. So, that's my message and I
<br />feel that this is something that would be helpful to our county, and 1 think they feel that
<br />those two items would help County government run more smoothly. So, that's my
<br />message.
<br />RAY: Just so you know, we've taken preliminary votes on both those
<br />items, and what that does, is it triggers our legal counsel to come up with some sort of
<br />language that, presumably, will produce a preliminary slate of recommendations, and
<br />then we'll go out for public hearing and input and whatever, on those. And in regard to
<br />the non-partisan elections, we have voted to pursue that. In regard to the Council
<br />Manager form of government, we have voted not to pursue that, but we are discussing,
<br />and it's on the agenda today, some pretty significant language changes in regard to the
<br />Managing Director position, to try to make that more of a City Manager type of
<br />position. So, if you'll sit around, I'm sure you'll be interested in that. So rather than go
<br />into the Council Manager, it would still be a Manager under the Mayor. The Mayor
<br />would still be the CEO, but that manager would, hopefully, be more of a City Manager
<br />type. And so, anyway, we're going to be talking about that in just a few minutes.
<br />TOWLE: Good. I think what people have said is that they'd like the Mayor
<br />just to cut ribbons, but they'd like someone in there that has the experience to run the
<br />County. So, thank you very much.
<br />RAY: Marni.
<br />HERKES: Thank you, Ginger. I would encourage your friends to write letters if
<br />they don't want to come in person. Also, 1 think that, in the interest of information, you
<br />should know that we are discussing a different structure of voting, of representation;
<br />6-3 with 3 island -wide and 6 district specific. I'm in favor of that because West Hawaii
<br />doesn't get the representation, and I live in West Hawaii, so I could say why I'm in favor
<br />of it. However, I wasn't the one that proposed it, and we have several reasons, but it
<br />may be a good discussion item for your group, along with non-partisan and City
<br />Manager. Thank you.
<br />TOWLE: Thank you. If Marni doesn't know the answers, then they call me.
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