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Attendance: HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION Transcript of Meeting of January 15, 2000 Waimea Civic Center Waimea, Hawaii J. Ray, S. Bess, M. Herkes, R. Higashi, S. Irvine, D. Kurozawa, G. Martin (from 9:30 a.m.), J. Santangelo, G. Yoshiyama, Counsel C. Yuen Absent: E. Alonzo, K. Balog And 2 members of the public in attendance. The meeting was called to order at 9:05 a.m. RAY: I'd like to call the 1999-2000 Hawaii County Charter Commission meeting to order. It's January 15th, Saturday, 9:05 a.m., and we're in Waimea. Attendance. Present today myself John Ray, Chair; Roland Higashi, Vice Chair; Steve Bess; Marni Herkes; Sue Irvine; Dr. Daryl Kurozawa; John Santangelo; and Gary Yoshiyama; and we're expecting one or two more people presently. Statements from the Public. We have one person here, Jay West, and so we'll go ahead and take her testimony. Jay. WEST: My name's Jay West. I'm a business owner and a long time resident here in Waimea. I'm also a home owner. And, I came here to testify - mainly I just wanted to see what you guys were up to. I'd read little things in the paper - but, concerning the make-up of the County Council. I didn't know you were considering non-partisan. I like that. I think it's long past over due. I think it will take care of a lot of them, us, we, they; that sort of thing. So, I'm definitely in favor of that. And, also with the 6-3 Council make-up. My concern about that is that we have such large districts on this island, and John explained to me about how it would be broken up, the same as the State Representative Districts are made up, and that we have such fast growth here that I feel like, still to have the separate nine members, all voted within their district, that live within those districts, would still be the way to go. I still believe, too, when you're looking at some of these agendas, some of these items, and you're putting it toward the voters, that they should be separate and not combined as in one Amendment, or whatever you do here. And John told me, in this case, non-partisan and the Council make-up would be separate. That's always been a problem with me when we go to vote, and I remember when we did term limits a while back, and it took us about three times to get it straight, so if you could break up any of these things as much as a yes and no to one issue, and not have more than one issue on the agendas 1