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• certainly thought it was worth a try. 1 haven't talked to Bob Yanabu, who heads Public
<br />Works, but Public Works is a gigantic department and it has a lot of things to cover,
<br />and Boucher thought that wastewater, solid waste, non -point source pollution which is
<br />storm water, and individual County water systems could be included in an
<br />Environmental Services Department. Right now, before the Legislature, there are a
<br />couple of bills to consolidate Parks under County and Highways under State. Right
<br />now, we have both State and County of each of those, and he didn't know where that
<br />legislation might be going, but at this point, the State also handles those individual
<br />County water systems, and they could be put under the County, if we set up a second
<br />department. As to just making separate Division, or something, inside of Public Works,
<br />I think there seems to be, at least from the people I've talked to, less support for that.
<br />Of course, I have mostly talked to people who are involved in County and City
<br />govemments rather than people in the private sector. 1 wasn't able to figure out who to
<br />talk to or reach anybody at the various waste companies on the Island. I did find that
<br />we were all given the City and County of Honolulu Proposed Organization from 1998,
<br />when they, apparently, came up with a Department of Environmental Services, and it
<br />was going to involve refuse collection and disposal, and wastewater management, and
<br />they also had included their Board of Water Supply and Water Department, but that
<br />meant that they had to have a Charter change, and 1 don't think this happened. But
<br />there is a chart that shows that. And that's where I am right now.
<br />RAY: Comments? John.
<br />SANTANGELO: As I said before, I would like to ask this Commission to really push
<br />for a separate department. It wouldn't require more people, of this Environmental
<br />Services, and it is a pretty common model, in which the waste stream is consolidated in
<br />that. And it's really simple to do. It would require the Council and the legislative body
<br />to fill out, through ordinance, how that department would operate. The question that it
<br />raises with me is, then do we model something like the Water Commission in which
<br />there is a body that helps to manage that, and set the fees, because this should be
<br />something that stands alone. The thing that I like about it is that it creates some sort of
<br />environmental stewardship because then it would have to be self-sustaining, and that
<br />would create fees in which people had to support it through their own waste habits, and
<br />would really help a budget in terms of separating out the burden on just the property
<br />tax, and placing the burden on the end user. So, there's that possibility in what comes
<br />out of that.
<br />HIGASHI: John, I would support that concept. However, if we have
<br />something that is general and broad in the Charter and then, like you say, can be
<br />enacted by ordinance to supply the details; I think that would be the way we should be
<br />going. But also, in the Charter, we should make it -
<br />RAY: Let me ask you this, Roland. How would the language read in the
<br />Charter in regard to triggering, or mandating, the creation of that department? That's
<br />what I don't understand.
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