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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION <br />Transcript of Meeting of April 29, 2000 <br />Waimea Civic Center <br />Waimea, Hawaii <br />Attendance: J. Ray, E. Alonzo, S. Bess, R. Higashi, S. Irvine (from 9:12 a.m.), <br />D. Kurozawa, G. Martin, J. Santangelo (from 9:18 a.m.), <br />G. Yoshiyama, Counsel C. Yuen <br />Absent: K. Balog, M. Herkes <br />And 15 members of the public in attendance. <br />The meeting was called to order at 9:10 a.m. <br />RAY: I'd like to call the meeting to order. This is the1999-2000 Charter <br />Commission Special Meeting. It's Saturday, April 29"'. We're in Kamuela, Hawaii at <br />the Waimea Civic Center. <br />Attendance. Commission members present at this time, myself John Ray; Chair; <br />Roland Higashi, Vice Chair; Eddie Alonzo; Stephan Bess; Dr. Daryl Kurozawa; George <br />Martin; Gary Yoshiyama. And our legal counsel, Chris Yuen is with us today and we're <br />expecting, I think, one or two more members. <br />So, we're going to go ahead and proceed with Statements from the Public. Make <br />sure you are signed up to testify. We would like you to come up to the table and speak <br />into the microphone. This is for recording purposes. All these proceedings are <br />recorded verbatim so please come up to the table. The first person signed up to testify <br />is Sandra Scarr, followed by Del Pranke. <br />SCARR: Good morning. Is this on? <br />RAY: Good morning. Yes, it's not to amplify. It's just to record. <br />SCARR: Okay. My name is Sandra Scarr. I live in Kailua-Kona. I am here <br />with a group called CERG, for equitable and responsible government. We feel very <br />strongly that many of the recommended proposed changes to the Charter are not <br />favorable to better government in Hawaii, and they're not favorable to people who live <br />on the West side, in particular. I would point out something, that has not been <br />discussed very much, that is very much on my mind, is that the position of Mayor has <br />much too much responsibility in the County Charter. Responsibility can also be <br />translated to mean power, in that the Mayor gets to appoint Commissions, and in the <br />proposed changes, would appoint the Managing Director. I think that we need changes <br />that reflect more the elected representatives of the people in their diversity across the <br />island, and that means relying more on the County Council and less on the Executive <br />1 <br />