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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION Transcript of Public Hearing of June 16, 1999 County Council Room, Hilo, Hawaii Members J. Ray, E. Alonzo (from 5:23 p.m), S. Bess, M. Herkes (from 5:20 Present: p.m.), R. Higashi, S. Irvine, D. Kurozawa, G. Martin, J. Santangelo, G. Yoshiyama Absent: K. Balog CALL TO ORDER Chairman John Ray called the meeting to order at approximately 5:05 p.m. INTRODUCTION OF CHARTER COMMISSION MEMBERS RAY: This special meeting of the 1999-2000 Charter Commission of Wednesday, June 16th is called to order. I would like to introduce the Charter Commission members present this evening. To my left, starting to my far left: Mr. Bess, • Dr. Kurozawa, Mr. Higashi, myself John Ray. Starting to my far right: Mr. Martin, Ms. Irvine and Mr. Santangelo. Oh Mr. Yoshiyama, I'm sorry. Mr. Yoshiyama. Sorry. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS RAY: Thanks for coming this evening. Just to give you a very brief bit of background as far as where we've gone and where we are in the process. As mandated every ten years, the Mayor appointed this Charter Commission and it was approved by the County Council in January. This is the third review of the Charter since it was instituted and previous Charter Commissions have proposed a total of 31 charter amendments, 25 of which were adopted. And by the way, some of this background material is in the flyers that we sent out. The informational flyers that I encourage ya'll to get a copy of before you leave. We've been meeting monthly since February and focused mostly, initially on internal organization, hiring our staff. Our Administrative Assistant, Sharron Henry, is here this evening. Her responsibilities are primarily research, recording minutes, communicating both internally and with the general public. Our legal staff, Christopher Yuen who is not here this evening. His chief responsibilities are making sure we operate procedurally in a correct manner, legal research, opinions and drafting proposed Charter amendments which we come up with. Our budget, as appropriated by the County Council to this date, is $130.000. The last Charter Commission spent $113,000 reviewing the Charter. •