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SANTANGELO: <br />All right. And as far as democracy by tyranny. Again, because this is my <br />pet peeve, I just want to share some of my strong beliefs. It's to the Republic for which <br />it stands, we stand. Okay? A republic is ruled by majority with consideration of the <br />minority so we too often throw democracy out there but what I'm about and what most <br />of us are about are a republic and as far as the political process, believe me, it's far <br />too, I get a little defensive, but it's far too blown up to say that there's any sort of <br />subversive thing going on to influence us to do things. Mr. Ray is a great Chair. We <br />chose him because of his universality with East and West Hawaii and this whole <br />committee universally, is really trying to do it's best to get input and anything <br />substantial will come back out to you. Okay? <br />TURNER: I'm sure you are and there are pressures that will abound. <br />SANTANGELO: <br />So thank you. <br />RAY: Any more questions? All right, well if there's no - <br />TURNER: I've one comment I forgot. One specific. I would like to see a <br />consideration of reducing the signature requirement for a referendum and initiative <br />• from 15% to 10%. You don't want to have a frivolous process that has that threshold <br />too low but 15% is a formidable hurdle and it effectively nearly eliminates referendum <br />and initiative. We've have one but that's an awful lot of work. <br />RAY: What about a 100 signatures to move an impeachment? What do you <br />think about that? <br />TURNER: No, I don't think so. I think the thing to do is to consider scaling it back <br />one gradient at a time. We don't want to jump to 5% but if you move it from 15% to <br />10%, we'll see for ten years if we get inundated with initiatives or if there's only one or <br />two and so ease our way into that and make it more able for people to have a voice <br />without an undue burden to get your toe in the door and get that out there. Thank you. <br />TOWLE: I have one last comment. <br />RAY: Okay. <br />TOWLE: I want to thank all of you for taking your time and doing this because I do <br />a lot of volunteer work and it's very frustrating because you have a lot of people out <br />there that say why don't and why doesn't but they're not willing to go out and really <br />work at it so I really want to thank each and every one of you for your efforts because <br />it's really important and you're taking valuable time of your own to do this. Thank you. <br />14 <br />