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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION Transcript of Public Hearing of June 23, 1999 Kahakai School Cafeteria Kailua-Kona, Hawaii Members J. Ray, E. Alonzo, K. Balog, M. Herkes, S. Irvine, D. Kurozawa, Present: G. Martin, J. Santangelo, G. Yoshiyama Absent: S. Bess, R. Higashi CALL TO ORDER Chairman John Ray called the meeting to order at approximately 5:00 p.m. INTRODUCTION OF CHARTER COMMISSION MEMBERS RAY: This is a public hearing of the 1999-2000. Charter Commission. We are in Kona this evening. Thank you all for coming. I would like to introduce the members of the Commission that are here this evening. Starting to my far right: Sue Irvin, Gary Yoshiyama, Kevin Balog, Daryl Kurozawa, George Martin, myself John Ray. To my left: Marni Herkes and John Santangelo. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS RAY: To give you a little bit of just general background on the review process that we are involved in. As mandated by law every ten years, this Charter Commission was appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the County Council in January. We have been meeting monthly since February, focused initially on internal organization, the hiring of staff. Administrative Assistant, Sharron Henry, is here recording this evening. Her duties entail research, recording minutes, communicating both internally and with the public. Our legal staff, our legal counsel is Christopher Yuen who is not here this evening. Chris basically makes sure we operate in a procedurally correct manner. He's in charge of legal research, drafting opinions and drafting proposed language for the Charter amendments we come up with. Our budget, appropriated for this process, is $130.000 appropriated. The last Charter review expended $113,000 on the review of the Charter. The major costs for staff and meeting costs including the public notices which are quite expensive over the course of a year or more with the public meetings, We've recently completed a round of meetings where we have received input from various County Departments. Sort of a broad brush approach to get major 1