MIN CHC PH 1999-07-07 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION Transcript of Public Hearing of July 7, 1999 Waimea Civic Center Waimea, Hawaii Members J. Ray, S. Bess, M. Herkes, D. Kurozawa, G. Martin Present: Absent: E. Alonzo, K. Balog„ R. Higashi, S. Irvine, J. Santangelo, G.Yoshiyama CALL TO ORDER Chairman John Ray called the meeting to order at approximately 5:30 p.m. INTRODUCTION OF CHARTER COMMISSION MEMBERS RAY: This is a public hearing of the 1999-2000 Charter Commission in Waimea on the Big Island. It's 5:30 p.m. Thank you for coming. I want to introduce the • Commission members that are here this evening. On my right, Marni Herkes and next to Marni is Daryl Kurozawa, Steve Bess and to my left, George Martin and I'm John Ray. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS RAY: Just to give you a brief background on the process that we are involved in. As mandated by law every ten years, this Charter Commission was appointed by the Mayor and approved by the County Council in January of this year. We've been meeting roughly monthly since February and focused initially on our internal organization and the hiring of staff. Our Administrative Assistant, Sharron Henry, is here this evening. Her duties include research, recording minutes, communicating both internally and with the public. Our legal staff, Mr. Chris Yuen who is not here this evening, makes sure we operate in a procedurally correct manner, is in charge of our legal research, opinions and drafting proposed Charter amendments. The budget, appropriated for this process, is $130.000. The last Charter review expended $113,000 on the Charter review about ten years ago. The major costs for staffing and for meeting including the public notices. Recently we've completed a round of input from various County Departments to get major suggestions that they had in mind to get them on the table. Some of the suggestions that we've received, not all of which, are looking at the mandatory