MIN CHC PH 2000-03-11 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

RAY: We copied that from other Charters. The City and County was looking at a major reorganization a few years ago and that was the language they used, so just proactive - IRVINE: I went out on the web a lot and talked to people in San Diego, looked at the City of Portland, San Luis Obispo, some cities in Washington, and whatever. And this is fairly standard language, however, the woman in San Diego said, well, that's getting to be dated and she had even a farther out euphemism. So, whatever it was, I can't remember what she said, I thought we weren't ready for that yet. But that's the explanation for that and the fact that the City and County of Honolulu did suggest having this sort of department a couple of years back. RAY: But, if you've got something better. GRAHAM: Waste Management. That seems like what you're talking about. Your talking solid waste. IRVINE: The other thing is that we really, really, really want to get the feeling of let's recycle, let's take care of our land now. Mandating something like that rather than leaving it where it has been in Public Works without some sort of statement that this is what we want to see happen. HIGASHI: Also, under the Charter, they're able to create a new department if it's addressed in the Charter. This is going to be a growing concern from now on, and maybe for the next 20 years. Our feeling is that we need to get higher expertise in this field, and once we create a department, the Department Head would be somebody differently educated than we have in Public Works now. And once we have it established, other technologies come in, and other concerns can be addressed by this department. So what we may have in here now may represent some of the things that are ongoing, but there can be other concerns in the future and this department will have to address that. GRAHAM: Yes, I think I get you. That even though it's a bit narrow, as you specified now, it may broaden in the future, so it might as well have a title that will encompass that. Okay. Thank you. Second, a sort of narrow, specific issue I thought of was when you're talking about impeachment, and you're talking about a 3% of the voters in the County need to sign for impeachment, it feels like that's appropriate for countywide elected positions, but for elected positions within a district, all the impeachment petition votes should come from the district served, I believe. So I think I would like to see you all make a change there. HERKES: We had quite a discussion on that. GRAHAM: In the same way, I mean we don't have impeachment at the Federal level, or the State level, or something, but I don't feel I should be responsible 11