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Members Absent: HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION Transcript of Public Hearing of March 25, 2000 Kealakehe Intermediate School Cafeteria Kailua-Kona, Hawaii J. Ray, S. Irvine, M. Herkes, D. Kurozawa, G. Martin, Counsel Chris Yuen E. Alonzo, K. Balog, S. Bess, R. Higashi, J. Santangelo, G. Yoshiyama And 28 members of the public in attendance. CALL TO ORDER Chairman John Ray called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. INTRODUCTION OF CHARTER COMMISSION MEMBERS RAY: I'd like to call the meeting to order. This is the 1999-2000 Charter Commission. We're here in Kailua-Kona today, holding a Public Hearing. The • members present at this time are myself, John Ray, Chairman; Marni Herkes; Sue Irvine; Dr. Daryl Kurozawa; and George Martin. And also our Legal Counsel, Chris Yuen, is here with us today. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS RAY: I'm going to start off by giving you a brief background on the County Charter and, kind of, where we are to date in regard to this process. Basically the Charter review is mandated in the Charter to be reviewed every ten years. Our County Charter was initially adopted in the late 1960's. It's been previously reviewed twice, so this is the third time, the third Charter Review Commission. There are eleven members, appointed by the Mayor and approved by the County Council, and that all took place in January of last year. We have an appropriated budget of $130,000. The last Charter Review expended $113,000. The major costs are for staff. We have a full time Administrative Assistant who operates out of a home office, our Legal Counsel, meeting costs with public notices, and then printing and advertising costs to put out the final product for the general education and notification leading up to the election. To date we have expended about $50,000 out of the $130,000 and have a remaining of about $80,000. 1