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STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS CHR. HAITSUKA: Next on our agenda is Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. We have Margaret Wille to speak on three agenda items. Good afternoon. MARGARET WILLE (At this time Margaret Wille came forward to address members of the Charter Commission) MS. WILLE: Good afternoon, my name is Margaret Wille, I live in Waimea, I'm an attorney, and I have been practicing for about 30 years. I have lived here on the Big Island full time since 2002, and I first started coming here in 1970 when my parents and brothers were living here. I wanted to first touch on David Frankel's testimony. I believe he's going to speak a little bit on issues related to the public trust doctrine, so I just wanted to make a comment about that. You have a handout here, and on the last page of that handout is a page from the Kohala Community Development Plan (CDP). I was on the South Kohala CDP Steering Committee and was involved in writing this. I just really want to support what I think he is going to say, and to just make it clear that the law really has changed since the last Charter, because of this one case which involved the Public Trust Doctrine. It basically said that the Hawaiian Constitutional section regarding the Public Trust Doctrine, to protect that the natural resources be held for the benefit of all people, is not only the responsibility of the State, but of the County. I'm not sure exactly how this weaves into all of the provisions of the Charter, but I think it is sort of a decision - making framework. I started thinking about it as I was reading through the different agenda items and thinking about what you really do. You are looking at different entities and what their rights, powers and responsibilities are. There is really one entity that is implicitly there, and is mentioned here and there, but isn't really identified in terms of what its powers, rights and responsibilities are; and that is the public, or the community, or the public trust. I started thinking that maybe we ought to have another article on the public and the right to be heard, or how it really fits, and pulls it together. I'm really just bringing that up and I would like you to read this. I think I'll read just one paragraph out of the South Kohala CDP. "It is on the basis of this constitutional Public Trust provision that decisions involving land and water must be guided by the `Precautionary Principle' when we weigh our private wants against the ability of the environment to accommodate those wants. The precautionary principle requires long -term vision and mandates that government entities favor caution and conservation in any case in which information is uncertain." At the same time, in terms of the government representing the public, or the public trust, it's also what are the rights of the public to know what's going on, be involved in the processes, know that there's not conflicts of interest, and know that they are hearing what's going on. As all of our lives get more complex, and how few of us have the opportunity to come here and talk to you, I have been thinking about how we could do some sort of live broadcasting of some of the hearings, such as this one. I put some young people in Honoka`a - -if you look at the page that's a picture, just sort of looking at how - -if one had the camcorders hooked up 2