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STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS <br />CHR. HAITSUKA: Next on our agenda we have Statements from the Public. First up we <br />have Ms. Debbie Hecht. Good afternoon, Ms. Hecht. <br />DEBBIE HECHT <br />(At this time Debbie Hecht came forward to address members of the Charter Commission.) <br />MS. HECHT: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Thank you for volunteering to serve on this <br />very important board. It's quite an undertaking, and I congratulate you for doing this for all <br />of us on the island. Thank you for the changes on the area of Recall, I think they have come <br />a long way. My name is Debbie Hecht. I got interested in legislative research and writing <br />when I worked with Casey Jarman when she was the County Clerk. On the area of Recall, I <br />think you have done a great j ob on what you have done so far. But, I think it is very <br />important to note that when you create a vacancy in any of the elected positions on the island, <br />which would be the mayor, the prosecuting attorney, and of course the council. In the case of <br />the mayor, the managing director fills that vacancy. In the case of the prosecuting attorney, <br />the first deputy takes over. In the case of a council vacancy - -and any of these vacancies can <br />be created whether the official is impeached, recalled, dies, or is unable to complete their <br />term in any way - -the council majority would appoint a new council member. The negative <br />thing about that is that these are elected offices, and if any of these people cannot serve, the <br />public has no say in replacing that official. So, I did some research in the different ways <br />theses vacancies are filled in other places. <br />In our Charter, the way to fill the vacancy is under each of the offices. So, in other words, <br />it's under the Mayor, the Council Member, and the Prosecuting Attorney. In terms of re- <br />doing this part of the Charter, you could do it in two ways. You could just re -do that part of <br />it under each of the job descriptions, or, you could create another area that was just for <br />vacancies and make it more general, and then use the procedure I am going to quickly outline <br />for you. You could do it that the person who received the next highest number of votes in the <br />last general election be appointed to serve the remainder of the term. That is the way the <br />people weighed in, so that seems to make sense. If that person is unavailable to serve, and <br />the term is less than six months, then the County Council could appoint the successor by <br />majority vote, and that would be to fill the council seat. If the remainder of the term is <br />greater than six months, there could be a special election by mail within 45 days of the time <br />the vacancy occurred. They are all pretty similar; it's just a little bit different. A vacancy in <br />the office of the mayor shall be filled by the person who received the next highest number of <br />votes in the last general election. If that person is unable to serve, and the term is less than <br />six months, the County Council shall appoint a successor by a majority vote. If the <br />remainder of the term is greater than six months, there shall be a special election by mail <br />within 45 days. The prosecuting attorney would be pretty much the same. So that's just sort <br />of an idea on vacancy. I think it's great that you did the change in the percentage and then it <br />was of the people who voted, and also the time frames. But, in order to really have a say <br />with the people, you need to look at the vacancies. <br />2 <br />