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MARGARET WILLE <br />(At this time Margaret Wille came forward to address members of the Charter Commission.) <br />MS. WILLE: Good afternoon, my name is Margaret Wille. I'm on the agenda for <br />Communication 30, but I wrote something on a totally different subject, and so I thought I <br />would bring it forward during the Public Statements. Let me just say, I live in Waimea and I <br />first came to Hawaii in 1971. My brothers were living here doing the Aloha Theater and <br />knew Kona long before there was the level of development that is now going on and a lot of <br />the issues. I moved here permanently in 2002. I am an attorney; I do have a small private <br />practice. I do a lot of community work on the side. I was on the South Kohala steering <br />committee for two years and spent a great deal of time working on that. A lot of the ideas <br />that I really brought forth are based on that experience, and concerns that were raised during <br />that process. I am currently on the Waimea Community Association Board of Directors, also <br />Co -Chair of the Waimea Design and Review Committee. <br />I have one quick comment, in terms of the process. I know you have public hearings coming <br />up, and it would be really helpful to the extent that you are able, to put out some kind of <br />summary of what some of the key things that are being discussed, what the current provision <br />is, and what is being suggested, and maybe a little bit of the reason why. I also have a blog <br />and have been trying to get out all of this information to people, but even as a lawyer and <br />being able to go through the minutes and take the time, I'm going okay - - -Now there's one <br />item on changing the council members from two years to four years. I'm trying to encourage <br />public participation to the extent that you could do a little summary to at least get people to <br />know what areas you are discussing. <br />What I want to talk about right now - -and I handed it out, and everything I submitted to you is <br />a rough draft, just to get ideas going - -is to perhaps put in the Charter an actual new chapter <br />on Department of Resilience and Civil Defense. Civil Defense is an agency, but it is not <br />included in the Charter right now. There is the Liquor Control Board, there are different <br />ones, but it's not mentioned in the Charter. Also, we should be trying to bring the concept of <br />civil defense up to the current date. The direction of the thinking is in terms of resilience and <br />how do we prepare, not just as individuals but on a community level, on a county level, and <br />interrelate. Again, what I've written for you, to just think about, is that there shall be a <br />Department of Resilience and Civil Defense consisting of a director and deputy director, and <br />the necessary staff. I also included the current description of civil defense in what I gave <br />you, and I used some of that same language that they use for the description of this agency. <br />I just want to read it quickly, the statement of policy. "It is herby declared to be the purpose <br />of this chapter to establish in the county a system for disaster resilience, including action <br />plans for risk assessment, prevention, mitigation, and surge capacity building through <br />coordination with other governmental agencies at the county, state, and federal levels, as well <br />as collaborative partnerships with non - governmental entities and community organizations to <br />ensure prompt and effective action when man -made or natural disaster threatens or occurs <br />anywhere in the County of Hawai`i." And then I just listed some of them. And you know, <br />we're sort of, what else could there be on this island? I know in today's newspaper there was <br />12 <br />