Laserfiche WebLink
MR. GOODENOW: Good afternoon, Chairman Haitsuka and members of the <br />Commission. I will be here later for any specific questions. Election Division head, Pat <br />Nakamoto, is also here to assist you. Just briefly, I wanted to bring to your attention <br />Communication 95 and Communication 112; those refer to CA -12. I won't go into much <br />detail, but really having a residence address is fundamental as far as we are concerned. I <br />think my comments are in writing; so if you have questions, you can ask me, but we do <br />suggest that you add that. <br />I did not provide written testimony on CA -19, but I did want to make a couple of <br />comments. If I may read from the preamble of the Rules of Professional Conduct, which <br />are part of the Hawaii Supreme Court Rules, "As a representative of clients, a lawyer <br />performs various functions. As an advisor, a lawyer provides a client with an informed <br />understanding of the client's legal rights and obligations, and explains their practical <br />implications." As a negotiator, a lawyer seeks a resolve advantageous to the client, but <br />consistent with requirements of honesty with others. As an intermediary between clients, a <br />lawyer seeks to reconcile their divergent interests as an advisor. A lot of times, I think we <br />all think of lawyers as advocating a position; the zealous advocate, but there is more than <br />that. I think that might get lost if we go to a system of having a separate lawyer for the <br />Council, beyond, you know what we have right now. We have Mr. Hookano who works <br />on drafting. He really works together with Corporation Counsel. As far as representing the <br />County, it's better to have one attorney, in the sense that it has this reconciling of divergent <br />opinions; that possibility. Also, a lawyer, you know, is really charged with being an officer <br />of the court, and upholding the law. There are times when the interest of the County as an <br />entity may become legally adverse to one or more of its constituent parts, but the Rules of <br />Professional Conduct provide a safeguard for this situation. In reality, I really think that is <br />very rare. I think it is safe to say that the Council has the same legal interests as the County <br />as a whole. Having Corporation Counsel there, who serves both, can sometimes bring the <br />parties together in a good way. I would hate to lose that. I really think Mr. Ashida has <br />done an excellent job, and I think the system works fine now, in my opinion. That is just <br />my comment on CA -19. <br />On CA -20, I include several comments. I think there are some ambiguities that need to be <br />worked out, if you are going to proceed with that proposal. <br />CA -22, I provide substantial comments. I am open to the idea. Our office is open to the <br />concept of using the internet, so I don't want to come off overly negative, as some of my <br />written concerns may indicate. I would ask that if you do adopt this, the effective date is <br />changed because Data Systems is part of the Executive Branch, and we rely on them. Not <br />that Data Systems would sabotage a bill the Mayor didn't like. They shut down the <br />network and oh, we miss the deadline. I don't think that would happen, but because it <br />would have legal significance, I think we would have to get our own server and work with <br />that. My comments about the 4:30 p.m. deadline, I think that's clear enough in my written <br />comments; that is problematic for our office. <br />On CA -27, Communication 113 refers to that. I think the comments are clear on that. A <br />major issue is you can't really use the term, "nomination papers." That is a State law, a <br />