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MS. VICTORINE: Thank you Mr. Chairman, we have three testifiers here in Hilo this <br />morning. Our first testifier in Hilo this morning is Ms. Cory Harden. She is here to <br />speak on four items on your agenda; CA -7, CA -15, CA -17 and CA -31. <br />CHR. HAITSUKA: Good morning, Ms. Harden. <br />CORY HARDEN <br />(At this time Cory Harden, came forward to address members of the Charter Commission.) <br />MS. HARDEN: Thank you again for your work. First, I support CA -7, for Recall <br />Procedures. It addresses concerns that we have some of the strictest recall procedures in <br />the State by making it easier. It drops the residence address requirement, which has <br />brought many problems when people write Place instead of Street. It reduces the number <br />of signatures and the number of people needed to vote in a recall election. It also makes <br />things easier for County staff by giving them more time to review supplemental petitions. <br />On CA -15, the Land Fund; please put this backup to 2 %. You have got to ask how high <br />a priority is preserving our land, water, and air. Well, about air, they say it is not <br />important until you don't have any, and the same could be said about our land and water. <br />Ms. Kawauchi, at an earlier meeting, talked about how her family used open space for <br />gathering and fishing when they had hard times; we could all face very hard times is <br />disaster or rising fuel prices cuts off our food supply pipeline. Also, I think the timing is <br />very important. If we don't start saving our land now, it may be too late. I hope some of <br />my photos came through. They show what happened to Honolulu. It shows in 1910, a <br />view with taro patches and Diamond Head in the background. In 1920, there are rice <br />fields, with Diamond Head in the background. In 1930, you start to see a few one story <br />buildings, maybe one or two, two story buildings. In 1940, you start seeing five or six <br />story buildings; maybe about five or six of them. In 1960, suddenly you have ten to <br />twelve story buildings; I can see about 10 in my photo. In 1970, you can't even count <br />how many 10, 15, 20 story buildings. So that's 60 years. That is two or three <br />generations. That's how fast it happens that the land is gone. Note that the proposal is <br />now 0.5 %, but Maui and the other neighbor islands are doing 1 %. I believe that our <br />island has more land than all the other islands combined. So I say that we need a larger <br />land fund. We also have a lot of unspoiled land compared to all the other islands; so we <br />are kind of a magnet for people who want to profit from land. I know there is a concern <br />from the Finance Department saying that 3/4 of the budget is fixed costs, and we don't <br />want to put another fixed cost in there with the Land Fund from the Charter. But I <br />wonder why it's okay to have a fixed cost for borrowing, to build human infrastructure, <br />but not okay to have a fixed cost for preserving natural infrastructure. If you tried to <br />replace natural infrastructure; like if you tried to replace a tree, a tree generates oxygen, <br />holds soil, catches water, provides shade, and provides habitat and food for birds and <br />insects. What would it cost to build that? You couldn't even do that, so I think it is a <br />good move to spend the money for the 2% Land Fund to preserve our land. <br />On CA -17, I support that; reapportionment to redistricting. I know there was a great <br />controversy over the last redistricting. Like I said before, someone remortgaged their <br />