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STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS CHR. HAITSUKA: Next on the agenda is Statements from the Public on items on the agenda. Before we start, I would like to remind everyone that the public testimony is limited to three minutes per each agenda item. First, we have Ms. Cory Harden. CORY HARDEN (At this time, Cory Harden came forward to address members of the Charter Commission.) MS. HARDEN: Thank you, again, for all your hours. I am speaking on two items. The first is CA -15; I am supporting having 2% in the land fund. I'll go through a couple of concerns people have had in response to that. I guess the debate is 1% or 2 %; and I really support the full 2 %. One concern is that other counties have lower numbers. But as has been said before, they have higher property tax revenue; they have less open space left to buy. Another concern is that once we get the open spaces, there is no money to protect health and safety. People may go down there and drink and wreck their cars, or whatever. But also, people have spoken about how we could be more efficient with our county budget, and waste, and do better on that. One concern is that we need to save money for services like police and fire and building roads and so forth; but we should keep in mind that open space prevents demand for such services because if it's open space, people aren't going to be building in some far out place and then calling the police or calling for fire in a hard to serve place. Open space provides natural infrastructure; places to grow food and gather food, intact ecosystems that prevent costly environmental impacts, watersheds, flood plains, visitor attractions, recreation and so forth. Another concern is that people seem to have the view that officials have a better perspective and wider knowledge to decide how high a priority open space should be in any given year. They don't want to be locked into 2% every year. But we also know that on the other hand, sometimes officials are swayed by interests that don't put citizens first. Basically, this is a democracy. It is supposed to be run by citizens; and there has been tremendous support for the 2 %. Another concern is that people don't want fixed costs in the Charter; but the Charter already has fixed costs. They mandate the County Council, County Clerk, Legislative Auditor, Data Systems, and all of the County departments. There are already fixed costs in there; and they even have some numbers like the Council has to meet two times a month, it has to have nine members, it can only do a motion to reconsider some ordinances after 24 hours. There are some numbers, and for the 2 %, I think you want the 2% so it will be an effective fund. Otherwise, it won't do what it was intended to do. So please support that. 2