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But who is giving advice? What happens right now is that Ashida, who is part of Mayor <br />Kenoi's cabinet, and clearly identifies with the executive branch, and if there is any conflict, <br />he stands by the executive branch. I think what happens is then you don't have those issues, <br />those disagreements worked out at that level where they should be. Instead, things end up <br />going to court, that shouldn't go to court; such as with the impact fees, where Judge Ibarra <br />said, is your impact fee ordinance in line with the State statute. Well, it clearly is not, and <br />what Chris Yuen said is well, if it gets to litigation, then we'll deal with it. Corporation <br />Counsel's office basically said, we are going with the executive branch, which was in <br />litigation over that point. Tome, it just set the County up for risk. I don't want to spend a lot <br />of time on this, but there were a number of cases that if you had more discussion on the <br />county level, we wouldn't have ended up in court in the Hokulia case, in the Leslie case. As <br />I see it, you would have had those discussions on this level, rather than sort of all the people <br />that are being sort of yes - people to whatever the administration's position is. I encourage <br />you to look at how to have some separation. I did write something up on that. Certainly <br />right now, there is a great deal of distrust with the corporation counsel, and the whole county <br />legal system because of what's going on with the county council. <br />As I went through, a lot of what you all wrote in the minutes, if it weren't for all of that going <br />on, I would agree with more, such as the four year term limits. But, right now Clerk <br />Goodenow and Ashida are right in the middle of what's going on. Yoshimoto, Ashida and <br />Goodenow are like three of them right together. Then you have the council majority, and the <br />minority is just being left out. But, I'm not looking at it from the position of those council <br />people; I'm looking at it from the position of the public. When we sit there and watch this <br />going on and see -- televised -- Goodenow is saying one thing here, but then he said another <br />thing the day before, and Ashida is saying this, and it's all --- Anyways, I think it's important <br />to be aware that right now, there is more distrust, and so where a conflict of interest may not <br />in the past have seemed so important, it certainly is important right now. <br />On the Legislative Research assistants; they are all appointed positions, and again, this makes <br />everything so political. It seemed like you were leaning in the direction of making those <br />positions not appointed, but whether it's civil service, or whatever you call it. So that they- - <br />number one - -are not just looking at themselves as political beings that have to--- Basically the <br />way it goes, is they have to do whatever Goodenow says, and Goodenow says whatever <br />Ashida and Yoshimoto say. So, even if they come up and write something- -here is the <br />analysis - -they can't give it to the councilperson if it disagrees with the position of someone <br />who is right in the Mayor's cabinet. And, let me just say, I like our Mayor, this is nothing <br />personal, I'm just trying to look at it as a matter of trust and accountability to the public. <br />If you do any transitions, I think it's important to say how you are dealing with people who <br />are in positions right now, whether that has to do with changing the number of years for <br />council, or a board members, or council members versus how you deal with the legislative <br />research branch. If you are aware, there was a lawsuit about Arakaki, and he transitioned <br />from four year terms to two years terms. Everyone protested, you don't get another two year <br />term. They went to court about it, but by the time they got a decision saying he couldn't do <br />that, he had already served out those additional two years. Staggered terms, I think there was <br />a general sense that didn't work, and I agreed with that. I hope you don't mind if I just sort <br />12 <br />