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CHR. HAITSUKA: We have testimony this morning from Councilman Guy Enriques. <br />Good morning. <br />GUY ENRIQUES <br />(At this time Guy Enriques came forward to address members of the Charter Commission.) <br />MR. ENRIQUES: Good morning everybody. Thank you for coming all the way out here. I <br />thought I should be here so we'll have at least one more than Honoka`a. Again, I do <br />appreciate you being out here, and taking the time to possibly hear some voices out here. I'm <br />here representing myself and not the County Council today. I would like to speak on just one <br />issue, which I think you will consider, because it is something that if I didn't think you would <br />consider, I would possibly try to do something as a council person, because I see the value in <br />it. As a new councilman I've found that two years is like a blink of an eye. This is going on <br />ten months on this job, and I realize how tip of the iceberg I am on learning what I need to <br />learn to be an effective councilman. So, I'm going to come from that point first, number one, <br />effectiveness. Not having any kind of political background in the past, I'm realizing how <br />little I know; how little I know by means of the legislative stuff. I depend quite heavily on <br />people like Levi, and the staff, to teach me what I need to know, and to teach me how to do <br />the ropes. Just yesterday I satin a meeting for about two and a half hours on just the <br />Housing Department to learn what they do, so I know how their resources can help the <br />people here; and that's just one part of the Housing Department. The Housing Department <br />has about seven different areas that have financing coming from grants and stuff like that. I <br />know that our people are not even using any of it. If I don't know about it, then I can't help <br />with it. And that's just one department. In that sense, I'm ineffective if I don't know what <br />sources are available in the County that I can use to bring to the people in my district. <br />What I've found my job to be as a council person is not really to solve problems, because I <br />can't do it alone, but I think my real job is to identify the problems, identify the people who <br />can solve those problems, and then bring them together and let them solve it, and kind of step <br />out of the way. I think that's really my job. In terms of education wise, it is huge. There is <br />no way, I think, that in two years I will get to know the job like I need to know it to do it <br />effectively. The other part of the job, that I think will take time, is building relationships. I <br />am the Chair for the Parks and Recreation at this time. Everybody that I meet down the line, <br />every relationship that I grow, will help me become more effective; and that's just one <br />department. You know how many department heads are in Parks and Recreation that I don't <br />know, and haven't met yet. It's going to take some time, but for the relationships that I have <br />built - -when it comes time to use their services, because we're on a face to face, maybe first <br />name basis, we've developed a friendship and a good working relationship - -I can get things <br />done in this district faster than if I didn't know them or didn't have any kind of relationship. <br />And that is just one department which I haven't even gone half way through yet, in ten <br />months. So, building working relationships in each of the departments is critical. Working <br />together, and knowing the people you are working with will help foster a lot more <br />productivity than if I didn't know these people, except if I sat on their side and they came up <br />in front when we have these County hearings proposing things. It's a real informal way, but <br />2 <br />