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concerns people have, I think , is that justice is meted out, even <br /> (inaudible) . <br /> VIERRA: It' s part of the balance. We ' re part of the <br /> city team, the County team, but yet we still have to operate <br /> somewhat independentibecause of the nature of our responsi- <br /> bilities . It ' s . . . <br /> BETHEA: Yeah, you may have to pursue a Council person <br /> or the mayor ora department head or something like that and <br /> that ' s expected of t h e m. And in order to do that <br /> effectively, you need a certain amount of insulation. I <br /> don' t know what other systems :rhereare. Yeah? <br /> CUSHNIE: Do we have a County legal system? County <br /> judges , who may haveto also maintain this distance? <br /> BETHEA: No, we don' t. <br /> CUSHNIE: Okay. <br /> BETHEA: We do not. I don' t know, that may be a source <br /> of inquiry for us. . .what .other methods are there to .distance <br /> a particularly sensitive department as far as possible from <br /> political interference and, at the same time, you know, keep <br /> it part of a County team so that it isn' t going off wild. <br /> But I think ,that ' s kind of a:'challenge in that responsibility . <br /> Yes . <br /> CUSHNIE: As Mrs . Duncan brought up in earlier testi- <br /> mony with Dr . Smith from the Fire Department? You've seen <br /> the case of the Puako fire which- was about a year ago, and <br /> required some real immediate pulling together of all depart- <br /> ments . What we. . . I ' ve been trying to grapple with is that <br /> there be some in-put in 'the mayor ' s office. So when ' s there ' s <br /> an emergency, and he needs to pull different departments <br /> together , no matter how autonomous they are, there should be <br /> some immediate decision-making. Could I ask you in .the next <br /> few months to perhaps formulate some ideas in which you might <br /> still maintain this in-put with the mayor ' s office using <br /> realistic examples of what you feel you would need to convey <br /> to a mayor ' s office. <br /> VIERRA: I ' ll give you an example. There are County <br /> policies that we follow. Natural disasters is one. I mean, <br /> certain calls that we respond immediately to, the Civil <br /> Defense shelter . I take our responsibilities there as part <br /> of our particular department ' s . . .we essentially follow. ,. . all <br /> fall under Harry Kim. And I've got no problem with that <br /> because he' s the expert in the area. I think, well, I know <br /> we look at ourselves as pr.ofessionalists , I mean, our <br /> 211 <br />