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voting in a way which would further a conflicting interest , and prevents any other official from compelling such a vote . The county has witnessed instances where a council member has declared a conflict of interest and then • been ordered by the charirnan to vote anyway. This is either a sham or a violation of the official 's civil rights. It constitutes a cynical undermining of the conflict of interest laws in any 'case , and erodes public confidence in our government. Charter amendment (Section 15-3) . These changes include a requirement that voters be allowed to vote on a charter proposal in units no larger than individual articles, and allows for "mop up" operations after the election. One additional substantive change is really a by-product of one of the nonsubstantive ones. The charter now specifies that the seventh police commissioner must be from Hilo. The proposed change dealing with enumeration of the districts allows this to be the case but does not require it . A stipulation could be added that if there are more commissioners than districts, the excess commissioners shall be drawn from the districts including the largest urban populations, in order of size . But I don't see any great harm in leaving it up to the mayor and the council for now. The remaining changes, highlighted in purple , deal with miscellaneous points of grammar , logic , style , etc . - such as the random appearance of the archaic subjunctive usage in " if it be" . The changes to Article XVI are an attempt to remove "excess baggage" from the transitional provisions. In a number of places the phrase "twelve o'clock meridian" has been replaced with the word "noon" . The latter is less stilted, more succinct , and equally • precise . In a small way, it may also serve to make our charter less remote from the average citizen. Respectfully submitted, Kelly Pomeroy P.O. Box 44584 Kawaihae HI 96743 882-7632 • 588