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Charter Review Commission -2- May 23, 1979 constituted shuts itself off from a tremendous pool of financial, administrative, and problem solving expertise that resides on this island in persons in business , the professions, and especially in the growing retirement community. This latter group ' s experience, availability and willingness to serve':constitutes a resource that should and must be utilized by the County government, in planning, executing and evaluating the ever-changing process of managing the Big Island economy and government ' s role in that field . Too often large sums are spent instead by hiring consultants who, while pro- fessional and competent, frequently lack the knowledge of local sit- uations and produce impractical, dream-world studies that lie gather- ing dust on County shelves . I strongly recommend introducing language in the Charter which mandates the administration to create, work closely with, and make annual reports (review process) to a citizens advisory board . Obvious- ly details of selection, term, size need to be broadly defined as well. Such a group (or groups) will be expecially effective in dealing with problems related to physical and fiscal planning, organizational eff- iciency, job definition, setting goals, monitoring performance, and the budgeting process . Such citizen participation is not new, it has been a vital part of government by the people (and still is) in the rural and small town areas of New England where size and geographic characteristics are sc9milar to ours, for over 200 years . The enclosed reprint from the February 1979 Financier shows how the public sector and private are cooperating in a much more complicated but basically similar endeavour throughout the state of California. Very truly yours, J. �,/Curt T�'er, ge. cc; EditorWEst Hawaii Today Editor Hilo Herald Kona Chamber of Commerce Kona Realty Board . Exchange Club of Kona Women of Hawaii for Better Government