CHC 1979-01-23 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MR. ISHIDA: My concern right now is that since we know it is going to come up and I expect that there will be a group from Kona very interested in this type of proposal_, is how we can get all the input in before this commission as a body can evaluate what we should do. Until we get this input, I don ' t know how we can best go about getting all this information. According to this , we've got 'public hearings scheduled as starting in the middle of March. Do we already have a tenta- tive draft for this hearing or is it just one for purposes of fact finding? CHAIRMAN SAKATA: I think public hearings that are scheduled for the outside areas will be strictly for information purposes, to gather information from the outlying areas and then as we look into the deliberation of the charter we will take into consideration the information we have received. But, I can see your point, Mr. Ishida, that if we are going to evaluate the various forms of county government without having information as to the existing type of government it is going to rather difficult. MR. ISHIDA: I 'm anticipating that when we do it, as long as we are meeting here in Hilo, we would probably get some input from the residents of Hilo. But, should we not also get input from the other sections of this island within the close proximity of each other? MRS . KOBAYASHI : Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, since the Mayor is here, could we defer this until later and go on with it then? MAYOR MATAYOSHI: I appreciate that, but may I jumpinto the discussion you are talking about? The City Manager type of information. As I recall , in the past Commissions they had testimony from the so-called "experts" . "Experts" because they happen to be off-island , they come here and tell you. It might be wise to hear them and also as far as evaluating the hearings on these things , sometime, if you could set a date for hearings on the various forms of county structure and then ask the various organizations to testify, you might get that. One on this side, two on that side or whatever schedule you want to do. I think it might be wise to designate one day to the form of government, because otherwise if you. open it all for hearings it is just going to go on and on to many, many topics. I think you should designate one day for one hearing. I don ' t mean one day throughout the whole year but one specific day just for the form of government. You will have several that will come up, I 'ms,ure. One you've got is the strong Mayor type, next you 've got the Council-Mayor type of situation and you've got the City Manager type of situation and each have been evaluated in the past. It might be wise to just ( 1) hear the experts, ( 2) then take it out to public hearings. I don ' t mean to tell you you are going to spend that much more time with it but I think it ' s kind of nice to have it. I would suggest that. -6-