CHC 1979-01-23 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MAYOR MATAYOSHI: I 'd like to, first of all , welcome the opportunity to appear before you and certainly I was looking forward to perhaps meeting with you on the first Tuesday, but, unfortunately, we had to testify before the House Finance Committee and I couldn ' t be here. But I really enjoyed the opportunity. Looking at some of the things that you have already started I think that you've got a very good start, because your timetable as far as how you want to achieve it and looking forward to the end of the year is a very, very good yardstick in which to evaluate all of these and try to come to a conclusion as far as admendments to the County Charter is concerned. So, I think it is a very good start and I 'd like to commend all of you for that. As far as the charter recommendations that I would like to make, I 'd like to keep this on a rather informal basis. I think you 've had a chance to review it. I 've had a few comments from some of the departments and I 'd like to keep this informal so that we can go give-and-take instead of ( 1) reading this presentation and, ( 2) you're reaction to it. I 'd like to go back and forth with this with you. So, with that basis , we ' ll start the format. Any time you feel like you'd like to ask me a question or you 'd like to probe some- thing else, let ' s see if you can cut in and if I may, Mr. Chairman, kind of Chair it myself and field any questions that you might have. We ' ll keep that format going. Basically, I think as far as the Charter which was passed in 1968 and its amendments subsequent to that, is a very good one. It does create a separation of powers which was nonexistent in the old Board of Supervisors ' day, of which I had the pleasure of 'serving as a member of the old Board of Supervisors. I think it did give a definite direction to the county that by separation of powers , administrative responsi- bilities were squarely on the Mayor' s shoulders and we 've managed to move it since 1968. I think the county has been moving very rapidly and I think one of the reasons for this is because of the separation of powers. I 'd like to see it remain that way. One concern that I have is the council makeup. I know that if you' ll go back into the minutes you will find that I have been a very strong advocate on the first Charter of 1963. I 've been a strong advocate at large representation on the County Council . The reason for that as I stated was that the economic unit is the whole item and you could not very well segment it into those districts and still have thetotal picture of the county in mind. I also pointed out at that time that the finance of the county did not lend itself to little ports along the way and to umpteen number of little districts. And on it went at that time and also in the three times ,--1963, 1965 and 1967, and of course subsequent in 1968 in the passage of the charter I took that position. But subsequent to seeing it in operation, I think there is a need, though we have the -7-