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of how an elected official is removed from office for malfeasance, or misfeasance, or criminal activities, or whatever may be appli- cable, clearly contrary to the requirements or the dictates of his office. It ' s like recall, in a sense, _but it' s a procedure whereby you remove an elected official from office for violation of his duty as apublic officer. It is not spelled out in the charter. At least I haven ' t seen any provision in the charter that does. There is a provision on Initiative and Referendum but there is nothing on recall. If there is anything in State Statutes , it might only apply to state officials, primarily. So there may be a necessity to clarify that and expand on that provision. I doubt whether it will have to be used but you never can tell. Nobody expected it to be used against Richard Nixon but I guess the people who drafted the Constitution back 1796 sure the heck knew what they were doing. MR. SENSANO: While the charter is silent on , like for example, impeachment, then would the appropriate body that will enforce the impeachment have to follow either the state or the federal law? MR. ODA: If there are any provisions that apply. But most federal and state laws do not apply down to the county level. There may be impeachment proceedings in the State Consti- tution with regards to state officers. Unless they specifically apply to county governments , you cannot assume that they do. In fact, just the opposite would be applicable if they do not apply. MR. SENSANO: So it ' s possible then for example, for the charter to contain that provision where the requirements for impeachment are not as stringent or even more stringent than federal or state laws. MR. ODA: Federal or state impeachment proceed- ings , if they do exist, if they don 't apply to county governments it is wide open as to how you want to make the impeachment proceedings apply to the county officials. My personal gut • feeling is that I doubt there is any state or federal statute that would govern county level impeachment. I don ' t think that anything like that exists. I ' d be very surprised if it did. MR. CADINHA: Stuart, then what you are saying is that maybe we should list what impeachable offences would be and then follow that and then • in the process voted on by the members of the council , or whateverit—may be, if we keep that in. MR. ODA: Right. I think there is a federal constitutional provision on impeachment of the president and vice-president and maybe congressional representatives and senators. There is one, I 'm sure, but as to whom it applies to, I 'm not sure right now. Of course, it applies to the president and vice-president but how far down it goes , I 'm not sure. MR. CADINHA: One more question, Stuart. If this body deliberates and in the absence of an impeachment - 13 -