CHC 1979-05-01 PH - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

But if you think it is a good idea to have it go through the council before he fires a person , I believe in due process of law. I think maybe that is a good idea, too, if you think it is . But I am more concerned with the hiring part that you don ' t have any ties whatsoever between the mayor and the department head is what I am thinking about. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Next we will have Mrs. Dorothea Carvalho. MRS. CARVALHO: Members of the Charter Commission , my name is Dorothea Carvalho, 394 Haili Street, Hilo. I am here to make several complaints and to make a few suggestions regarding our County Charter. Complaints first. I don ' t see how this can be called a hearing since you,--:as a group, have not offered any kind of a statement about what your suggestions and ideas are. In my estimation this is a workshop. You are supposedly picking our brains, or, asking us for suggestions so that you can then put together a compilation of facts and ideas and come up with a new charter which should be offered to the public in a hearing for further discussion before you finally put it together for us to vote on. If the meetings that have already been held had been held at a more convenient time for the public you would have had a better audience. Also, as a member of the public, I still do not know whether we would have been allowed to make a statement at any of the meetings. It seems the department heads and all government agencies were the ones to be heard. I attended only one meeting and that was not because I was ;or am not interested. I just could not attend a meeting held at 3 : 30 p.m. on a Tuesday and at that meeting the room was so cold, I had to leave or freeze to death. As commissioners , I think that if you wanted the public to appear you should have scheduled the meetings at a time convenient for the public and not for you commissioners. If you did not want to be inconvenienced, you could have refused the commission. I 'm not trying to be sassy. This is a temporary commission so the inconvenience will be short lived. When you found out that there was no audience, you could have made a strong statement to the public by way of the Hawaii Tribune Herald and the rest of the media that you wanted input , but it seems that instead you made it difficult for the public. I am sure that if we had been made aware of which area of the charter you were going to discuss, you would have an audience. But we do have to be forewarned so we can prepare a proper and intelligent statement. If you had said, by way of the media, that on a specific date you were going to discuss initiative, referendum and recall , you would have had a full house. We are fortunate that our county charter does include initiative and referendum. I would like to see it also include recall . -11-