CHC 1979-05-15 PH - Laserfiche WebLink

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Number three, you know, this is actually open. I 'm not really concerned how the councilmen should be elected. It could be by representative districts. It could be at the present elective system;:;l'ike I have here the present elective system for county council . But, I would like to see a restriction on the length of terms they can serve. I feel that 8 years--if it is a 4 year term, 2 term • is sufficient. Give other people a chance. If this could not be done, then I would say elect eleven councilmen and make the adjustment-in _the pay that we are getting I feel that it could be reduced providing that we have several more elected officials . __.And this way-why I feel that this will benefit the people is the influential - corporations , the unions are going to have a hell of a time making seven councilmen goon their side. It ' s hard to buy seven councilmen. So this is one of the reasons why I think you should consider it. If you look at the last page, they have the salary--ten years ago for the councilman it was only $7 thousand dollars. Today it is $15 thousand dollars. Double. So, hell , I don ' t mind taking a cut in pay. I 'm a public servant. If I run for office, I 'm not there to make a living. I. mean to serve the people, that is my intention. Eleven councilmen , believe it or not, it ' s going to be hard to buy. MR. TRULSON : Mr. Sameshima, as you say, you feel you are a public servant and you can cut your pay and yet you say , it should be open so that anybody can run for the office. But there are probably a lot of people that don ' t have any other income except what they would get as a councilman should they choose to run. Don ' t you think it would be unfair to them? You say you want everybody to get a chance to run but I don ' t think they could afford to run if they had a small salary to depend upon for their livihood, if they don ' t have other business':;,; • to fall back on behind them. MR. SAMESHIMA: I 'm not sure, I thought I saw something in this charter that a councilman is a part-time official . If you don ' t have any job, I don ' t think you have the right to run. You must have another source of income because this is a part-time job. MR. TRULSON: But even if it is a part-time job you have daily meetings. I 'm not trying to get into an argument with you, I 'm just trying to rationalize. . .I believe yourself and many other public people have sources of income and not just from that particular job you are doing. Even if it is a part-time job, I can see where many people can ' t take a part- time job because they cannot get away from their present job to even attend the committee meetings--and you are going to say later onthat you feel that all councilmen should attend all committee meetings and that would be a full-time council and you are reducing the amount of people again ' that could run for election on the council . -20-