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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCHC 1979-05-15 PH HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION MINUTES 18th Session and Public Hearing Waimea, Hawaii May 15 , 1979 The eighteenth session and public hearing of the Hawaii County Charter Commission was called to order at 7: 17 p.m. in the Waimea Elementary and Intermediate School Cafeteria, Waimea, Hawaii , by Mr. Kimiaki Sakata, Chairman . The roll recorded the following: Present: Mr. Harlan Cadinha Mr. Richard Ishida Mrs. Amy Iwamoto Mrs. Gloria Kobayashi Mr. Akira Omonaka Mr. Kimiaki Sakata Mr. Herman Sensano Mr. Joseph Trulson Mr. Basilio Yagong Mr. Matsuo Yanaga Absent Mr. Spencer Kalani Schutte and Excused : Also Mr. Sonny Kaniho, Kamuela Present : Mr. Edward Austin , Puako Mr. Leon A. Thevenin , Puako Mr. Joshua Halemann, Kamuela Councilman Muneo Sameshima, Kamuela Mr. Kenneth Melrose, Waimea Kawaihae Community Association Ms. Ruth Tabrah, Chairman Democratic Committee Hawaii County Mr. Stuart Oda, Attorney Mrs. Joan Carnett, Secretary CHAIRMAN SAKATA: We are happy to have you people present this evening to give us input and to give us your testimony pertaining to the Charter. Before we call on Mr. Sonny Kaniho as our first speaker, Mr. Stuart Oda will go through the Rules of Procedure: for public hearing. Thank you, Mr. Oda. MR. ODA: These are the rules that will apply to the receiving of public statements at these public hearings. First of all , all persons desiring to speak before the commission shall register with the secretary prior to the convening of the meeting and shall provide the commission with their name, address and organization they represent, if applicable. No person who fails to register shall be heard. The Chairman shall call the name of the person desiring to speak , and all persons shall speak before a microphone and be informed that their statements will be recorded. All statements before the commission shall be in reference to provisions in the Charter of the County of Hawaii or those that may be proposed as amendments or additions thereto. Statements not relevant, at the discretion of the Chairman, shall not be heard or considered. Whenever requested or appropriate, the speaker shall specify the charter provision referred to so that members may be familiar with its;;-provisions. All statements are to be made to the 'commission in general and not to any specific member unless in response to a question by the said member. At any time, the Chairman or any commission member may interrupt any person making a statement for a clarification or answer. At the discretion of the Chairman , each person may be allotted a specific number of minutes to speak. Written proposals regarding any amendments or additions to the charter may be submitted at the time of the hearing, or thereafter. Written statements on issues before the commission may be deferred until such time as the subject matter referred to in the statement appears on the commission ' s agenda. If deferred , the writer shall be informed when the issue will be on the agenda to allow the writer the opportunity to address the commission and elaborate and/or clarify his statement , should he so desire. Oral statements before the commission will be heard at scheduled public hearings to be held by the commission. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Thank you, Mr. Oda. We will now have Mr. Sonny Kaniho address the commission. Mr. Kaniho. MR. KANIHO: My name is Sonny Kaniho. My address is Kamuela. I am not too familiar with the charter rules and it is difficult to quote the rules I am referring to. If it is permissible, I will say what I want to speak about refers to a certain thing. Would that be okay? -2- MR. TRULSON: Mr. Kaniho, as long as it pertains to the charter. MR. KANIHO: I understand your rules are pretty broad but for me, especially, I don ' t really know how broad they are. I feel a little bit broad is a good thing but I would like to see certain things come to a point that will give the people their=l,rights instead of the commission making their own amendments and that ' s about it , you know, without public hearing. My understanding, also, is that if there are any amendments to come out they will be before the public very little. I under- stand that they will be on a voting ballon because it is such a short time. It is now May and you want to get it out in November and it is pretty difficult but I still don ' t think it is an excuse that we don ' t get all the information. I know you have been out before the public but the commission is not giving us what the people are saying. We would like to know what the others are saying, too. I 'm sure we would like to support them and we would like to improve some areas which need to be improved. Sometimes we think maybe it is not worthwhile to argue at this time and that is why I am here. I want to get more things out. If the board can give us some idea about the meetings and on the heavy things , maybe it will give the people who will speak behind me more chance to talk about it. I think it would be difficult for me to come up with something but in the meantime while I am talking to you this will give the people in the back here who want to speak more on what they want to talk about. If you can give us any idea, I don ' t know if the: board is permitted to--are, you permitted to give us any idea from the past hearings so the people in the back who want to testify, you know, it would be helpful to the others? Or to themselves. CiHAIRMAN SAKATA: Mr. Kaniho, right now, what we are trying to do is get public input. In other words , all the public hearings we have gone through and from public testimony and the meetings we have conducted , what we are trying to do is get input from the people. So far, we have had some of the following concerns : , 1_. Representation. Do you want district representation? Do you want at-large representation for the councili Or do you strictly want no at-large councilmen? What do you want? Just strictly from their districts , representing their districts and elected from no one outside? Also, we talked about the possibility of instead of having nine councilmen, seven councilmen. Some have maintained . why have nine, why not have seven. Some of them are saying, why don ' t we go into a city manager type of situation rather than the mayor-council type. Some of them have voiced their opinion that we should go back into the board of supervisor, chairman situation. Also, we talked about the tax base. What should be the best tax base. The Kona people are really concerned -3- • • • about this- tax. business because of the property tax and so on fend have come up with things like .this. • They 'have also come up with ' the idea of--even among; the departments. in the county some of them are saying that okay why can ' t we -merge some of the departments together rather than making-them into separate divisions? They feel that probably it could be better operated under this type of a merger. • • They are talking about the possibility of having a legal counsel,. for the county council .because .they . don ' t have one. - • All of these things have come before us. So now we have some ways and means of trying to look at the charter and saying •okay the charter says this. Now the people of the County of Hawaii are voicing their opinion and saying hey we • need some changes made. If the changes are for the good of the county and for the people then we have to look at these things from that standpoint and try to deliberate. 'When we do delibe- rate on all of these points where the people have voiced their concerns now we know where we stand also. Now we cannot just say okaywe art_tong'to_=do this because we don ' t know what the people'are really looking at In the charter. I think the most difficult part of the whole situation is the fact that many . people do not understand the charter. They don ' t know too much. about it because they haven ' t studied It and they haven ' t really looked ' into it from the standpoint of what are the revisions . ' to be made or amendments to be made. We have had groups come before us who have studied this backwards and forwards.. They can give us figures percentwise, populationwise and all of these things' from their standpoint because they have studied and said okay these are our concerns , this is the way we want to have this done. What we are trying to get from you people is what do YOU people think about representation? How do you want the county to be represented? If we go on the five representa- tive. 'district 'type situation,; Waimea is out, right? How do • • you people feel about these things? Are we talking about nine • councilmen? Seven councilmen? Are' we talking about five representative districts? We have to really look at this from all of these standpoints so that we know where we stand. Also we have gone to different areas and some of them say I haven ' t even seen the charter at all . You know, what is the County Charter? What does it look like? So we • did get from the county, the County Charter. You may sign up for them and use .them on' loan this evening and return them to us after the meeting. What we really want from the public now is what do you want? What type of representation? What-kind of tax base are you people' interested in on property tax and so on? • - Residential tax? ' • • • • -4 • • • • We. are looking at the situation of ,how the departments. . . in the department, let ' s say, of water supply or department of research and development , department of planning, how best can they work together to serve, the people in the county? If there are changes to be made, okay, let us • know. At least we can look at it from the standpoint of these are the concerns of the people and we look at it from the . standpoint of what is best .for . the county. I 'm sure we are going to get input from people who live _in West Hawaii , East Hawaii and so on... . We want to look at it from, all standpoints and come up with the best possible solution so that the charter can serve the people the best. Not only one segment of the people but all the people in the county. This is what we are looking at. • . • We haven ' t really. made any deliberations at all now. I don ' t know what any, of these commissioners have in their minds : as to the various areas that have been-,;touched upon. I don ' t know, - but wheh "we .do, deliberate and we take a vote, then I ' ll find out their feelings and why they want to do it this way or that way. But, right now, what we want from you people is what do you want as far as representation or' anything pertaining to the charter. Then we .can deliberate. MR. KANIHO: Thank you. very much. That will help us. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: How would you want representa- tion? You are a member here in the community of Kamuela. How do you want Kamuela to be represented in the County of Hawaii? MR. KANIHO: Thank you. You have given us some good ideas. As far as the whole thing in the charter, I 'm not really familiar, but concerned. You have asked about the representation. . .the five number. would be too small to represent all . the people in Hawaii County as far as the . council portion . of the county. • CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Mr. Kan.iho, one of the concerns we have heard so much about recently. . .and here is a good example, if a person. runs from let ' s say, Kamuela, as a councilman. The people of Kamuela vote him into office but if • he were to run at-large he would have to go to Kona, go to. Hilo and he would have to go to the Ka'u District and , to all these various districts., if he runs at-large. Now even though all of you people say we want that person to represent us in .Kamuela as our councilman and he goes outside and the outside people. say no and vote somebody else in who you people don ' t want to be your councilman. . .in other words , you are voting for him here but heloses outside. ' He loses in Kdna,. heloses in Ka' u, he loses' in some of the other districts , but you people • have voted him in from Kamuela. So these are some of the things that people are looking at. If a person wins from his • district, he should rightfully represent his district. The people in .Kona shouldn ' t' tell the people in Kamuel. :, hey, that • person that won in Kamuela is not going to represent you people because we are not going to vote for him. These are some r7 • -5- • • • • of the things the people have come up with and we are looking • at it from the standpoint of what is best. At-large? District • representation? How many in the council? How long? Two years? Three years? Staggered terms . or four straight ,years? MR. KANIHO: Thank. you. When is your closing • date' for testimonies to get in? Maybe we can wrap this up after you leave this area. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: We have one more scheduled • public hearing and that will be in Kona next week. Then on the 29th we will kind of wrap it up and we are going to start , deliberating. MR. KANIHO: Testimonies can be sent in after tonight then not later khan the 29th, would you say? Would that be okay with you? CHAIRMAN 'SAKATA: Yes. . . MR. KANIHO: I 'm not too crazy about the at-large thing. I strongly feel that I would like to see that our representative come from our area. I am against the at-large as my part. I would like to see the councilmen be in office • for ,.not more than eight years. That' s the representation part. Another part I would like to state my concern about is the planning commission. I don ' t know whether the charter has this authority on the planning commission , you do have this authority, don ' t you? One thing on this planning commission, as you know, I ' ve been having a lot of arguments with the state about the Hawaiian Homes and last year the . planning commission zoned Hawaiian Home lands. I find there is nothing in the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act that permits the county to zone Hawaiian Home lands. Now they have done it -and now itl3s a questionable thing and REDEVCO is not coming up with their thing because there is a lawsuit coming. I 'm not too crazy about lawsuits. Lawsuits cost money. If the Hawaiians • get their land back then the state, I think , should pay' REDEVCO for misleading them into a trap. If REDEVCO gets to use the land then the Hawaiians will have to file a suit with both sides. I feel the court is only the best place to settle things. But for a big enterprise like REDE4CO, . they can go through the lawsuits . but for us people with minimum income it ' s difficult. It takes . time and years. So I would say on that part that the planning commission has no authority to zone Hawaiian Home lands. Now on the legal counsel.. I always like to see legal people representing but not only the council body. I would like to see the people get legal representation too. but I .`don° t know -how _weare going eo wti,rk that thing out. But it is • very important to have` a legal person , although the legal person can only furnish advice maybe for both sides. But I am not making any recommendation on this, area now but maybe .the people will make something on that. VI know there are a lot of things that have to be improved in our charter but when you get up here you run out of a lot of things so that is all I have for now. But would I have an opportunity to come back if I would like to voice anything else, or no? • Yes.. or no? V • • -6- CHAIRMAN SAKATA: You can submit, also, to the commission, a written statement. We see your concern, Mr. Kaniho, but as far as the Hawaiian Homes land dealings, this commission is not empowered, has no jurisdiction to change the statutes of the State, of Hawaii . We have no power at all. Our main concern is strictly on the charter revision and that is all. If we are going to talk about lawsuits or land dealings , we have no power at all on things of this sort. MR. KANIHO: I understand you have no power but sometimes when the charter makes something it becomes a legal problem. Unintentionally, I believe, at times , but once you get it on the surface it becomes something. That is all I have to say. Thank you, very much. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Thank you, very much. Next we would like to call on Mr. Ed Austin from Puako. Mr. Austin. MR. AUSTIN: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I hope I won ' t be wasting your time because I must admit I am not very conversant with the charter, itself, but with your tolerance I would like to express a couple of ideas . I should have said that I am from Puako and I am representing nobody but myself and I may be sorry for even that later on. I have come to the conclusion , after seeing discussions in the-,!newspaper, personnel actions , and what not, that perhaps the police commission functions should be spelled out a little more clearly and that the police commission should be given more power for policy making over the police department to eliminate the status quo in which they seem to be quite ineffective in having any really material contribution to make to law enforcement on the island. In this recent series of personnel actions , it became apparent that thererwas some disagreement between some of the police commissioners and the chief of police as to their respective authorities and it became clear as time went by that the police commission really lacks any power to have a material bearing, it seems to me, on the policies that the police are operating under. The County Charter stipulates that the police commission will have nothing to say- about the administration of the police department. Section 7-2.3. Department Rules. . "Except for purposes of inquiry, neither the commission nor its members shall interfere in any way with the administrative affairs of the department. " It seems to me that the use of the words , "administrative affairs" is unnecessarily broad and that it can be used to restrict the police commission from being effective. I think this has happened in the past and will continue to happen unless the 'areas are more carefully spelled -7- out in the charter. . .Where the commission has the right to advise and to expect compliance by the chief of police and where the chief of police can be reasonably sure he won ' t have interference from the commission on internal matters , the day to day administration which should be his and the matter of discipline. Those things which should fall in a direct line from the chief of police and where he should be able to operate without interference from the police commissioners. On the other hand, I think such matters as newsreleases ,the identity of criminals, some of these matters could be released to the press. In many cases , the identities of individuals charged or suspected of law enforcement violations have not been released when it might serve a community purpose if they were. This .is a matter that there could be a lot of disagreement on but it is a kind of a policy matter as to the operation of the police department that I think the police commission should take up and should consider. It can be construed, from the section , here that such considerations would be interfering with the administration of the police department. Thass is the kind of void that I would like to see eliminated. If it is possible to spell out the wording a little bit more. Failing that , I really favor the elimination of the police commission entirely because I think it isn ' t serving its purpose. That is just a personal opinion. . MR. CADINHA: Mr. Austin, if you would envision the police 'commissl on as you would like to seeit, would it be an elective office or an appointed position. . . MR. AUSTIN: In the largest city, I might favor an elective office. But, here, I see no reason why it can ' t function quite well as it is set up here. Representatives from each of the districts and the members shall be appointed by the mayor with the approval of the council. To me, that is sufficient. It is not so much who is selected, although, there again I think the county council should determine that the police commission members have the appropriate background and understanding of law enforcement, or penology, or some related phase of police work where they can bring their experience to bear. Whether they be social workers , or what. These sciences and skills all have a bearing on their capabilities to serve as commissioners. I think the council should use their discretion in screening out those they feel are qualified to serve on the commission and eliminate those who have no special qualifications. By that, I don ' t mean they should only pick ex-policemen;; or what have you. I think that law enforcement in the policy making area embraces a wide spectrum of people from different fields. They can all contribute if they have some area that overlaps with law enforcement. I think I would rely on the judgment of the mayor and the approval of the council as far as selection of members. . MR. CADINHA: Would a commissioner have any abilit ? For example,specific geographic accountability? p , a commissioner from Waimea, would his responsibility or would anything happening in that particular area be his responsibility? I 'm trying to get to the working so that I can understand how youccanqintegrate for a more powerful commission. MR. AUSTIN: I think it is well to have this selection by districts. The mayor should appoint someone {from each of the districts because then that commissioner would be en to the commission , as a whole, as to the able to make comments level of enforcement in his district. Where the crime problems seem to be. He may not be a criminologist, or an ex-policeman, but I 'm sure he knows if his community is suffering an undue . amount of auto thefts or burglaries, or whatnot. I think if the commission was appointed without regard to district represenit- ation , then we might end up with a situation where four or five members were from Hilo and one from Ka' u and that would be about it. Which would hardly be representation of the problems around the island. MR. CADINHA: My question ismore towards the operations. In other words, would there be any authority dispersed according to geography to where the person came from? Or do they all just sit in a committee function and reign more or less and give policy from the committee? Or do they have the geographic policy of responsibility? I don ' t know how this would work. MR. AUSTIN : Well , I 'm not, as I said, I 'm not an expert on this subject either and it is just my own opinion. I would think the commission should act as .a whole and that, say, the representative from Kamuela shouldn ' t have any particular bearingon the administration of the laws in Kamuela so that they could be differencf than they would be in Kona. They should be the same, island wide. I 'm only thinking of bringing to the attention of the police, in an effective way through the commission, the problems that exist and then seeing that they keep the pressure on until the police have resolved those problems. But, again, , the commission acting as a whole, and not as a representative of Kamuela saying that he represents this district 'and if a crime is committed here that he has some special interest it. None of that at all. That shouldn ' t be because one thing you don ' t want to have is a commissioner that • will 'intercede in, the investigation of a case or in <the adjudication of it or into personnel matters&.and feel that this policeman, this captain from his district is a good guy and regardless of what he may be charged with, heis from here and therefore you are going to support him. The commission should take an island wide philosophybut by coming from the different districts they would be knowledgable about the law enforcement problems in those districts. That is' about , th.e , extent of it:. You may want to carry it farther than that but to me that seems a good place to leave it. -9- MR. CADINHA: In your alternative (b) , wiping out the commission entirely which you said that you may be in favor of or feel more disposed toward. . .Would the police chief be an elective office or appointed under that thesis of yours? MR. AUSTIN: I haven ' t given that particular aspect a lot of thought but I would say he should be elected. I would favor an elective person but I have a fear of politics entering the police department and it is pretty difficult to have a police chief electedoand not have a political support behind him. These people, such 'as police chiges have a great deal of latitude as they see their job and if they should be induced to think that being lenient on a policeman or a violator from a certain area representing a certain union or group because it has some political bearing 'on his reelection, then T+[i,woux_l2djbe very much fearful of that situation. On the other hand, can you really rely on. the judgment of a mayor to pick a good chief of police, the best that can be had? I frankly don ' t know which is the best way. Each has something •to be said for it and something against it. MR. CADINHA: Thank you. MR. TRULSON: We have had a great deal of testimony on the last section under the Police Department , Chapter 2, page 17. That is , "The police department shall come under the general supervision and control of the mayor. " I would like your thoughts on that, sir. Do you feel this should be retained in the charter? MR. AUSTIN: ' It' s a sad situation when the mayor and the chief of police are at odds. We've seen that ir some mainland cities and it ' s frustrating to the public, as well . It ' s true that if there was a line of supervision of the chief of police under the mayor' s office that there wouldn 't be any decided differences of opinion because they just wouldn ' t exist under that condition. But would it be a healthy thing, is another question. MR. TRULSON: The testimony we have had from the chief of police and from the police commission is to delete that section from the charter. That is some of the testimonW that we have had. In other words , to make the police commission and the police chief, in effect, that more powerful without being answerable to the mayor. MR. AUSTIN : If that were done, if that section were eliminated then I would feel the police commission , and a strong one, would be an absolute necessity. Otherwise, you would have a police chief with no one to ride herd on him or to advise him, even, on matters of policy. He might be left out in left field and calling the shots wrong and no one could take any corrective action. MR. TRULSON: I believe some of the testimony they have stated is that the police chief feels like he has, in effect, two bosses. The police commission selects him but he is answerable tothe mayor. The mayor selects the police commission. He feels that perhaps there is only one boss , the police commission, not both. -10 MR. AUSTIN : I certainly would have to agree with that. With a commission of five or seven members , I think they should be the one to set the policy and not the mayor. If you have to choose between one or the other, and if he is finding himself in a bind , thinking that he has to abide by the commission who, itself, is appointed by the mayor, I could see his dilemma. I had no idea it worked that way that he felt in such a bind. If he does, I think you should take that into consideration if you think of changing the section. Going back to the subject where I am stuck , I really can ' t tell you for sure whether I favor the election of the police chief as such, or his choice by the commission, or by the mayor. I think you' ll have to get someone else who is better qualified :to comment on that. If there are no other questions , I would like to go on to the matter of taxation. Here, I am really in the dark as to what authority the Charter Review Commission has. MR. ISHIDA: Mr. Austin, you indicated that you would possibly eliminate the police commission if it is not serving its purpose. Would you elaborate on that? MR. AUSTIN: I can ' t tell you exactly the reasons for it. It is just that my background is in law enforcement and I have been watching the newspapers for articles on the police commission for five years , or so. Over that time, I just got the feeling that they really don ' t take the stands when they should. When they do take a stand, the charter, itself, has put them in such a weak position that they really can ' t be as effective as they should be. I believe that there should be some civilian review over police and I think the commission could serve that purpose very well. If we have cases , for instance, of police officers and even lieutenants allegedly involved in some kind of drug operation , the police commission should insist that these matters be cleared up and that the press be appropriately and timely advised. in other ,words , my impressions come from the failure of the commission to take a positive, definite stand on matters of considerable public interest where the public ' s confidence in the police department is at stake. Sometimes , I get a feeling that county agencies , namely the police, may not always be well represented by the press . I think it may be because they are not in a position to tell all the facts and rather than not tell all the facts they tell none. I think that an effective police commission would do a better job of getting the point of view of the police across without compromising police work. But when you come down to specifics where the commission has failed , I think it goes back to the charter and to the way the commission sees the charter as restricting its own advice and counsel and, for that matter, its line of authority over the police department. I 'm sorry I can ' t be more helpful . This is just my own personal opinion and I haven ' t attended very many police commission meetings so I can ' t comment further as to their day to day operations . But that is the way that they project themselves through the press to me. MR. ISHIDA: Thank you. -11- • • MR. AUSTIN: I' asked about taxes and' I think the. Chairman said something earlier that your commission has very little to do with respect to tax administration. But, under the proposed ' witchover from the state to the county ' s tax administration , may not the charter have to be rewritten in sections having to do with tax assessment? Can anyone answer that? • MR. ,ODA: Mr. Austin , the switchover is not immediate, it is a gradual one. So far as the taxing authority of the County of Hawaii is concerned, it c-an be done by an • ordinance of the county. It does not have to be put in the charter. So the county council would probably be enacting ordinances to implement the switchover .at a later date. • MR. AUSTIN : Well , that would probably be an appropriate time to make my point that I feel that taxes now as perhaps never before, are having a drastic change on the makeup of some of our communities, such as Puako, where we live. We are, in particular, fearful .that the 20% or so annual • rise in taxes may compel local people to move away, to sell their properties and move away. We don ' t think this IS a good social practice, to force people to leave their communities. Just to make it short, because you are not interested in it, I ,would like to say that, probably then on your suggestion , we will go before the county council when 'ordinances are considered • to try to limit the acceleration of taxes at Puako and other places along the coast. • As far as representation of the councilmen, if you will give me another minute or two, I would like to favor, again on my own, a representation both by district and at-large. I would favor the present nine councilmen with two councilmen , from each of three districts. Preferably, with staggered terms 'if this were feasible.. If .the elections could be scheduled to • stagger terms so that no two councilmen from the same districts would be elected at the same time. • As far as the breakdown of districts , I would like to see South Kohala teamed with North and .South Kona as one district, with two councilmen from that district. North ' Kohala teamed with Hamakua and North Hilo as another district. And, finally, South Hilo, and Ka' u and Puna teamed together. With two representatives• fr-om. each district there would 'always be 'one available, at least, to present the views of that district. It would be a better chance that at least one of the men would bean effective representative from his district, if not both of them. • • Ialso would favor the election of three representatives. at-large to compensate for the, population discrepancies throughout the island and also hopeful that we could get some . truly island wide representatives who would be more than parochial in their interests. Something to Ltie ._ together and having nine persons would seem better being an odd number rather than an even number if you have a split vote. • I think that is. about it. • • • • -12- • • MR. OMONAKA: With regard to your district • proposal , if you can ' t meet the test of the one-man, one-vote, concept, what would you suggest? MR. AUSTIN: The population does bother me because I don ' t know when we are going to have--there is < .upposed to be a census in 1980 so perhaps we will know better about representation' around the island then. There is a problem there in representation by population. I don ' t know how that can be done. As it is, our own U. S. Senate is made" up of two. , senators from every state so that is, hardly by ; _pu Dolatiori but = . by state. What I am thinking of is our island split up into districts with that kind of representation and hopeful that the three at-large scandidatesrqi.j ;somehow compensate for the population discrepancies around the island. Kona being a very fast . growing , area in .the future. They probably have a far greater population in rate of increase than East Hawaii , but as it is riht' now, it ' s very likely that representatives at-large would come from the large population areas because they would be known there and there would be more votes to be had in those districts. • In the representation by district, would it be possible for the people of the district to. be the only voters on their candidates? This is something that I don ' t know and I would • have to have a legal interpretation of that. But, if so ;r� i-`would -_` f)atvor: that. In other words , the people from Hilo, and Ka' u, andI Puna would be the ones to vote for - their two representatives from their district and the people from Waimea could not vote or in , any way influence the choice of those representatives from that district. This is what I would like to see. MR. CADINHA: Mr. Austin , what is your background? Were you a prosecuting attorney, by - anchance? You stated that you were in law enforcement. • MR. AUSTIN : As a federal investigator. Local law enforcement isn ' t my bag, but nevertheless, just like a retired s'c,hool teacher gets vibes about this or that involving' school boards , I guess it happens to me, too. • • CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Thank you very much , Mr. 'Austin. • Next we would like tocall on Mr. :Leon TheVenin.. MR. THEVENIN : I would like to speak on the possibility of: the merging of the different. departments of the • county and the possibility of merging" .some of the-departments of the county with those of . the state. As an example, there was one • • . time when I was a. manager on one of the plantations over here, the county., was doing some work . at Paaui:lo' and they were renting a D-4 tractor from Davies for $.20 an 'hour and they used it .for a week while at the same time the State of Hawaii had a D-4 similar tractor parked on the edge. of the state hlghway not being used. There is a lot of room for more efficiency in .government and I would• think before any of these. mergers are run into hurriedly, that both the state and the county should 'have an industrial engineering study to get the facts and see where they can save money. Perhaps they can ' t and -perhaps they can. • • -13- " Another area I think they could save in is in the parks. I think the county does a good job of parkswherever they have control , because they are interested in protecting peoples' lives. The county is responsible for the health and safety of the population on this island. The state has beautiful parks but they don' t care about lifesaving, they don ' t put life- guards or other things so I would think that being that the county has the control and the responsibility of the health and safety of the population, that they should be in charge of parks. Whereas, the state would be more efficient in building roads and maintaining them. They should have overall juris- diction of roads. Road projects, particularly in this area, get shunted way off in the background. We have been trying for twenty years to get this road built from Waimea to Kawaihae for the development of our farms. Every. year they shove it in the background. Ten years in the future, there is never a way out. Progress is just marking time there. There is very little mainland shipping. People get slaughtered on this road. But the timetable for that is way in the future. Maybe some of us will never live that long.. Another thing I would like to touch on a little bit is the county taking over the assessment and the collection of real property taxes on this island. I have been working with Senator Hara and Stephen Yamashiro and giving them the input of people down in this area. They have been doing a lot of study on the thing and they are going to have a big meeting in Kona in about two weeks. County officials and state officials. They invited me togo to the meeting but they said, well , you' ll have to pay a $1.00 registration fee. Why does a private citizen , by invitation, have -to go to Kona and pay my own gasoline when all these public servants go„ there and their registration fee is paid by me, actually, as 'a=taxpayer® So I 'm not going because I can ' t afford to. I think that'-ythia matter of tax reform and everything should be carefully studied and I think they should welcome input by citizens and not try to extract $100 from them every time you go to that place. Another thing on this tax reform that we have been working hard on, too, is to get some protection for the elderly. In my case, more than 50% of my social security income goes to pay real property taxes. Why shouldn ' t there be a ceiling on that? $200 or $3'x00 would be the dmaxlmumo_I-paay ”'" . :k $1 ,800 a year just on my. home. Half of this island pays only_` $7 dollars. Fifty percent pays only seven dollars. I think for the people on social security there should be a maximum tax and that should be written into the charter. I don ' t know whether that can be done or whether this would have to go to the legislature or not but I think there is a big area for tax reform to be worked by the county and byf=the state officials. I would hate to see them, after this Kona conference, just dive into something and not have it done properly._ I _suggested to Senator Hara that what they ought to do is�go:_to_all 'the mainland states and try to extract the best :tax reform that they can get and put it into the Hawaii system before they get, something like Proposition 13 shoved down their throats like they did in California. Then you can ' t live with it. I think Mr. Austin covered the area pretty well and I , too, am in favor of better area representation. Like the last, time, when ' Bill Kawahara was sick , nobody from West Hawaii was there to represent him. rY ' -14- . . • • Maybe if Moon was sick he could appoint me his alternate to come to a county .meeting, or something like that. Or have Moon take Bill Kawahara' s proxy. The Kona people were not represented. If Moon got sick, the Waimea people would not be represented. • • Thank you for listening to me. • "CHAIRMAN' SAKATA:. . Thank you, very much , Mr. Thevenin. The next speaker is Joshua Halemann. • ', MR.- HALEMANN: I have here the suggestions ' that were printed in the '; Test Hawaii paper as charter recommendations. One that I am particularly concerned about is the nine council districts that each councilman be elected from his own 'representative district. • • What I would like to emphasize is that on District #3, I know that North Hilo," ,Hamakua and North Kohala are grouped together, are a ligned_to.gethr•: I feel that North Kohala should be aligned and. represent the 4th District. The • reason • for that is because, take Waimea for instance, it ' s in the South Kohala District. I feel that North Kohala and • Kamuela are more neighborly or closer to each other than North Kohala would be to Hamakua and North Hilo. Therefore, I feel that the councilman elected from North Kohala should be aligned with the 4th District.. South Kohala and North a;nth South Kona. • Another reason, too, is that I think there is more balance as far as E_ar as representatton goes. What would you people feel to that question? MR. TRULSON : Mr. Halemann ,' for one thing, I believe what you are reading in the West' Hawaii Today to not . our re ar mendaf ions. I believe those areF 'itY e paper' s recommendations. We have made no recommendations regarding any of. the charter provisions to date. We will not be doing ' so until after all the public input, so that is not our recommendation. M.R. HALEMANN: My- argument is this , that why • ebu. ladn`' t North Kohala be aligned - with South Kohala and North and South Kona? - • MR. TRULSON: I have no reason why it couldn ' t be and probably nobody here has one, but we haven ' t sat down and studied every .proposal that has been given to us to make a decision. I believe, and maybe Counsel could correct me but I believe that should we decide to go that way, there would have to be an apportionment committee or a group that would study the realignment of the districts. All the charter will do is sayofthere shall be -so many districts. I think there would have to be some committee that would have to outline it. .I think it would probably have to be based after the 1980 census. • • -15- There may be something to hold us until -then. After that. . .I really don ' t know. But I 'm sure there will have to be some committee that will make the boundary lines of each district. MR. HALEMANN : Another thing that I wish to draw your attention to is the selection of the police commission. I think they should be selected according to the nine districts. What I mean is that each police commissioner would be selected by the people from each respective district. MR. TRULSON : Would you say then the same districts as the councilmen? MR. HALEMANN : Right. Like our county council- men are set up also from each respective district. The reason for that is this , that they have had so many hassles about the police commission. If they had five from Hilo and the people from West Hawaii side are not familiar or know them, how would they know that they are executing their duties? Whereas , if they are elected from their respective districts the public I feel . can keep an eye on them and see that they are properly carrying on their official duties. I think that would solve some of the problems that a lot of people i know say that, :oh,, the police commission don ' t do nothing. Which, I don ' t know, maybe in a way it is true. If they don ' t get results then I think that the people are right in what they say. Whereas , if they were elected in their own respective districts I think they could keep an eye on them and keep a check on what the police commission is doing. Also, they can make recommendations to the police commission. Be close to them and be able to go to them with their problems. That is all I have to say. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Thank you, Mr. Halemann . Are they any other questions for Mr. Halemann? Mr. Omonaka? MR. OMONAKA: Mr. Halemann, on your proposal that the police commission be elected. Are you suggesting that they be paid like the county council , or get elected and don ' t get paid like some of the elected officials get elected and don ' t get paid? MR. HALEMANN : Well , I think most of that would be on a voluntary basis. I 'm pretty sure that a lot of eager citizens would be willing to serve on the police commission without pay. MR. TRULSON : Mr. Halemann , are you aware that at the present time there are 7 police commissioners and that there is one from the combined districts of North and South Kona, one from the combined districts of North and South Kohala, and one from the district of Hamakua, two from North and South Hilo and one from Puna, and one from Ka' u? You want nine, you say there should be nine police commissioners. MR. HALEMANN: From each respective district. -16- MR. TRULSON: . Then you feel that there would be better representation of North and South Kohala, West Hawaii with nine members? It seems that to me at the present time that it is well distributed. There are representatives from the Kohala area, from the Kona area, from Ka' u, from Puna, and from Hilo. Where do you see the inconsistency? MR. HALEMANN : I think they could get-together and have board meetings together and hold the main board meeting in Hilo or some place so they all can get-together. If, like I say, a drastic problem comes up at that time all the nine members from the commission have to meet. MR. TRULSON: But you were "look ing for more representation from outlying areas than is presently, is that correct? MR. HALEP!IANN:: Yes. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Thank you, Mr. Halemann. Next we would like to call on Councilman Sameshima. Mr. Sameshima, MR. SAMESHIMA: Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to testify before the members of the Charter Commission© Mr. Chairman Sakata, and members. My main reason I am here to testify and I have distributed my "rushed into" proposals. . .I feel that the people have had it right up tb their throats , in fact, it has gone up their heads already, and elected officials and a lot of the appointed officials , department heads, they are not responsive to the people, so I put Initiative as number one, Initiative and Referendum, as number one on my proposals. We have provided Initiative and Referendum in our charter but there are too many restrictions. I feel that since the people are the employers of government and government should be working for thepeople, the people have the right to make changes or have a say in how much pay anyone that works for government can have. Today, I know that everybody feels that salaries, fringes and benefits have gone way beyond the expectation of the people. The people who work in a public industry don ' t get such luxury benefits , fringes and benefits which are considered one of the best in the world, and I can prove it. So, I would ask the members of this Charter Commission to really consider and have Initiative and Referendum and remove the restriction. I support the West Hawaii Committee, the Kona Chamber of Commerce and the three other organizations who proposed the amendments. MR. CADINHA: Mr. Sameshima, have you given any consideration to adding recall to the Initiative and Referendum? MR. SAMESHIMA:. Yes, I have recall as number seven on my list. Two--the charter to provide a satellite county office--field •office- =in West Hawaii. I feel that Kona should be considered as an area where the West Hawaii people can go to. -1.7- If you live in Waimea or Kamuela and travel the Hamakua road to Hilo, you get. into the rainy and muddy season when the sugar plantations are hauling cane. It makes you sick. I have it here ). that they used to call it--they still call it the Waimea Mud Lane. You know, the mud lane' road into Waimea? We don ' t have any mud there. We should change the name to the Mud Lane stretch from Honokaa to Wainaku. This , I think , should be number two. Think of the West Hawaii people becaute for us here in North Kohala, South Kohala and Kawaihae--in fact, even Hamakua and Honokaa would prefer going to Kona to get their business done. Building permits, automobile license, dog licenses , whatever you have. .I think this is better than having what the mayor has proposed to have--some sort of a. mayor' s assistant in Kona. I don ' t think that is necessary. . MR. ISHIDA: Mr. . Sameshima, to just elaborate a little on that em, how would you define what a satellite county office would be? What would it encompass? MR. SAMESHIMA: Where, you see, you want to have your property rezoned if it is agriculture, or you want to have your property subdivided, you don ' t go into Hilo just one time. You go into Hilo maybe a dozen times before these problems will be finalized. So, I think this is very important. Kona is growing and I think Kona is an area where most of the business that Hilo, our county office, is getting is through West Hawaii. You don ' t see much development in the East side area, so, I feel in the next five years--I know, if this--if it is not provided either by our administration or the county council , the only way is for the charter to see to it that there is something-- that we don ' t have to go through a hassle of ordinances , resolutions and so forth--because I know the majority of the Hilo people would rather see more people going to Hilo because that means that much more business would be done in Hilo. MR. ISHIDA: As I understand you, then , you feel that this matter cannot be taken into effect by the council action? MR, SAMESHIMA: I believe it could be but the council will have a lot of pressure put on by the business people. in Hilo. I 'm sure that the people of the business establishments in Hilo would want all of the people in our county to do business in Hilo. This Is one of the reasons it ' s going to be difficult, that it is difficult for the mayor:; -int is difftcult for the council who, I believe, is actually controlled by the majority. MR. ISHIDA: As you know, the charter is considered a general document subject to a lot of interpretation. I can see that a problem may arise should we just state that a satellite county office should be established. How does one interpret it to determine what a satellite county office would mean? I can see there could be a misunderstanding by saying, okay, we' ll have an administrative aide handle the county office and that should satisfy the charter--which, I don ' t think is what you mean. How would we prevent falling@into that type of situation? -18- MR. SAMESHIMA: I don' t think that an admin- istrative aide could handle whatever I am proposing. We should have such functions as the building permit department. We should have the planning department and one of the planning department officials to be stationed in North Kona, or South Kona, wherever it would be centrally located. This is provided in the charter that the administration or the county council shall provide such a satellite sort of city hall type of operation. This would eliminate much of the problems of traveling for the West Hawaii people. MR. ISHIDA: I 'm sympathetic with that position , Councilman. The only thing with that problem I am having is I think if the charter is to clarify that situation then I think it should more or less state what services, if any, are to be served through the satellite offices. What I would like to know, now, also is what would you suggest as to what services should be stated and established. Just leaving a provision like that in the charter in a general fashion is leaving it too much up to interpretation . MR. SAMESHIMA: Actually, what my intention was that we should have a member of the treasury department , you know, collection of automobile taxes , dog taxes, bicycle taxes. We should have a least one of each who does all of these services. All the various departments.. . Planning department.. . As far as the inspection department, building permits , I 'm not sure if they could apply for building permits in Kona. I still think they have to do to Hilo. But that ' s not too bad. If you go once, that ' s about it. Sometimes maybe you have to go several times. Subdivision rezoning I think is one of the biggest problems for West Hawaii and West Hawaii can afford it. I believe that West Hawaii pays more than 50% of property taxes. I feel that we deserve something better than the treatment that we 've been getting all this time. If you look at even our capital improvements and you look at the reports that we get, you hardly see anything for West Hawaii . It ' s about time that West Hawaii should be recognized and then you could do that--you know, this is not going to cost a hell of a lot of money--West Hawaii can afford it and if you initiate these changes and tell our government officials to follow whatever you place on the ballot and the people will make the final decision. But if you give the people a chance to vote on it, you know, like everything else, Initiative and whatever, I feel that whatever the people ' s will--should be placed on the ballot and let ' s leave it up to the people. It is going to be up t.o the community of the people that are concerned to let the people know the benefits of each proposal that would be placed on the ballot. If the Hilo people feel that_, hell , let ' s not give West Hawaii that break--that ' s it. Let ' s give it a try. MR. ISHIDA° Thank you. -19- 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- MR. SAMESHIMA: That portion--remember we actually, if we meet once a week we are entitled to the pay. That is , once a week, except on budget review when we have at least two additional days a week . It' s just for about three weeks, three to four weeks. I don ' t think there is that much work that the councilman is doing. Although part-time, you get telephone calls and a lot of times we take trips to association meetings and things like that in Kona and Kohala, wherever we are called, to, if we have the time. Still then, , as a businessman, I still have time to run my business . I do a lot outside of my regular council duties. Another thing, if any public official runs for office with the intention of making a living , these guys are easily bought. And I know politicians, they won ' t come out and tell you but they take something under the table, a lot of them. So this is another thing, if you think about it, eleven councilmen , it ' s at least you ' ve got to have seven votes. You have a chairman and a chairman to control seven--and then, you know, I 'm a big corporation and I need something to be introduced or some project should be done to benefit me. Heck , boy, I 'm going to have a hell of a time getting to reach the seven guys. But , nine is better than seven . Seven , cheap, they get away cheap, they buy them. Now this is another important area. We should consolidate a lot of these departments. I feel that the public works , parks and recreation , and department of water supply, you have one chief. You don ' t need three different chiefs. In a lot of these departments they have the same kind of equipment to maintain whatever they have to--maintain their roads or equipment. Mechanics , each department has a mechanic foreman. You needonly one foreman. If you have a dump'ctruck, most of the time three departments have three dump trucks. There is very seldom that you will find the three dump trucks all go out and do a full day' s work. I think this way we can reduce costs. This is another area I think this commission should consider. I 'm hoping that the public will come out and express their opinion. I understand that the last hearing is going to be in Kona? That ' s the last hearing? And give the people a chance to vote and see their reaction. Because if it doesn ' t work in ten years we can change it again. Number five--if you know exactly how much it costs to run the mayor system of government--I feel we should eliminate that system. . .The way we have it now, it' s too much overhead. Number six--provide forcounty council to hire a city or county manager. One of the reasons is the manager will be responsible to either nine, or seven, or eleven councilmen , whichever you are going to decide to put on the ballot. They are going to be more responsive to the people. I think it is about time that government should be responsive. Number seven, I have recall . This is to keep the politicians honest. If they do anything shady and if they get caught they know the people can vote them out of office. Because I know and you know there is corruption. Remove ineffective officials , you know, maybe like mea I talk too much. -21- Recently, the five organizations in the West Hawaii paper gave me the idea by their proposal that the charter should provide some sort of a solution where when a councilman , or elected official , gets ill and have to stay away at home for three or four months, that we provide somebody to take his place. That is a good idea. Today, I forget what some of our councilmen look like. They don ' t attend meetings. I don ' t think the chairman and the vice-chairman attended one single budget review meeting. There should be some provision that able- bodied public officials, once a week, attend every meeting unless they get sick. Like Bill Kawahara, you have to excuse him, it was no fault of his but where is our vice-chairman? Where is our chairman? We don ' t know where they are. They never came and gave any opinion on the subject. Something has to be done. Something should be provided in the charter. I don ' t know what. But, the recall , if the people know about it, throw them all out, we don ' t need them. If I do the same, I deserve to be kicked out. Number eight--provide chairman of council to attend at least--you see, Mr. Yamashiro is a good friend of mine, so, because of that I have him mentioned twice and it looks like I am getting at him, so I guess just forget about that. That recall will handle it. Nine--another important area is to provide a legal counsel for our county council . You see this is another area where Mr. Yamashiro threw out the only legal counsel that we had. He refused to conduct a meeting unless our attorney wasn ' t there. Get out of our office! How do you like that. This is the kind of county we have. A lot of things have to be added to this charter. Not one -area where I find WHO enforces this charter. I don ' t think that you can show me an area where who enforces it. I know there are violations. I can spell them out to you and I think your legal counsel can, as well . He might not answer this . Look at Section 5-2.5 , Page 10. This is something that actually happened. . . "The council MAY, by two-thirds vote of its entire membership. . " Okay, what does that mean? "authorize the employment of special counsel for any special matter presenting a real necessity for such employment. " The counsel MAY by two-thirds vote ! What does that mean? MAY by two''-thirds vote. Does that mean that say, the police commission , in this case, the police commission , go out and hire 'their own counsel? Without the county council approving? By two-thirds vote? Because just the word may in there, it means that they don ' t have to. The counsel MAY. MR. TRULSON : Perhaps it gives them the power to do it. Is it possible to say the council may--in other words , that they are empowered to do it. MR. SAMESHIMA: They are empowered but can they go ahead and hire? Does it mean that--this is one of the reasons why Mr. ' Abe got paid. Nobody approved hiring him. Neither the administration, nor the police commission. -22- You see, who enforces this? You've got to have something--if you leave it up to the county council and especially you have an attorney, he is not going to advise even if he knows what is right and what is wrong. That is something that I can ' t understand. If I were an attorney and I know if I couldLr1ead the_se 4rl g'al things , . I would advise. In fact, I would say we don ' t need a legal counsel , I would give you folks the legal counsel. I 'm an elected official and a licensed attorney. But I 'm not. But because of that wording "may" our finance committee approved the payment. - I guess I have talked enough. I 'm sincerely hoping that this commission will place the important things , what you think the people want and let the people have a choice to vote for these, each proposals. I 'm sure that the people will appreciate it if you place Initiative, Referendum and Recall with no strings attached. If you are going to let the county officials to take the pay raises, give fringe benefits, bowing to the pressure of these big unions , we are going to be broke in the next, maybe, five or ten years.. I 'm tired of paying taxes. Thank you. MR. TRULSON: Regarding the recall , are you. aware that the present charter does provide for the removal of the councilmen or the mayor by impeachment proceedings? MR. SAMESHIMA: By impeachment, yes. But that is the simplest way to go. But who is going to initiate the impeachment? All you need is, I understand, you need just a handful of registered voters to sign a petition and the judge rules whether you are in or out. MR. TRULSON: You're talking about impeachment or recall? MR. SAMESHIMA: impeachment , yet. I think the impeachment is very: simple. But , you see, the judge now, how are you going to know what the judge is thinking about? Maybe he is going to tell you and say that is not enough reason . Many t,imes::zthat happens. But if you give the people the right to throw out. this politician, the politicians will look alive. The recall is very important. Not for any simple matter because there are times when• a poli ti_c,ian does something very serious. One day you are going to find somfebody is going to be in : that position but he is still going to be officially. . . . MR. MR. TRULSON: If there was recall , would you require like the present Initiative__does that there be 15% of the registered voters sign -Qa=peti_tion _for recall? MR. SAMESHIMA: Yes, sure, definitely. I ' prefer that they follow the same procedures that are provided in this charter. MR, TRULSON: Then you would have an election on recall? -23- MR. SAMESHIMA: I believe then the county' council can act on it. By two-thirds vote. MR. TRULSON: I 'm trying to get at how would you suggest ;khat this be done? MR. SAMESHIMA: If you have the petition of 15% of the voters ; you know that the people want that politician out. Before placing this tn the charter maybe it should be provided that the county council by two-thirds vote can remove the person in question. If the council doesn ' t approve that then it goes on the ballot and let the people . make the de6-ision. cic^. i MR. TRULSON: Aren ' t you taking it away from the people if you have 15% of them sign a petition and then give it to nine councilmen to make a decision and if they don ' t make a decision then give it back to the people MR. SAMESHIMA: Yes , give it back to the people. I feel that maybe it would cost the taxpayers less. Plus , the people w`ocald know that when 15% of the voters , the registered voters, have signed a petition agreeing that that certain official should be recalled , the council should have a first crack at it. And if the council says--well , if one of the council members is being recalled then we have to have at least six, six is two-thirds , at least five, if we have five votes the councilman should just pack his bags and go home. MR. TRULSON: Don ' t you think you are putting it right back into politics by doing that? MR. SAMESHIMA: No, not if it made a provision. If anybody has been recalled" and removed from office, that ' s sortof a criminal violation and , in fact, he could be prosecuted. Or should be prosecuted. MR. TRULSON: Mr. Sameshima', it seems to methat you wishto provide the people a way to remove an official from office who is derelict or what have you. But, then you are giving, it back to ' the, politicans to decide whether or not to do it. They say. no and. . . • ' MR. SAMESHIMA: Okay, now, if we say no, then we place it on a ballot. This is the shortcut. MR. TRULSON: If you say yes , out he goes . Why shouldn ' t that man who is being challenged say let me go to the voters? Take it away fromthe politicians. MR. SAMESHIMA: He is being charged for some violation and, you know, for minor violations that will never happen and I doubt if it will ever happen. It will keep the politicians honest that is one thing for sure. They' ll never try to pull any shady deals becausethey know that if they are caught they can be thrown out of office. But on this impeachment, . boy, it ' s tough. Only one man makes the decision , the judge. -24- MR. TRULSON : Thank you, Mr. Sameshima. MR. YANAGA: Item Number 6, the county council hires the city or county manager--who hires the department heads? MR. SAMESHIMA: The city manager. He would look for an efficient and respectable and honest manager who will run the county business like he runs a private business . If you don ' t make money, you have to either cut the pay with a layoff--but in our county government there is no such thing as a layoff. Today, the hotels , because of the United Airlines strike they are not making money, they lay off. They cut pay. The county government--you look at our budget--it ' s going to increase by $2 million dollars. They are hiring more people. We need somebody who has a good business mind and I think nine councilmen could do a better job by hiring somebody. And if that city manager cannot manage the biggest business in our nation--the county government and the people' s money, then we fire him. If he can ' t run it like it was his own business , I think we can . This county is small yet. If we start now, here , we cannot correct this whole darn world , or this whole nation , but I know we can make this small County of Hawaii one of the best counties , through this and through honest and important proposals that the people can select and put in the charter. This way is the only way that politicians will becomeresponsible to the people. MR. YANAGA: What would his status be? Would he be under civil service status? MR. SAMESHIMA: No, he is an exempt position. He can be fired any time the council feels that he is not doing his job. He is not going to be under civil service. The appointment that would serve under him that would run each department is going to be the department head. He is going to be selected by thecity manager and would be approved by the county council . They have to give the county council a darn good reason why they should serve in that certain position . I think the county council could make good choices. MR. YANAGA: Let ' s say you cannot find capable people as department heads from this island, would you say we appropriate someone from some other island? MR. SAMESHIMA: Well , that is what they have been doing. Honolulu takes away people from here and they use them in Honolulu. If we cannot find, then we haveto look elsewhere. But I am sure in our county, today, we have a lot of intelligent--I don ' t say, well educated--but, intelligent and honest and efficient businessmen who know how to run a business. This is the kind , he doesn ' t have to be an attorney because I know the attorneys have jammed up everything that goes on today. You look at the firemen--who screwed up that deal? Why can the firemen strike? It ' s because of a bunch of lawyers who run our legislature. They tell them, no;: you cannot strike but they gave them a tool so they can fight back through the arbitration . -25- MR. YANAGA: I have this question,: Mr. Sameshima. Let ' s say, for example; that you cannot find a capable city manager from this island. And, let' s say, you get somebody from outside. He will be bringing in his men from outside, also.. MR. SAMESHIMA: . No, he will have to select here, first, on this island. If we have a good manager, a good manager, he can go and hunt around. He can go and fish around for people who can really work under him who can run a good business . It ' s going to be non-political. Today, everything is politics. The guy who contributes the most . . whether he is good for nothing , or not, you get the position. That ' s exactly what ' s happening. If we go by the policy where the nine councilmen select a good manager, a good business manager to run our county government, I think there is no mistake. A lot of times this County Charter--we don ' t need to use this . But providing we have Initiative, Referendum and Recall with no strings attached ! This is a must ! That ' s -hhe most important thing. MR. OMONAKA: Mr. Sameshima, I refer you to Page 32, Section 13-11. . . . MR. SAMESHIMA: Page 32., Penalties. .0h, "The council shall. ." Youosee? How dumb! I never saw this. "The council shall by ordinancenow! You see, I know darn well our, attorney councilman knows all of these things , but he never tells us. Thank you. CHAIRMAN 'SAKATA: Thank you very much, Mr. Sameshima. We have listened to your testimony and we have listened to others who have testified pertaining to some of these basic things that you have talked about and- which they feel are very important. We will take yourconsiderations into our deliberations. We thank you for your testimony. MR. SAMESHIMA: Thank you very much .for listening. RECESS: .At 9 : 15 p.m. the Chair called for a short recess. RECONVENE : At 9 : 25 p.m. the meeting was reconvened. • CHAIRMAN SAKATA: At this time, we would like to call on Mr. Kenneth Melrose. Mr. Melrose. MR. MELROSE: Thank you. I- represent, • principally, myselfand somewhat the represented ideas of the community association here in Waimea. I have agreed pretty much withtheideas put' forth here by the Kona CoastChamber of Commerce and the. West Hawaii Committee as represented there.;;, -26- - - Of principal . concern to me I believe is the • representation that the people be able to represent or elect their own representative at the county council ; the notion that someone can . run in thej1.1 district; whether they- win or lose, but the decision could actually _be made by 'a population based outside of the district for which their representation is going to be given. • I would support basically a nine member. council with one representative of each of the nine districts whether • it be by grouping say North and South Kohala and have two persons represented' or whether one• runs from each district. My principal concern, however, is that there be direct representa- ' tion from each district. I Also, I mould like to follow Moon a little bit .on the ideas of efficiency. in government. I have a concern . that the department of public works , in one way or another,, coordinate its capital improvement and maintenance programs on an island wide or whatever basis. I get, personally, very frustrated seeing the standard "pave the road. tjhe ,. .forgot to . put the water line under it" ! that seems to go on pretty . regularly in government and very much so in the county. I , as an independent businessman, sincerely resent what' is , I . guess , basically called the county stroke. . .two guys watch and one guy work or whatever. I do believe there is a lot of room for efficiency in government both in the ways that the job roles are defined and the way that programs throughout -depart- ments are coordinated. . • It seems that there is a lack of a central clearinghouse for programs and one of the ones that comes to ' my mind specifically ,is that- the department of water supply is independent of the •tepartment of public works. I assume that there is 'a reason for that bq__: it funding or whatever, but it seems that the water, the roads , and drainage should be under a single department and able. to be coordinated from a single center. . ' . . As. a few comments about the planning commission . or the planning process itself, the . initial charter required the development' of" a county general' 'plan. which is basically the overall broad policy statement for planning, direction and purpose. .That plan has been done and the County of Hawaii is noted. as one of the best in the .country for Its planning, efforts. But i:t :appears to me that a humber .of 'levels of .planning exist. ' The general plan has developed development plans for districts ,as in the North-South Kohala Development Plan, Honokaa Develop- ment Plan, that kind of thing: Each agency within the county • government develops its own functional plans of studies for . roads';, of studies for water systems and that kind of thing.. . And then there are also design plans for specific diStricts as • we are in the midst of here' in Waimea, a design study, an urban • design study for Waimea. there- seems to be a lot of planning going on in pockets and very little of it is centralized , or at least its information , to a point that it all gets wrapped back together again at some point in the planning department or planning commission one way or another. . -27- .. • • I would advocate a centralizing or some sort of a coordinating or clearinghouse idea for planning efforts on basically all levels of the planning process. MR. CADINHA: Mr. Melrose, several people have made- reference to nine council members from nine districts. How do you get nine districts? Where do you start? Where would youstart getting nine districts? MR. MELROSE : North and South Kohala. North and South Kona. Ka' u. North and South Hilo. Puna and Hamakua. I do believe there are nine individual districts .in the county. I have a problem, though. It seems to me that the representative districts as stated here are state representative districts, is this correct?' I don ' t know 'where this comes from. • MR. CADINHA: No, that' s a private ad. MR. MELROSE: I 'm aware that this is a private . ad, but these are representative districts . i -don ' t know if they exist. Can anybody clarify that for me? Do. they coincide with the state representative districts? They are outside of the purview of ,this commi.ssion, .right? MR. CADINHA: The state districts,' yes. MR. MELROSE : Again, I wouldvoice the comments that we have heard earlier this evening that a number of communities have, by their close proximity, arel tter re e es n-ted together.• In specific, North and South Kohala. Principally, p because they ,exist as an economic and an area unit that has an impact back and forth between the two communities that are very much more real than the .contiguous . Hamakua, North Kohala boundaries which happens somewhere out . in. the Waimanu. Valley. Rather that they "las a, functional 'unit are' better grouped in North and South Kohala rather than have North Kohala grouped' with Hamakua. Partly, because I believe the strong union tie - is not there that. originally ,one time was .when . it `'Was apportioned , originally. Other than that, I feel that the nine is a sizeable enough of -a group for. representative purposes so .that large special interests cannot have, or cannot as 'easily have itself represented. I think that each district deserves to have its' own representative. Someone who is elected within that district and responsible to that district. • MR. CADINHA: Your position of these specific - -districts is not starting atone point 'and going x number of Votes, and that ' s a district. And the nextf'number of votes, and that ' s a district. That is not what you are saying;` right? MR. MELROSE: . Not by population, volume, no. But rather by size. By these district classifications as they • show u p._.. ;I don ' t know where 'they origina te,t but they show up , in the general plan document and all over. • -28- CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Mr. Melrose, youmentioned that you follow this Chamber of Commerce point on council structure. You go along with them that all of these are to be district representation from representative districts and none at-large, right? No€none,kr.unning at-large? MR. MELROSE: Correct, no at-large seats on the county council. I- believe what they are proposing here is something as an interim to allow a direct representation rather than a continued structure. Primarily, I believe, because the rolh of West Hawaiiischanging significantly from thetime when this charter was developed, in ,:terms of its population as well as its role, economically, in the County of Hawaii. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Thank you, Mr. Melrose. Next we would like to call on Ms. Ruth Tabrah. MS. TABRAH: I would like to testify in two capacities. First as the Chairman of Hawaii County Democratic Party and on behalf of the party, I would like to.m k_easpecigfic recommendation. We had written to the commission earlier about our concern for your changing Section l3-4,--( f) and the material which you have at hand we had further amended in our March 25 Democratic County Committee meeting. The language we would like to see reflected in your recommendations for change would be: "A majority of the appointees to each board and commission shall be members in good standing of the political party for which the largest number of votes were cast in the primary election preceging their appointment. " We feel that the present situation makes for a very uneven kind of representation in government. We feel that boards and commissions are a very important cog between the ordinary citizen aPthe grass roots level in each community and the way in which he wants hid governmentto operated Since no definition of political party is now provided by ordinance or statute or chart er language, a situation prevails in this county that if you are going to run for elective office you must be a candidate who is a member in good standing of a political party. Or if you run as an independent you must qualify by getting a certain percentage of the voters to be able to run in the general . This means that the voter who is asked to consider you as a candidate knows that you are something more than just an attractive personality and it takes voting and elections out of a popularity contest and lets you know by which party the candidate stands for. What kinds of attitudes he has on the basic issues of government, The kinds of ideas he holds as to certain principals and the way government shall be carried out. When it comes to appointive office, most of the appointments being made at boards and commissions are independents. Men and women who belong to no political party. -29- Have declared no affiliation with principal or platform and are non-partisans who would find it almost impossible under our election laws to qualify for any elective office. The party asks , how can we afford such discrimination between those who participate in the policy making and decision making process of our government on elective and appointive bases? The present lack of clarity as to this in the County Charter and the present lack of ordinance, thereto, has resulted in discrimination against members of either political party as appointees to boards and commissions. These boards and commissions are an integral part of our county government and an integral part of our political structure and ought they not to be subject to the same political qualifications as candidates for elective office? If our mayor and county council ran for office and were elected on a non-partisan basis, then the present system of appointments to boards and commissions would be valid. We protest that grave injustice and discrim- ination prevails in this matter, and we urge the commissioners to change the language or to recommend that the voters approve the language change of 13-4-( f) to read, "A majority of the appointees to each board and commission shall be members in good standing of the political party for which the largest number of votes were cast in the primary election preceding their appointment. " In the testimony which we submitted to you in writing, earlier, we attached as reference and resource material to our testimony, the correspondence of March 2, 1979 from Deputy Corporation Counsel Alan Okamoto to Deputy County Clerk Yasuki Arakaki . We would appreciate the commission ' s serious discussion and attention to this because we feel that whichever political party has the majority of elected officials in power, then the appointive boards and commissions should reflect the philosophy of the people in power. We feel that we are otherwise going in the direction of government by personality rather than by principal. We feel that is the wrong direction to go. MR. CADINHA: Ms. Tabrah, I have a question with regard to that. Do you really feel that party philosophy carries down to the county level? A county our size? MS. TABRAH : That ' s why I 'm county chairman. That is what we are trying to make happen. We are trying to get people to take a different look at government and not accept the fact that corruption is a part of the political process and to go back to the old idea of politics. Politics is people. The contemporary, current aim of today' s -30- Democratic Party in this state, and particularly in this county, is to put people back into the political process on a people to people basis and have it truly a grass roots party so that the principals and platform stand behind •th candidates and when you vote for the man , you know what that man or that woman stands for on the basis of their party platform. MR. CADINHA: Our present county council is made up of nine people with party affiliations. However, the majority and minority have no bearing on party lines , at all. And insofar as philosophy of the council that is presently in the majority, who is to say what philosophy that that majority bears? I 'm just wondering, and, I ask you, whether non-partisan dieected of.ficia1=s would react any differently and would manage our government any differently? Does a person have to be a cardcarrying party member, to take part in government? MS. TABRAH : I think it' s time we got back to making political parties stand for something so that that card carries the weight of the fact that. you really do subscribe to certain principals in. government. I think that ' s happenr]'ng around thecrbuntryand I think it ' s happening here. I think the whole reorganization of our State Senate spoke to that this time. I think the interest in grass roots politics in the election of neighborhood boards and commissions on Oahu speaks for that. I think we are in the midst of a time for change andthat is why I am happy you people are at work. As I told your Chairman, at the recess , 'I would have liked to see you, too, change and get out of the horse and buggy "come out to the country public. hearing" and have some really good prime time on television for voter education and for an Enterprise call in number so that everybody at home in front of the television set could watch you discuss issues and call in questions to you. Perhaps in your looking at this , in reviewing the County Charter, you will look ahead to seeing that we are a .very different kind of county thanwe were ten years ago, or twenty years ago, or thirty years ago. If I may change hats from county chairman to an individual citizen , now, I think that your greatest service to the voters of Hawaii County, whether they are Democrats or Repubilyicans or non--partisan will. be if you keep very broad ;general language that--I think you' ll be tempted to speak to the problems that face us now, today, but those problems we may have forgotten about ten years from now and this charter has.- .o be something that we can use not just today but in 19.88 and maybe even 1998. There is one thing that I think is a very interesting point to make on--you, especially, asked the question , why nine districts and why those particular nine district `:?and for twelve hundred years , on this island , those districts have been a traditional part of the governance_of Hawaii. They were all originally independent chief4oms ;and-_ = under various ruling chiefs in the long history of Hawaii . -31- I think that .sometimes a chief ruled all of Hawaii_ but the original seven districts and the subdivisions that made it nine - are traditional for twelve hundred years i_n" Hawaiian history. I think because we are all very aware, we want to preserve the- heritage of the Hawaiian past and . to keep our island Hawaiian. . Since land division originally clued into these ' - districts_, that it makes good sense in the County Charter on the basis of Hawaii ' s twelve hundred year history to take North . . . Hilo, South Hilo, Puna, . Ka' u, North Kona, South Kona, North ' Kohala, South Kohala and. Hamakua and have a representative from each of those nine districts form your county council . I feel itis better not to .have at-large representation because we are an island where population is shifting and where I think_ . . - the hink - the immediate need at local government is what i- call , c.-� psychological representation . I 'm origrinally - from North : - Kohala and, you- know, North Kohala doesn ' t have anybody representing them anywhere on anything that comes from that . district. anymore., It almost makes you -feel as if you .have , been pushed off -to your end of the island; You- feel closer . to Hana, Maui sometimes than you do to Hilo. . . The way for people to really feel like they are participating in government and the government cares about them _ -and that they- are really part of a representative democracy, . . ' is that if you have somebody in your own specific district. - Whether that district has 3 , 000 people or 20 , 000 people, that . . • you have somebody you see in the supermarket, you see at the postL- bffic.e, you can call up on . the phone, that you feel is your neighbor in your district that represents you in county government. - . I think to preserve the historic Hawaiian basis of the nine districts . is very important and that it looks ahead to saying wherever the shifts of ,population may be because. if .some 'of you with long- memories;-;remeMbert r,we almost closed Pahoa School because there were soyfew people around that , part of- Puna. And , from 25 kids in the graduating class, one September we turned up with, 100new kids registering in. school.., - . That kind of thing is going' to happen all around this island . • • - • -in the next ten years and .we don ' t know where population . shifts are going to .o'ccur, growth is going to. occur. To select . nine representative districts on the basis of ' this island ' s . ancient history and preserve it to that extent and be proud .of • it to that extent; I- think would make good sense for the future. The second thing I would. like to ask you to consider, as. a citien, andI 'm the third Pua}ko person to testify tonight? Is that somewhere in the ,County Charter; I think - there ought to be room for a very general statement about being concerned with control of growth and quality control . • I think there ought to- be some statement that . • in the charter talks about trying to guarantee--and this is very difficult because you are going to need some state kokua on this.- tax protection to local- residenta who qualify for homeowners '. - exemptions. So - that -speculative - inflation on property values , - - 7-32--; ; - in an area do not force people to become displaced persons because they can ' t afford to pay the taxes. The way it has worked in other states and worked very successfully, is that if you have a homeowner' s exemption and you a:ie ' living in that res-idence, that is your residence, and you- are in an • area where suddenly speculation takes over and property values start going out of sight, a few people start selling and taxes go up. . .Twenty years ago, at Puako my taxes were $16 a year, they are $2, 000 today. About half of the original people who lived down there who were local people have sold and there are absentee owners, there are rich people from Canada. I • have nothing against rich people from Canada or Japan, or Texas or anywhere. But those- are absentee people and that -was a government subdivision designed to give local people beach homes. There arent many of us locals who can afford. to pay the take . anymore. One way you can protect that, because that is . going to happen in other places than Puako. ,. We area very - .attractive climate, there are going to be more and more retired people- with funds who are willing to come here and you are going to see some very interesting escalation of property values. -I think ©ie protection a -charter can offer people is to say that if a homeowner wishes to dedicate his home as -his home,, :at the time that he dedicates that property as his or her home, . taxes will be preserved at that level. • At the time that person should sell his property then the difference between those higher taxes and what he has been paying, or she has been paying, can be. paid off at the time of sale. . If you are going to sell a piece of property for twice what you paid for it you can pay the taxes then. But, say, you-. are a young family with two children and you have bought a home where property values -have gone like this and all of a sudden taxes go like this and the mortgage and taxes and your paycheck don ' t match anymore, you are going to be pushed out. in 1846, the Great Mahele, -when they divided up all the lands in Hawaii , there were 14, 000 Hawaiians and 800 Haoles who wound up as property owners of individual small parcels. Within 50 years, the proportion was exactly reversed. The reason was there was no provision made to protect the poor HawaiLan3who could not. afford to pay taxes on land as that land value ' increased. ' We don ' t want to have that happen In Hawaii again. . • So I, urge you to consider with your counsel , Mr.. Oda, some very general language which might offer some insurance to the local residents that no matter where he or she lives on this island, if speculators come in and start to escalate property values and the' assessmentis. always based on that last sale, no matter how. unreal it may be, that you can still afford to pay taxes on your . home if you are a local person and that is where you. choose to live and you have , , dedicated that property as your home. -33 • - MR. ISHIDA: , On this nine districts and keeping the traditional districting that we have, on the basis of your information, if we retain this Hawaiian district and we have one council representative from each of these districts , as the population now stands, would that meet the constitutional standard? MS. TABRAH: The way we have elections set up in this county, if you retain the same system of elections , it does.. MR. ISHIDA: When. you say, "retain the same system of elections , " what do you mean? MS. TABRAH: We now have what they call the place system, right? We fooled around with this--the board of education faced the same problem--and the example that was always given to us by the attorney general was: that Hawaii County' s electionsystem provided so that they could have representatives from each district and. that it still met the one-man , one-vote because everybody votes. MR. ISHIDA: , They were r.unriing. at-large? MS. TABRAH: They weren ' t running at-large. They were running from that district. You had to be a resident of that district to qualify. That' s what they call the place system. MR. ISHIDA: Who were the electors? MS. TABRAH: The electors were everybody in the county. MR. ISHIDA: Is this the system that you are advocating now? MS. TABRAH : Yes , because it is the only one that will pass that one-man , one-vote qualification MR. ISHIDA: It is an identical system to the system that we have now. MS. TABRAH: That ' s right, except make it nine districts and give it the breakdown that I have suggested. You do run into an occasional probaem which they have had in Maui County and they have had for a long time, that the people on Molokai don ' t like their Molokai representative as well as the people on Maui do. The Maui people always elect somebody from Molokai that is their choice rather than the Molokai ' s peoples' choice to their county council. Those things are going to come up and you can ' t skew election laws to look ahead to one personality problem. I think it ' s very unlikely to happen. MR. ISHIDA: This evening , you have also heard people advocating that we have strict district representation whereby the district alone selects their council representative. -34- MS. TABRAH: That would be good, if we, would have the wherewithal to take on the mandate. Hawaii is at a ' ' real disadvantage in meeting the one-man, one-vote concept. I think sometimes we have got to just say, we are an island, we are put together differently. Like many mandates, that come down from the federal government that are very good in the continental U. S. , they just don ' t fit our special local situation. But, I think we could make it using the same kind of election we now have but with nine councilmen coming each from one of the nine districts. MR. CADINHA: Ms. Tabrah, you indicated that the at-large vote was the one that would meet the one-man , one-vote concept. I was just wondering by what authority, or where do we get a test, a measurement? We had our legal counsel look at it. . . . MS. TABRAH: I should think your counsel could get for you from the attorney general ' s office--there is a volume of material on the various methods that meet the one-man, one-vote mandate. All kinds of test cases have gone before the supreme court. All that material was furnished to us. . . MR. CADINHA: We did, we asked Stuart to look at this--what does this concept mean ,and what in effect are . they handing down for us to follow. Our understanding, at this point, after some research, and I 'm sure he' s not through with it, is that there are completely different interpretations . All different. And, in some instances, Stuart, correct me if I am wrong, some counties where the one-man , one-vote concept was held up where one representative may have represented ten timesasmany constituents and the court hasupheldthis. So, we are back to ground zero. N . TABRAH: It depends on whether you want to get into litigation or you just want to have a charter that will work. . For one thing, you know that the present system conforms, right? The present system is legal. The present system is okay, so why change it? Because if you change it, you are going to run into trouble. Really what you want is somebodyfrom each district to be represented on that council . MR. CADINHA: But voted at-large? - MS. TABRAH:. That ' s right , because after all the council is going to take care of the whole island and this will eliminate any really--if you had just the ,voters of North Kohala voting for North Kohala, you would probably get the same person as everybody in the whole island voting for North Kohala. But by everybody voting for that person from North Kohala, he has to go around and campaign in all the other eight districts and that does something for him because he. is not only representing his own district, he is thinking about what are the needs and concerns of the people in the other districts. So you have a. much better councilman or councilwoman because they become aware of their c.n district and of all the others. After all the county council serves everybody. Ili -35- - . . i MRS. KOBAYASHI : Ms,.-,Tabrah, are you saying then that this proposed representation by districts, the four districts, would not meet the one-man , one-vote? This proposal that is here in this paper, the interim kind of thing? MS. TABRAH : . No, I don ' t think it would I don ' t know because it has been about two years now since we have been filled in by the attorney general on all of those cases and so on. Your counsel would be able to advise you on that, I 'm sure. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Thank you, Ms. Tabrah. This has been a very interesting and informative public hearing and I think as far as I am concerned, and I think I can speak for the rest of the commissioners , that we have been well satisfied with your input and for your attendance here, this evening.. APPROVAL The following corrections of minutes dated OF MINUTES : May 1 , 1979 were noted: Page 5 . . .5th para. (Mr. Trulson) (opposition) Vs position Page l. . .Add Mr. Bruce McCall to list)"of also present The Chair called for approval of_ minutes as corrected. Mr. Trulson made the motion to . accept the minutes as corrected. Seconded by Mrs. Iwamoto and . un- animously carried. COMMUNI- CATIONS: Comm. 46 : Letter from Councilman Harvey Tajiri , dated May 3 , 1979, submitting his suggested changes to the County Charter. Comm. 47 : Letter from Tom Grande, Common Cause/Hawaii , . dated May 7, 1979, regarding Sunset proposal . to the County Charter. Motion was made by Mr. Trulson to receive and file Communications 46 and 47. Seconded by Mrs. Kobayashi andunanimously carried. -36- ANNOUNCEMENTS : Next meeting date - Tuesday, May 22 , 1979 , 7: 00 p.m. , Konawaena .High School Cafeteria, Kealakekua ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business , the meeting was adjourned at 10 :06 p.m. 71) 62) / Joan Carnett RECORDING SECRETARY • -37-