CHC 1979-05-15 PH - Laserfiche WebLink

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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-