CHC 1979-05-22 PH - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

island as New York City, Cleveland, California and a number of ;other places have where the unchecked government rate of growth outruns business ' s ability to generate capital to support that tax base is a very classic reason why everybody on this island , regardless of union membership, political persuasion , or social status , ought to be concerned. I think that there is a kind of a simple rule of thumb that I have applied to my own thinking about this--I 've been in Hawaii since the middle ' 30 ' s , and Kona since ' 46. . .I grew up in this area of Kona when everybody felt helpless and hopeless about doing anything about government unless you had enough money to run for office and hopefully do something on the old council--and I think that attitude, with the exception of Kona and beginning to show up in Waimea and other places , is still prevalent. . .what ' s the use, look what happened to ConCon, what ' s the use, let ' s not show up. This kind of output and outturn shows you that responsible people can make a difference. The rule of thumb that I was going to state goes something like this . . . it seems to me that the six basic principles of democratic government are nothing more than representation , responsiveness , responsibility, review, redress and removal , in that order. A lot of these have been touched on already and I ' d like to just try to relate them to what I see as the issues before you gentlemen and relate them to the suggestions made, not only here this evening but from reading the minutes of your meetings . I think representation on this island is totally out of whack. And now I 'm not talking about just West Hawaii. I think the recommendation of nine councilmen is a must. I think an interim solution to the districting situation is a must. However, I think two-years is a mistake. We have watched some of your new councilmen over there very closely in our committee. We have invited them, had them come to our meetings and tried to help them with their budgeting. We've tried to help them understand the process of government as we who are private citizens see it , not servants of the government. Frankly, it: takes them two-years to learn what the score is. And they will admit it. So I suggest that four-years be an absolute minimum. And possibly an overlap to provide the continuity. In the area of responsiveness , you know, if responsiveness was built into the jobs that we. elect people to. . the water problem, the court problem, the planning board problem, and just recently discussed by the last three speakers , will be addressed to and something will be done about it.a .o'r, through the six r' s , somebody will windup going out the door. So I believe that with the right organization , with the definition of responsibility of department heads and the mission of departments and objectives that you can write in, not the commission but the department heads , you must be responsive to the needs of the island. It' s no good just saying you 've got to be responsive--you can ' t hold somebody responsible. Have you ever tried to find out who' s responsible for what, in Hilo? Or in Kona? The other day, I asked a fellow down in Kahaluu Park why he didn ' t rake up all the -23-