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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-08-10 Charter CommissionDouglass Shipman Adams Chairperson Jennifer Zelko-Schlueter Vice Chairperson 2liciSession ROl Hawaii County Clerk 08/02/2018 03:21:58 PM William Carthage Bergin Michelle Galimba Paul K. Hamano Kevin D. Hopkins Bobby Jean Leithcad Todd Sarah H. Rice Christopher John lmiloa Roehrig Marcia A.K. Saquing Donna Mae Springer 2018-2020 HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING AGENDA 1:30 P.M. August 10, 2018 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Hawaii County Building, R00111 1401, Council Chambers w Loa CO L CALL ORDER OF BUSINESS STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS APPROVAL OF MINUTES July 13, 2018 - Regular Meeting Minutes COMMUNICATIONS None UNFINISHED BUSINESS None NEW BUSINESS 1. Comm. No. 1: Department and Agency Heads — Overview of operations; Impact of County Charter on Operations; Any Proposals to Amend Charter; Discussion a. Civil Defense Agency — Civil Defense Administrator; Talmadge Magno b. Office of the Corporation Counsel — Assistant Corporation Counsel — Renee Schoen c. Department of Information Technology — Director; Jules Ung 2018-2020 Charter Commission — 2 Page 2 August 10, 2018 d. Department of Environmental Management — Director; Wi Iliam Kucharski e. Department of Finance — Director; Deanna Sako f. Hawaii Fire Department — Fire Chief; Darren Rosario g. Department of Human Resources — Director; William Brilhante, Jr. h. Office of the County Clerk — County Clerk; Stewart Maeda 2. Comm. No. 2: Review of Hawai`i County Charter (2016 Edition) a. Article I — Incorporation and Geographical Limits b. Article 11— Powers of the County c. Article III — Legislative Branch d. Article IV — Executive Branch, General. Provisions e. Article V — Executive Branch, Mayor and. Staff Agencies . Comm. No. 3: Formation of Ad Hoc Committees The Commission may establish one or more Ad Hoc Committees to investigate matters within its prescribed duties that have been disclosed on the agenda, made available for public testimony, and deliberated upon by the commission. Any such formation will require that the scope of the investigation and each member's authority he clearly defined, and membership be limited to no less than two and no more than five commissioners, REPORTS None REFERRALS FOR EXECUTIVE SESSION None AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING Suggestions from Commissioners on future agenda items ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. Next regular meeting (subject to change) DATE: Friday, September 14, 2018 TIME: I :30 p.tn. PLACE: Building A (Council Chambers), West Hawaii Civic Center, Kailua Kona - ADJOURNMENT 2018-2020 Charter Coonmission - 2 Page 3 August 10, 2018. The meeting place is accessible for persons with disabilities. Persons who need special accommodations for this meeting should call 961-8255 by August 8, 2018. Relay users please call 711(961-8255) to contact our office. Public testimony via courtesy site is available at the Kona Council Office, West Hawai`i Civic Center; 75-5044 Ane Keohoka ole Highway, Building A, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. If for technical or other unanticipated reasons the video connection cannot be made and/or is disrupted, the scheduled meeting will continue. Submitting Testimony: Those wishing to testify in person must register with the Commission Secretary. Those submitting written testimony at the meeting should bring fourteen (14) copies for distribution. Testimony may also be submitted (1) by mail to Shannon Magnuson, Office of the County Clerk, 25 Aupuni Street, Room 1402, Hilo, Hawai`i 96720, or (2) by e-mail to charter.cornmission rtlhawaiicountv.0ov. Please submit separate testimony for each item, Copies will be distributed at the meeting only if they are received before 12:00 noon on the business day prior to the meeting. All oral and written testimony will be made a part of the public record. NOTICE TO LOBBYISTS If you are a lobbyist, you must register with the Hawaii County Clerk within five days of becoming a lobbyist (Article 15, Section 2-91.3(b), Hawaii County Code). A lobbyist means "any individual engaged for pay or other consideration who spends more than five hours in any month or $275 in any six-month period for the purpose of attempting to influence legislative or administrative action by communicating or urging others to communicate with public officials." (Article 15, Section 2-91.3(a)(6), I-lawai`i County Code.) Registration forms and expenditure report documents are available at the Office of the County Clerk -Council, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawaii 96720. BOARD PACKET Pursuant to Hawaii Revised Statutes, Section 92-7.5, the board packet provided to members of the Hawaii County Charter Commission for this meeting is available for public inspection during regular business hours at the Office of the County Clerk, 25 Aupuni St., Room 1402, Hilo, Ilawai`i, 96720. Hawaii County Charter Commission 1st Session Hawai`i County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawai`i July 13, 2018 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Charter Commission was called to order at 1:35 p.m., ORDER: in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair Mr. William Carthage Bergin, Member Mr. Paul K. Hamano, Member Mr. Kevin D. Hopkins, Member Ms. Bobby Jean Akane Leithead Todd, Member Ms. Sarah H. Rice, Member Ms. Donna Mae Springer, Member Ms. Jennifer Leilani Zelko-Schlueter, Member Absent & Excused: Ms. Michelle Galimba, Member Mr. Christopher John Imiloa Roehrig, Member Ms. Marcia A. K. Saquing, Member INTRODUCTION The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, OF GUESTS: Introduction of Guests. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you very much. At this time, I'd like to introduce our guests. We have with us our Mayor, the Honorable Harry Kim. We also have with us our Vice Chair of the County Council, the Honorable Karen Eoff, and also, her partner in crime over there, our Council Member Maile David. Thank you so much for being here. At this time, I'd like to ask the Mayor to provide us with our Oath of Office. If we'd all stand. INTRODUCTION The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, OF COMMIS- Introduction of Commissioners. SIONERS: MAYOR KIM: She kind of ruined my day because I came in and said, "How are you, what a beautiful day." And she said, "It is a beautiful day." Then she showed me this, but it's relevant in regards to what we do. This is a list of people that the lava overtook these orchard business in the past nine weeks. And we didn't know what we were going to do. You finally will address what our Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 capabilities are, what we should or should not do, and things like this and other things. So, I'm very proud of this group. I can't imagine—I cannot remember any time that I felt support of who we were nominating is because of the number of people who said, "Wow, what a group you've got." But, I'm sure you heard that too. So, join me in regards to the swearing in processes. I ask all of you to please raise your right hand and please repeat after me. I do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of Hawai`i, that I will faithfully discharge my duties as a member of the 2018-2020 County of Hawai`i Charter Commission to the best of my ability. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. CHR. ADAMS: Vice Chair Eoff, if you have some things that you would like to—some comments you might make. (Note: At this time, Council Vice Chair Karen Eoff came forward to address the members of the Commission.) MS. EOFF: Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and aloha everyone. As you may have heard, Chair Poindexter is off island today and so, she asked me to fill in for her and to greet you on behalf of the Hawai`i County Council. So, of course, first of all, I'd like to thank you again as the Mayor said, this is a very important commission and a very esteemed group of people. So, I'm very happy to see you all here today. The Charter Commission, it's like the Constitutional Convention of our County, so, people may not realize what an important job you do have, but once every 10 years, when the Charter Commission convenes, we have a chance to relook at our structure of government and determine if there are areas that may need to be looked at again, changed, or revised. Our Deputy County Clerk reminded me that it's relevant that I'm here today standing in for Val because 10 years ago, I was the secretary to this commission. I had the wonderful opportunity and privilege to serve as that secretary in that role because it was a really big learning experience for me. It was just really great to hear from all of the agencies in the County, the different department heads, our constituents, and you know, to try and determine which proposals that they may see necessary for you folks to deliberate on and consider. Then, you have the job of taking in all of those proposals and deciding which ones are important enough to bring forward to the voters in the 2020 elections. So, I just wish you luck and if I can do anything to help, I'm not sure if I can be of assistance to any of the people involved in making sure the commission runs smoothly and effectively, but I'm around and I'm here, and I'm very open to Page 2 Charter Commission -1 Recess: Reconvene: STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: APPROVAL OF MINUTES: COMMUNI- CATIONS: UNFINISHED BUSINESS: July 13, 2018 talking to anybody and any one of you. So, thank you again and best of luck. It's a great opportunity. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you very much, Vice Chair Eof£ So, at this time, I'm going to put the meeting into recess because we actually have paperwork to do that's part of the oath of office. So, I would also offer the opportunity, if you have one of the little parking passes and you want to put it on your car, if you haven't already done so, now might be a good chance to do that. But, in the process, we will be working with—who are we going to be working with to sign our—yes, okay. Where are we going to meet? Just do it here or over there? Okay, great. And we need to do one at a time, essentially? Is that right? Okay, got it. So, it'll be first come first served, I guess, and so, I'll put the meeting into recess and we'll reconvene as soon as we've wrapped that part of the paperwork. Meeting's in recess. At 1:40 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. The meeting reconvened at 1:56 p.m. CHR. ADAMS: I'd like to call the meeting back to order. All of the notary work has been done. We can fill out our paperwork as we can, but we've got a lot do today, so, we're going to move on. I'd like to ask if we have any statements from the public. Alright, seeing that we have none, we'll move on in the agenda. The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. (There were none.) The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, Approval of Minutes. (There were none.) The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, Communications. (There were none.) The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, Unfinished Business. (There was none.) Page 3 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 NEW BUSINESS: The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, New Business. CHR. ADAMS: So, looking at my watch and looking at the time that I allocated, we're 10 minutes ahead for the start of New Business. Our first item in New Business is the adoption of the Rules of Procedure. I'd entertain a motion to approve the Rules of Procedure that were provided to us both in our binders a couple of weeks ago, as well as part of the packet, and that's probably the more appropriate one, the ones that were provided to us in the packet that included the agenda. So, I'd entertain a motion to adopt those Rules of Procedure. Item 1: ADOPTION OF THE RULES OF PROCEDURE Proposed Rules include establishing regular meeting day and time, roles of Commission officers, handling of public testimony, protocol for submission of proposed amendments, and parameters for maintaining order and decorum. Motion to Approve: Ms. Zelko-Schlueter moved to adopt the Rules of Procedure. Seconded by Mr. Hopkins. CHR. ADAMS: Is there any discussion? Alright, so the way this works, just for information, you'll note that there's a little red—I have, since I'm speaking, I have this little touch button here and that turns it on and so, if you're ready to be part of the discussion, if you press that, then I can see that you want to speak, right? And that's how I know, generally, that you want to say something. So, is there anybody that would like to have any discussion on the motion? Alright, well I do, since seeing nobody else. Okay. And I can do that, right? Okay, great. So, if we could turn to the Rules of Procedure, if you would? Right at the beginning, we have—later in the agenda, we're going to be talking about meetings and when to hold them and all those kinds of things. But, in the Rules of Procedure currently, it's the second Friday of each month, 1:30 is when we would hold them. Item B on the Rules of Procedures location, it's my preference that we hold meetings both here and in Kona. So, I'd like to be able to go back and forth between those locations. I think it's—my view is that it's important that we demonstrate that we are an entire island Charter Commission, and part of the way you do that is you hold meetings both here and also at the West Hawai`i Civic Center. I'd be interested in hearing how everybody feels about that. Additionally, I'd point out that item three on page two at the bottom, it's vi or v six, I guess, the "among the duties and powers of the Chairperson is to serve as the chief spokesperson and representative of the Commission before the public and the county government, all official information be released through the Chairperson." I just want to bring that to your attention. That doesn't mean, though, that we won't have the opportunity to speak to groups, and if you're asked to do that as an individual member, we can talk about that. There's a part Page 4 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 of this that is a public education piece. So, particularly as we begin this process, we want to make sure that the residents of the County are aware that this is occurring and so that if they have things that they want to bring to the table on this, then we want them to know how to do that. On item four—the reason I'm going through this is that part of the rules, as you've seen, is that we like all of the—in our discussion, we have individual—all of us would have individual, about five minutes or so to do this. So, I'm actually trying to stay within the five minutes. We'll see if I actually get there as we move forward. On item four, page three (b), agenda items, I just want to make sure that in here, where it says, "Commission members and Commission staff may request in writing to the Chairperson that an issue be placed on the upcoming agenda." That's generally the process. That, in writing, also means by email, right? Okay. Then also, below in the last sentence of that particular section, "unless otherwise requested and appropriated, agenda items submitted under this section shall be placed on the agenda pending communications." My understanding is that I also have the ability to pull something into New Business if I would like to do that. The understanding for the commissioners and the commission staff is that such communications would be in Communications, but, if there's something that I feel needs to be in New Business, then I'll put that into New Business, okay? Also, I point out to you on page four there at the top, it says, 6(c), "unless a member is excused from voting, silent shall be recorded as an affirmative vote." Alright? Just so that everybody is aware of that. And then alterations to the Order of Business, which is on page five, section 8(b), "Order of business may be altered by the Chairperson or by majority vote of the Commission." Meaning, we have the agenda, Sunshine Law requires that, we'll hear more about that, but if we need to move things around, we have the ability to do that during the meeting. So, those are the items that were of particular interest to me and I wanted to make sure that I had identified it to you. Actually, the only thing that is potential, amendable status for me is the item 1(b), which is making sure that we understand that we're going to be holding meetings, if we agree to this, both here and in Kona on an alternating monthly basis. That's what I'd like to see. Yes, please. MS. RICE: Being from Kona, I strongly support that change in the location and going to the alternate location, Kona and Hilo. CHR. ADAMS: Would you like to make a motion to that effect which would amend the current motion? Page 5 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Motion to Amend: Ms. Rice moved to amend the Rules of Procedure to alternate meeting sites between Hilo and Kona. Seconded by Mr. Bergin. CHR. ADAMS: Is there any discussion on this motion? Yes, Commissioner Todd. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Since we're meeting in Hilo today, does this mean that we would then meet in Kona in August? CHR. ADAMS: We'll have an opportunity to talk about that. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Okay. CHR. ADAMS: Is there any other discussion. Commissioner Rice, do you have anything else you'd like to add? MS. RICE: No, thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Chair? CHR. ADAMS: Mr. Henricks. MR. HENRICKS: So, I understand the motion would be to amend the rules, to make it clear, that meetings would alternate, meaning one here, one there. Ms. Leithead Todd didn't specify anything, but there may be reasons to have the meetings in Hilo as opposed to Kona, say if we wanted to have department heads available. Of course, they could appear by videoconference, but it might be more efficient and productive if the department heads were directly in front of the commission, so, perhaps, with the understanding that we could amend the rules to provide that meetings would alternate and retain the wording "unless otherwise specified," to give the Chair and the group the freedom to decide that, instead of going to Kona next meeting maybe going after that because it may be more, at least for the—what's on the upcoming agenda, it might make more sense to be in this location. CHR. ADAMS: I appreciate that. Thank you very much, Mr. Henricks. I guess my comment to that would be that's precisely why I would like to have it in Kona. And I would like to have our department heads there, if they were on the note. In other words, if we're going to have matters of substance and we're going to have individuals that are important county officials and it just happens that we're going to be in Kona as a part of that, then, we all go to Kona. Page 6 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 MR. HENRICKS: This is Mr. Henricks again. Should we—because the motion was to alternate meetings, would the wording, "unless otherwise specified" be retained to allow for that, just in case, but it would be clear that the intent is, at each time, go back and forth? CHR. ADAMS: That's the intent of the motion, I believe. MR. HENRICKS: Okay, very good. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Is there any other discussion? Then, I call for the vote. All in favor of the motion, which is to amend item 1B so that there's an alternating month intent to the wording associated with 1B, such wording to be developed by Mr. Henricks. Vote on The motion to amend the Rules of Procedures to Amendment: alternate meeting sites between Hilo and Kona was (Approved) carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commission Members Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Leithead Todd, Rice, Springer, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams – 8 Noes: None. Absent: Commission Members Galimba, Roehrig, and Saquing – 3. Excused: None. CHR. ADAMS: So, that was an amendment. We still have the motion in front of us on the Rules of Procedure, and so— MR. YOSHIMOTO: Mr. Chairman, before you go on if you could announce the votes so the record is clear because we're only on audio. I think it was eight, zero, but if you could announce that. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you very much. So, the vote was eight in affirmative, none opposing. MR. HENRICKS: And if you would be so kind to announce those that were absent, that would be helpful too. CHR. ADAMS: And those that were absent are Commissioner Galimba, Commissioner Roehrig, and Commissioner Saquing. MR. HENRICKS: Thank you. Page 7 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 CHR. ADAMS: And I did that without even looking at my notes. So, we have the main motion on the table before us. Is there any other discussion on the main motion, which is to adopt the Rules of Procedure, as amended? Not seeing any, all in favor of the motion to adopt the Rules of Procedure, as amended, please say "aye." Vote on Rules of The motion to approve the Rules of Procedure as Procedure: amended was carried by the following voice vote: (Draft 2) (Approved) Ayes: Commission Members Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Leithead Todd, Rice, Springer, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 8 Noes: None. Absent: Commission Members Galimba, Roehrig, and Saquing — 3. Excused: None CHR. ADAMS: Okay, on to New Business, item number two, the Election of Officers. Just a brief context, those of you that may have had the opportunity to take a look at previous Charter Commissions, in the past, there has been a Chair, who is appointed by the Mayor, Vice Chair, who is selected by the commissioners, and also, sometimes a parliamentarian. We're only doing Vice Chair this time. We won't be electing a parliamentarian. The selection of our commission analyst will also serve as a parliamentarian. In the rules, it identifies those responsibilities. Okay. So, I would entertain a motion to open up nominations for the selection of a Vice Chair of this commission. Item 2: ELECTION OF OFFICERS Motion to Approve: Vice Chair — to be selected by Commissioners Ms. Zelko-Schlueter moved to open nominations for a Vice Chair for the commission. Seconded by Ms. Springer and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commission Members Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Leithead Todd, Rice, Springer, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 8 Noes: None. Absent: Commission Members Galimba, Roehrig, and Saquing — 3. Excused: None CHR. ADAMS: Alright, I'd entertain any nominations for Vice Chair at this time. Yes, Commissioner Todd. Page 8 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 MS. LEITHEAD TODD: I would like to nominate Sally Rice to be the Vice Chair, if that's acceptable to her. MS. RICE: I respectfully decline. I appreciate your confidence, but I have a lot on my plate with our business. Thank you, though. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. Commissioner Hopkins. MR. HOPKINS: I nominate Ms. Zelko-Schlueter. CHR. ADAMS: Is there—okay so, the nomination is Commissioner Zelko-Schlueter. Does Commissioner Zelko-Schlueter agree to that nomination? MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: I would agree to that nomination. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. Are there any other nominations? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to close nominations. Vote on Motion to Mr. Bergin moved to close nominations. Seconded by Close Nominations: Ms. Springer and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commission Members Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Leithead Todd, Rice, Springer, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams – 8 Noes: None. Absent: Commission Members Galimba, Roehrig, and Saquing – 3. Excused: None CHR. ADAMS: Alright, so we have a nomination on the floor that Commissioner Zelko-Schlueter be the Vice Chair. Correct me, is there a need for a second to this nomination? MR. HENRICKS: That would be helpful. I have Mr. Hopkins, essentially, as making the motion, so, if somebody second it, that would be helpful. CHR. ADAMS: Is there a second to this nomination? MS. LEITHEAD TODD: I'll second. Motion to Nominate Mr. Hopkins moved to nominate Ms. Zelko-Schlueter Ms. Zelko-Schlueter: as Vice Chair. Seconded by Ms. Leithead Todd. Page 9 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 CHR. ADAMS: Is there discussion on this particular motion? Well, I'll say something. It would be awesome. Alright? Seeing no other items of discussion, all in favor of the motion to select Commissioner Zelko-Schlueter as the Vice Chair for the commission, please say "aye." Vote on Motion The motion to nominate Ms. Zelko-Schlueter as to Nominate Vice Chair was carried by the following voice Ms. Zelko Schlueter: vote: (Approved) Ayes: Commission Members Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Leithead Todd, Rice, Springer, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams – 8 Noes: None. Absent: Commission Members Galimba, Roehrig, and Saquing – 3. Excused: None CHR. ADAMS: So, congratulations to Commissioner Zelko-Schlueter. I'm doing my best, guys, we're moving. Alright, at this time, I'd like to—I'd entertain a motion—okay, a little bit of context. So, the next three items are our commission's attorney, commission's secretary, and our commission's analyst. You see on the identification of the names there, we'll run through the selection process and then we'll ask each of them to give us a little bit of—introduce themselves, largely, for us. So, I would entertain a motion to select, as our commission attorney, J Yoshimoto, Deputy Corporation Counsel. Item 3: SELECTION OF THE COMMISSION'S ATTORNEY J Yoshimoto, Deputy Corporation Counsel – Office of the Corporation Counsel. Vote on Motion to Ms. Zelko-Schlueter moved to nominate J Yoshimoto as Nominate the commission's attorney. Seconded by Ms. Leithead Todd J Yoshimoto: and carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Commission Members Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Leithead Todd, Rice, Springer, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams – 8 Noes: None. Absent: Commission Members Galimba, Roehrig, and Saquing – 3. Excused: None CHR. ADAMS: Congratulations, Mr. Yoshimoto. I would entertain a motion to select as our commission secretary, Shannon Magnuson, Legislative Specialist out of the Office of the County Clerk. Page 10 Charter Commission -1 Item 4: Vote on Motion to Nominate Shannon Magnuson: (Approved) Item 5: Vote on Motion to Nominate Jon Henricks: (Approved) Item 6: July 13, 2018 SELECTION OF COMMISSION'S SECRETARY Shannon Magnuson, Legislative Specialist — Office of the County Clerk. Mr. Hopkins moved to nominate Shannon Magnuson as the commission's secretary. Seconded by Ms. Rice and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commission Members Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Leithead Todd, Rice, Springer, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 8 Noes: None. Absent: Commission Members Galimba, Roehrig, and Saquing — 3. Excused: None CHR. ADAMS: Congratulations, Ms. Magnuson. Then, I would entertain a motion to select as our commission analyst, Mr. Henricks, Deputy County Clerk, of the Office of the County Clerk. Is there such a motion? SELECTION OF THE COMMISSION ANALYST Jon Henricks, Deputy County Clerk — Office of the County Clerk. Ms. Zelko-Schlueter moved to nominate Jon Henricks as the commission's analyst. Seconded by Ms. Leithead Todd and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commission Members Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Leithead Todd, Rice, Springer, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 8 Noes: None. Absent: Commission Members Galimba, Roehrig, and Saquing — 3. Excused: None CHR. ADAMS: Congratulations, Mr. Henricks. At this time, I'd like to ask Mr. Yoshimoto to say a few words and introduce yourself to the commission. INTRODUCTION OF • Commission Attorney — J Yoshimoto, Deputy Corporation Counsel • Commission Secretary — Shannon Magnuson, Legislative Specialist • Commission Analyst — Jon Henricks, Deputy County Clerk Page 11 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the commission. First of all, I want to thank all of you for volunteering your time on this very important commission. As you all are well aware, the Charter is very important to County Government. This process, as I've observed it before, I think is an excellent process in order to obtain public input, from the departments, from the people at large, from your colleagues, Council Members, anyone that has any contact, I think is relevant and important to this process. I think there will be some difficult times, difficult times meaning trying times because we're dealing with the public. But, I think it's only through that process that we'll get to the best result. I think when you look at the past history of the Charter Commission, you'll see that the voters, by and large, overwhelmingly support the recommendations coming forward from the Charter Commissions in the past. So, the past has set a pretty high bar and I'm confident that this commission will be able to meet those expectations. Really, my role as your legal advisor as the matters that come before the commission, is to assist. I'm not going to say that I know everything, but will definitely find out the answers that the commission is seeking, if there's questions posed before this commission. I'm happy, I'm always accessible to speak to each and every one of you, so, if anything comes up, please don't hesitate to contact me, either by telephone, emails, or even if you just see me walking around. Let's see, what else? I think the process itself, it's like a sprint I guess is the best way because in some context, it seems like we have about a year to go through this process, maybe a little over a year. But, I also think that because there's so much ground to cover, I think it's just a good way to start is to begin to see what the task ahead of us is and to be able to formulate that plan, and that's part of what we're going to do today. I just want to give some thoughts on that because I think that we'll be better prepared moving forward. So, I know that each and every one of you who has stepped forward have the expertise, the commitment, the willingness to work together, and the willingness to listen, of course, to the ideas that are out there in the communities. So again, thank you all for coming forward and please, by all means, let me know if you have any questions. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Mr. Yoshimoto. Ms. Magnuson, would you like to say a few things? MS. MAGNUSON: I'm not quite sure what you guys might want to hear from me, but I just wanted to let you know that it's been such a pleasure working with each of you so far. A little bit about my background in case this hasn't come up in normal conversations that we've had, is I was a paralegal for about 10 years in varying areas of the law, and for about seven years, I worked in non-profit Page 12 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 agencies, mostly with families involved in the Child Welfare System. Currently, I work at the Legislative Research Branch, LRB. So, though you see me sitting here before you, there's a team of us, Leslie, Susan, and Donna are my counterparts, that you probably had the pleasure of working with as well, and together, we hope to serve you guys very well. So, whatever you need, we're here for you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you so much. Don't leave because I'm going to see— well, since you're here, let me just make sure—are there any questions from the commissioners for either Mr. Yoshimoto or Mrs. Magnuson? Okay, great. Thank you. Mr. Henricks, if you would like to say a few words. MR. HENRICKS: First of all, this is a privilege for us but also, kind of good because we really don't have much choice in a lot of ways. We're taking on, basically, an extra Council here with the work that you folks are doing. The hard part for that is its lot more work, quite frankly. We expect you guys to work hard, and I know you will, that's why you're here. But, at the same time, as Shannon said, what we've set out to do is to share that work, for the most part. We'll have our respective roles that are carved out in the rules that you have before you, but, there's a lot of people that will be working with us, including Tiffany, our County Clerk, Stewart, Council Services, everybody here. All the things that you folks need to do to get your job done is what we do every day. So hopefully, by sharing the responsibilities, we'll be able to take this on and do a good as job as we do for the Hawai`i County Council. For myself, my background is that I started working for a wonderful man named Fred Holschuh many years ago as his aide. He was a Council Member representing Hamakua and I've kind of stuck around and done a lot of things in this building and I've had the privilege to be the Deputy Clerk for the last three years. So, I kind of dip my hands in a little bit of everything, so, I really look forward to this process, as J said, and working with all of you and getting to know you. You'll get an email with my cell phone number in it so that you can text or call me any time. You'll get some training today. It's hard though, getting this kind of training in this setting, so, what I really want to do is just open it up to— any time you have any questions, you're interested in anything at all, J's opened himself up, I do the same. It's not a bother. Sunday morning, 7:00, give me a call, I'm up. I enjoy what we do here and I'm happy that you're all are here doing it with us. Some of you have more experience in these matters, others not so much. That won't preclude you from being full participants. You'll have us to make sure that you can get everything you can out of this experience and do everything you can. Very briefly, my background, beyond professional, being here—I'm from Hilo. I was born in that hospital up the hill. My family's here. This community means a lot to me. This job means a lot to me. This building means a lot to me. I'm very Page 13 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Change Order of Business: proud to work for the County of Hawai`i, it really is much more than a job for me. So, this again, is a privilege on our parts, and like I tell the staff here, when this is all said and done, because it will be at some point, not that we can see it now, I think we're all going to be better for this experience, and like I talked to Karen and I said, "You know when you look back at your time with the previous Charter Commission, do you relish it? Do you feel this sense of accomplishment and meeting new people, and making a relationship?" She said, "Of course, I do." It was kind of a rhetorical question, but I wanted to make sure that to get the affirmation that I'm going to get that out of this experience and so will all of you. So again, we're here to facilitate. We'll do the best we can, and I'm confident that we'll do a good job for all of you and we're here for you any time of day, not just during the meetings or specified times. Know that there's no question that we won't try to answer, and if we don't know, we'll find out. So again, thank you for this opportunity and I look forward to this process as we move forward. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Mr. Henricks, and thanks to all of you for the yeoman work that I know that you're all going to do, including with the teammates that you have with you. As we move forward into the—well, let me just ask, is there anything that anyone else would like to say reference the introductions we just had? Okay. As we move into items seven and eight, I wanted to ask Mr. Henricks and Mr. Yoshimoto, we didn't talk about this yesterday, but, I'm cognizant of the fact that we have Mr. Maeda here. Is there a sequence here that we would like, or would it make sense maybe from a time—to move his up before yours? MR. HENRICKS: Your discretion, and as you said before, the rules provide you the opportunity to move around the agenda unless there's any objections. CHR. ADAMS: So, I'm just thinking, is that okay in terms of the sequence? There's not a sequence that requires him to be after yours, necessarily? MR. HENRICKS: No, not at all. CHR. ADAMS: Okay, so if I could, I'd like to, at my discretion, move item nine on the agenda, in New Business, to this point, and will then follow with seven and eight, and then 10. So, if I could ask our County Clerk to come forward and present the items associated with item nine. That's called very flexible people. As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Commissioners, the following items were taken out of order: Item 9: BUDGET AND IMPORTANT ELECTION -RELATED DEADLINES Presentation by County Clerk Stewart Maeda. Page 14 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 (Note: At this time, County Clerk Stewart Maeda came forward and gave a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Commission.) MR. MAEDA: Good afternoon, Chair Adams and members of the Charter Commission, I'm Stewart Maeda, the County Clerk. Thank you very much for serving on this Charter Commission, and as everyone has said, it's such an important commission, and we really appreciate you folks all taking the time. We'll all be here to support and help you with whatever you need. We do have a budget for our Charter Commission, and primarily, it's going to be for refreshments, which are back there, and we will be offended if no one has refreshments, so please, go—thank you, Chair Adams. Please go and help yourself and eat as much as you want. There's coffee because you know, to try and keep you guys up after lunch, tea, and water. But, please help yourself because we do want you folks to take part and also, be comfortable while you're here with us. So, that's part of the expense of the Charter Commission, of course. Another big one is the mileage and you all got your mileage forms. So, if you can turn that into us monthly, that would be great. You can turn it into Shannon and we'll process that for you, and that's also related to the vendor form that you also filled out because in order for the County to give you payment back, you need to be a vendor. So, that's what that vendor form is for, and the reimbursement is fifty-four and a half cents per mile. That may change January 1 because we go with the federal reimbursement here in the County, so if it goes up or down, that may change, and we'll let you know that as well. That's pretty much the budget. If we're going to be going to Kona and to Hilo, if there's reasons why people need to stay over, the meeting gets really late, can't drive at night, or whatever the case may be, we can also have you folks stay at a hotel. That goes for Hilo or Kona. So, we have budgeted for that as well. So, we don't want anyone to be driving home late or whatever the case may be. So, if there's other things you folks need, let us know. I don't know, notebooks, pencils, whatever it may be, just let us know and we can try and figure out how we can work that into our budget. In regards to—it is a really quick commission. It's one year and the ballot language for any ballot language for any amendments to the Charter that are going to be presented need to be with the State Office of Elections by August 20, 2020. So, that has to be with them the exact ballot language that's going to be on the ballot, it has to be in their office by that date. So, we need to be aware of that and know that kind of when it's pretty much done, okay? Way before that, of course, because we need to work on that ballot language and it's a process. We Page 15 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 can't submit something that day and expect it to be on the ballot. It has to be in final form at that point. That's pretty much it. I don't want to take too much of your folks' time, I know that we're going to have a busy day today, and also, a busy year coming up. We do look forward to it and wish you folks well, and if there's anything you need, please feel free to call any of us at any time and we'll be more than happy to try and address whatever it is. But, it's a pleasure to have you all here and I wish you all well, and again, thank you so much for your participation on the Charter Commission. CHR. ADAMS: Thanks, Mr. Maeda. Are there any questions from any of the commissioners for the County Clerk? Just a couple, one is I understand, at least according to State law that there is a remuneration for the commissioners. Is that correct? MR. MAEDA: Yes, there will be. As far as a stipend? CHR. ADAMS: My understanding is that there's $1,000 or something. MR. MAEDA: Yes, at the end of your term with us, you'll receive $1,000 stipend for being on the Charter Commission. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. MR. MAEDA: And we budget for that as well. CHR. ADAMS: Got it. So, that's part of the budget. Just for the commissioners' information, because we're starting so early, actually, we have a year to get the information to the County Council, so we really have to finish that, and then we have another year from that point, essentially, to make sure that we have it in terms of the election -related deadline that you were talking about. So, the commission itself stays in operation, stays in effect until the day after the election, which will be November 3, 2020. So, we'll be—whether we're meeting that entire time or not, that's a different story and we'll be talking about that. But, from the perspective of the fact that this is a sprint, it certainly is, particularly this first year and then that second year that we will be making sure that the language is correct, kind of ideas, and making sure that we're meeting the deadlines that you're talking about. Okay, great. Thank you so much, Mr. Maeda, we really appreciate it. MR. MAEDA: Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: So, last time we took a recess it was only about half an hour ago, and so, if it's okay with everybody, we're just going to keep on moving this, Page 16 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Return to Order of Business: Item 7: okay? The next two items are training by our Commission Attorney and then our Commission Analyst, and I've asked them to give us, between the two of them, about an hour or a little over. So, once that's done, I promise to recess, okay? And of course, you can take individuals as you need to. So, we'll move on to item number seven, training by our commission attorney, J Yoshimoto. The Chair directed the Commission to return to the order of business. TRAINING BY J YOSHIMOTO, DEPUTY CORPORATION COUNSEL, ON SUNSHINE LAW, ETHICS, AND PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE (Note: At this time, Commission Attorney J Yoshimoto came forward and gave a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Commission.) MR. YOSHIMOTO: Mr. Chairman, are you sure you don't want to take a break? CHR. ADAMS: So, we have both the section that's here on the left for members over there, and then of course we have binoculars available if we want to be able to see those too. Everything's that's going to be on the screen is on the handout you gave us too. MR. YOSHIMOTO: That's correct. Yes. CHR. ADAMS: If I could, also, for the record, if you do have questions for our presenters, commission attorney and our commission analyst, please press your button and ask the question. Don't ask me to do it, let's just have the questions to the presenters directly, okay? So, that's how we'll run this. Thanks. MR. HENRICKS: So it's easier for the minutes, if the commissioners could just identify themselves before they ask their question, it would be very helpful. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Mr. Henricks. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay, thank you, everyone. Okay, today we're going to be covering Parliamentary Procedures, Sunshine Law, and Ethics. Okay, basic parliamentary procedure, the Chairperson maintains order and acts as the facilitator and moderator of the meeting. Generally, parliamentary rules are intended to provide organization and structure in conducting meetings in an efficient manner that ensures the protection of the members rights to properly make input during the consideration of a proposed action. Guiding Principles. Every member must have an equal opportunity to participate. Rules must be consistently applied. Remarks during debate should be confined to Page 17 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 the merits of the pending question, and members should be mindful of the limits of debate. As the commission members note, you passed your rules today, so, those rules contain, basically, these provisions as outlined, and as matters come up, we'll address them at that time. Okay, next. Motions. As we did today, a motion is a formal proposal by a member, in a meeting, that the commission take a certain action. So, how a motion is brought before the commission is, as we noticed today, too, a member makes the motion, another member seconds the motion, and then we'd ask the Chair to state the question on the motion so that the record is clear, as far as what the commission would be considering. Common Procedural Motions. After a main motion is made, the floor is open to procedural motions. The following are common procedural motions, ranking from highest to lowest precedence. We'll go through these briefly today, lay on the table, call for the question, postpone to a certain, and amend. Lay on the Table. This motion is to allow the assembly to set aside the substantive motion to attend to other urgent business. It is recommended that this motion be used only when there is a real urgency. You need a second, it's not debatable or amendable, and requires a majority vote. So, the most common situation is where you have a pending motion, but for some reason, you need to set that aside and take care of something else, and that has happened from to time. It can be called lay on the table or it can be called postponed until the end of the agenda, things of that nature. But, it's basically to change your gears and work on something else that's urgent. Okay, next motion, Call for the Question. This motion is to use to close debate and move on to voting on the substantive motion. This needs a second. Again, not debatable, not amendable. This one here calls for two-thirds vote. So, this motion is usually used when you want to just vote, that you're done, you're ready, right? Usually, the body has talked the matter through over and under, upside down and—Chair Adams. CHR. ADAMS: So, you will hear me sometimes, I think I've already said it once, you'll hear me say for example, I'll call for the question. That is not this. They call for the question, motion is from another member of the commission, and then we vote. So, when I'm saying it, it's usually just a transition from the discussion to the fact that we're going to vote on the motion. MR. HENRICKS: If I could just add one thing into that too. Clearly, this motion is to close debate, and that means that some people aren't ready to do that, generally. Because everybody is ready, we don't need this. But, just to be clear, too, the person who's calling for the question needs to receive the floor to do so, it Page 18 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 can't just be during somebody else's discussion. You'd need to ask the Chair for the floor, receive the floor, and then make the motion to call for the question. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Mr. Henricks. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay, the next type of motion we'll be talking about is to postpone to a certain time. This motion is used to postpone the substantive motion or any other matter on the agenda to a specific time or after a specific event. It needs a second. It is debatable, not amendable, majority vote. So, that's pretty straight forward. The next motion we have is to amend. This motion is used to modify the language of the pending motion before it is voted upon. You need a second. It is debatable. It is amendable, and again, requires majority vote. So frequently, during our conversations when members had different ideas, we're always free to make a motion to amend and basically state what your amendment will be. CHR. ADAMS: Mr. Henricks. MR. HENRICKS: And if I could just add on to that. Jon Henricks. You know like how we took care of the rules today, that worked out really well. During the Council, we often require that any such motion would be in writing, but I think that we'll be able to handle some things in the manner we did with the rules today, but if we're dealing with a motion such as a proposal that is specific, then the motion to amend should be accompanied by a document that we could reference where the motion to amend is abundantly clear what are we changing with the motion that's on the floor? Because many times a motion that will be on the floor is something—a very specific proposal to change the Charter. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay? Good? Alright. Okay, Other Important Procedural Motions. We have point of order, personal privilege, suspension of rules, recess, withdrawal of the motion, point of information. Going through these real quickly, point of order/personal privilege, Jon, usually they would need the floor again, too, right? In order to be able to make that— MR. HENRICKS: This is one where you don't. MR. YOSHIMOTO: You can just blurt it out? MR. HENRICKS: Correct. When calling for a point of order, basically, you're asking the Chair to make a ruling that somebody else on the commission, and I don't foresee this, is essentially out of order for some reason, maybe not intentionally, may not be a hostile act, but just that they're not following parliamentary procedure. And it could even be called upon the Chair by a Page 19 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 member and to wait until you have the floor would make the matter moot. So, when you call for a point of order you do not require the floor, you just interject. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Alright. Suspension of rules, that may come up if there's something in the rules that we need to suspend in order to move forward with commission business that may come up whether it's, perhaps, the setting of a meeting that somehow, doesn't fit within the needs of the commission, you know, the commission is free to do that. Recess speaks for itself. Withdrawal of motion means basically you just take back what you put forward and point of information is basically, just asking a question, which is what we would always do anyway. Okay, that covers the Parliamentary Procedures, any question? Ms. Leithead Todd. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Okay. We're entitled to—we have 11 members. Quorum is a majority of the members that we're entitled to have, which would be—we have to have six present in order to hold a meeting. In order to pass a motion, does it require a vote of the majority that the board is entitled to or a majority of those present? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Those present. MR. HENRICKS: There are circumstances where you will need at least six people to—for the motion to be adopted. And there are other matters that would be more procedural, we would just need a majority of those present. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Right. MR. HENRICKS: Our rules are currently written, if I'm not mistaken, to where—clearly to me, the most important motion, the most significant one is to pass a proposal on first reading or second reading. That is not a procedural motion, that would require—if you only had six people present it would require a unanimous vote to do so, not four. To enter into executive session, and this will come later I believe in the presentation, you need a two-thirds vote and that matters too. It's not just two- thirds of those present, it would have to be at least six people. So, if you had six people here and there's a bare majority, you need all six people to vote yes for an executive session. So, they'll be times when you'll only need a majority of those present for procedural matters, and there will be times when you need to have at least six people vote in the affirmative. And, we'll be here to provide guidance on that as those things arise. Page 20 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 CHR. ADAMS: Just to comment, actually, on the executive session, if it's not procedural and it's substantive, if all we had was a quorum of six, we wouldn't be able to go into executive session, because you'd need two-thirds. So, two-thirds of the 11 would be what would be required. MR. HENRICKS: Just to—well, law requires that it's two-thirds vote, however, it has to be at least a bare majority to which the board is entitled to. So, if you had six people vote yes, that's a 100 percent, that's more than two-thirds, and you still have your bare majority. That's how the law reads. So, you could enter into an executive session with six people, as long as all six voted. But, if five out of six voted, you could not because you haven't met that six -vote threshold. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. We can have that conversation because I'm not understanding the two-thirds requirement then. Okay. MR. HENRICKS: It's essentially two-thirds of those present, as long as it's at least a bare majority to which the board is entitled. MS. RICE: I have a question. You mentioned second reading. So, if we have a Charter amendment or change, then do we have, as the Council does, two votes on it? MR. HENRICKS: The way the rules are currently constructed, and this could come up for debate, too, we just—obviously, we didn't ask you folks how you felt about what is required to pass a Charter amendment. For instance, the Council has three readings and at least two-thirds of the entire membership is required to pass it. Your rules are constructed now to where you'll have two readings and a bare majority is sufficient, six people to pass at each reading. And these are, essentially, readings on separate meeting days, so, you couldn't pass it. Do you know what I'm saying? Like you do it in one meeting, it survives for the next meeting, there's more opportunity for public comment, and then you'd have another vote on that. And I am not exactly sure how that's going to happen going forward with scheduling and timing, but I'm sure we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But, that's how the rules are currently constructed. MS. RICE: Okay, thanks. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good? Okay. Next topic, Sunshine Law. Okay, Sunshine Law requires no discussing board business outside of a meeting, with a few exceptions. Every meeting must be open to the public unless executive session is allowed. Boards must provide notice, accept testimony and keep minutes, and cannot consider matters not included on the agenda. Page 21 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Board Business. Matters over which the board has supervision, control, jurisdiction or advisory powers that are before the board or reasonably anticipated to come before the board in the foreseeable future, or on a current or future agenda. So basically, short story, is we would consider matters that are on our agenda. Okay, what about social events? Sunshine law does not apply to social gatherings attended by board members at which board business is not discussed. The Sunshine Law does not apply to non -board members. So, a board member may discuss board business with a non -board member outside of a meeting. But, be careful of discussions in the presence of other board members, and this has come up in the past. So, as an example, say you're at a gathering, you're at a community meeting, things of that nature. While it's okay to talk to a non -board member about things that you talk about on the Charter Commission, be aware that if you have other Charter Commission members around you that are within earshot or can hear, basically, what your discussions are, you should refrain from talking to that because basically, your board business should be conducted during board meetings or on other authorized methods, such as ad hoc committees, which we'll get into a little bit later. MR. HENRICKS: This is Jon Henricks. So, part of that, too, is of course, J, myself, Shannon, we're not on the board, so, we're free to discuss things. And before, we said we'd make ourselves accessible to you. I mean I don't know—so, anything will be safe, of course, so, if it is board business, it's okay to contact us and ask us questions about that. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Adams. The other thing I would add is that, I obviously don't foresee this happening, but I'd just, I would make a comment. There are times when conversations you may have might be in earshot of the media, and so, be aware that things that you say might show up in the paper or elsewhere. So, that's not a problem, except to the extent that we then can't use that as a way to communicate with the other board members. So, the idea is making sure that we're not communicating with our fellow commissioners, necessarily through the media. So, I just ask you to be aware of that in the conversations that you do have. In the communications that we have when we're dealing with substantive matters are going to be here in the public, on the record, and so, that's just—that's kind of how we do that. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. Thank you, Chair Adams. No discussion with non - board members regarding matters discussed in closed executive session. So, that's a given. If we have an executive session, those matters are confidential until they're deemed to be public. So, of course, please keep those matters confidential. Page 22 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Okay, Permitted Interaction of Members. MR. HOPKINS: Commissioner Hopkins. A little bit of clarification on that. You've specified a moment ago that you're not a board member, but I assume that we can talk to you as the board attorney regarding executive session. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes. Okay, I see your distinction. But that's fine. Yeah. Right. MR. HOPKINS: Okay, fine. Thank you. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. Permitted Interaction of Members. Okay, this is an exception to the Sunshine Law. Basically, it states two or more members but less than a quorum may be assigned to: number one, investigate a matter relating to the official business of their boards; provided that: A. The scope of the investigation and the scope of each member's authority are defined at a meeting of the board; B. All resulting findings and recommendations are presented to the board at a meeting of the board; and C. deliberation and decision-making on the matter investigated, if any, occurs only at a duly noticed meeting of the board held subsequent to the meeting at which the findings and recommendations of the investigation were presented to the board. So basically, what this means is that— CHR. ADAMS: I'm so sorry. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Go ahead. CHR. ADAMS: We don't have a C. So, you're looking at something—we have permitted interactions, 2.5 (a) then (b) on the next slide, and then (b) again on— oh, I see, there's the items B and C in there. My apologies. I see it. Got it. MR. YOSHIMOTO: So basically, what this involves is a three-step process. So, if this commission should decide to form what's called ad hoc committees, where you have two or more members of the board, but less than a quorum, then you could form committees to investigate tasks on behalf of the commission. It would be a three-step meeting process. So hypothetically, if this is what the commission wanted to do, then first, we would basically have a meeting to set forth the scope of the investigation, then that committee would be authorized to move forward. The committee would go and conduct this investigation. Investigation means talking to the department or whatever scope the commission decides to do. Then, once that committee has its report, that report would be submitted to the entire commission, which is the second meeting, but no discussion is allowed at that point. That's the point, basically, where the public has an opportunity to review those findings, that report. Then, at a third meeting, then you can have the discussion. Jon, did I get that? So, that's an option that other commissions and boards have used and that's something that we can talk about later on today. Page 23 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Okay, next. Executive meetings. Closed to the public, motion shall state the reason for the closed meeting, requires two-thirds vote of the members present. CHR. ADAMS: If I could—Chair Adams. I don't anticipate a lot of those, to be honest with you. This is the people's business and so, it's much like making sausage, will be making sausage in the open. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. MR. HENRICKS: And if you wouldn't mind, if I could comment as well. Since you brought that forward, this is Mr. Henricks. Closed meetings of this type are not because—are not allowed because what somebody wants to say, they'd like to keep secret. It has to be for a valid reason that there's potential harm to the process with the County, not because, as you said, you'd prefer to say things in confidence and keep it that way. And the other thing about any executive meeting is that should it ever occur, to just understand that at some point in time, it's likely that whatever you say will be made public. That at some point when the matter becomes decided and there is no more liability that the minutes will be made public. So, just because we're in a closed session, doesn't mean that we really change our decorum in any way. Thank you. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. So, as Jon mentioned, in order to authorize executive session, it needs to be for specified purposes. You can't just go and just because you want to talk story about something. It's for specified reasons. So, one of them are personnel decisions. Another reason is to consult with the board's attorney. The next reason is to investigate criminal misconduct or matters confidential by law or court order. Meeting by interactive conference technology. This may come up during our meetings, if we decided to have meeting through videoconference, which we have the capability to the West Hawai`i Civic Center and vice versa, through Hilo and other sites. Notice must identify locations where the board members will be physically present. The public must be able to attend any of those locations, and the meeting will end if audio interaction is not maintained with all locations. That's per State law. Testimony. All interested persons may submit written and/or oral testimony on any agenda item. A board may adopt a rule setting reasonable time limit for testimony. Members will note that currently, our rules provide for three minutes for public testimony. There may be times when that rule may need to be adjusted. Chair has the discretion to adjust it if so needed. Okay, meeting agenda. Must list all items that the board intends to consider. Must be sufficiently detailed so as to provide the public with adequate notice of the matters to be considered. Page 24 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Amending the Agenda. Only allowed with two-thirds vote of all members and cannot add an item if it's a reasonably major importance, and will affect a significant number of people. So, it's not done lightly. I don't think it's done often, if at all. It's rarely done, actually, so, I don't see us having the need to do that, but if we do have that need we would have to pass the thresholds mentioned per HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statute). So, we'll address that if the need arises. CHR. ADAMS: Chair Adams. So, my changing the order was not the same thing as amending the agenda? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Correct. It's not the same, so, you're okay. Alright. Okay, the fun part, Ethics Training — Guiding Principles. Assume people are watching because they are, although we're on audio here. Use the smell test because it usually works. Take the high road because that's the best road. Okay, per Hawai`i County Charter, "Elected and appointed officers and employees shall demonstrate the highest standard of ethical conduct so that the public may have trust and confidence in the integrity of the government." As a Charter Commission member, you are officers of the County and you're bound by the Code of Ethics. Hawai`i County Charter, 14-2, Standards. These are some of the provisions that you need to be aware of It shall constitute a conflict of interest for employees or officers of the county to: solicit or accept gifts, loans, gratuities, favors, promises or services with the understanding that the same may influence the employees or officers in the proper discharge of their official duties. That's pretty straight forward. (b) use their official position to secure special privileges, consideration, treatment or exemption to themselves or any other person beyond that which is available to every other person. Again, I think that's pretty straight forward. (c) to engage in any business transaction or activity or have a financial interest, direct or indirect, which might reasonably tend to be incompatible with the proper discharge of their official duties or to impair their independence of judgment in the performance of their official duties, and (d) receive any compensation for services as an officer or employee of the county from any other source other than the county, except as otherwise provided by this Charter or law. (e) to appear on behalf of private interests for compensation before any agency of the county other than a court of law, nor represent private interests in any action or proceeding against the interest of the county in any litigation to which the county is a party. An officer serving the county without compensation, however, may appear for compensation on behalf of private interests before county agencies other than the one on which the officer serves and other than those Page 25 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 agencies that have the power to review the actions of the agency on which the officer serves, or to act on the same subject matter as the agency on which the officer serves. So, that's a long sentence, but I think it's self-explanatory. Chair Adams, did you have any— CHR. ADAMS: I was just going to say that the key here is if you are representing anyone or organization before any of the commissions, boards, or Council of the County, then this is where this pertains. So, just be aware that there's a section that is in the County Code and we don't want to necessarily be on the wrong—we don't want to be on the wrong side of this, right? So, this does not prevent you, correct me if I'm wrong here, Counsel, this does not prevent you, for example, from going before the Council or going before another body, not this one, obviously, and representing your own interest or providing testimony on an item that they have, correct? This does not prevent them from doing that. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Correct. CHR. ADAMS: Right. So, you can do those kinds of things. It's the other one when you're representing somebody else, kind of ideas where this comes into— MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay, thank you. And (f) accept a retainer, compensation or election campaign contribution that is contingent upon action by a county agency. That shouldn't be applicable to board members here. Okay, Hawai`i County Code of Ethics. Article 15, Hawai`i County Code. Our Code of Ethics applies to all County officers and employees. All officers and employees are presumed to know the requirements of the ethics code. The Code is interpreted by the Board of Ethics, and citizens and employees may file petitions. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Mr. Yoshimoto? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Section 14-2, Standards. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Item (f), and the reason I ask is I have not done so, but I have been asked to sign up to be on the list of potential hearings officers for the Planning Department because they've been having difficulty in the past getting qualified attorneys with the expertise in land -use law at the amount that they're willing to pay those attorneys. So, the definition of contingent upon action means that I would get compensation and I would only get paid if somebody was approving something as opposed to being hired by the County to do something Page 26 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 like be an arbitrator or mediator, or in this case, a hearing's officer. Because all you're doing there is hearing a case and then making a recommendation. I just want to clarify that because I haven't made a determination whether I'm going to do that, but I want to be real clear that does not pose a conflict if I were to get on the list of potential hearing's officers for the County. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay, we can talk further, offline, after the training, but I believe there's an exception in the Code that allows you to act in a capacity where the County is requesting your assistance. So, I'm going to look for that right now. CHR. ADAMS: While Counsel looks for that, my memory is that's accurate. Typically, this refers to from somebody else outside the County. But, the County gets the option to do that or not. But, I'll let Counsel make the final determination there. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: If you could get back to me on that because I don't want to end up inadvertently. I don't believe it is a violation and—but, you know, if there is a need and—because the O`ahu attorneys have been unwilling to come over because they end up losing money at the rate the County pays them. Thank you. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay, I will. Thank you, Commissioner Todd. Alright, where were we? CHR. ADAMS: You're looking at County Code of Ethics. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay, Fair Treatment. These are just some of the provisions—one thing to keep in mind, commission members, is that today's overview is simply that. There's a lot of details to the Code of Ethics, as Chair Adams will recall. Anyway, if anything should come up, please ask me the questions directly and we can address them as they go along. Fair Treatment. Officers and employees of the County, while discharging their duties and dealing with the public, shall adhere to the following precepts: all public property and equipment are to be treated as a public trust and are not to be used in a proprietary manner or for personal purposes without proper consent. So, I don't see that as an issue here. Basically, yeah, I don't see that being any kind of issue here. No person in a supervisory capacity shall engage in personal or business relationships with subordinates, which might intimidate said subordinates in the discharge of their official duties. I don't, again, see that as an issue here. Number (3), all persons shall be treated in a courteous, fair, and impartial manner. So, this one here has been the subject of many petitions as Chair Adams can attest Page 27 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 to as well. This provision, I think, is unique to our County Charter, excuse me, in our Code. Be mindful that you may be called on this. Ms. Leithead Todd, did you want to comment? There's many stories to tell, but basically, just be polite, as you normally are. Be courteous, right? Chair Adams, would you like to— CHR. ADAMS: I'll just make a brief comment. From my experience serving on the Board of Ethics, this will be where we will—I don't even think, I can say if, I think it will be when someone decides that we didn't necessarily do everything that we needed to do in terms of being courteous, fair, or impartial, and there will be a petition that would be made to the Board of Ethics. So, don't take it personally, it'll just happen and we'll continue to do the work that we do. The key for us, of course, will be to be courteous, fair, and impartial to the folks that we have that will come and provide testimony to us and talk to us, and there will be potential opportunities where folks will come up to you during the year and say, "Hey, you're on that Charter Commission thing, aren't you?" And you'll say, "I am, thank you very much." And they may say, "Hey, I need to talk to you about something." And that'll be up to you to decide whether or not that's the time for you to be able to do it, but again, you're an officer of the County at this point, having just received the oath of office. So, all of us are subject to being treating people in a courteous, fair, and impartial manner, even during those engagements. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay, thank you. Okay, next slide. No officer or employee shall use or attempt to use the officer's or employee's official position to secure or grant unwarranted privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts, or treatment, for oneself or others, including but not limited to the following: seeking other employment or contract for services for oneself by the use or attempted use of the officer's or employee's office or position. Number (2), accepting, receiving, or soliciting compensation or other consideration for the performance of the officer's or employee's official duties or responsibilities except as provided by law. And number (3), soliciting, selling, or otherwise engaging in a substantial financial transaction with a subordinate or a person or business whom the officer or employee inspects or supervises in the officer's or employee's official capacity. I think that's pretty straight forward, those provisions. If there's any issues, please let me know. Number (4), using County property, facilities, equipment, time or personnel for private business, campaign purposes, or for any purpose other than for a public purpose, and (c), an officer or employee of the County, or a business in which an officer or employee or the officer or employee's immediate family has a controlling interest, may contract for goods or services with any County agency provided that: the nature of the relationship between the officer or employee and the County is provided in full disclosure to the agency seeking goods or services as part of the bid for a contract or response to a request for proposals; and number Page 28 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 (2), the officer or employee has obtained an opinion from the Board of Ethics that there is no conflict of interest resulting from the officer or employee's position with the County. I'm not going to read the rest of that paragraph. But basically, what this means is that if you have anyone in your immediate family that is intending to bid on a contract with the County, then you need to check with the Board of Ethics to make sure that it's okay. Mr. Adams, did I get that right? CHR. ADAMS: That's right and at least while I was on the Board of Ethics, what that meant also was that it's the County employee, officer or employee that actually has to make that petition, to make sure that the family member is, in this case, is okay with the Board of Ethics and the rules that are here. MS. RICE: I have a question. CHR. ADAMS: Please. MS. RICE: Commissioner Rice. I'm on a nonprofit and we are writing grants to the County for our projects. Does that present a problem? Because I'm the Chair of the project that we are soliciting money from the County for. MR. YOSHIMOTO: We could talk further offline, but my initial impression is no, that wouldn't apply because this particular privilege applies for contracts for sales and goods and services. Your situation talks about a grant, which— MS. RICE: It's a 501(c). MR. YOSHIMOTO: 501(c)(3), so, I believe that would be outside of the scope of these provisions. Mr. Adams, I don't know if he wants to— CHR. ADAMS: I would—I think that I need to, at this point, let the Board of Ethics do its job and so, if there was a question, they'd probably should answer that. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Right, but we can talk further, offline, about that. MS. RICE: Okay. So, what should I do about that? MR. YOSHIMOTO: We can talk. Why don't we talk after? MS. RICE: Okay, thank you. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Just for clarification, is there a definition of the immediate family member? Page 29 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes, immediate family member, it's defined in the County Code, and I'll get that for you. This is something that the Council recently amended. I want to say two or three years ago, Doug? CHR. ADAMS: Last year. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Last year? Yeah. Immediate family means the employee's or officer's spouse, siblings, children, grandchildren, or parents. Ms. Todd, we can talk offline if you have a specific concern about— MS. LEITHEAD TODD: I don't have a specific concern because none of my kids and my grandchildren are too young, but there are some of us that are old enough that we might have grandchildren that are of an age that have businesses. And you just—sometimes, you don't know what business interests—seriously, you know, I know people that don't necessarily know what all their immediate family members are doing at a given time. Like my son-in-law comes from a family of 12 kids. I mean they're all young, but I'm just saying that you have situations where you have a huge extended `ohana, and so, this is one where I don't think you necessarily want to go—if you don't know. I just don't know where this goes in terms of that extension. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Adams. I understand that, but I also know what the Council did. So, the Council said if you are, by the ordinance, that's where that works. So, given that we are obviously going to be operating above board and if there is a concern that you have someone who's identified as a family member within the definition of the Code, then it's worth a conversation with our attorney to determine whether or not a petition to the Board of Ethics is necessary. I would point out that's only when, according to the ordinance, when there is an application being made for the sale of goods and services. Otherwise, it's not an issue. That's my understanding. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Right, because there's another section that talks about the competitive bidding process and—so yeah, we can talk later, offline. Okay, any other questions for now? Okay. Alright, Conflicts of Interest. No officer or employee shall take any official action directly affecting: a business or other undertaking n which that officer or employee has a substantial financial interest. That's pretty straight forward. I don't see that as an issue here. Subsection (2), a private undertaking in which the officer or employee is engaged as legal counsel, advisor, consultant, or representative, or other agency capacity. I don't see that as being an issue here. Number (3), a business or undertaking in which the employee knows or has reason to know that a brother, a sister, a parent, an emancipated child, or a household member has a substantial financial interest, Page 30 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 provided that the financial interest of these individuals shall not include those of any spouse or child. Again, I don't think these are pertinent to matters before this commission. Okay, important to know, failure to comply with the provisions of the County Charter, inclusive, shall constitute a cause for suspension, removal from office or employment, or such other penalty as the Council may prescribe by ordinance, or other remedy as may be available by law. Okay, next section, Gifts. CHR. ADAMS: Chair Adams. Before we go to Gifts— MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes. CHR. ADAMS: Gifts actually is, I think, something that we should pay attention to, so, I'm just going to draw right here. It may be that there is some question as to why we need to pay attention to all this, right? The fact is that the work that we're going to be doing, my view, the work that we're going to be doing is going to be—there will be folks that are interested in a variety of issues and probably on both sides. And, they will be looking, as you know, none of us are naive, we've been around a little while, that they will be looking for whatever ways, whether it's within the substance of the issue, or whether it has something to do with us as commissioners. Ethics is a way that they can go through and determine whether or not we're not operating correctly, if you will. So, whether it's conflict of interest or some other standard that Mr. Yoshimoto was talking about, that's kind of something that becomes germane to why this is important to us as well in the work that we do. So, I just—I know that it seems little—I would never accuse Mr. Yoshimoto of being monotoned or anything like that or monotonous, but the idea is that these things are important to us as officers of the County and the work that we're going to be doing, and so, I just ask you to take a look, see if there's anything that pertains, talk to Mr. Yoshimoto if there's a requirement to do that so that we don't have to worry about that down the road, frankly. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Right. CHR. ADAMS: As we do our business down the road. Now gifts, that's another issue. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay, we'll get into Gifts. But to follow what Chair Adams mentioned, we mentioned the smell test, right? So, all of us, we have this internal sense that tells us whether something's right or wrong, right? Then you follow up, "Well, is there a conflict? Is there something that I'm—do I Page 31 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 have a financial interest?" They are the big red flags, right? So, if any of these issues come up, please don't hesitate to call. We can always talk story. Attorney- client privilege and we'll address it appropriately. Chair Adams is correct. Sometimes, these issues may not be readily apparent, but again, by all means, just ask the question because we want to be preemptive and avoid any problems that may occur. Okay, Gifts. This is an important section in our County Code. No officer or employee shall solicit, accept, or receive, directly or indirectly, any gift, whether in the form of money, service, loan, travel, entertainment, hospitality, thing, or promise or in any other form, under circumstances in which it can reasonably be inferred—she needs water? Okay. We can wait. MR. HOPKINS: Excuse me, I'm sorry. I had a question back on the other one. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Go ahead. Which one? MR. HOPKINS: How do we deal with issues such as, well, I'll just bring it up right there. One of the things we're going to be talking about it is, possibility, talking about what was brought up by the Mayor earlier. The issue of are we going to put in something in the Charter to deal with the disaster losses and helping people on that? What happens if we, as in my case, we lost two farms on the thing. Do we recuse ourselves from the issue of discussing that topic? Because we were already, I won't say we were directed, but it was mentioned as a possible, do we recuse ourselves from that issue, or do we just disclose it? MR. YOSHIMOTO: I—go ahead. Are you— MR. HOPKINS: Recuse or disclose, that's the question. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Recommendation moving forward would be to seek an opinion from the Board of Ethics, basically, to just state forward all the facts and circumstances and then ask for the Board's opinion as to what the advice the Board can give you. Because the Board of Ethics is authorized to provide opinions that are binding, that are valid. They'll help you decide what course of action you should take. CHR. ADAMS: Chair Adams, so we don't have the authority within our own rules to consider that? MR. YOSHIMOTO: In terms of the conflict? CHR. ADAMS: Yeah, in other words, in terms of the discussion about whether or not somebody should recuse themselves based on their view of that. Page 32 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 MR. HENRICKS: This is Mr. Henricks with my answer. When you talk about recusal, it's always a personal decision, the Board cannot compel you to be disallowed from participating. So, if you feel, you know that smell test thing says, "Hey, wait a minute, my involvement in this is not just policy-making wise, but I feel a certain bias that will benefit me." If it tells you that, then that's the time, perhaps, for you to say, "I'm going to sit this one out." If you're not certain, you feel like it's okay but you can see how there may be an appearance of it being wrong, then I would say you go to the Board itself and get that clearance that—if it's provided to you, that would give you the confidence that you could proceed and move forward without any concerns that your vote may be casted as invalid at a later point in time. But again, at any point in time if you feel yourself that your involvement, your discussion and then your vote are coming from a place other than everyone else, if it's coming from a personal place where you may benefit, then that's an option that you have to say, "I'm going to sit this one out." And that would include the discussion as well. But, sometimes you said before, disclosure is sufficient. It depends on the circumstances and I think the best thing that we would do is as we move forward and these things come up, and you get the floor, you'd say, "Here's my situation," and then we could go look at those things and provide you with the best advice for that specific situation moving forward. CHR. ADAMS: Chair Adams. My view, we're talking about Charter amendments here, not ordinances. So, there are many perturbations that can occur as a result. So, anything that—so, the idea that any of these things are going to have some direct benefit or disadvantage to any of us is—there's not a nexus there necessarily for me. So, the idea that you may have some—that's exactly why any of us are on here is because we live here in the County and we have personal connections with a variety of the things that are happening. So, I would just—I think it's wise to follow the advice of our commission attorney and analyst, but I would also ask us to think about there's plenty of places where we could say this is going to have a personal impact on me, and so, I should recuse. We need to have a broad wide-ranging discussion using all of our experiences so that we come up with the best amendments that we can come up with. So, I would just leave it at that, I guess. MR. HENRICKS: And if I could just say for the record, I completely concur with what you're saying, that generally, what you're going to be looking at are broad - scaled issues that aren't likely to have a tangible personal benefit to anybody for that matter. So, well said and I agree, and I want to be clear on that. MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, to wrap it up, these are all options for you to consider if or when they should come up. I just think that the Board of Ethics is there for a Page 33 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 reason and I'm more preemptive in trying to address the problem before it becomes a problem, right? And the example, I guess, Council Members coming forward with legislation where they may have some type of financial benefit, whether it's direct or indirect, it's a public record that the Board of Ethics decided there was no conflict. So, that's an example of what you can consider as to what they did before. But again, we'll address it if or when the time comes. Good question. Okay, we're talking about gifts. Okay, in terms of gifts, there's this language in the Code where it states here that you shouldn't basically accept a gift under circumstances in which it can be reasonably inferred that the gift is intended to influence you in the performance of your duties or intended as a reward for any official action on the employee's part. So, there are exceptions to this contained in the Code. The exceptions usually, they consist of whether you exchanged gifts during Christmas, holidays, birthdays, those are exceptions. But generally speaking, be wary of gifts. When they say be wary meaning if anything seems out of the norm, then we should have a talk, right? Because now that you're on the Commission you shouldn't be getting gifts from someone that you never got gifts from before, right? We should be mindful of those things because I don't see that as a—something that's likely, but if it should happen, again, that's the smell test. That's the—who is this? Why am I getting this gift all of sudden? Those kinds of things should raise the red flag in your head, right? So, if that should come up, please let me know. Okay. We're wrapping up here. Confidentiality. This provision basically says that the information that you receive as an officer of this Commission should remain confidential, both confidential and privileged information. As Jon mentioned earlier, when we go into executive session, those matters are confidential up until the time that the matter is deemed to be disposed of or resolved. At that point in time, it could become public. When I say could, those things are not released as a matter of course, but if there should be a record's request and the matter is already basically pau or done, then the need for executive session, basically, is no longer there and those things could become publicly disclosed. The last slide is just our caveat saying that this is not all inclusive that if you have any questions, please let us know. We're here to help. Any questions? CHR. ADAMS: Is there anyone—any commissioner has any questions for Mr. Yoshimoto? Thank you, Mr. Yoshimoto. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay, thank you for hanging in there everyone. Page 34 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 CHR. ADAMS: Alright, so I'm looking at the time right now. It's 3:21, we actually, if we have a l0 -minute recess at this point, we'll be back on the time schedule that I actually had here. So, recess for 10 minutes. Recess: At 3:21 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 3:33 p.m. CHR. ADAMS: So we have on our agenda, in New Business, item 8, Training by Jon Henricks, Deputy County Clerk, on County government infrastructure. If it's okay with Mr. Henricks, the same, relatively informal conversational type of questions and answers that we had with Mr. Yoshimoto prevail in this situation as well. Item 8: TRAINING BY JON HENRICKS, DEPUTY COUNTY CLERK ON COUNTY GOVERNMENT INFRASTRUCTURE MR. HENRICKS: Absolutely, and this is where I say that part, I emphasize again, this is Mr. Henricks, that this is an introduction. It's an overview. Of course, a lot goes on. There's a lot that makes up the County government. What I'll try to do is just present things that would be pertinent to your time as commissioners. You were also provided like a more text -driven document that went into your binders that provides more specifics than this overview does that you can look at your leisure or not. There's a little bit more material and there's more specificity for some of the material that's in this presentation. And I add to that, you will have my phone number. If you have any questions about anything that's pertaining to this, please call, we can talk more. So again, you have your material that went into your binder that again, is a little bit more specific. There has more topics than this does. Just trying to keep this light as much as possible just to kind of get some thoughts going on how the County government works, what it's here for, its role, and all those kinds of things. So, let's get it going. Our goals right now are to talk about the powers that are granted to the County, do a quick overview of the County Charter, not the whole thing but those things that are maybe more interesting to the infrastructure of government, the Executive and Legislative branches and what the role and function of the County is. Our Hawai`i County was established in 1905 by the Territorial Legislature and gave birth to the County. And as you can see, there's the actual document down there. Some people often wonder why Hilo is the County seat, and it's because they said so. It's there at the bottom. "The island of Hawai`i and all other islands lying within three nautical miles of the shores thereof, and the waters adjacent Page 35 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 thereto, shall be the county of Hawai`i, with its county seated at Hilo." So, we're well over 100 years of being a county. The —Chapter 46 of the Hawai`i Revised Statutes, which compiles the State laws that are put together by the Legislature and approved or unsigned or with the Legislature overrides the Mayor, states that it provides the County's actions for what the County can do. It gives the County the authority for its legislative, executive, police, and prosecutorial actions. Specifically, Section 46-1.5 enumerates powers granted to and limitations of the County by 27 paragraphs, and I'm only going to give you two of them right now. So, if you're interested in what those 27 things are, and some of you probably know quite a bit about them, look it up in Section 46-1.5. The one of them important to us really, in why we're all here is paragraph 1. I don't think it's an accident that this was the first paragraph. I think it's very important and that paragraph 1 in State law says, "Each county shall have the power to frame and adopt a charter for its own self-government" and this is important, "that shall establish the county executive, administrative, and legislative structure and organization, including but not limited to the method of appointment or election of officials, their duties, responsibilities, and compensation, and the terms of their office." That's why we have a Charter. We don't have to, but the State says we could, and each County, in their own time, did so. Another one that I wanted to bring up, and this is not really maybe pertinent to what we're doing here, but it is pertinent to understand how the County operates. Paragraph 13 says, "Each county shall have the power to enact ordinances deemed necessary to protect health, life, and property, and to preserve the order and security of the county and its inhabitants on any subject or matter not inconsistent with, or tending to defeat, the intent of any state statute where the statute does not disclose an express or implied intent that the statute shall be exclusive or uniform throughout the State." I think why that's important to remember is that while the State did grant the County to do several things, what this basically says is the County can't do things that the State is already doing. The Council will enact ordinances and most of the time, it will do so in a lawful way. Sometimes the Council will do things that are perhaps outside the boundaries of what the State has allowed and then we have the courts there to decide that, and these things happen. But, why I included this is that we hear a lot about Home Rule, and I think that's important, but, my understanding, and I'm not an attorney, but just the way I see these things is we are subject to—we are bound by limitations of what the State says we can do on many things. And that is just the structure of how we're set up. You know, the grandparents are the federal government, the parents are the State, and in many ways, we're the children, and that's just an easy way to look at it, whether that's kind of facetious Page 36 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 or not, I don't know, but we are subject to the requirements the State puts upon us in many ways. We go back to paragraph 1 of HRS that we talked about earlier. Provides for each County "to frame and adopt a charter for its own self-government," which we did. We finally got it done, I should say finally, in 1969, on January 2, via special election. Important to note that the work to do so, to create this Charter in its first formation, took three separate commissions to get that done. It was that difficult. It was that contentious. You know, I go back and I want to point out that very soon, we'll have all of the archives from previous commission, including these three commissions available to you in a digital format. So, if you're interested in looking into the history of the Charter and how certain sections were created in the Charter itself, I'd encourage you to do so. These three separate commissions, I've studied some of their work and they were tremendous people on these commissions and they were extremely thoughtful and they were very deliberate. And when they weren't ready, they didn't put it forward. So, it took five years and three separate commissions before any one of those commissions could muster, I guess you could say, the confidence and perhaps the consensus to put up a Charter for the voters to vote on. And that finally happened in 1969. The Charter sets out the framework for the "local" government of the County of Hawai`i, and that's why we sometimes refer to the Charter as our Constitution. As it currently stands, it's approximately 65 pages. To me, that's not a lot, and there's a reason for that. Again, when you go back to what paragraph 1 says is about the infrastructure of government. Chair Adams talked about ordinances and their role. Our County Code is over 1,500 pages, as opposed to the Charter, which is 65. There's a reason for that. The more specific subject matters and those things that are more related to detail policy making are done through ordinances that the Council adopts and then the Mayor has a process of working with that. So again, 65 -page Charter, 1,500 -page County Code that we fit into three large binders. One of the big things that the adoption of a Charter did and one of the reasons why the State said you could do it was it moved the County from a Board of Supervisors form of local governance to a Mayor/Council system, creating a clear distinction between the Executive and Legislative branches of County government. Previously, we had a Board of Supervisors and my understanding of how that worked was it was essentially like a Council with the Chair had executive authority to act as the Mayor would in many ways. So, that worked for when it worked and when the Charter came out, the people said, "No, we'd like to move away from that." So, there's a Council and there's a Mayor. You create those clear distinctions in what duties are. There's policy making and there's taking action and executive decisions on that policy making, two separate bodies. Page 37 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 So, moving through the Charter now, and again, this is just going to hit on certain points. There's clearly more in there. If you look in Article III it establishes the Legislative Branch and what does that include? Composition and Terms of Office for Council Members, currently nine members, district related, you can serve four consecutive two-year terms. There's provisions for removal from office. What happens if there's a vacancy in office, that the Council should have a Chair, Vice Chair, Clerk, Deputy Clerk, and the necessary staff to run the Council and the Office of the County Clerk. There are powers, structure, and protocols for enacting ordinances, which we call policy making. There's a process where those bills are submitted to the Mayor for the Mayor's approval, disapproval, or the Mayor can return it unsigned. There's provisions for the Council to overturn or override a Mayoral veto. There's also provisions in there that the Legislative Branch of the Office of the County Clerk conducts elections and there's also provisions for redistricting. Basically, every 10 years, the district lines are redrawn. There's not much else in there. You move to Article V, which provides for an Executive Branch and includes the term of Office of the Mayor, currently four years, two terms in a row, max. There's minimal qualifications, including the term limit. There's the powers, duties, and functions of the Mayor. There's provisions for how the Mayor may be removed from office through impeachment or recall, and there's what to do if there's a vacancy in the office for the Mayor, but there's not much else. It's like a page and a half. Move on to Article VI, which is more in-depth. Article VI establishes certain agencies of the County; provides for their foundational elements, so to speak, their appointment removal of the head of each agency, the powers, duties and functions of each agency, and not much else. Article VI agencies are under the direct administrative supervision of the Managing Director, who acts as the "principal management aide to the mayor." Article VI departments include the Department of Public Works, the Department of Parks and Recreation, Department of Information Technology, the Department of Corporation Counsel, often referred to Office of Corporation Counsel, the Department of Finance, the Planning Department, the Department of Research and Development, and the Department of Environmental Management. So, those are the departments that are under the direct supervision of the Managing Director, who is the Mayor's right-hand person. And those department heads are nominated by the Mayor, confirmed by the Council. Article VII agencies are different than Article VI agencies. Article VII agencies, such as Human Resources, Police, Liquor Control, and Fire Department are not directly supervised by the Mayor. They come under commissions. Each one of these agencies or departments has a commission that is distinct to it. So, there is some separation from the Executive Branch. The heads or the chiefs are Page 38 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 appointed and removed by the commission, there is no mayoral or council oversight of that process. Article VII also provides for the organization, powers, duties, and functions appointment and removal of the head or chief, and the companion commission for each agency. Human Resources has a Merit Appeals Board, I believe. Police has a Police Commission, Liquor Control has two boards that help it do its business, Liquor Control Adjudication Board and a Liquor Control Commission, and the Fire Department has a Fire Board. But, there's not much else in there on that, just bare bones, basically structure, and what they're there to do. Their role, their mission, their powers, duties, and functions, and how their division heads or chiefs are selected. Article VIII establishes the Department of Water Supply and a Water Board. Our Department of Water Supply is different from any other agency. It's similar to the ones that are under commissions because it has a commission as a Water Board and that Water Board does select the Chief Engineer of the Department of Water Supply, but what makes the Water Board different than any other agency, it's described as semi -autonomous. Why? Because they don't get their money from real property tax or other sources. The money they need to operate, they get by charging us for using water. So, that is one of the unique features of the Water Department. And also, like the other commissions under Article VII, the head or the Manager Chief Engineer is appointed by the Water Board. The Mayor does not select that person, the Council has no say. The reason why it's called semi -autonomous is because, to quote the Charter, it does come under the "general supervision and control of the mayor, through the managing director." What that means, I don't know. If you're interested in that as you move through the Charter, I would ask the Manager Chief Engineer, Mr. Okamoto, what that means to him. Article IX is dedicated to the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. The Prosecuting Attorney is an elected official who serves a four-year term. Qualifications to be the Prosecuting Attorney are to be licensed to practice and in good standing before the Supreme Court of this state. You must be a U.S. Citizen, and you must be an elector of the County for at least one year preceding the election to which you seek to become this person. Can only be removed by impeachment or recall proceedings because they are an elected official. Article IX also prescribes the powers, duties and functions. Most importantly, the "prosecution therein for offenses against the laws of the State and the ordinances and regulations of the county." So, the Prosecuting Attorney does not only prosecute for offenses against ordinances of the Council and the Mayor lawfully promulgate, but also laws of the State as well. And there's not much else there. It's about a page and a half. Page 39 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Article X doesn't deal directly with any particular department, but I bring it forward because it provides for our financial procedures. It's a very important set of provisions in our Charter. It lays out the timetables and protocols for the submission, adoption, and amendment of our Operating and Capital Improvement budgets, and the scope of both budgets, meaning what their contents and boundaries are. There's a lot of detail in Article X. It's maybe one of the more specified and detailed articles in the Charter. I believe the reason why is that when it comes to adopting budgets, which are critical for the County's operation, you can't leave too much to the imagination. There couldn't be too much leeway for the administration or the Council to decide how to do these things. It includes provisions for how the County may enter into contracts and create special funds. And also, most recently, it has added provisions to include the Public, Access, Open space, and Natural Resources Preservation Fund and also a Maintenance Fund for that same purpose. There's a list of the commissions that are established by the Charter. You have your Redistricting Commission which we mentioned before, that deals with the Council district boundaries, and only the Council district boundaries, as I understand. The Cost of Government Commission, which is currently under way, looking at the scope of government and how it spends money, trying to find ways, perhaps, for the government to be more mindful of how it spends money. We now have two Planning Commissions, which I would say is a relatively recent development. We used to have one. Two were created to provide more, I think, partly to decide west side issues on the west side, with west side people. Board of Appeals, which serves to hear appeals from decisions of the Planning Director and also the Director of Public Works. We have a Game Management Advisory Commission, which really serves to deal with hunting, fishing and other matters, and to give consultation to State and Federal agencies. We have a Merit Appeals Board, which deals with Human Resource issues. Police Commission deals with police issues, Liquor Commission with liquor issues, Liquor Control Board, different liquor issues. A Fire Commission to deal with fire issues. If anything's going on, because the Fire Chief actually does make decisions when it comes to certain kinds of permits and things and people aren't happy with that, you can go to the Fire Commission. Again, we have the Water Board. It sets water rates, selects the Chief Manager Engineer. We have a Board of Ethics, which we heard a lot about today, and of Page 40 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 course, we have you folks. These are just listed in the order that they appear in the Charter, not by importance, of course. All other boards and commissions, of which we have many boards and commission, I can't count. I'd say it's more than thirty in the County, but these are the ones established by the Charter. The rest are established by ordinance or by the Mayor. The Mayor has the power to create advisory commissions that aren't subject to Council confirmation. These advisory commissions only last for the term of the Mayor and they're meant to provide the Mayor, almost like a committee to hear issues, to give the Mayor advice. Other commissions established by ordinance are done by the Council, and there's a lot of them. As you can see, you can imagine the process it took for the Mayor's Office to find all of you folks to be on this Commission. They run out of people, quite frankly. They run out of qualified people because there are just so many outlets or different topic matters that are covered by citizens to help the County do its business. Ms. Leithead Todd, do you have a question? MS. LEITHEAD TODD: It has been my experience, having run a couple of departments that the ordinances or the Charter has created multiple new commissions over the past few years. But, the departments that have to manage them have not been given additional staff. The Planning Department alone had 13 different boards and commissions and agencies that they had to provide the secretarial services for and it ended up having to—you have to take work away from other areas of the department. So, I think one of, I'm just going to put this out right out now, is that I'm going to question whether there's a need for as many of the boards and commissions that we have. Where that basically, you can't create new commissions unless you're going to create the staff to support those boards and commissions. As it is in the past, Charter Commission used to have a budget to hire their own outside attorney and hire their own outside secretary. I know the reason you guys are doing this is there's no money. So, there's a real question, in my mind, about fiscal responsibility in the creation of some of the boards and commissions. Anyway, I'm just going to put that out there because that's something that is on my mind, is going to be coming up again and again as we review some of these. Thank you. MR. HENRICKS: To get a graphic illustration of Ms. Leithead Todd's point, you can go to our website and there's a link that says "Community" on top and you click that and the very first opportunity is "Boards and Commissions." You'll get the entire list of every board and commission, including access to their agendas and documents and it's a small font because it's a lot of—there's a lot there. Page 41 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Okay, moving along. Article XV, which brings us to where we are today, provides for methods to amend or revise this County Charter that you all have been assigned to review. There's three methods, the first is to, where the Council will introduce for an ordinance, which requires three affirmative readings with a two-thirds vote of the entire membership of the Council, so six votes at least, at each point in time. Anything less than that, the proposal goes away. There's the Charter Commission, which is you folks, convened every 10 years, comprised of 11 members appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Council, and the Charter Commission will submit proposals that are established by deliberative meetings and affirmative votes. And there's a third method, which is least common, by the people. The people can change a Charter without having the Council do it, or without coming to you folks. They can do it by petition to the Council, but that petition must be signed by qualified electors, equal to at least 20 percent of the total ballots cast in the preceding General Election. So, those are the three methods by which this Charter can be amended, well, I should say, proposals can be brought forward to amend the Charter because any proposal for an amendment, regardless of the source of that proposal, must be approved by the electorate at the general election via a ballot question. I want to point out that Chair Adams had talked about education and outreach, and that is critical. Because as you all know as voters, when you go to vote and you're asked to vote on a Charter amendment, what do you see? All you see is a ballot question generally. The full text of the Charter amendment is published, it's provided at polling places. I know when we do absentee ballots we do our best to include that full text in there so you'll be completely aware, but the reality is, the majority of voters, when they vote on a Charter amendment, all they will see is the question. We've been advised by the Office of Elections that it can only be a question. It has to all fit with one sentence and a question mark at the end. There's no extraneous material to explain it. It's very difficult to provide context. But, that is how any proposal from you, the Council, or the citizens is ultimately approved and then incorporated into the Charter, is through the approval of a ballot question. What's interesting to note in that process as well is that it is straight yes versus no count. Blank or spoil ballots are not a factor. To amend the State Constitution, there's a different process. There's a percentage requirement where those blank and spoiled ballots factor into it. So, let's say for sake of argument you had a 100 yes votes and 99 no votes. It does not necessarily mean that the Constitution will be amended because they're going to factor in all the blank and spoiled ballots. That's not the case with the Charter. It's strictly yes votes versus no votes. So, it's important to keep that in mind when you put proposals before the people. It's a matter of people taking the time to either vote yes or not, and those people who Page 42 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 take the time to do that will make the determination as to whether or not the Charter will be amended. Then, just to illustrate that, since the Charter's adoption in 1969, there have been 99 proposals to amend it, and 86 of those proposals have been approved, which is an 87 percent approval rating. I don't know if it's high or low. And you could argue that means that's because the 99 proposals were solid proposals. That's one point that could be made. Another is that I think it's easier for people to vote yes for something than to actively say they don't want something. And many people just will tend to decline to weigh in on it if they're not certain. Okay, moving from—sorry. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: In tabulating the ballot to approve, the people who choose not to vote, they don't become part of the equation. It's just the majority of the votes actually cast on the question. So, if 6,000 people showed up to vote, and only 1,000 voted on Charter amendments, then it'll only be 50 percent of the 1,000 rather than 50 percent of the 6,000 people who actually cast ballots in other races, then. Correct? MR. HENRICKS: I think the easier way to think about it, I hear where you're going, if 6,000 people showed up to vote and one person voted yes on a Charter amendment and nobody voted no, it would pass. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Thank you. MR. HENRICKS: You're welcome. Moving away from the Charter itself and going more into the roles of the Executive and Legislative Branch, I mean these are parts of the Charter. How does this work? Well, the Council adopts certain laws for the County. Again, we go back to Chapter 46 and those 27 paragraphs and enumerations. So, those are the areas where the Council is in good standing to adopt laws. There should not be any conflict with State or Federal law, but that doesn't mean that Council can't' do so. The Council has done so and the Mayor sometimes will veto those things because they'll get advice from Corporation Counsel to say, "We don't think this is going to pass muster." And sometimes the Mayor will also sign things. Eventually, if it's important enough, somebody will challenge it in court and then we'll see where it goes from there. So, the Council adopts these ordinances, so we call that the policy making portion of the process. Then, it's upon the Mayor and departments and the agencies of the County to enforce and implement those ordinances. The Executive Branch uses County resources to execute the policies adopted by the County Council by ordinances. So, this is where we get into the separation of powers with checks and balances, and again, why, perhaps, this Charter moved from a Board of Supervisors version of government to a Mayor/Council version. So, to put it Page 43 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 simply, and maybe too simply, but to put it simply, the Council creates the law and the policy. The Mayor, through its departments, enforces and/or implements those laws and policies, and the philosophy behind that is that no single entity of the County government controls local regulations, revenues, or policies. Checks and balances, separation of powers, okay? What does our County do? What are your roles and responsibilities? The County is responsible for core services, including but not limited to Fire, Police, Water, Parks and Recreational activities. Planning and zoning, which we call land use, maintaining certain parks, roads, buildings, and highways. Those, of course, that are under County jurisdiction, and also, setting, collecting, and expending real property taxes and fuel taxes. I just updated this PowerPoint to say "and soon a portion of GE Tax," because that of course, is very new and fresh. Important to note that the bulk of County core services, all those things we talked about in the first slide or first portion of this slide are funded from real property taxes. To give you an example, 74.5 percent of the General Fund of the operating budget for the previous fiscal year came from real property taxes. So, that's the operating budget. The other budget we talked about was the Capital Improvement budget. What that is it contains substantial projects such as building of new fire/police stations, parks, repair of roads, et cetera. Funding for those projects, most often comes from the sale of General Obligation Bonds. Essentially, we mortgage those costs. We don't pay them out right with operational expenses. Let's talk about what the County is not responsible for. Schools, whether they're public, private, charter, university or trade. Hospitals and health issues, highways and parks that are under State jurisdiction and the judicial system. County is also not responsible for taxes other than real property, fuel, and soon, a portion of the General Excise tax. Most of the General Excise Tax, Transient Accommodations taxes and State Income taxes are the responsibility of the State to collect and expend. So, just kind of going, recapping what we talked about. Our County was established in 1905. It's Chapter 46 of our State compilation of laws that grants the powers to the County and specifically, 46-1.5 that provides 27 enumerated powers that the County can operate under. Our County Charter acts as our "Constitution." It sets out the basic infrastructure of governance. It was enacted in 1969 and is approximately 65 pages. Council establishes policy, the Executive Branch carries it out. The County provides for the public health, safety, and welfare of its citizens through the Legislative Branch's policy making duties and conducting elections, and by maintaining a Police force, Fire Department, Parks and recreation, Public Works, which includes roads, bridges, and facilities, Planning, land use, Page 44 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Environmental Management, which includes solid waste and wastewater, and for the prosecution of offenses of County and State law, provides water and then there's all those other agencies that provide internal services to the County to make sure that all these other agencies can function properly. And that's the end of that. And again, you're provided a text version of this with more specificity and other information that was in your binder for you to review at your leisure. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Mr. Henricks. Are there any questions for our commission analyst from the commissioners? That was well done. Thank you very much for the overview. Alright, let's move on to—we've already gone through New Business agenda number 9 and move into item 10, under New Business, Preliminary Discussion on Objectives and Protocols. Item 10: PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION ON OBJECTIVES AND PROTOCOLS • Agenda Defines Discussion and Action Opportunities • Creation of Standing Committees and Ad Hoc Committees • Outreach - Input from County Agencies • Protocol for Initiating, Forming, and Approving Proposed Amendments • Timelines/Deadlines CHR. ADAMS: In this particular agenda item, we will talk about defining our agenda and action opportunities, creation of standing committees and ad hoc committees, our outreach and input from County agencies, protocol for initiating, forming, and approving proposed amendments and our timelines/deadlines. If we still have a couple of other items that are on the agenda, one is discussion on location, frequency, day, and time for meetings and request commissioners input on public hearing schedule. So, if we could, we'll deal with those items in their proper places. I'd like to start this discussion. There's a couple of things I'd like to do. One, I'm going to make a comment, reference Section 50-6 from the Hawai`i Revised Statutes, which is duties and functions of commissions, dealing specifically with the Charter Commission. And then, I'd like to ask each member of the commission, that's present, to provide a brief comment on what they see as important, from their perspective, that this commission needs to be involved in and as you see your particular role. I think it would be helpful for all of us to kind of get a sense of where we all are at the beginning of this. And then we can get involved in talking about how we want to set the agendas and how we want to approach this task, this very small task, obviously, that's before us. Page 45 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Okay so, without any objections, then I'll go forward first with this particular comment on reading from Section 50-6, which is from the Hawai`i Revised Statutes in Section 50, which is Charter Commissions, talking directly from County organization and administration. So, "The charter commission shall study and analyze the existing governmental structure of the county for the purpose of securing information that will enable it to draft a proposed charter adapted to the requirements of the county and designed to provide for the people of the county, a more efficient and responsible form of government. The study of any subject relevant to the government, property, or other affairs of the county, or of the laws relating thereto, or of any matter or thing deemed by the commission to be pertinent thereto, and consistent with the purpose for which the commission was created, shall be deemed within the scope of the commission's work." So, having read that, it provides a little bit of context on what it is that we have in front of us. I'd ask Commissioner Bergin if he might start with his views on what he sees as his role and the commission's role in our work. MR. BERGIN: The entire afternoon of history of details, it was done somewhat casually so that we could stop and ask questions when we saw that they would be need to be addressed. It's been made very clear and I'm going to go away today a lot more informed than I ever had been before regarding county business. But your question again, could you repeat it what you'd like to hear from me? CHR. ADAMS: I'd like to hear, Commissioner Bergin, your view of your role as you enter into this journey that we're all going to take together, what you see as your role and as you think about it, the commission's responsibilities. MR. BERGIN: I think my first line of responsibility would be to be open to the district of Kohala, and of thoughts, of pressures, of ideas, of initiatives that would serve that district. However, equally sensitive to all of the other districts of the island, as I believe we all want to work collectively for the good of the entire County, and not necessarily our own kuleana. I am going to have to learn a little bit as I move along because I tend to be expressive and it sounds like the less said the better, period, as we go through the course of this next 12 or 18 months that discussions need to be held among us and not necessarily in a bar or at a party. That's a transition for Irish people. But, without specifically naming any particular thoughts, unless you'd like to hear one— CHR. ADAMS: By all means. MR. BERGIN: I came from parents that were very interested in political means of improving the lives, but they were noncommittal. They did, at least, instill in all of us children that a great part of community service is to support initiatives or Page 46 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 candidates or seated people that are trying to get the good done for the county. Having said that, when I came home from college in 1968, carrying forward, I pretty much looked at initiatives from people that I felt could really lead. So, I was able to go through that transition from the ending of the Board of Supervisors into the Council, and as I watched the transition that happened, apparently by the guidance of previous Charter Commissions, that we went from a four-year to a two-year. And the very people for whom my wife and I would enjoy going to work for suddenly became very confined and very constricted, and very restricted in the amount of time that they could spend to achieve the goals that they were elected to attend to, and not have to constantly, basically, run for office. I believe government is no different from private business, and when you develop an initiative that you feel is worthy, it's really hard to achieve an initiative in a period of 48 months. Even at that particular rate, time takes its toll on the initiative, and because of that, that, at least, is one particular thought I had, and I hope I'm not in violation of any particular Code for having expressed that. That would be just about the only thing so far, and I'm very open to learning and listening because I'm sure there's a myriad of other things. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Todd. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Looking at the proposed timeline, which indicates that by the end of December, six months from now, we're supposed to, in theory, come up with recommendations for Charter amendments that we can then take out for public hearing. It seems to me that the first thing we should do is get a letter out to the various departments and agencies that are included in the Charter and ask them to submit to us, any recommendations that they may have for amendments to the Charter. So, in other words, if the Fire Department or the Fire Commission, they would be two separate entities, has recommendations, we send letters out to them saying, "Please submit any recommendations for the Charter in the area affecting your department or affecting your commission." Same thing with all the other departments, Prosecuting Attorney, and I'm thinking, that just looking at the timeline, we need to have something in writing from them because I'm sure that many of them have ideas. But, we have such a tight timeline that the sooner we can get input from the departments that we can take a look at, and then, at some point, we've got to schedule the departments to come and speak to us, I guess, as we go. In the past, I think they went section by section, and I was looking at it. You know, we've got August and if we went through Articles 1-5 in August and in September, we went through Articles 6, which has a bunch of departments, and then if we did October, and we did the other departments, then in November, we'd have to do everything from Financial Procedures all to the miscellaneous stuff. I'm just looking at that timeline because we have to have some idea in December that—it's a tough timeline and so the sooner we can get stuff in writing Page 47 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 and perhaps notice to the general public that if they have specific proposals that they should start submitting that in writing to us too. And sooner is better than later because we need to be able to be ready to go out to public hearings in January. So, that would be one of the first things is perhaps a letter from the Chair, asking the departments and the various boards and commissions to submit any suggestions that they may have. And similarly, perhaps even Council Members because they have stuff that they may have voted on at the Council, but there may be individual Council Members that want to present recommendations. Because the Mayor, obviously, would—his office would be on our list. But, whether we want to expand that list to send out letters to other organizations, and I don't know what that list would be. I'm just saying that the sooner we get notice out to people the better off we're going to be in terms of trying to meet our timelines. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Commissioner Todd. And we will be—let me just make a comment that we're going to be getting to that part as we go through this conversation, so, I appreciate you bringing that up. I'd ask Commissioner Hamano the question that I asked Commissioner Bergin, you have some comments relating to that? MR. HAMANO: I just see our role as being open and receptive to whatever, you know, requested changes to the Charter that we consider it and give it a full hearing. For me, I have no agenda. I'm like a clean slate. I'm just open to whatever proposals are going to be before us and that's what I think our role is. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Commissioner Hopkins. MR. HOPKINS: Thank you for this one here and thank you very much for the presentations. It was very helpful for what we have here. I basically agreed to get on this commission because I wasn't sure who was going to be on the commission, okay? I have seen some things on some of our other commissions. Let's just say that people come in with agendas and I do have an agenda. My agenda is to respect the Charter as it is now and everything that's come before us, but at the same time, look for—if somebody comes forth with a good reason for us to make a change, I'll consider it, but, I am very resistant to making changes to key documents like Charters and Constitutions. Already, I mean if you look at it, over 50 years, we've had eighty something Charter amendments. Does that mean that we are—and let's put it in—things there is, if you look at the US Constitution, in 250 years we've had what? 27 something—around 25 or 27? It's either telling me that we don't treat amendments—we're treating amendments frivolously or we had a pretty badly written Charter to start with. Or there's been major changes coming in here. Page 48 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 So, I take the process very seriously, but I don't want to just be making changes for the sake of changes on here. So, that's basically where I come in from this one and I will listen to what people have to say and the things there. I think the process, and I'll just—these people are making comments already. I think the process that we have for approving Charter amendments need to maybe change to the State method. It's too easy to approve it because if you're interested in it, you'll vote for it. Or if you're—it can be a battle between the activist and where the silent majority says, "I don't know what the heck this is all about. I'm not going to vote." Which basically means it's a yes. So, that—I don't think that's a valid—so, that's actually one of my main concerns. The only one that I really have so far, within the—and the last thing that I want to say is I was extremely pleased to see the comments in the ones here is that the Charter here is for the County. We're not out here trying to make goals and everything for the United Nations, which, some of our previous Councils, when you listen to what Councils, you'll think that they were at the United Nations, not that we were at the County of Hawai`i. This is for us. This is what's important for us and what's important for our people, and if we focus on that and realize that we have constraints, we may not like the constraints that the federal government put on us, we may like the constraints that the State government have put on us, but I don't see us wasting our time complaining and whining about it, or doing things that will cost the county money. Let's focus on what we can do and what is our responsibility related to the county and our people? Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thanks, Commissioner Hopkins. Commissioner Todd, is there anything that you'd like to add? MS. LEITHEAD TODD: I do have an agenda and one is that I happen to think that the Charter has inconsistencies and in some cases, ambiguous content. So, I would like to, probably, be looking at definitions of certain words so that there's clarity in terms of—just as an example, if you look at the qualifications for department heads, and I may have spent a little time on this, having been sued, in some cases, it talks about administrative experiences. In other departments it talks about supervisory experience, but there's no real definition of what that means. So, I think there should be either— there should be consistency between what qualifications are, or there ought to be some kind of definition. I mean why is one department saying you got to have three years of administrative experience and another one says you have to have three years of supervisory experience? I'm assuming that if you're running a department and you've got a number of employees and you've got a budget, that other than specific experience, like if you're going to run the Police Department, you have to have some experience in legal background and police. And Fire, you need to know firefighting procedures and protocols. But, other than that, we should have some understanding of what we mean by administrative, what we mean by supervisory, and, also, be looking at whether we should be more consistent. You know, in some departments they Page 49 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 talk about five years. They talk about three years. Should there be more consistency in the various departments? Then the other big issue for me is basically been brought about by the ongoing crisis in Puna. That's whether the Charter is flexible enough, and the provisions in the Charter are flexible to allow the county to respond to disasters. I think the very issue of the financial process and the budget, and whether they're going to have enough revenues, I think they passed a budget thinking that they might not receive all the funds that they have projected and so, is there a question of whether, in disasters, there should be some more flexibility for the Mayor, with or without the consent of the Council, to reach into different funds? Because I'm looking at we've had an eruption going on for 30 years at Pu`u `O`o and we've got another crisis going on now that it's only going on for two months, but we don't know how long. We don't know how much it's going to cost. I don't want the county to be in the situation where they haven't adequately prepared or have adequate flexibility to meet those needs. That's just watching what's been going on over the last two months. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: From my perspective, I have a very steep learning curve and I feel that I will be definitely doing some intense homework reading the Charter carefully and thinking about it. And also, just now, I've already learned some things to be considered. So, I think, number one, I need to listen and the one item that I do have thoughts about, which is kind of fun, is that Commissioner Bergin brought up something that I have felt for since it was done by the Council many years ago, that's the two years versus a four-year term. I do think it's a waste of money and time. It could be better spent, so, I have a bias on that but certainly, I'm open to lots of input and discussion about it. Other than that, it's a learning curve for another couple of weeks, three weeks, a month and then I'll get my feet wet. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Commissioner Rice. Commissioner Springer. MS. SPRINGER: Well, as Sally said, I too have a lot to learn, but, I am very willing to listen to all of the suggestions, and hopefully, we'll get input from the different department heads or commissions, and we'll just do the best that we can to work through it. I'm easy to work with, great listener, don't talk too much, but hey, we'll get through this. I'm concerned about Puna as well, not only because of the eruption, we also went through that hurricane a few years back and I lived through that. Every time I hear—I feel like I suffer from PTSD and my kids are like, "Wow." But, I sat at Page 50 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 home for two weeks without power because I wasn't one that was going to call to complain about it. They said wait and my kids down the road had service and I'm at home in the dark and I'm like, "Oh, God," thinking about the generator and I don't want to turn it on because I'm afraid someone's going to come and steal it. It was just terrible. Now we're going through this Puna situation and I feel for those people that have lost everything and are having to live in shelters and again, getting back to the flexibility of our administration and hopefully, them being able to jump in and do things without having their hands tied, so to speak. But again, it's not only Puna, it could affect any other part of our island. So, a lot for me to learn but I'm willing to do that too. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Commissioner Zelko-Schlueter. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: I also wanted to thank you folks for a great orientation today. I mean it was—you didn't put any of us to sleep and we've learned quite a bit. I guess I just would also like to say I really don't have any particular agenda item that I can think of right now. I'm very interested in hearing from the folks who are actually in these departments because I think, you know, just like in a work place in an organization, in order to change policies, you got to hear from the people who have to do the work. What is working? What isn't working? What is confusing? So, I'm excited to talk with them and learn more from all of you. So, thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. I would say a couple of things. One, I'm very happy to have all of you on the commission, taking a look at all of these issues. In a couple of minutes, we'll start talking about some of the things that Commissioner Todd was talking about in terms of pragmatically figuring out how we're going to tackle this, right? I would say that I do have an agenda. My agenda is associated with where is this county going to be in 20 years? And making sure that the infrastructure that is resident in the Charter, the organizational infrastructure, if you will, is capable of allowing us to get there in the way that we'd like to get there. So, as we go through the, what I call our mission, which is to make sure we do a really good once over of the Charter as it currently exists. I'll be looking at that process and the diving deep type of stuff that I'm sure that we're going to do, hopefully, with a 20,000 or 30,000 -foot altitude review of it as well as to how does this affect what I think we're going to be looking like as a county in 20 years? So, that'll be part of what my agenda will be, to make sure that we're able to do that. Page 51 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 The other thing, I guess, I would—well, I just said the other is there are many things that we'll be taking a look at and it's important to me that all of you feel that you have the ability to make sure that whatever your views are, that they're expressed. If at any time, you feel that you're not getting that, you come to me and make sure that you let me know, right? We all have different personalities when it comes to expressing ourselves and some of us are quieter than others. I've never necessarily been accused of being quiet, and so, I can appreciate those that are, but I would ask that as you listen, that you also let us all know your views because that's how we're going to move forward as a commission, to accomplish this mission of taking a look at our Charter. This is every 10 years, so, we don't get to do this all the time. Okay, so I appreciate you all taking the opportunity to do that. I'd like to address—yeah, let's just go right into that. As we take a look, there are a few different ways that we can tackle this elephant. The elephant being the Charter. There are 26 Articles in the Charter, right? 26? 16, sorry, that's a single "X" not a double "X." 16 Articles in the Charter. Last time they broke it up into six month—into a chunk for six months, right? They did the public hearings before they finished, actually. They started going to the public hearings before they finished the six month. They started—they did their public hearings during the fifth month and the sixth month. Then, in terms of having their discussions about the articles that were at the end of the Charter, they did that during those last two months as well. So, one way to do it is to break it up into chunks of the Charter and look at those on a month -by -month kind of basis. That allows us to make sure, I would just say that allows us to make sure that we cover the entire Charter. So, that's one way to do it. There's another option where we say, "Hey, we want to get the Executive Branch here and we're just going to have them come talk to us over a couple months." They'll give us that information and we'll plug and play it into the various articles that we need to do that so that we try and take care of their time and then we get, perhaps, the Council to do that, in terms of the interest that they have. So, that's another possible option. I'm open to any other thoughts on how to tackle this. Commissioner Hopkins. MR. HOPKINS: From my perspective, if we set the things up and say we're going to do certain Articles first, it means that we don't get information, in general, about the entire document from everybody beforehand. My preference would be getting the departments to come in, you know, the Mayor, the departments to come in, let that process start up, then get public opinion in there, you know, public hearings on what it is, and then we have the information to start making decisions about the document as an entirety. And we'll find out that there may be a whole series of things that people really don't care about and we don't Page 52 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 need to really spend a bunch of time on those particular aspects of the Charter. Because if we say, put up four things for next month and nobody's really interested, so, how about those four things? If we have the four things—sorry if I'm being confused. If we have four things next month, but it affects all the different departments, how are those departments going to—are they going to have to come back every month if they have inputs on the different—? Because some of the aspects may—some articles of the Charter may affect a particular department several times and, so, my preference is, "Let's get the departments in here. Let's get the public in here." I think we really need to figure out how we're going to get the—it bothers me a little bit that I hear we don't have hardly any budget, but we do need a budget out there to do the advertising to the public and say, "Come in here. Tell us what you think about this." Then, when we get the information, then we put it together and of course, go back out to the public again afterwards. That's my suggestion and I leave it at that. CHR. ADAMS: Alright, thanks. Mr. Henricks, did you have some type of comment to any of that? MR. HENRICKS: Well, what I'm hearing so far is, clearly, the sooner that this commission sends a formal request to each—and I'm assuming it's the agencies that are affected by the Charter, not Housing or other departments that aren't part of the Charter. The sooner we send that outreach and say, "This is the Charter review period, we're seeking, not only your proposed changes but your attendance at a meeting to provide an overview of your department and talk about what you do," the better. So, I'm kind of feeling like I'm drafting that letter in our heads already, right now. CHR. ADAMS: Sure. MR. HENRICKS: Is that what I'm hearing from everybody? CHR. ADAMS: I think it also includes more than just the, correct me if I'm wrong, but it includes also, do they have any amendments? MR. HENRICKS: Yeah, that would be, specifically, part of the letter and what I heard from Commissioner Leithead Todd was that would extend to the Mayor's Office, Council Members, individually, and also, potentially, private organizations. Now naturally, the first three things are easy, they're defined. Private organizations, I don't want to exercise any discretion, so, if you have any ideas, and if we're going to go that route, I would say you send those ideas to Chair Adams or to our Charter Commission email. I don't know how we would get consensus on that. I think we just have to take your lead as the Chair and say this would be good to solicit their input. Page 53 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Like I said, the first three are relatively easy and standard form, you know, asking those groups to provide their input. Now, that's what I'm hearing, that I understand. To Commissioner Hopkins point, I see the benefit of spending some money now and putting some form of advertisements out there and even ways that maybe don't cost too much money to let everybody know that you guys are formed and you're starting your business and that without the people's input, it's going to all come from, internally, from you folks and that's not what you want. You want to hear from the people. So, I see those two things as things that we can start working on now. CHR. ADAMS: Okay, thank you. MR. HENRICKS: Well, starting Monday, I would say, probably not tonight. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Todd. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: One idea that just popped in my head as you're thinking about it and you can set it up, so you don't have comments and its just announcements. But, free media like Facebook, where you can have a page for Hawai`i County Charter Commission, and you just post what our agendas are on it. The problem with commentary is that none of us can engage in it and I would suggest something that says, "Here is the agenda, if you want to submit testimony, here's where you submit it." But, because we're going to be going through deliberations and hearings, I would suspect that what you might want to do is just have something purely for announcements but not public comment, and just say that if people want to comment publicly that they should submit testimony. Because we're required to do it together and my concern about the social media aspect is if somebody is putting up some kind of a proposal, whether it then becomes some kind of communication that we're all reading outside. But, I do want free, you know, and it could be—or you could monitor and just answer specific questions if people have questions. But, we wouldn't handle it, it would just be where you could post the agendas, just like how Civil Defense has a Facebook page where they put their updated announcements and I've often thought that I don't know why people don't do more free stuff. The other thing is you could also suggest that if people want to be on an email list for our agendas, that they could sign up and have a contact because we used to send a lot of agendas out once email became a thing. We started sending them out that way because it saved on postage. So, that's just one suggestion as a mechanism to not have to pay for publishing cost and it's a lot cheaper. MR. HENRICKS: If I may, this is Mr. Henricks. To Ms. Leithead Todd's point, I think what I heard from you, I would agree with is focusing the outreach on Page 54 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 announcing when the commission's meetings are and what will be on its agenda. I do see some problems, not with what you said but I'm concurring with you, I think, in that asking for specific proposals from the public and here's why. If that really works well, I don't think you'd have any discretion as to which ones you would entertain. I think you'd have to entertain them all and that may not be best for business, for you folks to have to—you're going to get them anyway. People know that you're here and there are citizens that are very interested in the Charter. So, we will—I'm sure we'll have proposals from the public, but if we seek them out and we promote that process, we may regret that decision in that if it works very well, we may not have enough time would be my concern. Because we talked about timetable and I'll bring this up now, this commission being seated in July is a new thing. It's always been seated in January of the following year. The previous commission put forward a proposal to seat this commission in July to give it more time so it didn't feel this pressure to review the Charter in its entirety and come up with proposals. But one thing to think about when we're considering proposals is that there are peripheral matters. For whatever reason, the commission didn't consider the fact that though it was seated earlier, it still has the one year by State law. So, it really didn't give you folks any more time to review the Charter. It probably just created more time to after you do your work, to promote your results and do more education and outreach because you still have a year. So, what I'm hearing, at least for now is cost -friendly outreach and we'll look into the social media aspects. There are—we have to make sure that we're okay as far as using those kinds of resources for county purposes. I know the Mayor's Office does, so, I think we'll be fine, but I don't want to promise anything right now. Cost -friendly outreach, more to announce that the commission's here, what its purpose is, when its next meeting is, and what it'll be considering at the next meeting so that people can provide comments that then we can filter through and perhaps they would give some direction of the commission, generally more than specifically, through proposals. Pretty much on point? CHR. ADAMS: I'm not hearing any reaction to that. Okay. I would just make a comment. Chair Adams. I am cognizant that sometimes the folks that are able to come to public testimony and provide ballot amendments that we're not reaching, necessarily, all the residents that are out there. People work, they have families, they have lives. Part of what Commissioner Todd was talking about allows those folks, also then, to participate in this process, perhaps. There are ways, it seems to me, that we have the ability to kind of manage that, perhaps. For example, if there are items brought in—I mean you're concerned about success, I get it, part of a potential way to manage that would be to say rules are—if your particular ballot amendment is going to, or proposal is going to be Page 55 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 heard, then you have to be present. Otherwise, we'll just roll through that, kind of idea. So, that's just a possibility. That would be a rules amendment, clearly, in terms of managing that kind of thing. But, I think that there are potential ways to help with that. I like the idea of reaching out to folks that we haven't necessarily reached out—had the opportunity of accessing before because they just think that this is outside of their bailiwick. Okay. Are there any other ideas here? This is what I'm thinking about. I was initially thinking that the idea of walking through each of the articles and doing it on that six months the way they did last year. It'd make sure that we cover everything, and from my perspective, I think that's important. I think we do make sure that we look at every sentence in the Charter. It's part of our responsibility, I believe. But, I also get that not every sentence, necessarily has the same impact as every other sentence. So, the idea of combining this let's get the folks that are able to provide us with their views, meaning the folks that are in the county, so that we can get that view initially. They can prepare that. They can have some— if they have some proposed amendments, we can start the work on that pretty quickly. So, I'm liking that. But, I'm also thinking that the idea of having our ad hoc committee. So, what's an ad hoc committee? Ad hoc committee is something that investigates something and then it kind of goes away, right? As opposed to a standing committee, which is a different kettle of fish, right? Sunshine Law requirements and all those kinds of things. So, it's not that we're trying to do away with— we're trying to get around the Sunshine Laws, that's not the point. The point is that we are able to have our ad hoc committee meet, without necessarily—and do their work without necessarily having to make sure that we have a l0 -day or 11 -day notice for all of those meetings kind of idea. So, where am I going with this. The idea of having an ad hoc committee that covers our articles so that we have something that we then talk about the next time, we're covering that, and we also then have the ability to—so, we're covering both at the same time. We're having elements of our commission, right? So, everybody would have an opportunity to serve on an ad hoc committee that would be looking at the articles. So, it's dotting the is and crossing the I's, that kind of stuff. Yet, at the same time, what we're doing is we're making sure that we're getting to the meat, if you will, of the things that we think are going to be important, if you will. So, I would suggest that the idea of being able to cover both at the same time, the focus on the in-between—period between our main meetings would be, we have the ad hoc committee that's looking at the articles that are going to be covered within that next agenda. It's clear it's going to be on there so folks know about it. Page 56 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 We're not looking, necessarily, for amendments, although that's a possibility, but that would be something that would be covered in the discussion probably. The amendments would be part of that stuff that we would see coming from, initially, our Executive and Legislative branches and then public hearings that would be down the road, kind of idea. Having the public hearings a few months hence, gives us the opportunity to educate the public, get the word out that we're looking, we're going to have these things, and gives them an opportunity to come in. It wouldn't be before the public hearings. Public hearings are a different issue. We're still looking at that, six months out kind of idea where we begin the process of going around to the six required locations, kind of idea. But, at least the public has had an opportunity to provide their ideas and potential ballot amendments beforehand. So, have I sufficiently confused everybody at this moment? Any conversation or any discussion on that? Commissioner Bergin. MR. BERGIN: Much of what you said were words that would have come right out of my mouth. But, to be careful, to listen very carefully to two people who have spoken to the fact that we have an opportunity to gain some traction and time by going to the very body that probably can come back to us, with specific recommendations from very informed people, and that would be the department heads, the Legislative as well as the Executive Branch. That's a target right there that's sitting before us and realizing how little time the crunch is there. I'm going to ask a question of—what would keep us, this afternoon, from developing a motion to that extent? CHR. ADAMS: The motion would be to do exactly what? MR. BERGIN: To proceed to appeal to the department heads and the Legislative and the Executive Branch for their input. CHR. ADAMS: As I understand it, we can make that motion because we're in the process of having discussion on that. The idea would be, who would you want to have show up first? We're not going to have all the department heads at one meeting. There's too many, right? So, the idea was who do you start with? Or do you leave that to the Chair and we work that out with the staff and who's available? MR. BERGIN: Exactly. CHR. ADAMS: Any other—you know what? At this point, we're getting to the point where I think we need to make a motion and then have a discussion on it. Are you making a motion to that effect? Page 57 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Motion to Approve: MR. BERGIN: I'll do so. CHR. ADAMS: Would you like to restate that? Mr. Bergin moved to seek input from the Executive and Legislative Branch. Seconded by Mr. Hamano. CHR. ADAMS: Any additional discussion on that motion? Commissioner Hopkins. Point of MR. HOPKINS: More point of information. Are we wanting to talk to all of Information: them or are we only going to talk to the ones who have an interest in talking to us? Some of them might not have an interest in—if they don't have any comments, are we going to ask them to come before us even if they have no comments? I guess that's the thing. Are we demanding—I won't use the word demanding. Are we strongly suggesting that all of you come before us or are we—if a particular department doesn't want to, are we going to ask them to— MR. BERGIN: I would quote the suggestion that the Chairman design that process. CHR. ADAMS: Is that adequate discussion? Was that adequate for you? Are there any other comments? So, the motion that we have, essentially says we will, as a part of the letters that would go out, we would start—I don't know that it's in the motion but the idea is that we start next month with bringing members of our County government to our meeting to tell us about their departments and if they have proposed amendments, to bring those with them. Okay? Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: I think that we definitely want to hear from them. We want to get their experience with working within the Charter and things that they see would improve their ability to function as we go forward into the future. I think we need to direct them. We don't just say, "We're working on the Charter, please come and join us." We want to say, "Please look at the Charter. Think about it and are there areas within the Charter where we could definitely improve the function of your department? And remember that this is going to last for another 10 years and we need some very intense thought processes to go along with this." CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Commissioner Rice. Mr. Henricks is happy to hear you say that. Alright. So, we have a motion and it has been seconded to start the process next month with the Chair working with staff to determine who the members of the County government who would be here to address their areas and any potential proposed ballot amendments or Charter amendments. All in favor of said motion please say "aye." Page 58 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Vote on Motion The motion to approve to seek input from the Executive to Seek Input and Legislative Branch was carried by the following from Executive voice vote: and Legislative Branch: Ayes: Commission Members Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, (Approved) Leithead Todd, Rice, Springer, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams – 8. Noes: None. Absent: Commission Members Galimba, Roehrig, And Saquing – 3. Excused: None. CHR. ADAMS: I would ask also then—thank you very much for that. I would ask that we also consider, though, that we begin looking at the Charter as a commission. So, I would ask our attorney and analyst, if we want to establish an ad hoc committee, can we do that today or do we need to do that next time? MR. HENRICKS: The previous commission was advised that they should have it as an agenda item to establish that ad hoc committee. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. MR. HENRICKS: I think that's the safer route, although, I don't think—let's say for instance, we're at this meeting, we're in Kona, next time and we're having discussions. And at that point, any member of the commission says, "Let's do an ad hoc committee," because as part of the discussion, they see something they want to delve into or at that time, I read the law to say that as long as the scope of the investigation is made clear, the membership is made clear and what the roles of the members are, I don't think you necessarily need to have prior notice for that. So, if you're asking could you start one right now, I would defer to J to that, but per me, I don't see it as problematic if you want to actually start creating those now. I think the only question would be what would you use as your foundation for determining what the scope of the investigation would be, since we really haven't done anything other than procedural things today? That's kind of the hard part. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. So, the answer depends upon how you would interpret preliminary discussion on the creation of standing committees and ad hoc committees, right? What kind of notice does that provide to the public as far as what this commission is doing today. So, my reading of preliminary means we're not ready, we're just kind of talking about it. So, I would advise against forming that ad hoc committee for that reason. In addition, though, I like Mr. Henricks' suggestion that we should probably hear from the departments first to see what needs there are, at least from their Page 59 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 perspective and then, based upon commissioners' interests, then form that ad hoc committees on the topics that the commissioners may have a particular interest in. CHR. ADAMS: So, I appreciate that. Thank you both. The ad hocs that I'm thinking about, actually or not necessarily associated with what—those would be different. The ad hocs I'm thinking about actually have to do with the Charter provisions themselves. Making sure that we cover all of the items that are in there. But, I appreciate the fact that we are talking, it's referencing the agendas or preliminary discussion, so, it would be difficult for us to probably justify doing to forming an ad hoc today. So, I would ask—am I the only one, actually, is probably a better question that feels that we really—that we also need to make sure that we cover—that we have read and have gone through and looked at the Charter as a commission, whether it's within certain ad hoc committees that have done that and then brought back or report back to the commission. Or, are we going to be okay with just asking both our County government and the public to say these are the things that are important to us and we're not going to necessarily be concerned about the other items? Commissioner Hamano. MR. HAMANO: Yeah, I like your idea. I think it should be two-pronged approach. We have the County government's departments give us input as to matters that affect them with regard to the Charter. We ask the public to give us input, but the commission itself, like you're talking about, covers all aspects in review completely the Charter to see what we may think needs to be clarified also. So, I like that proposal and frankly, I don't still understand why we cannot create some—the Chair cannot create some committees, assigning each group certain sections of the Charter, to just go over it. And within that group, just present some considerations that the full commission can consider and then bring that to the public and put notice on that also. CHR. ADAMS: Is that a question for our attorney? Or is that just a comment? MR. HAMANO: I think that's a question for the attorney. Point of MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, just point of clarification. So, is the question why can't Clarification: he do that offline, like just by himself, form the committees? Is that what the question is? MR. HAMANO: Why can't we have a motion for him to allow the Chairman to create that committee? Assign members so that we can review all aspects of the Charter. Preliminary standpoint. MR. YOSHIMOTO: From a preliminary standpoint, well, to me, the first step is what does the agenda say, right? That's the foundation. We can do whatever's Page 60 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 within the scope of the agenda, right? So, if the interpretation is that the preliminary discussion on the creation of standing committees and ad hoc committees means that this commission can move forward, then that's up to the commission, right? My interpretation of preliminary is that it's at the beginning stages but not actually at the formation stage. I mean I think of the agenda as being really specific, so, the advice, at least, if you're asking me, and you're free to disagree, too, by all means, right? Is that if you're going to create ad hoc committees then the agenda should say so, right? This is kind of this gray area, so, I'm happy to hear comments because we have—I'm open to any suggestions. CHR. ADAMS: So, Commissioner Hamano, did you have anything else? MR. HAMANO: No. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. Commissioner Todd. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Note for future agenda descriptions. Do not put words that limit like preliminary. I would have been much happier if this had an agenda that said creation of standing committees and ad hoc committees if needed, so that we had the ability to act today. That's just my concern that we've got a timeline and the way the agenda was put together limits our ability to act today. That' s— I'm just saying for the future, let's try to make sure that we have the ability to act. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you very much, Commissioner Todd. Since I approve the agenda, I will take that on board. Commissioner Hopkins. MR. HOPKINS: This is just a comment on my part. I am a bit leery of having ad hoc committees on this one. We are working with a document of 65 pages. My preference would be much better—I have no problem with, in fact, I like your idea of having a dual tracked approach, but I think it would work better for us to look at it as a committee of the whole. I mean 65 pages, I assign that to my students for one day's reading. I'm not going to—so, what I'm looking at here is I like the idea of we have the Council coming in, the department heads and everything, but at the same time, part of our agenda says we will look at Articles 1 through 4 at this meeting or 1 through 8 at this meeting, and then at the next meeting, so, we have the dual approach built right into our committee meeting. Anyway, that's just my suggestion. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: I like that better than the ad hoc committee meetings because then, as we discuss those sections of the Charter, we get input from everyone rather than having to come back to the committee and then going through the process again. I think it's a one—it'll be more efficient and I think in the long run, we'll get better input. Page 61 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. So, what do I think? My concern I think is actually a pragmatic one. How much time do we have within the meetings and how are we going to spend the time? Are we going to—I like the idea which allows us to do two things in terms of making sure that we have a two -prong attack, if you will, on the Charter. It's probably not a good way to phrase that. But at the same time, I'm also cognizant of where we're going to spend the most time in the time that we have. It seems to me the consensus of the commission is we want to spend the most time on the substance that we're going to receive from our officials and from the public. So, the way of managing that, from my perspective, is if we have an ad hoc committee that has taken a look at the articles, there's nothing that prevents us from doing that as members of the commission prior, since we know we're going to be talking about it. But, that we then have had that committee that can give us a report so that we can then have a discussion, by the way, the next meeting. Because we won't have a discussion on the meeting that they give us a report on, correct? Is that right? So, the way this works is formation of the committee, they do their work, they come back with a report, that's what's received, and then the following meeting is when we have the discussion because then the public has an opportunity to see what the report was as well. That allows us, then, to focus in, it seems to me, on those items that we've had folks who have really looked at in some detail. Not that we can't all do that, but I am concerned about the amount of time that we would spend doing that, and, at the same time, trying to get into the meat of what we think the potential Charter amendments are going to be. Commissioner Hopkins. MR. HOPKINS: Could I get a little bit of clarification? So, if I'm understanding the procedure, if we work with an ad hoc committee, the ad hoc committee, we give them their mandate, they go out, they do it, and assuming we gave them a month to do it, they come back, their report is due 11 days before the next meeting. So basically, they have 18 or 19 days to do their assignment. The report is due, then, it comes before the group, they present it, we can—can we discuss it at that point or no, we cannot discuss? So, we can't even discuss it at that point? It has to sit there and then the next month we can discuss it. The other alternative, and please clarify this. If we just say on the agenda that we will be talking about Articles 1, 2, 3, and 4, at this next meeting, as the commission, it's on the agenda it means at that first meeting, instead of the process taking the 19 days for the committee, then we basically have a waiting period of six weeks before we can discuss it. If we just put it on the agenda we can just discuss it at that meeting. Am I correct? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes. So, just to clarify. So, if we go with the ad hoc committee approach, hypothetically, formation in August, report due for September, September report is disseminated, then discussion's actually in Page 62 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 October. So, that's like the hypothetical timeline if we were to follow the timeline. If we just agendize 1,2,3,4, whatever the commission wants to do then we can discuss it as a committee of the whole, the entire body. MR. HOPKINS: Okay, fine. That's just the clarification I wanted. Thank you very much. CHR. ADAMS: Any other thoughts? We can do that. I don't think I need a motion to do that. We just put it on the agenda to do that. I would say that as a rule of thumb, I would hold us to a particular time. It's not going to be in the Rules of Procedure, but it would be a particular time and if we don't finish our conversations regarding that, then we'll just carry it over as Old Business to the next meeting. Because the important thing will be to make sure that we get to the folks that we're asking to be there to talk about their particular areas. MR. HENRICKS: Chair Adams? CHR. ADAMS: Mr. Henricks. MR. HENRICKS: To your point that you said let's say discussion is incomplete before we run out of energy, I would say then, be aggressive when you take a chunk of the Charter. Because you may find that some portions go very quickly where there's just little interest, no offense to the Charter. You know what I'm saying? But if you take a small chunk and you're done with it, then you may find, "Well, we had more time and energy that we didn't use." But again, you could postpone the completion of the discussion at any point in time. CHR. ADAMS: Thanks, Mr. Henricks. So, my thought would be to work with our staff to agendize the portions of the Charter. I don't see any purpose in doing anything other than in a 1 through 16 manner. In other words, I don't think it would make sense for us to cherry pick the parts of the Charter, necessarily, that we're going to hear about from the County officials, right? It's two-pronged. We're going to make sure that we're covering all of it. We will get to some parts of the Charter that we've heard about in previous months but that will just give us some additional context for those conversations if we need to have them. And we'll try and make sure that we're aggressive in our selection so that we apply the full force of the commission's energy to those discussions. Okay. I think as we take a look at this, let me just run through, if I could, so the discussion and the action opportunities, we've had a motion in terms of looking at one prong, and that's going to provide the Chair the opportunity to work with the staff and the development of a letter that would go out to the various folks that we want it to go out to, primarily and starting with our government officials and Page 63 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 developing a timeline in concert with those government officials to make sure that time's going to work. And then, we'll worry about ad hoc committees next time. I guess the question— we may think about just putting on formation of ad hoc committees if needed. I'm so glad I came up with that wording and see how that works. MR. HENRICKS: May I make another suggestion that— CHR. ADAMS: Please, Mr. Henricks. MR. HENRICKS: Was unsolicited completely? I think it's fine just to put on formation of ad hoc committees. The "if needed" part, with all due respect, makes it kind of ambiguous and if you so decide to form one— CHR. ADAMS: Then great you have the ability, you already talked about it. MR. HENRICKS: But if you don't, I don't think the agenda would obligate you to form one. CHR. ADAMS: That's fine. MR. HENRICKS: Okay? CHR. ADAMS: Great. Thanks. MS. RICE: Mr. Chair? CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: I think just thinking about these ad hoc committees, as we get into this in the next meeting, we may find that there's a particular section of the Charter that needs extra work. Then for that section, we would need a committee to get into it in depth, come back to us with a report. CHR. ADAMS: Great. MS. RICE: So, that it may be more selective in your ad hoc committees, rather than the whole Charter. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Commissioner Todd. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Having just briefly looked at our timeline and the State HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes), I have one recommendation that I'd like the commission to consider is writing a letter to the State Legislature to amend the Page 64 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 State HRS requirements that say we have to have this completed within one year of formation. You know, the County proactively has set us up earlier but it hasn't changed the timeline. And the way I read it, we're supposed to be finished by September 2, 2019, and then we have one year where we're sitting here, basically, doing nothing, and that makes no sense to me. So, to me, the State Legislature should give us a little bit more flexibility. As long as we hit that deadline for it to be submitted to a County Clerk to be put on a ballot, we should be free to spend as much time as we have or the Council has given us so that we're not as rushed. When I signed up for this, I was told this is two years, and now, I'm sitting here, you know, once I got the packet and started looking at the timeline, I said, "No, it's really a one-year commitment." Maybe one year and one month, or something like that, which, on the one hand is kind of great that I'm free after that, but, on the other hand, given what I saw of prior Charter commission meetings, I think they have tied our hands in terms of being able to discuss and to give the public a real opportunity to provide input. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Commissioner Todd. Go ahead, Mr. Henricks. MR. HENRICKS: My first thing is I hope you don't have buyer's remorse being here. But, just to point out, too, that this time table, the internal parts that aren't mandated was set up to give plenty of time on the back end for the public hearings, and then, for the commission to respond to the public hearings. So, let's just say come December, this commission isn't ready to go out to public hearings. It would just mean that we'd have to compress the timeline on the back end and maybe where you're looking at this March 1 to June 14, where you guys are reflecting upon what you heard from the public hearings, maybe that would be shorter. So, there is that aspect to it. I think it's good to keep this timeline in mind and to try to meet it, but I don't want—maybe wiggle room isn't the best word, but there may be some there too. I don't want you folks to feel too rushed, but the reality is there are State mandated timelines, but at the same time, we have the six public hearings, January 1 to February 28. Maybe you guys would be comfortable doing public hearings more frequently than that, you know, having six in two months. So, just to kind of keep those things in mind. And of course, these decisions will be made as a group and we will respond accordingly. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Mr. Henricks. Where was I? The outreach and the input from County agencies, so, we're going to identify—we are going to send the letter out, we've already talked about that. We'll identify what some of the outside agencies in the public, some of our private organizations are, making sure that they're aware as well. Part of the agenda next time will be to lay out a draft. We have a timeline but I think a more detailed timeline that talks about some of the specific, you know, when we want to have—when we anticipate at our regular Page 65 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 meetings, who we anticipate providing testimony, kind of idea. And of course, those can always change over time but at least it gives us an idea of what we're talking about. The protocol for initiating, forming, and approving proposed amendments, that's listed in here, for the most part, I thought our rules covered that. MR. HENRICKS: It does, and perhaps that discussion is— it's kind of premature at this point, to be honest. The rules are pretty specific when it comes to those things. I'll be honest, we didn't alter those much, and I don't understand some of it, just to be fair. But, the bottom line (is you know, you're looking at what Commissioner Rice had talked about before), just to clarify that you're looking at, basically, making sure that any proposal is specific in form and that it receives at least two affirmative readings, if you will, from this commission. CHR. ADAMS: Right. MR. HENRICKS: So, that's the bottom line there for now. CHR. ADAMS: Right. Thank you. And then the timeline and deadline, which is what we've been talking about. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Mr. Chairman? CHR. ADAMS: Mr. Yoshimoto. MR. YOSHIMOTO: If I may, as far as the deadlines, just for everyone's information, you know, on this proposed timeline table, there's a deadline of June 26, 2019, just wanted to let everyone know that I purposely put that early because the actual deadline is the 29th. But, just my nature is that I'd rather be early than exactly on time. To me, on time is like you're late, so, I'd rather be early. So, that's there for a specific reason and not a mistake. However, if you want to change it to the 29th, which is technically correct, we can but just for everyone's information. Yeah, I'd rather early than—and the 29th is actually on a weekend. No, it is. It is on a Saturday, so, yeah, that's purposely done, just so everyone knows. CHR. ADAMS: Great, thank you. Okay, is there any other discussion on New Business? Commissioner Todd. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Okay. I think we need to be aggressive and I'm looking at the timeline. August, September, October, November, December, we're supposed to have some kind of idea of what we're proposing. So, I'm thinking the next agenda needs to say like we're going to discuss Articles 1 through 6, and then the following one says 7 through 10 or something, but Page 66 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 something specific where there's notice to the public and the departments that's what we're going to discuss. If we don't finish, it can always be carried over. But, I think we have to have an aggressive timeline in terms of departments and agencies reporting to us and having it on our agenda. Otherwise, we're never going to get through this. CHR. ADAMS: That's the plan. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Okay. CHR. ADAMS: Thanks. Any other items on—I'll go with Commissioner Bergin first. MR. BERGIN: Relative to that point about picking a number one through six, is it fair to expect that the expertise of J and Jon in the volume or concerns or improvements that need to happen in all of those and then they could go ahead and pick? Just for the sake of your judgment, let's not put one through six if all six are heavy duty. But, if there are some that are going to flow right through that have no attention coming, is that possible? MR. HENRICKS: I think it's hard for me to decide what's important to you, at this point in time. I have my personal feelings. I've been working with the Charter for a long time. I mean you look at Articles 1 and 2, I mean there's— okay, yeah, fair enough. And that's why I said it's good to have an aggressive schedule. I think Mr. Hopkins, Ms. Todd, and Chair Adams have all agreed that and if you don't get through, you don't get through. You put it on the next one and you make an aggressive schedule for the next one too. But, it gives you the opportunity to deal with those things. I would, personally, rather not pick what you folks do. I'm happy to talk with the Chair, and J would be, too, when setting the agenda, and if he kind of wants our opinion, we would do that. CHR. ADAMS: Let me just jump in here then. MR. HENRICKS: Yeah, please. CHR. ADAMS: Part of my plan, when I put an agenda together, it's going to be based on the fact that we're going to have 12 of these things, right? So, part of this is a learning process for some of us, when we're looking at this. So, we want to be very aggressive but we also want to make sure that we're looking at the thing in the proper way that we need to look at it. I'm also going to be aware of what else is going to be on the agenda, right? Who's coming, for example, and who are we inviting to come? So, all of those things are going to go into the idea of taking a look at—when we look at this second prong of looking at the agenda Page 67 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 as a committee of the whole, making sure that we can cover it appropriately with the due diligence that it deserves, but at the same time, not short shrifting other things that are important too. So, those are all the things that—and achieving that balance will—won't be perfect and it may be different than what someone else— what you may have done, but that's going to be kind of the approach. Commissioner Hopkins, did you have anything you wanted to add? MR. HOPKINS: Yes, there was a question that I'm not sure whether exactly, under the New Business, a little bit of definition or information about interactive conference technology. What are our restrictions on that and how are we going to go about it? Here's the reason why I'm asking it is my schedule right now is every third month, during the second week, I'm on the mainland. So, I deal with this all the time, you know, Skype or go to meetings, or these other ways dealing with it. Is that a possibility here? MR. HENRICKS: Our Chair, we've talked about this and he's made himself clear in that whatever means are reasonable and possible and still legal, he wants to encourage participation. Correct? CHR. ADAMS: Correct. So, the idea would be, I would rather have people here physically. I think it's important for the conversation and for the way the commission operates. Correct? But, at the same time, I'd rather have participation than not have participation. And, having been involved in board meetings of various kinds where I wasn't able to be present, physically, the idea of being able to be present, even just telephonically, was helpful, at least for me and hopefully, for the commission or the board I was on. So, the idea is that there are some specific things that we have to do to meet the letter of the law and that would include knowing exactly where somebody is going to be on that date so that information can be put out as part of the Sunshine Law kind of information. It also means that if you happen not to go, you don't have to all of a sudden fly over there, you can come to the meeting personally. So, we say that a little facetiously but the answer is that's not facetious. So, the idea is—and then we have the opportunity to satisfy our rules and if it's important that everybody be there for one reason or another, particularly, as we move into the later months here, where we're going to be taking votes on things that perhaps, we change our meeting date, right? Because we also have the ability to do that if we need to. So, does that answer your— MR. HOPKINS: That answers my question. Thank you very much. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. Alright. Hearing no other conversational items on item 10, let's move into 11 right now. That's Discussion on Location, Frequency, Day, and Time for Meetings. Page 68 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 Item 11: DISCUSSION ON THE LOCATION, FREQUENCY, DAY, AND TIME FOR MEETINGS CHR. ADAMS: We know that we are meeting monthly. We can meet more often than that. Is there any conversation to be had on meeting more often than once a month? Okay, what I would say on that is that we will plan to meet monthly and if we find that we need to meet more often than that, then we will schedule those things in as well, okay? As far as the location, we had this previous conversation and it's in our rules, where we will alternate in terms of our meetings. As much as I would like to be a—I can't use any of the terms that came to head just now. On this, I would suggest that if we're going to ask our Mayor and maybe some other department heads that we start perhaps, here, in August and we begin the process in doing the alternate being in Kona in September. So, that would mean then, for the purposes of an announcement we would look at starting our alternating meetings here in Hilo in August, Kona would be September, October would be Hilo, et cetera, down the road. Is everybody okay with the afternoon? MS. RICE: I like it. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Todd? MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Just a quick question whether—I mean, we started at 1:30 and all we're discussing is procedure and we're four hours. Is that enough time if we're going to be doing departments and going over Charter? I just don't know that starting in the afternoon is going to work in terms of the amount of work. You know, I think we can play it by ear down the road, but I think the real possibility is that you may be looking at having to start meetings in the morning and do a whole day of it. It's just my manao. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Okay, so we'll stay at 1:30 as the start, but I think that Commissioner Todd is exactly right. Second Friday's are good? Okay. So, then, what we'll plan for is second Friday's each month, alternating, starting here in August and we'll pay attention to what the length of time of our meetings are, so that we're able to accomplish what we need to. If there's a need to push the meetings to start earlier, then we will consider that as a part of the process and if we need to meet more often, then we'll also consider that. Okay, moving on to item 12 in New Business. Item 12: REQUEST COMMISSIONERS' INPUT ON PUBLIC HEARING SCHEDULE CHR. ADAMS: When it comes to the public hearing schedule right now, you see the draft timeline we're looking at a January and February time period to begin Page 69 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 the process of walking around the island. Any comments from any of the commissioners on that schedule? Commissioner Todd. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Are you looking at public hearings day time or night time? CHR. ADAMS: I would think that we would do these in an evening format. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Okay, thank you. MR. HENRICKS: Depending on what day it is, there's some leeway there. I mean, I don't know how interested anybody is on doing this on a Saturday, but if you did then—whoops we're done. MS. LEITHEAD TODD: Please don't mistake the look on my face. It was just a look of surprise, not a look of no that's not possible. I'm retired, I can meet on Sundays, though I don't know that the public will show up. But, I'm free and would be certainly amenable to anyone's schedule. MR. HENRICKS: This is Mr. Henricks. I'm not excited about a Saturday either. I think what I was trying to express is, you know, I just want to make it clear that this is at your discretion, you know. We will offer suggestions as asked, but let us know. CHR. ADAMS: Okay, and I am cognizant of the budget. So, when you have the evening type meetings that there was a potential for additional expenses associated with that as we talked about during the budget item. But, I'm also aware that night time is when you're going to get folks that you wouldn't necessarily get otherwise. So, that's part of the reason. Okay, not hearing any other comments on item 12, we'll move then into Reports. There are no reports that I'm aware of. REPORTS: The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Reports. (There were none.) REFERRALS FOR CHR. ADAMS: Referrals for Executive Session, I'm not seeing any of those. EXECUTIVE The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Referrals SESSION: for Executive Session. (There were none.) Page 70 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 ANNOUNCE- The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, MENTS: Announcements. CHR. ADAMS: And the Announcements, our next regular meeting date and time will be Friday, I don't have my calendar, August 10th, 1:30 p.m., here in Hilo. We've actually had some discussions on our next meeting agenda items. I would remind you that you have the opportunity to provide me with items that you would like to include on the agenda, just send me an email. And if you don't have my email, Shannon, you probably can send out my email to all of the Commissioners. Thank you. If you don't send it to the staff, which there's no requirement for you to do, I'll make sure that they get it. I promise. That's that announcement. Again, remember if you do want something on the agenda, the time that I need to have it by the 11 calendar days before, so that would be the 31' or the 30th, whichever, I'm never sure how those days work, so. The 31' of July, okay, great. Thank you, okay, that will require me to pull that out. I'm just working on the agenda. Thank you. Commissioner Hopkins. MR. HOPKINS: Sony, I have a procedural question, just because if a commissioner is not going to be able to be at a particular meeting, because I was just looking at this one here. The 10th, at the time this meeting starts I'll be in an airliner at that point. So, I realized I will probably miss the first half of the meeting. But, is there a way that we can put up comments or something? Is there a way to participate when you're not there, I guess, you know, say you had a comment that we were talking about article X and you wanted to put up some comments on that, how could we provide? How do we do that. CHR. ADAMS: Let me just take a crack at this. I think that part of the way that the boards and commissions work, of course, is participation and being present. So, no votes, obviously, can occur if you're not personally here. But you can always send a communication, right? So, you can send a communication, it can be part of the communications to the Commission and that can be included in the agenda. So, you've provided your comments prior to the meeting. That's one way to do that. Yes, Commissioner Todd? MS. LEITHEAD TODD: I was just going to say that if you do have comments or written comments that you want to submit, you should submit them through Jon and J and do not email all of us, because then that becomes communication outside of the meeting. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. MR. HENRICKS: This is Mr. Henricks. I appreciate that, the one concern would be that deliberation, and that would be including your comments and feelings about things supposed to occur during the meeting time. So, it would almost be Page 71 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 like we'd have to seal it to some degree until the meeting time, and then I think we could share it with the group. For the same reason you said about not sharing it with the rest of the group prior to the meeting. That would be my only concern. We can look more into how people are able to share their thoughts, opinions, ideas if they're not at the meeting, to make sure that there's a legal and easy way for you to do so. So, just give us some time to develop that process. CHR. ADAMS: Mr. Yoshimoto. MR. YOSHIMOTO: The communication method works best, right, and just know that so that once that communication becomes part of the packet, then that becomes public communication. So, the public will see it, the members will see it prior to the meeting, just as a point of clarification, yeah. So, that's fine. That works. MR. HOPKINS: Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. Let me just say thank you all for being here. I'm looking at the time, we're seven minutes past when I had us at adjourning based on what I thought things were going to take. So, I appreciate all of the work that the staff has done to get us to this point and prepped us. Thank you, Mr. Maeda, for being here as well and the work that you did and the whole team that's been making this happen. Thank you to the Commissioners for taking your time to be here. This is a start and there's a little bit of kind of stepping over ourselves, stumbling over ourselves as we try and get this thing going. But, as we get into the process of hearing about the Charter and hearing from our Government officials and our public, this will become really, really exciting I believe, in terms of being able to take that information, see the passion that's involved in that, and we'll really be interested in hearing that. I'm sure I'm supposed to say something else, you know, erudite and inspirational, but I'm at a loss for words, as hard as that is to believe. So, thanks for everything that you guys are doing, thanks for everything that you're going to do, and we will see you in August. MR. HENRICKS: Would you ask for a motion to adjourn? CHR. ADAMS: I will do that, that was the next thing I was going to do. I was just finishing my erudite and inspirational stuff. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Page 72 Charter Commission -1 July 13, 2018 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 5:32 p.m., Ms. Leithead-Todd moved to MENT: adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Hopkins and carried by the following voice vote: Commission Approval: Ayes: Commission Members Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Todd, Rice, Springer, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Commission Members Galimba, Roehrig, and Saquing — 3. Excused: None. COMMISSION CHAIRPERSON DA/sm/j m Page 73 Douglass Shipman Adams Chairperson Jennifer Leilani Zelko-Schlueter Vice Chairperson Date: July 27, 2018 2018-2020 HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION To: Members of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission yrnl� From: Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair Hawai`i County Charter Commission William Carthage Bergin Michelle Galimba Paul K. Haman° Kevin D. Hopkins Bobby Jean Akane Leithead Todd Sarah H. Rice Christopher John Imiloa Roehrig Marcia A.K. Saquing Donna Mae Springer RE: Department/Agency Heads to Appear Before the Commission --- August 10, 2018 This is to inform you that the following Departments and Agencies of the County are scheduled to appear before the Commission at its August 10, 2018, meeting: 1. Civil Defense Agency — Civil Defense Administrator; Talmadge Magno 2. Office of the Corporation Counsel — Assistant Corporation Counsel; Renee Schoen 3. Department of Information Technology --- Director; Jules Ung 4. Department of Environmental Management — Director; William Kucharski 5. Department of Finance — Director; Deanna Sako 6. Hawai`i Fire Department ---- Fire Chief; Darren Rosario 7. Department of Human Resources — Director; William Brilhante, Jr. 8. Office of the County Clerk — County Clerk; Stewart Maeda Each department/agency head has been asked to provide a brief overview of his or her department, how the Charter affects department/agency operations, submit any proposals to amend the Charter, and allot time for discussion. Should you have any questions, please contact our Commission Analyst, Jon Henricks. DSA/jdh Comm. No. 1 Douglass Shipman Adams Chairperson Jennifer Leilani Zelko-Schlueter Vice Chairperson Date: July 27, 2018 2018-2020 HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION To: Members of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission srn14- From: Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair Hawai`i County Charter Commission William Carthage Bergin Michelle Galimba Paul K. Hamano Kevin D. Hopkins Bobby Jean Akane Leithead Todd Sarah H. Rice Christopher John Imiloa Roehrig Marcia A.K. Saquing Donna Mae Springer RE: Review Articles I-V of Hawai`i County Charter (2016 Edition) — August 10, 2018 Per our discussion during the July 13, 2018, meeting of the Commission, I will be scheduling time on our August 10, 2018, meeting agenda to allow for review and discussion of the following articles of the Hawai`i County Charter (2016 Edition): 1. Article I — Incorporation and Geographical Limits 2. Article II — Powers of the County 3. Article III —Legislative Branch 4. Article IV — Executive Branch, General Provisions 5. Article V -- Executive Branch, Mayor and Staff Agencies Should you have any questions, please contact our Commission Analyst, Jon Henricks. DSA/jdh Comm. No. 2 Douglass Shipman Adams Chairperson Jennifer Leilani Zelko-Schlueter Vice Chairperson son Date: July 27, 2018 2018-2020 HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION To: Members of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission From: Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair Hawai`i County Charter Commission RE: Formation of Ad Hoc Committees — August 10, 2018 William Carthage Bergin Michelle Galimha Paul K. Hamann Kevin D. Hopkins Bobby Jean Akane Leithead Todd Sarah H. Rice Christopher John lmiloa Roehrig Marcia A.K. Saquing Donna Mae Springer This is to inform you that 1 will be placing on our August 10, 2018, agenda an item to discuss the formation of Ad Hoc Committees. Ad Hoc Committees may be formed pursuant to Hawai`i Revised Statutes Section 92- 2.5(b), which provides, in part: "(b) Two or more members of a board, but Tess than the number of members which would constitute a quorum for the board, may be assigned to: (1) Investigate a matter relating to the official business of their board; provided that: (A) The scope of the investigation and the scope of each member's authority are defined at a meeting of the board; (B) All resulting findings and recommendations are presented to the board at a meeting of the board; and (C) Deliberation and decision making on the matter investigated, if any, occurs only at a duly noticed meeting of the board held subsequent to the meeting at which the findings and recommendations of the investigation were presented to the board;" I am placing this item on our agenda to allow the Commission the leeway to form an Ad Hoc committee if the Commission so desires due to the content of the day's discussion, and anticipate that this item will be held over to future agendas of the Commission to keep that potential open to the Commission. Should you have any questions, please contact our Commission Analyst, Jon Henricks. DSA/jdh Comm. No. 3