MIN CHARTER 2018-08-10 (2018-2020)

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -2 August 10, 2018 Then the other thought was to whether the department should be rolled back into the Department of Public Works. Whether that snakes more sense going forward. MR. KUCHARSKI: Two questions. The first question being whether Wastewater should be a part of the drinking Water Supply. I don't think that's good. They're totally different skills, totally different disciplines from the perspective of operations. What I would think would make sense is if the R-1 system, being a reusable water supply which is going to be a distribution much as what drinking Water Supply does, if any R-1 water is made available, would become a division of the drinking Water Supply. That for me would make more sense than to take the wastewater treatment and roll that into a drinking water. Again, which I think are—they're both Civil Engineers, but much different processing. So I would say in that, that would make more sense to me and I think that keeping the wastewater separate from drinking water is an appropriate step. As far as subsuming both Solid Waste and Water back into DPW (Department of Public Works), I don't think that's a good idea only because DPW has—there's only so much you can manage effectively, and they have a whole lot on their plate. Putting this back on their plate I don't think would provide better management or more focused management than it can get as one of two divisions. But again, these are my personal opinions on this as well. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Commissioner Todd. Commissioner Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: I just wanted to ask about your proposed changes in the language. What would be the practical implications for your department? Would you be actually hiring enforcement people, or would you just be using the police to enforce? MR. KUCHARSKI: Given the fact that we don't have a lot of enforcernent—I think the only ordinance that requires our enforcement was the plastic bag ban. DEM was supposed to enforce that, but that was self -regulated because of big dealers and they sort of self -managed that. I think the department as it moves forward is going to be getting into more and more areas where enforcement is going to be important. For example, right now the litter program. We do have a litter ordinance, but the only people that can ticket littering are the police. The police have a standard that they have to see the offense occur. Circumstantial evidence is not something that would allow them to ticket. We could have a lower standard for our enforcement for a preponderance of evidence rather than beyond reasonable doubt, and that's not something that I would put on the police, because they have—we have difficulty with the challenges they for, for example, the abandoned vehicle program. They need to ticket and cite the vehicle before we can tow, and that becomes a really big—has a big impact on them and their service. To put other of these issues on which are Page 15