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

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Hawaii County Charter Commission -2 August 10, 2018 MR. MAGNO: I don't come here often so I wasn't sure if it was still on. Well, my direction was to keep it short and so, I will. Basically, we are under the Mayor's office and so especially under this Administration you can pretty much assume that the Mayor is actively involved with Civil Defense operations at, I guess a daily rate. So, you know we get our marching orders from him as well as we operate under the State law 127 Alpha. We are seeing under this current condition, with the disasters that we have been facing, Civil Defense possibly you know we are operating at a 24 hour clock basically for the past three months. We do not have that capacity. And, I know Harry, the Mayor has during his, or when he was Civil Defense Administrator, he had wanted to make Civil Defense a 24-hour operation but the decision was made because Police and Fire were already 24 hours, that Civil Defense didn't need to be. Perhaps during this period, we might consider Civil Defense becoming a bigger organization. Nevertheless, with the 127 Alpha, we are supported by all kinds of County and State agencies. Under that law everybody becomes a resource, so that is a big help. And it crosses County lines, you know, we will go help off island as well. So, perhaps that is the underlying reason that we are not built as big as the Police or Fire Department, but we are making due and quite busy at this time. So, I'll take any questions if you guys have them. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioners any questions for the Civil Defense Administrator? MS. SAQUING: I have a quick question. Based on what we have been experiencing, what do you recommend as far as ah future planning, not too extensive, but for us to look at because we are here to plan for the next ten years and I just kind of want to get your thoughts on that. MR. MAGNO: It's remarkable how much time and effort that question is taking with the event we are going under right now. Recognizing that we have areas on this island that are developed that are at risk, this kind of risk. Not just Leilani. Not just the east rift. We have Kona, South Kona, all those areas, so I think serious consideration what we look at going forward. You know the County, the State, we are going to have to come up, you know, with a plan. You know that the Mayor just submitted a 550 million dollar request and so, it's going to cost now or later if we get more events like this. So the planning is critical as far as going forward. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you for that question Commissioner Saquing. I would ask a couple questions. Among the other—all the other counties have their emergency management agency included as a part of their Charter. We are the only, we are the only one that doesn't. You're created by an ordinance and of course the Hawai`i Revised Statutes, the State legislature 127A that you already referred to. Do you, in your dealings I guess—let me ask the question this way, Page 5