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15-1, Subsection A of the Charter. With that reminder, I give Chairperson Yagong the
<br />privilege of bringing us to the question. Thank you.
<br />» Mr. Pilago, we do have a couple lights on. Ms. Ford and Mr. Blas wanted to speak.
<br />» Thank you. I would at this time call on Councilmember Ford, followed by
<br />Councilmember Blas.
<br />» Thank you. I will be supporting the game management Charter amendment. Let me
<br />just say from the outside so people don't misunderstand me, I've often been accused of
<br />being an environmentalist, a conservationist of fish, preservationist of reef fish and a tree
<br />hugger, and these are all true, it's all true. But I was also raised in family where we ate
<br />venison. You know, I was raised with my father. All the men in my family hunt or used
<br />to hunt. So I do understand the nature of the need to hunt for people who need to sustain
<br />their families. Certainly in this economic downturn this is even more important. But this
<br />issue's been going on for decades. I like some of the ideas that came up today that I hope
<br />that the future commission, should this pass, would get them on, would get them on the
<br />table and talk about. I think a game reserve is excellent. What I saw with the goats
<br />hooking their horns in the fence, I was raised to call that hog wire. I don't know what
<br />you call it, is it hog wire? It's hog wire, okay. That's obviously a very unsafe, cruel,
<br />inhumane method of fencing an area. We also have some other problems and I think all
<br />of you hunters and fishermen need to be dealing with this. We're going to, if, if we pass
<br />this, get it on the ballot, and if the, if the community, all of us, vote to, to do this, the next
<br />step is dealing with our State Reps and Senators. And they're not listening. We sent, we,
<br />this Council, have sent various subjects, I won't go into them, we have sent legislation to
<br />the State and to the Hawai'i State Association of Counties and pretty much anything,
<br />almost everything gets ignored. Okay. I, I'm not hopeful on this because unless you get
<br />onto your State Senators and Reps that exist today, or are running for election and pin
<br />them down, make them swear in writing they're going to support this you got a problem.
<br />Because unless the State Reps change the laws at the State level, we're going to continue
<br />to have this problem. We got some evil letter, you know, saying, oh, it's a State issue,
<br />you can't do anything like this. We are going to put a stake in the sand here. This is
<br />what we're doing today, we're putting a stake in the sand. We need to do this. But it
<br />means that everyone of you is going to have to camp in the offices, get on the phone,
<br />send your emails and keep doing it through this election and make these people promise
<br />to support the people they're supposed to be representing. We (applause), I agree with
<br />Mr. Hoffmann, what this is about today is putting this on the County's ballot to let the
<br />people vote and then you guys are going to have deal with the State. We can deal with
<br />them to a certain degree, but we, you know, honestly they ignore us a lot, those radicals
<br />over in Hawai'i County. Well, we're not the radicals. So, I'm, I'm encouraging you all
<br />to continue the fight at the State level; but I will be supporting this. Thank you.
<br />» Thank you, Councilmember Ford. Councilmember Blas, your comment please.
<br />» Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, I'm not a hunter but I strongly support this Bill
<br />260. You know, we need a voice for the hunters and the fishermen in Honolulu, on the
<br />State level. And you know this is food putting in our table, you know, for all our
<br />community surrounding on this County. And I'm really, really supporting this thing and
<br />I'll do my best to try to talk to the State House of Representative in my district and the
<br />State Senator down there to help get this thing going, because it is a need not a luxury for,
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