Comm No 0005.01 - GMAC Legislative HIstory - Sept 14 2018

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» Motion to approve... is there a second? » Second. » Second by Mr. Hoffmann. Discussion on Bill 260. Go ahead, Ms. Smart. » Thank you. I know... actually I guess that's kind of rude. I do know you introduced this so I don't mind giving you an introductory time, but I would like to be the first Council member to actually speak when we move into discussion. So if you would like to do an introductory... » Maybe what I can do is actually turn the Chair over to Mr. Pilago, our Vice Chair. So that I can speak first... if that's okay? » Let the record show I have assumed the Chair and Mr. Yagong, you have the floor. » Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Council members and members of the public and those that are viewing at home. I want to be very clear as far as what we're trying to do here in terms of trying to form a Game Management Advisory Commission. You know one of the things... there's so many things that are happening here in Hawai'i County, and it's happening very, very fast. And I'm not just talking about hunting and fishing, but I'm talking about other issues such as renewable energy and... and... and development and so forth. And... and... and it has come very clear to me, you know a lot of times many of the decisions that are made in regards to our island is not... is not made here... here in Hawai'i County. And that's when we begin to have the discussion of... of home rule. You know... being able to have people of Hawai'i County, people that live here, people that... that have to live with whatever impacts or decision that we make, have the people of the County of Hawai'i be those that in charge and being able to be part of the process and to give input. While we were doing this... this whole discussion, I saw a video on Big Island Video News. I got to tell you, it... it moved me immensely. And I would suggest many of you look at that video as well. It was a video that took place at Nani Mau Gardens. With the hunters... many of which are here in the room today. And they had a hunters' meeting and they were talking about all of their concerns and... and all the problems that they're facing. That they have been facing for years and years and years. And one of the thing that really touched me was when I had... and I saw Mr. Pat Pacheco as well as the other speakers come out and actually point towards our State Legislature people and point to them and tell them... tell them that you guys forgot about the people. The decision that are made in hunting and fishing that are made way off in... in O'ahu... in O'ahu, made with DLNR and the Board, and what you guys did as legislature... at the State Legislature, you have forgotten about the people... the people who have supported you... and we here in Hilo... we do not have a voice. We here in Hawai'i County, we do not have a voice. And I got to tell you, you know, I felt really bad when I saw that video simply because any time there's been an issue in regards to hunting, we simply say it's a State issue. We've always done that. It's... it's done by the State... the County doesn't have any jurisdiction. But listening to that video and watching that video made me realize that we here at the County level can no longer just sit back and relax and leave this thing to people in O'ahu making the decisions for the people here in the County of Hawai'i. The Pele Defense Fund at the same time was meeting with the hunters. And they have been meeting. They invited me to the meeting. I sat down at the table and listened to these people. I sat down at the table and listened to these hunters. This is not my idea, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not going to take credit for this. This came from the hunters. What they said was what we don't have, which every