MIN CHARTER 2018-10-12 (2018-2020)

Home

Hawai`i County Charter Commission -4 October 12, 2018 Brenda Ford: BRENDA FORD: The Chair called Brenda Ford, who made the following statement: (Note: A portion of Ms. Ford's testimony is unavailable.) Comm. No. 3.1.1, in opposition. MS. FORD:... We have a constitution and it's written for the will of the People, to protect the people and the resources. That was a very deliberate placement in the Charter for that reason, to prevent Council Members and or administrations from trying to remove the money that we need to purchase our treasured lands. We've already purchased 14 properties and 166 are on the books. We may not be able to buy them all and we may not be able to buy them all now, but there's no problem. By passing any of the changes that this charter commission is even considering defeats the will of the people. We've been on the ballot three times. The public has made it extremely clear that they want this in the form that it exists in today. During Mr. Kenoi's administration he illegally stopped funding this PONC (Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources) Fund and the Maintenance Fund. And the reason I say illegal is his decision was in violation of the Charter. The only way we can force County employees to do their job is to sue them, and it takes years to get it through the court and then they say, "Oh yes, you're correct, however it's moot because that person is out of office." It goes on all the time. We had a terrible problem getting this on the ballot the first time. Fortunately, Council did pass it. They're using the excuse that we need more police officers. We always needed more police officers. And in the good times we don't get them anyway especially in West Hawai`i. Everything seems to be over in Hilo. We need two percent because we have the biggest land mass, we have the most treasured lands, and we have 200,000 -plus people on this island. If you compare us to Honolulu that has almost a million people, theirs is only a half percent, but you've got a million people—five times as many people putting that into their fund. So they have a better advantage. The other counties are much smaller. If we don't buy these land parcels now they won't be available in the future. And the very thought over turning over the administration to a private person makes me want to just scream, because you can look at Hokulia, all the lots instead of one on that County parcel of land. All the illegalities that they committed and they still closed off the trail. And ultimately they actually moved the Ala Loa Trail. That's what happens when you have a private entity owning the public lands. We need to be able to get to our mountains, to our sea shores, our shoreline and not have the public stopped by private ownership. Page 2