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

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -4 October 12, 2018 I know that counsel thing is a very important thing for members of the County Council, and if that has changed, so be it. But let it not be for the reason that they are under the whim of the orders of the Mayor. I know they are there to advise me of what is right by law or not right by law. Thank you very much. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. At this time, I'd ask our Deputy Director of Planning please, to come forward. d. Department of Planning – Deputy Director Daryn Arai (Note: At this time, Deputy Planning Director Daryn Arai carne forward to address the members of the Commission.) CHR. ADAMS: Again, if you would state your name for the record. Thank you. MR. ARAI: Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission. My name is Daryn Arai, the Deputy Planning Director. Unfortunately, Michael Yee, the Planning Director sends his regrets. He's currently attending a hearing in Kona and wishes he could be here joining me. Let me offer you just a for those of you who are not familiar with the Planning Department, just a real brief overview of what we do. We're a department of about 61 employees situated both in Hilo and in Kona. We advise the Mayor, the County Council and the Windward and Leeward Planning Commission on all planning and land use matters. That is prescribed by the County Charter. Sounds simple, but you know, we do much more than that. We are comprised of 14 boards, commissions and committees, consisting of somewhere in the neighborhood of I think close to 90 individuals like yourselves who volunteer, and probably conduct somewhere close to that same number, about 85-90 public meetings or hearings a year. That's a lot, and the whole purpose of that is in order to effectively advise the Mayor, County Council, Windward Planning Commission and all the boards and committees that we serve, it's incumbent on us to reach out to the members of our community and the public that we serve as well as all the agencies that will provide us with the information and resources that we need in order to make the most informed decision and recommendation to our decision makers. So if you look at the qualifications of being a Planning Director, it's, you know, engineer, architect, geographer, you know, sociologist. The reason for that is because in order—Planning Department is charged under a statute to be the central coordinating agency. I mean, the statute basically says each County shall designate a central coordinating agency. Lucky for us, we were like tag you're it, right. Page 20