Comm No 0021.051 - Testimony - CA-7 - PONC fund and Maintenance fund

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From: Donald Rudny <mkea13800@gmail.com> Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2019 5:48 PM To: Charter Commission Cc: Kim, Harry; Poindexter, Valerie; Chung, Aaron; Lee Loy, Sue; Kierkiewicz, Ashley; David, Maile; Kanealii-Kleinfelder, Matt; Villegas, Rebecca; Eoff, Karen; Richards, Tim Subject: PONC Fund Attachments: imagel.png; ATT00001.txt Aloha Commissioners, I planned to give testimony at tomorrow's meeting in Hilo about the charter question to reduce POCN contributions and take away the perpetuity clause so important to preserve our Island for generations to come, but I understand that won't be permitted. I was going to read excepts from a recent letter to the HTH from a prominent Big Island citizen. The letter did a wonderful job of expressing the importance of preserving and protecting the special places that the Island has. He wrote about the commitment to the public by both government and local residents to preserve and protect the Wai'opae Tide Pools of Kapoho , and living up to that commitment. And, most important, the "promise" that was kept. That letter as you probably already know was written by our Mayor, Harry Kim. I have attached a copy in case you didn't see it. As evidenced by this effort in Kapoho and the resounding passage of the 2% Charter rule for PONC, the direction that the citizens of the Big Island want should be obvious. This movement to diminish the fund and leave open the future of PONC lands is short sighted and ignores the will of the citizens. Land here is not getting cheaper, and reducing the PONC contribution creates a double whammy on ensuring preservation of those special places Mayor Kim wrote about. We couldn't prevent the loss of Wai'opae, but we can prevent the loss of many similar areas around the Big Island. As I wrote in an earlier email to you, preservation of "special" places in our Country was the subject of Ken Burns' "The National Parks: America's Best Idea". I offered to lend my DVD set to any of you who hadn't seen it, but I received no response. We have a chance here on the Big Island to pursue a similar "best idea". These efforts to reduce our PONC fund are going to be known as "Big Island's worst idea". I would appreciate getting some kind of response from you. There seems to be a reluctance to address and debate the issues. Mahalo for your time and consideration. Don Don Rudny P.O. Box 106 Pepeekeo, HI 96783-0106 1 Comm. No. 21.51