MIN CHARTER 2018-12-14 (2018-2020)

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Hawaii County Charter Commission -6 December 14, 2018 thirds vote of County Council. I would support allowing transfers to other entities but only if there is written justification and only a guarantee that the land will remain protected forever. I support increasing use for maintenance funds as discussed before and putting the two percent fund under finance. I hear people ask why we need the two percent when Hawai`i Island has one million acres in conservation already. But some of that is places where you can build houses or chop down trees. It's not well protected land and there is always smart lawyers looking for ways to rezone for their hotels and their golf courses. Cutting the two percent fund would be penny wise and pound foolish. Open spaces strengthen communities. People come together to care for the land. People refresh their spirits in special places through cultural practices, by becoming grounded in history, by experiencing beauty, peace and quiet, and through exercise and fun for young and old. Protected lands protect priceless resources, watersheds, aquafers, and endangered species. Open spaces can cut the need for costly emergency and disaster recovery by preventing people from building in disaster prone areas and they can stop people from building in remote areas where it is really expensive to take services out, try to deliver police or fire, medical, transportation, education, and social services to remote areas. Also we can reduce expensive shipping infrastructure and increase our food security by growing food on protected land. Open spaces increase neighboring property values and they attract tourists without the environmental and social impacts of lavish hotels. On CA -9, I support CA -9 for a staff person. Commenting here on Mayor Kim's comments, he talked about public private partnerships. I wonder what happens with that when maybe in the future you could make more money off the land by not having it protected. I think his administration is strong on protecting land, but if you get an administration that is really pro developer and we are going to end up looking like Oahu. On the staff person, when people see that not too many properties have been purchased, they say oh well, maybe we don't need all that funding, so we better cut it, but the problem is lack of staff time to really work through all the steps. You have to get open space commission approval, you have got to line it up with the finance department, you have to go through several County Council meetings, get funds cobbled together from various sources, and negotiate with the land owner. Getting a staff person would enable the two percent fund to work as intended. It wouldn't cost the County any extra, and it would relieve finance department staff of two percent duties so they can do other things. So please protect our special places. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. I understand we have one more testifier in Kona. What I would like to do is ask Deborah Ward and Jon Olson to please to come to the table at this time here in Hilo. I would like the testifier in Kona please to identify herself, the agenda items you are speaking on, and you have three minutes per agenda items. Page 12