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

Home

Hawaii County Charter Commission -6 December 14, 2018 MR. HARROLD: Hello thank you for being here and listening to all of this excellent testimony. My name is Gary Harrold. I am a lifetime member of the Sierra Club and I speak for myself. I am opposed to CA -7 and strongly support CA -9. Robert Kennedy said the value of open space and the environment and environmental vitality of a land is directly proportional to the economic strength and ecological integrity of a culture and of a society. The trees on all this open space land are sequestering carbon. We have a major emergency worldwide, I am sure you've heard of it, it's called the climate crisis, rising sea levels, it is happening everywhere. We need to strengthen the two percent land fund. Thank you for listening. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you for your testimony. If 1 could ask William King to come to the table. Ms. Stanbro. SAMMIE STANBRO- OLSEN: Proposal No. CA -7 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 in support. MS. STANBRO-OLSEN: It's actually Stanbro-Olsen but I look at all of you, I've been on.... CHR. ADAMS: Is your microphone on? MS. STANBRO-OLSEN: Okay, it is now. Okay. Okay, it is now. Okay. I look at you all and 1 have been on commissions before for Harry and I know that he picks people because they are passionate and they are smart and you have heard a lot today and 1 am speaking against the CA -7 and I am in favor of the CA -9. You've heard a lot of things said and I really am trying not to repeat anything because I think it gets, you know, it gets boring after a while, but you are all here for a reason and you are here because Harry has expressed his feelings and Debbie gave some really good background. Yes, I paid for a study done. It was an off island study, it was this thick, Trust for Public Land insisted on it before we went into this whole thing. It cost $11,000. That was a big study done and the study told us that even, that almost exactly how the voters voted they would vote and we were blown away. I asked for one percent, maybe two, everybody carne back on that study overwhelming with two percent. I was going to be happy with one. The people voted three times and they said two percent. A lot has to do with the size of the island like you have heard but you know when 1, I love Harry, we were sitting together, he is talking about the County lands. The reason why we started this whole thing is because Harry said to us, we don't have any money as the County to buy Honu'apo and so my son went to work and raised 3.6 million dollars to take 360 acres of prime coastal Ka`u land and make it into a public park which is beautifully taken care of by the Friends of Honu` apo at this time. Harry did say to my son if you do this, I will find sorne money in the County to help finish off if you are short and so my son went back to Harry and I don't know where Harry found it, but he came up with like $100,000 and so that is how the County has Honu`apo. That is the only way they got Honu`apo. I worked with Page 27