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

Home

Hawai`i County Charter Commission -6 December 14, 2018 not about election time, you know that, so I rarely say a lot of this things in public, written or verbal. I never have, I never will, but this is important and I think it is time that we emphasize certain things. I ask that all of you and members of the public, to review very carefully what this administration stood for. I am very proud that we acquired more lands for the public then Maui and Kauai combined without the two percent while they had their one percent and half percent. I stress again, the responsibility of protecting our special lands should not be so heavily burdened on the limited County property taxes, but on all sources of funds. The emphasis of doing that, has been heavy in regards to our priority and it is not a matter of bragging of this or that. It is a matter of what our position has been. I am proud of Kohanaiki. I am sure there must be some of you who must be familiar with the history of Kohanaiki. This is before the two percent because the priority was to work with the private sector and all sectors to preserve precious land. The beautiful people of Kona fought the development of Kohanaiki for what 14 years, including Supreme Court. We worked with them and through their cooperation in the community, when you go to Kohanaiki Park which is I think, as I asked the owner, give me a template, give me a reason for a template to show that this is how land should be developed. Not only for hotels and resorts but in combination of the community so they would have use of it also and protect the heritage of that land, and if you go to Kohanaiki, I ask Bill McMorrow who is the CEO of Kennedy Wilson, help me make a template. Help me protect lands of Hawaii for the people of Hawai` i also besides your hotel and look what he did. Way beyond.... The community you know, agreed to meet with them and they met. It wasn't an overnight thing to tell you the truth. It was nine months of hard work, a lot of give, a lot of take etc. etc. and look at what you have out there now and every time I see Bill, you know I thank him for it. There is a sign out there in the entrance of the Kohanaiki Park and it says "This park is because of a true partnership." Emphasis of the word true partnership of Kennedy Wilson, the community and the County of Hawaii and other things it says of caring for it. I wrote that sign because in meeting with the board I thanked them and I said the people should always use this as a template of how we must work together, not one over the other and he came through for us because I told him and asked him, help me take the straw off what is happening to Hawai`i or at the very minimum, don't add a straw to what we have been doing and I am glad that at the end of it all he wrote me a letter and said I hope I did more than take off one straw. Because if you are not familiar with Kohanaiki, they developed a whole thing with the community of what you want to see there- the road, the showers, the toilets, the camping area, they clean it up every single day and all of that is before the two percent. Look at `O`oma next door. Yes, they went bankruptcy but Kohanaiki, Kennedy Wilson, Bill McMorrow, gave the County government of Hawai`i two million dollars to purchase that portion and before bankruptcy, they were trying to develop that. They committed to the people of Kona, we will follow the template of what Kohanaiki did and so they segregated that. So now you have almost two miles of pristine ocean front land that will forever belong to the people of Hawai`i and I know this sounds kind of bragging and I am not doing it to brag, but I am just trying to answer the ugly letters of mistruths of what I am Page 6