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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -7 January 25, 2019 <br />CHRISTOPHER <br />DEAN: <br />Proposal No. CA -7 and CA -13 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 in support. <br />MR. DEAN: Thank you very much and thank you for all of your hard work and <br />serving the County. My name is Christopher Dean, Topher Dean and I am here as <br />an individual today and also as a representative of the Environmental Caucus of <br />the Democratic Party of Hawai`i. We have a caucus with thousands of members <br />and so it is something that I am sure we are all united on this. I oppose and the <br />caucus opposes CA -13 and CA -7 and we are in favor of CA -9. There have been <br />some very good testimony to the nuts and bolts issues of why that should be but I <br />would like to speak a little bit to your heart. If you go out and you look from the <br />upper road, mountain road across the plain on the West side, and you will see that <br />there is no forest. It used to be all forest. Well, when they started cutting down <br />that, those trees, the mindset was "look at all of this forest, it is forever. It is <br />limitless." And they cut that all down by hand and it is gone. And that is the <br />mindset that happens with development. "What, I am just making one little <br />resort. I am just building one little house. What does that hurt?" But, they don't <br />see that it is just this perpetuation, that it just keeps going and going and going <br />and you end up... quicker than you can imagine the loss of everything that is <br />beautiful about Hawai`i and I think that when you see a brochure or any kind of a <br />tourist advertisement from a resort or whatever, you will see pictures of pristine <br />beaches with nobody on them, maybe just a young couple walking down the <br />beach. Well if they move that camera just like an inch, you would see like this <br />huge resort and all of these other people and stuff like that. But we are selling this <br />dream. We are selling this fantasy. "Come to Hawaii and see the beauty of <br />paradise." Well, you know what, if some billionaires are like building their gated <br />communities and mansions and resorts all up and down the most beautiful places <br />on this island, there is not going to be that fantasy. We lost Kua Bay, it broke my <br />heart. I can't even think about it. I am so scared of losing Makalawena and as the <br />whole, I live in North Kohala and when I drive up that road, the coastal road from <br />Kawaihae to North Kohala, I see the millionaires building their houses. It is like it <br />just keeps growing and growing, expanding and expanding and the gates go up <br />and it is just like "Where is the nature? Where is the natural beauty of our land?" <br />Thank you very much for listening. <br />CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Ms. Hecht you will be next. If I could ask Fred <br />Cachola to please come up. Go ahead. Thank you. <br />DEBBIE HECHT: Proposal No. CA -7 and CA -13 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 in support. <br />MS. HECHT: Aloha Commissioners. Thank you for your service. It has been <br />my great honor to be the campaign coordinator for the last 13 years for the Save <br />Our Lands Citizen's Committee which has had the two percent land fund program <br />on the ballot now three times. I wrote the legislation in 2006, 2009, and 2012. <br />We request that you help us strengthen this program. This is a wonderful <br />opportunity at the Charter Commission to do so. We have listened to groups all <br />Page 16 <br />