MIN CHARTER 2019-01-25 (2018-2020)

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -7 January 25, 2019 TONI WITHINGTON: Proposal No. CA -7 and CA -13 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 in support. MS. WITHINGTON: Yes, my naive is Toni Withington. I also submitted written testimony. I hope you all have a copy of this because this is an update of what we have been doing. My name is Toni Withington. I live in North Kohala. I represent the groups Kohala Lihikai, Kamakani 0 Kohala `Ohana, Malama Kohala Kahakai, Maika`i Kamakani 0 Kohala, and one of our groups is Malama Na Wahi Pana 0 Kohala which is Fred Cachola's group. Together we have been nominating lands to the priority list of the County since the inception in 2007. Preservation of our coastal lands started over 50 years ago by our kupuna. We are only the generation that is present now. In the time since 2007 we have raised 20.9 million dollars to purchase 390 acres of coastal land in North Kohala. Of this 20.9 million, about half of it is from the Open Space Fund and half of it is from what we have raised outside of the County. It includes eight projects. Four of the projects have been partially or fully funded by the County fund. Four of the projects were purchased by funding outside of the County costing the County not one single cent. This is what the Open Space Fund was set to do. To bring money in to help preserve our land. We are good at raising matching funds. Fred and I and a couple of people from Kohala, we missed your December meeting because we were over on O`ahu speaking to the Legacy Land Commission helping the County procure 1.45 million dollars for the purchase of Kapanai`a Bay. We are good at raising funds. That is why we oppose CA -13. We oppose CA -7, and we support CA -9. One thing that has been alluded to is the provision in CA -13 about the purchasing in perpetuity. Our lawyers have told us, and you need to go check with your lawyers, that if you put that provision in that eliminates the in perpetuity in it, you will pretty basically cut us off at the knees. We are good at matching funds, but our lawyers tell us that no funding source will support the purchase of land that does not have a provision for in perpetuity. The County won't be able to get matching funds. We won't be able to get matching funds, and all the work that we have put in to prioritizing the very, very important lands of our district, will pretty much evaporate. So that provision is a critical one for us. Another reason not to cut back on the Open Space Fund is this, the County has already made efforts to purchase Open Space Funds and it hasn't happened. In other words, the fund has been allowed to accrue and it is not at the mismanagement of the staff of PONC. It is because the Mayor's office has put the brakes on it. For example, we have on the back of the brochure that I gave you was our efforts to preserve Kula iwi 0 Kamehameha. That is the homeland of Kamehameha. There are seven purchases within this district, the homeland of Kamehameha. We have affected four of them basically. Three have been purchased outright and the one Kapanai`a Bay is now being funded by the Open Space and the Legacy Lands. So four of the seven have been finished. Three Page 20