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

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Hawaii County Charter Commission -7 January 25, 2019 who is a year old and I think this kid is never going to enjoy the same quality of life that we did. When we came here we lived hand to mouth right, but I feel that you know the quality of life was better because we had access to open space. So now, like as previous speakers spoke to the issue of the development along Kawaihae Coast right, multi-million dollar homes, cut off public access to the ocean, the Ka`ii Palehu, the Honoka`a, Ho`okena, Kealia, and the North Kohala beaches are all reasons why we have lost access and the DLNR cut off access to Keawaiki. They spent I don't know how many thousands of dollars gating that thing off and then when that didn't work, they put more boulders in front of the access and when that didn't work, they spent more thousands of dollars to block access by putting more boulders there. So all of these places that we could go to are now stripped away from us. So that is why I am speaking out in favor of CA - 9 and opposing CA -7. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you very much. If I could ask that Maile Melrose please come to the table and I am going to have the, before Ms. Melrose speaks and after Ms. Greenaway speaks, I will have our Hilo speaker speak at that time. Okay, Ms. Greenaway, thank you. UNA GREENAWAY: Proposal No. CA -7 and CA -13 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 in support. MS. GREENAWAY: Thank you for your service. I know what it is to be a volunteer. I do it all the time. I am on many, many boards. What the people have spoken, Brenda Ford and Debbie Hecht and all the folks that know so much more about this issue than I do, I am going to just go with many of the things they said. I am definitely for CA -9, opposed to CA -7, and I am opposed to CA -13. I am kind of coming from a little bit of a different perspective. I am a 42 year resident of this island. I live in Kealakekua. I am a farmer and I was also an accountant so I have a little bit of business savvy myself: Mauka lands, no one here has access to mauka lands unless you have a relative, an aunty, a parent, someone, or a good friend who owns a ranch. Mauka lands, I mean, I don't begrudge that of anyone. I know a lot of people here are involved in ranching. But we don't have access. All of the other 50 states have State Parks, Federal Parks, forest lands that their citizens have access to. To hike, you know to be one with nature and the wahi pana. We don't have that and I am advocating for a little access to mauka. And another reason and you all know that climate change is extremely real. We kind of like to ignore it. You know, it is a tough one. It is hard to really look and see that it is coming and you all know what that means. It means the ocean is rising. We are actually going to lose some of our Makai beaches I mean that tears my heart apart. I am not happy about it but we need to think a little bit mauka. We need to think about stuff and like the gentleman before me said, we are losing so much access also to the beach. It is just you know, the developers are, they got their eye on all of it and they are not letting go and it is just very, very upsetting. And one other little issue about the open space and like I said, I am not super familiar with all of it but as a citizen who reads the Page 22