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

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Hawaii County Charter Commission -7 January 25, 2019 paper every day, who watches the news every night, I don't actually know where any of these open space parcels are. I know we have purchased them. Do we have access to them yet? Like I don't know and I am a pretty well informed citizen. So there are supposedly public open space lands. Where are they? I really don't know. I mean I know that sounds silly, but I don't know how many people in this room even know where they all are or if you guys even know where they all are. So anyway, those are my... that's my two cents and I just want to give a shout out to two individuals who are no longer with us that fought for open spaces and one is Mrs. Kiyono Kunitake who fought tirelessly to keep the old airport a public park and not let it be developed. She went to the Legislature all the time, brought avocados from her farm. She is an amazing lady. Never stopped until she got it. And Jerry Rothstein. When I go to Kuki `o now and I have access to that beach, I look up at the sky and I say "Thank you Jerry." Mahalo. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. If I could ask Marie Morin to please come up to the table here thank you. Hilo speaker, if you could please identify yourself and the agenda items you are speaking to, thank you. NOELIE RODRIGUEZ: Proposal No. CA -7 and CA -13 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 in support. MS. RODRIGUEZ: My name is Noelie Rodriguez. I teach sociology at the community college here in Hilo and I am speaking in opposition to CA -7, in support of CA -9, and in opposition to CA -13. All in support of keeping the, and embellishing on the two percent Iand fund. The one thing I don't --I'11 be very short, but I want to make the point that many years ago, I don't have exactly how many, but the County Council supported buying the pathway down to Mills Beach at Pinky's and that has been stuck and not happening for so many years but when that finally gets resolved through the courts, I am hoping that the land fund will be able to pay. I think it has been estimated at less than $25,000 to buy that path. So, I am concerned about the continuity of the things that we do get to legislate and in this case the Mills Beach, we had over 6,000 people signing petitions to have access to that beach and the County Council finally did vote for it. But I hope that you will support and keep the two percent land fund. I am speaking on behalf of Global HOPE. HOPE stands for Hawai`i Organization for Peace and the Environment and we were the ones who got all of those signatures and did all of the work to get this to happen. Thank you very much. Aloha. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. If I could then turn to Ms. Melrose. MAILE MELROSE: Proposal No. CA -7 and CA -13 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 in support. MS. MELROSE: Well hello. I am Maile Melrose. I am a lifetime resident of this island. I have voted on this PONC issue before and I have always voted fully, is it too loud? Am I shrieking at you? Fully in support of two percent and I just Page 23