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

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -7 January 25, 2019 I support CA -9 to create a staff position to deal with the Two Percent Land Fund and then the last one that I was going to speak on is ah, sorry, CA -13 and I am in opposition for that as well as far as allowing the Mayor to use those two percent funds or any special fund for emergency because I don't ever think that that was the intention of the two percent land fund that the people voted in support of. And, I don't know if you guys can see me over there but I have got my hands full right now, so I can't give a more detailed testimony at this moment, but my testimony is that if we do make any of these changes that there needs to be adequate time and education for the public. That these are things that that the public voted on in support of multiple times in the past, so if there is going to be changes, it needs to be really well publicized and we need to have time for the public to be informed and able to respond adequately and this feels to me at least, like it just kind of came out of nowhere and I know you guys do a lot of decision making and work on behalf of the public and we need to have the public's trust that you guys are going to represent us well and uphold the things that we vote on and protect public spaces and open land, so thank you so much and yeah, thanks for this time. Yeah. Okay. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Next speaker. CORY HARDEN: Proposal No. CA -7, and CA -13 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 in support. MS. HARDEN: Good afternoon, Cory Harden speaking for myself. Thank you folks for your service on the Commission. Three items... I am opposing CA -7 which would water down the two percent land fund. I do think the ad hoc committee should be commended for raising a lot of questions that needed to be explored, but I think that we need to keep a robust two percent fund. There used to be some language about increased uses for the maintenance fund. I don't see that anymore. I wish it was still in there. I do support using the maintenance fund for trails, portable toilets, disability accommodations, and payment of workers who are doing maintenance. We need to keep a robust fund at two percent so that there are enough funds so that we can move quickly when lands become available. Other Counties do have a lower rate but they have less land area and they are really built up maybe because they didn't have a robust two percent fund. And then we need two percent toward a staff person and for maintenance. Several Commissioners have pointed out that if we do two percent now we can buy land before prices go up and then the land would be permanently lost. If we have good open spaces that may reduce the need for other programs. You can prevent development in areas prone to flooding or areas so remote that it is really hard to provide police and fire services. And open spaces may reduce the need for police and social services by providing places for people to gather and relax, joining communities together to care for special places, connecting people to their Page 3