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

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -7 January 25, 2019 cultural heritage, and refreshing people's spirits with beauty and maybe you won't need so many police. We have a lot of lands in conservation but it is not protected and communities end up finding round after round of developers attempts at rezoning and many government resources go into refereeing the fights. You know, Planning Commission, County Council, Land Use Conunission, and on and on. The conflicts divide communities and drain a lot of resources from communities and government that could be put to better use. On CA -9 I support CA -9 for a staff person for the two percent land fund. With our experience we see we need a staff person to ensure that taxpayer money is used effectively to preserve our special places and so we don't lose opportunities to actually get a return on that taxpayer investment. On CA -13 I oppose it. That is regarding emergency...using two percent for emergencies. I do support planning for emergencies but how would the County pay back money that it didn't have in the first place? We all know how easy it is to run up a credit card and I would think that the money shouldn't be so easy to get. For example, you would usually have a strict definition of emergency, you might require first exhausting other sources like Federal Emergency Management money, you might require a two-thirds vote of County Council, maybe a vote by the Public Open Space Board, and it might be good to identify specific funds, not just leave the two percent fund the only one. For example there is a disaster relief fund, there is travel funds, there is County Council discretionary funds... the basic issue in all of these is there is wide support for the two percent program and we should not water it down so that it is a waste of taxpayer money. We should have a strong program that gives tax payers a good return on their investment. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. If I could ask the next speaker to please provide us with your name and the agenda items that you are speaking to please. KAREN CLARKSON: Proposal No. CA -7, and CA -13 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 in support. MS. CLARKSON: Okay. Karen Clarkson and I will be speaking on CA -13, CA - 7, and CA -9. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. If you could speak into the mic, it is hard to hear you. MS. CLARKSON: Okay. Okay. I am here to ask you to please reject putting CA -13 on the ballot. The Mayor or the Council should not have so much clout to overturn what we have voted for for three times by continuing to try to get rid of it or reduce it to almost nothing. The County has been dragging its feet on Page 4