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

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -7 January 25, 2019 purchasing land and CA -13 could allow the fund to be completely raided by the Administration for anything the Mayor or the Council considers an emergency. That is not acceptable. Please reject CA -7 which reduces the percentage for the land fund by almost two - third which would make it impossible to purchase any significant lands. It would also allow the Administration to remove the maintenance fund, where it would be at the whims of the Mayor and Council. The deletion of the language that protects the ownership of the public... it would give the Administration the power to sell it. Who would be willing to give matching funds for land if they know the County could eventually sell the land? These two charter amendments are a slap in the face to the citizens who have clearly supported the land fund. Please go forward to put CA -9 on the ballot. It is the only insurance or assurance that the lands will be administered and open up possibilities for stewardship by members of the public and for other funding. Thank you very much. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Our next speaker please. DWIGHT VICENTE: Communication No. 4 and Communication No. 7, commenting. MR. VICENTE: Good afternoon my name is Dwight Vicente. I am representing the Hawaiian Kingdom. Communication No. 2, Number 6, Communication 24.38. The problem with the lands here you have the 2.4 million acres under lease contract with 25 year term contract under King Kalakaua. The problem was those people there were leasing lands when the lease ended, they claimed they owned the land. And the other problem is in 1898 the Americans calling themselves the Republic of Hawai`i gave to the United States 1.8 million acres of crown and government lands which they rebranded in 1920 as Hawaiian Homes and they applied the Public Trust Doctrine to it. These lands are actually crown and government lands, all subject to native tenant rights but yet, you will find nowhere in the County Charter that they recognize native tenant rights to the land. Number 7, the director is applying foreign law to the crown and government lands. In other words they are doing land speculation based on the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. These are crown and government lands not to be speculated on. They are all subject to native tenant rights. So a lot of the information or what little information that the director has, there is a large gap in the history. They will tell you it is either a royal land patent or government land grant and they will disappear and come up with something new. A new scheme that try to divert the attention from the crown and government lands to now somebody owns—some individual foreigner owns these public, these crown and government lands. This Kingdom has no public lands. Public lands is the Indian lands in the Ohio River Valley. It doesn't extend in any way, shape, or form to this Kingdom. The Page 5