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

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Hawaii County Charter Commission -7 January 25, 2019 Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 was not a treaty because King Kalakaua did not sign it nor did the U.S. President Grant sign it and they rely on that in Downes vs. Bidwell, Sai vs. Clinton, and Sai vs. Trump. It places Kingdom under Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2, of the U.S. Constitution. There is no amendment that changes the original constitution that was adopted September, 1787 and I shall reserve the rights of this Kingdom under the Queen's Protest of January 17, 1893 against U.S. Minister Stevens has yet to make its way to U.S. Supreme Court, Article 3, Section 2, Clause 2, original but limited jurisdiction, and the other one is the question of the constitutionality of the 1875 reciprocity treaty which was no treaty according to the history that King Kalakaua did not do it and the U.S. President Grant did. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Our next speaker from Hilo please. RUSSELL RUDERMAN: Proposal No. CA -7 and CA -8 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 in support. SENATOR RUDERMAN: Aloha my name is Russell Ruderrnan. Thank you for letting me speak and I want to thank all of you for your service. All the Commission members. CHR. ADAMS: Senator, please, it is hard to hear you. SENATOR RUDERMAN: Okay, I will talk a little louder. CHR. ADAMS: Thanks. SENATOR RUDERMAN: Thank you all for your service on the Commission. I am here to speak on 23.1 and 21.55. I will briefly touch on the change to four- year terms. I oppose that. I remember when we voted to change our Council terms to two-year terms and single member elected districts and I think that everyone would agree that we have had a more responsive Council ever since. The reason why is because you have to be more in touch with your community to come back and campaign every two years. As an elected official, I know what a hassle it is to campaign but I also know that the benefits of being connected to the community far outweigh those hassles. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Russell Rudennan. I am a businessman here on the Big Island employing more than 200 people, and I am also a State Senator from Puna and Ka '11. I wish I could see you folks better. I hope that someday you get a camera that focuses, but thank you for listening to me. My main reason for being here and I usually stay out of County business as you know, but you know, I watched Debbie Hecht and her crew pass this open space initiative many years ago. I saw her come back and do it again and then do it again, and that's pretty remarkable. I don't think there is an example in our history of three times the people voting in the exact same way on essentially similar issue. I believe the Page 6