MIN CHARTER 2019-02-08 (2018-2020)

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -8 February 8, 2019 objective of securing sufficient revenue for programs that are aimed to reduce long-term expenditures. CHR. ADAMS: Please summarize. MS. WILLE: Okay. I think everything else that I have in here is if you read this list is pretty much speaks to itself, but again you represent us, the people, I don't think Council members should be in here threatening, "If you don't do this, if you don't do that, then we are going to raise taxes." That's baloney. This is, you think long-term, not short-term. Thank you very much. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. If I could have Deborah Ward and Mary Marvin Porter to this table please. And who do we have in Kona? MR. RUEDY: Our last testifier today is Gail Byrne in support of CA -9, CA -18, opposing CA -7, CA -13, and CA -16. CHR. ADAMS: Great, okay, PH have Ms. Byrne speak then, thank you. GAIL BYRNE: Proposal No. CA -7, CA -13, and CA -16 in opposition and Proposal No. CA -9 and CA -18 in support. MS. BYRNE: Hi this is Gail Byrne and thank you all, and again for the record I am in support of CA -9, CA -18, and opposed to CA -7, opposed to CA -13, and opposed to CA -16. Good morning, good afternoon, and happy to be here. I haven't been able to testify before because I had to work. I was glad I could get a couple of hours off today and been working on these issues and open space preservation and preserving cultural sites since before my daughter was a baby. She is now 19 and off to college. My background is in engineering -civil engineering and natural resource management. I love bridges, buildings, and wise development and in fact, that is part of the reason I got involved in open space preservation because it makes sound economic sense and the first time that I ever testified before the County Council was I think in 2003, way before the two percent fund, the maintenance fund, and I brought a sununary of research, the compendium of research from around the country that showed that preserving open space and investing in these types of programs makes sound economic sense and then here we are again unfortunately I have to reiterate that testimony, but I am glad to be here. And science really was the basis of the two percent, of the two in the two percent land fund. I remember some of the initial conversations and strategies around this. You know the other islands, I think some has been referred to, the funds on the other islands, we know for a fact they were ineffective for a variety of reasons but primarily because they were too low. They just, you have to have a high enough percentage to be able to gamer the funds to make purchases to get the matching funds, to have an effective program and I also, I don't know if Sammie Stanbro is Page 11