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

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -8 February 8, 2019 We strongly oppose CA -13 which would allow the Mayor at his or her discretion, to expend any fund, special fund, in the County. The Disaster and Emergency Relief Fund that is described in the Charter should be fully funded and strengthened and this dedicated fund saved and increased for rainy days, should be the core intent of you folks- the Commission. We would like to thank Commissioner Leithead-Todd for submitting the amendment of CA -13 for initial approval, however, the intent of CA -16 appears to consolidate Section 10-15 and 10-16 for the sake of simplicity, but we believe that the language of CA -18 provides much better guidance for the Department of Finance and the utilization of the maintenance fund. So I have noticed when I was looking at Debbie Hecht's submissions, that there's a disproportionate allocation of funds to a planning consultant in the tune of $225,000. To an Oahu corporation, and surely the people who receive that funds were paid a salary. That was for the planning for one piece of land. Meanwhile the people who are striving for example, to clean up Waipi`o, which was a giant community dump for many years apparently, they are a a 501(c)(3). They have been working for five years on this project and they are not paid but they are using their personal trucks, and their personal money, and their personal funds to pay people. I mean to feed people that come to do the work there. They are not getting any of those funds reimbursed, and so, I just have to ask you why would you possibly oppose improving our PONC fund when you have the opportunity to either gut it or improve it. Let's improve it. This is what the people want, this is what we have worked for for many years, we will be out at the polls. We will be at you know, conducting a campaign. There is no stopping us in making sure that we protect this. And so, I just want to thank you very much for all of your time and I hope that you will consider our testimonies. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you very much. If I could have Michael Yee and Sammie Stanbro to the table please. Mr. Yee. MICHAEL YEE: Proposal No. CA -11 (Comm. No. 27) in opposition. MR. YEE: Good Morning. Michael Yee, Planning Director with Hawaii County. You know I had a testimony all kind of lined out but I am about to just chuck that because after hearing some testimony today, I just want to comment a little bit more. So, Planning Director, or Planning Department, we staff both planning commissions on this island. We also have to attend Board of Appeals, we manage several community development plan action committees, so we engage with folks just like you, every day. So when I sit there and say "thank you for your service", I know what it takes for you to sit up here and to make the decisions that you have to make. It is not easy and the folks that know me, know that I am a huge ah I am an advocate for equity that often in these public settings we hear from a certain group and it would skew the policy making if we Page 14