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

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Hawai `i County Charter Commission -8 February 8, 2019 the beginning of this, he was giving you instruction. And that is not what a coirunission does. It is listening to the people and it is working for the people. I also listened to Aaron Chung who is on the Council and he was giving you instruction. That is not what you do as a Commissioner. I have done that for 12 years and I know that I served the people in both Kona and here in Hilo. I also would like to say to you that obviously I am supporting no on 7, 13, and 16 and yes on CA -9 and 18. I heard Harry, as much as he is a friend, I heard him say that the County had plenty of money and always supported land acquisition. The reason why I threw $11,000 to start the Trust for Public Land into us being able to start this process of working with voters, is we went before the Council and the Council would not give any money to any kind of land acquisitions, even seed money or matching funds because Harry said "we don't have it." The Council said "we don't have it." So how two percent started is that we thought "well, we have got to get some money into the County so that when things carne up, the County would have some matching funds." And this was back in the early 2000's. It was a long time ago. And so, this was totally grassroots, and it was because the Mayor said "no, we don't have any funds for snatching" and there was a property down in Ka`u that everyone thought was State or County and it was going to be developed into a big housing development and the people in Ka`u said "no, this is a historical lands, we thought it was State." And it was Honu`apo which is one of the most beautiful parks and it is really well taken care of and it was because a local person put up the money to start a fund for a 501(c)(3) so they had the money. They are not a two percent, because it was before two percent, but they had the money in this small fund for bathrooms, for trash pick-up and to pay for their gas for their lawnmowers to keep Honu'apo absolutely beautiful and you know, if you haven't seen it when you go around the corner from Na`alehu, it is just a gorgeous site. That whole coastline is because of two percent and because of the people that cared to preserve that coastline. I just met a family that came here, that carne to Big Island specifically because they heard about the open lands and coastlines. They said they almost dropped dead when they found out that nobody can develop that whole coastline of Ka`u. It is alI protected and it's County. Because of the County and because of the two percent. So this is big money that carne to our island. A whole family, a whole crew of there staying on both sides of the island with all the restaurants. So economically this pays and when the Mayor asks for more money, again, I am going to reiterate we need, it has already been said, we need to beef up our disaster and I know he is asking for a lot of money from the Feds and from the State, and he will get it. He will get it because the people on Oahu love Hawai`i Island because they see that we are doing over here what they can't do anymore. We have worked really hard to get Turtle Bay up in the North Shore. I mean we worked for years to preserve Turtle Bay for ag and for open space and the people on O`ahu were just over the top. They didn't think that this would happen but it did and they say to us "you are so lucky that you guys got in the ground level, so you can protect your special lands." So again, thank you for your time and for what you do. And, I just don't understand how in Page 16