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

Home

Hawai`i County Charter Commission -8 February 8, 2019 do not want to run for a two-year term, they can pass and we will all be better off for it. I oppose CA -7, CA -13, and CA -16, which would lead to the defending and debilitation of the PONC program. No amount of greenwashing will make them any better. Please do not pass any of these measures no matter how much you have been pressured. Instead, please listen to the expressed will of the people of this County. They have been speaking unequivocally for years. Each of these three proposals would return the PONC program to the County Code from its safe haven in the Charter. The public placed it in the Charter to be free of the demonstrated defending by the Administration and Council branches of County government. If moved back to the Code, the PONC and Maintenance Funds will be vulnerable to administrative and Council Shenanigans. Promise budget funding will be just as vulnerable to diversion and defending as it was before the PONC funding was protected by Charter placement despite the lofty wording of CA -16. In addition, CA -7 removes the restrictive covenant on PONC acquired property interest, eliminating the likelihood of matching funds from other sources and it also removes the directive that the highest and best use of the PONC fund is for attracting matching funds to amplify its effectiveness. The purpose of any and all of these three proposals is to gut the PONC program. If you vote in favor of these, it will be clear to the public of your intent. At the end of your last meeting you were left so tongue-tied and twisted with interdigitating amendments that discussed two proposed Charter Amendments simultaneously, that it was unclear to witnesses what emerged at all or where from. Basically a few members were trying to put lipstick on a pig and to try to greenwash the planned demise of the PONC program. You would do better to stick to the script or vote from the heart. If you support the PONC program, vote for CA -9 and CA -18 and not for CA -7, CA -13, and CA -16. Be sure they are roll call votes. If you have time left over, consider placing the disaster and emergency fund into the Charter with specific funding increments and a hefty target amount for disasters, so it cannot continue to be regularly raided as a slush fund. This would negate the rationale for CA -13, the fund raider clause. Perhaps you could amend CA -13 to do so instead of its raiding other special funds. The issues relating to PONC and some of the other matters before you all come down to money, how much, who calls the shots, who gets it, and the like. If the Administrations that appointed you, your predecessors, and succeeding Charter Commissioners and also the various County Councils over time, really want to find a better path to new money, they should plan to acquire more into the budget rather than redirect a short supply. On this island with such disparity in wealth and so much off shore property ownership, they should all look into taxing the most expensive properties and houses at a much higher rate than do the residents, than pay the residents who struggle with ever rising property valuations and taxes. Page 3