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

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Hawaii County Charter Commission -8 February S, 2019 MR. HOPKINS: I will be voting no on this one. I respect the will of the people that has been demonstrated numerous tunes already at the ballot box. The assumption that the only way the County can respond to financial emergencies is to raid the PONC fund, I find basically ridiculous. We have so many other areas of the County that in my opinion are badly managed. We pay way too much for certain other things that the County cannot find even one percent of their budget in savings in other parts of the County, instead we have to go raid PONC. Like I said, I find it to be ridiculous and I do understand and I appreciate all the work that the other Commissioners who proposed this, Commissioner Hamano and the other ones on this one here, I think from my personal viewpoint, gentlemen, you were fed a bill of goods by the Mayor and I strongly disagree with that. And so again, I am going to be voting no against this. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Let me make a few comments. I think that Commissioner Bergin probably stated as well as anybody has kind of how I am feeling about this Charter Amendment at the moment. But I have a few other thoughts in my, and perspectives on this that haven't been necessarily been stated, but perhaps other Commissioners have as well. When I accepted the appointment to this particular Commission, I saw it as an opportunity to review our foundation document which is something that we do on a, you know, decade basis. And to do it in a way as I think I mentioned at our first meeting, that allows us to look out into the future, so that is something that Councils are supposed to look into the future, Mayors are supposed to look into the future, I think that Planning Director Yee you know, identified that and we know that members of the public are doing that as well. But we have the mission to study government operations and to do it with an eye to where we think this County will be, and this island will be, and this State will be you know down the line and to try and provide that organizational infrastructure, which is what this document is to do that. So I have a natural, there is a natural proclivity I have for allowing the electors in our County to have the power and because the Council members are the ones that are their representatives, I would like to try and provide those folks with as much of the power as they should have. So I like to see a Charter that is succinct, that is streamlined, that then allows the Council to do what it needs to do in providing policy on a daily basis and on a monthly and yearly basis. At the same time, Charters are supposed to be setting that structure. So where do I, so where do I fit this? Where do I say the importance, cause nobody denies, I think it is important to say, nobody denies the importance of providing open space, providing preservation services for the environment, for the lands that are here on this island. I have not heard, I have had plenty of people say to me you know, "we don't like the idea that there is all this money that the Charter is requiring be put into this fund." And yet at the same time they are saying "but make sure, you understand I completely agree with the idea that we need to be protecting our land." It is a very interesting dichotomy of conversations that we hear. Nobody is saying that that is not a priority. The question is where does it fit in all of the priorities that we have? And so, if we put it into the Charter, we are saying, and Page 37