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

Home

Hawai`i County Charter Commission -8 February 8, 2019 tried to be respectful of your time and ask our supporters to not testify on things they have cited before to save time. So here is what I don't understand when I am sitting by myself thinking about this campaign. The two percent lands have been preserved and they protect beautiful stretches of coastline and our island special places. This is why people come to visit the island. The natural beauty of this island provides for our income, for our families via the tourist industry. If you want to go to a city and shop in boutique stores and look at the dead reef, you go to Waikiki. If you want crowds in small places, they go to Maui and Kaua`i. Place for open spaces and place of the culture of old Hawai`i is represented at our four national parks and our open spaces. We have more than 15 ecosystems on this island and more endangered species than almost anywhere else in the world. Why doesn't the Kim administration see this economic engine that is provided by open space and park lands? Why don't they see how much healthier people are when they get out and get active? I guess you as Commissioners will need to decide if you support the land fund program or not. When you go out for public meetings, I believe you will encounter more of what you have heard here at the Commission meetings. You will hear from the 63 percent of people who voted on this three times. Think of the overwhelming support you have witnessed here and the articulate and passionate testimony of more than these 75 people. What about the hundreds more who have sent you emails? Think hard about the demographics of this island. The population is 200,000. There are only 100,000 registered voters and historically only one-third of these people show up to vote at elections. That's 35,000 people and then 63 percent of them vote in favor of the two percent land fund three times. That is almost 19,000 people that have to show up at the polls to vote in favor. So, keep on with the statistics, we collected 9,600 signatures on our petitions. Those people are still dialed in on this program. We have a large email list of 3,000 supporters, so that is why I guess you are going to have to decide whether you will represent the people of the island or not. So, CA -9 is a simple amendment and that adds a full-time staff person to administer and guide the acquisition program and the maintenance program for stewardship grants. We believe the reason why the money is being stockpiled is that there is nobody on board to pay attention to work to administer the program. So at your last Charter Commission meeting you went round and around trying to amend CA -7 which guts the fund, takes away the perpetuity clause, and reduces the amount to three-quarters percent, and moves the maintenance fund to the Code where it can be messed around with every year by the Council and Mayor. This is fatally flawed and we will not support it at the polls. We will run a just say no campaign to squash this on the ballot. The land fund works. Please move on to discussion on CA -9. We are also opposed to CA -13 which takes the maintenance fund and the land fund in times of emergency, which is every year. Every year we have a flood or hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, or lava flow. Just say no to CA -13. Just say no to CA -16 where Commissioner Leithead-Todd tried to combine the best elements but left out a lot of safety concerns that check up on Page 7