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

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Hawaii County Charter Commission -8 February 8, 2019 MARGARET WILLE: rendered really pretty useless. Having a staff person and so forth so to that end I oppose CA -17, or 7, 13, 16. I wanted to say something specific though about the -New Business, the CA -18, the one that strengthens the maintenance fund. There is a provision that allows for a 501(c)(3) which is a charitable organization to use some of the monies that were granted should they receive a grant to pay for a salary and I just want to say how important that is. That it is really a catch 22 with a lot of charitable organizations, especially with local, community driven groups that have the heart, they have the will, they really understand their local communities, but they don't have the money to pay a staff person to see it through for a grant, for maintenance. As you know it can take sometimes, quite a long time, long timeline, and you don't want to enter into something like that if you are worried that one of your volunteers might not kind of make it through to the end, so it is such an important provision because it would really allow a 501(c)(3) to ensure that they could see that job through and get that maintenance done, and also it is so important that maintenance is kept separate and does not comingle with the two percent acquisition fund because if you have land that has been purchased and it has an issue with maintenance like invasive species, pick fencing has fallen down and so forth, you had to take care of that right now and if those monies have been comingled or lost in some way, or they aren't being utilized, then the whole purpose of the PONC fund can be severely diminished. So, really strong support for CA -9 and 18 and for seeing that a 501(c)(3) can use salary. I also wanted to point out that there is a provision that states that at the end at the audit, if an organization were to abuse that, they would be... and found to have abused that by the Department of Finance, they would be forever prevented from ever applying ever again for any monies. So I think that's a very strong provision that would ensure that the money was used in the right way and that we really got this fund working well. Thank you very much for your service. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you for your comments. Ms. Wille. Comm. No. 12.3, Comm. No. 15, Comm. No. 3, CA -7, CA -8, CA -9, CA -12, CA -13, CA -17, and CA -18, in support, opposition, and commenting. MS. WILLE: Thank you. Good morning. The Charter is the people's constitution. You only meet every ten years. When I was a Council member I looked at offering some amendments and it was sort of we should really wait for when the Charter Commission is meeting unless there is an emergency. You know, I see that it's... you represent the past and the future. The Mayor and the Council represent the present. We need savings accounts to protect our history, to protect our future which is the open space, and have that savings account and our economy is the environrnent. Our environment is the um, our economy is the environment, our environment is the economy. There are many ways to raise funds and not just tightening the belt. There are loopholes in the taxing, such as Page 9