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HomeMy WebLinkAboutREP PC 005 12/19/2000 2000-2002 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PLANNING DATE• December 19, 2000 Re. C-20 PLACE Councilroom TIME• 2.10 p m Chair and Members Hawaii County Council Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Your Committee on Planning, to which was referred Communication No. 20 transmitted by Mayor Hany Kim dated December 6, 2000, reports as follows: Communication No 20 recommends the appointment of Christopher J Yuen as the Hawaii County Planning Director for a co-terminus term with Mayor Hany Kim to end at noon on December 6, 2004 Mr Yuen, a 1982 graduate of the William S. Richazdson School of Law, has been in private practice since 1987, and served two terms as the Hawazi Island member of the Board of Land and Natural Resources from 1990 through 1998 He also has a Master of Science degree in environmental science Pursuant to the amended Hawaii County Charter, Section 5-4.2 the Planning Director "shall be appointed by the mayor, confirmed by the council and may be removed by the mayor. The planning director shall have had a minimum of five years training and experience in a responsible planning position, or a degree in planning, engineering, architecture, geography, or another planning-related field and three years experience in a responsible planning position. No less than three yeazs experience shall have been in an administrative capacity The director shall be the administrative head of the department and shall: (a) Advise the mayor, planning commission, and council on all plazining and land use matters (b) Prepare a general plan, implementation plans, and any amendments thereto in accordance with Section 3-15. (c) Prepaze proposed zoning and subdivision ordinances, zoning maps and regulations and any amendments thereto (d) Review the lists of proposed capital improvements contemplated by agencies of the county and recommend the order of their priority. (e) Administer the subdivision and zoning ordinances and regulations adopted thereunder (t) Render decisions on proposed subdivision plans pursuant to law (g) Make recommendations on rezoning applications, special exceptions, and other similar requests (h) Render decisions on proposed variances pursuant to law, except that, if any PC-5 PC-5 Page 2 December 19, 2000 wntten ob~ecttons are made to the planning director's actions under this section, said actions shall be subject to review by the Board of Appeals in accordance with Section 5-6 3, unless otherwise provided by law or this charter. (i) Perform such other related duties and functions as may be necessary or required pursuant to law and this charter." Favorable testimony at today's Planning Committee meeting came from Mayor Hairy Kim, Ed Clazk, and Bob Akamine. Anson Chong was present and would have spoken if there were any questions to his written testimony In addition, there were over forty written testimonies and letters which were submitted in favor of the appointment Mayor Ktm explazned that he sought Mr. Yuen for the position, and that Mr. Yuen did not personally apply for the position He stated that he knows the critical importance of the Planning Director, so he needed someone who "undeistood the whole picture...understood the sensitivity of the Planning Director's fob .and had a balance." Mayor Kim also explained that in his interview with Mr. Yuen, he emphasized the importance of being balanced, and "once you work for the County government of Hawaii and once you, especially represent the Planning Department and you work for the Office of the Mayor, you will be fair You will follow the Hiles of laws of this land and you will be balanced Where there aze no laws, you will use a sense of what is nght " Opposition came from two speakeis, Patnck Kahawaiola`a and Harold Jim, who spoke about the County's role in dealing with Hawaiian Homes Lands Your Chair mentioned that she asked Mr Yuen to submit a letter listing his qualifications because of the publicity received from the media In his submittal, Mr Yuen responded to questions about himself, his background and his perspectives on the position of the Planning Director He also • included Webster's Collegiate Dictionary definition of `administrative as "of or relating to administration, or of an administration," which is not very helpful, but the synonym is "executive " • defined "administration" according to Webster, as 1 The act or process of administenng, 2 Performance of executive dunes Management; 3 The execution of public affairs as distinguished from policy malung, 4 a) a body of persons who administer, b) Cap a group constituting the political executive in a presidential government, c) A governmental agency or board 5 The term of office of an administrative officer or body • included the Random House Dictionary definition of "administer" which is "to manage (affairs, a government, etc have executive charge of." • explained that the most commonly accepted definition of "administrative" and the related words "administration" and "administer" is "executive". • explained 'for my administrative qualifications, Irely primanly on my eight years as the Hawaii Island member of the Boazd of Land and Natural Resources, which, by law, is an "executive board" which manages the Department of Land and Natural PC-5 PC-5 Page 3 December 19, 2000 Resources. There may be some misconceptions about the BLNR because tt is so different from most other state and county boazds and commissions. The BLNR has direct managerial and executive responsibility over the Department of Land and Natural Resources. To make a compazison, although the County Planning Commission, like the BLNR, has important permit-granting functions, it does not have executive responsibilities over the Planning Department.' • stated according to the State Constitution, art. XI, sec.2 the BLNR is the "executive boazd" responsible for the administration of the natural resources of the state, including state land H R S Section 26-15, defines the BLNR as the "executive boazd" which heads the Department of Land and Natural Resources, whuch must "manage and administer" the public lands of the state and all water and coastal lands of the state H.R.S Section 171-3 has almost identical provisions. • states the "BLNR cannot be equated with a board that meets a few Ames a yeaz and approves decisions made by management Anyone who observes BLNR meetings would recognize that the boazd made independent decisions after considerable analysis. • undertook special assignments, at the request of the vanous chairpersons, in which he negotiated a land exchange in Kona involving property worth more than $50 million; attended dozens of community meetings, besides the regular board meetings, met with lessees concerning their individual problems; signed contracts (along w,th the chairperson), ranging from hundreds to millions of dollazs; reviewed and approved hundreds of real property appraisals; received and reviewed most of the correspondence of the Hawaii District Land Office; met with legislators concerning the DLNR's budget, and drafted proposed legislation on the Conservation district Citing all of these assigninents, Mr Yuen feels he was "involved in high-level administrative work for eight yeazs He also notes that the DLNR has twenty times as many employees as the County Planning Department, and although he was not there on a full-time basis, if actual hours are calculated, it would be the equivalent of three full- time years Mr. Yuen also explained that if the term "administrative" means the day to day supervision of employees, then he has supervised employees in his law business for 13 yeazs, on his farm for 6 years, and as a National Pazk Service interpretive naturalist. Mr Yuen explained too that he submitted the letter because he is a very thorough person in what he does, and likes to do things cazefully, and "sometimes it's best to do flings in writing that they're not misunderstood. If the question came up, I could sit here and give the same kind of answer but it would be more of an off the cuff basis,...and would take up ] 0 or 15 minutes of your time " In response to a question from Committee Member Gary Safarik, he explained that he submitted a memo to his Planning Department staff saying he has removed himself from any decision- making in the cellulaz tower issue which he was involved in PC-5 PC-5 Page 4 cember 19, 2000 Mr. Yuen also explained that there are a number of things the Planning Department has to accomplish. "One of `em is to improve access information," and the "need to beef up our presence in Kona, for example, and the office there." He also wants to put more information, such as meeting agendas, variances, administrative actions, etc., on the web, so people can access it on the Internet. By doing this, they would be "in line with one of the themes of the new Administration, which is openness, accountability, and restoring trust in government." Other committee members offered high praise for Mr. Yuen. Your Chair, in addition to praising him and acknowledging that she has known him for thirty years, defined "Administrative Employee" by saying "the essential element to qualify as an administrative employee is that the work performed on behalf of the employer must be directly related to management policies or general business operations as distinguished from purely mechanical or clerical work." Your Committee unanimously approved the appointment of Christopher J. Yuen as the County's Planning Director. Your Committee on Planning recommends the confirmation of the appointment of Mr. Christopher J. Yuen as the Planning Director for the County of Hawaii. AYES NOES A & E EX LEITHEAD=TODD X TYLER X ARAKAKI X CHUNG X EL,ARIONOFF X .IACOBSON X PISICCHIO X SAFARIK X YAGONG X Respectfully submitted. COMMITTEE ON eEANN[NG 7 ~ , B ~iEA LEITT--LEAD-TODD, CHAIR PC REPORT NOp. S ADOPTED: JP~1 10 LU~;