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Thank you for taking my testimony. <br /> I wrote to the six Councilmen who approved the Clifto's project, and that letter is <br /> on the record. Let me take this opportunity to thank Mr. Elarianoff for his <br /> thoughtful letter in response. While I do not agree with his position, I very much <br /> appreciate his taking the time to write back. <br /> I do not intend to discuss the merits of the Clifto's project now, except to point <br /> out that everyone agrees that the Clifto's project will very much worsen an <br /> already horrible traffic situation, unless the state gets the expansion of Queen's <br /> Highway finished on or ahead of schedule. Anyone counting on any government <br /> agency completing a project on time is taking a very foolish risk. The road I live <br /> on was scheduled to be resurfaced before the end of 2003; we now hope that <br /> some work may possibly begin before the end of this year. Anyone counting on <br /> the County General Plan being completed in an expeditious fashion has now been <br /> waiting more than four years. So to base a decision on the state's timely <br /> completion of its project is, in my view, not wise. <br /> I also understand the desire to codify concurrence of infrastructure <br /> improvements in ordinance, rather than impose it case by case. But given the <br /> glacial pace at which major legislative initiatives move, by the time a concurrency <br /> ordinance is approved it will be moot, as Puna, Hamakua, and Ka'u join Kona and <br /> Kohala in permanent gridlock. <br /> But I think there is another sort of issue in play here. What is the role of an <br /> elected official? Is it not to represent the needs and desires of the electorate? <br /> This is supposed to be, in Lincoln's famous phrase, a government of the people, <br /> by the people, and for the people. When the desires of the public have been made <br /> known so vocally, so persistently, and over such a long period of time, what <br /> <br /> justification is there for dismissing their concerns? The decision to approve <br /> Clifto's is neither of, by, or for the people whom you are supposed to represent. <br /> ~~esta~. Rlo. , <br /> Rif. Tie <br /> Rif. ~ 1 ~ ~ <br /> <br />