HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0604.028 1996-1998 Friday, August 28, 1998
Aloha Council members.
My name is Heidi McLoud, and I am a resident of Ahualoa. I am here today to request
your approval of Councilman Yagong's Resolution No. 309-98, and your rejection of
Mayor Yamashiro's Resolution No. 267-98. This request is based on the following:
I . As public officials, you, The County Council, have a fiduciary relationship with the
citizens of the County of Hawaii, and were elected solely to represent them. You were not
elected to act independently without cause or concern of the public's position and sentiment, and
you were certainly not elected to blindly support the wishes of the Mayor. As such, if the
majority of persons that you heaz from today inform you that they do not want the County land to
be given to Bishop Estate in a "land exchange", then it is your duty and obligation to ensure that
the County land remains in public hands.
2. Paragraph 2 on Page 2 of Resolution No. 309-98 states the Bishop Estate has indicated
that the addition of the 4,400 acres is not essential to the progress of its timber operations with
Prudential Timber. If this statement is accurate, and I assume it is because it is within Councilman
Yagong's Resolution, then why offer Bishop Estate more land if they don't appear to want it or
need it. The people of Hamakua are here before you today asking for the land to remain in public
hands so that it can be made available to them for a multitude of uses, including diversified
agriculture, organic farming, ecotourism, and ranching. If you offer the land to the people of
Hamakua I am sure it will be used in ways that the local communities will prosper and that the
rest of the County will view as worthy and just.
3. Mayor Yamashiro states that we, the people of Hamala:a, don't have any interest or
resources in the land, and because of that the land should be swapped for Bishop Estate land in
Hilo, Kona, and Puna. If we have no interest then why aze all of us here today, and why were all
of us here last October to protest the Oji deal. Personally, I have interest in the land as a source of
communal unity and strength, and if you take the land away you further handicap the people you
aze here to represent. If the County would make leasing public lands more user friendly and less
bureaucratic and less restrictive then the mayor would see that there are many people here who
want land and that the County actually does not have enough land for everyone. As the people
stated clearly last October, there is a great deal of interest in public lands in Hamakua, and, in
response, I ask you to keep public lands in public hands.
Based on these reasons, I request that Resolution No. 309-98 be approved by the County
Council.
Thank you.
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