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HomeMy WebLinkAboutREP PC 121 06/02/1998 1996-1998 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PLANNING DATE: June 2, 1998 Re: C-864%Bill No. 255 PLACE: Councilroom TIME: 1:37 p.m. Chair and Members Hawaii County Council Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Your Committee on Planning, to which was referred Bill No. 255, transmitted by Council Member Joe Reynolds per Communication No. 864, dated May 20, 1998, relating to the Planning Department, reports as follows: Bill No. 255 amends the Hawaii County Charter (1991) relating to the powers of the County by amending Article V, Chapter 4. Section 5-4.1 as follows: Section 5-4.1 Organization. There shall be a planning department consisting of a planning director, planning commission(s) and the necessary staff. The council by ordinance may create such plannine commissions within the County, assien them such powers and duties as aze appropriate and demazcate the geographical boundaries of such entities. Mr. Reynolds explained that we currently have a Planning Commission consisting of people who do not live in the "azea where they aze making major decisions" and "the next best thing to the people of West Hawaii in having their own government would be to at least have this kind of an opportunity where the people on the Planning Commission came from that area." Virginia Goldstein mentioned that Maui County has three commissions, one for each island, and she is awaze of the difficulty in running and monitoring the commissions. She also mentioned that the Planning Commission will discuss this issue at their June 19, 1998 meeting, because some of the commissioners want to comment on this proposed amendment. A committee member mentioned that there are a lot of well organized and educated community associations out there who aze taking an active role in government these days. These organizations provide feedback to the councilmembers who then know the needs of the individual communities. Your Committee also noted that there aze some technical concerns regazding this proposed amendment in relation to other sections of the Charter. If there are more planning commissions, as proposed in this bill, reference to the additional commissions must be made in the subsequent sections of the charter, as in Section 5-4.3, etc. Also additional language would have to be included to determine which geographical azeas the commissions aze representing. PC Report 121 Your Committee had sincere concerns about increasing the number of commissions, because that would mean we would need more volunteers to serve on the commissions. In this respect, your Committee felt that there should not be more than one planning commission because the Mayor is having a difficult time recruiting people to serve on the existing commissions. A motion asking Your Committee on Planning to approve Bill No. 255 failed by the vote reflected below. Your Committee recommends that Bill No. 253 be filed. bh AYES NOES A&E EX Respectfully submitted LE~TFIEAD-T000 X COMMITTEE N P NNING TYLEA X C~K~~i~IJ'~~ CHUNG X , AEYNOLUS x Y JEAN LEITHEAD-TODD, CHAIR SANTANGELO sMiTH x PC REPORT NO. 121 YAGONG X ARAKAKI E.O.M. x ADOPTED: UP~ ~ {~h,