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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CHARTER 2019-04-01 (2018-2020) - Public HearingHawaii County Charter Commission Public Hearing Pahoa Community Center 15-3022 Kauhale Street Pahoa, Hawai`i April 1, 2019 CALL TO The public hearing of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission was called to ORDER: order at 5:06 p.m., in Pahoa by Mr. Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair Ms. Jennifer Zelko-Schlueter, Vice Chair Mr. William Carthage Bergin, Commissioner Ms. Michelle Galimba, Commissioner Mr. Paul K. Hamano, Commissioner Mr. Kevin D. Hopkins, Commissioner Ms. Sarah H. Rice, Commissioner Ms. Marcia A. K. Saquing, Commissioner Ms. Bobby Jean Leithead Todd, Commissioner Absent: Mr. Christopher John Imiloa Roehrig, Commissioner Ms. Donna Mae Springer, Commissioner Also Present: Mr. J Yoshimoto, Commission Attorney Mr. Jon Henricks, Commission Analyst Ms. Shannon Magnuson, Commission Secretary CHR. ADAMS: Welcome to the Hawai`i County Charter Commission's Public Hearing in Puna. Can you hear me? I am talking directly into the... alright, let's turn the fans off a little bit. Welcome to the Hawai`i County Charter Commission's Public Hearing in Puna. I would ask you to please silence your coms devices. I am convening this hearing at 5:06 p.m. on Monday, April 1st, 2019. This will be my only reference to April 1st as an April fool's day, but everything else from here on out will be serious. This hearing will be recorded for the purpose of developing minutes that will be available on the Commission's website. The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony from the public regarding the work of the Charter Commission to include proposed Charter Amendments that have achieved first reading status. Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 1, 2019 At this time I would ask our Commissioners to briefly introduce themselves to include identifying the district they have been appointed from, and I will start over with Dr. Bergin. MR. BERGIN: My name is Billy Bergin and I live in the 9th district in Waimea. MS. GALIMBA: Aloha I am Michelle Galimba and I am from Ka`u. MR. HAMANO: I am Paul Hamano. I am from Hilo. MR. HOPKINS: Kevin Hopkins from Hilo. MS. RICE: Sally Rice from Kona. MS. TODD: Bobby Leithead-Todd from district two. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Jen Zelko from Hilo. CHR. ADAMS: And I am Doug Adams also from Hilo. We are expecting Marcie Saquing from Hilo. She is on her way. She had just flown in and so, she is driving as quickly within the speed limits that she can. Copies of the protocols for this public hearing are available at the registration table. To highlight just a few. Please register to testify at the registration table and I have received some of those registrations so I appreciate that. I will call speakers to the table. As you prepare to speak, please state your name, any organization you are speaking for, and the relevant Charter section or proposed amendment you are addressing. Speakers will have up to a total of six minutes for their testimony. Speakers may testify once during this public hearing. To avoid the potential of Sunshine Law violations and to emphasize the purpose of this hearing, Commissioners shall refrain from making comments or asking questions of testifiers during their statements. I would ask all of us to please maintain an appropriate level of decorum during the hearing. We are all looking forward to providing an equal opportunity for all testifiers to make their statements. Finally, to provide some context for this hearing, allow me to briefly address the Commission's efforts to date and what follows. First, this is the fifth Charter Commission since the County Charter became effective 50 years ago. The Commissioners, all of whom are County residents and none of whom are elected officials by statute, were appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Council at the end of June, 2018 and have met at least once a month since July to accomplish our mission as the Charter outlines it. To study and review the operation of the government of the County under the Charter. We have done that by receiving Page 2 Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 1, 2019 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC information from County departments, the Mayor, and the Council, as well as receiving over 500 communications from the public and County. Second, since October, we have considered 27 different proposed Charter Amendments to include changing the structure of terms for Council members, refining the process by which the Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources Preservation mission is accomplished, adding disciplining options for the Council, the Fire Commission, and the Police Commission, establishing a Disaster and Emergency Fund, and modifying minimum qualifications for Corporation Counsel, Fire Chief, and Public Work's Director. Information on these and all the other proposals is available on the Commission website, the link to which can be found on the County's homepage. Third, we are convening six public hearings, one in each geographic district as identified in the County Charter. Following these hearings, we have until the end of June to submit to the County Council a report on our activities, findings, and recommendations together with a draft of the Proposed Charter Amendments. The Council has 30 days to return the proposals with any alternatives to the Commission, after which within a month, the Commission shall provide its final draft of proposed amendments to the County Clerk. Ballot language will then be developed by the Commission for submission to County voters for decision on the November 3rd, 2020 election ballot. CHR. ADAMS: At this time, I would like to take our first speaker. I would ask Rene' Siracusa and also Jon Onstaut to please come to the table. MR. OLSEN: Olsen. CHR. ADAMS: Jon? MR. OLSEN: Yup. CHR. ADAMS: Yeah, please come to the table as well. Thank you. I would ask you to provide your name, any organization you are representing, and the Charter provision or proposed amendments... RENE' SIRACUSA: Proposal No. CA -5, CA9, and CA -17 commenting and Proposal No. CA -8 in opposition. MS. SIRACUSA: I am sorry if woo hoo, Page 3 Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 1, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: That you are speaking to. MS. SIRACUSA: If you don't speak into the mic, I can't hear what you are... CHR. ADAMS: Thanks. MS. SIRACUSA: telling me. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you Rene'. I am speaking into the mic. You can see I am speaking into the mic. MS. SIRACUSA: Okay, well before you were there and the mic was there. CHR. ADAMS: You have six minutes. MS. SIRACUSA: Alright. My name is Rene' Siracusa. I live in the Pahoa area. I went online to the website yesterday and there was nothing on there after number 15, so all of these other items here were not available to the public. I just want you to know that. You have got a little notice issue here. I actually, I had comments about a whole lot of your proposals, but I will just limit it to some of them. Number five relating to changing the name, I don't understand why we should change the name unless we are also going to change the function because the name of government agencies and departments and positions should accurately reflect their functions, duties, and responsibilities. So if you are going to take away the word "legislative" then perhaps you will also be taking away that part of the auditor's function that looks at what the State legislature passes and how it might have to relate to County procedures like when the legislature mandates that the Counties do something or other. If there is no reason, if those functions aren't changing then I really see no need to change the name. You are... I don't see any place where you are making an argument in favor of any of these proposals, so it makes it a little bit difficult to address them if I don't know the reasoning of this Commission okay? I would like to talk about the terms for Council members. Previous attempts to return to four-year terms have been rejected at the ballot box. The reason is that the voting public wants to make sure that if they erred in their choice they will not be stuck with it for four whole years. An elected official can do a lot of damage to a system in even two years. Witness the current President of the United States. We have had Council persons who are alcoholics, who threw temper tantrums, and objects during Council meetings, who had a high absentee rate and failed to attend most Community functions, and who refused to represent their constituents by voting. I am ashamed to say that these examples were all from Puna. Fortunately we were not stuck with them for four-year terms. I hear the argument that two-year Page 4 Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 1, 2019 terms force elected officials to spend too much time in fundraising and campaigning to the neglect of the performance of their duties. That may be true in some cases, but there is another and better solution to that and that is publically funded elections. It is too bad that this Commission missed a great opportunity to deal with that possible alternative as a solution. Moving on to number nine relating to the PONC fund and the maintenance fund for the public access. I served on the PONC and I totally support the change because we discovered over the course of my tenure that Parks and Rec (Recreation) was not the correct venue to do the oversight. They had neither the will, the interest, the expertise, or the staffing. Finance did. And so, but if we move it over to Finance, of course Finance needs the staff in order to adequately do their oversight job. The wording is unclear. Right now it just says "staff" and that can be misconstrued. I believe you should change the wording to "just one dedicated staff position" to make it really clear so no one goes ahead and hires ten people to do the job of one and uses all the money in the fund just in payroll and benefits. It is always best to make things really clear. That is part of transparency. I am a big fan of transparency. Relating to the establishing the disaster and the emergency fund. There is no question that the County should not be caught short in the future and that we should be prepared. The proposed fund will limit itself to covering the expenses of the County departments and agencies in dealing with emergency situations, but there is a big omission here. The impacted residents. The fund will use one percent of our tax dollars but there is no provision for using any of it to help the taxpayers who may have no other remedy. I will support this as a first step in establishing a fund but I really feel strongly that it needs to do much more than what is proposed. You will need a Chapter two. Please don't forget the funders of this fund who are the taxpayers who may need to access that fund. And finally, there is an issue that you guys completely missed. The Commission has missed an opportunity to address the failure of this and previous Administrations to fill all Boards and Commissions. Some like the Arborist Advisory Committee have not been constituted for more than 10 years. A violation of State law. Administration should be required to fill all Boards and Commissions within six months, so that the work of government can proceed. Perhaps we need a default rule such as if the Mayor fails to act to fill any Board or Commission within six month of taking office, then the respective Council person may fill the position so that his or her district is represented. And so that the Board or Commission may begin to meet. At present, until all nine slots are filled, the Board or Commission will not be allowed to meet, even if it has quorum, which is the five members. So the Administration then can play political games with this issue and support its own agenda if for example a particular Administration doesn't care for the work of a particular Board or Commission and a... Page 5 Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 1, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Thanks. If you could summarize. If you would summarize. MS. SIRACUSA: So if you still have time please look into that matter and search for a solution. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Great. Thank you so much. Mr. Olsen. Ms.... Diga Kern? Yes, sir. Go ahead sir. If you could use the microphone please. JON OLSEN: Proposal No. CA -8 and CA -17 commenting, Proposal No. CA -9 in support, and Proposal No. CA -12 in opposition. MR. OLSEN: Thank you. CA -8 composition term of Council members. I think two years is appropriate. There is more than a few of us I think that wish that the presidency was a two-year term, but anyway that gives the people and they should continue to run. They should be running 24/7. That should be true of all politicians. Getting feedback from the people who voted them in. The staff issue for the PONC fund, yes. There should be a staff position. At least one as a minimum. As for the discipline of Council members, that should be left to the voters as it is now. If you are unhappy with your Council person, you can start a recall petition and remove them. I don't think... if you think this through slowly, the idea that the Council can find a member who they don't particularly agree with and come to a majority to have them removed irrespective of what the voters in their district think of them, is a really bad idea. Let's see, where did I leave off? I am sorry that was CA -12, Discipline of Council Members. As for CA -17, the Establishment of a Disaster and Emergency Fund, I have to admit that I always thought that there was one. And in fact when Harry was the Civil Defense Administrator, I know that he did emergency planning. And he did disaster planning prior to the eruptive cycle Kalapana. And he relied on that document to see him through on that, and so, if that has ceased to be the methodology then we need to get back to it. In Civil Defense planning there is a thing called a table top. The Director of Civil Defense picks a disaster, calls someone relevant from each agency, questions them, sends them back to their agency to investigate how they would respond. And apparently this is not happened for a very, very long time. I was surprised to find out. I live out in Leilani Estates, or did... and the people that came to help did the best they can, they could, but it was clearly not working from a plan. They were shooting from the hip. There is a thing and it may be interesting for you to find out. There is a thing called an After Action Report which I understand has been circulated up to the Mayor. You might want to get a copy and look at it. I Page 6 Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 1, 2019 certainly want to see it. And we can have a look to see how this fund could be managed going forward. I think I will leave it at that. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Ann Kobsa, if you could please come forward. Great. Go ahead sir. DIGA KERN: Proposal No. CA -9 and CA -18 in support. MR KERN: My name is Diga Kern and I am going to address the PONC fund in general so maybe just some guiding thoughts about that and then specifically about CA -9 and CA -18. For the past 25 years I have worked in regenerative agriculture and alternative children's education ecosystem restoration in Puna. And I voted for the original PONC proposal in 2006 and in 2010, and in 2012. I serve my local community (inaudible) as a Board member and I volunteer time regularly caring for the forests and coastal lands of our region. So regarding the PONC program, I really maintain that the strongest reason for maintaining the original spirit of the program is the 63% of voters again and again over the course of eight years basically committed ourselves to these protections. Apparently Big Island voters feel strongly that the natural beauty of our island should be protected and are willing to commit a full two percent of our property taxes toward this cause, so I ask that you seriously and honestly honor this commitment. Also in terms of amendments that may be produced in the coming months, so what is that spirit? Well, three elements I would say or attributes, one, that the lands are held in perpetuity, this is the only way that we citizens can meaningfully look our children in the eyes and say we are protecting the land for use by future generations, and this is the only way that we will continue to seek matching funds for the purchase of these properties, which I see as a powerful mechanism in which tax dollars can be used as leverage for conservation action. Second, that no less than two percent of property taxes be maintained as a baseline funding amount for the program, and three, that the fund cannot be accessed for any use other than expenses directly related to purchase and maintenance of targeted lands. So I ask that you not allow any proposed amendments which violate this spirit, to advance beyond a first reading of this body. And regarding this... oh, additionally, you are currently considering two amendments which strengthen and enhance this spirit of the program. So CA -18, I think is really excellent. It will lubricate the ability of public and NGO's (Non -Governmental Organizations) to get boots on the ground caring for PONC acquisitions. I live in an area where partnerships among a half dozen community 501(c)(3)'s have managed volunteer networks doing invasive species control and restoration work in the forest Page 7 Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 1, 2019 reserves and the coral reefs, and these conservation volunteers already mostly in lower income brackets, somehow find the time to do this work because we love the land. So like similar groups in other areas, we are always appreciative of ways in which our work can find some fiscal support. Especially from a fund that is earmarked for such use and is currently flush. CA -9 as originally proposed, maintains the spirit of the program by specifying that a single salaried position be created to administer the program. This specificity is necessary because it is clear that the scope of the job requires no more than one person. So this amendment needs to be returned to its original language or be modified again to have that one staff member specificity. Just to wrap up, as to the big picture of why it is imperative to protect our heritage and wild lands. We are blessed with a corner of the world which still maintains substantial natural beauty. There is an inherent pricelessness to this which indigenous people and certainly our Native Hawaiian predecessors knew intrinsically. Wild lands are a repository of biological diversity. They stabilize the weather and bring rains, and they are a precious setting for ecology education. As the Big Island makes its way toward declared renewable energy and food self- sufficiency goals, we will continue to rely upon the visitor industry as part of our economy. As fossil fuels become more scarce, prohibitive air travel pricing will reduce the mass tourism sector while increasing the luxury and ecotourism sectors. Already far seeing jurisdictions like the State of Florida, the countries of Palau, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Botswana, and others, have implemented strict policies protecting the use of their territorial natural beauty resources specialty income and a more place sensitive visitor demography are already flowing to such destinations. By contrast other places like the Greek island of Rhodes and so many parts of the Asian pacific have been devastated by the encroachment of cheap short-term mass tourism. Let us not choose that route. Also, as we learn to limit the extent of greenhouse gas emissions and to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it should be noted that protecting forests keeps carbon in the ground and discourages fossil fuel intensive activities like development. For instance one 157 acre forest on the PONC priority list Wai`ele sequesters over 15,000 metric tons of carbon every year. We can join with the 1.4 million students worldwide who marched last month for climate justice and a livable future by keeping and defending this wonderful Hawai`i program of which we all should be justifiably proud, the 2% Land Fund so I give to you guys to take care of that. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you very much. If I could ask Deborah Ward to please come to the table. Ma'am please. ANN KOBSA: Proposal No. CA9 and CA -18 in support. Page 8 Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 1, 2019 MS. KOBSA: Aloha. Mahalo to all of you for serving on this Commission and for coming to hear from us in Pahoa. Appreciate it, and I am also here to speak for... toward PONC. I have been involved in the PONC process by nominating properties and then also applying for stewardship grants and I just really value the program. It is my favorite part of County government and I am fully supportive of a, one additional staff position for PONC. It has been great having Maxine to deal with. She is super helpful and having a dedicated person to help with the nomination process and also the application for stewardship funding would be really useful. And then I also support the transfer from the Parks and Rec to the Department of Finance for the acquisition process because that would just streamline things so much and be really helpful. And just also want to reinforce what Diga said about just in general, encouraging you to give full support to PONC in whatever way you can over the process. Mahalo. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you very much. If I could ask Steve Sparks please to come up to the table. Ms. Ward. DEBORAH WARD: Proposal No. CA -9, CA -17, and CA -18 in support and Proposal No. CA -27 in opposition. MS. WARD: Aloha, you have heard from me many times and I will try to be brief but I wanted to thank you all very, very much for showing up tonight because I was expecting one or two Commissioners and it is amazing that you all came, so thank you very much. I know you have a hard week next week and I appreciate the time the time that you have spent. I will note that originally many of us put out the word that it was going to be at six o'clock and I know that at Kapa`au several people showed up that missed being able to testify because it was changed back to five at Commissioner Roehrig's request, so I am glad that there are people here tonight and thank you for coming. Of course I want to reiterate our support for the CA -9 and adding staff to the... a single staff member of the Finance Department to the PONC fund in order to better leverage other funds so that we are not just spending County money and taxpayer money from the 2% but also that we are bringing in Fish and Wildlife Service, Legacy Lands of the State, Trust for Public Lands, and other organizations that are willing to contribute in order to help us save and acquire pieces of new land so that we can keep what we have on the Big Island as the valuable resource that we have that is open space because you see what's happened on Maui and on Kaua`i. It is highly gentrified and very, very gated and we are trying to avoid that here. We want to make people available that land available so that people can have the opportunity to visit and enjoy it. On CA -18, I wanted to point out that currently the Parks and Rec Department is you know administering the maintenance fund. We fully support having it Page 9 Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 1, 2019 transferred to the Department of Finance. I wanted to point out that for example, one PONC organization, I mean one PONC non-profit aid organization is you know, required the need of... required the use of a chipper which PONC funds purchased and Department of Parks and Recreation, sorry I must be really nervous tonight... denied that organization the opportunity to use the chipper because they said it was being used by another PONC activity, but we have never been able to figure out what other PONC activity, so I am wondering whether it is just being used for Parks and Rec or why a non-profit would be denied the use of a chipper that was purchased by PONC. So, I encourage you to put the PONC administration under the Department of Finance and also the ability if it is written into the business plan and into the proposal of the non-profit, to be able to pay someone to do specific work that that work be able to be paid for and if it happens to be a member of that non-profit, but it is written in and approved and there is initial oversight and final oversight. I see no reason why we shouldn't be paying for some of those services. On CA -17, I strongly recommend that you do the Disaster and Emergency Fund. I think it makes a lot of sense. We have all been through a lot this last year and obviously we have you know, raided the PONC before and built such things as the park that is supposed to be used as a soccer field and a baseball field and so forth. It is not even being used. It was never functional. It never probably will be and raiding the PONC fund to put in 75 parking spaces on the Mauna Kea County Park, you know and building a non-functional park that isn't even going to be used in Hilo, didn't serve us well. We want to be able to use the PONC to acquire land that needs to be protected. And finally, on CA -27, sorry I didn't write any of this out, but on CA -27 acquisitions of easements is already being used when it is necessary but the acquisition of the easement is not the same as acquiring the parcel and so this emphasis on the acquisition of easements may not actually serve the PONC situation very well. And to speak to something that Ms. Siracusa mentioned with regard to Mayors filling positions, the Puna rep who was Ms. Siracusa termed out last year and that position here it is April... that position has not been filled. I applied for that position and several other people did, but we have never even been contacted by the Mayor's office, so I also concur with her, that filling those kinds of positions is important because Puna is not represented at this point and there are people willing to fill those positions that aren't even being looked at or discussed, so I highly recommend that you give that some thought and thank you so much for your time and for coming tonight. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Mr. Sparks. STEVE SPARKS: Proposal No. CA -9, CA22, and CA -27 commenting and Proposal No. CA -8 in opposition. Page 10 Hawai`i County Charter Commission — Public Hearing April 1, 2019 MR. SPARKS: Thank you. Hello, thanks for showing up in Puna tonight. Yeah, I came especially to not support but oppose, adamantly oppose CA -8. I think we have Council people who are elected every two years and that gives us a little bit of control as to what they are doing and what they... where they are going and that they have to run for election is not that big of a hardship. I have run... I have done two elections now and it is not a hard, you know... it is just part of the job right and I think that if we change it to four years we will have the quality of our Council people will diminish. The job they do will diminish. The thought process that they can do a better job because they are there longer is not right. It is not real. It doesn't take that much effort to run for an election especially if you are an incumbent. And yeah, I also support the CA -2, CA -4, CA -5, CA -6, I strongly support CA -9, and CA -17, CA -22, and CA -27. Okay? Thank you. That's all. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Are there any other testifiers? It would appear that we have no more speakers. I would like to thank all the testifiers for their statements, the Commissioners for your attention, and the staff for their efforts in helping us convene this hearing. Our next public hearing will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, April 2nd, at 5:00 p.m. at the Honoka`a Complex, 45-541 Akia Street, in Honoka`a, district of Hamakua. I would ask you all to please drive safely and thank you for coining. Commission Approval: April 25, 2019 Mr. 1 ou;,i� .. Shipman Adams, Chair 201: 0 Hawai`i County Charter Commission Page 11