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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CHARTER 2019-04-02 (2018-2020) - Public HearingHawaii County Charter Commission Public Hearing Honoka`a Complex, Multi -Purpose Room 45-541 Akia (Lehua) Street Honoka`a, Hawai`i April 2, 2019 CALL TO The public hearing of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission was called to ORDER: order at 5:01 p.m., in Honoka`a 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 Ms. Sarah H. Rice, Commissioner Ms. Bobby Jean Leithead Todd, Commissioner Absent: Also Present: Mr. Kevin D. Hopkins, Commissioner Mr. Christopher John Imiloa Roehrig, Commissioner Ms. Marcia A. K. Saquing, Commissioner Ms. Donna Mae Springer, Commissioner 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 Hamakua. I would ask you, I would ask all of us to please silence our coms devices. I am pretty sure I did that. I am convening this hearing at 5:01 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019. This hearing will be recorded for the purpose of developing minutes that will be available on the Commission's website which is why I am speaking into a microphone but there are no speakers. 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. 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 with our Vice -Chair, Commissioner Zelko-Schlueter. Hawai`i County Charter Commission —Public Hearing April 2, 2019 MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Good evening. Jennifer Zelko-Schlueter from the Hilo district. MS. TODD: Good evening. Bobby Leithead-Todd from district two in Hilo. MS. RICE: Sally Rice, Kona. MR. HAMANO: Paul Hamano, Hilo. MS. GALIMBA: Michelle Galimba from Ka'u. MR. BERGIN: Billy Bergin from Waimea (inaudible). CHR. ADAMS: And I am Doug Adams from Hilo. So copies of the protocols for this public hearing are available at the registration table or the area right there as you walk in. To highlight just a few. We ask that you register to testify at the registration table, or the area there. 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 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 Page 2 Hawai`i County Charter Commission —Public Hearing April 2, 2019 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC Corporation Counsel, Fire Chief, and Public Work's Director. Information on these 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. This is our fourth Public Hearing of the six. 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 on these Commissions will then be developed... on these amendments will then be developed by the Commission for submission to County voters for decision on the November 3rd, 2020 election ballot. At this time do we have any testifiers? Any speakers, anybody signed up? Okay. Well, if we have no speakers then I would thank you all for coming, because this is meant for us to listen to you, not for us to talk to you, so if we have no speakers... okay. CHR. ADAMS: Yes, if you would please sign in we will wait. Yup, that would be great. Great and if you go here and use the mic, that way it makes it into the minutes as well. Great. Thank you. Please provide your name, any organization, and the area that you are speaking to. ROB CULBERTSON: Proposal No. CA -9 in support. MR. CULBERTSON: Thank you Commissioners. My name is Rob Culbertson. I live Pa'auilo. I am a member of several organizations. I am not representing anybody in that capacity per say. I did want to speak to the PONC fund, so called, and I guess CA -9 is one item that I support. And as I understand it, the importance here is to be able to get somebody within the... and it may relate maybe you can help me out, to the other item, CA -18, to get somebody in the Department of Finance with the primary function being to administer that fund. Also would like to be able to use that fund to empower and finance people who... and, or non -profits that may be able to work the maintenance aspects of the lands in some capacity. Can you... I don't see that listed here, but that is my concern. Page 3 Hawai`i County Charter Commission —Public Hearing April 2, 2019 Is that under the... can you advise me if that is all contained within the CA -9 item? I haven't had a chance to read that. CHR. ADAMS: The CA -9 and the CA -18 actually encompass largely what you were addressing. MR. CULBERTSON: Okay fine. I think that is the popular effort that I am networking around the island with people who want that fund to be strong and to be used as it is intended. Just parenthetically, you know I appreciate you guys coming out today because otherwise there is a tendency to become cynical about this process. This was driven from the grassroots and at least voted on twice over several years and yet the effort to sort of manipulate if you will, either overtly or covertly behind the scenes the resource and how you know, it is going to be administered is troubling to some of us. So that is a perception, so you being here tonight, obviously going around the island and getting a read directly from the people who have worked on this and want the intent and integrity to be followed through, that is the message I am here to restate and I join with other folks. That is all I have to say. CHR. ADAMS: Great. Thank you very much. Francine Roby. FRANCINE ROBY: Proposal No. CA -17, commenting. MS. ROBY: (Inaudible) area, I wanted to speak to the CA -17 one, Establishing... Establishes New Disaster and Emergency Fund. I have attempted in my own area to get a neighborhood watch going and I got myself trained with the County CERT program (Community Emergency Response Team) and as best as I could tell, I was really the only person from my area in Honoka`a and it is kind of shocking to me that the whole town of Honoka`a doesn't even have a CERT team and I have been kind of working with a group that is in Pa'auilo and mauka of (inaudible) to learn you know, how they have come to develop a group of people who go around and assess what their capacity is to respond to situations and you know they are a model. They are a great model, but we have got nobody up in this... I mean there is a much larger group of people here. So I think that any additional support that the County can give for repairs, for cleanup, for response, for infrastructure, for communication systems, radios, you know, repeaters, that kind of thing is critical because as we all know you know, one tree goes down and everybody who thinks that their family is going to come rescue them, well that is out the window. And we have seen a whole lot more you know, flooding that has been happening these substantial rains that have come day after day, after day, when the grounds can't even dry out and from what we know from the scientists at U.H. (University of Hawai`i) Hilo and everywhere, you know, we are expecting climate to continue to change and there to be increasing erratic heavier storms. We have had some very substantial storms that we barely escaped you know the last few years during hurricane season and we just can't overlook this stuff. We know the roads you know is a whole separate category of people taking care of Page 4 Hawai`i County Charter Commission —Public Hearing April 2, 2019 the roads, but the response specifically to disaster and emergency fund really I think needs to be amped up. The County Civil Defense Team was so overtaxed with the lava response here. I just don't think they could get around to do anything else and the people that are involved I work with Bobbi (inaudible) with neighborhood watch and she is wonderful but she is one person and we have got a lot of territory and we just you know, without improving the communication and outreach we have to potential community members that are on the CERT teams, the citizens are just... can't even be tapped to come into this relationship to help bolster, so if the County's funds can help with some of that outreach, infrastructure, administrative network that is now trying to be handled by volunteers and can't be, then we might be able to be a little further ahead with what we know is going to be more and more severe weather and crumbling infrastructure -bridges, you know, all these little go across bridges and we have got more people moving in with a giant you know, cargo vehicle that is coming across these little bridges and these things are not going to hold up, so I really support you, you know, creating this slight additional taxation that might be able to build up these funds. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: (inaudible) PETE SPARKS: Commenting on County maps of Ahualoa. MR. SPARKS: My name is Pete Sparks. I am Francine's neighbor and all I really have to say at this point is that if there is money available for this, some of it may be used to update the County maps. I live in Ahualoa. I have hiked all through there. The County maps are wrong. I live on a paper road. It stops above my house. I maintain it myself. During the recent Zika outbreak a year or two ago there were maps posted on the interne. I saw these things with my own eyes, that showed how we were attacking the Zika and where the mosquitoes were and on those maps it shows you could drive with a regular sedan right up past my house through the guava thicket across Kuilei Gulch, take a left at Puaono Road, drive all the way through Ahualoa to Kalehua Drive. You cannot do this. You cannot do it in a bulldozer. Kuilei Gulch is 30 feet deep. Nienie Gulch, I have been down in the bottom and out the other side, is like 90 feet deep and the map show this is possible. If we are ever... it is one thing to be chasing mosquitoes with maps that are incorrect, but if we are trying to fight a big fire or do some kind of evacuation because a tanker truck full of chlorine gas fell over on the highway, we are in big trouble. Thank you very much. Page 5 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -- Public Hearing April 2, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Thank you sir. It appears we have no more speakers. 1 would like to thank all the testifiers for their statements, the Commissioners for your attention, and the staff for your efforts in helping us convene this hearing. Our next public hearing will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, April 3rd, at 5:00 p.m. at the West Hawai`i Civic Center, Kona Council Chambers, 75-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, in Kona. Just so I understand, are we video, VTC (Video Teleconferencing) that also from the Hilo chambers? Right, so that... it is also available for folks that would like to go to the Hilo County Council Chambers. They will be able to review it from there. I would ask all to please drive safely and thank you all for coming. Commission Approval: April 25, 2019 Mr. ss Shipman Adams, Chair 2018-2020 Hawai`i County Charter Commission Page 6