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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CHARTER 2019-05-10 (2018-2020)Hawaii County Charter Commission 11th Session West Hawai`i Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i May 10, 2019 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission was called to ORDER: order at 1:31 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Mr. Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair Ms. Jennifer Zelko-Schlueter, Vice Chair Ms. Michelle Galimba, Commissioner Mr. Kevin D. Hopkins, Commissioner Ms. Sarah H. Rice, Commissioner Mr. Christopher John Imiloa Roehrig, Commissioner Ms. Marcia A. K. Saquing, Commissioner Ms. Donna Mae Springer, Commissioner Ms. Bobby Jean Leithead Todd, Commissioner Absent: Mr. William Carthage Bergin, Commissioner Mr. Paul K. Hamano, Commissioner Also Present: Mr. J Yoshimoto, Commission Attorney Mr. Jon Henricks, Commission Analyst Ms. Shannon Magnuson, Commission Secretary Ms. Renee Kaleimamahu, Council Services Assistant I (Hilo Courtesy Site) CHR. ADAMS: Welcome to the 10th... the llth session of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission for 2018-2020. It is May 10th and it is 1:31 p.m. We have both Commissioners both here in Kona and in Hilo. I would ask all who are present to... both in, in both of those locations to please silence your communications devices and let me call the meeting to order. I would ask Mr. Henricks to please call the roll. Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Bergin, Ms. Galimba (present), Mr. Hamano, Mr. Hopkins (here), Ms. Leithead-Todd (present), Ms. Rice (here), Mr. Roehrig (here), Ms. Saquing (here), Ms. Springer (here), Ms. Zelko-Schlueter (present), Chair Adams (here). Chair Adams you have nine members present. The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. I understand that Commissioners Bergin and Hamano are excused. I understand that we have a testifier in Hilo. MS. KALEIMAMAHU: Good afternoon Chair, we have one testifier. CHR. ADAMS: I don't see any testifiers here in Kona at the moment, so let us go with the testifier in Hilo. Of course, please identify yourself by name and any organization you may represent, as well as the agenda items that you are speaking to. If it is more than one... one agenda item is three minutes time limit, if it is more than one it is five minutes total. Thank you. DWIGHT VICENTE: Proposal No. CA -29, commenting. MR. VICENTE: Good afternoon. My name is Dwight Vicente. The New Business number two, the County is floating bonds on lands that are not County lands, or under County jurisdiction. If I was to look at the 1898 Joint Resolution, the banana republic of Hawai`i only ceded one million seven hundred fifty - thousand acres of Crown and government lands which did not have contract lease on it. The two million plus acres was leased out for a period of 25 year contract, or I should say term. So those lands are not included. So the one million seven hundred fifty -thousand acres became in 1900, the Territory of Hawai`i, in 1920 the Crown and government lands were rebranded as Hawaiian Home Lands, and then in 1959 the State of Hawai`i by compact was to manage the one million seven hundred fifty -thousand acres of Crown and government lands rebranded as Hawaiian Home Lands. Now there is a separation to where the State and the County, and even the Federal Government has questionable but limited jurisdiction over... only over these lands. The lands that were leased for agriculture is not part of that and should be excluded. But if you look at how they have been doing it, they used the State Land Use Commission to take the agriculture land out of agriculture to urbanize it, HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) is involved, and the County Planning and the Finance Department taxation is involved. Then they are claiming a false jurisdiction over the lease lands that are not included in 1898. Now the other one is the referral for Executive Session, number one, the County Charter states that the whole island of Hawai`i is, which is 4,000 plus acres, not Page 2 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 acres but square miles, is the County of Hawai`i, but that is incorrect. The County of Hawai`i is only the lands... Crown and government lands rebranded as Hawaiian Home Lands. The other lands is not included and should not be included. They are separate and distinct. Just like Korea is divided by the 38 parallel, you have the North and the South and they are divided. You can see how they... the treatment of these two different lands are treated differently but yet they are controlled by the County and the State that is questionable. I think the County Charter should be limited to the Hawaiian Home Lands only and not the other lands. With that I will end with the reservation of the rights of this Kingdom under the Queen's Protest of January 17, 1893 against U.S. Minister Stevens that has yet to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Article 3, Section 2, Clause 2, original but limited jurisdiction. And the other one is the Joint Resolution of 1898 where they ceded the illegally... the banana republic illegally ceded Crown and government lands consisting of one million seven hundred fifty thousand acres to the U.S. and it was incorporated under Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution. And the other one is the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 that never was. King Kalakaua nor did the U.S. President sign. Then you can go all the way back to 1820 where President Monroe appointed John C. Jones as the agent for the U.S. and he was in charge of the missionary family and the U.S. Navy that were sent here. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. I understand that we have a testifier here now in Kona. Ms. Wille. We have... I see the... if you would please identify yourself and then also the agenda items you will be speaking to, and you will have five minutes. MARGARET WILLE: Communication No. 15 and Proposal No. CA -28, CA -29, and CA -30 in support. MS. WILLE: Thank you Chair and Board. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. MS. WILLE: I wanted to just make a general comment and this is sort of Articles I -XVI, in terms of some of the testimony that I have heard, sort of, well I would say sort of threatening that if you don't do certain things that we're as a County going to have to raise all of these taxes and we ought to be very careful what we do here, that it might... how much money it costs. And, you know I just want to say that there are a lot of ways that the Council could raise money in fair ways that they are not doing. There was a consultant hired and I think they were paid three hundred or four hundred thousand. They came out with a number of different ways and what taxes could be raised and another person on the Council and I were on the committee and worked on that sort of coming up with how to implement those and we did implement some, such as increasing how... the way resorts are taxed and the people who are dead... and otherwise, that you really have to be a resident. But some of the... any of the, any of the ones that really Page 3 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 would in my mind take some strength of character, such as eliminating the ag loophole that if you basically have a fence, and you are on ag land, you get a... you are paying $200 instead of how many thousands. So your next door neighbor that has the same thing and is not on ag land isn't, and we could... you should ask the Finance Department what they would guess if that loophole would close. I would guess it would be 30 to 40 million. So... but, when I brought this up it was always "Oh Margaret, you are anti farmer", and there is an easy way to sort of look at it. Whereas you are really trying to provide for farmers and just not have people get through a loophole. There were a lot of other things including... such as having... taxing credit unions. Oh no, we couldn't tax the credit union... non- profit... so I just, you know, there are a lot of ways other than say eliminating the 2% or eliminating things that the people have wanted. So I just want to quickly say that. And you know I support all three of the proposals, CA -28, 29, and 30. CA -28 is allowing that you don't have to have sort of a majority of one party or another. You know it is very difficult to get sort of diverse people, male, female all the different criteria and people who are...want to be on Boards or some of them are told "don't say you are a Democrat because you will never get on it." And our State is a big tent party. There is a Republican wing, it is just not really a real criteria and I think if you even speak to Rose or the people on the Mayor's office you will hear the same thing about those difficulties and this would be good. On 29, and this would basically... saying... adding some real input by the General Plan and the Community Development Plans in terms of Capital Budget items for those areas. And if you read the Community Development Plan Ordinance, you see that it sort of... so the one area it really empowers that group, is to give advice as to Capital Projects. They go... it is really the one layer where people come to that group as like a first layer of government rather than going to the County as the only one. And I am not saying that maybe Mayor Kim is not listening, but I know that the prior Administration made a big point that they didn't have to listen, so I just think memorializing sort of that importance of that voice... you know it doesn't mean you have to do what is there but basically you are taking that into consideration and listening and really weighing where they go, North Kohala, is it Mahukona Park, is it doing this, and all the people come in and then they say "but nobody listens", so really I think that that would be very good and sort of giving... it would really bring the Charter into synch with the way the ordinances are written. And then lastly on the CA -30, on the Code of Ethics, it's, this is just giving it a little enforcement power. I know when a lot of the hearings were going on for Kenoi and I attended a lot of those hearings, it was always "well really there's nothing that we can do. We could recommend to the... we don't really have any power, so no big deal." So, you know it is important that we give them some fines and force of law and I think that just... you ask people to be on it and I know that the Chair here sat through a lot of that. And that you want to make a difference, and you want to make an impact and have people think that there is a reason for doing this. So I just encourage that and thank you very much. Page 4 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Thank you so much. Are there any other testifiers in Hilo? MS. KALEIMAMAHU: Yes Chair, we have one more testifier. CHR. ADAMS: If we could have that testifier please. MS. KALEIMAMAHU: She just walked in, she will be right there. CHR. ADAMS: If you could please identify yourself by name and then the agenda items that you will be speaking to. You will have five minutes... you will have three minutes per agenda item. If it is more than one then it will be five minutes. SHELLEY MAHI-HANAI: Communication No. 3 in support and commenting. MS. MAHI-HANAI: Hi, Aloha, my name is Shelley Mahi-hanai and I am actually a former worker of the County and so my job was to look at Hawaiian issues inside Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resource Commission. So as many well know Kawa is actually one of our worst case scenarios as far as consultation of federal undertakings, under Section 106. So what I am here today to testify about is that in the PONC (Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Commission) ordinance, I was instructed to look at the original Charter base for PONC and then basically to suggest a couple of issues. One is the consideration for a non -purchase agreement with Family Lands and the reason for this is of course I am going to hand one in to be printed up on the website but in this whole area you have what is called native tenant rights and according to the head of the DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources), land department and what not, you need to take this into consideration inside the PONC there is... I have a letter written from Department of Finance stating that we have no policy on native tenants in PONC areas so it would basically be an amendment to the basic Charter for PONC and that it would also require an ad hoc committee, the formation of an ad hoc committee to discuss issues of native tenant rights and also rights of royal patents with land commission awards under HRS (Hawaii Revised Statutes) 172-11, that is a law of 1872 and also the water rights under HRS 174C-101 Native Hawaiian Water Rights. So I wanted to let you know that under civil case 9073 on page four, that the Hoa'aina or native tenant rights are reserved in the parcels. They are specifically reserved at Kawa under Helu Grant 1530, that is the pond, and 993, that is the parcel, and also I have a deposition here from Thomas Okuna, October 7, 1986, basically stating that the title, you cannot warrant the title from the sugarcane plantations and so, there is an issue of what is called life estate, that even if the Hawaiians worked for the sugarcane company, they were supposed to give it back after they were leasing it, and that if it is a royal patent grant, that is forever and it Page 5 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 is supposed to be always available to the family and I wanted to make sure that you understand that the United Nations Human Rights... Dr. Alfred de Zayas, he had sent a letter to the members of the judiciary for the State of Hawai`i and the land court basically talking about the issue of ongoing plundering of Hawaiian's land and that also that the... I will just read it to you, "pointing out historical and ongoing plundering of the Hawaiian's land particularly of those heirs and descendants with land titles that originate from the distribution of lands under the authority of the Hawaiian Kingdom." And so, this particular letter it goes into discussion of violations of Article 17 under Human Rights. That was promoted under... promulgated under Eleanor Roosevelt, and so there are certain issues that the Charter needs to be amended with these particular laws and things to coordinate so far as policy on heirs and native tenants, those who have kuleana rights... also I just wanted to mention that our own County, we have what is called a Kuleana Land Tax Exemption, so on the front you will see the County ordinances and you know the verbiage of that, and then on the back which I will submit for you to see, so on the back of it is actually Kingdom law as to what is a native tenant, what rights do they have, and so according to law, on Crown and government lands and by permission on a Chiefs land... MS. KALEIMAMAHU: You have 30 seconds. MS. MAHI-HANAI: Okay, that they would be allowed to remain on the property with permission and the other thing is down at Kawa in particular, the native tenants need the key. They need the key so they can go in and out and to tend to the native gardens. Some of the things were planted at night so it is culturally incorrect to shut the gate at six o'clock so far as the native tenants or heirs with land locked royal patent grants, kuleana lands, and what not, that are located within Kawa. And so I am just here to say that I am very disappointed in the Corporation Counsel for not following the HRS 172-11. I had a meeting with the Federal Government, Department of Justice, FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations), I was instructed to go there by the Sheriffs concerning the police and the non-compliance to the HRS involving Hawaiian lands, kuleana, and what not, so just to wrap it up, I have some documents and amendments that I think should be considered and we will need an ad hoc committee and of course that will lead to public testimony so... because when I did give a presentation on native tenants Hoa'aina, only one person in the PONC Commission even knew what that was. So if it is court ordered, we need to figure out a policy. Thank you so much. Aloha. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you for your testimony. Is there any other testifiers in Hilo? Page 6 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 MS. KALEIMAMAHU: No Chair. CHR. ADAMS: I don't see any other testifiers here in Kona. APPROVAL OF The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, MINUTES: Approval of Minutes. CHR. ADAMS: Alright, let's move on then to approval of minutes. I would entertain a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes of April 25, 2019. MS. GALIMBA: So moved. CHR. ADAMS: It has been moved by Commissioner Galimba. Is there a second? Seconded by Commissioner Saquing. Are there any corrections or modifications to the regular meeting minutes? I would only note just for the purposes of correction, that on page 17 when we have the reconvene time, currently it says that it was at 1:23, I think that that is a... we were meeting at 9:30 a.m., so it was like in the... that particular time is not accurate, so if we could just check that and fix that. Thanks. Any other? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion, please signify by saying "aye" (aye), any opposed? Motion passes unanimously with Commissioners Bergin and Hamano excused. Vote on Motion Commissioner Galimba moved to approve the minutes of To Approve Minutes: April 25, 2019. Seconded by Commissioner Zelko- (Approved) Schlueter and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Bergin and Hamano — 2 Excused: None. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. CHR. ADAMS: Moving then into Communications, we have Communication No. 15, which is the items, Articles I through XVI of the Hawai`i County Charter, Page 7 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 and then we have Item No. 2 on the Communications, Communication No. 16-8, the updated Table of Charter Sections Affected by Requested Language Changes, Legislative Specialist Leslie Chow which we greatly appreciate the work that she has done here. Any other discussion on that? Okay. UNFINISHED The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of BUSINESS: business, Unfinished Business. CHR. ADAMS: Let's move then on to Unfinished Business, we have Communication No. 3 which is Formation of Ad Hoc Committees. Any discussion with that? Not seeing any, we will move into New Business. NEW BUSINESS: The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, New Business. CHR. ADAMS: Item one is Communication No. 45.2 which transmits Charter Amendment No. 28 for First Reading. I would entertain a motion that would pass Charter Amendment on First Reading. Is there such a motion? MS. GALIMBA: So moved. CHR. ADAMS: Is there a second? (inaudible) CHR. ADAMS: It has been moved by Commissioner Galimba and seconded by Commissioner Rice, that we pass Charter Amendment 28 on First Reading. Discussion? Commissioner Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: So, just let me say that I thank everyone for voting for this last time although I wasn't here and that's a pretty straightforward proposal that is removing language concerning political party on the segment, or sections of the Charter Commission concerning boards and commissions, and also the Charter (inaudible). CHR. ADAMS: If I may, Hilo can you hear? MS. TODD: Yes. Page 8 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Okay. Okay, great. Any other discussion? Seeing no Commissioners identifying that they would like to, all in favor of the motion to pass Charter Amendment 28 on First Reading, please signify by saying "aye" (aye), any opposed? Motion passes unanimously with Commissioners Bergin and Hamano excused. Vote on Motion The motion to pass CA -28 on First Reading was carried by the following To Approve CA -28 roll call vote: (Approved): Ayes: Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioner Bergin and Hamano — 2 Excused: None. CHR. ADAMS: Moving on to Item 2 in New Business, Communication No. 47.1, that Transmits Charter Amendment 29, Draft 2 for First Reading. I would entertain a motion to pass Charter Amendment 29, Draft 2 on First Reading. Is there such a motion? MS. GALIMBA: So moved. CHR. ADAMS: Is there a second? MS. RICE: Second. CHR. ADAMS: It has been moved by Commissioner Galimba and seconded by Commissioner Rice to pass Charter Amendment 29, Draft 2 on First Reading. Discussion? Commissioner Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: So this proposal comes from discussions that I have had with people in the Administration expressing a dissatisfaction with the process of prioritizing funding for CIP (Capital Improvement Projects) projects and dissatisfaction is not abnormal. People generally have you know, things that they are not happy about but I have heard it from a number of different people and especially I have heard it from Administration officials, especially the Planning Department, saying that they would like to see CIP priorities be more transparent, that criteria be more transparent. And I have also talked with Council members and they have indicated that they would like more information about how CIP projects are prioritized, that they are not getting that information. So this is just Page 9 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 Vote on Motion To Approve CA -29, Draft 2 (Approved): an attempt to perhaps make the process a little more transparent and rational and I hope that you will support it. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: I am very much in favor of this and I think I spoke at the last meeting, but I think that with all of the effort that goes into the General Plan and the Community Plans, that they should be regarded with priority in their requests and I think that by putting it in the Charter, it says that that should happen, so I am very much in favor of this for good long-range planning. CHR. ADAMS: I apologize for the delay. Apparently my finger and this button doesn't necessarily always work. Probably my finger's fault. Is there any other discussion on this particular motion? I understand that we have the Finance Director and the Planning Director in Hilo. Does anyone have any questions for them regarding this particular Charter Amendment? Alright. All in favor of the motion to pass Charter Amendment 29, Draft 2 on First Reading, please signify by saying "aye" (aye), any opposed? Motion passes unanimously with Commissioners Bergin and Hamano excused. Thank you. The motion to pass CA -29, Draft 2 on First Reading was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioner Bergin and Hamano — 2 Excused: None. CHR. ADAMS: Moving on to Communication No. 48.1, which transmits Charter Amendment 30 for First Reading, I would ask our Vice -Chair to assume chairmanship at this point. Relinquish Chair: At this time, Chair Adams relinquished the chair to Vice Chair Zelko-Schlueter. ACTING CHAIR ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Okay, so transmitting CA -30 for First Reading, the proposed amendment to Section 14-5, all those in favor of transmitting CA -30 for First Reading, please signify by saying "aye"... CHR. ADAMS: Chair, we don't have a motion. Page 10 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 ACTING CHAIR ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Oh, motion to approve, sorry. MS. TODD: So moved. ACTING CHAIR ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Okay. Second? Is there a second? Sony, I can't hear real well. CHR. ADAMS: That's fine. But we had the motion there by Commissioner Todd and we had a second here by Commissioner Hopkins. ACTING CHAIR ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Okay. Any discussion? I guess we start with you Chair Adams. CHR. ADAMS: Thanks. I apologize for the little bit of catawampus step here. The purpose of this of course again is to... as we heard from... in testimony today and as we talked last time, is to provide a little oomph in the Charter for the Board of Ethics particularly when it comes to their rules and regulations having force and effect of law, as well as the ability to provide for the imposition of civil fines for violations of the Code of Ethics as may be prescribed by ordinance. And then there are a couple of other items in there that have to do with the opinions and what happens with those, so I would encourage my fellow Commissioners to support passing... I would support this motion. ACTING CHAIR ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Is there any further discussion? Sony I can't... is anyone? CHR. ADAMS: You may ask for the motion. You may ask for...the vote. ACTING CHAIR ZELKO-SCHLUETER: So all those in favor of passing CA - 30, please signify by saying "aye" (aye), anyone opposed? Okay. Motion passes 9-0. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thanks and Commissioner Bergin and Hamano are excused. Thank you. Vote on Motion The motion to pass CA -30 on First Reading was carried by the following To Approve CA -30 roll call vote: (Approved): Ayes: Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioner Bergin and Hamano — 2 Excused: None. Page 11 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 Relinquish Chair: At this time, Acting Chair Zelko-Schlueter relinquished the chair back to Chair Adams. Vote on Motion To enter into Executive Session (Approved) CHR. ADAMS: The next Item in our Agenda is Reports. We have none of those. I would entertain a motion to move into Executive Session to discuss and review the Executive Session minutes of April 25, 2019, and we might also anticipate that pursuant to Section 92-584 of the HRS, consult with our attorney on questions and issues pertaining to the Commissioners... the Commission's powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and liabilities. It has been moved. Is there a second? It has been moved by Commissioner Hopkins and seconded by Commissioner Springer. All in favor of the motion to move into Executive Session, please signify by saying "aye" (aye), any opposed? Alright, let's recess to close and move into Executive Session. Commissioner Hopkins moved to enter into Executive Session in order to hold attorney-client privilege discussion and review of Executive Session minutes of April 23, 2019. Seconded by Commissioner Saquing. Ayes: Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Bergin and Hamano — 2 Excused: None . RECESS: At 2:05 p.m., the Chair called for a recess to go into Executive Session. Q.xt. "ahat Q.o1. i uh jc folder a]Caa' cepa as t ES 1C'n'aanut:a 4, RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 2:10 p.m. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Todd do you have a motion? MS. TODD: Yes to approve the minutes of Executive Session as presented to us without any amendments. Page 12 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Is there a second? It has been moved by Commissioner Todd, seconded by Commissioner Galimba to approve the Executive Session minutes of April 25, 2019 as previously reviewed. All in favor please signify by saying "aye" (aye), any opposed? Motion passes unanimously, with Commissioner Bergin... Commissioners Bergin and Hamano excused. Vote on Motion To Approve Executive Session Minutes: (Approved) AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING: Commissioner Todd moved to approve the Executive Session minutes of April 25, 2019. Seconded by Commissioner Galimba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, Zelko Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioner Bergin and Hamano - 2 Excused: None. The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, agenda items for next regularly scheduled meeting CHR. ADAMS: Our next Item on the Agenda in the Agenda Items for Next Regularly Scheduled meeting. Do we have any suggestions from Commissioners on future agenda items? Yes, Commissioner Hopkins. MR. HOPKINS: Do we have a tentative schedule of when the items are coming up for second reading? CHR. ADAMS: We do. The schedule is that we will... that the items that have passed on First Reading will be put together into a First Reading Report and will be provided for us to review at our next meeting which would be June 7th in Hilo at 9:30 a.m. We have identified that I believe it is our next regularly scheduled meeting already. I think we did that at the last meeting. So that would be where we will take a look at all of the items that have passed on First Reading and review them with the purpose, for the purpose of passing each individually of course on second and final reading. I am sorry, Commissioner Hopkins. Page 13 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 MR. HOPKINS: So will we be passing, will the group be passing them on to Second Reading on that date on the 7th, or we will be doing that at the 21st meeting? CHR. ADAMS: Okay so, the passing on Second Reading would occur at the meeting on the 7th and then we would put together the report on our activities, findings, and recommendations, as well as the amendments that have passed Second and Final Reading, and we would vote on that packet on the 21st. MR. HOPKINS: Okay, so I think I understand that if we are wanting to make a... if we are wanting to make amendments and things that needs to be ready before the group for the 7th. For the amendments on what we did before. CHR. ADAMS: We can talk about this right, in open session? Okay. So, if there are amendments to... if there are substantive amendments to the proposals during the discussion, so there is a motion, the motion will say "I move to pass on Second and Final Reading, Charter Amendment such and such." If there is an amendment at that point and it is a substantive amendment, my understanding is that that we are... my understanding, correct me here please... and I will take help here, but my understanding is that we will not be able to pass then that particular proposal with that amendment as a ... on Second Reading at that time. Is that accurate? MR. HENRICKS: So the rules of the Commission state that amendment... excuse me, proposals that are up for Second and Final Reading may be amended but they have to be held over for an additional meeting with most likely the purpose being additional public scrutiny. If you guys change something substantially at this "llth hour", and I think the trouble with that may be is that maybe we would run out of time to be able to ratify or for the Commission to adopt the report that Chair Adams had referenced, that goes to the Council. Essentially the report is all of the work you have done and everything that you passed on June 7th, goes to the Council for its review and consideration. So that is the issue with amendments on the 7th. CHR. ADAMS: And so what happens is, if there are amendments, and there can be, it may be that similar to what happens at you know, our own legislature, we run out of time. And, on those, on that particular you know, hypothetical proposal. MR. HENRICKS: So I think one of the issues then is perhaps something that would be helpful or instructive is that there could be amendments and I think it would be up to the Commission and the Chair to determine whether or not they rise to the level of clarification perhaps, which then I do not believe would put us in a position where it would need to be heard yet again and held over. CHR. ADAMS: And there is a procedure for doing that. Page 14 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 MR. HENRICKS: Correct. CHR. ADAMS: Which would be... we have already run through that procedure a few times, which is if there is a determination, if somebody has a point of order whether or not it's a clarifying amendment or a substantive amendment, the Chair makes a determination and that may be good enough. If it is not good enough then the... and there's objections, that the entire Commission would vote on the Chair's ruling to determine that and if it is determined by the Commission at that particular point, we are talking hypothetically in a parliamentary sense here that it in fact is a clarifying statement then we are on the record as saying that and if they say no, it's a... the Chair is wrong, if it turns out that that is the ruling, then that particular proposal will likely not move forward. Yes, Commissioner Hopkins. MR. HOPKINS: I guess that goes back to the question that we had before, is once we introduce an amendment, well once we introduced a Charter Amendment, we had it there, and then we had all of these testimonies from the community and everything else after the First Reading and several of the things here. So are we basically saying we are going to follow our schedule and ignore the community's testimony on those items? Because it means that we can't do it. CHR. ADAMS: My view is that... it is my view, my view is that we have had a meeting where we had the opportunity to consider the public hearings. We have had a meeting to consider the public hearing. MR. HENRICKS: Two in fact. CHR. ADAMS: Well we have had one... we had the meeting on April 25th... MR. HENRICKS: Correct. CHR. ADAMS: That was the meeting... MR. HENRICKS: Which the purpose of that schedule was to allow... to introduce new items based upon the testimony of the public from the six public hearings that the Commission entertained. CHR. ADAMS: That's right. MR. HENRICKS: And that... I don't know whether or not that testimony provided new proposals... new proposals were submitted for First Reading today. CHR. ADAMS: Alright. Page 15 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 MR. HOPKINS: There was a particular, what I am referring to is there is a particular amendment that I put forth you know and put change on the thing there and then I got beat up on it pretty good during the... all the public hearings, and I have not seen any because it had already gone through First Reading, there hasn't... I agree that the public had some valid concerns about it, you know me I happen to like my first one, but that... they had some valid concerns and there was no... I was told if we wanted to change it we had to do it at the Second, at Second Reading, but we are being told now if we are making a change at Second Reading it may not come through. I am..., I'm... that is why I am just very confused. MR. HENRICKS: May I make a suggestion? CHR. ADAMS: Please. MR. HENRICKS: When it comes to Second Reading, put your amendment forward and allow the Commission to make a determination as to whether or not it is substantive. MR. HOPKINS: It's substantive. MR. HENRICKS: Correct. That is the best route to go. MR. HOPKINS: Okay. Thank you. MS. TODD: Mr. Chair. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Todd. MS. TODD: My recommendation is that if any Commissioner has amendments that they would like to make to anything that passed First Reading, that they put it in writing and submit it to staff in time for it to be on the agenda and in time for the public to read it ahead of the meeting. As opposed to coming up with an oral amendment at the meeting on the 7th. And I will state that for... I won't personally be here on the 7th because I will be on the mainland, but the issue of public notice can be taken care of by submitting it in writing, and it gives everybody an opportunity to look at it and not be surprised by a proposal that comes in orally on the 7th. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you Commissioner Todd. Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: I am sorry. I am still a little baffled here. So, the next meeting which is June 7th, we will get the packet with all those amendments that have passed First Reading and then at... on June 7th, if we submit as suggested by Page 16 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 Commissioner Todd, ahead of time, amendments that we would like to make, they can be brought up when those... that particular amendment is discussed, and it will have been noticed to the public that that is going to be discussed, so that would cover the public review of it at that meeting. So let's just say for fun, it passes, then when we have our June 21st meeting, it would have passed Second Reading and be ready to be packeted for Council. Is that correct? CHR. ADAMS: I would ask our Council to respond to that actually. MR. YOSHIMOTO: I would think that if something is amended at the June 7th meeting right, that the Commission would want to have another hearing or meeting on that amendment assuming it passes, because even though it is in writing prior to the 7th and the public sees that, nothing prohibits this body from further amending it. Whether it is a word or two or whatever it is, so then I would recommend that the Commission have another meeting, and that is where we get into whether we have enough time or not because... MS. RICE: We would have the June 21st meeting right? CHR. ADAMS: So we have a notice issue right, there is the notice issue. So if we... if we bring the proposal back to the meeting on the 21st, our ability to consider the entire packet... the purpose of the 21st meeting is to consider the entire packet that goes forward —the report which includes the activities, findings, and recommendations, and the existing Charter Amendment Proposals in whatever draft they are at, and so then that would be the purpose of that. If we are not complete with a particular proposal and we are voting on that, our ability to then turn that into a final proposal that we are voting on... I don't think we can do it at the same meeting because we haven't noticed that we are doing it. In other words, whatever we do at the 7th, will then be noticed the following week for the meeting on the 21st and that will be our vote for the packet that goes to the Council. MS. RICE: Correct. I understand that. I am... if we make an amendment on the 7th, and it passes Second Reading with that amendment, why would that not be sufficient? CHR. ADAMS: Because our rules say... UNIDENTIFIED COMMISSIONER: Which we can waive. CHR. ADAMS: That it has to be held over. MR. YOSHIMOTO: If it is a substantive amendment and that is why I thought I was answering the question. Page 17 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 MS. RICE: Okay. I got it. MR. YOSHIMOTO: I am sorry. That's why I was under the impression the Commission understood that everything needed to be done by the 7th so the 7th would just be a vote on everything on Second Reading, so that was clear. All the amendments should have been in by now and this should have been it. That is what I thought was clear, but if the Commission wants to go down for further amendments, it will put limitations as to time right, because... CHR. ADAMS: Right so, I mean, we have... here we are on the 10th of May, the idea was is that we had a couple of meeting in June, the 7th and the 21st, the idea being that we could consider all of the... that we would be able to get the First Report... the First Reading Report to us, have the opportunity to look at that, consider all of those items, I mean we have got probably between 20 and 25 Charter Amendments that we will take a look at in whatever draft form that they are at. At that particular meeting we will probably have public testimony, it is going to be a great meeting. If the idea is, is that we are going to... that we need to toss another meeting in there, we are all of a sudden... our timeline is... yeah, exactly. So the 7th unless the Commission comes back and says "nope, we need to add another meeting so that we can do this." That puts us into a real... I mean the next meeting that we are going to have is... is... going to be to discuss the items that have gone through First Reading. If there is an amendment and we anticipate that we are going to have substantive amendments for that and the Commission wants to roll through those, the rules are clear, we will have to hold over for another meeting that would not be the meeting that we vote on the entire packet. So that's... instead of two meetings, one on the 7th and one on the 21st, we would have to have three meetings that allows us to do that. MS. RICE: Okay, and that is what our rules state. CHR. ADAMS: That's the rules. MS. RICE: Okay, but the problem with that is, what is the point of the June 7th meeting? CHR. ADAMS: To go through all of the... MS. RICE: But... so we go through them, so what? MR. HENRICKS: Because you have a lot of... 20 to 25 proposals that are First Reading that are not... you have not essentially adopted and said this is going on the ballot. The June 7th meeting is very important because you are going to take everything you pass on First Reading and finalize it and say "this is what we are submitting to the electorate." It is very important. That's the purpose. Page 18 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 MS. RICE: So, so, okay, that was fine. MR. HENRICKS: And then the point of the meeting on the 21st is to take all of those things and the information that the Chair is going to put together as a report that we are going to work on, we need that meeting to... for the Commission to adopt the report that goes to the Council. MS. RICE: And the report does... what does the report say? MR. HENRICKS: The report provides all of proposals that pass on the 7th on Second Reading, and it provides a summary as to the rationale to some degree of how the Commission reached its conclusions or why it's putting the proposals together, it provides a brief history of how many meetings the Commission had, how many testifiers there were, communications, reports, met with department heads, it is to demonstrate to the Council how the Commission performed its work, and the results that were... that came through. MS. RICE: So that will be pulled together by you all I take it, and presented to us at the June 21st meeting? MR. HENRICKS: That is the plan as of now. MS. RICE: And then we look it over and comment? MR. HENRICKS: Yes, you will receive it at least six days prior to the meeting. It will be on an agenda, it will be for public inspection at least six days prior to the 21st. MS. RICE: Okay. Okay. MR. HENRICKS: Which is why you can see, there is not a lot of turnaround time for if something happens... MS. RICE: Okay. MR. HENRICKS: On the 7th to have another meeting in between. MS. RICE: Right. I understand that. So, June 7th, you are going to present us everything that's passed First Reading. MR. HENRICKS: Correct. You'll have a report, but you will also have on the agenda, everything that has passed First Reading for your Second Reading consideration. Page 19 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 MS. RICE: Okay. At which time we vote to approve it for Second Reading or not. So those are at... June 7th our choices are vote to approve it or vote to not approve it. Is that correct? MR. HENRICKS: Well, essentially a singular motion which is to pass on the Second and Final Reading. You vote yes or no. MS. RICE: Correct. CHR. ADAMS: You can bring amendments. MR. HENRICKS: You can bring amendments as we talked about with Commissioner Hopkins. CHR. ADAMS: But we have already identified... if it is a substantive amendment... MS. RICE: It has to have a second, another meeting. MR. HENRICKS: That's what the rules say. CHR. ADAMS: If it was going to be put forward. If it was going to move forward. MS. RICE: Okay. Thank you. I really was not clear on the purpose of those. MR. HENRICKS: That's okay and I think that at that point in time you know, we can cross some bridges as much as they appear. You know, we could talk more about other options. CHR. ADAMS: Sure. Commissioner Hopkins. MR. HOPKINS: And then... if then Council has the... once they get our thing, that they have the opp... they have the option of changing one and sending it back to us if they show wish. CHR. ADAMS: So what will happen is that once we have submitted it, they have 30 days to provide to... to provide alternatives right? And it will be alternatives associated with and to some degree it's really up to the Council to identify... it's it's not predetermined at least my review of it, it is not predetermined in the HRS. They can take a look at what we have provided and then they have the ability to identify alternatives that would modify what we have done or the area that we have provided, you know the Section that we've been... proposed an amendment to, and then it would come back to us after that deadline and we have the ability to Page 20 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 then at that point review what has been provided to us by the Council. We can take the alternatives they have suggested if there are any, and incorporate them into the amendments that we have, we can say "no, we like the amendments that we have already." And, then those alternatives would then go forward along with our proposal, to the electorate assuming that they haven't been recalled by the Council. So we are... I don't want to say we are getting ahead of ourselves. It gets a little bit confusing and I don't mean for it to, but the deal is Council's got 30 days to identify any alternatives to what they receive from us, once that is done, then we have a period of time to take a look at those alternatives, determine whether or not we like them, and accept them, or we don't. If we don't, the Council then has the ability to say "okay, I am going to recall them." Meaning that it is as if they never presented them. That way they don't have to go forward to the electorate, or they can say "no, we like that alternative and we want that to be presented to the electorate along with the Charter Commission's proposal." Are there any other questions or discussion items here? Okay. Alright. On Announcements, we have our next regular meeting which is scheduled for Friday, June 7 2019, 9:30 a.m. in the Hilo Council Chambers. Of course the site here is also available for those who might be present here. I... we have not identified the June 21st meeting yet right? We haven't identified that we are going to do that? MR. HENRICKS: The time? CHR. ADAMS: That that's a special meeting. Did we identify the 21st as a particular meeting in our last, I can't remember. UNKNOWN COMMISSIONER: We did. MR. HENRICKS: Yeah. CHR. ADAMS: Okay great. I also understand that there is an item that Commissioner Springer has that she would like to raise. MS. SPRINGER: Thank you Chair Adams and I am sony that you didn't get the copy of this letter. I just wanted to go on the record to disclose that I have accepted an 89 day contract with the Department of Environmental Management to simply scan and shred records that they are trying to dispose of and in order to be as transparent as possible, I thought it best that it be brought to the attention of the Commission. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Any other announcements? I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Moved and seconded. All in favor please signify by saying Page 21 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 May 10, 2019 "aye" (aye), motion passes unanimously with Commissioners Bergin and Harnano excused. Thanks everybody for coming. Next meeting we are going to take the time we didn't use on this meeting and apply it to the next meeting. Everybody have a good weekend. Please drive carefully. Vote on Motion There being no further business, at 2:34 p.m. Commissioner Rice moved that Adjourn the meeting be adjourned. Seconded by Commissioner Roehrig and carried by (Approvedl: the following voice vote: Ayes: Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, Rice, Roefuig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Bergin and Hamano — 2 Excused: None . Commission Approval: June 7, 2019 ass Shipman Ada s, Chair 1$-2120 Hawai`i County Charter Commission Page 22