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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CHARTER 2019-06-21 (2018-2020)Hawaii County Charter Commission 13th Session West Hawai`i Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i June 21, 2019 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission was called to ORDER: order at 11:15 a.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 Mr. William Carthage Bergin, Commissioner Ms. Michelle Galimba, Commissioner Mr. Paul K. Hamano, Commissioner Ms. Sarah H. Rice, Commissioner Ms. Marcia A. K. Saquing, Commissioner Ms. Donna Mae Springer, Commissioner Ms. Bobby Jean Leithead Todd, Commissioner Absent: Mr. Kevin D. Hopkins, Commissioner Mr. Christopher John Imiloa Roehrig, 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 13th session of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission. It's June 21st at 11:15 a.m. I would ask everyone to please silence their comms devices, and I will call this meeting to order, and ask Mr. Henricks to please call the roll. Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: DEBBIE HECHT: MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Bergin (here), Ms. Galimba (here), Mr. Hamano (here), Mr. Hopkins, Ms. Leithead-Todd (present), Ms. Rice (here), Mr. Roehrig, Ms. Saquing (here), Ms. Springer (here), Ms. Zelko-Schlueter (here), Chair Adams (here). Chair Adams you have nine members in attendance. 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'll note that Commissioners Roehrig, and Hopkins are excused. At this time I will entertain statements from the public on agenda items. I believe that we have... do we have any testifiers in Hilo? MS. KALEIMAMAHU: Good morning Chair, we have no testifiers in Hilo. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. I would ask Ms. Hecht please to come to the dais, actually to the table. Was this available to our Commissioners in Hilo? MS. HECHT: Yes. CHR. ADAMS: Great. I would note... please provide your name, the agenda item you are speaking to, three minute limit, if it is more than one agenda item, five minutes without objection. Thank you. Proposal No. CA -18 in support and Proposal No. CA -9 in opposition. MS. HECHT: The... I did, I asked Scottie to send it over to Hilo hopefully people over there have gotten the handout. My name is Debbie Hecht. I have been the campaign coordinator to the Save our Lands Committee since 2005. I have been advocating for the 2% Land Fund Program without salary, wages, or benefits to save Hawai`i Island's treasured land for our keiki and grandchildren. Sixty-three percent of voters have voted three times to support the land fund. We believe that the `Rina is the foundation for our tourist industry which is the biggest employer on the island. If we don't preserve the places and our ocean shores, why would people come here? They could go to Waikiki and go shopping and snorkeling on the dead reef. I wrote the existing legislation with Council member Brenda Ford, that is in the Hawai`i County Code and the Hawai`i County Charter, was appointed to Mayor Kenoi to serve on the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Commission. We learned that the government would not purchase open park land, so we took the extraordinary measure to run a petition initiative drive and collected 9,600 signatures to get the first measure on the ballot. Sixty-three percent of voters approved that measure and then Mayor Kenoi and the Council suspended deposits to the fund for two years. We took the next extraordinary measure to move the 2% Land Fund to the Charter where it could only be reversed by a vote of the people. That is why we took the huge step of setting Page 2 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 aside two percent of property taxes each year. That is why we took the step to set aside a quarter percent which is $700,000 each year. Two percent of property taxes is $5 million dollars a year. The land fund is not working as well as it should. We have been over testifying in front of you asking for one full-time person to consistently work only on the land fund program which is CA -9, because there is $22 million dollars sitting in the fund. There have been almost 20... 200 properties proposed by citizens for purchase. Only 14 properties have been acquired. Only one-third of the money spent to purchase land has been in matching funds. At least 50% could be in matching funds. To maximize the potential of the existing land fund. Only nine percent of monies deposited in the maintenance fund have been received by the non -profits. How can we do better? By hiring one full-time person to work only on the 2% Land Fund Program, and by allowing the stewardship groups to pay people to work on the land. There are seven... 371 people that sent in testimony on CA -7, CA -8, CA -13, and 27. I counted each one. There are at least 20 people that took time out of their days to attend at least 10 of the Charter Commission meetings, so that's 200 people. This is the largest group that came out to testify on anything by far. We have asked over and over again to allow the stewardship groups to be able to pay people on the land. Now we have to go to the County Council and ask them for help. How does this serve the people of the island? On CA -9, we requested that you use the clarifying language so that only one person is hired to work full- time on the Land Fund. We will run a just say no campaign because we don't want the Land Fund to be depleted of purchasing power by salaries, wages, and benefits by more than one staff person. That is in addition to the one provided to help PONC (Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Commission) in the Code. The Save our Lands Citizen's Committee has proposed this since October, and if you see on your list, it will show you how much each of these positions will be paid -$88,248 or $58,000, so we don't want to deplete the Land Fund of more than one salary. The existing language is very ambiguous. What we asked for is in red and just below the job descriptions, so... and that's to pay for the salary, wages, and benefits of one full-time staff member employed by the Department of Finance, dedicated only to administering the activities contained within this Section and Section 16 of the Charter. This is in addition to a staff person provided for in the Hawai`i County Code, to assist the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Commission. Okay, on to CA -18, we asked over and over again if you could please allow people to be paid to work on the land. There's a check on this. A safety check that we put into the process. The Department of Finance and the County Council have to approve their stewardship grant proposal. If they violate this, they will never be allowed to apply for grants in the future. So we are asking for the portion in red that says unless they are paid for duties that are a part of the approved stewardship grant proposal to be added to the existing language. In Page 3 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 addition, your... you know your rules say three minutes per issue, and I read your rules. CHR. ADAMS: So right before... MS. HECHT: So it should be six minutes. CHR. ADAMS: So right before I spoke, right before you spoke, I said three minutes per agenda... MS. HECHT: Right, and I wasn't going to argue, and... CHR. ADAMS: Excuse me. Excuse me. You were raising a question and so I was explaining to you that... and the rules have been for many of the meetings that we have had, particularly the last I don't know, seven months or so... if it is two or more agenda items, it has been five minutes, without objection. And so, that is what we have been doing. I said that again today as well. MS. HECHT: Okay. So, but your rules were never changed, and I only have one minute more and I am just requesting that I could talk about your process because I think... CHR. ADAMS: I would just ask you to summarize. MS. HECHT: I think it is very confusing. Okay. So please clarify your process going forward. I have talked to three Council members and they don't understand it either. I think the Council gets 30 days to respond to your Charter amendment, but what happens after that? The Council can come back with their recommendations, then you decide whether to accept or reject the amendments, then they can recall or take back their proposed amendments, or the County Council can also decide to put their preferred amendments on the ballot for 2020. Please clarify the process and link the process with the timeline with exact dates. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. I understand we also have another testifier. Thank you. SUSAN DURSIN: Commenting on findings. MS. DURSIN: I am Susan Dursin from Captain Cook and I am just giving you comments today having been here previously a number of times and spoken in favor of the PONC amendments. But in any case, today I just wanted to speak about the findings because I... reading this through I was troubled by the sentence that says "the Commission recognized that the Charter is meant to be a broad document to govern the operation of County government. The Commission has also expressed concern that the continued formation of boards and commissions Page 4 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 COMMUNI- CATIONS: and the very detailed elements of financial procedures, are having a deleterious effect of reducing governmental flexibility." I am not clear at all that the continued formation of boards and commissions is somehow deleterious to financial flexibility. I can see where you are targeting perhaps the Open Space Commission somehow, but I don't know whether you are... you don't care to see any formation of boards and commissions from this time forward. In any case, it is not particularly clear, but once again I do find that troubling. It... I...have been surprised at that number of people who have come forward to me to speak about the fact that they do not think you are helping the Public Open Space Commission going forward, that you have been in fact a hurdle to some of the things that should happen to make it operate better. And these are not necessarily people I talk to that would be in my camp. They are members of the public who see that, or feel that you are not acknowledging where they are coming from and in any case, I am just disappointed at what has come forward out of this Commission in relationship to the PONC, but this seems to go beyond that. So if at some time you can clarify that, it might be a good idea. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thanks for your testimony. Are there any other testifiers in Hilo? MS. KALEIMAMAHU: No Chair. The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, Communications. CHR. ADAMS: And we have no other testifiers here in Kona? Okay, great. We have no minutes at this meeting, so we will move into Communications. We have Communication No. 51 and I would ask Commissioners to bring that forward. It refers to the timeline pertaining to actions following the submission of the Charter Commission's Report to the Hawai`i County Council. I would acknowledge testimony that expresses some concern about how the... how clear the process is. Moving forward after we have provided the... our report and proposed amendments to the Council. And part of that is due to frankly, the fact that the statutes under which we operate are not necessarily clear, and because they provide some flexibility depending on the timeline that the Council operates in. So providing exact dates is a... is impossible at the moment. We will do the best we can to... that's why we have the public noticed in terms of identifying that, but having said all of that, let me just walk through what I understand the process to be and as part of this particular timeline on this communication. We will meet today. We will do whatever we will do today. Assuming that we actually approve a report that details our findings, activities, and recommendations, along with the... we will then submit that on the 26th of June Page 5 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 is the date that we are using as the submission date. Then the Council has 30 days to come back with any alternatives. So they don't change the proposals. They can submit alternatives to those proposals and only in the... only in the area of the Charter that those proposals are associated with. And so we will know by then if there are any proposed alternatives. Then if there are no alternatives, we owe to the Clerk within 30 days, our report. And then we can then begin the process of proceeding to draft ballot language. And then the other requirements such as public notice and... in newspapers and financial impact statements that the Department of Finance will have to do, and all of those kinds of things. We have the date here which is August 26 date by which the Charter Commission must either accept or reject the alternatives submitted by the County Council. We will try and do that before then. That would be our inclination. The idea being that we also want to give the Council the opportunity if there are any alternatives and we have rejected those alternatives, we want to give the Council the opportunity to then decide whether they are going to recall those alternatives or not. If they do, then it is as if it never happened. If they don't, then they get submitted along with our work, to the Clerk. Sure, Commissioner Rice. Remember your mic please. MS. RICE: I just hate to be an idiot here, but I understand we submit the report as drafted and approved today hopefully, and then they have 30 days to look at it, and if they send back alternatives, then do those alternatives if they are just a sentence or two to replace something in one of our amendments, do we accept that and then that is inserted into our amendment in lieu of what we already had? How does that work? CHR. ADAMS: So if there are alternatives that come forward, we would revert to... this is actually a good question that I was going to bring up as a part of the conversation. The... one we would consider the alternative. If we decide to take the alternative and incorporate it into the proposal, then that proposal would be amended and that would be the proposal that moves forward out of the Commission. MS. RICE: Got it. CHR. ADAMS: If we don't accept the alternative, then we note that we reject it and send that information back to the Council, and the Council has the option of either recalling it, which makes the alternative as if it never existed, or not recalling it, they have 10 days to make that decision and then if they haven't made a decision in 10 days, then it is as if they are saying we want it to go forward to the voters. MS. RICE: Okay. I get it. I just wanted to make sure. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Galimba. Page 6 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 MS. GALIMBA: This probably is a question more for these guys, what is the process at the County Council for them to make an alternative... to suggest an alternative? MR. HENRICKS: Under the previous Commission's work in 2010, the process which makes sense because of the limited timeframe, couldn't go through an ordinance obviously and that wouldn't be necessary. It is by the adoption of a resolution with essentially what we view as proposals attached to that resolution. That would... that is how the matter was handled by the previous Commission. MS. GALIMBA: So can they do that in just one meeting? CHR. ADAMS: Right. MR. HENRICKS: Yes. Correct. CHR. ADAMS: Hilo do you have any questions or comments on this Communication? MS. SAQUING: I have a question. CHR. ADAMS: Yes, Commissioner Saquing. MS. SAQUING: Yes, thank you. Just for I guess clarity, when it gets... when our proposal gets... CHR. ADAMS: I am really going to have to, hopefully you can hear me well... MS. SAQUING: I can hear you perfectly. CHR. ADAMS: But we are having difficulty hearing you. MS. SAQUING: I need to speak louder. Sorry. Here you go. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. MS. SAQUING: So I just need some clarity. When it gets to the Council, do they... are they just reviewing what we are proposing, will there be any additional testimony from the public at that point in time? CHR. ADAMS: So my understanding is that if an item is put onto the agenda of the Council, so it is a Council agenda, in an open meeting, the public has the opportunity to speak to it. But in reference to the first part of your question, the only items that alternatives... according to statute and I believe our Charter, but it is certainly in statute, the only items that the Council can propose alternatives to are in the proposals that we send to them. Page 7 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 MS. SAQUING: Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. Commissioner Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: So just a follow-up question on that. This Communication was going to be on their agenda so basically anything in it would be... MR. HENRICKS: Which Communication? MS. GALIMBA: The Communication, I am sorry... our report, Communication fifty... MR. HENRICKS: Is going to be...where? MS. GALIMBA: Ah, Communication... MR. HENRICKS: The report itself? MS. GALIMBA: Right. That will be on their agenda. Is that right? MR. HENRICKS: That is to be determined. MS. GALIMBA: Oh, okay... not necessarily? MR. HENRICKS: Not necessarily. MS. GALIMBA: Okay. CHR. ADAMS: So not all Communications necessarily make the agendas. MS. GALIMBA: I see. CHR. ADAMS: I think that when we meet if there are alternatives that are presented, then we will consider those in due course during our August meeting. Okay? Alright. Are there any other questions or comments? Okay. NEW BUSINESS: The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, New Business. Page 8 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: We have no other Unfinished Business, so let's move on to New Business. Item one is Communication No. 52, Transmits the Charter Commission's Report to the Hawai`i County Council, pursuant to Section 50-8 of the Hawai`i Revised Statutes, providing activities, findings, and recommendations of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission. I would entertain a motion that transmits the Charter Commission's report to the Hawai`i County Council. It is found in Communication No. 52. Is there such a motion? MR. BERGIN: So moved. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Second. CHR. ADAMS: It has been moved by Commissioner Bergin and seconded by Commissioner Zelko-Schlueter. Discussion? So let me just start by saying that what you have in front of you of course is the Communication that was sent to you. There will be a... there is enclosed in that a draft letter that I would sign that would then be sent to the Chair and members of the County Council, which would be over then this particular report. You have the report in front of you. The cover of the report and then the second page is designed for us to sign. So each of us would sign there and in Hilo, those... the version that we sign here would then be available for you all to sign hopefully on Monday. I know that Shannon has sent you a note regarding that. And then we are going to get with Commissioner Roehrig and Commissioner Hopkins separately, but specifically Commissioner Roehrig will be able to get his signature on Wednesday of next week assuming that we have something to sign. Then the rest of the items here, Introduction, About the Commission, Commission Activities, Findings, Recommendations, and then the specific amendments themselves with the paragraph of explanation, and Commission finds on top of that, are part of the... open to discussion. So with your... so my plan for having this discussion is that we have a motion and I would like to then go through each of these items and allow the Commission the opportunity to address anything that you have, and I think it would probably be most consistent if we just run through each of these pages so that everybody has a chance to have their say. MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Chair. CHR. ADAMS: Mr. Henricks. MR. HENRICKS: Prior to that process, I just want to acknowledge the amount of effort, work, and care that Chair put into drafting this report. I just want to put that on the record. Thank you. Page 9 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Thanks Mr. Henricks. MS. RICE: I would agree. It is a huge volume of detail and I think for all the Commissioners, I could probably speak that we appreciate the work that the Chairman has done, as well as the staff, in presenting this to us today. So Mahalo nui. CHR. ADAMS: Thanks Commissioner Rice. So having given you a plan forward to discuss this particular Communication and the report found under, I would ask if there is any conversation having to do with the transmittal letter that will be signed by me to Chair Chung of the Council? So the way it works Hilo, is I will be looking at you, if you are looking at me, then I will wait and ask you. If you are not looking at me, I am assuming you don't have anything to say. Alright. So let's move on then from that Item. The page underneath the cover, which is the signature page that we would all sign, is there any comments on that? Alright, seeing none, we will move into Table of Contents. Any questions or comments on the Table of Contents? Seeing none, move on to the introduction page, which is page one. Any comments, modifications, concerns? Introduction...alright, not seeing anything, we will move on from that. Page two is about the Commission. Comments? Alright, we will move into page three and four, which are the Commission activities, findings, and recommendations. Do we have any comments, modifications, concerns, having to do with this? Commissioner Galimba? MS. GALIMBA: So yes. I just wanted to ask about the language brought up by the testifier concerning boards and commissions and deleterious effect of reducing governmental flexibility. I am assuming you are the author, or... is that the case? CHR. ADAMS: I am the author of this. I am the author of the Activities, Findings, Recommendations, and Conclusions. Would you like me to answer why I put those in there? MS. GALIMBA: Okay. Okay, great. CHR. ADAMS: So the purpose of putting those in there is that as I went through the minutes of our conversations, several times we had proposals that came forward that had to do with the presentation of boards and commissions, for example when we talked about having a Climate Change Commission, and in the process of that conversation, we had some discussion about concern about there being boards and commissions that as we added, it was an additional impact on departments. We then asked department heads, deputy heads about that and they concurred with that concern as well. And my... when I took all of that into... under advisement, it appeared to me that that was an item that the Commission as a whole ultimately decided that was something that they were concerned about. Page 10 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 When it came to the discussion about the detailed elements of financial procedures, as we looked at the structure of the Charter, both when we heard about it from the departments and as we went through it section by section, there was some statements that were made about how there were items in... particularly the financial procedures, that we even heard from the Director of Finance, actually made... she found... well, our conversation was that there was some impact on flexibility because those things were in the Charter and not just in an ordinance. And so, that was the reason that those two particular items were identified as the Commission expressing concern. So, again, that is my view of what I heard and read as I went through the minutes in the preparation of this document. This is going to be the Commission's document, so that clearly... if that is not how the Commission feels about it, then we should have a discussion about that. Commissioner Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. If I am not, I mean I haven't done like a study on this, but I don't think there are that many boards and commissions that are actually formed out of the Charter, so in some sense is this a comment that maybe would reflect maybe more on the Code? Is that... would that be a correct assessment to make, that most of the boards and commissions are actually formed not by the Charter, perhaps? MR. HENRICKS: It depends on what we are qualifying as a board or commission. Is a Community Development Plan Action Committee a board or commission? Depends on if you think it is, then it is. If you think it is not, then it's not. Because there are several committees that are titled that way, that operate to provide assistance, advisory assistance and other forms of assistance, to governmental operations. There are also advisory committees that are formed solely by the Mayor, which the Charter provides for. Those count as boards and commissions. If you pull those out of the equation though, I think that just a mathematical majority of boards and commissions are found in the Charter. We have some that are not in the Charter but have been created by ordinance, for instance the Hawai`i County Cultural Resources Commission, the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Commission would be one of those as well. But again, if you... you know, we were talking about I think, somewhere around 35 I think was the count right now, but that includes again, the Community Development Plan Action Committees, it includes some of the, like a Solid Waste Advisory Commission, some things of that nature, that if you consider them a board or commission, than it is about even probably as far as established by the Charter itself actually being embedded in the Charter, or created by ordinance, or by the Mayor as an advisory commission that exists for the term of that Mayor. So, the answer is it depends on how you define a board or commission, as to whether or not that would be a factual statement. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Rice. Page 11 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 MS. RICE: (inaudible) It should be... MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Sony, Chair Adams, we can't hear. MS. RICE: Sony. We did discuss the boards and commissions when we discussed the amendment for a Climate Change Commission. And it was expressed by I think, Commissioner Leithead-Todd that we had a lot of commissions and we all discussed it quite thoroughly and in that particular instance we decided that a commission would not be something that we would be wanting to carry forward. However, to have a blanket statement that we expressed concern, kind of leads... gives the impression that it was a major subject of discussion, which really was relevant only to that one commission, so I am not sure that... if we can make that a little more... what do I want to say... general, I would be happier. And then the other one about the detailed elements of financial procedures, that was discussed on several occasions and certainly was discussed by the Finance Director, however I am not comfortable with that phrase, and would prefer to have it stated something like some of the Commissioners, rather than the entire Commission, because I don't feel... that's not my opinion, and I think that there's an advantage at times for having the detailed financial elements in there, for instance the emergency amendment that we have set up, so that there is a definite amount of money going into that fund, and the same thing with the preservation fund. So, I am not comfortable. I would be comfortable if it were made more general. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Commissioner Todd. MS. TODD: I think I have expressed my concern about the formation of additional boards and commissions without an analyses of the financial impact on departments and in particular, you know my experience with the Planning Department, that you ended up... it wasn't just a fiscal issue, it was an issue of having so many boards and commissions which weren't just Charter, but created through statute that the staff was spending so much time servicing boards and commissions that it made it very difficult for them to get to the actual work of the department, which is processing subdivision and rezoning, and those types of applications. But my concern actually goes beyond boards and commissions, and it is to Charter Amendments that create additional government regulation, procedure, additional departments, without an analysis of the fiscal and regulatory impact. In the past when the County has created like Department of Information Technology was created through the Charter, the Environmental Management Department was created through the Charter, and I think that when we created ... I am not sure whether it was the Police or the Fire Commission, there was no analysis of how much staff would be required to support those people, what the Page 12 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 budget impacts were, and there was no process in place to allow the public to understand what the fiscal and regulatory impacts would be to the County. For example, when they created these departments, there was no analysis that you needed a department head with the requisite salary, that you needed to have a secretary, that you might need to have a deputy for the department, and then if you had a board or commission assigned to that department and created for that department, then you needed funding for meetings. So it is just like our struggle to pay for things like mileage. And in the past before we had this facility, we used to have to rent places and it was a huge fiscal impact to the County, and my concern going forward is that there needs to be more of an analysis of what are the regulatory impacts, what are the impacts on staffing, what are the fiscal impacts, and the flexibility I think... issue is whether... and here I am the one that proposed the disaster fund which was already in Code, but I wanted to set a certain amount, and yes, it reduces flexibility, but on the other hand I think sometimes the Charter is designed to take some of the politics out of some of the budgetary decisions, so there is a balance. So I definitely have concerns about amendments to the Charter and the creation of boards and commissions as well as departments without a fiscal analysis. But I don't know that my concerns are echoed or adhered to as much by other Commissioners. You know, part of that is that my perspective comes from having run departments and having had that impact on our budget, where you know, something gets created and then we are like there's no budget for it, where are we going to find the staff? And I am robbing Peter to pay Paul. And so I just express the concern that going forward, when proposals are put forward, that there needs to be feedback from the departments and there needs to be an analysis of both the fiscal impact as well as the staffing impact. Sometimes it is like we had to rent places to house new departments and pay rent, and that wasn't envisioned when we made Charter amendments. You know, I think we... right now in a period of growth it is not as much of a concern, but you know, every indication that I have is that we may be headed for a recession and when you have fixed costs that you can't move around, I think it will create difficulty for the government in terms of flexibility if we hit a recession in the future. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you Commissioner Todd. Let me check with Hilo first. Any comments in Hilo? Okay. Seeing none, Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: I would agree with Commissioner Leithead-Todd about... especially if a new department is submitted as a part of the Charter program... but we don't have... to my knowledge, we have no boards or commissions in our amendments, new ones, and we have no departments, so we're expressing a concern about something that isn't in our amendments and it seems... although those are legitimate concerns, that they are not relevant to our submittal. The discussion of the finances does have relevancy to some of our amendments, but again, I would say that it could be more generalized where some of the Commission, not all of us agree with that. Page 13 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Thanks. Do you have...Commissioner Galimba? Commissioner Bergin. MR. BERGIN: Do you want to go first? MS. GALIMBA: Go ahead. Go ahead. MR. BERGIN: I have two points. I think maybe wording that would be a little bit more... less impassive, I think Sally expressed the term "some of us", but I think a term like "expressing fiscal caution" is one part of that equation. Where... how can we continue to do this and serve those commissions? Now on the other hand if our government is to serve the people and in our lifetimes we have seen the number of commissions really expand in numbers, and when you stop and look at the common sense of what they did, the Fire Department without the Fire Commission, was handled in a manner that was not consistent with good fiscal management. And on the other hand, take the... and I am sure the Chairman is correct, I think we have kind of a Wildlife Advisory Committee, I am not sure if that's the term, but now the hunters have a legitimate voice, they have a mechanism and we gotta be grateful for what they are expressing because if you drive to Kona you are going to see an awful lot of feral goats and that is just one species. That they can play a big part of saving our environment. So I think because of those two points, I am not so worried about it. I think we could soften it a little bit to be more like expressing the caution, fiscal caution. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: So following on a bit from Commissioner Bergin's statements, I can see that the reduction of government flexibility can become a problem, so perhaps we could... I am not sure how to... how the process is here and I don't know that I can wordsmith something right here, right now, but perhaps some language along the lines of "Commission struggled with the"... obviously struggled might not be the right word, but "discussed government, you know, financial flexibility, need for financial flexibility in balance with targeted funding that fulfills the desires of the people", or something... something along those lines, and that we have some discussion that we have just had right here today that kind of reflects that kind of tension between commissions also would be a really important participatory mechanism for the people to have a say in their government and how the money is funded versus then getting too specific and sort of tying our own hands to respond to the Administration's ability to respond to necessary expenditures, such as emergencies. So I was just thinking about that. It is perhaps an amendment that we could make to the language. Page 14 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: So the idea... we do have the motion, the entire report is the motion, if you want to make changes I think amendments are the correct way forward in this specific way and so if you have a specific phrasing then that is great. I am cognizant that we have fifty -something pages to go through as well. And I think that the Commission obviously can do what the Commission would like to do. So if you make an amendment and there is a second to it, then we will consider the amendment. But I would offer that if... that perhaps we have had a year of conversations, and that if there is something that is included in here that the Commission as a whole is not supportive of, and as a whole meaning that a majority that sits here, a majority of the Commission not just the majority that sits here, that we take it out. Right? So the suggestion would be that having heard that from the... where there is the current semicolon, so right now it is "Commission recognizes the Charter is meant to be a broad document to govern the operation of County government" period, and then the rest of that sentence through flexibility is removed. We could do that. INAUDIBLE COMMISSIONER MR. HENRICKS: Is that necessary? I think the Chair just offered to... CHR. ADAMS: Well I didn't make the motion. MR. HENRICKS: To expedite that by simply doing that without objection. You can certainly go through that deliberative process if you so desire. MS. RICE: Oh, oh, my understanding was you had to make an amendment. CHR. ADAMS: Yeah. Let's make the motion for the amendment. MR. HENRICKS: Okie dokie. CHR. ADAMS: Yeah, thanks. Is there a second? MS. GALIMBA: Second. CHR. ADAMS: Alright. So moved by Commissioner Rice, seconded by Commissioner Galimba to remove from the findings portion the phrase "the Commission has also expressed concern that the continued formation of boards and commissions, the very detailed elements of financial procedures are having a deleterious effect of reducing government flexibility." We have had some discussion already. Is there any additional discussion? Hilo? Okay. So I would ask for a voice vote on this. Favor of the motion to remove that phrase from the findings, please signify by saying "aye" (aye), can I see a raise of hands from Hilo? Any opposed? Naye? I would note that the Chair indicates that the ayes have this with Commissioners Roehrig and Hopkins excused. Page 15 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 MR. HENRICKS: And for the record, I have Mr. Hamano and yourself Chair Adams CHR. ADAMS: Voting no. Correct. MR. HENRICKS: Correct. CHR. ADAMS: Yup. MR. HENRICKS: Thank you. So seven, two, two. CHR. ADAMS: Correct. MR. HENRICKS: Thank you. Vote on Motion The motion to amend Findings portion was carried by the following voice vote: To Amend Finding (Approved): Ayes: Commissioners Bergin, Galimba, Rice, Saquing, Springer, Todd, and Zelko-Schlueter — 7 Noes: Commissioners Hamano and Chari Adams — 2 Absent: Commissioners Hopkins and Roehrig — 2 Excused: None. CHR. ADAMS: Are there any other comments or modifications having to do with the Activities, Findings, Recommendations, or Conclusion, pages three and four? Okay, seeing none, let's move into the proposals. So we have CA -1, I would note that you... that in the process we have not identified a Charter amendment number and so you see that there are no numbers in the actual Charter amendments below the line, and that is to allow for... as we note in the phrasing, so let me just do this with... CA -1, if you would turn to page eight of this and Section 11, 12, 13, and 14. Section 11, 12, 13, and 14 are consistent throughout the remainder of the other 20 proposed Charter amendments. Section 11 talks about, as we understand it, the... how the Charter material is noted. Whether it is repealed, stricken -through etc. Section 12 indicates that whoever... assuming that a particular Charter amendment is approved, then the revisor of the Charter shall renumber the Charter, Article, Chapter, and Section numbers, and any cross references, pursuant to the amendments approved by the electorate. Page 16 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 Section 13, Severability, this was actually initially about an ordinance. If you went back and you took a look at our previous work, these particular paragraphs identified if any provision of this ordinance or the application thereof... and that was used three times, and ordinance has been replaced appropriately with the phrase "Charter proposal" and that is the case through all 21 of the Charter amendments listed here. And then 14 talks about when the amendment takes effect. There is I think ones where that is not the case. That is the amendment takes effect at a particular date in one of these. So... but the rest of them are upon approval of the electorate. So there is the... the other piece of this is that as we move through, as we get into August and we take a look at what has come back from the Council if anything, and then we take a look at what these proposals are, we will have the opportunity to determine if in fact there needs to be some that need to be put together, and at that point then, those numbers, the Charter amendment numbers would be more accurate. And so right now we have one CA -1 through CA -30. When we do the proposals, we will take those numbers and we will make them one through 21. Okay? That's understood there in Hilo as well? Great. Okay. So everything below the line, on page five you have CA -1, Draft 3, Relating to District Residency Requirement Language and then you have a paragraph, and then you have a line across the page, and then you have Charter Amendment number, and then the "Be it Enacted by the People of the County of Hawai`i." We are not talking today about anything below the line. That was done last meeting, second and final reading. Okay? Alright. Everything that we are talking about is above the line from CA -1 through CA -30 whatever the draft, if there is a draft involved. So on CA -1, Draft 3, Relating to District Residency Requirement Language, page 5, are there any comments, additions, modifications, to the paragraph that you see there? Not seeing any comments, let's move on to CA -2, on page 10. CA -2, Draft 2, Relating to Council Meeting Locations, you will note that I say in nearly all of these paragraphs that "the Commission finds", that's because in our general Commission's Activities, Findings, and Recommendations, we refer that our findings per item will be... and in the paragraph of each of these Charter Amendment Proposals, so that is why you will find that phrase in each of these paragraphs. It should be understood that each of these paragraphs is not something that will be presented to the voters. This is part of the report that goes to the Council for their own explication. Is there anything on CA -2, Draft 2 from the Commissioners? Alright. Moving to CA -4, Draft 2, on page 12, Relating to the Department of Research and Development. Commissioner Rice. Page 17 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 MS. RICE: I just have a question. I didn't quite understand. The very last sentence of the explanation, "the Commission finds the advances in grant research and management technologies", which I understand, "facilitate the decentralization of the department's functions included in previous Charters." I have no objection to it. I just don't understand exactly what it means. CHR. ADAMS: So in the... in going back and taking a look at the testimony both from the Research and Development as well as from the proposal that was made, the... taking out of some of the phrasing, for example, providing staff leadership for and the coordinating information and regulatory knowledge, those things specifically identified that R&D, Department of R&D (Research and Development) had that responsibility. What this phrase now does in collaboration and coordination with that, allows for the departments themselves to take some of the responsibility and accountability for a variety of those things. In fact thereby decentralizing R&D's functions that were included in the previous Charters. That's what that refers to. MS. RICE: In other words expanding or morphing some of those functions into other departments. CHR. ADAMS: You wouldn't necessarily have looked to any of the other departments for grants you know, 10-15 years ago. Now you can. MS. RICE: Yup. Okay. Thank you. That is all I had. CHR. ADAMS: Alright, moving on to CA -5 on page 14, Relating to the Office of the Legislative Auditor. Is there any comments or questions regarding this particular paragraph at the top of page 14? Seeing none... and if I am going too fast Hilo you let me know. Alright. Moving on to CA -6 on page 16, Relating to Authority of Police and Fire Commissions, alright. Moving on to CA -8, Draft 2, Relating to Terms of Council Members, on the top of page 18, any comments... questions...? Seeing none, moving on to CA -9, Draft 3 on the top of page 20, Relating to the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Fund, alright. Moving on to CA -12, on the top of page 22, Relating to Discipline of Council Members, alright. Moving on to CA -14, Relating to the Department of Information Technology on the top of page 24, seeing no comments, moving on to CA -15, Relating to the Department of Information Technology at the top of page 26. Seeing no comments, moving on to CA -17, Relating to the Establishment of a Disaster and Emergency Fund found at the top of page 28. This is a longer paragraph. I am giving a couple extra time. Page 18 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 Seeing no comments, moving on to CA -18, Draft 2, Relating to the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Maintenance Fund, on the top of page 30. Seeing no comments, moving to CA -20, Draft 2, Relating to Mandatory Charter Reviews on the top of page 35. Yes Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: Just one typo. CHR. ADAMS: And where is it? MS. RICE: Go down the column to July. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. MS. RICE: You've got two thes. CHR. ADAMS: We do. Look at that. Okay. Without objection, we will remove that typo. Seeing no comments, we'll move to CA -21, Relating to Initiative and Referendum Petitions, at the top of page 37. Seeing no comments, next CA -22, Draft 2, Relating to the Use of Social Security Numbers on Petitions found at the top of page 38. Yes, Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: I have a question. Some of the amendments we did changed certain things within it and then this one for instance changed... well actually it was more some of the other things, but changed the social security numbers or deleted them as a requirement. When we put these together where you have amendments that are corrected in another amendment, how does that work? CHR. ADAMS: Mr. Henricks. MR. HENRICKS: So that's why it's critical that the Commission did not put forth proposals where the actual policy changes overlap. So for instance you know, we have a proposal to do change of Council terms. Should that pass and we also have a proposal that modifies the district residency requirements, should that pass as well, they both meld together because they don't... they don't overlap with each other. They don't conflict with each other. MS. RICE: Okay. I see. So each... when it goes to the ballot each one stands on its own. MR. HENRICKS: They are distinct. MS. RICE: And then later... Page 19 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 MR. HENRICKS: And if you recall at our previous meeting we had asked the Commission to remove language from a proposal that... about the Commissions having political, you know, members of the same political party. MS. RICE: Right. Right. MR. HENRICKS: Because it was in two proposals. So it is kind of the opposite. We wanted it in one so that the voters are voting distinctly on that and should that pass, it will be removed. If it doesn't, then it stays in because that's not what the voters approved. MS. RICE: I got you. Okay. Yup. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Back to CA -22, Draft 2, any comments? Seeing none, moving on to CA -23, Relating to Corporation Counsel, found at the top of page 40. Seeing no comments, moving on to CA -24, Draft 2, Relating to the Hawai`i Fire Department, found at the top of page 41. Seeing no comments, moving to CA -25, Relating to the Planning Department, found at the top of page 44. Seeing no comments, moving on to CA -28, Relating to Membership on Boards and Commissions, found at the top of page 47. Seeing no comments, moving to CA -29, Draft 2. I just want to make sure I don't screw something up. Oh, I did. CA -28 we just did, moving on to CA -29, Draft 2, Relating to the Capital Budget and Capital Program, found at the top of page 50. Seeing no comments, moving to CA -30, Relating to the Board of Ethics, found at the top of page 52. Before we move on to page 54 and Acknowledgements, again, are there any other, are there any comments having to do with any of the Charter amendment proposals one through 30 as listed, by any of the Commissioners? MS. SAQUING: I have a comment Chair. CHR. ADAMS: All above line...comments? Hilo. MS. SAQUING: Yes, I have a comment Chair. I just... I appreciate the time and effort that you put in to create the synopsis and the description of each amendment. It is... I am hoping that you could carry that forward when it comes time for our voters to look at all of these amendments cause it really clarifies the heart of the amendment that we are addressing. So I just want to mahalo you for doing that. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. MR. HENRICKS: Chair if I may before... Page 20 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Mr. Henricks. MR. HENRICKS: I just want to interject real quick. That was my understanding, that especially because you're... these... if you will the findings and the rationale of the Commission is included in this official report, you know, this in my mind, this is going to be the baseline for voter education. There are requirements that when we publish notice of the proposals in newspapers, that it include a summary of the proposals and not just the full text and I again presume that this is the language that will be used. It could be modified further if you so desire, but I think this is a heck of a head start if not the language to be used. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: So I was going to second that, but now I am going to third it. I just wanted to say that yes, I am very impressed by the precision and elegance of the language. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Alright. Moving on to page 54, Acknowledgements, did we get everybody that Commissioners want to get? MR. HENRICKS: Can I read it aloud for the record? CHR. ADAMS: Please. MR. HENRICKS: Thank you. "The Charter Commission would like to especially acknowledge and thank the Administrative Services, Council Services, and Legislative Research Branch of the Office of the County Clerk, and also the West Hawai`i Office of the Hawai`i County Council for their invaluable assistance with the Charter Commission's activities and meetings. Additionally, the Charter Commission extends its gratitude to the Department of Parks and Recreation and its staff, for providing excellent facilities for the Commission's public hearings in Honoka`a, Kohala, Na` alehu, and Pahoa." CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Todd. MS. TODD: I would like to add to the Acknowledgement section, to acknowledge the members of the public who have attended our meetings, provided testimony and recommendations to us, because I think they have been an invaluable part of this process and should be acknowledged. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Without objection I would like to ask Commissioner Todd to get with Mr. Henricks to put that phrasing into the acknowledgements. Seeing no objection. Alright, so we have a motion on the floor as amended, to transmit the Commission's Report to the Hawai`i County Council that will include the letter that will be the transmittal letter and then the opportunity for all of us to sign on the page underneath the cover, that would then be sent to the Commission. Is Page 21 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 Vote on Motion To Approve Report To County Council: (Approved) there any other discussion relating to this report, prior to my taking a vote? Yes Mr. Henricks. MR. HENRICKS: Just to double down for the record, the modifications will be limited to the one matter that was officially voted upon. CHR. ADAMS: Right. MR. HENRICKS: Beginning of the report, the correction of the typo that Commissioner Rice pointed out, and the addition to the Acknowledgement section that Commissioner Leithead-Todd will provide via email that we will go ahead and insert that in, and that is what the Commission will be approving with the vote that Chair Adams is about to take. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Alright. Hilo? Any other discussion? None here? I would ask for this to be a roll call vote. MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Bergin (aye), Ms. Galimba (aye), Mr. Hamano (aye), Mr. Hopkins, Ms. Leithead-Todd (aye), Ms. Rice (aye), Mr. Roehrig, Ms. Saquing (aye), Ms. Springer (aye), Ms. Zelko-Schlueter (aye), Chair Adams (gratefully, aye). Chair Adams you have nine ayes. CHR. ADAMS: I would note that Commissioners Roehrig and Hopkins are excused. Therefore the motion to transmit the report as amended, passes and the report will therefore be sent, the plan is for June 26th. Alright, moving on to... so, actually I would ask the members here in Kona before you leave to please get with Shannon, I assume, or yup, Shannon. Make sure that we get your signatures. Oh, okay great, and that the members in... Commissioners Hilo please if you haven't already, please get with Shannon to schedule a time for you to be able to sign. We have no other reports, we have no referrals for Executive Session that I am aware of, so now we go back... now we go to Agenda Items for Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting. The motion to transmit the Charter Commission's Report to the Hawai`i County Council pursuant to Section 50-8 of the HRS was carried by the following roll call vote: Ayes: Noes: Absent: Excused: Commissioners Bergin, Galimba, Hamano, Rice, Saquing, Springer, Todd, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 9 None. Commissioners Hopkins and Roehrig — 2 None. Page 22 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: So if I may, the timeline right now is such that this will be presented... the report will go to the Council, the Council will have 30 days, that means by July 26th we will hear something, one way or the other, the plan then is to have no meeting in July alright? And so, it is... so without ob... well, I think we actually have to vote on this. So I would entertain a motion to suspend the rules. Is there a second? Alright moved by... and you are probably wondering why we are suspending the rules. We are suspending the rules having to do with our regularly scheduled meeting. So it has been moved and seconded, to suspend the rules regarding our regularly scheduled meetings. All in favor please signify by saying "aye" (aye), any opposed? Motion passes unanimously with Commissioners Roehrig and Hopkins excused. Vote on Motion to The motion to suspend Charter Rule I. Relating to scheduling of regular Suspend Rule meetings was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved): AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING: Ayes: Commissioners Bergin, Galimba, Hamano, Rice, Saquing, Springer, Todd, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Hopkins and Roehrig — 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: So the purpose of that is to allow us to not have to have a July meeting. I would notice... I would note however in our rules, even though we have been doing that and so by custom of use if you will, that is why we did that... but we do say in our rules that... see if I get this right, that the phrasing in our rules is "unless otherwise specified, regular meetings will be held on the second Friday of each month at 1:30 p.m.", so that is why we have been suspending the rules when we are talking about changing those particular dates. I will, I would note that there will likely be a Communication to Commissioners that in August we will look to amend our rules moving forward, having to do with meetings and when they need to be scheduled, and that kind of thing. That way we don't have to continue to ask for that information, or those votes. So the proposal will be that we will have that information by July 26th, the plan would be to have our next meeting on August 8th, which is a Thursday, I would Page 23 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 anticipate that meeting being held in Hilo because that would be our next meeting having done the meeting here in Kona. The folks in Hilo you don't have to come to Kona for that meeting, you can stay in Hilo. The... and then, what that would allow us to do is have that information then if there is... it would be at that meeting, we would know if there are any alternatives, we would have the opportunity to consider those alternatives, because that information would have been available for the agenda that will be placed at the end of July, timing wise. So we would have that information, we would be able to consider those alternatives, that would then allow Council time to decide at their regularly scheduled meeting on the 21st of August, whether or not to recall any of the alternatives that we may have not agreed to. Then the 26th to the 28th, sometime in that period, we would have a second meeting in August if necessary, to then approve the final proposal with any changes if there were any changes, from the alternatives. And with any alternatives that have not been recalled to the Clerk. That fits in within the window that we have then having received the information from the Council. I would also anticipate, it would be as a part of this, but since we are talking about Items that would be on Future Agenda Items, I would anticipate that we would talk about, and potentially form an ad hoc committee to develop ballot language, and so we would want to do that in our August meeting as well. And that would be the things that we would be taking a look at. There may be other things, but that's what I foresee as we move forward. I would note that if there are any amendments... actually let me turn this into a question for our Counsel, he has no idea I am going to ask the question but he is really good on his feet. Any changes that we have made so far usually have required a couple of times through the Commission, with the exception of in second and final reading, we had the ability to suspend the rules for any holdover if they were substantive changes. In the statute as I read it, there is no discussion about procedures for dealing with changes to proposals that have already made it through second and final reading, and have gone to the Council, the Council comes back with alternatives, we consider those alternatives, and is there any reason to have more than one vote on whether or not to accept an alternative by the Council, changing therefore... or thereby you know, a proposal? MR. YOSHIMOTO: No. You would just need one vote because the rules speak to the Commission either accepting or rejecting.. and, yeah, so no, I don't see any purpose for that. CHR. ADAMS: Okay, great. So... Commissioner Todd. Page 24 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 MS. TODD: Further elaborating that you know, I think it envisions that one, the Council would propose amendments in an open meeting, that is followed by the public, and if it is transmitted to us, it is part of our agenda, it is attached as a report, so that's available to the public in advance of our meeting. So there is no surprise to the public as to what we may be discussing. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. So in Hilo, we understand that process? Okay, it looks like we do. Great. And we understand it here? Okay great. Are there any other items in this particular section on Agenda Items for Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting? Yes, Commissioner Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Just a question about that. We are supposed to have like an analysis of the financial impact of Charter amendments, is that... when does... does this affect this set of proposals, or not, and when would that happen? MR. HENRICKS: When the proposals are final. The Charter itself requires that the Director of Finance, or the Finance Department, creates or does a... what they are called, Fiscal Impact Analysis for each proposal. It is their responsibility and there is a prescribed timeframe in the Charter itself. It is within a certain amount of days prior to the general election. So that would be their responsibility which makes sense. MS. RICE: Has that been published? How did the public find out about it? MR. HENRICKS: So what the Charter says right now essentially is that it is on the website of the County and is... can be and should be... it is available for inclusion in any voter educational materials, so if this Commission, if they are available, and you know, for that opportunity and the Commission would like to include that as a part of its educational... I believe that would be appropriate. It would be a decision of the Commission to do so as a part of its effort to provide information to the public so the public can make informed decisions if that is possible, but otherwise, it will be on the County's website and then it will be available for use by, I believe, you know, any governmental or non-governmental operation that is providing voter education. MS. RICE: So on the voter education, how does that proceed? MR. HENRICKS: We have requirements to publish the full text of the ordinances with summaries. CHR. ADAMS: Proposals. Not ordinances, but proposals. MR. HENRICKS: Proposals, of the full text of the proposals with the summaries, certain amount of days before the election as well, and then you know, Page 25 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 anything... that doesn't mean that more can't be done as well. You know, that's something that especially given the amount of time that we have before the election, that this body can get together and meet and talk about ways in which it feels the information could be best transmitted to the most amount of people. So we do have some creative outlets we can go through and then we have more standard mechanisms that we should follow. You know, I do want to note that we kept this in mind and we are preparing you know, a fairly substantial amount of budgeted funds for those purposes, recognizing that those efforts come with some costs. Money well spent... MS. RICE: Right. MR. HENRICKS: To be clear, but yeah, we will have funds available for that. MS. RICE: Okay. MR. HENRICKS: And I would note as well that our Chair has been very active and receptive to requests to appear at functions and other places as well, and that is another option as well... that... through the Chair providing information to groups of people at community events and other types of forums as well, radio, interviews, and different things of that nature. CHR. ADAMS: Thanks Mr. Henricks. Oh... MR. YOSHIMOTO: So one quick addition, so the timeframe is 60 calendar days prior to the election in terms of the financial impact statement. I think that was the question, one of the questions raised. CHR. ADAMS: And in... I would just integrate that all together by saying that as we develop the ballot language we will in August... we will transition from a developer of proposals to a publicizer of those proposals, and it will be important to make sure that we have done what we need to do so that the registered voters of this County know what they are voting on in November 2020, and that may involve some different ideas on how to make sure that the summaries as well as potentially pros and cons are available for folks to do, and it may not be that it is just this Commission's responsibility for pros and cons. It may be that there are other non-partisan objective entities that would be interested in helping with that as well. Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: Yes, does the League of Women Voters... how do... do they pick up things on their own? MR. HENRICKS: And just to clarify on what Chair Adams said and then I will answer your question, they are free to do whatever they want to do if they are Page 26 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 happy to help and facilitate their efforts as it is appropriate. Make sure that accurate information is provided to the voters, but I just wanted to clarify as well that any information the Charter Commission puts forward would not include cons. CHR. ADAMS: Right. MS. RICE: Oh, okay. Right. MR. HENRICKS: Whatever... however you folks voted on any individual proposal, the Commission as a body has put these proposals forward and said as a body that it believes that it will benefit the operation of the government, so there won't necessarily be pros... MS. RICE: Right. MR. HENRICKS: It would be you know... CHR. ADAMS: It is just a statement... right. MR. HENRICKS: As much as... it doesn't have to be totally dryly objective, but it would not include any, what might be perceived as, as cons. MS. RICE: Correct. Okay. CHR. ADAMS: I apologize if I... apparently I was... interpreted that way. So having heard all that, let's move on to Announcements. We have the oppor... we will not have a July meeting, without objection, and I would like to then schedule the next meeting for August 8th in Hilo, and I would like to do it at 11:00 a.m. if that is possible, just because... that way we can take into consideration the fact that we are not really sure what is going to be on the agenda. So seeing no objections to that plan, that is what we will do. So next regular meeting, Thursday, August 8, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. in the Hilo Council Chambers, 25 Aupuni Street. And I believe that that is okay for us? Okay, great. I would entertain a motion to adjourn. It has been moved by Commissioner Rice and seconded by Commissioner Galimba, all in favor please signify by giving a thumbs up. Motion passes. Thank you all for being here. Thank you all for being here. Vote on Motion There being no further business, at 12:39 p.m. Commissioner Rice moved that Adjourn the meeting be adjourned. Seconded by Commissioner Galimba and carried by (Approved): the following voice vote: Page 27 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -11 June 21, 2019 Ayes: Commissioners Bergin, Galimba, Hamano, Rice, Saquing, Springer, Todd, Zelko-Schlueter, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Hopkins and Roehrig — 2 Excused: None . Conunission Approval: August 8, 2019 glass Shipman AdJms, Chair 0 Hawai`i Coun y Charter Commission Page 28