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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOMM. 124 Harden, CHawai’i County Charter Commission Special Meeting 1:30 PM Friday, December 18, 2009 County Council Chambers, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo comments by Cory Harden, PO Box 10265, Hilo, Occupied Hawaii 96721, 808-968-8965 mh@interpac.net Thank you for your many hours of volunteer work. Here are my suggestions: Support Comm. 106: reconsideration of CA-18. Support CA-18 Four year Council terms so we get more experienced Council members, and their energy isn’t drained by campaigns every two years--but only if combined with revised CA-7 or CA-35 Recall, and CA-27 Vacancies in Office to ensure checks and balances. Support Comm. 109: Additional Public Hearings. The more heads working on these complex issues, the better. Replace CA-12 with CA-16 Initiation of Charter Amendments or Revisions. CA-16 uses a process recently added to the Charter for another action, Initiative and Referendum. That process was developed jointly by citizens (the League of Women Voters and Debbie Hecht) and government (the County clerk) and approved by voters in 2006. Support CA-14 Legislative Auditor to strengthen the auditing office by allowing them to retain independent legal counsel and adding a “right to audit“ clause to all county contracts. That might have prevented the “Million Dollar Bulldozer,” which the County sold, then rented back for thousands of dollars. Combine with CA-34 Budgetary Independence of the Legislative Auditor to further strengthen the auditor. Support CA-20 Council Standing Committees to ensure that all Council members will be members of all committees. Support CA-25 Community Development Plans to strengthen local control. Support CA-26 Conservation of Natural and Cultural Resources so people protecting these resources can say “It’s so important, it’s in our Charter.” Add “plants and animals.” Support CA-27 Vacancies in office which gives citizens more say if an elected official dies, resigns, is impeached, or is recalled. Right now a deputy takes over or the Council appoints someone. But with this amendment, if over six months of the term remain, there’s a special election by mail. Combine with revised CA-7 or CA-35 Recall and CA-18 Four year Council terms to ensure checks and balances. Support CA-29 Prosecuting Attorney Powers. This makes the prosecuting attorney pro-active, not just reactive, allowing them to work on crime prevention, criminal justice reform, and public education, and seek funds to do all this. Support CA-34 Budgetary Independence of the Legislative Auditor Legislative auditors have to bite the hand that feeds them, since County Council holds the purse strings for their office. This year the Council tried to severely cut the legislative auditor’s funding. The proposed amendment would follow what many states and counties do--set aside a percentage of their operations and special funds budgets. This frees up auditors to do tough investigations. Combine with CA-14 Legislative Auditor to further strengthen the auditor. Support CA-35 Recall. Combine with revised CA-7, CA-18 Four year Council terms, and CA-27 Vacancies in Office to ensure checks and balances. I suggest these changes, mostly to make things easier for the County clerk and petitioners: Sec 12-1.4 increase number of working days (3, not just 2) (a) for clerk to give committee sample petition form and street map (c) for clerk to accept petition form or propose alternative (d) add that acceptance of a petition revision does NOT guarantee legal approval Sec 12-1.5 (b) (6) A. and B. require fewer signatures (20%, not 25%) of people who voted Sec. 12-1.7 (d) if there are no Hawai’i Island daily newspapers to print the recall election notice, substitute statewide daily newspapers Sec. 12-1.8 (a) (1) (2) (3) be sure this matches CA-27 Recap of amendments to combine: To ensure checks and balances: revised CA-7 or CA-35 Recall CA-18 Four year Council terms CA-27 Vacancies in Office To strengthen the Legislative Auditor: CA-14 Legislative Auditor CA-34 Budgetary Independence of the Legislative Auditor Mahalo for all your work.