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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CHC 1990-02-21 1 r • Minutes of Regular Meeting of the HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSION February 21, 1990 I . CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Bethea called the meeting to order at approximately 1 : 08 p.m. at the Police Dept . , Public Safety Bldg. , Conf . Rm. , 349 Kapiolani , Hilo, Hawaii . II. ROLL CALL: Members Robert E. Bethea, Chairman Present: Sherwood Greenwell , Vice Chairman Pamela F. Cushnie Francine Duncan David Fuertes H. Peter L'Orange Aileen Lum Steven T. Nishikawa Akira T. Omonaka Patricia M. Poppe Attorney: Christopher Yuen Secretary:R. Marie Jacobs Members James O. Juvik Absent: III . APPROVE MINUTES OF 01/19/90 & 02/02/90: Motion No. 1: Upon motion made by Mr. Greenwell and seconded by Mr. L'Orange, the 01/19/90 minutes were approved; Motion No. 2: and upon motion made by Ms. Poppe and seconded by Mr. L'Orange, the 02/02/90 minutes were approved. All were in favor of each motion. IV. PUBLIC TESTIMONY: J. R. Smoot/West Hawaii Committee (see Exhibit A) . Smoot : Suggests that the Charter Commission should be discussing the Apportionment Commission, not a reapportionment commission. Also says , rather than using the judicial districts as a basis for the appointment of the Apportionment Commission, that the 1980 census tracts with its updated population count be used to appoint these commission members. Recommends that this be considered because the Kau and Hamakua districts are always over- represented while the North/South Kona and Kohala districts are always under-represented. The idea was 805 discussed by Charter members. Yuen: Up to Charter Commission how they want to determine representation (Tape 1: 1 :41) . Bethea: Public testimony closed. V. AGENDA ITEM NO. 4 : GENERAL: Absenteeism: Greenwell: Too many were absent last meeting. Lum: Important for Charter members to attend these voting meetings. Bethea: Setting advanced schedule might insure increased attendance. L'Orange: Members should call in when they can' t make meetings . If we don' t have quorum, meeting can be cancelled. Bethea: Hope to determine what work remains : a) issues already decided to include on ballot and b) issues not yet decided on. Discussed whether specific day of week needed to be set. Greenwell: Feels if only six members will be present , meeting should be cancelled; anytime four members will be out, voting will be problem. Bethea: Secretary will notify Bethea of potential absences . Discussed cancellation problems concerning public. Yuen: Can agreed to handle quorum meetings another way: agree that if something doesn' t pass , it automatically is deferred to next meeting. Greenwell: Even if meeting is cancelled, public testimony should be taken. Yuen: Cannot take verbal testimony if quorum doesn' t exist , but can accept written testimony (Tape 1 : 1 : 30) . Bethea: Meeting cancellations can be handled via phone and radio announcements . Will choose two meeting dates in advance. VI. AGENDA ITEM NO. 6: Salary Commission letter. Bethea: Received a request from Dave Luke to defer this item to the next meeting so he and others can testify on this matter. Motion No. 3 : Upon motion made by Mr. Fuertes and seconded by Ms. Poppe, this was done. All were in favor. VII . AGENDA ITEM NO. 7 : Reapportionment Commission. Reference is made to Chris Yuen' s letter of 01/31/90 (Exhibit B hereto) . Yuen: Voted previously to select members from geographical areas for Reapportionment Commission. The material from 1990 census will be available in March, 1991. First Council elections under new boundaries would be in 1992 . Single-member districts take effect with the 1992 election also. Yuen: If councilperson resigns in mid-term, replacement will be appointed by Council to serve out balance of 806 term. Then new councilperson will be elected. Bethea: State elections are every two years . Bethea: Discussed the new Sec. 3-18 , Reapportionment , drafted by Chris Yuen in Exhibit B. L'Orange: Might consider two reapportionment commissions : one that does the initial reapportionment job and another commission that does the job in 10 years . Cushnie: So apportionment commission would have seven members and the reapportion- ment would have nine geographical members. The nine- member commission is not represented in the newly drafted Sec. 3-18 . Motion No. 4 : Greenwell : Motions that Mr. L'Orange' s suggestion of two reapportionment commissions , one a nine-member reapportionment commission representing each district , be given to Mr. Yuen for rewording. L'Orange: Seconded. Motion withdrawn. Yuen: No reason why both commissions couldn' t have nine members . Charter Commission needs to determine how many members first and then Mr. Yuen will submit wording for consideration. Bethea: Explained district/precinct divisions. Yuen: Establishing districts is big job handled by state. Can leave it up to the appointing authority (mayor) to choose representatives from the geographical areas . Bethea: Need to determine methodology for choosing first commission. Motion No. 5: L'Orange: Moves that Sec. 3-18 as Mr. Yuen drafted it be accepted, but that the Charter Commission be given time until the next meeting to review testimony from the West Hawaii Committee re who the first commission will be composed of . Omonaka: Should have a transitional paragraph stating that "reapportions thereafter shall . . . . " Yuen: Need to specify how first commission will be selected. Motion No. 6: L'Orange: Made a motion that after first commission has done its job and nine Council districts are formed, thereafter reapportionment will consist of one member from each Council district. Poppe: Seconded. All were in favor. Motion No. 7: Poppe: Makes a motion to accept the wording of Sec. 3-18 (b) in Exhibit B. Omonaka: Seconded the motion. Cushnie/L ' Orange: Should call the first commission the "apportionment commission. " All were in favor of the motion. 807 Motion No. 8 : Omonaka: Makes a motion to adopt the balance of reapportionment provisions as drafted by Chris Yuen in Exhibit B. Poppe: Seconded motion. All were in favor. VIII . AGENDA ITEM NO. 8 : Article V: a) Chp. l: Mayor: Refer to Chris Yuen' s letter of 02/21/90 (Exhibit C hereto) . Yuen: Presently exists provision to fill mayoral vacancy with managing director until successor is elected at the next state or county election (Tape 1 : 2: 42) . Yuen: Concern was waiting a long transitional period until the next election. If transitional period is 270 days or longer before the next general election, then a special election would take place. Next concern was whether both a primary and general election were held; he included both. Time between removal of a mayor and date of primary election would be held would be 60-75 days; general election would also be within another 45-60 days. Cushnie: Noted that a new election was open to all political parties . Also noted that according to Mr. Yuen' s draft , impeached party can still seek reelection. Lum: Questioned whether primary was needed. Yuen: It ' s up to commission to decide; primaries filters out all but two parties. Greenwell: Feels recalls should not be allowed until mayor has been in office minimum time. Bethea: Sec. 12-1 . 9 provides that elected officer cannot be recalled until he ' s served minimum of six months of term. Poppe: Would like to propose change in language to say "if office of mayor is vacated for any reason" instead of "if he is removed. " Provisions have to include accidents to mayor right after he takes position. Lum: Present system was said to work except when impeachment/recall takes place and managing director takes over; it was thought people would not want to retain managing director. Bethea: If you had a crooked managing director, you cannot oust him through the same recall , because recall applies to appointed office. L 'Orange: Elections are costly. Lum: Good managing directors in past doesn' t mean future will hold the same. Also wants qualifica- tions for managing director. Bethea: Could differentiate between whether mayor dies or else is removed by recall or impeachment. Lum: On Kauai , council elects by majority vote one of its members to fill mayoral vacancy and then 808 fills its council vacancy also (Tape 1 : 2: 20) . Bethea: Doesn' t want our Council to choose person for mayor ' s position; likes continuity of managing director filling in position. Motion No. 8 : Omonaka: Moved that with regard to filling mayoral position, Sec. 5-1 . 5 , Charter remains the same as it now is. Bethea: Except the word "next" will appear in "successor is duly elected at the next state or state and county. . . " L'Orange: Seconded. All were in favor of the motion except Ms . Cushnie, who was opposed. Motion carried. Bethea: Mr. Yuen will research and advise commission re primary special election provision. Motion No. 9 : Poppe: Moved that "twelve o ' clock meridian" be changed to "twelve o ' clock noon" throughout the Charter. Seconded by Mr. Greenwell . All were in favor . b) Chp. 4: Planning: Greenwell: Should be qualifica- tions for planning director. L 'Orange: . Objection was to the three-five years of administrative experience, which limits choice of candidates . Poppe: Need to define "administrative" experience. Bethea: Can mean one or more employees . Lum: Also means administrating a program, where no employees are involved. Motion No. 10: Poppe: Made a motion that minimum qualifications be: Five years ' training and experience in a responsible planning position; or a college degree in either planning, engineering, architecture or geography plus three years of experience (Tape 2 : 1 : 40) . Lum: Seconded. All were in favor of the motion except Mr. Omonaka, who was opposed. Motion carried. Bethea: Mr. Yuen should prepare wording to look at next meeting. (Note: Mr . Nishikawa left meeting. ) Poppe: What about having one person on Planning Commission advisory only? Lum: Helene Hale wanted the commission advisory (Tape 2: 2 :41) . Bethea: Unnecessary to change. c) Chp. 5: R&D: L 'Orange/Poppe: Suggestions were to change name and eliminate department . Bethea: Also, whether this department should have a deputy and whether Sec. 5-5 . 3 (c) should be deleted. L'Orange/Cushnie: No need to take "research" out of department name. Poppe: Need to make clear whether department serves mayor or 809 Council . Greenwell: "Economic development" would cover research. Bethea: Also missing the language, "under the supervision and control of the mayor. " Yuen: That language is inserted where departments are under the control of a commission (i.e Water , Police, Liquor) . L'Orange: Department has had a people problem in past. Greenwell: Previously, department collected data from other sources , compiled it , and distributed it . But feels research is a large part of department ' s function. Motion No. 11: Poppe: Made a motion to delete Sec. 5-5. 3 (c) from the Charter; seconded by Ms . Cushnie. All were in favor. (Note: Mr. Omonaka was not present for the motion. ) Motion No. 12: Cushnie: Made a motion not to consider a deputy for R&D. Poppe: Seconded motion. All were in favor. Poppe: Advisory committee to R&D was brought up also. Greenwell : One existed previously, but the director never utilized it . L'Orange: Such a committee is unnecessary. d) Chp. 6: Board of Appeals: Yuen: Decided not to touch the Board of Appeals per discussion previous meeting. Duncan: One suggestion was to assign board to Corporation Counsel ' s office to prevent conflicts . IX. AGENDA ITEM NO. 9 : Art. VI : a) Chp. 1: Deputy Managing Director: Yuen: Took vote previously on including the position in the Charter; but because it was voted 5 to 1 , it didn' t pass--not enough commission members present. Bethea: Was it mandated to the West Hawaii side? Same was discussed by commission. Yuen: No. L'Orange: Wants it in Charter. Motion No. 13 : L'Orange: Moved that the deputy managing director position be mandated in the Charter. Greenwell: Seconded the motion. All were in favor except those that opposed the motion were Mr. Omonaka, Mr. Fuertes and Ms. Lum. Count was 6 for it and 3 against. Motion passed. Motion No. 14: Lum: Moved that qualifications be set for the managing director and deputy managing director. Poppe: Seconded the motion. 810 Commission: M.D. position should read: "Shall have had at least five years of experience in an administrative capacity. " Greenwell: Mayor will appoint someone who can do the job. X. AGENDA ITEM NO. 12: Set Next Meeting: The next two meetings are March 7 , 9 a.m. in Waimea and March 28 , 1 :00 p.m. in Hilo. XI. ADJOURNMENT: Chairman Bethea adjourned the meeting at approximately 4:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, (-1Z - Ug .% R. Marie Jaco s Secretary-Assistant 811 Kohala w , s :71em, 4 AgV,Va POW WEST HAWAII COMMITTEE 11 Kana �s ^. POST OFFICE BOX 5066 / KAILUA-KONA, HAWAII 96745 41, Ka'u February 21 , 1990 Hawaii County Charter Review Commission Re : Christopher Yuens January 31 , 1990 letter Page 68—Section 3-18 Reapportionment Commission It appears to those of us, from the West Hawaii Committee that the recommendation of Mr. Yuen in. section B of his above letter would, in fact perpetuate the type of non proportional representation that has led us to support the Nine Single Member form of Government that you have voted unanimously to place before the voters. in Novemeber. Our recommendation would be that,rather than using the iudicial districts as a basis for Reapportionment Commission appointment, we ask that this Commission refer to our August 9, 1989 testimony to you,page 5 of our testimony(you file copy will have a 497 connotation) . This uses the 1980 census tracts and breaks down • very nicely into 7 very equally populated geographic areas from which the Mayor could appoint his Commission. To point out the obvious .Kau, Hamakua are always greatly over— represented while North and South Kona and Kohala are under— represented We urge, in the spirit of one—person—one vote and fairness, that this commission start the ball rolling by recommending that this change in section 3-18 be based on actual population and not out dated Geographical Districts . Thank yo ery much, /J. R. Smoot est Hawaii Committee EXHIBIT A (1 page) 812 CHRISTOPHER J. YUEN HILO LAGOON CENTRE,SUITE 108 101 AUPUNI STREET HILO,HAWAII 96720 ATTORNEY AT LAW TEL.(808)935-4429 January 31, 1990 Hawaii County Charter Commission 101 Aupuni Street, Suite 235 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Re: Single Member Districts and Reapportionment Commission Dear Members of the Charter Commission: I have drafted three new sections to the County Charter to effectuate the Charter Commission's vote at its last meeting to offer a single-member district council alternative to the voters. The first two are quite simple. We would replace the current Charter §3-2 with the following new language: Section 3-2 . Composition and Terms. There shall be a county council composed of nine members. One member shall be elected from each of nine districts. The terms of the council members shall be four years and shall begin at twelve o'clock meridian on the first Monday of December after their election. Candidates shall be nominated and elected in accordance with the election laws of the State. The current Charter §3-3 would be replaced with the following language: Section 3-3. Qualifications. A person must be a citizen of the United States of America and have been a duly qualified registered voter of the county for at least one year immediately preceding election or appointment to the county council. A person must also have been a registered voter of the district from which the person is to be elected or appointed for at least ninety (90) days preceding the primary election or the appointment. In §3-3, I deleted the language in the present §3-3 "where residency in a district is a requirement, " because if the .single- member district provision is adopted, residency will be a requirement for all councilmembers. I also changed the phrase "resident voter" to "registered voter" : "resident voter" does not have any definition that I'm aware of, whereas H.R.S. §11-13 contains several rules for being a "registered voter. " Generally, you must register from the place of your habitation or EXHIBIT B 813 (4 pages) dwelling, unless you are temporarily absent from your permanent home. If we wanted to tighten up the language further, we could require that someone be a "resident and registered voter" from the district. I also drafted an entirely new §3-18, establishing a Reapportionment Commission to draw the district boundaries. According to our minutes, it appears that the Charter Commission had a straw vote at the November 14 , 1989 meeting to follow the present Police Commission in establishing the Reapportionment Commission: i.e. , seven members appointed by the mayor, confirmed by the council, with geographical representation from the present judicial districts. Accordingly, the §3-18 (b) I drafted follows that format; however, there are many other possibilities. The new section would read as follows: §3-18. Reapportionment Commission. (a) There shall be a reapportionment commission which shall establish the boundaries of the council districts. (b) The reapportionment commission shall consist of seven members, two of whom shall be residents of the combined judicial districts of North and South Hilo, one from the judicial district of Puna, one from the judicial district of Ka'u, one from the combined judicial districts of North and South Kona, one from the combined judicial districts of North and South Kohala, and one from the judicial district of Hamakua. The members shall .be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council in the manner prescribed in Section 13-4 . (c) The year 1991 and every tenth year thereafter shall be reapportionment years. The reapportionment commission shall be appointed and confirmed by March 1 of the reapportionment year. It shall adopt a reapportionment plan by a majority vote of the members to which it is entitled and file the reapportionment plan with the county clerk by December 31 of the reapportionment year. The reapportionment commission shall be dissolved after the filing of the reapportionment plan. (d) The county clerk shall furnish all necessary technical and secretarial services for the reapportionment commission. The council shall appropriate necessary funds to enable the commission to carry out its duties. (e) The reapportionment commission shall be guided by the following criteria in establishing the boundaries of the council districts: (1) No district shall be drawn to unduly favor or penalize a person or political faction; (2) Insofar as possible, districts should be contiguous and compact; (3) District lines shall, where possible, follow permanent and easily recognizable features; (4) Districts shall have approximately equal resident populations as required by applicable constitutional provisions. 814 (f) The district boundaries as established by the reapportionment commission shall be in effect for the first regularly scheduled council election following the filing of the plan and for subsequent council election. The district boundaries in effect prior to the filing of the reapportionment plan shall remain in effect during the duration of the full term of the councilmembers holding office at the time of the filing of the reapportionment plan and shall remain in effect for any election held to fill an unexpired term under Section 3-5: (g) Any registered voter may petition the proper court to compel, by mandamus or otherwise, the appropriate person or persons to perform their duty or to correct any error made in a reapportionment plan, or the court may take such other action to of this section as it may the purposesy deem appropriate. Any such petition must be filed within forty-five days of the date specified for any duty or within forty-five days after the filing of a reapportionment plan. The Reapportionment Commission would be constituted on March 1, 1991, and March 1, 2001, and every ten years thereafter. The complete census information is to be reported by March 31, 1991, and there should be preliminary data for the Commission to work with before that date. I checked with census officials, and very detailed population data will be available: the census will be broken down into geographical "blocks" of 35-85 people. The Commission would be required to adopt its plan and submit it to the clerk by December 31 of the year in which it was constituted. §3-18 (f) contains the "transitional" language, and I .hope that this is reasonably clear. Your comments and suggestions would be appreciated because this was difficult to draft. The first council election under the reapportionment plan would be in 1992 . Clearly, the councilmembers who are serving out their terms until the 1992 election should continue in office after the reapportionment plan is filed, and should continue to represent the same district boundaries from which they were elected (if they were elected from districts) . When the next Reapportionment Commission's plan is filed on December 31, 2001, the councilmembers who are then serving will have almost three years remaining on their terms. They need to know whether they must remain as residents of the old districts or become residents of the new ones, and whether they represent the old district boundaries or the new ones. Theintent of the language I drafted is to provide that they continue to represent the old district until the term expires and should continue to reside within the old district. Also, there is the possibility of a mid-term election to fill a vacancy under §3-5. This language is intended 815 to make the mid-term election follow the old district boundary. Otherwise, a portion of the island could be unrepresented. Yours truly, (Ars 41-- Christopher J. Y 816 CHRISTOPHER Jr. YUEN HILO LAGOON CENTRE,SUITE 10$ 101 AUPUNI STREET HILO,HAWAII 96720 ATTORNEY AT LAW TEL.(808)935-4429 February 21, 1990 Hawaii County Charter Commission 101 Aupuni Street, Suite 235 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Re: Special Election for Office of Mayor Dear Charter Commission Members: I was asked to draft language calling for a special election in the event that the mayor is removed by impeachment or recall. In doing this, I had to make a number of more of less arbitrary decisions. All of these can be changed by the Commission, but I have prepared a draft Charter provision so that the Commission will have something concrete to consider, and can also see the various factors that go into a special election. First, there needs to be a determination whether there would be only a special general election, or whether there would be a special primary and a special general election. If there is only a special general election, it is essentially a free-for-all where a candidate with substantially less than a majority of the total vote may be elected. The overall political picture becomes very different: the election is actually more like a non- partisan election. If we opt to have a special primary and a special general election, the time frame becomes somewhat longer because we must allow time for campaigning for two elections, and because the State Constitution requires that there be a gap of no less than forty-five days between any primary and general election. (Art.II, §8 . ) The language I drafted calls for both a primary and a general. Next, we have to decide when we would simply wait until the - next regularly scheduled election rather than call a special election. At some point, the time frame might be so short that it wouldn't make much sense to have a special election. I used 270 days as the cut-off point: there would be a special election only if more than 270 days remained after the removal of the mayor until the next general election. Of course, this is an arbitrary date. We must also determine the time frame between the removal of the mayor and the special primary, the date for the close of filing, and the time frame between the special primary and the special general election. I used 60-75 days from the removal to the primary, 20-30 days from the removal to the close of filing, and 45-60 days between the primary and general elections. EXHIBIT C 817 (3 pages) The appropriate place in the Charter to implement a proposal for a special election to fill vacancies in the office of the mayor would be in §5-1.5. Accordingly, I have completely rewritten this section as a draft for the Commission to consider. (Deleted material is bracketed; new material is underlined. ) Section 5-1.5. Vacancy in Office. A vacancy in the office of mayour shall be filled by the managing. director, or if the office of managing director is vacant, or during such periods as the managing direcotr is unable to so act, by the finance director until a successor is duly elected [at the state or state and county election and seated] . [The person elected as the successor shall serve out the unexpired term of the person he succeeds commencing at 12 o'clock meridian on the first Monday of December following his election. ] If the mayor is removed by impeachment or recall more than two hundred seventy days before the next regularly scheduled general election, the county clerk shall immediately set the dates for a special primary election and a special general election to elect a successor. The special primary election shall be held no less than sixty days and no more than seventy-five days after the removal of the mayor. The clerk shall set a deadline for candidates to file for the office of mayor, which shall be no less than twenty days and no more than thirty days after the removal of the mayor. The special general election shall be held no less than forty-five days and no more than sixty days after the special primary election. The person elected as the successor shall serve out the unexpired term of the mayor commencing at 12 o'clock meridian on the second Monday following the election. If a vacancy in the office of the mayor occurs under any other circumstances, the successor shall be elected at the next regulary scheduled primary and general election, and shall serve out the unexpired term of the mayor commencing at 12 o'clock meridian on the first Monday of December following the election. 818 The Commission might also consider whether an officer who has been removed or impeached ought to be prohibited from seeking election to the same office in the next election, including the special election. I have not incorporated this language into the draft proposal on special elections. Yours truly, C ristopher Y:�en 819