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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/07/2011 Special Council MeetingSPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING NOVEMBER 7, 2011 The Special Meeting of the Council of the County of Kaua'i, was called to order by the Council Chair at the Council Chambers, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 201, Lihu'e, Kaua'i, on Monday, November 7, 2011 at 9:16 a.m., after which the following members answered the call of the roll: Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie Chang (present at 9:35 a.m.) Honorable KipuKai Kuali'i Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura Honorable Mel Rapozo Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura Honorable Jay Furfaro APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Mr. Rapozo moved for approval of the agenda as circulated, seconded by Ms. Yukimura, and unanimously carried. Council Chair Furfaro: Good morning everyone. I would like to make note of a few personal announcements before we get into our session today. May I have some time from all of you on some personal items? I think some of you may be aware that on Friday, after meeting with a group of people from IT, building department, as well as JAVS, I have made a request for us to bring Hoike back on Wednesday. There is some observations that I was able to make as well. Camera 1, which is the only camera that focuses on the whole group in a horizon view; that's camera 1, evidently has a static problem, because if you notice later that day when I sat ... when Councilmember Yukimura was absent, I sat in her chair, even when the signing occurred, the static came up across the table, and there was nobody sitting in the Chair's seat. There are also some issues with what are called B -1 lines that need to be checked out; these are telephone fiber optic transmission lines that cross over in Nawiliwili; there may be a problem there, but all in all, it's a lot of work to be done still, and I appreciate everybody's working on the problems, including IT, but the colors have been resolved, it seems now that we've gotten the draperies in— the greens are green, the browns are brown, there isn't any orange hue; we'll be doing some ongoing adjustments with the lighting positions of the drapery. I met them with J Robertson, and he will bring his staff back in tomorrow to set up Hoike one more time, and we'll have an ongoing meeting with Pat Kawahara, the IT department, as well as the building department to see how we can either resolve these transmission issues and/or make certain upgrades to the system which was acquired about two and a half years ago through specifications that were similar to SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 2 NOVEMBER 7, 2011 those at the courthouse. But we will be bringing Hoike back this Wednesday for an indefinite time; they agreed to. So I wanted to share that with all of you. Secondly, I also wanted to point out that it's extremely important that we note that as building designed, we may have issues because we don't have the signage up yet for the buzzer at the backdoor for the ADA requirement, so periodically on Wednesdays we may have to leave the backdoor open. There seems to be some discrepancies on that door, through policy, of which the building department needs to revisit with the county attorney's office, but the whole idea was with having fewer people on the ground floor and the staff on the second floor that we needed some control to the office space, but we don't have the signage for that backdoor yet. We also, I hope, are still making the adjustments here on these two upstairs staff bathrooms. So those are things that are going on. Marc, would you like to add to that? There being no objections, the rules were suspended. MARC GUYOT, Deputy County Attorney: As far as I know with the restroom doors for the staff only, there's been no changed that I've notified of; it's just a matter putting it in their workflow, and that consisted basically of code access of restroom doors for security reasons. As well as I believe we talked about switching the signs, since right now the woman's restroom is next to the open second floor window. It is a very secondary access point, but we thought as a matter of discretion that perhaps the men's room should be the one with the window. Council Chair Furfaro: So those locations will be changed. I think those particulars are moving right along. Again, I would like to remind everyone that communicating to your respective counterparts across the street is important that we negotiated that with your respective committees that you had, but everything else for the building, please coordinate through me. I sent a reminder today asking everybody please coordinate with the finance chair those things associated with the county website. Tim has volunteered to be our point man a couple months ago. I did have one more item, but everybody raised their hand on personal privilege and since I still have the personal privilege, I'll share with you my last one is I did extend until this Friday, the IT department to continue to do some research on the I -pads. But I have impressed to them in writing that the Apple I -pad selection is what the council has decided on and that we need to look at a Apple franchise person who can do the maintenance piece for that. My personal privilege time is over. Ms. Yukimura: Chair, I just first of all want to thank you for your initiative on the issue of the televising of our meetings, because as we all have heard from the community, it's been a big problem for them. Thank you for taking SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 3 NOVEMBER 7, 2011 initiative to get Hoike back while the problem is looked at and hopefully solved. As to the backdoor of this building, I was not real clear what you just said about the handicap buzzer and everything. I have wondered why the backdoor couldn't just be left open during hours when the front door is open, thinking that would be simpler for everybody. Is that a possibility? Council Chair Furfaro: Well, I just want to say to you that I'll be glad to have additional discussion with you, but we do meet the criteria with the buzzer, the signage, and the ramp. The reality is there are times we only have two people downstairs according to our staff, and I'll leave it at that, but I'll be glad to have further discussion with you. according to our staff, and I'll leave it at that, but I'll be glad to have further discussion with you. Ms. Yukimura: All right, thank you. Council Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum, go ahead. Mr. Bynum: Just a couple comments. One, there have already been some changes to the website, making more sense. I want to thank Aida for that, and also putting the council rules and other key documents, and we're going to have ongoing meetings soon to get the Granicus supporting documents up there and available. Regarding the broadcast here, I too have heard from many community members, particularly at a doctor's appointment where the whole waiting room was talking about it and there were a lot of elderly people there who watch the meetings. They say they're not going to watch it because they can't see who is talking. They don't see the close ups. They can't see people's facial expressions. So I know we have technical issues, but in my view, the courtroom system is to document what happened, but our purpose is different —it's to broadcast it. And until these cameras articulate and zoom and a human being produces the meeting, so they can use human judgments about where the camera should be at what time, it's not going to meet the standards that I'm hearing from the community. It's not just the technical things, it's the wide angle, the lack of close ups and the lack of cut -shots to people who may not be speaking, but are reacting and that's something BC did for us for years; he made judgments about how to tell the story of our meeting. So hopefully that's our standard we're setting for changes to the system. Thank you. Council Chair Furfaro: I moved over here for that whole purpose because nothing that I've said for the last six weeks has been recorded because camera one is the only one that shoots on the Chair. So I moved to this piece to express again, this piece was selected long time ago. We're of the impression that the adjustments could have been made quickly. Obviously, additional cameras are needed but those professional reviews were not the call of this council. That's the main thing. There are several departments that were involved, and I will reiterate, SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 4 NOVEMBER 7, 2011 I had the building people here, I had the electricians here, the JAVS people here at my discussion Friday, our IT people. Until we can get us to a level of standard meeting presentations that the community is used to, we are going to go back to the Hoike presentation. People have to realize that Hoike is not no longer the contractor; they are a subcontractor. Granicus is the contractor subbing out both the visual and audio portions to various equipment maintenance personnel from Jefferson Audio Visual, and we even don't no longer have a captioner who's in Honolulu, and that's why we also have problems with the narrative being jumped around on the screen and spelling of Kekaha with a "C." We have some skill training to go along as well. But this system that we have now was something that needs to meet the council's expectations. I'm saying that it is not and we're going back to Hoike indefinitely. Thank you. It is our intent today to have some discussion on the agenda that was laid out today. We will have some public discussion before we go into executive session. So, may I ask the clerk to read the item please. EXECUTIVE SESSION: ES -511 Pursuant to Hawai'i Revised Statutes Sections 92 -4 and 92- 5(a)(2 & 4), and Kaua'i County Charter Section 3.07(E), the County Council requests an executive session with the County Attorney pertaining to the hiring of a County Clerk and to consult with the County's legal counsel. This session pertains to the hiring of a County Clerk where consideration of matters affecting privacy will be involved to consult with legal counsel regarding the powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and/or liabilities of the Council and the county as they relate to this agenda item. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Mr. Guyot: Chair Furfaro, Vice Chair Yukimura, Councilmembers, with respect to ES -511, pursuant to the Hawai'i Revised Statute section 92 -4 and 92 -52a and 4 and the Kaua'i County Charter section 3.07e, the county council requests an executive session pertaining to a hiring of a county clerk and to consult with the county's legal counsel. This session pertains to the hiring of a County Clerk where consideration of matters affecting privacy will be involved, and to consult with legal counsel regarding the powers, duties, privileges, immunities and/or liabilities of the council and the county as they relate to this agenda item. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Mr. Rapozo moved to convene in executive session to discuss ES -511, seconded by Mr. Kuali'i. SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 5 NOVEMBER 7, 2011 Council Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Any discussion? Ms. Yukimura: Yes. Mr. Chair, I think we had also set it up so that we could do something in open session before we go into... Council Chair Furfaro: We can have some discussion right now before we go into executive session. Ms. Yukimura: Okay, so should we just leave the motion pending and go into an open discussion? Council Chair Furfaro: We can take time. The motion has been made and seconded; it's time now for discussion. Mr. Rapozo: I just want to make sure that... We have nothing posted in open agenda. We have a posting to go into executive session, so the discussion can only surround that posting. If you feel we cannot go into executive session, or you do, that's a discussion. But I don't believe it's proper to have that open discussion about the matter unless it was posted as an open agenda, because obviously the people would have showed up. Council Chair Furfaro: May have. Mr. Rapozo: Correct. Council Chair Furfaro: Or shall have. Mr. Rapozo: So I would caution this council to have any public discussion as it relates to the appointment of the clerk unless we post it in an open agenda. Ms. Yukimura: Right. I don't have a copy of the agenda in front of me, but that was my question pertaining the to the discussion after the motion, because it seems the discussion should be whether or not to go into executive session. Mr. Rapozo: That's all you can discuss. Ms. Yukimura: But it also been my understanding from the last meeting that we were going to post the meeting so you could have an open discussion and an executive session, but apparently that hasn't happened. Marc, is that correct? Mr. Guyot: Vice Chair, the only item on the agenda is the executive session that's listed as it is here today. I don't believe any information SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 6 NOVEMBER 7, 2011 was communicated to us with respect to what an open session was going to be, so this was the only item that was... Ms. Yukimura: Well the selection of the clerk. It was my understanding that we were going to post last time to allow both an open session and an executive session regarding the selection of the clerk. We can go back to the minutes of the executive session to verify that, but that was my understanding. Apparently, that wasn't done and therefore, we can't have a discussion I presume. That's correct right? We can only have a discussion on whether to go into executive session or not? Mr. Guyot: At this point, yes. Ms. Yukimura: I would like to ask that from now on every posting regarding the selection of the clerk have both an open session and an executive session in case anything comes up, and the subject is selection of the county clerk. Mr. Guyot: Vice Chair, this is an item that we will need to discuss in executive session. There are various liabilities, duties, and privileges that come into play here that need to be discussed and that's why a specific open session request would need to be put. To be put that generally is very problematic in many areas which we can discuss in executive session. Essentially, there are privileges allowed to the members and people who have applied for these positions, so we need to confine what that is going to be. Ms. Yukimura: All right, we can have that discussion. That wasn't explained to me anyway in the last executive session. So perhaps we can have further discussion in executive session. Council Chair Furfaro: Thank you for that definition, Marc. Ms. Yukimura: It seems to me that... Do you mean to say that people cannot come and talk generally about the selection of the clerk from the public? That it's an entirely executive session? By its nature? Mr. Guyot: Again, I can provide some more parameters to you in executive session at which point then the councilmembers can craft the agenda items within the confines that provide benefits of protections to everyone involved. But there is ability to have open sessions on these, but there's also certain areas that must be protected as we move forward. Two particular areas which we can discuss in the executive session which are the examination process, as well as confidentiality of people that have applied for these positions. We'll get into a little more detail. SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 7 NOVEMBER 7, 2011 Ms. Yukimura: It seems to me you could post an open session one with those reservations or exclusions. Mr. Guyot: that's correct. Ms. Yukimura: Council Chair Furfaro: There's many ways to craft the posting, Thank you. Mr. Bynum. Mr. Bynum: Just for myself, I would appreciate an open session, and I understand that it would be about the process, not about any particular applicant in any way. But to discuss the process of selection, I thought that was going to happen today as well. So we'll see what happens next time. Thank you. Council Chair Furfaro: Question? Ms. Yukimura: I have a question. So, what if we want to say something in executive session that should be said in open session? We can't do that in executive session. Mr. Guyot: Say that one more time, Vice Chair. Ms. Yukimura: What if there's something we want to say that should be in open session that relates to the process and we're going to make some decisions maybe about process. Now we can't say it in executive session because it should be in open session? I think that was why we wanted to have double posting so we can properly say what should be in open session in open session and what shouldn't in open session in executive session. That's why I thought we were clear at our last meeting that we wanted a posting of both. Otherwise, there's this dilemma of stuff that we should be saying in open session and we can't say it in executive session theoretically. Mr. Guyot: I think the problem that we're coming up against is that we have not had the initial discussion of where the parameters where. So to have an open session is without any types of limits and it could become a difficult process. Whereas I think a little guidance would help the council in formulating how they want the posting, what they want to discuss in the open session. Just a couple small but important limitations, that's all, Vice Chair. Ms. Yukimura: All right, then I would have expected that that would have been outlined in the last meeting when we talked about having both an open and closed session. Thank you. Council Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo. SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 8 NOVEMBER 7, 2011 Mr. Rapozo: I just want to make sure we understand what the agendas are and why we request executive session and the postings are very specific based on chapter 92, and in this specific case, it is specific to consult with the county's legal counsel pertaining to the hiring of the clerk where consideration of matters affecting privacy will be involved to consult with the legal counsel regarding the powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and/or liabilities of the council. So it's specific that this session as it's posted is only for us to discuss the issues with our lawyer, which is you. It doesn't give us the flexibility to discuss amongst ourselves what we think should or shouldn't be done. This posting anyway is specific to consult with the attorney. That in my opinion can cover all of the areas that you talked about, Marc, as far as parameters, because we are trying to figure out what our powers and duties are. So I think we got to make sure we stay focused to what the posting is. It's really an opportunity for us to have a discussion with the county attorney and not amongst ourselves. I think we need to be very cognizant of that. That is why executive sessions occur. It isn't just to go have a private discussion in the back. It's to consult with our attorney, which is what this posting is for. So I would just ask that everybody stay focused with the agenda posting and whatever the attorney and the council agrees that can be in open session will be in open session. But just keep in mind the purpose of this specific executive session based on 92 -4 and 92 -5 with all the subsections. Thank you. The motion to convene in executive session to discuss ES -511 was then put, and carried by the following vote: FOR EXECUTIVE SESSION: Bynum, Chang, Kuali'i, Nakamura, Rapozo, Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL — 7, AGAINST EXECUTIVE SESSION: None TOTAL — 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL — 0. There being no objections, the meeting was in recess at 9:30 a.m. ADJOURNMENT. The meeting was called back to order at 11:02 a.m., and there being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Respectfully submitted, RICKY WATANABE Interim County Clerk