Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout 03/16/2011 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Committee MeetingMINUTES COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE March 16, 2011 A meeting of the Committee of the Whole, of the Council of the County of Kauai, State of Hawaii, was called to order by Councilmember Jay Furfaro, Chair, at 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 1:42 p.m., after which the following members answered the call of the roll: Honorable Jay Furfaro Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie Chang (excused at 2:45p.m.) Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura Honorable Mel Rapozo Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura Minutes of the February 16, 2011 Committee of the Whole Meeting. Minutes of the March 2, 2011 Committee of the Whole Meeting. Upon motion duly made by Councilmember Rapozo, seconded by Councilmember Chang, and unanimously carried the minutes of the February 6, 2011 and March 2, 2011 Committee of the Whole Meeting was approved. The Committee proceeded on its agenda items, as shown in the following Committee Reports which are incorporated herein by reference: CR-COW 2011-11: on COW 2011-03 Communication (3/7/2011) from the Rules Sub- Committee, transn~iitting their Report and Proposed revisions to the Rules of the Council of the County of Kauai. (Received for the record) There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 2:53 p.m. The Committee reconvened at 3:13 p.m. and proceeded as follows: Bill No. 2395 A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 3, OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE SALARIES OF COUNTY OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES (This item was deferred) JAY FURFARO: Thank you and I do want the members to know that I decided to send over to the County Attorney under my signature several items that probably will require us to defer this item today. Some of them deal with some of the questions that came up or surfaced with Vice Chair Yukimura in our last session, but I do want to stay on target here and take public testimony and we might be two weeks from a conclusion here because I do want those legal questions 1 responded to. Let me ask the County Attorney, does that sound reasonable? Two weeks? AL CASTILLO, County Attorney: Yes, Council Chair yes. Unfortunately I was ill last week and it pushed back a few things a week or so, so it will be ready by then. Mr. Furfaro: Well we're glad you're feeling better and we will shoot for the two week responses, but on that note for Bill 2395... Mr. Rapozo: I will move and I realize we will get the deferral later but for now to get it out on the floor, I will move to approve. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Can I have a second? Mr. Bynum: Seconded. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Bynum, and on that note with that motion to approve and seconded. I'm going to suspend the rules and take testimony, so Stoessels. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. PHYLLIS STOESSEL: Aloha, Council Chair and Council Members. My name is Phyllis Stoessel. Today I am doing something that I rarely do and that is to speak for myself and Horace. Bill 2395 is a response to the 2006 Charter amendment that re-defines the County's executive salary process. It is not a response to salary commission resolutions. The specific purpose of the bill is to bring the salary ordinance into conformity with Charter Section 29.03 as it was amended in 2006. In light of its purpose it could be said that the bill is four years overdue. We appreciate Council Member Rapozo for undertaking this task and we support the passage of this bill to the council for enactment. Mahalo. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Are there any questions members? Mr. Rapozo? No? Mr. Bynum? No? Mr. Bynum: No thank you, thank you very much. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much and now I will let Horace if you'd like to come up please. HORACE STOESSEL: Thank you Mr. Chairman, my name is Horace Stoessel. I'm just going to speak for myself by asking, is it possible that the public receive a copy of the questions you have sent to the County Attorney? Mr. Furfaro: I think at this moment I would like to review my correspondence, Horace, and I will certainly think through it the rest of the day and have some time with the County Attorney. One of those questions has to do with and I will be very honest with this rule of authority with the Charter and the HRS that was surfaced by Councilwoman Yukimura and that is part of my wanting to have clarity but I want to see how I pose that. Mr. Stoessel: So, let me be clear. Did you say yes? 2 Mr. Furfaro: I said give me some time to speak with the County Attorney and I will try and make that available. I have to revisit my questions. Mr. Stoessell: Okay. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. Mr. Furfaro; Ken did you want to speak? No? Lonnie did you want to speak on this salary ordinance? Okay, is there anyone else in the audience? Seeing no one I will call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order and proceeded as follows: Mr. Furfaro: We have a motion from Mr. Rapozo. Go ahead Mr. Rapozo. Mr. Rapozo: Yeah I do have an amendment that was prepared in anticipation of today's meeting, however, I won't introduce it. All it is, is adding in that one word of "salary" in the title, so it's not a very subservient change but I will introduce it when we get it at the next committee meeting. Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Any further discussion? Mr. Rapozo: One more thing real quick. Mr. Furfaro: Go ahead Mr: Rapozo. Mr. Rapozo: Just pointing to Mr. Stoessel's question and I don't have a problem releasing the questions if there's any issues that bring some kind of exposure if that could be redacted and the rest of them, I will be in full support. of that. That's all I'm asking, thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Since he asked that question and I do plan to speak with the County Attorney and if you do get a version that's a little redacted, we will see what we can do. Councilwoman Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: Yes. I presume that this will be establishing a policy of somewhat in terms of whether any questions we send to the County Attorney will be available to any member of the public who asked for them. Mr. Furfaro: I wouldn't make that assumption. Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Well then the question is, by what criteria do we make our decisions anytime a question is asked? Mr. Furfaro: I think you haven't seen me ask for a motion or inclusion from the group. Since it was my correspondence I see it as a personal item and I'm sure you will have a comment on me for that. Ms. Yukimura: I don't have any issues I don't think but it does set a precedence so that all. Mr. Furfaro: Understood and therefore I made the notice that I may choose to redact some of the particulars but I will have a discussion with the 3 County Attorney, Mr. Stoessel, and how we get there I'm not real clear yet. Lonnie you have your up? I have to suspend the rules again. You may come up, the rules are suspended. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. LONNIE SYKOS: For the record, Lonnie Sykos. Thank you Jay for suspending the rules. One of the questions that this raises for me and this is for you all to think about not that I have an opinion at the moment. Will this only impact the decisions made from the point and time this passes going forward? Or will this also allow the entire body of decisions or whatever the correct terminology is, from the pass to be accessible as well? And whether or not you thought about that? Mr. Furfaro: I'm only addressing the question raised by Councilwoman Yukimura as it relates to the request from someone in the public to see what questions I pose to the county attorney. Mr. Sykos: Correct but would that also extend if you were to ask the attorney last month or last year whether they could make that available. Mr. Furfaro: That's the piece I don't have clarity on. Mr. Sykos: That was just the question that I had. Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: That's why we will speak with him separately. Thank you Lonnie. Mr. Sykos: Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: The meeting is called back to order. There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Mr. Furfaro: Any further discussion on and I guess I'm looking for a deferral here. Mr. Rapozo: I will eventually make that motion. I just want to say that you know the communications between the Council and anybody is subject to be requested by the community. Certain documents are protected by HRS and if it doesn't fall into one of those categories then yes, whether it's last month, last year, two years ago, it would be available. If its protected communications based on HRS then obviously they would not be in and I think that's a simple answer to that question. If it's a confidential memo from the chair to the county attorney's office then it's protected and one always has that opportunity to request it formally to that form and that determination will be made. Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you again for that clarification and my upcoming discussion with the county attorney. Mr. Rapozo moved to defer Bill No. 2395, seconded by Mr. Bynum, and carried by a vote of 6-0-1. (Mr. Chang was noted excused.) 4 There being no further business, this meeting was adjourned at 3:24 p.m. Respectfully submitted, d°~~,-. Laurie Chow Senior Clerk Typist APPROVEU.~imittee Meeting held on I~~iy 31, 2fl1.1: JAY F°'~ Chair, C m' tee of 5