Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/17/2010 Public Hearing Transcript re: BILL 2346PUBLIC HEARING MARCH 17, 2010 A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by Jay Furfaro, Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, March 17, .2010, at 1:42 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted: Honorable. Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie Chang , Honorable Jay Furfaro Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro Honorable Lani T. Kawahara Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing;- Council Chair (present at 1:48 a.m.) The Clerk read the notice of the public. hearing on the following: BILL NO. 2346 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 3, ARTICLE 1 KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED RELATING TO THE CODE OF ETHICS, which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on February 3, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper. on-March 5, 2010. Mr. Furfaro: Hello everyone.. Councilman Asing may join us later... Council Chair Asing; he is a bit under the weather this afternoon, as I was earlier in the week. We will be starting our three public hearings, and the first bill, may I ask it to be read? Thank you very much. Mr. Clerk, may I ask. you, since this is a public hearing, this provides the public an opportunity to give testimony to the council. Is there anyone associated with the ethics board that has a presentation for the council? Mr. Nakamura: Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Mr. Furfaro: Not at this time. Thank you very much. Are there members from the public that wish to speak on this particular bill, 2346? If there is, please come right up. Excuse me, there are no cell phones. allowed in the council chambers for any business; you need to go outside. I'm very sorry. Appreciate your courtesies. ROB ABREW: Aloha Councilmembers, Rob Abrew for the record. I don't know if I have the most current one, but I got the one that was passed out last month at the ethics meeting, and it has a bunch of language that looks like it's being changed, but I'm not quite sure if it is. And concerning the issue that was highlighted earlier about the annual meeting, I have no problem with the board of ethics doing these on a monthly basis, as they would like to do, and get rid of the thirteenth meeting per year. But when they do... in this reading, they're taking out the word "annually" and not putting that word in, I would only ask that the new current language would include at least review every document once a year. And the reason I ask that, because if a financial statement or disclosure statement is put in by a board and commission member, it might just be looked at once, and for three years it would not be reviewed at all, and that.... In our charter, one of the requirements for the board of ethics is to review them regularly to look for changes or alterations or any kind of new .features. So if we put the word "each one must be done annually," I think that would better work, instead of just leaving it blank, because I don't think there's anywhere else in our charter or in the rules that require it to be done annually. The other... a couple other just look like housekeeping members is under the definitions, they want to define an employee. The last word they have "but excluding councilmen." I think it would be respectful to everyone to put the word "councilperson" or "councilmember" in those places so we're not gender specific, because there are other than councilmen here. And I think under...excuse me, three point -one three (3.13), number 10, I think the wording that is here that I have has been modified at the last ethics meeting and clarified with the...with some new language. So I would...just based on what I have, I would think those things would need to be looked at to make sure in the final bill we're not eliminating those; we're making sure the correct language is in there. That's all I have. Thanks. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. Again, this is a public hearing. I forgot to ask the question-Mr. Clerk, is there anyone from the public that has actually signed up? Mr. Nakamura: No registered speakers. Mr. Furfaro: Is there anyone else in the audience that would like to speak on this item, please come up now. ROLF BIEBER: Thanks Jay. Rolf Bieber for the record. Just want to concur the point from the previous speaker that I do believe that that language "annually" would benefit in going over the disclosure statements. As a board of ethics member, you know, I think we did a good job with the bulk of the disclosure statements that we received. I don't think that it's necessary, I spoke on before, that we have that extra meeting; however, I wasn't sure as a board of ethics member if we were actually covering all the disclosure statements or not. So if there is the language in there that says yearly, we would...that would allow us the knowledge that we covered all the disclosure statements within a year, without having the meeting. So that's really about it. Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Rolf. Is there anyone else that would like to give testimony on this public hearing for Bi112346? If not, I am going to close the public hearing on that item. There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing adjourned at 1:54 p.m. Respectfully submitted, `~ ~- I'ETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk /ao