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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014_0428_Minutes Open_APPROVEDCOUNTY OF KAUAI Minutes of Meeting OPEN SESSION Approved as circulated 5/19/14 Board/Committee: CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION Meeting Date April 28, 2014 Location Mo'ikeha Building, Meeting Room 2A/213 Start of Meeting: 4:06 p.m. End of Meeting: 5:54 p.m. Present Vice Chair Jan TenBruggencate. Members: Ed Justus; Patrick Stack; Carol Suzawa Also: Deputy County Attorney Marc Guyot; Boards & Commissions Office Staff. Support Clerk Barbara Davis; Administrator Paula Morikami; Administrative Aide Teresa Tamura and Curtis Shiramizu of Shiramizu Nakamura Loo, Attorneys at Law Testifier: Michael Shooltz Excused Members: Mary Lou Barela; Joel Guy Absent Chair James Nishida SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Call To Order Vice Chair TenBruggencate called the meeting to order at 4:06 pm with 4 Commissioners resent which constitutes a quorum Approval of Regularpen Session Minutes of March 24, 2014 Mr. Justus moved to approve the minutes as Minutes circulated. Ms. Suzawa seconded the motion. Motion carried 4:0 Business CRC 2013-03 Review of Recommendations in Ramseyer form from legal analyst Curtis Shiramizu on identifyin agnd proposing non -substantive corrections and revisions to the Kauai County Charter for Articles XXIV through XXXII (On -going) Mr. Shiramizu apprised the Commission that he would not be available for the May meeting. Section 24.01 B, fifth line: leave nor as listed in the original charter. Section 24.01 B, second paragraph: indent first line of the paragraph. Mr. Justus suggested we recheck the previous work reviewed by the Commission for proper indentation. Section 24.03, sixth line: add comma following mayor; seventh line: add Charter Review Commission Open Session April 28, 2014 I' _ SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION comma following council. Section 26.03: suggested insertion of commas accepted by Commission. Section 26.04 A: suggested insertion of commas accepted by Commission. Section 26.04 B: Mr. Justus questioned if this section needs a historical notation. Mr. Shiramizu said presently the Commission cannot do anything about it, but currently there is a county auditor. Deputy Attorney Guyot said there are two oddities as there is an office of the county auditor, which is assigned to the County Council, and there is no longer an office but there is a position of county treasurer, which is in the Department of Finance. To clarify it they might consider adding that the positions were transferred to the County Council and Department of Finance respectively. Vice Chair TenBruggencate said that rises beyond the level of a non -substantive change. Vice Chair TenBruggencate asked for sections 26.04 B and C to be placed on the May agenda Section 26.06: Mr. Shiramizu stated the Revised Laws of Hawaii 1955 as an item for discussion. have been replaced by the HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes), but it was decided previously to leave it as is. Deputy Guyot asked if there was a footnote that could be put in at the bottom noting the Revised Laws have been superseded by the HRS. Vice Chair TenBruggencate said this happens in other places in the charter and perhaps a footnote to the entire charter making a note that where there are references to Revised Laws of Hawaii they have been supplanted by the Revised Statutes. Because it is a substantive change, the Commission cannot change it, but it does need to be addressed and the footnote could be non -substantive. Section 26.10, fourth line: leave rights as listed in the original charter. Section 27.01, first sentence: change "elective" to elected. Charter Review Commission Open Session April 28, 2014 I' _ SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Section 27.06, eighth sentence: leave nor as listed in the original charter. Section 28.01: add header Organization. Section 28.04: add header Duties. Section 28.03: Leave the word Repealed as written in the charter. While no further reference to section 28.03 was found within the charter, there might be references to that section in other county documents or court records so it should remain as part of the document. Section 29.03, tenth sentence: to read ............. the salary commission for the position; provided that elected officers.. I ...... I. Article XXX: Discussion ensued as to whether to delete the word "this" preceding the word "article XXX" or to leave "this" in place and delete "XXX". The Commission came to the agreement to leave the word this throughout the article and to delete XXX. Section 30.02, second paragraph, last line: add a comma following the word economic. Section 30.03 B: use lower case for tenure and directors. Section 30.03 D (2), third from last sentence: add a comma following Colleges in Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Section 30.03 D, fourth paragraph, seventh sentence: leave provided that as written in the charter. Charter Review Commission Open Session April 28, 2014 0 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Section 30.04 C: use lower case for executive and officer. Leave the numbering of items in the second paragraph as originally shown in the charter and elsewhere when it appears as such. Section 30.05 B and D: leave state in the lower case in both subsections. Section 30.06 D, end of sentence: add this before the word article and delete XXX. The original amendment uses quotation marks prior to the section header, Article XXX, and at the end of 30.06 D. Should these quotation marks be removed? Section 32.01, header: delete the word established and the semicolon and insert the word of to read Office of county auditor. Mr. Justus moved that the word "established;" be removed and the word "of ' inserted in Section 32.01. Mr. Stack seconded the motion. (No vote on actual motion) Section 32.02 A: place a line through the section to be deleted [C-y CharterAf iele T�Qeetion 3.17] for consistency with Ramseyer work. Section 32.02 E, first line: following section 3.12 colon start a new Vice Chair TenBruggencate asked that Section paragraph with "An agency...... 32.02 E and 3.12 be placed on the May agenda for discussion to clarify the quoted material and why it was written with quotes and are there any Mr. Shiramizu suggested it was a section defining what an agency or legal issues with either section as written. operation of the county is so that nothing slips through or to provide clarity as to what is or what is not. Section C talks about what the responsibility is for carrying out any audit noting the fourth line refers to any agency or operation of the county. It seems they were putting in a definition to agency or operation of the county, which is subject to this audit process. Charter Review Commission Open Session April 28, 2014 I' _ SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION There is an audit process in Section 32 and also in 3.12. Mr. TenBruggencate said it is not a direct quote, it is a definition saying these words include these things. After further explanation from Deputy Guyot, Mr. Justus noted that the spirit of the issue would supersede the actual text and said he no longer had an issue and did not need a discussion on this item. Vice Chair TenBruggencate thought it was still worthy of a discussion at the next meeting. Section 32.02 E: set up as three separate paragraphs without spaces between paragraphs, which will serve as the purpose of definitions. Section 32.03 Al fifth line: delete space between section 32.02 and C. Section 32.04: underscore entire header section and use upper case on the word concerning. Section 32.03 E: keep as originally listed in the Charter by leaving a period following Section 23.02., and deleting the suggested commas before and after Boards and Commissions. Mr. Shiramizu to provide the full amended Charter in Ramseyer version to the Commission at the next meeting. Ms. Morikami said the Boards and Commission Office is looking at the cost of publishing the entire Charter as an insert in the newspaper as required by the County Charter (Section 24.02 B). This Commission might want to consider a proposal for the ballot that allows for on-line publishing of proposed amendments. With this Charter amendment, along with all the other proposed amendments, it will be quite a bit of money from the County to publish all items in their entirety in a newspaper of general circulation. Ms. Morikami suggested the Commission consider placing this item on the next agenda for consideration of publishing in the newspaper or on-line. Vice Chair TenBruggencate requested this item be placed on next month's agenda Charter Review Commission Open Session April 28, 2014 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION CRC 2014-02 Discussion and possible decision -making on a proposed amendment to Article XXIV relating to signatures required in a petition for a charter amendment. Vice Chair TenBruggencate explained this proposal would increase the number of signatures of registered voters in the last election from the current 5 percent to 20 percent, which would be the same number as is required for an initiative or a referendum. This commission talked generally about this a couple of years ago. Michael Shooltz — This is a very significant change with questions about what it might entail, when it would go into effect, what the motivation is behind it, and who proposed it. Currently there are a few thousand people working to bring a charter amendment to the ballot who will want answers as well. There seems to be business entities working on stripping the rights of the people. Vice Chair TenBruggencate stated that if this Charter amendment gets on the ballot and passes, it would have no impact on this election cycle or the charter amendment Mr. Shooltz is proposing. Deputy Guyot confirmed that a charter amendment could not take place for the election in which it was approved. Mr. Shooltz is concerned that the voice of the people has a vehicle to be heard. He asked how long the current 5 percent has been in effect and was informed since the charter has been in place. Vice Chair TenBruggencate stated that Kauai has the lowest bar in any county so he brought this proposal to the Charter Commission. While he is not firm on the 20 percent there have been two occasions where the people have been misled and used a charter amendment process to pass something that more appropriately might have been an initiative; as a result the charter amendments were Charter Review Commission Open Session April 28, 2014 I' _ SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION thrown out in court. Vice Chair TenBruggencate's concern is that it is easier to propose an amendment to the fundamental governing document of the County of Kauai than it is to propose an ordinance. Mr. Shooltz is concerned that the perception is that certain entities on the island are influencing our government in ways that will be upsetting to people based on the current environment. Vice Chair TenBruggencate asked Mr. Shooltz if he understood the difference in gravity between a charter amendment and a simple ordinance; if the numbers had been reversed would he have approached this charter amendment differently. Mr. Shooltz said they might have, but he is not the legal guy. He said they did strive to do an ordinance through the County Council for the past year and a half and were not successful. There is a lot of frustration in the public about the legal process. Vice Chair TenBruggencate explained that today was the beginning of the discussion, and it may not be finished in time for this year's election. Mr. Justus said even if the Commission agrees to this idea he does not think the populace is going to be willing to make it harder for themselves to change their government. He further said he does not think it has a chance of passing as it is counter -intuitive to the American thinking. Chair TenBruggencate disagreed. Ms. Suzawa believes past problems with amendments proposed through 5 percent of the registered voters has been a waste of taxpayer's money, and there may have been a different vehicle to get it done. Mr. Justus was not sure just raising the bar would prevent those types of amendments from appearing, but perhaps it might solve some of the problems if they have to go through legal review. Vice Chair TenBruggencate again stated the fundamental point is that changing the County Charter, the basic organizational document of county government, should be harder than passing a law; currently in the County of Kauai it is the opposite way. Vice Chair TenBruggencate noted he would be open to Charter Review Commission Open Session April 28, 2014 mi i SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION discussing signatures required for charter amendments, initiatives and Ms. Suzawa moved to defer this item to next referendums. month. Mr. Justus seconded the motion. Motion carried 4:0 Announcements Next Meeting: Monday, May 19, 2014 — 4:00 p.m. Adjournment Vice Chair TenBruggencate adjourned the meetin at 5:54 p.m. Submitted by: Barbara Davis, Support Clerk () Approved as is. O Approved with amendments. See minutes of Reviewed and Approved by: meeting. Jan TenBruggencate, Vice Chair