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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016_0926_Minutes Open_APPROVEDCOUNTY OF KAUAI Minutes of Meeting OPEN SESSION Amwoved as circulated 11/28/16 Board/Committee: I CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION Meeting Date I September 26, 2016 Location Mo'ikeha Building, Liquor Conference Room 3 Start of Meeting: 3:02 p.m. End of Meeting: 3:31 p.m. Present Chair Allan Parachini; Vice Chair Ed Justus. Members: Merilee (Mia) Ako; Michael Perel; Patrick Stack Also: Deputy County Attorney Adam Roversi; Boards & Commissions Office Staff. Support Clerks Barbara Davis and Darcie Agaran; Administrator Jay Furfaro Excused Members: Cheryl Stiglmeier; Russell Wong Absent SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Call To Order Chair Parachini called the meeting to order at 3:02 p.m. with 5 Commissioners present. Approval of Regularpen Session Minutes of August 22, 2016 Mr. Stack moved to approve the minutes as Minutes circulated. Mr. Perel seconded the motion. Motion carried 5:0 Business CRC 2016-14 Update on outreach for public education to include distribution points and media outlets (Ongoing) Chair Parachini stated that he and Commissioner Ako were honored to appear on Ho`ike and asked Mr. Furfaro to summarize where we are. Mr. Furfaro said there were 4 current and past members on camera — Mr. Jan TenBruggencate, an outgoing Commission Chair, Mr. Sherman Shiraishi, an earlier Commission Chair, Mr. Allan Parachini, current Commission Chair, and Member Mia Ako. The production went very well; everybody was well scripted in the descriptions of each of the agendas (sic). It has begun running on TV and will run through November 7th. Mr. Furfaro said he has a question in to IT as he is not sure all of the Ho`ike programs across the island are done on Channel 53 as some of the communities get it on Channel 54 but this clarity has not yet been received. All in all (Ho`ike) went very well. We have begun our "by invitation" resentations to various boards and associations. Mia is doing the HGEA Charter Review Commission Open Session September 26, 2016 Page 2 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION membership. We have a request in to the North Shore Community Association. Mr. Furfaro recently spoke to the Contractor's Association. The For Kauai magazine print we have gotten the deposit to them which we identified about $7,100 worth of cost for 12,000 and 6 additional thousand newspaper that will be distributed to the various locations of County services such as the neighborhood centers and so forth. The Garden Island run is October 5 and the copy is the same as the Legal Notice document in the meeting packet. Mr. Furfaro added that For Kauai starts on October 3rd. Ms. Davis also indicated all the County website locations were listed in the meeting packet as well on the County Facebook page. Mr. Furfaro said there was consistently one question raised at the meetings and it dealt with the level of the Appeals Board for Planning. The Planning Department did provide Mr. Furfaro with the process in those appeals. CRC 2016-17 Section 3.03 Proposal from Mr. Parachini as relates to staggered terms for councilmembers for the 2018 ballot Chair Parachini said everyone but Mr. Perel will recall that the Commission considered a staggered term charter amendment a few months ago at the same time we were considering districting. For a variety of reasons it did not go forward. I asked it to be put on the agenda this month because it is a very important issue as our system creates circumstances under which there is no institutional memory necessarily on the County Council and if the terms were staggered in 4 years maybe that would affect the pace of things being accomplished in the County. It is almost the same language we were considering last year. Chair Parachini asked if there was a motion to put this on the 2018 ballot. Mr. Justus so moved. Mr. Perel seconded the motion. Ms. Ako said she would not be supporting this. One of the things about oin out to share the charter amendments got me to realize that our Charter Charter Review Commission Open Session September 26, 2016 Page 3 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION is a strong document and to make any type of changes you need to have a good reason and purpose for making changes to this document. Ms. Ako said she did a briefing on the amendments with HGEA's retirees and a lot of them were there when this Charter was adopted and they remember. They really believe that our Charter is the foundation of our County. Any type of changes really should be thought of carefully and have a true purpose as to why we are making changes. When it came to Civil Defense, Fire, and changing the language they were very understanding about that but some of the other issues they were really questioning was it or is it making our County stronger. Those are the questions that linger now that she sits in this seat and which gets her to really look at proposals. Ms. Ako said when she looks at changing the terms of our Council what she sees is that it is working. We have never had any situation in this County where all seven (councilmembers) have been booted off. There has always been institutional knowledge moving forward. Looking at this proposal, Ms. Ako will not be supporting it. Two or four years from now we as a County might see we are ready for this but for right now the terms of every two years really gets our Council to look at the issues within our County and become more accountable to us. Like our State elected officials, our Senators are for four (years) but our Representatives who represent three parts of this island really have to be on it. Mr. Perel had a question on theory — when we discussed districting one of the strong arguments against it was the inability to have a proper vetting discussion between now and when it came on. Doesn't this go under the same theory that we are putting it on a ballot and we may not be here to support the discussion? Mr. Perel stated he has no problem with the amendment; he has a problem with the theory of how we got from A to B and how we differentiated from other issues that did not get from A to B. Chair Parachini said if we vote to move forward with this today in that we Charter Review Commission Open Session September 26, 2016 Page 4 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION have at least two (or three) more meetings is there enough time to do what needs to be done with this to leave it behind if we depart and have it be on the 2018 ballot. Attorney Roversi said without carefully reviewing the Rules of the Charter Review Commission and just off the top of my head you have to have 2 public meetings addressing that matter. So if you have a meeting today and technically the second public meeting could be October then you have to develop all the subsidiary findings and purpose clause, the educational materials, et cetera, and leave a complete package for Boards and Commissions by your last meeting in December. Without any clear guidance in the Charter or the Rules, Attorney Roversi said he opined in the last meeting that most likely if the Commission were able to complete the entire package of materials and have it finished it could be handed off to Boards and Commissions as a future obligation. Attorney Roversi said he would equally opine that if you got half way through that process and didn't get everything finished that likely you would not be empowered to hand that off to Boards and Commissions. To get it to completion seems daunting with the number of meetings the Commission has left. Mr. Justus said you are forgetting we are not bound to one meeting a month — you could have as many as you want as that is the prerogative of the chair although staff would not be happy with that. Staff said it was not about being happy — we don't have the staff or the resources to do multiple meetings. Mr. Justus said if it is absolutely urgent the Chair has the Charter authority to do so, but he does echo Mr. Perel's concern in that he does not understand why this is being put up with such a short time notice as opposed to districting which was brought as a concern of the Chair in the minutes of the previous meeting. In res onse to Mr. Perel and Mr. Justus, Chair Parachini said this is a more Charter Review Commission Open Session September 26, 2016 Page 5 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION straight forward issue than districting. I did not think we were in a position to come to the kind of agreement that would be necessary to put a districting amendment on the ballot. (Districting) failed when it was voted on. Chair Parachini said that is how he saw the difference between the two and saw this as more straight forward, easier to digest, and worth doing. In response to Ms. Ako, Chair Parachini said he has had any number of conversations with councilmembers and ordinary people in which you hear the same thing about the two year terms that you hear about the two year terms in the U.S. House. It puts them in a position where they are always running so contrary to the argument Ms. Ako makes four year terms would provide more consistency, more time to carefully examine issues. It would become less a game of having to maximize the amount of time on camera at the meetings to make sure their re-election campaign is going to be successful. It could introduce better reasoning and better logic and more consistency to have four year terms. It is an important issue for the function of County government and I do not take this lightly at all. As to staggered terms if we are going to have four years it only makes sense to have them not begin and end in the same election. It is possible with fewer new members coming on for the benefit of experience to be imparted to those incoming councilmembers. While understanding their concerns Chair Parachini said he does not agree but that does not matter. It is a significant element of the design of our system of government in Kauai County. Staff pointed out for the record that the electorate has pushed back six times on 4 year terms for Council. It has not been positioned with staggered terms but the voters have turned back 4 year terms on six different times. Chair Parachini said staggered terms makes this a different animal since there would not be all seven running in the same election. Ms. Ako said she is in a lot of organizations and has never ever heard Charter Review Commission Open Session September 26, 2016 Page 6 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION people complaining ....... if she heard it like the Chair has that the politicians want four years staggered then she would be more open to it but she never has and that is why it is so hard to make a change that she is wondering about the purpose. Ms. Ako said she feels what is working is working and if councilmembers are not doing their work in two years the voting public can refill that seat rather than waiting four years. Mr. Furfaro brought up there are 13 Senate districts that run for four year terms and in the next two year election the other 12 go into four year terms but the difference is those are four year terms. As Ms. Ako pointed out if there is dissatisfaction there is an opportunity every two years to identify the shortcomings of an individual. Mr. Perel said he heard the Chair say this had significant impact and was one of the arguments you used against districting was that it had significant impact. Mr. Perel again said he is not concerned with the body of the amendment but he is concerned with the process differentiation that was applied between one and the other. Mr. Justus said if this gets approved it will be by a bare majority and at a meeting a few months ago the Chair did not support districting "because you have some real reluctance about putting something of this import on the ballot by a 4:3 vote. We should be able to come to more of a consensus than that." Chair Parachini agreed and added that he had no way of knowing they would not have 2 (Commissioners) here today and would be more than willing to re -agenda this for October. Staff noted that would be only if the motion on the floor passes. Mr. Stack reminded the Chair that there was a quorum present and called Charter Review Commission Open Session September 26, 2016 Page 7 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION for the vote. Chair Parachini called for a Roll Call Vote. Roll Call Vote: Nay-Ako; Aye -Justus; Aye- Perel; Nay -Stack; Aye-Parachini. Motion fails 3:2 Announcements Next Meeting: Monday, October 24, 2016, 3:00 p.m. Meeting Room 2 AB Adjournment Mr. Justus moved to adjourn the meeting at 3:31 p.m. Mr. Perel seconded the motion. Motion carried 5:0 Submitted by: Barbara Davis, Support Clerk () Approved as circulated. () Approved with amendments. See minutes of meeting.