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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/23/2017 Public hearing minutes on C-2017-125 PUBLIC HEARING MAY 23, 2017 A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by Arryl Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Tuesday, May 23, 2017, at 8:37 a.m., at the Council Chambers, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 201, Historic County Building, Lihu`e, and the presence of the following was noted: Honorable Arthur Brun Honorable Mason K. Chock Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura Honorable Mel Rapozo Excused: Honorable Ross Kagawa The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following: "C 2017-125 Communication (05/05/2017) from the Mayor, submitting his Supplemental Budget Communication for Fiscal Year 2017-2018 and Proposed Amendments to the Budget Bills, pursuant to Section 19.02A of the Kauai County Charter," which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kaua`i on May 8, 2017, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on May 14, 2017. The hearing proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Do we have any registered speakers? JADE K. FOUNTAIN-TANIGAWA, County Clerk: We received no registered speakers and no written testimony, Committee Chair Kaneshiro. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone in the audience wishing to testify on Mayor's Supplemental Budget? ANA MOHAMAD DESMARAIS: My testimony has a few things involved in it and (inaudible), but I can wait and provide testimony for Bill No. 2647. (Inaudible). Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Bill No. 2647. This is regarding the budget. Bill No. 2647 is relating to CIRI Land Development Company and that item will come up later. Ms. DesMarais: Right, but I am basically talking about Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT), General Excise Tax (GET), and all of those types of things. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Yes, if you are going to talk about GET, TAT, and budget matters, then you should probably do it now, but hold your comments on CIRI until that item comes up. PUBLIC HEARING 2 MAY 23, 2017 C 2017-125 Ms. DesMarais: Okay. I can try that. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Typically, you speak to the item that is on the floor. Ms. DesMarais: Yes, I know, but it is just that everything is so intertwined. Is that okay or can I just speak on that later? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: You can speak about the CIRI item later. Councilmember Yukimura: Committee Chair Kaneshiro, if it is related to the budget, she can mention it, right? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Yes, but CIRI is not in our budget. Ms. DesMarais: My name is Ana Mohamed DesMarais. I am basically going to speak now on how I feel that we can actually implement changes. I understand that I am preaching to the choir here since you are all...when you leave this room, you are individuals with families, you go to the grocery store, you are part of the community, you understand everything that I have been saying fundamentally, but as I speak to this body, I also speak to the State. Even all the way up to the President of the United States because the common denominator with all this lineage is the constituents no matter how elected officials came to take their seats, the fact of the matter is once in this seat, the duty is to serve the constituents, the community, and the people. So, thank you for bearing with me and I promise I will not take up any more of your time once we solve this humanitarian crisis and get our sustainability efforts underway. I feel that everything and anything that is generated on this soil should stay on this soil and go towards efforts to improve lives. We must also consider that there will be federal cuts that will affect us, so rather than wait for the State to decide on TAT or GET, we should implement our own system and before you say, "We have to defer it to the State or the Federal government," I will take a page from your book, Council Chair, and read the Declaration of Independence. "In Congress, July 4, 1776, the unanimous Declaration of thirteen United States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men..." Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Sorry, Ana, I am going to have to stop you right there. Anyone else wishing to testify on the Mayor's Supplemental Budget? Okay, you can have your second three (3) minutes. Ms. DesMarais: Thank you. "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be PUBLIC HEARING 3 MAY 23, 2017 C 2017-125 changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world." My intention, I do not feel that we need to establish new government. We do not have a tyrant king that we need to be in dealings with, but there is seeming to be a different form of tyranny that is popping its head in more of a corporate matter. I just feel that we are within our duty and power to establish any changes necessary for this island to sustain itself and for the people to thrive. Maybe it is something that we need to discuss with our Charter Review Commission or any way that this body can come together, as the amazing team you are, to move forward in true effect of change. Thank you for that. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Does anyone else want to testify on the Mayor's Supplemental Budget? Seeing none, this public hearing is now adjourned. There being no further testimony, the public hearing adjourned at 8:45 a.m. Respectfully submitted, JAD . FOUNTAIN-TANIGAWA County Clerk :dmc