HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-02-2009 PH Bill 2336 PUBLIC HEARING
DECEMBER 2, 2009
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Lani T. Kawahara, Vice Chair, Public Safety/Energy/Intergovernmental Relations
Committee, on Wednesday, December 2, 2009, at 1:45 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 Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2336 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTER 16, ARTICLE 20, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED,
RELATING TO THE TRAFFIC CODE,
which was passed on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the County
of Kauai on November 4, 2009, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on
November 12, 2009.
The hearing proceeded as follows:
LARRY LITTLETON: Good afternoon Mr. Chair, members of the Council.
I'm here to speak about bill 2336. I oppose this as it is written on the grounds that
it discriminates against people who are deaf or hard of hearing whose only means of
communicating is by text messaging. As I understand this bill, if a person wants to
buy a mobile phone that is wireless so they can continue driving while speaking on
the phone, that is available today. But for a person who is deaf or hard of hearing,
we don't have that availability-there is no device on the market that will allow me
to drive hands-free and communicate by text. So I feel that this discriminates
specifically against people who are deaf or hard of hearing. We in the deaf
community have worked very hard with paging companies to provide plans that
allow us to do only text messaging, and not use cell phone minutes, because we can't
use them. So now for the county to take away that ability to communicate mobilly
feel to me very discriminating, and I would hope that the council fully considers
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what you are doing before you vote on this. Let me say that I understand the safety
involved; however, we have fought very hard to get these devices to be free to
communicate mobilly, and we want the same equality as everybody else. So until a
device is on the market that allows us to purchase and to continue to communicate
hands-free, I feel that this is very discriminating. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you for your testimony and thank you for
bringing up an important issue. I'm sure the intent was not to be discriminatory.
Do we have any other comments that you wanted to make, or any questions... Any
questions from the councilmembers? No? Thank you for your testimony. Anyone
else in the audience that would like to testify on this bill? Seeing none, the public
hearing is now adjourned.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:51 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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