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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-05-2010 Special Council Meeting Minutes SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 5, 2010 The Special Meeting of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by the Council Chair at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4896 Rice Street, Room 201, Lihu`e, Kauai, on Tuesday, January 5, 2010, at 8:42 a.m., after which the following members answered the call of the roll: Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie S. Chang Honorable Jay Furfaro Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro (present at 9:59 a.m.) Honorable Lani T. Kawahara Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami. Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing APPROVAL OF AGENDA Mr. Furfaro moved to approve the Agenda as circulated, seconded by Mr. Bynum, and unanimously carried. Council Chair Asing: With that, why don't we start the interview process? Councilmembers, on your... Jade, did we give everyone a schedule? Why don't we pass the schedule around so that everyone has the schedule, because we're not going to be following the way it's listing on the sequence. We're going to follow the sequence that you have before you now that was just passed out. With that, could we have Roy Oyama up please? Roy, do you want to... Well, before we start the interview process, is there anyone in the public who would like to testify first? Okay Roy, you want to sit down dust a little while, while we have... We're going to take public testimony first. Good morning, Glenn. GLENN MICKENS: Good morning, Kaipo. Happy new year to all you. A little wet outside, but a nice new year anyway. Just briefly, I only have a couple of statements here. I want to thank Rob Abrew for his work and research on this 2302 B and E, and hope this council will make sure that this charter section is abided by before confirming the appointees. I believe that 2302E may have fallen through the cracks, just as 307E did, but hope that 2302E isn't eliminated as 307E was. At least it was watered down by making it conform to State statute. One other thing for one of the conferees, for the three new nominees who are the cost control commission, I'd like to know why they chose being on this commission, were they asked or did they ask to be on it, and what did they expect to accomplish on this commission. For me this is...or on paper should be the most powerful body of people on any board or commission that we happen to have. I've said this over the SPECIAL MEETING 2 JANUARY 5, 2010 years, we've never had really any dialogue about the cost control commission, but if you read the charter, it is a very, very powerful body of people. Thank you Kaipo. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Is there anyone else? ROB ABREW: Aloha and good morning, Councilmembers, for the record. I'd like to offer my gratitude to all our community members here today that have become the mayor's successful applicant for a position on one of Kaua`i's many boards or commissions. We are here today to complete the process that the citizens of Kauai have approved in Charter section 23.02b on how the mayor appoints and our council approves the successful applicants to a board or commission. On behalf of the public, I must ask today that the council defer the interview process until the public has a chance to review and public testify on information contained in the successful applicant's application as required by HR.S 92-F, the uniform information practice act. In a letter dated January 21 (excuse me, a typo) 2005 addressed to former councilmember Joann Yukimura concerning executive session interviews, the issue of public disclosure of a successful applicant's information was discussed at great length. This letter was responsible for the interviews of successful applicants moving from executive session to a public meeting. This letter also was copied and sent to Chair Asing, former county attorney nakazara(sic), and County Clerk Peter Nakamura It stated, the Charter provides that all members of boards and commissions shall be appointed and may be removed by the mayor, with the approval of the council. Charter act 2302. It is our understanding that in accordance with the Charter, the mayor transmits to the council the names of the appointees for the council's approval. A copy of each appointee's application for appointment to the board or commission is also transmitted to the council. The application includes, among other things, the appointee's name, employer, a summary of the appointee's major work experience, and a statement of the applicant's understanding of the primary duties of the appointment. Although the UIPA recognizes that individuals have a significant privacy interest in applications in nominations for appointment to a government position, the OIP has previous opinion that significant privacy issues interest is outweighed by the public interest in the application information concerning successful applicants or nominees, because it sheds a light upon the composition, conduct concerning successful applicant or nominees. Excuse me, I'll rephrase that. Because it sheds a light upon compositions, conduct, and potential conflicts of interest of government board and commission members. OIP letter number 91-8 Therefore, the UIPA would require disclosure of the appointee's application information. This is straightforward. We can't say these are only guidelines. This is the law, the intent of the legislator. The letter also made reference to an OIP decision made back in June 1991. This OIP decision was in reference to the governor's application for appointments to boards and commissions to be reviewed by the senate. SPECIAL MEETING 3 JANUARY 5, 2010 Council Chair Asing: Okay, you want to continue, you have another three minutes left. Mr. Abrew: Thank you Chair. Below you will find some information included in that opinion. Since the OIP directly referenced this decision, I took the liberty to add mayor where it had governor, and council in place of senate. A government record, HRS 92F-3 defines government record, means information maintained by an agency in written, (inaudible), visual, electronic, or any other form. Successful applicants, OIP 91-8. We find that certain information about a mayor's nomination would shed light upon the operations of government boards and commissions, and also upon the mayor's and the council's role in selecting board and commission members on the public's behalf. In our opinion, the public has an interest in the application and nomination records concerning a nominee that would reveal the composition, conduct, and potential conflicts of interest of board and commission members whom the mayor appoints with the county's(sic) approval. We believe that this public interest would be furthered by the disclosure of the nominee's identity and other nominee information discussed below. The nominee's work experience required for appointment to a particular board or commission must also be disclosed to the public upon request. Under the UIPA, an individual has a significant privacy right interest in, the individual's nongovernmental employment history, except as necessary to demonstrate compliance with requirements for a particular government position. In this case, as a board or commission member. We find that more than a scintilla of public interest in the nominating qualifying work experience exists to preclude a finding of a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy. We find that the UIPA requires public disclosure of a nominee's current occupation, business address, business telephone number, education, and political members due to a Charter provision to keep our government to a bare political majority as possible. Nominee's home address, home telephone number, birth date, financial information, and other information contained in the application must be kept confidential under the UIPA exemption for a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy. Public access. Under 92F-19A6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the mayor may disclose information including confidential information about a nominee to the council that reveal the nomination. When the council receives confidential information about a nominee from the mayor, the council must observe the applicability restrictions on disclosure. However, the council will be required to publicly disclose certain nominee information under its. review when the public interest is of...in disclosure if the information outweighed the nominee's privacy interest. Both opinions guide us on what is public information and what is confidential in a successful applicant's application. In my opinion, the last line tells us that before the council can review the information and act to approve or not approve, the council must disclose the non-confidential successful applicant's SPECIAL MEETING 4 JANUARY b, 2010 information to the public. This information should have been... should be available to the public when the agenda is posted. It was not. Council Chair Asing: Your time is up. Mr. Abrew. I got two more paragraphs and I can finish. Council Chair Asing: Go ahead. Mr. Abrew: Communications from the mayor received in the county clerk's office on 1214109 and 12123109 stated that the applications of today's successful applicants were attached. This allowed more than enough time for the clerk's office to remove the confidential information on the application, and make available to the public the information needed for the council to review and move forward. If the applications were not attached and the mayor did not include them, please have the mayor send over the applications so we can move forward. Due to time, I have offered only a small portion of the information contained in the two OIP letters I mentioned. I feel like a complete... I feel to get a complete understanding of all the information supplied, the case notes, case law, and legislative intent of the UIPA, you must read the opinions in their entirely(sic). Please feel free to ask your county attorney their advice on if it's appropriate to move forward today with this new information supplied. My testimony here today is not to interfere with the process that brings members of our fine communities together for public service, but to ask questions about the process and are we doing what we can to make our government the most open and free-flowing of information as possible by respecting the private lives of all our community. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to speak? Once we start the interview process, I will not be accepting anymore public testimony. The public testimony is going to be held now, so if there's anyone else n the public who wants to speak, please step up, Judge. Good morning. ALFRED LAURETA: Climbing those stairs is a little hard for me. Thank you very much. Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the Council. My name is Alfred Laureta and living at Puakea in Lihu`e, Kauai. I must admit that I know very little of the board of ethics, who and how many sit on the board, who the chairperson is, what their backgrounds are, etc. I do not know the appointees who are being considered for confirmation by the council today, so you can see I sit here before you with an open or empty mind as you see fit. My testimony is really a rebuttal to a letter seemingly conveniently published in The Garden Island on Monday, January 4, 2009(sic), one day before this hearing. Although not couched in the form of direct suggestions to the county council, the context infects ideas for the members of the council to consider-ideas or suggestions with which I disagree. SPECIAL MEETING 5 JANUARY 5, 2010 Permit me to explain by taking quotes from the letter, followed by my interpretation of their application to your task of confirming or not confirming the mayor's appointees. Mr. B quote, this is quote, Mr. B served only one year and wanted to continue. The rationale for failing to reappoint, the explanation rings rather hollow, and the word balance needs clarification. End quote. The application of this statement, if you confirm or refuse confirmation of appointees who expressed a willingness to serve, you must provide an explanation which is clearly defined and satisfactory. Second quote. We do not know the process the mayor used for this selection. Application-you should describe or explain the process used in your final decision. Three, quote. We doubt that persons are appointed that will not conform to his, the mayor's, views... or I might say, your views. Application-you should avoid confirming appointees who conform to your views. Four. In recent years, no appointment has ever been denied. Is the council really doing its job under the Charter? End quote. Application-you should deny confirmation to show that you are doing your job. Five. Most appointees are chosen to keep the status quo. Application-you should not confirm or deny just to keep the status quo... and I might add, because the status quo is bad. Six, a few mavericks will come along. This is a quote again. A few mavericks will come along, but without a majority to represent our citizens, the system will not work. Application-this is totally inconsistent and contrary to the democratic principle which the letter writer espouses. And this principle that he espouses may be found in The Garden Island, December 27, 2009. And I quote, in any government system, whether it be in government board or commission, different points of view are welcome and decisions are made by majority. End quote. Here, the absence of a majority is being blamed for the existence of a minority which does not have the support of the majority. Confusing, isn't it? I believe in your appointing qualified persons to boards and commissions. Education and experience is a good starting point, but character is just as important a consideration. How do we just character? Difficult. We look for the desirable traits, and in doing this, I suggest what I learned as a boy scout, and that is to remember the scout law, which I remember to this day: a scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. The person we appoint should have these traits, these qualities too, besides being educated and experienced. In conclusion I say, members of the council, do your job as best as you can. No one here, including myself, represents the will of the people. Your decision is the closest thing there is to what constitutes the will of the people. Thank you very much. Any questions? Council Chair Asing: Thank you Judge. Mr. Laureta; Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Is there anyone else in the audience who wants to speak? SPECIAL MEETING 6 JANUARY 5, 2010 KEN TAYLOR: Chair and members of the council, happy new year to you all. Off to a good start for the new year. I do find it interesting that the previous speaker wandered off a little bit from the subject matter on the agenda today and was allowed to continue the process. So I just want to raise that issue and raise the issue that you all are very, very familiar with, is that when you took office you swore to uphold the Charter of the County of Kauai, as well as the State and federal Charter... Constitution. So as you move forward today, I hope you keep that in mind. Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to speak on this item? If not, I'd like to call the meeting back to order, and can we have Roy up, please? INTERVIEWS BOARD OF WATER SUPPLY: • Roy Asao Oyama - Term ending 1213112012 ROY OYAMA: Good morning. Council Chair Asing: Good morning. How you doing this morning? Well, happy new year, Roy, and Roy, what I'd like to do is open this up to you to give any information... pass on any information to councilmembers as you see fit that might help and assist councilmembers in making a decision on your appointment. So with that, I'm going to open it up to you. Mr Oyama: Sure. Thank you. Anyway, I want to serve my second term, which is the final term, and I've learned a lot about what has gone in the water department, and the issues are, you know, at hand that I understand clearly, which I'd like to really pave the way to help agriculture itself on the water department, because we were not represented in a way that people understand agriculture on the island. And you know, the systems, like I always hear is, the system is for water charges, and we agriculture is not the main issue, which I understand. But the word that we all use in the island and the State is, today, is practicing sustainability. While there is lot of issues about farmers being on land without agriculture water, which the domestic water is in need, and I have good example too. This year we got a new manager onboard, and he wants to start issuing what we call the backflow preventers. I'm not sure if you all understand that. It's a water breaker to prevent contamination from the patrons, or the patronage, which is the customer, when water flows in the system, it can be siphoned back into the county system. So he wants to install that backflow preventer, and my issue is, it's okay, but you know, it's costly. And I have stated my concern about agriculture users, it's very costly. So we came to a area where we will try to help with installment payments through the agriculture users, and this is going to take place this coming process this year, and I'm not sure when it will, but I'm trying to make sure I get the information back to the farmers also. But that's a SPECIAL MEETING 7 JANUARY 5, 2010 big issue in agriculture. And I'm concerned about also the safety of the water system, and this backflow preventer is a big safety for the users of the system, and also to, you know, help retain the cost of each user. So that's what I have, and I'd be willing to answer questions too Council Chair Asing: Good, thank you. With that, Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Mr. Oyama, thank you for putting your name before us for a second term. Let me ask, first of all, you are not currently employed with any government agency. Mr. Oyama: No, I'm a retired farmer at this present time. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. And I would like to also make a couple notes that I share with you now, because you are on the water board, and I consider your willingness to serve and bringing that history and continuity with the department forward is very important to our success. But I do want to say that when it comes to the water department, there is an item here regarding, that you brought up, regarding backflow (inaudible). Mr. Oyama: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: And much of that was implemented through concerns from the federal government... Mr. Oyama: Right. Mr. Furfaro: ...where water could be contaminated, whether it's water resources, transmission, and/or what we're talking about, the ability for a system to have bacteria and chemicals re-enter the system from not having a backflow. So I really encourage that piece. It seems that you're a little bit different with the new director's request to pursue that, but there's been a lot of documentation on that with the federal government and the operations concern with installing backflow preventers. I know many commercial properties, hotels here and so forth, are assured that they are in compliance with that. And more recently, there is in front of us, because they have limited resources, in the county a concern that I have is a very aggressive program, capital program, that is being planned by the water department that is almost $20million higher, higher, than the previous director of the water board had indicated to us he would be asking for about $40million of bond money for capital improvements, and I believe first draft of that letter from the director, copied to the board, that that number is $60million for a bond float, which is supported by the rate increases Mr. Oyama: Right. SPECIAL MEETING 8 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Furfaro: In other words, this is an obligation, a bond that means it can come from all general categories of county revenues, but you have scheduled rate increases that would support this becoming a revenue bond, but the water department is a small entity, and therefore, when you go to see our bond counsel, they will probably tell you, you cannot qualify for the best interest rate because you have a small revenue base. And in this particular case, it's better to put it under the county's bond because we can get maybe as much as one and a half to two percent better rate on the bond. But there is a caution I have here, and I want to share it with you as far as this interview. If we borrow $60million in this bond for capital improvement, the board must remember that we have to spend that $60million in a three-year period. If not, the county will be subject to some pretty heavy penalties. Mr. Oyama: Yes. Mr. Furfaro- So I would... and I am going to send a correspondence to the water department that my preference is that we be absolutely certain, if we borrow that money, we will implement the improvements, whether it's transmission, whether it's storage, whether it's catching surface water. Because the water department is also part of economic development... Mr. Oyama: Right. Mr. Furfaro: If we don't have utilities in this county, we have no economic stimulus. But we cannot expose ourselves to being so aggressive on borrowing money that we end up actually penalizing ourself because we couldn't get the job done in the appropriate time. Mr. Oyama: Right. Mr. Furfaro That's my only message for you, Mr. Oyama. I'm delighted that you're willing to serve again, because to stimulate our economy, we need somebody with agriculture background like yourself... Mr. Oyama: Right. Mr. Furfaro: And water is key... Mr. Oyama: Right. Mr. Furfaro: No water, no agriculture (inaudible). Mr. Oyama: Right. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair. SPECIAL MEETING 9 JANUARY , 2010 Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions for Roy, councilmembers? Mr. Oyama: Can I respond? Council Chair Asing: Sure. Mr. Oyama: Yeah, I understand what you're saying, and we are having a special meeting tomorrow, okay. And I know the last meeting I was gone, but I had questions to ask, which I passed on to the members to ask the questions I had in mind. So we are in deep thoughts, in fact we were from the beginning, because this is so huge. And even if it says it's from the revenues, it is costly. Okay? I understand. Mr. Furfaro: My only message here is I don't want to borrow more than we can do... Mr. Oyama: Afford, like anything else. Mr. Furfaro: No afford, that we can do. Mr. Oyama: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: Because the consequence, 36 months is penalty. Mr. Oyama: Yeah, and I understand that. We have only three years to expend the money. Mr. Furfaro: Yeah. Mr. Oyama: So I understand that. Okay, I will do my best. Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Roy. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Councilmember Bynum. Mr. Bynum: Good morning Roy. I just wanted to thank you for your willingness to serve, and I appreciate your answers in Councilmember Furfaro's caution, because it didn't go unnoted that the new water manager had an aggressive agenda in terms of capital improvements. And I think we also understand that we have favorable bond rates and that this is perhaps a good time to get good bids and put people to work when we have high unemployment. But I really appreciate Mr. Furfaro's comments about the cautionary portion of that, and also your understanding of the issue. And so thank you again for your willingness to serve. SPECIAL MEETING 10 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Oyama: Sure. Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Is there anyone else want to ask? Go ahead Councilmember Kawahara. Ms. Kawahara: Actually I didn't want to ask a question. Thank you. I just wanted to thank you also for your willingness to serve, and also for representing agriculture on the board of water. I think we both agree that along with Councilmember Furfaro that water is the most important thing, and without it, we wouldn't be able to have farms or food. So thank you for being willing to serve and representing that sector. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions` I don't have any questions. I have a comment though, Roy. You know, you've always done well in whatever you've taken on, and I appreciate it. I appreciate the fact that you want to stay on again and continue, so thank you very much. And the comment that I have is I am very familiar with the backflow preventer. In fact, I was required to place a backflow preventer in one of the projects that I've done, and it's costly. It is costly, but I think on the flipside, it is something that you need to be very concerned about, because the end result could be contamination of water resources that affect the public and everyone else. So it's a real important issue, and I hope that water board really takes a real good close look at that. It's a very important issue, but I understand where you're coming from, so... And again, thank you very much for stepping up again and wanting to serve. Appreciate it. Mr. Oyama: Okay, thank you. Council Chair Asing: Thank you very much. With that, thank you. Can we have the next applicant for the police commission? We have Rowena Tachibana. Good morning, happy new year. POLICE COMMISSION: • Rowena Tachibana - Term ending 12/31/2012 ROWENA TACHIBANA: Good morning and happy new year, Chair Asing and councilmembers. My name is Rowena Tachibana. This is...this would be my second appointment to the police commission, and the first two years on the commission was a real learning experience for me, and with the help of the senior commissioners, I really learned a lot. I learned about the process of hiring a new police chief. I've also learned how to do a performance evaluation of our police chief. Since being on the board, I've seen a real change in the department. I've seen a real good increase in morale within the officers. I've seen a decrease in the police commission notarized complaints, which is very excellent. That means that our men and women in blue and white are doing their jobs. And Chief Perry is doing a SPECIAL MEETING 11 JANUARY 5, 2010 wonderful fob. We just created an internal affairs department also to help with complaints. Lao you have any questions for me? Council Chair Asing: I'd like to open it up for councilmembers. Councilmembers, any questions? Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Yes, thank you. First of all, thank you for serving this last period that you did. Ms. Tachibana: Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Very, very important that right now we have this continuity in the department, and I'm glad you mentioned the filling of vacancies. Ms. Tachibana: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: I'm glad you mentioned the internal investigation piece being developed. I also want to remind several commission candidates coming up before us today is please be very open to the new charter review that this council instituted with getting an auditor, and remind you that having an auditor is something that's really going to help us in establishing new controls, training, commission training, having better understanding of payroll and benefit issues, all of those are going to be very important to the goal of the chief, which is to get the department certified. And I wanted just to share that with you that the tools that we're providing with an audit department is very, very beneficial to all the boards and commissions, especially in learning how to develop operating budgets. Ms. Tachibana: Yes. We are looking at that right now. Also, the chief did let the commission know that we are in the process of trying to get accredited, that would be the department, and that the process will take a while to get started. But we're looking at that. Mr. Furfaro: Well, thank you for being part of that goal setting as a commissioner. I have no more questions. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Anyone else have any questions? Councilmember Bynum. Mr. Bynum: Hi Rowena. Ms. Tachibana: Good morning. Mr. Bynum: I just wanted to take a minute, because I'm really pleased that you're on the police commission, and I want to thank you for your service and I know you have a strong background in mental health, and you know the police deal with a lot of mental health issues, because unfortunately, people SPECIAL MEETING 12 JANUARY 5, 2010 with mental health issues often are on the street, and... Has that background been helpful for you to help you to help...? Ms. Tachibana: It has been very helpful. I have spoken to the chief about doing more training for our officers in dealing with clients that have substance abuse and mentally ill problems, and the chief is going to coordinate, through the mental health system that I'm working with, to have more in-services and training done. Mr. Bynum: Because I assume State mental health workers are subject to furloughs (inaudible)... Ms. Tachibana: Yes. Yes, we are already furloughed two days out of the month. So we've had to really crunch our work and we're trying to keep our services going, but it's been really difficult with not having two full days of opening the clinic and servicing the public. And so the officers really are working a lot harder as far as helping the mental health center in treating homeless, mentally ill, and substance abuse clients. Mr. Bynum: So tough economic times made (inaudible)... Ms. Tachibana: Tough, tough. Mr. Bynum: ..more difficult for mental health (inaudible)... and also puts more of those issues on the street for police officers to deal with. Ms. Tachibana: Right, right. Mr. Bynum: so I mean that perspective you bring, and I'm thrilled to hear that you've, you know, assert yourself with the chief and say hey, let's increase our sensitivity here, because it's... So that's just a wonderful service you're providing and it's very much appreciated. Ms. Tachibana: Thank you very much. Council Chair Asing: Anyone else? If not, thank you very much. I don't have any questions for you. I just want to thank you again. You've stepped up to the plate. You want to continue to do it, and I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Ms. Tachibana: Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to meet with you. Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Can we have the next applicant, Camilla Matsumoto? Good morning, happy new year. SPECIAL MEETING 13 JANUARY 5, 2010 PLANNING COMMISSION: • Camilla Chieko Matsumoto, At-large designation - Term ending 12131/2012 CAMILLA MATSUMOTO: Council Chair and councilmembers, happy new year. Good morning. Council Chair Asing: I'm dust going to open it up for you. Say whatever you want to say. Share any information you care to share with councilmembers. Ms. Matsumoto: I was encouraged to come here today for the benefit of some members here who don't know me very well, so let me just briefly introduce myself. Camilla Matsumoto, and I work for Kauai Community College... which is, as you know, part of the 10 campus system for the State of Hawaii University of Hawaii public higher education system, which we are very proud of. Have worked for the university since... actually since I was a student employee and a graduate of.-received all of my degrees there in English literature, Fine Arts, and also Masters in Education, and taught high school English and drama on Oahu, and then also worked in international education for UH Manoa, and then moved over to the community college system in 1987. And in 1984 I was transferred over here to Kauai Community College. I little bit of history was when our former president Dobelle had made some changes in our office and there was a time when discussions were made about moving some people to the different campuses, and our previous chancellor, Peggy Cha, was very much involved with professional development, which is what I...the area in which I worked, and so it seemed a good fit for me to move over here to work with her. And subsequently, I'm now under the office of the chancellor, Helen Cox, and have new role; it's ...I work in community relations and special projects for her. We hope to work on grants and continue with our scholarships for students and donations to the campus. And this is my second term with the planning commission. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Councilmembers, any questions? Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Camilla, thank you very much again for being willing to serve the planning commission. I have two questions for you, dust because we're not often participating in this particular interaction with the planning commissioners Before the year ended, was the commission able to review the planning director? Ms. Matsumoto: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: Did the department set goals and objectives for him? Ms. Matsumoto: Yes. SPECIAL MEETING 14 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Furfaro: And did the planning director share the update of the eight major projects: CZO, the general plan, etc.? Ms. Matsumoto: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: That was put together by my committee here? Did he share that with you? Ms. Matsumoto: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. Again, thank you for serving. I have no more questions Mr. Chair. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Councilmembers, any other questions? Councilmember Kawahara. Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Council Chair. Good morning, Camilla. Camy, thanks for coming. My question was, with your background, what drew you to be interested in the planning department. Ms. Matsumoto: That's a good question. When I... should also say that I considered ...I have very deep roots here. My family is from here. My parents were born and raised on Kauai. Father was born in Makaweli and raised in Wailua. Mother was born in Mlauea and raised and lived there. And like many young people when they graduated from high school, moved to Oahu to further their education, actually my father went to...was fort ...was very fortunate to be able to go to a mainland collage, and then they stayed away because of work. My grandparents on both sides lived here, and have family even today, some distant relatives who might not even know me right now because so much time has passed, and many people have passed on. And I have always have come here throughout my life, spent a lot of time, many years here, with my grandparents, and when I moved here, I have had this really strong desire to give back to the community. It was a... I consider my background, my history, quite special to have been able to experience life here on this island, and to live here has...I've wanted... living here, to provide me with opportunities to, again, give back and dust express the gratitude I have for the kind of history I've had here. Ms. Kawahara: Other questions were do you find that you get enough information to make decisions that you're comfortable with that are going to be guiding how the county plans for the future definitely? Ms. Matsumoto: I would like to say that I see some very good movement in the planning... with the planning commission working with the planning department, and also, I want to say even with the council. I think communication has opened up more in the past say two years, and we are receiving SPECIAL MEETING 15 JANUARY 5, 2010 more information... we've always had it timely, and the support from the planning department has always been good. Ms. Kawahara: So everything that... You're aware that you can request information that you're overseeing the planning department? Ms. Matsumoto: Yes. Ms. Kawahara: That was what I wanted to be sure that you're able to request items and get information that you need to make educated decisions about the future of the planning on Kauai. Ms. Matsumoto: When I ask questions of them and request information, I get that immediately... within a few hours, actually. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, because it is important, and I want to be able to talk to all the commissioners that come up for reappointment to make sure that they know that they are above the department and oversee it, not necessarily a rubberstamp for everything that comes through. You're one of the balances... checks and balances. So that was a question I had that you're very aware that it's a checks and balance, and you have that authority, especially to hire or release a planner. Ms. Matsumoto: Yes. Ms. Kawahara: Okay. Thank you very much for the background. I didn't have that information, and I'm comfortable that you're aware how important the position is and how it is that the planning commission affects ...can affect the way we plan and the lifestyle we have here. Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Any other question? Councilmember Bynum. Mr. Bynum: Morning Camy. Ms. Matsumoto: Good morning. Mr. Bynum: Thank you for being here and... Has it been three years already? Ms. Matsumoto: Yes. It doesn't seem that way at all. Mr. Bynum: I remember when I...when we first talked, a lot of the questions had to do with... for all the applicants, the understanding that involvement in the planning commission was more than just responding to the regulatory issues, but also governance of the planning department. And I dust wanted to hear from you how you feel that's evolved and whether the planning commission is involved in that governance. Are they aware of the general plan SPECIAL MEETING 16 JANUARY 5, 2010 goals that were set almost 10 years ago now, and you know, are there subcommittees on the planning commission? You know, has that evolved in the three years that you've been there in terms of the planning commission's oversight of the department and their goals and objectives? Ms. Matsumoto: I think as you know, because of our economic situation globally, I think there have been changes, at least I have seen changes in applicants coming in to the planning commission. And in that, I feel that we have a little more time to concentrate on projects that we've had to deal ...we should have been working on. It's difficult to balance when you're working with applications and then also having to review, you know, send information out for you to... for voting and whatnot, and so this time I think is a good time for us to be working on it. We have already begun doing that. For example, with the planning director, we've spent quite a lot of time reviewing the evaluation process and going through the items and comments and you know, planning recommendations, and having good talks about that. So I think that's worked well. The county attorney's office has provided wonderful expertise, and I've noticed a change in our... not that it was not good before, but it's an improvement where we get a lot of advice, and it has helped us to make decisions that we needed to be made. I've noticed that the planning department has helped us to build in time during our meetings where we have professional development where we can talk about the other kinds of projects that we need to deal with. So I definitely see an improvement that way. And I think actually, in the last ...I want to say year, we've accomplished quite a lot. Mr. Bynum: Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions, councilmembers? If not, I have dust a few comments. First of all I wanted to ask, I guess I didn't ask you the last time maybe, Matsumoto, Matsumoto, where was your family from, what part of the island? Ms. Matsumoto: My grandmother is a Saiki, and so the Saikis were in Kapa`a. The Matsumoto family lived in Makaweli, and their family was not big. It was dust great grandfather and grandmother, my father and sister, and my... actually my grandfather had a brother and a sister, and his... they didn't all stay on Kauai. Just the grandparents did. Council Chair Asing: Okay, thank you. The comment that I wanted to make was I need to tell you that, you know, I was disappointed at the planning commission for not coming up with a decision on the transient accommodations bill, the TVR bill. I guess when you met finally, I think you had only five people, and I think the vote went 3:2, and so there was a "no decision" by the commission that was really sent to us. And just a little disappointed that the commission didn't take a stronger stance either way. You know, I'm not saying that you should have gone one way or the other, but I am saying is, though, I had hoped that you would make a decision either way-for, against, adding things on, but when we received it, we SPECIAL MEETING 17 JANUARY 5, 2010 received it as really a "no decision." So there was no decision made on that side, so to speak. So I dust wanted to express to you a little disappointed at that that I would have wanted some kind of decision either way. So with that, thank you very much, and I want to again thank you for serving. Time really flies, and I guess you look like you're enjoying what you're doing and participating in the system. So I want to thank you for continuing to want to serve. Ms. Matsumoto: Thank you, It's been an honor to serve Kauai in this way. Council Chair Asing: Thank you very much. With that, can we have the judge up, please? Judge Matsunaga. Good morning, happy new year. LIQUOR, CONTROL COMMISSION: • Gerald Shigemi Matsunaga - Term ending 12131/2012 GERALD MATSUNAGA: Same to you. Members of the county council, I'm a retired judge, not a fudge anymore. Yes, I understand you have some questions. Council Chair Asing: You know, even if you retired, that judge just carries on, and it's an honor for me to continue to call you judge, like I call judge Laureta fudge. Mr. Matsunaga: I try to abstain from using it, otherwise some that I've sentenced may scratch my car. I try to use the name Peter Morimoto...or Lianne. You want a statement or... Council Chair Asing: Well, whatever you want to share, Mr. Matsunaga: Okay. My name is Gerald Matsunaga, a retiree, senior citizen, and I'm glad the council is providing me an opportunity to serve the county. Currently I do some free mediation for those that cannot afford to hire a mediator at the courts; it's a volunteer basis. I also serve on the Hawaii State Bar Association as a director, and also the credit union. I'm just trying to keep busy, because I found out, after you retire, you simply cannot play golf every day, and my game sucks. But I've served on the liquor commission for the past two years, and I enjoyed serving on the commission, and a lot of it has to do with our director, Mr. Eric Honma. He is...you know, I've worked in government for 30 plus years, and I feel that he is one of the top directors that I've ever worked with. He is very competent, he's dedicated, and it's a pleasure to serve on the liquor commission. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Judge, happy new year. Mr. Matsunaga: Same to you. SPECIAL MEETING 18 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Furfaro: I do want to thank you for your service, and I also just wanted to echo from my opinion on the council the great work of our director in the liquor control department. Mr. Honma has done a very outstanding fob, and I think even the recent goal which he has set on focusing on cracking down, if I can use that term, on under-age drinking, selling of liquor out of retail to under-age people, we have had great success there. And I'm sure part of that deals with the pace that the commissioners have set for his goal. But I also want to say and dust share with you my total support of that department, because it's actually... people don't want to say that; it actually turns out to be a profit center that after cost, it is then moneys that do go to the general fund that help alleviate other issues we have in the county. So thank you again for stepping Forward, and thank you for the comments on the director. I have the same high respect for his management and leadership under your oversight. So thank you. Mr. Matsunaga: Thank you. And for your information, this Thursday there's four hearing selling to minors. So he's still on track. Mr. Furfaro: But when you compare our numbers to the other counties, the difference is substantial in what we've been able to manage. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions, Councilmembers? If not, fudge, thank you very much. Thank you for wanting to continue, and hope your golf game improves. Mr. Matsunaga: I think it's the age factor. It's not going to improve; it's going to be worse. Thank you very much. Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, before we break for a break here, may I have a moment of comment? Council Chair Asing: Sure. Mr. Furfaro: I dust want to also acknowledge that we do have commission applications in our packet which are clearly above the signature line of those that have filled out the applications. It does state, such as cost control commissioners cannot be employed in government services Civil service commissioners cannot be employed in government service, and board of ethic members are prohibited from taking active part in any political campaigns. This in fact is dated and signed by the individual applicants. Clearly, this statement is made just above the application signature line Thank you. Council Chair Asing: With that, we're going to take a short break, and then we will be back. And when we get back, we will start off with Russell Kyono. Mr. Nakamura: Mr. Chair, Ms. Wilson I think is here ...Lisa Wilson. SPECIAL MEETING 19 JANUARY 5, 2010 Council Chair Asing: I'm sorry, what's that? Mr. Nakamura: Lisa Wilson, when we come back. Council Chair Asing: Oh, okay. I'm sorry, we're wrong place. I'm sorry. Lisa, yes. Sorry. There being no objections, the Chair recessed the meeting at 9:43 a.m. The meeting reconvened at 9:59 a.m., and proceeded as follows: Council Chair Asing: Meeting is called back to order. With that, we have Lisa Ann Wilson. Good morning, happy new year. BOARD OF REVIEW: - Lisa Wilson - Term ending 12/31/2012 LISA WILSON: Good morning, happy new year to you all. Council Chair Asing: Lisa, I'd like to just open it up to you. Whatever information you care to share with councilmembers, please feel free. So I'll open it up to you. Ms. Wilson: Okay. Well, first and foremost, I'm a mother of two beautiful children, 15... my son is 15 and my daughter just turned 10, and I am a loan officer with Central Pacific Home Loans. I've been on the island since 2001, and have been in the real estate field since then. I've done... I had my license as a realtor, but I really didn't enjoy that. I think it was just driving people around and being a tour guide, so I need to be challenged. And then I was a escrow officer for Title Guaranty for about three and half...four years, and then I decided to explore the lending side, and I've been in lending for four years, and I've been using my experience to help a lot of first-time homebuyers. I don't know if it says there, but I've been involved with a lot of the first-time homebuyer fairs that the county has put on. I have participated in that the past three ones to help organize. And as far as my other activities, I'm a Rotarian. I've been a member of the Kapa`a Rotary Club for three years, so I'm very community-minded. Other than that, to roll it all in a nutshell, that's me. Council Chair Asing: Other than that, you really keep busy. Ms. Wilson: Yeah, I do. Well, I figure... Yeah, I just got...and I'm jetlagged, so please forgive me, I'm not at my personal best. So we went to Pennsylvania for the holidays, so it's always great going somewhere, but it's the traveling to and from that kind of work you over. Council Chair Asing: How was the weather there like when you went'? SPECIAL MEETING 20 JANUARY 5, 2010 Ms. Wilson: Cold, very cold. We got there ...well, we got delayed. We couldn't land in Philadelphia; we got diverted to North Carolina. We had to stay the night in North Carolina, because that was the big snowstorm that hit the East Coast and planes couldn't even land on...it was freezing the wheels on the plane, so we couldn't land. So we got into Pennsylvania Sunday night, and it was about 40-but it was a white Christmas, so the kids had fun. My son hadn't seen snow since I think he was about 4, and my daughter, when we moved to Kauai, she was only about a year old. So they hadn't seen snow, so they had a great time, did the snowman... while I stayed inside by the fireplace. So but when we left, it hit I think the last day that we there. It hit about 17, so I was ready to come home. I was ready to come home, so... Council Chair Asing: Good, thank you. With that, Councilmembers, any questions? Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro. First of all, Lisa, thank you very much for coordinating your appearance here with your trip back east. I just wanted to say, I really think your work with our housing group and the home fairs and your mortgage background, your understanding of the real estate market, and certainly functioning as escrow officer that reviews, you know, tax credits and tax exemptions and so forth is a big plus for the department. That's my comment. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions, Councilmembers? Councilmember Kawahara: Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Chair. Good morning, it's nice to meet you My question is, what was your interest in this board... wanting to be on this board. Ms. Wilson: When I was contacted by the mayor's office, he had had several ...I guess several commissions that he was looking for. When he mentioned this, I felt like this commission would best use my expertise, because I am, you know, familiar with real estate, especially now that the market has changed and we see the values are changing a lot drastically than they have in the past few years, and my familiarity with the market, so... Ms. Kawahara: My other question is that these are all usually appeals, so they're going to be probably unhappy people. Have you dealt a lot with the public... dealing with the public in a public service and unhappy people that are certain that their assessment is incorrect and so on? Ms. Wilson: Unfortunately, my job gives me a lot of joy because I'm able to help people, but with that, I don't always to tell people what they want to hear. So it's just ...you know, I am used to telling... giving people bad news, you know, and you know, I just have to stick to the facts and the supporting document SPECIAL MEETING 21 JANUARY 5, 2010 as to why...you know, why I feel that the price is where it should be...or the assessment is where it should be. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, so you're comfortable if it gets confrontational or, you know, dust unpleasant? Ms. Wilson: Yeah. Ms. Kawahara: Because sometimes it's a lot of money, and I can understand that people will be upset about this or that and are positive... Ms. Wilson: I think when you're dealing with real estate and money, people always get more emotional than anything else. So yeah, I am comfortable with that, and as long as I have the supporting documentation that I...even though someone may not want to hear what I have to say, but at least I'm confident that I have the supporting documentation to back me up to say, okay well this is the reason why I feel that, you know, where the assessment is where it is. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, good. I'm glad that I asked the question, because... and you answered it really well. The other question was, our funds come mostly from property tax assessments, so I wanted to be sure if you're aware of that, and that we don't actually give the bank away in appeals when we don't have to. Ms. Wilson: Yeah, I am familiar with the county budget and that it's mostly supported by real property tax. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you very much. Ms. Wilson: Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Any other questions Councilmembers? Councilmember Chang. Mr. Chang: Lisa, I just have a comment. I noticed your background over here, you high school in Mesa, Arizona. I know where that is. University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, then of course family in Pennsylvania, and you're out here. What a diverse bunch of places prior to coming to Kauai, yeah? Ms. Wilson: Yeah, I am a military brat. My father... I come from a military family. My grandfather was in the Army, my father is retired from the Air Force, my two brothers ...I have one brother in the Army, and another one in the Marines. So we were well traveled. And actually, what brought me to Kauai, I was actually living in Las Vegas and my brother had moved to klawai`i, and he was...and at the time I was a single mother and he was like, you really need to come to Hawal`i, It's a great place to raise the kids. At the time my children were much SPECIAL MEETING 22 JANUARY 5, 2010 younger, and he kept hammering me, and then I said, after September 11th happened, I said, okay what do I have to lose. So I ended up here and staying, and I love it here, and my family loves it here. There's no other... Especially going back to the mainland this past trip, I really realized how lucky I am to live here, you know, after dealing with the people and the weather and the traffic, I have a greater appreciation for Kauai. Mr. Chang: Thank you for being an active participant with the Kapa`a Rotary also. I know you help out a lot with the Taste of Hawaii and all their events. Ms. Wilson: You know, I feel like I've benefited a lot from this island, and the people here are...people have been so kind to me, and I'm well traveled. My father being retired from the Air Force, so I've lived Asia and Europe and all over the United States, and people really care here. You know, I haven't been somewhere where people really... they truly genuinely want to help you, and 1... 1 wouldn't be where I was...where I am right now if, you know, those people had not helped me along the way. So I'm thankful. This is the least I can do. Mr. Chang: Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Councilmember Bynum? Mr Bynum: Hi. Ms. Wilson: Hi. Mr. Bynum: Lisa, pleasure to meet you, and I just ...I wasn't going to ask any questions because you see totally qualified for this position, but you've inspired me with your recent comments, because that's also my experience of Kauai that people care deeply here. In your resume you say you're a deeply dedicated member in the community... involved and deeply dedicated, and I appreciate that and the diversity of your experience enriches our community as well. So thank you very much. Ms. Wilson: Thank you. It's my pleasure. Council Chair Asing: Any other questions? If not, thank you very much, Lisa. Ms. Wilson: Thank you so much. Council Chair Asing: Thank you for serving. Ms. Wilson: Yeah, I'm looking forward to... I'm actually excited. I'm learning something new, so you know, so thank you so much. SPECIAL MEETING 23 JANUARY 5, 2010 Council Chair Asing: Good, thank you. With that, Russell? Good morning, happy new year. BOARD OF REVIEW: • Russell Kyono - Term ending 12/31/2011 (replacing Richard Koenig Jr.) RUSSELL KYONO: Good morning, happy new year. Council Chair Asing: Russell, let me just open it up to you, whatever you care to share with councilmembers. Mr. Kyono: Most of you folks know me as Steven's brother, Rachel's dad, or more recent, Vaughn's uncle... Vaughn Meatoga. I was born and raised here, went to Kauai High, then went to the University of Hawaii, came back to Kauai and worked in...at the Waiohai, the new Walohai, got my license, real estate license, in 1981, and been working real estate since then. I think that's 29 years ...kind of long. I do both sales and property management, both commercial and residential property management and sales. I don't know what else. I think I know most of you. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Councilmembers? Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Yes. Thank you for being here Russell. Mr. Kyono: You're welcome. Mr. Furfaro: I do want to also acknowledge the fact that as, you know, Russell's commercial real estate background here dealing with actual the rental values and commercial application to property is very much an important value that's brought to this board, and I just want to say I think you bring a very strong asset to have somebody with a commercial background. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions Councilmembers? Councilmember Kawahara. Ms. Kawahara: It's only fair. Thank you Chair. It's only fair I ask you the same question. Are you comfortable... In your past, have you had experience working with people that are unhappy and unpleasant in your commercial or your regular real estate transactions? Mr. Kyono: I do a lot of property management and we deal with tenants, and a lot of times we do get into that situation. SPECIAL MEETING 24 JANUARY 5, 2010 Ms. Kawahara: Okay, so you're comfortable in knowing that and how to handle it. Mr. Kyono: Yeah. Ms. Kawahara: And making a decision regardless ...just depending on the facts. Mr. Kyono: Yeah, we just need to be fair, that's the most important thing. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you. Council Chair Asing: Anything else? Councilmember Bynum. Mr. Bynum: I might be straying from the agenda, but I'm just curious. Do you go to Alaska and fish too? Mr. Kyono: I try to. Mr. Bynum: You try to? Thank you for your service. It's very much appreciated. Mr. Kyono: You're welcome. Council Chair Asing: Councilmember Kaneshiro. Mr. Kaneshiro: Another plus for Russell is that many of you guys don't know probably that he has some good agriculture background. So he's familiar with ag lands by being a part-time rancher. Mr. Kyono: Like you, eh. Mr. Chang: He's the only one that takes his boat out in 30 foot surf to Ni°ihau also, by himself. Council Chair Asing: Well, I guess no more questions. Thank you Russell. Mr. Kyono: You're welcome. Council Chair Asing: Thank you for stepping up and wanting to participate and help the community. Appreciate your help. Thank you. Let's see now, is Dennis around? Okay, Dennis not here. Do we have anybody else that might be here? We can take whoever is here now. Is anybody SPECIAL MEETING 25 JANUARY 5, 2010 outside? Well, since we don't have anybody else outside, can we have Glenn Mickens? There being no objections, the Chair recessed the meeting at 10:15 in. The meeting reconvened at 10:30 a.m., and proceeded as follows: Council Chair Asing: Meeting is now called back to order. With that, can we have the next applicant, Warren Perry? Warren please. Good morning. BOARD OF ETHICS: Warren Perry - Term ending 1213112012 WARREN PERRY: Good morning. Council Chair Asing: Happy new year. Mr. Perry: Oh, thank you. Council Chair Asing: Warrant, I just want to open it up to you, whatever you care to share with councilmembers, any information you care to share to help councilmembers. Mr. Perry: First of all, it's been such a long time since I've been here, because it's all renovated and nice and my god. I don't know, I guess for the past few months I started talking with other people about the different problems that were being... Oh yeah, that's being experienced by different board and commission members, and particularly the ruling of the ethics commission. And dust started talking with some of my cohorts and friends on the island, and Jonathan Chun, or whatever, and talk and talk and talk and talk, and finally, I can't remember which genius told me, oh go do something about it, go apply. And way back when when I was with the county attorney's office, it seemed like the ethics commission was a non-controversial commission, yeah. And I wondered why couldn't it once again go back to being... and I'm not saying a rubberstamp commission, but you know, non-controversial. So they called me on it and I applied and here I am this morning. Good morning. Council Chair Asing: Good morning. With that, councilmembers, any questions for Warren? Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you for being here Warren. Mr. Perry: You're welcome. You're welcome, Jay. Mr. Furfaro: I want to ask you, your familiarity with the county charter, how...you were a deputy county attorney at one time, could you share your SPECIAL MEETING 26 JANUARY 5, 2010 familiarity with the charter and in particular, the issues that might deal with human resources, civil service applications personnel recruitment, so forth (inaudible). That's an important question for me. Mr. Perry: As far as the role of the ethics commission on recruitment, as in... Mr. Furfaro: Well, let me rephrase the question to perhaps you perceive it as being not as focused as I would like it to be. Within the charter and our agreement on the employment practices within the human resource department of the county, there are certain things that could be violated in personnel promotion, selection, favoritism, so forth. How familiar are you with the civil service laws that deal with fair and equal opportunity with promotions from within and the hiring practices of government agencies. Mr. Perry: Okay. The... as of right now today, not very familiar, but I know enough to know where to find the applicable things. I mean, way back when when I was with the county attorney's office, I left as the first deputy, my primary assignment was with the personnel department working... Mr. Furfaro. (Inaudible) is a big plus. Mr. Perry: Working with Mr. Herbert Doi, and handling contract grievances, collective bargaining unit grievances, getting beat-up by... Can I get a glass of water? Getting beat-up by Mr Herb Takahashi of the UPW, the attorney for the UPW... But anyway... Mr. Furfaro. While we're getting him some water, let me enhance the rationale with the question from very well known that the State and the political subdivisions such as the county of Kauai are going to be faced with some restricted resources in financial budgeting. Mr. Perry: Furloughs. Mr. Furfaro• There is a potential as we currently have 51 positions frozen in the county. There is a potential if we are going to be taxed financially, we may have to make some staffing adjustments. We may have to perhaps furlough. If we do, these practices of seniority, these practices of promotabihty, transfer, and so forth need to be handled and interpreted in such a way that if you're not, a grievance could come based on favoritism. That complaint could eventually lodge itself in an ethical question of department head's practice Mr. Perry: Sure, okay. Mr. Furfaro: So I'm trying to embellish on this question. Therefore, we need to have someone like yourself that has worked in government, SPECIAL MEETING 27 JANUARY 5, 2010 understands how the contracts are negotiated, what civil services practices are there, so that department heads in any potential furlough would act in a manner that was agreed in the civil service contract. Mr. Perry: Sure. And collective bargaining agreements. And I would say just based on my past experience, the first step would be that the whatever question would come up, as far as furloughs or whatever, would be referred to the county attorney's office, okay, and then the representative would be there during collective bargaining negotiations, etc. Now, in the event an action is done... You know, in that scenario, I see more of a collective bargaining arena than the ethics, but... Mr. Furfaro: Let me expand on that again some more. There are people who are civil service supervisor types, and there are people who then become appointees as division heads. Appointees that are division heads may not have the kind of familiarity with bargaining unions and/or selected service policies, and they could mandate the wrong type of reduction in their department that could then become an ethical question for an appointed department head. Mr. Perry: And I would have no reservation about addressing that issue, given the parameters of the charter and the ordinances and as applicable, the Hawaii Revised Statutes and collective bargaining laws, I would have no problem. Mr. Furfaro: I think because I see someone from the press in here, I want to make sure I'm not advocating the fact that this county might find themselves furloughing some staff. Let's make sure we're really sure about that. Mr. Perry: Sure, sure. Mr. Furfaro: Because we have not gone through all of the strategic opportunities that we will have in March as it relates to how we might have to tighten the budget. But in the event we do, we want to be very careful that we are practicing agreements that we have in place, selective service... (inaudible), and bargaining agreements, because agreements are agreements, and we should be held to a high standard if you're going to be honest about what we agreed to do in the event we have to reduce operating cost. Mr. Perry: I'd be willing to fill the role as a commissioner in that arena ...that aspect. Mr. Furfaro: And again, my question is dealing with people who become appointees. Mr. Perry: Sure. SPECIAL MEETING 28 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Furfaro: Who may not be familiar... Mr. Perry: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: They might bring other talents (inaudible)... Mr. Perry: Oh yes. I remember way back when, yes, oh yes. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions, Councilmembers? Councilmember Kawahara. Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Chair Asing. Hi Mr. Perry. Mr. Perry: Good morning. Ms. Kawahara: You look really similar to our chief of police. Are you related to him? Mr. Perry See, that's another thing. We're here talking about appointments. At least in the past when we had a lot...when I was working in the county attorney's office and representing the personnel department, I would say that a lot of the grievances that came up were based on promotions from the police department, okay. And yes, I am familiar with that long-legged police chief. He's my younger brother, and objectively speaking, I would say that he's been doing a good job, okay, from the majority of the police with whom I work as a defense attorney sometimes, and the court system and the prosecutor, so... So yeah, I guess I have to divulge that relationship. Ms. Kawahara: And I just, because I'm new to the process here also, there's already a mechanism in place, right, if you have... if there's a conflict of interest that ...because you're going to be investigating complaints involving county officers, so if something comes up, there is a mechanism in place that would allow you to recuse yourself? Mr. Perry: Sure, and there's also a... That's the legal mechanism in place, and then there's a... The `ohana mechanism in place, you know, like, hey Daryl, what the hell you think you doing? Which may not come into play, but anyway... Sure. Ms. Kawahara: And then one more question for you, what do you consider the most important power exercised by the ethics commission, if you are appointed? SPECIAL MEETING 29 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Perry: I would say, as a member of the body... Well, I would say I myself, just as a member, dust as all of you are members, as far as the power, the absolute power that you have, is dust your input. I mean each of you, and then it's the collective decision of the body that is basically becomes final. So if you were to say me individually, the power that I have is dust my input, and the knowledge and the... whatever, experiences that I bring to the table. But as far as the commission itself, the commission could determine that some employee or officer of the county acted improperly, if not illegally, and that would be the, I think, the ultimate power of the commission, the commission itself as opposed to individual members. Ms. Kawahara: Actually one more question. You did mention that the ethics commission has been going through a transitional or kind of revealing kind of stage. How does that affect what you're going to be coming on and what you're going to want to do? Mr. Perry: You know, we've got the charter, we've got code provisions, ordinance provisions, and then we got opinions from the county attorney's office. Now basically, to me that sets the parameters of what I can and cannot do. I cannot hire and fire, etc. I think the only thing I can say is that I will... I plan on doing my best in applying the applicable rules, guidelines, mandates... that's the...that's all I can say. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, great. Thank you very much. Mr. Perry: You're welcome. Ms. Kawahara: And thanks for putting your name in being willing to serve. Council Chair Asing: Any other questions, Councilmembers? Councilmember Furfaro, go ahead. Mr. Furfaro: First of all I wanted to thank you for answering my potential labor question which might lead to some ethical question for appointed officers. Mr Perry: Sure. Mr. Furfaro: But I also want to make sure that you do know when you signed off on your application for the board of ethics that you will be prohibited from participating in any political campaigns this year (inaudible). Mr. Perry: That'll be my pleasure. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you for that answer. SPECIAL MEETING 30 JANUARY 5, 2010 Council Chair Asing: Councilmember Bynum. Mr. Bynum: But you can still vote. I just wanted to thank you for agreeing to participate in this board. I was very happy to see your name there, and I wanted to let you know that when I met our current police chief, I asked a similar question, but it was like, you look similar to this well-respected prominent attorney in our community, any connection? So thanks, Warren. Mr. Perry: Yeah, he looks like me. I don't look like him. Mr. Bynum: That exactly. Mr. Furfaro: And that's what I say about Frank DeLima. Mr. Perry: And the reason being is I'm older, so I came first and he looked like me. Mr. Bynum: That answers my other questions. Thanks for agreeing to serve, Warren. Mr. Perry: You're welcome, sir. Council Chair Asing: Any other questions, Councilmembers? If not, Warren, thank you very much for stepping up. I appreciate you stepping up. You know, I have a long background with you, know you well, and know that you want to participate and help and give back to the community. So I appreciate that, so thank you very much. Mr. Perry: The only thing I hope is six months from now you will say, you know something, I still appreciate your being here. Council Chair Asing: Again Warren, thank you. Mr. Perry: You're welcome. Council Chair Asing: Appreciate it. With that said, can we have Brad up please? Good morning, happy new year. BOARD OF ETHICS: Brad Nagano - Term ending 12/31/2012 BRAD NAGANO: Happy new year to you Chair and councilmembers. Council Chair Asing: How are you doing? Brad, I'd like to open it up for you to pass on any information you care to share with councilmembers. SPECIAL MEETING 31 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Nagano: I guess most of you already know me. My name is Brad Nagano. I work with Noguchi and Associates, Inc. It's a property and casualty insurance agency. That's basically... I also serve on the Easter Seals board and the Kauai Community College Foundation. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Thank you for being here, Brad. Mr. Nagano: Sure. Mr. Furfaro: Brad, I would like to ask you this similar question, and I want to make sure again, I am not indicating that there is any potential staffing reduction... planned reduction at this time, but I think we need to be very open and honest of that financial issue that's in front of many government agencies and sub-political... Mr. Nagano: Oh, I hope it would never reach our level. I hope it would be determined within the department of labor... Mr. Furfaro: Here's where it could. In government there are appointees. These appointees perhaps are not familiar with civil service laws, bargaining unit agreements, and potentially they could decide to make certain adjustments in their department, so forth, that would be outside of what previous agreements are in place or mandated by civil service act. They could be interpreted as favoritism if a reduction occurred; therefore, an appointed department head could set a policy, write a memorandum that is different than the practices we (inaudible). A grievance could be filed. That grievance could find itself raising its ugly head as favoritism by an appointee who would raise then an ethical question of the decisions in the way we do business. Are you familiar with some of the civil service rules and/or bargaining unit, and if you are not, are you willing to familiarize yourself with that? Mr. Nagano: I would be willing to familiarize myself with it. I'm not within the civil servant position, so I'm not familiar with the rules that you have put in place. Mr. Furfaro: And I'm going to ask on the next question, because Mr. Chang also brought it to my attention, in your application, you did not address the question about the scope of what the commission is established for. But I'll leave that question for Mr. Chang. Mr. Nagano: Okay. SPECIAL MEETING 32 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Chang: Thank you. Hi Brad. I was looking through your application, and of course I've known you since I've been on this island of Kauai, but it's a very important, you know, being on the board of ethics, and you know, obviously there's a little bit of controversy going on right now. But you know, I think one of the main things of the application, it says, what do you understand to be the primary duties of this appointment, and you left it blank. Mr. Nagano: I did? Mr. Chang: Yeah. So I think it's important that we hear from you what are the...or what do you understand to be the primary duties of this appointment. Mr. Nagano: I guess to be-try to apply a courteous and common sense approach to any issues that may come to my attention within our responsibilities of being on the board of ethics. And I guess we need to discuss the issues and come to very ethical decision, that's my view of it. Mr. Chang: Did you ever sit in any of these board meetings? Have you ever sat in any of the ethic board's meetings? Mr. Nagano No, I haven't. Downloaded a whole bunch of stuff from the county website to find out more about it. Like I said, I think there should be ways of approaching solutions in many different ways, and I hope to be contributing one of those ways. Mr. Chang: Thank you. Thanks, Brad. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions, Councilmembers? Councilmember Kawahara. Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Council Chair. Good morning Mr. Nagano. Thank you for putting your name in for this commission. I wanted to go off of what Councilmember Chang was mentioned about what you thought to be the duties and responsibilities of this commission. Were you... When you were recruited or asked to be on the board, were you given anything that stated what the duties are of the board? Mr. Nagano. Yes, I was. Ms. Kawahara: Oh okay, and you were comfortable with all of the duties that were listed there? Mr. Nagano: Yes, what I've read. I haven't memorized it. SPECIAL MEETING 33 JANUARY 5, 2010 Ms. Kawahara: No, I don't expect you to have it memorized, but I just want to be sure that you were able to read that and see what kind of issues the board's going to be dealing with. And are you aware of the spotlight that's been placed on the board of ethics in the last year? Mr. Nagano: No. Just joking. I mean it's in the paper, so how you can avoid not being aware of what's going on? Ms. Kawahara: And you're willing... I'm dust wanting to verify that you're willing to step in... Mr. Nagano: I'm starting to wonder. No, I am. We've been... I've served on previous commissions under other administrations before, and I think volunteering our time, energy, and efforts, and hopefully putting in our personal comments and views is very helpful. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you for sharing that you had been on other boards and commission in other administrations, so you're familiar with what kind of interaction happens and how you can be helpful in making positive comments and instruction. Mr. Nagano: Correct. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you very much. Council Chair Asing: Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Brad, thank you for answering the questions in your fashion. You brought to mind after Lani Kawahara's question for following the newspaper and so forth of some of the issues that have been faced by the ethics commission, and also the fact that we have had several commissioners that have felt they created the vacancies we have now by resigning as it relates to charter article 20.2, which basically talks in terms of not making presentations to other boards and commissions as it relates to participating on the ethics commission should you be approved. Are you familiar with that section of the charter... Mr. Nagano: Yes, I am. Mr. Furfaro: And how do you feel about limiting yourself as to not participating and giving testimony to other boards and commissions? Mr. Nagano: Well, in my line of business, majority of our regulations are on the State level and not on the county level, so I think those of you who know me a long time know that I have not come up and testified on different commissions or boards. SPECIAL MEETING 34 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Furfaro: Well, thank you for just acknowledging that you are familiar with that charter section and the regulations related to appearing before other boards and commissions. So thank you, Brad. Thank you Mr. Chair. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions, Councilmembers? If not, I just want to say thank you for wanting to serve, to participate in the...with the county. I'd like to make another comment by saying that, you know, I'm very comfortable that every board and commission is assigned an attorney from the county attorney's office, so you will have some guidance and help in interpretation of laws as it pertains to any issue that may come up. So you will have help from the county attorney's office in assisting you in your decision making process. Mr. Nagano: Yeah, I'm familiar with that as we had that situation when I served on the cost control commission before. Council Chair Asing: Okay. Thank you very much. Mr. Nagano: Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Appreciate that. Mr. Nagano: Have a nice day. Council Chair Asing: You too. With that, can we have the next applicant I believe Roy Morita? Good morning, happy new year. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION: • Roy Morita - Term ending 12/31/2012 ROY MORITA: Same to you. Council Chair Asing: Roy, I'd like to just open it up. Can you share any information you care to share with councilmembers to help the councilmembers know a little more about you and your interests. Mr. Morita: Okay. My name is Roy Morita. I was born and raised on Kauai, married to my wife... married for 12 years, I have two stepchildren, and recently became a granddad. Some of my previous work experience includes about 12 years in the grocery business I was the store manager for Foodland and Star, and in the mid-$0s I became a superintendent for the longshore for about 20 years. At that time I decided I needed to spend more time with my family, so I took a early retirement and here today to answer your questions. Council Chair Asing: Good, thank you. Councilmembers, any questions for Roy? Councilmember Furfaro. SPECIAL MEETING 35 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much for being here, Roy. This is a civil service commission. Mr. Morita: Correct. Mr. Furfaro: Can you share with me any familiarity you currently have with civil service laws and bargaining contracts and things of that nature that might help support you in understanding policies and agreements that we have in place? Mr. Morita: Well, as far as the laws are concerned, it would be a learning process for me at this point; I'm not really familiar with it. As far as bargaining, for probably 30 years I've dealt with several unions, 20 of that included the longshore, which is, you know, you have to know the contracts to survive in that industry, so... Mr. Furfaro: Was that ILWU 142? Mr. Morita: Yeah, longshore. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. Mr. Morita: You're welcome. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions, Councilmembers? If not... Go ahead, Councilmember Chang. Mr. Chang: More in the terms of comments over here. How you doing, Roy? Mr. Morita: Great, and yourself? Mr. Chang: I wanted to just say congratulations to you and thank you for volunteering your time. It's interesting you say you wanted an early retirement to spend more time with your family, but you've had numerous letters of recommendation from a lot of these community service organizations, and I know that you worked around the clock, in particular at the Fourth of July Concert in the Sky. Mr. Morita. Absolutely. Mr. Chang: You know, pre and post and opala crew and everything else, and picking up the banners and everything. So you know, all I can dust say is you have a lot of people in this community that speak very highly of you, SPECIAL MEETING 36 JANUARY 5, 2010 so we really appreciate you taking some time to help out and give back to the community, and I think you're going to be a great asset. Mr. Morita: Thank you. It's an honor for me to be here Mr. Furfaro: I do want to say something. I just want to echo what Mr. Chang said to you. The several letters from within the community that express that you would do an outstanding fob in this appointment. So we have lots of people out there that recognize your talents. Mr. Morita: Thank you. Council Chair Asing: With that, thank you Roy. Appreciate your wanting to help. Let me see... With that, we have Mr. Ding here, Charlie? And it's for the salary commission. Good morning, how are you? SALARY COMMISSION: • Charles King -- Term ending 1213112011 (replacing Tom Cooper) CHARLES KING: Good morning. Council Chair Asing: Happy new year. Mr. King: Happy new year. Council Chair Asing: Charlie, you want to share with Councilmembers any information you care to share? Mr. King: Well, I put the relevant information down there, I think. Been in business for more years than I care to admit, perhaps. Started with Bank of Hawaii, and then got into something, I don't know, it's a car business, and been doing that since 1981, I think. Council Chair Asing: It's a long time. Mr. King: Yes. Served on the A&B board of directors, and then the chair of their compensation committee, so I've had some compensation experience. I've attended a couple of sessions at Harvard business school for compensation committees, at UCLA I attended a 3-day seminar there, and just attended a NASPP conference in San Francisco last year in November. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Councilmember Furfaro. Mr Furfaro: Yes, thank you. Mr. King, thank you for stepping forward. I do recognize your participation with the A&B board, their compensation SPECIAL MEETING 37 JANUARY 5, 2010 process, and so forth, but this indicates that you're filling or replacing a partial term. May I ask you, would you be willing to also serve an extended new term? Mr. King: Well, I'd certainly consider it. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you, because this term ends in just... Is this correct, it ends in one year? Two years. This is two years, I'm sorry. Thank you. That helps me. Council Chair Asing: Okay, any other questions? Councilmember Bynum. Mr. Bynum: Charlie, thank you very much for being willing to be a member of the salary commission. You know, the salary commission's role changed with charter amendments a few years ago, and I've very much appreciated the work of the salary commission moving, I think, department head salaries more in line with what's compet... a little bit more competitive with the private sector, because we do want to be able to recruit the best people to serve the people in the community, and I dust wanted to thank you and say that you're an excellent selection to replace an excellent member, Mr. Cooper. So thank you. Council Chair Asing: Any other questions for Mr. King? Councilmember Chang. Mr. Chang: I don't have any questions, except I just wanted to say thank you, you know, for serving as you do with many community organizations here on Kauai. So on behalf of our council and the community, we'd like to just thank you for being lifetime friends. Mr. Bynum: I was going to say that. Mr. King: Can you sing that? Council Chair Asing: Any other questions? Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: I have one more concern that I dust want to raise. It is practiced by most companies, corporations that they establish entry rates, medium rates, and higher end for time, longevity within the scope of the job and so forth, but I think one of the things I would like to raise in the salary commission is the ability to have people who may not bring specific skill level to a particular job, the ability to actually have an opportunity to bring them in as a entry period, or review period. That piece in the salary commission, to me, is not very clear. I mean for example, let's say we had a department head that could come in at $90,000 but has no previous government experience and was recruited, but might have been a assistant or an executive assistant in a previous role in a related field. It is not very clear to me, and I think it is something that we should have in the event, you know, SPECIAL MEETING 38 JANUARY 5, 2010 after 120 days the administration decides to part ways in a friendly way, just having some time to review their performance. I think that's something that we could revisit and maybe come up with a policy. Mr. King: Okay, I'm not sure I understand the question. Mr. Furfaro: For example, if I'm hiring in a hotel an executive chef, the candidates that I bring in are all executive assistants or sous chefs, never been the department head, the division head. The job is 90,000. There's no real clear definition that I might be able to bring that person in at 10 percent less. Mr. King: Oh, I see, okay. I understand. Mr. Furfaro: But I could bring him in at 82,000 and review him 120 days. I think government should have that opportunity and the recommendations we have do not give us that, and I'm sorry, Charlie, if I wasn't real clear in my first presentation, but for example, we have the county engineer, but the candidates we have are all number two, with the water board, with an electrical company, and so forth. And I think it's a tool that, you know, the administration should have. Mr. King: Okay. I agree. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions, Councilmembers? If not, Charlie, thank you very much for assisting, helping the community, and appreciate your help. Mr. King: Thank you. Council Chair Asing: With that, thank you. Let's see now, with that, can we have Dirk Apao? Dirk. Good morning, Dirk, happy new year. COST CONTROL COMMISSION: • Dirk Apao - Term ending 1213112012 DIRK APAO: Happy new year. Council Chair Asing: As you've heard me earlier, I'd like to open it up to you to share any information you care to share with councilmembers to help. Mr. Apao: I guess the first thing I'd say, my name is Dirk Apao.,. Council Chair Asing: You want to move the mike up closer to you? SPECIAL MEETING 39 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Apao: Okay. My name is Dirk Apao. I'm an employee with Finance Factors as the business development manager here on Kauai. I've been there for going on 12 years now I've been employed for 24 years, of which 20 years here on Kauai. I moved here in 90...1990 with a job relocation-I opened a new financial office here, and so my being in the industry for that long, I've had experiences in opening up two branch offices for the companies I worked. I also had experience in helping to close down offices as well. I've been ...let's see, I guess the... That's the experience that I have in the industry, so it's in the private sector, not...never been in public service. I've been on many other boards and nonprofit, more recently with Kiwanis Club of Kauai, active there, as well as the Contractors Association of Kauai. I'm involved in the community, I coach at very... different levels, I have four kids, four boys, two of which are going to college, and the other two are in private schools. And I've been, you know, more of a...how should I say, a behind the scenes type of person, but I also know how to lead when opportunities present themselves. That's it. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Councilmembers, any questions? Councilmember Furfaro? Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Thank you very much for being here and putting your name forward, and nice to see that we have a finance type guy that's willing to serve on the cost control commission. I did note that, you know, you're feeling that the goal of the cost control commission is to make recommendations to reduce cost, which is always nice. And there is also previous effort on my part to introduce something that expanded the role of the cost control commission to also review revenues, and it was very obvious to me that in our last round with going through the rates and rev... cost control for the Wailua Golf Course, that was a perfect example of weighing cost value against the revenue, because they were making recommendations on what the fee should be. And last time I was in business, I realized revenue isn't about controlling cost, so why is the commission making all these recommendations about revenue versus controlling the staffing guide, the maintenance operation of the circulating pumps, the electrical cost, and so forth. And I dust want to point that out, because I think there's an area that we certainly need to consider the cost of the round of golf versus the value of the number of rounds we get. Because if you start to address the rates all the time, you actually lose rounds. You lost rounds that are greater sequence than you can replace the revenue, and there's only so far you can go in cutting the cost, and today I'm hearing things, certain days the pro shop is closed now, and certain days the restaurant doesn't function, because we didn't make that relationship, and there exists a relationship, I want to say, in a few departments that should be turning more revenue. And revenue can be done on fewer rounds of golf and very high rates produces this formula, or a lot of golf rounds at this rate that produces this revenue, but it offsets your cost. And I dust want to say that I know you understand what I'm saying. The reality is, I think we need to share that with the commission more-really reviewing staffing guides, cost of energy, SPECIAL MEETING 40 JANUARY 5, 2010 operating supplies, and not so much looking at oh how much more can we raise rates. We've got to make a balance between the number of rounds. Just like earlier today, I talked about the liquor commission-they have really good controls, and therefore, they actually become a profit center. So I just want to share that it's cost and value that we're looking to control. And my...I'm very glad to see somebody that has a finance background willing to step forward, so thank you very much. Mr. Apao: Okay, thanks. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Councilmembers, any questions? Councilmember Kawahara. Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Chair. Thank you for volunteering to be on this commission. I've just been going over this, and you also wrote it in the primary duties. It is to reduce the cost of county government while maintaining a reasonable level of public services. I wanted to ask you what your understanding is about government and public services and what we're ...what we provide as public services... and where you, you know, what you view public services and where they stand in your value system on this commission. Mr. Apao: Well, that's a good question. Ms. Kawahara: I'm sorry, it's a hard question. Mr. Apao: Yeah, I mean I guess... Well, I'm coming from the... Ms. Kawahara: Because you're on private sector. Mr. Apao: Private sector, so everything's, you know, profit driven. You know in my business right now, you know, we're ...in the last year we've looked at cutting cost, I mean recycling paper, turning off lights, and looking at our electric bills, and trying to figure out ways where we can save on our air conditioning and what have you. You know, I know that there are a lot of.-there's only so much moneys to go around, and there are going to be some hard decisions, I think, that need to be made during that... In times ...I think when I read through what the responsibilities are, it does have in there to you have to make the decisions whether to, you know, lay people off maybe, and we've done that in our company, and I've been a part of that, so I understand both sides of it, and hopefully... But I think the main thing is that we be objective and we try to make the best decision that benefits everybody, and sometimes maybe it might not be the most popular one, but make it anyway. Yes. Ms. Kawahara: So it sounds like you're willing to make difficult decisions. SPECIAL MEETING 41 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Apao: I think in that commission, it seems like you would have to, I think. Ms. Kawahara: Yes, and the cost commission came up to my attention because exactly of what Mr. Furfaro was mentioning, so I am interested in this commission, because I am curious about ...people on this commission, how they determine what value a public service is in relation to a monetary value. Like you said, you're in the private sector; I've always been in the public sector, so there's... There's not a profit motive in the government sector, but there is a service motive, and a requirement that government provide certain services. So I'm curious about what kinds of things in your decision making would come up between a public service versus a monetary value. Mr. Apao: I think ...you know, I live here, I take advantage of a lot of the things that are offered, like for instance our trash pickup, you know, and whether we should be paying for it or not. You know, I mean I'm okay either way, if it works and it's going to...I mean it just means another extra drive to the dump on the weekend, or whatever. But yeah, I mean... Ms. Kawahara. There's a...just if there's a recognition between the cost of a service and the value of a service (inaudible). Mr. Apao: Which is kind of what you were trying to say. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you. Council Chair Asing: Any other questions, Councilmembers? Councilmember Kawakami. Mr. Kawakami: I just have a statement. You know, I've worked with Dirk, you know, in Kiwanis, and among many other projects, and I think having somebody from the private sector is a perfect candidate for this commission for the simple fact that people from the private sector felt the recession before government. We felt it harder and we had to make the necessary adjustments. We had nothing to really fall back on, so I know that, you know, amongst the knowledge that you're going to gain from just serving, because a lot of this is on the fob training, I think more so it's attitude and willingness to serve and willingness to learn. I know that he has all the characteristics that I'm looking for. You know, like I can remember when I was first serving on the charter commission, I didn't know anything about the charter. What you learn as you go along if you have the right attitude, and I know Dirk has the right attitude, so thank you for your willingness to serve and your willingness to learn. Mr. Apao: Thank you. SPECIAL MEETING 42 JANUARY 5, 2014 Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Go ahead. Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, I dust want to expand a little bit on my comments about value, and I think Mr. Kawakami's comments that the private sector, we felt it sooner and had to react quicker. But one of the things that I wanted to lay to cost control is about the planning and the issues that we have coming up soon with curbside recycling and planning the types of new operational cost as it relates to the recommendation of some revenue, some with finance and private practice in their business, I concur it will bring a lot of different views to getting customers or clients value, and that's how we have to perceive what we're doing with solid waste and so forth that there is a value for that cost. It's a very important part, and I think people that have private practice understand that. So thank you again. Council Chair Asing: Any other questions, comments? If not, thank you very much. Appreciate your wanting to serve the community. I have a question for you. Did you attend St. Louis? Mr. Apao: `Iolani. Council Chair Asing: No? Mr. Apao: No, `Iolani. Council Chair Asing: `Iolani, oh, okay- I missed it Mr. Apao: (inaudible) Council Chair Asing: The name struck me as... Mr. Apao: My dad went to St. Louis. Council Chair Asing: Your? Mr. Apao: My dad is a 57 grad from St. Louis. Council Chair Asing: You dad? Mr Apao: Yes. Council Chair Asing: Did he play basketball there? Mr. Apao: Basketball... yeah. Council Chair Asing: Was he the center there at... SPECIAL MEETING 43 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Apao: Yeah, he played... Council Chair Asing: Yeah, good man. I remember him, yeah. It just struck a bell. I looked at you and the name and I put the pieces together... Mr. Apao: My dad is probably two or three times bigger than me, but... Council Chair Asing: Yeah, he was quite a player. Thank you. Appreciate it. Mr. Apao: Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Okay, can we have the next applicant up, please, and we have Larry Chaffin. Larry? Good morning, happy new year. COST CONTROL COMMISSION: • Lawrence Chaffin, Jr. - Term ending 12/3112010 (replacing Nadine .Nakamura) LAWRENCE CHAFFIN JR.: Happy new year to you Councilmembers. Council Chair Asing: Good to see you again. I guess you're looking to wear another hat in serving the community again. Mr. Chaffin: That's correct. Trying to help our island and our community. Council Chair Asing: Okay, I am very familiar with you and your service, but maybe other councilmembers may not, so you want to share any information with councilmembers? Mr. Chaffin: Well, I was appointed to the planning commission and I serve five years until the end of my term, and then I've been open for another community service. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Councilmembers, any questions for Larry? Mr. Furfaro: No so much for Larry, but first of all I want to thank you for your five years on the planning commission. Good to have somebody in appeals that understands the permitting process and so forth, but also, your an architect, engineer kind of qualification that fills that void in this appeals process. Could you explain for my colleagues as well a little bit more about your (inaudible). SPECIAL MEETING 44 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Chaffin: Yes. I am still a licensed architect in California and Hawaii. I was licensed in seven States when our practice was in California and we did work in those... mostly seven States. I've now retired from that and I've dropped my licensing in Arizona and Colorado... and I don't want to say the others, because I might get them mixed up. Mr. Furfaro: And are you currently... are you currently understanding cost relationships to, you know, the scope of a job, the cost of the building, falling within the structural codes, and can interpret a reasonable... what do they call it engineering decision about using a different product or...what do they call that? Cost... Mr. Chaffin: Best management practices... I have certain strong feelings about our construction techniques on the island, especially the roads. It seems like they are operating on one...what do you call it, eight hour cycle, and then most construction jobs, 8 hours ends up to be 7 hours of construction. In Los Angeles when they had the earthquake and the Santa Monica freeway was torn up, then acting mayor Reardon put out a request for proposal for construction, and he had a time limit. If you finished before, you got a bonus. If you finished late, you got a penalty. And the contractor that was selected decided to work two shifts from 7 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, 4 until... and they finished it. They made more money... The contractor made more money on the early completion than he did on the contract. And I've brought that up here on some of our road construction why they don't work two shifts, and it's always, we've never done that, you just don't understand. Mr. Furfaro: Well, there might be a new opportunity with that, because as we go into a new bond and we borrow money, we have to complete jobs within a timeframe. If not, there's penalties. Well, the term I was looking for as you're in building appeals and so forth, you could actually interpret certain scopes of jobs and material changes that they made and so forth, which are referred to sometimes as valued engineering? Mr. Chaffin: Right. Mr. Furfaro: To reduce cost using certain types of woods, concrete pours, and so forth that might be more cost effective, but give you a more valued product. And I think that's important in the...in this board that you will serve on in board of appeals (inaudible) having that architectural designation. Mr. Chaffin: Some of the frustration I found in trying to use new products, new materials-well they haven't been tested, they haven't been on the market, they haven't been used for 10 years, so we can't use those. And you look at the aerospace industry and they have all these exotic materials that outlast what we have in bricks and mortars, and we're just operating in two different worlds. SPECIAL MEETING 45 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Furfaro: Well thank you, and I just wanted to highlight that designation here in the board of appeals. Mr. Kaneshiro: You brought up a pretty good point, because we did that with all the other bridge. Even though I know Mr. Mickens was pushing for an escrow(sic) bridge, we made a schedule exactly like what you talked about, and it worked. Mr. Chaffin: Right. Mr. Kaneshiro: They completed it on time, they were almost a 24 hour shifts. I dust wanted to point thing like that that (inaudible). Mr. Chaffin: I think that's going into the 21st century. Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely. Right on. Council Chair Asing: Okay, go ahead. With that, Councilmember Kawahara, go ahead. Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Chair. Thank you. I am not familiar with you, so it's nice to meet you. Could you tell me, because I was asking the gentleman before you on the same commission, what is your view of public services provided by the county at this time. Because as a commissioner on this board, right, it's a...it's to reduce the cost of county expenditure while maintaining a reasonable level of public services. So that's one of your main goals. Mr. Chaffin: Well, I think I'm caught between a rock and a hard spot, because there are unions and they do have contracts, agreements, and you have to go along with it. And if that's the case, you have to follow the law. If there's a way of negotiating, if they're far higher than private practice, as long as that practice is licensed and insured and bonded accordingly, that's a problem. I think ...you have to follow the law. Ms. Kawahara: So the actual... So I understand you're talking about the employees and the unions, but what about the public services that we actually provide currently in the county, how do you feel about government providing public services. Mr. Chaffin: I think the government has to provide the services that are indicated by law, and if there are others that are potential new services, they need to be negotiated to the best possible scenario, and that isn't always the lowest price. It's the price and the quality and so forth. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, just one more question. Because we've had two private sector people, I'm going to ask another question. What do you feel is the SPECIAL MEETING 46 JANUARY 5, 2010 difference or if you feel there's any difference between private sector finances and county government finances. Mr. Chaffin: I'm... Ms. Rawahara: Versus a profit and a government, I guess. Mr. Chaffin: Right. I think the easiest example is to compare an average county employee in whatever they're doing with the average employee at Costco. I can't believe it. The Costco employees are... they're never just sundering; they're always walking fast, if not running, and they're always helpful and their prices is comparative. Ms. Kawahara: Meaning one gets paid more than the other? I don't... If you could repeat that for me. Mr. Chaffin: The county employee is under contract and they, in my opinion, they cannot be fired. In the planning commission, I talked at length with the department, why don't we have people doing better work. Well, some of them are... have seniority and they do what they want to do and you can't tell them My experience in the private practice in planning is if you didn't do your job, you were out. There were two or three or four people knocking on the door ready to take your job, and unfortunately, county employment is, once you get a fob and you keep your nose clean, you're going to have a fob for life. Ms. Kawahara: So that's your experience mostly with the county employees is that (inaudible) Mr. Chaffin: Yes, and I don't want to generalize, because there are quite a few that are very hard working and honest and reliable, but there's no incentive. They're on a pay scale, and if they're there two years they get a promotion, or five years. Jay, what about your daughter that applied for a planning... That's history... Mr. Furfaro: That's history. Mr. Chaffin: And I... But that's the situation. Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. I appreciate your answers, and thank you for volunteering to... Mr. Chaffin: And I don't mean to talk down against county employees, because they're some that are great. There's a fella that cleans the Po`ipu Beach Park and he's out there at 4:30 or 5 in the morning and it's spotless, and there are others that are not that motivated. SPECIAL MEETING 47 JANUARY 5, 2010 Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you. Council Chair Asing: Any other questions? If not... Go ahead, Councilmember Bynum. Mr. Bynum: Good morning, Larry. Mr. Chaffin: Good morning, Councilman. Mr. Bynum: I dust wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your five years of service on the planning commission and the diligence you showed there, and I know you won't be shy about expressing your opinions and providing the balance that people are looking for in the community. And so thank you for your willingness to serve on the cost control commission. Mr. Chaffin: Well, thank you for your efforts in the council too. Council Chair Asing: If there are no other questions, thank you Larry for your input. 'Mr. Chaffin: Thank you. Thank you ladies and gentlemen for your time and effort. Council Chair Asing: Yes one comment, Larry. I'm glad you explained that there are good county employees... Mr. Chaffin: Oh, absolutely. Council Chair Asing• Yeah, I didn't want to take up... agree with a broad brush, you know, example of county employees, because like any other industry, there's good employees and there are fair employees. So there's just different standards and people just do different things, but we have some very good, excellent employees also. So thank you, appreciate that. Mr. Chaffin; Thank you. I would agree with your comment. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, we're going to break for lunch. There being no objections, the Chair recessed the meeting at 11:30 a.m. The meeting was reconvened at 1:37 p.m., and proceeded as follows: Council Chair Asing: The meeting is now called back to order. With that, why don't we start with the next applicant, and we have Pastor Jan Rudinoff. Good afternoon and happy new year. SPECIAL MEETING 48 JANUARY 5, 2010 FIRE COMMISSION: • Jan Rudinoff - Term ending 12/31/2012 JAN RUDINOFF: Good afternoon as well, Councilmembers. Council Chair Asing: Jan, good afternoon. I don't think I need anything from you because of our past relationship, but I would like for you to share with other councilmembers anything you might want to share with (inaudible). Mr. Rudinoff: Well, this would be my second appointment to the fire commission, the newly created fire commission of three years ago. It's been a, I have to say, an easy assignment because the chief is such a wonderful chief, and the people I serve with on the committee are excellent. So I'm happy to serve again for another term if you approve my selection. It's dust been informative, and also I realize is we started from scratch. There wasn't anything. We had no fire commission until three years ago when the law was passed we're going to have one. So the process of learning about our roles and about really what the focus of the commission is has been an ongoing process, and I think I might be more help after three years ...for the next three. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, any questions, Councilmembers? Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Well, Jan, I dust want to confirm your general feeling about the startup of the fire commission, the excellent overseeing of the management through the chief, and I think he does an excellent job in keeping the group well informed. On the seven years that I've been on the council, many equipment items and capital purchase items have been funded through our efforts through the general fund with tax revenues, the recent schedule of upgrading of equipment, the tanks, and so forth. But as our county expands, I would say that it would be very encouragable from my part if you request some briefing from finance as a group of commissioners that deal with general obligation bonds versus revenue bonds for items that seem to be on the chief's 10-year plan, whether it's a cycle of updating equipment or our pursuit and investigation of the possibilities of adding a copter rescue crew... Mr. Rudinoff: Right. Mr. Furfaro: I think it's very important for you folks as a board to have a firm understanding of those financial leverages that the county has. The fire department is purely a cost center, so there's no revenue coming in for revenue bond. But the general obligation bonds could also in your case be compared with how we do a capital lease purchase for a big item, you know, spread over 10 years, so forth. I think as we move forward and now have an internal county auditor, that's another resource for your commission to get an understanding of the role of t'.e auditors. So I want to thank you for your service. I want to concur you've got SPECIAL MEETING 49 JANUARY 5, 2010 an excellent group there. I know one of your colleagues is next to you coming up next, and I dust want to thank you for your service. Mr. Rudinoff: Thank you Jay. I want to say that finance came over and talked with us. We invited them to come talk to us, not about what you've suggested, but they told us how much money we don't have, and what we had to try to have to do (inaudible)... Mr. Furfaro: (Inaudible) when they tell you there's no money. Mr. Rudinoff: That's exactly. Mr. Furfaro: I spoke about a 10-year cycle, you know. We're going to go through this difficult time, but we should understand, when things do come back, how do we finance that, and I know both of you as commissioners. I know on particular issues, I have no problem coming over and giving you my point of views, so... Mr. Rudinoff: Yeah, that's right. Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: But think in terms of a 10-year plan. Mr. Rudinoff: Thank you. I won't be on the commission in 10 years ...can't be, right? (Inaudible) Mr. Furfaro: No, but the plan has to be developed. The plan has to be developed. Thank you Mr. Chair. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions, Councilmembers? Councilmember Bynum... Mr. Bynum: I dust waved to say hello. Thanks for re-upping, Jan. It's very much appreciated. Mr. Rudinoff: Yeah sure. That's right, I volunteered. I learned not to do that in my youth, but when you get older, it's okay. Mr. Bynum: And don't worry, when this term ends, we'll find something else. Mr. Rudinoff: Oh, can't wait. Council Chair Asing: Well, if there's no other questions, I just want to thank you again for helping... assisting in the community, and I guess go ahead and do it. SPECIAL MEETING 50 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Rudinoff: Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Appreciate it. With that, can we have the next applicant, Larry? BUILDING BOARD OF APPEALS: Lawrence J. Dill, Engineer designation - Term ending 1213112012 LAWRENCE DILL: Am I up? Council Chair Asing: Yes, you're up. Mr. Dill: Good afternoon. Council Chair Asing: Okay, good afternoon and happy new year. Mr. Dill: Thank you. Happy new year back. Council Chair Asing: With that, Larry, why don't I dust open it up to you to pass on any information you care to share with councilmembers who may not be aware of some of the things you want to share. Mr. Dill: I'm here regarding a possible second 3-year term with the budding board of appeals. I served as chair this past year, and we had a group this year We have a group this past term and we didn't have a lot of appeals to address; I give credit actually to the building division, led by Doug Haigh, that they addressed most of those issues on their own without them having to come to an appeal, so a credit to them and kudos to them. About me, I'm a manager of Princeville Utilities, a regulated water and sewer utility up on the north shore, been there for 12 years now, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro. I think we also have to give some credit to the current economy that has lowered values, not to take anything away from Mr. Haigh, but when values drop there seems to be less appeals because there's an anticipation of kind of a shedding of some of the burden. I do want to disclose to all of you that I have worked with Larry in a capacity of CC managing operator of a utility company; I was the secretary and treasurer of that utility company. I just want to disclose that again. I've always found Larry's leadership, his engineering skills, especially in the area of fluid engineering, to be exceptional, and he has been a very good leader. Thank you for re-upping. Mr. Dill: Thank you for your kind words, and my pleasure. SPECIAL MEETING 51 JANUARY 5, 2010 Council Chair Asing: Thank you. With that said, any other questions, Councilmembers? Since there are no questions, I'd like to thank you again for all your past work, and hope to see you continue to do the good work ,you're doing. Mr. Dill: Okay, you're welcome, and thank you. Council Chair Asing: With that, can we have the next applicant, who is Basilio? Good afternoon and happy new year. FIRE COMMISSION: • Basilio Fuertes, Jr. - Term ending 12131/2012 BASILIO FUERTES: Good afternoon Chairman and the rest of the Council... Councilwoman. Council Chair Asing: Thank you again. What I'd like to do... Mr. Fuertes: My name is Basilio, and this is my wife Millie in the back. Council Chair Asing: Let me open it up to you so you can share whatever information you care to share with councilmembers. So I leave it open to you...whatever you want to share with councilmembers. Mr. Fuertes: I'm Basilio Fuertes. I'm a retired teacher, and I'm still helping coaching at Waimea High School in a minimum capacity, and I'm retired and I'm a member of the Waimea senior center, and that's my full job with volunteering for the community on the west side. Council Chair Asing: Good, thank you. With that, Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Basilio, I want to repeat some of the comments that you were one of the first commissioners associated with the fire commission. There has been (inaudible) start-up process to really pound out some of the krinks and goals and missions, and I really think that when you look at the accomplishments, and I want to personally thank you for your first term, I think you folks have made many, many accomplishments, along with the chief, setting kind of the overall view of what the commission should be, its goals, its objectives. I think your coaching skills has been very good for that commission, as it's a team effort, and the department itself is constantly making improvements, and I want to personally thank you for the last ...or the first term, which was your last term on the first fire commission, and great work by the whole commission. Mr. Fuertes: Thank you Mr. Furfaro. SPECIAL MEETING 52 JANUARY 5, 2010 Council Chair Asing: Councilmembers, any questions? Councilmember Bynum. Mr. Bynum: Basilio, thank you. That's all I just very much appreciate your service in many avenues on the fire commission, so I appreciate you being able to take those three years and give us another three years. Thank you very much. Mr. Fuertes: Thank you Mr. Bynum. Council Chair Asing: Okay, there being no other questions again from me... Mr. Furfaro: I have one more. Council Chair Asing: Go ahead. Mr. Furfaro: I don't want to repeat it, but I think a 10-year plan for the fire department capital improvements is good way to be thinking, at least putting it on paper. You know, there's some big money that you folks as a commission oversee on equipment for that department. Mr. Fuertes: I'd like to say we have a really outstanding chief, fire chief, and he's very well organized and he has good foresight for the community and the people of Kauai, and I think improving the safety of the people on Kauai is the most important thing. Mr. Furfaro: Well, he did a very good presentation to us when he first came onboard. He laid out the replacement schedule for much of the equipment, and I just want to encourage the commission to, you know, make sure that continues and get some overview from finance about bond funding. Thank you. Council Chair Asing- With that, thank you very much. Hope to see you continue good work. Mr. Fuertes: Happy new year. Council Chair Asing: With that, Bill? Good afternoon, happy new year. SALARY COMMISSION: • William Dahle - Term ending 12131/2012 WILLIAM DAHLE: Happy new year. I don't know how Jan Rudinoff got off wearing shorts and me not. It's okay. How you doing, folks? I really am unaccustomed to being up here, so the faster we can go, the better it is, I guess, for everybody. What would you like to know? SPECIAL MEETING 53 JANUARY 5, 2010 Council Chair Asing: Anything you care to share with... Mr. Dahle: What if I said you were overpaid? I go home now... My name is Bill Dahle, and I've been retired for a while ...I'm not good with numbers... wait, since 2003. I really haven't done anything except collect social security and fix up the house, which is cool; I don't mind that at all. Prior to that, I guess I did just about everything I could. From 1964 until 2003 on radio, and from 84 until 2003 I was a general manager. Pardon for looking. I'm just trying to bring this up as I go. A general manager, and I was responsible then for dollars and cents and salaries and things like that, but the flock was mayor 11 people, so that's cool. Beyond that point, let's go. Council Chair Asing: Good. With that, councilmembers? Councilmember Bynum. Mr. Bynum: Bill, thank you very much for being willing to serve, and I dust going to share a few thoughts about salary commission really quick, because you're the last one of the day. Mr. Dahle: Certainly. Mr. Bynum: You know the charter changed the way we handle salaries a while ago... Mr Dahle: Yes. Mr. Bynum: So now Charter(sic) commission makes recommendations and all the elected politicians got to do is do nothing, and those become, you know, the law of the land. But this current salary commission, since it formed, I thought did an outstanding job of bringing up the salaries of our appointed department heads into a range that is reasonable for people to make that sacrifice for public service. I know we all hope that people are motivated by public service, and I know they are. But you know, there was a period where the salaries were so far out of whack, and I just, speaking for myself, really want to see our professional people compensated at a reasonable manner and so we get the best and brightest to serve the people in the community. And so that's dust my two cents. I think you're a great addition to the commission, and I appreciate... Mr. Dahle: You said you had a lot of questions. Mr. Bynum: Yeah, I was teasing you. Mr. Dahle: Oh, I see, okay. Mr. Bynum: I do have a lot of questions, but you're the last one, so... SPECIAL MEETING 54 JANUARY 5, 2010 Mr. Dahle: Thank you. Mr. Bynum: Thanks Bill. I missed hearing your voice on the radio, you know. So when I go to an event and you emcee, because you dust this calm, soothing voice, I'm sure you've heard that before, but... Mr. Dahle: Talk to Dickie. Before Mr. Furfaro mentions it, yeah, I'm aware of the economy, and I was thinking too that there's a possibility, you know, and this is dust throwing it on the floor, that's a possibility that instead of going up, it might be coming down, dust because of how much money comes into the county and what's going on. People keep taking about a new economy, less fobs, new...you know, that kind of thing. So really, it hasn't escaped me, the possibility that somebody's going to bring up the fact that what can we do to keep things going and save money, and does that mean taking off more than the five percent or something to that effect. But I'm volunteering this because basically, I'm surprised you're not asking, but beyond that. Council Chair Asing: Okay, Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Yes, thank you. Thank you first of all for stepping forward. I do also want to say that as long as I... every time I hear your voice, I want to let you know, I do understand it to be the voice of Kauai. Mr. Dahle: I can't outlive that, huh? Mr. Furfaro: No. Mr. Dahle: Okay. Won't be long, though Mr. Furfaro: I do want to say that... I'm going to ask you the same questions that I posed to Charlie King, who has been nominated for the same commission. One of the things I thought the commission should look at is going forward, as it is so tough to recruit people, but at the same time, have some continuity of promoting people in-house, because they come with a lot of history. They've been in there maybe as the number two, or you know, no previous department head level skills, and yet at the same time, you know, as we reflect back on your years of service and my memories of Kauai, we're losing a lot of history from people who retire. And so we're going to have a lot of people that will move up a notch. Recently, I think Ricky Tsuchiya has retired. We have a gentleman... Miles from accounting, he just retired. And so what retires with him is history. We have to bring in people who might come up from the ranks, get appointed, but yet they're going to be the first time as a real department head. And I had indicated to Mr. King that I would like to have an opportunity in the salary commission group to look at perhaps bringing somebody in for a period of time, maybe as much as five to ten percent under the guideline rate, because they'll be a first time department head, they haven't ...you know, they haven't been exposed to SPECIAL MEETING 55 JANUARY 5, 2010 that, and a lot of history comes from just time and exposure, but it also gives the administration an opportunity to say here's an appointed position, we're going to bring you in with 95 percent of the scale for maybe four months, so that we can both agree if that fob fits you, if you in fact... We mutually agree that you're prepared for that job, and so as I pose it to Mr. King, is maybe we have a statement in the salary commission guidelines that the administration could bring somebody in under the recommended rate for a period of no longer than 120 days to evaluate performance. And also an upward appraisal where that individual can tell the administration how they're feeling about actually being a department head. Mr. Dahle: So you're allowing it as an option? Mr. Furfaro: Yes, it will be the administration's option... especially for someone they see as a first time. And I think we missed that in the salary. I agree with the target number, but I also said that with time and exposure, a lot of people have the skills, the formal training, but they may never have been the division head, and it might give us an opportunity to both be able to review that opportunity or even let them step back where they came from, just in being able to keep some continuity, because we're losing a lot of history with people that are retiring. Mr. Dahle: So you're talking about people retiring, as opposed to pulling them out of civil service and giving them an appointed position. Okay, got it. Mr. Furfaro: That's exactly. Thank you very much for stepping forward. I have no other questions for you. Council Chair Asing: Thank you. Anyone have any questions? Lani? Go ahead. Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Chair. Hi, how are you? Mr. Dahle: Hi, fine. Ms. Kawahara: I sense that you want to share with us something more. What is it that drew you to accepting an appointment to the salary commission, and what do you expect or wish to see happen or change or what would you like to contribute to it? Mr. Dahle: I really honestly don't have the faintest idea what I can contribute until I find out what the game plan is. I understand what's already in the mix already because of the resolution and the freeze and all that kind of stuff, but beyond that point, I looked at Charlie and everybody else who sits on that commission now as being the experts, and hopefully dust be able to learn from them. But again, Mr. Furfaro had a fabulous idea, and I kept thinking as you were going, you know, how is this going to happen, because the salary commission doesn't really SPECIAL MEETING 56 JANUARY 5, 20 10 have any authority to do something like that. But suggestions, same thing was I think true when members were asking the salary commission to come up with some sort of a performance evaluation concept, and it seemed to work out well by asking the personnel department to come back with information, because I kept thinking, hmm, how are you going to do that, because you're almost... If you get in to that, you become a policeman, and that's not the job. So yeah, you can understand that I see a lot of... a lot of room, but to be able to play within the rules is really what it's all about. Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. Thank you Chair. Council Chair Asing: Okay, any other questions? Councilmember Chang. Mr. Chang: Thank you Chair. Bill, dust wanted to say thank you for serving. It's nice to see you in public and nice to see you come out in public. You kind of disappeared for a while, so it's always good to see you hosting events and being around the community. So we wanted to say thank you. So it looks as though you arrived in and around May of 64? Mr. Dahle: No, it was Labor Day in 64, that would be September. Mr. Chang: Okay, because I noticed your length of residence in Hawaii is 45.6. Mr. Dahle: Well, at the time I filled that out, yeah. Mr. Chang: Thank you Bill. Mr. Dahle: I didn't know you were going to get it that fast, but that's okay. Cool. Thank you. Council Chair Asing: Well, I don't have any questions, Bill. I just thank you very much for assisting and getting involved in the community again. Thank you very much for your help. Mr. Dahle: Well, you have to understand too, one of the benefits to the salary commission is that there are no meeting dates scheduled. So I figured no problem here. We can go along for a while. Council Chair Asing: Well, I'm sure that you're going to find that area is going to be taken care of. Mr. Dahle: Thank you. Good to see you folks. SPECIAL MEETING 57 JANUARY 5, 2010 Council Chair Asing: This concludes the meeting. Meeting is adjourned, thank you. ADJOURNMENT There being no objections, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 2:02 p.m. Respectfully submitted, PETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk