good morning i like to quote a lot of the policy into government affairs committee for meaning for september fourteenth two thousand and fifteen it's six minutes after nine and i apologize for being a little bit late let me start by introducing the members of the committee who are here this morning i am the chair michael vick the reno from east maui our representative mr robert carroll good lord it good morning lovely young maybe from a country we unfortunately got injured yesterday we hope for a speedy recovery and also from the naive one who is on the meaning attending a nickel conference so we have only six so i'd like to proceed as quickly as possible to a number of these items we have for this morning and that way when our chair will be leaving around ten o'clock this morning we will have bare quorum so i want to try to get as much done as possible from the administration we have communications director i apologize i want to wrote your name i didn't write your title mr ron in tone thank you for being here also in the gallery we have our mayor mr allen our car thank you mayor for being here and he will be testifying very shortly also for the civil service commission nominee i v waller thank you have you for being here our committee staff mr kim will bring legislative analysts and of course to me for he is our committee secretary and thank you lisa all your hard michelle and welcome before we start let me say i'd like everyone in the gallery if you have any phones to please put them on silent or any other non noise making notification the e will be followed in the chamber today we have four items as i mentioned earlier i would like to open up testimony for those particular items and they will be limited to those items only there's a sign up desk located outside in the lobby of the eighth floor so anyone wishing to testify in the chamber of police sign up those who wish to start the fight are district offices please sign up their testimony will be limited to three minutes only two and a half minutes the green light will be on at two and a half the yellow light will come on and at three minutes the red light will stop blinking and i will ask you to conclude your testimony please state your name and who you may be representing we've established as you notice we've asked obvious connections what i district office and we will tate depending on the number of testify us now with no objections i would like to stop public testimony no object good morning to your victory committee members testifying committee report number twenty eight and i will tell you in all the years that i've been in public office is the most ridiculous document i've ever seen the council apparently is now trying to dictate what is going to be given out is public information on the basis that apparently the mirror's office does not know how to be accurate so everything coming from the mirrors office is supposed to be screened through cooperation council may i suggest that if we are going to give the public accurate information this should be across the board for all elected officials including this chamber every comment coming through this chamber is publicly televised all the comments we have to go to the media and they're printed there's no screening for accuracy but if we want to be able to be accurate to the entire community on all communications then let's be fair about this in let's do this fair and accurate everybody gets creamed now in the order to be accurate i'm going to also have to be able to regulate what is being testified to and be able to make sure that any comments coming out of the mayor's office is accurate and we're going to have to screen them through corporation counsel i'm perfectly willing to do that but take into consideration what you're asking for in this bill is that every time you want testimony and you ask my office to send people down here to testify on all kinds of different items most times with less than two weeks notice we're going to ask that everything that you want to ask be screened by corporation counsel and all the replies will be screened by corporation counsel for accuracy to make sure that it is technically correct and we expect your p o to do exactly the same i believe this will make the entire system completely bottled with virtually nothing being able to get done the most ridiculous thing i've seen in years and i understand this is not the first attempt this is at least two articles were sent to a corporation counsel to be reviewed and they were rejected by corporation counsel and we're still bringing this up as an issue before the council you really need to examine your process and you know what you're trying to do trying to micromanage his administration in trying to muzzle administration is overstepping this council ability by law and overstepping your ability and what the voters expect i can tell you we will take this to the supreme court if necessary if this bill is pas because i will challenge it every bit of the way and i will ask that all of you just can this bill this one of the most ridiculous bill to have ever seen what i will as it is traitor if you pass this  we will take the extreme measures that are necessary to make sure that you get the most accurate information we will absolutely forbidden any of our employees from making any public statements because we want to make sure that it's the most accurate and for all of you that don't sit in on the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of meetings that i sit in on i dare you to be able to explain how your explanations are going to be better than expression i get in my meetings to understand the information that's being transmitted to me by everybody else so i ask you throw the stupid bill away because that's what it is it's a very very bad bill thank you very much but thank you mr mayor any questions for them  thank you sir for us coming down we were here we will be working on this and get back to you thank you sir any other testifiers none none in the chamber well let's start with our district offices let's start with  have anyone waiting to testify think you i will give one whopper duty to anyone in the gallery who has not testified wishing to testify we step forward to the podium and that doesn't include you i'm sorry you're seeing then with no objections i'll close public testimony thank you very much our first item today is a nomination to boards committees commissions civil service commission the committees in receipt of  members ministration would like your consideration of ivy waller to serve on the civil service commission for a term expiring march thirty first two thousand and twenty miss waller is a graduate of baldwin high school and then also attended college on the mainland and abroad  received a computer science degree from william patterson university in new jersey and then attended the prestigious university of college cork over in ireland where she managed to get team management information in managerial accounting systems degree and certainly feel of very fortunate that mr waller who is a line a resident does are willing to take the time to serve on the commission and with that being said mr chairman i'm open for any additional questions from the members thank you thank you but since we have miss waller here i will ask her someone has a direct question for the administration i will then ask you if you have any questions for miss waller we will start good morning and thank you for being here it's nice to see you i've known miss wallers family i've known a dad for many many years and i've seen this young lady grow up and it's a real pleasure to have are here and thank you for putting yourself out and be being willing to serve this county thank you had such a young age that i really do appreciate it we'll start we'll start right here with me by saying work out we're right on the line good miss my son thank you very much to and thank you so much missler for being here this morning and i'm going to forgive you for graduating from boeing i will personal involved you have a very very impressive resume and i want to thank you very much for putting yourself out there and of course you know this is a question that we ask people and i just wan ask it for the record and that is the time commitment that's necessary are you going to be ok with i am my my general manager rick tenet actually suggested that i do this and so he just want to thank you very much for volunteering this is a big job and we're grateful that we have citizens that volunteer however it does this trust me when i watch the meetings that are rebroadcast and see that you know quorums going to he maintained and to looking at your employment history there are a couple of gaps that are not covered can you let us know ernst and young you work for about five months through son is now five years old but at the time in ireland i did an internship with and still young and actually offered me a position and i was not able to take it because i wasn't sure how i would do you alone as a single mother there in ireland so i came back home which my parents are very happy about so that's what that's one of the reasons why i'm back here ok and then another another gap from i guess it wasn't much of a gap thirteen two thousand and fourteen have you taking a look at what the responsibilities of the civil service commission  yes i have and they sort of mirror what i'm doing now which is h r and budget so i was kind of excited that that i got chosen for it actually put in for other boards and when mr marina called me and let me know what they had in store for me i was actually pretty happy with it yes one of the things that i think this council would like you to focus on the hiring process i want to take you to get a decision from the time the department asks you to fill the position for the time you're able to offer employment roughly how long does that generally take you know that depends on the manager we have security and we have engineering engineering tends to be a little bit tougher because of the skill set that you're looking for security is a little more lax you know kind of what you're looking for as it is less than the engineering so i would say it takes about a month for engineering in about three weeks or so and that's on security well when you get to the civil service commission we would like you to work on helping the department of personnel to reduce the amount of time it takes to fill positions because we have situations where it takes six months to eight months and sometimes longer and so we would love your help on that absolutely thank you and thank you chair thank you m will continue to have your participation thank you thank you thank you and thank you committee members i have a couple quick i don't i want to cover with you you understand this commission is very very important as what mr white has just stated to you but also will you may be called upon to appoint the county personnel director which is of extremely important job they're also hearings on appeals by officers and employees by personnel director services or by appointing authority department heads you know you do this in h r so you're going to have a pretty good understanding of what you need to do but it's a little different when it comes to the government very important one of them also is advising the mayor and the director of personnel services on problems concerning personnel administration so these are very important probably one of the more important boards and commissions that we have all there maybe flies under the radar until something controversial may come up however very very important so i guess the question i have to you you're ready to take on this responsibility i think so yes ok and with no further discussion the chair would like to entertain no motion to adopt the proposed resolution entirely relating to an appointment of i have you all or to the civil service commission thank you ladies and gentlemen let's move on and i would like to with your permission i would like to move to i don't number three if there is no objection thank you this is p r i eight twenty eight this is reeling to the office of the mare's public information officer office and standards for media statements the community is in receipt of correspondence dated september eighth two thousand and fifteen from we'll related and title a bill for on its relating to standards of certain media statements issued by the mayor's office but for the purpose of the proposed bill is to provide legal review of media statements issued by it on the by the office of mayor including the county's public information officers office i should say we referring all relating to litigation and confidential personnel matters at this time i would like to whole where and i believe you yourself chair were a part of that discussion regarding press releases by the county public information office regarding some of our settlement negotiations as well as settlements and a couple or three big litigation matters that we have before the committee of the whole that being said  when those statements go out they go out on a press release that is by the public information office and that that letterhead or that perception of that representation is perceived as being from the county of maui to this committee the letterheads of the public information office it does say county of maui compare that to the office of economic development there letterhead says mayor's office so there is a representation that when statements are set forth in the public regarding litigation matters they seem to there's a perception of it representing the county well in fact it's not it's just the mayor's office so there needs to be a distinction number one between the two we're not this bill does not regulate all of the press media that the mayor wants to put out there or any of the departments what this regulates is litigation matters that are sensitive and settlement negotiations and have been executed and have settlement terms within them that could be violated if a press release were issued without any approval from the corporation counsel or at least that knowledge of having certain conditions in the settlement agreement that prevent press releases so this is just to ensure that the litigation matters in the committee of the whole and litigate meet litigation matters that are in the process of being settled or being executed a settlement do not give violated or jeopardize the right here i would just like to quote the bill itself its reference to litigation or confidential personnel matter such as where consideration affecting private privacy and it's strictly for litigation so we're not saying hey we're going to put a hold on any type of media where we just want some assurances that when press releases go out it's not it's not the representation of the county they need to change their letterhead and those press releases need to see the mayor's office but not the county so i've submitted that those letter heads to th accordance working with charles thompson who is the general counsel and executive director of the international municipal lawyers association and i believe you chair know him he's from neko the head of the attorneys  and one of the major cases in there specifically deal with this i believe that mr and tone who is the director of the county of maui public information office which it is part of his duty in scope to send out statements so if that is a duty in scope then under the case law were able to regulate that any other matters they can do what they will but the fact that they're going out representing it's from the county i think that's the issue what else so mr  year ago requests for the policy for the policy and rules and regulations for the media director the public information office and they said that i didn't get a response so i had to go through form channels and so i submitted to the committee their response to the state requests which basically said that they don't have records of any type of policy so that's also submitted to the committee well  and then the other thing that i wanted to point out is that there's nowhere in the charter or in the ordinance of a director of communications and there is nowhere in the charter ordinance that provides for a department of communications so in reality it really should be under the mayor's office letterhead and anything that goes out to the press should say the mayor's office so that there's a distinction thank you very much in and i appreciate that and again i look forward to the completed product when it's soon and as soon as possible that can be brought forward and i understand all the parties concerns and i'd like to make sure that whatever we come up with will be something that as you mentioned will represent the proper praties making those statements and review by corporate in council i think is very important we do in almost everything we send oh it has to be approved by the  reviewed and approved by whatever department it's about if we put something out about a road closure it goes out to the public works they check it i receive it we send it out and especially pat's very careful he's always told me that he didn't say anything that he would be willing to say on the deposition so i figure if he approves it it's safe as for the seal i think we've just been using whatever materials you know the kind of the format that was there when we got into office i can't speak about the seal i mean that's something i guess you guys can talk about but that's that's all that's all i wanted to say thank you and i think you know i thank you for and again this is where we will vent the whole process and maybe make those stencils changes that we need that we feel comfortable with which to go when i think i just wanted to make sure that we limit issue here we're not talking about road closures things like that understood that the real issue that was brought up in the committee of the whole and i believe it was on record in open session and you were present is the litigation matters and i believe mr wong was present as well and i mr hall comma as well  as chair white asked mr wong whether there was approval that would filter through to his office on these type of press releases and i believe that he said no and that that triggered m request subtype of legislation to happen and the fact that we as council members once we enter into consecutive session we're bound by not disclosing those meetings and  the other issue on the other hand was well there was nothing to pound the administration's side when it came to disclosure so i'm purely narrowing the scope and this is  not anything to do with road closures or anything else but just the public to know that this is lady geisha in matters thank you thank you and at this point on this is much more to discuss i would like to defer this matter because i think once we get back the final final version then we can vent and discuss whatever issues may come up i understand what you seems to guzman and i prayed the the the bill so i'm clear on that and again as missed it is limited to those areas but it's good to hear and the public needs to hear that whenever a press release comes out that there's been work done on it by the department by but the office of information practices that is done properly you know i saw  right information so with no objections i'd like to defer this matter of any objections no objections thank you and thank you was done for being here and telling me i said thank you for being here thank you the next item i get i'm going to go out of order again i apologize and well i can only go to order one more time and then i'm done i don't number four and this is very important and we have representatives here this morning so with no objections authorize the grant to force parcels to portions of parcels of real property to mali memorial medical center identified as one e's main body of the  is president now along with mr walker from the deputy director of finance and i would ask if you would like to take a few minutes and explain the importance of it we also have as resource people from our immemorial medical center mr john watson we he is here to help us and his assistant is he also i forgot your name bet me here is also here to assist us so we'll call you up in a few memorial medical center property on two colony land that's currently being leased to local he pacific and walter j walter cameron center they're not overly large areas they're you know ten thousand square feet and three thousand three hundred nine square feet mayer's approach was possibly to just subdivided out and give it over to the hospital for just to clean it up of course it's we need consul approval for those types of things and it is a little different we rarely give away county property we rarely sell county property it's typically granted know a county maintain some type of om you know ownership of it but in this one we're looking at just giving it to the hospital fee simple that's a proposal of course again council approval that's why we're here on if you guys have any chair thank you mr walker would you like to add anything to the discussion at this time nothing of this type chair thank you with your permission before we start going to question answers could i call up and what we'll do it after the explanation then maybe i'll open up to questions and answers from the council members first and then we can go to the administration go ahead harold whatever go ahead you know thank you for allowing us to come here on this is perhaps me her in the past the council has been very generous and the administration very generous in granting properties so we could expand our facility and build whatever is needed to be built at this time i thank you mr carroll do you have any questions at this time issue potential issue and this was the resolution nothing settled at this point all this is the proposed resolution we need council approval to and i don't even often use the word settle but to give them the la entities for the privatization i guess is the what i want to use that all of this is cleared up and then the next group don't have to go through the same process so we just try to clean up what's been there for like mr carroll a long long time we resolve this matter would you be willing to be ok we went to a county to a lot of conti to grant the real property to mow you more you and they all said ok and we have submitted letters of testimony so basically it happened before a time when we were doing our master planning and had a lot surveyed also we phoned the man and this is what started this whole with no further discussion members that you would like to recommend the adoption of the proposed resolution in title authorizing of the grant of real property to maui memorial medical center and the filing of county communication don't number two is the united states constitutional amendment to regulate the influence of corporation corporate power on the political system twenty three i've  transmitted the next item as revised proposed resolution entitled we question them on the economy congressional delegation to support an amendment to the united states constitution to prohibit congress congress and the and the states to regulate the influence of corporate power on the political system the purpose of the resolution is to urge the ma we county delegation to the united states congress to support a constitutional amendment to clarify the distinction between the rights of natural person and the rights of corporations with the object object of negating the united states supreme court holding debt in citizens vs the federal election commission and we storing the author already of the congress and the states to regulate the influence of corporate power on the political system i'm certain most members are very familiar with this case but i would like to provide a little background for the public in two thousand and dandy united states supreme court decision help that corporations are considered people and can enjoy the rights of freedom of speech under the first amendment to the constitution the majority opinion of this decision held that camping contributions by corporations are free speech this ruling has a lot of corporate influence over the political process well the resolution does not have force or effect of law as you well know i believe this sends a strong message to our legislators in congress more than six hundred state and when  legislations including other the other three counties in hawaii have adopted this resolution so at this time it all open the floor up for questions i think you all have a copy of the resolution itself i'll start with  an individual person there's a cap on that person and donation and i believe on the council it's two thousand dollars but there but there is no cap in terms of the super pac entities so they can contribute as much money as possible to campaign to help campaign a certain individual or candidate why w ouldn't there be a cap if you're going to cap individuals why wouldn't you cap super pacs so that's it's not that i wouldn't want them to be prevented from donating t candidates but there should be sub time of limitations to it so that's why i would support this thing with a good man and i agree with you wholeheartedly what's good for the goose is good for the gander you know if you want to use that term and i believe that  if they're considered a person and i'm considered a person and i'm allowed only two thousand then they should be allowed the same amount or not be yeah yeah yeah thank you miss craven will thank you chair thank you for bringing this it's a good thing if we can have a cap wonderful we can also have some control over the exuberant expenses it takes to run for office in competition with those that receive can be but you know together we know that things happen and we are joining that huge network of people who feel the same way and so i think it's important that we be a part of that thank you  support the proposed resolution thank you and thank you members that are here tonight now i believe that this is a step like you mention missed by so you know we may not have force of effect of law but they still voice that record needs to be reckoned with i think this is very important and when i think really hit me is this past election when super pacs not to the level of our council our local level i really became concerned you know  i never was overly concerned with the national even state because that was a different premise but it got down to the local level right here and we saw an enormous amount of mail or send other  publications by the super pacs where someone like myself if i was running against somebody like that i had no options on top of that you had no option because they can just put it up without your permission and that's another scary issue you know so  i really thought this was an appropriate time to bring this up i wish i'd done this a little already but i'd like to join our the three counties in the state as being a part of it so any other questions or discussion see non i'd like to make my recommendation but you would like to entertain a motion to adopt the proposed resolution in title questing my we county congressional delegation to support an amendment to the united states constitution  to permit the congress and the states to regulate the influence of corporate power on the political system filing off county communication fifteen one to six changes that may be hey everyone want to get your message out there but don't know how can help we have several services that are easily accessible or open mic is the easiest and least expensive way to get 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