Minutes Organizational Meeting Council of The
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MINUTES of the ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING COUNCIL OF THE COUNTY OF MAUI January 2,2017 THE ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF THE COUNTY OF MAUI, STATE OF HAWAII, WAS HELD IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, KALANA 0 MAUI BUILDING, WAILUKU, HAWAII, ON MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2017, BEGINNING AT 2:01 P.M., WITH MAYOR ALAN M. ARAKAWA PRESIDING IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 3-5.1 OF THE MAUI COUNTY CHARTER. MAYOR ALAN M. ARAKAWA: The organizational meeting for the Council comes to order at 2 o’clock, January 2, 2017, and my first order of business is to appoint Danny Mateo as Temporary Clerk. Mr. Clerk, roll call please. ROLL CALL PRESENT: COUNCILMEMBERS ALIKA ATAY, ROBERT CARROLL, ELEANORA COCHRAN, S. STACY CRIVELLO, DONALD S. GUZMAN, G. RIKI HOKAMA, KELLY T. KING, MICHAEL B. WHITE, AND YUKI LEI K. SUGIMURA. ACTING COUNTY CLERK DENNIS A. MATEO: Mr. Mayor, nine Members are present. A quorum is present to conduct the business of the Council. MAYOR ARAKAWA: Thank you very much. At this time, will everyone please rise. Join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Organizational Meeting of the Council of the County of Maui January 2, 2017 Page 2 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The Mayor and Members of the Council, and others in attendance, rose and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. MAYOR ARAKAWA: Thank you. You may be seated. Before we start the proceedings on the agenda today, may I please request that anyone who has a cell phone, put them on silent or turn them off, and any other noisemaking devices if you have it that may detract from our proceedings, turn them off or get rid of them somehow. Just as a procedural, the restrooms are outside in the hall. Men’s on the right, women’s on the left. Mr. Clerk, please proceed. PRESENTATION OF WRITTEN OR ORAL TESTIMONY ACTING COUNTY CLERK: Mr. Mayor, proceeding with the presentation of testimony on agenda items. MAYOR ARAKAWA: Thank you very much. Before we start oral testimony, I’m going to ask Corporation Counsel to please read into the record the legal opinion from the Office of Information Practice of the State of Hawaii and the Corporation Counsel, regarding the Council’s ability to organize. Mr. Corporation Counsel. CORPORATION COUNSEL PATRICK WONG: Mayor. On December 29, 2016, in response to a request for legal opinion regarding organization of the Maui County Council, my office responded. Essentially in the response we laid out that the prior opinion of the Office of Information Practices’ opinion letter dated...excuse me, No. 2-11, and the previous Corporation Counsel advisory memorandum dated November 25, 1998 remain in full force and effect. That there has been no laws and/or administrative rules that void these two opinions. Organizational Meeting of the Council of the County of Maui January 2, 2017 Page 3 With regard to opinion letter from OIP, No. 2-11, the issue presented in letter dated November 14, 2002... I’ll read it verbatim. Whether the members of the county councils are subject to Part 1 of Chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statues, prior to officially taking office when they meet to discuss selection of officers, whether the members are subject to the Sunshine Law. Brief answer, no. The opinion letter is 15 pages, 16 pages in length. Essentially the conclusion by the Office of Information Practices is as follows. The obligations of the Sunshine Law are not imposed upon an elected Councilmember until he or she begins a term of office as set forth in the County Charter. Less than a quorum of a board--whether or not officially in office--may meet privately and without limitation or subsequent reporting to discuss selection of board officers under Section 92-2.5, Subsection C, Hawaii Revised Statutes. Whether the board members have been sworn into office is irrelevant so long as the meeting is restricted to less than the number of members that would constitute a quorum. That’s essentially the conclusion from the Office of Information Practices. That letter is public record along with the previous letters of previous Corporation Counsels that date back to 1998. What’s important is that my office took a look at the previous opinions to determine whether or not the Legislature and/or any other council and/or any other OIP officer has generated anything different in conclusion or any change in the law, and the answer is no. There’s been no change in the law since 1998 to date, and there’s no other opinion that’s on record; therefore, the opinion of the Office of Information Practices and the prior opinions from the previous Corporation Counsels remain in full force and effect. Mayor. MAYOR ARAKAWA: Thank you very much. COUNCILMEMBER GUZMAN: Mayor. Mayor. MAYOR ARAKAWA: I understand that we have about 50 people that have signed up to testify. .(inaudibie)... because we want to get through with this process today. What I’m going to do is I’m going to limit the testimony to two minutes. Then if anyone... UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (from the audience): Mr. Mayor... MAYOR ARAKAWA: Then if anyone wants to testify longer than that, after we’re done with the testimony, they can come back and testify. Organizational Meeting of the Council of the County of Maui January 2, 2017 Page 4 So at this point... UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (from the audience): . .(inaudible). MAYOR ARAKAWA: Sir, are you running the meeting? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (from the audience): No, I’m an American citizen. MAYOR ARAKAWA: Okay. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (from the audience): You can’t do this to us. MAYOR ARAKAWA: Yes, we can. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (from the audience): Thank you very much for saying that. MAYOR ARAKAWA: You’re welcome. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (from the audience): Thank you. Thank you. MAYOR ARAKAWA: So I’m going to go with two minutes out of courtesy for everyone who wants to testify, because otherwise those that are on 40 to 50 are going to be here a very, very long time before they can be heard. Again, anyone... UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (from the audience): Four minutes. MAYOR ARAKAWA: Anyone who wants to be able to testify longer than two minutes may come back after to testify for another two minutes. Thank you. So, Mr. Clerk. COUNCILMEMBER COCHRAN: You can’t do that. Wait. COUNCILMEMBER WHITE: Mr. Mayor, may I ask for a brief recess? MAYOR ARAKAWA: Brief recess. (THE MEETING WAS RECESSED BY THE CHAIR AT 2:08 P.M., AND WAS RECONVENED AT 2:10 P.M., WITH ALL MEMBERS PRESENT.) Organizational Meeting of the Council of the County of Maui January 2, 2017 Page 5 ACTING COUNTY CLERK: The first testifier... MAYOR ARAKAWA: Wait, wait, Danny. Going to call the meeting back or order. Under advisement of Corporation Counsel, we’ll allow three minutes for testimony, and just three minutes. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (from the audience): Thank you. MAYOR ARAKAWA: But again, three minutes and then you won’t be able to testify afterwards if you want to, so it’s just three minutes. Go ahead, Mr. Clerk. ACTING COUNTY CLERK: The first testifier is Mark Sheehan testifying on Resolution 17-1, to be followed by Beth Savitt. MR. MARK SHEEHAN (testifying on Resolution No. 17-1): Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon. And, Councilmembers, congratulations to the new Councilmembers for being seated. We have high hopes riding on your contributions to this Council. And I wonder if you would just for a moment would briefly spin around in your chairs and see how many people by raising their hand are here to support change to the Council and object to the way in which things have.., look at all the hands please. Just turn around, take a look. MEMBERS OF THE AUDIENCE APPLAUD AND CHEER MR. SHEEHAN: Yeah. Yeah. So I’m glad to see the flowers and the leis and so on, but no amount of flowers will overcome... MAYOR ARAKAWA: Mark, if I may excuse? Anyone who’s shouting, I’m going to have them removed from the room. So we’re trying to be able to allow people to speak and to hear. MR. SHEEHAN: Right. Organizational Meeting of the Council of the County of Maui January 2, 2017 Page 6 MAYOR ARAKAWA: So we’re going to keep decorum and keep it civil. So no shouting and screaming, overriding the speakers. MR. SHEEHAN: Yeah, but you can’t really suppress the public sentiment, Mr. Mayor. And we’re here to express -- MAYOR ARAKAWA: I can -- MR. SHEEHAN: --public sentiment. MAYOR ARAKAWA: --Mark. MR. SHEEHAN: You know it’s suppressive of, in your attempt to do that, and I object to it. Let me proceed. I filed an ethics complaint against Mr. White, not because of he had some organizing discussions, because seven weeks ago he announced the conclusion of those discussions and that he had been elected, appointed himself as the Mayor [sic], and had made all the other decisions. In effect -- MAYOR ARAKAWA: I’m glad he took my place. MR. SHEEHAN: --Mr. White’s illegal power grab if successful then Maui County Council will not be consulted about the single most important decisions that they make in the next two years; who is going to be Chair of this Council, who will be Vice-Chair, and what is the composition of the committees that he has appointed and arranged so that a small coterie of people will be able to control all of those committees. Give me a break. This is called rigging the system and it is exactly why the SAFE organization, the Sustainable Action Fund for the Environment has organized to run a slate of candidates who reflect a different attitude, who will be working more for the people rather than their own power interests and their own interests of the donor class who supports them.