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LIHUE -- Ron Kouchi, who has chaired the Kauai County Council for the past two years, has been selected for another two-year term. Kauai Council selects
chair, committee leadersKauai Council divided over retaining
visioning sessions with mayor's staffStar-Bulletin staff
Kouchi, an 18-year veteran of the Council, was elected during a caucus of the newly-elected Council yesterday. The Council will formally elect him at a meeting Dec. 1 shortly after they are sworn in.
Randal Valenciano was selected to replace Bryan Baptiste as Council vice chairman.
The Council also selected its committee chairmen for the next two years.
Valenciano will chair the Planning Committee, Daryl Kaneshiro will continue as Economic Development Committee chairman and Jimmy Tokioka will continue to chair the Finance Committee with the added duty of inter-governmental relations. Baptiste will chair the Parks Committee.
In a realignment of some previous committees, Kaipo Asing will chair the Community Assistance Committee (housing and transportation) and Gary Hooser will chair the new Energy and Public Safety Committee.
A catch-all committee chaired by Kouchi and called Committee of the Whole will consider public works projects and any matters not covered by any of the other committees.
LIHUE -- The incoming Kauai County Council was divided yesterday on the future of its unique and controversial "visioning sessions" with members of the executive branch of county government. New Kauai Council
divided on mayor’s
visioning sessionsBy Anthony Sommer
Star-BulletinThe future of such sessions was left open at a Council caucus after several members said they were not comfortable with continuing them.
The sessions were begun two years ago by Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and Councilman Bryan Baptiste with the stated goal of reducing friction and increasing understanding between her department and the Council members. They were open to the public, but only minimal public notice was given and rarely did the public attend.
The initial sessions were workshops in communications skills but soon evolved into Council members and Kusaka and her staff discussing any topic they chose. In time, they became the forum where the mayor's department heads unveiled major new proposals including tax increases and the budget to the Council.
Most took place in meeting rooms at a major resort. No chairs were set aside for the public. Following complaints, they were shifted to a county meeting room last summer and provisions were made for an audience. Unlike the regular Council meetings, the visioning sessions were not shown on public access cable television channels.
The only meeting notices were posted on a bulletin board at the County Council Building and the county clerk refused to provide copies to the press.
The agendas were very broad in scope, specifying only such things as "discussion of county goals and objectives." It was only after a complaint was filed with the state Office of Information Practices pointing out that the state Sunshine Law requires more specific agendas that the county began listing individual topics.
"There is a conflict between carrying out a legislative oversight process (over the executive branch) and being part of the administrative function," Councilman Randal Valenciano, the only attorney on the Kauai County Council, pointed out at yesterday's caucus.
"It does tend to stifle contrary opinions when you're compelled to be a team player and couldn't criticize the administration without being accused of refusing to be on the team," said Councilman Gary Hooser, Kusaka's only real critic on the outgoing Council.
Kaipo Asing, an 18-year veteran who is returning to the Council after leaving in 1998 to run against Kusaka, said flatly: "I'm totally against it. What do you discuss that can't be discussed on the Council floor? All that should be out there for the public to see."
Baptiste said he didn't see any point in continuing the sessions unless they are supported by all seven members. "The reality is everybody has to buy into it. If you don't want to buy into it, then you go back to the way it was."
Kusaka's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Yesterday's caucus was the first ever opened to the public by the Kauai County Council. Two years ago, a formal complaint charging that closed caucuses are a violation of the Open Meeting Law prompted the decision to open them this year. The caucuses traditionally take place after the election, but before Council members are sworn in.
One of this year's visioning sessions became an embarrassment for Kusaka when she appointed a committee to study bid proposals for a new solid-waste disposal system, but refused to make public the names of the committee members. Kusaka had openly discussed the appointments at a visioning session and, when reporters asked for minutes of that meeting, she was forced to make the names public.