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Gathering Place
 Roy Wickramaratna |
City’s budget worries
threaten to silence
voice of the people --
our neighborhood boardsThe Honolulu City Council recently released a survey questioning the public on the possibility of cutting funding to various city services or programs. Among other things, the neighborhood board system was one of those put in question. Since the boards operate with minimal budgets, a major cut to funding would put a stop to the system as a whole. This would be a major mistake.
For more than 30 years, Honolulu has enjoyed -- perhaps taken for granted -- the grass-roots system designed to meet voters' demand in 1972, which gave residents a greater voice in the decision-making of government.
Accomplished through a charter amendment, the Charter Commission actually held 96 meetings island-wide that year and sat through 14 months of public testimony where residents touted the right to have a say in actions affecting their daily lives. In the 1972 election, 337,837 voters, (83 percent) voted in favor of establishing the Neighborhood Commission, which set up the neighborhood board system.
Today, the board system encompasses 32 neighborhood areas across Oahu. The boards meet monthly to recognize needs and problems and identify solutions specific to their communities. They inform government entities of the will of the people, and ensure that all voices, no matter how small, are heard. These boards have become the little mosquito in the ear of our elected officials.
Currently, 444 board members serve in this volunteer capacity, unpaid. (If paid minimum wage for an average 3 hours of meeting time per month, it would cost taxpayers $99,900 annually). These residents, elected by their peers, serve two-year terms and gather monthly at regular publicized meetings.
These meetings become, in effect, localized sessions of the "City Council" or state "Legislature." Testimony is heard, concerns are aired, presentations are made, reports are offered by elected officials, police, fire and parks representatives. Votes are taken, and the will of the majority always stands.
The charter also established a nine-member commission to develop rules and evaluate the operations of these diverse boards. Because all of these players are unpaid, the charter does call for a small staff (about 17) to assist both the boards and the commission in meeting charter mandates. These city employees record the minutes of the meetings, handle agendas and mail-outs, correspondence, public relations issues, scheduling and various day-to-day tasks. Last year alone, 65,000 people requested neighborhood board information, and 90,350 households received board newsletters.
But true to human nature, it's when things are working comfortably well that apathy tends to set in and people have less motivation to spend valued time fighting for a cause. Residents sit back and let their elected board members handle the everyday problems.
It's true that attendance at meetings has waned, but when an issue of major importance crops up, such as when the Natatorium issue came before the Waikiki board or the Waimanalo landfill before the Waianae board, it was standing room only.
We are fortunate to already have a system in place that can address and handle major community issues. Let's not take this unique program for granted.
Roy Wickramaratna is chairman of the Neighborhood Commission.
