Kauai commission
is slow off the block
The deadline to place proposed charter
amendments on the ballot is September
LIHUE >> Kauai County's Charter Review Commission has become the object of criticism -- not because of anything it has proposed, but because it has not even met yet.
All changes to the Charter must be approved by county voters. But the deadline for placing measures on this November's ballot is the first week in September, and the full commission is not yet in place.
The County Charter requires that a Charter Review Commission be named every 10 years. It recommends changes to county government in the form of charter amendments. The proposals go to the Council, which reviews them and then has them placed on the ballot.
To date, only five of the required seven members have been appointed by Mayor Bryan Baptiste and confirmed by the County Council without hearings or meetings. Two others have been appointed by the mayor and await confirmation.
Several Council members, including Chairman Kaipo Asing, have repeatedly criticized Baptiste for dawdling in appointing the commission members.
But activists have accused the Council of also being derelict in confirming commission members. Asing decided that since everyone appointed to the Council "is so well known in the community," there was no need for confirmation hearings.
The Council has referred several recommended charter amendments to the commission -- including one on the operations of the Salary Commission -- even though the Charter Commission did not yet exist.
To add to the confusion, Baptiste has been appointing commission members to a three-year term. In its confirmation votes, the Council has not specified a term length.
The county attorney has been asked to give an opinion on how long the members' terms should be.
Baptiste called together the confirmed and nonconfirmed members of the commission on Monday. The only item on the agenda was a discussion of organizational matters.
Six of the seven commission members showed up, but so, too, did a group of Council watchdog activists.
"When I walked in that room, he (Baptiste) looked shocked. He clearly didn't expect anyone to be there," said Horace Stoessel, who plans to lobby the commission to adopt a "council-manager" government, which is used by many small- to medium-size jurisdictions.
After a quick huddle with County Attorney Lani Nakazawa, Baptiste declared the meeting was not really a meeting, but an "orientation session." That re-designation sidestepped the legal requirement that any member of the public be allowed to speak on any agenda item at any meeting of a board or commission.
But four of the commission members were sworn in at the start of the session. Stoessel and activist Andy Parks said that meant that a quorum was present, so legally, it was a "meeting."
"It's just a sloppy, slipshod, careless way of operating," Stoessel said.
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