City Hall accord assures voting a priority
City Clerk Denise DeCosta and Mayor Mufi Hannemann's administration have reached an agreement over the use of City Hall during election seasons, eliminating the need for legislation to make voting a priority over other uses at Honolulu Hale.
"I think the administration realized that it was better to work it out rather than have something made into law," DeCosta said. "So I think it was a very amicable agreement."
The bill, which could still be revived within the next two years, would have mandated elections take precedence over other activities at City Hall.
DeCosta asked that the bill be introduced after the City Hall courtyard was slated as a backup location for an event commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Absentee walk-in voting was scheduled for the day after the event, which conflicted with the setup of booths and other election tasks, DeCosta said.
STAR-BULLETIN / SEPTEMBER 2006
Absentee voters turned out at Honolulu Hale for this year's primary election. The city clerk asked that the city make voting a priority over other uses at Honolulu Hale after conflicts arose in September.
|
|
Administration officials, however, had said that absentee walk-in voting started on time and was not disrupted as a result of the Sept. 11 event.
"There was some confusion about timing and all that stuff, but the main thing is that cooler heads prevailed and it was all resolved," DeCosta said.
The agreement was signed Nov. 2 by DeCosta, Managing Director Wayne Hashiro and Chief Engineer Laverne Higa, whose department oversees city facilities.
The memorandum of understanding covers the courtyard of City Hall and the ground-floor conference rooms at Kapolei Hale for early absentee voting, special elections and the primary and general elections.
The agreements says that the city clerk must notify the administration three months prior to the date she needs the facilities. And in the case of a special election, the notification would be 30 days ahead of the date of when the clerk's office would need either spot, but would also take into account any events already scheduled.
The managing director and chief engineer will try to resolve any conflicts, giving preference to the election activities, according to the agreement.
DeCosta originally said a law was needed so that election officials did not have this conflict with each change of city administration, which oversees the use of city facilities.
"I prefer to work things out. We just felt that if we needed to protect our use of City Hall for elections purposes, we might have needed that bill to be passed, but the administration was very good to work something out and we're OK with that," DeCosta said.