Changes needed on Board of Ethics
Changes needed on Board of Ethics
The decisions made by the Board of Ethics might be very different if there were more members and if they were from both sides of the island.
As it is, the county charter in Section 14-5 states that the Board of Ethics will be composed of five members and does not stipulate that they represent different districts around the island — just that no more than three be from the same political party and that they serve staggered five-year terms. This has resulted over the past several years in a board that has had only representatives from the east side, primarily Hilo, area.
Because this board meets monthly only in Hilo, one might conclude that it is difficult to get volunteers from other districts to apply because of the commute and the difficulty of getting that much time off work.
It might also be difficult to get volunteers to serve on this board because of the small number of people on it and the need to have a quorum every month. Potential board members may fear being sick or not being able to leave island for a vacation.
There is also the very real problem of a member being reluctant to recuse himself over a possible conflict of interest if it meant that the board would not have a quorum.
Serious consideration needs to be given to varying the meeting location on both sides of the island to encourage a more balanced applicant pool and to enable those bringing petitions before the Board of Ethics to attend without undue hardship.
At the present time, we have only three members on the Board of Ethics. For the reasons stated above, this is not enough.
I urge the mayor to appoint two additional members as soon as possible and ask that volunteers be sought from the west side of the island to provide the balance this board needs.
I also ask our council members to support changing the charter to include more members on the Ethics Board and to require representative district membership, with alternate meetings on each side of the island.
Members of the public wishing to apply for membership on a board or commission may pick up an application at the mayor’s office in Hilo or Kona or download it from records.co.hawaii.hi.us/Weblink8/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=24691.
Cheryl King
Kailua-Kona
What happened to amenities at Pahoa Transfer Station?
The Pahoa Transfer Station was reopened to the tune of $100,000. I can’t figure out what that money was used for, since the lava was only in one tiny corner of the place.
Our beautiful water tank was taken down but never replaced. Where is it? There is no running water at the dump. There are no sinks. There are no toilets, except for one plastic john for county employees only. We had all that before the dump was gutted — whoever took our stuff should bring it back.
The tourists are coming by the busload, including disabled individuals, and they are going to the bathroom on the lava and in the bushes.
The county should stop treating Pahoa like junk because it wants people to move away from the lava zone.
Sara Steiner
Pahoa