LIHUE — The Kauai Chamber of Commerce hopes to succeed where the County Charter Review Commission did not.
It wants to quadruple the number of signatures required to put a proposed amendment to the Kauai County Charter to a public vote. And it’s organizing a petition drive to do just that, one week after the review commission killed off similarly proposed legislation.
Right now, petitions signed by 5 percent of registered voters in the previous election are required to get charter amendments on the ballot, while referendums and initiatives require 20 percent.
The island’s business community feels the 5 percent threshold is simply too low, said Tom Shigemoto, vice president of A&B Properties and co-chair of the chamber’s government affairs committee.
“(We) agree there should be a more responsible process to engage or get these amendments on the ballot,” he said.
Following in the footsteps of Charter Review Commission Vice Chair Jan TenBruggencate, the chamber is proposing to increase that number to 20 percent — from 2,037 to 8,148 signatures. But in its quest to take the increased autograph proposal to a public vote in November, petitioners only need to collect the lower threshold of 5 percent.
Once on the ballot, a simple majority is needed to pass the amendment.
Shigemoto said the reason the chamber brought forward the petition was cumulative, and not strictly related to a controversial charter amendment petition being circulated by Kauai Rising aimed at regulating the genetically modified organism industry on Kauai.
“It’s not only for the GMO matter,” he said, “because there are so many laws that can be introduced through this process that sometimes could be life changing, depending on the kind of work you do or the industry you’re involve in.”
The chamber’s concerns include the time and money that has been wasted in the past when legally flawed proposals were brought forward, signed, supported by voters and later overturned in court.
“Part of our proposal is to avoid these things from happening again,” he said.
In April, TenBruggencate introduced the same proposal in commission. He said changing the charter — the basic organizational document of county government — should be harder, or equally as hard, as passing a law.
His proposal was rejected Monday by a split 3-3 vote. A second proposal to reduce the number of signatures for initiatives and referendums from 20 to 5 percent was also rejected by a split vote.
The Contractors Association of Kauai partnered in bringing the chamber petition forward.
An initiative, according to the charter, is “the power of voters to propose ordinances.” Referendums are defined as “the power of the voters to approve or reject ordinances that have been passed by the County Council.” And charter amendments are specific changes to the county’s governing document.
• Chris D’Angelo, environment writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or cdangelo@thegardenisland.com.
