Four amendments to the Kaua‘i County Charter will be up for public vote in the upcoming General Election.
We, the members of the Charter Review Commission, recommend approval of all four.
The commission is a panel of Kaua‘i residents, who do not work for the county and who are nominated by the mayor and approved by the County Council.
As part of our educational outreach, we wanted to briefly review the proposals.
The first addresses an issue that came up this year with the resignation of our Prosecuting Attorney, requiring a very expensive special election. Our proposal, essentially, is to allow the deputy prosecutor to serve as prosecutor until the next regularly scheduled election.
The second amendment would remove a Charter section that allows the county to form its own power company. This section was inserted at the time Kaua‘i Electric was for sale, and several entities, including the county and Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative, were discussing buying it.
Now that KIUC has been operating the utility for more than 20 years, the charter language seems unnecessary. (Note: Charter Commission member Jan TenBruggencate, who also serves on the elected KIUC board, did not participate in commission discussions or voting on this item.)
The third amendment would allow the citizen Salary Commission to establish salary caps for county executives, both elected and appointed, removing County Council authority to reject those caps. The Mayor or Council would still have the authority to pay a lower amount to employees under their jurisdiction.
In some election years, Council votes have reduced commission-recommended salaries for some executives, and there has been concern that this makes it difficult to attract qualified candidates for government service, particularly when some departmental employees earn more than their superiors. The three other Hawai‘i counties already give their Salary Commissions authority to establish those maximum salaries.
The fourth amendment would allow the county Finance Department more flexibility in determining which county positions require surety bonds, to protect the county from loss in cases of fraud, neglect or other actions by employees.
It would allow the Director of Finance to decide when to use public officials’ insurance or employee crime insurance instead of surety bonds to protect the county’s interests. The County Council would still have the power to require surety bonds in certain instances.
The Charter Commission is only authorized to recommend amendments that it feels are necessary or desirable, and in each of these cases, we urge approval.
Details of these proposed amendments will be printed for public review and will be available on the county website at www.kauai.gov.
We, the members of the Charter Review Commission, appreciate your consideration.
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The Charter Review Commission is made up of Lori Koga, chair, Jan Tenbruggencate, vice chair; and members Bronson Bautista, Reid Kawane, Marissa Sandblom and Coty Trugillo.
