Campaign Corner: Read Up On Honolulu Charter Questions
There is helpful information online about all four ballot proposals and even some news reporting.
October 9, 2020 · 3 min read
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Ballots for this year鈥檚 elections started going out this week, and while there have been debates, mailers and advertising for the candidates running for office, there has been little discussion about the four questions to amend the Revised Charter of Honolulu.
If you go to the state Office of Elections website for information on the questions and follow the links, you鈥檒l eventually get a . There are also links to the resolutions that established the questions, but one would need to do some additional digging to find the discussions and testimony.
Chad Blair, politics and opinion editor of Civil Beat, wrote about the first question, which asks whether term limits should be imposed on the prosecutor鈥檚 office. More details of the pros and cons can be found on the City Council鈥檚 status page of the , 19-35.
The second question asks whether a Youth Commission should be established under the city managing director. If this sounds familiar, it may be because the Honolulu Charter Commission discussed a similar proposal, No. 102, in 2016.
A couple of key differences between the Commission鈥檚 proposal and the current ballot question is that Proposal 102 included the possibility of stipends for commissioners, and the current question requires that members who are 18 or older at the time of appointment be registered voters.
The Youth Commission would be allowed to 鈥渆mploy staff as is necessary,鈥 but notably missing from discussions about the commission, based on council meeting minutes and committee reports, is the estimated cost for such staff.
More information about the proposed commission and related testimony is available at .
Overtime Abuse
The third question asks whether the Honolulu Ethics Commission should be allowed to control its own budget after it has been enacted. This is similar to the 2016 amendment that allowed the Prosecuting Attorney to control its own budget after approval by the Honolulu City Council.
Currently the Department of Corporation Counsel oversees the EC for administrative purposes, including its budget. In 2014 COR delayed requests for a $600 tracking device that was to be used in an investigation.
It was estimated at the time that the city could save about $250,000 in overtime abuse, but because the equipment was not approved in a timely manner, the case died.
The proposed amendment is supported by the EC. Its testimonies, along with other related information, are available on the status page for .
The fourth, and final, proposed charter amendment relates to commission staff, specifically whether the positions should be exempt from civil service with salaries set by the commission, subject to specified limitations.
The EC also supports this proposed amendment and has posted a list of for both questions No. 3 and No. 4 on its website. Additional information is available at .
I encourage voters to take the time to make informed decisions with respect to this year鈥檚 general election.
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Community Voices aims to encourage broad discussion on many topics of community interest. It鈥檚 kind of a cross between Letters to the Editor and op-eds. This is your space to talk about important issues or interesting people who are making a difference in our world. Column lengths should be no more than 800 words and we need a photo of the author and a bio. We welcome video commentary and other multimedia formats. Send to news@civilbeat.org. The opinions and information expressed in Community Voices are solely those of the authors and not Civil Beat.
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