• County manager a good system • Company provides locally produced food County manager a good system Bravo, Ken Taylor for your fine article, “County Manager System would be better (TGI, March 17). A few years ago, a group of
• County manager a good system • Company provides locally produced food
County manager a good system
Bravo, Ken Taylor for your fine article, “County Manager System would be better (TGI, March 17).
A few years ago, a group of us worked hard to get this county manager system put on the ballot so that the citizens could decide if they wanted to change the stagnated, archaic system that this county has operated under for way too long.
But those in power fought tooth and nail to keep the status quo well and alive, making sure that at every community meeting held for debate, they had 10 county employees present for every one member from the public.
Thus, we could not even get the issue on the ballot and let the democratic process work by letting the people vote it up or down.
Now, Ken Taylor has once again moved this issue before you and my hope is that every TGI reader will take the time to thoroughly read it. He has spent a lot time and research delving into this style of government and gives you nothing but the facts of how it will impact our island.
The only part of the manager type of system that Ken failed to mention was how this manager that the council would hire would be independent in their choice for the position. In other words, making sure that the person hired was not just another puppet to perpetuate the status quo.
This factor was brought up by many in their opposition to changing the system.
The answer is that whoever is chosen would have to meet some very stringent qualifications for the position.
This system may not always be perfect but it is working in the majority of municipalities that use it, so instead of continually using the strong mayor/council system that has proven to be so unsuccessful (as Ken’s facts show), “let’s give it a try.”
Glenn Mickens
Kapaa
Company provides locally produced food
As the manager of Gay & Robinson’s Makaweli Ranch, I wanted to clarify a story that appeared in The Garden Island (March 16) about our new Makaweli Meat Company processing facility on the grounds of the old Kaumakani sugar mill.
Makaweli Ranch runs 2,500 to 3,000 head of cattle on 23,000 acres of west Kauai land. The beef marketed under the new Makaweli Meat Company logo is a natural, grass-fed product from cattle that have never been treated with antibiotics or hormones.
We currently process seven head a week and cure carcasses in a state-of-the-art chilling facility on property. The beef is delivered to premier restaurants and markets on Kauai and Oahu.
We call our cattle grass-fed, but in actuality they eat far more than that. Cattle are browsers, and in addition to the Kauai grass that is the mainstay of their diet, they eat mango, guava, kiawe beans and various broad-leafed greens.
Our goal is to process all our cattle locally, although for some time, some will continue to be shipped to the Mainland through the Hawaii Cattle Producers Cooperative Association. There, they will spend approximately 18 months on Mainland grass and about 90 days in a feeding facility.
At the feedlot, cattle get a range of nutrient-rich foods, including grains, like corn. Feedlots and their use of corn feed have been criticized, but there is nothing wrong with corn. It is used all over the world as cattle feed.
At Gay & Robinson, we are just trying to get back to our roots, providing locally produced food to our islands.
Alan Robinson
Manager, Makaweli Ranch and
Chief Operating Officer, Gay & Robinson
