LIHUE — Two Kauai County board proposals that would let voters decide whether the amount of petition signatures needed to place public measures on general election ballots should be changed was met with resistance on Monday. Some members of the
LIHUE — Two Kauai County board proposals that would let voters decide whether the amount of petition signatures needed to place public measures on general election ballots should be changed was met with resistance on Monday.
Some members of the county’s Charter Review Commission say the move is necessary to balance out the difficulty in getting initiatives or referendums and charter amendments on general election ballots.
As it stands, more signatures from registered voters are required to propose an initiative or referendum than it is to propose changes to the Kauai County Charter.
It’s a departure, some say, from how it is done in other counties statewide, where it is easier to pass an ordinance than it is to change the binding legal document that spells out the county’s foundational structure.
An initiative, according to the County Charter, is “the power of voters to propose ordinances” in the elections process. Referendums, on the other hand, are defined in the County Charter as “the power of the voters to approve or reject ordinances that have been passed by the County Council.”
“I think it’s a flaw in our charter,” said Commission Vice Chair Jan TenBruggencate, who introduced the proposal. “It’s the way it is because those two provisions — the charter provision and the initiative and referendum provisions — came into the charter at different times.”
Others said the proposed changes could stifle future public efforts to initiate change in their government and community.
“This is Kauai — this is the unconquered island — and this island should stay with that standard,” Kilauea resident Louisa Wooton said. “I’m all about lowering the referendum, but let’s certainly not make it more difficult or tougher for the people who have actually maybe used the law for the people than it should be for our governing body.”
Under the current County Charter, initiative and referendum petitions must be signed by no less than 20 percent of the number of voters registered in the last preceding general election.
Petitions for Charter amendments, on the other hand, require the signatures of at least 5 percent of the number of voters registered in the last preceding general election, which must be presented to the County Council.
In 2012, 40,738 registered voters were on island.
Twenty percent would be about 8,147 signatures, whereas 5 percent would be 2,037.
“As a general principle, the passing of a law ought to be a lower standard than changing the form of our government,” TenBruggencate said. “My fear is that people are choosing the charter amendment route, sometimes inappropriately, because it’s easier and they end up going to court and costing our community a whole lot of money in legal fees — and it also wastes a lot of people’s time. These things need to be in the proper order and that will save our community money and our citizenry who are trying to make changes in the way the government works a lot of times.”
Others say collecting voter signatures is already a difficult task. They also questioned the timing of the move, which comes on the heels of an effort to place a charter amendment measure on this year’s ballot to further regulate genetically modified organisms and pesticides on the island.
A move to lower the petition signature threshold for a ballot initiative or referendum from 20 percent to 5 percent passed by a 5-1 vote.
Commissioner Carol Suzawa cast the dissenting vote against that change, saying she would like to see some form of legal review tied to it as a way to prevent costly court battles on the legality of voter-written and -approved initiatives.
The six-member board unanimously voted to defer their final decision on approving the changes, including one to increase the signature threshold for charter amendments from 5 percent to 20 percent, to next month’s meeting.
• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.
