NAWILIWILI — After a six-month deferral, the Kaua‘i County Council on Wednesday approved a resolution establishing a policy for facilitating open governance and Internet access to public documents. “The council will fully implement the capabilities made available by the investment
NAWILIWILI — After a six-month deferral, the Kaua‘i County Council on Wednesday approved a resolution establishing a policy for facilitating open governance and Internet access to public documents.
“The council will fully implement the capabilities made available by the investment in the technologies and tools which had been made by the citizens of Kaua‘i,” Councilman Tim Bynum read from the resolution he introduced.
The council four years ago approved funding to boost Internet access to county meetings and documents, but only in July was a resolution introduced to establish concrete policies.
The council, however, in a 5-2 vote chose to defer the resolution until December, after the November election when the county furlough plan would be revisited. Some of the council members who were opposed to the resolution last July — Jay Furfaro, Kaipo Asing, Derek Kawakami, Dickie Chang and Daryl Kaneshiro — said they feared it would put too much burden on a staff working reduced hours.
With an end to the two-days per month furloughs now in sight, the council passed the resolution in a 5-2 vote. Newly elected Councilman Mel Rapozo and Kawakami voted “no.”
Chair Furfaro said the target time to implement the policies in the resolution is 60 days. A frozen clerical position, which the council plans to fill, would add manpower to the staff.
County Clerk Peter Nakamura said there were basically three areas the staff had been looking at addressing when Council Chambers moved about a year ago to Nawiliwili for the ongoing renovation of the Historic County Building.
The areas represented technology upgrades, evaluating work-force needs and development of overall policies.
The company contracted by the administration to manage the new website that provides the live streaming and documents addresses some of those areas the staff was concerned, Nakamura said.
Kawakami opposed passing the resolution, despite agreeing with its contents.
“It would benefit me, but I’m not getting the feedback that this is a top priority for a majority of our residents,” he said.
Few people are pushing for it, and the council is already moving in a direction of open governance, Kawakami said.
“But to try and pass a resolution that says ‘I want it now, and this is going to be the top priority,’ is not something I can be in agreement with,” said Kawakami, adding that as far as the initiative goes, he’s 100 percent in favor of the resolution.
Furfaro said the resolution would not overwhelm the staff’s ability to conduct business.
“What we’re hoping to do within about 60 days … is be able to scope out and present a kind of implementation and steps of how we can get to where we’re going,” Nakamura said.
Councilman Mel Rapozo was concerned that the resolution mandates the documents be posted on the county’s website, and not on the live-streaming website managed by the company contracted by the county.
If the county wants to upload documents onto the live-streaming website, Rapozo said he believes there might be a cost involved.
“That’s a matter of what’s in the contract,” Nakamura said.
Rapozo said that he agrees with what the resolution is requesting, but he also believes that it has already been done, since the live streaming website is up and running.
“It’s a heck of an opportunity for people to be able to watch this live,” he said. “You can already click on the agenda and get to the item that you want to watch.”
Rapozo said that he agrees with Kawakami’s reasoning.
“This doesn’t show a dateline, it doesn’t show a commitment as far as a priority,” he said. “But it’s a pretty strong policy statement … to the chair and to the clerk, saying: ‘This is what we want you do to.’”
Rapozo said that as a returning council member he is not familiar with the staff, their work flow and load.
Councilwoman Nadine Nakamura asked for a change in the opening paragraph of the resolution, which stated, quoting in part from the state Sunshine Law, that “in a democracy, the people are vested with the ultimate decision-making power and an informed, aware and engaged electorate is an important component of good governance.”
The amended version took out the first part of the sentence. The opening paragraph on the approved resolution now states that “an informed, aware and engaged electorate is an important component of good governance.”
Nakamura’s reasoning was that we live in a representative democracy, and elected officials should be vested with the ultimate-decision making power.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@kauaipubco.com.
The Kaua‘i County Council passed a resolution last week thatgave supporters of open government something to cheer about. But asmall amendment proposed by a first-term councilwoman raised someeyebrows.
Councilwoman Nadine Nakamura asked for a change in the resolution’sopening paragraph, which stated the following:
“Whereas, in a democracy, the people are vested with the ultimatedecision-making power and an informed, aware and engaged electorateis an important component of good governance.”
Nakamura recommended a revision because she said she believes “weare in representative democracy, and the people have electedrepresentatives who are vested with the power to make decisions ontheir behalf.”
The council amended the resolution’s opening paragraph to excludethe “ultimate decision-making power” from the people of ademocracy, giving such power to the elected officials.
The amended version approved by council stated:
“Whereas, an informed, aware and engaged electorate is an importantcomponent of good governance.”
