Our Views Presented to Charter Commission
Our units have been hard at work studying types of
city government and certain provisions for a Charter for the past several months. Out of these concentrated program of study our points of view have been formulated and presented to the Charter Commission.
In May of this year we recommended the "Council-Manager" form of government for Honolulu.
On June 15 we recommended that a medico-legal investigative system be set up in the city government and that the department head be a physician, trained in pathology, and that he be directly responsible to the chief administrative officer of the city. This recommendation came out of our study of the City and County Sheriff's office.
On July 17, Miss Geraldine Milne, past president and now an active member of our Charter Resource Committee, appeared before the Charter Commission with the following additional recommendations for its consideration:
That a Board of Supervisors of seven members be elected for a term of four years. Owing to the unusually wide geographical distribution of the population of the City and County, the League favors some compromise solution of the problem of representation: councilors to be nominated by district and elected at large; or, some elected at large and some by district.
That the mayor (if a mayor-council form of government is adopted) and the Board of Supervisors be the only elected officials. The League believes that it is unnecessary to elect officials whose duties do not include policy-making.
That there be a single finance department, the head of which is appointed (and removed) by the mayor or manager; with provision for an annual, independent, post-audit.
That there be a single legal department, the head of which is appointed (and removed) by the mayor or manager; the staff of which is subject to civil service regulations. The right to hire temporary legal assistance should be vested in the legal department.
That boards and commissions be limited to advisory groups: that is, that they should not interfere in the administration of departments. The League believes that care should be taken that obsolete boards, whose major responsibilities have been taken over by a regular department of the government, should not be retained.
That the staffs of all departments be under the merit system.
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July 1956
September 1956