Posted on: Sunday, April 22, 2001
O'ahu neighborhoods to get $1 million each
By Scott Ishikawa and Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writers
The city is turning over control of $1 million in capital improvement spending money to each of O'ahu's 32 neighborhood boards, Mayor Jeremy Harris said yesterday.
Harris made the announcement at the city's third annual vision meeting at the Hawai'i Convention Center, attended by 2,000 community members.
"It's not new money, rather money that the city department heads would have allocated," Harris said. "We're turning over the decision-making process from the department heads to neighborhood boards, who will decide on where the priorities are."
While 19 vision teams authorized by the city will continue to spend $2 million each on their own annual projects, Harris said neighborhood boards are in a better position to decide on city operations and capital improvement financing.
Allowing the neighborhood boards to focus on short-term and maintenance projects also helps clarify the role of the city vision process, Harris said.
"Many of the first-year vision projects were on maintaining roads and parks," Harris said. "Those were things that needed to be done, but not part of that long-range vision, big-picture redevelopment that's needed for the communities."
Some neighborhood board members had complained previously that the vision teams were not focusing on "nuts and bolts" projects such as sidewalk/road and parks maintenance.
The City Council will give final approval on financing of city projects, including those chosen by the neighborhood boards.
"It's a continuation of our desire to put decision-making in the hands of the people," said City Council chairman Jon Yoshimura. "The neighborhood board is well designed to discuss and act on these types of government projects."
Harris said city officials will meet with neighborhood board members, probably in August and September, to discuss which projects should be listed on the capital improvements budget for the 2003 fiscal year.
