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Meeting Notes: October 23, 2004
The Summit, held in the State Capitol auditorium, was convened at 8:30 a.m. by Sen. Chun Oakland and Rep Dennis Arakaki. The featured event in the morning was brief talks by community leaders. They were Robbie Alm, Chairman of the Board for Good Beginnings Alliance, Alex McGehee, CEO of Enterprise Development, Inc., Paul Brewbaker, Chief Economist for Bank of Hawaii, and Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona. A common theme in their presentations was the need for youth to obtain a good education in order to make it in today's world. In addition, Brewbaker showed us that the State Government will have a very significant surplus in revenues this year. Whether this surplus is spent on the needed requirements for the long term such as various infrastructure needs (including the needs of youth) or is frittered away on pet projects will be of vital importance for our future.
Following the presentations, there were three breakout sessions in which priority issues were identified by the participants in six different categories; Economy, Education, Environment, Health, Housing and Safety. Each of us could choose to attend three of these sessions. The participants posted their critical issues. At the end of each session we voted for the three issues (out of all those posted) which we thought most important. The voting will be tabulated after the Summit and the three issues receiving the most votes will be considered for legislative action at the next Keiki Caucus session on November 15th.
Brief reports for the groups were made before closing. Again it was evident that Education received the most attention.
Finally, a good fun time was had with entertainment by Frank DeLima. So ended another Summit. Adjournment was at 3:15 p.m. |
