Last week, on June 21, Councilmember Elle Cochran requested the Arakawa Administration consider proposing an amendment to the FY2019 budget, following concerns from the community regarding fee increases for use of county facilities. In the new budget, fees were increased by $20. Many community members use these county spaces and rely on the low cost of access to share their programs with the public.
In a response to Councilmember Cochran, Mayor Arakawa replied on June 28, saying: “If I understand your letter correctly, you are essentially asking our administration to clean up a mess you created… Once you accept responsibility for your actions and you make clear in a letter to my office and notification to community members you’ve been in contact with, I will gladly consider submitting a budget amendment to strike out those increases and return the fees to where they were prior to the increases you proposed.”
Councilmember Cochran responded today, Jun. 29 in a letter to Mayor Arakawa, stating, “I will gladly make a formal apology and accept responsibility for the part that I played in this fee increase. I would never let my ego get in the way of serving this community. As I stated in the original letter to your administration, I believe myself and the other councilmembers made this decision in haste. When Budget Chair Hokama inserted the fee increase for the permits, I did not realize that this increase would cause such harm to the community or I would have never voted on such an increase.”
See the interaction and correspondence below:
More to come…
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