KAILUA-KONA » Hawaii County police commissioners are critical of bills before the state Legislature that would alter and reduce police commissions’ powers.

Their primary concern is with Senate Bill 677, which would give the mayor of each county the authority to fire the police chief, West Hawaii Today reported. That power currently rests solely with the state’s four county police commissions.

"To give (that power) to the mayor goes against what the police commissions were created for," Commissioner Leroy Victorine said at a meeting of the body in Kailua-Kona on Friday. "The commissions were set up to keep politics out of that process."

John Bertsch, the acting chairman of the Hawaii County police commission, said the bills were driven by circumstances on Kauai and in Honolulu.

Bertsch said the mayor has the ability to come before the commission if he has an issue with a chief.

The commissioners are also concerned about Senate Bill 389, which would change the makeup of their volunteer nine-member panel to ensure that three commissioners have experience in civil rights, women’s issues and law enforcement.

The bill would require that a member of the State Commission on the Status of Women be appointed to each of the four county police commissions in the state, a measure that the state attorney general deemed unconstitutional in recent testimony.

"That takes away from the public the right to be represented by someone from their district," Victorine said.

Both bills have passed a second reading and been referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Big Island police commissioners said they will confer with Chairman Guy Schutte, who was absent, and other commissions around the state on what sort of testimony to formulate as the bills move forward.