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Hawaii County Council-7 February 19,2025 <br /> (Note: At this time, Mayor C. Kimo Alameda and nominee Laura Acasio <br /> came forward to address the members of the Council.) <br /> MR. ALAMEDA: Thank you, Council Member Heather Kimball. It's good to be <br /> here again. Yeah, so I did share that, because under Research and Development <br /> there is a component on sustainability, and that was there when I was working for <br /> the County. So, when this office was created, initially I thought, well, how is it <br /> that it's not being addressed under Research and Development? <br /> So, but, you know, the will of the people. You guys voted and now we have an <br /> office, and so I don't ponder on negativity. It's just a waste of time. So then I <br /> think, well, how can we make this office as vibrant, as connected to the other <br /> offices as possible? <br /> And then here's President Trump, right. He gets elected, right. Because when I <br /> talked to you, Council Member Kimball, you said one of the big deals of this <br /> office is that it'll get a whole bunch of funding; climate change, equity, diversity, <br /> all the words that are now, if you say that in the Federal Government, they might <br /> fire you. So now I'm super concerned of the funding that you said would come <br /> because of this office. So that's one concern. <br /> But that doesn't mean that we're not going to stop addressing issues, you know, <br /> climate change issues, environmental issues, alternative energy issues. That'll <br /> continue because that's what makes Hawaii who we are. So the office is what it <br /> is. I'll support it as much as possible, to whatever degree we need to support it. <br /> I think Laura's a great candidate because she'll speak her mind, and we've had <br /> many discussions already. Some we agree, some we disagree. And I like that <br /> about Laura. I like that she can speak her mind, and we can agree to disagree. So <br /> she's the perfect pick, I think, for this office. <br /> And she will challenge the other departments as well as support the other <br /> departments in coordinating and filling those gaps that we might have around <br /> environmental sustainability. So, I see this office as more an environmental <br /> sustainability. I think the prior administration, they got stuck on just the word <br /> sustainability, and they wore the jacket sustainability but they never—Mitch <br /> could never explain what that was, right. He deferred to you. So you got <br /> economic sustainability. You got environmental sustainability. You got cultural <br /> sustainability. So we need to figure out a way to make all of that work. That's <br /> going to be our challenge, and I'm up for the challenge. Thank you. <br /> MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. I really appreciate you expounding upon that and <br /> identifying one of the critical concerns right now is that loss of potential funding <br /> to the County through the various Federal programs, which means we need to <br /> pivot, right. If we need to look at resources for funding these programs, it is <br /> likely going to have to come from other sources or under the guise of different <br /> Page 4 <br />