MIN COUNCIL 2025-02-19 2024-2026

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Hawaii County Council-7 February 19,2025 nomenclature. And my colleague here, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, has, of course, identified this as the Office of Keywords, but we all know that there's actually depth and meaning behind all of these things. So just thank you, Mayor, for that input. I maintain my concerns about the first clause about the minimum qualifications and having had leadership of a major program. We were talking yesterday about something and legislative intent and having to look at the legislative history. You don't need to do that here. I'm the one that drafted those minimum qualifications. And so when we look at legislative intent, when I said leading a major program in sustainability, I'm sorry, as much as it is admirable, leading a community garden for the Boys and Girls Club does not qualify, in my mind, for leading a major program. It's setting objectives. It's managing budget. It's managing staff. It's cross-interagency communication. It's anticipating risks. I mean, there are so many things that I think are beyond the scope of that particular project that doesn't match that first qualification. My other concerns that I didn't get a chance to speak to last time are actually just understanding the bureaucracy of the County. The previous administrator was actually never hired through the appointment process like we're doing now. There had to be, because of various bureaucratic stumbling blocks in HR(Human Resources) and others, a merit-based process. There were something like 18 candidates. Of those, 5 came in for interviews. And these are things that OSCER is going to continue to have to work through. And the nominee before us does not have any experience with the bureaucratic process within the County. With respect to the funding, we have a contract for the energy efficiency grant that we approved. That money is here; it is not frozen. There's no experience having managed contracts with Federal Government or the procurement process through the County. We have the other million dollar grant from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), also not frozen as of the last conversation I had with Finance yesterday. And the candidate has no experience managing the Federal grant process, so I continue to have concerns about that. And lastly, the biggest thing, as mentioned by the testifier, is that community engagement. And this is where I have a question for you, Ms. Acasio. With the Federal money potentially drying up around this area, we are going to have to look to the State. This office will actually require probably some state-level legislation. I understand that you are currently engaged as the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the State House of Representatives. Do you intend to continue that lawsuit? Page 5