COM 0598.027 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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November 6, 2007 Honorable Pete Hoffinann, Chairman Hawaii County Council 333 Kilauea Avenue Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Subject: BilI51/151 Dear Chaimran Hoffman and Members of the Hawaii County Council, The following is our testimony regarding Bill 151 and our disappoirttment at negative statements made about the professional community by Council Member Ford over the past several months. We have attached a transcript of the October 9, 200? Kona Community Meeting in which Council Member Ford made statements that are technically inaccurate and appear to be prejudicial and insrilting to all of us in the technical community who have been working diligently toward creating sound legislation. Her public statement that architects and engineers don't want to do anything that costs more money is not only false but implies our motives are less than honorable. This is only one of the false and defamatory statements she Iras made regarding those who oppose her legislation. From her statements it appears that she may have significant prejudice against citizens employed in the engineering, architectural and development industries. We believe it is inappropriate and counter-productive to display these prejudices in public forums. It is reasonable to expect that public officials focus on factual information when presenting their proposals. It is not appropriate to disparage those who have opposing views. An example of the technical inaccuracies of Council Member Ford's presentation is the statement "We do not have a storm drainage system in this county. Our roads arc the storm drainage system." The fact is that this county does have drainage systems consisting of catch basins, drywalls end seepage pits which dispose of the increase in nmoff due to development. As civil engineers who have been practicing hydrology for many years in I-Iawaii as well as other parts of the couatry, we believe that this system is far superior to the systems on the mainland that Council Member Ford refereed to. It is common for developments on this island to design for disposal of between 3.5 and 6 inches of rainfall per hour not the 1 inch that Council Member Ford referred to in various public meetings. Tlris conservative approach is a result of the drainage methodology employed on this island. Some systems are designed to dispose of quantities of runoff in excess of the NRCS 100-year 24-hour storm. The Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers (HSPE) has volunteered to provide Council Member Ford background and information on hydrology aad drainage but to date she has declined to take us up on the offer. Although to the average person she may appear to be well versed on drainage matters, much of her understanding is technically inaccurate as demonstrated by a number of her statements and public presentations. At past Council meetings Council Member Ford made statements in which she attributed her proposed amendment to elevate all buildings across the island one foot to recommendations found in a FEMA publication. We can find no recommendation to elevate buildings is done X , in the referenced FEMA document. In our opinion, Council Member Ford has misinterpreted