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Honorable Dominic Yagong, Chair and Members of the Hawaii County Council February 24, 2011 Page 3 Status of Funds — Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Fund For the benefit of the County Council, I have attached a summary of the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Fund and all monies deposited and disbursed since its establishment. Management and Stewardship Concerns The funding of management and stewardship efforts in connection with acquired properties still remains a significant concern. The most recent review by the County Charter Commission included a charter amendment approved on November 2, 2010 by the electorate. Effective July 1, 2011, Section 10-15 will take effect and appropriate a minimum of one percent of real property tax revenues be deposited into the FUND each fiscal year. However, Section 10- 15(c) also stipulates that the FUND be used solely for acquisitions only as does the County Code in its current form. We ask that Council consider changes to the County Code that would provide for some portion of the required 2% set-aside of real property tax revenue to go to an account for management and stewardship, rather than all going to the FUND for acquisition. Below is a summary of what has been done in connection with the four properties that have already been acquired with the FUND. Since acquisition of the Waipi`o Valley property, Ordinance No. 09 32, Bill No. 28 was passed formally designating this parcel as the Waipi`o Community Park. Parks and Recreation (P&R) has been working with the district Councilmember and Friends of the Future (FOF), a 501(c)(3) community group to manage, maintain and discuss plans for long term community use. A Parks Community Partnership Program (PCPP), Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is currently being negotiated between P&R and FOF. In addition, the County has a contract with Isemoto Contracting, Ltd. to demolish the single family residential structure that is on the property. The estimated cost of the project is $78,600.00 and should be starting sometime in March. The second acquisition completed was for a 234 acre shoreline parcel adjacent to Kawa`a Bay, Kawa, Ka`u, Hawaii. Since the County acquired management and stewardship of 219 acres in the existing Whittington Beach Park at Honu`apo, Ka`u, the DOF used existing funds to initiate the development of a management plan for lands between Honu`apo and Kawa. The Honu`apo Park Resources Management Plan was completed in June 2010 by Townscape, Inc. Since then, Ka Ohana `O Honu`apo, an active 501(c)(3) community group has been working in collaboration with the County on long term planning for the wetlands area at Honu`apo. At this time no groups have expressed interest in managing the Kawa area. County of Hawaii is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer