REP FC 053 2019/09/17 2018-2020 - Laserfiche WebLink

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FC-53 Page 2 September 17,2019 I I Council Member Ashley Kierkiewicz, does not feel there is not enough information. She commented that she has been championing the accountability and transparency on the recovery side, especially in the recovery process. It all comes down to making an informed decision. There was a change order for a contract with Polynesian Adventures through the end of the year, and assumes once that closes out, Mass Transit would be able to obtain a contract with a new vendor. Ms. Carreira explained she would like to see the new contract on board before December. There are also other issues regarding this contract. Kona does not have a base yard so the contractor would be doing the Kona,North Kohala, and Ka`u routes with their own drivers and their own buses, although Mass Transit would oversee as the Hele-On Transit. Then as the County would get more buses, they would replace the contractor buses. Ms. Carreira is hoping that the four new buses will be completed in December then the buses would be brought over and people will need to be trained. The three hydrogen buses are on hold due to an issue that came up. Mass Transit has one electrical vehicle at the base yard but there are still infrastructure issues. Ms. Carreira stated if the current contractor would say no to an extension of the current contract, she would have to cancel twenty(20)routes on this island. She stated she has 10 to 12 buses up right now. Mass Transit is responsible for 33 routes and are renting 23 buses at any given time and really need 55 buses to cover all the routes. Ms. Kierkiewicz stated her big issue is that this is coming before the Council in its eleventh hour. Ms. Carreira explained that she did not know the resolution needed to be done and was concerned about getting it before the Council. Ms. Kierkiewicz commented she could not support this in its current 1 state. Council Chair Aaron Chung commented it is not the fault of Director Carreira, and said the responsibility rests with Corporation Counsel since they are the ones to ensure that all the is were crossed and is dotted. He pointed out that that Director Carreira recently came on board and was not fully aware of requirements. Mr. Chung stated he views this as a clash of philosophies or governmental principles and quoted in part Section 10-11 of the County Charter relating to contracts. He noted the question becomes whether the resolution is considered prior to the contract being awarded or after. Mr. Chung has seen it done a number of ways,but his personal preference is that the contract be awarded and then come before Council for approval and ratification because the Council would then at least know what the terms are. He noted his understanding of the department's concerns and perspective regarding jeopardizing the process but felt that Corporation Counsel would have to explain these things. Mr. Chung expressed his preference in getting more information and said he could not see entering into a contract of this magnitude without being provided more specifics. In that regard, Mr. Chung noted that Ms. David mentioned, given the situation, the possibility of going into Executive Session could be considered. Mr. Chung noted he would be agreeable to that because this body needs to get a better idea of what's going on. Although he believed the award could be made and then later approved by Council, however, he certainly didn't want to put this body at risk either, and that a good fallback position would be an Executive Session that Ms. David suggested.