Comm No 0053.02 - Ad Hoc Committee Report re Ballot Questions

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Proposal No. 9: RELATING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A DISASTER AND EMERGENCY FUND BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I: Section 1. Article X of the Hawai‘i County Charter (2018 Edition), is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows: “Section 10-_. Disaster and Emergency Fund. (a) In adopting each year’s fiscal operating budget, the council shall appropriate a minimum of one per cent of the certified real property tax revenues to a fund known as the disaster and emergency fund. Additional funds may be deposited into the disaster and emergency fund from state and federal grants, the federal emergency management agency, private sources, and any other source of revenue. Such appropriation shall continue until a minimum of $20,000,000 is accumulated in the fund. Use of the funds for any of the purposes listed in this section may be permitted even if the target goal of $20,000,000 is not met. (b) Moneys in the disaster and emergency fund shall be utilized only for the following purposes: (1) Repair of county facilities and infrastructure damaged by a natural or human-caused disaster or emergency; (2) Cleaning of county property, including roads, drainage and sewage systems, damaged by a natural or human-caused disaster or other emergencies when such action serves a public purpose; (3) Providing immediate response for services to deal with public health and safety risks due to a natural or human-caused disaster or emergency in the form of personnel, equipment, materials, supplies and service contracts; (4) Matching federal, state or private grants-in-aid individually or in any combination to develop or restore public property to a safe and useable condition; (5) Paying for operational expenses of the county after a disaster or emergency when the county is unable to realize revenue at sufficient levels due to the disaster or emergency; (6) Paying for acquisition of property to mitigate future potential disasters or emergencies; and (7) Paying for administrative expenses, which shall not exceed five percent except as indicated in (5) above. For the purposes of this section, administrative expenses are defined as staff or contracted salaries and related fringe benefits. (c) If the county should receive reimbursement of funds for money advanced by the disaster and emergency fund, those funds shall be deposited into the disaster and emergency fund. 20