2020-09-23 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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salesperson to come calling is Dig Deep, a consultant. Please keep in mind that kickbacks to government employees include campaign donations, so there is no incentive to keep a close accounting of consultant contracts. If Director Kucharski isn’t here to explain wastewater spending, then the wastewater chief, Dora Beck, should be present. And mahalo for both of those. Chair Pequeño asked if there was anyone else who would like to provide testimony. Mr. Warren said that Sandra Demoruelle had been trying to testify but was being muted. Chair Pequeño said he had not muted anyone and asked Mr. Warren to inform Ms. Demoruelle to try hanging up and calling in again. A few moments later Ms. Demoruelle was able to connect, and Chair Pequeño thanked her for her emailed testimony and said she could provide her verbal testimony now. Sandra Demoruelle: Thank you. I just really want to just address the Nāālehuʻ LCC and the wastewater spill, which is under the wastewater CIP item 4A on the director’s agenda. I particularly want to address that. This has now gone to the DOH, and if you’ll look on page 10 of your director’s report, it says that they received a notice of apparent violation on wastewater collection system condition and sewage overflows, which I presume is in response to my August 17 complaint to the DOH. Now this information was withheld at the last meeting, and I reported that to OIP, because it was not withheld at the request of the board, but just withheld by Mary Fujio at the request of Corporation Counsel. And there was no reason for them to do so, and this is now being contested and there will be an OIP opinion issued on it. But this is a very important and very crucial fault that’s happened here. What has happened is there’s been a misreporting. This is not just not reporting, this is a lie. This is why the DOH is ______. In the past is there are fines, and they’ve been around a hundred thousand to four hundred thousand. But that’s for neglecting to report things. This was an effort by at least four people—Kucharski, Eric Takamura who signed the form, Dora Beck, and Alika DeMello. This is four people who have participated in perpetrating this falsehood. Now it doesn’t matter how many gallons flowed. The fact is it flowed into the drainage ditch, which is defined as state waters. The fact that they are misreporting Nāālehu spills in order to avoid putting in the sewage collection ʻ system is really a major, major problem. And it’s going to result in fines. And it’s a sin that this has not been addressed. So it’s going to be addressed on an individual level by BOE. The Board of Ethics will look at the individual roles. But it’s important that you folks look at whether or not sewage spills are being reported accurately, because if the DEM is actively misreporting, this is a critical issue and will be—will be subject to huge fines for the county. And with that said, I’m done. Thank you for letting me speak. 7. REPORTS/CORRESPONDENCE As Director Kucharski was unable to be present for the meeting, Chair Pequeño suggested the commissioners decide what questions they want him to respond to for the next meeting. A summary of issues they want addressed are: 6