2015-04-20 Game Management Advisory Commission Mintues

Home

Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—April 20, 2015 is willing to sell. It's not required but it does really help when they look at it because if we don't have a willing landowner, most times the property will not rank too high. Testimony is very welcome at our meetings. The commissioners welcome any more additional information that can be given to them — it does make a difference when they're doing their ranking. Answer the questions as thorough as possible —you might not have all the attachments, but, the more you can give us the better. We do also, not only fee simple purchase but the commission does accept easement requests— conservation easements — it's not an acquisition — we wouldn't b*uy it outright— the County would — easement is definitely, you'll get a lot more, you know, bang for your buck money wise—you don't pay the whole, full price. We've done one. There has been a few that has been nominated to us in the past. So that's one thing to consider. And then the timeline for processing the nominations - our July meeting is where our commission will review all the forms submitted this year and we have an investigative committee, which does go out and do site visits on properties, so if the property is easily accessible, that's a plus. We do need the landowners' consent to conduct a site visit. Location, accessibility, feasibility. Our September meeting —they'll assess the forms and determine which properties will be included on the prioritized list. December—the annual report to the mayor is submitted by the end of the month with the prioritized list. So all properties submitted for this year will be put on a list, ranked accordingly by our commissioners and properties are ranked higher if they have more information provided. February—the report is transmitted to the County Council with the mayor's recommendations. Once they approve it and file it—the next step — if there was a property that you were interested in pushing through —the County Council Member in that district would have to prepare a resolution authorizing the Finance Director to enter into negotiations. So from the time you submit a form in June you're looking at nine to ten months before we could even get to that process where we could actually start moving on it and all of that is determined upon availability, urgency, very important. So that would be our process. To date 10 properties were acquired with the PONC fund. We've acquired 1,261 acres, obtained almost 5.6 million dollars in federal and state grants and we do not have representation in every district. This commission is entirely community driven. So all the properties nominated to us is submitted to us by the public, by community groups who are interested in preserving that. We would like to see an island-wide distribution. But right now this is what we've purchased to date. And what does the County do when we purchase lands? We have a 3