2020-12-31 (2020 PONC Annual Report to the Mayor)

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PublicAccess, Open Space, andNaturalResourcesPreservation Commission 2020 Annual Report to the Mayor December 16, 2020 Introduction: The Hawai‘i County Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Commission (PONC) is submitting this 2020 Annual Report to the Mayor which includes the 2020 Prioritized List of Properties that was submitted to this Commission on or before the deadline date of February 28, 2020 (Chapter 1), in pursuant to the Hawai‘i County Code (1985), Edition 2005 Section 2-217 (Chapter 5). Unlike other commissions in Hawai’i County, this Commission is an advisory only to the Mayor and its sole responsibilities are: 1) responsible for annually submitting a prioritized list of properties to be considered for acquisition to the Mayor and 2) review and make recommenda- tions to the Department of Parks and Recreation of the Stewardship Grant Applications. This Commission has compiled a report of all properties submitted on the Status of Prop- erties on Past Prioritized Lists 2006-2019 (Chapter 2) and the Acquisition Status Report (Chapter 3) which includes the different funding sources used for each acquisition. Finally, this Commis- sion compiled a detailed Comprehensive List of Properties Submitted by the Public (Chapter 4). This list attests to the participation of community groups and individual parties interested in the preservation of our island’s open spaces and natural resources. In 2010, Hawai‘i County voters approved the first charter amendment created by Article 10, Section 10-15, PONC Preservation Fund that sets aside 2% of Hawai‘i County’s real property taxes each year for acquisition of these properties (Chapter 6). Two years later in 2012, Hawai‘i County voters approved the second charter creating an amendment, which can be found in Article 10, Section 10-16, PONC Maintenance Fund (Chapter 7) which provides funding for maintaining properties acquired by the Preservation Fund and permitted usages. In 2020, Hawai’i County voters approved two charter amendments: 1) the Preservation Fund to pay salary, wages, and benefits for staff dedicated to supporting the purposes of the fund and the public access, open space, and natural resources preservation maintenance fund, 2) Responsibility and administering the Maintenance Fund from the Department of Parks and Rec- reation to the Department of Finance. In addition, expenditures directly related to the purpose of public safety maintenance and preservation of lands and easements acquired by the FUND would include building and installing toilet facilities, maintenance equipment storage sheds, weather protection structures, and creating trails and paths for land access. Included in this report the Process for Property Acquisition (Chapter 8) so that the public may be better informed as to how properties are acquired using the Preservation Fund. i