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and federal statutes. I am still perplexed.” Final sentence: “There is a lesson here to be learned by all Hawai‘i County citizens. This is a real head scratcher.” The testifier also spoke on agenda item 5(a): The N‘lehu sewer project is still a boondoggle. It must be audited. It is still costing taxpayers, and I don’t know how many thousands of dollars a year in outside consulting fees, but my neighbor here can tell you if you ask us. You’re spending that. These paid consultants are being paid by the Director for providing false information to his monthly report. Now we have no report this month, and we have no report next month. What is going on? Have you commissioners lost control? Transparency is turning into opaqueness. I read the Director’s statements in the July minutes. Some of his sentences about N‘lehu were gobbledygook. We learned “gobbledygook” in freshman English. Please help blue-collar workers in Ka‘ understand what you are doing. Mansour must speak plain English. He is talking over our heads. This is obfuscation and it casts a dim light on all of you. The $80 million sewer project in N‘lehu is impossible. $80 million! It’s impossible. So we are still on an illegal gang cesspool. The County sued me twice for not paying, and I lost both times. We could have been legal 10 years ago and I would have been paying my bill. Let me add, 10 years ago Obama would have paid for this. And then I would be paying my bill because I would be on a legal system. Please take this item up before I have to go home and be there to get my weekly Meals on Wheels. I’m 74 years old. I get weekly Meals on Wheels. They come on Wednesday now. Following the expiration of the last testifier’s allotted time, Chair Adams ruled that his comments were not pertinent to the agenda. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Status report on 2021 EMC Priorities – Each lead commissioner to provide brief update on assigned priorities, as needed (priorities are listed in the draft May 2021 meeting minutes). No new updates were made. b. Continued discussion of solid waste division funding needs and options. 1. Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility for funding or cost-shifting waste management. Discussion of Extended Producer Responsibility legislation HB 1316 (Rep. Nicole Lowen) and recommendations by the Plastics Source Reduction Work Group. See References folder at http://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/Browse.aspx?dbid=1&startid=112093 Chair Adams introduced Rep. Lowen, Chair of the House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection, as part of a continued discussion of how we can fund solid waste management, including recycling, and in particular we had begun a conversation in the last meeting or so about options for funding through extended producer responsibility. The suggestion was made at last meeting that we get Rep. Lowen to talk about the bills and activities that she has been working on related to EPR. The Chair asked if Rep. Lowen could give some background on the issues she is trying to deal with, and the bills that she worked on during the last session, and during future sessions, and help to educate the Commission on the question of funding. How can we use EPR to reduce our costs or to gain funds that could support recycling operations, or help with our underfunded solid waste management program. 4