2022-01-07 EMC special meeting draft minutes

Home

he could have voiced his objection during the public hearing for the current establishment. That's all I have. ADAMS: Okay. Do the Appellants have any cross examination of Mr. Mansour? HENDERSON: Chair, this is Ritchie Henderson. Yes, we do. ADAMS: Go ahead. HENDERSON: In your direct testimony, item No.10, you stated that the tank house building qualified as an unoccupied unit as currently defined. Director Mansour, do you know where the term unoccupied unit is used in Chapter 21? MANSOUR: Yes, I did drive by the property, but I did just to satisfy my own curiosity, it is from an engineering point of view, it is a structure, it is a building that stands detached. So for me to imply that the permission, it was clear to me that the definition implies that building. It may have been back, I cannot speak what went on back in the old days, if it was water catchment. I'm sure it was modified. It has windows, it has doors, as you have stated and testified, it has a toilet, has a water heater. All those plumbing fixtures fitthe definition of the code, and thereis a building (unintelligible). HENDERSON: Director Mansour, the term unoccupied unit is found in only three places in all of Chapter 21: In the definition as Section 21-2, in Section 21-29, sewer user charges for nonresidential customers, and Section 21-31, sewer user charges for residential customers. Director Mansour, are you familiar with Section 21-31 of the Hawai‘i County Code, which gives the Department the authority to charge a sewer user fee for residential customers? MANSOUR: Yes. HENDERSON: That section is made up of three sentences: 1) Sewer user charges for residential customers shall be assessed to all lots accessible to a public sewer or public gang cesspool, whether connected or not. 2) User charges for sewer service to residential customers, which include service for single family dwellings, duplexes, housing projects, condominiums, townhouses, apartments and dormitories, shall be assessed according to the schedule shown under Section 21 36.1. 3) Unoccupied units will be assessed a monthly maintenance fee equal to the current user fee. In your understanding of Section 21-31, does the last sentence refer to types of residential units listed in the second sentence? MANSOUR: It's defining these units and the building that you have defined under dwelling unit means any habitable room or roof space. So even if your building is outside the detached, it has the possibility of lights, and I cannot speak in the past, but it definitely had the front end fixtures to qualify. Therefore, it falls under the same definition of unoccupied. 10