2022-01-07 EMC special meeting draft minutes

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could be converted, the second building could conceivably be converted into some kind of a dwelling doesn't recognize what it is, which is an outbuilding, a reclaimed outbuilding. So anyway, that's my take. I think that the language of the county, both with regard to this particular question and also with regard to possible reimbursement, is lacking and needs to be fixed. So that's the only other point I would want to make. But I stand by my opinion that I share with Commissioner Fulton, which is that the decision by the director was erroneous because in my mind, based on reading everything and hearing the testimony today, this is clearly a single family residence, and I don't believe that it's correct for it to be charged for two sewer fees, particularly when it only has a single water source, and it's not used for – the two buildings on the property are not used as multiple occupied, under the definitions in the ordinances, dwellings. ADAMS: Dee Fulton, did you want to comment? FULTON: Yes. Thank you, Chair Georjean. A number of points, and I want to start out by saying if somebody has an ‘ohana (dwelling) in their home and it is rented out to a whole separate family, but it shares the plumbing, I don't really know the answer. So maybe I shouldn't ask the question. I'm not being a good attorney here, but wouldn't they just get one sewer bill if there's one meter, one water meter? No, I see head shaking. Okay. I want to go back to the beginning of this structure. It was designated a historical structure. And in order to preserve that designation, I think the architect was limited. And so while additional facilities were needed, they couldn't fit within the footprint of that historical structure. Thus, the necessity in creating a separate outbuilding to house facilities that typically would have been within the confines of the original building. So that's one point is that basically you have an extension of a single- family dwelling. Secondly, with all due respect, Chair, the shape of the plumbing, whether it's a Y or a T, achieves the same effect. So I think that's kind of a silly thing to be using as a rationale. I apologize there. But really, I don't want Mr. Henderson to have to go and dig up the plumbing and change it so that the sewage line from the outbuilding is connected to the residents. That could be done, but it's going to have the same outcome, right? The same stuff goes into the same pipe at the same point. Okay. So I guess I feel very strongly sympathetic to Mr. Henderson and the situation we have. And this is one more point. And that is back to this wonderful rule, the point about the definition of an occupied unit, which was the primary rationale, I believe, for why Mr. Henderson was getting a second billing. An unoccupied unit means a unit that is not occupied but has accessibility to a sewer, plumbing fixtures located on it and currently receives a water bill. That unit separately does not receive its own separate water bill. They are combined. There is one water bill because that outbuilding is simply an extension of a single- family residence. I think that's all I have to say for right now. Thank you. ADAMS: Thank you, Dee. John Burns. BURNS: Yeah. I was just going to weigh in, and I don't disagree with what Rick and Dee are talking about in the assessment of the logic of it being a single dwelling. But I do think that our task for this specific case is to judge that designation that was made. So each time a designation is made in regards to a unit being an additional dwelling or not, there's a lot that you could 38