2022 Report of the Cost of Government Commission

Home

an option available to the Commission. This decision should be written in the new proposed rules as an option for the Commissioners to decide, as their membership evolves over time. 3. Twice per year submission dates: Twice per year submission dates for Maintenance Fund Grants and the 2% Land Fund may help with the backlog and allow the groups who need support in these funds an opportunity to apply for this support and allow lands to be acquired more quickly to satisfy landowners. 4. Matching Funds: Seeking matching funds should be part of the job of the Commission and ideally in tandem with County of Hawaii Research and Development. Having PONC staff (2 personnel) would likely be very cost effective, and significantly increases the success of securing grants. 5. "Unwilling Sellers": Currently, the PONC rules allow properties with'unwilling sellers' to be listed. The goals of the PONC listings are to compile a list of properties that the public wants preserved. There is no mention of willing sellers in any of the legislation. Since the list remains over many years, and a property/easement is removed only if purchased, the current practice of listing properties with 'unwilling sellers' property has the advantage of time. Landowners' situations, goals or priorities change over time, which has allowed a number of properties to finally move into escrow. Under the new proposed PONC rules, only "properties with willing sellers" may be listed. This will likely create a much shorter list and result in far fewer properties being listed. Being on the PONC list, does not have any legal bearing on the landowner, other than the knowledge it has met the criteria as an important parcel/easement for future purchase. Because the 2% Land Fund competes for properties that can be sold quickly on the open market, the County could lose properties that are important to the public, especially with the single application submission period each year. Furthermore, there is a significantly greater chance a property of interest would get listed for sale after the annual submission period and go into escrow to another private buyer before ever being able to be submitted the following year. 6. Website updates: We were informed that the website used to have most of this information easily accessible, and our recommendation is that this would increase the public's ability to be engaged and informed on PONC history and current activities. For transparency, the following items should be readily available from the'Home' page of the PONC website: a. Financial documents i. Current and all prior years simplified income/expenses for land easements and related information ii. A separate page for the Maintenance Fund 21 2022 Cost of Govemment Commission —County of Hawai'i - Final Report