2007-07-06 TSUPERSTORES - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

HALSEY:Halsey, yes. Good afternoon, Chairman and Commissioners. My name is Bryan Halsey. Im the market manager. I oversee all the operations for our 8 stores in Wal-Mart here in Hawaii. As you know, Ive provided testimony against Resolution 21-07 at your Kona th meeting on May 24. Im here again today to testify against the alternative amendments as drafted by the Countys Planning Director. Its simply another way to limit competition on the Big Island and another way to accomplish the end result of Resolution 21-07, this time by creating a separate zoning district with the same square footage in SKU limitations. And I note that there are a lot of definitions for stockkeeping units, SKUs and everything else. That would definitely need to be clarified. Wal-Mart stands ready and willing and able to sit down with community leaders, County leaders to discuss community problems, concerns and find fair solutions that do not restrict free competition and unnecessary burden on the island families. Our goal at Wal-Mart is to be able to serve our communities with the best service and the best quality and selection at our every day low price. After all, thats what the residents of Hawaii deserve. And unlike the gentleman sitting next to me, he was speaking about my company, and he doesnt work for my company. Over 70 percent of the associates here in Hawaii, which were the fifth largest employer, are fulltime and theyre eligible for Kaiser or HMSA -. We have way more benefits than he listed. We are a good company. Our average pay rate for the State is $12.19 an hour, start rate at the store is $10.00 with experience and you can go way up. We have a lot of goodjobsandwedoalotofgoodforthecommunities.AndIllbegladtoansweranyquestions that you might have on that. As far as trip generation, there are a lot different definitions with that. We already have a lot of trips that go, obviously, into Hilo where most of the jobs are in Hilo. There are approximately 8,000 trips we have a day now at Wal-Mart; and a lot of those are stopping after or before work, during, and it would not increase or double that necessarily. Its just going to make it easier for them as far as logistically. If you limit it to one area of the island and youre not allowed to build development in other areas of the island, where is it going to be? Its going to be in Hilo. And were already here in Hilo and we want to do the right thing. And with that Id like to thank you for youre the opportunity to testify today. Thank you. WATANABE:Thank you. Any other questions for this testifier? Yes. YUEN:I have a question about full time. Do you define full time as 40 hours a week or some other level? HALSEY:We have full time as over 36 hours. Anybody that works over 20 hours a week obviously has opportunity to have HMSA or Kaiser. WATANABE:Thank you. Terrance. CROWLEY:Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, sorry, good afternoon. My name is Terrance Crowley, I go by Terry. I live at 227 East Palai Street. Im the store manager for the Hilo Wal-Mart. I testified before, but thank you for the opportunity to testify again against Resolution 21-07 and its alternative. As you may recall, I helped open the Hilo Store. I was an assistant manager there in the mid-1990s. Ive actually been Hawaii since the early 70s. My wife is a native Hawaiian. She was born and raised in Keaukaha. And we currently live on DHHL land in Panaewa. Ill be brief and to the point. 17 EXHIBIT B