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Salary Commission
<br />July 31, 2024
<br />MS. MORRISON: So, as I mentioned, I'm the Interim Administrator for our new Office of
<br />Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience. This office was created about a year ago and I
<br />came on board February of this year.
<br />The office really was established to breakdown silos and streamline the collaboration that needs
<br />to happen across the County agencies—looking at policies and programs—and really the County
<br />being able to take a leadership role when it comes to sustainability, climate change, equity, and
<br />resilience.
<br />There are a number of initiatives that this aligns with just looking at, of course, how we do a
<br />better job as a County, ourselves, in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, using renewable
<br />energy sourcesreally, looking at our island's very fragile biodiversity and how we can protect
<br />that, which helps again (inaudible) to mitigate some of those issues.
<br />Looking at resilience for our County infrastructure, especially when it comes to things like sea
<br />level rise. We have some very vulnerable County aspects, and so looking across those. And,
<br />again, this office being one that can take a leadership role in those spaces.
<br />And, finally, just ensuring that there's equitable implementation and making sure that we're
<br />consulting with our communities and those that have been, historically, marginalized—are
<br />brought into the conversation.
<br />Our office has done a little bit of strategic planning. Part of this is, really, to help describe the
<br />work that's being done but also, of course, to help prioritize and make decisions. And so, these
<br />missions and values that I'm going to offer are, sort of, draft—but that's what we've been using
<br />as our guideline.
<br />The graphic here that you'll see, the middle of that graphic shows connect, coordinate, and
<br />capacity. And that's really the mission our office within that inner circle. And the mission is to
<br />striving to lead the County by connecting, coordinating, and building capacity in our collective
<br />effort to sustain the health of our `aina and island community.
<br />And then, the outside of that graphic is really the values that we have inherent within our team to
<br />really, again, help guide that decision-making and priorities. And so, you'll see those, where it's
<br />in the color wheel of trust, place -based, justice -minded, learning, community, gratitude,
<br />collaboration, and optimism. And so, again, this is how we do the work and these are the values
<br />that we bring to the discussions and the decisions that we're making as an office.
<br />I want to just share the organizational chart, just to give some context about, sort of, how we
<br />started and where we're going. And so, as Council Member Kimball had mentioned, at the
<br />beginning of this office, there were positions that were already established and budgeted. And
<br />so, since coming in I actually come in—came in right at budget time—and so, had the
<br />opportunity to, sort of, think about what else we might need. And then, of course, then learning
<br />and growing since that time.
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