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the Planning Commission especially has such a broad range of issues that come before all of you, as
<br />you well know, and that requires a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of effort. So I want to say thank
<br />you to all of you for the work you do. And to our Planning Department staff, thanks, you guys, for
<br />all the support you provide to the Commission, really appreciate it.
<br />
<br />I’m here on behalf of a few recommendations that are before you, requesting funds from the
<br />Geothermal Asset Fund. And just for a real brief background, you know, myself, as well as our
<br />administration, remain advocates for cheap, clean, but especially safe renewable energy. And as
<br />proponents of that, you know, we support geothermal development, but good, clean, safe
<br />geothermal development. And a lot of questions and concerns have been raised in the community
<br />whether or not geothermal development is safe and has any adverse impact. And so towards that
<br />end, we have worked with – is he a doctor? Is Peter Adler a doctor? Ph.D.? So Dr. Peter Adler,
<br />one of the most renowned, respected, neutral third parties we could find, was tasked with coming in
<br />and bringing members of our community to come and talk, not to advocate a specific viewpoint, not
<br />to get to a specific place; but when I asked him, “Hey, Peter, what is your goal here?” and it was
<br />interesting and it was the first time I heard the term, but he said his goal was to bring diverse
<br />viewpoints together to try to reach, attempt to reach, the highest level of consensus and then remain
<br />there. It wasn’t trying to get us, get our pro or against position or establish, but really the highest
<br />level of consensus. And toward that end, I know we have some members of the Geothermal Public
<br />Health Assessment Study Group who are here. And they did an amazing terrific job. I want to
<br />thank every one of them, also who volunteered their time. Our conservative estimate would be that
<br />this group volunteered more than 1,500 of their hours over a nine-month period, meetings, public
<br />consultations, teleconferences, report drafting. And so I want to thank Dr. Adler and I want to
<br />thank the community members. I know I see some of them here. If you could just raise your hand
<br />and say aloha. And I know some of them will be testifying before all of you with regards to
<br />recommendations, and I’m not sure of their exact position on it. But we have LaRee Ann Hiltner –
<br />aloha, LaRee – Bob Petricci, René Siracusa, Jeff Sutton – Jeff, aloha – and Thomas Travis. Did I
<br />miss any members who are here, who have been here? And, you know, all of them, I met them, I
<br />think, a couple of months ago for the first time together as a group, and got their bios, and just in a
<br />really great cross-section of people who brought their personal experience and expertise to the table.
<br />And all we were trying to do was, what were the questions that were raised and how can we best
<br />find answers to those questions. And that was the purpose, because at the end of the day, as the
<br />chief executive, as the mayor, regardless of the positions we advocate or the issues before us, first
<br />and foremost, paramount, is public health and safety. I want to really thank also our Civil Defense
<br />administrator, who is here, Darryl Oliveira, who’s been just a great facilitative leader. First of all, I
<br />go sleep at night, my family go sleep at night, because of the wonderful leadership that Darryl
<br />provides. And before right in front of him is John Drummond – John, raise your hand – John also is
<br />one of those who work at Civil Defense, and they are up there all day all night and keep us all safe.
<br />So mahalo, you guys. And a couple of people from staff who help facilitate this: I know Jeff, thank
<br />you very much for facilitating that; I’ve got Clarysse who will also be working with the Study
<br />Group going forward.
<br />
<br />And so, what were some of the questions, and what were some of the proposals to get answers to
<br />those questions? So we are before you very specifically to ask for your support on a couple of
<br />things, and I’ll leave it to the really smart people I work with to answer specific questions. But I’ll
<br />be open to questions as well. But one is $180,000 for the air quality monitoring equipment
<br />purchases. Myself and Chief Oliveira went to the Department of Health, Environmental Quality
<br />Control Division, and talked to them about how can we provide more support. And we didn’t want
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