MIN CHARTER 2018-09-14 (2018-2020)

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -3 September 14, 2018 as we talked about with the Office of Aging and we did with Civil Defense as well, I asked that they be included because they are major organizations, do major things within the County, and I wanted us to have the opportunity to hear from their leaders about their views of the Charter and where they may or may not fit in the Charter. So, welcome. Thanks for the trip over and the floor is yours. (Note: At this time, Office of Housing and Community Development Housing Administrator Neil Gyotoku came forward to address the members of the Commission. Mr. Gyotoku presented a PowerPoint presentation to the Commission. See Charter Communication No. 4.2) MR. GYOTOKU: My name is Neil Gyotoku. I am the Housing Administrator. As Dr. Alameda said, we are not in the Charter. I believe we were created in 1976 under Megumi Kon in Mayor Matayoshi's Administration. Although we are not in the Charter, we do handle quite a substantial amount of federal funds each year. This year we bringing in 30 million dollars of federal funds. I had a presentation but I don't know where it is. We are located in three different locations, 50 Wailuku Drive in Hilo, 1990 Kinoole Street in Hilo, and of course, West Hawaii Civic Center here. I have 51 full-time funded positions. CHR. ADAMS: Here we go. So in your green folders you all have a copy of the presentation if that's something that you'd like to be able to take notes on of any kind. Please continue. Thank you. MR. GYOTOKU: Okay. Yeah, on page four it shows that we have 51 full-time positions and none of those positions are civil service. They all are exempt positions. What that means is that they do not enjoy the security of civil service. And, a lot of times in the past and in present, we are not really following a lot of the procedures that is outlined in the County, especially like Human Resources and recruiting for filling vacancies and such like that. We do have a policy but it doesn't follow what the Human Services policies are. Yeah. On page five, it shows a breakdown of the federal grant programs and housing project revenues. Housing Choice Vouchers is what they used to call Section 8 Rental Assistance. We have 20 million dollars of housing assistance coming into the County each year. We assist about 2,005 families throughout the island. We also have the Ulu Wini Housing Project here on Hina Lani. It's 92 low- income affordable housing units. We also handle the Hale Kikaha Housing Project which is your homeless shelter complex down here in the industrial area in Kailua-Kona. We also manage and own Kulaimano Elderly Housing in Page 21