2018-10-24 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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3. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS Jerome Warren: Mr. Warren testified first regarding items 4A and 4B in the Wastewater Division portion of the Director’s Informational Report. Regarding Kaū sewer ʻ upgrades, an attorney for the county was quoted in Tuesday’s newspaper as saying there will be future county meetings and that a Nāālehu resident can attend to “vent her spleen.” ʻ The county attorney made a typical cavalier, bureaucratic statement by saying that, and the statement marginalized all public participants. Last Monday he attended a gathering of concerned citizens in Pāhala. About 20 people who were concerned about the sewer upgrades showed up at the county park clubhouse. There were three people with legal expertise and courtroom experience, and he heard some legitimate complaints and legal remedies. He is glad that people with backgrounds in law have become involved with the Kaū sʻewer upgrades, as his efforts with the EMC have been futile. His only hope is that the newer commissioners will be concerned about the homeowners. The project needs an audit and investigation. The county’s public meetings, such as the ones he attended in Pāhala, are structured in a top-down format. There are no statements from the public at the beginning. Instead they get a sales pitch that drones on and on, and then they can ask questions and get condescending answers. Anybody who doesn’t like the answer and talks back is labeled and put into the spleen-venting category. He is forced to be bombastic in order to get his points across. They are being forced to demonize themselves. He has been paying property tax here for over 40 years, has been a permanent resident and registered voter for 28 years, and has owned his plantation house for 21 years. However, he is still a newcomer compared to most homeowners in Pāhala and Nāālehu. Although he was a sugar worker ʻ and ILWU officer, he is still a malihini. The county does not grasp the fact that he is footing the bill. There will be one commissioner and one judge, hopefully, who will see this problem from a citizen’s perspective. It is axiomatic that local government pays more attention to new developers than to life-long residents. His hope is that this will change someday. Mr. Warren stated that for the record, he was sitting here and listened to commissioners talk business before the meeting started. He knows they have been chided for that before, but they still do it. Terri Napeahi: Ms. Napeahi said she wanted to make the EMC aware of a few things that the Pāhala community is concerned about, and she informed them there was a request for an extension to the comment period for the draft environmental assessment for the proposed Pāhala Wastewater Treatment Plant. She got the request in yesterday with a list of items of concern to be looked into. One item was disclosure to the community. The community and families that live there do not approve of the proposed site, and they have a recommendation on what they believe would be a better site. With the extension, the community would like to comment and give their manaʻo. They have met a couple of times and the kupuna know the place better, live there, and realize the impacts the facility would have. She is hopeful the EMC will support the request for extension. The community is not