2018-10-24 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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Commissioner Gaffney said the mayor had reacted pretty negatively to the EMC’s report to the Charter Commission, and he wondered if anyone knew why. Director Kucharski said that in his opinion, the issue was more the form of the new responsibility than the substance. The substance has support. Water resource and water sustainability is okay, but taking a semi-independent organization and folding it in with the primary wastewater treatment groups would take two different amendments, and it would essentially do away with the EMC. The EMC exists to support DEM. The mayor is not against taking a look at a sustainable water group, but the manner in which it was suggested via a charter amendment did not seem to be the appropriate mechanism to address those issues. Chair Bennett said the EMC’s transmittal to the Charter Commission was not in the form of an amendment. It was basically ideas and concepts to be molded. If they were given more time to provide their submittal it could have been made clearer, but the chair of the Charter Commission was giving him a “hurry up.” He should have asked what the rush was, had he realized that it would not be going on the November ballot. However, the lesson has been learned. 5. NEW BUSINESS a. Presentation by Roy Takemoto, Executive Assistant to the Mayor, on the process of sewering an improvement district. Commissioner Gaffney said he had asked for this presentation because there are a number of community groups on the island that are anxious to move forward into sewering their communities but did not know the process to do so. It appears from the past that the process was started from the top, the county, and worked its way down. However, now there are communities that would like to become sewered, and they need to understand what steps to take. Mr. Takemoto explained that an improvement district is a financing tool that is usually used to retrofit an existing community with public improvements. If a sewer system is intended to be private, an improvement district would not work. It needs to be for public improvements that would benefit the residents who have to shoulder the cost. The cost of the improvements gets repaid over time, and the means of repayment is through an assessment. An assessment is similar to property tax—people will get an assessment bill from the Finance Department, usually quarterly. If they don’t pay, a lien will be placed on the property. Mr. Takemoto said there is a lot of benefit with the county serving as the collector and having lien power. In some types of financing, the community association shoulders the burden and becomes the collector. When the county can step in through an improvement district and serve as the collector, it makes it much easier for the community. There are three major steps to set up an improvement district.