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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2020-07-01 2018-2020 Hawaii County Council 451h Session Special Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii July 1, 2020 INVOCATION: No invocation was given. Announcement: At this time, Ms. Kierkiewicz and Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder rose to commemorate two individuals who recently passed: Ms. Ren6 Siracusa, Executive Director of Malama O Puna; and Mr. John Kekahuna, Co-Founder of Maku`u Farmer's Market. Both were honored for long-time dedication and achievements within their communities. CALL TO The special meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at ORDER: 9:11 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Chair Ms. Karen Eoff, Vice Chair(via videoconference from Kona) Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member (via videoconference from Kona) Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Valerie T. Poindexter, Member(via videoconference from Kona) Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (via videoconference from Kona) PLEDGE OF The Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of Allegiance. ALLEGIANCE: (At this time, Ms. Lee Loy led the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance.) STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Statements FROM THE from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak to Bill 176 (Comm. 985) and came forward when called by the Chair: Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 Toby S. Hazel: In support. (See Comm. 985.2) Cory Harden: Comment. Sally Ancheta: In support. (representing Hawaii Public Health Institute) Joyce A. Folena: In support. Gregory T. Smith: In support. Wendy S. Botelho: In support. (representing Island of Hawaii YMCA) Ashley Hanohano: In support. (representing Island of (See Comm. 985.4) Hawaii YMCA) Tam Hunt: In support. (representing Think B.I.G. (Big Island Green)) Heather Kimball: Comment. (representing Zonta Club of Hilo) Irene Carpenter: Comment. (representing Hamakua Kohala Health Center) Susanne Garfield: Comment. BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Bills for ORDINANCES Ordinances (First Reading). (FIRST READING): Page 2 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 Bill 176: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 20-45, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2021 Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants —Coronavirus Relief—CARES Act account($68,455,201); and appropriates the same to the Coronavirus Relief— CARES Act account to cover unanticipated expenditures incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reference: Comm. 985 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) Waived: FC (Note: Comm. 985.1, from Finance Director Deanna Sako dated June 30, 2020, transmitting a PowerPoint presentation of the proposed expenditure plan for $80 million in coronavirus relief funds, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 176 on first reading. Seconded by Ms. Villegas. CHR. CHUNG: We have Deanna Sako here. Do you want to make a presentation first? Okay, go ahead. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako and Finance Deputy Director Steven Hunt came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SAKO: I'm just going to open it up and then I'll let Steve walk us through the presentation. But thank you so much for having this special Council meeting. We really appreciate it. We really want to get the money out to the people and on the streets, and we did finally receive the money, or half of it, so we're happy about that. So, Steve will kind of walk through the plan and then we have additional people to answer any questions you might have. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, hold on. Ms. Lee Loy has one question for you before you MS. LEE LOY: Just one and you touched on it. Because, we only got half but our bill says 68. MS. SAKO: Oh, sorry, I meant to start with that,yes. So, the State is giving us $80,009,617. We appropriated part of it a few weeks ago, and this is the remainder to get up to the 80. But we still have only received half,just to clarify. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks for clarifying that. Chair, I yield. Page 3 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 CHR. CHUNG: Thank you. Steve, go ahead. (Note: At this time, Finance Deputy Director Steven Hunt gave a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Council. For viewing of the subject presentation, see the DVD copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is made a part of the record; see Comm. 985.1) CHR. CHUNG: Thank you very much, Steve. That was a very clear presentation. MR. HUNT: Thank you, Chair. CHR. CHUNG: And before I call on my colleagues, I wanted to make a comment that when you guys came up with the spending plan—and you guys didn't have too much time to do that—we got good reviews from the Legislature. Donovan Dela Cruz, in particular, stated that he was very satisfied with what was presented to his Ways and Means Committee. So, anyway, anyone wants to talk about this? Everything's pretty straightforward, and this is going to be so fluid. I know each and every one of us will be talking with the Administration and trying to give different ideas. But for now, Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair, and thanks, Deanna and Steve, for coming before us. And I agree this is concise, detailed, but I also know that there's a lot of details that's probably a little bit fluid as we work through this. Is that a fair statement? MR. HUNT: Yes. We really want to provide sort of the general areas where we intend to spend the monies, but provide enough flexibility so that we don't have to go before the State to amend or even come back to this body because it may delay. So, that gives us an opportunity to work together towards refining a little bit further but not having to revisit the overall plan. MR. RICHARDS: I like that because that gives you enough latitude to make decisions rather than having to be hung up. So, I appreciate that. There's a couple of questions that I have. One of them has to do with the $6 million for the approval of Hapuna Beach probably Kua Bay's in there the ambulances. And we know that was funding that was cut from the State, and I believe the Mayor said we're going to fund it and then this is where some of the funding's coming from. I know this runs to the end of the calendar year, and looking in this paperwork, it said, I think, we have to have this expended by the end of November, essentially, right. So, that's another six months open. And reality is it's not the six months; it's more like five months. So, how are we going to manage that? Page 4 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MS. SAKO: So, we've been working closely with Fire. There're several costs that they're currently doing that can be charged to this money, CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security)Act. So, their goal is to hit that target and charge that much money that is in their budget to CARES Act before December 30''. So, that will free up the funds to carry them all the way through June 30'h for the entire program. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, so, theoretically, supplanting to a certain degree but not really MS. SAKO: We do not use that word ever when talking about Federal grants. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. We know "leverage." MS. SAKO: "Leverage" is a much better word. Yes. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, all right. Because again, the concern is having that protection on our beaches. This has come from MS. SAKO: And we know it's very important. We're still on the final budget. I don't think it's been passed by the Legislature yet. They're still working on getting us part of that money. We'll be grateful for whatever amount of it we can get, but we're prepared to cover it should we not get it. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, so, commitment from the Administration. And I don't think this body would have any trouble working with you to try and find that funding because it's that important, I think, especially the ambulances down in Paradise Park side. MS. SAKO: Yeah, the Mayor has been very clear with the Fire Chief that we will cover all of these costs, as needed. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, so that's the first thing. Second thing: Deanna, you and I have had this conversation concerning our unemployment rate. Those are numbers that we struggle to get on a countywide basis. From what you can gather, we've had numbers kicked around statewide from 20 up to almost 40 percent, and I've seen nothing that I think is reliable. Do you have something that you are working on right now? And again, it's going to be a guesstimate almost when MS. SAKO: I'll just say, I mean, as we've said before, we think it's very high. We think some people are leaving the job market because now is a good time to retire. Or some people who may be seniors may decide this is just a good time to bow out of this small business. So, some people are consciously making that Page 5 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 decision. But as we start to work on some of the grant programs and different programs that Steve talked about, we're going to become more aware of who's really in need. In addition, Housing has the job training center or the work center; that they'll start to get a better feel too as people come in for assistance with their resume or finding additional job training and different things. Then, they'll have a better idea of the numbers because there is no good number right now. MR. HUNT: (Inaudible.) MS. SAKO: Yeah, and so, we've been told 20 percent on our island. I think it's probably higher than that. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, I'd have to agree; I think it's substantially higher than that. And the reason I pose the question is if they're going to tie any funding to unemployment rates—not that I would want a higher unemployment rate but if there's funding coming forward, I would surely want that. And then another thing, both either you, Deanna, or Steve, the GE (General Excise) collections, the half percent that the County collects. I assume that goes to the State and then we get a check back from the State once a month, once a quarter? What is that? MS. SAKO: It's quarterly and we—April 30'h we got our check for our collections through the month of February. So, whatever was collected by the retailers in February is what we got on April 30''. So, we won't get our next one until July 31" and then that will cover through the month of May. We have been monitoring, but we don't have a lot of good data yet. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, and that was my question. It wasn't so much the check as the data because that will reflect on how our economy's doing. MS. SAKO: They post monthly, but it's quite a bit delay. Steve actually monitors that every day. MR. HUNT: I checked this morning; still no postings yet for—we're hoping to get the March data at least. We haven't gotten the March data, so—and that's kind of the tail end. I mean, really what we want to see is the April data because that will be the real indicator of where we are. MR. RICHARDS: Right. Okay, so, those are my questions, Chair. I yield. Could I ask you a favor? When you get that March data and then April, I'd like to see it or share it with the Council because that will be indicative of our overall GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for the County, and that's where I'm holding my breath right now. So, thanks, Chair, I yield. Page 6 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Steve and Deanna, for being here. And, Steve, thank you for working with me, and I really love the shared vernacular that's standing up these things, the backstops. So, I did want to ask just three questions. It focuses around kind of the stopgap measures because you mentioned that the Governor can terminate the agreement at any time. We're trying to literally flush the community with money rather quickly, and so, what kind of safeguards are we standing up? Because, I'm concerned that because there's a need to spend this money so quickly but we're not getting the results that we want, like at what point are we kind of reaching out to them and saying, "You guys aren't doing it quick enough, and so, we want to shift the monies into other areas that are being successful"? Steve, can you explain that a little bit? MR. HUNT: Yeah, I can speak to that. So, because this does fall under the 2 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) 200, we realize we're going to have to do an RFP (Request for Proposals) for this. And in most RFPs, you're selecting one vendor. In this case, we realize one vendor will not be able to get out the entire funds. So, there'll be multiple vendors that will be used, whether they're credit unions, financial institutions, nonprofits, whoever is selected on that ranking and criteria. And likely the one that scores the highest will have the most capacity and get most of the funding. As part of the contract that will accompany that RFP when we actually get to the contracting stage, we will have provisions in there to say, "You're going to provide us weekly reports." If they are not meeting their spend down, we may then cancel the contract,pull the funds, and reallocate to other vendors that are doing better. MS. LEE LOY: We have built into our contracts some type of benchmarks that they need to meet. Is that going to be able to be shared with the Council so that we could actually kind of—not that we would change some of this work but just be aware? MS. SAKO: I think we're happy to share information, but keep in mind things are going to be changing so rapidly. And because we're trying to spend it by December 30'', I think we're happy to share whatever we have but it may not be instantaneous. MR. HUNT: And we will also have the monthly spending reports that we have to provide to the State Budget and Finance that we will obviously share with this body as well. Page 7 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MS. LEE LOY: Perfect. I had another question regarding all of the different assets that are being purchased or potentially being purchased not only for us as far as the County but other community assistance. So, some of the COWS, which is our Cellular on Wheels, what happens to that asset? Does that become ours? Does that become the nonprofit's? Go ahead. MS. SAKO: I was going to say that anything we purchase will become ours. Like Cellular on Wheels or things like that, that would probably be a County purchase, not necessarily RFP to a nonprofit. Any type of those types of things, we do want to try and end up with that ourselves rather than some of the nonprofits. But I just specifically unlike Cellular on Wheels type things. MR. HUNT: And again, we don't have too many capital projects, but those are obviously going to be ours, whatever asset remains. The only caveat being is if we sell that prior to December 30, whatever proceeds go back to the Feds. So, we obviously wouldn't want to be selling any of that. MS. LEE LOY: And then just for clarity purposes, I know you started off with it right up front. I think we declared an emergency on March 4th and then the CARES Act was passed on March 27. So, we are actually taking a good hard lookback period for even our nonprofits or our business community that really began to feel the effects of that decision making. So, as far back as March 27th, we could reimburse a nonprofit or—okay, why don't you ? MR. HUNT: Sure. So, actually, the guidance is we can go back to March 1st And for the support, the grants we're looking at giving to businesses, we are looking at reimburse based. So, if they provide receipts of things that they have done to respond to COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019)they put in plexiglass and they've hired additional staff to monitor doors and they've had all these supplies, PPE(Personal Protective Equipment), those kinds of things that we would actually be able to reimburse that. And if they continue to buy, they could come back, essentially, for additional monies at that point too. So, if they were qualified up to a certain amount but didn't have their full receipts, we could make a program where they could actually provide what they have; we could give them, on a reimbursement basis, those funds and then they could draw down again once they provide additional receipts that are being spent for those actions towards COVID-19. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks for that clarification. I actually had one last question because I was talking to members of our Legislature yesterday, and this is actually around the 600 million that the State provided as it relates to screening and testing at our airports. My understanding is they put in 18 million that would begin from January 1st through June till the end of the fiscal, but they were looking at the smaller counties that didn't get theirs to provide 5 million and it would be shared Page 8 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 between us, Maui County, and Kauai. So, Hawaii County would be looking at 1.5 million to take care of our screening and testing at the airports. I'm looking at Deanna because I know she has some family travel. I just want to know if that's being built into this somehow and how we're addressing that if the State is going to be relying on us to provide that screening from now till December until their portion kicks in. MS. SAKO: Well, I can tell you Civil Defense is ready to take on any task given to them. And so, they actually have taken the lead on developing some of the new screening programs and everything. So, if we need to, we will, and that's really why that 10 million was built in there, because we don't know what else the State's going to pass down to us. And that's true between now and December. Already, we've had some departments come to us to say, "Can you help us cover our costs till June 30''," last month because they were out of funding. So, we're very aware of that and we want to work together, but we want to also make sure that the process is adequate. Like, we don't want to just turn over money. We want to take care of that screening and have our people take care of that. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Again, Steve, thank you for letting me kind of rumble with you on this, leading up to today. I really appreciated the input. Yeah, and if you guys need any help really communicating with our Legislature or any Intel they might be having there to share back, please reach out to me. I know Ashley also does stay very close in touch with our delegation. So, thank you, both of you. Chair, I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Steve, Deanna, Diane, I know Sharon Hirota's listening in too. I just first want to mahalo you guys for working so hard since the beginning of this pandemic. There's really been no break for this Administration. Lava recovery, now COVID-19. And so, I have a lot of appreciation for you and your staff that work really hard to put this together. And there are a lot of folks that reached out really worried, concerned about what our County's plan was for the pandemic. They were concerned about more bureaucracy being created, but I really feel that you've done a fine job figuring out how you were going to put as many dollars into the community so that it can work for our community. So, thank you for that. And I also want to acknowledge and highlight that our COVID-19 website is pretty darn good. I really appreciate the data mapping and the informational dashboard, and I hope that some of this money can be leveraged to even make that more accessible to folks and that we can have more information out into our community. Because, many of our decisions with our County and the State's competing for Federal dollars, it's going to be coming down to how well we kind of keep data around, how we support our community. Page 9 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 I have a few questions. I was hoping that Diane could maybe kind of talk a little bit about the business grants to community. I'm wondering if, as part of that, there's going to be any mentoring or business counseling. And I bring this up because I know the Omidyar Fellows Hawaii executive leadership hui kind of reached out to the County to say, "Hey, we're here." They are a wealth of information and I believe can help entrepreneurs here pivot to do business in this COVID (coronavirus disease) landscape. (Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Diane Ley came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. LEY: Diane Ley, Director for the Department of Research and Development. While we anticipate that the business needs and individual needs are going to be greater than what the CARES Act can cover, we've already initiated both ongoing conversations reaching out to be collaborative with entities that have resources that are willing to step up either pro bono or with cash to purchase services from professionals. So, we are doing that. Omidyar Fellows is one of the entities. We've also put some County resources to supporting business counseling through the County emergency loan program that we've got ongoing now through Hawaiian Community Assets and Hawaii Community Lending. So, those are the types of initiatives that we have existing and then we alsoI know there's also some in our request for proposals for this current fiscal year for the department to continue to support business counseling services. So, that's what initially we'll be targeting. I think as we ramp up and we see there's just so many unknowns for all of us to be able to identify this is how we're going to fix the economy or we're going to get people back to work. There're so many unknowns, so we have to go forward and try. And then as initiatives call less, I think we can find resources, whether they're County resources, Federal resources, as well as the nonprofit sector. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That's huge. Thanks, Diane. I also wanted to highlight the work that we did to standup the Hawaii County Emergency Resilience Loan Program with Hawaiian Community Assets. And so, I appreciate getting the snapshot of data from Jeff Gilbreath. But I just want to highlight for everyone here and listening in that I thought to be a very interesting statistic, especially given the fact that Council Member Poindexter and I are going to be introducing a resolution next week to urge and support the Administration to adopt a gendered lens when they take a look at how we kind of positioned some of these recovery dollars. But the statistic that I'm reading here is 60 percent of all the applicants for the resilience loan program are women; 67 percent of the approved borrowers were women. So, it just kind of highlights just how impacted women in particular are as a result of this pandemic. And so, it's just something I wanted to highlight. Page 10 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 Okay, who is the best person to answer questions around the mechanics of housing? Rent assistance, mortgage, utilities? MS. LEY: Sharon Hirota would be the best, but— MS. utMS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, she's not here. I mean, I like the fact that there is a lot of attention being put around this because without a house, we can't tell people to stay home. Right, yeah. They have no home to stay in. So, we want to make sure we are keeping people at home so that they can shelter in place and access a lot of the community assistance programming that you have architected in this plan. So, it's fine; I'll follow up with Sharon later. We heard a couple of testifiers today from YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) and the dv (domestic violence) coalition kind of talk about programming support for the dv shelter, as well as there's the youth camp at YMCA as well as family visitation center. So, I'm just curious if those programs that were highlighted by folks in the community can access some of the kokua via CARES Act funding. MR. HUNT: I think that would certainly be eligible under the community assistance portion, but there will also be competition for that. So, the amounts that they requested, we can't guarantee 800,000 and 185 without sort of viewing what all the requests are going to be and sort of ranking the services. But certainly ones addressing the community and family resilience under the domestic violence portion, and one is under the childcare program that they're supporting. We are supportive of trying to help but under the guise of making sure that they're competing in a process and applying for it. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Sure. That's great. Steve, how quickly can folks in the community kind of anticipate funding coming their way? I know there's an RFP process. MR. HUNT: We're hoping to have the RFP in the next week or so and then we're looking at a very short—about a week turn time for the RFP and then scoring. So, kind of projecting out, I would say, towards the end of July-early August to actually start getting funding to these awardees of the RFP, and then the application process following. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And then,just a handful of months for those organizations to spend down all that money. Okay. I just I want to be clear about the time constraints we're under. MR. HUNT: As fast as possible. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes. Page 11 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MR. HUNT: And we are working not to be presumptive that you would pass all of this, but we are working on RFPs in advance of this meeting, so, yeah. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Sure. Yes, thank you. Let's see. A number of programs to support community, kupuna were included here. And so, I'm just curious around where this programming is happening. Are we leveraging our community facilities? Hi, Sharon. Maybe Sharon's the best person for this question. I'm just curious if we're going to be leveraging our County assets. We have a number of wonderful community facilities around the island. And so, I see it as an opportunity to build resilience in neighborhoods leveraging County spaces. So, maybe, Sharon, you can kind of share a little bit about that. (Note: At this time, Executive Assistant Sharon Hirota, Office of the Mayor, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. HIROTA: Sharon Hirota, Executive Assistant, Mayor's Office. So, thank you for having me. I was watching from my office and heard my name. So, can you repeat your question, sorry, because I was halfway MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Oh, no, you're fine. I'm curious about building up community and family resilience. And a lot of the excellent programming that has been suggested here, where exactly are we going to be delivering this if there is going to be face-to-face interaction or if it's going to be done digitally? And if there are places where we're going to have the COW (Cellular on Wheels), for instance, are folks going to be coming to places like a County community facility in order to access programs and services? MS. HIROTA: So, I think it's a combination of both, using existing facilities that are ready and helping them build capacity within. There's so much good work going on in the community, as we've gone through multiple disasters in the last few years, that the community is really resilient in terms of taking care of their own community. So, what we want to do is to help build support, build their own skills. So, it could be a combination. It could be existing neighborhoods that already have existing programs, could be new. There have been a lot of conversations in regard to when you connect telehealth and access to education and the students or programs that don't have access. So, how do we help them by purchasing these COWS? Sometimes, it's just a matter of even looking at some of our public housing facilities and the number of students that are in there. So, can we put a COW in the parking lot and then coordinate with the DOE(Department of Education) to have Zoom classes while the COW is there, right? So, doing a combination of both. Page 12 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 Of course, we're looking for the nonprofits and the organizations to tell us what will work for their community because every one will be different. So, trying to keep it general and then receive their responses. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great. That's really helpful. Has DOE reached out to you or the County at all to kind of talk story about their blended learning programming? I just ask that because a number of Puna's schoolteachers reached out to me last week, so we had a conference call about what that could look like for them. And one of the things that we had talked about was if the kids needed to be in the classroom for social distancing purposes only two to three days a week, where would they go on the off days? If we are trying to restart our economy, we need parents working. But if kids are having to go to school only a couple of days a week and stay home, that doesn't do anybody any service. And in my mind, it's great for kids to have structure, especially when they're young, and to be out of the house Monday through Friday learning. And so, I just see this as a huge opportunity as we are on a call to push for more `aina aloha-type education where kids are out at the community centers doing things outdoor. We want to be food resilient? Let's teach our kids how to grow food, right. And these are all these different life skills that we could be teaching our kids outside of the classroom and really building up that community resiliency. So,just curious about interactions with DOE. MS. HIROTA: So, I know that Maurice Messina from our office has been working directly with the Administration of the DOE. My conversations in regard to community and family resilience have been more with the nonprofits who want to step up and provide those opportunities for the children. So, if they go to a modified AB schedule, so you'd go to school certain days and only half the school. What happens to those students? So, there are some community groups and nonprofits who want to create a hub and provide opportunities for learning on those days that they are not scheduled to be at a DOE classroom. But how do we provide other classso, that's part of this community assistance, is to support those types of activities. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Thanks for honing in on that. I mean, I think it's so important. You hit the nail on the head, Sharon. Community knows what it needs, right. Let's take this money, put it into their hands so that they can take care of their folks. Good job, you guys. I mean, I'm really impressed with the broad range of products. There's food assistance. There's help for keiki, kupuna, working families, households. I just really like how this plan is not just providing immediate relief but it's setting the stage for recovery. So, thank you. Chair, I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Thank you. Let's go to Kona. Who wants to speak first? Page 13 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MS. POINDEXTER: Hi, this is Val. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, go ahead, Val. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. On the "Administrative Costs,"the $8,808,975. The Commission on the Status of Women, during the budget time, that was cut to zero then we brought it back up to 10,000. And that probably will still not be enough with the work that they have ahead of them because of COVID. Where would their funding fall under this expenditure category? MR. HUNT: Most likely, that would fall under the community assistance portion. MS. POINDEXTER: But I thought the community assistance portion you said was a competitive expenditure? They should not be competing for funds. MS. SAKO: No, I didn't mean for them to compete, but that area is what would kind of go towards the programs they would probably be supporting. But there is funding built into the budget. So, if they need more than their 10,000, we can find it for them. But yes, they wouldn't have to be competing, but I think a lot of their programs kind of fall under that category. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, because I think they work a lot with community organizations and a lot with schools and the students in schools. So, I definitely want to make sure that some of the CARES funding is carved out for them. The other thing that would MS. SAKO: They are going to have to present a plan, though. MS. POINDEXTER: Yes, and that's great because they would have presented a plan already. But they've been having problems with IT (Information Technology) and not being able to have public meetings through Zoom because that was—it was cut off from all of us, using Zoom on any County computer. MS. SAKO: I understand. MS. POINDEXTER: So, they were struggling. They were wanting to meet, desperately wanting to meet, to address this specifically. So, was unable to because of our IT problems. So, I'm hoping, too, that this CARES money will take care of that because we're all now having to do community meetings via Zoom, or now Webex because I cannot use our County computer with Zoom. So, I'm trying to use my personal computer and paying money out of my own personal money to have my community meeting. So, how we go forward with public meetings and how we deliver services is a new animal now, and it's more costly. It's safe but it's costly. Page 14 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 I don't know if I saw any of that money eligibility stuff going towardsI see increasing the broadband but not necessarily equipment and things that IT needs to service our departments better. Was that in here? Or am I missing an area? I don't know where I'm looking MS. SAKO: It's on page 17. MS. POINDEXTER: Okay. MS. SAKO: So, yeah, we did there's definitely money for servers, laptops, and all of that. I don't know if they'll ever get past the Zoom barrier. I don't know what it would take for Jules to kind of tackle that,but Webex has been made available to each of the departments. So, that would facilitate the meetings. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, and I think we really need to prioritize that because that has had an impact on that commission, I know, and I'm sure other commissions as well. I mean, I've received emails complaining that some people couldn't attend some meetings because it was limited. So, the public was cut off on that. I'd love to see more public input, and that takes the technology to do that. So, helping IT department get ahead of the game would be very important. So, thank you for that. I yield, Chair. Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Anyone else? MS. VILLEGAS: Yes,please. CHR. CHUNG: Rebecca, go ahead. MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha, Deanna. Thanks for being here today. Thank you, Steve, for all your hard work on this process, and Diane and Sharon and everybody that's really buckled down and jumped in, leaned in and just done really great work. When you're trying to nail Jell-O to a wall is what it kind of seems like right now. I have a quick question, and I wanted to ask Riley. We have Riley here, and I wanted to ask him about—well, first off, I'd love to get a better definition not only for myself but for the community and those watching about what a COW is—and not the one that says "moo." Just so that everybody's on the same page on what this technology actually incorporates and what it provides for community. Riley, can you give kind of that, not only about the technology but also about the broader spectrum of services that can be utilized through a technology like this? (Note: At this time, Research and Development Deputy Director Riley Saito came forward to address the members of the Council.) Page 15 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MR. SAITO: Yeah, so, this approach to reaching out and communicating was really brought up where there's schools shutting down, and we have students that have not been in contact with the schools at all because of the lack of signals, lack of equipment and access. MS. VILLEGAS: I don't think they can see you. You've got to come. I'll trade spots with you. You're it. MR. SAITO: So, with thea lot of the—safety-wise is to stay at home and learn at home and work at home and all that. But really, what that provided was a digital gap. So, anything where the solution is online with this island and its topography, it's very challenging. And so, Wifi on Wheels actually started on Oahu with the educators, teachers reaching out to HawaiiKidsCAN, a nonprofit. And so, that started the Wifi on Wheels where the concept was to put in a cell receiver that would transmit Wi-Fi signal. So, it's two different technologies. There's cell and Wi-Fi. So, the cell signal would be captured and transmitted in Wi-Fi format in, say, a housing area. And we've had a couple of calls with HawaiiKidsCAN, along with six different schools on this island. HawaiiKidsCAN reached out to the schools that they knew about that were challenged with signal. An example is with Kahakai school. They pretty much lost the ability to teach 200 students in the elementary school. And so, their ask was a vehicle. We have a nonprofit that stepped up, and they're working on an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) to provide the vehicle. And so, they're going to stand that up for August 4h so students will be able to learn. Taking that concept and moving it further to encompass the rest of the island, we're looking at the Cell on Wheels; would then be able to go into spots where signals are a challenge. It will boost the cell signal, which would then allow the Wi-Fi on Wheels at community centers, at food banks in the neighborhoods and parks where the students can actually receive distance learning and telehealth can occur. And so, that is what we want to stand up. And following through to build on that is to allow social services to be able to be provided through tablets for where there's SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) applications. We're finding a lot of people who are never been unemployed and in poverty or close to poverty and they're unaware of SNAP, but they're standing in line for food during the food handout. So, this would allow them to have access to that. We could have kupuna talking to their grandkids. You could have Section 8 renewals. Other social services would be provided to the community. Page 16 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 So, you bring the social service to the community through this Cell on Wheels combined with Wifi on Wheels into different areas on scheduled times and really close that digital divide, that gap, where online is the solution; will make it accessible and possible to be a solution. MS. VILLEGAS: How many vehicles are we looking at needing for the Big Island? MR. SAITO: The penciling that I've done is 40 vehicles. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. MR. SAITO: And we're going through discussions withI'm sitting in and just collaborating, but it's with AT&T (AT&T Communications), T-Mobile, potentially Verizon, but different cell providers and different technologies. But on the school side, pure school side, DOE is working on getting all the tablets. I believe I saw a number of, like, $43 million that they're providing to have distance learning. And they have targeted Ka`u as a recognized place where digital signal wasn't available. And so, they picked Ka`u on this island. They picked one on each of the islands black holes, so to speak. But we know that it's widespread on this island. MS. VILLEGAS: Fantastic. Thank you for explaining that. I think that's incredibly helpful. I also, before I let you go, I wanted to ask for a bit of—we had spoken before and you had shared in a really innovative, collaborative, and inclusive way described some of the vision that's being utilized for food assistance and how to incorporate these public resources with private businesses to help them stay engaged and involved and with our farmers in order to serve those in need. Is that something you could share a little bit about? MR. SAITO: Sure. The COVID-19, the pandemic, really exposed our food system, how fragile it was, and how our dependency on tourism has shut down pretty much the largest service industry. It's a service industry, so it involves a lot of employment, a lot of headcount. So, within the restaurant industry, it's greatly impacted. Currently, the food deliveries are being done in a more centralized manner. And so, it's processed and produced, you know, get ready for delivery in a centralized way. With this idea of funding, it would provide "x" amount of covers. And I'll just "covers" meaning headcount or meals—I'll just throw out numbers. So, if it was 50 meals, $20 each, that would be provided to vulnerable families per day, seven days a week, that would provide a core set of revenuea thousand dollars a day—for a restaurant to provide meals to the vulnerable families. And so, part of the idea is to have that thousand dollars a day be based on purchasing local food produce, protein. But the meals have to contain that. Page 17 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 And so, what that will do is pay for a fixed cost of starting up that restaurant, maybe cover—maybe the restaurant used to do a hundred covers a day pre- COVID. Now, they're only doing 50 due to the capacity limitations. So, this would provide a steady 50 additional to bring them back to a position of possibly being profitable and fully staffed. Then, you'd provide this for five months. So, you'd have, like, 150 days of known predictable revenue source, which will stabilize the restaurant staffing. They can sign an agreement with a farm for five months of delivery, providing stability in the food delivery and for the farmer. And hopefully organically, the farms and restaurants would then be able to set up a farm-to-restaurant system of delivery, which would be more efficient. So, this would really take that dollar, put it in the restaurant and have the multiplier effect hitting the farm, the transportation company, while providing food on a dispersed basis. So, restaurants in Ka`u, Hawi, Honoka`a, Kona, Hilo, the restaurants are being supported and the community is being fed. MS. VILLEGAS: Fantastic. Thank you so much. I just wanted to quickly go back about the COWS. Those vehicles, would it be safe to assume that the priority would be buying electric vehicles or some other kind of green energy? MR. SAITO: Absolutely. MS. VILLEGAS: That's what I thought, but I just wanted to get it in there. Fantastic. MR. SAITO: And the other use of the COW would be, in the case of a disaster, post-disaster emergency center. MS. VILLEGAS: Wonderful. Now, I have a quick question, and I don't want to let you go yet because I think there's some more in here, but I don't know who would be best to answer this. And my question would be, so when thinking of our small farmers and our need to be food resilient, within this program and protocol do the grants and supportive funding for small farmers and increasing our agricultural resilience and food sourcing on island, does that fall in a specific category, per say, in this plan? MR. HUNT: Hi, Rebecca. This is Steve. MS. VILLEGAS: Hi, Steve. MR. HUNT: So, it actually could fall under two. Certainly, we have the 3.992 for food assistance, which would probably be the primary. But the individual farmer could also potentially apply for the small business grants. Page 18 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, fantastic. While I have you here, Steve, another quick question is—and maybe you or Deanna could answerI see that there's 10 million being set aside for"second wave response and unanticipated costs." I just wondered, in an overall norm not that there's a norm related to a global pandemic—while this is a little over 10 percent, is that kind of relevant or, I don't know, is this like a number that corelates to other counties or the State or other municipalities also going through these challenges? MS. SAKO: I think this is a very unique situation, and several things kind of prompted that amount. Part of it was we're getting piecemeal from the State what costs we're going to have to pick up; as was mentioned earlier, the screening at the airports. So, that amount was kind of set for additional costs that might be passed down to us by the State, as well as not knowing the exact need for some of the other programs and being aware that as we start rolling these programs out, we might find out some of them actually need additional funding. So, rather than pinpointing exactly where it's going to go, that way we'll be able to direct it by need. MS. VILLEGAS: Fantastic. Thank you, Deanna. That sounds wise and cautious and cautiously optimistic. So, thanks for including that. I had another question about the personal protective equipment under"Public Safety,"the 2,325,000. I wondered who is this provided to, all of this kind of PPE(Personal Protective Equipment), and is this only for County staff or just kind of in general? MS. SAKO: It's primarily County staff and also having a stockpile. Because initially when this event started, it was very difficult to get masks and other products. And so, our first responders, especially our EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians), are the ones that we're really trying to make sure we have enough masks and everything. But if something happened and we had to share with the community, we would. But definitely we want to ensure that we have enough. And we're kind of focused on getting some of that before the second wave because competing with the world was a new thing for our purchasing department. So, we're very conscious of that and trying to make sure we have all the PPE but all the disinfectant and cleaning supplies and everything else to go with it. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Deanna. I'm just going to hit you again. Sorry. But it kind of relates to the last question, and it talks about property acquisition, housing, and construction. And in there, there's a million dollars for"warehouse space for PPE and response supplies." And I just wondered MS. SAKO: I think that million is a variety of different things, but one of the things that we do need to take care of is our Civil Defense warehouse that is Page 19 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 leaking. And so, we want to make sure that we take care of that and it does not destroy things the water doesn't destroy things we have in there. But that's not the whole million. That's just part of it. MS. VILLEGAS: Great. Okay, thank you. That really helps answer that question. And then, I'm not sure if this is Riley or you, but maybe you can help me out. Just for a broader sense of understanding this 22 million that's set aside for business grants and economic assistance: Are there maximum amounts already allocated or the potential for applications for a maximum amount? And what are some of the factors for small businesses to get this economic assistance? Or is that still being discovered? MR. HUNT: It's still being developed. My understanding is there were about 22,000 small businesses island-wide. So, if we were just to take that and break it up to an equal distribution, that's only a thousand dollars of business. So, some of these—obviously grocery stores, certain businesses—haven't been as impacted by the COVID-19. They've actually been doing better in many cases. So, we need to look at a scoring system, and that's being developed through the RFP process. And as I mentioned earlier, I think the priority is to give it to those businesses that have not yet received anything through the CARES Act. So, some businesses have received PPP (Paycheck Protection Program), EIDL (Economic Industry Disaster Loan), even SBA (United States Small Business Administration)-type loans. MS. VILLEGAS: And some are still waiting. MR. HUNT: And some are still waiting. Or some applied late and didn't get any, so they would be moved towards the front, at least on the scoring system. MS. VILLEGAS: Great. Okay, thank you. MR. HUNT: So, that will be part of the RFP development, which again is a work in progress. MS. VILLEGAS: Great, thank you. As that comes available and there's more information and the parameters are developed and confirmed, is that something you'll be sharing with us? MR. HUNT: That's something we can share with this body. MS. VILLEGAS: That would be great. And I'm personally interested so I can share with the constituents in District 7 and the small businesses that are there that are asking that have been worried and have been patient and are definitely standing with their hands up on this one. And same goes, I guess, for individual grants to prevent housing displacement. You don't have to go into the details Page 20 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 now, but as the details become available on what the parameters are going to be for those individual grants and how people qualify, that would be really helpful information to have so we can make sure to disseminate it to our constituents as that information becomes available. And I think that covers all of my questions on this, but thank you once again for your patience and your courageous tackling of what is a blessing but also a huge challenge that you had so little information and yet have been required to come up with so much information and detail. So, thank you once again. With that, I yield. Maile? MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. This is Maile. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, go ahead, Maile. MS. DAVID: Oh, thank you. Mr. Hunt, thank you for that great presentation, and I do have just three questions. So, regarding the estimated, I mean, the multiple RFPs that are going to go out, do you have an estimate of the cost that's going to be expended for these RFP contracts, and is that included in this summary in one of those sections? MR. HUNT: So, the individual applicants for the RFP would, in their process, state what their administrative costs would be to provide the services we will be requesting. So, the funding, the 22 million or the 10 million, depending on whether it's the businesses or the individuals, those funds itself would be used to cover their administrative costs. I believe at City and Count of Honolulu, I believe it was two-and-a-half percent to four percent, somewhere in that range, for the credit unions that were administering the program. MS. DAVID: I see. Okay, great. On your Slide 3, Eligible Uses, the testing costs. Who would be able—would medical facilities who provide a testing, would this be applicable to them? MR. HUNT: Yes. I went through all of the costs. It's not something that we are currently proposing to fund in our portion. Some of this relates to more of the State activities, and certainly hospitals or health clinics would be eligible for this as well. But that is, in fact, what it could cover. So, anyone who has not been reimbursed for the cost of their test, they could cover that. Or if the State wanted the fund it directly, they could. MS. DAVID: I see. Okay. Page 21 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MS. SAKO: And then, Civil Defense and the Fire Department were concerned that if there was an outbreak for the ability to get immediate testing. So, they are working to get a vendor on board to be able to do that immediate testing should the need arise. MS. DAVID: I see. Okay. Because, I know that there are some medical facilities that were doing testing and just wanted some clarification on who would be eligible to apply for that. And my last question: On Slide 17, there's a reference on that first line for equipment—servers, laptops. And then at the last one, it says, "vehicles." So, what kind of vehicles would we be purchasing, and what would they be used for? MR. HUNT: So, one of the larger requests internally that came was for Parks and Rec. (Recreation) because their workers, as they go to parks, typically had gone two or more in a vehicle. In order to do social distancing, they can no longer do that with the current supply. We did look at—instead of providing the quite a bit of vehicles being requested, we looked at replacing some of the older vehicles under using social distancing as the leverage to do that, but that most of the vehicle use would be done as a reimbursement through mileage or through leases through the end of December because that's when the funding would run out. MS. DAVID: Okay. So, it's not necessarily purchasing. It probably would be for COVID related, it would be leasing that would be a short-term lease. MR. HUNT: Could be leasing or, in some cases, maybe purchasing a few—and I think we recommended "used"—vehicles to meet their needs. MS. DAVID: Okay. And I think, according to Senate Bill 75, you folks the Council is going to be notified prior to or as you folks come up with more set expenditure lists, etcetera, right? MR. HUNT: Right. To be honest, I'm not sure of the status of S.B. 75 (Senate Bill 75), but as a courtesy, we're definitely going to be in contact with this body. MS. DAVID: All right. Thank you so much for your guys'—Deanna Sako and you, Mr. Hunt, thank you very much for all your work on this, and I yield. Thank you, Chair. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Anyone else in Kona? I cannot hear. MS. EOFF: I have a quick question. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, sure. Page 22 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MS. EOFF: So, a lot of small businesses may want to apply, and our offices are starting to get calls from small businesses. How will the message go out? Because, it will be a short window after that for them to actually understand what it would take to—where to get an application, what it would take to produce a successful application. And how will we, besides our website, how will we get this information out? MS. LEY: This is Diane Ley, Director for Research and Development. If I can answer that question. We're actually standing up another weblink today on R&D's (Research and Development's) website. We've got, if you go to—it will come out later today. It's not active yet because we wanted the courtesy of the Council to make sure we were on the right track. But we're going to stand up—if you go to www.hawaiicounty.gov/cares, we will provide an outline of the process to get us to the RFP, and we will make announcements from there. There'll be a sign-up place, and we will send out our web news from there when we have announcements to go forward. So, hopefully, that will be a valuable place. We'll also put together a press release to push out through the Mayor's Office and some social media as well as through the various networks within the County, and we'd ask Council Members to also help push that out. R&D has a list of 80-plus organizations out there. So, we'll be trying to get that out. I think we'll also need to build in, as we move forward, making sure that whatever organizations we contract with, they are pushing out messaging about funding availability. And the County may need to take an active role in that as well. And as we see weekly reports come in on the number of folks that are approved for, or a number of businesses that are approved for grants, we may need to ramp up efforts and target certain populations. MS. EOFF: Okay, well, thank you. It sounds like you're prepared for when that outreach—also, it gives us a centralized website where we can send people who have questions. So, thank you so much. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, anyone else in Kona? If not, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Mahalo, Finance, for putting all this together. It's nice to have, actually, a well broken-down plan. It's not easy to come up with, and that is wellI appreciate you giving us eligible and ineligible uses that the public can see as well. So,thank you. I'd like to touch on the Sustainability Action Committee. Diane, I think that falls under your department. One of our testifiers brought that up earlier, and it does fit in quite well if you think about it. Everyone's calling for sustainability and resiliency, and we have a committee that's designed for that purpose. They'd be a good use of funding going forward. Page 23 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MS. LEY: So, as I indicated earlier in my responses that we have been talking with different parties in the community that are advancing conceptual ideas of how we recover economically and move forward as a community. It's my strong opinion that our businesses and our entrepreneurs are the most adaptive, resourceful individuals, whether they are working as business members, community members, or as family members. Our island is full of resilient people. And so, the way we see the County's—most of our resources and skills that are going to be needed going forward is to empower that adaptive ability to move to be more inclusive, to diversify further, and to build a resiliency. So, wherever we can leverage that, I think that's a great opportunity for us to leverage these organizations. That's something we have traditionally done. We can build skills and accomplishments within our communities. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, the action committee? MS. LEY: So, specific to the action committee, as I said previously, right now the action that the County needs to be taking, this Administration needs to be getting this CARES funding out. We have a serious amount of dollars to make sure that we deliver in an efficient and honest manner to get to the communities, to get to businesses, and to get to individual families. With all due respect, I cannot commit to standing up that committee at this point. I'd be happy to have a conversation with you and with the Mayor about it, but I think that there are better ways that we can empower our community to do good work. And I don't want to pull down any organization that is standing up and saying, "We have ways to help our community." I think the better way we can work as a County is to empower those. We never have enough resources at the County level. I'll tell you this: Normally, we get—Research and Development receives approximately 40 applications for our annual request for proposals for innovation grants. This year we received over a hundred. That's a demand that's out there. We went along with everyone else in the County, and we took our 10 percent cut on our budget. So, we're not going to have the resources that are needed. This 80 million is huge for this County. We can leverage that and get that out and get changes happening within the community. That's where we want to see empowerment. I do not want to bog down in bureaucracy of government, and that's where I stand as a director. I'm happy to have more conversations and empower individual groups and organizations, but I just don't have the capacity to do that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I appreciate that. It's very honest. I would say that within what I was just handed was funding, positions, and $80 million. So, we have access to funds. We have access to people. We have access to new positions. And if that's what's needed to get us through this and Page 24 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 focus on things like sustainability and resiliency, then that's where we need to go because we can use these funds to focus on long-term objectives and we can be short-sighted as well. It does need to be spent before November 30'', but it doesn't hold you back from doing something like this. MS. LEY: My understanding is that the CARES Act funds needs to be directly related to COVID. So, I'll just leave that at that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, fair enough. Steve, Mass Transit. Where would Mass Transit fall under this? Providing more service,providing increased services with Mass Transit. Which section would I look for? MR. HUNT: It's not in this proposal, the Coronavirus Relief Fund, although there was additional funding that was just announced that Mass Transit is receiving. It's between Kauai and Hawaii Island, but I'm not sure of the distribution of that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, we're going to keep the two separate because I know we accepted money to give to Mass Transit earlier. MS. SAKO: I was going to say it was over $4 million related specifically for those purposes. So, that should be sufficient. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That was to maintain operations through COVID, or that's to better our services? MS. SAKO: Whatever they need it for, related to COVID. MR. HUNT: I think there was additional cleaning of the buses that was required by the vendor that wasn't accounted for. MS. SAKO: Social distancing. MR. HUNT: Yeah, more routes because of the social distancing. So, some of those operational and contractual things have had to be amended, and they have received funding for that. It's not part of, I mean, CARES is a very large group. This is a specific Coronavirus Relief Fund, which is not specific to transportation. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So, if we were going to do any improvements, we'd have to use the $4.5 million that were given earlier, not any part of this? MR. HUNT: Right. Page 25 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Ag (Agriculture). We talked a little bit about ag. I see "purchase local farm produce." We talked about giving money directly to businesses, which would be ag businesses as well. And I like some of Maile's ideas. Tim has mentioned and many of the members of our Council have mentioned how important ag is, and it's part of creating sustainability. It's resiliency. And it touches on everything that we need to do, especially in light of food supply chain disruptions and what's floating in Hilo Bay right now. So, we need to do more for that part of the community, and we're all aware of that. Businesses. I'm one of the few guys here who has a business. And so, coming from that perspective, I'm just going to say focusing on people who haven't gotten funding may not be the best way to go about it, in my opinion. I've been trying to visit as many businesses as I can—restaurants—and just be a patron. And I've noticed that even on Saturday nights and Friday nights, they're still functioning at about one-third. Some are not even allowed to be open yet. We're still working on that. But I feel that we need to provide funding to businesses because you're providing funding to the workers who work there, and you're supporting families on the backend and you're supporting a tax base that comes from that business as well. So, be very open, I'd say, going forward in how we spend some of these funds on business and grants,yeah, not loans. MR. HUNT: Yes, these are all grants. And again, the intent is not to preclude people who have already received relief. It's just that we would give first priority to those who have not. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I like that idea. On that resolution that I put out, that was in conjunction with the SBDC (Small Business Development Center), different people from the community who work directly with businesses or do grants of their own to businesses and startups and entrepreneurs. So, a lot of thought went into that particular resolution as far as how to break up the funding to hit as many businesses as possible but also to give funds to those businesses that were forced to close or mandated to close, or have reopened and can only sit at one-third capacity due to social distancing measures. So, they're all being affected, and they're all suffering. And we have a lot of unemployed people, but they came from the businesses that were shut down. So, that's a very large focus. And I like that it's in here. I'd say even put more money towards it, honestly. But thank you for including that. I'd say be open with that funding. It's going to help the community a lot. Grant writers. Can we pay grant writers to come in? I've been watching emails come through, and I see grant after grant after grant coming from the Federal levels down, a lot of money available. Can we hire a grant writer to take advantage of some of those funds that are floating around? Page 26 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MR. HUNT: From the guidance I see with this specific CARES Act monies for the Coronavirus Relief Fund, I would say no, unless the grant is specifically COVID related. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Oh, Deanna. MS. SAKO: I was going to say we are monitoring all that came down from the CARES Act and other Federal funding. I think several departments have applied for those amounts, but a lot of it is also directed at the State. So, when Steve was talking about childcare and Department of Human Services, that money went to them and they're not allocating it out to the counties, I mean, they are in terms of providing benefits to the counties, but it's not coming through the counties. So, we're monitoring all of those Federal programs, and we're very aware of kind of what is out there. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I mean, it can also apply to grant writers in the ability for them to help small businesses or other folks who need the funding to apply for grants. And if there is a County person who can do that, then we've expanded what we can offer to the business community, yeah. I'm throwing out ideas that came to me as you guys were talking. It's nice to go last. State facilities like Hapuna Beach, much needed. Do they not have their own funds? MR. HUNT: The duties of the lifeguards have been funded by the State, and I think a lot of them have been funded through TAT (Transient Accommodations Tax). I'm not sure if this is one of them, but what we are seeing is those that have been funded from sources that are drying up that those funds are going back to base cost or reduced, and the County's being asked to use their portion of the CARES monies to pay for those. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I don't agree, but if that's their feeling, that's their feeling. But they do have their own funding. Do you think they'd really leave us high and dry with no lifeguards on our beach? I don't think so. But thank you for covering that. The second wave, the $10 million, about 12 percent of what we're getting. Usually, I err on the side of caution, and I hold back and put a little bit of money into savings. And I like that idea. Given our decreased amount of time to spend this, I would rather see the funds go towards preemptive safety measures, things that we talked about today—like the airport screenings, travel then we're using the funds to provide safety measures in our community, more so than holding back to wait for the second wave. Page 27 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 We're already seeing the second wave in the Mainland, and I'm guessing we're going to start seeing spikes here as we already have. So, I would think in this case, it may be better to just, due to the constraints on time and the second wave being apparent already, that we should be preemptively getting in front of it instead of holding back on the funding. That would be my thoughts. And then, last. And I think, Sharon Hirota, you might be best to answer this question. I will put you on the spot a little bit. Just recently we've been discussing keiki and what's happening in our community. And a lot of the different service providers have expressed that, due to quarantine measures and COVID, they're seeing an increased need for services. And I think your department may be best, or you may be best suited to answer this question, but can we provide funding? I mean, I did speak to Deanna a little bit. Can we provide some of these people, like Child and Family Services, Ho`ola Na Pua agencies that work directly with families and children—funding to help them as they see these increased needs from quarantine measures? And let me remind you, we are seeing incredible amounts of divorces happening due to COVID. So, there is some social issues being brought up by being at home all the time with your family. MS. HIROTA: So, thank you. Yeah, so part of the community and family resilience category includes providing or allowing for increasing capacity in the delivery of behavioral mental health services because, yes, that's what we hear in the streets and that's what we're hearing from the providers. So, organizations that you named, if wanting to provide additional service as it relates to COVID, once the RFP is released they can apply for funding to support their programs up through the period of time, yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And they can backtrack to March I" as a start date, is that correct, in these RFPs? MS. HIROTA: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. That is good. Yeah, we've gone back and forth on numbers, and if the numbers qualify, oh, it was less than two years ago or less than 2008. But in my discussions with the different agencies in a meeting we had yesterday—Rose was present; Rose can fill you in there is a need, and there is an increase in need. And that's apparent. It may not be from the numbers that we're seeing presented by the Police Department or by DHS (Department of Human Services), but we are seeing that in response from the different nonprofits involved, and they're the ones working directly with the children and the families. So, I'm seeing the need. It is there. So, yes,please, if we can really focus there. Which part of that would that be, community assistance? Page 28 Hawaii County Council-45 July 1,2020 MS. HIROTA: Yes. So, on Slide yes, "Community Assistance"under "Community and Family Resilience," Slide No. 11. So, the first bullet point kind of encompasses those types of services in regard to providers in the delivery increasing their capacity to deliver medical, mental health, behavioral health, and/or case management services. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. And have you already been in contact with some of the providers that I've mentioned? The Salvation Army MS. HIROTA: So, through different network meetings, yes, people have come forward and expressed the need and what they're experiencing now within their own organization and the type of support they will need. So, in this writeup, we were trying to be general enough to encompass all of the service needs, not just specifically—if you talk to a domestic violence provider, they want us to mention domestic violence, but it's part of this this is the purpose. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, keep it I like what you're saying because you kept it vague but clear. Because, it allows MS. HIROTA: General. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: The broad description so that we can hit everyone that we need to. MS. HIROTA: Right, exactly. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Wonderful. And then, do you need documentation or anything further from them to better your cause? MS. HIROTA: I think as part of the RFP process, their proposal will need to tell us the services they will provide and documentation to support that. So, yeah, I personally don't need it, but it will be part of the process. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Wonderful. Okay, that's all I have today. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Finance. Thank you, Sharon. Thank you, Deanna. Thank you, Riley. I really appreciate your time today in being here. These funds will really serve as, I think, a lifeboat for our community given the economic shortfalls we're facing from COVID. So, thank you very much. CHR. CHUNG: Anyone else? Kona? If not, thank you very much, all of you. We'll be keeping in touch, of course, keeping close contact with all of you. But in the meantime, thank you so much for all you're doing. Okay, we have a motion on the floor. All those in favor, signify by saying "aye." Page 29 Hawai`i County Council-45 July 1,2020 Vote on Bill 176: The motion to pass Bill 176 on first reading was carried by (Approved) the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. We've come to the end of our agenda. ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 11:37 a.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, > Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Meeting adjourned. Council Approval: AUG ® 5 2020 COUNT - '1 JH/dg Page 30