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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0086.020 2020-2022 P/rc COUNTY CLERK 6j1I18 COUNTY OF HAWAI'I COMM.$` RECEIVED Time ?1:2.5 0..m. By From: nico v Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2021 11:23 AM Date FEB 0 -2 2021 To: Council Testimony; Muramoto,Jean; Chung, Aaron; David, Maile; Kierkiewicz, Ashley; Lee Loy, Sue; Richards, Tim; Kanealii-Kleinfelder, Matt; Villegas, Rebecca; Kimball, Heather; Inaba, Holeka Subject: Testimony: In Support of Bill 18 Good morning Council Chair David and Council Vice Chair Chung, and Hawai'i County Council members, I'm writing to voice support for Councilman Chung's sponsored proposal of Bill 18, allowing property owners to write off extra tax if they provide proof of philanthropic support to a recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit that benefits Hawai'i County residents. Bill 18 reinforces the importance of giving back to this special place we share and call home. It sends a powerful message of the role we all play in giving back and coming to a solution, together. I strongly support Bill 18 and it isn't only becausel work for a nonprofit. If local government faces limitations, bandwidth or capacity issues because it is bursting at the seams with an increasing volume of requests for support, then I believe that the local nonprofit community is willing to step up and alleviate that. Giving back, changing lives through philanthropy and inspiring hope for the future isn't just what we do, it's something that is deeply ingrained in our nonprofit altruistic DNA, and it's why we exist in the first place. As a community, Bill 18 is the right thing to do. In 2020, the Hualalai resort homeowner community helped 1,562 local families access financial grants and awards through a nonprofit in West Hawai'i. This was more than double the 647 families helped in 2019. These families include people employed as independent contractors, service providers, vendors as well as Four Seasons who have worked at Hualalai Resort for at least one year in some capacity. Since this nonprofit's founding in 2002, the Hualalai homeowners have helped close to 10,000 local families have greater health, well-being and access to educational opportunities. By giving back to those who come to work every day to share an enlightened sense of Hawai'i Island hospitality, despite whatever challenges and economic hardships hospitality workers and employees may face at home, the Hualalai homeowner community pays it forward. What does that equate to in calendar year 2020? $178,000 in medical awards and $450,000 to scholarships for PreK12, higher education and `ohana lifelong learning awards. An additional $460,000 went to providing Crisis Response Kokua Kits for 650 families in the form of gift cards to local businesses including KTA Super Stores, Foodland Stores, Hawaii Electric Light Companyand others. Each kit contained $600 so those families could buy food after being furloughed from the resort when it closed. $600 so they could provide for immediate and most basic life needs at a time when the pandemic unemployment lines made it difficult for our local families to feed their `ohanas. It might not seem like big dollars to some,but to those families at a time filled with so much uncertainty and fear, it meant the world. In August, the Hualalai homeowners wanted to help moms and dads who were struggling to adapt to the remote learning needs of their keiki at home when school started again. They pulled together once again and helped 190 more families access digital technology in the form of a laptop, router, printeror headset to support life at home and online. It meant that 190 local families were able to breathe a little easier knowing their children will not miss out on lessons or be intimidated by transition to remote learning. Medical cases have included financial support for a stroke victim who had to be Medevac'd to Queen's Hospital on Oahu who later moved to Life Care Center in Kailua-Kona, all through a medical award. Financial support for a sole provider of a family of 7 with Cancer to secure a prosthetic 1 Comm:No V..20 Ref.To: Pj rC Ref.Date tttS ?U? leg (made in Hilo) and return to work to�feed a growing family. Educational support means that a Hualalai housekeeper who movedLto,the,,island 30 years ago and started picking coffee for $4 an hour in south Kona to proudly watch her only daughter graduate from Arizona State University because of a scholarship provided by people who care for the well-being of our Hawai'i Island `ohana. That same housekeeper now earns $25 an hour and is proud to share her daughter's sucees:- On face value, if you visit the residential communities along Kohala Coast as a kama'aina, you might see the fancy homes and large estates with pools most of us can only dream of dipping our toes in. You might think those fancy homes just sit there and waste resources or that they sit empty for most of the year. You might be right about sitting empty for some time. But the truth is, each one of those homes employs 20-30 people in some capacity. When the pandemic hit, some of those homeowners weren't able to come back to their Hualalai homes but it didn't mean they didn't keep in touch. Many of them kept their employees (housekeepers, boat captains, window cleaners, landscapers) on full-time payroll when everything else shut down. They were our local families at a time when local government couldn't be. Bill 18 reinforces the importance of giving back and, in the words of Councilman Chung, creates dialogue between two sectors of our community that don't usually have the chance to interact. Respectfully submitted, Nico Leilani Verissimo Waiakea-Hilo, Hawai'i P.S. - Please take a moment to read the letter below, submitted by a longtime golf employee of 19 years in May 2020 after picking up his Kokua Kit and seeing the Hualalai homeowners on golf carts wave on the sidelines as he drove through the distribution line for his kokua kit: It is with heartfelt gratitude that I write this email from the comfort of my quarantine headquarters as I made the turn out of the pickup area, my Keiki andl got to see a large gathering of smiling faces sharing the purest form of "Aloha". We were blessed with warm smiles, gracious waves, and even a couple of super SHAKA's -IN My children have never seen you before nor maybe have never met you but while in the truck with me, they knew Immediately that something special happened today. They seen miracles retold on television, they've heard stories offortune and luck, but what they witnessed today touched their hearts. They've been scared for weeks. Their schedules have gone from hanging with friends in between classes to Zoom and FaceTime. They been afraid of what's to come but for that brief moment in time, they witnessed Aloha from total complete strangers I have been blessed to be a part of the Hualalai Ohana for 19+years and there was no better feeling and reminder of that today. I'm so glad that my Keiki were there to witness how blessed we all are to be a part of Hualctlai Icannot thank you enough for all that you do for my Ohana. I just wanted to personally thank you from the bottom of my heart. —BRL, Hualalai Golf Club .rr . 2