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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN FC 2021/10/05 2020-2022 Committee on Finance loth Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii October 5, 2021 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Finance was called to order at ORDER: 1:00 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Matt Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Matt Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder, Chair Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Vice Chair Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member (via videoconference from Kona) Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member Absent& Excused: Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards III, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: (There were none.) CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We will go right to the beginning of our agenda, Communication 30.16 COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 30.16: REPORT OF FUND TRANSFERS AUTHORIZED: JUNE 16—30, 2021 AND AUGUST 16 —31, 2021 From Controller Kay Oshiro, dated September 3, 2021. FC-20 October 5,2021 Vote on Comm. 30.16: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 30.16. Filed Seconded by Ms. Villegas and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung and Richards —2. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, Comm. 31.20. Comm. 31.20: REPORT OF CHANGE ORDERS AUTHORIZED: AUGUST 16 —31, 2021 From Finance Director Deanna Sako, dated September 8, 2021, transmitting the above report pursuant to Hawaii County Code Section 2-12.3. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 31.20. Seconded by Ms. Villegas. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members, any discussion on this communication? MS. VILLEGAS: Just a quick question. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mr. Villegas, go ahead. MS. VILLEGAS: Oh, Deanna. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Committee. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members and Chair David, Deanna, Chief Todd, and Mr. Tyler Benner are here in the Hilo Chambers today, if you have any questions. MS. VILLEGAS: Hi, Deanna. MS. SAKO: Hi, good afternoon. MS. VILLEGAS: Good afternoon. Just a quick question about the second item, on the 8/16 to 8/31 Report of Change Orders, I'm just seeing 164 percent. MS. SAKO: So as the purpose column kind of explains, this is another option year. Page 2 FC-20 October 5,2021 MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. MS. SAKO: So many of our contracts are maybe issued for the current year plus three option years. So when we issue the option year, it does make the percentages look really huge. But those are all pre-bid in the original package. MS. VILLEGAS: Gotcha. Gotcha, because it looks like you had of original cost. MS. SAKO: Yep. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. MS. SAKO: So this is probably the second option year. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks for your help understanding those percentages. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Villegas. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we have a motion on the floor to close file on Comm. 31.20, all in favor? Vote on Comm. 31.20: The motion to close file on Comm. 31.20 was carried Filed by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung and Richards —2. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Next order of business, Comm. 32.12, please. Comm. 32.12: PRELIMINARY MONTHLY BUDGET STATUS REPORT FOR THE MONTH ENDED JUNE 30, 2021 From Finance Director Deanna Sako, dated September 9, 2021, transmitting the above report pursuant to Hawaii County Charter Section 6-6.3(h). Page 3 FC-20 October 5,2021 Vote on Comm. 32.12: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 32.12. Filed Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder–7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung and Richards –2. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Next order of business, Comm. 57.3. Comm. 57.3: REPORT OF DONATIONS RECEIVED FROM THE DANIEL R. SAYRE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION AS OF SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 From Finance Director Deanna Sako, dated September 17, 2021, transmitting the above report pursuant to Resolution 468-20. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 57.3. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We do have Chief Todd with us today, if anyone has questions, or wants to speak on behalf of the donation? Mr. Todd, do you want to say anything? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: No? Okay. And then we can do that for you, too. Mr. Inaba, go ahead. MR. INABA: Yeah, could you come to the front,please? (Note: At this time, Fire Chief Kazuo Todd came forward to address the members of the Committee. MR. INABA: So as you get settled, this donation, and then I just want to clarify, this is from the beginning of the year till now, this report? Or is this—what does this exactly cover? CHIEF TODD: I'm not exactly sure. I saw it on the agenda, so I came down just in case there were questions. But I don't have the actual paperwork either. Deanna might actually be the more knowledgeable one. My secretary said, "Make sure you're there." But generally speaking, there's a variety of things, and we come here on occasion to just to (inaudible)to be accepted throughout the year, as they've sought out funding, found things and thenalright, hey, here we go. So they're donating a Page 4 FC-20 October 5,2021 2021 Honda Pioneer, which is valued at$21,902.38, and so this is to accept that, and that's going to be used at our Captain Cook Fire Station, I believe, and allows to go down one of the trails over there for rescues. MR. INABA: Okay, great. Director Sako, to re-ask my previous question, this is all donations from January through September 15th? How often are we doing these reports? MS. SAKO: I believe that Fire has been submitting as they receive donations; however, it's most likely since July 1st, like with the fiscal year. I believe we turned one in about May or June for last fiscal year. MR. INABA: Okay, great. Well, that's it. Well, I just want to say thank you to the Sayre Foundation, and their continued support of our Fire Department. And mahalo, Chief Todd, for being here to express that gratitude, as well. MS. SAKO: And I'll work with our staff to get the dates better at the top. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. Mahalo. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Ms. David, in Kona, anything? We're going to take a brief recess,just to check our mics in Kona. We are in recess. Recess: At 1:08 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 1:09 p.m. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, we are back from recess. Okay, thank you. We're back in action. Ms. David, did you want to add anything to Communication 57.3, for the Daniel R. Sayre Memorial Foundation? MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Just wanted to say mahalo, that's all. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you very much, Chair. Here in Hilo, I would just like to say mahalo to the Sayres. They're amazing, and they donate probably hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment, if not in this year alone, but over the last few years that I've seen. I mahalo them very much, and I'm glad this will go to the good use for our Fire Department. With that said, we have a motion on the floor. All in favor of closing file on Communication 57.3, say "aye." Page 5 FC-20 October 5,2021 Vote on Comm. 57.3: The motion to close file on Comm. 57.3 was carried Filed by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung, Richards, and Villegas —3. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, next order of business, sir. Communication 401. Comm. 401: ANNUAL AUDIT PLAN FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2021-2022 From County Auditor Tyler J. Benner, dated September 16, 2021, transmitting the above audit plan,pursuant to Hawaii County Charter Section 3-18(d)(2). Motion to Close File: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 401. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. (Note: At this time, County Auditor Tyler J. Benner came forward to address the members of the Committee.) CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mr. Benner, since you're here, mahalo. Can you go ahead and just tell us a little bit about this, and then we'll open it up for discussion for the Council? MR. BENNER: Sure, sounds good. Alright, for those who may not know me, my name is Tyler Benner. I'm the County of Hawaii Auditor. I'm here today to present to Council the Fiscal Year 2021-2022 Annual Audit Plan. Our Annual Audit Plan is posted and available for the public to view on our website, www.hawaiicounty.gov, under Our County/Legislative/Office of the County Auditor. There you will find links, the page that will take you to current and prior audit plans. Beginning with activities, dictated by Charter, Section 10-13 of the County Charter requires an independent audit of accounts and other financial transactions be conducted by an unaffiliated external audit firm with an ethic accounting concentration. The vendor conducting this function is N&K CPA, and they're conducting our Comprehensive Annual Financial Audit and Single Audit of federal funds. Moving to this year's self-initiated audits. Audit plans require a risk-based approach. A risk base approach is essentially an aim to address your Page 6 FC-20 October 5,2021 organization's highest priority risks first. This year we gained much of our understanding of department and division risks by including them in the process. That process of gaining understanding came to us by way of administering a survey throughout the County. I would just like to take an opportunity and thank the respondents for their contributions. It's easy to focus on program success, much more difficult to focus and admit on challenges, especially when those are persistent, and we really appreciate the honesty of the participants who are willing to address those answer in earnest. And those survey results, we were able—and combined with conversations that we held with various stakeholders, and the reports and data that we received. And finally, with the resource allocations that control how many engagements that we can undertake in any given year, we determined a list of four engagements plus four follow-ups that would be of significant value to the County. The order in which we'll conduct those engagements is not yet determined. But number one, we are going to be looking at Finance Department, Real Property Tax Division, Revenue Cycle Management. Primary risk factor here is financial. Fiscal Year 2019-2020, real property tax collections accounted for approximately 73.4 percent of all General Fund revenues. Socio-economic or environmental considerations. COVID-19's impact between 2019 to current has resulted in financial, and housing, and security. Individuals whose income was disrupted during the pandemic have in many cases had to pick and choose which bills to pay for and which to defer. Projected delinquency balances and inventory have been growing year over year. While vaccination rates among those eligible increased along with an increase in offered therapeutics, may offer some hope with ending the State of emergency variants, mismanagement or other predictable variables threatened to prolong it. The audit aims to ensure that the account collections process is working in an effective manner, and I emphasize effective and not efficient, because even though we will want to assess certain aspects of program efficiency, efficiency doesn't necessarily translate into positive outcomes, and so our aim is going to be to determine if the department is applying its approach equitably and is adequately minimizing past due accounts through diverse pathways that are afforded to it. Is there any questions on that audit? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Do you want to go through your whole packet in front of us and then we'll do questions after, or do you want to go one-by-one? MR. BENNER: If you guys have questions, I prefer to get into it while we're right in the meat and potatoes, if that's okay with you? Page 7 FC-20 October 5,2021 CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, that's fine with me. Council Members, do you have questions regarding Mr. Benner's first audit? Go ahead, Ms. Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. Just about exploring opportunities to increase revenues. Will this audit—do you expect this audit to come forward with some recommendations about the rates that we set for different classes and/or any Code revisions for the Real Property Tax chapter? MR. BENNER: Potentially. We're looking at them being more flexible and being able to offer opportunities for catch-up. Obviously, that's been—and then what we need to do is look forward at what potential threats may be on the horizon and see if we're well-adapted to be able to change course, should those things materialize. MS. KIMBALL: And what is the timeframe for this particular audit? I know you already said that you don't have priorities established yet, but can you give me a ballpark? Just because thinking of timing and when we need to set rates, you know, making sure that we have this available to us at that that time. MR. BENNER: You're looking for when we're going to entrance in? MS. KIMBALL: Um-hum. MR. BENNER: I would have entranced in already, but we understand that at this moment and time there is the external auditors who have entranced in on their comprehensive audit, and there's a new accountant that's starting there. So I put out a communication, asking to dialogue so that we could figure out when a good time to entrance in would be. MS. KIMBALL: Okay, thank you. I would appreciate a follow-up on expectations as to, you know, entrance in, which is a new term for me, and then ultimately a completion on the recommendations on this one. MR. BENNER: You bet. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. MR. BENNER: Sure. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Kimball. Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Auditor Benner. Just wanting to make sure, and you probably already know this, but our County has had a number Page 8 FC-20 October 5,2021 of real property tax working groups over the years, and every year they're putting forward recommendations that Council Members, departments, can take a lead on; so I think as you come up with your suite of options for opportunities to explore revenue, definitely take a look at these historical documents, many of which have not been fully implemented, and so I think as part of your evaluation maybe looking at why. MR. BENNER: Thank you. I appreciate that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. MR. BENNER: Any other questions? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I have one comment. I'd like, if you could, look at the way that our dates for our budget, because I've had discussion with Real Property before. The budget timeline and the Real Property deadlines intersect differently in other municipalities, which would allow the Department of Finance to have an actual Real Property number when they go into their first budget draft, I think. If we change their timeline on when the property taxes were due, it would take some different implementation. Lisa Miura had a very beautiful timeline she laid out for me. But if were to switch our deadline dates, it would provide Deanna the actual data that she needs when she goes to make her draft budget. There wouldn't be a difference in numbers, or waiting for the final value to come in from the real property taxes, when we go to make our first budget, I believe. So that's just my comment for you. Thank you. MR. BENNER: Appreciate it. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. Okay, Council Members, moving on to the next Audit Plan. Okay, Mr. Benner, go ahead. MR. BENNER: Okay. The second audit we're going to do is an audit of contracts change orders and supplements. Risk for this is financial and operational. So the last audit mentioned has implications for revenues, and this next engagement has implications for cost. This narrative is for the folks at home, who may not be aware of the term change orders generally are for or to a construction contract, that changes the contractor's scope of work. Sometimes it can work in the County's favor, and in that case, dollars are returned when it's determined that dollars—or that work doesn't need to be performed. But in most cases, change orders come into play when unanticipated events occur that increase the scope and complexity of the work, and in that case, it adds cost. Page 9 FC-20 October 5,2021 An audit was performed by a prior auditor in 2006-2007, about 15 years ago with our Department of Public Works, and produced four audit findings. They included the development of Capital Improvement Master Plan; the development of a Comprehensive Policy and Procedure, including enhanced scoping; rigorous contract monitoring; documentation and controls,which included documentation requirements, standardized forms, routing and retention; declaration of freedom from conflict of interest and related parties; segregation of duty; and quality control activities. Number three, ensuring staff is adequately and sufficiently trained to meet the program needs and assess its software and IT (Information Technology) related applications; and number four, to work in concert with the Finance Department to develop a formal policy and procedures for authorization, documentation, recordation, and recording changes. But we make no assumptions about how the process is working currently, but we do see large dollars in change orders that causes pause, and we're interested to know how those requests are scrutinized. We'll be working primarily with DPW (Department of Public Works) as they do oversee the construction aspect of purchasing, and focus on the departments that are the primary cost-drivers, but we have built in some latitude to explore, depending on where our testing takes us. Were there some questions I could answer in regard to this audit? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Mr. Benner. Ms. Lee Loy, go ahead. MS. LEE LOY: Everybody is going to jump in. Thank you, Chair. You know, similar questions. Timeline, why don't we start there? What's the timeline on this one? MR. BENNER: This particular engagement really doesn't have anything that would prevent us from going in, in very short order, so we're ready to—we've been putting together our planning memo and our entrance documentation, and we're pretty much ready to go now. MS. LEE LOY: In your snapshot of services, you mentioned contract monitoring and how DPW actually does a lot of the contract monitoring. In that analysis because oftentimes a CIP project(Capital Improvement Projects) is for a different department, but it's actually being monitored by DPW. Is there a goal to identify if that is the maybe the appropriate way to monitor, or if they should have actually better contract monitors within the respective divisions of that department? MR. BENNER: I don't know if we are completely clear on—from the audit that was conducted in 2006-2007, how many of those were stood up and full and how Page 10 FC-20 October 5,2021 sufficient those controls are holding. So if they're going to be the bottleneck of that process, then they should be ones to have those controls in place there. So we want to find out how those are stood up and what they do when there's questions. MS. LEE LOY: Great. And then in your report here, you mentioned, you know, since 2021 the County has expended over $70 million in this category. By auditing standards, is there like a certain percentage or threshold as far as contract or change order overruns would look like? MR. BENNER: I think that generally there's an expectation, especially with construction projects, that you're going to run into things that you don't know are going to happen, and so there needs to be some sort of allowance, sort of built, in to do that. One standard is 10 percent above or below. And then it's not that you can't go outside of those guardrails, but generally what you see is that there is an ever-increasing level of scrutiny attached to doing that, and so we're talking more signatures, more questions, more explanations. In a mature model, we should also be doing lessons learned at the backside of that, so we get smarter and we're encountering those situations less and less. We're not as concerned necessarily with some of the projects that have gone underground. We know that we have cultural historical sites, and we also have cemeteries and bodies that are found. We know that those have costs, and those aren't part of something that you might find back on the mainland. However, we also have above-ground projects, and I think in some of those some cases, potentially we had the opportunity to catch some of those before incurring those costs. CHR. LEE LOY: Great. And in that recommendation you talked about the debrief, right? So that will be part of this self-audit, where we would actually build in a debrief of the lessons learned through the various contract overruns. MR. BENNER: Yeah, at the end of every project,there should be a button up to that, where you're looking at what you could have done a little bit better. It's a self-improvement program, and working that into a material model. Yeah, it should get better and better over time. MS. LEE LOY: And my final question, I know oftentimes contracts, especially when it comes to construction, it looks rather expensive, but it's because material cost or labor cost go up. Is there a way through this process to do it kind of more systematic, like it's within the various ranges,just based on accelerated costs of material or labor? MR. BENNER: I think that there are ways to strengthen the contract language so that those things are included. I've seen other contracts conducted, and I'm not saying that this would be the desired resolution but where sometimes if the Page 11 FC-20 October 5,2021 contractor vastly underbids it, that if they go over, they have to eat some of those costs. Also, purchasing those materials or having materials on-hand, that might be subject to a lot elasticity, can help to control those costs rather than scoping it out and having some sort of 30, 40, 60, 80 percent change in the material costs, and then trying to acquire it. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah. Thank you. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I just want to echo your sentiments around wanting to have this iterate of process within the County, where after you're done with something, lessons learned. Similar to what we do in times of natural disaster and emergency, there's that after-action report. What do we do well, where's our opportunity to grow and to change things? So I appreciate that, and would look forward to some kind of template that can be shared county-wide so that we're in this constant state of improvement and better serving community. I think we're doing a great job, but again, there's always room for improvement as more access to technology and other things come available to us. I alsoI'm just wondering, as part of this particular audit plan, if you can maybe make recommendations about how this data can be better shared out to the Council. We're getting a number of different piecemeal reports on these things, like change order supplements; if you want to know more about contracts, you can go to an online portal and check those out for yourself. But this data isn't really compiled into a central repository, and displayed in like a visual dashboard, which I think is something that we would all be really interested in exploring a bit more. So if that's something that you can also take a look at as part of this, that would be great. MR. BENNER: We're exactly in line with each other on that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Chair, I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Chair David? MS. DAVID: Thank you, no. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Mr. Benner, my—something I'd like to see addressed, and it may be in here already, is when we have staff that are designed to take care of certain things in the County, but we hire out and do contracts for the same kind of work, and that's always been an interest of mine, is contracts for work that our employees are actually it's in their job duty, and why we Page 12 FC-20 October 5,2021 do and don't. There are different circumstances on how we could lessen that and utilize our employees more versus an outside contractor. Okay, seeing no further discussion on this one, go ahead for your next one. MR. BENNER: Okay, thank you. The third audit that we'll be conducting is a performance audit of our Fire Department. Risk factors are primarily operational and reputation-based. Fire Department services were among the most valuable services the County can provide for citizens. The telephone survey conducted by the Continental Research Associates, Inc., in 2007,pulled citizens in the Chesapeake, Virginia to determine how residents felt about community and the services that they were being provided by that city. Ninety-seven percent of respondents indicated that the Fire Department was the most important service to them. Additionally, in that survey the department received a 93.4 percent satisfaction score. So while results are dated, and they don't represent our local community, it is indicative of long-standing public sentiment for the high regards that the citizens have placed on these particular services. And there are several stressors that try to (inaudible) the continued program success there. This audit is going to look at the County of Hawaii Fire Department to assess various aspects of their operation, and the extent to which they are able to achieve programs success. We'll be examining several factors, including functional business areas, including but not limited to equipment, response time, training, payroll, safety, recruitment, information technology, and again, customer satisfaction. The intent of this audit is to conduct an extensive gap analysis and make recommendations that might assist to right-size the department, should gaps exist. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Council Members? Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. This is welcome news. You know, I think we have sticker-shock when we take a look at Fire's budget, but a huge portion of it is subsidized by the State for our EMS (Emergency Medical Services) program. You know,just taking a look at the numbers, over time, that window, that amount that is available to help with operations, maintenance, trainings, things that are really important to keep our folks on line, trained up to be the best that they can be in their job, and ensuring that they have tools and support to get the job done, shrinking every single year. We don't want them to stretch themselves thin unnecessarily. I mean, we've all toured a number of Fire facilities: Central Fire Station, Downtown Hilo, busiest on the island, deplorable, deplorable; and the fact Page 13 FC-20 October 5,2021 that it's been allowed to get that condition is incredibly concerning. So I'm hoping that you're taking this really broad and deep sort of assessment of all of their needs: the facilities, the apparatus; ensuring that enough personnel based on the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) standard, and all that really important life-saving equipment, as well. You know, during the budget we moved forward amendments so that could buy another SAB (Sabro) compressor. And then, we had the Mana Road fire, right? So these are really critical things that we should not have to be scrambling for in times of emergency. So I think we are all really eager to see this particular report. Thank you. MR. BENNER: Thank you. I wanted to thank Chief Todd; he was the first one to respond to our survey. I also had the opportunity to sit down with him shortly after onboarding, and he provided a fantastic clarity about where they sat on that. He welcomed the dialogue to begin this. And when we were looking at this particular audit, it's not completely typical to do a full-scope operations audit of a department like this. Generally, you select a functional activity and go after it. But when we were reviewing the survey results, and this is kind of where it really showed its power, we couldn't find that we could click one area of cost-savings or that we could enhance one area of equipment, and that we could make a real valuable impact there. So right-sizing the department, finding out where things may be out of sorts, where things could be reallocated, and then to assess where that remaining gap lies is where we saw the most value in this. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: No, that's huge. We look forward to it. And I know that there are a lot of national grants that the Chiefs are actively pursuing; I think we're going to see one at Council tomorrow, which creates a few more positions that are sorely needed. And so there is that capacity and that willingness to go after all sorts of monies that are out there to support their department. But I think this audit will help to really prioritize and help them focus on what's so critically important for us to do now and what can be done over time. So, thank you, I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Ms. Lee Loy, go ahead. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Yeah, this one's welcome, too. First of all—and I really want to say oftentimes audits are big and scary, but I've come to share with others that if you embrace it, it really becomes a roadmap and a tool to getting better. You mentioned on this Fire Department one there was a goal for repair and maintenance and the age of infrastructure. Share with me that goal a little bit on how to measure the need. Because we actually have a station right here in Hilo that Page 14 FC-20 October 5,2021 is very, very aged,just like our rural area. So I just wanted to hear a little bit more around how you would begin to perform that audit, around repair and maintenance and aged infrastructure. MR. BENNER: Well, I think the first thing you need to do is create a real extensive Christmas wish list, and you need to say what a division or what a firehouse looks like that's well stood up, that has everything that it needs, and to begin to go through and say, "What is the time, the usable life for these assets?" This is something—once you have one station that is very, very well understood, and I think there's some variance between our stations, but you should be able to begin to go through those and say, "What is Station 2, what is Station 3, what is Station 4 missing from those things?" And you begin to develop a fixed overhead costs list, a one-time purchase list, and then it's about an asset replacement plan, ultimately. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, absolutely. So that's the rightsizing of the station, right, and the life cycles of the equipment. And yeah, I remember making that purchase. And then we had the Mana Road Fire, and then we had great community partners like the Sayre Foundation, who ended up chipping in for some pumps and hoses for our rural community. So leveraging all of that and kind of putting it together in one audit would be amazing. Yeah, that's all I have on this one. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Ms. Kimball, go ahead. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. I'm just kind of want to build on what my colleagues have said, and we've talked about as a Council before, is the idea budgeting for outcomes. And I've talked a little bit with Chief Todd about that concept within the Fire Department to really first focus on what service they want to be able to provide and then structuring it up to—structuring the budget to accomplish those goals. And so he was open to it, and I hope that to a certain extent the lens that this audit is viewed through includes that approach to the budget process with this particular department. Also, hoping that there's going to be an inclusion of the communications and incident response in this audit. I think that's all an area that personally I'd actually like to know a little bit more about,just as a new Council Member. Understanding how things happen in an emergent situation, that's something that I feel like I still need more skills around. I think part of it would be particularly useful; I'm sure my colleagues feel the same. But as a new Council Member that is of particular interest to me. MR. BENNER: Thank you for that. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ms. Villegas. Page 15 FC-20 October 5,2021 MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you for being here, Mr. Benner. One question I would have, because you know, we see a lot in here about the workforce. And just something that's come up and related to many departments I suppose, but it's some concerns around overtime, and how that overtime gets who gets to work it, and how that affects retirement funding, and just some of the questions around managing that most efficiently for the sake of our County dollars. And ensuring that we eliminate any potential for doubt or mistrust within the staffing of the Fire Department, which operates at the highest standards. But for something like this, to be able to come forward and show the areas that are being operated with integrity, and if there any issues, how they become avoided. Because it's imperative that our community trust our Fire Department and our Fire Fighters implicitly, and that we just ensure that we eliminate any opportunities for questioning of those kind of practices. Because that seems to come up in some different conversations up here, and it's concerning. So I am grateful that you'll be looking not only at the, like tactile equipment, but also in the practices when it comes to scheduling and how we keep those overtime hours to a minimum and how and who gets to work them. So, thank you for that. MR. BENNER: Sure. Well, we definitely want to preserve capacity for the emergency situations that exist; and if those are getting spent outside of those emergency calls, then that leaves that much less to answer those calls. So I think a lot of that is going to probably be inherent in high-tech solutions; and being able to access data, be able to see where you're at, see where you've expended that money, see who's been the beneficiary of past shifts, and so that you can more equitably distribute that. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. And I know that we have had some serious shortages in our EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and people with the training, which has caused undue stress and pressure, especially in this time of COVID, on some of those highly-trained staff members. So with that, I'm also excited to see the identification of the specific roles, and how we as a County can support the EMT and the Fire Fighters within the department, to make sure that we are staffing them equitably and not being overly demanding. After this last year and a half, a lot of us are kind of burnt out in whatever our roles are, and so we want to make sure to preserve those who continue to serve. So, thank you for that. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Any further comments? Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. There's just one more comment I wanted to make; I forgot to mention it earlier. You probably already know this, but it's worth saying again. That our Fire Department is incredibly unique when you take a look at other departments across the State who run Fire and EMS service as two completely separate operations. And so we are incredibly unique, in that our Fire Page 16 FC-20 October 5,2021 Fighters also function as MICTs (Mobile Intensive Care Technicians), right, the Paramedics, the EMTs, so there's dual roles that they're filling. And so, I just hope that the report is cognizant of that point, because we are asking our Fire Fighters to step up in a variety of capacities. It's a very demanding job. So I just wanted to make sure that point is stated, because I don't know if we can accurately compare what we are doing here on Hawaii Island dollar-to dollar with what's happening across the State. MR. BENNER: I don't know if we could compare it with anything. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Right. Exactly. MR. BENNER: Really, I mean even within the islands. I'm hearing how Maui operates between three islands. But when I sat down with Chief Todd, he did explain the unique challenges, that we're inherent in that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes. MR. BENNER: So yes, we will be taking account to that. Yes, Ma'am. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: The other thing is we rely so heavily on our Volunteer Firefighter fleet, and so ensuring that they're getting proper support and resources I think is going to be also something that I hope that you're going to be taking into consideration. MR. BENNER: Ye, total locations were included in the survey, and he did explain the extent to which they're participants. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great, thank you. That's all, I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Chair David, anything to add from Kona? MS. DAVID: Thank you. Chair, no. Thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you, Ma'am. Mr. Benner, okay, couple points I'd like to bring up. MR. BENNER: Sure. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This just came to my attention as I looked at a project that is happening in my district. But commercial activities in rural areas require infrastructure, like fire hydrants and that kind of thing. When they're not, there is actually a requirement for the operation to have water tanks available for Page 17 FC-20 October 5,2021 the Fire Department, if needed, to put out a fire. It's interesting that the homeowner is required to provide water for a possible a fire at their structure, because the infrastructure that we have as a County isn't adequate to serve that facility. So the reason I bring that up is, can the materials or the—can the Fire Department's equipment be looked at in terms of how we tie into permitting and requirements on operations that are private? And how we can better serve the public with having better equipment, or what we can do to kind of bridge that, the interface. That's going a little bit further than just the Fire Department itself, but it also does the Fire Department does—and it's part of the permitting process. But also, there's requirements on homeowners in rural areas to have certain equipment available for the Fire Department if they show up. Because our own County infrastructure isn't adequate. So if you can tie that in, make that a part of it. It would be interesting, to me, to see what you come up with. MR. BENNER: Okay, I will definitely give it some consideration and see how appropriately we can get it to the baseline. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Okay, thank you. And then just touching on something that Ms. Kierkiewicz brought up The Kea`au Fire Department has had a leaking roof for years; you know, it's a leased facility. Going a little bit further than that, because you're going to look at these kind of things, are you looking into what areas need more service as part of this study? Or it's just better to understand the Fire Department on what it's doing? MR. BENNER: So I guess the first place to start—I've looked at an archive online committee meeting, where I believe it was Council Member Chung had asked the former Human Resources Director about why it was that some of the departments were sitting at a 60/40 split for S&W(Salary and Wages) versus equipment and some other costs, and our first responders were in the range of 80 to 85; and the way that he was asking—it was not to say that he necessarily thought they were being overcompensated there, but perhaps that the rest of that unit was not being rightsized, it was not being proportionately stood up. That's kind of where the seed of our entrance sits, is to say, "Is it out of alignment here, or is it that this needs to be brought up?" So we're trying to go in and figure out what is it going to take—what would it take to have a well-equipped efficient station with well-managed equipment, and then what would be the ongoing costs to actually maintain those. As far as property-client equipment that we don't own, I guess that would depend on who the owner is, what the owner says to maintain that property, whether that falls within the Fire Department, and then therefore falls under Property Management, or whether or not that would be incumbent upon the landlord to provide those type of services. It's a consideration, but it's not the primary objectives of the audit, I suppose. Page 18 FC-20 October 5,2021 CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And then any—are you touching on where services are needed, almost like long-range planning kind of thought process, or are you just touching on how is it working right now, or can be better? MR. BENNER: At the moment, it's not a forward-facing on it. We're looking at how it sits today; how we're prepared to address today's challenges. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Okay, thank you. Okay, Council Members? Okay, move on, sir. MR. BENNER: Alright. The forethought that we're going to be doing is Limited Scope Audit of Inventory and Controls. This is primarily a compliance risk factor. The County maintains a small asset inventory, referred to as materials, tools, and supplies of approximately $11 million. It also maintains a Fixed Asset Report of $182.5 million. We intended to conduct a Limited Scope Audit of these inventories throughout the County. What we mean by "Limited Scope" is that we aren't looking for a one-to-one serial number match of every item in every department that we visit, but rather we will conduct statistical samples on volumes of the list, and determine whether reasonable assurance exists to conclude that additions, transfers, disposals are accurate and complete. And we want to ensure major categories aren't being omitted from inventory; site visits enhance this. If disposals have taken place due to theft, we want to ensure that police reports support that. And we'll be looking for written in policies and procedures to ensure safeguarding of those assets. Any questions from Council on this? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ms. Lee Loy, go ahead. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. This one too, also very welcome. Couple of years back, we did one on DPW itself and all of their assets. So this actually really looks like the next step, right, to go ahead and take it across the board for all the different departments. You mentioned—like the volumes. That the volumes are accurate. Right, back to right-sizing; we're right-sizing the department. Just based on your standards,just a rationale or some rubric as to what are the right volumes. You know, if the department size is 200, we should have so many percent in printers. Do you have that information, Mr. Benner? MR. BENNER: So we utilize the statistical sampling calculator, that actually you would feed it a couple of inputs as to how much is in the department in aggregate; and what your relative degree of confidence is, you start with kind of a low degree, and then as you—it will enter a statistical number that you begin with. As you start Page 19 FC-20 October 5,2021 to enter those samples and you find the corresponding checks, that confidence level increases, and then the amount then starts to shrink. When it has reached a reasonable confidence level, something like 96 percent, and you have reasonable assurance of that; and if it goes the other way and you have start having items missing, then that confidence level drops, and the statistical samples increase. MS. LEE LOY: Perfect, and then so rightsizing the department with the various tools. But is there a mechanism based on age too, of that particular tools in your statistical models? MR. BENNER: No, they don't. It doesn't take into account age. On the fixed asset inventory that we're looking at though, those have useful lifecycles listed on them. So disposals should be happening once they've reached their reasonable useful life. Should be. CHR. LEE LOY: I'm kind of chuckling because I know some people who still have very old desks that never got disposed of. Okay, yeah. And then, you know when you talk about these material tools and supply inventory, is there a dollar threshold after—you know, say the piece of equipment is more than $100,000, it's no longer a tool. MR. BENNER: I believe the Finance Department has some definitions of what should be included for dollars. One thing that could probably be strengthened is individual departments, again, this goes—dovetails into the policy and procedures. They should be coming up with definitions, because the inventory that's in Parks and Recreation, for example, is not the same inventory that's going to be up in Finance. Departments really should have a list of items that would qualify in one category or another, and that should be kind of a dynamic list. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah. And then just having some shared common vocabulary across the departments also, right? MR. BENNER: Right. MS. LEE LOY: Alright, thank you. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Auditor Benner, I'm hoping too, that as part of this particular audit, `cause Council Member Lee Loy brought up the age piece, how many of our assets that are actively being used are beyond their natural lifecycle? I'm really curious about that, to know how much of that is not up to par. You know, I'm just curious. I think the pandemic sort of exposed the deficiencies and kind of where we're lacking, and so there is some that CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) money to really invest in that infrastructure, Page 20 FC-20 October 5,2021 that allows our people to be able to operate at that optimal level. So I'm just curious about that particular piece, because I think that outdated equipment really gets in the way of people really being able to be productive. So, I'm curious about that. And then also, oftentimes purchases are being made for a particular department. I just wish that there was a way in which tools can be shared across departments, because I don't always think that certain things are being used by a particular department 24/7, so just as a way to potentially cut down cost. I'm just curious about those recommendations as well, if you see ways to explore some of that. MR. BENNER: Yeah, as well as they're guarded by custodial logs, because that is exactly how equipment goes missing. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Very interesting, okay. And then as part of this, you're also going to identify just whose kuleana it is, right? Responsibility to continuously safeguard it, but also ensure proper maintenance so that we get full lifecycle out of these tools? MR. BENNER: Yeah. Again, policy and procedures should dictate some series of procedures that has to happen, to catalog those things, whether the frequency at which you're doing visual inspections on those things, what safeguards you're putting up around them, so departments should be standing these type of controls up. And we're going to be looking at that. Again, the reason why we're doing this countywide, this is more doors, this more ability to make entrances into various departments. And this a low-hanging fruit for these departments. If you have not stood up controls around policy and procedures, guarding these things should definitely be on your radar. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah. You know, Council Member Lee Loy and I, we're working with several departments on a conditions assessment matrix, and so as we kind of develop that information, share that with our colleagues, we also want to be able to provide that to you, and you can leverage it however you see fit for this particular audit scope. MR. BENNER: Thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Chair, I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Okay, we do have a list. A fairly large binder. MR. BENNER: Like two phonebooks, okay. Page 21 FC-20 October 5,2021 CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Of a list of County assets, yeah? MR. BENNER: Yes, sir. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I've seen it; I don't think I have a copy in my office. I'm looking at the size of it; if we were as a County to look at that before we said, "Yes, I think that department needs four more vehicles this year," it would be difficult. So I think what would be useful is having, when we come out of this, is some kind of a summarized document that's presented to the Council, that allows us to see what the departments have; which helps us understand saying yes or no to a new vehicle purchase, to a large machine purchase, whatever it may be. And I think there's a few departments that should be more specific too, but it helps us make good decisions when it comes to what's needed for the department and what's not. You know, how long can we run a vehicle; things age out. But getting the most use out of it for our County and being more efficient for our taxpayer dollars, yeah. That's what it comes down to, in my head. But not having that list, even though it exists, in a summarized form so we can understand, okay, DPW has 1,300 vehicles and most of them are above 2009. So do we need to purchase four more trucks this year? Probably not. You know, like just something that helps us—good data for us that helps us decision-make at a good level, I guess. That's something I've seen again, again, and again, different budget cycles, different resolutions; whether it's a copy machine, whether it's a new vehicle, whether it's a CCTV(Closed Circuit Television Vehicle) truck for our Wastewater Division, one for Kona, one for Hilo, and it's running $500,000 apiece, and those expenses build up. I don't know how many resolutions for copy machines I've seen coming in front of us, which are needed, but at what level? So yeah, the only way for us, I think, to make good decisions though, is to see that in a data set that's comprehendible, that allows us to make decisions going forward. So if that can be part of your audit, wonderful, because that will really help us make our decisions. Does that make sense? MR. BENNER: I'm all up for converting as many things from paper to electronic as possible. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. Okay, I mean again, that report was about three or four-inch binder. MR. BENNER: I've got it. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You have one of those? MR. BENNER: I have the one. Page 22 FC-20 October 5,2021 CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And I'm guessing, looking at that thing, you could really get a feel for each department. But it would be so overwhelming, the decision-making, while trying to judge that book and see what you have, would be difficult. MR. BENNER: It is. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so that's where I'm going, yeah. I think you and I are on the same page, beautiful. Okay, thank you, sir. Okay, what else you got? You have anything more? I have two pages for Self-Initiated Audit. I think it's the same page. MR. BENNER: Follow-up audits. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Follow-up audits? MR. BENNER: Yes, sir. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, go for it. MR. BENNER: Alright, Follow-up Audits. Just a quick definition here, remediation means to provide a remedy for, or fix. I don't there's going to be any questions on these first two. Department of Water Supply–Cash Handling. This original audit was conducted on August 25, 2017. Seven recommendations were made. We've not yet engaged to determine the status of the department's action plan. The second one is also Department of Water Supply –Contingency Plans. The original audit was conducted on March 3, 2020. Two recommendations were made. We've not engaged to determine status of the department's action plan, basically because last week our external auditors entranced in with them on their single audit. So we're just—they also have incredible turnover in their personnel and some other factor is going on right now. So that is on our radar to do, but we haven't entranced in on that. The second two of these may have some questions, I would assume. Mass Transit- Cash Handling: this original audit was conducted April 30, 2018. The audit produced 31 findings. We're working very closely with the Interim Director. We believe 14 of the recommendations to be sufficiently remediated, and are determining the extent that progress is being made on those items yet to be implemented. Is there any questions on that follow-up? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ms. Lee Loy, go ahead. Page 23 FC-20 October 5,2021 MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Yeah, this one was an award-winning audit, actually. So tell me again, there were 13 recommendations? MR. BENNER: Thirty-one. MS. LEE LOY: Thirty-one. And how many have we gotten through? MR. BENNER: We believe that 14 have been sufficiently remediated. I understand that there are some changes potentially to that department's operations, that may be forthcoming, and that they may cause a couple of—quite a few of the other recommendations to be no. As it stands today, we don't have that information confirmed though, so we're operating under the idea that is not happening. MS. LEE LOY: Sure. What's the timeline on this one? MR. BENNER: We're engaged, so we're kind of waiting on them to decide what way that—there's some decisions in play right now, so I don't know what level of MS. LEE LOY: Is there something you think we could get back within four to six months? MR. BENNER: Yes. MS. LEE LOY: Yes? MR. BENNER: Yes. There will be some items there were some recommendations that were made; for example, one of them was that new cashboxes I believe we were going into old—well, into their buses. And that doesn't work for old buses, so they can only cycle them out as new buses come in. So changes like that are going to be something. But they're not going to be able to fully implement. We can't call that fully-remedied. But we will work with what we can work with as long as there's an understanding that they're moving towards that direction. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, this one would be interesting to get back before our budget cycle starts in 2022, and as we begin to plan for that particular department. But I understand, you know, there's a lot of work to be put in. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you; and thank you, Mr. Benner, for being here. I see on page six you have additions to the audit work plan. It's kind of self-explanatory. But in light of the other counties, some of them are doing their TAT (Transient Accommodation Tax), and the potential for us to be included in that, here in Page 24 FC-20 October 5,2021 Hawaii County. Do you anticipate having any hand in tracking how that happens, and how we account for those funds, and how they're spent? MR. BENNER: No. That wasn't—that's not on our horizon right now. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. That's it, Chair. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Auditor Benner, Human Resources hiring practices, what more needs follow up? Sorry, I think I went(inaudible). MR. BENNER: Oh, I haven't gotten to that yet. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Oh, okay. MR. BENNER: But would you like me? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes, please. MR. BENNER: Are we ? Mass Transit's good? Okay. Department of Human Resources Hiring Practices. This audit was conducted September 7, 2017. Five recommendations were made. The department believes four of those recommendations are fully implemented. The outstanding recommendation has yet to be implemented; it's the consideration to implement a Whistle Blower hotline. This is an interesting item. I've gone back to the archived Committee meetings to see how discussions evolved surrounding this recommendation. Brief history. Essentially dollars were allocated to Human Resources to stand up a Whistle Blower hotline, with a part-time personnel, funded in the Office of the Legislative Auditor, to monitor and follow up on claims. Human Resources made improvement to their process, and believe they sufficiently addressed the underlying conditions, creating the recommendation, and facing some budget choices made the decision not to stand the line up. The funding was reallocated, and the position was never recruited. Somewhere in the process, and I don't mean to draw a period on that, when I said that they decided not to stand the line up. The last meeting that I witnessed was, I believe you, Council Member, saying that a new Auditor was going to coming down the line. That this should be a tabled discussion, so not to put a period on that. That funding was reallocated, and the position was never recruited. Somewhere in the process, our office does seem to have accepted an outsized role and implementing the recommendation it did make for the department, which is not typical. But where we stand today and where we go—well, we don't know how Page 25 FC-20 October 5,2021 much utilization the line will see. We do see that that the services is worthwhile for both the community and the current perspective employees, and we will complete this item. We're now working without the funding mechanism or designated personnel, but here's how we decided to close this loop. We've spoken with the Mayor and the Managing Director, who are in full support of adding a concerns page to the County website, including a tree that will direct some of the concerns like potholes, to their respective departments, and we would administer the Whistle Blower Line. We've had conversations with our communication department about education pieces, and they've offered valuable input. And we've had conversations with our technology department about standing up the page, and they've advised it's reasonable and achievable with minimum wait time. We have a vacancy in our office, and we are looking to fill that immediately. We have decided that using our existing resources we'll plan to allocate up to one-half of their time for the first year, and approach Council after that later period, if we believe that additional resources are necessary. There are some small logistical considerations, but much of its work has already been done. And I'll be providing an update to the Merit Appeals Board, on October 29'h to look forward to putting this item to bed. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, that's helpful. I think we're all a bit kind of disappointed when action wasn't taken to sort of implement a formal whistle blower program, because it was elevated as a need by our Auditor. And I think all of us have been outreached by County employees, members of the public, that are legitimately fearful of elevating these concerns to a higher level. And so just wanting to ensure that they are given that safe harbor to share without fear of retaliation is so critical. If I could suggest connecting with Gabriella Cabanas, who used to be with HR(Human Resources). MR. BENNER: I have. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Perfect. She's on the Merit Appeals Board, incredibly valuable. I think she has a lot of mana`o that she can share on this. I think she helped to do a lot of initial research to certainly inform me in my position, and how the County should be proceeding. MR. BENNER: We're in possession of her folder. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Perfect. MR. BENNER: So, yes. Page 26 FC-20 October 5,2021 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great. A wealth of information there. I don't need to badger you on this any longer. But look forward to seeing how this plays out, and just really encouraging you folks to try. Honestly, a concerns page on the Mayor's website or on the Mayor's page, that doesn't illicit a lot of trust for me, sorry. No offense to anyone, right? Like, I think people really want to see this independent arm, getting that information. Because I think when it's housed in a place like the Mayor's Office, people just get concerned about politics playing a role in the triage of that information. So, I just share that with you. And I'm not trying to disparage anyone, but I'm just thinking of like perception of community, of who is in charge of being the first initial recipient of that information. MR. BENNER: Thank you for that. There are a couple of different websites that have some complaints, ethics, or concerns-type pages on them, that I'm familiar with and have interacted with in the past. You know, Honolulu has a concerns page similar; it could use some clean-up on its navigation piece, but the idea here was that if somebody hit the website, that they would have a table that we could grow, that we would be able to say, okay, well once you know, potholes and abandoned vehicles go here. As far we're concerned what is more appropriate for our line, and we should be—have a place, an architecture of a whistle blower line, but a fraud waste and abuse line is generally more pointed towards the audit function. And so, we want the ability to grow those things. Mayor's Office, I approached them and asked them to stand this page up in the site. But this goes directly to our office. This whistle blower line isn't embedded under the Mayor's page. This simply runs along our top banner on our webpage. So this bypass is done completely. This is simply a phone tree and a way to get information that they're concerned about to us. And again, not to push back on it, I totally understand your concerns, but just as an explanation to that— MS. hatMS. KIERKIEWICZ: No, that's great. MR. BENNER: They didn't push back against this at all. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah. MR. BENNER: They were totally—said, "I love it. Do it. Stand it up. We want people to be able to vent those things." MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, that's helpful. And any information that you can share with me and my colleagues so we can ensure that we're promoting this out to the community would be really helpful. Page 27 FC-20 October 5,2021 The other outstanding pieces, as you do your follow-up engagement on this particular audit,just kind of taking a look at some of the recommendations and how they've been implemented. I know that one of the things was HR being that initial—like screening all the applicants before sending, you know,priority list of applicants to the various departments. I'm just curious, has that been a successful model or not? Just rhetorically speaking—and I'll leave it there. I'll follow up with you with a bit more information. But I'm just curious around that piece, as well. MR. BENNER: Sure. And for the conclusion of all of these engagements, we do plan to come back before Council to present those findings. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you. Chair, I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ms. Lee Loy, go ahead. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Thank you too, Ms. Kierkiewicz; she really hustled her freshman year and found a lot of money to make this happen. And so I can understand the frustration that money was placed there, you know, two years ago and there is a need. I think you're absolutely right. You know, having a concerns page on an administrative website, about potholes, abandoned vehicles, you know, yes, those are community concerns the administration should be addressing. But to sever off a concerns page, where it ends up with an independent office to talk about fraud, waste and abuse is definitely for you and your wheelhouse to handle. So I am looking forward to how this unfolds. It's been a long time, and coming. This is where we need to take action. We had an audit. We have the funding. Let's go ahead and stand this one up. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Members. And then just to give everyone the heads-up, we are—our next Committee is at 2:00, correct? Okay, we're at 2:07, so let's keep it brief and clean. Mr. Benner, go ahead. Do you have more? MR. BENNER: No, sir. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Well, that's it. You're done? MR. BENNER: Done. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Do we have a 2-1-1 number here? Like, a County general line number? MR. BENNER: I don't know. Page 28 FC-20 October 5,2021 CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I don't think we do. I know we have 9-1-1. Do we have a 4-1-1 for our County? We don't. So what I have seen other municipalities do is have a 2-1-1 number. It's very simple. You call, redirect. We don't have that here. And if that ties in with what Ms. Kierkiewicz was saying, great; if it doesn't, it doesn't. But it's so helpful, because I got a phone call today, someone just wants to know about the Emergency Rental Assistance program. They just wanted to know where to go. It's a website, follow this link, and go. But it's just that simple, and the County, if we can provide that, it just helps that communication be so much more better between the community and the government. So if that ties in, it does; and if it doesn't, it doesn't. That's fine. Okay, I think that was a wonderful presentation today. Thank you very much. I look forward to seeing what you come back with, and your follow-up. I think you're on a great start. And I really appreciated your time. I also like your mask. Do you watch the office, or what? MR. BENNER: Our Audit Analyst makes these on a sewing machine. Our entire office has them, and we walk arm-in-arm. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I like it. Okay, Mr. Benner, thank you very much. I appreciate your time today. MR. BENNER: Thank you. Take care. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council, we have a motion on the floor to close file on Communication 401, all in favor of closing file? Vote on Comm. 401: The motion to close file on Comm. 401 was carried Filed by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—5. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung, David, Kimball, and Richards—4. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, next order of business, sir. Page 29 FC-20 October 5,2021 Comm. 405: 2020-2021 ANNUAL REPORT FROM THE KAIL,UA VILLAGE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT From Jay Rubenstein, Board President, of the Kailua Village Business Improvement District, dated September 9, 2021. Motion to Close File: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 405. Seconded by Ms. Villegas. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members, the report is in front of us. And is Mr. Rubenstein outside or in Kona? Is there anyone in the Kona Chambers? MR. RUEDY: Nobody is here in Kona. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you, Scotty. MR. RUEDY: Okay. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Well, maybe let my Council Members—go ahead, if there's any questions. Yeah, a presentation would be nice; and if they're not available, we could just switch to postponing this to the next meeting. MS. VILLEGAS: I would like to ask for a motion to postpone. MS. LEE LOY: Second. MS. VILLEGAS: It would be nice to have Mr. Rubenstein here to go over this report with us. Vote on Motion Ms. Villegas moved to postpone Comm. 405 to to Postpone: October 19, 2021. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and (Approved) carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder–5. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung, David, Kimball, and Richards –4. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And then we have finally, Resolution 211. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. Page 30 FC-20 October 5,2021 Res. 211-21: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR AND OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR A MULTI-YEAR AGREEMENT FOR HOUSING PRO SOFTWARE SUBSCRIPTION, SERVICE, AND MAINTENANCE FOR THE OFFICE OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a five-year lease agreement with an estimated annual cost of$47,045.16 beginning December 1, 2021, with an annual 3.5 percent increase. Reference: Comm. 406 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend adoption of Res. 211-21. Seconded by Ms. Villegas. (Note: At this time, Housing and Community Development Specialist VI Desiree Moore came forward and addressed the Members of the Committee.) CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members, any discussion? And we do have someone from Office of Housing Community Development on our Zoom call, if there are questions. Okay, Debbie, are you on Zoom? Can you hear us? Do you want to comment on this? MS. MOORE: It's Desiree. Hi, Council Members. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Sorry, Desiree. I'm sorry. MS. MOORE: It's okay. Annually, the contract is renewed every November, and this past year it went up 12 percent, from up to $50,000. So if we continue at the annual contract, we would have paid $50,908 versus the $47,000, if we enter into a five-year contract. It will still be paid annually, but capped at the 3.5 percent increase. And we use this program to service our clients, from waiting-list to eligibility occupancy. Our entire operation uses this software program. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. Thank you for that. So you're going to do the slight cost-saving for the County, that is very much appreciated, and this is incredibly important. Okay, thank you. Thank you for that explanation Council Members, any questions for Desiree? No? Okay, seeing none. Thank you, Ma'am. Thank you for sticking around. MS. MOORE: Thank you. Good afternoon. Page 31