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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GOREDC 2022/01/18 2020-2022 Committee on Governmental Operations, Relations, and Economic Development 21st Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawai i January 18, 2022 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Operations, Relations, ORDER: and Economic Development was called to order at 9:37 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Vice Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) (came in later) Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (via videoconference) 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: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Cory Harden: Comm. 420.5, comment. (representing the Sierra Club, Hawaii Island Group) CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. I'll go ahead and close Public Testimony and we'll move on to the agenda items. Mr. Clerk, I'd like to take Communication 576 out of order,please. Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Council Members, the of Business: following item was taken out of order: GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 Comm. 576: NOMINATION OF ERICK ALLENDE TO THE BOARD OF ETHICS From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated December 29, 2021, requesting the Council's review and confirmation. Requires Council Confirmation by: February 11, 2022 (Section 134(k), Hawaii County Charter) Vote on Comm. 576: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend confirmation of the (Approved) appointment of Erick Allende to the Board of Ethics. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Executive Assistant to the Mayor Pomaika`i Bartolome came forward and provided a brief narrative of the nominee's background and experience. Committee Members spoke in favor of the appointment. CHR. KIMBALL: With that, we'll proceed to the top of the agenda. Return to Order The Chair directed the Committee to return to the order of business. of Business: Comm. 420.5: REQUESTS A FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION WITH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT REGARDING THE FILM PERMITTING PROCESS From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated November 3, 2021. Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to close file on Comm. 420.5. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Aloha Director Adams, Happy New Year. Thank you for taking the time to be here with us. This conversation is a follow-up to one that we had last year regarding the film-permitting process. Page 2 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 I know that you have been working very hard as a department to find a new Film Commissioner and really create a very clear and consistent process for anyone interested in exploring doing a film here, being able to do that in a really efficient way. But also there being guardrails in place to protect and engage with potentially impacted communities. So just hoping to get an update from you on a number of things that we discussed a few months ago related to marketing and engagement strategies, potential assessment of economic impacts; exploring fines for improper behavior, and who gets to be the judge of that. And if there was a simple infographic that you can share with us regarding the permitting process, because I know that it is a very complex one with a number of hoops to jump through. Thanks, Director. (Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Doug Adams came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. ADAMS: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Before I start, if I may at the Chair's pleasure, I'd just like to remark on Mr. Allende's nomination and him moving to the full Council. I just found that to be particularly just a terrific representation. As you all stated, members of our community obviously, I've not met the gentleman. His story as he explained it is terrific. Those are the kinds of things we need. Boards and commissions are just a huge part of how we do things in this County. And to see somebody be willing to step up into a board, you know,that is very busy oftentimes and has important and sometimes controversial issues. And his willingness to step and engage in that in an objective and nonpartisan way. It just speaks loads about his character and really makes me think well of the future of this County. So appreciate the opportunity to say that. I just felt compelled. Speaking to the issues that I'm here to talk about today, yes, it has been a few months since I was before you to talk about our film office and our film work as well as our creative industries' work. I will tell you that we are still behind in terms of hiring a Film Commissioner, but we are making progress. We are stuck in some of the same issues that many employers are when it comes to finding folks, but we will get there. The efforts to integrate internally are bearing fruit. I don't have an infographic specifically to show you all, but we will prepare one and get that to you. However, the efforts where all of the organizations that we talked about within the County that are engaged are, in fact, operating well together. Page 3 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 The connections that we have with Fire, DPW (Department of Public Works), Planning and our office are working well. There are two to three requests a week primarily by photographers, but some scouting. It's relatively quiet at the moment. So those efforts primarily don't require there haven't been any construction requirements, so we haven't really had much to do with Public Works. And no special management activities or special management area requests recently. So this has been about making sure that if folks need to get into particular areas—and of course, I don't want to forget Parks and Rec and their facilities. But the efforts right now in terms of integration is going along as we would hope they would after we came out of the summertime period with some additional efforts, some additional focus on how we operate as a County internally. I would tell you that the State is making efforts now, and this is where there has been some movement. There is some work being done at the State Creative Industries Division to try and integrate the State and the County film offices to a much greater extent than has been the case. At the moment, it's pretty much siloed, although there are opportunities. If you go to the State Film Office, you can find out who the film commissioners and the film offices are in the counties, but there hasn't been much interaction other than, you know, picking up the phone or sending an email. The efforts right now are to try and actually integrate an online platform that allows for contact to a much greater extent here in the State with all of the film offices. In fact, even to the extent that where there are film permits that are issued, whereas in the past we may not know those, to in fact make sure that the counties are aware of what the State is doing in those regards as well. So in terms of integrating, not just internally but also externally, there's some work that's being done there which we really appreciate. The 2021 report having to do with where the State Film and Creative Industries is doing economically;jobs and revenues, is due out here shortly. I had an opportunity to talk to Georja Skinner, the Division Chief for Creative Industries last week. And so, she told me that that report will be out shortly, and once it is, I'll make sure that everyone here has a copy of that. I guess that's where I'm at right at the moment. I understand the question about fines. It's not something that we have pushed on, but we'll take that up with Corp Counsel to find out whether we have the authority to move into a fining system for these kinds of activities. Page 4 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 Our permits typically are not aligned. The permits that are granted through our office wouldn't necessarily have the authority to issue fines. But there may be in Planning and in Public Works those opportunities. So we need to move and check those things out. That's my report and update, and I'm here subject to your questions. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Director. Just curious where you might need help in finding someone to assume the role of Film Commissioner. My understanding is that Frecia Cevallos is TA'ing in that position. She phenomenal, but I just feel incredibly bad that she's having to wear two hats; one for Film Commissioner and also our Tourism Specialist. And we know there is a lot of work being done to implement the DMAP (Destination Management Action Plan) and other strategic plans related to the hospitality in tourism industry. MR. ADAMS: We're pretty busy as a department. Yes, Council Member. I appreciate the offer. I will take you up if there is a need. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Is something online that we can be sharing out with the community as to this position being recruited for? MR. ADAMS: It's a Civil Service position, so we have to follow the HR (Human Resources) rules like everyone else. So when the position is sent out recruited, which we hope will happen here in the next few weeks; less than a few weeks; hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, then that information will be available for everybody. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. So I just want to confirm, other than what is going to be published in the next few weeks, there was no other recruitment that went out to the community? MR. ADAMS: We wouldn't be allowed to do that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: You wouldn't be allowed to recruit for the position? I'm sorry, I'm just not following. MR. ADAMS: Right. It's Civil Service. We have to follow the Civil Service, you know, rules. So we're not sending information out other than through the Human Resources protocols. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes, I understand that and we get copies of it. What I'm trying to understand is, the recruitment that they're pushing out in the next few weeks, is that the first time this announcement is going out into the community about the position being open? Page 5 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 MR. ADAMS: Officially, yes. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Thank you. I want to go back to the 2021 report you mentioned about the impact of the Creative Industries. I think that that report is going to be focusing on the "Positives." The economic activity that is being generated across the islands. But I'm sure you heard the testimony by one of our consistent testifiers, Cory Harden, in taking a look at the negative impacts the industry might be having in community outside of the financial piece. Are you able to comment on that, of any tracking of that sort of information? MR. ADAMS: I am. Thank you for the question. The efforts of our Creative Industries on this island, and I think within the State, there has been a great deal of work to make sure that the films and that the other creative activities that are published or produced, are in fact, beginning to show. And I think actually there have been efforts made over the last few years to show more of the cultural sensitivity that's associated with the islands that we know, and this island that we know and love. We don't always get it right. Obviously we as a Government, are not able to sensor what is done. But the idea of showing the kind of island that we live in; the kind of people that we have here. All of those aspects are actually the things that we see being provided to a global audience, a much greater extent than the other kinds of—if I could, trivial types of productions. And so, as we take a look at what we're doing for example, with the Hawaii Tourism Authority, and the Pono Pledge, and the Malama Hawaii. Those efforts are not just associated with our visitor industry but they're also associated with our creative industries. And those things are tied together pretty stringently at the moment. And as we take a look at what we're trying to do on this island to provide more opportunity for our creatives to earn a livelihood, the work that they do is primarily focused on, you know, showing what is here; what the background is that's here. Whether it's the `aina or whether it's the activities of the people here. And that's all to the good when it comes to showing the kind of place that we have here. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for that, Director. Can you provide me a couple of recent examples of how the Malama Hawaii Program has been integrated with your film process within R&D? MR. ADAMS: Well, the Pono Pledge itself was something that in particular was a connection both through the work that Frecia was doing both as Tourism Specialist, as well as the work that work that HVB (Hawai`i Visitors Bureau) Page 6 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 was doing under Ross Birch and what the State was doing both in HTA and HVCB (Hawai`i Visitors and Convention Bureau). In addition, I'm going to forget, unfortunately, the receipt of an award that was conducted in the Fall last year. But there was some work that was done to expand the use of our `Olelo Hawaii names, and those stories for some of the places that we have here on the island. And that was done in a very graceful and gracious way. And also in an explanatory and educational way. And as a result, the County itself was not necessarily awarded, but the County worked hand-in- glove with the developers of that program, and the benefits that have accrued. So those are a couple of examples,just off the top of my head. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, I guess I was looking for more tangible examples of, you know, folks that are part of film crews, film sets, doing volunteer work in community. That was my understanding of what the Malama Hawaii Program was or is. MR. ADAMS: I will have to come back to you with something that addresses your question more directly. I'm not read into the specifics of what the film crews are doing. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I mean there is a way to incorporate into the film permitting process work days for film crews to just aloha `aina, right, we keep talking about how we want to make sure that these industries are less extractive and that there is reciprocity and regeneration, especially by those that are visitors here for the grounding them in this placeI think would be a positive for all. Just last question, Director. Are you going to share with us off the top of your head, the last few years, the number of permits that have been applied for and issued for the film industry here in Hawaii County? MR. ADAMS: I'll have to get that information for you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for your presence today. Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. I'll start, Council Member Villegas, any questions or comments? MS. VILLEGAS: No thank you, not at this time. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, any questions or comments from the Hilo Chambers? Page 7 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: No thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright. Anybody here? Council Member Inaba? MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, Mr. Adams. I just want to circle back because what I think really sparked this conversation initially, was a filming that was done here last year. So, what I'd like to know is what have we done differently or what have we changed in-house to make sure that we don't miss the opportunity to have people, especially big productions, or any production for that matter, be permitted here in our County and to collect on what we should be collecting on—yeah, what have we done in-house there? MR. ADAMS: Thank you, Council Member. We've just been better at connecting with each other internally. There was some missteps and also the connection with the State was not as strong as it needed to be, as the Love Island production was coming on board and is particularly one, there were actually here during the Summer. And we have moved in a direction that allows for better connections. We'd like to eventually get to the online platform that we talked about back in October. We're not there yet. As you are well aware, there are other issues associated with the EPIC platform at the moment. And so, as those get resolved, then we have the opportunity to engage our online permitting, our online platform with the overall permitting platform. Then that will be another way that we're able to make sure that we're connected internally within the County, and we don't have any gaps in information flow. MR. INABA: Okay, and you know, I would assume that large productions like Love Island are very aware of what our requirements are. So, shame on us for missing that opportunity. But are you confident that our online portal and our information that we have on our County website right now is sufficient, so that people who may not be, you know, large productions are able to read something and understand what the requirements are for them to film here in the County? MR. ADAMS: Yeah, I'm not confident that we have everything that we need on the website. So there's work to be done there. MR. INABA: Okay. When do we think or have a goal for when this website should be to your liking or to the standard you would like it to be? MR. ADAMS: The first step is making sure I get a Film Commissioner in; and then the second step is making sure that Film Commissioner is connected with the other film commissioners and the State and internally. And the third step is Page 8 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 making sure that our website reflects the information that we want to make sure is available. MR. INABA: Okay. And I guess I'll end with, you know, we did get testimony in writing from members of the public regarding this communication, and based on the conversation we're having today I think—it doesn't seem that we've progressed a lot since our last meeting. We don't have a commissioner. We don't have a website that is up to date. So, I think like all of my colleagues, we're always asking, how can we help? And please let us know because we need to get this straightened out. And any way we can help, we want to help. And I'll leave it at that. So thank you for being here today. Chair, I yield. MR. ADAMS: Thank you, Council Member. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Adams for being here. I too, have to echo Mr. Inaba's comments. You know, we learned about this because the filming was already here. And like him, we all want to help. And so, we're trying to look for some stop-gap measures while you guys try and hire a film commissioner. Do you have any thoughts around what those stop-gap measures look like? MR. ADAMS: Well, Council Member Lee Loy, the idea of a stop-gap measure would be to make sure that we don't have gaps in our information flow. And so, we have taken steps to make sure that we don't. And those steps include just being more active with our communications internally around the film permitting process. The next steps are to make sure that we have the long-term game in mind and making sure that we follow those steps that I just outlined. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, you know again, whatever we can do to help. We're dealing with a lot with the kind of tourism coming back. And I'm seeing a lot of concern, and this is one area for economic recovery, but it has to be done in a very balanced fashion. Because we know some other economic recovery is going to happen that we have little control over. And I'm hoping some of my colleagues share this sentiment, we need to control what we can control. And this is one area we can control and ensure that we can mitigate any impacts. And then ensure that, you know, whatever resources are being utilized, that you know, we're collecting equal amounts of resources in return. Those are my comments. Thank you, Doug, for being here. Happy New Year. Chair, I yield. Page 9 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member Chung. MR. CHUNG: Doug, you know, if you could share with us, what would be your marching orders to this film commissioner? MR. ADAMS: Council Member, the marching orders are to do frankly what Council Member Lee Loy just talked about, right? There is a balance that is necessary to bringing filming to the island, making sure that the individuals and the organizations that are interested in conducting these large scale productions understand what that balance needs to be, that the communication that didn't occur with members in the neighborhood occurs. So basically, how to operate properly. The film industry itself actually maintains these kinds of protocols. That's how they operate. They operate within the environments where they're at. And it's part of their standards that they keep, and so we just need to make sure that we are overseeing that process occur. In addition, the film commissioner is not just about filming, it's also about the photography work that is done, and the requests that are done, and making sure that those are being done in places where they're allowed to be. And then, finally, there is this creative industry that needs to be plussed up. It's a real opportunity for many of our young people that have these skills, that they're not even aware necessarily of skills that have a livelihood attached to them. And making sure that within our island and within our island's economy that we are engaging the opportunity for revitalization and further development of these creative industries in a way that is going to connect the recipients of those productions with the kind of island that we live in. MR. CHUNG: Thank you. So again, balance is word, right? It's a delicate but distinct balance. I mean just from your personal perspective, how are you going to judge, you know, the success of the program under your leadership? You know, when you get to look back at it at some point, what's going to be your measures? MR. ADAMS: I think the outcome, Council Member, is associated with what the products are, ultimately. I'd like to—we could say what the process is, but when we're looking back the outcomes are going to be, you know, what were the productions? Did we see more jobs begin to show up? Did we see a diversity in our economy that is associated with more of our creatives being able to earn a livelihood doing the work that they're doing here on the island so that they don't have to go somewhere else to do it. Page 10 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 Where we see that many of our skilled craftsmen and individuals that are engaged in the film industry that live on this island, don't necessarily have to travel somewhere else on Oahu, or that they are capable to being hired here on the island, as opposed to bringing off-island folks here. Those are the things that I'm looking at to demonstrate that we've had modicum of success in this process. MR. CHUNG: Okay, thank you, Director. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Chung. Anyone else? Chair David. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kimball. Thank you, Director for being here. I have just a couple questions. As you were discussing, there is an actual list of places that you folks would be considering that would be allowable for picture taking, etcetera, and film-making for that matter. Is there in your department, do you have an actual list of areas that are permitted or will not be permitted? So that, as an application comes in. I mean, you have a reference immediately at hand? Or are you developing something like that? MR. ADAMS: I don't know the answer to that, and I'll have to get back to you on that. I think I know the answer, but I'd rather verify that and get back to you. MS. DAVID: Right. Because I was just going along the lines of, you know, allowing people to go in in certain areas that are either zoned conservation and that sort of thing. I mean, do you have just food for thought whether in developing your ability to allow certain people to access certain places? You said there's places that they would not be able to go, so I'm just curious in whether there is a list. And if you could get back to me, that would be great. And as far as big film industries, when they start to film and they pick an area. And I'm not sure if you've already considered this or are considering what would be the notice to adjoining landowners or people that might be impacted by a huge production like that? And I don't expect you to answer that, but I just really think that in line with our being very mindful of the uniqueness and specialness, and the cultural and environmental places that we have on this island, what would be your plans to address something like that, or where could people go to weigh in? MR. ADAMS: Chair David, I was about to answer your question until the very end. I'm not aware of where local citizens necessarily can go in to weigh in on the permitting associated with the film permits. However, for the remainder of the question, it is part of our process to make sure that if there are neighbors or it's in a particular area, then the permit itself indicates that crew or that production connect with the neighbors, particularly if there's going to be any Page 11 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 light or noise pollution or any traffic issues. All of those things are required to be identified to the folks that are in the area where the production is going to occur. And that's for photo shoots as well, not just films. MS. DAVID: Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your answers to that. Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair David. Anyone else? Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Just a couple of follow-up questions, Director. I think some years ago,prior to you being here, there were conversations with potential large landowners to see if their private properties could be offered up to film productions. Just wondering if some kind of database of that exists, and if somebody would like to offer up their land to be part of that database, how they might go about doing it? MR. ADAMS: I'll check into that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. And hypothetically speaking here, if we are not able to find someone to fill the Film Commissioner position, would we be in a position as a County to put out a contract for some kind of consultant or agency to come on board and help the department to kind of make sense of this process to create something that is very clear and concise and market it, so that anybody interested in doing films here is very aware of what the expectations are? MR. ADAMS: I don't know whether or not we can do that. I'll have to find out. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else? Alright,thank you again, Director Adams, for being here today to answer questions. It does seem like we still have a few outstanding items where we'd like to you to get back to us. So,please keep in communication with either Council Member Kierkiewicz or myself, as to an appropriate time to respond to the items that are outstanding, alright? MR. ADAMS: Thank you very much, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright. Thank you. We have a motion on the floor to close file on Communication 420.5. All of those in favor? Page 12 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 Vote on Comm. 420.5: The motion to close file on Comm. 420.5 was carried by Filed the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Moving on to the next agenda item, please. Comm. 453: REQUESTS AN UPDATE FROM THE ADMINISTRATION REGARDING ITS PRIORITIES FOR THE 2022 SESSION OF THE HAWAII STATE LEGISLATURE From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated October 11, 2021. Postponed: December 8, 2021 and January 5, 2022 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. Kierkiewicz, seconded by Mr. Inaba, to close file on Communication 453.) CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Council Member Kierkiewicz, would you like to reinitiate this conversation, please? MS. KIEKIEWICZ: Thank you. I believe we have Executive Assistant to the Mayor Steve Bader in Council chambers. I see him there. Aloha Steve, hope you are well. Thank you for your presence in the chambers today. Legislative session kicks off tomorrow, and so we are all really eager for an update from you as to what the Administration's package is looking like. We are aware of the deadlines by legislators to introduce by January 26h. So from there we'll see what of our priorities actually—we are able to advocate for. So, you've had a number of conversations with us as individuals and at the Council level. Just hoping to get a sense of what the Administration is prioritizing, at least schematically. And if you want to get into some of those mechanics, we'd certainly welcome that. But just trying to get a sense of what that looks like so that we can be working our contacts at the Leg to be advocating on our front. Thank you. (Note: At this time, Executive Assistant to the Mayor Steven Bader came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 13 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 MR. BADER: Good morning, Council Members. As Council Member Kierkiewicz said, there's been conversations with individual Council Members, with herself, and with other Council Members—as I stated a little earlier, I have had some individual conversations with Council Members about the process that we're in. I think it's helpful even though the bill cut off is coming up on January 26''. You know, I did agree that it'll be helpful to give you a snapshot of kind of what we're looking at right now. But things will get much clearer after the 26h. And at this moment, there might be thousands of bills potentially kind of working their way to the point where they're going to be submitted. And as an example, last year, I think about 500 or so bills were complete and made it through the process. At the end, I think, half of them were passed and went up to the Governor for signature. And out of half of those,just a handful were vetoed and ended up becoming law. So as we speak, people are writing, revising, passing draft bills around and deciding whether or not they're going to proceed or not with submittal. So that's kind of where we're at, sort of in the process. There were two areas that came up in the last appearance I had before you. One was to get a better sense of where the Governor's priorities might be. And the second one was where the mayors' HCOM (Hawai`i Council of Mayors) group where they are going to be with their priorities. So I'll take the Governor's first. His priorities are wrapped around the budget, primarily. And we're in a situation where the revenue forecast has been more optimistic. There's more funds available. And the Governor is really looking at restoring those cuts that came in the 2021 session, as well as trying to establish that Rainy Day Fund, which has been in the media lately. Some of the other Administrative goals that he has is related to priorities that they set early in his term, eight years ago. And we, as a County, line up very well with those priorities. And those priorities will be reflected in his budget. And that will be around energy, environmental issues, affordable housing, and of course, financial stability. As far as HCOM, they've settled just on the abandoned vehicles package for packages this year. There's two strands of that. One that HSAC (Hawai`i State Association of Counties) has been promoting, which is dealing with fees and fines and looking for funding streams to deal with some of the abandoned vehicles that we all have to address across the State. And then the other strand is more administrative, and that is what Representative Ilagan is working on. And that would be issues like, where the third-party Page 14 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 authorizations can help handle removing vehicles; how titles are transferred. Just more administrative-type functions. But collectively, those bills, I think, are very important to all the mayors. So the mayors are focused on that, and as of the last meeting, they haven't identified any other areas that they're going to put forward. As far as our Administration, we've been working very diligently on trying to make sure our Wastewater bill gets through; gets submitted. Council Woman Kimball has been very active on this front. We were working on a House version that was a little bit different than the Senate version of that bill. And it's not clear right now whether the House version is going to move forward. And we know that the Senate version has to have some modifications. We have some concerns that were expressed last session, and also with this upcoming session, by Labor, about some of the issues within the bills. So there's still a lot to work out on that. And my guess is we're going to be working on that all the way till the bills' submittal. Because there is a lot of stakeholders involved, you know, in that conversation right now. The County's priorities as far as what we are going to be monitoring, what we're concerned or interested in revolves around sustainability, affordable housing, health and safety issues, agricultural; and then of course, Federal funding, infrastructure upgrades. Besides the Federal dollars, with more resources coming into the State budget, we're going to be monitoring very closely what dollars are in the Governor's budget related to infrastructure upgrade; highways, those are very important to us. The other bills of interest would be, as of today, again, there's a lot of bills that are in process right now, so we won't have a better picture of that bill after the 26''. But as of today, we are supporting the Waste to Wealth initiative that Senator Acasio has been working on. And I covered this a little bit at the last meeting I appeared at. It has to do with looking at Hilo and East Hawaii areas as a Zero Waste commercial model. There's some CIP (Capital Improvement Projects) in there to acquire and improve properties. And we're very supportive of that. There is a bill that Rep. Lowen is working on right now. I haven't seen the draft of it yet, but she gave us a heads up on it, which relates to geothermal royalties, and percentages of those royalties being put back into development of that, I guess, the industry. So we're going to take a look at that. We're interested in seeing how that's supposed to work out. Page 15 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 I know that Council Woman Kierkiewicz has been working with Rep. Quinlan on expanding the Green Jobs bill. I think that's very important for us. It matches up well with the County's priorities and with the State's priorities. There is a Broadband Equity bill that just got introduced, HB (House Bill) 1418, dealing with making sure that quality broadband is accessible, available through all areas, very applicable to us. And then there's a smaller bill, which is very important, which has come up before and HSAC is promoting. We talked about this last time, and that's the lifeguard liability. I haven't seen the final draft for that. There are bills being introduced every day right now. And as they come into the system, and we get feedback from our department areas; from community organizations; Statehood organizations or folks like yourselves, as Council Members, that we can put that on our radar and we can start tracking. I haven't seen yet whether the Ag Lease Extension bill that we talked about last time, has been introduced or it's in draft form. That's where small ornamental growers and small farmers who are on State land, Ag land, can extend their leases. Not sure whether that made it in. As discussed last time, we're going to pay attention to anything related to Kona Coffee labeling and protecting our brand. I think that's kind of where we are right now. We are open, willing, or wanting to have as much input from you as far as any kind of legislation that you've been hearing of that you think affects your district, we want to know about it. The departments are waiting also to see, as bills get submitted or as they are being worked on, giving us feedback on those bills so that we can start tracking those. And that's kind of where we are today. My suggestion is that in a few weeks, after the 26h, that I come back before the committee and give you an update of what made it through. And as bills get submitted that look similar, we can start taking a look at those bills, really kind of analyzing those bills and see what might be happening. You all know that the backdrop of the session this year is that every seat is open and it's an interesting recipe. You have a rosier economic forecast, more funding available at the State level, and you have every seat available. And so, there is going to be, I think, a lot of legislation being proposed for folks to kind of take care of their constituents. And we can look at those and support those bills. Page 16 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 And then we also need to be really careful with some of the bills to make sure that it doesn't put us in a situation where we may be obligated through a match or otherwise. But, I'm kind of looking forward to a really active session this year, and I'm open to questions. Thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Mr. Bader for that really robust update. And yes, I think we would all agree that we would appreciate having you back at Council. Our next committee after January 26, is February 8, so you can go ahead and pencil that in. We'll call you back to see of everything that you have shared with us today, what has actually been introduced and when committees have been scheduled. Oftentimes, if there is no committee and willingness to meet, then those bills are kind of dead. So we want to make sure what's been scheduled so that we can get that on our calendars and support. We'd also like to get copies of the bills in their format, so that we can review the contents and then ensure that when we're signing off on support, we agree with every word that is there, or if not, can offer amendments to strengthen or refine in the best interest of our County. You know, one of the things that I don't see on the list is related to climate change. Or maybe that is something you are sticking under the theme of sustainability. But I just raise that because there is a real big interest by the Legislature because of all this additional funding that we have, to really find ways to solve for that issue. And so just wondering what your position is on climate change legislation. MR. BADER: You know, it's definitely folded in under the sustainability and environmental issues. So that definitely has our attention, and it'll be something we'll be tracking very closely. And we expect that there will be legislation related to that. And the Governor, also in his package, I think has funding available for certain programs that's going to fit right in there. You know, one of the things that happens in this legislative process, is sometimes bills don't advance. And as it's being discussed between Administration and various legislators is that sometimes the funding can be found within Admin's package, and the bill will be deferred. But we'll still be able to meet an objective, you know, in getting certain programmatic things in. So that's the kind of stuff we're really going to be paying attention to. And yeah, climate change is very much—fits into our priorities. Thank you for pointing that out. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. The other thing I also wanted to highlight was mental health. I didn't see that on the list of the Admin's priorities, but that Page 17 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 is certainly something, I think we all might be struggling with. But certainly various members of our community are struggling with at various levels. So just curious about any thoughts around prioritizing mental health legislation trauma informed care, things of that nature. MR. BADER: Yeah, I mean, anything related to the health and wellbeing of the community is of interest and concern to the Administration. So what I kind of put together sort of is, some broad categories. You know, stuff, and what I'll do next time I come back, having had a clearer picture to work with. Well, we'll make sure I can categorize it a little bit more specifically. You know, I thought what I'd do is kind of give an overall update where we're at at this time. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great. Thank you, I can appreciate that. And certainly want to give my colleagues a chance to dig in as well. So really curious to see what Council Member Richards thinks about agriculture and how that can be better supported by our Legislature. And I do want to thank you for staying in touch with members of the Legislature. I am working with Representative Quinlan to see if we can expand HB 1176, which passed and was funded with $5 million for Green Jobs. We are looking to expand that to serve other industries. So we'll be counting on you, all of my colleagues here, to be supporting that legislation when it comes forward. We'll see you on the 8h, Mr. Bader. Thanks again for your time. MR. BADER: Thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Steve, for being here. And just to clarify, I know you gave a thumbnail sketch of the Administration's priorities: wastewater sustainability, affordable housing, infrastructure upgrades. I was wondering if that is the priority or just the envelope of topics and issues that this Administration is looking at. MR. BADER: Well, I think it's kind of both. I mean it's issues where we're always concerned about those particular areas, but during this session we're going to pay very close attention to those bills. We're not generating specific bills, except for the wastewater, which is being moved through Senator Inouye's Office; and last year, Rep. Lowen was helping us with it, but as I mentioned earlier, it looks like the House version of it may not be submitted. So we're kind of focusing on that. But other than that,those are all very important areas for our County that we have to focus on. Page 18 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 Yeah, it's a thumbnail sketch of kind of what we're looking at in total. But these are very, very important areas. And there's other things that have been brought up that can fit under those categories, and we would appreciate all the input you can give us. You know, as you see things that might be missing or that we need to have a good heads up on. MS. LEE LOY: A follow-up a little bit,just around the sustainability. I was wondering if, you know, we had that Sustainability Summit. And you know, what's emerging that we could advance or look towards at the Legislature that this Administration would be in support of. MR. BADER: Well there's—you know, without seeing what that range of bills that are currently kind of being contemplated or introduced right now. I think that's something that I can come back with you to give a little bit more information on. I think looking at it at sort of broad terms is that, those discussions, the dialogue that came out of that Sustainability Summit really kind of drives what our attention is being focused on. And legislation, at least at the State level, usually is a process that may take anywhere from, you know, two, three, sometimes five years or more to kind of put all the pieces in place. And so, I think what it did is it gave us a roadmap and you know, highlighted some areas we have to pay real close attention to. And match them up to where the Legislature is and where the Governor is at this time and see how we can kind of fit those templates on top of each other. So specific to your question of, "Was there something or initiatives generated directly out of that summit that we can look at moving forward?" I would say at this session, not specifically. But in terms of issues that came up to the summit that we can use to have a better read of what's going on, I think that it was very helpful. And it's going to be productive for us. It really gave us a broad foundation on sustainability and to help us interpret what's going on over there. So I thank you for the question. You know, it makes me want to circle back to the findings on the summit and the comments, and making sure that we're following that. So I appreciate that. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thank you for that. You know,there was a lot of community engagement for that particular summit. And it would be actually just super advantageous for us to really elevate community voices on what that sustainability model would look like and how we can advance legislative pieces around that. I want to walk over to infrastructure upgrades, and I'm just wondering because part of the budget, as you mentioned, Mr. Bader, is a lot of CIP projects that Page 19 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 come from the State. And so I'm just wondering what this Administration is looking at as far as Hawaii Island projects that the State could help fund and advance in alignment with infrastructure upgrades. What are we looking at as far as State projects? MR. BADER: Yeah, I have to do a deeper dive on that, I think, on the State budget level. I just started looking through that, and then I need to get together with our DPW (Department of Public Works) folks and just try to see, you know, what they're seeing. So that's something that I can definitely put in more time and research into and see if I can get that together. I don't want to off the cuff, you know, throw out some things without making sure that I'm talking to folks directly involved in that. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you for that, Steve. I really appreciate it, like circle back around. And in addition to that question, Mr. Bader, if you don't mind, you know, I've shared this with our HSAC update, DHHL (Department of Hawaiian Home Lands) is going to get their own kind of traunch of money. And I think this is the time that we start looking at what the State wants to do in addition to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and then what we could advance down here at the County. So if you could also provide that at our next update, that would be ideal to see what CIP projects kind of advance on multiple levels down here at the County. Chair, thank you for the time, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Mr. Bader, for laying out what the thoughts are as far as going forward. I think the terminology, "thumbnail sketch," is good. And I fully appreciate the complexity of the Legislature having several thousand bills hit and then trying to sort through that. Going through the list as what was outlined. Some things I didn't hear, Ms. Kierkiewicz pointed out Agriculture, and I'll come back to that in a second. I want to talk about the economy overall, and I don't think I heard anything about with that economy, tourism management being a focus. And we have the Na Ala Hele Trail, I'm going to use the term, "pilot project," going through the valleys. And that seems to be working. Through the pandemic, we lost 40 percent of our economy when we lost all the tourism. And we have that opportunity to redesign, redefine how that will affect, impact, and work with our community. But I'm not hearing this as a priority. Can you expand a little bit on tourism? And before I turn it back to you, the agricultural standpoint, we talk about shifting our economy. And the Big Island has the potential for true agriculture of Page 20 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 scale with, and I'm going to use the term "manufacturing,"but its value adding to get some things done. But we have to support it from a governmental standpoint, and overall this affects the economy which will help us in the long term. So this is where my mind is kind of rolling around. Can you make a few comments on that,please? MR. BADER: Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, economic development and how we manage our visitor industry is of utmost importance. And again, when I pulled some of the bullet points together, you know, it's trying to look at some of the issues that are rising to the top right now. Not that, that isn't it's just that, you know, I think sometimes it'll take a few more of us working on this together. So I'll work with Director Adams and see if we can—because he has someone monitoring legislation on his end. And we can see how we can pull all those pieces together. But Administration is definitely interested and supportive of making sure that we do our visitor industry management in a way that works for our entire community. So you know, the specifics of certain bills, changes administratively, that may be happening at DBEDT (Department of Business, Economic Development& Tourism), or HTA (Hawai`i Tourism Authority), or the current planning forward that John De Fries has been working on out of HTA, that is a topic in and of itself that I think we can tie in some of the legislative pieces to that. I'll be happy to do it and happy to work with R&D, and you know, putting together a presentation for you on that. On agriculture, again another area—we've identified Ag as a focus area for us. And we know how large an area that is. And so, in making a few trips to Oahu over the next few weeks. You know, we will be engaging with Department of Ag and those advocates Statewide that share our interest and concerns in that area. And of course, looking at input that we need from all of you in your areas. I mean the Big Island is all about Agriculture. And we want to be as supportive as possible. So every year there's numerous bills that are introduced related to that, and we're just going to see if we can kind of sift through all of that, and I'll come back to you so we can have a more detailed discussion. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. You know, a comment was made about the Sustainability Summit. And to me, that's a 30,000 or 50,000-foot overview, but we got to get down there to get some decisions made and things done. And I look forward to having the conversations with you concerning some of this. One of the biggest problems with our Legislature is bill tracking. And I think with the Administration's priorities, I assume we all, as Council Members track Page 21 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 the bills in our own way in our areas of concern and interest, but if the Administration can be tracking bills, I would ask that fall in line with your priorities, that you share that with the Council as a whole, so we know where you are going. And then one comment that was made, I don't think you were in that meeting, that we all have our own networks as well. And we can help advocate for things to move the agenda forward; to move the initiative forward. But if we don't know what's coming up—because we know our Legislature has very short timelines. That if those are tracked and shared, we may be able to help move some things forward. So I'd ask that and I look forward to having some more conversations about this because I think we can get some things done, but I think we have to go after them pretty hard. And this is our first real crack at it with this Administration. We need to have very open, honest communication, rapid communication, and identification of that direction. So I'm going to ask that of you and look forward to the conversation. Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Richards. Council Member Chung. MR. CHUNG: Thank you. Steve and to my colleagues, I apologize in advance. This doesn't have direct relevance to the matter at hand, but I'm going to try to draw some kind of nexus so that it's not out of order. Because this is my only opportunity to make this request. Steve, you are our COVID point man as well, right? MR. BADER: Yes, out of the Mayor's Office. That's correct. MR. CHUNG: Yeah. So you know, in terms of funding, whether it be at the Legislative level, or through FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), or the American Rescue Plan Act, you know, I've heard from the Mayor's Office that testing is of the utmost importance right now. And you know, let me just give a precursor to all of that, too. I think we all recognize that this current wave of Omicron is going to go down as swiftly as it went up. I don't know when that's going to happen, but it's going to happen. All the models show that. But it's wreaking havoc right now on our labor force. And we don't know what kind of variant is going to be coming out later, if at all. Hopefully, no more already. Has the Administration given any thought to getting PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing labs in West Hawaii and East Hawaii so that we don't have to send these samples or the specimens to Oahu with a three-day turnaround. Page 22 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 Right now, KTA is doing PCR testing, and you're getting your results in two to three hours. That is crucial. We've got to get results fast. We cannot have the public waiting two or three days to get their results. It's wreaking havoc on our labor force. It's wreaking havoc on everything. Can we get funding for that? Has any thought been given to that possibility, where everybody can share now, the County's mobile labs, West Hawaii and East Hawaii? We don't have to send them on the plane anymore, basically. Can we get funding for that? And if so, where? MR. BADER: Oh, that's certainly something that Civil Defense and Administration is always looking at. You know, where can we get resources to meet the demand? Because there is such a high demand and need around the whole State, testing capacity is really kind of at a limit. And I think that, you know, if there is resources available to localize that testing, that's something that we would definitely move towards. I'm not sure what the funding source at the State level would be for something like that. I know that there are Federal funds that we may need to access. We have accessed those funds. There are some restrictions on some of that funding, and a lot of this gets coordinated through HIEMA (Hawai`i Emergency Management Agency) and through DOH (Department of Health). So testing samples is something that falls under the DOH kuleana. And our testing—we have a testing person out of Civil Defense who spends all of his time coordinating efforts around that. So, we'll circle back with Civil Defense and find out whether there's any more information or resources that we need to kind of meet that demand. I share the frustration about it because recently I was in a situation where I had to wait six days for my PCR test. And so it forced me to have to get another PCR test, and then get a Rapid after that. And because I was in an exposure process and I ended up testing positive as a breakthrough very recently, which was the reason why I couldn't make the last Council meeting before this committee. You know it was a real-time on the ground assessment of what those needs are. So I have been forwarding that information to our team to make sure that there's things that we can do to expedite that process. You know, I'll tell you that if I had followed our current CDC (Center of Disease Control) guidelines, I would have come back to work as a fully-vaccinated, boosted individual who was just exposed. I would have been allowed to come back to work and potentially would have spread that virus in the Mayor's Office and with the various department heads that we have regular contact with. But what I decided to do is stay home until I got the test, and that test result because it's dragged on. I was not comfortable, even though I was Page 23 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 asymptomatic. I was not comfortable coming back in until I had a result. And retested, and on the retest found out that I was a breakthrough case. So you know, I understand the frustration in the community. I've had a lot of contact with folks who have been waiting on their results and have been in line three times in the last ten days. So I stood in line with hundreds of other people. So I have a sensitivity to all of that on that level. So whatever resources we can come to there, we will consolidate that. Thank you. MR. CHUNG: Well, I certainly, you know, appreciate you feeling the way you do, but you mentioned testing capacity. Is that an impediment to us getting these types of labs, because I know there's been talk of this possibility before, and I'd be very surprised if FEMA funds or American Rescue Plan funds can't be used for something like this? I mean, it doesn't even take any kind of creativity, because this is directly related to, you know, what these funds were supposed to be used for. So what's the impediment? MR. BADER: Well, I think as far as testing capacity, a lot of that, you know, relates to staffing and availability of test kits. And the other part of it would be getting those tests processed. MR. CHUNG: Wait, Steve, hold it. You said the test kits, but we got test kits because people are getting tested. It's the analysis of the tests that we're looking at. MR. BADER: Well, one of our vendors at our community testing sites ran out of kits. And we run out of kits that has happened at numerous sites, especially during the last two or three weeks. So test kits, availability of test kits, supply chain issues. These are real issues too. So, and for us to try to contract out lab processing ourselves, or have that be attached—it would have to be attached at some level, I think to a contract with a vendor. It could be a contract condition. So there are angles to this that I think we need to have a wider conversation with Civil Defense and with Finance about how we might do something like that. MR. CHUNG: Well, okay, I mean there's nothing that I can do or anyone here can do, but I would strongly urgeI don't know if other members agree with me, but I would strongly urge you guys to try to get away from all of the impediments and get this thing going. Because you've told me, you know, all the reasons why this can't happen. Contractual reasons, lack of testing kits, and other things. I've got to believe we can get past that, and we can get passed it quickly in my opinion. So that's my suggestion for the Legislative Session or interfacing with Department of Health or other funding sources. Please try your best. Thank you. Page 24 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Chung. Anyone else here in Kona before I go. Okay, Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Sure. First off I want to thank you, Mr. Bader, for sharing your personal experience. I myself am Zooming from home because I live in a multi-generational household, and my daughter tested positive yesterday. She tested on Friday and it was negative but was sick all weekend. Thankfully, the rest of us have tested negative, so I relate to what you're saying. According to the CDC, I can actually be sitting in Council today because I am vaccinated and I am asymptomatic, and I have tested negative. But out of the extreme desire for the ultimate caution, that at some point I test positive, or that I become some kind of a vector in our County Council building to those that are there or to those that it may be taken home to. I share your sensitivity and am grateful for your having taken that utmost caution. I also wanted to share something that just came through to me this morning, is the USPS (United States Postal Service) is providing a place to order your free at-home COVID test kits. There are links available and four test kits can be delivered to your home. I hope, Mr. Chung, that that provides just some direction. In my reading about the current Omicron variance, it was impliedI can't remember the exact source, but I know it was a reputable source. And that one of the statements was that Omicron tends to test more effectively with the rapid tests. And so, I got a higher sense of comfort that the rapid home test would be effective in what otherwise was kind of thought as kind of a last ditch effort. So I want to encourage everyone. I know the internet is blowing up with that right now, but to get online and sign up to have those test kits delivered to your home. That is, in fact, how my family was able to test this weekend. I also wanted to quickly ask. Chair, I have a question about the climate litigation. Our Council in the last term passed a resolution encouraging the Administration, then Mayor Harry Kim, to join Maui County and Oahu County in the current climate litigation case. It was passed as a resolution. I've met with the Mayor since then, and Corp. Counsel to talk about it. And correct me if I'm wrong, Chair Kimball, but HSAC has recognized that as a priority for legislation. CHR. KIMBALL: First of all, I'm going to contain the conversation a little bit. I gave some flexibility to Council Member Chung, because you know, there was that tie back to the legislative items. The climate litigation is, yes, something that HSAC has supported but not as a priority from the legislative session because it's not a legislative item. So I'd ask you to just steer your conversation back to the matter on the agenda, which is the Administration's legislative items. Page 25 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 And then hopefully, we can have a conversation about that particular issue at another time. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, so it wouldn't be appropriate necessarily to ask Mr. Bader if this Administration is focusing at that as a priority in any of its legislative focus? CHR. KIMBALL: If there is a mechanism of which the climate change litigation is a legislative item, then it's appropriate, but I don't know that there is. I think if you want to ask Mr. Bader what climate change specific legislative items, of which there are some in the HSAC package that would be an appropriate question at this time. MS. VILEGAS: Okay. Also, well I'm going to off the HSAC then. But go with, in general. I'm hopeful, I guess I would encourage this Administration to take a look at the pieces of legislation that are coming through in this session, whether or not related to HSAC or not. But there are other members of our State Legislation who are focusing on those issues, and so I would ask for this Administration to pay attention to those, as they are closely tied to the other priorities that you have outlined and identified as they relate to sustainability, climate change, regenerative agriculture, and all of those things; as well as infrastructure and our dire needs to improve many of our infrastructure programs. Thank you for the leeway, Chair Kimball. And with that, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Let me to go Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, if you have any questions or comments, and then I'll come back to you, Mr. Chung. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I do, thank you Chair. Steve, one of our representatives, Mr. Ilagan,just put up the notion to do a PMAR (Puna Makai Alternate Route), you know, alternate route for Puna. And PMAR to me means makai side versus mauka side. I've also heard from some of our State senators and representatives that they'd like to see an upper Puna alternative route as well. I've had ideas myself, but I'm just wondering where the Administration sits on looking at alternative routes for Puna. You know, really in light of overseeing a population density growth; the amount of movement we've seen post-eruption. I mean, traffic is going to get worse, and worse, and worse. You know, it's not going to get better. So these routes are going to become very important. I'm just wondering what the take is from the Administration. If there's support for that, if there's thought of that, you know? Have they had conversations already? MR. BADER: Yeah, I mean, we all know we need relief in that area. And I haven't seenI understood that Representative Ilagan was putting something Page 26 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 together, but had not seen his draft of what he's doing. But if the question is, as I understand it, are we supportive of that? Is that something that we're actively looking at? So the answer is, yes, you know. And whatever resources are available through legislation to get us to that, I think, it's going to be very important for us. So I look forward to getting ahold of him and taking a look at what he put in place. Like I said earlier, there are literally thousands of bills, you know, kind of working its way to completion to get to submittal. So, I'm glad to hear that that's in there and will follow-up on that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I run a monthly meeting for my subdivisions across the island, but they brought it up as well. And the discussion was, not just a PMAR, you know, a makai route, but also an upper Puna route. That would help, because there's been times where Highway 11 was closed and at a certain point, there are no alternate routes. Anyone coming from Ka`u, South Point; Volcano to Hilo, you're cut off completely. And I just think those need to be on the board. Mr. Chung passed an ordinance a year or so ago for the bond that was specific to Puna roadways, as well as a number of other things for different districts. So the funding sources are there. I think just it's more of a, can we all support some fairly large projects going in that would really help alleviate traffic concerns going forward? And this is future oriented. Right now, you know, it's bearable. There are some points that are not. Some are recent infrastructure projects that are not working as well as they thought they would be. Not really the County's, but maybe the State's. But looking far down the line, it's going to be problematic, and so now's the time to be looking at it and finding solutions so when it does happen, we're ready. MR. BADER: And definitely, as you pointed out, and other Council Members have pointed out, in your working with your own communities, things are going to come up. And everyone has networks, so we're going to access all of that information. And you know, you bringing this up today is helpful to me, so I can circle back to Rep. Ilagan and talk to him more in detail and see what kind of support he needs. Because definitely, all of us can be supportive through our networks to make sure something as important as this gets through. And you know,just took some notes on making sure that we don't take our eye off the mauka alternatives. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Yeah, so Senator San Buenaventura was talking about road widening for 130. Ilagan is looking at alternative routes for Puna and same goes for San Buenaventura, and I like that. It's in line with Page 27 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 what we see as a need in our district. And you have my support on that too. From myself but also from the subdivisions who are—speaking on behalf of 20,000-30,000 people living in Puna. So, a big need and much requested. MR. BADER: Yeah, thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Steve. And you know, by the way, I'm glad you're back and you're okay. This is a new interesting round of COVID, and it's affecting everything differently. And it's a little bit out of what we expected, but you know, looking back at what we said in the past, this is going to be different. There's going to be different variations. It's going to change, and we don't know what to expect. And so, we got to watch the rest of the world to kind of see what they're doing. And from what we're seeing, everyone's having huge spikes and then massive declines. MR. BADER: Yeah, and just you know, since you mentioned it and it's a little off topic, but I was thinking about what Mr. Chung had just discussed. You know, all morning after 9:00 o'clock when the data gets released from DOH, my phone just goes off. So it's been going off constantly since I've been here, because as DOH processes the backlog on tests, we're getting numbers that's just, you know, astronomical numbers that people have never seen before. And so, you know, as much as possible I try to answer all those calls in the office, and make sure people understand that there's a catch up going. But even minus that, we're still dealing with unprecedented amount of cases. And it has been disabling to the workforce, you know. And the CDC guidelines are aimed directly to make sure that, I think the employers had some options in how they're dealing with it. And also, because the variant behaves a little differently where it's more short-fused. In my case, there was a little longer fuse to it. And I'm just glad that I played it safe, I didn't come in right away, because I just ended up being like I said, asymptomatic six to seven days later. So it was different. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm glad you're back. Glad you're okay. Yeah, everyone's doing this right now. Everyone is dealing with some form of COVID in their lives; whether it be on the business end, the labor end, you know, the family end. So I'm glad you're back, you're okay. Good to see you. MR. BADER: Thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Council Member Lee Loy. Page 28 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Steve if you don't mind, in regards to that Puna additional route, I would highly encourage that you check out the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands' Pana`ewa Community Plan, which highly opposes any connectivity from Puna into Pana`ewa. And so, although this Administration may be supportive of this idea, I think there's a whole lot more outreach that has to happen, especially where all that traffic is going, which they have gone on record for many years that they oppose. So as we look at the Administration's goals and future funding, this is where our priority list is incredibly helpful with a lot of due diligence for community. Thanks Chair, for letting me clarify that, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. I believe Council Member Kierkiewicz had another question. I did want to make a couple comments before you make your motion. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes, thank you, Chair. Just a couple follow-up questions for Mr. Bader. Steve, we also need to get on deck, dealing with invasive species. Pigs, Albizia, other pests that are plaguing our community and agricultural industry. I also do want to highlight the need to support current farmers. You know, I asked Director Adams many, many months ago if there are ways in which we can be leveraging existing R&D money or ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money to provide small grants to existing farmers that need support to put up fencing because wild pigs, wild sheep, are eating their product that they're trying to get to market. They can't because those wild animals are consuming everything. These are things that we have within our control. I think we have the budget for it. And we need to start making that a priority, especially if one of the themes of the Sustainability Summit that this Administration keeps pushing on, is we want to be food sustainable and have resilient food ecosystems. So I want to make sure that I'm putting that on record as something that we have to do. Yes, it's about growing our next generation of farmers, but it's also supporting those that are doing the hard work right now. The last thing I want to say is, there are so many challenges that we need to solve for, and no shortage of potential solutions in what we can be doing. I just want to make sure that at the end of the day when this money comes through, we as a County are in a position to deliver, because we have passed a number of ordinances directing the Administration to act on projects. And what we haven't seen is delivery. And so, I don't know if you're keeping tabs on where we are people-wise, but make sure to get a sense of what that landscape looks like, because once the Page 29 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 money starts coming and flowing through, we have to be in a position to take those dollars and act and implement for our community. Thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else? Alright, again, thank you Mr. Bader for being here today and giving us an update from our previous conversation. I did want to just take a moment to jump on the bandwagon with Council Member Chung, about bringing some localized testing capacity. Primarily because, you know, not only can that approve our ability to address the current situation, but given the technology that would be used at a facility like that,there are certainly multitudes of other uses for our County, which would include prosecution of cases where there is DNA testing required, sexual assault cases, and the like; the ability to detect variants among invasive species, things like that. So the same technology would open that door for us for a variety of tools that might be extremely useful. I will also say that, you know, it provides an opportunity for skilled jobs within our County. So,just want to encourage youI know there has been some budget items in the past related to that. I believe they were primarily spearheaded by the prosecution, the Department of the Prosecutor. So I will look at that and see and ask around if anybody's considering introducing something similar that would help us address our current situation in addition to a variety of other needs. On the other matters discussed, I think that everything has been well covered by my colleagues today, so I will not extend our conversation any further. I do appreciate, again, you coming in today. And I'm glad to see you're feeling better. Council Member Kierkiewicz, do you want to make a motion? Motion to Postpone: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to postpone Comm. 453 to February 8, 2022. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Any discussion? All those in favor? Ms. Lee Loy, go ahead. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. And if we could just highlight again, going forward, you know,there's a number of things that were discussed today and if you could please, Steve, get a refined list so that we can begin to sharpen our focus. We heard a lot of good things today, but we all know that Legislature goes extremely fast. And so, you know, all of the decking will happen. And I'm hopeful at our next meeting, Steve, we will have a more refined and focused list on things that the Administration is pushing for and their various positions on those items. Thank you, Chair. Page 30 GOREDC-21 January 18,2022 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Anyone else on discussion on the postponement. Okay, hearing none, all of those in favor? Vote on Motion The motion to postpone Comm. 453 to February 8, to Postpone: 2022 was carried by the following voice vote. (Approved) Ayes: Committee Members David, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung and Richards—2. Excused: None. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Order RESOLUTIONS: of Resolutions. (There were none.) BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES: Bills for Ordinances. (There were none.) ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 11:24 a.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung and Richards—2. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: This meeting is adjourned. Approved: s. Heather L. mball, Chair (Date) Government Operations, Relations, and Economic Development Committee HK/dt Page 31