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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GOREDC 2022/02/09 2020-2022 Committee on Governmental Operations, Relations, and Economic Development 22nd Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawai i February 9, 2022 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Operations, Relations, ORDER: and Economic Development was called to order at 11:08 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Vice Chair (came in later) Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member Absent& Excused: 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.) COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. 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 and 18, 2022 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. Kierkiewicz, seconded by Mr. Inaba, to close file on Communication 453.) GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. And I will pass it over to Vice Chair Kierkiewicz, who has now joined us to take the lead on the motion on the floor. MS. KIEKIEWICZ: Mahalo nui, Chair Kimball. Aloha, Mr. Bader, great to see you, Executive Assistant to the Mayor. And I believe, our Chief Liaison to the State Legislature. At your request, you had wanted to come back to the Council after measures were introduced at the Legislature to just give us a sense of what bills have been introduced; which ones have been scheduled for hearings, and how we as a legislative body might be helpful in advocating for some of the measures that are really important to our County. So Mr. Bader, if you could come forward and give us an update on where we are with the County's legislative priorities. Thank you. (Note: At this time, Executive Assistant to the Mayor Steven Bader came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. BADER: Good morning, Council, glad to be back in front of you again. Again, Steve Bader, Executive Assistant with the Mayor's Office and the Mayor's Legislative Liaison during this session. I was just commenting that prior to convening, we were having this off-line conversation about how phonetic the session has been so far for a lot of different reasons. And then some of them, which I mentioned in previous meetings. So what I want to do is make there's a list that we had sent out this morning. Apologies for not getting that out sooner, but this list almost changes by the minute, you know, as far as updates and hearings being scheduled. But what I'd like to do is make some comments on the process overall; the list, a little bit; and then go through some highlighted bills. Because even though this is a list of about 25, 27 bills, if we went through every single one, we'd be here all day long, you know. And there's some very important bills I want to make sure we cover that we can have some questions; we can go back. You know, obviously, there's going to be bills that are not listed on this sheet that we're actually tracking. And so, I'll talk about that a little bit. This list is not an exhaustive list. It's kind of a snapshot on Monday of what we were focused on, either because there were hearings coming up or we had some overall concerns, maybe on some of the bills or we needed some clarity on it. So, it's really just a snapshot. But it does kind of capture what we had talked about before, which is, we're focusing on a lot of sort of the big stuff, but we're not going to forget some of those smaller bills that have impact in the districts. Yeah, your districts. So,that's what we've got in front of you. Page 2 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 I think there are over a thousand live bills right now. And we're kind of focusing on between 25 and 50 bills. I'm trying to glean that down to about 25 bills. At the department level, they're tracking hundreds of bills. And as an example, DEM (Department of Environmental Management) themselves are probably looking at the 40 to 50 bills that they're tracking internally. So, I think our departments are doing a good job. They have people assigned. Some of the departments, and I'll use Police, as an example. Very active. There's lots of bills every session that they're working with. They inform us what positions they're taking on bills and send us copies of their testimony. So the entire County is active. I think, as was mentioned when I came before you. The fact that there is no because of the Supreme Court ruling, a gut and replace. The emphasis now is to do a lot of the work in the front end. Front and middle of the session versus waiting to the back-end of the session, which has been kind of the norm. That you kind of go through February and you get into March. And then, that's when the action starts happening. The bills start crossing over and the budget bills are in place. MS. KIEKIEWICZ: Mr. Bader, I'm so sorry to interrupt, we are on a limited time schedule. We still have one more item to discuss here and then we have Council at 1:00 p.m. We are hoping that we can have a meal in-between them, so if just high-level overview of the bills that have been scheduled. MR. BADER: Okay, let me go through some highlights because I think that'll be the easiest way. Thank you. We have a Wastewater bill, Senate Bill 3362 and an appropriation bill, Senate Bill 3363 that are on the books. SB 3363 is scheduled for hearing, I think it's the day after tomorrow,the I Ph. That's an important meeting that's an appropriation ask for the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant. The other bill that we had in place at the beginning of the session, SB 997 is technically alive, but it's probably not going to move forward. We tried to amend that bill to make sure that those concerns are brought up by—our labor people met, and it ended up changing the bill to the point, I think, where it started to look more like a CIP (Capital Improvement Projects) request,than proposing changes in the way we finance and operate. And so, that bill is sitting. But the other bill, which is specific to the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Hilo, which has the most challenges and we're most concerned about that bill being heard. The other bill that has gotten attention, but I haven't seen it, it's gotten a hearing, I think it's been deferred, is SB 1000, which is a bill dealing with Waiakea peninsula and lease renewals. It looks like that bill is currently in a deferred Page 3 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 status. There was a date on there, February 10h for hearing, but I haven't seen that updated. The abandoned vehicle package that Representative Ilagan put together, all of those bills are alive. I know that HSAC (Hawai`i State Association of Counties) is supportive of those bills. Those bills are moving forward. HB1450, which was in the HSAC package which deals with collection of the TAT (Transient Accommodation Tax) is moving forward, although I have written in our notes that we are monitoring it. We have some concerns. The concern being, in talking to Finance and the other Counties, that we would be turning over that collection, although we've already started working on a contract between the neighbor islands to be able to do that collection in-house. And the bill proposes that they repeal the rate limit of the TAT. So that means that it could either be reduced or increased. And that bill opens that door to that. So that's something that there is some good things in that bill. I think the intentions of HSAC, we understand that there's an advantage to having the collection being made by the State rather than getting into that business. But there could be impacts on the bill. I understand that the Mau`i County Council passed a resolution to get out of supporting that bill. I'm not suggesting that this Council do that. I'm just saying there's sometimes some unintended consequences even when you're trying to do good stuff. And so, that's where that bill is. We're monitoring that very closely. S132884, that's dealing with water resource management and permit applications. You know, we're very supportive of that. Planning already put their letters of testimony. We're working on ours. It's due today. Basically, that bill is important to us because it opens up opportunities for us to support affordable housing and looking at different ways that we handle our water resources. So that's an important bill for us. We're keeping close tabs on that. The HB 1403, the Puna Alternative Route selection. That's an important bill. We are on the record. The Mayor wrote a letter of support for that bill. The idea behind that, of course, is that we want to open that dialogue. You know, rather than people deciding that we shouldn't have it at all because it's going to eventually lead to a specific route, we believe that we need to make sure we get the stakeholders involved, the communities involved. Whatever the impact is going to be or where the proposed route would be, we need to have everybody's input on that. And we need to open that dialogue up. And so, the Mayor put a letter in. We've had a lot of people that called in a concern that there's a predetermined route that's in mind, and that's simply not the case. And that's not what the bill talks about. So we're on that. Page 4 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 Of course, some of the stuff that we've already submitted, it looks like it's moving ahead, is the widening of Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway; the Hospital bill. Site selection is moving ahead. We are focused on another bill that would have impact on the County resources. And that would be the turnover of infrastructure in Hawaiian Homes. Again, there's a timeframe to that as far as when the turnover would be that would have impact. I think the intention of it is a good intention. Water Department already services. We'd have to figure out what the impact is. And so we are monitoring that closely. We understand that there'll probably be amendments to that bill. There's a lot of different advocacy groups that are commenting and proposing different kinds of amendments to that bill, so we're staying close to that one. HB1208/HD-1. This is the Legislature's attempt last year of accessing Real Property Taxation authority. And I'm not quite sure why it resurfaced this year. Last year, the rationale was that there wasn't enough money available, funds throughout the State because of the pandemic. And that there was need for them to look at all options. I'm not sure why it's back, but it is back, and it passed a hearing yesterday. And it's going to get, I think, a very concerted push back from the counties and the Mayors, because it opens that door up. They can come in and access, you know,tax beyond the current authority. This is a very concerning bill. So we're staying close to that bill. I'm going to skip back down. What's not in the packet you got, but when I did my printout, the latest, it showed up there, I apologize for that. But HB 1447, which is the lifeguard liability bill. Of course, we support that bill. It's a HSAC bill. But it's something we've been supportive of. And it's not on your list, but it's on our latest list. And so that has priority. S133324, which is the infrastructure, maintenance, and housing; subdivision. That bill is scheduled for a hearing 2/10. We're monitoring that bill. We have not taken a hard position because we know there's going to be a lot of proposed amendments, different commentary to that bill. There's definitely financial impact for the County if that bill continues to move forward. So that bill is important. That's not on your list. That's on the new list. And there is related to your discussions about Homelessness, there are a number of homeless-related bills. One that I think is on the list where the State informs the Homeless Coordinator of available land, so that affordable housing or homeless programs can be located there. And there is a pilot program for long- term rental assistant, HB 1826, aimed at kupuna, but it's under a homeless assistance bill. And that bill passed yesterday. I think with some amendments. Page 5 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 So anyway, that's just highlights. Within the next two or three weeks, those 1,100 bills, 1,200; whatever is live right now, it's going to get reduced down to probably less than 500. Some of these bills are not going to get the hearings they need in a specific amount of time, you know, to be able to move forward. So that's going to eliminate that. It might make our job a little easier. Between the departments and the staff upstairs, we're just constantly emailing and writing stuff, and trying to keep ourselves informed about the latest changes and there are—without monitoring the hearings, you can't track the discussions that are creating, you know, some of the decisions that are being made, right? CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Mr. Bader, I'm going to stop you right there, to give ample time for Q&A (questions and answers). Just for my colleagues, I did receive a list while we were in the Finance Committee meeting. Mr. Bader only called my attention to it before we started today. It sounds like even now, that list is already out of date. So, Mr. Bader, if you would please share that with me and Chair David so we can get that distributed to everybody this afternoon. That would be great,thank you. Back to you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Mahalo nui, Steve, for the update on all the work and bills that you folks are tracking. Just a few things that I didn't hear, climate change, food systems, and agriculture. Not a lot going on with housing production or mental health. We had a discussion earlier about using some of our County funds to support homelessness and social services programs, which is frankly the State's kuleana and they're not stepping up. So we need to make sure that we are supporting bills that gets the State to do their job. I don't want to have to use County money if I can avoid it. MR. BADER: Sure, yeah. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Which is why we're looking at other legislation that has a sunset, but really need you to leverage your contacts and make sure that we're moving on things that are important that are really the State's responsibility. MR. BADER: Yeah, we'll do that, and this list that was sent out this morning was missing two or three bills. We'll update that and get that to you. There is another longer list that has some of the bills you're talking about. Climate change, sustainability, the Ag bills that are on there. Some of them are on this list that you'll be getting, but some of them are on the second list. And so, the list will change. Page 6 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 This is kind of fluid, the one I'm looking at with the priority list, because bills are going to drop off, and others are going to become more important, I think, you know, as amendments get into place and we have an idea of what the testimony was like during while they're making decisions about these bills. So I'll work on getting you that longer list, because I think some of the things you're looking for we are tracking. But on Monday, this is what we were focused on, you know. And at the end of the week, we'll take another look and see. As the hearings progress, you know, where we're at with some of these bills. But definitely, we'll make sure that you are apprised. The other thing is, any bill that you're aware of that has impact in your district, that you know is important to your district, please let us know what those bills are. Email myself so we can put it on our list. We may already be tracking it or have knowledge of what's going on with certain bills. But if it's important to you in your district, it's important to us. We're the same, you know, we want to make sure we can be supportive. And as we mentioned earlier, the pace is a lot faster than normal in this legislative session and it's easy to miss stuff. And so,the redundancy is helpful. I mean, we've been—at the interdepartment level, we're sending stuff out and we're wondering, did you get this or not? And we're finding out that sometimes people didn't track it or they missed it. And so, please by all means, let us know what you're seeing. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Steve. I hope you wrote down all those items I mentioned, and especially the food systems piece. Go shopping recently? The shelves are empty. And that should scare everybody. So, no more lip-service around let's be food sustainable. Let's actually make sure that we're supporting our local farmers and giving them all the tools and resources they need to scale up and support our future generation of farmers. It's got to happen. We can't deep putting this stuff off. And so, whatever we need to do to support you folks in advocating for the legislation, keep us posted. And again, anything related to our district you guys are tracking, please be sure to coordinate with our offices. I'm not aware of the Mayor's formal position on PMAR (Puna Mauka Alternative Routes). I think Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Council Woman Lee Loy, we would all be very interested because an alternative route impacts all three of our districts. So please be sure to keep us in the loop. And because we have another item, Chair, I'm going to yield my time. And I just want to ask my colleagues if these updates from Mr. Bader are helpful? If they are, I will continue postponing this and call him back in March. But I just want to make sure these updates are helpful to everyone. Thanks for your presence, Mr. Bader. Page 7 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 MR. BADER: Thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Yes, again, in observing our time, let's be brief with our questions and responses. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Jumping into Ms. Kierkiewicz's question, I'm not sure if it's actually helpful, because we have our Legislative Review Branch tracking a lot of these items for us. What actually would be helpful, Mr. Bader, is to understand the Administration's position on some of the items that they're tracking and providing us whatever testimony is being submitted. I think that would actually be incredibly helpful. I am curious about the Mayor's position on Senate Bill 3170. I'm not sure if you mentioned it, but I think that would be incredibly transformative, as far as the use of fuel tax in our substandard subdivisions, which will completely impact not only Puna's substandard subdivisions, but how fuel tax is currently being used here in Hawaii County and taking on all of those roads in our Puna subdivisions. I would love to know the Mayor's position on that. MR. BADER: Okay, we'll work on that. MS. LEE LOY: Keeping it brief, those were my two things. I yield my time. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Anyone else? Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes, very soon, the Puna bills, because it's basically Districts from 4 and 5. And basically, let's just say, island-wide. A bunch of substandard subdivisions. I'm also really interested to see if you're tracking 1948, which would be an exemption for residents for transient accommodation tax, put forth by Sam Kong. MR. BADER: Yeah, I mean I saw it. I don't have it on our list, but we can start tracking that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think that's a great step towards lowering the cost of living for our residents. But yeah, thank you, Mr. Bader, appreciate it. I also want to give a brief mahalo to Susan in the LRB (Legislative Research Branch) for her continued tracking. And the amount of emails that she does, I Page 8 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 just really respect what she's doing. So thank you, Susan, appreciate it. Thank you, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Anyone else? Alright, thank you. I'll just summarize here with a couple of items. You mentioned, Mr. Bader, 1450, which is the TAT. Just to follow-up on that, the HSAC Executive Committee has spoken to Rep. Onishi. He has no intention to hear that in his committee. So we don't see that moving forward. And we as a body, also, determine that we no longer want this language, particularly around, as you said, all of the counties have developed the mechanisms to collect revenue. And so,trying to fix it, which was what the original purpose of the bill so the State could collect it, is no longer something we actually want. MR. BADER: But thanks for that information. It's very helpful. CHR. KIMBALL: I agree with Council Member Lee Loy. I think what we would want to hear in the future would be more on the Mayor's particular positions or the Administration's particular positions on items moving through. A couple of them were mentioned here. And certainly direct contact with folks in the district where the legislation impacts their district, I think would be extremely valuable. I did want to use this opportunity to call attention to House Bill 2026, which will be heard on the I Ph. This is the Sunshine Law that HSAC was still negotiating by the time we actually adopted the bill package. And among other things, some of the key things that it does, is that it actually defines board business very specifically. It's been opined in the past by OIP (Office of Information Practices), but it actually defines it within the statute, which gives us a lot more clarity of what the guardrails are. The other thing, we talked about this in the past, is our ability as a body to talk about and respond to legislation in the timeframe that the State Legislature moves, and how we can't do that with having to schedule public meetings and whatnot. There is language in this bill that would allow us to meet and discuss on previously adopted priorities that are moving to the legislature and submit testimony on behalf of the body as long as we put those minutes up on the website. So I think that's a key tool for us as a body to have to communicate to the State Legislature on some of these things. So very excited to see how this goes. Like I said, it was a collaborative process with League of Women Voters, Common Cause, OIP, and Civil Beat Law Center. So I'm hoping that it's a fruitful process. With that, I will go ahead and ask Ms. Kierkiewicz what you'd like to do as far as postponing and getting further updates, or did you want to close this out? Page 9 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: We'll get another update from Mr. Bader with a little bit more specificity around the Admin's positions on topics that are really important to us as individual district Council Members, but for the island as a whole. And so with that, I'd like to make a motion to postpone this communication to our March 81h Committee meeting, Chair. Motion to Postpone: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to postpone Comm. 453 to March 8, 2022. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. Vote on Motion The motion to postpone Comm. 453 to March 8, 2022, to Postpone: was carried by the following voice vote. (Approved) Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Richards — 1. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: With that, we can move on to the second and final agenda item. Thank you again, Mr. Bader for being here and all your work. MR. BADER: Thank you for the opportunity. Comm. 598: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION REGARDING THE PRESENCE OF BOARD AND COMMISSION NOMINEES AT COUNCIL MEETINGS From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated January 20, 2022. Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to close file on Comm. 598. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. This is a conversation that I wanted to have with my colleagues. And because of Sunshine Law, we need to have, you know, public discussion around this, which is a good thing, because it impacts members of our community. So we've had a number of boards and commission folks come forward. And for the most part, many receive a unanimous favorable recommendation by the Committee to Council. And because of, you know, recent developments around there not being unanimous support for certain candidates, we've gotten into a place where we're not able to clearly articulate whether an individual should be showing up at Council or not. Page 10 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 We leave it up to them. We encourage them. And I just wanted to have a conversation about because it's not in our Council Rules, what we might do. Because these are members of our community that are often volunteering to serve on a myriad of boards and commissions. I remember when I was being nominated to Cost of Government, I met with the Committee and then I was told, "You don't need to come to Council." And that was helpful because I needed to take time off of work; I needed to find a babysitter. And I wanted to make sure that I was available if I was needed. There have been situations where members of the public have been encouraged to come to Council, and they sit for hours waiting for public testimony to complete and then are not asked any follow-up questions by this body. And so I just want to be mindful of folks' schedules. Right now the way we have it set up is where nominees are being put forward at the Committee level and then advance to Council. One thing that I'd like for this body to entertain is, perhaps we not do a Committee review. Perhaps we just go to Council. That way, if we need the individual to come back, it's at a prescribed day and time. We have also seen situations where because we have had a lot of committee agenda items, Committee day is stretching into Wednesday. And then there's a miscommunication between the Administration and the individual that's being put forward for boards and commissions. This way, Council is typically on Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. If not 9:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. But it happens on Wednesdays and at least they would know two weeks from now, Wednesday, I need to show up again because the Council has more questions. So that was the intent of the communication. I would love to just hear everyone's thoughts on how we might proceed and have a very consistent message that we are sharing with members of our community, when they are being brought forward to volunteer for these important boards and commissions. Thank you, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz for bringing this forward. I agree that, you know, sometimes it is inconvenient for members of the public who are willing to serve on these boards and commissions to have to come not once, but twice. And us not knowing for sure, maybe until the week before, what the day and time will be. But I do firmly support the two-step process and the involvement that it allows community to play in terms of testimony. Page 11 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 And oftentimes, we know our agenda comes out at the last minute, you know, at the fastest we can by the required date. And it doesn't allow for public to be involved by testifying on an agenda item. So with people already committing to perhaps a once-a-month meeting depending on the board or commission. I think it's not too much to ask for them to appear twice, and to come as required by the agenda that is set forth by the Clerk's Office. And I'll leave it at that. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Anyone else? Chair David. MS. DAVID: Thank you. Just, thank you for the thought process about that. And I've been thinking about it myself and I think how we've become to these situations, every situation that has arisen regarding appointments. I think the system that we have now,just advising them that there is a two-step process, I think has been working. And unfortunately, our scheduling of Committees have been that way because of the numerous things that we have to deal with in agendizing. And I really think that how we have it now is workable. And I wouldn't see changing it at this point in time. So that's my mana`o. Thank you, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair David. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. I actually support the two-step process, but I also support the consistency of a day. And so if there was a two-step process at Council, kind of like our bills, first and second reading. I think that brings a lot more managed expectations. It's a Wednesday. I still think we can achieve the two-step process, but setting it for a particular day, I think manages expectations for everybody. Like Ms. Kierkiewicz, I was on the Water Board and came through on Committee and was told, "You know, you don't have to show up." And a lot of that was focused around—we had members stepping off, and so they really wanted to get you sworn in and get you kind of up and running as quickly as possible. And again, I support the two-step process, but managing expectations on a particular day, I think would go a long way to members who are coming forward on the boards and commissions. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Anyone else? Yes, Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Thanks for the mana`o, and I just want to be clear, I'm not looking at getting rid of a two-step process. I'm just looking for consistency of day. And so, to Council Member Lee Loy's point, if we just identify Council being the time in which folks are coming forward, it just establishes Page 12 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 consistency in when these individuals are having to take time off of work and notice their employer. Oftentimes, you know, when folks are having to take vacation or take time off, oftentimes you have to give at least a couple weeks' notice. And so, I'd like to establish some clear consistency in when we are bringing folks forward. Again, not trying to get rid of the two-step process, but just consistency, so folks know when they need to be showing up. Thank you, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you again, for that clarification. Anyone else? And then I'll go back to Council Member Inaba. No? Okay. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thanks. Just real quick, and I again, recognizing the constraints that we might put on people's calendars. We do, luckily have, you know,the option to appear via Zoom now. So, it's a matter sometimes of just a few minutes, wherever they are. And not opposed to the idea to ensure that it happens on a Wednesday. But want to point out that I think prior to Zoom, if they were going to appear, they'd be appearing right here at the table. But they have that option to appear wherever they are now. So that's it. Thank you, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Anyone else. Alright, I'm just going to invite Corp. Counsel. If there is anything you would like to add to this discussion, keeping it brief so that we can have a break here before Council starts. Thank you. (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. STRANCE: Good morning. Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. So, you would probably—it's an unusual process for you currently to waive something to Council. There's usually an expedited reason for it. But there's a process in your rules to waive something from Committee to Council. So I would need to take a quick look at your rules, about whether you would need to amend your rules; or whether you're just adopting a practice for this term, to waive board and commission nominations to Council for first and second reading. So, I'll take a look at your rules. But it would be a different practice that you would be implementing. You know, whether it's appropriate or not would be up to you. You folks are under a time constraint to review candidates. So I understand that, and that may be the basis upon which you could provide a different process for boards and commission members than other legislation. Page 13 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Judge Strance. A couple quick questions either for you or for Council Member Kierkiewicz. The 45-day requirement, is that a requirement to finalize action or just initiate action to actually have that first hearing? MS. STRANCE: It's to complete action. CHR. KIMBALL: It is to complete action. Okay, thank you for that clarification. And the secondly, some of the appointments, boards and commissions, do any of them have requirements to be heard in particular committees? MS. STRANCE: You mean, in addition to Council approval, they also have to have committee approval? CHR. KIMBALL: Are there particular nomination positions, and I think Council Member Lee Loy knows the answer to this, that are required to be heard within a defined committee? And Council Member Lee Loy, if you know the answer to this please. MS. LEE LOY: And if I'm understanding you correctly, for example, someone to the Police Commission would be heard by our Public Safety. Our rules determine that. However, those rules get augmented depending on what type of committees we stand up. CHR. KIMBALL: Right. MS. LEE LOY: And so, yes, there is a shepherding of certain boards and commission members heading off to a particular committee. But that's driven by our rules not so much by a Charter directive. CHR. KIMBALL: Right, okay, thank you. My—curious about things like the Planning Commission in particular or the Appeals Board, or some of those that have quasi-judicial responsibilities. But now they're all directed through our rules. Okay. Yeah, I see where you're going with this and I'm open to creative ways to make it a little bit more clear. Perhaps either in the future or sooner we would actually want a committee that was specifically formed to do appointments and everything would be shunted to that committee. And that committee would always be scheduled on a certain date at a certain time. I think that might be a fruitful process. MS. LEE LOY: If I may, Chair? CHR. KIMBALL: Yes, go ahead, Council Member Lee Loy. Page 14 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 MS. LEE LOY: In our Rules of Procedure, we also have what's known as the Committee of the Whole, which is same like the Council, but a little bit of a different function. And that particular rule was stood up at a time when not all members sat in the committees. There was a limited number of individuals on say, the Planning Committee. And rather than commit that piece of legislation to the full Council, they would commit to the Committee of the Whole first to get a bigger and broader understanding and allow other members of the Council who did not necessarily sit on that committee. And so I do think we could actually achieve some of what we're talking about in maybe using some of what we might have in our rules for the Committee of the Whole or a two-step process in Council. But I'll let Judge Strance kind of lean in and help us with that. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you for that suggestion, Council Member Lee Loy. Judge Strance, any thoughts on that immediately, or do you want to kind of ruminate about that a little bit? MS. STRANCE: My observation is that there's really only one committee where this issue has come up. And it's the Planning Commissions. By and large, your past practice of, if there's agreement at Committee, your prior practice is telling people they don't need to come to Council, was a reasonable thing to suggest. Because the past practice was, there wasn't going to be an issue raised at County Council. So the question is whether you want to create a new process for a problem of limited issue, or whether there's something else that you folks need to be looking at. So that's my observation. I think if sometimes creating rules for a limited or maybe even a temporary problem, creates unintended consequences that are bigger than the problem it's trying to solve. And so, I would just ask you think about that, and at the same time, we can look at what your rules require. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Judge Strance, appreciate the feedback on that. I think there's some options here for us. Again, I do like the two-step process. And I think even the past practice again, when I was on the Appeals Board, I'd come before the committee—all good, you don't have to come back. You know, that has been past practice. However, I think the fact that we've seen some diversion from that more recently actually does elucidate that we as a body have two opportunities. There is always the possibility that something could happen between vote one and vote two that would impact the decision making. And so, I do think there's genuine need for some real rules around this, because past practice is not necessarily an interpretation that there is something that will be always followed. And I think that that's appropriate to develop rules when that's the case. With that I will go ahead Page 15 GOREDC-22 February 9,2022 and take the vote which is, the motion on the floor is to close file on Communication 598. All of those in favor? Vote on Comm. 598: The motion to close file on Comm. 598 was carried by (Filed) the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members David 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 11:51 a.m., Mr. Inaba moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members David and Richards—2. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you very much. We are adjourned. Approved: 9(21/2•)1.2. A . eather L. i ball, Chair (Date) Government Operations, Relations, and Economic Development Committee HK/dt Page 16