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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN PRPSC 2022/02/08 2020-2022Committee on Parks and Recreation and Public Safety 23`'d Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii February 8, 2022 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Parks and Recreation and Public ORDER: Safety was called to order at 9:00 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair. (Note: Kalani Stoleson, student at the University of Hawai `i at Hilo - College of Hawaiian Language, attended the meeting to provide interpretation of `Olelo Hawaii for the members of the Council, other meeting participants and public viewers.) CHR. INABA: Aloha kakahiaka e ka lehulehu o Hawaii. `O ka la `ewalu keia o Pepeluali i ka makahiki `elua kaukani iwakaluakumdlua. `O ka halawai iwakaluakumakolu keia o ke Komike o na Paka a me ka Palekana Lehulehu. Ke hui nei makou ma ka Hale Aupuni ma Hilo i keia la. (Note: Kalani Stoleson, student at the University of Hawaii at Hilo College of Hawaiian Language, attended the meeting to provide interpretation of `Olelo Hawaii for the members of the Council, other meeting participants and public viewers.) MR. STOLESON: Good morning, everyone. Today is February 28, 2022. This is the 23rd meeting of the Committee on Parks and Recreation and Public Safety. We are meeting today at the County Building here in Hilo. CHR. INABA: `O ka hola `eiwa o ke kakahiaka keia a eia no ka ho`omaka o ka halawai. E ke kakau `olelo, e kahea i na inoa o na `elele i ho`ea mai. MR. STOLESON: It is 9:00 a.m., and I'm calling this meeting to order. Mr. Clerk, roll call the names of the Council Members, please. PRPSC-23 ROLL CALL: February 8, 2022 Present: Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Vice Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member (came in later) Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member CHR. INABA: Mahalo. `Oiai `o ka mahina `olelo Hawaii keia, e malama `ia ana kekahi `olelo ho`oholo i ka 15 `apopo ma ka `Aha Kalana aka no keia la, na`u e malama i ke alaka`i o keia komike ma o ka `olelo Hawaii. MR. STOLESON: Being that this is Mahina `Olelo Hawaii or the Hawaiian Language month we will be hearing a resolution tomorrow to recognize it at the Council. However to get started today, I will be chairing this meeting in Hawaiian language. CHR. INABA: A he leo mahalo keia is Kalani Stoleson mai Ka Haka `Ula o Ke`elikolani i kona `ae `olu`olu e kokua mai is makou ma ka mahele `olelo i keia la. MR. STOLESON: And I wanted to thank Kalani Stoleson, from Ka Haka `Ula o Ke`elikolani, for agreeing to help us out today and becoming a Hawaiian language translator for us. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Me keia mana`o, e holomua kakou me na mana`o mai ka lehulehu. MR. STOLESON: And with that, we will move forward now with public testimony. CHR. INABA: He `elua minuke no keia me keia kanaka e ka`ana mana`o. MR. STOLESON: Each person will have two minutes to share their mana`o, their thoughts. Page 2 PRPSC-23 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS February 8, 2022 The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. The following individuals registered to speak regarding Comm. 591, and came forward when called by Chair: Kaniela Morimoto Kalei Ka`ilikini Shawn Don Dearing Roxanne Earwood Michelle Melendez Roger Christie Share Christie Vikki Pfendler Theresa Harden Melissa Niemeyer Davina Ma: Malama Chaberlin Golde Wallingford Megan Isaac Magdalene CHR. INABA: Mahalo e Randy. A eia ka panina o ka wa ka`ana a ka lehulehu. E holomua kakou me Communication 590. MR. STOLESON: This brings us to the end of public testimony. Let us proceed with Communication 590. The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Communications. Page 3 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 Comm. 590: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION WITH MAYOR MITCHELL D. ROTH AND CIVIL DEFENSE ADMINISTRATOR TALMADGE MAGNO REGARDING THE COUNTY'S RESPONSE TO THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN TONGA From Council Member Holeka Goro Inaba, dated January 19, 2022. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. E hapai kekahi i not pani faila no Communication 590. MS. LEE LOY: Na`u ka (sic) noi. MS. KIMBALL: K6kua lua. MR. STOLESON: Do we have a motion to close file on Communication 590? Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 590. Seconded by Ms. Kimball. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Ua hapai `ia e Council Member Lee Loy a kako`o `ia e Council Member Kimball. A no laila, MR. STOLESON It was moved by Council Member Lee Loy and seconded by Council Member Kimball. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. A i keia 15, ua kono wau is Mayor Roth a me ko makou Administrator o Civil Defense e hele mai. MR. STOLESON: At this point I would like to—I have invited Mayor Roth, and Administrator of the Civil Defense. CHR. INABA: `Ae. No laila, Mayor Roth, ina hiki is `oe ke ka`ana mai no keia h6`ea mai ana (sic) o ka nalu nui i keia mahina aku nei. MR. STOLESON: Mayor Roth, if you would please share about the arrival of the tsunami last month. (Note: At this time, Mayor Mitchell D. Roth came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. ROTH: Aloha, and good morning. So on January 14'', little bit after 6:00 in the evening on Hawaii time. There was a volcano incident in Tonga that maybe you know about. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center put out their first statement to Hawaii at 10:06 p.m. In that statement that they put out at 10:06 p.m., they say, "A tsunami was generated by this eruption. It was and continues to be a threat for parts of the Pacific, located closer to the volcano. However, based on all available data, there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii. Repeat, based on all available data, there is no tsunami threat to Hawai`i." It Page 4 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 follows up by saying, "This will be the only statement issued for this event, unless additional data are received." So that was 10:06 p.m., so a lot of people including our Finance Director who actually checked in the evening after seeing some news coverage, that's what they were told by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. And most people went to sleep. I at that time was boarding a plane to go to California for my mom's memorial service. At around 12:00 p.m. (sic) Administrator Talmadge Magno was notified by HI-EMA (Hawai`i Emergency Management Agency), there's a possible advisory that they're going to be putting out for a tsunami. And at that time Administrator Magno activated our EOC (Emergency Operations Center), and contacted our first responders for an event like this. That included Police, Fire, Public Works, Parks, and the Directors Messina and Rodenhurst were down at the EOC around 12:30. By that time they arrived, I understand there was Police and Fire representatives also down there. They went on to the TV (Television) where they had a joint communication with all of the Civil Defense Administrators in the State, with HI-EMA and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. And I believe at about 12:43 a.m., the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center put out an advisory to the State. So when an advisory is put out for a possible tsunami, there are no activation of the sirens. So this advisory was put to the entire State. And not only did we not put out any sirens but no place else in the State did they put out sirens. We did however activate our Police Officers to go to our known places, like beach parks and other areas that may have issues when we have tidal surges. And so they did go to various places, beaches, not just in Kona but in Hilo and Ka`u around the island to make sure that people were not in danger. They actually had people who went out to Keauhou Bay, where we had our most damage that we had. When they got out there, they saw that the area was empty. However there was a truck with a trailer on it. They found the owner's telephone number, they tried calling the owner who was out at sea fishing. When they could not contact him, they contacted a tow truck because it was at the harbor. And a place that is known to have some tidal surges. A tow truck did come, and while the water was coming in and coming up, they towed the vehicle out of the harbor to protect it. Again, Police Officers were down at the Keauhou Bay at that time checking for water damage, and they did make checks at the Kailua pier. And they went and checked with the management at King Kamehameha Hotel, and at that time they said that there was no problems. We do know that at Keauhou Bay, that Sea Quest actually did take some damage from water coming up. But the tsunami arrived somewhere around I think 1:30 in the morning. Page 5 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 When I landed in Los Angeles I started getting calls, I made calls to Administrator Magno. He informed me about what was going on. At that time the information that we had, we had little if no damage. What I did know is that, Kamehameha Hotel took in a little bit of water inside their lobby, or inside of part of the hotel. At that time because it was early in the morning, Administrator Magno was just probably releasing the people that were at the EOC as the event was over, and it appeared that there was no significant damage or injury. And there was no injury or deaths, or anything like that. That we found out about. While in my car going to my son's house where I was going to be staying, starting making calls. I called various places, including the King Kamehameha Hotel talked to management there. I talked to a fisherman that fishes out in Keauhou Bay, I understand it was his son whose vehicle was damaged. I called people up and down the coast, to find out if they were okay. Unfortunately I was calling them very early in the morning, and most people did not even realize that anything had happened. In the evening, since Lee Lord, our Managing Director, was covering for me, he received calls and notifications from Mr. Magno and you know, that was pretty much the information we had. After the incident our Housing Department started contacting people to find out what kind of damage that they had, so that if there's FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funding available that they would be able to get FEMA funding. Unfortunately the damage that was sustained, did not make the threshold for FEMA funding. However my understanding is there was I believe five businesses that took in some kind of damage, which was the threshold for SBA (Small Business Administration) funding. My understanding is that Housing is working with people on SBA, Small Business Administration loans. It's interesting the next week after I was home, I guess last week Friday, we had a malfunction of sirens in Hilo. And we got a call within five minutes of the alarms going off, Civil Defense had contacted me. I was with our PIO (Public Information Officer) Cyrus Johnasen he immediately got on the phone and contacted the television news and started working with the State HI-EMA on making sure that some kind of notification would go out. Because the sirens are owned and operated by the State, it was decided that we would let them put out the notice. However, like I said we had all of the television stations notified. They put out things on the television, and I think even Big Island Thieves who had something out within five minutes. The number of complaints that we got for lack of communication for that, was pretty amazing, even though we had communications out within five minutes. People were upset; that, you know, they were scared to death; you know, "Why is this happening? "Why aren't you taking better care of your sirens? "Those are State-owned sirens, but it was a Civil Defense employee that actually went down to manually turn those off. Our Civil Defense is not 24 hours, they are on call. Page 6 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 And in both of these instances, I completely support the actions that they took, I think they did an amazing job. Were there learning lessons, absolutely there were learning lessons on both of these events. But I think that given the circumstances, I think that they all did what they should have. I know you called me down Council Member Inaba, and I'm just wondering if there's anything that you or any of the other Council Members believe that we could have done or should have done better with the information we had at the time. CHR. INABA: Mahalo, e not muaMahalo e Mayor Roth. E not ana wau is Talmadge ina he mana`o kau (sic). MR. STOLESON: Thank you, Mayor Roth. I'm going to ask Talmadge if he has anything to add. (Note: At this time Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. MAGNO: Good morning, Council. Thank you, Councilman Inaba, for inviting us here. I'll take this opportunity, you know, to share information, also kind of use it as an educational platform as well. I think in front of you, you have the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's scale, as far as alert levels. And as part of the Mayor's testimony, related to the runaway siren as we call it. You cannot see the sensitivity of utilizing that warning siren. And in this scale, the siren is only used at the warning level. And I'll kind of like explain the sequence here. Of course cancellation would be, you know, what came about later in the morning during that Tongan tsunami event. When everything is all cleared as deemed by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, the cancellation issued. Information statement: That will be issued for like a distant earthquake that there might be some concerns, but basically giving you information. It is as they say here, you can relax for these it's just notifications. For tsunami watch, it's be prepared, they're still analyzing the data to see what's going to happen. It could go down to a cancellation, or more information, or scale up as well. Now in the case of the Tongan tsunami where it was an advisory, the key thing that we took away from this event is at meter less, it stays within that advisory level. We never exceeded, or we approach a meter but we stayed below it. So at that level, all policies and procedures were followed. And then of course for a warning, when that is issued as coordinated through the State in conjunction with each County, the sirens will be coordinated and sounded. So we must understand the seriousness of the sirens. If you take a look at probably the most serious situation, Waikiki. When those sirens will go off, the chaos that could happen in that area. The panic that is created in areas like Page 7 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 Keaukaha, Alii Drive, and so forth. And then you scale that with the minor damage that we had, granted if it's your business, you know, it's not so much minor. But to create that much panic in the community, we have to weigh all those circumstances out. This situation in the middle of the night, is our worst nightmare to have to do evacuation in the middle of the night. All this discussion comes into play. So I had planned to go through the event, but Mayor Roth pretty much went through it for you guys. So one thing I will add to this, is much of the tsunami program is based upon historic events, records, you know, past data. This one is new. This data although they, you know volcanologists, the tsunami scientists, they know that it's happened before. Krakatoa had that same kind of events, but this is the first that they have data on that they can record information. So you know, we'll definitely learn a lot from this one. So the sequence pretty much went through, you know, as the Mayor discussed. And once the County Civil Defense pushed out an Everbridge message nothing changed as far as the Police, the officials down at the coastlines monitoring things. The level of impact that we were seeing nothing changed. The PTWC (Pacific Tsunami Warning Center) did not see any indications on their bout's that things would increase to the point where we had to scale up or change any messaging. So we left that message in place, all the way until we cancelled it at 7:52 in the morning. CHR. INABA: Okay. Talmadge, mahalo is oe. A... makemake wau e Wike, ua Wea mai `o Council Member Richards. MR. STOLESON: I wanted to show that Councilman Richards has arrived. CHR. INABA: Ahe mau ninau a i `ole he mau mana`o mai ke Komike? MR. STOLESON: Does the committee have any further comments or thoughts? CHR. INABA: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yes. Thank you for being here, and for walking us through the timeline of the exact occurrences. I know myself I was asleep, but members of District 7 in the business community lost a lot at Keauhou Bay. And so there was big concern about how, why, and what, and we didn't know. And what are these circumstances, and how do we mitigate that in the future. After a couple of years of economic impacts of coronavirus and how that's affected our boating industry, especially in District 7. This hit hard on Sea Quest in Keauhou Bay. So I am hopeful they can get all of the support necessary to fix the things that were broken, and the damage that's been done there. Page 8 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 In having some questions myself about how and why. One of the things I've heard, and I apologize but I can't quite remember the exact source. But it was that essentially our tsunami equipment wasn't created to detect, you know, volcanos blowing up out of the ocean in size of something like that. And so I wondered if you could help me understand a little better what the difference is. I mean this was an unprecedented event. It has happened before but in looking at the maps of the planet that were circulating, and the videos of this explosion. it looked as if it was bigger actually, than the whole State of Hawaii. And so in my mind, just wondering where we stand as far as our technologies and abilities, and does it relate to our current. And much of this, as Mayor Roth stated, its State run and these are State resources. But I wondered if you could provide a bit of information and potentially comfort, for the constituents of the Big Island, about the capacities for our tsunami detection devices that are out within the oceans. MR. MAGNO: Sure, that's a great question. And I don't want to really delve into the scientific part of it, because I'll confuse myself as well as you guys. And like they said a lot of it is new, they know about it. So there's a lot of ongoing work, and discussion about this. So one of the discussions that we've had as far as the system to detect, a lot more instrumentation would help. And this is not only State, but its Federal its NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) instrumentation. Very costly. These instruments are throughout the Pacific Basin, they need to be. They need to be calibrated, checked once a year, so that means ships out to sea with crew pretty much year around checking these. There is other technology that they're discussing, you know, attached to the telecommunication networks that are on the sea floor to see if signals can be utilized by them. So there's other methods, other technology, and that would definitely enhance our monitoring and detection of these kinds of events. MS. VILLEGAS: So it sounds like hopefully this will be an impetus for these conversations and as we continue this path that we're navigating with climate change and sea level rise and all of the different grander, or on a grander scale, environmental occurrences. I hope that this will continue to be part of the conversation that you and Mayor Roth have with—and I myself with those in State and Federal Government from a safety standpoint for those of us who live on islands and are directly impacted by whether or not there's prioritization for those resources to keep these technologies. I mean this town where we sit right here, was the place of loss of life. And so it does behoove us to continue to remain sensitive, and to educate our community. So thank you for that, I really appreciate your guidance, and your honesty. What's Page 9 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 there and what's just not there. The earth and natural forces are way bigger than all of us, so we have to remain humble and vigilant. So thank you. MR. MAGNO: Thank you. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Council Member, Chung. MR. CHUNG: Yeah, thank you. You know, based on what I heard today I'm just thoroughly satisfied that, you know, the County did whatever they could, given the information that you'd normally rely upon, right? It's seems to be some deficiencies in the instrumentation, in detecting these types of episodes. And you know, that's something that you guys can, you know, try to discuss with the agencies that are more equipped at that going forward. I wanted to really thank Council Member Inaba for bringing this up. Because it gave the Administration an opportunity to explain what happened. And maybe some other people might disagree but based on what I've heard today you guys were not asleep at the wheel, yeah. And you guys did whatever you could given the information you had, and then as soon as more information came in you guys acted swiftly. And yeah, thank you for your good work and going forward with regard to housing and other things and trying to mitigate the damages. So thank you, Holeka, for doing that. CHR INABA: Mahalo. Council Member, Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. I just want to echo what Councilman Chung said, yeah. I agree with that, and I understand that this was different. Something to touch on, Ms. Villegas pointed out. This was an explosion, as opposed to an earthquake. And as I understand it the early sensors look for earthquakes, and then start the sequence there. Since there was no real earthquake, it was actually an explosion. The technology that we have, and I know the technology is very expensive and not near as deployed as everybody wants it to. Yeah, I agree, sounds like everything was handled quite well. And I do appreciate it. Holeka thanks for bringing it forward, because it's good for the community, to understand that the County did what it was supposed to do. Thank you, Chair. I yield. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Council Member, Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Yeah, thank you for being here. And thank you for piggy -backing that runaway siren on top of this communication. I do appreciate it. And I just wanted to dig in a little bit on that communication tree, because I had a number of people from Keaukaha calling me, looking for information. And my go -to is Chris Leonard, over at KWXX. And I was just kind of leaning in on him, and he was waiting for information. So could you share with Page 10 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 me Talmadge a little bit about I understand you guys have to assess the information, develop the message; but walk me through that, and the timeline so that the community can hear that. That's my first ask. And then after this if you don't mind Mayor, and Talmadge, Keaukaha would really love to hear from you every third Wednesday they have their meeting. And if you guys could walk back to them and bring this information back to them. Go ahead, Talmadge. MR. MAGNO: Sure, great questions. You know, as far as when we have a runaway siren, several methods we do to confirm, you know, what's going on, commonly we ask—coming to us through Police dispatch. You know, we ask, "Do you have numerous calls or just one call?" In this case numerous calls, so we know okay, it's legitimate. In that case I think Bill Hansen was on call, he contacted State Emergency Management to see if they had set it off. So that was negative. So when we realized okay, it is a malfunctioning siren there's no event going on, quickly we start the process to get the information out. This kind of gives me a good timing as far as plugging in our Everbridge messaging. And so that is our link, even back to the Tongan tsunami. If people like the boat owners, the business owners, coastal residents, if they are linked to our Everbridge messaging they would have gotten that message at 2:00 a.m. in the morning that we were under advisory. So Everbridge messaging and it's a kind of a matter of time of our location getting to EOC. If it's definitely business hours, where there immediately we can get it out. Some of us have the instrumentation at home, we can put the message out. Otherwise it's a little bit delay. In this case I know the Police also put out a Nixle so, you know, we're pushing messages out both ways. And would be glad to come down to Keaukaha as well MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Talmadge, for that. I think everybody is just hungry to assess. Mayor, go ahead. MR. ROTH: Yeah. As I said earlier on this one, the one that went off. We were at a conference, and Bill Hansen got the call from HI-EMA. Well he got the call from I guess dispatch, he called HI-EMA, he next called me. I dragged Cyrus out, and he just started going down his phone list of television ones. Bill left his home and went to the office, and from the office he put the Everbridge out. As Talmadge says, some of them are able to do it at home, he was having problems doing it at home so he went to the office. He got his message out. Because it was HI-EMA's equipment, the State's equipment, there was a decision made that they would put out the press release, so it wouldn't look like we're pointing fingers saying, "It's the State's fault doing this." This equipment, and Talmadge could probably talk a little bit about sirens, this happens occasionally. Page 11 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 Often times they find things like ants or geckos getting into the system, so well blame the gecko. That's kind of what happened. And I just wanted to mention with Council Member Villegas, we did contact Mana Powers from Sea Quest our hearts go out to them. I really wish that there was something that we could have done. But like I said, by the time things were happening, we got officers down to the pier down there. And they were doing what they could to make sure that there was no one around. If we had the time like from like 6:00 in the evening, or 6:30 in the evening till that time. And we knew that there was that possibility, we probably would have put something out. But you know, it was 10:06 in the evening. And for the public's notification, you can go on to the Hawaii Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and pull their notices. And so I was able to pull this one out at 10:06 in the evening, we're told there's no threat. Yeah, that's what it was. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Talmadge. Third Wednesday's, I'll go ahead and set it up. Chair, I yield. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Mahalo nui, Chair. Mahalo nui, Mayor Roth, for being here appreciate your presence. Administrator Magno, I have some questions for you. MR. ROTH: Let me, if I may? I have some appointments in Kona today, if it's okay, if you have any question or any of the other Council Members have questions? If not, he knows a lot more than I do. Especially about these matters. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: No worries, Mayor. And I'm sure he will relay our comments, and sentiments back to you. MR. ROTH: Thank you, kala mai. I apologize. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Safe travels. MR. ROTH: Thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Administrator Magno, you mentioned something about FEMA reimbursements and our County not meeting the qualification for that. Can you tell us what that threshold is, and is it just related to County infrastructure or is that also related to private businesses? MR. MAGNO: Several things. So you know, the example of the 2018 lava flow. So for individual IP (Improvement Plan) the individual awards from FEMA, we had to reach that certain threshold. So that was 700 -something houses destroyed. Page 12 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 As far as the government infrastructure, you know, all the roads that were taken out and so forth, those allowed us to qualify for public assistance. In this case the damage to the County infrastructure was minimal to beach parks and stuff. Public Works, you know, checked the roadways, P&R checked their facilities. There was damage, but not a high enough amount. And the other category as far as public assistance, you know, we put out a message said, if you sustained damage to call the Civil Defense Office. To my knowledge, we received no calls. And so the individual assistance was not, I guess, looked for. And then as far as the assistance for commercial, we knew that with Keauhou and Kamehameha Hotel that there was businesses affected. The Housing Department they do the damage assessments for that aspect of events, so they went out and made contacts. Again, thresholds for overall FEMA assistance were not met, but the lesser Small Business Administration levels as far as grants. In this case was five qualifying commercial businesses with economic damage, and so that put us to that threshold. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you for that explanation. And then you mentioned reaching out to businesses or entities, to understand damage to their properties. How is that message getting out to them directly? I mean, are you knocking on their door, are you making phone calls? What does that reach out to folks look like? MR. MAGNO: Housing actually—from what we know, you know, from the Police and Public Works, and all the County officials that are on the ground and we know impacts are happening. Housing went out and reached out to those businesses, basically one foot, track down any damages. As far asI can't recall if we put out a message specifically for damage, you know, for businesses to report damage. But we did put out that general message, if you did receive impacts, damage from the tsunami to call Civil Defense. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. So radio ads, newspaper. MR. MAGNO: Right, the Everbridge message. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: But if they're not signed up, they wouldn't get the message. MR. MAGNO: Right. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, alright. And when you say housing, you're referring to Office of Housing and Community Development. MR. MAGNO: Yes. Page 13 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Sorry. I just want to make sure if people are watching, they know who you're talking about. Okay, that's helpful. Just wondering any engagement with the Kailua Village Business Improvement District and that group, they do have a pulse on the local business community. MR. MANGO: No. Not directly with them. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. You know, I want to kako`o what Council Member Chung had mentioned about, you know, the work that you and your team did, in response to these efforts. Always learning lessons. But thank you for just being really honest, about where we were at. You did the best that you could, and clearly there are ways in which we can improve our operations. I just want to put out to the forefront again, because I think this is something I reiterated first time I was elected to this position, and that's education. Education of our community, not just a one-off event, but something that is happening on an ongoing basis, right? The public meetings, engaging members of the community, leveraging our CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Teams, taking a social media, getting into the schools and educating people around, what you shared with us here today, right? It's not good enough to just hear it here, just one time. But constantly kind of reminding community so we're not operating from a sense of fear, chaos, and panic in the event of potential crises. So with that being said, who was kind of handling the educational campaigns of Civil Defense? Because I know one or two budget cycles ago you had reorganized the PIO, the Public Information Officer position to be something else. So who is handling education? MR. MAGNO: Well, I'm glad you brought that up. And I kind of blame coronavirus, that for the last two years we have not been able to have our safety fairs that we had planned to have on both sides of the island, you know, every year. And so we can see the results that, you know, people are not prepared, people are not educated to be prepared. And so you know, I talked to my team, you know, Bill Hansen leads the CERT groups, and they generally are the momentum, they get the momentum going to do these safety fairs. So after these two events, the tsunami and the runaway siren and the effects, we've had discussion, we've got to get it going. We've got to get our fairs, our outreach going again. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. It's great to hear you say that. I think we're going to be looking for kind of a concrete detailed update during budget hearings, and I'm going to say this again, feel free to use us. We as Council Members have really interesting ideas on how we could potentially get the message out to our communities. We were elected for a reason. People feel we represent them and are connected to them, and so we want to make sure we're leveraging that in Page 14 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 really being a partner, and helping Civil Defense get out its message and educating community. As Council Member Villegas was saying with climate change, we are just going to see more events happening more frequently with greater intensity. And so we really have to make sure preparedness, is part of our DNA. Thank you, Administrator Magno for being here. Chair, I yield. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. He mau mana`o `e a`e? MR. STOLESON: Thank you. Does anyone have any further comments? CHR. INABA: No laila, eia ka wa koho paloka no ka (sic) noi. Ina he kako`o, e `ae mai. MR. STOLESON: So now it's time to take the vote. All in favor, please say Ic aye. CHR. INABA: Ina he Wole, e Wole mai. MR. STOLESON: Any opposed, please say a`ole. Vote on Comm. 590: Motion to close file on Comm. 590 was carried by the Filed by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Inaba — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Ua ho`oholo `ia me `eiwa `ae. MR. STOLESON: Thank you. The motion has passed with nine ayes. CHR. INABA: E ho`omau kakou me Communication 591. MR. STOLESON: Let us continue with Communication 591. Page 15 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 Comm. 591: REQUESTS AN UPDATE BY THE CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY AND THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE ON THE STATUS OF COVID TESTING AND SPENDING From Council Member Heather L. Kimball, dated January 20, 2022. CHR. INABA: E Council Member Kimball, e hapai i kekahi noi, ke `olu`olu. MR. STOLESON: Council Member Kimball can you please initiate a motion. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. He noi ho`oholo no Communication 591. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: K6kua lua. MR. STOLESON: A motion to close file on Communication 591. CHR. INABA: Ua hapai `ia e Council Member Kimball a k6kua `ia e Council Member Kierkiewicz. A, Council Member Kimball. MR. STOLESON: It was moved by Council Member Kimball and seconded by Council Member Kierkiewicz. To Council Member Kimball. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 591. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. And thank you everyone for your patience today. When I put forth this communication the rationale was, that we had been talking about legislative priorities. And I believe it was Council Member Chung, that kind of got us talking about testing and making sure we have the facilities and capability to do more testing locally. And I thought it would be pertinent to actually bring forth a communication on this topic. Because in addition to that discussion I had received several calls from folks in the community about testing challenges. Either they were tested and not getting results back, or they were taking four or five days. It seems like we had the testing pretty dialed -in with Delta and then we got into this new surge with Omicron. So I just wanted to hear from Civil Defense about what may be different, and why we might be seeing some of these challenges. There were also questions at least in my community about availability of testing at various sites, with people waiting and then not being able to be tested. So I just wanted an update on that. In addition when we talked before about spending with Director Sako, I know that you thoughtfully said, you know, we need to hold for some just in case there's another surge. And sure enough here we are with another surge. So just wanted an update as to where we are with the funding and making sure that we still have funding available for this very important aspect of dealing with a pandemic. Which is regular testing, in a timely way. Page 16 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 So that's said, in addition of course we had the newspaper article over the weekend. And I think there are some additional questions that arise out of that article that deserve a response. So I'll just put it to the Civil Defense Administrator, and other members of the Civil Defense, if you have comments. And then of course, we can talk about the financing after with Director Sako. Thank you. (Note: At this time Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. MAGNO: Thank you, Council Woman Kimball, for inviting us here to share with you information as far as what Civil Defense has kind of been doing with the testing operations with coronavirus for the last two years. It's definitely evolved over the years, over the last two years. The Fire Department was initially tasked with organizing the testing. And everything, all the bases of operations that we do, are in coordination with the Department of Health. You know, I hear these earlier testimonies and what they're saying, you know, all of our guidance is under Department of Health. We don't do anything on our own within the County. They are the State's experts on medical issues. And so we converse with them daily, as far as our operations. And early on when we came up with our testing scheme it was based upon developing testing, surveillance testing for the community so that we would know when we would start seeing transmissions within the community. You know, prior to Delta obviously, the numbers were comparatively low, compare to these two spikes, Delta and Omicron. Nevertheless we had testing throughout the communities at various levels, as surveillance, to monitor what was going on. Working with Department of Health as clusters were noted, we addressed them with our spot testing to start identifying those people, so that the Department of Health could quarantine and isolate these folks so further spread wouldn't happen. And then further targeted testing for communities that we were possibly seeing other transmission. So we came up with this scheme and held that throughout this whole period. We would not have been able to do this without all the other departments in the County, definitely the National Guard. Without them you know, they pulled a big load, and they continue to do so, both with testing and vaccination. So with Fire, Police, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, we have been able to do the testing and we will maintain doing the testing. As you mentioned, we have multiple vendors on contract, so we can continue testing. We do have federal monies specifically for testing through March. The vendors are on contract through August, I believe. And so we'll maintain this capacity that if we see Page 17 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 spikes, we can wrap up or scale down, based upon what we're seeing in the community. So that we could get the appropriate people isolated and vaccinated. One thing that we're addressing now, is with the home test kits. That kind of leaves an open window as far as people testing at home. We don't know who's positive or not. And we're going to put out messages now that if you are positive, this is the formula, or basically, this is what you need to do as far as quarantine and isolations. But we are prepared to move on and scale up or scale down to continue testing. And I brought Tom Olson, he's a Staff Officer with Civil Defense. And he's been running the testing and vaccination operation, coordinating. So he has the data, he's been collecting the data. So I brought him in so that he can share that information with you all, if you're willing to take that. Okay, thanks. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Administrator. Yes, I'd be curious to hear the data. Welcome. (Note: At this time Civil Defense Staff Officer Thomas Olson came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. OLSON: Good morning, Council. I appreciate having the opportunity to come here today. As Talmadge mentioned my name is Tom Olson, I'm a Staff Officer at Civil Defense. I started here just under three years ago, and early on Talmadge tasked me with managing COVID testing, the operation. And then it morphed into the vaccination operation, when the vaccines became available here. So what I prepared, and I've got all sort of data if you're interested in anything else I can certainly share. But I put together three slides right now. This first one—when it's available. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Aia is makou kekahi kope. Thank you. We have a copy. MR. OLSON: Okay, great. CHR. INABA: We have a copy. MR. OLSON: So if you have a print-out in front of you. Great it's up. (Note: At this time, Mr. Olson provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. A hard copy of the presentation is made a part of the record. See Comm. 591.1.) MR. OLSON: So if you have a print-out in front of you, the first slide is a chart that I developed. It's had several iterations since we've had testing. But this is the Page 18 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 current testing rhythm that we operate, County -sponsored, County -funded sites that are now operated by Truecare24 all across the island. So you'll see there that there are 15 events every single week. This runs routinely all week. So basically breaking it down Hilo based on population you can kind of see Hilo has maybe a little more weight than other areas, but this is also this right here that you see is internal; however, public facing it's on our County website, which is on Slide 2. So what I'll do is just click on the website. (Note: At this time, Mr. Thomas referred to a display on the projector screen.) MR. OLSON: And the County website for testing is simply hawaiicounty.gov/testing. And it brings you to and ARC/GIS (inaudible) is available for it. But you'll see the very first item is the County of Hawaii sponsored testing. So that's all the Truecare sites and we give explicit directions on what you should do before getting to a site. You need to preregister, and you're strongly encouraged, to prevent surges and to make your experience onsite a little bit quicker. And if you cannot for whatever reason, there are tools onsite to be able to do to have your registration done right there. There's also a QR (Quick Response) code that folks can click on. You'll see this calendar here. This calendar reflects exactly what's on that first slide. That's just another way for the public to see it. That if wherever they can look at an event—today is Tuesday, so they can see what event's going on today, the location, et cetera. And what I do is I set up a testing calendar every month. So you'll see that the March schedule is blank, because there's a lot of coordination that I do to make sure that the venues are available, that support is available, that the vendors can do it, National Guard as Talmadge mentioned. There're all these different factors that go into play. So about the 20th of every month, I publish the next month's calendar. And I'll go back. I wanted to bring up the third slide. So this is the chart that is based on the data that I collect. I've got that up from the very first testing event on March 23rd, 2020. It goes all the way to the present date. Actually, I submitted this yesterday so it's just as of yesterday's numbers. So you can see from about March 23rd till about August 1, 2021, about a 16 -month period, it was fairly steady with the population that would come to our testing sites. Then that first spike that you see—let me go back a moment and explain the graph. So there's two parts to it (Slide 3). The first part is a bar graph which are the blue lines, up and down. That is the total tested at any given event. So if we have an event at Hilo Civic on February 7d', you'll see that is one of the thin bars. The orange line is the cumulative testing at all County of Hawaii -sponsored clinics Page 19 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 since day one. So if you add up all the numbers in the blue bars, you'll get the orange line. And when I state County of Hawaii -sponsored clinics, this isn't necessarily just the County -funded clinics. We've offered support to other vendors who have been partners. Maybe we'll give them a County facility if they've asked for it. Or if they ask for National Guard support, we also provide that. So that's also included in this data. So the first spike that you see is really from August Ist to about mid-September. That is you can interpret that was caused by the Delta surge. Then there's a little bit of the tapering off, and then the one that you see all the way to the right side is as a result of Omicron. So I just wanted to point out, and this is all based on the numbers that are reported to me every single clinic, that the Delta surge you can see the distribution is a little bit wider, but it's also higher. Now, the Omicron surge, the distribution is tighter, and it's not as tall. There're several factors for this. One I think that is a key player is that availability of testing has certainly—we certainly saw a greater capacity of testing in that Omicron surge. So there's a clinic in town that many of you may be familiar with in Hilo, that also operates. They didn't operate during Delta, so that's kind of made a huge relief to specific County operations that we've been very appreciative of. Sorry to go back, but I do want to highlight one more thing on the website. What we put on our website as I mentioned, the instructions for the County sites. These are the County -funded sites on the calendar, and if you go down to the rest of the webpage, the header is, "Additional COVID-19 Testing Locations." So our team put together a list of all the clinics that we are aware of, and we called many clinics to say, "Do you offer COVID testing and if you do, would you like us to publish your business, phone number, contact information on the website?" And any company or vendor that said yes, we compiled that. So we divided East Hawaii clinics, it keeps going down. We have West Hawaii clinics, and we just would like the customer to call every vendor just to make sure that their criteria for getting tested meets their requirements. Because all sorts of vendors have different requirements. Some don't provide testing to just anybody, some require symptoms, kind of things. So we just encourage folks to call every vendor. So that's what I've prepared, and please if you have any questions. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Mr. Olson, for being here. I did have a couple of questions. As I said, one of the impetuses for putting forth this communication was the calls that I was getting about delays, and that of course is just anecdotal. So as the data person here from Civil Defense, is that observation backed up by Page 20 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 what you saw in terms of response times or turnaround times on the test that we were providing from the County end? MR. OLSON: Yes. I can certainly answer based on the data historically. We started our relationship with this current vendor Truecare24, on October 12''. That was their first event that they held in the County, which was a Tuesday if I'm not mistaken. And if you just look at the history, October, November, early part of December, when you look at the scale it was pre -omicron levels. Buy and large, testing turnaround was within their contracted number of 48 hours. I can't say every single sample was within that 48 hours, but the great majority was reported within that 48 -hours. What we saw with anything that was happening more regularly, more routinely, after greater than 48 -hours, a lot of that happened during that Omicron surge. So there was just overwhelming demands placed on the vendor, and I won't go into the nuances of what kind of things they experienced but we just know from our perspective and the County that there was a lot of demand for testing, and that was certainly pushing back result timeframes. We did put out communication to the vendor that we recognize that it's greater than 48 -hours, what are you doing about it? And they acknowledged that, they explained that there were certainly stresses on the system as well. But we still needed our 48 -hours, that's what the contract says. So they put a lot of procedures into place that we've reviewed. And about January 6, was when we noticed that things were actually getting better, they were reporting within a 48-hour timeframe. Then it got more surges again and we noticed it was greater than 48 -hours. So right now they have put a lot of processes into place to show that they can actually manage it. And since January 28th, till the present day, they've had 17 events where the reporting timeline, the 48 has already come and gone. And 15 of those events, every single result came back within 48 hours. And of those two events, three total tests came back, they were still awaiting results, which means it's greater than 48 hours. What I found in speaking to the company, is if any result is greater than 48 hours the trend has been it's because a test has been considered inconclusive. And this vendor chooses to rerun a sample, if there's an inconclusive result. So they're working on communication now to a client, if they do have an inconclusive and it's greater than 48 hours they want to make sure that person knows, "Hey your test is being rerun, because it's inconclusive." And hopefully after that inconclusive and after it's rerun, then it will get placed in a category of either COVID is detected, not detected, or rendered invalid for various reasons. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. I'm sorry, when did that change take place? The change they would communicate an inconclusive result. Page 21 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 MR. OLSON: They notified in email actually yesterday that was their action item going forward. Because I kept asking them, we cannot have awaiting results, and that category have awaiting results for greater than 48 -hours. People need closure, and need to know what their status is. And it has to be definitive of whether it's detected, or not detected or actually invalid. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. It's pretty important so people can get back to work, so they can travel. You know, I had a couple of emails from medical professionals that were concerned about this extension beyond 48 -hours, because at that point it's almost moot, right? If they haven't had a result in that time period they can be going out and infecting other people and things like that. This is maybe a Director Sako question, I'm not sure if you could answer. I just want to be clear that the contract that we have does specifically state a 48-hour turnaround time with the vendor. MR. OLSON: Wait, would Ms. Sako like to—the answer is yes. MS. KIMBALL: It does. Okay, thank you. For the record, it does. And so in these events that we are not getting the results back within the 48-hour period, are we still paying for that test? Again, maybe a Finance Department question. We have been paying for it even if we don't get it in time. You said there are multiple vendors that we are working with in addition to this Truecare24 at this point? No, I can see you shaking. Is there more than one vendor at this time providing testing? MR. MAGNO: We have multiple vendors on contract, but right now there is two carriers taking up all the work. You know, we've gotten to a point where the situation was so I guess, transmission was so high that we needed other vendors to come in to run testing operations who could. But right now, TrueCare has got everything covered. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. My last two final questions for right now are—well the first would be the procurement process and how Truecare24, I mean they're reported the cheapest per test. Was that a requirement of the procurement process that we need to go with the lowest cost vendor I'm seeing a yes from the Finance Department in the back. And then are you satisfied, and maybe this is a question for you Mr. Olson, with what the vendor has provided to you as their changes and procedure, to be able to return the test results in a more timely way, where you said they've come up with some new protocols. Are you satisfied that those protocols are sufficient, or do we have to consider engaging one of the other contracts potentially? MR. MAGNO: So at this time they've met all the standards in the contract, and so we're satisfied with their performance at this time. Page 22 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 MS. KIMBALL: Was there a standard that a certain percentage of tests need to be back by 48 -hours, or they all needed to be returned by 48 -hours? MR. MAGNO: I don't think it calls out a percentage. It's all. MS. KIMBALL: It's all. So technically they have not met the conditions of the contract, I would say. MR. MAGNO: Well as Tom says, the delay is legitimate because if it's a test that's invalid, you know, I guess it's not going to work. They're trying to run it a second time. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. I'm going to yield at this time, and let my colleagues ask any questions to Civil Defense folks. I do want to ask the Finance Department to come up later again, and to just talk about the money that we have left in the pot. And plans for that. Thank you, Chair. I yield. CHR. RICHARDS: Mahalo. Council Member Chung. MR. CHUNG: Thank you. Hey, Talmadge. You know, I'm going to make a statement as a precursor to the importance of testing, in my mind anyway. You know, based on what I know of Omicron, yeah. For the longest time maybe at least the last two months or so, you know, I've been saying in my own mind that this could be the savior variant, yeah. Widespread and not too severe symptoms in a lot of cases, which could make people get vaccinated for one; and second it can create herd immunity, in which is what we've been trying to do. It could also be the curse variant. It will allow people into a false sense of security, leading up to another variant, which would be deadlier than maybe Delta, and more transmissible than Omicron. So having said that, we might have to anticipate another wave. Hopefully that doesn't happen, because everybody's sick of this thing, already right? So now getting to this testing contract, where are funds coming from to pay for this contract? (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. SAKO: Good morning. So all the testing right now is being paid for by FEMA. So we did tap into that source and they're paying 100 percent, we have no match on this. MR. CHUNG: And how long is that funding going to last? MS. SAKO: Through April lst Page 23 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 MR. CHUNG: And then after that? MS. SAKO: It's hard to say. So they've extended it a few times already. We don't know what the extension will be like on April I". If they'll extend it a 100 percent, or maybe a 75/25, match or what they'll do. At that point we would reassess. MR. CHUNG: But we really do need federal funding on this, or outside funding, right? MS. SAKO: We did set aside some of our American Rescue Plan Funds for testing, but when we were able to tap into this for 100 percent funding, we did do that. So if we have to go back to our rescue plan, we do have that available as well. MR. CHUNG: Oh, terrific. Okay. Now what kind of testing is in this contract, antigen, PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), both? MR. MAGNO: So right now, we're at the PCR level. Yeah, that's all we do. MR. CHUNG: Okay, alright. I mean because it would behoove the County to try to get a combination of both, right? But now if we're going with PCR, and then, you know, there was that highly publicized thing where, you know, about 400 tests got lost, right, in transport from here to Oahu. Which is kind of concerning to me, because I suggested at one point when Mr. Bader was here. You know, why couldn't we explore, I'm just saying explore, the possibility of working with some vendor to have some on -island labs here. Either one here in East Hawaii, one in West Hawaii or wherever. All districts fine, would be better. It's going to cost money, but that's why I made my preferencing remarks. We're not just looking at Omicron, this thing might be a long-term situation. And it really would be good if we could get labs here, because when you talk about 48-hour turnarounds that includes going to Oahu. Sending the tests to Oahu to analyze in their labs there, and 48 hours is a long time. It's 48 -hours too much actually. Because a lot can happen in 48 hours, right? Because the guy's walking around not knowing whether they their instructions are to stay, don't go outside, don't go to any public places within the 48 hours until you get your results. But come on, who the hell is going to do that, right? And we do know of some PCR stations that have two-hour turnarounds, albeit with smaller amounts of test, because they don't have the capacity, right? But I'm just saying, could we consider working with some vendor to get on -island laboratories so that they can get a faster turnaround. Antigen, you can get it real Page 24 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 quick, okay, but if we're going with the PCR, let's see if we can get it over here. That's all. Oh, and then I was looking at our County website, and it cites all the other vendors or other places. Maybe if you guys, I'm just suggesting, I was working off my smart phone, yeah, if you could just press on those different links, yeah, so you can get different links as to when they're having their testing events as well. That might help, because this one says to call them. You can't press and get their schedule, so that's just a suggestion. And that's all, just something to think about. Oh one more thing too. I know you guys are working with Marshall Kanehailua, guys, right? And I don't know exactly what the precise connection is, but—this is going to take less than a minute. One more suggestion, you know, at vaccination clinics, you guys should start thinking about doing testing at vaccination clinics too. Because you're not going to stop a guy from going and getting the vaccination if they test positive. Because they're going to go anyway, they are going to be there anyway, right? But you can get a broader statistical measure, of what's going on in the community. Not just guys who are symptomatic, or kind of came into contact, you're also going to be gaging people who are trying to get vaccinated too. And you just have a better idea of the population, yeah. MR. MAGNO: So you're saying like do a rapid, before you get your vaccination. MR. CHUNG: Not before, you just get it. And you're going to go in, because they're going to go in anyway. Whether they were positive or not positive, they're going to be going and getting their vaccination. But at least later on you can find out what percentage of that population, was positive and not positive, yeah. It makes no difference, because they would have gone in, yeah. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Mahalo, Chair. Administrator Magno, I had to take my son he's four to get a test in order to go back school, because the policy we signed was if your child is ill, you go to the doctor you need to make sure they're not positive for COVID and so you need to show case the result. And so took him to the Afook-Chinen and Truecare was operating, they had the saliva test. Is that like a pilot program, not part of the contract? Because you mentioned that PCR was the only thing they were administering, so what's up with the saliva? MR. MAGNO: It's still a PCR. It's just a matter of, you know, I guess the element that they're using to test. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Got it. In my mind I thought PCR is the one that tickles your brain, my son does not like that one. And so we opt it for the saliva, and they said, "Okay, you'll get a result in 48 hours." It took four days, and that's a Page 25 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 hardship. Because my partner is a firefighter, and so we're having to coordinate schedules, and he can't go back to school until I get this result. And so I just want to lean in on if there contractually obligated to provide results in 48 hours, we have to make sure we are holding their feet to the fire on that. Because many of us cannot send our kids to school, other of us have made decisions where we just don't feel comfortable going into a public setting unless we know because we don't want to be the cause, of super -spreader event. So what else are we going to do, to ensure that they are upholding the requirements of the contract? MR. MAGNO: As Tom mentioned, I think as part of our efforts, you know, with finance, contract, purchasing, and Tom working with the vendors pretty closely, we've gotten them to the point that a majority of their recent test, have been 100 percent within that 48-hour period. You know, unfortunately during the peaks of Omicron, the entire industry, you know, there were shortages in kits, labs were busy, you know, the whole system was taxed. And so I understand the issues that it creates in the community, in our society. But you know, this coronavirus at those levels, pushes the systems. You know, it's breaking the seams of the whole you see what's happening in the medical centers. We've reached saturation point. But we continued, we keep pushing them to comply with the contract. So at this point they've met the contraction requirements, and we'll keep monitoring that they do. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Are you able to share a little bit more about what those contract requirements look like, besides the 48 hour? Are there x -number of events they need to be doing? I mean, how is their contract different from others you might of have had in the past? MR. MAGNO: I don't know if anybody from Purchasing can discuss more details. But some of it is they got to be able to ramp up, do an operation within 48 hours, aside of making sure the results are back within 48 -hours. You know, that's the few details that I know. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And are they they're mainland vendor, right? Do they have an on -island, or Hawaii representative that we can get in -touch with? MR. MAGNO: Yes. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Because I'm very mindful of time zone differences. MR. MAGNO: Yes. All the off -island vendors that we've had, they hire staff on -island. And there's somebody here that we can physically meet with. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Tom did you want to share a little bit more? You have to go into the mic for the record. Thank you. Page 26 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 MR. OLSON: I just brought up the example of if the vendor is required to do so many events per week, and what it actually says is that—we actually gave a sample schedule in putting out the invitation for bid and said, this is merely a sample. This is about what may be expected of you; however, understand it could scale up or scale down anytime. So the schedule that we have is controlled by the County, so these 15 events are our decision. And it's TrueCare that said, "Yup, we can do them all." MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. But there's like a wiggle room where if we need to have them increase their presence in other communities, they have to mobilize within 48 -hours. That's what I heard Administrator say. MR. OLSON: Correct. And if vendor number one, Truecare, says, "We've already met our capacity," that then gives us the ability to move on to vendor number two. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: What does that mean? MR. OLSON: It was mentioned that we had five vendors on contract for this current invitation for bid, so TrueCare number one came in as the number one vendor, and if we present to them that we have more testing events, and they need to say, "It's beyond our capacity we cannot operate these." Then that gives us the authority to go on to vendor number two, and see if they can do the events. That we need to have held on the island. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Got it. And how many situations has that been the case, where they have had to decline mobilizing for an event and you've had to go down your vendor list? MR. OLSON: That happen between January 11th and January 12th. It was a Tuesday and Wednesday earlier last month. And it was an issue that there was a test kit shortage on the island. So obviously they didn't have test kits, so they couldn't operate the testing events. So we went down to next available vendor, who did events until TrueCare received test kits back and then they were able to fulfill their requirements to do testing. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Got it. What is the average cost of a testing event, can you help us understand what that looks like? MR. OLSON: Not being in the finance part of it, I would yield if there's an answer to that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Director for indulging us in these details. Page 27 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 MS. SAKO: We've been doing it a little bit differently, so I'm not sure exactly per testing event. But it ranges anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 per week, depending on the numbers. So I didn't think to bring my spreadsheet, but when we first started out we had maybe 800 or 900 tests a week. And then during the peak we obviously were well over 2,000, I think we even hit 3,000 test one week. And we're slowly going back down again. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Director, is there a base that we pay TrueCare to just mobilize, and then it's a cost per test on top of that? MS. SAKO: Yes. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MS. SAKO: And if you want more details, I can have Diane come up. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes, really curious about what that base is. Thank you. (Note: At this time Purchasing Agent Diane Nakagawa came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. NAKAGAWA: My name is Diane Nakagawa, I'm the Purchasing Agent for the County of Hawaii. The base is $1,500 per hour, and then it's a per test to cost per participant. So as in TrueCare its $44.00 per test, so per participant. And each vendor that we have, will have a different per participant cost or the test. But the $1,500 an hour, is kind of like the flat rate across all of the five contracts that we have. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, that's helpful. And then just to be clear again, even if the test results don't come back within 48 -hours we are still paying them? MS. NAKAGAWA: We have been paying them for the test that was analyzed and performed, correct. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, that's helpful to know. Not sure who can answer this question about what Council Member Chung had illuminated about having on -island test labs. Because my understanding is, once the lab receives the sample it's basically a 20 to 30 minutes turnaround to do a reading on the test. Is that accurate? MS. NAKAGAWA: So I wouldn't be the best person to talk about the test. There are different types of test, and there are those PCR tests that are available with shorter time periods. But from our understanding those come with different types of machines that are more costly. And that's why they run them on a smaller scale, those take some time. They run them individually, per these machines. So Page 28 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 different operations require different types of testing, based on the number of participants that the event is looking to go through. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Got it. Are we exploring as a County, making investments in a testing lab? Again, Council Member Chung had brought that up just a couple weeks ago at our last Council meeting. It just seems like a smart move to start setting up that infrastructure, because we just don't know what the coronavirus is going to be doing to society. MR. MAGNO: Under the past Administration we actually did support Clinical Labs with additional analyzers. Who the vendors choose to contract with for their testing, it's kind of up to them. You know, perhaps in the next go around putting that into the contract that you have to have an in State or on -island lab might be what Council Member Chung is kind of referring to. But at this point, we did not put that requirement in the contract. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So the only requirement we put in was that the test result needs to come back in 48 -hours. We didn't mandate that it needs to be in -State sort of test lab. MR. MAGNO: Yes. And Department of Health vets, you know, all the, I guess the testing levels, the lab. So it's all certified through Department of Health, but yeah, we allow them to go to whatever lab they want to contract with. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And you said their contract is up in August? MR. MAGNO: Early October. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. There was March and then there was an August, but now it's October? MR. MAGNO: Well I think through March is the federal funding. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Federal funding, okay. Got it. Thanks for all of those details. And then what is our store of rapid tests here at the County, if any? MR. MAGNO: Rapid tests, I think we just got 3,000 from DOH (Department of Health), and then we'll get another resupply probably in another week. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: How are you making that available to community, or is that just for County personnel? MR. MAGNO: So DOH is actually pushing their own supplies out to the community. The 3,000 that we have, we're pushing out to the departments that have public -facing operations. Page 29 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, that's helpful. Yes, I'm aware of them pushing it out to community, was involved in some of those efforts. Would love to see more rapid test sort of available to us, and it just becoming a practice before we getting together. Just testing so that we're all feeling a bit more safe, and confident in our gathering. So anything that we can do to support you, and acquiring more test would be helpful and appreciated. Thank you, Chair. I yield. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. A i `ike kakou, ua pono ka (sic) Komike e ho`omaka ma ka hola `umikumakahi no laila e `awiwi kakou ma ke ka`ana `ana i na mana`o. MR. STOLESON: Just so that we all know, it was set that the new committee begins at 11:00 o'clock, so if we may please be swift in any remaining commentary. CHR. INABA: Okay. Council Member Chung. MR. CHUNG: Yeah, real quickly. Sorry to stick with this 48-hour thing, but it really bugs me, right? And Ms. Kierkiewicz brought up a different perspective, you know, I was just looking at irresponsible people during the 48 -hours just kind of going around. But you know, she brought up the part about people's lives being on hold, like for 48 -hours, right? Well the responsible people. But it kind of jogged my memory. You know, for TrueCare where is their lab? Mainland, right? MR. MAGNO: Their current lab is in Phoenix. MR. CHUNG: So from Big Island, got to go to Oahu, the test. And then go to the mainland? MR. MAGNO: I believe there's a direct flight form Kona to Phoenix. MR. CHUNG: Oh, okay, alright. But it is in the mainland? MR. MAGNO: Yes. MR. CHUNG: So who else is using TrueCare in the State? I mean how fast like people on Oahu are getting results? You guys know? MR. MAGNO: No, you know, I think 48 hours is pretty comparable to MR. CHUNG: Try and find out, yeah, if you can. I mean you know, because I know some testing places doing PCR on the island, smaller scale though, two- to three-hour turnaround. If we can try to get something closer to that, that's going to be terrific for our community, right? We can discuss that more. Page 30 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 MR. MAGNO: And my recollection is previous vendors that we've had from on island, maybe 24 -hours was the soonest that we could get it back. MR. CHUNG: Well we're getting three hours, yeah. Okay, thank you. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Recognizing the hour, if it's okay, with you Talmadge, and Tom, I have a list of questions. Some of my colleagues already touched upon it. I just want to send it to you folks, and if we could get the responses. But Tom, if it's possible, you know, this chart that you put together for us, I would love to see it broken down by district, by site, and then results. That way I think that information actually helps drive where some of the funding for pop-up sites could actually go to, based on, you know, the amount. I also really do support Council Member Chung's suggestion about having something on -island, I think it minimizes any potential loss and just, we get the results and can hold them accountable. I just had the one question, though. For the 400 tests that were lost, did we pay for those tests? MR. MAGNO: Yeah, those we did not pay for. MS. LEE LOY: Okay. That was my only question. But I will send all of this to you, and if you could help me fill in the gaps with my questions. Chair, I yield. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair, and I'll be brief. I just wanted to reiterate the comment made by Council Member Chung that we don't know how this will go, right? The hope is that we've got a variant that is, maybe somewhat less impactful, but it could always evolve into something that transmits at the same rate as Omicron and makes people sicker. So making sure that we have adequate testing is still a high priority. Like Council Member Lee Loy, and Kierkiewicz, and Chung, I also support investing in the localize capacity to test. One of the conversations we had with respect to the legislative priorities on this, was that for PCR testing in particular, that technology is usable actually for a lot of different things in addition to just the testing for COVID, that we could also use it for investigations with the Police Department, something that we now have to ship off -island. So that's potential for a more broad uses. I just picked up on something you said quickly. You said that there was support in the pass for Clinical Labs for testing. Are we no longer working with them, what was that support? Page 31 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 MR. MAGNO: The County had moved on picking up some, I guess, higher capacity analyzers for them. But eventually came down to where Department of Transportation, State, paid for, it's called a Panther Analyzer it's about a 1,000 test capacity per day. So that was what I was talking about. MS. KIMBALL: So they have this higher testing capacity, is that the PCR test or is that antigen test? MR. MAGNO: I think that machine can run multiple series of test, yeah. MS. KIMBALL: And so it was DOT paid for, and so we're not contracting with them to do the test at this lab, I take it. MR. MAGNO: No, like I said, it's up to the vendors who they contract with unless we specify that in the contract. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. It's probably worth revisiting this conversation, especially the conditions of the contract. At some point I think there's some things that have been sussed out today. I wanted to just give Director Sako a moment to just reflect on—you provided us with the amount of the federal grant and how much we've spent so far. If you could just speak quickly to what you have set aside in terms of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act), and the rate in which we might exhaust what we have left in the bank if you will for testing at this stage. MS. SAKO: You know, the FEMA funding is unlimited, whatever we spend they will reimburse us 100 percent. We do hope they'll extend that, just because we don't know how long. Like everyone has said, COVID will remain. So the more we can take advantage of that program, it will help us to extend the money we have in our ABPA funding. We just set aside a couple million dollars, because at the time the counts were lower. But you know, now we know with each surge things change. So we will continue to look at that, especially as we start to budget for the second traunch coming down. MS. KIMBALL: With respect to this contract it's out there, it's done, is there any opportunity to amend it or make revisions based on some of the conversations we had today with respect to turnaround time? MS. SAKO: Significant changes will require us probably rebidding it, but we do continue to work with the vendor to get faster turnaround time. And so we'll continue to work with them, as Tom said. MS. KIMBALL: And what level of breach does there have to be at the contract in order for us to disengage the contract? Page 32 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 MS. SAKO: We have been taking every action to work with them, so we're on top of it. MS. KIMBALL: Okay, great, thank you. And my last question. Is there any reimbursement through insurances, either to the vendor or to us for this testing or is this a lot of government spending to cover the County? MS. SAKO: I believe all of this is government spending, right now. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. Thank you. Thank you all for being here today. Appreciate you taking the time to answer all of our questions. I yield, Chair. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Council Member Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Just a quick comment. I do like the concept of testing locally, but I've used PCR for many, many, many, years. And the lab has to be very consistent, and it's not just opening up a little cubical and start running tests. You have to validate and make sure. So it's a lot more than just running the tests here, you have to have a reference lab. All of my PCR stuff goes out of State, because of the consistency, so we get the consistency and accuracy that we're looking for. So conceptionally I don't disagree, but it's not simple. You have to set up a whole reference lab, and then you have to keep it functioning. And your cost per test goes up with volume, so that's probably where some of this contract stuff comes from. That's a comment, Chair. I yield. CHR. INABA: Mahalo, he mau mana`o `e a`e? MR. STOLESON: Does anyone have anything other, anything to add? CHR. INABA: `A`ole? Okay. No laila, `o keia ka wa koho paloka no ka (sic) not a ina he kako`o, e `ae mai. MR. STOLESON: So now it's time to take the vote. All in favor please say "aye". CHR. INABA: Ina he ho`ole, e ho`ole mai. MR. STOLESON: If anyone is opposed, please say Vole. Page 33 PRPSC-23 Vote on Comm. 591 Filed February 8, 2022 The motion to close file on Comm. 591 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Inaba — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Ua ho`oholo `ia, he `eiwa `ae. MR. STOLESON: Thank you, the motion passes with nine "aye"s. CHR. INABA: A ma mua o ka pani `ana o (sic) keia halawai, he leo mahalo keia is `oukou a pau no ka ho`omanawanui me keia mea `o ka Mahina `Olelo Hawaii. MR. STOLESON: Before we close this meeting, I wanted to thank everyone and express my appreciation during this Mahina `Olelo Hawaii, Hawaiian Language month. CHR. INABA: A me keia, a... he hapai i noi, ke `olu`olu, e pa ... e pani i ka halawai? MR. STOLESON: And with that I would like to bring up a motion to adjourn. MS. LEE LOY: Na`u ka (sic) noi. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Kokua lua. CHR. INABA: `Ae, ua hapai `ia e Council Member Lee Loy. Kokua `ia e Council Member Kierkiewicz. MR. STOLESON: It was moved by Council Member Lee Loy and seconded by Council Member Kierkiewicz. CHR. INABA: Ina he kako`o, e `ae mai. MR. STOLESON: All those in favor, please say "aye". CHR. INABA: Ina he Wole, e Wole mai. MR. STOLESON: If anyone is opposed, please say Wole. Page 34 PRPSC-23 February 8, 2022 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 11:10 a.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Inaba — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Ua ho`oholo `ia me `eiwa `ae a... pau ka hdldwai i ka `umikumdkolu minuke i hala ka hola `umikumdkahi. MR. STOLESON: Thank you. The motion is passed with nine "aye" and now the meeting is adjourned at 11:10 (sic). Mahalo. CHR. INABA: Mahalo id kdkou a pau. Aloha. MR. STOLESON: Thank you everyone. Aloha. Approved: Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair Parks and Recreation and Public Safety Committee HI/rk IRCR (Date) Page 35