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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GOREDC 2022/04/05 2020-2022 Committee on Governmental Operations, Relations, and Economic Development 25th Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawai i April 5, 2022 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Operations, Relations, ORDER: and Economic Development was called to order at 11:00 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 Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member (came in later) Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member Absent& Excused: Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, 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: The following individual registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Dwight Vicente: Comm. 453, comment. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you very much. And with that I'll close public testimony and move on the business of the day. Mr. Clerk, Communication 453, please. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 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; January 5, 18; February 9; and March 8, 2022 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. Kierkiewicz, seconded by Mr. Inaba, to close file on Communication 453.) CHR. KIMBALL: Ms. Kierkiewicz, your motion. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Mr. Bader,thank you for being here. The man of the hour. We just got your transmittal, Communication 453.3. We appreciate seeing you on a monthly basis so we can get an update on what the Administration is doing to advocate for resources and to solve some of the challenges we're facing here in Hawaii County. So if you want to come forward; and you know, you don't have to walk us through every single page, but maybe just high-level overview. I appreciate the directory of sections. Wastewater, Abandoned Vehicles, Planning and Infrastructure; Agriculture and Lands; Sustainability; Health and Human Services; Housing; Homelessness; Broadband; Public Safety; Game Management; Hawaiian Homes; Mauna Kea; Governor's Emergency Proclamations. You are tracking quite a bit here. So, maybe just give us a sense of what's going to be making it through. And then we will ask any questions we might have. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: And before you begin, Mr. Bader, I do want to give us just an hour today, so that we can finish by noon and have time for a break before we begin our 1:00 o'clock meeting. So, let's just try to keep within that timeframe. Thank you, Mr. Bader. (Note: At this time, Executive Assistant to the Mayor Steven Bader came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. BADER: Sure. Good morning, Steve Bader, Executive Assistant and Legislative Liaison with the Mayor's Office. So we've got 30 days left in the session. Exactly 30 days. And then, as they say over there, then the real work starts. So after session ends, then there'll be lots of work with the department heads and staff, and the Governor's folks, you know, to see what bills are going to get through the Governor's Office. And so there's a lot of activity at that point to see what the veto list might look like and all of that. Page 2 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 In this packet, you've got 37 bills. That's down. I think there were 50-something the last time I was here. And that number will probably drop again after this week and early next week. But probably by the end of this week, we'll have a number of these bills drop down. Also, at the department level, there's still hundreds of bills that are alive technically, that are being tracked at the department level. So some of those bills may end up moving into our list. Not that they're not important right now, but we're very confident that as departments track and give us feedback on what's going on, or what information they have about the bills, or why it's moving or not moving. You know,that we can take that information and make some decisions about how we prioritize. So, what I'll do is kind of highlight some of the bills. I'll take forever to get through all of these. So, I've kind of picked and chose a few, and I'll walk them through. We'll be orderly right through the packet, so it'll be easy to follow. A commentary about some bills that are not in the list that we actually talked about some of these bills the last time I was here. And these are bills that are not dead yet. You know,they're technically still alive, but they haven't moved. There were several mental health bills we talked about last time I had highlighted. And those bills, dealing with expansion of services, being able to create a different level of licensing so that you'll have access to more mental health services. Those bills are just stalled for some reason. So I don't have those on the list. They were on the list before. The lifeguard liability bill which had wide support all over the State has stalled, and we're not sure why that is. But, what we look at is, if it hasn't moved after it crossed over in the last couple of weeks, then it probably is not going to be able to make the timeframe to get the needed amount of hearings in. And so that bill is sitting there. The traffic enforcement Bill 1448 that Council Woman Kimball is working on, that bill also has stalled. And, but it's technically still alive, but it's stalled. And there was a number of bills that I had kind of walked through last time dealing with supporting Act 90. The bills were DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources) lands would be transferred to Department of Agriculture. And I think, the last time I was here, there was four or five; at least four of them anyway, and three of those bills have stalled. But the one that's there, I think, has a chance of having some of the language of those other bills put into it once they get into conference. Page 3 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 So let me start going. I'll pick a few from each page as we go down. I think that'll probably about half of what's here. On the first page, HB 1806, Cesspool Conversion. That bill is moving. And the change in that bill, I think that made it move, was that originally the bill was pretty prescriptive of what an approved wastewater system had to be. And it got a little bit more broader. And it started moving after that point. So that bill is still alive. Again, a lot of these bills that are here, even if other bills may have dropped off. There's a possibility in conference that some of the language of other bills will end up surfacing, especially bills that were similar. Also, if bills have gone through different amendments as it went from chambers. So you see, you know, House Draft 1, Senate Draft 2. Those kinds of bills. Those languages is sort of are still alive, and in Conference they can come back too. So please keep that in mind. The next page, HB2399, this is the Extended Producer Responsibility bill. That bill is still alive, actually. Decision-making on that bill is happening right now. So normally, I'd be watching the hearings. There's some of us monitoring those hearings. So you know, we'll have news on that bill. That's an important bill. Let me skip over to the abandoned vehicle bills are all doing very well. Those are bills supported by HSAC (Hawai`i State Association of Counties), but they're also supported by the mayors, HCOM (Hawai`i Council of Mayors). And they're moving right along. We think those bills have a chance to get up to the Governor's desk. Okay, getting through that section, going into planning and infrastructure. That's Number 3. The three bills that are listed right next to each other, S132922, 3324, and HB1788. Just a few words on these bills. These are all bills that we are supporting or monitoring closely at this time. SB2922 allows for one house per quarter acre in rural districts. It has wide support around the State. The Planning Directors support it. Affordable housing developers and housing in general developers support this. This bill, it was sitting for a little while, and just right before I came down here I checked on it again just out of curiosity, and a hearing got scheduled, I think tomorrow. So they must have been scheduled yesterday afternoon. Because I was reviewing all these bills yesterday afternoon, which is the reason why you got the list a little bit late, because Friday afternoon bills would get scheduled for hearings. And sometimes they pop up Monday morning, you don't know it. And so I was kind of holding off because it does change what ends up being on this list. So we'll look at that bill—the hearing is tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. Page 4 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 S133324, the Housing Subdivision Infrastructure. You know, that bill got changed into a working group. It was more in that bill prior to it going through different kinds of amendments. But that's where it's at. The County was having to look at that bill to see what the impact would be, not just with staff time, but fiscally—you know, in the bill's original form. Not that we're not concerned about the condition of the roads in those private subdivisions, but we were kind of gaging what that would do to us, the impact would be, budget-wise and staffing. And it ended up being that it got turned into a working group. There's just too many questions. And I think that some of the legal opinions on that bill was that, you know, you're kind of opening up this door for the County to be responsible for private property. And that became one of the issues. So, I think it's good that it moved in that direction. For the time being, it's actually a step in the right direction. And then, HB1788, which is the Waiakea Peninsula Redevelopment bill. That bill also has gone through several changes. It does establish a redevelopment district and a working group. But the original bill had some authority in there to be actually looking at commercial leases, negotiating, things like that. So that language got taken out. But the redevelopment district, you know, did get established through this bill. There is opposition from this bill from DLNR, even though this bill would be reporting to DLNR. And it's been referred to WAM (Ways and Means). And we're waiting to see if that gets scheduled. The following page, there's several on this I'd like to highlight, really quickly. HB 1840, dealing with District Boundary and the amendments allowing for affordable housing and looking at creating some flexibility in how we look at parcels between 15 and 50 acres. That bill, we've been watching it very closely, and it got deleted from the hearing schedule, which is an interesting situation. Not deferred, it got deleted from the hearing schedule. And my guess is, looking at testimony and talking to people while I'm over there, is because there's conflicting testimony within the State. So Land Use Commission and the Office of Planning are not in agreement. They're both State agencies. And so stuff have to get worked out, so I think they just took it out. It may end up getting deferred or maybe language gets worked out. And maybe amendments get proposed. But anyway, that's an interesting development, because there's a lot of folks around, especially on the neighbor islands who are watching that bill closely. The next one under that, HB 1403, is the PMAR (Puna Makai Alternative Route) bill or Puna alternative route. DOT (Department of Transportation) has said that they don't think they're the appropriate agency to handle that situation. There is no hearing scheduled yet on that bill. It has to go to WAM, I believe. And we Page 5 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 are supportive of the bill as a way to open that dialogue to look at what kind of options are available to us. We did meet with Chair Luke from Finance and Representative Greggor Ilagan, to share the concern too,that if this bill was to move forward, that there's no way you can have a conversation about an alternative makai route without talking about a mauka route at the same time. Because especially out in Puna, those subdivisions are connected through the backroads anyway. And so, we have to have relief on both ends. And they both understood that. And we also made it clear, that the County is not predisposed to any route. You know, because we know there's impact no matter where it goes. We just need to get the dialogue moving forward on this. So, that bill is sitting right now, but it has time to go through its last hearing. And if it gets into Conference, there's ways we might be able to impact that bill, also. Let me go to the next page, after that, which is the disposition transfer of land between DLNR and Department of Agriculture. So that's HB1658. That is the surviving bill out of the four or five that were in. There was a package of bills that kind of took different angles, and this is what's surviving. This bill, if it gets through, also will be in a situation where in Conference, it could get, you know, I guess amended in a way that might be more amenable to the folks that were supporting some of the other bills. But that's an important bill for us. And then, since it supports Act 90, you know, this is something that is 19 years in the making. And you know, again, we're keeping a close eye on that. Next page, another Ag bill, HB 1705. That's the bill that ornamental growers and the small farmers were seeking lease extensions. That bill has been flying through the session. And it's an important bill, but you need to know that the Department of Agriculture opposes that bill. And so I had a meeting with the department to see how hard that opposition was, or whether that opposition could be softened, if there's any way we can work with it. Because certainly this bill has been put in place. And different iterations of this bill has been brought up in previous sessions. But basically, it's allowing small family farms to continue in their leases by extending their leases. And the department has said that they're not opposed to that—you know,the intent of the bill. But the problem they're having is that they have over 200 people on a waiting list to get on parcels. So Representative Todd, in a conversation we had; also, with Finance Chair Luke and the farmers themselves, talked about just expanding the opportunities. Finding more land, you know, to be able to do Ag parks and all that. So, but that bill is moving through. And it looks like it has a good chance to getting to the Governor's desk. Page 6 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 Right below that, HB 1517 is a Coffee Labeling bill. You know,that thing got changed into an impact study. You know, so it's softened quite a bit from where it was where there was a requirement there on the percentage of coffee, especially Kona Coffee. So you know, we always saw it as a way to protect our brand in Kona, and it's become an impact study. But that's a small baby step, I think, in the right direction. But it's far short of where it needed to be. And that's another bill that maybe there could be some impact in Conference, if the thing gets into Conference. Okay, moving a couple pages in under Health and Human Services, that's Section 6. HB1638, HD2, SD1. So that's the site assessment for the new hospital in Kona. And that bill has a lot of support. It has not been heard by WAM yet. Sothis is pretty important, we've got to get WAM to hear it. The good news is that Senator Kanuha and Senator Inouye are on WAM, so we have support inside to make sure that that bill gets heard. And there is lots of support for that bill. Okay, let's move couple pages forward to get through this and skip around a little bit. We're under Housing and Homeless section, that's Section 7. A couple pages in from where we were. SB3168 is the `Ohana Zones Pilot Program. Extending that program. That program also has a lot of support statewide. And we have some impact for us that that bill was referred to Finance. It hasn't been heard yet, but we expect it will get it hearings. There's plenty of enough time for it to get its final hearing in Finance. Below that, Section 8, Broadband, S132076. That's the Broadband Equity bill we call it. Really important, as we look at broadband in rural areas, which is pretty much everywhere we're at, you know. And that bill has been moving through. It did pass Finance yesterday with amendments. So I'm looking at this, it says it's scheduled, but I got an email this morning that it passed. So that's good news for us. Okay, Game Management. HB 1872 is Game Management bill. There were three bills originally, you know, working its way through. This is the last bill. This bill has a very good chance of making through the process, and WAM will be making their decision making on this bill. Actually, they're doing it right now. It's scheduled for the hearing that was scheduled at 10:15 a.m. So I think it was somewhere down the middle or late in the agenda, so they're probably talking about it right now. But that's our GMAC (Game Management Advisory Commission) committee here and also around the State. The State GMAC, and local hunters have all been supportive of this bill. And it's still moving, and you know, we'll find out today what happens to the disposition of that bill. Page 7 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 The following page, HB 1179. That is the Gorse Pilot Project, Mauna Kea. It has to be heard by WAM. It's gone all the way through. There's no hearing scheduled yet, but there's plenty of time for that also to get heard. It's on its final hearing already. And that looks real positive. And then, the page after that. I have this, you know, HB2024. Even though the management of the mauna is sort of a State issue, we know because we live here that this is something we have to pay very close attention to. There's economic impact, there's impact in our community. If we have the type of, you know, demonstrations depending on how people feel about the management of the mauna, you know, it'll have direct impact on us in our families, for a lot of us too, myself included. So the main change for that bill was that they amended it so that it's the Office of Mauna Kea Stewardship at U.H. Hilo, you know, versus a separate authority. So it's one of these bills that nobody seems to be very happy with, but it's kind of moving along. So, we're keeping, you know, a close eye on that bill. And finally, we're getting to the end of this list here. There are two bills related to Emergency Management,the Governor's proclamations. These bills may end up morphing into each other at some point. One of the bills was actually in the Governor's package. So the Governor's supportive of it. And the difference between the bills is, you know, one of the bills is, I think, speaks more directly to clarifying the legal framework and allowing for the Legislature and the County Councils to be able to vote two-thirds, you know, to end an emergency proclamation, if necessary. The other bill doesn't go that far, but has language in it about how you define weather emergencies. And so, my guess is that these bills are going to end up starting to morph into each a little bit as we get towards the end of this session. And then finally on the bottom of the last page is the HB2026, the Sunshine Law, very applicable to the work that you do here and the work of our commissions. And you know, all the way up to the Legislature. And so, that bill has been moving through. It has passed all its committees, it's going to move on to a floor vote. And so, yeah, it has a 48-hour notice on it, which means that it's letting folks know that it's probably going to—it's going to get to the floor for a floor vote. So that bill is looking good. I mean, it looks like it's going to get upstairs to the fifth floor. So anyway, that's like 17, 18 bills out of the 37 on this list. So some of them you might see—some bills on the list that you're paying more attention to, but you know,just in interest of time, I just don't want to go through every single one. We'd be here for like two hours. So I'm open for questions. Page 8 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Mr. Bader for that very comprehensive overview. Any of the bills that are in the packet, were these initiated by the County of Hawaii? MR. BADER: The only bill that we really pushed hard, that I would say we initiated was, the bill related to the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant. That bill became a CIP (Capital Improvement Project) request. As a CIP request, it's still lives. And there are some bills here that may fall off their funding that may end up being part of the budgets themselves. So yeah, we, at the beginning of the session, looking at where the Governor's priorities were and bills that were sort of in development, we felt that we needed to kind of focus on our wastewater efforts. And you know, we didn't initiate anything besides that. You know, it took a lot of work just to get it to the point where it's going to be sitting in the budget right now. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, so none of these bills were driven by the Administration? MR. BADER: No. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Just things you are simply monitoring at this point? MR. BADER: We're monitoring or we're active in testimony. Or as we make visits. The Mayor has been over himself to talk to Legislators that we can kind of put a County perspective on some of these bills to keep it moving or make sure that they understand, you know, that it's important in Honolulu to contact us. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great. Thank you. On invasive species, are you tracking anything related to the feral pigs situation? I know that Parks Director "Mo" (Maurice) Messina was on HPR (Hawai`i Public Radio) last week, kind of talking about the impact the pigs are having on our Parks' facilities and assets. And so,just curious, are you tracking any legislation on this issue? MR. BADER: No, not specific to that, but there's we'll take a look to see if there's anything. I mean, I don't recall seeing anything in the bills that were out there that is specific to the feral pigs. But there might be other bills, general bills on invasive species that, you know, it might fit under. So I'll take a look at that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah, please do, because I feel like everybody's punting this issue. State's punting it. I've, you know, asked R&D (Research and Development) for months now for some kind of solution, a pilot program. And maybe we'll see something this budget cycle. Page 9 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 MR. BADER: Well, maybe it'll get connected to feral chickens. It seems to have been getting a lot of press lately, you know, and I think there might be a feral chicken bill still in there. So let me take a look if they have anything in there. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you. And then clarification on the Banyan Drive bill. I mean, my understanding is that we have the BDRA right now, the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Agency. And so what would actually happen to that entity if this Bill 1788 were to pass? MR. BADER: Well, that I think that's a good question because if you read the bill it doesn't speak to that, you know,to that situation. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: But it seems like they would be in conflict? It's curious. MR. BADER: It could be, you know. And with a lot of the legislation there's not enough detail, you know, with it. So I think, as the bill moves and goes into conference, those are things that could be pointed out, you know. And the position that we take with it, I think, needs to be clarified too. But, yeah, there isn't anything specific in there. So,that's another thing that we'll be looking into. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. And then, can you just clarify one more time, the Administration's position on private subdivisions and maintenance of certain roadways? You know, I just think back to the history of how these subdivisions were created, and the County certainly is responsible for that. So,just again, could you elaborate on the Administration's position? MR. BADER: Well, with this particular bill, we didn't—our concern was that as it was written, the County would be in a position of having to work with those subdivisions that weren't organized in a certain way to kind of facilitate their issues. You know, it's sort of at that Homeowners' Association level, which was a big ask for us to come into that. The other thing would be whether we had the financial resources. And then, the third was that, how we're opening that door, you know, to put us in that position of assuming that responsibility around the Island. So on this particular bill, we were opposed to it, sort of on the surface. But understanding the intent of the bill. So I think where it's set up where there's a working group, I think helps us get into that dialogue where we can say, "Look, we understand that this is the issue, and we understand that as a County, we have a role to play in this." You know, "How can we do this best moving forward?" So I guess it's the acknowledgement of a problem, but how we address that problem, I think is really going to be key, you know. Page 10 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 Is it, are we going to help play a supportive role in facilitating organization at that level? Is there going to be legislation that's going to be proposed in the future at the State level to make sure that we don't have a legal issue with that, because we currently seem to have a legal issue on how we approach this situation. So yeah, I guess, you know,there's also things I think we may look at the County Council level as we look at this. But there's a lot of parts to it. I'll just say that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks for clarifying. Did Senator Joy San Buenaventura, I see she's the introducer of that particular measure, did she reach out to you guys to coordinate prior to introduction? MR. BADER: Prior to introduction, she did not contact us directly. Although, I know she had been thinking through this. And earlier when the session started I had time with her, you know, to kind of talk through it. And my invitation to her was to work with the County, or work with our local elected officials, to make sure that we're all kind of all on the same page with that. And also she understood that there was opposition, because there was testimony submitted from Planning on this. And what I told her is that,that doesn't preclude you from having a conversation with us if we're trying to figure out a bigger problem. And so there was an open invitation made that way. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah, thank you for that. You know, it's just been a recurring theme every session to be reading up on these bills and not having been reached out to by the introducer, especially when it looks to me to be another unfunded mandate, which is certainly what we don't want. So having to push to make sure that we are part of the conversation, especially if we are going to be the ones that are going to be—if the intention is to be a regulating agency. MR. BADER: We agree. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So, if the decision is to create a working group so that we can all have a conversation, I kako`o that. So let's keep our eyes on that one and talk about some potential solutions including maybe looking at flexibility with the fuel tax or GET (General Excise Tax). That could be mechanisms to support improvements in private subdivisions. So,just some food for thought. Thank you again, for the comprehensive update. We'll see you in May. Thank you, Madam Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Let the record show that we have Council Member Richards and Council Member Villegas present again. Anybody else have questions or comments? Mr. Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder. Page 11 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Bader for being here today, appreciate it. I want to go back to the GMAC, Game Management Advisory Commission. So 1872 is being heard now, you know, as you said. MR. BADER: Yeah, right now. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think there was a sister bill. I met with my District 5 Game Management guy, and he had wanted me to ask specifically about these bills. So SB3299 was Tarnas' (Rep. David) sister bill, I think, to 1872. MR. BADER: Yeah, the other Game Management bill, I think Senator Kanuha had a bill in also. So, those bills didn't move so this is the last one that's moving. I did talk to the GMAC Chair yesterday, and they're tracking one more bill, but that deals, I guess, with a firing range. So they've got two bills now that they're focused on. So this is the last one. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So the SB3298 is the shooting range, yeah? Or shooting facility? Yeah, they were really wanting that, and I guess it's a State investment as well. So it'll be State funding. And we don't have, you know, a lot of options for shooting ranges, if any. I think there's one in Kohala. And then people know they can go shoot off Saddle Road, but we don't actually have a shooting range. And it puts our police officers kind of in a weird spot. And out local community wants to train, you know. I like that. So, if we can get support on that that'll be great. MR. BADER: Yeah, I think that bill I don't have it on our list, but it looks like it has some support. And actually it may be like six or seven years ago, there was a chance that there was going to be a shooting range set up, I think in the South Kohala area. And then there was some push back from the resorts on that. So, you know, rightfully so, there was some proximity and noise issues and stuff. Yeah, we've heard it loud and clear from our hunting community especially that there needs to be a place. So people are not going out shooting wherever they can find an open spot, you know. Even though there's plenty places around the island. But just, you know,to have it be more organized. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It is important to me. I mean, if we want gun safety equals practicing, yeah? And learning how and having a place where people to do that. So, I'm glad that's on your radar. Yeah, if you can re-check on S133298. That was the facility. Page 12 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 And then, you know, recently I've been watching this kind of tax situation involved. The grants that came down from the Federal Economic Relief Package, CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) and all that during the pandemic, for some of those grants, like the RF (Recovery Funds) and the EIDL (Economic Injury Disaster Loans) advance loan grant, you know, it's kind of a combo. Those are being considered taxable income by the State. And I talked to the Department of Taxation. This greatly affects our local restaurants, bars; we gave these funds out to help them get through. But on the backend, the State's choosing to tax those income sources, which normally that's okay. Federally, that's kind of a recognized, you know, grants are considered an income source. But during the pandemic, the Feds made a decision to exempt that from Federal Income Tax. But at the State level, they're still choosing to—The Department of Taxation said there is a bill somewhere that they're looking at exempting those federal economic relief packages, any of those grants that came down as not to be considered as taxable income. But they didn't know which bill. So if you could please put that on your radar. That is all of our local restaurants. Anybody who got a grant when we told them to close down and limit the amount of business they could have. And we lost businesses during that time. All those restaurants and bars, the shuttered venues, you know, all those guys that were affected in that period would greatly benefit from that decision. I mean, most businesses, you're looking at a two-to three-year kind of window to get back in action. And I see that first hand. It's not going to be an immediate recovery, despite the amount of funding that went out. MR. BADER: I'll take a look. I'll do some research on that. See if we can identify it and see where it's at. Sure. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And I've double-checked. I called the Department of Taxation in Hawaii, and you know, this is the decision that's been made. And it can be changed, if not by the Legislature, I believe the Governor can unilaterally make that decision as well. And I think that would be huge for our local restaurant, business, bar community. MR. BADER: Let me see what I can find out. I'll get back to you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you Steve. Okay, thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Council Member Inaba. Page 13 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 MR. INABA: Thank you. Real quick. I don't know ifI'm just forgetting, but besides you, Steve, who else is helping on the County's behalf to submit testimony and to be a voice for the County at the Legislature for these measures we're discussing? MR. BADER: At the department level, there's a lot of testimony being submitted. These are folks that know these issues very well. And when they are proposing to testify, they're monitoring specific bills. They'll let me know. They let us know, the Mayor's Office what they're looking at. And so, anything that the Mayor is going to be putting his signature on, you know, I'll work with the Mayor to craft that testimony. And he's testified on behalf of the County on a number of these bills. The rest of them, we actually encourage the departments to do the testimony. So long as we're kind of in coordination with that. And again, there's a person in the office that assists me in kind of monitoring and alerting myself and other folks who are also tracking bills. So, there's a lot of, I'd say, redundancy as far as people informing each other at the department level. And the departments all have someone that's tracking, you know,that I stay in contact with. Otherwise, it'll be, you know, we start off the year with 2,500 bills. And you know,just staying on top these 30 to 50 bills that we've identified, it's almost like a 24/7 for me. And I have other responsibilities too. But without the help of the departments, it would be almost impossible. And I would say, too, that any of you who have bills that you were interested in or concerned in, and you see where the tie-in at the department level, please go and contact them too. So you can contact me, but you can also contact them. Because we're all in communication with each other. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Any other comments, questions. Alright. Thank you again, Mr. Bader for being here. I just had a couple of quick things. It was brought to my attention yesterday, HB 1640, which has to do with recycling of electronic waste. And there was just the article in the paper. We can't do it anymore, because we ran out of money. It is sitting waiting for its final hearing in the Senate, JDC (Judiciary Committee), WAM. So I would encourage the Administration to make a quick call to Senator Rhoads to get that scheduled. We still have—like today's the last time. MR. BADER: Yeah, actually, I have little stickle on my—HB 1640. CHR. KIMBALL: Oh great. Page 14 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 MR. BADER: You know, it didn't make it in the list, but it's—we're tracking and DEM (Department of Environmental Management) is tracking that very closely too. CHR. KIMBALL: Yeah, so put that out to everybody. If you've got a few moments today, to just make a call over. MR. BADER: And Rep. (Nicole) Lowen did contact us and contacted the Mayor. And the Mayor was over there yesterday. You know, I'm going to be probably over there sometime in the next couple weeks before they end up going into Conference, so we can have conversations ahead of time. CHR. KIMBALL: Great. And then just to follow-up on 2026, the Sunshine Law bill that did pass its third hearing, so that is going to Conference. The only difference between the House and Senate versions whether or not the Adjudicatory Land hearings would be covered by Sunshine Law. It was removed in the Senate. But otherwise, everything else made it through. MR. BADER: Yeah, pretty intact. CHR. KIMBALL: Calling attention to Senate Bill 2510 which is related to energy. It's got a hearing tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. So there's still time to weigh in on that if the Administration should choose to. It's looking at a requirement of 55 percent firm power for energy production. I have some concerns about that number being fairly arbitrary and not based on anything meaningful. So there is time to put that in. And then, as far as 1448, the Parking Surcharge. Our HSAC lobbyist is looking for a place where that language might be put back in during conference. But if not, I'd like to work with you in the interim to try to get that reintroduced in 2023. I have some additional language provided by our Prosecutor and our Police Chief just tighten that up. MR. BADER: Yeah, I saw that you've been in communication, I'm on that email thread with you guys. So, yeah, it'll be important to pull them in. Definitely. CHR. KIMBALL: Yeah, they were supportive along with just some minor tweaks. And then finally, I think a lot of you received a packet of letters today about the Papa`aloa Gym. We are grateful to Representative Luke who put in $5 million CIP in the House budget for that gym, which I understand our Finance Director has agreed to match. We are hoping to have this supported by another $5 million when the Senate goes through it. So would certainly like the Administration's support on getting that additional $5 million from the State Legislature to work on a new facility there for the community. Page 15 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 MR. BADER: And we did have that discussion with Chair Luke about the gym directly. So that's definitely on our list. And there are other things off of Rep. Nakashima's CIP list that's moving through. So anyway, that's another way things happen. You know,they don't happen in the bill but they end up being put in a CIP request. And then we have to interact with the chairs and with the staff, especially, to make sure that nothing gets erased in that process. CHR. KIMBALL: Yeah, thank you. Okay, that is it for me. With that, again, thank you Mr. Bader for being here. Did you have one final comment? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: No,just to postpone. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you again for being here, Mr. Bader. Actually, before I pass that back to you, Ms. Kierkiewicz to make the motion, I want to see if we put it to the first meeting in May, we'll be done. Do we want to actually maybe bring in a new communication at this point with maybe a little bit more forward thinking, talking about priorities for next Legislative Session, since we'll be nearly completed. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah, I can put forward a communication. And I actually wanted to invite Mr. Bader back on the 17d'rather than the 3rd, because the 17d' means Sine Die would have happened, we would have known the results of certain bills, and can start planning for next session then. MR. BADER: Yeah. Also we'd start getting some idea of what the indication would be from the Governor's Office on what bills might end up, you know, on a veto list or not. So we would know completely by then, because I think he has till June. But we'll have an indication, so we can talk about that too. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great. We'll see you then. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Would you like to make the motion then to postpone this communication then? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I'll put forth a new one for the 17Ih, since this has helped us get through Session. And the next one will be post-Session with a bit more guidance around information, I think, we as the legislative body are looking for from the Administration. MR. BADER: Great. CHR. KIMBALL: Fantastic. Page 16 GOREDC-25 April 5,2022 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So we can finally vote on this. Thank you so much. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright. So we're going to finally vote on this communication, closing file. Alright. All of those in favor of finally closing file on Communication 453, say "aye." Vote on Comm. 453: The motion to close file on Comm. 453 was carried by (Filed) the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball— 7. Noes: Committee Member Richards— 1. Absent: Council Members Chung— 1. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: I'll take a motion to adjourn. ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 10:24 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 David, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kimball— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung— 1. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you everyone. Approved: /7219pOLV M eather L. Kimball, Chairte) Government Operations, Relations, and Economic Development Committee HK/dt Page 17