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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN HSSSC 2022/05/17 2020-2022 Committee on Human Services and Social Services 17th Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii May 17, 2022 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Human Services and Social Services ORDER: was called to order 3:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Chair Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Vice Chair Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member (came in later) Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards HI, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (came in later) 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: (There were none.) COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 633: FORMATION OF AN AD HOC COMMITTEE TO REVIEW NONPROFIT GRANT-IN-AID APPLICATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2022-2023 From Human Services and Social Services Committee Chair Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated February 10, 2022. The ad hoc committee would conduct application reviews and report its findings and recommendations for grant awards to the Human Services and Social Services Committee. Postponed: March 8, 2022 (Note: There is a motion by Mr. Inaba, seconded by Mr. Richards, to close file on Comm. 633 and all related communications.) ; and HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 Comm. 633.1: From Finance Director Deanna S. Sako, dated February 17, 2022, transmitting the applications from eligible nonprofit organizations. ; and Comm. 633.2: From Finance Director Deanna S. Sako, dated March 10, 2022, transmitting revised list of nonprofit grant applications. ; and Comm. 633.3: From Deanna S. Sako, dated March 14, 2022, transmitting additional material for several organizations. ; and Comm. 633.5: From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated May 2, 2022, transmitting additional material for several nonprofit grant applications. ; and Comm. 633.6: From Human Services and Social Services Committee Chair Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated April 26, 2022, transmitting the Ad Hoc Committee's recommendations for grant funding to nonprofit organizations for inclusion in the County of Hawaii Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2022-2023. CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. You know,just orienting the rest of my colleagues, every time this ad hoc committee, there's this presentation of a recommendation, and we can go ahead and talk about how we arrived at that conclusion of the recommendation; however the voting on our particular recommendation will happen at our next meeting. So, Mr. Clerk, did I cover that correctly? MR. BROWN: Yes, that was well-stated. Today's meeting would be—so you guys submitted your report. You guys can talk about the process on how you guys came up, you know, went—your approach on how you guys approached the ad hoc and how you approached coming up with the findings, but the conversation on the recommendations themselves would be appropriate at the next meeting. CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. With that, I'd actually like to invite first Mr. Inaba to share a little bit about the process and some of the kind of peaks and valleys we had gone through at arriving at these recommendations. MR. INABA: Sure. Good afternoon, thank you. Yes, as one of the four ad hoc committee members for this Waiwai grant application process, together we wereI came in right prior to the assessments of the applications. Together however, we independently—Council Member Lee Loy, Council Member Kierkiewicz, and Council Member Kimball and I, independently assessed and evaluated each of the applications that were submitted this year; and after Page 2 HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 conducting these evaluations, we were able to put it in an excel spreadsheet and kind of sort it based on overall raw score. We did some scoring and some organizing based on average scores as well, and it really got us to kind of see just on a fair average assessment of what was provided in the applications, not necessarily off-the-bat where or what types of services, but just the merits of the applications themselves was kind of that first step. And then, for myself, I should state on record there were a couple of applications that I had direct conflict with, either myself sitting on one of the boards or an immediate family-member sitting on the board of an organization. So for those I didn't touch those, didn't score those at all, and those applications were averaged with just the other three ad hoc committee members, so I wanted to state that on the record. Do you recommend that I state the name of those organizations, Corporation Counsel? Yes? Okay. Those applications, two of them coming from the West Hawaii Mediation Center, doing business as Big Island Mediation Center; and the third application, being from La`iOpua 2020 in Kailua-Kona. So kind of just the general overview. I'll leave some time for my other colleagues to share. But it was a good opportunity for us to see what is going on in the island service-wise, and especially where there might be some opportunity for other funding available at the County to be used, as well. Thank you, Chair. I yield. CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. You know, that was the goal really, is to evaluate them in a very fair and equitable lens. And I just want to confirm for the rest of my colleagues, the three grant applications were actually removed from Mr. Inaba's scoring packet, so really he did not see those applications from the beginning, based on that determined-conflict. So with that, Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. This was the second year that I had the pleasure of serving on the nonprofit Grant-In-Aid Committee, and so I got to get a sense of what the process was like, before we kind of sort of tinkering and finding ways where we could incorporate technology, so that we are able to capture data and use that to just reflect and figure out how do we prioritize ensuring that organizations that are doing great work around the island are getting the financial support that they need. Just taking a look at all the different transmittals that you've put forward for the ad hoc, Chair, it just speaks to the hard work that we've undertaken, and this iterative process that we've committed to. We've taken a program that has been, you know, foundational, institutional within the County, and we've found ways throughout COVID (Coronavirus Disease) to just make it a bit more accessible to various community partners. And just really appreciate, you know, the commitment of the Finance Department; their team, Deanna, Lisa, Kelsey, others to working with us to land on a system and a product that doesn't just work for us but also works for community partners. Page 3 HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 What was different this year was we didn't have the week of interviews, so it was a little different and little bit stressful to have to read through two binders of information, and doing that I think highlights how we can be a little bit more efficient in kind of pulling that information from our community partners so that we have efficient reviews. You know, I'll go back to the fact that I think that, again, our nonprofits are doing phenomenal work, but there is a need to support some additional capacity building in terms of how they are articulating their needs. And so if there are ways in which we can provide that technical assistance to strengthen everybody's applications so that they're not just going after County grants-in-aid, they're able to go after State GIA (Grant-In-Aid) and even federal money, because there's a lot out there, I would be very supportive of that. The other thing that was different here this year which I was hard, because historically we want to make sure that everybody gets a little bit, but we know that sometimes when you're just giving a little bit, it's not meaningful enough for an organization to fully administer a program. So disciplining ourselves around making sure that we understood what exactly an organization needed, and then committing to funding them 100 percent. And so not everybody that applied got something this year, which I think was really, really difficult, but something that we just wanted to try. And so one more year from now, the kind of impacts that we've had with this particular allocation. I like for there to be more money, if possible, and so if the administration want to kick in a little bit more, we can. And I think that's something that we should definitely talk about when we have these times of abundance like we're experiencing right now, is this another way that we can be supporting more of our nonprofit organizations that are doing very critical work? So really appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with everybody on this project. Thanks, Chair. CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz—and absolutely, highlighting this application was really different. In the past, they would ask for the moon and stars, and maybe just get a little bit, but this one was very direct. What they asked for and if they were awarded, they would get what they asked for. So with that, and I want to have Ms. Kimball share a little bit about some of the data that was collected, and what she has outlined in a communication with all of the information that we were able to collect. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. And I'll repeat what Council Member Inaba and what Council Member Kierkiewicz has said. You Page 4 HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 know, it's great to work with this team. A lot of changes coming through, but I think the two things that we're trying to accomplish is, one, actually make the grantmaking process and the County a lot more like typical grantmaking processes in other organizations. And then make it really transparent and non-subjective. Like it's not going to be about who you know. It's going to be about really describing how County funds can help elevate your program; move forward, your effort. And so there's room on both sides, I think, for improvement. We can do more to bring clarity to the application process. And we can as far as data collection too, I think some of the data that came out, wanting to do a meta-analysis from my end, almost a little bit challenging. So that's something that I'll be looking into, is really how to really how to collect the data, again,to do the analysis. But in Communication 633, I did throw a few633.6,just a couple of overview items,just because they've been asked for in the past. So if you look on page number 6, this is Exhibit B, I actually pulled the map from you uhero, and if you go to the link that's there, listed under Figure 1 in Exhibit B, it's actually a pretty interesting map to play with, because youI showed the threshold of the percentage of homes at$50,000 or above, as the annual income. And you can play with that income level, but it really kind of highlights the distribution of need, if you're looking based on income across the County. But if you go to that website, you can drill down quite a bit more. One of the things that I wanted to pull out was the locations. The spending per age group, and that is as Figure 2 and Figure 3. A caveat—and Mr. Chung is not here to make a comment about drafts but a caveat about the particular graph, is that they probably should be looked at from a relative standpoint rather particularly Figure 3, then the dollar amount,just because of the way we've collected data. You know, we had the nonprofits identify all the different locations around the island that they did work, but we didn't say how much at each location, and so you know, they worked in six different locations, and their ask was for $6,000, I just said $1,000 at each location, so just think about that relatively. I mean, obviously it makes sense, Hilo, Kailua-Kona, Pahoa, Kea`au, Holualoa, Waimea, you know, those are some of the top places for money to be spent. And then the next couple of figures, again, fairly simple, should be considered from a relative standpoint. I looked at the change framework, and that's something that we've incorporated conceptually into the change grant process, but we haven't made it a requirement at this point. I think that's going to be something that we do further. But what I wanted to just present to you folks was—in terms of the ask, you know, how much are folks asking for within the different sectors. So it's kind of Page 5 HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 interesting and maybe expected, that we see economy and community—health and wellness is being kind one of our biggest sectors as far as asks across the community. And then if you look on Figure 5, those are all of the different sort of action items within the change framework that would fall under each category. It's a lot. It's very color-coded. I'm sure some of your kids and grandkids would enjoy scribbling on this graph. But this is the number of programs per each of those activities. You know, we have, if you look at the very right side of Figure 5, we have a lot programs out there that build community network. And that's pretty cool because we care that network building in within the community. On the flipside, we don't have a lot of programs that talk about government transparency, so maybe that's something that we want to try to encourage and support when we are talking about what types of programs we want to prioritize in this coming year. So happy to answer any questions about that. But hoping that in future with a little bit more upfront database organization, we can have even more in-depth analysis. Thank you, Chair. I yield. CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Kimball. You know, first of all, I want to thank my colleagues: Ms. Kimball, Ms. Kierkiewicz, and Mr. Inaba. You know, we're trying to transform a process into something that, as Ms. Kierkiewicz helps build capacity for a lot of our nonprofit organizations, and it's taking a few steps, but we are getting there. I also want to take a few minutes to thank Finance Department and all of our staff who helped us go through two five-inch binders with all of the applications, and keeping us all on-task to score them within a week's time. But with that, do you think—Mr. Clerk, if I'm correct, we go ahead and postpone Communication 633 and all the subsequent communications to our ? MR. BROWN: To the May 31st committee meeting. CHR. LEE LOY: May, okay. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. A motion please, to postpone Communication 633 and all the subsequent communications to ? MR. BROWN: May 31st CHR. LEE LOY: Yes. Have a motion? All those in favor,please say "aye." Page 6 HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 Vote on Motion Mr. Inaba moved to postpone Comm. 633 and all to Postpone: related communications to May 31, 2022. Seconded (Approved) by Ms. David and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Lee Loy —8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Chung— 1. Excused: None. Comm. 785: REQUESTS FORMATION OF AN AD HOC COMMITTEE TO DEVELOP A REFINED APPLICATION PROCESS AND CONTRACT MONITORING PROTOCOLS FOR THE COUNTY'S ANNUAL NONPROFIT GRANT-IN-AID PROGRAM From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated May 2, 2022. Motion to Close File: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 785. Seconded by Ms. David. CHR. LEE LOY: Council Members, no good deed goes unpunished, and through this ad hoc committee we discovered some new things we need to tinker with. And what you'll find in Communication 785 is a request to form one more ad hoc committee to refine the application process and develop a contract monitoring, and whose responsibility they may fall to. I am open to anything right now, even if means not forming this ad hoc committee and having myself take it on to help refine that, and present that to the body. I really am open to any input at this point. I know our schedules are all very busy. Or we could pick up with the same ad hoc committee we had to establish the scoring rubric along with the awards. Again, open to hear what anybody may have. Your light is on Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. CHR. LEE LOY: Okay. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. I wanted to speak on the last communication, but it was postponed. I can reference it into this one, as well. Given what I just looked through for the previous communication, which is postponed understandably. I do have a question on that; I'll follow up later. But what I'm not seeing, what I'm having a hard time with is, although there are three or four different documents that reference what the original ask was, what the award was. As part of the group that met previous to you folks taking this on, what I found very useful was seeing that information side-by-side in a spreadsheet: what the group asked for, what they received, were they Page 7 HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 disqualified. Just a spreadsheet of sorts that would help us understand what happened during the process a little bit better. And I think that ties in with what we're being that we're discussing in Communication 785. And how we come back to a rubric of some sorts, you know, for the Council Members who weren't in the committee, and didn't get a chance to review these applications. All we're looking at is numbers, as far as what's been submitted. So looking at revising the application instructions and questions, processing guidelines, or awarding funding or reporting requirements. I myself would like to see a real clear spreadsheet of what they ask for, what they got, were they disqualified, all in one document. I think that would be very, very helpful. And then yeah, I think given what I've heard from some of the people who were disqualified and went through the process, definitely could use a little streamlining. I know you got some smart minds. You guys did a lot of change, which is good, but I think there's always room for improvement. Like you said, "No good deed goes unpunished." So welcome to the backend of trying to make this cleaner for the next year's group. That's my two cents. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for what you did this year. And I look forward for discussion. CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you for that. Mr. Kaneali`i-KI einfelder, Communication 633.6 has the awards, attached as Exhibit A. But I hear you saying is you actually want to see a larger matrix of everything: who got, who didn't, what their awards were, what the totals were, rather than the various different pieces of communication. I can have staff kind of combine all of that in a very easy to read spreadsheet. For the applications and some of the refinement, we can also go ahead and point that out. They are voluminous; I'm not going to lie. And maybe a link, so that you can review the different applications along with the scoring rubric that we had. I think our challenge right now is when we form an ad hoc committee, this meeting is used to kind of put it out there for everybody to digest, and then we can dig into it the next meeting. But with that, I think the communication we're speaking to is forming next ad hoc committee, and just looking for some thoughts on that. MS. DAVID: I just have a question or comment. CHR. LEE LOY: Go ahead, Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Thank you for all this work. In this new ad hoc committee, would you folks, the proposed members on this committee, would you folks entertain—or could you entertain a person from Finance sitting on this ad hoc, Page 8 HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 as well? Because they—Finance is totally connected with this whole process, and if the committee is going to be discussing different processes, maybe they can get some good input. I'm just asking to see what that would just putting it out there. CHR. LEE LOY: Sure. I think that's a great question for Corporation Counsel. But just to highlight, they have been on the backend. MS. DAVID: Right. CHR. LEE LOY: On everything we've been doing, up and to this point, and have been offering edits or critiques along the way, which is what kind of had us land on this next ad hoc committee. Judge Strance, any thoughts on having a member of the Finance Department or administration be available to sit on this ad hoc committee? MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair, for getting some clarification on that. CHR. LEE LOY: You're welcome. (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Committee. MS. STRANCE: Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. I'll have to double-check. I mean, as a practical matter—since I advise the Finance Department with respect to the nonprofit grants, I know that they were very involved and consulted. And currently under the Code they have responsibilities for administration of the grant program. You know, whether it's a standing invitation or membership, I think the practice has been to involve them. You know,just like the way the Code is set up now, the Finance Department is in charge with publishing and having all that stuff get out. So I know there were a lot of collaboration with this last committee in getting things out. I'll double check, and if there is a desire to have them on and in what capacity, that I I'll check. But this is supposed to be a committee of the Council. MS. DAVID: Right, of the Council. And that's my question, whether it— because tbecause this involves process and procedures that might link up with the Finance Department, is it something that could be done? That was just my question, if someone could be included in this ad hoc outside of the Council Members. MS. STRANCE: I'll check. MS. DAVID: That's all. Thank you for checking. CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. David. Ms. Villegas, go ahead. Page 9 HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, I have a quick question. And I apologize for missing the first part of this. There was an urgent phone call. I guess I'm looking for a little bit of light to be shown. I got to participate in this process, and allocating grant-in-aid funds for two sessions, two years during my first term. But I've never seen this many applicants disqualified. I mean, there was like two, maybe four. So I'm looking for a little bit of understanding of how this many blew it. Or did some variable change that made it—? CHR. LEE LOY: You know, I'm going to let Ms. Kierkiewicz respond, but again I want to be clear that this is more about the process, and diving into the recommendations is actually reserved for our next meeting. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. CHR. LEE LOY: I just want to be clear. I don't want to step out of bounds on this one, Judge Strance. But it was us to describe the process, let this simmer. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. CHR. LEE LOY: You know, we can try and answer them now, but I believe these are the great questions for our next meeting, when we can actually have that conversation. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. CHR. LEE LOY: I see Judge Strance nodding. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair,just a little bit of latitude. CHR. LEE LOY: Sure. Go ahead, Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And, you know, it's certainly related to the ad hoc here, Because there was a lot done throughout this process that seems new, but I want to stress that the application questions were based off of what has been used historically. There were the addition of questions related to the change framework based on conversations Council Member Lee Loy and I have had with Hawaii Community Foundation, and there interest to take a look at some of the applications that folks are submitting, and to float that within their donor network. So one application with the potential of funding from both the County and Hawaii Community Foundation. And when you're a nonprofit organization, Page 10 HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 that's great, because that's less work for you. There's a lot that really goes into the application process. I think we were all as ad hoc committee members, and Council Members were really shocked to see how many folks submitted an application and were disqualified. Finance has shared with us that in the past they've called folks to let them know, "You've submitted the wrong thing." And there was a lot of hand-holding that took a lot of their time, that they felt we're not helping anybody to make sure that they have everything correct, if we continue to enable that. And I'll just share with you, you know, I've applied for federal grants. If you miss a signature, if you submit the wrong thing, if you don't name your file correctly, you're disqualified. So there was an intentional decision, and I think it's important to get Finance here to confirm that. But there was decision made around, we were very clear about what the expectations were. The instructions were clear. We made ourselves available to answer questions. If you got the wrong thing in, sorry. And that was the message that Finance was delivering to nonprofit partners. And that sucks. It hurts because a lot of them have relied on these funds over time. And so what I was going to suggest was rather than formulizing an ad hoc today, I think it would be great to just put a pin in this one and have the conversation at the next committee meeting, where we can have members of the Finance Department whose kuleana is to take all these applications, and make sure that everything that needs to be there, that's required based on the Code and other administrative rules, that they can share with us what their experience has been, right? I think it's important to hear from Finance,because I think could also help to further the refine the scope that we've identified for the ad hoc committee. So, just kind of offering up. Putting a pin it so that we can have conversations with Finance, who is a huge partner in this program. Thank you. CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Ms. Kimball, go ahead. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. And again,just a little leeway. I just wanted to clarify, because Council Kierkiewicz brought it up. Again, most of the questions on the application were from the previous applications, with the exception of the change framework; however, the change framework questions were not used for scoring because we realized it was new. We hadn't really socialized it as much as possible, and so we wanted to include it in the application to familiarize folks with us, to start giving some of those metrics, but it wasn't actually used as part of the scoring process. You know, I think there are some challenges with getting all the correct documents in to Finance, but one of the benefits long term, of really making sure that we've built that capacity in all the nonprofits and we have a robust system for Page 11 HSSSC-17 May 17,2022 receiving those documents, is we don't have to ask for them again every year. And perhaps other organizations that will look at our grant application don't have to actually request the documents themselves when they say, "Oh, Hawaii County has given the seal of approval on these folks. We know their process is robust. We don't have to go back and ask for everything again." Because I think one of the biggest frustrations nonprofits have is having to fill the same thing out again, and again, and again. So I'll yield there. Thanks. CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Kimball and Ms. Kierkiewicz, for really providing a lot of backdrop. You know, I have a quick question for Judge Strance based off of Chair David's request, about having Finance. Is it—sound better if we use them an ex-officio to our ad hoc, whereas they provide background information but have no voting powers. Does that help? Chair, for the record, Judge Strance said she'll get back to us. So with that, I think Ms. Kierkiewicz' recommendation about postponing this particular communication until we can have a well-rounded discussion around our recommendations, and then the next steps, is a wise decision. So with that, I'll be requesting a motion to postpone Communication 785 to our May 31" agenda. Point of MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: A point of information, if I could? Information: CHR. LEE LOY: Sure. Go ahead, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: At the next hearing, regarding what was already concluded in the previous communication, do we have a chance to discuss that again before adopting the recommendations, and is it possible to make changes if the body so decides to? CHR. LEE LOY: That's exactly what our next meeting is for. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. Thank you, Ma'am. Appreciate it. CHR. LEE LOY: So I'm looking for a motion to postpone Communication 785 to our May 31"agenda? Page 12