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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2022-05-18 2020-2022 Hawaii County Council 39th Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii May 18, 2022 INVOCATION: Council Member Holeka Goro Inaba gave the morning's invocation. CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at ORDER: 9:00 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Chair. ROLL CALL Present: Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Vice Chair Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Ashley Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather Kimball, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member PLEDGE OF The Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of ALLEGIANCE: Allegiance. (At this time, a Kaden Oshiro of the Waiakea High School baseball team led the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance.) PETITIONS, The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Petitions, MEMORIALS, Memorials, Certificates of Merit, and Expressions of Condolence. CERTIFICATES OF MERIT, AND (Note: At this time, Ms. Lee Loy presented Certificates of Merit to the Waiakea EXPRESSIONS OF High School baseball team State Champions.) CONDOLENCE: Recess: At 9:18 a.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 9:23 a.m. CHR. DAVID: Aloha everyone, I'm taking this Council meeting out of recess. Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Robert Efford: Res. 402-22 (Comm. 778), in support. (representing Arc of Hilo) Darryl "Sammy" Sampaga: Res. 402-22 (Comm. 778), in support. (representing OSMD Hawaii Foundation) Maki Morinoue: Bill 152 (Comm. 721.18), in support. Bill 153 (Comm. 722), in support. Kristin Alice: Bill 152 (Comm. 721.18), in support. (representing Hope Services Bill 153 (Comm. 722), in support. Hawaii and Community Alliance Partners) Shirley David: Bill 152 (Comm. 721.18), in support. (representing Saint Michael Bill 153 (Comm. 722), in support. the Archangel Church) CHR. DAVID: Thank you to the testifiers. At this point, I will be closing public testimony. APPROVAL The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Approval OF MINUTES: of Minutes. Vote on Approval Ms. Lee Loy moved to approve the Minutes of April 6, of Minutes: 2022. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the (Approved) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Inaba— 1. Excused: None. Page 2 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Vote on Approval Ms. Lee Loy moved to approve the Minutes of April 20, of Minutes: 2022. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the (Approved) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Inaba— 1. Excused: None. CHR. DAVID: Could we please move on to Order of Resolutions? ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of RESOLUTIONS: Resolutions. Res. 386-22: AUTHORIZES THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, PURSUANT TO HAWAII REVISED STATUTES, SECTION 46-7, FOR A WORKFORCE INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITY ACT GRANT Allows for the receipt of$94,300, which would be used for rapid response and layoff aversion activities. Reference: Comm. 754 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-142 Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 386-22 and Finance Committee Report No. 142. Seconded by Ms. Villegas. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. You can see by the committee report we did hear this in committees. Any further discussion from the Council, now is the time, but I think this is good to go. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 386-22, please say "aye." Page 3 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Vote on Res. 386-22: The motion to adopt Res. 386-22 and Finance Committee (Adopted) Report No. 142 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Inaba— 1. Excused: None. Res. 387-22: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR AND OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR A MULTI-YEAR AGREEMENT FOR CONSULTANT SERVICES TO ANALYZE AND PROPOSE AMENDMENTS TO THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), CHAPTER 23, SUBDIVISIONS AND CHAPTER 25, ZONING FOR THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT Provides for a two-year agreement to develop amendments designed to update and improve land use regulatory language. Reference: Comm. 755 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-143 Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 387-22 and Finance Committee Report No. 143. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: There was committee discussion around this. I do have a follow-up question for the director, as he is here this morning. Thank you for being here, Mr. Kern. (Note: At this time, Planning Director Zendo Kern came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KERN: Good morning, Madam Chair, and members of the Council, Zendo Kern, Planning Director. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, sir. Just a real quick question. If any of the Council wanted to amend one these sections that we're funding to look at how we do Code amendments or possible Code amendments in the future, what happens to that process? If you're in the process of amending or looking at a consultant doing some amendments or helping us understand what that looks like, what happens if the Council Members want to amend in this period? Page 4 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. KERN: To my understanding, there's no prohibition against doing that. It may not be the best timing, but I think there will be instances where it'll come up and there will be some timing on that, where there's been discussion around that. So in that case, we would look at it in the Planning Department, it would come down through here, go to the Planning Department, we'd give it a recommendation, and it would go to the Planning Commissions as usual. It would come back up to be voted on and approved or not approved, at which point, that Code would then be amended and be plugged in there. The consultants and the team would be fully aware of that, and the likelihood that they would recommend changes to that would be very, very slim. Then when that comes forward, the Council would have a chance to look at it again. So, I don't see any problems with that. We just need to be mindful of that because it's kind of doing it piecemeal, which is fine for certain things I know we need to get done. I'm not against it, we just plug that in as we move along. So it would be one less thing to have to deal with at the end. Does that make sense? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, that makes sense, thank you. Chair, that's all the questions I had. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I wasn't here for committee. I was out with COVID (coronavirus disease), so I wasn't able to lend my strong support for this particular resolution. I just want to remind folks that in 2020, we adopted Resolution 432-20 and that was calling for a comprehensive review, audit analysis, rewrite, of these two particular sections of our Code, Chapter 23, 25. And it was really because there was no major overhaul for decades. I think Subdivision was 1983, Zoning was 1996, and with all of these little amendments over time, created some kind of Frankenstein set of Codes which really resulted in some inconsistencies and misinterpretations A number of us were fortunate to attend HCPO, the Hawaii County Planning Organization conference in 2019. I don't know if, Ms. Villegas, you were in the session with me on the Code rewrite, but it was a phenomenal presentation by Maui County and a very comprehensive and inclusive process that they took as the County Planning Department in partnership with the end user, that's community members. So, I took tons of notes, sent that over to your predecessor, Director Kern, and really worked with Director Yee, Mr. Darrow, April Surprenant, folks in that department to really think through how we could do this, and it was a signal to the administration that we wanted to include it in the budget. COVID happened and so we had to obviously pump the brakes; but last year we approved an amendment to the budget that provided your department with I think about$150,000. You were very smart, Director, in braiding in some of the HAZ-MIT (Hazard Mitigation) funds and I think that was really strategic. Page 5 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 When we think about our Codes, we really want them to be reflective of the kinds of communities we want to be living in, walkable, mixed use; but also keeping in mind the challenges that we're facing with more disasters because of climate change, and so making sure that infrastructure is able to adapt to that. So, I just wanted to be able to have an opportunity to kind of share and lend my support. It sounds like we're landing on perhaps $600,000 to complete this project. If memory serves me, I think Maui's, correct me if I'm wrong, I think their audit, their review, was more along the lines of$750,000 and then they paid more for somebody to come and help them rewrite, I think,just one section of the Code. What you're proposing to do for $600,000 is do all of that for two sections of Code. Is that correct? MR. KERN: Yes, that's accurate. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, so we're really getting our bang for our buck. Planning is absolutely going to be involved every step of the way no matter who the consultant is. MR. KERN: Yeah, we'll be leading the charge on it. The consultants will be working for us under our direction. I'll be very involved myself in this with my team,just as we're doing the General Plan (GP)right now. So every week there's time chunks working with them. It's not, hey, let's bring in a consultant,just send them out there and come back with something. It's working with them, with our institutional knowledge within the department, feedback from our community. So outreach is a big part of this as well, which I can get into a little bit of our workflow at some point if you'd like. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah, I'd like for you to do that because it's important that we're reaching out to every district around the island, so that Council Members do have the opportunity to bring in their constituents and help to produce ideas and help to design this refresh. So, if you could walk us through that, that'd be helpful. MR. KERN: Sure. So, we're working with the consultant right now to finalize the agreement, so I can't mention who they are at this particular time. We went through a general scope. So the concept with the general scope is July to October of this year, we'll be doing the assessment and that'll be doing community outreach to community, to stakeholders, to folks that work in land use and development, and doing a series of workshops, taking all the institutional knowledge from our department that we have, which relates to memos. We have a matrix that was already kind of put together within the department over the years of kind of the Code fix, drop it in the bucket, how we need to do is drop it in there. So, we've been parsing that out. At the end of that time period, we're Page 6 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 going to come up with an assessment matrix, that's kind of that audit if you will, at that point, so we know where we're moving. That'll then be presented, and that'll be based on feedback as well from community and stakeholders. Then phase two will be drafting and that will be October `22 to August `23 and within that that'll be taking all that feedback and drafting it. I want to make an important distinction here. We're not going to just rewrite the Code for the sake of rewriting the Code. There's a familiarity with the Code, there's a flow with the Code. So, we're going to go top to bottom and make adjustments, rewrite where it needs to be done, plug the pukas where there are pukas, but when somebody comes and looks at it again, they're not going to be like, "Oh my God, what happened to our Code? Where are the things in there?" It's going to be a very similar flow and format right now. Then phase three will be August 2023 to December '23, back out for review. So the drafts that will be created will be back out to the public, back out to the Council Members, back out to the stakeholders, more workshops, more feedback, make any adjustments. And then the adoption portion, phase four, will start in January of '24, and that'll go to commissions and then the Council. That is a very aggressive timeframe. The consultants that we're working with understand that and the department understands that. It's going to take resources from us and from them to do that. That was something clear we wanted, that we're not going to go crazy on budget. We're working on finalizing the budget, so I want to make a distinction that right here today, we are asking for the ability to move into this multi-year agreement. Over the course of the next two weeks, I'll have a sound budget established with them and I'm going to make sure it's within or under the budget that I've been talking about. Then from there, we'll have an opportunity to have that discussion again at budget because we'll be asking for a little bit more at that time and then I should be able to say at that time we have the contract secured with this consultant, here's the general budget we're looking at. Then we can have another discussion on the monetary side of it. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Director. I am comfortable with everything that you've presented and will be supporting what you folks are doing. I do share your sentiments that the timeline is really aggressive, but we've got to get it done. So I'll be supporting you. Thank you. MR. KERN: I just want to add to that. One of the things I've seen over my time, public and private and coming into this position, is when things aren't closed out during Administrations and something new comes, then who knows how much longer that time takes. We've seen that with some GP stuff, we've seen that with EPIC (Electronic Processing and Information Center), and one of my goals is to start a project and close it out. Page 7 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Now, with this zoning side of it, we could go even higher into full-formed based code and all the rest of it. When we looked at that, we said that's really a lot right now, and it's just going to go on for years and years. Why don't we look at stabilizing our base Code? Get our base Code squared away, get our HAZ-MIT mitigation in there, various other efforts to work on mitigation for climate change, et cetera, affordability, get this stabilized and then we'll also be pointing at other opportunities for hybrid, form based, et cetera, from there to build out. Then the next four years, the next Administration, however that shakes out, can look at that. So, it's really important to me to close these out. That's why the first year of my time here was getting EPIC on our side up and running and working, and now we're doing the same thing with the General Plan, methodically going through it. I was just in a meeting. When I leave here, I'm back to the General Plan and going through it and really getting it squared away. So that's my philosophy, is to really get things done, present it and say, "Here it is," and the Council can have deliberations. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks Director, I can appreciate that sort of strategic thinking, your methodology there, and do want to see some resolution to a lot of these projects. No need to shoot for the moon here, we just got to make sure that we have the base foundation set then we can build from there. That's a great approach, thank you. Chair, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Ms. Villegas, you can go first. Thank you. MS. VILLEGAS: Sure. Thank you for being here, Mr. Kern. Just a quick question. How was the consultant—was there an RFP to decide who this consultant was going to be? MR. KERN: In this case, it was done through professional services and when there's professional services done, we send out basically a request for information or a request if they're interested with a general scope of what we're looking for. Organizations will then submit their interest to the department. So during all of this time, I'm not a party to it. I have April who's leading this and there's a panel that's put together, pretty much made up of our division directors. Then they go through an interview process and a selection process with the various firms and organizations, top to bottom. They do ranking on that then they all rank it out, and then there's a scoring matrix that's put together at the end of it that says, based on the panel, based on the numbers that we've come together, this one ranks number one, this one ranks number two, this one ranks number three. At that point, once they made their Page 8 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 ranking, I came in there and we looked at it. They said, "Here's our recommendation for number one." We talked about it collectively as a group, and it all seemed to make sense, so that's the one that we were going for. If that were to change, it's not done by me, that would be done by the panel. They could go back in there and say based on new information that we found or whatever, maybe we should look at that. That wasn't necessary in this case and so based on their recommendation, now we're moving forward with the negotiations, scoping, and budgeting with the consultant. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, great, thank you. Now, as you're going through the Code, I mean one of the things that I am constantly, consistently inundated with emails and phone calls from people who are, in their experience, suffering under the current short-term vacation rental parameters. So, as you're going—and one of the things that I've heard a number of times is that it's one of the goals of this administration to revisit that, to realign things to create more specific fines, rules, parameters, what not about that. Would that be a part of this project directly or is that also happening concurrently? MR. KERN: No, it's not part of this project. It may be evaluated again during the project but we're actually working on it right now. There will be something in front of you all very soon. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, thank you. MR. KERN: I also have those similar emails coming in. MS. VILLEGAS: I'm sure. MR. KERN: So we need to get this taken care of and make some adjustments to the other one. So that's coming forward momentarily. You can almost hold your breath. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. Thank you, I appreciate you clarifying those directions and directives, and it sounds like you have a very precise strategy that you're going to be navigating through. I do recognize, especially, and acknowledge that it's one of the challenges of serving in public office, is that then leadership changes during elections and so, you as a director can be working on something and then something can change. So, thank you for aligning your goals for this project to be within the timeframe of the current Administration. And whether or not that happens for another four years or not, but there is just that awareness in taking that into consideration. I really appreciate that, it's very thoughtful and strategic. Thank you. MR. KERN: Thank you for that; appreciate that. Page 9 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MS. VILLEGAS: I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Villegas. Mr. Chung. MR. CHUNG: Thanks. You know, Ms. Kierkiewicz laid out a very well all of the reasons why we should vote for this, but it's a just one of those situations where two people can look at the same set of facts and maybe have differences of opinions slightly. For example, the last time we spoke, I brought up the cost, the $600,000. I don't know if that's really a good bang for the buck. I really don't because I don't have anything to measure it by. You know, you said that other jurisdictions are paying a million-plus, but I'm just thinking $600,000 is a lot of money, and we don't really know what the scope of their services are. My understanding—and just for everybody's information, I have been having discussions with Mr. Kern over the last several days just for me to get a better feel for what's going on here. But we still don't know the precise scope. But I do know, based on our conversations, and correct me if I mis-state anything, that you and your staff will be driving this, right, and the consultants will be sort of like an ancillary component to all of that, and they will be assisting with the drafting because they have all of the knowhow. That's good, because we wouldn't want the County to lose control over this situation, particularly if it's a consultant company who has really no familiarity with our County. One thing we didn't discuss is what kinds of assurances can you give us that $600,000 or whatever number you guys come up with, isn't going to maybe in six months or eight months, become now $800,000, $1 million, $1.2 million? What kinds of safeguards do we have? MR. KERN: Sure. Thank you for that question, Council Member, and the opportunity to have further discussion. The assurance that I can give, one, is my running it. I'm very fiscally responsible in that way. I really try to be very diligent on how we spend our money. It's a very big deal when it's taxpayer money on that side of it. The secondary assurance is any adjustments will have to come before the Council, and so then I will have to present that to Council and have egg on my face around that. So I think that getting it set up early and understanding what our scope is and what that budget is and probably with anything, having a small contingency within there, and that's what I'm trying to bake into my overall budget amount. Just like a construction project, you have your set budget and then you got a little adjustment up and down. My goal would be to bring it in for under what the budget is. So me committing to that is ultimately the best that I can do and again, I can't just go and change the budget at will, I'd have to come back to you folks. Page 10 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Scope creep is something that I'm very familiar with. My past history helps me with that as well because I have been on many different projects where scope tries to get—and I can usually see that early on. So when you see things changing early on, that's when it's like, "That's not working quite the way that we want it to. You guys are just, you know, your burn rate is too much. I don't need five people in a meeting that only one could be in here and charging me hourly, thank you. So next meeting, let's just have one person in there." It's things like that, that's how we manage it. So in this case, I'm very active and involved in this. Every week I have hours taken or set aside to work on this so it's not like I'm just getting a report quarterly and, "Oh, what's happening there?" I'm engaged, I'm seeing that we're making those adjustments and that communication, effective communication, if that happens. So again, my goal would be to come back and say we did it under budget. MR. CHUNG: Okay, and you're going to be working closely with Corporation Counsel in framing the scope, right? MR. KERN: Absolutely. MR. CHUNG: Okay, good. You know, Zoning Code, Subdivision Code, it's not a set of laws which the everyday person deals with, right? I mean it may affect more people than it would on its face appear to affect, but generally speaking, not many. So how—do you have anything to say about what kind of return on investment we're going to get in redoing or fixing our Zoning Code? Fixing our Subdivision Code? What's our return on investment of the $600,000 to the general public? Is it that necessary? MR. KERN: I'm happy to answer that. I personally feel the return is huge. I'm having a hard time putting it into exact numbers but thousands, millions of percent on the money. In a way, our Code, it's that software running in the background, right? We used to go on our computer, we're used to having that computer work, right? It's a hardware, then we plug in certain software on top of that but there's all these other things that go on in the back end of it that we just kind of take for granted in a lot of ways. In certain ways, that's our Code, right? So, you folks see construction projects come in. You folks see bid projects come in, and let's just say we're dealing with a $10 million building for a County building. There's a part of that that's spent for architecture, engineering, and planning, right? It's usually around 10 percent. So that project, let's say, would be $1 million in soft cost, is how you'd term that. Now, how that building even got to be placed there, how that subdivision even got to be placed there was done on this underlying backend code, okay? So, spending say $600,000 or so to establish that underlying code that will perpetuate into potentially billions of dollars' worth of projects over the years, that return to me is huge. Page 11 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 That's kind of a little higher level conceptual, right? So spending $600,000 in soft cost for something that will go for decades in a way, it's hard to quantify it, but I'd say massively. But let's take it a little bit different. Let's look at a subdivision. Right now, our current Subdivision Code to develop a 10,000 square foot lot or so, on this side, you're somewhere around $150,000 per lot, that's not what—not cost of dirt, not cost of money, I'm just talking hard cost with their design in there. On the west side, probably throw in another $100,000 on top of that. So when we make adjustments to our Code, we're taking the considerations of what's required for that right-a-way width, infrastructure, et cetera. Previously, we've seen a lot of those come through with a PUD, Planned Unit Development, and they would make adjustments to that by way of a variance. You'll see some 201H applications come in and they make adjustments to things by way of a variance. The place that we live in right now with affordability and the need to address climate change, we shouldn't be having to do a variance for every one of these things. When you see a consistency like that, perhaps you want to look at the Code and make that adjustment. So the objective here is to allow for more flexibility in that. One of the things we're seeing is not just all for 50-foot right-of-way, curb, gutter, sidewalk, everything. That's a lot of cement; that's a lot of steel. Cement and steel also make up 10 percent of our carbon emissions. So, you take that now and let's say you have a 30-foot right-of-way with an offset walking path, so you have that connectivity, you have that community in there, but you just use less materials that reduce the cost of that project. It reduces the carbon emissions to that project, and that should then get pushed provided to the community, to the buyers, et cetera, that would ultimately lower that cost so there's a direct cost there. Look at the Zoning Code, our minimum lot size right now is 7,500 square feet. Many jurisdictions in the mainland have realized that they need to do more cluster side of it, and down to maybe 4,000 or 5,000 square foot lots. Again, typically done in the past, but with a PUD. Having that ability in our Code for the right areas, this obviously is in, my example right now is in an urban area. Now you're able to provide that subdivision standard with a smaller lot size and you do the math, that just lowered it now to achievable housing in that much closer at hand for our local community or local folks. That's where they kind of merge together and that's just one small example that I see a direct tangible return on the investment. MR. CHUNG: Good. Thank you, that's a good explanation, Zendo, I appreciate that. My last question has to do—well I actually I know the answer because you told me what the answer is on this one. I was concerned that we're looking at— and tand you know, Zoning Code is a different thing but Subdivision Code, where Page 12 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 you're going to have a repeal of the present Subdivision Code and come in with an entirely new thing, which would cause a lot of re-learning. What you told me was that you're going to pick certain things, and of course, one of the goals is to eliminate the possibility of interpretation. It's not going to be a wholesale change, right? MR. KERN: That's right. Very familiar, same type of flow and then making the adjustments as we go down. MR. CHUNG: Okay. Alright. That's all I have to say. MR. KERN: Thank you very much. MR. CHUNG: Thank you, Zendo. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Go ahead Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Thank you, Director, for being here. I'll be supporting this, of course. And just for context, I did a change of zone application and just one application for one TMK(Tax Map Key) can be upwards of $350,000. So for me, $600,000 to fix two codes, for me, makes a lot of sense. But I actually wanted to ask about that scope of services because we know, or you and I may know, our Subdivision CodeI'm sorry our Zoning Code, Chapter 25, is very archaic and has been Frankensteined and band-aided together. I'm more curious about the director's memos that also kind of are feathered in, dovetailed into areas of our Zoning Code where there was a need to be more direct about that interpretation. Is that part of this refresh? MR. KERN: Absolutely. MS. LEE LOY: Okay. MR. KERN: Sorry to jump in but yes, it is. It's during that first assessment phase we're taking, again, we've had a couple areas that we have just knowledge sitting there. One of them are the director memos. When something needs to be memo'd a lot, there's obviously that kind of similar, like I was explaining with the PUD, like a maybe we should just have it in Code to avoid, again, interpretation. And also, again, through the years there was a bucket, so to speak, created a word document on our server that, "Oh, there's a code fix," and then staff would dump it in there. So we've taken that and we're kind of working out our own matrix on that. So between the memos, the bucket that we're putting in there, feedback from Page 13 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 community, public, stakeholders, that will come up with this overall assessment matrix, that'll point us in that direction that we're going. The goal would be to come out with no memos. MS. LEE LOY: That really would be a goal, only because you would read the Code and there's no ambiguity with the director or the transitioning of new directors. MR. KERN: Just to follow up on that, too, Code don't always go through process. So from there the Code changes will drive to rule and process changes, right? That's how we work through things. So they're very integrated through that overall process, which comes out to what's being produced in our community, how our customers are being served. It's very critical to establish those things. MS. LEE LOY: So folding in those director memos, that'll occur at phase one or ? MR. KERN: Phase one. MS. LEE LOY: Ok,perfect. Perfect. Thank you for answering the questions. Chair, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Anyone else? Seeing none, Director Kern, thank you so much for that very thorough explanation, I understand it quite well now. Thank you. Seeing no other discussion, all those in favor of approving Resolution 387-22, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 387-22: The motion to adopt Res. 387-22 and Finance Committee (Adopted) Report No. 143 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. MR. KERN: Thank you so much for your support, have a wonderful rest of your day. Aloha. CHR. DAVID: Mahalo. You too. Page 14 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Res. 388-22: AMENDS RESOLUTION 168-21 AUTHORIZING THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII Amends Resolution Number 168-21 to increase the funding amount for the Kuleana Health project from $100,000 to $200,000. Reference: Comm. 758 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-144 Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 388-22 and Finance Committee Report No. 144. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Mahalo Chair. Just a quick question for Deanna. Although this is an R and D (Research and Development) request, wondering about the source of funding. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SAKO: Good morning. I believe this was grant funded. I think when we first got it, we came in and did the first year and then realized that they didn't—it was actually supposed to be for two years and so we had to come in to amend. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Okay, no real issues on the grant or what the purpose of it is, but just wondering about the source of the funding. So grant funded? MS. SAKO: I thought it was grant funded, yes. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: I thought so,too, but I don't see it. MS. SAKO: Now that I'm looking for it, of course I can't find it. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: I don't see it either. It's not a big issue for me, I just was trying to figure out where it's coming from. MS. SAKO: So it's either grant funded, or it went through our RFP (Request for Proposal)process. Yeah, it is from the $3 million Health Literacy program grant. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so because it's a two year $100,000 per year, we're increasing it to $200,000 Page 15 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MS. SAKO: Yeah, so we just need to amend. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you very much, appreciate it. I yield, Chair. Thank you, Deanna. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 388-22, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 388-22: The motion to adopt Res. 388-22 and Finance Committee (Adopted) Report No. 144 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 398-22: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE HILO HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION FOR THE 2022 HILO HIGH GRAD NIGHT Transfers $1,500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 774 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 398-22. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Ask for everyone's support, it's a great program for our seniors. CHR. DAVID: Mahalo. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 398-22, please say "aye." Page 16 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Vote on Res. 398-22: The motion to adopt Res. 398-22 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 399-22: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HOSPICE OF HILO FOR ITS 18TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF LIFE EVENT Transfers $500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation, Administration Other Current Expenses account. Reference: Comm. 775 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy Vote on Res. 399-22: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 399-22. Seconded by (Adopted) Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 400-22: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE HALE MUA CULTURAL GROUP TO ASSIST WITH EXPENSES ASSOCIATED WITH THE 2022 KING KAMEHAMEHA DAY CELEBRATION PARADE AND HO`OLAULE`A IN KONA Transfers $2,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 8); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 776 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba Page 17 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Vote on Res. 400-22: Mr. Inaba moved to adopt Res. 400-22. Seconded by (Adopted) Ms. Villegas and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 401-22: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TWO MAKU'U KE KAHUA COMMUNITY CENTER TO PURCHASE SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND HYGIENE PRODUCTS FOR COMMUNITY CARE PACKAGES Transfers $1,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 4); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 777 Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 401-22. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I just want to recognize three `opio in Puna that reached out to my office, and we had a couple of Zoom calls to really understand their intention for their project. It's Destiny Lominario, Kauluwena Aiona, and Jaydene Florendo. They were really concerned about some of the elementary school students who were going to school without supplies, so they are working on just trying to build backpacks so that kids have everything that they need to feel equipped to start on the first day of school. They were also concerned about, you know, individuals experiencing homelessness and the lack of access to hygiene products. So Council Member Kimball will love this, I'm connecting them with Char Iboshi and the Zonta Club of Hilo, which have years and years of experience kind of pulling these kids together. It's a great way to foster that intergenerational relationship, but I'm just excited about `opio stepping up in our community, reaching out and saying, "Hey, I have an idea, this is what I can do, can you Page 18 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 please support me?" This is a really great way where we're building up their skillsets, their capacity, and their leadership. So looking for everyone's support. Thank you, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 401-22,please say "aye." Vote on Res. 401-22: The motion to adopt Res. 401-22 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 402-22: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE ARC OF HILO FOR ITS IST ANNUAL KING KAMEHAMEHA'S AWESOME ATHLETES INCLUSIVE CANOE RACE Transfers $2,500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation, Administration Other Current Expenses account. Reference: Comm. 778 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 402-22. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Earlier today, we had two testifiers and this was the program. They're actually going to be taking out a lot of our awesome athletes with special needs, and it's the first event for them to get on the water. As you can imagine, our families with children with special needs, or just families with special needs, getting them in a canoe is hard, and then allowing them to paddle, it takes a village. So this is actually really exciting for me to watch the kids smile and enjoy, and then the families actuallyeverybody participates for this program. So I look forward to everyone's support. Page 19 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 402-22, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 402-22: The motion to adopt Res. 402-22 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 403-22: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE HALE MUA CULTURAL GROUP TO ASSIST WITH EXPENSES RELATED TO THE KAMEHAMEHA DAY PARADE AND HO`OLAULE`A IN KONA Transfers $5,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 7); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 779 Intr. by: Ms. Villegas Motion to Approve: Ms. Villegas moved to adopt Res. 403-22. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Ms. Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: I just want to mahalo, first off, my colleague Mr. Inaba, for also putting forth some funding for something that is historically and culturally really cherished and sacred in Kona. I'm incredibly excited to have the King Kamehameha Day Parade returning. They hit a couple of hurdles, some bumps, with funding being pulled from some other sources this year on the State side, so I'm really grateful that we're able to step in with some County resources to fill in the gap. So, I ask for your continued support in this great project. I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Villegas. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 403-22, please say "aye." Page 20 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Vote on Res. 403-22: The motion to adopt Res. 403-22 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 404-22: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE MERRIE MONARCH FESTIVAL FOR A REIMBURSEMENT OF EXPENSES RELATED TO THE 59TH ANNUAL MERRIE MONARCH FESTIVAL Transfers $13,547.03 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account(Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation, Administration Other Current Expenses account. Reference: Comm. 780 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 404-22. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. As everyone will notice, it's a very large and clunky number because this is the last of my contingency money, right down to the three cents. It's going to the festival. This year, their 59h Annual program was kind of different from years past. They weren't able to raise funds from the previous year because of COVID, and then they kind of entered this year with a little bit more restrictions. But now that the restrictions are folding down, we look forward to next year's 60'h Annual Merrie Monarch Festival. Asking for everyone's support. CHR. DAVID: Mahalo, Ms. Lee Loy. Mr. Richards, go ahead. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to thank Ms. Lee Loy for doing that. Merrie Monarch, as we're seeing things come—opening up again and getting back to some semblance of normalcy, I was fortunate enough to participate in the Merrie Monarch pa`u unit. I made a promise many years ago to ride escort for Kea Keolanui, and she did a phenomenal job. We ended up Page 21 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 actually winning the event but—thank you. It was a great honor to ride as one of her escorts. So Ms. Lee Loy, thanks so much for helping to bring back this event. Chair, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 404-22, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 404-22: The motion to adopt Res. 404-22 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David–8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Inaba– 1. Excused: None. Res. 405-22: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HAMAKUA YOUTH FOUNDATION, INC., TO ASSIST WITH EXPENSES RELATED TO ITS KEIKI PROGRAM Transfers $5,000 from the Clerk-Council Services –Contingency Relief account (Council District 1); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 781 Intr. by: Ms. Kimball Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to adopt Res. 405-22. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead, Ms. Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. Just looking for everyone's support. We all know Hamakua Youth Foundation and the wonderful work they do for the kids in District 1. They were one of the organizations that didn't quite get all their paperwork in correctly for the GIA (Grant-in-Aid)this year and so I wanted to make sure that we did continue to provide support for their program. Thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you for that. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 405-22, please say "aye." Page 22 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Vote on Res. 405-22: The motion to adopt Res. 405-22 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 406-22: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HAMAKUA YOUTH FOUNDATION, INC., TO SUPPORT THE 2022 HONOKA`A WESTERN WEEK FESTIVAL Transfers $2,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 1); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation, Administration Other Current Expenses account. Reference: Comm. 782 Intr. by: Ms. Kimball Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to adopt Res. 406-22. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Ms. Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. If you'll indulge me for a moment, I just want to promote Western Week a little bit. It's a long tradition in Honoka`a town, a town that has suffered both from the economic downturn related to COVID and then also the closure of Waipio Valley. So encourage all of you, if you haven't been up there recently, to make a trip up there next week. On the 21st at 5:30 on Kahilu TV, they'll be showing the saloon girls and cowboys' talent show, so encourage you to watch that. May 22 d, we have the Hamakua Harvest Day from 9:00 to 2:00 at the farmer's market. The 26th, there's a paniolo and craft and story time at 5:00 p.m. at the library. Whiskey tasting, an open-air western movie at the Honoka`a Country Market. And then Saddle-Up Saturday at the arena, we have that from 11:00 to 4:00. I'm sorry, that's downtown on May 28th and we'll have a saddle club sporting event at the arena on the 28th as well. So hopefully, you can make it up there for this week of celebration. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kimball. Mr. Richards, go ahead. Page 23 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. RICHARDS: Once again, ditto and shout out to you, Ms. Kimball, for getting funding and getting this back. That is a long-standing tradition, and it was very sorely missed for the last couple of years. So it's great to get this up and running. Congratulations, way to go. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 406-22,please say "aye." Vote on Res. 406-22: The motion to adopt Res. 406-22 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 407-22: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT FOR PARK MAINTENANCE AND/OR IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS AT VARIOUS FACILITIES IN COUNCIL DISTRICT 1 Transfers $5,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 1); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation, Transfer to Capital Projects Fund-General account. Reference: Comm. 784 Intr. by: Ms. Kimball Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to adopt Res. 407-22. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. DAVID: Ms. Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Looking for support. We all know our County parks need support; wish I could give them ten times as much. This is the last of my account. I use round numbers, so no dollars and cents here. Thanks, Chair, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 407-22, please say "aye." Page 24 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Vote on Res. 407-22: The motion to adopt Res. 407-22 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 411-22: AUTHORIZES THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION TO AWARD FUNDS TO DESTINATION HILO Awards $49,000 to be used for a 4h of July fireworks display as part of the 2022 Hilo Bay Blast celebration. Reference: Comm. 791 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 411-22. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You know, every year, although we did have a bump in COVID, not a bump like an increase but we got bumped due to COVID, I love this event. I think it's just beautiful for the community. So I'm really excited to see this amount of funding come to it and to this nonprofit to take this on. I'm also, I was hoping to have the director here, and I'll follow up with him later, but I'm wondering how much money would take to make it even better. Because we don't get fireworks on New Year's, we only get them on the 4h of July, everybody loves it. You can see it from Hamakua to all the way up in Waiakea and beyond. It's just a cool event for everybody in the community. I'd love to talk to the director a little bit more to see if there's more funding, they can get to make this even bigger and better. It's really neat. Thank you, Chair, thank you for indulging. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else? Go ahead Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Director Sako, if you would please, could you share with us from what area of the Parks and Recreation budget this $49,000 is coming from? Page 25 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MS. SAKO: I believe it's from Culture and Arts. We did budget some and then the cost of everything is going up, so it is costing more than we originally planned. I believe they're going to take it from Culture and Arts or somewhere within they'll find it within the Parks and Recreation budget. MR. INABA: Okay. For the record, we have a lot of needs in our parks and I'm not in support of$49,000 going up into the sky. Chair, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution—go ahead, Mr. Chung. Director? Sorry. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. CHUNG: I don't know if you're the right person to ask but what is the $49,000 going to be used for exactly? MS. SAKO: I'm sorry, what was the question? MR. CHUNG: Again, I apologize because you might not be the person to ask, but what's the $49,000 going to be used for? MS. SAKO: To pay for the fireworks. MR. CHUNG: So $49,000 worth of fireworks? MS. SAKO: Yes, that's correct. The prices have been going up each year, but it has substantially gone up this year because of supply, demand, supply chain issues. MR. CHUNG: That's the total cost? The reason for that is I'm giving some money to Parks and Recreation next meeting, and I'm just wondering if there's a need for that now. MS. SAKO: This should cover it. MR. CHUNG: So no need my money? MS. SAKO: For fireworks? MR. CHUNG: I guess, that's what I thought. MS. SAKO: No, this is the net amount because I believe they did mention they were expecting some from various Council Members. Page 26 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. CHUNG: Alright, thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Anyone else? Seeing none—go ahead. MR. CHUNG: I mean that is a lot of money. I can understand Mr. Inaba's heartburn. But you know, I've got to side more with Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder on this, not so much beefing it up but it is an event. It seems like we're burning money if you really think about it. But it's something that really brings the community together. I mean of course we don't want super-spreader events either but whether you're rich, poor, young, old, it's something that really is important to our community. So in a way, even if$49,000 is a lot of money, I'm going to support it. It's just very important to our community. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Ms. Lee Loy, go ahead. MS. LEE LOY: Deanna? Thanks Deanna. I'm hearing both sides of this, completely support this. This is coming out of Culture and Arts. How many signature events does Culture and Arts put on? MS. SAKO: They have several. Obviously during COVID they had to get creative, and I think Roxcie and her team got very creative in terms of doing the Cherry Blossom Festival and the different ways they did things. I would say they have five or six main ones per year and then some smaller ones in between. MS. LEE LOY: So from this Culture and Arts account they're planning for five or six signature County events, this is one of them, and this is the kind of remnants of—or this $49,000 is because of the cost? Got it. MS. SAKO: Yeah, normally it doesn't cost quite this much but, you know, it's been hard to get everything this year. MS. LEE LOY: Great. Yeah, I think, you know,watching Ms. Kimball put money into Parks for the gym, that's the balance, and I think as we walk into this next budget round of conversation, I think these are things that are weighing on us. We have contingency money, but we put it back into the department and then just the shuffling of money. But yes, thank you for that, Deanna. Chair, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Anyone else? Ms. Kimball, go ahead. MS. KIMBALL: I'm sure we all didn't plan to spend this much time talking about it. I just want to make a quick comment. I also agree with you, Council Member Inaba, about burning money up in the sky. I have always felt that way about fireworks. But at the same time, I get a lot of calls about people doing fireworks in their back yards, you know, off their lanais, and things like that. I have one thing I believe, and no statistical evidence to prove it, but is if we Page 27 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 provide these events where they're controlled fireworks situations, there's less likely to be random stuff all about in the neighborhood. I don't know if that's true or not, but I'm going to be supporting this just because I feel like if we don't do something we have more illegal stuff going on. That's my thought. Thank you, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kimball. Mr. Richards, go ahead. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, I guess I'm going to weigh in on this one, too, because this is a conversation. In part, I'm agreeing with Ms. Kimball as far as offering an event, and I do hear Mr. Inaba, what you're talking about, however, I was thinking back because we've gone through the COVID, and those who were sitting on Council and Bruce Anderson came before us and we talked about it, and it was just when COVID was getting rolling. He was the Director of Health for our State and he said, "Yes, we're going to lose people,"but his bigger concern was the mental health of our communities. We're starting to open back up and we need to do things that are celebratory, and I think this is one of them. So getting people's emotions up and elevated and I think this does it. Yes, it's a lot of money but I think it's the right thing for the community. I definitely support. I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Anyone else? Alright, seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 411-22,please say "aye." Vote on Res. 411-22: The motion to adopt Res. 411-22 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—8. Noes: Council Member Inaba— 1. Absent: None. Excused: None. BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Bills for ORDINANCES Ordinances (First Reading). (FIRST READING): Page 28 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Bill 157: REPEALS ORDINANCE NO. 04-120, WHICH AMENDED SECTION 25-8-28 (KA`U DISTRICT ZONE MAP), ARTICLE 8, CHAPTER 25 (ZONING CODE) OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM AGRICULTURAL - 20 ACRES (A-20a) TO AGRICULTURAL PROJECT DISTRICT (APD) AT PALIMA AND PA`AU`AU, KA`U, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEYS: 9-6-005:018 AND 9-6-006:004 (Planning Director Initiated) (Area: Approx. 171.782 acres) The Windward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation to revert the zoning of two parcels of land to their original zoning designation of Agricultural-20 acres. The properties are located at 96-3090 Meyer Road, approximately 1.5 miles northwest of Hawaii Belt Road at Palima and P5'au`au in Ka`u. Reference: Comm. 742 Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz (B/R) Approve: PC-64 Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to pass Bill 157 on first reading and adopt Planning Committee Report No. 64. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I wasn't here for committee but was able to watch the recording and the report. I know that we have Mr. Pile here online to answer any questions that my colleagues might have. But in reviewing everything, everybody understood that this just needed to happen for the trust, and it was a way to ensure that we didn't have the property in limbo. So just looking for everyone's continued support on this. Thank you, Mr. Pile, for being here. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Anyone else have questions? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mahalo Chair. Thank you for being here today, Mr. Pile. I wasn't here at the previous meeting. I was absent due to being sick, but could you please just explain why reverting back to—and I see some mention in the notes here about subdividing in the future. I just wanted to get your comment on what's being done, why we're reverting back to Planning Director initiated, if you could, sir. (Note: At this time, Applicant Gregory Pile came forward to address the members of the Council.) Page 29 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. PILE: The reason that is when Mr. Hester was alive, he had this plan all figured out and was unable to execute because of lack of funds. He ran out of money at about needing another $1 million. Well he since passed away, the trust dictates that I give his spouse 40 acres. The rest of it needs to be, I guess, subdivided. Sold, and/or subdivided to be sold to pay the debts that are on the trust. The only reason that I'm having to get this redesignation here is because it wasI can't do it without putting these two parcels together and get a subdivision for that and then, again, having to sell the rest of it to pay off the debts. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Mahalo for that explanation and I'm sorry about Mr. Hester. I do understand better, thank you very much for giving me an explanation. MR. PILE: Sure. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I apologize for my absence at the last meeting. Thank you. I yield, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 157 at first reading, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 157: The motion to pass Bill 157 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Planning Committee Report No. 64 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 30 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Bill 158: AMENDS SECTION 25-8-7 (NORTH AND SOUTH KOHALA DISTRICT ZONE MAP), ARTICLE 8, CHAPTER 25 (ZONING CODE) OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM AGRICULTURAL - 1 ACRE (A-la) TO SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL - 15,000 SQUARE FEET (RS-15) AT WAIMEA, SOUTH KOHALA, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEYS: 6-5-007:045-0001 AND 0002 (Applicant: Dale Herbert Trefz) (Area: 33,738 square feet) The Leeward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for this change of zone, which would allow the applicant to seek subdivision of the parcel into two lots to remove the existing Condominium Property Regime designation and associated restrictions. The property is located at 65-1310 Lihipali Road, approximately 170 feet northeast of its intersection with Opelo Road, Waimea Homesteads in South Kohala. Reference: Comm. 743 Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz (B/R) Approve: PC-65 Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to pass Bill 158 on first reading and adopt Planning Committee Report No. 65. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. DAVID: Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Just reviewing the committee report here, seems like a simple housekeeping measure, parcels of land, two homes, wanting to make sure that the ownership is clear for each of them. We do have the applicant, his representative, and our deputy of Planning on Zoom in case folks have further questions. Thank you, gentlemen, for being here, looking for everyone's support on this. Thanks, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Mr. Richards, go ahead. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah,just a follow up. I made some comments in committee and this is a housekeeping deal. I'm very familiar with the property, familiar with the owners and this is exactly what Ms. Kierkiewicz has said, cleaning things up. It was an old CPR (Condominium Property Regime) that we're trying to make it to two distinct lots. I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Anyone else? Seeing none, thank you, gentlemen for being available today. All those in favor of approving Bill 158 at first reading, please say "aye." Page 31 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Vote on Bill 158: The motion to pass Bill 158 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Planning Committee Report No. 65 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Bill 161: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 21-39, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2021, TO JUNE 30, 2022 Reappropriates lapsed fuel tax funds from prior fiscal years by establishing the following fuel tax program appropriations to the Capital Budget: Roadway Projects (Engineering) ($451,774.22); Bridge Inspection, Repair and Replacement Program (Engineering) ($332,289.35); and Local Road Improvements (Highways) ($1,761,734.13), for a total appropriation of$2,545,797.70. Reference: Comm. 752 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-145 Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire membership to amend,pursuant to Section 10-6(e), Hawai`i County Charter Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 161 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 145. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Pretty obvious what this is. It does tie into something that I had brought up in the past, which was to really take a look at the amount of lapsed funding we've had in this specific area, and to make sure that we are taxing appropriately, given a four-year period where we lapsed $2.5 million. Not to belabor the point but there was good committee discussion. It looks like I was not here for the meeting itself, I was out sick as well, but I appreciate everyone's continued support on this so we can make some progress in our community via our infrastructure. Thank you, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill—go ahead, Mr. Chung. Page 32 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. CHUNG: I'm just wondering, I'm looking here at the committee report, and it says that Mr. Inaba requested Ms. Sakooh no, I'm sorry. Is our Director around? Okay, do you know more or less what these funds are going to be used for? If they're going to be in house with our Highways Division or bid out? And I know it's excess funds but (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SAKO: We're on Bill 161, right? CHR. DAVID: Yes. MS. SAKO: I just want to make sure. So part of it is $451,000 is roadway improvements and they've listed the projects there; $332,000 is bridge inspections, but the largest portion is the $1.7 million for local road improvements because during COVID, they had difficulty keeping up with paving. MR. CHUNG: Right, so for that component, is it going to be done in house with our Highways Division? MS. SAKO: They're still looking at that because they're looking at the impact of the Konno decision as well. Historically, these funds have been done in house and the larger engineering projects have been bid out. MR. CHUNG: And that's kind of what I'm looking at. So, what aspects of Konno, and who's looking at that right now and for what purpose? MS. SAKO: Director Rodenhurst is working with Corporation Counsel just to ensure there wouldn't be a problem but yes, they are looking at bidding some it out. They just want to ensure the Konno decision wouldn't have an impact. MR. CHUNG: Okay. The reason why I ask that is it'sI have no problem with bidding things out, notwithstanding Konno, or maybe in spite of it, but our roads are in real bad shape. I know our Highways Division, if they're given the opportunity to do it, they can make some inroads on this. MS. SAKO: They can, yes. MR. CHUNG: Because when you put things out to bid, you're going to have you've got to engage our Engineering Division, which you have to do anyway, I suppose, but we've got toI guess one of the reasons why I voted against Mr. Kaneali`i-KI einfelder's initiative, which was, you know, everybody knew it was a well-intentioned thing, but it was because we need these funds and we're Page 33 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 expecting to see improvements. I'm just not seeing it. I didn't get to talk because the last time he called for the question, right? But I would have said all of this the last time. We're just not seeing it. I know you're not— MS. otMS. SAKO: No, I was just going to say that I believe they are back on track. I have noticed some roads in Hilo that have gotten paved recently. I can definitely feel the difference and I'm very appreciative of that. MR. CHUNG: Yeah, but if you can just talk to Ikaika and just tell him to give Highways Division necessary resources they need so that they can move quickly on resurfacing some really long-standing problem areas that we have. MS. SAKO: I'll relay the message. Will do. MR. CHUNG: That's all. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 161 at first reading, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 161: The motion to pass Bill 161 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 145 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David–9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Bill 162: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 21-38, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2022 Increases revenues in the Fund Balance from Previous Year–Reserved account ($100,014.94) and the Fuel Tax–Designated Capital Improvement Projects account($600,000); and appropriates the same to the Transfer to Capital Projects Fund–Highway account. The appropriation of these excess revenues from prior fiscal year fuel tax collections is required to enable expenditure of the funds. Reference: Comm. 753 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-146 Page 34 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 162 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 146. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Deanna, again, I was absent the last meeting and this is acan you help me? There was something raised with one of our testifiers yesterday, and I wanted to just touch on that lightly. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Account number 20, our Highway fund. MS. SAKO: Fund 20? Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Fund 20. Purpose of Fund 20 is operational in nature or project based? MS. SAKO: Fund 20 is operations, Highway Fund as established by Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS). MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so Fund 20 being operations, what would that cover? MS. SAKO: Highway maintenance; traffic striping, signals, all that kind of stuff, as well as police, the traffic division. Then part of those funds are transferred to the Capital Project Fund where the projects themselves are actually carried out. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So the Fund 20 can also be applied to the CIP (Capital Improvement Program)projects? MS. SAKO: Yes, part of the funds are transferred each year. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is there a set amount or is it up to the Council or to the Administration? MS. SAKO: A combination of both. They've gone off an older formula that was established several years ago. They've been slowly increasing it over the years. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What is that formula? MS. SAKO: I do not have it off the top of my head. Page 35 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Like per district kind of a thing or just random? MS. SAKO: Well, the portion that goes to the Capital Project Fund is so many cents of what's charged but then, once it gets to the Capital Project Fund, then there's a set formula that DPW (Department of Public Works) applies to the allocation of those funds. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You don't have that off the top of your head? MS. SAKO: No, I want to say it's $3.5 million or so that's transferred to the Capital Project Fund, but I don't have that in front of me. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and that's based on a certain percentage of the fuel tax revenue or the fund itself? MS. SAKO: Yes, fuel tax revenue, but fuel tax is also not the only thing that funds Highway Fund. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, it has multiple sources. Okay, so really then, although there is a small amount of funding applied from Fund 20, the Highway Fund to the CIP budget, the two budgets are separate. MS. SAKO: Yeah, all the fuel tax flows through Fund 20, our Highway Fund, and then a portion of it is transferred to Capital Project Fund, yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I think that's important to understand and thank you for helping me understand that. A testifier mentioned it yesterday and it just caught my attention that when we look at the Highway Fund, we have to understand that CIP and Highway Fund and operations are two separate budgeted funds or areas. MS. SAKO: So similar to the previous bill, that's how the fuel tax is allocated through the CIP. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you very much, Deanna. I appreciate it. I yield, Chair. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 162 at first reading, please say "aye." Page 36 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Vote on Bill 162: The motion to pass Bill 162 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 146 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Bill 163: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 21-38, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2022 Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants —Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act account($94,300); and appropriates the same to the following Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act accounts: Rapid Response Administration/Planning 2021-2022 account($9,430) and the Rapid Response Program 2021-2022 ($84,870). Funds would be used for rapid response and layoff aversion activities. Reference: Comm. 754 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-147 Vote on Bill 163: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 163 on first (Approved) reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 147. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 37 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Bill 164: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 21-38, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2022 Increases revenues in the Federal Grants —Mainstream Voucher Administration account($30,000); and appropriates the same to the Office of Housing Other Current Expenses account, bringing the total appropriation to $81,679. Funds would be used for administrative costs to operate the housing voucher program. Reference: Comm. 756 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-148 Vote on Bill 164: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 164 on first (Approved) reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 148. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Bill 165: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 21-38, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2022 Increases revenues in the Real Property Tax Penalties account($720,000); and appropriates the same to the Transfer to Disaster/Emergency Fund account ($240,000) and the Transfer to Public Access/OpenSpace Preservation Fund account($480,000), to account for excess real property tax penalty revenue that must be appropriated into these special funds pursuant to the Hawaii County Charter. Reference: Comm. 757 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-149 Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 165 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 149. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Page 38 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Deanna, I have a question for you. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SAKO: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Good morning. MS. SAKO: Good morning. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So I'm looking at the Charter Sections 10-15 and 10-17, two percent of real property tax revenues including penalty and interest must be transferred to the General Fundsorry, from General Fund to Public Access Open Space as well as Disaster and Emergency Fund. MS. SAKO: One percent, yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This one comes directly from the real property tax penalties. MS. SAKO: We just picked one revenue source, yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MS. SAKO: It's a combination of all real property taxes, penalties, and interest so we just picked one revenue source to appropriate it from because that one was sufficiently you know, we collected more than enough to cover it. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And this is two percent. MS. SAKO: So two percent to PONC (Public Access Open Space, and Natural Resources Preservation Commission) and one percent to the Disaster Fund. The PONC Maintenance Fund, the transfer amount was sufficient because we did hit the $3 million cap for part of the year. So we'll have sufficient funds to cover at the end of the year. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, beautiful. Thank you, appreciate it. Okay Chair, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 165 at first reading, please say "aye." Page 39 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Vote on Bill 165: The motion to pass Bill 165 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 149 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Bill 171: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 21-38, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2022 Increases revenues in the Federal —Federal Emergency Management Agency — COVID-19 account($1,250,000); and appropriates the same to the Federal Emergency Management Agency —COVID-19 account, bringing the total appropriation to $4,500,000. Funds would be used to cover expenditures relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reference: Comm. 790 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 171 on first reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: I would like to have Deanna come up. This was waived to council. Sorry Deanna, I see you're getting your exercise today. Ms. Kimball said you've got to get your steps in. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SAKO: Yes. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Just tell us a little bit about this, you know, COVID-19, I know our cases are actually up in our community, I saw the line at Walmart, not Walmart, Walgreens the other day. MS. SAKO: Yes. Page 40 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But just kind of wrapping my head around the increase in the grant where it's going to be—what direction we're looking at for the funding. MS. SAKO: So this was the grant that was 100 percent funded by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to do testing, so we have been taking advantage of that. They're paying through June 30, and then I believe the 100 percent portion will go away, so we'll find other revenues for that. When we initially appropriated, we didn't know at the time how much testing would be done, and they did extend it a few times. So we need the additional appropriation to be able to cover all of our costs related to the program. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so the sites that we're seeing around the County, those are being MS. SAKO: So these were the County funded sites, not necessarily the ones outside of Walgreens and others. They have other programs that are funding those. Or other grants, so were not funding those. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Where are our current County testing sites? MS. SAKO: I think we wrapped all of ours up now. So we did have them around the island, up in Kohala, down in Pahala and Na`alehu, Kona, you know, at Old Airport. They were doing it at the Civic I think several times, here in Hilo. So they had probably about eight to 10 different testing sites each week. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, but this is new money, correct? MS. SAKO: It's new money. FEMA is always on a reimbursement basis so we've only recently found out how much they would be paying us. So we want to get all of our costs in the right bucket. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. So this is actually reimbursement for what we've already spent. MS. SAKO: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So not opening new test sites. MS. SAKO: No. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This isn't going towards new things; this is covering old expenses? MS. SAKO: Right. Sorry, yeah. Yes. Page 41 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. Okay, that's all I needed. Thank you. I should have asked that first. I yield, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Ms. Kimball, go ahead. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. Director, I just wanted to use this opportunity to ask again about the contract for the testing. I believe the previous contract was due to expire at the end of this month. Is that correct? MS. SAKO: I believe that's right. Some of them may go to August, some of them were price term agreements. We had multiple vendors signed up. MS. KIMBALL: Okay, because the previous vendor, we had the trouble with the missing tests and MS. SAKO: Yes. MS. KIMBALL: Some of that have been resolved and the turnaround time and what not, so are we still working with that vendor? MS. SAKO: Towards the end we may still have been working with them a little bit, but yes, since then, everything's been resolved and we were getting faster turnarounds at the very end. MS. KIMBALL: Okay, thank you. That's all, Chair, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kimball. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 171 at first reading, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 171: The motion to pass Bill 171 on first reading was carried by (Approved) the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 42 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Bill 172: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 21-38, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2022 Increases revenues in the Department Charges account($130,000); and appropriates the same to the Housing Ulu Wini Other Current Expenses account, bringing the total appropriation to $1,374,220. Funds would be used for operational costs of the Ulu Wini Family Assessment Center. Reference: Comm. 793 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 172 on first reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: This bill was waived to Council to expedite the funding. I did speak to Susan Kunz about this, and she was very thankful for us for pushing this to the Council to get the funding in before the end of the year so that is the—or the end of the fiscal year. So that is the request from the department, look forward on everyone's support on this. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you, and I just want to thank Ms. Kunz also for reaching out and basically explaining that this additional cost, this $130,000 will be specifically to support the Ulu Wini Family Assessment Center. So thank you for your continued support. All those in favor of approving Bill 172 at first reading,please say "aye." Vote on Bill 172: The motion to pass Bill 172 on first reading was carried by (Approved) the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David–9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of THE DAY the Day (Second or Final Reading). (SECOND OR FINAL READING): Page 43 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Bill 152: AMENDS CHAPTER 2, ARTICLE 13, DIVISION 3, SECTION 2-75 OF THE (Draft 2) HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO THE COUNTY HOUSING PROGRAM REVOLVING FUND Repeals existing provisions in their entirety and establishes nine specific uses for expenditure of the funds to support the County's housing needs. Reference: Comm. 721.18 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba and Ms. Kimball First Reading: May 4, 2022 Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to pass Bill 152, Draft 2, on second and final reading. Seconded by Ms. Kimball. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair. Yes, we've had a lot of discussion regarding these pair of bills that seek to help us as a County, more specifically the Office of Housing and Community Development, in assisting with affordable housing development across the entire spectrum, zero to 140 percent of the area median income. Again, Bill 152 simply expands on the uses allowed of the County Housing Program Revolving Fund. So we are simply adding seven uses to this fund beyond the original two, which was development of affordable housing and the buyback program. So asking for your support and I believe we had adequate discussion on this matter throughout the last two readings. Mahalo. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Anyone else? Seeing none Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mahalo Chair. I just wanted to thank Ms. Strance for giving us documentation that kind of outlines what each one of the funds is, what it looks like, how it's supposed to act, what those are based on, what HRS statutes those are guided by,just giving us some information to help us make the decision. Thank you, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else on Bill 152, Draft 2? Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I think Administrator Kunz is waiting to be let into the Zoom room. I just have a question for her. I saw her name pop up at the top. CHR. DAVID: Okay, there she is. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Hi Administrator, can you hear me okay? Page 44 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MS. KUNZ: Yes, I can. Good morning. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I was just curious, and I'm sorry if you answered this question at the last Council meeting, I wasn't here. But just curious if any of these uses restrict you in any way at all with existing programs that you might have. That's one question. And I'm curious to know of what's laid out here, very specifically, could you not have acted on any of these things with the current language that's in the Code? MS. KUNZ: The current language that's in the Code is very broad, and it basically says that I can use the funds for housing development. Because I didn't have an opportunity to work with the Council Member specifically on developing this particular bill, I did take some time to review the specific listed uses that they are outlining. It does not keep me from doing any housing development programs that I plan to do in the future, and it really does outline what we've already done or what we have done in the past. I hope that answers your question. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: It does, thank you. You know, I just want to recognize the very comprehensive memo that Judge Strance did circulate amongst all of us. Really respect just the really deep research that you did there, Judge, and wanting to help us really make a very grounded and informed decision. I am so supportive of what's being articulated here, I just want to make sure we have the right-sized solution. I don't know if the revolving fund section, per se, is the best place for this considering that, you know, some of these activities don't necessarily generate revenue that would then go back into the fund to be revolved to support projects. So have a little bit of hesitation and it's something I've been very honest about from the very beginning but want to make sure that I'm very clear about supporting the intention, you know, that's being brought forward here by Mr. Inaba and Ms. Kimball. Thank you, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Mr. Richards, go ahead. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you and along the same lines with Ms. Kierkiewicz, you know, given the conversation we had and again, Judge Strance, thank you for the in-depth definition of the revolving fund. I agree with the housing initiative for the housing, the funding of the initiative, I agree with all that. I'm not sure this is the right way we do it though, and I'm bothered by the revolving fund, given the conversations we had, so that's where my angst is coming from. I'm not sure if it fits. So that's where I'm thinking on. Thanks Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Anyone else? Ms. Kimball, go ahead. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. Just to kind of follow up on Administrator Kunz's response to your question, Council Member Kierkiewicz. The intention of this additional language was in no means intended to restrict activities the Office of Page 45 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Housing already engages in. In many ways it was intended to be a signal as to priorities as a County and a way to get the juices flowing about other opportunities, you know, keeping people in housing is an example or helping them get their down payments, really looking at income levels, making sure we were addressing true affordability with respect to the middle class, so forth and so on. I'd like to actually ask Director Sako to come up and just maybe ask, for the clarification of my colleagues, how you folks view the term and this fund and, you know, the differences between discretionary funds and revolving funds and what not. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SAKO: So one of the interesting side effects, basically, of this bill coming forward not thinking of the right word—is that it did cause us to start looking at this fund again. This used to be a much more active fund where there was a lot of funding coming in, loans were given and then collections made. There doesn't seem to be as many deposits recently into the fund again, causing us to wonder if it's really still a revolving fund or just a special fund or what the right classification is. So we haven't finished our analysis on that. Our controller and I have been discussing it, but that's one of the concerns we have, is just with the revolving fund in general if it is still a revolving fund. But possibly, it would just require a name change or something in the future, but that was one piece of it. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. Appreciate that comment and I think this is appreciate, Judge Strance, also your thorough review of all this and the commentary and the discussion yesterday. We're talking about one word as we often do in a piece of legislation and the definition of that word, which is not defined in our County Code, it is defined in a chapter of the HRS but a chapter of the HRS specifically defining the budgeting process for the State, does it apply to us, does it not? We have some other potential definitions of revolving. Revolving can just mean more money comes into it, money comes out, does it necessarily have to be applied? I leave that to my colleagues to kind of determine their level of comfort with this word and if it is a real barrier, then let's have that conversation about whether or not we need to just do one more amendment and say it's not—change the name of this fund. I'm comfortable with it personally but at the risk of losing the rest of the content which I think is important, if that's the hang up, let's take the time to discuss it. Thank you, Chair, I yield. MS. SAKO: So just to add information, which may or may not be helpful, is the revolving fund is a stand-alone fund in our monthly budget status report so each of you can see the activity that happens there. But when it gets to our ACFR (Annual Comprehensive Financial Report), the new name for our CAFR Page 46 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report)—you know, GASB (Government Accounting Standards Board) was bored so they just reversed two letters—and so, you know, why they had to just reverse it—but anyway, it does not stand alone there. It actually gets consolidated into the Housing Fund. So if it was a special fund, it would stand alone and be more recognizable there. But either way, you know, we have lots of different ways of doing things. The main thing is right now, it is still a stand-alone fund in the monthly budget status report that people can see. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Questions. Does the County have to follow the State's this is more general, I was just thinking about this, we were talking about it. Does the County have to follow the State's definition of revolving in our budget? MS. SAKO: Until Ms. Strance pointed out that section, I'm not sure we really realized it was there. We do follow more the GASB accounting rules and that's, you know, more what we look at when we're looking at our funds and doing that breakdown in accounting and budgeting. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Because I mean the State definitions, HRS, we are preempted by the State and we also need to follow State directives, but at the same time, we do have some latitude in how we create MS. SAKO: Well, we definitely follow State law, I don't want to—it's more the section of law that it was in. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Clearly, clearly. MS. SAKO: When it's in a section of law that's talking about State budgeting, that's kind of different than a State law saying this is how the State and all four counties are going to do it. So, you know, there's definitely chapters in the HRS that applied specifically to counties or were called out specifically there. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so when we call something in the County a revolving fund, that's a County revolving fund? MS. SAKO: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Does it have to behave like a State revolving fund? Page 47 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MS. SAKO: That would be a Corporation Counsel question perhaps because we've just been following GASB rules because I wasn't aware of that section in the State law until recently. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. The interesting thing about the revolving fund was they're interest bearing. MS. SAKO: Most of our special funds are, yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so the funds in here, are they currently collecting interest? MS. SAKO: They are, yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And what is the value of this account right now? MS. SAKO: I didn't bring my monthly budget status report. That's what I was going to say, it's right at a million but I think, yes, $900,000 and some. So each appropriation actually accrues the interest, well the accounts accrue the interest until they're appropriated. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And that's not allowed for all of our accounts. I wish it was, you know, as we sit on large amounts of funding. It would be awesome if they could all gain interest for MS. SAKO: So they all, except for some federal funding that has unique rules, for the most part all of our money is invested, and we do accrue interest on it. The rules vary in terms of which fund gets that interest. So in most cases, the interest does remain in the specific fund. There are a few places where it doesn't, and it goes back to the General Fund. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and the General Fund does not collect interest, correct? MS. SAKO: It does. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It does? MS. SAKO: Yes. We actively invest our money,but you know, in recent years the interest rates have been like a quarter percent, so we do not collect a lot of interest income. If you go back decades in our financial information, interest revenue used to be one of the big revenue sources for the County, but when the interest rates went low, you know, even though we bid it out, we're as Page 48 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 competitive as possible trying to maximize that funding, it's very difficult to make a significant amount of money given the current investment and interest rates in the market. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Sorry, I think I strayed off conversation. That is very interesting to me, thank you. Okay. Question for the drafters, the difference between draft two and draft one if you could, because I'm looking over the two, they seem very, very similar. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, we just added, where it says AMI, we said Area Median Income so that was very clear and then in items (8) and (9), we added the moderate-income households. I'm not sure if it's included in this communication but we did share—oh yes, it is,just so you can see this table, it shows the different income levels of the housing affordability at each income levels. So, when we first introduced this there was a lot of conversation about making sure we included that middle class AMI up to 120. So that was the amendment that we added in the last version. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you, Deanna, for the conversation and I yield, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else? Deanna, hang on. Thank you. So Administrator Kunz, if I understood you correctly, the way the revolving fund sits today, it already covers the uses that Bill 152, Draft 2, because it's broadly, you said broadly defined as far as what you can use it for. MS. KUNZ: That's correct. As I look at the bulleted items that are being outlined, it basically describes the work of, you know, housing development. CHR. DAVID: I see. MS. KUNZ: Another way to look at it is if it's not producing that much of a change, I mean maybe it doesn't need to be changed at all. It really won't change the work that we're doing. CHR. DAVID: Okay. MS. KUNZ: Not that I can tell. CHR. DAVID: I see. So that is but to have it specified or outlined like it is in this bill, that doesn't conflict with what you're—is there anything in this use of the fund that would conflict with how you handle funds currently? MS. KUNZ: Not that I can tell. Page 49 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 CHR. DAVID: Okay. Then we get to Deanna's talk about whether it can be changed, the definition can be changed, down the line. This, going forward, that wouldn't prevent that change from happening once—if this moves. MS. SAKO: So one of the things I didn't have a chance to check on this morning before coming down here is if we decide it's no longer a revolving fund, if we can just retitle it or if we need to basically terminate it and start a new fund, because sometimes that makes a difference with the various accounting rules. So I would need to kind of look into that. So, even if this passes, you know, it could take future legislation to retitle it, or I mean possibly retitling isn't a problem, but if we determine that maybe it needs to be dissolved and then re-established, I mean we would come back with the appropriate legislation. CHR. DAVID: Okay. So at this point then,passing this, given the fact that it can be amended once you finish, they wouldn't be able to implement this until that name change is that what I'm understanding? Once you change the name then this one will tie in very well with that? MS. SAKO: If we have to change the name, Bill 152 can pass, and it wouldn't be a problem. I think it's Bill 153 that is very specific to that name change. I'm looking at it quickly. CHR. DAVID: Okay for now then it'sI'm just trying to get my understand this in a way that I'll feel comfortable with my decisions, so thank you very much for that. Mr. Richards, go ahead. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair,just a quick question. Ms. Kimball say we always talk about one word sometimes and on Bill 152, under(a), it says, "the County housing program revolving fund shall be utilized . . ." Administrator Kunz is there anything in this the way I'm reading that, you must do these things but nothing else. Does it limit it? That's the question and I'm looking at Mr. Chung and probably Judge Strance. Is there something in here that you are doing or normally do that would not be allowed to be done because it says "shall?" Am I reading that correctly? MS. KUNZ: So this is where the unintended consequences could happen, right? Just because I have not run into a situation that ties my hands that could help support further housing production and housing development, it doesn't mean that it couldn't happen with that kind of language. That's why I kind of mentioned earlier, you know, the broadness that the funds could be used for housing development has allowed us to do a lot of work. Why are we going to change the language? Even if I'm saying right now, it looks pretty innocent, right? It is pretty much outlining what I've done but the Page 50 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 unintended consequence of something happening because we're saying you can only use it for these things could happen, and then I'll be tied. So I think that is definitely something that should be considered. I wish had the chance to really dig into this bill to work on it a little bit closer, but I didn't have that opportunity. So you know, if you're putting it that way, I think there would be a concern. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you, Administrator. MS. KUNZ: There should be a consideration. MR. RICHARDS: I guess with that question, Judge Strance, could you comment on that please? Like I said, Ms. Kimball, Mr. Inaba, I'm not trying to shoot holes in this, I want to make sure that we do it right once. (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. STRANCE: Good morning, Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Judge. The way I am reading this, on the first line where is says, "The County housing program revolving fund shall be utilized for the following," does that mean, does "shall" in that situation mean only or is there any latitude? Because the way I'm reading it is that it shall be used for this and only this and nothing else, so there's no latitude. Am I reading that? MS. STRANCE: Yes, usually "shall" means "shall" and if there's an intention to allow for other purposes, there's usually a"shall include" or "but not limited to" or there would be a subparagraph added that would have, you know, other matters determined so you would have some outs. That way, if the scope of the work expands but I think the question you have to ask yourselves is why this bill? Then if it's just to have an account line that you can check in on and has to be reported on, if it gets so broad that it's everything, then does it accomplish the goal that you want? If there are some specific pieces that you're wanting to account for in this fund so that when it's reported on, you have your checklist and you see what's there. So, I think the importance of the word "shall" depends upon the importance of the list; and if it's intended to be for more than these purposes, if it's determined by the director or by the Council, then there probably should be an amendment to the bill that would be the "shall include" or some thought given to what other purposes and who would have authority to decide those purposes. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thanks Judge. My concern is that we would tie someone's hands and I don't think that's your intention. I think your intention is Page 51 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 to give lots of latitude to include this and what the Administrator might think. So I might suggest that we need an amendment on this. I don't know, I'm looking at the both of you. Thank you, Judge. CHR. DAVID: Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. I'd just like to respond. Originally, in Section 2-75 of the Code, the word "shall" is already there. Again, right now, we're adding uses that weren't there so it's actually broadening the uses of the funds. So I think we can go in circles about"shall" about if it could tie anyone's hands. If we look at the bill, it gives more options. To say anything otherwise, it would be making it up because you can see that the uses are expanded via this bill, and the language originally in the Code states "shall"because we want specific uses of this fund. So I just want to point that out and there have been numerous questions, circular questions about if it ties Housing's hands. Please read the bill in its most simple form and it expands those uses. Thank you. MS. STRANCE: May I comment? CHR. DAVID: Yes, and I was going to have a question for you. Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Go ahead, Judge Strance. MS. STRANCE: What I heard Director Kunz say was that in a prior language, the phrase "the development of housing" is sort of the catchall, but I may have heard wrong. I think in the draft bill it's tied into maybe another provision, but I didn't see that specific provision. If that's the one that's important, then that would be the one to add back in, but I'll defer to the director on that. I could have heard wrong. CHR. DAVID: Okay, thank you, Judge Strance. MS. KUNZ: Chair? MS. KIMBALL: I can clear this up real quickly. CHR. DAVID: Administrator Kunz, hang on a second, okay? Ms. Kimball, go ahead. MS. KIMBALL: Yes, so if you look at the original language where it does include a"shall"the two items that are the "shall" clauses, what shall be done with these funds, are actually items (1) and(2) on our list. So what was mandated through the "shall" in the previous language of the Code is still there and then we've added these other seven things if that clarifies it. So we are quite clearly expanding beyond what shall be done under the current language of the Code. Thank you. Page 52 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kimball. Administrator Kunz, go ahead. MS. KUNZ- Thank you, Council Member Kimball for pointing that out, but I was going to say that the original language that we're revising it from, it says, "The revolving fund shall be utilized to pay for items such as: (a)the development of housing. . . ." That is the broadest use that I could have to do this work. Council Member Kimball is correct when I read the revision in item (1), it does say, "Planning, design, and development of affordable housing units either by the County or by non-profit housing development partners." But I still think the broadest use of the fund is probably to leave it the way it is because any of those other remaining eight items can also qualify under the development of housing with the way that the language is. I just wanted to point that out. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Administrator. Mr. Chung, go ahead. MR. CHUNG: You know, I disagree with the makers of this bill in saying that they've expanded the uses because as explained by Ms. Kunz, you know, whose explanation I agree with 100 percent that first subsection (a)relating to development of housing is such a broad provision that it allows the Housing Administrator and that department to really do a lot of things. What's happening here, even if we've enumerated a lot of different uses, more than the two that's contained in the original version, it doesn't mean that it's broader, it's actually more limiting. Nonetheless, I will say this, I'm going to be supporting this because the makers incorporated one of my concerns so kind of disingenuous of me to make a suggestion and have them incorporate it, and then I now back out. So I'm going to support it but it does limit the uses, it doesn't expand the uses. That's all. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Ms. Kimball, go ahead. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. So reading the original content, like you said, very broad umbrella, the development of housing, which, depending on how you interpret development, another word to discuss that could cover a lot of things. Personally, and part of the impetus for writing this is that items (7) and (8), which are subsidies or grants or loans to support folks coming in, getting into affordable housing, that to me doesn't fall under that definition of development, so these I think are indeed new items expanding usage. Additionally, item (9), which is the deed restriction idea of the putting deed restriction, making a program to purchase deed restrictions, that is a new concept that is not included here. The other ones, (1) and(2) are the previous language, just added into the list. Acquisition of vacant land, acquisition of structures, I mean to me, development doesn't include acquisitions so that's why, this is again, additive to what is allowed at this point. I don't have any problem, and I can't speak for Council Member Inaba, if there is a desire to put a"shall include" as Page 53 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 opposed to just"shall" let's do that. I really do feel this signals from the Council a very clear message about what it is we want to see. We want to see that middle-income housing; we want to see this broad-brush approach. I'll leave it there, thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kimball. So given what you've just said, and I'm trying to find a medium because the broadness in the language that was eliminated, I'm just wondering whether it would work if the language in the original section, "The revolving fund shall be utilized to pay for items such as" blah, blah(a) and(b), and then within that same paragraph, "including but not limited to the following" and then list your uses. I'm not sure if that's going toI mean to me it gives Housing—it maintains that same broad stroke that Administrator Kunz is referring to and not tying her hands, but also incorporating removing the "shall be utilized" in (a) of your amendment and put the "including but not limited to the following" and then just delete that"shall." I don't know. To me, I think that would be my suggestion and if it works, you know, then both concerns of what I'm hearing from Administrator might work. I'm not sure, that's just my thoughts. MS. KUNZ: One comment please. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead, Ms. Kunz. MS. KUNZ: Thank you. I don't know if I would be comfortable with removing the word "shall." CHR. DAVID: No, I'm not saying remove it, I'm saying leave it in your original language, right? That paragraph at the top, "The revolving fund shall be utilized," that stays in, is what I'm saying. Then you go down before these new inserts, the last sentence would be "including by not limiting to the following uses" or something to that effect which will incorporate the broadness that you are concerned about losing if we just use the new language and incorporating the new language that is being proposed in this draft. So, that's my thoughts. I think to me, it kind of balances. And I would support it that way because I understand what you're saying. And the "shall" is very important. We've learned that, in many, many years of litigation. Anyway, that's my thoughts. Alright, who was next? MR. RICHARDS: Chair, I agree. I think that would be because I think that what Administrator Kunz was talking about, it says under the first that is struck, "The revolving fund shall be utilized to pay for items such as" and that opens up the broad things so if we had the sentence that you had suggested, I think that would cover it and then give the latitude—giving good direction with a little bit of latitude that we're seeking. I yield. Page 54 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Director, we're discussing the "shall" and you know, shrinking down your uses and if this is going to be inappropriate or not allowed for the uses that you want. Give me some examples of what you feel is not going to be allowed if this bill was to pass. MS. KUNZ: I'm not sure. So when I mentioned that there could be unintended consequences, I meant that there could be an opportunity in the future. I think with the need for housing the way it is, so dire at this point, I'd like to be able to consider any new opportunity. I don't know what might be limiting, that's why I talk about unintended consequences. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be so vague, but it does, the discussion made me rethink what opportunities that I may not be able to consider. I'm not sure what they might be. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MS. KUNZ: With broader language, I will be able to utilize the funds for housing development, that it's so broad that almost any opportunity could be considered without any limitations, as long as it's for developing housing. That's why I was reconsidering that the broader language might give me more latitude. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Not hearing that you don't have a specific item that you're concerned this is going to lock you out of in the future, then it's very possible and a very vague answer. That helps me tremendously and it also speaks volumes. Thank you very much, I yield, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Mr. Chung, can I go to him first? MR. CHUNG: This has to do with the use of the word "shall." As far as I'm concerned, this is what it means. That first subsection (a)would read, for all intents and purposes, "The County housing program revolving fund shall only be used as follows,"that's what it means. So it's a limiting word and so, you know, if you put something like "shall include but not limited to"that really, it could mean anything. With regard to Administrator Kunz's concern, I would say that, since this is legislation, if there is a use that doesn't fall within these enumerated uses at some point, you know, she or her successor could come in and ask for an amendment to the bill. Because right now, nobody knows, she can't even answer what might come up. If it's a compelling argument, I'm sure the Council will probably see to the wishes of the Administrator at that time and think yeah, it's probably a worthwhile reason or thing to put in or to include in this. So, I'm okay with this. Page 55 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Ms. Kimball, go ahead. MS. KIMBALL: I'm actually glad you called Mr. Chung first because I think he kind of nailed it here. I mean we have the "shall" language in the Code as it is now, the things that are identified under that"shall" are pointed to in items (1) and (2) and then we've added these other ones, some of which I think, reasonably, you can consider are not development and are genuinely additive to what Housing can do. So I—and I do think part of it is we don't want it. This is not a free for all. We don't want a use for everything, and there is the amendment process to come back and revisit this again. So given all the discussion today, I hope everyone can support it as it is, again, expanding usages, and I'll just leave it at that. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Anyone else before Ialright, thank you for this discussion. Mr. Clerk, please, a roll call. Vote on Bill 152: The motion to pass Bill 152, Draft 2, on second and final Draft 2 reading was carried by the following roll call vote: (Adopted) Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair David–7. Noes: Council Members Kierkiewicz and Richards –2. Absent: None. Excused: None. (Note: Ms. Kierkiewicz and Mr. Richards voted "kanalua"then "no;" and Ms. Lee Loy voted "kanalua"then "aye.") Bill 153: INITIATES AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE X OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER (2020 EDITION), RELATING TO THE COUNTY HOUSING PROGRAM REVOLVING FUND Proposes the addition of a new section to incorporate the revolving fund established in Section 2-74 of the Hawaii County Code into the Hawaii County Charter and dedicate on an annual basis a minimum of one percent of real property tax revenues into the County Housing Program Revolving Fund. Reference: Comm. 722 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba and Ms. Kimball First Reading: May 4, 2022 2/3 Vote: Second of three required readings, Section 15-1(a), Hawai`i County Charter Page 56 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to pass Bill 153 on second and final reading. Seconded by Ms. Kimball. CHR. DAVID: Go ahead Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Mahalo Chair. Yes, similar to the last bill and again, in partnership with the last bill, this seeks to support the Office of Housing with those purposes that we just voted in via Bill 152. I think we had a lot of discussion, good discussion, and I mahalo, I think I speak on behalf of Council Member Kimball as well, for your support. You know, kind of the conversation we've had surrounding these bills on housing in general and who we need to help, and I think in partnership, these bills will be most helpful to our County and those that we are elected to serve. I'll open it up to maybe Council Member Kimball if she has anything else to add. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Ms. Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. Yes,just to reiterate what I said yesterday, you know, I think I'm just really grateful that the discussion here is around how to support affordable housing rather than whether or not it's a good thing to do. I think we all agree that it is at crisis proportions for our County and the State as a whole, but particularly for our County and making sure that we have sustained revenue coming in to support the development of affordable housing. I think it's really critical in terms of decision making that's happening now about what kind of programs we're going to develop to support and sustain houseless individuals, the affordable housing efforts. There are pros and cons to different approaches and I'm sure you've all weighed them independently. I think what isone of the things that I particularly like about the Charter amendment is that there is the opportunity to send it out to the voting public and get the broader feedback into that decision. You know, that is why we do Charter amendments, to have that input. Other than that, I look forward to the discussion and I yield at this time. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kimball. Anyone else? MR. INABA: Chair? CHR. DAVID: Go ahead. MR. INABA: Real quick if I could just add. I know a lot of our discussion was focused around the $3.98 million with the taxes based on the certifications. The updated number for one percent if we don't change the rates is $4.18 million, which is the one percent in this bill. Thank you. Page 57 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Anyone else? Seeing none—Mr. Chung, go ahead. MR. CHUNG: You know, I've been real torn about this measure. It is a well- intentioned measure, no question about it. The first time I saw it, you know, I thought it's a good idea, and we've had a lot of discussions about the legality of this matter as well. Then Ms. Kierkiewicz's measure came popping up, then I'm thinking to myself, now we've got more pots of money. That's the development of my thinking. Then we had the issue of that Kauai County versus Baptiste matter that on its face seems to indicate, well it could be construed to mean that real property taxing authority rests with the county councils. That's a real limited interpretation but it's one that has been endorsed, and I hope I'm not misstating anyone, but it seems to be endorsed by the Office of the Corporation Counsel. You know, having said that, I'm going toI disagree with that interpretation. I think it's a bit too limiting but now I'm going to give you guys a little bit background as to what frames my way of thinking, and maybe it will give everyone a better understanding. Do you remember when we voted down, or I know it happened on several occasions, but this body voted down some board members and then Mayor Roth came in here and kind of accused the board of playing politics. Now I'm a person who had voted in favor of that appointment but at the same time, we have to own it. We are a body, and we should be unified on various levels, so I told, and you guys can all recall, I told Mayor Roth, even if I was on the nonpolitical side, I told him that's our prerogative. We've got to own it. I came to the defense of the Council because I think that's what we should be doing. Now I'm going to backtrack. Back in, I think my first term here, we had a situation involving the Fire Department Battalion Chiefs, they were disciplined. This might all seem to be not related to the resolution at hand or the Charter amendment, but I'm just trying to give you guys an explanation as to how I think on this. Battalion Chiefs' discipline, we come here, Executive Session, I gave my opinion that I thought they were wrongfully disciplined. There was no basis. Corporation Counsel, in Executive Session, said we are on a need-to-know basis, you weren't here though I think, right? A need-to-know basis and right now, we don't need to know. When I turned around, figuratively, all of my Council colleagues backed out, supported Corporation Counsel in saying something as rude as that. I'll never forget that. So you know what? I'm not going to stick my neck out already against Corporation Counsel. If Corporation Counsel has an opinion, I'm going to side with that. I might have a differing opinion but it's my opinion, nonetheless. My reluctance to go against Corporation Counsel, because after all they are our legal Page 58 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 counsel, but my reluctance to go against them, it's only borne out of the lack of backing up that I had on this board after I've always tried to back up the board. Having said that, I'm going to support the interpretation, I've got to vote against this. I would suggest to the makers of this, I mean, it's probably going to pass, I'm thinking, my vote means nothing. But an ordinance would probably be a better way of trying to find a funding mechanism. That's my opinion. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Anyone else? Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I think I shared in committee my sentiments around going the route of the Charter amendment. I felt that we have the wherewithal as legislators to introduce ordinances to direct funding and just felt that was the much more feasible vehicle to get this done. You know, I respectfully disagree with Council Member Kimball in the assertion that we need to go to the voters and get their buy in on this. They elected all of us to solve for it and find the funding. You know, when you go and do your talk stories, housing, cost of living, that's one of the biggest issues. We don't need a Charter amendment. I put something forward because I felt we can do something right now and don't need to wait until November for the voters to decide. So I really do appreciate the intention here, but I can't be supporting this particular measure today. Thank you, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Mr. Richards, go ahead. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. I haven't changed my opinion. I agree with what Mr. Chung said concerning a different way, meaning I fully agree with what Ms. Kierkiewicz just said about having an ordinance do that. I think, Ms. Kimball, I did discuss this previously. I know Mr. Inaba, I don't think we need a Charter amendment. I get leery on that because I'm concerned about the inability to be flexible if we need to be. So I think a good ordinance that thereby gives the Council the latitude that I think needs to have if something happens, and well, the last couple of years we know lots of different things could happen. So I will not be supporting this, and it was reinforced by the comments made by Corporation Counsel. I'm concerned about the constitutionality of it so I will not be supporting this. Thanks Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Anyone else? Go ahead, Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair. For the record, if we could have Corporation Counsel come up. We've had discussion regarding this trio of bills regarding Page 59 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 affordable housing, but if we could get a very clear, concise evaluation of what seems to be the problem with this bill, for the public to know. Thank you. For the record, Corporation Counsel is grabbing her memo. But yeah,just so we all understand, and I know we're making reference to legal concerns. What exactly are those legal concerns? I think people have some decisions made up, but it would be beneficial for the public to know if they are not able to vote on this matter in the election, why that is. (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. STRANCE: Thank you. Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. I have concerns that the proposed Charter amendment would violate the State Constitution, Article 8, Section 3. I have concerns that it's an unconstitutional attempt to place proposed legislation before the—as a Charter amendment and to make it a Charter instead of making it an ordinance. I have concerns that it may violate Hawaii Revised Statute, Chapter 46. MR. INABA: For the record, I don't think everyone is familiar so could we just have a better explanation of what those sections are of the constitution and the HRS so the public knows what we are basing a decision on today? MS. STRANCE: If I do the statutes that I've looked at, if you want me to list all of the cases that I've reviewed over the last three weeks that kind of lend to that, I'm not sure that I'm prepared to do that. So the particular constitutional provision Article 8, Section 3; Hawaii Revised Statutes, Section 50.15; Hawaii Revised Statute Chapter 46-15.1(c)(2), which delegates the authority to appropriate regarding housing matters to the Department of Housing; and then the case law that interprets that. MR. INABA: Corporation Counsel, in terms of the Article 8, Section 3 of the Constitution, I'm trying to have the public understand what the primary concern is for that section as it relates to Bill 153 that we're deciding on today. MS. STRANCE: There's two parts of that. There's the provision that delegates the duties and responsibilities regarding taxation of real property to the County and the interpretation of that the reference to the County means the County Council. There is other language in that Baptiste case that talks about the limitations for Charter amendments not being legislative and whether the bill, as proposed, would result in impermissible legislation. There is, and I think what you're getting it is that there is no Hawaii case, appellate court case on point, that says that this particular amendment is Page 60 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 unconstitutional. But based upon my review of the statute, not just the constitution and case law, I can conclude that there is a substantial risk that the provision is unconstitutional. MR. INABA: Thank you. With that, I mean, going back to Councilman Chung's point, I think it behooves us all to look closely, we write law, we change law, that's what's before us right now. And when we're looking at examples of law that might point out areas of concern for a piece of legislation, whether what's in the memo or any other piece of case law, I think it's important for us to really make that evaluation as to its relation to the legislation before us. So I think, for my Council colleagues today, really emphasizing making a very clear and intelligent decision based on your reading, and everybody's reading will be different, but making that best reading for each of us as individuals. So I ask you to do that. Mahalo. MS. STRANCE: And I just want to clarify, unconstitutional and/or a violation of State law CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Mr. Chung, go ahead. MR. CHUNG: And you know,just let me give you my interpretation of this thing, even if I'm going to defer to the Office of the Corporation Counsel. As I said, I think it's—well first of all, I think the opinion was an incorrect opinion. For the Supreme Court to limit it only to county councils to say that county means county councils is incorrect, but it's only my opinion. They're opinion is the one that counts. But this differs from a voter-initiated action, which is what happened on Kauai. This is something that is coming through the County Council. The County Council is the vehicle that gets it to the voters, so I think those are two differences from the Kauai case. Having said that, what I see as being possibly problematic is that this refers to the Housing Revolving Fund, and if the Housing Revolving Fund is construed to be a special fund, then this has to have the active. Because yesterday, I was trying to see a way through this thing. The questions that I asked of Ms. Kunz, if you recall, were, does this have the support of the Housing department? Could we consider that as being a request? I was just trying to find a way. But really, if this is viewed as being a special fund, then it has to have the active—it has to be actively initiated by the Mayor, which this wasn't. So that is something that's kind of hanging around in my mind. Even based on my interpretation, which is contrary to the Office of the Corporation Counsel, there's still that lingering thing and that might be something that's fatal as well. But having said that, I explained why I'm deferring to your wisdom and that's all I have to say about it. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Anyone else? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Page 61 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. The constitutional issue that you brought up refers to this being brought forward as a Charter amendment by the Council? MS. STRANCE: I'm not really distinguishing between whether it's being brought by the Council or it's a voter-driven initiative because the consequence is the same. If it's the County Council's responsibility, it doesn't have authority to delegate it let alone bind future county councils to the decision that you make to delegate authority that they had. So I have not distinguished between the two because the County Council is an evolving body, and if the voters can't take it away from the County Council, the County Council can't give it away. That's why I didn't distinguish between the two. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: The Council can initiate Charter amendments, correct? MS. STRANCE: So long as those Charter amendments do not violate the Federal or State Constitution or State law. So the counties have they are a creation of statute, and they only have the authority given to them that has been delegated. So within that framework the answer is yes. But there is also case law that talks about other areas that the voters can't take or be given. So in certain areas of zoning, that's true. In the area of housing, there is a fairly substantial delegation of authority to the counties around housing, and one of those delegations of authority is the authority of appropriation. So that is part of what my opinion is. Now, Council Member Chung is correct. It's the opinion of the Appellate Court that matters and the Appellate Court hasn't spoken on this. So the only thing, you know, the piece that I do is to identify issues and try to assess some level of risk for this body going forward, and I wish I could say that I've never been wrong. I've never thought I've been wrong but as a judge, I was overturned by the Supreme Court. I still think I'm right, you know,but as Councilman Chung pointed out, that is the body that decides. The evaluation and the attempt to provide some analysis and assessment of risk is to provide this body with some context in whether to move forward with something, or whether the same result can be accomplished through some other means that has less risk. That's the decision of this Council to make. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What I'm hearing is if this were to proceed today, there is a risk that we would take on, in real, basic simple terms. Potentially. MS. STRANCE: Yes, and I have put my thumb on the scales. Page 62 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What kind of, I mean if you say worst case, what is the worst case, if we pass this bill, what happens? Worst case? MS. STRANCE: I'd have to figure that out. I mean it would be whether you folks have exercised your authority beyond the authority given to you in the County Code. Whether that would raise any personal liability or not, I don't know. If something's found to be unconstitutional and actions have been taken or monies spent, depending on how it gets wound back, you know, I'm not sure. It would depend on what's done with that. So I don't I would have to look at what the courts have done in other cases where funding bills have been found to be unconstitutional, whether any further appropriation of those funds would have to be taken back or whether it's just stricken down. I don't know. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is about taking real property taxes via this Charter amendment and putting them into a revolving fund, that's the issue at hand, yeah? MS. STRANCE: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Because of the nature of the revolving fund, there's a lot of different pieces we've talked about over the last couple of days, but because of that revolving fund, which is something that may be addressed later down the line if it's deemed so, that needs to be taken care of by the Department of Finance, or is this about taking that one percent of real property? MS. STRANCE: I haven't evaluated whether—if the name of the fund changes and it's just a name change in the same line or if it goes to another line, whether it would commit the County to maintain that account because it's specific. So I don't know the consequence of that. I have not researched that piece. The piece around the revolving fund, is it unconstitutional because it's called a revolving fund? No, that's not accurate. My concern is that it's called a revolving fund but doesn't behave as a revolving fund and, you know, what you folks do with that is what you folks do with that. The other issues really have to do with silo-ing out what does the constitution say? Is there a constitutional concern about it? Yes or no, and if there's a check box and, you know, yes, and it's clear and it's on point, then you stop there. If the answer is maybe, then you have a question mark next to that box and you go to, are there any other reasons that this proposal is problematic by State law? Because then the County derives its authority through the legislature, so this is inconsistent with an area of State law, and the answer to that is maybe. The Department of Housing has brought authority similar to the Planning Department and there is case law on the ability of voters to amend their Charters Page 63 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 to affect Zoning. So again, that's a maybe and so part of a risk assessment is adding things up and presenting them and your decision is whether this is an unacceptable risk. That's the decision that you folks are having to make because there is some law and case law out there that raises questions. And that's what I brought before you and I've explained my reasons and rationale and thoughts on that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you and one more question, sorry. Constitution? It was section 8-3, is that right of our constitution? MS. STRANCE: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Article 8, Section 3? MS. STRANCE: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you, Ms. Strance. I yield Chair. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Before I go to Mr. Chung, Ms. Kimball has a function which I think is 10 minutes overdo, right? Is it at 12:00? MS. KIMBALL: The Mana Wahine celebration is supposed to be happening today at noon, which we're missing but this is obviously important, so as long as we can wrap up soon and then maybe recess. CHR. DAVID: Yes, I'll go to Mr. Chung right now. Go ahead, Mr. Chung. MR. CHUNG: Thank you. You know, despite everything that I've said earlier, I would say this though. There are some provisos or one proviso. If Corporation Counsel's opinion was way out of whack, then of course, you know, I would have to just, out of good conscience, say I cannot agree, I'm so sorry. But Corporation Counsel's opinion is not out of whack. I mean there are a lot of good points, and I certainly can understand, you know, how it was formulated, even if I disagree with it. So let me just get to Mr. Kaneali`i-KI einfelder's question. I don't like when people put words in my mouth so I'm certainly not going to put words in his mouth, but it seems, and I could be wrong, that what he was getting at in terms of what's the worst thing that could happen? What's the worst-case scenario? It's that should we risk, and correct me now if I'm wrong, is there anyone out there who would file a derivative lawsuit against the County for something like this? Because if the probability is low, why don't we just go ahead and move it Page 64 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 through? The law, you know, the hell with the law, let's just—that's not—but basically, if the probability is low, let's just go because nobody's going to question it or contest it. I can see the logic behind that, but I don't subscribe to that, to doing things that way. It's just my personal preference, right? There is a remote possibility—if you asked me right now, "Hey, what's the chances of somebody filing a lawsuit over there?" I'd say like one percent, maybe even less, but there is the chance, and it would be based—it would be a derivative lawsuit by the members of the public, the taxpayers, who are part of this municipal corporation, and it would be on the basis that something like this, of course, is ultra vires, outside of the scope of what—beyond the powers the County Council. So they would act to obviate this, or negate this thing, but it would be that because our actions are taking away from other places in the budget, and they would have standing to do that. Remote possibility that someone would waste their time because as I said for GMO (Genetically Modified Organism), you had opponents to that legislation. It was an industry, they had money, they pursued the appeal. I mean they appealed it, and then they contested it, and they went up the ranks. This one, there's no one who has real standing, I mean not standing, but nobody who has the wherewithal, the resources to go and contest something like that, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities. It would be a derivative lawsuit by the taxpayers. I still think I'm going to defer to you guys. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Chung. In the effort, we need to wrap this up. I don't see any other lights. Thank you, Judge Strance. For me, really quick, the fact that there is a potential and that this is the first time ever that I've experienced recommendations from Corporation Counsel that seem to me to sense that, I am not an attorney, but I definitely can understand the potentials that you are talking about, and I understand exactly what Vice Chair Chung is saying, that the legal issues may arise. So on that note, I would be very reluctant to not agree with your assessment being our attorneys that sit on this board. Mr. Clerk, roll call please. Vote on Bill 153: The motion to pass Bill 153 on the second of three required Failed readings failed by the following roll call vote: Ayes: Council Members Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, and Villegas –4. Noes: Council Members Chung, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, and Chair David–5. Absent: None. Excused: None. (Note: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Ms. Villegas voted "kanalua"then "aye.") Page 65 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Bill 153 fails. Can we take a recess for lunch? Thank you. We'll be back at 1:00 ladies? MS. VILLEGAS: Just a quick point of personal privilege. CHR. DAVID: Yes. MS. VILLEGAS: I'd like to take this opportunity to wish a happy birthday to Dr. Holeka Inaba. CHR. DAVID: Hau`oli la hanau. Okay, we'll be back at 1:00, is that okay? Enough time ladies? MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, yeah. Thank you, everyone for your patience. Recess: At 12:17 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 1:10 p.m. CHR. DAVID: Aloha everyone and welcome back to the County Council meeting. It is now we're reconvening at 1:10 in the afternoon. Mr. Clerk, can we proceed with the last two items on our Bills for Second Reading, please? Bill 154: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 21-38, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2022 Increases revenues in the Federal Grants —Traffic Safety Training Project account ($3,000); and appropriates the same to the Traffic Safety Training Project account, bringing the total appropriation to $153,000. Funds would be used to provide specialized training for police and prosecutors to combat impaired driving. Reference: Comm. 736 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) First Reading: May 4, 2022 Vote on Bill 154: Ms. Lee Loy moved to pass Bill 154 on second and final (Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Chung and Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—2. Excused: None. Page 66 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Bill 166: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 21-38, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2022 Increases revenues in the Fund Balance from Previous Year account($3,450,000); and appropriates the same to the Fire Protection Salaries and Wages account. Funds would be used to cover potential bargaining unit salary increases and excess overtime. Reference: Comm. 763 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) First Reading: May 4, 2022 Vote on Bill 166: Ms. Lee Loy moved to pass Bill 166 on second and final (Approved) reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1. Excused: None. Vote on Motion Ms. Lee Loy moved to suspend Council Rule 15 to waive to Suspend the 5-day hold for reconsideration of Bill 166. Seconded by Council Rules: Ms. Villegas and carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1. Excused: None. CHR. DAVID: Now can we go to Communication 773 please? REPORTS: The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Reports. (There were none). REFERRALS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Referrals EXECUTIVE for Executive Session. SESSION: Page 67 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Comm. 773: THE ESTATE OF JESSIE LEE STACY, ET. AL. V. JIMMY CHIU, ET. AL., CIVIL NO. 19-1-042 From Deputy Corporation Counsel Mark D. Disher, dated April 25, 2022, requesting an attorney-client confidential discussion to consult with the Council regarding the above-referenced matter, submitted by Matthew Menzer and Jacob Lowenthal on behalf of their clients: The Estate of Jessie Lee Stacy; Sharian Stacy, individually and as representative of the Estate; and A.S., a minor. Motion to Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 773. Seconded Close File: by Mr. Inaba. CHR. DAVID: Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Chair, I'll be more than happy to get us into Executive Session. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. MS. LEE LOY: I just wanted to hear from others if they really wanted to get in there. CHR. DAVID: Council Members, if you read your packet, your confidential packet, I believe Ms. Lee Loy is requesting if we need to go into Executive Session. Mr. Chung, go ahead. MR. CHUNG: I read my packet. I don't need to go into Executive Session. I don't know if others want to ask questions because this is really exhaustive. Thank you very much. CHR. DAVID: Okay, thank you. Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: I agree with Councilman Chung. I read it, well done, I don't need to go. CHR. DAVID: Okay, anyone else? Who does want to go into Executive Session? Seeing none Page 68 Hawaii County Council-39 May 18,2022 Motion to Accept Ms. Lee Loy moved to accept the recommendation of Recommendation: Corporation Counsel in Civil Case No. 3CCV19-000042. (Approved) Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1. Excused: None. MR. HENRICKS: Can we just hold for a second,please? I just want to make sure we get this right. (Note: At this time, the motion and vote were restated due to confusion with case civil number within the associated documents.) Vote on Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to concur with the recommendation to Concur: of Corporation Counsel regarding Comm. 773. Seconded (Approved) by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1. Excused: None. OTHER The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Other BUSINESS: Business. (There was none.) ANNOUNCE- The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, MENTS: Announcements. (There were none.) Page 69 Hawai`i County Council-39 May 18, 2022 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 1:20 p.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair David—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Chung and Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—2. Excused: None CHR. DAVID: We are adjourned at 1:20 p.m. JUL 0 6 2022 Approved: . >4111 COUNTY CLERK JH/jm Page 70