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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GOREDC 2022/09/06 2020-2022 Committee on Governmental Operations, Relations, and Economic Development 31st Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawai i September 6, 2022 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Operations, Relations, ORDER: and Economic Development was called to order at 9:00 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Vice Chair (came in later) Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member (came in later) Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member Absent& Excused: Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: (There were none.) CHR. KIMBALL: Mr. Clerk, would you read in our agenda item? COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 944: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION REGARDING THE 2023 HAWAII STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES' LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE From Council Member Heather L. Kimball, dated August 11, 2022. Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 944. Seconded by Ms. David. CHR. KIMBALL: Just to get us into the mindset, we are in the process of developing the HSAC (Hawai`i State Association of Counties)package for 2023. GOREDC-31 September 6,2022 Our current timeline is to have drafts submitted to the HSAC Executive Committee in bill format by the 23rd of this month. And so the objective today is to just go over any ideas. We do have the assistance of the lobbyist Jon Okudara and the Executive Director, Nahe Parsons to develop legislation. So if there are things that you have in concept, we do have assistance to help put those into bill format before the timeline. So with that, I will open up the floor, acknowledging that Council Member Richards and Council Member Kierkiewicz have just joined us. Thank you Mr. Clerk. Any discussion on the communication? Alright seeing none at this time, I'm going to go over some of the items. I interviewed each of the directors in all of the departments in the County to get some ideas. So, I'm just going to run through the list of things that were presented that seem to be things that we might want to consider. They've been discussed before, so I'm just going to share these out. Expanding the aggressive dog laws; hiring incentives for public employees. Institutional procurement for local Ag products. This for example would be, requiring the DOE (State Department of Education)to purchase local Ag products for school lunches. Anything having to do with wastewater funding or cesspool conversion. Funding for mandated boards and commissions as well as reviewing any overlap or duplicity between those mandated boards and commissions by the State. With respect to drunk driving, decreasing the limit and increasing penalties. Agricultural theft-related legislation. State Land Use Boundary amendment for 50 acres or less. Alternative energy zoning for agricultural land and taxation policies. Testing of vehicles over a certain age for emission levels. Drone aerial vehicles or unmanned aerial vehicle legislation, particularly in State parks similar to what we have at the Volcano Park. State funding for study, with respect to beach parks and sea level rise. Feeding of feral animals at parks. Mental health funding. Developing a career ladder for case workers. Relating to building code, increasing the functionality of the Building Code Counsel, including developing an inspection process for factory-built housing and developing a statewide authority with respect to factory-built housing. Legislation around vacant and abandoned properties with regard to potential property tax levies requiring contact info; this would be for fire and safety hazard. This is one that I think I would like to put on the legislative list, which is a revision to HRS 78-23.5. This currently allows County employees to get paid leave to work for Red Cross during a disaster. The recommendation is that they would be able to be on paid leave and loaned out to other counties in the event of a disaster. So that's something I'd like to consider. Page 2 GOREDC-31 September 6,2022 Rules for e-bikes and scooters. Increasing of the purchasing thresholds. And then fireworks always comes back. Prohibition of rental vehicles on certain roadways that are determined to be unsafe. And then allowing the County to have access to some of the transfer fees that are charged at the time of property transfer. So, those were some of the ideas we discussed. I know that's a lot. But if you folks have any feedback. The three that I'm thinking of reintroducing was bill HB 1448 (House Bill). That was the parking surcharge that would allow us, in certain areas, through ordinance to increase the parking fees as a way to, in particular, address areas that we see a lot of visitor parking where the normal parking fee is not really a deterrent. They just, you know, accept the ticket and move on. The other one was, I mentioned that disaster preparedness allowing the sharing of County employees under paid leave. And then finally, the restriction on certain roadways through a public process for rental vehicles. So for example, Waipi`o Valley Road and Mauna Kea Road might be examples of places where we would identify that rental vehicles could not be taken. So, I will leave it there. If you have bills that you would like to see submitted as part the HSAC package, again, I need them by, prior to the 23rd, please. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair, for that very comprehensive list of priorities. I also want to kind of talk story about how HSAC is going to prioritize. You know, where we're going to be putting a lot of our efforts in terms of advocacy. All really pressing issues, but I want to make sure that we're having conversations with our Legislators ahead of time to understand what really is doable coming up with the next session. Just a couple things to add here: Invasive species, dangerous trees, fauna. You know, wild pigs continue to be an issue; wild sheep as well. So, would like to see some legislation crafted around that. Can't say for sure if you mentioned anything about workforce development, but there was the Green Jobs Corps bill that I was able to get passed a couple cycles ago. So, wanting to explore how we might expand that. And I think because, Chair Kimball, you and I sit on a couple of boards at NACo (National Association of Counties) related to economic development. Other counties have created different Job Corps programs that really emphasize giving opportunities to local residents and students. So,taking a look at their models and seeing if there's some kind of pilot we can do here within our State. Page 3 GOREDC-31 September 6,2022 Also would like to take a look at how we are helping justice-involved individuals reintegrate back into community. I think that they're, you know, are great models like Going Home Hawaii, that can be further built upon. And then when you mentioned disasters, definitely want to make sure that we are engaging HIEMA (Hawai`i Emergency Management Agency), you know, our local Civil Defense. And working to find ways to just support communities to take care of themselves during times of disaster. It's often residents that are first to respond, and then government is there to provide us support. And so, I know a lot of conversations are happening within counties across the State related to resilience hubs, and I think folks know here we have an active network of resilience hubs set up through Vibrant Hawaii. So, wanting to make sure that there are ways in which our Legislature can be supporting these grassroots efforts. And finally, you mentioned vacant and abandoned properties, which is something that really plagues the region of Puna. Would love to be involved in helping to, just better define what a squatter is; and you know, coming up with solutions to make sure folks are housed, but that property owners are being held accountable for things that are happening on their property. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else? Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah,just a quick addition to that comment about squatters and properties. I've found in District 7,there have been a number of properties that have been inhabited by squatters. And it wasn't necessarily the property owner. It was a bank. A bank from far, far away that it's taken more than 20 years for them to kind of take some steps to mitigate it landing on their balance sheets. So, I just wanted to add that in if there's any way to add that into the terminology that's included, but that some of that I know in my neighborhood it was figuring out which bank still owned the property, which was tough to do, and then how to get them to take any action because that's what it took. So just incorporating that into that really important and what can be very detrimental to neighborhoods for accountability. Thank you, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Great,thank you. Anyone else? Just to quickly respond a little bit to the prioritization and how that will happen with HSAC. So, I will get the ample bills from you folks by the 23rd, and any legislative priorities by the 23rd. That will come back as a resolution with the various bills attached as exhibits. We as a body will vote on them. Page 4 GOREDC-31 September 6,2022 Those will then be elevated to the HSAC Executive Committee when they will then be voted on there. And then, come back to us as a package. So there'll be three times which we vote on that package and identify those priorities. But typically, HSAC has identified our priorities as either things that increase the level of home rule or increase our ability to generate revenue. So those two items continue to be the main lens by which we prioritize. Again, if there are ideas, and thank you for the great suggestions, Council Member Kierkiewicz, that are not fully formed we do have the ability to utilize Jon Okudara and Nahe Parsons to fully form those into legislative bills before we get to the resolutions submitting those for review by this Council. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thanks Chair. And forgive me, it was a really comprehensive list when you went through it. But one thing I did want to acknowledge was, because it is a legislative package from all the counties as how we affect change at the State Legislature, I did not hear anything related to Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. And there's been a big push within the homestead communities to elevate names that sit on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Commission that come out of the beneficiary list and/or out of the Homestead Associations. The other issue around just Native Hawaiian issues is our ceded lands with OHA (Office of Hawaiian Affairs). Oftentimes when there are land exchanges between the State and County, there is a benefit that goes to our Native Hawaiians. And oftentimes, OHA is not at the table during these Executive Order transfers. And so, definitely looking at policy that at least engages our Native Hawaiian Trusts, specifically, OHA, whose duty it is. And then finally, I think just around Native Hawaiian issues, anything that we can do to—we know there's going to be $600 million coming into the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and it's been captured around Housing, but there's still a lot more they could do by way of infrastructure. And the better job we do to braid and/or intentionally link our General Plan, our infrastructure needs, and how it serves the beneficiaries of our trusts, I think would be ideal. Those are my thoughts, thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Great. Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Appreciate the suggestions. Anyone else? Okay hearing none, we have a motion on the floor to close the file. All of those in favor? Page 5 GOREDC-31 September 6,2022 Vote on Comm. 944: The motion to close file on Comm. 944 was carried by (Filed) the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kimball— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Inaba— 1. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Can I get a motion to adjourn, please? ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 9:14 a.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kimball— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Inaba— 1. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: We are adjourned, it is 9.14 a.m. Thank you. Approved: 7/5( (tete 1 Ms. eather L. Kim all, Chair (Date) Government Operations, Relations, and Economic Development Committee HK/dt Page 6