HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN PRPSC 2022/08/16 2020-2022 i
Committee on Parks and Recreation
and Public Safety
34'Session
West Hawaii Civic Center
74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
August 16, 2022
CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Parks and Recreation and Public
ORDER: Safety was called to order at 9:00 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona,
by Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair.
ROLL CALL:
Present: Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair
Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Vice Chair(came in later)
Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member(via videoconference from Hilo)
Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member
Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member
Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member
Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member
Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member(came in later)
Absent& Excused: Mr. Herbert M. "Tim"Richards, 1II, Member
STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business,
FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items.
PUBLIC ON
AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called
by the Chair:
Dane duPont: Bill 195 (Comm. 911), in opposition.
(Representing Hawaii Tracker)
Darryl Oliveira: Bill 195 (Comm. 911), in support.
Cory Harden: Bill 195 (Comm. 911), comment.
MR. HENRICKS: Do we have any testifiers here in the West Hawaii Civic
Center? Seeing none, Mr. Chair, you may proceed to communications.at this
time.
CHR. INABA: Yes, please.
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COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business,
CATIONS: Communications.
Comm. 176.17: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION OF THE AUGUST 2022 HAWEO AWARD
TO KILIHEA INABA, FIRE MEDICAL SPECIALIST II—HAWAI`I FIRE
DEPARTMENT I
From Council Member Holeka Goro Inaba, dated July 11, 2022.
E
Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 176.17. E
Seconded by Ms. David.
i
CHR. INABA: Good morning everyone. Perhaps I should start off by saying that
our Haweo Award recipient today is my older sister Kilihea. But I'd like to call
on Fire Chief Kazuo Todd, if you would please introduce our awardee and the
reason for you selecting her as this month's awardee.
CERTIFICATE OF (Note: At this time, the August 2022 HAWEO Award was presented
APPRECIATION: to Kilihea Inaba, Fire Medical, Specialist II—Hawai`i Fire Department in
recognition of going above and beyond the call of duty. Fire Chief Kazuo
Todd came forward and provided statements regarding her exceptional
activities in service to the community. Chair Inaba provided a celebratory
Hawaiian Chant.)
CHR. INABA: Congratulations. And with that, we'll take the vote to close file
on Communication 176.17. All those in favor, please say"aye."
Vote on Comm. 176.17: The motion to close file on Comm. 176.17 was carried
Filed by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Committee Member Richards— 1.
Excused: None.
Recess: At 9:23 a.m., the Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 9:30 a.m.
CHR. INABA: Taking this meeting out of recess. We're going to see if we have
any testifiers for Bill 195.
MR. HENRICKS: Do we have any testimony for Bill 195?
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MR. ARACELEY: Thank you, Mr. Clerk, and Mr. Chair, we have one testifier
via Zoom. Francine Roby, Francine if you'd like to provide testimony you'll
have three minutes starting now.
STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business,
FROM THE Statements from the Public on Bill 195 (Comm. 911).
PUBLIC ON
BILL 195: The Chair called Francine Roby who registered to comment regarding Bill 195
(Comm. 911), and came forward when called.
MR. HENRICKS: Seeing no additional testimonies, we'll go to Bills for
Ordinances.
BILLS FOR ORDINANCES
Bill 195: AMENDS CHAPTER 7, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016
EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO DISASTER AND EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT
Changes the title of Chapter 7 from"Civil Defense"to "Disaster and Emergency
Management" and revises and reorganizes the sections therein. Replaces
definitions inserts sections of clarify Civil Defense Agency organization and
duties, clarifies requirements for Emergency Action Plans and use of multi-
governmental services, and delineates the Mayor's authority to declare a state of
disaster or emergency and ability to exercise emergency powers.
Reference: Comm. 911
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz
Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to recommend passage of Bill 195
on first reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
CHR. INABA: Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. This bill has been a collaboration with
Civil Defense who is joining us via Hilo Chambers, Talmadge Magno, Barry
Periatt, and Bill Hansen. As well as collaboration with Cody Frenz with
Corporation Counsel, mahalo nui. Folks are being open to this.
We started with a draft from Civil Defense, actually was me sending an email
saying, "Hey guys, this statutes, 127A, 128A, (Hawai`i Revised Statutes)these
were updated in 2017." We faced a number of disasters fires,hurricanes, lava
flows, and global pandemic. I'm sure there are lessons learned in our after-action
reviews, that we want to make sure we are codifying. So that in the event of an
emergency or disaster, we're all on the same page and we're mobilized. Not just
as the official "Capital C" County `ohana, but we as an island community.
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And so we began conversations around the intention of what we wanted to
achieve here. And at the end of the day we wanted to make sure that we were in
alignment with present statute, and really spell out the duties and functions, of the
Civil Defense Agency. So we've recrafted the entire chapter, Chapter 7. And
renaming it to Disaster and Emergency Management, which is a bit more
appropriate for this scope of work that Civil Defense Agency does provide for
community. Clarifying their duties and responsibilities, spelling out various
authority. And then really identifying how we coordinate activities within the
County with other jurisdictions State, Federal, Government, and where possible
leveraging the grass roots power of the community partners of non-profits. And
so I can do a quick high level walk through of this present ordinance.
Section 1, sets out the purpose of this bill. Article 1, next section spells out the
various definitions that are contain in this bill. Section 7-1-2, talks about how the
agency is organized, and the head of the Civil Defense and Administrator are
appointed and again hired based on HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes), Section
7-1-3, really tried to think hard on everything Civil Defense does to prepare our
community prior to a disaster, and also what they do to activate and mobilize,
should there be an emergency or crisis situation.
Following that is a comprehensive list of emergency management plans that Civil
Defense is actually mandated to do, each of these are in various phases of
development. And I wanted to make sure that we were codifying this here, so that
every member of the Council and member of the community knows really what's
needed to have this holistic plan. So there's a comprehensive emergency
management plan that I'm asking Civil Defense to deliver to us by March of next
year, and not really catalyzes everything.
There's also a threat and hazard identification and risk assessment or the THIRA
(Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment), which feeds into the
integrated preparedness plan. The THIRA is something that is basically a risk
assessment, all of our vulnerabilities as a County on island, and that data then
feeds into how we become more integrated and prepared. Following that also
getting an update every five years on the Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan, which the
Council had received and commented on earlier this year. That's a document
that's required every five years, in order for our County to be able to access
federal funding as it relates to hazard mitigation.
Every year starting next August requesting that Civil Defense come back to the
Council and provide us a progress report on implementation, and update of these
plans. It's really, really, critical that we know what's happening, so that we can
make informed budgetary decisions.
The next section is related to how we leverage, County personnel in resources
during times of disaster. It also asks that each County department and agency
identify a liaison to Civil Defense, and they have the authority to make decisions
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PRPSC-34 August 16,2022
deploy resources when needed. The next section which a few testifiers did bring
up, is related to emergency powers. This rests in Hawaii Revised Statute, word
for word from statute.
And I was able to have a conversation with our(HiEMA) that's Hawaii
Emergency Management Agency, Administrator Luke Meyers about one
particular Section that's 7-1-6-(d)(3), where it talks about to the extent permitted
by or under federal laws suspend electronic media transmission. And I just want
to be super, super, clear about what that exactly entails. It has to do with the
hardened infrastructure. Sometimes systems are overloaded, and they have to be
re-stabilized, so it's a simple matter of restoring, restarting a system. Rebooting
so that communication can go out to community, this has nothing to do with
suspending the communication that's going out by Civil Defense or the media or
community partners. We don't want that in a time of disaster, we want to make
sure all the information is getting out to community so that we are preserving
public health and safety. And so this really has to do with stabilizing our
communication infrastructure systems, so I hope that kind of assuages concerns
from my colleagues as well as members of the community.
Anyway that's it in a nutshell. You know, we have our Corporation Counsel here
to answer any questions,but I also did want to offer time to my collaborators on
this, Civil Defense, to fill in anything that I might have missed. Thank you,
Chair.
CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Perhaps we can start off, I'll just call on Civil Defense
to share anything before we get started. Is anyone in Hilo chambers? Good
morning, go ahead.
(Note: At this time, Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno came
forward to address the members of the Committee.)
MR. MAGNO: Hi, good morning. This is Talmadge Magna, Civil Defense
Administrator.
CHR. INABA: Good morning, Talmadge. If you just want to start off with
general thoughts, before we begin discussion. Thank you.
MR. MAGNO: Sure. Well thank you for the time and this first reading, for
Council Woman Kierkiewicz putting this together working with us to make this
happen. And my staff that worked through the process researching and getting all
the information in putting this together. Ms. Roby, you know, as far as her
background, I definitely respect her education, her experience, and her valid
points as far as coming up with a comprehensive program. And that's what we
are doing with this proposed re-write of Chapter 7 update.
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1 think it puts us in a good light, meeting the federal standard requirements that
we work with. All the way to the point where we're grass roots working in the
community. I think we are attempting to encompass everything that we need to
deal with at all levels to face the many disasters that we do on this island. If we
follow this sort of road map with this plan, I think we'll be successful. And it will
be available for everybody to monitor, to watch, to know what is out there, what
is expected of us, what's expected of them, as we try to mitigate any disasters that
we have on the island.
CHR. INABA: Thank you, Talmadge. Coming back here opening it up for
discussion in Kona. Council Member Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. And first of all let me just say, mahalo to
Council Member Kierkiewicz, Corporation Counsel Frenz, and our friends over
there at Civil Defense in Hilo. This was a heavy lift I'm sure, and something that
definitely needed to happen. And this is just a really high quality amendment to
the code, and I really appreciate the effort that went into this.
I did want to acknowledge that Ms. Roby is a constituent in my district. We all
have to wear many hats, and be sort of experts on a lot of different things. And
sometimes it's best to delegate that out, to people who know a lot more than we
do. And she is someone that I rely on heavily in my district. She provides some
guidance around emergency preparedness, because of the wealth of experience
she has. All I'll say at this time is she did provide a pretty voluminous testimony,
and I encourage all of my colleagues to look at it,because she actually went
through and provided some very specific amendments and comments. And I
passed it on to Council Member Kierkiewicz. Just to review, you know, let's
make sure that we've evaluated everything. I think there's some legitimate
recommendations in there, that I'd like us all to consider. So if you haven't done
so already, please I ask you to do that.
A couple of things that I wanted to speak to you specifically, is the designation of
one of the potential response events is civil unrest or disturbance. And that's not
defined anywhere, and I just have some questions about whether or not that's an
appropriate—I'm sorry, where is it? Section I the purpose, it's in the purpose
section, yeah. I'd like to hear from Civil Defense, and Council Member
Kierkiewicz, on the ideas behind including the potential for maybe making sure
we define that, maybe rephrasing it, yeah. Thank you.
The other thing I would like to—this was actually something that Ms. Roby
mentioned, would be the duties of the Mayor. And so that's in the Section 7-1-2,
Agency organization; appointments. She's proposing language that would say
that, "The County Mayor shall have direct responsibility for emergency
management within the county, including the organization, administration,
operation of a county emergency management agency, pursuant to Chapter 127A,
128A, of the Hawaii Revised Statutes."
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Just a slight rewording, but I think it fits better with the HRS itself. And then that
would include the requirements to add the clause, "There is established in the
office of the mayor of the County of Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency
responsible for emergency management functions within the territorial limits of
the county to coordinate all emergency management plans, and corporate closely
as possible with the agency and emergency management agencies in all other
counties in aspects of emergency management. Again, that's reference to the
HRS 127A-5.
The other comment I would like to consider in terms of the reporting, would be
clear annual reporting on the number of community-based the VOADs (Voluntary
Organizations Active in Disaster)that we have. So CERTs (Community
Emergency Response Teams), anyone else; Team Rubicon and what not. Where
we have them and how many members,just so we are also tied into our
community-based response for emergency preparedness. That's all I have for
now. Chair, I yield.
CHR. INABA: Mahalo, Ms. Kimball. Chair David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair Inaba. Administrator Magno, thank you for
being here this morning. I do have a question for you, regarding the emergency
management plans. That section basically states that all these plans "shall"be
developed by a deadline, a timeframe. Organizational-wise, what is your feeling
or your sense on getting these reports done within the timeframe specified?
And my other question is, what is the procedure if for some reason given an
emergency and you can't, you know, the Civil Defense Agency can't complete
these reports, what's the—because it's a"shall,"right? And that word `.`shall"
means you have to. So I'm just curious what Administrator Magno comments
would be on this timeframe, as far as these reports and management plans because
I know they're very complicated. So just your thoughts Administrator, please.
MR. MAGNO: Yeah, thank you for the question, it's a very valid question.
We've seen 2018 eruption, pandemic, and so thinking about March 2022 we're
finally, you know, the emergency proclamations finally ended since March. We
finally started to do other work. And so depending on activations really shows
what work we can or cannot do, as far as planning. So all of our plans have
suffered delays due to the activations.
The resolve for that would be to bring on additional staffing, so that we have a
little bit more capacity to dedicate folks to planning, to community outreach, to
accomplish these plans. And then other staff would be able to function in
response mode, and take care the day to day or activation processes. But it's still
is a valid point as we operate with the current staff levels, that something could
happen and all this would be on the back burner.
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MS. DAVID: I see. And yeah, thank you for that because that's a valid question.
I know in hindsight we have so many plans, etcetera, that the County has in
different departments and different agencies. And some of them have been there
for years without being updated, and that's a real issue. I love, Ms. Kierkiewicz,
your bringing this forward. And for me it brings a lot of discussion, on how we
can actually improve a lot of issues around surrounding this sort of thing.
And just for discussion purposes, I wanted to make note of this "shall" and issue
on Section 7-1-4. And we're in committee, so lots of time to discuss that. And
the other question I have really quick, is thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz, for
explaining the concern on Section 7-1-6(d)(3), regarding the suspension relates to
specifically infrastructure repairs. So if that could be expanded to make reference
to that, I think it would be something that public will actually be grateful for.
Because I got the same thing too. When I read this, I went"Ooh that might be a
concern,"when you suspend media and that sort of thing. So that's my only
comments other than that, thank you for this. I can tell it's been taking a long
time to develop. And thank you for your hard work and the department's too,
Administrator Magno and his team. That's all I have, and I yield.
CHR. INABA: Mahalo. I'm going to take it to Hilo real quick, Council
Member Chung, go ahead.
MR. CHUNG: Yup, thank you. First I wanted to thank Ms. Kierkiewicz, and for
all the hard work she put into preparing this bill. It really is a product of a lot of
work, and time for sure. The only thing I wanted to touch upon was the same
thing that Maile talked about, and it has to do with that suspension of electronic
media transmission. You know, the problem here and it raised the hackles of at
least two people, and it's because they weren't clear on what it meant. And I'm
glad that Ashley explained clearly, you know, what is meant by this provision.
And I also spoke to our Civil Defense people during the break, and they said the
same thing. The problem here though is that this media, the term"media" is also
used somewhere else in the enabling legislation, HRS 127A, and it talks about
media access. And so in order to—I know this language about "To the extent
permitted by or under federal law suspend electronic media transmission," it
comes straight from the HRS statute. But what I would suggest, is to tweak it a
bit. I think Ms. Kierkiewicz's explanation, was far more clear than what the State
came up with. So maybe in that regard talk about infrastructure, so that there's no
confusion. That's just my suggestion, thank you.
CHR. INABA: Mahalo, Mr. Chung. Coming back here to Kona, Council
Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. Thank you again, Ms. Kierkiewicz, for this. And for
your openness and flexibility in any potential edits or concerns that have been
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expressed not just here today. But we've been hearing some constituents, which
have then been shared through the media. I am incredibly grateful for, I'm going
to forget her name now, your constituent, Francine Roby's detailed, and very
thorough going through of this. And I share last week there were a number of
meetings around the islands with the National Science Foundation, related to the
mauna. And much of that energy is activated again, and people's concerns in
very powerful and poignant gatherings.
So I find my red flag going up when it's pointed out here, also confirmed, this
term "civil disturbance"being spilled out among emergency causes. As it's not a
part of the original Chapter 7 language, and she wasn't able to find the term in the
Hawaii Revised Statutes. But the Emergency Management (U.S. Department of
Homeland Security/FEMA) defines it as a civil unrest activity such as, "a
demonstration, riot, or strike that disrupts community and requires intervention to
maintain public safety."
It's not in the Hawaii County Code, which agency has lead responsibility on civil
unrest. But according to this it seems more appropriate for public safety,police,
and fire, with coordination of emergency management. I have concerns that were
setting a precedence, and paving a way if there ever is another protest on the
mauna that we are not actually serving the people that may find themselves in
civil unrest and civil disobedience in support of a cause that they hold dear.
And so I would ask for some looking at this. She also has a recommendation of
using the term "human-made emergencies,"instead of"civil disturbance." So
thank you for taking that into consideration, appreciate it. I yield.
CHR. INABA: Anyone here in Kona? Okay, Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Yeah, you know, like the rest of my colleagues, you
know, to Ms. Kierkiewiez, this definitely was a very heavy lift, and just reflecting
back on the time when we had our lava disaster. And that's when the highlight of
this particular chapter came out, is through that. I just had a couple of questions.
In addition to Civil Defense coming back into the maker of this bill, something
that we're also working in parallel to this is the needs assessment, and how we
drive so much of our funding into areas that really do serve community.
And so I see some areas where it would lend itself where Civil Defense as they
begin to assess all of their infrastructure, if there is a need that this infrastructure
is old or archaic, to elevate that so that we as Council Members can make good
business decisions, in where to pour our monies into. You know,just food for
thought, for Ms. Kierkiewicz. And then hardening our facilities. So not only in
the communication infrastructure, but areas in which we would need to evacuate
our community into and/or out of.
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So just looking across the dais here, we know Ms. Kimball has a lot of bridges.
And if that community gets shut down through these plans, does that help elevate
a needs assessment to repair these hard infrastructures or a gym, or rehabilitate a
gym. And I'm just really excited about where this could really take us to. You
know, I had to walk back to the code itself, and this was drafted in 1983.
So we talk about modernizing, not born yet,yes. But we talk about modernizing
our code, this is an amazing first step which will translate and have a big impact.
And for those reasons, I'm definitely going to be supporting this. I also see a
small amendment that you have in the folder, but also I 1 pages of hard work from
a constituent. I think all that can be blended in at some point. So thank you for
hearing my comments. Chair, I yield.
CHR. INABA: Thank you. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. I have a question for
Corporation Counsel. Ms. Frenz, or Ms. Strance, whoever is wanting to speak on
behalf of this bill.
(Note: At this time, Deputy Corporation Counsel Cody Frenz came
forward to address the members of the Committee.)
MS. FRENZ: Good morning.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Good morning. Introduce yourself.
MS. FRENZ: Deputy Corporation Counsel Cody Frenz, on behalf of Civil
Defense.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Frenz. Okay, pretty brief
questions. Section 7-1-3 Duties; functions. Establish a warning point. There is a
definition for the word or the term "warning point." That sentence though is
bugging me, if I input the definition of warning point into the Section 7 under
7-1-3, or item(7). Establish warning point that will be blah, blah,blah,blah.
When I look at the definition of warning point, and I put it in that sentence it
doesn't flow to me.
MS. FRENZ: Okay.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I don't know if that needs clarification, or
it's just me not reading correctly, but it just doesn't sit quite perfectly in my brain
as being clear.
MS. FRENZ: Okay.
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MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Do you see anything that we can fix that, or
am I just off.
MS. FRENZ: No, I would never say that, first of all.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You can.
MS. FRENZ: I mean, I can understand. I don't know if Talmadge, or Barry have
some additional thought regarding—I mean we can always rework something that
it flows better, but at the same time I understand incorporating the definition and
the purpose of the word into the section.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yup, could need some fine-tuning there, to
be a little bit more clear. But thank you for your input on that. And then next,
Section 7-1-6 has raised some concern. I am concerned about the language. Both
on the points that Ms. Villegas touched on, but also from the community itself.
Does this language, is this from the HRS this language or is this developed
between and in the County, between you and Ms. Kierkiewicz?
MS. FRENZ: Actually it's 127A. It's quoted by Statute 127A.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Nord for word?
MS. FRENZ: Word for word. Barry was our kind of steam roller along with
Council Member Kierkiewicz. Barry spent a lot time, in fact working on it before
she contacted Civil Defense. So it was a blessing in disguise in that sense to be
able to have a collaboration. But Barry actually pulled word for word from the
Hawaii Revised Statutes. There's a lot more information on Chapter 127A than
has made his way obviously to our County Code, or our code would be many,
many, more volumes than it is now currently. Is there a specific concern you'd
like to address regarding, Section 7-1-6 as proposed?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Most of these make sense. I'm thinking
about the events that happened nationally and locally, I am thinking about what
Ms. Villegas brought up. And just making sure we don't give unnecessary power
to the Mayor's Office,because this will all go forward in time to whatever Mayor
takes office. But also making sure that we do provide mechanisms to keep our
community safe during an emergency.
MS. FRENZ: To address the concern regarding civil disturbance, Hawaii
Revised Statute 127A-I specifically on subsection (a) where it gives the purpose,
Policy and Purpose, they use the term"man-made hazards." So pretty close to
Ms. Roby. But they use"man-made hazards."
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MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I think that was brought up earlier
that would be a good clarification, for this bill, yeah. Okay so Section 7-1-6,
Emergency powers, proposed in this bill this language is direct from the HRS?
MS. FRENZ: Sorry, can't quite hear you.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Section 7-1-6, Emergency powers in this bill
as proposed, is directly from the HRS under 127A?
MS. FRENZ: Parts of 127A, correct. It's not in its entirety, that's correct.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, that's all my questions for now. I
may have a follow-up, thank you. I yield, Chair.
CHR. INABA: Thank you. Anyone else here in Kona? Ms. Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. I have one more thing that I have forgotten to
mention. I think that under Section 7-1-3 Duties; functions, you know,number
(1)there is pretty general and all encompassing. Just wondering if, Council
Member Kierkiewicz, you'd consider whether or not it be appropriate to do a
specific call out to the continuing operations plans for each of the departments,
and some oversight of that by Civil Defense?
And then I'll just also say that I agree with Chair David, and Council Member
Chung. And maybe just the revisions, I want to pause some of the concern about
the electronic media. I think when you explained it, I too felt much more
comfortable with what the intention was. So just a rephrasing, I think will help
alleviate that issue. Thank you, Chair, I yield.
CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Kimball. I guess I have things to
say,but do you want to respond so far? Anybody else before I share my piece,
no? Okay, with that then, thank you for bringing us forward 40 years. Just some
language things. In 7-1-2 just so everything reads the same, if we could maybe
under subsection(1) say the head of the civil agency "which shall," so adding the
word "which." And then for number(2), "A full-time Civil Defense
Administrator `that' shall." And that kind of aligns all of the language to read in
the same way throughout those numbers. And within 7-1-3, number(5), it reads,
"Monitor and advise the mayor of any and all threats." I'm not sure if we want to
just remove the word"monitor,"because I don't think we're monitoring the
Mayor of any and all threats. Probably we might want to rearrange that one.
And then lastly going back to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder's point on number(7),
establishing a warning point. Perhaps we can just use the HRS definition,
because they define it. And they define it as a noun, as an agency rather than an
act of transmitting messages, which is the definition we apparently see in the bill.
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So I think we can just put what they had, and they also defined that we should be
calling it County warning points. So I'm not sure if we want to match that
exactly, what they address.
And I will just add that I agree with the others on the infrastructure for electronic
media transmission, so I'm sure those changes will be made. But for sure I do
think that warning point definition, we can just take from HRS. And mahalo you
again, for bringing these amendments forward. And I'll send it back to you for
any response, Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, everyone. I felt we walked in with a pretty
solid product, but really feel that your comments and comments that were shared
by the community will really help to strengthen this section of code. Want to
make sure that we are all on board with all of the language here,because it's
something that it's going to potentially guide our County for another 30,
40-something years before it's touched again.
So thank.you. We will take everything under advisement. I think there were
couple of questions that were lingering that I want to quickly address here. But if
okay with you, I do want to keep this in committee. I think there's going to be
some changes that I would feel more comfortable making in this space, before I
move it over to Council. I want to make sure we have a work product that's
merely final, if not final before we move it to Council.
I think we're trying to go back and forth as a team to figure out where we came up
with the civil disturbance terminology. In going through HRS I believe they refer
to this as man-made hazards, so we will take a look at that. We might remove it
completely,because when I think about the duty and function of Civil Defense,
kind of interesting it's called Civil Defense, but its real scope is,managing
disasters and emergencies.
So we'll do some wordsmithing, and maybe offer up a couple of suggested
changes for the purpose. Want to make sure everybody's onboard with that. We
will take a look at Francine Roby's very comprehensive comments, I know that
I've shared them with Civil Defense. And you know, I think at the end of the day
it's going to come down to wordsmithing and I think we're almost there.
Thank you for the suggestions Council Member Chung, around how we can
further define electronic media transmission. The term "media" I think folks are
interpreting serval different ways, and rightly so. So I'll provide a little bit more
clarity with that, but I want to make sure that Corporation Counsel we're checking
with the AG's (Attorney General) office to make sure that we're not going
beyond what is specified in HRS.
Council Member Lee Loy to your question about the needs assessment,
absolutely. I think all of these plans and studies and assessments will help us to
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identify where we're weak, where we're vulnerable, and that can help to drive
some CIP (Capital Improvement Program) investments. And we're prime time
right now. All the federal money that's out there and available to us, we want to
make sure we're getting these assessments done. So we can go after those dollars
to harden improve our infrastructure. But it goes really beyond that. I'm looking
for infrastructure that is really resilient and nimble, because with climate change
and the cascade of natural disasters that we will be facing, we want to make sure
that our infrastructure is in place, and can with stand all of those shocks and
stressors.
We will definitely take a look at the language in HRS related to warning points,
and make some adjustments there. Council Member Kimball you asked about
continuity of operations plans, it's actually referenced here in the bill. Not really
hidden, it didn't really—like so for us it didn't really make sense to house under
the section related to plans. Because it's more of an ongoing function of the
department. So if you take a look at 7-1-5 letter(c), it talks about Civil Defense
being the technical expert to help every department and agency within the County
craft these plans and maintain them.
So it's there, and it's something I remember calling out during the pandemic. But
these plans are incredibly, incredibly, important to make sure that at the end of the
day government is still delivering no matter what community it's facing. So with
that, I just want to thank everybody for their really constructive comments. We
will be putting forward some amendments at the next committee meeting. But
before I close out Chair, I would like to put forward a motion to amend Bill 195,
with the contents of Communication 911.1.
Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 195 with the contents
of Comm. 911.1. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
CHR. INABA: Go ahead.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. So this would change one of the duties and
functions, the word "maintain," I'm changing that to the word"manage." And the
reason is "maintain" is not enough. That it's just making sure that the system is
status quo. "Manage"means something way beyond that. So system design,
ensuring there's enough resources and personnel to manage that particular system.
So hopefully folks can understand the need for this. And I just want to mahalo
nui Barry Periatt for flagging it. Even though we've poured over this document
numerous times, I think he saw something that I think would be incredible
relevant. An important in terms of an amendment here. So just looking for
everyone's support on this. Thank you, Chair.
CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any more comments on the amendment?
Ms. Kimball.
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MS. KIMBALL: Leah, happy to support this amendment. And it makes me
think of one other thing, which is the potential to integrate some of the
community-based radio systems into this. It does clearly specify the County's
land mobile radio system, but maybe we want to call out that attachment. And I
just have to acknowledge I love that the communications on this are all 911's
what a fortuitous coincidence. Thank you, Chair. I yield.
CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Alright there's a motion on the floor to amend Bill 195
with the contents of Communication 911.1. All those in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Motion The motion to amend Bill 195 with the contents of
to Amend: Comm. 911.1 was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Inaba— 8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Committee Member Richards— 1.
Excused: None.
CHR. INABA: Back to the main motion. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, quickly.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Ms. Frenz question,
more broad. HRS logs this 127A, 128A, that this is based on in the event that
something happens in our County, and this doesn't sit as law, doesn't exist, or
doesn't make it, we fall back automatically to State law, correct, regardless of
whether this bill is in our code? Again, this is in the broad scope of every law the
State has in our County. HRS supersedes most County laws, unless there's
something we've done particularly moreso or added to on a State law. So in that
sense this does exist for our County right now?
MS. FRENZ: It does. It also provides for the counties to draft their own
legislation and/or laws to implement, as you already indicated, if we wanted to do
some additional things. We cannot be more restrictive,right? We need to follow
the State law at the end of the day as well.
MR. "NEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And that was my understanding and
that's why I'm asking more of a broad question there, okay. And one more
question, this may be more for the department. Let's say, Talmadge, that there's a
civil disturbance, and from reading over this bill would that put the Civil Defense
Agency as running point on a civil disturbance and the response by the County?
MR. MAGNO: We are a coordinating agency. Other departments have the
authority to act upon their responsibilities, but as I said, we coordinate. We
manage for public safety as far as impacts to transportation, rights of way,
messaging, you know, what might be impacting the communities. But we are
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PRPSC-34 August 16,2022
not—you know, you talk about point, so if you specifically talking about point for
law enforcement or public safety, we are the coordinating group for all those
entities that would be coming together to deal with any kind of manmade
disturbance or unrest.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, that's how I view your agency right
now. I'm looking at Section 7-1-3 at number(5), which is to, "Monitor and
advise the mayor of any and all threats, emergencies, or disasters that pose a risk
to lives and safety of residents and visitors." What that really does in my mind,
put you folks as the primary point of, at least in this point, advising the Mayor to
those threats. How do you see that language interacting with what you just
stated?
MR. MAGNO: Well to natural disasters, you know, information that we glean on
from other partners and departments, yes. But where Intel of that nature, civil
unrest and so forth, you know, that is beyond our scope. We may be privy to it,
but we're not out seeking that type of intelligence.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Again, I would agree with you, so it may be
that you want to look closely at number(5). And make sure that is more germane
to natural disasters, and not civil disturbances. Because I don't think number(5)
does not remove from that, it actually adds you to it in my eyes.
CHR. INABA: Okay, anything else?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. I yield.
CHR. INABA: Thank you. We're going to wrap this up. One last comment,
Ms. Kierkiewicz. I see that the reporting and updating has slightly changed.
Previously the plans and programs were to be submitted to Council before
March 31 St of each year. And now we're changing it. So the comprehensive plan
needs to be submitted by March 1St, and there is no requirement of an annual
submission. Rather you're providing for a report of changes made, or updates
made to plans. Is that correct?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah. So to be really clear, there is no current
comprehensive emergency management plan. It's in the works, it's probably
85 percent done,but we want to make sure we have a plan on the books. And
once it's developed there's no need to scrap it every single year and create a new
one. It's monitor the situation on the ground, embrace an iterative process, and
updated as needed. Which is why the reports to Council are really important, to
let us know where we stand with the actual plan.
CHR. INABA: Got it. Alright thank you so much. With that we'll take a motion
to—
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PRPSC-34 August 16,2022
I
i
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. But before I close it, also just want to
deeply mahalo nui my Legislative Aide for coming along for this ride. Thank you
Civil Defense, Corporation Counsel; our Clerk Jon Henricks, who sat with me to j
make sure that the intention and purpose behind all of this was crystal clear; and
;E
to Leslie Chow, for her magic in making sure that all of these words kind of
worked together. It really takes so many resources within the County to put forth
really good legislation, so thank you. I'd like to make a motion to postpone
Bill 195 to September 6`h committee meeting, please.
E
Vote on Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to postpone Bill 195 to September 6,
to Postpone: 2022. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following
(Approved) voice vote:
Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Committee Member Richards— 1.
Excused: None.
CHR. INABA: That brings us to the end of our agenda.
ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 10:19 a.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn
MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and carried by the following
voice vote:
Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Inaba— 8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Committee Member Richards— 1.
Excused: None.
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PRPSC-34 August 16,2422
CHR. INABA: This meeting is adjourned at 10:19 a.m., and we will begin
Planning Committee meeting shortly.
Approved:
r
Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair (Date)
Parks and Recreation and Public Safety Committee
HIlrk
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