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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN FC 2023/02/07 (2022-2024)Committee on Finance 3" Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii February 7, 2023 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Finance was called to order at ORDER: 9:01 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Matt Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder, Chair Ms. Cindy Evans, Vice Chair Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member (came in later) Ms. Rebecca Villegas 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: Dwight Vicente: Bill 17 (Comm. 68), comment. Jon Olson: Res. 48-23 (Comm. 87), in support; and Bill 20 (Comm. 82), in support. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mr. Clerk, can we go first order of business? COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 12.3: REPORT OF FUND TRANSFERS AUTHORIZED: DECEMBER 16 — 31, 2022 From Controller Kay Oshiro, dated January 17, 2023. FC-3 Vote on Comm. 12.3 Filed Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 12.3. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. February 7, 2023 Comm. 13.4: REPORT OF CHANGE ORDERS AUTHORIZED: JANUARY 1 — 15, 2023 From Finance Director Deanna Sako, dated January 18, 2023, transmitting the above report pursuant to Hawaii County Code Section 2-12.3. Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 13.4. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Discussion, Council Members? Go ahead, Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Okay, thank you. I have a question on one of the change orders. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. SAKO: Good morning. MS. EVANS: Good morning. Can you just explain the there was a change order on Hawaii County Zoning and Subdivision Code amendments, and you increased the amount based on the addition of optional Phase 2. What is optional Phase 2? MS. SAKO: I can't say specifically what was in each phase; I don't recall at the moment. But when we initially bid it out in phases because we weren't sure how much funding we were going to have. So this particular project is a combination of County, potentially federal funding, and they'll continue to look for additional grants. But on this particular one, we were able to find the funding, so they wanted to add in Phase 2. But I can't remember the breakout of all the different ones, we can check with Planning and let you know later. MS. EVANS: Is this for the rewriting of the Code? MS. SAKO: Yes. The County Code, yes. Page 2 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. EVANS: It would be curious to see how much money we've already spent on this, and obviously this is a projection of what more is to be spent. This will be through the end of this fiscal year, right? MS. SAKO: It may go MS. EVANS: So will this be spent by June 30''? MS. SAKO: It may not all be spent by June 30'', but it's all encumbered by June 30'', so we have it encumbered and we're ready to go. MS. EVANS: Okay. All right, thank you. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. If I might just respond to something that Council Member Evans had inquired about? Thank you, Chair. Council Member, I've actually asked the Planning Department to come before Council to provide us an update on where we are with outreach and engagement related to audit and analysis, and rewrite of Chapter 23 and 25. I've also asked them to include budgetary items, so hopefully questions will be answered at the next Council meeting. Thank you. Chair, I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Any further discussion? Seeing none. Motion is on the floor, all in favor? Vote on Comm. 13.4: The motion to close file on Comm. 13.4 was carried Filed by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Comm. 67: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION REGARDING A NEW MONTHLY EXECUTIVE BUDGET SUMMARY FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE From Council Chair Heather Kimball, dated January 13, 2023. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 67. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ms. Kimball. Page 3 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. This is just a follow-up to the conversation we had the last time we received budget reports, and the concern was that the budget reports are often several months or months behind the current time. I had a conversation with Director Sako about the possibility of providing a sort of high-level overview metrics around the budget at more regular, more current intervals. So in the interest of Sunshine Law, we had to put this forward so we as a body could have a discussion about what are some of the metrics that you folks would like to see on this executive level summary. I hope since we had the conversation last week, you've taken some time to think about what sort of things would be meaningful for you. I know Director Sako won't necessarily be able to provide all of them, but this is an open dialogue, and I think there's a willingness to collaborate to get us the information that we need. So, I'll yield to the rest of my colleagues right now and then share some of my ideas. Thanks. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Any discussion? Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Yeah, Director Sako, as we reimagine what this might look like, I'm wondering what information that's currently provided in the status of dates is holding us up, or what takes longer that might be excluded to get us the information faster? (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. SAKO: So, a lot of the basic transactions are recorded in real-time. It's a type of things where we're doing allocations amongst departments; so Automotive might send over the fuel logs, where we have to charge to, let's say Solid Waste, filled out at an automotive pump, then we would charge that to the Solid Waste fund. But when we get busy and we have things like disasters, the same people get pulled off to do those types of things, like disasters. So most of it is ready, but it's usually just the allocations, or if we're short on staff, then they're doing multiple jobs. So a lot of it we can provide, I think it's just trying to let us know what information you would like, and then I can discuss it with our staff and determine what —it's going to be pretty accurate or if there are going to be things that are changing. MR. INABA: Okay, and I'll ask you in a slightly different way, what information could be excluded that we're currently getting that could get us the report faster? MS. SAKO: So a lot of that —we could provide a report at any point and time, but guys would have to understand it's going to change. So things that may be Page 4 FC-3 February 7, 2023 showing up in Automotive fuel, a week later may show up in Solid Waste fuel, does that make sense? MR. INABA: Makes sense. Okay, thank you. Chair, I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: So I don't have any, like specific ideas of what should be on it, but I guess just as a sort of general —you know, usually on a board you'll look at the financials and it will be usually about a page or two and a summary, and it will be budget versus actual, so something along that line is more of a snapshot I think would be great; and actually for me, I think even year over year, like last year, if we could look at that kind of information, that will be great as well. Just sort of your basic budget report that you would get. MS. SAKO: You want something higher level? MS. GALIMBA: Yeah. MS. SAKO: So, one of the challenges we have is the fund accounting, and we can't necessarily consolidate the funds, so we could do something fund -by -fund. One of the key things, though, is the grants because they do throw off the total. So if you look at the total fund at any point and time, we might look really good like we are way under budget because we don't accrue the grant and carry it over until June 30'', because a lot of those grants are either multi -year or they may be on a federal fiscal year, which is October I" to September 30'', so they don't always coincide with our year. But we can try and come up with something that would show like budget versus actual. I think also heard you say, "compared to prior year," and maybe do a mock-up and see what that is, okay. MS. GALIMBA: I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Anyone else? Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I know I've been the one who keeps asking about this, but bouncing off of what my fellow colleague Ms. Galimba mentioned, I think, Deanna, it really is that executive summary, that high-level, capturing at all the high levels, kind of an executive summary, actual versus budgeted, with the deep understanding that there's going to be adjustments along the way because you guys do an excellent job accounting for it, right down to the ten cents and penny. I think, as Ms. Galimba mentioned, that snapshot is helpful. MS. SAKO: My only concern is it's going to be so consolidated. It may not provide that much information. So things like transfers to the Special Funds, we Page 5 FC-3 February 7, 2023 usually only do like twice a year. So, I'm just preparing you guys so that when you see that it's severely under budget, don't think that means we have all this money to spend because we have all the fringe benefits that we pay out with each pay period and things like that. So, there's definite —everything in the budget is programmed, and a lot of things don't get spent until towards the end of the year. I mean, we're willing to try it. I want everybody to see it, but I don't want people to think, "Oh look, we have all this money," and start getting ideas. I've worked with some of you before, and no offense. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, and to that point, right, we recognize that there is kind of this mad dash, the last quarter of our fiscal cycle, to make sure everything is paid and spent according to the budget, and we have other stuff like MS. SAKO: Right, and I'm just saying there are some contracts that we know we enter into May of every year. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah, contracts, right? MS. SAKO: You know, like it's an annual contract, but it happens to be that their renewal is maybe in May or June, versus not everything is July 1st, so those types of things wouldn't get encumbered until closer to year-end. MS. LEE LOY: Right, and actually there's some of that, that we have later on the agenda, where we actually have contracts lasting out the five years, right? MS. SAKO: Yes, multi -year accounts. MS. LEE LOY: We start now, but then it will be in the future budget. MS. SAKO: Um -hum. MS. LEE LOY: Absolutely, absolutely. That's actually where I would love to live a little bit, as to where are we on this budget. We see transfers coming in and out, completely understand that emergencies that happen, and then all the contract and the grant -work that goes into it. I think my biggest challenge continues to be, it's disheartening to see a monthly summary report from five months ago, right, when we're making a decision. MS. SAKO: Yeah, so the Accounting Division, even though got pulled off to work on lava and other things, they really are trying to get it together; and so I think, I don't know, we're at September or October, so their goal is to definitely be caught up by March 1st so that as you folks are looking at the budget, you folks will have the most recent information. Page 6 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, and actually targeting those benchmarks, right? We will get the first iteration of the budget in March, then we'll get another one in May; and if we're just closer with MS. SAKO: Yeah, so by that time of year, they'll definitely be closer. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, and if there's any need for us to lean in on the departments. Because we recognize a lot of the information is coming from other departments and that inputting, if there's something we could do? MS. SAKO: Some of it is just timing. As you know, that's the same division, along with Budget (Division), that helps look at all the several hundred nonprofit grant applications that just came in last week. So, it's the same people doing a lot of different things. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, Director Sako, great to see you. Thanks for being here and your willingness to collaborate. Just a couple of questions. My colleague Council Member Galimba did bring up grants, and so I'm wondering if it's possible to also include because I know it's not part of the Operating Budget, but the money that we've received from the Federal Government: CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security), ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding, if there is MS. SAKO: They are in the Operating Budget. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Is there a way to kind of break that down so we can see which departments are being supplemented with that funding because it's not something we can count on in perpetuity? MS. SAKO: That's correct. It's all in one account, in the 900 Series and the General Fund. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MS. SAKO: But what it probably doesn't have is which departments have it. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Would that be too difficult to do, to just identify which departments are leveraging those federal funds? MS. SAKO: Ask me next month, after the budget's done, when we're not quite so busy, yeah. Page 7 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MS. SAKO: I don't have very many people. I can ask to pull special reports right now because we are literally that busy. But definitely, something I will keep in mind and see if we can do a high level just on that larger pot of money. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That would be great, thank you. MS. SAKO: Not on every grant, okay? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: No, not on every grant. I think that would be a bit too much. MS. SAKO: Yes. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: But this is over $60 million, and American Rescue fund money. MS. SAKO: And just so we're clear, the CARES Act is all gone. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: It's all gone, yes. But if we get other direct allocations. Yeah, I'm just thinking of direct allocations from the Federal Government to the County that aren't competitive. And then, is it also possible to include some of our potential liabilities or fixed costs over time? Thinking about pensions, fringe benefits, things of that nature that you already know and are projecting out so that we can take that into consideration, like a lump -sum of these items. MS. SAKO: Yeah, and that's in the ACFR, the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report that just got released. I am not sure when it will becoming to you guys. The auditors just completed the end of January. So those types of liabilities I don't have a problem putting out for you guys. We get the actuarial studies once a year, and things like that. I think it's more like what the projected payments are because for ERS (Employees' Retirement System) it's not like an actuarial determination anymore. It's 24 percent for all of our employees and 41 percent for Police and Fire. So, each pay period we're remitting that to ERS. Our OPEB (Other Post -Employment Benefits), which is the post -employment medical, that we pay monthly based on the actuarial study, and so it's $40-some million a year, so we pay that, one -twelfth each month, but the amount is not —we have, I think, this year and coming years amount from the actuary that we can provide, just so the Council knows it's going up, it's going down, or wherever it's at. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, I think that would be helpful to just get that whole picture. Thank you, Director. Page 8 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. SAKO: I was going to mention when you mentioned "liabilities," if there are other potential large payouts, we would not put that in a public report, but we would prefer to discuss those types of things in Executive Session. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, great. Thanks for letting us know. Chair, I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. My question is about transferring the funds. So today, we just approved transfer of funds. How long will that take before it shows up on the monthly —your kind of monthly report? MS. SAKO: So the one that was on today's agenda was I think December 16th to 31 ", so that will be in the December report. That will be reflected in the December Monthly Status Report that the Council receives. So whatever the date of the transfer is, is when it will be in the financials. I'm not positive when you'll get the December one. It might be next month. But by March 1st, you'll have them all. MS. EVANS: So you can transfer it without our approval? MS. SAKO: Yes. So Charter allows for a department to transfer within a department. Just because Ramzi (Mansour) is sitting behind me, Director of DEM (Department of Environmental Management) can transfer within his DEM admin., or he can transfer within the Solid Waste Division, you know, maybe from OCE (Other Current Expenses) to equipment. Just as an example, our equipment bids are all coming in high, you know, the costs are going up, so he may have to transfer from OCE to equipment. But then, we cannot transfer Mayor cannot transfer between departments. So let's say Fire Department ran short this year, we cannot transfer from Police to Fire without coming to the Council for approval. MS. EVANS: Okay, I have one more question, on this line. Okay. So speaking of Environmental Management, I was looking at the transfer, and it went into workmen's comp., but what was interesting is they're eligible because there were vacancies. So when you don't fill vacanciesI'm a little confused because if we're out actively filling positions, removing many out of vacancies that cover other costs. This was for workmen's comp. MS. SAKO: So what they actually transferred was from health benefits, retirement, and FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act), and there are probably additional amounts available in those fringe benefit accounts because they do have vacancies. One thing is like health benefits, that does not vary with overtime or anything like that. If the position is vacant, we're not paying medical; and sometimes when we hire a new person, they may be covered by their spouse, Page 9 FC-3 February 7, 2023 so we may not have to pay health benefits. So there are a variety of reasons, but health benefits usually is the one that we have the most difficult time estimating, only because —as employees change, if the workforce stays constant, we can predict it down to a penny, but if we're hiring new people, we don't know if they're going to even need medical insurance, or if they're going to be single, to parry or family. So, they do have extra in those accounts. And then, worker's comp., same thing, we do our best to estimate the expenditures and worker's comp. based on previous years' expenditures, but sometimes either due to the type of injury, or also because we may be settling and closing out claims, then we would have a higher expenditure in a particular year. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Chair, have we ever had a discussion on workmen's comp. in front of the? Oh, okay. Thank you. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Any further discussion? Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, everybody, for making your recommendations; and thank you again, Director Sako, for your willingness to work with us. I think, from our standpoint, we're looking for information that allows us to make better decisions, but also for that element of transparency with the public so that we can respond to questions about, you know, what's reported in the newspaper. Couple of things that I was interested in, and I'm kind of having this dashboard vision which may be a step too, I'm interested in how we're progressing on budgeted salary and wages versus actual. This could just be generally particularly, just to highlight potentially the vacancy amount and maybe the annual as well, as like the current month. The other thing would be CIP (Capital Improvement Projects) and the investment made to date in various projects, at different stages. Council Member Kierkiewicz mentioned grants. I'd be interested if we could see just some total of grants per funding source, or federal grants coming into the County's—State funding coming into the County, and then our potential match liability for those grants. Some information about our debt. I know we get the debt report, nothing at that level, but some sort of summary of our percentage liability overall, but that's —and looking at our leases versus just outright leases versus lease -to - own type, if that breakout is possible. Finally, just the two particular funds, the Homeless Fund, and the Housing Production Fund. I'd like to see our progress on that, at a little more real-time basis. So those are my asks, if at all possible. Thank you. Page 10 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. SAKO: Well, you have been dreaming. I can do maybe about half of these things, and the rest you're going to have to wait for our new software. I mean this, like I really love you guys, but I'm here late every night and I do need some sleep, and I would like to see my husband periodically. So yeah, but we will do our best. Some of these things can be there, but yes. MS. KIMBALL: I understand. You've learned how I negotiate, you know, you ask for ten, and I'm happy with five. So I think we're — MS. SAKO: Yeah, let's see what we can do, yeah. MS. KIMBALL: Great. Thank you, Deanna. I yield, Chair. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, a lot of my questions were answered, Ms. Sako. I think the biggest thing is timing, especially as we approach our budget season, and figuring out how we're going to be looking at our department overviews and the proposed budgets, and understanding where they stand right now. MS. SAKO: Yeah, and I think we did add an additional accountant to the budget for that division, and we're still in the process of filling it; but I think once that person gets onboard, that will help, as well. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, I was going to ask if you have enough personnel, and if this was a good time to be talking about that. MS. SAKO: Yeah. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you very much, Ms. Sako; and thank you, Ms. Kimball, for bringing this forward. Very helpful. With that, Council Members, we have the motion on the floor to close file on Communication 67, all in favor? Vote on Comm. 67: The motion to close file on Comm. 67 was carried Filed by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Communications Page 11 FC-3 Res. 44-23 Motion to Approve February 7, 2023 AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAI`I, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PURSUANT TO HAWAI`I REVISED STATUTES SECTION 46-7, FOR A GRANT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Allows for the receipt of $49,600 in federally derived funds, which would be used to complete a Wastewater Service Area Expansion Feasibility Study. Reference: Comm.82 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Ms. Lee Loy moved to recommend adoption of Res. 44-23. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members, discussion? Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. I just had a quick question for Director Mansour about how these funds may or may not be combined with the Integrated Wastewater Management Study that we funded last budget. (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director Ramzi Mansour came forward to address the members of the Committee. MR. MANSOUR: Good morning. Aloha. This grant was given to us by EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to actually do a cesspool study conversion, but since we started it, they found out that money cannot be utilized for research purposes, so we directed that fund to do a more of a service area expansion study for the cesspool, disadvantaged communities. So what we're going to look into, starting a location within priority one, within that cesspool conversion study, and find out the disadvantaged homeowners needed help to do the conversion, and this would allow us to do that for the entire service area. MS. KIMBALL: Great, thank you. I think that would be very helpful. Just for my colleagues, now we have Director Mansour coming back next — MR. MANSOUR: The 21st MS. KIMBALL: The 21 st to present that cesspool the taskforce report. One of the things that I just wanted to highlight, hopefully, this will be useful towards there is some funding in the State Revolving Fund to help with cesspool conversations for lower -income. I believe it's $1.8 million for our island, but we have to develop some sort of procedure to appropriately allocate those funds. The issue isactually those funds, they need to be they can be used as a reimbursement, and so that's actually particularly challenging when you're Page 12 FC-3 February 7, 2023 talking about how bigger lower -income families to convert, it's because they've got to front the money. I am having conversations with Administrator Kunz on how we might work with a Lender to support that program. But I appreciate the support in helping us kind of maybe diagnose who will be eligible for that program. MR. MANSOUR: Yes, definitely. Thank you. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Director, good to see you. Thank you for your explanation. I was also just curious if the information that you're getting from this particular study can be used for the programmatic EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) that you're conducting for Puna? Or, how does that study maybe interplay with the research that's being done here. MR. MANSOUR: The research that we're doing for the Puna area, already is going to identify the cesspool conversion. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And the solutions. MR. MANSOUR: And the solutions. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, perfect. MR. MANSOUR: So there's no reason to double the work. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, great. So this is for island -wide, this particular study that we are looking at right now? MR. MANSOUR: Yes, for the service —within the area that already have a wastewater. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MR. MANSOUR: So how could we expand the cesspool conversion within the service area that already has a wastewater treatment plant within it? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, great. Thanks for that clarification. MR. MANSOUR: So you have seven waste treatment plants, so that's going to cover that area. Particularly, Hilo and Kealakehe are the largest ones. Page 13 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. And this is enough funding to do that research, $50,000. MR. MANSOUR: It's going to be for in-house reimbursement. So, it's not going to be a consultant or a third -parry, it's going to be my staff doing the work. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. And the timeframe for the completion of the report? MR. MANSOUR: I have Kelly here. Actually, she was going to do a presentation for you guys, but she couldI might as well bring her. Kelly? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Kelly, since you are here, just a high-level overview of your involvement in the work and the timeframe. MR. MANSOUR: I just want to give kudos to Kelly. She's been in my department for a while, but she got promoted to the Environmental Management as a Planner, and she's been doing a stellar job. Literally, taking all of our projects. We're going to come back and present to you all —Council Member Kierkiewicz, remember the challenges and the priorities last year, when you asked us to come here? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Oh, do I remember. MR. MANSOUR: Yes. So now all laid out in a master schedule, project definitions and what have you. You guys will be really surprised to see that, but we'll come back later and share that with you, as well. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks, Director. Kelly, if you could just introduce yourself for the record, thank you. (Note: At this time, Kelly Hartman, Environmental Management Planner, came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. HARTMAN: I'm Kelly Hartman. I'm the Environmental Management Planner with the Department of Environmental Management. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. If you could just provide us an overview of how you are leading this work? MS. HARTMAN: Sure. So I developed the project proposal. The Wastewater Division is going to be project managing it. Chris Laude is going to be the Project Manager. The team includes Dora Beck, myself, and Taylor Tomita for GIS (Geographic Information System), so I'll be working with them. It's an Page 14 FC-3 February 7, 2023 18-month project. We're looking to start in April, as soon as the MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) gets rerouted through DOH (Department of Health) and signed. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Anything else you want to share with us? MS. HARTMAN: Nope. So the scope of the project, we'll do project management. We'll meet every month to discuss —we're going to develop existing conditions, inventory, and GIS map with all the information and planning information. We will develop a wastewater service area expansion feasibility tool, and then use that tool to do an analysis. Additionally, we're going to also look at our capacity information. This is kind of a pre -step to the Wastewater Master Plan, making sure we identify gaps in the data that will help us understand the capacity of our system, sewer pump stations, and collection system. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Excellent, great to know. Is there any public outreach involved in this process? MS. HARTMAN: There is no public outreach in the study. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. All right, thanks for that information. I appreciate it. Chair, I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Sure, just one quick question. What's considered Priority 1 zone? Is that the Puako, Kahalu`u, Hilo Bay? MR. MANSOUR: It's likely to be the one that's facing the shoreline. MS. VILLEGAS: Gotcha. MR. MANSOUR: So as we come here on the 21", Department of Health will join us to do the presentation, and the engineer that did the report, as well. MS. VILLEGAS: Great. MR. MANSOUR: Priority 1 is kind of coastal -line properties that have groundwater impact or shoreline impact. MS. VILLEGAS: Fantastic. And congratulations, Kelly. Wow, just so grateful seeing Mr. Mansour's face glowing. I can tell he's incredibly grateful and proud of the work that you're doing. Thank you for bringing this level of expertise and Page 15 FC-3 February 7, 2023 organization and really concise and precise knowledge to an arena that has been neglected unfortunately for decades in our County. So, really excited to see where we're going, and with leadership and management, so thank you a lot. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: All right. So my question has just a little more clarity about the service area, because you said feasibility study based on current service area. So does that mean you want to expand the wastewater treatment plants, or look at the current wastewater treatment plants, and their capacity that we have not—? I'm a little confused about the service area. MS. HARTMAN: So we're looking in areas where we already have a wastewater treatment plant, where we can expand a collection system, as is, with the capacity that we have, or upsize, so we can bring in additional customers into existing treatment plants. MS. EVANS: So will you be looking at possibly building capacity in the treatment plants? MS. HARTMAN: This study, we'll look at that. We need to do additional capacity hydraulic modeling, and that will be part of the facility plans that we're working on scoping right now, and then the greater wastewater master plan. MS. EVANS: Will you also be looking at funding, I mean funding sources, or is it after you do this study, that will be your baseline so you can go look at funding? MS. HARTMAN: So we're also tackling a Capital Improvements Project plan right now, where we're looking at countywide for every treatment plant or pump station collection system, what are our project going to look like over the next 20, 30 years, and so that would include a metric of, you know, the relative importance of system expansion and bringing people in on the cesspools. So that will be part of that greater plan, and then that will have a financial plan included in it. MS. EVANS: Okay. MR. MANSOUR: Just to add to this, the $49,000 is pretty much designated to the cesspool, in a sense within the boundary area of the treatment plant. Let's, for example, the Hilo treatment plant has a certain boundary, let's assume a two-mile radius, that's for the sake of assumption, so that's what we refer to as the service area, within that two-mile radius, services that, you know, particular treatment plant. So that study only intended to look at the cesspool conversion for disadvantaged homeowners within that two-mile radius. And then, kind of recommend how we could help them. Page 16 FC-3 February 7, 2023 This has nothing to do with financial of the treatment and expansion, what we refer to as Fac Plan (Facility Plan), and we are working on that as well, for the Hilo and the Kealakehe treatment plant, to figure out hydraulically, do we have enough capacity in the sewer collection system to be able to sustain and take the additional flow within a certain mile distance? So that's a totally more complex study. Also, we're looking into having a third -party come in and do this larger study on the Kealakehe area. MS. EVANS: Good to know, thank you. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Seeing no other discussion, I do have one question for you folks, and thank you for the information this morning. On the B-52, under Section B, this is specific to disadvantaged communities, is the grant specific to disadvantaged communities? Disadvantage meaning what in this case? MR. MANSOUR: During the study, the Department of Health conducted, based on the cesspool conversion report which was issued late last year, they create a level of income that constitutes low housing can -based on the median value, I believe an $89,000 a year. I don't have the exact number, but the study was there, and that's what determined —okay, here. Here we go. See, that's why I brought Kelly. Kelly she's really good. So they target actually median household income, from $49,000 to $74,999. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So that is specific for this grant, correct? MS. HARTMAN: Correct. MR. MANSOUR: Yes. MS. HARTMAN: It was a stipulation of the funding. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So the areas that we're going to look at expanding into with our wastewater system via this study are going to be looking at those target income levels? MR. MANSOUR: Yes. Let's clarify "expansion." So the idea is we do the study within the area, and there are certain households that need help, then we need to figure out how we could expand that service to these individuals. It's going to be difficult, of course, because you have clusters of homes. So the idea is, do you expand the infrastructure and how would it cost to expand that infrastructure, or would you provide IWSs for them, which is Individual Wastewater Systems? So, all that is going to be looked at, and analyzed, and the best solution economically and environmentally will be selected. Page 17 FC-3 February 7, 2023 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, it sounds —I've heard different things this morning regarding whom we're looking to service or expand services to. MR. MANSOUR: Yeah. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I wouldn't say that some of the areas you've noted, in my eyes, be in the $49,000 to $74,000 per year income bracket. Where would you garner that information from? MR. MANSOUR: Well, definitely, based on the study that Carollo Engineering did, we're going to present to you on the 21 ", and you probably could start writing questions because it's going to be a great presentation, from the census study. So, they did a lot of reports for the entire State. They used a complicated financial model to come up with these analyses. They'll be here on the 21" to present it to you, as well. But let me just make it clear, we're talking about the area within wastewater service area, not like —for example, your district does not have a waste treatment plant, therefore that does not extend to that area. I just want to make sure. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. MR. MANSOUR: Because it could be confused, because when people say, "cesspool expansion, it's only $49,000." CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I agree. MR. MANSOUR: We limit it to CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I agree. I agree. That's why —it's interesting, the wording of the grant, which I'm assuming is a DOH requirement for the funding. MR. MANSOUR: Yes. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And then how we plan on attacking this, yeah, it's going to be a handful. Okay, well I look forward to seeing what you folks do with it. I like the "disadvantaged community" piece because that starts to help the people who need help. MR. MANSOUR: In addition to that, I thinkdefinitely, as we present it on the 21", there is so much to assist. So much study has been presented to how we go about assisting the disadvantaged communities. A few options were presented to legislation to be able to pass bills, to assist either tax credits, or $10,000 to Page 18 FC-3 February 7, 2023 $20,000 cash values, to assist disadvantaged communities to convert their cesspools to septic tanks. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you very much, Director; and thank you, Kelly, appreciate your time, good to see you again. We do have the motion on the floor. Seeing no further discussion. Motion on the floor to forward Resolution 44-23 to Council with a favorable recommendation, all in favor, Council Members? Vote on Res. 44-23: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 44-23 (Approved) was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Moving on to our next resolution. Res. 45-23: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM THE DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A FUND ACCOUNT Transfers $3,000 from the Liquor Control/Public Programs account; and credits to the Contingency Relief account, to return Contingency Relief funds from the Department of Liquor Control. Reference: Comm.84 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend adoption of Res. 45-23. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: This seems to be one of the Contingency Relief resolutions from my district. The department wasn't able to come to an agreement with the nonprofit, so $3,000 will be returned to my CRF (Contingency Relief Fund) account for use before the end of the fiscal year. Thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, seeing no other discussion. Motion is on the floor to forward Resolution 45-23 to Council with a favorable recommendation, all in favor? Page 19 FC-3 Vote on Res. 45-23: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 45-23 (Approved) was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. February 7, 2023 Res. 46-23: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR AND OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR A MULTI -YEAR AGREEMENT FOR SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE AND USER SUPPORT Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a five-year agreement with Ventiv Technology, Inc. with an approximate cost of $17,094 for the first year and a gradual yearly increase ending at approximately $19,239 for the final year, for maintenance and user support for the Department of Human Resources, Workers' Compensation Division. Reference: Comm.85 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to recommend adoption of Res. 46-23. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members, I'd like to ask the director to come forward and give us a little background on this, and then we can go forward with questions. (Note: At this time, Human Resources Director Waylen L. K. Leopoldino and Worker's Compensation Division Manager Sommer Tokihiro came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. LEOPOLDINO: Good morning. Waylen Leopoldino, Director of Human Resources. For technical questions on the software, I'm going to turn it over to Sommer Tokihiro. She's our Division Manager for our Worker's Compensation Division. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. If you could, give us a little background on what's in front of us, and then we'll go to questions from the Council Members. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. This software is how we manage worker's compensation claims, so it stores all of the claim data for us. It also interfaces with the County's third -party administrator, which is currently AIMS Page 20 FC-3 February 7, 2023 (Acclamation Insurance Management Services). They handle Parks and Recreation and Police Department claims for us. They use the same software. It also interfaces with our current accounting software, and Fresh, so we're able to enter all invoices into our claim software, and then it exports it into Fresh, so all payments are actually issued through the Director of Finance as we would for any other department. A lot of software, it's sold. Like, this is the box version. So you take the box home, and we had to —we've had to make customizations to do some of the interfaces, and so that contributes to the annual cost of maintenance. Basically, the maintenance cost increases by about five percent per year, and then there are some additional charges for the customizations that we've made. But, standard agreement. We've had this particular software company for quite a few years. It's had different names. It's evolved, so initially it was Renaissance, and then it became David Corp., and then it became Ventiv Tech. This software is used by a lot of public jurisdictions throughout the United States, and it's also used by multiple jurisdictions here within the State, which is advantageous so that when there are changes, say to the State's report of injury form. They've made the updates to that form, and dropped it into our software right away, amongst jurisdictions and also different insurers within the State. We get better responses from this company as far as making upgrades when needed or making changes when needed. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you very much. Council Members? No discussion? Okay. Question for you then. We've seen a number of other operating systems, sometimes they're not the best, and just don't add up in the end. Is there a way for us to get out of this if we so choose, if we find out this is not interfacing as well as we thought it would be? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes, certainly. If there were issues or we found that things weren't working, this is a contract that we would —that allows for us to be terminated. There is a lot of help and support things in place that we utilize regularly. So if something is not working with the software, or something changes and all of a sudden we lose a function, or if we're inquiring about changing a function, there's always this ongoing communication with their support to have our issues addressed. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, good. Yeah, I'm thinking about EPIC (Electronic Processing and Information Center) and Tyler, and knowing that those have been fairly frustrating, even though they promised a lot of help upfront, right? On the backend, when we go to ask for help, there was a bit of a back -and -forth that had to happen before we got there. As long as you feel Page 21 FC-3 February 7, 2023 comfortable with this software and the support services that are available, then I'm okay with proceeding. MS. TOKIHIRO: And I think due to the amount of time that we've had a business relationship with the company, I feel very comfortable at this point. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Okay, thank you. That's very helpful. Okay, thank you for bringing this forward. Any further discussion? MS. GALIMBA: I just want to say it's really refreshing to hear of a software program, where everybody is happy, and it's reasonable. It's reasonable. It really is reasonable for a software, so yay. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Okay, thank you both for being here this morning. Appreciate your time, thank you. Mr. Clerk, motion is on the floor. Council Members, all in favor? Vote on Res. 46-23: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 46-23 (Approved) was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 47-23: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR AND OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR A MULTI -YEAR LEASE OF SIX SEMI -TRACTORS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a five-year lease agreement with an approximate monthly cost of $25,800 for equipment to transfer refuse from the East Hawaii Regional Sort Station to the West Hawaii Sanitary Landfill. Reference: Comm.86 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to recommend adoption of Res. 47-23. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We do have the director joining us today here in the chambers. I'm looking around the room for any discussion. Director Mansour, could you come up and give us some background on this? Page 22 FC-3 February 7, 2023 (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director Ramzi Mansour came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. MANSOUR: Good morning once again. I should have just stayed here. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You might want to stay there for a while. MR. MANSOUR: Get my items done so I can yeah, last year June, this current year budget, we came before you requesting the replacement of certain equipment that had passed, way passed its lifespan. Most of these equipment, especially these six semi -tractors, the mileage was definitely in the 600,000, 700,000 range. These tractors are utilized to transport waste from east to west, and from other transfer stations to the Hilo or to the west landfill. The tractor itself, the unit, you know, where the trailers get hooked to, to be able to transport the waste. These tractors are definitely probably 20 to 25 years old. I'm trying to look at the list of the inventory that we presented to you, as we did the budget. The way we start looking at equipment inventory is to look at the equipment and the year it was purchased, the amount of maintenance it had during these particular years, and the amount of mileage that the vehicle has. We cannot run vehicles forever. We live on the island and it's hard to find parts, and unfortunately every time we have breakdowns, it takes a long time to get one tractor fixed, due to the fact that —even a small part still needs to come from the mainland. So we are trying to be proactive this coming fiscal year, that's going to come before you in May also because we're going to continue to ask in upgrading our equipment so we don't fall behind. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Director. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. I was glad to hear you say that these tractors are not just used for transporting refuse from East Hawaii to West Hawaii because I hope in five years —we're working on a plan to not keep doing that all the time. So you said these will still be needed for other sites, not just for transferring from the east side to the west side, is that correct? MR. MANSOUR: That is correct? In addition, as we start looking into the options, definitely transporting waste from east to west is not sustainable, everybody knows that. The idea we just got into, it's hard to even transition to something else, and probably any transitional from that type of operation is going to take some time. Even, let's say if we side the landfill east side, it's going to take you 10 years probably before you break ground. So any equipment we purchase now, it's an investment to the business that we operate on a daily basis. And yes, it would assist the other 21 transfer stations on the island. Page 23 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. And this is a lease to own? MR. MANSOUR: This is a lease to own, but we own it after the five years, yeah. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you so much. Thank you, Chair. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Evans? MS. EVANS: Thank you. So during the lease -period, is the vendor responsible for the repair? MR. MANSOUR: I believe within the five years —it's kind of tricky because of the Kono decision comes to play. If the County owns a vehicle, we cannot have a third parry maintain it. It has to be maintained by our Automotive shop. This is a lease. I guess I'll refer it to my Business Manager, maybe she could add to what was in the detailed agreement. Our intent was to have them provide the maintenance because it's a lease, not owned. (Note: At this time, Business Manager Robin Bauman came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. BAUMAN: Good morning, I'm Robin Bauman, the Business Manager. These leases are really just a funding mechanism, so we are responsible for the repairs and the maintenance. MS. EVANS: I was just thinking when you lease cars, if something is wrong, they have to make sure they're fine. So, there will be a warranty on all these, how many years of warranty? Because if there's a warranty, that might cover something that might happen. MR. MANSOUR: It goes back again, even the warrantyI mean, for parts we haven't written the specs yet. So this is just for your Council Members to allow us to go and put the bids out. We need to navigate that with Corporation Counsel as well, to figure out where we could draw the line, what they could do versus what the County could do. I totally understand. That's exactly you know, you think you lease it, maintenance comes with it, but unfortunately, it's a bit more complicated. MS. EVANS: So if we have to maintain it, then we have to go to our Automotive Services Division and ask them if they can actually work on these types of vehicles? MR. MANSOUR: That's correct. Page 24 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. EVANS: Have you done that? MR. MANSOUR: It's similar types of vehicles like we have now, so the same type of manufacturing. You know, you have three or four companies that provide these types of vehicles, so they will work on it. They have no other option, so we have to get it fixed through the County system. MS. EVANS: Right, but you made a statement that sometimes you can't get parts. MR. MANSOUR: That's for any vehicle. MS. EVANS: Is that because of age, because of age, not because of the brand? MR. MANSOUR: What I meant is we cannot get parts on the island, you have to order it from the mainland. MS. EVANS: Yeah. MR. MANSOUR: It's just the logistics of finding parts here within the island. MS. EVANS: Okay, all right. Thank you, Chair. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Any further discussion? Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: I'm just going to make one comment about the possibility of looking at alternative fuel for these types. Obviously, they're not available now, but my only thought is about a lease to own, a five-year lease to own that commits us to diesel, I presume, vehicles for those five years and beyond. I don't know if there's an option for us to consider another approach, which would allow us to at some point, utilize alternative fuel vehicles for this sort of activity. MR. MANSOUR: It's a great question. To tell you, we did look at alternative. was working with Sustainability Partners to figure out could we do electrical hydrogen. The hydrogen is not there yet. There are challenges, especially when you're talking about these types of vehicles, 18-wheelers, you know, heavy loading. Electrical, we entertain electrical, but because you have the trailer, it's mechanical, and you have to have the hydraulic fluid lines for the brakes, so that did not match well with the electrical tractors. So we did look into it, and hopefully with technology as they move toward bigger equipment, that could be an option. Given the condition of our vehicles, even though we took the time to Page 25 FC-3 February 7, 2023 look at the options, but we didn't have the time. We cannot afford the time to wait. MS. KIMBALL: Understood, and thank you for taking that into consideration. Hopefully, not too long here we'll have more options for us. MR. MANSOUR: I hope so, yes. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, thank you. I yield, Chair. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, thank you for mentioning that, Chair Kimball. I'm wondering if perhaps biodiesel might be an opportunity for these tractors. Is utilizing biodiesel? MR. MANSOUR: Yeah, we talked about it, but the availability became a challenge. Once again, we live on an island, so we have to look at what we could produce more efficiently, and be able to continuously be able to access it. So the biodiesel options, even with the heavy equipment, it was a challenge too, because definitely if we want to do something different, hydrogen or electrical probably be the way. MS. VILLEGAS: Right. MR. MANSOUR: Given the time that we have to purchase, the staff felt very comfortable just to go with what we have. MS. VILLEGAS: Totally. MR. MANSOUR: They know how to maintain them, they know how to hook them up, from a safety point of view, and they know the mechanic part of it, and that's what we got us here. But definitely, technology is changing. There are ways of conversion to biodiesel, and we've been talking to certain people about possibly capture that resource. We've been talking about the Hilo Waste Treatment Plan, with the Hilo landfill. It's our extracting the then extracting the hydrogen out of it. We could actually generate enough hydrogen for transit and in our vehicle, that's how much we could generate. MS. VILLEGAS: Right. MR. MANSOUR: So we've been looking into all of these options. MS. VILLEGAS: Right. Page 26 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MR. MANSOUR: So, still open-door. With so many technology and so many people out there are willing to work with us on that, and that will continue. MS. VILLEGAS: Well, let's connect offline because I know Pacific Biodiesel provides the biodiesel for the diesel engine vehicles, I believe for the County of Oahu and some of the other municipalities, and so they have established a great relationship with providing that fuel source, so perhaps there's some opportunity there. We'll just explore it offline and see. Because the diesel can run on biodiesel, right? There isn't a huge —we can talk about all that science. MR. MANSOUR: We need to look into the logistics of it. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, yeah. MR. MANSOUR: I know certain engines, you still have to modify them, but we could MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, great. Fantastic. We'll talk offline. MR. MANSOUR: Absolutely. MS. VILLEGAS: I appreciate that. Thank you for taking the risk -reward. Time is of the essence. We can't afford, I mean, I hate that we have garbage trucking across the island, but right now that's what has to happen, and nothing more frustrating than not having the vehicles to move things right now, so thank you. I'll be supporting this today. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Inaba, you want to? MR. INABA: I think just following up on Council Member Evans' question. Regarding the maintenance, it's a lease by our accounting terms, but when it does break down in those five years, we're responsible to fix it. I see Director Sako nodding. Okay, because shouldn't be department or contract -by -contract, that's just standard, right? Okay. MR. MANSOUR: It is. Sometimes when you lease, you request that the manufacturer of that equipment to continue providing the maintenance over the five years, but in our situation, we couldn't. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. Chair, I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Council Member Evans. Page 27 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. EVANS: Yeah, I have a question. I was looking at your justification, and you say the purchase price for the six comes to $1.476 million, and then you said the lease payment is $25,800 per month, and I did that times 60, and there's not that big of a difference between lease payment and owning it. Usually, with a leaseI mean, what interest are we paying? It doesn't I don't know why, it's just not computing to me. It looks like there should be MS. BAUMAN: I think when we did this, we were using about 2.4 percent for the interest, but I think it's gone up now. MR. MANSOUR: Yes, gone up. MS. EVANS: Will it be APR (Annual Percentage Rate) or is this fixed? MS. BAUMAN: It's fixed. MS. EVANS: Okay. Okay, I think that's really important because following the line of questioning, I kind of like the idea that maybe we shouldn't be going with six tractors, maybe we should be going with two or three, and then having you go back out and figure out how to maybe go to the new the next generation of tractors. Do we really want to stay hooked to six of these for five years because once you're in, you can't get out, or is there a buyout clause? MR. MANSOUR: Well, we need the tractors. It's not a matter of buying one or two. We actually have a total of 40 tractors; 23 of them are running the risk, were inactive or disposed. We started with 40, now we're down to 23. So we have 21 transfer stations, and we have trips from east to west. We've got five trucks, four to five trucks, and they do two trips a day. So the idea of buying one or two and waiting till technology comes in, that's not sustainable and not recommended; because as we stand now, we don't have enough equipment to do our current operation. As to your question, about owning it versus leasing it? We're going to own it after the five years, but this is more to give us a payment method rather than paying cash for it. I guess part of it is probably the budget, because if we end up buying all this equipment in cash, it's going to tie up a big amount of money versus you breaking it over five years and you still own it. So, it's at 2.4 percent. Is the interest rate we pay worth expanding the expenditure over five years? It seems like it is because you don't want to put all your money at one time. MS. EVANS: Right. Considering the timing, that we're getting close to the budget time, I mean, maybe you have some money that's going to lapse. Maybe there's a possibility of using some of your lapsed funds to buy these tractors. Page 28 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MR. MANSOUR: You need to come and work for our department to see how dry we are. I wish. MS. EVANS: True, true. I haven't gone through a budget cycle yet. Yeah, I'm learning. I'm definitely learning. MR. MANSOUR: I truly wish that's the case, but unfortunately every year seems like we're trying to rob Peter to pay John, and just to make ends meet. MS. EVANS: Just one last question. Do you mind, Chair, one last question? You said you had 40 tractors, you're now running 23, so clearly you do the job with 23. You get the j ob done, maybe not to the level you want it, but you were at 40, so from 40 to 23 is huge. It's almost 50 percent, so what really has changed? MR. MANSOUR: What changed is that's why you see a lot of services, closure during the year for services; because we run out of vehicles, because when one breaks down, then we've got to shut down the facility. What changed is the determination of our staff doing a great job, working any hours of the day, trying to continue picking up people's garbage and taking it to the landfill. It's just we're overworking staff, giving them unsafe equipment that could break. You've seen it when your phone starts ringing about why we're closing one of these facilities because we don't have equipment running. That's why you have seen lately more of the facility closure because lack of equipment. MS. EVANS: Okay, that's a discussion for another day. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Okay, seeing no other lights. I appreciate your guys' time today. Ms. Evans asked one of the questions I had for you, what is your staffing level? MR. MANSOUR: That's probably another full discussion, really. I was going to share with you during the budget, what is my staff —at the Pahoa CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is specific for semi -truck drivers or CDL (Commercial Driver's License) drivers. MR. MANSOUR: Right, we've been advertising for heavy equipment operator's positions. How many vacancies, do you know? MS. BAUMAN: I don't recall off of the top of my head how many we have vacant. We do have just a couple vacant. I know we just had some people retire as well, so some vacancies we're trying to fill. Page 29 FC-3 February 7, 2023 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: The big question is, do you have enough drivers to drive 23 trucks? MR. MANSOUR: Yeah, we have enough drivers, but we have to alternate between drivers. Yes, we do. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. The 40 vehicles, the 40 semi - tractors that you have, those are able to be fixed or these are out of commission and done? We have an inventory, somewhere in accounting, and it's like this thick, I don't have it on me. MR. MANSOUR: I know I presented it to you when we did the budget back in May. I thought I brought a copy, maybe it's in my envelope. But yes, we have a list of all the equipment and the years. So we have 23 working trucks: 12 to be disposed, 4 being repaired, and 38 tractors total. The 12 being disposed, that kind of cuts us to where we're at now, with the 23 working. If you look at the list, our list of years for trucks goes back to 1991. The newest ones are probably —we've got some 2017, and we've got two 2020, so it kind of tells you it's —we're trying to take away from these last ones that already met its lifespan, the mileage and the condition of the vehicles. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, you have 38 total, 12 to be disposed of? MR. MANSOUR: Thirty-nine. Yeah, 23 working, 12 to be disposed, 4 being repaired, and 39 truck tractors total. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and does that number include what was —we passed the resolution I think last year to purchase more semi -tractors. Does that include those? Have they been brought in? Are you still in the process of bringing that in? MR. MANSOUR: Nothing has been brought in. Today, we are before you to get the B-52 so we could bid out what we asked you for in 2022-2023. MS. BAUMAN: I think you're asking about the ones you approved last year, which are on order. The anticipated delivery is not until August. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and how many did we have me, remind me, in that previous? MR. MANSOUR: You're talking about 2021-2022. MS. BAUMAN: I believe that was for three. Page 30 FC-3 Vote on Res. 47-23 (Approved) Res. 48-23 February 7, 2023 MR. MANSOUR: Yeah, I didn't bring the 2021-2022 budget stuff. But just also to let you know, from the minute we order it, we're looking at about a year or more delay just to deliver. So 2021-2022, they were ordered, and they told us it was going to take a year. We still haven't received them yet, so we're just behind on time of receiving that equipment. So if we got and ordered these, we're probably looking —we're not going to be able to receive them until probably 2023-2024 fiscal year or 2024-2025. But in the meantime, we don't have enough equipment because they keep breaking to continue because the new equipment is not coming fast enough. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I'll have a similar question for the next two resolutions, as well. MR. MANSOUR: Okay. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Because these are something that we passed in the last term. I'm just trying to nail down exactly how many we have and what we're shooting for. I know we have needs in the County, but this is a heavy expense that plays out for the next five years for the taxpayers of Hawai `i Hawai `i County, so I want to make sure we're doing the right thing. Thank you for your answers today. Okay, any further discussion from the Council Members? Okay, seeing none. Motion is on the floor to forward Resolution 47-23 to Council with a favorable recommendation, all in favor? The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 47-23 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Inaba —1. Excused: None. AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR AND OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR A MULTI -YEAR LEASE OF FOUR WALKING FLOOR TRAILERS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a five-year lease agreement with an approximate monthly cost of $15,600 for equipment to collect and transport refuse. Reference: Comm.87 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Page 31 FC-3 February 7, 2023 Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to recommend adoption of Res. 48-23. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members, very similar to our last ask, different type of equipment. Any discussion? Okay, seeing none. Mr. Mansour? MR. MANSOUR: Yes, sir? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How many walking floor trailers do we have currently? MR. MANSOUR: That one, I don't have the list on me. No, I didn't bring it with me either. The walking floor, no, it's not as much as the number of tractors. I don't have the numbers with me. But these, from last year, to replace the ones that already were deteriorating and has holes in them and not functioning. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Again, the reason I'm asking is because we did this less than a year ago, and I'm making sure that we're meeting our needs but we're not going over and above what we need and what we can actually use. MR. MANSOUR: Yeah, the walking floor, different floor. I was thinking about the regular trailers. These walking floor, probably we have more than eight. So we would probably have more than eight, currently. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. MANSOUR: So they're not your standard trailers because that's when youI think the purpose for these is the one east to west; so when you load them, you get to the landfill on the west side. You don't tilt the trailer. The floor walks; it rolls and it brings all the waste to the landfill. The reason why we probably do have eight is to you know, because we do four trips, and you have redundancy on that. But, we haven't replaced any for a long time. These are specifically to transport the waste to the landfill, so you don't have the tilting factor. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. This is what I'm going to ask for because I don't think you have the numbers in front of you right now, from what I just got. Okay, when you come back to Council with all of these, please bring an inventory of what you have, what was ordered, and what's incoming, so we can understand the ask and understand what is needed for the department, so we can make good decisions financially for our County. MR. MANSOUR: Okay. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Because again, the last one was about Page 32 FC-3 February 7, 2023 $1.4 million over five years. This is close to $1 million for five years, and then we have one more resolution coming for refuge trailers. MR. MANSOUR: I totally agree. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. I think that would be very helpful for all of us. MR. MANSOUR: Yeah, definitely. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Older Council Members and new Council Members understand what we're doing here. Over -arching, I know we need to make sure our refuse is being handled well and that you guys need your equipment, and that we need to take care of this for everyone on our island, but we have to make good fiscal decisions. So, please bring this information when you come back to Council. I'm sure these will pass today. Just provide this information so that we can see a good snapshot of what's going on. MR. MANSOUR: I agree. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Director. Any other discussion? Thank you. Mr. Clerk, we have a motion on the floor to forward Resolution 48-23 to the Council with a positive recommendation, all in favor? Vote on Res. 48-23: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 48-23 (Approved) was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Resolution 49-23, please. Page 33 FC-3 February 7, 2023 Res. 49-23: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR AND OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR A MULTI -YEAR LEASE OF FOUR COMPACTING REFUSE TRAILERS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a five-year lease agreement with an approximate monthly cost of $17,600, to replace four trailers used to transport refuse from County Solid Waste transfer stations. Reference: Comm.88 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to recommend adoption of Res. 49-23. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Any discussion, Council Members? Okay, seeing none. Director, I'm just going to say ditto to what I said last time. Thank you for being here today. I appreciate you answering all of our questions. Okay, Council Members, motion is on the floor. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? Vote on Res. 49-23 (Approved) The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 49-23 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Villegas —1. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Bill 17, please. Thank you for your time. BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES: Bills for Ordinances. Bill 17: AMENDS CHAPTER 19, ARTICLE 12, OF THE HAWAI`I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO REAL PROPERTY TAX APPEALS Amends Section 19-100 and repeals Section 19-101 to make the $50 deposit required for each appeal by a taxpayer to the County of Hawaii Tax Board of Review nonrefundable. Reference: Comm.68 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba Page 34 FC-3 February 7, 2023 Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend passage of Bill 17 on first reading. Seconded by Ms. Kimball. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mr. Inaba, go ahead. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair. I very straightforward bill. Communication 11 was the Real Property Tax Board of Reviews Annual Report, and their first recommendation, under legislative matters, was to amend this part of the Code to make the $50 appeal fee non-refundable, so that's what you'll see in this bill before us. We have our Real Property Tax Administrator Lisa Miura here to answer any questions. I ask for my Council Members' support on this matter. Thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Any discussion from the Council or questions for the Director? Okay, seeing none. Thank you for bringing this forward, Mr. Inaba. We do have the motion on the floor to forward Bill 17 to Council with a favorable recommendation, all in favor? Vote on Bill 17: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 17 on (Approved) first reading was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Villegas —1. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Bill 20, please. Bill 20: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 22-63, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI`I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2023 Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants — Clean Water Act 604(b) account ($49,600), and appropriates the same to the Clean Water Act 604(b) account. Funds would be used to complete a Wastewater Service Area Expansion Feasibility Study. Reference: Comm.82 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend passage of Bill 20 on first reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. Page 35 FC-3 February 7, 2023 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members, discussion? Okay, seeing none. This is a companion measure to our previous resolution. Motion is on the floor, all in favor? Vote on Bill 20: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 20 (Approved) on first reading was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Villegas —1. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Last bill, please. Bill 21: AUTHORIZES THE ISSUANCE OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAI`I FOR THE PURPOSE OF FUNDING ALL OR A PORTION OF THE COSTS OF VARIOUS IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS; FIXES THE FORM, DENOMINATIONS, AND CERTAIN OTHER DETAILS OF SUCH BONDS AND PROVIDES FOR THEIR SALE TO THE PUBLIC; AND AUTHORIZES THE TAKING OF OTHER ACTIONS RELATING TO THE ISSUANCE AND SALE OF THE BONDS Authorizes the issuance of up to $127,500,000 in General Obligation Bonds to fund certain Capital Improvement Projects including: Construction of Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant and other facilities; Public Works Repairs and Maintenance (Aupuni Center Roof and Emergency Communication Center); Parks and Recreation Repairs and Maintenance (ADA Compliance and Papa`aloa State Match); Sewer Pipe Replacement (Kilauea/Keawe Street); and Animal Control infrastructure. Reference: Comm.83 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to recommend passage of Bill 21 on first reading. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ms. Sako, maybe you can give everyone a brief background, and then we'll go to questions. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 36 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. SAKO: I'm happy to answer any questions. We were here about a year ago and asked for a similar amount, actually a little bit more, but really, as we talked about then, it's our wastewater system, and so we really need to come in for another $100 million primarily because the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant is going to be going out for bid, and what we don't want to happen is to be short on funding. The bids are only good for so long, then we would have to cancel and rebid, and as we all know, then the price will go up some more, so we want to be prepared. We are still working on Phase 1, but Phase 2 will be shortly behind, so we're going to be needing the money, whether it's for Phase 1 or Phase 2. We want to have it in place and show our good faith effort, not just on this project, but also with other projects that the department is working with EPA (Environmental Protection Agency on, so this is our good faith effort to show that funding. So since we were going to do bonds, a couple of other projects did come up in the meantime, one is the Aupuni Center roof. We need a little bit more for the Emergency Communication Center, which is the Dispatch Center; and then ADA (American with Disabilities Act) compliance, we continue to work with the Federal Government on our Parks and Recreation Plan; and Papa`aloa match, where the State did provide part of that funding. We have to provide our match, which I believe $5 million. Since we're going to be digging up Kilauea and Keawe Street, it only makes sense to do that only once, and we should replace the sewer pipes at the same. So federal money is paying for the —actually paving, but we need to pay for the sewer pipes. And then Animal Control, we did have some money to the Barking Kennel location, but we need to design a new facility in both West Hawaii and Waimea, those are not really usable, as well as to fix up some of the existing facilities, and make them useable until we can get new facilities, so that's what that's for, and then we also have some bond issuance costs. So happy to answer any questions, and we do have some of the directors here, as well. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you very much, Ms. Sako. Council Members? Council Member Galimba, go ahead. MS. GALIMBA: This is about the Animal Control portion. Basically, I'm on a bit of a mission here, the southern part of the island just never seems to be in the equation, and we actually in some ways have some of the greatest need. And so yes, I'm just hopingI don't know if it's too late for this, but get some — MS. SAKO: No, but that area has come up, even if it's like a smaller temporary facility, you know, near the Police Station or somewhere. It has come up in Page 37 FC-3 February 7, 2023 discussion, so this money should be flexible enough, that hopefully, we can utilize it in whatever ways we can. MS. GALIMBA: Awesome, thank you. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Just a question, on your website, will this be posted and available for the public to see what the bonds are beingI guess what I'm thinking is, we approve this, you go get the bonds, will the breakout and the justification appear on your website so people could see? MS. SAKO: This particular breakdown is on the Council website. MS. EVANS: No, but afterwards will you have it available for people who really want to know how we're spending money? MS. SAKO: We don't right now, but perhaps when we get our new system we might be able to, yes. MS. EVANS: Just a request. I think people would want to know what we're floating bonds for. MS. SAKO: Yep. MS. EVANS: Okay, thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you very much. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Director. Thank you so much for including the sewer pipe replacement for Keawe and Kilauea. The Animal Control, I was lucky enough to go out and visit the Barking Dog Kennel last week, and they told me that was the best facility, in the best shape, so I know this is super needed. Thank you for getting this money in here. I would definitely support having some kind of service down in the south of the island, as well. So thank you so much, and hopefully we'll progress with this. MS. SAKO: Great. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, further discussion? Seeing none. Couple of questions, Deanna, other facilities, the top one, construction of Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant and other facilities? Page 38 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. SAKO: Right now, it's pretty much all Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant, but should there be anything left, if we should be so fortunate as to get low bids, this will give us the flexibility to use it for one of the other numerous projects, and Director Mansour's list of a billion dollars in projects that he's presented to the Council before. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Emergency Communication Center, what is the funding needed there? MS. SAKO: I believe there's a change order. I don't remember what the most recent one was. There's been a couple of change orders since the project has started. Director Pause is in Kona. (Note: At this time, Public Works Director Stephen Pause came forward to address the members of the Committee.) CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Director Pause, thank you for joining us today. MS. SAKO: Steve, we can't hear you. Sorry. MR. PAUSE: Technology. Am I on now? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We can hear you. Go ahead. MR. PAUSE: Okay, good. Steve Pause, Director of Public Works. Yeah, that specific change order is for $1.25 million. The original design of the Call Center had mechanical redundancy for 50 percent, in other words, if the main air conditioning system failed, there would be enough air conditioning for 50 percent to kind of just keep everything nice and not overly heated. Decisions were made to include all of the County computing equipment in that facility, so as a result, under the recommendation of DIT (Department of Information Technology) and others, it's in the best interest to increase the amount of redundancy to 100 percent, so that if we lose the main system, we don't cook our computers and servers. So, that's that specific item. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. Since you're here, the Aupuni Center roof, this is to fix the leaking that we have on that roof currently? MR. PAUSE: Yes, the original budget for that was $4.5 (million), and we bid it out and it came in higher, so we're budgeting $6 million for that replacement now with a little bit of a contingency. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Do we own that building? Page 39 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. SAKO: Yes, we do. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Mr. Pause, does this include putting a solar system on that roof? MR. PAUSE: That is not in this budget, that's correct. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Okay, thank you. Then for the Animal Control facility, this is split between east and west? MS. SAKO: Yeah, part of it is to design the west facility, North Hawaii, and then if we don't have enough for the repairs in East Hawaii. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Much needed. I spoke to you a while back to see what we need to do for this; I'm glad to see this on. MS. SAKO: Yeah, this is really, just like the design, so we're going to have to come back for additional funds as we get it designed, and have better cost estimates. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. The current facility in East Hawaii, the Barking Dog Kennels, is actually in pretty good shape, but it needs some — MS. SAKO: It needs some tender loving care, and really just to make it more functional, I think. Not only do we have like rescue -type animals, but we have case animals as well, so we need to make sure there are like tops on all the cages and everything so that we can protect all of the animals. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. It's a big space, and I think one of the biggest ones. Maybe fencing and putting spaces for MS. SAKO: Yes, and there's additional space to grow. We purchased all that land, so yeah. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is there the ability for us to do a dog park within the same space, in this design phase? MS. SAKO: I'm not sure. In West Hawaii and North Hawaii where we're designing? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. Or within the east side facility. We're lacking places for people to take their animals and run them. I know West Hawaii has a dog park, where you can take your dogs and let them run, you know, with all the appropriate rules and signage. But East Hawaii, we're kind of lack on spaces to do that. Page 40 FC-3 February 7, 2023 MS. SAKO: Okay, we can talk to Police about it. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Which is a big thing. As a dog owner, I was looking for places to go run my dog. We're not allowed to take them to the beach; we can't take them to County parks. That leaves us kind of one area to bring our dogs to run. So if we can make that part of the design, that would be wonderful. MS. SAKO: Okay. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And then I do have to echo, every conversation we've had regarding Animal Control has always brought us back to needing, east and west being our major population centers, but also a place for animals to come, both north and south. MS. SAKO: Yeah, that's why we are focusing on North Hawaii, as well. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, I like that. MS. SAKO: And we are working —we are just trying to determine if we can do like a smaller facility; and the Ka`u area, we just haven't quite found the right place, but we will figure it out. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, kind of a drop -in facility for animals to be transferred, or just something small. MS. SAKO: Right. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That allows people to have a place to go. MS. SAKO: At least the Animal Control officers wouldn't have to take the animals all the way to Kona or Hilo in the middle of the night. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Correct. MS. SAKO: So we want something that could house them for like at least a few days. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It would be very efficient of us to take this on. Okay, good. Okay, thank you. That was all my questions. Thank you for being here today. Appreciate your time. Seeing no further discussion from the Council Members. We have the motion on the floor to forward Bill 21 to Council with a favorable recommendation, all in favor? Page 41 FC-3 February 7, 2023 Vote on Bill 21: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 21 (Approved) on first reading was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Chair Kaneali `i-Kleinfelder — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Villegas — 1. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That brings us to the end of our agenda. May I have a motion? ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 10:39 a.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Villegas — 1. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We are adjourned, and it is 10:39 a.m. Approved: 1 tel3 Mr. Matt Kaneali `-Kleinfe der, Chair (Data) Finance Committe MK/na Page 42