Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CRCOC 2023/02/21 (2022-2024)Committee on Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight 3`'d Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii February 21, 2023 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Communications, Reports, and ORDER: Council Oversight was called to order at 1:02 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Vice Chair Ms. Cindy Evans, Member Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member (came in later) Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member (came in later) Absent and Excused: Mr. Matt Kaneal`i-KI einfelder, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Item. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The Chair called Renee Young, who registered to comment regarding Comm. 1089 and came forward when called. Renee Young: Comment. CRCOC-3 COMMUNI- CATIONS: February 21, 2023 Comm. 1089: REQUESTS DISCUSSION WITH THE ADMINISTRATION, IRONMAN (2020-2022) RACE DIRECTOR DIANA BERTSCH, AND THE HAWAII POLICE DEPARTMENT REGARDING THE IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RACE EVENT HELD IN KAILUA-KONA ON OCTOBER 6 AND 8, 2022 From Council Member Rebecca Villegas, dated October 24, 2022. Postponed: November 15, 2022 January 24, 2023 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. Kierkiewicz, seconded by Ms. David to close file on Comm. 1089.) CHR. VILLEGAS: At this time, I'd like to invite Ms. Diana Bertsch. I know it's a high ranked Officer Bird, but is it Captain? Major okay, got you. Sorry I'm a rookie on those things. At this time I just want to thank both of you for being here. We had planned to have this meeting a long time ago, but due to extenuating circumstances it wasn't possible. But thank you for continuing to honor the request, and come and share with us some updates. Go right ahead, yup, just push the button on the front and state your name. (Note: At this time Ironman Race Director Diana Bertsch came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. BERTSCH: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. My name is Diana Bertsch, Senior Vice President for World Championship Events for the Ironman Group. And although we had many successes hosting the world championship in 2022 after not being on the island in three years. Unfortunately, we found out very fast that it wasn't the right direction. So we did have successful days of racing, it was positive impact economically to the community. However it was incredibly overwhelming for the community, especially on the Thursday race, to be able to get around on a typical work day. So after meeting with people in this room and meeting with the Mayor and talking through it a decision was made to go back to one day of racing. So in 2024 we'll actually have two Ironman World Championship events. One will be located here in Kona Hawaii on October 14, it will be a women's only race. And there will be a men's only World Championship, taking place in Nice France on September 10h. Page 2 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you. (Note: At this time Police Department Major Sherry Bird came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. BIRD: Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for having me, I'm Major Sherry Bird with the Police Department. I kind of prepared a little bit of background on what we did for 2022. So historically we all know that the Ironman has usually been just one day and held on a Saturday. So the Hawaii Police Department provides police services, which includes traffic direction, police escorts, plain clothes uniform patrol assignments, normally using special duty officers. So when I say special duty, that's officers who are on their off-duty time. It's always been a challenge to find enough special duty officers to cover, you know, the event. However because it was usually held on a Saturday, you know, we were able to usually get that done. So I bring up the fact that it's usually held on Saturday because the bulk of the officers that normally work the assignment they're usually on an Administrative work schedule. Meaning they work Monday through Friday, typically having Saturday's and Sunday's off. So last year in 2022, because the first race event was on a Thursday the Special Duty platform wouldn't work for us, because the bulk of the officers who would normally work it would actually, you know, be working. So in order to have enough officers available to work the Thursday and make sure we cover it safely, the Officers would have to be on on -duty status. And then to be consistent the second race date on Saturday would need to be staffed in the same manner. So I can't speak to the specifics of our department budget because I'm not familiar with that, but I am aware that our budget did not include funding for the on -duty officers to work the two days. And then early September 2022, I'm aware that then Acting Chief Kenneth Bugado, he received confirmation that funding was available and authorized to use on duty personnel. So as far as personnel and scheduling goes, you know, in addition to providing for the overall safety and security for the event our department's primary goal or role, was to provide traffic directions at the many intersections along the race route. In the months leading up to the event date, our department along with many other involved agencies began meeting Page 3 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 with Ironman planning personnel, and you know, began planning for the road closures, traffic athlete patterns, personnel placement staffing, all of that details. In order to staff this event in a safe manner for each race date we had to involve basically all of our departments, divisions, and sections. So for patrol divisions, normally we have three shifts working in any 24-hour time period. So we have our graveyard, our overnight shift, we have our day shift, and then we have our swing shift. So what we did was we adjusted our patrol shifts to basically 12 -hour shifts where our graveyard officers worked a couple hours later than normal. Our swing shift came in a couple hours earlier than normal, and that left us with our day shift officers personnel to assign to work this event from across the island. We also utilized our specialized units such as our CP section Community Policing, our Traffic Enforcement Unit, Juvenile Aid, Criminal Investigation, and our Vice Sections to fill in various post where needed. So on Thursday, which was the first race date, we utilized a total of 152 officers for these event assignments. This included manning 34 traffic intersections, including our Special Response Team, our Crisis Negotiation Team, Bomb Squad, and our Foot Patrol Teams, as well as our Operations Center Staff. And then on Saturday the second day, a total of 141 Officers were used. So, I did want to note that outside of any assignments related to the Ironman event island -wide in each district between excuse me—during the two race dates patrol officers remain available and continued to respond to calls for service or police service. And in addition personnel from our departments' Criminal Investigation Division and Administrative Division were also available to conduct their duties and if needed available to respond to any investigation that required their attention. So as far as traffic pattern variations, so we go in at the Police Department in hopes of minimizing areas of—sorry and working with Ironman personnel. You know, the idea is to minimize areas of lengthy traffic congestion. So in doing that there were a few variations, so I think most notably is using the divided highway Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway. North bound vehicle traffic was allowed between Palani Road and Keahole Airport Road. Also in the same stretch of highway, north bound athletes utilized the south bound lanes until they crossed over on Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway at the Kaiminani Drive intersection. And then same with south bound athletes they also use the south bound lanes of the highway. And then as you get more into the old industrial area, the athletes utilized Loloku Street via the other target access road Page 4 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 to march back on to Kuakini Highway. And I think the remainder of the race course, remained generally the same as years past. Also to facilitate a consistent slow as much as possible of the uphill traffic, three traffic posts were added. One at route 190 and Kaiminani that's at the top of Kaiminani Drive and the two entrance/exits of the Kawaihae Harbor just for Thursday only though, because that was a normal business day for them. Traffic and crowd, you know when we planned for this, safety for everyone involved was our utmost priority. Our residents, visitors, athletes, and our officers as well as mitigating traffic concerns. Major vocal points during the planning stages, careful attention was given to each intersection to ensure the plan traffic patterns allowed for consistent flow of traffic as safety permitted. And I do just want to emphasize as safety permitted. You know, we don't want people to get hurt and unfortunately there is traffic congestion, we recognize that. But our end goal is to not have anybody get hurt. So with this in mind and as previously mentioned, we asked for and received approval to utilize the north bound lanes of the highway. And the availability of these traffic lanes, kept the north bound vehicle traffic free flowing for the most part. In addition on the event dates, command staff, which included myself were located in operation center with representatives from many other agencies and we constantly assessed the need for keeping intersections closed. As soon as it was safe and practical to do so, we opened up the intersections. In spite of the above we are also aware that there were traffic issues that were identified primarily at Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway and Keahole Airport Road, and Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway and Kaiminani Drive. Reports of vehicles backed up for long periods of time within the Keahole Airport (Kona International Airport) corridor, as well as along Kaiminani Drive. And we also noted that the most congested time period was when the bicyclists were coming back into Kona, as bicyclists were heading out to Hawi. And then also Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway and Makala Boulevard in the evening east bound traffic on Makala below the highway, they were backed up for periods of time during the evening hours. Old airport was used as a spectator parking area. They could park and then walk down to the finish line and what not, and when it was time to leave there's only that one exit out so that created a little bit of a backup. Page 5 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 Along with the traffic concerns we were also very concerned as we were planning good, managing the spectator crowds. Especially you know this event hadn't been held for the previous two years, and we expected a larger crowd than usual upwards to 20,000 people were the figures that we were receiving. However, I am pleased to report there were no major issues as far as crowds were concerned. The crowds were manageable, and all complaints received were minor in nature and quickly addressed by our foot patrol teams. So as mentioned, you know, the Ironman event is going back to the one day event on Saturday. So this will allow the use of special duty officers and as preplanning happens in the months leading up to the event date, we'll continue to work closely with the other involved agencies with Ironman planning staff. Of course, giving careful consideration to each intersection with the idea of reducing the traffic burden, but most importantly while preserving safety for everyone. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Major Bird. Thank you, Ms. Bertsch. At this time we'll open up for comments and questions from Council Members. Yes, Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Hi, thank you so much for being here and giving us all this information. Just wondering as far as letting residents know ahead of time when the events are going to be and what to expect, and where issues may arise, is that part of your—do you have that funds to do that and how do you do that? Do you think that's working well, or do you think that could be improved? MS. BERTSCH: You know it's a constant effort. I definitely think that in 2022 because the race hadn't been here it was very challenging to get the word out. But we did actually host a talk -story at King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel. Every month we went there and invited the community, we also did a talk story at Hale Halawai, and then we went to business organizations, Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce. I mean, you name it we spoke to organization after organization. And it's one of those things media, radio, newspaper, print, we did it all, and I think it just was not on people's radar, simply because it hadn't been here. I think there's a lot of new people living on the island that maybe heard about it but weren't clear on what Ironman was and so we'll continue to do that. We also started a Live Aloha campaign that does reach out to the athletes and shares. We Page 6 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 actually worked with a couple of Council Members here to share what Hawaii is about and how to take care of the island. And I think it was really positive and well received, and it's a matter of that continuing to grow and just continuing education. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thanks. Has your organization signed the Research and Development Pono Pledge, do you know about that? MS. BERTSCH: So part of our Live Aloha campaign was the Pono Pledge. And so we actually had stickers that you can come in and wear, that said I've taken the Pono Pledge. We didn't put it out just to our athletes, but to media, VIP's (Very Important Person), our staff, everybody that came to the island. We pushed it out through electronic, direct mails. Prior to the event, it was on our website. We have a community site as well that has the Pono Pledge. And pretty much any of our marketing for the event would have a badge that was live aloha and there's always a connection to the Pono Pledge. MS. KAGIWADA: That's great. What do you do if one of your athletes or somebody is involved in the event, if you find out or you see that they're not living up to the Pono Pledge? MS. BERTSCH: Well I think it depends on what that means, because the Pono Pledge is really just about, you know, if you go to the extent of it some of it is just being filled with aloha, common courtesy isn't greeting somebody. So if somebody doesn't greet somebody, there's not a lot we can do about it. But if somebody is disrespecting, breaking the law, and it's brought to our attention or we're able to identify it, what we can do people do know there's different areas where they can risk disqualification from the event. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you so much. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. It seems like people were really used to having it on a Saturday, so I'm kind of glad you're going back to a Saturday because the community really had that down. But I represent the north end of the island, North Kohala. And I must say that the people that are in Kawaihae, the businesses, the people out in Hawi, the people along the coast, have really Page 7 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 complained to me that they've lost a lot of money even on a Saturday. So when you shut things down when there's all the restaurants, and the ocean sports, and people playing in the ocean and doing a lot of stuff, and that's what my community provides. They can't do it. And so, I know that Ironman likes to give donations to the community. And you know, my request would be, give the donations to the communities that are losing business, you know, not to Kona. I would rather see the money go up to Hawi and Kawaihae Harbor, and some of those businesses, Waikoloa the ones that really have no business that day. I know people that do a lot of homes, you know, they take care of homes, landscaping, cooking, handyman, whatever, and they lost out on that day. MS. BERTSCH: You know, it is one of those things that we hear not all businesses make money during the time that we're here. This year the overall economic impact to the State was $159 million. And what that is, is some of what's not seen is the tax dollars that come back into the State and to the County as well. And for there to be an economic impact of that magnitude, I think what's happening in some of the businesses is they may be impacted on the Saturday but there's people here on the island during that time that are definitely spending, which is impacting the overall Island and the State. There's no way any event, whether it's a sporting event or an art event or whatever, that special event that comes into any community is going to positively touch every single person and single business on the island. I wish we couldI do know that we make an effort outside of the fact that people are coming in and spending money, is through the Ironman Foundation to work with non -profits. And any of the groups that are volunteering, getting donations. This year, I want to say our donations from the Ironman Foundation, in itself, were over $200,000. So it is something that we're aware of, and that you wish that everybody could be positively impacted. And unfortunately, like I say, no matter the event or even if a cruise ship comes in town not everybody is going to be positively impacted by that. MS. EVANS: Well you just made a comment that as a $159 million impact to the community, and yet how much does the Ironman make? Page 8 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 MS. BERTSCH: You know, off this event it actually is not—it's the Ironman group and the brand that's world-wide. And this event definitely is where it's all started, but this event in itself is not profiting that way because of what is spent to produce the event. MS. EVANS: But you're doing this for a profit? MS. BERTSCH: It's a for profit organization, Ironman is, yes. It's a business. MS. EVANS: You make it on merchants and—about the fees that when they have to pay to get in the race. MS. BERTSCH: Yes, but the entry fees collected don't cover the expense to host the race. To produce the race. MS. EVANS: Well I for one believe that $200,000 isn't much considering the impacts on our community. I don't know how you evaluated on our side of the equation, but you know there is some major impacts. The small businesses where I'm at, they're really small businesses less than probably 20 people businesses. It's a big hit for them, even for one day. I don't know how we get the money out at the north end, but somehow we need to work with maybe the Mayor and the Administration. You know what I think we need to really understand what the true impact is. I know you say it brings money, but it also costs a lot of people too. So somehow, we got to figure that out. And I know for one, my community is really demanding of me to figure that one out. So thank you for being here. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. Is anyone available from Finance on this call or in Hilo Chambers? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: No one from Finance in Hilo. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. I think I'll just boil it down. The two days was difficult, so thank you for taking in community feedback. Even ahead of this last race and bringing it back down to one day. I want to really mahalo all of our police and fire ohana who if not for them, I don't even know what this place would be during those days. So, we get ready for the Page 9 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 next race already in just a few months. I think we've made big improvements just in some of the meetings we've had in preparation for this last year. And we can continue to make that progress on how to educate and inform participants and even their ohana who come on how to act when they're here in our community. I just want to mahalo Council Member Villegas for bringing this forward. Maybe I'll just make one last comment. Perhaps the question when it comes to putting up County employees on -duty, did the Ironman arrange for those rooms or were those accommodations directly with the hotels? MS. BERTSCH: Yes, that's correct. We actually worked directly with the hotels, for necessary agency. In most locations that we host our race, there is a race operation center, an emergency operation center that is available to us. And here since we have to put our own in place, because the location is in Hilo it requires a unique format. And I will say that we coordinate that, and we never provided any information to people to the agencies. We just state that there is a room available because of safety matters and that it's all night. I need people to be there. So that's how we've managed it in the past, and how we hope to continue to manage it for the safety of the event in the community. MR. INABA: Thank you. And thank you for providing that opportunity for our members of our agencies who are there overnight. I think as a County and working with you moving forward, we'll make sure that process is clear. Because I think there were unfair accusations made after this last race. So that would be perhaps one of my recommendations that we make sure those lines are clean, especially when people are on duty. MS. BERTSCH: Absolutely. Whatever steps Ironman needs to take, we will absolutely do so. So thank you very much, Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Ms. Bertsch. Chair, I yield. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I just wanted to let you know that Director Sako has entered chambers in case folks have questions for her. CHR. VILLEGAS: Mr. Inaba, would you like to ask a question? MR. INABA: Sorry, real quick. Director Sako, when it comes to this next year. How do we plan to kind of foresee the anticipated cost that the County is going to Page 10 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 incur, and what resolution or how we're going to plan ahead to make sure that the County's funds are reimbursed by the Ironman? (Note: At this time Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. SAKO: So I think typically, you know, they use the off-duty police officers and that has like a separate program so they pay for those directly. If police lets us know that overtime would be required again, then we would do it the same way and work with Ironman to agree upon an amount. And you know, provide them with invoice kind of like we did this time. MR. INABA: Okay. and I mean being that we're going to go back to the one day event, Major Bird any thoughts as to whether we're going to need that same level of funding or we're going to be able to maybe revert back to our ways of? MS. BIRD: Pretty comfortable we could revert back to, but you know how we're doing it. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you so much. Thank you, Director Sako, for coming down. Chair, I yield. MS. SAKO: No problem. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Council Member Kierkiewicz did you have anything on that end? Nothing to share or ask? Okay, with that I'll go ahead and wrap this up. Thank you, ladies, for being here and for your patience and flexibility also with the Clerk's Office. The intentions for bringing forth this communication a few months ago was to have this chance to sit down. It was a little more relevant on top of everyone's mind coming out of Ironman with a number of concerns and there were a number of different things in the news about would it remain two days or one day. So my intention in bringing this forth and hopefully it was divine timing that it's now, as much of that has worked itself out with your confirmation that we are returning to one day. So thank you for that. One of my conversations with the number of constituents, I just really try to express that it was something that needed to be tried, or it was okay that it was tried. And it didn't work as well for our community, if at all. And so the opportunity in leadership is when you try Page 11 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 something and it doesn't work, you revert to how it was done before or you continue to improve on that process. So thank you for your humility and flexibility. And transitioning back to the time frame that serves our village and town, and predominantly the west side of the island more efficiently and effectively. I also wanted to express my deep gratitude for the first responders, Fire and Police, who went above and beyond. And also acknowledge the challenges that were created for certain special units. And inundated negative consequences of having to pull them off of other things they were working on caused some stress there. So thank you once again for everybody's contribution. I had one quick question on what was anticipated Diana. So changing to the women's only race on Saturday, do you anticipate—you know I remember growing up here. Ironman was amazing but much smaller than the Vegas strip kind of celebratory finish line that we have now. What are the expected impacts in decreasing the number of racers, as we enter 2023 the women's championship only? MS. BERTSCH: So we anticipate, I want to say, having approximately 2,500 athletes that would include our professional athletics. We're really excited. This was part of what we did learn in 2022, is the opportunity for the women to predominantly have their own race. And how different that made their experience and really with their professional athletes in our top age group, athletes not being impacted by the men on the race course and vice versa. So in 2019, we did an economic impact study, there's less athlete's and it was—can't quote me on this but I want to say it was over either 50 or 60 million. So obviously, this was a different year, but different pricing all around. We'll have more athletes than we did have in 2019 as well. Overall on the impact, it's interesting, you know, we have two days of racing for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship. The women's day of racing and the men's day of racing are two different races. So women just tried a little differently than the men do. So CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank heaven. Page 12 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 MS. BERTSCH: It might feel, you know, a little bit lighter I'm not really sure. But we're incredibly excited about the opportunity to host all women and to really showcase women in this sport. It's going to be a really amazing experience. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you. That's exciting to hear about. And with so many of the issues that are coming before us, and even on a national and state platform having to do with the support of women. I think this is exciting for us. It's already been stated a number of times, that are already over burden infrastructure and roadways were pushed kind of to our breaking point. So I'm grateful we are going to navigate that differently. I was really excited for the transition in using the roads, and still allowing for the highway to move north. But I as Council Member Evans received a lot of comments about the challenges, predominantly the really small businesses in Kona. So while the lion's share of the resources does end up coming to District 7 in some capacity for Ironman. A number of the small businesses, because there was no way to get to them they were closed from Thursday through almost to Monday. We're navigating that and changes are being made to continually adjust and respond to the needs and the requests of the community. And so I'm looking forward to seeing how this year evolves and also looking forward to the Administration continuing to work together to ensure that it doesn't overburden our already under staffed first responders and departments. You know, this Ironman—we're an iron community, and we are resilient, and we are regenerative. And so, I just really look forward to continuing to working together with you, and ensuring that we mitigate the challenges the best way possible, spread the resources as effectively and efficiently as possible, and perpetuate a race that does our Big Island proud, and does more good than harm. So thank you all for being here today. MS. BERTSCH: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. And thank you to the County and to our community, for allowing us the opportunity to make an effort to see if this was something that would work. It is the community that came together and it is why we had the successes and it is unfortunate and definitely apologize for the disruption that it made, especially on Thursday. But thank you all for your support and guidance along the way. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you for listening. When the community had an outcry, you guys listened, and that is not always the case with large events or large Page 13 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 companies or large governments. But you listened, and you took heed and you're making the necessary adjustments. We just really appreciate that. MS. BERTSCH: Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: So thank you for being here today. And with that, can I take a vote to close file on Communication 1089, all those in favor? Vote on Comm. 1089: The motion to close file on Comm. 1089 was (Filed): carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Villegas — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Kimball — 2. Excused: None. Comm. 92: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION WITH LIEUTENANT EDWIN BUYTEN, AREA II VICE SECTION, HAWAII POLICE DEPARTMENT REGARDING THE DANGERS OF FENTANYL From Council Member Rebecca Villages, dated December 28, 2022. Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 92. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you so much, and with that moving forward. Aloha gentlemen thank you for being here with us today. I'll go ahead and let you introduce yourselves and share the information you have brought for us. (Note: At this time, Lieutenant Edwin Buyten and Detective Chad Taniyama came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. BUYTEN: Thank you very much. And last time I was here you had asked me about Fentanyl, and I saw the concern on your face. But we wanted to bring forward today was this, we're from here we're two Konawaena guys we've been in the department well over 20 years each. Majority of our career has been spent in narcotics, special enforcement type units, as we grew through the department. So our approach today was going to be more a round table, kind of an old school talk story session, and give you a foundational look at what we're doing within the streets. All this data and Intel we're going to provide is for West Hawaii, we'll show you what's going on out here. Page 14 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 Before we do that, let me introduce myself, I'm Lieutenant Ed Buyten. I'm the Commander for the Area II West Hawaii Vice Narcotic's Section. I have 21 years of policing experience, like I said, 12 of those years have been spent in Vice Narcotics as an Officer and Detective, and now as the Lieutenant. Chad, you want to introduce yourself. MR. TANIYAMA: I'm Chad Taniyama. I've been with the Police Department for 25 years now, close to the end of my career. And I have been in Vice since 2007, so majority of my career I've been in Vice. MR. BUYTEN: So the reason I brought Chad along is I'm going to cover the data where fentanyl comes from, what's happening here in the streets, because I care about what's happening here. Not really a national platform, even though that's important. I am the Administrator of the unit; Chad is the most senior Sergeant. He also oversees the hazardous duty side of it, the PPE, what we call the Personal Protection Equipment and the tactical side. There's a lot of detail that goes into that job, and he's the officer in charge in the streets. So fentanyl, I'm obviously not a doctor but I will tell you that fentanyl does have a pharmaceutical purpose. Real simple. It helps with pain, they deal with high level stage four cancer patients, a doctor prescribes it, and there's a use for it. The type of fentanyl we're dealing with is illicit, it's illegal. They'll give you a little run down a lot of times folks feel this is a little extreme, but this is how the pyramid of narco terrorism works. You have China, which produces the most illicit fentanyl in the world. The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) has it down almost to a science, where they can tell you which province that fentanyl comes from. The way it works is it arrives in China, and it works its way down to Mexico where the Cartel takes over. They take control of it, they either refine it and then they push it over into the United States. Now from there, Hawaii in general we have high supply demand for anything really. You look at gas, you look at groceries, well same thing works on the drug side of the house. If you can be successful to get any illegal drug from the West Coast to Hawaii, you're looking at a huge profit margin, huge. Let me give you an example of some data that comes out of Hawaii Island, West Hawaii specifically. This is the data from November of 2021 to present, our office has recovered over 4,000 grams of pure fentanyl. Over 15,000 pills which are forged or counter -fit pills. A tenth of a gram cost about $200 dollars, one pill between Kona or the westside to Hilo, is anywhere from $25 to $50 a pill. So if you do the quick math on that, this is where we're not going to impress with our Konawaena education, is this. And I actually did the math, so if my wife is watching right now, she is losing it. That's about $2.5 million worth of fentanyl that we recovered. We're not counting what has made it through. Then on the pill side of the house you're looking at about $200,000. So about $2.5 million worth Page 15 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 of fentanyl came into your community, your village, right here that we recovered in just a little over a year's time. Now for whatever reason we have a thirst out here for opioids, we used to deal a lot with that, the heroin epidemic, you know, there's a taskforce for these things. Fentanyl is a hundred times stronger than morphine, and it's 50 times stronger than heroin. The CDC, the Center for Disease Control, put out on their website that the average lethal dose of fentanyl is 2 milligrams. So back to the math, in one gram there's a thousand milligrams. So you cut that in half, you got 500. On any given day on Hawaii island right, our population is right around 250,000 people, that's residents, that's tourists. That's two million lethal doses, eight times our population, that came into our village. It's staggering, we're recovering it every single day. Now the other part that we look at, which I think you're going to find really important before I turn it over to Chad here, is what I refer to as the direct effect and the indirect effect of drugs. Direct effect is use, trade. The indirect effect is, forgive my direction here, is the ugly side. It's the robberies, it's the car thefts, it's the kupuna getting their check books taken by their family members who are trying to feed their addiction. And you're talking about the bottom of that pyramid, where it just gets down to the nitty gritty. And that's what we're facing here every day. That's it in a nutshell, really. I can send you some data, be happy to email you, send you some pictures of what we're seeing. But I wanted to kind of give you just the foundational version of what we're dealing with out here, that's a lot to go off right now. We've also affected, I think it's somewhere around anywhere I didn't look at it today, but 50 to 60 adult arrests of fentanyl alone. And majority of those cases over the year give or take, went Federal. So it started with us. We built the case up and the Federal Government liked the package that we delivered to them, and they prosecuted these cases for us, which is a huge thing. You're held accountable in the Federal Court at a real high level. So I'm going to turn this over to Chad. He's going to talk about personal protection equipment. He's going to talk about the challenges we're facing in the streets, when we ask our officers to go out there and recover fentanyl. Thank you. MR. TANIYAMA: Good afternoon. My boss Edwin Buyten sends me a text last night bring your uniform you're going in front of the County Council tomorrow. Okay. He calls me his old crusty Sergeant because I've been around the block a few times. I've been in Vice for majority of my career, and I help mentor young officers. In the 80's, we went through the methamphetamine epidemic. I graduated like 89, so I saw some of that in the community, my friends and I really never understood. We heard about fentanyl coming to Hawaii for a long time before it hit, how dangerous it is, how addictive it is. How the minute amount can Page 16 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 kill someone. After a while of hearing so many times, you got to get immune to it. These officers are no different. Well, let me tell you we are on the frontline and we lead the State, the State in investigations and recoveries. Fentanyl is here, I've never seen anything like it in my 25 years. We are on the front line of the fentanyl battle. If you don't understand that, you need to understand that now. We are on the frontline. It went from recovering fentanyl here and there to every search warrant we go to there is some trace of fentanyl, somewhere along in that investigation. Our current state of affairs just so you understand, in 2001 when we were dealing with methamphetamine, we acquired what we call PPE. There are different levels of protective equipment as simple as gloves and a paper mask. It moves up to a mask with a filtered cartridge, then it elevates pretty much a scuba suit with a mask and then it goes up from there. Again purchased in 2001, that equipment expired in five years so in 2006 that equipment was expired. That was methamphetamine and that was to deal with the Clandestine laboratories that were happening around the nation. We have had several search warrants where we have had to beg, borrow, and steal equipment to keep our men safe. We've had to call Honolulu, to other agencies, we've had people fly on personal airlines to hand us over equipment so we can do our job. It terrifies me to supervise a group of young officers and send them in to a place where I know it's not if, but when one of my officers will encounter fentanyl and get hurt. It terrifies me. Now we're trying to catch up, we're trying to keep our officers to protect them, to do their job to protect you as well as me. We've recruited the Police Department to help us, and they've been a great help. They have been there when we needed them, they would set up in case someone went down or to monitor the area to make sure it's safe for us to even enter, excuse me, the Fire Department, yes. And we couldn't have done it without them, there's no way we could of proceeded without them. So my job here is to tell you that we with all the problems that we have with equipment, the shortage of manpower, cause our office is short. Like everyone else our small office is short. The good news is we're winning the fight. With all the problems that we have, we're winning the fight because we have spoken to addicts. We come in contact with them every day, and they're saying that it's getting harder and harder to find fentanyl, because we're doing our job. But we need your help. If you have any influence to help us, we're in dire need of help. Because one of my officers will get hurt, and we're running out of time. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you so much, gentlemen. With that I'll open it up to any questions or comments from Council Members. Council Member Evans MS. EVANS: Thank you. First of all, tell everybody thank you for their work for us. You know, there was a task force at the State Legislature probably 20 years Page 17 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 ago on the meth epidemic. And there was a lot of money put into educating people, there was radio ads, there was television ads, there was all kinds of stuff going into the schools, talking to the children, showing them pictures. I mean it was this major effort. Have we stepped up to that, or are we out there doing that in the schools, on the radio, on television, are we really getting that message out? MR. BUYTEN: So Chad and I both started on the methamphetamine task force, and we both worked—well I worked on the methamphetamine task force for about seven years as an investigator and a handler. And all that information, all that education was out there. Fentanyl just hit us. One day it wasn't here, the next day it was here and it was game on. So yes, the Mayor is doing an outstanding job with the task force with Dr. Kimo Alameda and various members. I just did a KAPA radio interview with Alaka'i, where we're talking about fentanyl and getting information out there. We're working with State Narcotics, we're working with HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas) to get funding for equipment. Equipment is expensive, and it comes with a lot of training and oversight. So we are moving forward on that, we have some grants we're working on. We're hoping that there's a Hawaii opioid initiative out of Oahu, I think it's under the State where they have money, we're working with them. So we're moving forward nicely on it. Education -wise at the schools, I think the DOE (Department of Education) does have something, we don't really get involved in that, that would be more of a community policing thing. But it is happening. MS. EVANS: That's good to hear. The other thing that I hear is marijuana, cannabis. People are saying that people are buying stuff on the street, and they don't realize it's being laced with fentanyl. I'd love to hear about kind of this, we need to get the word out. You better know what you're buying, is that true? I mean I heard this as a statement. MR. TANIYAMA: The short answer is yes. I'll give you an example of how it has changed the way we do things. Normally we'll run through an investigation, we'll arrest individuals responsible, we'll recover evidence, and we'll bring it back to our station to process. Well the process procedure has significantly changed for us, because now we don't know what we're dealing with. It might look like weed, it might smell like it but absolutely we don't know if it's been laced or not. We have come across laced marijuana, laced cocaine, imagine that laced cocaine with fentanyl. Knowing how dangerous that is with the minute amount that can kill you, to me that's crazy. But this is what we're dealing with. So our officers know if there's any question they have what we have set up, a protocol in processing evidence. We're in PPE now, we'll take it to a different room where there's no ventilation to ensure that if it becomes airborne that it doesn't endanger Page 18 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 multiple people within an enclosed room. Short answer is yes, but it has significantly changed the way we do things. MS. EVANS: So let's say you stop someone and you find out there's some weed or something, then you can take it somewhere and have that tested right away? I mean, do we have good facilities to support your effort? MR. BUYTEN: So like any investigation, we try to educate our officers on the dangers of things. And we're two 20 -year plus veterans sitting up here telling this fentanyl scares us badly, and we put that into the brains of these officers every single day because we have seen it mixed with cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine. If the person wants to put that into their system they might find out, unfortunately, what they got. Our crime labs in Hilo, so we're able to do a preliminary testing with some equipment we have, which I rather not disclose, but we can get kind of a quick answer and then we'd have to relay that over to Hilo. We actually have a really good system. I saw the concern on your face there, but our lab techs are great. And we call them up and let them know it's coming over and we take it over very safely with protocol. But it does have to go to Hilo to be tested, and they will break it down for us and tell us what it is. They will handle it like its fentanyl. MS. EVANS: Is the Federal Government—are we getting the Federal Government or how proactive are they in our State? Are they coming out and talking to our island, how are they interacting with us, the feds? MR. BUYTEN: So as you know there's a lot of three lettered agencies out there that are federal government. But the way I look at it and people chuckle at me is they kind of got to look at how the Green Berets work with the indigenous people. We're in the trenches. We know what's going on here day to day, and it's already hard enough to operate in this community when you're a vice operator. The Federal Government does work with us, some agencies more than others, based on geographical challenges for them. HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) Homeland Security, is our number one partner. Homeland Security, they are there with us, they're in the trenches with us, they're the ones adopting these cases and taking them to the federal side of the house. But there's not many of them out there, so we work together as a team like a multi -agency collaborative. Federal Government does have money, but that money typically comes through an organization called HIDTA, which I believe you all heard of. They're kind of a clearing house for trading equipment and any other needs we might have. So they do help us a lot. MS. EVANS: Okay, well thanks for answering that. Thank you, I yield. Page 19 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Anyone else? Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. And thank you both for coming in today and helping us get informed of what's out there, since I think we tend to be fairly innocent here on the Council. I wanted to ask about my district, which is District 6, that's sort of half on the west side and half on the east side. And there are a wide variety of communities in that district. Probably some of them more prone to have problems with drugs and others. Is there anything you could tell me about what's going on in my district in relations, I guess, to the rest of the State or the Island? MR. BUYTEN: Just confirming your district is Ka`u, South Kona? MS. GALIMBA: South Kona, Ka`u, all the way up to Volcano. MR. BUYTEN: Okay. There are things going on in your district, Ocean View. I'm not picking on anybody out there, but we stay pretty busy in Ocean View. One of the first things I do when I meet federal agencies, yeah, I'm always going to get this smile on my face and chuckle a little bit like you might have worked all over, but you never worked on Hawaii Island. Where 4,000 square miles, the coconut wireless is quicker than anything you've ever seen and it really gets fast the further south you go. So we have our challenges out there and we do conduct investigations. I don't want to get into how we conduct our investigations, we're more on the intelligence side of the house. Geographically challenged, with the distance and putting ourselves out there, we have been successful out there many times in the past. I hope that answers your question. MS. GALIMBA: Go ahead. MR. TANIYAMA: Just to add what Buyten said, district big or small fentanyl has touched every district. I can tell you for sure. We have had overdoses, even the smaller districts of fentanyl. So it has touched every single district on this island. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Galimba, you yield? Alright. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. Sergeant Taniyama when you spoke about the PPE that you folks need. Is that something that's been communicated? I don't want to get us into a budget discussion. But as we head into that season of budget, has that been something you've discussed, your division has discussed with leadership so that we can ensure you folks are safe when you go into those situations or do we need to have some conversations about that as we head into? Page 20 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 MR. TANIYAMA: Let me just say that this issue is not a secret, that we need equipment. That equipment that we acquired in 2001 expired in 2006. And we just don't have it, I can't make it anymore clearer. You can't ignore the fact that there's an epidemic going on and you're office doesn't have the protective equipment. Yes, so the short answer is yes. MR. INABA: Understood. Thank you very much. Chair, I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Thank you both for being here, and for all the work you do. My district is over on the east side. Is there a similar position to what you guys do over on the east side or is so much of this epidemic like starting over on the Kona side, and that's why you guys are so focused here? Can you help me explain kind of island -wide, what the staffing and just time spent there on this issue. MR. BUYTEN: Absolutely. The best way to describe it is if you just cut the island in half. You have area one east side, area two west side. We have counter parts that mirror us on both sides. So there's a Lieutenant he was here last time, Lieutenant Royce Serrao, and yes, he's facing the same issues. They've been extremely busy with some investigations, and I just wasn't able to get that data. But they're going to parallel maybe a little bit behind us, cause West Hawaii seems to be the leader for whatever reason. I have some ideas and thoughts behind that, but they are facing those problems and have been dealing with them daily. And we can all sit here and talk about staffing, we have worked different sections in the Police Department, everyone's short, right? But in a sensitive section like Vice Narcotics, I will tell you that our officers work at least six days a week anywhere from on average 12 hours a day. That's a lot of hours. So the things that are presented in front of us, are challenges and it's our job to figure out how to solve this puzzle. So we've talked about equipment, we've applied for the grants, we're making ground, but things move slow. But we're dealing with it today. I think I'm five or six positions shy right now in my office alone, that's an entire squad in vice narcotics. That's a whole unit I could send out to Ocean View. So I know Chief Ben (Police Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz) working on that, he's trying hard to recruit, he's doing everything he can and we support him on that. But if those are issues, yeah— facing the same thing. Page 21 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 MS. KAGIWADA: Thanks. And just a follow up I guess to what you were just saying, are there any things that the community that we the other people could be doing on the front end of things. So not waiting until people have fentanyl, getting fentanyl, getting addicted to fentanyl. But what things just from your point of view should we be looking at to, I guess, more in line with like what Council Member Evans was saying on education, on awareness. Are there things that we could also be doing to help with this epidemic? MR. BUYTEN: Absolutely. And this is why we become kind of funny guys because typically, you know, people send you here send you there. You know where I'm going to send you to YouTube. YouTube is one of the best things to learn about fentanyl. You can find a documentary, it's 15 minutes long, it will tell you everything you need to know about fentanyl. Now we are villagers, we're from here. Our kids were raised here, we're very loyal to this Island and to the people of this island. So we encourage just like how we were raised, and we really mean this. Educate your families, education is such a tool. Go to the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) website, look at what they're posting there. They have videos, tutorials, and our own website has managed very well. And Denise, who manages the website, had put links in different educational organizations that would help you through. So sit with your children, sit with your kupuna. You see something suspicious, or if you're concerned about it, call us we will come out. MS. KAGIWADA: Great and thank you. One final thing, can you talk to us a little bit about Narcan and what's the use of Narcan, how it's maybe available or not available on our island. Anything you want to tell us about that? MR. BUYTEN: I'm the in-house Narcan expert. You know, when we talk about Narcan one thing I'd like to point out when we interview people, these are the things that we learn. One part that I missed, and I want to make clear like Detective Taniyama said, our mission and what we've decided to do is real simple. To rid our community of dangerous drugs and we're on the offensive, we're not going to sit back and take this. We're out there grinding and taking it to them, and that's why we're getting the results we're getting. The Narcan is really basic, you know it's a liquid spray that you can put up into lack of better description your nose. And it will reverse the immediate effect of an opioid overdose. These days you can get it pretty easily, you can get it at the pharmacies. I know Dr. Alameda is very involved in the Narcan distribution, more so education and helping the community members get it. And I think that's an outstanding thing. We have it from HIDTA helps us out. Every one of our officers carries two Narcan's on their vest and no matter where we go. When Page 22 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 Detective Taniyama's running the sites, safely, we have Narcan available. It's a great tool. One thing that's scary, that I'll tell you about if you like to know a little story. We've actually interviewed people who use fentanyl, and they know the effects are so potent that they'll probably going to overdose. So they've told us they actually sit in front of each other with the Narcan, you go and then I'll go. That's terrifying. So we've actually gone to the overdoses, and had to help with those investigations. So that's sometimes where the mindset is. But yeah, Narcan, great tool. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, so much. CHR. VILLEGAS: Council Member Evans. Yes, Council Member Kierkiewicz did you have anything on that side? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Not a question per say, just a comment if I might, Chair Villegas? Thank you. Really appreciate the officers coming forward today, I'm just sitting here trying to hold back tears just thinking about what's unfolding here on our Island. This public health crisis, really just demands our full attention. And so if there's anything we can do to provide resources to the Police Department, please let us know ahead of budget time. I'm right here texting Dr. Kimo Alameda right now, wondering if there are messaging resource tool kits available. He's got a great primer on YouTube, thank you officer for letting us know about that. But again, it all comes down to prevention and we as elected officials are folks that people look up to in the community. So, we have to be leveraging our networks to get all this information out into hands of our community, so that we can be preventing this disaster. Thank you, Chair. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Yes, Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: What age group, I mean you do the demographics. So where's the demand, is it in high school, is it college, is it 40 -year olds, is it male, female, what have you discovered in your statistics? MR. BUYTEN: So demographics are 18 to 45, is where fentanyl is hitting the most in the community. You know, it's interesting when you read about, and I use this term and again I want to use it lightly as a Narco terrorism right. Because basically legal organizations utilizing drugs to make a profit, and or disrupt, decentralize a country. That's happening. So your 18 to 45 is your working group, it's your military age folks. They should be in college getting educated, having jobs, and they're seeing more and more data on the use of fentanyl and other drugs. Page 23 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 We're dealing with all the drugs here, methamphetamine, heroin, you name it we deal with it every day. The polarizing issue though is fentanyl like Detective Taniyama pointed out. It's in everything. MS. EVANS: You mentioned that a pill would be what, $25 to $50 that's a lot of money. Is it cross no bounds? I mean someone who makes an income of $300,000 a year, verse someone making $20,000 there's no difference. Is it like MR. TANIYAMA: No, it really doesn't make a difference. Something I'd like to add to your last question though. There generally is an area in which users are, right? But look at how they've changed when I say they, I mean narcotics distributors. How they've evolved their game. I'm sure you've all seen the pictures of the rainbow fentanyl, pink fentanyl, who do you think they're targeting? Children, they're targeting children, right. Before all we would see is blue pills or powder. And the very exception when we first started seeing it, it was blue pills and powder. The pills were most sought after because they could more control the dose. Powder was a little spooky at the beginning, because they didn't know how to dose so we're getting a lot of overdoses with that. And we've tried to track it, we've done our best. We haven't found the best solution in tracking all these overdoses, but we're trying to get our hands on as many as we can look into it. But you look at the deaths that have come some have been below that mark, that 18 -year mark. The girl that lost her life is 14 years old. So fentanyl will reach you at a young age and it'll hit the more mature of the population. Because it's basically a synthetic heroin, synthetic opioid, right. So all those heroin users it's an easy transition to go from heroin to fentanyl. And if you look at kids the way they've been marketing themselves, they're making it more attractive to children by the colors, right. And we're really in a bad place right now. MS. EVANS: One other question about the source. I know fentanyl is used sometimes in the end of life, hospice in the hospitals when you have a cancer patient or it's just for extremely extreme severe pain. Does it take a special doctor a special person to have the ability to script these. I'm assuming you can't send it in to Long's Drugs and someone picks it up, is there a chain of custody for this stuff. I mean is it so strong that it's being controlled even at the hospitals and hospice? Just curious. MR. TANIYAMA: The doctor can cut prescriptions for fentanyl. I know that there are patches. When I first started hearing about patches, people were trying to steal patches to get their fix through the patches. And then it transitioned to powder and pills. I really don't know if you need a special license for that, but I do know the doctors can prescribe fentanyl. Page 24 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 MR. BUYTEN: I can add to that. A physician who's licensed in the State of Hawaii has a regulated number to write prescriptions, and it's very controlled and it's tracked. That's the legal way of doing business for people who need it. The fentanyl that we're dealing with is made in a clandestine lab in China sometimes Mexico and illegally smuggled into the U.S., and sold for prohibit to capitalize on people's addiction. So there's a line between the two, and it's a big line. The one we're dealing with mostly, is the clandestine illegally manufactured fentanyl. MS. EVANS: Alright, thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Alright if that's it from my colleagues. Thank you for being here. We've had a number of conversations, and your passion and dedication and absolute tenacity to not only serve our village and our community, but your team. And to bring him here with you today to able to cover both sides of the Administrative and the boots on the ground aspects of holding it back and going after it full force. Thank you for that. You know I too am a Konawaena alum (alumni) and was here during the meth epidemic, and now watching my daughters in their 20's and now my grandson and considering the potential for tragic outcome. A lot of my colleagues touched on a number of the different questions and things I may have had. Thank you for talking about Narcan, and also the irony of it becoming kind of this like fall back for addicts. We'll just keep it here, I'll give it to you, you give it to me. Grateful that it's there, and grateful that it's more prevalent. I have some in my car, I've been able to share some through Dr. Alameda speeches and presentations. And one of the things that was mentioned was maybe even putting Narcan with the first aid, and I'm not remembering the term but that clear, you know, if you're having a heart attack we have those all over the place now but how to put something like that together. So I think we've come a long way, you guys are on the cutting edge on the front lines, and I'm so grateful that you were willing and interested to come here today and share the blunt truth with us. Something that Dr. Alameda had mentioned in his presentation was that someone dies, is it every 14 days on the Big Island from a fentanyl overdose? MR. BUYTEN: So Dr. Alameda's data, I'm not so sure where he gets that from. CHR. VILLEGAS: Okay. MR. BUYTEN: I believe his data is accurate. We do know that folks die from fentanyl overdoses, quite often. And the way that it's tracked within the Police Department, typically falls under a coroner's inquest, and any fentanyl or suspicious narcotic would then be tracked, tested, and we'd wait for the toxicology to come out and put the entire investigation together. We have been to numerous fentanyl overdoses. The commanders in the Police Department have made some Page 25 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 really wise decisions and are assigning us or encouraging the let's say graveyard rank. Let's say there's a sergeant on duty on the graveyard that responds to an overdose, and they see a suspicious powder that just doesn't quite pass the test, they're calling Detective Taniyama or myself to come out and help parallel with that investigation. I hope that answers your question. CHR. VILLEGAS: That does, thank you so much. And with that I also want to express my humble gratitude. The tragedies that you choose in your line of duty and your service to our community to witness, and be there for, and guide your team through and other Police Officers as well as the families affected. It's above and beyond, and I just want to thank you and your families for doing that for us. and express my personal desire both personally and professionally in this role when I'm thinking about PPE and how much it cost. Do you have a broad spectrum because I'm thinking of contingency relief funding, and the opportunity to help mitigate your lack of these resources, and how do we get that to you to get those things purchased asap. As we move into the budget cycle that's another great one, but we had the blessing and opportunity to have more contingency relief funds allocated to each one of us as Council Members in this last year. And I'm very interested. And we can even talk offline about this, but there's opportunity for that. Go ahead and answer that on the PPE, like what kind of funding are you looking for. Are we talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, or tens? MR. BUYTEN: As far as the funding goes, I would like to talk to you offline about that so I can give you some accurate numbers. And one of the issues that we've ran into, and Detective Taniyama described it is, where trying to play catch up. And you know, while we're operating on a daily basis in these long hours, we're trying to write grants and request funding and those things take time. You've all dealt with that before. That's where we're at, we're just running crossroads right now. The equipment itself, I believe, to kit out one officer with training and the full SCBA (Self -Contained Breathing Apparatus) system is anywhere from $25,000 to $28,000 per officer. It's probably a little bit more than that once you get through everything. And we're looking at—I'm going to pass it over to Detective Taniyama, he will tell you what it takes to operate in that equipment. MR. TANIYAMA: So you need many levels for your assessment of the initial once you put roots in the ground, once you determine how dangerous or safe it is for the rest of your team. Generally if we're going into a fentanyl investigation or a search warrant, at the very minimum you need to be in an APR it's an Air Purifying Respirator, which is a mask with a cannister that filters the air. Just to do your assessment. If you go in your assessment and you find out that the degree of Page 26 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 danger is lower, there is little to no risk of airborne contamination. Then we can either stay in the APR or go down to a N-95 paper mask. But if we find that it's higher degree and it is airborne or a larger amount of fentanyl, then we would move up to an SOBA, which is basically an air tank with a chemical suit that is able to give us clean air. The problem is not just the equipment, the problem is the men to get in the training because you need a minimum of four individuals kilted out. Two people because you cannot go in alone in case somebody goes down you need somebody to pull them out, two in. And you're going to need a minimum of two on the outside to go in to help those individuals in case they go down, or to swish them out when the time comes that your initial team has been there in this suit for long enough because it is very taxing on the body, especially in Kona. I went to a Clandestine Laboratory, in which there was an individual and she was extracting fentanyl from patches. When we determined that it was a fentanyl issue, patrol officers contacted us, Fire (Fire Department) was contacted, and we basically locked this unit down. And at the time we didn't have the resources to deal with it, now wrap your head around that. We have a unit in Kailua town, we locked it down and we don't have the resources to deal with it. So what do we do, we made calls to Honolulu and then the Narcotics Enforcement Division brought down a team and helped us deal with that situation. So they brought in individuals, they brought all their kits, we had the HAZMAT (Hazardous Materials Management) crew couldn't have done it without them again. And eventually, we were able to deal with that situation and bring it to a close. So we need equipment, we need manpower, and we need the training. Currently we have three officers on the west side. Three officers on the west side that can deal with any type of Clandestine Laboratory fentanyl situations. Like I said before, we need a minimum of four guys, Kona only has three currently. So on the Hilo side, our counter parts of Hilo I believe they have five, five individuals. So anytime we need help, or they need help we come together as a team, which isn't a problem but we're a small unit. People go on vacation, people get sick, so when you had eight now you're down to six, it brings up so many issues. So it's not just the equipment, it's the manpower and it's the training. They're waiting to get everyone certified so that we have the bodies to take care the problems that come up. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you for clarifying on that, I appreciate that. So it's not as simple as throwing some money at some suits. It's incredibly complex. Once again, I just thank you both for being here. And I thank my colleagues for taking the time to listen and learn, and hopefully reconnect with these gentlemen and find out how we can continue to support their work, educate ourselves about this health crisis, and educate our families and our communities, about the dangers that are all too prevalent. So thank you again, gentlemen. Page 27 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 MR. BUYTEN: Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Yes, alright. And with that I'd like to close file on Communication 92, all those in favor? Vote on Comm. 92: The motion to close file on Comm. 92 was carried Filed by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Chair Villegas — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Kimball — 2. Excused: None. CHR. VILLEGAS: With that Clerk Henricks we move on to our next communication. Would anybody else like a short recess to use the restroom? Yes, please. We'll be in recess for five minutes; we'll be back at 2:35 (p.m.). Thank you. Recess: At 2:30 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 2:36 p.m. CHR. VILLEGAS: I'd like to call this meeting out of recess, thank you. Clerk Henricks. Comm. 93: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT REGARDING HYDROGEN ENERGY PLANS AND PARTNERSHIPS From Council Member Heather L. Kimball, dated January 13, 2023. Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 93. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. VILLEGAS: At this time, I'm going to go ahead and hand this over to Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much Chair. And so, yes this is by the request of the Administration, and I just would like to ask Riley Saito, our energy specialist from Research and Development to come up and share his PowerPoint and his knowledge with us about hydrogen transformation on the Island of Hawaii. Page 28 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 (Note: At this time, Research and Development Economic Development Specialist Riley Saito came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. SAITO: Alright, so to give you a context of this presentation, it was actually developed couple of years ago, a year -and -a -half ago. But it was to present at an International Hydrogen Conference, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy. We had Research and Development submit a response to a RFI (Request for Information) on what and how we could advance hydrogen within our County. And based on that response, we were requested to actually do a presentation at this international conference. So it has a little more context as far as Hawaii County, but I think it's a good way to—well just go through the slides and you can take look. Because it sets kind of the table where we are. (Note: At this time, Mr. Saito provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the presentation, see the DVD copy of the proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office, or online at http:Hhawaiicountygranicus.com. A hard copy of the presentation is made a part of the record. See Comm. 93. 1.) MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much, Riley. I know you were joking around earlier saying you didn't want to answer all our questions, but I think people may have some. MR. SAITO: No, that was for Ramzi. MS. KAGIWADA: I have some—if it's okay if I go? CHR. VILLEGAS: Please go right ahead. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Okay, a couple questions. Where do our rental cars for this island like, how big of a group of vehicles is that, do you know? MR. SAITO: I would say several thousand. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I know you said this was kind of on the books, as of 2006, right? So what, just so I understand, you know, there was kind of this, "yeah, let's do this." You're just getting to the point where you're getting some big grants and some good—looks like kudos. Going forward, I'm just wondering what have been the sticking points and what are the current sticking points with kind of being able to go forward with this? MR. SAITO: The previous sticking points, I think was I don't think hydrogen was ready yet. The electrolysis, the production of hydrogen was at the end of demand, it was the chicken -and -egg thing. There's no demand, so why would Page 29 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 you produce it? The technology to produce has existed, but no one really wants to build it if no one's going to use it. So, just overall environmental to greenhouse gas awareness, if you think in 2006, you may have been talking about it, but no one was really doing anything about it, you know. They were protesting in the 60's and 70's. You know, it's taking that long really with electricity. I mean in 2006, we were talking about just getting a net meter law passed, right? To get PV (Photovoltaic). By that point, PV was too expensive. Nobody can afford it. It's not going to work. The utility just kept, you know, saying that. Then, until all this transition that occurred over the years, to set up the framework for photovoltaics. It didn't really take off till 2012, when suddenly there were like 45,000 solar residential permits. So, coming from a solar developer, I see hydrogen at that same point as we were with PV in 2006. Right now, there's a technology, and in working for the County I can see where we have the chickens and the eggs. We have the source of fuel and we have the vehicles to use it. So that's very important in the DOE (Department of Education) grant. They want somebody not only to take care of producing it, they want somebody to use it. So, I've calculated it and know that we can transform 300 light-duty vehicles, 55 busses, and 35 semitrucks, and we can use the landfill gas to run it. So, we have the chicken and the egg. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. MR. SAITO: So that you know, PV was in the same position that hydrogen is in now. But, I see it as a long-term future, the actual resolution to energy versus batteries are temporary. MS. KAGIWADA: One more follow-up question. On an earlier slide, there was something about how much water it takes to produce. And going forward, do we see that as a potential concern on this island. MR. SAITO: Water is always a concern, right. So, I was just talking to a solar developer this morning, that if you have a solar field, there's technology that pulls water from air. There's some that stand alone like a solar panel, but it produces water. There're others that you can feed electricity in and produces more water faster. There's a couple of companies that are actually in Hawaii actually moving forward with that. The other source is wastewater. Another source is sea water. Water doesn't have to be potable. The air -to -water is. It's so clean that you can't drink it because it'll deplete your body of minerals. You have to add minerals to this air -to -water Page 30 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 product. So, to produce 1,000 kilograms (kg) a day, it would take 2,700 gallons (gal) or so. So I round it up to 3,000 gal to produce 1,000 kg a day and would provide 10,000 bus miles a day. Just far more than what we need. So, that amount of air -to -water technology in the form of passive panels would take up two acres of land. So, two acres of land could provide enough water to drive my entire bus fleet all year long. But with our wastewater, we're getting 2.8 million gallons a day versus 3,000 gallons. 2.8 million gal a day from the Hilo Wastewater Treatment plant that potentially could be used to create or produce hydrogen. And that wastewater has a higher hydrogen content than potable water. So, that would help, because right now, we send that to the ocean. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, last, just circling back to my first question, which is right now, what are the obstacles or things that you're trying to overcome? MR. SAITO: It's community tense of the word "hydrogen." Not thinking that they're going to blow up, and understanding that the forms of energy we're talking about doesn't—using them doesn't involve incineration. That if you produce the methane, you purify it. Your byproduct is carbon dioxide that you combine with the hydrogen to become airline fuel. So, you actually capture carbon using the hydrogen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So, I've just said that and explained that to you, but that needs to be understood by a lot farther population than this room, and we need to do education and having the understanding within our community that we're not going to burn something. We're not going to blow you up. Hydrogen moves 66 feet per second vertically. So, it's very, very difficult to capture and contain. Once you release it in the air, it has a higher flash point temperature than gasoline. Things like that, those facts regarding hydrogen needs to be understood. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you, I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you so much, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Member Kagiwada. Fabulous questions, thank you. Here's my concern, I don't really want it to be a super ferry or a rail project on Oahu. My biggest concern is, it's nice to have that kind of money coming in from the Government and Department of Energy to help us maybe set up a pilot project. But my concern is that's what it'll be and then money will dry up and say, you're on your own. So, now did you accept it, or not accept it? Do you really want to do this or not want to do it? I think the public island -wide is going to have to really weigh in if they want to spend this kind of money to stand up hydrogen. Page 31 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 I went to Japan and got a tour of a hydrogen facility there, and what I realized is that if Japan thought that hydrogen was really here to stay, they'd be pumping out all these hydrogen vehicles, and they're not. You know, they're going with Tesla's and batteries. You know, everybody's going with volts and all this kind of stuff. So, I see if we're going to take it on as a County, I think it's got to be really, really small and maybe we do a few busses and set up these stations, but we're going to have to train our staff how to maintain hydrogen vehicles. We're going to have to have these stations set up around the island, and maybe we don't want to go all around the island. Maybe we should just do it in Hilo and use the wastewater treatment there. You know, but I'm really worried about taking on something really, really big that the Federal Government will just kind of back off, and then, boom, we've got a super ferry situation or we've got a rail situation where we have to raise taxes or whatever to support this hydrogen transportation system. So, I do have a lot of concerns about it. I'd like to keep it really, really, really small. Let the Department of Energy and the Federal Government, and the State Legislature who wants to do renewable energy keep giving us the money at the County level, but not have us and the taxpayers hereI'm really worried about that part of it. So, I appreciate technology and innovation, and you know, we want to get off fossil fuel. I think, you know, it's a good direction, but I really have some concerns about us biting it off as a small community taking it on. So, thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Anyone else? Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Council Member Evans, I can really appreciate those sentiments, but I'm of the exact opposite sort of mindset where we need to embrace an island -nation mentality and think of our location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as a motivator to be innovative and energy secure and sustainable. So, I appreciate, you know, the presentation by Mr. Saito and our R&D (Research and Development) Director here. There is so much Federal money out there. I think all of us were getting that message when we were in D.C. (Washington D.C.) last week, for the NACo (National Association of Counties) Legislative Conference. And it's about leveraging that money smartly and making those investments in the critical infrastructure now, so that we don't have to be asking our residents to pony up for this sort of infrastructure to sustain it for the long term. Page 32 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 Chair, if you could give me a little bit of latitude, and you know, feel free to cut me off at any time if you think I'm venturing into territory that's beyond the scope of this presentation, but I'll make a connection here. In the presentation, Mr. Saito had talked about potentially using our wastewater treatment facility to be generating hydrogen. So, I'm just curious, maybe Director Adams, you can speak to this. My understanding is that all of the counties through the Department of Transportation has a contract with Sustainability Energy Partners for transportation purposes. So, I'm just curious if in the planning and design for updates to our Hilo Wastewater Treatment facility, if there was any consideration given to including in that scope of work creating hydrogen to suffice transportation needs for our County, especially if we're moving into the hydrogen direction? (Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Douglass Adams came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. ADAMS: Right. Thank you very much, Council Member. The answer is that there were discussions about that. We did need to make sure that we maintained connection with the electrification of transportation aspect of the master agreement. And there was disagreement about whether or not using the Wastewater Treatment facility and the wastewater opportunities for methane, which then could be transitioned into hydrogen would actually suffice for that purpose. So, in the process of looking at those questions, the initial stage of the work on the Wastewater Treatment plant that I believe DEM (Department of Environmental Management) has going on doesn't include that, but we continue to have those conversations with the leadership, and looking at expanding the scope from just the electrification of transportation to more of an infrastructure capability. So that, in fact, we don't then—we're not stuck just for transportation as the main purpose, but the ability to then to move forward with an infrastructure RFP (Request for Proposal) that would then allow us to go with the public-private partnerships to support the ability to use not just the wastewater. But Riley has some other connections that are part of that facility near that facility that would also engage us with the potential to engage both the methane to hydrogen piece for our busses, as well as some other ways of using even biologics for either composting or hydrogen development. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Director, for that clarification. I don't want to go any further. I know it goes beyond the scope of the presentation, but just wanted to get that detail, and I think you hit the nail on the head when you talked about the scope of the contract is just related to just electrification. So, going Page 33 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 beyond that might be more than we can handle at this point, but you folks are exploring it. Thank you. Mr. Saito, can you talk a little bit more about the PGV (Puna Geothermal Venture) element in your presentation? That happens to be in my district, so I want to be able to communicate clearly to my constituents about how any partnership between the County and PGV could be impacting the community. MR. SAITO: It's not necessarily the existing facility, because ideally, if we're looking at geothermal—well, let me say this about geothermal. Okay, so the center of the earth is hot. The crust is where we live. If anywhere on earth you move toward the center, anywhere on earth, right here, if I went down 25,000 feet, it would be very hot. Okay, so geothermal does not need to exist in Lava Zone 1. There's an exploratory well that was done at P6hakuloa Training that went downso, that's about 6,000 -foot elevation. So, the water lens would be about 600 -feet down. They got to about 4,000 feet down and the water turned hot. So, this is above the water lens, although they ran out of funding and couldn't actually do more exploration. But they did get a little further down to like about 6,000 feet and the water cooled off. But that in-between pocket—so there are pockets within the substructure of this island that has heat that would be capable of geothermal. So it may or may not be in your district, but the advantages of geothermal is that it's a closed-loop system. When they say injection, they're not like injecting into earth. It is injecting into a pipe. The heat and energy comes out in a pipe. It goes through a secondary cooling in a closed-loop pipe with the pentane. Then that cooled brine, because now the heat has been removed, it goes back down into the injection well to get warmed by the earth and up in production. So, there's no emissions, it's just a heat transfer of closed systems. So, there's no explosion, there's no fracking. Fracking, you actually explode the earth, and in order to release the gas—none of that is going on. So, it's a clean firm source of energy in a closed loop. So, with that energy generation being firm, you can actually have steady electricity not tied to the grid at all. It's just producing hydrogen all day long. And then once you get into hydrogen you can diversify where you consume it and how you consume it. Whether it's an airline field, vehicle fields, stored energy for emergency centers, backup for hospital energy. You know, it's in a bottled glass that has unlimited shelf life that can be transferred anywhere in the world. So, you know, going back to geothermal, we would not necessarily have one with the existing plan, although that could happen. But it wouldn't be necessarily grid -tied in its use of energy production. Page 34 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I just wanted some clarification, because you specifically named PGV, and so just wanted to understand if there were any conversations or agreements being negotiated, just so that we can be sure that the residents that live near Puna Geothermal and are in District 4 are fully aware of the dialogue between PGV and the County. MR. SAITO: They have enough processes involved with the repowering contract they have now, so that would certainly complicate things, so we're not under discussion or moving toward any type of agreement at this point. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you for sharing that for the record. Again, appreciate the presentation and you taking the time to further explore energy potential options for our island. Thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else? Yes. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks for the very interesting presentation. I guess I was wanting to ask about—didn't we just get some money for the busses, and those are going to be hydrogen, correct? MR. SAITO: Correct. MS. GALIMBA: Okay and it seems, from what reading I've done, that that's almost like the ideal use of hydrogen technology is for that busses and trucks. MR. SAITO: Well, the heavier vehicles are more hydrogen fuel -cell technology. The heavier vehicles with the longer miles required that is where it's a sweet spot for hydrogen to be the energy source. The shorter routes with lighter vehicles is where battery is the sweet spot. The only thing with battery is that true end of life 20 years from now of the battery, what happens to the battery? That is still up in the air yet. Versus the fuel cells, you can actually take them apart, renovate them and reuse them. MS. GALIMBA: So, the fuel cells are less difficult to sort of recycle? MR. SAITO: End of life, right. MS. GALIMBA: Yeah, end of life part of it. MR. SAITO: It's like you renovate them and they're new. MS. GALIMBA: Right, right, which is important. I guess my question right now would be—and this is not to denigrate the hydrogen project at all. I was just Page 35 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 wondering what the sort of cost per mile is at this point in time versus, I guess, diesel gas. MR. SAITO: So, this is what turned me on to hydrogen, because I started four years ago worrying about electricity like everybody else. I was at a DOE presentation at Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority and they said, if you can produce hydrogen with electricity at the cost of 10 cents kilowatt (kWh) hour, you are at par with fossil fuel. So 10 cents kWh, our residential bills right now are 47-48 cents kWh. So, really if you're buying it off the grid, it doesn't make sense to produce hydrogen. But as a solar developer, before starting with the County, I worked on a presentation for a solar farm and battery for 8 cents was the PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) price. So, what's funny is the solar company engineer and design technical modeling person who was sitting next to me at that presentation. And I said, if we can get it off grid—if we take away the grid, we don't have to go to high voltage, we just keep the energy on the plot that we have the solar farm, you think we can get to 4 or 5 cents? He goes, "oh yah, definitely 4 cents, maybe lower." So then, in my head, I was like, why are we messing around with this? Let's go make hydrogen. Because if 10 cents is the tipping point and we're coming down, you know, to 4 cents, it's economic stability for 25 years. There's no imports, there's no external forces to put us at risk for a Ukraine -Russia situation. Using our sunlight and using our wind, we can get to that 4 cents and really provide a vibrant future. So, that's what started the hydrogen journey four years ago. It was because of exactly what you asked. What is the tipping point? MS. GALIMBA: Interesting. And I guess another question around the economic side, what was the cost of the plant in? And I know it's just a small beginning run but, just to give an idea of what that investment was. MR. SAITO: It was really expensive, because it was actually the first time—it was being designed and built for the first time. So, HNEI (Hawai`i Natural Energy Institute), the Research and Development arm of the University of Hawaii utilized the grants from Department of Energy from the State of Hawaii from there's another grant form. And they started this build out in 2010-2011, I think. There was some grant from the HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes) 196-10. So it's taken that long because it was cutting edge, and it was a lot of education with permitting because you don't want any sparks coming out of the production facility. What if you do get a spark? What do you do? There's first responder training. They're actually going through how much grounding you need in order to prevent a spark. So, there's this huge slab under there that is full of rewire for grounding, and the barbwire fence around it, every single pole has grounding on there. So, I think it's like about $5 million. Page 36 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 That's for 64 kg (kilograms) a day. But we've done several presentations with the Fire Departments, so they're informed on what and how the systems work. Where the emergency shutoff valves are. So, there's a lot of learning and education that occurred in that facility. So, it is high-priced, but it's also the lessons learned to design the engineering, the specifications, the metals used, the pipes used, the wiring used can all be reused in moving forward with future proj ects. MS. GALIMBA: Interesting. Thank you very much. I guess one more question. I guess, so the plant in Lancaster, there's a hydrogen; like a commercial scale hydrogen facility already existing in Lancaster, is that right? MR. SAITO: It's actually in Namie. MS. GALIMBA: Oh, Namie. I know they're working on one in Lancaster, right? MR. SAITO: Yes. They are working on one in Lancaster so that they can charge their battery -electric busses with green energy. MS. GALIMBA: Okay. And so, I mean, compared to our plant here, how big is the one that exists in Namie? MR. SAITO: Oh, it's about 15 times larger. MS. GALIMBA: Okay, so like 1,000 kg per say, okay. MR. SAITO: Yeah, it's about 1,000 kg. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks. MR. SAITO: And that's with PV and without a battery, and that was government funded. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Okay, go ahead. MS. GALIMBA: Do you know approximately how much that one costs in Namie? MR. SAITO: You know, in our bus ride to the geothermal plant last week, I asked them that. And it was interesting because then this whole discussion in Japanese occurred with pages flipping and all. They came back to me, it's $10 a kg. And a kg is equivalent to a gallon of gas, but it contains 2.8 times more energy. So, you take the $10 divided by 2.8 to take it to a fossil fuel equivalent and the plant operations and maintenance. If they had to deliver it on a commercial basis, they would sell it at $10 a kg. Page 37 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 The U.S. DOE (United States Department of Energy) hydrogen shot goal is to have the cost of hydrogen down to $1 a kg by the year 2030. That's kind of what they're using for all this funding. So, if you get to $1 a kg, then you're way ahead of fossil fuel. If you do it with a renewable source with energy molecules from this island, that savings is stabilized and constant. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Is that it, from my colleagues right now? Awesome. Well, thank you Heather. We hope you feel better, but thank you for requesting this communication from Mr. Saito. Wow, it's always so interesting to hear you speak, and so uplifting. MR. SAITO: Also, hydrogen is light, it should be uplifting. CHR. VILLEGAS: It's light. Lift us up with this. The depth and breadth of your knowledge, your experience, your connections and relationships, not only here in the County, but in the State and even globally with what's being done, I am really hopeful and in full support of all the efforts that you're making to take us to that next dimension and to allow for the Big Island to be that model for the world at large. Because if we can create energy from what we already have on the island with no necessary imports, and the output is clean renewable energy, you know, we're on our way to solving a lot of the issues that we're facing. So, thank you for your diligence and persistence and tenacity in continuing to forge ahead and teach us and everyone else what's possible and how it can be made possible. So, we'll continue to look forward to more reports from you, and it's kind of perfect that our next topic will be kind of in alignment with this and in alignment with some of the questions from Council Member Kierkiewicz, as far as how it relates to managing our waste and our wastewater. So, thank you for your time. MR. SAITO: Thank you for the opportunity. CHR. VILLEGAS: My pleasure. Alight. And with that, I'd like to take a vote on closing file on Communication 93, all those in favor? Vote on Comm. 93: The motion to close file on Comm. 93 was carried (Filed): by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Villegas — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Kimball — 2. Excused: None. Page 38 CRCOC-3 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON COMM. 94: February 21, 2023 CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Clerk Henricks. Moving on to the next communication. The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public. MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Owens, would you like to come forward now to testify? CHR. VILLEGAS: Oh, sorry. Thank you. Of course. MR. HENRICKS: So, Mr. (Lance) Owens will be testifying on Comm. 94. You'll have three minutes to provide your testimony and I'll start the timer when you begin to speak. MR. OWENS: Out of respect for the Council's time, it looks like a lot of the things I wanted to talk about may be addressed in the presentation. May I defer to the end? Is that possible? MR. HENRICKS: Your choice, Chair. CHR. VILLEGAS: I am sorry, the question is whether or not he can testify after the presentation? MR. HENRICKS: If that's okay with you. It's not a problem. CHR. VILLEGAS: That's okay with me then. MR. OWENS: Many things may be addressed in the presentation. CHR. VILLEGAS: Okay, great, thank you, and thanks for asking for this beforehand. MR. OWENS: Thank you. Comm. 94: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, CARI ISHIDA, PH.D., OF CAROLLO ENGINEERS AND SINA PRUDER DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, WASTEWATER BRANCH, REGARDING THE CESSPOOL CONVERSION WORKING GROUP REPORT From Council Member Heather L. Kimball, dated January 19, 2023. Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 94. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. Page 39 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 CHR. VILLEGAS: Yes, fantastic. We'll just give you a minute to setup, and I'm going to go ahead and pass this off to Council Member Jennifer Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you very much, Chair. So, wonderful to have you here. We've got today, to give us a presentation on the Cesspool Working Group, we've got Director Ramzi Mansour and Dr. Cari Ishida, Ph.D. And I believe we have Sina Pruder from the Health Department on Zoom? Oh great, thank you so much. So, we've got three experts here to talk to us today. Very excited. I don't know how you want to start this off, but I guess Director, why don't you get us going. (Note: At this time Director of Environmental Management Ramzi Mansour provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the presentation, see the DVD copy of the proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office, or online at http:Hhawaiicountygranicus.com. A hard copy of the presentation is made a part of the record. See Comm. 94. 1.) MR. MANSOUR: I just want to thank Dr. Ishida and Sina for taking the time to present before you this very important topic that every county including the University of Hawaii and our professional engineers here within the State were able to put it together. You guys know where I stand when it comes to wastewater, but definitely, we'll entertain any questions. Thank you so much. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you so much. Colleagues? Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Yeah, I'd like to see if that member from the public would like to give his testimony at this time before we begin our deliberation. Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you for the reminder. MR. HENRICKS: You could. It probably would be better to do it after this is done before adjournment, just to not set the precedence of taking public testimony in the middle of an item. I think that would be best. CHR. VILLEGAS: Gotcha. Thanks for your guidance on that. MR. INABA: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Director Mansour, mahalo to both of you for the presentation today. Very comprehensive, and I know part of it calls for that Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan, something that's going through the Legislature, something we've talked about. So Director Mansour, as you know, what we heard today is one part of the big wastewaterI don't know Page 40 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 what we even want to call it. But where do we see ourselves as it relates to the integrated plan? MR. MANSOUR: Definitely, that's a good question. As you've seen it from the presentation, the Hawaii County has around close to 50,000 cesspools. We've only got about 17 years left to meet the law, the deadline. That requires it to do about 2,800 cesspool conversions a year. We haven't even started. I mean, we're already behind the eight ball pretty much. As far as our Wastewater Integrated Management Plan, I think I was before you when I first got nominated. That was my first task—was to get funding to do that. Wastewater Integrated Management Plan. Currently for the Puna district, the whole area, we have a consultant who is working on the feasibility of a waste treatment plan. And looking at the conversion as well. What we're going to do with the cesspools. What's the best option. So, that's being worked on. For the other side, for Puako and North Kohala area, including Waikoloa, we also have the same consultant putting a masterplan together to figure out how we're going to serve that area. The Hilo Waste Treatment Plant currently, Carollo Engineering has also been retained to be the engineer from last year. With their help we were able to put the design construction plan out on the street. As you all know, the project Phase 1 is being bid out as we speak. So, we were able to complete it within less than one year. And that's a $100 million project for Phase 1. So, Phase 2, we're working on it. Our intent is to have it out on the street by June 2024. In addition to that, we're looking at getting the fact plan, which is the facility planning for Hilo. To look at the parameter at the service area within that Hilo facility, to be able to capture all the customers within that facility. We have to connect to be able to be sustainable financially and environmentally. So, that plan also, we are in the process going through the selection process to get a consultant to do it or doing it through a supplement in the current agreement to look at the feasibility of taking the cesspools within the Hilo service area and trying to convert them into either sewer collection by extending the sewer line and looking at the feasibility of the payout. If we can financially put the infrastructure in and get a pay on return for 20 years, that's good for the County. Page 41 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 As you've seen from the presentation, individual cost literally costs you more than the monthly service. Here in the County we charge $46 a month. We are the lowest -charged County in the whole State when it comes to sewer service. MR. INABA: Okay, Director. So, I think we all know, or we've heard this before, but I'm hearing piecemealed out plans. So, the question, I think, the bill that's going through the Legislature is that masterplan. But we keep hearing piecemeal. So, I know everything is going to be billions of dollars. We all know that, but we're not seeing it all come together where there's some kind of cohesive plan for the County, and I feel like we're banging our heads here because we don't have that comprehensive plans. So, when do you intend to, or are we working towards combining that, because we have consultants here, consultants there working on individual regional plans. But we've heard that before. So, where are we at getting it together? MR. MANSOUR: Okay, Council Member Inaba, I haven't finished. Now, the idea of doing these small plans is to create the big one. The reason we're doing small plans is because we had a grant. Council Member Kierkiewicz, we worked with her on the EDA (United States Economic Development Administration) grant for $1.8 million. So the funding was a major factor of why we're doing it the way we're doing it, because it's just the funding. The County cannot afford that much money all at once. So, each district or each area was granted a certain amount of money. That's why we're utilizing that money to do it in pieces. Eventually, once all these pieces are put together, we can hire a consultant to bring them together to make them one major integrated plan out of that. MR. INABA: And was that June 2024, you said, or what is June 2024? MR. MANSOUR: In 2024 is the Hilo Phase 2, we'll go out to construction. Our intent is once we finish these mini masterplans, one consultant will grab them all and create one Integrated Waste Management Plan for the whole County. MR. INABA: So, with the regional plans, wait, I don't want us to get lost, because I just need clear answers. With the regional plans, which regional plan is last in progress—where we're going to get it completed last, because that's when we're going to know? At that time, we can start putting them all together. MR. MANSOUR: Once we secure the funding, the budget is coming before you in May, and you have the authority to budget for that. Last year I came before Page 42 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 you, and it's all about budgeting. And you guys allocate the money for such a study. So, we'll come to you. The budget is coming to you in May. With the power in your hand, if you want to budget for it, we'll start the selection process for consultants. But, there's multiple masterplans that are taking action now because of the grant funding, because the County did not fund these areas. So funding, as you know, it's been a challenge since day one. Allocate $5 million and we'll start it tomorrow. Simple as that. MR. INABA: Which regional plan is kind of on the backburner or last in terms of being completed, or hasn't been started yet? I think that's what none of us really have a clear idea of. So, of course, I think we'd want to see these regional plans completed and can figure out what funding we can afford based on, you know, our fund balance and direction from Finance. But, I don't think any of us clearly understand where we are in terms of these regional plans. Is the Hilo Regional Plan almost complete, and then we haven't started anything for the Kona side or Puako yet, or like are we 80 percent done with all of these regional plans? MR. MANSOUR: Well, let me reinstate it again, the whole area in the Puna district. The consultant, as I mentioned earlier, is already working on that masterplan. MR. INABA: Okay, so when will that plan be done? MANSOUR: That I think we have a deadline on spending that grant money, I think by the end of this year. I'm not sure the actual date of completion. The Puako area is going to be done, I think by 2025, if I remember right. But I could get you the dates, but all of these are being in harbor. Everything is being worked on, as we speak, for these two sites that are fully funded by different money than the County funds. We are trying to solicit, like I mentioned earlier, to do the fac (facility) plan for Hilo. That has not started because we're working on the design construction of the actual facility. So, that eventually is going to take place; probably we're going to secure a consultant or do a supplement within the next month. But it has not started. Page 43 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 Kealakehe area is in the same predicament. We got a proposal for almost $3.5 million just to do the Kealakehe fac plan and to look at the conversion and what have you. And that may come before you in May if you want to move forward with it and allocate the funding? We're talking about just Kealakehe, $3.5 million County funds. MR. INABA: Is that a conversation plan? MR. MANSOUR: That's the regional plan for Kealakehe. MR. INABA: Alright. So, no start there, no start in Hilo. Puako, end of 2025; Pahoa, Puna, end of the year. Is that all regions? How many regional plans do we have? MR. MANSOUR: I mean, Dr. Ishida could explain the priority, but it's all tied to funding. I just want to make it clear, anything we do is subject to allocating the funds, so we can be able to secure a consultant to do the work. (Note: At this time Carollo Engineers Technical Advisor Cari Ishida, Ph.D. came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. ISIHDA: I just pulled back up the prioritization for Hawaii County. This is the new prioritization that Sina had gone through. Priority 1 is, you know, West of Waimea around the Kona area. Priority 2 is around the Hilo area, and then the rest are Priority 3. So, if these new bills go through with, you know, changing the deadlines. Priority 1 is 2030; Priority 2 is 2035, and Priority 3 is 2050. So, I understand the urgency, certainly. There's a little bit more time for the Priority 3 areas. The urgency is really around Priority 1, which is West of Waimea, Kona area; and then Priority 2, Hilo area. MR. INABA: As we're talking about these priority areas, though, this was as it relates to cesspool conversions specifically, not towards our County Regional Plans, right? MS. ISHIDA: So, I'll say the linkage between the cesspool conversions, and you know, the regional plans around the plants. It's all tied because you have to look at the plants together. You have to see what you can connect from a sewer capacity perspective. You have to see what the plant can take from a treatment capacity perspective as well. So, that's why you kind of look at it all together. Page 44 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 MR. INABA: It totally makes sense. So, Director, how many regional plans total are we going to have. I know it all depends on funding. But what is going to bring us to the point where we can mesh them together into a masterplan, how many? MR. MANSOUR: We have seven waste treatment plants within the County. So, you're looking at seven regional or fac plans for each facility. So, we're only going to start Hilo and Kealakehe probably if the funding is available. Hilo, I think we have the funding because we were able to get the general obligation bond because we're doing Phase 1 and Phase 2. Puna district and Pahoa already got the funding through the grant so that's being worked on, as I mentioned earlier. So, you have to technically study each facility and the surrounding area. So, we are behind. MR. INABA: I know that. I still only know—is Pahoa and Puna two different systems or is that one system, one region? MR. MANSOUR: It's two separate funding, but we're doing it under the same consultant to doing the whole area. MR. INABA: Okay, so that's one of four I've heard so far. What are the other three? Pahoa, Puna, Puako, Hilo, Kealakehe? MR. MANSOUR: You have Papa`ikou, Kalaima`ano Treatment Plants. MR. INABA: Kalaima`ano here, or Kula`imanu? MR. MANSOUR: Kalaima`ano MR. INABA: And what's the last one? MR. MANSOUR: Honoka`a Waste Treatment Plant. MR. INABA: Honoka`a. So, for those last three; where are we, unfunded, not started? MR. MANSOUR: We haven't even got a consultant to give us a proposal on it. Page 45 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 MR. INABA: Okay, and I'm going to yield at this time. Thank you, Chair. This is the most information, I think, I've gotten on the integrated plan thus far, which I think, you know, we are going to have to figure out how to help the department. Thank you, Director. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. I'm not sure who was first, Council Member Lee Loy or Council Member Evans. You guys have major sewer issues in your districts. Council Member Evans, go ahead. MS. EVANS: Okay. I have several questions. So, I'll ask one and then pass it over and maybe come back. So, recently in Puak6, there was a conversation about a sewage treatment plant versus individual wastewater systems. One of the comments, and that's my question; kind of a follow-up to our Member Inaba's questioning. You mentioned that to actually cite a treatment plant, and go through the Environmental Assessment and that whole process would take years. We don't have years if they're doing 2030 as the goal. So, my question would be to Sina as well as you is with modern technology would it not be more to get there faster to give a little bit of money to the University of Hawaii and Sina and really step up our game on individual wastewater treatment plants, and also, these small little cluster plants instead of just going with these putting all our money and eggs in the basket of these regional plants isn't going to get us there by 2030. So, why can't we put money towards individual wastewater treatment plants or these cluster plants? MR. MANSOUR: Sina, you want to take this one, and then I can reply after? (Note: At this time State Department of Health, Wastewater Branch Sina Pruder came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. PRUDER: I mean, you can look at clustered systems. But like for Puak6, you know, that's actually like one of the challenging areas, you know, that I know of, because of the close proximity. You know, because it's just lava rock, and I know cesspools and maybe even like septic systems, effluent, it just gets you know, once it gets discharged into their leach field or even to their cesspool, it just leaches to the ocean. MS. EVANS: I just have to interrupt you for one second, though, because there are systems that don't put it down back in the ground. I mean, I know that people Page 46 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 don't like septic systems because they're effluent, but there's stuff that is way beyond that, that is lost. MS. PRUDER: Yeah, it's interesting because, you know, it was just like last week, I actually—so like in Australia, they actually have all types of systems that are available based on like the site specifics. So, I actually asked this one, you know, because he's a consultant from Australia, and I just asked him, well, what do you guys do for systems that are kind of like close to the ocean, you know, that you want a zero -discharge system. So, you know, he said that you know, in Australia, they do actually have zero -discharge, evapotranspiration systems, and these are systems that are actually located near the Great Barrier Reef. Yeah, so they actually have systems like that that, you know, is kind of zero discharge, which would probably eliminate or minimize any kind of discharge to the ocean. So, you know, one of the things is that I think it is that, well you know, and I'll probably work with U.H. (University of Hawaii) too, is you know, we really got to like tap in to like the knowledge and experience of other places like Australia. I've heard that there's like even in the other states. But I particularly like Australia only because they are like an island, you know, they have similar they have like similar topography, you know, similar to ours where your discharge will go to the ocean. So, I am actually going to be working with them to see like are their other solutions, especially for Puako, because Puako is a real challenge, you know, for alternatives, for wastewater systems over there. I know for Puako, you know, they've spent the last five years because originally, they wanted to go with a R1 reuse facility which is going to cost them $15 million. And you know, they had a hard time even finding funds to do that. Or even getting buy -in by all of the homeowners there. So that's another thing too, is that, you know, whatever solution you recommend, and again, that's when the outreach comes in. There has to be buy -in by the community. You know, they're willing to like put in that system or systems. So, that they can like protect their ocean over there. MS. EVANS: You know, what you just told us is well said. Yes, if we do these regional plans, it tells us maybe how big the sewage treatment plant would be, but by the time you pass some improvement district, because you're going to have to Page 47 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 charge everybody to build this thing that's going to cost a fortune. I mean this takes years in process. So, my big concern is how do I get people off cesspools today, but not get them fluent in the ground? And I know I offered to use my contingency relief fund to actually fund the research to do this. But you know, I'm really anxious when we do the just my take away to this is, I'm anxious when we do our budget process and talk about $5 million. $5 million might get over a thousand people off of cesspools right now, today, this year. So, I'm really anxious to see some conversions going on then. Thank you, I yield. MR. MANSOUR: In addition to that, I think, just Priority No. 1, we're looking at $5,119. If the law goes through implementation by 2030, you're looking at 713 conversions every year that we have to do. We have to start tomorrow. So, the idea, yes, the laws are implemented, but contradicting each other. But, what Council Member Inaba was referring to is the integrated waste management plan also is going to be the law with the deadline we have to meet. But, yeah, you have to do the plan, that you also have to do the conversion, and you may not have enough time to plan it, because now you have to start converting. Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Evans and Director. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks Chair. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I think along similar lines, like Mr. Inaba and then Ms. Evans, I think we're waiting for the big plan, right, that's going to cost us $100 billion? Then, what we can do in the meantime to encourage cesspool owners to convert. So, I just wanted to clarify some of the data. Doctor, on one slide, you gave an average household income of somewhere, I think it was a $124,000 annually. The affordability measures, that particular slide, and I'm a little concerned on something you stated, which is these are 2020 numbers. And don't have to explain now, but maybe if we could get this slide updated, I think the math will dramatically change. Because we had a presentation earlier today about what the median household income is for Hawaii County, and we're still $20,000 less than the State. Page 48 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 So, when we talk about affordability and grant incentives, if $10,000 is the average for the State, individuals here in Hawaii County are going to need 30 ($30,000) just to make it penciled out based on their income. So, if you wouldn't mind, just scratching some back of the envelope information using what we used with our ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) income, which a median household income of $57,000 here in Hawaii County compared to the State average of 80 ($80,000), and you had numbers at a 124 ($124,000). So, the numbers are just going to climb. The other one, too, was you know, I'm going to trust all these plans are going to come together; we're going to have a big integrated wastewater system master plan. I don't think we'll get to it till 2030, but at some point, we're going to have to. If not, we're going to get fined. What I'd like to understand a little better, was the resources needed towards creating that workforce. So, on Factors that Affect Cesspool Conversion Programs, one area that you highlighted was available workforce and resources. So, needing the professionals, right? So, we've got to train them up; we've got to educate them; we've got to get engineers. We've got to. And if we're not packing the pipe on the educational side or the incentive side to help these kids get through school, we're not going to have the workforce to carry out this larger master plan. So, I was wondering if there was any analysis done around that professional contractor's materials, because we're an island, and if we're going to be paving roads that's going to take up concrete like crazy, but we've also got to get pipe, right? So, I was just wondering if an analysis was done around that, and don't have to answer today, but maybe just a quick follow-up, Ramzi or Doctor, please? I think there's some things we can do right now and encourage right now from a policy perspective, but I do want to be kind of comparing apples with apples, and especially, amounts. Just say, yes, because I heard Sina say that she's almost 30 years into her job. So, we're going to need toI'm hoping she doesn't retire, but we have to deal with the fact that even Sina's going to retire one day. Page 49 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 MR. MANSOUR: Yes, definitely. It's, as you all know, it's been a challenge securing an engineer. The good thing is, we're going to find out more once we receive the bids on Hilo. We're going to find out the constructability market. I mean, we estimated $104 million for Phase 1. That's the latest engineer's estimate before we put it out on the street. Let's hope it comes below that. If it comes higher, I'm going to come before you guys and say, we need more money. I mean, the whole thing is unfortunate because in the market, everything's going up in price. Inflation is 23 percent or so. I mean, we have to do what we have to do. I mean, it's bad timing, unfortunately. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Director. I'm trying to create that forecast or that projection, because I know my colleagues and I were up in D.C. pushing on a lot of things, but we began to ring that bell on workforce and supply chain issues from last year. And now with the infusion of the Biden infrastructure bill, everybody's going to want to grab that money. So, all of those resources, I think we'll get sucked up at the 48 states, and there won't be much left for us here. I see Doctor wanting to share a little bit. MS. ISHDA: I can add maybe some food for thought. You know, we did look at other states and their conversion programs and what worked for them and what didn't. I think a major difference between Hawaii as a state and these other areas, you know, is our size, right? We're small, we're compact. But we have all the same problems as these other states. California, Texas, Florida; but they have the tax based to fund that, right? We're asking the same people to pay for all these big problems. So, I think any opportunity to look for multiple benefits with projects solving multiple problems, that's really, you know, the way to go. Whether it's a transportation project, or an infrastructure project, housing, right? So, all these big problems, we need to look for opportunities to solve multiple problems with single projects. MS. LEE LOY: That multi -problem approach, absolutely. So, an update on the workforce analysis can come later along with the average median income as it relates to Hawaii County numbers, I think. MS. ISHIDA: I can share a little on that, just because I'm involved with professional organizations. This is an industry -wide problem, shortage of engineers. The University of Hawaii is not graduating enough civil engineers to Page 50 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 fulfill the needs of wastewater, water, rail, you know, roads. So, it's an industry- wide problem. Some of these professionals organizations like American Council of Engineering Companies are looking at trying to survey and identify needs and gaps as a state. MS. LEE LOY: Great. Thank you. I mean, there was a program back in the day for attorneys to attend law school, and then they would come home and take on jobs to pay back their student loans. Maybe there's a way that we can kind of incentivize our kids to go seek out these very technical degrees, which we know are very, very expensive; but come home and kind of give back in an effort to offset their costs. MR. MANSOUR: Yes, definitely. And I think you're bringing a good point, as we need to start maybe getting involved in the high school level to start planting the seed of interest in the engineering field. Unfortunately, I've seen it over the last 20-30 years, it's changed. When the Clean Water Act came about in the mid -70's, early -70's, everybody went into Engineering, and they wanted to be Wastewater Engineers, because there was a demand. There was not much supply, so they encouraged students to start studying engineering and what have you. When the tech industry came, no one wanted to be an engineer. Everybody wanted to follow the tech, because dot-com is where the money is. Hopefully, now we can bring them back. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you for the information. I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Alright. Thank you. Any other questions? Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. No, I think Ramzi knows how I feel about this particular topic, that we need to be acting with a bit more urgency. So, I really do look forward to our budget discussions. I just feel like so much time is being spent on crafting these grand plans, and really time is running out. And so, Director, I don't think it's going to be super complicated, but maybe you could just, because I'm still trying to wrap my head around what exactly the priority and focus of your department is in tackling this issue. So, perhaps a three-point plan around how we're going to be making connections within the workforce. You know, Council Member Lee Loy did bring up a lot of Page 51 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 great points around that. What sort of incentives and programs we are going to be developing for communities, for homeowners. My understanding is that there is some state money that is available to be implementing some kind of conversion program. So curious to know where we are, with implementing that for our County. You know, there's so much money out there on the federal front in terms of funding some innovative pilot projects. I mean, look at what Stuart Coleman is doing with WAI (Wastewater Alternatives and Innovations). There are, I'm sure others that are working in this space, and so, just trying to better understand how DEM (Department of Environmental Management) is pulling all of these folks together. Is there some kind of like taskforce or working group that's dedicated to solving this issue for our County? MR. MANSOUR: Yes and no. As far as priority, you all know what our priorities in wastewater. We only can do so many projects within the time given, right? So, Hilo is our Number One priority. You all know that. That's where our force has been. There's only one engineer in my entire department. One engineer. So, when it comes to priority, we've been very transparent with your board. Hilo was Number One priority even though we are working on your project for the masterplan for Puna. So, we are shuffling as many projects as we can with the amount of staff that we have. It's unfortunate, but we're so limited. I'll be more than happy to come before you and present what we have accomplished from priority point of view, just within the last year; year -and -a - half. I think you'll be surprised given the workforce that we have, and the amount of projects that we put out. I just mentioned Hilo, nobody in the whole State could put up a whole project, a $100 million project in about less than a year. Nobody, with one staff member. So, I think you all know the priority, but we take it more on. So, hopefully we get more staffing, and we could do more. All we're going to do is just wish to get more staffing, but with the one engineer I have in my department that does that design, construction project, we've done a lot. I'll be more than happy to share that priority list with you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That'll be great. Thanks Director. And then, Managing Director Lord is here. Possible for us to entertain the idea of some kind of Federal Grants Coordinator? Page 52 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 Many of my colleagues and I were in D.C. for the NACo (National Association of Counties) conference, and there is so much money out there just waiting to be secured. We need a vision, we need a strategy, we need a plan for our islands and figuring out a way to braid all of those funding resources together is of the utmost importance, because we're not going to see money like this ever again in our lifetimes. So, just curious, Managing Director, we see this wastewater issue. It's a billion - dollar problem, if not more, $2 billion problem for our island. Federal money is out there. I'm combing through resources now. I mean, what's the Admin's plan to go after those Federal funds to help to solve some of the issues that we're facing here? (Note: At this time Managing Director Lee Lord came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. LORD: So, we have, since the Federal funds have been on the table with everything that's been going on in the last six months. So, we have a Federal Grant Committee that's been meeting regularly and talking about all the funds coming through. I like the idea of having a committee because, as you're talking about wastewater, there's different areas in the County that also need the funds. So, we can't be tunnel vision and just, you know, have one person looking at what we're doing. So, it involves at the key there, Doug Adams from Research and Development, and of course, Deanna Sako. We're looking at what funds we can go for. We initially, I guess it's been more than six months, looked at do we want to hire a, you know, grants coordinator, those types of things. At this point in time, we came to the decision, no, we have the different departments that are doing their grants themselves, and also, writing the RFP's (Request for Proposal) with all of the details that you need for each of the RFP's when you're going for the money. So, we've been addressing it that way. I feel that we're capturing it all, in that, any emails that come in with information or all the looking that Research and Development does, and the departments do, we're sharing the information with each other. So, when there's funds that are available that are feasible for us to get and the requirements can be met by the County, I feel that we're looking at all of those and going for those at this point in time. Page 53 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 But, we can also look at a grants coordinator. But it's tough when you have a grants coordinator because they can't really write the grants. You know, the expertise, for example, that Ramzi has is so specific that you've got to have somebody at the table involved doing that. So, I really do feel we're getting the job done of making sure we're capturing all of those grants that we could possibly go for. I think that Doug Adams could probably speak to the question about what grants, and you know, the feasibility of them. But possibly not. I think that we're pretty versed in our team, looking at what we're going for. That's what we have right now. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair, for the latitude. I'm going to ask Managing Director one more question related to grants, if that's okay? CHR. VILLEGAS: Yeah, go for it. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So, how many grants has this Administration written and secured so far? Federal grants. MR. LORD: I would have to go and look at the numbers. I don't have those with me because there's many. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Director Mansour, how many grants has your department written and secured to deal with the wastewater issue? MR. MANSOUR: As the Managing Director stated, it's pretty much under R&D (Research and Development), the grant writing. But we were able to get the $49,000 grant funding within the solid waste. And I think Dr. Ishida can add to that granting as well, because we're trying to do a pilot program as we speak, so go ahead. MS. ISHIDA: Yeah, thanks Ramzi. So, you know, the Managing Director mentioned a committee. And I think that's a good idea. Some of these grant opportunities are only available to nonprofits. I can share that we are part of a nonprofit team that was awarded a third small $300,000 grant to look at decentralized systems. Talk about killing two birds with one stone, that's another reason I'm here to talk to Ramzi more about some potential areas to leverage that grant here in Hawaii County. But it does take these partnerships, right? So these nonprofits or, you know, private firms in the County to pursue some of these grants. Page 54 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 It does take a lot of time. You know, somebody's got to craft the grant. It takes creativity, you know, looking at things like water, reuse, resilience. These are, you know, different types of fundings that can be leveraged, and you can hide in cesspool conversions under there. But there are these opportunities. You have to be creative and look for them. It's a full-time job. It's probably more than one person, even. There's a lot of, you know, cross -cutters and requirements that go along with that; purchasing requirements. So, it's very complicated, not easy to navigate, it does take time and effort. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Managing Director, I'm going to follow-up with you. Hoping to talk you into at least entertaining a Federal Grants Coordinator position. I know R&D is doing a lot, but it's just, it's evident, like there's billions of dollars out there. And Director Ramzi Mansour just mentioned the department getting $50,000. So, I don't want our County to be leaving money on the table at this point, not when it has the power to bring about transformative change. Thank you for being here. I appreciate the presentation and this wealth of information. Chair, I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. So, with that, I'll go ahead and kind of wrap this day up with a big loud crap. It's not sexy, but it's essential. These conversations and digging deep into the messes that we have made on this Island, and in the State, and in the World by not, as responsibly as perhaps we could have, managing our wastes. So, thank you for this really informative deep dive with the pros and cons and some things being more obvious and other things being a little more elusive and none of it having a magic fix. I want to also congratulate you for putting forth that project to go out to bid in less than one year, and with one engineer. I was sitting here thinking, wow, if fewer young people were wanting to be social media influencers, and no one wanted to be engineers perhaps we could turn the tide again to staffing jobs, careers, and community service focus. You know very well my passion for getting the southern portion of Alii Drive sewered asap (as soon as possible). Thank you for your continued support in that and communication. I also just feel, you know, obviously very passionate questions and frustrations from members of this Council and my colleagues here. You know, our County is decades behind in managing these issues and our infrastructure. It's been negligent and I don't think intentionally or maliciously, but we are at this tipping point in so many ways. So, thank you for enduring that urgency from us and that continual push, and Page 55 CRCOC-3 February 21, 2023 hopefully that gets reflected in an understanding that we're here to support you to get things done. I also would thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz, for focusing on that need for a Federal Grants Coordinator, having just come back from NACo and hearing directly from our representatives at the Federal Government, that there is a lot of money heading this way and it is focused on projects like this. Thank you, Doctor, also for confirming and validating really how much it takes to write a grant and with that comes relationship building, and the trust, and connectivity, and collaboration with the organizations that have that funding. It's like navigating a whole other field. So, I would like to see more exploration for that within our Administration, and more staff for you guys and all of those things. But, this is more than we've seen in the past, or I've seen in my years of service sitting here. So, we are behind, but my hope is that we're farther along now than we've ever been, and we're no longer turning a blind eye. We are no longer putting this on to the next generation. We are and will take responsibility for the crap we've created and the effects that it has on our ecosystems and our drinking water and our future generations. So, I wish I had a magic wand. I'm sure you do too. But, thank you for being here, and we'll continue to work through this together and require thoseI mean, we've had many cases come before us in the last couple of weeks on this exact issue. So, let's keep moving forward and let's clean things up. And with that, yes thank you, Holeka, would you like to come? Is this the appropriate time? MR. HENRICKS: I would call the vote first and just close this out. So we're not taking testimony while the Council is in the middle of an item. CHR. VILLEGAS: Okay, great. All those in favor of closing file on Communication 94, please say "aye." Vote on Comm. 94: The motion to close file on Comm. 94 was (Filed): carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Inaba Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Villegas — 6. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Evans, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, and Kimball — 3. Excused: None. Page 56 CRCOC-3 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON (COMM. 94): A T) TC)T TR N- AHMI E February 21, 2023 The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public. The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Lance Owens: Jon Olsen: Comment. Comment. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Mr: Olsen, appreciate you coming back later on in the day to join us. And with that, can I get a motion to adjourn? There being no further business, at 5:13 p.m., Ms. Kagiwada moved to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Inaba Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Villegas — 6. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Evans, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, and Kimball — 3. Excused: None. CHR. VILLEGAS: And with that, today's meeting is adjourned. Approved: Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight Committee RV/rk/dt 441 1 e7,�- (Date) Page 57