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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GOEAC 2023/07/05 (2022-2024) Committee on Governmental Operations and External Affairs 12th Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii July 5, 2023 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Operations and ORDER: External Affairs was called to order at 9:30 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Vice Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Cindy Evans, Chair(via videoconference from Kona) Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Vice Chair Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member (via videoconference from Kona) Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (via videoconference from Kona) STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak in support of Resolution 199-23, and came forward when called by the Chair: Garth Yamanaka Winston Welch, representing the Outdoor Circle. Nathan Gaddis Sally Mermel, representing Friends of Historic Banyan Drive. Lorna Larsen-Jeyte, representing Friends of Historic Banyan Drive. Laura Acasio Scott Pauli GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Moving on to our agenda, not hearing any objection I'd like to take Resolution 199-23 out of order. Seeing no objection, Mr. Clerk. Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Council Members, of Business: the following items were taken out of order: Res. 199-23: URGES GOVERNOR JOSH GREEN, M.D., TO ISSUE AN EMERGENCY PROCLAMATION TO PROVIDE RELIEF FOR DAMAGES, LOSSES, AND SUFFERING AND TO PROTECT THE HEALTH, SAFETY, AND WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE AFFECTED BY THE HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS AT THE PROPERTY FORMERLY KNOWN AS UNCLE BILLY'S HILO BAY HOTEL Seeks to expedite the removal of blighted structures that pose a risk to the community based on numerous fires, squatters, illegal activity, and security issues that were reported since its closure in 2017. Reference: Comm. 339 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to recommend adoption of Res. 199-23. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Seeing as I am the introducer, I'd like to at this time. turn this meeting over to our Finance Chair Mr. Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder. Relinquish Chair: At this time, the Chair relinquished the chair to Mr. Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER Mahalo, Council Member, Lee Loy. Let the record reflect I have assumed Chair of the Governmental Operations and External Affairs Committee. Council Member Lee Loy, you want to go ahead with your resolution? MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thank you, Chair. I'm hopingI have invited our DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources) Chair Dawn Chang. To be available for any information and testimony. I see you on Zoom, aloha, Chair Chang. (Note: At this time, Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Dawn Chang came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. CHANG: Aloha. MS. LEE LOY: I wanted to give you an opportunity, I do recognize you have a hard stop in a few minutes here, and just share any thoughts that you have Page 2 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 regarding Resolution 199, and the Department's position on this particular resolution. MS. CHANG: Aloha mai kakou. Council Member Lee Loy, thank you for the Invitation, and aloha to the members of the Hawaii County Council. I did have a hard stop at 9:50, but I think this is really important. My hard stop was to attend a cabinet meeting, so I'll tell the Governor where I was. I'm sure he will find it, it's okay. But thank you very much for this opportunity. Council Member Lee Loy did ask me to provide a status update on the property formally known as Uncle Billy's Hilo Bay Hotel, specifically in relationship to this resolution. I would like to first say, the community has been very patient with DLNR`s best effort to address this situation at Uncle Billy's. But since the closing of this once iconic hotel, DLNR has struggled with addressing the overwhelming issues. However, the conditions have gotten progressively more severe, and it is a major public health, safety, and welfare concern. While DLNR has provided security and enforcement, the Hawaii Island community and Hilo people in particular deserve better. I'd like to provide you a status update on the state's most recent actions, which are very consistent with your resolution. But probably over the last month or so, Governor Green and Mayor Roth have been in communications, and they are prepared, they're in the process of declaring an emergency proclamation. The Attorney General's Office is working with both our department and the Governor on preparing this emergency proclamation, pursuant to Chapter 127a, Hawaii Revised Statue, which provides emergency powers to protect public health, safety, and welfare. The emergency proclamation will suspend certain state laws as allowed by federal law, and the mayor's emergency proclamation will suspend certain county laws. And these laws that are being suspended will be utilized only to the extent necessary to quickly build a perimeter fence to secure the property against further trespassers and to demolish the building. The funding, I think as a previous testifier noted, well DLNR had requested $14 million from the legislature to demolish Uncle Billys building based upon the estimates we have received. This year we received legislator authorization of$8 million GO bond reimbursable. The $8 million is only enough to partially demolish the building to make it uninhabitable, hopefully remove the debris, but depending on the proposed use, we may need additional legislative appropriation to remove the remaining debris in subsurface utilities and foundation. Our engineering division is working on preparing the necessary scope of work for a contractor to demolish the building. With the emergency proclamation, we anticipate the contractor will take four to six months from the start to finish to Page 3 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 abate any hazardous materials, including lead and asbestos, then demolish and remove the debris. Our DOCARE (Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement) officers will continue to monitor and enforce, however, due to the current unsafe conditions, DOCARE and first responders are not being permitted to even enter the buildings. Our State Historic Preservation division, we have been coordinating with them as well. They've given us concurrence to install the perimeter fence. We will be working with our communications division. Once the emergency proclamation is signed, we will provide communications and coordinate with the county the demolition process. We also will coordinate with the adjoining properties Naniloa, Hilo Hawaiian Country Club regarding our demolition schedule. I also want to share with you some additional immediate actions that DLNR is taking to address the public health, safety, and welfare concerns. DLNR will continue to provide a security officer to patrol the premises, this has been costing us about$100,000 a year. We are also in the process of contracting a landscape contractor to cut the vegetation around the building to deter people from entering and hiding in the building. We're also in the process this week or last week, we may have gone out with an RFP to hire a contractor to install a perimeter fence around the building to prevent people from entering the building. The fence will at least provide some security to keep people out, while DLNR proceeds on the contractor to demolish Uncle Billy's. And DOCARE will continue to monitor the building when they receive cause. So this is my latest update both on the actions that are being taken by the Governor's Office, in coordination with the Mayor's Office, and our Attorney General's Office to prepare the emergency proclamation so we can proceed timely. In the absence of the emergency proclamation, we probably would not be able to remove Uncle Billy's for another two years,just with the contracting and the procurement process. So this should help relieve some of that—some of the tension and provide the Hawaii Island and Hilo community in particular, more expeditious relief, and then I am in conversations with Council Member Lee Loy. I know that the county it also going to start having discussions about future uses, both of the entire Banyan Drive area but more particularly this particular property. So with that, that is my very quick status update. I have a 10:00 cabinet meeting, but if there are any really quick questions, I can take it, if not I'm going to log off. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair Chang. Excellent, excellent, news. What I'd like to offer is this resolution is being heard in committee. In two weeks from now, we'll be back at the full Council, in which maybe we'll have even more updates from you, and we could actually schedule a little bit more time. Thank Page 4 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 you so much for making this a priority, all the way from Honolulu. I'll try and see if we can get you an excuse note from the Governor's meeting. MS. CHANG: Yes, I need a permission slip signed. Again, thank you very much. Once again, on behalf of the department and the state, we have greatly appreciated the patience of this community, especially the hotels that are adjacent to it. We recognize how difficult this has been, but we are trying our best. We believe this emergency proclamation will put us in a better position to address the concerns. So again, mahalo, a hui hou. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair Chang. Aloha. MS. CHANG: Aloha. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you for that support. Right now, for my colleagues, I'd actually like to call up our Lieutenant Derr from our community policing, and then our Fire Chief. Attached to Resolution 199 are some exhibits and, you know, we read a lot. So I just wanted to give Police and Fire an opportunity to summarize the exhibits and some of the information that's contained related to the calls for service, along with the cost that it is costing our taxpayers to respond to calls within that area. Go ahead Lieutenant Derr. (Note: At this time, Police Lieutenant William Derr came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. DERR: Hi, everyone. I guess I'm in the hot seat now. My name is Lieutenant Derr, I'm with the East Hawaii Community Policing Section. I prepared an unofficial report detailing some of the statistics as best I could, regarding what's happening on the Banyan Drive Peninsula. When I was reviewing it to prepare for today, I realized it was very confusing and it was actually kind of hard to read and understand what I had put on paper. So with your indulgence, getting away from the tables and grass and stuff, I'd just like to explain to you in a nutshell, summarize what it all means and what perspective the Police Department has, because our agenda, our focus is public health and safety. You know, that's our focus, that's where we're coming from. So it was mentioned that there were 6,479 calls for service, and this is between September 2018 to like April 12 of this year, because that's our data base that I drew this information. That's the time frame that it covers. This number is a little misleading. The calls for service is when somebody calls to need a Police Officer in that area. However, police have responded more than that because officers will be proactive, so they'll come down, initiate cases and what not. So that number should be a little higher as far as police going down there and dealing with things on the peninsula. That only indicates the number of times a person Page 5 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 called and said, "Hey I need a Police Officer." So in reality, that number should be a little higher as far as police going down there and taking action that kind of thing. The cost, basically, I was trying to decipher for the man hours that these calls for service and what I could find would cost. It was hard to determine because you have some officers who are brand new, so they have a lower rate. Then you have an officer who's got 25 years, and he obviously gets paid more. So I have a low end and a high end and that kind of explains that if it's the rookie responding, his pay rate, that's how much it's going to cost. But what that doesn't include, which I had a hard time factoring in, because I'm no report writing expert or anything, and that's why I'm trying to just explain it in my terms verses getting wrapped up in these tables and charts, which even I got confused looking at and I did this report, right? But that doesn't factor in the overtime. Because of manpower issues, I mean across the board every agency has it, we have to pay officers overtime. And how it works is when we're short we have to early in an officer, means he comes in four hours early, does his shift, then we have to hold over officers, so they work an extra four hours at the end of their shift. And that happens daily, daily, and we have two, three, four officers coming in early. I couldn't factor that in because I'd have to look at every single schedule for every week of the month, for how many years. But that's a cost that's there but not factored into this. But in a nutshell, it's about a half a million dollars what I was able to determine, but it's probably higher. But that is kind of like the ballpark figure, of what it's costing police to respond there. The calls typically average on Banyan Drive peninsula about 45 minutes. That's kind of an average because you have a call that may take 15 minutes, very simple kind of call, or you may have one that takes several hours. So an example would be a quick call, skateboarders skateboarding, the officer drives by, skateboarders are gone, case closed. But then you may have which we've had and I'll highlight these, we've had suicide in Uncle Billy's, we've had sexual assaults in that building. Those calls end up taking hours upon hours, and they also take up more than one Police Officer because in any call usually, you're going to have two Police Officers that respond for safety reasons. So in a call though like with a sex assault or something like that, which in the suicides that we've had in Uncle Billy's, we may have four, five, six officers there. So now you have that cost times five, because you're paying five officers because they have to hold the scene. They have to do the investigation, and then in Uncle Billy's case we have to clear that building to make sure the suspects not in there and what not. And that is a huge safety risk because if you guys ever been in there, that place is just incredibly dilapidated. It's just falling apart, it's dangerous for anybody to be in there. And because of a lot of the health issues, Page 6 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 because there's no sewage nothing like that, there's a huge feral cat problem that emanates from there, and then it's going over to Lili`uokalani Gardens. You pretty much need to be wearing a Tyvek Suit when you go in there, but we have the officers that like for example, the sex assault, we had to find where did it happen, so we have people holding the perimeter. We have a group of guys that have go in there and actually find the crime scene, make sure the suspect is not there. So the point of this is that takes hours upon hours upon hours, so it multiplies the cost, right? So that's how we kind of have that base line, because we have quick calls and then we have really, really, long calls. And these are factors that are hard to monetize and quite honestly, I don't want to get into like how much it cost and stuff because that's not the point. The point is just making sure people on Banyan Drive are safe, that Uncle Billy's isn't used as a cover or a place to commit crimes or encourage crimes. And then community policing there's a concept, and it's called the crime triangle. And you need three things to have a crime, you need a location, you need a victim, and you need the perpetrator. And if you take one of those components away one of the sides of the triangle away, you don't have a crime. And in this case, if we can take the location away, then we may not have quite as many crimes happening because Uncle Billy's provides that location for a lot of crimes to occur. I also am anticipating that, you know the question was one of the earlier testifiers spoke to is, there's people living in there,right? And my response to that is first, why do we have people living in there? There shouldn't be people living in there first off because it's trespassing, right? And so they don't have the right to just go in there and move in, first off. Second off, given the health and safety issues, because the building is crumbling. Lord knows what kind of diseases and stuff are going there because when they shut off the electricity and stuff, now the sewage doesn't work. You know, where is basically all the human waste and stuff going? What are they doing with that, right? It' s going into the ocean, it's just going into the ground next to the hotels or out on the street, we don't know. We have the feral cats, and then that coupled with the lead paint, the asbestos, all the toxic materials that are falling, raining down from the ceilings and stuff, it's almost cruel in my opinion to let people stay in there because they're essentially being poisoned by being in there. What the solution is to that as far as the people who are staying there, the relocation and whatnot, I don't know what the answer is to that. That's like the million-dollar question as far as what to do. But my perspective is it seems even more cruel to let people stay in there and live in there because who knowsI mean the conditions are just awful. I think being in the bushes is better than being in that building, honestly, because it's awful, it's decrepit. Page 7 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 I just wanted to bring that up because that is an issue that needs to be dealt with in the planning of hopefully getting rid of Uncle Billy's and demolishing it. But I know it is a real harbor for the criminal element, and it does take up a lot of resources. But again, for me, it's not about the money, how much the police spends or whatever, but it's about providing what's safe for the community, the neighboring hotels, whatnot, and the people who are actually living in there squatting in there. It's for their benefit too because we're not doing anybody any favors by allowing people to be in there because they're going to get sick and poisoned. You know, we have the Outdoor Circle people. I know this doesn't directly relate to trees, but what's going into the ocean from that place, right? All the human feces and all that, and the hazardous materials, the lead paint, the asbestos, and whatever. If it's continued because then we end up poisoning the ground around it and the ocean. So that's kind of my perspective on it. I'm open to any questions you guys have, I'm an open book. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, Lieutenant Derr. And just as a reminder, Lieutenant Derr serves as our Community Policing Officer Supervisor. So in addition to this work, he's getting a lot of feedback from not only Police but our community Policing Officers. I'd also like to call our Fire Chief forward because he provided the information regarding Exhibit B, and similarly, if he could just summarize for my colleagues. After that I'd love to yield the floor and just open it up to questions, for my colleagues, that they may have regarding this resolution, and any information contained within the exhibits. Chief Todd, go ahead. (Note: At this time, Fire Chief Kazuo Todd came forward to address the the members of the Committee.) MR. TODD: Hey, how's it going? So we provided a similar unofficial report that matches the format that Police did,just because Police did and we figured we'd look the same as them. We like to work together, right? So we give you a whole range of information in there about the whole peninsula, calls over the last five years and some estimated cost and everything. You know, the reason we're here is because of Uncle Billy's, 87 Banyan Drive. So if you look in the second page of that exhibit, we actually drilled down to some of that data. And the reality is as far as Fire is concerned, there isn't quite the medical calls or the other issues that we would go out for normally. In fact, the only thing we really responded to that particular location for has been fire, primarily. And so while there's cost and everything else in there, that isn't really an adequate picture for Fire Department response and the issue that building poses from a fire perspective. It is a multistory structure full of compostables, that has squatters that are starting fires. From the Fire Department perspective, the document we're giving you gives some great information, but isn't quite indicative of the hazard that particular building holds. These squatters that are in there have started multiple fires. We have evidence of it, some of which we Page 8 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 responded to and some which we did not respond to, like they either self- extinguish and no one called because it was in the middle of the night or other things were going on. But lots of evidence on sight of people being there, and also being fire bugs, bringing shopping carts and literally making little bon fires in the middle of the lobby in a shopping cart, or things like that. So the problem that when we look at it from the police perspective, is that if this building fully ignites and starts running, it is not only a hazard to the two buildings next to it, but it's a hazard to my firefighters that would be responding. And we've already had one pretty significant fire at that location burn through the lobby, roofing area transitioned into multiple stories of this structure, and we had to bring everything we had in Hilo to put that thing out. So the sooner we can get a fence around that building, get it demolished and get it to become not a location in the triangle, that would be a good thing. And I'm open to any questions or any concerns that you might have as far as the fire perspective on this. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, Chief Todd. And again, thank you to both of you and both Fire and Police for all the work you guys do in this area. For right now, I'm going to yield to my colleagues and any questions they may have regarding this resolution or any of the attached information. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER Mahalo, Council Member Lee Loy. Going to floor, Council Members. Council Member Kagiwada, go ahead. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Thank you all for being here, and thank you to the maker for this, it's really important. I fully support it going forward. I just want to make sure that we have an adequate plan in place so that we are not dispersing people who are living there. They're obviously extremely desperate if they're living in such a horrible situation. And so can we make sure that part of the plan, and especially if we're about to put up fencing right now, is that we reach out to our community services and make sure they have time to go over there and offer services that may be needed, whether it's BISAC (Big Island Substance Abuse Council) or Hope Services or whatever. Also, it seems like if there's a major feral cat issue, if there's anything we can do around that to make sure that those cats then don't get distributed to Lili`uokalani and the surrounding areas. I think that's probably my biggest comment here is just to make sureI mean if we could, as part of this emergency proclamation, get something like Hale Hanakahi that they did, get some emergency sheltering for people, then could help people move out into more permanent shelters. I think that would be super helpful. Otherwise, I'd just worryI mean you're saying that oh, you know, they may be better off in the bushes, but I'm sure the hotels there don't want people living in the bushes next to the hotels. And I know that downtown Hilo, cannot Page 9 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 really respond to having more people who don't have homes living in the downtown area. So I really hope that we look at a plan before that fencing goes up, at least getting our community services out there to offer what they can. But hopefully, also doing something around some temporary housing and getting people into services. So hope we can do that, and I will be reaching out to DLNR just to let them know my feelings on this part because it sounds like they're doing a lot of the coordinating. But hopefully, our Mayor can also work with them to coordinate with our local community services. Thank you all for being here and putting this good resolution together, much needed. I'll be supporting. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER Mahalo, Council Member Kagiwada. Looking around the room here, Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder. Council Member Lee Loy, I'm going to be supporting this whole heartedly. You know, I think Nate Gaddis had mentioned earlier that this cannot be the end all be all. I see this as another spark to continue to advance the conversation about cleaning up Banyan Drive and revitalizing that peninsula. I think interest in the topic really generated when Jim McCully's name was advanced to the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Agency. And I really hope that the Mayor's Office is out there identifying individuals, so that we can fully staff that agency. Because to Council Member Kagiwada's point about ensuring that there's coordination among non- profit county/state actors, I really see them as playing a leadership role in making sure all of those community and business concerns are addressed. I see that Gordon Height is here from DLNR. Gordon, I don't know if you're just here in an observer capacity, or if you're able to answer questions. I'm hoping it's the latter. I'm hoping that you have a little bit more information, based on some of the great updates that Chair Chang was able to provide us earlier. Are you able to come forward? Is that a yes, Gordon? Just an observer? Okay. Well perhaps for the next time we convene on this resolution, I know that Chair Chang was able to speak to how expeditious the state is going to be working to address Uncle Billy's. But I want to know about when they're going to get started, when is this emergency proclamation going to be issued? Because we all support it, and it's been years. It's been years of mismanagement, and neglect by the state that we are not going to overlook. And so it's great to say publicly that you commit, but we absolutely want to make sure that we are invited to the day the proclamation is going to be announced. That date needs to be identified so that we know that the state is actually putting some teeth and meaning behind these nice words and great intentions. There is a huge strain on our county resources that are happening, and Page 10 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 that was well illustrated by Lieutenant Derr and Chief Todd. It is essential that we address this issue, not just for tourist, I'm kama`aina, we are all residents. There were so many families that were at Reeds Bay yesterday enjoying that beautiful venue for 4h of July. It's for them, it's to make sure that our residents have a beautiful, healthy, gorgeous place to go. It's about taking care of those exceptional trees. I run through them all the time, whenever I'm running to Keaukaha and back. I park at Lili`uokalani because it's beautiful, run through Banyan Drive, and it pains me to see sometimes people living in there, to see trash. It's shame, it's embarrassing, and no more. We need to make sure that we are holding DLNR's feet to the fire, and we will work with them, we will collaborate them. And unfortunately, it takes these types of conversations and resolutions to get the attention of people in power and let them know, no more. We're not going to stand for it, and we absolutely need your support, and to step up and take care of your kuleana. So anything that you need from me or the Council, Councilwoman Lee Loy, we are here to support, whether it's making calls, sending emails, flying to Oahu to implore the governor and the Legislature to act, we are here to support. Thank you, Chair. I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Going to Kona. MS. EVANS: Chair? ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Council Member Evans, go ahead. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Is Corporation Counsel, Betsy Strance, or someone else ? ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: She's nodding her head no, she's not here. She is, she's coming up right now, Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Good, okay. So on her way up there I want to thank our introducer Council Member Lee Loy. This is really, really, nice to see this. I read the testimony from the Representative Mark Nakashima, and Representative Richard Onishi on this. And their frustration of trying to bring forth something on this effort and not getting any headway with Legislature. It's always been dying. Every time they try something, it doesn't go anywhere. So I'm really excited about this, as possibly an opportunity to move it forward. So good morning, Betsy Strance. My question is kind of more in the weeds and the details. So we're asking the governor to do an emergency proclamation. And I suspect he will call the mayor Page 11 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 and ask the mayor what's the mayor's take on this, and is the mayor—so what would the mayor's role—does the mayor, in this type of situation, can he issue his own proclamation that dovetails and supports the governor's proclamation? Like sometimes we start stuff at the county level and then it jumps over to the governor level when we do these emergency proclamations. Is there a role that the mayor could play to really support this particular resolution? (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. STRANCE: Thank you. Good morning, Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. The short answer is yes. The broader context would be the emergency proclamation that I think is envisioned, is really a tool for the governor to suspend certain state laws to expedite the process. Should the county also need or desire to suspend laws to move the project forward, that would be within the authority of the mayor. But I think we need to see what the governor has in mind, because I'm not clear what laws are intended to be suspended. So during the presentations, I made a note to myself to follow up with the Attorney General's Office and the Mayor's Office since there were statements made about a coordinating function, and your colleagues also highlighted the need for there to be some coordination, so that if the state acts they're not unintended or anticipated consequences that the county would need to respond to. So I do think that there's a broader conversation to be held to make that determination, but the short answer is yes. MS. EVANS: So if the governor pass the emergency proclamation, he's only impacting—it was kind of implied that it might impact county regulations as well as state regulations, and now I'm hearing this comment. So it sounds like maybe the emergency proclamation will only impact state regulations. Do we need a little more research on that to understand? MS. STRANCE: We do need to look at it a little bit further. For example, the first COVID proclamations that were issued by the state, seem to encompass county operations as well. And so depending upon how the proclamation is written, the county can then determine whether it needs an emergency response as well, or whether it can respond to the proclamation, within the parameters of existing laws and regulations. MS. EVANS: Okay. That's good to understand because I think we need all- hands-on-deck, old saying, if we're going to get this done. And I'd love to hear from the mayor, or Managing Director Lee Lord on how they are going to participate in making this happen because I do think all hands are on deck. And I really appreciate Member Kagiwada's comments about again, all-hands-on-deck. I mean squatters end up at Uncle Billy's because they need a place, they need a Page 12 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 place to be. So how do we all collectively work that together? It'd be fascinating. For me, as a Council Member, I'm so supportive of this. I just want to make sure we really get it passed the finish line. So thank you so much, thank you, Corporation Counsel Strance. I yield, Chair. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Evans. MS. VILLEGAS: Chair? ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Council Member Villegas, go ahead. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. I'd also just like to start off by thanking Council Member Lee Loy, for bringing this forward and for putting the time and effort into in bringing in the head of DLNR today. That was very insightful and helpful to get a broader understanding on what has happened, and what still needs to happen, and how this piece of legislation brings alignment, ideally between state and county government in executing this process. I also appreciate the comments by Council Member Kagiwada, to giving kind of a heads up to our homeless services organizations, that they take this opportunity to take the initiative to begin doing outreach, and actually going and meeting these people where they're at. Having more experience dealing with squatters than I would like, sometimes there is a perception that they are there out of desperation. Oftentimes, it's out of opportunity, and removing the opportunity in unhealthy areas and situations that are not only unhealthy for them, but for the long-term health and safety of our community, becomes one of the greatest gifts we can give to them and our community. So I just really want to throw in my support and kind of get that word out there for those that have the capacity to prioritize actual outreach to these areas, that it's very well known that they are people, and in some of the incidents are predating. It's predatorial behavior in areas that are known to be unhealthy and unsafe. As our Fire Department and Police Department have shared, unfortunately, then becomes literally breeding grounds for illegal activities and unsafe and unsavory occurrences. And so removing the temptation of this being a potential spot for those kinds of activities and providing authentic outreach, and there are millions of dollars in the pipeline right not. And there are other places even for short-term rentals that are available. So I am hopeful that there can be synchronicity and alignment in these efforts between county and state and our homeless outreach services to utilize the funds that are there, to find healthier safer places for our community, and at the same time, restoring this incredibly historic, really amazing piece of property. Page 13 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 I just really appreciated listening to everybody's talking about the trees there and how much just the sense of place created by the foliage and fauna that we have in those areas, not to include the feral cats. Unfortunately, that's another organization that can be drawn in. So we can be planning and strategically aligning the people and organizations who are so passionate about mitigating these challenging circumstances. So thank you for every body's testimony today, and for the support. And I will be 100 percent supporting the passage of this resolution today. And with that I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Any further discussion from Kona? Hearing none, Council Member Galimba, go ahead. MS. GALIMBA: Just super briefly, want to thank Council Member Lee Loy for bringing this resolution forward and fully support it. I guess my contribution would be sort of looking forward, that we coordinate with the DLNR lease terms, and also the new agencies, so that lease terms or whatever kind of instrument we will be using does not allow this situation to happen again going forward. And with that I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. Yeah, I'll just lend my support along with all of my colleagues. Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy, for putting this forth, I think it's definitely something that all of us can get behind. I wanted to tap into something that Lieutenant Derr said and thank you for getting all this background together beforehand. But one of the things that caught my attention was the mention of the environmental hazards of this situation as it exists now. And I just wanted to highlight that because with an emergency proclamation, one of the things that may be waived are environmental assessments and things like that. And my assessment of the situation as it stands right now, is that the hotel presents an environmental hazard, not just from the folks occupying that space, but potentially from the asbestos, the lead, and everything else with a dilapidated elderly building like that. So want to add the support for addressing this issue in addition to the public safety, but in relation to the potential environmental hazard that exists now. Thank you for putting this forward. Happy to support. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Any further discussion? Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: If I might wrap it up. Thank you so much to my colleagues, I am listening very intently, and keep in mind, because we have one more hearing at the Council, I think there are some refinements that I could drop in, including kind of a next step, bulleted as another whereas clause. Really thank all of my Page 14 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 colleagues for the great input along with our testifiers. I think there's areas that I could expand for our outdoor circle community to be included as stakeholders in this conversation. I'm just sitting here reflecting on a quote of, you know, a journey of a million miles or a thousand miles starts with one step, and this really was intended to be the one step. Keep in mind though, I have thought through a lot of these things as far as what does emergency powers do as far as truncating the process? What do we do with individuals, who are unhoused in that area? What do we do with our construction debris? These are all conversations I've been having on my own, but now it's ripe to have them and engage our stakeholders. Because I also heard our community partners have access to other money,which is something that government can't do by itself. We can't pay for it all. And so inviting our community partners into these spaces and where they can lean in with philanthropic dollars to help not only remove a hazard, but also bring it back to the glory that we would love to see. And in addition to that, and I just got a key in on something Council Member Kimball mentioned about truncating the environmental process. And I bet she would clearly agree that oftentimes when you do an environmental assessment, you have to identify the impact and the mitigated measures, and what I would find really interesting is doing nothing is a bigger impact. And the mitigated measures that would come forward through demolition is how we solve for this one. And then finally, you know, my colleague, Ms. Kierkiewicz, mentioned I think, that establishment of our Banyan Drive Redevelopment Agency would be a perfect conduit to invite members of the outdoor circle, our Police and Fire Community along with DLNR, to serve as that space for all of our businesses and all of our community partners to engage, not only what this resolution would do, but what a future Banyan Drive could have. So thank you to my colleagues for their support, and look forward to moving this forward, and even other news that Chair Chang may have when we get to the Council for final reading. I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Seeing no further discussion from the Council, I'd like to express my support for this resolution as well. I do appreciate the overview from Ms. Chang this morning. I think that was very helpful, as well the reports from Police and Fire. One thing I would recommend would be Maurice Messina's comments from Parks and Rec. I know he's been saying over the past three, four, years, his staff has been impacted heavily, by the folks staying and using the amenities, Coconut Island and the different showers and that to bath and clean, because that's what you need, running water,place to sleep. I would like to see Mr. Messina's comments on that from his staff, his impact on his agency. Page 15 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 And then just talking to our friends who joined us this morning. I've been helping K.T. to organize our Christmas in the park event, and I can see something very beautiful on Banyan Drive in the future if we can all put our heads together. It has an amazing potential to be something beautiful. I just picture Christmas lights and lights along the trees and getting everyone coordinated towards something, some kind of annual event. It could be beautiful; the potential is amazing. Having visited other countries and done different events, different places different times, we have the potential to make that area beautiful if we so choose. And part of that is doing things like this, so we can get everyone behind it and moving in the same direction. I really look forward to seeing what happens with this movement, hopefully this urge is enough to get everyone moving in the right direction so we can accomplish something beautiful at Banyan Drive. To Ms. Kierkiewicz's point, our residents and our tourism sector, we need both, and this area is, I mean it's one of our few hotel areas. And if our visitors and our residents don't feel safe at night here, then we're doing something wrong. I do work with a few agencies and non-profits who work with sex trafficking victims, and we have had a number of trafficking incidents at this particular area and in different forms. That is something that should be highlighted, given our placing of importance on that issue in our community and across the world. There definitely is a need for some quick movement at Uncle Billy's location. So I'll be supporting this today. Thank you very much, Council Member Lee Loy, for bringing this forward, and I look forward to seeing what happens in Council, maybe some more input from different folks. Beautiful, okay. We do have the motion on the floor to forward Resolution 199-23 to Council with a favorable recommendation. All in favor? Vote on Res. 199-23: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 199-23 was (Approved) carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Acting Chair Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: And that takes us to the end of resolutions. Let's go back to Communication 335 please. Page 16 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 Comm. 335: NOMINATION OF TREY LIVINGSTON TO THE LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated June 15, 2023, requesting the Council's review and confirmation. Requires Council Confirmation by: July 29, 2023 (Section 13-4(k), Hawaii County Charter Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to recommend confirmation of the nomination of Mr. Trey Livingston to the Leeward Planning Commission. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Council Members, we have today joining us, Ms. Bartolome from the Mayor's office and Mr. Livingston. Ms. Pomai Bartolome, go ahead. (Note: At this time, Executive Assistant Pomaikai Bartolome and nominee Trey Livingston came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. BARTOLOME: Yes, good morning. On behalf of Mayor Roth, I am pleased to be nominating Mr. Trey Livingston of South Kona to the Leeward Planning Commission. Trey was born and raised here on Hawaii Island, in Captain Cook area to be exact, and he is a graduate of Konawaena High School. He's also aif you looked at the letter that I submitted, he is a brilliant, young man, yeah, who has obtained his Master of Science degree in Geospatial Science, and I'm not to lie, I had to google that, and Land Use Planning and Recreation. Additionally, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Geospatial Science with a minor in Spanish. So he is here today. He's currently a realtor and has been since 2019. And I am going to allow him to be able to share a little bit more about himself and the reason that he chose to serve on the Leeward Planning Commission and what he feels he can bring to this commission. And if he is chosen and confirmed to serve, he will serve a term ending December 31, 2027, and your favorable confirmation is requested. So, mahalo. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Bartolome. Mr. Livingston, go ahead. MR. LIVINGSTON: Thank you for that very nice introduction. I'm really excited to be here. About three years ago, I'm not sure how the Planning Commission got on my radar, but I became interested in it and then I started watching the YouTube videos of the meetings and my interest only grew. Page 17 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 Through surfing, I know Commissioner Vitousek and I got to know him, and we've talked about some of the challenges with the commission, the amount of prep that is required before each meeting, so I'm very aware of the time and dedication required. And then through the meetings, I've developed the confidence that I am qualified and prepared to do this position. I think my education speaks for that as well as my experience as a realtor. I've become very familiar with the CDP (Community Development Plan), General Plan,permitted uses table, things like that I've notice throughout the meetings, having that knowledge at hand would be very beneficial. So I'd really appreciate your favorable recommendation. Thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Mr. Livingston. Council Members? Let's go to Kona first. MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha Trey, thank you for being here. It's not all that often that I get to go, "Yeah, Konawaena Wildcat." So congratulations, I myself graduated from Konawaena. So while you have a very impressive resume and I appreciate you acknowledging and recognizing some of the interesting balance necessary in working in the real estate industry and working in land planning, but your focus in getting a masters in that arena says a lot. I believe you have yeah, land-use planning and recreation. A quick question, is Livingston Realty, who you work for, is that your family's real estate brokerage? MR. LIVINGSTON: Yes, that's—my dad would be the principal broker, my mom and sister are also agents. I'm a broker as well and we have a couple other agents who have, over the years basically, become family. There's seven of us. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, great. I recognize the name and was just putting that together. You know, historically, it would be my recommendation that you serve on the Kona Community Development Plan Action Committee before jumping straight into the Leeward Planning Commission. It is an incredibly important commission, especially for the west side of the Big Island where we are continually faced with some challenging land use opportunities, some historical challenges and imbalances, especially at a time when we are—we find ourselves really short on infrastructure and at capacity. So I also recognize that you live in district 6 so I'm interested to hear from Council Member Galimba on her recommendations here. But I do recognize and I see the fact that you have a masters in Land Use Planning and Recreation. I think it's something we could really use in our Leeward Planning Commission as somebody who's formally trained in Planning and who has a vested history here, you know, being from the Big Island and being from this side of the island. So yeah, I'm interested to hear what the recommendations of my colleagues will be, and I am incredibly impressed by all that you have accomplished already and have no doubt that there is so much more in store for you. Page 18 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 And so, yeah, thank you for your willingness to serve and I do appreciate Mr. Vitousek's ability to help harvest candidates from surfing companionship. In that time in the ocean that we spend together is very grounding and soothing, and behaviors as we share waves and share time in the sea become reflections of how we can operate together in the other capacities of our lives. So I have a great appreciation for that. So thank you so much and I look forward to hearing the comments of the rest of my colleagues. MR. LIVINGSTON: Thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Galimba. I apologize for not taking you first. MS. GALIMBA: No, it's fine. It's appropriate to go over in Kona. So yeah, thanks for stepping up and being willing to serve. I know I met you over Zoom, I believe just when I started and you were the Government Affairs Chair for the, was it Chamber of Commerce? MR. LIVINGSTON: For the West Hawaii Association of Realtors. I was just the Government Affairs Liaison. MS. GALIMBA: Right. Yeah, we had a really nice conversation. I guess, you know, you do have a very impressive background and I think would bring a lot to the position. I guess I was just going to ask maybe you could elaborate a little bit more sort of from a planning perspective on Kona, South Kona. What are your thoughts about that? MR. LIVINGSTON: Yeah, thank you. I think I have a lot I get a lot of interaction with clients on what they want to do with their properties and then I have a big imagination myself so I'm very envious of Hilo's Banyan Drive. I wish Kona had something similar along Alii Drive. I think personally growing up in South Kona and living in South Kona where everything is zoned agriculture, that can be beneficial but it can also be very limiting. I think it has been applied kind of in a blanket way. We've got some land that's agriculture, but it's even hard to raise goats on it. So I think we can properly allocate our resources better, and I think the Planning Commission is a good place to do that when applicants come forward with zoning changes, things like that. We can evaluate where the project is taking place and if it's appropriate, maybe the zoning doesn't quite match, maybe it's in the middle of a lava field but it's still agricultural and they want to change to something more residential, I think we should be open to considering those situations. So I think that would be my vision on a grander level. Page 19 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Evans, your mic is on. Excuse me, I'm sorry. Council Member Galimba, go ahead. MS. GALIMBA: Well, that's an yeah, I mean I think that is very, very true. That is a problem, I think, throughout the island that we—as far as like the overall state land use categories and zoning, everything has kind of got thrown into agriculture, which has it'sI mean in some ways made sense at the time when, you know, plantation, agriculture, was everywhere. So it did make a certain amount of sense and it's come back to bite us, I think, in many, many instances here. I think we, Chair Kimball and I, are actually working on a situation where it's different but I think relevant. I mean it's down in Miloli`i where we have, in the past, there were some subdivision practices that were maybe not as thoughtful as they should have been, and so have a residential subdivision of 900 lots on black rock lava next to the ocean, and obviously, wouldn't be good for that to be agricultural. But also, very problematic to have that many houses that close to the ocean with the very porous nature of the ground there. So lots to think about as far as sustainability and also correcting some of the mistakes of the past. So I mean I do appreciate sort of your background and the thoughtfulness that it can bring, and I'm sure you will learn a lot as you go through the process of being on the Leeward Planning Commission. So I will be supporting your nomination. MR. LIVINGSTON: Thank you. I think Miloli`i is a great example of kind of how the Planning Commission could have, if it'd been there back in the day, maybe avoided that whole situation becoming what it is where we have this density removed from infrastructure and other amenities so the community needs of that size. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, and thank you for putting your name forward. It's always nice to see another GIS (Geographic Information System) enthusiast. I don't know if you know we're hiring, so if you don't want to do this there are positions actually doing GIS for the County, but that aside, two questions for you. As you may be aware, Council Member Kierkiewicz and I have been working on short-term vacation rental legislation that will come before the Planning Commission, so I'd be curious on your thoughts about the role of short-term vacation rentals in our overall community make up. MR. LIVINGSTON: Thank you. I think the short-term vacation rental ordinance and really everything around it is kind of a great way for us to segway into more affordable housing, but also addressing our lack really of long-term rentals. I've Page 20 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 got a lot of friends who have grown up here or moved here and typically, like when I was in the Air Force and I moved, I found an apartment. I didn't move into a home myself, but we don't have a lot of that in Kona and I think kind of creating more inventory for the long-term market would be amazing. It seems like that's the goal of the ordinance or the direction it's headed. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, we can't go into too much right now until it's been introduced but it certainly driven by the housing market issues. My second question relates to something that has come up frequently in my district but also is relevant to South Kona as well. What do you think is the role you said you're familiar with the CDP. What is the role, in your mind, of the CDP with respect to decision making within the Planning Commission? MR. LIVINGSTON: I think as a commissioner, you have to evaluate the plan and make sure that it aligns with the CDP. I certainly shouldn't say I've read the CDP because it is a large document, but I reference it. And I think taking the time in knowing what is in there, which I feel like I do to the point where I could review an application and then reference the CDP in a timely manner, is critical. So I don't know how to specifically answer that question, other than I'm confident in my awareness of the CDP and how it's organized to be able to use it efficiently. MS. KIMBALL: Because my question is more directed in terms of how do you think it should be factored into the decision making with respect to the commission's actions? The community-based development plans. MR. LIVINGSTON: Since it's so community driven and developed, I think it should be one of the more significant factors in processing any application and making sure if there's alignment with the CDP, then the people have kind of spoken that that's what they would desire the community to look like, so lean heavily on it. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, thank you, thank you for that. Yeah, appreciate you being here, happy to support your nomination going forward, particularly with the support of your district Council Member. Wanted to highlight, actually, in terms of the comment that Council Member Galimba made with respect to Miloli`i and that area. We do have a presentation, and maybe this is something you can share with the rest of the commission, coming in August from Greg Asner about their land to rich to reef study and land planning recommendations based on that, which I think would be really relevant, particularly for the South Kona area but for the west side in general. So hopefully some of the commissioners from the Leeward Commission can participate and listen to that session. Page 21 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 MR. LIVINGSTON: Sounds fascinating. Thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Councill Member. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Hola, que tal, como estas. MR. LIVINGSTON: Muy bien. MS. LEE LOY: Muy bien, muy bien. Well, first of all, absolutely in support of your nomination. I'm going to one up my colleague with a Konawaena graduate. My daughter is an alum of Flagstaff so go Lumberjacks. MR. LIVINGSTON: Alright, yeah. MS. LEE LOY: I wanted to ask you a question and maybe kind of lean in on your subject matter expertise around geospatial kind of analysis and a follow-up question to my colleague, Ms. Kimball's question about the CDPs. Absolutely love those guiding principles from community that are housed within our community development plan, but oftentimes, these lofty goals from community don't have a price tag attached to it or the price tag is incredibly high, in which government will find a challenge to kind of meet, right, the desires of community. And I was just wondering if you've given any thought to trying to provide some of that spatial analysis about those goals, the cost, and actually maybe leaning in on where development could actually be more ripe across all of our leeward area and then maybe other areas that are maybe not so ready for it. Any thoughts around that? MR. LIVINGSTON: Sure, I think I'd like to bring up, as part of my masters, I did a practicum rather than a thesis and I worked with Hawaii Island Land Trust and I used a variety of documents like the CDP and the LUPAG (Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide) maps, the land study bureaus, soil classifications and things. The point of the project with Hawaii Island Land Trust was to create a framework using GIS software to help them identify properties that they wanted to preserve. For the project, since it was just a proof of concept to develop the framework, I just did North and South Kona and I provided them a map, ranking properties so there's a visual display of that as well as a table. And I think that kind of aligns with the, I think principle one maybe of the CDPs talks about natural resources and preserving those. MS. LEE LOY: Great, I love that thought process. I think oftentimes, you know, we try to meet the goals of community when really, it's who's saying it loudest when really, it's just a lot more challenging when we actually focus on where the resources are, what we want to protect, and/or vice versa, right? Where our sewers, our water, our roads are and how we enhance that to provide what you Page 22 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 mention is this suite of options when it comes to housing, right? Going from a dorm room to an apartment to a studio to, you know, a rental, to your own home. So thank you so much for volunteering out on the water there to this commission. Completely support your nomination. I yield. MR. LIVINGSTON: Thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Back to Kona. MR. INABA: Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mr. Inaba, go ahead. MR. INABA: Good morning, Mr. Livingston. First question overall, what do you see as your primary kuleana serving on the Leeward Planning Commission? MR. LIVINGSTON: Good morning. I think my primary kuleana would be I've got this interest, this desire to help community. I've done, as an Air Force member, I was already in the service so I kind of have this desire to participate, and I've got this expertise and this experience that's been growing, and I want to apply that. I think sometimes we go out and we get these degrees and maybe they don't directly correlate to what we're doing, and I'm excited to have that opportunity to do that and to do it on a commission that is very practical. It's very busy and challenging, but I can actual affect with something I spent years in the making on. So giving back would be a way to summarize it maybe. MR. INABA: Okay and then you kind of touched on it earlier with regards to development in South Kona. Could you elaborate a little bit more about what you see for the future of development in South Kona? MR. LIVINGSTON: I think there's not much large-scale development that we will see in South Kona. I think we're limited by water, primarily. The zoning is also a limiting factor because so much of it is agricultural, and it's really nice that way. It's kind of the culture, it's the essence of South Kona, and I don't think people want to see that change. I don't think that large development aligns so much down there. I think we'll just see kind of a continual piecemeal development, property by property, and it does feel like there's a lot of energy in North Kona out towards the airport, and then surrounding Waikoloa, I think we're going to see some large things going up. Today, I saw the Kaloko Heights affordable housing project going up Hina Lani. It was progressing well, so that was pretty cool to see. They've more than broke ground. But to answer your question, South Kona, it's going to be a slow development. Page 23 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 MR. INABA: Okay, and knowing that as a commissioner you'll have a say or will be making recommendations on zoning throughout west Hawaii, when applications come before you specific to that region, what are your thoughts, or how do you anticipate balancing what you kind of said was the desire of the community for it to remain that way and any of those creative ideas you mentioned earlier? MR. LIVINGSTON: I think with South Kona specifically, the SMA (Special Managment Area) authority with the Planning Commission comes into play. A lot of Kealakekua and the Napo`opo`o is in the SMA, so it'll be interesting to see how or what applications come forward with regards to that and the shoreline setbacks. But it'll really be, I think in South Kona, it'll be application by application. I don't think you could apply kind of a broad statement to it. MR. INABA: Recently, we passed a bill that requires zoning extension request, initial request to come directly to the Council with approval being granted via resolution. What are your thoughts on providing these conditions to those who are requesting change of zone and more importantly, ensuring that these conditions are given a timeframe for completion? MR. LIVINGSTON: I think that's fascinating and I've noticed that on the commission meetings over the last year or so, is there's a lot of people coming forward with expired applications or permits and they're asking for renewals. And the commission has really done a good job in holding them to the fire. "Why didn't you renew this when you had the chance?" And I'd like to kind of continue what the commission has established with that, and we've seen them add fairly strict conditions in those situations where if somebody wasn't able to complete the project the first time within the timeframe and they didn't apply for an extension, you know, we need to look at them and their project critically. We shouldn't just approve any extension that comes our way. We don't want people just banking on any, I lost the word but when you store up entitlements to a developer. Land bank, yeah. MR. INABA: Okay, so in general, are you supportive of making sure that applicants have timeframes in which they need to complete the conditions of their approval? MR. LIVINGSTON: Absolutely. I think a goal without a timeframe is just a dream. MR. INABA: Great. And last question for now, as you move forward, you know, and if you're confirmed by the Council, how will you work to separate your professional services and your professional work from the work of the Leeward Planning Commission? Page 24 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 MR. LIVINGSTON: I think that will be fairly simple for me. I possibly handle 10 to 20 transactions a year of the tens of thousands of sales that go through on the island. fl for some reason a client or former client was in front of the commission, I would recuse myself. And then if there was any opportunity or any application that kind of fell in the cracks, I'd consult with the Corporation Counsel and get clarity on it if it was a situation that required a recusal. MR. INABA: Alright, thank you very much. Chair, I yield at this time. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Yes, thank you. Good morning. Thank you, Trey, for putting in your application, I really am impressed with your skillsets that you bring to this. I really have some questions though and some concerns. You did make a comment that you would treat each application individually, and yet you're very, very conscious about the General Plan and the CDPs. Now the General Plan right now hasn't been updated in years and it's going through that process and also the CDPs, you know, a lot of people would like to see them more updated. I guess my concern is I think the community in your area, and I may be wrong, but since I've been here since December, I get the impression that people are really concerned about storm water runoff, about the treatment of wastewater, about the ability of having drinking water, and also traffic and roads. If you go out from Kona to the—and drive through the south part of Kona through Keauhou and going south, the traffic, I hear about it personally from people I know that live there. They just can't believe how long it takes to drive south, in and out town. And so knowing that there's already some kind of quality of life issues that is being questioned by the community, and I think fairly loudly what I've heard here in the chambers, how would you balance that if someone came and said, "Well, I've owned this property for many years and I want to subdivide it and the zoning base, it's whatever the zoning would allow me to come in for a subdivision." How would you find yourself balancing the persons right, supposedly, under the Zoning Code that they could apply for the subdivision, versus the community really crying loudly that there's some real problems in the south. How would you deal with that? MR. LIVINGSTON: Thank you, that's a great question. I think I could answer it two different ways because I imagine, as a commissioner, I would have to board on applications for small developments, maybe somebody wants to subdivide and come out with three lots. So traffic is a problem, handling of water and wastewater is a challenge as well. You need to look at the benefit of adding those extra housing units and increasing the inventory so that we can reach an affordable housing goal and relieve some of those market stresses, but also the impact it's going to have on our infrastructure. Page 25 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 I think with large developments, it's different. I think the developer needs to bring something to the table as far as alleviating those stresses it will place on the community. And we've noticed that the large developments do get a lot of public testimony, so I think in the areas where maybe the General Plan and CDP have become outdated and aren't addressing or aren't aligning with the current community need, that's where the Planning Commission can receive that public testimony, consider it, and apply it against other laws or zoning codes, state land use requirements. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Thank you for that answer. The other—so that leads me to kind of your values and what you would like to see this community, if you were to fast forward 10 to 20 years, what would be your vision of what would be in that community? What kind of like public services would be there? What how the county and what the county's role is in that part of—because I kind of think that what I've also seen with conditions that we put on these subdivisions and rezoning is, how do we address our public services and the types of what our county can provide to the community as we allow it to grow. Just some thoughts on that. Thank you. MR. LIVINGSTON: Thank you. That'sI feel like I could talk about that for an hour. It's a complicated balancing act. I think we've placed a lot of pressure on developer to fulfill our need for infrastructure, whether that's traffic, roads, wastewater, sewers. So it's a balance of requiring the developers to pony up, but also the county's and the government, the state, because they own so many of the highways, they should also be coming to the table to meet this need. So I would hope that we can see more cooperation between the private, the county, the state, to meet those needs while also increasing our housing inventory, adding some development because we're bringing in more people that's not stopping, but we really haven't seen much development since I was in high school or growing up. You know, we've gotten a few more traffic lights, a couple large developments, but we really haven't seen large affordable housing go in. I think it's been a little disconnected and unorganized, and hopefully, I feel that we're getting some momentum and the community really cares right now. There's a lot of pressure I think the community's putting on the government to help with the housing concerns. So I'm hopeful that we will see things like water and wastewater develop in Kona and become less of an issue and less of a limiting factor. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Thank you very much. Chair, I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Coming back to Hilo. Council Member Kierkiewicz. Page 26 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Trey. Thank you so much for making the drive out to Hilo to connect with some of us. I just want to thank you for your service for our country and now stepping up in this capacity to serve our community. You bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table, and I really appreciate you for that. And I just want to note the time in which that you are potentially joining the commission, it's a very important time in our history as we are reviewing the General Plan, which you will see and review before the Council makes final decisions upon, but also as the Planning Department goes through a comprehensive review of Chapter 25 and 23. And so your experience and you know, realty and development I think are going to be really foundational to making sure that any changes to those Codes are done as you say, in a responsible manner. So thank you for your service. Chair, I yield. MR. LIVINGSTON: Thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member, thank you. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: I just wanted to add in something. I think you bring an important balance to the board, looking at the current make up. So I just wanted to throw that in for my fellow Council Members, as well as, you know,just your sort of thoughtful, intellectual way of looking at these problems, I think it's really a good addition. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Kona, any further discussion? MS. VILLEGAS: Yes,please. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Villegas, go ahead. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Thank you again, Trey, for your willingness to answer these questions and kind of navigate the different perspectives that each one of us bring to the table, sitting here on the Council. I feel like I would be remiss though, if I did not point out some of my concerns after listening to some of your answers. I am concerned with a value system that wouldn't hold developers responsible for paying impact fees and contributing to our overly taxed infrastructure because as you said, yeah, we keep bringing people here and those people are buying homes and displacing our kama`aina and our local people. And as you said, you know, there are a lot of young people and I even still consider myself just middle-aged, but my daughters can't afford, barely, to rent anything here. That is something and an issue that is also directly related to the real estate industry. And there is a complex web in that industry which directly corelates to increased pricing,pricing our people out, and I don't see that—you Page 27 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 know, I hear from a lot of people that we haven't had any housing developments in a number of years here, and there likes to be a lot blame put on county government for the impact fees that are required and the participation from developers to contribute into improving our roads, sewers, schools and whatnot. I also firmly believe that the prior system of requiring a 20 percent affordable housing is deeply flawed and is one of the reasons we are in the circumstance we are in right now. To continue with that parameter and those requirements continues to set us up for failure, especially when we look at the number of affordable housing credits that are out there and that whole Ponzi scheme and game that can be played. So I don't I was a little bit concerned, your comments, there seems to be potentially some confusion, although you're kind of in the hot seat and I totally understand that right now, but in comments relating to infrastructure versus development. And so infrastructure, when it comes to our roadways and street lights and sewer systems, anytime we're adding to the capacity and we are almost at capacity in a lot of places, as you mentioned, in South Kona, water is an issue and I just really feelI just have some concerns. I wish I felt more confident in being able to put forth a positive recommendation. I appreciate my colleagues doing so but there's just a number of—couple of red flags for me and I do feel incredibly protective and incredibly, I feel a heightened sense of urgency with this time and this era that we're trying to navigate, and I want to make sure that the people in these positions have progressive value systems and that they will dictate and they will that's what will inspire decision making in the Leeward Planning Commission, which is pivotal in the future of our west Hawaii, specifically. And so just in all honesty, I'm going to just say that right now, so I see opportunity for some more education and it's—while we're not, you know, this is not specifically related to your ability to do the job. There have been numerous conversations in our Council about the stacking of the Planning Commissions with those who work in the real estate industry or development industry or union focused, and so that has been an area of concern. I'm sure it's not a news flash for you, but yeah,just want to be honest on those things and challenge you to continue to dig deep and explore what your intentionality would be in this role. And I just—Council Inaba's question about navigating any potential the balance of working in the real estate industry and serving on the Leeward Planning Commission, I don't think the question was intended to refer to your capacity to manage all the work, but more about the value systems that provide for the decision making and ensuring that they—one doesn't compromise the other. So thank you for your willingness to be here today and to endure these conversations and these questions and your willingness to serve in this role, which is very much a hot seat. So yeah, with that, Chair, I yield. Page 28 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Villegas. Coming back to Hilo, Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks Chair. Trey, thanks again for being here. You know, I'm just going to lean in and from the representative of the district supporting your nomination. I think we're way down in the weeds right now and some of these conversations that we're having from our other colleagues to try and find the perfect candidate is actually setting us up for failure. And I share that because there's so much that has happened long before you and I appreciate your comment as a high school student going away for school and for the military to come back and not see much change. What's not being acknowledged here is some of the decisions that former colleagues of ours made by putting in a moratorium that would not permit development, not tackling the impact fee process, which some people think is absolutely illegal. So there are a lot of nuances that are not being acknowledged here and maybe even glazed over, and in an effort to find perfection, that we have a good and excellent candidate in front of us. And so as you move forward through this process, you know, I think these are the things that mold and shape all of us and as you go through the process and onto the Leeward Planning Commission, you know, you're going to learn a lot. You already bring a wealth of knowledge, but you can actually lean in a whole lot more to ensure that maybe some of these conditions not only work for the developer and/or our housing contributors, because that's what they are, they're housing contributors, but also what works for community, and it's that balance. So thank you for sitting in the hot seat but just acknowledging that, you know, you're kind of here sitting in this hot seat without there being more context about pass decisions that were being made, not only by individuals in the Planning Commission but our own colleagues who sat right here on these seats. And they're definitely trying to change the trajectory, but I was told a very long time ago government is like a battleship, you don't turn on a dime. In fact, it takes a mile before that battleship actually can make that turn. So just acknowledge the space that you're in, make the good decisions with the information that you have in front of us, fall a little forward, maybe set that goal a little higher, but completely support your nomination. I yield. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Back to Kona one more time. Sorry, Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Yeah, thank you. Mr. Livingston, today I'm going to be voting no, I'm just not confident right now based on some of the responses, not that I won't change my mind prior to Councill confirmation, but perhaps similar to Council Member Villegas, I don't think anybody is looking for a perfect candidate. But I think there's a need for a certain level of confidence and it's surely not in your Page 29 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 ability based on your resume because I think you're more than qualified. It's just in regard to some of the responses you provided today. So thank you for putting yourself there in that seat today, and I look forward to further conversation at Council. Chair, I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. MS. VILLEGAS: Chair? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Villegas, go ahead. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. I will also be voting no today and my recommendation would be for potentially, Mr. Livingston, for you to serve on the CDP Action Committee. I would really like to see a little more because we are looking for members for the CDP Action Committee, but for opportunities for folks to share in that capacity and kind of work their way up to the Leeward Planning Commission, I think that would be really helpful and effective. But thank you again for being here today and I, as much as anyone, know that perfection is overrated and unattainable, but there's another level of experience that I would like to see for this role. So thank you so much. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Mr. Livingston, you had something to say? MR. LIVINGSTON: I just wanted to clarify maybe something I said made a perception that I wouldn't holdI don't believe in holding developers to their commitments, that's not the case at all. I think they absolutely are in the position where they need to be held to more than what we've held them to as far as especially their affordable housing requirements. I think it's unfortunate everything that happened with the credit situation, and I personally would like to see onsite housing built for many reasons. I think it creates a mix within the community that's built rather than isolating, you know, wealthy and affordable communities. You can kind of bring them together, everyone benefits from that. So I'm definitely not saying that it's all the county's fault and that we should give the developers a free ride. I think we need to hold them both to the fire because everybody has a role to play. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for that, appreciate it. Seeing no discussion, I'm going to go ahead ask a few questions of my own. Thank you for being here today. I'll start off actually, with Ms. Bartolome. What is our current make up right now? Name and current occupation of our existing members. MS. BARTOLOME: So we have Barbara DeFranco, who is—she's a business owner, she also runs her nonprofit, Paleaku Gardens. Michael Dela Cruz, of Page 30 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 course, he is an ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) union representative. We have CJ Kanuha, who besides being an amazing surfer, he's also long-time family, they're in Kona, business owner. We have Zaheva Knowles, who is involved in leadership management. I believe she's also an attorney, but I'm not sure if she still practices. We have Mahina Paishon-Duarte, who is part of the cultural specialist consultant, he has her consulting firm, and that is it. Then we have the two open seats for North Kohala and then this South Kohala at large. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay and then Mr.thank you, Ms. Bartolome. Mr. Livingston, what area do you see as being represented by the Leeward Planning Commission? These are the decisions that you'll be facing as a possible member of the committee so MR. LIVINGSTON: Geographic area? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. MR. LIVINGSTON: Okay. North Kohala all the way to I guess the border with K5'u. So South Kona, North Kona, North and South Kohala. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Correct, Ms. Bartolome? MS. BARTOLOME: Yeah, it's at large. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. How long have you been a realtor for? MR. LIVINGSTON: Four years, March 2019. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And family-owned business? MR. LIVINGSTON: Yes, sir. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Everyone in the family? MR. LIVINGSTON: Everyone except my older sister, she's an architect. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, I'm sure they're rooting for you today. I think—what I've always appreciated about Ms. Villegas is she's very clear about her statement, she always does. Ee've talked about affordable housing and we've talked about a lot of different things today, I think all tying back to, you know, the decisions that you'll be making on the Planning Commission and the importance to the people of Hawaii Island, both those in favor of Page 31 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 development and those against development and those who just sit in the middle and don't care. You know, I was looking to kind of get a feel for you and a lot of good questions were asked today. My interest always kind of lies in the person in front of me so, you know, it looks like light experience in real estate, you have an interesting background in the military. Trying to get a feel for what you believe, your kind of long-term vision is, and to preface that question, I have been many places and I've come to appreciate different things. I don't want to share what those things are until I get more of a feel for you, but what are your thoughts for our island, specifically the area that you'd be making decisions for when you look 30 years, 50 years down the line. What to do you see in your head? MR. LIVINGSTON: Are you asking me kind of how I envision like the physical environment to be—how it's developed over the next 50 years? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, you know, what do you see? What do you see your kids playing in, in 50 years? What do you see along our ocean fronts? What do you see our communities looking like? What is your, kind of grandiose vision if you had your perfect world? MR. LIVINGSTON: Yeah, I really see South Kona kind of staying relatively the same. I think we'll see maybe a few more large-acreage developments pop up, but it'll stay fairly rural. North Kona, I'd love to see what was formerly the bypass eventually get developed, whether that's a four-lane highway or if they're going to do the two lanes with the bike paths on the side or whatever comes out of that. I'd love to see that in there just one, because of the efficiency and the traffic problems it could solve, but also if that does have the bike paths and the running paths, I thinkI like doing all that stuff and getting out and I know a lot of people in Kona are pretty active and it's really going that way, so it'll be fun to have something like that as a resource. It seems like there's going to be a lot of development around Palamanui. So I'm curious kind of what I think that's kind of the game changer for Kona, is how much activity is that going to generate in our community? Maybe that's where my kids one day are going to go to school or maybe they're going to live out there. It really feels like everybody is like the center of gravity's moving north right now, and then I think we see that with Waikoloa as well with that big grocery store and everything they put up on the south side of the road there. I don't know, I see kind of our center of gravity going north, and I'm okay with that, personally, because I like it down south, I like it where it's quiet. I traveled a lot when I got out of the Air Force and I wasn't sure I wanted to come back to Hawaii, and after going all over the place both with the Air Force and on my own, it's like Kona's the spot. It's got everything I want to do, surfing, I can raise Page 32 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 animals, I've got a cow in my front yard, I got a bunch of goats, my dog's running leash free, it's great. That's where I want to be and I want to preserve that, but I also want to make it attainable for other people unfortunate to have family that have the foresight to plan for my sisters and I, and they did it at a time when things were affordable. So I get to walk over in the mornings and have coffee with them, talk shop, and then I go and do my work. They weren't as community involved as I am, so this is kind of like my way to kind of go off and do my own thing because I kind of am always under their shadow, right, in the brokerage family business, and this is a cool step for me to really take my expertise, my education, and go do my own thing. So that's what I'm looking forward to doing, being a part of the community in that way. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. You have kids? MR. LIVINGSTON: No kids. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: No kids? If you could hand your kids the perfect west Hawaii, given that's where you represent, what would you want them to see when they grow up? MR. LIVINGSTON: A place where they can swim in Kailua Bay, and it doesn't have brown water advisories. A place where they can run along the road or for a distance without worrying about being hit by a car, where there's parks and things like that for them to enjoy the recreational activities but also sufficient, I guess business, where they feel that they can work a good job other than within the construction industry or food and service. So I feel like a lot of people are limited to those and there's a few of us that are fortunate to branch out. But I really hope to see more of that other careers start to pop up and maybe with Palamanui and that development up there, we'll see more of that,but time will tell. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Any relationship with Mr. Kern, he's our director, that we should know about? MR. LIVINGSTON: No. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Any of his businesses in the past? MR. LIVINGSTON: No. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I like to listen to my Kona colleagues,just because this is, I mean I represent Puna so this is kind of a distance from your area and the area you'd be making decisions for, but I listen for their input because they speak for the district and the people in the communities that you would be making decisions for as a Planning Page 33 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 Commissioner. Today I heard two of, well, I'm not sure, two openly said no today, open to further discussion, and one said yes, and I don't know what the other one's going to do because I just don't know. So I will be voting against you today, but I do like what your answers have been so far. I'm voting that way for reasons of my own, but just as a listening member of our body, two of my Council Members in Kona and I think that's fair, and I am always an open door to further conversation. I do like your answers. I have three children and I look at our island, I look at the places that I've been in the world, and I know what I love about our community and I know what I like about other communities I visited. So when I look at the folks coming in front of us for these commissions, I'm gauging where you're going to sit and the decisions that you're going to make so that our kids can enjoy the life that we have been able to enjoy here, which disappears every day, and that's how I see it. Everything about you looks good and we have another reading so another vote for you in a couple weeks. But I'll be saying no today, nothing personal, I'm just listening to my members in Kona, and I'll be doing a little bit more digging into you and who you are and maybe we can meet, touch bases between here and then. MR. LIVINGSTON: Sounds great. Thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Thanks for being here today. Okay, that brings us to the end of this discussion, and my timer went off anyway. Mr. Clerk, let's do a roll call for today,please. Vote on Comm. 335: The motion to confirm the appointment of Mr. Trey (Approved) Livingston to the Leeward Planning Commission was carried by the following roll call vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, and Lee Loy —5. Noes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Villegas, and Acting Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—4. Absent: None. Excused: None. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you for being here today. Thank you, Ms. Bartolome, appreciate the conversation, and we will see you in two weeks. MR. LIVINGSTON: Thank you all for your time. Relinquish Chair: At this time, the Acting Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder relinquished the chair to Acting Chair Lee Loy. Page 34 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Let the record reflect, I have assumed the chair at 11:44. Mr. Clerk, I believe we have two more items. If we would head on to Communication 330, please. Return to Order The Acting Chair directed the Committee to return to the order of business. of Business: COMMUNI- The Acting Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of CATIONS business, Communications. Comm. 330: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION REGARDING THE 2024 HAWAII STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES' LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE From Council Member Heather Kimball, dated June 15, 2023. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 330. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Ms. Kimball, please lead our discussion. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. It's that time of the year again,preparing for next year's 2024 legislative session, and we have a specific timeline that we need to follow with respect to compiling the HSAC (Hawai`i State Association of Counties)package. And so July is the time period during which we need to collect just general concept from the various council bodies as to priorities for the next legislative session. Just to extend that further in August, we'll be taking that Feedback, discussing it with various stakeholders, and working with our lobbyists to put in bill format. And then in September is the deadline to have passed it through our Council. So think about that in terms of getting it on our agenda. It will have to be passed through our Council and submitted to HSAC in September. That means that in October the executive committee will act upon it,put the package together and that will come back to us in November. So the purpose of today is to just get some general feedback from you all on any legislative items you'd like to see as a priority for next legislative session. With that I'll yield. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thanks, Ms. Kimball. Opening up for discussion, and what I hear my colleague asking is themes, ideas, for possible policy shifts at the legislature. Anyone? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Might shoot myself in the foot here, but been thinking about this for a awhile. I'd like to see some movement on fireworks. And I'm not necessarily saying more strict, I'm actually saying we should maybe look the other direction and look at the tax opportunity for the counties and the state as a whole, as far as what we could do to take in more tax Page 35 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 money, given the amount of illegal fireworks we see that seems to be just as legal as anything else these days. I'm not looking for anyone's support on that, I think that would be something that the counties could look into. That would definitely be kind of a state approach first. Thank you, Chair. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder. Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I have a short list, and I'm happy to help draft resolutions and put them forward at Council for more extensive deliberation. What immediately comes to mind is a new jail for Hawaii Island. We are over, over capacity here in East Hawaii. Additional support in funding to deal with our invasive species, not limited to Albizia but things like the varroa mite, and other things like feral pigs. I'd like to see a bit more investment in workforce development programs and collaborations with community partners like the economic development administration, which has run successful programs during the pandemic, investment in mental health and substance abuse treatment here on island. And if there's any way for us to get flexibility and money for improvements to private roads especially in private subdivisions, which whole other conversation about their whole creation. And if we can start thinking about where we need to be situating additional schools throughout our community. You know, I think about the community development plans and their implementation. The community I represent of Hawaiian Paradise Park bursting with individuals, and there is a need to support an additional school in that area. And so we need to start having these conversations now about how we plan for the future. Thank you. Chair, I yield. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Looking to Kona, Ms. Evans, Ms. Villegas, Mr. Inaba any ideas. MS. EVANS: Yeah. I have a couple. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Go ahead, Ms. Evans. MS. EVANS: I want HSAC to weigh in on the opioid crisis and try to get the legislature again back in, I think it was in 2008 or 2009 I believe,possibly Tommy Waters was on that legislative committee that looked at the ice epidemic that we had going across the state at that time. And it was really pretty formidable, the kind of effort that came out of the working groups, going around to each island and talking to everybody about ice. And they came out with some great ideas, some funding, working with our Federal Congressional delegation. We've changed laws, it was just a fabulous effort,but like anything it has sunsetted, it has waned. The focus was on it, things were put in place, some years went by, and then all of sudden I think it just gone kind of silent. And yes, there's Page 36 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 this fentanyl effort, we're going around and talking to the kids in school about fentanyl. We're doing some stuff on fentanyl, but I think the drug crisis is so out there, and I'm told a lot of people that are homeless is because they're on drugs. You know, it's really having a huge impact. And not knowing what the future is going to be on the legalization of marijuana, which I think is gaining more and more traction every year in Honolulu at the State Capitol. It maybe we're going to see in the near future legalization in marijuana. So I'd really like to see HSAC weigh in on trying to put together a real effort to look at our drug crisis in the state and the impact of maybe legalizing marijuana, plus the fact that we may have lacking in mental health providers that can help people when they're getting off drugs. I think we have a shortage in that area. The other thing is behavioral health, how do we, I mean I'm kind of expanding on the opioid thing, but opportunities maybe for community police officers and how do our—there's this community resource officers that are being put in middle schools right now. Unfortunately, they're very limited and they're only targeting a few middle schools not all middle schools. Why don't we have them in all middle schools? We should have them in all middle schools. So that's another take off on the opioid drug crises. So that's kind of a nutshell on one topic. And then the second topic is, I really want to see kind of what the other counties are talking about when it comes to electrical vehicles. Can we at the county level, given that maybe the state legislature can't figure out the answer though they're trying as to how are we going to tax and work with electric vehicles on their impact to our roads and our highways? You know, do we weigh in on—should it be by mileage? Should it be on by weight? Who's going to collect the money? I mean there's going to have to be some structure, funded possibly by the state legislature to put a structure in place at the county level and help us staff it up if in fact we're going start be raising taxes for our road maintenance. And the other thing is about just the idea of electrical vehicles and maybe the state parks, maybe the state harbors, maybe the state Department of Transportation that there district maintenance offices, maybe we should have the state put up those electrical charging stations and not put it on county to do it. You know, maybe it's time to tell the state to step it up if you want to get electrical vehicles. Have them be partners stepping up to the plate, doing those electrical vehicle stations instead of us at the county level. I think it needs to be explored, I hope by the HSAC. So there it is, there's my two. Thank you. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thanks, Ms. Evans. Thanks for talking very slowly so that Ms. Kimball could take all those notes. Actually, I really want to take a quick recess, there's something I need to check with staff. Five minutes. Is that good, Mr. Clerk? Thank you. We'll reconvene at 12:00, thank you. Page 37 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 Recess: At 11:54 a.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 12:01 p.m. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, everyone. Taking this meeting out of recess. The time now is 12:01 and thank you, we had a little bit of a wobbly intranet connection, which has been resolved. We ended with Ms. Evans, anyone else from Kona? Thoughts ideas for future legislative priorities and or adjustments. MR. INABA: Real quick. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Sure, Mr. Inaba, go ahead. MR. INABA: Yup. Just one thing, I know that the legislature had taken up remote meetings recently. And as we continue to kind of head in that direction, asking if we can perhaps revisit that part of the HRS so that members of the public are able to not only view, but also participate in all of our board and commission meetings wherever they may be calling in from, especially for those not located in Kona or Hilo. It's something that I think we, and I guess across the state, but this isn't something that we can amend right now at the county level being that the law at the state level is encompassed and prevents us, so providing that language perhaps forces us to grant that ability for remote participation by the public. And I would like to continue seeing our membership of the boards and commissions meet in person, again making that clear its from members of the public to engage and be able to live steam and view as well. And then the only other thing I have right now, is just circling back it's kind of been mentioned already. But further support and I know there's state initiatives right now but perhaps even bolstering those initiatives when it comes to the creation and support of mental health facilities, not only for those on the streets but for the those who might be on street if they don't receive services. I'll be working probably on a resolution for the first topic I shared, and hope that we might consider providing some type of HSAC a voice to the legislature regarding mental health and social services. Thank you. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thanks, Mr. Inaba. I'll check with Ms. Villegas since we're over in Kona. Any thoughts legislative priorities? MS. VILLEGAS: Not at the moment, thank you. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you. Back here in Hilo I have Ms. Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: So I guess my thoughts for legislative priorities would be, I don't know exactly how this would work, but one problem throughout my district is there's not a lot of places to get into the water and the impact of tourists on Page 38 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 those sites is just kind of horrendous. So perhaps some kind of enabling of community management of those sites, similar to what's happenedI think on Kauai is roughly everyone kind of sort of talks about H5'ena and Kauai and what they've done there. But not sure that it's possible, and I think looking at it and enabling that would be good. And then of course more funding for the Department of Agriculture, specifically around planning, land, and especially water as we continue to go dryer and dryer. It's just critical that we take that more seriously. And then the third thing would be infrastructure for rural schools. I think both Council Member Evans and I have sports facilities that don't work. And that is just so important for our communities to have those facilities be operable because they're not just for the school, but the community at large. Thank you very much. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thanks, Ms. Galimba. Ms. Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. So yeah, I have a few things I think several of these may be just supporting bills that may already be in the works for the biennium. One of those is the bill that allows counties to regain control over tobacco regulations. It's been an issue, I think, since the state took control of it and hasn't really been able to do what needs to be done in our county around that. I'd like to see more funding and support for maternal and reproductive health especially in rural areas. I know there's a discussion around possibly a vacancy tax. I'd like us to kind of think about weighing in on that, and how we might want to weigh in on it. And going back to the mental health issue, specifically around child and adolescent psychiatry. We don't have that, and families are really forced into a bind here when they have a child who's going through a mental health crisis and they have to leave the island and be separated, or the entire family has to relocate. One more and this is more of a agricultural one which is making sure that ungulates of all kinds on our island are taking into an account when lookingI think there's a bill or a pilot or something I'm not sure looking at expanding the ability to hunt, donate, and sell wild game, which could help with some of our ungulate problem on this island, whether that's through getting federal meat inspectors or other ways. I think that would be super helpful. I think that's it, I yield. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thanks, Ms. Kagiwada. I think we've heard from everyone, so if I might follow up absolutely in support of everyone's ideas. Building off of Ms. Galimba's infrastructure for rural schools, I think if we looked at it as more of an ecosystem where not only it's for rural schools, but teacher housing, maybe police and fire services that we could actually maybe drop in a training facility for police and fire services. So it would create not only Page 39 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 the ecosystem for the schools but also all the other pieces and elements that would help support the school, not only from the kids and the families that they serve, but from an entire ecosystem. I also would love to see maybe leaning in a little bit more on our film industry and capitalizing on different tax incentives and or permits that the film industry uses, that actually our own county could capitalize on and make those impacts kind of translate into financial support for the areas that they impact. And then finally, I know we're going to have a conversation around high rock and transferring from kind of a fuel tax model to a mileage model. But I would also love to see how we could expand the GE(General Excise) that we use for our Mass Transit here on the neighbor islands. And maybe expand that into use of paving roads, specifically our private, subdivision roads where we could have some flexible language in that area. I think it would go a long way, especially here in Hawaii County. Or Ms. Kimball,just given the option, right, however the state wants to handle their GE for transit,just giving us other options I think would be helpful. Those are my thoughts. Ms. Kimball, take us home. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, thank you, Chair. Thank you all for these really great ideas. The way then to move forward is I'll be taking these to the executive committee and discussing them further, and determining where we think there's possibility to develop some legislation. I'm very happy to work with any of you individually, to develop the legislation and keep in mind this is a state-level bill. And it's a slightly different format that we would have, but when it comes back to this body it would be in the form of an attachment to a resolution requesting that the bill be added to the HSAC package. In addition to actual bills, you know, for some of these examples being mental health and mental health support, it wouldn't be the kind of thing where we would necessarily have a bill, but we would identify that as one of the priorities we would like HSAC to take on. So that would also come in the form of a resolution. And what I will do is I'll probably take these ideas today and put the ones that I think are more of a priority level and not going to be bill format into a single resolution. And then if there's anything in the intervening period that you want to share with me, that you think should be added to that as a priority. The one thing I did want to note with the change in Chapter 92, a couple years back the identification of something as a priority by this body for the next legislative session allows us to talk about testimony during the legislative session. So if we, for example, identify mental health as a priority, as those bills come through, we are able to discuss supporting testimony without having to have a public hearing on that. So it's important to identify these priorities early. Anyway, I appreciate all the input, most of these actually cover some of the similar ideas. I had the one additional idea that I want to pursue, is in working with Council Member Kierkiewicz on the short-term vacation rental issue, one of Page 40 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 the things has come up has been the ag tourism language at the state level. And I think that there's probably some tweaking that would be useful because I think we would have better control over transient accommodations on ag land if people were required to be part of the ag tourism program rather than trying to fit them into our short-term vacation rental program. And so we're not allowed to do that on our island right now, overnight accommodations because of the HRS, want to be very, very, careful of course aboit how's that done. But already had some conversations actually yesterday with Rep. Kealoha on the west side, she's interested in helping explore that a little bit so that's an additional one. Wanted to make sure that everyone was aware the amendment that did take place to the GE tax that it can now be used for infrastructure related to affordable housing. And thank you former Council Member Aaron Chung when he put forth the legislation that allowed us to charge the additional GE surcharge. He was thoughtful enough to say whatever the state allows we can do, which means we don't need to make any changes to our Code to enable us to use that additional the GE funding for that additional purpose. With that I will yield. Thank you again, everyone, for your input. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Alright, seeing no more input, we have a motion on the floor to close file on Communication 330, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Comm. 330: The motion to close file on Comm. 330 was carried Filed by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Villegas and Acting Chair Lee Loy —9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Last item on the agenda Bill 49, Mr. Clerk. BILLS FOR The Acting Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of ORDINANCES: business, Bills for Ordinances. Page 41 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 Bill 49: INITIATES AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE III, SECTION 3-4 OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER(2022 EDITION), RELATING TO VACANCY IN OFFICE Proposes reducing the time allotted for the County Council to appoint a successor to a vacant County Council district seat, establishing restrictions on official candidates being appointed to a vacant County Council district seat, and that a person who has been duly elected to serve the upcoming Council term shall automatically fill a vacancy that occurs for that County Council district seat. Reference: Comm. 305 Intr. by: Ms. Evans Postponed: June 6, June 20, 2023 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. Evans, seconded by Mr. Inaba to recommend passage of Bill 49 on first reading.) ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. We have an active motion on the floor. Ms. Evans, why don't you start our discussion. MS. EVANS: Just for clarity, I do have a Communication 305.7 which is a proposed amendment. So should I make a motion on that? ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Yes, Ms. Evans, if you'd like to enter that so we can start the conversation around that particular amendment. Motion to Amend: Ms. Evans moved to amend Bill 49 with the contents of Comm. 305.7. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Go ahead, Ms. Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. I really appreciate everybody's patience on this. There's been a lot of discussion over the last couple weeks, have had really good input from our Chief Clerk Jon Henricks as well as Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance. I think the goal of the Charter amendment, if it goes in front of the public, is to keep it simple, have the language much more—it's much more clearer I think what we're trying to achieve. I think we've heard loud and clear that we really want a democrat process. We want enough time for potential people interested in filling a vacancy, to be able to put their name forth. So we've changed some of the days, we went to 14 days after occurrence of the vacancy, but if you haven't read this, there is definitely a big change on this. I would like to let you know that I'm going to ask for a postponement of this, of us taking action until the next committee meeting, and the reason is because Jon Henricks is on vacation. He'll be gone for a couple of weeks; he will be available when we meet again. And we think because whatever we decide has an impact Page 42 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 potentially on his office, that we would like to have him present to make sure that if we have questions for him, that he's available. Corporation Counsel, Elizabeth Strance, would really like to have him present too when we take a vote, and so for that reason, I will be asking to postpone it. But definitely open today for discussion in your packet, what we did was we put forth a communication 305.8. And the reason we did that is we wanted you to see the difference between Honolulu, Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii Island in terms of how they have dealt with vacancies in the County Council, how they've dealt with vacancies for the Mayor, and how they've dealt with vacancies for the Prosecuting Attorney, which are elected offices. And you'll see that we're all over the map, we all are very different on how we approach it and what we think is the correct way to handle vacancies. So you know, what's nice is this is what we feel is going be right for us. So with that I'd like to open it up for questions or discussions. Thank you. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Evans. Council Members regarding the amendment contained in Communication 305.7. MS. EVANS: So Chair, may I add, I think the important piece is this one just you know. Because there's two communications, I'm only advancing this one right now. This is the one that has the special election in it. There is another communication that's 305.6 and that's without the special election. But based on our conversation last time, we felt that people were inclined to this special election based on Member Kagiwada's comment, we changed it if the unexpired term is more than 15 months. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Evans. So when we're looking at Communication 305.8—Communication 305.7 only pertains to the special election section, right? MS. EVANS: Correct. Well, I mean you fill a vacancy either someone—if it's less than 15 months or more than 15 months. So there's two ways to fill a vacancy, it depends on the term left to the office. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Okay. MS. EVANS: If it goes vacant for whatever reason and there's 15 months remaining, then you would hold a special election. From the time of the occurrence until the date you hold the special election is 120 days. Now that was recommended by Jon Henricks, based on the amount of time it would take to actually put it in motion and meet the requirements of—the State Elections Office requires that you mail a ballot to people that live overseas or they're in the military and you have to give them 45 days, you have to mail it 45 days. So there's a lot of nuances now on how we run elections, so he felt more comfortable Page 43 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 with 120, so we went from 90 days to 120 days. So if you want to, I could walk through this it's a short two pager. The first part is if a vacancy "shall be filled in the following manner: If the unexpired term is fifteen months or less, the remaining members of the council shall appoint by a resolution a successor"to fill the vacancy. "Within fourteen days after the occurrence of the vacancy, the council chairperson shall notify all remaining members of the council that on a regular meeting date,"not the next, we took that out, "at a regular meeting date, formal actions shall be taken to fill the vacancy. Should the council fail to fill the vacancy at the designated meeting, the council chairperson, within five days shall appoint a successor with the qualifications required(by Section 3-3) to fill the vacancy. . . ." The person appointed shall serve until a successor is duly elected. So then the next part of it is if the unexpired term is more than 15 months, this is where you would kick in the special election. It would be held within 120 days after the occurrence, it should be in accordance with the election laws. "Within 14 days after the occurrence of the vacancy, a temporary successor with qualifications required by Section 3-3, shall be appointed by council chairperson to fill the vacancy until a successor is duly elected." There's one interesting thing in here, and that is (c), which is if"any vacancy occurs during the period of time after an election in which a candidate for the county council district seat that is vacant is duly elected shall be filled by a person so elected to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term." So what that means is if you win outright in the primary, and you're duly elected in the primary, you can fill that vacancy. And then it says at the bottom, "The remainder of the unexpired term served by a council member filling a vacancy shall not apply to the term limit. . . ." ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Evans. I see a light on here, Mr. Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you Chair. I just wanted to touch in with the Council Member writing the bill. Did you mean to postpone today, or did you want to do the communication? MS. EVANS: Today I'd like to postpone action until the next meeting, only because I want Jon Henricks here so you can ask more questions of him or have him present. Because at this point in time, he's read this, he's commented on it, he seems supportive of it, but Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance would really like to have him present at the time we take official action in case there is questions, and I thought that was reasonable. So would you like to have discussion today to get more clarity, or would you like to wait? MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: I really feel like that is up to you. It seems like a perfect Jon Henricks answer right there. My thought is because you Page 44 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 brought the communication to the floor and we're in discussion on the communication. it would be prudent to maybe check in with the Clerk about how we proceed and how you want to proceed with your bill. I yield. MR. BROWN: If you don't mind me, maybe I can help give a little bit more context. So right now, we have subsidiary motion on the floor for amending the bill with the contents of this communication. So we would have to deal with this amendment on the floor first before a postponement happens. So either the maker could withdraw this motion and bring it back at a later time, or we would vote on it and then get back to the main motion. And then at that point you could postpone, it could be postponed. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. One more light, Ms. Kagiwada, go ahead. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to make a couple comments because I actually will be absent at the next meeting, so I just wanted to get a couple of my comments out there. So I remember we had a discussion, and tell me if I'm not on the right thing,please. Can I discuss right now, because it underlined unexpired term is 15 months or less? ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: If it's related to Communication .7, please express your thoughts. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. Now that we've moved from 90 days to 120 days, I'm just feeling like I would be more comfortable if the unexpired term is little shorter than 15 months. I just feel like if we do the 15 months and then there's 120 days, that's only five months left in the term. And it's a lot of work and money to be done for five months. And if we can move that back a little bit to 12 months something like that, it would make more sense to me to go through a lot of effort. That's just my thought there. Does that make sense? MS. EVANS: May I respond? MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah, go ahead. MS. EVANS: Okay. At one time we were thinking if it was 18 months or less, based on our conversation we went to 15 months. If 15 months kicked in, actually less and more really causes confusion here. If there's more than 15 months remaining in that unexpired term, it would kick in a special election. So the worst case scenario is that 15 months, something happens and you're filling a vacancy, what we will do is kick in a special election, the date would be approximately 120 days later. So 120 days later, four months, you would be holding the election with 13 months remaining on the unexpired term. Page 45 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. Thanks for that. Yes, this is very confusing. The other point I guess I just want to weigh in on, and I think we also touched on this but I want to weigh on it again because now can I speak to the chart with what the different counties have? Is that okay, Chair? ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: I understand .8 to be for information purposes, and so it helps clarify your question absolutely. If you could just tie it right back into 07. MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah, definitely. So for filling Council Member vacancies per County Charter on the list here, all the other counties have the Mayor if the council fails to appoint, the Mayor making the decision, and we're the only one's that have the Chair making that decision. I think we touched on it last time saying it's kind of strange to do that given the Chair is part of the Council and has already had a chance to kind of debate and weigh in. So my thought on that is I feel like we should be more in line with the other Council Members and consider having the Mayor appoint at that particular juncture. And my last comment, sorry, I think at one point it said, for(c), that it would be immediate. And we had that discussion about their need to be a timeframe when people could come back and challenge the results of an election. Has that been changed? And I guess that's a question to the maker. MS. EVANS: I think that's the discussion that Jon Henricks and I get around quite a bit. So what would really happen is that normally what happens is yes, this person would take the seat but not take probably official action until they're sworn in, similar to what happens at the State Legislature that people get elected, they take office in November, but they cannot vote and take any official actions until they are sworn in, which is the third week in January. So this would kind of be similar in the sense that someone would get elected, yes, they would take the seat for the district, but if there was action that had to be taken where they were actually voting, they would have to be sworn in. And if there is some requirement, our Clerk Henricks felt that having the Elections Office certify it, and talk to the campaign spending commission to make sure there's no violation in campaign spending laws, probably that certification would happen in days not weeks. So he's pretty confident that keeping it written this way it would work. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, I just wanted to bring those things up as potential issues. Thank you, I yield. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thanks Ms. Kagiwada for sharing your concerns since you won't be at our next meeting. Again, any members on Communication .7? MR. INABA: Yes, Chair. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Go ahead, Mr. Inaba. Page 46 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 MR. INABA: So for the resolution just wanting clarity on who is able to submit a resolution. Is it anyone on the Council? MS. EVANS: May I answer, Chair? ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Yes, please. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Yes, so I think that's a point. The resolution, you could come to a Council meeting and have nine resolutions with people being proposed and then we vote on the resolution. Now clearly if we all see the resolution and all the names, whoever—my take on it is whoever gets the first majority will be it. I mean everybody will see their names, and people will be able to provide testimony right, like we always do at the beginning, then we'd have the community—it will be very democratic because it would be at a regular meeting, so it would be posted, people could give us written testimony or remote testimony or oral testimony in chamber. They'll see all the names that are going to be submitted, and it could be submitted by each Council Member and then they'll be taken up and there will be the votes. And that's why it says, if no one gets a majority then it ends up being appointed by the Council Chair. So you could have nine people's names submitted, and they never get to the majority which would be five. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. The next question, we're changing from the language of the original bill stating that all that"the council chairperson shall notify all remaining members of the council that on a regular meeting date," so initially we had in your bill the next meeting date. MS. EVANS: Yeah, we took that out. MR. INABA: Okay. And I'm thinking in the weeds right now, well I guess we can't rule it out that for example, five resolutions are submitted by five different Council Members, the potential for a chair to hold off agendizing one of those resolutions to then limit options. Do we have any thoughts on that, maybe from, first from the introducer and then maybe from Corporation Counsel? If this passes, would that be a possibility that we could perhaps see some resolutions held off to the next Council meeting, which then wouldn't allow for all potential work replacements to be considered? Council Member Evans, if you have any thoughts on that. MS. EVANS: Yes. There's always the challenge. One of things we were trying to address is the next regular meeting date may be so soon that people you know, like if you had a next regular meeting date that was only three or four days from the time of the occurrence, it'd be so soon, and people would be scrambling. So it was the sense of how do we make sure there's what we believe is enough time, to make sure that people could submit their names. What we may want to Page 47 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 do is take a look at just making sure that it has to be at a regular meeting date. And the reason we wanted a regular meeting date is so that it would get posted that the public would see it, that they could testify, they could show up to testify. And so we took away being a special meeting date, turning it into a regular meeting date because we felt it would be more visible to the public if we did it that way. But the other thing is, I hear what you're saying, is we just got to make sure that the Council acts in a very timely manner, and I hear that. That might be something we can further discuss. MR. INABA: Okay. And then when we are looking all regular meeting dates is it the Chair who determines what that meeting date is? MS. EVANS: Correct. MR. INABA: By notifying all of the Council Members. MS. EVANS: Correct. MR. INABA: Corporation Counsel can you weigh in there? ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Judge Strance has stepped out for a few minutes. If you would like to yield and maybe we can circle back around and see if any other Council Members have comments. MR. INABA: I just have one more question for now then, if that's okay. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Sure, go ahead. MR. INABA: Okay. In looking at Communication 305.8, we're sharing how the other counties, Honolulu and Maui, do special elections, and it's kind of the reverse the language. You were saying if the vacancy occurs within the first three years of the Honolulu term or within the first nine months of the Maui terms. So I'm just wondering if we are trying to head out for consistency,just more of a language thing that we'd say how many months have gone by of the term rather than how many months are remaining,just as a matter of consistency with the other counties. And then the only other concern or question perhaps I have here is when there is unexpired term of 15 months or less, any Council Member can submit a resolution. But if the unexpired term is 15 months or more, then the Chair appoints a temporary successor until someone is elected. So right now, if I'm reading it correctly, our Charter just says that the Council as a whole, no matter what, because we don't have special election always has that chance. And if the Council doesn't take action within 60 days, that the Chairperson then has the power to appoint. So making sure and confirming I guess, Council Member Page 48 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 Evans, that we're taking two different approaches. If it's a short vacancy then anyone gets to submit a resolution, but if it's a long vacancy and there's going to be a special election, then just the Council Chairperson gets to choose a temporary successor. Is that correct? MS. EVANS: I think you're reading it right. And if given that—within 14 days after the occurrence of the vacancy, the successor shall be appointed by Council Chair. But it also immediately triggered within 120 days, there's going to be a special election. So whoever is appointed to the vacancy will be probably serving for maybe three to three and a half months. So we could change it and obviously do the resolution, but that would be probably again at a regular Council meeting so that the public has an opportunity to weigh in on it. And then so you're probably a month into it with the seat sitting vacant, and then for three months if the Council agrees to someone, they would only be sitting for three months until the special election. I mean it's up to us how we want to play that out. But it would seem a little more the clock ticks pretty fast, you know, so I would think leaving it up to the Council person to point my work. Actually, better than doing it the other way. MR. INABA: Alright. And so if we go with what's in Section (b), I want to make sure I heard you correctly. The Council Chairperson simply appoints, and that person stays. MS. EVANS: Until the special election, someone gets elected of the special election. MR. INABA: Okay. I'm not strongly opposed to it. I'm just thinking we're taking two different approaches depending on the length of the vacancy. And if we are going down the path of a special election, I think I would prefer the seat to be vacant instead of giving somebody that position, which in turn could help them in a special election. So I'm fine with the special election process, I just don't think we should put somebody there temporarily and perhaps give that person an advantage in the special election if there was going to be one. And that's all I'll say for now. MS. EVANS: I'd be very opened to putting some language in there that they would not be a candidate. Basically, someone who fills it will not be eligible to be a candidate. They would be disqualified added as a qualifier. They'd be disqualified if they were actually a candidate, right? There might be a way to throw some language in there, and I think that was a good catch on your part. MR. INABA: Alright. But with that, Chair, I'm not going to be able support that, just because I think it needs to go one way or the other. It's either there's a special election and we leave it vacant, or there's a special election and if the Chair is going to choose somebody to temporarily take that position, that they are Page 49 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 not going to be able to run in the special election. So I won't be able to support this, and I'm happy to support either of those ideas, it doesn't matter to me. I just can't support what's in this as it's written. Thank you, Chair. I yield. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Back here in Hilo, I see Ms. Kimball's light. Go ahead. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. First wanting to respond to Council Member Inaba's question for Corp Counsel, about the potential scenario where resolutions could be introduced for potential candidates. And well the Chair does not have authority to not put them on the agenda, the Chair does have the authority to put them at a later date, which could actually, as he identified, disrupt. Now I certainly wouldn't do that, but, you know, it could happen. And so that is a good point, Council Member Inaba, that there probably has to be either an adjustment to our rules that would say that those types of resolutions would be required to be at the next hearing, or it could be in the next meeting. In this Charter amendment proposal, I'm not clear on why the next meeting was taken out. I would also agree that I have concerns about this appointment in the intervening period between the vacancy and the special election because it presents the scenario where you have a two-year term represented potentially by three different people. And we all know how much time it takes to you know, some of us are still coming up to speed on things, admittedly me as well, but there's a big learning curve for this position and that concerns me that you'd have a scenario where there be three different people serving in that term, while still understanding that representation is important. I do like the 15 months and the special election, I think we just need to consider some other alternatives for that intervening period while this special election were to take place. I have a little bit of confusion around the wording of(c). I think it needs to be a little bit clear because I think it can be interpreted different ways. So I would just ask the author to maybe review that language and see if it can be rephrased in a way that's a little bit more succinct and clear. I understand, based on our conversation, what you're going for, but I don't think this says quite that. So I would say I would hold off on supporting this communication as is,just because I still think there's some fine tuning of the language that's necessary. Thanks, I yield. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thanks, Ms. Kimball. Anyone else? Well, if I could weigh in. Like the rest of my colleagues, I think my first concern is with item (c) and the interpretation because I'm also reading that multiple ways. In addition to some of the continuity, while my colleagues are thinking about who might come and go and potentially three people representing that seat, it's all going to boil down to a majority, especially with one vacancy, and it could tip the scales for a Page 50 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 majority in one direction and the other. And I think that's actually where a lot my heartburn lies. But with that, if I could suggest to the maker, I think you've heard a lot of good input and foreshadowing as to what the thoughts are around Communication .7. I think we have a couple of options. You can put it up to vote, I think I can read the room a little bit, or withdraw this motion and withdraw this particular communication, tinker with it a little bit more, and then follow your lead with postponing this bill to our July 18 meeting where you can actually take some of the feedback that you heard today. And maybe introduce a refined communication that addresses some of the concerns that have been raised during this discussion on Communication 305.7. Ms. Evans, what's your pleasure? Withdraw Motion MS. EVANS: My recommendation is to withdraw Communication 305.7. to Amend: Vote on Motion to: Ms. Evans moved to postpone Bill 49 to July 18, 2023. Postpone: Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder and carried by the (Approved) following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Villegas and Acting Chair Lee Loy —9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: I believe that gets us to the end of the agenda. Page 51 GOEAC-12 July 5,2023 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 12:49 p.m., Ms. Kimball moved to adjourn MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali'i—Kleinfelder and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Villegas and Acting Chair Lee Loy—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: This meeting is adjourned at 12:49 p.m. Thank you, everyone. Approved: Cfcc>1-3 Ms. Cindy Eva , Chair (Date) Committee on Governmental Operations and External Affairs CE/rk Page 52