HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2023-06-07 2022-2024 Hawaii County Council
151h Session
Hawaii County Building
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, Hawaii
June 7, 2023
INVOCATION: Pastor Blane Kamanu of Thy Word Ministries gave the morning's invocation.
CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at
ORDER: 9:01 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair.
ROLL CALL:
Present: Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair
Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Vice Chair
Ms. Cindy Evans, Member
Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member
Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member
Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member
Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member
Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member
Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member
PLEDGE OF The Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of
ALLEGIANCE: Allegiance.
(At this time, Deputy County Clerk Aaron Brown led the
Council in the Pledge of Allegiance.)
PETITIONS, The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Petitions,
MEMORIALS, Memorials, Certificates of Merit, and Expressions of Condolence.
CERTIFICATES
OF MERIT, AND (There were none.)
EXPRESSIONS OF
CONDOLENCE:
STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items.
PUBLIC ON
AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by
the Chair:
Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Richard Ha: Bill 48 (Comm. 279), in support.
(representing Da Rubbah
Slippah Group)
Leslie Cole Brooks: Bill 48 (Comm. 279), in support.
Reginald Lee: Res. 178-23 (Comm. 293), in support.
(representing Kohanaiki Cultural
Foundation)
Elizabeth Theriault: Res. 164-23 (Comm. 271), in support.
Michael Matsukawa: Res. 179-23 (Comm. 294), in support.
(representing Hale O Hawaii
County Community Land Trust)
Sue Aronson: Bill 48 (Comm. 279), in support.
Nate Gaddis: GOEAC-49 (Comm. 277), in support.
APPROVAL The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Approval
OF MINUTES: of Minutes.
Vote on Approval Ms. Lee Loy moved to approve the Minutes of April 19,
of Minutes: 2023. Seconded by Ms. Galimba and carried by the
(Approved) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
Vote on Approval Ms. Lee Loy moved to approve the Minutes of May 3,
of Minutes: 2023. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the
(Approved) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: At this time, let's go to Communication 307.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
CATIONS: Communications.
Comm. 307: APPOINTMENT OF ROBERT EWBANK AS DIRECTOR OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated May 12, 2023, submitting for the Council's
review and confirmation.
Waived: GOEAC
Requires Council
Confirmation by: July 15, 2023 (Section 13-8,
Hawaii County Charter)
(Note: At this time, Managing Director Lee Lord and nominee Robert Ewbank
came forward to address the members of the Council.)
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Managing Director Lord and
welcome, Mr. Ewbank. Go ahead, introduce
MR. LORD: Good morning, Council Members. Managing Director Lee Lord
here to ask for confirmation of Mr. Robert Ewbank. He's got 20 years of hands-
on and technical and supervisory experience in the Information Technology (IT)
field. As the Director of the Department of Information Technology (DIT),
Robert will focus on providing users and clients with a stable computing
environment that maintains confidentiality, integrity, and availability. He began
his new role on May 15''.
Robert brings extensive experience with IT systems and supervision in various
settings as well as years of experience in County government. His appointment
reflects the County's commitment to providing the best possible technology
services internally and externally. Robert's experience and expertise make him an
ideal candidate for the position, and we look forward to working with him to
continue to improve technology services for the County.
Robert was working for a few years at the Planning Department and gained a lot
of respect from those in the IT Department and IT work in the County. We were
pleased that he applied and when we completed our interviews, he was the best
candidate for the position. So thank you for letting me present him and he can
certainly answer any questions and he's prepared to do that.
Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to confirm the appointment of
Mr. Robert Ewbank as Information Technology Director.
Seconded by Mr. Inaba.
CHR. KIMBALL: Mr. Ewbank, would you like to add anything?
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MR. EWBANK: Yes, I would. I'd like to say thank you for this opportunity, it
comes with tremendous responsibility. Thank you to the people that you
represent in the County of Hawaii. Thank you to Mayor Roth, thank you to the
Managing Director Lord, as well as my staff. They've kept things up and running
and I'm very appreciative of that as we go through this transition, as well as
former Director Uyehara. So he has been a tremendous wealth of knowledge as I
step into this role.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, and speaking of the former Director, I think he
wanted to say a few words. Would you mind coming up, Mr. Uehara?
(Note: At this time, Radio Systems Manager Scott Uehara, Civil Defense
Agency, came forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. UEHARA: Well, it's a good thing that I have to announce who I am, so my
name is Scott Uehara, the former Department of Information Technology
Director, and I did have a prepared statement to read. Good Morning, Council
Members. Serving as the former DIT Director has been a privilege and an
enriching journey. It is with the same spirit of service and dedication that I take
part in the transition process, ensuring that my successor is well-positioned to
guide our IT department into the future. I am pleased to support Mr. Robert
Ewbank as the selected candidate to step into the role of Director for the
Department of Information Technology.
Mr. Ewbank has an impressive professional track record, boasting years of
experience within the field of Information Technology. His proven leadership
skills make him an excellent choice to take on this demanding role. In the time
that I have worked with Mr. Ewbank, I've observed his remarkable
professionalism, deep understanding of technology, and commitment to
improving County operations. There is no doubt that his knowledge and
experience equip him well for the challenges and responsibilities of this position.
However, I feel it's essential to remember that the process of transition and
adaptation to a new leadership role is seldom without hurdles, no matter how
experienced the individual may be. As with all of us, he will need time, space,
and support to grow, adapt and fully embody his new leadership role within the
County.
I kindly ask that everyone extend your support and cooperation during this
transition period. The collective strength of our County and our ability to work as
a team, especially during this transition, is what truly empowers us to continue
serving our community effectively. I have full faith in Mr. Ewbank's capabilities,
the Mitch Roth Administration, this Council, and the DIT staff to support him as
he transitions into this new role.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
It's been an honor to serve alongside you and I'm excited to see the direction in
which Mr. Ewbank will lead our Information Technology Department in the
coming years. Thank you.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you so much and we all wish you the best in your new
position. With that, I will open it up to my colleagues for any questions for the
candidate. Council Member Evans.
MS. EVANS: Thank you and good morning.
MR. EWBANK: Good morning.
MS. EVANS: We met you I believe yesterday, when we talked about the audit of
IT. It was kind of timely, actually. So it was kind of a follow-up to that
discussion yesterday, and it's more about how things get kind of escalated in your
role when the Help Desk and the staff is working on something but it comes to the
realization that it's really probably a contractor or some Microsoft engineer or
somebody else that has to really jump in and solve the problem. How do you see
that playing out? Because I had some concerns about escalating things and
getting the problem resolved quickly and recognizing when you have to go out of
your staff.
MR. EWBANK: Understood, and it's a valid question. Not that I have all the
answers, but I am a certified Microsoft engineer, soI mean there's one step.
But we do have established vendors and I've reached out to them and discussed
with them the way they have worked with the County and what they are willing to
do in the future for us. And those bonds are strong, as I've noticed, and will
continue to grow so that we do have that sort of support resource.
MS. EVANS: Good, that's encouraging. Thank you. The other thing is I'm a
Mac user, so I just need you to know sometimes I worry about either the server or
the bandwidth, but I noticed that when I try to get on through the
webmai1.hawaiicounty.gov and try to get into my Outlook and Microsoft Outlook
when I look at things, I am unable to get on until it's after 7:00 at night and before
7:00 in the morning. So it tells me that either the server can't—you know, during
the middle of the day when everybody, all the County employees are on it and
everybody's looking at our website, that maybe we need to build more bandwidth
or something because I cannot get on during the day when I try to get on but I can
after hours. So I'm just concern that maybe we need to add more.
MR. EWBANK: Understood. And it does act—if you think of it as a large pipe
and the pipe is full, as it's pushing water through or information in this case, and
the more demand there is, the slower things get for the individual. I am going
through assessments on these, not only the infrastructure but also our processes
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
throughout, how we handle these things, and I can't give you a definitive answer
right now, but these are all aspects that are being reviewed and looked at and will
be corrected.
MS. EVANS: Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you, Chair, I yield.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member
Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Mr. Ewbank, great to see you.
MR. EWBANK: Aloha.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Really enjoyed working with you when you were in the
Planning Department and so glad that you stepped up to serve our County in this
capacity. I'm really curious about your vision for Information Technology, the
department as a whole. I know that we're at an increasingly technologically
driven society and the pandemic really put at the forefront how we can still
remain relevant to our community and deliver essential services. So I'm just
curious what your vision is for the department and how you're going to be using
very interesting technologies like artificial intelligence to enhance user experience
but also potentially to improve County employee workflow.
MR. EWBANK: Absolutely. As stated to Council Member Evans, you know,
I'm going through this assessment and I'm in the early stages. So what I have
done is I've decided on a 30-60-90 day plan. The first 30 days, finding out the
critical issues that we face as County and the departments, individual
departments. Beyond that, then we start to put into place the ideas. We look at
different options, we speak with vendors about different options that we can put
into play that would benefit not only the working force here in the County but
also the people of the County.
So the plan, it's vast. I've alreadyI have a general framework of the way I want
to go with this. There are updates needed. There are opportunities for greatness
here. We won't call them problems, we'll call them opportunities for greatness,
and I know my team and I can at least get started on this but with the funding
that's been provided for additional staff, this is going to play a critical role, the
staff and the equipment that has the funding backing.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That's great to hear. I mean we did make a very sizable
investment in the Department of Information Technology this fiscal cycle by
increasing staff as well as the hardware infrastructure. I know a couple of budget
cycles ago, I worked with former Director Uehara to also increase some funding
because it just seemed things were broken and there were so many needs within
the County, but you have to invest in that hardware and software. So it's good to
hear you say that there is going to be a plan. I'm curious if you would be able to
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come to Council and share with us, you said, 30-60-90 days,just elements of this
plan. We would like to be able to see return on investment of, you know,
taxpayer dollars.
MR. EWBANK: And that's completely fair. That's completely fair. You know,
as we hit that July 1st kind of the gate, and now we can break open and place those
orders. I have staffing and orders for equipment, necessary equipment, necessary
staffing already in the pipeline. It's developed as of this morning; we've already
approved the four IT Techs so that we can hit the ground running on July 1st and
really get things brought up to a stable environment. The same thing with the
storage capacities. We've talked a little about email and storage capacities on our
servers. Those are in the pipeline. They're ready to go.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: You will be our new best friend if you are able to increase
the capacity and storage of our emails. I think every day we get multiple
messages that say, "Your mailbox is almost full." And that's problematic because
we're not able to receive emails from constituents or send responses, so we are
eager to see our inboxes increase, not just on the Council but I think County wide.
MR. EWBANK: And although this isn't an isolated incident where we're talking
about emails, there are additional systems that do require this type of upgrade. So
know that I appreciate that friendship and that cooperation from you all because
we're about to get to work.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: The only one that bites is Council Member Galimba.
Council Chair, you started it. Just a couple more questions. Our website, it is not
the most user friendly on the back end to navigate and update. Are you able to
share with us what our contractual agreement is with the vendor? Are we taking a
look at perhaps moving to another vendor? I mean we all need to have a solid
website presence and making sure that it is easy to use and navigate on the back
end so that we can quickly provide updates to constituents is really important to
us, so just wondering about what that looks like.
MR. EWBANK: Great question. I too was a user of Granicus and what they had
to offer, so I understand the challenges. But what I have to do initially is find out
the absolute critical where business will stop. The website is currently running.
It's very ingrained as well. It's not just presenting a website, there's a lot of
backend cooperation between systems that Granicus is doing. As far as the
vendor relationship, I need to review that. I don't have those details with me.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, no worries.
MR. EWBANK: But it will—and if this needs to become more of a priorI want
to focus on the critical needs first in that next 30 days, then I can look at some of
these additional items that may be up for review.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: We would love for you to explore that a bit more. I know
that when Council Member Kimball and I started working on the transient
accommodations rental bill, it was easier to just set up a Squarespace website
rather than create a page over Granicus because we were having to work with
staff to establish a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), and we can't get the URL
that we want. And so then folks are wondering what's the legitimacy of this
website because it's not hawaiicounty.gov. So there's so many considerations,
but we want to be able to use the tools that we have but the tools have got to work
for us.
MR. EWBANK: Right. Understood.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: The last thing that I just wanted to ask about was our
County's app. I think it's called Kahea or Kakou. I know that Cyrus Johnasen
works very closely with the AIO group to be able to receive that donation and so
just wondering about your thoughts for that and seeing how we might be able to
better utilize it. At Council we had talked about the increase in what Everbridge
was going to be charging our County to send out those important emergency
updates and notifications. I think something around the range of like 46,000 a
year and now our bill was going to be $46,000 a month. Just wondering about
opportunities to leverage an existing resource and use it as the, you know,
centralized coordination and information hub for the County on mobile devices.
MR. EWBANK: If you don't mind, give me another week so that I can get some
background on it.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I'll give you two.
MR. EWBANK: Oh,perfect. That's very kind. Thank you.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay.
MR. EWBANK: I can't comment on that right now, as I don't have visibility into
that portion just yet, but I will.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for looking into it, I appreciate it. And you
know, I'm going to be supporting your nomination. I'm excited about your
leadership and your approach in being very methodical working with staff,
developing a plan, identifying goals and measurable outcomes. So look forward
to working with you. Chair, I yield.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Council Member
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Thank you for being here
today.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MR. EWBANK: Thank you.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So you're Acting Director or are you the
Director?
MR. EWBANK: I have been appointed Director,but I believe this is the
confirmation.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is. How does your—was your—in
your Planning Department role, who was your boss?
MR. EWBANK: It was Grant Nagata first.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay.
MR. EWBANK: And then he took the role over at Prosecuting Attorney.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay.
MR. EWBANK: And so then it became Dawn Johnston who was my
immediate—as she was TAing (Temporary Assignment) to that role.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay.
MR. EWBANK: And then worked very closely with the management staff over
there as well as the Deputy and Director Kern.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay because he's behind you back there,
and I was actually going to ask him to come up and just speak on your behalf. If
you would, Mr. Kern. I'm guessing either he's salty that he's losing you or he's
going to have nice words or maybe both.
MR. EWBANK: Well, I will tell you that when he announced it at the Planning
Department meeting, there was applause and I wasn't sure how to take that.
(Note: At this time, Planning Director Zendo Kern came forward to
address the members of the Council.)
MR. KERN: Good morning, Zendo Kern, Planning Director. Yeah, it sucks for
us that we're losing Rob. He's been a great team member; he's been really great
for the department. We're happy for the County, I think he's going to do a really
good job in his new role if confirmed as the IT Director. Having him come into
the department with EPIC (Electronic Processing and Information Center) and
you know, EPIC was kind of already going. He was able to really come in there
and understand the EPIC system, understand other elements of the department and
from there, really our IT side really smoothed out and we were having a great
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
experience as well as could have with this system that we had. So I have nothing
but support and positive things to say about Rob, and again, I think he'll do a
really good j ob. It sucks for our department that we're losing him, hopefully we
find somebody that's really good, but I think it's a positive for the County.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Thank you for that. That helps
me. Thank you. Touching on what was brought up before, I think we have
800 computers that have been budgeted this year, are you prepared to move on
that come July I"?
MR. EWBANK: Yes, we are.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Not to be redundant, but I don't even
use the Wi-Fi that's available because it doesn't-basically it just goes like this
(draws circle with his finger). Yeah, nothing happens and I'm okay with that but
like Ms. Evans said, the Macs can't plug into this (picks up ethernet cable).
MR. EWBANK: Correct.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So their Wi-Fi kind of compatible but our
Wi-Fi is hard. That's more us, yeah? And I know you understand that so looking
forward to seeing what you do with that.
I did have a meeting with our broadband hui folks here in the County, are you
aware of that group?
MR. EWBANK: Yes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay.
MR. EWBANK: It's the broadband initiative that—?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes.
MR. EWBANK: Okay, yes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mr. Riley Saito and I think Shola who is
awesome. One of the things that came up in that discussion was some of our
facilities needing Wi-Fi and some of the facilities that we have that you would
think would be Wi-Fi'd, gyms, parks buildings, things like that actually never had
a connection and don't. So they're compiling a list. Are you aware of this and
moving on this? Is it something that is new to you?
MR. EWBANK: It's a new concept to me in the fact that I didn't know about it
when I was in the Planning Department. And when I had an introductory
experience with our R&D (Research and Development) Department and was
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
informed of it and it's a fantastic idea. It's already in the motion. It's alreadyI
signed off just a couple of days ago on some new instal lations—approval for new
installations that are going in. I think it was a list of seven right now. So we've
got three or four done, seven are coming shortly and there are several others
beyond that as well. And I have requested, too, a full list from my staff.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. Yeah, they had a fairly complete
list that seemed very island-wide fair, which I liked, hitting facilities not only in
my district but in all the other districts as well. But what I really like is we're
creating these Wi-Fi hotspots for our residents to use as well as our employees,
but using funding to kind of provide these department personnel hotspots so they
can do their work. But I'm hoping that also leads to, or maybe it does and maybe
I just misunderstood, but leading to more our residents being able to use Wi-Fi
when they're at the gym, when they're at a park, when their kids are at practice,
whatever it might be. That's beautiful. That really does complete what
government's role is in eyes.
MR. EWBANK: Agreed.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I like to hear that, thank you. I do
have some friends in the industry, and I know they have a hard time finding
personnel. Are you seeing that same challenge in finding staff for your
department?
MR. EWBANK: One of the challenges that I've identified in discussions, and it's
nationwide, it's not just here in Hawaii, it's nationwide. When you have a
shortage like that, what you have to do is, okay, here is the problem, well, let's
find the solution. What I've identified is to create, and I wanted to share this with
you, I'm glad you asked about it. What I want to do is create an internship
program so what Ione of the staff positions that you all had approved for the
July 1st funding is going to be an Education and Training Coordinator who will
also work with internships with local high schools, the community college, UH
(University of Hawaii) Hilo, and so that person is dedicated, not only to the—we
obviously we want to start in the middle. We want to start and get our own house
in order and set up processes and procedures and get that established.
But with this internship program, we can start developing our own pool, our own
hiring pool, and if they come in and internship for a year, now they have the
qualifications to move into an IT Tech role, if they're coming out of high school
or out of a junior or community college. They can step right into that role
because now they have experience. Without it, it's a catch 22. If they have no
professional experience, well then, they can't apply for the job. So why don't we
create that—let's create that, you know, it's a grassroots pool here in the
community and it provides opportunity for young people, whoever wants to be
involved.
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So that is a part of the plan and not only that, I always tell staff to plan for
succession. You must plan for your successor; get it right this time; document it
all; let's bring in the young folks. Let's bring in whoever that is going to take
your place so that they have a launchpad to go from where they can learn from
your mistakes. They can learn—and then bring their new ideas as well. So that
internship program is very important to me. I want to create our own pool.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I would guess, and I really like to hear that
because our young people need jobs, but they also need kind of direction as well.
I'm watching my 18-year-old as an example, and I like to hear that you're
working on internships and I'm just going to say that I'm sure that the UH and
HCC and Kona campuses would be more than willing to work with you on that
and collaborate. That's an awesome collaboration.
MR. EWBANK: Fantastic. Just to add onto that, I've also reached out—one of
the commanders over at the National Guard is a close friend of mine. We worked
together out on the Marshall Islands, and I have spoken with him about this plan
too, and he is willing to—and the folks that are coming into his group feed into
this system as well.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Beautiful. Well, from what you've
said today, I'll be supporting your nomination. I look forward to seeing what you
do with our systems and getting things up and moving. We're in 2023, we've got
to be thinking 2040, so look forward to seeing what you do. Thank you, sir.
MR. EWBANK: Thank you very much.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And then thank you as well to the
Administration for a good pick, and I'm sorry, Mr. Kern. I yield, Chair.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Council
Member Galimba.
MS. GALIMBA: Thank you, Mr. Ewbank, for stepping up and being willing to
do this important job. And I really like your foundation first approach, you know,
getting the bones is really important because if you don't have that right, then
nothing else is going to really work. You can do patches and stuff, but it may
seem, in some sense, it's superficial.
And it's following up on Council Member Kierkiewicz' discussion of the County
website, but a little bit more specifically, it's that the usability of the website
specifically for the public to be involved in the political process and, you know,
be able to get to the documents that they need to participate in the political
process here in the Council. It's really difficult. I mean it's difficult for me,
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much less for someone who's just interested in, you know, occasionally in a bill.
If you're, you know, that's what you do for some reason, then you figure it out
but for someone just, you know, occasionally coming in, it's really difficult.
I had a member of the public bring this up to me and they brought up as a model
that works much better, the State government, the Legislature's website. It's
relatively easy, you know, to go in there, find a bill, find how to provide
testimony, so that might be one model. It might not be a perfect model, maybe
another state has an even better. So yeah, I would really like that to be a priority
once you get, you know, your foundation set so that the public can more easily
participate here and give feedback to our Council.
MR. EWBANK: We can do this. We can do this if youI would encourage
everybody, if you see a better way, let's talk it thorough. Let's see how it all
apply to us, so I'm not opposed to that at all.
MS. GALIMBA: Great. Yes, and I guess we were just talking about Granicus
and my personal sort of bugbear I think is Laserfiche. It's wow. It's very solid. I
think it's super solid, but it just looks like something from like the late 70s or
something when you're, you know, working with it. So perhaps we could figure
out how to make that a little bit more user friendly as well, and I think those two
are related. Thank you very much and I'll be supporting you as well.
MR. EWBANK: Thank you very much.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Council Member
Kagiwada.
MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Good to have you here and thank you for
stepping up and yeah, echo some of my colleagues' sentiments there. Also, very
happy to kind of put in a second for making sure that the public can really access
the information that they need, so thank you with that.
Love your idea about the internships, love that. And in addition, looking at
supporting your staff just wondering do you have a priority? I know that
they're—where they're actually physically located is not an ideal situation and
it's also very far away from operations. So I'm just wondering is that a priority to
try to move your team a little closer to operations, and maybe that'sI don't
know if Finance Director over there, Director Sako has any feeling on this, too,
but, you know, that's an issue. I know I've had to go out there. I don't remember
what for but at one point, I had to go out there and I was like, "Whoa, this is
where you are?" So yeah, could you say a bit about that?
MR. EWBANK: Council Member, I think you're setting me up for success
because we have our first Help Desk individual moving into R&D today.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MS. KAGIWADA: Oh good.
MR. EWBANK: The second one will be here probably next week. We have also
arranged over in the Aupuni Center to have at least two staff, Help Desk staff,
right there in that. So we are moving out of the Schultz Siding building and into
the mix.
MS. KAGIWADA: Oh, good. Great. That's terrific news, thank you so much. I
really think that will also be a more pleasant work environment for your staff so
maybe that helps if you're recruiting.
MR. EWBANK: I agree, and frankly from a safety standpoint, I feel it's a much
better option because if you have to drive in your car 13 times a day, back and
forth, you're creating a safety problem for your staff, and I don't want that.
Safety first.
MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah, okay, very good point. I'll be supporting your
nomination. Thank you, I yield.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Anyone else?
Council Member Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Ewbank, for being here. Like my
colleagues, absolutely in support of your nomination and really looking forward
to you circling back around on some of the items that my colleagues have touched
upon. And specifically, when you do circle back around, I really wanted to touch
on that work that's coming out of R&D with what we know as our B-Program,
it's the broadband deployment. There's a lot of funding there which is intended
to reach the unserved and underserved, and I would love to see how we can blend
that funding along with the work that we need through this infrastructure, right,
the backbone of what's needed now. And so if you could add that to your list,
30-60-90-120 days, if we could add that in, I would love to see that.
And echoing my colleagues, you know, the website, it's clunky. It really is
clunky, especially for our first-time user. But yeah, in support of your
nomination. Thank you for being here and you know, Ms. Kierkiewicz touched
upon it. You know, you will be our favorite Cabinet member and I'm just going
to share, we had a favorite and he left, it was John Andoh. So we're looking for
someone to fill really big shoes when it comes to being our favorite around here.
MR. EWBANK: As far as leaving, I'm sorry, you're stuck with me. I'm retired,
so here I am.
MS. LEE LOY: All right. Thank you. Thank you for being here. I yield.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member
Inaba.
MR. INABA: Thank you. Good morning.
MR. EWBANK: Good morning.
MR. INABA: Just two questions. In your role as the Administrator at the army
field the systems and technology that you oversaw there, how was it in
comparison to what we have here at the County?
MR. EWBANK: You're talking at the Kwajalein Atoll work?
MR. INABA: Yes.
MR. EWBANK: Okay. This was at the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile test site.
So I had shared with some of the Council Members earlier that, you know, this is
not rocket science because I used to work in rocket science. So as far as from a
geographical standpoint, we actually set up global networks. We were working
primarily from the Marshall Islands all the way to Huntsville, Alabama, and that
was a part of my responsibility, was to manage those and the data that travelled
across that.
There were also, not just one network but there were multiple networks at
different security levels and requirements. So this is actually kind of small in
comparison to what I was working on.
MR. INABA: Okay and then in your time as the Administrator, how many people
were you overseeing on a day-to-day basis?
MR. EWBANK: I had 22 to 23 employees.
MR. INABA: Those are the only questions I have for you,just questions from the
Charter. So thank you, look forward to supporting you.
CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Villegas and then I'll go to you, Council
Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MS. VILLEGAS: Sure,just quickly, I just wanted to thank you for being here
yesterday, even before your official nomination and bringing before us. You were
here yesterday and the earnestness in your eyes and your expressions, you know,
says a lot. So thank you for your willingness to step into this role that has so
much opportunity for improvement, but your stories of all the things that you have
already done give me great confidence that you are fully equipped and ready to
bring us into the 21" century as it relates to technology and information. And so
thank you for your willingness to serve. These roles are often underappreciated
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
and aren't necessarily compensated for what you might be able to get in the
private sector. So thank you for your willingness to participate and serve our
community and our County in this role. I appreciate you. I yield.
MR. EWBANK: Thank you very much.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Council Member
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you very much, Chair. Just a follow-
up. You were talking about Marshall Islands and what was it?
MR. EWBANK: Kwajalein Atoll.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Kwajalein?
MR. EWBANK: Yes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Did you ever work with a kind of intense,
short, Hawaiian guy name Roger Kaneali`i in your time there?
MR. EWBANK: No. No, I did not. I was there fromI was there for 10 years
so 2011 to 2021.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's my uncle.
MR. EWBANK: Oh, okay. Very good.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But I mean every time II'm sorry, give
me a little latitude, sorry. Every time I go to his house, he has these never-ending
stories of the islands and his time there. He's a mechanic, kind of a general,just
repaired everything from generators to vehicles. And I hear stories about sharks
and this and that all the people he worked with, but I mean it's obvious it was the
highlight in his life but he was there for a while.
MR. EWBANK: Fantastic. I'd love to speak with him, actually.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. You might have crossed paths
somewhere along the line.
MR. EWBANK: Most likely.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. And then just following up on
something that was said before. Sir, you're telling me right now that you're
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
moving staff into each building in more of an efficiency move and that there has
never been IT staff in these buildings, kind of sitting, waiting, ready to go for
issues that arise?
MR. EWBANK: Based on my experience and discussions I had, there were
people, at one point in time over in the Aupuni Center. However, I don't know
what the directive was at the time, and this was quite a while ago, maybe 10 years
or more ago. And then at some point in time, they moved to the Schultz Siding.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: All staff?
MR. EWBANK: Not all staff.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Not all, but I mean
MR. EWBANK: The hands-on staff did, yes. So I felt that it was very important
to get them back in to where the work was being done.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, I mean we have hundreds of people in
each one of these major centers so to have one individual or two maybe, whatever
is needed, they're ready for a call or whatever is needing to happen instead of
waiting for someone to come from Schultz to their destination, that is actually
brilliant. So thank you, I didn't know that.
MR. EWBANK: Right. Maybe 80 percent of the calls can be handled via remote
or, you know, remotely, but there is just that, based on my experience, and my
experience is 29 years working in the IT industry, so sometimes you just have to
go hands on and get it done.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Smart. Thank you. I yield, Chair.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone
else? All right, thank you to all of my colleagues for the discussion and bringing
up all the great questions. Thank you also for being here. I'm also going to lend
my voice to the concerns about our public outreach and the website and the Kahea
App. I would say that one of the things that I hear most from constituents is
concerns about the level of notification that comes during emergency events, and
we've had a couple. The last time I looked at the Civil Defense website, and
fortunately you'll have a great colleague to work with over there, there's still
some dead links that send people off to the wrong places when they're trying to
get information about a current hazard. So want to make sure that is top of mind
for you, maybe within the first 30 days, sort of assessment period is that
emergency notification component. I would say that it is one of the main
functions that we as government do serve with the community, is that source of
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
real information about events. And in the absence of good access to our
information,people get it from other sources and that's where things get kind of
out of control. So want to make sure that's a priority.
Along that line, I would lend my support to further development of the ArcGIS
Enterprise platform for our web services. Looking at a couple of things that they
have now available, I think it provides a really flexible way and even a way that
us up here could interact with our websites and make updates in a quick way
without having to know how to code and all of that stuff. They have really nice,
packaged components that I think even we could manage. So wanted to lend
put that out there.
And then just finally I'll ask, is it in the position description of the DIT Director
that you guys have to wear a suit and tie? I'm just teasing. It's only the DIT
Director that wear suit and ties so I figured it must be in the position description.
MR. EWBANK: I don't wear it every day.
CHR. KIMBALL: Well Scott did.
MR. EWBANK: I know. I know. That guy has class.
CHR. KIMBALL: He does. Absolutely. Happy to support your nomination
today and look forward to working with you. With that, without any further
comments, we'll go ahead and take the vote. All those in favor of closing file on
Communication 307 and approving the appointment of Robert Ewbank as the DIT
Director, please say "aye."
Vote on Comm. 307: The motion to confirm the appointment of Mr. Robert
(Approved) Ewbank as Information Technology Director was carried
by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Vote on Comm. 307: The motion to confirm the appointment of Mr. Robert
(Approved) Ewbank as the Department of Information Technology
Director was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball–9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: The appointment of Robert Ewbank as DIT Director has been
confirmed. Congratulations.
MR. EWBANK: Thank you very much. Thanks for your time today and your
consideration.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. All right, we have a—we're going to take a
couple of things out of order due to time constraints. I'd now like to move,
Mr. Clerk, to Communication, I'm sorry, Report 49, Communication 277 please.
Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Council Members, the
of Business: following items were taken out of order:
GOEAC-49 NOMINATION OF JAMES MCCULLY TO THE BANYAN DRIVE HAWAII
(Comm. 277): REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Governmental Operations and
External Affairs Committee Report No. 49. Seconded by
Mr. Inaba
(Note: At this time, Executive Assistant to the Mayor Pomaika`i
Bartolome and nominee James McCully came forward to address the
members of the Council.)
Vote on GOEAC-49: The motion to adopt Governmental Operations and
(Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 49 was carried by
the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and
Chair Kimball –8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder– 1.
Excused: None.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
CHR. KIMBALL: All right. If we can, let's go to Communication 273,
Report 45.
GOEAC-45 NOMINATION OF DAMON NAGATA TO THE YOUTH COMMISSION
(Comm. 273):
Requires Council
Confirmation by: June 10, 2023 (Section 13-4(k),
Hawaii County Charter)
CHR. KIMBALL: Before I take that motion, procedurally, it has been
determined by the Clerk and Corporation Counsel that the Youth Commission
appointments do not require a confirmation. So rather than the nomination to
confirm the appointment, it's just a motion to close file.
Vote on GOEAC-45: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 273. Seconded
Filed by Ms. Kierkiewicz and carried by the following voice
vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and
Chair Kimball —8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1.
Excused: None.
Recess: At 11:05 a.m., the Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 11:12 a.m.
CHR. KIMBALL: Mr. Clerk, if we can go to the top of the list of Reports,please.
GOEAC-44 NOMINATION OF JUSTIN ACKERMAN TO THE GAME MANAGEMENT
(Comm. 272): ADVISORY COMMISSION
Requires Council
Confirmation by: June 10, 2023 (Section 13-4(k),
Hawaii County Charter)
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Vote on GOEAC-44: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Governmental Operations and
(Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 44. Seconded by
Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and
Chair Kimball—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1.
Excused: None.
GOEAC-46 NOMINATION OF SCOTT TREFETHEN TO THE BOARD OF APPEALS
(Comm. 274):
Requires Council
Confirmation by: June 10, 2023 (Section 13-4(k),
Hawaii County Charter)
Vote on GOEAC-46: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Governmental Operations and
(Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 46. Seconded by
Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and
Chair Kimball—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1.
Excused: None.
GOEAC-47 NOMINATION OF LISA MCNAMARRA TO THE BOARD OF APPEALS
(Comm. 275):
Requires Council
Confirmation by: June 11, 2023 (Section 13-4(k),
Hawaii County Charter)
Vote on GOEAC-47: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Governmental Operations and
(Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 47. Seconded by
Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and
Chair Kimball—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1.
Excused: None.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
GOEAC-48 NOMINATION OF CATHY LEWIS TO THE BOARD OF APPEALS
(Comm. 276):
Requires Council
Confirmation by: June 11, 2023 (Section 13-4(k),
Hawaii County Charter)
Vote on GOEAC-48: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Governmental Operations and
(Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 48. Seconded by
Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and
Chair Kimball—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1.
Excused: None.
GOEAC-50 NOMINATION OF DENNIS RIORDAN TO THE SALARY COMMISSION
(Comm. 299):
Requires Council
Confirmation by: June 16, 2023 (Section 13-4(k),
Hawaii County Charter)
Vote on GOEAC-50: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Governmental Operations and
(Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 50. Seconded by
Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and
Chair Kimball—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: If we can now go to Resolution 179,please.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Res. 179-23: AUTHORIZES THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE TO NEGOTIATE A SIXTY-
FIVE YEAR LEASE WITH THE HOUSING AND LAND ENTERPRISE OF
HAWAII COUNTY, DBA: HALE O HAWAII FOR THE PURPOSES OF
DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF A SINGLE-FAMILY HOME ON
TAX MAP KEY 2-4-024:157 FOR A PILOT COMMUNITY LAND TRUST
PROGRAM AT A SET LEASE AMOUNT OF $10.00 PER YEAR
Provides a partnership to finance, construct, and sell an affordable home on state
lands, subject to affordability restrictions, to an eligible purchaser for affordable
housing and shelter purposes.
Reference: Comm. 294
Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R)
Approve: LAAC-19
Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to adopt Res. 179-23 and Legislative
Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 19.
Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Inaba.
MR. INABA: Thank you. We forwarded this to Council out of Committee
although we had some questions, and we have our Deputy Corp Counsel, Sylvia
Wan, our Deputy Housing Administrator, Harry Yada, and then we have our
representatives from Hale O Hawaii here today. So good morning and I think
based on what II think you know the questions that the Committee had, so if
you could just explaina little overview and then the Council can then take up
questions.
(Note: At this time, Board Chair of Hale O Hawaii Pete Hoffmann and
Chief Executive Officer of Hale O Hawaii Loretta Wickenden came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. HOFFMANN: Thank you, Council Member Inaba and thank you all for
allowing us to present this effort and to support the resolution that's before us. I'd
like to introduce
MR. INABA: Oh perfect, thank you, I was going to ask you to
MR. HOFFMANN: I'd like to introduce Ms. Loretta Wickenden who was the
CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of our organization and I'm Pete Hoffmann, I'm
the Board Chair at the moment. Land trust, as has been indicated already, is not a
new concept. It's been around for a number of years, almost 50 years in fact. It's
something, however, that the County of Hawaii has not embraced dramatically
over the past couple of years. County of Maui has done so and to be—without
going through some of the details, because of my experience, if you will, or
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
background with the Housing Administration when I was on the Council a
number of years ago, it seemed to me that this was an effort that needed to be, at
least established within the County as another tool to address this.
Believe me, Council Members, land trust is not going to solve the affordable
housing problem, but it is an effort and it's another way of trying to address what
is a critical issue for us. And I'm sorry to say that we didn't do more when I had
an opportunity to do so on the Council to move this forward. Maui was very
successful in doing this. They've had a land trust since 2005.
In 2017, on my own initiative, if you will, I finally decided to write up the
documentation, the Form 1045 that needed—it was needed to establish a
nonprofit entity. I did so. I copied Maui's documents almost verbatim, making a
couple of changes along the way, and even cited their Employer Identification
Number, the EIN that was given to them by the federal government. And I did
that solely to show the federal government that we're not trying to reinvent the
wheel. We're only trying to replicate something that was successful on Maui and
try to establish it here.
So that's our background if you will, as far as the land trust concept, and Loretta
and I are here today to respond to any questions that you have regarding the land
trust concept in general and specifically, this particular resolution that's before us.
MR. INABA: Thank you. There were questions at our committee hearing
regarding the level of affordability because it is a single-family dwelling that
would be created, and I believe there was a previous structure there that was torn
down. So if you could explain to the Council the approach and the process for
selecting the AMI (Area Median Income)percentage, who would ultimately be
able to live there, under what type of agreement, and just give us kind of more
details as to this specific property and structure.
MR. HOFFMANN: I'm going to turn it over to our CEO.
MS. WICKENDEN: Thank you, Pete, and good morning, everybody. Thank you
very much for your time. So in order to qualify for one of our affordable homes
within the land trust, we make it publicly known that there is a house that would
be available, in this case, at University Heights. We have quite a strict list of
criteria. First of all, the homeowner, the potential home buyer would need to be a
resident of Hawaii County. They would need to show to us that they're within
the appropriate levels of AMI in order to qualify. Now, we'll point out that our
bylaws currently say that our homeowners would be within 60 and 100 percent of
AMI. However, we are to recognize that we need to and will revisit that to bring
us into line with—alongside Maui County, which is up to 140 percent of AMI.
So once then the potential homeowners have got through that process, then we
will want to make sure that the home buyer will be able to get a mortgage or be
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
able to that we're not putting them into further financial difficulty by taking on
becoming a homeowner. And so we work with organizations who will help find
the appropriate lender.
Then when the homeowner has been selected, maybe I'll take a step back and talk
about one of our recent sales which was in Hawaiian Paradise Park(HPP). We
obtained a grant and with that and some other donations, we were able to build the
home. What we do within the land trust is that we will have the whole property
appraised. We will then subtract from that the appraised value which is an
independent appraisal. We will then subtract the value of the land and then that
brings the house on top of the land down to a more affordable level. So using the
HPP home as an example, it was valued at 345 or 375,000 (dollars) including the
land, but we sold that to our qualified buyer for 190,000 (dollars). So it's way, as
you can see,just an over 50 percent under the market value.
And then the homeowner then is given a deed and he then, he or the family then
has in our case within the land trust, it's a 99-year inheritable lease. With this
pilot project, we understand that it would be a 65-year lease. They then own all
the improvements on top of the land, we then, within Hale Hawaii, we retain
ownership of the land so that we can then ensure that we will remain affordable in
perpetuity.
The way that we do that, and if I'm going into too much detail let me know and
I'll stop. But the way that we do that is we think of it as we reward longevity
within the house, within the home. We don't want to sell the home at an
affordable price and then have that person go sell it to somebody else within a few
years. So we have a sliding scale. The longer that the family remains in the
home, maybe it's their forever home, the more that they will then profit if and
when the house is sold. We have a pre-agreed resale formula which is carefully
explained to the home buyer. They will know that when the house is sold, we will
look at the proceeds. They will get a pre-agreed percentage of those proceeds and
the remaining proceeds will then come back to Hale Hawaii and those funds are
then used to build the next home.
MR. HOFFMANN: I might add just as a follow on to what Loretta was
indicating, we have here, and I'll make sure that each one of the Council
Members have one, a short brochure that explains the resale formula as well as
selection criteria that we use to find a potential home buyer (see Comm. 294.2).
MR. INABA: Thank you. In coming up with the value, you said you also include
the value of the land in the sale price.
MS. WICKENDEN: We would look at—we'll have the house appraised, sorry,
the property appraised. We would then subtract the value of the land from the
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
sales price. That's how we're able to bring it down to a more affordable level.
So the value of the HPP home, for example, was looking at the land, I think it was
about 75 something in that region, but then we discounted even further.
MR. HOFFMANN: I may add also this is the land trust model that we're using
and have established at the moment, successfully, with the sale of the property we
indicated. The resolution, however, is slightly different, as you know, because we
are not owning the land. This is County or State land, and it is a different concept
or a twist if you will, to the current land trust effort.
Go back also, the initial land trust concept was that a nonprofit organization
would take an existing home that's already on the property but that has fallen into
disrepair or is in forfeiture or whatever difficulty,purchase the property and the
land, put it back on the market, making sure that the zoning is there and has been
approved, doing whatever needs to be done as far as renovations are concerned.
But the land trust retains title to the land and by subtracting again, the land cost
from the mortgage value of the property, that's a big part of the affordability that
we are talking about.
In this instance, for the resolution that's before us, the idea is that the County and
State retains title to the land and subleases it us. We sublease the property to the
potential homeowner, and we manage the property as a nonprofit entity for the
balance of the term that the homeowner is there.
MR. INABA: Thank you, and just one more question for myself right now.
When you're coming up with—well, in previous units you've done like this, you
have construction costs to set up this house, then you also have you go and get it
appraised you're saying, right? How have those values compared with one
another?
MR. HOFFMANN: Again, to use the example, Council Member Inaba, of the
Hawaiian Paradise Park property, we obtained a grant for $195,000 from the
Nareit Foundation in Honolulu. I think most of you are familiar with that. At the
beginning of this process, because this was our first property and we wanted to
make sure that we were getting the idea and concept across, we established a
fixed price of 190,000 (dollars) before we even began construction. That was the
advertisement we put out. We had radio ads indicating that this was what we
were going to do.
Yes, of course we got stuck, if you will, in the idea of rising construction costs
due to COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) and all the other things that happened.
The cost to us was approximately $225,000. Nevertheless—and we understood
that. Nevertheless, when the value of the property was appraised, the value for
mortgage purposes and the land and the improvements on it, it came out to close
to $345,000 if I'm not mistaken. Please forgive me if I'm off a thousand or two.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
So the individual is actually getting a $340,000 property for $190,000. I can't
guarantee we'll have that all the time. It obviously depends on how much we can
get as far as resourcing is concerned. And don't forget in the Maui example, it
was the County Council that was providing the resources for the construction cost
or the purchased property. They went back 15 years ago where our Council
looked at two percent from the property tax income to be used for open space and
conservation. Maui in their efforts, looked at two percent to be provided for
affordable housing. Now, believe me, I was a very strong advocate for the two
percent for open space conservation, that isn't the argument. But as far as our
County is concerned, those priorities perhaps have changed a little bit and
affordable housing, I submit, would be a much bigger priority today.
Fortunately, you as the County Council have provided a fund that allows us to
apply for, which we're doing currently, to access some of the $9 million I think
that's available, and that's for an organization like ours. We're hoping to show
you that we can access those funds, put a home on the existing property that the
County is going to sublease to us, and basically, get a revolving fund established
with the amount of money that's available to us.
Now, the one issue I think, unlike other construction companies, we're looking at
this one home at a time. Harry Yada was kind enough some months ago to
show—and we drove around the Hilo area to indicate individual lots in existing
communities that are open, and they've been vacant for years, nothing has been
done with them. Those are the types of properties, I think, for the future of
affordable housing here in the County that should be used and should be exploited
so that we could put a home on it, or somebody can. It doesn't have to be us.
This is a pilot project, ladies and gentlemen, and I think it provides us, at least the
basis to examine exactly how this can operate for the benefit of all, not just right
now or in the short term, but obviously 20, 30, 40 years in the future.
MR. INABA: So with that, I know you folks pre-advertised the sale price last
time. This time, you're going to put the sale price based on the assessment, taking
off the land value. Is that correct?
MR. HOFFMANN: Yes, but please remember, this will be a board decision, and
in every instance, our board decision. Don't forget, if we get it to be so high,
we're not going to be able to retain the idea of a potential homeowner within the
60 to 100 percent or a 120 percent of AMI. We won't be able to get a mortgage
right now. We have to be clear that in order to attract potential homeowners, that
there is some method, at least, that affordability is established and that has to be
something that we look at in the future.
Regardless, I know one of the questions was supposing we sell the property and
we make money on it, all the things that we do have to be plowed back into the
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
land trust by law. We can't use it in any way, shape, or form. Weeverything, if
you will, goes back to the land trust and into the nonprofit so that we can purchase
another property or begin construction on another lot.
MR. INABA: So for this unit, based on your current bylaws, are we seeing it in
the 60 to 100 percent range? Or are you planning to amend your bylaws prior and
that this unit may be up to 140?
MS. WICKENDEN: Yeah, it's the latter.
MR. INABA: And when you come up with—so that's my question, really, is
when you are constructing this home there's going to be costs, but you're going to
use an assessment to determine what the mortgage and what you're going to sell
this house at. Is that right?
MS. WICKENDEN: Yeah, that's right. Each one, as we move forward, would
be on a case-by-case basis. We know the prices are going to continue to rise and
as time moves forward, we'll continue to look for donors, for investors, to help us
ensure that we have a good pool of funds so that we can keep that price down as
low as we possibly can.
MR. INABA: Okay, so for example, if we get all of the supplies and the
construction materials donated and materials only cost you $100,000 and the
property or this home is assessed at$300,000, where are we selling at?
MS. WICKENDEN: Well, it would be somewhere between that 100 and the 300
but leaning towards the lower end. We would look at how much the house is
valued, we would take into account, as you rightly said, how much its cost is to
build the property. We're not in this to make a profit, we want to make sure that
the community profits by this. So we would bring the house down to the lowest
possible, but also, by the same token, we do realize that we have to be cognizant
of the other people within the community. We don't want to accidentally crash
the market and bring down values of the surrounding homes. So we would be
very careful of that, but it would be between, the example that you gave, at the
100 and the 300, we'd be down as close to the 100 mark as is practicable.
MR. INABA: Okay and then last question for now. You say you are
incentivizing long-term, you know,people staying there in the long-term in this
house. Is there any provision in the sale that forces either the same level of
affordability that they purchased at or something similar to ensure that when they
sell, it remains affordable?
MR. HOFFMANN: I can—first of all, at the time of purchase, the potential
homeowner knows the maximum amount of profit, by percentage, that he could
obtain. So if you will, there's a cap there. This brochure would explain the resell
formula that's used. In basic terms though, the potential homeowner, when he
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
sells—first option under our current lease is to resell to us. We will purchase the
land and the property again, in order to make sure that we can turn it over and
keep it affordable.
MR. INABA: They're not purchasing the land. You wouldn't purchase land
back as you never did sell it to them.
MR. HOFFMANN: No, the improvements on it. The homeowner, the potential
homeowner would get back his downpayment, would get back the amount of
principle already paid, and would get a percentage of the quote profit between the
market value and the sales price that he has. Now by the way,please remember
it's possible that there wouldn't be any profit on the property, 10, 20 years in the
future. It doesn't have to mean that the person is going to make money on the
deal. It's possible home values could crash just as it would be for any
homeowner, but we look ahead, obviously. Few people have lost money in
purchasing property or purchasing a home here in Hawaii, and we look at this as
being 10 to 15 years down the road that they'll be some value that would have
been added to the market value of that particular property.
MR. INABA: Okay so
MR. HOFFMANN: The person would share in a portion of that. In order to
make sure that the next homeowner, the one behind it would be able to, on the
terms at that time, would be able to afford the home as well.
MR. INABA: Okay, so for the resale, say the property—is there anything barring
them from selling, say what they bought at 300 at 600? They could do it, it's just
that they couldn't keep the profit, it would come back to the land trust?
MR. HOFFMANN: No, they can't. The terms of the lease restrict what they can
do and restrict to whom they can sell it to. The property can be deeded to an
immediate family member, so father to son and so forth, but he can't go out and
decide to sell it on the open market. If he wants to sell the property and get rid of
it, he's got to come through us first. We have the option to purchase that property
back. He doesn't have the option to go out and sell it to you or anyone else just to
make money.
MR. INABA: The home?
MR. HOFFMANN: That's correct.
MR. INABA: Okay.
MR. HOFFMANN: I'm sorry, when I say property, I do mean without the land
on it, the improvements.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MR. INABA: Okay, and then that was my last question for you folks, I have a
question for Corporation Counsel now. Deputy Wan, when it comes to that's an
agreement between the trust and whoever ends up in the house. We don't have
that agreement here, we're just authorizing the negotiation, so how to ensure that
those components that are being stated here today are adhered to?
(Note: At this time, Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MS. WAN: Thank you, Council Member Inaba, Deputy Corporation Sylvia Wan,
representing the Office of Housing and Community Development(OHCD). So in
this particular matter in this particular parcel, it is an EO'd property, so it is State
property that has been, by Executive Order, transferred to the County for the
purpose of affordable housing. So all of our leases for any entity, this land trust
or otherwise, would include affordable housing requirements and the County
would follow the model of Chapter 11 to ensure that whoever the potential buyer
is, is not going to exceed our Chapter 11 requirements and whatever the potential
purchase is of this particular home would not exceed the guidelines that are set
out by the Office of Housing and Community Development.
Presently, what is being proposed by this particular land trust would far, how
would I say this? Exceed those purposes in that what they're proposing is
actually dramatically lower than the outlines and guidelines that we are providing
presently. As far as they're not reaching the upper limits.
I understand that they want to extend the availability so that individuals with 120
up to 140 percent AMI given the particular positions, could potentially still apply.
And that's completely fine and also within our Chapter 11 because it iswe have
already recognized as the County that individuals making 120 up to 140 percent
also deserve an affordable home. And it is increasingly getting more expensive,
especially in certain areas to receive an affordable home.
So right now, the Office of Housing and Community Development is very excited
for this particular pilot program because we can reduce one cost for this type of
land trust, which would be the land, and we would have control in the lease, as far
as making sure that whatever agreements they put forward with the sublessee, we
would have purview over. We would have, basically, approval to make sure that
it does comply and comport with our lease to them.
MR. INABA: Perfect, that's what I wanted to hear. Chair, I yield at this time.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. Mr. Hoffmann, can Iactually,
I think it might be helpful to the conversation to just have you pass out those
brochures, if you could just bring them up to Council Member Evans so we have
those to look at. And then Council Member Galimba, you're good? Council
Member Kagiwada.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Thank you for being here and thank you
for this really interesting project. So my question has to do with the eligibility.
You said that people need to be a resident and they need to qualify financially. I
assume you get more than one person that meets that like when you did the HPP
home. You got many.
MS. WICKENDEN: We got over 106, yeah.
MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, so within that, do you have any additional like priority
or extra point criteria that could bring people closer to the top of the list? Or is it,
you know, you just pull a name out of the hat at that point, or what?
MR. HOFFMANN: We have established, as Maui has done, the exact replica of
their selection procedure. So a selection committee formed by the board within
our Board of Directors, and there are some criteria, obviously, residency, Native
Hawaiian, and so forth, that would be part of that.
The effort again, is to make sure that although we're doing homes one at a time or
two at a time, that we build as best we can, as large of a reserve for potential
homeowners. However, let me just tell you some of the difficulties we can face
for an organization like ours would face. When we did the initial advertisement
for the property in HPP, we got 160 responses. We narrowed that down to about
three of those individuals who, at that time, would be able to probably get a
mortgage from a bank. Don't forget, the potential homeowner has to meet the
criteria of the bank, not ours. We're not the banking organization here. So they
go to, in this case Homestreet Bank, which is the one we use and we had three
people who felt—we felt were probably capable of getting a mortgage. Why?
Well because their credit ratings were pretty poor in many instances and in some
other cases, some of the people who applied would not have fit into the two-
bedroom, one-and-a half bath home that we had on the market. They had a much
larger family; they couldn't meet that criterion.
What I'm trying to point out thought is the need is immense. We're nowhere near
trying to tackle the scope of the problem that we have. At best we can do is to try
to dent the issue and hopefully, if this pilot project proves successful and the land
is made available, we can make some significant strides over an extended period
of time. Now, Loretta and I don't have the answers I think for all the issues that
mayor questions that may be faced. We're not sure of that. This is something
that clearly, is a little bit—simply hasn't been tried before and we'll face those as
we move forward. But trust me, the need is there and other organizations like
ours—if our land trust is successful in this effort, I can perceive 10 years down
the road, all the land trust, smaller entities working in perhaps geographical areas,
maybe by district, you'd have one for each district, could be called upon
therefore, to provide this same type of management and construction capability.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. So just to drill down on one thing you said. You
said there were other criteria that helped you kind of narrow down the potential
folks with your Board. You said Native Hawaiian. You said residency. Does the
residency, is it like the more years that you've been here, do you get—?
MR. HOFFMANN: I don't remember that we put that in but to give you another
one, obviously, first time homeowner would be one. We're looking to establish
some equity for a first-time homeowner,people with families. There are the
Board would look at a couple other residents—couple other requirements or
criteria that could be used when we look at—try to balance the number of
potential homeowners.
MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, okay. So I think many of us would like to make sure
that it wouldn't be, you know, somebody who just moved to the island within the
last year is applying for this and getting this over somebody who is, you know,
born and raised or been here for a very long time who's struggling. So that's why
I asked that particular question.
MR. HOFFMANN: As I said, the bylaws do establish that type within the
selection committee, procedures that we voted on and have approved. There are
several of those and I'm happy to try to provide that if that would answer some of
your questions.
MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I don't know, Loretta., did you have a specific—did
you know a specific answer to that question about years? Is that one of the
criteria?
MS. WICKENDEN: It is. The actual number, I can't remember but as you were
saying, we do look for, are you a Hawaii resident? How long have you lived
here? So if we had a couple of people here, they're both Hawaii residents, one
has been here for 15 years, is working really hard to support the community, and
the other has only been looking maybe for a year or two, then if they were the
only two criteria, then it would go to the former.
MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you, that answers my question. Thank you very
much, both of you for this work.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member
Evans.
MS. EVANS: Thank you. This is for Harry Yada and the Deputy, your Deputy,
please. So the land we're looking at is state land that's been executive ordered. If
this pilot goes through, would you, as a County, been asking the State to continue
to executive order state land to us? Because it is a pilot, right? So the pilot is this
is a model so if this works, would the model be—are you anticipating
approaching the governor and identifying state land?
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
(At this time, Assistant Housing Administrator Harry Yada came forward
to address the members of the Council.)
MR. YADA: Well, the state land is already yield to the County, so the County
already controls the property under an executive order and the purpose is for
affordable housing. So the County cannot use it for any other purpose than for
affordable housing. So we control it under an executive order currently. If this
pilot works, we basically have EOs on other properties and we have a current
request in for DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources) for additional
properties, and some of them are actually free-standing, single-family lots that
could be built on today.
So others can be developed into you know, we have a couple of properties that
potentially could be 100 residential lots. So we can perpetuate this pilot model on
other state lands and, you know, the opportunities are tremendous if we can make
this work.
MS. EVANS: So you could provide to the Council now, a list of all of the state
land that's been EO'd to us for affordable housing, and so we could see where it's
located around the whole island?
MR. YADA: Well, we only currently have two significant properties that are
EO'd for affordable housing beyond this property.
MS. EVANS: Okay.
MR. YADA: And they're basically in Hilo. One across the golf course and one
on the corner of Haihai and Ainaola, one being 70 acres and the other one being
about 30 acres. And we're doing planning work now and feasibility work now to
see what we could do in subdividing it and developing single-family lots.
I have a few requests which DLNR is working on to get to the land board so we
can get the EOs on a few single-family lots like up in Waiakea Uka, around
Waiakea Uka Store. They're existing 7,500 square foot residential lots. So we
expect that. Hopefully, DLNR will process that, and we'll be able to work on
those also.
MS. EVANS: When will you, because it is a pilot, when will you be able to
determine if it's a success and you want to move on with this?
MR. YADA: Well, if they can get a buyer and he can qualify for a mortgage and,
you know, we close that sale, to me that means it works.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MS. EVANS: Okay. My big concern was actually the mortgage piece I know
Hawaiian Homelands, which has 65-year, I believe, ground leases. People,
similarly, can pass it on to their heirs or put it on the market and sell whatever, but
the big struggle I've been told over the years is they can't qualify for mortgages.
MR. YADA: Well, that's part of the pilot, right? If we can make this work and
you know, I think that this, Pete can verify the discussions with the lender because
I was concerned, initially, as to whether a leasehold would work because
normally, the land trust owns it and they lease it to the buyer. In this case, it's
like a lease to the land trust and a sublease to the buyer, and the term is not
99 years as atypical, but this would be 65. And the lenders response is as long as
it exceeds the term of the mortgage, they feel they can do it.
MS. EVANS: Oh, okay.
MR. YADA: And it just boils down to the financial qualifications of the buyer
and their ability to service the mortgage.
MS. EVANS: Right, right. Well,just a question on bylaws. If they go and
change bylaws in terms of who qualifies, the way it's written, we have no input to
say what the ranges of AMI, am I correct?
MS. WAN: The Council might not have input, but OHCD would have input
because it would be written into the lease that we provide to the land trust that
they have to abide by the affordability requirements of Chapter 11, which means
they cannot exceed the limits that are set within Chapter 11. So even if they
change their bylaws, they wouldn't be able to contradict what our County has
already established as being an affordable house to an affordable buyer within our
Code.
MS. EVANS: Okay, good. Good to know. All right, thank you. I yield.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member
Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. You know, it's a pilot program, I'm willing
to give it a shot. I mean we're going to learn some lessons all around, right?
Whether the AMI works, whether we need to push it up to 140, I mean we're
going to learn a lot of lessons. I love the model and different and apart from
Hawaiian Homes, you know, this has a trust that's not a state agency, right? It's a
nonprofit, right? Because DHHL is a trust, which is a state agency, but in this
caseI just had two questions and I read through the brochure and I just wanted
to understand because one thing I know with Hawaiian Homelands, we are unable
to qualify for HELOCs, utilizing the equity in our property. But I understand that
to be the case with this situation that the homeowner would be eligible to, and I'm
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
reading it right here, "Loans: you may borrow against your home up to your share
of equity." So that would be kind of similar to a Home Equity Line of Credit.
Am I understanding that correctly?
MR. HOFFMANN: That's correct. As you're reading the brochure, don't forget
there is a percentage of the increase in value on the property. So if at the moment
it's only 25 percent, then say the increase in market value is determined to be
$100,000 but there's only a 25 percent possibility of the share, then the person can
borrow up to that 25 percent, that's all.
MS. LEE LOY: Great, thanks for explaining that. I also had a question in
regards to, and maybe this is for Deputy Wan because we set the limits around the
AMI, what if that applicant—you know, and we're all hopeful, right, that they end
up beyond the 140 percent AMI. Do they continue to be the owner, or do they
fall out of qualification because now they're not in that range?
MS. WAN: Deputy Corporation Counsel, Sylvia Wan. So when it comes to the
buyers of an affordable home and the affordable price, in the affordability at the
time in which they buy the home, it's based on their earnings at the time that they
buy the home. So if over time, their AMI increases, the qualification was when
they bought the home.
MS. LEE LOY: Okay, and then just to expand on that point because I also heard
there was the piece of inheritable lease.
MS. WAN: Yes.
MS. LEE LOY: So in that, which I understand to be successor lessee, right, using
that term. Does that lessee also have to qualify at that time within that AMI, or is
it just transferrable?
MS. WAN: Because it's—our understanding of it is it's transferrable within the
family, so that's fine, but if they're going to sell it, then they would need to
qualify at the appropriate AMI when they sell it.
MS. LEE LOY: So I have it, my daughter can inherit it, she just takes it over or I
can choose to sell it to her?
MS. WAN: Yes, and if you sell it to her
MS. LEE LOY: Then she would have to
MS. WAN: She needs to qualify for the appropriate AMI. Does that make sense?
MR. HOFFMANN: That by the way is that's correct. That is in the ground
lease. The ground lease, by the way, that we have or that we gave to the
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
homeowner of our property in HPP, is a 35-page, I could say difficult read, if you
will. By the way, it's one of our responsibilities to sit down and go over page by
page, paragraph by paragraph, which we did, so that there's no questions with the
potential homeowner. But that is already established in that ground lease and that
lease would be a similar lease that we would provide to the potential homeowner
at time of sale. They have to sign that lease.
MS. LEE LOY: Great Pete. You know, like I said, I'm willing to try and maybe
learn the lessons and stuff we can do with 70 acres or 120 acres and really create a
number of options for homeownership which we know—and what I really love
about this piece is the ability to build wealth. If you can pull out a home equity
line of credit to help send your kids to college or have some cushion to fall back
on, that is huge for generational wealth. So thank you.
MR. HOFFMANN: Particularly for a first-time homeowner.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, I yield.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Anyone else? Council
Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Thank you for being here
today. Were you here last time?
MR. HOFFMANN: No, I'm sorry.
MS. WICKENDEN: We were in Kona.
MR. HOFFMANN: We were both in Kona waiting for the committee. As it
turned out, the committee ran late. You ran up against the public hearing for the
budget. We were dismissed and told to go home, so Loretta and I left. And then
you came back after the public hearing.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I remember, thank you.
MR. HOFFMANN: And began the meeting again. I'm sorry, we did not—we
were there. We waited for about three hours at that time but that's, you know, I
understand the timing and everything else.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Thank you for your patience.
MR. HOFFMANN: I might just point out, Council Member, as I may had
mentioned to the Council Chair before, I've been a veteran of 14-hour Council
meetings before, so this is not unusual.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for appreciating that. And thank
you again for your patience. If you were there waiting, it's frustrating, to say the
least. I have a few questions following on the other Council Members' questions.
We're just, from my own knowledge, I can understand the process and what's
happening, so I mean the County is going to retain ownership of the land in this
case, being an EO'd property from the State. So State owns, County owns at this
point? County owns? So the County owns at this point, the land trust leases the
land for $10 a year.
MS. WICKENDEN: Correct.
MR. HOFFMANN: Or whatever the County establishes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's what we got so far in this agreement.
I'm looking at this resolution, yeah?
MR. HOFFMANN: Yeah.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I'm looking at the public funds piece.
We're using public funds to propel an idea, that's what I'm getting to, baseline.
As far as being a pilot project,pilot projects usually mean there's a project on the
back end that's burning, and we are trying to get to it. This is to prove that this is
going to work. So that's why we're here.
I like that OHCD controls the requirements of this going forward into the future.
One thing I have found is that land is power in Hawaii. So in this case, I like the
idea of the pilot project. I like the equity that could potentially built in the
community. Your resale value in your example they provided in your brochure
align with building equity for those families, given the market increases. It
doesn't always increase but I think if we're looking at a 65-year term, I can't
really see there being a decrease in value over 65 years. I find that almost
impossible.
My only concern here really is, back to that comment that land is the equity,
giving a family land, which may not equal out in this case, but giving the family
the land equates to the long-term equity. I can pass on land to my kids. They can,
I mean they can pass on this inheritance of a lease to their children, we see the
same issues in DHHL lands. They can be passed on along as there's blood
quantum in the future. It doesn't lend itself to long-term generational equity for a
family. There's a potential to build some capital, get the family moving, but the
land piece is missing and I'm going to keep saying that until we, as either a
country or as a state, decide to really put the land back into the people's pockets.
Regardless, I like where we're headed with this. I like this idea. I like that you're
actually providing capital back to a family and giving them the ability to proceed
in life, that's a positive for me.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MR. HOFFMANN: I think one of the advantages, particularly for a first-time
homeowner, is the fact that if we included the cost of the land, in any of our
transactions, that individual or that small family or young family couldn't afford
the mortgage. They could not get a mortgage. I'm positive that the individual
that we sold the property to in HPP, for instance, would not have been able to find
a mortgage for $45,000 I think or $47,000 for the land, if we included it.
So you're correct. Land clearly is power, and I'd love to be able to be and have
you in a position where land could be sort of provided to many of these potential
homeowners, but the reality is, that isn't going to happen. We provide at least
some type of equity by allowing the potential homeowner to get a mortgage on
the improvements on the home itself. It's a first step. It's not supposed to be,
technically, the be all and the end all, but it's at least a step forward whereby
under other circumstances, that person or that family wouldn't be able to
participate at all.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I agree. On a$190,000 loan, it's about a
$1,200 to $1,500 payment right now. That's considering like an eight percent
interest rate plus property taxes, escrow, whatever it's going to be. That's doable,
that's actually a rent. That might be less than rent right now for a home on the
market that a family could move into. That's how I view this.
MS. WICKENDEN: If I may, the family who has moved in has said that their
mortgage is now less than their rent was, so it's a good thing to hear.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's a big,big win. You know, what's in
it for you, then, I would ask? If the County maintains ownership of the land,
you're not getting land rich from this move. You're working as a nonprofit
501(c)(3)to provide housing to the community. You just love community? I
mean how does this there's obviously a portion of this comes to you, in a sense,
there's got to be some kind of win for the 501(c)(3).
MR. HOFFMANN: The win, quite frankly, is that we see something be
established before I expire, that provides a benefit to the community. I don't get
paid in my position. By the way, Loretta could draw a stipend from our land
trust. She doesn't take any such thing. We do have, by the way, one other
individual, a Marketing Officer, who gets paid on an hourly basis for the work
that she provides. I guess the only thing I can say is I've been on this island for
26 going on 27 years. I sat where you've sat right now, and I've seen a number of
different opportunities go by the boards because we couldn't get ourselves
energized and we couldn't generate the necessary political will to make things
happen. I'd like to see this go because I'm committed to seeing some
improvements in the community efforts that we have, but not for any particular
purpose. I'm clearly not, by the way, I'm not running for any political office.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You had a good statement there. I mean you
could really take some of this video, you know?
MR. HOFFMANN: No, trust me, I've paid my penance for eight years. I think
the—if you look at it from our standpoint, the people we have on the board
recognize, very clearly, what it means to provide community service. Mike
Matsukawa for instance, who was our Board Chair for a while; Phil Tinguely,
who most of you know as a developer here whose provided gratis work in many
instances for the County; Loretta., who is clearly much smarter than I am, as far as
this particular effort is concerned, and has her own business also and trying to
work this way; Pat Hurney who's the Executive Director for Habitat for
Humanity, these are our board members. We're here to try to provide a
community service. So if you're asking me what it does for us, I think it provides
for us, individually, an opportunity to repay this community and this island for all
the benefits that they've given us, and I'd like to look at that way.
Yeah, I serve on the Board of Directors for the Hawaii Island Community Health
Center for the past 14 years. I'm also currently the Board Chair for Hope
Services. As far as affordable housing is concerned, trust me, working with
Brandee Menino, I have a very good idea of what the homeless situation is. Hey,
I'm here trying to provide a service for as long as I can, and I know I share that
attitude with all the other members of our board. We have an opportunity here
folks, to really do something, something a little bit different. I can't tell you that
it's going to be a success and quite frankly, I may not be around to see the success
that will eventually come from this, but I'm willing to try to put time and effort as
long as I can, to make certain that we at least take the opportunity. Yes, we
should have done it 12, 15 years ago. It didn't happen. I can't worry about that.
I can only look forward and this is the one way, I think, that we can make a
contribution to our community and I'm proud and I'm happy to be part of it.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Revisiting one more thing,
you've don't this in HPP?
MR. HOFFMANN: Yes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And it worked?
MR. HOFFMANN: Yes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, I'm going to look at our Housing folks,
why are we doing a pilot project to see if this works because it already
MR. HOFFMANN: Well, the difference is we own the land in HPP. What we
have here is State-owned or County-owned land and that's a little bit different.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MR. HOFFMANN: That's a different model and if this is successful, as
Mr. Yada pointed out, it opens up a tremendous opportunity for this County in the
future on State or County-owned land where we could put individual homes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's good to hear because I've actually
poked around that idea before, I'm glad to see that this is working towards that
end. On a lighter note, my grandpa used to say, "idear" and you said the same
thing. It just caught my attention. You said it two or three times but he used to
say, "warsh your clothes" and then he'd always say, "I have an idear."
MR. HOFFMANN: I'm sorry, I'm originally from New Jersey. Did my New
York accent come out?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I don't what it is. I'm trying to remember
where my grandpa grew up. It's somewhere on the East Coast, but nice to hear.
But thank you very much for the answers and interested to see how this lays out
and I like where you're coming from and I'm always a little bit wary of what's
going on, and you know, got to make good decisions for the community. I'm
really looking to build the equity in our community.
I'd like just wrap your head around giving your intimate knowledge of this,
wrap your head around the land equity piece of this. That's where I'd like to see
us at and I don't think it's impossible, it's just going to take some change that's
going to be uncomfortable. Thank you.
MR. HOFFMANN: Thank you.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. I yield, Chair.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Council
Member Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Thank you very much Council Member
Hoffmann, Loretta, Mike for being here and for being here a couple of weeks ago
and waiting so patiently to present to the Council. I'm going to be supporting this
resolution. You know, yesterday we had a presentation from Highridge Costa
where they talked about—they're an affordable housing developer, they've done
some work across Hawaii and across the country. They've leveraged the 201h
model and the presenter had talked about, you know, these costs that contribute to
housing, land, infrastructure, fees, process. And so if you can shave some of
those costs you make housing a bit more affordable. And so in this situation, by
granting land to your nonprofit, we are able to make housing affordability a
reality for another family.
I think because this housing crisis has been happening since the 1970s, we're
always in crisis mode around here, there's thisobviously, there's the sense of
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
urgency to increase the housing inventory, but I think we get so stuck in seeing
every developer, every project as the singular solution and it's not. And I see
your project and I'm glad the housing land trust is something that is finally getting
off the ground here. It's another step, it's another rung in the housing ladder that
we're talking about.
I know that, you know, Council Member Hoffmann, you've been advocating for
housing issues when you were on the Council and for years, have been trying to
start up the land trust. So I'm grateful that there is finally some traction and
support, and with this Affordable Housing Production Fund, that was the bill that
we introduced last term, now we have some real money to be supporting these
really innovative and interesting ideas, again, that contribute to the whole housing
ecosystem.
I don't think, and you know, Deputy Corporation Counsel Wan, correct me if I'm
wrong, but I don't think this transfer of land to a nonprofit is new. I recall last
term we did something very similar for Keith Kato's project, HICDC (Hawai`i
Island Community Development Corporation), and in that situation, that nonprofit
found a parcel of land that was owned by the State and because nonprofits are not
able to enter into agreements with government entities, that's when they called the
County, and State/County government are able to enter into intergovernmental
agreements. So in this situation, did you call the County, did the County do like a
callout to community to see who could make best use of this particular parcel?
How did this all come together?
MR. HOFFMANN: Well, I think it cameI'm not going to speak for Harry, but
I think about two years ago, Harry approached me with the idea that there was this
parcel in University Heights that was clearly in need of, you know, tear down and
somebody else coming on. So the idea at that time was, as we were working on
the HPP property, that this would be a perfect opportunity for us to see a slightly
different approach to the land trust concept be adopted here in the County. Don't
forget, from our standpoint, we look at, as that brochure says, empowering our
community one home a time. We're not going to, at least not at the moment
anyway, we're not going to be a person that's going to come in and develop
70 acres of land. That's not going to happen. We're going to do the onesies and
twosies, the ones that slip through the cracks if you will, by a developer. They
don't want to spend the time and money on a single lot or two lots, they want,
obviously, a larger plot of land to work with. I have no problem with that, that's
fine, but there's a lot of those single lots that exists out there that need to be used
in some way. I suggest that our land trust is a type of an answer to that problem.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: A lot of those little properties do add up into something,
and Harry, I know that you folks are you have a housing strategy and one of
those strategies is to take a look at state properties to see what can be further
developed to meet our housing needs. So, would love for a report to come to the
Council at some point to identify the progress and how that might be making a
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
positive impact in each of our districts and to see if there's anything that we can
do to support. Again, thank you so much for all of your hard work and your
contributions in this space. Chair, I yield.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else
before I go back to Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder? Council Member, go
ahead.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Thinking down the line, sorry,
the capital assets equity belongs to the nonprofit then in this case or does the
County ? You know, I'm just trying to think of the you're increasing in value,
the home increases in value, there's a value change, property taxes would go up,
yay for the County, nay for the homeowner who's paying the property mortgage,
but the change in value, who is that attributed to over the course of 65 years?
Does that grow your portfolio, does that growI mean the homeowner obviously,
will take advantage of this when there's a sale of the property but is there—are
you able to capture that as capital when you start looking at new pieces of land?
MR. HOFFMANN: Maybe I'm answering the wrong question, I'll turn it over to
Loretta. Again, if we sell the property or if the property is sold, the particularly
for us at time of purchase, any increase that we get over and above the
construction cost that we put into it, that goes back to the land trust so that we
can, if you will, in this revolving fund type of effort, be able to build another
home on another piece of property.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Okay, that answers my question.
MR. HOFFMANN: Just as an additional, the idea of being able to apply, as part
of that$9 million, that fund that's out there that we're applying for that Loretta
and our Development Officer's working on the application for the grant, that'sI
can't tell you how long we waited for something like that for an organization like
ours. If we're able to access even a small amount of that money, $750,000 or so,
and we're able to build a couple of homes, two homes maybe or three, we're able
then to recycle that money as we go through,just on that one grant application.
That's all we're looking for and that can continuously be, you know, turned over.
MS. WICKENDEN: In fact, that happened with our Nareit grant money as well
on the HPP home. That's going into the next house that we build.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, that's kind of what I'm looking at
here because you can't own the property for 65 years. The lease would end and
you either renegotiate the lease or go out to a tax sale or whatever happens with it.
MR. HOFFMANN: Yeah, have a 10-year extension and then go on for that.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So I mean there's a portion of this where
there's going to be growth and then who's going to capitalize on that? And that's
what I see the nonprofit doing and I'm thinking also this should apply to any
nonprofit that manages to get it together and get it to this point, coming in for a
grant funding to open up individual housing either through larger housing area
units or just one individual home at a time. I mean it's an interesting model.
MR. HOFFMANN: That's correct. That's exactly the vision I would have 10, 15
years down the road that there will be more nonprofits like us addressing this
issue.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And you're thinking ownership of the
property or continuing to work as an EO or on basis with the County and the
State?
MR. HOFFMANN: Both, and we need to get back, quite frankly, to the initial
way that the land trusts were adopted, that is to go out and find those homes that
exists today that were already built but are in forfeiture and are standing vacant or
in need of renovation. We don't need to rebuild or build everything new. There's
plenty of those properties out there as well, and if we're able to seize upon those
and renovate them and put them back on the market, we own the land in that case
and that's part of our inventory portfolio also.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And that model would work extremely well
in Puna because we have a number of those homes in Puna.
MR. HOFFMANN: Absolutely. Absolutely. However, I've got to tell you in
looking around, one of the problems, particularly homes that are older that don't
meet Code in many different cases, and quite frankly, I probably—some of the
developers or builders we would have would say it's probably cheaper to tear it
down and start from scratch. But I'm confident that there are plenty of homes in
this County, particularly on the west side of the island that are standing vacant at
the moment because people have walked away and we could,perhaps, if we had
some money, we could at least do, if you will, a pilot project of what the land trust
was supposed to be like other than the EO'd model that we're working with here.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Anyone else? All right, great.
Thank you both for being here. Thank you for Office of Housing and Deputy. I
also just love the idea of this project. I don't remember how long ago you and I
were sitting in your meeting, you were talking about your dream of engaging in
this type of program, and so really to see it finally coming to fruition.
MR. HOFFMANN: You don't know how happy I am, Madam Chair. Really.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
CHR. KIMBALL: I know. I have a bill later that I'm just about as happy about,
so I think I know the feeling. Anyway, staying on the agenda topic at hand, I did
have a question, and this actually ties back to the initial questions from Council
Member Inaba because he and I had looked closely at Chapter 11 at one point.
The mention about this term of affordability, which I think is the key thing that all
of us are concerned about when we're supporting these programs to develop
affordable housing,just ensuring that they stay in that affordable range either for a
lengthy period of time or in perpetuity. I'm just looking at you, Deputy Wan,
because Chapter 11 only sets the term of affordability to 10 years. So that is my
concern here because you mentioned that Chapter 11 would be the guiding
document for the lease arrangement, but have we come up with something else for
this because of the 65-year lease as far as the term of affordability?
MS. WAN: Thank you, Madam Chair, Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan.
As to the term of affordability, that particular provision would be superseded by
the intentions of the EO, so the EO—and I just want to correct one little misspeak.
For all intense and purposes because the property has been EO'd to the County,
the County can operate as if the County owns this property. However, because it
is EO'd property if at a later date the State decides this property is no longer
appropriate for affordable housing, they can either change the nature of the EO or
they can rescind it. So I just wanted to kind of clear that up there.
But irrespective of that, at this point in time, we have the EO'd property, it is
strictly for the purpose of affordable housing. We cannot do anything else. We
cannot allow anything else but affordable housing on this piece of property, which
means all of the other term limitations that are within Chapter 11 will be
superseded. So if the term is 10 years of affordability for a normal affordable
home, under the other circumstances of Chapter 11, that is going to be superseded
to at least 65 years for the term of their lease. And any other party that might
come in that the County might lease this property to, it is going to be affordable
for the extension of that lease.
CHR. KIMBALL: Perfect, great. Thank you for that clarification, and that's, I
think, what we hope for as we support these things, that we're supporting
programs that stay in perpetuity. I don't have any additional questions, but I just
want to fly one other thought. I was thinking about it just this morning, so it's
perfectly timed. One of the things that we talked about with the Housing
Production fund was a program in Vail with a deed restriction. So instead of what
you're doing, this model, the idea is to purchase a deed restriction on a property
where the people already live in the home and they would say that, in the future, if
they resell it, they're going to agree to resell it at an affordable rate. So you
actually give them money upfront.
I've spoken a little bit with Susan about it but want to throw that idea out there as
maybe another function, another way to get at this thing is to look at places where
we actually already have the family in the home. Maybe they need a little support
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
right now to send the kid to college or whatever so they can get that—they get a—
we actually buy that deed restriction from them. I think that'd actually be a
program that would run better out of a nonprofit than from the County ourselves.
So that might be something that you could take the lead on looking at.
MR. HOFFMANN: I must admit, Madam Chair, I haven't thought about it in that
sense. The thing immediately come to mind is providing that type of assistance
could be that the homeowner forfeits the deed on the land and the land would be
transferred to the nonprofit, sort of, I don't know, reverse mortgage type thing,
they still own the property. Now I don't know how that would affect the existing
mortgage terms that they have. That might be a difficulty because you're
changing the terms upon which the bank initially provided the mortgage. But that
would have to be something that can be examined further.
CHR. KIMBALL: Yeah, yeah, interesting. Okay, well let's take this discussion
to another place and time and I look forward to having that conversation. So with
that, I'll take the vote on the resolution in front of us, which is 179-23. All those
in favor, please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 179-23: The motion to adopt Res. 179-23 and Legislative Approvals
(Adopted) and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 19 was carried by
the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball –9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: At this time, I'd like to take a poll of the body. Do we want a
lunch break or push through the rest of the agenda? I'm seeing one vote for push
through. Okay, let's take a 10-minute break and then we'll return.
MR. HOFFMANN: Thank you, Council Members, appreciate it.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you very much.
Recess: At 12:30 p.m., the Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 12:42 p.m.
Return to Order The Chair directed the Council to return to the order of business.
of Business:
CHR. KIMBALL: Mr. Clerk, if we can, we'll take it to the "Order of
Resolutions,"please.
Page 45
Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of
RESOLUTIONS: Resolutions.
(Note: Items in this category were taken up previously, out of order.)
Res. 164-23: PROPOSES THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A WATER SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT
DISTRICT FOR IKI PLACE, KOHANAIKI HOMESTEADS
Proposes the development of the "Iki Place Water System Improvements"pursuant
to Resolution No. 634-16 and Section 12-10(c) of the Hawaii County Code, with
the Net Project Costs of$275,000 to be paid by 18 assessed units within the
subdivision.
Reference: Comm. 271
Intr. by: Mr. Inaba
Approve: FC-53
Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to adopt Res. 164-23 and Finance
Committee Report No. 53. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
CHR. KIMBALL: Vice Chair Inaba.
MR. INABA: Thank you. Based on some review of the resolution, I'm going to
be requesting a postponement, and your support of a postponement, of this
resolution to the June 21" Council meeting so that we can work together with
Finance and Corporation Counsel and Water Supply and the Clerk's office to
make sure it's airtight.
Motion to Postpone: Mr. Inaba moved to postpone Res. 164-23 to June 21, 2023.
Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. VILLEGAS: It should be "watertight."
MS. LEE LOY: I was going to say the same thing.
CHR. KIMBALL: And I was going to ask if that's enough time to get all those
different people together.
MR. INABA: Definitely, yes. We're just double-checking some language.
CHR. KIMBALL: All right. So we have a motion on the floor from Council
Member Inaba, seconded by Council Member Lee Loy, to postpone
Resolution 164-23 to the June 21"meeting. Any further discussion on the
postponement? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye."
Page 46
Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Vote on Motion to The motion to postpone Res. 164-23 to June 21, 2023, was
Postpone: carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 164-23 is postponed.
Res. 177-23: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A MULTI-YEAR
AGREEMENT WITH THE OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR, STATE OF HAWAII
Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a three-year agreement which would allow the
County to request an audit of the schedule of changes in fiduciary net positions by
employer including related notes to the schedule of the Hawaii Employer-Union
Health Benefits Trust Fund and report on census data to meet the reporting
requirements under the Governmental Accounting Standards board.
Reference: Comm. 292
Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R)
Approve: FC-54
Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 177-23 and
Finance Committee Report No. 54. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy.
CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We had discussion at Committee level.
Ms. Sako provided us information and background on this item. I have no further
discussion.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Anyone else? Seeing none, all
those in favor of adopting Resolution 177-23, please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 177-23: The motion to adopt Res. 177-23 and Finance Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 54 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 177-23 is adopted.
Res. 178-23: AUTHORIZES THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION TO
AWARD FUNDS TO `OHANA O KOHANAIKI CULTURAL FOUNDATION
Provides grant funds in the amount of$48,000 for roof repairs to the Native
Hawaiian Hale at Kohanaiki Beach Park.
Reference: Comm. 293
Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R)
Approve: LAAC-18
Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to adopt Res. 178-23 and Legislative
Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 18.
Seconded by Ms. Villegas.
CHR. KIMBALL: Vice Chair Inaba.
MR. INABA: No further discussion. I ask for my colleagues' support. Mahalo.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Anyone else? Council Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: I just want to express my gratitude to the `Ohana O Kohanaiki
Cultural Foundation for their work to do. And any of you who have not had the
opportunity to visit the Hale Wa`a at Kohanaiki Beach Park, it is well worth the
visit. The star compass resides there as well. And just really excited and grateful.
Also, this price to reroof it in the traditional way is just really great. So,
incredibly grateful for this collaborative effort and work that we do with
Kohanaiki Shores, and that collaboration of County, community, and developer.
So I ask for everyone's support.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of
adopting Resolution 178-23, please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 178-23: The motion to adopt Res. 178-23 and Legislative
(Adopted) Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 18 was
carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 178-23 is adopted.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Res. 180-23: AUTHORIZES THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE DONATION OF LOTS C, D, E, F,
AND G OF THE SUBDIVISION OF PARCEL 2 OF ROYAL PATENT GRANT
NUMBER 1895 TO MOHALA, BEING TAX MAP KEYS: 1-3-004:023, 024,
025, 026, AND 027, SITUATED AT `OPIHIKAO, DISTRICT OF PUNA,
COUNTY AND STATE OF HAWAII, FROM JAMES L. KERVER AND
MELANY L. KERVER, TRUSTEES UNDER THE UNRECORDED "JAMES L.
AND MELANY L. KERVER REVOCABLE TRUST" DATED FEBRUARY 21,
2013
The landowners seek to donate approximately one acre of land to the County for the
purpose of unencumbered open space.
Reference: Comm. 295
Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R)
Approve: LAAC-20
Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to adopt Res. 180-23 and Legislative
Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 20.
Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz.
CHR. KIMBALL: Vice Chair Inaba.
MR. INABA: No further discussion. I ask for my colleagues' support. Mahalo.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to take a moment to
mahalo nui the Kervers. `Opihikao is now in Council District 4, but I will be
taking a moment to check out the property and work in partnership with
Hamana Ventura to understand what's possible. And perhaps this is an
opportunity to be leveraging some of our PONC (Public Access, Open Space, and
Natural Resources Preservation Commission) stewardship funds. I don't know
the whole process with that because it wasn't acquired in that way, but I do want
to make sure that we are properly stewarding these assets that are being donated
to the County. Thank you, I yield.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else?
Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting Resolution 180-23, please say "aye."
Page 49
Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Vote on Res. 180-23: The motion to adopt Res. 180-23 and Legislative
(Adopted) Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 20 was
carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 180-23 is adopted.
Res. 184-23: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED
FUND ACCOUNT FOR MAINTENANCE AND/OR IMPROVEMENT
PROJECTS AT VARIOUS PARK FACILITIES IN COUNCIL DISTRICT 1
Transfers $13,750 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 1); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation,
Transfer to Capital Projects Fund-General account.
Reference: Comm. 308
Intr. by: Ms. Kimball
Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to adopt Res. 184-23. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy.
CHR. KIMBALL: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory, folks. But any
discussion on this? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 184-23: The motion to adopt Res. 184-23 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 184-23 is adopted.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Res. 185-23: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED
FUND ACCOUNT TO EXPAND THE SIGNAGE AT THE EDITH
KANAKA`OLE MULTI-PURPOSE STADIUM TO INCLUDE "HOME OF THE
MERRIE MONARCH FESTIVAL"
Transfers $970 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation,
Maintenance Other Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 309
Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy
(Note: Comm. 309.1, from Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy dated June 6,
2023, transmitting a photo of the signage, was circulated.)
Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 185-23. Seconded by
Ms. Galimba.
CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. For my colleagues, in your pinkie folder,
you'll find Communication 309.1. It's actually a photo of the sign. I just want to,
first of all, thank the Parks Department for putting this sign together so quickly.
But also, it was done at a time when we were honoring Aunty Edith's Day. And
so to have them put it together so quickly and put it up all within weeks was really
a blessing. I ask for my colleagues' support.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Any other discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 185-23: The motion to adopt Res. 185-23 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 185-23 is adopted.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Res. 189-23: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR AND
OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR A MULTI-YEAR LEASE FOR
ONE COPY MACHINE FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND
RECREATION
Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a five-year lease agreement with an approximate
monthly cost of$78 to be used by the department's RSVP Hilo office.
Reference: Comm. 313
Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R)
Waived: FC
Vote on Res. 189-23: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 189-23.
(Adopted) Seconded by Ms. Villegas and carried by the following
voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 189-23 is adopted.
Res. 190-23: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM THE
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED
FUND ACCOUNT
Transfers $2,500 from the Parks and Recreation Administration Other Current
Expenses account; and credits to the Contingency Relief account to return
Contingency Relief funds from the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Reference: Comm. 314
Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R)
Waived: FC
Vote on Res. 190-23: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 190-23.
(Adopted) Seconded by Ms. Galimba and carried by the following
voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 190-23 is adopted.
Res. 191-23: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED
FUND ACCOUNT TO PURCHASE AN ICE MACHINE FOR THE
NORTH KOHALA FIRE STATION
Transfers $3,267 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 9); and credits to the Hawaii Fire Department, Auxiliary Services
Equipment account.
Reference: Comm. 315
Intr. by: Ms. Evans
Motion to Approve: Ms. Evans moved to adopt Res. 191-23. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy.
CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Evans.
MS. EVANS: Just a comment that these ice machines are huge. I visited the fire
stations and discovered that the one in North Kohala looks to be 25 or 30 years
its last legs. It doesn't work anymore and I talked to the Police Chief. This is just
really important that they have ice. So I'm just grateful that I had the money to
support this, and I hope that you vote in favor of it. Thank you.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you very much. Anyone else? All those in favor of
adopting Resolution 191-23, please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 191-23: The motion to adopt Res. 191-23 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 191-23 is adopted.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Res. 192-23: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED
FUND ACCOUNT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION
TO PURCHASE SUPPLIES FOR ITS RECREATION PROGRAMS IN
COUNCIL DISTRICT 7
Transfers $10,150 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 7); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation,
Recreation Division—Other Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 316
Intr. by: Ms. Villegas
Motion to Approve: Ms. Villegas moved to adopt Res. 192-23. Seconded by
Ms. Galimba.
CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: I just ask for my colleagues' support in the allocation of my
final CRF (Contingency Relief Fund) funds for this fiscal year. And grateful for
Parks and Rec.'s (Recreation's) ability to utilize it for some of the programs this
summer in District 7.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Anyone else? Seeing none, all
those in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 192-23: The motion to adopt Res. 192-23 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 192-23 is adopted. Let's quickly take the bills for
second and final reading before moving to Bill 48.
Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Council Members, the
of Business: following items were taken out of order:
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Bill 41: AMENDS SECTION 25-8-2 (NORTH AND SOUTH KONA DISTRICT ZONE
(Draft 2) MAP), ARTICLE 8, CHAPTER 25 (ZONING CODE) OF THE HAWAII
COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), BY CHANGING THE
DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM AGRICULTURAL—TWENTY ACRES
(A-20a) TO AGRICULTURAL—TEN ACRES (A-lOa) AT KALOKO,
NORTH KONA, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 7-3-027:003
(Applicants: Charles Stevenson, Ann Stevenson, and John Fumo)
(Area: 22.665 Acres)
The Leeward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for this
change of zone request, which would allow the applicants to request subdivision of
the property into two 11.3325 acre lots to accommodate existing single-family
dwellings on each lot. The property is located at 73-4375 Haleamau Street,
approximately 570 feet northeast of its intersection with Kaloko Drive, Kaloko
Mauka Subdivision, North Kona.
Reference: Comm. 210.2
Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R)
First Reading: May 17, 2023
Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to pass Bill 41, Draft 2, on second and
final reading. Seconded by Ms. Galimba.
CHR. KIMBALL: Vice Chair Inaba.
MR. INABA: No further discussion. Mr. Pipan is online if anyone has questions,
but ask for everyone's support. Mahalo.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Any other discussion or questions? Seeing none,
all those in favor of adopting Bill 41, Draft 2, at second and final reading,please
say "aye."
Vote on Bill 41: The motion to pass Bill 41, Draft 2, on second and final
Draft 2 reading was carried by the following voice vote:
(Adopted)
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Bill 41, Draft 2, is adopted.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Bill 45: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 22-63, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2023
Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants —QUEST (Quality Jobs, Equity,
Strategy, and Training) Disaster Recovery account($965,000); and appropriates the
same to the QUEST Disaster Recovery account. Funds would be used to assist
individuals who have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to enter,
return to, or advance in high quality jobs.
Reference: Comm. 263
Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R)
First Reading: May 17, 2023
Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 45 on second
and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Inaba.
CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. There was no discussion at the
first reading, so I believe I can support this in moving forward. Thank you.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in
favor of adopting Bill 45,please say "aye."
Vote on Bill 45: The motion to pass Bill 45 on second and final reading was
(Adopted) carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Bill 45 is adopted at second and final reading.
Relinquish Chair: At this time, Chair Kimball relinquished the chair to Acting
Chair Inaba.
Return to Order The Acting Chair directed the Council to return to the order of business.
of Business:
BILLS FOR The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
ORDINANCES Bills for Ordinances (First Reading).
(FIRST READING):
Page 56
Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Bill 48: AMENDS THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS
AMENDED), BY AMENDING CHAPTER 2, ARTICLE 2, SECTION 2-7;
AMENDING CHAPTER 2 BY CREATING A NEW ARTICLE 49; AND
CREATING A NEW CHAPTER 37, RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY,
CLIMATE, EQUITY, AND RESILIENCE
Adds a new agency and agency head to coordinate and manage policies and
programs to address sustainability, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and adapt
to the impacts of climate change and other natural and human caused hazards.
Reference: Comm. 279
Intr. by: Ms. Kimball and Ms. Villegas
Approve: GOEAC-51
(Note: Communications 279.57 through 279.59, transmitting proposed
amendments to Bill 48, were circulated.)
Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to pass Bill 48 on first reading and
adopt Governmental Operations and External Affairs
Committee Report No. 51. Seconded by Ms. Villegas.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Chair Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: I'm actually going to ask my colleague Council
Member Villegas to lead off the discussion on this today.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. I just want to start off by thanking Chair Kimball
for moving forward with this bill. In my absence I was taking care of my mom
during a health crisis, but I was watching closely and am deeply grateful that it
moved forth out of Committee. I'm very happy to get to be here today and to be a
part of something that I believe is powerful and poignant and a very pono step in
the right direction for us as County Government.
As I was listening to some of the testimony today, I really appreciated what a
woman said in about change is constant. And in her reflection of why this should
be an ordinance instead of a Charter amendment that there is the need for this
office to be nimble and responsive in its responsibility, and accessible and
impactful and innovative. And one of my quote I have on one of those silly signs
in my house that I got at Ross is "Change is constant. Growth is optional.
Choose wisely."
And I see this as an opportunity for our County to adjust to the changes that are
afoot amongst society and for in our positions of leadership in government to set
our County up to be successful as funds become available in the next few years
from the Federal Government, from a value standpoint in having just navigated
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
our way through a global pandemic where we were definitely—it was a wake-up
call in how fragile we are as an island, and the need for a return to a circular
economy and an opportunity for us to take a look at our strengths and weaknesses.
Recognize that we're a microcosm of the world at large, and we have an
opportunity with that to become a model because we can be more nimble as we
implement solutions and, yeah, we just have an opportunity to be that example.
As I was thinking about this, I was thinking of, in a business model they talk
about the triple bottom line, which is taking into consideration the social,
environmental, and financial factors of your business model; sometimes called
people, profit, and the planet are the three factors taken into consideration. And
I'm deeply grateful for the next step in that evolution, which includes the
quadruple bottom line in which leaders, some from the Cambridge leadership
school of development, talk about—the fourth one includes spirituality, ethics,
purpose, culture, and compassion.
It includes the consideration of the sacred, which I believe that this office relating
to sustainability, climate, equity, and resilience is in alignment with this
requirement and the standard of a quadruple bottom line. It's the why we do what
we do. It's that alignment with that higher purpose that holds us accountable to
future generations.
Sustainable prosperity is a result of sustainable development that enables all
human beings to live with their basic needs met, with their dignity acknowledged,
and with abundant opportunity to pursue lives of satisfaction and happiness, all
without risk of denying others in the present and the future the ability to do the
same. And I believe that our passing of this bill and bringing into existence this
office provides that opportunity for our County to operate, to continue to operate,
and to continue to grow and change with sustainable prosperity the people, our
quality of life.
And some say that government should operate as a business, and I think that, in
an ideal, it does. And under this paradigm, taking into consideration that second
term of profit, it aligns with competitive productivity in producing and
distributing goods and services for consumption and profit with scarce resources.
And I think that this office, this will be part of what they're tasked to do, is to
acknowledge the scarcity of the resources on our island just give me one more
moment, Chair—taking into consideration the planet and our sustainable
ecosystems.
The individual community and ecosystem's survival across lifespans and
generations. Progress. Including adaptive innovation. That we could be adaptive
in learning and changing, utilizing trial and error, risk-taking and discovery in all
aspects of people, profit, and planet and innovations.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
So I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to participate in the bringing forth of
this bill, and I'm very hopeful for the continued support of my colleagues.
Deeply grateful for the support of the Administration and the recognition of the
alignment, with this office being directly in alignment with so many of the goals
and visions that Mayor Roth continues to share with our community. And with
that, I yield.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Coming back to
Chair Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. We spent a lot of time talking about this the first
go-round in Committee, and then also again at the budget hearings. I did want to
just kind of refresh the why, what, where, when. The "why," and Council
Member Villegas has gotten to that somewhat, but when I was first running for
office, people would say, "Why do you want to be in elected office?" And I
would tell them the story about the conversation I had with my daughter, who is
almost 30, if you can believe it. And she said, "My husband and I have been
talking about whether or not we want to have kids. And I've decided that because
of the uncertainty about what's going to happen, we don't think we want to now."
I'm not quite ready to be grandma, so on that level, I'm okay. But my response to
her was I actually have every faith that humanity will adapt, that we will be able
to mitigate. We will be able to address these problems. What I don't have faith
in is that everybody will be lifted in the same way, that there will not be a
tremendous amount of suffering on this path for different groups that are either
disenfranchised already, lower income, whatever. And so that's why equity is
such a huge piece of this office. This is the speaking from the heart of the "why"
behind this effort.
The "what." The organization about this, it's very deliberate. We've used the
collective impact model with the intention that this is the model that best
addresses the gaps that exist currently in our ability to address sustainability,
climate action, and resilience and equity. So I'm looking forward to seeing how
this plays out. But we have the communication piece, the shared metrics, the
common agenda. It's all designed to actually move the various plans and
programs that we already do have in place. The pilots that R&D have already
established; move those forward.
The "where." This office is designed to be at the Cabinet level, to be under the
administration of the Managing Director. One of the things that we did in the
interim between the Committee hearing and today was have another conversation
with Josh Stanbro, who is the former Chief Sustainability Officer for City and
County of Honolulu. And I said, "What are some of the things that were so
critical about making this Cabinet Level 1? You are in the room in those Cabinet
conversations when decisions are being made. You were there to hear about
what's going on, and you were there to contribute that view to the discussion.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
The second thing is that, speaking to Stuart Coleman with WAI(Wastewater
Alternatives and Innovations), working as a nonprofit, collaborating with the
County, they observed a marked difference in the level of collaboration and
reduction of silos between the various departments that they worked with when
there was this coordinating effort as part of the picture.
To the "when,"there is a sense of urgency on this, and that is why we are using
the ordinance mechanism to set it up. But the part about being able to have some
flexibility, to make some modifications as we go, that is critical. But the timing
element is even more critical from the standpoint of we're already behind
addressing climate issues and sustainability issues. But beyond that, there are
these funds that are available that are probably never going to be available again
in our lifetime, and those grants are dropping now. I was in Washington, D.C.
(District of Columbia) a week and a half ago. They were like, "These competitive
grants are coming out this fall." We have got to be ready and geared up to go
after these.
I do have some amendments today. The first one in Communication 279.57 is
primarily clerical. So, with your leeway, Chair, I'd like to ask that we amend the
bill with that one now, and then I'll explain the other two after that.
Motion to Amend: Ms. Kimball moved to amend Bill 48 with the contents of
Comm. 279.57. Seconded by Ms. Villegas.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Chair Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. Just briefly on the amendment. Like I said, mostly
clerical. We had a place where we had a spelling error. We wanted to maintain
the consistence of sustainability, climate, equity, and resilience. And then, thanks
to Cory Harden, "severability" should be "severity." I don't know how we
missed that.
For Council Member Inaba, I did try to address the definition of"equity,"but it
sounds like I still maybe need to tweak that a little bit. So that's been reworded a
little bit. I did want to highlight that the terminology "cumulative impacts," I
added the word "cumulative." That's actually a buzz word that I'm hearing a lot
right now when we're talking about Justice40, so I wanted to make sure we had
that in there.
And then to your concern at the last hearing, Council Member Lee Loy, I've
added, with respect to the recommendations for the capital improvement budget,
that those recommendations are considered in addition to the Planning
Department rather than superseding. That was with the guidance of Corporation
Counsel Yoshimoto.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
And then there was some testimony that recommended an annual sustainability
report. As I've mentioned, we do have the intention to expand Bill 37. There was
already guidelines for a report included in that draft, but I had saw no reason not
to put it in this area as well. So that's the general components of this first
amendment.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Opening it up to discussion on the
amendment. We're on Communication 279.57. Council Member Kaneali`i-
Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I actually had questions on the original
Bill 48 before we did amendments, but we bypassed that. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any discussion? Okay, very good. I just
want to point back. I think I'll support the amendment, and we can continue
working on the definitions for"equity" and for "environmental justice." Unlike
the other definitions in our definition section here, it's reading "means that." So if
you read it in the context of the bill, "improve equity,"you would read it:
"improve `that all programs conducted by the office will . . . ."' And then when
you read it back into the bigger sections of the bill, it doesn't work well. So just
getting rid of the "that" and putting it in line with"means." For example,
"Environmental justice means the equal protection from environmental hazards."
And then we can change it: "for all people"—something like that.
So there's a motion on the floor to amend Bill 48 with the contents of
Communication—we have
MR. BROWN: 279.57.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Any discussion? Hang on. Council Member Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Like you, Mr. Inaba, absolutely; support the
amendment. I, too, am having kind of this stutter step with the cadence of the
definitions. But I'm willing to move all this in, get it to a place, and then fix that
cadence because there's these little nuances, not only within the definition but
throughout the bill itself. I'll go ahead and discuss that when we get there, but in
support of this amendment.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. All right, motion on the floor is to amend
Bill 48 with the contents of Communication 279.57. All those in favor?
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 48 with the contents of
Amend: Comm. 279.57 was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Acting Chair Inaba—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. INABA: The bill is amended. Moving on to the next
amendment.
MS. KIMBALL: So, at this time, I didn't want to defer conversation on the
whole bill itself. I just wanted to get these clerical amendments in place first. So
thank you for your patience, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
With respect to the additional two amendments, you'll notice they're very similar.
I've provided both of them here. I'm going to wait until we've had a further
discussion on the bill before we talk about those. And the reason being is after
our last discussion, DHR (Department of Human Resources) came back to me and
said the way we've set that up is probably not legal after all. So we need to come
up with another mechanism for hiring the administrator.
And so our two options are mayoral appointment with confirmation or civil
service. And so that's what the two amendments are. One is a mayoral
appointment. One is a civil service. And then we've added the recommended
skillsets and experience that we'd like to have the administrator have. So those
were worked on in collaboration with R&D and Planning, and the Directors are
here to help with that conversation.
So, as we're talking about the bill in general, if people can kind of signal what
their thoughts are, and then I can work in these last two amendments at the end. I
yield.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. On the main motion. I'm going to go to
Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. I know you had some discussion. Go ahead.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I did. Thank you, Chair. Just to
Corporation Counsel. The question of mine remains whether this can be done via
ordinance or Charter. That was a question mark from Ms. Strance. And the
reason I'm asking is if this is done now and this is accepted, then I would say at
any point in the future if anyone wants to create a department, this stands as being
done via ordinance. If that is correct, we move forward as it is. I just want to
know which way we're leaning because, last time, it was a question mark. That
was where we left off.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
(Note: At this time, Assistant Corporation Counsel J Yoshimoto came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Sorry to put you on the spot,
Mr. Yoshimoto. It wasn't you in the chair last time.
MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay, let me repeat what I believe to be the question,
Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder: whether the Council has the authority to
create this agency.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Create an agency
MR. YOSHIMOTO: Under the Code.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: With a director, personnel, under the Code
the way it is. I have always understood it'd be a Charter mechanism—maybe I
misread something just the way that I take information and hold it in my brain.
This is creating—we're calling it an agency, but this is actually acting as a
department. As I'm looking at it, we have an administrator, personnel, staffing,
rent. We've actually itemized the budget and put that funding in our budget for
this next fiscal year.
So you can call it an agency. You can call it an office. Either way, I look at this
as a department, kind of moving forward, in my head. That's how I'm classifying
it. If that is true, we can make this happen, that's fine. We move forward as it is.
But I will be leaning on this in the future. If anything else comes up, I would use
this as a reference point to say, "It was done in the past. I'm going to do it again."
So that's what I'm asking.
MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. I haven't researched this issue, but you mentioned
you've asked Corporation Counsel Strance this question at the last meeting. So
my notes here indicate that she has confirmed the Council's authority to create the
agency. I don't have the detailed rationale behind that, but my understanding is
we have the Mass Transit Agency. We have the—I think you just created the
animal control agency. And so but I'm not sure how in depth the discussion
went last time.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so keyword here being "agency,"
okay.
MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, for now, yes, I can confirm with Ms. Strance to make
sure because this is on first reading, yeah.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah,please confirm with Ms. Strance.
That's really my only question.
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MR. YOSHIMOTO: All right.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Might also
point to other offices, like the office of housing that—titled offices as we get a
clear answer on that, that I believe those were established in Code as well. So,
continue discussion on the main motion on Bill 48. Council Member Evans.
MS. EVANS: Doug Adams, please.
(Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Douglass Adams
came forward to address the members of the Council.)
MS. EVANS: Thank you for being available today. We passed the budget and
we gave your office positions with titles and funding. With or without this bill
passing, you do have that money in your budget. So you could hire the climate
specialist and the other—we had the four positions that are now inside your
budget when we voted on it the other day.
MR. ADAMS: Director Doug Adams, R&D. Council Member Evans, I am
confused. I did not believe that that money came to my budget. So the budget
that I have is strictly for the folks that are in Research and Development.
MS. EVANS: Right. But I thought we placed. So I need clarification from
Deanna Sako then, because we placed it in the budget. Obviously, it didn't exist
so we put it somewhere so it could exist. And I thought it was with the office of
research and development. So we've put money in the budget aside for—so we
stood up the positions. We put a dollar amount in there. So those, I assume, exist
with or without the bill.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Evans, I'm going to allow Chair
Kimball to respond, because we had a budget amendment but it was from her. So
we'll just let her explain that process.
MS. EVANS: Okay.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. In the absence of having Director Sako here,
there's two components to positions. There is the establishment of the position,
and then there is the actual funding of the position. In the Mayor's second draft
of the budget, the Administration added those four positions that matched the
titles of the positions we wanted to have in OSCER (Office of Sustainability,
Climate, Equity, and Resilience). The amendment that I introduced to the budget
funded OSCER and those positions, but in OSCER. And so what will happen is if
this bill proceeds, those positions will move under OSCER, where the funding
lives, to actually pay the salaries of those workers.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MS. EVANS: I'm sorry. This is such a legal question for me. So we actually
funded something that didn't exist. So, when we voted on the budget, that was
okay to vote on the budget when it didn't exist? I guess I'm confusingI'm
having a chicken-and-egg problem with the whole way we've done this. It seems
like we've rushed it; we've jumped ahead of ourselves before we passed the bill
and created the office.
I'm sorry, everybody. It confuses me that we do one before the other. And so we
put money in the budget for something that didn't exist. So wouldn't that be foul?
I mean, could you put money in the budget for stuff that doesn't exist? Because
I'm a little bit with our member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder that this sets precedence on
how we're going to push things through as a Council, like we push it through
before we stand up the office.
The whole thing about this makes me uncomfortable. I think you know my
position. I think it should be Charter, but more than that,just the whole thing
about it has just got me so, like, beside myself. I mean, I tried to amend an
ordinance because I thought there might be another way to do it, but I couldn't
because the title just totally the title was such that I couldn't change it. I mean,
you couldn't amend it because of the way it was written.
I get that. But it feels like it's just been so strategized to get it, that it didn't open
itself up for what I believe is real transparency to the public and real great
conversation to have here at the dais. I'm just still struggling. And I'm glad that,
Deanna, that you're here because we put money in a budget and we, the Council,
approved it, and yet the office didn't exist. So I'm thinking the money's in the
budget; it's sitting there. We said the money's for these positions, and I thought it
was in Research and Development. We had to put it somewhere. Where did you
put that money?
ACTING CHR. INABA: Okay, before we respond, Director Sako, can you go
real slow and walk us through the steps,just so that everyone is clear.
(Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to
address the members of the Council.)
MS. SAKO: On what happened with the budget?
ACTING CHR. INABA: What happened with the budget and the positions and
how they're going to shift, and all of that.
MS. SAKO: When we prepare the, or submitted the budget, I guess I should say,
on May 5h, I believe this bill had not been heard at Committee yet. However, we
had been in discussions with Council Members. We know we had several
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meetings. And so there were positions that were requested to be created.
Coincidentally, Director Adams also asked for a sustainability, or something, type
of position.
So there were actually six climate, sustainability, OSCER-type positions created
in the fy 24 (fiscal year '24)budget that just got passed. One of those is staying
with R&D. The others, the intention was they would be transferred to the new
office of OSCER, to the Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience.
However, those positions were not funded. The five intended for OSCER were
not funded. And then a budget amendment was proposed, and it was approved by
the Council and is part of the budget. And that is in a separate account number
series. It is near R&D's in the budget, but it is not under R&D. It's a new
department of OSCER.
And I think we also talked during the budget that if this bill to create this new
office is not passed, that money would just sit in the budget and no one will be
allowed to spend it, basically. And it would just lapse at the end of the year. I
was in a meeting, so I didn't hear all the prior discussion. So let me know if I
missed anything.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Director. Yes, you still have the floor,
Council Member Evans.
MS. EVANS: Thank you. So the question would be, if the money's sitting there
in that one account and it can't be used because the account was set up for
OSCER that doesn't exist—couldn't we come back with a resolution and move
those five positions over into R&D?
MS. SAKO: They were created under R&D. So, technically, they are R&D's
positions until such time they are transferred to OSCER.
MS. EVANS: So we couldn't keep them in R&D and transfer them out of one
account? I've just noticed since I've been here
MS. SAKO: Oh, and the money portion, that would take a Council resolution. I
mean, we would have to come forward with a Council resolution to request the
money to be moved from those OSCER accounts to R&D.
MS. EVANS: Okay. So we don't have to lose the positions if we decided. We
could put them in R&D through a reso. (resolution).
MS. SAKO: Right. Those positions
MS. EVANS: That's an option.
MS. SAKO: Yes—were created with the budget.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MS. EVANS: Good. Thank you. I have more to say but I'll wait.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Okay. Just to clarify real quick, Director Sako. If the
funds—if this doesn't get stood up, you folks could introduce a budget
amendment, which would be a bill, which would move the funds to R&D.
MS. SAKO: If we needed to, yes.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Okay. So it's not a reso.
MS. SAKO: Sometimes, transfers are resolutions. But, yeah, we would bring a
bill or aeither one, to move the funds.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. All right. Further discussion? Council
Member Kagiwada.
MS. KAGIWADA: Thanks. Speaking to the issue around the administrator and
hiring the administrator, could I hear from the makers of this bill the reasoning,
again, behind why the illusional; there was this term for six years and for no more
than two consecutive terms. Because one of these supports that and one doesn't.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. The problem with the existing language is you
have a civil service hire with a term associated with it. Initially, we were told that
that was a doable thing, but DHR came back and said, no, actually we can't do
that. So now the options are civil service with no term. So that means they're
hired like any other civil service employee. It's based on merit. They can only be
let go for cause, right.
And then the other one is like how one of the directors or the housing
administrator is appointed with a confirmation. And then that we can tie a term
to. So we kept the six-year term tied to that.
MS. KAGIWADA: So my question is, can you refresh my memory on why
unlike most of the department directors don't have this six-year term, why that
was in there to begin with?
MS. KIMBALL: May I, Chair?
ACTING CHR. INABA: Yes.
MS. KIMBALL: Mass Transit, for example, is a civil service hire. So it
wouldn't be unusual to have an administrator be civil service. The group of
people that collaborated to work on this bill, we actually never came to an
agreement on what mechanism should be utilized for this administrator. There
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
are arguments for both. The civil service, you're going to have consistency
through administrations. They're a permanent employee. Perhaps that makes the
position more desirable.
On the flip side, with the mayoral appointment and confirmation, it is more of a
political position. However, there are benefits to that as well, in that your person
is always going to be fresh. You are potentially more likely to get a rock star in a
situation where you have a mayoral appointment. I don't want to get too far into
this amendment right now, but speaking with Josh Stanbro, his recommendation
was actually the mayoral appointment. That's the position that Director Adams
has had for mayoral appointments. Others in our group actually supported the
civil service. Nine heads are smarter than two.
MS. KAGIWADA: I totally get that. What I'm still not hearing is why this six-
year part was added on to the mayoral appointment piece. Because, that's not
normal for a mayoral appointment, is it?
MS. KIMBALL: There can either be a termso think about the nominations for
the boards and commissions; they have terms. Directors; in the Charter, it will
say, "coterminous with the Mayor," as another option. Think of this as an
appointment like a board and commission. We are saying this person is
appointed. They're appointed for a six-year term. No, there's nothing weird or
unusual about this. We wanted to have it not be coterminous with the Mayor so
there'd be consistency between administrations.
MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, now you're starting to answer my question, why you
chose the six years. That's what I was trying to ask.
MS. KIMBALL: Because it wouldn't be on a four-year cycle, which is the
elections.
MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. So it was to extend someone past a mayoral cycle.
Okay. That's what I was trying to get at. Thank you so much. That gives me
food for thought. I yield, Chair.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Just in answer also, Council Member Kagiwada: Our County
Clerk serves in a six-year term as well. So there is precedence for that six-year
cycle to be separate but connected to, kind of how we're all separate but equal in
the ways that we represent. So there is some other six-year coterminous kind of
things.
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MS. KAGIWADA: All right. Following on that,just one more question on how
it might work. Because we are not currently, right now, at the start of a mayoral
term, we're at a strange place, would it be six years from whenever it started? Or
would it be six years from the beginning of that mayoral term?
ACTING CHR. INABA: I'll probably let Corporation Counsel answer that, but
they're out of the room.
MS. VILLEGAS: And if I could just interject for a moment?
ACTING CHR. INABA: You still have the floor, actually.
MS. VILLEGAS: Oh, great. Just speaking off the cuff: If, or hopefully when,
this bill passes, it will take some time to find the person to fill this position. I
can't imagine that that would happen immediately. So, without the full legal
answer to this, my assumption is that the timeframes will probably be fairly
equitable as we navigate the hiring for that process, as we are halfway through
this year and we begin another election cycle in February of next year.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Council
Member Kagiwada, did you want to ask that question?
MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Corp. (Corporation) Counsel,
Deputy Counsel. Could you give me some information about the wording about
the six-year term? When would that six years start? I don't want to get too far
into the amendments, but you said the police kind of talked through some of it.
So I'm just looking at this. If it were to be a mayoral appointment with a six-year
term, and because we are not at the start of a mayoral term right now, would that
six years start when that person is hired? Or would it have been considered to
start at the beginning of the mayoral term? Because, it's going to be a kind of
funky time.
MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good afternoon again, Council Members. J Yoshimoto,
Assistant Corporation Counsel. Are we looking at an amendment?
ACTING CHR. INABA: For the record, we're on Bill 48. In Section 2-271,
there are amendments today that address, but we're just having a bigger
conversation before we head into one of the amendments.
MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. So we're not on the amendments yet, but then the
question is, when would be the start date. Well, as drafted
MS. KAGIWADA: As drafted, when would that six-year term start?
MR. YOSHIMOTO: It would be upon appointment of whoever is appointed.
But, as drafted, this is going through civil service. That's why I asked
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MS. KAGIWADA: The amendments are looking at fixing that, so I don't want to
get mired in that now. But I was just trying to figure out, yeah, when the
appointment takes place, that's when the six years start.
MR. YOSHIMOTO: Correct, based on this. If the Council is considering
amendments, which is not currently on the floor yet, but that ties to the mayoral
term, then it should say so because there's specific provisions in the Charter that
says it's coterminous with the Mayor or not. So I would recommend that if that's
the will of the Council. So, yeah.
MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Interesting. Okay. All right. Well, we'll look at that
when we get to the amendments. That's all I have for now. Thank you, Chair.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. I'm just going to build off of that, Mr. Yoshimoto,
because Ms. Kagiwada had a question as it relates to Bill 48 currently. And if I
understand this correctly, the appointment will take effect when—"this ordinance
shall take effect upon its approval." So, assuming approval at second reading,
then it would trigger the process for us to go, right? I mean, it's not at the start of
a mayoral term, the way it's currently written, right? It's when this ordinance
takes effect. I think I'm nipping at the same thing Ms. Kagiwada is asking, and I
just understand that if we pass this, then it becomes law and we've got to go do
what this says, which also means go find a director for the agency. Am I
understanding that correctly, Mr. Yoshimoto?
MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes, Council Member Lee Loy. I agree with that analysis
because, clearly, the ordinance would take effect upon approval. But then the
administrator would not be hired until you actually hire someone, right. So the
literal reading would be that, yeah, when they're actually hired. Whether it's civil
service or if it's a mayoral and Council confirmation, right, yeah.
MS. LEE LOY: Right. And then we'll go address that when we start pulling up
the amendments.
Mr. Inaba, I had questions around similar things specifically as it relates to the
definitions. And since we're kind of looking at the bill at broad strokes, definitely
I had a question around "environmental justice," specifically the last sentence as it
relates to "distributed fairly regardless of race, color, national origin, or income."
And I had done some work with the equal opportunity office, and then they go
into sex, age, and all these other things. And so I was just curious if this was kind
of just an oversight, or are you borrowing language based on other areas of our
law that speaks specifically to this diversity piece? To the makers.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Chair Kimball, if you'd like to respond.
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MS. KIMBALL: This definition is pulled from the EPA's (Environmental
Protection Agency's) Justice40 Initiative. However, I am absolutely willing to
amend it to include those other protected categories, and I do consider it an
oversight that it wasn't included. So I'm happy to add that as well.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you.
MS. LEE LOY: And then, in addition to—same definition: "`Environmental
justice' means that all people receive equal protection from environmental
hazards and"—and I'm not sure if this helps or hurts, but putting it out to the
makers if it should read "equitable access." Because, we keep going back and
forth between equity and equality and just let it massage and resonate. Related
to equity; I think you addressed that with the amendment, so I'll leave it alone.
To my point regarding the cadence of how we kind of use sustainability, climate,
equity, and resilience, or the interchangeability. Under Section 37-2-21(a)(2), it
reads: "Improve environmental justice and equity by promoting specific policies
and actions to ensure that"—and I'm not sure if this is a couple words missing
"sustainability, climate change mitigation and adaptation"—and I think we
covered that in the amendment. And so, when I read further on in that
Section (b), the shared metrics—and again, it's the cadence of it—is it
sustainability, climate change? Because it reads: "climate mitigation and
adaption." And then similar question under Section (c)(3), the cadence, which is
"stakeholders on sustainability, climate change mitigation and adaptation, equity,
and resilience." And again,just having done this a little bit, you just get stuck
into that cadence of exactly what we're seeing. Maybe it's just stylistic writings.
Just putting it out there for thought.
MS. KIMBALL: May I respond, Chair? There's actually a distinction. When
it's sustainability, climate, equity, and resilience, we're talking about agenda
items, priorities, issue areas. When we're talking about action, it's sustainability,
climate adaptation and mitigation, because those are the things you do with
respect to climate change. Equity and resilience. So the pointing to adaptation
mitigation is intentional because we're talking more about action in those
particular clauses then we are philosophies.
And then with respect to (a)(2), I think I'm going to have to reword that because I
actually don't think the problem is with the definitions. But in reflecting about
what you and Holeka have said, I think my issue is the way the phrase actually
comes together. So let me work maybe on the phrase rather than the definition.
MS. LEE LOY: Great. Thank you so much. Mr. Inaba, I yield.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Checking in
with anyone who hasn't had the chance to share. Okay, heading back to Council
Member Evans.
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MS. EVANS: Okay, this is for Corporation Counsel. Hello? Sorry.
ACTING CHR. INABA: We have Assistant Corporation Counsel J Yoshimoto
here in chambers.
MS. EVANS: It's a legal question. We have a definition. We just talked a little
bit more about environmental justice. And I believe there's been lots of probably
lawsuits and a lot of stuff that's been done on environmental justice over the
years. If environmental justice appears somewhere else in our Code or in our
laws and regulations of the County, should we be consistent with that definition
just so we don't set ourselves up for maybe going out of the box a little bit.
Because again, I do think there's always lawsuits around environmental justice.
MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good afternoon again, Council Members. J Yoshimoto,
Assistant Corporation Counsel. The short answer is yes. I agree that if there is
another definition, a term of art, that's in our Code, I can't recall it off the top of
my head. But if there is, we need to make sure that it's the same, right.
MS. EVANS: Yeah, because I'm looking at the way it was written. It means that
all people receive equal protection from environmental hazards. Then you read
on that all people are given equitable access to a healthy and sustainable
environment, that all people are provided fair treatment. To me, placement of
landfills has always been one of the hardest things to do with environmental
justice. And I know that on Oahu, Waimanalo, their landfill, it's just created all
kinds of grief for the City and County of Honolulu when it comes to landfills.
I'm just wondering if this,just kind of the way we wrote it or whatever, and
depending on what else we may have already in our Codes or even in State law,
that this might, I don't know. I just don't want to open this up to "Now, we get a
lawsuit."
MR. YOSHIMOTO: So we can look at that and research that to see if it's used in
our Code or Charter. I don't recall it specifically,but we can look at that.
MS. EVANS: I only have to say this because it may pass today, and I want to
make sure it's done and we're protecting the County from lawsuits. Of course, I
still would like to see it go as a Charter amendment, or to postpone this and come
back and give these positions to R&D. That would be my position. But, Chair, I
have a question for Zendo Kern. Is that okay?
ACTING CHR. INABA: Yeah, sure. And just a reminder for the body to please
address Administration by their titles. Director Kern, thank you.
(Note: At this time, Planning Director Zendo Kern came forward to
address the members of the Council.)
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MR. KERN: Good afternoon. Zendo Kern, Director of Planning.
MS. EVANS: Hi.
MR. KERN: Hi.
MS. EVANS: I was looking at your long-range planning division and some of
your slides on it. Is that the place that you put together the climate action plan?
MR. KERN: Yeah, that would be my division that worked in partnership with
R&D for the climate action plan, yes.
MS. EVANS: Okay. So do you have people in the long-range planning division
that are devoted to sustainability, equity, what we're trying to achieve here?
MR. KERN: Most of my staff is devoted to sustainability. As it relates to them
working specifically on this plan, not necessarily exactly how it would format to
what OCER's bringing up. We have folks in there that work where we have some
work on climate, transportation, etcetera.
MS. EVANS: What I understand is you're out trying to rewrite the General Plan.
You work with the community development action committees and stuff like that.
So, when you're talking with them, are you not doing this piece of sustainability
and climate action? Aren't those conversations occurring?
MR. KERN: Yeah. I mean, they are occurring. We deal a lot with sustainability
and climate change and resilience. I sit on the climate change commission for the
State because the State put in there that the planning director sit in there. Same
with R&D; they are doing work on sustainability as well.
To kind of lean into this a little bit where I do see a gap is the linkage, that glue,
that coordinator, that can bring all the departments together. And I think we have
generally some good cooperation together with departments, but that's not always
the case. And sometimes, the Planning Department, you're going into another
department. It's like we're going into your house, and there can be a sense of
ownership in there.
And I think with what OSCER could do is it creates a bit more anonymity, if you
will, or a little bit more neutrality around, "Hey, this is my goal. This is my job
that I'm supposed to do within OSCER as an administrator. And, yes, I'm
coming into Planning. Yes, I'm going to come talk with you folks and link you
up with this other department to bring that collaboration, coordination,
communication together under kind of one voice."
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And that's where I see a lot of value with this, even though there is work that we
do that might have a little bit of overlap. I think we can work it out so it's more
complementary.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Before we continue, I want us to focus on:
We know and we've discussed the intention of what this office would be
numerous times. Where we are right now is, I know some folks maybe disagree
with the approach or how we're standing it up, but I want us to remember the
intention of what this was, as it was shared by the introducers, so that we don't
have to continue having the same questions or discussions as we make it through
this bill. So, if we can just focus it to what's in this bill and what we know the
office would be stood up, based on the bill before us. Thank you.
MS. EVANS: Well, I think I'm right on spot asking these questions, because I
think it's really clear that the sense of urgency that was spoken by previous
Council Members, I don't agree with that. I do think that our County is doing a
pretty good job trying to address sustainability. And that's my questioning, is we
are in the middle of doing this anyway.
But if the point of this is to get money from the Federal Government, which I
heard one of the previous Council Members mention, I do believe Research and
Development has people on staff that seek out grants and money from the Federal
Government. And they also have an energy czar or whatever you call them that
coordinates and talks with people about energy across the different departments.
I guess my point being is I do think that we already have structure. And if we just
need a few more people to make us be better at what we do, that would be the
way I would go. If we believe that our community and our future of this island is
dependent on us standing up an Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and
Resilience, then we should do a Charter amendment. City and County of
Honolulu did a Charter amendment. It's a strong statement. It says, "This is what
we're all about." Our future children—four generations from now, we'll see that
we have this department and that we were committed as a County to it. I
personally think that's a stronger statement and the way to go. But thank you.
Thank you, Chair, I yield.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. I'm going to respectfully request that no
one mention the Charter amendments if that was your preference. We have a bill
for an ordinance to stand up. We understand and everyone has heard if, or if you
haven't said it yet, you can go ahead and say that you would prefer a Charter
amendment. But for those who have made their point clear, it is understood, and
we have a bill before us to stand up an office via ordinance. Council
Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: I just wanted to quickly express my gratitude for all the
constituents of this County who sent in testimony in support of this bill and
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moving forward, and standing up this office within our County. So I just wanted
to express that gratitude. And from the support that Chair Kimball and I have
received from those that have worked within offices like this in other
municipalities around the State and the successes that they have experienced. So,
I—yeah, I just wanted to express that gratitude.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Galimba.
MS. GALIMBA: I hope this is an appropriate time to bring this up, but I just
wanted to say that I would—I've been thinking about it, and I think I would prefer
the mayoral appointment and Council confirmation. Civil service has its positives
in that you have continuity. But I just feel like, given the subject area, I think we
want a more dynamic kind of leader rather than a very steady leader. It was a
hard choice, but I think I'm tipping towards the (Comm. 279).58.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. And you know
what, let's run with that. I just want to get a pulse on that so we can proceed with
an appropriate amendment, if you have a preference and if you'd like to share it at
this time. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Given the option of two
communications, each one is different by basically civil service and mayoral. I
like that there was one requirement put in because that was bothering me. It
really was bothering me that we didn't have any requirements for a director or an
administrator. So that fulfilled that part of my question.
And then, two, given civil service and mayoral, I would rather see the Mayor
appoint and Council confirm. I like that. I'm still not hooked on this six-year
term just because so much changes in six years. And I really do feel an
administrator needs to be able to move and change, but also be possibly new and
younger than we are used to, because they may know things that we don't. That's
it. So six years, two consecutive terms. That's twelve years of one person
directing, potentially. That's a decade of direction from one person. That I would
question. I'm still stuck on that. But I do like all the requirements put in, and I
would prefer mayoral versus civil service.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz. And before
we just state your preference because I don't want to get into the nitty-gritty of
the amendment before we actually read it in.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair Inaba. My preference is going to be a
mayoral appointment with confirmation by Council. And when we're on the
amendment, I can discuss the reasons why I'm going in this direction. Thank
you.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Ms. Villegas.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MS. VILLEGAS: I concur with that same choice. I also wanted to apologize and
correct myself. I don't know why; I can't get it out of my mind that the Clerk
serves for six years when it's only four. So my apology and I correct myself for
that. Oh, the auditor is six years. Okay, thank you. I knew there was something.
Thank you.
ACTING CHR. INABA: All right. Before we have any further conversation on
the bill as a whole, would we like to take up the amendment?
MS. KIMBALL: Sure. I can do that now.
Motion to Amend: Ms. Kimball moved to amend Bill 48 with the contents of
Comm. 279.58. Seconded by Ms. Galimba.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Chair Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. So, as mentioned before, this solves something
with the bill that we were informed was not going to be workable. I'd like to
invite Director Adams. He and I and Jake Sykes and Kendra Obermaier sat down
and talked a little bit about the skills and experience that we were hoping for. But
maybe, Director, if you could maybe speak a little bit more to your position on the
appointment being the preferred approach to hiring this administrator.
MR. ADAMS: Thank you, Chair. Doug Adams, Director of R&D. In the
conversation about this particular position, as the administrator, it's been my
contention that the individual needs to have a connection both to the County, in
this case the Administration, and then also to the environment. Doing that with
civil service hiring can be difficult.
The idea of using an appointment process, which then allows, obviously, the
Council with confirmation apparatus, allows for, in the entire leadership of the
County, to have some say on the individual that would be selected for this
particular position. The position itself, with the variety of qualifications that are
included, that will be something that you all will take a look at. But I think it's
important that whoever the individual is, that they have both the backing of
County leadership and the environmental folks that we have on the island. The
best way, at least from my vantage point, to do that is going to be through an
appointment process.
I think the other thing I would say is that, as we look at the office, the more
flexible that we make the initial elements of the office, the more opportunities we
have to see how best it can operate as an office. We know that there is going to
be some overlap; it's clear. That doesn't make it bad. It just means that we need
to work through it. The ability then to manage the personnel side of that will be
important.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
And the other part of this is I would imagine if I was the one that would be
coming in—and I know that I won't be but if I was the one that was going to be
in that position, I would like to have some say about the operations as well as
what the positions are. Then I think we would want that. If we're going to make
a big deal about the administrator, we should provide that opportunity as well.
If I may, also, the Managing Director is not here, but he and I worked together
prior to me coming to this session. And if I may, his position was also the
mayoral appointment side of things.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Director. And I don't know, Director Kern; do you
want to contribute to this part of the discussion as well, as to your
recommendations on the ?
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Can we keep this brief? I want to make
sure that—at this point, it's the Council's kind of prerogative on which way we
want to go.
MR. KERN: Sure. Zendo Kern, Planning Director. I concur with the sentiments
of Director Adams. I like the potential idea of the six-year crossover. I know it's
a little bit tricky to get to, but there's also kind of a continuity conversation there I
think merits some good thought and consideration around that. And this chair is
sinking slowly, as I sit here, on its own. Thanks.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Director. There we are. This is, like I said, to
correct the language that exists now, which was determined to be not usable based
on DHR's recommendation. And then, like I said, with an appointment you want
to make sure you add some minimum expectations for the position. So we
worked on this together, and we figured we'd just add it to the civil service one as
well. But yeah, that's it on the amendment.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I'll be supporting this amendment. As
I was listening to Director Adams and then Director Kern speak to the merits of
this particular pathway, I thought, "Well, instead of one name, why don't they
advance two to the Council for consideration?" Just something to consider. But I
do trust the Administration in identifying a candidate for the Council to consider,
and have live and very public interview.
I'm good with the six years. I think two is too short; I think we can all attest to
that. Having to run all the time, that's barely enough time to get your feet wet,
and to understand the inner workings of government, especially haven't worked in
government before. I think four is not a good idea because that's too aligned with
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
the election of our Mayor, and we don't want this to be a political seat. I think six
is perfect because it gives you enough time to really make a positive impact,
potentially, and then work between two administrations.
I think if that person is interested in continuing on in that capacity, they will have
a body of work to show whoever is serving in the Administration as to why they
should continue in that position. So will be supporting this amendment as stated.
Thank you, Chair.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Council Member Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Because I can read the room, I actually was
planning on opposing this amendment. I like the civil service process, to some of
the points that the Director has made about continuity. Plus it just really solidifies
that office. Having gone through a few budget cycles, oftentimes you can just cut
an agency or an office by just not funding that office. And if you did it with civil
service, it really locks it in.
But since I can read the room, I like the elements of the six years for that part, but
what I don't see is any removal portion. Because, we all have Kumbaya moments
when they're getting appointed. But, over time, sometimes they're not working
out, and there's no way to say, "Thank you but this isn't working out." And so
I've shared why I wouldn't support this amendment, but maybe we can tinker
with it a little more, too, as we go down the road to address some of those other
concerns that I have. I yield.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada.
MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. I'll also be supporting this amendment. I
like the ability for us to really hear from a prospective candidate and weigh in. I
think exploring the idea that Council Member Kierkiewicz put forward with
possibly having two is interesting. I'm not sure how that would work, but I
wouldn't be opposed to exploring that. And I do like the six-year thing I think.
Just a little confused about exactly when it will start. But, hopefully, it all works
out. So, yeah, I'll be supporting. Thank you, Chair.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Council Chair Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, everyone, for the feedback. I see that Corporation
Counsel's been slowly edging his way towards the front, as if trying to signal
wanting to make a contribution to this conversation. So I'll ask Assistant Corp.
Counsel to please weigh in.
MR. YOSHIMOTO: Thank you, Madam Chair. I do have concerns about the
six-year provision, based upon what the Charter says in terms of terms of office
for department heads. Basically, the terms of office of department heads,
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
deputies, assistants shall be coterminous with that of the appointing authority. My
quick read of this is that the six years would be inconsistent with the Charter.
Now, we can do more research on this; again, I just looked at this today. But
that's my initial take. You could still amend it further because there's another
reading, but just as an initial take,just so everyone knows.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, J, Assistant Corp. Counsel. Just to remind
everyone, I did actually work closely with Judge Strance on all of this. So there
was a discussion we had about the six-year term and the appointment process.
MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay.
MS. KIMBALL: So I'll refresh my memory on those conversations, but I think
we found a way to actually justify it. There might be, as you mentioned, Council
Member Lee Loy, because this is not actually created as—it doesn't fall under the
guidance of the Charter per se. In there, it's clear the removal process, but like
the Housing Administrator, there's clear language in there that the Mayor has the
ability to remove. I would have a quick question: if everybody would want the
Council—I'll deal with that. I'll propose other couple amendments for Draft 2.
One last point I did want to make is that, to the concerns about having that
consistency of the office and the funding and the support of it, one of the
conversations we've had is that, would the staff then, ultimately, become civil
service. And so it would function very much like the other departments, where
the department heads are this political appointee. But then the staff positions are
civil service so it would have that continuity. But I'll touch base with you offline
about the length of the term. If we need to make adjustments, we will.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Any other discussion on the amendment? All right.
Just for me,pending further review from Corporation Counsel, if we're able to
keep this six-year term, having it be clear what are the provisions for removal.
Because, obviously, that's the point of this option, is that we can have removal. I
would assume it would be in line with other removals, with confirmation from the
Council. It has to be like that, or it would defeat the purpose of the six years
because the next mayor could oust this administrator. So just want to see how we
can include that language on how removal would work. Mr. Kaneali`i-
Kleinfelder, something quick?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes, quick. I would just implore the body,
mindful of the political nature of mayoral terms, council terms, what we've seen
enough is climate change is quick and fast. And we're having a hard time
keeping up. That's why we're here. That's why this bill is being brought
forward; trying to take advantage of money and funding and this and that, and
everything is changing. If you set a six-year term with the potential for twelve,
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
again, that is a decade. That is a long time for one person to guide decision-
making in regards to all of these different things that are being put forward in this
bill. Just putting it out there.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. I'll make one last statement regarding that:
That's where the provisions for removal have to be put in because it doesn't
guarantee anyone six years, and doesn't guarantee anyone twelve years. They
could be removed if we get that language in like we need to. So there's a motion
on the floor to amend Bill 48, as amended, with the contents of
Communication 279.58. Roll call,please, Mr. Clerk.
Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 48 with the contents of
Amend: Comm. 279.58 was carried by the following roll call vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Kagiwada,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Inaba—7.
Noes: Council Members Evans and Lee Loy —2.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Bill 48 is further amended. Back on the main motion,
which is to approve Bill 48 at first reading, as amended. Council Chair Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Acting Chair Inaba. I just want to revisit a couple
of things. One is that this was a hugely collaborative effort over a total of two
years; involved with Director Adams, Director Kern, Corporation Counsel, the
Finance Department, members of the community. One of the folks that I failed to
recognize last time was Leslie Chow in our LRB (Legislative Research Branch). I
want to recognize her right now because of some of the questions Council
Member Evans had about the definitions. This bill actually morphed a lot under
her guidance and her hands. She checks things like the location of the definitions
in other places in the Code when she does that work.
With respect to the potential of her issues with the problematic issues down the
road with that sentence where we specifically speak to environmental justice and
equity, the wording there is "improve." At one point, I had "ensure," and that's
the difference where one word can come to play is we cannot. And we put
ourselves in a precarious position when we try to ensure things. But if we are
using this office to try to improve, that is a different measure. That's a different
metric.
If there's one thing I'm guilty of, folks, is I work really hard. I spend a lot of time
on the background. Council Member Evans, when you said it looks like it was
strategically organized to get this bill passed, well, yes! That's what I have spent
the last two years doing is setting up every little piece to get to this day. It is
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
absolutely intentional. All of that testimony you got, that was testimony you got
because I went out there to make sure everybody knew that this was happening.
If there's one thing I'm guilty of, though, is that everybody here on this dais was
with me at every one of those conversations. You all know exactly what I'm
talking about. And I realize that doesn't happen all the time.
I think that I've done the best that I can to express from my side, from the
legislative side, why I think that it is absolutely necessary that this be a separate
coordinating authority. The climate action plan, the draft that was released,
identifies a central coordinating authority as the key first implementation staff in
the climate action plan.
We have Director Adams here, Director Zendo here, who have worked with me
on this, as well as—Lee Lord and the Mayor could not be here today,
unfortunately, at this time to also express their support. We all agree that it
doesn't work if it's R&D. It has to be Cabinet level. And as much as I appreciate
your position, Council Member Evans, there is an absolute intention for this, and
it is part of what makes it work. I'll leave it at that. Thank you for letting me
stand on my this is the hill I'm dying on, folks! So thank you for letting me
stand on my hill. I appreciate it. I yield, Chair.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Chair Kimball. Okay, reminding us we're
on the bill. So we have something before us and we amended it today. If you
want to see further changes, please clearly articulate those changes so we can be
wise with our time. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, go ahead.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. On the bill, as amended,
and I have my concerns. I've been in Council for almost five years, and I've seen
our County government. I've watched the way it works. I've seen commitments
to break silos and strategies and this and that. But I mean really, to me, creating a
department doesn't create a change. I love the idea. I came out of the solar field
ten years. That's all we did, to me, was create change every day. You're getting
someone off the grid. You're creating sustainability, whatever it might be. So I
see things a little bit differently.
I'm concerned this is a million dollars of taxpayer money, roughly, to create a
department that has, from today, better guidance. I like that. I do have my
concerns about what this department will actually do and what direction they will
have. So I'm going to vote "no"today. And it's weird for me to say that because
my background comes from this, and this is where I want to see us move.
But I really do question whether the County, having created the department and
spending a million dollars a year to get it started, is it going to create the changes
that we want to see? If it does, hey, great. If it doesn't, I'm not going to say, "I
said so." It's just that's my—what does Judge Strance call me? Cynical?part
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
of my cynical nature in just watching government. So I'm going to vote "no." I
fully support the idea. That's why it's weird for me to say that. But I'm going to
vote "no."
I hope to be proved wrong on this one, that you guys prove me wrong and that
this department stands itself up, maybe even become sustainable itself in not
needing County funding anymore down the line. But I hope that it does stand
itself up and do find an administrator and this happens, because that would make
me prouder than saying no today. I appreciate the conversation. I like everyone's
points. I feel like this really is a nice content at this point, but just going to say
no. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Chair Inaba. What I wanted to say,just in
synopsis, is I'll stand on that hill with you, Heather. Thank you for your
leadership, perseverance, tenacity, collaborative-mindedness, and inclusion of me
in this process in all our meetings we've had over the last few years, and the
relationships I've gotten to reconnect with.
In my prior life, working with the Kona Brewing Company, I got to help stand up
their sustainability programs, and that company has gone on to win awards for
both the brewery and the restaurants—something I hold very near and dear to my
heart. Is it perfect? Nope. None of us get to be. Not as humans. Not as
governments. Not as companies. But I firmly believe and firmly stand behind
this office and the creation of this office in our County government. And the
words that continue to ring through my head are: He `ike `ana is i ka pono. To
see the right thing to do and do it. And that's what I believe voting in support of
the passage of Bill 48 at first reading today is. And, with that, I yield.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Council
Member Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Acting Chair Inaba. Mahalo nui, Council
Chair Kimball, Council Member Villegas. I know how passionate you are about
these issues, and so I'll be on the hill with you too.
But there's no denying climate change is real and it's here, and it threatens our
communities. But it threatens island communities most: our economy, our
culture, our way of life. And so I definitely support the creation of this office.
One million dollars is a drop in the bucket when you think about the adversity we
are going to face because of climate change.
And I don't want my kids to say, "Mom, why didn't you do anything about it
when you were in a position at the County to establish a dedicated office and team
to work on mitigation, adaptation strategies; to foster collaboration between all
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
County departments; County, State, Federal agencies; to create an office that is
going to be securing funding, implementing solutions?" That is critical. I'm
voting "yes"today because this is the right thing to do.
I mentioned this in Committee: It's a moral imperative that we act on this and
that we show our community that this is a priority for Hawaii County. And this
is an incredible legacy that we can be leaving for future generations, that we are
prioritizing taking climate action here on our island. Thank you, Chair, I yield.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Any further comments?
Council Member Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I'm going to be voting "no,"not because I
don't believe in any of this or all the reasons that have been articulated by my
colleagues. I hear loud and clearly that we're going to be tinkering with it again
at second reading, and I don't like doing it because it gives very limited
opportunities for the community to comment, leaning into that transparency piece.
And then we end up suspending our rules and hammering it in with the promise,
"It's not perfect, but we can go back and revisit it."
And so I'm just going to really lean into these makers: It's okay to hold it at first
reading and get it right before we take it to second reading. The funding's there.
We're not going to be able to spend it until we create this organizational
framework. So, given my choices at where we're at, I'm going to be voting "no"
because I don't want to rush something that clearly is very important. Thank you,
Chair, I yield.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Any other discussion before I go back to the makers?
Okay, Council Chair Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: I'm going to go ahead and hear you, Council Member Lee Loy,
and rely on the fact that when it does come to the next reading, the amendments
will be there and your mind will be changed. We are only looking at a couple of
days. If we postpone this to the next June Council meeting, which is the 21st
right, and then second reading is going to be there for the 5th of July, we're in the
new fiscal year. I can wait four or five days. This is important enough. So I'll
make the motion to postpone to the June 21"hearing.
Motion to Postpone: Ms. Kimball moved to postpone Bill 48, as amended to
Draft 2, to June 21, 2023. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Any discussion on the postponement?
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
MS. LEE LOY: Yes, Chair, on the postponement. I'm going to go ahead and
email you my concerns that we discussed just so I can provide it in bullet points to
you. But just to recap, it really is the removal piece and then the definitions
around "environmental justice" and "equity." Thank you.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any other discussion on postponement?
All those in favor,please say "aye."
Vote on Motion to The motion to postpone Bill 48, as amended to Draft 2, to
Postpone: June 21, 2023, was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Acting Chair Inaba—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. INABA: Bill 48, as amended, is postponed to the June 21"
Council meeting.
Relinquish Chair: At this time, Acting Chair Inaba relinquished the chair to
Chair Kimball.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Directors, for being here.
ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of
THE DAY the Day (Second or Final Reading).
(SECOND OR
FINAL READING): (Note: Items in this category were taken up previously, out of order.)
REPORTS: The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Reports.
(Note: Items in this category were taken up previously, out of order.)
REFERRALS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Referrals
EXECUTIVE for Executive Session.
SESSION:
Comm. 304: ONTAI V. HEELO LLC; COUNTY OF HAWAII, ET AL.,
CIVIL NO. 3CCV-22-0000282
From Deputy Corporation Counsel Ryan K. Thomas, dated April 27, 2023,
requesting an attorney-client confidential discussion to consult with the Council
regarding the above-entitled matter, including litigation filed by Phillip Carey and
Paul Hamano on behalf of their client Michael Ontai.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Motion to Close Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 304. Seconded
File: by Ms. Galimba.
MS. LEE LOY: Chair?
CHR. KIMBALL: Yes.
MS. LEE LOY: I'll do the will of the body if we need to get into Executive
Session. I'd love to hear if that's the direction we want to go.
CHR. KIMBALL: Great. Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. So,just for my
colleagues, we have a couple of options here. If you've reviewed the
communication and agree with the recommendations, we can just move forward
with that. If you would like to have time to talk to our Corporation Counsel, we
can move into Executive Session, per Chapter 92, HRS (Hawai`i Revised
Statutes). Any feedback from folks? Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. I read through the document. I
agree with the recommendations of Corporation Counsel. I'll be supporting that.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Anyone else?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I'll just say that I, too, did read the report, but I do
not concur with the recommendations. We don't need to go into Executive
Session. But that is my position, that the County is not negligent. Thank you.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Anyone else?
MR. BROWN: Excuse me, Chair. We just got word that Mr. Thomas is coming
over right now in case we do want a discussion.
CHR. KIMBALL: Okay. I'm going to suggest, since we have conflicting
opinions on the recommendation and this is a legal matter, that we should go into
Executive Session and take the opportunity to speak with Corporation Counsel.
So, Council Member Lee Loy, please.
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Hawaii County Council-15 June 7,2023
Vote on Motion to Ms. Lee Loy moved to enter into Executive Session in
Enter into order to hold attorney-client privilege discussion regarding
Executive Session: Communication 304, as authorized by Section 92-5(a)(4) of
(Approved) the Hawaii Revised Statutes. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and
carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
Recess: At 2:27 p.m., the Chair called for a recess in order to clear the room.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 2:53 p.m.
Vote on Motion to Ms. Lee Loy moved to concur with the recommendation of
Concur: Corporation Counsel regarding Comm. 304. Seconded by
(Approved) Ms. Galimba and carried by the following roll call vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Villegas,
and Chair Kimball —7.
Noes: Council Members Inaba and Kierkiewicz—2.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you very much. Back to the main motion to close file.
Any further discussion on that? Hearing none, all those in favor of closing file on
Communication 304, please say "aye."
Vote on Comm. 304: The motion to close file on Comm. 304 was carried by the
Filed following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
OTHER The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Other
BUSINESS: Business.
(There were none.)
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Hawai`i County Council-15 June 7,2023
ANNOUNCE- The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
MENTS: Announcements.
(There were none.)
ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 2:55 p.m., Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adjourn
MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KIMBALL: We are adjourned. The time is 2:55.
Council Approval: . AUG 1 6 2023
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