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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2023-07-06 2022-2024 Hawaii County Council 171h Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii July 6, 2023 INVOCATION: Pastor Chris Czarnecki of First United Protestant Church gave the morning's invocation. CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at ORDER: 9:03 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 (via videoconference from Kona) PLEDGE OF The Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of ALLEGIANCE: Allegiance. (At this time, Noah Otani, a member of the Waiakea High School Boys Golf Team, 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 (Note: At this time: EXPRESSIONS OF 1) Ms. Lee Loy presented Certificates of Merit to the Waiakea High School Boys CONDOLENCE: Golf Team for winning the Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Team Championship; and 2) Mr. Inaba presented the July 2023 Haweo Award to Firefighter Keoni Soares of the Hawaii Fire Department.) (Note: A recess was called at the end of each presentation.) Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 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: Loke Davis: Bill 230, Draft 2 (Comm. 1060.11), comment. Leslie Cole-Brooks: Bill 48, Draft 3 (Comm. 279.83), in support. Lorraine Shin: Bill 230, Draft 2 (Comm. 1060.11), in opposition. (representing Downtown Improvement Association) Nancy Cabral: Bill 230, Draft 2 (Comm. 1060.11), comment. Deborah Beaver: Bill 230, Draft 2 (Comm. 1060.11), in opposition. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you very much. With that, can I have a motion on the minutes? APPROVAL The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Approval OF MINUTES: of Minutes. Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to approve the Minutes of May 18, 2023. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. KIMBALL: Any discussion on the minutes? MS. LEE LOY: Chair, yes, I just really want to mahalo staff. I mean, what is this, like less than two months out and we've got minutes. So, thank you so much for the hard work that staff puts in to transcribing hours and hours of testimony. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Yes, we definitely appreciate the hard work from Council Services. All right, all those in favor of approving the minutes please say "aye." Page 2 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Vote on Approval The motion to approve the Minutes of May 18, 2023, was of Minutes: 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: The minutes from May 18'h are approved. If we could go now to "Reports,"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-52 NOMINATION OF KEITH UNGER TO THE WATER BOARD (Comm. 318): Requires Council Confirmation by: July 15, 2023 (Section 13-4(k), Hawaii County Charter) Vote on GOEAC-52: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Governmental Operations and (Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 52. 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: The nomination of Keith Unger to the Water Board is approved. GOEAC-53 NOMINATION OF SAMUEL PLUNKETT, JR., TO THE PUBLIC ACCESS, (Comm. 319): OPEN SPACE, AND NATURAL PRESERVATION COMMISSION Requires Council Confirmation by: July 15, 2023 (Section 13-4(k), Hawaii County Charter) Page 3 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Vote on GOEAC-53: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Governmental Operations and (Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 53. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada 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: The nomination of Samuel Kamuela Plunkett is confirmed. Congratulations. GOEAC-54 NOMINATION OF JEREMY BUTTERFIELD TO THE FIRE BOARD OF (Comm. 327): APPEALS Requires Council Confirmation by: July 15, 2023 (Section 13-4(k), Hawaii County Charter) Vote on GOEAC-54: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Governmental Operations and (Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 54. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada 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: The nomination of Jeremy Butterfield to the Fire Board of Appeals is confirmed. We will take it, now, to the top of the agenda to resolutions, please. Return to Order The Chair directed the Council to return to the order of business. of Business: ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of RESOLUTIONS: Resolutions. Page 4 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Res. 195-23: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO INTERFAITH COMMUNITIES IN ACTION FOR ITS FUN WALK FUNDRAISER FOR HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HAWAII ISLAND Transfers $1,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 2); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation, Administration Other Current Expenses account. Reference: Comm. 332 Intr. by: Ms. Kagiwada Motion to Approve: Ms. Kagiwada moved to adopt Res. 195-23. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much. Just looking for your support. This is a group that is doing a fundraiser in order to benefit their 2023 awardee, which is Habitat for Humanity. That's all in support of an established fund that they have, which is called Hale ka Po`e Keiki, Home for Children. So, this is a group of interfaith, you know, organizations around the island, and they just want to raise funds and donate them to Habitat for Humanity to build safe spaces for keiki and their families. So, I want to thank the Department of Parks and Rec. (Recreation) for helping with the CRF (Contingency Relief Fund), and looking for your support. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Any additional discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting Resolution 195-23, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 195-23: The motion to adopt Res. 195-23 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 195-23 is adopted. Page 5 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Res. 197-23: URGES CONGRESS TO PRESERVE THE ZONING AND REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS OVER TELECOMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE Supports the National Association of Counties' concerns regarding the proposed "American Broadband Deployment Act of 2023,"which could potentially impact state and local zoning authority over the placement, construction, or modification of certain telecommunication infrastructure, the ability to receive compensation for the use of public rights-of-way, and the capacity of local governments to deny telecommunication permits, approvals, and authorizations. Reference: Comm. 334 Intr. by: Ms. Evans Waived: GOEAC Motion to Approve: Ms. Evans moved to adopt Res. 197-23. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. I actually believe the description said it quite well. I'm very hopeful that we support this and send a strong message to our congressional delegation that: Please do not pass, in the American Broadband Deployment Act, the ability for Federal Government to preempt this; and we would have no say, whatsoever, in the placement of cell towers and the deployment of broadband across our island. I think it's important that we still have the ability to participate in the location. We don't even understand yet I mean, there's a lot of neuroscience and a lot of scientists looking at broadband and cell towers and not understanding yet, I think, what the impacts are to certain people. There's some states in the union, I want to point out to people, that actually will not allow cell towers next to hospitals or next to senior facilities or next to schools and childcare facilities, because they don't know about its impacts yet on the brain. So, you know, I mean it's just moving out. So, we saw that this is moving. It's in the U.S. (United States) House of Representatives. It's sitting in Committee. They have had a hearing on it, but yet it has not passed out to the whole House to vote on it. NACo (National Association of Counties) has put out a call for action, asking for us, and I saw that, and I felt it was really important. So, thank you. I ask for your support. Page 6 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Any additional discussion? Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I will be strongly supporting this resolution, and I just want to point out that it was in the House Energy Committee. There was no hearing. They took a vote without a public hearing. So, that is very concerning. This would strip local governments' ability for land use authority. We have oversight on zoning and various construction projects, and that is something the Federal Government wants to strip away. Local governments know communities best, and we want to make sure we are preserving those rights. There are also some very concerning pieces in this legislation where, if a local government is not making a decision on an application related to telecommunications in a certain amount of time, it is deemed approved, and that is very concerning. We're not trying to impede any processes, but we want to make sure that we're doing due diligence anytime something related to this kind of infrastructure is before our body. So, I will be supporting this. The other thing that I want to note is there's a lot of funding that are provided by the various franchises to support public TV(television). This would essentially eliminate that. So, many communities around the country would not have public TV stations funded by these franchisees anymore. So, a lot of concerning elements, and I'm glad that you've taken it upon yourself, Council Member, to elevate this issue on a local level and to send our strong support to NACo. Thank you, yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah. Thank you, too, Council Member Evans, for advancing this. I think, you know,just around the broadband bill and some of the funding that's available, is really to serve disadvantaged, underserved communities. But to your point, right. A lot of times when we're trying to provide services to the community, it's building the pilina in community. And what this resolution does is ensure that that can be developed as we move in offerings of broadband and all of the services that go with it. As Council Member Kierkiewicz mentioned, oftentimes when government oversteps that building of pilina, that building of stakeholder communications, we end up not getting exactly what we need. So, preserving that for our community is the cornerstone of this resolution and why I strongly support this measure. I yield. Page 7 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting Resolution 197-23, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 197-23: The motion to adopt Res. 197-23 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 197-23 is adopted. STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public. PUBLIC ON RES. 198-23 The following individual registered to speak and came forward when called by (COMM. 338): the Chair: Douglass Adams: In support. (Research and Development Director) Res. 198-23: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE Seeks to establish, through the AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America Program, a Community Based Participatory Practice engagement that would empower the community to identify, define, evaluate, and address its most pressing challenges. Reference: Comm. 338 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 198-23. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. As the Director stated, this was waived to Council to expedite the process. I am in support of this. And I do appreciate Mr. Adams' testimony today on behalf of himself, and I would assume the agency as well, and look for everyone's support on this as well. Page 8 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. A bunch of lights at once. I'll go with Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. I just wanted to, well, thank you for keeping this program going. I know that you've had some really wonderful volunteers that have been helping with some of our key issues at R&D (Research and Development) and at Planning, and I've interacted with many of them. I just wanted to clarify, is this for the entire VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program, or is this for a specific project within the VISTA program? (Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Douglass Adams came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. ADAMS: This is for a new three-year cohort of VISTAS that we were recruiting to come to the County. MS. GALIMBA: That would be for R&D and potentially Planning and any other department that would want to participate? MR. ADAMS: That's correct, Council Member. MS. GALIMBA: Okay, thank you. Just wanted that clarified and definitely support. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. We'll go over here to Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Yes, good morning, Director Adams. I was just looking at your justification sheet. It expects to benefit six most vulnerable County subdivisions that have almost 60 to 70 percent of their households in poverty. Can you be specific on what areas of the island that they would be working in? MR. ADAMS: The areas that they work in, Council Member Evans, concerns the entire County. So, it's not any particular district. There may be some areas, there may be some projects, that are district-focused, but those projects will be determined once the VISTAS are here. MS. EVANS: Okay, thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. This might be a question for Corporation Counsel. Just being that we've had a program like this kind of running so far, and this one is to sign a three-year agreement, and I hope that we can continue programs like this, but are we required to have a resolution for every agreement that we'd be Page 9 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 entering into moving forward, being that we don't specify a term for working with this specific program? Or would this be able to cover other agreements moving forward with this same organization and program? (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. STRANCE: Good morning, Council. Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. May I address Mr. Adams? CHR. KIMBALL: Yes, go ahead. MS. STRANCE: Thank you. Doug, are you folks intending additional agreements to support this, or is this just to allow funding to, or a broader agreement to be reached with the VISTA folks? MR. ADAMS: This would be the only one that we see as required to establish the connection between us and the Federal organization here, the AmeriCorps, as a part of the Corporation for National Community Service. We have the funding budgeted. That's already been approved by the Council to the extent that we have a little bit that we provide as well as what AmeriCorps provides to support these folks coming in. There isn't any other requirement that I'm aware of. MS. STRANCE: Will the funding bounce over to multiple years? MR. ADAMS: The funding would be something that we would set up on an annual basis because that's how we do our budgets. So, we would be asking the Council for support of the amount that we support this program with. We don't pay for the entire program. AmeriCorps obviously pays an amount, and then we have an amount that we're invoiced. We would then request that amount as a part of our budget. MS. STRANCE: So, you have the AmeriCorps positions as budgeted positions that the County's share is within your budget, and then there's a contribution later from VISTA. MR. ADAMS: Right, and I'm just going to be careful here. They're not positions, so to speak, right; they're volunteers. And we recruit for them to take on particular projects through the course of the year that they're here. MS. STRANCE: I think it's okay. I would need to look a little more carefully, but it seems like the positions are set aside. Generally, we're required to enter into agreements with other governmental organizations. So, this would constitute that, and this is part of the permission that is requested. Then, pursuant to that, Page 10 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 the department then will have these spaces within their budget for the positions that, to the extent there is any expense related to the volunteers, those become County-budgeted items. But then the Council is aware that there will be these positions, and that there is this relationship with governmental agencies. So, it seems to fit within that kind of puka, and that's really my off-the-top-of-my-head thought. But just hearing Mr. Adams describe it, that would be the general thought that I have. MR. INABA: Thank you. Okay, so I just want to make sure. The question is coming from a place to help the department moving forward, that if there are going to be future agreements with the same program and the same Corporation for National and Community Service, that they don't—I'm asking if they need to come back here every time. Or, if we pass this resolution today, they don't need to come back for future agreements, because it doesn't specify. It's not agreement-specific. That's what I'm hoping we can expedite in the future, because I'm assuming we have already had this program to a certain extent or perhaps an agreement with this organization before. This is starting a new three-year agreement. But if we don't need to have them come forward every time, because we've already authorized agreements with this organization and this program, then it saves everybody time and the taxpayer dollars for us asking questions here right now. So,just want to do that. We can find out after, but just as a means to help the department moving forward, if they don't need to come back, then awesome, for future agreements with the same program. MS. STRANCE: I'd be a little uncomfortable giving an open-ended-forever kind of authorization. Mr. Adams has suggested that these have defined periods of time, and that's what this particular agreement is for. I can't speak for Mr. Adams as to the length of the authority that he's requesting. MR. INABA: Okay. It doesn't specify in any of the documents I see. So, I'll take is as, and I have no problem giving support to "forever"right now, but if it needs to specify moving forward terms within the resolution or within the B-52, then perhaps we should include that. If not, then I guess we'll take it as we can go; R&D can go ahead with Corporation for National and Community Service for this program indefinitely and for future agreements. Does that make sense to you, Director Adams? MR. ADAMS: Yeah, thank you, Council Member Inaba. I apologize for the vagueness of the resolution. It's our intent that this cover the three years. And if in fact there is an extension to four down the road, we would anticipate actually coming back, because that would be an extension of a known term. The three years is the normal AmeriCorps cohort time period that they use, and that was our Page 11 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 intent for this particular resolution. If there was going to be another agreement, we would anticipate coming back because it would be a separate time period for that, and it would be a different agreement that we would end up having. So, I appreciate the willingness to want us to carry through, but it's our intention that this be time-limited to the three-year cohort that is the standard AmeriCorps VISTA program. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you very much. Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Any other discussion? Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah,just some clarifying questions. Thanks, Director Adams, for being here. So, my understanding is this resolution will cover a 36-month period. But on the other end of that spectrum is our annual budget, right, which provides for the VISTA, correct? MR. ADAMS: Yes, ma'am. MS. LEE LOY: Is it the understanding of a VISTA when they join that they will be retained for the entire 36-month period or just annually? MR. ADAMS: Just annually. It's a one-year program for each of the volunteers. MS. LEE LOY: Awesome. Yeah, you know what, I can support this going forward. I think some of the clarifying things that Council Member Inaba brought up is excellent. I think where I'm kind of looking ahead of the curve a little bit, is when there's a turnover in Administration, right, that this agreement straddles. Acknowledging that every annual budget invites in the next VISTA, then there's an understanding there that they stay for the entire fiscal year, regardless of whom is coming and going within the Administration. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Adams. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Anyone else? Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Just a follow-up. Mr. Adams, how do you decide what the VISTAS will be studying or looking into, or taking on as a project? MR. ADAMS: We work with our specialists. Those are the mentors underneath the program to identify the projects that make sense for the VISTAS. There's also a recruitment process. So we have identified usually as a part of the project—let me go back a little bit, even before that. The initial use of this particular program Page 12 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 is associated with resilience and recovery efforts. And that formed the thematic nature of what the VISTAS would be coming to do for the next three years, and then the extension into the fourth year. This particular cohort is focused on sustainability. That's the thematic nature. So, the projects that we have will be connected to those areas, and it's in the areas that we have within the department, and that we also coordinate and collaborate with Planning on. So, areas in energy and mobility, in climate. So, some of the areas that—and economic interest as well. So, some of the areas that we have projects that we're moving forward on, we will have sub-projects that are part of that we will engage our VISTA volunteers on in a particular way. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for that; appreciate it. I yield, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Director Adams, it's great to see you. Thank you for being here to provide more information. Is there any way for the department to provide preference to local students? Local graduates who would like to participate in the program? Like I understand this is supposed to attract talent from across the country, but I'm just curious that if opportunities are extended to our local kids? MR. ADAMS: The opportunity is extended to everyone that actually applies in a particular area. But I think the specific question about, is there is a preference that we're allowed to provide, I'll have to get back to you on. If you pushed me to answer that right now, I think the answer would be "no." I don't think we're allowed to do that, being a Federal program, but I will check to see if, in fact, we have the ability to provide that preference. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, that would be helpful to know. I know that VISTAS don't earn a lot for the incredible work that they are producing for whatever organization they join. Are there other funds that are available to help supplement cost of living once they enter the program? MR. ADAMS: Thank you for that question. Before he left, our Deputy Director, Bob Agres, worked with the University of Hawaii at Hilo. And actually, I think that you all passed a resolution within the last year, potentially beyond that, that allowed for the use of UH Hilo (University of Hawaii at Hilo)residential dorms to serve as potential places for our VISTAS to live. To this point, I'm not aware that actually any of them have made use of that opportunity, but that is another example where we were trying to reduce the cost of living for the VISTAS that we were bringing in. Page 13 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, that's helpful. Then going forward, I actually would appreciate if the departments would come forward to the Council and provide an overview of any type of agreements that our County is entering into. I understand and appreciate the need and the desire to be efficient, but it's also important for us to know what sort of programs are happening within our County so that we can ensure that our residents have the opportunity to take advantage. If we have any questions, if things seem peculiar, we have the ability in a public forum to ask questions and ensure that it is something that we can get behind and support. Thank you, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone further discussion or comments? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 198-23: The motion to adopt Res. 198-23 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 198-23 is adopted. We'll move to Bills for First Reading. BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Bills for ORDINANCES Ordinances (First Reading). (FIRST READING): Page 14 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Bill 230: PROVIDES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAII (Draft 2) DOWNTOWN HILO BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 2, AS (2020-2022) AUTHORIZED BY CHAPTER 35 OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS Proposes the formation of a Business Improvement District to finance certain supplemental public safety, sanitation, landscaping, and maintenance services and infrastructure improvements in Downtown Hilo, to be funded by assessments on 313 commercial properties within the district boundaries at an assessed rate of $1.50 for every $1,000 of"Total Net Taxable Value" of each parcel of land, for a total estimated budget of$367,000 for the first operating year of the proposed Business Improvement District. Reference: Comm. 1060.11 Intr. by: Ms. Kimball Approve: FC-228 Postponed: November 16 and December 21, 2022, and March 8, 2023 Public Hearing: February 7, 2023 (recessed to February 24, 2023) Proceedings Ceased: April 5, 2023, pursuant to Section 35-13(b) of the Hawaii County Code (Note: There is a motion by Mr. Chung, seconded by Mr. Inaba, to pass Bill 230, as amended, on first reading.) CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Motion to Postpone: Ms. Kagiwada moved to postpone Bill 230, Draft 2, to the call of the Chair. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kagiwada, on the motion? MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, everybody, for being patient as we work with the public to really hear and understand what their feelings are around this. The reason I am moving to postpone to the call of the Chair is mainly two-fold. One is, I've met with and heard from many business owners and property owners in the Downtown Hilo area. While they really understand the need for some kind of organization that can help with improvement in the downtown area and work with the County, they feel strongly that this BID (Business Improvement District) is not the correct vehicle at this point. So, I want to respect them. Page 15 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 They really feel like they can pull together organization, and they have an organization called the Downtown Improvement Association, and they're in the process of basically restarting that; getting a full board and coming up with an action plan. I believe we have the current, I guess it's the acting president at this point, and several members here today. So, I really want to respect their efforts and their wishes there. The reason I'm also asking to postpone to the call of the Chair, though, is because while this motion indicates that I don't plan to bring this up again, it is still a possible tool down the line. If for instance, you know, everybody were to decide tomorrow that they actually don't want to do the DIA (Downtown Improvement Association) and they want to walk away from that but they want another vehicle. So, it allows that to just kind of be out there. I don't plan to bring it back unless the community really comes to me and says that we would like to bring it back. But I do want, in case, as they work together to go forward, they discover that they would like to use this tool, I don't want to take it completely out of the toolbox. So, that's my rationalization on that, and love to hear from my colleagues. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Any other comments? Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: On the postponement. Listening very carefully. I think, acknowledging that this is a tool for future use, my concern is actually the active motion started with a former colleague of ours. And I'm just I don't know if this is a question for our Clerk or for Corporation Counsel, if a motion can continue to be carried through over the course of different Council terms, and the staleness or the viability of it. That's where I'm at. I understand that the motion really does shelve the entire thing. And if it is the intent to shelve it for this Council term, I don't see the harm in just voting it up or downI know which way I'm going to vote—which would actually give ease to the community as to what finality is on this bill. And it wouldn't hurt if it was to be brought up in a future Council term, which is something that can be done. You can resurrect all of the same language and present it in a more current form. Those are my thoughts on the postponement. I personally will be voting against the postponement. I want to see it go up for a vote. I think it would provide a lot of understanding in community as to what this body would like to do, especially because we did get a survey as to who wanted it or not. Those are my thoughts and where I will be voting on the postponement to the call of the Chair. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Page 16 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you very much, Chair. I think Ms. Cabral said it quite well, though she's not here anymore, and she's outside. She had some nice beads on necklaces today. I wanted to ask her about that, but she's not here to answer my questions. I like what she said in that this could be a tool to use to help Hilo get back together to what we see it as being. So, I'll be supporting the postponement. If there is a chance at some point down the line in this Council term to bring it back with everyone's support, then so be it and I'll support that. If not, then it goes away and it dies. So, I like to keep options open rather than close doors, and I'd be following Ms. Kagiwada's sentiments on this as well. We listened closely to the testimonies, and I think the return was negative against the Business Improvement District. Mr. Chung did bring this forward and leave this for us as one of his last motions in office, which is fun for all of us to be here and go through that. But I do think there is a tool here that could be used if it was done correctly and if you had the support of the community behind it. So, with that, I'll be supporting the postponement and I like the idea. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. In strong support of the motion before us. Being a newI'm almost through my first year, so I'm not on the honeymoon yet. But I saw how much work it took for the Clerk and the mailing to all the tax map people. Then we had a Council Meeting saying people on the Mainland didn't hear it. So, the effort it took to reach all of the landowners and get everybody's input on it, I would hate to not keep this as an option in the future if we need it in this particular term, because so much work, so much community input. There is, I think, the sentiment is leaning towards not supporting it, but there still is people that's supporting it. So, I think that today's testimony tells me that you want to do it yourselves. You want to create your own destiny in downtown, and I love that. I just encourage you by looking at Section 2 of Bill 230. They list numerous things that they think needs to be addressed. So, you kind of have in front of you the things that were identified. Some of these things probably need to have the Director of Public Works, the Director of Planning, maybe the Council people starting to work on individual things that have already been highlighted, because there's some really good work here and I wouldn't want to lose the good work that's been put into this. But I definitely like your suggestion and very supportive. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Vice Chair Inaba. Page 17 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MR. INABA: Sorry, Corporation Counsel, regarding the assessments. Assuming that the $1.50 would stay the same on every $1,000 of value, would public hearings need to be redone, being that what's in the bill as an exhibit specifies a certain first-year price that these property owners would need to be paying if the bill was to pass? So, yeah. Sorry, I let me restate the question. Would we need to redo the public hearing process after one fiscal year when the assessments change? (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. STRANCE: May I have a moment to consult with the Clerk? I have a couple of concerns about a"postponement indefinitely." Just kind of off the top of my head, the votes are made based upon property ownership at a time-specific. How much time can go by where that integrity of that vote could change depending on how rapidly ownership for a leasehold interest change. This body deals with postponements a little bit differently than how things are set up in Robert's Rules about what carries over from one session to another. So, the comment about it eventually dying, I want to have a quick conversation with our Clerk about whether there's ever a true death of a bill if it's postponed indefinitely, and there's not a practice or protocol that automatically cuts a bill off. So, like at the State Legislature, you have a pass-over date for things. The bill just doesn't pass. But given the work that this body does, particularly with landowners, not to have things rollover for like a land use change or a zoning change would really work a hardship on applicants. So, your practice has not been to have that cut-off date. So, I just want a brief consultation and then, you know, if I have something more to add to the conversation on that, then we can do it. I understand the urge on that. It's just whether the integrity to the process is retained if there's an extension or postponement for too long. So, would that be all right? CHR. KIMBALL: That will be fine. We can table this briefly. Although I would, with the body's leeway here, reflect that Council Clerk Henricks and I have had previous conversations about these postponements either to the call of the Chair or to a time indeterminate. And as you said, we do not have a process to remove them once the term has ended. And so they do end up in sort of a purgatory state where there isn't any movement. I think that, for the body, one of the rules that we abide by, per Robert's Rules, is that if something in a term is voted down, something substantially similar cannot be brought back within the same term. So, the mechanism of postponement is Page 18 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 often utilized so that we withdraw something, we don't take a negative vote on it; and therefore, it can still be brought back even in another form as another bill within the same term. So, that's the consideration here, I think, is, given that we still have a year-and-a-half of this particular term. If you were unable to bring back this item within that time period, is that okay? And looking at the next time that we could actually discuss a BID being in the term that starts in 2024. That would be the question. MR. INABA: Well, thank you for bringing that up. I'd prefer, based on the feedback we got from the public, to not see a postponement, and we could just wipe this at this point. And if we redo our process or improve what we have in our Code, that would be preferable. But at the same time, don't want to tie our hands with regards to something that could come in the next year-and-a-half. So, with that, I will support the postponement at this time. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I don't know if it was Council Member Aaron Chung's intention to actually have a BID move forward. I think he recognized that there are a lot of issues within the downtown area, and this is a tool that's in Council's toolbox that we are able to leverage. This model works very successfully in Kailua-Kona, but it just might not be the right fit for every single community. But I think, in his wisdom,putting this forward brought the community together and really energized everybody in having a sense of agency over their space within Downtown Hilo. I would actually vote against a postponement to the Call to the Chair and here's why. If this is something that the community wants, let's start from the beginning. I think the waters on this particular bill are tainted, and a lot of folks felt that they were not in-the-know or part of the process. So, if this is something that the community truly wants, they should be a part of designing a BID from scratch. So, I would be supporting taking a vote on this measure. And if this is something that the community decides down the line this is something that they want to explore, they've exhausted all options of collaboration through DIA, then let's start from scratch with the community's blessing and being part of helping shape it. If money is an issue, all Council Members have been provided $100,000 in contingency monies. So, there is monies I'm sure that Council Member Kagiwada is able to help provide support for for doing some pilot projects. Just throwing it out there. It's something that I do to support my Mainstreet Pahoa Association in Downtown Pahoa. So, that's where I stand on the measure. Thank Page 19 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 you all so much for continuing to come out—showing up,public hearings, Council meetings to let us know what you believe in, and happy to help supporting you and your cause. Thank you, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Any further discussion? Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, and thank you all for chiming in. I really appreciate it. I hear what you're saying. I've had extensive conversations. I attended one of the DIA meetings. I had extensive conversations with Clerk Henricks, and really feel like this is the best way to go. Like I say, it also serves as a way to kind of keep our foot on the pedal here to make something happen in downtown. If the downtown folks try really hard for the next year-and-a-half and then come back to me and say, "We tried. It didn't work, and we really want to explore this option,"I think it's a good tool to keep in our toolbox. As noted, after this term is over, it would basically be dead anyway, and could restart. That being said, if—there's been lots of discussions with people who were originally completely against the idea. Like Nancy Cabral and others who came around to see, there could be pluses there. So, I think with tweaks to this bill later on, if people want it, it's a tool. So, I just don't want to take that out of our toolbox. And I appreciate people's support. Thank you so much and hope we can go forward with this. Thanks. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, and to my fellow colleague of Hilo, I think there are a lot of mechanics that are happening with the annual cycle of our real property tax and the setting of that. So, I just don't want to mislead the public that we can just resuscitate this. And including my colleague Mr. Inaba's concern about the survey. I mean, Judge Strance is asking for a consultation with our Clerk specifically to the viability of the notice to property owners for the survey. I'm having a lot of heartburn. We passed a resolution earlier today ensuring that we would have stakeholder engagement and community would be driving this. I would love for Judge Strance to have a pause with our Clerk on some of the nuances of all of this and kind of advise us as to the proper disposition of this matter. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: So, this is a question for Judge Strance. I'm just wanting to ask about substantially similar. Would it be possible, if we vote this down, for Page 20 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 another bill to come in with a Business Improvement District in Downtown Hilo, but with potentially very different details? Would that be substantially similar or would that be something that would be allowable? If you want to discuss with the County Clerk, I just wanted to throw that in there as something I'd like to understand better. CHR. KIMBALL: I'll respond to that, Judge Strance. It's actually up to this body to make the determination as to whether a subsequent bill would be substantially similar. It is within our rules, and we do have the ability to waive our rules. However, I would recommend strongly against consideration of waiving the rules around what we determine to be substantially similar. So, it would be the determination of the body if it was substantially similar or not per vote. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mr. Clerk, may I make a motion to table Bill 230 until a further time in this meeting? MR. BROWN: You could ask the Chair to acknowledge the motion. And if there's a second, then we can. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Vote on Motion to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to table Bill 230, Draft 2. Table: Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy 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: Okay, Bill 230, Draft 2, is tabled. At this point, we will move on to—let's take Bill 52, and then we will take a brief recess to give Judge Strance and the Clerk an opportunity to talk. STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public. PUBLIC ON BILL 52 The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by (COMM. 326): the Chair: Keli`ikanoe Mahi: In support. (representing Hiki Ola) Page 21 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Thomas Pace: In support. (representing Kealakekua Heritage Ranch) Carolyn Pallett: In opposition. Bill 52: REPEALS ORDINANCE NO. 98-63, WHICH AMENDED ORDINANCE NO. 95-70, AND REPEALS ORDINANCE NO. 95-70, WHICH AMENDED SECTION 25-86 (NORTH AND SOUTH KONA DISTRICTS ZONE MAP), ARTICLE 3, CHAPTER 25 (ZONING CODE) OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE, BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM AGRICULTURAL-TWENTY ACRES (A-20a) TO AGRICULTURAL-ONE ACRE (A-la), AGRICULTURAL-THREE ACRES (A-3a), AGRICULTURAL- TWO HUNDRED ACRES (A-200a), AGRICULTURAL-TWO HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE ACRES (A-255a), AND AGRICULTURAL—EIGHT THOUSAND ACRES (A-8000a) AT KEALAKEKUA, KILOA, WAIPUNAULA, KALAMA KUMU, AND KALAMAKOWALI, SOUTH KONA, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEYS: 8-2-012:001, 012, 014 (POR.), 015, AND 8-2-001:101 (FORMERLY TAX MAP KEYS: 8-2-012:012 AND A PORTION OF 001) (Planning Director Initiated) (Area: Approx. 11,185.708 acres) Due to the lack of quorum, the Leeward Planning Commission forwards its unfavorable recommendation to repeal the change of zoning district clarification for five parcels located approximately 1.2 miles east of the Hawaii Belt Road in the vicinity of Greenwell Mountain Road and extending approximately 8.6 miles further east. The repeal would revert the zoning of these lands back to the Agricultural 20-acres (A-20a) zoning district. Reference: Comm. 326 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R) Approve: LAAC-23 Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to pass Bill 52 on first reading and adopt Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 23. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. I believe we have additional property owners joining us today, as well as the representative for this application. We had good discussion at Committee, and again Mr. Hendrickson here is able to answer any questions, should the body have any. Look forward to seeing this bill move forward today. Thank you, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. And just a quick note, I was alerted by the Planning Department that they did not have any staff available today for questions for the Planning Department. For those of you that were not present for our last hearing on this, we did get quite a bit of information from the Page 22 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Planning Department. So, I think we can all help each other out with respect to that, but we also have the applicant's representative here. Are there any questions on Bill 52? Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I was going to ask what the recusals were for regarding the Leeward Planning Commission. CHR. KIMBALL: I don't know. Mr. Hendrickson, if you are aware of the conflicts that resulted in the lack of quorum? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And by whom. (Note: At this time, Gregory Hendrickson, applicant's representative, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. HENDRICKSON: I'm not sure by who. They didn't give us the specifics of who wasn't able to participate because of conflict. But I understand that they just related to people who had relationships with one of the various owners of this parcel. So, I think one was a former manager for the Greenwell family of the parcel. One has a hunting lease on another parcel that is owned by one of the owners, and I can't remember what all of them were, but they all had relational conflicts. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Do you know, behind you? Yeah? Can you answer my question? If you can, come to the front. I'm interested. (Note: At this time, Thomas Pace, representing Kealakekua Heritage Ranch, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. PACE: It's just as Mr. Hendrickson spoke of because we allow some hunting on the property. We'd made some donations at some organizations that were part of the Planning Commission members. It was mainly because of friendly connections was the reason for the recusal. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and do you know who the members were? MR. PACE: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Who were they? MR. PACE: Mrs. DeFranco, where we helped her with Paleaku Botanical Gardens many years past, in the early '90s. And what's the gentleman to the left? He does all the hunting. Vitousek. So, he hunts on our adjoining property next door. Page 23 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and then the third one? MR. PACE: It was some sort of donation we did, and I don't recall their name. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. That was very helpful. I wasn't here for the last meeting. Sorry. So excuse my kind of catching up. I think moving from Ag-1 to Ag-20, if I'm reading this correctly, is more than suitable. I'd rather see it Ag-20 than Ag-1, and I kind of agree with where you guys stand so far. I'll be supporting this today. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. The information about the Leeward Planning Commission meeting is available in the supplemental documents, which are available digitally to us now. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. My question would be with Corporation Counsel, Ms. Strance. On your way up, I was reading in the report that, due to a lack of quorum, the Leeward Planning Commission forwarded an unfavorable recommendation. If they had lack of quorum, how could they even forward a recommendation? Because I assume that would be a vote, and you can't vote if you don't have quorum. I'm just being logical here. (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. STRANCE: Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. And that will teach you to be logical. I believe that it's a part of the Commission rules, that if there lacks a quorum, that it still comes before this body without a favorable recommendation. So, that's part of their rules. MS. EVANS: It's just an automatic unfavorable? MS. STRANCE: Yeah. I mean the idea the Windward and Leeward Planning Commissions are not in all cases gatekeepers of matters coming before this body. They're a"review and recommend"body for the most part, and so, if they lack the quorum then they lack the ability to make a favorable recommendation. Generally, under Robert's Rules of Order, for example, if you lack a majority vote, it's a"no"vote. So, Leeward Planning Commission matters come here with either a favorable or an unfavorable recommendation. So, a lack of quorum vote comes with a non-favorable recommendation. MS. EVANS: Okay. All right. For the ones who did the public hearing and heard all the testimony and really discussed it, I'm going to assume that we could look at their votes, and there might be a couple that were in favor and a couple that weren't in favor. Page 24 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. STRANCE: I believe you folks are provided with the record at the commission or at least links to all of that. So, you have all of the information that is available to you as part of your consideration of the bill. MS. EVANS: So, I'm just hoping they took a vote. If they didn't even have quorum, could they have still taken a vote so we'd understand their position on it? MS. STRANCE: They cannot. The way the rules are written is that if a committee, this body included, lacks a quorum, it doesn't mean that you cannot hold a meeting. It just means that you cannot vote. So, there's circumstances where people come to present and the body can proceed to have that information presented to it. But it would not be permitted to vote on the matter. MS. EVANS: Right. I think what struck me is that they didn't wait. They didn't wait until they got quorum, like postpone to the next meeting or two meetings, because they can't. Because they will always have that conflict of interest. They could have never gotten quorum on this. MS. STRANCE: Correct. MS. EVANS: Okay. Thank you, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. Just for the record, Section 25-2-43 speaks to, if action is not taken within the 60-day period, then it comes to us with an unfavorable recommendation. So, that's why it's before us because the Commission didn't take action on this bill. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you for that clarification, Council Member Inaba. Any additional discussion? Seeing none, there's a motion on the floor to pass Bill 52 at first reading, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Bill 52: The motion to pass Bill 52 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 23 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: Bill 52 passes at first reading. Thank you guys for being here today. At this time, do you folks need some time to confer on ? Page 25 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MR. BROWN: Yeah, a really quick recess if you don't mind, Madam Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay, let's take a recess until 11:10. Recess: At 11:02 a.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 11:13 a.m. Vote on Motion to Ms. Lee Loy moved to remove Bill 230, Draft 2, from the Remove from table. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following Table: 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: We have Bill 230, Draft 2, back to the floor. Council Member Kagiwada, do you want to start us off with the conversation from Corp. (Corporation) Counsel and the Clerk? MS. KAGIWADA: Sure. Thank you so much. I guess I'd like to hear from Judge Strance, since the question was asked of her, what the difference between if we do postponing to the call of the chair, what that means. I think it would be really good to have a clear explanation as far as what could and couldn't be done in the future. And I don't know if that's you or the Clerk, but if somebody could get that clear kind of presentation to the public, it would be great. (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance) came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. STRANCE: Could I ask the Clerk to read the rule? MR. BROWN: So I'm going to read from the Council's rules. Usually, Robert's Rules is our guiding light; however, should a board or commission have their own internal rules, they follow those. We revert back to Robert's when you may not have a rule that would handle something. So Robert's is going to be a little different from how you guys handled it based on the Council's rules. So I'm going to read the postponement to the call of the Chair. "When a question is postponed to the call of the Chair, the same shall not be acted upon again or revived at any subsequent meeting of the Council so disposed of such questions unless by request of the Council or Committee Chairperson. This motion indicates that a Committee or Council declines to take a position on the main Page 26 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 question and the adoption of the amendment effectively kills the main motion. The motion must be seconded, is debatable, is not amendable, and requires a majority vote. (Examples: `I move to postpone this matter to the call of the Chair,' or `I move to postpone Resolution or Bill `X' to the call of the Chair.')" MS. STRANCE: So that's your rule. It's different than Robert's Rules, which would require a vote of this body to then consider it. So it would the "call of the Chair,"the Chair places it back, your practice has been ended, placing the motion back on calendar for further consideration and vote, rather than a vote of the body to decide whether to take it off the table, essentially. So there would be a mechanism by which you could table to call of the Chair. And so, procedurally, there's a process. And then there's some practicalities of the underlying motion. And so the public feedback function of this bill was based upon a determination of who the property owners were within a specified period of time on that certain date when they looked, and at some level based upon the then real property tax rates. So there's two methods of calculating how votes are taken. And so, if the assessed value of the property changes in a way that would affect how the vote was taken, the bill runs the risk of having challenges based upon process because the representation has changed. I don't want to take words out of the Clerk's mouth, so you can correct me. It would be the Clerk's advice that, should something come back before this body at all or if it comes back with changes, that the recommendation would be to re- notice the community and undertake the public process again. And so I think the question for this body to decide, then, is what does the postponement actually achieve. And so I think those are all considerations of, you know, there's the question of can you do it, and then should you do it. The answer is, it appears that you can. It's not without risk because of the passage of time. And the question "should" is taking into consideration the process that the Clerk would want to and recommend that you undertake, and whatever other factors you have. And then that's the policy decision that you have to decide. MS. KAGIWADA: Great. Thank you, Judge Strance. Clerk, do you want to add anything? MR. BROWN: Not much. Thank you, Judge Strance. I think she did a great job of articulating that. Just from a procedural standpoint, I think, yes, even if it was brought back in the same fashion, I would recommend we start the entire public hearing process, the notices. We would start everything again to make sure we give the community more than enough opportunity to come in and weigh in and give their feedback for you guys. We were actually considering even if you guys were just going to change a little bit of the rate, even just a little, we would have started that whole public hearing process again to make sure the public was totally aware and had opportunity. So, yeah,just wanted to add that. That is my recommendation. Thank you. Page 27 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Do I still have the floor? Okay, thanks, Chair. One other thing that I think was important that I didn't know before was the information about what happens to a bill that is moved to the call of the Chair at the end of the session. Can you speak to that briefly? MS. STRANCE: Well, that would be two parts because, one, it's putting a time limit on which the Chair must call it. So it would come back on the calendar at the last meeting, if not before. You still have some of those same issues because we have a new assessment year now. And there would be one more at the end of this session. So the idea of taking it up at the end would be the recommendation from your Clerk would be if you did that, you'd be voting on this or some other amendment. And if there was going to be amendments, that the procedure would have started over, which takes you, again, into another calendar year—maybe not a fiscal year, but possibly a whole new set of Council Members. MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah, actually, I was referring to the fact that I was under the assumption that at the end of the session, the bill is dead. But you're saying that we actually still have to figure out a way to dispose of it. Is that correct? MS. STRANCE: The practice of this body has not been to have bills die. So there's probably a fair amount of legislation that is in purgatory, and you are too, right? So there's practical reasons that that was done, you know, the—I guess the cleaner way would be to give a bill death or life, but that really is a policy and there's been practical considerations for that. Withdraw Motion MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. All right. Given that it sounds like if we were to do to Postpone: anything to change this bill, we would probably want a new bill anyway, and my thoughts are even if the Downtown Hilo community comes back, the form that the bill is currently in is not the form that they would want if they did want to go ahead with something. I'm going to withdraw my motion to the call of the Chair if that's okay. CHR. KIMBALL: Yup, that's your prerogative as the motion maker. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay yeah, if anybodyI guess I'm done. I'm going to be voting down the main motion then and then realizing that we can always start anew if that's what the public wants. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Any further discussion? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: One more dumb question. CHR. KIMBALL: I was about to say there are no dumb questions, but you know Page 28 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Let me blow your mind. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay, go for it. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Just to ask, we've discussed you cannot bring a bill back in the same form in the same Council term. If Ms. Kagiwada or Ms. Lee Loy or anyone here said, "Hey, I want to bring this back to the table; I want to do this again," can it be done again this term? CHR. KIMBALL: So if I MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And I would say it's substantively CHR. KIMBALL: And it would be up to this body to make an assessment as to whether or not it was substantially different. So Council Member Kagiwada is taking a risk that what she would potentially propose would not be determined to be substantially different. That's the risk here. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But, and adding to that, if the body decided to go ahead and bring it back, we could, correct? CHR. KIMBALL: If we determined that it was substantially different, yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Which would be hard to do. CHR. KIMBALL: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. BROWN: If I could real fast. This motion, now, to the call of the Chair has been removed. If you guys vote it down, you're not bringing back the same bill, right? It'll be a new bill and you will determine if that new bill is substantially different or not. Just wanted to make that clear; you're not bringing the same one back. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and I'm discussing Bill 230 but I'm also just discussing in general. Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you for the leeway. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, and I don't think that was a dumb question. Okay, any further discussion? All right, with that, I will just say that, personally, one of the things that I have had to learn in this position is patience. And I think that, actually a year and a half, even if there was this issue of substantially similar, it's probably more than enough time for the community to do their work and to redraft a new bill and go through the multiple iterations. So I think you've made the right decision here to actually just Page 29 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 proceed with the vote on this and then we can start fresh, do those new assessments, and really do this right and meet the needs of the community. So I'll be supporting a negative vote as well on the bill today. With that, any further discussion? I don't think we need to take a roll call. I'm going to just call for the vote on this. All those in favor of Bill 230, please say Ic aye. Vote on Bill 230: The motion to pass Bill 230, Draft 2, on first reading and Draft 2 adopt Finance Committee Report No. 228 failed by the (2020-2022) following voice vote: Failed Ayes: None. Noes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Bill 230, Draft 2, fails at first reading. Thank you, everyone, for the discussion. Thank you for being here. All right, with that, we will move to second and final reading. 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): STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public. PUBLIC ON BILL 28 The following individual registered to speak and came forward when called by (DRAFT 2) the Chair: (COMM. HID: Carolyn Pallett: In opposition. Page 30 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Bill 28: AMENDS CHAPTER 19, ARTICLE 7, SECTION 19-53 AND ARTICLE 10, (Draft 2) SECTION 19-71, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO REAL PROPERTY TAXES Safeguards certain agriculturally productive properties which are also used as an owner's primary residence or as an affordable rental from rising assessment values. Reference: Comm. 113.2 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba Postponed: March 22, April 19, and May 17, 2023 First Reading: June 21, 2023 Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to pass Bill 28, Draft 2, on second and final reading. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. KIMBALL: Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. We had a lot of discussion, and I ask for your continued support. And wanted to offer one final mahalo to Corporation Counsel and to our Real Property Tax Division's Lisa Miura and Keita Jo for their k6kua. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. Anyone else? Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I see we have Keita here, and I believe is Lisa in Kona? MR. RUEDY: Yeah, she's here. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks for being here and your patience. We're at second and final reading, and I'm just wondering if Real Property Tax can just illuminate the Council on implementation of this bill should it be approved today. (Note: At this time, Real Property Tax Administrator Lisa Miura and Assistant Real Property Tax Administrator Keita Jo, Finance Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. MIURA: Hi, good morning. Lisa Miura, Real Property Tax Administrator. It is a short time frame, so our thought to implement this is that we need to send letters to everybody currently receiving a homeowner exemption and an agricultural preferential value currently in the system. We are not going to have time to go to all there's over 2,000 properties that are currently getting both. So we're not going to be able to do a survey or check each parcel before January 1st to make sure there's no short-term rental, long-term rental, or commercial Page 31 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 activity. An example might be someone doing a slaughterhouse on their property. And so that would preclude them from the homeowner tax class. And some of those might want to prefer to stay in the agricultural tax class and continue their short-term rentals, if they're hosted especially. And so our thought was we would send letters to everybody; let them know that they'd be converted over to the homeowner tax class. And if they're doing any of those activities, to let us know. If not and they don't let us know which—staff's concern is most people are going to say, "Well, catch me if you can," and they're going to take the lower value. But if we find that later, then it would be a rollback, including 10 percent penalty. MR. JO: Keita Jo, Assistant Real Property Tax Administrator. I'd just like to add that it is going to be a huge lift for us in terms of implementation and the timing. I mean, as Lisa mentioned, there's 2,000 parcels that we will need to reinspect at some point. So there might be individuals within that program that receive the benefit that might end up receiving a rollback at a later time. I just wanted to put that out there. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: How long is all of that going to take? You have to send the letters and then assess the properties and then, I'm assuming, communicate with each individual property owner to make sure we got it right in our system so they're taxed appropriately. Do you guys have the staffing and time for that because there's—and I'm sorry. I hope we can maybe speak globally because we have a number of real property tax bills before us today. Just want to make sure that there's enough resources available to be implementing these measures. MR. JO: For this particular measure, it would be pushed out. We would transfer everybody into the homeowners tax classification. The inspections, 2000 properties, you're talking about a one-to two-year process in order to do all those reinspects. So it's not something that's going to happen fairly quickly. It's going to add some additional pressure to our appraisers who will be conducting the inspections, our clerical staff who will need to address any concerns with the taxpayers, as well as our board of review. Oftentimes, we don't think about that, but an individual does have the opportunity to file a protest if they feel aggrieved by our assessment. So there's that process along the way too. But, yeah, it's going to be a little bit of a long haul. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Anything to add, Administrator Miura? MS. MIURA: Nope. Thank you. I think Keita covered any concerns we had. We just wanted to, since you asked the question,just share what our thought process was since we won't be able to do the inspections prior to January 1. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Thank you for that information. Chair, I yield. Page 32 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: This is kind of technical and it's page 3, Subsection 5. It talks about"Notwithstanding paragraph 19-71(a)(2)(E) above, having portions of the principal home located on the real property used exclusively as residential housing rental for a term of not less than six months . . . ." So this is actually talking about long-term versus short-term rentals. So now we've established six months. And will that be in conflict with anything else we might do in our Code if we're addressing long-term versus short-term? Because, we are saying in here it's six months. MR. JO: Currently, the Real Property Tax Division identifies short-term as anything less than six months. So that's our definition as far as property taxes are concerned. So that actually falls more in line with what we would normally define as a short-term rental. MS. EVANS: Okay, so this would appear in our Code elsewhere, the six months. MR. JO: Yeah. MS. EVANS: Okay. Just for consistency. I had to ask because I didn't want us to create a conflict if it's mentioned in other places in the Code. Okay. Thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Keita, Lisa, thanks for being here. Just the mechanics of it and building off of my colleague Council Member Kierkiewicz, I'm noting that this bill takes effect on January 2024. And speaking to some of the mechanics that the department needs to put in place, clearly there's some time. My question is, in light of this bill moving through and the mechanics that have to happen to shove everybody, or place everybody, not shove, place everybody in the right category, I don't know if I'm going to ask this right, if the Council were to address rates, would that in essence kind of freeze some of the potential of the rates for the properties that fall within this category? MS. MIURA: Can I clarify the question real quick? MS. LEE LOY: Sure, Lisa. MS. MIURA: Is it tax classifications you're thinking might change? Because before January, we're not changing tax classes, that I know of, or the actual tax rates to each class. Page 33 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. LEE LOY: I think I was asking about the rates to the class, right. And just trying to think around the curve a little bit, because we've had a windfall of a year when it came to real property tax values. But I listened very carefully to you and Deanna about let's brace for the potential recession, right. And not that I don't support it; I'm just thinking through the future mechanics of it and what that does for our ability to kind of move those levers as it relates to rates. MS. MIURA: So this would change anybody in the home—with getting a homeowner exemption doing active ag (agriculture) that wasn't doing short-term rental or commercial to get the $6.15 tax rate now. So I'm guessing it would potentially affect if Council, next year, came back and said, "We want to make the ag tax rate lower than homeowners." Right now, the agricultural tax rate is 9.35. If Council came back and said, "We're going to make the agricultural tax rate $5,"then potentially everybody we move into this program could have paid less in the long-run. I'm not really good at the potential thoughts, but I don't see Council doing that because half the island is zoned ag, and a lot of parcels are in ag that are not doing active agricultural use. So I don't see that as a potential conflict. But maybe I'm not thinking that question all the way through or if I'm answering that correctly. MS. LEE LOY: No, Lisa, you're being incredibly helpful. And if at some point this body does start exploring those options, I think we have to be gently reminded about some of these things that we are moving in, especially because this particular bill has an effective date in January of '24. MS. MIURA: Correct. MS. LEE LOY: Okay, I'm good. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Any further questions or comments? All right, with that, we'll go ahead with the vote. All those in favor of adopting Bill 28, Draft 2, at second and final reading, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 28: The motion to pass Bill 28, 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. Page 34 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 CHR. KIMBALL: Bill 28, Draft 2, is adopted. Relinquish Chair: At this time, Chair Kimball relinquished the chair to Acting Chair Inaba. STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public. PUBLIC ON BILL 43 The following individual registered to speak and came forward when called by (DRAFT 3) the Chair: (COMM. 217.8): Carolyn Pallett: In opposition. Bill 43: AMENDS CHAPTER 19,ARTICLES 1 AND 8, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY (Draft 3) CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION,AS AMENDED),RELATING TO COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURAL USE DEDICATION FOR REAL PROPERTY TAXES Seeks to implement recommendations of the Real Property Tax Review Working Group and Agricultural Committee's September 2019 Final Report by: amending the definitions for "commercial agricultural activities" and "Commercial agricultural use dedication"; adding four new definitions relating to commercial agricultural uses; amending Section 19-60 of the Hawaii County Code to create a "Long-term commercial agricultural use dedication"; and establishing a new section titled "Short-term commercial agricultural use dedication." Reference: Comm. 217.8 Intr. by: Ms. Kimball and Ms. Galimba Postponed: May 3, 2023 First Reading: June 21, 2023 (Note: Comm. 217.9, from Council Member Michelle Galimba dated June 30, 2023, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 43, Draft 3, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to pass Bill 43, Draft 3, on second and final reading. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. ACTING CHR. INABA: Ms. Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. For the folks who were not at the last Council meeting, I just wanted to highlight the one amendment that we did make last time, which was to include the land dedication as one of the pieces of potential evidence to affirm that you were actually engaged in agricultural activities. Thanks to Council Member Galimba for identifying that as another pathway. We've had pretty lengthy discussions about the purpose of this and the response, ultimately, to the Real Property Tax Review Working Group and Agricultural Committee's assessment. Page 35 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 The one final comment I wanted to make today is that I did the $2,000 minimal annual gross income is something that's been in place since this portion of the Code was established. And so I wanted to let everyone know that I have Dot on deck with an amendment to plug in an amount if we want to look at an adjustment to that as one of the final changes to this. Or if folks want to proceed with 2,000, that's fine too. So just wanted to share that. With that I'll yield. Thanks. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Given the discussion we had at our last meeting, I'm putting forward an amendment that sort of captures some of those main points, and for discussion and consideration. I guess I'll go ahead and make the motion to amend and we can discuss it. Motion to Amend: Ms. Galimba moved to amend Bill 43, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 217.9. Seconded by Ms. Kimball. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. Just to talk it through, it's pretty simple. Heard from Council Member Evans that she would be interested in having the short-term commercial agricultural use at two times rather than at three times, because two times is the current rate for the nondedicated ag. So this would sort of keep things the same for those folks. But at the same time, heard from I believe it was Council Member Kagiwada brought up the idea of capping the number of times that a taxpayer could make use of the short-term commercial program, so that they can't just keep doing three years forever. So put forward the idea of three consecutive three-year terms, and that is in Section 6 on the front of this amendment. So bringing that forward for discussion. Would it be possible for you, Keita Jo, to talk a little bit about what kind of impact that would potentiallyI know it's kind of hypothetical, somewhat, but an estimate of what impact going from three times to two times would have on our County finances. (Note: At this time, Assistant Real Property Tax Administrator Keita Jo, Finance Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. JO: Because the nondedicated agricultural use program is currently the actual rate is the agricultural value is set at two times whatever the dedicated value is, it wouldn't have any fiscal impact to what it currently is now. Page 36 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 (Inaudible) of the three times would increase revenues, but keeping at the two times would pretty much be as is. And that assumes everybody in nondedicated is going to go into this three-year dedication. MS. GALIMBA: I'll ask it another way, the other way I guess. I know you did give us sort of an estimate of like the overall impact of these bills, I think it was, as a whole. Or can you break it down to that piece of that three times to the two times. What would we be getting more with three times? MR. JO: The three times, currently, would bring in an additional, I want to say, $2 million if you went to the three times the agricultural rate. If you kept status quo, it would be whatever the value is currently but— MS. utMS. GALIMBA: Okay, thanks. Just so we have a number to think about. And with that, I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Evans, on Communication 217.9. MS. EVANS: Right. So I'm wondering if the amendment achieves what I was commenting on. My concern was short-term commercial is maybe beginning farmers. And so I wanted to make sure that the beginning farmers were not paying more of a rate than the ten years. So you have the ten-year and you have the three-year, and I wanted to make sure we weren't charging and harming the ones that are short-term if they're beginning farmers. So with this amendment— have mendmenthave you seen it? Do you have it in front of you? MR. JO: I have not seen the amendment. MS. EVANS: So, it's what? Turn it over? So it's 217.9, right? "The total combined period of dedication for short-term commercial ag use shall not exceed three consecutive three-year terms." Oh, there it is. Okay. So I didn't see this. It's on the back side, the very last Section 6, bottom of it. It says, "Lands dedicated for short-term commercial ag use shall be assessed at two times the value of lands dedicated . . . ." So we went from three to two. So can you—what would that rate difference be? MR. JO: I think that was what I was mentioning before, the difference between going from three to two would be that$2 millionI mean, it would be net zero, as it stands now. But if the Council was going to go with the three times, then it would increase revenues by about 2 million. MS. EVANS: Okay. All right. Thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Further questions on this amendment? Council Member Kagiwada. Page 37 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Galimba, for looking at this. So, if people were limited to three consecutive three-year terms, then their options would be to go move into long-term commercial or get out of the program completely. Is that what their options are at that point? MR. JO: I believe if Bill 44 passes, then they would have a set of options. They could go into the ten-year dedication. And presumably, on their third renewal, that's nine years into agricultural use, you would imagine that they would have their operation up and going and have a pretty good business management plan going. They could go into the ten-year, or they could choose to go into the community food sustainability program and pay 30 percent of market. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. And if they're in short-term commercial, is there any difference, for instance, in minimum lot size or anything like that that would prohibit them from moving into long-term commercial, potentially? MR. JO: If I understand the short-term, I believe it does not—let me research it. MS. KIMBALL: I will address that if I may. There are minimum lot sizes required for the dedicated programs; however, if the farm plan indicates that they can be profitable and commercially viable on a smaller lot, then that requirement can be waived. But if they were eligible for the short-term, they would be equally eligible for the long-term. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, great. That's what I wanted to check. All right, thank you. And thank you for putting this forward. Just back on the two times the value. If this were to pass, what is the difference between how the short-term commercial properties would be taxed, and how, if it passes, Bill 43, the sustainable food systems, is there still enough of a difference between those two, or do they get close together? How does that—? MR. JO: So the community food sustainability is based off of 30 percent of market. So that would increase revenues by about 9 million. If you went to the two times, it would be as is currently. So I think you're giving people options. You enter into agricultural use potentially through the community food sustainability program and then you're kind of encouraged to go to a three-year dedication, then the ten-year. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Thank you. I like these two pieces together because they still encourage the movement, whereas if you just did the one, I feel like people might sit there forever. So I can see why both together would make sense. So thank you for putting that together. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: All right, there's a motion on the floor to amend Bill 43, Draft 3, with the contents of Communication 217.9. All those in favor? Page 38 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 43, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 217.9 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: Motion carries. Back to the main motion. Vote on Motion to Ms. Lee Loy moved to suspend Council Rule 23 to waive Suspend Council the holdover for the substantive amendment of Bill 43, Rules: Draft 3. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada and carried by the (Approved) following voice vote: 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: Motion carries. Back to the main motion; Bill 43, Draft 3, as amended. MS. LEE LOY: On the main motion, Chair. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. I just have a procedural question for Judge Strance. The tail end of this particular bill has an effective date of July 1, which would make it retro. And I'm just curious as to the affectability, if we can adopt legislation with a date prior to our action. And maybe this is something we can just amend. (Bill) 43 says the same. MS. KIMBALL: No, 43 is September 2. MS. LEE LOY: Oh, okay. MS. KIMBALL: (Bill) 44 has the (inaudible). MS. LEE LOY: Okay. I'm good. You know that's going to come up. All right. ACTING CHR. INABA: Alrighty. Council Member Lee Loy. Page 39 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. LEE LOY: Yes, I'm good. ACTING CHR. INABA: All right. Thank you. Bill 43, Draft 3, as amended. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Acting Chair Inaba. Mr. Jo, when we had started this whole discussion, something I struggled with because we had three bills all playing with ag and changing the assessments and that kind of thing. Even the newspaper ran a cute little cartoon of all of us kicking the ball around with ag use bills, which I thought was really cute. Well done on their behalf. But I wanted to touch back on something that was said. And I might be wrong, so correct me if I'm wrong. The interplay between bills that were passed and 43 and 44, I think there was an interplay between 43 and 28. So, as we've passed Bill 28 today, is there any tie-in to 43 we should be aware of? MR. JO: I think it comes down to eligibility and how people are eligible to continue to maintain the agricultural use. That's the interplay that you're seeing and the reason why I think there was movement to hear these all at the same time, because they all kind of impact each other in various ways. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so Bill 28 is passed now. How does that affect Bill 43 in its current form? How do they play together? MR. JO: Other than someone in a current agricultural use program. So, currently, they either are in a ten-year or they're in a nondedicated agricultural use program, and they're participating in the homeowners program. Because of Bill 28 passing, they will now get the homeowners classification if they're participating in ag and they're a homeowner. If Bill 43 passes, then that same homeowner has another option. Instead of doing a ten-year ag in nondedicated, as it stands now, they can go into a three-year dedicated program. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Can you be in both at the same time? Homeowners exemption and ag short-term, long-term dedicated ag use? MR. JO: As it stands with the passage of 28, you can. And that's what 28 was doing, was extending the agricultural use benefit while also preserving the homeowners tax classification. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. When we first discussed this and you gave us that beautiful document— MR. ocumentMR. JO: Monstrosity. Page 40 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It was good. It was great. It was well done because it's hard to kind of track everything, and you guys did a good job with that. When you presented that to us, I remember that there were some connections between the two. And I had people reach out to me about what's going to happen, how it's going to affect them. And I've had previous discussions about whether you can use homeowners exemptions and ag and different things together in parallel to decrease property taxes, especially as our assessments have gone up. And it's been hard answering all those questions. The document was very helpful. But I'm also just wanting to touch bases on that again as it's back in front of us, and Bill 28 is actually passed. Okay. You've answered my questions and it was helpful. Anything else we should be aware of as we look at Bill 43 in conjunction with Bill 28? MR. JO: Just other than the timing, there's going to be a few things that are kind of going to start to occur around September of next year. And it may impact someone's ability to, or the timing of when they're receiving the benefits and whatnot. But it's really more tied to Bill 44. Other than that, really what Bill 43 does is strengthens our current ten-year dedication that we have, and then provides that three-year dedication as an option for individuals. And there's a little bit more guardrails in terms of what's eligible and what's not. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I'm interested to see what happens after the fact, because usually we have people come in if they don't like it. No one's here. I don't see a lot of people supporting it either. So seeing nobody out there and very limited testimony makes me wonder how the general public's going to feel about this bill. If the big boys didn't like it, they'd be in here screaming. They wouldn't love it. But they're not here. So I'm interested to see what happens. I want to follow up with you afterwards. I have some questions, but I think the bill itself, it's going to pass today. So I just want to get a feel for your folks and see what people's options are, especially for my district. MR. JO: Absolutely. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: I just wanted to go back to the effective date question, which, on this current draft, is September 2nd, 2023. I know there were some very specific reasons why we chose that date, and I don't quite remember what they were. So, if you could discuss that with us, I think that would be helpful for some of us who had some questions about that. Page 41 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MR. JO: The reason why the September 2nd, 2023, date was chosen was because our current dedications have a deadline of September I". So, September I" of every year, you have to file for a dedication. Currently, right now, it's only the ten-year. So, if you want to dedicate your property for agricultural use for ten years, receive a preferential tax assessment, then you have September I"of every year. So the reason why September 2nd was chosen was because it kind of aligns with that time frame. When it comes to the short-term dedication program, there's a little bit more structure in this particular bill and the language of the Code that provides deadlines further along the way. So, even though it might seem on face value that we have to get this program up and running by September 2nd, really it's continuing on with our ten-year dedication, adding a few more guardrails in terms of qualifications, maybe. And then there's some timings that are in Bill 43 that allow us to the "recipe," so to speak to move forward and implement this. There's a process where we're going to have to go through rules and regulations, and community outreach and whatnot to help define that. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks, yes. I mean, it's amazing how you and Lisa have everything calendared out like in your head, and you can just talk about it instantly. So, yeah, I just wanted to bring that up. And thank you for explaining. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I just wanted to lend my support for this measure and thank my colleagues, Council Members Kimball and Galimba, for your work on this. I think 43 helps to ensure that farm operations are actually legitimate and folks are getting those benefits. And then with the creation of this three-year program, folks that are interested in exploring agriculture and getting into farming, at least they're getting those benefits before they make the determination if they want to do this long-term. So I think that what's been specified in the bill is not onerous. We want to make sure that we're able to ensure that farm operations are legitimate, but that there isn't a ton of paperwork because we want to make sure that farmers are able to farm. So I'll be supporting it today. Thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Any further discussion? If not, there's a motion on the floor to approve Bill 43, Draft 3, as amended. All those in favor? Page 42 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Vote on Bill 43: The motion to pass Bill 43, Draft 3, as amended to Draft 4, Draft 4 on second and final reading was carried by the following (Adopted) voice vote: 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 43, Draft 3, is adopted at second and final reading. Bill 44: AMENDS CHAPTER 19, ARTICLES 1 AND 7, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY (Draft 2) CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO COMMUNITY FOOD SUSTAINABILITY USE ASSESSMENTS AND NONDEDICATED AGRICULTURE USE ASSESSMENTS Seeks to implement recommendations of the Real Property Tax Review Working Group and Agricultural Committee's September 2019 Final Report and the 2021 Annual Report of the Real Property Tax Board of Review by: establishing a sunset date for the definition of"Nondedicated agricultural use assessment"; adding a new definition for"Community food sustainability use"; establishing a sunset date for Section 19-57 of the Hawaii County Code; and establishing a new section titled "Community food sustainability use assessment". Reference: Comm. 218.3 Intr. by: Ms. Kimball and Ms. Galimba Postponed: May 17, 2023 First Reading: June 21, 2023 (Note: Comm. 218.5, from Council Chair Heather L. Kimball and Council Member Michelle M. Galimba dated June 26, 2023, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 44, Draft 2, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to pass Bill 44, Draft 2, on second and final reading. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. ACTING CHR. INABA: Chair Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. So I just want to briefly note that this is the one that does require the date change in terms of the implementation date, and there's the amendment available for that. But the genesis of this particular proposal was in discussing with Lisa and Keita how these new programs, the short-term program, would work in the sense of the nondedicated ag. Page 43 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 There was the sense that there was the potential that some folks that are contributing to the food systems would get left out of the program. And so this was an attempt to ensure that we had a thorough discussion about the opportunities that were available for people in ag if we were to indeed sunset the nondedicated ag program. And so I think that there are some differences here that give a little bit more of what I think we've been asking for with respect to the ag benefits that we provide through tax policy. One, this now requires a farm plan; the nondedicated ag program never required a farm plan. There is a certain amount of revenue, either through sales or the indication of donation of food, that is required. That's another guardrail that didn't exist with the nondedicated ag program. It is also not available for pasture. I know one of the pieces of testimony we got was about the one cow situation where, you know, "This cow is a pet. We're not actually farming." And that's not the kind of thing that we want to support for this community food program. That said, I do think we need to be very careful in consideration of this. I do still think there is potential for abuse, and we need to be cognizant of that. But that's the role we play here is balancing; making sure that we're including everybody that is actually contributing to our food systems, versus are guardrails strong enough to make sure there's no abuse. I also wanted to mention that I have Dot on deck with an amendment draft to change the value from either for donations or sales from 1,000 to whatever amount this body were to agree upon, if that was one way to increase the guardrails a little bit. So, if that's something folks want, we can get it here quickly. Other than that, yeah, look forward to the discussion. I will say that,just one more time, and I know I've repeated this again and again, is that if the community food sustainability program is not something this body wants to see move forward, my intention then would be to, per our previous discussion, postpone this indefinitely so that I could bring back a bill that just sunsets the nondedicated program. So I just want to make sure that that's clear to everyone. Thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Do we want to take up the amendment for the effective date? MS. GALIMBA: Yes. Motion to Amend: Ms. Galimba moved to amend Bill 44, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 218.5. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Galimba. Page 44 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. GALIMBA: This is very simple. Just fixing the effective date at the very end. So going from July 1st, 2023, to July 31" so that we don't have a backdating effect. And actually just wanted to check with RPT (Real Property Tax) if they're okay with that. (Note: At this time, Real Property Tax Administrator Lisa Miura and Assistant Real Property Tax Administrator Keita Jo, Finance Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. JO: Yes, we're okay with that date. Similar to Bill 44, there is specific instructions within the bill that give us the framework in terms of accepting new applications and when the nondedicated program would be sunset. It's not impacted by the effective date. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor of amending Bill 44, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 218.5? Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 44, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 218.5 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: Motion carries. Vote on Motion to Ms. Kimball moved to suspend Council Rule 23 to waive Suspend Council the holdover for the substantive amendment of Bill 44, Rules: Draft 2. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the (Approved) following voice vote: 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: Motion carries. Back to the main motion; Bill 44, Draft 2, as amended. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Page 45 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Mr. Jo, one more time. (Bill) 44. Impacts from 28 and 43, now passed, on 44, if any. MR. JO: If someone is participating in the homeowners program and agricultural use program, as they would in Bill 28, they would receive the homeowners exemption. They receive the homeowners tax class. Bill 44 is tied to 30 percent of market. So, if an individual is in a homeowners program and they're currently participating in the nondedicated program, they will see an increase to their—I take that back. Because of the lower tax rate now that Bill 28 has passed, it allows somebody to go into this food sustainability with minimal to low impact to their actual taxes that they're paying. Because, with Bill 28, instead of paying the $9.35, which is the higher tax rate, because they're in ag they can now get the $6.15. So, even though their assessed value might be going up, the actual impact to their taxes would be fairly negligible. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Can you use 44 in parallel with 43 and 28, getting the 30 percent of the fair market value and getting other decreases in your market value? MR. JO: Say that again? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Can you use the 30 percent of fair market value assessment together with any other parts of 43 or 28? MR. JO: No. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so it's one or the other, yeah. MR. JO: Yeah. So, either you're on a ten-acre parcel and maybe five acres is participating in this program. That's going to be a 30 percent of market. Maybe the other five is going to be in a ten-year dedication. You could do that, but you wouldn't have any comingling in terms of value. It's either the 30 percent or the two times or one time. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, beautiful. You guys like all these bills? Serious. MR. JO: That's a loaded question, no. There's going to be a lot of work for us to implement it, but I think Lisa would agree we see it as a learning opportunity for us. This has been a long time coming. It's been something that's been brought up and reverberated between every iteration of a working group or a task group, task force, or whatnot. So it's something that's been on the radar for quite some time. And what these bills do, it does provide our division a lot more guardrails that weren't there before. And I think it allows us a little bit more black and white. Page 46 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 As was mentioned before, it comes at a balance, right. You can't make it too over encompassing for a farmer. I've done inspections, been out in the field and whatnot. Farmers and ranchers, they're working their fields, right. So you want to make it simple for them, allow them to get the benefit, without seeing a lot of abuse either kind of coming in from the wayside. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Director Miura, any comments? MS. MIURA: No. I think Keita handled that really well. Thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: He did. He did, didn't he? Okay, I yield, Chair. Thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada, go ahead. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. To the maker, I'm just wondering: You mentioned that there's still potential for people maybe not exactly doing the right thing here. And I just wonder if you could expand a little bit on your thinking on that because, yeah, I'd just like to hear that if possible. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. It's a big improvement over the NDA (nondedicated ag)program from the standpoint that if a farm plan is required, it doesn't apply to pasture, there has to be some evidence of food production, and you have to go ahead and show sales or donation. With the $1,000 limit, I would say that it's possible that you have somebody with three lychee trees or avocados or whatever, and they're able to donate or sell those and get receipts that reach that threshold. And that's really kind of not what we're going for. We're going for regular contributions to the food system. That said, to be clear, that 30 percent benefit of market value only applies to the area that is being used. So if you're actually only producing food from three avocado trees, that's your area that's getting the benefit. I just want everybody to be really thoughtful, that we're trying to strike that very fine balance here and yeah. So that's my response to that. Thanks. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. One more if you'll allow it, Chair. And then you mentioned the possibility of changing that dollar amount. Were you considering changing it up or changing it down? I wasn't really sure by your comments. MS. KIMBALL: I think if folks were feeling like the guardrails weren't strong enough, increasing that$1,000 threshold would be probably one of the ways to do that. And so I don't have an amount in my mind. But I did want people to be aware that we have an amendment pending, but we can get down here pretty quickly if that's a lever that folks want to pull. Page 47 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. KAGIWADA: All right, thanks. I'm going to think on that for a minute, but allow others. Thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. I like one of the suggestions, Chair Kimball, that you mentioned, and that is maybe holding this bill and introducing a bill to get rid of the nondedicated ag use assessment that I've heard over time. And that seems real supported by the Real Property Tax Division, getting rid of that. But I have still some concerns about the abuse part of it, and also the fact that you're not including pasture, because I do think that some people might grow two or three cows and sell two of them and keep one for the family. I don't know. I just see it as being really difficult to manage in that the cost of trying to manage this and get control of it, and even explaining it to my community. You have people come up and say, "I've got three trees. What am I going to get?" And then if the three trees is only 60 square feet, who's going to calculate the 60 square feet? How is that going to be done? Who's going to verify it? It just seems like it's a lot of busy work on a lot of people, and that just I would like to spend a little more time. I think that it's noble to talk about food sustainability and maybe encourage more and more people to grow in their backyard and sell it at the local farmers market. But I'd like a little more thinking on it instead of pushing it forward at this time. So there it is. Thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I want to kako`o what Council Member Evans has just put forward. I like the idea of Council Chair Kimball coming back with legislation that just sunsets the nondedicated ag program. There are just, I think, still a lot of questions in the minds of members of the dais, even within Real Property Tax, how we're going to be implementing this, the burden of proof that's required for legitimate operations. And I think folks that are giving away food aren't always necessarily doing it for some tax benefit. Like when my partner gets deer or fish, he's not saving receipts to get some kind of break from any government entity. We do that because that's what we do here as a local community. We take care and we share our resources. So I can't support this measure as presented today, but would like to vote on a measure that just sunsets the nondedicated ag portion. Thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. And similar to that of my colleagues Ms. Evans and Ms. Kierkiewicz, definitely kind of want to get this one right, Page 48 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 especially when we're tinkering with our taxes. And I actually leaned over to my colleague Ms. Galimba. When we amend on second reading, I just tend to have heartburn a little bit because there's very little time for the community to kind of weigh in. And I'm not saying we're doing anything horrible. We're making very minor adjustments. And with the suspension of the rules, I think we still could get even better feedback if we hold it over for one more hearing and acknowledging that there can be just a lot more tailoring, and would support that. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Mr. Jo, I'm listening. So if I'm reading this, and from what you just said, let's say I fenced off four acres and I had 20 chickens, and I used the four acres to raise chickens and get eggs. Would that then allow me to have four acres of property assessed at 30 percent of the market value? MR. JO: Not necessarily because we have internal standards that we use in terms of identifying properties that meet maximum productivity. And so if you had 20 chickens on four acres, you probably wouldn't get approved. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I agree. That's a good answer. Okay. What if I had one cow and one acre? MR. JO: As it stands now, that one cow is pasture, so it wouldn't be eligible for the community food sustainability. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How about four goats, one acre? MR. JO: You're still one acre pasturing. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Still one acre pasturing? MR. JO: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. JO: The nondedicated program, as it stands now, would allow you to get the agricultural use benefit. That's the issue. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. What about 20 lemon trees, one acre? MR. JO: You would only get so much as—if you take a look at the footprint, and maybe to Council Member Evans' concern, our appraisers go out and look at maximum productivity and viability. So they're looking for the areas that are Page 49 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 actively utilized for agricultural use. So your papaya trees, we're looking for densities of 300-400 trees per acre, whereas lemon trees, they take up a larger footprint, so we're looking for less trees. But we're looking for things that maximize the use of that land. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So you have some density requirements you look at as far as what's being grown or raised on the property that you gauge by. MR. JO: Yeah. Generally acceptable agricultural practice. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I like this bill. I like it because, in my eyes, I know we're trying to move away from kind of the illegitimate uses of some of our other programs. But on this one, we're actually saying, "Hey, we're promoting folks who are going to raise food for community, or provide food to the community," and that I like. If we can provide a benefit to the community for that purpose then great. So I like the bill. I'm going to support the bill. If you want to tweak it or hold onto it, if you need some TUMS, whatever,just I kind of like it in the way that it is. I'm going to support this. Thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: I'm going to go to Council Chair Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: I'll give my colleague Council Member Galimba the opportunity to weigh in, but I am going to suggest that one more postponement to the 18'', we still have time. And I do appreciate the idea that we want to get this right. In the interim, what I will try to do is get two more bills ready that basically just splits this, that just decouples the community and the sunset of the nondedicated. That might be a little bit easier for us to deal with, and yeah. So, in lieu of whatever Council Member Galimba has to say, that is my intended motion next. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. That sounds pretty good to me. I just kind of wanted to kind of talk about what I kind of envision with this community food sustainability program, the kind of person that I imagine in my head that would be wanting to take advantage of this. And that would be someone who's potentially doing sort of an educational food program where it's more about the education than about the food production, in a way. I mean, that is really important. So, people teaching kids how to raise some kalo or sweet potatoes or lettuce or whatever, and not really planning to make a lot of money, but being part of the food system and sort of baby-stepping and just kind of learning as they go. That may be where theya good place for some people. They don't necessarily have to graduate into the agricultural programs. So that's the folks that I'm thinking that would take advantage of this. Page 50 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 And I do recognize that we're opening the door for a little bit of abuse, but I think taking the positive approach and wanting to help people to be positive rather thanI think that's more important than keeping the abusers completely out. So it's a balancing act. And I appreciate your discussion of how you folks have your own parameters that would help to put those guardrails on. That's all I wanted to share. Thanks. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. And then if we can just wrap up discussion. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Just really quickly. I kind of have a feeling that those that want to try and cheat the system will try and cheat the system, whether or not they put their residence under corporate entity or they call it ag or they call it whatever they call it. I am going to support this piece of legislation moving forward. I alsoI mean, my heart aches for the amount of work it's going to take for you guys. But I appreciate your recognition that this is a piece of legislation that has been in the works for a long time, and figuring out how we navigate this and improve on the existing system, which I want to compliment the writers of this legislation for all the different nuances that had to be tackled, as well as overcoming the concerns. There's risk versus reward. And I suppose, for me, I feel like the rewards outweigh the risk when it comes to this. Also, as we see in a number of different things that come before us, is people are constantly naysaying in certain areas of the island viable use of land as ag land. And I think, with creativity, there is use for ag land. And if this supports that, even if it's on the and side of the island with lots of lava, there are mechanisms for growing food; aquaponics. All different kinds of ways to be resilient and regenerative from an agricultural production standpoint. And so, you know, and I'm going to forget the name and I'm going to ask Council Member Inaba. And I apologize and I'm humbled, but the name for "farmer" in Hawaiian? ACTING CHR. INABA: Mahi`ai. MS. VILLEGAS: Mahi`ai. But supporting and promoting the movement of our mahi`ai I think is something that is a reward. There's a lot of work to be done in the agricultural state side of things when it comes to what can be done on ag land and vada vada. And we can come back and continue to improve on this. But if it does not gut the County's tax base and leave us without the resources necessary to continue to function, then, to me, this seems like an equitable and wise decision to navigate some of these changes at this time. So, with that, I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Evans, very quickly. Page 51 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. EVANS: Thank you. We just passed 43 and 44, and this one says five years. So, the one that we're looking at, like every five years they'd come in front of you asking for this food sustainability program. But what about the other one that we just passed? Is it every five years? MR. JO: So the prior one, the short-term dedication would be every three years. MS. EVANS: Every three. So, yeah, I'm concerned with the five. But anyway, thank you. I appreciate it. Vote on Motion to Ms. Kimball moved to postpone Bill 44, Draft 2, as Postpone: amended to Draft 3, to July 19, 2023. Seconded by (Approved) Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote: 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: Motion carries. This item is postponed to July 19''. Relinquish Chair: At this time, Acting Chair Inaba relinquished the chair to Acting Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Bill 48: AMENDS THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS (Draft 3) 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. 279.83 Intr. by: Ms. Kimball and Ms. Villegas Postponed: June 7, 2023 First Reading: June 21, 2023 (Note: Comm. 279.131, from Council Member Holeka Goro Inaba dated June 29, 2023, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 48, Draft 3, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to pass Bill 48, Draft 3, on second and final reading. Seconded by Ms. Villegas. Page 52 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members, discussion? I'll be going to Council Member Kimball to start off the discussion. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you very much. So just briefly for the folks that were not present at the last Council meeting. The one adjustment we had made, based on the past discussion, is we had to have the mechanism in there for removal of the administrator. And so that was put in. We had a dialogue about whether or not it made sense to just have a mayoral removal as it is for the housing administrator, or mayoral approval with Council approval. What the body ultimately decided was that adding that Council approval was actually kind of an overstep of the separation of powers between the Executive and Legislative Branches. And you could end up with a scenario where you have somebody under the Mayor that the Mayor didn't actually want working in that position. So that was the amendment we made there. With that removal language, the term length actually became irrelevant. So that was removed as well. I want to mahalo Vice Chair Inaba. He was able to just do one other quick amendment while I was away, which actually just adds a little bit more of the language that would be in the Charter with respect to a department head appointment. And make sure that that is clear in there about the time period with which to take action, so that we don't run into the same issue we did with the Downtown Improvement Association where we thought we had a time limit to do things, and we actually did not. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kimball moved to amend Bill 48, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 279.131. Seconded by Ms. Villegas. MS. KIMBALL: As I said, this is just to add that statutory language that is in the Charter for other positions into this administrative position. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mahalo, Council Member Kimball. Council Members, discussion on the amendment, if any. Looking around the room. MS. VILLEGAS: Just quickly. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Villegas, go ahead. MS. VILLEGAS: I am in full support of this amendment. And I really appreciate the attention to detail taken by Chair Kimball and Vice Chair Inaba. At the start of this prior Administration, we had some challenges here on the Council. I recognized some challenges, I guess, personally and professionally. With department heads or office heads, they take office as soon as the Mayor becomes Page 53 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 inaugurated. But they need to be confirmed by the Council, and yet they've already started the job. So I appreciate this attention to detail in saying that an appointee shall take office upon confirmation by the Council. And there I see appropriate alignment in being essentially hired by the Mayor. But when Council's approval is connected with that, then they don't start until there is that confirming, which allows for us ideally to avoid any issues where somebody's started the job and then Council doesn't confirm them, and then they can't go back to it. There were some challenges with that and some prior issues in a different time, and I appreciate this attention to detail to avoid any circumstances like that moving forward. So, with that, I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Moving on to further discussion. Council Member Lee Loy, go ahead. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, Chair. Oh, this was Holeka, yeah, who introduced it. Okay, let's try. MS. KIMBALL: It was a friendly amendment. MS. LEE LOY: Okay,perfect. Again, trying to work through the mechanics. We stand up the office. The Mayor then appoints. The Council confirms. We confirm or reject. If we don't within 60 days, set. New Mayor comes in. That person stays until the next Mayor advances another individual? So this member then becomes a member of the Cabinet. If not, that person sits in that seat until another name is advanced. Okay. Thank you, I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Okay, seeing no further discussion on the amendment, we have a motion to amend Bill 48, Draft 3, with the contents of Communication 279.131. All in favor? Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 48, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 279.131 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Acting Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Inaba— 1. Excused: None. Motion to Suspend Ms. Kimball moved to suspend Council Rule 23 to waive Council Rules: the holdover for the substantive amendment of Bill 48, Draft 3. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Any discussion? Page 54 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, I just wanted to, one last time, thank all of the people that were involved in creating this, including my colleague Council Member Villegas. But members from the Mayor's office; Finance Department; Planning Department; Jake and Kendra and Sarah from R&D (Research and Development), as well as Doug, I just want to mahalo. And Leslie, of course, too. This has been a project near and dear to my heart and Council Member Villegas's as well. So I just wanted to thank everybody out there, as well as everybody that came and submitted testimony or testified in person. This is a dream come true for me, so I'm happy to see us at this stage. Thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Further discussion? Council Member Villegas. MR. BROWN: I'm sorry. If I could, and I apologize if I missed it, I'm not sure if you called the vote on the suspension of the rules. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: No, I didn't get a chance. All in favor of the suspension of the rules, Council Members? Vote on Motion to The motion to suspend Council Rule 23 to waive the Suspend Council holdover for the substantive amendment of Bill 48, Draft 3, Rules: was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Acting Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Inaba— 1. Excused: None. MR. BROWN: Thank you very much, Chair. I appreciate it. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Thanks for keeping us on track. Back to you, Ms. Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: I just wanted to say that I concur and am deeply grateful for this opportunity to move our County in this direction, and for the support of the Administration in doing so and the different departments, and see this as a legacy project. I really appreciated the testimony that was provided earlier today and her perspectives and her alignment. And also recognition of the different ways that pieces of legislation and new offices, such as this one, can be created. I also want to honor a fellow Council Member who had ideas about a different way to bring this forward. And I just want to also acknowledge that that can always be done afterwards. There is opportunity. That was done with the creation of other the PONC (Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources Page 55 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Preservation Commission)—in our County government. So my hope is that we can get everyone's support on this. Because I think moving forward and history, I don't know. Had some challenging times in life lately with family members being very close to their deathbed. And it had me thinking, "What are the things that, if I was laying on my deathbed, that I would regret not doing or regret doing?" And I am really excited to know deep in my heart and soul that passing this piece of legislation and voting in support of it is something I would never regret, but that I might regret not. So, with humble respect for everyone's opinions and viewpoints, I still wanted to say, "Please!" And with that I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. I'm going to be in opposition. And I know everybody's heard me say it, so I am going to repeat it again so it goes in the meeting minutes, and that is I've been very supportive of this. I voted for the budget. I voted for these positions to be funded. These positions can exist in the office of Research and Development. If we want our County government to expand and be very committed to this issue, then I think it should be by Charter amendment. And I think the public should make it part of their government, what they think is important for their children, for the future of this island. I think we should give the public the right to do a Charter amendment on this. Like I said, this office could be stood up next month. It's very easy. We could pass a reso (resolution). Like I said, the positions already exist. We have a lot of direction. It can be done and I don't believe it has to be done this way. So, for that reason, I am in opposition. Thank you. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I'm going to be supporting this measure. I've articulated that in the past. I respectfully disagree with some of the comments about there needs to be another way of doing this, pursuing it by Charter amendment. We literally just created an agency for animal control. So creating new offices is very much within the jurisdiction of this body. And having sat on the Council for, what is it now, Matt? Rebecca? Five years? Four-and-a-half, five years. I remember our first term. Then-Councilwoman Val Poindexter had introduced a resolution wanting our County to act with urgency to address the climate crisis. We are finally moving in that direction today with this legislation. And it's an opportunity to pool all of our resources together within the County and to take coordinated and collective action, and that is what's needed. That's what's absolutely necessary if we are able to confront this issue in Page 56 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 a meaningful way. So I will again be supporting this. I think it's a very smart and feasible investment that we can be making now to safeguard our future and the future of our mo`opuna. I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Lee Loy, go ahead. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Absolutely in support of this bill. Members of the dais know that I'm a real big stickler for definitions. And what I really did appreciate about this particular bill is the legislation and how it identified the definitions of various items that this office would tackle. And one thing I really appreciated was the definition of resiliency, which I will share again here: means the ability to withstand social, environmental, and economic shocks and stressors with minimal human environmental and economic costs, risks, and damages. And I think this is a wonderful space to keep this office very nimble, as not only we address climate change, but yesterday we heard a lot of my colleagues talk about mental health and how we do trauma-informed care. And I think this will be the perfect place and perfect office to become flexible as we move forward through all of the stressors life brings for us. Really happy to support this and how this will become a department that lives and breathes with our community as we move forward. So thank you very much. I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thanks. Just really quickly. Thank you both for putting this forward. It's been a long time needed, and so happy we're able to pass this today for our children, our grandchildren, and their children's children. So, yeah, really happy to support this, and thank you for all your hard work. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Looking around the room. Galimba, go ahead. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. Just very briefly. Thank you to both of you for bringing this into fruition. I know that so much work went into it, and I just admire the fact that it's here before us. I'm very excited to see what we can do with this new tool in our government. Thanks. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Just again, to make sure it's in the meeting minutes, that the office of Animal Control and Protection Agency, that one of the main functions of the County has been to take care of animal control. So I don't Page 57 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 believe that when we did the agency, we were actually expanding government. I believe that this new office is definitely above and beyond, and that's why I believe it should be a Charter amendment. Thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Okay, seeing no further discussion, Mr. Clerk, roll call please. Vote on Bill 48: The motion to pass Bill 48, Draft 3, as amended to Draft 4, Draft 4 on second and final reading was carried by the following (Adopted) roll call vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Villegas —6. Noes: Council Member Evans and Acting Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—2. Absent: Council Member Inaba— 1. Excused: None. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. I think that does bring us to the end of our agenda. Hold on, sorry. We have our MS. KIMBALL: We have one more item. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That one last pressing item. MS. KIMBALL: So you can give me back the gavel. ACTING CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes, I would love to. It's been fun these last two days. Relinquish Chair: At this time, Acting Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder relinquished the chair to Chair Kimball. 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: Page 58 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 Comm. 331: NATHAN D. SMITH V. COUNTY OF HAWAII, ET AL., CV. 3CCV-22-0000027 From Deputy Corporation Counsel Ryan K. Thomas, dated June 13, 2023, requesting an attorney-client confidential discussion to consult with the Council regarding the above-entitled matter, including litigation filed by Ian Scott Mattoch and Daniel P. Kirley on behalf of Nathan Smith. Motion to Close Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 331. Seconded File: by Ms. Galimba. CHR. KIMBALL: At this time MS. LEE LOY: Chair, always happy to get us into Executive Session. I've read the background material and feel comfortable with the recommendation from Corporation Counsel, unless I hear otherwise. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Let's leave that up to the body. If folks can indicate if they feel comfortable with the recommendation or would like to go into Executive Session. We'll have Council Member Lee Loy lead us in if needed. 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 331, as authorized by Section 92-5(a)(4) of (Approved) the Hawaii Revised Statutes. 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. Recess: At 12:45 p.m., the Chair called for a recess in order to clear the room. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 1:18 p.m. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Lee Loy. Motion to Concur: Ms. Lee Loy moved to concur with the recommendation of Corporation Counsel regarding Comm. 331. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Page 59 Hawaii County Council-17 July 6,2023 MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, Chair. Just to summarize the discussion of our Executive Session: Some questions were asked about the County's duties, privileges, and immunities. Those matters were further expanded upon by Corporation Counsel, hence the body's recommendation to accept the motion to accept the recommendation from Corporation Counsel. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you very much, Council Member Lee Loy. Any further discussion on the motion, which is to accept the recommendation? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Motion to Ms. Lee Loy moved to concur with the recommendation of Concur: Corporation Counsel regarding Comm. 331. Seconded by (Approved) 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. Vote on Comm. 331: The motion to close file on Comm. 331 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.) ANNOUNCE- The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, MENTS: Announcements. (There were none.) Page 60 Hawai`i County Council-17 July 6,2023 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 1:20 p.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn the MENT: 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 1:20. Council Approval: SEP 0 6 2023 COUN -' JH/dg Page 61