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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0010.005 2022-2024HEATHER L. KIMBALL COUNCIL CHAIR Council District I (North Hilo, Hamakua, and portion of Waimea) Phone: (808) 961-8828 Fax: (808) 961-8912 Email: heather. kimballna,hmvaiicounty. gov HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL COUNTY OF HAWAII 25 Aupuni Street, Ste. 1402, Hilo, Hawai `i 96720 DATE: September 21, 2023 TO: Members of the Hawai'i County Council FROM.3'rP(: Heather Kimball, Council Chair SUBJECT: Approved Minutes of the Hawaii State Association of Counties Executive Committee Meeting held on July 19, 2023 Please find attached the approved minutes of the Hawaii State Association of Counties Executive Committee Meeting held on July 19, 2023. Please place these matters on the agenda for the next appropriate Committee. Mahalo HK:byt Mahalo, Heather Kimball Hawaii County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Comm. No IU • S Ref. Too, - 'Ref. bofe 2-2 2023 Hawaii State Association of Counties (HSAC) Counties of Kauai, Maui, Hawaii, and City & County of Honolulu Website: hawaiicounties.ore ; Email: hsacghawaiicounties.or� MINUTES HSAC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY, JULY 31, 2023 12:00 P.M., or soon thereafter Via Videoconference City and County of Honolulu 530;S;outh King Street, Room 202, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 County. of Hawaii pF.��, 25 Aupuni Street; `Suite 2409, Hilo, Hawaii 96720 r -c ,4 TJ X<- A W-Countybf Kauai 4396 Rice Street, Suite209, lhu`e, Kauai, Hawaii 96766 County of Maui 200 S. High Street, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, 96793 Attendees: President Bernard Carvalho, Nahelani Parsonfs, VP"`Tamara Paltin), Secretary Tommy Waters, Jon Okudara, CM Sue Lee Loy, CM Bill DeCosta, CM Val Okimoto, CMFelicia Cowden, Kyle Shiroma -OCS, Kasie Apo Takayama, Justin Kenoi, Remi Mitchell, Allison Okasaki, David Raatz, OCS Ana Lillis, Kaci Tsuneda, Dorthi,-- Kamakana Watanabe;;aSommerset Yamamoto. I. CALL TO ORDER _ II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Agenda approved. III. MINUTES IV. REPORTS a. Treasurer's Report Balance in the HSACprimary account: $132,302.63 Balance in the HSAC conference account: $54,126.70 Total deposit account balances: $186,429.33 July 31, 2023, HSAC Meeting Minutes Page 12stP'Eus°� °°couwi"� CM Waters: How much will the conference cost? CM Carvalho: As of now we have $99,4 76 in the conference account. Treasurer's report received. b. County Reports: i. County of Hawaii CM Kimball: Hosted sister cities on island, connections are so valuable. Passed Bill 48, created OSCAR in the county, identifying where counties have struggled with implementation. A collective impact model. OSCAR has an administrator in the community, a data expert and policy analyst and grant position who will work on supporting those activities. Creating OSCAR set up a basket for Hawaii county to collect the funds. We have revisions to Ag programs, phasing out non -dedicated program and creating a food security program where they will get a tax benefit for engaging in those activities. Struggling with transient accommodations on Ag lands and would like to deal with them as agricultural tourism. Would like this to be considered in the HSAC package. Right now, language is restricted to islands with 3 islands. Still discussing Gov emergency proclamation, support Gov efforts but want to collect sufficient data to ensure it is working. Want to communicate to the working group their concerns. CM Waters: We are looking at Bill 10, issues with the wedding industry, counties cannot add things, weddings are only allowed with a special use permit. Imagine this is the same with Hawaii county when you want to regulate commercial activity on agricultural land. CM Kimball: Want to respect that farms can make more money from ag tourism than farming, however we want to reach a balance on this. Suggest everyone propose someone to be part of a working group to continue this discussion. CM Kiaaina: Important to have infrastructures, in the windward district clamped down on weddings at city parks, in order to ensure there are beautiful sites on Ag land, then we should consider that. Would like to be the POC for the City working Ag group. CM Paltin: When that happens, farming becomes accessory to Ag uses. Last year we had a hearing where the property was on water restriction, and they applied for a special permit. Suggest giving each county home rule to. enact what they need to. Will check with CM Johnson who is the Ag committee to see if he wants to participate. CMKimball: Will create a working group. ii. County of Kauai July 31, 2023, HSAC Meeting Minutes Page 1 3 0 S OF tOUNt�� CM Carvalho: Working on real property, repeals the tiered tax classification. Changing of the classification to hosted to owner occupant use. Residential tax classification to none. Deciding whether to tier the class tax process. CM Paltin: Maui change to owner occupied and non owner occupied. Has worked out really well. Sometimes when people get handed down generational properties and then are not using it as their main residence. Created a new classification for long term rentals to encourage people to rent it out long term rather than CM Kimball: Anything less than 180 days is taxed at a higher rate and homeowners lose the 3% cap on it. A lot of homeowners did not know about it. Looking at non -home owner occupied versus home owner occupied. Primary residence, home value will only go up as much as 3%, if you were in the dedicated ag program, did not have that cap, now if you are a farmer, you can cap at 3%. CM Waters: Created a bed and breakfast category, created a STR fee. Both are different. Have a bill to cap value not going up past 8%. CMKimball: 4 categories: hosted, non -hosted, bed & breakfast. CM Paltin: Short term rentals are taxed the same as B&B, they can qualms for homeowners exemption but if doing commercial, then it's different. iii. County of Maui CM Paltin: July 7, passed HSAC NA Co and WIR board, July 18 council meeting Maui adopted the GET half percent surcharge. Going into effect Jan 1. Tomorrow, in the gov relations ethics and transparency will be writing the legislation, getting a lot of testimony on the e foils, DLNR have been issuing permits, but it is not really compatible with the swimming use and people concerned about their safety. On July 18, part of the legislation passed language to deal with weapons owned by felons and air guns. Seeing people with air rifles and transporting them, causing alarm. Need to position the sale and replica of guns to felons. Have 8 - 11 state proposals. iv. City and County of Honolulu CM Waters: Share Big island concern about Governor's proclamation. We did 9 affordable housing projects approving a lot of projects, the hearing and the public testimony were super valuable. 104 AMI is market rate, HNL defines it as 120 AMI, construction worker is more like 60-80% AMI. This new committee being setup is not going to have the public input so will they hold the developer accountable. The last project approved initiated as 140% AMI, that is market July 31, 2023, HSAC Meeting Minutes Page 1-4 LL� m � 3�ssP"AS e SI ` s °pcouez�`�' rate, so they encourage them to build more units to build 80% units. Through the emergency proclamation, we do not need to go through the county anymore. 60-80% is workforce housing. Developers do not want to do 300% AMI. CM Carvalho: Conference update, Koloa landing is fully booked, overflow is at Sheraton resort. Availability at Koloa landing for Friday/Saturday. Encourage registration at the golf tournament. As of right now have 91 registrants. Motion to receive all reports, approved. c. NACo Report CM Kualii: Brief report, very successful conference. Voted for the next 2nd VP JD Clark from Texas, Mary Jo McGuire became President and did give one of the appointments to Ashley, out of 10 nationwide. Hawaii makes a big impact when attending. Scott Teruya from Maui County is also from the NACo board. Passed all the resolutions, none too controversial. NACo is upgrading their website. The Affordable housing task force has been working about a year, in the toolkit there are 25 diff recommendations on how to tackle the affordable housing crisis. Motion to receive, approved. d. WIR Report CM Paltin: The next WIR is at Yosemite, CM Kama is interested in Maui hosting a future WIR, will be looking into that. e. Executive Director Report ED: Reminder to file for your reimbursements. Executive Director Report July 31, 2023 Last report was given on June 26, 2023. The following is a summary of the work being conducted by the Executive Director. V. Executive Committee Officers Support: President Support: a. Updated the HSAC conference web page with updated information on golf registration. July 31, 2023, HSAC Meeting Minutes Page 1 5 _ _ stP`EAS ..n.. .....,..�._....._... ..._ ...._,_..�...v_..._.��__,....._...v_.»..._...........,,__" gv� yr O'�COUNte4 b. Researched vendors and obtained quotes for an online registration platform for the conference. c. Created a web page with an online registration and sponsorship payment feature. Secretary Support: d. Drafted agenda for the upcoming HSAC EC meeting. e. Sent out reminders about the next HSAC EC meeting. f. Maintenance of HSAC website information: L Updated the HSAC website to add the agendas and minutes of the prior meetings. Treasurer Support: g. Reviewed the Treasurer's report. h. Maintenance of HSAC QuickBooks records. Completed reconciliation of last month's transactions in Quickbooks. L Processed reimbursements and invoices and uploaded documentation to the HSAC google drive as well as sent out copies of the documentation to the HSAC President. j. Requested quotes for D&O insurance from the following companies: • Hawaii Financial Advisors, Inc., tim&hawaii-fa. com • Paradise Insurance, (808) 315 7207 • King & Neel LLC, sean.spencer&kingneel.com • KANO, Rick Humphreys, Monarch insurance, rickhkmonarch-hi. com • Atlas insurance, rrodriguez@atlasinsurance.com o Update on quotes from various accounting firms for an audit of the accounts. • Maria Fahnestock, Carbonara CPAs. • Brian Van Camp: 12/31/2023 delivery deadline, auditfee: $14,250. • Dustin Verity at Verity and Associates: request for quote submitted, pending a response. VI. Fundraising Plan a. ED attended the NACo annual conference and met with Executive Directors from South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota to build relationships and learn more about their funding model and operational structure. b. ED met with consultants from NACo affiliated programs, NACo EDge, Professional Development Academy, and other potential partners. c. ED following up with a company who offers support to build out a corporate sponsorship program. Estimated cost of $15, 000 to set up or a set percentage off revenue for the first three years. d. Pricing information from E&M Consulting for an HSAC brochure: HSAC would receive 15% of the advertising revenue after $5000 has been raised. HSAC would need to speck who would be appropriate to reach out to request sponsorship and support from. Timeline for completion is approx. 5 months with E&M consulting, this would be just in time for the HSAC conference. July 31, 2023, HSAC Meeting Minutes Page 1 6 a 9 e. Inquiring with other associations on potential grant funding opportunities. VII. Legislative Update: Conducted meeting with Jon Okudara and Hawaii county, as well as discussion with Maui county on legislative proposals for the HSAC package. VIII. Conference Update: ED has started a conference guidebook containing a timeline of events and key elements that need to be planned out. a. Legislative Report Jon Okudara: How can we specifically design a tax credit only for ag use. Why a tax credit for ag workforce as opposed to tax credit on L4L for workforce housing, difficulty developing this to a bill that is necessary. Another proposal for produce tax credit, young brothers gives a 30% discount to ag products for transporting between islands. Big concerns was with cattle containers because cattle leave things in there when they leave. Maui county bills, problem with family leave bill, under Chap 398, for family leave they define employer as including the state and any of its political subdivisions. Will have a problem as under collective bargaining leaves of absences are part of bargaining. Would like to look back at bills that were introduced that almost got there and didn't quite make it. CM Waters: Any idea on how to ask the state for ways in which the county could generate more revenue. Looking at the hotel bill from NACo and there was a city room tax of 11%. Trying to raise fees on certain things, licensing fee on short term rentals, must be rationally related, asking for a low amount for short term rentals to fund DPP. Motion to receive, approved. IX. UNFINISHED BUSINESS X. NEW BUSINESS a. Communication (07/12/2023) from Jade K. Fountain-Tanigawa, County Clerk, Kauai County Council, transmitting Resolution No. 2023-53, RESOLUTION APPROVING THE HAWAII STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES NOMINEES TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND THE WESTERN INTERSTATE REGION BOARD OF July 31, 2023, HSAC Meeting Minutes Page 1 7� s DIRECTORS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2023-2024, which was approved by the Kauai County Council on July 12, 2023. Motion to receive and approved. b. Communication (07/21/2023) from Council Chair Heather L. Kimball, requesting agenda time to discuss C -PACE, specifically identified as the commercial property assessed financing program, which is being proposed for all counties to stand up as identified in Act 183 (2022). CM Kimball: Any foreclosure of the C -PACE loan would be required to be managed by the counties, also going through review of corp counsel. Seeing if there is interest in creating a working group for this to see if we want to sync our legislative ask for this. CM Paltin: Met with them last week about the PACE, if the financial assistance was to be used for a controversial thing, main concern was if they use the finances to do these things would make it not a great investment. CM Kimball: Good idea, we need some conditions for the projects that the funding can be put into place. CM Waters: Happy to work on the working group for this. CMKimball: Make a motion to make a working group on this topic. Approved. c. County of Maui Resolution No. 23-169, APPROVING THE HAWAII STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE'S NOMINATIONS TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES AND WESTERN INTERSTATE REGION BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024, which was approved by the Maui County Council on July 7, 2023. Motion to receive, approved. July 31, 2023, HSAC Meeting Minutes Page 1 8 astPSEus°�� 5 XI. ANNOUNCEMENTS a. Scheduling of the next Executive Committee meeting. L Upcoming Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for August 25, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. ii. Scheduling for September 2023. XII. ADJOURNMENT