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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GOEAC 2023/09/19 (2022-2024) Committee on Governmental Operations and External Affairs 17th Session West Hawai`i Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i September 19, 2023 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Operations and ORDER: External Affairs was called to order at 9:00 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Cindy Evans, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Cindy Evans, Chair Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member (came in later) Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (came in later) Absent& Excused: Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Vice Chair STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The Chair called Eileen O'Hara, who registered to comment on Res. 240 (Comm. 426) and came forward when called. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of CATIONS: business, Communications. Comm. 10.4: HAWAI`I STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES' JUNE 26, 2023 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES From Council Member Heather L. Kimball, dated August 25, 2023. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 10.4. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. EVANS: Any discussion? GOEAC-17 September 19,2023 MS. KIMBALL: I'm just submitting the minutes of the HSAC executive committee meeting for June. CHR. EVANS: Okay. Mr. Clerk, I want to note that member Galimba has joined us. Okay, having said that with no discussion, can we have the vote. All in favor? Any opposed? Vote on Comm. 10.4: The motion to close file on Comm. 10.4 was carried by (Filed) the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, and Chair Evans—6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kagiwada, Lee Loy, and Villegas—3. Excused: None. Comm. 440: NOMINATION OF EILEEN LACERTE TO THE POLICE COMMISSION From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated August 30, 2023, requesting the Council's review and confirmation. Requires Council Confirmation by: October 13, 2023 (Section 13-4(k) Hawai`i County Charter) CHR. EVANS: Mr. Clerk, would you note the presence of Member Villegas. Any other questions or comments? No, if not, we'll take the vote, all in favor? Vote on Comm. 440: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend confirmation of (Approved) the nomination of Ms. Eileen Lacerte to the Police Commission. Seconded by Ms. Kimball and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Villegas, and Chair Evans—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kagiwada and Lee Loy—2. Excused: None. Executive Assistant to the Mayor Pomaika`i Bartolome came forward and provided a brief narrative of the nominee's background and experience. Committee Members spoke in favor of the appointment. Page 2 GOEAC-17 September 19,2023 Comm. 441: NOMINATION OF GONZALO GARCIA TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated August 30, 2023, requesting the Council's review and confirmation. Requires Council Confirmation by: October 13, 2023 (Section 13-4(k) Hawai`i County Charter) Vote on Comm. 441: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend confirmation of the (Approved) nomination of Mr. Gonzalo Garcia to the Environmental Management Commission. Seconded by Ms. Villegas and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Inaba, Galimba, Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Villegas, and Chair Evans—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kagiwada and Lee Loy—2. Excused: None. Executive Assistant to the Mayor Pomaika`i Bartolome came forward and provided a brief narrative of the nominee's background and experience. Committee Members spoke in favor of the appointment. Comm. 442: NOMINATION OF ANNA LIU TO THE BANYAN DRIVE HAWAI`I REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated August 30, 2023, requesting the Council's review and confirmation. Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to recommend confirmation of the appointment of Anna Liu to the Banyan Drive Hawai`i Redevelopment Agency. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. EVANS: I see no one in Hilo. Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, you know, I've known Anna for a number of years. I think she is incredibly intelligent, competent, I do think it's important for her to be here for the Council to ask questions on the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Agency is a very critical body that plays a large role this year, as we walk into the Legislative Session, securing funding and potentially authority for the County to take a more home rule approach at redevelopment of that peninsula. And so, if she's not able to be here to kind of share about what she hopes to contribute to the agency, I just ask my colleagues that we forward her nomination to the Council. Page 3 GOEAC-17 September 19,2023 But we absolutely need her to be there, Pomai, at Council so that we can speak with her. This particular agency I'm going to assume is going to require a lot of time and commitment, and I just want to make sure that every single person that is serving is able to make that commitment. It may even require travel to Oahu to speak to our State Legislatures, so I just want to make sure that folks that are stepping up to serve know all of the requirements for these volunteer positions. Thank you, Chair. CHR. EVANS: Thank you. Members, any other comments? Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to ask Pomai where we are in filling this commission, as far as number of folks that still need to be seated? MS. BARTOLOME: So, we have other applications that we are currently vetting. Right now, I believe we have Mr. McCully (James) and if Anna Liu is confirmed, we'll have two to make up the five-member body. But that's where we are at currently. CHR. EVANS: Thank you. Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah,just a note because this came up in the previous nomination for this board that it doesn't have that same limitation of action within a certain timeframe,just to make everyone aware of that. That said, I'm happy to just move this forward, but I agree with Council Member Kierkiewicz, we'd love to have the nominee here for that hearing at Council. As well as, you know, I think it's important that the two Hilo members; Council Member Kagiwada and Lee Loy are present for that conversation. But I'm willing to move it forward just to keep things going, but if we can assure that she'll be here next time that would be great. Thank you, Chair. I yield. CHR. EVANS: Thank you. Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. Good morning, Pomai. So just wanted to confirm looking at the current membership, you're saying that this nomination and another one would complete the five-member board? MS. BARTOLOME: What is a five-member board? Right, yeah, full membership is five members. We have Jim McCully and then, if Anna Liu is confirmed, that's two members to complete the five-member board. Did I say that correctly? MR. INABA: And the other members currently are? MS. BARTOLOME: Just Jim McCully. Page 4 GOEAC-17 September 19,2023 MR. INABA: The other existing members of the— MS. BARTOLOME: Oh, kalamai (forgive or excuse me), and Mr. Birch. MR. INABA: Okay. I'm looking at this record right now that's online. It says Nathan Gaddis, Katharine Cannon-Eger, and Ross Birch; are those the three current? MS. BARTOLOME: So, it's on the fact sheet. I'm not sure if Corp. Counsel wants to chime in because their term date if you look in parentheses 2022, and then Katharine Cannon-Eger 2023, and it expired on May 31st of that year. So, I'm not sure if they are technically holdovers. So, that's something that I would need Corp. Counsel to chime in on. But as far as the parentheses of 2024, we're not in 2024 yet so I don't want to assume, but that tells me that May 31st, 2024 would be the term date for Mr. Birch. MR. INABA: Okay. I will follow up offline with you just to make sure we have our dates correct. Thank you. MS. BARTOLOME: Yeah, you're welcome. CHR. EVANS: Okay, thank you. Members, any other questions? Well since it came up, I would like Corporation Counsel to come up for just a moment, because we're doing all these commissions and appointments. I think it was an interesting question by Member Inaba, do people automatically become holdovers and is that okay because they're still voting on things? At what point, should we just assume that if the administration doesn't find a nominee that they can still sit in that position until such time? (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. STRANCE: Good morning, Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. Depending upon the language of the creating of the committee, most of our committees and under the County Charter, there are provisions for holdovers. Some provisions allow holdovers for a certain period of time, some allow it until a replacement is selected. So we would have to check on these with the languages, but most of the committees allow for some sort of holdover, at least for a short period of time. CHR. EVANS: So is it clear to say that hold overs usually have a time certain? MS. STRANCE: Not necessarily. Some of them have until a replacement is selected. So, in those situations there have been situations where there have been holdovers for quite some time. Page 5 GOEAC-17 September 19,2023 CHR. EVANS: Okay, alright. Thank you. Good to know. Alright, thank you. So members, no discussion, we'll take the vote. All in favor. Any opposed? Vote on Comm. 442: The motion to recommend confirmation of the appointment (Approved) of Ms. Anna Liu to the Banyan Drive Hawai`i Redevelopment Agency was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members, Galimba, Inaba, Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Villegas, and Chair Evans—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kagiwada and Lee Loy—2. Excused: None. Executive Assistant to the Mayor Pomaika`i Bartolome came forward and provided a brief narrative of the nominee's background and experience. Committee Members spoke in favor of the appointment. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. Res. 240-23: APPROVES THE HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS AND PRIORITIES TO BE CONSIDERED FOR INCLUSION IN THE 2024 HAWAI`I STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE Includes proposals relating to the regulation of tobacco and regulating traffic on hazardous roads and in sensitive areas, and six policy priorities relating to: (1) dangerous dogs; (2)the lawful sale or distribution of wild-caught ungulate meat; (3) pathways for midwifery licensure; (4) extended producer responsibility to address solid waste; (5) increasing access to mental health providers for youth in rural counties; and (6) financing of residential cesspool conversions. Reference: Comm. 426 Intr. by: Ms. Kimball Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to recommend adoption of Res. 240-23. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. EVANS: Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. So this is part of the procedure with the Hawai`i State Association of Counties (HSAC) to develop our package that we will submit to the legislature. So each of the Councils are going through this process of forwarding policy, priorities, as well as bills to the HSAC Executive Page 6 GOEAC-17 September 19,2023 Committee. The committee will then vet those and create a package which will then come back to us for a final vote. I wanted to just mahalo those who submitted the recommendations on this, so that you have the list of policy priorities there. I think they're all pretty self-explanatory. I just wanted to make note of an amendment to Sunshine Law that we made a couple of years ago, which allows this body to discuss anything that we've identified as a policy priority; in teinis of being able to submit testimony to the legislature. That has always been a challenge because of the timing, it doesn't allow us to hold public meetings and what not. So having these things identified allows, for example, me to circulate notification that something is coming up for testimony with the body without being in violation of Sunshine Law. I wanted to speak specifically to the second bill regarding traffic regulations, because this is something that I've been kind of working on as a mechanism to address the Waipi`o Valley situation. After having some conversations with Judge Strance, there seems to be a potential avenue for us to ask the state to allow the counties to have some authority to limit use of public roadways. At least when it's not to our own neglect. The hope is that something like this in place, we could employ a model like Hyena for Waipi`o Valley, which would allow us to say certain numbers of permits per day. We don't have that authority right now, so that's a bill that I've been working on. I've been working on the tobacco bill from last year, so you're probably familiar with that already coming again from Council Member Lee Loy and Kagiwada's office. I just wanted to note with respect to the testifier that yes, we passed the resolution around insurance here at Council. But Council Member Lee Loy actually presented a resolution at HSAC Executive Committee, also relating to the insurance issue. And so we voted to support that, that is also going to the legislature. Timing wise we need to approve this and get it done by the next meeting through Council. So, I do request that it be forwarded today. If there are additional items that folks want to add to those, that is certainly possible through an amendment. But I suggest that we continue with this forward, so that we can meet the timing of the HSAC legislative process. Thank you. CHR. EVANS: Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Just—what do we call this, clerical war? Small edits in the third, fourth, and fifth whereas clauses. If the apostrophes in Hawai`i could be corrected to okina's prior to next reading since we are sending this on. Thank you very much. CHR. EVANS: Okay. Member Kierkiewicz. Page 7 GOEAC-17 September 19,2023 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair Kimball, for putting this forward. I will be supporting this resolution. I was wondering if you could provide a little bit more details around the resolution that Council Member Lee Loy presented to HSAC, and what it means for there to be that resolution, and how it is different from this resolution; that identifies priorities that we would like that particular body to be advocating for on our behalf to the legislature. CHR. EVANS: Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, thank you. So the resolution that we passed at the HSAC Committee was very similar to what we passed here at the county level, which was basically saying this body supports some action by the state with respect to the insurance issue. In this case, it was not exclusive to the situation in Puna with respect of the lava zones. The difference here would be that if we identified it as a priority, then any proposals that came to the legislature we would be authorized to act and advocate for. We would send our lobbyist to testify and so forth and so on. Additionally, I think that it wouldn't be a bad idea to make an amendment to this resolution that would have a continuing resolution for the state that could be put forth as part of the package. In which case, that resolution would have to be drafted in the format of a state continuing resolution. That would allow us to put forth specific language and it would be a bill it would be part of our package. So you know, I don't think it's a bad idea to add that to this resolution. It'll be up to you whether or not you wanted to provide a specifically worded document or just add it as one of the priorities to the list. CHR. EVANS: Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Chair Kimball, for that explanation. I would feel very pleased, and I think members of Hawai`i Island; not just Puna, but I also heard from folks that live in the Kona area that are in lava zone two that are seeing some impact to their insurance. And with the devastation that's recently occurred on Maui, everyone's insurance rates are potentially at risk. And so this is now becoming a statewide issue that HSAC should pay very close attention to, so I would like to add it to the list of priorities. And I also wonder if there are conversations at the EC (Executive Committee) regarding invasive species as well. Is that something that is going to be a legislative priority that's put forward by another Council or is that something that we can also consider adding to the list. This goes beyond just albizia, but this is also something that's potentially devasting various aspects of our agriculture community. I wonder if that is another consideration for a friendly amendment, if so I'm happy to put this forward to Council. Page 8 GOEAC-17 September 19,2023 CHR. EVANS: Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, thank you. And thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. To my knowledge, none of the other Councils have anything around invasive species, so I welcome that edition to our priority list. The nice thing about having things on the priority list is it gives us some flexibility to shift as bills get amended or things are proposed that make us no longer want to support something we had in the past. We try to limit the number of actual bills and resolutions that we put forth as part of our package. So, up to you as far as either of those, but I welcome any friendly amendments by anyone on this body at the next hearing. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I'll be putting forward an amendment to add a couple of things to the legislative priorities list, only because that provides more flexibility in case bills die or these priorities are taken up in other forms throughout the legislative session. It just ensures that HSAC still has a voice and can weigh in on these important priorities. Thank you, Chair. CHR. EVANS: Thank you. So what I'm hearing, the recommendation is to move it forward and that friendly amendments will be at the Council at the next meeting. Okay, thank you. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor say "aye". Any opposed? Vote on Res. 240-23: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 240-23 was carried (Approved) by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Villegas, and Chair Evans—6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Inaba, Kagiwada, and Lee Loy—3. Excused: None. ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 9:42 a.m., Ms. Kimball moved to adjourn MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Villegas, and Chair Evans—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kagiwada and Lee Loy—2. Excused: None. Page 9 GOEAC-17 September 19,2023 CHR. EVANS: We are adjourned at 9:42 (a.m.) Approved: -J / / g' Ms. Cindy Evans C air (Date) Committee on Go rnmental Operations and External Affairs CE/rk Page 10