Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CRCOC 2023/10/03 (2022-2024) Committee on Communications, Reports,and Council Oversight 15th Session Hawai`i County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawai`i October 3, 2023 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Communications, Reports, and ORDER: Council Oversight was called to order at 3:20 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo,by Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Acting-Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Vice Chair Ms. Cindy Evans, Member(came in later) Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member (came in later) Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Absent&Excused: Ms. Rebecca Villegas, 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 following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Su Champeny Comm. 410, support. Denning Powell Comm. 456, support. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: So we have two presentations today. I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Lee Loy to introduce our guest speaker, who kindly provided the first path of her presentation at an earlier meeting. And going to ask, can we please keep to the thirty minutes that was detailed in your communication today. MR. BROWN: If you don't mind,Madam Chair, can we read in the communication? CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Yup. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 410: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY `AINAALOHA W. IOANE, PROJECT COORDINATOR FOR THE KELI`I IOANE LEGACY FOUNDATION, REGARDING THE KEAUKAHA STEWARD PILOT PROGRAM, KU`U HOME 0 KEAUKAHA From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated August 15, 2023. Postponed: September 5, 2023 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. Lee Loy, seconded by Ms. Galimba to close file on Comm. 410.) (Note: Comm. 410.2, from Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy dated September 27, 2023, transmitting a presentation to Comm. 410, was circulated.) ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Go ahead, Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. And again, I'm lucky to introduce my friend Ainaaloha Inane. At our meeting a month ago, she shared a lot about the programs that were going on. We kind of ran out of time, and so we wanted to, you know,back fill that conversation. And as Sue mentioned there's some actionable items that will evolve out of this, that's one thing I really appreciate about the Keaukaha community. They don't come with just complaints, they come with complaints and solutions. And I think there's a lot of opportunity to fund certain areas, specifically Parks Department, who did do an amazing job last weekend. Helping out the area at the beach park. But I'll turn it over to you `Aina, thanks for being here. (Note: At this time, Project Coordinator Ainaaloha W. Inane came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. IOANE: Aloha mai kakou. So I'm going to start getting to the second half sorry for the movement of the presentation. (Note: At this time, Ainaaloha W. Inane.,provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the presentation, see the DVD copy of the proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office, or online at http://hawaiicounty.granicus.com. A copy of the presentation is made part of the record, see Comm. 410.2.) MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, `Aina. First of all, love the presentation always love the ask. What I wanted to share with my other colleagues is, one thing about Page 2 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 Keaukaha community is they do the work. They do the work, provide the data, make the ask, and myself have been working with members of the Administration to get some of it done. But I think we need to have a real transformative approach to how we use our beach parks. And that's something I think that `Aina has presented very well, that we could use our cultural wisdom to guide some of that use. And don't be surprised for the rest of my colleagues if you see some more of that kind of legislation coming forward. Because I think like `Aina mentioned, it's becoming a cycle, you know, from her father to her and then her kids. Just want to maybe break that cycle and turn it around a little bit. But thank you again, `Aina, for being here. Go ahead, Ms. Kagiwada. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much. And thank you for that two- part amazing presentation. If anybody would like to make a few quick comments. Go ahead Ms. Evans. MS. EVANS: Wow, I'm very grateful you've identified so many issues and challenges that we are facing. And I just see a lot coming out of the work and the effort that you've done. What really struck me is you're the next generation. So your uncles, your father, I mean when they were young, they must have learned it from their grandparents or their parents. They picked it up and now they're transferring over, and you and your children are learning and embracing it, and that just kills me. My heart is full when I hear this. One of my takeaways is, I know that there were certain places on Kauai that were really getting inundated. Again,just horrible what was happening. And the local community was no longer going places because it was just too many people, too hectic, it was not what they were used to, and they kind of backed off until eventually they put together a really big program, I don't know who was behind that. You have the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, you have HTA (Hawai`i Tourism Authority). But I don't know who would be appropriate to do an interpig interaction group that looks at how did Kauai put together a program, really limits the amount of people that are non-residents from using some of these special places. And they figured that out, and there are some lessons learned from that. I think the other thing is there's just so much demand that obviously we need dog parks, or we need other things to be done to meet the demand that is there. And so that's the other thing that I picked up is you identified there's a huge demand for program services, or just people wanting things, the desire. And you know maybe COVID (Coronavirus disease), and maybe people wanting to get out, and whatever. But we're going to have to step it up because I'm not happy with hearing some of the impacts that it's having on the community there. So count me in. Thank you, I yield. Page 3 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair. Mahalo no ke kaana mai (for sharing), I was not here at the last presentation. But I was watching the feed, so I did get to see the first part. You know,being from Kona not making it all the way to end of Sue's district often, you know, was pleased to see the information that you folks collect in partnership with the County knowing that the County is being a good partner to you folks down there as best as Parks and Rec can. So just mahalo for Sue for bringing us this `ike (line of sight) and having us know more about what's going on in your community. Thank you. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Anyone else? Alright, well thank you so much again. Really wonderful presentation, you've given us a lot to think about. And I think we will be seeing some action coming from folks here, so we'll stay in touch okay. MS. IOANE: Thank you. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much. Alright, we have a motion to close file on Communication 410, all those in favor? Vote on Comm. 410: The motion to close file on Comm. 410 was carried (Filed) by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Acting Chair Kagiwada—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Comm. 456: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION WITH THE CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY AND THE HAWAI`I FIRE DEPARTMENT REGARDING WILDFIRE EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS From Council Member Heather L. Kimball, dated September 11, 2023. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 456. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder. (Note: Comms. 456.1 and 456.2, from Council Member Heather L. Kimball dated October 2 and October 3, 2023, transmitting presentations to Comm. 456, was circulated.) ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Go ahead Ms. Kimball. Page 4 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. If I can invite our Chief of Fire and Administrator from Civil Defense up to the table. You know after the Lahaina fire, I'm sure we all got calls and concerned emails from our constituents wanting to know what was going on with respect to wildfire; we did have our own wildfires here, how we are prepared to respond, what we are doing to better prepare how emergency communications will work. You know, obviously that was something that happened in Lahaina. So I wanted to invite Civil Defense and Fire to come and present to us,primarily to provide that opportunity for them to share with the public through the venue of the County Council meeting, where we are. Just give us a pulse. At the same time, as was said prior by—we are an active local government. I've got to give credit to all of us. Pats on our back, we're always looking to problem solve and figure out how we can just take us to that next level. So, I did also ask the Chief and Administrator to talk about any ways we can help. I'm thinking about budget, I'm thinking about possible legislation, whatever. So I didn't want it to just be a one-sided conversation,but also to get some feedback from you folks about how we can help support you moving forward. So I don't know if you did Jan Ken Po to see who's going to start. Looks like it's Talmadge, but Administrator, again, thank you for being here. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day, thank you for your patience, and I just invite you to present. Folks, we did get a little packet with the slides on this. Thank you. (Note: At this time, Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. MAGNO: Good afternoon, Talmadge Magno Civil Defense Administrator. I try to make sense out of everything that's happened here, you know, from that August 8th period. And all the incidents that we deal with that you see sometimes, and we got great evidence right here over your guy's left shoulder off my right side. But there are times,there are incidents that impact us that sometimes overwhelm everything that we've put together to mitigate and to protect. An example is 1946 and 1960, the tsunamis that hit the State of Hawaii and devastated Hilo, especially. Though it was tragic, we learned from it. And you see the result of it, it's open space. And so like I said, sometimes the system gets • overwhelmed and then what happens is we build up to accommodate that new level of impacts that we see. So what I have for you guys today is basically, a lot of our systems that are in place already and we see that, you know, as you mentioned in your email to us that it's an opportunity to revisit,just continuously messaging' putting out the information there. At first when I read your emails, I was kind of frustrated because I'm like these guys supposed to get it. You know we've talked to them. Every mayor's meeting I go to in communities, I bring it up. All my folks, they're addressed with all this stuff,but you're right. People, for whatever Page 5 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 reason, ae busy and they don't fully pay attention. So it's something, that message you've got to always keep putting out there, what's available for them so that they can be aware, so that they can plan, so they protect themselves. So I'll start off here. (Note: At this time, Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the presentation, see the DVD copy of the proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office, or online at http://hawaiicounty.granicus.com. A copy of the presentation is made part of the record, see Comm. 456.1.) MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Talmadge. I don't know if you folks want to hear from Chief Todd, and then do questions? Yeah. Okay, Chief Todd, you're up. (Note: At this time, Fire Chief Kazu Todd came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. TODD: Okay, so I was asked to give a presentation on Wildfire Emergency Preparedness protocols and processes, emergency communications, and potential needs or opportunities to improve the community wildfire preparedness and response for Hawai`i Island. That was a mouthful, but that's what I got in an email. In terms of that, I can't speak to obviously emergency management and Civil Defense because that's a little bit above my head, and Talmadge manages that. But what I can speak to is the Fire Department and the Fire Department's preparedness, and our protocols, and processes, and whatnot. (Note: At this time, Fire Chief Kazu Todd provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the presentation, see the DVD copy of the proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office, or online at http://hawaiicounty.granicus.com. A copy of the presentation is made part of the record, see Comm. 456.2.) MR. TODD: So we're now, I guess, open and available for questions. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Alright,perfect. Council Member Kimball, do you want to start it off. MS. KIMBALL: Actually, I'll yield the floor for my colleagues to start,but I just want to thank you,both, for being here and presenting to us first. But I'll yield to my colleagues. Thank you. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Anybody else? Okay, Council Member Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder. Page 6 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Thank you,both. Short, succinct, to the point, solution oriented, and good informative presentations. Thank you. Yeah, you guys really are our line of defense for our community, and I'm liking you both seated at the same table. Actually, I was thinking about it last night, I was telling somebody, oh, I have a presentation tomorrow, it's Talmadge and Todd. It's actually kind of nice, Talmadge and Todd; it's like a team. You like that? MR. TODD: There's a lot of is there. MR. KANEALII—KLEINFELDER: No, seriously. So thank you for this, Talmadge. This print out is very helpful because it gives us a matrix of how, when, who, what, the whole thing. Thank you for mentioning our broadcasting folks who help in the community. Because as we've seen when we have multiple things going down, they can still be up or they can cover our blind spots or vice versa, and they're incredibly important as a team member when we do emergency response. Chief Todd, we spoke a while back, and I was interested in your suggestions, and you brought them today. I noticed, from your specific suggestions for the County Council, you have controlled burns. And I said this probably for the last two years, and I'd like to see some action on controlled burns. It gets us ahead of the curve; not waiting for it to happen. And it's a little bit scary and there's a lot involved, but when we do it, we clear the lands we're worried about, and we do it at our leisure not at nature's discretion. At least we're a little bit more in alignment with getting things ready. So how do I help with that lens because that one comes with age? I've been harping on this and here it is, so. MR. TODD: So, I don't want to say that controlled burns are the only option. Rather, I do want them to be one of the possible ways we look at solutions. Every scenario is a little different. One of the down sides with controlled burns is that they do produce smoke and often times we end up with medical calls or other things like that because of breathing issues with people who are living near the area. So I can't claim it as a solution for everything, and then there's also potential issues with not having fully extinguished the fire, and then later on it's restarting or rekindling because of an issue for not doing a thorough job. So there's cost that way. There's also potentially clearing of land as a possible solution where we come in and there's some potential solutions that way. But definitely I did want to pose it as a potential solution and that's why I put it on the list. It really kind of depends on, I think the first step is for us to identify where we want to target removal of brush and then start coming up with plans. I can tell you right now, we are working—want to thank R&D (Research and Development) whose funded us to help put together a grant for the community wildfire defense grants right now. Page 7 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 And we're—about$250 million in federal funding that's helping for fuel reduction. Some of that can be used in that direction, some of it can be used in other ways in terms of just bringing in brush clearing or bulldozing or things like that. I think it really just depends on the specific lot and its proximity to other stuff. I think definitely on highway areas, especially maybe on Highway 190 in the upper area where you have some kind of a swath where there is a gap, getting that burned out is pretty safe, and also potentially something you might want to look into. And there might be some other areas where there's some good places that would make sense. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Okay. Good, thank you. I'll lend a hand there, if you need a hand. That makes sense to me, control burns make sense to me. Again, it's at our discretion not just trying to respond to something that's happening. I remember Val Poindexter saying what happens if all of these happens at the same time, I was like yeah, yeah, yeah. But you spoke to that today. That really is a concern when you have high winds, and a fire or an earthquake and a tsunami all of it at the same time in an area that is prone. And that's where my brain was going. Do we have a map of prone areas, fire prone areas that we need to focus on. MR. TODD: You know, if we're talking about high wind areas that I think are vulnerable on this island. The primary areas, I think of for me are Ka`u and Kohala. And then more recently Hamakua, honestly. Just because of the amount of trees that we have now days, and the grass. Normally it's raining and it's wet in the Hamakua region, should it dry out we have a lot of fuel load in that area so that concerns me potentially. More often because on a more consistent basis we have fires in the Kohala, you know, North Kona Region and we have in Ka`u. And so those are the areas that most often are running from Ka`u to South Point, and basically that Waikoloa region over there. But definitely there's potential for anywhere on the island. When you talk about Lahaina and the structures that are over there, we just have a lot really old homes on this island that are just made out of wood. And that's a problem. I don't have a solution or a way forward, I think what we need to do is think about holistically on the long term like how we're going to address that. Some of the interesting stuff coming out of the national level is the concept of kind of like a barrier say we find funding to retro homes on the edges with fire resistant cladding and safety. So that, you know, the houses that would be most at risk don't burn, and if they don't burn then they don't send embers and flames into the community from that point. So we're looking into some science, and I'll be working with people from the national level to see if we can't find interesting solutions. But I would say generally it is a difficult prospect when you're running into multiple major disasters at the same time. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you for us if you want us to—you're Page 8 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 suggestion is to incentivize building materials different types of codes, good for us to know where to incentivize those in. Or to what areas are clearly identified from the departments as being areas that should be looking to these new materials, with building types of construction codes those kinds of things. MR. TODD: You know, arguably I would say the whole island. You know, the Water Department just put out a notice the other day, basically saying like were going into drought. And it's likely to continue for a while, and it would be pretty much the whole island is what they're saying. You know, in our areas that are constantly facing drought, they just have a lot of grass that's already dried out and ready to burn. But in the areas that rain on a consistent basis because they're used to it if you have a sustained period where there is no rain the potential for ignition and fires to start are just as likely. You just need, you know, like a month where there's no rain or something. So arguably it doesn't really matter where on the island, I think that really comes down to how it's above me. But pretty much it's like building codes, and how do you encourage guys to bring in innovative and new technologies and what not that is fire safe. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. And for Talmadge, sirens I mean we can use those for anything and everything? Are we set to tsunamis only, what's the deal with our sirens? I get that question a lot. How come they didn't blow the siren,but I mean just so it's clear. MR. MAGNO: So like you see on the matrix, all the way on the left-hand side. It' gives you all the disasters that they address there, you know, all the way from was it tsunami on the top and all the way down the hazmat on the bottom if the in between. So if we have a need to get messaging out to a population if it's not even on that list, we could still use it. It's just an alert mechanism for people to go to turn on whatever device they use to get messages. Yeah, so whether you depend on your cell phone for the text, or your radio in your car or in your house, or your tv. That's what you got to recognize, the sirens telling me to go look for my message. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Okay. What's the breakdown for your organization. If you're not available, who's next above you to make decisions. MR. MAGNO: That will be,Bill Hansen. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: And then Bill Hansen if either one of you guys. MR. MAGNO: Barry Periatt. So one of us will always be— MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: What's to say your all on a plane. Page 9 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 MR. MAGNO: That will never happen. MR. KANEALII—KLEINFELDER: You're not available, something happens. Who's above you guys? MR. MAGNO: It will be the Mayor. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: The Mayor. MR. MAGNO: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: And if the mayor not available. Things happen. MR. MAGNO: Next would be seniority wise; Dwayne Osaka, Tom Olsen, you know, the rest of my staff officers. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Okay. And then at some point does it shift to Mayor like you said, and then goes above that. MR. MAGNO: It actually starts at the mayor, he's the Director of Civil Defense. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: I remember the discussion when we had our restructuring of your bill for your department, yeah. MR. MAGNO: So I'm just the Administrator. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. MAGNO: Our function or our management basically is myself, Bill Hansen, Barry Periatt we would rotate on call. So that person will be on island, available for that week. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. MAGNO: Just to make sure we got that level of coverage. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Okay. And then the mayor. MR. MAGNO: It's between him and the managing director. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Either one of them, does it go straight to state level? I'm not saying like if you guys die,but there's no one available, somebody got make the call to get something done. Page 10 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 MR. MAGNO: Yeah, it could go to HIEMA (Hawai`i Emergency Management Agency) to state level or to the governor. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Is that structure broken down in HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statues)? MR. MAGNO: I don't believe so. It goes to the governor, mayor level and then who they can designate to. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: I just asking the question, I've heard different things on this. Just checking to see where we stand. Thank you. MR. MAGNO: Yeah. MR. KANEALII—KLEINFELDER: Your presentation, thank you very much. I yield. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. One thing we didn't talk about,just a brief comment. We didn't talk about dip tanks and water in the fire hydrants and pressure. Because that was one of the problems in the fire that happened in my community is they felt there wasn't enough pressure in the fire hydrant, so there was a lot of challenges. So any thoughts on water. MR. TODD: More is better. MS. EVANS: Okay. MR. TODD: So definitely one of the things we are looking at is the community wildfire protection plans do talk about establishing dip tanks, they talk about establishing water. And one of things we'll be working on potentially with that seeking of funding, is finding ways to fund to simply establishing dip tanks and what not. To the other extent of it, you know, the Fire Department is able, when we talk about a dip tank which is used for our helicopter operations. We are able to set up a portable one, pretty much anywhere we need to. We bring out tankers, we have these inflatables sort of tanks that as we fill with water they grow, and they look like pumpkins. And we'll drop them in fields, and right next to where we want to do work. And we work very well with the Department of Public Works, and they'll bring out their own 5,000-gallon tankers and feed us water for pretty much days. Also, the Department of Forestry and Wildlife has been working with us, and we also have their ability to just drop like these 2,000-gallon slip on slip off tanker systems. That they're able to bring out as well. So more is better just for Page 11 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 convenience and the closer to the fire that the tank is, the easier it is to get that loop with the helicopters. So if it is kind of out there in the middle, there are places where a dip tank would be useful. But we also got to consider there's cost of maintenance that goes into it, in terms of if it's open and a helicopter can come and pull water from it and it's just staying there permanently. There's an evacuation that's going on and there's a cost of refilling and keeping it full. So questions on how it works, and how they make sure that goes boarder some of the things that need to be considered. But it is one of the things we're looking at right now with our community welfare protection plan and ways to find funding and create more dip tanks, yes. MS. EVANS: Okay. The other thing is, you made some comments about zoning and drought areas and maybe certain areas we should consider building and maybe not building. Are you commenting at all on the General Plan from that perspective? Because I saw you at the open house General Plan,but if you were standing back— MR. TODD: You know, as far as the General Plan goes, mostly at the time that I was part of it, it was mostly to work on the sections I've talked about fire and establishing fire stations and how we expand, we should have fire protection and things like that. I did not particularly get involved in terms of community planning side of things, and how we deal with that issue. More to the point when the PowerPoint was talking about that my thought process was mostly about unmanaged land. We used to have a lot of agricultural land that was used for things that are currently unmanaged and that is contributed to the fire problem. And perhaps some creative solutions to the County Council might be able to start addressing that area. I don't know for sure how we would go about that. But definitely, there's been a variety of thoughts that have been put out there from increasing the tax rate or giving a discount or something like that to encourage people to handle their own land. One of the problems is you do have a lot of people from the rest of the United States buying land, because they're thinking hey, it will appreciate with value over time, and then they just don't touch it. They don't manage it and it can become a fire hazard, especially in the Kona region, we have a lot of transient people moving into the bushes, and then they start fires because they're cooking and whatever else. So we've had multiple starts from people just camping out, and that's a problem. So encouraging people to somehow either manage or develop or bring in agriculture or things like that is something I think is really up to County Council's alley in terms of how do you legislate that so people want to use the land that they have, or they lease out the land in the meantime so someone's using it if they're not ready to develop it themselves, or that they're at least cutting down their brush? Whether you penalize or give incentives or something like that is Page 12 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 something I would defer to you, but I thought I wanted to bring up the issue. That is one of the causes that we have this large loss of land that's just not being managed, and we need to think about that because we tore down all the native forest that weren't really a fire hazard, and then we kind of just didn't replace the ones we moved out, and now is just a bunch of grass that burns. MS. EVANS: Got it. I'll just close and knowing that in Waikoloa when there's vacant lots and brush would grow, they would notify the owner. They'd do it twice, notifying, and if not they would clean it up and then there's—file a lien against the property. MR. TODD: Yeah. So there are options within our County, and definitely, the bad group that is meeting right now is discussing that. And the reason basically is like you know, what section of Code would you use to apply? There's the Hawai`i County Code, Chapter 14, Section 25, which allows the majority of landowners nearest to the property to write into the mayor which would trigger land clearing. There's technically a section under HRS 132-7, which allows the Fire Chief to have powers to just basically tell people to remove fire hazards. Don't know that it directly applies to land, but it is one of the things out there. And there's also like, Chapter 17 in the Fire Code. Question is whether the county would like to go down that route of basically putting liens on property, and whether that's legally a good decision. And that's one of the reasons they're having the meeting in terms of how do we go about that, and where do we focus those efforts, and then how do we recoup the cost? And then do we even have the spare capacity to being out there and clearing land, right? I will end this list of projects that each department has, and not enough funding or manpower to go do it. So are we adding more work to things that we are already not getting done? So things to think about. MS. EVANS: Thank you. One last question. Has anything changed in the last month, since the fires? MR. TODD: For my department? MS. EVANS: Yeah. MR. TODD: Yeah, definitely a lot has changed. I would say the first and largest change is that people are aware. You know, this isn't a new thing. The Community Wildfire Protection Plans that have been put out by HWMO (Hawai`i Wildfire Management Organization), the Fire Department coming in front of you guys' year after year to talk about the lack of funding and the lack of equipment replacement and things like that. That's been the story for decades, right? We just haven't had that the weather event that people were like, "Oh my God, it is an Page 13 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 issue." And so I think the dynamic it's changed the attention, it's changed in regard to fire. I think we've always known that tsunamis are an issue, and at least on this island, earthquakes are an issue and so on, and every other possible natural disaster on this island. But fire is now more in the foresight, and so there's definitely a lot of attention. In a couple of days, I'll be over in Honolulu meeting with the governor. I've already testified in front of the legislature's Fire Prevention committee, and I'll probably be in DC (Washington, D.C) the following week and talking with some people over there about getting some funding in a variety of ways. So we'll see if we can't work to improve some of our areas and produce better services from the Fire Department to serve the public. MS. EVANS: Okay, thank you. And Talmadge, you're not off the hook, I'll talk to you offline about your spreadsheet. Thank you, I yield. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay, thanks. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. Thanks for the great presentation giving some answers to things that people in community have been asking, I really appreciate it. I do have a pet peeve though, and that is, and you kind of talked about it a little bit about the kind of vegetation that is and is not. And so I think this derives from a logical malfunction almost, in that they are non-native invasive grasses, guinea grass basically, that are very, very, fire—they go up and yes, very impressive flame. But that doesn't mean that native plants don't burn. Makes me a little crazy,because I mean there was huge fire in the National Park and that was all native plants. So just because it is a native plant doesn't mean that if it doesn't burn and vice versa. It's really more about moisture content, really, and the fuel load. So yes, I just would love to kind of get that sort of idea out, and this is my first attempt to talk about it. I feel like I should write something into—and I love Clay Trauernicht(Department of Natural Resources &Environmental Management, University of Hawaii Manoa, Assistant Specialist). And I think it came from them, really you know, it really is how dry it is and the wind, you know. MR. TODD: And so the main difference primarily is that some of the invasive grasses thrive on the fire cycle, versus our native plants that don't. And part of the problem too is they normally burn that they're built around that concept of a burn coming through and then they're replacing out the native fauna. While it isn't to say that the native fauna and plants—it doesn't mean that everything doesn't burn, everything burns, right. But the expansion of these non-native grass lands has been basically expanded due to that fire cycles that we've had. So the more it burns, the bigger the grass lands usually because they replace off the native plants and the more we're opened to future burning. And so for the reason Page 14 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 of trying to re-establish, not necessarily all native plants or things like that,but things that are fire resistant succulents and things like that. At least in that human interface where humans are most likely to come and park their car with their hot catalytic converter or whatever else, it's something that we can look at as a way to re-establish proper barriers and reduce fire within our built environment, as well as our wetland. MS. GALIMBA: Yeah, agreed. I guess still whether it's native or non-native really doesn't side whether it burns, yup. So anyway, I think there's some great non-natives that are very fire resistant as well so. MR. TODD: You know, there's definitely some cactus type plants that are out there, and whatnot. MS. GALIMBA: Even Christmas berries. MR. TODD: Or Christmas berries. Yeah, I'm definitely not well versed enough in plants to comment on what should or should not be planted. My goal would be stuff that burns less would—I'll take some of that as long as the scientists are convinced that it's not going to spread, or whatever, become a problem in it of itself. So that would be what I would advocate for. MS. GALIMBA: Agreed. I mean that's something that we're getting a lot of calls I think from people, and it's just like we don't want any vegetation near us. It's like guys, that's not necessarily the best in the long run either. Lava is great because it doesn't burn, but it doesn't necessarily mean pavement and lava everywhere. So it's going to be a process, I think, of all of the community, I think, figuring out what kind of buildings and landscaping is going to be better. MR. TODD: Yeah, I do want to emphasize when we look at Lahaina and the issues there, theoretically, the fire could have just started right on a regular street, in the middle of the subdivision from a telephone pole or highwire line going down to the ground. In which case, you know, doesn't matter that the plants are burning or not burning. You could have just one house start burning, and then the winds are going to carry that and wipe out everything just the same. So it's not as simple as just plants, we also have to look at how we design buildings, and how we design communities, and how we encourage basically,just safer design and safer communities. MS. GALIMBA: Yeah, I agree. It takes almost a little bit of a red herring there, and there's a lot of legal maneuvering that's happening around Lahaina, so putting the blame on different people. Yeah,but I think we all have to be really careful to think it through and not just say this one thing is going to save us all if we get rid of the non-native grasses, and we'll be safe and that's really not true. I yield. Page 15 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you, anybody else? Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the presentations,both of you. I think my questions really come down to how we're getting information out via social media, right now and the times of when the Civil Defense is activated or leading the charge for an emergency. I know during the lava eruption of Mauna Loa we were using the Hawai`i County Civil Defense Instagram and Facebook. But in the last fire, Fire (Fire Department), it seems, was taking the lead. So information was coming through the Fire Department social-media, and then when, I think the Civil Defense was involved, we also were getting notifications via the Mayor's social media. And sometimes the social media post from the Mayor's social media and the Everbridge messaging that we're getting are not consistent, or we'll get a 10 o'clock Everbridge and an 11:10 Office of the Mayor, Mitch Roth. I brought it up before to the Administration, but it's not just bothersome to me, because unless you're following that social media page, you're not going get the information, it's dangerous. And I don't know, I'm saying it now in the public because I've already brought it up, and I've seen it happen over and over again. But why are we not using the Civil Defenses social media to get out the information and having that be lined up with the Everbridge notifications? I guess that question is for you, Talmadge. MR. MAGNO: Yeah, I understand the issues and we'd hope they get resolved, because Everbridge and social media are the same package. So when we launch our message, they're all going together. And so whether it's a matter of user error, missing something, that's what it might be. But like you say time and time again, we get these complaints and then we've got to go into the system. And then we find out whether or not checking the right box or, you know, we always find that there's some issue. So we're trying to work that out. One effort that we've started working towards is working to have a joint information center. So my hopes are that this area, this site, is where all the information will be coming into and being pushed out of. So everything would be coordinated, uniformed, and we're not having those kinds of, I guess parallel efforts or miscommunication. MR. INABA: Yeah, I think that's my concern, because I don't even see it as a parallel effort. I think the last time I looked at the Civil Defense Instagram page, it was an update from Mauna Loa. And that was what, earlier last year? MR. MAGNO: Yes. Page 16 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 MR. INABA: I know we've had other events where, you know, your agency has been at the lead. So I'm just going to state this for our community because we're going to need to have clear communication moving forward. We shouldn't be getting emergency updates from the Office of Mitch Roth,Facebook, and Instagram. We should be getting that from the Hawai`i County Civil Defense social media. And I know it's not one of the five channels you mentioned out right,but I don't know what else to say. It's what our community needs, and if we don't get the information from a consistent source and we're getting two different messages in some cases, I just think we're going to be in trouble. And I'll say one more thing regarding that chain of command. I think today was the opportunity for us to get more clear on what happens in the event of an emergency, not to get more confused. So our County Code Section 2-8 gives us the steps saying it's the Mayor, the Managing Director, the Finance Director, the Planning Director, and on and on and on. So we can refer to that section of the Code, and the Charter also specifies those three first steps in terms of if the Mayor is not available. So that's my mana`o on this, and I hope that the Civil Defense can work with the Administration. If there's a PIO (Public Information Officer) or you don't have a PIO at the moment, somebody's making the social media post and they're getting out some way. It should be through the Civil Defense. Thank you. MR. TODD: So I also need to apologize since the Fire Department was not in concert with Civil Defense on the messaging. We have since worked with Talmadge's personnel and given them access to our Facebook. We will route all messaging through them so that when they launch anything, they'll have the option of having it post to our Facebook page as well. That way, the messaging is linked up and we won't be doing anything independently. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chief. One last thing as well, regarding this national test, I don't recall getting an email or communication from the Administration regarding this test. I could have missed it,but these are the kinds of things that we can help to also get out to our community ahead of time, so that we're not getting calls tomorrow at 8:21. Thank you. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Alright, thank you. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thank you. I do share the same sentiments as my colleague,Mr. Inaba. It has gotten very confusing, and at a time of an emergency, mix messaging is not what we want. So if we could figure out a way to have a very clear bright lines of communication and how that information is pushed out, that would be helpful. I know this communication was around emergency preparedness, so definitely, creating social media tiles and just plunking them, you know, every two weeks or every month as a reminder, I think those things are very helpful for community. Page 17 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 I had a question around Everbridge because I personally don't have Everbridge. And I keep getting told or sign up or drive me over there. Besides radio and TV and all the other things, how else can we communicate? Because, and I'm asking this for real. My mom is 87 years old, right? She's not going to pay attention to some ping on her phone, right? It's going to be the siren for her to turn on the radio or turn on the TV. And my question is really, how effective Everbridge is becoming for us? That's one. I'd like to see, like Mr. Inaba, one place where this information is housed and pushed out, so we have a consistent message. And then finally, my third question really was around the building codes and introducing robust fire protections within that. Do we know the cost of some of that? Because we keep trying to amend our Building Code, and then we get complaints saying well this stuff costs too much money for housing, right? And so do you know of any cost around some of those Codes or fire protection within the Code that we could choose? So those three questions. MR. TODD: I'll defer to you for the first two,because I don't remember them anymore. MR. MAGNO: Well, Everbridge still has a need or a purpose. Like I mentioned, it's another tool in our belt and to get information out, it's a great tool. EAS (Emergency Alert System) we—the siren, those are life threatening emergencies where we've got to get everybody's attention. For the population that depends on the siren, one, I hope there's a siren nearby. If not, they have to somehow have the other resources available, whether it's a cell phone that the wireless emergency alert will come through, or have their radios on, or they will be watching TV to receive that really critical information. And that's what we tell people to look at yourself individually, what are your vulnerabilities and how can you take care of yourself? What needs to be in place,planned, and so forth that you can take care of yourself? And we know there's a population out there that cannot meet that need, and so we actually, within the county, we identify those populations. And in a case that the community is being impacted, we know who our clients are, and we can go get them with those departments. In our community outreach we advise people to know who your neighbors are, know who's vulnerable in your community so that you can support them as well. So it's kind of the all community approach, with all the tools that we have on our belt to support everybody. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, Talmadge. I mean I think I said this was about preparedness. And so if that's another tool for your tool belt, like you said, neighbors knowing neighbors, let's add that to the tool kit, right? Thank you for that. Thank you. Chief Todd. Page 18 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 MR. TODD: Okay, building codes. So not a simple topic. Definitely, you know, if you look at the governor's proclamation about suspending building codes and everything else like that, it's partially because people are like, "Man, have you read that Code? It's really thick." And there's a lot of stuff that is in there for fire construction and a variety of other things that we put in there. My goal is not to advocate to lets add even more to that concept. Rather, I think it's a matter of, you know, looking at removing barriers, offering incentives, or doing different things that naturally people want to provide for, you know, fire resistive construction, or fire sprinklers. One of things is the state literally passes a law every year that prevents the counties from adopting residential fire sprinklers. I've argued at state level that you should let every county just make that decision eternally. And at least the data that has come out from the areas in the mainland when they have adopted residential sprinklers, it's initially pretty expensive. It adds a lot per square foot, but once it becomes the norm in all of—as a train it ended up costing something around a dollar a square foot when everything was said and done. So once everyone is trained and it becomes a norm it just fades into the background cost. But initially trying to set up and redesign and have homes with sprinklers can be kind of a large jump. I don't know that I would advocate that we force everyone to go a different direction,but maybe we could offer an incentive saying like hey, you know, if you are paying residential property taxes but you have a sprinkler system or something like that, there's a reduction in your residential property taxes. If you have a house and you're paying residential property taxes and you have fire resistive construction on the exterior, and that could be temporary, it could be permanent, you know, there's ways to incentivize and then there's ways to also remove barriers. So I don't know much about the fact about house movement or things like that. But the houses that I've seen in Japan that they're offering really cool technology and keeping it at an affordable price point, the houses I saw that were really amazing, we're still building for$120, $130 a square foot back when I was in Japan. Looking at these houses, which is a while ago, so I'm assuming it's more expensive over there, I'm assuming it's more expensive over here by a far margin at this time,because that was maybe 10 years ago. I was asking how much does this cost? At the time, it was comparable to Hawai`i but some of that is, you know,removing barriers. So looking at the County Council for how do we encourage companies that want to bring in new technology or new ways of doing things how do we encourage that? And I don't know what the barriers are, and I know we're moving. I know there are companies that are looking to do interesting things. Page 19 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 And so as the County Council who deals with that on a daily basis, and talking with the Building Department, maybe there's ways to explore that, I don't know. I think it's a matter of potentially taxes and how we structure that in terms of giving incentives or penalties. And also, code in terms of opening the way for things to happen such as pushing the state to allow some version of sprinklers to be put out there. And maybe you say it's not required,but there's a tax incentive that if you install residential sprinklers, you get a lower tax rate or things like that because your house is less of an issue in a major disaster. Things to think about. You could also technically apply that beyond fire, like maybe if you get hurricane strapping, or retro fit your house to be earthquake resistant, or things like that, you know, there are incentives to go in that direction. How and why, I'd leave that up to you guys to figure out. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, gentlemen, appreciate the information. I yield. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Alright, anybody else? Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. Just going to wrap up with a couple of things. I want to just circle back to the water resources, so it's through a response to what happened in Lahaina. Are you evaluating our water resource availability to tank some—as well as emergency evacuation routes, and things we might need to develop out? Is that part of what your—? MR. TODD: To an extent, I think that would be the answer to that. Obviously, you know, it's hard, we don't exactly build roads or anything like that,but we do advocate for fire breaks or funding for maybe establishing dip tanks and things like that. And the Fire Department, we have no problem coming and supporting. Earlier today you guys were looking at some legislation about maybe paving private roads or things like that. And you know, from the Fire Department's perspective, if those roads contribute to people getting out during disasters and things like that, that could be a valuable expenditure of county funds. I don't want to see a similar disaster to Maui happening on our island. So by any means that the Fire Department can advocate for a safer island and a safer public we're going to. Some of that is a little out of our purview. I'll be honest, the limits of my expertise come up on hard walls when you start asking about like, how do we change tax structure or provide for these things? All I can tell you is I've gone there, I saw it, I'm like someone is doing it, and I don't know how they figured it out,but they did. And so there's got to be lessons out there, and maybe reaching out to our contemporaries in other states or even internationally, can ask them like how did you guys accomplish this and what legislation was put together, and how did you incentivize business to provide solutions without having to overly burden our public? That would be my thoughts. Page 20 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 MS. KIMBALL: Let me maybe rephrase this a little bit. I know the folks in my community, a lot of them are aware of potential water resources, oh, so and so got a little pond up there, as well as oh there's this old trail that you can get to,but you need a key,right? So if I'm a Council Member and I have my community coming to me and saying, oh, I know about these resources, what's the mechanism to communicate that, and do you have an inventory that you're managing? Who do we contact to get that gate open? Things like that. Is that anything that's in the works? MR. TODD: It depends with what gate, what water resource and everything else. We are aware of quite a bit of it. And one of the things we're doing is we're implementing a new fire record system, that's cloud based that will allow us to put in a lot of detail. And we are also working like Civil Defense to try and give more GIS (Geographic Information System) related data out there. It's been a couple years back when everyone's like GIS, GIS, I was just like, "I don't understand why anyone cares about this stuff. What do you mean they need GIS specialists. It's a map, like Google maps, is really simple. Like what good is this?" MS. KIMBALL: You know who you're talking to here, right? MR. TODD: Yeah, yeah. So having now learned more, I'm like oh that's why it makes sense. Why do I have to have seven browsers open each with a different picture of our island because we can't put all of the information on one picture of our island? You know, it makes total sense now,but at the time, I was a little skeptical. But definitely, we are trying to gather that data. And so if there is something out there, you're aware of, or that community wants to consult on we're always available to discuss. MS. KIMBALL: Okay, great. Yeah, actually the last two days a working group of GIS specialists from the different departments have been meeting, and there's a lot of data that we have access to. But you don't necessarily have access to police's data, DPW (Department of Public Works). In fact, we've talked about having drones available to fly over places with infrared cameras to see if there's a hot spot,because that's what happened, you know the fire fighters left. We've got four drones, DPW, so let's just talk and make sure that when you need to borrow one of those drones and throw out infrared camera on it you can. And I think there's going to be lot we're going to be able to do with some of the new GIS tools, including, I was showing Council Member Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder on the Hawai`i Wildfire Management Organization site, they do have plans for some portions of the island. So there are some of the areas including Ka`u, Puna that have mapping tools already available about potential hazards. So I encourage people to check those out. Page 21 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 The other thing I wanted to talk about, so prior to COVID Civil Defense had like a project 360, am I remembering correctly? They had something like where you guys were going out into the community and helping develop community plans. Now that we're kind of evolving out of COVID, are you engaging in that practice again? Who can I point people to if they're interested in doing a community level preparedness plan? MR. MAGNO: So the project 360 was a product from community emergency response teams, and that still exists. We push that product and it's more for the `ohana to be prepared. But as far as the community plans, you know, I have staff, Barry Perry specifically, I have assigned him to work with communities in developing their plans. We won't do it for them,because they know their community better than us,but we'll help them. It's using the FEMA templates. MS. KIMBALL: So I should direct people reach out to Barry? MR. MAGNO: Yeah, they can reach out to Barry, that would get them started. MS. KIMBALL: Alright. Another comment on the communication piece, I was actually showing somebody I said, "Oh no, it's easy to get the updates." You just do this, and this, it was on their phone. And first of all, they had in stored links for Civil Defense that were dead, so they were getting to the old like 2010 alerts. So I brought this up in the budget hearings actually, we need to have IT (Department of Information Technology) kill those dead links because depending on what you use to search for in your Google history, you personally, you're going get directed to the wrong link. So we need to just axe those. The other thing was, I was like okay, this is how you get to the hazard page. And the map is great on a desktop, but the map on a phone and the map on a tablet is not great. And the one thing I think when we've got an emergency situation, I was showing someone I was like okay you go here, you go here, oops there's the Everbridge sign up thing I got. Everbridge is like the fundamental, this is what's going on message. It takes me five clicks to get to that, and then I have to sign up. So I'm already signed up,but if I'm showing somebody, so is there any way we can just like—it's a long way of saying can we just have that Everbridge message very first thing on the front of the page? And then get the map,because the map is great, you know, Denny had some good feedback on that. But can we just go simple, and just have that message right there front and center without any other bells and whistles? MR. MAGNO: Sure, we can see what we can do to make it more user friendly. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. Because if I hear the siren going off, I just want to be able to go with one click and see what's going on, and I think that's going to be— Page 22 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 MR. MAGNO: Specifically for the message. MS. KIMBALL: Specifically, the message, what is—you know, if I hear something is going on, I want that message front and center. I love the map, maps makes me excited,but a lot of folks are intimidated by that. I like maps, what can I say? Anyway okay, moving on, Gerald talked about iPhone. For folks that are listening to this, and you mentioned getting the emergency alerts, I did not even know how to do that on my phone. So settings, notifications at the very bottom turn on emergency alerts, then you'll get the ones going to your phone. MR. MAGNO: They should come prepackaged that they're on. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, I didn't even know where to check. So, putting that out there. One last thing, Chair with your flexibility. I just wanted to do a real strong plug for the conversation about building codes. And the reason being that the function, fundamentally, building codes and fire codes is health and safety. They exist not just because we want more bureaucracy, but we want to protect human life and welfare. And the National Building Science's Foundation,they did a study and when they looked at hazards and hurricanes and fires and all that stuff, every dollar that you invested in prevention by following the codes, was a 12—not even—six is like generally,but with respect to building code,building science, it's 12 to one investment and voided cost. And so there is no reason, when we're talking about providing affordable housing and whatnot, poor people should have unsafe housing. That's not a tradeoff that I think we should make. So anyway, I'm just going to make that plug. I yield Chair. Thanks for the leeway. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Alright. We're going to just wrap this up. Thank you both so much for coming today and sharing your expertise. I just want to reiterate; I was going to say the same thing about the website. Just kind of like you know,is the website even something that people can utilize? I know a lot of 20-year-olds, and they're not going to probably sign up for the alerts or maybe they just moved here, and they go to UH Hilo and they're not in the system or anything. Can they go to a website in one or two clicks and find out what's going on? Right now, if I look at Civil Defense and go to the website, I have the same issue. I go to an old dead site. So if we could clear that up and make it really easy for people to find out what's going on, I think that would make a world of difference. There's a lot of people, that for whatever reason, may not get these, slip through the cracks. Just as we heard, you know, stories from Maui, people not getting messaging and things like that. I think it's really important that people, especially people who may, like I said, not sign up for things. But they would look and if they can find it easily that would be super helpful. So please if you need Page 23 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 something from us in order to get this done,please come to us, but please get it done soon. MR. MAGNO: I'll start addressing it tomorrow. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you so much. Alright, thank you everybody for your insight. Oh, alright we got one more question here. Go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. I'm reading through 127A-3, the Hawai`i Emergency Management Agency HIEMA. They are charged with under Section (e), number (4), "make recommendations to the legislature,building code organizations, and counties for zoning,building, and other land use controls; . . ." Have they ever, that you know of, come out with or have you seen a report from the legislature from HIEMA in regard to this? MR. TODD: I'm not aware of that. I'm also sitting on the State Fire Council which technically, I think also is in theory to be able to give recommendations or whatnot. But I don't know that the state fire council. We do follow legislation and whatnot, but I don't know that HIEMA has or has not. We report to them when stuffs going on our island, so they're aware of it. But I guess Talmadge can talk about more. I don't know that we're aware of any of their legislative efforts or what they do or do not do. MR. MAGNO: I know they are active during the legislative season. But as far as land management, dealing with wildfire and so forth I'm not aware of them coming out with any kind of recommendation for that. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: And they haven't reached out since the wildfire in Maui to you folks at all with anything? MR. MAGNO: Not as far as any legislation. MR. KANEALI`I—KLEINFELDER: Okay, 127A-3E4, they're actually charged with that duty so, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay. I don't see any other lights on. We have a motion to close file on Communication 456, all those in favor. Page 24 CRCOC-15 October 3,2023 Vote on Comm. 456: The motion to close file on Comm. 456 was carried (Filed) by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Acting Chair Kagiwada— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 5:39 p.m., Mr. Inaba moved to adjourn MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Ms. Kimball and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Galimba, Kaneali`i—Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, and Acting Chair Kagiwada— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. CHR. VILLEGAS: We are adjourned at 5:39 (p.m.). Thank you, everybody. Approved: vt406\ .3 Ms. Rebecca illegas, Chair (Date) Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight Committee RV/rk Page 25