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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CRCOC 2024/02/06 (2022-2024) Committee on Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight st 21Session Hawaiʻi County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaiʻi February 6, 2024 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Communications, Reports, and ORDER: Council Oversight was called to order at 11:20 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Vice Chair Ms. Cindy Evans, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Absent & Excused: Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. Matt Kānealiʻi-Kleinfelder, Member 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 comment on Comm. 692, and came forward when called by the Chair: Sylvia Dolena Shannon Matson Anna Schamber Dean Schamber Bobbi Cuttance COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 Comm. 692: REQUESTS AN UPDATE AND PRESENTATION FROM ANIMAL CONTROL AND PROTECTION ADMINISTRATOR MATTHEW RUNNELS REGARDING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ANIMAL CONTROL AND PROTECTION AGENCY From Council Member Holeka Inaba, dated January 9, 2024. Motion to Close File: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Communication 692. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. CHR. VILLEGAS: With that, I’ll go ahead and invite Animal Control Administrator Matthew Runnels to come and provide us with a presentation today. Thank you for being here, Mr. Runnels, go ahead and just push the button and state your name for the record. (Note: At this time, Animal Control Administrator Matthew Runnels came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. RUNNELS: My name is Matthew Runnels, the Administrator for Animal Control. MR. INABA: Chair? Sorry, could I give us a little introduction as to the request that I put forth? CHR. VILLEGAS: Yes, my apologies. Mr. Inaba, go ahead. MR. INABA: No worries. Thank you. I know there’s been a lot of testimony and we’re hearing two items today with regards to Animal Control. It was stated in a previous meeting by a testifier regarding funds for spay and neuter, but I just provided this communication so that the Administrator could come before us, give us a kind of high-level overview of where we are with staff recruitment, where we are with Animal Control facilities, the dispatch and call center vehicles, and then overall shelter space and needs for the agency; being that it’s an agency that’s been kind of a work in progress in terms of standing up. So, that’s the real intention here. Communication 692.1 in your pinkie folder is a copy of the presentation, which is about 15 minutes long and will need some time for discussion afterwards. Thank you, Administrator, for being here. MR. RUNNELS: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. This presentation is packed with a lot of information and if we don’t get through it all that’s fine, but it’s for your record and for your constituents to review as well, so. Page 2 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 (Note: At this time, Animal Control Administrator Matthew Runnels 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. 692.1.) MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Just a point of information. Sorry, if you go back two slides, (slide #16 of the PowerPoint), Priority 1, what is Priority 1, Priority 2? It’s hard to read on there, it just says Priority 1, 2, and 3. I can see the breakdown, but can you give an example of 1, 2, and 3? MR. RUNNELS: Priority 1 would be any of our dangerous dogs. Our stray dogs also fit into that category, as well, and also our injured animals, as well. So, our Priority 2’s would be things that, you know, loose dogs that are not necessarily a danger, things that may be in the road, things that we need to address but aren’t the top priority for our list. Then Priority 3 ranges anything from animals found on the side of the road, dead animals to simple questions about, you know, everything from feral pigs to chickens, things like that, are some of the questions that we get through our priority calls as well. So those questions—sometimes we just have to answer questions and steer the person in the right direction. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you very much. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, go ahead. (Note: At this time, Mr. Runnels continued with his PowerPoint presentation.) CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you so much, Administrator Runnels. With that, I’ll go ahead and return to Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. Just want to state two of the questions or concerns from the community. First are the phone calls that come in. What is the plan to really make sure that phone calls are being returned if they’re not able to be answered right away? MR. RUNNELS: That was one of the key components when I first got into the position was that our dispatching and our phone calls were not being addressed in a timely manner. Again, lots of stories of past—and there are occasions where we do have faulters in our dispatching system, which we try to minimize those as much as possible. Some of them are out of our control, such as times when the phone lines are down and things like that. But, you know, as far as internally goes, we have one phone line that is our main dispatch line and a second line that is also our return phone call line. So, when one person is answering dispatch lines, the other person is checking our call log to pull those calls and return them Page 3 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 as quickly as possible. So, I feel like the dispatch program still has a lot of growth, but at the same time, we’ve come a long way in the past five to six months. MR. INABA: Got it. And then the other concern was that there are sometimes animals within our care and if the public is trying to find out whether they’re in our care or not. Is there any kind of initiative taking place to better that system so that they’re able to find out? MR. RUNNELS: Yes. We are trying to improve that system as well. We partner with our organizations such as our spay and neuter and adoption partners to get some of that information out there as far as the animals that we have in our facilities. We also post our—basically, the pictures that are in our database within our system are posted on the Lost Pet Love site on the Petco site. And we’re also working on our social media coverage to get those pictures of those animals out so that other community organizations can share those pictures as well to be able to get those animals identified. We also have our dispatch, which is also working in tandem with our Animal Control Officers (ACO) to, you know, when a person calls in with an animal that they have lost, we ask them to send in pictures of their animal and we post within our facility, we give them to our officers to identify in the field so that we can quickly identify those animals, and bring them back to the owners. I think one of the key components to, you know, getting faster to return to those owners who have pets is education with registration, with their microchipping, with registering the microchips. Those things—there are animals that we collect into our facilities that are microchipped, but the microchips weren’t ever registered. So, just educating people on those things can quickly change the narrative there as far as, you know, returning the pets. MR. INABA: Thank you. Then the last question I had was regarding the training of employees who are going out into the field. Obviously, there has been some changes to our County Code, potentially some changes happening at the State Legislature, so how is that training working with your employees so that they are up to date and can enforce the Code and the statutes of the State? MR. RUNNELS: Our Animal Control Officers go through about a six-month period of training. Even some of the ones that we hired when I first started still haven’t even completed their full training, and they’re still considered trainees. They go through several courses online on the national level. They go through courses on euthanasia, they go through a badging ceremony, which also includes several other agencies as well to team up with us to try to get those officers educated. And then there’s also continued education for those officers as well. So, each of those officers goes through a pretty vigorous training period and, you Page 4 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 know, even the officers that are in training pair up with the officers that have had the training extensively to be able to get them up to date on current issues. We also go through daily, at each facility, to be able to download information and give them the current things that are happening within the County and within the State as well. We call it our huddle. MR. INABA: Thank you, Administrator, for being here today and being able to answer some of the questions and give the public some insight as to what’s happening, hopefully, some future direction. I know for the Kona site; we’ve gone to tours so if that’s something that we might work together on to put forth those improvements into the CIP (Capital Improvement Program) budget. If they already don’t exist, that’s something we can work on. Thank you. MR. RUNNELS: That would be great. Thank you, I appreciate it. CHR. VILLEGAS: Council Member Kierkiewicz, please. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Administrator Runnels, it’s great to see you. MR. RUNNELS: Yeah, it’s great to see you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: How long have you been with the County now? MR. RUNNELS: This is—I’m coming up on my sixth month here in another week or two, so, not very long. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I’m sure it feels like a lifetime. I appreciate your very calm demeanor. This is a very, I think, very sensitive, emotionally charged topic. I’ve appreciated the interactions we’ve had, the tour that you provided me, your East Hawaiʻi facility, what you guys were forced to do, make do with what you’ve got, and I think you guys are doing a really incredible job managing that facility. I do have to say that my heart goes out to the animals that are there, not because of the care that’s being provided, I think the care is tremendous, but the circumstances, like just being in a little box all day will cause anyone, including animals, to mentally deteriorate, and I really worry about them. So, I’m really appreciative of the updates that you’re providing. It’s a real tall order what you’re doing, having to stand up this agency from scratch, literally from scratch. We passed an ordinance, we directed $4.3 million to you folks, and you’re running. You’re running. So, I appreciate the update. I also just want to take a moment because oftentimes what gets highlighted in the news is like really negative stuff. Our office got a couple of emails and I just Page 5 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 wanted to take moment to highlight that. A community member in Blacksands mentioned that your agency has been very helpful, good response time, follow-up, and results. They spoke to an Animal Control Officer; they’re getting results regarding a bad situation on Aloha Road. I know you know what’s going on, so, I just wanted to give that moment of opportunity to praise you. Then there was also another recent situation in Hawaiian Acres. They appreciate just more presence by Animal Control Officers, but the professionalism and compassion and empathy that was displayed by members of your team. So, I know oftentimes you get beat down, there’s so much room for improvement, and I think you can agree. But I think it’s also important to just elevate the positive comments that do come in because I think every day, you and your team are waking up wanting to do the best possible job you can for the animals and the people of Hawaiʻi County. So, thank you. We clearly have a lot of folks in the community that care and want to be embraced as a partner, and I often find that there is a role that community can play; an important role, to be a partner, to be a collaborator. What are some ways that you think community members can better partner with your agency to ensure that people are safe, animals are safe? Someone mentioned Facebook groups and a lot of things being tracked there, so, that might be an avenue. Also, are there ways to maybe deputize neighborhood watch groups, other organizations to maybe scan animals to identify whether or not they have a microchip? Again, these are just a couple of ideas, you’re the expert, would love to hear about partnership opportunities. MR. RUNNELS: I totally agree with that. I was recently, this past weekend, I went to a community watch meeting, and it really resonated with a lot of the people there that what we need to also address is go to these different groups, have a representative. Volunteer groups are something that I’m interested in. I just need to be able to utilize them in a way that we can educate the public and get our message out there to be able to educate those individual neighborhoods because—even with those neighborhood watch programs, the people that attend those aren’t necessarily the ones you need to give most attention to. So, we have to empower those neighborhood watch groups to go out in the community themselves and to address some of these issues as a group, because not all issues can necessarily be taken care of by Animal Control. But as a force of nature for some of these groups to go out and address it themselves sounds challenging, but walking neighborhoods and addressing and identifying places that need attention, you know, oftentimes Animal Control doesn’t necessarily know all the problem areas, and so, we get the phone call itself. So, if we can proactively talk to those owners and say, “Look, these are the laws that are on the books, these are the things that Animal Control can stop by and address with Page 6 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 you.” Those are things that I think as neighborhood groups, we can have volunteers that we can do that as well. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Could we get your commitment to reach out to local neighborhood watch groups, make presentations, ensure that members that are in the various communities are invited to these neighborhood watch meetings so that they’re getting the information but can also support you in getting all the right information out to members of the community? MR. RUNNELS: Oh yes. I’ve already been doing that with some of the neighborhood watch programs. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I know you went to the Puna one, thank you. MR. RUNNELS: I did Puna, I did Keaʻau. You know, I always take the invitation whenever it’s offered to me to go and talk and try to educate at some of these watch groups. So, that invitation is always out there for those groups to invite me as well. But yes, I definitely want to address those groups. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you. And then I know we have our Managing Director (MD), Deanna Sako here. Managing Director, I don’t know if you wanted to come forward because I know that as MD, you are now kind of inheriting overseeing of this new agency. One thing that struck me in reviewing this presentation was the word “more”. We need more people, we need more resources; vehicles, equipment, get it. I think that a lot of our County agencies are stretched, but this one in particular has a lot of needs because it’s new. As you’re going through the implementation of creating this agency, you’re finding what you need to make your operations efficient and effective. Managing Director, as we move into this next budget cycle, are there real clear priorities that you folks are going to be asking that you feel that very realistically can get done in this calendar year? (Note: At this time, Managing Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. SAKO: Yes, I think a couple of different things, they inherited a budget prepared by another department. So, we’re definitely working with Matt and his team to prepare a budget that works for them specifically, especially now getting the staffing up to date. But even in the current year, we’re trying to get some of those needs in whatever ways we can. You know, delivery time on vehicles especially is so long. So we’re trying to go for used vehicles where we can get them there because if we’re successful in doing the hiring of additional ACOs like we think we will be, then we want to be able to have vehicles so they can be out in the field. So, we’re trying to do what we can with what we have this year, and Page 7 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 if necessary, we may be coming in for a budget amendment as well just because time is of the essence and some of these things can actually wait until July. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MS. SAKO: Yeah. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And then on the facilities side, I know that we had provided some funding through CIP also in a couple of our recent bond improvements for facility upgrades. Where are we on that? Are we on track to be making those upgrades within the next three to six months? I know things take time, but just wondering realistically, what it’s looking like for facility upgrades. MS. SAKO: So, Public Works is definitely working on the east side facility. The office trailers have gone in on both sides or are supposed to be going in on both sides shortly, but I think we need them to work a little bit more on like the west side facility, as Council Member Inaba mentioned. And then we definitely are looking at north and south as well. So, there’s definitely challenges with each of the facilities; some are unpermitted, different things like that. So, trying to find space where we can work and be in an appropriate zone, you know, the Planning zoning and things like that. So, we’re definitely working on getting all those spaces, but we’re probably going to need additional bond money to actually complete the facilities because the estimates given to us by Public Works were far more than I ever dreamed of. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yikes. Things don’t seem to be getting any cheaper to do business. Thank you, Managing Director, for that high-level overview. Administrator Runnels, just one more time on the prevention piece. I think a lot times we’re very reactive with a lot of the problems that we’re facing in our community. Again, what are some preventative measures that your agency can be doing, the County can be doing to just ensure that animals are cared for and they’re never in a position where they could unfortunately, attack somebody that may be riding their bicycle or running down their street? MR. RUNNELS: I mean, you know, it ultimately comes down to the owners educating themselves but also the community to educate them on the laws and things that we as an agency can address. If a person has an animal, a lot of times they don’t even understand the laws or even are aware of laws to be able to avoid some of those problems within our community. Like I said, 90 percent of the animals that we get in our facility aren’t even registered within the County, and you know, as much as we want to blame the owner for that we also have to make it more accessible, having an online portal, something that they can easily register their dogs rather than having to come all the way back down here to Hilo. It costs more in gas than what they would to register their dogs, so, it’s a little more Page 8 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 logical to try to make it easier for them to do things that are necessary for them to have ownership of the dog, but education is a huge part of it as well. You know, we have something within our community which is great, which is that we’re a rabies-free environment, but it’s also a detriment because unlike the mainland who has annual checks by their veterinarians and education for those people, we don’t have that luxury. A lot of times people that purchase puppies out in the community, some of those animals have never seen veterinarian care or any kind of service like that. So, many of the animals that we get within our facilities are completely naïve to dewormers, vaccines, microchipping, or anything like that. So, it’s an entirely new thing for them, for those animals. So, I think if we find a way of educating the people a little better and getting them at the very beginning when they purchase those animals, it’d be a little bit more proactive rather than reactive at the end of it. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for that. I’m out of time. I just want to leave you with this is a tremendous opportunity, I think, to partner with community to have the community design the educational piece. Every community is different, and so if we allow them to design the best way to engage and educate their community, I think that would be really phenomenal and transformative. Thank you, Chair, for the latitude. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Evans. Oh, I’m sorry. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, thank you. Thank you for being here today, Director. Yeah, I want to follow up from my Council counterpart. I’ve been receiving positive emails which is a change. MR. RUNNELS: That’s great. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I needed to pass that on to you and that was on my list, so you’re getting it from two of us. Puna’s a third of the whole island. MR. RUNNELS: Yeah. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Honestly, I’ve been here six years, I don’t get a lot of positive emails about animal control. MR. RUNNELS: Neither do I, most of the time, so. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I have two in the last, I’d say month, as well as different people calling me and saying, “I appreciate, you guys made a change, it’s doing well.” That’s huge. So, good job. Page 9 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 MR. RUNNELS: I appreciate that, thank you. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: You’re welcome. To that point too, when I first started, animal control was handled by a third party, and what I saw within that first year, too, of kind of getting my feet here in the Council was we didn’t have a lot of say in what was happening. We provided funding to that nonprofit and then from there they just kind of did what they needed to do within the community. A little bit of oversight but not much. Having County staff running the department gives us a tremendous amount of ability to make changes and enable the use of County funding, maybe more than we want to spend, but this is a huge area that’s needs to be addressed. So, I like the direction we’re in right now. MR. RUNNELS: Okay, great. Thank you. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: You have some support, probably from everybody but from myself as well. Your east side facility lands in my district. If you need help with that you let me know. I’ve been there a number of times before we took over and after we took over. To date, I’ve had two calls to the, I’d say three calls to the animal control facility, two didn’t get answered, one did get answered. One I didn’t get answered, I called nonemergency, I was directed directly to someone who answered the phone call from Animal Control. All situations were resolved well, so that’s my direct experience with you folks, not just third party, you know, they did great, that’s from me, so thank you. MR. RUNNELS: Thank you. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Looking over your presentation today, thank you for that. Transferred means transferred to nonprofit partners, what does that number stand for? MR. RUNNELS: Transferred means to our nonprofit partners for adoption. So, when an animal comes into our facility, we assess them by behavior of whether or not they’re adoptable. Those assessments are usually done by our partner organizations and then once they identify an animal that they would like to have adopted out, we transfer it to those individual facilities. We have a Transfer Coordinator that is—she does a lot of work that is on top of her job as far as monitoring Facebook pages to see if any of those animals that we have potential to adopt out where even on our euthanasia list are owned by somebody else. So, even up to the night before, a lot of times for these transfers and things we still are monitoring the sites to try to find if the owner is out there somewhere. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay. That’s what I expected to hear. I think that’s great because there’s a lot of nonprofits. I know the east side more than the west side, but having sat on the nonprofit grant-in-aid committee and Page 10 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 looking at who requests CRF (Contingency Relief Funds) money from each of the Council Members and seeing them come in again and again and again, you have a lot of steady partners who are doing a lot of work outside of just the County, and I know they interface with you. So, maintain those relationships because they do tremendous work in our community. MR. RUNNELS: Yeah, I agree. You know, we honestly can’t do our work as an agency without our partner organizations, so we keep a good relationship with all of them to try to make sure that those animals find homes and not end up in our shelters for too long. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay. How’s the relationship with HPP (Hawaiian Paradise Park) because officers, you guys work together. So, how’s that going? MR. RUNNELS: It is a partnership and, you know, as I said, they do manage our nighttime dispatching which is a blessing to us because without them we wouldn’t be able to get the calls we need at nighttime. I’ve talked to the Chief, and we’ve discussed many other things within our agency that they encountered in the past, and there is a relationship there to help us move forward and avoid some of the pitfalls that have happened in the past with other organizations and our agency as well. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay. One of the concerns I had, and this kind of dates back to, sorry, not dates back, looks at our Code. Currently, when we have a dangerous dog situation, and I’m glad you were here for Resolution 430, this has been ongoing in our community, it needs to be addressed, and we’re getting there. Currently, the directive of our Code is that we keep all animals in our facilities until there’s basically an outcome from a court case. That equates to me that you’ll be sitting on dangerous dogs in your facility for years because these court cases do not just resolve themselves, they take years. What is that impact on your facilities if any? MR. RUNNELS: I mean some of these animals are not, you know, the most warm and fuzzy ones that you would encounter in your day-to-day life, but some of them are so hard to handle that it takes two or three even four sometimes, individuals to do just the daily cleaning and feeding of these animals. But there are cases that we have held on to those animals for months, if not six months at a time. Ultimately, what I would like to see is more of an evaluation process to where we can have a better outcome for those dispositions of those animals. Not all animals in those cases are extreme, dangerous animals and some definitely are. So, I think an evaluation of the animal itself, to be able to decide whether or not that animal can have restrictions and returned to the owner or whether or not that animal never leaves our facility, needs to be decided. Page 11 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I agree. It’s a cost to us. Ultimately, we can go after the owner of the dog for those costs at the outcome of a court case, but it still leaves us in limbo for a long period of time or an unknown period of time while we deal with a dangerous dog and have your staff handling those animals. MR. RUNNELS: And ultimately, if the case doesn’t go to full court and gets dropped, those fees are waived because a lot of times those animals have—that is considered evidence in a court case and if the court decides that there was not evidence to support the case, those animals are simply returned to the owner as property. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I think there’s some problems in there that need to be addressed in our Code. That would eliminate extra costs on the County, help your staff, and not interfere with any court cases that are in process. I’d like to work with you on that. Thank you. MR. RUNNELS: Sounds good. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: How much does that veterinarian— CHR. VILLEGAS: Excuse me, Mr. Kānealiʻi-Kleinfelder, can I just interrupt you just for one moment? I just need to step out due to a family emergency. So, I’m going to relinquish the Chair to my colleague Council Member Kagiwada, so just to let the record show. Thank you. Relinquish Chair: At this time, the Chair relinquished the chair to Vice Chair Kagiwada. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Yeah, so I’ll be taking on the Chair. It is 12:23 (p.m.) right now. Go ahead, Council Member Kānealiʻi-Kleinfelder. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Kagiwada. How much are you looking at for the cost of this mobile veterinarian unit? MR. RUNNELS: We’re shooting for a neighborhood of no more than 400,000 (dollars) for the unit, which is right in the neighborhood of a lot of the other units of equal size within the County, by other agencies as well. And the turnaround time for construction depends on the, ultimately, the bidder but a lot of the ones we’ve talked to seem pretty quick. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay, that’s my buzzer for time. My parting comment is Ms. Galimba’s not here today. She represents District 6, Volcano, Kā'u, South Kona. I know they need a facility. You’ve mentioned it. I sort of give her the plug because she’s not here. And Tim Richards was our previous Councilman for District 9, and he was an advocate for finding Page 12 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 something, a facility in Kohala as well. So, yes please. I saw the map, service area versus dollars to spend, just like everything on Hawaiʻi County, it’s difficult. (Note: At this time, Managing Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. SAKO: I just wanted to mention that Council Member Galimba did go out with Hamana Ventura from Property Management looking at sites already, so she’s been actively involved. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Well done, well done. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much for your time today, I appreciate it. MR. RUNNELS: Thank you. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. I yield, Chair. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Wow, we’ve had a lot of discussion. Much needed because animals, the domestic animals that are part of our life and the feral animals that unfortunately are feral, you know, there’s a real difference. So, my question was what kind of expectation is there of your department dealing with feral animals not domestic animals? MR. RUNNELS: Well, this particular issue is widespread throughout the County. Right now, our agency is not saddled with dealing with feral animal issues. I do see a need for it within the County, I’m just not sure how to address that as our agency. MS. EVANS: So, I think we might have an answer. Managing Director, what’s the difference? MS. SAKO: I’d just like to really clarify that feral animals fall under the State of Hawaiʻi not the County of Hawaiʻi. MS. EVANS: Right. MS. SAKO: Just wanted to clarify that. MS. EVANS: Right, but when people call, sometimes they don’t know if they’re feral, they just know they’re acting weird. Okay, so you’re probably responding to some feral animal calls. Page 13 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 MR. RUNNELS: We’re responding to the sick and injured feral calls that we get, and those animals still need attention. We have calls all the time of hit by a car cats and feral pigs and things like that and so, those animals are definitely part of our Priority 1 calls as well. MS. EVANS: So, it might be something that we can talk to our State counterparts about, maybe they can help fund, possible funding from them to help support when you’re responding to those type of calls? MR. RUNNELS: That and just in general, you know, I think that the entire topic of feral cats and feral pigs, and any of the feral species that we have within the island needs to be addressed from a monetary standpoint of how we’re going to address that, so, whether it’s State funding or not. MS. EVANS: Okay, that’s worth it. I think that’s worth looking at because I think we’re probably picking up a lot of their work for them. Yeah, thank you. The other thing is, I didn’t know if this was for Corporation Counsel or not, but it would seem to me if you go to court, does the court recognize the professionalism in the—who is evaluating the nature of an animal? So, if you go to court, let’s say dangerous, there was, you know, someone maimed or injured or hurt. Does the court recognize like is it a professional—it’s like child custody evaluators, right? There are professionals for that. We do have professionals that will say if someone is mentally ill and are they capable—did they harm someone because they were mentally ill? So, there are those types of evaluations on the mental health of a human. Do we have mental health of animals and is it recognized in courts? MR. RUNNELS: Well, I’m not sure about as far as recognizing in court. We do have evaluators that could potentially evaluate the nature of the animal, whether or not it’s aggressive or, you know, an animal that is suitable to return to the general public. So, those things are things that I would like to see brought into our facility as well to address those cases that sometimes can linger for months on end, to have those animals evaluated by a professional that is independent such as an investigator. (Note: At this time, Deputy Corporation Counsel Suzanna Tiapula came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. TIAPULA: If I may, Deputy Corporation Counsel Suzanna Tiapula with Animal Control. I just also wanted to clarify earlier, there was a reference to the amount of time, years, multiple years not months. It is not incumbent for a criminal case to last three, four, five years, six. So, the animal isn’t being held for two months, it’s being held, if it goes to trial, minimum of two to three years and danger to staff and anyone in contact. Page 14 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 With respect to your question, the court focus in a criminal case is going to be on the human, on the human’s intent, what the human knew and the circumstances around an attack. The animal evaluation as to dangerousness affects disposition of the animal, but a criminal case would be focusing on the human, on the human beings and their actions, their knowledge, what they knew, and their intent. MS. EVANS: Right, right. Okay. I’m just curious if we have professionals that are trained, certified, and recognized as people that can truly evaluate the behavior of an animal and be considered like a professional evaluator that people would acknowledge. MR. RUNNELS: Yeah, there are professional behaviorists, animal behaviorists within the animal industry. Even the trainers and behavioral trainers even within our own community, some of those individuals have years of experience and background in training as well. So yes, to answer your question, there are people that have the qualifications to be able to make that judgement as far as an animal goes. MS. EVANS: I’d love to continue offline this kind of my thread for what I’m thinking about using evaluators. Thank you. And I’ve got one last question, and that’s for Managing Director Sako. So, when the Animal Control Agency was stood up, Managing Director Lee Lord promised that he would standup a task force of community people that really cared about animals and would be willing to embrace their recommendations on what should be done or not done and how you manage shelters and what’s best practices. I know that they met, and they had a lot of conversation. Before Administrator Runnels came on board, they were meeting constantly and trying to figure out, you got kind of what could they recommend in terms of accountability, transparency, and I know that they worked really hard on that and I just want to know how that ended up playing out for you coming on board and you also, Deanna, how’s that played out? Because they did a lot of work. MR. RUNNELS: Well, I think I did attend one of these meetings when I first started and yes, there was a lot of discussion as far as the makeup of the agency and our moving forward, what our methods will be. There is a lot of debate over the direction the agency needs to take or the methods that we need to take, and a lot times, you know, those are modeled off of other facilities and other agencies throughout the mainland. You have to take into—also account that Hawaiʻi itself is a little bit different in all of those situations put together. We have a very different, natural environment which aids in a lot of the problems that we do have. So, you have to take those suggestions and also morph them into a different type of facility than what any agency has used to in the past. Page 15 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 So, that’s really what we’re moving forward to because, you know, the environment of Hawaiʻi itself aids itself to a lot of the problems with animals within our environment. It is isolated, we don’t have a lot of the predators that you see on the mainland. You don’t see a lot of things that help to check a lot of those animal problems. Even in my home state of Florida we had an outstanding alligator and snake and all sorts of predators that helped control a lot of these populations that unfortunately, are on the island are getting out of hand, including dogs and cats, and other species as well. So, you know, you kind of have to take those suggestions and take what you can from them and then adapt your own to it for this kind of environment. MS. EVANS: When that discussion does—you know, there was a thought about like the Friends of the Animal Control Agency, an ad hoc advisory group that meets on a current basis, and kind of looks from the community so that you get kind of their input and their look at what your operations are. Not that we have to stand up and make it formal, but it was almost implied when we were having these discussions that it wasn’t like a one-time deal. It was more like how can you incorporate—you know, because we have, based on your map, four distinct regions of the island from each one of those regions. Can you have like that dialogue going back and forth? Would it be in a formal type of group that meets once a year or twice a year to kind overview—these people were really, at one time, very passionate about what the rate of euthanasia was and how active you were in actually adopting out to the mainland or Maui. They wanted to know how active, and they wanted those numbers, they wanted those statistics, they wanted to watch to see that you were moving in the right direction. And the question is could that be in a more formal way or an informal way? But that discussion was—we had quite a bit of discussion before we voted on the creation of the new agency, that they came out and testified quite a bit. So, do you want to comment? (Note: At this time, Managing Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. SAKO: I was going to say, I mean we definitely can continue to look at continuing meetings, but Matt and I can talk and see. You know, there’s a lot going on at the agency so we just don’t want something that’s weekly or too frequent, but we’ll definitely, you know, work on what we can do, especially given the size of our island. MR. RUNNELS: And, you know, I think as far as the outreach to the different groups within the communities would help with that clarity as well, as far as transparency. We do post every month our shelter list, which gives you the transfers and the animals that we’ve brought into our facility and the numbers. So, we try to be as clear as possible as far as where animals are and where they’re going to and the disposition. With our partner organizations, we have shipped a Page 16 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 lot of animals out, not just to other islands but also to the mainland as well. So, it’s an ongoing and continuous process for us. MS. EVANS: Okay, thank you very much. I yield. Relinquish Chair: At this time, Acting Chair Kagiwada relinquished the chair to Chair Villegas. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. And everything’s okay on the home front. Crisis averted. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Thank you for being here. I don’t think we’ve met but I think your wife is over at the zoo and I get to talk to her a lot. So, thank you so much. I, like the rest of my colleagues, I’m looking at this as more of a prequel to our budget hearing, so I’m going to save my comments for that round when we’re there. But I did want to focus on your agency needs just for a second because I think the community outreach piece is actually a critical component to this. And if I could offer a suggestion, and maybe Deanna and then we can talk to Diane, County adopted a sponsorship section of our Code, which would allow for large corporations and/or philanthropic funders to contribute heavily to our County assets. I would really love to see this agency lean in real hard because this is a very specific and boutique area in which large corporations like Petco, Purina, you name it, anybody who’s taking care of animals could then turn around and help with rehabilitating facilities, looking at community outreach programs, doing the spay/neuter programs. I think this agency would make that program excel and we would actually get those community-driven, government-supported programs stood up real quickly in these communities. I know our community is just huge and passionate about our animals, which is why I would love to see you do that. So, I’m just going to leave that as a suggestion and then when we circle back around during the budget, you know, just maybe some areas that we could explore for you because I see it already. This cost money and this was an agency that we stood up and we relied heavily on a third party to handle a lot of that. MR. RUNNELS: Well, and you know, as an agency, if you were to compare ourselves to anybody it’d probably be the Police Department, and I think the public in general compares us to the Police Department. In general, they have around 480 to 490 officers for the entire island. You know, we’re trying to cover the same amount of area and service those communities that need us the most with a fraction of that. So, we are open to ideas of community involvement and other organizations as well to be able to accomplish that. Page 17 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thank you. There’s never ever enough money out there, but there’s a lot of things that community can take agency of and handle on their own because I really want to get to the things that community cannot do, which is the dangerous animal, the packs of dogs, in our very rural communities. I mean I know families that, I mean they don’t even want to drive their car through some of those communities because of the packs of these animals and they’re aggressive. So, if we could kind of reserve your abilities to tackling that stuff that community cannot and use our sponsorship agreements in areas that community could take of. I’d be more than happy to take that offline with you. Chair, I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Thank you for being here and providing this information and I will also not go too deeply into this because I think some of it will happen more naturally when we go into budget season. But I did want to try to understand a little bit about how you spend your spay and neuter budget. Is it with doing in-house spay or neuters, is it contracting out with organizations to do spay and neuters, or is it a combination of both at this time? MR. RUNNELS: Well, it’s kind of a combination. In most of the, in fact all of the animals that leave our facility are spayed and neutered, and since we don’t have any veterinarian staff currently, those services are either provided by the organizations that are adopting the animals out or by our private, public should I say, veterinarians that service the community. We pay the same as just about anybody else for those services as well. So, yeah, I think we can drastically change that with bringing that in-house and staff, but it wouldn’t put a stop to the need for public access to spay and neuter affordable spay and neuter as well. Honestly, it is a very expensive task for most people and so making it an affordable and accessible thing is something that we all need to address as well. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, so when we get to budget season, it will be really good to know if you could tell us how many animals you’ve been able to spay and neuter over the year as well as if you have any sense of what that actual need is. We are also, my office is also trying to figure this out, so we’ve been reaching out to some of the partner organizations because we give them money through our CRF dollars or Waiwai grants or whatever, also to do additional spay and neuters. But we did provide 150,000 (dollars) specifically in your budget this year for spay and neuters and I would love to know how far that went. MR. RUNNELS: Yeah. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, so if you can get that when we get into budget season that would be super helpful as well as what your picture of the overall need is. Page 18 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 That would be super helpful. Thank you. Back to the enforcement piece, help me understand, do you give citations? MR. RUNNELS: Yes, all of our badged ACOs are capable of giving citations based on whatever situation they encounter and applying the law to those incidents. MS. KAGIWADA: So, can you give us, and maybe you can just follow up with us with some information about how many citations you give on a regular basis and what kind of citations those are for? MR. RUNNELS: A lot of the citations that we give are for straying, also for registration of the dogs as well. So, I don’t have an exact number on how many we’ve given out in the past six months. It’s hard to tell exactly because we didn’t start off with a lot of badged ACOs when I first arrived. I think we had somewhere in the neighborhood of like two to three officers that were capable of badging or us writing citations. So, we did go through a badging ceremony and since then, you know, a lot of those officers which were trainees are still getting their feet wet with writing citations and some of those citations don’t necessarily come out the best way in the very beginning and then eventually, they get the process correct. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, but you do keep track of how many citations— MR. RUNNELS: We do keep track, yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, so you could tell me how many even though—with the explanation that you’re still standing up the organization and getting people ready, but it will at least give us a baseline going forward also. So, it’d be really good to know the numbers on that. MR. RUNNELS: Yeah, I can put those numbers together. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Then just a question. I think it was brought up before and maybe somebody is already working on this but increasing some of the fees for some of the issues around this. Would that, you know, do you see that as a potential, helpful thing to do? MR. RUNNELS: I think it’s a balancing act. The more fees that an owner has a potential to pay with a citation it is going to do one of two things. It’s either going to make them correct their action or it’s just going to make them give up the dog and go buy another puppy. So, you know, there’s a certain percentage, a good percentage of the animals that we take in that may not necessarily be from homes that can afford a good amount when it comes to a citation. So, we may achieve getting that animal away from the owner because we write the citation Page 19 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 and they surrender the animal, but it ultimately might lead to just another animal that they bring in to their home and start the process all over again. MS. KAGIWADA: Right. Do you have any experience with or know about other places that have done something where in lieu of paying a fine people can do some kind of animal training, ownership, good pet ownership training or something like that? MR. RUNNELS: I’ve heard of other agencies around the country doing that, and it’s definitely something that we can support. It would be a matter of them, you know, having proof and being able to track that in a feasible way. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Alright, thank you. Alright. Lastly, you mentioned before about the feral animals. I’m just wondering, do you have a phone number at the State level that you can give to people when they have feral animal issues or how do you deal with that? MR. RUNNELS: Currently, I don’t really have a good contact for that. There are a lot of organizations out there that are working with different species. We have feral pig trappers on the island, we have feral cat organizations, and so, a lot of those animals, there are on-island organizations that we direct them to, not necessarily most time at the State level. I feel they would probably get more traction with their problems within the County. MS. KAGIWADA: That’s probably true, but I would like our State to understand the level of issues we’re dealing with. MR. RUNNELS: I would too. MS. KAGIWADA: So they were at least getting those phone calls or those emails to a specific place where they’re tracking them, I think that would be super helpful. Maybe we can work together to identify who that might be. MR. RUNNELS: That’d be great. MS. KAGIWADA: Alright. Thank you so much and like I said, I’ll think about some of this other stuff when we get into budget season and ways we can support you. MR. RUNNELS: That would be great. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Mr. Kānealiʻi-Kleinfelder. Page 20 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Just one follow-up question. Do you get calls from County personnel for animals on County facilities? MR. RUNNELS: We do on occasion, depends on what the animal is. We’ve gotten— MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Like dogs, cats. MR. RUNNELS: Dogs, cats, we get horses sometimes, and I think we’ve got a call for a horse in a public-school property recently. So, there are different calls, depending on the animal that they encounter. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Calls that require action by your department or just—? MR. RUNNELS: Some of them. Some of them, it depends. We get, you know, the dog calls and things like that are almost instantaneously responded to by our staff and to make sure that those, as far as public safety goes, we respond to those calls immediately. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: How many calls do you think, just estimate, per month? MR. RUNNELS: I mean per month we probably get maybe half a dozen to a dozen calls a month just on public parks and things like that. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: County, public, State. MR. RUNNELS: Yeah, County property. MR. KĀNEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. I yield, Chair. Thank you very much. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Mr. Kānealiʻi-Kleinfelder. With that, I think we’re going to wrap up here. Thank you, again, for being here. Wow, it’s got to feel like a lifetime, but you’ve accomplished a lot in six months, and we have really transitioned the way that our County manages these issues and opportunities. I think with—there’s got to be a balance, right, with caring for these creatures but also recognizing that not every one of them is fit to be rehomed and to live. Having been raised on a farm and having had lots of pets and also livestock, understanding that balance of the lifecycle I think is important. I recognize the irony, challenges, and opportunity that you and your team have in managing humans just about as much as you have to manage the animals themselves and barring abuse or any tainting of their experience with humans. I Page 21 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 don’t know, a lot of times I like animals better too. So, thank you for that care that you provide them and that discernment, and there’s a really fine line in empathy and recognizing highest, greatest good, but then also the hard part of being kind of that—being the one that stands in the gap for who stays and who goes. I wondered, just really quickly, because this Animal Control jobs, I mean my daughter wanted to be a veterinarian for years and she ended up going into human medicine, but Animal Control, what are the pay rates like? It just seems like something for our local, young people with a heart that’s passionate for creatures. This could be—do you do in-house training? MR. RUNNELS: We do in-house training. I go to some of the high schools too and talk to some of the—as far as career path individuals that are moving towards law enforcement or towards animal control, those kinds of jobs, to try to entice them into the industry. It is a very tough sell sometimes for people, but it, you know, services the community. It’s ultimately, you have to look out for the natural environment of the community, the people, and commerce as well within the community and all these things, ultimately, have some kind of impact from animals at some point. CHR. VILLEGAS: Yeah, it does, and we’ve seen that a lot with our invasive species council and what’s happened to other species being degraded by overpopulation of feral cat colonies, unfortunately. Excited to see you put, in your presentation, these opportunities for moving forward and what your needs are, and as my colleague said, touching base on that on hiring a full-time vet for your division would actually save money. So, we like to hear those kinds of balances and thanks for bringing those solutions. While in District 7 we do have a number of issues when it comes to predominantly more feral cat colonies than dogs. I recognize some of the ironies in dogs are viewed as dangerous. You hear of a pack of dogs; you don’t necessarily hear about a pack of cats. So, just kind of some interesting disparity, discrepancy, but in general, what otherwise have been habituated and, I don’t want to say domiciled, but domesticated animals once free and on their own and in an environment that doesn’t have a harsh winter, that doesn’t have other predators to keep things in check, our ecosystem gets out of balance and it jeopardizes even more things. I mean we’ve got the monk seals suffering from what happens with the cat feces in the sand and so many different kinds of things. But I also just want to point out, and I think there are so many passionate people that are advocates for our creatures and I’m so grateful for their hard work and I’ve heard from a number of them, the correlation between domestic violence and abuse and neglect being associated with the same treatments of animals and Page 22 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 creatures. And we have generational trauma that gets passed on and considerations on how creatures are treated. So, I see some of that being a reflection of socio-economic disparity and whatnot in more very rural areas. So, I’m looking forward to supporting your future endeavors in order to create the facilities and provide the equipment and resources necessary for your staff to support, service, returning phone calls, you know, just those basic things that we hear from community are reaching out for. But in comparison to where we were a few years ago when somebody on our road was attacked by a dog and two dogs were almost killed and a human was—there was nowhere to really go. We were—I sat here confused. Who do I even talk to? So, thank you for your leadership and taking on this heavy lift and helping us navigate to where we are now. I can tell by your presentation we still have a long way to go. This job that you have, similar to ours, we’ll never be perfect, and you will never make everyone happy. But to provide a safe environment for an animal to be fed and sheltered, where they will be safe for whatever period of time they need to be held in that facility before ideally, they can find a new home or returned to their other home is a huge improvement to where we have been before. So, thank you for that and I am hopeful that at some point the numbers for intake and outtake get swapped and the intake numbers drop. MR. RUNNELS: Oh yeah. CHR. VILLEGAS: Because this is math on animal propagation that we should be able to—with the resources we have. But thank you once again for being here serving in this capacity and continuing to help us to improve the way that we care for creatures on this planet. MR. RUNNELS: Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you. With that, I yield. All those in favor of closing file on Communication 692 please say “aye.” Vote on Comm. 692: The motion to close file on Comm. 692 was carried (Filed) by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kānealiʻi–Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, and Chair Villegas – 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Galimba and Lee Loy – 2. Excused: None. CHR. VILLEGAS: Moving on to Communication 693. Page 23 CRCOC-19 February 6, 2024 Comm. 693: REQUESTS AN UPDATE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT REGARDING HAWAIʻI COUNTY’S ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATION INITIATIVES From Council Member Cindy Evans, dated January 10, 2024. Motion to Close File: Ms. Evans moved to close file on Comm. 693. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. Motion to Postpone: Ms. Evans moved to postpone Comm. 693 to February 20, 2024. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. VILLEGAS: All those in favor— MS. EVANS: They want to know the reason. Okay, so Director Adams has something come up that he couldn’t be present and he’s the one that wanted to give the presentation. So, I’m giving him the courtesy. CHR. VILLEGAS: Fantastic. Thank you. All those in favor? Vote on Motion to The motion to postpone Comm. 693 to February 20, 2024 Postpone: was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, and Chair Villegas – 6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Galimba, Kānealiʻi-Kleinfelder, and Lee Loy – 3. Excused: None. Page 24 CRCOC-19 February 6,2024 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 12:58 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, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, and Chair Villegas—6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Galimba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, and Lee Loy—3. Excused: None. CHR. VILLEGAS: With that, at 12:58 p.m., our Committee is over. Approved: (20(24 Rebecca illegas, Chair (Date) Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight Committee RV/jm Page 25