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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CRCOC 2024/03/19 (2022-2024) Committee on Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight 24th Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i March 19, 2024 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Communications, Reports, and ORDER: Council Oversight was called to order at 2:12 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona,by Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Vice Chair Ms. Cindy Evans, Member Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member(came in later) Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member(came in later) Absent& Excused: Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, 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 individual registered to comment on Comm. 718, and came forward when called by the Chair: (There were none.) Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objections from the Council Members, of Business: the following item was taken out of order. Comm. 757: REQUESTS A REPORT FROM EARLY CHILDHOOD RESOURCE COORDINATOR ANGELA THOMAS REGARDING THE UTILIZATION OF FEDERAL FUNDING TO SUPPORT EARLY CHILDCARE PROGRAMS From Council Member Jenn Kagiwada, dated January 22, 2024. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kagiwada moved to close file on Comm. 757. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 CHR. VILLEGAS: Alright, and moving forward, I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to Council Member Kagiwada to introduce those who'll be doing the presentation for us today. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much, Chair. So yeah, looking forward to having our team from Research and Development come up here. I guess we'll have Director Adams and our Childcare Specialist, I'm not sure the name, sorry, Angela Thomas come up. Yeah, we have a presentation and then we'll deal with questions and comments after that. Can we get the slides up? Do you want to introduce yourselves? MR. ADAMS: This is Doug Adams, Research and Development Director, and also at the table we have— MS. THOMAS: Angela Thomas, Early Childhood Resource Coordinator. MR. ADAMS: I'd also note that we have Early Childhood Resource Associate Chelsea LaFrance with us as well. (Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Douglass Adams and Early Childhood Resource Coordinator Angela Thomas came forward and provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the subject presentation, see the DVD copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is made part of the record, see Comm. 757.1.) CHR. VILLEGAS: Alright. Thank you so much. Councill Member Kagiwada, did you have anything else you wanted to say? MS. KAGIWADA: Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for that presentation and bringing us this information. I have quite a few questions as we went through, so bear with me a little bit here. So, you gave us these big pots of money for these different things,but we don't have any sense of how much was being spent on the different parts of these things. Or I think the main thing that we talked about, I think, Director, when you were here, was what we want to know is how many children, families, these different pieces will be actually serving? How many, I think it talked about how many seats will be created? How many new spots, how many new teachers will be supported by some of these things? So,just in general, I feel like while this information is really good and helpful, there's not quite enough detail here, for me personally, to understand what it is you're doing. And then just another big overall question, how much of this money has already been spent and how much is just you're telling us what you're going to do? Lastly, I guess I have a real question about this redaction. Were you saying that it's because we could not figure out how to spend enough on childcare Page 2 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 that the amount has been reduced and used for something else? Is that what you are saying? MR. ADAMS: I would say that in the facilities, which is the reduction that is the most, our ability to find the kind of facilities and be able to essentially get the work done within the time allotted, it was the major reason for that reduction, yes. For the remainder, these were actually not tremendous decreases that has to do with, you know, the entire amount that we have and what it looks like across the entire County, the departments that are going to be using ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds and the priorities that they have. So, within the funding that we have within the department, Economic Recovery,this is an element that's associated with support for households but it's also an economic revitalization element as well. So, the big piece here is the facility piece and where we have made minor cuts, associated primarily with the other elements that we have as well,not because we're not going to be able to get that work done. MS. KAGIWADA: So, what was the original amount that was planned for child care? MR. ADAMS: We had identified $14 million, initially. MS. KAGIWADA: And now where are we at right now? MR. ADAMS: We're between nine and ten,just a little bit over nine right now. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. MR. ADAMS: I would also mention that as we put this together, this is something that when we started this work, we were the only ones talking about it, and I mean within the state. Obviously, federally, there was a lot of conversation about it. Obviously, it wouldn't have showed up in the state and local fiscal recovery funds enumerated uses if it wasn't something that was out there. When the state decided to get involved as well, and we're very happy that they did, that did change some of our strategy, right,because they were taking on the public schools' piece of this, right? And that's going to have an impact particularly given the numbers that they're talking about increasing. So, that's going to have an impact on what we're able to do and the support that we're able to provide for our families, for our community center, and then for the employee- sponsored elements. We really haven't had an employee-sponsored strategy here; even if the County wasn't involved we haven't had an employee-sponsored strategy. We recognized that was something that the employers wanted but there hadn't nessarily been since the early 80s, really,that kind of program. Page 3 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 So, taking that on is also an element of this but has required some coordination to do that work as well. The idea of identifying the number of seats, yes, I think that's an important metric. I'd like to be able to tell you that we have those metrics specifically lined out,maybe Angela will be able to put some numbers against that as well. But, we are looking at relatively complex set of circumstances here and what we're really trying to do is make sure that the infrastructure set up for this is what we're able to use these funds for,right, so, the providers. So, if we put money into providers, making sure that they're certified,making sure that we're increasing the opportunities for them, that doesn't necessarily show up in specifically into a number of seats. The other part of this is as we approach the capacity building elements here and we provide funding to try and help both the capacity development and the capacity building,how many will come out to ask for that is going to be a determining factor on how many seats become available. We just don't know that information yet until we put that out. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. So, I'm going to just drill down a little bit more on something that is very near and dear to my heart, which is workforce. How many—I feel like you said, Angela,before, that these are mostly people that are already working in the field that are taking up these classes and things. MS. THOMAS: Right. MS. KAGIWADA: So, it's not new teachers? These are people who are already working in the field and then they are getting more training. Is that what that is? MS. THOMAS: Okay, they're not actually teachers. Okay so, Chelsea could probably speak better to this. We have one person who's trying to open a • preschool classroom in her little school that she started. She has a master's degree,but she needs to get a certificate, so she's attending. That would open another group, right? Okay, we have a couple people that are at a school,they're aides, they're not qualified to be alone with children. They're taking classes. Once they move up to be an assistant teacher, then they can hire an aide and—I'm sorry,but an aide is basically a warm body that's TB (Tuberculosis) free, interested in children. So now, we're training these people up. So,they'll be able to take more kids. They'll be able to help increase the enrollment. This particular school that I'm talking about right now is at 50 percent of their capacity because they don't have enough teachers. So, as we train them up—and they're specifically montessori, which is another cog in the wheel. MS. KAGIWADA: Right. Page 4 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. THOMAS: So,that's why Chaminade was so important. We have six montessori-influenced school on this island. MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah. MS. THOMAS: So, those are the people that are interested in this particular training. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay,but you have$1.5 million here for workforce and so far, you have 12 people participating, is that correct? MS. THOMAS: Right. MS. KAGIWADA: So, what is your target number of people? MR. ADAMS: But that also includes some of the training, right, that you've had for folks that are also— MS. THOMAS: Yeah, we've done two workshops, so we had, I mean if you want to count those individuals, we had 90 at the first one and 197 at the second one, and they were there. I mean they're not getting credits but they're learning a lot about POD (Preschool Open Doors) and they're being able to help their families access that funding. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. MS. THOMAS: And they're also learning about— MS. KAGIWADA: That's not really what I consider workforce development then. That may be helpful, but it's not workforce development. If we're talking about workforce development right now, you're helping 12 potential teachers. What is your target for how many teachers you think you can help with this $1.5 million? MS. THOMAS: Well, you're talking about Chaminade in particular. Hawai`i Community College is going to be a much larger pool because those classes are semesters. So, we won't know until the fall how many registered,but I'm hoping we'll be able to serve at least 50 or more. And the pace classes can take, I see we had two sessions last summer,we didn't pay for them yet,we're going to start doing that,but they had 15 enrolled in each class, so that's 30. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Page 5 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. THOMAS: So yeah. The apprenticeship model I think is going to be a little—I had a meeting with some directors just recently, and they're very interested in the apprenticeship model. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, great. I'm a very appreciative of this legislative support and you know I provided testimony and I'm very much supportive of that. But maintaining the workforce, I really don't see much that you're doing here. You are supporting some state legislation,but you aren't actually putting any dollars towards maintaining the workforce. MS. THOMAS: Okay, so the point with that is whatever we do here needs to be sustainable, and if we used ARPA funding to support the existing workforce, that money would go away in three years. And what's happening now is there's ARPA money out there that everybody's getting paid a differential of$1.43 an hour. That money's going away this year, so Chelsea and I was just calculating, it's about$60 a week for people. MS. KAGIWADA: So, you could extend that for three years? MS. THOMAS: No, well, that's the state ARPA money through DHS (Department of Human Services). MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. MS. THOMAS: It's going to 4,300 providers across the state. MS. KAGIWADA: So, a lot of our providers are going to lose that this year? MS. THOMAS: Yeah, everybody is. MS. KAGIWADA: So, I guess my concern is if you're talking about sustainability,you are putting $1.5 million into training with no way to sustain that in that those people can turn around and leave the field tomorrow. MS. THOMAS: Right,but I'm encouraging the directors to look at increasing the payments. MS. KAGIWADA: But there's no— MS. THOMAS: I know,but affordable child care is on the backs of our teachers. MS. KAGIWADA: You are preaching to the choir here. MS. THOMAS: I know. So, I'm thinking that parents need to pay what it costs, and if that's the case, then we need to find additional funding to support parents to Page 6 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 pay that tuition. POD is coming online, it's going to be much more available and we need to look at employers as additional funding to support families. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I just would really have liked to see some dollars actually going to maintaining the workforce. I realize that you're saying that it's not something that we can sustain,but you're not sustaining the dollars you're putting into training if you don't sustain the workforce, even if it was for three years. You are at least supporting that training that you've—those people can turn around and leave tomorrow after they get that training because there's not adequate pay in the field. So, you're just pouring those dollars into a bucket with a giant hole in it. So, I understand. It's an issue I've worked on for decades, understand how tough it is,but I would have liked to see some funding going towards that issue because it's so important and probably the most important issue with childcare. So, I'm going to yield so that other people have a chance to talk. I have other things,but thank you so much for bringing this. I think it's a really good start to a conversation. MR. ADAMS: If I may just briefly,that is a policy question and we've had this conversation. We are concerned about the ability for these funds to not be used in a way that when they are done, all of sudden, whatever they will be in use for, has to stop. That was a concern for us because we've seen that at the federal level, for example when that happens. So, the idea of trying to use these in a way that shows some degree of infrastructure support, and I'm talking, in this case, services, right, for our providers and teachers. That was the rationale for trying to improve through education and training. So, I just understand where you're coming from, I'm just concerned about that—we are concerned about that funding just leaving and now all of a sudden those— MS. KAGIWADA: Sure,but you could have spent that$5 million that is now not going to childcare, supporting those teachers that you are training to stay in the field for at least three more years. That could have been done. And now, even though you're saying, you know,the things going to go away, well, the training dollars can go away in less than a year after you've spent them. They could be gone the day after the training's done,right? So yes,policy issue, I understand; you know where I'm coming from on this. Thank you, Chair, and I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. What is a POD? MS. THOMAS: Preschool Open Doors. Page 7 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Preschool Open Doors? What is that? MS. THOMAS: So, there are two funding sources that support family tuitions as subsidized tuitions. One is Childcare Connection, that's federal money, and then Preschool Open Doors is state money that's put aside to support families to pay tuition for childcare. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, I didn't know that acronym. Thank you for the presentation; good presentation. What's the total overall going to Early Childhood resources? MR. ADAMS: I'm sorry, I didn't hear the question. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What's the total amount going to Early Childhood? MS. THOMAS: Nine point one. MR. ADAMS: Nine point one. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Nine— MR. ADAMS: Nine point one million. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Nine point one million? This is coming out of the ARPA fund, correct? MR. ADAMS: It's coming out of state and local fiscal recovery funds out of the American Rescue Plan Act, yes. We use ARPA because that's easier than saying state and local fiscal recovery funds out of the American Rescue Plan Act. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay,beautiful. Thank you. I thought it was interesting to me the funding for facilities versus capacity building. As you explained each one, they seem very similar, and I was going to ask, why not more money for a facility building given the description was if you enclose a yard,buy a fridge,but then when you described capacity building, it was almost the same thing, enclose more of an area of a yard or get the necessary things needed. So, I'm just wondering what the difference is and how you just—if there is a difference or if it just becomes one big pot in a way. MS. THOMAS: So, the capacity building is specifically for existing childcare centers to apply for. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: For existing only? Page 8 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. THOMAS: Yeah, so if they want to expand or they need support to expand or add additional staffing so they can reach their licensing capacity,because some are less than full right now. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MS. THOMAS: And the sponsored facilities are new facilities. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so gauging from that answer and then the amount of funding put towards each one, we are seeing more of a need to build capacity in existing facilities versus build new facilities? MR. ADAMS: Let me just take a quick(inaudible). Existing facilities are smaller facilities, we don't have a lot of large facilities. MS. THOMAS: Right. MR. ADAMS: The facilities amount is designed for large numbers, so we're trying to increase in both South Kohala and Hilo, large numbers. We're providing large amounts of seats. The existing facilities are the smaller ones with a small amount—with a reasonably small amount of money, can add some additional seats, and in a percentage basis it might be,you know, 30 percent but it wouldn't be a lot of seats in terms of actual numbers,right? So, that's—the facility piece is actually these large—now, given the state of construction and supply lines and all those kinds of things, permitting, if I'm allowed to say that, those things are going to take some time. We know that we can only do a few of those,but those are going to be big dollar items. So, the capacity development, the capacity building sections, are really for the smaller centers that we have which,with a little bit of additional money, can add a few additional seats. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Sustainable models, I have notes, sorry, I'm looking at my notes and I may need to recheck what I wrote down. I like how you're building sustainability into your modelling because you're actually growing our facilities, you're growing existing facilities,new facilities. But I can see that the idea is to grow sustainability within the program itself so that after our funding goes away,because this will not last, that they can hopefully perpetuate that and keep going. I like that. MS. THOMAS: Right. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. My last question for you, looking over that testing data, two things stood out for me. One, our charter schools; charter schools are doing a tremendous job with reading comprehension. I think they're testing above all of our—above most of our— Page 9 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. THOMAS: I think some of them are, yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: State schools. Not all and only, but I mean, for the most part, the charter schools are killing it. Then secondly, I'm looking at this, demonstrating, approaching, emerging,breakdown for language, math, social foundation,physical development. So, we have this data that you brought forward for third grade reading success and it looks like other—no, that's not really—sorry, in Hawaii County, one in five new kindergarteners are ready to fully participate in the kindergarten curriculum. That dataset you gave us— MS. THOMAS: Right. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is this being used to fund money into specific communities then? MS. THOMAS: We are working in Pahoa in particular right now,to change that score. So,these are complexes. So, Pahoa complex, for instance, has Pahoa Elementary and Keonepoko Elementary, so we're working with those two schools to try to change their scores. If our model works, ideally, we'd like to share it with other communities and have, you know, sort of a more comprehensive implemenation across the County. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: If I was to look at this, I would say that Ka`u could definitely use some assistance,being that orange blocks are emerging, yellow is approaching, and green is demonstrating. Looks like for the most part, we are approaching. As far as our percent tested and not demonstrating in a lot of different complex areas, so again, looking for a little bit more direction on why we've chose one complex area— MS. THOMAS: Because we were already working in it and we had a group of partners that already started some work so it would be easiest to try to change outcomes immediately. So, we have a really bold plan of trying to change the kindergarten entry scores by 10 percent in August, and it's already March. So, that's one of our goals for this year. If our plan works—and when we train, so for instance,we're going to be doing some training of our preschool teachers in that area, so Kamehameha Schools, headstart, and the family learning groups that are in the area. Other people will be invited to come to the training as well because we're training on the four domains of the assessment. So ideally then, that will spread. The training opportunities will spread and Ka`u is definitely—we were working originally in KKP (Ka`u, Kea'au, Pahoa) but we kind of narrowed it down to Pahoa, so that is definitely on our radar. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm looking at the numbers too. You're Page 10 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 87 percent but I'm looking at the number tested, 38, 46 people but 87 percent,just a number and the number of folks tested, and then the results for, in the columns, the statistics drive a look except if it's related to how many people are tested. MS. THOMAS: Right, there's not a lot— MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It's a smaller amount, given some of the more highly tested areas with more people being tested. MS. THOMAS: Right. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, I'm looking at that but I'm also just looking at areas that we need to do better or provide more assistance. Is the training dollars that we're looking at using for Pahoa going to be available for these other areas for the long term? MS. THOMAS: Probably for the long term. Right now,we're really interested in Pahoa immediately,but yes. We have, in the workforce, it was conferences and training, that's where the training dollars will come from for additional communities. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, I don't love that answer; probably is not a good answer, with the idea in mind that we're going to focus on one and then maybe get to the others when we can see that the proficiency is not there; now the community is even more so than the one we're going to focus on first because it's easier. That would be my only concern. But I do love that you did bring us some good data to look over. MR. ADAMS: If I may, Councilman, I would apologize for the phraseology that our Research Coordinator has here. She's used to being nonprofit so she's not always assured that there's going to be money following, so "probably" and "maybe"become part of the lexicon. In this particular case, it's probably accurate, right,because we don't know if there's money after this for this kind of stuff. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Agreed and I'm going to drive that point home and I'm going to leave that probably right where it was because that's what it looks like it's going to be. It's just worrisome, but at least you have data backing up your decision making. If you're able to to make some movements ahead, that's beautiful but I would like it to be data-based as we have the data to back up. MS. THOMAS: Yeah. Page 11 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. I do appreciate your work on this. MS. THOMAS: Thanks. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, both, for bringing this forward and showing us the breakdown. This has been on our minds for a few months but really specifically from our last Council meeting, so thank you. I yield, Chair. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you. I'm not sure who'd like to go first? Council Member Evans or— MS. GALIMBA: Well, I'm going to be very short. Great presentation, guys, thank you. Thank you for Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder advocating for Ka`u, so, it makes my job so much easier. But I can also understand why you picked Pahoa, because I think it's—there's a lot more resources already in place there and population so making a bigger impact,but look forward to coming down to Ka`u and helping us out. MS. THOMAS: We actually are, sort of, looking for another community, so if anybody wants to have some input, we are—okay. So noted. Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. That's a great segway to one of my questions is what is the birth rate we have today and where are they on our island? The birth rate, we know that we should anticipate, you know,what's coming because this is a stream, right, and so they're going to leave and go into our kindergartens. So, I know that the Department of Education tries to, statistically, they try to figure out how many are coming into their kindergartens and elementary schools. They determine if they should build more classrooms,build an elementary school. So, Waikoloa's bringing on lots of affordable housing projects and a lot of affordable rental housing projects, and it looks like a community that's going to track young families. So, there's got to be some prediction about what's going to happen in Waikoloa,but I'm just curious where you're getting your statistics and numbers because that leads into to your advisory council and how do you expect to sustain this going forward? MS. THOMAS: So, according to the community profile, we have about 7,000 children under three years old. So, if you divide that by three,you can get sort of a ballpark of what our birth rate is like. So, 2,000ish a year. We have 11,000 children under five, so that's a reasonable assumption. Page 12 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 Waikoloa is interesting. There's a lot of new development out there, I know the school is overcrowded. They're slated for an EOEL (Executive Office on Early Learning) this year, which is good because there's really not a lot out there. There's only the baptist preschool in the area, so that would be good for them. They're also looking at the library and possibly putting in a classroom in the library once that gets started, which would also be good. We have to do something on the coast though. I mean we have all these employees that are coming to work down on the Kohala Coast and so, we're looking forward to working with the workforce housing people. Stanford Carr has reached out to us to see if we could help support their classroom building that they're going to do down there. Then if we can find another employer, I think it's really important that there's child care available on the Kohala Coast. MS. EVANS: So,this funding, this ARPA funding plan, does it stop this fiscal year on September 30th? When does the funding stop? MR. ADAMS: The funding needs to be completely expended by December 31st of 2026. The reason that this year is important is that all of that funding has to be encumbered,meaning that it needs to be contracted somehow, obligated in some way by the end of this calendar year. Then it can be expended over the next— until December 31st of 2026. There has been a small amount of discussion about some type of extension of that time period,but the only reason that is out there is just because it's been done in some cases,before. At the moment, those are the dates, December 31, 2024, obligation of the funding and December 31, 2026, the expenditure. MS. EVANS: Okay. Is there any program in place where you can help offset a person's cost for let's say going to a community college and getting a certificate in Early Child Education? Is there any way to offset it by saying they have to work for one year,you know, sign a contract like if you—like a loan repayment, which is what we're doing with some of our doctors? Is that possible? MS. THOMAS: I think the apprenticeship model does, doesn't it? CHR. VILLEGAS: Please go ahead and say your name for the record. (Note: At this time, Early Childhood Resource Associate Chelsea LaFrance came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. LAFRANCE: The apprenticeship program requires five years of employment if you follow the KOKA model, which is Keiki 0 Ka `Aina, which Angela touched on earlier. Page 13 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 CHR. VILLEGAS: Yeah, if everybody could just really—see how loud I am right now? Go ahead, and yeah, you can move it closer to you. That box can come closer to you. MS. LAFRANCE: So, the apprenticeship program,which Angela mentioned, the KOKA model, which is Keiki 0 Ka `Aina,they require five years of employment from start to finishing and they graduate with an associates degree in Early Childhood Education. MS. EVANS: So, is there a way to obligate more money towards this so that we develop more of the workforce that we were alluding to earlier, which is we need to get more people in the workforce? MS. LAFRANCE: Maybe we can obligate them for the next two years through 2026,but after that, if we go away, we can't do anything about the funding that we spent on them before, if that makes sense. MS. EVANS: Right. Does the Lieutenant Governor, through her Early Childhood—I assume they still have an office,they used to have an office on Early Childhood. Are they working closely with what you're doing so that they see they might be ones that can help us sustain it past this? So, is there conversations that you had with them? MS. THOMAS: It's the governor's office. It was the governor's executive office on early learning, and they are now the ones that run the EOEL preschools in the public schools. So, that is their focus. They're not as, I don't want to say this negatively,but they don't actually support the community schools. They're more interested in getting teachers who are DOE trained to run their pre-K programs in the classrooms that the Lieutenant Governor is setting up. MS. EVANS: So, that's pre-K and it's only focused on four-year-olds. MS. THOMAS: And now they're allowing three-year-olds,but it's on a DOE campus. It's a very different model than the mom and pop programs that we are supporting community wide. MS. EVANS: Okay. Well, thank you for the work you do. I'm excited about your conversation with the employers because that would be great. MS. THOMAS: Well, we have a model, we just have to get people to remember Mauna Lath. MS. EVANS: Okay, thank you. I yield. Page 14 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you very much, Chair. Thank you for this presentation. I have to say I'm a little bit alarmed. We've got one set of communications that reflected closer to $14 million in the pie chart, and then today, our version has $9.1 million. And last year, we had a presentation about there being about $14 million dedicated to Early Childhood Education and making a dent in that particular area, which I think is very important to all of us. So literally overnight, millions are no longer being invested in this area when I felt a few weeks ago, the department felt really,really confident that they could spend $14 million. So,just would love to understand the change that kind of happened overnight with the budget. MR. ADAMS: Appreciate that question. I can answer some of that now, and I'm also aware that we're going to have a conversation about the larger set of funds in another communication and can address that more then. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: But is there a reason why we're not spending $14 million on child care? Why it's now decreased to $9.1 million? MR. ADAMS: The initial piece, and you may not have been here when we were talking about it,but clearly, the facilities piece, that part of being able to spend all of that funding, that$6 million that we had identified,was going to be problematic for us. So, focusing on what we can do is the identification of the $3.3 million. The other elements, the smaller amounts that—the remaining sectors that are part of the wheel were reduced or associated really with the other programs at the County and within the department that we have that are also part of the economic recovery and revitilization purpose of this particular funding. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Lot of words there. Again, overnight, millions of dollars dissipated from this area. I am concerned. Last year, even prior to July's presentation, a lot of focus on we got a plan for Early Childhood education, we're spending$14 million. I still don't know what the plan is. If you could synthesize what the goal is or after this money is spent, after 2026, illustrate for me what is success. What is,we did good here? What does that look like? MR. ADAMS: It looks like we have more than 200 new seats in the County, more than that. It looks like we have staffed up both in the—well across the three sets of types of centers that we have, which we only have two sets now. We have family and we have community-based. The fact that we would have employer- sponsored is a third set that we have all three of those available and we have them—we have more staffing than we have right now because we have put some funding into the development of the training and the education through the scholarship model and the apprenticeship model,both at Chaminade and Hawaii Page 15 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 Community College, and then the apprenticeship model that we have in the other centers. That funding has allowed us to have more staffing and people being paid at a level that allows them to do that work that they want to do, as opposed to not being paid so that they can't do that work. So, it's more opportunity for families and for children, particularly in those areas where folks work. We know that there are not as many locations near work places. We think that's important for families to have that for quality of life purposes and that we have more people that are able to do that work because we've been providing the training and education dollars at least through 2026 for that to happen. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Angela, anything to add to that vision? Because I know that this has kind of been your baby and wheelhouse. MS. THOMAS: So, my task is to build a system of Early Childhood. So, in terms of building a system, it's very comprehensive. We have to train teachers, we have to support facilities, and we have to—the big thing to me is networking. We have to inform people about all the efforts that are going on. After the pandemic, we lost a lot of people,primarily women,because they had to stay home-with-their-kids who were being home schooled. So, that's part of the loss, and they didn't come back because the wages weren't good. So, what we're looking at is a loss of spaces and we're still losing spaces as people leave the field. We're losing spaces for children because we don't have the teachers. So,what I'm seeing is that we need to bring people back together. We need to inform them about what's going on; we need to help create new family child care; we need to market classes; and yes, we need to work on wages, definitely, because that's something I firmly believe in as a previous director. So, I think while it doesn't seem like we're doing specific things, we're doing a lot of things to support the development of a stronger system on the island. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I know a lot of things are happening. I need help painting that picture so I can see what you see because I'm not seeing it yet. I believe in it, I'm just not seeing it yet. What was the criteria to prioritize which areas were going to receive funding and how much funding? Infrastructure, community, workforce facility, capacity development, and then I agree with Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. It was kind of confusing, the saying capacity building,maybe saying increased capacity. But like these priority areas, what was the criteria to elevate them as a priority, and how do you determine what amount was the right amount to allocate? Page 16 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. THOMAS: The community profile for one, and the second thing is just taking a look at the landscape. It took us a year to complete the profile, and also, to start meeting with directors, figuring out exactly what's going on in every community. So, while I don't know everything, I know a lot more than I did when I started, and it's not like I'm new to the field. So,bringing people together, having meetings about what their needs are in communties, help determine how we are—what the cogs on the wheel ended up being. I called a meeting the other day, couple of weeks ago with directors, and I was pleased there were 13 directors on the call, who are all interested in apprenticeship. They're also interested in submitting RFPs (Request for Proposal) for expansion and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with this funding. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And when you say directors, you mean preschool directors? MS. THOMAS: Right. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MS. THOMAS: For child care of some sort. They weren't family child care, they were directors of centers. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Can you speak to—I know you kind of touched on it a little earlier when some of my colleagues asked what happens after ARPA money runs out, right? Like the sustainability of the current projects, I have concerns about facilities. Yesterday was $6 million, today it's $3.3 million; yesterday included Kona, today it's North Kohala. I feel like we're not quite sure but I also know maybe the County shouldn't be in the business of starting preschools. So, there's that comment but then also,how do we ensure that our investment, right, through ARPA,that there's long-term impact that it endures the lifespan of this funding? MR. ADAMS: Actually, she has asked me that question, which is why she's waiting for me to answer. For the question, I'll answer the sustainability question first. Part of the work that we're doing with the state involves Angela, in particular,being engaged with what the Lieutenant Governor is doing,bringing the host of folks together and then using her wherewithal to make sure that the state is engaged,primarily public school. But POD is a part of that as well and that's not just public school support. MS. THOMAS: It's a private school. Page 17 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MR. ADAMS: It's private school, right? So, the Lieutenant Governor's attacking this issue on both the public school and the private school side of things. In the work that Angela in particular has been able to engage with, that team that the Lieutenant Governor has put together, is going to help with our continual efforts to make sure that the state doesn't stop doing that work as well. In the County, we haven't really had the conversation about how much general fund work is going to be available to continue this work that we're using the ARPA funds for. That's a conversation that we need to have. Then at the federal level, we continue to work with our congressional delegation to work,particularly in congress because it isn't the current administration. It's really in congress to try and make sure that they do bring in the kind of funding that we saw that made a difference. When you had the child care tax credit, we saw a third of the kids drop from the poverty roles and when they took that money away,boom, they went back onto it. We're aware of that,we see those things. So, from a sustainability perspective, maintaining part of what we're trying to do here is create a system that allows what we see currently at the state and federal level, to be able to continue. But we know that we're going to have to do more because this is a part of the infrastructure that families want moving forward. Our ability to maintain those is going to do some of the things that Angela talked about. Employers see that as well. We're going to have to continue to have those conversations with employers and employers being engaged in this area both from a benefits perspective as well as a recruitment strategy for them too. So, those are a couple of the things that when we talk about sustainable practices moving forward, that we're going to be working on. That's not the entire answer though, to do that. To address the second question having to do with Kona, it has to do with our ability to turn around resources that we saw in a timely manner and really a hard decision to say we're not going to be able to get there and have to pull away from that. MS. THOMAS: So, one of the things I just want to add is I think Early Childhood is also part of the economic infrastructure. So, as we are looking at meeting child care so parents can work, and I want to stress that while the children are in care, they should be a quality situation where their brains are being stimulated. But if you're looking at third grade reading scores, in 10 years, these young people are going to be applying for jobs. They need to be able to read and for me, that's the impetus of all the work we need to do. We need to provide situations and support family information so that they know how important it is that their children succeed in school so that they can have opportunities that are better. We need to do better for our kids. MR. ADAMS: If I may. Page 18 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MR. ADAMS: I'm really happy we're having this conversation. You can tell how happy I am. I mean even the conversations that we were having with Council Member Kagiwada, the fact that we are even having these conversations and we're talking about policy in this situation, we have no reason to be doing that normally, right? This funding became available, this became something that we all talked about as being important. It is. So, I'm really excited about the possibilities for us to continue to do that for the residents here because this is a quality of life issue. It's an economic revitalization issue and it's exactly what Angela was just talking about. It's making sure that our kids can be the best that they can be moving forward. MS. THOMAS: There are currently three County coordinators across the state, and then there's a fourth one that's not exactly associated with the County,but she serves in that capacity. We're the only ones who put ARPA money into Early Childhood. So, I'm really happy that I live here and can do this work. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I have a few more questions related to maybe not just sustainability of projects but success of projects. So, one of the things that you note here, as a priority, is the capacity building, existing child care centers,being able to increase enrollment. So, in my mind, that sounds like facility expansion, maybe getting some portable units on your property if you're able to do that. So,my question is,how can your position,this Early Childhood office,maybe coordinate with Public Works, Planning, Department of Health, to ensure that process is smooth and we can actually get more facilities to be expanded quickly so we can realize more seats for kids. Is there that kind of intergovernmental coordination happening? MS. THOMAS: I think Doug's going to have to help me with that one,but I think we're looking actually at smaller like if you need to enclose a lanai that you can have—it becomes inside space and so you can have five more children or something. So, I'm not sure it's going to be huge construction projects but yes, I think we will need to be asking people to help— MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I'm pretty sure you still need a permit for that. MS. THOMAS: Yeah, I get it. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Director, the coordination with government agencies especially our own. MR. ADAMS: Right, I know that we're already doing some interagency coordination. I don't want to steal the thunder from my colleagues behind me. Page 19 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 When we talked to state and local fiscal recovery funds across the County, the idea of there being coordination for child care facilities, we haven't had the conversation about some of these smaller ones and working that necessarily with Public Works but we certainly can. We've had those conversations when we talked about some of the larger facilities. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MR. ADAMS: In other words, the— MS. KIERKIEWICZ: It's on your list of things to do, the ever growing list. Got it. MR. ADAMS: That list plus the fact that we understand more than on the list of things to do what we've started that process,but it is not mature. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Angela,the Pahoa Promise project that's listed here, it's really fantastic. I love Doug, I love Marlene, they are incredible. How is that being funded? Is that coming through ARPA dollars? MS. THOMAS: No. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Is that a private/public partnership? MS. THOMAS: So, Stepsky Foundation, the Omidyar, and then yes, County's going to put something in, I think, if we're going to try to support the leadership. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And then duplicating this in more communities. MR. ADAMS: At some point,but this would be initally a demo. MS. THOMAS: Pahoa. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Sorry, I'm just a little confused because it's in an ARPA presentation but there's no ARPA dollars there that are going to support Doug and Marlene's work. MS. THOMAS: Right now, it has not been. There's no money right paying Doug or Marlene. They are being supported by ECAS (Early Childhood Action Strategy) and the Thundersuite. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you for that clarification. Are we still on track, Director Nakagawa maybe, for April 1st RFP publication? Page 20 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 (Note: At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS.NAKAGAWA: Good afternoon again, Council Members. Yes, Council Member Kierkiewicz, we are on track for an early April RFP process and we're happy to get into that in the presentation as well on the timing. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you. Question back for Angela and Director Adams. What sort of mechanisms are you going to put in place to maybe monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these intitiatives to make sure that they are achieving these early childhood outcomes that we're trying to address? MS. THOMAS: So, I'm kind of a control freak, so I sort of built into the RFP so they would be in consultation with our office through the process. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Is there going to be like a public facing dashboard where we can see this is the vision, these are the goals, this is how the project is helping us to achieve that goal? I work in goals, objectives, and KPIs (Key Performance Indicator). MR. ADAMS: I appreciate that. We haven't included funding for that kind of work as a part of this. We've taken the funding and you see what the funding is going to be used for. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I don't see, but go ahead. MR. ADAMS: No, what I'm saying is that the identification of a messaging device, something that demonstrates success across the board. It isn't just in child care but it's across all the things that this County is engaged in and continues to be both important and needed and costly and figuring out all of those continues to be on that list. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I guess what I'm trying to get at is how are we going to know that we've made progress, that we've met our goals? MR. ADAMS: Right, that's the metrics piece of this,right? So, that will be part of the control freak element here because it's not going to—two things, the money will be encumbered and so what we will be spending the next two years or two and a half, whenever it's encumbered, through 2026 is monitoring its success. How the funding is being used and the fact that it's doing what we want it to do. So, the development of the metrics will include the things that we have been talking about here that are also part of the profile and seeing changes in the profile. Page 21 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 We all know that timing of when this is going to occur particularly when it comes with children, is not necessarily the next year. It will likely be whenever the tests are taken, so whatever we're doing that's going to be helping with kindergarten, we wouldn't necessarily see within the timeline of this funding. We wouldn't see it until 2028 or 2029 potentially. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Got it. I'm out of time. There's a lot of money here, right? I think we're trying to move mountains,but really, I just want to move the needle,just a little bit. MS. THOMAS: So, we will be republishing this every two years and then we also have an indicator sheet that's less than this. It's mostly just about data on children that's going to be updated every year so, we will be tracking the early childhood piece at least. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Yes, thank you, Chair. First of all, for the infrastructure section which includes staffing, travel, well first of all,how much money have we spent of the $9.1 million? MR. ADAMS: We spent, I believe it was a little over a million total. I'm sorry, that's not of the 9.1, that's—we have spent in the—yeah actually, that's true. A little over a million which includes the salaries,the training conferences, some of the work for the scholarships having to do with Chaminade as well as some initial recovery work that was done. MR. INABA: One million of the $9.1 million or$9.1 million is what is remaining? MR. ADAMS: So, what's remaining is around, subtractual wise, is around $8 million. MR. INABA: Okay, so in the end, the total that we have, including what was already spent is $9.1 million? MR. ADAMS: Correct. MR. INABA: So, we have—Director Nakagawa, can you—do you have anything to add here? (Note: At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 22 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. NAKAGAWA: So, the$1 million, and I'll double check to confirm that exact number, was encumbered, so there is the$9.1 million that you have program still left for this Early Childhood program. MR. INABA: Sony, can you restate that? MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah. So, the$1 million that Doug is referring to was part of the total ARPA dollars that were spent, considered spent or encumbered and we'll, like I said, get into that at the next one. It's part of the $6 million that the County has already encumbered. So, the $9 million that is in these programs that we're talking about right now, is still remaining. So, it's not included. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. With that then, going on to this, I think the terms here and we're struggling with terms because whether it's capacity building or in this case, infrastructure, I've never heard staffing to mean infrastructure. But we have another measure before the Council right now that is essentially committing almost$300,000 for a position. How much of this $1 million is just for positions? And when I say positions, I mean County employment contract or County-funded positions. MR. ADAMS: But contracted. It's three positions. It's the three positions here for child care. MR. INABA: I know the number of positions, I'm asking about the dollar amount. $300,000 is requested for one position, so where does the rest of this money—like how much is actually left for media, website, professional development, travel, supplies, if almost a third of this million is being asked just for a three-year contract? MR. ADAMS: That's a good question. So—go ahead. MS. NAKAGAWA: So for the remaining time that we have left through 2026, if another position is approved,because that still has not been approved, right, we have two positions. The three positions would be approximately$675,000 from now through the end of the 2026 period. MR. INABA: So that would leave two hundred something thousand dollars left for the remainder of these things like travel and supplies and development of resources like a dashboard or something like that to track or progress? MS. NAKAGAWA: If that position is approved, yes, that would be correct. MR. INABA: Okay. And then, what is the plan if that position is not approved because that's $288,000? Do we have a plan on where we'd be spending that money? Page 23 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MR. ADAMS: We don't have that broken up specifically like that. I would make one more comment. I'm not sure that the dashboard is something we could pay for with state and local fiscal recovery funds necessarily. It may be something we may have to pay for separately,but the travel and the other administrative costs that are there would be part of those funds. MR. INABA: Okay. I'm just wondering, we have this commitment right now that we'll have the RFPs published in early April. Why don't we have—it's been stated by other Council Members,but within each of these wheel categories, we've broken it down,right, as to how we think we're going to—what infrastructure means. Do we not have a preliminary breakdown of how much funds would be spent in each of these categories? MR. ADAMS: We do. MR. INABA: Why don't we have it here then? MR. ADAMS: Part of it is because we're in a solicitation period right now. So, I'm happy to provide that information to the Council. MR. INABA: Have we had it for a long time? We've had some breakdown but as we have developed the RFP's, it's solidified. MR. INABA: Is it something that we didn't want the public to know how much funds we were allocating in different areas? MR. ADAMS: Part of this is that as we have seen other opportunities and an understanding of what we can use the funds for, there have been changes in what the amounts could be. So, yeah, there have been some changes in how—I mean just the fact that we've changed the amounts here is an indicator that we've seen some changes in the amounts that will be available. MR. INABA: Okay. So, I mean if we wanted to know immediately after this meeting we can expect the document that shows exact dollar amounts that the department anticipates to allocate to each of these resources? MR. ADAMS: Yes, Council Member. MR. INABA: For example, staffing and— MR. ADAMS: Yes. MR. INABA: Alright. I feel like a lot of the conversation we've been having, had we known that, we wouldn't have had to ask so many of these questions Page 24 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 today. There was mention about agreements with Chaminade for the scholarships and the classes. When were these agreements executed? MS. THOMAS: That was last July. We started students last July. MR. ADAMS: Right, so we had the—the agreement was conducted through a— we developed a program with a nonprofit as the project manager and the agreeement was between them and the university for the scholarship program. MR. INABA: Did we commit funds to the nonprofit to serve as this intermediary agency? How much and who? MR. ADAMS: That was for$500,000 for that program. MR. INABA: I don't recall having a resolution, so I was just wondering the mechanism by which$500,000 went out from the County, and if there is in fact an agreement, whether the Council ever had that agreement or approved the agreement if we needed to. MR. ADAMS: I don't believe that there was a requirement. That's why if—I can't remember,personally, I can't remember whether or not we came or not. So, let me go back and check that. MR. INABA: Director Nakagawa, off the top of our head, do you know? I mean I'm assuming if$500,000 went out to a nonprofit,by Code, we should have seen it,unless it was lumped into the budget somehow as a line item. MR. ADAMS: It wouldn't have been lumped into the budget because it's a federal grant. MR. INABA: Just wondering if you can recall, if funds did go out,how did they go out without any of us knowing. MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah, I don't recall this contract coming before Council. So, I don't want to answer without looking into the details and checking and will get back to you as soon as we figure that out. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you, Director Nakagawa. I guess ultimately if we can get a report detailing every dollar that's already gone out and then if it's not for public knowledge right now, as to where funds are anticipated to go out. Then obviously, that could be how, in confidentiality,but I don't think I have any better idea today, than I did in July of where we're actually committing the monies. So, it would be helpful to know that, especially in light of the request for a position. Page 25 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 I think,just for the public's knowledge, there was a question on whether RFP's are required. Director Nakagawa, if you could just shed a little bit of light there so the public understands how the County allocates out funds through nonprofits or outside entities who are not nonprofits. MS. NAKAGAWA: Yes, happy to explain that. So, in some of our normal process and like with general fund money, there is a way that we can provide nonprofits. We come to Council, things over$25,000. When we are looking at these ARPA funds and the federal procurement requirements, we do need to go through a competitive process for these funds. So, much more strict in the procurement process to allow us to expend these funds, which is some of the reasons that we are looking at timeline issues. But we do need to go through that process. MR. INABA: Okay. I guess I'll just leave it at that. We need more information. I think our community partners in the nonprofit world are chomping at the bits to expand to get some of these funds. So, the sooner the better and we all look forward to getting the information today and then hopefully, seeing resolutions soon that allocate out these funds once the RFP process is completed. Thank you, Chair, I yield. MS. NAKAGAWA: Council Member, if I could just say that the urgency, again I will is understood. As far as the RFP's go,we are pushing aggressively to get them out on the time table that we had put forth on the communication over all ARPA funds. And your question about, Council Member Kierkiewicz, on how do we know the outcome of these funds and what's going on? We'd be happy to come time and time again as we progress through these projects and provide an update. I know there's a dashboard wish,but if we don't get there, we'd be happy to come and share, not just this project,but any of the other projects on our ARPA list and the status. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. We had $16 million, right, for ARPA? MS. NAKAGAWA: Yes, that is correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MS. NAKAGAWA: $16,233,613. Page 26 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Diane. So, with about $10 million,just roughly, rough numbers,but $10 million going towards Early Childhood resources, that's about 16 percent of the funds. Given the next communication, we can look at the total breakdown of all the funding sources,but to me, that feels good that we've decided, as a County, 16 percent of our funds we've got from this one source is going to go towards Early Childhood resources. To me, that sounds good, that feels good and I think Ms. Thomas stated we're one of the few that's actually doing this as counties in the State. That's beautiful. I'm getting a lot of texts. The one text that stood out was the POD, the Preschool Open Doors? MS. THOMAS: Are you talking about subsidies? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. MS. THOMAS: Yeah, Preschool Open Doors. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And that's state funding,right? MS. THOMAS: Correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, I'm thinking about this because we have a business. Our employees make certain dollar amounts and I watch this all the time but a lot of them are moms, single moms. I mean really, the choice is I can go to work and try and earn enough to pay$800 a month for childcare or I can just not go to work and collect benefits because it's almost a wash. So, I'm thinking about that and I'm also getting these texts if you have the subsidies but there's no seats to put the kids in, then you're subsidized for someone who has no place to go, right? It's that cart before the horse, chicken before the egg statement. MS. THOMAS: Right. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, I just wanted to address that. Then I feel you've touched on this already,but I've gotten a text from two different people with the same thing. Why are you making subsidies, or what are we going to do if we subsidize and there's nowhere to put people? So, the facilities and the growth of capacity is what we're hoping is going to address that part of the piece, correct? MS. THOMAS: So, I think in the past, I haven't been that thrilled about subsidy increases because we don't have spaces,but this time it's a big deal because it's going to include our three-year-olds, who are already maybe going into preschool. So, this next year the window's open right now to apply through the end of Page 27 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 March. They're going to see if they can fill all the spaces,but this year, they're going to be overwhelmed because there's twice as many—two age groups that can participate. And the eligibility level has gone up, so families can be making more money and still qualify. So, I do think it's going to increase the number of kids on this island that are able to participate in slots. I agree that we don't have enough slots, our ratio is one space for every 4.5 children. So, we have a lot of work to do. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and last question, hopefully. How much of the funding of the $10 million is going to capacity/facilities building then? MR. ADAMS: I'm going separate that. It's all going to capacity, right? The whole idea is to build capacity. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: All? MR. ADAMS: It's all. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Actual,physical space, seats. MR. ADAMS: See, that's the thing. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm not a genius to this, I'm just trying to answer peoples' questions and I know Ms. Thomas is actually well versed in this. MR. ADAMS: So, if the questions are how many new seats are going to be created by this? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. MR. ADAMS: As I addressed this earlier, my ability to answer that question is limited, constrained. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. ADAMS: What do we want to do? As I told Council Member Kierkiewicz, we want to make sure that we have at least 200 more. I think that's probably a conservative number,because we think we can do better with the numbers. Even if they're small numbers, we can do better on the family-centered and the community-centered seats,but we really want to add a considerable number of seats through the big ones that we're trying to go after. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Page 28 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. THOMAS: Should I give some numbers? Okay so, don't hold me to this but this is what our goal is. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, that's fine. MS. THOMAS: Okay. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is not binding, this is a communication. You're providing information to us and the public,having a good conversation, which is what we're doing today. MS. THOMAS: Okay. So, I don't know about the capacity building section where the grants are going to existing child care centers because I don't know how many additional children they might be able to take, and I also don't know how many would actually apply. So, that's kind of a variable. Capacity building with family child care start up incentives, we're hoping we get at least 10 more,maybe more, which would be great. That's Chelsea's project with PATCH (People Attentive to Children). But that would open 60 more spaces for children. So, that one could be around 60. Sponsored facilities, the facilities build up, if we do the two that we're planning, we're talking about 170 children all together, in brand new spaces that don't exist right now and I would really like to see that happen. And then the workforce piece are mostly within existing schools where they would have more teachers and be able to take more students because they'd be able to open classrooms that had previously been closed. So, we're still talking about over 200 I think. MR. ADAMS: And how many do we anticipate Ready Keiki bringing here? MS. THOMAS: Well, if she does three lot next year, that's going to be 60 more spaces and then we already picked up 20 this year, so that's 80 in two years. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So, we have a lot of work to do. I'm also recognizing some of this is private and we're doing a little bit of what we can with this federal money and I know we're not going to solve the problem this year with the funding that we have and the resources that we have. We'll have to lean on or assist our private industry needs to be able to take on more. That's what I'm understanding, that's how I see it from a business sense. So, I understand that. Thank you. MR. ADAMS: We see that as not just us leaning on them but also partnering with them because it's something that they're telling us they're also supportive of. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, okay. Beautiful. Thank you. Page 29 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Council Member Kagiwada. And I'm just hoping we can wrap this up because we still have three other items to get through in this committee today. MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah. Thank you. I just want to go back and say I support you guys. I support this work. I know how hard it is. We don't have a child care system in this country, this state, or this county and you're working to put patches on a patch work system. So, I get it; I understand and thank you for all you're doing around this. What I'd like to see, and I know it's probably not going to happen,but I'm just going to put it out there. I'd like to see us get that $5 million back for child care and I'd like to see it to go for compensation for child care teachers. How many child care teachers do we have in community programs, not DOE, not family child care? MS. THOMAS: Yeah, I don't actually know. MS. KAGIWADA: Does anybody—Chelsea,you don't know? Okay. I'm guessing, it's probably less than 1,000,right? MS. THOMAS: Probably, yeah. MS. KAGIWADA: Maybe even around 500? Anyway, I'm just thinking. Anyway, I think you could do two years of compensation for all the community- based teachers, $5,000 extra a year and that's been shown to be kind of a, in the research, a breaking point that can help people stay in the field. If this is really something that's important, and I've heard Doug say it and I've heard you say it, and I believe it, then within that two years, we will figure out other ways to continue making sure people get paid better. Doug, you mentioned that,you know,poverty is a huge issue. Well,these preschool teachers are living in poverty. So,helping them helps a huge portion of our community try to stay out of poverty. That would my recommendation if we could do it. I would hope we could. If we can't I understand,but it's something that I really think could make a difference over the next several years and really start building where we want to go. So, thank you so much and thank you for the leeway, Chair. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. With that, I'm going to go ahead and just wrap up. I just have a couple of quick questions. Has anyone been denied funding that would have been able to provide immediate seats for children? MR. ADAMS: We have not—I know that there's a question about this in a Hilo preschool that is standing up,but with immediate seats, no, I'm not aware of Page 30 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 anybody being denied funding from this funding. That's a little bit too nuanced. I'm not aware that we have denied funding from our depaitnient for immediate seats. CHR. VILLEGAS: Okay. Do you know of anyone or any facilities? MS. THOMAS: We haven't made any RFP's available yet, so any requests were premature. CHR. VILLEGAS: Okay. Once again, I'm getting information from the public about a facility, Kalamapi`i that needed some lead remediation work for$100,000 but would provide 60 seats and it was denied. MS. THOMAS: I have no idea about that. $100,000? No. CHR. VILLEGAS: Okay. Another one is somewhere on Mohouli that has the potential for 60 seats. MS. THOMAS: Sorry, in where? CHR. VILLEGAS: I'm sorry, that's the same site. I'm sorry,replicating there. So, I'm just hearing this is a—I was a single mom, Childcare Connection rings in real close to my heart because that's how I was able to work and support my daughter. If you made three dollars too much in a month, they took away your childcare subsidy funding to help pay for childcare. So, this rings very close to heart,but what's really striking me is unfortunately, this feels a little too close to all the work we've been doing with having so much money put towards our houseless issues and we're still not getting there. So, I'm trying to have faith that your building it so they will come and not that we're spending all this money on paperwork instead of the seats. It concerns me that it takes five years to get an AA (Associate of Arts) in Early Childhood education having been, you know, taking care of my siblings since I was very young. Yes, we need professional training,but when does it come at more of a trade? There's got be something there because by the time we have that education you're in debt. The system's obviously broken. I want to belive that you're trying to fix it. This did not have the level of detail. It felt like a very broad, we're just throwing noodles at the wall and they'll stick. That's concerning anytime there's so much money here and then we're losing some of it. So, I vacillate in this like having faith and courage and then just wanting to be like how can we continue? And I don't want to throw big money after bad and lose money in the interim. So, I'm sure you share some of these frustrations,but our littles share it more. Having been born and raised here and when Konawaena had the highest pregnancy rate per capita in the United States of America, and I don't think the reading rates were any better then than they are now. So, if we're spending all Page 31 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 this money and we're doing these programs but we're still not getting anywhere, we're throwing good money after bad. So, thank you for taking the time to sit here with us and endure these really deep and poignant questions, not only from us but from the public in general and we do have a lot of work to do and my hope is that the numbers you just quoted at the very end there brought more zing into my spirit than all the other things. We all know how easy it is to spend money but to actually have seats for our children and places for them to be safe and healthy and learn, and myself loving my mo`opuna(grandchild) and littles, having almost gone into the childcare world. But, you know, it's a really hard one to make a living at too. So, we have all these dances, so my heart empathizes, and I'll wrap this up. One more thing— MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, you brought something up that I feel really needs to be on the record. Kim Pierce with Kalamapi`i Play School, they tried really, really hard to open up a facility. It is hard to open up a childcare center. There isn't like a little tool kit that gives you a checklist on navigating Hawaii bureaucracy to set up a childcare facility. And they're still trying to open up another venue. I've coordinated meetings for these ladies with the Mayor's Office, I've requested funding support that has been denied, so I think it's disingenuous for R&D (Research and Development)to say that they're not aware of any requests, nor have they denied requests. I've also,personally,put in a contingency relief request that was denied by Corporation Counsel because they said there's no public purpose. So, to read here that money is going to be given for facilities sponsored for lease rent blows my mind because that is exactly the kind of support, small kind of support,that Kim Pierce and Julie Hugo were looking for. Just wanted to make sure that was on the record because it breaks my heart that they could have really moved the needle and gotten further along and had more seats available if the County gave a little bit of support. Thank you, Chair, I really appreciate the latitude. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Alright with that, I'm going ahead, all those in favor of closing file on Communication 757 please say"aye." Vote on Comm. 757: The motion to close file on Comm. 757 was carried by (Filed) the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Chair Villegas—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Lee Loy— 1. Excused: None. Page 32 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 Recess: At 3:57 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 4:05 p.m. Return to Order The Chair directed the Committee to return to the order of business. of Business: COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 322.3: QUARTERLY AFFORDABLE HOUSING REPORT: OCTOBER 1 — DECEMBER 31, 2023 From Housing Administrator Susan K. Kunz, dated February 28, 2024, transmitting the above report pursuant to Section 11-19 of the Hawaii County Code. Motion to Close File: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 322.3. Seconded by Ms. Kimball. CHR. VILLEGAS: With that, I'll go ahead and invite Administrator Kunz forward. Thank you for stating your name for the record and walking us through this. MS. KUNZ: Good afternoon. Susan Kunz, Housing Administrator. We do not have any specific new activities to report for this quarter, as you can see as provided for you. I can tell you, however,there's a lot of activity going on. We have about four projects that are in the pipeline and we are anticipating being able to report to you folks in the next quarter on some of those projects. So, if you're interested, I can give you kind of a real brief rundown on those for your anticipation. So, we have Ainaloa,which is a self-help project for 10 units that we're anticipating for reporting in the next quarter. Villages of La`i`opua, there are 24 rent-to-own projects that we're anticipating will be completing in the next few months as well. Kaloko Heights has 90 units, you see that coming up very quickly on the hillside. Na Hale Makoa,they completed a public hearing on February 25th and are looking to break ground by this summer. So, we're looking at 140 units there. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Administrator Kunz. With that, I'll open it up to any questions or comments from my colleagues on the Council. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. So, the excess credits transfer from one organization to another? That wasn't this quarter? Page 33 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. KUNZ: So,you are looking at Exhibit 1? MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah, so Armstrong Companies looks like sold to Mailani Development, 5.5 credits. MS. KUNZ: Yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Did that happen this quarter? MS. KUNZ: Yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay so, that means a change? MS. KUNZ: Yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. So, it's good to see it working because I think that's the first, we've kind of seen that transfer here on the page, so, thank you. I'm glad to see that's operable and working, look forward to seeing going forward. The other just a quick question. The save spaces that we're continuing to look at, would those show up on some of these if and when they happen? Or are those something totally separate? MS. KUNZ: Some of those, if they are—so, where it's going to show up is in the reporting of our housing units that are— MS. KAGIWADA: Emergency shelters? MS. KUNZ: In Exhibit 2. Right, so under shelter, depending on if they are permanent units or shelter units, emergency units, they'll show up in one of those categories if we complete projects there. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, alright. MS. KUNZ: So, there was one change that we made to Exhibit 2. If you notice—I'm sorry, Exhibit 3. So, we removed the 18 units for Ka Lamaku from that number, from that total number there. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Alright, thank you. I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. Just wondering, now that we have this quarterly reporting going, if it would be possible to,just spitting out an idea here, to show what the change is. So like in the case of the transfer of credits it's easy to see Page 34 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 because you can see numbers in two columns that moved,but if there's, for example, a reduction in the number of units in Exhibit 2, if there could be some type of notation that could help us easily identify it. You know, we're usually used to seeing things in a certain format,but I'll just throw it out there, however you might see— MS. KUNZ: So, in Exhibit number 3, the total line items at the bottom of the chart,we use that same delta symbol,but maybe it's not noticeable enough. I would be willing to consider some other way of reporting the changes to you. MR. INABA: Okay. We'll talk offline just wanted to throw that out there. Thank you so much. MS. KUNZ: Okay. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member. Alright, with that, I'm going to go ahead and say thank you for bringing this report forward and for including the affordable housing credits for us to be able to keep an eye on because they are such high value and really impact what gets built versus what gets credited. With that, all those in favor of closing file on Communication 322.3? Vote on Comm. 322.3: The motion to close file on Comm. 322.3 was carried by (Filed) the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Chair Villegas— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Lee Loy— 1. Excused: None. CHR. VILLEGAS: With that, I'm going to Communication 758. Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objections from the Council Members, of Business: the following item was taken out of order. Comm. 758: REQUESTS A REPORT FROM HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC'S DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY AFFAIRS JENNIFER ZELKO- SCHLUETER REGARDING ITS ENERGY GENERATION SITUATION, UPCOMING RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS, AND WILDFIRE SAFETY STRATEGY From Council Member Heather L. Kimball, dated March 1, 2024. Page 35 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 Motion to Close File: Ms. Kimball moved to close file on Comm. 758. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. VILLEGAS: With that, I'll go ahead and hand this to you, Council Member Kimball, to go ahead and— MS. KIMBALL: I would like to invite HELCo's (Hawaiian Electric Light Company) Jennifer Zelko to come up on behalf of Hawaiian Electric, and then Kevin Waltjen also from Hawaiian Electric. Per HELCo's request, they wanted to come and kind of give us a little bit of an explanation about some of the generation issues that have gone on recently and some of the things they're working on moving forward. So, timely with regard to what's been happening recently and appreciate our patience today. So, thank you and I'll just turn it right over. (Note: At this time, Hawaiian Electric Light Company's Director of Government and Community Affairs Jennifer Zelko-Schlueter and Director of Hawai`i Island Kevin Waljen came forward and provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the subject presentation, see the DVD copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is made part of the record, see Comm. 758.1) MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Aloha, I'm Jennifer Zelko, the Director of Government and Community Affairs for Hawaiian Light Electric and with me today is Kevin Waltjen, our Director of Hawai`i Island. Thank you very much, Chair Kimball, for allowing us to come before this body. This is something that we appreciate being able to do. You folks represent the entire island and we appreciate the opportunity to provide the update and also to answer your questions. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you very much,both of you. Again, I think it's really important to have that overview both for ourselves as well as for community. I appreciate you guys coming in and apologizing for things that,you know, didn't go the way we would all hope, and I appreciate the future vision. So, I'll open it up for my colleagues for any questions they may have. I did want to just—the RFP, I guess from 2023 for the Hamakua firm energy, which project is that? I'm not familiar. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: So, that's the Hamakua Energy partners, which is a current, independent power producer. So, our RFP's are not only open for new projects but they're also open for projects that are already online that would like an extension of their contract. CHR. KIMBALL: So, that's the one up in Honoka`a? Great. Okay. Page 36 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Yes. CHR. KIMBALL: Yeah, thank you. Alright, I yield, Chair. CHR. VILLEGAS: Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Good afternoon. A couple of questions. On your independent power purchasers, have you ever discussed with them or saw what they do to mitigate a wildfire or what's that interface between you and them? Because they obviously, if something happens and they go down, that affects you right away. MR. WALTJEN: So, every contract has contract terms and contract language for their performance. So, if we look at something like Hamakua Energy Partners that was just mentioned, in their contract there's terms that says they have to be reliable, otherwise there's consequences, right, so,performance. So, every contract has terms like that. We have a contract group within our company that actually deals with each of these contracts and each term. So, I can't speak to all the details because every contract is different, but they do have contract terms that hold them accountable now. MS. EVANS: Well, you have been in business here for so many years, I'm thinking you have to have relationships established with the PUC (Public Utilities Commission) and all the communities, and now we have these outside groups coming in and building solar panels and other renewables and they're new. So, your local knowledge based on them coming, I think that is important, you know, to have those conversations. MR. WALTJEN: Right. So, we do and like I said there is contract terms for everything. As far as the wildfire, I don't know of a contract term inside that says it's wildfire,but there are terms for reliability,how they perform. MS. EVANS: Hazard mitigation? MR. WALTJEN: Mitigation itself And the other part that I would say is, because I'm thinking you're thinking about the one in Waikoloa,right? So, there are terms that they have to make sure they live up to where their fire and they work through the County agencies on that. So, I do know when they're coming up, there are some stuff on that. I don't know the details though. MS. EVANS: Okay. Page 37 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Thanks,just to add to that. They were required by the County of Hawai`i Fire Department to put together a fire mitigation plan as part of their project approval. MS. EVANS: Okay, good. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Permitting. MS. EVANS: Good. What is your program for replacing wooden poles? MR. WALTJEN: So, what we do is, and I'll take this from a process and policy- type situation. Right now, what we do is we inspect our poles. We have a 10-year inspection program that we hire an outside consultant to come through and inspect each pole. We have roughly about 68,000 poles on island, so the 10-year program is roughly about 7,000 poles per year, and we run this inspection and they come out and they inspect the poles. Now,when they come in and inspect the poles, what they're doing is they're inspecting the pole for the integrity of the pole from ground line, in some cases, to six feet up on the pole, because that's where they can reach and check. So, they're looking for termites, they're looking wood rot, they're looking for that type of cracks in the pole. Then when they do that, they give us a condition of pole, whether it's reject or it's priority reject, or if it's good, right? The second part, and I said ground line, right,but there's certain types of treatment on poles that we require them to actually go down 18 inches on the pole,below ground. These are what they call gas-treated poles. So gas-treated poles are those that when the pole was treated, they pressured it and they put the treatment into the poles through pressure. So,no oil,right? This was back in the 70s, the early 80s, this happened. Those type of poles, we required this outside consultant take down 18 inches and check the pole because that type of treatment actually gets fungus on the pole and decays the pole below ground. So, two types of treatments, every 10 years they'll come back and look at the pole. If it's determined it's a reject, we schedule that through replacements within our system and we go out and we replace those poles. I hope I answered your question just in a roundabout way but that's the process. MS. EVANS: I think because what happened in Lahaina, you know, the wildfires and mitigation, they're talking about inspection of poles and they're talking about the vegetation that is underneath the poles. I'm assuming you have some vegetation management plan but my last question, thank you, colleagues. So, it says that you're going to try to increase your reporting and alerts out to the community. How is that going to work with Civil Defense, Police Department in those discussions? Are you going to get out the little—because I know if you sign up you'll get the blurp. Are you going to be—see, the community is telling me, Page 38 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 "When I signed up for it, I didn't realize that I was going to get so many notifications. It's like, oh my gosh, my phone is always. . . ." So, I'm just wondering if they add you to this, it's like whoa, how is that going to really impact people. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Yeah, I would hate to impact Civil Defense where people are getting upset about notifications. We hope this is just an interim situation as we get some of these other renewable energy projects online. We call this really the growing pains of getting off fossil fuel, getting new projects on, that we won't need to use it very much. Talmadge was awesome because he said yes right away. I think they've received calls too when our trunk line of our customer care center wasn't taking calls or was busy. It was Civil Defense that was getting those calls. So, I think part of this is to mitigate also the calls the County is getting because they were being impacted as well. MS. EVANS: Okay, thank you. Thank you, I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Good to see you guys. Really interesting discussion regarding different this morning, PUC, ASU, and the PUC or ASU collaborating with us to work with the County as an intervener for PUC dockets, which is interesting. But given your presentation, I have four questions. Renewable energy, you mentioned peak renewable being 92 percent of the energy. Is that percentage of renewable versus the demand at that moment to be our peak renewable energy? MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: I believe that calculation is based on the renewable energy being generated. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But against the total demand of the grid at that moment, or just total grid demand in general? MR. WALTJEN: So, when she mentions the 92 percent, she's saying that at that given time,because remember everything's a balance, right, load and generation. So, at that given moment, our load and our generation is 92 percent. Of that load being served is from 92 percent of the renewable—and the reason why she quotes that number is because that's with PV on the system at the same time and our spinning reserve that we get our units running in the background is trying to maintain so that if you lose something, this thing can come back up and manage that. Page 39 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Got you. So, that was like the best moment in time for renewables versus demand, yeah? Okay,beautiful. I like that. The other part which you folks do is you're balancing constantly, renewable energy and other sources of power and maintaining the grid at the premium output so that we all don't get fuzzy power, and I think that's really important for everyone to understand. You can't just turn off when renewables are on, you're always on, basically, and waiting to fulfill a drop in renewable if there is one, or just balance us. MR. WALTJEN: Correct. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, that's important. The new projects that you're going out for bid for RFP's and those kinds of things, are you requiring firm power? MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: No, in fact, it's one of the things that are on, but we also are looking for a variable and just energy storage stand alone. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Then I was reviewing some of the most recent PUC dockets. The one that caught my attention was that wildfire safety protocols, implementation of safety requirements; $190 million and then it was, I think, $95 million for rate payers to pay, leading to about a 50 percent increase in bills. Is that a one-time shot, or is that over a certain amount of time? MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: It would be over a certain amount of time, and I haven't heard the 50 percent— MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Fifty cents. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Oh, fifty cents. I was going to say— MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think 50 percent of the cost of their required upgrades were from the$190 million grant would be covered by the rate payers, which is about$95 million. This is just a brief review of what I saw. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Correct. The other$95 million, it'd be coming from the federal government. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. So that fifty cents per bill expected to cover our$95 million portion as the rate payers, is that a one-time, or is that going to be 30 years? MR. WALTJEN: So, you've got to remember, the way the money works, right, it's over a long period of time. So, I kind of liken this to when you take out a loan on your home, you pay it over 30 years,right? So, it works the same way is that Page 40 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 when you start to fund these types of projects, because it is when you compare, like taking out a mortgage for your home, this is over that period of time. So, that $90 million we're matching,because it's matching funds, right, we have to match the funds of the federal government in order to get that money. That's the way it works, and it's not like we get$90 million Hawai`i alone, it's spread amongst our districts, right, across the three counties, Honolulu, Hawai`i, Maui, it's spread that way. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. Then just thinking about this goal of 100 percent renewable by 2045 or 2050, we know where we stand now,but do we have an idea of like projected needs by the time we're hitting 2045 so that we know how much renewable energy we actually get to? Does that make sense? MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: So, there is planning that the company has to do when the talk about what the load will be in five, 10, 15, 20 years. On our website, if you go in—and what makes it really complicated is you would put in, let's say there's 30 percent more adoption of EVs (Electrical Vehicle)but there's also 30 percent adoption of DER(Designated Employer Representative)programs or people using other types of programs and it kind of gives you like differences about where you're going to be in five, 10 years. I think it's very hard to say in 2045. If you just look at the last five, 10 years, I don't think our peak demand has changed much. MR. WALTJEN: Yeah, so this is the thing, right? 2045 is where we're all shooting for to get to 100 percent renewable. But in between, I'm going to use the term you said fuzzy, right, it's kind of gray, the in-between in gray. So, there's going to be some bridging that we've got to do in order to get to 2045,but just know this, that we are very committed to getting to 100 percent renewable by 2045. We all are, right? Everybody in the state is trying to get there. So, a lot of the RFPs that are coming out that you see are part of our plan, right? If you look at our PSIP, our Power Supply Improvement Plan, a lot of that kind of talks to what things we've got to do in order to get to the renewables that we want to get to. So, commitment from the company is this. We're committed to getting to 100 percent renewable; getting there by 2045, there's some gray in between there as we start to look at what RFPs come in, how that plays out, and what the load looks like as we get there. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Because without knowing where you're going to be, it's hard to get there, that's why I'm asking. We have to do the same thing in Council. Where are we going to be in 20 years? Okay, that's where we need to grow to that level. So, that was coming into my brain and tingling today as I was thinking about what you're saying. Page 41 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 The 50 percent renewable, that is where we stand now with the current projects that are future-minded? MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Actually, the 52.1 percent was the average as of last year. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Average as of last year? So, that does not include the newer projects— MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: That does not include the Hale Kuawehi Solar project that is scheduled to come online this October, any of those other projects that was shown on that status board. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Then, this is a stupid question,but I'm going to ask it anyway. There was a battery next to some of these but there's no battery on the little chart underneath the 52 percent. I'm guessing that means it has a firm power built in or battery banks built in,but I'm not sure. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Where do you not see the battery? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: On the Hawaii Island breakdown with all the different power plants. There's a battery symbol next to some of your solar projects, Hamakua Firm, but there's no battery on the little key chart on the bottom. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: I think we missed that, thank you for pointing that out. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But it could be different for each one, so I'm thinking battery banks. I don't know what Hamakua Firm Renewable is but I'm just wondering what that battery component is or if that just means storage. MR. WALTJEN: It's just storage. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: There's different methods of storage. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: One other note on here so it doesn't confuse anyone, and I should have mentioned when I went through the map, when you see Hamakua Energy and Hamakua Firm Renewable Energy,those are the same plant. The one with the battery is the new project that was awarded in December based on this same plant but adding in the battery. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Page 42 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: I hope that makes sense. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That makes sense, and I figured it was a battery. So, we'll call it storage, though because there's some interesting storage techniques available in the world. Okay, wonderful, thank you, good to see you. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Jen, Kevin, for being here, always good to see you guys. You know, listening to your presentation and thinking about the tour that you gave Council Member Kimball and I, the two words that came to mind, stability and agility. So, looking for really like grid stagility, when you think about it,right? We want there to be a stable source of power that's being generated because I like to turn on my lights when I go home, and on a hot day, crank on the a/c or turn on the fan. It's so nice to be able to have that luxury. But I also recognize the complexity that your team is dealing with in receiving all of the consumer generation,power generation, and then everything that's coming in from the various IPPs (Independent Power Producer) and the intermittency of the resources. Not always windy; not always sunny, right, and so I'm looking for that sort of base load power to ensure that 24/7 power generation so that we can enjoy turning on the lights and watching Netflix, right Jen? So, I bring this up because I don't know if the general public knows or can fully appreciate everything you guys do on the back end. It's really a science to balance energy coming and meeting the low demand. So, as you continue to do more outreach in community, I think that would be a really powerful educational piece, a day in the life of the folks that are monitoring those computer systems and coordinating with all of the IPPs that are out in the field. I think that would be very powerful so people, I think, can appreciate everything that you're doing to make sure that we don't have to do these blackouts. Is that something you guys could work on? MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Yes, absolutely. In fact, we should say that the folks that our running systems operations are nothing short of miracle workers, they handle pressure very well and they do a really good job of balancing exactly what you mentioned. But I think this education piece—and part of this is we're trying to get out to different community groups. Tonight,we're at, well part of the team is in Volcano at a Volcano Community Association trying to get the word out about this balancing of load and generation, and also making sure that we've got contacts for different community groups. But I think we could do more, and we are planning on doing that. Page 43 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And we're a few months away from hurricane season, which I feel it's kind of year around now. But I think about a year ago I reached out to you, Jen, and then we mobilized some of our state legislators, Public Works, DOT, Hawaiian Tel, to talk about Albizia management. You guys were so generous to update the study, so first, I just want to thank you for helping our County come up with that really critical document that identifies,here is what everybody is doing, County, private sector, to get ahead of Albizia and invasive species mitigation so that we are not having to live through Tropical Storm Iselle 2.0. Do we have a status update on that? I really want to make sure that we're able to bring it forward to Council so that we know exactly what our partners in the County have done to achieve the management plan,but also work going forward and how we might support it. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Thanks. Actually, SSFM updated that study in partnership with Big Island Invasive Species Council. We're talking to folks at the County, I think including Civil Defense, Public Works, Hawaiian Electric, and other partners. We will get you folks a copy of that report. I think they were waiting on a few pictures because part of what they wanted to show is this is what it looked like before we did this plan, this is what it looks like now,but this is the work we have to do. We have been testifying before the legislature. There is an invasive species bill that has been going through that would talk about matching fund to the utility. So, we would put up half the funding,the state would put up half the funding,that money would go a lot further in collaboration. But thank you,because you were a big part of that, and we will make sure that the Council gets—all of you get a copy of that study. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That's wonderful. I just want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to mitigate risks because when the disaster strikes, we can see how expensive and detrimental the aftermath is. So,just want to get ahead of that. Thank you,both, for being here, appreciate all the work that you do. Chair, I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. Yeah, thank you for being here. Great to hear more about the renewable energy progress. I just had a couple of questions. One of them was this Hamakua Firm Renewable Energy, so, I just want to understand. Is it the same turbines but just using putting renewable fuels into that, or is going to be different turbines at the Honoka`a site? Page 44 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: My understanding is they are going to be changing the fuel. I believe they're using the same equipment. There may be upgrades and I apologize if I'm not aware of those, and then of course adding this battery or energy storage to it. MR. WALTJEN: Yeah, I don't have any additional information on that because I haven't seen the information for it but if they add the battery then it does exactly what Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder had talked about, which is we should have actually included that information a little bit more detailed on our slides. Sorry about that. But the battery storage could be any type of storage,right? It could be a battery, it could be pump hydro, it could be anything that at least gives you the ability to store the energy in times where that facility is no longer capable of providing energy. So those things are very important, and Janet talked about this earlier about our Waikoloa solar that's the new plant that came in April. We depend on them heavily during the peak for their battery. So, though they're solar during the day, their battery stores during the day and then they actually provide power from five to nine that we depend on because of times when the other IPPs aren't there. So, any type of storage actually helps bridge that question that Council Member Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder had talked about with not having that generation during that time period. So, thank you. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: And then just to note because Kevin brought up the battery for AES Waikoloa, one of the things that's different with that battery, it is only charged by their facility. Part of the plan going forward with this next stage of RFPs is that these batteries would also be charged by the grid so that when we have had days where there's been quite a bit of cloud cover, and the battery is not able to charge to its full potential because it's depending on those solar panels, it would actually be able to be charged by the grid. MR. WALTJEN: Yeah, and Jen kind of talked about that earlier with the grid, when you look at our island because it's so big, if East Hawai`i has sun but West Hawai`i does not,you could actually use solar to charge those batteries with the new programs,right, so with the new RFPs. So, that's very important when we live on this island because there are times where—and we can see it even on our grid when you guys came and looked at the solar panels what's lighted on which side. Sometimes it's half the island has light, and the other half does not because it's cloudy. So, very good points. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks. I actually looked at their website and they said that they were going to be using renewable fuels in there turbines, so I was just Page 45 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 wondering where they were going to get their renewable fuels from. So, I was just trying to pick at that,but yeah, that's not necessarily a business you just have to buy the fuel,but it should be renewable fuel by 2030. My other question was around most of the renewable projects coming up are solar. And so, I just wondered what sort of insight you folks might have on sort of the geopolitics of solar panel production, yeah, being in the business? MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: I love that question because we get it all the time. All of our RFP's have been, except for one that I know of, where we had gone out for geothermal several years ago, have been technology agnostic, so we do not say we're looking for wind or we're looking for solar. I think there's a couple of reasons why you're seeing mostly solar projects and I think one is cost, and I think that fuel, the technology's been changing and, in some ways,bringing down the cost. I think geothermal is great and it's a firm energy which is always available day or night. I think it's expensive to develop geothermal. I think that's where some of developers are not in that business. And then I think wind has its own issues as well. They're from communities and so I think that's probably why you're seeing a lot of solar projects. And one other comment, in this next stage of our piece, actually in all of the stages, we have not specified a location on the island. And it came up recently,how come all of these projects are going in Waikoloa and in that area? I think it's very sunny there so that makes sense, and there's a lot of land. But in this next stage of our piece, we also are not specifying where our projects have to be located. There is a strong preference though for projects that will be located in East Hawai`i and in the south, and again that is to make sure that we have balance generation across the island. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks. I guess I was sort of asking about solar panel production. Has it gotten better? Because I know it was, I think it was, really slow and I mean we are having some tensions with China, which I think is where more of the solar panels are made. Do you folks know about that as far as like development of solar panel production? MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Yup. I think when we talked previously, there was a supply chain issue and I think solar panels had to be returned because there was a component in them that had come from China. I don't know that that's so much an issue now,but maybe it is and I'm just not aware of it. MR. WALTJEN: So, in the last two RFP's that we've seen, so Jen mentioned the one with the China component because anything that was not made in America or made in China kind of got shut down. The second part that we do know that had a little delay was with the battery side of it,right, because the batteries were delayed so even with our Hale Kuawehi that's coming up in Parker Ranch area on that upper side, that one there, their delay was on the battery coming from the Page 46 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 battery manufacturer couldn't them for two years. So that actually caused them a delay more than the panels. The Waikoloa solar, there was a delay in the panels because they couldn't utilize the panels that they had previously going to use because of the America, not made in China piece. So, as far as that goes, I haven't heard any other of the RFP's having that issue so far. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks a lot. And thanks for this update again. I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Alright, with that I also want to thank you guys for being here and walking us all through this. I'm proud of our island for being as far ahead as we are. We have the benefit of being such a big island, which under a lot of other infrastructure requirements actually comes a burden and this is actually an asset. I'm grateful to my counterpart Chair Kimball for asking the question about the biofuel plant in Hamakua, and what that represented. Helps to clarify some things for myself. Yeah, you know, we had the power out the other night at home, and it was so interesting the personal, how habituated we are and reliant we are on electricity. Walking into a room, how many times did I flip the switch even though I knew there is no power. So, you know, but having the opportunity to turn on candles, light candles, and you know, okay. My daughter was making teriyaki chicken. Okay, where's the barbeque, we can put the pot, you know. These regenerative resilient capacities that we have, I think that, you know,being born and raised here in coffee shacks without houses and no power sometimes and, you know, water from the water tank that was not warm to take a shower. Those things create resilience, and they also allow us to feel more gratitude and we live at time when entitlement is rampant and people's rights and privileges are just expected to be met all the time instead of what's our role, what's our responsibility. I appreciate, Jen, every time you reach out to me about, you know,potential for rolling blackouts and I don't know, call me goofy,but I just feel like sometimes it's important for us as humans to remember the fragility of this system we've created and our reliance on it, and those that keep it working, and that it makes us stronger,being able to find other ways to meet our needs and one another's, and how much we can live without. And just the thought would influence us to be more grateful as we move forward, instead of more demanding. Wouldn't that be nice. So, thanks for coming today and your patience. And with that, we'll let you boogie. But go ahead, Jen. MS. ZELKO-SCHLUETER: Just again, a big mahalo to all of you for also just getting the word out to your communities. It's been very helpful. And we've seen the conservation work. We actually see, we can see when the load drops, so really appreciate everybody. CHR. VILLEGAS: Yup. Alright. Thank you so much. Page 47 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MR. WALTJEN: Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thanks for being here. You guys have a wonderful day. And with that, all those in favor of closing file on Communication 758,please say "aye." Vote on Comm. 758: The motion to close file on Comm. 758 was carried by the (Filed) following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, and Chair Villegas—6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Evans, Kierkiewicz, and Lee Loy—3. Excused: None. CHR. VILLEGAS: And that brings us to our final communication of the day. I will start singing, you watch. Okay, Mr. Clerk. Comm. 746: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY THE DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT REGARDING THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT STATE AND LOCAL FISCAL RECOVERY FUNDS PLAN From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated February 14, 2024. Motion to Close File: Mr. Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder moved to close file on Comm. 746. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. VILLEGAS: Take it away, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. You're special. CHR. VILLEGAS: I am special. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for being here today. I know it's late. I know we have $60,233,613 in funding that the County of Hawai`i received from the federal government in the form of the American Rescue Plan(Act), otherwise known as ARPA funding. There's a lot of concern about the amount of money we had,where we stand on spending, and mainly due to it needing to be encumbered by the end of this year. So, there's a few programs I was very interested in,but I also wanted to make sure we get the whole idea as a group, so we understand where we're headed. I'll let you take it away from here, and then I'll circle back to some of the main questions that I have as of this point right now. Page 48 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 (Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Douglass Adams came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. ADAMS: Thank you very much, Chair and Council Member. I will not be the primary testifier, that would be your Director of Finance,but since this was a request of me, I'll do a brief song and dance here at the very beginning. State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) are a part of a very large American Rescue Plan Act funding$350 billion for the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. We were fortunate enough to get the $60 million or so and change that came to the County. The funding was especially started for response requirements, and I think as, what we talked about,that's how we initially were looking at it. But there was also this economic recovery element that was also a piece of that and then we began to look at what that meant in terms of our needs. We especially focused on the purpose here where they talked about a strong resilient and equitable recovery and also the long-term growth and opportunity. So, we've already talked earlier about, hey this funding was going to be used, we wanted to make sure it was done in a sustainable way. We're aware of the timelines associated with that, you'll see that further into the presentation. The key here for us and mantra for the determination of where this is used is eligible populations eligible use. So, the identification of the populations that the funding can be used for, we've talked about there being guardrails with this funding in the past, indeed that's the case. The population piece is not as much an issue. We are who we are as a population,but the use is there,right. Infrastructure is not a big piece of this typically,but there are economic recovery elements that are eligible use. You can see the kinds of the enumerated uses we had state conservative largely in the determination of the uses that we're looking at, this funding for being within that enumerated use categories. If they've got it listed,by default they're good to go with the federal government, and so that's where we tried to stay. The other piece here that our Finance Director's going to talk about is the procurement piece she's already eluded to. In previous conversation, that's a key piece for us as we take a look at also how are we going to spend this money. And so the encumbrances, not just for me but for other departments, that's a key piece as well and we have to follow procurement rules, but not just state and local, everyone's, and that's the difference. With that, I will be available to take your questions. I'm sure I'll be up here later on, and I turn it over to—I guess I'm staying. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. NAKAGAWA: Good afternoon, Council Members. Thank you again for having us. We're happy to be here today to provide you an update on our ARPA Page 49 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 funds. Also, that is our State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. Not as easy to roll off the tongue, so usually we just say ARPA. If you would allow me just to a brief background ARPA funds, state and local recovery funds. These funds provide state local travel governments with resources needed to respond to the pandemic and its economic effects. SLFRF final role allows for these funds to be used to respond to public health emergency or negative economic impacts including assistance to households, small businesses, nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality, critical infrastructure improvements in specific areas such as broadband, water, and wastewater were also allowable expenses. And I wanted to reiterate that to provide some insight into our County program and the different projects you see and where they came from and how they have been thoughtfully crafted into a program that really covers the critical needs in our community. That's a very broad overview. The final rule is a lot. So, what this team has looked at is this book and more of intramurals and final rules to look at these projects to make sure that these were eligible projects under these funds. The County, as we talked about previously, received$60,233,613. We have spent just about$6 million. As Director Adams alluded to earlier, initial funds were utilized for County responses for COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease) testing, PPE (Personal Protection Equipment), overtime for public safety and Civil Defense staffing, community cleansing efforts, and community food assistance. Initial funds were also spent on some of the projects we'll talk about today. So, some of the completed projects in our broadband infrastructure improvements and a couple of our housing projects that we're going to cover as well, and also some was for early childhood coordination, which we talked about earlier. So, the summary and overview are the list of projects under our program and you're hearing the priorities and eligible uses. We believe this list provides a well-rounded approach to address critical needs. Our department's heads are here today. They are all here with us. We have Director(Robert) Ewbank also, in the Hilo Chambers to talk about broadband infrastructure as well to answer any questions. But instead of reading the document provided, we're happy to answer any questions or get straight to some of the questions on the project related, questions you have on each of these items. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. I think the first question I just want to address, some of these are already in process, some of these have been RFP'd already, some of these are in progress. Just for this body, looking over these projects, some are moving, some are going to move, yeah, correct? MS.NAKAGAWA: That is correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I'm going to get to the one that was really a project of mine, which is why we're here. Doug, somewhere in your Page 50 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 department you have some beautiful people working on a native Hawaiian women business grant, which I think is going to fall into your small business technical assistance block? MR. ADAMS: That's correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, I have just a little back story. I went to Aotearoa, and I went to a Te Matatini Festival. Amazing festival, cultural like our Merrie Monarch. Beautiful. As part of that I was able to meet with different people and was able to comprehend that they have a Maori women's development initiative,basically, where they provide funding through grants to Maori women business owners. And they can prove beyond a doubt that when they do that those grants turn into community building within each respective community where those grants are being applied. And I thought that was one of the most beautiful things that I've seen is,business grants, which I love, specifically, to one underserved ethnicity, and we have the same issue here, and data driven to lead directly back to increase community benefit and job building economic opportunity. That was a beautiful combination. And so, I talked to your team,project disappeared and it kind of just percolated a little bit, and then boom,it came back about six months later. And somewhere in here I know you've set aside funding, and that really was what I wanted to get down to today. But seeing this, you know,raises some other questions and each of us has our own areas we want to address. So, if you could,help me understand where it's going to sit,how much we're going to apply to that program? Because it's falling into a$20 million butted category. So, if you'd give me some good details on that,because this is actually a beautiful thing for our community in a grant funding form. MR. ADAMS: Thank you, Council Member. So, we've allotted $1.8 million for that particular program. It is going to be part of the RFP's that are coming out her in early April. The part that I should talk about has to do with ethnicity piece. Because this is federal funding, we are being cautious in terms of exactly how we can ensure that we don't run a foul of some of the rules having to deal with who the funding can be used by. And so, the program that you're aware of that our team has put together, that is the crux of the program with slight modifications to ensure that we don't have problems frankly with the federal government if we're using it in the wrong way. And so, my understanding is these aren't planned to be grant programs. I'm a little uncomfortable talking a little bit more than that just because we're going to be under solicitation. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. I want to touch that briefly. So, the ones that are going out to RFP, you guys gotta stop us if we get into an area, we shouldn't be discussing details because we can't. So,please let us know we're on that boundary, yeah? Page 51 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah. Will do. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So, $1.8 million towards that program or the small business technical assistance breakout. And then within this $20 million category we have food, ag,mental health, small business, technical assistance, childhood education, community stewardship. So, from what we've discussed, $10 million towards Early Childhood education, right? Roughly, $2 million for small business technical, and then food, ag,mental health, community stewardship, what's our number ranges for those? MR. ADAMS: So, for the food agriculture, which consists of six different individual programs, we're looking at close to $6 million. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. ADAMS: For mental health, we'll be close to $2 million. And in the community stewardship program, which is associated with tourism, would be a little less than a million. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Less than what? MR. ADAMS: Less than a million. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Less than a million. Okay. And then,just overall looking at this document, is there room to move on things or are you guys—it does state, and I like this, this kind of disclaimer at the top, the following program of status updates are as of March 15, 2024. Procurement outcomes may change the final amounts or cause adjustments in the schedules. MR. ADAMS: I think it's important, and I think this eludes to some of the comments that one of your colleagues made previously as well, and others of you as well, we need to make sure we spend, what was it? $60 million— MS.NAKAGAWA: $60,233,613. MR. ADAMS: We have to have that encumbered by December 31, 2024. If we run into problems with any of these then we need to make sure that we have the ability to be flexible, to shift,pivot. So,yeah, it's possible that some of these could change. It's also possible that we could find some money that actually goes to a program, I don't know, that one of your colleagues was pretty vociferous about earlier on. So, there isn't anything that is off the table right now. But these are on the table, and this is what we're going towards. This is the funding that our team knows because they have to build their budgets as part of their RFP's around these. Page 52 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Okay, so with that said, I think that's a good background. With the discussion we had earlier regarding early childhood resources, it's about 16 percent, which is a healthy portion of this $60 million being applied to one area. I'll actually say, that's probably enough in my eyes. And we have a number of areas, even ones that aren't on here that we could focus on that would fit any of these categories, you know, from assistance to nonprofits to public health emergency and negative economic impacts. I mean, I know there's criteria that you are adhering to so I'm being cognitive of that. We need to take a break? CHR. VILLEGAS: Yeah,we just need to take a recess to change the tape. AKA, you're wearing out the tape. Recess. Recess: At 5:24 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 5:25 p.m. CHR. VILLEGAS: Bam. And we're back,pulling this meeting out of recess with caution for our tape capacity. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, the floor is yours. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. We have lots of time now. Okay. I think that's a good start for me, and I'll come bug you about different things. But I did want to touch on one other thing I looked over. MR. ADAMS: I'm sorry. If I may? Just briefly. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, go ahead. MR. ADAMS: Very briefly. We don't cover everything. There's a whole bunch of things. These are in some type of priority based on, to some degree, what's allowed to us in the final rules, right. But then also, and more importantly, what we see as the County's priorities, which comes not just from the administration but also comes from the Council,right. So, the identification, not to beat this horse till it's no longer breathing,but childcare and early learning was something that the administration saw as a big deal. But we also brought it early on and got a very good and warm understanding that the Council was supportive of that too, right. So,just the identification of these things, it looks like it's spread across a lot of things and perhaps it is, but that does stem from really those two kind of areas, at least in the things that I had on economic recovery elements were, you know,provided. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for that. Just looking across this list. I mean, we have Pahala Wastewater Collection upgrades, we have Laulamilo Water Tank, construction of a$10 million reservoir, we have childcare. I mean, we have a number of different drivers on this that are across the board. What was Page 53 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 the, I mean, what was the plan? I mean we had a few years now,but I mean, what was the real driver for each one of these? Economic? Major projects? EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)rulings? I mean what was it? We're just responding to whatever we think should do, or what was the vision? MR. ADAMS: County priorities, right, so you see housing so, clearly, a priority. The wastewater, initially, we weren't sure that we could come up with a project for wastewater. Turns out, maybe we can. Well, that's a big and if we can solve that one then that's a big gap. Water, of course, is always an issue. Wastewater and water and broadband were the three primary infrastructural items that were included in this funding. So, where we could find projects that made sense for that, then we were going to do that. Then the economic recovery, we looked at those areas that we thought we could do something sustainable in. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. So, the administrative vision? MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah, I think Director Adams hit it right on and it's that looking at the eligible uses of ARPA funding, what we could do, taking our County priorities, and marrying them to together to get this program here. The big ones you see were reiterated, our wastewater, our housing, our economic recovery. There are other efforts in here that we felt was a priority but overall, it's looking at the uses with our priorities that we continue to talk about. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, I'm going to yield for now. I'll come back to that later. Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: You think you will. Anyone else on the Council? Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. Just looking at the dates, some of these are still at the bid process or the RFP coming up soon, and then others have been in the process like the IT infrastructure. Just wondering, Director, on a general basis, how come some of these have been like almost expended already and then others are just in the process of getting things out? MS.NAKAGAWA: So, there are at various stages, these different projects and some of these projects were established very early on in APRA programming, like the housing projects that you see. The two projects on the list were established early on. And even if they have a bid process, that doesn't mean it wasn't originally thought of and that's why we have some initial expenses, same with our broadband infrastructure. Some of our sites are complete but we're still working to complete them. And as the program evolved, I think some of them were added and some changes were made to fit the timeline. Page 54 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 One of the things that we're very focused on right now is the timing of everything, and I want to reiterate that, thank you, Council Member, for pointing out that statement in the beginning. This group here, our entire interdepartmental County team has been meeting and we will continue to meet on a continuing basis to get updates on this project. As another Council Member pointed out earlier, also with our other partners like in Public Works, to talk about these permits and ensure these County priorities will continue to progress. But the timing is just based on as projects came into fruition and as the program needed to adjust in what would be able to be done. And honestly, some of it was not going to make the procurement timeline and as I mentioned earlier, the procurement restrictions are a little different and much more stringent and we need to make sure those processes are followed. We're going to spend all this money. So, in order to do that we're need to make sure that we are very aware of the timelines that are in front of us. To that, we have also looked at other projects if these projects, for some reason, if there's a protest, if there's a delay if something doesn't happen, we have other projects in mind to bring forward if we need to, to ensure that the funding is encumbered by the end of the year. So, I hope that answers your question,but some of them has evolved over time and the choices that have been put forth today have evolved over the last couple of years. MR. INABA: Thank you. Yes, have a lot of confidence in your department to make sure that we get these funds out. If anything, I'm looking at the Wastewater Collection project,Number 6,being that the NTP (Notice to Proceed) is scheduled for later this year but with your assurance that we'll be able to get it out for that specific project or a back-up project,just wanted to make sure because we know our wastewater needs across the island are great. So,making sure we're able to take that up. MS.NAKAGAWA: The director is here as well, but I will reiterate that if we can spend these funds on a wastewater project, we would be thrilled. So, we're excited to have this on here. The director can share a little more information on the project, and I know the timeline is tight,but we are following it,but there are other projects in case this doesn't work out. And there could other wastewater projects as Director can mention as well. MR. INABA: Okay,just in the interest of time, we can go into any of these projects in depth,but I just need the assurances and you've already provided it, and we'll get it to this project or another one. So, thank you so much. Chair, I yield, I don't have any further questions or comments. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Mr. Inaba, for your concise wrap up there. Council Member Galimba. Page 55 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director Ramzi Mansour came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. GALIMBA: Thanks, and thanks, for coming up, Ramzi, I actually wanted to ask you about the `Ouli `Ekahi Wastewater plant improvements. So, do they have their own, separate wastewater treatment plant for the 33 cottages? MR. MANSOUR: That is correct. MS. GALIMBA: And is it just like your standard or is it kind of like these newer types of wastewater treatment plants that we've been discussing for as possible? MR. MANSOUR: Yeah, most of the waste treatment plant proposals goes through the Department of Health. It doesn't come through us for review since it's a private facility. MS. GALIMBA: Oh, it's a private facility, I see. But we'd be helping them to improve their—so is the wastewater treatment plant also private, or is that ours? MR. MANSOUR: Yeah, any other treatment plant that the County does not own, it goes straight through a review process with the Department of Health. MS. GALIMBA: Great. But will be helpful to be using some of this, it was like $7 million to help them with their improvements of that 33 cottages, their private wastewater treatment plant. Is that right? That's what I read but maybe that's not entirely set in stone. MR. MANSOUR: Yeah, that's probably up to the housing department. I think I'm only doing the Pahala collection; maybe that's better answered by Susan, our Director. (Note: At this time, Housing Administrator Susan Kunz came forward to address the members of the.Committee.) MS. KUNZ: Hi, Susan Kunz, Office of Housing. MS. GALIMBA: Sorry, I just assumed that all wastewater was in— MS. KUNZ: I'd like to assume that too. No, so the `Ouli `Ekahi project is one that is in your district. No sorry, Council Member Evans, excuse me. But this $7 million project includes the wastewater treatment plant upgrades and renovation, which we are currently working on. It's kind of two separate projects. So, we have that going on as well as the upgrades to the 33 units. So, we're doing full renovations on those. Page 56 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MS. GALIMBA: Okay. MS. KUNZ: But it is going to be specific to this project, it's not falling under DEM (Department of Environmental Management). We have a consultant that we have been working with and then the operator, which is Big Island Housing Foundation,will help us manage the facility. MS. GALIMBA: Ok, thank you very much for clarifying. I did have one more question and it's probably a Doug question. The $6 million for the food and agriculture, could you tell me, briefly, what your six projects might be? MR. ADAMS: So, by title, Community Food Security Assessment and Plan, a Redraw Agricultural and Food System Summit in County Plan Development, so something that comes out of those, the Certified Kitchens Infrastructure, and then a Certified Kitchen Technical Assistance, that would be associated with supporting that, a Soil Amendment Development Program and then a Local Food Producer Expansion Program. Those are the titles and that's probably as far as I can go in terms of the descriptions. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you very much. I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Okay, Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you,just quick. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think some of these programs like childcare and maybe some of the other ones under number one are things that we can do with the ARPA funding because the ARPA funding is very flexible. Many of these other projects we can do with regular County funding,bonds, that kind of stuff,but some of these, I think, are not necessarily projects that we always do or things like that. We have this flexible funding in the ability to really get into community where we haven't always had that ability. Is that kind of a take on some of those? MR. ADAMS: That's a fair comment. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I just wanted to point that out to my colleague who said, "That's enough." I mean these are some things that, while the amount overall,might for each of them not be super great. I think the issue that we have this flexible funding that we don't usually have access to is important for some of these projects. So,just want to keep that on the table. Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, thank you. Thank you both for being here. Director Adams, similar to the food/agriculture, what are the programs under the Mental Health Funding program? Page 57 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 MR. ADAMS: It's designed to support our youth and that's about as far as I can go. Sorry. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. I don't think we've got a number, you said $6 million, Director,has been spent out of this, approximately$60 million. How much is currently encumbered already? Do you have that figure? MS. NAKAGAWA: Sorry about that. The$6 million includes encumbrances. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. Alright, so there's nothing beyond that that is fully encumbered at this point? Can I ask,both of you mentioned that this list was developed based on a combination of reviewing the final rule and the Administration's priorities. Can you just flush out for me, at a high level, like what was the internal process for you folks? Did the departments come to you with a list of projects and—how did you pick the winners here because obviously, ARPA money can be used for housing. Housing has a bunch of projects. Why Kulaimano and not some other project I guess is what I'm trying to understand, through your process. MR. ADAMS: Before we talk to the Housing piece because that's a different conversation. The identification of the different sectors occurred over time. Initially, this was about response, right, and what we needed to do. Then we got fortunate. We didn't need to use quite as much as we anticipated that we were going to need to use because other funding became available. So, then it was a matter of taking a look at the economic recovery elements. We then recognized that although the Council was supporting, you know, with this fair amount of funding Housing as well, we did know that where we could funding, and it would be available. This is a priority that affects everything, and so, looking at Housing and its amounts became one of those top priorities for this funding,just like any other funding we could find would have done. So, the development beyond that into the wastewater, into the water opportunities, I think as I mentioned, we didn't think initially that we would be able to do anything with wastewater just because those projects are so expensive. Water, similarly, although there was some funding that was identified for them. The projects that you see in front of you are projects that we can get done and they can be—the idea that they can get done and get done now because they are more than trouble ready is something that doesn't happen all the time. So, this funding, being as focused as it is on those areas in infrastructure, became then another avenue for taking care of those things. But I'll turn over the Housing piece to the Housing Administrator. MS. NAKAGAWA: So, I think the question was more about our internal discussions and coordination and absolute ones. Some of these higher level priority areas were discussed and determined. Absolutely, the discussions went to Page 58 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 the departments about what projects were ready in terms of timing and in terms of their priority listing. So,most of the coordination and recommendations came from the departments themselves on which projects to put forward. A lot of it did have to do with eligibility, timing, and their priorities. MR. ADAMS: I have kind of given short shift to the broadband and I shouldn't do that because broadband's a success story here. We anticipated that we would need to spend quite a bit of money and the fact of the matter is that we didn't have to. With Information Technology's work with the State, DCCA (Depth intent of Commerce and Consumer Affairs) and then the vendors,primarily two vendors that we have available, and both have participated in supporting the work that we're doing, we knew that broadband was a key element for us getting it out, getting the fiber out where we could across the island because of what we saw happen during the pandemic. The identification of supporting remote sites and those remote sites supporting both our Civil Defense as well as communities that are associated with our Park and Rec facilities, as it turns out, that became a success story in a lot of ways due to just a few heroes, in particular in IT (Information Technology). I'll throw Riley Saito under bus because he, in addition to doing energy,he also was doing the broadband with members of our team. But really, IT took the lead and have been working really hard to get those things done. In fact, we've been able to do it, amazingly enough,under budget and under time. MS. KIMBALL: I'll definitely say mahalo to the IT folks and Riley and Parks and Rec. I was at Honoka`a Gym last week and had all the bars on the phone, it was awesome. I can text and email and do all sorts of great stuff. Just want to conclude by asking, you know, we've talked about these being unicorn funds. We always like to put you on that that we're unlikely that we'll have something similar again. However, I want to ask, given the process, are there lessons learned where you would position us differently in anticipation that we would have some other influx of funding where we could react even more quickly? I emailed you recently about pre-positioned contracts with respect to emergency response. Thinking along those lines, are there things that we could put in place in advance that wouldn't be too time-consuming but would represent sort of a trigger-ready position for funding coming in, whether it'd be related to a disaster or not? Are there any lessons learned here that you think might apply? MS. NAKAGAWA: Sure, there's always lessons to be learned and, in this case, certainly, there are some. I think that one of the things we're learning is that time passes very quickly and as we're looking at all of our different priorities and trying to make the best decision possible. Sometimes we need to do it a little quicker. So, timing was one of our lessons learned and certainly, in looking at engagement in some of our areas where we're reaching out to the community, I think we need to do that a little earlier as well, so definitely. Definitely hear your Page 59 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 thought about getting things ready, it's kind of those shovel-ready projects, same concept,right, and I think that's great for us to work on as well. MR. ADAMS: I think also, if I may, that we took a couple of swings here and I don't think the—I mean, we haven't struck out yet, to use that analogy and to string it along as long as I can. The other thing, interestingly enough, is that because we did have so much money coming from other places, identifying other funding sources,because this particular set of funding, we're not supposed to use if there's other funding available. So, identifying what that is also played into, you know, what are we going to do here too? Yes, definitely would like to move faster paralysis by analysis was a piece of this and I'll take full blame on that one. MS. KIMBALL: I was just kind of reflecting on our experience with the Build Back Better and, you know,putting all of that together not ultimately getting that funding but now that you have a step-by-step program in place, could we do that more broadly for the projects we have across the County so should that money drop from the sky, we're ready to— MR. ADAMS: We're actually using the Build Back Better, some of those plans and you're going to see it in here. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. Alright, thank you. I yield, Chair. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kimball. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kl einfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Okay, Water Department's been over here waiting patiently. I have one question for Laulamilo, I've got to ask it and you guys are here. I've got to make your time worthwhile; you know, you've been here like three hours. (Note: At this time, Water Supply Manager-Chief Engineer Keith Okamoto came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. OKIMOTO: Yes, sir. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm interested in the Laulamilo project because at one point, I think the County was working or negotiating some of the energy usage cost over there. Has all that been ironed out at this point? MR. OKAMOTO: Yes, so real quick, Keith Okamoto, Manager-Chief Engineer at Department of Water Supply. So,back some years ago, we initiated an RFP for a wind farm and basically, it's a power purchase agreement for us to buy the power and our,hopefully I'm answering your question,but this project will assist us with utilizing that renewable energy. As far as all the details on their side of Page 60 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 the production, you know, I'm not privy to a lot of that stuff, we just want to buy their power,basically. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, there was a—I just doing a little bit of research and I wanted to make sure we're all good. This is from 2018, it looks like we had counter claims going back and forth regarding the obligation to purchase renewable energy from the wind farm for the well site,has all that been? MR. OKAMOTO: No, we're still going through the actual mediation process for that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so we are negotiating on that PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) or the cost of purchase—if you've got to stop me, stop me. I don't know what I can and cannot say. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, I don't think I can go too far. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But Betsy didn't even stand up yet so you can keep going. MR. OKAMOTO: It's going through active litigation right now. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: My main question is if we're still in a negotiation, is this a project we want to move forward with? MR. OKAMOTO: Yes. So, the bottom line is this project will help us serve the needs regardless if we use renewable energy or not of that surface area and it could also provide additional storage for fire protection as well. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay,because we're constructing or proposing that we construct the 10-million-gallon water tank? MR. OKAMOTO: Yes, sir. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Or aquafer of some sort, yeah? MR. OKAMOTO: It is a concrete water storage tank which we typically utilize in our systems for water, portable water storage. This would be enough to accommodate a slightly less than two days' worth of consumption. So, although it seems big, it's really not that big as far as storage. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. OKAMOTO: And this will also help if you recall what the Hawaiian Electric folks talked about that potential for wildfire litigation adjusting their Page 61 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 processes. The impact on us for them going to that route is additional storage would help because if they shut down the power for an extended period of time, that means our wells won't be able to pump water into the tanks. So, I guess we had advanced intelligence back then but it's going to help us out through various different scenarios. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What is the service area for this water infrastructure? MR. OKAMOTO: Basically, Kawaihae industrial, Kawaihae Harbor through Mauna Lani and to Hapuna Beach areas. So,mostly the resort areas down there as well as Kawaihae industrial. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, that makes sense. Okay, thank you very much, appreciate you being here. MR. OKAMOTO: Thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Sorry. My last statement, Doug, don't think this personally, looking over all of these projects, if it was me, I would have done it differently. I think Ms. Kagiwada touched on it, open funding. A lot of different resources we can pull from, and we chose 10 projects or 10 different areas we wanted to focus this $60 million on. I don't know if I agree with all of them, I'll say that. That's more of just— MR. ADAMS: I appreciate that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Different thought patterns. MR. ADAMS: I take that on. I also would make this comment. As we move forward, even if we had dropped some of these contracts last year, our ability to get the things done with the potential amount of funding within a three-year period of time, is problematic. So, it's something in some cases, it's how much can we actually get done as well. So, we're having to take a look at that as well. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, and I might go play devil's advocate a little bit amongst different offices from this point on,just going to warn you now. But thank you very much for bringing this forward and having the presentation. This was like two months of back and forth scheduling, so appreciate your time and everyone else who's here, thank you for being here and waiting patiently. I yield, Chair. CHR. VILLEGAS: Phew. Okay, so I'll try to make it really quick. Just in summation from my understanding from all of this incredible information. You had to take that binder full of federal government's requirements for this Page 62 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 incredible amount of money and connect the dots to projects that we have for the County that there was any possibility of us being able to pull off and pull together in three years within the timeframes, right? And this is the list of those. I'm particularly grateful and what comes to mind, I think it was you, Doug, that said it, shovel ready. We were having these conversations a year ago and looking at ARPA funding and now looking at the IRA (Individual Retirement Account) funding that's coming. How do we get our projects shovel ready so that we are perfect alignment for the federal dollars to flow our way? Sure, I might have spent it a little differently, too,but when we go shopping, we all usually see something different we want to purchase based on sale and timeframe and ins and outs. So, shovel ready, thank you for that and thank you for identifying these. I look forward to, as they continue to come to fruition, what we can get done. We don't want to leave any money on the table. We also want to make sure that the childcare opportunity to provide for things that otherwise have not been funded, imagine that childcare,basic need,but that we make sure we utilize that appropriately. No surprise, I'm just going to point out here the two projects under number four that have to do with Housing and Community Development. There's a total of another$3 million here. I want to make sure this goes to new vendors and contractors. We have thrown millions of dollars at the wall, and I just see more people on the streets in District 7. The organizations we're working with are struggling in order to make headway and real solutions. So, I'm not sure what these exact projects are, we can follow up and have those fun conversations, Susan, after. But once again, I've been ferocious up here about that, throwing good money after bad for people who are already overextended and organizations that do not have the capacity to serve our community in the ways that we need. We need to find other organizations that do exist and have that capacity and can be successful. Three million dollars is a lot of money when added to the millions we have already spent. So, thank you for utilizing your fiscal responsibility,having shovels in hand, creativity, and thick skin to endure a day of us. MS. NAKAGAWA: Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: All those in favor of closing file on Communication 746? Page 63 CRCOC-24 March 19,2024 Vote on Comm. 746: The motion to close file on Comm. 746 was carried by the (Filed) following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, and Chair Villegas—6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Evans, Kierkiewicz, and Lee Loy—3. Excused: None. ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 5:58 p.m., Ms. Kagiwada moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, and Chair Villegas—6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Evans, Kierkiewicz, and Lee Loy—3. Excused: None. CHR. VILLEGAS: With that, we're pau for today. Approved: OSM- 10 14 M . ebecca Villegas, Chair (Date) Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight Committee RV/jm Page 64