Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2024-05-15 2022-2024 Hawaii County Council 38" Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupum Street Hilo, Hawaii May 15, 2024 INVOCATION Pastor Robert Frick of Puna Covenant Church gave the morning's invocation. CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at ORDER: 9:02 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair. ROLL CALL: Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Vice Chair Ms. Cindy Evans, Member Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member (came in later) Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member PLEDGE OF The Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of ALLEGIANCE: Allegiance. (At this time, County Clerk Jon Henricks led the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance.) PETITIONS, The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, MEMORIALS, Petitions, Memorials, Certificates of Merit, and Expressions of Condolence. CERTIFICATES OF MERIT, AND (Note: At this time: EXPRESSIONS OF 1) Ms. Lee Loy presented a Certificate of Merit to Stacy Fujitani of the Kea`au CONDOLENCE: Public and School Library, for her accomplishment in receiving the Hawaii State Public Library System's Excellence in Service award; 2) Ms. Lee Loy presented a Certificate of Merit to Rory Inouye of Waiakea High School for his accomplishment in receiving the Milken Educator award; 3) Ms. Lee Loy presented a Certificate of Merit to the Community Children's Council to celebrate its 20th Annual Malama Da Mind event; 4) Mr. Inaba presented Certificates of Merit honoring the Hawaii Police Department and Hawaii Fire Department to acknowledge the 2024 First Responder Appreciation Weeks; Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 5) Ms. Kierkiewicz presented a Certificate of Merit to Aunty Annie Ka`aukai, master lauhala weaver, in honor of her tireless dedication to preserve and perpetuate the Hawaiian culture and traditions; and 6) Ms. Kimball presented a Certificate of Merit to Community First Hawaii for its efforts in health awareness to Hawaii Island communities.) Recess: At 9:22 a.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 9:32 a.m. STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Tim Rowan: Res. 507-24 (Comm. 863), in support. (representing Black Sands Beach Property Owners Association and Malama O Puna) Carrie Kowalski: Res. 507-24 (Comm. 863), in support. (representing Black Sands Beach Property Owners Association) Eileen O'Hara: Res. 507-24 (Comm. 863), in support. (representing Malama O Puna) Nadine Ebert: Res. 504-24 (Comm. 860), in support. (representing `O Ka`u Kakou) Catherine Coatney: Res. 442-24 (Comm. 742), in opposition. (representing Bougainvillea Plaza) (See Comm. 742.2) Kevin Kushel: Res. 487-24 (Comm. 819), in support. (representing Mainstreet Pahoa Association) Amedeo Markoff: Res. 487-24 (Comm. 819), in support. (representing Pahoa Lava Zone Museum) Reyna Ramolete Hayashi: Res. 486-24 (Comm. 814), in support. (representing Trust for Public Land) Page 2 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Lehua Alapai: Res. 486-24 (Comm. 814), in support. APPROVAL The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Approval OF MINUTES: of Minutes. Chair Kimball announced that the Minutes of March 20, 2024, were approved. Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Council Members, the of Business: following items were taken out of order: GOEAC-126 NOMINATION OF DONNA KINUKO NOBORIKAWA TO THE LEEWARD (Comm. 824): PLANNING COMMISSION Requires Council Confirmation by: May 26, 2024 (Section 13-4(k), Hawaii County Charter) Vote on GOEAC-126: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Governmental Operations and (Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 126. Seconded by Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball —7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Inaba and Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—2. Excused: None. (Council Member Evans thanked Ms. Noborikawa for stepping up and volunteering.) GOEAC-127 NOMINATION OF ARMANDO RODRIGUEZ TO THE LEEWARD (Comm. 825): PLANNING COMMISSION Requires Council Confirmation by: May 26, 2024 (Section 13-4(k), Hawaii County Charter) Page 3 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on GOEAC-127: Ms. Galimba moved to adopt Governmental Operations (Adopted) and External Affairs Committee Report No. 127. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Kimball —6. Noes: Council Member Villegas — 1. Absent: Council Members Inaba and Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—2. Excused: None. Bill 148: AMENDS SECTION 25-8-33 (CITY OF HILO DISTRICT ZONE MAP), ARTICLE 8, CHAPTER 25 (ZONING) OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL— 10,000 SQUARE FEET (RS-10) TO INDUSTRIAL—COMMERCIAL MIXED —20,000 SQUARE FEET (MCX-20) AT HILO, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 2-2-036:076 (Applicant: Manono Corner, LLC) (Area: 21,023 square feet) The Windward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for this change of zone request, which would allow the applicant to demolish three existing structures and construct a single-story structure for retail and/or office uses, onsite parking, and access driveways. This property is located on the corner of East Lanikaula Street and Manono Street, Waiakea House Lots, South Hilo. Reference: Comm. 815 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R) Approve: LAAC-54 (Note: Comm. 815.1, from Council Member Holeka Goro Inaba dated May 10, 2024, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 148, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to pass Bill 148 on first reading and adopt Legislative Approvals and Acquisition Committee Report No. 54. Second by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: We have the applicant and their representative here. Let me just check, there is an amendment in our folders around this. Vice Chair Inaba stepped out. Mr. Fuke, are you aware of this amendment? (Note: At this time, Sidney Fuke, applicant's representative, came forward to address the members of the Council.) Page 4 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MR. FUKE: No, I'm not. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay. I apologize, I think we're going to have to Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 148 with the contents of Comm. 815.1. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: I'll give you a moment, Mr. Fuke, to review the amendment presented to you and we can then have a discussion. I don't know if anybody Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. You know, without the maker of the amendment here to explain, I'm just reading like an average person. And just my plain reading of it really creates another layer that no other applicant or individuals who receive this type of zoning change are subject to. It looks like it was done in exchange for Condition H, which was something that was worked out with the Planning Department. So, for me—here he is, I'll let him explain. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Vice Chair, Inaba, we made the motion to amend Bill 148 with your communication, so, I'd like to give you the opportunity to explain the intent. MR. INABA: Yeah, thank you very much. We did have a meeting—apologies for my absence and getting this introduced. But this was our attempt at, I think Mr. Fuke probably shared, at getting language in that was protected yet not restrictive of their use. So, this was language that I asked Mr. Fuke to come up with in light of our conversation at the last meeting, and ask for my colleagues' support of this amendment. Happy to take any questions. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Mr. Fuke. MR. FUKE: Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of this Council. I think just to provide some context to these proposed amendments, and I'll have some additional comments to make on that. I think there were some questions as far as the legality of Condition H, which provided some strict time constraints in the hours of operation that was specifically read that the uses within that zoned area would be limited between 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. So, I think that Corporation Counsel had some legal heartburn, relative to that particular condition. The genesis of that condition was really the fact that the neighbor was concerned about having bars, which could create different kinds of issues, noise, barking, so on and so forth. So, knowing that Condition H had some, you know, kind of like legal issues that we tried to kind of massage Condition G, which is what's before Page 5 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 you right now. Subsequent to that, I've had a discussion with the executive director of the Liquor Department, Mr. Gerald Takase, and he did mention that from his perspective, a couple of things. One is that whenever a person wants to establish a restaurant or a straight on bar that sells alcohol, a liquor license would have to be issued. In conjunction with that, neighbors would be required to, I mean notices to surrounding property owners would be given and the public can comment. He mentioned also that from his eyes, that if there are issues relating to noise or illegal parking, the Commission is in a position to impose appropriate conditions to specifically address that. He also made a very, very, good point. He said that if there's any infractions to conditions that their liquor inspector is better equipped to enforce that rather than having a condition like this, which leaves the enforcement responsibility to the Planning Department. So, having said that, having received that information from Mr. Takase, I think that while the applicant, could live with whatever we had proposed, I think in a perfect world, the applicant would just assume not have Condition G amended as being proposed right now. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Mr. Fuke. Go ahead, Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thank you. I'm back to my position. I'm a regular person. I'm reading the plain language of this. It appears to be another set of hurdles. What concerns me is not only the condition itself that doesn't exist on any other properties that have these similar zoning, it's the mechanics of it as you described. I think even our noise compliance, that's sent through the Department of Health (DOH) and other people who weigh in. As you mentioned, there are tools that they have to make those determinations. I like Condition H, but I know that our Corporation Counsel has heartburn, and maybe if there are ways to massage that one, but for right now, I'm not going to be supporting this amendment. But I think, to the maker, Mr. Inaba, I think we're all after the same thing, especially with this particular property right there on the corner of, kind of that industrial, residential, transition area. Thank you, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member Evans, and then I'll come back to you, Vice Chair. MS. EVANS: On the amendment, it's interesting language, especially given the situation I have where, in my district, there's a retail center, and there are restaurants that don't have alcohol, and they only sell food. The issue I have with this is the thought of you stay in effect until the two adjoining properties are changed. So, I guess I'm just thinking of the triggers and how they have to—so for me, it's like I know going in what our expectation is, but I'm thinking beyond how do you actually enforce? How do you come behind and say you just added a Page 6 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 larger venue? You increased from 50 occupants to 75 occupants, which means x amount of more cars, x amount of more people coming, more traffic, more in and out. I'm just trying to wrap my head around going in with approvals, how do we anticipate how it's really going to roll out? I think we're trying to regulate maybe some consequences that may come later, and I think that's really a challenge. I'm kind of neutral on this right now. I don't know if I support it or don't support it. But I can see what the intent is, and that is to show that the neighborhood, again,just like what I'm experiencing. All around this retail center are neighborhoods and now they're doing food and beverage and alcohol, and at nighttime they're parking in the neighborhood's front yard. I mean they're all going around all up and down the streets and parking because it's a popular place to go. So, people are kind of freaking out. So, it's kind of like, how do you address that now knowing that's a possibility? So, that's why I'm kind of neutral because I think that is an issue that could happen. Any thoughts on that? MR. FUKE: Sure. I think that's a very good point. So, usually, the parking ratio is predicated upon the square footage. When you apply for plan approval, and that has to be issued by the Planning Director, you have to articulate what kind of use, whether it's going to be restaurant or office use, or like a drive through. We know that although the parking is purely predicated upon the square footage of the structure, the proposed use, the director still is in a position to impose additional parking if, in his evaluation—and this is what the current condition reads: if in his evaluation there is a determination that particular use could generate more parking than what is minimally required. Like a drive through, you know, you need to worry about like cube space and back up into the streets. So, the condition then enables the director to kind of have the ability to rachet up the parking. What we're saying further is that because the neighbor's complaint was more associated with having bars that operate after 10:00. So that's what drove having this condition to say your window of operation is 6-10. The Corporation Counsel is pretty much informally opining that's not a legal condition. So, we were trying our best to how best to address it. So, we came up with this proposed language. Subsequent to that, and I have to apologize to Council Member Inaba, because I only had the discussion with Mr. Takase this morning. He was saying, you know, because I served also on the Liquor Commission a while back, and I recall that the Commission did have the ability, when we have complaints like that, the Commission had the ability to impose noise mitigation, parking mitigation conditions, including also the calling for securities. And these were all like conditions that were made as part of the issuance of the liquor license. Page 7 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 So, what Mr. Takase said is that rather than having something like this in the ordinance, which puts the burden of enforcement on the Planning Department, which is already strapped thin, he said it's best to just let the Liquor Department handle it. They have their own investigators, and they can go out and police this thing if there are complaints or violations of these conditions. They are in a better position to issue a violation and usually licensees tend to respect the law or the conditions because they don't want to have their liquor licenses revoked. MS. EVANS: I appreciate your comment but that's kind of not how I read this amendment. I think the amendment is just saying the Planning Director is going to review proposed uses and consider noise impacts, and may require some noise mitigation members such as landscaping, and may even enhance something for public safety. So, I kind of think it's at the time maybe requiring some additional stuff taking into effect what the uses. So, like I said, I'm kind of neutral on this, and it's up to the maker, but I can see where he's going. I could see supporting it. I don't see it playing out quite the way you just described it. The other thing is when you do this, going in with retail use and saying to the Planning Director I'm going to have one restaurant, well, I've got to tell you the retail center I'm talking about ended up now with three restaurants. The first one was in at the time, the parking and everything was done, but now I've got three restaurants. Because of COVID (Coronavirus disease) and vacancies and buildings, they've got to bring people in to make ends meet. So, I don't know. This is, again, if the community knows going in that there is going to be a restaurant, there is no guarantee that restaurant doesn't grow and get popular and add more and more. So, you know, again, to the maker, if you want this, I will support it. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Go ahead. MR. INABA: This language you came up with, so, you know what? We cannot leave Condition H in there; we know that because it says uses. It's not specific what the uses are. That means maybe you can't even have anything going on there after 10:00 p.m., and that's why we got rid of it. Condition G really speaks to what happens before an occupancy permit is granted. So, I'm not sure. I didn't even have the courtesy even if you talked Director Takase this morning, to know that you're not in support of this anymore. But this is the best attempt at honoring what the Windward Planning Commission's discussions were whether it's a bar or any noise making activity that's commercial after 10:00 p.m. MR. FUKE: If I can—as I mentioned in the beginning, you are correct. This is something that we had proposed as a means to help address that issue. All we're Page 8 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 saying is while we can live with Condition G, on hindsight after discussion with Mr. Takase this morning, that whether it's you leave Condition G or even if you don't have Condition G, as amended, the issue that the neighbor raised regarding late hour activities associated with the sale of alcoholic beverage can be controlled through the issuance of a liquor license. That's all I'm saying. MR. INABA: Alright. So, I would ask for my colleagues' support, it's very straight forward. This is a one-time opportunity. If there's going to be extra uses that requires additional parking stalls or any uses that would be after 10 p.m. that don't sell liquor where Liquor would not have any say in what's going on, this gives the Planning Department an opportunity to address the concern of the adjoining properties who shared things during the Windward Planning Commission hearings, which I viewed and which we've discussed at our past hearing. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Please let the record reflect that Council Member Kaneali`i-KI einfelder has joined us. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Sorry,just catching up a little bit. This amendment is from Mr. Inaba or this is from Mr. Fuke? MR. FUKE: It's a result of trying to address Condition H, which was being proposed to be deleted. Then we've had that discussion and we're sayingso, we came up with this to help address that issue. And different information came up as a result of my discussion with Mr. Takase this morning. However, as I indicated, his condition is okay, but we wanted to just reassure the Council that even if you don't have this commission, the issue of the sale of alcohol is governed by the Liquor Commission, who has the ability to impose conditions that can address Condition G. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I am acutely aware of a lot of those conditions, so, I appreciate that. I think my problem with this amendment is just the foundation is that the Planning Director shall review the proposed uses and noise impacts to adjoining properties prior to the issuance of a final plan approval, but we don't know what the uses are; and I don't think we can speak for all future uses at this point in time. So, to make the decision now on what uses shall be the noise impacts of proposed and possible uses because if this is a commercial building, no one can say for sure what's going to be in that building in the next two years, five years, 10 years. So, to specify now, requirements for noise mitigation and parking requirements beyond what the Planning Department already does for its proposed uses, seems, I don't even know what the right word Page 9 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 is for that. It's like presupposed ideas and then we'll build around that. So, I don't understand how this would actually help anyone. Is that a fair assessment, Mr. Fuke, in your experience? MR. FUKE: Usually, when you apply for a plan approval, you have to say explicitly what is going to be within that particular building. For example, whether it's going to be an office building, office use, or whether it's going to be a restaurant. So, say if Point of Order: MR. INABA: Chair,point of order. I just want to make sure that the conversation is accurate. We're talking about occupancy permits, not plan approvals. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, to the point of order, Condition G, prior to issuance of final plan approval, please correct me if I'm wrong, the director shall review the proposed use and its parking and noise impacts to adjoining properties. So, I'm feeling like I'm in the right lane as far my question. CHR. KIMBALL: There are two different things, occupancy permits and final approval, but I do think that your line of questioning is relevant, so, I'll allow it MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Let me ask you this, Mr. Fuke, same idea but different. Do you know what the retail uses are going to be at this point, and can you speak for the next 5 to 10 years? MR. FUKE: No. No. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, that's my point, and I would expect that. I mean, how would anyone know the uses of the building beyond the general scope that it's going to be a commercial building with x amount of spaces available for rent, lease, for the owner to use; whatever wants to be done in that building can be done. The proposed use is going to be based on the amount of spaces, the required parking spaces for that area, the commercial zoning, whatever it's going to be. Those are going to be built in and described in the plan that you probably already provided to the Planning Department, and then their review of that document equals what you have to do, correct? MR. FUKE: That is correct. I'll give you a hypothetical. The building right across the street where my office used to be, 100 Pauahi Street, it's an office building. So, the plan approval was issued for an office space, but it's usually based on square footage. So, if you have, theoretically, the way you have the bank, it's right now American Savings Bank. So, if American Savings Bank were to vacate that property and then a restaurant wants to come to establish that area, then a change of use permit would have to be issued. During the course of the Page 10 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 change of use permit application, an updated plan approval must be issued for that. That's the Planning Department, you've got to go to the Building Department subsequently to get the change of use. However, if you have a dental office, and then it's going to be changed from an orthodontist to maybe a doctor's office, then the category of use is the same, they're office and office. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is the applicant proposing any uses that go beyond 10 p.m.? MR. FUKE: At this point in time, I don't believe so, no. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. FUKE: Because it's purely designed to be more like an office and retail activity. They don't have any plans for an eatery. If there is a request for an eatery, then it would be subject to this term. Again, the issue we had, what precipitated all of this was the neighbor that said we don't want to have a bar that operates after 10:00. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I sat in the Planning Commission, and I listened to that. I know this was your attempt, or the bill itself and these conditions were your attempt to be friendly neighbors. MR. FUKE: Exactly. Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, I appreciate that. We can say yes to this, but I find this almost impossible for us to gauge anything differently than what you've put in already by this amendment. It doesn't change future use, it doesn't change anything, it's just putting a condition on that. It's going to make things slightly more transparent, but I think a little bit more muddy at the same time. To that effect, I think for me, it's better if we don't approve this, but I'm a little bit confused again on where you guys wanted to be. Is this where you want to be? I don't see it as a negative, I just see this as being kind of a wash. MR. FUKE: Well, I think if you have option a and option b, I think the applicant is saying that they can live with option a and option b, but if he had a preference, they would rather have option a. Then option a would be not to tinker with Condition G and to delete Condition H. The reason why that Condition G is that the concern raised by the neighbor relative to parking and noise can be addressed by the Liquor Commission through its imposition of the liquor license, and they have a better enforcement capability than the Planning Department does. Option b is exactly what you have here, and the applicant can live with that, but if you're asking if they have a choice, they would rather have option a. Page 11 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think I like option a as well, and I'm sorry. I think it's a fairly simple amendment. You're saying you guys like a, which is delete Condition G, is that right? H? Delete Condition H, which is what you have on the back of the amendment, but we also have this included language in Condition G. MR. FUKE: Condition H, regarding the time limitation, has always been acceptable to the applicant. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. FUKE: But I think that the Corporation Counsel has some issue regarding its legality. So, that's where we stand. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think the best thing to do at this point then would be to put this amendment somewhere else, and let it just sit there, and then just go with the original bill. Sorry, Corporation Counsel, Ms. Strance. To Mr. Fuke's comments, and thank you for joining us, Ms. Strance. To SECTION 2 of the amendment, which is the removal of Condition H, is there a legality issue? (At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. STRANCE: Good morning, Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. The concern that we raised was that the word"use" is vague, and ambiguous, and potentially overly broad. For example, the expressed concern and reason for the condition was bars and noise. And so, let's say you have a catering business; they start at four in the morning; they're unlikely to make a lot of noise, but does that condition prohibit that the 10:00 use of a restaurant, does the business have to close at 9:00 so that they're out the door at 10? Let's say it's a vet. Vets often have emergency hours, so, would that prevent that type of tenant from coming in? So, we felt that the term "uses" could be misconstrued, so, it would be better to be a little more direct. So, if we're talking about hours open to the public, or if the concern was also noises around deliveries, strict delivery hours, or things like that, instead of directing the word to "uses", which could be interpreted in a lot of different ways, to try to be more specific. So, I think what the amendment is proposing to do is, instead of approaching it as what you can't do, it focused on what you must do before you start. So, that was our main concern about the Condition H. We were just that it wouldn't really accomplish what it was intended to do. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay so, we went about removing H, incorporated some potential language into Condition G, in the hopes that it would Page 12 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 take care of the challenges faced by the surrounding community regarding potential uses that could be late, even though we don't know what those uses are at this time so they're always there in the future? MS. STRANCE: Is that a question? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, it's a yes or no. MS. STRANCE: Run it by me one more time. I was trying to follow it. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We removed Condition H. MS. STRANCE: Correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: At the preference of Corporation Counsel, because of the word "uses"being vague. We incorporated new language into C Condition G to try and remedy the community's concerns about the uses. Okay, that's helpful. Then, I think my issue is in that attempt to include that language, we just set ourselves up to not know what's going to happen on the property, besides what's being submitted right now. And none of those uses go beyond 10 p.m. So, I guess I am stuck. That's where I am right now. I would rather not see this go forward, remove Condition H, and leave it at that because I feel like Condition G is just almost impossible, especially given we have noise violations, we have Liquor Commissions. We have all of these different boards and departments to take care of these kinds of things already. This actually just says the same thing that we already do, but it's in a condition. Unless we're going to CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member, I'm going to have you stop there and you already went over your five minutes. I'll come back to you if you need to say more. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. So, I'm inclined to support this amendment, even though you're saying that Liquor can deal with issues if they have a liquor permit. I do think there are potential other situations where no liquor permit is involved. My reading is that further down in the paragraph about all parking or noise mitigation requirements shall be in place prior to issuance of any occupancy permit. That's the key part there. You wrote this, you agreed to this, and I feel like you found maybe a way out of it. You thought you found a way out of it by talking with Liquor, but I feel like this is something that you said you can live with. I think it will make the neighborhood maybe happier based on what we heard in the Planning Commissions. So, I am inclined to support it. Thank you, I yield. Page 13 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada, for hitting the nail on the head. This is legislation and an amendment that was put forth by Council Member Inaba, in working with you, that you agreed upon. I have seen this happen too many times on the Council where then we get here and all these other reasons for denying or being the representative of the landowner, we falter in a desire to not make it any more cumbersome or more challenging to the landowner. The fact that requirements like this and conditions like this haven't existed in prior land policy, doesn't mean that it shouldn't be included, because where we stand right now with our land policy has us in quite a pickle. We're in the middle of a General Plan rolling forward and we have properties like this that align right on the precipice of residential and industrial. I see this amendment as an attempt and a best effort, through working with the representative of the landowner, to define requirements and conditions regardless of the use. And that use decision on whatever it may be, take into consideration these conditions, and they aren't too much. This is not asking for the moon. This is in alignment with what the neighbors have asked for on a piece of property that is currently zoned residential. So, for me, it's about the principle and the integrity of how this all went down with the efforts that were made, the language that was created, and the amendment we have before us. I myself am tired of seeing that if a perceived weakness on the Council, or potential to not support, then there's the opportunity to get rid of it altogether. So, I honor this amendment. I'll be supporting this amendment and I hope that my colleagues here will see the wisdom in supporting this amendment and the required conditions for the use on this property, regardless of whether or not that's specifically defined now, because I've seen too many instances of other properties whose uses have been firmly defined, and then they come back five or 10 years later, and it's completely changed. Point of Order: MS. LEE LOY: Chair,point of order. I think she's over characterizing a situation and we have an amendment before her. If you could get her to get back onto the amendment, I think that's helpful. CHR. KIMBALL: On the amendment, I think you've made your position clear, appreciate that. Any additional comments, Council Member Villegas? MS. VILLEGAS: No, I've spoken my truth. I yield. Page 14 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Anyone else before we—go ahead, Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. On the amendment, Mr. Fuke, this property in question, it used to serve as a small engine repair shop, yes? MR. FUKE: It used to be. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, which is kind of noisy in my opinion. MR. FUKE: Right. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Kind of noisy, automotive repair facility. My dad used to have one. MR. FUKE: But they use that right now. It's been converted into a wood shop. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Also, very noisy. Okay. I think I made my point. I'm not going to be supporting this amendment, only because the nature of that property, clearly there are activities that constitute noisy. So, I don't think that it's necessary to include these particular requirements in Condition G. We know Uncle Bob, we know the Hamiltons. I think they have worked very hard to resolve issues that the neighbor has raised, and I think are committed to being a good and responsible neighbor. So, I won't be supporting this today. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else? Alright, I'd just like to make a few comments on the amendment. I'm kind of a purist from the standpoint that it's my feeling when we make the decision to rezone something, it means that we have accepted all potential uses that are listed as appropriate for that zoning. To that end, when we do this initial rezoning, we don't know what the site plan is going to be and what is intended to be developed there, nor what use would potentially be there. So, I don't think it's unreasonable to say once the final plan is approved and we have the site plan, the Planning Department is going to do one more review to make sure that noise is mitigated, landscaping is appropriate, and all of that in deference to the folks in the community. What I would say that I would like to suggest is an amendment to that is that the Planning Department's review is tied to all potential uses. So, they will have at that time that they do the review is the site plan with the layout of any structures and parking and all of that. What Condition G could do is just say there's going to be one more review by Planning to ensure that those mitigation measures are in place. So, what I would like to suggest to the author is after it says, "the Planning Page 15 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 director shall review the proposed use", I think because you have at the beginning of the sentence, "Plan Approval for all retail uses," and then just remove that section that says "proposed uses"because again, proposed uses are not potential uses. All uses are potential that are appropriate in that zoning. So, the director would be required to review this site based on all potential uses, as I think is appropriate given when we do a change of zone, we are saying all potential uses are okay. So, that is my suggestion to the author of the amendment, if you'd like to consider that I think it would be a broader analysis by Planning. MR. INABA: This was a waste of our time. We could have ironed this out and had something good, and now we're going to expanding, potentially, based on this recommendation. I think we don't I understand what you're saying and it's trying to encompass all of the potential uses, but I don't know that we could encompass all of the potential commercial uses based on a site plan. So, for what is going to be proposed right there, and then we'll have the mitigation in place prior to the occupancy. I think that's the best we can do because the actual use could increase, it could change completely, but I don't know that Planning would be able to just iron that down. Planning Director, if you want to chime in if it's possible to share on all potential uses that you would do a review. Right now, we're just going on the proposed use by the applicant. (Note: At this time, Planning Director Zendo Kern came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KERN: Good morning, Chair, members of the Council, Zendo Kern, Planning Director. So, I guess I'll get into just on the process side of things. So, if this is approved, the application will come in for plan approval, which would be the final plan approval. At that stage, it'll be the first thing we do. We're going to look at the use that they're putting on there, whether it's—it's what they're requesting, right? They're going to come in for a retail center. We're going to look at that, we're going to look at it for everything from landscaping to parking, to loading, et cetera, and make that approval based on what they're saying they're going to use at that time. If it's office, it might range in what type of office, but if it's office space it's office space. If it's retail, it's retail. Then prior to CO, or Certificate of Occupancy, we will take another look at it. We will make sure that the parking is stride loading stride, everything is there. So, that'd be kind of our final bite at the apple to ensure that these conditions were met. I'm just stepping into the conversation, so I might be stepping in and giving you answers part way through it. So, If I'm missing something, let me know. MR. INABA: Okay. I hear what the proposal is, and I think it's a better attempt at addressing it. I don't know that it's possible to go with any potential use. So, it's best to just go with the proposed use, that's what Planning would do its initial review on. Then prior to that certificate of occupancy, they can ensure that any of Page 16 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 the mitigation steps are in there. So, I'm going to just ask for my colleagues' support on this amendment, which was agreed upon with the property owners and the representative prior to today's meeting. Thank you. MR. FUKE: Chair? CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Briefly, and I want to get to the vote on this. MR. FUKE: Sure. Okay. Just to clarify some item. I think specifically to respond to Council Member Kagiwada's question about any occupancy permit. As the director indicated, say you come in for your plan approval for your office, they're going to be looking at the required number of parking and your landscaping. There's going to be a plan approval issued, and so, that's the any prior to issuance of occupancy permit that's tied in. So, that's what they'd be looking at. So, it comes in with an office. As I mentioned earlier about the American Savings Bank being converted into a restaurant, and he can correct me if I'm wrong, but if you have an office or bank use and subsequently, you want to change it into a restaurant, they would have to apply for a plan approval to change it from a bank to a restaurant. Now, when they do that, then the director is in a position, based on this condition, is obligated to take a look at its impact and then determine what the appropriate parking and maybe additional landscaping may be required to address that. At that time when plan approval is issued, with certain conditions, then prior to occupancy of that new establishment, then that's what the use is. So, the language that's been proposed I think right now, is still kind of on point. To answer—Council Member Inaba is correct. We did propose this. We understood the issue and I take full responsibility in drafting this language. What you see before you is something that was vetted with the applicant and is acceptable to the applicant. I felt on the other hand there was important, on full disclosure, to share the conversation I had with Mr. Takase. So, at the very beginning, I said there are option a and option b, both of which are acceptable. If you `re asking from the applicant's standpoint, the applicant would say, "I don't want to have any conditions." That's the position, that's like option A, but if you have option B, which is this condition, that's fine. So, I don't think this discussion is wasteful, in a sense. I think the dialogue is very beneficial. There's better education and I think that it shows also that Council Member Inaba is willing to sit down, iron out the issue, which is what we were doing. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, I think that's sufficient. Thank you. Briefly, Council Member Lee Loy, I do want to get to the vote. Page 17 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. LEE LOY: Yeah. With all due respect, I'm going to be voting against this. Just sitting here and understanding the process, my concern is everything lands back at the director's discretion. My concern is any subsequent permits that a proposed use seeks, if it doesn't comply with this condition, we foreclosed any appeals process or any future option that use might have. That kind of heavy- handed hand of God place, I don't like. It's a free country; everybody has a right to propose a use, work through all the various steps, and address them. If there are conflicts, there's an appeals process. Basically, this law, this ordinance, now has this very hard corner that forecloses on those other options that any potential future use would have. That's not someplace I want to legislate in. So, with all due respect, I'm going to be voting against this amendment. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, on the amendment, Mr. Clerk, I'll do a roll call on this one, please. Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 148 with the contents of Amend: Comm. 815.1 was carried by the following roll call vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Villegas, and Chair Kimball —6. Noes: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, and Lee Loy —3. Absent: None. Excused: None. (Note: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder voted "kanalua"then CC JJ) no. CHR. KIMBALL: So, as amended, Bill 148, back to the main motion. Any discussion on the main motion? Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Yeah,just ask for my colleagues' support voting in favor. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Any further discussion on the bill as amended? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Years ago, there was an attempt by a Council Member, and I can't remember who, but to do a specific change to a condition in an ordinance. A roundabout conversation came back to spot zoning, and I think about that when we make decisions like this, because if we're not Page 18 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 willing to do this to every property that comes in front of us for the same type of change of zone request in an area that meets this criteria, then we should be careful about how we do this going forward. Because now, what's to say every single zoning change that comes in front of us should be dealt with like this out of fairness for the community? That's what I don't like about where we're at. It's not that it's not a good thing or a bad thing, it's just to become something that we almost need to do now because we've done it, and I would caution against that. I remember that conversation clearly. It was an interesting conversation. Today was educational. Ultimately, I think this is a comfortable place to be for everyone, maybe not ideal on all that we have, but comfortable. I just caution against doing what I consider to be spot zoning. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. To my colleague's point, I would agree. I do think situations where we have industrial uses expanding into residential zones should be looked at carefully, and maybe we need to look at how we look at those on a regular basis. I think we know that these property owners are good neighbors and good people, but they may sell this down the road and then we don't know who's coming in there. So, setting up things for the neighborhood that is changing, whether some of the people who live there like it or not, apparently, I think, it does behoove us to look at this situation maybe in a bigger way. So, thank you for bringing that up. I would love to have a conversation further about that at some point. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Anyone else on the main motion? Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: On the main motion, in support of. I learned a long time ago in a law office many moons ago, you don't always get what you want. You get what you need, and I think the applicant is getting what they need. I think the community is getting what they need. It's a little wonky, but that's where we're at. So, I'm in support of this measure as amended. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Alright, all those in favor of approving Bill 148 at first reading as amended please say "aye." Page 19 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Bill 148 The motion to pass Bill 148, as amended to Draft 2, on first Draft 2): reading and adopt Legislative Approvals and Acquisition (Approved) Committee Report No. 54 was carried by the following voice vote. Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Bill 149: AMENDS SECTION 25-8-14 (WAIKOLOA VILLAGE ZONE MAP), ARTICLE 8, CHAPTER 25 (ZONING) OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM OPEN(0) TO INDUSTRIAL-COMMERCIAL MIXED —20,000 SQUARE FEET (MCX-20) AT WAIKOLOA, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 6-8-003:041 (Por.) (Applicant: Waik6loa Village Center LLC) (Area: 26.052 acres) The Leeward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for this change of zone request, which would allow the applicant to develop and operate the Waik6loa Village Light Industrial Center, to include a self-storage facility and flexible use buildings for industrial-commercial business. The property is located on Pua Melia Steet, approximately 0.2 miles southeast of its intersection with Waik6loa Road. Reference: Comm. 816 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R) Approve: LAAC-55 (Note: Comm. 816.1, from Council Member Holeka Goro Inaba dated May 13, 2024, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 149, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to pass Bill 149 on first reading and adopt Legislative Approvals and Acquisition Committee Report No. 55. Second by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. There was discussion at our last hearing regarding the timing of the affordable housing conditions, so we do have Communication 816.1. Motion to Amend: Mr. Inaba moved to amend Bill 149 with the contents of Comm. 816.1. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. Page 20 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. The language in Condition L as it currently reads speaks to subdivision approval, but the applicant doesn't intend to subdivide. So, the language is being added here, "Final Plan Approval", to make sure that there is an actual trigger for the affordable housing component, and that condition for affordable housing is met prior to final plan approval. I did meet with the applicant's representative on this and have their support, I think. Ask for your support. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. Anyone else? Alright, seeing none, all those in favor of amending Bill 149 with the contents of Communication 816.1 please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 149 with the contents of Amend: Comm. 816.1 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Back to the main motion. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 149, as amended, at first reading please say Ic aye. Vote on Bill 149 The motion to pass Bill 149, as amended to Draft 2, on first Draft 2): reading and adopt Legislative Approvals and Acquisition (Approved) Committee Report No. 55 was carried by the following voice vote. Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 21 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Bill 151: AMENDS ORDINANCE NOS. 00-90 AND 91-27, WHICH RECLASSIFIED LANDS FROM OPEN (0) TO VILLAGE COMMERCIAL (CV-10) AT KEAHUOLU, NORTH KONA, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 7-4-015:015 (PORTION) (Applicant: Lili`uokalani Trust) (Area: 0.874 acre) The Leeward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for the applicant's request to delete Condition B (time to submit and secure Final Plan Approval), Condition C (time to commence construction), Condition D (Eho Street improvements), Condition F (Eho Street/Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway intersection improvements), and Condition K(Administrative Time Extension). The property is located along the makai side of Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway between Eho Street and the Kona Coast Shopping Center. Reference: Comm. 818 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R) Approve: LAAC-57 (Note: Comm. 818.2, from Council Member Holeka Goro Inaba dated May 9, 2024, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 151, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to pass Bill 151 on first reading and adopt Legislative Approvals and Acquisition Committee Report No. 57. Second by Ms. Lee Loy. Motion to Amend: Mr. Inaba moved to amend Bill 151 with the contents of Comm. 818.2. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. I did mention this in our last hearing in committees regarding putting in a timeframe for this. The applicant has made improvements to Eho Street, which is being removed in one of the conditions, but there are no intended proposed uses at this time. Putting this 10-year window on this does allow for the Council to review any changes that might need to occur in the area should this ordinance not be complied with within 10 years. Condition Q being added is just the standard language that we add into all of our zoning ordinances. I did meet with theactually, we had email correspondence, and the applicants are not in opposition to this addition. So, I ask for my colleagues' support. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. Any questions? We do have the applicant here. Seeing none, all those in favor of amending Bill 151 with the contents of Communication 818.2 please say "aye." Page 22 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 151 with the contents of Amend: Comm. 818.2 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Back to the main motion. Any discussion? Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Ask for your support. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay, anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting Bill 151 at first reading as amended please say "aye." Vote on Bill 151 The motion to pass Bill 151, as amended to Draft 2, on first Draft 2): reading and adopt Legislative Approvals and Acquisition (Approved) Committee Report No. 57 was carried by the following voice vote. Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, at this time, my intention is to just go through the agenda in order, although we will be skipping the CRFs and saving those to the end. Unless anybody has somebody here to testify on their CRF, please let me know. Okay, let's go to Resolution 442-24. Return to Order The Chair directed the Council to return to the order of business. of Business: ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of RESOLUTIONS: Resolutions. Page 23 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Res. 442-24: AUTHORIZES THE ACCEPTANCE OF A QUITCLAIM OF REAL PROPERTY, DESCRIBED AS REMNANT ROAD RESERVE, PARCEL A, BEING A PORTION OF TAX MAP KEY NO. 7-5-006-034 AND CONTAINING AN AREA OF 1,794 SQUARE FEET, SITUATED AT LANIHAU 2ND, KAILUA, NORTH KONA, ISLAND OF HAWAII, FROM THE STATE OF HAWAII, BY ITS BOARD OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES The County seeks to utilize the parcel for public parking. Reference: Comm. 742 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R) Approve: LAAC-52 Postponed: March 20 and April 17, 2024 (Note: There is a motion by Mr. Inaba, seconded by Ms. Villegas, to adopt Res. 442-24.) CHR. KIMBALL: Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. There was some concern expressed by community regarding this parcel, so, we do have Deputy Corporation Counsel here. The question really was around the title of the parcel and that there was, I believe, a lease that was between the State and the Bougainvillea property owner. So, Corporation Counsel, have we been able to resolve these questions? (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. STRANCE: Good morning, Council, Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. Yes and no. We've been able to establish that the DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources) lease to the Bougainvillea owners was a revocable lease. It was not something that the County relied upon in allowing that development to go forward. So, at the time the bill was being evaluated, at first it was rejected because of issues regarding parking. It came up for reconsideration. The concern of the County was that the parking was inadequate, and that the Bougainvillea would be using the County parking lot for its parking. So, it required that the owner obtain off-property parking for its employees. They did so and it was at the time the Shell Station, for those of you familiar with older Kona. There's currently a used car dealership there. So, it's been clear, through history, that those parking stalls were revocable and temporary in nature and that it was envisioned that at some point, the County might actually want the property to do a road wide maintenance. So, the County never had any intention to see that those parking spaces were permanent. Page 24 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Having said that, there's a title issue and whether or not that remnant is a road in limbo. So, we have ordered a title report and would like to evaluate the property issue further upon receipt of that. So, at this point, since we don't know when we'll receive the title report, we'd be requesting that the motion be tabled until moved upon. This will give the department time to get the title report, do a property inspection, and then take a position. If you might have recalled, this case started with physically the position that the County owned the property not DLNR, and this was just kind of a clean-up type of situation. But it has become a little bit more complex in that and we just need the time to get the title report. Vote on Motion to Mr. Inaba moved to postpone Res. 442-24 to the call of the Postpone: Chair. Seconded by Ms. Villegas and carried by the (Approved) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Lee Loy — 1. Excused: None. Res. 486-24: AUTHORIZES THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE TO ENTER INTO NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE ACQUISITION OF LANDS OR A CONSERVATION EASEMENT FOR ALL OR A PORTION OF THE PROPERTY IDENTIFIED AS TAX MAP KEY: 7-1-003:010, ALSO KNOWN AS `ANAEHO`OMALU KAPALAOA, SITUATED IN THE AHUPUA`A OF PU'UANAHULU, DISTRICT OF KONA, UTILIZING THE PUBLIC ACCESS, OPEN SPACE, AND NATURAL RESOURCES PRESERVATION FUND The County seeks to acquire approximately 27.38 acres of land to protect and preserve cultural and natural resources and open certain areas of the property for education, gathering, and cultural practices. The parcel is listed as priority number one in the 2023 Annual Report of the Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources Preservation Commission. Reference: Comm. 814 Intr. by: Ms. Evans Approve: LAAC-53 Motion to Approve: Ms. Evans moved to adopt Res. 486-24 and Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 53. Seconded by Ms. Villegas. Page 25 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you, members. I'm asking for your support. It's a wonderful property, and I just really want to send out my appreciation to the family and the efforts put in to make this happen. It's going to be really good thing. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Any additional discussion on this item? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Res. 486-24: The motion to adopt Res. 486-24 and Legislative (Adopted) Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 53 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Lee Loy — 1. Excused: None. Res. 487-24: AUTHORIZES THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT TO AWARD FUNDS TO THE PAHOA LAVA ZONE MUSEUM THROUGH THE GEOTHERMAL RELOCATION AND COMMUNITY BENEFITS PROGRAM Provides $65,000 in grant funds to purchase, install, and maintain 25 surveillance systems throughout Pahoa Village. Reference: Comm. 819 Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz Approve: FC-156 Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 487-24 and Finance Committee Report No. 156. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I think we all know that crime is not an isolated problem. It's a challenge that really affects everyone and requires a coordinated and comprehensive response. That's why our office, in partnership with Mainstreet Pahoa in August of last year, hosted the summit that brought together members of local and state government, local businesses, residents, non- profits, to really talk about some of the public safety issues that is challenging the town of Pahoa. Page 26 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 We identified a number of actions that every sector of our community can take, and one of the collaborative action between government and the community partner is the installation of the surveillant system throughout Pahoa town. So, funding from this resolution will be used to purchase 25 surveillant systems, that's 200 cameras that will be procured, installed, and maintained by our community partner, Mainstreet Pahoa. This will aid in just to monitor the activities that occur in Pahoa and also provide police and prosecutors with the evidence they need to seek justice for those that are victims of crime. But also, this information that we get from the video feed can be used by different County departments or even State agencies like Department of Health, their Mental Health Services division to determine what sort of resources are necessary to support our community. Thank you, Amedeo Markoff, Kevin Kushel, they're representatives of Mainstreet Pahoa and also our fiscal sponsor through Pahoa Lava Zone Museum. Thanks for being here. Thanks for your willingness to help us execute this project and just for your patience this morning as we got through our agenda. Looking for everyone's support on this. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Any further discussion on this item from the body? Seeing none, all those in favor please say Ic aye. Vote on Res. 487-24: The motion to adopt Res. 487-24 and Finance Committee (Adopted) Report No. 156 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Council Members, the of Business: following items were taken out of order: Page 27 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Res. 498-24: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND REHABILITATION Seeks to enter into a no cost Memorandum of Agreement to facilitate the issuance and production of REAL ID compliant Civil Identification cards for those transitioning through the re-entry phase of their rehabilitation process. Reference: Comm. 837 Intr. by: Ms. Evans (B/R) Approve: GOEAC-128 Vote on Res. 498-24: Ms. Evans moved to adopt Res. 498-24 and Governmental (Adopted) Operations and External Affairs Committee Report No. 128. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 499-24: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HAWAII EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY Seeks to support and facilitate the installation and maintenance of a warning siren in Kamakoa Nui Park to serve the Kamakoa Phase I-A Subdivision in Waikoloa. Reference: Comm. 838 Intr. by: Ms. Evans (B/R) Approve: GOEAC-129 Motion to Approve: Ms. Evans moved to adopt Res. 499-24 and Governmental Operations and External Affairs Committee Report No. 129. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Any discussion on this item? We have the Administrator of Civil Defense here if there are any questions. MS. EVANS: No, I just wanted to, if I may, Chair. I just wanted to point out that this is the community of Waikoloa, and this is where it's a really high drought area. We've had many wildfires, and the community is extremely traumatized. So, they're really clamoring to have the siren. Thank you. Page 28 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Any further discussion on this item? I always think it's good to take the opportunity to make sure our public is well aware that when the siren sounds, it's an indication to go check an information source as to what the source and the cause of the siren is. It is not just a tsunami warning, so, when you hear the siren, check your nearest media, your cell phone, to find out what situation is happening. Alright, with that, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Res. 499-24: The motion to adopt Res. 499-24 and Governmental (Adopted) Operations and External Affairs Committee Report No. 129 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 500-24: AUTHORIZES THE ACCEPTANCE OF A MONETARY DONATION OF $750,000 FROM THE DANIEL R. SAYRE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION The donation to the Department of Parks and Recreation would be used for the design, permitting, and other costs associated with the construction of a new multi-use community center/emergency shelter facility at Spencer Kalani Schutte Park. Reference: Comm. 839 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-157 Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 500-24 and Finance Committee Report No. 157. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I look for everyone's support. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, any further discussion on this item? Seeing none, as always, thank you to the Sayres for their support of all of our community efforts and to the community up in Waimea that made this connection happen. All those in favor please say "aye." Page 29 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Res. 500-24: The motion to adopt Res. 500-24 and Finance Committee (Adopted) Report No. 157 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 503-24: APPROVES THE FISCAL YEAR 2025 PROPOSED OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE HAWAII STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES Reference: Comm. 859 Intr. by: Ms. Kimball Waived: GOEAC Motion to Approve: Ms. Kagiwada moved to adopt Res. 503-24. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: With everybody's leeway, this is procedural. We have to approve the budget at HSAC (Hawai`i State Association of Counties) by the end of the month, so, it needs to pass through our Council today. Just ask for everyone's support. Just a note that the HSAC budget does not have to zero out like our county budget does. Any further questions? Alright, seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Res. 503-24: The motion to adopt Res. 503-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 30 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Res. 520-24: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, PURSUANT TO HAWAII REVISED STATUTES SECTION 46-7, FOR A GRANT TO THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT Allows for the receipt of$75,000 of federally-derived funds to advance Hawaii County's work on Multi-Modal Transportation Safety. Reference: Comm. 877 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 520-24. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Is the Planning Department here? CHR. KIMBALL: I don't see them. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: This was a request from their department to have this waived to Council to expedite the process. I just would like to hear a little bit more about this from them before we approve. CHR. KIMBALL: We have the option to table if you'd like to reach out to somebody and see if you can get them over here. Vote on Motion to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to table Res. 520-24. Table: Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice (Approved) vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 31 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Res. 524-24: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES Pursuant to Hawaii Revised Statutes Section 46-7, allows for the receipt of $1 million by the Office of Housing and Community Development to support the implementation and ongoing operational support of a new homeless shelter program. Reference: Comm. 881 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 524-24. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Another interesting one. This was waived to Council as well. Anyone from Housing and Community Development available? CHR. KIMBALL: Do we have anyone on Zoom from Housing? MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Okay, well, being that this is a source of funding for our department to address homelessness and a lot of our recent discussions, I'm comfortable with moving this forward. It'd be nice to hear from the department but being that they're not here, I wouldn't want to hold this up. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else? Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yes, I agree, and I wouldn't want to hold it up either. We don't want to slow down the acceptance of upwards of a million dollars, but I am very curious as to what agency this money will be allocated to and who'd be in charge of managing it, and exactly which facility it will be going to. So, those are all questions that I think should be answered. Yeah. So, I wish that they were here. CHR. KIMBALL: Anyone else? Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. In support. It's great to see we're—Department of Human Services (DHS) is giving funding to the County. I think in the past when we've had these types of resolutions coming in from the administration, my understanding since I have researched it is they, the department, will submit the Page 32 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 request to the Finance Director, who then is responsible for putting together the resolution and putting it forth. It seemed to me that we used to have Deanna Sako when she was Finance Director present when these came before the Council. So, not knowing kind of who's driving the ship on this, it might be there's an alternative, maybe the Finance Director, who reviews it and puts it together. They put together all the documentation; my understanding, if you see the attachment B-52 is put together by Finance. There might be a way to look at how we are doing it in the future because personally, when we approve these, I'd sure like to have the department or Finance, someone to talk to about this. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. There is the option to table this as well and wait for somebody. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I texted the department. I haven't heard back. Vote on Motion to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to table Res. 524-24. Table: Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice (Approved) vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: We do have members of the Planning Department right now available. Vote on Motion to Ms. Villegas moved to remove Res. 520-24 from the table. Remove from Table: Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and carried by the (Approved) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: So, the motion to approve Resolution 520-24 is back on the floor. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Page 33 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, and thank you for being here so quickly, Ms. Soriano. For your catch up, we have Resolution 520 on the table. This is the multimodal transportation safety, $75,000. Can you just provide us a little background on what this is, what it's going to do, what the Planning Department is doing? Thank you and introduce yourself for the record. (Note: At this time, Planner Natasha Soriano came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SORIANO: Natasha Soriano, Planning Department, Long-Range division. This is a partnership we've had with DOH for the last couple of years. The last time we got a grant like this was in 2019 and it's to build capacity. That one was specifically around Complete Streets, but since then, we've adopted Vision Zero and our Complete Streets program by resolution. So, this is continuing the work to further multimodal safety in our roadway design and our built-in environment. So, it's capacity building. We have a lot of new planners and a lot of new engineers on board. So, it's to be used for peer exchange, mobile tours, and bringing in any other speakers that would help us build our capacity or help us think outside of the box in terms of multimodal safety, so, pedestrians, bikes, transit, things like that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you for that, I appreciate it. I yield, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else with questions for the department? Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. You know, on Oahu, there have been quite a few pedestrians getting hurt on the highways in the major arterials. I was curious, did we pursue this and apply for this? MS. SORIANO: No, the Department of Health has kind of a robust program, and they reached out to us and offered us this grant money. MS. EVANS: Okay, and when do you have to finish your—when does it have to be spent? MS. SORIANO: I believe it's at the end of 2025. MS. EVANS: Okay, and what are their measurable outcomes? Page 34 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. SORIANO: They're just requesting that anytime we use the funds that we write a report for what we're using the funds for. So, we do invoice them, get the money, do the program or the peer exchange or the mobile tour, and always just report back to them. MS. EVANS: Okay. You mentioned that you had already done this before. You got a grant in 2019, do you have a report that maybe you could share with us? MS. SORIANO: That one they didn't quite require us to have a report and I think because the funding source is different from DOH, that one was using SNAP-Ed (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education) funds. This one is using, I think it's Center for Disease Control funds. So, I think because they're having different reporting standards that they're requiring us to have different reporting standards this time around as well. MS. EVANS: Good. I think there's many of us that are looking forward to what comes out with your capacity building, but also driving, potentially, conditions or requirements when people come in to talk to you about what they're planning and how this also—how would this roll into, I guess one last question now that I'm thinking out loud. How does that roll in with the General Plan? MS. SORIANO: I think it helps support the General Plan because we do, for the draft that we're having, we do talk about multimodal and transportation. So, in essence it's helping to build capacity and implement the General Plan should you adopt it. Then, on top of that, I think there's an equity portion to this. So, when we're talking about multimodal safety, we're really looking at vulnerable users, and I think that's another difference from when we got in 2019 and we've gotten prior years too, 2018. So, it's really looking at multimodal transportation and just continuing to build on that and their partnership. DOH also partners with DOT (Department of Transportation) a lot to provide built-in environment changes, so, that's really what their goal is working toward. MS. EVANS: Thank you. I'm glad to hear it. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Thank you for being here, Ms. Soriano. Obviously, very supportive. I'm just wondering if there are any possibilities for collaborating, cross training, or reaching out. I know you've done some of this, but continuing to, with DPW (Department of Public Works) especially, Engineering and Traffic Division, to really try to get our whole county kind of moving together in a way. And is this funding a possibility for helping with that or do you have other ideas for doing that? Page 35 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. SORIANO: Yeah, the funding is for both. Planning and DPW and any other agencies that may contribute to multimodal transportation, the Planning Department is just going to be the receiving and distribution of those funds. We have already gone on a mobile tour in LA (Los Angeles) with DPW. So, we're just trying to continue to foster that relationship with DPW in order to make these changes kind of happen sooner rather than later. MS. KAGIWADA: Terrific and you know that if you need additional support for training, things like that, that there is the funds that—who has those funds right now, Finance? I can't remember. Oh, IT (Department of Information Technology). IT has funds that you can access. So, I think if you need to, I think that's a really important way, and I will just say that actually, as of April of this year, our County had the highest traffic fatality rate in the State. Yes, Oahu has some, but we have a lot for our small population. I think it's really important that we do this work because we are seeing an uptick in traffic fatalities and injuries. Thank you for this, and of course supporting. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 520-24 please say "aye." Vote on Res. 520-24: The motion to adopt Res. 520-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball–8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Inaba– 1. Excused: None. Vote on Motion to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to remove Res. 524-24 Remove from Table: from the table. Seconded by Ms. Villegas and carried by (Approved) the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball–8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Inaba– 1. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Resolution 524-24 has returned to the table. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Page 36 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. I think we do have Ms. Hirota joining us on Zoom. There she is. Awesome. Thank you, Sharon, for joining us. It looks like maybe last minute, but appreciate you. Could you provide us a little bit of background, Sharon, on Resolution 524? It's the million- dollar grant from DHS, and thank you for taking the time. Please introduce yourself for the record. (Note: At this time, Housing and Community Development Division Manager Sharon Hirota came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. HIROTA: Sharon Hirota, Division Manager for the Community Engagement Division for the Office of Housing and Community Development. First of all, thank you very much for hearing this resolution. This is funding received from the State Department of Human Services through its `Ohana Zone spending. A million dollars to support their emergency cot sleeping initiative for East Hawaii. We appreciate the support from the State in helping to pay for initial cost and operations. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ms. Hirota,what was that term you just used? Like c-a-a-g-h-t or c-o-t? MS. HIROTA: C-o-t. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: C-o-t. Emergency cot sleeping. Okay, thank you. What does that mean? MS. HIROTA: So basically, it's a hybrid emergency shelter. So, the organization will provide a space for up to 25 individuals overnight so they have a safe space to sleep. So, their operations will be 12 hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., and then goal is to also work with our non-profit providers engagement team to encourage connectivity to longer-term shelter options. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. Is this an existing program now, or is this going to be? MS. HIROTA: It is a brand new initiative. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate you. Thank you, Sharon. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Council Member Villegas. Page 37 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. VILLEGAS: Yes. Aloha, Sharon, thank you for joining us. Can you share who is going to be managing this grant and where it's going to be managed? MS. HIROTA: So, this pilot program, we're in the final contracting with the Salvation Army Hilo Temple Service in Hilo. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, and they have a facility already with their temple and so it would be in their parking lot happening on their facility site? MS. HIROTA: It is not in their parking lot but on their site. Yes. MS. VILLEGAS: On their site. Okay, thank you. Do we see anything in the future for something like this on the west side? MS. HIROTA: Like I said, it's a new initiative, it's a new pilot. We want to test it out to see how it works and hoping, taking the lessons learned and bringing it over to West Hawaii. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, thank you. Hopefully, that can happen sooner rather than later. Appreciate it. MS. HIROTA: Okay. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: I'm looking at the B 52. It says it'll be used to cover essential expenses such as staffing, facility maintenance, meals, and support services. I was really thinking about the staffing part of this. So basically, you will enter a contract, you think would be with Salvation Army, and then they'll break down how they plan on spending it? Or is this going to require something for the Office of Housing and Community Development to add on some potential support for the office? MS. HIROTA: I hope I understand your question correctly. So, part of the contract negotiations is that the contractor had to provide us with a detailed budget and a budget narrative to support the contract, the amount in the contract that they're asking. MS. EVANS: Sometimes when we do contracts, there's like a 15 or 20 percent administration fee that can be held by the department or the person who's managing it. Do you know if you're going to get 20 percent of that one million (dollars)? Page 38 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. HIROTA: For this initiative project, the one million (dollars) will go all to the project. We're not holding any monies for County administration. MS. EVANS: Okay. Alright. Thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Sharon, a follow up. Just thinking, we have these issues east and west. Were the funds determined specifically to go to East Hawaii and one vendor? Was an RFP (Request for Proposals) done or is this something that will go out to bid for our vendors to utilize funding from? MS. HIROTA: No, it didn't go out to bid. We were approved to use the emergency proclamation on homelessness to allow us to work directly with the contractor. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, we're going to use $1 million on one contractor to do services only in Hilo? MS. HIROTA: Correct. Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MS. HIROTA: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Can we look at doing something for Kona as well? It makes sense. MS. HIROTA: This is, like I said earlier, a pilot and an initiative to see does it work? What are some of the challenges we've faced? Our goal is to duplicate it in other,potentially in Kona, but we need to start it here in Hilo, and Salvation Army had the site already existing. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Let's say a Council Member in Kona could get an organization together and find the space, is this a one-time funding shot or is this a year over year? MS. HIROTA: So, this funding is specifically for this project. We would love to look at other opportunities that are available in West Hawaii. We certainly can go back to the State and do a proposal back to them to request for funding. We're always open looking for opportunities for a shelter. Page 39 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, I hear you. I would love to see this as more of an island-wide approach. Understanding what you're saying and the use of the funding and the emergency proclamation, but looking to be more equitable across our community. MS. HIROTA: Yes, I hear you. Yes, agree. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Okay, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright. Council Member Kagiwada, I believe you haven't spoken. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Thank you, Sharon, and thank you for trying to get this through quickly. You know that the downtown Hilo community has been waiting and waiting on this for quite a while, and appreciate all you've done to get it done. We'll be very excited to see action actually start happening, I believe as soon as the contract is signed. So, yeah, this has been in the works for a while. It's really an innovative pilot program to see what we can do. I believe,just to understand, that a lot of the cost has to do with they need to have enough people there during those 12 hours at all times to make sure that this runs smoothly and doesn't negatively affect the community around the area as well. So, that's part of the cost there. But looking forward to seeing how this works and hopefully, yes, expanding to other places if it's successful. Thank you and appreciate you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Anyone else? Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. Just a couple of quick questions. So, I think I heard you say 25 beds, is that correct? Okay. Yes? MS. HIROTA: Yes, 25. MS. GALIMBA: Then how long is the contract set to run? MS. HIROTA: So, right now it's a pilot so one year. MS. GALIMBA: It's a one-year project. Okay, thank you very much. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, thank you, Council Member Galimba. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting Resolution 524-24 please say "aye." Page 40 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Res. 524-24: The motion to adopt Res. 524-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: If I could ask you to bump back up to (Resolution) 522-24, please. Res. 522-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO ASSIST THE ANIMAL CONTROL AND PROTECTION AGENCY WITH PURCHASING ANIMAL MICROCHIPS Transfers $23,030 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 6); and credits to the Animal Control and Protection Agency account. Reference: Comm. 879 Intr. by: Ms. Galimba Motion to Approve: Ms. Galimba moved to adopt Res. 522-24. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. So, we have Administrator Matt Runnells here from Animal Control and Protection Agency. I was working with him to find something that would be a meaningful use of my CRF funds in the animal control space. We came up with this use of microchips, which of course, are so important for getting—we want to eventually get ahead of our issues and the microchips is one element of that. So, I do ask for my fellow Council Members' support, and if you'd like to say anything, Administrator Runnells, you're welcome to. (Note: At this time, Animal Control and Protection Agency Administrator Matthew Runnells came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. RUNNELLS: Hello. Good morning. Matt Runnells, Administrator for Animal Control. This money for microchips and for microchip scanners is a huge benefit for us. It's a frustrating job when it comes to animals that are not registered or microchipped within the County to return them to their owners, and Page 41 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 that is ultimately our goal as an agency. So, we'll be doing more outreach clinics to try to get as many animals microchipped within the County and registered. So, this money would definitely be going towards that. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks very much. Yes, I think that'll be really helpful because getting an animal microchipped at the vet is actually a pretty big expense. So, I think it does pose a barrier for a lot of pet owners. So, this will help to get people to do the right thing, hopefully. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Administrator. Just a quick question. Are there organizations that, when they do spay and neuter, can also do microchipping at the same time? MR. RUNNELLS: There are. A lot of our partner organizations do our spay and neuters for us, or we have a clinic that do it as well. These microchips would be a benefit to them as well. Honestly, it's really—we maybe get less than five percent of the animals that come into our facility have a microchip. So, returning those animals to the owners or having them at least trackable within the County, it would be the ultimate goal, whether it's with our partners or any of the clinics. MS. KAGIWADA: I was just wondering because I know that we give lots of money either through a CRF or through Waiwai, or other ways for spay and neuter, but I never really saw any language to include microchipping in there. But it seems like if they're getting the animals in, it's the perfect time to do everything. So, maybe in the future we should look for that a little more. It does sound like maybe it's more expensive. How expensive is it to microchip an animal? MR. RUNNELLS: The microchips that we've priced are less than $5 apiece. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, and to do it, is it a pretty simple process? MR. RUNNELLS: It's a very simple process. It takes less than a couple of minutes to do. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, great. MR. RUNNELLS: Usually, the animal doesn't even recognize it happened. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, terrific. Alright. Well hopefully, we'll get into the future here or the now and include that in the future. Page 42 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MR. RUNNELLS: Definitely. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. That was my question on the cost associated with the actual microchip itself. So,perfect. There are a lot of microchips that can be purchased for that amount of money. MR. RUNNELLS: Yeah. For an expense for an owner of a dog to go into a clinic, a lot of times, they'll be as much as $14 or $15. It costs people more to get the microchip than it does to register in the County. So, it's the cost factor and so, we can push more for the registration of the animals in the County if we have them already microchipped. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, exactly. And just the vet visit is an investment in the love of your life. The little fur baby. But okay, thank you for clarifying that, that's helpful. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: I just wanted toI'm not saying anything bad about vets, but I've been charged $60 for getting a microchip in. So, that's a big, big number. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright. Any further questions? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Res. 522-24: The motion to adopt Res. 522-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 43 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Bill 150: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 10-101, WHICH RECLASSIFIED LANDS FROM AGRICULTURAL—TWENTY ACRES (A-20a) AND SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL—7,500 SQUARE FEET (RS-7.5) TO SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL— 15,000 SQUARE FEET (RS-15), SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL— 10,000 SQUARE FEET (RS-10), SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL—7,500 SQUARE FEET (RS-7.5), AND OPEN AT PAHOA, NORTH KOHALA, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 5-5-019:025 AND 027 (PORTIONS) (Applicant: Hawaii Island Community Development Corporation (Area: approximately 18.38 acres) The Leeward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for the applicant's request for a five-year time extension to Condition C (Final Subdivision Approval) for the development of Phase 3 of the Kumakua Self Help Housing Project. The property is located along the makai side of Akoni Pule Highway, approximately 600 feet west of the Kohala High and Elementary School Complex. Reference: Comm. 817 Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R) Approve: LAAC-56 (Note: Comm. 817.1, from Council Member Holeka Goro Inaba dated May 13, 2024, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 150, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to pass Bill 150 on first reading and adopt Legislative Approvals and Acquisition Committee Report No. 56. Second by Ms. Villegas. Motion to Amend: Mr. Inaba moved to amend Bill 150 with the contents of Comm. 817.1. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. MR. INABA: Thank you. So, this amendment for Condition I adds in the words "or other affordable housing." So, I had a meeting with Mr. Kato and there was some change in the funding mechanism for this self-help from the federal government. So, we're providing a little bit of leeway to ensure that even if it's not self-help, it is affordable housing. Then on the back side of this page, condition K, we're just calling it affordable housing in general. Because this bill is based on 32 of the 33 lots being developed as affordable or self-help, the last sentence is being removed because it kind of confuses what the affordable housing requirement would actually be if the current property owner doesn't follow through with the plan. So, ask for your support and Mr. Kato folks did confirm their support via email as well. Thank you. Page 44 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Any further conversation on the amendment to Bill 150? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 150 with the contents of Amend: Comm. 817.1 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Back to the main motion, Bill 150, as amended. Any discussion? Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you, I ask for your support. The community of North Kohala has really been looking forward to seeing some affordable housing projects built in the community. We haven't seen them in a long time. So, the community meets every month and talks about the lack of affordable housing. So, this is really going to be a good project. I hope it comes quicker than later. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay, thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 150, as amended, at first reading please say Ic aye. Vote on Bill 150 The motion to pass Bill 150, as amended to Draft 2, on first Draft 2): reading and adopt Legislative Approvals and Acquisition (Approved) Committee Report No. 56 was carried by the following voice vote. Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 45 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Bill 152: AMENDS CHAPTER 5, ARTICLE 1, ARTICLE 4, AND ARTICLE 7, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO PRE-APPROVED PLANS FOR RESIDENTIAL DWELLINGS Adds a definition for"multi-family dwelling", and amends the plan review fee schedule specific to pre-approved model plans for residential dwellings. Reference: Comm. 822 Intr. by: Ms. Kimball and Ms. Lee Loy Approve: PCPLUD-10 (Note: Comms. 822.3 and 822.4, from Council Chair Heather L. Kimball dated May 14, 2024, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 152, were circulated.) Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to pass Bill 152 on first reading and adopt Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use, and Development Report No. 10. Second by Ms. Kagiwada. MS. LEE LOY: Chair? CHR. KIMBALL: Yes. MS. LEE LOY: I know that we have a couple of amendments, but we're also trying to move through with Building Division, their evaluation of these amendments. Vote on Motion to Ms. Lee Loy moved to postpone Bill 152 to June 5, 2024 Postpone: Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice (Approved) vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 46 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Bill 153: AMENDS CHAPTER 4, ARTICLE 4, SECTION 4-4-26, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO ANIMALS Increases the penalties for a noisy dog violation from $25 to $50 for the first violation, $75 to $100 for the second violation, $100 to $200 for the third violation, and $200 to $400 for any subsequent violation. Reference: Comm. 823 Intr. by: Ms. Galimba Approve: PCHSW-12 Motion to Approve: Ms. Galimba moved to pass Bill 153 on first reading and adopt Policy Committee on Health, Safety, and Well-being Report No. 12. Second by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Just ask for my colleagues' continued support, and if you have any questions, Administrator Runnells is here as well. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Any other comments, questions, discussions from the body? Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: I made this comment last time, Administrator, I just want to get your thoughts on it. Is there a point where an animal might or should be taken from someone if there's just continued reports and we get to a point that we fine them so many times? (Note: At this time, Animal Control and Protection Agency Administrator Matthew Runnells came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. RUNNELLS: That's a difficult question. It is a matter of confiscating a person's property at that point and justification for that. So, I'm not sure at what point that would be legal to do so, but I do understand the question that you're asking about. It's just a difficult one to tackle with it being a person's property and not just aespecially a living property. MR. INABA: I don't know if we've gone over this. Do we have a lot of these calls where your agency has gone out to give penalties? MR. RUNNELLS: Well, we have. It's a difficult one to tackle just because the timeframe it takes to actually document this. But we have had tons of calls for barking dogs and for repeated offenders. We do have a lot of people that do try to Page 47 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 mitigate those problems, which lengthens the amount of time it takes us to get to a resolution for it. But, a lot of times, we do have good compliance by the owners to try to mitigate the problem. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. In support. CHR. KIMBALL: Any further discussion? Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Just following along the line of what he just asked, I wanted to ask Corporation Counsel a question. Is it possible, if you have, you're getting into the fourth violation to kick it into a—there are nuisance laws. Would it possibly kick it into a nuisance law where the owner iscan you connect the owner to that? I know it's a little fuzzy, but can you connect it to the owner to the fact that it has caused a nuisance? (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. STRANCE: Good morning, Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. I would need to look into that. I think that there would need to, if it were possible, it would need to be within a certain timeframe or things like that. But that's definitely something that we could research. I guess what I'm understanding you to say is if an owner is cited for a noisy dog this many times within this period of time, it constitutes a nuisance. MS. EVANS: Right. MS. STRANCE: We can research that. MS. EVANS: Thank you. So, I'm in support of passing this today, but I'd love to talk offline and continue this line of, you know, it gets to the point of almost the neighbor harassing the neighbors. That's kind of the way I see it, and I know I had that problem in my district where the next-door neighbor, they called the police, they got a fine, they wrote a letter, they had attorneys, they had lawyers, they wrote. I mean at some point, the law was just not clear on how that would get resolved. They wanted them to go to mediation. It just felt like more of a harassment at that point; neighbors against neighbors, but the dogs were barking all the time. So, maybe there is a way to I'd love to continue working on that but support today what you want to do. Thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Any other comments? Alright, seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 153 at first reading please say "aye." Page 48 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Bill 153: The motion to pass Bill 153 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Policy Committee on Health, Safety, and Well-being Report No. 12 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Inaba— 1. Excused: None. Bill 154: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 23-51, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2023 TO JUNE 30, 2024 Adds the Parks and Recreation Spencer Kalani Schutte District Park Community Center/Emergency Shelter—Private Project($750,000) to the Capital Budget. Funds for this project shall be provided from Private Contributions to be used for the design, permitting, and other costs associated with the construction of a new multi-use community center/emergency shelter facility at Spencer Kalani Schutte Park. Reference: Comm. 839 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-158 Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire membership to amend,pursuant to Section 10-6(e), Hawai`i County Charter Vote on Bill 154: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 154 on first (Approved) reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 158. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Galimba— 1. Excused: None. Page 49 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Bill 155: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 23-51, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2023 TO JUNE 30, 2024 Appropriates fuel tax revenues expected to be collected from 2024-2026 by establishing the following fuel tax program appropriations to the Capital Budget: Roadway Projects (Engineering) ($2,825,755); Bridge Inspection, Repair and Replacement Program (Engineering) ($1,883,836); and Local Road Improvements (Highways) ($4,709,591), for a total appropriation of$9,419,182. Reference: Comm. 840 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-159 Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire membership to amend,pursuant to Section 10-6(e), Hawai`i County Charter (Note: Comm. 840.1, from Business Manager Kelsey Kalua-Lewis, Public Works Department, dated May 14, 2024, transmitting a PowerPoint presentation for Bill 155, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 155 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 159. Second by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. I do not have any comments on this at this time. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, thank you. Anyone else, discussion on this item? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." MS. VILLEGAS: Sorry, Chair? CHR. KIMBALL: Sorry, Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: There's something in our packets that is a PowerPoint presentation on Bill 155. CHR. KIMBALL: Oh, yes. Thank you for drawing that to everyone's attention. MS. VILLEGAS: Somebody coming to present it for us? It looks like it was presented by Kelsey Kalua-Lewis from DPW. Page 50 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. For context, this actually was requested during our committee meeting, if you look at the committee notes. There was a discussion about how the funds were to be distributed. This was Ms. Kalua- Lewis making that information available to us. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you for clarifying that. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: I would say with that, if there are questions, you could ask them, call the department in or table the motion until we feel comfortable in moving this ahead. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Any further discussion? MS. VILLEGAS: Yes, I'd like to put forwardI'm asking to table this until somebody from DPW can come explain, not just for myself but for the public to have a broader understanding. Vote on Motion to Ms. Villegas moved to table Bill 155. Seconded by Table: Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Bill 156: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 23-50, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2024 Appropriates revenues in the Interest—Other Federal account($620,000) and the Interest—Housing account($2,000); and appropriates the same to the Emergency Rental Assistance Administration COVID-19 account($10,000); Cities of Financial Empowerment account($2,000); Emergency Rental Assistance 2 Administration COVID-19 account($500,000); Hawaii Island Landlord/Tenant Mediation Program account($10,000); and the 2021 Hawaii Island Homeowner Assistance Program-Administration account($100,000). Reference: Comm. 841 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-160 Page 51 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Bill 156: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder to pass Bill 156 on first reading (Approved) and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 160. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Bill 157: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 23-50, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2024 Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants —National Coastal Resilience Fund account($2,000,000); and appropriates the same to the National Coastal Resilience Fund account, to be used by the Department of Research and Development to complete a Community-Based Hilo Resilience and Watershed Management Plan. Reference: Comm. 842 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-161 Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 157 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 161. Second by Ms. Kagiwada. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: No. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Yes,just looking for your support here. This is the federal funding to do the Hilo Bay Watershed plan. Looking for your support. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Any further discussion? Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to share with Council Member Kagiwada and yourself, I know you guys were champions to get a lot of this money from the REPI(Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration) program. But it did come up at our WIR (Western Interstate Region) meeting that we just had in Mariposa County, and just other counties across the western Page 52 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 interstate region that is actually watching this program to see how, through the REPI program, that DOD (Department of Defense) and the REPI program can be good neighbors for us. So, I just wanted to share we're being watched. Thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Very nice. Alright, thank you. Anyone else? Alright, seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Bill 157: The motion to pass Bill 157 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 161 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Vote on Motion to Ms. Villegas moved to remove Bill 155 from the table. Remove from Table: Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice (Approved) vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: We will return to the discussion of the motion on Bill 155. We have the director and members of the department here. Council Member Villegas, the floor is yours. MS. VILLEGAS: Sure. Aloha, thank you for being here, Director Pause and Ms. Kalua-Lewis. We've been moving quickly through some things and slower through others, so it's like nailing Jello to a tree. Yeah, not exactly in order either. So,please go ahead and share with us the PowerPoint that you put together. (Note: At this time, Public Works Director Stephen Pause and Business Manager Kelsey Kalua-Lewis came forward to address the members of the Council.) Page 53 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Good afternoon, Kelsey Kalua-Lewis, Business Manager, Department of Public Works. Thank you, Council Chair and Council Members. I apologize we're late, but definitely appreciate the discussions that went on at committee with this bill. I felt like it provides a good opportunity to kind of go over the history of the fuel tax program in how it ended up to where it is today. So, I kind of created a PowerPoint instead of shooting off all these resolutions and numbers, kind of just to organize my thoughts and create a timeline. To just kind of start off, the Capital Improvements Projects portion of our Special Fuel Tax Revenue Program started in 1988 with Resolution 397. It was basically created to catch up and maintain the resurfacing of Hawaii County roads. Initially, it was for a 10-year duration and updated biannually. Thankfully, my predecessors kept a lot of good notes, so I was able to, with the help of previous Business Manager, Aaron Brown, really work on the history of this program. In the original reso (resolution), it was the intent of the Hawaii County Council for DPW to propose an apportionment formula to kind of distribute the fuel tax revenues. So, from the start, it has always been a partnership with Council and Department of Public Works. So, then we go to Resolution 351-91. This is where I kind of believe that— MS. hatMS. VILLEGAS: I'm sorry, Kelsey. Can I just interrupt for a moment? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah, of course. MS. VILLEGAS: Can I just ask for a more specific explanation of this apportionment formula? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Sorry. MS. VILLEGAS: How it relates to TMK (Tax Map Key) districts and just all that good stuff? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah, I apologize, I skipped over that part of the PowerPoint. MS. VILLEGAS: No worries. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: So, the original apportionment formula that was proposed by DPW and approved by Council, was you would take the average of the percentage of vehicle weight tax per TMK district and percentage of road miles per TMK district, and that would be how the percentages were distributed Page 54 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 amongst TMK districts. So, the Fuel Tax Program, it doesn't align with County Council districts, it's like a road inventory kind of that is more identified by TMK mapping that Highways Division maintains. MS. VILLEGAS: Just a quick question. So, it's not in alignment with our County Council district boundaries? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: No. MS. VILLEGAS: But the TMK, when it says TMK district, it implies that it is specific TMK properties that are included in that area, or does it just align with the roads? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: So, my understanding of it is that Highway Maintenance has a mapping and there's road mileage within certain areas and that's how they come up with what they call a road inventory. MS. VILLEGAS: And that's based on the cars that are registered to live in that area? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah. So, back in the research of course, I guess there was a process for the registered owners. They would actually take the weight tax numbers of how much was coming in from, I guess, vehicle owners in that district. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, the only way it can makes sense to me is if we went to vehicle registration and then every year when you have to register your car, they have the weight and then they have the number of miles you drove during that year because your mileage goes up for the next registration. So, that information must be, based on the address of the car is registered to, must then go into—is Aaron (Brown) climbing up here? CHR. KIMBALL: I'll interrupt real quick because I just want to point out that formula is no longer the formula that's used. So,we shouldn't probably dive too deep into it. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Great, thanks for stopping it there. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Okay. MR. PAUSE: And I just also wanted to—Steve Pause, Director of Public Works. I also wanted to just clarify something you said. I don't think at any time they Page 55 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 actually looked at the number of miles that individual registered vehicles drove. I know that's something in the horizon with electric vehicles, but I don't think that when you register your vehicle or re-register it, you don't have to report your mileage. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah, it was just numbers provided by the Department of Finance on totals. I'm guessing they took it off of a revenue. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, it's irrelevant now, thankfully, because I was trying to wrap my head around how this equation works. Okay, appreciate it. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Definitely. Okay. So, then we come up to Resolution 351. This is where it identified that, okay, not only does the island need resurfacing and maintenance, but are heavily used roads that are open to more than just local traffic. They called it a circle island. It doesn't necessarily mean the roads that go around the island, but more of a way to encompass the whole island to have these projects that need a little more than just some maintenance. So, Council approved excess fuel tax revenue to pay for these improvements on circle island roads. That's how it was appropriated. This resolution also allowed for the fuel tax revenues to hire consultants, and it changed the apportionment formula from biannual to biennially, which is the process we use now. I feel like it was the opportunity to give our Engineering Division more time to spend the money and to combine different pots of money because as you know, with the design and the planning, it takes a little longer than just biannual. Then it leads us to Resolution 192. Council approved to extend the Fuel Tax Program for an additional 10 years to June 30, 2008. Again, the apportionment formula was discussed. It was proposed by DPW and approved by Council via ordinance. As always, the HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes) requires, I believe it's HRS 243-6, which allows the state and the county to establish fuel tax rates, but it must go to the Highway Fund, so, highway improvements only. Okay, the next slide, I just wanted to give some notable ordinances. There's ordinance number 99-46. This is when Council approved to change the apportionment formula to exclude the percentage of the vehicle weight tax. It was no longer optimal in the formula from the data I gathered. This is when the breakdown between 50 percent Engineering and 50 percent for Highway Division came into play. Another notable ordinance is ordinance 09-85. This is when DPW proposed and Council approved the current apportionment formula, which is the percentage of road miles in TMK district is how we distribute the money per district. MS. EVANS: Chair? Page 56 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Actually, Council Member Villegas still has the floor. Do you yield, Council Member Villegas? MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay, Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Just a clarification. The TMK district is established by the department working with the State Department of Transportation or is the TMK, is it a district that changes over time based on some ? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: The road inventory will change, depending on if we do road dedications, the State transfers its roads over to the County, the County transfers roads over to the State. CHR. KIMBALL: I think our Deputy Director of Finance can answer that question. Thank you. (Note: At this time, Deputy Director of Finance Aaron Brown came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. BROWN: Hi, Aaron Brown, Finance. I think the term TMK might be a little confusing. So, back when this was initially established, it's easier to think of it as just road districts. So, the TMKs are just areas around the island that was established for creating our road districts. They don't change as Council districts change or anything. It's based on square area. So, as Kelsey talks about as roads are added and subtracted from these different areas, the boundaries of these districts don't change. They'll continue to be the road districts that we refer to. So, even though it says TMK MS. EVANS: How many road districts? MR. BROWN: There's nine. MS. EVANS: Oh. MR. BROWN: So, it's looked at mostly square area. MS. EVANS: I know you didn't include it, but it's sure be nice to see an overlay of the road district over our districts MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Definitely, we can hopefully provide that at second reading. Page 57 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: I believe that is part of the tool that Planning provides on their website; the different layers. MR. BROWN: Yes, the GIS, yes. CHR. KIMBALL: The different GIS layers which is linked into your SharePoint Council page. MR. BROWN: So,just think of it as road districts. I think the term TMK is a little confusing. MS. EVANS: Okay. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Thank you. Okay, so that just brings us to current day. This is Resolution 504-08, and this was effective July 1, 2008. Council approved that this was a good program that didn't need to go and be heard at Council every 10 years. This resolution extends the program indefinitely, unless superseded by another resolution. The apportionment formula has stayed the same since 2008, and it still does divide 50 percent Engineering, 50 percent Highway Maintenance. Basically, if you look over the years at the history of fuel tax, there hasn't been much change to the apportionment formula because it is a fair way to distribute funding amongst all districts evenly. Of course, as always, we're willing to work with Council on the formula if you guys feel differently or have any suggestions because ultimately, it is approved by you. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Any further questions? Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for that overview, that was very helpful. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: You're welcome. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And putting that communication together for us so we could see it. Just a general question to the Director. Can you see any equitable way of bettering the system that we have now? I say that as a frequent user of all our roads in the County, and I would say that most of the roads in the County have their good and their bad spots. I'm not saying one district gets more than the other, but just can you see any equitable way to make this a better situation for our residents? MR. PAUSE: I'm drawn to the word equitable. At one point, when I first came along into this position, a previous business manager had a discussion. We have Page 58 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 1,003 miles of road on the island, and they all don't get driven the same, right? Some of them are in worse shape than others and some get a lot more traffic than others. I think this is equitable from the standpoint that it evenly or rather evenly distributes the money that we spend in each of the districts. But sometimes, I think about having the flexibility to be able to maybe do a little bit more work, say in Puna this year, because we've got some additional roads that we've identified that are maybe in worse shape than roads in North Kohala. But I'm not quite sure if that's equitable or not. I mean having the flexibility, we're just currently finishing up paving now. We're just about out of our funds for this year, but if we're down in a location and don't have money for Hamakua but we've got to stop working there and go where the money is remaining in the district. So, flexibility is probably the thing that I think about, the equitable part. I mean it seems fair to spend the money in each of the districts where it's designated. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. What about apportionment to Engineering and Highways? MR. PAUSE: Again, I think that's another area that we could probably look at, and I'd be looking at it from a flexibility standpoint more so than an equitable standpoint. But we do you're familiar with a lot of the bigger projects. We do these STIP (Statewide Transportation Improvement Program)projects. We designate money divided across the island into various locations. But there may be a time where in a particular region that has more bridges than the other that we might want to spend more money there. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You keep bringing up Puna, and it's just so interesting. CHR. KIMBALL: That's not what he's bringing up, Matt. MR. PAUSE: So again, I'm less drawn to the word what's equitable. I haven't really thought about that, I'm just thinking as a director, having the flexibility. We just come and if we need to make requests, we come here and we make those requests. So, I don't believe it's handcuffing us in any way. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Yeah,just thinking things that haven't been interviewed for 16 years or haven't changed in 16 years but areas and populations and density and roadways and ownership has changed. So, that's why I'm asking. I don't have any ideas right now that would make this better because I think it needs to be equitable and fair to all of our residents, but also undertaking some of these other higher philosophical ideas of underserved and rural and roadways themselves. Page 59 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MR. PAUSE: Again, even to the point where we have a particularly bad weather season in one area of the County versus another. I got my 1:30 call last night for issues in Puak6, which was the same as Saturday evening. At some point, having the flexibility to say, "You know what, this area we've identified, we have a repeating problem, maybe if we had the ability to spend more time and more money in that area,"that speaks back to the flexibility issue. But at the end of the day, we just soldier on with what we have, and what we have now is fair. MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. I yield, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Anyone else? Alright, seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 155 at first reading please say "aye." Vote on Bill 155: The motion to pass Bill 155 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 159 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Lee Loy — 1. Excused: None. Bill 158: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 23-50, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2024 Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants —Aina Based Youth Prevention and Resilience Programs account($12,000); and appropriates the same to the Aina Based Youth Prevention and Resilience Programs account, to be used by the Department of Parks and Recreation for planning, designing, and implementation of substance free educational community service events. Reference: Comm. 843 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-162 Page 60 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Bill 158: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder move to pass Bill 158 on first (Approved) reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 162. Seconded by Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Lee Loy — 1. Excused: None. Bill 163: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 23-50, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2024 Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants —Department of Health Complete Streets account($75,000); and appropriates the same to the Department of Health Complete Streets-Federal account, to advance Hawaii County's work on Multi- Modal Transportation Safety. Reference: Comm. 877 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 163 on first reading. Second by Ms. Galimba. CHR. KIMBALL: Any discussion on this item? MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: Director, sorry, I know that you're here. Is this for the Complete Streets? Sorry, I was hoping that you guys would be here for this, but I just had one question for DOH, sorry, for the Complete Streets. How many areas on our island are getting a Complete Streets project that you are aware of? (Note: At this time, Public Works Director Stephen Pause came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. PAUSE: Steve Pause, Director of Public Works. Obviously, we have a lot going on in Hilo right now, and I'm aware of that. All of our upcoming STIP projects have with Manono and there's a couple of others that had taken into account sidewalks and bike paths and things like that. So, I know there's a lot of Page 61 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 ongoing work. When I came along, it started with Waianuenue and some of those, but I'm not quite sure, other than Hilo, where else we have things going on right now. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's how I feel, and that's what I've seen; and that is what I'm concerned about; and that's why I'm asking. MR. PAUSE: It's a good question. I can take that back and get an answer for you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, I think an answer would be good, but more so, Complete Streets are important, there's nothing wrong with that. I know we have issues here in Hilo, but we also have issues in Kona; we have issues in Puna; we have issues island wide, let's just say that. A lot of them interplay with DPW, State, and getting people to and from and MR. PAUSE: Yeah, and I think Mass Transit also has a piece of that as well and I don't think that we're necessarily as engaged with them as we could be. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I want to know that we're being, and here's that beautiful word here, thinking about earlier, equitable, because this wasn't a specific location for this program. Yet, it seems that way in our spending. So, I'd like to know that we are addressing other parts of the island as well. MR. PAUSE: Okay, that's a fair question, and I can certainly get you information on that, and all of Council. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: If it needs to be done via communication, that's possible, but I'd like to see what you have and then we'll go from there. MR. PAUSE: Fair. Thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Thank you, Director. I wholly support my colleague's statement that we need to look at Complete Streets in so many areas around our island, yes. I don't know if you saw earlier when Ms. Soriano from Planning was addressing the accompanying resolution for this $75,000. But we talked just a little bit about that being used for many things but some of it around training, around Complete Streets, and things like that. She said that it can be used for Planning as well to participate in some of this training and work, and I'm Page 62 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 just wondering, is that something that your team and your guys want to do and are able to do? Because in addition to this, there are other training funds available, and we want to make sure you get what you need for this. MR. PAUSE: Yes, I did get to see her presentation or her questioning earlier. She did mention that there was a group of folks from both Planning and DPW that went and spent a number of days in California at a training seminar, and I think there's plans to do another one as well. Yeah, the ability to work hand in hand with Planning, and as I said, Mass Transit's another one that we want to bring into the mix as well. MS. KAGIWADA: For sure. Do you feel like you have what you need to get the right people trained on this stuff? MR. PAUSE: I think we have the right amount of training planned. I think it's well documented that we still are slightly understaffed. So, it's also just filling some seats that will help us. There's also somewhat of an overlap with Complete Streets and our safe routes, and we've now got that position filled again. MS. KAGIWADA: Who is it? MR. PAUSE: Jesse Domian. MS. KAGIWADA: Alright. MR. PAUSE: The clerk from Engineering. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. MR. PAUSE: An active bicycle rider, too. MS. KAGIWADA: Wonderful. MR. PAUSE: So, yeah, there's definitely opportunities as we go forward, but it comes back also to just making sure that we can resource it internally to manage everything in front of us. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay,just looking to support you and your team to make sure that we can look at this stuff when looking at all the roads around the, well, not all the roads, but all the roads that make sense around the entire island. So, yeah,just let us know what you need, okay? MR. PAUSE: Thank you, appreciate your support. Page 63 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. KAGIWADA: I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Yeah,just to add on a comment about the upcoming potential change in the General Plan. I'm curious how this Complete Streets, how it lands in the General Plan and if we're really looking at focusing—do we want to connect communities by having Complete Streets or do we want to work in our urban, high density core Complete Streets and do we have a priority? I'd be curious to see if the General Plan rolls out with where our priorities are, like maybe urban first and rural second. I don't know,but just something to think about. MR. PAUSE: Yes, I would agree. I'm thinking and hoping those are all rhetorical questions, but I'm not as familiar with the General Plan. I've gone to a couple of sessions on it, but I do know that there was a big, healthy dose of Complete Streets in it. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Anyone else? Alright, seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 163 at first reading please say Ic aye. Vote on Bill 163: The motion to pass Bill 163 on first reading was carried (Approved) by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Chair Kimball–8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Lee Loy – 1. Excused: None. Bill 164: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 23-50, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2024 Appropriates revenues in the 2024 Emergency Proclamation Homeless Programs – State account($1,000,000); and appropriates the same to the 2024 Emergency Proclamation Homeless Programs account, to support the implementation and ongoing operational support of a new homeless shelter program. Reference: Comm. 881 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Waived: FC Page 64 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 164 on first reading. Second by Ms. Kagiwada. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, I was hoping somebody could get on the line from Housing, I have some questions about this $1 million. While they're getting here, I just was doing a little math, and at$1 million divided by 365 days in a year, equates to $2,739.72 per day, divided by 25 beds, equates to $109.59 per person per day, which doesn't sound like a whole lot. Like $100 a day per person? I don't know if I cost that much every day, but in today's world, doesn't seem so far out of the ordinary. However, when you split the money a little differently, you end up with $83,333.33 per month that would be paid to a facility to provide cots for 25 people to spend 12 hours during the evening. I have interests in that's a lot of money, $83,000 a month for 25 people to have a place to stay every night? So, I have questions about, number one, the term `ohana zone has been utilized in a number of different capacities. It was kind of incorporated into the terminology utilized by Governor Green with the Kauhale and the small, tiny homes, kind of communities like that being in `ohana zone. There's also `ohana zones, which is providing a parking spot at night for people who have to sleep in their cars in order to not travel back and forth across the island nightly when working on one side or the other. So, I have a lot of questions about another million dollars being placed into programs that I am completely behind, but after having—we had 18 tiny homes that were at Old Airport for the time during COVID, and it was claimed that cost $40,000 a month. I have some questions about how this money is being allocated and why isn't it being more efficient and effective? I also have some challenges because we don't have—and I get it, most of the homeless service providers that are funded through our County are on the east side, making it more feasible for those organizations to provide services on the east side and the facilities. But it doesn't mitigate the fact that we're suffering on the west side. We're lacking the resources, we're lacking the organizations, and I continue to be told we'll get there, but we haven't gotten there and we're falling farther behind. To see another million dollars come forward, I have questions about the wisdom, efficiency, and effectiveness of the spends, and where the money is going and who is making money off of our taxpayers' money? CHR. KIMBALL: Just before you going further, Council Member, I just want to make sure that it was clear that this is the companion measure to the resolution we spoke about before. So, this is the grant money coming in from DHS. MS. VILLEGAS: Yes, very clear. Page 65 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Yeah, okay. MS. VILLEGAS: So, I'm just utilizing the second opportunity after doing the math, on the public record and for the people that live in District 7 and on the west side of the island, to express our deep and enduring frustrations. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright. Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah,just while we're waiting, I did just text Susan and Sharon. So hopefully, somebody will jump on. The one thing I wanted to say is I'm totally in support. I understand the frustration. I would love to see more support for people on the west side. I think it's so critical, and frankly, it impacts us on the east side because people get shift over here because they don't have beds over on the Kona side. So, when they don't have beds then they bring people over here and then sometimes, they get stranded over here. Or they're over here and they don't have their communities, they don't have their support, and they get stuck over here. So, I'm in total support of making sure that we have support around the island. I guess that's just mainly what I wanted to say. Thanks. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, let me go to Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, then I'll come back to you, Council Member Villegas. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: To Ms. Villegas' point, I didn't think about it like that, but$83,000 per month for one organization to overnight stay 25 cots, is a lot of money per month. If we're only addressing one space, whatever the outcomes could be, I'm really choking on $83,000 a month there. That's a lot of money a month. So, I would like just some insight from the department. CHR. KIMBALL: Looks like they may be joining us. I see Council Member Evans, you've put your light on and then I'll come back to Council Member Villegas. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. I just wanted to clarify, I know that, if it's okay, I wanted to ask Member Kagiwada, was this John Mizuno's trip to Hilo pointing out that this was going to be a pilot and they were going to stand this up and see if it was a model that would work? Because it says here emergency. When I look at actually the bill itself, it says it's an emergency proclamation. MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah, so, Mr. Mizuno is out here on a couple things. This was one of them. I think the one that was in the paper more had to do with the Kauhale project that they were looking at, which is very different than this. That was the one that was in the paper but yes, he was also Page 66 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. EVANS: So, the bigger question I would have to the department is if this is considered a one-time effort to see if it truly has an impact and if people were willing to—when you're in a cot, it's kind of like is everybody willing to stay in the same room. Then you have issues with showering and feeding. I mean it's a pretty complex operation to set up cots; maybe this is an effort just to learn if it works. I just wanted to ask if really, it's just a pilot and is it a one-time deal with an expectation that if it is successful that maybe there's opportunities to extend it? Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: I think that was for you, Ms. Hirota. (Note: At this time, Housing and Community Development Division Manager Sharon Hirota came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. HIROTA: Thank you. My apologies. Thank you for the question. Yes, this is, as Council Member Kagiwada had indicated, this is separate from the Kauhale initiative. Our conversations and connections with the Salvation Army Hilo Temple, they have done this at the national level in various cities. The current captain at the Salvation Army Hilo Temple actually manages a similar project in the State of Washington. So, he does come with a number of years of experience in managing this type of cot sleeping emergency shelter. I can tell you that we are looking at all possible solutions to bring our unsheltered individuals, engaging with them and connecting them with appropriate housing. Our current shelter operations are at max capacity, and while they turn people over, it's just not enough beds to help those that are in need. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay? Alright, back to you, Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, thank you, Council Member Kagiwada, for those sentiments and support. Just as you highlighted, I hear a number of people expressing concerns for forcing people who are living on the streets without shelter in Kona to be torn out of a community. I would say for my own experience and working with homeless providers, that anything is better than living on the streets and in the circumstances and being exposed to the abuse, and the violence, and the travesties that occur when living on the streets in Kona. What we're finding is people that are chronically homeless refuse to come to Hilo. So, because they refuse to come to Hilo and we don't have the opportunities or beds in Kona, and the only beds available are in Hilo, then they end up in that in between where they won't accept services. So, it is contributing to them continually being forced, well, choosing, but that is where they're staying Page 67 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 because there are no options on our side. So, this is a catch 22, it keeps circling around. I guess I just struggle with the concept of there aren't any beds when we have provided upwards of$20 million. Buy some more beds. We have facilities that have some opportunity for some more furniture to be installed, and I just have to keep pushing on this because it's very close to my heart and it's impacting the health and safety of the people in my community. It's tragic. I yield, and $80,000 a month is too much money to spend on 25 cots in a facility per month,period. CHR. KIMBALL: Any further conversation on this item? Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Ms. Hirota, I guess I just would like to give you a chance to give any feedback or answer the questions that were raised before you jumped on, which is why so much money? Why $1 million for 25 cots for a year. I think that's kind of the question. I'm paraphrasing, but yeah, I think that's what folks wanted to know. MS. HIROTA: So yes, managing shelters is expensive. The majority of the funding is going in for staffing and security. They are proposing—while we talk about the 25 beds or cots that will be made available, when we do the math, it's 25 beds per night. Our intention is to turn over these beds and as we continue to engage and teams engage with the individuals that take advantage of the cots sleeping, it's to move them out so that we can clear that bed up for somebody new the next day. So, our intention is not just 25, but of the 25, if we move 20 percent of them out on a daily basis to other options that are available, that's five beds being turned over every single day. That means we can help five more people. In a given year, 25 beds times 365, we're talking about an opportunity to provide little over 9,000 shelter beds a year. But our intention is much bigger because we have gone back and forth to the State as well as Salvation Army where we talk about just"the 25 beds,"but more importantly, the discussion around how quickly we would be able to turn these beds around to offer it to new people and move people who otherwise may not be engaged to housing and/or services. I hope that helps clarify. The other thing is, as I said earlier, the experience of the local staff in managing these types of projects in other municipalities, and the experience they bring into our County to help us solve some of our unsheltered concerns. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much. Appreciate you jumping back on. I don't have anything else. Thank you, Chair. Page 68 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Alright. Anyone else? Alright, seeing none, all those in favor of approving Bill 164 at first reading please say, "aye." Vote on Bill 164: The motion to pass Bill 164 on first reading was carried (Approved) by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 505-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT FOR THE OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY, CLIMATE, EQUITY, AND RESILIENCE'S PILOT PROGRAM TO PROVIDE ZERO WASTE SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS FOR PUBLIC MEETINGS Transfers $8,020 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 2); and credits to the Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience, Other Current Expenses account. Reference: Comm. 861 Intr. by: Ms. Kagiwada Motion to Approve: Ms. Kagiwada moved to adopt Res. 505-24. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much. Jake is here, Mr. Sykes from R&D/OSCER (Department of Research and Development/Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience) to talk about this, but I was really happy to do this. It's giving them a little bit of starter funding to be able to purchase some things that can help all of us do zero-waste meetings and things like that, and also, potentially be used to lend out to our community organizations who also do events and meetings to try to bring the waste down in our community when these events happen. So Jake, would love to hear your take. (Note: At this time, Economic Development Specialist II Jake Sykes came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. SYKES: Aloha, County Council mahalo for being in front of you today. My name is Jake Sykes Sustainability Specialist with Research and Development, Page 69 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 officially assigned to help stand up the Office of Sustainability, Climate Change Equity, and Resilience, as we're getting some administrative back-end things happening to stand up the staff. Just briefly, I have a quick statement from our Sustainability Administrator, Bethany Morrison that she would just like to make in front of you. "Aloha, County Council Members, first, I want to thank Council Member Kagiwada for her leadership and partnership as we lean in to ensure that the County continues to demonstrate ways we can adjust our practices to strive towards a more sustainable future. This project will support OSCER's role in coordinating and supporting these efforts countywide, and we're excited to reduce the waste from our County meetings and events as that first step. There will also be an opportunity, through this pilot program, to engage with our partners and to increase our education and awareness of our waste streams as the County starts to get its house in order. Thank you in advance for your support of OSCER and for this resolution." That is all from our Administrator Bethany Morrison. If you have any questions on the nuts and bolts of the grants, I am more than happy to answer them. MS. KAGIWADA: Jake, do you just want to say a little bit about what you're thinking about for the office, purchasing with that money? MR. SYKES: Yeah, so the list of equipment that we're looking at right now is getting a couple sorting stations, which is just like color coordinated bins for your organics, for your recyclables, for your landfill. It could also—we can change the labels and do it by different types of plastics. We just kind of need more sorting infrastructure for our waste stream. There's also going to be some bulk supplies of reusable food ware. So, I believe it's stainless-steel plates, cups, utensils, but then we'll also be doing the compostable route as well, so, some more discardable items that we don't have to reuse or rewash every time. We also will be purchasing a mobile sanitation station. So, if there is a community event and we have vendors, but they want to opt into our reusable food ware, we will have onsite washing and sorting for that for a quick turnover. And there's also going to be signage and educational outreach components to this as well. MS. KAGIWADA: Thanks so much. Are we also doing refillable water stations? MR. SYKES: Yes, refillable water stations. Page 70 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. KAGIWADA: Alright, because we all are so good at bringing our cups and bottles and things these days, but our meetings, we're still bringing cases of plastic water bottles. So, hopefully we can bring that number down. Thank you so much for being here and sharing with us. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha, Jake, thanks for being here. Thanks for your continued passion and then identifying ways to utilize these resources to bring down our impact. As leaders, it is part of our vital responsibility. When I first came to Council, we were still having plastic water bottles placed, single use, in front of us, and I was grateful for the opportunity to go buy pint glasses and bulk dispensers that now sit in the back. I am hopeful that you will be able to provide us withI do it. I use a plastic fork and throw it away. It can be washed. It can be reused. So, I'm hopeful that we can transition to stainless steel and the resources we use back here. I think it's imperative that we lead by example in that capacity. In a prior term, I bought all the Council Members reusable bamboo silverware or cutlery. We have to lead by example. These options and solutions are all there. I was recently at a County event where they passed out the tiny little water bottles, and it makes me pucker. So, I am grateful for your work in this direction and capacity, and I hope at some point there will be some legislation we'll have ready that eliminates those items even as an option in our County. So, thank you once again. Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada, for recognizing this and holding ourselves to a higher standard of authenticity in leadership and putting our energy and resources where our mouths are. Alright, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Anyone else? Alright, seeing none, all those in favor of adopting Resolution 505-24 please say "aye." Vote on Res. 505-24: The motion to adopt Res. 505-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Recess: At 12:47 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Page 71 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 12:58 p.m. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, good afternoon, everyone, I'm calling this meeting out of recess. Mr. Clerk, let's dispose of the bills for second and final reading and then we'll return to the contingency funds. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of THE DAY the Day (Second or Final Reading). (SECOND OR FINAL READING: Bill 146: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 23-50, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2024 Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants —Hazard Mitigation Grant Program — Mana Road Fire account($33,200); and appropriates the same to the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program —Mana Road Fire account to reduce the risk of wildfires. Reference: Comm. 797 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) First Reading: May 1, 2024 Vote on Bill 146: Ms. Lee Loy moved to pass Bill 146 on second and final (Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Kimball —7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Villegas —2. Excused: None. Bill 147: AMENDS CHAPTER 24, ARTICLE 10, DIVISION 5, SECTION 24-279, SCHEDULE 27 OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO PARKING ON PAVEMENT PROHIBITED AT ALL TIMES Adds a provision prohibiting parking on pavement at all times for a portion of the east side of Government Road in Ka`u, near its junction with Nmole Loop Road. Reference: Comm. 803 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy (B/R) First Reading: May 1, 2024 Page 72 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Bill 147: Ms. Lee Loy moved to pass Bill 147 on second and final (Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Kimball —7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Villegas —2. Excused: None. Bill 159: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 23-51, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2023 TO JUNE 30, 2024 Increases the appropriation to the Public Works Bridge Repair Projects —Honoli`i and Kaiwilahilahi Streams - Federal Project($14,282,000) in the Capital Budget. Funds for this project shall be provided from Federal Grants Receivable and would be used for structural repairs to and preservation of the Honoli`i Stream Bridge and the Kaiwilahilahi Stream Bridge. Reference: Comm. 844 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) First Reading: May 1, 2024 Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire membership to amend,pursuant to Section 10-6(e), Hawai`i County Charter Vote on Bill 159: Ms. Lee Loy moved to pass Bill 159 on second and final (Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Kimball —7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Villegas —2. Excused: None. Page 73 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES Bills for Ordinances (First Reading). (FIRST READING): (Note: Items in this category were taken up previously, out of order.) Bill 125: AMENDS CHAPTER 6 OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (Draft 3) (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), BY ADDING A NEW ARTICLE RELATING TO COMMERCIAL BICYCLE TOURS Establishes annual registration requirements for any person or business operating a commercial bicycle tour and that the County Council may prohibit the operation of commercial bicycle tours on designated portions of public highways if transportation and public safety officials determine that operating the commercial bicycle tour on the designated portion of a public highway poses a threat to public safety. Reference: Comm. 679.61 Intr. by: Ms. Evans Negative: PCPLUD-9 (Due to a vote of 4-ayes, 4-noes, 1-absent) Postponed: March 20 and May 1, 2024 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. Evans, seconded by Ms. Villegas, to pass Bill 125, Draft 2, as amended, on first reading.) (Note: Comm. 679.69, from Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz dated May 15, 2024, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 125, Draft 3, was circulated.) Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz move to amend Bill 125, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 679.69. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. First, I just want to thank Council Member Evans for providing me such generous latitude in massaging her bill. I know that she has an issue that she's trying to solve for her community. But just as a Council, we want to make sure that any precedence we set is something that can be carried forward with integrity going forward. So, listened very intently to some of the comments that were made during our last Council meeting and introduced an amendment here to address some of those questions and concerns. The first being what an annual registration and renewal fee would look like. We are looking for folks to register their commercial bicycle tour operation before the first of January of every year. The initial registration fee would be $500; Page 74 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 subsequent annual renewal would be $250; and there was also a comment about folks need to be incentivized to register, so, failure to comply would incur a fine of$1,000 for each unregistered year, until they have registered with the County. One thing that we have not determine is where these moneys would go. I did mention at the last Council meeting that we could look into setting up a special fund or account where this money is deposited and used to create educational signage around public safety. So, would love everybody's thoughts on that. The next thing we did in the section related to authority to restrict was provide a bit more clarity on what exactly we are looking for from our Chief of Police and Director of Public Works. If you recall, if there is legislation we're reviewing as a body with relation to a rezone request or a time extension, often the Planning Department will send out that application to different County agencies and State bodies for their comments. We also have provisions in our Charter for say if there is an amendment to something related to the Department of Environmental Management, it's sent to an external body for review. So, we are using that as a model to request opinions from our Police Chief and our Public Works Director, and I've also included other public officials, in the event that we need the opinion of folks in State or other County government. We've also provided a time frame in which we would appreciate the opinions by these officials of 30 days. Section C, in this particular section, has not been touched. I wanted to make sure that we were giving ourselves enough time to work with the Director of Public Works to ensure that the terminology that we used here is accurate because at this point, I think there was concern brought up at the last Council meeting about what exactly all of this means and is this something that—are these terms that Public Works actually uses. So, I appreciate everyone's patience as we move through that process. The next section related to prohibited highways wanted to create an area, an exhibit where in the event that this Council identifies roads where commercial bike tours would be prohibited, they would be listed in a schedule here. Then finally, Chair, we have provided clarity around who would be penalized in the event that a bicycle tour company is giving a tour on a prohibited road. Then we also provided clarity around who would be developing the administrative rules related to this ordinance. That would be the Director of Finance rather than the Chief of Police. Happy to answer any questions you might have. I know that Director Pause is reviewing this particular amendment. I would love to invite him up to let us know his thoughts on this particular draft and the feasibility of Public Works weighing in on these requests should they be brought forward by the Council. Page 75 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 (At this time, Public Works Director Stephen Pause came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. PAUSE: Good afternoon, Steve Pause, Director of Public Works. So,just having this shared with me, I did a pretty quick read. I guess my initial take on it is that it looks pretty good. It's covering the bases for, I guess limiting tours and roads that we wouldn't necessarily feel are safe. So, without going into any details, I'm reading your Section C here about the types of unsafe road conditions; might be able to noodle a little bit with that language, but I think just in general, it looks pretty good. I think the concept of reaching out both to the Director of Public Works and the Director of Safety are good ideas. The one note, as I've had discussions with Council Member Evans and others, would be to make sure that we include the ability to get our State partners to weigh in. Many of the roads on the island that we share are both County and/or State. So, I feel comfortable speaking on behalf of all the County roads, but we definitely want to make sure that we have some avenue to make sure that our State partners can weigh in. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for that, Director. I think an earlier version of this did identify—it did, requesting some kind of communication from the State Department of Transportation Director. I want to get this in front of him. I know that we as a County cannot force our State partners to provide an opinion, but I'm sure that there's some kind of language that they would be amenable to including, just so that we are in coordination. I just want to make sure that any work that we do, there is that intergovernmental collaboration happening. MR. PAUSE: I would agree with that, and I think actually, maybe to make it easier for the Director of Transportation for the State, you may suggest it when you do communicate with Mr. Smith and to maybe just the language could be with the district engineer or the County district engineer. I think it ought to be handled or it should be able to be handled at a local level without having to go to Oahu. So, that would be a thought. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you for that. I also just wanted to note that under the section related to prohibited highways,we are requesting that your department erect signage letting folks know that commercial bicycle tours are prohibited. MR. PAUSE: That would be fine. Again, I would bring the topic up about State Highways, if the expectation is for the County to do that, then we should be clear on that. I don't know if your intent is to have, well, the intent would be to have the same sign to provide that consistency, but would the intent be for the County to post signs on State roads? You might want to clear that up. Page 76 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes, let's get, I would say that in writing. I'm also recalling a resolution that this body passed where the County and State can do work for each other up to $2 million. So, I think that there's wiggle room around that but for this particular project, I just want to make sure we're in coordination with State Highways. MR. PAUSE: Yes, I would agree with that. We, obviously, as you all know, we do a lot of work together and our Traffic folks who make the signs do a lot of work directly with the State under reimbursement. So, that shouldn't be a problem. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Well, thank you for being here; surprise for both of us; appreciate your support and will continue to work with you,particularly on Section C of the authority to restrict. MR. PAUSE: Great. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks, Director. Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Any further discussion? Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Since you're here, Director, thank you for being here. Just wondering, are there any data points that you can use when looking at these things? Because I would hate for it to just be based on either politics or a feeling and not actually be grounded in any data. MR. PAUSE: Yes, there are a lot of traffic manuals, MUTCD (Manual on Unform Traffic Control Devices) is a big one that's used. But, as you're aware, we get lots of requests for traffic calming devices. There are standards and there are books to reference, and if nothing else, we need to be consistent. So, I would suggest to you that any of these sorts of decisions must be data driven and not arbitrary. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Would you be looking to your Highways Division to make this call? I'm interested because we were just talking about Complete Streets and wanting to make sure that we encourage our community to be active and ride bicycles and things. And shutting down roads, I realize this is specifically for bicycle tours, but I've been hearing a lot from the bicycling community, like are they just going to stop me? How are they going to know if I'm riding with friends, that I'm not on a bicycle tour? It just feels a little bit like because we don't have the funds to make all of our roads good for bicycling that we'll be shutting down roads right and left that are not safe for bicycling. Page 77 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MR. PAUSE: So, it's actually a multi-divisional contribution. Traffic is really good at recognizing and following their books and their standards for things like striping and signs and speeds and things like that. Highways has a really good command of our road's right of ways. There may be instances where you could potentially go in and shave a little bit off of a side slope to make a bit more room and add a shoulder. So, they would be involved and engaged as well, and Engineering as well. They're, like Traffic, they're very rigid with design standards, and they would necessarily be involved as well. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, because I know past standards, especially around here, have been to have these very wide streets. It seems like a lot of best practices, more recently, are like 10-foot streets, things like that, and to try to calm traffic by having narrower streets and making sure that we have appropriate shoulders and things like that, bike lanes, if possible, all those things. So, would it be looking at things like that; like if it's a really wide street, is there a possibility to narrow the lanes with striping and potentially, help the situation that way as opposed to banning bicycles? MR. PAUSE: I think what we're being asked to do is comment on the safety of the roadways themselves. All of the points that you bring up are true. One other thing that you did not bring up is also drainage. We have a lot of issues with drainage on this island, not just in Puako. So, to make our roads safe, you're sort of implying the whole standard of curb, gutter, sidewalk. Some of the opportunities we have to look at roads and make them better are also limited by our right of ways. Some of these roads, I think we were recently up in Holualoa, it was a trail and now it's a road, and people drive big trucks, and they go really fast, but we don't have the real estate to make the road wider. So, all of those things come into consideration I believe. MS. KAGIWADA: I'm just thinking, if you were thinking based on what you've heard here in this bill, could you see many roads coming to you and being asked to be designated as non-accessible to bicycle tours? MR. PAUSE: I'm not sure. At the end of the day, it's not my call to decide unless we're asked to render an opinion. But, as you know, there are a lot of roads on this island. I've just mentioned Holualoa, Pololu. I drive Kohala Mountain Road almost every day. There's a lot of roads where you just look at them and you've got like inches, if not a foot or two, past the white line on the side and you have to take it to safety, and I think some of this language talks about grades and winding roads and hilly terrains and things like that. Another one would be side slopes, right? You don't want to put bicycle up against a steep slope that might have rock slippage. So, there's a lot of things, but Page 78 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 unfortunately, we have to work within the real estate that we're provided for that road. In some places we have room to expand it and some places we just don't have that space. MS. KAGIWADA: Alright. Okay. Thank you for your input, it's really valuable. To the maker of this amendment, I think putting the money towards bike safety programs or biking programs, either for children or for everybody in the community, might be a good opportunity to kind of make sure that people are doing what they can to be safe on their bikes as well. That's one thought. I'm supportive, in general, of this amendment because I think it kind of gets at. I'm still unsure about when we get to the actual bill. Thanks. CHR. KIMBALL: Thanks, Council Member Kagiwada. I'm not sure who was first over here. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, Chair. Yes, in support of. I think as I begin to walk this out and I'm listening to the concerns of my colleagues, with the registration comes the understanding that they're going to provide a list of routes, right? So, now we're going to have the road map and we can overlay it over the roads that we have. I actually don't see, on the initial pieces, that people are going to want to move all kinds of roads into the prohibited area. I actually see it being conversed to that where here are the roads, here are multiple users, maybe even our Mass Transit route is on it, and maybe there's ways to braid funding to start to enhance those roads. So, I can support this, as written, and look forward to kind of the next strokes of it. I actually was, I'm always real heavy handed with penalties, and I don't mind it going a little higher because if it's a rolling penalty over time that they're not registered, and I've looked online, they charge $100 a person, and they're running tours 365 days a year. They can handle a little bit more. The other part as the maker was asking for guidance, I absolutely support educational programs, but I'd actually like to see more equipment around digital signs and boards. What I know to be vertical delineators and visual prompts, I would love to see our Traffic Division get into those visual prompts because there's ways to paint lines or put up vertical delineators that have the appearance of the road is getting smaller, but it's not. So, drivers will slow down just because of these visual prompts that are coming at them. I think those are my initial thoughts. Definitely want to see this set and how this kind of gets back out to community. I think we all got an email or two from a number of people who ride bikes, and I think the goal really is provide roads that people can ride on, but also, if you're going to be a tour operator, you have some responsibilities to make sure that the routes that you pick are conducive to a commercial activity. Those are my thoughts. I yield. Page 79 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. With this amendment, the intention is to have every commercial bicycle tour operator register in the County, no matter if they're operating on a prohibited road, right? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, if I might. CHR. KIMBALL: Yes, you may respond. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Currently, there are no roads that are prohibited. MR. INABA: But with the language that's in here, we would be requiring any and all tour operators to register? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes, we are requiring them to register and to identify where they conduct their tours. MR. INABA: Okay. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And it's very possible that some of these routes may become illegal for them to conduct a commercial bike tour. That's if this Council moves forward with prescribing an ordinance that identifies a particular route. MR. INABA: Okay. I'm fine with having registration for everyone. I'm looking at Section (b) though, and the failure to register. It says, "failure to register shall incur a fine of$1,000 for each unregistered year and the first registration thereafter shall be considered the initial registration." I'm just wondering if that's going to be a little bit hard to determine because if a company doesn't register for so many years and comes back, are we going to tack on $1,000 per year for not registering even though they weren't conducting? I'm thinking that Section 4 of the amendment might be better off left as it is because it says, "Any bicycle tour business violates any provision", so we catch them in the act. So, if they're on the roads and they're not registered, that's when we could fine them, but having that year to year, $1,000 for going unregistered, I don't know if that's the best method and how we're going to track and really make a determination on that. But, I just want to throw that out there because ultimately, we catch them when they're in the act. So, I don't know that I can support this, but if we can explain how that$1,000 for unregistered years would work clearly, maybe I'd get behind this. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair. Council Member Kierkiewicz. Page 80 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. You might not have been here when I started to speak to the amendment, Council Member Inaba. But at the last Council meeting, there were comments by members of this body that said they wanted to see some kind of penalty in the event that a business fails to register. So, that's where this $1,000 sort of penalty fee arises from for not registering. Separate from that is, if you are caught operating providing commercial bike tours on a prohibited road, then there are these offenses. If you have suggestions on how this could be further cleaned up, I welcome them, but I just want you to be aware of how the idea of that failure to register fine originated from. Those were comments that were raised by this body. CHR. KIMBALL: Let me just check with anybody else. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Thanks for the conversation, continuing to dig deep with this. I just want to highlight in general, in the County, when it comes to enforcement, I get told a number of times that it's community complaints that are the trigger for enforcement. By just, as Council Member Lee Loy already pointed out, I'm sure she googled it and was able to find the bike tours and how much they charge. So, finding who the bike tours are on the island, I don't think would be that hard to do, as those that are operating almost all I would assume, have websites and are advertising for them. And within our communities, people are pretty aware of who those businesses are, living in Kailua-Kona where we host and on the west side, a number of events that bring in thousands if not hundreds of thousands of athletes that are on our roads continually, having had friends that have been killed on our roads. Director Pause bringing up our conversation about Holualoa Road. Actually, two nights later, I was almost hit while crossing that one-lane bridge, as somebody pulled right in front of me. I really thought this was it, it was going to happen, but thankfully, they pulled in. So, there's wisdom and responsibility that applies to tour bike operators. I firmly believe that for the interest of the health and safety of our community and our visitors, that this is something, a viable cause to continue to pursue. All of the stipulations that are included in this amendment, I think, are viable and within reason, and it's time for these things to be codified. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Thank you for bringing all the amendments forward. I just wanted to check. I had asked a question about the Page 81 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 effective date which would give time for the Department of Finance to create and then for the people to actually register in time. Was the effective date moved back or was that given any thought between the makers? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Sorry Chair, I apologize. I'm going through my notes, and I don't see a note from our Council meeting about that particular question. CHR. KIMBALL: I would also say the effective date is not included in the amendment. So, I would save that discussion to when we're back to the main motion. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Well, on the amendment, that was something I had requested, and for the reasons given. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, thank you. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you, Chair. Yes, I definitely am in support of the amendment. I think it addresses some of the questions that we had earlier and flushes out the registration, which I think is a really important element to move forward with this endeavor to regulate the commercial bike tours. I still do have some of the worries or concerns that Council Member Kagiwada has about the line between commercial bike tours and bicycling in general and not wanting to put any kind of darkness on bicycling. But that sort of is outweighed by the dark particular phenomenon of these commercial bike tours which are, for some reason, they're quite different than just a bunch of folks riding bikes together. So, I definitely support this amendment, and I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. First, the input from all of the colleagues is just making this such a better bill. It's really getting for anybody who is watching, the Sunshine Law works. When you only have two people working on a bill and then it gets in front of your colleagues that have never seen it before, it's this kind of input and this reaction. For me personally, I really appreciate the years of experience that sits here, and the idea of looking at what we have in Code now and how can we write this so it kind of is more consistent in how we work with our roads and look at Code. I wanted to comment on member Kanealii-KI einfelder's comment about the effective date. I agree that to give time to this kind of stand up and this will probably be with Finance in terms of registration, giving them time. So obviously, that conversation on effective date to be had more. Page 82 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 I just have one question on maybe just a little clarity. When we asked the Chief of Police and Director Public Works, we're asking them for an opinion on the road and the Chief of Police was here the last time and he had no problem with it. He said absolutely. His policemen that oversee the State highways as well as the County roads, can basically, they know where the accidents are. They know where the fender benders are, and they can give an opinion. But what it says here, it's within 30 days of the request by the Council. And the question I would have is what would that look like? Because there's a clock, right, 30 days of the request. Is it a written request? Is it a I don't know, I was just kind of curious. I'd just like to flush that out a little bit for myself to make sure. Anyway, that's the only comments I had. Thank you, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Coming back to Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. To respond to Council Member Evans, I would imagine that the opinion from both or the letter or opinion from Public Works and Chief the Police would be written. Is that evident to you in the current language, Director? Respective opinion? (Note: At this time, Public Works Director Stephen Pause came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. PAUSE: Yeah, it's clear. The only question I would raise is what are the consequences of not responding within 30 days. I think that might be what Council Member Evans was getting to. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And if you have suggestions, this is your bill,just trying to provide some guardrails around it. MR. PAUSE: A lot of times we tend to, if you haven't given your opinion or done what you're supposed to do within 30 days, then it passes on in whatever state it was proposed. I think this might be different. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So, in your opinion, is 30 days a reasonable amount of time for you to make a determination? I say that because when we need to flush out letter(c) further, in my mind, we have some kind of checklist that has the formal terminology of things that are listed here, the data points that Council Member Kagiwada brought up, and it's a matter of just going through that criteria and making a determination on whether or not a particular road should be added to this ordinance. MR. PAUSE: Yeah, in that context, 30 days is pretty tight if you think about everything that's included in item (c). Now, there'll be roads on island that will Page 83 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 be fairly self-evident, but if you do need to do some level of analysisI know our Traffic folks look at accidents and various types of data that are available. So, maybe 30 days is on the lean side. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Would you be comfortable with 45? MR. PAUSE: Are we going to negotiate? How about 90? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That's really cute. How's 45? MR. PAUSE: Well, there is a number between 90 and 30, isn't there? Obviously, whatever you put in there is what we'll meet. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Again, we just want to move this through the process quickly and feasibly. MR. PAUSE: Yeah, that's fine. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you. 30 is fine? MR. PAUSE: No, 45 I thought I just heard you say. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MR. PAUSE: Would be better. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Alright,just making sure. MR. PAUSE: My concern is if we want to put the rider level, especially on potential roads that are on the fringe and we talked earlier about, maybe we can make some little changes or improvements. That'll take some time to take a look at that before we render opinion say, hey, you're right, no bicycle tours on this road, but if we do this, this, and this it'll create a discussion. So, being afforded a little extra time to do that analysis would not hurt. CHR. KIMBALL: All set, Council Member Kierkiewicz. I would just like to make a couple quick comments. Thanks for the attention to detail and the edits here. I would just say with respect to the conversation that we were just having, the request is for an opinion from Public Works, and if that opinion is that there's insufficient information to make a determination, I'm sure that could be provided within the timeframe. So, since it's not like a hard and fast, like a planning decision where it proceeds without, if there's no response in that time, I think we have a little flexibility there. Page 84 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 I did tap into what Vice Chair Inaba was saying, which is at the very top of the second page where you have that language that says "$1,000 fine for each unregistered year. . . ." I think the only challenge there is how you would make the determination of how many years they were operating unregistered. So, I think it would be fine to just say if they're caught and their found to be unregistered, there's a$1,000 fine and not have to back track. As long as there is some penalty for not registering, I don't know that we have to go back in time. I think that's going to add a lot of extra challenges to the system. Then just one editorial comment. I don't know if it's that important, but since we were talking about the TMK districts or road districts earlier, with your schedule that you put in place, you might want to break up Kohala and Kona into north and south so that there's consistency between the road schedule and these area schedules for the prohibition. Not a deal breaker for me,just an editorial comment. That's it. Alright, we're on the amendment. All those in favor please say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 125, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 679.69 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: We're back to the main motion. Authors, what do you want to do? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So, I would like to postpone for one more meeting just because I would hate to go to second reading and still be tinkering. I want the next draft to be solid and something that we can give the community an opportunity to chew on before second and final reading. I just want to make sure that I understand the assignment clearly and we come back with all the suggestions in the next iteration of the amendment. So, updates to the registration section, failure to comply, a one time, $1,000 fine. I will explore, with Public Works and Finance, how we would appropriately deposit registration fees and any fines that have been incurred into an account to support a myriad of activities that were described here. Then, we'll be working with Public Works on their guidance related to section (c) and making their process to weigh in on suggested prohibited roads easy. Page 85 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 I'm also going to give you a little win today, Director, and update this from 30 days to requiring that you provide some feedback within 45 days,just knowing how much your department is struggling. Then in terms of the districts that are listed around the island, we will take a look at the road schedule and make sure that they are seamless, and we'll also consult with the Department of Finance to make a determination for the effective date. Want to make sure that they have everything that they need to be able to implement this ordinance. Then finally, Judge Strance sent me a message about how we would be able to kind of monitor who in the State of Hawaii does business in his way. There are required filings to the State DCCA (Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs), I believe, where we can kind of monitor it and take a look to see who's registered with them, who's registered with the County, and are in a position to actually enforce the ordinance that we are adopting. Thank you, Judge Strance, appreciate that. I think I have everything but if I've missed anything let me know. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Any other comments before a motion to postpone is made? Vote on Motion to Ms. Evans moved to postpone Bill 125, as amended to Postpone: Draft 4, to June 5, 2024. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and (Approved) carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Return to Order The Chair directed the Council to return to the order of business. of Business: Res. 496-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HAWAII ISLAND LGBTQ PRIDE TO SUPPORT ITS 12TH ANNUAL PRIDE FESTIVAL Transfers $3,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 2); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 835 Intr. by: Ms. Kagiwada Postponed: May 1, 2024 Page 86 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. Kagiwada, seconded by Ms. Lee Loy, to adopt Res. 496-24.) Motion to Postpone: Ms. Kagiwada moved to postpone Res. 496-24 to June 5, 2024. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Anything on the postponement, Council Member. Kagiwada? MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah,just waiting on the IRS (Internal Revenue Service)to update their website. That's just what we've been waiting on. They take a long time. So, as soon as they update their website, we're good to go, everything's good. The Department of Liquor has been very patient and willing to help us do this very last minute. So, appreciate their support and we will, hopefully, get it done June 5th. So, looking for my colleagues' support on this. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Alright, all those in favor of the postponement please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to postpone Res. 496-24 to June 5, 2024, was Postpone: carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball —8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1. Excused: None. Res. 504-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TWO KAT KAKOU FOR ITS 2024 FAMILY FUN FEST AND INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION Transfers $4,500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 6); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation, Administration Other Current Expenses account. Reference: Comm. 860 Intr. by: Ms. Galimba Motion to Approve: Ms. Galimba moved to adopt Res. 504-24. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Galimba. Page 87 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 MS. GALIMBA: Just asking for my colleagues' support. Thanks. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. All those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Res. 504-24: The motion to adopt Res. 504-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball —8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1. Excused: None. Res. 506-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO D.A.R.E. HAWAII TO ASSIST WITH EXPENSES RELATED TO ITS 2024 D.A.R.E. DAY CELEBRATION EVENT IN EAST HAWAII Transfers $1,500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 4); and credits to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Other Current Expenses account. Reference: Comm. 862 Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 506-24. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I remember D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program when I was in elementary school. It's so great that they still have this, and what a treat for our kids to kind of get together and celebrate all of their hard work going through this program. So, happy to be providing some funding to go towards this celebratory event for our East Hawaii keiki. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Actually, Chair, sorry. I think kids island wide that are going to be attending this event in East Hawaii. Thanks. CHR. KIMBALL: Great. Thanks. Alright, any further deliberations? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving Resolution 506-24 please say "aye." Page 88 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Res. 506-24: The motion to adopt Res. 506-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball —8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1. Excused: None. Res. 507-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO MALAMA O PUNA TO SUPPORT THE BLACK SANDS BEACH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION'S MALAMA KEIKI PROGRAM Transfers $2,200 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 4); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 863 Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 507-24. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I think some of our community partners, Tim Rowan, Carrie Kowalski, and Eileen O'Hara spoke really eloquently about the merits of this program. It's something for kids in Black Sands Beach subdivision to look forward to during fall, spring and summer break. I had the opportunity to take my son for a day and he just had the best time. There's a lot of fun and they sneak in some learning into the mix and all the kids that were there from like five years old to 12 could all play chess extremely well. So,just loved everything that Carrie and Tim and others are doing to support kids in our Puna community. So, looking for everyone's support on this. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Page 89 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Res. 507-24: The motion to adopt Res. 507-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball –8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder– 1. Excused: None. Res. 508-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HOSPICE OF HILO FOR ITS 20TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF LIFE EVENT AT REEDS BAY BEACH PARK Transfers $1,500 from the Clerk-Council Services –Contingency Relief account (Council District 4); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 864 Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 508-24. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Hospice has a very special place in my heart. My grandmother actually was there for a month, and rather than saying goodbye, she was actually nursed back to life. So,we had another year with her, which is a miracle. We are so grateful for that. As an `ohana, I love that Hospice of Hilo continues the tradition of bringing folks together and just celebrating everyone's memory. So, we are proposing to provide some funding to support radio advertisement. I do want to share that Corporation Counsel has advised against this, but I do see public purpose in getting the word out through every medium possible, including radio. So,just looking for my colleagues' support on this. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, any further discussion on this item? Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, I guess I would ask for Corporation Counsel to provide some advice on this. I'm aware that we're currently in the process of having our CRF processes audited and have been told that—and I'm hoping for that to get Page 90 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 cleaned up so we can have more clarity on what's appropriate and what's not appropriate. So, thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz, for honestly sharing that so we can all have an opportunity to learn and make a more educated decision that would avoid any potential conflict in the future. (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. STRANCE: Thank you. Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. I didn't recommend against it. I recommended bringing a concern to the Council because there are some black and white issues around public purpose and whether an expense provides a direct benefit to the public. Then there's a large gray area, and that large gray area is something that this body decides and not me. So, I raised the concern that if the Council believes that this is an expense that provides a direct benefit, then the Council has adopted this as a public purpose. So, I know the Waiwai Committee struggled with some of this and whether it's indirect or direct, but I felt it was really more important on some of these for this body to have a conversation and come to a conclusion than me give a thumbs up and thumbs down on it. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you for sharing that. So, this is specific to radio MS. STRANCE: Radio advertising. MS. VILLEGAS: Radio advertising. So, if it was digital advertising or newspaper advertising, is the red flag advertising in general? MS. STRANCE: Yes. The analysis is, on one hand, there's the argument that this is an indirect benefit to the public. The advertisement itself doesn't provide the benefit. Then the counter argument is that it provides a direct benefit because it's what draws the people to the event. So, I think that's really where the discussion comes in and how far are you folks willing to go. I mean the easy one is on the water slides that was talked about earlier because at the event, the kids get on the slide and they go down. On the advertisement, people hear something and then it causes them to act to go to an event where they get benefits it depends on how far this body is willing to go with that. MS. VILLEGAS: Thanks for helping with some of that clarity. In my prior life, working for Kona Brewing Company, there are a lot of laws and rules around what a beer company can pay for, for an event at a facility when they're a licensed account. Radio is one of the things you can spend towards helping them with their advertising, so, I'm just trying to bring this together. Page 91 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 I suppose I want to give a big shoutout to my staff and to Candy for all of her diligence to constantly and tenaciously navigate the request for CRF funding, and ask that the nonprofit beneficiaries that come to us identify other uses for the funding we provide with our CRF that do abide more specifically within the black and white margins, and ideally, in the white margins and avoid the black margins. Because it could be this is taxpayer money that's going to a nonprofit but then it's going to an advertising company, right? So, the money's actually going and benefiting a broader, private entity in order to provide the service, however, the same could be said for the inflatable water slides. So yeah, I guess this is something that I just would request that as we, I'm not sure where we're at with the audit, but that we could, as a Council, be provided more specific boundaries and parameters for our spends. Because it's my understanding we have waivered very far away from the initial intention and creation of contingency relief funds, which was originally for Council Members to be able to provide resources to the departments for County projects within our specific districts. We have expanded it to the benefit of our community and our local non-profits who struggle with funding and whatnot. But I am looking for more direct answers that I'm hoping are going to be coming from Mr. Benner so that we can get ourselves in alignment, because my office has struggled with being told by a department or Corp. Counsel that something wasn't viable. Then, somebody else on the Council brings up the exact same CRF for the exact same event, and it gets passed, which makes my office look like, for some reason, we're trying to say no to things. So, I'm just really looking for some clarity in this. MS. STRANCE: I think it would be actually helpful for this body to try to come up with something because the law is really clear that the judiciary should not invade into legislative process. So, there will be some really clear lines, but there's an awful lot of gray, depending upon what the body determines to be public purpose. So, I think part of the frustration that gets expressed with, you guys want direction, but I don't want to overstep. Certainly, I think Mr. Benner could be helpful and it might be helpful for this body to try to develop something that it would adopt as its own standard. I would really encourage that, so I don't overstep my boundaries. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Clear as mud. Alright, thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Yeah, I'm going to be in support of this resolution. Sometimes I think when we're looking at CRF and we're looking at even Waiwai applications, it's difficult to determine how much funds are being spent on what parts of the Page 92 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 application. This is very clear. We know that the entire $1,500 is going towards that and we've been presented the two viewpoints. It's not the event itself, but I am going to go with the idea that this does benefit the public directly. If not, they won't know. So, I guess knowledge is the benefit with this resolution And the bill for grants in general is with LRB (Legislative Research Branch) right now. So, we're going to have some good conversation when that gets to the floor about public purpose and making sure that all County departments and the Council is evaluating all grant awards in the same way, or as best as we can in the same way. So, in support. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. I'll be supporting. To me, it just makes sense. It's almost like a private event if you can't get the word out to the public. You're just going to—only people who are in the know will know about the event, and that makes it like a semi-private event. If you want it to be a true public event, then you have to get the word out to more than just the people you know immediately. So, to me, radio ads just make sense for a public event to get the word out. So, absolutely support and hope that we can continue to support good causes that need help in this area as we go forward. Thanks. CHR. KIMBALL: Alright, Council Member Lee Loy then back to Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Absolutely in support subscribing to all of the public benefit. I would like to caution when we're giving monies like this to programs that will advertise, and I'm really thinking about you guys. This year is an election year, and I would hate for this to become a pathway to attach your names to get advertising dollars to support candidacies. If there is a way to structure that contract so that, especially during an election year, that the Council as a whole is thanked, not an individual Council Member or maybe their small business. Even within the advertising as far as print, this is really like, I'm really trying to keep you guys out of trouble, especially at this time. I would love to see maybe even some policies written around when to use contingency dollars for advertising and how to appropriately use it, whether it's in print or on banners, or on the air. Because we are all passing the contingency money, so, thanking the entire Council is one thing, to thank individual Council Members during an election year, is a stretch for me. Walking it all back based on the resolution, absolutely in support. There is a public purpose. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. I'm going to just interject here because I think you've made a really important point, and it has Page 93 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 generally been understood that CRF comes from the County in general. So, in terms of any flyers or acknowledgments, it should be mahalo to the County of Hawaii. It should be the County seal, and it should not be the names of the individual Council Members. So,please, when you are speaking with the recipients of contingency relief funds that you provide, make sure that they're aware that is the expectation and that it not be directly associated with an individual Council Member, as Council Member Lee Loy indicated That protects all of us and it may be in the grant contract. We had this discussion before, but I'll revisit that and check it. It may actually be in the contractual documents but I'm not certain of that. We did have a discussion previously. Back to you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I didn't mean to send us down this rabbit hole, but I really do appreciate the discussion. I also just want to note that Corporation Counsel did not advise me against this. She did raise concerns and so, it was helpful, I think, to hear from my colleagues on what they thought was a benefit to the public. So, I appreciate everyone's support. To the issue that was just brought up with mahaloing members of this body. I think if it's not part of the contract, providing some sort of reference sheet, a guideline, and copies of our logo and what should be stated in any sort of materials, marketing, advertisement, related to the event, would be helpful guidance for non-profits that are receiving contingency funds. Happy to help with any of that if you need assistance, Chair. Thank you, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Yeah, I can see guidance to the non-profits on not putting it on materials, but I have to tell you I'm sure the CRF recipients are going to say something publicly. If I show up to an event or if I go somewhere, they're going to say, "Cindy did that; we wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for " Stopping people from talking about it or giving you accolades on a mic in a public event is really hard. But having said that, if you do give guidance in the grant application itself, some type of guidance, that would help. The big thing is people criticizing us, using County dollars to help us during a campaign season. People are going to say that just because, but if you have these guidelines and they're already in the contract, that kind of says it's very clear that we've given that guidance, but we can't stop people. They're not going to stop people from saying thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Yeah, we can't control everything, but we can hopefully, mitigate by providing that guidance. I don't know, Vice Chair Inaba, I know you're working on a bill around this, but I don't know if it's worth considering a line or two in that legislation as well. But thank Page 94 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 you for taking us down that rabbit hole. It is an important discussion to have, especially in light of the gray areas that there are in terms of advertising. If the public purpose and the value is in it, in the attendance of the event, which I think is definitely in a case of Hospice, right, participating in the ceremony is part of the public benefit, then monies used to get people there by default provides public benefit. Council Member Villegas, briefly, if you would. MS. VILLEGAS: Yes, having had years of experience navigating contracts for sponsorships, the use of a seal or somebody's name in collateral in advertising as a distinct sponsor,just so you know, is very different than you being the one that helped facilitate it. Let's say you're at the event and they give you a moment to speak and thank you for helping facilitate the donation, as opposed to being identified in specific event collateral that you or your office are the specific sponsor. So,just to clear that up, there is protocol related to that. So, I wouldn't necessarily worry about that. There's a different nature to that than actually your name, your office being included in official collateral as a sponsor for an event as opposed to given a verbal mahalo. I yield. MS. EVANS: A follow-up, Chair,just a quick follow-up to that. CHR. KIMBALL: Very briefly,please. MS. EVANS: Okay. So, the bigger question is should we say that the funding came from the County Hawai`i and have that—if they want to put that little seal on it and it says funding or sponsored or whatever, maybe that's one of the things we put in our guidelines when we do these contracts;just say funding came from the County. CHR. KIMBALL: That should be the advice that you're giving already, now, to your contingency relief recipients, but we'll make sure that either ends up in the contract or in some other formal form of guidance. Alright, moving ahead, the motion's on the floor to adopt Resolution 508-24. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Res. 508-24: The motion to adopt Res. 508-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball–9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 95 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Relinquish Chair: At this time, Chair Kimball relinquished the chair to Acting Chair Inaba. Res. 509-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HOSPICE OF HILO FOR ITS 20TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF LIFE Transfers $2,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 5); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 865 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 509-24. Seconded by Ms. Villegas. ACTING CHR. INABA: Any discussion? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Look for everyone's support, Chair. Thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. All those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Res. 509-24: The motion to adopt Res. 509-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Acting Chair Inaba—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kimball — 1. Excused: None. Res. 510-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE WAIAKEA HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION FOR THE 2024 WAIAKEA HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT GRAD NIGHT Transfers $3,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 867 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy Page 96 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 510-24. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Ask for my colleagues' support. Waiakea High School Project Grad. ACTING CHR. INABA: Any further discussion? Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, thank you, and please reel me in if you feel this is going beyond the scope of the discussion. I see Project Grad here, CRF, and I know that this last budget cycle we had given some funding to the Department of Liquor. I made sure to reach out to all of the high schools in my district to let them know about the opportunity through that department. So, I'm just wondering, was there not enough money to support these schools and that's why you're dipping into CRF, or you just want to make it extra cherry? ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Yes, extra cherry. I know Ms. Kagiwada was kind of in that transition. There was that reach out and we kind of got there late, which is why I'm actually helping with Hilo High School in the next one. I hope that answers. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Got it, thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: I just want to quickly follow-up on that. Yeah, I've talked to the Department of Liquor a couple of times. They have plenty of money. I don't think they even spent it all. Both of these schools, Waiakea and Hilo High did get some money from Liquor. I think we need to work with them on the amounts and their full budget and all that because it still seems kind of strange for them to be getting some money from Liquor and then coming back for us for other amounts. So, I hope we can continue to refine the process going forward. But I am very thankful of Council Member Lee Loy being able to provide the cherries. ACTING CHR. INABA: Alright, with that— MS. hatMS. LEE LOY: I did want to follow-up, too. Waiakea High School, Hilo High School, they have a real deep alumni. We have a lot of Charter Schools in Hilo, Page 97 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 too, that don't have that deep of an alumni or smaller graduating classes. So, I actually really wanted to encourage Department of Liquor to put it into schools like Kaumeke Kaeo, Nawahikalani`6pu`u, or some of those other programs. Whereas these more established DOE (Department of Education) schools have other options. Thank you for letting me share. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. All those in favor of approving Resolution 510-24? Vote on Res. 510-24: The motion to adopt Res. 510-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Acting Chair Inaba—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 511-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE HILO HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION FOR THE 2024 HILO HIGH GRAD NITE Transfers $1,200 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 868 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 511-24. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Over at Waiakea, we know how to give to charity. So, it's my honor to help Hilo High School with their grad night. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: With that, all those in favor of approving Resolution 511-24 please say "aye." Page 98 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Res. 511-24: The motion to adopt Res. 511-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Acting Chair Inaba—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Relinquish Chair: At this time, Acting Chair Inaba relinquished the chair to Chair Kimball. Res. 512-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO D.A.R.E. HAWAII TO ASSIST WITH EXPENSES RELATED TO ITS 2024 D.A.R.E. DAY CELEBRATION EVENT IN WEST HAWAII Transfers $3,200 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 7); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 869 Intr. by: Ms. Villegas Motion to Approve: Ms. Villegas moved to adopt Res. 512-24. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, I just want to thank everyone from our community and all of our first responders that showed up for an amazing event on Friday in Kona. We had 500 middle school students from the west side, and the energy and enthusiasm in that room,just amazing And all the different members of leadership of our first responders, and just the variety of experiences that were provided for our young people to embrace and educate themselves about the different avenues of service to their community that are available, it was a really beautiful day. Thank you also to the teachers who got all of those kids there, and contained, and focused, and kept all their enthusiasm heading in the right direction. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Page 99 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Res. 512-24: The motion to adopt Res. 512-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 513-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT FOR RENOVATIONS AND/OR IMPROVEMENTS AT VARIOUS PARKS FACILITIES IN COUNCIL DISTRICT 9 Transfers $22,415 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 9); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation, Transfer to Capitol Projects Fund—General account. Reference: Comm. 870 Intr. by: Ms. Evans Vote on Res. 513-24: Ms. Evans moved to adopt Res. 513-24. Seconded by (Adopted) Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 521-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HAWAII KEIKI RODEO ASSOCIATION INC. FOR EXPENSES RELATED TO ITS KEIKI RODEO EVENTS Transfers $9,293 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 878 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy Page 100 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 521-24. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: I ask for my colleagues' support. This program actually is held quarterly, so they buy a lot of stuff and then it gets used throughout the whole year. So, that's what a lot of this contingency money goes to. I ask for my colleagues' support. CHR. KIMBALL: Any further comments? Seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Res. 521-24: The motion to adopt Res. 521-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Res. 523-24: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE ISLAND OF HAWAII YMCA FOR EXPENSES RELATING TO PHASE 2 OF A MURAL PROJECT FOR ITS NEW HORIZONS YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Transfers $4,235 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 880 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 523-24. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Ask for my colleagues' support. CHR. KIMBALL: Any further discussion? Alright, seeing none, all those in favor please say "aye." Page 101 Hawaii County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Res. 523-24: The motion to adopt Res. 523-24 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. REFERRALS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Referrals EXECUTIVE for Executive Session. SESSION: Comm. 866: JENNIFER L. TUFUI VS. COUNTY OF HAWAII, HAWAII POLICE DEPARTMENT FEPA NO. H-21399; EEOC NO. 3713-2021-00048 From Deputy Corporation Counsel Section Chief Lerisa L. Heroldt dated April 26, 2024, requesting an attorney-client confidential discussion to consult with the Council regarding the above-entitled discrimination complaint filed by Jennifer L. Tufui, including discussion regarding settlement. Motion to Close File: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 866. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Hopefully, you folks have all read the communication from Corporation Counsel. We do have the opportunity to go into executive session as necessary. I'll leave that up to the body to decide. Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: I've read the correspondence and don't feel it necessary to go into executive session. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: I too have read the report and also do not feel it's necessary to go into executive session. Page 102 Hawai`i County Council-38 May 15,2024 Vote on Motion to Ms. Lee Loy moved to concur with the recommendation of Concur: Corporation Counsel regarding Comm. 866. Seconded by (Approved Ms. Villegas and carried by the following voice vote Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Vote on Comm. 866: The motion to close file on Comm. 866 was carried by the (Filed) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. OTHER The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Other BUSINESS: Business. (There were none.) ANNOUNCE- The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, MENTS: Announcements. (There were none.) ADJOURN- There being no further business, Chair Kimball adjourned the meeting at MENT: 2:18 p.m. Council Approval: JUL 1 2024 CO ERK JH/jm Page 103