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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2024-05-16 2022-2024 Special Hawaii County Council 39th Session Special Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii May 16, 2024 INVOCATION: Pastor Evan Carmichael of Arise Church gave the morning's invocation. CALL TO The special 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: Present: 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 (came in later) Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (came in later) 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, Petitions, MEMORIALS, Memorials, Certificates of Merit, and Expressions of Condolence. CERTIFICATES OF MERIT, AND (There were none.) EXPRESSIONS OF CONDOLENCE: 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 individual registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 John Matson: Bill 137, Draft 2 (Comm. 756.1), in support. BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Bills for ORDINANCES Ordinances (First Reading). (FIRST READING): Bill 136: ESTABLISHES AN OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2024, TO JUNE 30, 2025 From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated March 1, 2024, transmitting for consideration the proposed Operating Budget for the County of Hawaii for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2025. This balanced budget includes estimated revenues and appropriations of$888,082,546, which represents a proposed 6.6 percent increase compared to the Fiscal Year 2023-24 Operating Budget. Reference: Comm. 755 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-152 Public Hearing: May 14, 2024 and Comm. 755.10: From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated May 3, 2024, transmitting Bill 136, Draft 2. Draft 2 reflects an increase in estimated revenues and appropriations of$32,017,251 over the first draft, reflects higher than expected real property tax collections, and proposes corresponding funding adjustments. ; and Bill 136: ESTABLISHES AN OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII (Draft 2) FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2024, TO JUNE 30, 2025 Draft 2 includes estimated revenues and appropriations of$920,099,797. Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) and Comm. 755.11: From Council Member Jenn Kagiwada, dated May 7, 2024, transmitting proposed (Memo No. 1) amendments to the General Fund by increasing the Fund Balance from Previous Year revenue account by $150,000, and increasing the Animal Control, Miscellaneous Contract Services expenditure account by the same amount to create a new line item to collaborate with a service provider for community outreach and data collection. (Note: Communication Nos. 755.12 through 755.20 and 755.22 through 755.26, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 136, Draft 2, were circulated. In addition, Communication No. 755.21 transmitting a PowerPoint presentation was circulated.) Page 2 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to pass Bill 136 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 152. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. KIMBALL: Pursuant to Article X, Section 10-2 of the Hawaii County Charter, the Mayor has submitted an amended operating budget to the Council on May 3rd, 2024. Just a reminder, we have to amend Draft 1 with the Mayor's proposed Draft 2 before we can discuss any of the amendments proposed by this body. Any discussion on Draft 1 before we amend to Draft 2? All right, seeing none, Vice Chair Inaba, may I have a motion to amend Bill No. 136 with the proposed Draft 2 submitted by the Mayor via Communication 755.10. Motion to Amend: Mr. Inaba moved to amend Bill 136 with the contents of Comm. 755.10. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. KIMBALL: Any discussion on Draft 2 before we take up the vote? We do have Finance Director here, if you'd like to come up and give your presentation. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa and Managing Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. NAKAGAWA: Good morning, members of Council. Diane Nakagawa, Finance Director. MS. SAKO: Deanna Sako, Managing Director. MS. NAKAGAWA: Thank you for having us here today to present our Fiscal Year 2025 amended budget. We're happy to have our Managing Director here today, and she'll start us off with an introduction to some of the changes. MS. SAKO: Good morning, everyone. Unfortunately, the Mayor couldn't be here today. He's attending his daughter's graduation on the Mainland. As the Mayor mentioned last month during the budget reviews, we continue to work for a sustainable Hawaii Island where our keiki can thrive for generations to come. So one of our priorities is definitely our roads, community centers, gyms, and parks, and making sure they're adequate for everyone. We want our entire community to continue to thrive. We also need to keep updating our equipment and technology. We need to ensure that our systems are secure and safe to keep our employees' data safe, but also to keep the community's data safe. And in addition,we want to ensure that people who work for the County continue to be happy and have the opportunity to grow. So we continue to fund some of our training provisions and tuition reimbursement Page 3 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 programs. But we want them to be able to grow and provide the best possible service to our community. So Diane's going to take us through the changes to the budget and we'll keep going. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa and Managing Director Deanna Sako provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Council. For viewing of the subject presentation, see the DVD copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office or navigate to the Council's video archives from the County's homepage at www.hawaiicounty.gov. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is made a part of the record, see Comm. 755.21.) CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Managing Director and Director. At this time, the motion on the floor is to amend Draft 1 of the budget with Draft 2. So any further discussion of Draft 2 before we take up amendments? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, might I ask a couple of clarifying questions of the leadership? CHR. KIMBALL: Of course, Council Member. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Thank you, Managing Director, Finance Director, for the presentation. Just a couple of questions. What sort of guiding principles does the Administration use to determine what is a priority? Deanna, I think my first budget cycle I offered the term "budget for outcomes"up so that the public and County personnel are very clear on the kind of community we want. And so we position our budget, our dollars,to kind of meet those goals. And so I just wonder what the Administration has used to determine what departments are going to be getting additional funding in this second budget draft. MS. SAKO: So I think Diane kind of went over it on our focus. We know there's been too many years of deferred maintenance, and we need to go back and take care of those items. Some of those are very significant, the shape of some of our buildings and facilities, that we need to go back and deal with. But a lot of that is also seen in the debt service numbers in the budget where not only are we having to do Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant, but also many of our facilities, whether it's fire stations, police stations, and others. So we continue to look at those things. But, really, we want a healthy and safe community, but we also know we've probably neglected some of like our cybersecurity and other systems as well. And so we continue to try to improve all of our systems. So it's kind of the focus of the things we went through earlier. MS. NAKAGAWA: If I could just add. So, as part of our budgeting process, it is really a collaborative process with the departments. It is those discussions with our department team members on what do they need. So, as we go through that process, they tell us what's the priorities in their supplementals and really explain Page 4 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 the needs. Now from there, as Deanna talked about, there's the overall priorities of the County. But, really, it's a cooperative process with the departments and really looking at their different divisions, talking about their needs, talking it through in the budget process, that leads us to what is most important to them. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: A couple reflections on that. I remember Bill Takaba once told me that he used to organize anonymous surveys of County employees just so that folks have an opportunity to kind of share their experience and things that they want to see changed within the budget. Perhaps that is something we can explore. I don't know if every County employee is provided the opportunity to weigh in at this level that you're talking about. But also some people, they're shame to speak up. And so we want to give them a chance to be able to just kind of share their experiences and the kind of support that they might need. Because, so often, I feel like the top-level managers are super busy with just managing overall functions of the department that they may not know that, hey, a new refrigerator or a chair might be really critical to just someone's workflow. So I want to offer that. And the other thing, Director Sako, when you mentioned setting the priorities, how do we make sure that, going forward, we don't fall into this situation again? Because, you mentioned the disrepair of our County facilities, like I think about Aupuni Center, you cannot use the bathrooms there. I think about how Central Fire Station isn't—kind of shameful that we still have folks there. So I just wonder how are we going to make sure that we are protecting ourselves, our assets going forward. Is there money in this budget to kind of create that cohesive planning document? MS. SAKO: I think—as we've said, there's a lot of infrastructure needs. So one is that debt service was increased to try and address some of those things, as well as adding the capital project manager type of overall person to kind of look at everything county-wide and systemwide to help identify those highest priorities. Basically, our highest priority is usually the Federal mandates that we have to do by law. We can't really get around it. But followed by a close second is definitely the health and safety of our employees. And there's many projects that fall into that category, whether it's Central or other fire stations or even just the sewer system at Aupuni Center so that our employees have restroom facilities to be able to use during the day and not have to walk across the street. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Final question, unless you wanted to add anything, Director. MS. NAKAGAWA: Just wanted to add that to your first comment we are always looking to improve. So, very much open to providing that voice for all employees. Page 5 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Temporary hazard pay. It's something that our County's going to have to deal with. As part of that process, is it a one-time payout or can it be negotiated to provide payments over time? Again, I'm just trying to think it through. We have major challenges that we need to address as a County. But if there is this obligation and we must pay, again I just want to make sure that it's something that we can afford and maybe it's spaced out over time. Is that possible? MS. SAKO: I think a lot of things are possible, and we continue to work with Corporation Counsel so that our attorneys know what's possible. So, like with any settlement, the payment over time option is usually there. I mean, we've used that in the past, and we continue to use that. Especially if any type of decision was far greater than what we were anticipating, then definitely payments over time would be factored into that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great. Thanks, Managing Director. Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. To you, Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Good morning, Chair. Thank you. Thank you, ladies, for being here. Building off of my colleague's approach, I'm having a whole lot of senioritis right now. And I can confidently say that from my first budget to this one, we really are moving to those budgeting for outcomes or budgeting for objectives. And so it's been a while but we're getting there. And I think the needs assessment work that we've done with major departments is helping. You know I was a huge champion for that capital manager position. I think it's a critical link to make sure that we have the asset management, and then making sure we're spending down effectively and efficiently. Absolutely in support of that. And I don't know if we both bet on this number, guys, but I think we all landed on 920 after the first iteration. So we're good at maybe looking into the crystal ball. My question really is on the but I'm not sure where it's covered and I've asked this a number of times, if it's in the debt service or in the Budget Stabilization Fund. Oftentimes, what comes before the Council is our contracts, right, and the lease options over time. And I've asked that question for a while now, like what is that I don't even know the right question. Is it like future debt service or future obligations or future liabilities? Where is that number because we also have an option to dial back rates. And I want to make sure, Deanna, that those levers that we pull are not putting us at risk for some of the committed debt service or liabilities as it relates to our leasing and contracts. Do we have that number? MS. NAKAGAWA: That is a discussion we've had in our previous budget hearings, and it's one that we have spent a lot of time discussing internally as Page 6 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 well. Right now, those commitments are within the budget line items for the leases of equipment and other purchases. So what we've been working on over the last month with our budget team is getting out communication to the department about future year tracking, and to be able to identify those commitments in the budget moving on. Because, yes, they are critical commitments that we make contractually that we need to account for in future years. So to be able to identify them clearly and quickly is important. So we have already made some steps with our budget team to work with the departments to just more clearly identify them in the budget for everyone. MS. LEE LOY: Okay. And absolutely I am fine. Let's set that goal and meet it. Does some of the software purchases you know we talked about electronic timesheets moving over to this dashboard. It is their way to tailor some of our new programs so that we can see that stuff kind of on a dashboard. MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah, these discussions are great in terms of timing with our new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to connect our new system because these are the things that we can be asking of what the system can do for us to create efficiency. As we move towards this system and invest so significantly in such a change, we want all the things that we can have that makes us more efficient. So our team—and that means all the departments across the County. We have been meeting with the consultant about the development of this software. So these are the types of questions that are coming up. So they're spending hours a week having those discussions. Can't promise everything that we have, but these discussions are very critical in asking the question at least: What can it do? Because, what we want is to be able to have more of this information at our fingertips, and a little more visible and reports a little easier to run. MS. LEE LOY: Okay. Deanna? MS. SAKO: All I was going to add to that is so like this year, we did add money to Fire for their equipment, and I think we did put in the lease line item. But we have talked to the Fire Chief so that maybe it's easier to do a one-time purchase or something like that so that we're not committing future funds. So everything's kind of on the table, and the options are there so that when times are good, if we can afford to outright pay for it, we definitely want to do that and not defer cost to the future. But also on some very large items, we do want to kind of just equalize and stabilize our budget, and pay it out over time when we can. But we continue to have challenges with getting equipment here in a timely manner. Not just the shipping but just the manufacturing process continues to take a long time. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah. The biggest learning curve for me was government accounting is not like your checkbook. There are far too many sources of income, restrictions on those resources, and that has been just a huge learning curve for me. My final question is and, Deanna, you taught me like we go by the nickels Page 7 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 when we're adjusting rates. And, I'm not kidding, I was a little surprised that this adjustment in the affordable and the homeowners is just a revenue impact of $2.6 million. How much is a nickel costing us? Round figures, Deanna. MS. SAKO: Roughly 2.6 divided by 4. About 850,000. MS. LEE LOY: Tell me that number again. About 800? MS. SAKO: I think it's 850,000. I'll go back and use my calculator. If it's different, we'll let you know. MS. LEE LOY: But that's just in these two categories, right? MS. SAKO: Correct. And one of the challenges from when we look at I guess reducing rates is later, if the market turns, it's difficult to increase again. So we just look at it conservatively as usual. You guys have worked with me at least for a long time and know that we're going to try to be as conservative as possible to protect our taxpayers. MS. LEE LOY: Okay. Thanks, Deanna. Thanks, Diane. I wrote down 365. That's where I started eight years ago. And so just my time alone. And this is not a reflection of this Administration because I had two administrations, but to start at 365 and land at 920, that's 555 million since I've sat in this chair. And I'm really looking forward to moving this battleship and budgeting for outcomes and making the investments in the right place. So I do really appreciate that education and training. I think it was really critical when we tailored it out over time. And then basically technology grew so quickly that so many of our staffers were really thirsty for that education and training. My final question, the 28 positions—I'll ask the 27 positions because I like one of them what is that costing in the overall increase? MS. NAKAGAWA: So the 28 positions added in the May proposed budget is roughly $1.9 million. MS. LEE LOY: Great. Thanks, ladies. Such an honor. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Your last budget. What an exciting—all right, before I go on, I just want to make note. We have a number of representatives from departments/agencies here in the room, but Finance Director assured me that the rest of the directors are monitoring. So if there are questions, this is the appropriate time to call the departments forward. And if they're not in the room, we can get them here either physically quickly or on Zoom. So thank you. MS. SAKO: I was going to say I think several are logged into Zoom. Page 8 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Yeah, great. Thank you. So, over to Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair, and thank you so much for being here, Managing Director and Director of Finance. My questions, because I am still on that steep learning curve, have to do with the Fund Balance, Budget Stabilization, and the real property tax proposed reductions and how those things all fit into our budget together. So, if I'm understanding this correctly, with the proposed changes in this budget and what we are proposing, we are looking at a 10.5 percent, is this correct, Fund Balance and Budget Stabilization? MS. NAKAGAWA: That is correct. MS. KAGIWADA: Total? Even though recommended is 15 percent or two months, which is over 16 percent? MS. NAKAGAWA: That is correct. MS. KAGIWADA: Knowing that we have this hazard pay potentially coming. MS. NAKAGAWA: That is correct. MS. KAGIWADA: And at the same time, the Administration is proposing tax reductions for homeowners and affordable rentals,which I think is great, but not proposing to make that up anywhere in our tax. Is that correct? MS. NAKAGAWA: Yes, that's correct. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I feel like that's a little bit throwing this on us to balance the budget and get it into the right shape it needs to get into in a way, because if you're telling us that we should have a Fund Balance higher than what is proposed here, especially given the unknowns of the hazard pay issue, I have some real concerns at where we're at. Do you have any concerns at where we're at, either of you? MS. SAKO: Definitely, over the years we've seen a wide range where I believe when that provision was put in, we may not even have been at 5 percent yet. So, definitely that's why it was a range of 5-15. But we definitely want to strive for the 15-16, like you're saying, and so it's kind of incremental. I think we would feel a lot more comfortable if we didn't have the temporary hazard pay looming out there. That kind of unknown liability is a little bit challenging for us. Otherwise, we would feel like, okay, we're probably going to generate some Fund Balance this year and feel a little bit better about it. But there's a lot of unknowns out there, but we're trying to kind of do what we believe is best for all options. But, ultimately, it's up to the County Council to set the rates. Page 9 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. But if this hazard pay did come through and we had to pay the lump sum and it's somewhere near the amount you're estimating, we would be down to serious trouble given this budget. MS. SAKO: Yes. It would definitely depend on what Fund Balance is generated during this fiscal year, Fiscal Year '24, to lead us into Fiscal Year '25, yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Finance Director, do you have any input on that? Are you feeling comfortable with the way it is set up now, or are you looking to us to make some adjustments here? MS. NAKAGAWA: So I think,just to clarify one of the statements you made, the budget that we put forth is balanced, and that does take into account the proposed rate reduction. So just wanted to make that— MS. hatMS. KAGIWADA: Sorry. Yeah, it is balanced but the Fund Balance is lower than maybe it has been in past years and where it is recommended to be. MS. NAKAGAWA: So our reserve balance, as Deanna mentioned, over the years has been lower. That is not what we strive for. We continue to strive to be higher and of the 15 percent, but understanding that takes many years to get there. So if you're asking about a comfort level, from a financial standpoint we are always conservative and we would like to have that reserve be at the 15 percent. However, we do understand there are priorities and conversations that we should have to look at priority needs. It's not black and white. It is a discussion. It is policy decisions on critical needs that we have to take care of and balancing that reserve. So, yes, very protective of the reserve. Would love to see it higher. But again, it's a conversation about what's important. And I think that's what we're open to as we continue to move forward in this budget process. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. One more question about this. This current proposed budget, where does that put us in relation to our bond rating as far as are we in a good position to be at the top of the bond rating with this? Or would we be a little lower probably? MS. SAKO: I think the bond rating agencies do realize our Fund Balance has been growing over the years. It will definitely depend on what the FY24 (Fiscal Year 2024) impact on Fund Balance is. So it's not a complete known yet, but I believe we would hopefully be able to maintain our current bond ratings with this. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. And what is our current bond rating, may I ask? MS. SAKO: Double A-plus. Page 10 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. All right, I think those are my main questions. Thank you, Chair, I yield. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. I want to take the time to thank you and your staff because I can imagine what it must be like from the first and the second draft. I'm looking at all the moving parts of trying to figure out what the Legislature did, and matching funds being asked for or offered to us and how that would have played into this. But I was very specifically happy to see that you're increasing in the IT (Information Technology) infrastructure. And I just need—I'll probably be a broken record on this, but my experience, during the workday, I am unable to get into my Webmail. It blocks me. At night, on weekends, early in the morning before eight, or after five, not a problem. I can get into the webmai1.hawaiicounty.gov. My concern is during the workday because all of our staff and everybody is on the computer, and the public and everybody is trying to get on the computer, that we just don't have that capacity and that's why I get blocked. And it's very frustrating for me not to be able to get into my Webmail. MS. SAKO: I think that's true for many employees. So we are currently enhancing the switches and the connectivity of a lot of the physical parts of it. But in addition, our new IT manager that works together with Rob is mapping and looking at our entire system so that we can eliminate redundancies and see where we need to improve. So I think part of this money that got added to IT should hopefully help with that in the next 12 months or so. I can't promise tomorrow but I know they are working on that. They doI mean, they get the same complaints that you have, and so, yeah. I'm not sure if Rob's online, but I did want to share that they're definitely working on a lot of those issues. So thank you. MS. EVANS: Thank you. And the other thing is just telephones. There's been a lot of issues with even telephones not working properly. I look at the telephones that are in my office, and just the phones that we're using are many, many years old. And I don't—so I'm sure the updating of even our telephones and that whole system. We're just maybe at the end of life on some of the assets that we have, and I just want to point out even the phone ones seems to be a problem, and I'm experiencing that too. MS. SAKO: So several departments have replaced their phones like as in handsets. And so, if that's an issue, we can definitely work with the County Clerk and ensure that Council phones are upgraded as well. Page 11 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. EVANS: Thank you. Thank you very much. And, lastly, public safety. So you increased public safety. Can you be a little more specific on where that's going to go? MS. NAKAGAWA: So the increase in public safety that we discussed on one of our slides is the 12 positions added in the Police Department. The 12 positions are outlined in the budget book, and I think Police Chief is also monitoring and happy to talk about the specific responsibilities. These positions were their highest priority positions in the different areas. So if you'd like more information, I'm sure we could get a bit more from the Police Chief about that. MS. EVANS: No, that's fine. I just really appreciate the comments from Member Lee Loy about budgeting for outcomes and kind of that future tracking of our liabilities. Since I've been here, we've talked about the change orders several times, but it always surprises me that change orders is more about extending that lease. It's like we're changing it because we renewed. And so it really does have an impact. I mean, when we see the change orders every month, you keep adding more expenditures, but it's being—it's something you've already obligated for maybe five years or four years or whatever. So, when we go into the obligation on these long-term leases, it would be interesting to see how that will—how we can see it coming, you know, how it plays out because it is an impact. And the other thing is my experience with extensions is sometimes it's tied to some index. And so it's kind of a little bit of an unknown when you're even agreeing to it, right, because it's tied to some index that may go up 3 percent or 4 percent on you. So, appreciate your efforts. It's hard but it really does have an impact. MS. NAKAGAWA: Just wanted to mention, Council Member Evans, really appreciate the discussions we've had about change orders. And as we look to continually improve, I think one of the things we've talked about is providing more clarity and explanation in some of these. So, as you mentioned on the change orders, the percent increase could be misleading because it really is service for the next year, right. So it's not an increase in their contract. It is the contracted rate for the next year. So we look to improve in making things more clear. So just appreciate those comments. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Over to Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. Thanks, Chair. I just wanted to ask, have we ever, to your knowledge, had a consultant group come in and look at sort of a really global, you know, like maybe McKenzie, look at our economy, look at our tax structure, look at our different departments? But actually more so I think like the Page 12 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 economy as a whole and how we set our taxes such that it would be like an objective, not someone that isn't tied to how we've done things always. I was just wondering have we ever done that, or any other county in our State that you've heard of done something like that? MS. SAKO: The closest we've come is we've had IAAO, which is International Association of Assessing Organizations, or something like that, come in to look through the County Auditor's office. So they did provide some feedback and whatnot. But not saying we couldn't try to look to see who's kind of available or what type of things are out there. Over the years, definitely the tax rates have changed according to I think what the economy was doing and what industries and whatnot might have been impacted, but that's not to say we couldn't try and see. I'm not sure what something like that would cost, but we can look into it for the future. MS. GALIMBA: Yes. You might be open to do something like that and then MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah, I'm definitely open to look at that. I think some of the areas in which you discussed is looked at in different ways. So during our audit process, so the County's process. Our financials are reviewed and we get a lot of that feedback through the audit process, and also when we're going through bond rating. So, when the agencies review our financials, our policies, our reserves, all of these things are taken into consideration for our bond rating. And some of their guidance and comments on where we're at as a County relative to the State, to the nation, is some of the feedback that we use to determine what changes maybe need to be made. But that is a couple of the different places where we get that information as well. But always open. MS. GALIMBA: Yeah, I can see that with the bond rating. Of course, they are looking at it from like a bond rating perspective, which is a certain perspective for sure. So, yeah. Okay, awesome. Maybe we could work on that. Yeah. Thanks, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: First of all, I want to mahalo Finance. A lot of the specific line items that I had questions on in the special finance hearings are either gone or are retitled to reflect what the spending really is and has been about. We did have some meetings offline with R&D (Research and Development) regarding grant management and travel. That is one of the areas I still have concern with; 573,000 for grant management that isI think could benefit the County in a wider arena. We're seeing it only in R&D. And then the travel, I do want to note and make specific things. I have concern, as you know, with travel across all of our departments to a certain extent, but especially with R&D and Liquor and will be introducing resolutions and working Page 13 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 with the Auditor to audit the travel that's been going on to ensure that the travel is in fact benefiting our residents and that we're getting something out of this travel on the County dollar. As Council Member Lee Loy pointed out, our budget over the last eight years has grown over $500 million, a $32 million increase just from March. And while I maybe will take a different approach on the rates from what Council Member Kagiwada might have been alluding to, I don't see this budget as a lean budget by any means. And if we do get to the point, hopefully not, where hazard pay or some of these liabilities come out to more than we're expecting, nothing prevents the Administration from coming to make cuts in the budget in the middle of the year for all of our departments to make sure that we're going to continue providing the services that we need to. So, while I appreciate the reduction of the rates, I think they are manini, and I'll be introducing a resolution. I think maybe some of the other Council Members might be looking at real property tax rates as well, but I think we need to do more for our residents in terms of the real property tax rates, specifically in the two classes that you folks have already attempted to provide some relief. I just think it's not enough relief, considering how much our budget has grown in recent years. And with that, I don't have any amendments that I'm going to be introducing today. But, as we go into our real property tax discussions, there are still some areas, like I said, that I think there's a lot of fluff in this budget. And in the end, I think our community expects more when they're seeing such a huge budget. If they're not seeing it, it's a problem. Circle back, though, I think this is one of the more cleaned up budgets we've seen. So I want to mahalo Director Nakagawa, Deputy Brown, Managing Director Sako for working to really get things more in line and representative on paper of what is actually being spent on across our departments. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. Council Member Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Mahalo to the departments. You've given me a lot of time over the past few weeks. And seeing this come forward and how much change it was, I really appreciate the time that you're able to provide me given that you were busy. Just a few questions for you this morning. Looking over our revenue sources that's in line with what you've submitted, the expenditures, two questions: The Highways Fund, we're showing a 25 percent increase from (Fiscal Year) 23-24. And these are projected, correct, projected expenditures; 24.9 percent increase over this current fiscal year. What are the expenses that are happening within that department, or what are we hoping to see with the increased expenditures? Page 14 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. SAKO: So,just to clarify, you're comparing the FY23 actual to the FY25 estimate. Is that correct? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Correct. MS. SAKO: Okay. Some of the increases, we do have some accounts that are there just for emergencies. I don't know why I'm not seeing it at the moment. So we do have those, like public safety, disaster, and emergency, like 575,000, which many years does not get spent. But in a weekend like what we just had with all the rain and whatnot, those would be a time that if they needed to utilize those funds, they could to help clear roadways and make it safe and passable for our community. Some of the others are the ever-increasing prices, I believe, of doing paving and materials and supplies, as well as equipment. But I believe FY23 was the year they were not able to get all the equipment as budgeted because the rates were so high. So, yeah. We would have to go back and analyze a little bit further. I didn't bring that stuff down with me. Sorry. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I'm not complaining. We have a lot of improvements to do within our roadway systems and our highway systems. But just seeing if we're hitting the outcomes we're shooting for with that increased expenses, which is pretty MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah, it's some employee benefit cost. So just to clarify, Council Member, your question is, with the increase, what are the priorities? Okay. We can certainly get back with you on that as we look at it in detail, but I also know that our Public Works Director is also on Zoom and can chime in as well. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. To Mr. Pause if you're online. MS. SAKO: And while he's coming online, I would say that I believe the last couple years were the first where they were really able to increase the number of miles of roads paved as well. So we'd just like to acknowledge them for that as well. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Yeah, I looked over your communication you submitted. There's a number of departments in your brief descriptions of what happened. Communication 755.10. And Public Works, there is some information provided there as well, but not to the tune of $18 million. So I just wanted to get a feel for MS. SAKO: Yeah, I think the communication really compares March to May, yeah. But we can go and analyze a little bit more thoroughly. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And he is online? Okay, I'll move on to some other questions as I wait for him. Mahalo for going through the Page 15 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Research and Development fund and reorganizing. That was very helpful. I like where we sit now on that. It's cleaner and there's a lot of movement and clarity provided. The management section, the miscellaneous contract services account, replacing funding for sustainability activities with funds to conduct investigations. What's the intentionality there? MS. SAKO: Oh, sorry. Investigations. Sorry, I was texting Steve to come to the meeting. I wasn't listening. My bad. So what I've learned in the few months I've been in the Mayor's office is what the Managing Director really does is investigate internal complaints and public complaints. And so that's what it really is. So there you go. Yes. So we are doing many investigations. We do not do them all in-house. Part of that is really to give our employees and the public fair treatment and to ensure it's an independent third parry. So that is to hire investigators as needed. Council Member Inaba was correct: We weren't labeling everything correctly in our budget. So we did go back and look at that, and it really is investigations. So that's what's behind that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you. I sent out an email that I was going to—in our first hearing for the budget, I was remiss in following up with our Planning Director on what we're shooting for in the future and what we're doing now and how that lays out for us, and more of a CIP (Capital Improvement Project) question. His answer was interesting and compelling, but that brings me back to where we stand right now with this budget. As we look at what we need, what we're doing now, what we're shooting for five, ten years from now, his answer was vague as far as who is in charge of that planning mechanism. And I think I've had these conversations with Deanna in the past: What is Finance doing to make sure these things are happening? What are we doing? And the answer was always "The Planning Director is the one to guide us through this General Plan,planning, development" MS. SAKO: Per the Charter. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, per the Charter. So, in seeing all these different answers and in talking to Finance,what I noticed is, and that I like, is this new position for a CIP coordinator. Explain to me what that will do. MS. NAKAGAWA: Sure. Council Member, this position, we've had,just in our previous budget hearing alone, a lot of discussion about the CIP. And wanting more clarity on projects that are funded, the status of projects, where we're at, there's a lot of talk about dashboards, really providing that transparency with progress, with our outcomes as we continue to talk about those today. So the intention behind this position is to support Planning with the CIP, but actually a position in Finance. And this position is outside of those departments that are leading some of these CIP efforts, like Public Works, DEM (Department of Page 16 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Environmental Management), and working with them to get a comprehensive view of a project status. So, when these questions come up, we have other resources to be able to provide this information, that we just don't have those today. So, really excited. This is a position that other counties have as well, and one that I think is very much needed,just evident by all the discussions we've had and the questions that come out of—our discussion about CIP and projects and status and where we're at. So this is really to take a look at and work with the department on where we are at, and get that view for all of us. So,just very excited about having these resources. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I like that. I like theI mean, the definition as being a coordinator because that helps solidify that we actually have someone who is making sure that all the different organizations, entities, planning, and not just Planning Department but future planning for our County is happening in a coordinated measure with the Finance Department. Because there's so many different moving pieces to what projects are we doing, what are we shooting for as a County, what are administrative priorities, what are needed priorities in the community. And without that coordinating piece, it's hard to nail that answer. That's something I've struggled with for the past five years, and it's figuring out what we're doing and where we're going. It's like asking who's the captain and everyone keeps pointing to the left, but no one ends up being the captain. That's how I felt up till today. So I'm glad to see this position included in the budget. Thank you. I really do appreciate this small business technical assistance portion. I think this has a tremendous effect on our community, and hopefully this stays in our budget from here on out. Thank you for that. How much fundsoh, this is back to Steve. Is Steve online yet? MS. SAKO: So Steve couldn't make it. He's on a call with the Department of Transportation. However, their Business Manager is here if you have any questions. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Good morning. Good to see you again. Maybe you can help me. I'll try to keep them light instead of more philosophical. (Note: At this time, Business Manager Kelsey Kalua-Lewis, Public Works Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Good morning. Sorry, Director Pause is on another call with Department of Transportation. So I'm available to answer any questions you may have. Kelsey Kalua-Lewis, Public Works Business Manager. Page 17 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Just in your budget, I'm looking at funds being added to the equipment account. I'm looking for how much. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: In this year's budget? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah, so we added a bunch of equipment, especially in the highway maintenance section. We are looking at getting some leases started on some much-needed equipment that we need to continue to do paving, road resurfacing, to kind of keep up with the trying to hit our goal because that is one of Public Works goals from the start with Director Pause. I know that Traffic also put in some new equipment to kind of help with their work. They've been having a lot of emergency repairs that we've seen. I think last time it was brought up with the increase in special duties. So just equipment to help with that because there is east side and west side and different response times. A lot of times the Hilo crews will have to go out to the west side. In Engineering, I didn't see much equipment increases on their side. They didn't really have any big ones. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Do you have a figure? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: For the equipment for—in total or in ? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: In total. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: No. Sorry, I am unprepared. I don't have that right now. I kind of just ran over here. But I can get back to you on that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, let me know. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'll yield for now and give you a few minutes to figure it out. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Okay. Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Okay, thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. I yield. Page 18 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. I just had one question. Diane, we talk about that future liability or debt service. What is the right terminology when we're asking that question? Because I see the curiosity from my colleagues, but what's the right term for that? Financial term, I guess. MS. NAKAGAWA: Are you talking about our debt service or ? MS. LEE LOY: For those contract pieces as far as MS. NAKAGAWA: Oh, okay. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, I'm sorry. MS. NAKAGAWA: Huh. Umm. MS. LEE LOY: I'm glad you're struggling because I am too. MS. NAKAGAWA: Oh, because there's different categories where we have our lease obligations in some cases. We have our contractual multi-year obligations. MS. LEE LOY: Right. So is that future debt obligations? MS. NAKAGAWA: It's future commitments. MS. LEE LOY: Future, okay. MS. NAKAGAWA: If there's something more technical, we can get back to you. But they are. There are lease commitments in those line items. They are our contractual obligations. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, I guess just for us and the vernacular, I guess, when we start talking about that thing, I guess I was hoping that as soon as I said "future obligations,"we would know what we were talking about. MS. NAKAGAWA: So one of the things I think we'll—as I mentioned earlier, we will work on making it very clear what the obligations are in those different areas. MS. LEE LOY: Okay, great. Thanks. That was my only question. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Back to you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Page 19 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Diane, how are you going to handle private contributions in the future? Because, we have those accounts, if I remember correctly, to kind of place hold for money coming in. MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah. So, when we took a look at those accounts, those were set up with the intent of reoccurring donations. Since it's no longer the case as what we've seen in doing the research for the last couple of years, if they come through, we'll come to Council to accept the donation and we'll go ahead and get the appropriation for it. If we see some consistency in some of the departments or it's reoccurring, we can adjust as we need, but we just wanted to be really clear as there were some questions, and appreciate that, what's no longer occurring in some of those areas. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. So we'll see those as resolutions in the future. MS. NAKAGAWA: If there's a donation, we will come forward. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Lastly—smart. I don't mean "lastly." I always say that. I'm trying to stop saying that. Okay. So Environmental Management goes last in our special budget hearings, and this always gets me because it's such a big department and such a tremendous need expressed by everyone. And we're all tired, it's the end of the day, and we're trying to go through a massive budget that's three entire sections of our budget itself. So how are we meeting this is for DEM but also for Finance. How are we budgeting to see the changes we want to see? If that's for DEM, that's fine, but in your eyes or their eyes, that's what(inaudible). MS. NAKAGAWA: Sure. And if DEM is on, they can please feel free to chime in to your question. But to your point about the timing, Council Chair Kimball and I have also had discussions about improvement to the budget review process. It's a matter of scheduling. They were at the end. And, yes, it— MR. tMR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It's always been that way. In my time, always. They're the last one on the last day. MS. NAKAGAWA: Right. So in some of the discussions that we have had was how do we improve that process to make sure that those significant and critical discussions have the time and attention it deserves. So, welcome any suggestions you may have. We have talked about splitting the time up, adding a day, whatever we need to do, but do recognize that by the third day, at the end, it is a long several days of the budget. But I think there are some changes that can be made, and we are definitely open and want to ensure that everyone is comfortable and each department has the attention that it deserves during this process. Page 20 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for that. Do we haveDirector, are you there? Okay, that makes two. Okay. I'll keep one question for you then Ms., I mean Mass Transit. I see Mass Transit in the room. This is a neat one. So Mass Transit's provision for training account updated to reflect the change from the 334 Miscellaneous Charges to 341. But also Miscellaneous Contract Services, the line item indicates funds for additional solar charging capacity infrastructure for the electrification of fleet. That's neat. What are we looking at there? MS. NAKAGAWA: Mass Transit will be right up. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. (Note: At this time, Assistant Mass Transit Administrator Zachary Bergum came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. BERGUM: Good morning, Council Members. Zach Bergum, Assistant Mass Transit Administrator. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. MR. BERGUM: So your reference to the, is it the $500,000 for SP placeholder? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yup. MR. BERGUM: So, yeah, we were looking at coordinating with SP (Sustainability Partners) as we go into the solar power and charging. But it's not also just including SP. It's going to be involving CT as well. I don't want to get in front of or put the cart in front of the horse. We're actually still in negotiations with those meetings now. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Just for everybody: SP, CT, we likeI mean, we get the acronyms but for the public. MR. BERGUM: Sustainability Partners. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And CT? MR. BERGUM: CTE? Hold on real quick. I've got that acronym here. Center of Transportation and Environment. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Okay, so 500,000, correct? MR. BERGUM: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Good job. Okay, thank you, sir. Page 21 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. BERGUM: Sir, thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ramzi, I saw you briefly. You there? (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director Ramzi Mansour came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. MANSOUR: Yes, I'm here. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: All right. Thanks for joining us. So there's a number of changes in the budget for your department specifically and across some of your different funds. Talk to us about the recycling that Managing Director Sako mentioned earlier, and then as well,just across your budget, what these new funds will do to enhance our infrastructure and take care some of the public safety problems that we are being presented with. MR. MANSOUR: Is that in particular solid waste or in totality with the wastewater and solid waste? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Unfortunately, it's across all of them. This is a good thing, but I'm just trying to get a feel for what you folks are looking to do in the upcoming years. MR. MANSOUR: Yeah. As you know, we entered into a county-wide AOC (Administrative Order on Consent) with the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) based on commitments for certain projects, critical projects, that we need to deliver by 2035. So we had created a time line and a schedule with milestones to get these projects accomplished within time. The Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant is being advertised as we speak. We're going to have the pre-bid meeting on May 29h to go over the project with the contractors that's going to be potentially bidding on the project, and that's going to be a major project. Part of it is, as you all know, safety issues pertaining to that facility and other—so that's one of our top priority projects that is moving forward as planned. Other projects as well are in the process of being designed. So, like I said, we have a very detailed time line/schedule on Microsoft projects that allows us to be able to monitor every milestone pertaining to these projects within the AOC. As far as recycling, recycling is a big challenge. And we are working on the solid waste operational analysis on the current operation. We should have the draft report by the end of this year. Currently, we're around $7 million to $8 million probably just between (inaudible) and Business Services to do the boxes, the HI-5, and the green waste. Just these few items has taken quite a bit from the budget itself. But, as you all know, we need to drive better recycling and Page 22 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 diversion from the landfill. Landfill space is very expensive. We've only got 20-plus years remaining life, and we need to be able to preserve that lifespan on the current landfill by aiming to divert as much as we can and recycle as much as we can. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: When you speak to "recycling,"what are you speaking to? Are we talking about HI-5? You're talking about glass? You're talking about metal? MR. MANSOUR: Well, everything potentially that has a reuse. You've got—the C and D is our most challenging item that we need to find a market for. It takes a lot of space within the landfill. Unfortunately, we don't have a program to handle the inert and construction demolition material. And we've been working with some entities in trying to invite interest. The State has a task force that my staff and I have been attending on a monthly basis, trying to, from a statewide, find a better management for recyclables. Mattresses are big issues to our landfills as well. Carpets. These bulky items take a lot of space within the landfill. But the current recycling programs that we have is cardboards, HI-5, and green waste and tires. So we are limited to what we could recycle currently. And as you're aware with the green waste, we're still, on the west side, we have a surplus of the mulch. Unfortunately, with the CRB (Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle) issue also as well, we need to be very careful of handling that material to prevent any spreading. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. MR. MANSOUR: But the programs that we have, like I said, the big bulky material is the one that's taking the space. And, unfortunately, no market here locally on Hawaii. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Director, I'm going to go ahead and yield for the time being, and I might have some more questions for you. Thank you. MR. MANSOUR: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Sorry to interrupt. We have to do a quick tech(technical) reset here, so we're going to take a break until 10:30 and then we'll come back. We're in recess until 10:30. Thank you. Recess: At 10:20 a.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 10:35 a.m. Page 23 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, you have the floor, and I'm not sure if we still have Ramzi on Zoom. Director Mansour, are you still there? MR. MANSOUR: Yes, I'm still here. CHR. KIMBALL: Oh, fantastic! Thank you for your patience. I apologize. MR. MANSOUR: Oh, no problem. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mr. Mansour, I think you answered my questions for your portion of the budget. Thank you. If needed I'll follow up with some of the other folks in the department. Mo? Mr. Messina, Director, can you come up? I just have a couple questions for you. (Note: At this time, Parks and Recreation Director Maurice Messina came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. MESSINA: Good morning. Parks Director Maurice Messina. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Good morning. Thank you for being here. I saw some good additions to your budget for this second round. What are you going to achieve this coming fiscal year with these funds? MR. MESSINA: I'm going to fix our parks. Fix our parks, make some money. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. What does that mean? MR. MESSINA: With the increase in our maintenance and repair budget, we were able to—so here's an example. At the end of this fiscal year, we were able to look at all of our gyms and facilities, especially the ones that are leaking, which almost every gym on our island right now is leaking with the exception of the Ka`u Gym. So we already started the design process to prepare all of those to repair some of our community centers like the Pepe`ekeo Community Center, the Pepe`ekeo Gym, Kona Gym. And then we also have about five or six clerk positions to finally start moving towards an admission fee at the zoo, which we plan on starting around January 1st is our goal. And we're looking at a potential revenue for the first six months of a little around $700,000 for that. Very minimum: $1 for on-island keikis, $4 for on-island adults. And then it raises dramatically for off-island residents. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. That's good. So things that you were needing to do that we've always struggled to find funding for for your department, we actually got some extra in this second round of the budget. Page 24 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. MESSINA: Right. For instance, this last fiscal year, we were able to start with our termite control. In the fiscal year prior, we could tent one building a year. Just this fiscal year alone, we tented every building at Ho`olulu Complex, including $68,000 for the Civic. So, as we continue going through that, we're going to be resurfacing a lot of tennis courts and pickleball courts. We met with some community members this morning about that. So now, with this extra budget, we don't have to just nickel and dime our way through it. We can actually get one contractor to do all of our projects at one time. Do them the right way. Fix our swimming pools the right way, instead of just band-aiding everything that's been done for decades because of deferred maintenance. Actually start fixing our facilities. In the future, if it does come to where new facilities are needed, we can actually start moving that way. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I saw a number in the CIP budget. So this is more of just what you're expecting in (Fiscal Year) 24-25, and it's good to see you getting some extra funding too. MR. MESSINA: Yes. We appreciate it. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Okay. Unless Mr.well, Ms. Kalua-Lewis, I got the number so I'm good on that. And is Mr. Pause still in the meeting? MS. KALUA-LEWIS (from the audience): (Inaudible.) MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Chair, I'm going to yield for now. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: All right, thank you. I believe, Council Member Kagiwada, you had a question. MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah. Thank you, Chair. Just a quick question on the CIP projects. Director Nakagawa, we had a conversation about this, and I don't think we ever followed up. The CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kagiwada,just depending, this should relate to the operating budget. We are going to do the CIP later. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I heard some people talking about CIP stuff. CHR. KIMBALL: That was about the CIP position, which is in the operating budget, which is why I allowed it. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, I can wait. Thank you. Okay, thanks. I'll wait. Page 25 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: All right. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Yeah,just one question. Recently,we had that EPA consent decree, and we hired a special counsel. And then we also recently extended another contract for Corporation Counsel to have help, right. So how is that reflected? It seems to me we're really having an increase in expenditures, sometimes unknown because we settle. It tends to be we're always in litigation. We're always settling. So where would that I just want to make sure that, given what we just were looking at in the last couple of months, how would that have impacted from the last draft and this draft? MS. NAKAGAWA: Sure. Council Member Evans, I don't believe there are any changes in those specific items, and I'd be happy to go through with you the line items. There are a couple different areas that you're speaking of. The special counsel, if you're speaking of the one that recently went through Council, that was for Workers' Comp. (Compensation). So that would be in a different line item. There is another line item, a settlement in claims, as well as additional funding in Corporation Counsel's budget for outside counsel. And Corporation Counsel Strance is here, and if you have other questions related to the need of those types of additional funding, she'd be happy to answer that. MS. EVANS: So you don't see an increase inI was just looking at expenditures, the percentage in general government. I'm assuming they land in general government. You didn't see any ? MS. NAKAGAWA: We didn't add any increase in the last amended budget. So, based on the information that was provided by the department and looking at those specific types of claims and items, that was the projected need from the department. MS. EVANS: Okay. All right, thank you. MS. NAKAGAWA: You're welcome. MS. EVANS: I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Anyone else before we proceed to amendments? Okay, great. Oh, Council Member Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, Ms. Director, this is my last question for you. As we look at property tax rate adjustments and understanding everything we've talked about today and some of the bigger issues coming forward—hazard pay and different things, adjustments to our budget—where do you see your bottom line as far as decreasing revenue in our property tax stream Page 26 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 with our property tax rates? Where are you going to hit a bottom? It's going to come forward; I'm hearing it already. We have adjustments in front of us. But I'm just trying to feel out for you where's your comfortable area. MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah. So I think we started this discussion a little earlier when we talked about the Fund Balance and our reserve account and what the County is comfortable with. The budget that we have set forth in this amended budget has taken into account all of the different priorities. And, really, that is our Administration, the Mayor's budget. In looking at the reductions in terms of what we can do for the community, looking at the different additions to some of the budget line items that are critical, this amended budget reflects those discussions, those priorities that we've set forward. Just to reiterate, it's the same conversation earlier about comfort level on where we are with our Fund Balance. So I think those are conversations that we'll continue to have throughout the day, but the budget we set forth is at a comfort level that we see we can continue to move forward with. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So this is the comfortable area. Okay, thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. All right, seeing no further discussion we will move forward with amendments. Mr. Clerk, can you please read in the first Bill 136, Draft 2, amendment in Communication MR. HENRICKS: Actually, Chair, we need to take the vote to amend with the Mayor's Draft 2 first before we can layer on additional amendments because the amendments are based upon the Draf 2. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you for that reminder. All those in favor of amending Bill 136 with the communication contained in 755.10 to Draft 2, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136 with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.10 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Kimball —8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas — 1. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: We'll now return to the main motion and the amendments. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kagiwada moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2,with the contents of Comm. 755.11. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. Page 27 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. So, had several conversationsI see we have our Administrator Mr. Runnells here, if you want to come up both with our Animal Control Administrator, our Managing Director, and our Finance Director about this item. Basically, we were relying on our Animal Control Agency to do an awful big lift here, and they are doing an awful lot, specifically there's a lot of stuff that they have to do that nobody else can do. And this proposed budget item is to help them with partnering with a community organization who can help with some of the stuff that they might be able to do. So it's not going after dangerous dogs or things like that, but it could be more about forward facing and interacting with the public, helping to gather data that's really needed in order for us to be effective and efficient with our resources. And also, I think it's really important. An important thing we can do here is by giving a small amount of money to, I mean it's not super small, but amount of money to a community organization. They might be able to leverage getting more funding. Apparently, there's national funding out there that can be leveraged if they're shown to be working in coordination with our County. So I will turn it over to our Administrator just to say a little bit about maybe what you envision this money could be used for. (Note: At this time, Animal Control and Protection Administrator Matthew Runnells came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. RUNNELLS: Matt Runnells, Administrator for Animal Control. I envision—well, we currently work with a lot of our partner organizations throughout the County. Additional monies with those organizations to try to organize better spay and neuter and information exchange would definitely be within that realm as far as possibly building outreach websites to organize those spay and neuters in a little bit better manner. Because, a lot of times those individual organizations are given the money to do the spay and neuters, but not necessarily to organize the contacts between the people that are coming in for those spay and neuters. So sometimes it's considered a slight cluster to try to get those times and locations organized a little bit better. And so, with us, we can't necessarily organize those in a manner that gets everybody to work together. So I could see this money working towards that. MS. KAGIWADA: Great. Yeah. So just really helping with some of the public- facing stuff that people are asking for and having some issues with right now to just kind of jump-start the work that the agency is trying to do and going towards already. So that was the thought here. Yeah. Happy to hear discussion or input from my colleagues. Thank you. Page 28 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, Chair. In support. I also recognize there's another amendment, and I'm just wondering how these funds interact with a future kind of adjustment that we have coming up. Director, your thoughts? I mean, this is kind of in one line item. MR. RUNNELLS: Mhm. I mean, I do see them kind of working in conjunction, but different subject matter. We plan on doing a lot more outreach for education purposes, along with our veterinary staff that we're bringing on board to do—our push in one direction is for microchipping and for registering within the County. It is a huge impact on our workload in that direction, and then also in the direction of spay and neuters and outreach on that end. And so they do kind of intermingle, but they also have very specific subject matters, too, for the public. MS. LEE LOY: Director, 150 isI mean, we're all looking at a huge Fund Balance. Is that enough for all of this work over the course of 12 months? MR. RUNNELLS: It depends on how we utilize it. I honestly feel like it's not a matter of whether it's a small amount, but it is as much as how we use it to have those outreach clinics because it's a matter of us getting out there into the public. Because, education is probably the biggest thing that we are lacking in right now for the public when it comes to pets and spay and neuters and microchipping and stuff. And so that isn't necessarily a huge cost, but it's a matter of putting forth that effort for us to get out there. MS. LEE LOY: Great. Director, in support. Maybe on the side you can take some information as to what's working, you know, spay and neuter, chipping, and then we can tailor something for this dais to just discuss at a future budget for the next few fiscal years. Thank you. I yield. MR. RUNNELLS: Yes, definitely. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: I'm in support. I just was kind of curious because when you do your outreach, you wouldn't be working with veterinarians because they're in the business of spay and neuter. And so where do you see your audience? Like, how do you ? MR. RUNNELLS: Currently, we're in the process of bringing on a contract veterinarian. And a lot of those facilities that we work with in the organizations, a lot of them have their own veterinarians or their own contract veterinarians that they have for spay and neuters. And so those are kind of the groups that we work Page 29 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 with to try to get that out to the public in a cheaper form. It's not necessarily taking the load off of veterinarians within the County because a lot of times those are an additional task on them to spay and neuter for those people. So it's a matter of us reaching a different group, in other words, than the clinics and stuff out there. It's more the organizational groups and the spay and neuter groups that are out in the community. MS. EVANS: Thanks for saying that because I know in my community there's some "volunteers" I would call them,people who have taken it on, and they do 15-20 spay and neuter every weekend. And they've just turned it into their personal volunteerism. And that's their community give back, to do the spay and neuter, and I think you probably know them. But do you see reaching out to them? MR. RUNNELLS: I do. I mean, a lot of these organizations, they fly in sometimes veterinarians to work in their facilities and in their spay and neuter clinics that they hold. And so it is a challenge to get people, and a lot of times the ones that work with those groups are volunteering and volunteering their time because it's not a monetary thing. It's a social calling for them to spay and neuter for their community. MS. EVANS: And the data collection part,just a quick statement on (inaudible). MR. RUNNELLS: A lot of groups have asked for some of our numbers within our different areas, you know, barking dog calls, dangerous dog calls, those kinds of things. That would be tasked with us to try to compile and get out to those groups as well. And so that effort would be something that we would have to look into how to separate that from our databases and get it out to them. MS. EVANS: Thank you. That was a big discussion. Before you got here, there was a big discussion about the task force group that was stood up. And for them, data collection was a big deal. So we really know what the problem is. Maybe the areas we need improvement or potential focus areas. So thank you and thank you for introducing this. MR. RUNNELLS: That, too, will tie in with our software that we put in for this next budget year, because the software alone, it has a huge impact on our data collection and disseminating that to the public. MS. EVANS: Thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Any further discussion on this amendment? Seeing none, all those in favor of amending Billoh, Council Member Inaba. Page 30 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. INABA: Sorry. That came quickly. I wasn't ready. As I shared earlier, I do think that the—well, you know what? I would like to hear from Finance Department on this. We have a bunch of amendments coming forward, and I shared earlier that I think we, if anything, can be making cuts should it come to that point. But I want to hear your thoughts on essentially adding additional expense in light of what we know is real property tax resolution rate changes coming. MS. NAKAGAWA: Sure. Thank you, Council Member. There was a lot of effort to put forth this budget and the amended budget. A lot of thought given into all the different things that we talked about today and months of discussion with the departments. We've talked again and again about our Fund Balance and future obligations. But I also know this is a process and a collaborative process for us to talk about our priorities and where we're comfortable with. As I mentioned earlier, the comfort level from our financial standpoint is to have that Fund Balance and our reserves in a higher percentage. But I think, in all cases and in every budget cycle,we have to weigh out some of these things that are critical. So, open to the process that we're experiencing today and these discussions. The comfort level is what was presented. But like I said, I understand that it is this is the way that we make changes and we look at what are priorities. And each priority will have a sacrifice, and these are the tough decisions that we have to make. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. With that, I think, as a general statement today with the amendments—and, Administrator, thank you for advocating and sharing how these funds would be used by your agency, but I don't think I'll be supporting any of the amendments today. I think a solid budget has been presented, and I can't see increasing any of the budget areas in light of the need to almost decrease the budget overall. So I'll put that general statement out right now and I'll be voting "no." Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. Any further discussion? Let me go to Council Member Galimba and I'll come back. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Actually, if you could maybe stay. I probably was going to ask, but I think he might. So we do have a quite sizeable budget in Animal Control, and I believe a lot of it is for positions that are not necessarily filled at this point and may take a little bit to fill. I do see this amendment as being an important avenue for the Animal Control to go down. So I'm definitely on the learning curve here, but just wondering if there's a way to perhaps adjust things such that this could be taken up within the amount that we have, basically a fund transfer at this point in the process. Page 31 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. NAKAGAWA: So, Council Member, ifI want to make sure I understand your question. It relates to the budgeted amount for salaries and wages? MS. GALIMBA: Right, which is a big amount and definitely need the people, yeah. MS. NAKAGAWA: Right. So we want to make sure every department and agency has the resources that they need. Most critical are positions. And so part of our budget discussion is really looking at the start dates. I believe some of the information you have look at the position and start dates. And the salaries the budget that is reflected takes into account when the department will need those positions and their anticipated time to fill. Sometimes, it does take longer. But that is the budget. So we want to make sure that the funding is there for the salaries and wages for those critical positions that they've identified. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. We'll go to Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Director, thank you for the brief explanation. One hundred fifty thousand for Miscellaneous Contract Services, community outreach and data collection. And there is another item on the agenda for later today for 82,000. I heard you say earlier they do overlap, but what is the hopes for this 150,000? To me, it's a lot, sorry, for community outreach. What is under that community outreach piece that equals out to 150,000? MR. RUNNELLS: Well, I mean, it's really a matter of us negotiating that with the other organizations. I mean, we haven't gotten the actual details worked out yet with them, so that's the crust of it. We have a lot of work to do with those organizations. It takes a lot to organize multiple organizations that have their own opinions and methods of utilizing those funds for spay and neuters. And so I think it wouldhonestly, it takes a lot to get those groups to work together. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so right now, kind ofI mean, I'm getting a question mark because if you get the funding, you will proceed with going after it. But let me just,just as abroad scope, that's about$10,000-plus a month to do outreach for community. So you're saying doing services, data, flyers MR. RUNNELLS: It's a combination of all of that. I mean, the education portion alone is a huge cost depending on how these organizations want to work together to get that message out for spay and neuters. And then just the organization of the Page 32 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 spay and neuter clinics themselves and probably into some sort of website-based logins so that people can go and get those spay-and-neuter slots, which can be a challenge sometimes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And then you had—looks like we already had 476,000 in the account. So that wasn't going to meet your projections or needs? MR. RUNNELLS: For ? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: For Animal Control Miscellaneous Contract Services,just as a general. MR. RUNNELLS: This would be, in addition to that, specifically for the outreach clinics and stuff for spay and neuters. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Okay, thank you. I yield, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Back to you, Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. I'm just wondering if Managing Director Sako might be able to come up because we had some conversations early on. And I think there was some possibility that the Administration would add this to their second draft, and I said I would do it. So I just wanted to, given my colleague's concern about that we got this second draft and that's complete. I just wanted to give Managing Director Sako a chance to weigh in on the benefits that the Administration might see in this as well. MS. SAKO: Yeah, I think we've all just been trying to balance the challenges associated with Animal Control and Matt's been doing a great job. But it's, you know, we're willing to try and manage a contract,but we do have to put it out through some sort of procurement process and whatnot, which needs one more contract for Matt and the team to manage. So, yes, we're willing to try. I mean, I think that was our conversation earlier. We're willing to partner and try and work with the different groups and hopefully make it better. Because, it definitely has been challenging getting staff, getting everything up to speed. So there's a lot of things we hope some organization can help us with, but yeah. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. Yeah, and just to clarify, basically the public right now does not have a place to just go online and see where is their spay and neuter this weekend, and do they have spots available. This could be a website or way to work with the public so that it's easy for them: when they have the time, when they can do it, and match that up with the spaces. Because, right now, we've got these little pots of money all over the island doing this work, but it's not coordinated in any way. Page 33 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 And the other issue with that, I think, is just that because we are doing this kind of sporadic way of doing spay and neuter, based on research and the data that I was shown, that's not the best way to actually make significant progress on what we want to do. It's a lot better to, for instance, look at one area, target a lot of resources there for a certain amount of time, get that under control then move to the next area. That's the way you can see real change and success. And the way we're doing it now, we don't have any coordination around that, and Animal Control just has their hands full. So yeah. So that's just my last plug for it, but thank you and thank you both for your input. CHR. KIMBALL: All right, thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. If I may, when Council Member Galimba made her recommendation, I did look at the book here. So you had roughly 15 positions that were expected to be filled in mid- March, most of those being the control and protection officers. How many of those were filled? MR. RUNNELLS: I think we're up to about ten on those. Our biggest challenge right now is Kona facility. We only got maybe half of what we wanted for that facility, and we're reporting to try to fill the remainder of those positions as well as a position over in the Puna District as well. CHR. KIMBALL: So, of the fifteen, you maybe have five still open? Is that what you're ? MR. RUNNELLS: Yeah, about five, yeah. CHR. KIMBALL: About five. And then there were another eleven positions due to be filled on April 1, looks like mostly administrative? MR. RUNNELLS: Mostly administrative. We're also writing the positions for the kennel technicians, to move them from contract to civil servant positions as well. And that's roughly about the same number equal to the animal control officers. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay. And then another 16 primarily kennel techs for mid- April? MR. RUNNELLS: Yeah, those are the ones that are currently on contract that we're moving into the civil servant positions. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay. So those are all technically filled? MS. SAKO: We still have to pay for them, yes. MR. RUNNELLS: Yeah, and we're not even fully staffed on that, even with the contract positions right now. Page 34 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Okay. So the five open animal control and protection officer positions, we're under continuous recruitment, right, for that. So what's the turnaround time once you get an application in to bring somebody onboard? MR. RUNNELLS: It depends. I mean, it can be a month or so, depends on how fast that process goes, but yeah. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay. It's not the typical three-month turnaround. MR. RUNNELLS: We still have a couple on contract, but yes, it's about a month, I would say, once the process goes from beginning to end, yeah. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay, all right. Are we getting regular applicants for these, or are you still struggling? MR. RUNNELLS: Well, we had one run through with the listing for those positions, and now we're reporting it and going to put it probably on a continuous post until we get those positions filled. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay. All right. Thank you for that. Yeah, okay. Based on that, I'm going to suggest that there's probably not enough room in that staffing budget to cover this amount for even anticipating a little bit of a delay with respect to hiring. So I think that I'm not super keen on all of the stuff coming from Fund Balance. I would like to do things like look at vacant positions that have not been filled and calculate what room is there. But in your particular budget, it doesn't seem like there's much wiggle room. So I'll support this particular amendment at this time. All right, with that, we will move forward with the vote on the system and Bill 136, Draft 2,with the contents of Communication 755.11. All those in favor? Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.11 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: Council Member Inaba— 1. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Administrator. If we can now go to Communication 755.12. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.12. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. Page 35 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. And I just wanted to call forward some members of the Fire Department. This particular communication is requesting the acquisition of two sports utility vehicles for a couple of our battalion chiefs. The first would be for Stacy Domingo, emergency communications. Actually, the first female battalion chief for our Fire Department. So congratulations. So awesome! As part of her kuleana, she manages the folks that are in our very important Dispatch Center, and she currently does not have a vehicle that she utilizes to do official County business. She actually uses her own personal vehicle, and it has accumulated a lot of mileage on her car, or van. I think you said you have five keiki? Yes. And so this would allow her to take dispatchers out into the community and really familiarize themselves with the district so that when they're on the call with anybody that calls 911, they're able to provide just a bit more context and information and support during those calls. BC (Battalion Chief), is there anything else that you might want to add to this? (Note: At this time, Battalion Chief Stacy Domingo, Hawaii Fire Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. DOMINGO: Hi, good morning. Stacy Domingo, Battalion Chief, Hawaii Fire Department. So the request for this vehicle comes with also—as everybody is aware that we do have some challenges with staffing in our Dispatch Center, as well as we've kind of done an overhaul and a revamp of our entire training program for our dispatchers. One of those things that we're noticing is that a lot of our dispatchers are the people who are applying for the position are familiar with where they grew up, but they don't realize that when they're taking calls for anyone in our community, they could be trying to navigate or send our responders to a place that is not familiar to the dispatcher. So what we do is we try to take them out into the communities, to all of our districts, so that they can be familiar with not only just that area, but understanding the boundaries of which vehicles would respond to which places as well as just specific things about those districts. For example, maybe the community calls a certain road by a certain name, but on the map it has a different name. Just understanding little, what do they call them, nuances for each community so that they can be familiar and provide better information for our responders to get them to the address or the location much quicker. That's just one of the things that this vehicle would be used for. Also,just for my response, I've noticed that, because we didn't have a ranked person in this position before and it was reliant on the supervisors that were just on duty, this gives me the opportunity to come in Page 36 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 for when we have things like the storms or major natural disasters or events, I could respond to the call center more efficiently, as well as the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) if needed. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks, Stacy Domingo. And the other vehicle is actually for Battalion Chief Vern Hara, if he wanted to come forward, our fossil. So he kind of operates the fire departments like Amazon Warehouse, if you may; a lot of equipment that our stations need. And so I understand that you had an electric vehicle but it kept breaking, and then there was another vehicle and that's kind of out of commission. And so it's really evident that you need a vehicle of some kind to help you to make deliveries and visit the various stations to make sure that they have what they need. (Note: At this time, Battalion Chief Vern Hara, Hawaii Fire Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. HARA: Thank you, Council. As you said, I'm Battalion Chief Hara and I manage the warehouse. And the other station that I do is our vehicle maintenance section, our mechanics. And previously to Chief Domingo getting promoted, I was overseeing the Dispatch Center also. I did have a repurposed vehicle to use just to get myself to meetings between various vendors, appointments, whatever. The warehouse is a huge deal. We carry everything from household items for the fire station to fire equipment and all the tools that the firefighters need. So we, a lot of times, have to run around and pick up equipment. Just programs that we do to try to keep our gear in shape and stuff. We really didn't have a vehicle prior to that. We were utilizing a van and then we got that upgraded a while ago, prior to me getting in. But we had just one vehicle that had to be shared with my warehouse person to try to coordinate stuff to get to meetings and pick up vehicles. We did notice that there was a vehicle that wasn't being utilized, so I tried to repurpose that. It was a 2005 hybrid, which hasn't been the most reliable, to say. But my mechanics, being that that was my section, tried to keep it alive for a while, and I think it's probably at the end of its lifespan. And we also was able to repurpose another Ford Expedition, which is also another 2005 with over 300,000 miles, which has been having some issues also. I mean, for the most part, I'm grateful just to have a vehicle so we can go and attend meetings and get to places doing County business. But I appreciate being given the opportunity to get a vehicle for myself and for Chief Domingo. I think it's very much needed. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: You both do incredibly essential work, and we need to set you up for success. In order to do that, you need every tool available, not just a vehicle. MR. HARA: Thank you. I appreciate it. Page 37 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks for being here. Looking for my colleagues' support on this. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Go ahead, Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha and congratulations for being the first woman battalion chief. Congratulations. Quick question: $120,000 for two vehicles is a lot of money, so I am just I mean, I get the need for an SUV (sport utility vehicle) because you're hauling lots of things, and you're going to a lot of 4-wheel drive places, I assume. But I just have questions about the amount of money for two cars. That's a pretty big price tag for two vehicles, and I want to get you guys in the best, safest, most fiscally-responsible vehicles. But my question comes with the amount of money for two cars. That's a big number for two vehicles. MR. HARA: Yeah, I think on the surface it does look like it is a lot but with the increase of everything. But also know that we have to have fire radios in there. So that's a pretty hefty price tag. Also, to get there is we need communication. SometimesI don't know for Stacy. I don't know if we're going to get lights but, I mean, we're flexible. We'll work with whatever. MS. VILLEGAS: Of course you are. You've been navigating a vehicle that doesn't—yeah. MR. HARA: I've been getting stuck on the road for months sometimes. MS. VILLEGAS: Nobody wants that. MR. HARA: Just yesterday, my vehicle wasn't cooperating too much, so I spent a little bit of time trying to jump it. But, yeah, I mean we're flexible. I think that was just a ballpark number for Chief Domingo needed an Expedition-sized vehicle. So I think we just rolled with that. I willI mean, it would be nice to have that so I can MS. VILLEGAS: I get it. We're wish listing here. MR. HARA: Correct. MS. VILLEGAS: And when we wish list, we go big. MR. HARA: Right, but we're flexible. MS. VILLEGAS: It's just I would be remiss not to ask the question because of the price tag on two vehicles. I'm going to get smacked on the back by constituents. Page 38 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. HARA: No, no, I mean it is a big price tag. We are aware of that. But there are some other things that we need to outfit the vehicle. It's not just the vehicle itself. There needs to be communication, lights, yeah. I might not need the lights. But we're flexible for sure, but yeah, it does look like it's a big price tag. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. So I guess my question would be then, with this amendment, is the price tag that you've presented as part of this amendment flexible? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, if I might? The $60,000 was made at the recommendation of Fire leadership. And so I certainly want to hear from Fire One or Chief Springer on that. I trust the departments to identify exactly what they need. And so, if this is what they said they needed, I want to be able to support and honor that. MS. VILLEGAS: And I completely appreciate that, and I also just want to honor the process of a budget being created by the Mayor's office and our Director of Finance, and their decision not to have placed this in the budget to begin with. So this is the dance we get to do in this. (Note: At this time, Fire Chief Kazuo Todd came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. TODD: So, relative to the amount of the vehicle, those are based off of financial set amounts from the Finance Department in terms of what kind of vehicle. So, when we put together our supplementary budget request, which we've put together for the Finance Department and the Mayor's Administration to look through, based on the vehicle class that they're going to get, there's a set amount that's tied to that supplemental budget request. So, in that particular case, because they'd identified SUVs, we'd go down the list. The SUV, they'd say, or when you put that supplemental together, ask for 60,000. So the numbers that are there are not something that the Fire Department came up with based on MS. VILLEGAS: Gotcha. MR. TODD: Going out for any kind of, like, "Hey, let's go over to Ford and see how much this costs." It's just we have a list, and based on the vehicle class that they're looking to MS. VILLEGAS: There's a template. MR. TODD: There's a template we follow. MS. VILLEGAS: There's a template. Thank you for explaining that. That's helpful. Page 39 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. TODD: And then my understanding is these are tied back to our supplemental request that had been put forward. And so part of our job in the Fire Department is to be as transparent as possible. So, every month, we send you our monthly report on everything going on in the department, but we also send out our budgetary request and everything else. And I talked with our Finance Director. Each department might rule—and the way I look at my job as the Fire Chief, as well as any director for any other department, is to provide all the information, and then the Finance Department will make those decisions on where is the priority. And then from the Fire Department's perspective, we take what we're given and we're going to make it work to the extent that we have the capacity to do so. And so while I appreciate any additional funding you want to throw in our direction, and I a hundred percent guarantee will spend it, we also do want to be good stewards of the money and work well with the other County departments. And so, for that respect, we fully are here to take whatever direction the County Council and the Mayor's Administration and the Finance Department want us to go in, and we'll make it work. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Chief Todd. And you go above and beyond and partner with nonprofit and community organizations to get funding and the resources for your department above and beyond what unfortunately the County can't always provide for you. I just had to ask those questions, so thank you for your responses and always being transparent and honest and humorous. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. I'm not sure who was next over there. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. There's always the challenge of making sure you have the equipment and that it's but I was just thinking out loud to myself, you don't really have a motor pool or, let's say, the ability to have someone access if they really need it. For example, I'm thinking if these vehicles broke down yet the need was there, how would you adjust things so they make sure they have what they need? MR. TODD: Generally, when we're talking about these type of support vehicles, I break them up into three tiers. So there's the operational response tier. And so, for our stations, the first step is usually placing vehicles at the station. And this would include allowing us to respond off-road or our 4x4 trucks and things like that. And so that's the first tier, is doing the 911 response. The second tier would be in our support services, which are the vehicles we kind of see here today. And this is that we've got to move supplies around. We've got to move personnel around. It's not a response to a 911, but it is in support of that service to the community. Page 40 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 And, finally, there's the third tier, like our chief officers here in Admin (Administration), which you might see some vehicles out there. And so, when it's really hitting the fan, often sometimes those vehicles end up somewhere else, or lent out or things like that, sort of as a pool on a temporary nature. I don't have a vehicle. A number of years ago when I became Fire Chief,prevention bureau lacked enough vehicles to adequately go out and do inspections, and that's our second tier. Considering myself as a third tier, I gave up my vehicle. So that vehicle is still with our prevention bureau. And, through the budgetary process this fiscal year, we were actually able to pick up three new vehicles for prevention, but inevitably—even when I ran as the fossil and ran the warehouse, we had a Ford van which was how old? It was like an Astro from I think it was in the `90s. And I just had the jumping battery pack inside there with me that I would use to occasionally restart my vehicle because it would drain out. And that's what we had. So we made it work, and that was how things worked. And I think back then we also had some money from COVID (coronavirus disease), so we were able to pick up a new NV200 Nissan van. It was pretty awesome. And EMS (Emergency Medical Services) always has money because the State. But, yeah, that's generally kind of the tiers on how we get to our decision-making process for where vehicles go. I do want to remark that this year one of the supplementary budget items that has been increased is for vehicles. That's $1.2 million. It's part of our bigger lease plan. So, originally, our budget for replacing fire trucks was about a million dollars, which is drastically less than most of the other departments in the State. But it's what we had and so we're in that process of replacing vehicles. In that process this year, we'd asked for additional funding because, one, the cost of fire trucks has gone up. It's been a big dialogue between us, and just recently, this week, we were still having meetings on how it was going to proceed. But one of the things the Finance Department wanted was an entire vehicle replacement list, like every vehicle we have on our primary response level. How old is it? When would we be replacing it? How much are we expecting the cost? And we broke it down into multiple tables with going out pretty much for like the next 10-15 years in terms of when we're going to be replacing vehicles. And if you guys are interested in that document, it will be a one-year document where we replace it. As the vehicles run into new mechanical problems or things like that, we'll be updating them and they may move up or down in the priority list for replacement. One of the issues and one of the reasons for that is that fire trucks are taking about four years to build right now. So, if I order a truck today, it can take four years for that truck to arrive. And so the planning that needs to go into replacing trucks is now four years out. And we've got to really think about, like, hey, what is the truck we want to replace not this year but four years from now? And so, for that Page 41 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 reason, they did increase our budget on vehicle replacements in that line item, up to 2.2 million this year. And that will be used for us to go out and pick up some of our bigger vehicles and things like that. MS. EVANS: Okay. I guess my thought is I really don't feel comfortable with supporting it right now, but I do really would like to see you're talking about a replacement list for fire trucks and being able to kind of show how things need to be replaced. I would love to see a replacement list for your second and third tier, you know, your support services group, your admin officers, and then you have the 911. I'd love to see the replacement list for all three levels, and we start plugging that in because it's really important. I mean obviously they need it, but I kind of feel like there may be grant money. There may be other avenues to maybe hold this together. But I really think that might help. MR. TODD: We'll get you a copy of the current document. It is lacking in two areas. One was in our support services vehicles. I didn't have current data when I needed to put that together, and they're more on the modest side of the total price tag. A fire truck nowadays is running $1.2 million. So I really needed to focus in on the really expensive pieces of equipment that we needed to have that replacement plan for, as there's gaps in a purchasing scheme. There's opportunity to pick up some of our smaller, more affordable vehicles. But I'll get you the current document. And then anyone in the County Council who wants kind of what is the Fire Department's plan for vehicle replacement, we can provide that document. MS. EVANS: Yeah, because it's for all, support services as well as admin officers, all of it. You're going to need replacement. And the other thing is your decision when you send it to the bone yard, so to speak, you're going to have to make that decision. On any vehicle, you'll eventually say, "It's just too expensive a replacement. I can't get the part." Whatever it is. So you're going to have those decision points, and I think that's important. Because, you're going to get close where you see it coming: "Next time, we're not going to fix it." MR. TODD: Yeah. Well, we do have a category ranking system that's built into that plan that explains kind of how those decisions are made. MS. EVANS: Okay. Thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chief Todd and associated chiefs and battalion chiefs. How many vehicles do we have in this Auxiliary Services Department right now that are comparable to an SUV? MR. TODD: We have an older Exhibition, which we've rebuilt the motor for. Page 42 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And this is island-wide? MR. TODD: Yeah. Auxiliary Services services island-wide. There are other vehicles. We have box trucks for delivery of EMS supplies. EMS funding basically pays for that, and that was $110,000 for a new box truck. Just letting you guys know how much those things cost nowadays. And then we have, for smaller deliveries, we have that Nissan van that was purchased from CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security)money. So that's pretty much our fleet at the moment. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. How many personnel? MR. TODD: Three—we're creating a fourth one in Auxiliary Services, and then that doesn't cover our new battalion chief in Dispatch, which we've never really had, historically, a vehicle for. Generally, when we had a battalion chief that was in charge of that, who wasn't that battalion chief, they would use their vehicle or borrow a vehicle. I also went out in my personal vehicle when I used to take dispatchers around, and then claim mileage or things like that. So that's kind of how that's worked in the past. It works as long as you have less than three dispatchers in my truck. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So we have one more position that's been filled since then (inaudible). MR. TODD: So, right now, Auxiliary Services has three positions. There's a fourth position that's in the process of being created. It's a mechanical repair position. They'll be managing kind of the repairs for the department. And one of the things we've been trying to figure out—and I was, earlier in this meeting, showing a picture of a box truck over at Ford that has this really awesome racking system in the back of it, that I was like, "Man, we need to get that vehicle." It's about 40 grand and it's at Ford at the moment. It's a used vehicle but the contractor had installed the most amazing aluminum rack system in the back of the box truck, and I'm like "That's what we need." I have no idea how we're going to fund that or whatever, but it's one of those areas where I was like "That's the perfect vehicle for this position." We could have the auger to go and clean out the sinks and the drainpipes. And we could put all the extrication equipment and extra supplies, and it would have everything. Dreams. Things we are looking forward to. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm in the trade so I understand how nice it is to have a car or a truck or a van with racks and a whole system. It just makes life easy. MR. TODD: I can show you the picture. It's just if you're interested. Page 43 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's not this, though, yeah? MR. TODD: No. It has nothing to do with this stuff. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Let's keep it—okay, so we're coming to four positions. We have one vehicle right now? MR. TODD: It sort of depends. So, on the EMS delivery side, we have the box truck. We also have the small van. So those are for the delivery side of things. The Chief has a rebuilt Ford, which we've thrown in a rebuilt engine to that we're letting him use at the moment. We'll see how long that lasts. It's a little bit on the old side. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What year is it? MR. TODD: 2005. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: 320,000 miles? Okay. MR. TODD: We try to use them until they die. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I'm good. Okay, thank you. I yield, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. All right, as much as these conversations are enjoyable, let's keep them succinct and on point. We have a lot of amendments to get through. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks. Thanks, Fire One, for being here, and friends. Absolutely in support. And I'm actually really reflecting on how Police does it, because they actually have vehicle allowance. And I'm just wondering why these kind of positions aren't allowed that type of vehicle allowance. Is that a contractual thing that they have? MR. TODD: I have no idea. But if you want to get Finance and Deanna to give the Fire no. The Fire Department has never done a vehicle allowance system like Police have. We do,just like any other County worker, have the ability to claim mileage and get repaid. So I do visitation for stations and do claim miles, but not everyone's personal vehicle is particularly useful for the function that that might be needed for. So that sometimes poses a problem. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah. I guess, for some of the work that you guys are doing, I can see this type of vehicle being part of the work, right. Police officers jump in their car; that's their office. You guys go to the station and jump in a fire truck or an ambulance; that's your office. So I can actually see kind of a hybrid there. Page 44 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 But I'm in support of this. I think having you guys have the right tools,just like a police officer has their duty belt, this is the tool for you guys to do your job. That's where I stand on this amendment. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks. Of the amendments here for your department today, is this the top priority? If it isn't, what is? MR. TODD: My diplomatic answer is that the Finance Department is an amazing department, and they have an amazing Director who has given us lots and lots of things that I've asked for. From the perspective of the Fire Chief, obviously any additions we will shepherd, spend, and get stuff done. As far as ranking, everything usually falls into that supplemental list in terms of what we consider a priority. So No. 1 was our highest priority and so on down the list. Some of these things were pulled out just because of their price points. Like our first thing on the list is ungodly expensive, and that's one of the reasons it's not necessarily going to get selected. But as far as priority, they're usually based in whatever rank they were added into our supplementals. And I have no idea which ones these were pulled in order from. Sorry. I apologize. MS. GALIMBA: You want a list? MR. TODD: Let me grab my book in the back there. So my understanding is these are Supplementals 38-42. Nope. That's the building construction one. That's the (inaudible)trailer. Hold on. So these are for Auxiliary Services, and I don't think we actually had a supplemental for our battalion chief of Dispatch as that didn't exist at the time that we were putting it together. Okay. So, basically, these were Supplementals 40, 42, and 44. And I think the ones we are talking about right now are 40 and 42. Relative to that, the Auxiliary Services supplemental was 42, and the SUV for Fire Training was 40. MR. INABA: We're only on Auxiliary. MR. TODD: Yes. I don't think we're talking about No. 40 right now. We're talking about 42, and both of them are technically being added into the same supplemental. I hope that clears something up. Not really, I suppose. But, yeah, these wereI will be fully acknowledging the fact that the Fire Department literally writes down every problem we have in our department, creates a supplemental for it, and then supplies it to Finance under the premise of full transparency, like, "If we could solve every problem, this is the $10 million-plus price tag that would do it." And then they have to weigh that against all the other problems within every other department. Page 45 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 All of our battalion chiefs are part of our budgetary process, and they basically come forward with every need that they might have that would be solved by money. If it's not a money issue, it's a(inaudible). We could take care of that in- house. But if it's a money issue where they can't do it because they don't have the funding, they put together supplementals. Those supplementals come up and our assistant chiefs and myself, as the Fire Chief, and the deputy sit down and we rack and stack everything. And then we provide that full listing based on the first thing, which is the most important, down to the bottom. If you need a copy, I can always make you a copy of the rack and stack. Also, if you have the original supplemental sheets, there's generally a priority number on them, and that will itself tell you where the rack and stack as far as our total list of things. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chief. I did see that this was No. 42 on the supplemental list. And, obviously, we all know the whole Council and probably especially Council Member Kierkiewicz and I are big supporters of the Fire Department. I know we have funds in this account, and I think there's room to get creative to still meet the needs of the battalion chiefs before us. But I will be sticking with my position on not adding additional expenditures to the budget. And I know you're a wizard with your finances. You can work with the Finance Department to get these vehicles to make sure that our residents are getting served. I'll be voting "no." Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair Inaba. Anyone else? Just a quick question. Lease versus buy these vehicles, is that something that was discussed? Or is this a Finance question? MR. TODD: We've not explored that option. Generally speaking, on the lower end price point where we're talking hundred thousand or less, we just go out and buy. And then our $1 million vehicles are generally on some kind of a lease or payment plan,just to even out the spikes in total costs. CHR. KIMBALL: Finance Director, your thoughts on what that might mean to lease versus buy these two vehicles. MS. NAKAGAWA: As the Chief explained, most of our purchases for the smaller passenger vehicles we do buy outright. The larger vehicles or the bigger equipment cost are those that are leased. There is interest that we pay on those. So, if we can go ahead and pay outright, the vehicles, that's what we go ahead and do. The other things that we have been looking at recently is looking at used vehicles. Just a few years or even a year, that could cut some of the cost on the vehicles. Page 46 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 I wanted to add to the comment earlier, a question about the cost of vehicles. So the Purchasing Division does send out kind of the average cost over the year. We have seen dramatic increases, but it is a range. And it is also what the companies, the car lots, have at the time. So sometimes our bids come back on timing and what they want to get rid of on the lot. So it could be as low as 45, and sometimes a little higher. But you've seen a lot of the transfers lately, and a lot of them have had to cover cost because of the increase in the price. But, sorry, to answer your question, yes, it's evaluated more. So trying, on the vehicles, to pay for them. Higher cost to lease. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay, great. Thank you. With that, I will go ahead and move forward with the vote on the amendment, which is Communication 755.12. All those in favor, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.12 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Kimball –5. Noes: Council Members Evans, Inaba, Kagiwada, and Villegas –4. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIMBALL: Before we go on to the next amendment, I'm actually going to ask Council Member—since we've got Director Pause here and I want to be respectful of his time, Chief, I'm going to have Director Pause come up. MR. TODD: You're kicking me off? Okay. I got it. CHR. KIMBALL: Unless you want to—get out of here. No, we want to have that question wrapped up before we move on. (Note: At this time, Public Works Director Stephen Pause came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for that comment, Chair. Can I? CHR. KIMBALL: Yes, please go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Thank you for coming, Director. I asked some questions earlier. I'm just looking at the increases in this version of the budget and wondering what that does for your department. Ms. Kalua-Lewis was—am I saying that right? Kalua-Lewis? Page 47 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. She was helpful in providing some information earlier in lieu of your absence. Now that you're here, looking at the broader budget, we had some increases for DPW (Department of Public Works). Highways Division got some increases. So, looking to see what those are going to do for our community, what we're budgeting for. MR. PAUSE: Sure. Steve Pause, Director of Public Works. My apologies for not getting here sooner. I think when we did the original budget presentation, we talked a lot on the equipment side of being able to enhance our Highways folks to allow us to continue on the path that we've chartered here with increased paving. So, to that respect, there was equipment put in to allow that to—and again recognizing that we're a few years out, or one or more years out, when we start acquiring equipment, but we put in a paver. We put in some ancillary equipment, some additional dump trucks. So, from an equipment standpoint on the Highways side, I think that we tried to account for that in this year's budget. And one of the other areas that we also talked about at the original budget reading was related to technology and our plans to improve project management software, as well as asset management for looking towards buildings. I think there was also, more recently, a supplement for some additional maintenance funding for the buildings, given our somewhat antiquated assets and County facilities. So I think, all in all, there's a fair amount of comfort with what we've put forward here, unless my Business Manager kicks me under the desk. I think we're okay. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: No kicking. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: The maintenance we've spoken to, has any of the budgeted expenses been increased for this coming fiscal year to allow you to do more of the projects you're hoping to get done? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yes. So we were actually awarded some additional funds in R&M (Repair and Maintenance) to kind of help the Building Division. That can probably go towards consultants to kind of help identify some of the—we have a big list of buildings that need repairs. And also, the funding to help with the facilities assessment, I think the Director and Deputy discussed their plan for that during our initial budget review. MR. PAUSE: What she says. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And then to the EPIC (Electronic Processing and Information Center) system, any changes? Any financing being put—are funds being put towards that? Page 48 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah, we got additional funding for the maintenance of EPIC as well. MR. PAUSE: But to that degree, one of the things we've talked about, and I know we've budgeted for that as well, is you've heard me talk from time to time about process improvement, the lean process, and being able to get some of our folks trained and to be able to seriously start looking at, especially on the permitting side, of what sorts of things can we streamline. You've heard me speak a little bit in the past about some of our ideas, but just making changes and amendments to the software to be able to implement some of those streamlined processes that we're looking to do. As most folks know, we're still susceptible to glitches with our software folks, with additional suppliers that are tied into the EPIC system. Bluebeam is what I'm talking about. So the more we can do to take some of the human element out and make it more straightforward and allow people to use the technology. So that's all part of the process mapping, and I think we've accounted for that as well. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Any maintenance that's been additional? Any maintenance funding? Things that we deferred and deferred, and we've talked about it at length, have we put the right money in the right place to make sure those projects happen? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Our Building R&M, we got an additional 500,000. So it's about 1.25 million right now. I think that's going to be a big help to just the facilities in general. MR. PAUSE: In one of the other areas, and I think I covered this last time as well, is specific to facilities assessment. As we look at developing an asset management system for the County's 90-plus facilities, we've also been working with R&D and with, I believe, with the Sustainability office as well, through a grant to develop a plan to do a facilities assessment. So what that will do is, No. 1, identify what we have out there and, No. 2, identify the condition of what's out there and, No. 3, better steer us towards where our priorities should be as we go forward. And No. 4 is to help us budget better next year. I think this year will be the year to figure out how good or bad or ugly the facilities are, and then when we're back next year saying, "Okay, we've identified a few things that just really can't wait." So I think we're charting a path in the right direction. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: I'll also add that we hired a program manager in our Admin Division. So, really, someone who will be able to focus on the data and how other programs will integrate together. I think it's going to be a huge help to complete our goals and our visions. Page 49 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. There's an additional position as well that the Finance Department has put in to be a coordinator for our CIP budget that might tie well into your folks' department as well. It's just much needed, what do we call it, silo breaking? MR. PAUSE: Yeah, no, that sounds great. That sounds good. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. Okay. Thank you for the update, Steve. Appreciate it. Thank you. I yield, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Any other questions for the Director? Thank you, Director. I have no questions for you. MR. PAUSE: Thank you. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. All right, we will return to amendments. Council Member Kierkiewicz. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.13. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. This particular amendment proposes to do a couple of things. First, acquire a vehicle for our Training Battalion Chief Patrick Springer. Fire One and BC Springer, if you want to come forward. And the other investment is in a Fire Ground Survival trailer, and that's to ensure that our firefighters are proficient in self-survival skills. It's something that can be because it's mobile, it can be taken to stations all around the island and, in my mind, actually saving taxpayers money because we were able to take a trailer that has a training system within it to each of those stations so that our personnel can do important things like practice calling a Mayday. And I'd love for you to kind of explain to my colleagues, BC Springer, and the public what a Mayday is. And then, within this trailer, they are going to be able to utilize their breathing apparatus, breach walls, disentangle from wires. Basically, anything that could arise as part of a call, they will be able to essentially have real-world sort of training practice in this trailer, which will help them in the event of a real call. (Note: At this time, Battalion Chief Patrick Springer, Hawaii Fire Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) Page 50 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. SPRINGER: Good morning, Council. BC Patrick Springer, HFD (Hawai`i Fire Department) Training. So answering some questions today about the FGS (Fire Ground Survival)trailer and the vehicle to tow that trailer and other things. So the Fire Ground Survival trailer is estimated to cost around $56,000, and it will cost$11,000 to ship here from California. What this trailer will allow us to do, as Council Member Kierkiewicz stated, is conduct Fire Ground Survival training. Now what that means is teaching our firefighters everything they need to know about self-survival. This is for interior structural firefighting. Once they go into that atmosphere, it's immediately dangerous to life and health. So, basically, what we're talking mostly about is entrapment, injury on the fire ground, or problem with their air supply. This teaches our personnel how to prevent the Mayday in the first place. And a Mayday is basically any problem we cannot resolve within 30 seconds. In that environment, it can threaten our lives within that short amount of time. That's when we call it. What a Mayday consists of is who, what, where. We provide that information over the radio, and then we go into our self-survival procedures, which this course provides our personnel the knowledge, skills, and ability to prevent a Mayday, first of all, and then what to do when they get into trouble. So everything from disentanglement, from wires to bailing out of elevated windows, getting onto ladders, all of those different things, navigating out on a hose line. All of those different things are skills that they need to have in their skill set because, for me, as a training chief, my greatest fear is one of our guys doesn't make it home—guys or girls. And with this particular training program, it does save a lot of money. The training is done on duty at the station. So we can tow the trailer there and run guys through the training while they're on duty. The only overtime expenditure for that would be related to if we had to bring an outside instructor in, usually one or two. We have one supervising the evolution and doing most of the training. And then one safety officer-trainer combination. So they kind of oversee things like high angle delay systems for fall protection. So, yeah, that is for Fire Ground Survival. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chief. And so, basically, without this trailer, you're not able to ensure that career personnel are actively training in these lifesaving actions. MR. SPRINGER: Not in a financially effective manner. The other option would be to bring all the employees in on overtime to a fixed site and run the whole department of 350 personnel in. So 350 times 8 times hourly rate; it gets out of control really quick. We're trying to do a hybrid approach to training where they do all their pre-course material before they even come, and then we do training at Page 51 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 the station. And then the last tier beyond that is where we move to off-duty compensated training. So that's the cost-effectiveness of getting a trailer for us. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chief. I appreciate you being here. Looking for my colleagues' support. I yield. MR. SPRINGER: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Just recap for me. So they will do online training first, and then they will get one-on-one training, which is what you're asking for, so they can go out and do the one-on-one. And then you said there's off duty—give me kind of what would that look the off-duty part. MR. SPRINGER: So, for this particular program, it eliminates the off-duty part. We do everything at the station while they're already working, in between calls. The normal sequence for training is they will come in and do, after doing their work on the computer, doing online modules or instructor-led on the computer. They may get some training at the station as a workup and then they'll come in off duty. So a classic example unrelated to fire ground survival would be rescue. They can't be setting up a rescue system on a cliffside and be available for calls. This particular program, we can still be available for calls and, hence, not incur overtime. MS. EVANS: Got it. Okay. I have a question for the Fire Chief on this one. Because it is the operating budget, if we're saving in salary and wages or on overtime, could you not internally just say, "I'm going to shift from the way we train now to this," and kind of you balance it out because you're saving money over here? MR. TODD: I think the major issue is that we haven't been annually doing the training with all of our personnel. So the main thing with this trailer is we have the props to do the training but they're huge. So you can fit one of the props, and we have four or five. MR. SPRINGER: There's two sets of props and there is five or six props that go along with it, along with auxiliary equipment. The trailer fits everything inside. And the other thing the trailer does—what the fire stations don't have is a secure elevated platform to train getting out of windows, whether they're jumping out, whether they're using a rope or using a ladder system. We would need a hill or a staircase to set up the normal props. That's the big selling point on the trailer for me, is the window props pop out from the top and there's anchor points in the top. So our personnel train right off the top of that. Yeah. Page 52 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. EVANS: Okay. For some reason, I thought our U.S. (United States) Senator Inouye got a training facility at Kona Airport that they thought people would MR. TODD: So you're talking about the training facility that was going to be built at the airport? MS. EVANS: Yeah. MR. TODD: I have seen the plans. Someday, they may be built. MS. EVANS: You mean they didn't built it, okay. Because, it seemed to me it was meant for this type of training. MR. TODD: Yeah. There has been a lot of talk within our County as well as in the State level about having a State facility for firefighters to be able to come and train throughout the State. Even the plans that had been drawn up for the Kona Airport that Chief Max Matias had been working on had been scaled back because of funding decreases and things like that, and have yet to ever been actually started. So they do have their fuselage training prop out there. And then we do work with our partners up at PTA (P6hakuloa Training Area)to do live fire training and everything else like that, and we're actually in concert right now talking with them about maybe expanding on some of those things that they're doing. So we do work with our partners for training. In this particular one, grants through IAFF (International Association of Fire Fighters) I think originally bought us the props. MR. SPRINGER: That's correct. MR. TODD: We've had them for a number of years and mostly we brought our people in on overtime to do the training in past years. But what we want to do is we want to make this training available more frequently, and we bring the training to our personnel to avoid those costs. And the problem is we can fit maybe one, maybe two, props in the back of a truck, and there's a lot of props in part of this training. Because, one prop will teach them how to go through a course way with a lot of wires where they've got to figure out their way to get through the wires. Another is teaching them to bail out of windows. Another one is teaching them to take off their SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) and move through pieces of wood, that if they were coming through a wall that they had to break their way out of. There's a variety of different props that teach them different skills necessary that if they get trapped in the fire, how to self-extricate, how to get out of the house, how not to basically pass away. So it's about fire ground survival. Page 53 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. EVANS: I guess my last question is I know when Deanna was up here, there was, and even Diane mentioned, there was a big push on putting more and more money into training. Did you get any of that training dollars? MR. TODD: So the big push on the training funding, and Diane or Deanna could always come and correct me if I'm mistaken, is that there's a million dollar fund that we have put within the Finance Department that all departments have access to request money for. And I should mention the Fire Department has been very active because the Fire Chief really likes money. And so I don't know what percentage of that budget we ended up using, but we did use a reasonable amount of that, sometimes for overtime or sometimes for travel expenses. It's not so much for equipment. It's mostly to get training funded and to happen. And then this particular request that is coming through, while I don't think it was one of our supplementals, it was one of the things that had come up in later conversations, and this trailer just allows us to facilitate better training for our personnel at the stations. MS. EVANS: The training sounds like a critical thing that—it sounds like you "have to"versus—it's like a need versus a want is the way I MR. TODD: I might defer to Pat on this a little bit. We have had I think all of our department go through the training at least once. But, for some people, that might have been four or five years ago at this point. MR. SPRINGER: So, Chief, the training, we actually trained the whole department about ten years ago. That's when we got a Federal grant through Assistance to Firefighters to fund that initial training and rollout. The reason the recurrency training, the refresher training, got cut way back in the day was because of the overtime expenditure and because this is a skill you want to practice at least once a year, but more often than that. So, if we're talking about retraining personnel in this critical skill once a year, we're talking about cost year in and year out for this particular skill set. This way with the trailer, we can get it done all on duty just for the one-time cost of the trailer and whatever residual maintenance cost that would be associated with it. MS. EVANS: Well, I think it's a really creative solution to try to cut costs. What will happen with the—how is it going to be used when they're not training? Because, you've got it for 365 days if you get this. So how will it be effectivelyotherwise, you've got a trailer(inaudible). MR. SPRINGER: We have 20 stations and 350 career personnel to run through. So to deliver an eight-hour refresher during a working shift, it may take us two days to get through one shift. At a station, we have three shifts. So the way I see Page 54 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 it, if this prop is going to be at a station throughout the year, it's not going to likely be sitting at all in a boneyard anywhere. We're going to be moving it around station to station, finishing the training in between calls. We also have the recruit training program that we're going to utilize it for. And as well as Chief mentioned, we have interagency partners with the State as well as P6hakuloa Fire and Emergency Services. And we are actually the initial entity on island that brought the training down here. So, for us, we'd like to branch out and share the experience with our brother-and-sister departments on the island. MS. EVANS: Okay. Did you want to add anything? MR. TODD: With call volume and the fact that they are taking 911 calls, inevitably the training to avoid the overtime does get broken up. So you can probably expect the trailer to sit at a specific station for maybe up to two weeks as we get each shift pulleyed through the training again, at which time it would move to the next station and so on. And when you add 20 stations plus their recruits and everything else, times two weeks each, we're close to the whole year. And then by then we're right back on the circuit again. MS. EVANS: Okay, my only last question is this will be for a year; volunteer firefighters also? Please? MR. TODD: So, currently, our volunteers don't make entry into the fire ground as far as structural fire suppression, because we don't have them certified as Firefighter 1's under NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) with SCBA and everything else. So, in this particular case, while we wouldn't be against them going through the training, it isn't necessary for their current workloads. Different training for wildland and the support they give us there in terms of shelters and other stuff and a variety of other stuff is mandated, and we push forward on those areas. This particular type of training, not at this point. MS. EVANS: Okay. Yes. MR. SPRINGER: Council, can I also add one more thing? I forgot to mention there is also unique opportunity for public education and outreach with this prop. When we go out to the high schools, the bigger kids are old enough to actually go through watered down evolutions on this trailer,just so they can feel what it's like to be a firefighter and have to (inaudible) into the self-survival procedures. So I think it would be good for our public relations. MS. EVANS: Okay, thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. I'm not sure who was first over here. Council Member Villegas, go ahead. Page 55 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha. Thank you for the thorough explanation of the upsides and all the different benefits to having equipment like this to utilize by the Fire Department. I guess my question comes, as we're looking at these proposed amendments, we've got upwards of almost half-a-million dollars in funding that's being requested to be allocated to Fire outside of our Fund Balance. But it's my understanding that, in the current budget, there was $1.2 million already budgeted for equipment purchases. And so I guess I want to get a broader understanding of how and why these things didn't make the cut or they aren't on the list to be paid for by that$1.2 million that was already budgeted. MR. TODD: Okay, so, in this particular case, the $1.2 million is specifically for a line item for purchasing of fire trucks. Historically, about, I want to say 14 years ago when Chief Rosario took over the helm, one of his big things was to have lease purchasing of fire trucks and essentially being purchasing two new fire trucks every year. At the time, fire trucks ran us around $450,000. So buying two was approximately a million bucks. And then we'd lease purchase so that we'd stabilize that fund over the years. So the fund had originally started off as about a$1 million fund. By the time he retired, that fund was about 1.4 million, and trucks were costing us around $750,000 a year. Trucks now are approximately $1 million to $1.2 million a year, and so the fund is actually sitting at 2.2 million, which gets us close to continuing to purchase about two fire trucks a year. And that line item is sort of aimed at basically those really expensive vehicles. We actually have under auxiliary budget and other areas, they do have equipment-budgeted funding for equipment or tools or other things, extrication tools and a variety of other stuff. So it's not the only line item. That 1.2 million was specific to help us basically go after and continue our fire truck and hazmat trucks, rescue trucks, and our big purchases. And if you're wanting more detail, I do have that document that we put together for our vehicle replacements, but I can sit down with any County Council Member and go over kind of that plan. MS. VILLEGAS: That's okay. I guess what's giving me heartburn here today is I want to be able to provide everything that you need. I have friends and family in first responders, and alwaysI mean, if you know me in my years of service, not just on the Council but in life, that's always my true intention. And that's a principle of mine and a value system. But the challenge here is this is half-a- million dollars. It's like a wish list that is a beautiful thing, but if every department had a Council Member put half-a-million dollars' worth of budget amendments forward for each budget, we would be here until next year. So I guess I am hoping for some prioritization of the number of requests here because you guys know your equipment. You know your facility. You know which things are absolutely critical and which things would be nice, right. But when you have an opportunity and somebody says, "Tell me what you want, and Page 56 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 I'm going to put an amendment forward,"I mean that's a beautiful thing, but unfortunately, I feel like it's putting me and potentially my colleagues in a bit of a pickle because then we have to sit here and go, oh, gosh, how and why and which ones. Yeah. So I'm just sharing that with you,person to person, that that's the part that's really hard for me sitting here today. And yeah, I know you have answers for, reasons for, explanations for, and valid needs, but this is a little overwhelming in the depth and breadth of the asks. And if we had another department doing the same thing, I mean I'm sure any department could. So I just am sharing my challenge here and trying to figure out the best way to navigate this budget and these amendments in order to get you what you need at the top priority. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Yeah,just a little bit and the same thing because I didn't really say on the previous one. But I heard you say that you can or you would be able to look at doing maybe not a brand new $60,000 shiny new vehicle, but maybe a slightly used year-old model, something like that. I mean, is that something that can be done in some of these circumstances,just because it is adding on to the additional budget, especially? It does sound like this is a very important thing and can save money in the long run. It's really good for training and all that. But, once again, it's kind of like, you know, we don't want to be up here going "You get an SUV and you get an SUV." We're not Oprah. MR. TODD: Entirely understood. And understand to some extent, even that 1.2 million is influx. As I mentioned before, the purchasing of fire trucks takes four years. So, even if we go out for bid, we're not a hundred percent sure how that goes forward and whether we're able to spend it or not. This is sort of the first year that the Finance Department has really taken us and supported us for this really big purchasing of vehicles, but we're not sure that we can spend that 1.2 million. So, potentially, that could be reallocated in other areas, but one of the things is fire trucks is one of our bigger issues right now. We took three used trucks from Honolulu to keep our fleet running right now, because we are in kind of dire straits. And so one of the goals was to work with Finance this year to see if we could work on our procurement system to just go out and buy a truck fully paid, as opposed to leasing. And there is opportunity for that. So,potentially, that money would go and we'd have a truck come months later, because every now and then, there are opportunities for that. At the same time, if that doesn't become available, then potentially that money doesn't get actually locked down for a number of years. So, right now, it's a little bit weird in terms of that. We've been working hard in meetings with the Finance Department, trying to figure out our vehicle needs and where we go. Obviously, I do mention and I very much Page 57 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 appreciate every support that the County Council, the Mayor, and our Finance Department has offered us. But it's a little hard right now because we're still working out some of the finer details on where things go and how do we fund it, and how long is it going to take for us to go out. During my tenure as Fire Chief, we have yet to actually procure one of these larger vehicles because of when our leases were expiring. So now we have the funding. This would be the first year we have it, but I don't know that we'll be able to spend it. So maybe that funding will be able to be reallocated to this, maybe not. I don't really have a great answer for that. And I do understand the position that the County Council's being placed at for this particular thing. On the list of things, one of the ones I, on a minor note, was the $15,000 to buy building supplies. It's kind of a big one because we burn a lot of materials just to teach guys how to survive in the fire conditions. So that's a wonderful thing I think was great. On the vehicles and everything else, we do have the 1.2 million, and I don't know how that's going to work. So,potentially, that could fund some of those vehicles. Potentially, we end up spending all of it on buying a fire truck if that becomes an option but I don't know. And, theoretically, if the Council is more amiable to waiting until later in the fiscal year when we see the next round of taxes coming in and discussing it later, that's always a potential as well. Internally, we've been very well-supported over the last three years from when Deanna was the head of Finance, and now as Diane is the head of Finance and has seen very large increases to our overall budget, which has allowed us to focus on some very major issues. Just this most recent amendment to the budget took our repair budget for the fire stations up to three-quarters of a million dollars. Considering two years ago it was $13,000 and everything was broken, it's just such a nice thing to have. Chief Chadwick back there is salivating on all the garage doors he's going to replace and generators we're going to fix, and systems that are going to be repaired finally that have been, most of our career, been a problem. So there's a lot of things we've already received, and we appreciate everything you're willing to give. But, at the same time, we understand the nature of how we have to be good partners with the other departments and share. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. All right. I do think that this training trailer is a really good idea. I'll be supporting this but, yeah, I'm not—yeah, the rest we'll see. Okay, thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. I have one question. We just approved the purchase of two new SUVs, so you'll have two used SUVs. Could you use one of them, and so we could just buy you a new trailer but not an SUV? Page 58 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. TODD: That would be entirely acceptable. We could figure that out. MS. EVANS: Okay, I would like to make an amendment. I don't know how you would CHR. KIMBALL: No, that's not what's before us. So we're voting on the amendment that's before us. There's no opportunity to make a floor amendment. MS. EVANS: Okay. CHR. KIMBALL: All right, with that, I want to go ahead and move forward with the vote on this item. So the motion on the floor is to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 755.13. All those in favor, please say "aye." Okay, I'm going to do a roll call on this one just for clarity. Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.13 failed by the following roll call vote: Failed Ayes: Council Members Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, and Lee Loy —3. Noes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—5. Absent: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.14. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I was actually inspired to put this particular amendment forward based on a series of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) trainings that Council Chair Kimball put together for County Council, County leadership last week on how we can be more proficient as public officials in helping our communities to prepare for disasters, but also be in a position to respond and also find ways to just increase overall resilience. And so, worked with our Civil Defense Administrator and Mr. Barry Periatt, who is here without his fedora, I will note for the record, to think through setting up a resilience impact grant, a micro grant, that is available to a variety of community partners by way of a $2,500 investment, in helping them to basically implement resilience strategies that they've developed for their community. We have a lot of community partners that have gone through the THIRA (Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment)process and have identified ways in which they can increase resiliency and preparedness in their community. So things like investing in capability and capacity building; hazard mitigation, like Page 59 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 buying chainsaws in the event that we have Albizias going down during a tropical storm, ham radios, disaster kits for neighbors, catchment tanks, investing in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) certification. We know that our community members are very strong partners in doing this work, that it should not just rest on the shoulders of government to ensure community is prepared. But we need to make sure that we have resources available to empower our community members to get prepared themselves. And so, would love to ask Mr. Periatt to come forward. (Note: At this time, Civil Defense Administrative Officer Barry Periatt came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Let us know if you accept this kuleana that we are asking you to take on. I know it's a lift and so we'll be working with the Finance Department to make it a streamlined process for community members to be able to apply for this. But thanks for being here and thanks for being patient. MR. PERIATT: Thank you. I'm Barry Periatt with the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency. I've listened to you all talk about strategy and moving forward. Three years ago we went to the Office of Management and laid out what we need as far as personnel and programs, and that, moving forward, to be able to do what we need to do for the community. The revision of Chapter 7 focused a lot on that. So we put forth a strategy. So that's been the basis of the supplementals we put forward in the budget, as far as personnel and different programs we want to do. This year we didn't get any of our supplementals. That's okay. I mean, the Director of Finance is absolutely correct. They talked with us and then they racked and stacked, and we didn't come out—we weren't a priority this go- around. We understand that. No issues with that. This wasn't part of the supplementals. But part of the national preparedness goal is developing resilient communities. And one of the best ways to go about doing that is the community identifying what their needs are and then working to meet those needs: getting what capability they need, what program they need in place within that community. And you always get much better buy-in when it's the actual community doing it. People—"This is what we want. This is what we need. Here we go." So will this put forward our goals in developing resilient communities across the County? Yes, it does, even though it wasn't part of our supplementals. It will do that. The only issue, and as I express that again, is our strategy calls for 33 staff members. Currently, we have 12, okay. So we're doing-12 doing the work of what 33 we think is what we need to get the job done. And so this adds an additional burden onto those 12. As we told Finance at the beginning when we requested our supplementals: "Yeah, if you don't give them to us, that's fine. Page 60 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 We'll continue on. We're not going to have any degradation of services and that's fine." This does that, increase the workload for certain individuals in our department. And will some things drop? Well, we haven't met all of our obligations to begin with in Chapter 7. I'm sure you're aware of that. We haven't been in front of you with "This is the plan," in sharing this stuff with you. So that is our only concern. Does this amendment push forward what we think needs to be done in the County of Hawaii as far as developing resilient communities? Yes. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Mr. Periatt. Finance Director Nakagawa? Sorry to put you on the spot here. Is there some initial support that Finance can provide Civil Defense? Should the Council adopt this amendment, could we provide some back-end support to set up this program? And I'm just trying to think through easy and quick implementation. And so perhaps it's a list of items that the County is willing to purchase or support community members in doing. I think that would perhaps kind of maybe expedite the process and make it at least a little easier on everyone. Your thoughts? MS. NAKAGAWA: Sure, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Thank you for the question. Finance is always here to support all the departments. When it comes to things like contractual training or procurement training, as we go through the process, we do that quite often. And we'd be more than happy to assist Civil Defense, or any other department, to walk through what that looks like. We've been doing a lot more research on grants and process quite recently. And I think that's something we can assist with as well when it comes to purchasing items, if that's the case within these funds. That is also a procurement endeavor that we'd be happy to walk through, as with anyone else. We're always there to support when it comes to contract process, procurement, and training. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I appreciate that. Happy to answer any questions folks might have, but looking for your support. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: All right, who was first over here? All right, Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha, Barry. Nice to see you again. That training was really inciteful and it really reflected your level of expertise and understanding, and connection to our island and our community. So thank you for serving in this leadership role and for being there that day to be the speaker for our table. Reading this amendment here, it indicates a new line item for resilience grants. So is this money going to Civil Defense, for then Civil Defense to give money to organizations? Page 61 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. PERIATT: Yes, it is. And it's a similar things like this had been done in the past where Council money has been funneled through Civil Defense to help meet needs in the community. MS. VILLEGAS: Yup. Gotcha. MR. PERIATT: So it's yes. MS. VILLEGAS: I just wanted clarification. I guess, to me, what really just comes to mind is Vibrant Hawaii and their utilization and creation and standing up of resilience hubs and having received millions of dollars in County tax money, especially during COVID, and the purchasing of a lot of the equipment that was just mentioned here. And so I can't help but wonder: Wait a minute. If that equipment was purchased and these resilience hubs were stood up and all that still exists, I don't see this as an appropriate allocation of this money to give grants to these organizations that have already received this money. And the resources, if spent wisely and being managed, should still be there. So that's my challenge on this, is I just see this becoming endless. It's just an endless cycle. And so those are the things that are red flags to me, and I want to make sure that we are—we're accountable for every penny to our constituents. And so those are my concerns. So I won't be supporting this today, but I appreciate you and all that you do and your leadership in keeping our County safe and healthy. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Just to the maker. Given that we have the new OSCER(Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience) department—yeah, maybe I missed that, I'm sorry, but why not OSCER versus Civil Defense? CHR. KIMBALL: You may respond, Council Member. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I hadn't thought about putting it in OSCER. It felt like a natural partner with Civil Defense because they also do coordinate our CERT teams, Community Emergency Response Teams, who happen to do a lot of work in helping communities to prepare and respond to disasters. And this is really about how we prepare for and respond to disasters. And I think that might be a little bit outside of OSCER's explicit kuleana. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. To the department,just in my general opinion, I don't see you guys doing a lot of grants. I've seen other Page 62 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 departments, Research and Development, a lot of them doing grant activities and all the associated reporting and all the documentation. Are you guys prepared to take that on? MR. PERIATT: We do manage the Homeland Security Grant for the County of Hawaii, and that's primarily focused on—it's a preparedness grant, which now 40 percent goes to law enforcement. The other 60 percent is broken out to different projects: IT, sometimes Fire, sometimes us. Another 25,000 that's set aside for the CERT program, not necessarily the CERT program. It's set aside for the Citizen Corps program, which encompasses CERT, the Medical Reserve Corps, and Neighborhood Watch. So we do manage that grant. We also manage the Emergency Management Performance Grant. That's a grant which provides funding for multiple things: for training, for personnel, primarily to enhance our readiness and our preparedness. So, yes, we do manage grants and this would just be another one. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Maybe I misunderstood. This would be grants going out to nonprofits/small businesses, or this would be a government-based grant? MR. PERIATT: This will be going out to basically nonprofits because we're looking at the community. The focus, as the amendment was written, I believe was on Vibrant Hawaii and the hubs. However, we said, "Look, we have CERT programs. We have a Citizen Corps." Point of Order: MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I'm sorry. Just a point of order. This is not a Vibrant Hawaii project. I want to make that very clear for the record that, yes, there is a network of resilience hubs on our island, but"resilience" is a term that is used nationally to ensure communities are prepared. And this may not necessarily just be for nonprofits. This is something I don't think CERT teams or Neighborhood Watch groups or nonprofits. We want to make sure that anybody that is in a position to help our community to become prepared and resilient is able to access some kind of funding or support. Thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Like I said. Nonprofits/small businesses would be generally the recipients of this potential grant program. MR. PERIATT: Well, the focus is on the community. So whatever organization is operating in that community would be the focus. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And then that's why I'm asking, because right now I'm hearing we do the Homeland Security Grant. We are taking in Homeland Federal money to do projects, or State money to do projects, but more government-based. So when we look at a project like this, do you have the bandwidth as a department to administer this to multiple organizations and then have them do their reporting and everything else? The same thing we require Page 63 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 of any other organization. More so than, "Here, Fire go out and do this." "Here, Police, go out and do this." This is government to government. This is more government to private. MR. PERIATT: Yeah, I understand your concern and we have the same concern, because as I said, our capacity is what it is and it's not growing, and this is another program. So, yes, it will take away some man hours from other things. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you, Barry. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. I do want to note I did ask Administrator Morrison to join us on Zoom. So she is here. I want to be respectful of her time because she is not on island. Go ahead, Council Member Kagiwada. I did have a question for Morrison. MS. KAGIWADA: I'll be pretty brief. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you and thank you for putting this forward. I do understand the impetus, given the training we did, and it was really inspirational training with a lot of us. And it got us thinking about this stuff even more than we already were, but putting it right in front of us. So, understanding where it's coming from. It does sound to me like staffing up in your office is really the thing that we need to be focusing on for you guys right now, and that adding to your plate is maybe not the best timing. So, because of that and because I'm hearing from you that it might be very hard to—it could be challenging to administer these, I think I'll vote "no" on this for now. But I'd like to see us continue to think about coming back with something like this once you're feeling a little more able, or possibly going with OSCER or something like that. But thank you and thanks for all you do. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Anyone else? All right, I wanted to just take this opportunity to ask if we have Administrator Morrison on the call still. I saw her join in and I'm not sure if she's there. (Note: At this time, Interim Sustainability Administrator Bethany Morrison, Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. MORRISON: Yes, I'm here. CHR. KIMBALL: Okay, great. Just to give you some context, I'm not sure if you were tuned in, but we're discussing a $250,000 grant-making program. It's proposed to be within Civil Defense. This would be to provide grants to Page 64 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 community groups to provide localized resilience. And you were participating in the TEEX(Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service) training we had last week with FEMA. Let me just first say I love this idea. I think this was something that was highlighted in the training as being really necessary, among many other things which would also fall on Civil Defense's shoulders. I mean, I think Council Member Villegas made the point. I was really heartened to see there was a lot I learned in that training about what is being done and all the excellent work you guys are doing. So, really appreciated that opportunity, especially being in the EOC. But wanted to ask Administrator Morrison, given what I'm describing, I have a feeling that right now that would be a heavy lift, given that it's just you and OSCER. But do you see this as a potential activity for OSCER to manage at some point? MS. MORRISON: Aloha, Council. Bethany Morrison, Interim Administrator for Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience. Thank you. Yeah, I've been following the discussion a little bit, and I feel like just leaning in to where we're trying to build the capacity of our communities to be resilient. I think I totally agree with that. I think now is not the time for OSCER to try and manage grants out to communities. We're really focusing on bringing in the Federal dollars first as our priority, as far as our grant coordinating. And then some of that could potentially lead to a program for our community granting, but I don't think, at this point, we're ready to take that on. CHR. KIMBALL: Great. Thank you for that response. I appreciate it. So, Council Member Kierkiewicz, love this idea; not comfortable with putting it in Civil Defense. I think I'd be more comfortable putting it in a department that is already doing some form of grant making, and that would include R&D, potentially even Planning with the grants that they were doing around recovery. Or even within the Council itself. And also probably thinking we need some sort of legislative guidance about what would constitute eligibility for the grants and the eligible uses of these grants just based on some of the conversation I've heard now. My inclination is not to support this now, but I'd be willing to consider another amendment that would put it in a location that already has grant-making activities. I think one of the things I heard loud and clear with our training is that there are some things that we need Civil Defense to be doing. And to add this on right now I think is an additional burden, although I'm sure you guys could manage. But there's a lot to do, and I realize you're already understaffed. So my thought. That's my thought on this. Go ahead, Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, everyone, for the feedback. And, Barry, thanks for being here and all your patience, and for your willingness to try Page 65 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 something new and potentially stepping up to this challenge. It sounds like we will not be getting support for this particular amendment as it's written, so I'll be withdrawing and taking into consideration what folks have shared today, and putting something else forward. Thank you, Chair. Withdraw Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz withdrew her motion to amend Bill 136, to Amend: Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.14. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. With that, we're going to take a recess until 1:00. So the time is now 12:36. We will reconvene at 1:00 for this meeting of the Council. Thank you, everyone. We're in recess. Recess: At 12:36 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 1:01 p.m. Motion to Amend: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.22. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair, and thank you for the opportunity. This was an interesting project. I always did think of—well, let me get to the point. This is for facility fencing for the Hilo Police Station. I have always thought that that was probably the most secure place on our island, but in speaking to some of the officers, I came to the realization that it's not. They have people within the facility after hours. They have had damage to some of their vehicles from the community. And just given some of the folks coming to the department for assistance in the later hours of the evening and with different aspects of the entire facility needing to be secure, the idea of fencing was breached with me. And so, in speaking with the Police Administration, with Chief Moszkowicz, and Deputy Chief Mahuna, both of them agree this is something that they did want to try and make happen this year for the department. They got a quote that came out to a little bit shy of our estimate here, and I wanted to see if we could get this in the budget for our department. So, with that, questions from the Council? And then he was online earlier. There he is. (Note: At this time, Police Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Nice shirt today, Chief. Page 66 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. MOSZKOWICZ: Thank you. I wanted to make sure everybody could see me. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We can see you. Could you give us a little background and then maybe,just from your lens, why this is important for the department? MR. MOSZKOWICZ: You hit the nail on the head. Is it a need to have? No. Is it a would be really great to have? Yes. And it's not something that we or our Administration has even considered as we were sorting through the list of priorities that we had. But you're absolutely correct. We have, in the last couple months, seen an uptick in people kind of cutting the corner, so to speak, of Hualalai and Kapiolani, and kind of wondering through the parking lot. If it's just people wondering through the parking lot, it's not a big deal, but we also have had vehicles get damaged. And there has been some people who have found their way into our buildings after hours, which is a big concern for us. So, part of it is fencing. Will fencing prevent people from walking around the fence or climbing over the fence? No. But from a legal standpoint, it establishes a real clear perimeter that we can sign and label as an area that people are expected to keep out of it. If we find them in there, it allows us to take action and move them or have them arrested for trespassing. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chief. I really appreciate that. This is a request from different officers that I've come to hear this from, and then also to hear your support for this. And again, I mean, it's not a screaming priority, but we do have some public safety issues. And then the interesting thing about this was we have damage to our police vehicle, but it was also expressed that when someone comes to the department in need of help or to file a claim or to request assistance from the department at different hours of the day, which can be in the evening, you know, as things are happening in people's lives, that this needs to be more of a secure area so people feel secure from potentially someone who is attacking them who has been stalking them, those kinds of things. And we're creating that security for public but also security for our officers. So, to me, a real dual-purpose project for the department. MR. MOSZKOWICZ: Absolutely. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Awesome. Thank you for working with me on this. I appreciate it. And then to the Council Members, any questions, I'm willing to help with or the Administration. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Council Member Kagiwada. Page 67 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Interesting bringing this forward, and interesting what you were just saying, Council Member. It just made me think, if there was secure fencing around it, would it prohibit somebody who was trying to come get help potentially, immediately having access? Is there going to be—what's envisioned for controlling the access to the property? MR. MOSZKOWICZ: The vision is not to just put a ten-foot high chain-link fence with barbed wire around the entire perimeter of the facility. That's not what we're looking for. But there are certain areas to the parking lot and the facility and the (inaudible)we want to keep off limits. That being said, that fencing could probably, in excluding people from certain areas, help to direct them more towards the areas where public services are available. In the front of the station area, we have the Chief's office and our Records Division and Driver's Licensing. Or the cellblock area, we do have a public parking lot. So that area would be open for people to come in and park. But it would be easier to direct them and it probably wouldI'm thinking of how we would design and build it. It would almost be a little bit more logical for people to go to that area because the other areas—it would prevent them from wondering around in areas where they're not really supposed to be anyway, and direct them to the areas where we do want them to come for help. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. That makes a lot of sense to me. In general, I don't like to see more chain-link fences going up in our community, especially around our public buildings. But I understood that you're talking mainly about fencing off your parking area where your vehicles are parked. So I understand that. This was not on your supplements list, is that what you said? MR. MOSZKOWICZ: That's correct. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. It's not a nothing amount of money. So, yeah, I'm going to think about it. I do understand what you're saying and understand that it could possibly be helpful for the station. Let me ask you one other thing. What's your situation on cameras? Do you have cameras in the parking area? MR. MOSZKOWICZ: We don't have any cameras in the parking area. And I agree with you a hundred percent. The last thing I want to do as a chief who is very open to public input and public service and collaboration is to design a structure around our station that makes it not look anything like we want people to come in and that they're welcome. It's just that there are certain areas, like you said, that we want to keep people away from. We do not have a lot of public safety building cameras, external. That's something that we worked with Public Works on. We're in the midst of designing for a new kind of conference area and mitigation project out in our foyer. And that's something we've been advised to wrap the funding for into kind Page 68 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 of more of a capital improvement project kind of design, as opposed to just going one off and buying some external security cameras. But then it's also (inaudible). MS. KAGIWADA: Is that something we could include, some cameras for the parking area and the area that you're concerned about right now? Could that be included in that project? MR. MOSZKOWICZ: Absolutely. Based on the time line that we've had from when Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder brought this up till today, for us to even go out and find a vendor who's even willing to give us a very rough estimate, my guess is that we probably would fill the whole budget of that anyway. I just don't know because we've only been able to really get one vendor to come give us a very rough estimate. So in terms of like that being the exact amount, as opposed to having more funding leftover even in that$300,000 allotment to spend on security cameras to enhance security, that's also a possibility. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I'm going to think about this. I think security cameras might be a better way to go, and especially rolling it into a bigger project than the chain-link fencing. But thank you for your answers, and it does help me understand a little bit better the project. Thank you for bringing this forward. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, Chair. Thanks, Chief Ben, for being here. Definitely in support of this, but I also recognize that the department itself needs a lot of help. And so I'm willing to support this and see where it lands, or maybe security cameras. But I think we need to seriously look at a large CIP project for the department and that police station itself. If this helps in the interim and we can look at bigger goals of rehabilitating theI think the elevator's out. The front foyer is out. There's areas that leak. Would be wonderful to rehabilitate all of the air conditioning in that facility. And that's where that needs assessment and some of the other work that I think we have where the CIP coordinator could be incredibly helpful. With that being said, in support. If this helps you guys get to the next step, I'm in support of that, but kind of looking around the corner for the bigger project and the big renovation that the station needs. And if I could suggest, I know that we have our memorial wall at the department, at the station, and I would love to see that remain open for a lot of those who go to visit that wall for our fallen officers. So thank you, Chief. MR. MOSZKOWICZ: Absolutely. I agree a hundred percent. Thank you. Page 69 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. LEE LOY: Okay. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Anyone else? All right, seeing none, I'll just briefly stateI see this as a"nice to have" and not a "need to have," so I'm not going to be supporting it. But I think that there's potentiallyI'd like to ask the department to review potential solutions that involve either the cameras or landscaping. I think Council Member Lee Loy's right; there's a larger CIP project for the Hilo station. But I think I'd like to see a little more thought about design and site design before moving forward with this. Not to say I wouldn't potentially support it later, but I feel like it hasn't been fully vetted. Thanks for bringing it forward, though, Council Member. With that, I will ask yes, go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I appreciate the conversation today. Just one last helpful comment. This really was officer-driven. I like to talk directly to the staff in the departments and then work with the Administration to see if there is a want. And that's where this came from. I say that just for the body's decision-making process. But also, I love talking to the staff members because you really get a feel for what's needed in the department. And sometimes it doesn't get all the way up to us, like we spoke about earlier with somebody else. But when we get supplementals, that is the end result of everything that's bubbled up to the surface and gotten to finally the administrative level, to Finance, and then to us. And sometimes we're looking—we've got to get a little bit more down in the weeds to understand what's actually wanted by some of the hard- working personnel that we don't interface with every day. And that's really where this originated. If it goes, it goes. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Chief, I do appreciate your words today. Very helpful. Hoping to get this done for the department so we can keep everybody in that department safe and happy, including the public. Thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: All right, thank you. I'll ask for—Mr. Clerk, can we get a roll call on this one,please? Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.22 failed by the following roll call vote: Failed Ayes: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Lee Loy –2. Noes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Chair Kimball –7. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 70 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Motion to Amend: Ms. Lee Loy moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.23. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks. Chair. This one feels like I'm going to be punching up in my weight class, but I'm going to try and maybe even ask for some senioritis pity. There's two departments that make money for the County. One is Real Property Tax and the other is Building Division. Building Division approves plans, permits, which turns into assets which increases our tax revenue. And to get there, we need our inspectors to go out and inspect all of these properties with new assets so we can increase our revenue base. This particular request was actually part of their supplemental, and it was Priority 8. And if I could call forward Gary, Julann, or maybe even Kelsey, to describe the conditions of the vehicles that they currently have in Building Division, and specifically Inspections. I think they have a total of 14 vehicles oh, why don't you share, Director Pause. MR. PAUSE: I know you wanted Kelsey but I'll start. Steve Pause, Director of Public Works. Presently, we have 28 vehicles. We have 36 inspector positions, of which 30 are presently filled. The oldest vehicle on the fleet are some vintage 1997 F-150s that we've got either two or three of those. But, generally speaking, we have a number of vehicles that are over 200,000 miles. It appears, in kind of looking at things, that a lot of them are vintage '05-'08. And it was a period of time which, best estimate was between 2008 and 2014, no vehicles were purchased. I think when I came before the body last time talking about the budget, I believe we talked about ideally we'd get ourselves onto a position where we're replacing maybe three vehicles a year. So, 28 well, I was basing it on 21 originally. But every seven years. So maybe it's four vehicles. Above every seven years is what you'd want to do. So the request is really around being able to, as you say, allow a bit more reliability for our vehicles to let the inspectors get out and do their jobs. So Gary can maybe comment from an on-the-ground level. (Note: At this time, Supervising Electrical Inspector Gary Kaho`ohanohano, Public Works Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KAHO`OHANOHANO: Hi, my name is Gary Kaho`ohanohano with the Building Division, representing the inspectors of the County of Hawaii. Anyway, to add to what Steve said, he talked about older cars. Let's talk about the newer cars. The newer cars, right now, are running 200,000-plus miles on them and they're breaking down. They're breaking down. Each time our inspectors go out towards the south side, towards Waimea, Kohala, we're actually Page 71 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 putting them in cars that's maybe not so safe anymore with that type of mileage. They use it as a tool every day to provide services to our community, the contractors, the public. And they do their safety thing out there. We just need more dependable cars because they're high mileage. If you want to add more to that, Steve? MR. PAUSE: No. I think it's well-said. So thank you. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, fellas, for being here. Their original supplemental request was for $840,000. And I felt that this number, the $300,000, could at least get them started with replacing some of the older vehicles. And, Steve, if we could get them into more of a changing out of the older vehicles, I think this is a great way to kickstart them. I also recognize that Highways Division often gives our inspectors their hand-me-down cars. But I feel like no good deed goes unpunished, because when I challenged the department to move the needle on miles of road paved from 20 to where we are at 36 now, they did it but they had to take those highway dollars and invest in the paving equipment to maintain that. And so, normally, when we do have monies from Highways for them to purchase new vehicles for them to get down into the inspectors, that's not going to happen this next fiscal year because of the investment and the commitment we made to paving road miles. And so, I know this body knows I like to scrap, but this is really me just humbly pleading. Let's get them five new vehicles. They're willing to do used; yes, Gary? MR. PAUSE: So, yes, thanks for bringing that up, Council Member Lee Loy. We're in a unique position because, as you know, Randy Riley, the head of our Auto Division, has relationships with everybody on-island when it comes to vehicles. So I think we're positioned well to look for those deals, if you will, on used low-mileage vehicles so that we can potentially take what you're providing today, or if the Council chooses to provide that funding and maybe stretch it into a little better than six vehicles. So that's a real opportunity I think we have because of Randy's presence and his relationships. MS. LEE LOY: Great. Thanks, Steve. I just did simple math. Everybody else was landing around $60,000 a vehicle, five vehicles, which was half of what their request was—actually less than half—and just came up with the $300,000. But Kelsey's reviewed this and I just want to point out this particular line item is actually zero, right, budgeted for this year. And so if I could ask my colleagues to help this one department out, and hopefully get them into a maintenance schedule that gets them some new vehicles. Page 72 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Hi. I just wanted to add that if you guys do pass this amendment, I will make it one of my priorities to make sure that the maintenance and, you know, Steve's idea of replacing vehicles every year versus letting them kind of wear over all the years, I'll make it one of my priorities to make sure that the division stays on top of that with the vehicles and updating our fleet. I also wanted to add, like our building inspectors, one thing I noticed when I started at Public Works is they come in in the mornings and I don't see them till the end of the day. So these vehicles serve as their office. They're on the road. They're dealing with consultants, contractors. If they need a moment of privacy, if they need to hop on a laptop or have a conversation with their supervisors, these vehicles do serve as their office. They use it for multipurpose duties. So I just wanted to add that in. MS. LEE LOY: Great. Thanks. Thanks, friends. Humbly asking for my fellow colleagues' support. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Anyone else on this one? Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thanks. So I just—to understand, you had a plan to maybe start replacing vehicles and you said, I think, four per year. What happened with the plan? MR. PAUSE: I'm sorry. There was no plan. When we sat down and we said, "How did we get into this predicament," if you look at the data, you can see there were long stretches where no replacement vehicles were purchased. And that whole seven-year thing, that came out of conversations with Randy. And just generally speaking in terms of turnover of vehicles and, I'm not the accountant, but fully depreciating them and getting the value out of them, along with the number of miles. Some (inaudible) are quite excessive that go on. So I guess I'm suggesting that our plan going forward, and Kelsey I think spoke to that as well, is that that seven-year-or-so time frame and then take the big hurt out of buying six, ten, whatever vehicles all at once and then get us onto a regular rotation. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, great. And then I heard you mention F-150s. Is that the kind of vehicle that you're looking at here? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: No. I mean, we're going to MR. PAUSE: I mean, generally speaking, it's SUVs. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah, SUVs. MR. PAUSE: It's that Ford Explorer-type SUV. It allows for four-wheel drive because there are areas of the island that require that. But, yeah, that's the Page 73 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 generalI think we've also in the past purchased a few Ford Rangers, which were smaller utility-type trucks. But, no, the F-150's a 1997. They could have been handed down from Highways or Engineering or somebody. Just like I know we've got a couple of 2015 Dodge Ram trucks that I know were handed down from Engineering. MS. KAGIWADA: I see. MR. PAUSE: So the inspectors don't need big, heavy duty trucks. MS. KAGIWADA: Are they hauling things or equipment or anything? MR. PAUSE: Their iPads. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah (inaudible). MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I'm just wondering why they need such big, expensive cars. MR. PAUSE: Yeah (inaudible). MS. KAGIWADA: Do all the inspectors go to all the different places on the island? I guess I'm wondering, could some do with regular cars because that's what their general range of where they go goes to? MR. PAUSE: I think, generally speaking, you're absolutely right. Not everybody goes to the rougher four-wheel drive necessary places. But we do rotate inspectors, so we try to have them not the same inspector. If you put an inspector in a vehicle, then they may be going sometimes to places that don't require four-wheel and sometimes they would. So I think it's just probably more of an ounce of prevention to be able to have a vehicle that is multifaceted. It rains here. It gets muddy. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I'm thinking we also have our new OSCER department. I mean, yeah, when I think of putting a lot of miles and not necessarily needing big things when you have one person and a laptop in there, I'm just wondering if there could be any thought to—and I don't know if it works that every inspector gets their own car or if people come in and check out the car they need for that day. I don't know how it works. It's just something I'm throwing out there, is the possibility. It's not the way things have been done. I realize people have always had trucks and that's very much a cultural thing here, too, but if it's not needed and if it's a way to reduce our footprint, would like some consideration around that. MR. PAUSE: Yes, we can definitely consider that. And like I said, if we're provided a little bit of latitude, I'm sure that we can go out and stretch the funding Page 74 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 to maximize its use. But, at the same time, I think your comments about carbon footprint and those sorts of things, you led with "Do we really need to buy big trucks," and the answer is no. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah, we don't. Yeah. MR. PAUSE: But we can certainly take another look at what our particular needs are, and maybe look at fuel efficiency. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: And the F-150s, I mean we have a few, but primarily, the ones that are at Automotive Division now and the ones that are currently decommissioned are, I wouldn't say "heavy-duty trucks." It's more like Explorers, Chevy Blazers, some jeeps. So we definitely don't need like a"truck" truck, but maybe Gary can kind of MR. KAHO`OHANOHANO: Yeah, no, I second that because we're not hauling anything. So SUVs, four-wheel drives would be perfect. I did hear you say in town there is—most of the construction sites, they're not fully paved or concrete. You know what I mean? And to get in and out, sometimes we do need four- wheel drives. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. There are cars that are four-wheel drive also that are not SUVs. MR. KAHO`OHANOHANO: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's what—main thing we've got the four-wheel drives, we're fine with that. We're not asking for trucks. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Just some consideration. I'll be supporting this although I really like the idea of the planning ahead and rotating and doing four cars at a time. That makes a lot of sense. It sounds like it's been deferred quite a lot for this department so I'll be supporting. Thank you. MR. KAHO`OHANOHANO: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. So I'm curious. Will there be one at each—in Kona they'll be parked in Kona and parked in Hilo, and then you go and check them out for the day or for the week? Or is it like you're going to take it home? Drive it home? How do you use the vehicle? MR. KAHO`OHANOHANO: So, basically, we pick it up from the area that you're assigned to work, East or West Hawaii. The guys jump in their cars and they're assigned to certain TMKs, tax map keys. That's how they do their work, yeah. Page 75 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. EVANS: They don't have it for a week. They just come they pick it up and—okay. That's good to know. And the other thing is there's some great cars out there that are four-wheel drive that I would like to see how much miles per gallon is a goal that you're trying to achieve, too, because some of these cars are 20 miles a gallon, where you can get other ones at 30-35. It would be great to see you get off those old gas guzzlers, old cars that you're maintaining, and spending the money into some really good ones. But I agree; I don't know if you need to go SUV. I agree that the four- wheel drive makes sense. MR. KAHO`OHANOHANO: Yeah. So I believe today's car is more economy, you know, efficient. So, if we purchase new cars, I mean we'll probably get the efficiency that you're talking about. MS. EVANS: Yeah. I'm just thinking more along the line there's Subaru Outbacks. There's other vehicles that might get you what you want, which is four-wheel drive. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: And that's definitely something we can look at when we're doing the specs (specifications). We can make it a part of our specs, have the guys do the research and definitely affect theI know that's where the County is trying to go. We're in full support of that. So something that we'll keep in mind. MS. EVANS: And it would be nice to get a report back on what you bought if this passes. Thank you. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Noted. MS. EVANS: I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: All right, anyone else? Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Sure,just a quick question. Are there a number of vehicles that you already have in mind for this 300,000? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: If it's a new vehicle, we're thinking maybe about six. New vehicles are so expensive. But, of course, with our discussions about looking into fuel efficiency and maybe not needing the SUV type of vehicle, we could maybe purchase more. If we go the used-vehicle route, I would say we could purchase a little more, maybe likeI don't know, Steve. What do you think? Page 76 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. PAUSE: I think that the 300 is based on 6-I'm sorry, 5 at 60, which I think I heard testimony earlier from the other departments. That's kind of like the plug number for an SUV. Council Member Evans brought up other opportunities, and I'm sitting here thinking "I think everybody I know that works for Water Supply drives a Subaru, and they're four-wheel drives." So, yeah, there's definitely an opportunity for us to take a closer look at fuel efficiency. We want to have a work vehicle that would allow the inspector to get to and from the site. And then, as Gary mentioned, a lot of them will not be paved and it might be a little bit rough. So I think all of that can be considered, and we're more than happy to report back out to the Council. Thanks. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Director Pause. CHR. KIMBALL: Anyone else? All right, all those in favor of amending Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 755.23, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.23 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: Council Member Inaba— 1. Absent: None. Excused: None. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Thank you very much. Thank you. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.15. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. This amendment is related to the purchase of additional building construction materials. I'd like to call up our Training Battalion Chief Patrick Springer. There's a lot of training prop construction that's necessary for essential training exercises that our fire personnel go through so that they can operate with excellence. But I'll turn it over to the expert to explain this ask. Chief Springer. MR. SPRINGER: Good afternoon, everybody. Battalion Chief Patrick Springer again from HFD Training. So the line item increase of$15,000 is for lumber and Page 77 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 building construction materials. What we're trying to do is build a whole assortment of props. Firefighters alone at the basic level have a hundred basic skills that they need to master in order to get certified at the recruit level. So, first of all, we would use the equipment for the recruit program. Second of all, what we're trying to do is build out a company-level training program. I was up here earlier talking about a mobile training trailer. We're also looking at mobile training props. Again, the intent is to save money and be fiscally responsible by delivering whatever training we can at the fire stations so that the guys are not incurring overtime, but they're putting in the work to make sure they're able to do their job and get home safety to their families. So a few examples of what this will allow us to build is a forceable entry prop, which will allow us to gain entry to fortified buildings. They'll allow vertical ventilation training, which removes hot fire gases from structures, increasing the life safety profile of people inside. It also allows us to build rapid intervention training props, which basically means firefighter rescue. We were talking about firefighter self-survival earlier. With rapid intervention, we're talking about if the firefighter's unable to self-rescue, training our personnel how to go in and get our downed firefighter. Those skills would have to be executed under the most hostile of conditions with the whole emotional component attached to it, of really, that's your brother or sister in there. I can think of no worse day than if I get the Mayday call. And if I'm outside, I want every firefighter to be ready and to be prepared to go and get our brother or sister. So those are a few examples of what the materials are for. The lumber costs are getting higher and higher every year. But we want to focus on delivering high quality to our personnel so that they can be effective when they're out there on the street. This also ties in to professional certification and standards. We're certifying all our Fire recruits to the national standard at the Pro Board level Firefighter I and Firefighter II. What this gets is it ensures us, as a public, that each firefighter meets all the basic fire competencies as required by the National Fire Protection Association. So we're trying to be cost effective. We're not spending money on custom props, shipping them from the Mainland. We're going to build everything ourselves. There's a little bit of sweat equity in there. It's got to be built by firefighters because we know what the intent of the prop is. We get that savings there and we also get exactly what we want. We can build it to how we want. And also, certain stations might have different designs. It might be different-sized dimensions that we have to work with. And the vision for this, whether we tow the props to the station and rotate around the island is one way we can get around this, or one way we can accomplish this. Page 78 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 The other thing we can do is build props that stay at a station for a month or two, and then we move them. A little bit slower. But that allows the personnel to really get the reps in. So we go out. We conduct the training to a basic level. The personnel would have it for about a month, and then my staff would go out and see: "Eh, where are you guys at? What do you guys want to learn now? What's the next step?" So we get that kind of training progression going. We're trying to build competency first, then proficiency and mastery for our personnel. So, yeah, that's a little background on that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chief, for being here. I love the idea of not just the sweat equity, but the team building that will occur by the development of the props. And I'm just releasing that this would be a great investment in our training infrastructure and enhance firefighters' capabilities. So just looking for everyone's support. Thank you. MR. SPRINGER: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else on this amendment? Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. I love the ingenuity and can-do attitude, and preparing our firefighters for any and all circumstances. I just have a quick question because it's something that came up when Director of DEM was talking earlier about construction waste in our landfills, and I wondered if there had been—at first when it said "construction materials expense for training exercises," I immediately went to burning, right, but thank you for explaining it's for making props. So I wondered if there might be opportunity for connecting and collaborating with different construction companies to utilize some of their so much extra, right, in the construction industry. I know it might be a pain in the butt, but I just was thinking of how do we utilize resources that are already there that might end up costing us money going into landfill to provide resources for you guys to utilize. MR. SPRINGER: I think that's a great idea, and it's something that we've been pursuing already. So we've actually worked with a few contractors to kind of get what we need based upon what they have. We've also used basically condemned lumber from PTA's military training to build out other stuff. If it's something that we're burning, it has to meet certain size requirements and certain specifications. It can't be treated lumber, for example. It's got to be untreated OSB (Oriented Strand Board). But there is an opportunity to, like, force-of-entry doors, we actually break a lot of wood for that. That's what we're always hunting around for, looking for scraps and things like that. Page 79 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 For new prop construction, it depends again on what we get. We already have the recruits, like, downsizing/ripping oversized lumber down to whatever we want, two-by-fours, four-by-fours, whatever they have. And we stockpile whatever we have, trying to be effective with the use of funds. MS. VILLEGAS: Fantastic. And then there's a great organization: Re-use Hawaii. They disassemble structures and buildings and sell off the materials to be upcycled in other building projects. There just might be some opportunity for connectivity there to provide you some of the resources that you might be looking for. MR. SPRINGER: Can you say what that is again? MS. VILLEGAS: Re-use Hawaii. MR. SPRINGER: Re-use Hawaii? Okay. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. Quinn. MR. SPRINGER: Yeah, Re-use Hawaii. We'll look into that. I know there's Habitat for Humanity too. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, Habitat for Humanity as well. All right. MR. SPRINGER: Thank you. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Just briefly. In support of this. It sounds like I heard the Chief earlier say that this was kind of one of the top things that they wanted to get funded. So, understand that this could be helpful and yeah. And maybe once OSCER gets up and running, they can also help you with looking at more efficient and less wasteful ways to use some of these materials. So, going forward, obviously they're not set up yet and you need to get these materials and start your training. So, happy to support at this time. MR. SPRINGER: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: All right, anyone else? Seeing none, all those in favor of amending Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 755.15, say Ic aye. Page 80 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.15 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: Council Member Inaba— 1. Absent: None. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.16. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. This is related to training and certification for, I can't remember what NIMS stands for. Chief Springer, what do ? MR. SPRINGER: That would be National Incident Management System. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes. That is to ensure that our personnel are trained up in this particular area. There are a couple of phases for this particular program investment, including interactive learning modules where there's some training online. And then also the certification of folks within the department so that they can essentially train some of their colleagues going forward. Do you want to talk a little bit about the importance of seeing management incident command training? You can use some of the prime examples of some wildfires that we've had here on our island and how this kind of training could have supported our department in deploying its resources. And again,thinking about the future ahead, making sure that we invest in our personnel. MR. SPRINGER: Yeah, well, I think this is a great investment in the future for our personnel. To me, when I think about this training program, the term "succession planning" comes into mind. We've gone so long without a uniform, consistent method of incident management training for our personnel that our personnel, basically they've taken online modules of training as required by the Federal Government. They've also attended classes that we've put on. But what this training represents is a standardized system that we will use departmentwide, 350 personnel, 20 fire stations, right, every single company officer speaking the same language, using the same risk assessment models to make true risk-based decisions on how they're going to proceed in setting their strategic and tactical objectives. How they're going to attack an incident. What Page 81 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 this program also teaches our incident commanders—and don't take these words in the wrong context—but it's for them to be hostile, agile, and mobile when they're attacking these emergencies head-on. This program specifically focuses on the initial phase of an incident. This is where it kind of digresses from the incident management system. It's still compliant. The gap that is in the National Incident Management System, it takes a long time to stand up, to fill all the paperwork. You'll notice from our managing wildfires, everything is chaos for the first operational period if things are going south. By the second operational period of 12 hours, things are starting to come together. What this addresses is that acute phase when things are going wrong. Basically, if it's a fire, we punch this thing in the throat, and we knock it out and we're done. This isn't a multi-million dollar day thing where we're paying all of these people to come in from all the different agencies over time, and those (inaudible) and all that. This is trying to get a problem solved as quickly as possible with the least possible danger to life in the community. Did I answer your question? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Very much so. I mean, what really stood out to me was that there really isn't a standard sort of training program and that concerns me. I think it's important that we all sort of sing from the same song sheet, especially when it comes to these sort of incidents because we can—with climate change and just kind of seeing how things are happening globally, we can expect for more of these natural disasters to be hitting. So it would be great if all of our personnel had, as you say, a standardized training program. Thank you. MR. SPRINGER: Yeah. And the roots of this program comes from California. Our busier departments, the lead instructors from Sacramento City Fire. This program is being utilized by Oklahoma City, by Fresno, by Seattle. A lot of big departments. LA (Los Angeles) City. These guys are doing a great job at filling this gap for us as far as training is concerned, and they are well-seasoned, well- known throughout the country. I really would like to be able to provide this top- tier training opportunity for our personnel so they can serve the community. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chief Springer. And I just wanted to point out for my colleagues our guiding framework of our Charter, that within the Hawaii Fire Department it says that appropriate training shall be provided to the maximum extent possible. And I think that's really important, because when we think about how we guard against risks and liabilities, I would hate to be in a situation where lives could have been saved but perhaps the right training and equipment was not possible. So just, again, trying to make sure that everyone is protected, we're thinking about the safety of our personnel, the safety of our community, and that we are doing everything that we can to ensure that folks have their resources. I yield. Page 82 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. SPRINGER: Thanks. And in line with your comment, Council Kierkiewicz, just so everybody knows this isn't just about fire. This is about All-Hazards Incident Management. So we're talking residential, multi-family, commercial, high-rise fires, wildland fires, hazardous materials, rescue operations, active shooter. This is a high priority for us because it resonates across the board. It's about effective incident management and control of resources. CHR. KIMBALL: All right. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Thanks for being here. I know my colleagues have expressed some concerns about some of the dollars that are going to Fire and have voted down a number of amendments. I'm going to share a story with you that I learned at my WIR (Western Interstate Region) conference when it relates to fire- wise and what Officer Spencer [sic] is talking about right now. All of our Western Interstate Region states are moving towards this model. And so, for us to get on board, like he mentioned our partners in Fresno, in California, who have had so many critical incidences I think is a good fit, and we need to stand ready. But what they're learning in our Western Interstate Regions is if we can do this work that Officer Spencer is speaking of right now, it helps dial back the impact of insurance companies backing out when it comes to critical incidences and fire response. So, if I could urge my colleagues to think about this as a preventative way to make sure we can keep insurance costs low for property owners with this training, this is a great investment and a circle of impact that all of our Western Interstate Region counties are telling us to guard against. I'm going to be in full support of this and urge my colleagues to think a little bit beyond how it impacts our budget, but how this could actually translate to cost savings for our local families. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: I have a quick question and I'm not sure if it's Deanna or Diana [sic] who would want to answer this. But it has to do with when I see salary and wages here, it's my understanding that the overall bargaining agreements for Fire are done at the State level. So I wondered why this particular piece wasn't handled on that side of things, as opposed to coming not—then my next question would be, why wasn't it included in the budget to begin with, but kind of how it ends up in front of us. MS. SAKO: He can explain as well, but it's just this is the overtime piece related to this training. So it would be paid in accordance with the collective bargaining unit contract. But you guys would, whether they're going away to training or bringing a trainer here, it woulda lot of the training for the Fire Department has to be done when they're on overtime to not reduce the staffing at the stations. Page 83 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. Why wasn't it included in the budget to begin with? I mean, this sounds like something MS. SAKO: Some overtime was included. You'd have to ask the Chief how they calculated that. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. And then Fire Training OCE (Other Current Expenses), Miscellaneous Contract Services by $129,060 for Scene Management training. Is that paying somebody to come and do the training? MR. SPRINGER: The training is a fee to bring instructors down here. The idea is we do a"train the trainer" approach. We bring the subject-matter experts down here for a week, and they train up our instructors. And they then deliver the training to our personnel. And the only reason I put the overtime on my supplementals is because I send mine up the chain of command, and it's always an important consideration for the Chief because he's looking at overtime for everybody, and I just want to capture what my program is. I know it's a really big number, but we do have the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) we've got to abide by as well as the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act). MS. VILLEGAS: Fire lifesaving administration? MR. SPRINGER: Federal standards and labor act. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, gotcha. Yeah. MR. SPRINGER: So we do have to compensate them. And this particular training, it's a 40-hour workshop and it's all hands-on evolutions. They do one day in the class but everything else is all hands-on. It's actually coordinating actual fire trucks and fire companies in simulated fire conditions and basically being the conductor of a symphony as incident commander. MS. VILLEGAS: In a 21" Century scenario training opportunity. MR. SPRINGER: Yes. MS. VILLEGAS: All right. I'm sorry to make you guys juggle around. My question would be to Chief Todd, why wasn't this included in the budget to begin with? MR. TODD: Just FYI (for your information), I did mention earlier about the (inaudible)replacement. So (inaudible). MS. VILLEGAS: Look at you. Overachiever. Page 84 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. TODD: It was in our supplementals, and this is one of two major systems that are out there, which we evaluated. I would say "we,"but I mean my battalion chief evaluated. The person who put this together is Anthony Kastros. He's well- regarded in the field. I've met him multiple times. He's an amazing guy. I looked at the program. It is definitely some amazing training. So we had put it in there. We do have overtime in our budget, but that is basically to man our stations and apply for staffing there. And this is basically one year to bring everyone up to that point, and it's just to bring everyone in for a one-week class. It requires us to sit down with the union, bring them off of 56-hour, get an agreement for every person, and they've got to get paid. So, yeah, it's expensive. MS. VILLEGAS: Yup. Yeah, I see this training. And, as was mentioned before, as we continue to navigate a time frame where climate change and global warming is throwing much bigger and badder and more violent and destructive natural disasters, that it is imperative for our first responders to be trained with the best technology possible. So I will be supporting this today on the basis of what you've shared about what this will do for the Fire Department and, therefore, in service to our community and ideally circling back to be preventative for insurance challenges that we already face. Yeah. But I've just got to be honest. I can go with this one, but there's a long list. Yeah. Thanks. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. My biggest surprise is that it wasn't included in the budget. Being someone that witnessed the August 8h fire and seeing how you have to stand up Incident Command to really be on top of it, call in your volunteer firefighters, work with the Police and road closure. I mean, it just goes on and on. But the bigger question for me is there was the—State Legislature had a working group that put out a lot of recommendations. And Lahaina, they put together a task force, and I think you were involved in that discussion. So just kind of curious. Is there other things that are going to come up? I mean, was this something that just fell by the wayside because of the amount of ask? Because, a lot of lessons were learned. A lot of people are trying to catch up and change things because of those lessons that were learned from August 8h Lahaina, as well as August 8h here. Again, I'm kind of surprised that it didn't make it. MR. TODD: Relative to that, it was on our list for supplementals. So, from the Fire Department side, it did make it into our request for budget. Now, as for the process where it goes to Finance, they of course need to weigh out our department versus every other department. And the reality of it is that there's always competing needs within the entire County. I know our wastewater system and whatnot has also got some major issues. So I totally understand how they've got to make some really hard decisions on where they put the money. This is one of those areas that we thought was really critical, but I know there's a lot of critical areas out there. Page 85 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. EVANS: How does that play with Civil Defense that also does Incident Command? MR. TODD: Civil Defense is intended to be our EOC, our Emergency Operations Center. And, in theory, they're the support system for Incident Command. Because you could have, theoretically, three incidents on the island, each with its own incident commander all at the same time,potentially. And so the concept here is, at least on the Fire side, as we're responding, the ability for us to have a singular training system where all of our personnel are trained to the same standard that they're going to be able to apply those systems for incident management on-scene. And this ties in with the Civil Defense concept in that we're doing good Incident management. But ultimately at the Civil Defense side, they're not necessarily managing the incident so much as overseeing all the communication aspects and facilitating how things are working within there, if that makes sense. And so there's other this is but a small slice of the pie as far as the lessons learned and things that probably need to be done. MR. SPRINGER: Yeah, Council Evans. So this plugs right into the EOC seamlessly, as far as operations go and the verbiage that they use. But where this skillset actually gets utilized at times will be during occasions prior to the EOC activation. It has the potential to prevent EOC activations. And also, if we're going to talk about Lahaina and losing all communications capacity, so being able to get through from an EOC to the men and women in the field, the "boots on the ground," is not a possibility. So you would have to operate in remote pockets as an (inaudible)to addressing calls as they come in and get walked in, "This is happening here, this is happening there" if we're isolated, right. So what this allows us to do is to actually effectively bounce through each emergency, manage it, and move on in the even we cannot even get through to the EOC. So we have that kind of self-sustainability model as far as emergency response goes as a result of this program. MS. EVANS: I like the idea of self-sustainability onsite. So my last question is for the Administration. Given what happened with Lahaina and our August 8h fire, I really was thinking we're going to see, really, some strong ideas coming out that we would support because of what happened and lessons learned. Did the Administration support anything in response to all those task force and working groups? There was a lot of people trying to see how we could do things better. Did you take a look at that? MS. NAKAGAWA: Thank you for the question. I think there were lots of discussions that have happened since then and continually ongoing discussions about response and training and how we can do better. I do want to address something related to this item. For something like this, it is training. And just as Page 86 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 a reminder, we do have a million dollars in the training provision. We still have a fund available this current year in the training provision that could be utilized for something especially as critical as this. So I just wanted to continue to plug that Fire has been very proactive in using the training provision, but there are still funds left in this current year. And we still have a million dollars programmed in the budget for next year for training, and this is something that falls very much in line with high-priority training, training many as well. So just wanted to make sure that was restated. MS. EVANS: Well, that's a pretty powerful public statement. So, Fire Chief, Battalion Chief, I heard that there may be funding there to really prioritize this training since it really is critical. It's critical to our services, right, to the community. He's having a quick conversation. But I think it's good because what I'm hearing is there may be an opportunity to get this going MR. SPRINGER: Thank you, Council Member Evans. I agree. And there's also ways in which I can look at this program and I can break it down into three phases. And I can also break the training down into multiple phases, micro phases. The main thing, though, is we complete the entire process. So I'll probably be back here again, and hopefully, we'll be partially along through the process. But this is something I really want to see through for our personnel and our community. MS. EVANS: And I really want you to see it through too. But if we can do with what we have, especially if there's money left before June 30'', that might be really great. Chief Todd? MR. TODD: I'm told we will be working on it within the current fiscal year. MS. EVANS: All right. Thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Excellent. I was just going to ask that. I'm totally supportive of the training and happy we can figure out a way to do it other than this amendment. So I'll be voting "no" on the amendment but supporting the training. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Just wanted to thank Battalion Chief Springer. I like your explanation of this being a throat punch. Probably the best one I've heard in my five years of sitting here. There's been some good ones, but that was the best way to explain the efficacy of a project that I've heard in a long time. Given what I've just learned, I'm probably not going to be supporting today Page 87 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 and given that we have funding for this purpose already. And then we can work on this in the future. But I love your commitment and I love that definition. I might use that in the future. MR. SPRINGER: Thank you, sir. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. It's always good to have these discussions publicly. I think we, as a body, have a final say on what our budget looks like. We passed a resolution asking the Administration to make Fire Department a priority, given all that has happened across the State and on our island. And when one of my colleagues has asked how have we learned from the incidences of other communities and applied that to our budget, I don't see it. And that's why we're having these conversations. We also don't have monthly budget summaries, so it's hard to gauge how much funding is available in the training account so that we can suggest to the departments that they go that route. Departments don't also know how they can access that money. So I think there's a lot of learning lessons maybe county-wide to ensure that if we are saying we want folks to invest in training and that we put money in the budget for that, there are clear processes so that our departments can access that funding. I'm sorry to have to make the point this way, but I think it's really important that we are utilizing these resources as quickly as possible at the beginning of the fiscal year and not waiting till a month and a half before the year is out to be spending down those funds. I'm so happy to hear that there is funding available within the training account. With that being said, I will be withdrawing this amendment and working with Chief Springer and our Finance Director to ensure that this particular project is able to move forward, because it sounds like there is a lot of support for this particular training by the body. Thank you, Chair. Withdraw Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz withdrew her motion to amend Bill 136, to Amend: Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.16. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. All right, I'll just make a couple quick comments. I'm going to support the amendment just from the standpoint that there is this great big pot of money that isobviously, I didn't rest enough during that lunch break. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: We're charging along, Chair. CHR. KIMBALL: Let's go ahead and do the next amendment. Page 88 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And then you can make your comment— CHR. ommentCHR. KIMBALL: Yeah, okay, let's do MS. KIERKIEWICZ: If it also has to do with training. CHR. KIMBALL: Give me a chance to say something. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I apologize. CHR. KIMBALL: I have really important points to make. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I know you do. CHR. KIMBALL: They're salient. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.17. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Guess what? Money for more training. And if we are able to support it with what is currently in our training accounts, would love to be able to do that. But do want to provide our Fire Chief and Battalion Chief an opportunity to speak to the importance of Engine Company Operations training. It's my understanding that we don't have a standardized training program for our engine companies currently. But just would love for you to kind of talk about the importance and how this particular program can work and, as you say, ensure that our folks are able to effectively attack fires should they arise on our island. MR. SPRINGER: Thank you, Council Kierkiewicz. So, historically, in the time I've been in the department, we've had multiple recruit classes with multiple different trainers teaching multiple different methods of fire attack. The science has changed. Building construction has changed. Building contents have changed and increased. They're all made of synthetic hydrocarbons that burn hotter and faster. So what this program does is standardize engine company operations. Engine company operations is everything involved in putting the fire out. In observing the techniques that are currently utilized, there's a lot of room for improvement. What this teaches our personnel is—first of all, let me rewind this back. This teaches our personnel, first, how to size up a structure, how to estimate how much hose they need to take inside, and then they go into the UL studies—Underwriters Laboratories—and these studies, Federal-level studies. Page 89 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 And they explain fire behavior in a way that firefighters can understand, and ingrain a decision-making model that could be algorithmic. And, to make it quite simple, it's what, when, and how to apply a certain water application tactic. It may sound simple, but when you're making entry in zero visibility to put a fire out, wearing 75 pounds of gear, dragging a hose that has up to 89 pounds of nozzle reaction force pushing back at you, and there may be holes in the floor this program addresses everything. We brought this program down as a pilot in a previous year. I don't know if all of you know the big hose line that we use, the two-and-a-half inch hose lines, the instructor we're looking at for this course got our personnel moving and flowing water at the same time with that giant hose line in a matter of three days, only two of which was actual hands-on training. The first was all classroom, background information. What this represents for us as far as cost-effectiveness, if we—everybody— depends what district you work in, right, you're aware of the cost of a single- family home. This is about saving lives and saving people's property. So, for me, the cost, if we can start increasing our ability to save property and illustrate decreased property loss in our operations and also collect data on fire-under- control times, fire-suppression times, meaning from when we arrive on-scene to the time the fire's declared under control, we're decreasing our exposure for our civilians that are inside of a burning building, and by default, we're also decreasing risk for firefighters. We're operating off a single air bottle with maybe 20 minutes of air. We've got to get in. We've got to punch it in the throat, and we've got to get out. This is really for the line personnel, the guys that put on their gear and go inside so they can go and pull civilians out of the building. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chief Springer, for that very detailed overview. Chair, would love your comments on what you were going to say regarding training, and to just also hear from my colleagues generally about their views on this particular training that Chief Springer has described. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, guys, for not turning on your lights so Ioh, all right, Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: I'm just going to go back to what we talked about for the last one. There's a training fund so I would love to see the resources pulled from that. But I did want to tell you how impressed I am with your depth and breadth of your knowledge, Chief Springer. And it's really a reflection of your dedication to and affection for your team and your staff. And it comforts me to know that somebody of your level of commitment to your people is helping to train our first responders and keep them safe in the line of duty. So I just wanted to thank you for that. I won't be supporting this because I'd love to see this come from those Page 90 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 training funds. And if there are still funds available in this fiscal year, those would be great to utilize, and then there will be a training fund available for next year if it needs to happen in the next fiscal year as well. Thank you. MR. SPRINGER: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thanks, Chair. I think I called you Officer Spencer and I apologize for that. It's Springer. MR. SPRINGER: You're not the first one. You won't be the last. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. But what we're hearing today, really, I'm telling you guys Western Interstate Region, they're finding a lot of tools. It's called Firewise. And they really want to empower property owners to help bring down the cost of their insurance, because in California, they're backing out, and the insurance programs are being funded by the Federal Government. And whatever we can do to help get the training, provide the data so that we can demonstrate to insurance companies that we have a strong fire response will be incredibly helpful to our community. I know we're finding other ways, but I also think I'm still in support because we can still support and still use the training money for even more stuff. That's my thoughts. Thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Before we get super excited about the leftover monies in the training fund, and again I want to be able to utilize money we appropriated for this purpose last budget cycle, I just want to confirm that this particular request can be funded with that training account. Okay, I'm seeing Managing Director Sako shake her head "no." Because it's mostly overtime, we are not able to utilize the training account to support this request. Okay. I really appreciate that clarification. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. I just wanted further clarification. So, for this and the previous one, for the training portion can we use the training dollars, but not for the overtime? Is that what I'm hearing? Correct. Okay. Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. All right, don't withdraw. I'm not ready, no. No, actually, I was going to say a couple things. Page 91 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 First of all, I would just disagree a little bit with Council Member Kierkiewicz with respect to the Administration's commitment to fund Fire-related things. I do think we did see a good investment in Fire. Could we do more? Yes. And I appreciate that you've brought these amendments forth to do more. What I would also say with respect to training is that even though we have this million-dollar training budget that is broadly available across the County, when we say yes to training dollars that are designated to a certain thing, like fire preparedness, like the preparedness of our first responders, I think that signals what we, as a body, are prioritizing. And again, based on our FEMA training, prevention, prevention, prevention. That's always the first thing. And that starts with training and having an expertise. So I would have actually supported the previous amendment. I will support this one as well. And even though a portion of it could be covered with the training budget, again the budget is this whole big pot, and I don't mind saying we want to carve out this pot for this very specific purpose because we've identified it as a priority. If you want to bring that other one back at some point, I'm just saying. But with this one, I'll be supporting it. All right, with that, we'll take the vote. MS. EVANS: Chair, I have a question. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: We're looking at training and you're setting different salaries and wages. Your numbers seem to be all over the map. Why is this one so high at 258,000, give or take a few? MR. TODD: So the first one that we were talking about just recently that got pulled back was because it's train the trainer. So,basically, we're taking a select cadre of personnel and training them in the system and process as before, then going on duty to deploy that. On this particular one, it's actually bringing in the department themselves, each individual member, to go through the training. There's a lot of us and it's about I think three days of training each. MR. SPRINGER: For Engine Company Operations, it's a three-day training. They're long days, about ten hours, including their travel time. These are for four workshops with 30 students. So we hit about 120 of our personnel in one year. So we'd have to run it about three years, consecutive, to get everybody trained up. MS. EVANS: So will you come back? Is this 257,212 for three years? No, it's you'll come back every year for this? MR. SPRINGER: For the salaries and wages part, the figure I have is 202,176. And then I also have the in-house delivery of 55,036. So it'll be 257. Page 92 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. EVANS: Oh, got it. Okay. MR. SPRINGER: Yeah. So the in-house delivery, I'm just trying to pull out the instructor cost of what it costs to bring my personnel in to deliver the training versus a regular line personnel coming in as students, if that makes sense. MS. EVANS: Yeah. Yeah, no. It does now because it came out. I'm just saying 257, so I'm okay. All right. Thank you. MR. SPRINGER: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Anyone else? All right, seeing none, all those in favor of amending Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 755.17,please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.17 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Kimball —5. Noes: Council Members Galimba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, and Villegas —3. Absent: Council Member Inaba— 1. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.18. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. This was intended to provide for a conversation actually with the Council. You saw yesterday we had one person you guys are done? Well, until a little lateryesterday, we had one person testify on the County budget. One. And so is there more that we can do as a County to get out into the community to explain the budget, to have people understand priorities and how all of these funding streams work? I think there's room for improvement there. Again, I just wanted to have the conversation. We had only spoken, Director Nakagawa and I, on this for a few minutes. But again, I just wanted to have a discussion with my colleagues around could we potentially look at investing in greater community outreach on the budget so that folks know how their taxpayer dollars are working for them. MS. NAKAGAWA: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. This is an item again we've talked about in the past, and it is really about breaking down this very large complex budget for everybody to understand. Council Member Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder, you had asked several times about how do we show what funds go to Page 93 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 what purpose and how, right. So not quite how-a-bill-becomes-a-law kind of thing but how do we explain our budgetary process to the community in a much more digestible way than what we have today. And very—also appreciate the comment about testifiers in our budget process, and how do we engage the community more in this process. And so our brief conversation was we do have a phenomenal budget team of two. And while they are incredibly awesome in what they do, we are limited in what we do, but we want to do better. We know there is room for improvement for sure. And I would love to put together more graphics, videos, easier-to- understand tools, but our resources are limited. So that's the conversation that we've had. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And that's perfect. Again, this has been introduced in order to have that conversation, and I'd like to hear from my colleagues if this is something that they would get behind. I would like to perhaps see either contract services, but it also sounds like you have a very incredible team of two. Would a third be helpful? I don't know. I think it should be part of the conversation. I don't think we should be accepting this particular amendment, as written, today, but again, it was designed for us to just talk about what are the needs so that we can tell the story of how important all of the work the different departments do to serve the population. MS. NAKAGAWA: And just if I could, one more thing I would like to add is our new ARP (American Rescue Plan) system will do a lot to improve our ability to display information and run reports. It is a couple years out, so I'm still very anxious to make improvements as quickly as possible. Would have loved to do more now, so thinking kind of what we can do in the interim. But that is on its way and that is something that we can definitely look forward to. We are working on—is already a contract that is in place. So that is coming. We just—that will take some time. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I look forward to my colleagues' comments on this. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Thank you for us having this discussion, but I don't support what we're trying to achieve this way. I've been a believer since I've been here that it would be great to give this kind of money to us in the legislative branch and stand up more of a public access room like they have at the State Capitol. There you can have a YouTube or a podcast or a training module on how to read the budget and comment on the budget, as well as laws and bills and what the process that we have at—how we agree to the budget, what our different steps are, how we have our hearings and what opportunity the public has to engage. I Page 94 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 would rather see funding go to our own legislative branch if we want to educate the public on how to be more engaged with us. But I don't think giving it to Finance to do this way is the way to go. Thank you, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. In support of this. I think it leads us back to the conversation we had from earlier this morning, which is this is a complex budget. There are different funds and they have different restrictions. I actually like it right here the way it is, as it ramps up into this dashboard that we're trying to create. I think this early sampling of taking it out to community and getting that feedback so that, as we build out to that dashboard or how we put that information out there will actually be community-driven and government-supported. And so I think we're all chasing the same thing. We're just not sure how to get there, and that's why I kind of like this small amount to go do that community sampling so that when we build that information, it's in a manner that the community was anticipating and expecting. I like the idea of maybe the legislative body or having it kind of twofold, right, from the legislative side and then on the Administration's side. I think there's a number of ways, whether it's through the schools, the university, podcasts, social media. I think this is a nice first attempt to try and have a broader education for our community. I would support this. I would support it anyplace else. I think it's a kind of investment we have to make to educate our community. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. So, for the Director, can you just say a little bit more about how you would envision using this money if it was given to you this year. I heard you say that you've got a lot of things in the works, and things are coming in a couple years. But what would you actually want to achieve with some amount of money or a pot of money for this year if it was given to your office, and do you have the staffing and the expertise or whatever you need if just given the money to accomplish that? MS. NAKAGAWA: In some of the brief conversations we've had and some of my initial thoughts on this would be around the ideas we've discussed: in consultant-type contract, to do best practice, to see what's done. We can certainly add to that. That would be minimal. But looking at, one, the community- engagement piece and what does that look like, how do we get better. We've had different conversations about that. And then also looking at some actual help to put together different types of either videos or templates that can break things down that our team can then use later as a starting place. Those are just my initial kind of thoughts on how it could be used. Page 95 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 One of the things that was talked about today was surveying and how we reach a larger audience, even internally within the County. And so that's something we could do with or without these funds. But as these ideas come up about more engagement in our budgeting process, more research and the time spent on that would be helpful. But there are things that we can continue to do and we will continue to do with or without this funding. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. I'm just wondering if—maybe this is to the maker of this amendment also—would stuff around RPT (real property tax) be included in that, because I think that's something that sometimes the public is very interested in and doesn't always quite understand either. MS. NAKAGAWA: I'm sorry. Could you ask your question again? MS. KAGIWADA: Real property tax, would some of the information about real property tax potentially be ? MS. NAKAGAWA: Oh, of course. I don't think we can ignore our largest revenue source and explain to the community where the money comes from and then how we spend it. So, yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Thank you. And then my last question is actually to the Chair here. I know that you've been thinking a lot about staffing and how Council Services and your Chair staff work together. I'm just wondering if you can speak to are there any things you see overlapping or potentially collaborating or anything here that you might see at—and you don't have to answer if other people want to answer right way, but thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: If the body doesn't mind, I'll respond briefly because this is one of the things when Council Member Evans made her statement. We are transitioning a staff person into the Chair's staff to do the grant-in-aid and contract monitoring. That will take some kuleana from one of the other Chair's staff away and provide more time for that person to do PIO (public information officer)-type activities, which was already part of the extended job description. I think we're going to have to do some training around that, but where it's maybe 10 percent of that person's time used for PIO activities, I'm looking at maybe making that be half of their time. There's also been budget in the legislative branch for some other activities related to promotion—I mean, I was actually just talking to somebody from Tommy Waters' staff and they used to send mailers out about important bills. There was a lot more community outreach that I think we have funds for. We haven't used them to the extent we could. And so I think there's the possibility to strategize on our own end with what we've got on how to better engage the public. Page 96 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thanks. I guess with that I'm feeling like, and I think the maker suggested this as well, this isn't quite fleshed out enough for me to vote for it at this point, but really like the idea and would like to continue the discussion. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Really appreciate the feedback. I'll want to convene with you and Finance Director to kind of talk about just coordinating, right. Because, I feel like there's going to be a lot of cross- coordination between our departments, especially if we want to go with the route of just more access by community members through the legislative branch. So I'll be withdrawing this amendment. Thank you. Withdraw Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz withdrew her motion to amend Bill 136, to Amend: Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.18. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.19. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Perfect. Thank you. Administrator Runnells, thank you so much for your patience. It's been quite a day. Why don't you come up here. So Administrator Runnells and I and Representative Chris Todd were on PBS insights about a month or two ago. One of the things that I asked him was "In your experience, what percent of the animals that kind of come through Animal Control around the island are microchipped and registered with the County?" And I think you gave a figure of less than 5 percent, less than 10 percent. It was an insanely low number. And so, this morning we had adopted a budget amendment that would increase sort of community outreach and education around what's in the Code. Like, "You need to get your animal registered," and"Microchipping would be extremely helpful because in the event that your dog gets loose and is out in the community, it can easily be scanned and returned back to you." So this funding actually is dedicated to providing support for doing those outreach clinics in communities around the island, and having them free and available to community members, guiding them through that processregister, microchip. And because you have brought on—has she officially started yet, our veterinarian? MR. RUNNELLS: She's starting on the first of July actually. Page 97 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. At the start of the fiscal year. We had talked about wanting to use her in the community a bit more. And one of the questions I asked you was "Well, does she have everything she needs to be able to go out and provide those veterinarian services?" And so you've identified some things that would be really helpful in that outreach. And so I just wanted to give you an opportunity to provide some details to my colleagues. MR. RUNNELLS: Okay. So we talked about the outreach clinics and outreach opportunities that we have for our agency. This is within our plans that we go to different areas of the island, set up a quick clinic. It doesn't even have to be in a building, which is why I included a pretty substantial tent that is a quick reactionary tent to set up in some of these areas. Have the veterinarian, have microchips, have a couple of law officers to be able to microchip and register these animals right there in the neighborhoods, because we have such a low response to registering within the County. And to be honest, without microchips in most of the animals in the County has a huge impact on our workload. Instead of having a quick turnaround time for most of the animals, most of our animals sit sometimes up to 45 days in our facility. And even then, we manage to find an owner for some of them, but some of them we don't, unfortunately. So, if we can get those animals registered out there in the communities, then when they do get loose and we do find them, at least the turnaround time is pretty low. And so these items that we've identified would help us to set up those quick clinics and quick outreach clinics for the veterinarian and for our staff to be able to do that quickly. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So there's again funding to do the clinics and the outreach and the microchipping. There's funding for a mobile tent, tables, chairs, transportation trailer. What is a portable chemistry analyzer? MR. RUNNELLS: So a portable chemistry analyzer is something for the veterinarian. It's a tool to allow her to do stuff within the field. And so, if she identifies an animal that looks like it has a problem or something, she can always do something right there to quickly identify if there's a problem with the animal during her exams. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That's amazing. Like through analyzing their saliva or is it scanned? MR. RUNNELLS: No. It's a quick blood draw. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Oh, blood draw. MR. RUNNELLS: We'd take the blood and then quickly analyze it right there, table-side. It's pretty cool. Page 98 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah. That's fantastic. Well,just wanted to do my part to support those who have been just staunch advocates at every single budget or Committee meeting where there is something about animal control. I know that this is something that is going to be really appreciated by the community if we are able to approve it here at the Council. MR. RUNNELLS: Oh, yeah. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Looking for everyone's support. Thank you. MR. RUNNELLS: As far as our numbers go, people always complain about or even ask us about our numbers and our recovery animals, as opposed to our animals that we unfortunately don't recover, and this would actually turn the table on that. If we can actually get those animals registered, it would be a lot less animals that we'd have to put down at the end of the day. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Great. I think one number that would be really great to get out to the public, I just thought of it when you mentioned that, is number of animals returned to people when they are microchipped. So to really push that number and then compare it to the numbers when they are not. I think that will help a lot in trying to explain to the community why this is so important. I'm very supportive of the idea. My main question is do you currently have the staffing to actually go out and do this on a regular basis? MR. RUNNELLS: It would be stretching our people, but at the same time, if we can get a little more proactive, we can decrease our reactive time on the back end. And so I feel like if we put forth the extra effort, and even ask for some possible overtime to do some of these clinics, it would give us the opportunity to decrease our workload overall and intakes. MS. KAGIWADA: Right. Well, I would highly suggest, if possible, to coordinate with some of the spay-and-neuter money that's out there and do it in tandem. You will also have more help, I think. So maybe you can just like be their vet going out and then they have other help or something. But, yeah, coordinating. Also just to let the community know, to get that word out there before you come. Because, there's nothing worse than putting in all that effort, going to a community, setting everything up, being there and then nobody really comes, either because they didn't really know about it or it wasn't a convenient day or time or something. So I think—and hopefully, you can maybe even, if you're going to our different districts, if we can help at all, I'll just say that I'd be happy to try to help figure out what might work best in my district for some of those things. Page 99 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. RUNNELLS: Okay, yeah. I mean, that's part of what's in the money as well, is educational and promotional stuff so we can get the information out there. But we're also using social media more now to get some of our animal information out. And so we plan on using social media for a lot more things this coming year, including outreach and for public service announcements, things like that. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, good. All right. I'll be supporting. Thank you so much. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Anyone else? Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks. Yes, I guess I just am very much supportive of Animal Control and getting on top of our very big issue. I mean, it might be a little bit sort of a stretch for you to get on this but there is the need. So I'll be supporting. MR. RUNNELLS: Great. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. All right, moving forward, all those in favor of amending Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 755.19,please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.19 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kimball—8. Noes: Council Member Inaba— 1. Absent: None. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.20. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I believe we have Prosecuting Attorney Kelden Waltjen outside. Ready to make his grand entrance. Let's go, Cardinals! Just kidding. And Business Manager Grant Nagata. Business Manager, right? Administrator. I apologize. (Note: At this time, Prosecuting Attorney Kelden Waltjen and Business Administrator Grant Nagata came forward to address the members of the Council.) Page 100 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. WALTJEN: Good afternoon, everyone. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for being here and your patience. This proposes to add funding into Prosecuting Attorney's salary and wages account for three additional positions, one being an executive aide. I'll give you folks an opportunity to kind of speak to some of the administrative support you folks are needing in order to ensure communications with members of the community, but also just back-end support with an office. There's also a need for administrative support in West Hawaii, which is where your assistant prosecutor Stephen Frye is located, and then also the need for a paralegal assistant. There's a lot of cases that you folks are handling. I just want to make sure that there is support to do the research, process the paperwork, because I know that there are a lot of deadlines that need to be met. I just want to make sure that the Prosecutor's office is getting what it needs to do the work. There's been a lot of support, rightly so, for the Police Department. But if we are adding more officers on the road, for instance, we have to make sure that we have enough folks in the Prosecutor's office to sort of process any type of arrest or anything that really comes through. So this is, again,just a balancing act but making sure that the departments that really need resources are receiving them. With that,just want to turn it over to you guys to kind of speak to, in detail, what each of these positions entail. Thank you. MR. WALTJEN: Mahalo for the opportunity to address you all this afternoon. Thank you for having us. Yes, we're looking at these additional positions. One of the things that we feel is very important with our local law enforcement communities is that we do have a very collaborative and unified law enforcement between the Hawaii Police Department and our County Prosecutor's office. And you mentioned it earlier, where, with the growth and enhancements that the HPD (Hawai`i Police Department) has made even in the last calendar year with the increased recruitments, we're getting to a position where I think we're all going to be able to benefit from seeing, hopefully in the very near future, a fully staffed Police Department, where we've been understaffed for such a long time, especially in the rural communities, where they're focusing on increasing the number of officers to better serve and protect our community. And as Council Member Kierkiewicz mentioned earlier, you know, in three things quite simple, right. The more water you have, you're going to need a bigger glass to receive it. And with the amount of hopeful increased level of law enforcement presence, I do anticipate that we're going to be seeing an increase in number of the cases that are referred to our office. And I want to make sure that we'll be able to best serve the community. So these enhancements that we're looking at are going to be looking at trying to improve and enhance services. Page 101 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 One of the things is with these three positions, what I'd like to see—we'll continue to do this throughout our administration—is try to make both the East Hawaii and West Hawaii offices to operate as equals. We don't want to have an East Hawaii-focused type of administration. We try to create parity among both offices. That's why we've focused on creating supervisory positions in the West Hawaii office that are counterparts to what we have in Hilo, that also has increased our staffing out in West Hawaii. The private secretary position that we're looking at adding to the West Hawaii office would serve as an administrative support point of contact, everything from facilities management personnel to other things that, hand in hand, happen on a day-to-day basis. As Council Member Kierkiewicz mentioned, our primary administrator in the Kona office on a daily basis is First Deputy Stephen Frye. Our office continues to operate in a fashion in which our supervisors lead by example. They are all working supervisors, including Mr. Frye, who maintains a caseload and makes regular appearances in court. Given the reliance of having him in that type of position, it would be nice to have a private secretary support him in the West Hawaii office and be available for our personnel as well as public inquiries. The executive aide position, one of the things that we're looking at, as many of you are aware because you've had interactions with me over at—especially during legislative session, we try to be very active. We regularly submit input, whether it be in support or opposition of pending legislative initiatives and bills/proposals at the State level as well as even at the County level. I hope that by attaining an executive aide position that's more dedicated to the legislative process, we'll be able to even further enhance and provide more input that will better address some of the concerns in our community. And lastly, with the paralegal assistant position, one of the focuses that we're hoping to do is there's a gap in our current hierarchy structure of our office where we have legal clerical and we have our deputy prosecuting attorneys. The paralegal assistants will be more of a hands-on, in-courtroom type of trial assistant to fill a gap in need to assist the deputies in the presentation of evidence and other things that may arise in the prosecution of a case. So that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to fill gaps and hopefully be able to best serve our community with these additional positions. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks for being here. Looking for everyone's support. MR. WALTJEN: Thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I yield. Page 102 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Before we go on to discussion on this, Corporation Counsel, you indicated there's potentially some concerns about this amendment. Can I ask you to come forward and share that with the rest of the body? (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. STRANCE: Good afternoon. Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. This amendment is drafted to both increase the budget and to create specific positions. Under the Hawaii County Charter, the Mayor is given the authority to create new positions in the County. In the past, my understanding is the way these types of requests have been handled is the Council would approve the total amount in the salary and wages section of the budget, and then leave the position creation to the Mayor at a later time. And so I know there's this particular amendment and there's several others, and so our request would be that they be amended just to include the full amount or to delete the paragraph that specifically adds the positions to the budget. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Corporation Counsel. Further discussion from this body? Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. I was thinking about sort of similar to what Ms. Strance said. Just looking at these as not being created yet and funding them, understanding the need but just I mean, our role is never to create positions. We fund them. That's kind of a cart-before-the-horse idea, so I'm just on the fence. If you guys need them, I'm open to the idea but I just had some questions evolving around that. MR. WALTJEN: Perhaps I'll offer this up: With all due respect to Corporation Counsel Strance in her review of the Charter, I believe the Charter does also include a provision that allows the Prosecuting Attorney to appoint necessary staff and personnel. And so I'd ask that you guys take that into consideration as well. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Are you done? Okay. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I'll just add that this is not an unprecedented way of doing things. During my time on the Council, I recall former Council Chair Maile David transferring money into the Department of Environmental Management this way to fund positions for the Waiohinu Transfer Page 103 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Station. Those positions were not created. A resolution came forward later from the Administration, in partnership with the department, to create those positions. But we can put additional funding in the budget. And if you take a look at the budget amendment on the back of this communication, specific positions are not specified. But in the effort of being transparent with my colleagues and the community, I did want to list these positions we were looking to just support. So, again, this is not unprecedented. We also did this in the past when there was a desire for there to be an arborist within the County. So the Council has taken the initiative to put money in accounts, and the Administration has come forward to create those positions. And clearly Prosecuting Attorney's office has, I feel, demonstrated the need for these positions in their office. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Any further discussion? Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Good afternoon. I'm not sure if you've been tuning in. I'm not supporting budget amendments today. So giving you that courtesy to let you know. I do feel that everyone's budget has adequate funding right now, and I'll be looking to actually reduce the amount of our budget. So I just wanted to let you know since you haven't been here all day. Thank you. MR. WALTJEN: I appreciate that. Mahalo. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Just wondering, was this in your supplementals? MR. WALTJEN: Yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Was it at the top of your supplementals? MR. WALTJEN: We did make some adjustments I think on the, let me see, the priority list. The supplemental was the paralegal assistant. Several of the other positions I think were added into the current budget. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I'm having I guess this is a bigger lift than some of the other ones just mainly because, by creating these positions, we are basically committing to this for this coming year and every year after. Right? And so it's not the same as some of these other ones where we are just looking at this year and adding something to this year's budget, but we are actually basically adding this amount for future budgets too. So, yeah,just having a little bit of a hard time. Without having had any more conversation about it, seems like a big ask for so little amount of discussion and time and the public not weighing in on it, all that Page 104 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 kind of stuff. So that's just where I'm at right now. I'm sure they're probably needed positions, but yeah,just a little concerned about adding them in this way. Thank you. MR. WALTJEN: I appreciate your concern. And without saying more, I think these types of positions, when you look at it in the scope of the hierarchy structure of the Prosecutor's office, I think these are probably enhancements that probably should have been made a long time ago. The other counties all have these sort of positions in these areas to support the Administration. If you look at the Police Department, the Police Department has private secretaries for a lot of their high ranking officers. Those officers are what I would refer to as they're administrative, and they have their own dedicated administrative secretarial staff. We have one Administration and we operate on an island-wide capacity. So I'm hoping that, by having these enhancements made to our personnel services, that these would be the enhancements that we would need going forward, and we wouldn't have to be addressing these types of administrative matters in the future. But I appreciate your concern and thank you. MS. KAGIWADA: Understood but I feel like it should have been in your main budget or at least prioritized in that way if these were so critical, as you're talking about. It just seems like a big commitment for our County without a lot of input. Thanks. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: This would be for Deanna in your new position as Managing Director. So, I don't know, I'm just trying to think what options might be available. If these positions are critical and determined to be critical, is it possible to work with Human Resources Division and look at transferring/creating positions? Is this you don't have to wait a year to do this. Can't you come back to the Council and try to fill these positions? And that's getting kind of to Member Kagiwada's sense of if you're going to expand government and add more positions in a department, there seems to be a better process than doing it at this stage. Isn't there other options available? Could we see this in front of us in a month? Two months? MS. SAKO: So the concern comes that once the budget's passed, it's difficult to then find a revenue source to come back in and amend the budget. We talked about different liabilities that are out there yet. And so, some yes, it is timing. But I do agree with what Council Member Kierkiewicz said earlier in that there have been times when Council added funding for positions and then Administration came in with the resolution on July 1st, or as soon as the budget is signed into law, and I guess we wouldn't even have to wait for that, but you know, to create the positions. So we're not necessarily disagreeing with anything. I think it was the specific wording in the resolution that said Section 3 would be Page 105 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 amended to add those positions, and it wouldn't be done that way. It would actually be that we would come in with a resolution shortly to create positions, if that's what's passed by the body. MS. EVANS: Okay. When you have a lot of vacant positionsactually, do you have vacant positions? MR. WALTJEN: We do have some vacant positions. MS. EVANS: But none of the vacant positions fall with these positions that you're asking for. MR. WALTJEN: Correct. One of the things I'll note, you can see in the supplemental request I'm asking for one paralegal assistant. In my supplemental, I had asked for two, because I had asked for one for Hilo and one for Kona. But because we have some vacancies in our West Hawaii office that are clerical- related, I amended the request. For purposes of this amendment, I'm only asking for one because our Hilo staff is fully staffed in clerical. So I want to see how that enhancement—with that additional position, we can see a metric to see how it enhances or improves services within our circuit court unit. And then we can then better adjust to see how we want to use it in Kona. I will share this as well,just so everyone can understand. Back in 2021, I presented the first budget under our new Administration. You guys asked me a lot of questions about LegalEdge and our case management system. So I just want to let you guys know we are in our go-live implementation this week. We have vendors from the continent here as we speak, training our staff island-wide. And that new case management system I think is going to improve a lot of the clerical functions. So that's another reason I'm only asking for the one position, because maybe perhaps after a few months of our system running through, we might not need that additional paralegal assistant position. We might be looking at perhaps maybe other personnel adjustments, whether it be reallocations or looking at other types of more appropriate services, and based on the duties and responsibilities that are going to be afforded to those personnel based on the enhancements of the new service offers to our office. MS. EVANS: I guess that's when you use the word "reallocation,"I'm thinking is there a way that you get this—other ways than just this way because this isI know. Wouldn't want this to become a norm. Maybe an exception to the rule. MS. SAKO: But there have been times in the past when we've worked with Human Resources. If there were vacant unfunded positions that were being utilized by any department, if they're in the same bargaining unit, we have tried to utilize those positions first. I think most of those have been used up now. But if that was an option, obviously we'll talk to Human Resources before coming forward with a resolution to create more. Page 106 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. EVANS: Okay. I guess my last question is, does Administration have a position on this, one way or another? Neutral? For it? Against it? MS. SAKO: I don't think it was not funded because we didn't think it was a good idea. A lot of the supplementals that weren't funded was because of the—waiting to determine what happens with temporary hazard pay. And that's a large liability that's swimming out there, and that's really what I believe caused us to kind of hold back on a lot of these things until we knew for sure what that liability was going to be. So we're not saying that we don't agree or that it's a bad idea or anything like that. It's just we were just kind of holding back. MS. EVANS: So you're kind of in a holding pattern, wait and see, and now we have this in front of us. MS. SAKO: Yes. MS. EVANS: Okay. All right. I yield. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Corporation Counsel wants to make a comment before we go to you, Vice Chair. MR. INABA: Can I, actually, because it was a question for her regarding this? CHR. KIMBALL: Oh, sure. MR. INABA: If you could just rearticulate what the specific issue is with this amendment, as a learning opportunity, so we're really clear. We understand how positions are created once the budget is passed, but we want to be very clear on what the problem is here. MS. STRANCE: Okay, thanks. There's actually not a problem here for this one and I stand corrected. Under the County Charter, the Prosecutor's office is treated differently than other departments, and expressly allows the Prosecuting Attorney to appoint—it appears to allow the Prosecuting Attorney to appoint and create. And so I would have to research that further to say that it couldn't be done. So I just want to kind of step back from that. But, as a general statement, the Charter empowers the Mayor to create positions in the County, and doesn't provide that same authority to the Council. And so the Council, through the budgeting, is expressing its desire to have those positions created. And once the money is there, it can go back to the Administration to create them or not. But the funding would be there. And so my understanding is that in the past, where the Council's expressing a preference to have new positions created and funds them, it's placed in the general salaries and wages, that portion of the budget, so that the funds are there for the positions to be created and funded. Page 107 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. I—yeah, because in review, I don't necessarily see a problem with what's being requested. I would maybe walk back to what you just shared because I don't want us to get to a place where we're reading things in the Charter that maybe aren't there. The Prosecuting Attorney appoints deputies and other necessary staff, but doesn't have the authority anywhere in this section to create positions. And I think we should be really clear that that lies with the Mayor. I hear what you're saying, Mr. Waltj en, but I want us to maybe not get confused and use this in the future as an opportunity for other prosecuting attorneys to be creating positions when they feel it's necessary. Thank you. MS. STRANCE: I think my step back is I haven't reviewed or researched this piece of it. And I don't want to stand in front of this body and say a hard no when I don't know the answer. And if Mr. Waltjen has done that research, I want to respect that research and go do my own checking. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. I would state for the record I'm reading it myself, so we can have all the opinions on the record. Thanks. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair. All right, I'll just briefly add two things. First, that it's my recollection that this was similar to the process we used to create the positions in OSCER, which was just last year which was, yes, to just allocate the money for salaries and wages and the fringe benefits. Deanna is shaking her head at me, so I must be recalling it wrong. MS. SAKO (from audience): We included it under the budget under(inaudible). CHR. KIMBALL: That's right. Okay. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. Okay. So I take back that line of statement. Council Member Kierkiewicz, I'm not entirely opposed to supporting this at some point. I did take a brief opportunity. I hadn't had a chance to do this, to look at all the vacancies. Prosecuting Attorney, you do have quite a few. I'd like a chance to maybe look at that and see if we can pull the funding for these out of positions that are actually vacant and don't look like they're going to be filled by the time we get into the next fiscal year, rather than just pulling this from Fund Balance right now. If you don't mind pulling this to be considered later, I'd like a little bit of time to evaluate that with the Prosecuting Attorney's office. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Perhaps you could speak to that, Prosecutor Waltjen, because I know that you have a lot of folks that you're currently interviewing for vacant positions. So I don't want to pull from that funding source if there are folks that you're going to be bringing on shortly. MR. WALTJEN: Right. I think also the data you guys are looking at and referring to is probably what was submitted in the budget. I don't know if you Page 108 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 remember, during my budget presentation I had mentioned that we had, at that time, I think it was—Mr. Nagata probably can refresh my recollection but I think we had about five people in a waiting period. They've since started. I have one more person starting on June 1st. I think that we have two more impending hires that are set to start. Some of the vacancies in the the largest vacancy area is for deputy prosecuting attorneys. No secret. In the legal arena, it's just very difficult to hire attorneys. My wife works in private practice, so even—it's not something that's unique to government law offices. It's something that just I mean, relatively to the entire employment force, everybody's having difficulties hiring for these different positions. But we have a number of positions where we have conducted interviews and we're waiting. We're in the hiring process. So there really aren't that many vacancies other than the areas in the deputy prosecuting attorneys. CHR. KIMBALL: It looks like there's a lot of vacancies with hiring dates within the near future. In fact, some between now and by the time we hear this again. Again,just being cognizant about big pulls from the Fund Balance just because of the uncertainty around the hazard pay and when that might be required. I just want the opportunity to maybe have a deeper dialogue with you about if Fund Balance has to be the place that we pull the funds to support these positions. Because, fundamentally, if you say you need these positions, I'm okay with that. My concern at this point is just the funding source and perhaps we're even looking in other places where we have funded positions that are vacant that looks like we're going to need three to six months to fill, and just kind of piecemeal that together. But that's my ask of the maker, and just leave it at that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I'm happy to work with you, Prosecuting Attorney and Business Administrator, and loop you into the conversation, Chair, to see if there are other places within existing budget to draw funding from. But I feel very strongly about ensuring that this office gets these positions. I really appreciated you talking about there being equal presence in East and West Hawaii and really building up the staff and capacity and the leadership on the west side, because far too often claims are made that everything goes to East Hawaii. And I know that you're very conscious about making sure that there's a presence on both sides of the island. You guys work a lot. I mean, I text you at 6 a.m. I text you at 11 p.m. You text me back. You and your team are really working around the clock, and I just want to make sure that we are making sure that you have time for some self-care and aren't burning yourself out. Because I know you, Kelden. You make sure you get the job done even if the folks aren't there, and I don't think that's fair. And so I just want to make sure that you have every resource available to you. Page 109 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. WALTJEN: We appreciate that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for being here. I'll follow up. I'm withdrawing this amendment. Thank you. Withdraw Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz withdrew her motion to amend Bill 136, to Amend: Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.20. MR. WALTJEN: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: I appreciate the consideration, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Motion to Amend: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.24. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is another potential give to our Police Department. This one's specific to some recent lifesaving activities that have happened. And given that we are an island, and interestingly enough a lot of our callsactually, it's not interesting. It's common sense. A lot of our calls come down to responding to people who are in need of assistance in the ocean or in water. And in speaking to our Police Department folks, the officers responding on the Police side do not have any form of floatation tube or floatation device to assist someone who is drowning or is in the process of drowning. So I was actually blown away by that statement. And in researching it, it is true. So this is a small give of 30,000. The quote was actually for $28,478 to provide a floatation tube device to every single officer to have in their vehicle so that, in the case that they are responding or the first responder to the scene, while they wait for a Fire or for EMS, that they have this ability to give lifesaving preservation tactics to someone who needs them. So, simple, straightforward. Not a big ask and completely a public safety measure and something that I was very interested to learn that we don't already offer. Look for everyone's support. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: I would like to ask the Police Chief if he's online. There he is. Hi. MR. MOSZKOWICZ: Hello. MS. EVANS: Hello. You're showing up great on the screen. MR. MOSZKOWICZ: I've been listening all day. Page 110 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. EVANS: Question. Is the police that are out in the field trained and feeling comfortable if we're going to ask them to do something that maybe is beyond their scope? Want to make sure. I mean, you are union and you have to make sure that we're covering it. But please advise. MR. MOSZKOWICZ: That's a great point. There are situations we currently experience where it's kind of on the margin where the officer feels like "You know what, okay, maybe I have some ability but"they don't want to put themselves at risk, and now we have two victims that a helicopter is going to have to pluck from the ocean. So, to have something that would support them to make that decision easier if that's something they feel comfortable with, or alternatively something that they could toss or throw to someone who needed help, to help that person stay afloat until more advanced apparatus or the Fire Department or somebody else gets there, and he can get down a cliff into the ocean to fully rescue someone. That would be the idea, that it's something that we could also use as awe could project out to them to give them a chance as well. MS. EVANS: The toss and throw makes more sense because I think people are trained as lifeguards and trained to go out. Because people, when they're drowning, can be acting crazy and being heavy and the currents, and there's all kinds of danger when you're in the ocean. So I'm just wondering if just having a device to throw to them. The other side of it is I do know that at beachesI think it's on Kauai that has so many dangerous beaches, they're actually putting out floating devices on the ocean. They actually have them there for the public. Anybody can grab that floating device or whatever and throw out to people. So I think there is something being done in Kauai right now. So the public feels like they might be empowered to help someone who's drowning but they don't go out. I don't know. Fire Chief Todd, can you come up for a moment and maybe because I do know that, I believe, Kaua`i's done that where they're giving the public theI mean, they're setting them up on the beach. I don't know what that's called. I've seen it on TV(television). MR. TODD: Sorry, I was distracted by the Police Chief's shirt, which is amazing. I just want to give him compliments for that,just a super awesome shirt. So what was the question? MS. EVANS: The question is, giving police patrol, when they're out, the ability to at least maybe assist but not rescue. So maybe having floating devices. Like I think in Kauai, I was thinking I've seen it on television where they set up these kind of floating devices on the beaches there, and people can throw them but not necessarily rescue someone. Because, don't you have to be trained? MR. TODD: Usually, the devices, and we've set them up on our beaches here as well, which brings its own problem because they get UV (ultraviolet) damage by Page 111 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 sitting out in the sunlight. Most of those are Peterson buoys, which are a type of, like Baywatch where the really ripped dude throws the strap over his shirt and then runs out into the surf. The thing he's carrying with him is a Peterson buoy, which gets wrapped around the person that they're rescuing. They don't get thrown very far. I think some of the things that are pushing this is that we recently had a woman who passed away in Hawaiian Paradise Park off the cliffs. And one of the concerns out of that was that she was hard to reach and hard to throw things to. And one of the issues with the Peterson buoy is it's not great to throw. But there are different systems out there that—through compressed CO2 (carbon dioxide) or other things. And I think if you're able to fund the Police Department, they can find a solution that would be appropriate for their officers to meet the need and give them that solution. I know, for our own department, we've been looking at the issue with the firefighter who passed away in MauiTre'. And equipment relative to working around water was something important to us as well, as well as our HPP (Hawaiian Paradise Park) issue. So there's a variety of things we're looking at right now, but definitely I think it's a pretty horrible feeling standing at the shore watching somebody and not being able to do anything. So I'm all for it. And then if we can assist our brothers in blue and having some additional capabilities, because oftentimes it's a 50-50 shot of who's there first, I'm all for it. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Anything you want to add, Chief? Chief Ben? MR. MOSZKOWICZ: No. That's pretty good. I think if we can get the funding, we can find something that we can deploy pretty easily. MS. EVANS: Okay, thank you. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Anyone else? Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I'm definitely going to be supporting this. After that really tragic drowning in Hawaiian Paradise Park, I met with folks at Station 18 and also spoke to some leadership within the department. So we're looking at getting some kind of device for that particular station. And when there was a discussion around things like snorkel and masks because our firefighters don't even have that, and floatation devices, it was impressed upon me the need to ensure that there was proper training for those devices. And I know it seems really obvious, common sense, right, "Just deploy the floatation device,"but I also just want to make sure while that seems obvious,just some kind of quick workshop training that is part of this equation. I know that this is an amendment that is going to support the Police Department, but if you Page 112 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 could just maybe, Fire Chief, because a question was asked of you,just the need for some kind of training to support the introduction of these new devices within the County. MR. TODD: Definitely. The Fire Department itself has been doing a lot of research recently, trying to look at what kind of products are out there and considering buying a couple samples to try out and doing some testing. But one of the things we definitely advocate for is giving someone a gun or something like that without getting any training is probably not an ideal way to provide for safety. So, heavily, we're an advocate for if we do come up with a solution, which I think is going to be a big part this year. Last year, our funding was kind of constrained. I know from the Fire Department, one of the things that came out in the newest budget was we were able to allocate money over for repair of our fire stations, and that's going to be able to free up some of our internal funding that will allow us to actually proceed in our direction down this route as well. But, definitely, I think training is a key thing with anything that gets deployed. Otherwise, they're just not going to use it when it comes time. Our Peterson buoys require some time in the water every year, which we make all of our personnel do just to maintain their certification. It's not as easy as it looks. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for that. I just humbly request that the Fire Chief also look into some kind of training within this budget to ensure that folks are able to deploy these floatation devices without compromising their safety in these really risky situations. I know everybody really wants to be helpful when it comes to an emergency situation. But again, I don't want anybody to adversely put their lives at risk. I will be supporting this. Just wanting to make sure that folks get the training. Thank you, I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else? Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Just real quick. Chief Moszkowicz, I'm supportive of this. I'm just wondering. This seems like the kind of thing that could easily be funded by a grant or something. It seems like this is something people want to fund, and I'm just wondering do you know if that's a possibility here? MR. MOSZKOWICZ: It likely is. And if it's something that you folks are able to fund and we—in December you had given us a grant manager and we're at the final stages of getting somebody hired. If we can get grant money to reimburse us for this, that will be money we will be able to pay forward to the County for next year. Page 113 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Do you feel like it's something that possibly could have grant money out there for? MR. MOSZKOWICZ: It seems logical that that would be the case. I don't know enough about the grants that are out there in the world to tell you yes or no, I'm sorry. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, all right. Yeah. Like I said, I'm supportive of this idea. Was this on your list at all, or is this another one of the "We talked to friends and they said they wanted this"? Point of Information: MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Point of information, Chair. Beyond talking to friends, I talked to people in the department and this was their MS. KAGIWADA: But I thought you said they were your friends. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: They're both. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But after learning more, that every single officer who responds to calls does not have one of these in their car, I was blown away. The folks that I know who serve the community show up to calls anywhere and everywhere. We live on an island and there's no ability for our officers, like Chief Todd said, other than to just watch and wait. And that is probably one of the worst feelings you could ever experience. Thank you. MS. KAGIWADA: Right. Okay. Yeah, I'm really supportive. I do really hear what Council Member Kierkiewicz was saying. And I think training going along with this obviously is super important. Just having the device without having the training on how to use it, especially if it's one of these newer devices that maybe everybody's not familiar with, wouldn't be all that helpful. So I guess I'm just thinking that maybe if you're going to need to set up the training and you're going to need to procure the things, I'm wondering if you can possibly do that with another funding source. That's just my thought on that. Like I said, I am supportive of getting the devices to you and making sure you have the training. So, yeah. Thanks. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member. I just wanted to take a quick moment. This was actually on the front page of the (Honolulu) Star-Advertiser today that Senate Bill 116, which was passed and signed by the Governor, allows the counties to issue a special license plate and collect a fee that goes to the Duke Kahanamoku Foundation to help with water safety efforts. So, when we think about potential sources of ongoing funding for this program, I think that Page 114 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 that's a potential for us. And just to note, I am looking at some of the vehicle licensing fees with the Finance Department right now. So, now that this is passed, it's another thing we can look at as a potential revenue source. But I'm happy to support this today. I do think Council Member Evans has a point, though, as well with regard to also looking at funding stationing lifesaving devices at particularly, what do they call that, uncovered beaches where we don't have a lifeguard on duty. I think that that's also something we might want to consider. So this potential revenue stream for the future may exist. I'm going to support this for today, but I think that's another thing we might want to look at trying to find resources for in the future. With that, all those in favor of amending Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 755.24, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.24 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Evans, Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and Chair Kimball —7. Noes: Council Member Inaba— 1. Absent: Council Member Villegas — 1. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.25. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. This proposes to add funding in the budget for fire captains at our Waikoloa station and the station in Hawaiian Paradise Park. I believe these are the only stations in our entire department that do not have fire captains as the head supervisor. And so this would actually fix this deficiency and ensure that we have safe operations on the fire grounds and improved efficiency within the department. Currently, a fire equipment operator, or an FEO, is required to manage an emergency incident in the event that there is no fire captain. So an FEO is basically running incident management and having to pump their fire apparatus on-scene. And so we're asking someone to wear two hats in these very tense situations, putting folks essentially at risk. We've seen what's happened in the Waikoloa vicinity. It's definitely one of those communities that is much more at risk to brushbres. And Hawaiian Paradise Park continues to be one of the fastest-growing communities in the entire County. To put this in perspective, in 2012 there were 1,354 calls for service for that particular community. In 2022, the number jumped Page 115 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 to 2,625. So a pretty significant increase. And I do know that folks that serve within Station 18, HPP, they do serve the greater area of Council Districts 4 and 5. And I do know that, oftentimes, some of these folks that are stationed in Puna stations actually have to respond to calls for service in the greater Hilo area. So there is a significant need. Wanted to have this conversation. And, Chief Todd, do want to make sure that I provide you an opportunity to weigh in on this. CHR. KIMBALL: Before you do, Chief Todd,just want to check in with Corp. (Corporation) Counsel. I remember you saying that this was the previous one was not the one you were concerned with. I want to check in that, if this was the one you're concerned with, and it is. Okay. Could you come up and before we have the commentary from Chief Todd, I just want to make sure we're okay on the language. MS. STRANCE: Good afternoon. Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. Yes, the concern about this particular amendment is in the second to the last full paragraph. If this amendment passes, the six fire positions, which have not been officially created yet, will be listed under New Positions in Section 3 of the bill. And so inasmuch as this body cannot create new positions, if passed, should simply be placed as an increase in the salary and wages and benefits portions of the budget to be allocated later once the positions are created. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Judge Strance, for that. I do have LRB (Legislative Research Branch)processing another version of this amendment, which removes that sentence. MS. STRANCE: Perfect. Thanks. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Chief Todd? CHR. KIMBALL: Go ahead. We'll continue the dialogue on this one since I understand we have a revised version coming, with the understanding that that will correct the legal issue. MR. TODD: So a couple things. One of the concerns, obviously, is the creation of position numbers. It should be noted the Fire Department does have unfunded position numbers under Bargaining Unit 11 that we could upward allocate. They were created in the previous fiscal year under sort of the result of our audit, and created as unfunded as we were going to proceed down that route. Difficulties in just not having enough firefighter positions, and if we created those positions and started funding them, we would have ran into some severe issues in terms of staffing out on the line. So we were working this year with some requested increased staffing and looking at ways of dealing with that before we proceeded down that route. But I do have Page 116 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 those position numbers. They're already created. So, if the funding did come through, it's mostly an action with Department of Human Resources to take the existing numbers and then upward allocate them to the proper location. Other questions that had come up previously had been about vacancies. And on our operational side for the fire perspective, in August I'll be hiring somewhere between nine and fourteen personnel, depending on how many people retire between now and then. Right now, I have nine vacancies and we potentially have UP to two retirements, which might make our class of 11 will essentially fill our entire operational staffing to the max. (maximum). So we will have zero vacancies in terms of our operational response side. The one thing I would probably want permission for is while I am very happy for the amendment, which addresses Supplemental No. 12 under our list of millions and millions of dollars of asks, one of the issues we do have unfortunately with the Hawaiian Paradise Park station is that it hasn't actually had the construction project that was supposed to expand the station a little bit. So, right now, I have four personnel in a very small two-bedroom station, and those bedrooms are tiny. Potentially, under Supplemental 9, we were trying to also get battalion chief positions. We could use the same amount of funding and just upward allocate potentially three of those positions to battalion chiefs and three to captains. And this ties back into our management of those major incidents. One of the concerns that our battalion chiefs had raised during major responses is that they just get overwhelmed and that they're pretty much out there by themselves trying to manage literally half-an-island's worth of resources. So, when you're going into the definition of a fire battalion chief, they generally manage between three and eight fire stations, and that's the national model, essentially. Currently, my battalion chiefs are each managing ten-plus of our volunteer stations, of which we have another 18 basically divided halfway. So, on any given incident, they could have 18 stations' worth of equipment that they're supposed to be the boss of. So, one of the concerns is that we're not even limited to just one major incident going on at a given time on one side of the island. So, if it would please the Council, one of the things we would like is we're looking at six positions with some ability to try to figure out what would work and what we can get DHR(Department of Human Resources) to sign off on, and at the existing amount within that amendment would be ideal. But I will also take six captains if that is what is decided. So any position is a wonderful thing as far as the Fire Department is concerned. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chief. Again, today is about having the conversation and hearing from my colleagues. What is being done to ensure that Hawaiian Paradise Park is renovated so that it can accommodate a key position like a fire captain? Page 117 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. TODD: So, at the moment, we were intending to move our personnel out of Station 1 to the warehouse but it was not compliant with current building codes under Category 4 for the risk analysis, which requires it to basically be a building that survives any earthquake, tsunami, hurricane kind of a thing. And it's a warehouse, so it doesn't meet that. In that review process, it was also noted that the work that was being pulled for the Hawaiian Paradise Park station would also—it's also an essential facility in theory, and would also not meet the requirements of the Risk Category 4. And so that halted all progress on that particular project. And part of this comes back to, essentially, our department started with volunteer stations and we took them over. So those stations are often just houses. You go to North Kohala, it's a house. A good number of our stations, they're just noncompliant as far as what a facility that's supposed to survive an earthquake and a hurricane and whatever else that might happen on our island, and then still be able to provide services, they don't meet that need. But we still need to add a little bit of space and continue on until our CIP systems and our program management will allow us to build newer, more compliant stations. So, in the meantime, we are working on an MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) that basically has been going back and forth between legal and DPW to say that the Fire Department does not care if the building meets Category 4. We would just like the work done, and as I understand it, that is proceeding along that route. And the finer details on the fire wall that needs to maybe be installed between us and our existing vehicle storage or the potential of maybe building another vehicle storage that is 20 feet away, because we're not supposed to have fire trucks within 20 feet of our existing house, is still being discussed. I don't know when we'll get the station expanded or changed. I'm hopeful within a year we'll see the start of the work. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I think both Stations 1 and 18 have been a problem since before I was even on the Council_ It just pains me that there's no solution. It really feels like, Public Works, I know they're trying, but it just feels like rather than saying, "Here's what we can do,"there's a lot of"Well, we just can't do it." And I recall, during budget hearings, that Division Chief said that an MOA wasn't necessary. Anyway, I'd like to find a way to move forward only because I think these leadership positions for Waikoloa and HPP are so critical for the stats (statistics) that I shared earlier, but do understand that you have a need for battalion chiefs because the ones that are currently online are stretched pretty thin to provide coverage for double the amount of stations that NFPA standards prescribe. MR. TODD: Yeah. The concept, too, is that they'd have overlapping districts where basically if one caught a major incident, the closest battalion chief to him would also respond. So we'd have two: one that could handle the actual operational side, and one can handle the support side of that nature, in terms of Page 118 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 bringing in additional resources and contracting with dozers, establishing the ICS (Incident Command System)teams and managing all the back end to make sure things are functioning, so that the guy who's there who normally just functions and manages the operations is getting all the support they actually need to make sure things work. So that's one of the things we're looking to try and establish. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I appreciate it. I'd like to hear from my colleagues. I yield. CHR. KIMBALL: Anyone else on this item? Okay. Seeing none, I'll just make the comment, obviously this needs to be pulled right now. When do you anticipate the—is this the new oneoh, look at this magic. Nice in form. All right. So, Council Member, if you wouldn't mind making the motion to withdraw. Withdraw Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz withdrew her motion to amend Bill 136, to Amend: Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.25. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.26. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KIMBALL: Council Member Kierkiewicz. Presume that this is identical with just the one phrase removed. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: (Inaudible.) CHR. KIMBALL: Okay. We're good. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Just want to make sure everyone's looking at the right draft, 755.26. It removes the sentence that Corporation Counsel had noted earlier was raising concerns based on authority granted to Mayor versus legislative body. Back to the discussion. Again, look forward to hearing feedback from my colleagues. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Conversation? Council Member Galimba and then Vice Chair Inaba. MS. GALIMBA: I don't doubt the need for these personnel, but it sounds like there might be some need for preparation or infrastructure to support. And it is a big ask, given our uncertainties around the overtime, so will not be supporting. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Vice Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. For the Finance Department. This would put the funds there. And I guess maybe for the Administration because I'd like to know, if the funds are put in there, are the positions actually going to be created. Page 119 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. NAKAGAWA: Sorry, I was walking up here. Could you please repeat? MR. INABA: Sure. This amendment funds positions that don't exist yet. If this was to pass, would the Administration actually create the positions? I didn't see Managing Director back there, I'm sorry. So, yeah, maybe a question for Managing Director, sorry. She was hiding right behind Chief Todd's head. MR. TODD: Are you saying I have a big head? Wow! MR. INABA: I didn't say that. MR. TODD: There's not even any hair to hide stuff. MS. SAKO: That's true. Sorry. I will say that Fire Department's a little bit different situation, because Chief Todd did mention they have several positions they created before but never utilized. So we would work with them. And if those positions are needed for something else, then we would work with them to come in and create the positions if these are funded. MR. INABA: Got it. Okay, thank you. Just wanted that on the record. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Anyone else? Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. I just—go back. I thought I heard you say that you don't really have space for these folks. MR. TODD: Well, in particular, the concept—we list every issue and we actually mark, in our supplementals, often three, six, any multiple of three. We run three shifts. So, to get one firefighter, one driver, one captain, I actually need three, which makes everything three times as expensive for some reason. But, ultimately, in this particular supplemental request,which is at our No. 12 on our total list, we'd ask for either three or six. And we're very happy to have the offer of potentially six. But one of the issues that, when this was going back together in September, was we'd expected work to be starting and moving ahead a little sooner than at the moment. And so, at the Paradise Park Station, I lack. I could throw a bunk bed in there. It would be the only bunk bed we have in the entire Fire Department, but I mean we could—we'll shove a guy in there. But one of the things is we do have Supplemental No. 9, which had asked for a battalion chief. So there are newer physical stations I have that have more room. It's just the Paradise Park Station in particular, which had a project due for it to expand it a little bit to make some additional room because of the fact that we had added an ambulance there a number of years ago. And when we added the ambulance, we already had run into space issues as we went from two personnel to four Page 120 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 personnel, and now it's a little bit tight with four people in there. So adding a fifth makes it even harder. There's other stations, like Laupahoehoe, for example, where we added a third person last year and they want them, but at the same time they complained bitterly because there's one toilet and there's three people sharing it. Honoka`a is also the same with one toilet and five personnel there six personnel. I have a lot of facilities that are somewhat undersized. I'd love more people but I'm maxed out in certain locations right now. But I do have space in other stations. One of the things, like we'd ask for in the very—our No. 1 had been firefighters, and we'd ask up to 18. And that was basically on the fact that there were about six stations where I could theoretically shove additional people. And as people were off or on vacation, they could be moved around or things like that. That was pretty much our capacity at that point before we'd build new buildings, really. And so, right now, while six captains is great and I will entirely take them and I'll throw a bunk bed in there and we'll figure it out, alternatively three layers up on our supplemental request, one of the major asks from our battalion chiefs was just that they feel overwhelmed on these major incidents. So having an additional battalion chief that could come up and work them with the fire was one of those things that had been asked for that made its way into our list and ranked in our top ten. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Once again, I just have a little bit of heartburn about this, the way a very hefty, big lift is being put in here without our normal way of going through with having the public informed ahead of time, since these are coming in as we're sitting here, and for people to weigh in on them. It commits us to ongoing positions, not just this coming year but ongoing. So I have some issues just with that. I can understand that you have a need here and that you have need for facilities as well, it sounds like. I'm not sure that getting the people and shoving them in where you don't have space is the way to go first. But, anyway, some issues here. But I hear your need. MR. TODD: High need. CHR. KIMBALL: All right, thank you. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Well, if you got these, you still have to fill the positions. Now, would that come or would that be promotions, but then you'd still have to fill positions? MR. TODD: So I have active lists, or I willbasically, our promotional processes creates lists that lasts a year. So I have an active captain list right now that will expire June 30'', and July 1"a new active list for captains will have been generated. I have an active list for battalion chiefs. So pretty much immediately Page 121 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 upon approval, once the funds are in the bank. August 1st, we have a next recruit class. We just bring on the additional positions. So, if there's three positions funded, we add three more recruits and promotions go through. If it's six positions, then six more recruits are brought on, and we're still at max capacity in terms of our total operational staffing. We'll have zero vacancies as of August lst We are tuned very well to adapt to "no matter what happens,"would be my takeaway from that. MS. EVANS: I was just thinking out of the box. It's harder to get people, I would think, than buildings and maybe I'm wrong. But there is temporary shelters. We're building them for homeless. Obviously, there is a way right now in this County for putting up temporary shelters. They're very small, the hales. There's a lot of stuff, and it just makes me wonder if this is this is for sleeping, right? MR. TODD: Our biggest issue is, under the Building Code, fire stations fall under Risk Category 4, which basically makes them have to have fire alarms, sprinkler systems, earthquake protection. They need to be wind loaded. The garage doors need to be missile-proof from windborne debris. The expectations for new structures or if we go in and renovate a structure, is that we're going to bring it up to Code, and it is not a small lift, unfortunately. We're building just like we're building our shelters for the community, with some of our gyms where we're rating them for Category 4 hurricanes and things like that. And they make it very expensive. Our new Dispatch Center going up the road here is a good example; $33 million dumped into that. But part of it is because the walls and the building and the windows has to be considered, like "Hey, if the worst happens, this building still needs to be functional." So part of the problem is when we sit down with the Building Department to do work, it quickly starts scaling away. They would not allow us to just throw an extra room out in the back or a temporary shelter or anything like that. Anything on the property would qualify under that fire station category, and they will require it to have engineering, wind load calculations, be earthquake braced, have fire sprinkler systems and fire alarms, the whole nine yards. MS. EVANS: So does an expansion trigger the whole entire building to be upgraded? MR. TODD: So, in Paradise Park, where we're running into issues, the Memo A that we were putting together committed the Fire Department to having a fire alarm and a sprinkler put into the building in addition to basically waiving the need for the building to have the wind loading stuff, because it was just basically impossible to retrofit a building of that type. But we would meet some of the intent behind it, and also, we would be categorizing the building as a disposable Page 122 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 building. It gets funky. And that is that conversation that we've been continuously having with DPW. I can't foresee them allowing us to put up temp. (temporary) structures and other stuff, and the easy and simple-to-have solutions, unfortunately. MS. EVANS: Is your plumbing allowed by Code to add a new person? MR. TODD: I don't want to get into that one. We're running into issues with installing our washing machine extractors because of the PFAs (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) issues and yeah, it's MS. EVANS: I guess I'm just going to close on this part of my questioning, that you have a needs assessment by facility so we as the Council know the heavy lift of how much you've got to do and maybe come up with a strategy on how to filter this. MR. TODD: I will work on a document for you guys just like that fleet replacement so that you can have that in front of you. We do have a variety of CIP projects that are on the list. Mainly, we've been tackling the larger issues. It's not to say that the Fire Department just sits here and hopefully waits for someone to solve our problem. We've been meeting with HI-EMA (Hawai`i Emergency Management Agency) to talk about our Waiakea Fire Station and Central Fire Station, which are in tsunami inundation areas, about how we can secure Federal funding. I have a million dollar ask in to Case for a design of a new Central Fire Station. We've got grants coming in under our FMAG (Fire Management Assistance Grant) from two years ago to deal with generators and automatic transfer supplies for about five of our stations to bring them up to Code. We have the work for the Pahala Fire Station that actually went out for bid and was accepted, and hopefully, we'll finally be moving ahead. We've only identified that back in 2006 as needing a new roof. So they're finally going to do it. MS. EVANS: Okay, we can stop there. MR. TODD: Okay. MS. EVANS: Okay, the point being is it really I think would help us. And then my last question is for Member Lee Loy. Would this help us with insurance if we get our Police and fire stations, that they too need emergency these Building Codes—so that they're protected during any natural disaster? Do you think that would help with insurance? Sue? Page 123 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. LEE LOY: So, for insurance coverage, it's in relationship to where the fire station is to that property owner, which is why, strategically, they've stationed fire stations within a five-mile radius of each other. Or that is the goal. Correct, Fire Chief? MR. TODD: It's a mixture of things. I would say insurance falls under a couple different things. One is the old model, which ran under basically water within about a thousand feet of the structure, and a fire station within about five minutes or five miles away. MS. LEE LOY: Our response time, yeah. MR. TODD: Newer insurance companies that are large enough no longer run off of that data because they have enough internal data; GEICO being a good example, where they just look at how many customers they have and how many insurance claims they're having, and they make decisions based off that. But we're running into issues on the west coast where you're having these massive fires, similar to Lahaina, that wipe out entire communities. So California has actually created a section where they are funding the fire portion of the insurance through tax. MS. LEE LOY: Through government. MR. TODD: Yeah, and then regular CHR. KIMBALL: I don't want to go too deep into the insurance question I think, because the amendment before us is positions. So, yes/no, will these additional positions help us at all in the insurance picture? MS. LEE LOY: Not in the portfolio of what an insurance company is looking for. MS. EVANS: Okay. That's the question. Thank you. Thank you for the clarity, and thank you MR. TODD: On the battalion chief side, they may help us prevent one of those major issues. So that is something I think that's extremely important. If we're talking about our August 8h fires in Lahaina, having competent people that are able to manage that load makes a difference. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. Any further discussion? Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Chief, I want to be certain that an MOA absolving the risk that you mentioned, the risk and concern Public Works was bringing up, is being developed and currently being reviewed by their Corporation Counsel. Page 124 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. TODD: So, Chief Chadwick wrote it at my request. We were waiting for DPW to generate it, and I told him "Just do it yourself." So he wrote it. It was sent over. Some amendments were made. I've seen the copy of it. It seems to be moving along. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And is there a time frame for that? MR. TODD: I'm hoping MS. KIERKIEWICZ: If the MOA is executed, then we can move forward with dorm expansion. Then there's room for additional personnel, and just people there now to live more comfortably. MR. TODD: I think if we can get the MOA done in the next couple months, we could see the project starting in the next six to twelve months, and maybe completion within a two-year time frame. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. That's really helpful. MR. TODD: I am guesstimating those numbers,just throwing it out there based on previous construction and other stuff. Arguably, our Dispatch Center, which is a much bigger project, started six years ago, and we're going to be completing here sometime in the late summer, early fall maybe. That's a much bigger project. Smaller projects like our Pahala roof went out for bid, and I'd estimate within a year it'll be completed. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Thanks for that sort of high-level time frame. Chair, I'm happy to hear any other final comments, but again, I just want to make sure that there's space for our personnel. And so wanted to introduce this to not only illustrate the need for personnel, but also to highlight the fact that we have to make sure we have facilities to put our people into. If you have any comments? If not, I will be withdrawing. CHR. KIMBALL: No. No additional comments. I think the discussion was useful and highlighted a couple concerns, so appreciate that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks. Chair. I'll be withdrawing the motion. Withdraw Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz withdrew her motion to amend Bill 136, to Amend: Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.26. CHR. KIMBALL: All right, thank you. I believe that brings us to the end of amendments for today. Am I correct? Am I missing anyone's? All right, good. Excellent. All right, we are now back to the main motion. Bill 136, Draft 2, as amended and further amended. Any further discussion on the budget Draft 2, now Draft 3? Page 125 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Point of Information: MS. LEE LOY: Just a point of information because I'm kind of keeping a running total. Do you have all the amendment numbers that have passed? CHR. KIMBALL: I can provide those. Yes. MS. LEE LOY: Not here on the record, but yeah. CHR. KIMBALL: All right, great. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you. I think our very astute Vice Chair probably has kept track. MR. INABA: I haven't this year but I know our Finance Director has. So, Director, if you could just give us that final number on the record, please. Thank you. MS. NAKAGAWA: So thank you to our budget team. With the amendments that passed today, that is an additional 968,227. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. Just wanted that on the record and ahead of our next hearing, for everyone to keep in mind. Thank you. CHR. KIMBALL: Thank you, Vice Chair and Director. All right, any further discussion? All right, all those in favor of approving at first reading Bill 136, Draft 2, as further amended to Draft 3, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 136: The motion to pass Bill 136, Draft 2, as amended to Draft 3 Draft 3, on first reading and adopt Finance Committee (Approved) Report No. 152 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: We will take a recess here for about 15 minutes, and let's just all remember fondly Council Member Richards, who always used to vote a protest"no." I was looking at you, but—let's take a brief recess before we get to the capital budget till five after four. We're in recess. Recess: At 3:54 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Page 126 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 4:07 p.m. ACTING CHR. INABA: Aloha, it is 4:07 and bringing this meeting back to order. I have assumed the Chair after Chair Kimball's departure. Bill 137: RELATES TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2024, TO JUNE 30, 2025 From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated March 1, 2024, transmitting the proposed Capital Budget for FY 2024-2025 and the Capital Improvements Program for the next six years from Fiscal Year 2024-2025 to 2029-2030, which includes 57 projects requiring a total appropriation of$392,335,000 of which $307,513,000 are intended to be funded in whole or part by bonds, $42,410,000 to be funded by Federal Grants, $41,462,000 to be funded by the State Revolving Loan Fund or State Capital Improvement Projects, and $950,000 to be funded by Community Benefit Assessments and other funds. Reference: Comm. 756 Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) Approve: FC-153 Public Hearing: May 14, 2024 and Comm. 756.1: From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated May 3, 2024, transmitting Bill 137, Draft 2, which adds 4 projects for a total of 61 projects and an increase of$103,500,000 in appropriations over the first draft. ; and Bill 137: RELATES TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR (Draft 2) THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2024, TO JUNE 30, 2025 Draft 2 requires a total appropriation of$495,835,000, of which $411,013,000 are intended to be funded in whole or part by bonds, $42,410,000 to be funded by Federal Grants, $41,462,000 to be funded by the State Revolving Loan Fund, and $950,000 to be funded by Community Benefit Assessments and other funds. Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder(B/R) and Comm. 756.2: From Council Member Michelle M. Galimba, dated May 6, 2024, transmitting a (Memo No. 1) proposed amendment to add the Animal Control's South Hawaii Animal Control Facility project in the amount of$2.5 million. ; and Comm. 756.3: From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated May 6, 2024, transmitting a (Memo No. 2) proposed amendment to add the Parks and Recreation Department's James "Jimmy" Correa Ballfield Upgrades project in the amount of$1 million. Page 127 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 ; and Comm. 756.4: From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated May 6, 2024, transmitting a (Memo No. 3) proposed amendment to replace the Project Data/Financial Impact Statement form for the Parks and Recreation Department's Hilo Skate Park project in the amount of$5 million. ; and Comm. 756.5: From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated May 8, 2024, transmitting a (Memo No. 4) proposed amendment to reappropriate the Parks and Recreation Department's Hawaiian Paradise Park District Park project in the amount of$5 million. ; and Comm. 756.6: From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated May 8, 2024, transmitting a (Memo No. 5) proposed amendment to reappropriate the Office of Housing and Community Development's Pahoa Village Sidewalk Improvement project in the amount of $2 million. (Note: Communication Nos. 756.7 through 756.9,transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 137, Draft 2, were circulated.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 137 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 153. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. ACTING CHR. INABA: Pursuant to Article 10, Section 10-2 of the Hawaii County Charter, the Mayor has submitted the capital budget on May 3rd. And a reminder: We need to amend Draft 1 with the Mayor's proposed Draft 2 before we can discuss any of the amendments. Is there any discussion on Draft 1 before we amend to Draft 2? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Thank you for reminding me of the correct motion, and, too, for the body, I reached out to Planning Director Kern to be present at today's hearing. Is he online through Zoom? ACTING CHR. INABA: Right now, we don't have Director Kern or a Planning representative. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. That was understood from the emails I received. My purpose in requesting his presence today was to provide us with a standing of our current capital improvement budget, as well as our proposed capital improvement budget, to provide us with the outcomes and measurables that we have been requesting, and to give us a basis on what projects we are taking on, what projects we are in the works for, and where we're headed as a county. He did give, two times today, he was not available this afternoon. I believe that is truly unfortunate, that the person in charge of our Department of Page 128 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Planning was not able to provide these things to us today. I'm making that statement to put on the record. And thank you for those of the Administration that were here. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. And I would hope that you can work with the Planning Department to perhaps provide that information for our second and final reading of the budget. So, with that, is there any further discussion on Draft 1? If not, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, a motion to amend Bill 137 with the proposed Draft 2, as submitted by the Mayor via Communication 756.1, please. Vote on Motion to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to amend Bill 137 with Amend: the contents of Comm. 756.1. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy (Approved) and carried by the 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. ACTING CHR. INABA: We have now Bill 137, Draft 2, as provided by the Mayor. Motion to Amend: Ms. Galimba moved to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 756.2. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. So this is a much-needed animal control facility. It's a new project. As we all know, we have a lot of issues in my district with animal control, and we have never ever had an animal control facility or Humane Society facility in the district. So this is long overdue, and I am very grateful that we have an Animal Control and Protection Agency now and an administrator to work with to make this happen. This is for the long-term approach, and also working with Administrator Runnells on short-term strategies as well. Asking for my colleagues' support. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any discussion? Lights going on. All right. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. In support of the amendment. Much-needed. I spoke with Council Member Galimba just in this meeting today regarding this. I really do feel like this is a long-overdue facility. We've talked about this for years at the Council, but this has never managed to find its way onto Page 129 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 the capital improvement budget. So, well done to the Council Member and I'll be supporting this. And just a great opportunity for the community, and looking forward to seeing what Animal Control can get done in the next few years. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Administrator Runnells, can you come to the table, please? (Note: At this time, Animal Control and Protection Administrator Matthew Runnells came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. KAGIWADA: So supportive, obviously. So needed down the south part of our island. Just wondering, do you have any sense of what this is going to take to staff this up once this gets up and running? MR. RUNNELLS: Yes. As far as personnel goes, it is going to be a much smaller scale then what the east facility is. So probably half as many people will have to staff that one. This money is just basically as a temporary. It's to purchase the property to put in a temporary facility, and then for the planning of a future building that would go on that same property. MS. KAGIWADA: Right. But once we have a temporary facility, we can actually staff up down there, and we'll need to staff up down there. Correct? MR. RUNNELLS: Yes. Yup. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. So half as much as what's in East Hawaii. Just to get a full picture, the other places we're still staffing up now are Waimea? MR. RUNNELLS: Waimea is also in the works as well. So it's not completely as far as—in the works to be staffed in the future. So between those two facilities, we'll have to put through further personnel and for staffing, yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, are we basically going to double your workforce between those two? MR. RUNNELLS: Probably not double. The east and the west facilities are going to have the most manned power as far as personnel goes, and then the north and south facilities are going to have about half that number. So it won't quite double it, but it will definitely increase the numbers quite a bit. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Well, yeah, looking forward to figuring, you know, seeing how you figure out strategies to do that. Still trying, I know, to staff up with what you have. But, clearly, we need to kind of attack this issue in multiple ways. Page 130 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MR. RUNNELLS: Yeah, I'm trying to tackle it in multiple stages because the first part is obviously to try to get those individual facilities, and even just from the tackling of personnel. Each individual area has their own individual challenges with staffing, even in the current County facilities that are in those areas. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada, and for everyone, I just want to make sure we are able to get through this in an efficient manner so we can really focus our discussion on the specific project being addressed in each of the amendments. But, Council Member Kagiwada, continue. MS. KAGIWADA: That's pretty much it. And I just felt like that had to be addressed for the public. If we're going to build a facility, we also know we're going to plan to staff it. Okay, thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. For a long time, I felt this island, with the challenges of how big it is, should be thought of as four regional areas. I do support this. And also getting back to Waimea, their shelter, which has closed down and it's a disaster up there now because it doesn't exist. Having a shelter in the region to draw from I would hope would help you get staff because they could live closer to where they work. But also, raise what we talked about earlier, the awareness of the microchipping and the spay and neuter, whatever programs we have just really, really having that presence. And I have to say there is an explosion of puppies and kittens going on right now, and we're feeling it. And I bet it's going on everywhere. So, having you out there getting this up and going as fast as we can I think will be really good for the health and welfare of our island. MR. RUNNELLS: I agree. MS. EVANS: Thank you. I strongly support. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. There's a motion on the floor to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 756.2. All those in favor, please say "aye." Page 131 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 756.2 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) 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. ACTING CHR. INABA: Before we take up the next amendment—thank you, AdministratorI would like to call the Finance Director up real quick just to recap the concept of the CIP budget for those watching in the public, and understanding how this budget works and what is actually funded. So, Director Nakagawa. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. NAKAGAWA: Absolutely. Thank you, Council Member. Our CIP, as presented, establishes the appropriation for these projects. An allotment would establish the funding. So that would be the next phase. But the document in front of you with these projects establishes the appropriation. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. So it's not real money. It's providing the framework by which we can actually MS. NAKAGAWA: Not yet funded. Some have identified grant funding and some other funding sources, but it takes the next step to get the funding allotted. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. I just want expectations of the public to be realistic with what the CIP budget actually is. MS. NAKAGAWA: Absolutely. Thank you for that. ACTING CHR. INABA: With that, we'll take up the next amendment. Motion to Amend: Ms. Lee Loy moved to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 756.3. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Really excited to add this one. House Bill 1800, our State House Representative Chris Todd identified a million dollars for upgrades in this facility as long as we brought the County match. So this actually establishes the project, and later on we'll go ahead and move the State Page 132 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 money in and maybe do some bonds to help fund this project. But I really want to walk out a lot of thanks to my colleagues, including Council Member Kierkiewicz who cosponsored the naming of this facility, which started a lot of the conversation for these dollars. So, look forward to my colleagues' support. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor of amending Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 756.3, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 756.3 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) 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. Motion to Amend: Ms. Lee Loy moved to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 756.4. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. MS. LEE LOY: Chair, look forward to my colleagues' support, but I think Ms. Kagiwada has a lot more to share on this one. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Just, once again,the HiloI'm starting to call it the Hilo skate complex because it really is more than your average skate park. What we're looking at is something that can be a whole recreation area for the whole family and for our whole island, and even for State and other things. So it is pricier than other skate parks have been, but it's going to really be something. This project also got a million dollars through the State CIP program through our State Representative Chris Todd. We need to do a match. So part of that 5 million is a match to the 1 million. And the other part is needed to complete the project. Looking forward to Parks and Rec. (Recreation) has been just working away on this. Looking forward to the day we actually break ground. They've got it fenced off. Moving ahead. Just have to thank my colleague Council Member Lee Loy who has carried this for many years, and it ended up being just on the other side of her district, in District 2. But it really is part of the whole complex there and will be something great for the whole island I think. Thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. There being no further discussion, all those in favor of amending Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 756.4,please say "aye." Page 133 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 756.4 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) 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. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 756.5. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. We were able to secure some funding to complete an environmental assessment for the Hawaiian Paradise Park district park. Now that that process has been completed, wanted to make sure that there was a line item in the CIP budget for park development. My understanding is that there might be some investment granting from our State legislators to help with the build-out of the park. So just want to be in a position to receive those funds and get ready for legislative session next year. Just looking for everyone's support on this Hawaiian Paradise Park. It's a growing community and the nearest park facilities are either in Hilo or Pahoa. It takes a lot to get out into these communities because there's so much traffic. So having something a little bit closer to home that provides recreational access for keiki, kupuna, even pets, would be tremendous. Hoping that this park could also serve as a community center for larger gatherings. But, in the event of a natural disaster, it can also be mobilized to provide emergency shelter and distribution of information and supplies in the event that that's necessary. Thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any further discussion? There being none, all those in favor of amending Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 756.5,please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 756.5 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) 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. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 756.7. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. Page 134 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: It's been a long day, y'all. Thank you. This isso, 756.7 is a reappropriation. We've been talking a lot about Fire today. This is a reappropriation to ensure either expansion or new build-out of a fire station in Hawaiian Paradise Park. Like I mentioned, it is a growing community; there are a lot of needs. And so we need to ensure that there is proper infrastructure in place for our career personnel to be stationed so that they can be available to answer emergency calls in a timely fashion. I'm glad to hear that there's progress being made to expand this facility. But just want to make sure that this is on the books so that in the event that there might be State or Federal money available, we can receive it and put that money to use. Thank you. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. And I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page. We are on Communication 756.7. Is there any further discussion? If not, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 756.7 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) 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. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 756.8. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. This actually is a project idea that's coming out of the Crime Prevention Summit our office convened in August of last year. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and I used to share Pahoa Town, and then after redistricting, it became all of my kuleana. But he and I have been advocating for a long time where there's to be sidewalk improvements in Pahoa Town just so that it's safe for our keiki, our community, walking throughout Pahoa. As part of the crime summit, we have identified improvements to the built environment to prevent crime and youth empowerment. And having the ability for folks to just kind of walk safely through town is really important. So I actually have a meeting with Public Works next week to kind of talk about how we start actually moving on the planning and design process for this, because it's been a long-standing challenge but also a need within our community. Looking for everyone's support. Thank you. Page 135 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any further discussion? There being none, all those in favor of amending Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 756.8,please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 756.8 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) 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. Motion to Amend: Ms. Evans moved to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 756.9. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. ACTING CHR. INABA: Council Member Evans. MS. EVANS: Thank you. Really ask everyone to support this community of Waikoloa that is growing by leaps and bounds. When I talk to Zendo Kern about it, he keeps reminding me it's the only place that really has the water and also a lot of land that had already gotten its entitlements. And so there's lots that are undeveloped. We have a lot of action going out in Waikoloa. The County has over 200 acres they're in the middle of developing. Our Council has appropriated the funding for the road on that 200-and-some acres, and it's going out to bid this year. And then shortly thereafter, they're going to be inviting affordable housing builders to come and present proposals. We have a lot of affordable housing projects that have been built, have been opened. Last year, we had one that opened 140 new units. We have a developer that came in, and he's putting in 500 apartment units. He's already built out over 200. He's in the process of building more. When you talk to the teacher of the elementary school, she's just in a panic because all of her first, second, third grade classesI mean, she's just exploding. So, if you go to the community, you realize their recreation facilities are very underdeveloped. So I'm asking support to do this gymnasium. I did not understand till James Komata told me that when you now have gathering spaces of over I think it's 150 maybe people in a public building, you now have to build it to hurricane standards. And so this will be also a hurricane shelter. I think this is really good for South Kohala, given that we have a minimum of 12,000 visitors down at the Waikoloa Village Resort area right below Waikoloa. Page 136 Hawaii County Council-39 May 16,2024 This potentially is really supporting a huge amount of people, maybe twenty- some-thousand people in the area. If there's problems like a natural disaster or whatever, it would be there. But also Waikoloa's got over 7,000. Soon it will probably be over 9,000, and they don't have a gym. I go up to Waimea and they have six gyms in Waimea, and Waimea is 12 miles away. And so I'm asking for your support and thank you. Getting it going. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Evans. Any further discussion? All those in favor of amending Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 756.9,please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 137, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 756.9 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) 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. ACTING CHR. INABA: I don't think we have any other amendments right now. So, Mr. Clerk, can we do a roll call vote on Bill 137, Draft 2, as amended? Vote on Bill 137: The motion to pass Bill 137, Draft 2, as amended to Draft 3 Draft 3, on first reading and adopt Finance Committee (Approved) Report No. 153 was carried by the following roll call 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. ACTING CHR. INABA: Before our adjournment, we would like to share that our second and final reading of the budget will take place on May 30'', and invite the public to participate in any of our chambers or remote locations. OTHER The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, BUSINESS: Other Business. (There were none.) Page 137 Hawai`i County Council-39 May 16,2024 ANNOUNCE- The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, MENTS: Announcements. (There were none.) ADJOURN- There being no further business,Acting Chair Inaba adjourned the meeting at MENT: 4:34 p.m. Council Approval: AUG 07 2024 COUN Y CL RK JH/dg • Page 138