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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CRCOC 2025/01/21 (2024-2026)Committee on Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight 2" d Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii January 21, 2025 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Communications, Reports, and ORDER: Council Oversight was called to order at 1:00 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Chair Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Vice Chair Mr. James E. Hustace, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member (came in later; via videoconference from Hilo) Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Member Absent & Excused: Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Alayna Wiley: Frank Even: Comm. 84, comment. (See Comm. 84.5) Comm. 84, comment. COMMUNI- The Acting Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Committee Members, the of Business: following item was taken out of order: CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 Comm. 84: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY MARIA BROSNAN FALTAS, JULIE ZIEMELIS, CHRIS FREED, AND DEREK PROUDIAN OF FIX PAID PARKING, REGARDING THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF UNREGULATED PAID PARKING WITHIN THE KAILUA VILLAGE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT From Council Member Rebecca Villegas, dated January 2, 2025. (Note: Comm. 84.1, dated January 17, 2025, and Comm. 84.2, dated January 21, 2025, from Council Member Rebecca Villegas, transmitting PowerPoint presentations, were circulated.) Motion to Close File: Ms. Villegas moved to close file on Comm. 84. Seconded by Ms. Kimball. CHR, GALIMBA: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yes. Thank you to my colleagues. I ask that you listen to this presentation by an organized group of business owners and people invested in the longevity of Kailua Village and specifically, the business improvement district. These people volunteered and met consistently over the last few months getting creative in potential options, very aware of the challenges of private property rights and our role kind of serving on the legislative branch and the public side of things. And so with that, I'd love to turn it over to you to go ahead and present to us and take it away. (Note: At this time, Fixed Paid Parking Committee Members Julie Ziemelis, Maria Brosnan, Chris Freed, and Bruce Plunk came forward and provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the subject presentation, see the DVD copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office, or online at http://hawaiicounty_.gov_.granicus.com. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is made a part of the record, see Comm. 84.2.) CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you for your presentation and being so on time with it. Council Members, do you have any questions, discussion from Council Members? Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: I wanted to open it up for any questions from my colleagues and go ahead and if you'd like to state your questions to any particular one of the presenters, you are welcome to do that. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Kimball. MS. K.IMBALL: Thank you. And thank you to all of the presenters for being here today and for the very thorough presentation. Let me just say how refreshing Page 2 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 and welcomed it is to have a group of folks with a concern come to us with a solution in mind. I think that that's really very much appreciated, and I see that there's some additional documentation that's been provided to us. A couple of just general questions. There is a reference in the documentation here to something called the Smart Park Program. I am wondering if somebody could elaborate on that a little bit. And then just to get a sense about has there been discussion about what is the appropriate level of these; do you imagine something that is perhaps staggered based on either location, proximity to certain things, or time periods, just to get a sense of where that sweet spot might be. MR. PRUNK: So that's a great question. Going back to the Smart Park Program, again, it was a collaborative effort that I was involved with in Portland, Oregon. Mayor Vera Katz, during her first term as mayor, came in and saw that the downtown business community in Portland, Oregon was withering and that it was causing huge problems. So, it was a collaborative effort. There was 170 businesses that were initially involved in putting the Smart Park Program together. So, they worked with the mayor's office. I was with police, but it was an issue in that the metered parking fell under the prevue as well as towing, under the umbrella of the police, so we did manage that program. So, we sat down with the stakeholders, and it was a group appointed by the board and city council, so we would probably come back and if this were to be passed, we would try to identify the interested stakeholders and ask them to meet together. The language that I've chosen here was not shall but will, so if this was adopted it would require that the paid parking lot owners, if they don't come up with, you know, all 50 of them in there —but I would image that the parking lot owners at the Coconut Grove are going to have different interests than say somebody that has 700 parking spots up at the Hilton Waikoloa. So, we're going to have to sit down and work through some of those discussions and issues on there. It's not going to be one size fits all but Smart Park, specifically for Kona enterprise zone down there, I think that there's a hodgepodge of bandage solutions that are in place right now. So, some lot owners are providing 90 minutes for kama`aina, some are two hours for kama`aina, but you've got to show them pictures of your driver's license and there's resistance by people to do that because they don't know if that infonnation is going to be safe. So, those are the kinds of issues that we've identified through these community meetings is that, you know, when you bring 500 people together, there's a lot of interest in trying to get this issue resolved. This is not something I don't think that's going to go away, but I think that by regulating this as a business, which it clearly is, and then coming up with some regulations to govern how they work, but also encouraging them to work with the community to hear what their issues are and to address this equitably, not just for the community members but also for our visitors that come in to see us and most importantly the business owners that Page 3 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 are down there that are currently suffering because of a lack of adequate parking available, you know, that's affordable. And like I said, they're not even posting what their fees are. So, when you pull in there, you're playing parking lot roulette. You pull into a lot, and you hope it's not as expensive as the one next to it. That's just not right. That's not a way to conduct your business and I'm asking Council that by using this Section 6, you then would have the ability to come in and regulate those businesses. As far as the cap goes, I would think that that would be to be detennined based on some of the outcomes of some of the Smart Park discussions and being able to bring some recommendations back to you. There's just one example I would point out. During Ironman this year, there's was one lot owner that on the day of Ironman, charged $400 for a parking spot. $400. That is just ludicrous. It's not right. We've heard all the teens used about, you know, greed. We've also heard predatory but, I mean, that just goes way beyond what is reasonable. So, again, the Smart Park Program basically is more of a vehicle to be used to address some of these issues, but it would require that these lot owners and operators come to the table and sit down with us to work out what's equitable. MS. KIMBALL: A quick follow up question to the group. Are in most cases the parking lot owners the same people that are leasing the nearby business facilities? MR. FREED: Yes. In most cases, yes. I'm not sure how familiar you are with Downtown Kona. I could list the lots if you'd like. MS. KIMBALL: Not as familiar as my colleague. MR. FREED: I'll just say, in most circumstances, that complexes are owned by families or individuals and the lots are generally owned by the same families and individuals. Not in every case. Coconut Grove and Sunset Plaza are owned, there's group ownership, which involved mainland investment groups. MS. KIMBALL: The reason I ask is really just to play devil's advocate a little bit in that. If these are the same folks that own the retail fronts that they're leasing, and now they're going to lose those leases because their clients can no longer afford to be in business in those locations. Is there no sense of supply and demand? Because ultimately, the market forces would play into correct this problem or is there a genuine need government intervention? MR. FREED: I mean, it seems very short -sided, as a complex owner, that you would ultimately create a scenario by which your leases would have to shutter and go out of business before you realized that something was wrong. I mean, I can't speak to the thought process that's behind this situation, but it's been bad for some time now and if there was logic behind these thought processes, something Page 4 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 would've been done already. So, I believe that government intervention is absolutely on the table at this point. I can speak for my neighbor, Journey Cafe. They are on the verge of going — they're siphoning money. You know, they've spent seven years trying to build a business and it's a great business. I mean, how many businesses should need to go under before we can answer that question. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, and that is a fair question. MR. FREED: And if I can, sorry, can I speak one minute to the previous question about what's a reasonable rate? MS. KIMBALL: Yes. MR. FREED: I would just like to say, as a local person, this is two separate issues. There are going to be reasonable rates to charge visitors, and I don't know what those rates necessarily are. They're not $17.50 an hour. There will be a discussion about that. But local people should not have to pay to go downtown and enjoy their own town. Paddlers, swimmers, people who are going for a jog in the morning. I mean, as a business owner I see this as a business owners perspective, but as a local, what matters to me is the local perspective. People should be able to take their keiki down and swim in the ocean and they can't anymore. MS. KIMBALL: I appreciate that perspective. I can imagine in a broader group of folks there might be some contradictory opinions on that on the basis of if part of this is keeping the clientele corning to these businesses. But appreciate potentially the need for further discussion. I wanted to just —think is my last question, just a very technical issue to Corporation Counsel. Licensing being something different than perhaps requiring a registration. The group here is requiring that we require licensing of these paid parking lot owners, companies. I would presume, and I could be wrong, but a license would be something that we would need to enable to do through the state better registration. And I realize I'm picking at hairs here, but a registration actually would be something we could do without prior authorization from the HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes)? I don't need an answer right now if it's not immediately available. But Council Member Villegas, I'm happy to work with you on this. I have some other parking things that I'm interested in working on. But, yeah, I think there's some good starting points here for us. Thanks. (Note: At this time, Alayna Wiley came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 5 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MS. WILEY: Thank you, again. So, I did submit maps and a table via email. I don't know if you have that in front of you. But it seems to be very piecemeal in terms of the free market, and people, because no one understands what they are in the various lots, that's I think why the signage part of this would be important. Both the main parking management companies Park Link and Diamond, they have websites, but they're not up to date. Diamond doesn't list any hourly rates. They only list monthly rates. Park Link will list hourly rates sometimes, but not for all the lots. And in terms of the different ownership, I mean, it's clear. I don't know exactly who owns the very bearing lots off of Sarona Road, but there's a whole bunch of different prices there. I don't imagine that's one owner setting all of those different prices. So, it is complicated. And when you have certain complexes like Ali`i Sunset Plaza and Coconut Grove, who are actually doing a very good job now taking care of their tenants with validation —for 90 minutes. They have made multiple changes to the program over the last few years. The current iteration is the most consumer friendly. They actually give you a fifteen -minute grace period to walk and enter in your license plate. However, that only helps those businesses. We're talk about the variety of small businesses that are along Ali`i Drive, you know, the common thing is you go there, you have a meal, and then you walk the drive, and you engage with multiple different businesses. And how it is now, you have to go and you're in and out, and it's just not the sarne experience as it used to be. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair. With that, I'll give the heads up to our County agents that's here. I have a question for each of you. We'll start with Planning. I'm calling on Director Darrow. I'm just wondering if you folks have done any review on the planning front, whether it be with our Zoning Code; a review of the properties that are charging currently and whether they are permitted to do so? Just general thoughts, Director. (Note: At this time, Planning Director Jeff Darrow came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. DARROW: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Jeff Darrow with the Planning Department. We actually have been reviewing this issue. It's been growing more rapidly in the more recent days. I have been speaking with the new administration. We were speaking in the last administration regarding this issue. What's been happening is particular areas that were approved for businesses and parking, for those businesses have started initiated their own commercial parking lots. What I would like to do is be able to take a look at the actual TMKs (Tax Map Key) where this is occurring to see if these businesses have actually come in and requested review through Planning. My thought is that they have not. Page 6 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 Majority, if not all of these are also located within the special management area and I would guess if they haven't been reviewed in relation to that aspect as well. Normally what happens is when a business comes into Planning, they come through plan approval. Plan approval looks at the type of business and they calculate the parking needed for that business so that patrons can have a location to come and park and be able to go to that business. What happens when you end up putting in paid parking, people will not go to those parking areas, they will find other alternatives or they just won't come, and we see that happening here in Kailua-Kona as well as other areas; more predominantly in Kailua-Kona. So, it is definitely an issue that's been growing, and we would like to be a part in helping resolve this matter. MR. INABA: Thank you very much, Director. I think with the table that has been provided, and I believe it is comprehensive, we can take a look at that together. This is Council Member Villegas's district. Obviously, most of my constituents are also affected. But wanting to kind of keep those lines clear and offer support to my colleague for this community -wide issue. So, hopefully, we can get that review done with your department. Any other comment at this time, Director? MR. DARROW: In the Zoning Code, there is an identified use of commercial parking lots and garages. And so, those are permitted mainly in the resort zoning, several commercial zonings, and MCX (Mixed Commercial), and light industrial. So, it does allow for these particular types of uses, but again, if they don't come in and go through plan approval or go through a review, they end up hurting the actual businesses that were permitted originally. Thank you. MR. INABA: Thank you. And I hope that if we do come to find that all of the County's regulations haven't been followed, we are ready and willing to enforce that way to try and make sure that folks are following the rules and that allows us to kind of head in, you know, a better direction. So, thank you. I look forward to working with you on that. Thank you, Deputy, for being here as well. Calling on Corporation Counsel now. So, with regards to setting limits or caps on the hourly amount —I'm just going to make the comment. During our meetings, if you could please refrain fiorn any type of public boos of claps. We want to make sure everyone feels confident and safe here in this space to share their mana`o. Corporation Counsel, again, just wondering, does the County have authority to regulate and set a max limit in which people can offer paid parking? (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel J. Yoshimoto came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 7 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. YOSHIMOTO: We have not done this research yet, but my initial opinion is yes, by way of the County Code. We would have to, of course, review any legislation this body purposes and we will give you our opinion as to whether it's appropriate or not. MR. INABA: Wonderful. And just like in any other business, the availability of a special allowance or reduced rate for kama`aina is alright as well? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Generally, yes. Again, the Council or the Committee would establish its basis for making, you know, those different tiers or changes and, you know, you would establish a public benefit for doing so, which other jurisdictions have done. So, I wouldn't see any issues so long as it's done the right way. MR. INABA: Wonderful. Thank you, Corporation Counsel. And then calling next on DPW (Department of Public Works), Director or Deputy Director. I'm looking at our one and only existing parking lot in the area, is there any kind of improvements that we can make to offer either additional stalls or any long-tenn infrastructure that we can see coming down the pipeline to address, you know, we're trying to hit this from all angles and make it feasible. Anything from your folks end? (Note: At this time, Public Works Director Hugh Ono and Deputy Director Neil Azevedo came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. ONO: I yield to Neil who is very akamai on that. MR. INABA: Deputy Director, good afternoon. MR. AZEVEDO: Good afternoon. This is Neil Azevedo, Deputy Director of Public Works. Yeah, we're looking at resurfacing the parking lot, the existing parking lot and looking at if we can go more to the, I think it's a state property on the side yield to the County. So, we're looking at extending that too. So, it's a matter of time and we'll get to that. MR. INABA: Okay. Yeah. I mean, I'm quite familiar with that parking lot and I think there is some potential, maybe not for a lot more stalls, but if we are doing resurfacing work, you know, that might be something the department has under consideration. MR. AZEVEDO: Yeah. I think the stalls are nine feet right now. We'll see if can maybe shrink some to eight feet so at least we can get compact cars in there to see if we can make more. Page 8 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. INABA: And I know there's certain parts of the parking lot that there's like islands of raised curbs that I'm not really sure serve a purpose, but something we can also review as well. MR. AZEVEDO: Yeah. We'll look at that and plus ADA (American's with Disabilities Act) compliance. You know, make sure we cover all grounds with everyone. MR. INABA: Thank you, Deputy. And then lastly, Deputy Managing Director, you know, it's been brought up, and I was just traveling abroad this weekend and, you know, one of the places I visited had a really good public transportation system for high commercial activity areas. Is there any potential for us to work with Mass Transit in getting additional or more frequent shuttle services within the village improvement district? And I guess really it comes down to parking perhaps at Old Airport or at other County facilities and then having more frequent, because I believe right now we're on the hour with the trolley system. But in Vancouver, where I was this weekend, they're running a far distance, a free shuttle and just, you know, incredible organization there. So, just wondering if that's a potential for us to address also from another angle, this parking issue. (Note: At this time, Deputy Managing Director Merrick Nishimoto came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. NISHIMOTO: Good afternoon, County Council Members, Committee Members. My name is Merrick Nishimoto. I'm Deputy Managing Director under Mayor Kimo Alameda. And I love your outside of the box thinking, Council Member Inaba. We have not specifically talked about increasing any type of public service in that area yet. That is definitely one of the options we will be looking into. We have been having many internal discussions between the departments; between the Mayor's Office, Public Works, Planning, trying to get a lot of the potential options that we might be able to use to solve this parking issue. But thank you for that suggestion and we will take that under advisement. MR. INABA: Thank you, Deputy Managing Director. And just mahalo each of these agencies for being here today so we can have this public conversation and, you know, put our minds together. So, thank you again, Council Member Villegas, for this presentation. And, you laiow, we don't have a piece of legislation before us right now, but I don't think it's far out that we can actually address this at least through legislation on our end and then some potential changes that the administration can implement. But again, mahalo. Chair, I yield. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Just following up on that. I had the same kind of thinking. Great that you came with solutions. Obviously, there's going to Page 9 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 need to be probably a multiple solutions here in order to really address this. It's not going to be we do one of these things and the problem is solved. But my question is also around the shuttle service because I've also been approached in the Hilo area by the downtown businesses about, you know, can we do a shuttle service; can we make something that helps our employees park far away, so we keep those spots close by freed up; that kind of thing. So, I'm just —you don't have to answer here, but I just hope that we've done a really good look at why it is maybe that the current trolly service isn't, you know, being super effective or working as well as we would hope it would. And I do remember as a teenager taking a shuttle from like Keauhou to downtown. What was it like a Wiki Wiki or something that you used to be able to take, and as a teenager when I didn't have access to a car, it was awesome and really easy to get around. So, I don't know why, you know, that went away either. So, I think it would be really important to know the reasons behind why these things haven't been really working or why, you know, before we start putting in place something that might be similar and then also might now work. So, I think it'd be, and maybe my colleague has answers, and some people look like they might have some thoughts there too. But I just, for me also on Hilo side, you know, they are always asking can we do some kind of shuttle. And so, I'd really love to learn from what's been going on over here as well. Thank you. I yield. We can see who can answer. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. Thank you for all of this input and your questions and recognition of the concern and recognizing the negative impacts that this kind of predatory parking is having on not only the economy in Kailua Village, but on the people and the sense of community. Just to answer a couple of questions. We did try. Something unique about this area is it is a business improvement district. So, it's the Kailua Village Business Improvement District. I actually am planning on meeting with Corporation Counsel to go over the ordinance that created the Kailua Village Business Improvement District. I have questions about if it doesn't state you can't charge for parking, does that just mean you can, or does that just mean you can't unless you get a permit, or you're zoned for that. So, I'm really grateful to have Planning here and DPW here. Yes. This became an issue approximately two years ago when it happened right before Iromnan, which we all know, Kailua Village gets very busy with a lot of visitors. And so, the shopping centers weren't seeing the decline and, you know, people were parking there and they were paying for it. But as that season faded and then more —something I do want to point out is a lot of these properties, these commercial shopping centers, spaces, are owned by mainland corporations, investment capitalist, right? A lot of our properties have gone to that type of ownership. They hire management groups, also typically based out of the Page 10 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 mainland. They don't know Kona. They don't know this place. Their property sits on a balance sheet and a P&L (Profit and Loss) statement that they look at. Some of these properties are for sale. Charging for parking increases the potential for what you can charge for selling a shopping center. So, I think that that's part of the predatory behavior: I mean, just look nationally what happens for a lot of different properties. But Kailua Village is different. Our people care; we participate. Our County government is different. We're going to sit down and listen to the people and find a way as challenging as it's been for the last few years, we're going to find a way to mitigate this problem and find a solution that incorporates public and private partnerships, and accountability from land owners. Thank you to Director Darrow for clarifying that what resides in —all the timing on this, I wish I had all these answers already, but we wanted to get this communication forward, get it in front of everybody. You know, I've got a meeting coming up with Corporation Counsel. But I'm really hopeful after this meeting that we have a way to move forward. In those community meetings it was thrown out, what's the price point people would pay, and people were fairly comfortable with between $3 and $5 an hour. I was in Seattle this summer with my family, and it was only $22 to park for four hours in Downtown Seattle. I mean, that seems more feasible. You don't pay these same prices in Waikiki. So, going to— CHR. GALIMBA: We do have a couple other items on the agenda, if you don't mind. MS. VILLEGAS: I'll try to, yup. We did try the shuttle. It wasn't a success. The business improvement district worked with the prior administration. People don't feel safe leaving their cars at Old Airport. That's been brought up a lot. So, there's some challenges with that. But what I'd like to, and I will be putting forth and exploring is how do we change the ordinance related to the Kailua Village Business Improvement District in order to hold property owners accountable to a different standard there. I'm really looking forward to working with Planning and DPW, especially on that parking lot because we don't have any towing company. I mean, I chased that one down a few years ago. But last but not least, I have a quick question for Corporation Counsel. I don't understand how it can be legal to charge for handicapped parking. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Council Member Villegas, you're referring to the statement that the ADA stalls were more expensive earlier than just the regular parking fees? MS. VILLEGAS: And just in general. I mean, right in the front of Kona Inn is where the ADA parking is. A friend of mine tried to take their 100 year old grandmother and can't afford the parking, you know, it's just counter intuitive. Page 11 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 It's like a community need to provide parking for those with special needs, and then to pay and then let alone charge more. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah. So, that sounds 100 percent wrong. So, I would agree with that assessment and yeah, that's not correct. ADA protects right for the disabled. MS. VILLEGAS: It's discrimination. MR. YOSHIMOTO: So where is this at? MS. VILLEGAS: I believe in front of Kona Inn Shopping Center. Thank you. We'll add that to our list to talk about when we meet. MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, we can too. I'll go follow up with the administration to see if that's something we can follow up on to make sure that that stops because, yeah, that doesn't sound right. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. And just in closing, you're right. It is counter intuitive, Council Member Kimball, that property management companies would continue with a practice that directly harms those leasing the properties there. But unfortunately, we live in a time when profit margins outweigh common sense and if something's not —I find it challenging, when something does more harm than good, don't do it. And so, I look forward to working with the administration and Council Member Inaba, if you wanted to work together on how we can create some amendments in the ordinance related to the business improvement district, then we can get our village back and go back to visiting the places and people we appreciate and supporting our local businesses. I yield. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Apologies, Council Member Kierkiewicz, did you have anything to add there in Hilo or questions? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: No questions. But, you know, I represent Downtown Pahoa, which comes with its own set of challenges, and I think what Council Member Villegas has found, and I completely agree is that community members, their solutions are often the best fit because they are the ones that are having to deal with the struggles on a day-to-day basis. And so, I just appreciate her empowering her community and I think there's tremendous potential in all of the solutions that community members have put forward. So, I look forward to all of the pilot programs that are going to come forward and the ordinances that she is going to introduce to truly address the issue so that, you know, local residents can enjoy Kona town. I remember just a few months back having breakfast with my family at Papa Kona and feeling tremendous pressure to get out in the 90 minute limit for parking Page 12 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 because I just found it so outrageous that we were paying so much for parking. And I can't even imagine folks having to do that on a daily basis to visit and patronize the various businesses that they love and support and not being able to do that more regularly because parking is this huge barrier. And so 1, again, just want to lend and voice my support to the efforts that you are doing in partnership with your community and look forward to supporting you. Thank you, Chair. I yield. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. We do have other agenda items, and our next committee is supposed to start already. So, thank you all for coming. I don't see any other lights on. So, on the motion to close file on Communication 84, all those in favor, please say "aye." Vote on Comm. 84: The motion to close file on Comm. 84 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Galimba — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder —1. Excused: None. CHR. GALIMBA: Can we move on to Communication 37? Return to The Chair directed the Committee to return to the order of business. Order of Business: Comm. 37: PERFORMANCE AUDIT 2024-03: DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS BRIDGE AND CULVERT MAINTENANCE EFFORTS From County Auditor Tyler J. Benner, dated November 25, 2024, transmitting the above audit report, pursuant to Section 3-18(d)(2) of the Hawaii County Charter. Postponed: January 7, 2025 (Note: There is a motion by Council Member Kierkiewicz, seconded by Council Member Inaba, to close file on Comm. 37.) CHR. GALIMBA: So, we have a motion on the floor, and I will turn it over to County Auditor Tyler Benner to take us through this report, and he is in Hilo. (Note: At this time, County Auditor Tyler J. Benner came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 13 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. BENNER: Aloha, Council Members. My name is Tyler Benner with the Office of the County Auditor. I'm joined in chambers today by Jasmine Santos, the lead auditor for this engagement, and we're here today to present the findings and recommendations from the performance audit of bridge and culvert maintenance conducted at the County of Hawai`i's Department of Public Works. This report is Report Number 24-03, published November 25, 2024. The safety and functionality of bridges and culverts are vital to public safety, transportation, and infrastructure resilience. The audit evaluated DPW's compliance resource utilization and maintenance practices. The audit identified seven findings and provided corresponding recommendations to address inefficiencies and improve compliance and enhance maintenance outcomes. While DPW's efforts to comply with federal standards are commendable, gaps in compliance with state laws, resource allocation, and internal coordination were noted. The audit objectives examined compliance with federal highway administration state and local standards, assessment practices for the condition of bridges and culverts, repair and maintenance tracking, prioritization and completion, and effectiveness response processes. Regarding methodology, I'll start with the following disclaimer. While the audit team possess the collective knowledge necessary to review processes, procedures, and compliance with regulatory standards, we do not possess the technical expertise required, independently assess, or judge the safety of the infrastructure, nor does the audit override any technical analysis, recommendations, or assessments made by licensed engineers or other qualified professionals. Any conclusions or recommendations made in this audit should be considered complimentary to and not a substitute for technical evaluation and safety determinations. Our methodology examined data from July 2021 to June 2023, including work quarters and inspection reports. We conducted interviews with staff, examined the federal highways administration compliance, and conducted site visits to observe practices. The audit was conducted according to government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on the audit objectives. So, key findings, begiruling on Page 24, non-compliance with HRS 4-6.4, maintenance work lacked observation by licensed professional engineers as mandated by law. I do want to say that going into this engagement, management was aware of this deficiency, and they were anxious to have it addressed in the report. In fact, Mr. (Stephen) Pause opened a line of questioning about the order Page 14 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 of the recommendations being made, and we stated the most important item should be mentioned first and he agreed that this item should be mentioned first. Again, highlighting management's appetite to address the issue. So, we thank them for that. Finding Number 2, beginning page 27, incomplete culvert inventory, inconsistent update, and lack standard policies as resulted in incomplete inventory hampering maintenance planning. Begimling Page 29; lack of policies and procedures, absence of forinalized written guidelines impaired the effectiveness and accountability of maintenance activities. Recommendations, or Key Findings Number 4; undefined roles and responsibilities beginning on Page 31. Unclear delegation of duties created inefficiencies between the Highway Maintenance and Engineering Divisions. Finding Number 5, beginning on Page 34; interdepartmental communication. Lack of regular communication resulted in delays and odd project management issues. And Key Finding Number 6; lack of routine maintenance. No established maintenance schedules led to an 80 percent backlog of work orders and increased risk of infrastructure failures. And finally, Key Finding Number 7; an over -reliance on contractors beginning Page 38. DPW lacked internal processes for independent review of contractor inspections resulting in delays and inefficiencies. So, recommendation, if you want to turn back to your highlights, Page 1, the report provided actionable recommendations to address these findings including insuring compliance to evaluate organization structure to align with HRS Chapter 4-6.4. Recommendation Number 2 was to improve inventory management to standardize procedures, prioritize tasks, and leverage GIS (Geographical Information System) tools for comprehensive tracking. Recommendation 3 was to formalize policies, develop and disseminate written policies for Highways Division to guide staff and improve consistency. Recommendation Number 4 was to clarify roles; establish clear roles and responsibilities to ensure accountability and efficiency. Recommendation Number 5 was to enhance communication, implement standardize protocols for reporting and interdepartmental updates. Recommendation Number 6; develop maintenance schedules, create and adhere to schedules for routine and preventive maintenance. And Recommendation Number 7 is strengthen oversight, introduce independent reviews to validate contractor findings, and streamline processes. In this report, Page 45, management provided a response, a detailed and comprehensive management response in which laid out actionable steps. This included Response Number l; adding a licensed professional to observe work Page 15 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 being perfonned by the Highways Division. Number 2, incorporating culverts into the I -works asset management system to improve overall inventor. Number 3, to work with an internal consultant who's been contracted to update all policies and procedures for the Highways Division. Number 4, to review and establish better structure and clearly assign roles so that work can be effectively assigned and perfonned to ensure public safety. Number 5, to improve interdepartmental communication through joint training, updated standard operating standard procedures and improving the work order system. Number 6, to utilize the I -works system and update SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure) to establish better processes for scheduling bridge and culvert maintenance. And finally, Number 7, to develop a process allowing engineer staff to accompany contractor, inspect, or contracted inspectors up to 20 percent of site visits. So in conclusion, we'd like to thank the Department of Public Works, which at the time included Neil Azevedo as the Highways Chief; Keone Thompson, Engineering Division Chief; Kason Pacheco, Engineering Division; Malia Kekai, fonner Deputy Director of DPW; and Steve Pause, former Director, full free and unrestricted access to sites, files, and persormel was appreciated as well as the management appetite to implement meaningful improvements. As always, results have been added to our remediation tracker and are available for viewing in our department's webpage at www.hawaiicounty_gov and at the department page of the Office of the County Auditor. Mahalo for your time and I would open the floor to Council for any questions they might have for either the department or myself, respectfully submitted. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you, Mr. Benner. Council Members, do you have any questions for Mr. Benner before we go to the DPW Director? Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Just a recommendation on the audit. When you list particular locations, I'm not familiar with all of those bridges and stream names, so it'd be just my personal recommendation to identify maybe that geographic region, if possible, going forward. Thank you. MR. BENNER: Thank you for that feedback. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Yes. Thank you, Auditor Benner. As always, excellent job by you and your team. Can you remind me, what was the impetus for this particular focus for the auditor's department; was this based on a report? I don't recall this coming as a request from the Council. MR. BENNER: No. This was done as a result of some discussions with departments at a previous County -wide risk assessment that was done. We had Page 16 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 some discussions with department management there and some Army Corp. of Engineering reports have been performed that kind of highlighted some of the dilapidated conditions of some of the infrastructure that was there, and so we decided to take a review of it. MS. KIMBALL: Great. Thank you for that clarification. I have no more questions for the auditor so I will wait for others. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. At this time —sorry. Council Member Inaba. Okay. So, yes, we have no more questions for Auditor Benner. We'll move on to Director Ono and Deputy Director Azevedo, if you have any comments you'd like to make. (Note: At this time, Public Works Director Hugh Ono and Deputy Director Neil Azavedo came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. ONO: I sure do. First of all, I am very pleased to come to Kona today because it gives me an opportunity to walk around, talk stories with our staff here; both the Building Division and the Engineering Division that are housed here in this Kona Complex. Also with me today from our staff, of course, Neil Azevedo, he's the Deputy Director. We also have Keone Alan Thompson and Melanie Demello, both the division head and the deputy of the Engineering Division. Let me start off by saying that overall my finding with the Department of Public Works is that we are deficient in this area, maintenance management. So, let me explain how maintenance management works because I'm the one that developed the maintenance management program 35 years ago, plus. But basically, the components to maintenance management is first you must have an inventory of those features within your inventory that need to be inspected regularly. As part of that, this comprehensive list is then assigned for regular inspections, so it could be a year cycle or two years depending on what the infrastructure is. As a result of these inspections, the findings come in two categories; those that are serious and those that are minor. The minor ones are repaired by work order, which go out to the repair and maintenance crews to be fixed right away. The major ones have to go in some program, which is a repair and maintenance, almost like a CIP (Capital Improvement Project) program because they are major expenses. They have to be programed; you can't just pull it out of your daily budget. They're too pricey. And a result of that is you continue to monitor and keep track of these. It all results in a priority management system, which is a list of projects where these projects are specifically listed. They're not in someone's head. But we've started to develop such already and we will develop that. Page 17 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 The components of these maintenance management systems are first, bridges. Now, all bridges are controlled by federal highway regulation requiring that the bridges be inspected at a minimum of every two years. And that you shouldn't be able to get away from. You have to have certified bridge inspectors doing the inspection and it's a comprehensive list to ensure that the bridge keeps its integrity. For the drainage structures, we are on the way to getting there. The Highways Division has a GIS system, which is going to identify where all these structures and drainage ways are. I've seen it. I'm excited about it because we don't have to send out people to identify where they are but it's a comprehensive effort by Highway Maintenance and also our Engineering crew to put this together, so we'll have this easily maintainable inventory list. And lastly, for buildings, same thing. We've neglected the buildings and that's why we have Police Department unpainted for 25 years, major roof repairs. We have facilities in very, very poor condition. There's some that the roof leaks are so bad, they have to put five -gallon buckets here and there and work around the five -gallon buckets. So, that's also on this priority list to address. Now, we mange. We don't produce funding. But it doesn't excuse us from managing our infrastructure and our inventory. So with that said, I'm available for any questions that you may have. But we're going to get this done. There's no question about it. We have to do it; we want to do it, and it would actually snake our work within he department easier. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Director, for that response. Looking at the recommendations provided by the County Auditor, is there any specific one that stands out as a priority for you folks to get done first? MR. ONO: We're on the way to hiring an engineer, right, Neil? MR. AZEVEDO: Neil Azevedo, Deputy Director, Public Works. Yes, we will get an engineer and a surveyor in Highways Division so we can accountable for all our drywells, all our culverts, all our equipment, everything that we need for our roles; make sure we'll maintain. When I started in 2015, we had an audit on our inventory equipment. So, turn around, we built this program, the GIS program; we put all our equipment on that. So when we go to the site, each district, we go and we pull it up, we match the accounting number and the serial number on top that and make sure it's the correct one and from there, right there, we share with Finance. Finance wanted to jump on board with that. With us, we're always looking for something, how we can better ourselves. Now we will be accountable for everything we got. It's all taxpayers money paying this, so we Page 18 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 need to make sure we're accountable. We can write what we want to write, but we need to be accountable for everything. And we had a meeting with Engineering, Highways Engineers and the Deputy Director we met and we're going to share the GIS program. You know, right now, early part was separated. Now we're going to be together, we're going to be as one Department of Public Works. We're going to work together in completing this culvert, bridges, anything that County maintains, we'll be on top of it and make sure we be accountable for everything we own. Thank you. MR. ONO: This GIS is exciting. It is a really well geographical system. It's very comprehensive and what a great tool it is. MR. INABA: Thank you. So, when we're looking at the inventory, that's the engineer you're talking about; to finish, complete the inventory. MR. AZEVEDO: For the culverts, not yet. I cannot say. We're maybe at say 75 percent probably. You know, we're not sure because we're still looking at old plans. We're not sure where all the culverts are. When we go out to the field, our workers go out in the field with iPad and whatever they can find; they're logging it down, put it in our GIS and make sure we go inside there; good, fair, or poor; mark it all down so at least we know what we got, and size, diameter, all of that, making sure we're good with the culverts. MR. INABA: Okay. And just wondering because eventually, Auditor Benner, we're going to have you circle back. What tirnefiarne are we looking at you to come back and check out what recommendations have been completed. MR. BENNER: We typically allow for two years between our initial audit and our follow-up. So, we'll give that period of time. Sometimes it bumps to a third year depending on where it's landing in the budget cycle and the monetary considerations that go along with that. But in this case, I think that they're well in progress on several of the items. MR. INABA: Thank you. And your office is willing to continue supporting any kind of recommendations needed from the department, right? MR. BENNER: We look for an ongoing dialog, yes, sir. MR. INABA: Alright. I also see here one of the recommendations is regarding having that written policy and it looks like you folks got that started already back in with a contractor, but when do we anticipate having these policies and procedures finalized? MR. AZEVEDO: Is that the SOPs? Page 19 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. INABA: This is for recommendation, I believe, three. Your recommendation is to formalize written policies and procedures, and the status is that it's partially implemented. So, I'm wondering when it will be complete. MR. AZEVEDO: I'm not sure what you're talking about. But if you're talking about the SOPs, we're 85 percent almost done. MR. INABA: This is Page 29 of the audit report. MR. ONO: Let me comment on the written procedure. We had a written procedure for each of these building, culverts, drainage ways. The bridges need none because they're already under a managed management program. But I would say it would take about three months for us to set up an initial program. The inventory may not be completed but the program can be put in place for what we know we have. MR. INABA: Okay. MR. BENNER: Council, if I could just interject? I would just let Neil know, yes, it's the SOPs that they're referring, and they're done in the very contract that's under consultation. MR. INABA: Perfect. Thank you. Alright. Well again, thank you Auditor Benner and look forward to —it seems like there's simultaneous efforts going on here to try and meet the recommendations provided. And if there's anything what we can do, always please let us know. I want to make sure we are keeping our community safe and doing it as fast as we can. Thank you. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Council Member Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Thank you, Madam Chair. Great news. I mean, you folks are moving forward because when I first got in in 2008, on Kilauea there was this drywell, and I had requested engineering to come in and check out this drywell because it was flooding. They didn't even know had that drywell because it was covered with all grass and everything like that, so I had to pinpoint to them, right here, and then — MR. ONO: Secret drywell. MR. ONISHI: So, that's great news to hear that, right. And then, you know, like back then the flooding with the flood control, the overgrown brush and everything that would kind of plug up everything like that. What was great to hear too, Director, was that you mentioned the bridges supposedly supposed to be inspected every two years with federal standards. So, my question is, the four -mile bridge, Page 20 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 there's money allocated, right, $12 million to $14 million. It's been four years now, maybe Engineering can come up? MR. ONO: I'm aware of that bridge as something that happened recently. (Note: At this time, Engineering Division Chief Keone Thompson came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. THOMPSON: Hello, Council Members. MR. ONISHI: Introduce yourself. MR. THOMPSON: I'm Keone Thompson, Engineering Division Chief, Public Works. So, yes, there is something that recently came up. We were recently told that we would have to do a full nationwide army permit, which will delay the project a year, we're hoping. MR. ONISHL• Thank you. But then when did you folks get the funding from the state? MR. THOMPSON: Shucks, I'm going to have to check on that. But yeah, it's been several years. MR. ONISHI: Because I know you folks had to go and get an extension. MR. THOMPSON: No. MR. ONISHI: For the funding. MR. THOMPSON: No. Not yet. So, it automatically will be renewed, the appropriation on the state level when it does expire. But it automatically goes, it's automatically renewed, so the funding lapse for several more years. MR. ONISHI: Okay. Okay. Because, I mean, if that bridge was being inspected every two years, I mean, that bridge is really old and I would think would need a lot of work, right. And so, with the funding that was provided for me, I cannot understand why it wasn't being, you know, moving forward, like getting all this like the requirements that we would need because this funding was from like I would say like six years ago that was in plans. But finally, my brother got the funding. But he was requesting for that four -mile bridge funding for a long time, right. And so, to me, if you folks hear that the legislators are trying to get funding for a project, that would be a sign to, you know, let's start moving forward, right. And then, once that project —it's like shovel -ready. Getting it ready so when the funding comes in, boom, you can move forward already, right. So, I'm hoping that can happen and really soon because the traffic in that area is really bad. Page 21 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 And, Director, I'll be reaching out to you because some constituents had mentioned certain, in that area, if we can do something about the traffic, the stop signs and so forth. But I'll talk to you later about that. MR. ONO: Yeah, it's a one way has a preference over the other way. So, when I'm going in the right direction I don't care. But if I'm going in the wrong direction, I might mention this bridge is functionally obsolete. But it is on the historic register and that's what adds more complications to design. Between Keoni and myself, and Neil, what we'll do is make that a priority to get through this next study. It could come up as a surprise. Well, I mean, usually you have the EA (Environmental Assessment) and EIS (Environmental Impact Statement). This is something that this came out of — MR. THOMPSON: It came out from state. We knew that coming and as soon as the funding got released by the state, then we went and procured a consultant to do the EA and now we're going through that pennitting and design. MR. ONISHI: And also I heard the problem —sorry, Madam Chair. So, one of the problems was about the intersection too, right? The County wanted to do something with the intersection so that kind of stalled everything. MR. THOMPSON: Not really stalled. MR. ONISHI: Because I thought you guys were going to improve the intersection. MR. THOMPSON: So, we are going to improve the intersection as part of that project because the bridge is so close to the intersection. It's just so much traffic was required to, yeah. MR. ONISHL Correct. MR. THOMPSON: So, there was additional scope because the bridge got widened because of that because now there's a turning lane, which needs to be accounted for due to the traffic impact statement there. MR.ONISHI: Right. Okay. MR. THOMPSON: So, that was discovered too. And we're accommodating design too — MR. ONISHI: I'll have staff contact you folks to schedule a meeting. And thank you, Madam Chair, for giving me that leeway. Thank you. I yield. CHR. GALIMBA: Sure. Council Member Hustace. Page 22 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. On Page 18 of the audit, there's mention of 17 non NBI (National Bridge Inventory) bridges. So, it speaks that these don't have a regular frequency of improvements or requirements to improve and really are just investigated upon complaints. So my question is, for these 17 bridges, have we received complaints and is there a process or procedure where people file complaints for those particular bridges? MR. ONO: Councilman Hustace, I have no idea about the 17 bridges. But if there's somewhere here that's aware, Neil. MR. AZEVEDO: Neil Azevedo, Deputy Director, Public Works. This is the 17 bridges that are not being inspected by federal; smaller bridges, smaller than 20. So, whenever we find those bridges, we put them on top of our GIS and from there we share the information with Engineering, and we keep maintaining them. We go up there, we inspect it, we maintain it, we make sure everything's clear for it. Then we call the engineers, and we let them know what we did on that. So, we work together with that. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. MR, ONO: I'll add to that explanation. The bridge, there's a certain criteria and if it's under a certain size, it really isn't considered a bridge. These must be the 17 that fall into that category. MR. HUSTACE: So, we don't really have any public complaints about those specific bridges then? MR. ONO: Would you repeat that please? MR. HUSTACE: It rarely mentions the criteria for really investigating these are complaint driven by community and I'm just curious if we have received complaints about these particular bridges? MR. ONO: I'm unaware. MR. AZEVEDO: I'm not sure if we received any complaints, but we get a lot of concerns that all the bridges, snaking sure it's safe for people to cross, and when we're doing our regular maintenance, we'll keep checking on it making sure everything's good. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Thank you. And it kind of leads into my next question. Thank you, Chairs. You know, you've done a great job with your highway maintenance schedule of showing the progress to the community about how you've undergone, especially under the former director and really showcasing your work to the community. Your roadwork and the projects you've done across Page 23 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 the community of the paving efforts, is this something that you would be willing to put kind of in a public interface to show the status of these bridges or culverts and the process that is kind of moving forward to improve these spaces; is that something you would consider putting on the public interface? MR. ONO: Absolutely. MR. HUSTACE: It already is in that area, GIS, sort of layers and your data layers and it would be worthwhile kind of sharing, you know, the status of these spaces as well. Thanks for considering that. Thank you, Chair. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. I was going to say the same thing, so thank you. I second that. I really appreciate what your engineering group has done with putting that paving on there. I think it only went till the end of this year though. I'm not sure if there are ones going forward after that; what I can see on my phone. Sorry. So, I could be wrong about that. But it looks like those projects were in there up till the end of this, or maybe it's the end of this year. I'm not sure. But it's great to have that for the public so they can see. I know, you know, I'm going to see this road get done and after that my roads going to get done, or something. You know, they have something to measure it on that's not just, you know, some obscure thing that they can't relate to. I think having that, you know, this is what's happening and after that it's this one, and after that, this one, that really helps the public understand where it sits on the priority list and kind of how it will be scheduled in the schedule maintenance. So, for the culverts, great. I even had people reach out to me with the culverts and say, we'll do it ourselves if, you know, if you just tell us what to do or whatever. I know that's probably not a possibility, but I was like, can we do like a friends of the culvert? I mean, I don't know, like how we do our friends of the parks, and some people might be even willing to do some small maintenance on their culverts that are, you know, in their neighborhoods. I don't know if that's a possibility. But I have had people reach out saying that they are so concerned about, you know, our ability or inability to get to cleaning out some of those culverts that they'd be willing to help it they could. So, I don't know if that's a possibility. That might involve, you know, legal things that we can't touch but I'm just throwing that out there that I've had community members say they would be willing to step up if it was possible. MR. ONO: Let me comment as pretty much it is a routine especially when we have an emergency declaration on the way, the culverts are checked because the worst thing that can happen is drainage ways and culverts that do not function because they're plugged. But also, the reason for the regular inspections is to identify those so that we can put them on the repair list. But also, we welcome Page 24 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 information from our public out there if they see something. We can't see everything. We try to, but please have them call us. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I will. And I want to thank Deputy Director for helping on a situation like that that did happen. So, thank you very much. Appreciate that and hope, yeah, we can get it back up and get all this information on your dashboard so the public can follow along with what's expected. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. And thank you both for being here today. I'm just going to kind of run down the list here. With the inventory, I was wondering what's our reference material, do we have to determine if a culvert there is actually ours? And I'm think more about District 1, as opposed to maybe some areas in the County where there are many, many culverts. Some of them are probably not ours. Do we have any sort of documentation to determine, to verify that it is owned by the County? MR. ONO: We should because we know what the County system consists of. And first and foremost are major first responsibilities over the County -owned system. Of course, we also have roads in limbo and beginning January 23,d, we'll have other private roads added to that procedure, which still needs to develop for those. You want to add anything, Neil? MR. AZEVEDO: Sony. Can you repeat it again? MS. KIMBALL: I'm asking how we verify say, if we're out in the field identifying culverts and your guys say, "Oh hey, there's a culvert?" How do you go back and determine if it's ours or if it's a private? MR. AZEVEDO: Okay. We go out to the site where the people are concerned, we check where it's at and we look at if it's in the County right of way. If it's not in a County right of way, we turn around and look if we accepted the culvert while we accepted the subdivision, you know, because there's drainage behind the houses, you know, which we've got to double check and snake sure that's ours. So, we look back at old plans to see if that's ours or not, then we reach out to our surveyors, ask them, and if they say this is not ours, I reach out to the concerned people and I would let them know. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. So, it sounds like there —and my question is going to be routed back to, is there a base dataset of historical records that we could look at as a way to sort of get a first overview of our inventory? But it sounds like this is a more cornplicated sort of one off, whether it was in a rezoning ordinance or a Page 25 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 subdivision agreement or something like that may be difficult. There's isn't a single source of records I'm hearing. MR. AZEVEDO: There is subdivisions we've accepted but we've accepted the drainage. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. So, there is a point at which you guys, the department accepts that. Is that recorded; is that documentation available? MR. AZEVEDO: I'm not sure if it's available but it's one — MR. ONO: If it's a dedicatable subdivision, then the County inherits, I guess, all the infrastructure within it because they're built to a certain standard. This is Melanie Demello. She's the deputy director. (Note: At this time, Engineering Division Deputy Chief Melanie Demello came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. DEMELLO: Hi. Good afternoon, Council. Melanie Demello, Deputy Chief for Engineering. So, typically with the subdivisions, if they get dedicated, similar to the roads, if the culvert or drainage structure is along the road, there would be a dedication deed or a grant of easement if they're outside of road, like Neil was talking about. So, in theory there should always be a grant of easement, or a dedication document recorded and associated and on file for our culverts and bridges. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. Hi. Thanks for being here. So in theory, we could pull in all of the grants of easement as a first pass to determine the inventory and then verify it on the ground? MS. DEMELLO: That's correct. Yeah. Sometimes it may take some legwork to get that documentation but yes, we could look at pulling those documents as the baseline for the inventory. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. Should we just put that out to the department as a possible mechanism? You know, obviously catching up here, addressing these is going to cost time and money and employee time and money. So, just suggesting that as another alternative to getting the base dataset for the inventory. The other thing I think Council Member Kagiwada's maybe hinting around this is since you have the GIS tool, some sort of crowd sourced data, but that's again why you'd want to have some background validation so people are identifying culverts in their area that, you know, would want to have some way to back up those notifications from the community. But that does prove to be a reliable Page 26 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 source to get just like baseline inventory that can then be validated especially if we're utilizing the GIS tool. I also wanted to touch on the non NBI bridges that Council Member Hustace referred to. Are any of those to knowledge, and maybe this is a deputy director question, in location where they represent one way in one way out for a particular community or subdivision, to your knowledge? MR. AZEVEDO: Neil Azevedo, Deputy Director, Public Works. The smaller bridges, sorry, it's all on the small roads. It's in Hamakua Coast got a lot of them. That's where most of there are; from North Hilo to Hamakua. And I think there's a couple walking bridges, you know, that's about it. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. Do we ever receive federal or state funding to do repair and maintenance on these or is this all funded through the County? MR. AZEVEDO: All funded through the County. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. I'll just voice my concern, you know, Ka`ahakini Bridge is listed here not as one of those but one of the many in poor condition and I know with respect to that one, we have not been able to get the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funding. Correct me if I'm wrong, Keoni. We haven't been able to get the FEMA funding for Ka`ahakini because of the maintenance records were lasting over time and they could not say that it was Hurricane Lane that caused the damage, and it wasn't just our lack of repair and maintenance. So, it sounds like with the NBI bridges we wouldn't actually seek the funding for that anyway. With respect to the policies and procedures, and maybe this is an Auditor Benner question, are any of these formalized procedures that you kind of touched upon recommending going to require rulemaking within the department or do you think this is all going to just be satisfied through internal SOPs? MR. BENNER: Thank you for the question, Council Member. I don't anticipate that there would need to be, it would need to touch into rulemaking territory. I think they could define everything and explain how they're going to do it within a set of policies and procedures through that contract. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. Great. Thank you. And then the clear communication protocols, clear rules, and responsibilities, Director, and Deputy Director on this question, you know, what are you looking at now? I mean, it's early days right, in terms of your new positions here, in terms of shifts within the department's organizational structure, communicational policies, to address those particular issues; do you have ideas going forward right now to improve that collaboration between Engineering, Highways, and the communication between the divisions? Page 27 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. AZEVEDO: Right now, communication is very open. We're talking among each other, you know, we're bringing them together. As Deputy Director, my first meeting was get Highways and Engineering together and let's see how we can do that. Then from there the two bridge inspectors from our Engineering, the two Engineering bridge guys met the two utility workers from Highways. So I called there, I made a meeting with them. So, I introduced the both of there. So, from there once they came in the office, I had to go to another meeting. I said, I want you guys to take each other's number down and I want to build this friendship where we can work together." So, right now they're communicating well with each other. So whenever anything major comes up, they call each other, and they get it done. So, I really think the communication is going to be really good. MS. KIMBALL: So, Director, I'll give you an opportunity to respond in just a little but, at this point, you're looking less at formalized procedures or for example, creating a work request queue, some sort of tracking system to ensure that that communication is effective as opposed to —or sounds like you're looking more along the lines about building those interpersonal relationships but do you have any formalized plans for getting additional tracking systems? MR. ONO: We will because we do need a work order tracking system. We have somewhat of a system in place already but right now the divisions are reporting weekly to our level so we can see what carve in, what was completed and what the backlog is. But we're strongly emphasizing teamwork. We are a team; we're on the same team. So, you can't be on a team without decent communication. In fact, you can never over communicate. I've never heard anybody say, "We have terrific communication." So, it's something that we'll continue to work at forever. MR. AZEVEDO: For that right there, I -Works. So, our engineers met with Highways and they're on an I -Works work order. So, from there, once they do the I -Works work order, it automatically downloads onto our computer and from there we know where we're at. From there, when the last picture, you can click it on; you can see the last maintenance to what was repaired, then when we need to fix it again, when's the next inspection coming. So, we're going to log all that down on our I -Works program. MS. KIMBALL: Forgive me because I only just did this the first time the other day. I put in a work request for a sign on the new website with the map and everything where you go ahead and put the, "Oh look, they're making a note that Heather put in a request for a sign." I just wanted to just quickly state that is that something then for the public if they identify repairs needed, bridges, culverts, they will be able to do that through that interface as well at some point? Page 28 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. ONO: I don't believe so. The best way is, you know, to come through our department either with a phone call or email request and we will follow up. I'm afraid that if we did something like that we might get inundated with requests from much of the places that are not even on our system. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. I think I would disagree with you on that just because I think you can control for allowing people to only identify places that are on the system rather than other arbitrary culverts. But that's a discussion for us to have another day. I realize I ran out of time. If I may, Chair, just one more comment. I do have some concerns about our legal liabilities and with respect to some of this audit. Just so my colleagues know, I did request a memo regarding the opinion of Corporation Counsel about some of that which they will provide for us at a later date, better not to be discussed in open forum, but when that becomes available I will either share it out at the request of Corporation Counsel or we'll have an executive session to talk about that particular matter. Thank you, Chair. I yield. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you, Council Member Kimball. Not seeing any other lights and is Council Member Kierkiewicz in Hilo? I can't see you. MR. BENNER: No, she's not. CHR. GALIMBA: Thanks. Okay. So, just one question, comment that I had, which is maybe a little bit off of this report, but I think it is still relevant, is kind of looking forward and communicating, and I'm not even sure who this would be working with. But, we are having different kinds of rainfall events in mountains now and so a lot of our bridges and culverts are not sized or potentially might not be sized for the kinds of weather events that we have and I'm just wondering if there's any thought being put into trying to work on gathering more infonnation around that, Director or Deputy Director? MR. ONO: Yes. That would be continuous. So, that would be part of our ongoing bridge maintenance management program required by the federal highway. So, those are the types of findings that if we find a bridge to be deficient of its capacity, we either have to increase that capacity somehow with a drainageway or ultimately the bridge may have to be replaced. CHR. GALIMBA: Okay. Thanks. So, you're working with federal partners to gather that kind of data. MR. ONO: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's a real comprehensive inspection that takes place. Page 29 CRCOC-2 Vote on Comm. 37: Filed January 21, 2025 CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you very much for that. Seeing no other lights on, I will ask my colleagues if we will be closing file on Communication 37. All in favor, please say "aye." The motion to close file on Comm. 37 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Galimba — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Kierkiewicz — 2. Excused: None. Comm. 78: FAIR SHARE ANNUAL REPORT AS OF JUNE 30 2024 From Acting Planning Director Jeffrey W. Darrow, dated December 26, 2024, transmitting the above report pursuant to Section 2-162.1(a) of the Hawaii County Code. Motion to Close File: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 78. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR, GALIMBA: Director Darrow, could you please? Could you please walk us through the fair share reports, Director Darrow? (Note: At this time, Planning Director Jeffrey Darrow came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. DARROW: Sure. Aloha, Chair Galimba, Vice Chair Villegas and Members of the Committee. Jeff Darrow with the Planning Department. So, this is our fair share annual report as of June 30, 2024. Your first page after the intro basically gives you a summary of all of the areas that we address in the fair share report including the contributions, the appropriations, how the expenditures roust be used, as well as the in -lieu contributions, which is at the end of the table. Something new that we've done this year is the summary and that's they third page. That gives you a glimpse of all of the numbers right from the start. And also, we've highlighted in yellow the areas that have changed since our last report so that you don't have a problem looking directly at what is changed since the last report. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. I appreciate yellow. Any questions? Council Member Inaba. Page 30 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. INABA: Yeah. Thank you, Director. Can you just remind, we have, well, at least one new Council Member. But on fair share, these contributions are only for new projects. Is that correct? MR. DARROW: Correct. So, these are applied to our change of zone applications and it's a reference that comes from Chapter 2, within the Hawaii County Code. They call it the community benefits assessment. We term it as fair share and basically it is allotted to five different areas; to fire, parks, police, solid waste, and roads. There are some unusual ones. One that you might be familiar with is Kalolo-Mauka. Instead of placing it in the different areas, we put it all to roads so that eventually something can be done with the intersections at Kaloko- Mauka. MR. INABA: Thank you, Director. So, just regarding the one highlighted item on Page 7, there was a lapse of approximately $40,000. So, that $40,000 just wasn't needed for that project anymore? That's for the Kohanaiki lifeguard tower. MR. DARROW: Yes. Let me get there real quick. Okay. So, there was an appropriation of $120,000 and then $40,000 was not used for that so it was returned. MR. INABA: Okay. Got it. Alright. Thank you so much for this update. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yes. Just a quick question going back to Page 7. I see the Makaeo Skate Park; so I see $35,000 in red. So, that got put out? Sorry I'm just not —that was appropriated and utilized for that? MR. DARROW: The appropriation happened in 2012. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. MR. DARROW: And so, it had lapsed and was returned. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. MR. DARROW: I'm sorry. Maybe it was used. I'm not seeing it as a lapsed appropriation. So, if it's not shown as a lapsed appropriation, it was used for that particular skate park. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. So, if it's in red, then it went out? It was paid, it was detracted from the total? Page 31 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. DARROW: My understanding is the way it works is that the red will identify the appropriation. If the appropriation is not used, it will come into the lapsed appropriation, so it will be returned. If it's not within there —there is a partial. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. It's a partial. MR. DARROW: Yeah. MS. VILLEGAS: Gotcha. MR. DARROW: I'm sorry. I was looking at a different area. Thank you. MS. VILLEGAS: No worries. The font is not exactly large. MR. DARROW: I hear you. I've got my — MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, Perfect. So, I can look through this because we are currently working with community to provide contingency relief funding for the park. So, this is potential funding that still exists even if it lapsed? MR. DARROW: Yes. And you can look at the end of the North Kona section and that will give you — MS. VILLEGAS: What page is that? MR. DARROW: I'm sorry? MS. VILLEGAS: What page is that? Sorry. MR. DARROW: Page 7, and it's at the bottom. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, gotcha. Wait. MR. DARROW: And that would go for the same for the other districts. At the end of the districts it'll have the totals at the end. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. Thank you. I yield. MR. DARROW: Thank you. CHR. GALIMBA: Anyone else? Council Member Hustace. Page 32 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Director. If you could speak to the lapsed appropriation on Page 3, North Kohala and the Waimea Park at $149,000 and just kind of explain what I'm seeing there? MR. DARROW: Okay. North Kohala and the last one, $149,000? MR. HUSTACE: Yes. MR. DARROW: Okay. So, that was an appropriation, if you look above, you'll see an appropriation to Waimea Park for $149,000, correct? MR. HUSTACE: Yes. MR. DARROW: And if you look below, where it says lapsed appropriations, Waimea Park, it shows $149,000. So, that means it was returned. It was not used within the timeframe. MR. HUSTACE: I guess I'm not sure, let's see. Waimea Park, this is in North Kohala though? MR. DARROW: Yeah. I see your point. There's also one in Waikoloa that's falling under North Kohala. MR. HUSTACE: Yeah. Ho`oko Street Park, yeah. MR. DARROW: So, we need to take a look at that and fix it. Thank you. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you. Thank you, Director. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Onishi. MR. ONISHL• Thank you, Madam Chair. I have just two questions. One, would you folks be okay if we included maybe repair and maintenance for flood control? Because basically when they do develop residential, right, somehow they're going to create water and water always flows down, and like Public Works doesn't have the funding to help mitigate these problems on the downside. MR. DARROW: So, your question, Council Member Onishi, is whether or not we can use these funds — MR. ONISHI: No. If we can create. MR. DARROW: Create a fiind? MR.ONISHI: Yeah. Page 33 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. DARROW: We can look at that. MR. ONISHI: Yeah. MR. DARROW: So, you would be wanting to actually add an additional section? MR.ONISHI: Correct. MR. DARROW: Okay. We can look at that. MR. ONISHI: Okay. Thank you. MR. DARROW: I definitely cannot answer that right here. MR. ONISHI: I always, you know, because in the past I did ask and the directors at that time didn't want that. I mean, their excuse was about having, I guess, the cost for development be a little bit higher. But I wont' about the guys down below because like I said, water flows down and more developments being up on that mauka sides and, you know, the flood control that we have existing are not capable enough to handle all that water. But I'll get in contact with you guys. MR. DARROW: Thank you. This was a question I actually asked staff yesterday when we were discussing it, whether or not an additional —why weren't certain departments added in versus others? One was water and the other was wastewater because those are two primary departments. And the answer I got back was that they actually have fees, right, they receive fees whereas these, my understanding is they don't receive those types of ongoing fees. And so, they receive these community benefits assessments. But we will look at that; flooding maintenance downstream. MR. ONISHI: Yeah. Okay, thank you. MR. DARROW: Thank you. MR. ONISHI: And the last thing I have; so, for South Hilo, okay so, for the fire, it looks like funds available is $684,000, is that correct? MR. DARROW: What page are we on? MR. ONISHI: This is on Page 10. Fire. MR. DARROW: Okay. You're wanting to know the amount left in fire? MR. ONISHI: Yes. Is that correct, the available funds for fire? Page 34 CRCOC-2 January 21, 2025 MR. DARROW: $684,790.41. MR. ONISHL• Because I think we could use some of that money for the district in South Hilo like Central Fire Station and also for Waiakea Fire Station. MR. DARROW: Yup. Correct. MR. ONISHL• Okay. Thank you. CHR. GALIMBA: You good, Council Member Onishi? Yes. Alright, anyone else? Alright. All in favor of closing file on Communication 78, please say "aye." Vote on Comm. 78: The motion to close file on Comm. 78 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Galimba — 6. Noes: None, Absent: Committee Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, and Kimball — 3. Excused: None. CHR. GALIMBA: That brings us to the end of our agenda. ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 2:59 p.m. Chair Galimba adjourned the MENT: meeting. Approved: Ms. Michelle WGalimba, Chair Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight Committee MG/tk (Date) Page 35