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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN FC 2025/02/04 (2022-2024)Committee on Finance 3rd Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii 96720 February 4, 2025 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Finance was called to order at ORDER: 12:42 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Matt Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder, Chair. ROLL CALL - Present: Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Chair Mr. James E. Hustace, Vice Chair Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member (came in later) Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather Kimball, Member Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (came in later) 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: (There were none.) CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Let's do Resolution 67-25, please. Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Committee Members, the of Business: following items were taken out of order: Res. 67-25: AUTHORIZES THE ACCEPTANCE OF A DONATION OF GILLIG BUS PARTS TO THE MASS TRANSIT AGENCY The donation from Oahu Transit Services, with an estimated value of $176,899, would be used to repair buses currently operating in Hawaii County. Reference: Comm. III Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) FC-3 February 4, 2025 Vote on Res. 67-25: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend adoption of Res. 67-25. (Approved) Seconded by Mr. Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kagiwada and Villegas — 2. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Can we take up Resolution 68-25, please? Res. 68-25: AUTHORIZES THE ACCEPTANCE OF A GRANT AWARD OF $2,000 FROM BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY TO THE ANIMAL CONTROL AND PROTECTION AGENCY Funds would be used for travel expenses for an Animal Control and Protection Agency staff member to attend the 2025 Best Friends National Conference. Reference: Comm.112 Intr. by: Council Member Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Vote on Res. 68-25: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend adoption of Res. 68-25. (Approved) Seconded by Ms. Galimba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kagiwada and Villegas — 2. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Let's go to Bill 25, please. Bill 25: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 24-32, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI`I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30 2025 Appropriates revenues in the Animal Control Private Contributions account ($2,000); and appropriates the same to the Animal Control account. Funds would be used for travel expenses for an Animal Control and Protection Agency staff member to attend the 2025 Best Friends National Conference. Reference: Comm.112 Intr. by: Council Member Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Page 2 FC-3 February 4, 2025 Vote on Bill 25: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend passage of Bill 25 on first (Approved) reading. Seconded by Mr. Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Villegas — 1. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Let's jump to the top of the agenda, Communication 23.4. Return to Order The Chair directed the Committee to return to the order of business. of Business: COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 23.4: REPORT OF FUND TRANSFERS AUTHORIZED: DECEMBER 16 — 31 2024 From Controller Wilson Crider, dated January 8, 2025. Vote on Comm. 23.4: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 23.4. Seconded Filed by Mr. Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Villegas — 1. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Communication 24.2, please. Comm. 24.2: REPORT OF CHANGE ORDERS AUTHORIZED: NOVEMBER 16 — 30 2024 From Finance Director Diane Nakagawa, dated January 8, 2025, transmitting the above report pursuant to Section 2-12.3 of the Hawaii County Code. Page 3 FC-3 Vote on Comm. 24.2: Filed February 4, 2025 Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 24.2. Seconded by Mr. Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Villegas — 1. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Communication 24.3, please. Comm. 24.3: REPORT OF CHANGE ORDERS AUTHORIZED: DECEMBER 1 — 15 2024 From Finance Director Diane Nakagawa, dated January 8, 2025, transmitting the above report pursuant to Section 2-12.3 of the Hawaii County Code. Vote on Comm. 24.3: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 24.3. Seconded (Filed) by Mr. Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Villegas — 1. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Communication 27.1. Comm. 27.1: REPORT OF DONATIONS RECEIVED FROM THE DANIEL R. SAYRE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION AS OF DECEMBER 2024 From Finance Director Diane Nakagawa, dated January 16, 2025, transmitting the above report pursuant to Resolution 468-20. Vote on Comm. 27.1: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 27.1. Seconded Filed by Mr. Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 4 FC-3 February 4, 2025 Comm. 98: SECOND QUARTER REPORT OF PERSONS EMPLOYED UNDER A CONTRACT FOR LESS THAN 90 DAYS: OCTOBER 1 — DECEMBER 31 2024 From Human Resources Director Sommer J. Tokihiro, dated January 2, 2025, transmitting the above report pursuant to Section 2-12.5 of the Hawaii County Code. Vote on Comm. 98: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 98. Seconded by Filed Mr. Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. (Note: Items in this category were taken up previously, out of order.) BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES: Bills for Ordinances. (Note: An item in this category were taken up previously, out of order.) CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Bill 26, please. Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Committee Members, the of Business: following item were taken out of order: Bill 26: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 24-32, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI`I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30 2025 Increases revenues in the Federal Grants — Housing Choice Emergency Voucher Program account ($250,000); and appropriates the same to the Housing Choice Emergency Housing Voucher Program account, for a total appropriation of $1,650,000. Funds would be used for housing assistance payment costs for the Emergency Housing Voucher Program. Reference: Comm.113 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend passage of Bill 26 on first reading. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. Page 5 FC-3 February 4, 2025 CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is there any discussion on the measure? Hearing and seeing none. Just wanted to mahalo Administrator (Kehaulani) Costa for what she's done to work on this. With that, motion is on the floor. All in favor? Vote on Bill 26: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 26 on first (Approved) reading was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Bill 23. Return to Order The Chair directed the Committee to return to the order of business. of Business: Bill 23: AMENDS CHAPTER 19, ARTICLE 1, SECTION 19-2 AND ARTICLE 8, SECTION 19-61 OF THE HAWAI`I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO SHORT-TERM COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURAL USE DEDICATION Increases the term length requirements for the Short -Term Commercial Agricultural Use Dedication property tax assessment program from three to five years. Reference: Comm.96 Intr. by: Council Member Hustace Motion to Approve: Mr. Hustace moved to recommend passage of Bill 23 on first reading. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Hustace, go ahead. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. We're also joined by (Real Property Tax) Administrator Miura, I believe, in the Kona Chambers and then Deputy Keita Jo here in the Hilo Chambers. Thank you for the opportunity to present this to the Council. Just wanted to revisit this conversation. You know, attending a number of the community discussions last year after this bill and ordinance moved forward with this body, some of the conversations were about, you know, regulation and opportunity for ag producers to really work the land for an extended period of time. And I think the goal of this body was to really push people towards a Page 6 FC-3 February 4, 2025 10-year dedication and really pursue that long-term decision there. And, you know, having conversations with our Real Property Tax Division, I see an opportunity to change it from the short-term side from three years to five years, this giving our Real Property Tax Division a little bit more opportunity to investigate, pursue and look at some of the agricultural users and producers across the County as well as giving those producers time to dedicate to their crops, their fields, their livestock, so forth. So, it really is a push to kind of really invest in their properties in their agricultural production for our community here. So, I'll leave it at that. If there are any questions from the body, happy to answer. And we also, as I said, Administrator Miura and Mr. Keita Jo is here as well. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Members, discussion? Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. Thank you. I'd actually ask the maker of this if we could actually push it to next meeting so we could have a little bit more in-depth discussion about it. I don't have a strong feeling one way or another on this yet, but I can say as the author of some previous legislation around agricultural taxes, it's concerning to me that we haven't had any testimony or commentary. I feel like there's a need for greater public outreach before we get into this. If it's going to be easier for RPT (Real Property Tax) to be on a five-year term, yes, it makes sense. The reason why the three-year was selected is that was the recommendation of the Real Property Tax Working Group and Ag Committee Report was year cycle. One of the things we need to factor into that is the penalties and rollback taxes for folks that can't make the five years. A lot of what the feedback we had in the hearings about the rulemaking for the ag taxes was that there's so much uncertainty in agriculture. And folks like the three-year term because it was long enough to be meaningful, but short enough that they didn't see a huge risk for themselves in terms of potentially ending up in violation. So, given that we're in a time constraint and that there's not a ton of urgency on this, I'd hope you'd be willing to consider maybe pushing this back to the next meeting so we can have a deeper discussion about it. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Members? Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: I'll just say, yeah, I would like to have a little more time to understand the nuances here because Council Member Kimball just brought up a bunch of new things and, you know, hearing from Council Member Hustace about, you know, the impetus and like maybe saying it's needed but not seeing anybody here, I think it would be interesting to maybe have a little bit more time to delve into this. Page 7 FC-3 February 4, 2025 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Yeah. Just preliminary thoughts please, Administrator Miura, if you could provide from RPT's standpoint. (Note: At this time, Real Property Tax Administrator Lisa Miura came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. MIURA: Good afternoon. Real Property Tax Administrator Lisa Miura. Keita Jo, the Assistant Administrator is in Hilo, and our Finance Director I believe is there as well. Council Member Hustace is correct, there was concerns in some of the meetings. And we did a lot of meetings post the changes. It is concerning every time a real property tax bill is before Council and there is zero people here to testify, that they just were not aware, or they left because the other meeting went so long. But the goal of this, I believe, is to go from three years to five years. We did get a lot of applications after the changes. The length of time the other meeting took provided us an opportunity to dive back in and look at all the 23 meeting minutes from the Ag Committee to figure out exactly where the three years came from and the only thing I just want to say is, and I did not have a chance to talk to anybody about this yet, but by waiting another couple weeks, maybe it'll give me an opportunity to speak with Council Member Hustace in regards to the change on the lease term of five years and seeing if that could potentially be changed back to three years; at least for the lease, not so much for the renewal period. MR. INABA: Thank you so much, Administrator. Yeah, I don't feel strongly either way, Council Member Hustace. But understand, you know, if we're going five and ten, it kind of makes sense number wise. So, we'll just see what your plans are today. Thank you. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks. So, yes, I think I second the desire to push it off to another meeting so we could have a fuller discussion. But just briefly, as an agricultural landowner, I think the three years is valuable for folks because there are some lands that you know you're going to have forever, and some that you are not sure. And so having that kind of big distinction and knowing that you can get out of it in three years, but you can also renew it. You know, we had a big discussion about should we limit it to just three renewals and we did hear back from the community, a number of folks from the community saying no they didn't want it just limited to three terms of three years because they wanted to have that flexibility ongoing. So, the flexibility of only having a three-year period.. valuable to some people in the community. So, that's my perspective. I would Page 8 FC-3 February 4, 2025 like to be able to talk about it more, I think, without feeling like we're under a time crunch. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Chair, I'll move to postpone this measure to the call of the chair. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: If I could have one question for — MR. HUSTACE: Please, please share. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Administrator Miura, can you hear me? MS. MIURA: Yes. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. Did the Council Member speak to you about this bill before introducing it? MS. MIURA: Yes. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And you were aware of the change? MS. MIURA: Aware of the what? I'm sorry. I couldn't hear. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You were aware of the language that's presented. MS. MIURA: Yes. Yes. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But you're wanting to revisit the lease term of three years; is that correct? MS. MIURA: Correct, because I only got further information this morning from one of the major leases on the island. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Hustace, go ahead. Page 9 FC-3 February 4, 2025 Vote on Motion Mr. Hustace moved to postpone Bill 23 to to Postpone: February 18, 2025. Seconded by Mr. Onishi and (Approved) carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think that brings us to the end of our agenda. ADJOURN- There being no further business on our agenda today, Chair Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder MENT: adjourned the meeting at 1:03 p.m. Thank you very much. Approved: ri Mr. Matt Kdneali`i- einfelder, Cha (Da e) Finance Committee MK/tk Page 10