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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CRCOC 2025/02/04 (2024-2026)Committee on Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight 311 Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii February 4, 2025 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Communications, Reports, and ORDER: Council Oversight was called to order at 1:06 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 Mr. Matt Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Member (came in later) STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: COMMUNI- CATIONS: The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. (There were none.) The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Communications. CRCOC-3 February 4, 2025 Comm. 36: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY JORDAN LERMA, OF NENE RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION, REGARDING THE STATUS OF THE NENE POPULATION AFTER LOWERING THE SPEED LIMIT ON KALANIANA`OLE STREET From Council Member Jenn Kagiwada, dated December 5, 2024. Postponed: January 7, 2025 (Note: There is a motion by Council Member Kagiwada, seconded by Council Member Inaba, to close file on Comm. 36.) ; and Comm. 36.1: From Council Member Jenn Kagiwada, dated January 6, 2025, transmitting a PowerPoint presentation. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you, Jordan, for coming but also that this was just a request of Council Member Lee Loy on her way out that I continue following through with this. So, happy to do it at her request and welcome Jordan. Please take it away. (Note: At this time, Executive Director Jordan Lerma of Nene Research and Conservation 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://hawaiigounty.gov.granicus.com. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is made a part of the record, see Comm. 36.2.) CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you so much for that presentation. Although, you know, that toxoplasmosis thing is really important too, that you skipped over. MR. LERMA: Yeah. I think that's a good discussion for a different meeting. CHR. GALIMBA: Okay. Council Member. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: One quick question. There's nene in Lili`uokani Gardens. They had a gosling, gosling died; are we addressing cats as much as we are getting run over by cars? MR. LERMA: So, it's tough because a lot of the nene getting hit by cars is in response to where folks are feeding cats. So, at Lili`uokalani Park there's two nene that have died from getting hit by cars when they were crossing the street to get to where folks are feeding cats. You know, I think in private discussions with Page 2 CRCOC-3 February 4, 2025 some Council Members, we're working on a plan to try and address those specific issues. I think the County Animal Control and, you know, there's no where on the island to take feral cats right now. If you find a bunch of feral cats, you basically have to keep them or you have to abandon them, and that's basically what's happening. There's no where to take, you know, the Humane Society is not taking feral cats; Animal Control doesn't take feral cats. You know, back ten years ago, Humane Society was euthanizing 15,000 cats per year. Now it's zero. So, where are all the cats going? And it's in our parks, in our neighborhoods. So, it is a crisis and it's something that we're working on trying to find a plan to work with cat pet advocates and yeah, it's a tough one. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Thanks, Madam Chair. Just to add to that, I mean, Lili`uokalani is in my district, right. And so, I've heard stories about —because we had the fire ant crew, and they have to come in and they have to like treat that park, right. And so, they run into problems with the people that are feeding the cats there, right. And so, to me, I mean, yes. The nene is being run over by the cars, but also the cats are a problem too. So to me, it should be like kind of hand in hand, right. I mean, because it's like as human beings we can try and help correct it but then there's also human beings who's feeding the cats who's hanging out in those areas, right. So, we've got to correct that problem too. MR. LERMA: Yeah. There's also, I mean, there's feeders that will put the food down and watch to make sure that nene aren't crossing streets or eating the cat food and they'll take the food away immediately; and there's feeders who will just leave the food there and then, you know, dig out and then the nene will go and eat it 10 minutes or 20 minutes later. MR. ONISHI: But the problem is they're feeding it. So, if we make them not able to feed them, then we'll have solved that problem. MR. LERMA: I would be very much in support of a County ordinance to ban cat feeding on County property. MR. ONISHI: Okay. And then the other thing about like, you know, speeding, I mean, like in my district there's a senior apartment building and they used to complain that by that intersection they used to speed. So, I had community policing put up that radar and come to find out, during that brief period of time that they had it up, maybe one or two cars that were speeding over the limit, like maybe going about 50 (miles per hour), and this was on Kinoole Street. Basically, all the other cars were under 40 miles an hour. But it's just that people Page 3 CRCOC-3 February 4, 2025 vision wise looking at cars driving, in their minds they think it's going fast, but really it's not, right. And so, that's where I kind of —hard to say about the speeding part, right. MR. LERMA: Yeah. That's kind of why we built the speed radar devices. We'll get actually speed measurements and quantify the driver behavior across, you know, different hour periods of the day and, you know, we've played with the idea of putting cameras on them to see if there, you know, just a few individuals that are noncompliant. But there's some privacy laws and all those things that probably need to be discussed first. Although it would be pretty useful. MR. ONISHI: And just one last thing. So, just a couple days ago, this past weekend, I was talking to some friends, and we were talking about a farmer that used to be in Volcano. And for some reason what I was told was that, I guess, there were some nene on. Kauai that was transported and put around someplace in Volcano, right. Then the nene started to attack the guy's crops on the farm. MR. LERMA: Yeah. MR. ONISHI: You know about that? MR. LERMA: Yeah. Vaguely. I mean, in 2010 to 2014, they translocated 600 nene from Kauai to the Big Island, and it causes, I mean, nene caused a lot of issues on Kauai with ag and with the work we're doing, we're trying to rehabilitate the population, we foresee some of that happening here. And there's some talk about, you know, the nene were downlisted from endangered to threatened. And part of the mechanism is allowing farmers to haze nene, but the state didn't want that to happen. So, there are some state mechanisms that can change to be able to give farmers more autonomy and how to move nene away from sensitive areas like their crops. MR. ONISHI: So you folks do group meetings with them too? MR. LERMA: With DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources)? MR. ONISHI: Nope. MR. LERMA: With the farmers? MR. ONISHI: With the farmers. MR. LERMA: Our main clientele and where we consult is mainly golf courses right now. MR. ONISHI: Okay. Page 4 CRCOC-3 February 4, 2025 MR. LERMA: Two-thirds of the population of nene live on pretty much used golf courses on the west side of the island and Volcano Golf Course. MR. ONISHI: Right, right. There's a lot there. MR. LERMA: So mainly, how to not kill a nene with a golf ball is usually the conversation we have. MR. ONISHI: Okay. Thank you. I yield. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. I'll just be super brief because it has been raised. There are some ongoing code conversations with. DLNR, just with Parks and Recreation, Animal Control, some of the cat advocacy groups to do a pilot project around the feeding nene issue, and Banyan Drive peninsula was identified as the best place to do the pilot project. I apologize, this was before you came on, and so I've already been working on it with another Council Member, and it just happened to be that that site was chosen by the group. So, hoping to have a presentation early March for everybody on what this pilot project looks like. I think we have a really innovative approach to addressing. Not everybody loves it, but everybody can live with it and that's in it of itself is an accomplishment. But I did want to share that that will be coming shortly. MR. LERMA: I will actually say that we do have a project called Cat Map, which is kind of how we do community siting for nene, we do community sitings for cats statewide. So to the best of my knowledge, I think we're the only ones doing cat population estimates in the state, and hopefully that can lend some guidance to how we move forward with plans. CHR. GALIMBA: Seeing no other lights. All in favor of closing file on Communication 36, please say "aye." Vote on Comm. 36: The motion to close file on Comm. 36 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Galimba — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. GALIMBA: Seeing no other items on the agenda. Page 5 CRCOC-3 MAE Approved: February 4, 2025 There being no further business, at 1:20 p.m. Chair Galimba adjourned the meeting. C Ms. Miche le . Galimba, Chair Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight Committee ►1 WBIq 3'- (Date) Page 6