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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN FC 2025/05/20 (2022-2024) DRAFT Committee on Finance IIth Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii 96720 May 20, 2025 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Finance was called to order at ORDER: 9:00 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Chair Mr. James E. Hustace, Vice Chair(came in later) Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishis Member(came in later) Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member(via videoconferenee from Kona) Absent& Excused: Ms. Heather Kimball, 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 individual registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Claudia Rohr: Res. 180-25 (Comm. 289); and Res. 181-25 (Comm. 290), comment. (See Comm. 290.003) COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 23.12: REPORT OF FUND TRANSFERS AUTHORIZED: APRIL 1 — 15, 2025 From Acting Controller Wilson Crider, dated April 24, 2025. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to close file on Comm. 23.12. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members, discussion? Council Member Kierkiewicz. FC-11 May 20,2025 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Is there anyone from Planning to speak to the transfers for the Kilauea CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) DR (Disaster Recovery) funding? I think it was noted that Douglas Le and Mr. Medina was going to be joining us on Zoom. I'm just going to make an assumption here that the transfer of funding, a little over $100,000 has to do with the voluntary housing buyout program but I just wanted to confirm that this transfer was in fact for that. I will connect with them offline. Thank you, Chair. Appreciate it. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You still halve the floor, Ms. Kierkiewicz, when the recovery folks are online. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair, Hello, Officer Le. Great to see you. I just wanted to confirm that the transfer is in`fact for, you know,the continuation of the voluntary housing buyout program. A little over $100,000 is being transferred into rent, landing buildings, and then overtime for staff, (Note: At this time, Disaster Recovery Officer Douglas Le came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. LE: Good morning, Council Member Kierkiewiczr and Council. Douglas Le with the Planning Department: Yes,these transfers that we are requesting are to essentially balance our budget from the overall CDBGDR grant that's providing the buyout program to meet our actual expenses. As members on the Council well know, we've been working on this grant for the past four years. As we've work toward this completion later this calendar year we're catching up in terms of the administrative cost that we have to either close out the program with a balanced budget relative to what the needs are at this point in time. They are within kind of the administration of our funds and very specifically in the administration,of the grant HUI) (Housing and Urban Development) wants to ensure that when we spend money we have the money available to us which is why this step is really important, and we appreciate your support so we can keep the program going. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Really appreciate those additional details and it's music to my ears to hear that the program is going to be winding down by end of calendar year. Thank you for your hard work on this program. Next question I Have is'for Research and Development(R&D). There was a transfer of$177,000 out of destination management tourism promotions, energy, Hawaii County Resource Center into various miscellaneous contracting accounts. Hello, Deputy Lin. Again,just want to confirm the nature of this transfer. I believe it's to support the round of impact grants that R&D recently completed. But please feel free to provide additional details. (Note: At this time, Research and Development Deputy Director Dennis Lin came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 2 FC-11 May 20,2025 MR. LIN: Good morning, Council Members. Dennis Lin, Deputy Director for Research and Development. Yes, this is the transfer of funds for the impact grants. What you see from the first portion of all these different accounts, these for funds that were not encumbered during this fiscal year that we saw that could be used to help supplement our impact grants. So, you know, we only had a set amount of impact grant funding, but we said there were all these funds that weren't used; can we use that to get money out into the community? And that's how we added on additional funding for the impact grant applicants. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And that's how you make an impact. Great. Thank you for those details. I appreciate it. Chair, I yield. MR. LIN: Thank you. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Onishi. MR. ONISHL Thanks, Chair. Deputy ,you can°stay there. So what you're saying is that some of these funds, contractual services, were never spent? MR. LIN: Correct. MR. ONISHL And why is that`'. MR. LIN: I do not know. That was under the previous administration. When we got in, whenwe did our first analysis of where the financials were, this is what we found out. Arid by the time we had come in the impact grants were already posted and published for applications. So with the fiscal year ending pretty soon we'ro like, what-can we do with these funds, and that's what we decided to do was move it into impact grants to get the funds into the community. MR. ONISHI And then so some of the money going towards agriculture, is that for this aquaculture thing? MR. LIN: Not this round. No. MR. ONISHL Okay. So that's already a previous 1YMR. LIN: This is a—with the aquaculture project; that's anew project that we're exploring. Yeah. MR. ONISHL But that funding is coming out from this fiscal year? MR. LIN: Not necessarily. Well this next upcoming fiscal year, 2025-2026. MR. ONISHL Okay. Okay. Well I'm just hoping that department does reevaluate your budget again because there is some spending that, you know, I Page 3 FC-11 May 20,2025 don't agree with you folks. And so just to let you folks know how I feel. Thank you. MR. LIN: Yeah. Thank you. And just for clarification, when it says miscellaneous contracts that's just how the budget is created. Impact grants fall under miscellaneous contracts but it's not an actual line item. MR. ONISHL Right. But then it's just like there's a lot of money leftover that could've been used for certain situations in this like destination manage for tourism promotions, right? I mean, that's what we need. MR. LIN: Correct. And as I shared with Council during,our budget presentation, nobody in the department knew what the budget looked like except for the director. MR. ONISHL Okay. Well thank you. MR. LIN: Thank you. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Checking with Kona. Sorry. Council Member Villegas, anything? MS. VILLEGAS: Allgood. Thank you. CHR,KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Okay. Motion on the floor is to close file on,Communication 23.12. Seeing no further discussion, motion is on the floor. All in favor? Vote on Comm. 23.12: The motion'to close file on Comm. 23.12 was carried by Filed the following voice vote: :Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Hustace and Kimball —2. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Next item,please. Comm. 73.6: MONTHLY BUDGET STATUS REPORT FOR THE MONTH ENDED JANUARY 31, 2025 From Finance Director Diane Nakagawa, dated May 1, 2025, transmitting the above report pursuant to Section 6-6.3(h) of the Hawaii County Charter. Page 4 FC-11 May 20,2025 Vote on Comm. 73.6: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to close file on Comm. 73.6. Filed Seconded by Mr. Inaba was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Hustace andT�imball —2. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Nextitem,please. Comm. 127.1: THIRD QUARTER REPORT OF UNOAPITALIZED DONATIONS: JANUARY 1 —MARCH 31, 2025 From Finance Director Diane Nakagawa, dated May 2, 2025, transmitting the above report pursuant to Resolution 538-24. Vote on Comm. 127.1: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to close file on Comm. 127.1. Filed Seconded by Mr,Inaba was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Inaba, Kagiwada Kierkiewicz;"Onishi, Villegas, and Chair aneali`i-Kleinfelder—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Hustace and Kimball —2. Excused: None. Comm. 271: REAL PROPERTY ASSESSMENT CERTIFICATION FOR THE 2025-2026 TAX YEAR From ltiinance Director Diane Nakagawa, dated April 25, 2025, transmitting the above report pursuant to Section 19-90(d) of the Hawaii County Code, indicating a total net taxable real property value of$55,336,572,000. Motion to Close Vi,le:, Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to close file on Comm. 271. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is Real Property here today? Mr. Jo, thank you for being here today, sir. Lisa's in Kona or no Lisa today? Okay. Just real quickly. What is the value of taxes that is, I mean, we're in excess of what we assume, correct? (Note: At this time, Real Property Tax Assistant Administrator Keita Jo came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 5 FC-11 May 20,2025 MR. JO: Keita Jo, Assistant Administrator for Real Property Tax. So what was certified was the evaluations. That's where you as Council comes in to determine the tax rates that are fixed to those values, which in turn results in revenue. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Do we have an expected revenue increase or is that coming? MR. JO: Given that the certification, all things considered equal, given that the certification is a little more than seven percent above what was last year that you can account that there's a possible increase. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. But we don't know that number yet? MR. JO: I would probably defer to the Finance Director on that— CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I thought you might. MR. JO: Yeah. Again, we don't get involved in the discussions on revenue and that's for good reason. Our assessments are 100 percent of market so we kind of remove ourselves to a certain extent in order to ensure integrity with that process. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jo. Finance Director Nakagawa, thank you. (Note:-At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. NAKAGAWA'; Yes. Good morning, Council Members. Diane Nakagawa, Finance Department. Council Member, I believe your question is will we see an increase in ouir revenue projections for the fiscal year 2026 budget. CHR. ANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Correct. MS. NAKAGAWA: Correct. Yes we will. We will be first reading on Thursday,we'll go over that, and we'll do a presentation. I believe it's about $12.7 million increase in revenues from real property tax. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Because we have our estimated total, which builds our first round of budget discussions that we're basing our revenue forecast on. So this is $12.7 million over what we forecasted for 2025-2026? MS. NAKAGAWA: So this is $12.7 million. It's an increase over our March submittal. Page 6 FC-11 May 20,2025 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MS. NAKAGAWA: So in our March submittal we work with the estimates from real property tax. As we get closer to what is presented to you today, we have our certification and then we make adjustments normally in May submittal, which we was turned in and submitted and we will talk about on Thursday as well. But yes, it is an increase from March; approximately $12.7 million I believe. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. Thank you very much. MS. NAKAGAWA: You're welcome. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: ,Appreciate it. And Mr. Jo, which district brings in the most property taxes? MR. JO: That would probably be; we're very much West Hawaii-centric in regard to evaluations as well as revenue. So it would probably be South Kohala and North Kona side. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: South Kohala and North Kona? MR. JO: Yeah. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELEiER: That's What I thought. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz; lS: KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Assistant Administrator Jo, I'm looking at the number of appeals; less than last year. Wondering if you could just provide a high level overview of the nature of the appeals and were 100 percent of these appeals addressed; did folks rescind their appeal; how did all of that play out here? MR. JO, So the appeals that are included with the certification, those are the appeals that have been filed. And generally as most people are well aware that we're in an increasing market, so we've seen our appeal numbers drop as people understand that their assessments are increasing along with the market. Those appeals have not been addressed yet. So they by code have to be filed by April 9t' of every year. We have our Board of Review, and we just got a new member, so thank you very much for confirming that member. A very important process. The appeal process starts in July, and it'll go through on the next few months from there, and at that point that's where the cases are resolved. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And I think there's a follow up report to the Council about the resolution of these appeals. Page 7 FC-11 May 20,2025 MR. JO: Correct. Correct. So at the end of every appeal session there's a report that's provided to Council; the overview as to the appeals and some of the recommendations from the board themselves. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Great. Thank you very much. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Villegas? MS. VILLEGAS: Nope. All good. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Seeing no further discussion, motion is on the floor. Thank you, Mr. Jo, for your time. Council, motion is on the floor to close file on Communication,271. See no further discussion. All in favor? Vote on Comm. 271: The motion to close file,on,Comm. 271 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Inaba, Kierkiewicz,Onishi, Villegas and Chair Kaneali`i=Kleinfelder—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Kimball 1. Excused: None. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Resolution 180-25, please. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order ofResolutions. Res. 180-25: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE,UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI`I OFFICE OF RESEARCH SERVICES Allows the County to provide a$14,805 grant to the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to support its Master Food Volunteer Program. Reference: Comm. 289 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to recommend adoption of Res. 180-25. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Members, discussion? Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Just wanting to see who from R&D will be—okay, Sarah. Hi, Sarah. If you could just introduce yourself for the Page 8 FC-11 May 20,2025 record and speak to us about this partnership with CTAHR (College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources) that you are coordinating, and also if you could explain what a master food volunteer is. Thanks. (Note: At this time, Food Systems Economic Development Specialist Sarah Freeman came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. FREEMAN: Sure. Sarah Freeman, Economic Development Specialist in Food Systems. A little bit about the program; it is aimed to be similar to the master gardener program where folks go through a training program and then are able to revive volunteer services. I think there vas an identification that there's a growing need for providing food and nutrition education,out into the community and these other types of services that are often,requested through grant programs; and that we need more folks that are able to provide these services to community. So a program like this would train-10 volunteers a year roughly ter deliver cooking, workshops and education programs, and to ensure that there's equitable local food access programs to community. So this would be just increasing volunteer capacity to provide these types of services to the community. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So the funding is to train the volunteers. Is there additional funding to support the delivery of the workshops, the educational programs I also see here,revitalizing promotion ofHawai`i grown products. Is there again additional resources to kind,of stretch this programs reach? MS. FREEMAN: Do you mind'if I refer to Marielle to answer some of these more specific;question? MS.'KIERKIEWICZ: Absolutely- �'es. Marielle,please introduce yourself for the record:,Thank you for joining us. (Note: At this time, Cooperative Extension Agent Marielle Hampton came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. HAMPTON: Hi. Marielle Hampton. I'm an Extension Agent with UH (University of Hawaii) CTAHR. So right now we are already delivering these types of programs; myself through partnerships with groups like The Food Basket and we obtain grants and other funding sources to support our work. We also can get donations from say Hilo Products, other farms, to provide ingredients for these events. So there's a lot of different funding sources that pull on to provide the supplies for these things. I also do have funds available from the university every year that I use to support that for things like buying ingredients and I do already have equipment that we have purchased through other grants that we can provide to these folks who would be delivering the programs. So calling together a lot of different sources. Page 9 FC-11 May 20,2025 We are also working with the Hilo Coalition from Hi-5 to develop what we're calling a healthy food fund, which would be a pot of funding that would be available to these volunteers when they want to purchase ingredients to do these events. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That's awesome. Thank you. So you've been running this program for a number of years. Are you able to kind of talk to us about the reach and the impact you've had so far? MS. HAMPTON: So we have not done this program yet. This is newly developed and launched this program in the state. Although it has been run successfully in other states they have found`I think one initial assessment found 1,000 for return on investment for one of the universities that was running it. What I have done is partnered with community organizations to deliver food education programs that focus on local products. So we have, for example, a teen cooking program we do at Boy's and Girl's Club that's focused on,using Da Bux eligible produce. We have a food instruction service we do at elementary schools that's focused on locally grown produce: So all of these programs, which are food and nutrition education are also focused:on promoting and teaching kids and families to choose these local products when they go to the grocery store. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Great. And then if somebody was interested in becoming one of the 10 certified volunteers how would they go about registering? And I'm going to assume it's free to participate. MS. HAMPTON: It is. And they can contact me directly. The timeline we have rightnow is that we would start recruitment for this cohort in November. But I'm already starting to make connections with folks who have people in their organizations who mighthe interesting in participating. So please if you have anybody who+might be interested in learning more or joining us, they can contact me directly and L can put my contact information out there for folks. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And then how long is this training cohort set to last; you start recruitment in November and how long is the training program? MS. HAMPTON: So the program would start in about January or February and last approximately two months and then they would begin their service portion. So they would be doing sort internship where they would be able to serve with, for example, The Food Basket or food distributions community meals to learn from folks who are already in this space doing the work and then they would begin to deliver the required service hours after that point. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Thanks for being here. I appreciate the details. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Onishi. Page 10 FC-11 May 20,2025 MR. ONISHL Thanks, Chair. So my question is you're saying that you work with The Food Basket, because I just met with them with that Kokua Harvest and they needed funding; they need this; they need that. listening to what you're explaining, why can't you work with them more closely because they need help with them providing that services. And I think with that Kokua Harvest, which they go out to the farmers and help them in harvesting their extra, I guess products, and then they offer it to the public for free, right. So if you help them with providing, I guess, the resources of volunteers because they also needed volunteers to help I guess station at their sites that people are going to come to pick up. And so at that time, these programs that'you're saying that could be done, could be done there too. So I would recommend is that you folks reach out to them first, work with The Food Basket since they're there. And then you said also earlier, these volunteers would work with The Food Basket to get more knowledge, correct? MS. HAMPTON: Yes, they would be one of the service sites. So for example, once people are trained, one of the opportunities they could have is to go work with Kokua Harvest and support them as,a volunteer too. MR. ONISHL Okay. And does The Food Basket Kokua Harvest know about this that's going on? MS. HAMPTON: Yes. MR. OIISHI: Okay. MS: HAMPTON: Yes. We've been working with them closely and we've collaborated on'several programs'delivering food education with them and that's partly where th s'project came from is that we need more support to deliver those programs and also to potentially provide training to folks who already work for them or volunteer for them so that they're better able to deliver those kinds of educational programming as part of their existing work. MR. ONISHL Okay because meeting with them within the last months they've never mentioned about this program. So I'm very surprised to hear it now. You were going'to say something? MS. FREEMAN: I think that The Food Basket has many programs, and I think they're just specifically meeting Kokua Harvest. MR. ONISHL We're meeting on Kokua Harvest. MS. HAMPTON: Specifically. And I think that while Kokua Harvest does partner, you know, they train their volunteers and have that specific program where this is very specific to, I mean, is training volunteers but also really focused on nutrition education types of programs. So it's definitely within partnership. Page 11 FC-11 May 20,2025 And we have also the Hawaii Island Food Alliance that the County helps facilitate. In many conversations that include K6kua Harvest, The Food Basket, CTAHR, and other partners, and they've also given feedback on this program. MR. ONISHL I understand that, but I'm just saying that when I met with them for the past months they've never mentioned about this. And so they've been requesting funding from my contingency fund, right, so I'm already helping them in connecting them with partnerships to get their food stands or vegetable stands built, right, and they needed like three right now in the pilot project in the district. So, Deputy, you have something to say? (Note: At this time, Research and bevel opmentDeputy Director Dennis Lin came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. LIN: Yeah. So Vice Chair Onishi, we actually did provide an impact grant to The Food Basket exactly for K6kua Harvest as well. So it's not that we're not supporting The Food Basket, it's— MR. ONISHL No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that it was never mentioned to me when I met with them about this program that you folks have and also maybe other grants that R&D is offering fox Kokua Harvest. That's what I'm saying. MR. LIN: Sure. MR, ONISHf: Okay. So it's interesting to know. So I'll be going back and contacting them to find out, you know, more information and getting like especially the people that they wanted to have at those stands. MS. HAMPT;ON: So if I could just speak briefly. So K6kua Harvest is one of the programs of The Food Basket. We don't work with them very closely. We do, however, da some programs that use the produce that they collect. I work more closely with the Da Bux program and we have been doing a number of differentfood education programs with them to help promote their program and promote the local farmers who have produce for that. MR. ONISHL I understand. Like I'm just saying, I'm just focusing on just the K6kua Harvest, okay, because you mentioned about The Food Basket. NfS. HAMPTON: Yes. So The Food Basket would be one of our potential partners after we launch the program. MR. ONISHL Yes. I understand. Thank you very much. Thank you. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. Page 12 FC-11 May 20,2025 MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Deputy Director Lin,please stay. I just wanted to give you a chance to maybe speak. I think it's relevant to this and the next item coming up just about how R&D operates with, you know, as far as going into the community and trying to promote things that maybe need a jumpstart or need a chance to get going in order to take off and then be something really helpful to the community. Can you speak to that a little? MR. LIN: Yeah. So, you know, as Director(Benson)Medina and I came in, our goal for R&D is to be a head of innovation, right. If they are innovative projects that would spur economic development within our community, that's what we're looking for. You know, the projects that come through impact grants, some organizations are very large and the money that we provide them through the grants may be just to give them a little bitof seed money tee start that initiative. Others, maybe smaller organizations,that this may be their larger pot of funds that they start a program. Our job is to help build capacity. Our job is to help people scaleup so that these projects after our funds are gone can continue going into the future. We're not here to fund organizations in perpetuity, butwe're here to provide them the bases, the foundation, so thatthey can start a program within their organization. It may not be their main program, itmay not be, you know, the most profitable program that they have in their organization;but every application that comes in through our impact grants is to make a dentin-our community; is to make an impact, right. So this program is to teach people how t6,util zeour food systems so that we have more food sustainability, more security within our community. With the aqua6ulture one, it's redly trying to figure out how do we diversify our economic streams here in our community, right. Who wouldn't thought that we could have a possibility of growing Big Island oysters, right. Just how we have Big Island abalone, you know, we have the kampachi farm. We're trying to figure out different ways to diversify and how we get those,just explore it. If it doesn't work, itdoosn'tFwork. But we want to try see, you know, for the EAs (Executive Assistant), you know, for these feasibility studies, you know, going through the process'how effective, how capable is this organization going to be to scale up; is it going to be profitable having corporate local community that would manage the centers. That's kind of where we're at. We're here to pilot, we're here to assess and just try to see how we can help organizations scale up. MS'. KAGIWADA: Okay. Great. And can you just talk a little bit to these couple of initiatives that are slightly outside of your impact grants and how that works and if there are any kind of guiding principles that you're still using for these that you would use for any grants, the impact grants and other grants so that we can just let the public know that this is just not like you're just throwing money out to willie nillie; you are really being intentional with these funds and that you have some ways of making sure that they're responsibly utilized. Page 13 FC-11 May 20,2025 MR. LIN: Yeah. So as we look at different requests that come in to the office and we get different requests from people who want to come in and say we want to do concrete with algae to, you know, I have this great idea for energy sustainability. We're trying to figure out one, are you in our community. Two, do you have the local expertise to build it up here on the island. And then we assess other factors such as infrastructure, what is then going to be the community involvement. And Glenn can speak to the broader vision of how that center is going to look like. But that's kind of the aspects that we're looking at is that we want to fund things that's within our community. We're not looking for outside investors who have this great grand idea of bringing,„you know, $20 million to the island but it never happens. We vet every single request that comes in and, you know, some of these projects have been in the works for years. It's just up to the point where now we feel like it's the right time to do it. And with the aquaculture park, it's really we're doing the Hilo',watershed study, just coinciding with that to kind of see what the effects would be if we incorporate a water-filtering type of bivalve species that could help filter out the water. I mean, that would definitely help with a watershed, you know, decontamination process, right. So that's kind of where we're at. We're always looking at pilots; we're always looking atlocal knowledge, and whether or not it really resonates within our community. MS. KAGIWADA: Great; So just'specifically, how did these two come to you; were they requests from the community or are they things you've been discussing in house like you said because you are working on the Hilo Bay watershed project already, those kind of things? I'm trying to get this because the public already brought this upaind I want to make sure the public has enough information to understand the process. Yeah. Go ahead, Sarah. MS. FREEMAN: Sarah Freeman, County of Hawaii Food Sustainability Economic Development Specialist. I think for the first one what we're discussing, the master food volunteer program was a part of our impact grant process,just to clarify. In relation too also with R&D funds we have goals and objectives and so anything that we're supporting has to fit within those goals and objectives and help move forward those things in the community. And within our impact grant for ag and food systems we did revise our application a bit this year to be more specific and get more detailed information of understanding how there was community involvement in the process and design developing this and also the understanding those types of impacts that could be a bit more clear. And so for this one specifically it came through impact grants. It is aligned with our goals and objectives through this area in our department and it has been vetted through various community conversations through Hawaii Island Food Alliance and other spaces. Page 14 FC-11 May 20,2025 MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. I guess last question to you, Deputy. The public purpose clause that we try to deal with, do all of these meet the public purpose clause as far as you're aware, meaning that they benefit the public? MR. LIN: Yes. Absolutely. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. And do you have a way of getting feedback and following where the funds are actually spent after you provide the funds? MR. LIN: Yes. We have strict monitoring that we do for our grants. MS. KAGIWADA: Alright. Thank you so much. I really,appreciate it, and I appreciate understanding more of the processes for these particular grants. I yield. MR. LIN: Thank you. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I just wanted to say I'm very happy to see this working CTAHR and County working together, you know, not in silos because I think that's really important in order for us to make progress on greater sustainability and resilience in our food system. As a food producer I do know that food education is really important because people don't necessarily know how to use the food that's grown on this island. People, you know, have gotten used to just making saimin or something like that. So it may seem silly to have to teach people how to make food, butit actually helps to increase the viability of local foodprgducers because then the consumers want to have the produce that's grown or in my case meaton'this island. And it also is, I think almost like a seed for value added businesses through that side of folks can then turn that education potentially into startup businesses. So there's a lot of value in this I feel. And thank you very much for bringing it forward. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair. Deputy Director Lin, in your view, this resolution before us today, what is its main purpose; is it to grant the funding? MR. LIN: This resolution specifically is just for us to enter into a contract because CTAHR is part of the university system. So whenever the County does an intergovernmental agreement we have to go through Corporation Counsel to get an agreement done and drafted. So that's really the first step of what we're doing here is getting that approval from the Council to enter into that agreement. Page 15 FC-11 May 20,2025 MR. INABA: Alright. And for this specific area, CTAHR, I mean, how many agreements do we have standing with them at this time? MR. LIN: As of right now I believe it would be two, if we go along with this one. MR. INABA: Okay. I'm wondering from a legal standpoint, I think a lot of times we're getting hung up on perhaps the amounts here especially with the public testimony received around these as well. I'm not sure Corporation Counsel or Finance, if you folks want to review how we're wording this because if the main point is to enter into an agreement, but the language contained within the resolution is referring to monetary contributions to these different organizations it seems to muddy the waters a little bit when I think the authority, at least for this resolution relating to authorizing this funding doesn't require Council approval. So hoping we can kind of iron that out and kind of separate whether the amount requires approval or not because in the view of department right now it has nothing to do with money and only to do with an agreement. So"canwe please review that across all departments. Thank you., CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Okay. Mr. Lin and Ms. Freeman. Sorry, who's online; who's joiningus today? MR. LIN: Ms. Hampton. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELEiER: Hampton? I'm interested more in the so Research and Development is funding the development of a program with CTAHR? MR. LIN: It's a partial funding. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Partial funding? MR.LIN: Because when we do the impact grants, they have to have a matching amount. So this is just part of their overall budget. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. So UH aka(also known as) the state is providing half the funding to do this program as well; not the County sponsoring the whole thing? MR. LIN: Yup. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And then the food volunteers, sorry, I'm just thinking about these people that we're going to prate to this program, master food volunteers. Is that a degree, a certification, I mean, what is that from CTAHR? MS. HAMPTON: It's a certification. Page 16 FC-11 May 20,2025 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So we'll have ten certified master food volunteers, okay? MS. HAMPTON: That's correct. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And then their goal is to go into the community, I think it's one per district, but there's 10 of them. So one per district is what I read in the B-52, correct? MS. HAMPTON: That is correct. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And then they'regoing to be the intermediary between food producers and,community, provide cooking demonstrations, teach people how to cook, 'Make recipes using local produce and other things, correct? MS. HAMPTON: Correct. I don't knew if an intermediary would be the best term for them. They are outreach and education, and so they would increase demand for local food products through their education programs, which might include cooking demonstrations, food tastings,in-school education programs and other related work. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEI IFELDER: Okay, And then do they have a cost from the ends of the programs. Is this'the development of the program or is this paying for ten,iiidividuals to graduate as certified volunteers? 1 5: HAMPTON: They are not paid. It is free for them to participate, but they are notpaid and part of that is because we want to maintain the sustainability of this project and paying people to do the work would not be as sustainable. CHR, KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So we're going to spend roughly, I meant our County portion is $15,000 roughly, $14,805. We're going to have ten volunteers created? MS. HAMPTON: Yes. Although I think that I would emphasize that the outcome here is not necessarily the number of volunteers. It's the development of the program which will then be able to go on and train many other volunteers. Ten is just the number that we have started with for this year given that we will be developing this new program and other curriculum will be adopted. The format, everything, will be worked out in this pilot year. And so going forward we should not need—at this point we do not anticipate any further funding needs from outside sources to support this going forward. If that makes sense? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That does. It's helpful. I guess I'm drawing the line between is it$14,805 to create a program or is it$14,805 to certify ten individuals, or is that two separate things? Page 17 FC-11 May 20,2025 MS. HAMPTON: We are certifying individuals as part of this pilot round, but the focus is on the development of the program and of the elements that make that a reality. So that's the curriculum, the format online, the system for delivering everything, the development of a local food training module, which is specific to the Big Island to make sure that we are providing people with up to date and accurate information about the products we want to promote and agriculture on this island. So all of those pieces, I think, are the focus of this and then we are training ten people as part of that pilot and reassessing, making revisions, and going forward to be doing this as an inward program the way that the master gardener program now runs in the University of Hawaii system, which has been running successfully now since the 80s. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Okay. Thatmakes sense. Thank you. That was helpful. Sorry if I missed that earlier. I was walking through it myself in my brain. Okay. Thank you very much, Ms. Hampton;Ms. Freeman, and Mr. Lin, thank you. MR. ONISHL Chair, one last question. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Onishi. MR. ONISHL So you mentioneit's a pilot project; So if it is successful, will CTAHR need to continue getting funding from the County? MS. HAMPTON: At this time Idon't anticipate a need for funds, and the university has expressed their support for this program, and we've discussed the passibility of them providing some funding to give us for example a program assistant to help'this keep running:, So at this point, no we don't anticipate needing additional County funds to run this. If we did, we would probably be poking for,different funding sources to say expand, because the plan is to pilot this on the Big Island and then expand it to the rest of the state. MR. ONISHL Okay. So just for the record then, this could be a possibility of just a one-time funding so that the public can know that it won't be a continuous funding for the next five years maybe. Okay. MS. HAMPTON: Yes, yes. That is the goal. MR,. ONISHL Thank you. I yield, Chair. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. MR. LIN: And Chair, if I may just add one thing. The total budget for this project is $29,610. So we're providing $14,000 of that. So roughly a little less than half. Page 18 FC-11 May 20,2025 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, perfect. Thank you, Mr. Lin. Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing and seeing none. Motion is on the floor to forward Resolution 180-25 to Council with a favorable recommendation. All in favor? Vote on Res. 180-25: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 180-25 was (Approved) carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace,' Kagiwada, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Klenfelder—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Kimball„- 1. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER; Next item please. Res. 181-25: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI`I OFFICE OF RESEARCH SERVICES Allows the County to provide a$125,000 grant to the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resource Center for permits and preliminary research to develop an aquaculture project in Hilo Bay. Reference: Comtn. 290 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kieriewicz moved to recommend adoption of Res. 181-25. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEI NFELDER: Deputy Director Lin, Mr. Sako, go ahead when you're ready. Give us an overview. (Note: At this time, Research and Development Deputy Director Dennis Lin and Economic Specialist for Agriculture Glenn Sako came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. LIN- Thank you. I've already said my part earlier. But I'll let Glenn, our Agricultural Specialist, give you the history regarding this project and how it came to this point. MR. SAKO: Good morning. Glenn Sako, Economic Development Specialist working with the agricultural industry. The Department of Research and Development has supported the Pacific Aquaculture Resource Conservation Center in the past with an experiment in Hilo Bay regarding the bivalve experiment. It was through this experiment that we started talking. I was talking with Dr. Maria Haws, Director of the center, and also Rhiannon, as you heard Page 19 FC-11 May 20,2025 earlier. And so we were talking about the opportunities for bivalve production in the bay and at some point there was this, I guess a realization or a discussion that the average person who wants to raise oysters would not be able to handle, I don't think, the time and resources needed to get the permits to grow oysters in the bay. And so the thought was, you know, we should set up something like the state ag parks where you have the permits in place, it's managed by an entity, a private citizen could join the, let's say if a cooperative is managing that part, that average person could join the cooperative, sign up for a lease, pay„for whatever that lease amount is, and get their equipment; learn how to grow oysters or bivalves, or limu, for the matter and participate in an economic development project that would help to also bioremediate our waters in'Hilo Bay, train the youth to participate in aquaculture, which is the second largest agriculture in the state. And that's how some of this started moving forward. And the realization was that we would need funding to go through this process. We have some preliminary data we need to collect. It's a process that will take time, but we need to take the first step at some print. And the idea was that all of you could someday look out your window and see the first open water bivalve or limu production in the bay. Thank you. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you.-Council Members? Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you,Chair.' Thank you for bringing this forward. Just wondering is;there any—I guess you haven't entered into the actual agreement because that's what you're asking for here. But could you please when you do so make sure that the Pacific Agricultural and Coastal Resource Center (PACRC) does collaborate or communicatewith the folks working on the Hilo Bay watershed project so that those two work together and not at odds with each other because I'think that there,is going to be a lot of work coming out of that end of things and thi8 is almost like a potential solution to the plan that they're putting in place. So it's a little bit putting the cart before the horse, which I think it's okay, but as long as they communicate really well. So this is just a request from me personally, if you could make sure that when you do start to discuss the agreements that you put in there somewhere that they will work or they will collaborate in some way with that group so that we don't waste our time and our funds doing something that might not be in sync. Okay? MR. SAKO: Okay. MS. KAGIWADA: I'm very much supportive of this. Thank you so much. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz. Page 20 FC-11 May 20,2025 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Sako, Deputy Lin, and all the folks that, you know, were involved in this. It sounds like it took many years to get to this point but there are still many, many years ahead to actualizing this aquaculture park. And I love the idea of it being modeled after the state and park where there are leases, permits, available to folks that are interested in pursuing this kind of work. I'm interested if Rhiannon is still on Zoom, if she's able to speak to the role that Waiwai Ola Water Keepers will be playing in this proj ect. (Note: At this time, Representative of Waiwai Ola Waterkeepers Rhiannon Chandler-`Iao came forward'to address the members of the Committee.) MS. CHANDLER-`IAO: Aloha, Council Member. Thank you so much for your question. This is Rhiannon Chandler-`Iao. Waiwai Ola Waterkeepers has partnered with UH Hilo in implementation of seven different oyster projects throughout the state and unfortunately due to,COULD (Coronavirus Disease) and other challenges over the past year, we shave ended Waiwai Ola. But in order to preserve a lot of the gains that were made during that time of focusing on our nature waters and our water quality, I've continued to do some of that work around education and outreach regarding the potential for bioremediation to be used to address some of the watershed pollution thatwe see. And so I now work closely with Dr. Maria Haws and have been talking with Glenn Sako about the potential for the ability of our beautiful'shellfish and limu to support the restoration,of the waters of Kilo Bay. We did spend a let of time as you know, Council Member Kierkiewicz, testing the water with Hilo Bay Waterkeepers and so we do have results from the past. We'd like to compare that to current results and other results from the University of Hawaii that have been taken,from the area. Unfortunately we are a little bit filling in the gaps of the Department of Health (DOH), who just frankly does not have the staffing:and resources to provide the type of information that I believe our public needs heath for recreation and for public health. And so the information that we are seeking through this project is really about assessing the health of both the water itself to carry the shellfish and limu in the future and also whether or not we should be apprehensive about shellfish and limu that are growing in the bay. You know, in a perfect world I think the Department of Health would be doing tissue analysis on our different marine resources and be able to communicate to us the public health impacts of ingesting those things. But as we all know, the Department of Health does not do any tissue analysis and does not do regular public communication about the specific health in different regions. And we do see fishing occurring in high volume on our shorelines and especially in Hilo Bay. And another opportunity of this proposal is to really determine whether or not that is, I guess the word in advisable, whether that's healthy for our families. And if it is determined that the water cannot support our Page 21 FC-11 May 20,2025 seaweed and shellfish as proposed then it allows us to take an actually big step back and look at how the water quality may be impacting the health of residents that are relying on Hilo Bay for subsistence. So I wanted to also note that when we talk about Hilo Bay we are looking at the bay inside the break wall in terms of this study because we understand the legacy both contamination and the fact that the water doesn't circulate as well as it should because of the tsunami wall. But when we're speaking about the potential for both bioremediation and aquaculture more broadly, I think that goes to the entire Hilo Bay region even outside the wall where you all know there are very beautiful fish ponds and other resources along the coast that have been supporting traditional forms of aquaculture for a very long time. And so as the Council Member noted, we would definitely be working closely with the watershed group as it is taking up its new kuleana to look at the bay and working in cooperation with those efforts. But I definitely appreciate everybody's thoughtful consideration. We do not want to take any steps that would be in any way,offensive or, you know, not in alignment with what is the needs of our community or our environment. And so I appreciate you giving,us the opportunity to speak today. Mahalo. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Rhiannon. I mean, I warms my heart to know you're involved because you do have so much experience and expertise working in this space and I just appreciated all the additional details about this project. So it sounds like this idea is viable. This funding will allow for further research to see is it truly viable without having a negative impact on public health and the environment. So it really sounds like a proof of concept. When Rhiannon was talkingabout some of the testing that would be occurring, do we already have the permits to do that'Soft of testing the growing of the oysters and limu in smaller quantities or is that something that we're going to be doing as part of this process? Who issues that permit too, by the way; is that Army Corp of Engineers? MS. CHANDLER-JAO: Thank you, Council Member. Yes. So the university is working on,a parallel project, which is a feasibility study to take a look at just exactly what we talked about the shellfish and limu to grow in small quantities only for a feasibility for their growth potential and their tissue sampling. And so from there we will be able to take a bigger step forward. There are not permits needed for the testing per se; but there are permits needed as you mentioned from the Army Corp of Engineers to be able to approve a small mooring buoy that would be in the bay subsurface so that it is not in defile traffic. We have consulted with the Coast Guard, with the Office of Coastal Lands, which protects the coastal zone and conservation lands. We have an SAP, which is a special activity permit with the DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources). We have a plant quarantine permit. These are the permits that we maintain through the UH. Page 22 FC-11 May 20,2025 This is separate from what the request is before you today and I don't want to muddy the water at all. But I just wanted to explain that we do have some preliminary steps going through the university and what Glenn Sako is proposing today on behalf of the County would be a step forward on this based on the gains and research and data produced with the university in the preliminary study that I just mentioned. Thank you so much for your question. Mahalo. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Mr. Sako, when do you anticipate this research and analysis project to be completed by? MR. SAKO: You're talking about the current, I mean, for this? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So it talks about the $125,000 securing permits conducting research and analysis. When will that wrap'up; when will we get a report to know if this is something that we're going to be pursuing or not? MR. SAKO: Okay. So if this resolution goes forward, part of this as Rhiannon had mentioned, is on piggybacking on their current research to expand it. Otherwise, as far as permits, you know,part of it as I put in this scope of services would involve looking into any economic environmental assessments that would be needed. And the thought is that, you know,because we're on a one year, typically it's a one year contract, we may not be able to finish all of this within the year going through the permit process so I would have to abut we would have an update or a progress report for the Council and it would probably take about two years, hopefully, based onAhiannon's experience and going through this whole permitprocess right now. MS.'KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Thank you. Appreciate you both for being here. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Onishi. MR. ONISHL So would anyone know about the research that they did many years ago like in 2010? Now this Pacific Aquaculture or Coast Resource Center, is that the facility that is at the old wastewater facility by Puhi Bay? MR. SAKO: That's correct. MR,. ONISHL Okay so back then there was a doctor from the university or a professor that was looking into studying about cleansing the water at Hilo Bay using oysters and that was the discussion back in like 2010 when I was on the Council. I met with them before. Is this the same project that you folks are looking for it and moving this forward? MR. SAKO: Are you referring to Director Hopkins? Page 23 FC-11 May 20,2025 MR. ONISHL He was there. Kevin Hopkins was there but had someone else; a lady that was talking about the oysters. And then she also had at the time got Representative Jerry Chang, if I'm not mistaken, involved in the discussion about this project. MR. SAKO: That might be Dr. Haws. There she is. Maybe Dr. Haws can explain. MR. ONISHL Yeah. Hi. Can you introduce yourself and was it you that we met with way back and you talked about this whole think about the oysters cleansing the Bay Front? (Note: At this time, Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resource Center President Maria Haws came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. HAWS: Yes. Aloha, everybody.,,And thank you for that question, Council Member. So my name is Maria Haws. I serve as a professor of aquaculture at UH Hilo and I am based at the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resource Center, which is at the old wastewater treatment plant, So I think I'm the person you're referring to and we did meet many, many years ago. So this is actually part of kind of an evolution of an„ongoing effort since about 2010 when we started a state wide initiative to try to start shellfish farming in Hawaii as a state. And of course we focus a lot of our efforts here in Hilo. So we did startlooking at the bay in about 2012 when we started doing the first experiments with pacific oysters: One of the interesting things we found was that the pacific oyster actually has the highest documented growth rate in the world in Hilo Bay., ,So they grow very quickly there. So that kind of gave us hope that, you know, it would be an adequate place to grow oysters but also our native species. We have over 220 species of shellfish in Hawaii and a lot of them not been:fully tested for either aquaculture or for restorative aquaculture. So again, this has been going since about 2012, and it's been leading up to our current research and then the initiative that's being proposed by R&D. I hope that answers your question. MR. ONISHL No. It does. But my question too is why is it taking so long? MS:'HAWS: Because there's a lot of unknowns and a lot of steps we have to go through and also we're working with multiple species. So again, we have over 220 species we could potentially be using in Hilo Bay. Also, the other thing that I kind of think is interesting is that we started off with shellfish. We weren't really thinking about limu at the time. And so limu is kind of a recent addition to the idea that we could be hopefully capturing and recycling nutrients that are in Hilo Bay. So we're working with Dr. Carla McDermid, who is a renown marine plant specialist. She's in the Marine Science Department at UH Hilo. So we started Page 24 FC-11 May 20,2025 doing that about two years ago and she has actually developed land base culture methods for about five species of our native limu. So why is it taking a long time? Well, partly because of funding but we also had a long hiatus in our efforts because of COVID. We really couldn't be active in the bay for about three years and then we didn't have funding. So we just got a new grant, a small grant that lets us continue some of this research and then again we're trying to revive this and work with R&D to expand it to include more people that could potentially benefit from this effort; MR. ONISHL You know, I understand what you're saying but, you know, every time people use COVID as an excuse of these delays. l mean, we need to stop using that term already and just move on; But like you said, it started in 2012; COVID came in what 2019 or 2018? So that's seven years. ,Then COVID is gone after 2022; 2021; that's another three years now. So but I do support it because back then I did support what your ideas was and I felt it was great, right, as another entity that we can use to help stimulate our economy. But the other thing I wanted to ask, and I don't know if Dr. Haws`would know or I don't think R&D might know because this was back then. They had a study about how to cleanse Hilo Bay Front, and that was about breaking sections of the break water. What ever happened to that'study? MR. SAKO: Councilman,my understanding was that that was a study put out by Army Corp of Engineers and that'I think if I recall correctly, it wouldn't make the impact,that:they were hoping for and therefore it did not move forward beyond than study. MR. ONISHL And who initiated,that study; was it like the state or the County requested Army Corps to do it? MR. SAKO:,:Well I think at that time, if I recall correctly, I think it was under Mayor Kim on his second time. MR. ONISHL So maybe the County, we should be looking into it again like to see other alternatives because like you said, they did do a research but maybe they could look into something better that could help cleanse that area. You know, I don't know if they were just focusing on one issue or one solution, but maybe we ean'request to see if they can go back and see if there's other solutions like for example, of the mouth of the Suisan, that open area, right, the sand or the sediments that accumulate there, there were studies done that there were other options to deal with that problem because supposedly all that comes around; the coast comes into the bay, comes around along the Bay Front area and then it settles right there. so then they put that little break water, right. Supposedly it's supposed to stop that, but it never did. And now nobody's doing anything about it again. So I'm just kind of looking at that on that part. Page 25 FC-11 May 20,2025 We talk about this development, but have you guys ever looked into NELHA; having these projects done in NELHA (Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority)? MR. LIN: So I have not, but I have a board meeting with NELHA at 2:00 today and I can ask for some historical inquiries about whether or not that was feasible on the Kona side. MR. ONISHL Yeah, because they also mentioned about growing limu. I know like certain limu that you need to have water movement of water, right. So if we have it in Hilo Bay I don't know if that would.work because I've seen where in NELHA they did raise like certain limu for I guess medical purposes and then also my client with Big Island Abalone,they raise this certain limu for the abalone to eat and the water always had to be moving. You have something to say? MR. SAKO: Yeah. I wanted to add to your question about, you know, if we considered using NELHA as a site. The idea for having it in Hilo Bay was that we wouldn't have any inputs aside from your time and labor because it's out there in the ocean which would naturally be the source of food for the oysters or bivalves or limu, and the tither part is that the whole ideaa was to have the community, or the small private citizen be able to participate in an aquaculture venture whereas with NELHA is a larger business operation that requires more resources. MR. ONISHf: Well I have to go into that because they had experimental projects down at NELHA like for example, the octopus but it never went through. You knew about that? MR. SAKO:, Well yeah: But there's also pushback. MR.'ONISHL Something small; yeah, right. Also there was pushback But then there is also where they can offer for experimental projects, right. But to me, it a great idea like I said from before I always supported it so I will continue to support this, but it's just that to look at different options. And like I mentioned before about limu, to my understanding certain ones you do need that movement of the water, you know, in order to I guess grow and expand. So I think that Research and Development should maybe be talking to these other people you're partnering with to kind of make them understand or they should know. And so don't go doing the same thing over and over, right, move forward. Okay. MR. SAKO: Okay. Well, we do have Dr. McDerman, who Dr. Haws had mentioned who does work on that limu. MR. ONISHL Okay. Thank you. I yield. Page 26 FC-11 May 20,2025 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. MS. VILLEGAS: Chair? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. Just a couple questions here from Kona. Lots of great questions from my colleagues. Thank you so much. We've gone over a lot of the things that I have wondered about. I have some concerns based on the testifier and some of the questions they raised, and I guess,any first question would be it's been implied by some of the testimony that the University of Hawaii aquaculture people were the last ones to be informed and,can you confirm what the process was and how this has moved forward and there is authentic alignment in the funding and the project? MR. LIN: Thank you for your question, Council Member Villegas, I think as we've discussed here, it's been an ongoing collaboration with R&D'and PACRC or the university on this project regarding the'oysters and just the cleaning of Hilo Bay. So I don't think the university was the last one to know as they've been the ones providing us with the input to craft this proposal. But I think we also have the university online that can also answer any questions. But that is my understanding. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. That will suffice. I got it. I just needed to ask the questien,because it was put out there by some constituents. Is there an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) necessary then to move forward with this prof eet? MR. LIN: There will be an environmental assessment done so that's one of the first steps that needs to be done before we can even apply for permits. MS. VILLEGAS.;Great. Thank you. And I do appreciate Council Member Onishi bringing upNELHA and all of the facilities that are there. I had myself visited the limu propagation projects down there and them. You know, we have such a diverse island with such diverse ecosystems on land and also in the ladder by what will thrive in these arenas. I really excited to hear about the potential to use oysters and other shellfish to clean Hilo Bay,which is in dire need and has been for years. I don't want the concept of filter feeding shellfish to in any way dilute or give the impression that the continued pollution of the bay should be allowed. These little critters can only clean up so much. So I just want to keep that at top of mind as we move forward with decisions being made about what happens on land, how it affects the bay. And I'm not sure if limu, as Council Member Onishi was talking about, will be able to thrive in that kind of an ecosystem because of the water, but I am grateful for what's being done here at NELHA. And I think because of the diversity on our island, there is opportunity for us to utilize both of these spaces and it would Page 27 FC-11 May 20,2025 be nice to have something both on the east and the west side that is moving us forward not only in keeping our oceans clean or cleaning them up from what we have done so far, but also propagating native Hawaiian limu species which have value economically, have incredible value for our health and wellbeing as humans and other species and being potential food items, additives, for other creatures. So thank you for your work on this. I believe all my questions have been answered and I'll be supporting this moving forward today. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. I also commend this project. You know, I think developing just a diversity of potential food sources, it's really, really important going forward. I just wanted to add a couple of datapoints like people speaking of NELHA. There actually is a business there;Kona Shellfish,that actually produces broodstock for oysters. And it's kind of a sad story in'a,way. n I mean, it's a fantastic business; it's wonderful that we have it. But the reason that we have it is because most of that broodstock gels shipped to the Pacific Northwest where they are no longer capable of producing their own native broodstock because the water is not cold enough anymore. So it's kind of a climate change story which is very sad;but also an opportunity,for our island to have some economic development. And the other datapoint isthat Kuloa Ranch has a very successful program selling oysters out of their local ESO (Education Services Officer), folks that we can learn froth on this. So thanks very much for bringing this forward. CHR. KANEALI'l-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you„Chair. Deputy Director, I'm going to ask you the same question on:the last one. What is the intention of this resolution? MR.LIN: Same intention is to enter into a contractor agreement with University of Hawaii. MR. INABA: Okay. MR. LIN- That's the first step before we can even allocate funds; anything. We would have to go into that contract with the University of Hawaii because it's an intergovernmental agreement. MR. INABA: So is it your intention to be back here with a different resolution to authorize the $125,000 grant? MR. LIN: Correct. At a later point, yes. Page 28 FC-11 May 20,2025 MR. INABA: Okay. I'm seeing where we can do both in one step, so perhaps we can speak offline. I don't see where there would be disagreement based on the conversation that happened today. So let's review that. And then I think I just had come conversation with Corporation Counsel making sure that if that is going to be the approach that we do have our title and our enacting clauses accurately reflecting that we are giving funds because it seems that way but it's unclear at this time. So let's touch base before Council. Thank you. MR. LIN: Yeah, I appreciate that, Chair. Thank you'. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Is Ms. Haws still on? MS. HAWS: Yes. I'm here. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Beautiful. Does the university or do you know if there's been a right of entry granted for Hilo Bay by University of Hawaii? MS. HAWS: It wouldn't be granted by the University of Hawaii. For our research we've applied for permits to do our activities in Hilo Bay. Is that what you meant? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That is what I meant. Is that with DLNR? MS. HAWS: 'Yeah. So there's multiple agencies. Yeah, so one is DLNR; there's DAR (Divisi6n'of Aquatic Resources), and then we have the other permits that Rhiannon Chandler-`Iao mentioned earlier, like a special activities permits, you know, so forth. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And those have been applied for or those have been granted by DLNR? MS. HAWS: We're still in the process of getting the final approval. And I think Rhiannon,Chandler-`Iao could probably comment on exactly where that is right now. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: No. That's okay. I'm just wondering if you made those steps. Were you aware or did you follow thesorry, I'm skimming to the top, I'll get you the right name. The project that Maui took on in the Maui Harbor; Maui Nui Marine Resources Counsel; doing the same thing? MS. HAWS: Yes. Yes. So it was very similar. So that was spearheaded by Rhiannon when she was with the Waiwai Ola Hawaiian Waterkeepers, and we did supply the oysters for that. So it is fairly similar. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What was the outcome of that study? Page 29 FC-11 May 20,2025 MS. HAWS: I think they also had desisted in holding oysters probably I think because funding. Although I'm not really sure exactly why. They did show a good growth. There was some mortality there probably because of freshwater runoff. But they did have, I think, a pretty good long phase of success with that. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MS. HAWS: I can point out there's been multiple sites around Hawaii including the oyster farms that we've supported the establishment of. So this is not exactly—it's definitely proof of concept in moving towards feasibility assessment. But we're not starting from zeros I mean, we do know that oysters, various species of oysters do grow well in different conditions in Hawaiian waters. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I agree. I was thinking about what you said. I was looking over some of the research that's been done to date and I'm more making the statements to the department as well that this isn't the first time this has been done. It's been done across;the state. And I think more so as we discuss today watershed restoration, I think from yourself, Ms. Haws, that filter- feeders like oysters won't solve the pollution,crisis in Hilo Bay. There may be a piece of it, but the more important problem is addressing cesspools. MS. HAWS: Agreed. It's a great Way to focus public attention on the issue. CHR,IANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Agreed. So we have an idea that has potential_ We also have proof of concept that's been done across different counties in similar circumstances, maybe in a different watershed environment. We have a potential for economic stimulus. And I like all those components,just making sure that,we're all on the same page as we put$125,000 towards something�that may or may not have already been done in different places. But liking the idea: Does that make sense to the department? Is there any one entity7�,actually let me start with this; is there an agreement already? Do you have an,MOA (Memorandum of Agreement)? Because it's not with the document that we have. I love it when you have the enter into an agreement. MR. LIN. No. We're in the process of drafting something but there's no agreement yet. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. The reason I'm asking is the idea from Council Member Inaba, which is this would be a grant provided to another parry not potentially be Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resource Center. Is that correct? MR. LIN: It would be the university. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It goes directly to the university? Page 30 FC-11 May 20,2025 MR. LIN: Directly to the university to this program to do the work. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So not a third parry? MR. LIN: Not a third parry. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. That's good. One of my big projects I ran for my previous work was the shellfish operation in Hawaiian Paradise Park, and they actually grow oysters for the rest of the world and ship them out. And as we put on the solar system, I gotto see their entire operation. Really cool; really neat and amazing what they do out there in Paradise Park using well water that they popped through the lens of our freshwater in Paradise Park and gone to saltwater, and they're pumping that up to run their tanks. Very interesting. But I didn't realize how much of an economic impact they have in a place like Paradise Park to the rest of the world on the oyster industry. So that was incredible. So seeing us move in this direction, I like it. But I'm,also wanting to make sure we're not focusing on one entity through a roundabout way because I don't like that. Okay. Okay. That'answers all my questions. Thank you. Council Members, any further discussion? Beautiful. Thank you very much, Ms. Haws. Thank you very much, Rhiannon and Mr. Lin and Mr. Sako. We have a motion,on''the floor to forward Resolution 181-25 to Council with a favorable recommendation. All iwfavor? Vote on Res. 181-25: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 181-25 was (Approved) carried by the following~voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Kgiwada, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder—8. Noes: None. 'Absent: Committee Member Kimball — 1. Excused: None. Res. 182-25: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAI`I, HAWAI`I HOUSING FINANCE AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION Allows,for the receipt of$1,977,568 of federally-derived funds to be used towards the Kuakini Heights Affordable Housing Project. Reference: Comm. 292 Intr. by: Council Member Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to recommend adoption of Res. 182-25. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. Page 31 FC-11 May 20,2025 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Administrator Costa, are you going to be speaking on this one? Great to see you. Thank you. I just want to note that this resolution, we are receiving $1.9 million from the federal government the HOME ARP (American Rescue Plan)program. Your office solicited some RFPs (Request for Proposal) for this funding; didn't get any applications. So a decision was made with the approval State HHFDC (Hawai`i Housing Finance and Development Corporation)to utilize these fundings for affordable housing rental units, 100 of them, in Kona, Kuakini Heights. Am I missing anything? (Note: At this time, Housing Administrator Kehaulani Costa came forward to address the members of the Committee.), MS. COSTA: No. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. And them how long will these rentals be available to folks? MS. COSTA: So it's a 20 year affordability agreement. That's what you're asking? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: The $1.9 millionwill go towards these rental units. This is to offset certain costs? MS. COSTA:_Yes. So this is a development project in Kailua-Kona above Lowes; anticipating breaking ground this year; 100 units. So this is an additional subsidy,with LIHTC (Low-Income Housing Tax Credit) and other funds. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great: Just another piece in the capital stack. MS. COSTA: Yeah. Yes. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. And then is there a list of individuals that are waiting for housing in this particular area that meet the qualifications for this kind of housing unit? MS. COSTA: So when this property is developed and ready for getting close to lease up, they'll open a waitlist. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Got it. MS. COSTA: Just an existing waitlist, it would be Section 8, but this is not Section 8 housing per se. So they'll open a waitlist and there will be interest. Sixty percent and below AMI(Area Median Income). Page 32 FC-11 May 20,2025 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Got it. Great. I'm just going to make note of that here. Thank you very much. In full support. Thank you, Chair. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. MS. VILLEGAS: Chair. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. I just want to thank Administrator, thank you Department of Housing for following through with this. I'm very excited. This was the project that came before us a few years ago with Makani from the Ahe Group and I'm really grateful to see that'this funding has come forward and shall be moving forward with this project. So thank you for all your work, Administrator Costa. Yeah. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDM Thank you.,, Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Also very supportive. Just a couple questions on the timing of things. So this was originally something that you went after several years ago and gotg is that right? And,you're trying to get it out the door I take it as soon as possible. My understanding is that this HOME program is potentially going away. Is that correct? And then is there any possibility that this money can be clawed back from the federal government or at what point do we know thatit cannot be clawed back? I guess that would be my final question. MS. COSTA: The funding is secure. We need to appropriate by September to utilize these funds, and our HOME funds are allocated to us every three years. So it's on a three year rotation; federal to state, HHFDC. And so this is part of that, this past allocation. MS. KAGIWADA; So this was the 2021, but you're getting your part in 2025 as part of that three year`s MS. COSTA: Yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Got it. Okay. And it's secure as it is right now; there's no possibility of being clawed back? NfS. COSTA: Yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. And is it true that the HOME project may be going away? MS. COSTA: I have not heard that. Page 33 FC-11 May 20,2025 MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. MS. COSTA: Yeah. I have not heard that HOME will be going away. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. But this funding is secure? MS. COSTA: Yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Terrific. Thank you. I'm' very supportive and happy to be seeing that we'll be getting, you know, it's a 20-year affordability. I hope we can think about, you know, potentially extending that after that period. I know that it's something that we've been thinking about and tallying about. But yeah, good that it's at least 20 years to get us going. And I'm happy to be seeing that there'll be 100 units for people over on the Kona side to afford. Thank you. Appreciate it. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDM Thank you. Ms. Costa. Thank you for being here today. What happens at the end of the 20 years? Just remind me. MS. COSTA: Yeah so,I'll be retired by then... CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Hopefully we all will be. MS. COSTA: You know, this is'a LIHTC project. I'm not really familiar with what happens with LIHTC projects after 20 years. But typically they can renew their LIHTC funding, and they can extend affordability past the 20 years. That's typically what I see in our multi-family housing that they don't necessarily go to market'. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEIFELDER: Okay. MS. COSTA: Yeah. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'll follow up with you afterwards. Thank you. S. COSTA: Yeah. M :'VILLEGAS: Chair? CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. If I remember correctly,when Makani came and presented to us the plans were for longer than 20 years for this project. I want to say 60 years, but I may be misquoting. But if I remember correctly that was one of the things that made this project even more exceptional was she was taking on Page 34 FC-11 May 20,2025 a longer timeframe to ensure that these units remained in circulation in an affordable capacity. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you. MS. COSTA: Thank you. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, I'll follow up with you later, Ms. Costa. Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing,and seeing none. Motion is on the floor to forward Resolution 182-25 to Council with a favorable recommendation. All in favor? Vote on Res. 182-25: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 182-25,was (Approved) carried by the following voice vote: „ Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Inaba, Kierkiewic2, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair KAneali'i-Kleinfelder—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Kimball - 1. Excused: None, Res. 183-25: AUTHORIZES INDEMNIFICATION OF CURRENT AND FORMER COUNTY EMPLOYEES NAMED AS,INDIVIDUALDEFENDANTS IN THE LAWSUIT KNOWN AS°ARYN MITSUO'YOSHIDA, ET AL. V. COUNTY OF HAWAI`I ET AL., CIVILNO. 3CCV-23-0000038 AGAINST ALL DAMAGES ASSESSED Reference; Comm. 293 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Ap�rove: Ms. kierkiewicz moved to recommend adoption of 'Res. 183-2.5. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ms. Heroldt, thank you for joining us today. Wanna give us a brief overview and then we'll go to questions if there are any. (Note: At this time, Deputy Corporation Counsel Lerisa Heroldt came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. HEROLDT: Sure. Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. So just as a matter of background, you're familiar that with Deputy Corporation Counsel's coming to Council seeking a settlement authority and we go the Counsel's executive session for that. Today we're here to get approval through Counsel's adoption of a resolution as Hawaii County Code 2-188 requires for the Page 35 FC-11 May 20,2025 County to indemnify six individual County employees or former County employees that were named as individual defendants in the Yoshida lawsuit. We're seeking a resolution allowing County to pay for on behalf of those individual defendants the settlement amount that was agreed to. And really what this resolution does is it finds a public purpose in paying public monies for these individual defendants. Now let me just talk about what the difference is between 'suing the County and a County employee in their official capacity versus suing a County employee in their individual capacity. When a County employee is sued individually, what the plaintiffs are alleging is that the County employees acts went beyond negligence, went beyond the scope of the official capacity and were define basically with malice and reckless disregard. And so in those instances the conditional privilege, which is provided to County employees acting in their official capacity as immunity from negligence, that n6 longer applies because what plaintiffs are alleging is that the County employees weren'I just,negligent, they Were worse than that. And so the plaintiffs are looking to go to the individuals pocketbook. This resolutions made under 2-188 to determine four different things that allow the County to find a public purpose; allow Council to find a public purpose for the spending of these monies. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you very much. Questions from the Council. Mr. Onishi. MR. ONISHf: Thanks, Chair. For my discussions, I think it would be better if e went into an'executive session for these questions I might ask. So it's my recommendation that we go into executive session. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEI NFELDER: Okay. I'm just going to check in. Mr. Brown, we have our next committee started actually ten minutes ago. How would you like to proceed with just understanding Mr. Onishi's request? MR. BROWN: That's up to the body. I think we could table some of this, enter the next committee and take up some in there and hopefully find time within the schedule to get back and bring it back to the table. However, we also have to consider we have the public hearing at 5:00 p.m. today for our budget. So, you know, there's a lot on the agendas today. That's kind of up to you and how you guys want to do that. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. To Mr. Onishi and to the body, this will be heard again at Council. Correct, Ms. Heroldt? MS. HEROLDT: Yes, on the fourth I believe, of June. Page 36 FC-11 May 20,2025 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So Mr. Onishi, maybe at that time we can do a special? MR. ONISHL Yeah. Or maybe Chair can agendize the executive session from this discussion? MR. INABA: Yes. If we need to get into executive session at Council we can do so. MR. ONISHL Okay. Thank you. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Would,thatwork? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Onishi; thank you, Ms. Heroldt. Thank you for understanding our schedule today and that we're a little behind. Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Yeah,just a quick question. Making sure I understand;we are paying on behalf of those individuals that this resolution is trying to,indemnify? MS. HEROLDT: Correct. MR. INABA: But that amount that was already authorized, shouldn't this have come before because that amount already was approved and it's covering those people? MS. HEROLDT: This resolution is separate from the actual amount. It's irrespective of the amount. Arid there was a—it's a little awkward in this case because of the timing in the lawsuit and when the settlement conference was scheduled. I would have of course preferred to have this indemnification resolution; tohave that happen before. But I did not have enough time to have the two hearings. So it's a bits of an anomaly and I intend to not have this kind of—I intend to bring these types of resolutions well in advance of trial or settlement conference in the future. MR. INABA: Okay. And if this body should choose not to pass this resolution, that doesn't affect the ability of the County to give out the funds as was negotiated in the settlement negotiation? MS. HEROLDT: Correct. Correct. Yes. MR. INABA: Alright. Thank you. I yield. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Thank you, Council Members for the discussion. And Ms. Heroldt, thank you for your time. On the motion to forward Resolution 183-25; Council Members, all in favor? Page 37 FC-11 May 20,2025 Vote on Res. 183-25: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 183-25 was (Approved) carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Kimball — 1. Excused: None. BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES: Bills for Ordinances. Bill 54: AMENDS ORDINACE NO. 24-33, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR DULY 1, 2024 TO JUNE 30, 2025, Appropriates excess fuel tax revenues collected from fiscal years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 to the following projects totaling$1,493 554.75: Roadway Projects ($448,066.43), Bridge Inspection/Repair ($298,710.95), and Local Road Projects ($746,777.37). Funds for these projects shall be provided from fuel tax revenues, in excess of what was projected in Ordinance NNo. 23-18. Reference: Comm_ 291 Intr.by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to recommend passage of Bill 54 on first reading. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. IANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for joining us today, Ms. Kalua- Lewis. (,Note: At this time, Public Works Business Manager Kelsey Kalua-Lewis came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Hi. Good morning. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Want to run through just a real high-level summary and we'll see if anyone's got anything to say. NfS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yes, of course. So we are requesting to appropriate these excess revenues from Fiscal Year 2023 and Fiscal Year 2024. Basically that means that we received more revenues than we had budgeted for. So in order to use these excess funds we need to ask for appropriation. When we do request for excess funds, the way the money is divided is reflecting the original Page 38 FC-11 May 20,2025 Ordinance 24-18. So we use the exact same projects with the exact same percentages, and we did the 50150 split between our Highway Division and our Engineering Division. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ms. Kalua-Lewis. Questions from the Council. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Ms. Kalua-Lewis. How come it's many years after the fact that we are realizing that' 'we have excess fuel tax revenues? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yes. So normally we would come earlier in the fiscal year. Due to a lot of other projects and a lot of things happening we did not come to Council until now. Ideally it would be as soon as the books close for the last fiscal year that we would come and ask to appropriate the funds: MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. So this is excess funds for two different fiscal years? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yes. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And then'they are being applied to programs that were identified for Fiscal Year 2023-2024? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: According to the original Ordinance 24-18, yeah. 1 5: KIERKIEWICZ: I don't know the status of these projects but say a project is done? - - MS. KALTIA-LEWIS: Yeah, So I think it's beneficial that we do have those kind of, for lack of a better word, generic kind of projects in the Engineering. So if a specified project is completed, we could always do a project that falls under the more,generic categories. And of course, paving is always an ongoing, you know, effort by the Highways Division. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. That's helpful to know. Thank you for being here. I yield. M :KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah, you're welcome. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Aloha. Good morning. Could you just talk to me about the breakdown and local road improvements and how you break those percentages across the districts? Page 39 FC-11 May 20,2025 MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yes. So the proportion formula is based on the total road mileage. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: So it's the percentage of road miles in TMK (Tax Map Key) district equals the percentage of fuel tax revenue spent. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you for the clarification. Council Member Villegas, anything? MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha. Thank you. Yes. Just a quick question. As I look through and this good news that we have more money, correct, instead of having less. I wondered what—would there be a process. There's a road in Kona, Royal Poinciana, that has been pointed out to me a number of times. It's a direct artery route, mauka makai between Ali"i brive and the highway; connects up to Lako. There's a school there, there's a very large church, And we can follow up offline. But I just wanted to put this in there. I'wondered what the process would be in requesting that road be considered for some of this funding that would be in, I think, North Kona. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: So the way the projects are prioritized, I believe also for the paving and for the engineering is'the—we have a software. I think it's called Mandilly; something like that. I,apologize for not knowing that off the top of my head. But you can definitely reach out to our director and let him know your concerns. If it's not just resurfacing the road, it would probably fall more within Engineering's scope of work. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate that clarification. I'll reach out to Acting Director,Azevedo. Yes, thank you so much. I yield. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Ms. Kalua-Lewis. These funds are only applicable to projects that occur within the fiscal year the funding was collected or in excess of or no, it can move forward in other projects in the current fiscal year and beyond? MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah. So in the exhibit there's specific projects. But if we have upcoming roadway projects, bridge projects, that are in the works for this coming fiscal year, we can definitely use the funds. CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I like the conversation because the funds were an excess meaning that our revenue forecast for the fuel tax was actually under what it actually was. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yes. So back then when they forecasted the revenue we came in over what was anticipated. Page 40 FC-11 May 20,2025 CHR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: The actuals were over what we anticipated. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: The actuals were over what we anticipated. Yes. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Correct. And I think it's funny because I think there's a HiRUC (Hawai`i Road Usage Charge) meeting right now where they're discussing the impact of electric vehicles and it's decreased on our fuel tax revenues being brought in. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: Yeah, so that's definitely something that I, myself, have been trying to watch out for and see how those would impact our fuel tax. Like with anything else with forecasting and budgeting especially like with these excess funds, of course we can use it. It's revenues we've,already received and belong to the County. It's when we go'into the increments we strategize so that we're not spending money that we don't have. So if there is any;changes to our forecast for fuel tax revenues duo to HiRUC, we'll probably ere more on the side of caution when actually allotting some of the forecasted revenues. We usually don't like to allot before we receive. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Understood. Okay. Thank you. MS. KALUA-LEWIS: You're welcome. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, Council Members? Seeing nothing further, motion is on the floor—thank you, Ms. Kalua-Lewis MS: KALUA-LEWIS: Thank you, folks. CHR. IKANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: to forward Bill 54 to Council with a favorable recommendation: All in favor? Vote on Bill 54: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 54 on first (Approved), , reading was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Kimball — 1. Excused: None. CHR KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Bill 55 please. Page 41 FC-11 May 20,2025 Bill 55: AMENDS ORDINACE 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 Federal Grants —HOME-American Rescue Plan Program account($1,977,568); and appropriates the same to the HOME-American Rescue Plan Projects account($1,817,225) and HOME-American Rescue Plan Administration account($160,343), to be used towards the Kuakini Heights Affordable Housing Project. Reference: Comm. 292 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Vote on Bill 55: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved recommend passage of Bill 55 on (Approved) first reading. Seconded by Mi_"Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee MembersGalimba; Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Kaneali�`i-Kleinfelder—8. Noes: None: Absent: Committee Member Kimball' ' L,; Excused: None. ADJOURN- There being no further business on our agenda today, Chair Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder MENT: adjourned the meeting at 10:54 a.m. Thank you very much. Approved: Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Chair (Date) Finance Committee MK/tk Page 42