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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2025-06-05 2024-2026 Special Hawaii County Council 161h Session Special Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii June 5, 2025 INVOCATION: President Rajan Zed of Universal Society of Hinduism gave the morning's invocation. CALL TO The special meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at ORDER: 9:03 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Vice Chair Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. James E. Hustace, Member Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member Absent& Excused: Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member PLEDGE OF The Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of ALLEGIANCE: Allegiance. (At this time, County Clerk Jon Henricks led the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance.) PETITIONS, The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Petitions, MEMORIALS, Memorials, Certificates of Merit, and Expressions of Condolence. CERTIFICATES OF MERIT, AND (There were none.) EXPRESSIONS OF CONDOLENCE: Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Barbara Bell: Bill 32, Draft 3 (Comm. 159.46), in support. (representing Puako for Reefs) (See Comm. 159.144) Lisa DeSantis: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. (representing K6kua Harvest) (See Comm. 158.39) Patrick Hurney: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. (representing Hope Services (See Comm. 158.47) Hawaii) Jeff Silberman: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), comment. (representing K6kua Harvest) (See Comm. 158.65) Renee Rabb: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. (representing District 4 (See Comm. 158.40) Democratic Parry) Jimmy Trasport: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. Kali French: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. (representing Hope Services Hawaii) Charlotte Lager: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. (representing K6kua Harvest) Audrey Metzman: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. (See Comm. 158.59) Geneva Jackson: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. Kristin Albrecht: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. (representing The Food Basket) (See Comm. 158.68) Enola Kaneta: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. (representing The Food Basket) Chelsea Takahashi: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 158.21), in support. (representing The Food Basket) Kevin Hill: Bill 32, Draft 3 (Comm. 159.46), comment. Page 2 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of THE DAY the Day (Second or Final Reading). (SECOND OR FINAL READING): Bill 31: ESTABLISHES AN OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI`I (Draft 3) FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2025, TO JUNE 30, 2026 Draft 3 includes estimated revenues and appropriations of$953,288,869. Reference: Comm. 158.21 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Public Hearing: May 20, 2025 First Reading: May 22, 2025 and Comm. 158.22: From Council Member Jennifer Kagiwada, dated May 29, 2025, transmitting a (Memo No. 1) proposed amendment to the General Fund revenue and expenditure accounts by increasing the Fund Balance from Previous Year in the amount of$2 million and increasing the Agriculture Research and Development Other Current expenses, Miscellaneous Contractual Services in the amount of$2 million to add a new line item for Food Security Programs. (Note: The following proposed amendments to Bill 31, Draft 3, were circulated: 1. Comm. 158.23 from Council Member Jenn Kagiwada dated May 30, 2025; 2. Comm. 158.24 from Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder dated June 4, 2025; and 3. Comm. 158.25 from Council Member Heather L. Kimball dated June 5, 2025. Also, the following from Research and Development Deputy Director Dennis Lin were circulated: 1. Comm. 158.26 dated June 5, 2025, transmitting a list of impact grant award recipients for fiscal year 2024-2025; and 2. Comm. 158.27 dated June 5, 2025, transmitting a list of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) award recipients.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 31, Draft 3, on second and final reading. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kagiwada moved to amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 158.22. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much, Chair. I've been concerned about this issue for a little while. But it really came to the forefront when I reached out to community and learned about some of the specific cuts that are happening, but Page 3 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 also just some of the amazing programs that are out there that were not funded to get the most out of. So I was happy to hear some of the testifiers. And I know there were two pages of testimony that were sent in, much of it about the food security line item in the proposed $2 million. I want to say that much of the stuff is coming fast and furious. I think the Mayor did what he could with the information he had. But since he put his budget together, we've got more information about cuts, more information about things that we can do to improve situations for our residents here on our island. And so that's why I'm bringing this later than I might have. But I really wanted to be responsive to what I'm hearing in the community. I think the executive director here from The Food Basket talked about the $1.5 million that they are not getting any longer in Federal food support. I believe there is also $1 million for senior food programs that we recently found out we're not going to be getting. I want to highlight a couple of these programs, because I think they're amazing. Someone talked about the Malama Da Farmer program. This program was originally funded with ARPA funding. And working through our Research and Development Department, they devised a program with The Food Basket to really help our local farmers increase production. So they were already doing the work, but they needed a little help to just get more food out to our community. So they had $800,000, were able to grant. And those, I think,just went out at the beginning of this month, 32 farmers, some support. But my understanding is over 70 farmers actually met all the requirements, and were eligible to receive this funding, but they just ran out of funding. So we have a lot more farmers out there doing the work. Also, I was told that since it was ARPA funding, the requirements were that these farmers had to already have been doing farming in 2020. So all the new farmers, all the young farmers, all the farmers that had gone through like our Go Farm program, those things, they weren't eligible for this. So having some funding that could be a little bit more flexible than the ARPA funding, and could maybe really help our new farmers help to get that food grown here on our island. So helping our economy, helping our small businesses, but also then getting that food out to our people. Very important. Let's see. We have—who do we have here? I saw, I guess he left. Our Deputy Director of R&D (Research and Development) was here but is no longer here. I'm also wondering—we do have our Civil Defense Director. This is also, I believe, an issue for emergency preparedness. If we don't have food on our island when the ships stop coming, we are going to be in serious trouble. So I'm wondering, may I ask director Magno to come up? I have a couple questions for you. And then we'll get back to R&D now that he's back. Page 4 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 (Note: At this time, Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. MAGNO: Good morning, Council. Talmadge Magno, Civil Defense Administrator. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Administrator. I appreciate you being here. Just wanted to ask you a couple questions. One, what is the recommendation from your Administration for our island residents on food that they should have in order to deal with emergencies. So emergency supply of food, how many days are they supposed to have? MR. MAGNO: So we point out that the State recommendation is 14 days for supplies, understanding that 14 days is quite a bit of economic output, plus 14 days takes up a lot of storage space. So, if you're not able to do that, do what you can and the government will support whoever cannot come up with those supplies. MS. KAGIWADA: Right, okay. In your discussions that I know, like you just attended a really important training up in Volcano, do you have a sense of people's individual ability to do that, to have those emergency supplies on our island? MR. MAGNO: I think it's on the lower end, full-scale, some people are able to. It's kind of interesting. Some people have like a month's store beyond the 14 days. But other people, they kind of live paycheck to paycheck. So it's all over the place, understanding the government will have to take care of people during emergency times. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. So do you have an estimate of how many people that the government will have to take care of, that will basically have zero or very little food put aside? MR. MAGNO: No. But listening to the testimony, what was it, 40 percent have food insecurity issues. So that's probably around that level. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Do we have the ability to provide two weeks of food for 40 percent? MR. MAGNO: We will rely on on-island entities to provide food. Plus, if we're at that level, we definitely would be reaching out to the State, which gives us nexus to the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) stores. Page 5 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, all right. Thank you. I just wanted to get a sense, because I do feel like this is not only an issue of economic development and just basic food needs, but also an emergency preparedness issue. Do you have anything else to add? MR. MAGNO: Yeah. I spoke with the Mayor on this, and he understands the situation. And he and Managing Director and several others are going up to Washington to talk to Congress to see if we can get some relief from some of these loss of programs that we're possibly going to have. MS. KAGIWADA: Right. Okay. Thank you so much. MR. MAGNO: Thank you. MS. KAGIWADA: I appreciate your time. All right. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada, your buzzer went off. MS. KAGIWADA: Yup. Sure. CHR. INABA: So I'm going to check in. We're on the amendment. Any other discussion from members? Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: I know that we are in a very tight budget situation with a lot of the wastewater obligations that we have. And I feel very strongly about being very fiscally conservative, but this, I think, is probably the most important thing that I could vote on in my time here on this dais. In general, I think this is a great investment in something that I've felt that we needed to do before this. During the COVID (coronavirus disease) emergency, I advocated for investing in agriculture. But at that time, we were really looking at things in this very short- term,just get any kind of food to people. And the idea of building the ability to produce our own food was not something that people wanted to think about. And so this is kind of a situation where we have a little bit more time, potentially, to build our capacity. I think part of this, also this 2 million perhaps, depending on how things unroll, may need to be for more short-term food security, especially for the kupuna. But thinking more long-term, this kind of investment is going to help us for years and years. And hopefully, we'll build this into next year's budget so it doesn't need to be an amendment. I was part of the Malama Da Farmer grant review committee, and they did a fantastic job of running that program, especially as far as making it relevant and making it simple, and something that farmers could apply to. And there was way Page 6 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 more desire for asks than there were funds. And I think, if we can keep it going, there'll be even more because this was the first year. So those were the only, pretty much,people that were really clued in that knew about it. I also wanted to—amongst the two pages of testimony, there was a handI don't know if you folks saw this, but this one's really close to my heart—was the handwritten letter from the Pahala Senior Citizens Club, who I know a lot of them. And so they live ina lot of them live—well, they live in Pahala. A lot of them are in senior housing there. And so I just wanted to read a little bit from their letter: With the loss of vital Federal-funded kupuna services, such as the Kupuna Pantry Program, a line item for food securities crucially needed to prevent a hunger emergency among our kupuna population, especially those of us in rural areas, mahalo for standing up for the pillars of our community, our kupuna. Signed. And there's 18 folks there. Yes,just really wonderful people who contributed so much to our community over the years. So I think we should find the funding for this. I think it's strategic and smart to do this now, given what is coming down the line, or not coming down the line from the Feds. That's all for me. CHR. INABA: Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHL Thank you, Chair. Can I get Finance up here and then maybe R&D because since we're getting all these (inaudible). Yeah, so maybe you can help explain why are we getting this and what's this all about. (Note: At this time, Research and Development Deputy Director Dennis Lin came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. LIN: Hi. Dennis Lin, Deputy Director for Research and Development. So I provided you with two lists. One is the current impact grant list of organizations who've gotten impact grants for food security, food systems-related projects (see Comm. 158.26). The second list that was handed out is the list of ARPA contracts that are existing that go towards food systems, agriculture, and food security (see Comm. 158.27). So this gives you just a holistic view of what the County is already doing through either Federal funding that came down or through internal R&D funding that's already existing. Just giving you that as a bit of context for the Council Members. MR. ONISHL Okay. Now, it was mentioned about Federal funding might be cut in the future. What is your, I guess, notification from the Feds about this funding? MR. LIN: So ARPA isas long as we stay compliant and we continue to monitor the contracts that we have, we should be okay. But that's an ongoing Page 7 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 process that goes on until next year, end of 2026. So we work with Finance closely on the quarterly monitoring, and making sure that all of our subrecipients, as well as awardees, are following the Federal compliance guidelines. MR. ONISHL Thank you. Now, Financeso, basically, we're taking money out of the Fund Balance. And Fund Balance is usually funds that the departments save or they cut back on certain things. The gentleman mentioned about being more fiscally responsible, not spending all your funds, and so forth. Also, I think a majority of these funds that we have from the Fund Balance is through, I guess, open positions that are not filled right now, right. So it's all salaries and benefits, right. So maybe you can kind of explain a little, and then how in the past when you mentioned before about you folks were saving some of the funding to the Stabilization Fund and also the rainy day fund in case of these emergencies. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. NAKAGAWA: Good morning, Council Members. Diane Nakagawa, Finance Department. In an effort to provide as much information as possible this morning, some of this information was shared. It was asked for the different organizations how much money that the County provides in some of these areas. Now, it's not a comprehensive report, but it's just to get a picture of some of the different avenues that we have provided support to some of the nonprofits. As far as Fund Balance, we've talked about it at each of our budget meetings and the importance of the County being financially responsible and looking ahead, especially in the times that we are in, one, to make sure that our rainy day fund provides for those times of need. And, two, looking at the obligations, the significant historical obligations that the County has ahead of us that we've talked about at great length, specifically our wastewater applications that are in the billions, which is monumental for the County. So our Fund Balance, in the last reiteration of the budget, we did strategically put funding back into the Fund Balance and reduce the current year revenue amount for Fund Balance, and that is with the intention to not be reliant on Fund Balance, to provide those funds for a future need, and to keep that reserve in a place that is financially responsible and comfortable for the County. So, all of the actions that have been taken thus far in providing this draft budget has been thoughtfully and strategically planned out in all of these areas. It is difficult. There is not funding for everything, but careful consideration has been made in all of the areas that we talked about, and particularly to make sure that we are planning not just for year, but for future years to come. Page 8 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MR. ONISHL Now, maybe you can answer this. For our CIP (Capital Improvement Project) within our districts, where does that funding come from? Different sources? MS. NAKAGAWA: Historically, most of the CIP funding, we do have some State funding, sometimes Federal funding, but a lot of it does come from bond funding. Knowing that we have these big obligations this year, we looked at transferring some operating money into the CIP for those critical areas in the community, these projects that the community has been waiting for. So it's in order to balance those mandated projects, those significant mandated projects and our bond capacity, and taking some of that operating funds to fund some of our CIP projects. And that is kind of the list of priorities that the Mayor and Managing Director have gone through around the island. MR. ONISHL And sometimes, some of this funding that you folks have can go towards those projects. MS. NAKAGAWA: Sometimes, it can, in some of the repair and maintenance, and particularly Parks and Recreation or Public Works Department as well. MR. ONISHL Right. Okay. Because, I remember back when there were some funds within the fire administration. And Mayor at the time removed that and put it into CIP, and that's how Pana`ewa's covered courts got funded. It was like 3.5 million from those funds that they had. The other thing I wanted to ask was that we have these homelessness funds from Tier 2 property tax money collected. We could have amended that, right, to help remove maybe like I million, 2 million from there to help with food sustainability. That could have been possible? MS. NAKAGAWA: I'm sorry, could you ask your question again? MR. ONISHL Okay, so when they created that Tier 2 percentage I guess for homelessness, right, we could amend that to include food sustainability? MS. NAKAGAWA: Potentially. I mean, I think that's a discussion for the Council. MR. ONISHL I know but that's a possibility, right? Instead of us touching the Fund Balance, we could be touching that part of the pot. MS. NAKAGAWA: I know we've talked about what is included in the expenses in that area. I think that's a discussion that the Council would have to have, if that's something that you feel is an allowable expense from this fund. Page 9 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MR. ONISHL Right, okay. And I guess, also—well, I cannot say the other one, but okay. I'll yield for now, Chair. Thanks. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Council Member Kagiwada, for bringing the discussion forward about the challenges we're facing kind of at the national level, and impacts on our food systems and food security in our community. So mahalo. A couple questions for Deputy Director, if we don't mind starting there. The second one you gave us on the ARPA funds (see Comm. 158.27), these have a timeline though. We're not receiving these funds anymore. So this is one that does terminate this current fiscal year? MR. LIN: That would terminate next December 2026. MR. HUSTACE: And then these funds exist no longer after that. MR. LIN: Exist no longer after that. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Thank you. On the first one you shared with us with regards to the current fiscal year impact grants (see Comm. 158.26), thank you for sharing this. It doesn't really disclose the outcomes or deliverables from these programs. Is that somewhere available? MR. LIN: We can provide that. That's in their applications that were received. So we can provide that. For the impact grants, what we require of each applicant is an after-action, after the funding is gone, what is your goal going forward. Right? So, say we give them 25,000, it's not to fully fund their program, but it's to help them as a step up to help increase capacity or expand a program. But after that, they have to show how they're going to be sustainable long-term. MR. HUSTACE: And when do you kind of look at those goals, and if they've met the application? When do you kind of take that calculation into consideration on your end? MR. LIN: Yeah, that is aso impact grants are yearlong. So it would come in at their final report. But at any time, we can go in and ask the applicant what is the status if we feel that we need to get an update from them. MR. HUSTACE: Do we have some of that similar sort of information from the previous cycle too? MR. LIN: Well, there was no previous cycle last time. So this would be the new cycle, yeah. Because, the last one was done in 2022-2023, I believe. Page 10 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MR. HUSTACE: Okay. So kind of the distribution of funds, we haven't really seen the culmination, the outcome of these programs then, and what we've given to nonprofit organizations to expand capacity. MR. LIN: Right, for this round. Correct. MR. HUSTACE: Yeah, okay. So we don't really have that quite at the moment, then, ready to MR. LIN: Yeah. I can provide the Council with their applications and some of the comments on why we chose them. But we don't have, necessarily, as of right now, what their impact is because we're still going through the contract process. So, many of these have not even gone into contract yet, as we're getting all the documents to get them the funding. MR. HUSTACE: They haven't gotten the contract yet(inaudible)? MR. LIN: Not yet. Yeah, we're in the contract process. MR. HUSTACE: Okay, got it. Okay, thank you. Adding 2 million nearly doubles your budget for R&D. Different divisions within R&D have miscellaneous contractual services to a certain extent, but this really grows your department by a large capacity. MR. LIN: Fifty percent. MR. HUSTACE: Yeah. And what is your capacity to deliver on these contracts at that scale? MR. LIN: That's an excellent question because that's a question that I've been pondering since this amendment has come out. It's a great opportunity, although it is our goal to stay in line with the Mayor's budget. With the $2 million, our team is limited because we're trying to make sure that the ARPA contracts will stay within the monitoring compliance, because if we don't, the funds go back. There's $5.2 million in ARPA contracts within the food and agriculture sector that we've awarded. We don't want any of that to go back. So that's kind of the main priority, is we want to make sure those monies stay within our community. So that's kind of the capacity of our current team, is to monitor those contracts and make sure that the deliverables can be completed. MR. HUSTACE: Okay, thank you. Director Nakagawa, this amendment, and then that'll be discussion on the second one forthcoming, but Council Member Onishi talked a little bit about the rainy day fund and the General Fund, and that percentage that we try to maintain in. How does this and potential others affect that percentage of where, kind of looking more at that number percentage where you've stated with us. Page 11 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MS. NAKAGAWA: Sure, Council Member Hustace. With both amendments, we drop from 10.3 percent to 9.5 percent. So we look to be within 5-15 percent. We're at 10 and we're going to drop below that. I just want to remind the Council that this percentage and what we have in our reserves is a critical component of how the County's financial strength is evaluated in our bond rating. We just had our closing bond meeting yesterday and this was mentioned, that our Fund Balance plays a significant role in our ability to get the rates that we do and our bond issuance. So it does reduce that percentage. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Director. And to the maker, if I may, Chair? Council Member, did you consider other areas where we could trim in the budget, versus—and this is kind of at large for the other amendments as well. So if you would just kind of share your thoughts on identifying other areas where we could slim back on things. Thank you. MS. KAGIWADA: Thanks for that question. If I may? One of the things that I thought about was the fact that we have 600 funded vacant positions in our County, and we've had these large numbers of funded vacant positions year over year. If we even don't fund a hundred of those, that gives us many millions of dollars that we could program or something as opposed to waiting, even though we know that's going to happen, and then not funding some of these food programs this year that are desperately needed in our community. I looked at that. I actually did originally have a proposal to look at raising revenue on non-resident investment properties on this island. But I was basically told by everybody that I talked to about it that that was not going to happen this year. So I didn't bring it forward. I do think we need to consider it next year, and I will be probably trying to bring it forward next year. But I also think it's really important to show the need in our community for these vital things if we're going to get support, then, for potentially finding additional revenue to support them. It's kind of a chicken-and-egg thing going back and forth, but yeah, at this point, it's really—my understanding is 600 funded vacant positions. There's no way we're going to actually fill those. I hope we're going to improve in our ability to hire more people at the County and I think we will, but that 600 number I don't see that we'll get close to that this year. CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Council Member, for sharing your thoughts on this process. Chair, I'll yield at this time. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: I'll be supporting this amendment. The $2 million, I share the sentiments of my colleague Council Member Galimba. Food sovereignty, can't Page 12 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 do without it, point blank. And, unfortunately, the lessons we learned during COVID, we, as is often the case with humans, we just digress back to the same kind of processes and procedures. And want to express immense gratitude for the people doing the work in the earth and with the plants and the creatures and providing the food. That is sweat equity and that takes connection. That takes insight and wisdom into ecosystems and the microbiomes and just the delicious part of life that we rely on for delicious food. So I can support this. But I'll say right now that I won't be supporting the other amendment. Food,pivotal, vital. And I think—well, Director, you said the two amendments would take us from 10.3 to 9.5? If there's only one amendment at $2 million instead of the full $6 million, do you know what that puts us at? MS. NAKAGAWA: Not right now but I could do it pretty quickly. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, great. I'm assuming it still maybe leaves us above 10. But anyway, I think that's where my priorities will lie as far as budget amendments. So I yield. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. First, mahalo to The Food Basket. I know what you're doing in our community. I've worked with you for years; I think probably about six, seven years now. You do tremendous work. In understanding what you do, I also know that a large amount of funds are already or have been in the past few years, been allocated to different organizations, including Food Basket, to do the work that you do. And that's why we're able to continue providing food into the community through different mechanisms. To R&D, what is your budget this year for these same kinds of incentives without this funding? MR. LIN: Let me check. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I want you to think about every different option you have out there, including your own budget. Whatever grant programs you're running, whatever programs you have within R&D, other programs which you may be aware of, and not the ARPA funds because that's a separate deal. That was Federal money from COVID. MR. LIN: Just specifically for food systems. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: For food systems, for agriculture, for anything in that alignment within your budget currently. MR. LIN: Give me one second while I do the calculations. Page 13 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. While you're thinking about that, Ms. Nakagawa, what other options do we have that would allow for the funding of grants for agriculture currently in our budget? And I will preface these questions with, the testimony provided today really did stress fiscal responsibility. So taking from the Fund Balance is the easiest way to provide funding towards a thought at this time in the budget. I understand that. I've been sitting here long enough. The hard way is to actually create bills and to work your way through a process where you're finding a section of tax, or you're creating tax breaks for people doing the work, or you're incentivizing in some manner through the budget but also through policy. And that's not what's being done today. Today is just taking from one pot and throwing it in another. It's the easiest pot to pull from. We all know that. So, Ms. Nakagawa, what do you have already? Or what areas do we provide already for these kinds of grants? MS. NAKAGAWA: I'm not sure I completely understand your question but I'll try. At this point where we're at with the budget, it is pulling from Fund Balance. Or, as Council Member Hustace mentioned, it is reducing another expenditure in the County. Your other question, if you were alluding to all the different areas in the County that we provide the support, we've talked before, this is some of the things that we're trying to get a handle on to be able to provide those reports. But we do have, as we mentioned before, our Homelessness Fund. We do have affordable housing. We have our Waiwai grants. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Just to me, because we're on Memo No. 1, which is agricultural component, I want to get to the other one, the homeless/houeless one. That's a whole different deal, and they could interrelate. I get you. So agricultural-minded funds, what have we got? MS. NAKAGAWA: Funding-wise, I mean those would, more than likely, those will come from if we get any grants or if it would be general funded. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, sorry, let me rephrase the question. What grants or pots of funding in the County could be applied towards this already without having to do this amendment? MS. NAKAGAWA: What do you mean "without having to do this amendment"? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Sorry, if the amendment didn't pass and the budget is as it is. We have Waiwai grants and we have a number of different grants and opportunities we provide to the County. There's State funding; I'm not even going to touch on that. MS. NAKAGAWA: Correct. Page 14 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We have all these different pots of funding. We're adding to that. What was already existing is what I'm asking. MS. NAKAGAWA: I think we just went down the list of those things that are existing. Sorry, I apologize. I'm not really sure I understand what you're asking for. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Deputy, R&D, agricultural initiatives, what have you got? MR. LIN: So, without the additional 175,000 that we got for impact grants in this budget, it would be 391,000. That includes funding for extension agents and the funding for Big Island Invasive Species Council for the Invasive Species Management and Control. If we include the 175,000, that brings us up to 566. But that$175,000 of impact grants was meant to be spread out through all of my programs within the department. So that's just a piece for thought. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. How would you administer the $2 million in grants if it came into your miscellaneous contract services account? MR. LIN: We'd have to figure out whether or not we'd do small grants, several large grants. It just depends on what the community need is, and that goes back to our needs assessments that we've done in the past either through the EDA (Economic Development Administration) Build Back Better grant or through existing community needs surveys. But as of right now, I don't know exactly what we couldI mean, there's the Malama Da Farmer program. That's through The Food Basket. There's the K6kua Harvest. But those are one aspect, right. That's through one organization. What are other organizations doing out there as well, and how can we incorporate all of the efforts that's happening island wide so that can have a significant holistic approach to this funding? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So, within your department right now, roughly $500,000 for? MR. LIN: If we include the additional 175. But if we don't, it's 391. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And the additional 175 is coming from? MR. LIN: So that was a change in our lease expense. Because, we were planning to do the hybrid vehicle leases, but we paused that program. So that funding was then reallocated towards our impact grants. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Towards what? MR. LIN: Impact grants. Page 15 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Impact grants. So let's go ahead and include that. So you'd get roughly 500,000 that could be applied towards agricultural initiatives right now. Is that what I'm hearing? MR. LIN: Correct. But— MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But you did include the cost of personnel or extension agents or contracts like that? MR. LIN: Correct. That's included. Personnel is not included because salaries and wages as well as contract employees are a separate funding line item. Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, good. That's proper. Okay. With what I just heard—and then, Ms. Nakagawa, I'm sorry. I think you answered my questions, but I'm not phrasing it well this morning and I need more coffee. My thoughts are, if this is the direction we want to go, and I completely understand it and I would look for the long-term solution, not the short-term easy solution, we created a homeless fund by taking basically money from the rich and providing it through a different mechanism to be able to fund the program for homeless housing. We have homeless funds. We've created all these funds. Create the funds and do it right. This is the easy way and I get it, but our community is looking for that solid funding year over year, and it needs a place and it needs a home. And if it's R&D, great. But until it's done, I can also point to the $500,000 R&D already has. I can point to the grants that we're providing. We can focus Waiwai into doing specific agricultural grants. There's a number of ways that this can be done with money that's existing by just focusing it into the right areas, instead of focusing on other areas. We always have a crisis. That's what government strives on. Affordable housing is the current crisis, and now it's going to be food. It's going to be whatever. Whatever is opening their mouth at whatever level in Federal government drives the crisis. So, completely understand the ask from the community. I am looking for us to direct funds that we already have that are working, into the areas where we need it to happen so people like Sarah can get done what they need to do. That's my ask. So I'm not going to be supporting this today for those reasons. I would seek R&D to work with Council Member Kagiwada to find these solutions with Council Member Galimba, to really focus in on how to make this a year over year fund, and not just a one-time shot that we hope we can get it done. So that's my thoughts. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder talked a little bit about this, but I would like to understand from R&D's perspective how Page 16 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 this would work operationally. These are going into contract services. So is it going to be required that an RFP (request for proposal) be conducted, or for example, the money that we put into invasive species, we are able to do an agreement specifically with BIISC (Big Island Invasive Species Committee)? I'm not sure that we (inaudible) do an RFP for that, and maybe this is a Finance Director question, but operationally how it's going to work internally. MR. LIN: We would have to follow proper procurement procedures. With the BIISC contract, it is an intergovernmental type of process because BIISC falls under the University of Hawaii. However, if it was general funds allocated to R&D, we would have to go through the proper procurement channels, whether it be a competitive RFP or other types of methods. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. Other than the extension service, which is pretty limited in capacity here through UH (University of Hawai`i), are there other governmental agencies that we could have a similar agreement with to utilize some of these funds, to your knowledge? I know this is probably not something you were prepared to answer, but I'm just thinking out loud here. MR. LIN: I mean, there's always an ask for support from different agencies. Whether we get that support or not, it just depends on the Administration and how their funding is as well. I mean, of course you want to have Department of Agriculture now with their new they got more funding, as well as the bio security function, how they can support our food systems here and food security. But, of course, the University of Hawaii system, doing the research aspect, those are just a couple that I can think of right now. I mean, the Federal level, we're not going to touch that because USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) has left Hawaii Island. And NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) is at risk. There are all types of concerns regarding the Federal level, but of course, we can try and reach out to our State-level partners and see what kind of support we've got there. MS. KIMBALL: Director, did you have anything to add? MS. NAKAGAWA: No. I would reiterate with Deputy Director Lin about a competitive process. With the number of organizations, we would want to set criteria and issue an RFP, and go through that contractual process. That is a significant endeavor for this department. Just personally have seen the struggle just to get through the ARPA contracts. And we need to maintain our monitoring and our compliance as it exists today as well. MS. KIMBALL: So, operationally, Deputy Director, from Council Member Kagiwada's ask, do you have a clear enough sense of what the request is in terms of developing those RFPs and(inaudible) of work for potential contracts for the extension of these funds or(inaudible)? Page 17 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MR. LIN: As of right now, I have some ideas but it's not concrete. I mean, like I said, supporting The Food Basket is one piece. But how do we create community capacity and expand their capacity with other nonprofits that are also doing the work? I mean, we note some of the programs there, but there's other programs out there that are also doing similar work, or partnering with The Food Basket doing that work. But as I said MS. KIMBALL: I'm just recalling we had that initial funding with respect to the Build Back Better program to advance our food security. And that planning aspect of the grant which we did receive, we didn't ultimately receive the larger grant. I would presume that some of that information developed would provide some guidance about where to expend these funds. If they're not expended, presumably they'd go back. If we're not able to contract them out, they'd go back into the General Fund; yes, Director? MS. NAKAGAWA: I'd have to check on that funding. I didn't think there was any left to be expended, but I MS. KIMBALL: No, no, I'm talking about this 2 million, if it were for MR. LIN: Yeah, General Fund. MS. NAKAGAWA: If it's in the General Fund and it's not utilized, it would lapse. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, okay. I'm going to put you on the spot, Deputy Director. What is the willingness of your department to—realizing that there's capacity limitations to actually do the work to expend these funds within the fiscal year so that they're not lapsed. Are you guys committed—if this is directed by the Council to you folks, are you committed to try and get it out to these organizations to do the work? MR. LIN: I would say the team is dedicated to the work, and the department is dedicated to the work. Personally, I was on The Food Basket board for four years before joining the County. I understand the work that The Food Basket does and the issues that they face, our community, regarding food insecurity. But it's a matter of how do we not stretch our current staff too thin. I worry about the following things as management, right: making sure that our staff are not working overtime, making sure that they're not stretching themselves so far out that it affects their mental and physical health. I mean, the staff currently, the four individuals working on ARPA contracts are working overtime. They're busting their butts trying to get this money out to the community, develop community food security plans, making sure that our farmers get the money. We're doing the work, but it's a capacity issue. It's how do we make sure that I don't put on more work on an already very hardworking team. Page 18 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MS. KIMBALL: Okay, thank you. Thank you for your response. If I can ask, I have a question for representative from The Food Basket. I'm not sure who wants toI just want to understand a little bit more about the funding cuts, if I may. (Note: At this time, Kristin Albrecht of The Food Basket came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. KIMBALL: If you wouldn't mind reintroducing yourself for the record. You've got to press the green button. MS. ALBRECHT: I'm Kristin Frost Albrecht, Executive Director for The Food Basket. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, director. You mentioned some figures of funding that, I want to be clear, has already been cut. MS. ALBRECHT: Yes. We have had cuts already. We have sustained cuts with something called the Commodity Credit Corporation that is part of the TEFAP, which is The Emergency Food Assistance Program. It's a USDA program that provides a substantial amount of commodity food to food banks. And that amount is somewhere up in the $700-$1 million range. And then the commodity supplemental food program, which is our Kupuna Pantry, has already been designated to be cut in the current budget. And that's about a million dollars as well. MS. KIMBALL: So the first figure that you mentioned has already—it's not frozen; it's been cut from USDA's budget to you guys. MS. ALBRECHT: Yes. They call it"paused,"but we're not getting the shipments. And so, for the State of Hawaii, it's over $4 million in cuts to the food banks. MS. KIMBALL: Okay. I'm going to ask this question of you and of the maker, but what efforts have been made to interact with the State to backfill some of that funding? Have you hadI know that it's likely that there will be a special session of the Legislature after presumably the Federal budget passes in some level. We'll see. But what conversations have you had there? Can you give us a sense of what you're anticipating? They have set aside rainy day funds with the anticipation of cuts from the Federal government? Are they able to backfill for you? MS. ALBRECHT: Yes. They have set aside 200 million, is my understanding, that they'll address during a special session. But that's also looking at the substantial cuts to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), which Page 19 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 there's a cost-share program that the State is being asked to provide 25 percent more funds. I don't have that number available but it's substantial. And then, of course, the Medicaid cuts. So,yeah, there's not enough money to go around. MS. KIMBALL: Council Member Kagiwadaif I may, Chair, ask that the maker—before introducing this amendment, had you had any dialogue with any of our State legislators or the Governor regarding their ability to backfill some of these programs? MS. KAGIWADA: Not really specifically. I had talked to Representative Todd about the possibility of us increasing revenue to meet some of these needs in our community. He was supportive at least in concept. We didn't talk details, but knowing basically that they cannot meet all the needs that our counties will be facing. It was a general conversation, not specific to this particular amendment. MS. KIMBALL: I have concerns about the department's ability to, not for lack of wanting to or trying, but to actually expend this much. However, the worst-case scenario is that they don't, and it goes back into the General Fund and we'd reprogram it at some other point. As I've expressed before, and this is kind of along the lines of Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder's line of thinking, I do think we need to look at some sustained funding for these types of programs. And also, I have concerns about the County backfilling areas traditionally funded by the Feds or the State. And that's—if I may just finish my thought—that's why I was wanting to be really clear on the status of the funding. I do think that we should be cautious about making decisions based on what the budget looks like at the Federal level right now. I will be at the White House for a meeting next week. Hope to have a little bit more information about what's planned going forward on some of these programs. Unfortunately, that's not in time to make a decision today. I will be supporting the amendment, but I do have some concerns. And I do think we should be thoughtful about backfilling these programs that, in my mind, should actually be funded by other levels of government in the long-term. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Anyone else? Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Just to that point, I tend to agree with you. But I also think that not backfilling something in an ongoing way is super importantobviously, we cannot do that—but potentially doing short-term stopgap funding. And in this case, I think looking at not even doing that, but growing our ability to provide for ourselves here,which I don't think is necessarilyI mean, we did have the ARPA funding that started the Malama Da Farmer program, but that was one-time funding. And I think it's been pretty successful. By all accounts, we'll see as it rolls out. Page 20 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 But the ability of our department to do that, management understood if they do $100,000 for Malama Da Farmer and that serves four or five farmers, or they do $1 million for Malama Da Farmer, I don't think it really takes our department a lot more work to do that one contract. But it sure can help a lot more in our community if we get that million dollars out there. That could support 40 farmers, as opposed to 4 farmers. So that was my thinking on that. Understood. And I guess my last thing I'll just say is that we were rolling out the Kaukau 4 Keiki this last week and all around the island. And in Hilo, 800 slots were taken in 10 minutes, and there's a huge waiting list. So I know we can't solve all the problems, but I think this starts to get to our community that we really understand that this is a huge issue, and it's a start. So thank you. I yield. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. To the maker if I may again. It's really a question about the new line item for kind of a broader sweeping potential. And it seems we don't really have there's some ideas of where it could go and what it could support, but really is why instead not increase the impact grants and the capacity there. What currently (inaudible) impact grants. Why create a new line item versus trying to beef up the impact grant capacity? MS. KAGIWADA: If I may, Chair? CHR. INABA: Aha. MS. KAGIWADA: So, my understanding with the impact grants, and we do similar with our Waiwai grants, is we really try to kind of spread those around in smaller amounts around the County. And my concern is that these are some very specific needs that need, I believe, bigger infusions in dollars than the 25,000 or the 14,000 or these other ones that they've done here. I guess that's my concern is, yes, those are two different ways of looking at this. You can sprinkle a little bit around to all these small organizations around the island, or you can really look at what is our main quasi-governmental organization. Someone that's doing the work that in other counties is done by the counties. But in our County, we don't have a department of agriculture. We don't have our own county ability to do some leasings. And The Food Basket acts in a way as that conduit for making sure that we get food security issues covered on our island. I think that there's a place for both, but I don't think eitherI don't think this impact grant really can do this kind of serious impact, I guess it is, in this way for something that we know needs a larger infusion of money, if that makes sense. Page 21 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Council Member. I'm kind of getting a better picture of the number as well from what we're hearing from The Food Basket, and some of those finances and the challenges there. So that really was one of my questions, but that is kind of an answer to an extent. If I could have Deputy Director again. I just wanted to pick your brain just a little bit more on this. Thank you. It's really there's some unknowns and I think you're trying to answer us right here on the spot, so I appreciate that. And we've had representation here from The Food Basket. We go out through the RFP process. They may not be the awardee then. And so we really haven't had any other sort ofI see the other list from the impact grants, other awardees from those smaller grants. I mean, it could be used to—I welcome your thoughts—it could be used to grow capacity of existing programs. It could create new programs, new nonprofits. I mean, there's a lot of eventualities. I want to just hear your thoughts a little bit more about, with this figure, what some of the potentials could be too. MR. LIN: Dennis Lin, Deputy Director for Research and Development. There could be many opportunities, but I feel that some of the discussions that the Council Members have brought up is well pointed. I mean, how we have a well- defined scope of what programs need to be funded, how it's funded, what kind of impact can we measure through funding these organizations. And right now, we don't have the capacity to do that. We have the information to do it, but we need the capacity to act and implement. MR. HUSTACE: Okay, thank you. MR. LIN: I would appreciate a further discussion to define really what the intention and what the ultimate goal would be for $2 million, and how we fund it through better sources. Because, ultimately, we are responsible for the taxpayer dollars. So I'm going to make sure that everybody's represented when we talk about how these funds are distributed through our community. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. And then I guess—it doesn't have to be answered here I guess, but there have been some conversations about trying to program this for like a longer term sort of solution, versus some short-term gap fill. But I guess your intention, Council Member Kagiwada, is to have this be an annual thing where R&D kind of takes on a large contract to do these sort of services and provide these services, or we're trying to build capacity. I don't know. I'm just kind of digging here a little bit. CHR. INABA: Briefly, please. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Page 22 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Yes. Originally, after the last budget meeting, and I was concerned about food security, food issues, actually Mr. Lin came and met with me in my office and we discussed this. I believe he was going to meet—he said he was going to meet with other Council Members who were also concerned about this issue. We discussed specifically Malama Da Farmer. I brought up K6kua Harvest. These were programs that at the time he said,yes, those sound like good programs to support. So I am happy to look at other potentialI know Vibrant Hawaii gets food out and does emergency preparedness stuff around food. There are other potential organizations, smaller organizations, that could do parts of it. But I believe that we have programs that could increase our food security on a very quick time frame that I did discuss with the department. That's what this came out of, I guess, is some of those discussions. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you. CHR. INABA: Thank you. MR. HUSTACE: I appreciate that. And I'll just close, Chair. Thank you. I do have some concern on the capacity being added—the capacity that's lacking within R&D to take this on, but also the scale of what we're adding into them. So I do have some concerns about that. And I recognize that these funds are needed by the community and the community groups, the loss of funds that they're experiencing. So I do recognize that. I have concerns about what we can handle at the moment. Thank you, Chair. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Director Nakagawa, did you have something to add right now? MS. NAKAGAWA: No, not at this time. CHR. INABA: All right. Let's wrap this up. I would like to chime in. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Just a gentle reminder, too; I was thinking about it. The Food Basket is here in full support of this. Ultimately, it leads to your benefit, right. But the reality is R&D, as we've stated, would have to do a procurement and an RFP and walk through that process. So those funds aren't necessarily going to The Food Basket. These funds would be open to the public as far as who's going to come in and offer to do whatever R&D says they want to put out to the community. That's the steps this would have to follow. So I appreciate the support, Food Basket. You're here in full support. The community's here in full support. I heard a lot from The Food Basket today, but Page 23 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 this isn't specific to The Food Basket. I just wanted to make that note. It would be open to whatever R&D's team puts out to the community as to what's available and what grants we'll be offering from there. And as another gentle reminder, most times large grants have an administrative fee of up to about 10 percent, which is very helpful for any organization coming in to request grant money, because that helps run the programs. And that's salary and wages. And sometimes that's 401(k)benefits and retirement benefits, and everything else that comes with the administrative side of a nonprofit. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: I would say, yes, that definitely what Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder pointed out is it'sI mean, I think we all know that. But we also—The Food Basket, there probably isn't any other organization like them on this island that has the capacity and experience. And so they would—and they have the program. So it's not like we'd have to build new programs. And those programs are really important. They got the seed money from ARPA. And if we can follow on with that and support that, I think it's going to be for the benefit of everyone in this County to do that, whichever way we do it. But I feel like this is really timely. So it'll save us a lot of trouble I think in the end, even though it's a little surprising and bold, as some folks have put it. But I think it's a good move personally. And we may need to figure some things out, but I think we can figure things out and do big things. So thanks. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. I'll be brief. I see that we have theI don't know your official title, food stability coordinator administrator. For Sarah Freeman in the back, I just wanted to follow up a little bit more on the Build Back Better. I know you were part of the drafting of that. I'm wondering howI remember that the Build Back Better planning grant specifically was intended to design some fairly immediately actionable items based on additional funding, right, if we made it through that first step. So are there things from that process that could be immediately turned or very quickly turned into an RFP for this sort of funding? (Note: At this time, Food Systems Specialist Sarah Freeman, Research and Development Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. FREEMAN: Hi, everyone. Sarah Freeman. I'm the food systems economic development specialist for the County of Hawaii, for R&D. I've had to pull back—we did write that in 2021, 2022. So I think that, on the EDA Build Back Better regional challenge, we really were looking at the systemic barriers for Page 24 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 economic success within the agricultural as an ecosystem. So that went from our waste stream capacity to provide amendments, all the way through the value chain to value-added production and distribution. The cornerstone of that implementation was related to The Food Basket's Ho`olako project. It's on Ponahawai. That looks at that larger-scale production aggregation and processing that is a gap and needed within the system. So there are many facets. We had around 13 applications, separate EDA applications, that went into a collective one that was looking at various different parts. I think one thing that the ARPA funds did is help move some of those things forward, like we needed also smaller-scale levels of processing in our communities, which is why we put forward funds for the commercial kitchens as well as TA (technical assistance) to support those to be successful and this continues as part of community, a middle part of that value chain moving up to eventually meeting that higher level of manufacturing. Another piece within that, too, is looking at the market systems development pieces in that coordination. So, to continue on with that, I'd say that currently we are in, through ARPA, two planning processes: our community food security planning processes with The Food Basket as a subrecipient, and an agrifood system five-year plan that's with the Hamakua Institute that's supporting with that. And so we'll have a draft of a plan by the end of this year that will then get more community feedback the beginning of next year. And so we will have, to one of the questions about what will these funds go to, what is the understanding of impact, we'll have some really good data and understanding of where things are needed. Currently with the ARPA funds, the community food security project, through gathering and meeting with one of the folks that provide these services throughout our community, we found that one of the big gaps is storage, especially cold storage and freezer storage, to be able to even get fresh produce from K6kua Harvest or other programs to be able to serve. So we're really looking at where do we increase capacity and grow capacity through these grants, similarly with the Malama Da Farmer program. So I'd say these are all, as in our work, has grown over the years. We're looking at where those targeted investments could be to grow capacity within our system. I don't know if that answers your question. MS. KIMBALL: It kind of indicates to me that perhaps the money that you received from ARPA to do the food systems planning is actually that's probably a better source of ideas that could be turned into RFPs with this funding than the original Build Back Better program. That's kind of what I'm hearing. MS. FREEMAN: Yes. And also that some of those, given time, have evolved in different pieces as well. I think that another piece of Build Back Better was Page 25 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 looking at how the UH system could better support the agriculture industry. And there's a bit of a mismatch within that. So I think when we look at that pipeline for what we need as far as training new farmers as well as support systems for our farmers, there's always looking at improving that as well, continually working with that system. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, mismatch is a generous way to describe it. Thank you for that. I appreciate the response. I think,just again realizing that there will definitely be some challenges, what I'm just going to suggest is that if this does move forward, Council Member Kagiwada, I would recommend a resolution that actually provides some clarity and direction to R&D about what the intention is. And maybe that's something you and Council Member Galimba can work on together. Thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Director NakagawaI think you've made it pretty clear, Deputy Director, in terms of the capacity of the department. I mean, besides that conversation that supposedly you and Council Member Kagiwada had, nothing has been laid out clearly to have a plan exactly on how these $2 million would be spent. Correct? MR. LIN: Correct. CHR. INABA: Director Nakagawa, in terms of procurement and just general how that would go, do you have anything further to add? MS. NAKAGAWA: I would just reiterate that we do have a responsibility, and we talked about how this would be administered. We need to have a competitive process and have this open. And that is something that would be developed through a scope and criteria and contracts and administration. CHR. INABA: Got it. Okay. I want to mahalo folks from The Food Basket for being here. I understand the work that you folks do. Again this not being specific to The Food Basket, one example of perhaps somebody who would benefit from this funding. I don't think it's fiscally responsible for the County at the I Ph hour to be adding in $2 million out of the Fund Balance without a set plan. The fact that, Deputy Director,you've only known about this for a week or so, or a couple of weeks is concerning to me. And I think that we have other amendments and plans that are of a smaller amount. But to scoop $2 million out of the Fund Balance with no exact plan I think is irresponsible. Do you have anything to add? MR. LIN: If I may, Chair? As Sarah stated, we won't have a good idea of what the community plan and the needs are until that community plan is finished. Towards the beginning of January, or early next year, is when we will get all that input and develop that final plan together. And if we look at how a fiscal year holistically, January to June, is that a realistic timeline to implement funding sources in six months? I don't think that's fiscally responsible for our Page 26 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 department. And I don't want—say we get the funding and we say, "Oh, we were only able to use 500,000" and then we have to give 1.5 back to the General Fund, I don't think that's fiscally responsible as well. CHR. INABA: Yeah. And I guess that just takes me back to last year and the whole struggle with the ARPA funds and that we're not out of the weeds yet. We still are in that compliance and monitoring the existing—how many contracts? Fifty contracts? MS. NAKAGAWA: At least. CHR. INABA: Yeah. Okay. Definitely concerning. I won't be supporting this. And I ask my colleagues not to support this without a set plan, which we don't have. Mr. Clerk, roll call on this amendment. Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 158.22 failed by the following roll call vote: Failed Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Kagiwada, and Kimball —3. Noes: Council Members Hustace, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—5. Absent: Council Member Kierkiewicz— 1. Excused: None. CHR. INABA: Next amendment, please. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: I will not be bringing forth the next amendment on the request of our Housing Administrator. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any other amendments to the operating budget? Motion to Amend: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 158.24. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This amendment is a housekeeping amendment. It doesn't move funds at all. It just replaces some of our legacy account numbers with new account numbers, given the way we've adjusted our budget. This is from the Finance Department. So I look for everyone's support. Thank you. Page 27 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of amending Bill 31, Draft 3, with the contents of Communication 158.24, please say Ic aye. Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 158.24 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kierkiewicz— 1. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kimball moved to amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 158.25. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: This is a result of a conversation I had with Deputy Lin and Finance Director. They mentioned several times today about the management of the grants from ARPA. That management, in part, is being done by two folks that are on contract. The one contract expires December of 2025. And just note that the ARPA funds need to be expended by 2026. So that contract is going to have to be monitored until 2026. The second position expires in September. So this proposed amendment will cover the extension of those two contracts at least through this fiscal year. And again, the purpose of these positions is in part to help ensure compliance with those ARPA funds, and that's (inaudible) million dollars. Happy to ask the Deputy Director and Finance Director if they want to chime in and add any comments to this. But that's the intention, is to ensure that these two contract positions are funded through the fiscal year. I will note, for those of you that are concerned about pulling from funding balance, I did offer to pull it from unfunded positions. But this was the recommendation, to just keep it coming from funding balance. So thank you. Deputy? MR. LIN: Dennis Lin, Deputy Director for Research and Development. So that is correct. The discussion that I had with Council Member Kimball yesterday and Finance Director was in regards to concerns about the capacity issue and monitoring the ARPA grants to stay in compliance. Because right now, we have one individual who is the ARPA contract's basically, he's the manager. He's the one actively going out to do all the—getting the information from the subrecipients or the awardees, making sure the reports are correct, reporting it back to Finance. Page 28 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 The other one is helping to make sure that we complete our portion of what's required in the ARPA contracts by doing the engagement of the community, getting the input to develop that plan that we talked about previously. So,yes, the contracts manager position is expiring December 15, 2025. And the other individual's contract expires September 15 of this year. So the goal would be to extend them for six months until we can get through that final phase of the ARPA reporting. Thank you. MS. NAKAGAWA: Diane Nakagawa, Finance Director. Getting to the ARPA contracts that we have today, over the last year was a tremendous effort. And it I don't want to speak for R&D, but it took a lot of their staff time, a majority of their staff time,just to get here. I am concerned about compliance. We have received communication that our reporting will be looked at. Anything outside of making sure that we are spending everything appropriately and our contracts are done will be looked at. And so it is important to me that we have the ability to remain in compliance and not have to return any of these funds. So I'm just listening to R&D and their concern for the staff members who oversee these multiple contracts, and not having that capacity. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Are these the two ladies who were in yesterday that we gave awards to, because they had to leave? I like them. They're nice. Oh, it's not them? MR. LIN: No. A separate program. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Separate from that? MR. LIN: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. CHR. INABA: Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHL Thanks, Chair. Why wasn't this put in this upcoming budget? I mean, was it oversight or no communication? MR. LIN: So this is a joint effort. We're currently getting all of our positions filled in recruitment. So it's a period of funding so that we can make sure that the work gets done. But in the meantime, it's encouraged that these individuals apply for civil service positions, because there's no point in adding more positions to our budget if we can't fill our existing ones. That's kind of the goal right now, is as these positions are going into recruitment. I just filled out the forms last week, Page 29 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 so I don't know when they're going to be posted. But as these positions go into recruitment, they're encouraged to apply so they can stay within the County to do the work that they're MR. ONISHL No, I understand that but what I'm saying is that we're being asked to provide 125,000 to extend their contracts. Correct? MR. LIN: Correct. MR. ONISHL Why wasn't this originally in the budget coming to us? MR. LIN: Because it has been a policy of the County to not have contract employees. And we're trying to limit that because R&D was infamous in having many contract employees in our department. MR. ONISHL Okay, now we talkedoh, Director. MS. NAKAGAWA: I think it's a matter of timing and transition with the new R&D leadership. As Deputy Lin mentioned, they are working towards getting their positions filled and getting away from these temporary hires. Unfortunately, with those that have the knowledge, I think what he's saying is they can apply for these jobs but the uncertainty is left to the process, right. It is an open competitive process. We cannot have a gap in our ability to monitor these contracts. It is the goal, as he mentioned, and ours as well, to reduce these contracts and utilize our vacancies. And they're working towards that. It's a matter of timing. MR. ONISHL So what I'm hearing is that the process is going on, but the hiring is the delay, right. And so that becomes HR (Human Resources)problems. And that's what we talked about before in the past, about they cannot fill positions. I just wanted to find out why it wasn't. And then, also, we have funding from general funds for State positions, and one of them is still not filled. And so I don't understand what's going on. Like I told you the other day, it's not this present Administration. It all happened prior. And so you guys are the ones catching up. So I don't want to put you under the radar. I'm sorry to say that. MR. LIN: I understand your concern, Council Member. We'll definitely take it into consideration going forward that these situations are resolved and don't come back to this office. MR. ONISHL Thank you. That's the main thing,yeah, if you guys can move this department forward. And all these mistakes that's been happening, to correct all that. Because, great leadership is going to make your department much better. MR. LIN: I appreciate that. Page 30 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MR. ONISHL Thank you. I yield. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. So I heard two things. I'm looking at the number—125,000 but I heard six months for the contracts. Is this a yearly creation of salary funding that we're doing? MR. LIN: This is just a six month's calculation. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So six months for? MR. LIN: Plus fringe. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Plus fringe for? MR. LIN: Two people. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Two people is $125,000? MR. LIN: That is correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is that right? MS. NAKAGAWA: This is what we went through yesterday. I don't have it in front of me, but that's based on the calculations of the contracts that R&D had. And it is to get us through the compliance of our ARPA funding to the end of'26. But some of the programs end earlier because we need to end earlier to get our reporting done. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So a yearly salary for these people would actually be $250,000? But this is only for six months. MR. LIN: Six months. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So six months, two people with benefits, $125,000. MR. LIN: Because it's based off of when their term is ending. So one is going to be yeah, two people. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, I yield. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kimball. Page 31 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 MS. KIMBALL: I just wanted to reiterate, so the intention is at least for one of these positions, that they would apply for a full-time civil service position rather than remain in the contract position. But, as Deputy Director mentioned, a lot of this is just about timing. And I want to highlight that people that are contract employees to the County are not eligible for the internal recruitment. They have to wait until it goes to external recruitment. And so that adds to that overall timeline for them to potentially apply for these full-time positions. So we just want to ensure that there's no gap in the coverage of reporting and monitoring the ARPA funding grants. And I will say that the 125,000 is not the exact figure. I padded it a little bit just in case. But their salaries are already set through the contract. CHR. INABA: What are the salaries for those two? MR. LIN: One is at close to 7,000 a month. And the other one is at$5,000 a month. CHR. INABA: Okay. So you folks are in support of this amendment? MR. LIN: Yes. MS. NAKAGAWA: We're replacing this funding if it is not utilized. If these contract employees happen to apply for and get into a civil service position, R&D would not be allowed to use this for another purpose. So, if this transition does happen, if staff remains, it will not be spent in any other category. It would stay within their salaries and wages, and we will monitor that. CHR. INABA: Thank you. All right, roll call on the amendment. Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 158.25 was carried by the following roll call vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kierkiewicz— 1. Excused: None. Page 32 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 Vote on Bill 31: The motion to pass Bill 31, Draft 3, as amended to Draft 4, Draft 4 on second and final reading was carried by the following (Adopted) roll call vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—7. Noes: Council Member Kagiwada— 1. Absent: Council Member Kierkiewicz— 1. Excused: None. Bill 32: RELATES TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR (Draft 3) THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2025, TO JUNE 30, 2026 Draft 3 requires a total appropriation of$621,515,000, of which $550,086,000 are intended to be funded in whole or part by bonds, $36,752,000 to be funded by Federal Grants, $30,000,000 to be funded by State Grants, and $4,677,000 to be funded by Community Benefit Assessments and other funds. Reference: Comm. 159.46 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Public Hearing: May 20, 2025 First Reading: May 22, 2025 (Note: Comms. 159.47-159.49, from Council Member James E. Hustace dated June 3 and 4, 2025, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 32, Draft 3, were circulated.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 32, Draft 3, on second and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. Motion to Amend: Mr. Hustace moved to amend Bill 32, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 159.47. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Just briefly. I welcome your support. The three amendments really are reappropriations for projects that are lapsing for District 9. So I welcome your support on this. Happy to take any questions you might have. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thanks. I've also had requests for dog parks in my district. I wonder if you've done any research, or looking into, if dog parks are really appropriate parks that we want to be supporting in our County. I've seen quite a Page 33 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 bit of statements, evidence from those who train dogs, veterinarians, other people who say dog parks really tend to be maybe not so good for dogs and their owners. Have you had a chance to look into any of that? CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: These are longstanding requests from community members. A lot of our parks are not—dogs are not really technically allowed in a lot of our spaces. And so this is really identifying a place where people can legally take their dogs. There are some rules that we need to work together with Parks and Rec. (Recreation) about updating our rules around dog parks and the safety of them, because I know there have been concerns for some of our dog parks on Oahu; vandalism, abuse of those spaces. So this is something that we all need to work on together, and would appreciate your support in kind of looking at those rules going forward. It's really looking at these spaces, requests from community members. And I recognize the responsibility it puts on our Parks and Rec. staff regarding cleanliness of those spaces as well. But we do need to, in regards to the health concerns that you're kind of referring to, this is something that we really need to strengthen in our rules around dog parks and in regards to vaccinations for the animals, proper use of these spaces, and strong enforcement of those spaces. So I recognize your concern about that. So thank you, Council Member. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. I appreciate that. Yes, I think both the health and safety issues and our liability going up, if people do not have well-trained dogs in these parks. So thank you. Look forward to seeing what you come up with. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHL Thank you, Chair. In regards to that, I am supporting because in my district I had people ask me about that. And what I understand is that when you create a dog park, it's not just one size fits all. You have the parks for the different sizes of dogs, so you don't mix them all up in one. And then there's double gates to make sure the safety of the dogs not running away. And so I will support this, and that could be the model for the whole island. Thanks. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Agreed. I'll be supporting and I think we all have requests for dog parks. It really does open to the broader discussion of can the Department of Parks and Rec. take this on. In general, give all of our districts and all of our dog owners in the County a place to take their dogs. And then also Page 34 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 just highlighting it's a CIP request. We're all open to putting in CIP requests towards the same thing in our districts and working with the departments to make that happen. So I'll be supporting especially, Hustace. Good job. CHR. INABA: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: I will also be supporting this. And I am grateful to the hard work, community advocacy, and fundraising; that the Humane Society in my district has a large, very successful dog park with an area fenced with special features for larger dogs, and then another fenced area with small shelters—and by shelter, I mean a little gazebo—for smaller dogs. I wish we had a more dog- friendly ecosystem here in Hawaii, frankly. I'm a little biased. I have yellow labs. They might lick you to death but that's about it. But unfortunately, Hawaii historically hasn't—we've had issues with dog owners. And we've had issues with violent dog attacks. And some of that is related to certain breeds that tend to be popular. But when not provided with a loving, nurturing, caring home, the consequences for misbehavior can be more dire because of the strength of their jaws and their capacity to do serious harm. So I'm all about the dogs. I want to support the dogs. I wish we had more dog- friendly parks in general. But, anyway, I'm rambling. It's been a long week. Let's wrap this up,people. CHR. INABA: We're on to something. All right, all those in favor of amending Bill 32, Draft 3, with the contents of Communication 159.47, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 32, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 159.47 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kierkiewicz— 1. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Mr. Hustace moved to amend Bill 32, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 159.48. Seconded by Mr. Onishi. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. The first amendment was for a space in South Kohala. So this is (inaudible) a space up in North Kohala. So I appreciate your support. Thank you. Page 35 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 CHR. INABA: Thank you. All those in favor of amending Bill 32, Draft 3, as amended with the contents of Communication 159.48, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 32, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 159.48 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kierkiewicz— 1. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Mr. Hustace moved to amend Bill 32, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 159.49. Seconded by Mr. Onishi. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. This is a specific CIP request, an addition to the capital budget and reappropriation for a project in Waimea, titled the "Waimea Trails and Greenways" initiative, specifically the Ke Ala Kahawai O Waimea, which is a streamside trail in Waimea. This project's really strong community support for 30 years now, and has sat with the Department of Parks and Rec. for a long time through different iterations. The goal here is to provide and finalize design on the project and initiate construction. So this project, if you look on the FIS (Financial Impact Statement) sheet under additional information, a little bit further down, this project and past administrations have applied for Federal funding, raised grant funds over the years. All have, unfortunately, been unsuccessful. And that funding doesn't really exist anymore. So it would be an opportunity to look elsewhere if possible. But with the most recent funding last year, the project design was at about 80 percent. So it's really near, kind of, the final steps of design. So, looking for additional support to finalize the design and then initiate construction of the first phase of the project. And really, that first phase kind of falls under the jurisdiction still of the County Parks and Rec. Department. Other legs of it have come before this body through the PONC (Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources Preservation Commission)process as a resolution and was approved here, to look at extending that and connecting with a coastal trail, Ala Kahakai, and potential other legs of the project. So there are other opportunities with this. And I know our Planning Department staff just stepped out. So, hopefully, there is a connection and opportunity to work with their other CIP project specifically from the Planning Department with regard to their island-wide trail plan. So, hoping to make those kind of connections across Page 36 Hawaii County Council-16 June 5,2025 the departments, and really understanding a lot of our trail networks and other kind of multimodal alternative transportation networks that we can provide to community in these spaces. So I appreciate your support on this project that's been kind of running the community for a long time. So thank you so much. CHR. INABA: Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of amending Bill 32, Draft 3, with the contents of Communication 159.49, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 32, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 159.49 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kierkiewicz— 1. Excused: None. Vote on Bill 32: The motion to pass Bill 32, Draft 3, as amended to Draft 4, Draft 4 on second and final reading was carried by the following (Adopted) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kierkiewicz— 1. Excused: None. OTHER The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Other BUSINESS: Business. (There were none.) ANNOUNCE- The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, MENTS: Announcements. CHR. INABA: Announcements? Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I do have an announcement. Ms. Nakagawa and your team, thank you for your effort and for sitting in this room with us for the last, what, two months, plus all the time it took to actually get the budget ready to come in with your first draft. So just recognizing your effort and your team. And thank you for everything that you do. I yield, Chair. CHR. INABA: Thank you very much for that. Ditto. Page 37 Hawai`i County Council-16 June 5,2025 ADJOURN- There being no further business, Chair Inaba adjourned the meeting at 11:25 a.m. MENT: Council Approval: SEP 1 7 2025 CO TrCrERK JH/dg Page 38