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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CRCOC 2025/08/19 (2024-2026)_4" Committee on Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight 91 Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii August 19, 2025 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Communications, Reports, and ORDER: Council Oversight was called to order at 3:04 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Chair Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Vice Chair (came in later) Mr. James E. Hustace, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member (came in later) Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Member Absent & Excused: Ms. Heather L. 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: (There were none.) COMMUNI- The Acting Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 425: FINAL IMPACT REPORT OF THE HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING FUND FOR THE PERIOD OF JANUARY 1 2024 — JANUARY 31, 2025 From Housing Administrator Kehaulani Costa, dated July 31, 2025, transmitting the above report pursuant to Resolution No. 442-22. ;and Comm. 425.1: From Housing Administrator Kehaulani Costa, dated July 31, 2025, transmitting recommendations report for the Homelessness and Housing Fund from the Office of Housing and Community Development's consultant, SAS Services, LLC. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 (Note: Comm. 425.2, from Housing Administrator Kehaulani Costa, dated August 19, 2025, transmitting the Homelessness and Housing Fund Inquiry and Recommendations, were circulated.) Motion to Close File: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 425. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. CHR. GALIMBA: I believe, Michelle, you'll be doing the presentation? Alright. Thanks. If you could introduce yourself and proceed. (Note: At this time, Housing Program Oversight Manager Michelle Hiraishi came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. HIRAISHI: Thank you. Good afternoon, Committee, County Council Members. My name is Michelle Hiraishi, and I am the Program Oversight Manager with the Office of Housing and Community Development (OHCD) Community Engagement Division. If I could take just a quick moment to point out my two teammates who are sitting in the back of the room. So Alison Gardner is one of our Program Managers; and Dr. Holly Hreha is our Dr. Data. So we're the team behind the homelessness and housing fund within the Office of Housing and Community Development. The Year Two Impact Report shows that homelessness and housing fund grantees provided 3,894 services to Hawaii County households during the year January 1, 2024 through January 31, 2025. These services included quick exchange one-time encounters called transactional services and longer ongoing services called support services. Of those households that enrolled in support services, 58 percent showed an improved housing status from their program enrollment till their grant exit during Year Two. So the Year Two Report, all the Council Members have that report in front of you. And what that is, is that's a snapshot of data we collected during Year Two. In Year Three, which is currently underway, halfway through that funding year, we've made improvements. And in Year Four granting cycle, which has just started, we've made even further refinements. But beyond this impact report and beyond Year One, Year Two, Year Three funding, a lot of work that we've done is with our consultants, SAS Consulting Services. They've been able to help us connect with community and most importantly they have given us guidance on what we need to do to make sure we manage this fund as efficiently as possible and move the funds forward; recommendations for moving the funds forward. So at this point I'd like to turn the mic over to our Consultant Sharon Sims, who is the owner of SAS Consultants and will talk about the recommendations for the Homelessness and Housing Fund (HHF) moving forward. And certainly, after CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 that presentation, if there's any further questions that Council Members have on Year Two Impact I certainly can speak to that. (Note: At this time, SAS Consulting Services Chief Executive Officer Sharon Sims and Team Members Ashley Petit and Verna Wong came forward and provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the subject presentation, see the DVD copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office or online at hn://hawaiigounty.gov.granicus.com. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is made a part of the record, see Comm. 425.2.) CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you for your excellent and innovative report. You know, reading through it I didn't necessarily agree with everything, but I think that's a good thing. There were just a lot of different ideas in there so thank you. Fellow Council Members, any questions, thoughts? Council Member Onishi. MR. ONISHL Thank you, Madam Chair. So you have where you mentioned, demonstrate clear results, right, and monitoring evaluations. So do you folks have any suggestions on what entity should this County look at to help monitor what's been happening? MS. SIMS: In terms of who can be doing the evaluation? MR. ONISHI: Yeah. Because like I don't want to see it in house? MS. SIMS: Okay. MR. ONISHI: I want it outside; independent, you know, agency or business that can do that work. So would you folks have any suggestions on who could look at? MS. SIMS: Yeah. We can make some recommendations for some external evaluators. MR.ONISHI: Please. MS. SIMS: There are folks that specifically do that type of work. MR. ONISIR Because I did meet some. When I just recently went up for a national conference, I did meet some businesses up there and I, you know, got to talk to them. I told them what my concerns were about this grant funding that we are issuing from the County, right, and that there's really no oversight. And so they were telling me, okay, they're possible. So I've been meeting with some of these companies online with Zoom, but I haven't really got all the details and then I need to connect everybody, departments together so we can see if they're the CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 right company we can contract out. But if you guys have any suggestions that would be great. MS. SIMS: Yeah. And, you know, I think that there's a difference between this sort of evaluation but then the contract oversight too, right? So sort of being —I think what we recognize in the evaluation is that year over year there were different staff that worked on this and so as we looked at it I think there is a mechanism that can be in place to create standard measures, which is what they're doing right now that the grantees can actually apply to so you can better tell the story of what's happening. MR. ONISHI: Okay, okay. MS. SIMS: Yeah. MR. ONISIR And then on expanding housing strategies, right, so have you folks evaluated or were able to evaluate the Kahauiki Village in Honolulu? MS. SIMS: We have not; we have not evaluated that. MR. ONISHI: Have you guys heard about them? MS. SIMS: Yes. MR. ONISHI: And they're very successful. So to me, that would be a real good recommendation for Hawaii County to look at because like we talked about shelters and moving into more permanent homes, right? This is the first step of how we can have, especially families, because I did a ride along two times so far in Hilo. The second time they mentioned to me there's about 30 families, I guess single parents, mothers, with children living in their cars and there's no place for them to go, right? And at one incident, the four -year -old daughter told the mother, "Mommy, when are we going home?" Now what can she tell them when they don't even have a home, right? But she remembers back when they were living in a home, so I feel really bad. And the thing is, all the, what is that like counselors or what is that, can mention is that we're looking for or we're waiting for a spot for you. And that's sad, right? And so to me, with this funding that we have here, like we talked about priorities, right, and what's good is that you folks have on the other page County wide priorities, right, unsheltered visible homelessness. That's to me, one of the main topics or the main issues we should be fighting or not fighting but to focus on and trying to get that. And so, you know, I really want to see the program work, but I cannot handle, and you folks mentioned that this funding is not kind of monitored by federal government or state. It's basically this County, this body, right? And so we need to make sure that we are spending our money correctly because that's CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 all taxpayers' money. We could be building parks; we could be building recreational for our youths, right, and our seniors, right? But we're focusing on homelessness and we're trying to help them, right? And so I really like this, and I did enjoy talking to what was her name? MS. SIMS: Jackie? MR. ONISHI: Jackie. I mean I loved talking to her and then she really understood and then, you know, real compassionate. And so I'm just hoping that from here we can move forward and, you know, if we can do or we can get Housing to really set up a great program and to monitor because they did do a plan of what I guess the priorities are for the Big Island and there's like I think 15 months. But if you look at, and I don't know if you folks did an evaluation on that; how many got awarded is in the top five. You folks look at that? MS. PETIT: Of the grantees that were awarded? MR. ONISHL Yes. Did you folks look at that and how many nonprofits were awarded in the top five? MS. PETIT: In the top five of the roadmap priorities? MR. ONISHI: Yes. MS. PETIT: Yes. I think we can go back and look. And I think when we looked at the roadmap priorities —so one of the roadmap priorities is to actually build affordable housing, which we know is needed. But with a one-year grant cycle fund that is cumulative $10 million, that isn't something that can be achieved. But I think something that you really spoke to is that there is no one size fits all solution to this. If there was, we all would've solved it by now. We wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation. And so, the benefit of this fund is it allowed us to think innovatively and to approach things maybe we wouldn't have before because it's not within the federal model, but it's something that maybe works for Hawaii and these funds allow us to do that. And so looking at how can we —the term had been coined here like housing of many flavors. So different types of housing for different types of people on different areas of the housing spectrum is kind of really what we want to look for. MR. ONISHI: Right. Did you find anything? Okay. MS. SIMS: One of the things that we, to your point, heard a lot from the grantees was that they have families and individuals who are housing ready but there's no housing that they can afford to go into. And so through this program it's allowed some of the grantees to look at strategies like master leasing, and other ways to get folks into housing because there's a number of barriers especially when you're CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 addressing the visible homeless. There're quite a few barriers they have in terms of like having IDs (Identification), having access to computers to fill out applications, and having rental fees. I mean, there's a number of areas. And the other thing that we found in our inquiry too is that a number of those that are visibly homeless are also involved with our judiciary system. And so wherever there's like a point and time count, if they are locked up, they are not counted as homeless. MR. ONISHI: Yeah. Right. Or if they go to the hospital. MS. SIMS: Right, or if they're in the hospital they're not counted as homeless, but they will recycle back to the street and they will be the first to get arrested and get back on the street, right? And so that's what we recommend, if you had a different type of office that could look at how do we actually better coordinate that work with our judiciary, with the nonprofits, you know, with DHS (Department of Human Services). That may be a better strategy and then you can look at how HHF funds could supplement existing funds to address some of those needs. MR. ONISHI: But with Kaulike, their program is they need to pay a portion of the rent, so all mothers need to work, right? And what I understand, when they first opened up one of the main persons involved, he seen a lot of the mothers not working so he asked, "What was the problem?" And they said, "We have childcare. We have to stay home because there's nobody to watch." So he created a childcare in the camp, and he utilizes some of the mothers to be the instructors. So very creative, right? And so it's something that we could use as a model, right? And then he made sure that they work and they pay a portion of the rent so that they can get that improvement and I guess they can become stable, right, and then they can maybe find a permanent home. You have a comment? MS. WONG: Well you brought up actually a very important point is that even if they want to work they might not be able to because childcare is a big issue. And I like what you said because that was an innovative way to approach it. And there are other companies on Oahu are actually having childcare back in their facilities and I believe they subsidize part of it but by doing that they'll allow people to come to work and then they can earn the money to pay that, you know, whatever the amount is for working, being able to take care of your child and getting out of homelessness. Then the other part, we bought it up a few times, you know, we all know, and you all know better than we do that the use of housing funds, $10 million, and when you look at the scope and the scale of what you all are facing it's just a little tiny piece of a bigger puzzle and there's so much work that's being done in the County in different areas. So when we talked about, I know thinking about creating another place, a centralized place where you could gather where all of these CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 resources are and what they're doing and what we found when talking to the nonprofits are there are many, many nonprofits but sometimes when you try to connect the services that one group needs, there are gaps. So although the services are there it doesn't meet the needs of the people that are in any particular area. So thank you for sharing that; that's really important. MR. ONISHI: Okay. I don't know if you guys know the information but how this funding was created was by former Council Member Aaron Chung with the Council at that time, and I'm going to be yielding after this. So he told me he was told either by the nonprofits or by the administration that homelessness can be solved, but we need funding. And so that's what he did. So now, like you folks are mentioning, you know, if it was that simple it could be solved. But that's why we have this money right now, right? So we have to do something. Yeah. MS. SIMS: Yeah. MR. ONISHI: I yield. Thank you. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Checking over in Hilo. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes. Thank you, Chair. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I do want to mahalo nui SAS Services for taking the time to engage the Council. I did appreciate having a conversation with Ashley. You know, agree with the recommendations that are put forward in the report. Not sure I'm sold on creating an Office of Homelessness, a separate entity. And I just wondered if the leadership from OHCD could kind of weigh in on some of the recommendations that were provided, if these are things that you agree with, how you might be operationalizing some of these ideas, and then what the game plan is for the duration of these funds. It does sunset in a couple of years. So just trying to understand the strategy and approach going forward. (Note: At this time, Housing Administrator Kehaulani Costa came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. COSTA: Aloha. I'm Kehau Costa, Housing Administrator. Is there a specific recommendation that you would like me to address? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So one of the things that I noted here in the report; executive summary is very good by the way, it talked about rather than trying to achieve I think it was like 13 different goals, identifying like two or three priorities to get done over the next couple of years. So that's one thing that is, you know, limited time, limited funding, what are we going to focus our time and CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 efforts on? And I like the idea of multiyear agreements, right? There are milestones that nonprofits are meeting in order to release the next tranche of funding that ensures that folks aren't having to like reapply midway through success like I, you know, I have heard of folks that have been able to get programs off the ground only to not be awarded for a second round of funding. So I just want to make sure that the work that is happening is good work, that it is able to continue and that it's meeting the goals that have been laid out by the office. MS. COSTA: So when we think about this fund and today, we're talking about Year Two impacts and then moving forward, this fund is really in its infancy. We are barely even in the walking stage, the toddler stage, of this fund. We're currently in program year three. Keiko (Mercado) and I were talking earlier, Assistant Housing Administrator and I were speaking on our ride over this morning about when you start a business and you have a general business plan usually it's not until you're three that you're breaking even and then you're hoping to be in the black in year four and five, and no one plans for their business to end after five years. So, you know, we're making a considerable commitment at Office of Housing to take a look at how we best use this resource responsibly for our community and for the individuals that we're serving in our community and part of that is longevity and multiyear contracts. It's really disheartening to have a program launch and then it won't be awarded a year later. Those nonprofits have put a lot of work into the design and the execution of a program. And they're making a difference. And so we're hoping that this fund continues and that we can commit to the work that they're doing as well. The other thing that we're doing is, so I think in hindsight just offering a general grantmaking program to twelve different priorities, we're really at the mercy of the capacity of the organizations and their grant with their grant writing and their proposals. And so what we're doing differently now to prevent having, you know, 15 grants coming in for street outreach and zero proposals coming in for emergency shelters is that we're directing the funds a little bit differently. We know the services that the County really should be offering. It would be detrimental to the community for an emergency shelter to not be funded or to close. That would just exacerbate our homelessness situation. So we're directing funds into different buckets so that we can issue RFPs (Request for Proposal) based on the services that we know are critical and then we still have general grant making. So it's not completely grant making across the board but more strategic and thoughtful approach to the services that we want to have funded and provided to our community. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Administrator, that's really helpful. And then one thing I want to hone in on here is under fund administration and management, this idea of CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 a braided funding approach, which I love, but I also know that you have a lot of groups that are maybe in proof of concept and they're getting an idea off the ground. And I would hate for community to not have an opportunity to access these funds and demonstrate that idea and it really, you know, take off. So, I hope that is a consideration going forward that there's an opportunity for grassroots groups to access this funding and, you know, service their community and not just limit it to folks that know how to write grants and build those capital stacks. MS. COSTA: Agreed. And we've spoken in the past about capacity building grants to allow for some of our smaller nonprofits, some of our grassroots organizations who are doing incredible work, sometimes it's just a one person, two -person operation to actually build capacity through this fund and continue the work that they're doing and see overall success improve. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And then can you speak a little bit about some of the data considerations that have come forward about operating from a shared set of the office providing some kind of template for reporting so that we can truly gauge impact and where we might be falling short? MS. COSTA: So the data is really hard to collect because we're collecting data on our grantees, just those that are participating in our programs. The other programs like HUD (Housing and Urban Development) funded programs and those grantees are reporting into a different system. And then there are groups that are working out in the community that aren't being funded at all or aren't required to report data through their particular funding programs or maybe they're philanthropically funded. And so we don't have a very cohesive way of collecting all of the data of all of the programs that are working in this space, particularly around inflow and then success rates. There are a lot of communities within the homeless space that are really working on coalitions where they are agreed upon memorandums of understanding between nonprofits and faith -based groups where the community or coalition of homeless service providers come together and agree to enter their data into a shared database. And we're looking at that and we're looking at building out that system for Hawaii County. We're currently talking with some of the other providers that are doing this type of work. Primarily what it helps with is inflow and it also helps with identification of where homeless individuals may be residing and receiving their services, and how to best outreach to them. We just had an experience with the tsunami warning and, you know, we were lucky, we're very fortunate that we have nonprofit providers who have been doing community outreach extensively and know how to activate and help assist with outreach at a time of an emergency. But I could say that as a County we have some work to do in our operating procedures to ensure that we are engaging with those nonprofits particularly around emergencies a little bit better. So we've CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 looked at our standard operating procedures or developing standard operating procedures for emergency situations with our nonprofits. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks for being upfront about that. There's always I think room for improvement all around County and how we engage and support our community. The last question around is, you know, there was an assessment made about staffing structure and capacity, you know, the need for grant contract management, yada, yada, yada. What are some things you are going to be doing to ensure that community engagement division is fully supported so it can continue to carry out this work; is it a matter of filling vacancies? Tell me what that looks like. MS. COSTA: Well, something that you all have done that helped us quite a bit is allowing us to do multi -year contracts. So the challenge with having a pilot program and a pilot fund is just that all of our employees are on one-year contracts because this is only a five-year fund and because we haven't been able to do multi -year contracts previously. So we are able to do multi -year contracts permanent of this fund in some capacity, it allows to hire permanent staff, and I think that brings stability to our office and it brings stability to our staff who work really hard in this space and they're working on contracts that need to be renewed annually. We will lose staff if we're not able to make those positions permanent positions and I think that's number one critical that our consultants have shared with you that the turnover has been incredible. Every year there's a new staff member managing the program. So that would be top priority. And then having a permanent fund allows us to really Iook at these programs as ongoing programs. And it would allow our office to not just be grant making contract managers but really start to establish at least the division of homelessness within the Office of Housing, which has not been done before. So community engagement is not the division of homelessness. Community Engagement manages many programs, financial empowerment centers, our home improvement loan program, a lot of the programs that we go out into the community with. Homelessness is just one of them so it's just a grant within this division and to build expertise in this space and to really manage homelessness and to achieve real results requires a permanent fund that we can hire staff for and design a business plan around. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Administrator, do you believe that this report from SAS Services provides you and your team with what you need to figure out the next few years? You know, I know that this process started in the last administration and has been finalized under your leadership, but does it give you a clearer sense of what the County needs to do to really make an impact on the homelessness issues? CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MS. COSTA: It gives us a good start. I think the second step is that we need to update the roadmap to be the County wide strategic plan for addressing homelessness. The roadmap is a good start, and I think that is a lot of the conversation that we have had with the consultants is that the next step in the commitment to make this fund permanent is to have a strategic plan for the County on how we address homelessness. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And is that work underway? MS. COSTA: Let me ask if we are going to make the fund permanent. Let's work on that and, you know, the work has always been underway. I mean, we know what to do, what we need to do. The community knows what needs to be done. It's just hard when we only have two more years. And I think that's the recommendation to say, you know, if this fund is going to sunset in two years then we start to wind it down into just two areas that we focus on for the next two years. But if we're really looking at extending this program, this fund, out past the five-year mark, it gives us more opportunity to plan strategically. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And that is a conversation with the future Council that you need to be having. MS. COSTA: We can start now. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I think we've got a lot on our plate. Again, I just want to thank your engagement in this process and appreciate SAS Services for their work and really making an effort to talk to a variety of stakeholders on this issue and put together such a comprehensive list of recommendations. Thank you. I yield. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. First of all, I want to thank Sharon and her team at SAS for the work you've done here and engaging with us and the community members to participate in this process here. I did have a couple of questions for Administrator if that's okay. Kind of to branch off what Council Member Kierkiewicz mentioned kind of diving in some of the recommendations. The Office of Homelessness or Division, how do you see that gel within OHCD, Administrator? MS. COSTA: Absolutely can be done. We operate as if we have a division of homelessness. It's just underfunded, under-resourced. MR. HUSTACE: Because there's definitely a lot of connectivity within the divisions of the department, right? MS. COSTA: Yeah. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MR. HUSTACE: But there is one note in here that stands out to me from the recommendations about the division's operating in silos and work being done to kind of unfold that. Could you expand on that a little bit? MS. COSTA: Absolutely. I think that has been mainly our strength with this administration and with Assistant Administrator and I to really engage our full department in the work that we're doing to bring the divisions together around specific programs and activities rather than putting programs and activities in silos within the division. I think that really is our goal between us is to build a department, a department that's functioning cohesively and is understanding the work that we do across the spectrum from homelessness to housing. But it's ongoing work; it's ongoing work. But I do believe that we are making headway in that work and engaging our division managers and our staff differently than we have in the past. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you. I appreciate that insight there and your work. MS. COSTA: If I could just add one more thing too. MR. HUSTACE: Please. MS. COSTA: Under this current administration we also have a homeless taskforce through the Mayor's initiative. There's an EA, Executive Assistant, assigned specifically to our office for housing and homelessness and we've been engaged with our homeless taskforce when issues arise and we're able to work across departments a little, differently than we have in the past; engaging with Parks and Recreation, the community policing. So I do see that there's a lot more conversation and work being done across the departments and then within our department, but it takes the commitment. MR. HUSTACE: Absolutely. I just had a question on the year two impact report as well. It's very minor; just looking for some clarity. In both the transactional services provided as well as the housing status program entry there's a term used of unknown. What are you saying there? Because in the geographical map by region it says other, but then in the comprehensive total it says unknown. MS. COSTA: So Michelle actually had a much more flushed out presentation for you all today but, you know, to spare the time. MR. HUSTACE: Sure. MS. COSTA: So she can kind of talk a little bit about that datapoint. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MS. HMAISHI: So can you ask the question again one more time? MR. HUSTACE: Yeah, I'm just looking. I guess this is a term that was maybe used; maybe there's a purpose for it. So for example in the transactional services provided by type it's a minor category on the map of the island it says other, and the totals come on the left-hand side, it says unknown. MS. HIIMAISHI: Yeah. So when data was collected during year two, there could be pukas in that data. If somebody doesn't provide a zip or provides a zip code that's perhaps off island so we don't know exactly where to put that individual or that household, so it's counted in the total, but we don't always know where exactly to put them on a geographic map. MR. HUSTACE: It's a very specific service though so how can it be an unknown service. You have a number; someone's been given the service but for some reason it's an unknown service. MS. HMAISHI: Maybe that data was not collected in year two, that data wasn't collected during that enrollment during that encounter. So when that provider was working with that household, they did not collect the data for whatever reason. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Is that kind of the same methodology for the program entry? MS. HIRAISIR Yeah. MS. COSTA: Yeah. It is likely just data entry. Yeah. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. So like on the housing status, 144 unknow. Their status is unknown. I mean, we have these other buckets of other categories but it's — MS. COSTA: Failed to report. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Good. Thank you. I appreciate that clarification there. But Administration, I want to be clear that year four and five we're not in the black, right? I mean, someone from the business mindset where we have the fund. It doesn't necessarily put us in the black, but the challenges what we're trying to address, right? It's that small piece of the puzzle, right? MS. COSTA: Yeah, so this might be — MR. HUSTACE: I know you're trying to say we're trying to measure success in those later years; we kind of see the progress of it going on but it is just that small piece of an entire puzzle. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MS. COSTA: So more appropriately that this is a ten-year business plan instead of a five-year business plan. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you. I just wanted to be clear on that one, that we're not able to solve. MS. COSTA: Correct. Correct. MR. HUSTACE: The issues and the challenges we're facing here with housing and homelessness, we're not going to tackle them in the five years and given that short period of time it's, you know — MS. COSTA: Absolutely. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. MS. COSTA: Yeah. Thanks. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Thank you of course. MS. COSTA: Thanks for clarifying that for me. MR. HUSTACE: Yeah, yeah. Because we have work to do. Yeah. MS. COSTA: We have a lot of work to do. MR. HUSTACE: And thank you for your leadership. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Yeah, thank you all so much for all the work that you did on this and for really getting us in a good position, I think, to move forward with more clarity. When I think of this inflow, tracking the inflow problem, that this is something that I really, you know, missed as far as datapoints because obviously representing the downtown Hilo area, which is, you know, had a lot of the funding for our nonprofits who work in that area and they've done a lot of work especially around some of these areas around community engagement and trust building, you know, data tracking and sharing, collaboration. Those kind of things have really, I've seen it, but that doesn't take into account the fact that we have a housing bucket full of water of stably housed people that used to have a dime sized hole in the bottom and now has a quarter sized hole in the bottom and people are quickly exiting stable housing and becoming unstably housed or homeless. So it's a hard thing when we're putting money towards this. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 I think for us to realize that even though we're putting $10 million a year towards this, we're not seeing like massive improvements that we want to see and fewer people on the streets, right. And I think, you know, to Council Member Hustace's point, this is one piece of the puzzle. It's $10 million a year, well a lot of money is not really, as mentioned; enough to really shelter all our homeless people or especially get them into truly affordable stable housing. So I guess my question for all is what are the one, two, or three main things we can do? Because I do know this administration seems very focused on the unsheltered and visible homeless, making sure that we get shelter for people, but my worry is that becomes just a stuck point. We can't just keep making more and more and more shelters without transitioning people to something more stable. So what are those one, two, or three major things you think get us from, once we get someone, you know, into a shelter, they're willing to come to a shelter and be there and they want to get into truly affordable housing; what are those couple things that we really need to focus on to scaffold that to make that happen or even some things you think we should try? MS. COSTA: Right. So you're asking me in my capacity as Housing Administrator in just what I've seen in the last, you know, we've been in our positions for less than a year. But I do think we have to tackle it at both ends so those services are critical to engage our homeless individuals and bring them into shelter and then provide them with the supportive services that they need to be able to move into housing. But on the other end; we really have to, and we're doing some of that work now, address the way that we provide affordable housing in our County, in some devise affordable housing development, rent assistance, security deposit assistance, deed restrictions, preserving housing into affordability. So both ends, right? We have to have a housing strategy that preserves housing for affordability and then engaging our service providers and providing the services and the support needed to help families enter into housing because if we're just doing one and not the other, we're missing. So we have to work both ends to get people in housing. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. It seems pretty obvious to me that the truly affordable housing and housing solutions don't necessarily come out of this $10 million a year. Like we can't really address it with that whereas some of these other things, we can us that money for successfully. I guess I don't want people to have their hopes high that this $10 million a year can, you know, deal with these issues, these County wide priorities, right? We've got to —and with that hole in that bucket becoming bigger, even when we don't really see it with our eyes, improvement, if we can capture the data both on that inflow and how, you know, helping 430 folks get into stable housing. We can even keep both of those piece's front of mind, I guess. So thank you for bringing this point forward. And I don't know how we're going to be capturing that data, but I really hope we get a good handle on it because the other thing I think we don't necessarily want see our CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 money go to sometimes but it's actually the bang for our buck is helping families who might just be about to'lose their housing. MS. COSTA: Absolutely. MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah. So we want to say, `But there's these people who are unhoused, we need to build shelter for them with this money." But actually the bigger bang for our buck is rental assistance for people who are about to lose their housing. MS. COSTA: Correct. MS. KAGIWADA: Because once they lose it, it's much harder to help them get back, right? MS. COSTA: Yeah. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Well thank you for all this data. I hope we continue to have these conversations. I know I'm not necessarily sold on the whole separate housing, homelessness group, but I think a division that is really adequately supported makes a lot of sense because they need to also coordinate with all the other groups within your department. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. I yield. CHR. GALRVIBA: Thank you. Council Member Kaneah'i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. I couldn't help but notice out Director of Finance in our chambers today. Thank you. For the SAS team, who's your leader? Thank you for the report. Your name again? MS. SIMS: My name is Sharon Sims. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Sharon, thank you. I read through the different reports you gave us, what sources of funding did you identify that are currently used to address homelessness and housing in the County of Hawaii? MS. SIMS: So we did do a funding analysis; I'll let you know we also did a strategic planning analysis and found out there were five different plans state and County wide, community -based plans that talk about homelessness. And then also looked with a funding analysis that looked at the current funds within the County that are being utilized. One of the things, and I can have Verna come up to talk a little bit about that, but one of the things that we found out in doing that is that when you actually start to look at the budget it's not really sharing how those funds are being allocated. We didn't dive deeply into the federal funds and that's why one of the things we did was make this recommendation of having CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 another office or division or department that then can look at the overall picture because we also wanted to stay in the scope with what we were also hired to do to evaluate homeless and housing funds specifically. And so it led us to then recognize that there are several other funding streams that have limitations on them or there are state funds that can be used or federal based funds and then there are also our philanthropic dollars. And to be able to look at that I think it would be helpful to look at it in a broader way to see how HHF can be utilized to address gaps within that funding. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MS. SIMS: Verna specifically did the analysis. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. Yes, please. Sorry about that. I don't know what happened to the other mic, but it broke today so thank you for sharing. MS. WONG: It's okay. We can share. Actually what causes us to have this conversation that we just had right now is because it was very difficult to find where the funding was. So we went through all the city and county budgets and then I talked to Kehau and her team and even the funding in their particular area when you think about one funding program, there are multiple different funds that go into it, and it's really hard to unpack that to get a clearer understanding of what's happening. So that was one of our reasons for having the recommendation of consolidating so there's one way to look for something. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Do you have a dollar amount? I know this is just HHF specific but one of your findings was a funding analysis. MS. WONG: I will tell you it's incomplete and where I got the most accurate information was from OHCD fed funds and then the HHF. But when you look through the city and county budget, from what I'm understanding, there are little, tiny pockets of grants that are going to support some type of housing supplement or some kind of mental health support and it was very difficult to figure out how much of that total fund actually went to service the particular group that you're speaking about. So I can look at the federal landscape again, but what you will see is what we could gather mainly from the federal grants. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Director Nakagawa, can I just ask you for a real simple overview of any funds County level that are used for or addressing homelessness, housing, what we're talking about today. I appreciate you being here today. Thank you. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa came forward to address the members of the Committee.) CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MS. NAKAGAWA: Good afternoon, Council Members. Diane Nakagawa, Finance. I did ask the team to run the report just because I was figuring you would ask those questions. So forgive me for bringing my phone out. But wanted to just —we ran through the numbers of what was Council approved in the budget for the housing and homeless fund since 2023. 2023 was $9.5 million; 2024 was $11.1 million; and before some changes were made, 2025 $12 million. That was in the budget prior to changes made. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MS. NAKAGAWA: So that was the major funding source. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: The HHF. MS. NAKAGAWA: Correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What other funds do we have besides that? MS. NAKAGAWA: Other funds? They do have, it kind of depends on what category you want to put these all into, but we have the affordable housing production. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How much do we put out? MS. NAKAGAWA: So in previous years it was $9 million, this year it was reduced to $5 million during our budget process. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. What else? MS. NAKAGAWA: And there could be various grants. I don't have a total for those. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And this is only County level? MS. NAKAGAWA: County level. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It's hard to hear, yeah, in this room? MS. NAKAGAWA: It's echoey. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEMFELDER: It is, yeah. MS. NAKAGAWA: It is. I don't have a total for those but of course as you know there are different grants that the County does give out could go to some of these programs. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MR: KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Okay. And we also have contingency relief funds that can be used. MS. NAKAGAWA: Could be contingency. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Then we have our impact grants, and we have a number of different programs and grant funds. MS. NAKAGAWA: We do. I mean, I can't tell you right now what specific purposes are: those are broken down into by dollar amount but those are different areas of funding. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. On top of state and federal funds, which I'm not asking you to give me an answer for right now. MS. NAKAGAWA: Correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you. MS. NAKAGAWA: Thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So for SAS, the reason I am saying this is we have been watching this for seven years and we hope to address it, and we talk about the BEE What I've watched is, and just in this past year or two, is a number of redundant programs, which was touched on in your report. But I also looked at the way that the different nonprofits are going for the funding. And that's their job; it's what they do. What they're offering back to the County and how much funds that the taxpayers are paying for it to do that and then what our return on investment is. That really is what I see is the whole of it; what are we putting into it; what do we get out of it; what do we see? So that's why it's coming back to this funding analysis, sounds like you did a good job. I know you've got something in front of you. MS. SIMS: I do have the actual analysis that we have, and it was broken up between government funding and then housing assistance I can give you. This is from as submitted numbers that we received from 2024-2025 fiscal year. So there was the CDBG or the Community Development Block Grant through HUD that $2.6 million, you have the Housing Investment Partnership Program, which was $2.8 million, you have the Housing Trust Fund, which was $2.9 million, the Home Partnership Program, which is American Rescue Plan (ARP), is $2.8 million, and then there's the Affordable Housing Production, which we had as $3.2 million but it sounds like it's been less. So that's for this year. So that would be a total, not counting Section 8 funding with HHF for that year would've been a total of about $35 million. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 And then if you look at the housing assistance for Section 8, there's the Housing Choice Program, which includes the admin cost and that's $33 million; you have the Mainstream Voucher Program, which is $3 million, and then you have the Housing Choice Emergency Fund, which is $1.7 million. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That is all in fiscal year 2024-2025? Wow. Okay. So I think that right there are just outlines that we can look at HHF without looking at the broader picture of what else is being funded by taxpayers; and what it's doing and what's not happening, what is happening, then we don't really get to make a good decision on what we do withjust the HHF. If we're just going to talk about that, whether it should go on, whether it should be more, whether it should be less is really dependent on a lot of other factors. So I cannot make that point strongly enough. And so because the information that you've provided in your report, I'm able to say that with a little bit more security now. So thank you. Did you have something else you wanted to add? MS. SIMS: I was just saying that all the funding sources that we've mentioned are all used for specifically different things. So some are for development, some are for —they all have different types of limitations and restrictions and they're not all used directly to like build housing or to address the specific needs of folks that need like permanent support housing that isn't just getting a house, but they actually need wrap around services. So there's a variety of needs that aren't always met by the funding that exists and one of the things we have found is that in the data that's currently being connected by the Mayor's taskforce is that as they house one person, three other people become homeless in the same timeframe. And so this is what we're up against too, is that as they get homed there are more people becoming homeless. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MS. SIMS: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Was there any looking into for the cost of the County in addressing homelessness? When I say that I'm speaking about the amount of time police spend responding to homeless calls, the amount of time Parks and Recreation staff look into and address homeless people in our restrooms and parks, all of that; was any of that taken into account? MS. SIMS: So while we were, again, I mentioned that we were specifically brought in to evaluate the homeless and housing fund and make recommendations for their future. As we kept having these conversations, we kept saying that this is not just the homeless fund. If you want to look at the bigger picture, we need to actually take time to do that and that's why our recommendations are what they are. And also the recommendation for creating an office that sat outside of OHCD specifically because there are other County departments that have funds CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 and kuleana that address the housing issue. And so we really need to bring together multiple County departments as well as state departments, like the Department of Health (DOH), that has kuleana for mental health issues, DHS that has, you know, the BESSD (Benefit, Employment and Support Services Division) that they also have funding that can address. And so really being able to look more comprehensively is one of the things that we are recommending if the County wants to develop a strategy for addressing it versus just addressing the 13 priorities that were brought up through the fund. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: God bless that answer. Thank you very much. When you looked over your HHF administrative, in your review of your grantees and you looked at the administrative costs, did you find anything that was interesting? MS. SIMS: I don't know that we necessarily found it interesting. One of the things that we did find is that what the HHF fund does provide that other funding doesn't is allow for them to take care of operational costs that are critical for being able to run the organizations that most funders don't. And so most organizations that do this work, there's a true cost coalition that's going on here in the State of Hawaii because most nonprofits don't get paid the amount to actually do the services to provide for the service. So what HHF has done has been able to allow for them to actually increase wages. Many of them talked about they have staff that are making $15-$16 in an hour and can't even afford housing themselves. And so this fund has allowed them to actually pay more livable wages to staff that will actually attract more people to be able to work there than they're able to do with other funding sources that they have. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: My timer went off. Can you come back to me? Okay, deal. Thank you. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Okay. Just real briefly. I think first of all I just want to thank you for this report and getting back to us. Recommendations are recommendations. Some are good and it seems like some may be, you know, aren't so palatable at least by members of the Council at this time. Well, Administrator, I know you folks have already begun making changes to the way you folks are putting out the RFPs. And, you know in these next couple years, hopefully we can really try and streamline and make those changes quickly so that when it's time to review at the end of this five-year window of this funding there's confidence from the Council that we're heading in a good direction and for some of those palatable recommendations, that they are incorporated and carried out. So I know you folks are working on it and I think, you know, we can all tell there's not a golden solution here, but things do need to change and we're seeing some of those CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 changes taking place. So mahalo to you and the team for making those changes happen. I yield. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yes. Thanks for being here. And Alison, correct? Did I talk to you on the phone? Ashley, I'm song. Ashley, did I talk to you on the phone for the survey? Yeah. Thank you for that time together. I had just come from Kailua Village Business Improvement District annual meeting where the challenges associated with the unhoused population in Kona were a hot topic. I am grateful for the depth and breadth of the information that you gathered here. suppose for me, and I was very clear in my interview with you, it's my concern like I don't want to see this program stop. I think that this is an integral part; I agree that it takes time; we've gone through two different administrations, so different leadership and overall challenges to show continuity of service, of systems, of protocols, of accountability. I suppose for me; well I really like the RFP. You say what we need, and they create a program and basically go bid to get the contract instead of dreaming up new programs they want to do and bringing it forward with a price tag, right? It's like, this is what we can pay, and this is the service we need. I think that's a wiser tactic strategy what not. It is my personal and I have not been shy about this, my greatest concerns have not been your department or division per se, but with the nonprofits that are getting the grant funding and aren't being held accountable to outcomes and duplication of declaration of services. Also disproportionate allocation of resources and services between east and west Hawaii. And I just have a lot of constituents continually say, when the lion's share of the tax -based funding is coming from the west side and we're drowning under inundation, you know, there's one way to talk about being unhoused. It's like you have somebody, you get them into temporary or permanent housing and three more are experiencing homelessness. In Kona it's more like five more are flying in and we have that different demographic of experience here. So the services and the needs from providers, you know, I said before I feel like there's a bit of a monopoly on the funding and resources. I forget who asked about like the major organizations that get the money, and they continue to. And our smaller organizations who have stood something up, who are operating, just don't ever really get a shot. So you're farther along now than you've ever been. You've taken the time, the energy, and put the resources forward to answer, you know, tough questions from members of this Council. Some of this work is philosophical; some of this can be data driven but often times it's like nailing Jell-o to a tree. So thank you for that. Thanks for enduring my continued opinions and perspectives and judgements in a lot of ways. But holding accountable, I look forward to and I hope Kukui`ula becomes an actuality. And yeah, we'll just continue to work together. So thank you. I yield. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MS. COSTA: Thank you. CHR. GALINIBA: Thank you. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'll be brief. Sorry. In your review did you look at how much the nonprofits took in collectively? MS. SIMS: Yeah, we did. We actually have an outcome evaluation report that we can get to you. It's for year one and year two. And so it looks like how the funds are allocated, according to the strategic roadmap, also looks at the challenges and barriers that the organizations face as well as the clients that they're facing, and also lays out a lot of their successes that they have as well. So we have the data based on how many grants were made, how much funds were allocated to each organization, what was the percentage and then how they were allocated along the strategic roadmap as well. So we have that data and it's in the report. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Still putting together or it's done? MS. SIMS: It's done. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And lastly, I just want to touchback. I think I heard, failed to report earlier? That one caught me off guard. MS. COSTA: Data point where an individual fails to report their status whether they're stably housed or, you know, we couldn't collect a data report then it was just we failed to collect that data report. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I thought it was the nonprofits failing to report. MS. COSTA: No. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you. MS. COSTA: No. In the data collection. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I wasn't having that one. So then just a follow up, I mean, reading through your report it looks like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) information showing and nonprofits sharing of information due to a number of reasons created a problem in actually getting information and results of what the funding is doing; is that correct? MS. SIMS: Yeah. What we discovered is that in year one and year two the way the data was collected was very different. In year one there were not as many CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 structured reports or standard outcome, so basically the nonprofits identified whatever stringent priorities they thought they were responding to and there weren't standard reports, so they just shared, this is what we're doing. So to be able to create a picture when you have twenty something different grantees who are having all their own different outcomes and being able to tell a cohesive story was a little bit challenging. But we were able to at least tell the story of what they were doing. In year two, there were some improvements that were made around that but what happened also is that I believe one of the grantees was also collecting individualized data, client level data, were being asked to share individual client level data and some organizations have HIPAA requirements that will not allow them to share that information without clients being able to sign off on it. And so one of the things that we have made a recommendation is that moving forward in year three, four, and five is that there should be standard outcomes that the organizations apply to and that the reporting template should be able to allow them to send unduplicated data based on what that organization is doing versus looking to collect individualized client data at the County level to tell the story. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Amen. Okay. Okay, that's good. Yeah. I have an issue when we're putting $30 million and we don't really have a lot of information on what it did. And this is not against the department at all. Just we created an account, the account is being drawn on, there are somewhat questionable results like just across the community and talking with different people from our own taskforce, we have questions on what's being done and what we can't track what's being done and by who duplicated, and we don't know what's going on, and that point to me let's throw the brakes. MS. SIMS: Yeah. So one of our recommendations was when they're looking at how they allocate funds, to Kehau's point before, it was applied to a priority and then because of the procurement laws you just go down the list based on the scoring. And it wasn't that only a percentage is going to go to this type of service, or a certain percentage will go to outreach; a certain percentage will go to housing. Another thing that we had made recommendations is that if you're going to do outreach, don't duplicate it in multiple locations. So say that this is for West Hawaii; this is for East Hawaii; this is what we're going to do in Ka`u, so that you're not duplicating those services in specific communities that way you can tell a better story of exactly how the funds are being spent. We also had made recommendations around standardizing what the organizations report on. Like for example, in year one, as we went through the data, you couldn't really determine how many people were served because they didn't report on that on a regular basis. And so we said that that needs to be a part of like standard; how many are served, what is their status, and put maybe some more standard reporting in place that the organizations can report to on a quarterly CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 basis so that then they're better tell their story and really speak to the impact specifically in different areas because I don't think that was set up in the first two years specifically. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So this was in your report, but it said we don't want to change anything now or change the way that they have to apply their funds, administratively, non -administratively, now because it would affect the grantees negatively. But I would go the other way. We change it and we get tight about how we're applying the funds to make sure that we're getting good return on investment immediately and have them comply with that immediately before it gets comfortable to spend year three, walk into year four, maybe they'll change it on us, maybe they won't. MS. COSTA: We have made those changes in the RFP for this coming year four. So we are making some of these recommended changes currently in this next award cycle. So part of the intention of us coming to you today, is not just to report on the impact of year two, but to let you know that we have been on a year long consultation so that this year four RFP that's out right and is being applied to will look a little different to you all when we come with awards for you to approve. So we want you to know that we're actually making these changes and adjusting our program right now and we'll do that again next year, and we're just going to keep improving this program based on, you know, the best outcome of this was not just the report but it was the team that came to support our team who were really just, you know, one or two people managing a $12 million grant and doing all these contracts and managing all these contracts, right? But now we're looking at it as a system; we're looking at it strategically and we're making those changes now. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. I was actually speaking about year three because as I reviewed some of the information a few months ago on who got awarded what; so looking back over the cost there's a couple that bugged me and I mentioned it at those hearing. MS. COSTA: Yeah. So year three is what we just came to you to award, approve when we first started. So right, we went through the pain of that with you, right? Revising budgets, admin expenses — MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Not the pain of — MS. COSTA: Right? We went down that journey. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes, we did. MS. COSTA: And we had multiple Council meeting around that. But I think we took —so we did the best that we could with year three because it was already CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 launched prior to us starting in this position. We took those recommendations; we made the adjustments that we could make in the process when we came to you for those awards. We're looking at those contracts very critically. We're managing those contracts thoroughly. That's Allison in the back. She's meeting with grantees who are maybe struggling with their outcomes early on to just really address that so that we are expending those funds and managing those contracts appropriately. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Good. Thank you. Always a refreshing discussion with you, Director. Thank you. MS. COSTA: Yeah. Pain, MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Pain. I mean, you walked into this, and you guys taken over and we just made this fund and you're trying to wrap your head around it and become the administrator of a department with your staff. MS. COSTA: We just want to be really transparent. We're all in this together. We're all part of this, our communities, our whole community. You all are doing the best that you can in your positions for your constituents. We're right there with you. We're all working towards the same outcomes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. Thank you. MS. SIMS: I'd like to make one other point. Is that okay? Just to speak to one other thing that we did find as we were going through the data from year one, year two, and year three, is understanding that the BBF year actually straddles to County fiscal years. And so when we talk about year one, it's hard to know what year you're referring to sometimes and one of the things that we found is that in year one and year two the grants, due to various issues that were happening with contracting, with things that happened within the nonprofits, the grants actually ran anywhere between 10 months and 24 months. So for year one, there are grantees are just starting to wrap up and you're already in year three. Even in year two that was the case that they ran from three months to 18 months. So when the grant year starts and where the grant year ended was different for every single contract that went out. And so you've also had staff, like they mentioned, year one's staff was different than year two; year two's staff is different from year three. And so they're actually administering the grant, monitoring the grant, and then writing the next proposals all at the same time. And there were two staff that were responsible for this, and I think that that has been one of the biggest challenges to actually being able to tell the story. And then once they finish that year, now there's all brand new staff. So like the longest staff member on it right now I think is maybe like 14 months and they're CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 still monitoring year one that's wrapping up, year two that's wrapping up, launching year three, and then preparing for year four. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. MS. SIMS: That's a lot. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's a lot. MS. SIMS: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you very much. I yield, Chair. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Thank you, Madam Chair. So on that note with your recommendations, are you folks still hired to monitor to see that the recommendations are completed or are followed through? MS. SIMS: We were contracted for this work. We are willing to help if you need support, but our contract ends after this meeting. MR. ONISIR Because to me you have the recommendations, right, but if there's no one to follow up and like an audit, right, it's hard to see they've fulfilled what the needs were or what the recommendations were, right? I mean, we want to trust Housing to make sure that they do it but if they only take bits and pieces of the recommendation then that could also not really make it complete, right, or make it, you know, wise or fiscally responsible, right? So I'm just hoping that there's something. And, you know, just a note is that this HHF funds; it's depending on our economy. If wetank, I think this is gone. And so we talked about extending for another five more years and so forth, I mean, it's hard to predict because you don't want to over promise, right? And so I can see what you mean by having a long-term plan. But like I said, I think when I talked to former Council Member Aaron Chung, it wasn't supposed to be a long-term kind of funding. This was supposed to bejust a certain amount of years, and they're supposed to come and fix the problems. But that's what he was sold, so that's why he kind of did it. But like I said, either the nonprofits were mentioning that or administration at that time so that's why they moved forward on that. But that's kind of what I wanted to say was that about that funding. You have any comments? No. Okay. I guess that I'll yield for now. Yeah. Thanks. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 CHR. GALEVMA: Awesome. So anyone else? No. All me? Okay. Thank you again for a really rich and fair, you know, but also fair on both sides. I think it was a really good job all of you. And also Housing's report was very concise and lots of information in there as well. So looking at the number on ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) and poverty in our district and just doing some back of the napkin of what it might take; small amounts of money it might take to keep someone, you know, from falling. We're talking, as you've mentioned, hundreds of millions of dollars and we're bringing not even $10 million. So I think that's like bringing a paperclip to a knife fight. I mean it's better to have a paperclip then to not have a paperclip; but it really doesn't even begin to address the problem. And do you point out, I mean both of you did, that this homelessness problem is really in this larger context of an imbalance between incomes and housing and almost complete lack of building of affordable housing recently. I mean, I've been on this dais, and I've seen the quarterly reports and it's almost always a zero for affordable housing being built and we can't make any progress if we can't build affordable housing. So that's the larger issue, which this housing HHF fund is just a little drop. So I'm starting to hit the jetlag wall. I'm starting to become slightly delirious, and the reason is I went to Scandinavia because they rank highest in happiness in the world year after year. So I wanted to go see this fairytale place and; you know, there are no homeless people there. And I was talking to a woman, and she said she, we kind of have this very in-depth conversation, and she was saying how folks nowadays in these countries are starting to take for granted the decades of work that went into creating these more equitable societies that have dealt with these problems by allocating funding. So it's not something that's going to take a short amount of time to deal with. It's going to take long years of dedication. So that's kind of the little fairytale that I have to offer here. And obviously we're not Scandinavia but we can still try. And I think we have a lot of good will in our community here in Hawaii to really address some of these issues and be good to each other. Yeah. So thanks again. That being said, let's see, I think we can close file here. All in favor of closing file on Communication 425, please say "aye.,, Vote on Comm. 425: fled August 19, 2025 The motion to close file on Comm. 425 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, and Chair Galimba — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kimball and Villegas — 2. Excused: None. CHR. GALIMBA: And we will move on to our next communication. Thank you so much. Comm. 427: TRANSMITS THE ANNUAL COMPREHENSIVE FINANCIAL REPORT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2023 TO JUNE 30, 2024, AND A PRESENTATION PREPARED BY ACCUITY LLP From former County Auditor Tyler J. Benner, dated July 21, 2025. ; and Comm. 427.1: From former County Auditor Tyler J. Benner, dated July 21, 2025, transmitting the Single Audit of Federal Financial Assistance Programs for Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2024, and a presentation prepared by Accuity LLP. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kagiwada moved to close file on Comm. 427. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. GALIMBA: Director Nakagawa. MS. NAKAGAWA: Good afternoon again, Council Member. Diane Nakagawa, Finance. I can go ahead and so the introduction. I just do want to clarify that the annual comprehensive financial report is procured and managed by our County Auditor. In their absence I'm kind of happy to do the introductions but just want to clarify our different roles here because we are actually the ones being audited and our charter does require that we do have an independent financial audit. So here today, Accuity will be going through summarizing the results of the audit and we're here to of course answer any questions. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. (Note: At this time, Accuity Audit Principle Kim Yoshi and Engagement Manager Lance Chi came forward and provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the subject presentation, see the DVD copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office or online at htti):/Ihawaiigounty.,Rov.granicus.com. A copy of CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 the PowerPoint presentation is made a part of the record, see Comm. 427.1.) CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you for your presentation. Council Members? Council Member Kaneah'i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you; Chair. Just for everyone, deficiency regarding the financial statement reporting at the Department of Water Supply; do you have information on that as it rectified? MR. CHI: So back to weakness was unrelated to last year's deficiency related to the County with deposits. This year was mostly related to the timing of information provided, accuracy, all that information, and multiple back and forth that we had with regards to getting timely and accurate information with the Department of Water Supply. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is actually two years back-to-back? Last year's problem and then this year they failed to get things to you in time and there's accuracy issues? MR. CHI: Yes. Last year was a different auditor and they issued an internal control related to the deposit at County. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. About $7.5 million if I'm remembering. MR. CHI: Correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yup. MR. CHI: And in our evaluation, we had no issues there. Our issue was more so with the timeliness and accuracy of the information being provided to us. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And this year was the same thing again or this is just timely and just accurating it? MR. CHI: The previous audit, the 2023 auditors didn't have finding regarding timeliness of information. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm sorry. I'm confused. We had our previous audit; anyway, these things were mentioned. Your audit found timeliness and accuracy issues? MR. CHI: Correct. It's a different finding than last year; the 2023 audit. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you. I yield, Chair. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 CHR. GALUvIBA: Thank you. IEIo? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I have a question. CHR. GALIMBA: Please, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: It's actually for Finance Director. Thank you all for remaining with us at this late-ish hour and thank you for the presentation. Director, I was just curious because this report is, we typically get it in like December and we're getting it, you know, six, seven, eight months later and I wonder if there was anything in jeopardy or anything that we've lost funding wise as a County because this is late? MS. NAKAGAWA: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Appreciate the question. I do want to acknowledge that some of the material weakness that Accuity defined was in delays off of getting information from our office. So just want to fully acknowledge that. These delays are not acceptable to Finance. There are some I think significant events that kind of collided in the last year that did provide a lot of challenges for us. With the transition we had our vacancy of our Controller in the middle of our audit. So that was a significant resource that we had to pick up. This was also in the middle of our implementation of our new financial system when our entire Accounts Division was, you know, already working overtime. So the resource challenges it did provide, it results actually in the delays of the audit, and this was a very challenging year. I do want to assure you, one, that we do take that responsibility seriously and two, we have discussed at length the ways in which we are going to improve for the next year. Some of those are already underway. The technology and the system improvement will not just provide us with a great benefit next year —well, actually we need a year to get through it. But it's not only for the next year. This is an improvement for years to come. We are moving off of Excel spreadsheets and information and data into a system. So that will take us a long way. For our resources, we did hire. I did want to introduce Jon Arbles, who's our new Controller. You want to come up, Jon? Filling this position is significant for the Finance Department as well as having our Assistant Controller Reid. Sewake on board. We are growing our team and strengthening the bench. We are looking at restructuring our responsibilities in Finance and specifically in Accounts so to make sure that this type of information that we need to gather can be done a lot more efficiently. So I just wanted to assure you that we have discussed this at length. We are putting things in place; take responsibility. It's not acceptable for these delays. At this time, no, we have not lost any funding for this delay. We have communicated this delay in all the ways that we needed to, and we will continue to do that. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for sharing that. That was actually my biggest concern. You know, the other kuleana that I have is to operate a nonprofit and there are certain deadlines that we need to meet with audits and reports or we're no longer in compliance. And so I just wanted to make sure that the County is still in good standing, in compliance, and we're not in jeopardy of losing anything. And I want to just underscore the importance of completing these audits and these particular reports, and I appreciate you, you know, taking accountability at this point. It's not easy but I understand that there were many challenges that you were navigating, but also the commitment to ensure that this doesn't happen again is very important. And I just want to make sure that I'm clear so that going forward the work, the reporting, the working with the auditors is not solely a vested in a singular person. I don't want a person to kind of hold this process hostage or up in any way. You talked about systems. I just want to make sure that there's a system in place so that regardless of any one person, you know, like not being present for work that particular day, we can go into a system, access the information we need and present it to the auditor so that they can complete their work. MS. NAKAGAWA: Council Member Kierkiewicz, we are absolutely, 100 percent in agreement. And we have been working very hard to push and change that way of information solely in one person; we are well underway to do that. We have new leadership in place. I'm very excited about the days and years to come. It's going to take a little more. I ask for your patience. But I can sit here today and confidently tell you we are moving in the right direction; slower than I would like I admit, but we are moving in the right direction and absolutely not in one particular person anymore. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Director. I have no other questions. You have my full confidence. I understand that things are going to take time, but I trust you completely to lead the team and lead the County on this regard. Thank you very much. I yield. MS. NAKAGAWA: Thank you. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you for your honesty, authenticity, and humility in acknowledging the challenges, many of which were beyond your control, and you inherited and stepped into this role and position during some really heavy lifts. I still go back to my conversation with the gentlemen from Oracle who was assisting the transition and when he said to me that, you know, Department of Finance had been operating essentially with an abacus for the last few decades, to me that just was a profound statement of not having the tools necessary to be able CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 to do the job. But in order to change that, you go through that really big growth curve. Of course, it always hits during an audit and a change in administration and, you know, just a blank storm. I'll let you fill in the word for blank. But thank you for being here today and navigating this with humility and authenticity. And congratulations and welcome to the team and, yeah, things move slowly but, you know, we've had personal and professional conversations, and I trust your integrity, your intention, and your ability to get us where we need to go. So I'm grateful that I can know that in my core and it's not something that I question as being authentic or viable as a reflection of where we're headed and we're farther along now than we've ever been. So please keep me posted on how I can be supportive, and I'll try not to pester you with little stuff too often. But just congratulations to your team coming back together because it's almost like your hands have been tied and, yeah, you've just have been given all challenges. So thanks for getting us there and being a leader for this department, which is the backbone of so much for our County as whole to function. So, I yield. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Onishi. MR. ONISIR Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you very much for all your guy's hard work. And I know what you folks have been going through because I've been in contact with you. So thank you. But I had a question for the auditors. Thank you. You folks heard discussions early about County housing, right? So I look on this Page 33, for Govemmental Funds, it says Hawaii County Housing Agency, right. And so when you folks did, I guess your work did you folks find anything that kind of like red flags or things was okay? MS. YOSHI: Yeah. During our financial statement audit and our single audit, because we did also test some of the Housing funds for the single audit, we had no findings or issues noted during both audits. MR. ONISHI: Okay. And I guess the numbers are the federal funding that they received or all funding plus the County ones that they got? MS. YOSHI: So for the financial statement audit, yes. It's all funding received. For the single audit, that is only federal funds. MR. ONISHI: Okay. MS. YOSHI: So that only reflects the federal funds. MR. ONISHI: Okay. Okay. Okay, good. Thanks. I yield. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. I'm looking at the third slide, the required communication matter to be communicated. So is the auditor's responsibility under generally accepting auditing standards and there's a significant risk material misstatement as part of their audit planning. The first one says we issued an unmodified opinion on the County's financial statement. The second one says the initial overall significant risk identified for the audit were communicated, blah, blah, blah, blah. During the course of the audit, we have made modifications and determined the following as significant risk. So the first one, unmodified opinion; the second one, we've made modifications; were both points under significant risk things that you found? MR. CHAI: So those four risks were communicated in that original engagement letter. The modification with the removal of a risk. That risks with the interpretation of GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board) standards, and it was deemed the implantation of GASB 100 wasn't material to the County. So we removed that as a significant risk at the conclusion of our audit. But the unmodified opinion isn't related to that and those modifications of the risk. MS. YOSIII: And just to clarify, those risks aren't findings. They are just risks that we identify to help plan the audit procedures and design the audit. So we didn't identify any findings as a result of our procedures. MR. KANEALI`l-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you. That was my question. Sorry, I wasn't sure how to ask it, but you figured me out. Thank you. I yield, Chair. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. I'll start with something in the report here from Accuity. Let's see. So it's really a question, so the Department of Water, kind of going back to a previous question, and Director, please jump in if I'm mistaken here. But what was your engagement with the department and with these findings and the receptivity to the issues that you present here? MS. YOSIR So we are also engaged to perform a separate audit of the Department of Water Supply. So we do issue a separate audited financial statement over the Department of Water Supply. Their financials are then incorporated into the County's ACFR, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, but we do issue a separate financial report for the Department of Water Supply. We also are presenting to their board next week on the results of their audit. MR. HUSTACE: Presenting to them? MS. YOSHI: To the Water Board. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MR. HUSTACE: That's under the same contract you have here were all encompassing from the different departments? MS. YOSHI: It is. But we issue a separate for Water Supply. We issue a separate report. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Got it. So you had to present to them that full report to the board, that Water Supply Board? MS. YOSHI: Correct. Correct. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Lost my train of thought now. So I guess to Director Nakagawa, if you don't mind. Council Member Kierkiewicz was exploring a little bit with you on the timing of everything and kind of going down that road, and I know there are those new systems, past challenges, new hires, I'm curious kind of on two fronts your engagement with executive office and their understanding of the challenges you have right now. I know you're face-to-face with them all the time in the Mayor's Office, so curious how, you know, you're getting that support from the administrative side to kind of unfold all of these challenges is part one. Part two would be what do you see, you know, you've mentioned new systems coming on. What do we look like in a year from now for this kind of reporting again? MS. NAKAGAWA: Thank you, Council Member Hustace. Your first question related to support from our executive team, they have been absolutely, 100 percent in support of the Finance Department and the needs we have here. You know, I think that there's a lot of things going on in Finance this year. A lot of things happening at once. I think we've been very aggressive in changing policies, procedures, rules, and systems. Sometimes I think a little bit too much all at once but, you know, I think we can strive for those things as we should. So it's been a bit overwhelming and we're finding our way. But like I said, I'm very excited of where we're going. But we do have the support that we need. Really what we'll continue to ask of everyone is just that patience. We will get there. This team will get there; it will get better; a lot of changes will happen. We will see the systems in place that just really take us to a whole different level, but it's going to take time. But the support has been there, you know, as the support from all of you. We appreciate that we do have that support all the way around. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Director. MS. NAKAGAWA: To your second, I'm going to let Jon Arbles, our new Controller, answer that in terms of what that looks like in the coming years. He's had a lot of thoughts on this, and we've had a lot of discussion. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MR. HUSTACE: That's fantastic. Thank you. (Note: At this time, Finance Controller Jon Arbles came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. ARBLES: Sure. Jon Arbles, Department of Finance. So to your question as far as audits and how we look at this, one of things with the timing of audits is audits are retrospective, right? They look backwards. And yet we're here talking to you in real time. So I know Council Member had asked the question about Water's previous comments, right? That previous comment was made in June 30, 2023. So we're sitting here today, August 19, 2025, talking about comments that are 25 months old. That's how long it takes to get through these types of periods. So just to manage expectations on some of these things as we sit here today, we're almost two months past the June 30, 2025. So that for us, those books are closed. Whatever issues occurred, we'll do our best to clean those up. We currently are working with the audit firm right now, Accuity, to get our schedules in to get those completed as accurately as we can. And for us, you know, to specifically address this, the accuracy part of it is really deadline driven. The closer we are to the deadline, unfortunately, the less accurate we become, right, because we've got to get these things done. So we like to give ourselves a long enough runway; we'd like to make sure we can clean up these accuracy issues; we want to make sure we can do that with Accuity. The new system was implemented 45 days ago, right? So we're starting this; the payroll portion of this won't be implemented until January of this year, so it is really, really new for us. The results of this we will see covered in the next audit period, which will come sometime at the end of 2026. So I just want to manage these expectations as far as what they are. We have to sit here, and we have to currently talk about things that are 13 months old, and we have to make a commitment now to improve going forward, but you're not going to see that commitment to improvement for a little while. And we'll do our best to make sure that we present this as timely as we can, that you can see tangibly the improvements as they come forward, but as it relates to audit results it's just the nature of audits being retrospective. It just takes a little while for it to get out. So I hope that answers your questions. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Thank you. I appreciate your thoughts on this and thank you for stepping in. Thank you so much. Director Nakagawa, could you just explain the policy choice here for —and I don't really know too much about indirect cost rate as highlighted in the report from Accuity. MS. NAKAGAWA: Council Member, could you point me to the page? CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MR. HUSTACE: Sure. I think it's Page 13. It says the County has elected not to use the ten percent demonyms indirect cost rate. MS. NAKAGAWA: You want to answer this one? Okay. I'll let Jon answer this. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Thank you. MR. ARBLES: So from the federal award expenditure standpoint, federal awards allow us to take an indirect cost rate and some of it is driven by the type of award and it's a required disclosure for those specific awards. So as it relates to this the County has elected to not use the ten percent demonyms indirect cost rate to recover in their indirect costs as allowed. And typically it's because they allow us to take a little bit more than that in indirect cost rates. So most of the time from a federal award standpoint, people choose to do this. I haven't gone to each of the grant awards and what we've done, but pretty standard for us to not take the demonyms ten percent. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Thank you for the clarity on that. I guess just one, I haven't had the time to consume all of this but, you know, just going through a little bit; very specific section, Page 72-73 on Solid Waste Landfill Closure and Post Closure Care Cost. So it's really speaking about these outdated closed facilities but we also in the same breath on Page 73 of the Pu'uanahulu Landfill, and it's very clear that there's no closure costs on it, so I'm curious one, why is it in there or secondly, shouldn't we be applying some sort of forward -thinking sort of initiative to say this needs to be considered under the contract? Sorry. This is kind of a curve ball, but yeah. MS. NAKAGAWA: I was going to call up Reid; Jon's going to answer. But I do want to take just one quick second to thank our Assistant Controller Reid Sewake, who really picked up this audit right in the middle and has just shown a great deal of leadership and dedication to the County, although late. But he worked very, very hard to get this done. So anyway I just had to do that. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Director. I appreciate that acknowledgment. So it's a very specific question. Sorry I pulled this one out. But it says that, you know, we contracted a private company to construct an operating landfill in West Hawaii. But under the contract the County has no responsibility for remediation, closure, or post closure. Am I missing something there? Shouldn't that have been part of the initial phasing for the buildout of that facility with any sort of FEIS (Fire Effects Information System)? And I know this is probably a question more for DEM (Department of Environmental Management), but this is kind of —also if you could speak to that financial side of long-term planning? CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MS. NAKAGAWA: Okay. We'll do that. I don't want to misspeak for anything, so we can always get back to you with more information. But I'll let Jon talk about that financial piece. MR. ARBLES: Alright. So any of the footnotes that you see listed here, they're required disclosures, right? So for us what we're looking at in this section, under Section 9, is really related to any liabilities based on solid waste landfill and any contracts that are listed or noted, and anything that inquired significant costs they're required to disclose. So the disclosure here is really you're disclosing that we do not have any liability for remediation of this as it stands per the contract. So that meets our financial statement requirements. So now, I think your question is a little bit more complex than that. You're asking should that be related to the contract and I think that is something we probably have to look into in more detail. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. MR. ARBLES: So the financial statement disclosures are ours. We own these. So if that is something that we need to look at we will research that further. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Yeah, I know. Sorry. It was kind of a curveball there like I mentioned. And then speaking to the overall financial impact on the County as well, that's the kind of lens I'm looking at for right now. We've had a conversation with DEM about what are the steps to take forward but from that side that does just raise a flag for me about that contract; it doesn't have any sort of abatement towards the end of it or anything like that. Yeah. I don't know how that went forward without any sort of, you know, the County's responsible, these are sort of estimates. These are things that we need to look out for and so forth. If that makes any sense. MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah. Council Member, we'd be happy to facilitate a discussion to get more information. There is a lot of unravel with your question and a lot more details. And those of you who know a little bit more about the contract understand that. But I don't want to misspeak and think it's a lot more complex than an answer we could provide to you today. But we would be happy to sit down with you and DEM to discuss. MR. HUSTACE: That would be amazing. Thank you. I appreciate your attention to this. MS. NAKAGAWA: Okay. You're welcome. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 MR. ARBLES: So I just want to add one last thing to this. These are current liabilities so from a contingent standpoint, if that liability doesn't currently exist it's going to report as it's on our books so we're not able to predict what it could be in the future. It's just there's no current liability as it stands. But yeah, we can get more information on what that is. Thanks. MR. HUSTACE: Yeah. I just find that interesting with pallets. The contract doesn't sort of indicate any sort of responsibility. So thank you. Thanks, Chair. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. Either for Director or the auditors. Did DWS (Department of Water Supply) fix their mistakes; is it better this year or is it the same -same? Especially if we're going to talk to them next week, I want to know. MS. YOSHI: With regard to their fiscal year 2023 finding on the deposit. So they corrected that accounting, so that is corrected. What we found this year were different inaccuracies and primarily we got to the financial statements. So they actually draft the initial draft of the financial statements and provide it to us to audit and there were discrepancies within their financial statements. For example, specifically the statement of cash flows didn't balance, and we had to go back and forth with the Controller at DWS to fix the errors in the statement of cash flows. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Were they substantial? MS. YOSHI: I think it was maybe about, initially the cash didn't even balance the balance sheet and then there were differences maybe about $2 million off in their statement of cash flows. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: For the whole year; monthly? MS. YOSHI: For the year. But it doesn't mean that their cash is misdated, it's just that when we were trying to tie out the numbers presented in the statement of cash flows it didn't agree to the support provided to us as auditors. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. CHR. GALIMBA: I do see someone on Zoom that may have something to add. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Actually, I'm okay. And thank you for jumping on, but I don't have any farther questions. Thank you. Thank you for that information. CRCOC-9 August 19, 2025 CHR. GALIMBA: Anyone else? Okay. Then I will, as I said, I am getting delirious so I'm not going to embarrass myself. I will just try to close out here by asking folks to say "aye" if they are in favor of closing Communication 427. CRCOC-9 Vote on Comm. 427: fled In I Approved: August 19, 2025 The motion to close file on Comm. 427 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Hustace, Kagiwada, K-aneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Galimba — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Inaba and Kimball — 2. Excused: None. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you. There being no further business, at 5:22 p.m. Chair Galimba adjourned the meeting. Q� Ms. Mic e e M. Galimba, Chair Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight Committee MG(tk In 2125 (Dat )