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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2026-03-04 2024-2026 Hawaii County Council 341b Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii March 4, 2026 INVOCATION: Assistant Pastor Nate Hadley of Calvary Chapel Hilo gave the morning's invocation. CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at ORDER: 9:04 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Vice Chair Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. James E. Hustace, Member Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Absent& Excused: Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member PLEDGE OF The Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of ALLEGIANCE: Allegiance. (At this time, County Clerk Jon Henricks led the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance.) CHR. INABA: We have a few certificates to present this morning. But before that, we would like to welcome our haumana from the Job Challenge Academy, joining us in chambers this morning. Mahalo, Council Member Kimball, for bringing them in to see how government works. We hope to get a picture with you folks while you're here this morning. Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 PETITIONS, The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Petitions, MEMORIALS, Memorials, Certificates of Merit, and Expressions of Condolence. CERTIFICATES OF MERIT, AND (Note: At this time, Mr. Hustace presented Certificates of Merit to the Kanu O Ka EXPRESSIONS OF `Aina girls paddling team for winning the 2026 Hawaii High School Athletic CONDOLENCE: Association Division II State Championship. In addition, Ms. Kimball presented a Certificate of Merit to recognize Scouting America, Aloha Council on the 116t' anniversary of scouting.) Recess: At 9:12 a.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 9:16 a.m. STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Timothy Rowan: Res. 459-26, Draft 2 (Comm. 718.2), in support. (representing Black Sands Beach Property Owners Association and Malama O Puna) Deb Smith: Res. 459-26, Draft 2 (Comm. 718.2), in support. (representing Vacationland Hawaii Community Association) Susan Champeny: Res. 459-26, Draft 2 (Comm. 718.2), in support. (representing Holo Lio Road Restoration Project) Amedeo Markoff: Res. 459-26, Draft 2 (Comm. 718.2), in support. (representing Pahoa Lava Zone Museum) Eileen O'Hara: Res. 459-26, Draft 2 (Comm. 718.2), in support. (representing Malama O Puna) Smiley Burrows: Res. 459-26, Draft 2 (Comm. 718.2), in support. (representing Leilani Community Association) Jennifer Perry: Res. 459-26, Draft 2 (Comm. 718.2), in support. (representing Holo Lio Road Restoration Project) Page 2 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 APPROVAL The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Approval OF MINUTES: of Minutes. Chair Inaba announced that the Minutes of December 3, 2025, were approved. REPORTS: The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Reports. GOEAC-98 NOMINATION OF DWAYNE T. MUKAI TO THE LIQUOR CONTROL (Comm. 731): ADJUDICATION BOARD Requires Council Confirmation by: March 14, 2026 (Section 13-4(k), Hawai`i County Charter) Vote on GOEAC-98: Ms. Kimball moved to adopt Governmental Operations and (Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 98. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Villegas—2. Excused: None. GOEAC-99 NOMINATION OF LOKELANI BRANDT TO THE PUBLIC ACCESS, OPEN (Comm. 732): SPACE, AND NATURAL RESOURCES PRESERVATION COMMISSION Requires Council Confirmation by: March 14, 2026 (Section 2-2150), Hawai`i County Code) Vote on GOEAC-99: Ms. Kimball moved to adopt Governmental Operations and (Adopted) External Affairs Committee Report No. 99. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Villegas—2. Excused: None. Page 3 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of RESOLUTIONS: Resolutions. STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public. PUBLIC ON RES. 459-26 The following individual registered to speak and came forward when called by (DRAFT 2) the Chair: (COMM. 718.2): Kevin Kushel: In support. (representing Main Street Pahoa Association and Pahoa Lava Zone Museum) Res. 459-26: AUTHORIZES THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT TO AWARD FUNDS FOR (Draft 2) THE KILAUEA RECOVERY GRANT PROGRAM Provides $5,977,773 in grant funds to various nonprofit organizations to provide relief, recovery, mitigation, and long-term resilience for disaster damages, losses, and suffering caused by the 2018 Kilauea eruption. Reference: Comm. 718.2 Intr. by: Council Member Kierkiewicz Approve: FC-125 Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 459-26, Draft 2, and Finance Committee Report No. 125. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. We are approaching the eighth anniversary of the eruption in a couple of months, and I first want to begin by thanking my Lower Puna community for showing up. What an incredibly kind gesture to be here today for sharing your stories of resilience, for talking about what this funding will mean to you and, honestly,just being true partners throughout recovery. When the County received this funding in 2019, I knew from the very beginning that the community needed to play an active role in designing and implementing its own healing. And that drove the development of the program's enabling ordinance because recovery done with community looks very different from recovery done to it. And you've heard about all the projects that folks are very excited about: road restoration, cultural enterprise, `aina stewardship, education, food security, economic development, and more. These are not just line items, but these are the brilliance of our community reimagining what is possible for Lower Puna. Page 4 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Seeing all of you here today, when we met at I think one of the most devastating moments in our community's history and to see all of you still here and hopeful and building, it just fills me with so much pride to be your humble representative, and to see that through everything that was thrown your way, you never gave up. And it demonstrates for me powerful evidence that if you believe in community and you properly resource them to lead, beautiful things can unfold. I'm so grateful to all of you mayoral administrations—Mayor Kim, Mayor Roth, Mayor Alameda—for continuing to support our community, and allowing people to be the architects of their own future. This final tranche is a big deal, nearly $6 million. And it speaks to not just only the need that our community has, but the confidence that the community has earned. And I just want to thank the recovery teamDougles Nam Le, Patti Pinto, Misty Carter—for all of your heard work. It has not been easy. And I appreciate my colleagues for bearing with me over the years to hear about recovery issues, because it's been such a significant moment in our County's history. And of course, thank you to our community. At the Committee meeting, I did say that there were a few projects that were in need of a fiscal sponsor. There is still some due diligence that the recovery team needs to do to kind of button all of that up. So we're going to be moving forward with the resolution as is today, and come back next month with a new resolution ensuring that those programs can be awarded. Officer Le, was there anything else that you wanted to add? (Note: At this time, Disaster Recovery Officer Douglas Le, Planning Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. LE: Good morning, Chair, members of the Council. It's really a privilege to be here this morning. I think from the testimony you've heard, the impact of what these funds will be kind of in our time and for generations to come for our community are very clear. I think in addition to the projects to restore infrastructure, folks in economic development, there are also projects to restore `6pae ula ecosystems that were impacted by the flow itself, workforce development programs to really spur the next generation of our floral culture industry that was displaced from Kapoho. More than anything, I want to recognize how the community truly stepped up through this application process and the hard work that they all put in, 45 applications, nearly $12 million worth of requests. But we're here before you in the first pass of it. So really looking for your support on this resolution,just under $6 million from the recommended awards that we were ready to go with. As Council Member Kierkiewicz mentioned, there are four more projects that are just over $500,000 that we are working really diligently with the folks leading those efforts. They've all identified fiscal sponsors. And we're just working Page 5 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 through the process to ensure that those fiscal sponsors are where they need to be and treating everyone fairly, right, in the way that—through the first round of reviews, fiscal sponsors were also vetted. We're optimistic that we'll be back with you very soon in the second resolution for those also very impactful projects. And I'd be remiss not to mention our 30a'project, which is a$2,000 grant to the Friends of Pahoa Library to support their direct programming. A really amazing group of members of our community. We will be awarding this grant through Finance Director Rule 4.8(d), which is why it's not included in this resolution. But all told, as we move forward and with your support, we will be awarding $6.48 million in this round of funding. And the work speaks for itself. So I ask for your support and am happy to answer any questions I can provide. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for being here. Just asking my colleagues for their continued support. Just really humble to play a very small role in this work. Thank you, Chair, I yield. CHR. INABA: Thank you. All those in favor of approving Resolution 459-26, Draft 2, please say "aye" Vote on Res. 459-26: The motion to adopt Res. 459-26, Draft 2, and Finance Draft 2 Committee Report No. 125 was carried by the following (Adopted) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Res. 460-26: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF LATER FISCAL YEARS TO (Draft 2) ENTER INTO A MULTI-YEAR LEASE AGREEMENT FOR REAL PROPERTY TO BE USED BY THE OFFICE OF THE CORPORATION COUNSEL Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a three-year lease agreement with two options to extend the lease for an additional three years at an estimated monthly cost of approximately $2,600 with Joy A. San Buenaventura, Trustee of the Joy A. San Buenaventura Revocable Living Trust dated November 26, 2025, for space located at 101 Aupuni Street. Reference: Comm. 719.2 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Approve: FC-126 Page 6 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 (Note: Comm. 719.3, from Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder dated February 26, 2026, transmitting proposed amendments to Res. 460-26, Draft 2, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 460-26, Draft 2, and Finance Committee Report No. 126. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. Motion to Amend: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to amend Res. 460-26, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 719.3. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: A straightforward amendment. It's amending the square footage of the office space from 600 to 310, I believe, because there's two of them. The numbers were combined into one square footage amount. The actual amount is 300 per office. And thank you to the Office of Corporation Counsel for getting this information over to us, and to my staff for getting this done. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor of amending Resolution 460-26, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 719.3, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Res. 460-26, Draft 2, with the Amend: contents of Comm. 719.3 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kierkiewicz and Villegas—2. Excused: None. Page 7 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Vote on Motion to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to suspend Council Suspend Council Rule 23 to waive the holdover for the substantive Rules: amendment of Res. 460-26, Draft 2. Seconded by (Approved) Ms. Kagiwada and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kierkiewicz and Villegas—2. Excused: None. Vote on Res. 460-26: The motion to adopt Res. 460-26, Draft 2, as amended to Draft 3 Draft 3, and Finance Committee Report No. 126 was (Adopted) carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kierkiewicz and Villegas—2. Excused: None. Res. 461-26: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF LATER FISCAL YEARS TO ENTER INTO A MULTI-YEAR AGREEMENT FOR PROFESSIONAL CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES RELATING TO THE HILO WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT UPGRADE PROJECT TO BE USED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a six-year agreement with an estimated cost of $1,600,000 per year to retain professional construction management services. Reference: Comm. 720 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Approve: FC-127 (Note: Comm. 720.1, from Environmental Management Director Daniel Girvan dated February 26, 2026, transmitting additional information regarding Res. 461-26, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 461-26 and Finance Committee Report No. 127. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. Page 8 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: For the public and members, we have Communication 720.1 provided by the department, and we'll hand it over to Director of DEM (Department of Environmental Management). Good morning. (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director Daniel Girvan came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. GIRVAN: Good morning. I'm here this morning to answer questions. This subject was on the agenda two weeks ago, and unfortunately, I had to leave before we got to this item. But I am back today, and hopefully, I can answer any questions that people do have. If you will allow me to take you on a little bit of a trip here first. I'll try and describe to you what a construction manager does, or what a construction manager team in this case would do. Imagine we have gone to the site here in Hilo today. Fortunately, we don't need safety hats and yellow vests, but we can still walk around the site. The first thing we're going to see on the site is that we have a building under construction. And we are preparing to pour the foundation for that building. And before we can pour the concrete, we have to do some backfilling. Well, this building will be a large building. It will have heavy machinery, and we need really secure foundations so the building doesn't settle at some time in the future. So how we do the backfilling and how we do the foundation is quite important. So the soils engineer has given us a recipe for doing the backfilling. And he has a recipe of, we can do one-foot lifts—that means we can put in one foot of fill at a time—and then we have to compact that one foot. And we need to compact that one foot to 90 percent of its maximum density. So we'll fill in one foot and then compact it and check it; another foot, compact it and check it. If we don't have a construction manager onsite, the contractor's just going to throw a lot of dirt in the hole, and maybe compact the top of it. Then what happens is, with heavy weight and vibration of machinery, that fill would settle. So we need a person there that represents the County, to determine that in fact it was filled one foot at a time and compacted to 90 percent until it was brought up to the correct grade. So that would probably be the—we have 4.1 people in this contract. One of those people would be an inspector, and this would probably be a job that the inspector would do. Once we get this fill up to grade, we're ready to pour concrete; we are ready to build forms. Now, those forms have to be a certain size and a certain place. Again, if we don't have an inspector there, we have no control over just what those fillings are going to even look like, and eventually, they're going to be buried. So, once they're buried, we can't check them at all. So we have to have an inspector in place to do that. So that inspector comes and checks the forms. Page 9 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 This concrete is going to have a lot of steel reinforcement rods in it. And an engineer, the engineer of record, has prescribed a certain amount of steel rods of a certain size and certain locations. Again, we need an inspector to compare all that to the original design. Because once the concrete's poured, we can't fix that either. And this just goes on and on as you build the building up and the floor of the building and the walls of the building. These are all steps which need to take place onsite at a specific time, on schedule, so that we don't hold up the contractor. Now, in this building, we're going to put a piece of machinery. That machinery has been on order for over a year, and it finally shows up and it's probably in a container. Well, somebody needs to open up that container, pull the piece of machinery out of the container. And the very first thing we have to do is inspect it for damage. It could have water damage. It could have physical damage. But we need an inspector onsite to check that piece of machinery. Our contract with the construction contractor says that once the machinery is onsite, approved, and safe, we will pay 50 percent of the cost of that machine. So we need an inspector there to pull the machine out, to look at it, to make sure it's not damaged. And then to start the paperwork to certify that the machine is in fact onsite, and the County can proceed with the payment of that machine. The next thing we have is, we're going to have a piece of pipe hooked to this machine. The engineer of record defined that piece of pipe as stainless steel pipe, while the construction contractor has come back to us with what's called a value- added or value-engineering proposal. And they're saying if we change the design a little bit, we can save some money. And under the contract, if they come to us and say, "You have to change the design; we can save money,"we get 50 percent of the savings and they get 50 percent of the savings. But of course, that all has to be very well checked and documented. So if the contractor comes to us and says, "Well, let's use this HDPE (high-density polyethylene),"which is a form of plastic pipe rather than a stainless steel pipe—stainless steel is specified to resist corrosion—well, this plastic pipe will also resist corrosion. It is much less expensive to use, much less expensive to install. To get the approval to use the plastic pipe is a very intensive process. The contractor has to come up with drawings, specifications. Those have to be submitted to us, the customer, the County. They have to be submitted to the engineer of record. There's an enormous amount of paperwork going back and forth to get this all approved and certified. Ultimately, the engineer of record comes back and says, "Yes, we like this idea. You can go ahead and do this." We let the contractor know that, yes, "This is the way we want to run this piping. Please do so and as HDPE plastic form." That's Page 10 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 all easy to say in a few minutes here. But the people that are necessary to do the checking, the engineering, the certification, the paperwork, the control of documents, requires a lot of man hours. Sothis 4.1-person team that we're hiring to come onsite is—the .1 person is essentially a director. He would not be onsite on a regular basis, but he's in charge of this four-person team. We're buying about one-tenth of a man year from that person. And then the other four people, which are fulltime onsite, we are buying the full 2,000-plus hours per year of time from them. And there is an overall construction manager and an engineer, an inspector, and an administrative person. And the administrative person maybe onsite. They maybe at a remote site. But their job is to keep all this paperwork going back and forth so that when we get to the end, everything is correctly documented. Another job that that administrator does is, during that multi-year period that the project is ongoing, every single machine that comes onsite has probably a wooden case. And when you open it up, it's full of manuals—repair manuals, operation manuals. All that paperwork has to be collected and kept safe and turned over to the County at the end of the construction project. So no single person can do this job. It takes a team of people with complementary skills. Hence the need to have this four-person team onsite every day that there's construction going on. CHR. INABA: Director, I want to give the Council an opportunity to ask some questions. Do you have anything else? You want to summarize the contract? MR. GIRVAN: No. I just wanted to give you a picture of what it looks like to be there on a daily basis. CHR. INABA: Perfect. Thank you. We'll start with Council Member Kimball and then head to Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. I don't have any actual questions. I just want to make a statement. Of course, not an architect, not an engineer, but have been married to one for over 25 years now. And he's worked here in Hawaii with an architecture firm. And I will say, of all of the things that have return on investment, hiring a construction manager to oversee a project is one of those that is guaranteed to have a valuable return on investment. So I encourage you guys to support this resolution, because I think it is worth the value in terms of savings that we will see on potential escalations of costs on this project. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Thank you, Director. Can you hear me okay? MR. GIRVAN: Yes, I can. Thank you. Page 11 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So, it's a $1.6 million annual contract. MR. GIRVAN: That's correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And we have 4.1 people. And the 1.6 million is a guaranteed rate of pay, or this is an"up to" contract? MR. GIRVAN: The 1.6 million includes two factors: a guaranteed amount, a maximum amount,per year for those 4.1 people. It also includes $80,000 per year that is an allowance. This four-person team will occasionally need people that are more specialized in a particular discipline, and we have an $80,000-per- year allowance to bring those people in to do those specific inspections. So it could be from zero to $80,000 per year, depending on what's happening on the site, what specialists are needed. The remainder of that is a fixed amount. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So, if each individual is getting sorry, if we're designating 320,000 to travel, 80,000 times four, and we have four individuals, that's $320,000 per individual then. Does that sound right? MR. GIRVAN: I can explain that if you'd like me to. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, at 2,000 hours, that is $150 an hour? MR. GIRVAN: Well, keep in mind that that includes not only the direct cost of a person, but it also includes—it's a multiplier of three. The base charge is the direct cost of the person. Then two times that covers all the additional expenses, like vacation, healthcare, a vehicle for that person, all the social security and income tax payments that are made. So you get the two times the base number with those additions. And then, the third step covers overhead, profit. This four-person team is taking on a lot of liability. They become, as a team, responsible for the completion of the project on time, on cost, on quality. And if there's a problem, they are the responsible people for that. So part of that additional money pays them for taking on that responsibility. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I understand that. I've actually taken project management classes, and I am/was an electrician and ran jobs. So I understand the importance of a project manager. There's an amazing video we watched. I think they built a house in one day, start to finish. But from the slab to the roof to walls, when the—the beauty of the video was there was a project manager and they had everything detailed to the minute as far as when it would be—when it was poured, when it was ready, when the walls were going up, to the roof, to the windows, everything going in, done. And it wasn't a small home; it was a big home. Page 12 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 A project manager is incredibly important. The liability aspect is important as well. I'm just trying to get into the basic cost and what we're paying to each individual. Is this a company? MR. GIRVAN: These are four individuals that work for a company, the same company. Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I yield for now, Chair. Thank you very much. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Director. I appreciate the time. Before this, we had some conversation about it as well,just to kind of catch up on some of this. And I appreciate kind of the background communication here to provide some more details on that. Just a couple of questions here. The four individuals. There's one administrator for this entity, and the four individuals that are on the ground doing the day-to- day inspections, daily inspections sometimes. What are their credentials? Because we're talking about contracts, $1.6 million, $80,000 per allowance. They're still accruing about$200,000 per individual on an annual salary, somewhere in that range, some ballpark figure in there. But some—nice salary there for sure. So I'm curious on the individuals' credentials that we carried under this CM (construction manager) contract. MR. GIRVAN: Yeah, actually I think we have the calculations, if we could share that. (Note: At this time, Projects Coordinator Mark Grant, Environmental Management Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. GRANT: Good morning, Council. Mark Grant, Projects Coordinator for Wastewater Division. This construction manager that's going to be assigned to this role, he has a construction manager certification, qualifications on that. MR. HUSTACE: He carries a PE (professional engineer) license? MR. GRANT: Yes. MR. HUSTACE: And these four individuals also carry PE licenses? MR. GRANT: The project engineer does have a PE license. The inspector does have training and qualifications under—for construction inspections on that part. Page 13 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. HUSTACE: So the credentials themselves would warrant a sizeable salary then. MR. GRANT: Yeah. And just to kind of supplement Dan's explanation on the rates and so forth, we are following DAGS' (Department of Accounting and General Services')professional service rates on that, based on the hourly and the multiplier of three. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Thank you. Taking a step back, looking at the big project, $337 million, is this not—why wasn't this already baked into that? Why wouldn't that contractor that's doing the work already have some sort of construction management sort of armor aspect of that? MR. GIRVAN: Well, you want to separate that. MR. HUSTACE: No, I understand that but, yeah. MR. GIRVAN: You wouldn't want somebody checking their own work. You need a third party to—they're checking the construction contractor's work. And you need to have people that are separate from the construction contractor to do that. The allegiance of this construction management team is to the County, not to the contractor. They are, by contract, required to operate in the County's interest. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. So we have, then, two separate contracts, right. This is not included in that big $337 million? MR. GIRVAN: That is correct. MR. HUSTACE: That is an entirely separate contract, okay. Now, you mentioned about acting as a liaison to the County. So how are discrepancies handled between the CM, the contractor, and the County? How does that unfold? MR. GIRVAN: Well, if the construction manager has some kind of discrepancy, their job is to report that discrepancy to both the engineer of record and to the County. And then it would be their job to work with the contractor to try and resolve that discrepancy. MR. HUSTACE: So they're kind of a mediator between it all, then. They would kind of be in the middle of all of that. MR. GRANT: Yeah. So they will review any proposed claims that's made by the contractor. They will verify, validate if it is a valid claim, or they will create any rebuttals or refutes to any claims that's made. Page 14 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. HUSTACE: So we're delegating that authority to them, then. We relinquish—as County, say, the CM's going to make that final decision and determination then. MR. GRANT: The CM will help support, right. They will be our MR. HUSTACE: Advocate. MR. GRANT: Yeah. And they will come back to us and say, "Okay, these are the findings. This is the situation." And then, the County will ultimately have the say on it. But the CM is there to help us handle and manage those situations. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. And could you talk a little bit about report timing, occurrences, that as those inspections are going on by the CM, how often is that being reported back to, Director, you and your team? MR. GIRVAN: Go ahead, Mark. MR. GRANT: They are obligated to do daily inspection reports, as well as weekly and monthly updates. And we do have it to where there are owner- contractor-CM weekly meetings to kind of monitor progress as the project goes on. MR. HUSTACE: So, with all this—and we've talked about staffing shortages within DEM. That's the reason for bringing the CM on—one of the reasons. Right? And so MR. GIRVAN: Well, DEM, in-house right now, has neither the people nor the expertise to do this role. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. So, in terms of the daily reportings, the monthly meetings, do we have that capacity to engage with the CM? MR. GIRVAN: That's where we have Mark. MR. HUSTACE: Okay, but it's not all falling on him, though, right? MR. GIRVAN: No, no, no. But he will be the lead person from our department to interface with the CM. MR. HUSTACE: And I assume, Director, you would be in those conversations too. MR. GIRVAN: Yes. Page 15 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. HUSTACE: With aproject of this scale, bringing on someone for six years at $1.6 million every year, we kind of need those constants. So I would assume you're involved in that and very much so. Okay. Last question. Could you speak maybe broadly about this defense? One of the justifications, defense against cost overruns and change orders. Because if there's discrepancies back and forth, there'll probably be some change orders. So could you talk a little bit about that? MR. GIRVAN: Well, the construction manager has contractual responsibility for controlling the cost. When the construction contractor submits a bill for a certaina progressive bill, it's up to the construction manager to certify to the County that what is being billed for has in fact been accomplished onsite. So they're our check for an ongoing billing process. If the costs start to get out of control, they would be the first person that would ring the bell on that. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Director. Thanks, Chair. I appreciate the time. CHR. INABA: Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I had a question. I was going to mention about manpower for DEM. And that's what's happening, is that you folks don't have the amount of capacity of employees to help manage these large projects, right. MR. GIRVAN: This project truly does take four specially qualified people full- time for the five-to six-year construction period(inaudible). It's a very demanding cover. MR. ONISHI: I wanted to kind of have that explained, like the knowledge of why DEM is doing this contract. The second thing is you folks went out with an RFP (request for proposal). Correct? MR. GIRVAN: I'm sorry, say again? MR. ONISHI: You folks went out with an RFP to get this company? MR. GIRVAN: Oh, I'm going to let Mark answer that. MR. GRANT: Through professional services, we hired (inaudible), yes. MR. ONISHI: Okay. So there was a process that was done. Well, there was a proposal. They went out and they got whoever, the professional, was on the list, right? Is that correct? Page 16 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. GRANT: Yes. Through professional services, we did express some interest for the listed professional for CM services, and we selected MR. ONISHI: Right. And it's a company, correct? MR. GRANT: Yes. MR. ONISHI: And in the request that you folks had, you folks asked for these positions. Correct? MR. GRANT: Yes. MR. ONISHI: Okay. So, the bottom line is basically this contract is with this company that's providing the manpower to help manage the project. MR. GRANT: Correct. MR. ONISHI: And if you break it up among the years is how much it costs per year. MR. GRANT: Correct. MR. ONISHI: And then, if there's any expertise that the company needs, you folks have these extra funds for them. MR. GRANT: Yes. MR. ONISHI: Okay. I yield. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Director, thank you for meeting with Council Member Hustace and I to answer questions that we had following our last meeting. He covered a lot of what I wanted to ask. But I was curious, in this communication that you gave to Council about project closeout, and what is meant by "final deficiencies." MR. GIRVAN: When you have even a small project, but particularly a large project, you do what's called a"final inspection." And you really go through the whole history of the project very carefully, and you check every little detail. Invariably, when you do that check, you find that this door swings the wrong way; it should have swung the other way. Or there's some minor issue that's not quite like it was designed, and it needs to be corrected. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: But isn't that why we hired the CM to begin with, to prevent these deficiencies from occurring? Page 17 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. GIRVAN: They prevent the big deficiencies as you're ongoing. But ultimately, you have a team: the contractor, the construction manager, and the owner; in this case, the County. They come together and do this final inspection. It's a very long, involved process where you check every single little detail. And whatever discrepancies are discovered during that final inspection, it's up to the construction manager to work with the contractor to get those discrepancies resolved before the County makes a final payment. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Would we be on the hook financially to rectify those deficiencies MR. GIRVAN: No. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Or is that something that the contractor has to do? MR. GIRVAN: It's up to the contractor to deliver as per the design from the engineer of record. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And are we committing ourselves to the $337 million project cost? Or is there a contingency kind of built into the overall wastewater budget, so it's very possible that the cost of construction could exceed that amount, the 337? MR. GIRVAN: I'm not sure I understand your question. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I'm worried about cost overruns. MR. GIRVAN: No, we are not worried about cost overruns. But I will say, when you do a project for five years, somewhere in that project you'll find where you would like to do something a little differently. And then, if you come to that point, you work with the construction manager and the construction contractor to say, "Okay, instead of the wall running over to here, we'd like to have the wall run over to there so we can put this extra piece of machinery in." They come back with a bid for that change, and you process that bid right through just like you did the original bid. And then, finally, the County makes the decision is it worth whatever that bid amount is for them to alter the wall and take it this way rather than that way. Those are things that happen. In any large construction project, we're going to expect them to be a significant total amount. But I think it would be unrealistic to say that there won't be a change somewhere in a five-year project. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Mark, did you want to add something? Page 18 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. GRANT: Yeah. So,just to add on, our current contract we do have, I believe, an allowance for unforeseen or emergency work. So if there's an unforeseen situation or a situation happens that deems it to become emergency work, we do have an allowance MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Is there a percentage of that or is there a cap? MR. GRANT: I think it's a$2 million allowance within this $337 million contract. So before there's any potential change order, they will be expending that allowance amount first. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Like my colleague Mr. Hustace, I still have concerns about this particular request. I ask for a very high-level understanding of all the construction projects that the County needs to manage in order to meet Federal requirements of the consent decree, and for whatever reason that information just can't be shared or is too complex to present. And I can appreciate that. I want you to know that I have tremendous respect for what you folks are trying to do. But we control the purse strings. And I want to be very sure about what the County is investing in over the long term, and that we can see these projects through to completion. MR. GRANT: I just would like to say I know the 4.1 staff we're looking to hire is to help support the County side. I do want to express, on the contractor's team that manages their aspect of it, for this project you have multiple discipline trades. You have your structural, your civil, your mechanical, electrical, and plumbing. Now, on the contractor's end, for each trait discipline, they have three individuals. So they have a project lead, a project engineer, and maybe a foreman or a superintendent—and that's per discipline. So, on the contractor's side, they have a team of 15, give or take,people just managing their portion of it. So, even right now, you just currently have me managing that. So, even with the 4.1, the additional staff we're looking to hire, it's still an under-sized team compared to what the contractor is doing for their portion. So it's really to help us support the County's end to make sure this project is done in compliance with the specifications and plans on time, good quality, and cost management. So I do want to express that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for that, Mark. We really appreciate you. Chair, I yield for now. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. A follow-up: I like Council Member Hustace's first point, but I didn't hear the answer. We went out to bid for $337 million for Phase 1. But we're coming back after the fact to ask for an additional 1.6 per year for contract management, with the understanding that we Page 19 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 didn't want to lump the two together; that you want an overseer over the project. But why not include that into the total project budget and pull it out of that bond ordinance that's going to pay for this? And then, a second follow-up question: What is the funding source for this? MR. GIRVAN: The funding source is the same bond package that is supporting the rest of the construction project. And this amount of money was included in the planning for the bonds for the project. It's just a separate contract, but the funding is the same source. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. In one of these `BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED" clauses, we have that sufficient funds will be budgeted in later fiscal years to cover the anticipated obligations. That's coming from the bond that's covering the entire project as a whole? MR. GIRVAN: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Lastly, I've been here before—it's always an interesting place—but is there a contract in place already with the contractor for this dollar amount? MR. GIRVAN: For which dollar amount? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: For the 1.6 million. MR. GIRVAN: Not with the construction I'm sorry, I'm a little puzzled. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Have we signed a contract with someone already for this? Or we've selected someone in the professional services? MR. GRANT: We haven't signed no contract for construction management services. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I think I misheard. We've already signed the contract. Six years ago, I was here. The resolution came in front of the Council, but the contract had already been signed. At that point, how did we enter into a contract without the resolution, which provides the authority to enter into a contract? I just wanted to follow up and make sure we haven't already signed. Because at that point, the resolution's behind the ball. And that's more just the little educational component that I picked up. So we haven't signed anything yet. MR. GRANT: That is correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. Chair, I yield. Thank you. Page 20 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: Alrighty. So I missed the Committee discussion. I did review the report. I guess my concern here is that we've been provided with this communication with general roles and responsibilities,justification, but you folks have a budget breakdown of this $1.6 million per year. Correct? MR. GIRVAN: Yes, we do. CHR. INABA: Okay. Was that provided to the Council? MR. GIRVAN: No, it wasn't because, generally,we don't make financial information public prior to the Council's action. And whatever we would submit to the Council would become public. So we were in a bit of a quandary as to how to handle that from a financial information standpoint. CHR. INABA: Maybe Corporation Counsel or somebody representing Finance? Robin, you might be able to answer this as well. So, when we do make a selection through professional services, they submitted all of their documentation. We know what the total amount is. And I guess maybe that's another question I have. It's an estimated 1.6, according to the resolution. Is that less than? Is it 1.6? Why is it an estimate if we know what they put in and what we're awarding, or what contract we're going to enter into? (Note: At this time, Business Manager Robin Bauman, Environmental Management Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. BAUMAN: Robin Bauman, Business Manager for Environmental Management. So, as mentioned previously, the contract has not been signed yet so it's not final. So we have an (inaudible) shared that draft contract. It's still in draft form. But the 1.6 million is basically rounded up. It's a little less. CHR. INABA: Yeah, I think reading through this, because the wording of this resolution says, "estimates the annual cost of this agreement to be 1.6 million," from a Corporation Counsel perspective, Assistant Corporation Counsel Yoshimoto, I want to be clear as to what that means if the Council gives its approval today. And when they say an estimated 1.6, what authority are we actually granting for an annual cost basis here? Sorry, I said I didn't have questions today, J, but here we are. (Note: At this time, Assistant Corporation Counsel J Yoshimoto came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good morning, Council Members, Council Chair. J Yoshimoto, Assistant Corporation Counsel. Council Chair, if you could again, sorry, restate your question? Page 21 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: Sure. In the last"WHEREAS" clause in our Resolution 461-26, it states that this would be—it estimates that the annual cost of this agreement will be $1.6 million. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Estimated. CHR. INABA: Yeah. So what exactly does that mean? Is it that they're allowed to go to 1.7, 1.8? Because, it isn't restrictive as to say that we are authorizing"up to" 1.6 million per year. MR. GIRVAN: I think I understand your question now. The reason it's estimated is because that number does include the $80,000-per-year allowance. If in fact they don't use the total of the $80,000, then the actual annual cost would be something less than the 1.6. MR. YOSHIMOTO: So a more accurate statement would be "up to 1.6 million"? MR. GIRVAN: Yes. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Maybe the resolution should be amended to (inaudible). CHR. INABA: I don't come from a construction background. We just know how contracts work here. And what we're reading in our resolution is not clear as to what the Council is actually authorizing. Part of it too is that I think this is maybe for some other departments as well. When there is information that you feel is confidential, if you feel that the budget breakdown should not be provided publicly, then it should be provided confidentially to the Council so we can be best informed in our decision-making. So I think I'mI'm supportive of the idea. I just can't support this resolution right now with a lack of information. You provided what the responsibilities are, but there's nothing in writing as to how this $1.6 million per year is broken down. Housing is here. And they're over here once a month, I swear, and we're dealing with how do we use public funds appropriately for grants. Now, it's a$1.6 million contract through professional service. I don't see it any differently. We still need a good breakdown. I mean,public funds are public funds. So I don't know if this Council would be open to a postponement here so we can get more information. I don't know if you folks would be prepared to table this and get us this information today prior to MR. GIRVAN: The information is available. We just had not put it in Council's hands because of the concern of the information becoming public. Page 22 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: Okay. So I don't know where the Council stands right now, if this thing is going to pass anyway. I just know that I can't support it with a lack of information we've been provided. We'll go—there's a motion—well, let me ask you, Director. How long would it take your office to get us that additional information? MR. GIRVAN: Today. Would that be reasonable (inaudible)? CHR. INABA: Okay. You know what, let's just postpone so you folks have the next two weeks, and you can get it to us in a format that makes sense. We can review it prior to our next Council meeting. And I think that would help us. And we'll probably also have an amendment that my office will work on to amend that last"WHEREAS" clause up to 1.6 million, so it's clear what authority this Council is granting the department. With that, can I please get a motion to ? Motion to Postpone: Mr. Onishi moved to postpone Res. 461-26 to March 18, 2026. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. INABA: Discussion on the postponement. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I'm in support of the postponement. I want to encourage the department to review the meeting that took place during Committee. I think there were a lot of questions and requests for information that are still outstanding. And so, we encourage you to review that and ensure that the full package of information is provided to the Council. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Thank you, Chair. I would like to see the Finance Department come here, because I think there's a procedure that we're supposed to do. And I know in the past, when we were on the Council, like, for example, buying a fire truck. They had to come in front of us, the Fire Department, to request"x" amount of money. And we used to say, "Why are we saying we're going to limit to a certain number?" Right, J? Do you remember that? And it was like giving the company that's going to build the fire truck an amount that they can go up to. Whereas, if we didn't have the number, then they could maybe offer half of that. But because we put it in there—and I guess it's part of the process. Is that correct, J? We always questioned that before, on the Council. I remember. MR. YOSHIMOTO: I do. I do remember, yes. MR. ONISHI: Is that the process? MR. YOSHIMOTO: As far as what can be disclosed during the procurement process. I mean, there are rules in place that protects the procurement process for the reasons you just mentioned. Yes. Page 23 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. ONISHI: But then, also with this reso (resolution) like that, with this MR. YOSHIMOTO: I haven't worked on this reso. MR. ONISHI: No, but a numbera certain number has to be put in to move forward. Is that correct, Robin? MS. BAUMAN: Typically, I don't think the multi-year resolutions have that amount in there. And like you recalled in the past, when an amount has been put in and it goes out to bid, and the bids come in exactly what was authorized, not a penny less. And usually, that's going out for bid and it's a low bid price. In this case, it's a contract,professional service, that's being negotiated. MR. ONISHI: A little bit different. MS. BAUMAN: Maybe a little bit different, but it still shows the vendor what the County is willing to spend. MR. ONISHI: Okay, good. Yeah, so hopefully Finance can be here to help explain to the Council Members the process. Thank you, I yield. CHR. INABA: Thank you. And again,just a reminder, we're on the motion to postpone. So, right now, it's been requested of the department to provide the budgetary breakdown and show how the 1.6 is broken down. If there's additional information that the Council wants as part of that communication, now is our opportunity to make sure we get that. Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thanks, Chair. As we receive that information, and as you make that potential change for that"WHEREAS"clause, a personal recommendation would be to separate those two out for the allowable expense. That wording, that language is separate than what is the actual (inaudible)being contracted there, if that makes sense. Because, there's a flexibility in that allowance piece. Kind of separating those two out. CHR. INABA: Okay. We can talk story. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. CHR. INABA: Sorry, I'm not clear on what you're saying. MR. HUSTACE: Sorry. CHR. INABA: All good. All right, on the postponement to the March 18t' Council meeting for Resolution 461-26, all those in favor please say "aye." Page 24 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Vote on Motion to The motion to postpone Res. 461-26 to March 18, 2026, Postpone: was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Res. 462-26: AUTHORIZES AND DIRECTS THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE TO NEGOTIATE THE DISPOSITION OF REAL PROPERTY IDENTIFIED AS TAX MAP KEY: 7-4-010:044 BY LEASE TO HOPE SERVICES HAWAI`I, INC., FOR HOMELESS ASSISTANCE PURPOSES Authorizes the negotiation of a one-year lease with one one-year option to renew with an approximate annual cost of$10. The property, located at 74-5593 Pawai Place, would continue to be used as an assessment center and emergency shelter for individuals who are experiencing homelessness. Reference: Comm. 721 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Approve: FC-128 Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 462-26 and Finance Committee Report No. 128. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. I see our office of housing here. Welcome back. I have a few questions. (Note: At this time, Housing Administrator Kehaulani Costa came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for being here, Administrator Costa, and to your team. I was thinking on yesterday, and I put my thoughts in order on the way home, which is what I usually do. Under this contract, does HOPE Services have the ability to sublease the property that they're getting from the County? MS. COSTA: Kehau Costa, Housing Administrator. This lease is for the West Hawaii Emergency Shelter. No, they do not have the ability to sublease. Page 25 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Good. And then, what is the program being run in this facility? MS. COSTA: So this is a 31-bed shelter; West Hawaii Emergency Shelter. It was built as an emergency shelter for the County. It was built in 2010. HOPE (HOPE Services Hawaii, Inc.) has been managing this shelter since then, since 2010. The lease used to include Hale Kikaha. So two separate TMKs (tax map keys). The lease was one lease that included the long-term housing on the second TMK. So this is why we're here today, because we've separated the two properties leasing to HOPE for the emergency shelter. And we've put the long-term housing under property management. So HOPE no longer has the lease of the long-term housing. We've taken that back under office of housing, and we've put it under property management. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So the emergency shelter is open to the public? Or this is for homeless purposes? MS. COSTA: So this is a congregate shelter, 31 beds, and the way individuals come into this shelter is through the coordinated entry system. So there's a comprehensive coordinated entry system managed by bridging the gap, which is our continuum of care. And our service providers, when there are openings within our facilities that are either doing emergency or transitional housing, they pull from the list when a bed is open. So it's not a first-come, first-served type of emergency shelter. It's individuals coming in through the coordinated entry system. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, if there was an emergency, this isn't a public emergency shelter. MS. COSTA: Correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is a homeless (inaudible). MS. COSTA: This is a homeless shelter, yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What funding source or—this is the question: Is the funding source for HOPE Services to run the program they're offering now, or bridging the gap, funded by our homeless fund or the housing fund? MS. COSTA: So there are homeless funds from the Homeless and Housing Fund attached to the emergency shelter, as well as other funding sources, like State Page 26 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 funding. You're asking more about the programmatic side, as opposed to the physical lease side. So I need to prepare that for you, separate from the lease if you're asking about program and operations. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I am. You're not HOPE Services but we do contract HOPE Services to provide a service back to us. MS. COSTA: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And where I'm headed is the $10 lease per year. But after reviewing all the contracts that we've signed that are part of the housing fund and the homeless fund—and there are many funds so I'm trying not to confuse them—but the homeless fund, those contracts included in their nonprofit asks for overhead, utilities, cost of labor, everything else they provide when they provide this service back to the County. What I want to make sure is that when they said their overhead would be $5,000 a month just throwing out a number—and that there was a $3,000-per-month building cost, but now we've eliminated that and provided them the $10-a-year lease, that we're doing the right thing and we're getting our money's worth out of the organization. That is where I'm headed. MS. COSTA: I understand. When we lease facilities to nonprofits, if they were to apply for a grant to run programs out of those facilities, it would not include a lease cost. It may include utilities, repairs and maintenance. We do not provide that. We put that on the nonprofit. They need to do all repairs, all maintenance of the facility, utility cost, water, electric. When we lease a facility to another organization for $10 a month [sic], they take on all of the responsibilities of that facility. If we do not lease to them, then those become the County's responsibility to maintain that property. So there would not be a lease cost or a landlord lease cost in a grant for a County facility. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. You can see where my brain is going. Can you please provide to me or to the Council—it doesn't have to be today, but within the next week or so—can you get me a breakdown of the information of the program being run, the funding source for the program specifically for HOPE Services for this. I also want to know if anyone is subleasing underneath to them. And if not, it's fine. No. And the original—if there was a funding source from our homeless fund, what their grant proposal request is and what was listed in their grant proposal. I yield, Chair. CHR. INABA: Vice Chair Onishi. Page 27 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. ONISHI: Thank you, Chair. I was going to ask the same questions because we just talked about the $10 a year in yesterday's discussion. But then, I guess you'll provide us with all that information, right? Okay. My thing is you mentioned about the nonprofit would have to be responsible for any maintenance work. Okay. So my question is kind of not with this, but kind of outside is that Hilo Memorial Hospital, the old one, is that leased to any of the nonprofits that's there? MS. COSTA: Hilo Memorial is leased on a month-to-month lease. MR. ONISHI: To a nonprofit? MS. COSTA: To HOPE Services for the emergency shelter. MR. ONISHI: Okay. Then, for the County's side, we've been putting in. And I think Ms. Kimball has been keeping track, which is I think over $30 million in renovations to Hilo Memorial Hospital—could be a little bit more or whatever, but give or take. MS. COSTA: I would correct that. We have not put in $30 million to Hilo Memorial. MR. ONISHI: Yeah? Okay. But weren't we putting money for roof repairs and all those kinds of things? MS. COSTA: That's the whole facility. We received $60 million in congressional funds to renovate the entire building—roof, HAZMAT (hazardous materials), life safety. HOPE Services has a very small portion of the building. So the repairs and maintenance that are required of them on that lease are for the square footage that they use, not the entire building. It's a 60,000 square foot building. That would not make sense to have HOPE Services reroof it. MR. ONISHI: No, so—okay. For me to understand, so whatever the nonprofit leases, that square footage or whatever, that's what they're responsible for. MS. COSTA: Yeah. Plumbing, bathrooms, windows. MR. ONISHI: Okay. So I just wanted to kind of get that clear. Because as you mentioned earlier, the nonprofit, if they're being lessees, they're supposed to maintain it. MS. COSTA: Yeah. MR. ONISHI: But that's not—it's depending on the square footage of what they are leasing. Page 28 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MS. COSTA: Of their lease, yes. MR. ONISHI: Yes. MS. COSTA: So it's a portion of the building. It's not the entire building, correct. MR. ONISHI: Correct. And so, there's a couple of nonprofits. So they're also responsible for their sections of repairs, right. MS. COSTA: Yes. MR. ONISHI: Okay, thank you. I yield. CHR. INABA: Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of approving Resolution 462-26, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 462-26: The motion to adopt Res. 462-26 and Finance Committee (Adopted) Report No. 128 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Res. 469-26: AUTHORIZES AND DIRECTS THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS TO ISSUE A LICENSE FOR ENTRY, LANDSCAPING, AND MAINTENANCE OF A PORTION OF A RIGHT-OF-WAY OWNED BY THE COUNTY Seeks to grant Kuakini Makai Association, Inc., a revocable license to enter, landscape, and maintain a portion of Kuakini Highway. Reference: Comm. 733 Intr. by: Council Member Kimball (B/R) Approve: LAAC-32 and Comm. 733.1: From Council Member Heather L. Kimball, dated February 17, 2026, transmitting comments from Interim Police Chief Reed K. Mahuna regarding Res. 469-26. Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to adopt Res. 469-26 and Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 32. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. Page 29 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: No further comments. I just note the consultation with HPD (Hawai`i Police Department), which wasn't available at first reading in Committee. CHR. INABA: Thank you. All those in favor of approving Resolution 469-26, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 469-26: The motion to adopt Res. 469-26 and Legislative (Adopted) Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Report No. 32 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Res. 470-26: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO ASSIST THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION WITH EXPENSES RELATING TO THE 33RD ANNUAL WAIMEA CHERRY BLOSSOM HERITAGE FESTIVAL Transfers $3,625 from the Clerk-Council Services—Contingency Relief account (Council District 9); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation, Culture and Education Other Current Expenses account. Reference: Comm. 738 Intr. by: Council Member Hustace Motion to Approve: Mr. Hustace moved to adopt Res. 470-26. Seconded by Mr. Onishi. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. I just want to mahalo our Culture and Education Division within Paks and Recreation. Fabulous Waimea Cherry Blossom Heritage Festival that they always put on. A great turnout by community; it's always wonderful to see. So many things going on at the event, and really supporting their efforts here with this resolution. So thank you so much for the support. Page 30 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: All those in favor of approving Resolution 470-26, please say cc n aye. Vote on Res. 470-26: The motion to adopt Res. 470-26 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Res. 471-26: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO KAHUA PA`A MUA, INC., TO ASSIST WITH EXPENSES FOR THE KOHALA INTERGENERATIONAL CENTER'S 20TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT Transfers $2,000 from the Clerk-Council Services—Contingency Relief account (Council District 9); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public Programs account. Reference: Comm. 739 Intr. by: Council Member Hustace Motion to Approve: Mr. Hustace moved to adopt Res. 471-26. Seconded by Mr. Onishi. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Just welcome support for this resolution to recognize a 20a' anniversary event in Kohala at the Kohala Intergenerational Center, and the festivities happening at the Kamehameha Park that same day. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Thank you. All those in favor of approving Resolution 471-26, please say "aye." Page 31 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Vote on Res. 471-26: The motion to adopt Res. 471-26 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Res. 472-26: APPOINTS THE HAWAI`I COUNTY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE AND ALTERNATE REPRESENTATIVE TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE HAWAI`I STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES Designates Council Members Heather L. Kimball as Representative and Jennifer Kagiwada as Alternate Representative. Reference: Comm. 740 Intr. by: Council Member Kimball Waived: GOEAC Vote on Res. 472-26: Ms. Kimball moved to adopt Res. 472-26. Seconded by (Adopted) Ms. Kagiwada and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Res. 473-26: APPROVES THE HAWAI`I STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES' EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE SLATE OF OFFICERS Ratifies the slate of officers approved by the Hawaii State Association of Counties' Executive Committee on January 21, 2026, as follows: Maui County Council Members Tamara Paltin, President(Shane Sinenci, Alternate); Hawaii County Council Members Heather Kimball, Vice President(Jennifer Kagiwada, Alternate); Kauai County Council Members Bernard P. Carvalho, Jr., Secretary (Felicia Cowden, Alternate); and Honolulu City Council Members Matt Weyer, Treasurer (Esther Kia`aina, Alternate). Reference: Comm. 741 Intr. by: Council Member Kimball Waived: GOEAC Page 32 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 (Note: Comm. 741.1, from Council Member Heather L. Kimball dated February 24, 2026, transmitting a formal notice from the Hawaii State Association of Counties regarding its 2026 slate of officers, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to adopt Res. 473-26. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. I just want to take this opportunity to thank Council Member Kimball for having served as president of our HSAC (Hawai`i State Association of Counties) association. Her hard work really helped get HSAC to a place where the organization is having a much bigger impact working with State legislators on legislation; and our priorities, getting our priorities out there. Working with the Speaker of the House to make things happen, and build those relationships between our county councils and the State legislators. And she's also been an amazing leader at our NACo (National Association of Counties) conferences. And having just got a lot of the HSAC paperwork and all this other stuff working with our Executive Director Nahe. She's done so much work to get this organization to its current, really higher-level working format. So I just want to thank her for that and acknowledge her. I yield. CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. And yes, thank you, Council Member Kimball, for your work over these years on HSAC. All those in favor of approving Resolution 473-26, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 473-26: The motion to adopt Res. 473-26 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Page 33 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Res. 476-26: ACCEPTS A DONATION OF A PRE-TRAINED NARCOTICS CANINE AND ASSOCIATED HANDLER TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION TO THE HAWAI`I POLICE DEPARTMENT The donation from the Hawaii Island K9 Association, with a total estimated value of$31,000, would be utilized by the department's Canine Program on the west side of Hawai`i Island. Reference: Comm. 747 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 476-26. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I am grateful to see new canines being given to the County. But I amI was quite sad, you know, when we lost our previous canines. Just reaching out to the department in this form. I've touched bases with them as well. But we must take better care of our canines. Although we had a nice ceremony and there were apologies, it's imperative that if we're going to accept dogs, then we have to commit to taking care of them because that didn't happen. But I just wanted to put that on the record. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. I'll just take this opportunity to share that I did have the opportunity to visit our kennels in Kona where the canines hang out while their handlers are in the office. And they've expanded areas for more free space for the dogs. There's also been new technology for specialized collars for our canines to ensure that their temperature, heart rate, oxygen, everything like that, is monitored. New kennels even for the vehicles. So I know that our canine unit takes it seriously, and I got to see some of those improvements for our canines myself. I also was able to attend the ceremony for Trina, this specific dog, at our West Hawaii Civic Center. They did a demonstration with a tiny little washer, and she was able to track that washer on hard ground in the wind—something that they say is not even typical for human- tracking dogs. So a specialized dog, three years old, from Sweden; already working really well with her handler. So I just want to extend our mahalo to those community partners as well, beyond the canine hui. We also got funds from the Sierra Foundation, from the Roberts Foundation, and local stores like Walmart and Home Depot. Everyone contributed towards this thirty-something thousand dollars to get this dog here. So, mahalo nui to all of those community partners. With that, all those in favor of approving Resolution 476-26, please say "aye." Page 34 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Vote on Res. 476-26: The motion to adopt Res. 476-26 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Res. 477-26: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF LATER FISCAL YEARS TO ENTER INTO A MULTI-YEAR LEASE AGREEMENT FOR ONE MULTIFUNCTION COPY MACHINE TO BE USED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a five-year lease agreement with an approximate monthly cost of$105, to be used by department personnel at the West Hawaii Civic Center. Reference: Comm. 748 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Waived: FC Vote on Res. 477-26: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 477-26. (Adopted) Seconded by Mr. Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Res. 479-26: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE ZONTA CLUB OF HILO FOUNDATION FOR ITS "HANDS ARE NOT FOR HITTING, HANDS ARE FOR HELPING"NONVIOLENT EDUCATION AND BOOK PROJECT Transfers $2,500 from the Clerk-Council Services—Contingency Relief account (Council District 1); and credits to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Other Current Expenses account. Reference: Comm. 753 Intr. by: Council Member Kimball Page 35 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to adopt Res. 479-26. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Just happy to support Zonta Club in their continued efforts to work upstream of domestic violence and educate early about appropriate behavior with other people. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I just wanted to share that I've been a proud member of the Zonta Club of Hilo for going on 14 years now. And this is one of the signature projects that really do make a difference in our classrooms. So thank you for the support. I yield. CHR. INABA: Thank you. All those in favor of approving Resolution 479-26, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 479-26: The motion to adopt Res. 479-26 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Bills for ORDINANCES Ordinances (First Reading). (FIRST READING): Bill 129: AMENDS CHAPTER 24, ARTICLE 10, DIVISION 5, SECTION 24-280, SCHEDULE 28 OF THE HAWAI`I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO NO PARKING AT ANYTIME Prohibits parking at any time for certain portions of Ali`i Drive fronting Kahalu`u Beach Park. Reference: Comm. 722 Intr. by: Council Member Hustace (B/R) Approve: PCPWMT-11 Motion to Approve: Mr. Hustace moved to pass Bill 129 on first reading and adopt Policy Committee on Public Works and Mass Transit Committee Report No. 11. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. Page 36 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thanks, Chair. I do not see anyone from the Department of Public Works at the moment. We've had some discussion at last Council about whether keeping it at Committee or moving it along, as report states. And I know the Administration is trying to find some solution with community partners in the Kona area. But I do not see a representative to report on that dialogue that's going on. So I'll leave it up to the body to determine what we shall do with this, then. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Without Council Member Villegas here, I think perhaps it's best to keep it until the next meeting. CHR. INABA: All right. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Corporation Counsel Schoen, I'm wondering if you have an update from the Administration. Okay. Hi, Director Segawa. Perfect timing. We are on Bill 129, relating to traffic code update, no parking zones along Ali`i Drive. Yes, I know that you had reached out to Council Member Hustace and I about just some things that the Administration was working on, asking for a brief pause. Hello, Deputy Director Azevedo. Just wanted to get an update on where things stand, and if we are still good to proceed with this ordinance. When we were in Committee, Mr. Takaba did say that a lot of work went into crafting this piece of legislation after a lot of studying and some community engagement. So just want to make sure we're all on the same page before we advance the bill to second and final reading. Good morning. (Note: At this time, Director Wesley Segawa and Deputy Director Neil Azevedo, Public Works Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. SEGAWA: Good morning, Council Members. I'm Director Wes Segawa for the Department of Public Works. This is regardingI think it's a resolution? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: No, Bill 129. MR. SEGAWA: Bill No. 129. 1 got it. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great. MR. SEGAWA: Yeah, we were able to reach out and get clarification. And I believe we submitted a revised recommendation to the Council for consideration, and we stand behind that latest recommendation. If you have any questions regarding the clarification Page 37 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Director, do you know the communication number that you submitted, or who you submitted the change to? I'm looking through my pinkie folder, and I don't see an amendment. MR. SEGAWA: I was asking that question this morning. My understanding is it was submitted, but you say you didn't receive it. Can I ? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So I don't want to slow down Council business. Would you like for us to postpone this for a couple of weeks, and we can make sure that whatever amendment that was transmitted gets to the right hand so it could be processed for our discussion? MR. SEGAWA: That would probably be appropriate to do. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Could I ask you to work with the Committee Chair MR. SEGAWA: I sure will. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Council Member Hustace to ensure that his office receives the communication, and he can help with the processing. MR. SEGAWA: Thank you for that concession. Appreciate it. Thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: No problem. Deputy, anything else to add? MR. AZEVEDO: Deputy Director Neil Azevedo. No, nothing right now. Thank you. Motion to Postpone: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to postpone Bill 129 to March 18, 2026. Seconded by Mr. Onishi. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Gentlemen, thank you for being here. Please coordinate with Council Member Hustace. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Yeah, I can confirm we do not have any additional numbered communication related to this in our system. So we'll make sure we get that squared away through Council Member Hustace's office. All those in favor of postponing Bill 129 to the March 18t' Council meeting,please say "aye." Page 38 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Vote on Motion to The motion to postpone Bill 129 to March 18, 2026, was Postpone: carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. MR. HENRICKS: Chair,just as a(inaudible) opportune time, if anybody out there is listening, department heads, if they ever have any revisions or amendments they want to make to legislation that's already been introduced, to reach out to the introducer to assist them with that process and it will go smoothly. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Thank you, Mr. Clerk, for that reminder. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of THE DAY the Day (Second or Final Reading). (SECOND OR FINAL READING): Bill 122: AMENDS THE STATE LAND USE DISTRICT BOUNDARIES MAP WITHIN THE COUNTY BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT TO THE RURAL DISTRICT AT WAIMEA, SOUTH KOHALA, HAWAI`I, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 6-2-009:018 Motion to Approve: Ms. Kimball moved to pass Bill 122 on second and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: We had good discussion about this in previous hearings, but the applicant and their representative are here if there are any remaining questions. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Can the applicant come up, please? (Note: At this time, John Pipan, applicant's representative, and applicant Joseph Gaglione came forward to address the members of the Council.) Page 39 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Good morning, Mr. Pipan. Please introduce yourselves for the record. MR. PIPAN: John Pipan here assisting Mr. Gaglione to my right. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Looking over your documents—and I missed the last meeting, I'm sorry, for this, the hearing for this. What is the reason for the change of State land use from ag to rural? MR. PIPAN: Great question. Thank you for your question, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. So the State land use boundary amendment here is to align with the requested zoning. So agricultural zoning typically is for productive agricultural lands. Rural State land use boundary amendments are for more marginal agricultural lands that would support very low-scale residential uses and is consistent with this request and many of the surrounding properties. The soils in this area aren't particularly productive, small lots. So it's not high-intensity agricultural land. So it's a request to convert to rural. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Could the property have been subdivided into two two-and-a-half acre lots without doing the State land use amendment? MR. PIPAN: Yes, technically. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So why, then, the switch to rural? MR. PIPAN: It more aligns with the General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map for this area, which indicates rural use. And again, it's not particularly high-value agricultural land. You can graze animals on it. There are some family agricultural-type uses, but this, to our eye, looks like a rural use. Similar requests for State land use boundary amendments to rural and similar densities have been requested and approved on many other lots in this subdivision. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Agreed but I like to ask. Other uses can be telecom antennas, golf courses, (inaudible)utility facilities once you step into the State land use rural category. MR. PIPAN: Nothing like that is proposed here. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So this is purely to subdivide into two two-and-a-half acre lots MR. PIPAN: For residential purposes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And then have up to one ADU (accessory dwelling unit) on each one as well as the main dwelling. Page 40 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. PIPAN: Correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Nothing—if you're going to do farming, fine, but nothing else is planned at this point? MR. PIPAN: Correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you very much. MR. PIPAN: Thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I yield, Chair. CHR. INABA: Thank you. All those in favor of approving Bill 122 at second and final reading, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 122: The motion to pass Bill 122 on second and final reading (Adopted) was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Bill 123: AMENDS SECTION 25-8-7 (NORTH & SOUTH KOHALA DISTRICT ZONE MAP), ARTICLE 8, CHAPTER 25 (ZONING) OF THE HAWAI`I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM AGRICULTURAL—5 ACRES (A-5a) TO RESIDENTIAL AGRICULTURAL—2.5 ACRES (RA-2.5a) AT WAIMEA, SOUTH KOHALA, HAWAI`I, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 6-2-009:018 (Applicant: Joseph Ga le i�one) (Area: 6.063 Acres) The Leeward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for this amendment to the State Land Use Boundaries Map for the requested change of zone, which would allow the applicant to subdivide his property into two lots. The property is located at 62-2239 Kanehoa Place. Reference: Comm. 696 Intr. by: Council Member Kimball (B/R) First Reading: February 18, 2026 Page 41 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Vote on Bill 123: Ms. Kimball moved to pass Bill 123 on second and final (Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Bill 127: AMENDS CHAPTER 5 OF THE HAWAI`I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 (Draft 2) EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A CONSTRUCTION CODE COMMISSION Establishes a construction code commission to advise the Mayor, County Council, and Director of Public Works on the adoption, updating, amendment, and interpretation of the County construction codes. Reference: Comm. 711.3 Intr. by: Council Members Kierkiewicz and Hustace First Reading: February 18, 2026 (Note: The following proposed amendments to Bill 127, Draft 2, were circulated: 1) Comm. 711.4: From Council Member Michelle M. Galimba dated February 27, 2026; and 2) Comm. 711.5: From Council Members James E. Hustace and Ashley L. Kierkiewicz dated March 4, 2026.) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to pass Bill 127, Draft 2, on second and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I really appreciate everyone's continued support for this idea that Council Member Hustace and I have to establish a construction code commission made up of individuals in our community that actually utilize these codes on a daily basis, and having them be part of the process at the State Building Code Council level to provide industry kind of like mana`o as these codes are reviewed and then sent to the County for eventual adoption. We here on the Council don't have that kind of technical experience. And so, being able to connect with these individuals in this capacity to get their insights as we move through our own deliberations I think is incredibly useful. Page 42 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 I think I have a little bit of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) over the last time this body went through the whole kind of like reorganizing of the building code and the adoption of new codes. And so, having this body I think would be really beneficial. At first reading, I think it was Vice Chair Onishi who suggested that Council Member Hustace and I have a deeper conversation with DPW (Department of Public Works) leadership, so we did. It was a 90-minute meeting, and we came up with these amendments based on the conversation. So I'll go ahead and make the motion now to amend Bill 127, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 711.5. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 127, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 711.5. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. So we've renamed the first section to "General provisions," and have added that to be recommendations and comments from the commission be transmitted via a communication to the Council for our consideration and our knowledge. This will allow for the commission to come before the Council and present their ideas, and for us to have a public conversation about their recommendations. It also makes clear that we want this commission to be involved in discussions at the State Building Code Council level. Council Member Hustace and I thought we had the department's agreement with these ideas because we talked about them. We left the meeting with affirmation that this would be supported. And when we emailed leadership to make sure they were on board with everything, it felt a little awkward when they said that they would remain in opposition to the bill. We wanted to honor the conversation that we had, and so believe that this helps to strengthen and clarify the role of the commission. I'll yield for now to see if my co-introducer has anything else to add. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Just following off of Council Member Kierkiewicz, this is just taking the recommendations we heard from this body and that conversation we had with the Department of Public Works on making this a little bit more interactive with that commission to engage with the Council here, and then their involvement with the State Building Code Council. So a little bit of back and forth there. But really trying to line this out a little bit so that we have that really proactive measure to help guide this body in future conversations when it comes to building code adoption. So I'll leave it at that for now if there are any questions. Thank you, Chair. Page 43 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: Thank you. We are on the amendment. Any discussion? Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Can you explain the change in the last section, "Powers and duties," in No. 2, what's being considered there? CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Council Member. This was actually at the request of the department. As you know, after International Building Code Council sends their codes to the states, the State Building Code Council then enters into conversations before sending it to counties. It's at that point when it's received by the State Building Code Council that the department identify it would be most useful for commissioners to be kind of part of that conversation and process, so that as the code is then translated to the counties, it's now a matter of educating community and the Council about how they essentially fought for our County and ensure that what is being transmitted really makes the most sense for Hawai`i Island. I hope that helped. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. I just wanted to make sure I understood it correctly; kind of moving up in the process this engagement of this commission. Yeah, I think that makes sense, okay. And also really like the addition here of Item (d). There's always the comments made that the building codes are too onerous; they add too much cost. And we at the County level do have the opportunity to amend them, as long as they stay true to the original intent. And I think that judgement about whether or not something stays true to the intent of the code just can't be our kuleana. That has to come from people that have expertise about safety in building and engineering. So, appreciate the addition of that clause. I'm supportive. Thank you. CHR. INABA: All right. All those in favor of amending Bill 127, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 711.5,please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 127, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 711.5 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Villegas — 1. Excused: None. Page 44 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Vote on Motion to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to suspend Council Suspend Council Rule 23 to waive the holdover for the substantive Rules: amendment of Bill 127, Draft 2. Seconded by Ms. Galimba (Approved) and carried by the following roll call vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, and Chair Inaba—6. Noes: Council Members Hustace and Kimball —2. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. CHR. INABA: We can continue our discussion. Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHI: I want to bring up the department. Director,just your thoughts, and maybe Aaron. Thank you. You guys can introduce yourselves and then give us your comments. (Note: At this time, Public Works Director Wesley Segawa and Deputy Building Chief Aaron Spielman came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. SEGAWA: Good morning, Council Members. I'm Wes Segawa, Director of the Department of Public Works. And I want to extend our thanks for Councilwoman Kierkiewicz and Councilman Hustace for taking the time to visit with us last week. We appreciated the time you had with us. I'm going to turn it over to our Building Division Chief to express the concerns that the department has regarding the formation of a construction code commission. And just at this point, can I turn it over to Aaron Spielman? Thanks. MR. ONISHI: Go ahead. MR. SPIELMAN: Hi, Council. Good morning. Acting Building Chief Aaron Spielman. Sorry, can I get a copy of that? Thanks for sending this out last night, Council Member Kierkiewicz—or yesterday morning, sorry. I didn't see it till the end of the day. So we had a meeting. And thank you both for coming, Council Member Hustace and Council Member Kierkiewicz. I have to apologize. I've been sick for several days, so I'm back in the office this week but all my notes are in Kona. So my notes from the meeting are in Kona. What I recall from our meeting may be a little different than this latest, updated bill. Something we had talked about in the meeting was about the commission doing public outreach. Did that make it into the bill, or am I missing it? Page 45 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. That is actually captured in the first revision, the amendment that you see there, under"General provisions." In discussions with our legislative review branch, we couldn't use those particular words. And so, we took inspiration from how the planning commission functions. If they are to articulate a message to the Council formally, it would be in the form of recommendations, and they would obviously be invited to Council to help present the I'll give you an example. I believe it's the—the Real Property Tax review board often comes to the Council and presents reports and is available to answer questions and lend support to their ideas. MR. SPIELMAN: I'm sorry, what was that section? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: If you flip the paper in front of you. There you go. The addition to the"General provisions" section. MR. SPIELMAN: Is it all right if I read it? "When transmitting any proposed amendment to the construction code, including the adoption of new construction codes, to the Council for its consideration, the director shall also transmit any recommendations and comments from the commission on the proposed amendment." And that's going to encompass the commission's public outreach? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: The public outreach component is them coming to Council to present their recommendations. MR. SPIELMAN: Okay, thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: There is also the opportunity via rules to further articulate what is required and expected of the commission. CHR. INABA: Vice Chair Onishi, you still have the floor. MR. ONISHI: No, I'm just—thank youno, thank you, Councilwoman Kierkiewicz—for your comments because I don't—I'm hearing department doesn't want to move forward on this after you folks had your meeting with the members? MR. SPIELMAN: Yes, the Building Division is not in support of this bill at this time. MR. ONISHI: Even after you folks met with the two Council Members, and then they came up with this amendment. So can I get your reasons why? MR. SPIELMAN: Oh, sure. So, same as the last Committee meeting we had. Sorry, that was first reading; that would have been Council meeting. Same Page 46 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 concerns as at that time. And then, I think because when I read this bill I didn't see the words "public outreach," so in my mind I was thinking that it somehow had fallen off the radar of what was being amended. Maybe I understand No. 5 a little better now, but I think because I was reading the draft bill version two, it was letter (d), the version that you sent out yesterday morning, I think it was a little different. And was there something else? CHR. INABA: Just to confirm, Chief, the bill overall remains the same from the last reading, with the exception of the communication that you have in your hand, 711.5, that we just amended the bill with. MR. SPIELMAN: Thank you. This is all new to me. CHR. INABA: No worries. Vice Chair, yes, you still have the floor. MR. ONISHI: Yeah. MR. SPIELMAN: So, I know that we were not necessarily in agreement with the Council Members at our last hearing meeting, and there was some debate and back and forth. And I'm willing to accept that we don't see eye to eye on that, but I think our concerns still stand in that regard. I'd have to go grab my notes and refresh my memory on those, but unfortunately, I don't have them with me today. But just in terms of this bill, the amended bill, I think that was our concern about the public outreach. Have there been any other amendments from Council Members? Okay. Would you mind if I just—is there other business? Could I just read through this again? MR. ONISHI: Yeah. MR. SPIELMAN: Sorry, I don't want to take up your time. MR. ONISHI: Would we be able to table this, then? No? MR. SEGAWA: Wes Segawa, Director of Public Works. MR. ONISHI: Go ahead, Director. MR. SEGAWA: Just while Aaron's reading the bill, I just wondered, housekeeping-wise, whether the words "construction administrative code" should be better defining what—because at least it references our construction administrative code. I think that was the intent. But it reads "construction code." It's just housekeeping. So I just thought I'd mention that. MR. ONISHI: You know what, Mr. Chair? I'll turn it over to the makers so that they can discuss this. Okay, I yield. Page 47 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: Thank you. I am going to check in with Council Member Galimba first. She hasn't had a chance. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. I do have a proposed amendment. Motion to Amend: Ms. Galimba moved to amend Bill 127, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 711.4. Seconded by Mr. Onishi. CHR. INABA: Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. So this amendment comes from a discussion last time. And it really should be a joint amendment between Council Member Kimball and myself, but she was away so I just got it through the process. But I'm hoping she is supportive of it because it's really her idea. This is an amendment to Item 4, under"Powers and duties." And it makes the review of technical guidance, policies, interpretations subject to a request to the Director, which I think follows along with the advisory nature of this commission and also addresses some of the concerns about possibly creating delays in the process. So this will alleviate that concern. So, hoping my fellow Council Members can support this, and I'm open to any discussion. CHR. INABA: On the amendment, Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. A question to the maker, I guess. Given that we've heard that the department is not supportive of this bill in general, I'm just wondering if having this be at the request of Director would just kind of make this commission inoperable or perhaps just fall flat. Was there any discussion about that or concerns, or do you not see that as an issue? CHR. INABA: Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. So this is just for that particular item, No. 4: "technical guidance, polices, and interpretations made by the director." So the rest of it is not by the request of the Director. It's those more technical interpretations that happen, which I can see the point of not wanting to have every single one of those required to be (inaudible)by a commission, which would meet monthly at best and possibly not even that frequently. So I hope that was a(inaudible). MS. KAGIWADA: No, that's good. Yeah. So it's really the new group would still be able to review the State building codes. But just around the technical guidance, that would have to be at the direction of Director. And I would think that this might help alleviate some of the concerns the department has. Anyway, I'd like to hear from the department on your thoughts on this at some point, but I don't know if other members want to weigh in first. I yield. Page 48 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: Thank you. Chief and Director, we're on Communication 711.4. Do you folks have a copy of it? Okay. Thank you. Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you. First of all, mahalo to Council Member Galimba for putting this amendment together. I actually think that it has become superfluous now, from the standpoint that the amendment introduced by Council Members Hustace and Kierkiewicz has changed the preface of that section, powers and duties, from an absolute "shall"to "shall have the ability to." And so, by changing that language there, it doesn't require review of every single policy and technical document. It just gives them the ability to do that. And so, whether it be at the request of the Director, or perhaps even this body or some other entity, it removes that mandatory requirement to review everything and just gives that authority. So I think it accomplishes the same thing with the resolution that we already passed, maybe with a little bit more (inaudible). I don't think it's necessary at this point. CHR. INABA: To the maker. MS. GALIMBA: I can understand that, but I think it might be helpful for it to be clear. So I would like to just leave it, and we can vote it up or down. CHR. INABA: Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Thank you, Chair. I do support this because, at the last meeting, that was part of the discussion. And then, it was Ms. Galimba saying that she would do this amendment to make it this way, like how it's worded. And yeah, I do support it because, to me, that was the consensus from the others. Thank you, I yield. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, on Communication 711.4. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It's interesting now because the powers and duties has been amended already with 11.5 (Communication 711.5), that"the construction code commission shall have the power to." As we look at 11.4 (Communication 711.4), I'm going to read this the way it's been amended: The construction code commission shall have the power to, "at the request of the director, review technical guidance,policies, and interpretations made by the director relating to the construction code." That's an interesting scenario now because, basically, the construction code commission can have the ability to review technical guidance, policies, and interpretations made by the director at the request of the director, but I don't read that as they can do that by themselves. And I don't know if we've just confused it Page 49 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 because we have the amendment, and the amendments are overlapping now, which is kind of in line with what you said, Council Member Kimball. But it may be a non-point given Nos. 1, 2, and 3, but it is a little circular now. Construction code commission shall, at the request of—shall have the power to, at the request of the director, which tells me that only if the director requests them to review technical guidance, policies, and interpretations made by the director. So we may have just created a loop, a weird loop, that only works if the director requests the commission to do something. I'm not sure if that was the intention. CHR. INABA: We haven't created it yet. That's the question before us right now. So, if we approve this amendment, then if that's the circle you think is being created, then it would be created. Right now, we don't have it. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm pointing that out for the Council, Chair. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I appreciate the effort and the intention here, Council Member Galimba. I can't support it. I think it actually becomes a limiting factor, because only at the request of the Director could these interpretations and guidance and policies be reviewed by the commission. I think if the Council were to request a review of any of these items, our hands are tied because it's now in the code that the Director must authorize that. And if there are members of the community that have received—this is an example—an interpretation by the Director on the code and they don't agree with it, I think it also limits the commission's ability to just convene a conversation with the department to discuss that more in depth and publicly. So I wouldn't support it because I think it presents a limiting factor. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: In response to that particular statement, I think though Item 1, under that powers and duties section, actually continues to open the box, though. Because that section, No. 1, gives this commission the ability to advise on any matter relating to the construction code. So I kind of see where we could restrict the technical review to the direction of the Director, but there's still this opportunity for the commission to weigh in on anything else that is relative to the construction code because of that first clause. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: No. CHR. INABA: Okay. I agree with the sentiments expressed by Council Member Kierkiewicz here. No. 4, I believe if we go back to the Committee hearing, what Page 50 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 was an area of concern of mine,just to make sure that we have some clear differentiation between this and the Board of Appeals. Ultimately, we know where things go for a formal appeal of a decision of the directors. But like Council Member Kierkiewicz said, I think leaving this as open as possible would be best. So we'll take a roll call vote on the motion to amend Bill 127, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 711.4. Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 127, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 711.4 failed by the following roll call vote: Failed Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, and Onishi—4. Noes: Council Members Hustace, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, and Chair Inaba—4. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. CHR. INABA: We are back to the main motion. Council Member Kierkiewicz, anything further? No? All right, we'll proceed with a roll call vote on Bill 127, Draft 2, as amended. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Chair, I need to actually ask a question. CHR. INABA: Okay, go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: In the amendment that we passed, I just got this 711.5, we struck out in powers and duties No. 2, review and evaluate updates to the Hawaii state building codes as set forth in HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes) Section 107-25. But it was changed to 107-24 in the language. I don't know if that was purposeful, or if I missed the conversation on that, but I don't think that's the correct section. Yeah. So that needs to be amended. CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Mr. Clerk, there was an error in processing with LRB (Legislative Research Branch) on this. Is a voice amendment sufficient to articulate that the section being referenced should be 107-25? It is written as 107-24. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Sorry, I still have the floor. What I would ask the makers to do is revise that section, and I would ask for a postponement of this. With the different amendments we have and the—there's still some concern with the department that I'm sensing. I would like to give us two weeks just so I can wrap my head around, not the HRS section, but I want to make sure this still Page 51 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 aligns with what I wanted the intention of this bill to be, what the department's concerns are, and where we all stand with this because I'm not a hundred percent on this right now. CHR. INABA: Do you yield? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I yield. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Mr. Clerk, how would you suggest that we proceed with this error in the amendment? MR. HENRICKS: I don't know that it's an error. I'm getting a text from LRB that the citation is correct now, so yeah. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you. That's very helpful. MR. HENRICKS: You're welcome. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Sinclair Salas-Ferguson, are you saying yes because you believe (inaudible), or is that just incidental? Sorry, you can just nod because you're not by a microphone. You just indicated maybe that the citation 107-24 is accurate. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: It's accurate. We're checking. It's accurate. MR. HENRICKS: Okay. Thanks for nodding, for the record. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, everyone. The idea of this construction code commission is not new. We've talked about it ad nauseam when we had a Charter amendment to establish a department of building, and this particular commission was part of that discussion. So this is not new. We've had robust discussion in Committee, at Council for first reading. I don't think that we're going to be able to assuage the concerns, whatever they may be, by the department. But I think this is really important. I do not subscribe to the idea that there's going to be any operational interference. If anything, I think it will help to strengthen the work product that comes from the Building Division as it relates to our construction codes. This ensures just greater accountability and transparency within this process. And this is one of the most significant codes that the Council has to review and adopt. And it impacts the building industry and construction, which is a massive part of our economy. Page 52 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 And so, if we want to support that transparency and accountability piece, let's be sure that we are very intentionally working with members of the community that have to utilize these codes on a daily basis. So I just urge my colleagues to continue to support this bill at second and final reading. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: I just want to confirm that this is the correct section to reference in the HRS because of the amendment moving the consideration by the construction code commission at the County level to the period of time at which it's being considered by the State commission, that's the appropriate section. Because, it identifies the establishment and the powers and duties of the State commission. So if it is a correct reference. CHR. INABA: Deputy Corporation Counsel. (Note: At this time, Deputy Corporation Counsel Sinclair Salas-Ferguson came forward to address the members of the Council.) CHR. INABA: Sorry, if you can identify yourself? MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: Good morning. Deputy Corporation Counsel Sinclair Salas-Ferguson. It was correct previously and it is correct now, because it changed a little bit. Now, it's specifically referencing the State Building Code Council. And so, that is the correct reference, 107-24. Previously, it referenced the State building codes, which would have been 107-25. So it's correct now and it was correct before. CHR. INABA: That's nice. Thank you. All right, Council Member Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder, please. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. And one further question. In powers and duties, No. 1, "Advise the mayor, the council, and the director on matters relating to the construction code pursuant to law,"what does "pursuant to law" mean in that section? CHR. INABA: Who are you directing the question to? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: To the department or to Corporation Counsel. MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: Sinclair Salas-Ferguson, Deputy Corporation Counsel, again. I think that's just the general catchall, saying that the County has to do certain things according to law. Let me just read that again. Page 53 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It's saying that the construction code commission shall have the power to advise the mayor, council, and director on matters relating to the construction code pursuant to law; almost that the advisement is pursuant to law. That's what I'm wondering. I'm lacking the, maybe, background but I don't understand what law, pursuant to, because this is the law. MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: Right. I think it's just the general catchall, saying "Stay within your authority as far as your advisement." That's how I would interpret it. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So the law that we're creating? Or the laws that exist? MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: The laws that exist and that you're creating—both. Yeah, it's just a generalI don't know how that got in there, but as a lawyer, I would interpret it"Let's follow the law as it's written, this and any other law." MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. One more time for the department, what is your concern with this bill? Because as we've been back and forth, and Council Member Kierkiewicz said, we have hashed this out extensively, but there's still the reluctance on the Building Department's side. I had my challenges with this bill in the beginning because I—let's just take sheathing on a roof, for example. We had enacted a building code amendment previously that now requires sheathing on every single roof, which has increased the cost of housing by probably $10,000 to $12,000 per normal home. That was a building code amendment that was brought in; one example of a code that changed the cost more to build—equals more cost to build a home. So fair enough. But I cannot say this strongly enough, part of the people who wrote that bill used to work for the supply houses in Hilo. That's going to continue to happen. So what is your hiccup on this bill? MR. SPIELMAN: Aaron Spielman, Acting Building Chief. Thanks for the question, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. I think one challenge is that we would like the commission not to be involved in the administrative affairs. I think that's one thing we'd like to make a point of. Installation codes, which I think you're talking about in regards to plywood roof sheathing, I wasn't here at the time when that was done. But in private practice as an architect, I was made aware of that change, and we did have to make those changes in the field. At the time, I didn't read it or understand it maybe from the same point you made about the building supply warehouses lobbying for that to be included, but I understood it to be a structural requirement in an effort of understanding the latest data and information we had on structural failures. Page 54 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It's separate. My point was that that was one of my challenges with the bill. And that has kind of been addressed to date, which is why I leaned into wanting to say yes to this bill. But I'm still hearing you folks be on the fence, liberally on the fence, with this new bill that we're looking at possibly creating. So what's the deal? It's advisory; we spoke about that the last time. But you guys are back; we're not in step together on this one. So what's the scoop? MR. SPIELMAN: As maybe not discussedI mean, we're not in a—it's a question and answer, right. We're not a debating body. We're just trying to answer the questions as best as possible. I think we raised some concerns at the last meeting that we may not necessarily be in agreement about but that's okay. That's still our stance. For example, we had some concerns about—this is going off memory—we had some concerns about redundancy or bureaucratic layering. And I believe Council Member Kimball had a retort to that, which sounded very reasonable as well. But basically, I think we just stand in disagreement. My understanding is you could pass the bill without me being in agreement, without the department being MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We can. MR. SPIELMAN: Yeah. So I guess that's where I'm kind of left. The building division has an opinion about the information that was provided. We've met with Council Member Kierkiewicz and Council Member Hustace, trying to iron out some of those concerns. I'm not sure they were totally alleviated, but we definitely are willing to sit at the table and have these discussions. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is the last time we're going to have this discussion, unless someone wants to amend this in a year or two. So now is the time. If you guys have a good argument for why not, then I want to hear it right now. MR. SEGAWA: Okay. Maybe I can summarize, Councilman. First of all, the department sees duplication between what this commission would be doing and what State building code commission would be doing. Secondly, the department feels we have the expertise inhouse as far as code knowledge and interpretation. And we also have the layer of the private sector licensed professional designers who know the code, and there is that safety net, so to speak, on code interpretation. And that's where that discussion will occur. The industry itself has already a venue to come to us, as well as go to the State Building Code Council to voice their perspectives on what the code should or should not be like. The other thing is staffing. We don't have that extra staffing to dedicate to this. We need the staffing to implement something like this, and right now, we're going to need funds or positions to do that. Page 55 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 And then, finally, we see a lot of activity with the State Legislature at this time. They're talking about hiring the full-time executive for the State building council. So we don't know what's going to happen from that side coming our way. So those are some of the things that we have concerns about, but I do understand where Councilwoman Kierkiewicz and Councilman Hustace are coming from because of that lack of code knowledge. Can I just speak a little bit about your plywood roof? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: No, we'll keep that as separate. But I understand if it's in alignment with there is a code change and it's relating to this construction code MR. SEGAWA: But you're misunderstanding that the code only allows plywood roofs. CHR. INABA: We're not going to debate current code. MR. SEGAWA: I'm sorry. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What I said wasn't about current code. It was the ability for a commission like this to weigh in, to speak on behalf of contractors and builders when it comes to the codes that we establish. I know that happens but I also know—I've gotten calls for years from everyone in the construction field about some of the codes that we've established as we discuss affordable housing and things that we need to do in the County. But we've increased the cost of housing because of the codes we enacted, and I know who participated in making those codes. That was a problem and it's ongoing, or else they wouldn't be calling. MR. SEGAWA: Understood. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: (Inaudible) administrations come in, I've received less phone calls. So you're doing something right. I'm weighing your concerns with what I see as positives of this commission and balancing the two, which is the issue with being a Libra is having to do this all the time. But right now, from what you've said, I'm not concerned about the staffing. If we create a commission, the staffing will come MR. SEGAWA: To provide the input. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: At this point I hear your concerns, Director and Acting Building Chief. I think this is actually going to be helpful in integrating the community, builders, contractors into our discussions. If there becomes an overstep, you need to drive an amendment. That's my feeling right now. I'd like to see how this plays out. Thank you. Page 56 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: All right. Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. I just want to mahalo Director and Acting Building Chief for the dialogue we've had on this,the conversations. I appreciate all the input from Council Members. We've talked about this at length, and of course with the department of building proposal last year. So we have talked about these different pieces. This is that piece that we really saw support that this body was looking for. There is that conversation with the department and the division with these entities and these individuals that are experts in the field. But from my perspective, looking for that advice collectively through that partnership and collaboration to then provide this body advice going forward in those decisions. So that's the lens that I'm taking in supporting your efforts, but also working with those community partners that have that experience and knowledge in these fields to guide this body going forward. So thank you, Chair. CHR. INABA: Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Thank you, Chair. Can I ask a question to the makers,please? CHR. INABA: Go ahead. MR. ONISHI: Okay. So, listening to the great discussion, if this commission is created, it's supposed to help this body, the Council, in doing improvements to the new building code that's going to be coming up? Or is this commission supposed to help Hawaii County to move proposals to the State commission, which they would go with those proposals to the Feds or to the higher ups? Right? That's how it goes? To the Feds? Or to the international? MR. SPIELMAN: My understanding would be, at that point it would be going to the State Building Code Council because the State would have MR. ONISHI: Yeah, and then from there—but from the State, they do their proposals to the international? MR. SPIELMAN: Actually, any human can propose MR. ONISHI: Yeah, but thenI'm just saying with this commission being created here is to get recommendations from the public to work with the departments to go to the State, to do amendments or proposals for requirements. But then it doesn't stop at the State. It has to go above, right, because we follow the International Building Code. Correct? And that's where we can make proposals to them, the State. That's what the State does, right? MR. SPIELMAN: Any entity can make a proposed Page 57 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 MR. ONISHI: No, I understand but we're talking about the body, the Council, and so forth. That's what we're talking about right now, is creating this commission at the County level to help with the process, I guess, or with the codes or the requirements. MR. SPIELMAN: Sorry, excuse me for a second. CHR. INABA: Sorry, Vice Chair Onishi. I know you wanted to direct it to the makers. So if you want to ask Council Member Kierkiewicz what the intention was, then maybe she can answer as well. MR. ONISHI: I just want to get that clear first, what the process is. MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: Are you guys okay with me? MR. ONISHI: Yeah, go ahead. MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: Just so everybody's on the same page. Our office will be helping the commission create rules to carry out. If you guys do enact this code amendment, our office will help the commission enact rules to carry out what you guys have authorized them to do. And it's pretty limited. It's purely advisory. The first one is a catchall, right? Go ahead. MR. ONISHI: To whom? MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: To whom? MR. ONISHI: Advisory to whom? MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: So the first provision says that they have the authority to advise the Mayor, Council, and DPW on matters related to the construction code. So they can only send their advice to those three entities. They're not going to be allowed to send advice directly to the State Building Code Council. The other things that they do is, when the codes are amended, they review the code updates and provide advice to those three entities on that. They recommend amendments. They review DPW's interpretations of the construction code. So the words "construction code" include the construction administrative code. It also includes all of the technical codes—the electrical code. MR. ONISHL That is passed down from the State? MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: Whenever the International Building Code Council issues new codes, it automatically triggers deadlines. It automatically—the State Building Code Council has two years to review those amendments, and then we Page 58 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 have two years. At any time throughout this process, this commission can provide recommendations. And then the other thing that they're required to do is if DPW wants to initiate a code amendment, they're required to include any recommendations that the commission has regarding those code amendments. Does that answer your question? MR. ONISHI: Kind of. I mean, because—now, that's to the makers. Like, having it more clear, what is the process going to be? Because then you're going to create this commission. They're going to do the review, working I guess with the department. Or I don't know if they're going to be independent, and then suggest to the department and Council this is what we should look at. But, to me, I look at that after the fact it's done. Because if they are able to look at what the International Building Code proposals are, then we can suggest to the State on what changes we want to it. That's what—but it's not really written in here. MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: Sorry,just to—the Public Works is an ex-officio member on the commission. So they'll be working with the commission if you guys pass it, and they'll be able to send their recommendations to you guys. And Public Works, who has a seat—each county has a seat on the State Building Code Council. So whatever the commission is recommending to DPW MR. ONISHI: We're hoping that it will get to the representative that will propose to the State MR. SALAS-FERGUSON: DPW is on the commission as an ex-officio member. So they will get that— MR. ONISHI: I've seen legislation done before, and a lot of times, it's not really defined on what the duties are of the departments. And so, to me, it should be really clear so that everybody understands what the role is for this commission. Just my thoughts. I yield. Thanks. CHR. INABA: That's the sound that we're going to vote. So for me, I think, Council Member Kierkiewicz, what this commission represents is something that we really need. We do have expertise, like Chief Spielman here, in our department. I think to have a group of professionals, though, that the Council, the Mayor can also rely on to understand how things work and how things will impact not just cost, but safety from outside the County as well with no authority to make a hard decision but advisory, I think that is what's needed. And just last month when I was in Hilo, I was contacted about the building code, which is my least favorite code because I don't understand it. So to have a group like this, I think is very helpful. So we'll take a roll call vote on passing Bill 127, Draft 2, as amended. Page 59 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 Vote on Bill 127: The motion to pass Bill 127, Draft 2, as amended to Draft 3 Draft 3, on second and final reading was carried by the (Adopted) following roll call vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, and Chair Inaba—7. Noes: Council Member Onishi — 1. Absent: Council Member Villegas— 1. Excused: None. Bill 128: AMENDS CHAPTER 19, ARTICLE 6, SECTION 19-46.1, AND ARTICLE 11, SECTION 19-90, OF THE HAWAI`I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO REAL PROPERTY TAXES Adds a new"Residential Tier Three"real property tax classification for certain properties with a net taxable real property value of more than $4,000,000. Reference: Comm. 713 Intr. by: Council Members Kagiwada and Hustace First Reading: February 18, 2026 Motion to Approve: Ms. Kagiwada moved to pass Bill 128 on second and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. I think we've had some good discussions about this. It's pretty straightforward,pretty simple. Just creating that third tier in the residential tax classes. Really gives just us more flexibility if we want to set up if we want to consider a more kama`aina centered real property tax strategy, this gives us another tool in our toolbox to just look at that in the future. I just want to reiterate that these residential tax classes are for people, for homeowners who do not qualify for the homeowner tax class, the affordable rentals, or the long-term rental tax classes. So people do not qualify for those. Really the bulk of this makeup is vacant properties; vacation homes; second, third, fourth homes. This strategy is recommended by Hawaii Appleseed and is also something that they do over on Maui. We heard from our real property tax folks that our system is set up, because we share our system with the other counties, to easily enact this third tier without a burden on them. And I think this just demonstrates that the County recognizes the properties that are over $4 million are specific enough to look at differently than, say, a $1 million or a $2 million home. And with that, I will go ahead and let my co-introducer say something. I yield. Page 60 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. I also want to mahalo our Real Property Tax Division and the department there for their work on this, and engaging in the conversation here at Council as well. This does give us that other lever within our revenue-generating sources when we're looking at our ability to levy property taxes,just that flexibility there, especially with those higher-end valued homes, those investment homes. It was shared last time, and to this conversation, of 840 properties all totaling $5.3 billion. So there's a large number there in terms of that investment in our `aina here, in our communities. And it just gives us that ability looking forward, when we're looking at big expenses going down the line, about how we find those balances there. So thank you for the discussion and the support. Mahalo. CHR. INABA: Any other discussion? Alrighty. My position remains the same on this bill. I support the intention of it. I just think it's easier to increase the rate on Tier 2. I see it the same. So we'll just take the roll call vote on that, but thank you both for introducing it. Vote on Bill 128: The motion to pass Bill 128 on second and final reading (Adopted) was carried by the following roll call vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kimball, and Onishi—5. Noes: Council Chair Inaba— 1. Absent: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, and Villegas—3. Excused: None. OTHER The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Other BUSINESS: Business. (There were none.) ANNOUNCE- The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, MENTS: Announcements. CHR. INABA: Just a friendly reminder that the Council, in our Committee, will be meeting next Tuesday, March 10a', to discuss the General Plan and a potential update to that. So we invite the public to tune in and engage. Both chambers will be open for that hearing. Thank you all very much. Page 61 Hawaii County Council-34 March 4,2026 ADJOURN- There being no further business, Chair Inaba adjourned the meeting at 12:08 p.m. MENT: Council Approval: Y 26 CO JH/dg i Page 62 I u