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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CRCOC 2026/05/04 2024-2026Committee on Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight 19' Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii May 4, 2026 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Communications, Reports, and ORDER: Council Oversight was called to order at 1:30 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Chair Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Vice Chair Mr. James E. Hustace, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member (via videoconference from Hilo; came in later) Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Absent & Excused: None STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: (There were none.) COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 871: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY THE SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ON THE ECONOMIC INJURY DISASTER RECOVERY LOANS AVAILABLE FOR THOSE IMPACTED BY THE KONA LOW STORM AND HILO FIRES From Council Member Jennifer Kagiwada, dated April 24, 2026. CRCOC-19 May 4, 2026 Motion to Close File: Ms. Kagiwada moved to close file on Comm. 871. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. GALIMBA: Council Member, Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. So we have Mr. Maurice Fisher here today from Small Business Association, Small Business Association? Administration. Gosh, I knew that was the wrong word. Small Business Administration (SBA) to talk to us and just to help get the word out about the loan program they have. Both for the Hilo Downtown fires that happened but also specifically for the damage done by the two Kona Low events over here. So I want to bring Mr. Fisher up so he can tell us about what they have to offer. Please, Mr. Fisher, introduce yourself and press the button there, the green button on the bottom of the mic. You see, yeah, press that. And then go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us about the program, please. (Note: At this time, SBA Maurice Fisher came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. FISHER: Hello everybody. Oh okay, alright. My name is Maurice Fisher. I'm a Public Affairs Specialist for the Small Business Administration (SBA). I'm accompanied by my co-worker, Phillip Walls, who's also a Public Affairs Specialist. And first of all, I want to thank you for allowing me the time to come sit here and chill out with you. That's an East Texas term for "sit down and visit." So I thought I'd bring a little bit of Texas knowledge for you all while I was here. I have passed out some of the flyers that we have. I'm not going to be like my Baptist preacher, he'd always say, "I'm not going to keep you long" and now that it's 11 o'clock or 1:30, we're probably getting out of church. So, what I want to do is just go over a couple of things that we're really focusing on. As far as the fact sheets, we have one that's for the Downtown Hilo fire, which is Declaration 21475. I don't believe that's going to really affect the majority of people, it's very select as who it's going to affect. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that. But you have that for your own knowledge, right there, form right there. The Declaration that myself and Mr. Walls are currently working on or are hardworking on, is that Declaration 21519 and 21520, it has to do with the Low Kona Storm floods that most likely occurred March 10°i through March 20* And our big push, as for the affairs specialists, is we want to get there and beat the drum about SBA and what SBA can do for small businesses, non -profits, religious groups, as well as homeowners and renters as well. And you'll see on there about the type of disaster loans that are available through Business Physical Page 2 CRCOC-19 May 4, 2026 Disaster Loans, Economic Injury Disaster Loan, as well as Home Disaster Loans. And these rates, home loans as low as 2.87, business loans that are as low as 4 percent, and non -profits is 3.62. Now what Mr. Walls and I really want to do, again, we want to push this message out and we believe the best way to push that message out is to come sit down and talk with the county, you know I want to say the county commissioners because that's who we have in Texas. MS. KAGIWADA: County Council. MR. FISHER: Because we can't get the word out by ourselves and what we've done is I've been talking. Myself and Mr. Walls met with a couple of you all already. Matter of fact, first day or second day when we touched the ground here in Hilo and we've been blitzing medias, local non -profits, and different business owners to make sure that they're aware of the low -interest loans that SBA has. And a lot of people, you know, what we do run into from time to time is, "well you know I really don't want to apply for the loan, and I don't need another loan." You know, I understand that, but I would hate for anybody to miss out on this opportunity of these Small Business Administration Loans. SBA is a main provider, you know, a main backbone for small businesses. But again, it's not just businesses as well, that's non -profits, homeowners, and renters as well. And you'll see the different breakdowns of what they qualify for. For business loans, they have, they get a low, limit low business loans for up to $2 million. Same for business loan ceilings. And home loans as much as $500,000. Now you don't have to request all of that, you know, it's what you need. But I just want everybody to know what is available for them. Not knowing, when we landed, you know, I never knew until I got here, I just thought, Hawaii was Hawaii. I knew there were different islands, I didn't know, I didn't know about Hilo. And since I've been here, I mean, I love it. I love it, it's a whole lot different than. Honolulu, a whole lot different. So I really enjoyed it. Because this County of Hawaii county is so large, myself and my partner, Phillip Walls, we split the difference up. And am I correct, nine districts, am I correct, nine? MS. KAGIWADA: There are nine. MR. FISHER: So what I've done, I'm stationed in Hilo, my partner, he's stationed here in the Kona area. So I'm taking districts one, two, three, four, and five and he has six, seven, eight, and nine. We want to be your main point of contact for questions, anything you may have or, you know, putting us on to Page 3 CRCOC-19 May 4, 2026 somebody who has questions about these disaster loans. We want to be here for that, we really, and I can't stress to you enough how much we really want to push this message out. And of course, we'll keep reaching out to media and them as well. But any way, shape or form that you could help us push this message out would be greatly appreciated. Did I forget anything? Like I said, I want to keep it short and sweet. That's it. Any questions? MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Mr. Fisher. Yeah we'll see if people have questions. I just have, I think one to start, which is just so, can you just explain if we find somebody or if we talk to somebody, who is potentially interested, what should they do? MR. FISHER: What I'll do is, we'll leave some business cards here as well. They can reach out to us and we can get them turned in the right direction. You know, good thing about this Declaration, located in Hilo is a BRC, which is a Business Recovery Center. And then of course, out this way, there's like three or four different DLOCS (Disaster Loan Outreach Centers). But they can go in and the CRS (Customer Relationship Specialist) that are there will help them start the paperwork and complete the paperwork. They can go online to the SBA disaster site and everything but that one-on-one touch, go into the center. And we got addresses, I believe I sent that email out to everybody of the different addresses. We really want those to get taken advantage of because, I mean, they're there to help the people fill out their paperwork. So it's one and done. They fill their paperwork out, fill it out correctly, and they're good to go. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay so the places you have offices are Hilo, Kona, and is that it? MR. FISHER: Mmhm. MS. KAGIWADA: And then, is that, is that it? Or. Okay. Thank you. So we'll try to, yeah, have that information for people. And so I just wanted to clarify, you said small businesses, non -profits, homeowners, and renters. MR. FISHER: Yes. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Thank you. Alright. MR. FISHER: We don't want anybody to miss out. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much, Mr. Fisher. I yield to see if anybody else wants to ask questions. Page 4 CRCOC-19 May 4, 2026 MS. KIMBALL: Hang on a second. Yeah, Thank you. MS. KAGIWADA: Wait, wait. Come back. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you for meeting with me. I didn't, well, I didn't really have a question but I just wanted to make sure my collegues knew, you know, with federal funding, particularly loans for repairs, there are other programs that are limited in terms of what you can use those funds for, just build back to what was. Can you clarify the converstation that we had, was that these loan programs could also be used for building back with additional resilience, so it doesn't have to be built back to exactly what was there. You can actually do a little bit more. MR. FISHER: We talking about the mitigation portion? MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. MR. FISHER: Okay I want to make sure I heard you correctly, I'm sorry. I got my hearing aids in, I got an echo going here. Mitigation. The great thing about mitigation is the fact that they can build the area, they can build a particular area back up, if not as same as it was, better as it was. They can make or take necessary precautions when they're building to mitigate any future disaster in that particular area. I've recently learned, I never knew it was such a thing but, as a lava zone, I never knew what that was until I came to Hawaii and I understand some of those people are, you know, in a different world and everything, but mitigation is a great thing to have. MS. KIMBALL: And as I recall from our discussion, so if we're talking about a property that was damaged by the flood, you can build back with mitigation measures, not only around flooding, but also hurricanes or earthquakes or any of the other sort of natural disasters that might impact that entity. So, it's a really flexible program, it's unusual compared to some of the other programs out there so make sure you share that with your constituents. Thank you. MR. FISHER: I'll read this mitigation portion for you. Okay. CHR. GALIMBA: Sure, go ahead. You wanted to read it? MR. FISHER: Yeah. CHR. GALIMBA: Go ahead. MR. FISHER: If your loan application is approved, you may be eligible for additional funds to cover the cost of improvements that will protect your property against future damage. Examples of improvements include retaining walls, sea walls, sump pumps. Mitigation loan money will be like an addition in Page 5 CRCOC-19 May 4, 2026 the amount of the approved loan, but not exceed 20 percent of the total amount physical damage to real property, including leasehold improvements and personal property as verified by SBA to a maximum of $500,000 per home loans. That's a little bit of a good threshold too. CHR. GALIMBA: Thank you so much. Seeing no other questions. All in favor of closing file on Communication 871 please say "aye." Vote on Comm. 871: The motion to close file on Comm. 871 was carried by the THeAl following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Galimba — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. GALIMBA: And that is the last item on this committee's agenda. And we will be convening again shortly for the next committee. Thank you so much. ADJOURN- There being no further business, Chair Galimba adjourned the meeting at 1:42 p.m. MENT: Approved: Ms. Mic le M. Galimba, Chair Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight Committee MGlmp (g(tie ( 2-(,p (Date) Page 6