HomeMy WebLinkAboutMorinoue, Maki
Tsuneda, Kaci
From:Maki Morinoue <maki@pogg.net>
Sent:Wednesday, July 22, 2026 12:37 AM
To:Council Testimony
Cc:Inaba, Holeka; Kanealii-Kleinfelder, Matt; Kagiwada, Jennifer; Kimball, Heather;
Kierkiewicz, Ashley; Hustace, James; Onishi, Dennis; Villegas, Rebecca; Galimba,
Michelle M.; Kekai, Malia; Debbie H
Subject:Oppose Bill 165: Preserve the Maintenance Fund Safeguards in the Hawai’i County
Charter
Aloha Chair and Council Members,
My name is Maki Morinoue, and I'm testifying as a concerned resident of County Council District 7. I am
grateful to all nine County Council members who greenlit the purchase of a significant multipurpose land parcel
that Pūlama iā Kona Heritage Council submitted in 2021 and 2022. This is personal to me because I care
about protecting our community's natural spaces from flood zones, perpetuating cultural practices, providing a
community gathering location, and ensuring future generations can enjoy them. Open spaces can also serve
as emergency or community pathways that connect disjointed civic spaces while ensuring our landscape
reflects Native Hawaiian culture through plants that invite native wildlife and an opportunity to preserve
archaeological sites. Open space land also has the potential to mitigate flood zones through swells and
riparian forests. This was all envisioned in our proposal. Sadly, the proposal was not given a chance for
negotiation during Mitch Rothʻs administration; it was simply dropped with no explanation to our community.
I am speaking up because I believe Bill 165 threatens the one tool that actually protects PONC funding from
political manipulation.
The maintenance fund isn't luxury spending. It's essential. Our preserved lands—Mahukona, Kawainui Makai,
and dozens of properties across the island don't maintain themselves. Without dedicated maintenance funding,
these lands degrade. Trails disappear. Infrastructure fails. The cultural sites, watersheds, and ecosystems we
fought and VOTED to protect become neglected and vulnerable.
I want to hike the preserved trails the children will inherit. I want the fishing access that kept subsistence
families fed for generations to stay open. I want the endangered native plants and animals protected by PONC
to have a real chance. That requires money. Consistent, protected, accounted-for money.
What must stay in the Charter? Three specific protections must remain in our charter and not be moved to
county code. The people of Hawaiʻi Island voted this Charter in with great grassroots work; the people should
be the only ones that can make changes by a vote from our residents:
Mandatory yearly deposits - The charter must require that money is actually deposited into the maintenance
fund. Without this requirement, the fund sits empty.
1. Monthly financial transparency - I deserve to know where my tax dollars go, why, and for what
purpose. This isn't bureaucratic overhead. This is accountability. The charter must require monthly
posting of financial statements so citizens can see how the fund is used.
2. Clear process framework - The charter must outline how PONC commission oversight works, with
Finance and Council participation. This ensures decisions aren't made behind closed doors by one
department.
1
If these protections move to code, a future council, maybe not this one, maybe not the next, but eventually,
could simply vote to stop depositing money into maintenance. It takes six weeks to change county code. It
takes a vote of the people to change the charter. Six weeks is not enough protection.
A future director of finance could decide that detailed accounting requirements are "too rigid" and eliminate
them. Suddenly, I don't know where the money goes.
A future council could remove the PONC commission from the decision-making process entirely, claiming
"flexibility" and "efficiency." The nonprofit stewardship organizations that actually do the work could be cut out
of conversations about their own funding.
The lands we protected could become maintenance nightmares. Trails could close. Facilities could fail. Cultural
sites could be neglected. And by the time we noticed, it would be too late to rebuild what we lost.
This isn't hypothetical. In 2008-2010, PONC deposits were canceled when protections existed only in county
code. One adverse administration decided flexibility meant eliminating the deposits. It took years to rebuild.
I don't want to watch that happen again.
I know this council will hear arguments that details belong in code, not charter, and that we need "flexibility."
But flexibility works both ways. It can allow helpful adaptation. It can also allow erosion, slow, quiet erosion of
protections that seemed solid until they weren't.
The charter exists because voters knew that some decisions are too important to leave to council discretion.
Land preservation is one of those decisions. The people approved PONC. The people should be the only ones
who can undo it.
Yes, the ¼% hasn't always been fully spent. That's changed now. We have more properties, better grant
management through Finance, and growing maintenance needs. The original proposal was ½%, and we
should be having that conversation, not stripping away protections to avoid it.
I urge this council to vote NO on Bill 165 as written.
If you believe the stewardship program needs clarification, add those details to a new code amendment that
supplements the charter. Don't remove the charter safeguards to do it.
Keep the three protections in the charter where they belong, protected by a vote of the people, not the flexibility
of a future council.
I trust you to represent our people, culture, and environmental impact. Part of that representation is protecting
my ability, and my community's ability, to make binding decisions about resources we voted to protect. That
protection lives in the charter, not in a code that can change in six weeks.
Mahalo for listening and for your service to our community.
Aloha
Maki Morinoue
Hōlualoa, Hawawiʻi Island
--
Maki Morinoue
2