Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2026-05-21 2024-2026 Special Hawaii County Council 401b Session Special Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii May 21, 2026 INVOCATION: Pastor John Endriss of Engage Church Hilo gave the morning's invocation. CALL TO The special meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at ORDER: 9:05 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. Rebecca Villegas, Member (via videoconference from Kona; came in later) Absent& Excused: Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member PLEDGE OF The Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of ALLEGIANCE: Allegiance. (At this time, County Clerk Jon Henricks led the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance.) PETITIONS, The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Petitions, MEMORIALS, Memorials, Certificates of Merit, and Expressions of Condolence. CERTIFICATES OF MERIT, AND (There were none.) EXPRESSIONS OF CONDOLENCE: 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: Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Kandi Riedel-Makuakane: Bill 135, Draft 2 (Comm. 754.7), comment. Dwight Vicente: Bill 135, Draft 2 (Comm. 754.7), comment. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of RESOLUTIONS: Resolutions. Res. 574-26: DETERMINES THE REAL PROPERTY TAX RATES FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI`I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2027 Proposes the following tax rate changes per $1,000 of net valuation for buildings and land: lowers the rate from $5.95 to $5.75 in the Affordable Rental Housing classification and the Homeowner classification, increases the rate from $13.60 to $14.50 in the Residential Tier Two classification, and sets the rate for the Residential Tier Three classification at $17 and the Long-Term Rental classification at $7.75. Reference: Comm. 905 Intr. by: Council Member Inaba Waived: FC Public Hearing: May 19, 2026 (Note: Comm. 905.1, from Mayor C. Kimo Alameda dated May 20, 2026, transmitting testimony in support of Res. 574-26,was circulated. Also, Comm. 905.3, from Council Member Jenn Kagiwada dated May 20, 2026, transmitting proposed amendments to Res. 574-26, was circulated.) Relinquish Chair: At this time, Chair Inaba relinquished the chair to Acting Chair Onishi. Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to adopt Res. 574-26. Seconded by Ms. Villegas. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Go ahead, Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. This resolution, as summarized by our Clerk, seeks to reduce our Affordable Rental and Homeowner tax classes by 20 cents in comparison to the current rates. So that's from $5.95 to $5.75. This is a 3.3 percent reduction. So this specific amount was intentional in that it undoes a potential 3 percent assessment increase, which the Homeowner tax class as well as the Affordable Rental class protects with that 3 percent assessment cap as part of that program. So, essentially, if this rate is approved, properties in the Affordable Rental and Homeowner tax classes would see a very slight reduction in comparison to the previous year's tax bill. Page 2 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 In addition, some legislation introduced this year by Council Members resulted in the creation of two new tax classes: the Residential Tier Three as well as the Long-Term Rental classes. So, for both of those, first-time rates needed to be established. So, for the Residential Tier Three, I put it in at $17; and for the Long-Term Rental at $7.75. Overall, in comparison to the assumed rates that the Mayor's team used to create our operating budget, the proposed rates in this resolution result in approximately $17 million more revenue for the County. And this is also an intentional number in the sense that we do have obligations coming down the pipeline, not this fiscal year but in the following fiscal year. So it's allowing us to be prepared ahead of time. Myself, I don't have any plans to program any of this excess $17 million, knowing that we will need it in the next fiscal year after 2026-2027. I do want to point out that Mayor Alameda submitted Communication No. 905.1 yesterday in favor of the proposed rates in this resolution before us. And do want to give the opportunity to our Finance Director to give us an overview briefly on the need for some savings in the next fiscal year. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. NAKAGAWA: Good morning, members of Council. Diane Nakagawa, Finance Department. Thank you for allowing me just a few moments to talk about our future fiscal years and potential deficit that we are facing in those years. When it comes to the details of the changes to the operating budget, I will do a summary when we get to that item. Particularly when we're looking at balancing fiscal year 2028 and 2029, in the budget you will see a significant add of Fund Balance in order to balance. Now, that is just a placeholder there until we get into those discussions. Where we're looking at today with the zero percent projected revenue basically (inaudible) in real property tax and an increase in debt service, if we were to add kind of our normal Fund Balance carryover in those years, we're looking at 15.3 million in 2028, and getting closer to 44 in 2029 as the deficit. Those numbers are used from Fund Balance in the budget but that is, for many reasons, not a wise option. That would pretty much wipe out our Fund Balance. Now, we will continue to add to our Fund Balance each year with lapsed funds, but not at a rate to cover the significant increases in debt service. That is what we know today. Many things could change. But as we see it, those are our projections for the budget right now. MR. INABA: Thank you, Director. With that, what's before you I believe is a balanced approach with the new Tier Three. And Long-Term Rental classes Page 3 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 replace the Long-Term Rental essentially towards the middle of between Affordable Rental Homeowner class as well as the Residential Tier One. And then, there were also increases to the Tier Two and Tier Three rates as well. So I think it brings a balanced approach, taking care of our homeowners here in Hawaii, people who call a property home. They're able to see an offset of the potential 3 percent increase they might have seen if their assessed value did go up 3 percent from last year to this year. So, happy to take any questions. I am hoping that we can agree to pass these rates today so that we can move cleanly into our budget discussion, and that the public be aware and have time to understand how these tax rates will play out for their properties. Happy to take any questions. Thank you. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Okay, members? Ms. Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Vice Chair. Thank you, Chair Inaba, for putting this forward. If you would indulge me just a little here, I want to just quickly summarize kind of how we as a body got here. So this has been an issue that I've been concerned with and working on actually since I got into office, and even before that when I was door-knocking and talking to people in the district about their concerns. I've been working over three years on this progressive tax proposal that really supports local families and disincentivizes non-resident investments in our housing stock for monetary gain. I did many meetings with Real Property Tax Administrator and lots of meetings with my constituents. In 2024, I worked with Council Member Galimba to introduce and pass Bill 104, the long-term rental bill. That was very strategic, working towards this end to make sure that we weren't hurting any of our residents who were in long-term rentals. We didn't want to raise rates for them, so we pulled them out of these residential tiers that they were in before. And maybeI don't know if Council Member Galimba wants to say a little bit more about how we worked on that. In 2025,just last year, I actually worked with Hawaii Appleseed, which is a State organization that really looks at our residents and affordability issues and around housing, and they did a report for me. And at the time, they really kind of supported a similar plan to what Council Member Inaba has put forward here with some pretty significant differences that I'll go into. And at the time, I was—this was last yearI was prepared to introduce something similar, but I met with the Mayor. And at the time, he was not supportive. And I also reached out to Council Member Inaba, and he was not ready yet then either. So one of the things the report did say was that we could develop this Tier Three in our residential property rates, and that that would be helpful in looking at appropriate taxation. And so, earlier this year, Council Page 4 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 Member Hustace and I worked on Bill 128,which did just that, which was pass the Residential Tier Three class for non-resident occupied properties over $4 million. So, like I said, I had been working on this for quite a while. So I do want to really appreciate both Chair Inaba and Mayor Alameda for now coming around and being supportive of this strategy. I think it's really important for our community. And I think it would be a mistake not to use our real property taxation authority to incentivize the behaviors we want to see and disincentivize those that we don't. I did introduce a resolution that has some significant differences that was not put on this agenda. And so, because there are significant differences, including major revenue differences, I would love to hear from my colleagues here, but I would also like to motion to postpone. I don't see any reason to rush into this. We're not under the gun to get this passed right away. And because the differences are significant, specifically my proposal brings in $30 million, whereas this one only brings in $17 million. And when we hear our Finance Director talk about the kinds of things that we're facing in the next several years, I think this is really important. Similar to Council Member Inaba, I do not have any plans to program this money. So in that way, I don't think it's urgent that we pass it today. Because if we're not programming it, we don't need that extra time to move forward. So yeah. I'm happy to talk a little bit more about what I'm thinking, but I would actually love to postpone this so we can have a full conversation with my resolution in front of us as well. The other thing I just want to say is I think for the public, it's a bit confusing because they got a public notice published in the newspaper that was a mashup of the Mayor's proposal, Council Member Inaba's proposal, and my proposal, but they did not see this specific resolution in the paper. So it's a little bit confusing for the public, I think, to understand what we're talking about today, versus what we could be talking about if we were looking at the full picture going forward. I'll leave it there for right now, and I'd love to hear what my colleagues have to say on this as well. I yield. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Thank you. Ms. Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. So I want to thank Council Member Kagiwada for her vision. And I know she's been—it's been difficult to be patient with the long time frames required to set these new tax classes in place. And I think they've been—well, there was some question about the efficacy of the Long-Term Rental class, and I think there's been, if I was reading the data correctly, there've been Page 5 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 800 applicants already without even knowing what the tax rate will be. So I think that we'll probably have more applications and more use of this program in the years to come as the word gets out. I think that testimony that we've heard really highlights that this can be a very effective way to start incentivizing long-term rentals. Despite the fact that short- term rentals are very attractive, I think there's a number of people who want to help solve our housing issues, and this Long-Term Rental class is really helping people to make that decision. So thank you for that, and thank you to Council Members Hustace and Kagiwada for the Tier Three as well. I think that was also a very useful thing for us to get some help from the folks that are not really going to notice these minor increases on their very large wealth. Given this, I think it would beI support postponing until we can look at both proposals together. I yield. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Thank you. Other members? Mr. Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you very much. Thank you, Chair Inaba, for bringing in a resolution to propose new tax rates for the County. Ms. Nakagawa, can you come up to the front, please? I believe this is my seventh time doing a budget. It's been fun. I just got in my folder the tabular summary of our debt. As we discuss real property tax rates, we are looking into the future to discuss what the rates need to be to make sure that our budget is balanced and we're able to do the projects we want, but also meet the needs of the future. And this really is the time for all of us to discuss this at length. We know there's going to be heavy debt servicing and bonding coming up for the County in the next five years. You and I have discussed different things to meet those needs. Does the proposal that we have in front of us, the resolution that Mr. Inaba brought to the table, meet the needs of what you see projected for our debt servicing in the future? I was surprised to see reductions at all, if not just a status quo. It's always nice to say we lower taxes. I love that. But in seeing the full picture and in having the discussions we've had at this dais over the past two months about budget, what's coming, what the public is wanting to see, what's our current level of debt servicing, and is this real property tax schedule with the slight decreases to Homeowners and Affordable Rental class meeting the needs of us now and in the future, and as well I think it was two days ago that we projected next year's RPT (real property tax) values to be flat. So I'm looking for your input as kind of our guiding light as far as we're looking at the budget, and your long-term view on what we're seeing coming down the pipeline. Page 6 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. NAKAGAWA: Sure. Happy to go through that. If we start with debt service, as we've talked about in our budget discussions, due to primarily our wastewater obligations, our debt service will continue to increase over the next ten years. As we look at our revenue as we project at least out a couple of years, we're looking at a potentially flat revenue in real property tax. If we're looking at fiscal year 2028, which is the first—when we talked about earlier in that first deficit of$15 million, then it does cover that. I just want to caution us on our our ability is what we know today. So going further and further out there are things that we do know, and there's things that potentially will change that are really just not known for us at this time. What we see in the debt service, yes, is a continual increase. There are other things, as we've talked about, that we're looking at to potentially maybe change some of the schedules, to allow a little more breathing room in these future increases in debt services over a longer period of time, not continue to do these projects but in a time frame that allows the County to have that room and ability to pay down some of the debt prior to doing another issuance. So there are things that we are working on to try to minimize or reduce that burden as much as possible. The numbers we had in front of us is what we know today. Yes, the debt service will continue to go up. We will need to track our revenues carefully, and we are potentially looking at flat. So a couple years ahead, we have a little more confidence. As we move further along, we will have to continue to evaluate those. But that is kind of the picture of what we're looking at today as it pertains to debt service and revenue and our ability to balance our budget. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What is our current debt level percentage? MS. NAKAGAWA: We are at—so in your revised CIP (Capital Improvement Project), you will see our current percentage is 8.84 percent of General Fund expenditures. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And does that include what was submitted to me in the past four or five days? MS. NAKAGAWA: The 8.84 is what was included in our May 5a' submittal. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Does that include any of the wastewater treatment facility projects coming up? MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah, it does include wastewater. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How many are left? Page 7 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. NAKAGAWA: All of the projects that are in the CIP. So, if you're asking what this percentage is going to look like over time, we have done that with all of our wastewater projects. Because as you are concerned, we are also concerned in getting to that 15 percent kind of threshold. In our analysis today, going through all of our wastewater projects, we do remain just under that 15 percent going out ten years—again, what we know today. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And that's with current— MS. NAKAGAWA: That is with all of our mandated wastewater projects and looking at about$50 million in CIP, which is our normal County spend. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And that's current property tax rates and current revenues projected out ten years with average rates of growth in what we estimate? MS. NAKAGAWA: Yeah. There's a little bit of growth, of course, factored in. Now, again that's what we know today. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, we don't know (inaudible). MS. NAKAGAWA: Right. To your point and question, those are things that we're looking at, not just what our percentage is today but what it will be with all these obligations ten years out. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. So it brings me back to the resolution in front of us. I believe we adjusted down five or ten cents two or three years ago. I think that was Mr. Inaba as well. And I commend these decreases, especially in this homeowner exemption class and affordable class, because that is our residents. That's not second homeowners. That's not investment properties. That's not resort and hotel. But I doI am very interested/concerned about what I've seen from the Finance Department as far as what's been presented as our debt servicing going forward. I guess what I'm expressing to Mr. Inaba is my tentative support for the resolution in front of us today. Your answer was very helpful, Director Nakagawa. I yield for right now. Thank you, Chair. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Members? Ms. Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Wow! It's been a number of different budget cycles being here. I want to first off thank Chair Inaba for bringing forth very detailed, articulate, and mathematically accurate spreadsheets and analysis. We have endured hours on this dais in times before without that kind of leadership or mathematical savvy. So, very grateful for that. Also want to thank Council Member Kagiwada and the Council Member she's worked with to create these new classes and move things forward. Page 8 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 I just feel like I would be comfortable moving this resolution forward today and not waiting. I don't necessarily know that there's direct wisdom in increasing the potential monies earned from $17 million to $30 million at this point. I don't know. It's a really hard time. Gas is, what, $7 a gallon. Our electric bills are going up. Shipping's goingI mean, all the different things every day. It's hard to digest the radical change and the very precarious situations that we are all finding ourselves in, not just economically but socially and some days emotionally. So, at this point today, I'm going to be comfortable moving this resolution forward. But thank you, Council Member Kagiwada, for your intentions. However, I think in the best interest of what I've heard is advisable from Department of Finance, I want to give the hugest kudos out to Director Nakagawa. Your leadership, your determination, your self-sacrifice above and beyond the call of duty isI see you. We see you and appreciate you and your even on the weekends. Sending texts; following up; making sure to get back and not just with numbers, but with kindness and intuitive understanding of the concerns, the questions, the reasons, the why that's behind the numbers. I can't thank you enough. Going through this budget cycle has been a heavy lift on top of so many other heavy lifts. If you physically represented the strength of the back you actually have, it would be something more like an Arnold Schwarzenegger back. So I just want you to know that we see you. I see you and I appreciate your help and guidance and endurance. So with that, I yield. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Members who haven't talked yet? Mr. Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Vice Chair. I appreciate the time. Grateful for the conversation here and the dive into some of the numbers for sure. Establishing the new tax classes I think really provides an opportunity for us to work on in the future as well. I think this establishes a good starting place for some of these in a baseline for some of these new tax classes. A lot of discussion here about that, and a lot of future discussions I think we can have about it. But supporting our residents and long-time homeowners, our affordable rental class, our long-term rentals. A definitely good approach within communities. Support those that are residing here and call Big Island home and Hawaii Island home, while also working with those that are invested in our communities to really proportionately give and support our communities at large. So I think this really establishes a nice baseline for us to have further discussions on the future. So thank you for the discussion and consideration. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Ms. Kierkiewicz. Page 9 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Thank you, Chair Inaba, for putting this forward. I won't be supporting Council Member Kagiwada's suggestion to continue to prolong the budget process. I think what you put forward is something very measured and stable and reasonable. The fact that you were able to generate additional funding while decreasing rates for the key classes of homeowners and affordable rentals, I applaud you for that. I think with the other classes, status quo is very important. There's a lot of uncertainty that we're going to be navigating in the future. So just providing that stability for the other classes I think is important going forward. So I support the resolution as presented. Thank you, I yield. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Chair Inaba, do you want to, before I go to the other members? No? Okay. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you very much, Vice Chair. About a week ago, I got a call because of the output from Council Member Kagiwada's office. And I was interested that we're going to have a discussion on tax equity. I've been through this process seven times, and I've never heard it discussed quite like that before, where we have the ability of the public to come in and testify at a set date, and then we have this discussion and we set real property tax rates. And then we set the budget according to our tax rates. And in accordance with our budget, it all comes together as one cohesive package. Mr. Clerk, if I could just ask. I'm interested in this idea that this can be moved to a future date. I'm just wanting to clarify what was meant by Ms. Kagiwada regarding the aspect of the real property tax rates not having to be done today and decided at a later time. MR. HENRICKS: The County Code requires that if rates are going to be changed or established in a given fiscal year, that it be done by June 20t' of that fiscal year. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So that would leave one more meeting for us to haveactually, not even that. I don't think that even works. How does that work? Will that work in our timeline? MR. HENRICKS: It could work in a variety of ways. I know Director Nakagawa's not going to want to hear this, but the Council could adopt the budget first and then set rates afterwards. I don't know why the code is structured that way, but it seems to give the Council the opportunity. Because adopting the budget after that would not leave time for the Mayor to have the opportunity to veto, which the Mayor has an opportunity. So there's numerous things that could occur. Council could call special meetings. There's all kinds of variables. So let your imagination wander. Page 10 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I love that. Thank you. Just always interested in the process. And it's good to have the discussion. At least we understand the full process in front of us. I was more of the understanding that we need to provide the budget to the Mayor with set property tax values by a certain date, which gives him time to veto should he so decide, before we hit our—so the timelines match as we approach July 1st MR. HENRICKS: Well, to be clear too, the Charter requires that the Council adopt an operating budget on or before July 1, June 30tl'. So, technically, the Charter says that the Council has more time to adopt the budget than the tax rates. But realistically, if the Council adopted the budget that late in the fiscal year, it would not provide enough time for the Mayor to review the budget; potentially veto it entirely or portions thereof, and then also allow the Council time to call a special meeting, if it was so inclined, to override the disapproval of items or the entire veto all occurring before the beginning of the fiscal year. So there's all these kinds of things in play that we look at when we create the calendar that we do. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you very much, Mr. Clerk. MR. HENRICKS: You're welcome very much. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is good. Good to have the information and the discussion so that we all understand where we stand, and then the public's not confused on what's going on. I'll be supporting the resolution as it is. I think that it is balanced. I am worried about future years. I will not be here. As many of us will not be here, that will leave it on the Council then to decide what they want to do with real property tax rates coming into the next fiscal year, as well as two, three years out when the debt servicing really starts to accumulate and we have other projects we want to do or whatever crisis happens next. That's going to leave it to them. I hate to kick the can down the road and use that stupid saying, but at the same time, for right now I believe this meets the needs, increases revenues slightly, and meeting with the Mayor and the Director of Finance's approval and this body's approval, then so be it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Thank you, Mr. Clerk, for providing that timeline clarity. Appreciate it. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: And just for the record, I have the same, that having the next councils to decide on increasing the rates depending on what the shortfall is. Great job. Ms. Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. I don't have a problem with the resolution in front of us per se, but I'm not going to be supporting it just because of the process. I Page 11 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 feel that we should be able to look at all of the proposed tax rate schedules. And so, that is why I will not be supporting it, and not that I'm not supportive of what is in it. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: And just for the record again, members could have done amendments to what's being proposed. And so, they had the opportunity to do that. Okay. Moving on, Ms. Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Yeah. I do want to lay out some of the differences. I had hoped that I could appeal to my colleagues' sense of fairness to postpone, but since that's not going to happen, I will lay out some of the specific differences so you can at least hear what those are. I think it's a huge mistake not to address both Tier One of the Residential rate and the Apartment tax class, what is in the Apartment tax class. And we can bring—maybe bring Real Property Tax Administrator up, please? Point of Order: MS. VILLEGAS: Point of order, Chair? I just have a question—and apologies, but I have a question about discussing legislation that's not actually been brought forth, and comparing it to legislation that is and what are ACTING CHR. ONISHI: That's what I was kind of thinking too. But I'm going to give MS. KAGIWADA: Mr. Clerk, I've talked to Mr. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: No, I'm going tolistenI'm going to give you a little leeway. But if it goes farther, then I'm going to stop you. Okay? MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I have an amendment coming. So if you want to wait for me to talk about it when the amendment is here, that is fine. I can start talking about it now or we can wait. MS. VILLEGAS: I would just ask again for a point of order for what the process is in order to help us remain in alignment with due process. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Mr. Clerk? MR. HENRICKS: What is the question for me? ACTING CHR. ONISHI: I guess for your interpretation of how much of, I guess, discussion we can have off-subject from what's in front of us. MR. HENRICKS: Well, I'm not the arbiter of that. That is up to the Council to decide as far as whether the discussion is germane to the motion on the floor. So Council Member Villegas has brought a point of order to you as Acting Chair. You're the first person to determine whether or not Council Member Kagiwada's Page 12 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 deliberations are germane to the motion on the floor. You make a determination and that determination can be appealed by the rest of the Council if any member disagrees with your ruling on Ms. Villegas's point of order. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Okay. So with the discussion, Ms. Kagiwada, you're using it to kind of delay for the amendment? Or what? MS. KAGIWADA: I'm not using it to delay on the amendment. I was just going to talk about—because people don't know what the other possibilities are. And I was basically blocked from bringing my resolution to this body on this day by the Chair. We both turned our resolutions in. We both had them waived from the Finance Chair and mine was blocked. So I would like to at least discuss what is in mine. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: But I don't think we can really discuss your resolution because it's not in front of us. MS. KAGIWADA: Well, I have an amendment coming. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Do you want to table this? MS. KAGIWADA: That's up to you. Like I said, I can start with some basic information now and get us going. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Well, I'm going to give you this option: You can either request a motion to table this and we can take a vote, or we're going to just proceed. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. What do you mean by just proceed? ACTING CHR. ONISHI: We're going to move on without discussing your frill proposal. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I wasn't planning to discuss the full proposal, but I can make a motion to table this if that's what people want. Yes? All right. Vote on Motion to Ms. Kagiwada moved to table Res. 574-26. Seconded by Table: Ms. Galimba and failed by the following roll call vote: Failed Ayes: Council Members Galimba and Kagiwada—2. Noes: Council Members Hustace, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Acting Chair Onishi—6. Absent: Council Member Kimball— 1. Excused: None. Page 13 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Ms. Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Could I please ask Real Property Tax Administrator Lisa Miura to please come up? (Note: At this time, Real Property Tax Administrator Lisa Miura, Finance Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. MIURA: Good morning. Lisa Miura, Real Property Tax Administrator. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Could you explain or just kind of maybe summarize what kind of properties are in the Apartment tax class now? MS. MIURA: Yes. The Apartment tax class is—when you refer to your certification, it's also known as the PIP2. And it's multifamily properties that's typically the condominiums. MS. KAGIWADA: And timeshares? MS. MIURA: Timeshares, apartment buildings, yeah. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. If anybody is renting long-term to somebody and is in the Apartment tax class, they could move into Long-Term Rentals? MS. MIURA: Correct. And we have 280 of those that did move into the Long- Term Rental, and 239 that moved into the Affordable Rental. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. And so, also—yeah, so they can also move into Affordable Rental? MS. MIURA: Yeah. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. It's basically very similar to Residential Tiers One, Two, and Three, except for that it's a multifamily. Is that correct? MS. MIURA: Correct. It's usually CPRs (Condominium Property Regimes), that you're going to see properties with CPRs, higher density. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. So Residential Tier One, my understanding is the Residential Tier One has the ability to move into the Long-Term Rentals or Affordable Rentals as well. MS. MIURA: Correct. And the Homeowner exemption. MS. KAGIWADA: And the Homeowner exemption. But Tiers Two and Three do not have the ability to move into Long-Term Rentals. Page 14 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. MIURA: Correct because the bill was written with the cap on how much the value of the property can be. MS. KAGIWADA: Yeah, okay. So, in my thought process, Tier One is a very important place to incentivize people to move into renting to our residents. So, without looking at any changes to either Tier One or Apartment tax class, which are the ones that could actually move into the Long-Term Rentals and rent to our residents, could potentially change their behavior and help us with our housing stock. Is that accurate to say that Residential Tier One and Apartment tax class, if they're under $2 million, could move into Long-Term Rental or Affordable Rental if renting to residents? MS. MIURA: Correct. Including the agricultural class. MS. KAGIWADA: Oh, including the agricultural class. Okay. And can you give us the numbers again on where the Long-Term Rentals, that 880 people in the Long-Tern Rental, what classes do they come from? MS. MIURA: They came from all except for the Industrial tax class and the Hotel and Resort tax class. Those are the only ones that did not move into the Long-Term Rental program. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Are the majority of them—do you have their numbers there for me by chance? MS. MIURA: No. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Do you know where the majority of them came from? MS. MIURA: No. I wouldn't want to guess offhand. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. I think maybe your assistant Deputy Administrator Keita Jo might have that or know that. Can you come up, please? (Note: At this time, Assistant Real Property Tax Administrator Keita Jo, Finance Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. KAGIWADA: The reason I'm just bringing this up is because I think it's really important when we're talking about incentivizing and disincentivizing behavior so that we want to see, and not see. So, knowing where potentially we can get more housing stock for our residents, lots of numbers. Everybody keeps saying we can't fully just build our way out of the housing shortage, and this is a strategy that really looks at that. Page 15 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MR. JO: Keita Jo, Assistant Real Property Tax Administrator. Give me a quick second. I'm just going to try to pull up these numbers. Okay, so when we look at the Long-Term Rental classification, the properties that are in that particular classification, we had 66 move from the Affordable Rental tax class into the Long-Term Rental class. We had 418 properties move from the Residential tax class into the Long-Term Rental class. We had 269 parcels in the Apartment tax class move into the Long-Term Rental class. We had 3 Commercial move into LTR(Long-Term Rental), I'll call it; 73 from Agriculture. And we even had 51 properties in the Homeowner's tax class move into the Long-Term Rental class. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. So I believe that's 78 percent of those that are now in the Long-Term Rental that came from the Residential and the Apartment tax classes when I did the numbers. I think that's significant. I think that's what Council Member Galimba and I kind of had in mind when we were trying to make sure that the people in those tax classes that were doing Long-Term Rental, or could be incentivized to do Long-Term Rental,had a place to go. And that was very specific so that we could look at appropriately taxing those tax classes. And so, that's where I think we're really missing an opportunity both to incentivize behavior but also to make sure that we don't lose people if we don't address those two classes. I do really appreciate the reduction for Homeowners and Affordable Rentals. And I actually like the Long-Term Rental rate that the Mayor sent a little bit—put in a little bit better than what's here. I guess I also want to just talk about the difference between Tier One and Apartment tax class rates, and if you think there should be a difference in those. Or are those basically similar and should be a same rate? MS. MIURA: That's something for the County Council. You guys tell us what the tax rates are and we plug it in. But how you get there is not up to us. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. When I talked to you earlier, we talked about it's basically the same kind of situation for people. One's just multifamily and one is like standalone homes. But it's basically the same thing in different classes. So it's like bringing those together to the same rate made a lot of sense. Just wondering—okay. And when you say "agricultural"—can I just do one more question, please? ACTING CHR. ONISHI: No. I'm going to move on because we have two more members over here. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay. Page 16 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Okay. So, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Oh, wait. I'm sorry. Mr. Hustace, you haven't—or you did? MR. HUSTACE: I've shared before but, please, Council Member ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Well, you can go first and then he'll wrap it up. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. It's one question and clarification regarding the Apartment class, Administrator. Because, you also mentioned it's timeshare too. Correct? MS. MIURA: Yes. MR. HUSTACE: So it goes beyond multifamily then. It kind of verges more on that commercial aspect of the Apartment class then. MS. MIURA: You can look at timeshares that way, yes. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Council Member Kagiwada, I kind of see a little bit of a difference there in terms of that aspect of Apartment where if more turnover, if more kind of commercialization of those spaces versus short-term multifamily. It's kind ofI see it a little bit differently in that kind of vein. That's at least how I see the difference between the res (resolution) one and Apartment, especially with that particular use of that space. Thank you. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Council Member Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder, wrap it up. Call for the MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. I'm going to go in a different Question: direction here. Thank you, Ms. Miura. Thank you, Mr. Jo. Thank you, Ms. Nakagawa. Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Ms. Kagiwada, the intent, admirable. To just clarify a process within Council Services, there was a few days' time to have an amendment ready. It's not in front of us today. So being, I call for the question. MS. KAGIWADA: It is on its way right now. I don't know what is taking them so long. I feel like I've been stymied every single ACTING CHR. ONISHI: So there's a motion to call for the question. MS. KAGIWADA: I'm very frustrated. I just want to say I feel like I've been blocked from speaking. I've been blocked from sharing my work. I've been blocked. Point of Order: MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mr. Clerk, sorry, a point of order. Page 17 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. KAGIWADA: They said it's ready and they're just not locking it in. I don't understand. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Okay. I'm calling MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Well, things may take time. MS. KAGIWADA: I don't understand. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: A point of order is non-debatable, and I've called for the question. That's non-debatable. Thank you. Vote on Motion to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to call for the question. Call for the Question Seconded by Mr. Inaba and failed by the following roll call Failed vote: Ayes: Council Members Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Acting Chair Onishi—5. Noes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, and Kagiwada—3. Absent: Council Member Kimball— 1. Excused: None. MR. HENRICKS: Vice Chair Onishi, you need a two-thirds vote and that does not qualify. The motion remains on the floor. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Chair Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. I appreciate everyone's feedback today. As Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder pointed out, and maybe to clarify the record, I did not grant a breach for the secondary resolution. We have our procedural mechanisms by which we can amend a single resolution to get us to where we need to be. So that is why we have just one resolution before us today and not two. It would be far more confusing to be trying to amend potentially two resolutions that essentially accomplish the same thing of setting tax rates. But with that, I do appreciate the support and ask my colleagues to support the Resolution 574-26 as is. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Okay. Ms. Kagiwada. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kagiwada moved to amend Res. 574-26 with the contents of Comm. 905.3. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Ms. Kagiwada. Page 18 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Once again, I appreciate Council Member Inaba stepping up to the plate and bringing this forward. I've been working for a very long time on this, consulting with a lot of different people who are experts on housing policy and tax policy in our County and in our State. These, I believe, reflect slight changes. I think they're still very much in the same vein of what Council Member Inaba has put forward. But they reflect slight changes that make a big difference as far as really trying to incentivize the behavior we want to see, and disincentivize, as Council Member Inaba talked about, the ongoing kind of buying up of our land, using our water resources from multi-millionaires, billionaires, people who do not live here and do not work here and do not pay income taxes here. So I think it's really important that we look at this once again. Residential Tier One and Apartment tax, $2 million and under can move into any of the other lower rates—the Affordable Rental Housing, the Long-Term Rentals, and the Homeowner tax classif they do not do short-term rentals or keep a vacant home that they come visit sparsely over the year. So, once again, I think that's really important. I kept Council Member Inaba's Tier ThreeI thought that was a really good rate—as well as his reductions for Affordable Rental Housing and Homeowner tax classes, with a slight increase for Residential Tier Two and those changes for Residential Tier One and Apartment tax. I did, in this amendment, agree with the Mayor on the rate for the Long-Term Rental being $7.65. So I'd love to hear my colleagues' input on this, and I'm sorry it wasn't here sooner. Yeah, I apologize. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Okay. Members, on the amendment. Go ahead, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you for getting this in front of us. It does provide more revenue to the County by increasing Tier One, Tier Two, and Apartment classes. It decreases the Long-Term Rental class by ten cents, compared to what was brought in in the original resolution, with a total of about $24 million more in revenue comparatively. MS. KAGIWADA: Just a clarification on that. It's not $24 million more. I believe my resolution brings in $30.4 million, and Council Member Inaba's brings in $17.8 million. So the difference there is more like $13 million or $14 million. Thank you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. Thank you for the clarification. Yeah, that's interesting. Thank you. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Any other members? If not, Mr. Clerk, roll call on the amendment. Page 19 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Res. 574-26 with the contents of Amend: Comm. 905.3 failed by the following roll call vote: Failed Ayes: Council Members Galimba and Kagiwada—2. Noes: Council Members Hustace, Inaba, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Acting Chair Onishi—6. Absent: Council Member Kimball— 1. Excused: None. Vote on Res. 574-26: The motion to adopt Res. 574-26 was carried by the (Adopted) following roll call vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Acting Chair Onishi— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kimball— 1. Excused: None. Relinquish Chair: At this time, Acting Chair Onishi relinquished the chair to Chair Inaba. BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Bills for ORDINANCES Ordinances (First Reading). (FIRST READING): STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public. PUBLIC ON BILL 135 The following individual registered to speak and came forward when called by (COMM. 754): the Chair: Jaylyn Brendlen: Comment. (representing Hawaiian Acres Road Corporation) Page 20 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 Bill 135: ESTABLISHES AN OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI`I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2026, TO JUNE 30, 2027 From Mayor C. Kimo Alameda, dated February 27, 2026, transmitting for consideration the proposed Operating Budget for the County of Hawaii for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2027. This balanced budget includes estimated revenues and appropriations of$966,891,661, which represents a proposed 1.4 percent increase compared to the fiscal year 2025-26 Operating Budget. Reference: Comm. 754 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Approve: FC-143 Public Hearing: May 19, 2026 and Comm. 754.7: From Mayor C. Kimo Alameda, dated May 5, 2026, transmitting Bill 135, Draft 2. Draft 2 reflects an increase in estimated revenues of$9,516,959 over the first draft, reflects higher than expected real property tax collections, and proposes corresponding funding adjustments. ; and Bill 135: ESTABLISHES AN OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI`I (Draft 2) FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2026, TO JUNE 30, 2027 Draft 2 includes estimated revenues of$976,408,620 and appropriations of $975,980,388. Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) (Note: Comm. 754.8, from Council Member Dennis "Fresh" Onishi dated May 19, 2026, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 135, Draft 2, was circulated.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to pass Bill 135 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 143. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. INABA: Pursuant to Article 10, Section 10-2 of the Hawaii County Charter, the Mayor has submitted an amended operating budget to the Council on May 5a', 2026. Just a reminder that we have to amend Draft 1 with the Mayor's proposed Draft 2 before we can discuss any amendments. But is there any discussion on Draft 1 before we amend to Draft 2? Seeing none, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, may I have a motion,please, to amend Bill 135 with the proposed Draft 2, as submitted by the Mayor via Communication 754.7? Page 21 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 Vote on Motion to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to amend Bill 135 with Amend: the contents of Comm. 754.7. Seconded by Mr. Hustace (Approved) and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, and Chair Inaba—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kimball and Villegas—2. Excused: None. CHR. INABA: So we are working now off of Draft 2 that the Mayor provided on May 5a'via Communication 754.7. Are there any amendments? Motion to Amend: Mr. Onishi moved to amend Bill 135, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 754.8. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. INABA: Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Can I have HR(Human Resources), please, come up? Basically, this transfers within the department. So it's not adding on any funding or taking from other departments or whatever. And so, I have Administrator Tokihiro to kind of give a little bit more information about this, and it's kind of simple. Go ahead. (Note: At this time, Human Resources Director Sommer Tokihiro came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. TOKIHIRO: Sure. Good morning. Sommer Tokihiro, Director of Human Resources. The amendment is to allow the Department of Human Resources to add ten student helper positions to the DHR(Department of Human Resources) budget. And so, this will allow us to develop a program specifically for high school juniors and seniors where we can coordinate directly with school counselors across the Big Island to provide placements in the County in a variety of departments. So the County currently has student helper positions in a variety of departments, but that becomes at the discretion of the department to fill those. So what we want to do is create a program that will provide that employment opportunity but also an overall orientation to the County—careers in government service, benefits of County employment. Help them to create a profile, make sure they understand how to apply for our positions, and get exposure to a variety of different positions within the County. So we'll be able to even create placements that may include time in multiple departments. So these ten positions will allow us to establish a pilot program, which we hope will grow exponentially, to create more exposure to careers in County Government. Page 22 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MR. ONISHI: And this will also be allowed for college students too? MS. TOKIHIRO: These we're going to use specifically for high school, but potentially it could be. We're trying to create a variety of opportunities at different levels. So we already have our professional development trainee and professional trainee positions, which do address MR. ONISHI: With (inaudible) employees, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. Which do address college-level individuals. And so, we're trying to bridge the gap and find ways to address high school at this point. MR. ONISHI: Thank you very much. I yield at this time. CHR. INABA: Any discussion on the amendment? Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Hi, Director. Great to see you. I'm a big fan of this particular program. I was a student helper when I was in college. I was curious if the placement of students would be during the school year, or is this something that you're looking to do during summer months? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, with the funding request, it will actually allow us to have the ten positions filled at a level of up to 19 hours a week year round. So we would like to be able to offer job opportunities during the summer, but we also are aware that there are maybe high school seniors that only need one school credit and then have available time in their day for this type of work. So we'd like to provide that option. So it could potentially provide employment year-round. We want to work directly with the high schools to figure out how many students are interested so that we can customize the duration of the appointment based on the high school need. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That sounds great. And then, are the student helper positions going to be available in East and West Hawaii? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. We want to cover all areas of the Big Island. So right now, we're starting with ten positions, and we do want to cover both East and West Hawaii. The goal is eventually to have at least two positions per high school on the Big Island so that we're not just limiting to broad geographic areas, but really addressing high school students where they work and live, which are also areas where the County provides services. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And then, have you identified the departments that are going to be part of this initial pilot? Page 23 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: We haven't identified that with the departments yet. We wanted to work with—we worked with the Director of Finance and also with the Mayor's office to see if we could get approval for this. And then, definitely our next step is going to be reaching out to all of the departments and identifying different kind of career path positions and different areas where we can provide this experience. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Awesome. I know that a lot of the high schools run on an academy sort of curriculum. So it's great for them to be able to connect that classroom learning with a potential job opportunity here at the County. In full support. Please let me know if there's anything that I can do personally to help. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay,perfect. Thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, I yield. CHR. INABA: Thank you, Vice Chair Onishi, for bringing this forward. I believe Council Member Kierkiewicz was just talking about it earlier this week, about some of our nonprofit partners with `Ewalu Industries who focus on this type of work. I just closed out an internship with a high school student from way on our side. So it might be good not having to reinvent the wheel, but perhaps even to see if we can partner with some of them because they have documentation, they have certificates, recognition, kind of the whole thing built out already. So it might be good. And if they're only in West Hawaii right now, then at least give us some direction to get started. So thank you. I think this is a wonderful cause and potentially a stream of new folks into the County who have experience through this program. Thank you. Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Thank you, Chair. And maybe also working with the university's community college in maybe having credits for them within the coming college years, right. MS. TOKIHIRO: We're trying, yes. I mean, actively continuing our work to try and develop other internship programs, continuing to work closely with Hawaii Community College. I just actually was speaking with Craig Mitchell, their counselor, about looking at different ways that we can even expand the CVE (Cooperative Vocational Education)program, which is where they do get college credit in certain programs for working. And so, we're trying to expand that because the offering was pretty limited to I think the business technology certificate program. So we're trying to expand that to provide more opportunities in that way as well. So we would definitely continue. Page 24 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MR. ONISHI: So, working with R&D (Research and Development). Like, for example, they're working with DEM (Department of Environmental Management) by trying to do with the wastewater staffing. Right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. MR. ONISHI: Yeah, so that's great. Right on. I yield, thank you. CHR. INABA: Thank you. All those in favor of amending Bill 135, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 754.8, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 135, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 754.8 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kimball — 1. Excused: None. CHR. INABA: Are there any other discussion or amendments? Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and then Villegas. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. To the testifier, the budget bill in front of us would not directly affect policy regarding LLC (limited liability company) ownerships. Maybe the tax rate may apply. That may be something that we can address legislatively, but it will not happen within this budget bill. Beautiful. I just wanted to just make that mention. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Mr. Kawauchi, I was hoping you could come up and answer a couple questions about the budget for DEM. Oh, sorry. Is it Kawaguchi? Sorry, I had a high school teacher that was Kawauchi. (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Deputy Director Craig Kawaguchi came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KAWAGUCHI: Craig Kawaguchi, Deputy Director, Environmental Management. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you for being here today. I have some questions as they relate to this next fiscal cycle budget. And the funding that was allocated in the Page 25 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 prior fiscal year, the $350,000, for the next step contract for the Kahalu`u sewer project, and whether or not that funding has been encumbered or needs to be or already has been included in this next fiscal cycle. MR. KAWAGUCHI: They're working on it, but we're working with the consultant to move ahead with the MS. VILLEGAS: Encumbering the funds for the contract that the resources were allocated for over a year ago, or almost a year ago. MR. KAWAGUCHI: Oh, no, not yet. MS. VILLEGAS: So, my question then to you is, do I need to do a budget amendment to include that money in this next fiscal cycle in order to ensure that the funding's available and this project that unfortunately most of my community already thought was happening, and the contract had gone out and the work was already being done. MR. KAWAGUCHI: So we're working with the consultant to get the contract done and then it'll, I guess—sorry. MS. VILLEGAS: I'm just looking for a guarantee, because we can't afford to let this fall to the wayside and not be budgeted for next year if you're unable to get it encumbered before this fiscal cycle. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. NAKAGAWA: The department intends to finalize negotiations this week and route the contract. Once the contract is routed and executed, those funds will be encumbered this year. And Deputy Director has ensured that that is happening in the next few days. MR. KAWAGUCHI: Yeah. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, will you please reach out to me and MR. KAWAGUCHI: Yeah, I'll let you know. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. Because otherwise I need to take steps. MR. KAWAGUCHI: Yeah, for sure. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. I appreciate. I'll be on standby to get that confirmation. Thank you. Appreciate it. I yield. Page 26 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. In lieu of having every department come up one by one, Director Nakagawa, could I just have you speak in broad strokes about some of the changes in the Exhibit A? Thank you. Just two things in particular. MS. NAKAGAWA: Diane Nakagawa, Finance Department. A brief overview or MR. HUSTACE: Well, I'll just ask the two questions. I notice quite a bit of change here on two particular things, with white paper purchases and then community events. So if you could speak about the white paper. MS. NAKAGAWA: Absolutely. So we are finally correcting or changing the way the County has approached some supplies. So, in the past, we actually had a storeroom. And some of the supplies were purchased through Finance in our Purchasing Division. Paper was one of the last things that was still centralized and being purchased by the Purchasing Division, and it just didn't make sense to continue to do that. That is part of what the department should be able to monitor in their own budget. So we just cleaned that up, and those budgets were moved to the departments to appropriately purchase paper. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you. And in terms of the community events, not a lot of detail on what those community events look like. But most departments, if not all, have now some allocation towards MS. NAKAGAWA: That is correct. I believe this also came out in our budget discussion as well. Some of the County-sponsored community events that we put on really have been, over time, done through a lot of donations by our County employees. And a lot of these events have become fairly significant in terms of what is being produced. They are great and fabulous events, but a lot of it has been through donations of employees. This wouldn't cover all of those expenses, but it does provide the departments a little bit of funding to do things. Like our "Magic of the Season" event, a lot of departments spend thousands of dollars out of their own pockets and donations to cover crafts and food supplies. So this is just an attempt to assist in some of these events that have gotten a little larger over time. And they are truly County-sponsored community events. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you. I appreciate that. A couple other questions I have and, Director, it may pertain to you. You're welcome to stay there. It's first for Police, actually. I think we've seen some changes. And I don't know, Director Deputy Chief can also maybe speak to this—but we've increased the personal vehicle allowance. Correct? Is that still ongoing discussion? Page 27 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. NAKAGAWA: In the Police budget, we've added some funding for a couple different things. The protective vest carriers—certainly Chief can speak more to that a couple of patrol vehicles, recruitment program funding, and also subsidy. So, in regards to the subsidy, that is in anticipation. There are still agreements and negotiations that need to occur, and I can let the Chief speak to that. But with the support of the Mayor, we did put some funding in. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Director. Deputy Chief? (Note: At this time, Deputy Police Chief Sherry Bird came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. BIRD: Good morning. Deputy Chief Bird. Speaking to the car allowance, those are still in conversations. But I can say our current car allowance was in effect in 2011. So it hasn't been changed since then. And when that was enacted, they basically made two groups. So Group 1, which is basically our patrol guys, so they're out there with their subsidized vehicles very frequently. And then I think that rate is $600. And then Group 2 is more of our detectives, who are not necessarily out as much on the road as our patrol guys, and that rate was $562. So we all know over time everything prices for everything have increased. Our officers are required to get vehicles in which a subsidy is paid. And so, the conversation is to raise that subsidy with everybody in one group at an $800 rate, which is consistent with other counties. And the officers are required to maintain their vehicles, which can be costly as well. So $800 is a pretty fair—low rate but it's fair. MR. HUSTACE: Sure. Deputy Chief and Director, I really appreciate you looking at this and supporting our officers that are out there using their personal vehicles. Because, we have the distances they drive, the wear on the vehicles. So thank you for taking a look at this and appropriating accordingly. Thank you. My next question is actually for Chief Volpe. (Note: At this time, Deputy Fire Chief Daniel Volpe came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. VOLPE: Good morning. Dan Volpe, temporary Fire Chief. MR. HUSTACE: Good morning, Chief. Good to see you. First of all, I just want to thank you, truly thank you, for looking through your budget and allocating funding for a captain's position in the Waikoloa station. I think it really means a lot to the community to have a full contingent of firefighter officers and captains there in the community. So thank you for working with Director Nakagawa. It's a conversation we've had for quite a few months now of trying to see what's Page 28 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 possible for our station that didn't have a captain, in a high-risk area. So thank you for making that commitment to the community there. Really appreciate that. In regards to—we've talked about it in the past, and I've talked to Director and you before about this on your subscriptions and for technology and pieces like that. Just wanted to get a better understanding of your implementation, reallocation, re-upping PulsePoint, and how you're putting that into play and when that might go into effect in the next year. MR. VOLPE: Certainly. We're still looking at where that funding will come from within our budget. We are looking at recognizing the impact that PulsePoint can have to the community. We're actually looking at a couple of nonprofit options within the community who have offered to step up and support cost-share and support donations so the impact is not entirely on the County to support that. We've got meetings in a few weeks to kind of look at that as an alternative approach. But in the meantime, looking at subscription fees,just including that within it. So we do maintain budget for subscription. We do maintain budget within each of our sections for software solutions. In our training budget, we've been running off of an AFG (Assistance to Firefighters Grant) grant, a Federal grant, to support a long going company officer training initiative. As that grant appears (inaudible) winds down, we've made some adjustments to our budget to increase funding for specifically computers and for some of the miscellaneous equipment, to also capture some of those costs. Because, we'll no longer be—we'll be outside of the grant period of performance. But in order to maintain continuity, we've adjusted funding within there to kind of capture that. Based on the ultimate final resolution of where the funding comes from for PulsePoint, it should hopefully be able to. If not from outside, it'll come from within. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Don't hesitate to ask us if you need support for that subscription model. Happy to look at that. It's really transparency for you, the department, the community in trying to recognize some of the challenges and dangers out on the highway, and hazards. I mean, sometimes Civil Defense doesn't pick up all those things that are being pushed out on the Nixle alerts and Everbridge. So I think sometimes community looks to these other avenues, and that is based off of the information that's coming from your department. So it has grounds and basis in what your officers are doing and what our police officers are doing as well out in the field, and gives some very public space about what's happening in the community and where everybody has stood on our issues, dangers, hazards, those sorts of things. Yeah. So please don't hesitate to looking forward, what that need might look like. MR. VOLPE: Understood. Page 29 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MR. HUSTACE: I know there's a lot of information that can be provided to community through these sorts of subscription models that Police and Fire and Civil Defense kind of puts out there to community. MR. VOLPE: PulsePoint, as originally intended, is a way to link CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and community members who are trained to perform CPR to cardiac arrest in their neighborhood is a way to decrease response time in the neighborhood and that's the intent. That's the original intent of that. And that's how we'll sort of implement it moving forward, as a way to make sure that we get the right people in the right place to recognize community assets where they're able to. So this is significant for our department and for the community at large. MR. HUSTACE: Absolutely. I see those AEDs (automated external defibrillators) out there in community, and kind of know where they are and get to them appropriately, yeah. Thank you, Chief. Appreciate the time. Thank you. My next question is for—well, I just wanted to share with my colleagues that I did reach out to Director Tokihiro. I am looking at some of the long-term vacancies in some of our budget. So just waiting for more information to share with all of you at that point when that information comes. But kind of looking at that perspective about some of the positions that have remained vacant for an extended period of time. So just curious about that and seeing what kind of additional space we have in the budget. Deputy Director Azevedo,just a quick question for you. (Note: At this time, Public Works Deputy Director Neil Azevedo came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. AZEVEDO: Deputy Director Neil Azevedo, Public Works. MR. HUSTACE: Actually, this one might be for the second bill. Sorry about that. Sorry, Deputy Director. It's really more capital projects. I apologize. I have my notes mixed up. Sorry, Deputy. So my last question is really for DEM. So, Director Girvan, if you don't mind joining us up at the front. (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director Daniel Girvan came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. GIRVAN: Director Dan Girvan, DEM. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Director. Good to see you this morning. I appreciate the conversations that we had in our budget hearings back in April, and Page 30 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 the conversations about your overall departmental budget. If you could just share with us—in the Exhibit A, you talked about some of the reductions in your budget. If you could provide some insight into where those changes have taken place. MR. GIRVAN: The single biggest reduction was the elimination of pay for vacant positions that we have in our current department. MR. HUSTACE: And those are positions that were vacant for some time? MR. GIRVAN: They've been vacant for some time. And at least at this date, we don't have any hope of filling them at least early in the coming fiscal year. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. But hoping to kind of reapply those when the need arises, then? MR. GIRVAN: Yes. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. So it's really just looking at your salaries and wages and kind of reducing those vacant positions, then. MR. GIRVAN: Yes. MR. HUSTACE: Any other changes within the department to kind of tighten it up, streamline a little bit? MR. GIRVAN: We also had some reductions in I'm sorry. I forget the details. I'm going to invite Robin up. MR. HUSTACE: Sure. thank you. (Note: At this time, Business Manager Robin Bauman, Environmental Management Department, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. BAUMAN: Good morning. Robin Bauman, Business Manager for Environmental Management. Like Director Girvan mentioned, the bulk of the changes were reducing the salaries and wages and corresponding fringes for positions we don't expect to have filled at the beginning of the fiscal year. Other changes were some reductions in contractual services. We've looked at where we could maybe trim some things that might not actually happen next year. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. And then could you speak a little about the increase for the coconut rhinoceros beetle efforts, the increase there? Page 31 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. BAUMAN: Yes. We're looking to purchase an air curtain incinerator to help battle the coconut rhinoceros beetle. And I'll ask Deputy Director Kawaguchi to maybe explain a little more about that. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Bauman. (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Division Chief Michael Rivera came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. RIVERA: Mike Rivera, Division Chief for DEM. The air curtain incinerator, or ACI, will help mitigate the invasive species CRB (coconut rhinoceros beetle) on the west side of the island. It will curtail and reduce the cost to transport that material to WHOF, our West Hawaii Organics Facility. It produces a biochar, or a soil amendment. So it produces a nice product that we can blend in with the mulch or other products. In the future, as CRB becomes less of an invasive species, it can be used as instead of transporting the green waste from the different transfer stations, it can be mobilized to the different transfer stations to create the biochar at the facilities, reducing transportation costs. And then, we can use that biochar as an amendment to give to the residents. MR. HUSTACE: And you would be maintaining that incinerator at what location, sorry? MR. RIVERA: Right now, on the west side of Kealakehe, yeah. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. So it will be stationed there for the services on that side. Kind of in that regional area, okay. MR. RIVERA: For the CRB, yeah. It's mobile so it can be moved around. If we see a hotspot that's near WHOF or(inaudible), you can mobilize it to those areas. That's what makes it a great piece of equipment. It's not stationary. It's going to be mobile. So it has an effectiveness there. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you for the clarification. Yeah. Thank you, Director Girvan. I appreciate the time this morning. Yeah. Chair, I yield for now. CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Hustace. Vice Chair Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to acknowledge Mayor Alameda, Fire Chief Volpe, and Finance Director Nakagawa in supporting ocean safety. I think within my two years, we made—and you can correct me if I'm wrong seven fulltime permanent positions for ocean safety now for island wide. And Page 32 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 that's really going to help covering our beaches island wide. So I really want to thank you guys very much for working with me and seeing the support and the need for those positions. So thank you. I yield. CHR. INABA: Thank you. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Environmental manager, can you come up please? Thank you. Thanks for being here today. The reduction in your budget I think really speaks to positions. But I think it also speaks to the greater conversation that we had regarding upcoming projects, not landing things on time. We got into the weeds about certain facilities and certain contracts, but I didn't even get into the whole of the budget. A few things came to my attention that I wanted to ask you folks about. The Solid Waste sorting facility in Hilo, East Hawaii, is the floor of that facility in good shape? MR. GIRVAN: Director Girvan, DEM. As I understand it, it's not in good shape. And I'm going to ask Mike to come forward to address the details on that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. MR. RIVERA: Mike Rivera, Division Chief for Solid Waste. The floor is not in good condition. So there are plans to master plan that whole facility there, including relocating the scales, updating the floor to be more of an actual Mainland-style reinforced deeper concrete, and add a second shoot to the offloading chute into that building, also redirecting some of their traffic to make it more commercial as well as public in there, and reducing the chutes that you see currently up front. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. That's what I had heard as well from a concerned member of our community who is watching folks drive equipment at high speeds across a floor with rebars sticking out and was concerned for the safety of the people driving the equipment. Because if they hit a piece of rebar in a skid steer doing 15, 20 miles an hour as they're flying through that facility, trying to keep up with the amount of rubbish that comes into that facility, somebody is going to get hurt. MR. RIVERA: Correct. There is no rebar sticking up, but the floor is in bad shape. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Mike, you might want to go take a look. MR. RIVERA: We just did a repair out there just recently just to get it back in shape, close to the original chute there. So I don't know if that was the area. But yeah. I'm out there every morning. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And then is that budgeted for next year? Page 33 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MR. RIVERA: No. We have to—one, we're going to try to go out for bid for that right now and get some money numbers so we know what we're working with to determine what is actually needed to repair the whole facility out there. We'll go from there and phase it in. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. That facility handles most of the trash from the east side of Hawaii Island, and it is the main consolidation point to go to Pu`uanahulu. MR. RIVERA: Yeah. It takes about 140 tons a day at the facility out there; 10- 12 loads go over from the Hilo facility over to Pu`uanahulu every day. That's seven days a week. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's my understanding. How many of our semitrucks that haul the waste over are in good working condition? How many do we have, and how many are we currently leasing to third parties or using third parties to help transfer? MR. RIVERA: It changes. Right now, we have four rentals and two decent County tractors and trailers. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So we're leasing, renting four semitrucks. MR. RIVERA: Right. Rentals. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And we have two. MR. RIVERA: Mm-hmm. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And are we using third parties to help us haul? MR. RIVERA: No. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We do everything ourselves in-house, but we are leasing the semitrucks. MR. RIVERA: Correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How many trucks go over the hill every day? MR. RIVERA: Three. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Three. Back and forth. Page 34 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MR. RIVERA: Three times. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Do we backhaul compost material (inaudible)? MR. RIVERA: We are backhauling but not to the Hilo facility. We've backhauled to the Kealakehe and Wai`6hinu facilities. So in April we did close to 5,300 cubic yards of backhauling to Kealakehe from WHOF. Right now, the inventory at WHOF is actually very low. So the amount of mulch over there I think is just a summer or seasonal trend. It's not at its current volume that we normally see out there. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is there funds budgeted in your DEM budget to increase your trucks so that we're not renting? MR. RIVERA: That would be the ultimate goal. So I presented Director Dan, here, Girvan with how we would do a fleet rotational for the equipment, so we can get off of where we're renting and leasing and having increased repair and maintenance costs on these vehicles; if we get on a regular cycle for leasing as well as for purchasing every three years. If you're going to look at how we run the operation for fleet, the first year if we got a new truck, we'd go over the Saddle route. After that, the second and third years we'd start rotating that equipment around the island to take the pressure and stress of the haul on Saddle Road. And that will increase the life of the—right now, they're just going back and forth. We don't have the inventory to properly maintain and do the servicing that's required on that haul on a regular basis. So it becomes an issue. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Sorry, maybe I missed it. Do you have money budgeted to purchase more semitrucks in your budget? MR. RIVERA: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How much? MR. RIVERA: It's for three tractors for next year, as well as three trailers. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Three tractors, three trailers. MR. RIVERA: Yeah. And that should be going every year. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. The facility, as we speak to composting, mulching, CRB, but also this new idea of trying to do food waste into our system, is there any movement on Phase 2 of the contract with Hawaii Recycling to begin composting food? Page 35 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MR. RIVERA: I have not begun those discussions with them on that compost. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. When does the contract with HER (Hawaiian Earth Recycling) come up? MR. KAWAGUCHI: Craig Kawaguchi, Deputy Director of Environmental Management. So right now, the composting with food waste is suspended, and the current contract goes to 2036. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So it does have an end date. MR. KAWAGUCHI: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And then we renegotiate in 2036? MR. KAWAGUCHI: We would put it back out for MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Bid? MR. KAWAGUCHI: A bid, yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. It requires a new facility, correct, to be able to take food waste from the community and have it composted with mulch? Or it's a different term, then. It's not mulching. It's not composting. It's—what is it? MR. KAWAGUCHI: To mix the food waste and the—yeah. So it'll be a separate facility. So that was suspended. They were currently looking at Shipman at one point, but they found out there wasn't enough food waste being generated. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. We dove into big projects, but we didn't dive into all these little extra components of what DEM handles. Are there funds in the budget to improve our other facilities that handle all the other transfer stations across Puna, across the island? Because, a lot of them really are in disrepair. Are we looking to fix any of those extra transfer stations that we have in the rural areas of our community? MR. KAWAGUCHI: Yes. So, normally, we do one a year, but there is funding to do repairs to upgrade. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How many do we have? MR. KAWAGUCHI: There's 21. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: To do one per year. Page 36 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MR. KAWAGUCHI: Oh. How many—sorry. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How many transfer stations. MR. KAWAGUCHI: Yeah, 21 transfer stations. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So we do one a year. So every 21 years we circle back. MR. KAWAGUCHI: One a year, or two a year if we can. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. What are the funds set aside for transfer station rehabilitation? MR. KAWAGUCHI: The amount of money? Two million, CIP. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: CIP? MR. KAWAGUCHI: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. There's a broad picture here, is what I'm trying to develop. We focused intently on wastewater projects because that's big and it's scary, but I just wanted to bring that up and have the discussion. Thank you for answering my questions. I yield for right now. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I'm just wondering if anyone from Mass Transit Agency is here or on Zoom? (Note: At this time, Assistant Mass Transit Administrator Jennifer Martin came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. MARTIN: Hi, good morning. Jennifer Martin, Assistant Administrator of Mass Transit. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Assistant Administrator. I'm not sure if you were here this morning when a testifier, Aunty Makuakane,just talked about the need for more resources and support for bus service in the Lower Puna area. And I wondered if any part of your budget can help to achieve some of the suggestions she had. MS. MARTIN: We are reevaluating some of our routes. That change was actually recent to reduce service to every two hours versus hourly. So we have received complaints regarding it. So we are reevaluating it again. And yes, I did hear her testimony this morning. Page 37 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. And then the fact that we have a lot of kupuna or different abled individuals trying to access the bus. Many of them are having to wait out in the elements because there aren't any bus shelters. I know we talked about it during budget hearings, but I wondered if you had any more information about progress that can be made to either contract an organization to build shelters, if that's something that we can do internally, or if I should be preparing some of my CRF (Contingency Relief Fund) to engage a local group like Rotarians to build these shelters so that folks can wait for the bus in dignity. MS. MARTIN: So, in the Puna area primarily, we actually just put up another bus shelter across of the Puna Kai Shopping Center, which was damaged a few years ago. So that has recently been replaced. We are working with our consultant to put out a contract to get more bus shelters. I'm also working on an SPO (special purchase order) to purchase more benches and shelters via that way. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Isn't SPO "special purchase order"? Sorry. MS. MARTIN: Yes, it is. So it is in the plan and actually in the works right now. As far as other bus shelters across the island, we're waiting on some permits to proceed with shelters in the Pepe`ekeo-Papa`ikou area, as well as `Ainaloa and Volcano. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you. And then the timeline, you said that they're going to be contracting soon. When can we expect shelters to be installed? MS. MARTIN: So, the ones we're waiting on the State permit for, we're hoping to be done by the end of the year, if not sooner. And the rest of them, we're probably going to get our contract going within the next few months. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Is it possible to get an email from you noting the priority of shelter installations in the various districts, and to let us know if there's anything we can do to help support acceleration of certain shelters? It breaks my heart to see folks kind of waiting on the side of the road by the `Ainaloa Roundabout or at the top of Kaloli in HPP (Hawaiian Paradise Park)just waiting in the rain or in the hot sun. So, if there is any way that we can kind of accelerate installation, I would love to explore what the options are. MS. MARTIN: Okay. We'll get you that information. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you so much. Thank you, Assistant Administrator. MS. MARTIN: Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Villegas. Page 38 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. While we have you here, can I ask also a question kind of in alignment with what Council Member Kierkiewicz was talking about? I had a number of constituents continue to reach out to me, and wondering for a timeline and update on the shelter kind of on the road behind Target. Yeah, that space is very hot, very barren, and a number of people are there constantly. So is that included in this budget? Are we moving forward with that? What are the—? MS. MARTIN: So the concern with the Loloku Street, yes it is top priority. That was meant to just be a temporary hub. We have requested assistance from (Queen) Lili`uokalani Trust, because that is their property, to construct some kind of temporary shelter, and unfortunately was not granted approval. So we are looking and working with the Mayor's office on different properties in Kona to create a hub area for the buses. So, until we get further information on that, I think that's all I can share regarding that right now. MS. VILLEGAS: Interesting. Also disappointing. Very disappointing. MS. MARTIN: We've had a few conversations too,just something temporary. So we are aware that that is a very hot location, and it does need some kind of shelter. So we're looking for alternate areas right now. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. As it stands right now, is that considered a"hub" hub, like where there's multiple points of connection for the different transports? MS. MARTIN: Yes. So that area right now is the primary transfer spot for all Kona routes, both in Kona as well as routes coming in from Pahala and Hilo. So it is a very busy location. MS. VILLEGAS: Very busy location. Interesting. And that was the temporary because I haven't seen plans from Transportation about maybe using all their (inaudible) or maybe, you know, there was a lot of different things. So this is just temporary. MS. MARTIN: There was discussion on Old Airport. Right now, we're looking at a parking area on Kuakini. We also talked about the old Kmart facility. MS. VILLEGAS: But that's also QLT (Queen Lili`uokalani Trust). MS. MARTIN: There has been conversation. They were more open to that suggestion versus where we are now. MS. VILLEGAS: Gotcha. And probably closely tied to our challenges with the unhoused populations in that area and utilizing that space. Okay. Well, thank you for the update. I appreciate that you guys are continuing to have those conversations, and hopefully, QLT will open up some opportunity to support the collaborative good in this way. Thank you. I yield. Page 39 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 CHR. INABA: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. I'm wondering if—thank you. I have a question for, I guess, Deputy Managing Director. Are you representing the Administration right now? Can I ask you a question? (Note: At this time, Deputy Managing Director Merrick Nishimoto came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. NISHIMOTO: Good morning. Deputy Managing Director Merrick Nishimoto. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you. Just wondering on Administration's budget for sister city events. I notice that this year the bulk of the money was under Miscellaneous Contract Services, and there is $10,000 for travel and conferences. And then going into next year, those have flipped. Those amounts have flipped. Now, it's $40,000 in travel and conferences and $10,000 in Miscellaneous Contractual Services. Is that a change in the way that the Administration is working with sister cities, or was that just an error before? What is that? MR. NISHIMOTO: A great question. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to ask for some assistance on this, because sister cities was not part of my involvement with the Mayor's office budget. MS. KAGIWADA: Sure. MR. NISHIMOTO: Director Nakagawa, are you able to comment on this one a little bit? I'm not sure. MS. KAGIWADA: Sorry. MR. NISHIMOTO: No, no. Absolutely the correct person. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Director. If you can just I just noticed that I don't know if it's a programming difference or what or accounting just changed, on page 9 under"Administration." "Sister Cities" at the top. MS. NAKAGAWA: Of course. MS. KAGIWADA: It looks like this year, we have $10,000 for Travel/Conferences and $40,000 for Miscellaneous Contract Services. And then going into next year, we have $40,000 for Travel and $10,000 for miscellaneous services. Are we changing the way things are being done? Page 40 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 MS. NAKAGAWA: Of course. Diane Nakagawa, Finance Department. Yeah, this is just programmatically more aligned with what the team is intending to do. So, looking at previous years and also what they intend to do in the next year. We just wanted to put it in the correct areas. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, so more travel for the Administration, lessI guess the contract services are like hosting events here. Is that what—or(inaudible)? MS. NAKAGAWA: It could be, some of it. MS. KAGIWADA: Do you know what else is in that? MS. NAKAGAWA: I don't know what else they have. I can get a better list for you. MS. KAGIWADA: I'm just wondering because that is quite a big flip. MS. NAKAGAWA: It's programmatic. It is really looking at what the intention is planned for the next year and kind of aligned with where previous expenses have probably been. MS. KAGIWADA: Oh, okay. So maybe it wasn't quite accurate before. MS. NAKAGAWA: It's just better alignment with actuals. MS. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. Appreciate that. And then I just haveI don't know if Animal Control has anybody here. Is anybody maybe online? My question has to do with a discussion I had about the new State laws that are coming down. And if we want to declare an animal a dangerous dog, I believe part of it is that we need to provide signage for that. And I don't know—and I understand it can be kind of pricey to do the metal signage. And so, I just want to make sure that we put something in the budget so we can align with the new State law and make sure that we have that funding. And not having that funding doesn't stop us from working with the community to say, "This is a dangerous dog," and we want to make sure that they are contained appropriately and have the signage. I can follow up with them on that, but I just wanted to bring that up today. Thank you. I yield. CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Kagiwada. Any further discussion on Draft 2, as amended? Okay, reminder to the Council and to the public, this is the first reading at Council. We will have another special Council meeting back in Hilo chambers on June 4t'where we will be at second and final reading for both the operating and capital improvement budgets. So amendments can still be made at that time as well. With that, all those in favor of approving Bill 135, Draft 2, please say "aye." Page 41 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 Vote on Bill 135: The motion to pass Bill 135, Draft 2, as amended to Draft 3 Draft 3, on first reading and adopt Finance Committee (Approved) Report No. 143 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Kimball—2. Excused: None. Bill 136: RELATES TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2026, TO JUNE 30, 2027 From Mayor C. Kimo Alameda, dated February 27, 2026, transmitting the proposed Capital Budget for fiscal year 2026-2027 and the Capital Improvements Program for the next six years from fiscal year 2026-2027 to 2031-2032, which includes 45 projects requiring a total appropriation of$358.74 million of which $42 million are intended to be funded by Federal Grants, $23 million to be funded by State Grants, $285.24 million to be funded in whole or part by bonds, and $8.5 million to be funded by private funds. Reference: Comm. 755 Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) Approve: FC-144 Public Hearing: May 19, 2026 and Comm. 755.3: From Mayor C. Kimo Alameda, dated May 5, 2026, transmitting Bill 136, Draft 2, which included 44 projects and an increase of$16,959,000 in appropriations over the first draft. ; and Bill 136: RELATES TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR (Draft 2) THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2026, TO JUNE 30, 2027 Draft 2 requires a total appropriation of$375,700,000, of which $55,700,000 are intended to be funded by Federal Grants, $23,000,000 to be funded by State Grants, $288,500,000 to be funded in whole or part by bonds, and $8,500,000 to be funded by private funds. Intr. by: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder (B/R) and Comm. 755.4: From Council Member James E. Hustace, dated May 13, 2026, transmitting a (Memo No. 1) proposed amendment to reappropriate the Parks and Recreation Department's Waik6loa Gymnasium project in the amount of$2 million. Page 42 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 ; and Comm. 755.5: From Council Member James E. Hustace, dated May 13, 2026, transmitting a (Memo No. 2) proposed amendment to add the Lindsey Road Extension project in the amount of $1 million. (Note: Comms. 755.6 and 755.7, from Council Member James E. Hustace dated May 20 and 21, 2026, respectively, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 136, Draft 2, were circulated.) Motion to Approve: Mr. Hustace moved to pass Bill 136 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 144. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. CHR. INABA: We're still on Draft 1 at this time. So,pursuant to Article 10, Section 10-2 of the Hawaii County Charter, Mayor Alameda has submitted an amended capital budget to the Council on May 5t', 2026. Again, we do have to amend Draft 1 with the Mayor's proposed Draft 2 before we can discuss any amendments. Before we take that motion, is there any discussion on Draft 1? Seeing none, Mr. Hustace, a motion please to amend Bill 136 with the proposed Draft 2, as submitted by Mayor Alameda via Communication 755.3. Vote on Motion to Mr. Hustace moved to amend Bill 136 with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.3. Seconded by Ms. Galimba and carried by (Approved) the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—6. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, and Onishi—3. Excused: None. CHR. INABA: Bill 136 has been amended to Draf 2. With that, I'll hand it over to Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Just circling back. Deputy Director Azevedo,just a question on the Coconut Island bridge, if you don't mind. (Note: At this time, Public Works Deputy Director Neil Azevedo came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. AZEVEDO: Deputy Director of Public Works Neil Azevedo. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Deputy Director. Apologies for earlier. I appreciate you coming up again. I just wanted to speak a little bit about and hear a little bit about Coconut Island bridge. We saw it previously for $20 million with Page 43 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 Parks and Recreation, and now $8 million with DPW (Department of Public Works). So I know there were some other changes that Parks and Rec (Recreation) wanted to do on the island itself and work there that may have been part of the whole project. Just want to get a little bit understanding of$8 million for that bridge and overall work there. MR. AZEVEDO: Yes, first of all, we'll be doing the temporary bridge, getting a temporary bridge in first. Then after, it'll be a lot for a permanent bridge. There's nothing—we'll only concentrate on the bridge right now, nothing else with the island. MR. HUSTACE: And it's something that will remain with Public Works going forward? MR. AZEVEDO: Yes. The bridge will remain with Public Works. We'll be in charge of all bridges on this island, except on State highways. MR. HUSTACE: Right. Of course. Thank you. It's still a big figure for a lot of community members. I think when it was first $20 million and the papers were talking about $20 million, that's a big price tag. And $8 million is still significant for the span across the ocean there. What's the distance of the span there? MR. AZEVEDO: Eighty feet. MR. HUSTACE: Eighty feet. MR. AZEVEDO: Eighty feet. The total is 240. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. And it's being rebuilt as it was, what it currently looks like, or kind of going through a new sort of design sort of element? MR. AZEVEDO: Right now, we get the consultants looking at it, and they'll let us know what can be built. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. And I'm sure funding sources, you'll be looking elsewhere for support from Feds and State to kind of maybe k6kua in that sort of way? MR. AZEVEDO: We're already looking at the Federal funds. MR. HUSTACE: Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Deputy. I appreciate it. Thanks, Ms. Kalua-Lewis. Thank you. Motion to Amend: Mr. Hustace moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.4. Seconded by Mr. Onishi. Page 44 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 CHR. INABA: Go ahead. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. This is a reappropriation for a gymnasium. Waikoloa Village does not have any sort of indoor recreational facility whatsoever. There's a small community building that's used for after-school projects and little events, but nothing of a sort where community, and a growing community specifically, can gather in a space indoor for sporting events, community events. So it could also double as a gathering place for the community at the end of the day as well. So this is reappropriating funds for this project. I've identified an area. In ongoing conversations, community is looking at different places within the Waikoloa Village area. This specifically looks at the Kamakoa lands near where we already have Kamakoa Park. So it would be kind of located within that regional area. What was previously appropriated was $200,000. I don't think$200,000 would get very far in the design and study for a gymnasium for that community, that scale. So the number is significantly more than what was previously on the appropriation. So I'm asking for support in this consideration to provide the community with an indoor recreational facility in the future. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Thank you, Mr. Hustace. All those in favor of amending Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 755.4, please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.4 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kimball— 1. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Mr. Hustace moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.5. Seconded by Mr. Onishi. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. I think most everyone in this room is familiar with the Waimea community and the bottleneck that is presented at the Lindsey Road intersection with Mamalahoa Highway at our main intersection there in Waimea Town. This project proposes an extension of Lindsey Road that would connect to Ala Ohia Road, which runs south of Mamalahoa Highway kind of on the back stretches behind the Parker Ranch Shopping Center, the Page 45 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 Department of Education campus there, into the Parker Ranch facilities where it kind of connects with the Kalani Schutte district park and that stretch of Waimea. If you look at our real property tax maps, you look at even DPW maps, you look at State plans, this extension of this road from the main intersection at Lindsey Road and Mamalahoa Highway continues on to connect with Ala `6hi`a—many maps and many plans—but we've never taken that step in any capacity to make that connection. And there is, of course, some obligation from Parker Ranch, the large landowner in that space, to come to the table and work on that project as well. That is kind of called out in the FIS (Financial Impact Statement) here, that the County is contributing to this work, but the large landowner is party to it at a greater extent for sure because there are some obligations there. But definitely wanted to start programming these sorts of things that have been called out in State regional safety plans, in County plans, that these are key intersections in community where sometimes we bottleneck and there are challenges in connectivity in the Waimea area. So this is one of those key connections that pushes through that space. There's also the opportunity to work with Department of Education on their campus master plan, which is an adjoining property there. And then, of course, as Parker Ranch sees their changes and what their plans are in the future, there's definitely connectivity in those spaces for housing opportunities, as this Council has talked about in the past, to kind of connect that core center of Waimea. So that's what this project kind of speaks to and predicting and projecting future changes in that main intersection area. So, happy to answer any questions my colleagues might have on it. Thank you. CHR. INABA: Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to say I'm supportive of this, and I do really like to see these kinds of projects brought forward where, in this case, we're looking like the County will spend about a million dollars, but we can perhaps pull down $5 million from other sources. I think these are the kinds of projects that we should be looking at right now when our budgets are really tight and when we also have so much need in the community. So, appreciate your work on this and happy to support. I yield. CHR. INABA: All those in favor of amending Bill 136, Draft 2 as amended, with the contents of Communication 755.5, please say "aye." Page 46 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.5 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kimball— 1. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Mr. Hustace moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.6. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. What you have in front of you for 755.6 is currently in the Draft 2 capital budget. This is simply amending the title of the project name, as well as programming dollars/figures further out for the project in part of that whole property, the Kamakoa property there in Waikoloa Village. So what it had previously said is the "Kamakoa Nui Mini Loop Road Infrastructure and Housing." So I was looking at it from a bigger picture, that we started programming just for—and you've heard these conversations from community. Community members have come to this space and talked about the County's responsibility on that property and our role that we play, especially as we develop housing in that area, that we should look at the bigger picture of connecting across the entire property. So that's what the amendment proposes here. It's not just look at a single interior loop within the property, but proposing that we also are projecting figures and dollars to build infrastructure across the entire property. So it does not change what the Office of Housing has already allocated and that their work is what they've had discussions with us here in our budget hearings about maybe reassessing how they do the roads within there, whether it's just the southern portion of the road to connect and to enter the property, or what have you internally, and that sort of stuff. So it allows some flexibility within the project without really changing any substance of this, but giving the Office of Housing the ability to start programming for the future to plan for the entire infrastructure within that property there. So just kind of giving—looking a little bit long-term for this property here. I appreciate your support. Thank you, Chair. CHR. INABA: Thank you. All those in favor of further amending Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 755.6, please say "aye." Page 47 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.6 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Chair Inaba—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Kimball and Onishi—2. Excused: None. Motion to Amend: Mr. Hustace moved to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Comm. 755.7. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder. CHR. INABA: Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. So, while pivoting a little bit away from Waimea and Waikoloa, we're now looking at the North Kohala community here. We have a parcel in North Kohala. This is a PONC (Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources Preservation Commission)parcel that was purchased pretty early on in the program and has been sitting unused, dormant, has no stewards in that space. So that's still an ongoing conversation with community about an appropriate steward for that area. This was acquired to be kind of on that recreational side of the PONC program, to be a community gathering space in the center of Hawi Town to kind of preserve a green area. But what Hawi lacks is a public restroom facility. So, when people need to make a rest stop somewhere, you often have to frequent one of the businesses, which is fine. But for the community at large as well as visitors, we have no public restroom in Hawi. The closest one is over in Kapa`au behind the King Kamehameha Statue, and of course at Kamehameha Park. So, very limited in that rural area in that community. What is allowed under the PONC program is there are some stipulations about what can be developed in those spaces. And restroom—and I have looked at past bill and past capital project at Kohanaiki and O`oma and that possibility of using PONC dollars for the possibility of improving and adding a comfort station. So, in many community conversations, this has been an ask in North Kohala about providing a public restroom facility. And this would be an appropriate space to do so. It is an area where there's a lot of community gathering. There are businesses in the area. And so, it would be an appropriate—in my opinion, it would be an appropriate use of that space, to add this capacity to this less-than- one-acre parcel. So, looking for an opportunity to provide a comfort station in this space for the community. So thanks for the consideration. Page 48 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Hustace. Definitely in support. On our last travel with our sister city delegation, it's apparent, especially in Taiwan. They have some of, I wouldn't call them little, they're almost like massive comfort stations but at points throughout long drives. And we know Kohala is far out there. So definitely a need there. Thank you for getting creative with this. All those in favor of further amending Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Communication 755.7,please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 136, Draft 2, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 755.7 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kimball— 1. Excused: None. Vote on Bill 136: The motion to pass Bill 136, Draft 2, as amended to Draft 3 Draft 3, on first reading and adopt Finance Committee (Approved) Report No. 144 was carried by the following roll call vote: Ayes: Council Members Galimba, Hustace, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Onishi, Villegas, and Chair Inaba— 8. Noes: None. Absent: Council Member Kimball— 1. Excused: None. CHR. INABA: Mahalo to our departments who are here and ready. Do ask that Animal Control reach out to Council Member Kagiwada to make sure that we can get those questions answered prior to our second and final reading of these budget bills, which will occur at 9 a.m. on Thursday, June 4a', here in our Hilo chambers. Have a wonderful rest of the day, everyone. Aloha. 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. (There were none.) Page 49 Hawaii County Council-40 May 21,2026 ADJOURN- There being no further business, Chair Inaba adjourned the meeting at 11:22 a.m. MENT: 202.E Council Approval: C T ERK JH/dg Page 50