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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GREDC 2018/01/03 (2016-2018)Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic Development 14th Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii January 3, 2018 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic ORDER: Development was called to order at 10:15 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Dru Mamo Kanuha, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Chair Ms. Jennifer Ruggles, Vice Chair Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Ms. Karen Eoff, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Member Ms. Valerie Poindexter, Member Absent & Excused: STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS COMMUNI- CATIONS: Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Mr. Herbert M. Richards, III, Member The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. The following individuals registered to speak in support of Comm. 665, and came forward when called by the Chair: Toby Hazel. CHR KANUHA: Mr. Clerk, if you could please read in Communication 665. The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Communications. Comm. 665: REQUESTS DISCUSSION WITH ANDY LEVIN, STATE LEGISLATIVE ASSISTANT, REGARDING THE 2018 SESSION OF THE HAWAII STATE LEGISLATURE From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated December 13, 2017, seeking Mr. Levin's input on the County's priorities, goals, and objectives for the upcoming State Legislative session. GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 665. Seconded by Ms. David. CHR KANUHA: Ms. Lee Loy, I'll give you the floor. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Actually, if I could ask Mr. Levin to come forward. Thank you for being here, Mr. Levin, Happy New Year. (Note: At this time, State Legislative Assistant Andy Levin came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. LEE LOY: Just part of a back drop, you know, last year we were kind of unaware you were hired and kind of found out actually through the newspaper. So, if you wouldn't mind providing us just a little bit of a brief background on what happened last legislative session, you know, your goals, objectives, your intent there and then what we can look forward to for this legislative session. MR. LEVIN: Happy New Year and thank you for the invitation to be here. Once I—the first thing I did after accepting the Mayor's offer was to come by the Council to say hello to you folks, and of course, most of you were not here. It was late in the afternoon. This is a wonderful opportunity for me to be with you and I appreciate it. Thank you. I was asked to prepare a few opening remarks so let me deal with that. CHR KANUHA: If you could, sorry, before you start, just state your name for the record and you can continue. MR. LEVIN: My name is Andy Levin. I have been hired by the Mayor as, the title is Hawaii State Legislative Assistant, and I'll be taking my direction from the Mayor and from the Corporation Counsel. By way of qualifications for the position, I graduated from law school in 1969 and came to work in Hawaii County, with the Legal Aid Society, serving the entire County, and I did that for five years. Then from 1974 to 2000, so about 25 years, I practiced law in private practice, both part-time and full-time. From 1974 to 1976, I was on that side of the table as a Councilman -at -large. At that time, the district covered the whole island and my trademark was that I walked the island to get elected. What I would do was walk a certain distance and then stay overnight in the community with supporters. So for instance, when I got to Pa`auilo, there was a wonderful and a very brave union leader who bucked his union and supported me and let me sleep on his couch. And some of you old timers might know, might recognize the name of Zombie Souza. Page 2 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 In 1976, after serving on the Council for two years, I lost the race for State House and I went back to practicing law. Then in 1980, I was elected to the House of Representatives where I served for eight years. In '88, I ran for State Senate and was elected and served for 12 years, and among other things, I was Chair of the Judiciary Committee at one point, Chair of the Ways and Means Committee at one point, and Chair of other committees as well. I then joined Mayor Kim as his Executive Director when he got elected in 2000 and served in that capacity for the eight years of his two terms. Following that, I did a short stint at the Prosecutor's Office, then went into retirement briefly, and then worked on two federal grants that the College of Pharmacy, a lady name Karen Pelegrin got from the federal government two grants in health care. I worked on a program called Beacon for four years and then a program called Farm -to -Farm for three years. And then a year ago, the Mayor hired me as his Legislative Liaison for the 2017 session and I served in that capacity. So the functions that I anticipate for this coming year are very similar to the functions from a year ago. Number one is monitoring legislation that's introduced. As you know, there are a couple thousand of bills every year, we need to go through those, determine which ones affect the County or have potential impact on the County, and track them and—as they work their way through the legislative session. The Council has an excellent tracking system and I've been able to tap into that system and work with Jon Henricks and the others who have helped put that together and keep it up to date. I'm very grateful for that opportunity to benefit from their expertise. As the bills narrow down, preparing testimony for the Mayor, and working with the various departments on the key bills. I'm told that last year we did about 180 testimonies and that was after getting a late start because I was not hired until the session had already begun. Communication and connections, as you well know, is extremely important so want to spend time with our legislators and the key legislators at the Capital, as well as with the Governor and his staff. Sometimes in those cases, I'll be able to renew relationships that I've had with them of long standing and in some cases, building new relationships. Extremely important to working with other counties. My primary focus has been the Council of Mayors and I've worked with the Mayor's liaisons a year ago and intend to do it again. But also, there is very clear recognition that it is the County Councils that sets the policy for the counties, so I am looking forward to working with you folks. If there's ever a time when I can be of assistance, I do hope you will call on me. Page 3 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 And then part of the contract is to perform such other duties as the Mayor may assign. For instance, I'll be representing the Mayor at the Waimea Community Association tomorrow night at their community association meeting. So, I know that I'm on an 89 -day contract. I know I'll be busy. I hope it will be a contribution to the people of the County. I certainly am aware of the Mayor's passion for the communities that we represent and that passion is very infectious. I share it with him and we'll do the best I can to make good things happen. It is important, as I've said, that we work in conjunction, the Mayor's the Councils, and the other stakeholders. I was just given the HSAC (Hawai`i State Association of Counties) package, which I haven't had a chance to look at, but that's going to be a great start in terms of what the Council priorities may be. I recognize that the subject matter expertise does not lie with me, it lies in the departments, and to some extent, with you folks. So, my work is not ever meant to take the place of the work that the departments are doing, but rather to compliment. In some cases provide a—what information I know and the experience I have with respect to how the legislature operates, what the deadlines are, and that kind of thing, and work closely with them. In terms of specific priorities, most have not yet been identified. No bills have been introduced, as you well know. But things that I would anticipate coming up, certainly, we will support any infrastructure proposals that would benefit this island. TAT (Transient Accommodations Tax) almost certainly will be coming up along with perhaps other tax issues. There was a movement a year ago for the State to take over the property tax function, I suspect that will come back. There was a movement for the Department of Education to get some property tax money, I suspect that will come back. There's an effort to impose TAT on vacation rentals and bed and breakfasts, and that I think is something that we probably do want to support, although it depends on the details. But if counties get their fair share, then that sounds like a positive thing and we'll be following that. Lifeguard liability was a big issue a year ago and probably will come up again. Sunshine Law, as a creature of the Legislature and of the Council, I am well aware of how the Sunshine Law can impact the kind of job you want to do, and it impacts the administration as well. How the Mayor can interact with you is limited in some respects by the Sunshine Law, so hopefully, something good can come along that line. And then as I mentioned, the HSAC package. So, with that, I don't want to take all of your time, I hope I haven't taken too much time. Let me just open myself up to any questions you might have and I'll do the best to respond. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Levin. I'm going to start with, you said we can call on you. How do we do that? What is the best way to contact you, email. Page 4 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 MR. LEVIN: Okay, I expect to be a County employee sometime today. I turned in my final paper to prove I'm a citizen a couple of hours ago. So, I will have a work station in the Mayor's office, both in Hilo and Kona. I will primarily work from home and I can give you my home numbers, I'll have a cell phone, or you can contact the Mayor's office and I'll also be on the County email system. I'm told my address will be Andrew.Levin@hawaiicounty.gov. So, I'll be available that way as well. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, if you could provide that to us. I mean we have a whole bunch of moving pieces ourselves and including you in different email strings or just reaching out to you. And even if you're already at the Legislature, if you could, you know, help us with maybe popping your head in at a different representative's office. But knowing that you would be available, that would be extremely helpful. I just want to back up on some of the work that you did. Last legislative session. you mentioned that you prepared about 180 different testimonies. Do you know how many different issues those 180 different pieces of legislation? MR. LEVIN: I don't. I would guess between 50 and 75. MS. LEE LOY: And that was respective to the House and the Senate? MR. LEVIN: Yes. MS. LEE LOY: So, were they tandem letters to the House and the Senate? MR. LEVIN: Well, as you know, often the same bill will come, or companion bill will come up in the House and the Senate and we would of course testify on both bills in similar fashion. And then as the bills work their way through or amended, we would want to comment on the amendments and whatever change there were and try to either support or oppose, depending on the issues. MS. LEE LOY: Okay, and then do you know the success rate of all of, you know, the 180 which we kind of filtered down to about 50 or 60, do you know the success rate of those? MR. LEVIN: You know, at the close of my contract, I prepared a scorecard for the Mayor, so that would be on his website, I think. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, and I'm just going to reflect on the contract from 2017. One of the statement of duties and responsibilities included, "upon conclusion of this contract, provide a thorough review and analysis of the session as it pertains to the County's interest." You prepared that? Page 5 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 MR. LEVIN: As I said, I did that scorecard. I would say it's kind of difficult to do a batting average of successes and failures. There are the bills that the Mayor was interested in and that I lobbied, on either for or against, was never based on likelihood of success. It was based on genuine interest in the issue and whether the Mayor felt we should support or oppose. So for instance, the Mayor, having grown up in Ola`a using cesspools, believe that cesspools are okay for this island and felt very strongly. We testified against the prohibition on cesspools that will take effect, I think in 2050 or something. We testified against that bill knowing that it was a lost cause. It didn't matter, but I think that the scorecard would show which bills we testified on, whether we opposed or supported, and taking into account the fact that bills get amended and changed and massaged through the process, a rough analysis of whether we were successful or unsuccessful in terms of if we were for and the bill passed, we were for and the bill failed, and the reverse. MS. LEE LOY: If you could provide that to this body, that would be extremely helpful. I think everyone is always looking at ways to be efficient and work collaboratively. Regarding that cesspool, I had a very contrary opinion to that and wrote a very different letter from the Mayor. So, that brings up the point like how do we look for synergies? Clearly there'll be times where a Council Member would not be in line with the administration. How do you stand in the middle of all of that, Mr. Levin? MR. LEVIN: I think on most issues, the Council and the Mayor will be very well aligned. But there were even times—there was at least one time, I don't remember what the issue was, where two of our departments disagreed on an issue, and the Mayor said they should testify as they—on what they believe. So certainly, that rule holds. I would hope that you would make your views known to the Mayor, he will make his views known to you, and if a common position can be found, that would certainly be best. Again, the more synergy between our Mayor and this Council, as well as the other Mayors and their Councils, HSAC, and other stakeholders, it makes our position that much stronger. MS. LEE LOY: You mentioned having a little bit of a pulse line of what this legislative session would look like. You mentioned infrastructure, possibly TAT coming back, and the transfer of property taxation. Help me with maybe a thumbnail sketch of what you think would be kind of at the top of that list, and kind of prioritize that for us. MR. LEVIN: Well, in talking to the Finance Chair informally, she told me that the idea of getting the counties on board with respect to TAT on vacation rentals was something that she was hoping to accomplish. So that'll be a high priority. Page 6 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 A year ago, the bill that would have taken some property tax and given it to Department of Education came very close to passage. I've got to believe that the same interests will be represented this year, and I don't want to predict an outcome. It's something that will very much impact the counties and that the counties have resisted, but the forces on the other side are quite strong too, so I suspect that'll be high on the list. MS. LEE LOY: I promise, I want to just have a couple more questions and then kind of bounce it over to anybody else, but hopefully come back. Did you get any indication from your informal meeting with, I guess I'm assuming it's Chair Luke, regarding the GE (General Excise) half percent and how that's going to weigh over at the Legislature? I understand, I believe Kauai County moved forward sometime last month, and then I believe Maui is looking at the option. Did she share with you, or was there any informal discussions on how that might impact us? MR. LEVIN: No, that did not come up. MS. LEE LOY: Clearly, I'm out of time so I'm going to yield at this time. Thanks. CHR KANUHA: Ms. Ruggles. MS. RUGGLES: Thank you. I appreciate all of your questions, Ms. Lee Loy. I sort of have a similar idea. First of all, it's really nice to meet you, Mr. Levin, and I appreciate you being here to answer our questions before the legislative session starts. Really, what I'm curious about is like what is your role as it relates to us and how you determine what measures that you will take action on? MR. LEVIN: Well, as any other member of the administration, I'm working for the Mayor and being supervised by Corp Counsel as well, so that's where I would get my direction. But, recognizing the important role that you play as a Council Member, I would of course, always be open to your input. We met very briefly a year ago in Kona at the Council and I made the same offer. It may have sounded just perfunctory, but I really do want to do what I can to further what the Council sees as priorities as best I can. MS. RUGGLES: Okay, thank you. So to be clear, you take—everything that you take action on will come from either Corporation Counsel or the Mayor's office? And that you welcome our input? MR. LEVIN: I think that would be an accurate statement, yes. MS. RUGGLES: Okay, great. Thank you for the clarification. That's all the questions I have. Page 7 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 CHR KANUHA: Ms. O'Hara. MS. O'HARA: Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Andy, for coming before us. It's good to see you, and good to see you in a good state of health. I just have some questions. There isobviously, you're hired by the administration, so your marching orders are going to come from the Mayor. There are at least a few items I didn't hear you mention, which I'm sorry to say, are really high on the priority list for me and probably members of the Council. I didn't hear you say anything about the need for an additional ambulance in Puna. We are at the top of the list and legislation has been put forth in the last, I think, three sessions and each time it goes down. This is a really critical issue for us. We have the worst response times in the State and really need that second ambulance. So, any help you can give there, I will be willing to jump on a plane and fly over. Another thing I didn't hear anything about was, we have quite of few environmental issues. While the Mayor may have testimony against cesspool prohibition, the fact that we have so many cesspools in the County of Hawaii has caused an impact on our ocean waters. We've had presentations on the increase of staphylococcus in Hilo Bay, for instance, and elsewhere. So, these are interrelated issues. We need to start addressing the environmental impacts. While the Mayor grew up in Ola`a and probably grew up on cesspool, the population at that time, on this island, was you know, 25 percent of what it currently is, maybe, if that. So, the impact of having this additional population, which is increasing at a very rapid rate, especially in my district, which has a high incidence of cesspools and septic systems, is really critical in the long term to our environmental impacts. Then there are things like rat lungworm disease, which got to the 11 -and -a -half- hour in conference committee, and the money was not allocated for the research that's very much needed, and unfortunately, isn't being used in the most productive manner. So, those are issues that I hope you'll be on board with, or the administration will be on board with, and if you're not, at least feed some information to the Council. I do know, in the past, the Council has hired its own legislative lobbyist to go after the items that are of most concern to the Council. Now we're with HSAC and we have some advice through consultants in that regard, but it has been the case in the past that we have actually, the Council, hired someone to represent us at the State Legislature. And given that there may be some difference of opinion or difference of priorities between the administration and the Council, could be something that we might want to consider again, but I would really appreciate if we could work with you. You have the background, you have the expertise. I've known you for, I don't know how many years, it would be wonderful to have that synergy, although I do realize that on some issues, administration and Council are not going to be on the same page. So, I just wanted to bring up those points and yeah, thank you. Page 8 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 MR. LEVIN: Thank you for those comments. As I said, I think all infrastructure that will benefit the Big Island will be supported by the Mayor, and that certainly includes the ambulance. If I remember correctly, and I'm pretty sure I do, we did support the ambulance, we did support the rat lungworm, we did support research into Rapid `Ohi`a Death, coqui frogs. So certainly, those issues were up last year, and as our legislators strive to get funding for them this year, we will certainly be there supporting them. MS. O'HARA: Thank you for your response, I yield. CHR KANUHA: Ms. Eoff MS. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Thank you very much for giving us a brief look at your background and your experience and your qualifications to do this work. I appreciate hearing that. We have some of—our Legislative Research Branch provides the Council with—they try and track bills that may affect our County or of interest to us, so we get lots of information from them on a regular basis. I'm just wondering if there's some way you can connect with that effort to provide because sometimes we just get a list or a time frame or schedule, but maybe if more input, or you could provide more input to that so that we also see, well here's something that you know, is being lobbied for by Mr. Levin, so maybe we could send support testimony. It could kind of help us determine which would be of maybe the most help for a successful outcome. MR. LEVIN: I work most closely with Jon Henricks, and if that's suitable, I will do that. I'll try to be better at communicating back and forth with him. MS. EOFF: Just another observation is we've put together an HSAC package many times with not too much success rate, and the package, by the time it does get formulated, has had the mutual support of all four counties. All four Councils have to approve each item, so to think that those don't get traction is kind of beyond my comprehension. That seems to be something that the Legislature should really look more seriously at. And I don't know if you really can help with that, but I'm glad that you mentioned that's something you'll pay attention to as far as your efforts. MR. LEVIN: Thank you. CHR KANUHA: Council Members who never had a chance to—Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Levin again. Ms. O'Hara brought it up, you know, there's some issues in her district with the ambulance, those types of things. I'm going to put it on the table, Banyan Drive is going to be important for Hilo again. We need some revitalization to happen, not only at Banyan Drive, but all of the State leases within the industrial area. Those leases Page 9 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 are expiring and we need to figure out what we're doing. It's a huge economic generator. It carries all of our industrial lands and for me, when I start looking and forecasting, how do we have industrial lands, how do we tax them? If we can't keep that thriving, we're going to see a huge decline in our real property tax collections, and we're going to have a very different forecast in our budget for the 2018/2019 cycle. I see you jumping at the mic there so I want to hear your feedback on that. MR. LEVIN: Well, I certainly agree. It was a huge issue a year ago, and it should be on our radar screen this year. My question for you is whether there's a consensus on the path to take. There was, I think at least three bills, maybe more, introduced by representative Onishi and Senator Kahele. If, perhaps using your good auspices, you can get them and the community to a common position, that would make the effort a whole lot easier. No matter what we do, there will still be resistance for fear on the State part that we're setting precedent for the entire State. But, our situation is at the point where leases will be expiring, people are afraid to invest. They don't want to just walk away. They don't want to put it out to bid where they might be out bid by who knows who. So, finding a common position and getting our Big Island legislators all on the same page would be a tremendous accomplishment. If you can work on that, then we can all go forward together. I'm sure the Mayor would be supportive if the community and the elected representatives were all together. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thank you. I'm actually glad that our Planning Director is still in the room because I know he has some fantastic ideas. In the last legislative session, he and I really stood together on howa vision for that area. So yeah, let's do that and we can set up a meeting separate and apart from that. The word lobbyist has been thrown around a few times and I know you mentioned it yourself, have you registered as a lobbyist? MR. LEVIN: No, working for the County, I was told that, well, I'm told I'm not a lobbyist, I'm a legislative liaison. But I was also told that as a County employee, I do not register as a lobbyist, even if I were a lobbyist. MS. LEE LOY: Okay. I'm going to ask Mr. Kamelamela to come forward please. (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Joseph Kamelamela came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. KAMELAMELA: Good morning, Hau`oli La Hanau everybody. My name is Joseph Kamelamela, Corporation Counsel. Page 10 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Kamelamela. You had heard Mr. Levin give his understanding and I know you've had an opportunity to review both contracts from 2017 and 2018, which starts today. Both of them include language related to advising, delivering testimony, direct lobby to lawmakers on all County legislation with an emphasis on County priorities. His contract contains language that he is lobbying. How is that not a lobbyist? MR. KAMELAMELA: Well, like a lobbyist, it's a different criterion. He is actually a County employee, so he's functioning under the direction of both the Mayor and I, so he's not really a lobbyist. Although, there is the language in there. No, he's not a lobbyist. MS. LEE LOY: So I'm going to refer to—thank you for that answer because I'm going to refer to the definition under the State Statutes, 97-1, which clearly says to register as a lobbyist. Is there a lot of heartache if he doesn't? I just think it would go a long way to be more safe than sorry in the future. Or is that not the position of Corporation Counsel? MR. KAMELAMELA: No, I think in the past, we had, you know, have researched a similar issue before. And given that he's a County employee, you know, 89 -day contract, he's not a lobbyist as defined under the State Statute. So, what he really does is, you know, he's assisting us with trying to track bills, trying to meet people like—because like there's a lot of people in the County who also goes out and meet people and submit testimony. He's only doing it for the County, within his course and scope of duties. So, we had researched that issue before and then we came up with the conclusion he doesn't have to register as a lobbyist. He's not a consultant, you know, he doesn't go out there and do what the other types of consultants does. MS. LEE LOY: So, following your train of thought, yes, we do—other department heads do. But normally, it's a singular focus. DEM (Department of Environmental Management) will advocate or lobby for issues related to the environment. A Council Member would lobby issues as it pertains to—but this is across the whole spectrum. I'm going to respectfully disagree because I don't think it hurts that he follows the State Statutes. This Mayor advocated for transparency in government and restoring trust in government. I don't really think it hurts. Maybe if you folks would reconsider, look at it, and even reach out, you know, to the State Office of Information Practices and get an opinion. I just don't think it hurts, and if we want to start on a fair foundation, that's my position. I just don't think it hurts. It goes a long way. MR. KAMELAMELA: Well, you know, I can look at this issue again. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, let's leave it there. Just revisit that issue one more time and I really don't have very many questions. But I did have staff, Mr. Levin, take Page 11 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 a look at all of your work and put together a scorecard for you and all the different pieces of legislation. So, I'll be real interested to see what you come back with because of 180, between the 50 and 60, I got 19 that got through. So, I'll be looking forward to that. I'm going to yield at this time. Mr. Kamelamela, please, just reconsider that issue. I would rather us, as a County, cover our bases and lead by example with our County employees, even if they're under an 89 -day contract hire. So thank you. MR. KAMELAMELA: Can I just mention something else that you talked about? The scorecard, now you know, the reason why I was willing to do this 89 -day contract, you know, I think there's a need and so when I was confirmed as Corp Counsel, you know, I started to get a lot of emails on the different bills that's going through. I'm just going to mention some of the bills, you know, that I've worked with Mr. Levin, which I thought was kind of important. You know, one of the bills involved some of the telecommunications efforts to try to put their equipment on County towers and you know, that kind of raised a big concern by the Police and Civil Defense. Also, you know, this idea of almost having them put it up for free almost—and so, in the end, it got defeated. There was another bill that both HR (Human Resources) and I worked on dealing with the union's goal in trying to get into management rights as being part of the negotiation. Well, that bill passed but in the end, the Governor had vetoed it so, you know, it's not there. So, you know, it's a long, ongoing process, but those are at least two of the bills that I'm kind of aware of that I've worked with. And then the thing with the lifeguard liability too, you know, we're going to go back, you know, different strategy. What happens in the Legislature is that you know, there's a bill that shows up and then all of a sudden it gets changed. So, for the liability of the lifeguard, which I think is so important because both the Mayor and this Council is very supportive, you know. And so what happened last year I thought was a travesty. When we were trying to get something passed and then what was compromised by the Chair was to have the AG's (Attorney General) defend the counties' lifeguards. But that got vetoed by the Governor, so you know, to actually try to do a scorecard, you know, it's hard. But like those are the things that you never know how things are going to turn out. So, yeah, we're going to get the scorecard to all of you. And just a word of caution, is that when you do ask Mr. Levin certain things, maybe you know, try not to add the other Council Members on the—yeah, it's just that I'm worried about the Sunshine Law, you know, as much as everybody else, but you know, hopefully something can be dealt with it. Anyway, thank you. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Page 12 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 CHR KANUHA: Ms. O'Hara. MS. O'HARA: Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Mr. Kamelamela for those little revelations. Actually, in terms of a scorecard, what is it? Less than 10 percent of the bills that are introduced ever pass, so 19 out of 180, I think you're batting average there. So, not so bad really. But yeah, things take various tracks at the Legislature and I know Andy, you brought up the TAT several times and that remains an important issue. I do believe that the County wants to be onboard in terms of identifying that are short- term vacation rentals, if we ever get around to defining them properly and what not, here at the County because we're a bit behind the other counties on this whole issue. I think we all agree that yeah, it needs to be a level playing field and everybody needs to be paying into the TAT. Our problem is the way the allocation of the TAT came out of the special session, the counties won't gain anything from that increase in revenues at this point in time, so that has to change. If it doesn't change, there's no incentive for us to really get onboard because it's going to require an increase in investment in technologies in order to do this type of tracking, maybe additional positions, et cetera. So, there's a cost to us to do so and we need to weight that going forward. So, I just wanted to bring that up and yeah, I would appreciate if you did send your contact information, your phone and your cell phone, that sort of thing because when the Legislature gets moving, it moves fast. Speaking of which, you're on an 89 -day contract starting today. I'm assuming that's going to be renewed because otherwise, you'll be leaving right after cross over. I don't know. MR. LEVIN: It's been made very clear I cannot assume anything. MS. O'HARA: You can't assume anything? Okay, so you got to work hard in the first 89 days. Okay, great. Well, thank you so much for coming before us and providing some insight into what you perceive you'll be doing this year, that really helps. We were kind of in the dark last year quite a bit and there isn't extremely good communication between the Council and the administration regarding State legislative actions. So, while we get good information direct through our LRB office as to what's going on, it doesn't—we don't have that inner tie, and so we were kind of clueless and only able to garner what we could read in the newspaper. So, I'm really happy that you're more open to working with everyone at the County that is interested in legislation, especially our legislative body and policy setting body. So, thank you so much for coming. Page 13 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 MR. KAMELAMELA: Yeah, and actually, I wanted to thank Sue for you know, having this opportunity because as you know, he's now starting earlier than later, so mahalo. CHR KANUHA: Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: I just want to say thank you for being here and affording us that opportunity to work together too. You know, it's the Mayor's budget, it's the Mayor's money, contract, and you know, we're not putting anything into it but offering to also take into consideration, you know, what we need in our districts and our concerns. I was here when you first came to offer to meet with the different Council Members and we really appreciate that, the open communication. So, I just want to say thank you and it was on our house couch that you slept in Pa`auilo. But you also had a lot of black hair and a beautiful wife. Thank you, but I do remember you as a little girl, so thank you. MR. LEVIN: How old were you? MS. POINDEXTER: I don't know. I was little but I remember you well with a car and it was painted. I think it was hand painted. MR. LEVIN: Hand painted, Dodge Dart with my name on it. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, but—so thank you for being a part of you know, the community for as long as—in all that you offer and that you give of yourself. So, thank you. CHR KANUHA: Anybody else? Okay, just briefly, or maybe not briefly, but thank you for being here. Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy for introducing this. You know, this was a good opportunity to I guess reconnect and kind of go over how last year went, how this year's going to go, and kind of see the priorities of the administration. The Council sets our priorities through either Council action or through HSAC and we kind of get really organized by a lot of those actions and the bills that we look to either support or I guess for us, lobby on behalf of what we feel is important to Hawaii County. So, I think it's really important to connect with the administration on those specific efforts because we don't want to be in a legislative session where both the administration and the Council are kind of butting heads over a certain issue because the State—as you know, the State will look at Hawaii County saying, "If you guys cannot even agree within your own body, why are we going to support this?" Or we'll just do whatever we think is best for the counties. So, I think in that aspect, it's really important that we connect andI mean I know we might not always be on the same page, but I think it's really important that we try to make that happen. Page 14 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 I know it's also really difficult during this small legislative, or this very fast legislative session to do that, especially as a Council because it takes a long time to get things through. So, I guess individually, we can push for efforts, especially, you know, like the ambulance effort that we're trying to really hammer through last year. I mean it's kind of crazy to me that the State tells the Councils, and the Fire Department, and everybody that this is the way you guys need to get this passed, by supporting the Puna one and the Kauai one, everybody gets on the same page and does exactly what they tell us to do, and then they don't fund it. It's just kind of crazy to me. But, on those specific issues, you know, district specific, I know the Council Members from those districts really push the effort and you can connect with those ones on how—if that State legislative issue is specific towards those districts. But, in terms of a whole, you know, it really us as HSACyou've seen our HSAC package. A lot of the items that are here that we're supporting this year were part of the support package from last year because a lot of those didn't pass through. I mean some big issues like that tort liability was a mess but something that we really pushed for because it was really important for our County to, at least get that extension. So hopefully, somebody can introduce a new bill this upcoming legislative session, but, you know, the TAT again, I'm sure they're going to be coming out with some new things, especially when they're raising or the raise of the TAT started yesterday? I don't know. Yesterday or the day before, I forget what day it was, but you know, if they're not going to be at least raising the cap or giving the counties extra money, I mean I know we're going to be going through some vacation rental things that I don't want to talk about now, but I know the State's really interested in looking at that. As a testifier previously brought up, you know, the affordable housing is going to be another big issue that they're going to be going through this year. The senior housing, I know the support from Mr. Kawachi you know, down in Ka`u, that's going to be something that we're going to be supporting as well. So, a lot of really important issues, but you know, in the whole totality of things, people are wondering if they're getting what they paid for. You know, that's what it comes down to and you know, when we hear these contracts that are so much money a month, it kind of like shocks everybody. But how do you measure that? How do you quantify that? It's very difficult, you know, we can support and write letters every single day, and I don't know how you would measure that. Is the contract last year the same in terms of the budget wise, or is it different this year? MR. LEVIN: It's substantially less. Page 15 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 CHR KANUHA: Okay. Well yours might be the only pay that's gone down then. But you know—and that was another issue we had, you know, the 89 -day contract. With your advocating writing letters, you know, what happens after that 89 -day contract? I know it's pau, but the Legislature still is in session doing all these things and still need to do the same exact thing that needed to happen before. So, in terms of the administration, once the 89 contract is pau, what happens to the writing of the letters, the lobbying efforts, the, you know, what was originally being done? How does that continue? MR. KAMELAMELA: Well, I'm not too sure if I'm accurate, but I know that even if it starts today, he started already. He started working and from what I know of his work last year, you know, even if his contract ended, he continued to complete whatever needed to be completed. So, budget wise, yes, it's substantially different from $16,000 a month to $10,000 a month. But our office had the budget to cover that, you know, to fill the vacancies that we had. CHR KANUHA: Okay, so your time isn't only limited to the 89 -day contract? You're really, throughout this entire legislative session, working for the County but—so within that 89 -day contract, you're the County employee. Outside the 89 -day contract, who are you? MR. LEVIN: I guess I'm a citizen of the County of Hawaii CHR KANUHA: Volunteering your time. MR. LEVIN: Hopefully not, but MR. KAMELAMELA: He's volunteering. CHR KANUHA: Okay. MR. LEVIN: The Mayor's a tough person to say no to. CHR KANUHA: No, and I'm sure you guys are good friends from far back in the day, so I think he picks people who he truly can trust and work with. MR. LEVIN: I think you've been hinting at it all along, but just to make it explicit, the help from you as Council Members, as elected officials, goes a long way toward success at the Legislature. So please, do what you can to build up relationships in person, by phone, whatever. We all know the disadvantage that we have being an airplane away from the capital and not being there. So please, help make this a successful operation. Page 16 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 CHR KANUHA: Yeah, and it's extremely difficult on that point. We have to pay $200 to get to Oahu to be present and you know, many times, the Legislature basically requires you to be present. They want you there, even though some of— many times, I've been there and the just being present they say, "Okay, thank you for being here," but then recess the meeting to tomorrow. You know, that's $200 down the drain that you really thought you were going to make a difference in advocating on behalf of your constituents but then—so then you wonder if you have to come back again, if it's going to happen again. So, it's very difficult to balance between your letters or being present and knowing when these action items are really going to be action, you know, they're going to take action on them. But, I think each individual Council Member knows how they can best lobby for their districts. I know we've had in the past, as Ms. O'Hara said, lobbyist represent the Councils at the legislative session. I don't know how long ago that was, but we kind of weigh and balance how much it's worth to do that. Or, are we the best lobbyist as Council Members to fight for what we think our constituents need the most of, especially on Hawaii Island? So, that's something we all balanced out, but at least, you know, we have an HSAC group that we really are pretty tight with the rest of the councils and can have a huge impact, well we hope to think that we have a huge impact on legislation at the State level. So, we're going to continue to do that. There might be different avenues that we try to take in lobbying, but we hope that we always try to do the best that we possibly can in representing our County. So, in that case, you know, really work with us, you being a representative of the Mayor in how we try to get what we need for Hawaii County. So, I'm looking forward to that. And you know, I'm also the President of HSAC, so it's a good opportunity for all of us to really collaborate not only here on Hawaii Island with the Council and the administration, but the whole State. So, I'm willing to do that and just kind of looking forward to a more positive legislative session for not only the entire state, but Hawaii County. Anybody else? Any last words? Ms. Lee Loy to close us off MS. LEE LOY: Thank you and really, thank you. I think we want to try something different. Last year we were kind of caught off guard. Just that we had a new Council, a number of freshman Council Members, myself included. So, I do, I really want this to be a positive springboard forward and just know that, you know, we're available, if we can talk offline, individually. You know, Mr. Kanuha is an incredible resource. He's been at the legislature and our HSAC President. Maybe there is some historic, you know, information that's not being openly shared on why some of the decisions are being made, and Mr. Kanuha is an incredible resource for that. And so, if we could just somehow keep this conversation going in our own ways because I really believe we all want what's Page 17 GREDC-14 January 3, 2018 best for this island. I don't think there's not a person in this room that doesn't want what's the best for this island. So, that's my closing thoughts. Mr. Kanuha, really, thank you. CHR KANUHA: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy, and again, thank you for bringing this up. Do you have any last MR. LEVIN: Maybe just to close, I really wanted to thank you for the invitation to be here. I will work with Jon Henricks, try to make sure that all the testimonies are shared with him. You know as well as I the crazy schedule that the Legislature leads, the impossible deadlines that they impose, and so on, but given the time constraints we have, try to work as well as we can. And Mr. Kanuha, with your assistance with HSAC, I think you're probably the best contact that I would have on that score. Thank you again. CHR KANUHA: Yeah, thank you and you know, again, kudos to our LRB again for all the work that they do. Jon Henricks and everybody in that office over there really keeping us abreast of the day-to-day actions of the Legislature. So, thank you guys and again, thank you guys for being here. Okay, Council Members, any last before we close it? All in favor of filing Communication 665 say "aye." Vote on Comm. 665: The motion to file Comm. 665 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Eoff, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, Ruggles, and Chair Kanuha — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung and Richards — 2. Excused: None. CHR KANUHA: Motion passes. Since that's our only item, may I have a motion? ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. (There were none.) BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of ORDINANCES: business, Bills for Ordinances. (There were none.) Page 18 GREDC-l4 January 3, 2018 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 11:18 a.m., Ms. Poindexter moved to adjourn MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Ms. O'l lara and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Eoff, Lee Loy, O'llara, Poindexter, Ruggles, and Chair Kanuha — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Chung and Richards -2. Excused: None. CIIR.KANUHA: We are adjourned. Approved: �^�/"`"'/�--� 1.73• iB Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Chair (Date) Governmental Relations and Economic Development Committee DMK/jm Page 19