HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2018-02-21 2016-2018
Hawai‘i County Council
nd
32 Session
West Hawai‘i Civic Center
74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Building A
Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i
February 21, 2018
INVOCATION: Steve Lopez gave the morning’s invocation.
CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawai‘i County Council was called to order at
ORDER: 9:09 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Karen Eoff,
Acting Chair.
ROLL CALL:
Present: Ms. Valerie T. Poindexter, Chair
Ms. Karen Eoff, Vice Chair
Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member (via videoconference from Hilo)
Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member
Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Member
Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member
Ms. Eileen O’Hara, Member
Mr. Herbert M. “Tim” Richards, III, Member
Ms. Jennifer Ruggles, Member (came in later)
PLEDGE OF The Acting Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of
ALLEGIANCE: allegiance.
(At this time, Ms. Lee Loy led the Council in the Pledge of
Allegiance.)
Moment of Silence: (Note: At this time, at the request of Ms. O’Hara, the Council held a brief
moment of silence in recognition of the 17 lives of high school students lost
during a mass shooting in Florida.)
PETITIONS, The Acting chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
MEMORIALS, Petitions, Memorials, Certificates of Merit, and Expressions of Condolence.
CERTIFICATES OF
MERIT, AND (There were none.)
EXPRESSIONS OF
CONDOLENCE:
Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
STATEMENTS The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items.
PUBLIC ON
AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by
the Chair.
Steve Lopez: Bill 102, Draft 2 (Comm. 722.5), in opposition.
Nelson H. Harano: Bill 102, Draft 2 (Comm. 722.5), in opposition.
Cory Harden: Bill 102, Draft 2 (Comm. 722.5), comment.
Sally Ancheta: Bill 102, Draft 2 (Comm. 722.5), in support.
(representing Hawai‘i Public
Health Institute)
Mary Begier: Bill 102, Draft 2 (Comm. 722.5), comment.
Emile Naeole: Bill 100 (Comm. 719); and
Bill 102, Draft 2 (Comm. 722.5), in opposition.
Steven Offenbaker: Bill 99 (Comm. 718), in support.
Ritchie Henderson: Bill 102, Draft 2 (Comm. 722.5), in opposition.
(representing Hawai‘i Island
Realtors)
Stephanie Donoho: Bill 102, Draft 2 (Comm. 722.5), in opposition.
(representing Kohala Coast
Resort Association)
APPROVAL The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
OF MINUTES: Approval of Minutes.
Vote on Approval of Ms. Poindexter moved to approve the Minutes of January
Minutes: 4, 2018. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the
(Approved) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha,
Lee Loy, O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles,
and Acting Chair Eoff – 9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Vote on Approval of Ms. David moved to approve the Minutes of January 24,
Minutes: 2018. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and carried by the
(Approved) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha,
Lee Loy, O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Ruggles – 1.
Excused: None.
COMMUNI-The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
CATIONS: Communications.
(There were none.)
Change Order As directed by the Acting Chair and with no objection from the Council
of Business: Members, the following items were taken out of order:
Bill 99: AMENDS THE PARKS AND RECREATION FACILITY SCHEDULE,
CHAPTER 15, ARTICLE 8, SECTION 15-68.1 OF THE HAWAI‘I COUNTY
CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO NAMING THE
LOWER BALLFIELD AT HONOKA‘A PARK THE “LALA EPENESA, JR.,
BALLFIELD,” IN HONOR OF LALA EPENESA, JR.
Recognizes Lala Epenesa, Jr.’s, numerous contributions to sports in the Hāmākua
community.
Reference: Comm. 718
Intr. by: Ms. Poindexter
Approve: PWPRC-37
Motion to Approve: Ms. Poindexter moved to pass Bill 99 on first reading and
adopt Public Works and Parks and Recreation Committee
Report No. 37. Seconded by Ms. David.
MS. POINDEXTER: I won’t repeat all that was said because I think we talked
about that at the Committee level. We did get to hear from Mr. Offenbaker and I
truly appreciate the call and you getting on this for the community. And, yes,
you’re right, it went viral on Facebook. That just showed how much of Lala’s
memory and all that he did and how he touched the lives of many people, not just
the children but the families as well. So, thank you and I ask for my colleague’s
support. Thank you.
MS. EOFF: Any other comments, Council? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 99,
please say “aye.”
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Vote on Bill 99: The motion to pass Bill 99 on first reading and adopt Public
(Approved) Works and Parks and Recreation Committee Report No. 37
was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha,
Lee Loy, O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Ruggles – 1.
Excused: None.
Recess: At 9:44 a.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 9:45 a.m.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Council Members, I’m going to call the
meeting out of recess and ask Mr. Clerk—we’re going to take Bill 102 at this
point. Mr. Clerk, can you please read Bill 102, Draft two?
Bill 102 AMENDS CHAPTER 2 OF THE HAWAI‘I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016
(Draft 2): EDITION, AS AMENDED) BY ADDING A NEW ARTICLE
RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION SURCHARGE
Establishes a one-half percent general excise and use tax surcharge to fund
operating or capital costs of public transportation systems within Hawai‘i County,
to be levied beginning January 1, 2019.
Reference: Comm. 722.5
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Negative: FC-79 (Due to a vote of 3-ayes, 6-noes)
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 102, Draft 2, on first reading.
Seconded by Ms. O’Hara.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David—and by the way, the Mayor is in Hilo in the
Chambers and Ms. Sako and—Deputy Director Crawford and Director Sako are
here in the Kona Chambers.
MS. DAVID: Thank you. I guess would you ladies come forward, please? And
I’d like to just thank the Mayor and his Administration for just putting together
the community meetings last week in such a short timeframe and going out to
every district community. I thank you guys for coming to three of my districts, or
communities in my district. And I’m very interested to hear from you folks what
the sense of all these meetings, what the outcome was, because I have a sense of
what my communities felt about this. So, if you could share that first and then I’ll
yield.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
(Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to
address the members of the Council.)
MS. SAKO: Deanna Sako, Director of Finance. First of all, we want to thank
each of the Council Members too because you were very helpful in getting the
meetings all set up in the places and everything. But the Mayor, and Nancy, and
I, between the three of us, we were at each one. We were very happy to hear
people’s concerns and there definitely were concerns, but there were also a lot of
people in favor. I mean, each district was a little bit different. And so, some
people are angry at government in general. I mean, I heard a lot of complaints
about federal, state, and county levels. So unfortunately, we can’t fix all of those
things, but we can try and get the word out. And the Governor’s liaison was at, at
least one of those meetings to get the word back to the State.
But definitely some people don’t want new taxes. But on the other hand, there’s a
lot of people who actually want improved roads and an improved bus system, you
know, that they rely on that bus system to get to and from work every day. So, I
think there was a few more people in favor than against based on the comments,
but that was kind of just my impression, but definitely they want to see a plan.
And we did bring a plan today, but I think the Mayor might be in Hilo and he
might also have comments.
MS. DAVID: Yes, he is. And I was just going to ask you if I could ask the
Mayor to make a few comments since he’s there at their office. Mayor Kim?
(Note: At this time, Mayor Harry Kim came forward to address the
members of the Council.)
MAYOR KIM: Thank you very much. I realize it’s last minute of me being here.
I apologize for that. First of all, as I’ve said at all of the meetings, I realize the
very difficult position I’ve put the Council people in and I know it is very
difficult. I was very impressed with the statements and the manner in which the
statement was delivered by the gentleman from Kona in regard to the Board of
Realtors. I realize their frustration with us because of their expenditure.
Of this, I will say the very difficulty of coming to the County Council to say to
raise the taxes again—please understand, I do know of the difficult position I’ve
put you in because of what we’re asking. I will say this to the end of that part of
it, I am proud of the way we have served the people of this Hawai‘i with the
concerns expressed, especially of that Kona Board of Realtors’ gentleman.
I ask the community, I ask the Council to review our policy of principles of
taxation during the years 2000-2008. I think you will see that we cut the taxes
which is, generally speaking, very rarely does government do that. We did cut the
taxes to the people of Hawai‘i Island during that period. We raised it only once
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
after the tragic event of 911 where we did not have enough money to balance the
budget of that year. So, we had to come before the Council to ask for a raise just
to balance the budget of a little over $3 million that were short. Other than that, it
was ride out the hard times and, when was possible, to cut the budget, which we
did.
In regards to this time, this is the third time we’re asking you to help us with the
budget. I’ll make this as simple as can be in a limited time. Me coming back to
Mayor, as many of you have seen—Council Chair, this is your first term—the
problems were immense. Most of the community meetings I’ve had on the
request of communities have been requests for more services, especially that of
the police and especially that of the transit system. And that there’s an ongoing
thing as far as because of the kind of society of crime, people are literally afraid to
leave their homes and we know that. So, that is a heavy priority.
In regards to the transit system, we come into a picture here a little over a year
ago new councilmen people, especially you, are being bombarded with this kind
of request of the problems. This transit system, as I’ve said to you before, was
embarrassing. It was ugly. It was disappointing. We will try to fix it. We just
hired and got a new Administrator. They just started last week Friday. The new
plan was presented to you. I think it’s a good plan. It’s going to take us years to
get here.
The bottom line is this: It is something that needs to be fixed. It is in shambles in
regards to the condition of the buses. Very few buses are in good shape, and there
are even buses that should not be run for certain routes. I’m sure you’ve seen
those huge buses that we wish we had smaller buses.
This tax system is good for this one reason: It dictates that money should be spent
for transportation. We commit that at least the first half year of it, all of it will go
to try to improve the transit system. Another commitment in regards to all this, is
the simple fact that without this raise, we have no funds to fix the system. This
system must be fixed.
A good part of raising these revenues through this half-a-percent is this: At least
30 to 40 percent of the revenues raised will be paid directly by the tourists. On
that, 99 percent of the funds raised will be spent on this island as I committed. I
say again, 99 percent. I have no other source of funds to do this. Lord knows we
don’t want to come back to raise up any of the property tax, which is so unfair
because right now 72 or 73 percent of our revenues of General Fund is raised by
property tax because we are so limited in opportunities or authority to do so.
The other two is vehicle weight, as you know, and the fuel tax, which you’ve just
raised for the first time in 30 years to try to catch up on some of the roads. I ask
that you grant this. I ask that you know within the difficulty of what we ask you,
this is the one means where we can assure the public that all the money that we
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raise in this coming half-a-year, all this will be spent on trying to improve the
transit system. We have a new Administrator, which we recruited from the
Mainland. A plan that she submitted, I think is a good one, and we will stick to it.
In regards to going back to the gentleman from Kona, I respect everything you
said. I do know of distrust of us to expect us to stay within the budget. I am
proud of the cuts we have made and will continue to keep our costs down as best
as we can, and everyone is welcome to review every dollar of how the money
proposed to be spent is spent. I ask you to trust us in regards to this is such a high
priority that we increase the quality of our roads, we increase the quality of our
transit system. And I commit to you, we will do this. Thank you very much for
this time.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Mayor Kim. On that note, Chair, I’m going to yield
right now for questions from the other Council Members after that presentation,
and then come back later.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Thank you, Ms. David. Council Members,
discussion?
MS. O’HARA: I don’t know that we received all the presentation from the
Finance Director and Deputy Director, so can we proceed to hear what they have
to present to us?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Would you like to continue?
MS. SAKO: We actually appreciated all the feedback from each community
because each community had a unique perspective, and a lot of people had really
good ideas. And definitely, they know they can continue to email us if they have
additional suggestions. We did try to look at the Mass Transit Master Plan and
the current upcoming year Mass Transit budget. As the Mayor said, we’re
committed to spending at least that first year, since it’s only a half-year of
revenue, on Mass Transit. And it’s probably going to pretty much take most of
that GE (General Excise) tax surcharge to run the transit system.
So, the sheet of paper that’s being passed out that we didn’t even have a chance to
show the Mayor—sorry, Mayor—is the General Excise Tax Surcharge and Mass
Transit Financial Plan, and the first column is 2018. That’s the fiscal year we’re
in right now. So, it shows how much is Salaries and Wages, which is primarily
our administrative staff and our mechanics.
And then OCE (Other Current Expense), which pays for a lot of the routes. As a
reminder, we hire our drivers for the routes. We contract that out. And then,
Paratransit and Share Ride. But as you might remember, transit is funded by two
sources, General Fund and Highway Fund. So, you’ll see those lines repeated
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
down below as well, and then money for equipment and then primarily grants.
And then the Highway Fund is primarily spent on driver contracts, Paratransit,
Share Ride, and Fuel. And so right now, it’s just about a 50-50 split, 6.8 million
from General Fund and 7.2 million from Highway Fund.
For 2019, we know the driver contracts will be going out. They’re tied to the
UPW (United Public Workers) rate of pay. So, those will be going out no matter
what happens. But in addition, the contracts are ending, I believe, at the end of
May. So, they’ll be going out for bid again as well. So, the numbers changed
somewhat. Some of the costs were actually shifted to the Highway Fund with the
fuel tax increase, so, if nothing happens with the GE surcharge, then this is
st
probably what the proposed budget will be when we submit it on March 1.
However, when we looked at the Mass Transit Plan, there’s various pieces of
operations in there. And for 2019, there’s some proposed new routes—what you
see on the OCE line—and definitely some new buses to make the system work
better. And then in addition, applying for an additional grant.
Down below, you’ll see we added a new line “capital improvements.” They have
some things that are more—whether it’s park and rides or transit centers or
different things or even just improving the information, those are listed under the
capital improvements.
Then, we also have a line for accelerated improvements. If we feel like there’s
additional funds, that might be able to be associated with that. So, maybe we can
build out a center faster or actually get the IT (Information Technology)
information, the data out there to people quicker.
So with that, even if putting all of the 12 million from the GE surcharge in the
first-half year, we would still need the same amount of 7.2 million from the
Highway Fund, and it could reduce the General Fund down by 2.6 million or so.
That’s one option. The funding sources could be changed, but the GE tax is
committed for the transit system. So, the Mass Transit Plan, I think, is not in its
final state yet. I think there’s still community meetings going on, and it should be
finalized by the end of the fiscal year. But it’s a plan that would get us to where
our transit system should be so that people can rely on it, and they can utilize it on
a daily basis, especially to go to work.
The following year, we went with what the department is kind of estimating costs
would be at this time. But until we actually bid out the new driver contract, we
won’t have any official numbers. And so, it’s like a best estimate. So, it
continues to increase slightly primarily for expected wage increases. But then in
addition, I believe additional routes are added on, more buses are purchased, and
they will continue to apply for additional grant opportunities.
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And then from 2020 and out, I think is when the capital improvements in the plan
start to get larger. I think there’s more buildout going on, as well as buses as well.
So by the time we get to 2020, it is possible that the whole 25 million could be
spent just on transit alone, if we didn’t use Fuel Tax or General Fund. Part of the
Mayor’s plan would be that GE tax would be used for the transit system, which
would free up fuel tax so that more roads could be done on a probably more
timely basis.
Some of the projects that are awaiting funding, when we did the fuel tax increase,
it’s really to help catch up on a lot of the district road paving. But there’s some
big projects that we are concerned about, STIP (State Transportation
Improvement Program). When the President submitted his budget, instead of
having an 80 percent Federal grant opportunity for highways and roads and 20
percent match by the counties, they flipped it and it passed the burden down to the
states and the counties so that the Federal government would provide 20 percent
and the states and counties would provide 80 percent of the money.
Obviously, that still has to go through Congress. This isn’t a done deal, but it
kind of shows what they’re thinking and that there’ll probably be a decrease in
Federal projects. Right now, it takes us two to three to four years of STIP money
to accumulate it to be able to do one big project. And so, the GE tax, if there’s
any extra, would allow us to do additional projects as well.
Where there’s the extension of Ane Keohokālole down to Ka‘iminani, whether
it’s just improving Henry Street or Kuakini Phase 2 or fixing up Waiānuenue
Avenue—and when we list these projects and these dollar amounts, this is like a
total reconstruction, where they’re going in, digging it out, relaying the pipes and
things like that. It’s not just going in and resurfacing.
However, that’s from Public Works and some of the projects they know are on
their list. But what we did here, loud and clear, is that each community has
priority projects as well. And in Pāhoa, it was that they definitely need sidewalks
or some kind of shoulder. It’s not safe. They have no place to walk there. I’m
always paying attention when I’m driving down that road because I don’t want to
hit anyone. And I do see a lot of moms with strollers and different things as well.
In Waikoloa, they were concerned that there’s really one main road in and one
main road out, and they want an additional road. We do have the emergency road
but that’s, I think, not opened on a regular basis. Definitely, restriping Kahakai
Boulevard. Some of the requests were not big. It was actually just getting the
lines on so they can see at night so they’re not crossing the center line. And so,
we definitely heard all of those comments. South Kona paving, I felt bad when I
was at Yano Hall that I didn’t know they were going to be paving in front of Yano
Hall very soon. But that is on the list.
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So, we just want the community to know we definitely heard it. We’re talking to
Public Works. We haven’t had a chance to sit down with each department and
work out all through all of the requests, but we know there’s a high need. So,
whether it’s fuel tax being freed up or additional GE tax I guess generated, there’s
plenty of projects to get done. So, it really comes down to how quickly we want
to see it happen. If we’re happy with the bus system in its current state, then
that’s what’s going to happen.
We might be able to replace one or two buses a year, especially since one of the
good things about the Transit Plan and just hearing from the community is that we
do know our buses are not sized right for our routes. So, that we do want to get
smaller buses for the smaller ridership routes or smaller areas and narrower roads.
So, that is one of the things that we want to do, but it will take us a lot longer to
get there. I think for a lot of people, they need the bus to be able to get to work on
time. I’ve heard of people who have lost jobs because they couldn’t get there on a
timely basis.
So, this is one proposal. We’re not saying it’s the final plan, it can’t be tweaked,
but we tried hard to identify what was in the plan that wasn’t already in the budget
and the additional amounts it would take. So, in the first year, it would take
between 5.5 to 7.5 million to start to implement the plan. And then in the next
year, between about six to eight million, depending if we want to try and
accelerate some of those things. We’re trying to make it match the GET (General
Excise Tax) estimates, but it doesn’t mean it has to be used that way.
So, we’re happy to answer any questions. We know even the community was
looking forward to seeing a plan. We talked to transit a little bit about it. They’re
in the process of moving to their new transit baseyard. So, even though we met
the new Administrator, she’s aware of the plan. We weren’t able to have maybe
as a detailed and thorough conversation with her as we had hoped, but she’s still
getting to know the mechanics, know the buses, know the shape they’re in.
Obviously, she got caught onto that rather quickly, but she needs to be able to tell
us which ones can actually be repaired and which ones definitely need to be
replaced.
MS. O’HARA: Thank you, Director. Deputy Director, do you have anything to
add? No, not at this time? Okay, I really appreciate it. It’s hard because we’re
scrambling. The timeline on this has been very short, and there’s still so many
unknowns. So, thank you for giving us an idea of how the additional revenues
would be allocated.
There’s, at this point, so much that we don’t know. We don’t have the Mayor’s
budget in front of us. Even the first draft of the budget isn’t due until next month,
so we don’t have that information to begin to see what is going to happen if we
don’t have additional revenues. Additionally, it’s premature for us to be making
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decisions while the Legislature is still in session. We know there are bills still
alive that could alter the allocation of TAT, the Transient Accommodation Tax, to
the various counties. We don’t know if they will pass. Sometimes, bills go right
up to the last eleventh-and-a-half hour and die. Our Legislature has a reputation
of passing something like five percent of the bills that are introduced. So, we
have to wait and see to get that information.
But the even bigger picture, and I’m kind of—we’ve taken this item out of
order—is the Resolution 488-18, which was put forth by Ms. David, to ask the
Legislature to extend time to adopt this surcharge. I was kind of confused by that
at our first hearing because it seemed a bit out of sync with the votes from many
of the Council Members. But I can tell you this, that bill has changed, as bills do
when they move through the Legislature. It’s going to change the whole
landscape of this decision, meaning, if that bill does move forward, we have
greater latitude in how we can expend these additional revenues and that changes
the decision making. We won’t know. Once again, we won’t know until the
Legislature closes whether that extension’s been granted.
And this puts us in something of a pickle because right now, if we don’t pass this
GE tax extension by March 31, as the Legislature has enacted to date, we will not
have the opportunity to reconsider it. And if we were to put it up to vote today,
I’m pretty certain given the votes that came through the Council at Committee,
that it would be voted down. We would not be able to revive it if things change at
the State Legislature.
So, I’m moving to postpone Bill 102, Draft 2, until May 9, 2018, that’s our
nd
Council meeting in Hilo. The Legislature closes, I believe, on May 2. We will
th
have the Mayor’s second budget by May 5. We will have a lot more
information. And as Ms. Lee Loy likes to say, it takes good information to make
good decisions. So, that’s my motion.
Motion to Ms. O’Hara moved to postpone Bill 102, Draft 2, to May 9,
Postpone: 2018. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Discussion, Council Members?
MS. POINDEXTER: Yup.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Poindexter.
MS. POINDEXTER: Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m not supporting the
postponement at this time. I feel that we all, each as Council Members, have
something to say especially when the Mayor and his Cabinet came out to our
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communities. And I think others have the right to hear from us as their Council
representatives right now. So, I am not in favor of a postponement. I may be in
favor of it once everyone has an opportunity to speak, but right now it’s not—
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Let me check with Ms. O’Hara and see if she wants to
hold off on making that motion to give Council Members a chance to speak.
Ms. O’Hara?
MS. O’HARA: Oh, I would absolutely want Council Members to speak. It’s just
a difficult procedure—
ACTING CHR. EOFF: So, you can withdraw your motion to postpone.
Withdraw Motion MS. OʼHARA: Well, okay, now you know where it’s going. I’m happy to
to Postpone: withdraw.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. So, that motion’s been withdrawn and we’re going
to continue speaking on Bill 102 at this time. Did you want to speak,
Ms. Poindexter? Thank you.
MS. POINDEXTER: Thank you, Madam Chair. The GET increase, we heard
testifiers say it’s a safety net. It is not a safety net. We heard from HOPE
Services a few weeks ago, how the increase of homelessness in the kūpuna
population. This I heard from one of the members of the community at our
meeting, Deanna, that you were at that said “My pockets are empty. My
retirement is very, very little.”
You drop a penny on the ground, people are going to start diving for that penny.
This is the straw that could break the camel’s back for our poor population and
our elderly population, throwing them into homelessness. We already see an
increase in homelessness in that population.
We heard from Nelson Harano this morning, that we need to look at enforcing the
existing taxes. I totally agree with him. I also heard him say that there’s a goose
that is laying the golden egg, and that’s the Airbnb, which we need to go after, we
all know that—TAT and so on. So, people are looking. At the meeting, my
community meeting, there was one person that said they supported it. The rest
were looking for other resources that could help, other solutions besides raising
the GET. And I’ve heard from more people who are against the GET than who
are for the GET.
One thing that bothered me last night is I got a call from a constituent and said
that Representative Mark Nakashima had put a House bill through to exempt
Hu Honua from paying their GET taxes for seven years. So, I went digging and
what I found was, there is a House bill out there that’s amending the Enterprise
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Zone. A lot of us were here when we talked about the Enterprise Zone, which I
was real leery of voting on increasing the zones because it was real limited on
who would get that tax benefit of exempting them from paying GET taxes.
Here we are, the State is looking to help these bigger corporations who could
probably afford to pay it, looking to help them to exempt it and making it a
priority to do it. So, I’m saying I am in support of extending it until I can see the
State move on exempting our food and our healthcare. If they can move fast
enough to try and help bigger corporations to help them with exemptions on GET,
then they should be looking at ways to exempt it for the population that it’s
affecting—the poor, the disabled, and the elderly. Those are the types of
exemptions that I’ve heard many people say, “If those were exempted, I would go
for it.” But right now, it’s not helping us out.
So, I know the State can do that and I know they have a bill in there to exempt
it—extend the timeframe. And that’s why, at the last Committee meeting, I fully
supported Council Member Maile David’s resolution to encourage the State to go
and extend that timeframe. It’ll give us time to review the budget, see what’s
there, that State now has the numbers from our tourism. We just got the numbers
from the tourism, the increases.
MS. SAKO: That’s really helpful.
MS. POINDEXTER: So, I think now the State will say, “Hey, we’ve got that
much more money. We can give the counties back more money.” So, that’s
going to be helpful as well, but we’re not going to know until the State
Legislature acts on certain things that we need them to act on before we can make
a decision.
So, if I was forced to make a decision today, it’s “no.” I will not vote to increase
it. And I think the Mayor would agree with that, and I think he would support the
decisions that we would make in that direction as well. Did you want to—
MS. SAKO: Yeah, I just wanted to say that, yes, I did forget to mention that one
of the things that was common through most districts was that if food and
medication were exempted, that it would definitely be a lot more palatable. And
our only comment in response to that was that we couldn’t control that within our
County; it has to be a statewide thing. Or at least the bill that we were given the
fact that we have to work off of doesn’t give us that opportunity to make our own
exemptions because the State Tax Office has to be able to make it work statewide.
But definitely, that’s one of the things. And yes—and I’m not saying we didn’t
hear those same comments from other people, it’s just “we have a very diverse
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island” is definitely one of the recurring themes. But we definitely heard what a
lot of people had to say. And it’s definitely the people who are transportation
challenged that are probably most in favor of this.
MS. POINDEXTER: So, at the State level, if I’m not mistaken, I did see
something floating around about the possibility of exempting healthcare and food
costs. So, I’m going to go and try to find that.
MS. SAKO: Yeah, if you could. Because we were rather busy this last week,
crisscrossing the island. I enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but I haven’t been able
to keep up on the changes in the Legislature and I know some bills definitely are
changing quickly, how they tend to gut one and add things.
MS. POINDEXTER: Right.
MS. SAKO: So, if we could all get together on those same bills, that would
probably be really helpful.
MS. POINDEXTER: Right. And so, I’d like to publicly say and even ask all of
you to call State legislators and ask them to expedite something like that with the
exemptions. Because if they’re working hard to exempt big corporations from
exempting them from paying the GET and not deal with the people, that’s totally
unfair. I felt insulted when I found out the information this morning on who’s
getting exempted: Big Island Dairy—
They’re all in the Enterprise Zones, and these are people making big bucks
coming from the Mainland and—so, I’m insulted by that. So, I’ll yield at this
time. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. Poindexter. Council Members,
anyone wish to speak? Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Good morning, Deanna, Nancy. On the Mass Transit Plan that
you folks have, this looks like it’s going straight to operating and buses.
MS. SAKO: So, we tried to follow what they had laid out in the Mass Transit
Master Plan. And I didn’t get as much time probably to thoroughly understand
this, and we’re hoping the Transit Administrator would have a little bit more time,
but we are kind of crunched with the deadlines.
But looking at, like, the operating charts starting on page 92 where they were
adding, like, new routes, trying to take those into account. But then also, on—it
might not be—yeah, the next page is our capital improvement program, starting
on page 94. And so, towards the bottom, there’s one line under “fleet,” which I
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
believe is the buses. We tried to put that under “equipment,” but then, up above
there are additional projects. And obviously in the first few years, it’s more like
planning and design type costs, so, they’re a little bit smaller.
So, it starts out at like for 201,9 at just under four million, like 3.775 million, but
it kind of creeps up, and I think the highest year is in 2025. I think there’s a lot of
construction going on for various maintenance, or like these transient centers is
kind of what I was reading about, which I assumed were regional. So, each one
kind of varies and climbs a little bit.
MS. LEE LOY: A follow-up question, because I didn’t see it in the Mass Transit
Plan and I’m a little concerned because I had called for a financial audit. I was
wondering if there was anything built into this proposal that if there needs to be,
like, adjustments made to their cash handling procedures.
MS. SAKO: So, one of the things I think is in here, and I think it was under the
capital improvements, was I thought it was, yeah, a fair collection system.
Unfortunately, that’s not until a few years later. But that is one of the things we
talked to the Transit Administrator about last week, and she’s very aware that we
need to work on that ASAP (As Soon As Possible). I’m not criticizing the plan
because they worked with what they had, but I think we know that it needs to be
made sooner, that just dropping your dollar in a box is not quite the right method.
So, what we looked—whether it’s a bill reader or a card system—but she’s
familiar with a lot of those systems from the Mainland. So, I think she’s just
more aware of what’s out there. Or if it’s just a prepaid card, a pass, but
something that you have to show that you have to do something with, and
something that would better help us track the ridership as well. Because right
now, we have a very manual system, as you all know. So, the ridership statistics
and whatnot, while each driver is tracking those, it’s probably not with 100
percent accuracy, based on the ones I saw.
So, we’re definitely aware that’s coming. And it’s not necessarily built in here,
but as I’ve said, a lot of these are estimates. And we’re hoping that between the
March budget and the May budget, we will have the bids back for the next
operator-driver’s contract, which might change a lot anyway. So, we know we
still have work to do on the budget.
MS. LEE LOY: I’m a little cautious because that audit coming back may really
shift what is actually a priority. And besides this Mass Transit Master Plan,
which is amazing, we still don’t have a grip on the revenues that we can generate
from the fares, and we cannot get to an unduplicated number of riders. So, when I
attended the meeting, there were questions asked about what is the bus ridership?
And it was just kind of an equation of, “Well, we generate $800,000 so we have
800,000 riders,” and that is completely inaccurate.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
MS. SAKO: Right. So, I mean, in terms of bus trips, yes, we have roughly seven
or 800,000. But in terms of individual unique riders—and so right now, we don’t
have a mechanism to capture that data, unfortunately. We can tell you which
routes have how many riders on any given day, but we can’t say it’s the same
people who are relying on it. Because in the Master Plan, I noticed there’s like,
van pool; there’s other options. So, once we know who the riders are—
So, I think if we had some kind of—we do have, like, a pass or ticket system you
can buy—we know who those people are, but on a regular day, we don’t know if
it’s visitors. We don’t know if it’s residents. We don’t know if it’s people
commuting to work. We have a rough estimate of how many are students, but I
know that sometimes it’s hard to tell.
So definitely, right, the priorities might change. And one of the things in the
communities, because people do have different experiences, is a lot of people
talked about having—I want to say it was a regional or zone type of system so
that if you’re just going down the street, you don’t pay the same fare as if you’re
going across the island. And so, we know that’s been an issue. We just haven’t
had a good way to track it. So, as part of a whole new fee collection system, I
think that would be part of it
We just met with the Transit Administrator last week Wednesday and I think she
needs at least a couple weeks to get her feet wet and figure out where we’re at and
what will be the best system. We have had asked her for estimates because it’s
not just the system itself but, you know, in each bus and then on the buses that
right now that we’re renting, something that would work there as well.
So, we’re definitely looking at what all the opportunities are because we do know
that the cash collection is one of the situations. We’re trying to help them with
intermediary controls right now, things—stop-gap measures to make it better. So,
our controller is working with that, but we know we need a bigger system long
term and so hopefully, between now and the main budget, we’ll have a better idea
because unfortunately right now, I can’t tell you if it’s 20,000 per bus or 20,000
for the whole system. So, we just need a chance to look at those estimates a little
bit more.
One of the good things too, is that I guess in other states, they really piggy back
with other counties and why we try to do that on a lot of things, she definitely
wants to do that. So, if we’re all—if a system’s working in one County, we might
as well try and utilize that as well. We’re good about taking hand-me-downs
from other counties.
MS. LEE LOY: Is the Mayor still in our Hilo Chambers?
MS. MOYER: No, he’s not.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
MS. SAKO: I think he did have a meeting this morning. He might be free later,
but I think he probably ran out for his meeting.
MS. LEE LOY: I just want to take the opportunity to share what my optics were
as far as the community meetings that I attended or heard from. Actually, my
community was kind of all over the place. I had some people saying, “Why don’t
we—if half a penny can get us 25 million, why don’t we do two pennies?” And
then, I had the extreme opposite which is, “No, we’re on fixed income, absolutely
no.”
But, I come with a little baggage and I had the opportunity to work for a previous
administration under Steve Yamashiro, and I think Mr. Lopez and Mr. Henderson
is going to appreciate this baggage that I bring. Back in 2000, when Mayor
Yamashiro handed the keys to Mayor Kim, he left Mayor a $13 million fund
balance, and he asked one request. Mr. Yamashiro said, “Please, close the
landfill.” At that time, Gerald Sumada, who was our Deputy Chief Engineer,
said, “Okay, yeah, it’s going to cost about six to nine million dollars.”
Recently, we floated a bond for $40 million to close the landfill. So, when we
talk about trust and we talk about action speaking louder than words, there is a
community out there that really just does not trust that the Mayor is going to do
what he says he’s going to do.
Then the question came up about how did we get here? One of the reasons is
because of our bargaining unit increases. So, I had to reflect back a little bit again
and with that baggage that I bring, recognize that between 2000 and 2008, Mayor
Kim hired 442 new employees. So, we’re here because of the seeds that Mayor
Kim sowed, and so, when we’re asked to be put in this tough position, I’m only
gleaning from past experiences on what happened, and that, Mr. Henderson and
Mr. Lopez, is the baggage that I bring and what I’m offering to this body so that
we can make a difference.
That’s where I’m at right now. I know it seems like the Plan is not right, there’s
other moving pieces. I just wanted to share that. Thank you, for sitting in,
Mayor. That’s what I heard, I just wanted to share that with my colleagues
because we all attended our own meetings, so, I’m just offering that as food for
thought. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Mayor Kim has rejoined
us, he’s in the Hilo Chambers. Council, any other comments at this time?
Ms. O’Hara. Excuse me one second, I cannot see Mr. Chung, so Mr. Chung, you
may have to, if you’re there, you may have to speak up to get my attention. Okay,
there we go, I can see you now.
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MS. OʼHARA: I’m just going to expound on what Ms. Lee Loy just said because
I guess I also come with some baggage, having worked within the County as a
civil servant in the previous Kim administration, and I was concerned.
Economies are not static and in 2000 when President Clinton left office, that was
the last time the U.S. ran a surplus, okay? So, that rolled over all the way down to
here and the surplus that Mr. Yamashiro left in terms of the exceptionally large
fund balance, which is beneficial to the County in terms of bond ratings and other
things, was not depleted during Mr. Kim’s initial term. But, it was not managed
in a way that I would have been comfortable with. Yes, we added 400 employees
in the eight years between his first election in 2000 and 2008, but we were far
behind.
Something people seem to not bring into this picture is the increase in population
on this island. We have explosive growth. I recently read an opinion provided by
the Chair of the Chamber of Commerce in Hilo where it said we did not have
explosive growth. Well currently, growth nationally is less than one percent, and
yet, we’ve been averaging two percent per year since 2000. 36 percent growth.
And in my district of Puna, it’s double that. That district has quadrupled since I
moved there in 1980. There were 11,750 individuals, there’s now 50,000
individuals.
So, it’s unrealistic to expect the government’s not going to grow when the
population base that you’re serving is growing. You look over at Maui, they
experienced their exponential, well all growth is exponential, but they
experienced their high growth between the years between 1980 and 2000, and it
peaked between 1990 and 1995. They had annual growth rates of three percent.
Puna surpasses even that, but that’s what was happening on Maui, and they now
have a population of 165,000, not counting visitor count, and they run—their
budget this past year was $705 million. Here we are, on Big Island, much larger
land mass, much more highway to maintain, much more services to provide, we
have 200,000 people on the island today and our budget last year was $491
million.
In real terms, because we had a price index of increase of 46 percent between
2000 and 2018, that means that the 2000 budget of $175 million would be $250
million in today’s dollars. Our budget has doubled in 18 years. Our population
has grown 36 percent. This is not out of line. We have to provide services and
when I hear the argument that this is going to harm the poorest of the poor, I need
to reflect on that because the gains that we would make by passing the GE tax
would allow us to provide services to the poorest of the poor.
Yet, the people that I’m hearing this most stridently from, and not all, are some of
the people who can afford that increase, not everybody. I also am listening to my
constituents. We had a meeting, maybe 12, I was disappointed at the turnout, but
a lot of people don’t like to come out and talk about taxes, but thank you, Deanna
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and Nancy for showing up, as well as Mayor Kim. So, we had about 12 members
of the public. I think two of them were from District 5, Ms. Ruggles’ district, the
rest were from my district. Consistently, what I’m hearing from constituents from
my district is about 80 percent support this increase and I represent one of the
poorest districts on the island, and yet, they want to see this happen because they
know it means services that we don’t currently have.
When we see the budget, we’re going to see some cuts that are going to affect the
poorest of the poor. There is a plan to reduce the amount of funding for Grant in
Aid Programs, cut it by one-third. Who do you think benefits most from the
Grants in Aid that we give to our social services, nonprofit organizations? The
poorest of the poor. Contingency funds cut, and that’s the discretionary funds that
each Council person gives. I give out my monies to help the people in my
community that are most needy. We fund organizations like the Puna Community
Medical Center is a typical ask for contingency funds. So, I’m just going to say
that I’m not totally assured that the argument that this is going to hurt the poorest
of the poor, really reflects what will happen if this GE tax thing moves forward.
Again, I don’t feel we have enough information. We don’t have the budget in
front of us, we don’t know what the Legislature is going to do on a number of
issues that are before them. Would love to see them roll back that GE tax on
medical and food. It’s, in my opinion, obscene. But, we don’t know at this point,
and won’t know until May 2, what the outcome of all of these measures are.
That’s why I’m willing to roll the die and tell the Legislature, “You got to give us
an extension on this, until we know what we’re dealing with.” Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. O’Hara. If it’s all right with everybody,
I’d like to take about a five-minute recess and then—but a quick recess. Thank
you.
Recess: At 10:35 a.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 10:45 a.m.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay Council Members, at this time, I would like to take
us out of recess and resume with our discussion on Bill 102, Draft two. I think—
I’d like to let everybody know that the Mayor has returned to the Council
Chambers. Ms. Lee Loy, did you have further questions for the Mayor? Or does
anybody because I think he’s in the Chambers at this point. Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: What’s that question?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I was just wondering if anyone had questions for the
Mayor while he’s in the Chambers, before we move on in our discussion.
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MR. CHUNG: I have comments.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Mr. Chung, would you like the floor?
MR. CHUNG: Thank you. I don’t have any questions of the Mayor, I just have
some comments about this bill in general.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay.
MR. CHUNG: As all of you know, I supported it and I continue to support it. I
went to a public hearing at Yano Hall, the first one that was set up by the
administration and also attended the one that was in Hilo. At the Yano Hall
meeting, I was asked this question of one of the attendees, whether if I went back
to Hilo and my constituents voiced their opposition against this bill, would I still
continue to support it? I told that person that if I believed that it was in the best
interest of this County for me to vote yes, I would continue voting yes, even at the
risk of my political career, and I still feel strongly about it. I’m not trying to
discredit any person who feels differently from me, because let’s look at some the
common themes here that members of the Council have, even regardless of our
position.
We’re concerned for poor people, right? Those voting in favor of it believe that
this proactive measure will allow us to help improve our transportation system,
our Mass Transit System, as well as our roadways. And this, I think, will have a
direct benefit on the poor population, particularly in the rural areas, not so much
in the urban areas, but in the rural areas.
But, on the other side, people are worried that people are living paycheck to
paycheck and the poorest of poor will be affected by this, and I certainly
understand that. So, we have that as a common denominator. We all are
concerned about the plight of the poor population on this island.
Another prevailing theme that I heard from at these public hearing was that this is
probably more telling. People don’t trust the way that government is going to
spend their money and that’s not an indictment against just the Administration.
It’s an indictment against all of us because we are, after all, the people who make
the decisions in government, and we have to, I guess, consider that. Whether we
vote yes or no, people feel that way about us. My yes vote in this is a show of
confidence that I believe we can use the added monies responsibly. I think there
are ways that we can do that. We can also cut some areas and if this measure is
ultimately voted down, we’re going to have to really tighten our belts and do
some things that we wouldn’t normally want to do.
But, it could be a combination of both. What I’m worried about is, and this gets
to something that Ms. Ruggles had talked about, it’s the luxury tax. It’s the
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surcharge or extra charges on second homes worth over $2 million. It’s not a
novel idea. I know Ms. Ruggles brought it up the last time, but as Ms. Lee Loy
pointed out, she has something drafted up already. And during the last term, I
know Mr. Ilagan, Greggor Ilagan brought up that possibility, and it was echoed by
Ms. Ruggles’ predecessor, Mr. Paleka. And at the time, this was again, about two
years ago, that I would support such a measure so long as that appeal that’s going
through with City and County’s bill is sustained in their favor. We cannot rely on
something without knowing its legality. It would be disastrous for us to rely on
something like that. But, it’s not a novel idea and as I said, it’s something that’s
been tossed around for a while and it’s something that I’d be willing to look at.
But, I wanted to point out something because we didn’t take the resolution first,
which extended the GET deadline. I think as proposed, it was until September,
but I wanted to point out something. You guys looked at the communication that
I had submitted to amend Ms. David’s Resolution 488-18. I just want everyone to
bear in mind that the Senate Transportation Committee last week Tuesday, I
think, amended that Senate Bill 3088 into a Draft one. What it now provides for
is they moved that—they changed the deadline from March 31 to June 30, not all
the way to September. This is, I think, intended to coincide with our budget
process.
But, you know, it still addresses some of the concerns that were brought up by
various Council Members. It also provides that no less than 60 percent of the
surcharges received shall be used for operating or capital costs of public
transportation within each county. Now, what that does is, it frees up, it has the
potential for freeing up about 40 percent of the revenues generated for other uses.
Now, that would address some of the concerns that Mayor Kim brought up about
the inflexibility of the uses of these revenues. Of course, no less than 60, so it
could be more than that devoted to transportation.
And then the last one, this is kind of poorly worded, but something that they can
still work with, I think. But, the intent is that two percent of the surcharges
received may be used on roadways used by the general public. Basically, they
didn’t want to use the word private roads, but that’s what it means. So, out of that
total revenues generated, there is the possibility that two percent of those revenues
could be used for private roads. I’m going to use that term, private roads. That
kind of provision will actually help, well, that’s going to help my district because
I have Chong Street, but that’s just about one road, but think what it can do for
other rural areas.
And what it indicates to me is that the Senate, at least—and, you know, I credit
Senator Lorraine Inouye in that regard. They were listening to our concerns and I
know Ms. Lee Loy was up there last week or just recently and then I know she did
her lobbying, so she may have pulled off some magic in getting these things done
too. So, I want everybody to at least bear in mind that we have this still floating
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
around and it’s heading for the WAM (Ways and Means) Committee pretty soon.
Now, there’s been talk about why we can’t exempt food and drugs. Well, there’s
still a possibility. I think I brought that up the last time. If we pass this now,
we’re in a leverage position to now go to the Legislature and ask them to further
exempt, well, to exempt food and drugs in certain—well maybe, I’d be hard
pressed to actually try to exempt food, but at least prescription medications, but
whatever.
The reason why they couldn’t do it this term is because it would have had to go to
too many committees, and that would have been problematic for them from the
timing standpoint. And now, this still has to go to WAM and get approved there,
and it might have to, you know, it still has to cross over to the House, and we
don’t know what’s going to happen there, but I think it’s a good starting point.
But, having said all of that, we talked about this issue at nauseam the last time and
I don’t really want to belabor the point. I just wanted to bring up new information
and I really believe that this is something that can help the County. It’s not nearly
for the purpose of balancing the budget, okay? The fact that it can free up
$8 million that’s right now being used to subsidize Mass Transit System, would
have a huge impact on our budget.
I also want to say that I talked to Finance Director Deanna Sako, but she’s been so
tied up in all of the meetings that were held at the behest of the County Council
Members, I want to point out, I asked her if she could prepare a bill for me, and
this is much in advance of the administration even submitting their first budget.
But, it’s to address real property tax rates and specifically—and the reason why I
asked her to do it instead of my staff is they have the template already. It was
merely to reduce the tax rate for the residential class because I really believe they
got unfairly hit the last time, and that has a cumulative negative affect on our
housing market, in my opinion. So, I wanted to reduce that and probably, I’m still
going to support a reduction on that even if the GET bill doesn’t pass. So, we’re
looking at a further budget shortfall this year, if that’s passed. But, I just think we
unfairly hit the residential class too hard the last time.
But, that just demonstrates what I had said earlier about us trying to diversify our
revenue stream. We have to—we cannot rely solely on real property taxes. At
some point, something is going to give and it’s going to be really bad. So if we
can do it with a mixture of GET and real property taxes, and perhaps some other
things that may come down along the way, and we’re going to be good, and we
don’t have to go to the Legislature too much, we don’t have to worry about the
TAT too much. I mean anything that comes in our way is going to be gravy. But,
anything I say after this is going to be reiterating what I said over the last several
weeks, so, thank you very much.
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ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Chung. Any other comments,
Council Members? Okay, Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. I don’t really have questions per se, just
comments. First of all, I do want to thank the Administration and the Department
of Finance for the public meetings. Travelling road shows are difficult at best,
and I am proud to say that our meetings were quite well attended, actually. A lot
of information coming out of them.
We’re stuck in a weird timing situation with this and again, I don’t want to spend
a lot of time reiterating what others have said. We’re faced with trying to make a
decision without enough information to make a good decision. My constituency
has spoken very loud and very clearly, “No new taxes.” We raised the real
property last year, we raised the fuel tax last year, now we’re coming back and
looking at raising the GE, and yes, it comes to the County and there’s a lot of
good arguments for and a lot of arguments against it.
But again, thinking about the constituency, what they’ve said. Most of you have
heard me with the conversations, I can conceive that the GE could be a good
direction for our County and for our community, but in my district, we have to
give something back. We have to make some concessions. What I want to do is
make concessions in real property and in the fuel tax. I didn’t support the fuel tax
last year, we had a balanced budget, we didn’t need more money at the time. We
had the budget that was balanced and even though it’s been 30 years, that’s not a
good justification just to raise the taxes. We had balanced our budget.
I think we’re talking about efficiency of government and we can—that’s a whole
other conversation to have at a later time, but we’re stuck in a timing situation,
and we’ve all had these conversations back and forth over the last couple or three
weeks. I’ve been very clear about my position that if I could see a benefit to the
constituency with reductions in tax rates, I could conceive the GE surcharge, but I
have to see that coming forth. It’s again, a weird timing situation, the way our
rules are set up for the Council. We don’t have things die in committee. They
either come out of committee with a positive or negative recommendation, that’s
what happened. We came out of committee to Council so we can have the
conversation continue. As we have this conversation, things continue to evolve.
We have a moving target, but we do know that we have a financial obligation
coming forth to us, which is also little bit of a moving target right now,
concerning the budget. I find myself in a weird situation that I am prepared to
actually support this to make it to second reading and fully prepared to vote
against it in second reading, just to make sure that we keep the timelines in place.
But, all the arguments on both sides are very valid and I am not of the mindset
that we adjust our income stream to address our cost. We adjust our cost to meet
our income streams, which brings back a couple of conversations we had
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
previously about the budget and the budget hearings and the ad hoc committee. I
am keen on that because I think we can do some good work for the County. So,
with that, we’re faced with a very interesting situation going forward, and like I
said, my intentions, depending on what we decide to do, is to make sure this
conversation doesn’t end today. But I’m not sure I can support it going forward
unless we have some other concessions. So with that, I’ll yield at this point.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Richards. Ms. David, did you still
want to speak next? Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you. You know, I think everyone I’m listening to on this
Council is pretty much in the same predicament, as far as our role in making a
very important decision in a time crunch. I really feel that what Ms. Lee Loy
referred to, and I think that’s going to be coming down the pike, is the
performance audit of Mass Transit. Because right now, I think the question in my
mind is how does Mass Transit fare out in their operations and how bad is it,
okay? I’ve heard it’s really bad, but the performance audit and also the financial
audit that Ms. Lee Loy requested last year, you know, that will be a really
important, I think, piece of information. Because right now, I think we’re just
pretty much guessing and I think we’re being forced to make a decision right
now. If it comes to that, my decision is not going to be to support this because I
don’t think—the thing about what we have to do is we don’t have the information
that we could actually analyze, and say even the tradeoff that Mr. Richards is
talking about, you know, I can see reduce one class, reduce residential class. But
then, it falls on a class of people that I think, it’s a larger group of people, if you
tradeoff the GE for the residential.
I get what you’re trying to do, but still, we don’t have a lot of the information that
I think—we need to hear from our auditor, and I’m not sure, Ms. Sako, do you
know when that audit report is coming around?
MS. SAKO: I do know they’re working on it and I think the other report is a
couple months away. There’s definitely deficiencies that we’re already helping
Mass Transit address. In addition, I know one of the things that also came out
clear at the public meetings is not throwing good money after bad. But our hope
is that the new Transit Administrator, she’s more experienced in running systems
and I think has a lot of good ideas. She has other experiences to draw on, so I
think even though she knows she’s inheriting not the perfect system, I think she
has a lot of ideas to improve it, and I don’t want whatever comes on the audit to
get lost in the fact that we’re already trying to make changes to improve the
system.
MS. DAVID: And speaking of our new Administrator, is there a time when we
would be able to meet her?
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
MS. SAKO: Yes, we will try to do that. They’re moving today. I haven’t been
able to get a hold of her, the phones weren’t working, but we will work on getting
her before you guys as soon as possible
MS. DAVID: Because I think that’s important.
MS. SAKO: All four feet six or eight of her. She’s small but mighty.
MS. DAVID: Well, I’m very excited for that because I think she has been handed
a very daunting task and I think we would probably appreciate hearing from her
if, you know, her expertise is dedicated to this function. But getting back, so a
couple months down the road?
MS. SAKO: Yes, but we, I mean the community knows, I think we all know
there’s improvements that needs to be made there, so, I don’t think the audit will
necessarily have surprises so to speak. But, I’m hoping also the audit has a plan
on how to improve it as well.
MS. DAVID: Right, and that’s—I appreciate that because I think if we kind of
figure out what’s wrong and what the solutions could be, it might be that maybe
we have to just tighten our belt as opposed to coming up with a, just a across the
board tax increase.
MS. SAKO: I do know that some of the things do need money to fix though also.
I mean one of the things we know that dropping your money in a box and things
like that, that it probably needs to be a better system, maybe a secured box. We
want something that’s going to actually count, make sure you put in the right
amount, make sure you did everything correctly. So, I think that’s one of the first
priorities. But, we want to make sure it’s a system that’s going to work and work
for us, especially if we were to go to like more of a regional or zone fare. So,
there’s a lot of moving parts that kind of need to come together to make that
happen.
MS. DAVID: Okay, and also, some of good suggestions from, at least the people
in my community.
MS. SAKO: No, there were a lot of good suggestions and many were echoed in
each of the communities. I mean we started to hear some recurring themes, so,
we’re passing that information to them as well.
MS. DAVID: Right, and one of those were looking at increasing the bus fare. I
mean for—and having a tiered system for the elderly, the disabled, and regular
bus riders. So, I think what this all boils down to me, is like there’s not enough
information. I’d like to see the budget first. I’m not sure procedurally how we
would do that because we’re on this very, very tight time schedule.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
I appreciate the fact that Senate Bill 3088 is moving. That was the reason I
figured it would have bought us some time and so, I’m not sure right now—
MS. SAKO: Not that anyone asked my opinion—
MS. DAVID: What is your opinion, Ms. Sako?
MS. SAKO: I think if it was postponed to the call of the Chair, depending on
what happens at the Legislature, I totally hear what Ms. O’Hara is saying about
postponing to May 9, that’s probably the best timing, the second budget will be
in, but should something happen at the Legislature that you guys would need to
act more quickly, at least it leaves it up to the Chair to bring it back on a more
timely basis. But I think postponing to May range or whatever that timeframe is,
also gives the new Transit Administrator to get her feet wet, to learn more about
the system, be able to meet with you guys, and explain as well as the road
projects. I mean yeah, we all want our system to be better and it’s finding the
right way to do it.
Just to clarify, we talk about real property tax and we talk about fuel tax, and we
talk about the GE tax, I just want to really clarify that the real property tax, is the
general budget stream, while fuel tax and GE, they are more interchangeable
because they’re both for transportation, at least right now, the way it’s written.
So, I just don’t want us to tie ourselves too tight because unfortunately, we are
government and a lot of our services are salary and wage -oriented. We do
provide police, we do provide fire, and I don’t think anyone wants to see those
services cut in any district.
MS. DAVID: Okay, well I appreciate that. I think my position is I don’t believe
that there’s enough information on the table. I really want to see the audit and if
we’re still within our timeframe and hoping our Legislature will see fit to allow us
the time to really look into whether it’s—something can be done. That’s where I
think my position is right now. So, thanks a lot and thanks for going out to the
community as well. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. David. I’ve been reminded that
Mayor Kim is still in Hilo. Council Members, anyone else have any comments or
questions? Mr. Kanuha.
MR. KANUHA: Thank you. No real questions, but I did want to have the
opportunity to say thank you to you guys, Finance Department and the
Administration, the Mayor, for coming out to our communities and really trying
to sell the GET to the communities. It’s not easy to tell the public that you’re
trying to raise taxes and our message previously was that’s how you’re going to
sell it to them, by going out to each individual community and really explaining
why, how come, why do we need this? It’s something that we made sure and
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
mandated from the administration to do and I really appreciate that. It means that
you guys are listening to what we’re asking of you. So again, mahalo for that.
But saying that, you know, I’m not going to repeat a lot of the stuff that was said
already. Timing could have been more horrible with everything that’s been going
on and really, yeah, there are people that you heard from that supported it. There
were people that you heard from that were opposed to it. I really tried to get a
sense of my community and where they were coming from and seeing what they
thought about it, talking to each individual person. You know, the ones that
won’t come to these meetings, the ones that don’t have the time to take out of
their busy schedules or their work schedules to be here or to testify, or to spend
their evenings in these meetings, and really, they’re just tired. They’re tired of
what’s been going on with the increases to everything. It’s not fun trying to
explain to them that the roads aren’t being paved or the parks haven’t been
properly maintained and in the meantime, we’re still trying to increase these taxes
to generate the revenues to do these things. It’s really difficult to explain to a lot
of them that this is the situation that we’re currently in.
So, I appreciate all the efforts by our legislators from Hawaiʻi Island, trying to
figure out a solution to help us make a—put us in a positive direction towards the
GET. I appreciate that, but I don’t know what’s going to happen with those bills.
All those bills that Senator Inouye is championing goes to the House and who
knows what could happen. But, I’m okay with waiting to see if there is some
positive news that comes from the legislative priorities of our Senators and
Representatives, and recently—
Out of all the comments, Ms. O’Hara you know, was thinking about postponing
it. I’d love to see what could happen. It’s just really hard to contemplate the
“what ifs.” You know, we pass this, “what if.? What if they do that? What if
they pass that? I have no idea and could never understand the intricacies of this
year’s Legislature, but I’d be happy to support a postponement, but if we were
going to vote on this today, it’d be no, to be honest.
My community told me loud and clear they don’t want to see this pass, so, I have
to listen to their wants and needs. Sure, we have members from the Carpenter’s
Union, members from PATH (Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaiʻi) that they can
see a way of this money helping the bus, the bike routes, the safer pathways to our
different communities. I understand, but I also am listening to everybody else
that are saying we got to live within our means. Our budget is ballooning every
year and it—we see these massive projects, Ane Keohokālole, phase three,
desperate, we needed $50 million. Kuakini Phase two, desperately needed $50
million. Aliʻi Highway, that’s off the books now, or still on the books but off the
books, $50 million. You know, these are desperately needed projects within, I’m
just only saying within Kona, which Karen and I represent.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
So, we understand the need, but at what point do we say stop? I mean the taxes,
how many more year after year are we going to keep increasing for everything? It
just becomes really daunting and really hard for a lot of my constituents to
support. So, again, thank you guys. If this doesn’t pass, I really want to work
with you guys as well to find a way to reduce, cut, and still maintain the services
required of us. But, that’s my opinion right now and I’ll sit here and wait to hear
what my constituents want to do with this, but I really thank you for listening and
we’re willing to do the hard work. I’ll yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Kanuha. Ms. Ruggles, did you want to
speak before anyone else? Did you want to speak again, Ms. O’Hara?
MS. OʼHARA: Yes, I’m assuming that since nobody’s light’s on that we’re kind
of discussed out. Not disgusted, but enough discussion.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Do you mind if I make one comment?
MS. OʼHARA: Absolutely. Please, go ahead.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. I would just like to—okay,
Ms. Ruggles, you go.
MS. RUGGLES: Thank you. My position has not changed either. I’m also
hearing my constituents loud and clear that they do not want this increase. I just
wanted to state that while we were talking, I did some quick calculations and—
because we talk about the GE tax that if it’s going to put more of the burden on
the tourism industry, but if we want to put more of the burden on the tourism
industry, we would raise the hotel and resort rates.
So, I just did a quick calculation. If we were to increase the hotel and resort rates,
the 14.55 or rough estimate, we would bring in about $7.5 million more annually.
Excuse me, we would bring in about $11 million annually. If we were to increase
rates on million dollar second homes, of which we have 114 here on the island,
that would bring in—if we were to increase that to 15, it would bring in seven
million. So, that combined would bring in, including the conservation with the
hotel and resort, would bring in about $12.5 million annually.
We do have other options here, that if we want the visitor industry to pay more,
and if we want those who can afford it to pay for this, and alleviate the burden on
those who can least afford it, we have options. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. Ruggles. Before I go back to
Ms. O’Hara, I would just like to, in closing this round, thank you folks from the
Administration. Again, I know it was a big task to go out to our communities in
such a short period of time, and it’s a large island and there were lots of venues
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
that you provided information and outreach. One thing that was really good about
that, besides hearing from the community, was I think it did help us all focus on
what our priorities are, and it did create this table that you provided us today. So,
I think there was some benefit in that exercise.
I think we all know the importance of improving our Mass Transit and our public
transportation systems, and I think that with or without the GET at this time, we
have to do that. But we can prioritize like, I don’t know if it was a testifier, or
you, Deanna, but suggesting that there are alternative ways to provide
transportation to work, public transportation to those who most need and will use
it. I think that would be a great starting point to do immediately with or without
the GE surcharge.
I do support keeping on urging the Legislature to extend this deadline for us to
continue looking at this possibility, but only because I think—in fact, I would like
to see that up to a year from now because I think we need the time, as the Council,
and as the Administration, to work harder at the cuts and the trimming that people
are asking us to do. I think this budget, although I know it’s tight, I think we need
to do some creative work. I tend to appreciate some of Mr. Richards’ ideas. I’m
not sure how we go about it in the proper way, but maybe we can. Maybe
knowing all of this, and maybe we should do a better job at first showing the
public that we’re willing to make the hard cuts and do the things that are needed,
including start on some of the improvements so people see that their hard-earned
dollars that are going to support government and government services actually we
demonstrate these improvements.
I think those things as well as a possibility that the Legislature could allow us to
exempt food and medicine or medicine, or just medicine, but there’s a lot of
things out there that I think we should be focusing on in this next six months to a
year so that we all have all the options in front of us. So, I appreciate this
discussion. I think the Council Members did a great job articulating their
particular positions and the community as well. We’ve heard very good
comments, and so, I feel positive going forward that we can do this. We can start
to provide the improvements that the people out there really want, to see that their
money is well spent. With that, I think I’ll go back to Ms. O’Hara. I’ll yield at
this point and let Ms. O’Hara go with her suggestions.
MS. OʼHARA: Thank you, Chair. I do have a couple questions before I make a
motion or comments also. Mr. Richards made the comment that our budget was
balanced without the fuel tax last year and I’d like the Director to give us a
perspective on that because I know it was all of a year ago. Maybe you remember
how that played out.
MS. SAKO: I do. We are required to submit a balanced budget, which clearly,
we did. We were not able to balance it where we should have, with the expected
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
fuel tax we did build in a little bit of a fuel tax increase into last year’s budget
because we just couldn’t make it work with the numbers that were expected. So,
whether you blame pay raises, whether you blame the fringe benefit raises, just all
the costs are increasing, the cost of materials, the cost of everything, the cost of
equipment.
So, in addition, I think we told you guys our fund balance plummeted in that fund
as it is now in General Fund as well. We don’t have any safety nets, there’s no
fund balance, there was no emergency fund, we had to eliminate it all. So, yes,
we were able to make it balance, but that doesn’t mean it was going to be
workable. So yeah, you guys are the policy makers, but we have to agree on
what’s the right level of funding for each thing. And when we look at the whole
thing, the entire budget together, there’s a lot of special funds as well, money that
can’t necessarily be used for general operations either.
MS. OʼHARA: Alright, thank you for that explanation. So, in truth, that was
balanced on that fuel tax increase. Secondly, we need new buses and this is an
expensive endeavor and this is the first thing that came out of the principal
investigator for SSFM, Cheryl Soon’s mouth when she came before us to present
the status on the Plan and I hope we’re all listening because it isn’t just about
tweaking the existing system. The existing system has failed and yes, we need
better control over the revenues that are coming in, better systems for bus fares
and maybe raise the bus fare. But, the bottom line is we have big expenses facing
us to make a functional bus system, buses aren’t cheap and the federal dollars are
shrinking. So, this is a real important thing to conceive of when you talk about
getting to a functional, on time bus system that provides routes that are responsive
to the demand in our communities.
I agree 100 percent about the residential tax being raised too much. This is why I
didn’t vote for the property tax increases. If you all remember 11:30 at night, I
said no because I kept saying I felt like this quiet little voice in the corner going,
“You know you’re raising it by over a dollar per thousand in value,” and I got
kind of blank looks from all of you, but I knew what that meant. Everything right
now is grouped into one class that’s not homeowners and that affects our long-
term rentals. It also affects high-end homes. Ms. Ruggles tells us that we have
114 homes above—
Point of Order: ACTING CHR. EOFF: Excuse me, I have a point of order. Just that we’d like to
have more conversation after.
MS. OʼHARA: Well, okay, I’m going into a motion, but you want to have
another chance? Okay. Sorry, I lost my train of thought. I’m sure her numbers
are probably accurate, that we have that many, which isn’t a lot, in comparison to
say the inventory on Oʻahu. But, understand that the high-end tax rate, what
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Mr. Chung refers to as the luxury tax, whatever we want to refer to it, the second
homes, the high-end home, on Oʻahu, that rate is nine dollars per hundred
thousand in value. We had a range last year, and that range went up to $12 and so
many cents. My proposal had been to—
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. O’Hara, let’s keep talking about the GET.
MS. OʼHARA: Okay, I am because I’m talking about how we could possibly
pass legislation instead of going down this road. So, that is how this is tied to the
GET tax. And please understand that there is a limit to how much you can tax,
even the wealthy. So, while we can go down that road, we can try that if this
doesn’t work, I’m not so sure that it is going to get us to where we need to go in
the long term, in terms of providing for the welfare of our citizens, not only the
poorest of the poor, but all of our citizens. There has to be, it has to be equal, and
this is where the GE tax comes in because it provides that more equitable
approach. I’m willing to look at any other alternatives, but when I hear just that
there are other alternatives, that’s one thing, when I hear specifics, I dig in. I want
to hear those specifics.
So, I was going to move forward to make a motion, but Ms. Ruggles wants to
speak again, so I will yield the floor.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I’d also like, before we do move on, in case the Mayor
had another comment, I mean he’s there too. We might just check if he—okay,
I’m going to let Ms. Ruggles speak first and then—
MS. RUGGLES: Thank you. I just want to make a quick correction, I misread
my spreadsheet. I just redid the calculation. We actually have 1,600 second
million dollar homes on the island, according to the spreadsheets from Real
Property Tax, and if we were to increase that to 15, we would bring in $61 million
extra. So, I just wanted to correct that. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you for making that correction. I also wanted to
add that I voted no along with most of my fellow colleagues at committee, and at
this point in time, I would still have to vote no today, but I am looking forward to,
as we keep discussing this, what other options are out there. But, Mr. Mayor,
would you like to close this part of the conversation out before we take a vote?
MAYOR KIM: Yes, first of all, thank you for this opportunity to come back on.
You know, I listen to every word that—as soon as I came back. I appreciate
everyone’s position. I just want to focus on a couple of things here. I think we
should really just focus on couple of things in expenditures, and I’m looking up
because I’m looking at Mr. Chung, you sure got a bad cough. But anyway, I think
we should focus on what is the County government responsible for in regard to
services?
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Then secondly, what is the County government’s authority on raising money for
that, and then thirdly, a real scrutiny by you and the taxpayers on how the
accountability of that, in regards to making sure that all the records of that is
open.
Yes, we have to make improvements, and yes, we will, and you know, we will
continue to do that, and so will you, obviously, you’re our watch dog, you,
meaning the County Council, because you’re the one that approves the budget.
You know, just say I am proud of, you know, puts it kind of mildly, but I am
proud of what we’re responsible for, and all I’m responsible for is the element of
the year 2000 to 2008. The reason I’m making a comment is because question
has always been asked and people tell me you need to come out more open in
what you do, and I think this is one of the times that we’ll do that.
In regards to the many times I’ve been told, “Look how much people you’ve hired
in that year 2000 to 2008 that you were there.” I will say this, I ask every single
Council person to please take a look at the records, that which is open to any
citizen and especially the Council people to look and knows where to look, or will
be provided for you. The year 2000 to the year 2004 was one of the hardest times
this County have seen because of the closure of all the plantations. But we had a
Mayor before me, the name of Mr. Yamashiro, and he was really what you call a
conservative Mayor, and a lot of respect for that because a hard decision. One of
things he did, and I don’t think I would do the same, but it doesn’t matter, he said,
“I will freeze all Police, Fire, and certain positions for more than two years.” It
was frozen. So, what happened, is obviously, the extreme shortage bailout during
the hard time.
When I became Mayor in the year 2000, we had that very unfortunate incident of
911. That caused us to come before the Council, in that year, midyear, to say we
need to raise the taxes to balance the budget for the year. Remember, all balance
the budget means is show what your revenues will be and you show us how
you’re going to spend it. I have no authority to raise, that’s within the Council.
My authority is to present to you what we hope to spend it in a good way. We
were short $3.4 million or so because of 911. The balanced budget was not going
to materialize because the anticipated revenues was not going to come forth
because of extreme cut in tourism and other things because of 911, and you
approved it.
I need your audience, our audience, I need the Council Members to please review
the following. We did not raise the taxes thereafter. We cut the taxes because the
revenues were so good. But not only did we cut your taxes, I’m saying all of this
because we are asking you to trust us in regards to the spending of your money.
I’m proud of that. What did we do with that money that came in? Yes,
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Ms. Lee Loy, we hired over 400 people. 350 plus of them was hired after 2005 to
make up for the extreme shortage of Police and Fire and other personnel. 350 of
them were Police and Fire personnel, and I think I would have hired more because
we did have the money, but the training facilities were not adequate. It was an
all-out effort to catch up, but we’re still short.
When I became Mayor this time, and we—the numerous calls of priorities and
problems, I think the things that were pointed out the most was the condition of
the roads, the homeless situation, the transit situation, the transportation situation,
and the Police, and the maintenance of parks, all of which cost money.
But now, let’s go back to how did we finish off? We were so fortunate in regards
to the amount of money coming in, especially the last three years. I’ve said it in
other community meetings, how we spent the money. During that time, we
created, Mr. Chung was there, we created what we called a rainy-day fund. We
decided no, we will not spend it, bad times will come again. So, we put away
money for the rainy-day fund. We had to create it because there was no such
account, it was new. We called it the rainy-day fund as a slang, I think there’s a
better term for it, and I’m proud of that.
We paid in advance what they call a GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards
Board) fund, government and county board standards fund that identifies future
liabilities that we have never paid for. That’s what we’re paying now. I think in
the last two years, we paid $40 million of the County people’s money because we
had it instead of spending it. How much did Maui pay because it was not
mandatory? It is mandatory now, but how much did Maui pay? Zero. How
much did Kauaʻi pay? Zero. How much did Oʻahu pay? Zero. How much did
the State pay? Zero. The County government of Hawaiʻi, because we had the
funds, we did not spend it on things that we didn’t consider high priority. $40
million plus in those two years.
We put money in regard to the emergency fund. I’m proud of that too because we
know emergencies will come, always will come. Yes, the budget submitted for
the last two or three years is balanced because we’re required to do it by law.
Here is the amount of money you anticipate coming, show us how you’re going to
spend it. When we got this figure in by Finance Department, we see a nice
surplus on it, and we save what we could. We paid in advance what we could, we
hired the Police people and Fire people, and Parks people on what we could.
I ask you to look into it because I’m asking you for a very difficult thing. I’m
asking you to trust this Administration on the importance of making sure we
spend your money wisely and we collect it wisely. The things again, we’re
responsible for, what is our authority of raising money? Please look into it. See
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how we spend it. Please look into it. I think you will—you may not be proud of
it, but I think you’d be satisfied on the element of how we spend and take care of
your money.
In regards to taxes, as I told you, we cut the taxes. Our commitment is, we will
make sure we will do that when we can. The situation we are in is critical now
and I need to bring it out to everyone. This is not going to be to blame, this is the
absolute fact. We have cut, we’re going to try to continue to cut without hurting
services. We know the tremendous back log on roads. I thank the Council for
having the—to step forward in regards to the very difficult time, especially as I’ve
said, the first timers, within a few months, you’re asking the people to support
raising taxes, and you’re brand new, and you did that. And we had to come back
in regards to fuel tax because the condition of roads. And so, where do we get the
money. And now, the things that are of homeless, the things of the roads,
especially on transit, the cost factor is huge.
The State gave us this authority. This isn’t our authority, the State controls
everything on taxes. The State gave us this authority to raise .5 and it defined
how to spend that money. Initially, I don’t like excise tax, especially—and I will
never support it if it means all government revenues because it taxes the poor the
most, as far as percentage of income earned. But this is specific, only for
transportation, this is only .5, not a whole operation budget like the property tax
is.
This give us an opportunity to take money from the tourist, which I feel is
important, pay their fair share. This will give us 30 to 40 percent. I’m told maybe
more of what we collect will be given and will be spent where we say will be
spending. We’ll spend all of it or almost all of it in regards to the first part for the
transit. The transit system is not to blame. My responsibility, as the day I took
over, is to fix the problem. I need this money to fix it. The transit system is
horrible. The buses are all things we begged for from Mayor Caldwell and they
were gracious enough to give us this second-hand bus that they were going to give
away, and gave us six out of the seven. We begged them for it and the only thing
we paid for was the element of transportation. And even Young Brothers
cooperated by giving us a discount.
We are trying every which way we can but we’re not going to get anywhere. We
are getting somewhere slowly now on the roads and we’ll continue to do so. But
let me jump back on the surplus. Of Kona, which we are so grateful for because
of the resorts and the amount that they pay for the whole day. They pay about 65
percent to maybe 70 or maybe 71 of the total County government taxes on
property, and I think at least 40 or so percent of it is paid by the high-end resorts.
So, they do pay their fair share.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Yes, we can collect more and they pay the highest rate. In regards to this, this
will free money to help us fix the transit system. We have to. This will give more
money to the highways people to catch up faster on what they need to and catch
up is going to be a long road down the hall. If we don’t get this, we will balance
the budget as required by law and the Council and I will have very hard decisions
in regards to what to cut, but we will cut it if that’s the only alternative.
I’m saying this is a good opportunity, you know, alternative in raising funds. It
hurts the least in regard to amount. I don’t have to go back to the property tax. It
takes from the outside the only way that this County government has direct
payment from the tourist to the County government of Hawaiʻi. I’ve said
99 percent of it will go to what we say will go to, and I welcome you, during the
hearings, to check it out.
I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to support more tax raises. I will say this, I
am proud of our budget. It is open to the public to review, every dollar of it, we’ll
make it available to you. This is an opportunity where the County people have
expressed priorities for us of the roads, of the transit, of police, maintenance of
parks, and those things. Short-term rentals is not money, but we’re addressing it
and I appreciate the Councilwoman who will put their neck out to do it for us.
They said you got to check the hiring policies. We have fixed 100 percent of the
things that we thought needed to be fixed because we’re administrative, things
that we had authority. None of it cost money so those things are easy. These
things cost money and we are asking you to please consider funding it. Thank
you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mayor. Alright, Ms. O’Hara.
MS. OʼHARA: Thank you, Mayor, for sharing that with us. I think we’re
probably ready and thank you, Ms. Ruggles, for the correction on the numbers.
Again, I think we have to be very responsible in setting tax rates for all classes.
Motion to Postpone: Ms. O’Hara moved to postpone Bill 102, Draft 2 to
May 9, 2018. Seconded by Ms. Ruggles.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Council Members, on the postponement.
Ms. O’Hara.
MS. OʼHARA: I pretty much laid out my rationale and I think we’ve all said it in
our discussion here, that we simply don’t have enough information to make this
decision. There’s lots of things pending. Ms. David brought up the performance
audit on Mass Transit, which is due sometime in May and hopefully before then,
th
maybe we can get the auditor at our May 9 meeting so we have some of that to
digest as well. But, there’s several measures pending at the Legislature that we
don’t know the outcome of until the Legislature closes, which I believe is May 2
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
this year. And, we won’t have the Mayor’s final draft budget until May 5. Those
are just some of the things that we’re lacking in the way of sufficient information.
I personally am going to be asking the tax office to do some scenarios with
modification to the residential tax rate. I was very unhappy with what we did last
year, but I’m not sure—I don’t support raising it to an exorbitant rate of $15, but I
think we can find some relief there. It may not bring a lot of dollars through the
door, but I think we can find some really fair—I already have an offset for the
fuel tax, which we postponed yesterday.
So, there’s a lot of things that we have to consider and again, I’m going to urge
everybody to get your homework done this year as we approach the budget. It’s
going to be a challenging, short, timeframe to digest all of the information that is
th
going to come forward. So, I would like to see this postponed until the May 9
meeting in Hilo. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. O’Hara. Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. I do support the postponement, however, I
would prefer that the postponement be to the call of the Chair because we have,
you know, where there’s many unknowns about this and I know we need to
postpone this, but I just want to keep our options open in case something comes
up that we don’t have to wait until May 9. I think that gives us a bit of wiggle
room if we need to bring this back. So, I support it, Ms. O’Hara, but I would like
it to be to the call of the Chair, and that’s my position. Thanks.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. O’Hara, would you like to change the motion?
MS. OʼHARA: I would consider it but I’m not sure that the information that
we’re lacking is going to be before us before May. There’s the possibility,
definitely the possibility but I’m also very concerned that it get maneuvered
outside of our ability to respond in time. So, I’m kind of—if that’s what it takes
to get the Council to support it, then I would do that. But, let’s—if we can just
continue with the discussion so I can hear what the other Council Members have
to say.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I think Ms. Poindexter has a comment.
MS. POINDEXTER: I agree with Council Member David because should
something come up sooner and this body needs to come before the public again,
because of Sunshine Law, to discuss it, and then postpone it again, we can keep
pushing it down the road. But as soon as we get information, I’d like to have
discussions, I don’t want to wait until May and try to cram everything in. I just
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
think it would be better to have more conversations instead of waiting until May,
and I’m hoping that we will have that ability to have more conversations in
between. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any more discussion?
MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, here.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Richards. Oh sorry, should I go to Mr. Chung?
MR. RICHARDS: You can go to Aaron first, that’s fine.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: What about just making it call of the Chair but no later than May
whatever it is?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Mr. Richards, would you like to chime
in?
MR. RICHARDS: I echo that, that’s what I was going to say.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Ms. O’Hara.
MS. OʼHARA: I just asked the Clerk if I could do that. Clerk.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Is that an appropriate motion, Mr. Clerk? Or would you
rather us leave it at call of the Chair.
MR. HENRICKS: It’s novel.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: It’s novel. That means we can?
MR. HENRICKS: Well, since postponing to the call of the Chair is novel unto
itself, I don’t see why not.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, well, I guess at least you’ll have the legislative
intent on the record if you amend your motion.
MS. OʼHARA: Okay, I would be happy to—
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Maybe—wait a second. I think I need to check with
Corporation Counsel. Looks like she’s checking. So, the—Ms. Shoen, the
motion is usually to a date certain. We have been postponing items to the call of
the Chair and now we have a different proposed motion.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
(Note: At this time, Assistant Corporation Counsel Renee Schoen came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MS. SCHOEN: Good morning, Renee Schoen, Assistant Corporation Counsel.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you.
MS. SCHOEN: I guess I would stick with the Clerk and say it’s novel. What I do
want to caution the Council is that the act, as written now, says you have a
deadline of March 31, and so, that’s a really tight timeline. So, I’m sure you all
know that, but that’s the difficulty.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, so Ms. O’Hara, you were the maker of the motion,
so—
MS. OʼHARA: I would be happy to amend it to be no later than May 9, as
expressed by Mr. Chung. I’d be happy to amend it to such. It is novel and I am
fully aware that we’re taking a risk here because the Legislature may choose not
to extend the deadline, but I think this is the preferable way to go for the lack of
information that is before us today, and just hope that the Legislature, in their
infinite wisdom, does the right thing by the Hawaiʻi County.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Mr. Clerk.
MR. HENRICKS: It would be preferable to withdraw the motion and make the
motion again to allow the person who seconded the motion the opportunity to
second again or decline to second the motion.
Withdraw Motion MS. OʼHARA: Okay, I’ll withdraw my first motion.
to Postpone:
Vote on Motion to Ms. O’Hara moved to postpone Bill 102, Draft 2, to
Postpone: the call of the Chair, but not any later than May 9, 2018.
Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the following voice
vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha,
Lee Loy, O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards,
Ruggles, and Acting Chair Eoff – 9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: So, Bill 102, Draft 2, is postponed. Okay, thank you,
Council Members. I know it’s getting towards lunch. I’d like to take the
Resolution 488 at this time. Mr. Clerk, can you read Resolution 488, please?
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Return to Order The Acting Chair directed the Council to return to the order of business.
of Business:
ORDER OF The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions.
Res. 488-18: SUPPORTS SENATE BILL NO. 3088 EXTENDING THE PERIOD WITHIN
WHICH A COUNTY MAY ADOPT A SURCHARGE ON STATE TAX
UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS, FROM MARCH 31, 2018, TO
SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
The proposed extension would provide counties who have not already established
a surcharge on state tax additional time to receive public input, conduct the
required public hearing, and determine whether or not to establish such a
surcharge set forth in Act 001.
Reference: Comm. 728
Intr. by: Ms. David
Negative: FC-77 (Due to a vote of 4-ayes, 5-noes)
(Note: Comm. 728.1 from Council Member Aaron S. Y. Chung dated
February 21, 2018, transmitting proposed amendments to Res. 488-18, was
circulated)
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 488-18. Seconded by
Ms. Poindexter.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair, and given the fact that this failed, I think in
committee, I would just reiterate my support for encouraging the State and I see
that we have a proposed amendment to this. So, I’d like to yield to Mr. Chung, if
I may. Mahalo.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Yes, you know, unfortunately, I don’t have the communication
number here, but I think all of you do, so, if you guys could just make the motion
over there.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, we have communication—
MR. CHUNG: Here it is.
Motion to Amend: Mr. Chung moved to amend Res. 488-18 with the contents
Of Comm. 728.1. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Mr. Chung, go ahead.
MR. CHUNG: Yeah, and I just explained what the changes were from the
original draft to what they have right now. So, all it does is further—it just
explains what the current draft is and that’s it. But I think it’s a far more palatable
version than it was before.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Chung. Any other discussion,
Council Members? All in favor of this amendment, please say “aye.”
Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Res. 488-18 with the contents of
Amend: Comm. 728.1 was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha,
Lee Loy, O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards,
Ruggles, and Acting Chair Eoff – 9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. So now we can discuss Resolution 488
as amended. Council Members?
MR. HENRICKS: Madam Chair, you require a rule suspension to do so, as the
resolution was just amended.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Oh, that’s right.
Vote on Motion to Ms. O’Hara moved to suspend Council Rule 24 to waive
Suspend Council the holdover for the amendment of Res. 488-18. Seconded
Rules: by Ms. David and carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha,
Lee Loy, O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards,
Ruggles, and Acting Chair Eoff – 9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: We can go ahead and continue discussion. Any
discussion on the resolution as amended? Seeing none, all in favor please say
“aye.”
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Vote on Res. 488-18: The motion to adopt Res. 488-18, as amended to Draft 2,
(Draft 2) was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha,
Lee Loy, O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: Council Member Ruggles – 1.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
(Note: Finance Committee Report No. 77 was not adopted.)
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Council Members, we have a choice. We do have
to reconvene at 1:00 p.m. for a committee, I think two committee meetings.
Would you like to work through lunch and finish this Council agenda, or take a
break and come back at one? Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: I’m going to the doctor now.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: There’s also not too much, I don’t think on the agenda
that will require lengthy discussion, if you’d like to attempt to go through the
agenda and then maybe we’ll have a half hour for lunch. Hard to guess, but we
can try that. Okay, we’re going to continue on for a little while then and see how
far we get on the Council agenda. Mr. Clerk, can you read in Resolution 491?
Res. 491-18: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO KOHANAIKI
‘OHANA FOR THE CULTURAL EDUCATION CENTER AT KOHANAIKI
BEACH PARK
Transfers $4,645 from the Clerk-Council Services – Contingency Relief account
(Council District 8); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation,
Administration Other Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 732
Intr. by: Ms. Eoff
Motion to Approve: Mr. O’Hara moved to adopt Res. 491-18. Seconded by
Ms. David.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: This is my contingency funds and this is to enhance the
development of the Cultural Educational Center at the County Beach Park, and
it’s basically for signage, indicating some of the features that are being developed
in a native plant garden. So, I ask for your support. All in favor, please say
“aye.”
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Vote on Res. 491-18: The motion to adopt Res. 491-18 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, and Acting
Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung and Ruggles – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I was just reminded by my staff that we need to take
Bill 91 out of order, someone’s been waiting in the Chambers. So, Mr. Clerk, can
you please read Bill 91?
Change Order As directed by the Acting Chair and with no objection from the Council
of Business: Members, the following item was taken out of order:
Bill 91 AMENDS CHAPTER 26, OF THE HAWAI‘I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016
(Draft 2): EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO THE FIRE BOARD OF
APPEALS
Reestablishes the Fire Board of Appeals pursuant to Hawai‘i Revised Statutes,
Subsection 132-6(f), by adding a new Article 3, Fire Board of Appeals.
Reference: Comm. 684.2
Intr. by: Ms. Poindexter (B/R)
First Reading: February 7, 2018
Motion to Approve: Ms. Poindexter moved to pass Bill 91, Draft 2, on second
and final reading. Seconded by Ms. David.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Poindexter.
MS. POINDEXTER: I think we—I don’t know if we have someone in the Hilo
Chambers. Can I ask him to come up? There we go. Okay, thank you.
(Note: At this time, Fire Battalion Chief Robert Perreira came forward to
address the members of the Council.)
MR. PERREIRA: Good morning.
MS. POINDEXTER: So, I don’t know if you just want to give a brief overview
again of what this is, or you’re just okay with us going ahead and voting for this?
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
MR. PERREIRA: I think everybody—this is Battalion Chief Robert Perreira,
Hawaiʻi Fire Department. I think everybody’s familiar with this Appeals Board
for the Fire Department to correct something that was missing for some years
now. Any questions?
MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, because there was just one amendment made to it?
Was it a correction?
MR. PERREIRA: Yeah, there was an amendment to take out the Fire Chief as an
ex-officio officer, just to give the Board, according to Mr. Masuda, to keep it
more transparent.
MS. POINDEXTER: Okay, thank you. I just wanted that noted that the change
was made. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any other questions or comments? No? Well, thank you
very much for waiting today and being here. Okay, all in favor, please say “aye.”
Vote on Bill 91: The motion to pass Bill 91, Draft 2, on second and final
(Draft 2) reading was carried by the following voice vote:
(Adopted)
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 91 is adopted. Okay, back to the top.
Resolution 492, Mr. Clerk.
Return to Order The Acting Chair directed the Council to return to the order of business.
of Business:
Res. 492-18: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
AND RECREATION TO PURCHASE A 15” LAPTOP AND PRINTER FOR
YANO HALL
Transfers $1,536 from the Clerk-Council Services – Contingency Relief account
(Council District 6); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation,
Recreation Division Equipment account.
Reference: Comm. 733
Intr. by: Ms. David
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 492-18. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David, do you have any comments?
MS. DAVID: Yes, thank you. I just would ask for the support of this resolution.
Yano Hall, this will allow them to improve their efficiency and communication to
each of the venues that’s under Yano Hall, which is Greenwell Park, Kona Scenic,
and the Hōnaunau Rodeo Arena. At this point, they’re kind of stuck in the office,
but the laptop will allow them the freedom to work on the run. So, I ask for your
support. Mahalo.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, all
in favor please say “aye.”
Vote on Res. 492-18: The motion to adopt Res. 492-18 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 493.
Res. 493-18: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
AND RECREATION TO PURCHASE A 15” LAPTOP AND PRINTER FOR
ROBERT N. HERKES GYMNASIUM
Transfers $1,536 from the Clerk-Council Services – Contingency Relief account
(Council District 6); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation,
Recreation Division Equipment account.
Reference: Comm. 734
Intr. by: Ms. David
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 493-18. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David, any comments?
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
MS. DAVID: No, just ask for your continued support, or your support for this
one also.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor please say “aye.”
Vote on Res. 493-18: The motion to adopt Res. 493-18 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carried. Resolution 494.
Res. 494-18: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE ISLAND
OF HAWAI‘I YMCA FOR ITS FAMILY VISITATION CENTER PROGRAM
Transfers $2,500 from the Clerk-Council Services – Contingency Relief account
(Council District 9); and credits to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Other
Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 735
Intr. by: Mr. Richards
Motion to Approve: Mr. Richards moved to adopt Res. 494-18. Seconded by
Ms. David.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. This is a very important program because
it allows going through divorces a safe haven for transfer of children back and
forth between the two parties, and as I understand, it’s the only program on the
island that helps facilitate this. So, extremely important and I ask for your
support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Richards. Any other comments?
Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. We still haven’t had that conversation with
Mr. Kamelamela about these resolutions and with our resident watch dog sick, he
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
always asks Mr. Kamelamela, have these resolutions been cleared so they’re not
pulled back? So, I’m going to ask the same question of Ms. Schoen, if all of the
resolutions before us are all good to go, up to snuff?
(Note: At this time, Assistant Corporation Counsel Renee Schoen came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MS. SCHOEN: Good morning, Renee Schoen, Assistant Corporation Counsel.
Yes, I’ve reviewed all of the resolutions and they’re permissible uses of the
CRF’s (Contingency Relief Fund).
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor of Resolution 494, please
say “aye.”
Vote on Res. 494-18: The motion to adopt Res. 494-18 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 494 is adopted. Resolution 496.
Res. 496-18: AUTHORIZES THE ACCEPTANCE OF A MONETARY DONATION OF $250
TO THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION
Donated by W. H. Shipman LTD, this donation would be used for the
department’s Vulcan Baseball Clinic.
Reference: Comm. 740
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 496-18. Seconded by
Ms. O’Hara.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Comment, Ms. David?
MS. DAVID: Yes, I just want to say thank you to W. H. Shipman Limited for
this donation and I ask for your support. Mahalo.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. All in favor please say “aye.”
Vote on Res. 496-18: The motion to adopt Res. 496-18 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, moving to Bills for Ordinances, First Reading.
Bill 96.
BILLS FOR The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
ORDINANCES Bills for Ordinances (First Reading).
(FIRST READING):
Bill 96: AMENDS CHAPTER 24, ARTICLE 10, DIVISION 5 OF THE HAWAI‘I
COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO
PARKING ON PAVEMENT PROHIBITED AT ALL TIMES
Amends Section 24-279, Schedule 27 (Parking on pavement prohibited at all
times), Subsection (c), South Hilo, by adding a portion of the North Hāmākua side
and all of the South Hilo side of Government Road (Onomea).
Reference: Comm. 703
Intr. by: Ms. Ruggles (B/R)
Approve: PWPRC-35
Vote on Bill 96: Ms. Ruggles moved to pass Bill 96 on first reading and
(Approved) adopt Public Works and Parks and Recreation Committee
Report No. 35. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by
the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 96 will move to second reading. Bill 97.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Bill 97: NAMES A BUILDING LOCATED AT THE HO‘OLULU COMPLEX,
COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 2-2-033:016, AND AMENDS CHAPTER 15,
ARTICLE 8, SECTION 15-68.1 OF THE HAWAI‘I COUNTY CODE 1983
(2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED) RELATING TO THE PARKS AND
RECREATIONAL FACILITY SCHEDULE
Names the building located adjacent to the Aunty Sally Kaleohano’s Lū‘au Hale
at the Ho‘olulu Complex the “Aunty Dottie Thompson Hale” in honor of the late
Dorothy Thompson.
Reference: Comm. 704
Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy
Approve: PWPRC-36
Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to pass Bill 97 on first reading and
adopt Public Works and Parks and Recreation Committee
Report No. 36. Seconded by Ms. O’Hara.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy, discussion.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. I continue to urge my colleagues’ support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, any other comments? Seeing none, all in
favor please say “aye.”
Vote on Bill 97: The motion to pass Bill 97 on first reading and adopt Public
(Approved) Works and Parks and Recreation Committee Report No. 36
was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 97 moves to second reading. Bill 100.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Bill 100: DESIGNATES TAX MAP KEY: 1-5-002:020 AS “PĀHOA DISTRICT PARK”
PURSUANT TO CHAPTER 15, ARTICLE 8, SECTION 15-67 OF THE
HAWAI‘I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED); AMENDS
SECTION 15-68.1 TO ADD IT TO THE PARKS AND RECREATIONAL
FACILITY SCHEDULE; AND AMENDS ARTICLE 9, SECTION 15-72 TO
ADD IT TO THE FARMERS MARKET FACILITY SCHEDULE
Officially designates the Pāhoa District Park and adds it to the Farmers Market
Facility Schedule to enhance sustainable agriculture objectives, encourage farm-
to-table opportunities, and provide greater use of County parks and facilities by
the public.
Reference: Comm. 719
Intr. by: Ms. Ruggles
Approve: PWPRC-38
Motion to Approve: Ms. Ruggles moved to pass Bill 100 on first reading and
adopt Public Works and Parks and Recreation Committee
Report No. 38. Seconded by Ms. O’Hara.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Ruggles.
MS. RUGGLES: Thank you. I just wanted to address some of the concerns
brought up in testimony this morning, which I appreciate. I just wanted to clarify
for anyone, just in case they were curious, that this farmers market, if it does
happen, is not meant to conflict with any of the other farmers markets because it
doesn’t make sense that the local vendors could be in two places at one time.
Furthermore, that’s not the intent and that was a concern of Parks and Recreation
as well, and we worked we that out. And so, they’ll be looking out for that
possibility for Maku’u Market. I also wanted to mention that for those two
markets in Kalapana at Uncle Roberts and Maku’u, those are huge markets. The
one in Kalapana is on Wednesday night and it’s a big party, people pay for
parking. Maku’u Market is also a really big market and you have to pay for
parking. Sometimes, you have to wait in line to park and not everybody is up to
going to such a huge farmers market if they just want to pig up a bag of papaya or
something. So, it’s just another opportunity to serve a different sector of the
market demand out there. And I appreciate and ask for your continued support.
Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Ruggles, any other comments?
Ms. O’Hara.
MS. OʼHARA: Yes, I would like to support this as well, Bill 100. It is something
that was asked for within our community, and while there are other Sunday
markets, it’s not necessary for this market to operate on a Sunday. We don’t have
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
any week day markets for instance and so, there is plenty of opportunity out there
to make this market just a little bit different, and it’s a good venue. So, I support
this.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. O’Hara. Any other comments?
Seeing none, all in favor please say “aye.”
Vote on Bill 100: The motion to pass Bill 100 on first reading and adopt
(Approved) Public Works and Parks and Recreation Committee
Report No. 38 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 100 moves to second reading. Bill 101.
Bill 101: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 17-40, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PUBLIC
IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
JULY 1, 2017, TO JUNE 30, 2018
Adds the Public Works West Hawai‘i Office of the Prosecuting Attorney project
for $8.5 million to the Capital Budget. Funds for this project shall be provided
from the General Obligation Bonds, Capital Projects Fund - Fund Balance and/or
Other Sources.
Reference: Comm. 721
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-78
Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire
membership to amend, pursuant to
Section 10-6(e), Hawai‘i County Charter
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 101 on first reading and
adopt Finance Committee Report No. 78. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David, do you have any comments?
MS. DAVID: Yes, just ask for your continued support for this very important
project. Mahalo.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, all
in favor say “aye.”
Vote on Bill 101: The motion to pass Bill 101 on first reading and adopt
(Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 78 was carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Bill 101 goes to second reading.
Bill 107.
Bill 107: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 17-39, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2018
Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants – Hawai‘i Criminal Justice Data
Center – Case Management System account ($34,000); and appropriates the same
to the Hawai‘i Criminal Justice Data Center – Case Management System account.
Funds would be used to reimburse the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney for
funds paid to a vendor to create an interface between the department’s new case
management system and the court system.
Reference: Comm. 738
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
(Note: Comm. 738.1, from Council Member Maile David dated February 8,
2018, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 107, was circulated.)
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 107 on first reading.
Seconded by Ms. Poindexter.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Comments? Questions?
MS. DAVID: Yes.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Motion to Amend: Ms. David moved to amend Bill 107 with the contents of
Comm. 738.1. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion?
MS. DAVID: On the amendment. This is just to correct the amount and change
the amount from $34,000 to $36,000, that was a typo. So, that’s all the
amendment is, so I ask for your support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none,
all in favor please say “aye.”
Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 107 with the contents of
Amend: Comm. 738.1 was carried by the following voice
(Approved) vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries, and now, we can go back to Bill 107, as
amended. Any comments? Seeing none, all in favor please say “aye.”
Vote on Bill 107: The motion to pass Bill 107, as amended to Draft 2, on first
(Draft 2) reading was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Going to Bill 92.
ORDER OF THE The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
DAY (SECOND OR Order of the Day (Second or Final Reading).
FINAL READING):
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Bill 92: AMENDS THE STATE LAND USE BOUNDARIES MAPS FOR THE
COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT
CLASSIFICATION FROM THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT TO THE
URBAN DISTRICT AT WAIĀKEA, SOUTH HILO, HAWAI‘I, COVERED
BY TAX MAP KEY: 2-4-001:184.
(Applicant: Hawaiʻi Island Community Development Corporation)
(Area: 6.569 acres)
The Windward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for
this amendment to the State Land Use Boundaries Maps, which would allow the
applicant to develop 92 units of affordable senior housing.
Reference: Comm. 689
Intr. by: Ms. Eoff (B/R)
First Reading: February 7, 2018
Vote on Bill 92: Ms. Poindexter moved to pass Bill 92 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 92 is adopted. Bill 93.
Bill 93: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 17-39, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2018
Increases revenues in the Real Property Tax Sale Cost & Expenditure account
($525,000); and appropriates the same to the Real Property Tax Sale Cost &
Expenditure account for a total appropriation of $1,070,000. Fund appropriation
accommodates an increased amount of parcels anticipated for Real Property Tax
Foreclosure Tax Sale in Fiscal Year 2017-2018.
Reference: Comm. 696
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: February 7, 2018
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
Vote on Bill 93: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 93 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 93 is adopted. Bill 103.
Bill 103: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 17-39, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2018
Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants – Hawai‘i Criminal Justice Center-
Overdue Dispositions account ($3,000); and appropriates the same to the Hawai‘i
Criminal Justice Center-Overdue Dispositions account. Funds would be used by
the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney to compensate for overtime incurred by
staff to research charges identified by the Hawai‘i Criminal Justice Data Center
with overdue dispositions.
Reference: Comm. 727
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: February 7, 2018
Vote on Bill 103: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 103 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 103 is adopted. Okay, Mr. Clerk, Reports.
REPORTS: The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
Reports.
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Hawai‘i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
PC-49 NOMINATION OF GILBERT JUAN AGUINALDO TO THE WINDWARD
(Comm. 723): PLANNING COMMISSION
Requires Council
Confirmation by: March 4, 2018 (Section 13-4(l),
Hawaiʻi County Charter)
Vote on PC-49: Ms. O’Hara moved to adopt Planning Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 49. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and carried by
the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
PSMTC-4 NOMINATION OF DAWN KIYOKO KAINOA RAYMOND TO THE LIQUOR
(Comm. 724): COMMISSION
Requires Council
Confirmation by: March 4, 2018 (Section 13-4(l),
Hawaiʻi County Charter)
Vote on PSMTC-4: Mr. Richards moved to adopt Public Safety and Mass
(Adopted) Transit Committee Report No. 4. Seconded by
Ms. Poindexter and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy,
O’Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Communication 724 is filed, and I
believe that takes us to the end of the agenda. Okay, we’ve covered all the items.
REFERRALS FOR The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
EXECUTIVE Referrals for Executive Session.
SESSION:
(There were none.)
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Hawai`i County Council-32 February 21, 2018
OTHER The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
BUSINESS: Other Business.
(There was none.)
ANNOUNCE- The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
MENTS: Announcements.
(There were none.)
ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 12:17 p.m., Ms. David moved to adjourn the
MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara,
Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles and Acting Chair Eoff— 8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: This meeting's adjourned. Thank you very much.
Council Approval: APR 1 1 2018
COUNTYERK
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