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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2018-08-22 2016-2018 Hawaii County Council 471h Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii August 22, 2018 INVOCATION: Pastor Jason Meechan of Kona Faith Center gave the morning's invocation. CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at ORDER: 9:10 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 Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Member (came in later) Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member (came in later) Absent & Excused: Ms. Jennifer Ruggles, Member PLEDGE OF The Acting Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of ALLEGIANCE: Allegiance. (At this time, Ms. Poindexter led the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance.) 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: 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 Acting Chair: Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Rudy Webster: Res. 657-18 (Comm. 1021), in support; and (representing Hawaii Island Res. 658-18 (Comm. 1022), in support. All Nations Pow-wow) Sammie Stanbro: Res. 650-18 (Comm. 1008), in support. (representing The Trust for Public Land and the Edmund C. Olson Trust) Dwight Vicente: Res. 660-18 (Comm. 1030), comment. Jerry Warren: Res. 650-18 (Comm. 1008), in opposition; and Bill 168 (Comm. 997), in opposition. Matthew Clark: Res. 650-18 (Comm. 1008), in support. Keoni Fox: Res. 650-18 (Comm. 1008), in support. (See Comm. 1008.1) 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 August 3, Minutes: 2016. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the following (Approved) 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. Vote on Approval of Ms. David moved to approve the Minutes of July 25, 2018. Minutes: Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and carried by the following (Approved) 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. Page 2 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 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 item was taken out of order: Bill 180: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-68, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2019 Appropriates revenues in the State Grants —Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act account ($4,063); and appropriates the same to the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act—Sector Partnership Engagements account. Funds would be used by the Hawaii Island Economic Dvelopment Board to engage with the private sector to identify employment and training needs. Reference: Comm. 1031 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 180 on first reading. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. EOFF: I believe Amy Bautista and some other folks from Housing may be in Hilo. MS. DAVID: I was told that Christine Nguyen, the accountant, and Lillian You will be present or are present in Hilo. Is that true? Eileen, do we have ? MS. O'HARA: I believe we do. Can you just come forward? MS. DAVID: Thank you very much. While we're waiting, Chair, can I just make a note that the request for this to be waived from Finance was granted on OHCD's (Office of Housing and Community Development's) request to expedite the funding for this budget appropriation, and they'll be able to explain it. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. MS. DAVID: Thank you. (Note: At this time, Lillian You, Accountant II, and Christine Nguyen, Accountant IV, of the Office of Housing and Community Development came forward to address the members of the Council.) Page 3 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 ACTING CHR. EOFF: Good morning. Would you like to introduce yourselves and add some information for us? MS. NGUYEN: Good morning. My name is Christine Nguyen. I'm the Accountant IV for the Office of Housing and Community Development. To my left is Lillian You. She's also the Accountant II for the Office of Housing and Community Development. So basically, this bill is merely a pass through of funds. So, this dollar amount of $4,063 represents an additional supplemental amount that we received at the end of last fiscal year. So, last fiscal year we received $15,000. Basically, the money is again used as a pass through of funds to the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board. Basically, that board is set up to work with the community in developing employment and training needs. So, it works in conjunction with the WIOA (Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act) grant that we administer out of our office. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David, you have the floor. MS. DAVID: Yes, thank you, Chair. Okay. So, this basically supports your workforce program, and this is additional funds. Right? MS. NGUYEN: Yes. MS. DAVID: Thank you very much. I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Council Members, any other questions? Comments? MS. O'HARA: I do have a question over here. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. O'Hara. MS. O'HARA: Ah, yes, could you please expand on the relationship you have with the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board? You say you're including these additional monies from the grant last year, passing it through to them. Is this under contract? Do we have an ongoing contract? How does that work? MS. NGUYEN: The purchase order from the State of Hawaii indicates that the money is to be used for the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board. So basically, every single year we receive Federal funding that passes through from the State for the WIOA grant. Basically, those monies are used for training purposes for adult or dislocated workers or the youth program. Basically, this is additional State funding that the State is providing, and basically, it is being used to help identify the employment and training needs. Page 4 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MS. O'HARA: Thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor please say "aye." Vote on Bill 180: The motion to pass Bill 180 on first reading was carried by (Approved) 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 640-18, Draft 2, is adopted. I mean, I'm sorry, that was Bill 180. Yes, Bill 180 will move to second reading. Thank you. Sorry about that. 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. 640-18 URGES THE STATE BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES TO CONSULT (Draft 2): WITH COMMUNITY MEMBERS WHO HAVE DIRECT TRADITIONAL, CULTURAL, AND FAMILIAL TIES TO THE AREAS OF PUNA AND KA`U THAT HAVE BEEN IMPACTED BY THE RECENT VOLCANIC ACTIVITY, IN ORDER TO ESTABLISH APPROPRIATE NAMES FOR THE FISSURE 8 VENT OR ANY OTHER FEATURES OF THE 2018 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO The naming of this fissure and other new volcanic features associated with this eruption in the Hawaiian language may be based on its physical characteristics, historical events associated with its formation, ecological surroundings, geographical location, or related oral histories. Reference: Comm. 985.8 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy Approve: GREDC-8 Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 640-18, Draft 2, and Governmental Relations and Economic Development Committee Report No. 8. Seconded by Mr. Richards. Page 5 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. The last time we heard this resolution, the very next day the board of geographical naming was meeting. We were able to get this resolution to them. Since that time, I've heard back from the program manager for the Office of State Planning. They acknowledged that Kalani Makekau-Whittaker along with Piilani Kaawaloa and a few other stakeholders were able to organize a working group to start discussing future names for the various features. Along with that, he also did acknowledge that they did receive one application already for the naming of the fissure. They have not reviewed it, and they will be actually taking it up at their next meeting. But I really do appreciate my colleagues' support on this `cause it really did empower the community to be in the driver's seat and be able to start looking at what's important to them and how the naming process for these new features will go forward. So, having shared that, I continue to urge your support. Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any other comments? Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Yes, thank you. I wish to say thank you to Ms. Lee Loy because I think this is a really important accomplishment and very appropriate considering, and I support it wholeheartedly. I have one question. Do you know when that next meeting would be, if I may ask, Council Member Lee Loy? MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, they tend to meet the first Wednesday of every month. MS. DAVID: Okay. MS. LEE LOY: So, we'll be tracking that agenda. MS. DAVID: Thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, all in favor of approving Resolution 640, Draft 2,please say "aye." Page 6 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Vote on Res. 640-18: The motion to adopt Res. 640-18, Draft 2, and Draft 2 Governmental Relations and Economic Development (Adopted) Committee Report No. 8 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: The resolution is adopted. Mr. Clerk, can you read Resolution ? MR. CHUNG: Madam Chair? ACTING CHR. EOFF: I'm sorry, Mr. Chung. Point of Personal MR. CHUNG: Just as a matter of personal privilege, could I make a statement? Privilege: It has to do with what happened yesterday. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. MR. CHUNG: I think it's kind of pertinent for us going forward. I think all of you know what happened with Ms. Ruggles. I didn't read the paper today, but I just wanted to make two points. I didn't read the paper this morning but I was told that the headline, I don't want to be inaccurate since we're always talking about truthfulness and accuracy of facts, but I didn't see it. But I heard that it said that Ms. Ruggles was ejected from our meeting, and all of you know that's not true. I think the only people who can eject a councilperson would be the voters or the Council Member herself, which she did. And I think all of you know we all tried to urge her to stay, hoping that she would have done that. But what happened here is, so I wanted to just dispel any notion that she was ejected. Second, I still am not clear as to what her position is. But as far as I can tell, what she's done in effect is deferred to some other tribunal in favor of recognizing the legitimacy of power of the County Council, this board. `Cause, she could have easily said that she will continue sitting on this board until she gets an opinion from her counsel. But what she did is she erred on the other side. She elected to leave awaiting the opinion of Corp. Counsel. And that gets me to my last point, second-to-last point. Page 7 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Now, I know Mr. Kamelamela has been put in a very tough spot, almost an untenable situation. Because if he doesn't come up with a written opinion, he's going to be blamed for Ms. Ruggles not coming back here. Well, she could have standing to blame him, and I don't want our Corp. Counsel to be put in that situation. So, Joe, I'm going to give you a suggestion, okay. And you can kind of think about it. Inasmuch as Ms. Ruggles has retained the services of her private attorney, whose opinions are contrary to what you had told us verbally yesterday, I would say don't put anything in writing. Let her make the move. And, Joe, because what's going to happen is you're going to be expending County resources to address this issue, which is something that—we all respect her rights and her right to exercise whatever belief she wants. But I think it would be a misuse of County funds for you to expend any resources in trying to address that because it could be used later in some kind of litigation. I don't want to think poorly of Ms. Ruggles, but I think this is, it's not out of the realm of possibilities that they're trying to set up your office. I would say just stay out of it. Let her make the first move. She's got to make that move. But you don't have to say yay or nay or whatever. I'm just giving you a suggestion. Finally, since she has chosen voluntarily to leave this board and is questioning the legitimacy of this board and the County of Hawaii, the State of Hawaii, and the United States of America, I'm going to have to ask the Chairperson to at least consider, don't have to do it, withhold her pay because she's not fulfilling the functions of this board. You can hold it in trust or abeyance. And if she's proven correct or wrong or whatever and she wants to come back at some point and exercise her responsibilities as a Council Member just like everyone of us, then those monies can be released to her. `Cause if not, we owe a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of the County. Unless administratively you say, "Well, we're going to let her go on leave with pay," okay, well, that's something you can decide on. I don't want to put you on the spot either. I'm just suggesting something `cause, there's some serious ramifications to all of this. We do, after all, owe our responsibility to the people of this island. That's all I have to say. Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. MS. POINDEXTER: Madam Chair, can I just make a point? ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Poindexter. Page 8 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MS. POINDEXTER: And yes, I've consideredI have a meeting with Stewart tomorrow, but talking with Human Resources to make sure we're within the labor laws and then speaking with Corp. Counsel. So, that is, we're looking at it. MR. CHUNG: I wanted to make one more point. She did make a comment yesterday that all of this is not going to obviate her responsibility to serve her constituents. I don't know if she used that word and I don't want to misquote her, but it was something to that effect. I think, under the circumstances, because she has erred on the side of a different jurisdiction and questioned, actually disputing the legitimacy of this board, I don't think it's proper for her to represent herself as a councilperson until this matter is resolved. Because if she does so, then she's doing so under color of the County of Hawaii, and that's improper too. So, this thing brings up a lot of weird stuff It's just so unfortunate that she's taken that position because now we're just kind of swimming around without one of our members, and we don't like that. But there are other considerations. So, thank you for giving me that time. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. (Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Joseph Kamelamela came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KAMELAMELA: With the permission of the Chair, I just wanted to address certain comments that were made. Is it okay? Anyway, the takeaway from yesterday's meeting is twofold. One, whatever response that I'm going to give her would be what was discussed here. So, it's to be rather limited to that regard. The second point is that, and I'm not too sure if people are aware of this, is that we actually got a letter from her attorney. And since it's from her attorney, I don't treat it as an attorney-client privilege because that's a public document. So, where we are, kind of look at whether we need to respond, which is what Aaron Chung has mentioned, because sometimes we don't respond because we realize, too, that at certain times we represent the people of the County. And when you look at the Charter, we're basically the chief legal adviser and representative of the County. So, I will consider what you have to say, Councilman Chung, and then take that to heart. Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Kamelamela. Okay, Council Members, ready to move on? Okay. Page 9 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Res. 650-18: AUTHORIZES THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE TO ENTER INTO NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE ACQUISITION OF LAND OR A CONSERVATION EASEMENT FOR ALL OR A PORTION OF THE PROPERTY IDENTIFIED AS TAX MAP KEY: 9-5-007:016 IN THE AHUPUA`A OF KAHILIPALIIKI AND KAHILIPALINUI, DISTRICT OF KA`U, PURSUANT TO CHAPTER 2, ARTICLE 42, HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED) This parcel, which consists of approximately 2,013 acres of land makai of Na`alehu and includes the historic fishing village of Waikapuna, is listed as the highest priority for purchase in the 2017 Annual Report of the Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources Preservation Commission. Reference: Comm. 1008 Intr. by: Ms. David Approve: FC-127 Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 650-18 and Finance Committee Report No. 127. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Thank you very much. First of all, I really would like to express my really deep mahalo to Keoni and Michelle for being here consistently and advocating for this very special place in Ka`u. We've had a lot of discussion prior in Committee, and I just want to make a note that, Matthew, what you said today just really makes this place more confirmed how special this place is. I didn't realize your extensive background, your connection to our kupuna, and all your work. So, I appreciate that very much. And the support testimony that you handed in, Keoni(see Comm. 1008.1), is very outstanding. I thank you folks for following this and supporting this all the way. So, I just continue to ask my colleagues' support for this, and mahalo. I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. David. Councilman Chung. MR. CHUNG: I support this, of course. But I just had a question, and maybe Ms. David or someone here can answer that for me. I've only been down to this area one time in my life. I was supposed to meet some people; they were supposed to leave the gate open. They left it open but, unbeknownst to us, they went to Paradise Park `cause it was too windy. So, we kind of traveled that whole coastline. It's kind of rugged down there, but it's beautiful. But the question I have is, and this has been asked of me by people who have been able to gain access to that area primarily to go camping or fishing, they just wanted to know I guess right now, and I don't want to state anything that's incorrect. I make that disclaimer because we're all about truthfulness and correct Page 10 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 information. But right now, I understand that there's like two gates to go there. One is for the Andrade property and another one for the Galimbas. They're the ones who maybe have leases of that area. And then, you can somehow get the keys from some rental agent or if you know one of these two parties. But now, how will people gain access to this area if they wanted to go fishing and stuff like that? Anybody got any ideas about that? MS. DAVID: Mr. Fox, do you have any? Right now, they're in negotiations. And I assume that once it becomes a County property, that's the public interest because MR. CHUNG: Is it going to be a County property or ? It says it's going to be owned by the Ala Kahakai Trail Association MS. DAVID: Right, if they MR. CHUNG: Would own the land. MS. DAVID: Right, but then I think Keoni can explain that. MR. CHUNG: Yeah. I mean, it doesn't have to be a firm commitment. I just want an idea so that MS. DAVID: Generally. MR. CHUNG: I can at least tell people. (Note: At this time, Keoni Fox, a board member of the Ala Kahakai Trails Association, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. FOX: Correct. So, right now the landowner has a property manager. Her name is Brenda Moses, and she has the keys. The two ranching lessees also have keys. You're right, there's two gates. The road actually goes through an adjacent property. So, there's an access easement over that property. It's my understanding that you just contact Brenda, and you can ask her for the key if you want to go and visit. There is a concern about just giving the key out to anyone that's never been there before because the road is a four-wheel-drive type of road. It's a dirt road. And you really need some high clearance just to get down there safely. But there's always been this concern for the community about the cultural resources. We do need to do a community management plan. It's something that Page 11 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 we put in our application. So, that's something that we'll have to discuss further with the community. But managed access is important in order to protect the sensitive resources. There are other properties, some owned by the State and other government agencies, that haven't been managed in Ka`u and we're seeing overuse. People are kind of loving it too much. Without those rules in place, we could risk losing everything that we want to protect at Waikapuna. MR. CHUNG: Right. I think we all understand that. The people who have asked me actually say they have to get reservations, so they go maybe once a year or something like that. And they're A-Okay with it, right, but they just wanted to know if there's going to be no access anymore and only for certain kinds of activities or what. Right now, we don't know then. MR. FOX: We definitely want to continue to allow access. It just needs to be carefully managed. MR. CHUNG: Right. MR. FOX: And that's something that we need to vet with the community. But as far as the Ala Kahakai Trails Association, we're trying to reconnect communities and Hawaiian descendants to these lands. So, we're all about increasing access for that reason. MR. CHUNG: All right. Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other ? Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, thank you, Chair. Actually, I'd like Michelle Galimba to come up, please. (Note: At this time, Michelle Galimba, a member of the public, came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. RICHARDS: Good morning, Michelle. MS. GALIMBA: Good morning. MR. RICHARDS: Thanks for coming up. Just kind of following along the same lines of Councilman Chung as far as the access. Since you run cattle down there, and we all know the big problems of people leaving gates open, do you see as a work towards a community management plan this could be a problem? Or is there going to be a way to mitigate that so access can be granted through the grazing lands? Page 12 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MS. GALIMBA: Well, as Keoni said, we'll be going through our community management plan, and obviously, one of the biggest issues will be talking about access and the best way to handle that. I think actually it may help us to have that community dialogue so that people kind of understand better. Because, to tell you the truth, I mean, the gate thing is really bad right now So, that can only really get better. Yeah. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, all right. I assume this conversation with the communities will be imminent? On the front burner, not ? MS. GALIMBA: Yes. Absolutely. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. MS. GALIMBA: That'll be one of the first priorities I believe that we'll be talking about. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, `cause I understand—you heard some of the testimony, I understand, about funding and funding concerns. But the PONC (Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources Preservation Commission) funds are very specific. That's a Charter deal, and I again will be supporting it. However, with the purchase the access also must be there. So, thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any questions or comments? Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I'm just really excited about this and, more importantly, the archeological piece. I just see that as one of those cornerstones of the documentation that will drive the stories and the protection and preservation of that area. I'm just really happy to hear of the pristine quality of some of these cultural sites, and to preserve that going forward is just very heartwarming. So, thank you so much for stepping up and putting together the partnership. I know trust lands and PONC money, everybody kind of showed up with their different resources. I'm really excited about the stewardship with Ala Kahakai and in the communities. So, this is a wonderful purchase going forward. So, thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Any other comments? Okay, seeing none, let's vote on Resolution 650. All in favor, please say "aye." Page 13 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Vote on Res. 650-18: The motion to adopt Res. 650-18 and Finance Committee (Adopted) Report No. 127 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: The resolution is adopted. Thank you very much. Res. 657-18: 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 BIG ISLAND RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL TO SUPPORT THE 6TH ANNUAL HAWAII ISLAND ALL NATIONS POWWOW Transfers $1,700 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 1); and credits to the Department of Research and Development, Tourism Promotion account. Reference: Comm. 1021 Intr. by: Ms. Poindexter Vote on Res. 657-18: Ms. Poindexter moved to adopt Res. 657-18. Seconded by (Adopted) Mr. Richards and 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 657-18 is adopted. Page 14 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Res. 658-18: 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 BIG ISLAND RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL FOR THE 6TH ANNUAL HAWAII ISLAND ALL NATIONS POWWOW Transfers $1,700 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account (Council District 6); and credits to the Department of Research and Development, Tourism Promotion account. Reference: Comm. 1022 Intr. by: Ms. David Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 658-18. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion? MS. DAVID: No, I just ask for my colleagues' support of this event. Thanks. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay then, all in favor please say "aye." Vote on Res. 658-18: The motion to adopt Res. 658-18 was carried by the (Adopted) 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 658-18 is adopted. Res. 659-18: AWARDS A PUBLIC ACCESS, OPEN SPACE, AND NATURAL RESOURCES PRESERVATION MAINTENANCE STEWARDSHIP GRANT TO MALAMA KOHALA KAHAKAI FOR PAO`O Approves a grant of$22,219 to Malama Kohala Kahakai, a 501(c)(3)nonprofit organization, to protect,preserve, and restore Pao`o, North Kohala(Tax Map Key: 5-7-001:005), pursuant to Section 10-16 of the Hawaii County Charter. Reference: Comm. 1029 Intr. by: Mr. Richards Waived: FC Page 15 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Motion to Approve: Mr. Richards moved to adopt Res. 659-18. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Go ahead, Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, thank you, Chair. I'd like a little latitude now. As we know, we had public testimony coming forward but the Kohala site was closed. I'd like to call Mr. Carvalho to the table in the Waimea office. Joe, are you there? (Note: At this time, Joe Carvalho, representing Kohala Lihikai, came forward to address the members of the Council, via videoconference from Waimea.) MR. CARVALHO: I'm here. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. I'm going to be asking my colleagues for support on this. This is continuing in the spirit of the PONC funds and, more importantly, the maintenance of those lands that we purchase. This is a step towards that. Mr. Carvalho is there representing Kohala. So, Joe, I'd like to ask you to say a few words about this. MR. CARVALHO: Okay. Thank you, Councilman Richards. Hello, everyone on the Council. I know a few of you. I'm coming here to testify for both Bills [sic] 659 and 660. Our lands there really need maintenance. We have not been able to get any funds to do maintenance, and people have been doing it themselves. But free access that we have on there instead of community access is being a problem now. We've been waiting for over a year now to get these funds. Before I go on, I want to tell you that I am with the Kohala Lihikai group, and we partner with Malama Kohala Kahakai for this project. We have the fire crews already trained by the National Park Service, and they're ready to go to help with the fire mitigation and cleaning up the cultural sites. We have the archeologist at Kohala High School doing a special project now. His name is Ashley Ah Sam. We also have Ms. Fern White, one of the teachers there who are lining up the students there at school to help with the surveys and monitoring of the cleanup at the cultural sites. Both sites, Pao`o and Kaiholena, Kaiholena being really large, both sites have multitudes of cultural sites. So, we would like to have these funds to start the cleaning up, protecting it, and helping with the trail maintenance. The trail I'm talking about is the Ala Kahakai along the coast. Thank you. Page 16 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Joe. Again, pretty straightforward. There's a question when this first came before us from Parks and Rec. having clarification. We got all of that worked out. So again, this is all the right steps in the right direction. I ask for your support. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Any other Council Members? Comments or questions? Seeing none, well, thank you very much for going to Waimea today so we could hear from you. We'll go ahead and take the vote. All in favor of approving Resolution 659-18, please say "aye." Vote on Res. 659-18: The motion to adopt Res. 659-18 was carried by the (Adopted) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha, O'Hara, Poindexter, Richards, and Acting Chair Eoff—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Lee Loy and Ruggles —2. Excused: None. Res. 660-18: AWARDS A PUBLIC ACCESS, OPEN SPACE, AND NATURAL RESOURCES PRESERVATION MAINTENANCE STEWARDSHIP GRANT TO MALAMA KOHALA KAHAKAI FOR KAIHOLENA Approves a grant of$44,045 to Malama Kohala Kahakai, a 501(c)(3)nonprofit organization, to protect,preserve, and restore Kaiholena, North Kohala(Tax Map Keys: 5-8-001:011, 019, 020, and 024),pursuant to Section 10-16 of the Hawaii County Charter. Reference: Comm. 1030 Intr. by: Mr. Richards Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Mr. Richards moved to adopt Res. 660-18. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Again, Kohala, ditto basically what we just talked about on the previous resolution. Again, I ask for your support. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, all in favor please say "aye." Page 17 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Vote on Res. 660-18: The motion to adopt Res. 660-18 was carried by the (Adopted) 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 660 is adopted. MR. RICHARDS: Thanks, Joe. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. MR. CARVALHO: Thank you, everyone. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Res. 661-18: AUTHORIZES THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Federally-derived funds in the amount of$225,000 would be used by the Department of Research and Development to update the volcanic risk and vulnerability assessment of the Hawaii County Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan. The County would provide $75,000 as a cost-share for this project. Reference: Comm. 1032 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 661-18. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. EOFF: I have a note that Diane Ley is in Hilo. So, go ahead, Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Yes. I believe this was requested for a waiver, and I would like Ms. Ley, Director Ley to give us a little background on the reason why we need to push this through quickly, and describe what's happening here. (Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Diane Ley came forward to address the members of the Council.) Page 18 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MS. DAVID: Good morning, Ms. Ley. Thank you. MS. LEY: Good morning, Chair and members of the Council. Thank you. My name is Diane Ley. I'm the Director for the County Department of Research and Development. I want to thank the Finance Chair for waving this resolution from Committee. With the ongoing eruption of Kilauea and the unprecedented extent of the impacts in the affected communities, the County's Administration is moving forward as quickly as possible on multiple fronts in addressing opportunities to present information for decision making that is current and updated. So, one of the important initiatives is assuring that the County's hazard mitigation plan is updated with respect to volcanic risk and vulnerabilities, in particular within the lower Puna area as well as the summit. So, we worked with the State HI-EMA, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, to make a request for this grant of 300,000. It has a matching component of 25 percent. So, it's 75,000, which will be taken from Research and Development's accounts. Basically, it would take us through the steps of collecting data, providing an environmental analysis, and review with the scientific community of the hazards as they are currently occurring. And we would be able to engage the community and develop appropriate mitigation actions that may be applied going forward. So, it would provide all decision makers with additional information. So, we ask for your support of this acceptance of this grant. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Ley. At this time, I'll yield if Council Members have any other questions. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Council Members? No? Ms. O'Hara, did you have any comment or question? MS. O'HARA: No. ACTING CHR. EOFF: No? Okay then, all in favor of Resolution 661, please say Ic aye. Page 19 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Vote on Res. 661-18: The motion to adopt Res. 661-18 was carried by the (Adopted) 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: The resolution is adopted. Vote on Motion to Ms. David moved to suspend Council Rule 15 to waive the Suspend Council 5-day hold for reconsideration. Seconded by Rules: Ms. Poindexter and 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: None. Absent: Council Member Ruggles — 1. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. MR. CHUNG: Madam Chairman? ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Chung. Point of Personal MR. CHUNG: Point of personal privilege again. Privilege: Not to pick on Ms. Ruggles but I've been hearing throughout this meeting that she's been excused. I'm just wondering if her conscientious objection to the legitimacy of this board justifies her being excused. Or if she's just absent. I mean, but you make the call if she's excused. I have no problem. I just wanted to point that out. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yeah, sometimes we use those terms interchangeably, but she wrote a letter to be excused. So, I'm not sure. Mr. Clerk, do you have a comment of appropriate ? MR. HENRICKS: Well, as Mr. Chung said, that's something for the Council and the Chair to decide. But just for our recording purposes when we record votes, I Page 20 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 don't know if this matters, we go "yes," "no," "absent," or"excused." And "excused" is reserved only for when a Council Member recuses themselves from a vote due to a conflict of interest. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Oh, okay. MR. HENRICKS: So, she's being marked as absent for all of these votes for our purposes of recording and for minutes and for the record. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Then I'll note her as absent. MR. HENRICKS: No, it's up to you how you want to frame it, but we reserve "excused" for when there is a recusal. They're actually excused from voting, not excused from being on the premises due to some matter of they can't be here. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. So, you're saying that if somebody's out of the room or anything, we'd just say they're absent, then, from a vote, not "excused." Because commonly, we're all using that word"excused"when somebody's not here to vote. MR. HENRICKS: If you'd like to be in concert with what we're marking on the record and what's going into our minutes then you may say "absent,"but I understand maybe it might sound more congenial to say that they're excused, especially if they have a letter or something. But we MS. POINDEXTER: Right. MR. HENRICKS: I was just trying to explain for our voting purposes how we record people. MS. POINDEXTER: Okay. Because, many of the Council Members leave sometimes, and we always say excused because they have a letter to be excused. So, I just wanted to make that point. MR. HENRICKS: Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: I guess we can say that they're absent and excused. Thank you. BILLS FOR The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES Bills for Ordinances (First Reading). (FIRST READING): (Note: Bill 180 was taken up previously, out of order.) Page 21 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Bill 166: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-68, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2019 Appropriates revenues in the Research and Development Miscellaneous Private Contributions account ($1,200); and appropriates the same to the Essential Air Service Waimea-Kohala Airport -Private account. Funds would be used as a joint effort between government agencies and the local community to ensure the continuity of air service at the Waimea-Kohala airport. Reference: Comm. 995 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) Approve: FC-128 Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 166 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 128. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion? MS. DAVID: I just ask for your continued support. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. MR. RICHARDS: I'll just jump in real quick. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Yes. You've been through the explanation on this. And again, if we had not continued this, it would literally take an act of Congress to put it back in place. So again, I thank everyone for your support. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 166: The motion to pass Bill 166 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 128 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 166 moves to second reading. Page 22 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Bill 167: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-68, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2019 Increases revenues in the Federal Grants - Agricultural Crimes Project account ($106,789); and appropriates the same to the Agricultural Crimes Project account, for a total appropriation of$198,789. Funds would be used by the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. Reference: Comm. 996 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) Approve: FC-129 Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 167 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 129. Seconded by Mr. Richards. MS. DAVID: I just ask for your continued support. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any other discussion? Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, real quick on this one as well. This is for the ag theft investigation. One of our concerns as the County that if we're truly going to put agriculture as a high priority, we have to put the laws of ag theft as a high priority for us to go after. With the budgetary concerns, the Prosecuting Attorney was able to find funding to continue this program going forward. My concern is not this year but next year. So, as we go forward, I want the Council to be mindful of that. I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Any other comments? Okay, seeing none, all in favor please say "aye." Vote on Bill 167: The motion to pass Bill 167 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 129 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, and Acting Chair Eoff—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members O'Hara and Ruggles —2. Excused: None. Page 23 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Bill 168: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-68, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2019 Decreases revenues in the Real Property Taxes account by $3.9 million to address the anticipated reduction in Real Property Tax revenues resulting from devaluation of properties that were either destroyed or rendered inaccessible by the 2018 Kilauea lava flow. The following General Fund accounts are reduced accordingly: Information Technology Other Current Expenses (-$10,105), Planning Other Current Expenses (-$30,000), Business Development-Research and Development (-$10,000), Mass Transit Other Current Expenses (-$2,712,145), Mass Transit Equipment (-$1,050,000), Transfer to Public Access Open Space Preservation Fund (-$78,000), and Transfer to Public Access Open Space Preservation Maintenance Fund (-$9,750). Reference: Comm. 997 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) Approve: FC-130 ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Clerk, should we do these two separately? They are related by the way. MR. HENRICKS: We did not last time. ACTING CHR. EOFF: We took them separately, right? MR. HENRICKS: We did. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, we'll do that. Can I have a motion to approve Bill 168? Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 168 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 130. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Discussion, and I don't know if Finance is in Hilo but maybe we can confirm if there's someone there. MS. O'HARA: Ah, yes, the Finance Director is in Hilo and so is the Deputy Director. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. I'll open up discussion. Council Members? Seeing none, all in favor please say "aye." Page 24 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Vote on Bill 168: The motion to pass Bill 168 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 130 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. Bill 169: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-68, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2019 Establishes a General Excise Tax Surcharge revenue account and appropriates $10 million into this account as anticipated revenue, and establishes and applies these funds to two new General Excise Tax Surcharge Mass Transit expenditure accounts, as follows: Other Current Expenses ($4,412,145) and Equipment ($3,587,855). The remaining $2 million would be appropriated to the Transfer to Capital Projects Fund expenditure account to be used for bus shelters and road improvement projects, including Oneo Lane and the Ane Keohokalole extension. Reference: Comm. 997 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) Approve: FC-131 Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 169 on first reading and adopt Finance Committee Report No. 131. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion? MR. RICHARDS: Yup. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: I will not be supporting this. I'm not going to reiterate everything I said previously. When we agreed to do this, we had a $518 million budget that we had projected revenue decreases of about $5 million, which put us in the hole as far as a balanced budget down to 513 million. Looking at the numbers, I think we had revised it about 3.9 or about $4 million. We agreed to pass a reduced GE(General Excise) tax revenue to help us balance the budget, and our constituency was accepting of that given the situation we were Page 25 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 facing. It was discussed conceptually at the time that the additional funds we would hold in reserve and not appropriate right away, but hold in a special account until we know what we're going to be facing. We've heard lots of testimony about what's gone on in the Puna area as far as the problems with businesses in Pahoa. We don't know what our liabilities are going to be in that area if we have struggling businesses. We know that our County is struggling with our economy because of the downturn in tourism. We know we are facing some tough financial challenges. We're facing some tough challenges coming forward. Because of that, we signed on and I signed on to hold these funds in reserve for a little while until we know a little bit better what's coming forward. We don't know what's going to be happening. When we all took office in 2016, we had a $462 million budget. Last year, that went up to 491, and this year we agreed to $518 million. We've been going up about 25 to $30 million a year. We don't need to spend every penny we collect. We can hold some in reserve. I'm not saying that we don't need a Mass Transit; we definitely do. But we have some very large issues before us right now, and I cannot support increasing our spending and committing to increased spending right now until we know a little bit better of what's going on. We have some real tough financial problems ahead of us. So with that, I will not be supporting this. I will not support increasing our budget from the 518, which we agreed to, to $524 million. I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Richards. Any other comments, Council Members? MS. O'HARA: I would like to weigh in, Chair. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Sure. Ms. O'Hara. MS. O'HARA: Thank you, Chair. While I don't agree entirely with Mr. Richards' description of where we're at on this particular issue, I will agree that there could be additional property value losses that are not currently being reflected. I'm going to ask our Finance Director and Deputy Director to come forward if they would. Because, a couple of weeks ago we heard from the businesses of Pahoa and Volcano, and they are hurting. And I think several more just went out of business on August 20'h because they weren't able to pay their real property taxes, which is the day it was due. I made a plea to the Mayor at that meeting, as did the business owners, to please consider tax relief for the businesses of Pahoa and Volcano, something that he can do by extending his emergency declaration. But no action has been taken to my Page 26 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 knowledge, and that's why I would like to ask the Director and Deputy Director if that consideration had been given at all because it does matter in terms of the deficit we're looking at for this year's budget. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SAKO: Good morning. Deanna Sako, Director of Finance. We continue to monitor the market values and property values in the Pahoa area, which is what we have to base the values on right now. There's not a significant decline right there, but we continue to monitor and look at it. And we'll keep doing that as well, but it's not a specific discussion we've had in the last week or so. MS. O'HARA: I understand that you're doing that on the residential level, and I've been closely in touch with Lisa Miura, our Real Property Tax Director, regarding residential assessments. But this is different; this is commercial. And I don't know how you could determine that from the real property values because it very much relates to business functions and you're not seeing that in that analysis. MS. SAKO: Well, we still have to base it on the property values, and there have been some sales down there and they're not showing a significant decline. So, we continue to look at the assessed values, and we'll continue to monitor it. We realize the businesses are hurting, but we're going to have to find a different program to help them. MS. O'HARA: And what might that be? MS. SAKO: I have no idea. The State has something that's posted on their website, which I haven't had a chance to look at. MS. O'HARA: Most of what the businesses are hearing about our taking additional loans, that puts them at an even greater disadvantage in terms of remaining in business. So, they're very reluctant to go after low-interest loans that are being offered by SBA (Small Business Administration) and maybe State sources as well. That's not going to keep the businesses alive. So, we need something more. If we're not going to provide real property tax relief, we need something more to keep our businesses in business. There is a real immediacy to this. This isn't something that we can continue to just sit on and have meetings about. Once gone, it's going to be very hard to revive business in Pahoa, and we're basically driving it into a ghost town with our inaction as an Administration. I see you nodding in agreement, but I really would like to hear MS. SAKO: I'll bring it up to the recovery team, and that's the best I can do. Page 27 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MS. O'HARA: Okay. MS. SAKO: But right now, it's real property taxes. Our hands are kind of tied, but we will continue to monitor because I'm sure things may change. MS. O'HARA: Okay, thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any other comments? Council Members, questions? Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I have a question for Ms. Sako. I'm listening very carefully, and we are in quite a situation financially. What is the Council's option to just hold this right here right now? `Cause this weekend we might have another event, and we might need monies elsewhere. I recognize that the GE money is a specific fund and we're going to start shifting monies around, but I'm just generally concerned that the monies that we shared with our constituency on how they would be expended is in flux again. So, my simple question, Ms. Sako, what if we just slow down a little bit and just held it in this account for another reading or two? MS. SAKO: That's fine but then you also slow down Bill 168; they need to move in tandem. But in addition, I just want to clarify that the use of the money has not been in flux. Since February, we have been very consistent with the plan because the GE tax bill, as the HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes) is written right now, has to be used for transportation. If that were to change, then yes we may come back with a budget amendment or we can hold these bills in here and amend them later. But right now, the money has to be used for transportation. So, it cannot be used with disaster relief. It cannot be used to help Pahoa businesses. It has to be used for transportation-related projects, which is what the bill before you is for. MS. LEE LOY: So, a follow-up question to that. This was the concern that was raised when we had discussions through public hearing, was as we move monies from the GE into areas like Mass Transit, we're subsidizing that agency and then we're going to offset the General Fund. So then, the question becomes where is that General Fund monies going to go because we know that to be the most flexible funds that are available to us? MS. SAKO: Right. So, back in MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, could you help me with that, please, Deanna? MS. SAKO: Yeah. So, back in February that's what we said, and we were hoping that it would be able to be used for the increased fringe benefits and whatnot. But between February and now, we've now had the decrease in real Page 28 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 property tax revenues of 5 million. As I explained last time, we're only reducing property tax revenues by 3.9 million right now based on Corporation Counsel's advice. Some of that 5 million are delinquent taxes in the Puna area that we were going to write off given that we won't be able to sell the land for a tax sale. However, if the land was to be bought out or there was to be some sort of buyback program and money exchanges hands, then we would still have—our lien would still be valid. So, we reduced it by 3.9 million, but the savings really couldn't be used for anywhere else `cause it was really offset by a reduction in revenue. Back in February, we couldn't foresee that the lava was coming and we would have that reduction in real property tax values. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Deanna. You're right. Some of this we just can't see coming around the corner. And something else that's kind of out there on the table or possibly on the table is a special session and maybe some funds there. I'm just going to share this out loud with the rest of my colleagues: I'm a firm believer of good information helps us make good decisions, but we're in a very transitional place with these monies. And I'm leaning towards just waiting one more meeting to see what that special session, if it materializes. If that evaporates then we're going to have to get back to the table and make some tough decisions, but I know we're all trying. Thank you, Ms. Sako, `cause I know we're all really trying to look at getting money—different funds, different sources—and I am a little concerned that we might be moving a little too quickly. Unless, Ms. Sako, this puts us in a better position to advocate for more funds, I would love to hear your feedback on that. MS. SAKO: Right now, we're trying to follow the Charter, which we have a significant reduction in revenue. We're trying to continue to have a balanced budget and reduce the expenditures in the General Fund, which we did by reducing Mass Transit expenditures as well as a few others to make it continue to be balanced. And then, we're trying to move those Mass Transit expenditures over to the General Excise Tax Fund. So, I have heard nothing about a special session, I mean, that one's actually going to materialize. We're obviously all hopeful that it will. One of the items that we obviously would like the Legislature to consider would be to allow the use of the General Excise Tax to be used for other purposes as well. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I'm just going to think for a minute. Thank you. I yield. Page 29 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Any other comments, Council Members? Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Deanna. Are you—yeah, you're still at the table. Deanna, I will acknowledge that you have been very consistent since February as far as what the desire was for Mass Transit and the funding. I think it was the last meeting, perhaps the meeting previous, that if we appropriate this 10 million, that changes our budget from 518 to 524 and you did acknowledge that, is that correct? MS. SAKO: That's correct. MR. RICHARDS: I have to agree with Councilwoman Lee Loy when it comes to the financial oversight of the County. This is the concern we have going forward: We don't know what's before us. I fully appreciate the fact that your intention is to get our Mass Transit funded. The conversation back in February concerning the GE tax was to find funding for our Mass Transit, and this Council was also very consistent, very clear: No new taxes. It was very clear coming out of the Council. Because of the events of May, we ended up being put into a situation where, by no fault of anyone, we ended up with a deficit in our budget. And lacking any other alternative, we agreed on a reduced GE tax to help us balance our budget. That budget was balanced with the GE tax with an increase in revenue and surplus of approximately $5 million. Now again, my point is, and I think Councilwoman Lee Loy has made it very well, we don't know what we're going to be facing. We've gone through volcanoes, one hurricane potential. We've had wildfires and now we're facing another hurricane, and we don't know what's going to be around the corner. We had discussed about slowing down, pump the breaks a little bit and let's see what's going to happen with the fiscal obligations of this County coming forward. I am very supportive of the Mass Transit, but I'm not supportive of appropriating all of our funding right now because we don't even know what's going to be happening on Monday or Tuesday. And because of that, though, I fully appreciate and you have been consistent. Council has also been very consistent about not wanting to increase expenditures. For those reasons, I cannot support taking our budget from 518 to 524 at this point. It's not bad to have a reserve of$5 million because, again, we don't know what's going to be coming forward. So with that, I cannot support this. I do appreciate the fact that we have to have the reduction, and you are accurate on the reduction in revenue, the 3.9 as opposed to the 5 million. But for our rough numbers of a Page 30 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 $5 million reduction, with the $10 million increase because of the GE tax, we are balanced and we do not need to appropriate. We can hold those funds back. And so for that reason, I will not be supporting 169. I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair, and thank you for allowing me a follow-up question. Ms. Sako, we touched lightly upon the use of the GE funds and, hopefully, maybe urging our legislators to make that fund a little bit more flexible for us. My question is because these monies were derived when the fund was specific for transit, if the legislation were to change, would the flexibility apply to this money here or just the revenue that's generated after the adoption of, hopefully, possibly more flexible language? MS. SAKO: Yeah, I actually think that's a really good question, and I think, I'm guessing, it would depend on how the bill before the Legislature is worded, if it would be able to be applied retroactively or prospectively. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Sako. As you know, I've always relied very heavily on you, and really, you have been very consistent all the time with us. And I really appreciate what you've provided to us, and you have been very consistent. With that I'm going to yield, but thank you, Ms. Sako. I really do trust that you understand all the different parts of what is a very complex budget system here in County government. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Comments, Council Members? Any other questions? No? Well, I'd just like to add an observation. I know we went through this discussion in Committee, and not everybody was here. But I had a strong recollection that at one point when we were considering adopting the .25 GE surcharge, a couple of Council Members requested that Ms. Sako provide a detailed list about how the revenue that we would obtain from the surcharge would be used. And so, we were provided a communication, I think, twice. But the one I'm looking at is 958.7, which did outline line items for the first half a year of$10 million, and the second year would be a complete 25 million. So, I believe that Ms. Sako did that not just by the request of the Council Members for more details but also because I think once we include that money and we collect that money, we have to appropriate it. We don't have to spend it; she explained that. But she does have to provide line items with numbers to match the income. So, I think that's what we're looking at now. As Ms. Sako said a little while ago, if something changes with the legislation or it becomes more flexible as to how we can spend it, she can come back and rearrange these numbers or readjust where we need to spend it. I'd like to hear a little bit more from Ms. Sako about the options that we have because before I felt Page 31 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 that, I mean, I'm still inclined to approve Bill 169 or vote for it, but I felt that was the appropriate thing to do given our situation with the budget. So, Ms. Sako, do you see any other options, or are you still firm that this is the appropriate action to take? MS. SAKO: No, I agree with everything you said. You know we're going to, hopefully, spend conservatively for these additional funds. Because if there were to be a special session or even in the regular session that they would be able to amend the allowable uses for this, then we're all for coming back and amending and using it for other purposes. ACTING CHR. EOFF: I think I understood what you said. You would be able to come back and amend this bill or the MS. SAKO: We could, and again it kind of goes back to Ms. Lee Loy's question as well in terms of it's going to depend, I think, on how the bill before the Legislature is worded, if it would be able to be applied retroactively or prospectively because then it's possible it would only impact next year's budget. So, I think it is going to depend on what the wording is and what our needs are. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Thank you, Ms. Sako. Any more comments? Usually, well, I asked if there were any additional comments and there weren't, so I didn't. But I guess, Mr. Richards, you're MR. RICHARDS: One quick question. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Go ahead. MR. RICHARDS: Ms. Sako, do we have to appropriate this, or can we leave it in the special account and wait for appropriations to be determined at a later time? MS. SAKO: I'm not sure. Like, what kind of account? Like an expenditure account? MR. RICHARDS: The one that was created for the GE tax to accept the revenue. Do we have to appropriate ? MS. SAKO: Like,just to be in the fund? Just to be in the General Excise Tax Fund? MR. RICHARDS: Correct. Does it have to be appropriated to expenditure right now? MS. SAKO: I would have to go back and check, but I feel like it needs to be appropriated. Even from back when we did the community meetings, I think this Page 32 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 is what the public was expecting. I realize a lot has happened between then and now. But right now, since our hands are tied to transportation, I feel like this is the right thing to do. MR. RICHARDS: I understand you think this is the right thing to do, but my question was do we have to do it? MS. SAKO: My understanding is we need to have a balanced budget, yes. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, you're not answering the question. Thank you, I yield. MS. SAKO: Well, I mean, you can put it in whatever accounts you want to put it in. This is our proposal. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, we can go ahead and take a vote then on Bill 169. All in favor—or should I do a roll call, Mr. Clerk? Okay, a roll call vote on Bill 169. Vote on Bill 169: The motion to pass Bill 169 on first reading and adopt (Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 131 was carried by the following roll call vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, and Acting Chair Eoff–7. Noes: Council Member Richards – 1. Absent: Council Member Ruggles – 1. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you very much. Bill 169 moves to second reading. Bill 170: AMENDS CHAPTER 24, ARTICLE 10, DIVISION 2 OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO MOVING VEHICLES Amends Section 24-264, Schedule 12 (Stop intersections), paragraph (a), Hamakua, by adding "Hauola Road, Pohakea Road intersection, all approaches." The proposed all-way stop will allow for cars to still park along Hauola Road and minimize the line of sight requirements at the intersection. Reference: Comm. 998 Intr. by: Ms. Ruggles (B/R) Approve: PWPRC-49 Page 33 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Vote on Bill 170: Ms. Poindexter moved to pass Bill 170 on first reading and (Approved) adopt Public Works and Parks and Recreation Committee Report No. 49. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and 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. Bill 181: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-68, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2019 Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants —Risk and Vulnerability Assessment —Volcanic Hazard account ($225,000); and appropriates the same to the Risk and Vulnerability Assessment—Volcanic Hazard account. Funds would be used by the Department of Research and Development to update the volcanic risk and vulnerability assessment of the Hawaii County Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan. Reference: Comm. 1032 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) Waived: FC Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 181 on first reading. Seconded by Mr. Kanuha. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any comment? MS. DAVID: Ms. Ley is in Hilo if anyone has questions on this. MS. O'HARA: Ms. Ley is not in Hilo any longer. I'm sorry, Chair. MS. DAVID: Okay. Well, this has the companion Reso. 661 that we already heard, so I just ask for your support. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor, please say "aye." Page 34 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Vote on Bill 181: The motion to pass Bill 181 on first reading was carried by (Approved) the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, and Acting Chair Eoff—7. Noes: None. Absent: Council Members Richards and Ruggles —2. Excused: None. ORDER OF The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, THE DAY Order of the Day (Second or Final Reading). (SECOND OR FINAL READING): Bill 154 AMENDS CHAPTER 20, ARTICLE 3, SECTION 20-31, BY ADDING NEW (Draft 2): DEFINITIONS AND SECTION 20-38, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED) BY RENAMING, AMENDING AND ADDING NEW SUBSECTIONS AND SUBPARAGRAPHS Extends the authority of the Department of Environmental Management to take into custody and dispose of abandoned or derelict vehicles from certain private roadways in the interest of public health and safety, in accordance with Chapter 290, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and requires that the department's director develop and implement an educational outreach program on the disposition and reporting of abandoned or derelict vehicles. Reference: Comm. 941.6 Intr. by: Ms. O'Hara First Reading: August 8, 2018 Motion to Approve: Ms. O'Hara moved to pass Bill 154, Draft 2, on second and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Kanuha. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any further comments, Council Members? Ms. O'Hara. MS. O'HARA: I just ask for your support. We flushed out a lot about this bill in our previous discussions. There are some other modifications to the program that the department should pursue such as perhaps putting out contracts for tow companies that are regional. That will help expedite the towing of the vehicles. Also, they're looking at increasing the responsibilities of the abandoned vehicle coordinator such that we don't have to have so much activity by the Hawaii Police Department with regard to identifying, marking, and disposing of abandoned vehicles. Page 35 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 So, I hope they move forward with those changes to the program because it will run more efficiently when they do so. But this bill is also needed to ensure that we get the vehicles off of our publicly traveled roads. Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. O'Hara. I didn't mention, but we do have Director Kucharski here. We have another item I think but, Mr. Kanuha? MR. KANUHA: Thank you, Madam Chair. Director, if you have any additional comments you'd like to make? I don't have any specific questions, but I just wanted to give you that opportunity. (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director William Kucharski came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KUCHARSKI: Bill Kucharski, Director of DEM (Department of Environmental Management). First, I want to thank the Council if that's not premature before this vote. But right now, we're in the process of having three specific activities. One, we're compiling all the police reports on those vehicles in the private subdivisions. We're coordinating with the towing contractors, letting them know of the increase, and we're coordinating with the disposal facilities. If we collect more vehicles than we have capacity and disposal for, we will be incurring greater expense because we'll take them to our holding yards until we have accessible disposal. We're looking for approximately three months before we can clear up all of the vehicles. Right now, we have a total of 110 vehicle reports: 65 in Puna, 45 in Ka`u. We're going out today verifying those in Puna. I agree we will be taking a look and pursuing and investigating having smaller area contractors. I will say we tend to have problems getting smaller towing companies to respond to our fees, but we may be able to cycle down into smaller regions and that may help. We are in discussions, as Council Member O'Hara discussed, on trying to get a more efficient way of getting these vehicles off the road. But we are in process in anticipation that this bill will pass, and we just want to thank the Council for its efforts on this behalf. It makes things a lot easier for us, and we appreciate your consideration. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Director. Seeing no other questions or comments, all in favor please say "aye." MS. O'HARA: Excuse me, Chair, I do have an additional question for Mr. Kucharski. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Sure, go ahead. Page 36 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MS. O'HARA: Mr. Kucharski, it was my understanding that you were a little short on staffing for this program but that you were moving to fill that position. With the introduction of the requirement to have a public outreach program or educational program to this abandoned vehicle program, who will be tasked with that job and are you still putting a position forward this coming fiscal year that was to focus on islandwide illegal dumping? Is that still something that's moving forward with the Department of Environmental Management? MR. KUCHARSKI: Bill Kucharski. The answer is, for the going through on our education program, we would view that as the responsibility of recycling. Under the recycling coordinator, we do have public outreach programs there. I have to check and see whether it's appropriate to use those funds from the fund that we have for the abandoned vehicles. But the answer to all of your questions are we are not, right now, looking to put forward another position. We're working on that. When that will occur, I can't project at this point. We're starting on our budget process for next year already, and so I would anticipate the position would be placed in the budget for next year, not this fiscal year. As far as coming in and having the education program we're going to pursue, we will be pursuing that in all of our contracts. We'll make a more concerted effort on that activity. And I think that's all I can say. I'm not being very responsive in my mind with this comment. But MS. O'HARA: Okay, thank you, Mr. Kucharski. I knew that you had been trying to create said position, and it was also to help with the educational program for the upcoming implementation of the polystyrene ban. I believe that education program has to be in place by January 1 of this coming year 2019. So, if you haven't created a position like you had discussed or made any attempt to hire in such position, shall I assume that effort, the polystyrene educational and implementation program, will also be done by your recycling coordinator? MR. KUCHARSKI: In response to that, for the polystyrene, we do have a new position. We have made an offer for an SR-1 to come in and deal with that, and that program is ongoing and will be—the program will be provided by January 1 as required by the existing code for theI was really commenting on the abandoned vehicle PR (Public Relations)portion. But the polystyrene, that is already in place and the offer has been made for a candidate to come in and assume these additional responsibilities. MS. O'HARA: Okay, my misunderstanding. I thought that same position was also for the islandwide illegal dumping program that you wanted to allow. So, okay, that answers my questions. Thank you. Page 37 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Thank you, Director. Now, let's go ahead and vote. We didn't vote, right, on Bill 154, Draft 2? Yeah, okay. Let's go ahead and take a vote on Bill 154, Draft 2. All in favor, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 154: The motion to pass Bill 154, Draft 2, on second and final Draft 2 reading was carried by the following voice vote: (Adopted) 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. Point of Personal MR. KANUHA: Madam Chair,just a point of personal privilege. I know it's Privilege: been two hours but, and we only have a few items left. I don't want to miss a vote, but could we take a brief recess? ACTING CHR. EOFF: Sure. Okay, let's take a five-minute— MR. KANUHA: Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Or seven-minute recess. Recess: At 10:53 a.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 11:08 a.m. Bill 162: DESIGNATES TAX MAP KEY: 2-1-003:013 AS "HAPPINESS GARDENS" AND AMENDS CHAPTER 15, ARTICLE 8, SECTION 15-68.1 OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO THE PARKS AND RECREATIONAL FACILITY SCHEDULE Officially names Happiness Gardens and adds it to the Parks and Recreational Facility Schedule. This park located at the mouth of the Wailoa River where it empties into Hilo Bay was conceived and constructed by Mr. Kazuo Nakamura through donations by the local community, and dedicated on May 11, 1979. Reference: Comm. 979 Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy First Reading: August 8, 2018 Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to pass Bill 162 on second and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any further comments, Ms. Lee Loy? Page 38 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MS. LEE LOY: No,just your support. Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Then all in favor, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 162: The motion to pass Bill 162 on second and final reading (Adopted) 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 162 is adopted. Bill 163: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-68, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2019 Appropriates revenues in the State Grants —Hawai`i Tourism Authority account ($145,000); and appropriates the same to the Hawaii Tourism Authority account. Funds would be used by the Department of Research and Development to develop and implement its Ho`okaulike Signage project. Reference: Comm. 983 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) First Reading: August 8, 2018 Vote on Bill 163: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 163 on second and final (Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 163 is adopted. Page 39 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Bill 165 AMENDS CHAPTER 19, ARTICLE 10, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY (Draft 2): CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO REAL PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR DISABLED OR UNEMPLOYABLE VETERANS Effective July 1, 2019, removes the phrase "totally disabled" from Section 19-73, and replaces with "100 percent disabled or 100 percent unemployable, or both." Further amends Section 19-73 to exempt disabled or unemployable veterans from all real property tax, where "totally disabled"veterans are currently subject to the minimum tax provided for in Section 19-90(e). Reference: Comm. 989.5 Intr. by: Mr. Kanuha First Reading: August 8, 2018 Motion to Approve: Mr. Kanuha moved to pass Bill 165, Draft 2, on second and final reading. Seconded by Ms. David. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Kanuha. MR. KANUHA: Thank you, Madam Chair. I know we spoke about this before. I'm still asking for your support on this. I understand the reasons given for maybe not supporting it, but I feel it's important. So, I just ask for your support. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Council Members, any other comments or questions? MR. CHUNG: Yeah. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Chung. MR. CHUNG: Is Deanna around? ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. O'Hara, is Ms. Sako still in the room? MS. O'HARA: No, she's not. MR. CHUNG: Is anybody from Finance there? MS. O'HARA: No one is here at all. MR. CHUNG: Okay. Well, I'm going to give my pitch anyway against this measure. It's really nothing against our disabled veterans, particularly the hundred percent disabled and unemployable veterans. I love them. I come from a family of veterans. Page 40 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 I'm hoping I'm not giving any wrong information. I'll put that general disclaimer here. But to the best of my knowledge, I found out that hundred percent disabled veterans can, well, I think at a minimum they get about maybe 2,900 a month but more along the lines of around 3,000 some odd dollars a month, all the way up to, and this is not a cap. One veteran talked to me; he makes $10,000 a month. Because, and again I've got to give this disclaimer. This is what this hundred percent disabled veteran told me: It depends on different parts of your body. And this is just a minimum amount, that 2,900 or 3,000. So, he makes 10,000, and he actually took offense to this saying, "I can pay $200 a year for tax." Now, I understand from Mr. Kanuha, though, and his bill is well-intentioned. It's not so much to the ability to pay but it's really the recognition of all of what the disabled veterans have done. But then to that I would say, to what end? We have families whose family members have died in action. Do we give them any breaks? Ninety percent disabled has to pay fair market. They have to pay their tax on the market value. There's no breaks for them. So, from 90 percent to 100 percent, now all of a sudden you pay zero? There's a reason why they call the minimum tax "minimum tax." That's the minimum. You don't go below the minimum. How is it—and what about people who were born with disabilities and were just dealt a bad hand in life? Do they have zero taxes? We can go on and on and on. How is it that only 100 percent disabled and unemployable gets this break? I don't get it. I love them, but I don't get it because there's no end to this. We're going to be losing about $130,000 hopefully that figure is correct; I don't know. ACTING CHR. EOFF: I think Director Sako was on her way. MR. CHUNG: Well, we don't need her already. MS. O'HARA: I'm sorry, she is here. MR. CHUNG: We're going to be losing about hundred some odd thousand dollars in County revenues. At least if someone who votes for this can tell me how we're going to make up that difference because, after all, we do owe a responsibility to the taxpayers. We do owe a responsibility to provide services. Hey, I'd be more open to this if we said, "Okay, you see the money that we're going to lose here? We're going to actually devote it and divert it to Puna relief," or something, temporarily or whatever. At least we're using it. But we're going to lose this money. Really? Once you give this away, no one will ever come back to try to resurrect it again. "Minimum tax" means minimum tax. There's a Page 41 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 reason why it's there. Once we open the floodgates for something like this, more and more exemptions are going to come and deeper and deeper in debt the County will become. I like the intent, but it's a dangerous path we're taking. In actually looking at who qualifies for this thing, there is no end. I can think of a lot of other people who are deserving of a tax break as well. Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: I don't know if Lisa Miura is here from Real Property Tax. I think from the last time we heard that the board had talked about this and they went over and over, and they agreed to this. So, I don't know if, Council Member Kanuha, if you have more information on why they moved in this direction to support this, and/or would you consider putting an amendment in to make it even like $100. I don't know, okay. I don't know if you have more information that you could share with us on why that group decided to support this bill. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Did you want to respond, Mr. Kanuha? MR. KANUHA: Briefly. I mean, we did talk about this during the Committee vote and, or the Committee discussion. And really, after extensive discussion at the Real Property Tax Taskforce, the consensus was from then that these are 100 percent disabled veterans due to service-related injury and they have already paid the ultimate price. And that was the in-consensus from that board. I'm not going to speak for them. The bill is what it is right now. If anybody wants to make amendments, they're more than happy to do so, but ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. MR. CHUNG: Madam Chairman? ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Chung. MR. CHUNG: Maybe since Ms. Sako is there, if I could call her up. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SAKO: Hello, Deanna Sakter—Deanna Sako, Finance Director. It's been a long day. Page 42 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MR. CHUNG: Hi, good morning. Deanna,just for the sake of advancing transparency, let's talk about this taskforce. Who were on this taskforce and who were on each side of this thing? Try to give us a little bit of a background on what happened. MS. SAKO: They are a variety of people from the community. I was not at the meeting where they specifically discussed this, so I can't tell you if it was like MR. CHUNG: More or less, what individuals. MS. SAKO: A split vote or hundred percent. But there's a variety of people from real estate and agriculture and around—Bill Moore, Mary Begier. There's a variety of people on this committee. We as a department think it's a feel good kind of thing, but feel that everyone should pay something. So, there are ways to amend it that maybe they would pay half of what the normal minimum tax are or something like that. But we leave it up to the Council to decide. MR. CHUNG: Well, let me ask you this: Are you in support of this bill? MS. SAKO: Personally, I feel people should pay something. And part of it is what you had stated earlier, that if you're 90 percent disabled or something very close to 100 percent but not quite there, they're paying full taxes on everything. So, we definitely support our veterans and everything they've done for us, but I do kind of feel everybody should pay a little bit of their fair share even if it was worded to be "half of minimum tax" or something like that. MR. CHUNG: This taskforce, who assembled this taskforce? Was it something that we assembled and ratified? I can't recall. MS. SAKO: No. The department's doing it. Council did have an opportunity to suggest names to us, and I believe they've been submitting quarterly reports to the County Council. MR. CHUNG: What other recommendations came out of that taskforce so far? MS. SAKO: I don't have it in front of me. There were a couple of others that we're just trying to accumulate a few of them before we come in so that we can kind of have the pluses and the minuses together. MR. CHUNG: Yeah but, I mean, as far as you can tell, how many did we pass so far? How many have come up before the Council? MS. SAKO: This is actually the first one coming to the Council. It was in their last report, and we were just kind of holding it to have something to kind of offset it with. Page 43 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MR. CHUNG: So, seriously now, I mean, I'm not trying to offend any member of that taskforce, but seriously with all of the real property tax issues we have in the County, this is the first one that they're going to advance? MS. SAKO: Yes. But they've been working very hard on the agriculture system, and that is a large issue to handle. Like I said, I think there's been a few more but I don't have the list in front of me. MR. CHUNG: All right. Well, anyway, thank you, Deanna. MR. KANUHA: Madam Chair? ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Kanuha. MR. KANUHA: Just a little clarification. This bill wasn't advanced by the taskforce. This was something that came up from discussions with some constituents that came to my office, and I was creating a bill. In the meantime of creating the bill, the taskforce was actually working on this as well. So, I kind of—it was almost like a perfect timing type of situation where that was on the table with them and mine was on the table at the same time. So, I don't know exactly if that was their intention for this to be there, the first one that came out of that taskforce, but it ended up being that way with my advancement of this from the constituent that I spoke to. MR. CHUNG: Well, thank you for that clarification. But however the chips fall, I'll respect that. But I really have some serious problems with this. Just the whole concept of the exemptions. Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. MS. O'HARA: Chair, may I speak when you ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. I think I had Ms. Lee Loy next. No? Okay, and Mr. Richards. But you can go ahead now, Ms. O'Hara. Go ahead. MS. O'HARA: Okay. Yeah, I actually support what Mr. Chung is saying because there really needs to be a basis for granting an exemption of zero. Reflecting on the taskforce that was put together, I do recall because I had a measure that was coming before Council to create an ad hoc committee taskforce to look at the real property taxes, and it would have been formed very differently and taken a very different direction than the real property taskforce that the Mayor chose to put together at that same time. This was May, I believe, of 2017. When I kind of backed off and dropped my measure to do an ad hoc, it was presented to Page 44 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 us that this taskforce that we could, as Council Members, recommend names of people who might be appointed to this taskforce and that they will be making periodic reports to us. Now, I think I've only seen one of those periodic reports. I may be wrong on that. Deanna's indicating there might be another two or three, but I only recall getting one through the Council where we actually looked at it under agenda. And I'm not clear how the taskforce is functioning in terms of making those stated recommendations and whether that's going to come to us as a packet or whatnot. But as Mr. Kanuha said, it wasn't the taskforce that drove this piece of legislation, and whether or not they agree to it is not even relevant. This doesn't function as a board or commission in the standard mode that we're used to sending off environmental changes and code to the Environmental Commission, etc. This doesn't function that way. So, it really is up to us to give consideration as to do we want to open this door to give exemptions equivalent to zero dollars in this case? Because, it could lead to other classes also being considered for that same level. These are people who previously paid the minimum tax rate, and the concern arose when that minimum tax rate was doubled from $100 to 200. And I really think an amendment to this bill would be in order, to bring it in line with all the other services that the County is providing to these homeowners who do, because of their veteran status and disability, do have income coming in. So, I have to say on this point I do agree with Mr. Chung. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. O'Hara. And I'd just like everybody to know that Lisa Miura is here in the Kona Chambers. I'm sure she's available for questions or comments. Okay, Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Ms. O'Hara touched, right at the end there, on where my thought process was, which is everything we do at the County costs something. And I remember Lisa giving this passionate testimony about GE and how we went from 2-ply toilet paper to 1-ply and no soap inside the bathrooms if we just didn't find a different revenue stream. And having said that, I mean, I would maybe ask Mr. Kanuha, for the amount of services that the County provides by way of parks, police, and fire service and just everything, it all costs something. And maybe amending it back to the minimum of 100, which is where they were at, might be an option. `Cause everything does cost something that we provide through the County and our services. So, that's my thoughts. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Other comments? Mr. Richards. Page 45 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Since we do have Lisa in chambers, I assume you heard this conversation going on? Not at all. Would you like to come up and give a few comments? Please? ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ask her a question. (Note: At this time, Real Property Tax Administrator Lisa Miura came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. RICHARDS: Good morning. MS. MIURA: Good morning. Sorry. Lisa Miura, Real Property Tax Administrator. I was not listening at all. We just had our tax collections, so we're still busy. MR. RICHARDS: So, you just magically appeared? MS. MIURA: I was told that you guys had asked for me, or Mr. Chung did. MR. RICHARDS: Oh, yes. MS. MIURA: So, yeah, Council was not at my forefront today. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. What we're discussing, obviously, is the waving of any tax liability for 100 percent disabled veterans and the Commission's recommendation on that. Could you give us some insight as far as the conversation or the direction on how we got to the recommendation we have before us now? MS. MIURA: Well, the Real Property Tax Review Working Group has been looking at every single program, and they submitted two different reports already to the County Council. The group was originally put together at the request or after many discussions from the County Council because there were thoughts of whether the Council was going to do another ad hoc committee or your own group. Honestly, from the administrative side, we felt like that doesn't work out because by the time you guys get voted in, you have a meeting for a year, year-and-a-half. It takes us six to seven months to teach everybody about the code. The next thing you know, you're running for office, you're getting out. We've gone through two of those, and it's been pretty unsuccessful. So, we asked if the Administration could take the lead on it. We took everybody's names that were submitted by the County Council, and we asked them to be on this group. Page 46 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 The whole focus of the group was to look at all the programs within Real Property Tax as well as our internal procedures to see if it was fair and equitable. So, they have gone through several programs. The first report pretty much stated what they learned and what they were looking at. And then, the second report had some suggestions. It's a two-year working group, so you're going to see suggestions come out through it. It was our understanding the Council wanted to see the suggestions as they came up with them and not wait till the end of the two years. So, in the second report, there were two suggestions made. One was to eliminate the non-speculative program that has come up year after year after year through reports to the County Council from the Board of Review. And that's never been acted upon. The other one that came up was the veterans due to the complaints and concerns that came from the public. When they looked at the program, they were determining what was better and they went back and forth between having it be a lesser minimum tax, no minimum tax, or stay the same. They decided, as a whole, to make the recommendation to go to zero tax. Their whole goal is not supposed to be to look at where the income is coming from, what the total budget is. That's not the goal of the taskforce. So, they don't take it from that standpoint. But they did balance it out by having a program suggested that would increase the County's budget eventually. But they did not submit this recommendation or the ordinance. The County, as far as the Administration, did not submit it. This came from Councilman Kanuha. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. Just with that, something Councilman Chung said, and though I totally appreciate what Councilman Kanuha is talking about, Councilman Chung's point that for someone 100 percent disabled, I think is the language, or 100 percent unemployable. Though I do fully support what they have given to the country, Councilman Chung raised a very interesting point: What about someone who's been killed? `Cause, the family's still saddled with a full tax liability. So, I have to agree, I think maybe an amendment is in order on some of this because the value of being in the community in the County, everything costs. And so, though I fully appreciate what the Commission is saying, Councilman Chung brings up a very valid point. I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Richards. Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: I would ask that Council Member Kanuha postpone this `cause I'd like to get more information, too, because I have family members who are totally disabled but they don't make that amount of money that I thought Council Member Chung had stated. So, I just want to kind of go and look at that a little bit more because that is of some concern. Or if he would consider looking Page 47 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 at maybe a reduction or, I don't know yet, but I think I would want to go and ask some questions and get some hard numbers even from the Veterans Administration and figure some stuff out. But I don't know. That's up to Council Member Kanuha. But I would support a postponement. Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: This is for my colleague Mr. Kanuha. We all want to help, and I think we're trying to target those ones on the fringes where they don't get the minimum tax but it's so challenging for them to meet fair market value. And I'm actually really interested to see what that working group comes out with in some of our other real property tax categories and how we can begin to strike a balance between some of this minimum tax alongside the higher-end taxpayers who are really struggling, whether it's commercial properties. We've heard Ms. O'Hara touch lightly upon that. Running businesses are very risky. And when you have different events, those risks are compounded too. So,just food for thought, Mr. Kanuha. I'm looking to help those ones that are trying to make it, not the ones who are just already being provided some exemptions that others just aren't available for. So, thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Mr. Chung. MR. CHUNG: Thank you, Lisa, for coming. And I didn't ask for you; I just asked for someone from Finance. Actually, Deanna came up and answered a lot of the questions. But I think your knowledge of the working group was probably much clearer because you were working with them. I kind of find it surprising, though, that their main task was to look at formulas or programs for the sake of being fair and equitable, and really not taking into consideration the revenues because that's the whole purpose of the Real Property Tax program. It's to generate revenues for the County. So, I think when you go back to that workgroup, you might want to tell them that they should consider those things too. Because if you take away one place, that means you've got to add something else. I'm with Ms. Poindexter on this. I think we should defer this, but my reasons are a little different. I'd like to see how this fits in with their overall package. Because if we get things piecemeal, it's hard to figure out how this fits into the overall puzzle. And I'd like to see something maybe with regard to ag tax or other programs. And then perhaps maybe if we're able to generate more there, okay we could possiblyI still don't get it, though, with the hundred percent. Let me ask you this, and I don't think I've ever asked you this question. A person who's 90 percent disabled, what's their real property tax liability? Do they have a tax break? Page 48 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MS. MIURA: No. If they're a homeowner then they get the homeowner's exemption. The disabled is MR. CHUNG: Yeah, but everybody else, right? MS. MIURA: Correct, like everybody else. The disabled is only for hundred percent. MR. CHUNG: I don't get it. I just don't get it. MS. MIURA: Can I comment, though, on one of the things you had stated? MR. CHUNG: Yeah. MS. MIURA: I understand what you're saying. The group's—although the Real Property Tax Office's main purpose is to bring in money, it is between the Administration and the County Council to set the tax rates. And while this group can make recommendations or suggestions, I mean you've seen years and years and years of groups come forward to you guys. The Real Property Tax Code wasn't created as a whole. It was piecemealed together by so many years of County Council members making different decisions over the years. So, I don't think it's fair to say that we have to come in as a whole and justify every little thing. It's not realistic. You're not going to get that from any group that just meets for two years. You might be able to do it if you're making changes to the Charter Commission where you're very specific, but the County tax code, it's huge. And we are trying to go through all the recommendations and just applying that. But honestly, I mean, I think the Council, too. I don't think everybody here has read the reports that the group came up with `cause it sounds like some people aren't even aware there was a group. So, I don't know how many would really take the time to dive deep and do a huge actual change of it. And things pop up. Right now, the veterans is coming up. But that non-speculative program has been as a recommendation to the County Council for so many years. Nothing's been done. That would have generated more money. So, to say they have to bring a programso, if we came and then we said, "Okay, we're going to change the ag program and it'll save the County 30 million," are they supposed to give away 30 million? `Cause that's the balance you're talking about, right? I don't see that as being the group's focus at all. I think if they get to fair and equitable, that's the best you can ask for the group. But they shouldn't be the group looking for money. Page 49 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MR. CHUNG: Okay. Well, how about this though. I mean, because really what you're talking about has to do with the workings of the group but not this specific piece of legislation. So, let me ask you this then, Lisa. In your mind, is this a fair and equitable piece of legislation? And if you don't want to answer that, that's fine. MS. MIURA: No, I think it depends on who you are and how you look at it. Fair because they're hundred percent disabled after defending our country? Absolutely. Fair and equitable as far as other people that are hundred percent disabled, get a discount, and because they risked their life for our country they don't even get that much of it? I don't know if that's fair and equitable either. MR. CHUNG: Really, it all comes down to one's perspective, right? MS. MIURA: It is. MR. CHUNG: So, I really didn't mean to put you on the spot, but I MS. MIURA: I think you did. MR. CHUNG: Well, okay MS. MIURA: I think you absolutely meant to do that. Let's be realistic. MR. CHUNG: Before you came here, I just off the top of my head used several examples. Families, maybe a wife whose husband died in action, do they get breaks? I don't think so. Ninety percent? No. Guys who were dealt a bad hand and just by, when they were born, disabled, do they get zero? I don't know. So, in my opinion, this is not fair and equitable. I get the intent and we want to say thank you to our veterans, don't get me wrong, but I just don't get it. I really don't get it. I cannot support it. So, you're giving me all the reasons why we shouldn't defer because I said the reason why I want to defer is maybe we can get a more complete package. But at this point, I just have to vote "no." MS. MIURA: It's just a recommendation that the tax group came up with. I guess I just wanted to be here to defend the tax group. I don't think they should be the ones taking just the sole heat for this. MR. CHUNG: Well, let's take them out of the equation. It's just you. I'm going to put you on the spot again. Do you support this bill? MS. MIURA: Yes. MR. CHUNG: And for what reason? Page 50 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MS. MIURA: I already said because I do think they have done the ultimate sacrifice already for the country. I don't know if I support the 200, I mean a zero tax but I do support the intent of this bill. MR. CHUNG: That's what's in the bill. The bill is zero tax. That's what I asked. Do you support MS. MIURA: That's not what you asked, but I support MR. CHUNG: What did I ask? MS. MIURA: Some type of discount for them. I'm sorry, I'm not here to do this with you or anybody on the Council. But if there's any further questions you have for me that actually pertain to this, I'd be happy to answer them. MR. CHUNG: So, do you support the bill? MS. MIURA: Yes. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any other comments, questions? Do you want to close or offer anything, Mr. Kanuha? MR. KANUHA: I mean, I support the bill as is. I stated my support for it since the beginning, since Committee, since the first reading. And now, we're at second reading. The heavy discussion kind of again perplexes me when we've discussed this so much and we had ample opportunity to do a lot with it previously. But this is the Council's bill; it's not my bill now. So, I appreciate everybody's recommendations in how to figure out the balance. In the beginning when first starting this, I did start it off as a reduction back to the original minimum tax. That was my original intent. And then figuring out the reasons why we should reduce it and the perspective in supporting our veterans who are a hundred percent disabled or a hundred percent unemployable because of a service-related injury, I had another perspective of why it needed to be or why I thought it was even more of a service for us to give a complete exemption for property tax. So, I also agreed with what was written or what was proposed by the taskforce. So, that's why this bill came out, and we worked with it with Finance and the VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) who gave us recommendations of how they use or how they determine hundred percent disabled and a hundred percent unemployable. So, that's the bill currently. I'm willing to work with the rest of the Council on an additional amendment if that's the will of the Council. I'm fine with that. I'm open to postponing this and Page 51 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 having that amendment as an additional option for the rest of the Council. I won't be supporting that amendment, but I'll support the ultimate—if that amendment passes by Council, I definitely would support the ultimate outcome of this bill. But I can do that as an addition to our Council discussion if we want to go in that route. I'm open. But right here on the table is this bill. So, that's what I if we want to postpone it, I'm okay with that too. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, anybody wishing to—oh, Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Ms. Miura, for coming. I have a question: To implement the provisions of this bill, would you folks require any more of your staff to confirm the hundred percent disability and unemployable? What would it take for you folks to be satisfied that when someone comes in to apply for it that they meet those requirements? Would that require you folks to do additional things in your office? MS. MIURA: No, there would be no additional work because we require it at this time. MS. DAVID: I see. So, you folks already—okay, that was my question as far as procedures. Thank you very much. I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, any other comments? Could I ask a question just to clarify one thing? I think we are under the impression that we would lose $131,200 if we were to zero out the hundred percent disabled from paying real property tax. Is that about right? MS. MIURA: That is. ACTING CHR. EOFF: So, I think I know how to do the math but if they did have to pay $100, which was the previous minimum, do you know how much would it be half, the loss? MS. MIURA: It would. ACTING CHR. EOFF: So, in other words, if we went back to the hundred, we would gain back $65,000. MS. MIURA: Correct. Something about that, yeah. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay,just so I can think about it. Okay, thank you. Mr. Chung, did you want to add? Or anybody? MR. CHUNG: If this is going to be the position of this Council, if this is deemed fair and equitable, then I'll respect that. Okay? But also know this, maybe I'll Page 52 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 start putting up exemptions too. No end, you know. A lot of people deserve tax breaks on this island. A lot. And they are far less able to pay than these individuals, no offense to them. But if that's going to be the direction we take, okay I'll respect that. But I'm going to remember that when things come up, exemptions maybe or waivers of real property to affected businesses in Puna, possibly. Okay? I can think of a lot of stuff I just think we're not doing the taxpayers any favors by supporting this. But I'll respect the will of this Council and the rest of the County. Thank you, and I'll still vote "no." ACTING CHR. EOFF: I think I heard Mr. Kanuha say he didn't want to amend this bill, but he was willing to support a postponement or anyone else wishing to come back with amendments. I think that's what he said. Okay. Thank you very much, Ms. Miura. Okay then, any other comments or motions? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and take a roll call vote. MR. KANUHA: If we want to postpone, I'm fine with that. I'm just looking ACTING CHR. EOFF: Someone has to make a motion. MR. KANUHA: I'm okay with voting for this now. It's other members that ACTING CHR. EOFF: Right. MR. KANUHA: I'm okay. I'm okay with postponing it, too. If we want to postpone it, I'll make the motion to say a motion to postpone to the next Council meeting. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, then. We have a motion by Mr. Kanuha to postpone Bill 165 until, what is it, September 5�h? September 5�h. Okay, any MR. CHUNG: I'm just wondering ACTING CHR. EOFF: Discussion on the postponement. MR. CHUNG: What's the purpose of the ? MR. HENRICKS: Madam Chair, before we proceed, can you let me know who seconded that motion? ACTING CHR. EOFF: Oh, I didn't get a second. Oh, Ms. Poindexter actually did. MR. HENRICKS: Thank you. Page 53 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Motion to Postpone: Mr. Kanuha moved to postpone Bill 165, Draft 2, to September 5, 2018. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. MR. CHUNG: What's the purpose of the postponement? My purpose was shot down by Lisa, so I've got no problem with that. I talk about the complete package, but she said that's not going to happen. I'm just wondering if there's a purpose for the postponement of two weeks. If you guys going vote it up, vote it up; vote it down, vote it down already unless there's a reason why you want to postpone. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, I think when I stated my reason it was to go and get some real numbers fromI know `cause some numbers were thrown out about what they would make as a disabled veteran. If I'm not mistaken from what I know personally of my personal family member, it was a struggle because they have a mortgage and a lot of things and raising a family still. `Cause a lot of these disabled veterans are not older people. Some are very young. So, if that was part of Council Member Chung's reason for saying that they can afford it, then I wanted to really go and look if that was the case or not. Because like Council Member Kanuha stated, they gave the ultimate sacrifice, and like Lisa had stated. I don't know what the County does for our veterans besides, I mean, we have our veterans cemetery, but I'd like to now just kind of dive into that since we're talking about is it fair that they have certain income and is it real, the numbers that were thrown out? So, that's why I would like at least that additional time. But again, it's up to the body. Thank you. MR. CHUNG: If I could respond to that too? `Cause I'm hoping that the number that the guy told me is real. He actually was willing to testify. I'm only telling you what he told me. So, I wanted to make that clarification. It's not like I did some research, and I found those numbers. This is what was told to me by a hundred percent and unemployable veteran. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any other comments on the postponement? Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, I have a question for Mr. Kanuha. Dru, in Section 19-73(a) where it talks about ACTING CHR. EOFF: Are you going to relate it to the postponement? MR. RICHARDS: Right. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yeah, go ahead. Page 54 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MR. RICHARDS: `Cause it'll have to do with clarifications. When you talk about the thing that Mr. Chung has said, owned and occupied by spouse or home or such person's spouse and widow or widower, does that mean the widow of someone killed in the line and thereby we do take care of the family? And this has to go with the postponement. And I get where the question's coming from; it's the first Section A. `Cause I understand if they were 100 percent disabled and then they passed, but does this also mean that if they passed during active ? MR. KANUHA: That's something to ask the Finance Department, too, `cause that's the original language of MR. RICHARDS: Okay, then that speaks toI will be supporting a postponement `cause then it gets a clarification that we need to have. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any other comments? Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair, yeah, on the postponement. As Ms. Poindexter gets that information related to veterans' benefits, I just want to be clear `cause the way it's framed in this bill is 100 percent. We have a lot of veterans with different disabilities. And so, I don't want toI want to compare apples with apples. And supporting the postponement really, for me, is everything costs something in this County. We can find other ways to support different groups, but everything does cost something. So, with that I yield. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Any other comments before we take a vote? Okay then, let's vote on the postponement. All in favor,please say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to postpone Bill 165, Draft 2, to September 5, Postpone: 2018, 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: None. Absent: Council Member Ruggles — 1. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. EOFF: We will be postponing Bill 165, Draft 2, to our Council meeting in Hilo on September 5�h. Page 55 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Bill 171: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-68, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2019 Appropriates revenues in the State Grants —Electronic Waste Recycling account ($160,000); and appropriates the same to the Electronic Waste Recycling account. Funds would be used towards the Department of Environmental Management, Solid Waste Division's Electronic Waste Recycling program. Reference: Comm. 1007 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) First Reading: August 8, 2018 Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 171 on second and final reading. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Is there any discussion? MS. DAVID: No, I believe we passed this out of first reading, and Mr. Kucharski's here if anyone has questions. But other than that, I ask for your continued support. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 171: The motion to pass Bill 171 on second and final reading (Adopted) 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 171 is adopted. Page 56 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Bill 172: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-68, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2019 Appropriates revenues in the State Grants —2018 Lava Disaster Relief—State account ($12 million); and appropriates the same to the 2018 Lava Disaster Relief—State account. Funds would be used to provide immediate relief necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of residents in the Lower Puna area. Reference: Comm. 1013 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) First Reading: August 8, 2018 Vote on Bill 172: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 172 on second and final (Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards and 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 172 is adopted. Bill 173: AUTHORIZES THE ISSUANCE OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAII IN AN AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $3,699,000 FOR THE PURPOSE OF FINANCING A PORTION OF THE COSTS OF CONSTRUCTING A PUBLIC SEWER SYSTEM SERVING THE LONO KONA SUBDIVISION; FIXES THE FORM, DENOMINATION, AND CERTAIN DETAILS OF SUCH BONDS; PROVIDES FOR THE ISSUANCE AND SALE OF SUCH BONDS; AND PROVIDES FOR OTHER MATTERS OR ACTIONS PERTAINING TO THE ISSUANCE AND SALE OF THE BONDS The sale of$3,699,000 of general obligation bonds to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) would allow the County to secure payment of a loan in the same amount from the USDA. Funds are needed due to higher than anticipated project costs. Reference: Comm. 1015 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) First Reading: August 8, 2018 Page 57 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 173 on second and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Kanuha. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion? MS. DAVID: I just ask for your continued support. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 173: The motion to pass Bill 173 on second and final reading (Adopted) 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. Vote on Motion to Ms. David moved to suspend Council Rule 15 to waive the Suspend Council 5-day hold for reconsideration. Seconded by Mr. Kanuha Rules: and 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: None. Absent: Council Member Ruggles — 1. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 173 is adopted and congratulations, Mr. Kanuha. It's been a while. Page 58 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Bill 174: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-69, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2018, TO JUNE 30, 2019 Increases the Environmental Management Lono Kona Improvement District— County project by $3,699,000, for a total appropriation of$4,839,000. Funds for this project shall be provided from General Obligation Bonds, Capital Projects Fund—Fund Balance and/or Other Sources. The increase reflects an anticipated USDA loan to cover portions of the cost of constructing a public sewer system serving the Lono Kona Subdivision. Funds are needed due to higher than anticipated costs. Reference: Comm. 1016 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) First Reading: August 8, 2018 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 174 on second and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Kanuha. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion? MS. DAVID: I ask for your continued support. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. All in favor,please say "aye." Vote on Bill 174: The motion to pass Bill 174 on second and final reading (Adopted) 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 174 is adopted. Page 59 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Vote on Motion to Ms. David moved to Suspend Council Rule 15 to waive the Suspend Council 5-day hold for reconsideration. Seconded by Mr. Kanuha Rules: and 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: None. Absent: Council Member Ruggles — 1. Excused: None. Bill 175: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 18-69, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2018, TO JUNE 30, 2019 Adds the Environmental Management Lono Kona Improvement District—Federal project for $1,071,000 to the Capital Budget. Funds for this project shall be provided from Federal Grants Receivable. These funds reflect an anticipated USDA grant to cover higher than anticipated costs of constructing a public sewer system for the Lono Kona Subdivision. Reference: Comm. 1016 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) First Reading: August 8, 2018 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 175 on second and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Kanuha. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion? Mr. Kanuha. MR. KANUHA: Just lastly, hopefully, I just want to thank everybody who's worked on this project for so long. It originally started with Council Member Angel Pilago. He was the original Council Member advocating for this project. So, thank you, Council Member Pilago for starting this, getting us off of our cesspools, transitioning to the sewer system, and hopefully we can go from there. But it's been a long process. I appreciate all of the Council Members' support, the department for pushing this forward, the Mayor, Finance, who were also pushing this forward. So, thank you, guys. Let's get this moving. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Ms. David. Page 60 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 MS. DAVID: Yes, I just want to say mahalo to Mr. Kanuha for his diligence in getting this done. What a send-off for your accomplishments. So, congratulations to everybody in the department and the Mayor. Thank you. ACTING CHR. EOFF: I'll just add that before the last redistricting, this subdivision was in Mr. Pilago's District 8. And so, yes, we started work on it whenever that was, maybe six, eight years ago probably. So, thank you, Mr. Kanuha, for finishing this up and, Mr. Kucharski, for implementation. Okay, did we waive the five-day holdover yet? Okay, all in favor of Bill 175, please say "aye." Vote on Bill 175: The motion to pass Bill 175 on second and final reading (Adopted) 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 175 is adopted. Vote on Motion to Ms. David moved to Suspend Council Rule 15 to waive the Suspend Council 5-day hold for reconsideration. Seconded by Mr. Kanuha Rules: and 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: None. Absent: Council Member Ruggles — 1. Excused: None. REPORTS: The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Reports. PC-67 NOMINATION OF SPRINGER KAYE TO THE BOARD OF APPEALS (Comm. 1000): Requires Council Confirmation by: September 2, 2018 (Section 134(1), Hawaii County Charter) Page 61 Hawaii County Council-47 August 22,2018 Motion to Approve: Ms. Poindexter moved to adopt Planning Committee Report No. 67. Seconded by Ms. David. Vote on PC-67: The motion to adopt Planning Committee Report No. 67 (Adopted) 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. ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. 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.) OTHER The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, BUSINESS: Other Business. (There were 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 12:05 p.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. David and 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. Page 62 Hawai`i County Council-47 August 22. 2018 ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries and, yes, everybody be safe out there. Thank you very much, Council Members and staff. Council Approval: SEP 1 9 201$ COUNTY ERK SM/dg Page 63