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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN EMC 2018/10/16 2016-2018Committee on Environmental Management 17th Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii October 16, 2018 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Environmental Management was called ORDER: to order at 4:05 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Kona, by Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Chair Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Vice Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Ms. Karen Eoff, Member Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Valerie T. Poindexter, Member Absent & Excused: Ms. Jennifer Ruggles, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee 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 in support of Bill 192 (Comm. 1083), and came forward when called by the Chair: Mary Rose Krijgsman, representing Rainbow Friends Animal Sanctuary (See Comm. 1083.15). Linda Brooks. Tina Bounds. Sylvia Maya Dolena, representing Aloha Animal Advocates (see Comm. 1083.6). Relinquish Chair: At this time, the Chair relinquished the chair to Vice Chair Mr. Richards. ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair O'Hara. Let the record show that I am assuming the role of chair for this Environmental Management Committee meeting at 4:09. EMC -17 October 16, 2018 COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. (There were none.) ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. (There were none.) BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES: Bills for Ordinances. Bill 192: AMENDS CHAPTER 2, ARTICLE 40, SECTION 2-202, AND CHAPTER 14, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Establishes an Environmental Quality Control program to mitigate nuisance factors at County facilities and County -owned properties, such as improperly -handled refuse and wastewater, invasive plants, and feral cats, dogs, and pigs. Reference: Comm. 1083 Intr. by: Ms. O'Hara Postponed: October 2, 2018 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. O'Hara, seconded by Mr. Kanuha, to recommend passage of Bill 192 on first reading.) ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Council Member O'Hara. MS. O'HARA: Thank you. In discussion at our previous meeting, it came to light that there were some concerns expressed by our Corporation Counsel Mr. Kamelamela regarding the expansion of the functions of DEM (Department of Environmental Management), and I offered to meet with him and Mr. Kucharski, who also had some concerns about the working in the bill, to straighten out the language to address their concerns. I think we've almost successfully done that and Mr. Kucharski is here to give us his impression at this point of the bill. And there may be still some wordsmithing to make him entirely comfortable, but I'll let Mr. Kucharski speak for himself. But, before I do, I have to move to amend Bill 192 with the contents of Communication 1083.1. Page 2 EMC -17 October 16, 2018 Motion to Amend: Ms. O'Hara moved to amend Bill 192 with the contents of Comm. 1083.1. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Council Member O'Hara. MS. O'HARA: Okay, Mr. Kucharski, I know we talked about it during break, but we have narrowed this down to facilities that are under the control of the Department of Environmental Management. Granted, I believe we talked about the language could be a little tighter in terms of expressing that. And other than that, you had one other comment to make about the changes that were done to this draft. I'll let you address those comments. (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director William Kucharski came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. KUCHARSKI: The modifications to this bill go a long way to alleviating concerns that I had on the original bill, which extended requirements and obligations that are not allowed in the Charter. And so these changes, I find are more than acceptable. The one issue that we have is there is a phrase that "on County facilities and on County -owned properties under the control of the department," I'm concerned with the "and" which would maybe lead to a split if there were two separate issues. So if the "and" could be deleted in those phrases that are used throughout the modifications. "County facilities and on County -owned properties under the control." The first "and." So it just would read, "County facilities on County -owned properties." I would feel better about that. The requirements—the only real new obligation on this is putting together, more or less, a formal environmental quality control plan for the properties that DEM controls. And the other requirements that are listed in here are things that are implicitly obligations of the department, in any case. So, I don't view this as increasing any requirements of the department. And as I go through it, the only thing that I really don't like in this, it's a generic issue, is that I'm supposed to well, I'm going to be requesting sufficient resources. And so, I lay that the Council for future consideration, to pay for these additional tasks. But, other than that, the requirements and the obligations here are things that we already do on our properties. So, I don't have any type of concerns on the wording of this other than the "and" that's in there. Page 3 EMC -17 October 16, 2018 MS. O'HARA: Thank you, and just for clarification for the other Council Members, when we were in discussion with the animal welfare groups over the last year, and Mr. Kucharski met with them several times about animal population control. We were hopeful that we could divide out the money that goes into the Hawaii Island Humane Society contract where there is $200,000 of the $2.1 million that is specific for spay and neuter, and put it in a separate price term agreement upon which all organizations, nonprofits on our island that have the capability and the track record to do spay and neuter clinics could potentially be on that list for the County to contract with as needed. And most frequently the need has been at DEM facilities, at the transfer stations and wastewater plants. So that's where most of the control is needed. And so we had gone to Mr. Kucharski to see if he could potentially manage that price term agreement if that was something the County would do. And he agreed, but we then found out that it wasn't within his jurisdiction as expressed in the County Charter. That's why this code amendment is in place. So down the road, money being available, and like you say it's a request for resources, which is not under your control directly, that's something that could occur to get us further down the road in terms of animal population control. And the overpopulation that we have on the island. MR. KUCHARSKI: And for clarification, that would be only on DEM properties, not the island because the feral cat population and damages is far in excess of what occurs on our limited properties. MS. O'HARA: You are absolutely right, Mr. Kucharski, it goes beyond your properties. This is a starting point for gaining greater access to controlling the overpopulation of feral animals and abandoned animals. Thank you. ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Other Council Members? MS. LEE LOY: Mr. Kucharski, could you share that point one more time about other owned properties that this could kind of extend to others? MR. KUCHARSKI: The language in here currently talks about controlling, like in Section 2-202; the fourth line, it says "current potential negative environmental or human impacts at County facilities and on County -owned properties under the control of the department." I'm concerned that that would lead to separate areas of responsibility. One of which I can do and the other I can't. So, with the "and" out, it says "County facilities on County -owned properties under the control" would clear that and it would not be ambiguous or challenge the bill. That's my opinion at least. Page 4 EMC -17 October 16, 2018 MS. LEE LOY: Okay, and if some of thoseI don't know if I'm even going to ask this correctly, because some properties that County facilities are on are executive ordered over. Please explain to me how that's going to work with this legislation. MR. KUCHARSKI: For example, the Hilo landfill is EO'd from the state, but we manage and operate that facility. So, we have control over that facility. Same with our transfer stations. But, off our transfer stations, it might be in the same EO, or it might EO'd to someone else. We would not have authorization under this to deal with feral animals in that area, but only that is EO'd to DEM. My concern is that my responsibility of DEM is to manage environmental impacts for solid waste, wastewater and recycling. And on a water or transfer station, we have restrictions on our leases not to attract biological vectors. And so that's part of our activity and part of our responsibility. At Kealakehe, protecting the endangered birds is another area where we need to deal with biological vectors, but that's under property we control. And if it's not on property we control, I don't see that I have the authority to do anything. That's the basis. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you for clarifying that. We often think it's ours just because we have a County asset on it. Or we're running a County program on it. So, thank you for clarifying that. I yield. ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Any other Council Members? Council Member Chung? Is he in the room? Okay. Hearing none. Hang on, Bill. I get to talk now. So, just to quickly verify, you don't see any undue imposition to you as far of Department of Environmental Management in adopting this? MR. KUCHARSKI: The only thing is formalizing what we would call the Environmental Management plan, the Environmental Quality Control program, and defining best practices. We do that usually by complying with our permit requirements. This would be a documentation exercise of what we do, and it could turn out to be a template for other departments. But, it's nothing that I want to impose on anyone else. But, it might be available as a template. We already do these things and it's a matter of just preparing a document that says this is how we're going to operate on our facilities to maintain and minimize environmental nuisance. And most of those are already part of our permit conditions. Page 5 EMC -17 October 16, 2018 ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, so, and the one comment you made that, Council Member O'Hara—the dropping the "and." I understand what you're saying, we're talking nuances of words. Are you available to working with that? MS. O'HARA: Absolutely, we can adjust that before it's next read, before Council. ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. Thank you, Bill. Before I call for the question, are there any other comments? Council Woman Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: And I'm not sure procedurally, and maybe we have to ask Corporation Counsel, on the main motion—when it's the main motion, got it. Got it. ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: We're on the amendment now. MS. LEE LOY: I don't have anything. Thank you. ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Okay. Alright, so again Clerk, can you clarify please? We are discussing the amendment. We have not voted on the amendment as yet. Okay, so is there any other conversations on the amendment? Hearing none, call for the question. All those in favor say "aye." Vote on Motion to: The motion to amend Bill 192 with the contents of Amend: Comm. 1083.1 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Committee Members David, Eoff, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, and Acting Chair Richards — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung and Ruggles — 2. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, So now we're back to Bill 192, as amended. Council Member O'Hara, do you have any further comments? MS. O'HARA: No, I don't have any other than, as I explained, the reason for doing this was, it had to do with being able to place a contract under DEM that we were in discussion with the Mayor's Office about, and it turned out that without doing this codification, they could not oversee or manage that contract. Page 6 EMC -17 October 16, 2018 ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Alright, so any other comments from the rest of the Council? Council Woman Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you Chair. First of all, I really appreciate what Ms. O'Hara is trying to do, is really trying to create that space to divorce that contract that we have heard over the last two years with our animal control part. So, this really does create that space. Having said that, because it's with DEM, I think about a process that we actually use when we're doing changes with things in the Planning Department when we actually send it to that board or commission. So, I don't know if that's a question for our Corporation Counsel if it goes to DEM. If you could help clarify that for us. (Note: At this time, Assistant Corporation Counsel Renee Schoen came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. SCHOEN: Because it will be affecting the duties and functions and responsibilities of the department, it does have to be referred to EMC (Environmental Management Commission) for their comment by the director and EMC prior to Council action. MS. LEE LOY: Prior to Council action. So, just a tiny little wordsmithing that Council Member O'Hara has to do. Do we get that ready and then send it down? MS. SCHOEN: I think that would be the proper procedure, but I would want to confirm with Jon, but I think you could do that first, and then refer that amendment to EMC. MR. HENRICKS: Well, you would need to actually motion those things in and then vote on them if you wanted them to appear that way, which means we would have to do that today or postpone this and do it another day, and then refer it then. We really can't send them something that, "Oh, this is what we would like for it to look like, and this is the way we would anticipate it to look like someday." MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Schoen. Thank you, Clerk, for that clarification. So with that, I would rather have that body have a nice clean piece of legislation so that they can evaluate it and then send the recommendation back up to us. So, I'm going to look at Ms. O'Hara. If we postpone—so you can make that further revision. MS. O'HARA: Absolutely, I'm willing to postpone it until the next Environmental Management Commission meeting on November I". And to be honest, Bill, we can talk about it. But I think there's a cleaner way than just eliminating the "and." I think there's a cleaner way to do state that. If we're going to wordsmith it, let's wordsmith it properly. So, we can discuss that. Page 7 EMC-17 October 16,2018 Okay, I'm willing to postpone it. Thank you. Okay, I'm moving to postpone it until November 1St ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: Well,they're bouncing back and forth. So, we have a motion to postpone it to November lst. Do I have a second? Vote on Motion to: Ms. O'Hara moved to postpone Bill 192, as amended, to Postpone: November 1st. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the (Approved) following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Eoff, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, and Acting Chair Richards– 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung and Ruggles–2. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: That brings us to the end of our agenda. You want me to close or you want to turn it—okay, we're at the end of our agenda. Motion to adjourn? ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 4:27 p.m., Ms. O'Hara moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Eoff, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, and Acting Chair Richards–7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung and Ruggles–2. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. RICHARDS: We stand adjourned. Approved: 419� 4&h4t /I/2r/e Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Chair (Date) Environmental Management Committee EO/dt Page 8