HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GREDC 2019/05/20 2018-2020Committee on Governmental Relations
and Economic Development
7th Session
Hawaii County Building
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, Hawaii
May 20, 2019
CALL TO
The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic
ORDER:
Development was called to order at 1:16 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by
Ms.
Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair.
ROLL CALL:
Present:
Ms.
Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair
Ms.
Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Vice Chair
Mr.
Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member
Ms.
Maile Medeiros David, Member
Ms.
Karen Eoff, Member
Mr.
Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member
Ms.
Valerie Poindexter, Member
Mr.
Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member
Ms.
Rebecca Villegas, 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: (There were none.)
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Moving on to business of the day. Mr. Clerk, if you
could please read in Communication 49.4.
COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business,
CATIONS: Communications.
Comm. 49.4: HAWAII STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES' MARCH 18, 2019,
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
From Council Member Valerie T. Poindexter, dated April 23, 2019.
GREDC-7 May 20, 2019
Motion to Close File: Ms. Poindexter moved to close file on Comm. 49.4.
Seconded by Mr. Richards.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Ms. Poindexter.
MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. The minutes are attached and pretty self-
explanatory. I think one of the highlights was, or—we had two presentations so
those were both highlights. Those were on climate change, with Josh Stanbro
from the City and County of Honolulu, Office of Climate Change, Sustainability
and Resiliency. And then we also had Brody Lockhart the founder of
350hawaii.org, so they both gave presentations. And I apologize it says the
handouts are attached, I will get that to each of you. And even there's two
reports, Hawai`i's report and Maui's report. It say's attached hereto, and I will
also get that to each of you. So I apologize for that not being attached. But if you
have any questions, I'll be happy to see if I can answer them. Thank you.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Council Members, any questions or comments for
Ms. Poindexter? Okay, Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. And maybe Ms. Poindexter, you can help me.
I see in our HSAC minutes there's old business, related to the HSAC conference
on Maui. And I was just wondering if they had a theme, or what some of their
session would look like. I've been searching online to begin to sign up, or send
staff and get ready for that.
MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, I know, I just receivedI know it was based on hot
topics, right. And I just got from Council Chair King what the topics would be,
and I thought she had emailed it to everyone. But I will go and find that. Because
I know over the weekend, I was going through my email and I did get something
from her. So I'll email that to all of you. But if you haven't registered, please
register. Because it is on hot topics, it's climate change, energy, just different
topics. But I'll get that to you. I can't say it off the top of my head, but like I said
I just got it from her. So I'll send it over to you.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you for that. I know we get tons of email, so, yeah, if you
could put it at the top our inbox that would be wonderful. Thank you, I yield.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. I think the topics are around
sustainability, if that's correct? Okay, pretty broad, so I'm interested to see what
the program looks like. I just had a couple of questions about old business as
well, could you share with the agreement with SPJ Consulting and what that
involves?
Page 2
GREDC-7
May 20, 2019
MS. POINDEXTER: Okay. So during our legislative briefing, it was suggested
to us by some legislators that we need to start looking at consultants to help us
with our legislative package. Because every year we've kind of like—every
County has just gone out there on their own. And so the suggestion was to get a
consultant, so that they could be there continuously and lobbying for HSAC on
what we needed to push through at the end. I'd just like to say thank you, Council
Member Karen Eoff, because that was, I think the only thing in our legislative
package that went through was the funding for the life guards. And that was put
through by Council Member Eoff, so thank you for that.
So SBJ Consulting was the hired—we contracted them to do, I don't want to just
say lobbying. But they did more than just lobby. But getting information in
relationship building, I think because this year we really wanted to concentrate on
relationship building and what would it take for us to work with legislators to
come up with things that would benefit us, and that they would support. So it's
looking at a it's trying to do a paradigm shift on how we normally do business.
So we got a report, I think on the next minutes you'll see the report from SBJ and
what was happening with them.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: One more question to follow up with that. The tracking
update, is that firm also responsible for tracking the various legislation put forth
by HSAC?
MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, they give us reports.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Got it.
MS. POINDEXTER: So, yeah. So the next minutes, you'll see what the report is.
And then we had Kelly King, who was in charge to do a lot more tracking than
what we hired them to do. Because there were things that weren't on the
legislative package that people were, you know, concerned about. So Kelly took
that upon herself and her office to track and also to let us know what they're
supporting; what bills, and what bills are going through and not.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: So is they're tracking similar to the phenomenal job that
our folks at LRB (Legislative Research Branch) put forward in real time. They do
a really awesome job at that, it's very impressive.
MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, nobody can beat our LRB, right.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: It's true.
MS. POINDEXTER: I want to give kudos to Kelly, but nobody can beat our
LRB though.
Page 3
GREDC-7 May 20, 2019
CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. I was just curious. Thank you so much for the
update. Any other questions or comments? If not there is a motion on the floor to
close file on Communication 49.4, all in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Comm. 49.4: The motion to close file on Comm. 49.4 was carried by the
Filed following voice vote:
Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff,
Kaneali `i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter,
Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz — 9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: 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
ORDINANCES: business, Bills for Ordinances.
(There were none.)
ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 1:23 p.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn
MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter,
Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz — 9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CZ: The Committee on GRED is adjourned at 1:23 p.m.,
VU 7
Ms. Ashley Kierkiewicz, Chair (Date)
Governmental Relations and Economic
Development Committee
AK/rk
Page 4