HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2019-04-24 2018-2020 Hawaii County Council
101h Session
West Hawaii Civic Center
74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
April 24, 2019
INVOCATION: Senior Pastor Sunny Ahn of Kona United Methodist Church 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: Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Chair
Ms. Karen Eoff, Vice Chair
Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member
Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member
Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member
Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member
Ms. Valerie T. Poindexter, Member
Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member
Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member
PLEDGE OF The Acting Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of
ALLEGIANCE: Allegiance.
(At this time, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder 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-10 April 24,2019
Sandra Demoruelle: Comm. 193, in support.
Janet Marshall: Bill 36 (Comm. 153), in support.
Betty Oberman: Bill 36 (Comm. 153), in support.
Abolghassem Abraham Res. 115-19 (Comm. 199); and
Sadegh: Bill 51 (Comm. 201), comment.
Debra Smith: Bill 36 (Comm. 153), comment.
Katherine Macnse: Bill 36 (Comm. 153), in support.
Dwight J. Vicente: Res. 115-19 (Comm. 199);
Res. 143-19 (Comm. 240);
Bill 32 (Comm. 120);
Bill 48 (Comm. 197);
Bill 49 (Comm. 198);
Bill 50 (Comm. 200); and
Bill 54 (Comm. 205), comment.
Jerry Warren: Comm. 193, in support.
Christy A. Logan: Res. 128-19 (Comm. 219), in support.
(representing Hawaii Artist
Collaboration)
Susan Kim: Res. 136-19 (Comm. 231), in opposition; and
(representing I Mua Bill 36 (Comm. 153), in support.
Lower Puna)
Kathy Emery: Bill 36 (Comm. 153), in support.
Dane duPont: Res. 136-19 (Comm. 231);
Bill 36 (Comm. 153); and
Bill 61 (Comm. 228), in support.
APPROVAL The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
OF MINUTES: Approval of Minutes.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Approval of Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to approve the Minutes of
Minutes: March 13, 2019. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by
(Approved) the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
Vote on Approval of Ms. David moved to approve the Minutes of March 28,
Minutes: 2019. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and carried
(Approved) by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I've been asked to take several things out of order. I'm
sorry I can't do everything first, but we're going to take Bill 32. That would be
under "Second and Final Reading." Mr. Clerk, if you can please read Bill 32.
Change Order As directed by the Acting Chair and with no objection from the Council
of Business: Members, the following items were taken out of order:
Bill 32: AMENDS SECTION 25-8-3 (NORTH KONA ZONE MAP) ARTICLE 8,
CHAPTER 25 (ZONING) OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983
(2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT
CLASSIFICATION FROM AGRICULTURAL - FIVE ACRES (A-5a) TO
FAMILY AGRICULTURAL - ONE ACRE (FA-la) AT `O`OMA, 1sT
NORTH KONA, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 7-3-005:112
(Applicant: Martin M. Ohan Trust) (Area: 5.966 acres)
The Leeward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for
this change of zone, which would allow the applicant to apply to subdivide the
property into five parcels. The applicant intends to extend Lalei Place through the
subject property and connect to Hane Street, and also intends to keep one or two
lots for family purposes and sell the remaining lots.
Reference: Comm. 120
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz (B/R)
First Reading: April 10, 2019
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Bill 32: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to pass Bill 32 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Bill 32 is adopted. Next, I would like to
take up Bill 48 under First Reading.
Bill 48: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 12-156, WHICH AMENDED ORDINANCE
NO. 02-64, WHICH AMENDED SECTION 25-8-3 (NORTH KONA ZONE
MAP), ARTICLE 8, CHAPTER 25 (ZONING CODE) OF THE HAWAII
COUNTY CODE, BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION
FROM AGRICULTURAL—FIVE ACRES (A-5a) TO SINGLE FAMILY
RESIDENTIAL—20,000 SQUARE FEET (RS-20) AT KALAOA 4TH
NORTH KONA, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 7-3-005:030
(Applicant: Ellen Garver Koizumi) (Area: Approximately 3.13 Acres)
The Leeward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for
this amendment to allow for a five-year time extension to Condition D (Final
Subdivision Approval). The applicant proposes to develop a six-lot subdivision.
The property is located adjacent to the Kona Coastview Subdivision to the south,
at the end of Leimomi Street.
Reference: Comm. 197
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz (B/R)
Approve: PC-19
Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to pass Bill 48 on first reading and
adopt Planning Committee Report No. 19. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion? Questions?
MR. CHUNG: Mr. Mooers.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
(Note: At this time, Gregory Mooers, applicant's representative, came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. CHUNG: I don't have a question, but he's not going to be available when it
comes up for final reading. Is everybody okay with that?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Good morning. So, in your bill, are you
asking for any changes to curbs, gutters, sidewalks, anything like that?
MR. MOOERS: No. Just the time extension to complete the subdivision.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any other questions or comments? Hearing none, then,
all in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Bill 48: The motion to pass Bill 48 on first reading and adopt
(Approved) Planning Committee Report No. 19 was carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 48 will move to second reading. Thank you. We're
going to take Bill 49.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Bill 49: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 10-64, WHICH RECLASSIFIED LANDS FROM
PROJECT DISTRICT TO PROJECT DISTRICT AT PONAHAWAI,
SOUTH HILO, HAWAII, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 2-3-037:001,
2-3-044:019, AND 2-3-049:053
(Applicant: Wailani Development LLQ (Area: Approximately 171.504 Acres)
The Windward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for
this amendment to the Wailani Project District. The original project was
proposed to be a mixed-use community, housing a medical office campus,
commercial space, a business park, senior housing, single- and multiple-family
residential lots, and recreational and open space. The applicant seeks to modify
11 conditions within Ordinance 10-64 to improve the projects feasibility. The
property is located on the west side of the Ponahawai Street intersection, and
northeast of the Moho`uli Street Extension.
Reference: Comm. 198
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz (B/R)
Approve: PC-20
(Note: Comms. 198.2 and 198.3 from Council Member Aaron S. Y. Chung, dated
April 23, 2019, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 49, were circulated.)
Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to pass Bill 49 on first reading and
adopt Planning Committee Report No. 20. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Chung, I'm going to go to you.
MR. CHUNG: Thank you, Madam Chairman. I asked for this to be taken out of
order. I understand that Ms. Poindexter is going to be leaving soon, and I wanted
her to at least weigh in on what she's learned regarding Complete Streets. And
then, I'm going to ask for this to be tabled because I still have to work on the
language of the amendments. Ms. Poindexter, if you don't mind?
MS. POINDEXTER: About November 2015, we had Dan Burden—he's with the
Blue Zones project—come down to Honoka`a because we have narrow streets
and we're looking at how to, you know, calming traffic, how do we do it. And
they agreed that narrow streets help calm traffic. We even looked at safe routes to
school. So, we walked through where the Honoka`a tennis court is. The roads are
narrower there, too. So, it slows down the traffic. They didn't have sidewalks.
And he said, instead of building that sidewalk, we should do the because the
road paved wide enough that we could put the trees or some barriers there to
make it a safe route. So, there's other opportunities besides the sidewalk. But
again, if you go narrow streets to calm traffic, we could possibly do sidewalks,
too.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
But basically, even on the trip that we went, I think it was in 2013, the Planning
Department, our DPW (Department of Public Works), our County under
Mayor Kenoi's Administration, we all took a trip. We went to Washington and
also into Portland to look at the road designs. Everywhere we went, they either
were putting a roundabout in because traffic was, you know, people were
speeding because the roads were too wide. So, they're looking at when they do
future development, the narrower roads and even to make it a little bit more
curves in it because that is common.
I'm supporting more narrow streets as we look at future developments from what
I've learned and the things that we deal with in our rural communities as well.
So, I just wanted to say that, Chair Chung, that I know I'm not going to be here
toI'm supporting this and hopefully it moves forward. But just to let you know
that narrow streets, I would really encourage that. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Poindexter. Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Thank you very much, Ms. Poindexter. I mean, she shared this
with me after the last meeting. I thought it was very interesting. And inasmuch
as she is going to be leaving soon, I wanted to take this out of order so that she
could share her thoughts on this matter.
Just for everyone's information, I'm still in the process of tweaking some of the
language on two different amendments. I'll tell you what they are. One is, as
we've discussed, 80-foot-wide right-of-way with no curbs, gutters, sidewalks.
But I've been discussing this matter with the developers and trying to integrate all
of the thoughts that were offered at the Committee and taking into consideration
what Ms. Poindexter had told me. And I also have an amendment that's going to
provide for 60-foot wide right-of-way with curbs, gutters, sidewalks.
I wanted to really discuss that matter, and I've really been taking a lot of time
exploring the island, looking at different roads. I just, yesterday, went to the tech
park. It's the one when you go down Ka`iminani through the highway.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Right.
MR. CHUNG: That's a 60-foot wide right-of-way with bike lanes. It's really
nice. And there's no sidewalks. So, if you imagine putting sidewalks there, it
could be very nice. Sixty-foot wide, I believe, is adequate. It's more than
adequate. And I discussed this with the developer, and they're open to—it's
going to cost more, of course but they want to do a good job, and they want to
integrate the thoughts that were offered by the Council. So, I just wanted to let
you guys know, but I still need to tweak some of the language. If I could ask for
this matter to be tabled
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, so, did you mean table till the end of today or ?
MR. CHUNG: Today. Sometime today.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. That's the motion, I guess.
Motion to Table: Mr. Chung moved to table Bill 49. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy.
MR. RICHARDS: Could I make a comment before we vote?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Do you want to make it towards the postponement or ?
MR. RICHARDS: Are we going to bring this back, is that what's going to
happen, so we can talk story later?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Today, later. So, the motion's on the floor. Unless
there's discussion, all in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Motion The motion to table Bill 49 was carried by the following
to Table: voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: This matter is tabled to the end of the agenda. The next
time, I was asked to take out of order Resolution 136-19.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Res. 136-19: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR
AND OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR A MULTI-YEAR
AGREEMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
SOFTWARE FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a three-year agreement with Environmental
Systems Research Institute to support County geographic information system
deployment requirements for initiatives such as disaster relief recovery and the
County's new online building permit system.
Reference: Comm. 231
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 136-19. Seconded by
Ms. Villegas.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. This particular resolution, a waiver was
requested. I don't see Mr. Kucharski—Ms. Ung. Is she inch, there she is.
Director Ung, could you come forward and just give us a brief explanation of the
waiver request out of Committee and what this software is for? And I recall a
testifier in PahoaI'm not sure if you were listening—needed some clarification
also. So, could you explain the urgency of this and also the system? Thank you.
(Note: At this time, Information Technology Director Jules Ung and
Geographic Information Systems Analyst Erik Lash came forward to
address the members of the Council, via videoconferencing from Hilo.)
MS. UNG: Sure. I'm here today with Erik Lash. He's our GIS (Geographic
Information Systems) Analyst III and lead for the County. So, basically, what
we've done is we've renewed our license maintenance agreement with ESRI
(Environmental Systems Research Institute). They're the only makers of this
enterprise product of this industry standard GIS software application. And so,
they're the only ones that can provide this agreement and this licensing. So as of
currently, we do not have the capacity to support County initiatives and additional
projects such as recovery, Vision Zero. We want to be able to expand the use of
our GIS platform, and in order to do that, we need this Enterprise Agreement.
MS. DAVID: Okay. And the funding for this?
MS. UNG: So, ESRI has offered us step-up model. So, for the first year, it's
actually the same as our license renewal or maintenance. In other words, there's
no additional cost to us. But eventually with this step-up model, in three years,
we'll be paying $150,000 annually. And that's basically for unlimited licensing.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
So, up to potentially 1,000 licenses, which would give us the capacity to really
leverage the platform in the way that we need to, to manage data effectively
across the County.
MS. DAVID: Thank you. And this comes out of your operating budget?
MS. UNG: Yes.
MS. DAVID: Thank you very much. All right. Thank you for that explanation
and I yield. Thank you, Chair.
MS. UNG: Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. David. Mr. Richards has a question.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Okay, so, Ms. Ung, if I'm reading this
correctly, our current cost is about $70,000 a year, and this will go up to $150,000
a year. Is that correct?
MS. UNG: In the third year, that's correct.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And then it'll be $150,000 thereafter. So, we're about
doubling the cost.
MS. UNG: And then we'll be capped and then we know what to expect from year
to year. So, previously, licensing,just for the renewal to maintain the same
number of licenses, has actually doubled in the past. So, we were caught really
off-guard with an unbudgeted expense. But now,with the Enterprise Agreement,
budgeting will be predictable and we'll have the capacity to expand.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And in this, it talks about using the GIS for supporting
the building permit. And we have the EnerGov problem before us as well. Can
you explain how this is all going to work together?
MR. UNG: Sure. And I'm going to ask Erik to jump in if I'm not being
descriptive or detailed enough. So, he's sitting to my left. But, basically, we've
been working really hard to get all GIS users up to a certain standard and
leveraging the platform in a way that can make the backend more automated to
support a more seamless process for EnerGov.
There's only one of Erik, so we have to work really intelligently behind the
scenes to actually make like doable for him, to make GIS manageable
countywide. And a lot of it has to do with automating the way data is managed on
the backend. Erik, would you like to add to that?
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MR. LASH: Council Chair, thank you for having me. I would just like to add
to
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Erik, could you bring the mic a little closer?
MR. LASH: I'd like to add to Director Ung's statement in that as concerning
EnerGov, particularly this is going to be a process where all of the agencies and
the public interact with this specific GIS system. As a system, it has multiple
components. And right now, we are tied to a limited number of licenses. So, we
actually have no capacity to offset any system degradation, which we're
experiencing in a number of capacities in regards to the outflow of data from our
GIS system.
So, what the Enterprise Agreement will do for us is allow us to design a
county-specific implementation. If we need to stand up a specific GIS server in a
specific location for an emergency, we'll be able to do so. If we need to stand up
and add a component to support the permit system and all of the data capacity that
it requires, we have that capacity ready and able to go.
MS. UNG: And maybe another
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Excuse me one second. Just for the record, Erik, could
you please just state your full name and title?
MR. LASH: Yes. My name is Erik Lash. I'm the GIS Analyst III with the
Information Technology Department.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Sorry to interrupt.
MR. RICHARDS: I'm bothered by the fact that we're doing this now when
we've been working on EnerGov for a year or however long. Why this now and
not a year ago?
MR. LASH: I can answer that question. The capacity assessment for what is
required for the County to push forward these initiatives was not completed in a
manner that allowed technical advisors to make the proper decisions as leading up
to the EnerGov implementation. And so, we've had to take a look at what exists
at the County level and what is needed at the County level and look at what the
County requires in order to successfully implement these projects.
MR. RICHARDS: Chair, this is not convincing me that we're spending our
money wisely because it seems like we're piecemealing, and I don't like that. I'm
going to yield right now because I'm going to let my other colleagues ask some
questions. I yield for the moment.
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ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Colleagues? Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Erik, maybe in just more simple terms rather
than such technical terms, could you because there's a lot of people here that
don't understand the "http" and the "www." In real simple terms, what does this
money do to help stand up or fix or patch this building permit system tied in to the
framework that we have at the County, please?
MR. LASH: Okay. So, for people who don't understand how the system is built,
up until last week we only had one GIS server for the entire County to use. That
GIS server had to handle the load and capacity requirements of every department,
every operation, every initiative.
As we experienced some infrastructure problems, that server became
incapacitated without a backup in place. The backup for that particular
implementation is something we have to purchase separately. As a separate cost,
it would be $30,000 more that we have not purchased. As far as user bases go,
unlimited licensing means that—for instance, I received a request to get a quote
for a license for a planner last week. That quote came back at $10,000.
Unlimited licensing means we'll have the licensing available to provide to that
planner without having to go and spend $10,000 that was not already budgeted
for.
We've had three more requests since this initiative was proposed for licenses at
the $10,000 level. So, there's $30,000 in licenses that we have been quoted that
we're just waiting to either have the departments purchase themselves or be
covered under an agreement such as this for the users on the users' side. As far as
the server side, a backup server is another $30,000 plus the maintenance fee of
$5,000 a year if we piecemeal it instead of doing it under a volume licensing
agreement like this one.
In discussions with ESRI, they offered us the County Government EA Program as
an option to solve the County's problems in the licensing issues we're
encountering. This year, the immediate cost savings based on licenses that we've
already been asked for is over $30,000. If we push forward and look at initiatives
such as mass transportation initiatives, they're going to need licenses. They're
going to need a GIS server for them to operate with.
If we look at the potential that the one-permit permit system is actually not going
to be able to exist without having its own GIS server. Because, right now it's
integrated with the County's business functions on that GIS server and drawing
all sorts of capacity off of that. If we look at that, then there's another $30,000 in
immediate savings. So, we pushed this forward as an effort to essentially try to
budget appropriately for the County needs based on current and future initiatives
that are being undertaken today.
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MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Erik. Boy, this feels like a rock in a hard place.
That one-permit system really helps. But I'm a little bothered, and maybe, Erik,
you could walls back to the comment when this system was developed, I guess
there wasn't any real planning for capacity. Could you explain that part again?
MR. LASH: Yeah, I'll try to keep this as low tech as I can. It's a little difficult to
do because it's a system design conversation. Essentially, a GIS server system is
like a transportation network. You have a lot of data that moves through it. And
as you grow your transportation requirements, you also have to grow your road
sizes, for instance. It's not a one-size-fits-all sort of implementation.
And so, when the GIS server was first proposed several years ago and designed
several years ago, the design was based around an idea that they wanted to service
departments with the ability to promote some public applications on top of that.
The existing GIS server meets that need, but it does not have the capacity in its
design or its implementation to support something such as a one-permit system
where the public, all of the departments, and everybody else will be funneling
traffic through that. What happens in a situation like that, we've experienced a
little bit already in testing, is that everything slows down for everyone, and we
end up with data bottlenecks. We end up with machines that are over capacity as
far as what the processing capabilities are. So, like a road system, you have to
look at redesigning your ramps and how you access things in the GIS, and that's
what we are looking at.
MS. LEE LOY: Erik, thank you for that analogy. I think, the road system, I'm
actually thinking a bit as a water pipe.
MR. LASH: Yes.
MS. LEE LOY: Right? If we have a 4-inch water pipe, we can only get four
inches of water through it. So, what this does is expand the water pipe to an
8-inch water pipe where we can actually put four inches of water all the way up to
eight inches of water.
MR. LASH: That is correct. That is a good analogy.
MS. LEE LOY: Okay, so then, my larger concern is what is that capacity.
Because, as the Legislature passes initiatives as it relates to the building permit
process or some other agency functions, I want to know that we're building a
system that has the flexibility to take on future legislative changes. Do we have
any assurances for that?
MR. LASH: Yes, we do. That's what the EA (Enterprise Agreement) is designed
for. It's designed to allow small governments and county governments like ours
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the flexibility to implement as needed as things change within the County or as
initiatives grow.
MS. LEE LOY: Is there a cap on those types of licenses or users? Because, I
heard Director Ung talk about it's unlimited up to a thousand. So, in my mind,
that's not unlimited.
MR. LASH: Right.
MS. LEE LOY: Unlimited means unlimited.
MR. LASH: Right. What Director Ung was referring to was ArcGIS Online,
which is the cloud aspect of our program. Right now, we have 55 licenses
available in ArcGIS Online. Under the EA, we would increase to a thousand
users available in ArcGIS Online. So, that aspect of it is capped at a thousand.
As far as our on-premises implementation, we have uncapped licenses under the
EA, meaning we can implement to whomever and however we require.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I'll yield at this time.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Erik, I have a question that's a little
related to what my colleague Ms. Lee Loy brought up. She talked about wanting
to ensure that the system we have in place is able to meet the needs of future
mandates. So, in thinking about that, does that mean that you folks have budgeted
and thought about the additional framework, the hardware that's going to be
necessary in order to grow the system without, I would say, the current servers or
anything collapsing or being able to do maintenance and making sure that you
have the framework to have backups?
MR. LASH: Yes, we have, and I'm going to defer to Director Ung for the rest of
the answer.
MS. UNG: So, one of the items in the budget that we've proposed for fiscal
year 19-20 is a GIS virtual system. So, I believe that's included in our current
program budget. It was also included as a supplemental request. So, we are
planning to increase our capacity to support a growing platform. And
additionally, we are working in coordination with Finance, with the recovery
team, the Mayor's Office, Civil Defense, to really develop long-term strategy and
how to implement a multi-hazard mitigation plan to account for growth, to
account for data management countywide, and hazard mitigation.
Everything is based on the TMK(Tax Map Key), and we do need standards in
place and we do need long-term strategy as we grow.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Good. I'm glad you brought up strategy. We're going to
go there in just a second. But before I do, Erik, you mentioned that, let's see here,
this new system with the multiple licenses and the fact that we're going to have
access to other layers and components, we'll be able to stand things up for seeing
a mass transit system or in times of recovery, but you talk about lack of capacity
within IT (Department of Information Technology). So, who is going to standup
these other components if you guys are maxed right now with the work that you
have currently on your plate?
MR. LASH: That's a very good question. One of the benefits of the direction
that ESRI has gone over the last couple of years is that they've made deployments
automated. Essentially, scripting a GIS server deployment now is a half-a-day
process for one person. So, it's not a large—the deployment itself is not a large
objective to achieve; it's the maintenance after that. And much of that
maintenance is on the actual user themselves: data maintenance as they work
with their data, the application maintenance as they stand up applications.
So, for something like an EnerGov project or the lava recovery project, I'm the
primary maintenance provider for those actual applications. But for departmental
applications, departmental staff are working with their own data, working with
their own applications and maintaining those. So, at the infrastructure level, I'm
hoping to get some help, but it is, right now, well within a reasonable expectation
that we can push forward with further deployment and implementation without
further assistance.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I'm going to walls back to what you said. "Infrastructure
Help." Can you elaborate on that,please?
MR. LASH: Yeah. Infrastructure help is—the GIS is a network implementation
for the County. On the network, things like servers need maintenance routinely as
well as the software itself. It gets update patches. And there are configurations
on the backend of the server that increase performance. Each GIS server that has
a different function has different performance enhancements that get done to it.
So, at the infrastructure level, maintaining all of that as an IT function is
essentially a well-documented method of configuration of the servers. That's a
big part of the job I'm undertaking here.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. How would you characterize the state of our
County's IT system's infrastructure?
MR. LASH: That's kind of a bigger question than relating specifically to GIS.
My feelings on the GIS infrastructure are that we need to proceed forward with
enhancements to it, which will allow the County to get out of it what they invest
into it and more.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, I hear what you're saying, but the GIS system and
servers tie into the larger IT infrastructure for the County. So, going back to what
Jules mentioned—and I like that approach. I like the fact that we are now being
more strategic in looking at the future in terms of the plans that we make and how
we respond, but I'm just concerned thatI feel like we need an audit of what the
current IT infrastructure is and setting up a strategy for where we know we want
to go and the kinds of maps and other things that we want to see created for our
County. I just feel like we need a strategy but we also need an audit to better
understand the kind of infrastructure that's going to be needed in order to get us
there. Would you support an audit and an assessment of the infrastructure at IT?
MR. LASH: I would definitely support an assessment of the infrastructure at IT.
One of the things that routinely happens in GIS is the strategic plan. When we get
through our current challenges, I am attempting to push forward a budget to have
a strategic plan and assessment done.
MS. UNG: So, currently, there is a plan for a strategic assessment of the network.
We would bring in a consultant—the same consultant to help us implement the
current network—and do an assessment. And that was actually going to sneak
into this fiscal year's budget proposal, but it most likely will hit the 19-20, or
20-21 budget. So, that's currently in negotiation with the consultant. And it does
include an audit and assessment. Primarily, we would like to upgrade the
backbone in addition to increasing our internet bandwidth. So, at our connection
points in West Hawaii and Civil Defense. And that's also a supplemental within
this year's budget proposal.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Jules, for the background. Chair, I'm going to
yield at this time. I might have more questions, but I want to hear what my other
colleagues have to say. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments
from Council Members? Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Erik, you mentioned, or maybe Jules did,
about coordination between Civil Defense. And I had Ms. David's staff pull the
supplemental request that we got during our budget hearings. Civil Defense put
in a supplemental budget request as it relates to the information systems analyst.
Basically, in this budget request, the justification was this position would
coordinate with DPW's GIS to develop the input platform using Survey 123 for
ArcGIS. Is this all related, Erik? Or Jules? Can you help me?
MR. LASH: Yeah, I can clarify that. Survey 123 is essentially a way to have
field workers input data into your GIS database system. So, what people do with
it is they will put it on a mobile device and they will take it out into the field with
them first. We used Collector, which is similar, during the lava event. But
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Survey 123 is a lot more qualitative in that it allows the user to add extra notes
and all sorts of stuff into it. What that does is it communicates with the GIS
server on the backend and delivers its data into that server for, then, distribution to
the web maps, for instance, or to a user-specific map document that they're
working with.
How the request from Civil Defense ties in is that they require some specialty in
their office for the implementation of that for their Civil Defense daily activities.
And so, that's what this person would do is they would be essentially a GIS
analyst in that office.
MS. LEE LOY: So, this resolution asks for money for this process. But then,
looking ahead, will Civil Defense also be needing money to tie into this larger
network of information?
MR. LASH: They're—go ahead, I'm sorry.
MS. LEE LOY: Well, I think that's the struggle that Council Member Richards
and even I'm having is all the different departments come to us asking for monies
as it relates to IT to stand up this larger ArcGIS system, which is the framework,
so that everybody can communicate across all types of channels and pillars and
bandwidth, but they're coming to us piecemeal. So, back to my question.
Approving this resolution is one part. Will Civil Defense come and ask for more
money to connect or integrate into this system? Help me with this.
MR. LASH: Sure. I can answer that question. So, the EA agreement provides
the licensing. That licensing can be distributed to any GIS user in the County.
It's unlimited. From there, Civil Defense will pull from our pool of licenses—it's
already paid for—but they will also have our pool of server resources available.
So, the backend that they tie into is covered under this ask as well. What they
will need to supply for themselves is the staff to do so.
As we grow GIS, each department is going to need somebody in their department
who is knowledgeable about these systems—well, not maintaining but interacting
with them and working with us to make sure they get what they need out of it.
And so, that, I believe, is what Civil Defense is asking for. They have the
hardware to implement Survey 123 already. They've got a whole fleet of mobile
devices. What they need is somebody to coordinate for them.
MS. LEE LOY: It's kind of clear as mud for me right now. But I'm going to
yield at this time. Thanks.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Mr. Richards.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Thanks, Erik. You're the one that gets to
answer these questions for us right now. I'm a little bothered by the fact that this
is coming before us. It was waived through Committee. Can you explain the
urgency? And if I missed it, I apologize, but explain the urgency of this. And the
thing that Councilwoman Lee Loy is struggling with, which I am, is it appears
we're having all these conversations in the silos that we like to live in and not
having the cross communication that we need so we do this as a concerted effort
rather than just piecemeal. So, can you please explain the urgency for this coming
forward?
MR. LASH: Yeah. So, there is a convergence of multiple different pieces of
challenge that have created an urgency here, as you're correct in that. One of
those challenges is the infrastructure at Civil Defense where the current GIS
server system resides. That infrastructure is causing problems to the system,
which has essentially resulted in a corrupted server. The gateway is corrupted at
that system right now.
We require more licensing in order to build up a replacement, first of all. It's not
something we can just shut down because the County depends on it. We actually
have to build up a replacement, move all of the data and applications off the
failing server to the replacement server, and then essentially put that in place
while we take the other server offline. So, there is one aspect of the situation that
is leading to this urgency.
The second aspect is with the permit system. Testing that permit system requires
the stability in the GIS server platform. And without that stability, they can't
move forward with EnerGov. And so, the County really needs to move the
EnerGov project forward to completion. And as such, we need to ensure in the IT
level that they have the GIS server resource available to do that.
There's another aspect of this at the GIS server level that is urgent in that
departments rely on that GIS server for their daily work. And departments are
suffering some issues due to downtime because of the situations that we're
encountering with having only one device servicing all of the County's needs.
A normal implementation under a best practice standard for GIS server
replacement, like the County has, currently would be to use—and I'll try to keep
this as non-technical as possible—what's termed "a high availability system,"
where multiple GIS server implementations or GIS servers themselves are
communicating back and forth. If one fails, the other one picks up the load. And
so, in order to move forward from challenge to solution, we must first have
licensing available because, without licensing, we can't standup any other
machines in order to offset load or fix existing situations.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
So, I know it looks like this is being done piecemeal, but that is in fact the
opposite of my request. What I'm requesting is first to fix the immediate need
and then move on to an intermediate strategy. And then from there, work with a
five-year plan or even a ten-year plan depending on how the strategic assessment
goes, to go from where we are today to where the County knows it wants to be
tomorrow.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay. Is this the problem for EnerGov?
MR. LASH: Yes. An analysis of server logs indicates that, on the backend
behind the software, there has been a developing scenario of issues starting 2016
that have not been addressed and need to be addressed. Those issues resulted in
the software behaving abnormally, which then contributed to some of the delays
in EnerGov.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay. I won't speak for my colleagues, but I will speak my
thoughts. I'm bothered by the fact that we're getting this here and now and
almost a back-against-the-wall-request legislation. The reason I say that is
because it would appear that we saw this coming but didn't do something about it.
And it could have been a resource thing, I'm not sure. But I'm bothered by the
fact that we have a presentation or a request before us. We've had no presentation
on the overall scoping plan. And I can appreciate it, Erik, the fact that you're
saying it's not done in a silo, but from my perspective, it sure appears that some
decisions were made within silos with not a lot of cross communication. This is
something that came up previously as we were discussing this.
I am not object to funding something well thought out, well managed being
brought forward. I'm very bothered by funding anything that I'm not convinced
that we're getting the most bang for our buck when it comes to expending there.
My problem with this is the fact that it sounds like we have a failing GIS system
with no redundancy and very little capability of backing up. And I get what
you're saying concerning the cross having multi-servers backing up each other
and having come in. What I don't appreciate is the fact that we're getting this at
the 1 Ph hour and saying we've really got to do this otherwise it's going to crash.
I'm having trouble supporting this because of that. I'm going to yield at this
point.
MS. UNG: Councilman Richards, I completely appreciate your perspective. Our
intention is not to put you up against a rock and a hard place. However, we're
striving to be as transparent and communicative and collaborative as possible. So,
just to give you a sense of our timeline, we hired Erik two weeks before the
eruption began. So, he literally, his first day of work on the job was within Civil
Defense several days after the eruption began in Leilani Estates. So, it's been a
whirlwind for him in obtaining an in-depth understanding of where we are in the
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
configuration and implementation of our GIS system, which was procured I
believe in 2015 through Homeland Security funding with Civil Defense.
And so, as his knowledge and experience has progressed over the past year, we
have a much better idea of the real issues that we are being confronted with and
that we need to deal with to provide stability and a foundation for GIS to really
take off countywide. So, it's been a process just for our department to get a
handle of what the real issues are and where we need to go. So, it's not like we
want to hide information from you or plan within a silo. It's, "Let's get a handle
on the situation. Now, we have a much better understanding of where we need to
be." And so, we're coming to you today with our request.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: You still have the floor.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. And thanks, Jules, for that. Okay. So, now,
I'm going to ask the question then, and I appreciate last year was a wild card. We
all know that. But this is not something that was identified two weeks ago. This
has been a growing issue for at least, did I hear 2016? So, as we come into the
budget season, why didn't we have a conversation in Committee? Why wasn't
this presented in Committee saying, "Okay, look. We have this issue coming at
us. These are our concerns?" Why is this pushed forward now instead of a month
ago or two months ago at the Committee meeting saying, "We have an issue and
we need to tell you about it, and we need help solving it." Why was it pushed
through and requested to be waived through Committee?
MS. UNG: Oh, I apologize, Councilman Richards. Really, the logs that Erik is
referring to, the activity logs on our servers, are what indicates errors going back
to 2016. So, it wasn't as if we had identified the real issues, but Erik has been
able to take a deeper dive to look at the information that would give the prognosis
of what's really going on. So, that came about with him getting a deeper
understanding of where we are.
And as far as the exemption, the intention was to present it back in March.
Unfortunately, we've had some turnover, and somehow, something got misplaced
in the shuffle. So, we didn't make it on the agenda in March, which is why we
really pushed for it for this month. So, that was an oversight on my part, and I
apologize.
MR. RICHARDS: Which gives me the pause for concern. And I can appreciate
it not making it to the agendas because we have very full agendas, but this kind of
information like this does not sit well with me at all. I don't mind facing the
problems. That's what we're supposed to deal with. What I don't like is being
blindsided by problems. I'm going to yield at this point.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Richards. I'm going to go to
Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Mr. Lash, and Director. Thank you for
explaining that whole technical process, that I don't claim to be a techy person
myself So, I really rely on your information that comes to us, and I'm looking at
the three-year Enterprise Agreement with ESRL Is that because the department
missed the opportunity in March as you say? Is there a timeframe that this
agreement be entered into or a time-sensitive situation that we should do the
agreement?
MS. UNG: Yes. So, we basically have this opportunity to take advantage of the
step up offered through ESRL Otherwise, every other jurisdiction is paying a flat
fee of$150,000 at the size of our municipality.
MS. DAVID: And so, let me understand. So, if we don't sign or enter into this
agreement as soon as possible, then the licenses that Mr. Lash is talking about,
which is covered by this agreement, that would put that in jeopardy?
MS. UNG: That's correct. We would not have unlimited licensing on prem or a
capacity of 1,000 in the cloud.
MS. DAVID: So, in my un-techie method of understanding this, your department
or this program or this agreement that will provide the licenses is the basic
framework in order that we will begin to address all our, I'm not sure
miscommunications, but our connecting up all our departments adequately so we
can share information, and all of our computer technology things line up and are
compatible. Pardon my ignorance for IT, but that's how I understand this
discussion going.
MS. UNG: Yes, it will help us to establish the standard that we need to really
leverage GIS as a platform and to automate the backend to support initiatives such
as EnerGov, Vision Zero, and a multi-hazard mitigation plan.
MS. DAVID: And I understand what my colleagues are saying that, you know,
should have, could have, would have. But I think what we all want some
guarantees now is that will this bring us or take us to where we need to go so we
don't revisit what has been happening with our ability to connect between
departments technology-wise moving forward?
MS. UNG: This will solve our licensing issue. However, we still need to focus
efforts and resources on countywide training on getting our level of ability within
our GIS community of users up to a standard, as well as our hardware and
infrastructure.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MS. DAVID: But that's a human issue, right?
MS. UNG: And a hardware and infrastructure issue.
MS. DAVID: Yeah. All right. I think I've gotten my information. And then,
would this resolve the discussions with the EnerGov situation with DPW that we
were informed about during our discussions? Will this resolve that and hopefully
soon?
MS. UNG: Can you elaborate a little on which discussion ?
MS. DAVID: Well, I think the EnerGov program that we were told could not be
implemented because there was some sort of a system, not malfunction, but what
do you call that when they're not compatible? So, they were going to see about
making that program compatible.
MS. UNG: Sure. I'll let Erik address this one.
MS. DAVID: Thank you.
MR. LASH: Yes, this will fix that issue.
MS. DAVID: Perfect.
MR. LASH: In fact, I've been in touch with Tyler Partners on the EnerGov side,
and we're making extremely good progress in standing up what this platform
needs.
MS. DAVID: Okay, last question from me. Timeline that we could see
something or get a report from you folks on how our connectivity and IT staff is
working.
MS. UNG: In regards to EnerGov or GIS overall?
MS. DAVID: Everything.
MS. UNG: Everything?
MS. DAVID: No, what you're trying to accomplish with this license agreement
and connecting with everybody else on the bigger picture that you've explained
thus far, when can we see that all ?
MS. UNG: The licensing should take effect almost immediately, as soon as we
get Council approval. So, ESRI is willing to prorate us for the maintenance
renewal that has already been paid for this year. So, it will not cost us anything in
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
addition out of this year's budget. It will simply be stepping up into the
Enterprise Agreement and then, of course
MS. DAVID: And so, the other hang up that I see is the staffing. Once this is
done, then the staffing to--okay. Well.
MS. UNG: And that's a whole other conversation that we're having with the
recovery team, with Finance, the Mayor's Office and Civil Defense. We've been
having ongoing conversations with HR (Department of Human Resources) as
well. So, yeah.
MS. DAVID: And that's why the budget is so confusing and multifaceted, right?
Okay, thank you very much. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. David. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I just wanted to see a final answer. So, this
is going to help us get to where we need to be, and it's efficient in effect to
making sure we're going to be ready to handle what's coming. And we're
thinking ahead. And then, I also wanted to knowso, this is the only company
that provides this kind of software? There's nobody else who does this?
MR. LASH: Yeah, they do not have a reseller for government purchases.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, we are stuck to one purveyor of
software.
MR. LASH: That is correct.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And this purveyor provided us the program
that doesn't work currently?
MR. LASH: Yes, they did. However, what doesn't work currently is due to
corruptions on our hardware and not
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: One more time, sorry?
MR. LASH: The reason it doesn't work currently is because of corruptions that
are occurring on the hardware itself, and those are affecting the software. That's
why it's not working.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Our hardware or their hardware?
MR. LASH: Our hardware.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, our hardware is malfunctioning due to
their software or because of this, sorry.
MR. LASH: Yeah, let me start over. So, our software is malfunctioning
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Just a quick sum-up kind so I can get it in
my brain.
MR. LASH: Yeah, sure. Our software is malfunctioning because of issues
occurring with the hardware. And so, that's affecting the software by creating,
essentially, corruptions in the software itself.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And are we going to go back to the same
purveyor and buy new software? Sorry, no, we're buying new hardware.
MS. UNG: Just additional licensing, really. So, with every application, we need
to renew our annual maintenance. That means that the software is continually
supported by the vendor. And from a security standpoint, that's critical to
network cyber security as well as compatibility with other major platforms of
software. So, it doesn't matter what application we're referring to. All software
requires annual maintenance unless it's open source or free, in which case it could
potentially be a network risk. So, either way, we always have to renew our
maintenance of licensing. And in this case, we are purchasing the capacity for
additional licensing. But as you heard Erik mention earlier, ESRI licenses can be
extremely expensive, up to $10,000 per license. So, this EA agreement is
advantageous in being able to save us money and provide unlimited licensing.
MR. LASH: And let me add to Director Ung's statement in that maintenance
does not exist under the EA. We pay a flat fee for everything. So, we don't have
to pay the extra maintenance cost.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, once we get the new licensing, if there
are any more problems with software or the hardware, what happens?
MS. UNG: Well, we would have much more intense support from the vendor,
tier one support basically. So, that puts us at an advantage as far as level of
priority in which they will be able to address our issues.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Why don't we have that now?
MS. UNG: Currently, we just have annual maintenance. Maybe, Erik can
elaborate.
MR. LASH: Yeah, so, for every tier that they offer, that the vendor offers, you
get a level of support at that tier. Under the annual maintenance tier that we're on
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
right now, we get a fairly minimal level of support from the vendor. They offer a
professional services agreement if we want to augment that level of support, but
we don't have one of those. And that also plays into the request for the EA.
Under the EA, we come in at a higher tier of support. So, they will be giving us
much of what we'd get under a professional support agreement through the EA
itself.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, it sounds like we've learned from our
past mistakes. But why didn't we do that at the frontend when we first did this?
Well, I wasn't here. Maybe you weren't here either, but why didn't we do that?
MS. UNG: So, GIS has grown organically at the County since original
implementation. And in fact, our foundational departments RPT (Real Property
Tax) and Planning were using a different type of software. So, now we've kind of
grown up a little bit. We're using a more advanced software application. And as
a result, our licensing needs have increased and will continue to increase as well.
And this EA gives us the ability to grow.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And again, this is going to be able to handle
Mass Transit, Public Works, and everything else that we have coming in that is
going to tie into this so it's one working efficient program? I don't mean to beat a
dead horse, but I just want to make sure that it does because I know it's coming.
We're trying to overlay them ourselves, which is photoshopping things together,
but this works in a much better way that allows everyone to talk to each other.
So, it does give us that in the end?
MR. LASH: Yes, it does. And that's the reason that I'm trying to push it forward
is that it gives the County an integration platform where we can provide
everything all of the departments need.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We have heard that before. So, I'm just
guaranteed it's going to work?
MR. LASH: I, yeah, I can't say much more than just this is
MS. UNG: So, what's really exciting to me is that we can support up to 1,000
users in the cloud, and there are a lot of fun cloud applications that tie into ESRI.
So, there are a lot of tools that even the layperson can use and leverage on the
cloud, on prem. This opens up our ability to support the layperson countywide.
So, you don't necessarily have to have GIS Analyst in your title but we are
excited to be able provide the tools and the training for the average person so
anyone can make maps, basically. And the GIS Analyst III position within DIT
(Department of Information Technology) is no longer making maps. He's
scrambling to support a network subsystem. So, GIS has really advanced. It has
really grown and evolved from back in the day where the GIS Analyst in DIT
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
made maps. Now, it's a much more comprehensive involved position to support
countywide use.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I agree. I totally agree with what you're
saying. I just want to make sure this one works and continues to work because, if
it doesn't,people are going to string us up and then they're going to come for you
guys. So, I just want to make sure everything's good before we roll it out and we
tell people EnerGov will be online in November and then we have some more
software problems or hardware problems that lead to EnerGov not happening
until maybe next year or the year after. Because that really is going to put some
rocks in our roads.
MS. UNG: Sure. And this addresses the licensing portion of a comprehensive
system. We're still going to focus our efforts on infrastructure. We're still going
to focus our efforts on workflow, training, and users.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. I appreciate your guys'
time. Thank you for listening.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other comments? Go ahead,
Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Jules, Erik, I will share with you that I
feel like I'm being held hostage right now, the fact that this was waived out of
Finance and coming to Council. I can see the value in this system and the
foresight in wanting to ensure that more County employees have access to these
various layers and how it's tied to the bigger system and things that we want to be
doing department-wide. But I just feel the Council should have been alerted
ahead of this request, and I'm hoping that you will come before this body and
provide us an update with where you are in implementing this, what I think to be
a very critical component.
There were a couple of things that were mentioned that I do want to follow up on
with the activity log and Erik finding issues dating back from 2016. I question the
internal protocol and the capacity within your department and feel that, if the
issues were lingering years ago, what else don't we know about. So, I hope that
you are making it a priority that this sort of systems check is happening so that we
can identify issues and be proactive in addressing them.
I also question the wisdom in bringing back the same consultant that did our
original network that we are now fixing with band-aids and gauze and all kinds of
patches. I don't know if it's wise to bring them on, and I hope that you would
consider perhaps another consultant. I will be supporting this with extreme
reservation, but again, I do see the value in moving this forward. And I hope that
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
you will come before us and provide us an update on where we are with
implementing this new system. Chair, I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay. Obviously, I'm not comfortable or happy with how this
has come before us. In supporting Ms. Kierkiewicz's position, however being a
little bit more aggressive, I would like an update on this. And I think, Chair, if we
could ask for an update of, we're going with this, I'd like to set some time in the
future that they come before us again. Ms. David, since this was waived through
Finance, I'm not sure if it should go through the Finance Committee or come
before the Council. I'd like little bit of collective wisdom here.
MS. DAVID: Thank you. Chair, may I?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you. And thank you for that question. I think it's a great
idea. Since it would be like an update communication-wise, I can see it going to
Committee, Finance Committee. And then, we can have a full-on discussion in
Committee about it. It will be an updated report.
MR. RICHARDS: So, we're in April now. Let's
MS. DAVID: Let me ask
MR. RICHARDS: Go ahead.
MS. DAVID: Let me ask Director Ung. What would be your guesstimate on
when you could give us a realistic update on the things that we've been discussing
today? A month? Two months?
MS. UNG: I think two months would be reasonable, and we might actually be
able to make quite a bit of progress by then. And so, we'd have a good update for
you.
MS. DAVID: Thank you. Okay. Mr. Richards, two months in Committee?
MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, well, I would say the middle of June because that will
still be before the budget is pau. And I am concerned. We've heard a lot about
software, but hardware issues as well. And we haven't had any—there's no
funding before us to talk about a funding request for new hardware. So, I think
maybe if we shoot for the middle of June for an update on this everything because
that will also give us an insight with the end gov coming forward.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MS. UNG: Council Member Richards, we have a couple of hardware line items
within out fiscal year 19-20 budget request. So, I'd like to touch bases with you
on that, and we can talk
MR. RICHARDS: Why don't we get together, have a talk story, and then have an
update on all of that in the middle of June
MS. UNG: Sure. And I'm happy to talk one-on-one with any of you anytime.
MR. RICHARDS: Clerk, what's the date we're looking at, middle of June,
Committee, Finance?
MR. HENRICKS: The middle being, well, probably close to the end. Because
we normally have things in the middle of the month. Typically, we have a
Committee meeting on the 18'h.
MR. RICHARDS: Eighteenth? Let's go for that one.
MR. HENRICKS: And I know that you had stated that it might be fortuitous as
we'd still be in the budget process, but barring anything extraordinary, the
Council will complete its budget review and submit the budget to the Mayor on
June 5. That is the second and final reading of the operating budget that we have
scheduled that day. Doesn't mean it will end that day, but that is when it is
scheduled to. You have to give the Mayor time to review and provide back to the
Council.
MR. RICHARDS: So, end of May.
MS. UNG: That works for us.
MR. HENRICKS: You have a Committee meeting on May 201h in Hilo.
MR. RICHARDS: Sounds good. So, May 201h. So, Director, if we could have an
update on May 20'h, the Council would enjoy that.
MS. UNG: Sounds good.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Thank you, Director. Thank you,
Mr. Richards. Ms. David will be in touch with Ms. Ung to make sure that we get
an agenda item for discussion at Finance Committee on May 20'h.
MS. DAVID: Yes. And we will be—I'll bring forth the communication. I'll just
coordinate it with Director. Okay?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MS. DAVID: Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Then, seeing no further—oh, Chair Chung. Go
ahead, sorry.
MR. CHUNG: Thank you. I agree with all the points that have been brought up
this morning by my colleagues. I just wanted to make one comment, and it has to
do with the issue of communication. That seems to be a recurring issue between
the Council and the Administration. Jules, I appreciate your invitation for
wanting to meet. I think you used the words, "I'm willing to meet anytime with
the Council Members." But I think what might be better is if something comes
up, please let us know. Don't wait for us to invite you for a meeting.
I'm not just only talking about your department, Jules, but this is to the broad
community of departments that we have in the County. I think that's what might
be lacking, some proactive communication on the part of the department.
Because, we don't know what's coming down the pipe or what's happening at the
departmental level. So, all I'm asking is, if something comes up, you could take
the initiative and let us know and come to meet with us. Okay?
MS. UNG: I think periodic meetings would be a really good idea.
MR. CHUNG: Yeah, good, thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you very much. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I just want to say we were harsh and we
have high expectations, as a Council I think, for every department. But in the
end, we just want to see you succeed because, if you succeed, we succeed and we
all succeed. That's really what we're trying to get here. So, we may not
understand your needs and your department, but we do want to see you succeed.
And as we walk through this budget process, we've been wanting to hear what
you need so that you can get better. And that's really, I think, our goal. I may not
speak for everybody but, speaking for myself, I want to see you guys give us the
best end product with the best warranty and everything that gets us where we need
to go. That, to me, would be the best end result. So, anything that we can do to
help you get there, I myself will help you on my end. So, thank you. And
communication would be very nice.
MS. UNG: Thank you. We appreciate the attention.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Okay, all in favor ofoh, we're going to do
a roll call. I was requested to do a roll call on Resolution 136.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Res. 136-19: The motion to adopt Res. 136-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following roll call vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff–8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter– 1.
Excused: None.
(Note: Ms. Kierkiewicz, Ms. Lee Loy, and Mr. Richards
voted "kanalua" then "aye.")
ACTING CHR. EOFF: The motion carries. Okay, thank you very much. If you
don't mind, I'm just going to take a quick seven-minute recess. And when we
come back, we're going to take Mr. Chung—we're going to go back to Bill 49.
Ask to take it off the table. Okay, we're in recess.
MS. UNG: Thank you very much.
Recess: At 11:13 a.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 11:29 a.m.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I need a motion to take Bill 49 off the table.
Vote on Motion to Mr. Richards moved to remove Bill 49 from the table.
Remove from Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following
Table: voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff–8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter– 1.
Excused: None.
(Note: Comm. 198.2 and 198.3 from Council Member Aaron S. Y. Chung dated
April 23, 2019 transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 49, were circulated.)
ACTING CHR. EOFF: And now, we'll continue our discussion with Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Thank you. First of all, I'd like to begin by reading something
that Ms. Poindexter wanted to say had she been here. But she had to leave. It
says, "I want to thank the Matsuura and Fujimoto families for developing this
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
project. Their `ohana has been here for generations and will be here for
generations to come. They are committed to this project, the community's
cultural heritage, and building a safe neighborhood.
"I'm grateful for their legacy of service as healthcare providers—of course the
Matsuura's—and leadership as lawmakers. The matriarch of the Matsuura
family, Dr. Ruth Matsuura, has dedicated her life to caring for families of our
island home. I wish there were more local families working to develop our
precious lands in the capacity and with the attention to detail that the Matsuuras
and Fujimotos are doing."
I just wanted to make that statement. I think it was very nice. She wanted to have
that read for the record.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Normally, we don't talk about amendments without a motion
being made, but I want to have discussion amongst all of us regarding two
possible ways of going about this. Of course, as I said, I'm in favor—this is,
again, in my district—but I'm in favor of relaxing some of the requirements that
were provided for in the initial or the original rezoning bill because I would like
to see this project move forward. It's been stuck for a long time. And if we go
with what has been suggested by the Planning Department, it's going to be a long
time more, I think, before this is developed because it's going to be cost
prohibitive.
So, all we have are two options. One, which was discussed the last time
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Excuse me one second, Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Yeah.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Clerk, is there any problem with going ahead and talking
about the potential ?
MR. HENRICKS: As long as no other members object, then you would as a
matter of efficiency.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Sure, okay, great.
MR. CHUNG: Because, I mean, I'd like to have a free flow of ideas here with the
two communications. The first one was what was discussed the last time. The
Planning Department had recommended an 80-foot constructed roadway, curb,
gutter, sidewalks.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: By the way, we're looking at Communication 198.2
and 3. Make sure everybody has that.
MR. CHUNG: Yeah. We don't have to refer to it right now, but when we kind of
narrow this thing down then I'll refer to it. That is cost prohibitive, I mean if they
were to go with curbs, gutters, sidewalks. So, what I suggested is we just go with
swales; 80-foot-wide constructed roadway with swales. But there were some
members who felt that we might be setting a bad precedent or it would be better
for walkable streets, Complete Streets, to have sidewalks there. I can't say I
totally agree with those points, but we certainly should as a body take those things
into consideration.
So, what I did is I talked to the developer, and I asked—as I stated earlier, I've
been driving around Hilo and, recently, in Kona to see how big an 80-foot-wide
roadway actually is versus a 60-foot-wide roadway. And I think, in fact I'm sure
a 60-foot-wide roadway will do the trick. It's more than adequate. So, let me just
talk about this 60-foot-wide roadway. I talked to the developer. It's going to cost
more, but they are willing if it's just constructing 60 feet to put in curbs, gutters,
and sidewalks and to prohibit, because it's going to be somewhat narrow you
don't want people parking on the sides.
We could easily put up "no parking" zones there, but they think it would be better
if we could put bike paths on that area. And also, what Dave suggested is also
providing for bus stops in the event that the Department of Mass Transit deems it
appropriate to have bus stops along that way. So, they're willing to work with the
Mass Transit Department in that regard. So, in other words, this is going to be a
very nice parkway.
I have some reservations against the sidewalk concept, I will tell you. I'll explain.
In Hilo as opposed to a place like Kona, a dryer climate area, roads get beat up
because of the rain. It constantly needs to be resurfaced. So now, if you look at a
place like Waianuenue Avenue, if you look at how many times we resurface that
road, at some point the top of the road becomes very close, I mean where it hits
the sidewalk, it gets very close to the top of the sidewalk. I think in parts of
Waianuenue, we're only looking at inches already. So at some point, probably
not within my lifetime, but you know, certainly within the lifetime of others here,
they're going to have to do a major—yeah, I don't know what this is called, not
resurfacing. What do you call it when you dig up the road, and ?
Grade and grub, and then again putting in a new surface there. At some point, it's
going to have to be done. But that's one of the reasons why I'm not totally fond
of the sidewalk concept. If you look at other places in Hilo, we do have the
swales, and they're working out really fine.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Moreover, on Ponahawai Street past the Homelani Cemetery which leads up to
this development, they really don't have any sidewalk, and that's a County street.
If the County Planning Department wanted to have walkable communities, then
you know, they should have made an effort to put sidewalks all the way up to this
development.
But that's neither here nor there. Right now, I'm just entertaining the two
options; I'd like to throw out two options. Eighty-foot wide constructed
right-of-way with no curb, gutter, sidewalks; 60-foot wide constructed with curb,
gutter, sidewalks; and also, I think the beauty of this is a 10-foot wide reservation
on each side for future road widening. That would enable the telephone poles to
be put on those reserved areas and not right in the middle of these sidewalks like
we so often see.
Off the table will be 80-foot wide, from my perspective anyway, 80-foot wide
with curb, gutter, sidewalks. And it's really wide. That's going to be a huge
it's just going to be too wide. Thoughts, anyone?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you. And thanks, Chair Chung, for bringing this
forward. I think Council Woman Poindexter raised some conversation points that
we had previously. I think we had these in Committee as well. Council Woman
Lee Loy and I, again just to reiterate, went to a thing, Transportation for America
presentation maybe a year and a half ago now, and part of that conversation was
we have to engineer our roads to slow people down. Not just bigger and wider is
better, it's not safer.
Interestingly enough, we're having the same conversation in Waimea Town. We
had the Traffic Safety Mitigation Presentation Plan Walkabout the first part of this
week, and we were talking almost specifically what Chair Chung is referring to in
having the wider easements overall but narrowing down the roads a bit, that slows
down traffic. In that effort, it actually increases your efficiency while making the
communities more walkable. So I like what's being brought forward
There's some other health things when it comes to sidewalks. I think that's, I'm
going to use the term "passe," idea of having sidewalks everywhere. I like the
trails, I like the walkable communities, and yeah we need some sidewalks. We
have an alternative route in Waimea Town that has what we're talking about,
expanded, yes, we have a path, a blacktop path, not a sidewalk, and it's greatly
used by the community. I don't know what the measurement is as far as the
width, but it's actually a more friendly environment for walking and more
conducive for walking. So what the Chair has brought before us I fully support
and I like the idea of the little bit wider right-of-way, because we have the room
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
now. Plan for the future, but let's not put in the sidewalks and gutters, because I
think we can do a better job for the community as a whole.
It doesn't necessarily have to do with expense though expense always has to be on
our minds, but I think we'd actually do a better thing as a community as a whole,
so I would fully support eliminating the gutters and sidewalks with a little bit
more room. So I think what Chair Chung's bringing before us is a really good
idea, and we need to be mindful of that as we go forward. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Chung, could you respond, please?
MR. CHUNG: Yeah, I just wanted to clarify something, though. What I'm going
to be proposing, there's two options. Eighty-foot wide without curb, gutter,
sidewalks; 60-foot wide constructed with curb, gutter, sidewalks.
MR. RICHARDS: And to respond to the response, yes. I agree the 80-feet wide,
so we get the extra room. We already have it there, but we're planning for the
future.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Chair Chung, for all of
your work in putting forth various options. Would it be possible to hear from the
applicant, the representative at this point?
(Note: At this time, Planning Consulting Sidney Fuke, representative for
the applicant, came forward to address the members of the Council.)
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Good morning, Mr. Fuke.
MR. FUKE: I guess if you look at an 80-foot wide right-of-way and a 60-foot
wide right-of-way, it's kind of like it's always staring at us, these Council
members like in your face, whenever you come to Hilo. Just to give you a sense
as far as the scale, Pau`ahi Street is an 80-foot wide right-of-way. It's four lanes,
and it's very difficult to jay walk. I mean people do that. Kilauea Avenue right
around in that area is also an 80-foot wide right-of-way. So you know, you see
four lanes and you try jay walking, go to New China, it becomes a challenge.
You know, that's an 80-foot-wide right-of-way.
So if you can visualize that, and you look at the Wailani project, the whole idea
behind the Wailani project is to kind of create a cohesive community. The
question then is that if you have an 80-foot wide right-of-way bisecting the
property, knowing how difficult it is to get from one side of that Ponahawai Street
extension to the other side, you lose that sense of cohesiveness. So on the other
hand if you have like a 60-foot wide right-of-way, a 60-foot wide right-of-way
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
would pretty much be Aupuni Street, you know, leading into the County building.
There you have like curb, gutter, sidewalks; you have a pavement section and you
also have a bus shelter; and you also have cars parking on the side.
So if you can visualize a 60-foot wide right-of-way exactly like Aupuni Street,
and you eliminate the parking, then what you have is like a standard roadway
width which is about 10- to 12-feet wide. The balance of the right-of-way where
the cars are currently parked right now would be used for your bike paths on both
sides. Then you have your sidewalk.
So I think when we had this discussion with Chair Chung, you know, we looked
at the different options, and we said like at the end of the day, the
multi-generation of families that are back here, the developers, they had quite a
bit of discussion among themselves with their development consultant, and they
said that, you know, in the end it will cost a little bit more, but we will go ahead
and agree to do the curb, gutter, sidewalk within a 60-foot wide right-of-way,
which would be sufficient enough to have bike paths, you're going to have a bus
shelter. Again, looking at Aupuni Street, you'd be able to have all of that, as long
as you don't allow parking along the streets.
They'd be able to do that, and they feel like it would be better for their project,
better for the overall community, and considering that the Council as well as the
Planning Department had agreed to, at least preliminarily, to support it,
substantial cost reductions. Concessions relative to the underground utilities, the
waiver on the affordable housing fee, for the fair share, the fair share component
for the affordable housing requirement. So they took all of that into consideration
and said maybe this is our time to give back a little.
So given that scenario, the option that Councilman Chung had proposed relative
to the 60-foot wide right-of-way; curb, gutters and sidewalk, is acceptable to the
developers. I would like to also add that if you see the proposal, we're not totally
dismissing the prospect for eventually going into an 80-foot wide right-of-way,
because there is, as proposed, a 10-foot future road widening setback on both
sides of the street. So if and when the County in its wisdom maybe 25 or 40 years
down the road figures out maybe we should have four lanes in this area, well, that
right of way would exist. But at least for the immediate future and I would say
the immediate future is probably going to be in excess of 20 years, you know, a
60-foot road right-of-way with curbs, gutters, and sidewalks; bus shelters, and
bike paths on both sides, should be sufficient. And they're willing to accept that.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Mr. Fuke. So just to be clear, the preference
by your client is for the Council to amend the ordinance with the 60-foot
right-of-way, curb, gutter, sidewalk.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. FUKE: Correct. The 60-foot wide right-of-way would start from a point
after—maybe I should just back up. They've already resigned to the fact that
within the primary commercial area, which is on the Makai side closest to
Komohana Street, that area would be an 80-foot wide right-of-way, curb, gutter,
sidewalk, at least extending a minimum of 500 feet at least to the first proposed
roadway connection. Beyond that point would be a 60-foot wide right-of-way
with the 10-foot future road widening setback on both sides. That's the proposal.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you. That's very helpful. Jeff Darrow, are
you there from Planning Department, in Hilo? Just wanted to hear from our
planners on these proposed amendments. You look very sharp with your Lei on
again today. Oh, and I see Maija Jackson as well.
(Note: At this time, Planning Program Manager Jeff Darrow came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. DARROW: Good morning, Council members, Chair Chung. Jeff Darrow
with the Planning Department, along with Maija Jackson, Planning with the
Planning Department.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Oh, hi Jeff. Just wondering if you wanted to comment on
the proposed amendments?
MR. DARROW: Well, we did receive the proposed amendments this morning
and we appreciate the time and effort that was put into presenting these two
options. It's an interesting discussion based on the fact that both Planning as well
as Public Works get involved in these discussions regarding specifications and
design layout. I think that the Planning Director has been pretty clear going
forward as he was looking for in this project, but of course there's been discussion
about some flexibility and cost factors. In looking at these two, we've been
discussing with Public Works the two options. One option being the 80-foot
right-of-way, curb, gutter, sidewalk up past the commercial area; and then one
option doing the remainder of Ponahawai extension 80-foot with paved swales.
The other option being 80-foot, curb, gutter and sidewalk past the commercial
area, then bringing it down to 60-foot, curb, gutter, sidewalk. Then it appears also
there's a provision also for an additional 10-foot right-of-way.
Our understanding at this time that we wanted to get clarification is that the
10-foot right-of-way would be considered for both sides of the road,just for
clarification.
In discussion with Public Works, we've asked them what they would prefer, and
at this point where the rubber meets the road, I think they would prefer the option
of having the 80-foot paved swales, that particular option. The reasons for that,
it's because if the roadway is constructed at 60 feet with curbs, gutters and
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
sidewalks, and there's future road widening setbacks provided, to be able to
acquire those future road widening setbacks and to continue build-out, you'd have
to tear out the existing curb, gutter, sidewalk and then rebuild that area, which
would likely be much more costly than providing the paved swales and then if
needed in the future,provide curb, gutter, sidewalk in that 80-foot right-of-way,
would be less costly. That is just in discussions this morning after receiving this.
I hope that helps.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Mr. Darrow. Mr. Fuke,just wanted to give
you a chance to respond, and if we could just recall our Planning Committee
meeting where we talked about an amendment to the ordinance for there to be the
80-foot right-of-way and no curb, gutter, sidewalk. So that was the original
preference, but I'm hearing that after discussions with your client, you prefer to
have curb, gutter, sidewalks, but narrower right-of-way.
MR. FUKE: Hi Jeff and hi Maija. I think one clarification, you know, Jeff
mentioned that there was no provision for the 10-foot future widening setback on
both sides, but the language that was grafted and before you reflects the future
road widening setback on both sides of Ponahawai Street. So, you know, it'll
eventually accumulatively end up to 80 feet wide.
The other point about the cost, if you can understand, we've had the earlier
discussion with Public Works about having full improvements within the 80-foot
wide right-of-way versus a 60 foot. Obviously if you have full improvements
within the 80-foot wide right-of-way, paved swales, etc., and then later on you
want to just do a curb, gutter, sidewalk section, understandably it would be less
expensive than having to improve from 60 going over to 80.
One clarification, however, is that the way that we're proposing over here is that
the land could be conveyed to the County at no cost. We'll set it aside, if and
when the government is ready to, in its wisdom, decide that we need to have this
freeway running through this whole area, then fine, they don't have to worry
about that acquisition cost. All they have to worry about is the construction end.
So it goes back again, you know,just looking at what is really the appropriate
road standards for this area. Like just forget about 80, forget about 60. You look
at the project, you look at this one-mile stretch that connects two major
connectors in the Hilo area. The Moho`uli Street extension and the Komohana
Street extension, this is almost like the equivalent to your Kuku`au Street, because
it connects these two main major streets. So it will be pretty much like a collector
street.
Then again, you look at the function of this project, the project is intended to be a
little bit of a more cohesive one. If you do an 80-foot wide complete, like with
paved swales and all that,just visualize if Moho`uli Street extension and ask
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
yourself, is it feasible to cross that intersection, the Moho`uli Street extension
right now? It's difficult. It's easy to get run over, because it's not a traffic
calming. I think Councilman Poindexter, Councilman Chung, and others,
Richards, was also talking about, you know, like traffic calming. Traffic calming
is that the wider the streets are, the greater the potential for cars to kind of speed
up in this area, then if so, you kind of like bust up the community. It's counter
intuitive.
So we're saying looking at it purely from a planning standpoint, the project, you
know, do you want an 80-foot wide right-of-way or a 60-foot wide right-of-way?
Personally from a planning perspective, I think it's much more feasible to have a
60-foot wide right-of-way. But we're saying look, if government at some point in
time wants to do an 80-foot wide right-of-way and they figure it should be a
freeway, then fine, they'll give up the land at no cost.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you, Mr. Fuke. I'm inclined to support what
the applicant wants, the narrower right-of-way, considering that it does promote
the complete streets concept but also slows down traffic. Because I see people
zooming on Moho'uli extension at very high speeds that are quite unsafe. I just
want to thank the family for showing up again today and being here for several
hours. I appreciate your dedication and I really look forward to you folks moving
forward on this project and providing much needed housing to the families here
on Hawaii Island. Look forward to hearing what my other colleagues have to
say. At this time I yield, Chair. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Council members?
Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Mr. Fuke. You would probably be the
one I'd like to thank first, because giving me a visual on a 60-foot roadway as
opposed to an 80-foot roadway, when you used Aupuni Street it clicked
immediately, because my district consists of two-lane roads with no sidewalks or
any curbing at all going south. So thank you for that visual, and I want to thank
Chair Chung for really working hard with the Matsuura `ohana and with you folks
in trying to find an equitable solutions.
I understand what Planning is saying also, but I think the give back is the
applicant's willingness to, if that happens down the line, they would just give the
property back. Is that in the documents themselves, that provision?
MR. FUKE: My understanding it is, it's reflected in the proposed amendments,
correct.
MS. DAVID: Okay. Well just generally speaking, I know there's a lot of effort
being put into this application to try to find something equitable, and I appreciate
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
it. It's always a learning experience for everyone else, because these things come
to us, it's all different, and achieving the same goal but in a different way. So I
appreciate that, and educating myself a little bit more in the process.
So for now this looks good. I'm not sure whichI'm not sure when Mr. Chung's
going to make his motion, but I'll yield for now. I just wanted to thank the
family, too, for all your efforts in participating in government, which is not easy.
So mahalo, and I yield. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. David. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, I
wasn't sure if you had your light on?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Sid, how are we doing? How
long have you been doing this for, Sid?
MR. FUKE: Well, I'd say more than half my life. I'm 73, probably over 35 years
already.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And you worked in the Planning
Department before?
MR. FUKE: Thirteen years.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: These amendments, they're crafted very,
very, very nicely. I had to say that. After the last meeting, I realized that I indeed
have a lack of understanding in our Code, so I went back and re-read the
Subdivision Code, and I read it four times. I may not have a complete
understanding of it or as much knowledge as you do or some other people, but I
did have some questions about what we're doing. That's why I read the
document.
When was the property purchased by the family?
MR. FUKE: I believe it was 2009.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and our amendments to our
Subdivision Code happened in 1983.
MR. FUKE: Well, the original Subdivision Code was adopted I believe in 1967
or 68, thereabouts. Then it's kind of like morphed along the way, but there was
never any comprehensive overhaul of the Subdivision Code. It's been a process
where like, "Oh we've got a problem in here, let's fix over here." "We've got a
problem here, let's fix here." And it wasn't like step back and take a look at the
overall Code and coming up with a brand new one.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, so in my district I have about 20
subdivisions that were created before 1966, and I started to notice this magical
date of December 21, 1966, what rules apply to what subdivisions at what point.
That is a magical date. But after that, the County realized maybe its mistakes or
whatever had happened, and to rectify that they set aside a Subdivision Code to
make sure none of that happens from there on, correct?
MR. FUKE: Generally, because prior towell I said '68 but I think you're
correct that it was 1966 when it was initially adopted, because prior to that there
was no infrastructure improvement requirements. You know, no roadways, no
water system, and that created the roughly 48,000, 49,000 lots we have in this
County that were constructed, they were sold, without any County roadway
system or water system. Now they're kind of like coming back to haunt us,
because they, you know, their subdivisions are getting populated, and they're all
voters, and they're asking for funds to put in water systems. Hawaiian Ocean
View is a classic example.
So anyway, like in 1966, I guess the decision-makers kind of wised up and said,
"We've got to do something about it,"
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I agree. So I looked at that and I started to
understand what had happened and why my district and why my district, and then
I started to realize that most of the island is like that. Because we made some
mistakes, we fixed them. So the Subdivision Code, it looks like it was actually
amended in '83 for the new version of our Subdivision Code. It hasn't been
amended or fixed since 1983, is that right?
MR. FUKE: I think what you may be referring to, and maybe I'll defer to your
counsel, but I think when you call it a Subdivision Code, it became a process
where all the ordinances were put like and were defined as Code, and put in this
one comprehensive so-called like a dictionary. So you had the Subdivision Code,
the Zoning Code, the Building Code, so on and so forth. But prior to that they
were all ordinances. But essentially the substance was the same.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes, but we're in this case sitting on
something that's about 35 years old.
MR. FUKE: Well in the sense that not having a comprehensive review of the
ordinance, that's correct, yes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So in 35 years, I think we've come a long
way. So from what I understand the Planning Department's trying to do is make
sure that we adhere to standards that are what I'm going to call best practice going
forward, and that's what they're asking in their documents. That's why some of
the amendment changes in the bill that was brought forward regarding this project
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
I had a few issues with, some sense then I've decided I'm willing to give in on a
little bit. The curbs, gutter, sidewalk; 60-foot, you did mention even Sunrise
Ridge does not have curbs and gutters and sidewalks. There's different areas
where we have and have not used or have and have not adhered to the rules set
forth.
But that worries me though, where we step away from the rules that we have
created in our own Code and we start to make amendments and allow things.
Because that does open us up for precedent for other people building subdivisions
in the future. That I really feel is at the core of what my issue was with some of
the amendments here. We've given in different areas underground utilities,
decreasing the size of the roads coming down from the Ponahawai extension, to
make it more financially feasible, but I'm going to just state again, if we're
making decisions to make things feasibly manageable, then we need to make that
available for every other person coming forward to ask for the same thing in the
future. That does worry me.
So as far as the amendments that are in front of us today, I'm okay with the
60-foot, curb, gutter, sidewalk. I'm okay with the 80-foot because we've already
set a precedent in other areas within 10 miles—within two miles of where your
proposed subdivision is going to be built. I would like to say that we need to
ensure that going forward we build things to withstand our future goals as a
County, and it may not be written in this code in front of us, but this code is 25
years old, relating to subdivisions.
So and my point earlier was this property was purchased in the 2000s. So this
didn't change since the property was bought. So this would have been known
walking in, that there were going to be some substantial costs walking into this
project. So I understand who's in the room, and I appreciate what you're doing to
the community, but I want to make sure that as we move forward in the County
that we do things correctly. The same way you would do something for a patient.
You would take care of all of their needs, the root cause of the problem, and then
fix the surface afterwards. And the core of this subdivision and how you create it
is like dealing with the heart before you start dealing with the blood vessels on the
blood vessels on the back end. That may not be the best example, but you're
building something in the core of Hilo, and I'd like to see that you guys are ensure
it correctly, that it just comes out beautiful. And I said that before.
I also noticed in the proposed amendments that you're wanting to not do curb,
gutter, sidewalks on any residential lot exceeding 15,000 square feet. So again,
we're stepping away from our curb, gutter, sidewalk, which is not a rule. It can
be changed at the will of the Director of the Council. But we are stepping away
from that again in other areas of the subdivision. So I wanted to ask you about
that. Am I correct in seeing that?
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. FUKE: If memory serves me correct, and I don't have the Subdivision Code
behind me, but I think the curb, gutter, sidewalk requirement requires the
approval of the County Council. So if—and I may be wrong and I don't have that
provision before me. But again, I'm just reciting from memory, but I believe that
curb, gutter, sidewalks can be imposed only if the Council wills it. So through a
zone change like this or if the Council has a condition that requires the
subdivision to be improved with curb, gutters and sidewalks, then so be it, they
must do that.
So that's the reason why you see like in the City of Hilo a person subdividing a
property that's already zoned, and whether the property is 10,000 square feet or
7,500 square feet, or 15,000 square feet, it's not axiomatic that you have curb,
gutters and sidewalks. Only if there's a condition required as part of a zone
change, then it's a requirement. Likewise, in the Subdivision Code, there's no
requirement that you have to have underground utilities. The Council however,
when it deliberates and reviews and acts upon a zone change, you can impose
conditions that's over and beyond whatever the Subdivision and Zoning Code
would require.
So here in this proposed amendment, it's kind of like making the concession to
say all subdivisions within the project, if they're going to consist of lots that are
less than 15,000 square feet, then they have to be built to curb, gutters, and
sidewalks. Especially if the intent is to have those streets dedicated to the County.
If you want to have a six-lot subdivision, maybe the lots consisting of 10,000
square feet, the Subdivision Code currently requires just a 20-foot wide
right-of-way and no curb, gutters and sidewalks. But you can't dedicate it to the
County.
So the thing is like anytime the developer within this project wishes to have the
roads dedicated to the County, then that road has to be built with curbs, gutters,
and sidewalk. That's how it would be written—that's how it's written, and that's
now I would interpret it. The only exemption would be if you have a subdivision
and with roadways that are built to County dedicable standards that the lots
consist of 15,000 square feet or more, then the curb, gutter, sidewalk becomes an
option and not a mandate.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: In the new amendments in front of me, I'm
looking at we have an amendment to Condition R, which is saying especially that
the curb, gutter and sidewalk requirement shall not apply to roads built to County
dedicable standards within single-family residential subdivision lots with lots
exceeding 15,000 square feet. So I took that as anything bigger than 15,000 will
not have a curb, gutter, and sidewalk.
MR. FUKE: You would have the option not to, correct.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Specifically in this subdivision, yes?
MR. FUKE: Correct, yes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And how many lots are going to be
15,000 square feet or more?
MR. FUKE: I really don't know accept that I have an idea that the property that's
to the south side, or the Puna side of Alenaio Stream, you know, they do have a
proposed subdivision layout in that area, and that subdivision layout consists of
about 15,000 square feet or more. So if anything, I think that project would
probably have roads be built to dedicable standards, but not necessarily with
curbs, gutters, and sidewalks. On the properties to the Hamakua side of the
stream, there is a possibility that if you have residential lots consisting of 10,000
or 7,500 square feet, then they would be built with County dedicable roads, they
would be built with curb, gutters, and sidewalks.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So is the master plan that we have current
and up to date?
MR. FUKE: I'm sorry?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Do we have a current up to date master plan
in front of us?
MR. FUKE: All there is as part of the application is a bubble master plan but not
a specific one.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is there supposed to be one that's turned in
before we make a decision?
MR. FUKE: There is that bubble master plan that's part of the application, which
generally says like this is where your commercial area is going to be, this is where
your residential area, and your open space area. It's along those lines. A little bit
more specific one would have to be generated by the developer and submitted to
the Planning Department for, you know, its review and approval. The concept
here on a Project District zoning, is that you're looking at a total project. You're
not necessarily going to be bound by having everything be restricted in terms of
this is exactly where the commercial has to be, this is exactly where the
residential has to be, like in a typical zoning ordinance. This is like you're
zoning—the Project District concept is you're zoning a project and allowing the
developer flexibility to kind of move on. But you establish parameters. A
maximum number of residential units allowed, the maximum number of square
footage for commercial area, you stipulate the requirement for open space area;
that's what you do.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
It's the same way as like Palamanui here. It's another project district. They have
these broad parameters. That's why if you look at the ordinance, the existing
ordinance as well as the—well, the existing ordinance in the front end, it talks
about all the uses that can be allowed and all of the stipulations.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. The last part of Ponahawai
Street looked like it was going to be open to the County—is that my five minutes?
Okay, I yield for now.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: If you'd like to have a few more minutes to continue your
train of thought, that's fine.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. I just that the last part
no actually, I'm just going to go right to it. In one of the conditions I noticed that
if there is any kind of revision to the plan, it goes directly to the Planning
Director, which makes sense. But it may not come back to us. So while we may
set amendments today and say yes, these amendments are fine, we will allow no
curb, gutter, sidewalks, whatever we're going to say, if there are any revisions to
this plan, we may never see it again from the wording that I got in the original
ordinance, or the original bill. And that was a slight concern for me because some
of these things have to be done by the Council. So if it never comes back to us
because it's given to the Planning Director, we may not have a chance to speak on
this again. I don't know if I'm correct on that or not. That's what I understood by
reading this. I think it was in Condition I in the original.
MR. FUKE: So can I ask you what specifically is the question then?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: My question is we're making decisions and
some of these are Council only decisions like you stated. But I want to make sure
that if there are any changes to this that we have the ability to have some say in
this and not Planning Director only. Because that's relying everything on one
person; all decisions made by one person.
MR. FUKE: I think the only reliance is the master plan. So there already was a
preliminary master plan prepared and attached as part of the basic application. So
beyond that, the developer is obligated to provide a little bit more specificity to
that master plan and submit to the Planning Director for his review and approval,
but in concept, that overall concept through the adoption of this project district
ordinance theoretically would have been considered by this body. So the question
is like whether there is a necessity for the Council to get involved in a little bit
more administrative matters.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, I just felt that this Condition I really
just set in stone that what we're going to say is going to go. We're going to make
these amendments and we're going to say yes to these or no to these. When we
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
come back to Condition I, if there are any changes made after that, the Planning
Director may approve changes to the master plan regarding whatever may change,
but that doesn't necessarily mean that we will be involved. I wanted to make sure
we still have involvement.
MR. FUKE: It's like hypothetically if you have in the original master plan one
area suggested for residential and this area is suggested for commercial, and then
maybe over time there is—maybe the neighbors grumble or there is a greater
economic need to push the commercial over here and put the residential over here,
then that would be at the discretion of the Planning Director. But the Council has
already approved in concept that there is only so much residential and so much
commercial that's allocated within this block. But how it gets relocated,
readjusted within that area, that function is an administrative function that's
delegated to the Planning Director.
If there are situations where you may not necessarily, this body may not
necessarily want to have a certain type of use in a certain area, then that can be
made as a condition. As a case in point, there's a pool on that property and this
ordinance specifically states that the pool shall be preserved. That's very specific.
So in terms of the open space area, the Planning Director cannot change the
preservation area from this point to this point because it's already explicitly stated
in the ordinance.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, I just want to make sure that we
continue having the ability to have input in this if things do change or if we
change the lot sizes or anything else like that because it's important. It's just
important for us to haveI yield. I'm sorry I used so much time.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Again, I'm not an expert on planning matters but I'm fairly
certain and I double-checked this with Ms. Lee Loy who is an expert in planning
and subdivision matters. I wanted to make one thing clear. The requirements for
curb, gutter, sidewalk were set in the rezoning ordinance. But they're not a
requirement per the Hawaii County Code, the laws. So in other words, we're not
deviating from law. What's being suggested here is not a deviation from what is
set in the law, because that would be improper. What happened was those
requirements were set in the rezoning ordinance, which is a law, but it's not a
standard and set forth in any of our existing code provisions.
Now if let's say someone else other than the Fujimotos and the Matsuuras had
come in. Someone from some development corporation from either the mainland
or outer islands came in. They would probably be asking for the same thing that
are being asked for today. If it wasn't approved, then it wouldn't be developed. I
have really take a leap of faith in all of the rezoning ordinances that I have
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
approved or voted in favor of over these many, many years; and there have been
many. But never have I ever come across a development team like these people.
I don't have to take a leap of faith. I trust this family without question, that they
are going to do what is right. They tell me that it's going to be cost prohibitive to
do certain things, I believe them. They've been willing to work and adjust and
even to try to address some of the concerns that were brought up during our last
meeting, and I'm very appreciative of that fact. But just let's make sure we
understand there is no law requirement other than the rezoning law, rezoning
ordinance, for this project that says roads have to be built curb, gutter, sidewalks.
Because if that was the case, that's going to be a problem for the rest of the island,
really. That would set a bad precedent.
I wanted to make another point, too. Maybe the Council might have the wrong
idea of what the developer's position is. I don't think they prefer one over the
other. I really don't. It's one or the other. They'll do whatever we direct them to
do. And really, it gets me to another point. We make the decision. The County
Council makes the decision. The Planning Director's responsibility is to make
recommendations. I respect the recommendations. They're done with thought
towards maybe future planning, and present needs. But at the same time,
sometimes you've got to use common sense, right?
I live right by that development. I mean, I could hit a driver to that—well maybe
two drivers—to that development. I don't hit the ball too far. But it's very close,
and although I said I'm not fond of the idea of sidewalks necessarily, I have to
admit it's going to be very nice. Now Sidney talked about using Aupuni Street as
an example. But it's hard to visualize, and I'll tell you why. Because cars are
parked along Aupuni. You take those cars out, and on each sideI cannotI
really don't know what's on the other side of the street from our County Building,
but those are eight-foot wide sidewalks. Those are really nice sidewalks that we
have by the County Building. Eight-foot wide, and I would suspect the same is
on the other side. Now I don't know what's contemplated ultimately for this
project, but I think it's probably going to be somewhere along those lines. You
take away the cars now that are parked along that street and you put in, you
replace that with bike paths, that is a very comfortable street.
Now that I think about it, 80-foot wide, that's the Moho`uli Street extension. That
is a big, big road. I don't see any reason to put something like that in this
subdivision, because bear in mind too, in the commercial area, you will have
80-feet wide constructed roadway with curb, gutter, sidewalk. But up in the
residential there's absolutely no reason to do that.
You know, one of the biggest complaints I get from my constituents is having to
cross over Moho`uli Street. They want one of those sensors that say, you know,
45 miles an hour, 35 miles an hour or whatever the case may be. And it is
dangerous. I never, ever let my daughter walls across that street. So if we're
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
trying to create a nice walkable community, why the hell would we put something
like that, an 80-foot wide roadway. That's crazy. No offense to the Planning
Department, but it's crazy. When you talk about future road widening, you know,
to bust down the sidewalks, come on. They have to redo the road anyway. It's
not like they're just going to use the existing road all the way to its swale and then
put in new lanes. I mean, I don't have to be construction expert to know that.
They're going to have to redo those roads anyway.
So I'm just going to ask you guys, I mean I think the nicer enhancement to that
community will be the 60-foot wide with sidewalks. Even if I'm not real fond of
sidewalks in the long run. But those are the two options and we're not breaking
any laws, we're not seeking deviations from the County Code, we're just trying to
make some accommodations so this nice subdivision can move forward. And
that's why I want to hear, because I know Matt had some concerns, legitimate
concerns. I know Rebecca had some concerns. I want to hear what they have to
say about the 60-foot wide with sidewalks, basically that's what it is. And I'll
address these other small conditions or amendments later on, but I just want to
talk about the roadway, because I really do believe 60 feet is absolutely sufficient.
No question in my mind. Thanks.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Ms. Lee Loy, did you want to go
next? Oh, okay. Would you like to chime in now? Okay. Ms. Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha. Thank you for being here. I really appreciate the effort
that has been put into identifying such great examples so that we could in a more
tactful fashion imagine what some of these roadways would look like based on
their widths and the dimensions and the setback points. I personally really
appreciate, I think for me one of my areas of concern was the allowing for
electrical lines to not have to be underground. But after our last meeting and
talking to the Director of Planning and some other people, understanding kind of
the concessions and the compromises and the way to work collaboratively so the
project can still be sustainable from a financial standpoint but also create the kind
of aesthetics that are necessary. I have a great appreciation and respect for what
Matt's looking at, especially his history and experience in the building industry as
well as with electrical and solar.
So for clarification, Chair Chung, I just would want to bring back that for me I am
grateful that you guys went back. Because last time we were talking about also
omitting the sidewalks and gutters and I'm very grateful that's come back on the
table and it sounds like as part of even in your ideas to bring that back. I think I
would have had much greater concerns had there been concessions on also no
underground utilities and no gutter, sidewalks. So for me, I'm comfortable with
this. You know, I still may have my questions about if you're already putting
sewer underground and you already have to put water underground, then what
more would it take to have the electrical run right through it. But with my lack of
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
an engineering degree or exact understanding of the specific financials involved
in that. I feel comfortable withI also feel adamantly about safe neighborhoods
and about narrower roads. Sixty feet by no means is a narrow road. I love on
Walua Road, the old highway up there, and that's a very narrow road, but it does
require that people travel slower.
As we transition into trying to plan more efficiently, effectively and safely as we
create communities for our families, and your family has a legacy of leadership
and service which I respect, you know, I definitely take to heart everybody that's
here on the dais, and their testimonies of trust for you folks, and I want to really
compliment you on that and say how valuable that is, but I also really respect and
am grateful for Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder's concerns about what
kind of concessions we make, what kind of exceptions we make, what kind of
precedence that sets, and just that we are setting ourselves up for future success
working with developers. Whether or not they be amazing families with
generations and legacy here on the island, or if they be from people that don't live
here or are a major corporations and whatnot.
So with that said, I feel like 60-foot with sidewalks is a good plan. It is a good
plan. So thank you, I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Thank you, Ms. Villegas. Do you want to
respond.
MR. CHUNG: Yeah. I have one question, Sidney.
MR. FUKE: Sure.
MR. CHUNG: You know, I believe it's not necessary to have the underground
utilities. It's really more visual, aesthetics. And this is something you and I have
never discussed, but how much would it cost to at least put the conduits. And
maybe Matt might be the perfect guy to say what's required. You know,just in
case at some point we want to up those underground utilities with the nice
streetlights.
MR. FUKE: I'm not an engineer like others that indicated what the cost is and
likewise none of the developers are engineers, so they had conferred with their
engineering consultant, and also with their development consultant. The numbers
that they gave
MR. CHUNG: No, I'm just talking about putting little underground conduits.
MR. FUKE: Well, I don't know about the conduits. You know, because I can't
necessarily make that separation, but
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. CHUNG: So you cannot answer that.
MR. FUKE: In terms of like
MR. CHUNG: That's alright.
MR. FUKE: The infrastructure cost for the Ponahawai Street extension,just to
put in the underground electrical communication infrastructure, it would be in
excess of$3 million.
MR. CHUNG: That's a lot of money. Okay.
MR. FUKE: This already includes like their water system and sewer system.
And the assumption is that when you have your water and your sewer systems,
they're all going to be underground. For some reason, and I can't speak for the
veracity of the numbers, except that the numbers they provided us and to which
the developers are making their decisions on, is predicated upon the $3 million
cost to underground the utility. For the subdivision that's being tentatively
proposed on the Puna side of Alenaio Stream what that would do in terms of a
residential subdivision, it would increase it by over $1.2 million.
MR. CHUNG: Alright. Anyway, I still want to hear from Matt again. I mean,
we want to kind of just work this thing through. Go ahead.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: As far as the underground utilities,just real
quick, you'd have to talk to HELCO (Hawaiian Electric Light Company),
HELCO comes in, they lay their transformers and then every house gets a drop to
the transformer. Yeah but you'd have tothere'd be a plan there. It wouldn't
just be kind of a haphazard trust (inaudble) and they're going to hope they can
connect later. That could be—that would take some engineering.
I hear what you're saying as far as slowing down traffic on that road. Sorry,
giving one example is in Sunrise Ridge when you're going up from Kuku`au
Street and you cross the road, those are what?
MR. FUKE: Sunrise Ridge is, the lower portion, that has curb, gutter, sidewalks,
and that's a 60-foot wide right-of-way. Sunrise Estates which is like the
beginning of the one-acre lots. That area is a 60-foot wide right-of-way, paved
swales. Eighty-foot wide right-of-way, paved swales is like Moho`uli Street
extension. I was just thinking about it, Hina Lani Street also, right down here,
that's an 80-feet wide.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, I mean I agree. I really think that
80-foot wide is too wide and if you're planning on having something that's a
walkable community, then my main goal is to have walkable places in the
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community. So if you create a road with no protection for people walking up and
down it, then we have a problem. But if you wanted to slim down the road, as
long as we're not stepping away from the functionality of the road itself and what
it is considered by the County, and we're within our lane, then I'm okay with that.
But again, there are standards set aside in the Subdivision Code that I was reading
for certain rules. So functionality of the road versus what we think is right.
Okay.
But to slow down traffic, yes, and there's other means of slowing down traffic as
well. You can do speed humps. That slows people down. You can skinny down
the road, that's another option. So I would be okay with anything thatagain,
my main goal is making sure that we have a nice, safe, walkable community.
More pedestrians, what is this called? Multi-modal transportation is what we're
going after here, and I just—I've been to too many meetings and been in too
many neighborhoods where you just see the differences in opinion not meeting
each other. So I just want to make sure. Although I think you guys have the best
intention here from what I've seen so far, and I love everybody in the room, I just
want to make sure that what we set in stone here is in the end achieving what
we're asking.
If you want to step it down to 60 feet, I'd be okay with that. If it's just like
Sunrise Ridge, I'd be okay with that, but there has to be something where people
can feel safe. And I don't mean any disrespect to anyone in the room, I'm just
making sure. For me, I'm clarifying, and I'm also just making sure that I
understand what's in front of me and we're doing what's right. So thank you for
giving me that time and for being understanding. And Sid, thank you for your
experience. I talked with some people before I came and tried to get my head
straight.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I've listened very carefully, and I think what
I want to ask my colleagues is do we want to build communities or do we want to
build subdivisions? So I began to think about the definition of community.
Community is about like-minded cohesiveness, people being together. But
subdivisions by definition is to divide. So what we have before us is a planned
community which ironically has to work within the Subdivision Code. So how do
we merge community with the Subdivision Code. It's kind of counter intuitive,
right? We want to put people together, like minded, feel good about each other,
while we divide them through a rule.
So at the end of the day, I want to build community. And what we have before us
is an aesthetically pleasing community that brings in housing opportunities,job
opportunities, commercial opportunities. Again, community.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
I do want to walk back to one comment about the Subdivision Code, because
that's a very different chapter. When we go through zoning, we go through
Chapter 25. But when we go through subdivision, we go through Chapter 23.
And Mr. Fuke, correct me if I'm wrong, these are two very stand-alone codes, and
there is a disconnect. Because within our Planning Department and within our
Zoning Code, we talk about community development plan. Again, community,
right? We talk about transportation and connectivity. How we bring community
together. But to get there, there's this subdividing process which just doesn't take
into account what we're trying to achieve, which is people coming together in
community.
So that's where I want to be. I want to be in community. So for those reasons, I
will be supporting 60-foot right-of-way with curb, gutter, sidewalks. I would
actually like to see no curb, gutter, sidewalks, because I've seen communities
have roadways like right up in Waimea, the bypass road. There's a road, there's
an easement, and then a walkable pedestrian path. So it creates the safety
mechanisms that families want, it's designed to slow cars down through
community, but everybody is getting what they need. They're not being divided.
That's my thoughts, so I just want the rest of my colleagues to think about what
do you want to build. Do you want to build community, or do you want to
subdivide. I think unfortunately in the Puna area we have subdivisions, bonded
together by community associations. But what we have before us is a planned
community that's being proposed by a family that's been in community for
generations.
Again, I will be supporting the 60-foot right-of-way. I have some other thoughts
about curb, gutter, sidewalks. I think we can still achieve those things, and with
the 10-foot set aside. And what I also heard the applicant say was they're willing
to set it aside where the County wouldn't have to condemn at some future use,
which this family could benefit from to get paid off when they have to condemn
the property. So again, I think that's another concession and a huge character trait
that this family carries. For those reasons, I'm going to support this application,
I'm going to support the 60-foot right-of-way. Because there's a lot more than
words on paper in this ordinance. It's about standing up real community, real
families. Thank you, Chair. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Mr. Chung, are you
ready introduce your amendment?
MR. CHUNG: Almost. Sid, I'm assuming that you guys will have right turn
lanes and stuff where the proposed Ponahawai Street meets Moho`uli, right?
MR. FUKE: Ponahawai and Moho`uli, yes.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. CHUNG: Yeah, okay. Because look, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't the
potential for a lot of traffic to be on that road, and that's why we have to use those
bike lanes, so we prohibit the parking along the side of the road. But I've been
visualizing this thing over the last several weeks, you know, particularly in light
of what Matt had brought up. It's those very valid points. But I just see a lot of
walking on those sidewalks. Even if you didn't have the sidewalks. Even if they
had the swales. People are going to park on Moho`uli, and they're going to walls
in this community, guaranteed. It's going to be a heavily trafficked area for
pedestrian exercise. It's going to be really, really nice. Eighty feet would have
been nice too, don't get me wrong, but if it's not going to come to fruition with an
80-foot requirement, why not go with 60 feet, right? So I really appreciate you,
Sid, and then the Matsuuras and Fujimotos working with us in that regard.
So that being the case, I will be making a motion to amend Bill 49, Draft 2, with
the contents of Communication 198.3.
Motion to Amend: Mr. Chung moved to amend Bill 49 with the contents of
Comm. 198.3. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MR. CHUNG: You know, we've talked about the 80-foot wide versus 60-foot
wide constructed roadway, and that's in Condition T, but let me go on to
Condition Q and R, because those are the only two changes from what is being
proposed in Draft 2 of Bill 49.
So Condition Q only adds the word, "or access" somewhere after the word "lots."
And it's to be consistent with a word that was included earlier on the first
sentence. It's really a housekeeping matter.
Now on this one, the Condition R, Matt had touched upon it, that it includes, "the
curb, gutter, and sidewalk requirements shall not apply to roads built to County
dedicable standards within single-family residential subdivisions with lots
exceeding 15,000 square feet." So in other words, if it's less than 15,000 square
feet, they have to put in the curb, gutter, sidewalks. If they go 15,000 square feet
or more, you have to understand in terms of a return on investment, they're
limiting the amount of lots that they can sell. So I'm not really worried about this.
This is something that Sidney had suggested and we talked about it earlier. I'm
hoping that it seems sensible to me. I don't find it offensive, let's put it that
way, and I'm hoping that it can meet with this board's approval.
We also took out the clause, "except for the first stage construction of the
Ponahawai Street extension as described in Condition P." That was redundant to
me. Again housekeeping,just take that out. In fact, it was kind of confusing
because I read it. It could also be read to mean that they didn't have to comply
with the conditions. So I thought instead of just being confused, let's take that
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
whole thing out, because there's really no place for that. Those are the only
changes.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Discussion on the amendment? Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. So I will be supporting this too, and
probably no surprise, ditto what Council Woman Lee Loy said. I like the smaller
streets. I'd be supportive without the gutters and sidewalks because I think that's
the structure. And she's referring to a street in my district, Alauhia, which
doesn't have the gutters and sidewalks, but has the paths that I was mentioning.
So I will be supporting this because I think it's the right direction. And ditto, we
don't need to spend any more time as far as all that, but right direction, right
reason, we need the housing, families from here trying to take care of here, I
support. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Richards. Any other comments?
MR. HENRICKS: Madam Chair,just before you take the vote, I just wanted to
point out there's just a very small extra word that's on page two, the top of
Condition Q. There's the word"the"between "from" and "either." It clearly
doesn't belong there. It's a minor error. It's not in the attachment. I just wanted
to point out for the record that if the amendment is approved, the Draft 2 will not
include that word. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. We don't have to formally do anything more?
Okay, thank you. Okay then I think we're ready to take a vote on amendment
contained in 198.3. All in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Amendment: The motion to amend Bill 49 with the contents of
(Approved) Comm. 198.3 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: And now we'll go back to the main motion as amended.
Any more discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say "aye."
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Bill 49: The motion to pass Bill 49, as amended to Draft 2,
Draft 2 on first reading and adopt Planning Committee Report
(Approved) No. 20 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 49 will go to second reading in two weeks as
amended. Thank you folks very much.
MR. FUKE: Thank you very much, Members of the Council. I think that at the
end of the day this turned out to be a win-win situation. We're all going to be in a
win-win situation. There were a lot of compromises made, originally starting
from the Planning Department and finally ending its way over here, and we really
appreciate it. Thank you very much.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: We really appreciate your working together with
Mr. Chung and Council members.
Okay, Council now we need to decide what to do. I know some people have been
waiting. Mr. Gyotoku, maybe we should take, and Mr. Ventura. Would you like
to take those two items? Okay, then break for lunch.
Okay, Hamana, which number? Mr. Clerk, please read Resolution 135.
Res. 135-19: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR
AND OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR A MULTI-YEAR LEASE
OF REAL PROPERTY
Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a five-year lease agreement at an estimated
monthly cost of$1,845, with the option of a two-year extension. Property
consisting of 1,026 square feet would continue to be used by the Hawaii Fire
Department's Na`alehu ambulance unit.
Reference: Comm. 230
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 135-19. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MS. DAVID: Yes, thank you, Chair. Mr. Ventura, and Fire Chief Uchida, thank
you. And thank you for being so patient with us today. I was going to say this
morning, but it's way past morning.
(Note: At this time Property Manager Venture Hamana and Deputy Fire
Chief Lance Uchida came forward to address the members of the
Council.)
MS. DAVID: So we have Mr. Hamana here and then we have Chief Uchida. I
waiver was requested to expedite this transaction. Could you please, Chief,
explain briefly—or Mr. Hamana, whoever—the urgency of this request.
MR. VENTURA: I'll take it. Mahalo, Hamana Ventura, Property Manager.
What we have here is we're coming to the end the lease. It terminates at the end
of the month. It's taking a little bit longer to work with the landowner, but we've
had this lease since 2005, so we just wanted to make sure that we got it to Council
prior to the expiration of the lease.
MS. DAVID: Thank you. And the lease expires when?
MR. VENTURA: April 30'h.
MS. DAVID: April 301h, okay. Thank you for that explanation. Chief, do you
have anything to add?
DEP. CHIEF UCHIDA: Good afternoon, this is Lance Uchida, Deputy Fire
Chief, the Hawaii Fire Department. No, nothing more to add. It does house our
Medic 11, or our advance life support unit there in Na`alehu. So like Hamana had
mentioned, we've been there since 2005, and it's a good area for us and it
properly serves the community. Thank you.
MS. DAVID: Yes, thank you so much for your service out there. Mr. Hamana,
thank you for your patience today. With that I yield, Chair.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. David. Any questions, Council
Members? Seeing none, all in favor please say "aye."
Page 55
Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Res. 135-19: The motion to adopt Res. 135-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 135 is adopted. Okay now let's take
Resolution 131.
Res. 131-19: AUTHORIZES THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN
AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN
SERVICES IN ORDER TO RECEIVE GRANT FUNDS
Funds in the amount of$1.5 million would be used for the `Ohana Zone—
Na Kahua Hale O Ulu Wini Assessment Center Program to develop, operate, and
administer an assessment center for families that are transitioning to permanent
housing.
Reference: Comm. 226
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 131-19. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Are there any questions, Council Members, or would
you—Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Yes, I just want to note that we have an accompanying bill, 59 on
this one. And I believeI'm not sure if Ms. Hirota, she was waiting all morning,
and she finally went to take lunch. If anyone has questions, we could probably
hold this up till we come back from lunch? But I don't have any questions. They
just requested a waiver to expedite receiving State DHS (Department of Health
and Human Services) funding of$1.5 million for the `Ohana Zone and the Na
Kahua Hale O Ulu Wini Assessment Center Program. So I think it's pretty much
self-explanatory why this is a request to expedite. So with that, I just ask for your
support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I think we can go ahead. All in favor please say "aye."
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Res. 131-19: The motion to adopt Res. 131-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 131 is adopted. We'll do the companion
Bill 59.
Bill 59: 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 —Na Kahua Hale O Ulu Wini
Assessment Center Program account ($1.5 million); and appropriates the same
to the Na Kahua Hale O Ulu Wini Assessment Center Program—State account.
Funds would be used to develop, operate, and administer an assessment center for
families that are transitioning to permanent housing.
Reference: Comm. 226
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 59 on first reading.
Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Any discussion?
MS. DAVID: This is just a companion Bill to the Resolution 131, and I ask for
your support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I'd just like thank all the people involved in going after
these grants. Ulu Wini is a model housing project in our community, and I like to
see all the success there. So mahalo. Okay, all in favor please say "aye."
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Bill 59: The motion to pass Bill 59 on first reading was carried by
(Approved) the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 59 will go to first reading. Okay, I think well, I see
Mr. Kucharski, but do you have time to wait for us to take a lunch break? Which
ones were Mr. Gyotoku for? Mr. Clerk, can you please read Resolution 115?
Res. 115-19: APPROVES AND ADOPTS THE 2019 ANNUAL ACTION PLAN FOR THE
COUNTY OF HAWAII COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT
AND HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIPS PROGRAMS AND
AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAII TO EXECUTE
AND SUBMIT THE ANNUAL ACTION PLAN AND ALL OTHER RELATED
DOCUMENTS TO THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING
AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
The County's Office of Housing and Community Development anticipates a
Community Development Block Grant allocation of$2.5 million from Housing
and Urban Development and program income of$100,000, for a total of
$2.6 million of Community Development Block Grant funds; and a HOME
allocation of$482,731. Funds would be used towards housing and related needs
of very low, low, and moderate income throughout Hawaii Island.
Reference: Comm. 199
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-23
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 115-19 and Finance
Committee Report No. 23. Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion?
MS. DAVID: Thank you. Mr. Gyotoku, thank you for your patience, and I
believe this passed out of Committee. So if you have any further questions,
Council Members, for Mr. Gyotoku, unless you want to say anything, I yield and
ask for your support.
(Note: At this time, Housing Administrator Neil Gyotoku came forward
to address the members of the Council.)
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. GYOTOKU: I just want to say Happy Professional Administrative
Day.
MS. DAVID: Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you.
MS. DAVID: Thank you for reminding me. Mahalo. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: All in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 115-19: The motion to adopt Res. 115-19 and Finance Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 23 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Lee Loy and Poindexter—2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Let's do Bill 50.
Bill 50: 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- HOME Program account ($482,731);
and appropriates the same to the following accounts: Habitat for Humanity—
Puna Self-Help Housing ($451,221); Tenant Base Rental Assistance Program
($6,104); and Office of Housing and Community Development Administration
($25,406).
Reference: Comm. 200
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-24
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Bill 50: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 50 on first reading and adopt
(Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 24. Seconded by
Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Lee Loy and Poindexter—2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 50 moves to second reading. Bill 51.
Bill 51: 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- Block Grant account ($2.5 million) and
the Block Grant - Program Income account ($100,000); and appropriates the same
to the following accounts: Hale Ohana Domestic Abuse Shelter—Renovations
($280,500); West Hawaii Domestic Abuse Shelter—Renovations ($195,250);
West Hawaii Homeless Emergency Shelter Improvements ($600,000);
Kulaimano Elderly Housing—Phase III Renovations ($284,250); Kiheipua
Family Shelter—Certified Kitchen Construction ($200,000); Hale Maluhia
Shelter—Accessibility Improvements ($300,000); Boys and Girls Club —
Accessibility Improvements ($240,000); and Administration, Planning & Fair
Housing ($500,000).
Reference: Comm. 201
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-25
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 51 on first reading and adopt
Finance Committee Report No. 25. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion?
MS. DAVID: Just to note that this passed unanimously in Committee, and
Mr. Gyotoku is here if we have further questions.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, all in favor say
Ic aye.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Bill 51: The motion to pass Bill 51 on first reading and adopt
(Approved) Finance Committee Report No. 25 was carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Lee Loy and Poindexter—2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you very much.
MR. GYOTOKU: Thank you very much.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Kucharski, you have Resolution 137, which is a big
grant opportunity. Since you're here, I'm going to go ahead and take that one.
Mr. Clerk, it's Resolution 137.
Res. 137-19: AUTHORIZES THE SUBMITTAL OF A FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
APPLICATION TO THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION FOR THE
PLANNING, DESIGN, AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE EXPANSION OF THE
KEALAKEHE RECYCLED WATER TREATMENT AND DISTRIBUTION
SYSTEM, AND AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN
AGREEMENT WITH THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION TO ACCEPT
FUNDS FOR THE EXPANSION
Authorizes the Department of Environmental Management to apply for federal
funds for the expansion of the Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant R-1
Upgrade project.
Reference: Comm. 233
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 137-19. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Mr. Kucharski, thank you.
(Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director William
Kucharski came forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. KUCHARSKI: Good afternoon. This resolution is required. The Bureau of
Reclamation has the Kealakehe Wastewater R-1 system on its list of approved
programs, and we have opportunities to get design monies. We have put in the
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
application, our first application for a gran under this program, on the 22nd of this
month. Part of that submittal requires a resolution showing that there is backing
by the County and by the authority under which we operate. So this look for
grant funding is about $1.2 million. So the application is submitted, and this will
be—if the resolution is passed it will then come in and be a part of the submittal
for this application.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Kucharski. Council Members, any
questions? We don't have questions, but I just wanted to thank you very much for
moving aggressively on this R-1 water project. Many, as you know, in our
community have been waiting a long time to see this project completed and I'm
hoping that this will help.
MR. KUCHARSKI: Me too.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Okay, all in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 137-19: The motion to adopt Res. 137-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Richards, Villegas, and Acting
Chair Eoff—6.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members David, Lee Loy, and
Poindexter—3.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you very much, sir. We do have one more I
need to get to because Public Works is waiting in Hilo. So Mr. Clerk, can you
read Bill 36? After lunch? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's a long one. Okay, Public
Works, would you mind coming back I think in about one hour? Maybe we can
do it in a half an hour. Okay, we're going to take a half hour lunch break, and
we'll see everybody back here at 1:35.
Recess: At 1:03 p.m., Acting Chair Eoff called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 1:41 p.m.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I'm calling the meeting out of recess. Mr. Clerk, we're
going to take Bill 36.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Bill 36: 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 –Lava Disaster Assistance–State
account ($20,000,000); and appropriates the same to the Lava Disaster
Assistance–State account. Funds would be used to provide relief, recovery,
mitigation, and remediation assistance for damage, losses, and suffering caused
by the 2018 Kilauea eruption.
Reference: Comm. 153
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz
First Reading: March 13, 2019
Postponed: March 28 and April 10, 2019
(Note: There is a motion by Ms. Kierkiewicz, seconded by Mr. Richards, to
approve Bill 36.)
(Note: Comm. 153.7 from Research and Development Director Diane Ley, dated
April 24, 2019, transmitting a proposed monitoring and updating process for the
2019 legislative appropriation to support Kilauea relief and recovery, was
circulated.)
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay thank you. There's a live motion on the floor, so
I'll just go back to Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. At our last Council meeting, we talked
about wanting to have a clear process in place for monitoring how the funds
would be expended and what the reporting procedure would look like. So my
understanding is that R&D (Department of Research and Development) Director
Ley is on her way from her office to—oh, aloha Diane. Here you are. I just
wanted to set the stage for your presentation. I know that we have your
presentation before us in a printed form, and I just want to defer the floor to you
to make the presentation. Then Council Member Lee Loy will I make some
comment on this going forward.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I just want to make sure everybody has
Communication 153.7 in your packet. I have one extra copy if anybody needs it.
(Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Diane Ley came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MS. LEY: This is Diane Ley, Director for Department of Research and
Development. First a quick question. Would you like me to just shortcut and go
straight to the recording process or do you time for me to say a few other words?
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Oh, we have time. I think we postponed it so we can get
a thorough
MS. LEY: Oh, I just wanted to be respectful of your afternoon.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you very much.
MS. LEY: Thank you. Thank you so much for allowing me a little bit of time
today. Obviously here today to address setting up a placeholder for the second
half of the Legislative appropriation and also to address the requested reporting
process between the Administration and the Council.
This morning we were here and noted the comments coming from the community
to please hurry up and spend these fund down. I think we need to always be
reflective and recognize that this was a significant event. We are living with an
active volcano and we've made decisions in the past that were probably poor and
irresponsible to a degree. So we ended up putting people and families in harm's
way, and their investments in harm's way. So now today is a time we can move
forward and address these shortcomings and support our community in defining a
new Puna; Puna's new future.
Through that process obviously we need community input, we need a number of
other information data sets that will help us move forward. I want to say that the
Administration has and continues to listen to the community as well as the County
Council and we understand that additional information is needed before all of the
expenditures are defined and that is fine. Some of these decisions can wait, but
some cannot wait, such as getting people home and back to work, taking care of
our keiki and our kupuna, moving forward with building recovery capacity, and
accelerating community-based recovery.
So we want to make a commitment again today to continue to engage with the
Council to gather information, to refine the budget for this $20 million, and in
particular the $40 million for infrastructure. So today it's critical that we stay
focused with the intent that the Legislative appropriation provided for, and that
was to provide relief, recovery, mitigation and remediation.
So as to our plan for a reporting process that is both collaborative and transparent,
we are proposing to move forward with a three-part process. One would be
routine dialog with designated Council members, so that we can exchange
information, we can highlight our progress, and we can identify concerns. We
will be providing the—number two, we will provide the Council with monthly
financial reports that are similarly submitted to the State Budget and Finance
Department. We'll also provide narratives to the Council every month for the
first three months, then we propose to move to a quarterly basis or as-needed
basis thereafter. But definitely quarterly, but more frequently as needed.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Then the third item would be to continue the process of communicating with the
public and we'll utilize the kilauearecovery.gov website and also some periodic
emails.
So that's what we propose, and I'm open to questions or concerns.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Kierkiewicz, you still have the floor.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Director Ley. You know, I see in the back
some representatives from Public Works. So if I could call them up to the table to
ask some burning questions that I think are on the minds of I think myself and all
my colleagues. Yesterday the Mayor gave an update for State Legislative funds
that he mentioned roadwork. So the question that we had was why is it going to
cost between $37 and $40 million to cut a road for Highway 132. I wasn't clear if
this was temporary access or if this was paved with curb, gutter, sidewalk;
underground utilities, so I'm just hoping you can help us better understand.
I bring this up because the Mayor indicated that some of the recovery funds would
be used for infrastructure, and we agree there is a clear need for roads in the area.
So hoping you can help us understand what this road is supposed to look like and
why the cost estimate is so high.
(Note: At this time, Public Works Director David Yamamoto and Deputy
Director Allan Simeon came forward to address the members of the
Committee.)
MR. SIMEON: So the numbers that we are coming off of or are working with at
this point are the amounts that we had provided to FEMA (Federal Emergency
Management Agency) and also to Federal Highways. It was apparent with our
meeting with FEMA in February that they wanted better details
MS. EOFF: Excuse me. Could you speak a little bit louder or put the microphone
close? We're having a hard time hearing.
MR. SIMEON: Sure. Yeah, so it was apparent when we met with FEMA last
February that they wanted a better detailed estimates. In order for us to be able to
give that ask, we need a survey. And I'm glad to tell you that basically the field
work as far as photogrammetry, the joint survey has been completed. They are
now processing the data, so and then upon receive of those data, hopefully by next
month, end of next month, we're going to continue designing Highway 132.
So with Highway 132, what we are looking at is basically to—first of all, what is
permitted of us to do is put back the road to that previous function. And also too
sometimes, if they can allow us, to current standard. So we're looking at 12-foot
lanes, one in each direction, and also 10-foot wide shoulders. Within that typical
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section of roadway, we're going to have, before we can put on the sub-base
course, which is the aggregate first that goes under, we would have to either fill or
cut what remains by grading, then we put the layer of sub-base course, and then a
layer of base course on top of that for the temporary road.
Finish that with the asphalt-concrete pavement, and striping and also signs and
markings and guardrails are necessary to provide the permanent road. The
numbers that we have presented so far are again based on basically educated
assumptions, particularly with the excavation and backfill, which has a big impact
on the cost. So we assume certain depths of cutting backfill on this preliminary
numbers. So with the upcoming survey data and topo that we are going to get,
we're going to redesign to provide or restore to previous function, and those
should lead us to give us the more detailed numbers that everybody wants. Those
numbers again will also be as a basis for the 4/28 tentative program that we have
with FEMA and also will be submitted to Federal Highways for Highway 132.
That's pretty much it as far as design of the road.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Deputy Simeon?
MR. SIMEON: Yes?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Does any part of the federal process that you've articulated
for us to get the 100 percent reimbursement—or does anything prevent Public
Works from calling up Neil Azevedo and saying, "Neil, let's just cut a temporary
road."
MR. SIMEON: Yes. As a condition of receipt of federal funding, we have to
follow the Federal Highways/DOT (State Department of Transportation)
requirements, which means that we have to do the NEPA (National
Environmental Policy Act)permitting, also the NPDES (National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System), SMA (Special Management Area), and other
permitting that we need to do to be able to start working once they approve the
project.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: One second. Let me interject here. So that's
100 permanent reimbursement road restoration though, correct?
MR. SIMEON: Let me clear that up. So for the temporary roads, they would pay
100 percent of the work that is completed up to October 4�h. Thereafter it's non-
participation. That means they're not going to participate. That's why our goal is
to finish the road by that date, the temporary road by that date.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Why couldn't we use some of the money that's been given
to us from the Governor already? I'm looking at this breakdown of priorities, a
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budget summary that was presented by Director Ley and Roy Takemoto, where
they allocate $5.7 million out of the Governor's $10, to get people home by
restoring access. So I'm assuming if it's going to be a road like was created for
getting access back to Poho`iki, it's not going to cost the County more than $1
million to restore access similar to that sort of road. I'm willing to bite the bullet
and just spend that million if that's going to take to cut a road, and not wait for the
100 percent reimbursement.
MR. SIMEON: Let me just clarify on the Highway 132, that is under Federal
Highways. For Poho`iki and the rest of the lava inundated County Roads are
under FEMA. For the FEMA portion as a condition of the 4/28 alternative
procedure, we cannot touch the road until the money is obligated. In order for
FEMA to be able to obligate the money, we need to submit to them that detailed
estimate, which will be given to them after the design and the estimates are
completed. So thereafter, and I'm not sure how long it's going to take for them to
give a decision to okay, and obligate the money. So that's for the 4/28 FEMA
projects.
For the Federal Highway 132 project, we are right now waiting for the grading
permit process to be final, and we are working with SHPD (State Historic
Preservation Division) to get that thing done. We are also waiting for the private
owners to give us the right of entry, that we had sent maybe a few weeks ago. So
we need all those to basically put the package together and be able to get the
project started, once the funding is available.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I'm going to yield at this time and let my other
colleagues ask questions or our Public Works Directors. Thank you both for
being there. I know you have a lot on your plate so I appreciate you taking the
time to update us on the many balls that you have in the air with regards to road
restoration. When my colleagues are done asking questions of Public Works, I do
want to call Diane back up so we can talk about the process that's been articulated
for expending the monies under Bill 36.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, who was next? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, did you
want to go next?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Hey guys, thanks for coming this afternoon.
I'm sorry, so we can or cannot go ahead and just pave a road out there? Not even
pave,just cut a road out there right now.
MR. SIMEON: No, we cannot unless we use our own money. Otherwise—yeah,
that's true, we have to finish the permitting first. Technically we cannot. But
what I can tell you is we've been calling them, our partner agencies, to help us.
We have reached out to people and also other departments to find people who can
help us to get the permitting done.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Not even a temporary road?
MR. SIMEON: No.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Why can't we? Just gaging from what the
community is asking for, I'm just wondering why it really is that we cannot just
cut a temporary road. Because we'd have to cut a temporary road anyway to put
pavement on. There would have to be some kind of pre-cut into the landscape to
create the road that would come out there.
MR. SIMEON: So pretty much what we're waiting for to be able to move ahead
with Highway 132 is the grading permit. I think it's now with the Department of
Land and Natural Resources' SHPD section.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How long on that permit?
MR. SIMEON: I believe it must have been there already about a month or a
month and a half. I just had a call yesterday to them again and also followed up
with email. I can understand also with their limited resources. But yeah, if
there's anybody who can help us, that would be welcome.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I just think with the community reaching out
to us to help them for the last few months, and with PGV's (Puna Geothermal
Venture) ability to cut the road in five days; and our inability to create any kind of
access route back there besides going through private property, there should be a
big win for Public Works and for us and for the people that live there. So the
sooner the better. But I think you guys understand that already.
Thank you, Allan. You know what? Is there any creative workarounds we can
do?
MR. SIMEON: One creative thing that we are doing now is basically instead
of—we had done it in the past as well, instead of using the regular digging
process, we are basically doing it like a the County being the general and just rent
equipment with the operator so we can approach the work on two sides.
Hopefully it will be a lot cheaper as well.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Can Don Smith help you guys at all over at
Highways? Are you using him already?
MR. SIMEON: We already have consulted with him and also with Federal
Highways, and actually they have helped us in clearing the NEPA process already
too.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. I yield.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Council Members? I'm not sure who wanted
to speak.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I have a question.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I'll let Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder finish up his thoughts.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How do we go about permitting the Poho`iki
Road?
MR. SIMEON: It would be a similar process. It doesn't have to do with the
NEPA CatEx (Categorical Exclusion), but it has to clear the State Section 343
Environmental process. Also again, if you patch one acre or more, you need the
NPDES permit and also a grading permit. And if it's within the SMA area, then
you need the SMA permit as well, and right of entries of course, through the
abutting properties that would be affected.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What does SHPD stand for?
MR. SIMEON: State Historic Preservation Division.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Do you need their clearance if you're
already on the same alignment?
MR. SIMEON: Yes, we do. And it seems that if you grader if you move
material 100 cubic yards or more and also cut five feet or more, or cut or fill,
you'll need the grading permit, per our Hawaii County Code.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you.
MR. SIMEON: I just want to add that basically when PGV was able to start the
project, they were under the proclamation. So some permits that normally are
required were suspended at the time.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I yield. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Director and Deputy, I just wonder
thinking creatively as Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder pointed out, could we amend our
Code to create a temporary emergency road standard that we could use to justify
cutting a road right now?
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. SIMEON: As far as the standards, I don't think it's going to make a
difference unless you change the Code's grading requirements, or you extend the
proclamation for emergency.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I just have to appreciate what Mr. Kaneali`i-
Kleinfelder mentioned. There's got to be some workaround, right? There's got to
be some work over, under, around or through, way. So what I heard our Deputy
Chief Engineer say is that the critical path to getting a temporary road is because
we are grading or grubbing more than one acre, we would have to check the box
with State Historic Preservation Division, correct?
MR. SIMEON: Yeah, we would need a grading permit and also an NPDES
permit. (inaudible) already have the NPDES permit at this point for 132.
MS. LEE LOY: And that's because we're crossing the threshold of clearing more
than one acre of land? Or grading or grubbing more than one acre of land?
MR. SIMEON: Or moving 100 cubic yards.
MS. LEE LOY: Okay, 100 cubic yards. Okay, I can begin. And that grading and
grubbing requirement is pursuant to our County Code, correct?
MR. SIMEON: That's correct.
MS. LEE LOY: Okay. Is there a State statute that matches or meets that County
Code or is that only within Hawaii County?
MR. SIMEON: Not that I know, but SHPD is one of the approvers of the
application for a grading permit.
MS. LEE LOY: Okay, okay, okay. But that's a County process that we identify
when we establish that requirement within our County Code, correct? Or was
this—like again, is this a State statute that we were lining up with our County
Code?
Okay, while you folks think about it, here's my thoughts. If this requirement for
getting a grading/grubbing permit hinges on the County Code, I propose we
change the Code. I see Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder's antennas going up, so I'm
going to yield to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Go ahead.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: David, I have a question for you. Somebody
smarter than me mentioned to me in passing that you don't need a grading and
grubbing permit to work on a County right-of-way.
MR. SIMEON: I'm sorry, can you please repeat that?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: As far as I understand it, grading and
grubbing permits are not required for a county to work on a county road. It's
already a county right-of-way.
MR. YAMAMOTO: No, we still have to follow the same regulations as far as the
grading permits.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is that right? Sorry. Because I remember
hearing this in passing from a good friend of mine.
MR. SIMEON: We still need to clear the grading permit whether we are working
on a County road or not.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Could we use that in our benefit here and
proceed with the ability to cut a road using that example?
MR. SIMEON: I would say that I believe we should follow our rules and be the
example.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, thank you, Chair. Dave and Allan, thanks for being
here. Obviously what you've seen is the Council struggling trying to come up
with an answer. So a lot of deep thought going on at this point. From your
perspective, how do we push this harder? How do we make this happen soon?
MR. SIMEON: Actually we really did basically turn the page a lot faster than
normal as far as the NEPA CatEx. That is with the collaboration with DOT and
Federal Highways. We also had finished the NPDES permit that normally takes
six months and it only took a few months, again with the cooperation of our
partner agencies. So again, technically what we're waiting for to be able to
design and be able to get the estimate is the survey data that is ongoing.
Hopefully we get that soon from the consultant. The grading permit fix is
basically we need the help from SHPD to get that cleared, and the right of entry
from all our friends and neighbors that are along the Highway 132 alignment.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. RICHARDS: That doesn't sound expedient to me. I'm going to let Council
Woman Lee Loy have a shot.
MS. LEE LOY: Chair, if I might? I guess I was waiting for the answer also, if
the County grading and grubbing permit requirement was connected to a State
statute.
MR. SIMEON: So that may be connected to our Chapter 10, Erosion and
Sedimentation Control, with the Clean Water section with the State.
MS. LEE LOY: What I heard was "maybe." So can we please clarify that,
because I think there are some workarounds here. What the Administration
should try also to think about is policy changes that this body could actually do by
way of amendments to the Code. We could craft it in a manner that we could
honestly be more expedient than the State Historic Preservation Division. This
body has seen burial plans take five years. So when we talk about efficiency or
effectiveness, if there was a way from a policy shift or a legislative shift, I suspect
that would go quicker than what we're doing right now by waiting for the grading
and grubbing permit, waiting for the State Historic Preservation Society to sign
off, waiting for the NPDES permit; and I hear the community. We're marching
up on one year of this event. Just food for thought. There's always another way,
I really believe that. I'm going to yield. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Anyone else have ?
Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think we have a chance here, instead of
spending $10 million and waiting until October, we can spend $100 million and
cut a road in a very short period of time, being a little bit creative but following
the rules that are set already. If you guys are willing to work on that, I'll bet we
can proceed with this. Because I can already see it in my head,just from
everything that was said just now. I didn't know most of what I just heard, but
everything put together in the last 15 minutes would save the County money, give
the people who need a road a road, and solve a lot of problems for a lot of people.
Can we do that creatively and work together to make it happen without doing any
kind of major amendments or changes?
MR. YAMAMOTO: We'll go and research the various Codes, and the State
codes to see what we can do. But typically, our regulations are based on
regulations that are established by the State and that's why we have ours in place.
Like Chapter 10 is Erosion and Sedimentation Control. It's probably an offshoot
from the State 342-D, Water Pollution Control. We'll also look into the SHPD
regulations to see how they got involved with the grading permit.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I just, I think this is in the
constituents' best interest and the County's best interest, if we can figure out a
way to do this out of spending $10 million for us, but another $30 million in
Federal money. This is taxpayer money that we're using. And the constituents,
from what I heard a couple weeks ago said just like a road. It doesn't have to be
permanent, paved, two-lane beautiful highway. They'll take anything right now.
I don't want to be inefficient in case something has to go back and be fixed, but at
the same time, if we can create a temporary road, get people back to where they
need to go within our right, then come back and finish that road later, at least it's
something. That would be a big win for the Administration as well as the
Council, and then more so, the constituents.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Anybody else? I just wanted to make one observation.
I'll continue the discussion too. But you know, when we were—it was quite a
long period of time while the Daniel K. Inouye Highway was being constructed
and then the realignment was happening going down to Hilo. We were allowed to
drive on a temporary road while the permanent road continued to be constructed.
So I was just wondering if something like that could happen and still be within the
Federal standards or requirements.
MR. SIMEON: From what I understand with the Puainako Street Extension,
basically they had a lot right-of-ways compared to what we have with
Highway 132. But going back again to the requirements of where we are today as
far as trying to get the temporary road. So with the survey being done, once that
is with our Engineering Division—they actually already started designing for the
road, so the grading permit might even come before the design. So we're going to
reach out again to our friends with SHPD to help us facilitate their review and
approval. Again, we're still waiting for the survey. Hopefully it comes in a few
weeks so that our engineers can finish up on the design.
So with that, with those two and hopefully the right of entry agreements or
requests from the property owners come in as well, then we can right away after
that hopefully start the temporary road. Once those are settled and accomplished.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Well I know we're not going to answer everything
right here and now, but thank you. I'm going to go back Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. We've had a very interesting
discussion, and I think a lot of our creative juices are now flowing. So I'm going
to suggest that me as Chair of the Planning Committee and Council Member Lee
Loy as Chair of the Public Works Committee connect with DPW (Department of
Public Works), to talk about potential Code changes to expedite temporary road
restoration. I'm going to ask that she put forward a communication to start a
discussion going on what these Code changes could look like in the Public Works
Committee.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Then I want to go back to the matter at hand, which is the process for expending
funds with regards to the Bill 36 money. So I just want to mahalo David and
Allan for being available to answer our questions today, and really working with
us to come up with innovative solutions to meet the needs of our community.
MR. SIMEON: Thank you.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I'm going to yield to Ms. Lee Loy for a second.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I will be putting forward that communication.
I think as Ms. Kierkiewicz mentioned, as the Chair of the Committee on Planning
and the Chair of Committee on Public Works, I think there is a way to find some
creative workarounds. I am combing through that Chapter 10 that was mentioned
by the Director, and there's a section for waivers. It's Section 10-5. I think at the
end of the day, we want to try and find some creative, innovative ways within the
frameworks that we have. Because when I read this, there's actually an
opportunity for the Director, when there is undue hardship, a way for him to make
a determination that could apply a waiver process. But that's just me thinking
outside the box, and at the end of the day if there are some Code amendments,
let's try and find that way forward. Thank you for yielding to me,
Ms. Kierkiewicz, but back to the topic at hand. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Go ahead, Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Director Ley, for your presentation on the
process for spending the recovery funds. I don't think it's been mentioned
enough, but with the lava eruption, if all of our islands were connected, I really do
feel that it would have been the State coordinating disaster response and recovery.
But clearly we are all separate islands, so it's now the County's kuleana to be
lifting up the recovery process. And there is no framework for that, and I think
with what you've articulated in Communication 153.7, and that was built in
partnership with the Council in our various discussions about how we move
forward, I think this is the start of that framework that is something that
Ms. Lee Loy and I are working on so that we have a pathway forward in the event
of future disasters.
You know, you mentioned it and others have mentioned it, but it's very clear that
irresponsible land use decisions were made in the past, and now we have the
chance to really right the ship. I think with what you've put forward here, you
know, I don't use this term lightly, but it gives me hope. It gives me hope
because we're providing transparency, and I think we're providing information to
the community, to the Council, in a very timely manner. So I'm going to be
supporting this process.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
So the expectation is you are going to refine the expenditure plan that you and
Roy Takemoto had put forth to the Council, and refine it in a way that is reflective
of the many comments that my colleagues and I had with specific regard to how
do we help re-energize and create various economies in Puna. Yesterday Chair
Chung mentioned a resort node for the area taking advantage of the new
landscape. Like Council Member Richards, I'm very much for supporting the ag
economy there. But I also want to give hope to people there now and in the
future, especially the kids. So having some kind of impact hub where they can
come together and learn and collaborate, I think that's very critical to building up
the social and economic fabric of the area.
So I'm going to be supporting this communication with the expectation that
you're going to come before the Council next month to give us an update on
where you are with the expenditure plan, and again get our feedback. So for the
first three months, you will be articulating to this body what the plan is, what the
outcomes are, and the progress you are making towards those outcomes. By
getting those expenditure reports, we'll be able to see the kind of progress or not
being made on the various fronts. Then after the three months, we will be getting
quarterly updates from you, but we will still be getting in monthly expenditure
report. That way we can ensure the monies are being spent in ways that have
been approved by the Council and the community. Any comments, Director Ley?
(Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Diane Ley came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MS. LEY: No, I think that's agreeable.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. I'm going to yield. Thank you, Chair.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Anyone else have questions for
Director Ley? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Good afternoon, Diane. So you mentioned
giving reports to certain Council members. Who are those Council members?
MS. LEY: Well, I think what we would do, the Administration would provide
reports to the full Council, but we have been meeting on a routine basis with
Council Women Kierkiewicz and Lee Loy.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Oh, how come you didn't ask me? I am
from Puna. I know Upper Puna. We didn't get lava covered, but can have
separate meetings, right? Yeah, Diane, try give me a call.
MS. LEY: Okay, yes. And periodically I was sending you updates, and yeah. So
we can do that, too.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Diane.
MS. LEE LOY: And anybody else who would like. If I may, I did have a—you
know, I know Council Woman Kierkiewicz asked for a revised expenditure plan
reflective of the comments from Council members. So I noted the resort-ag
economy impact hub, and I believe there were a few other noted suggestions
about a month ago. So what I'd like to do is, if I can, is follow up with individual
Council members to get some additional information on the ones that I heard
voiced, or if Council members all, I can follow up with each of you individually.
I'm not sure how you want to proceed with this, because there's lots of different
ideas out there on how to support the recovery effort. Some of it may be things
that the County can do, where we have money to put towards. And some of them
may be better directed to the private sector. I'd be happy to have discussions.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think whole Council, because we're all on
the same page that way. Just a good, continuous follow up, and we're just
touching on communication. You've been very good so far. Just keep us updated
so we know what's going on. Especially for me, because I'm in Puna.
MS. LEY: Okay, I will definitely do that. I know we reached out—I believe we
spoke to all the Council members except one, prior to our budget hearing and that
was one of the specific asks I had about do they have questions or needs with
respect to recoveries. I believe the one I didn't meet with was Sue Lee Loy.
So okay, but I will reach back out and try to schedule meetings or at least offer the
meetings and if people want to meet, that would be great. Thank you.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, and if you wanted to be more efficient
with that, and you just want to one meeting that's fine. But just, if you have
interesting things that pertain to one district, I'm sure you call people already, but
yeah,just the more efficient you can make that the better for the County. Thank
you, Diane.
MS. LEY: Okay.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other Council members? Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Diane. Yeah, for the rest of my colleagues, you
know, the conversations that myself and Ms. Kierkiewicz and the recovery team
has been having was kind of fluid because we were lobbying for the money,
trying to find solutions, trying to find appropriate language, and how to utilize the
money. It was just really fluid at the time, with a big time crunch just because of
the Legislative session and the amount of time we had to work within that. So
what Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder is touching upon, you know, we've got to start
reconnecting with the department heads. But again, the department heads
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
reaching back out to the Council members so that we can have a little bit better
communication.
But one more thing, if Allan is still there, because I had a chance to read
Chapter 10, and it was talking about this waiver process. You know, I'm reading
it, and it says that if the Director finds that the request will not likely create any
problems or endanger any life or limb, we can move forward with this waiver
process. Then the next section of that says if any person aggrieved by the
Director, there's an appeals process. I really think that there's a way, and we need
to find a way.
I know we go down this choo-choo train track of the decision making and how
it's always been done, but there's other tools in our tool belt, even within the
Code that we have that affords us opportunities. Any thoughts on that, Allan?
MR. SIMEON: I'll talk to the Director and we'll look at that further. If there's a
way for us to avail of that language—again, we'll take a look at that further.
Also, we'll continue to press on reaching out to our friends in the other
government agencies to help us basically to finish up the permitting process for
this project so we can move on.
Again, our ultimate goal for everybody is to provide access to the community of
Puna. I live on that side as well, and I do have friends, so I understand what
everyone's—and in speaking to Public Works, I believe our men, our engineers,
and everybody there just want to say thank you for them, because we are trying
our best to get this done also. But yeah, we're willing to work with everybody,
with the Council and anybody who can help us as well in this time. Thank you.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you for that, Allan. Yeah, we can just work together, but
it takes courage to step outside the box and think outside the box to make bold
decisions. So I appreciate what you're saying, you know, that we all can work
together, stand together, and make courageous decisions together. So thank you,
Chair. I yield at this time.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Ms. Kierkiewicz.
Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 36 with the contents
of Comm. 153.7. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Discussion? I think we all know why. It's just to have
this memorialized. Is that okay, Mr. Clerk? It's a communication.
MR. HENRICKS: I'm sorry.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: It's a communication from Research and Development.
Can we use that as like an addendum to the bill if we make an amendment?
MR. HENRICKS: Not in this format.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay.
MR. HENRICKS: This is purely informational. It's notI don't think it would
fit on a bill to amend the Operating Budget.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Can it be an exhibit?
MR. HENRICKS: I mean, it's in the record. I don't knowI'm not sure how it
would be construed to provide any type of lawful guidance as far as how the
appropriations are—especially in this format.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Well thank you for that guidance. I think we need
to withdraw that motion then.
MR. HENRICKS: Was it recognized with a second?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yes.
MR. HENRICKS: I would advise as much.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, I guess Mr. Kierkiewicz, can you withdraw your
motion? I don't think we can use this communication into a bill format the way
presented. But as the Clerk said, this is part of the record that goes along with the
bill, correct?
MR. HENRICKS: Yes, but I understand that's already known. I understand what
Ms. Kierkiewicz is trying to accomplish is to
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Include it in the language of the bill.
MR. HENRICKS: So that it would be part of the ordinance itself. That would be
more of a mandate than information, if I understand correctly what's happening
right now. So my only suggestion would be that if we're looking to incorporation
language into the bill so that it becomes part of the ordinance, that is directly
affixed to it and would be viewed as language that would be required to be
followed, we would certainly want to look at that closely to make sure that it
accomplishes its purpose.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. So I don't think we can accomplish that at this
point without further redrafting of this bill, which the bill itself is just a
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
straightforward transferring money into an account. I'm not sure that I can
suggest anything at this time. And we're at second reading of the bill.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes, the Governor also did sign the bill, so it is now law.
Monies are going to be transferred to our County. Okay, I'm going to retract my
motion and because it is on record and it's been clearly articulated what the
process is going to be, I'd like to move forward with adopting Bill 36, recognizing
that there will be Council monitoring, that the Council receive these updates, and
that other information will be available on the County website. I'm just wanting
to stress that we are accountable and transparent in this process.
Withdraw Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz withdrew her motion to amend Bill 36
to Amend: with the contents of Comm. 153.7.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Oh, well let me ask the Clerk one more question. Could
she do this in the form of a resolution for a future piece of legislation?
MR. HENRICKS: The Council can introduce and adopt any resolution it likes.
The question would be would it accomplish what is sought to accomplish within
this motion, and I can't answer that.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Well that could be something to think about for a future
point in time. But I think we're ready to go ahead with the vote on Bill 36.
Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Just one question. I see Allan still there. Allan, you know, you
mentioned that there's a Code provision—and I'll keep this very brief—you
know, there's a Code provision which requires that anytime you move what, an
acre or so you have to get SHPD approval as well as NPDES permit?
MR. SIMEON: That's correct, yes. So anytime you move
MR. CHUNG: What's the Code provision? Where is it contained?
MR. SIMEON: That's in Chapter 10, I believe.
MR. CHUNG: Ten, for Erosion and Sedimentation?
MR. SIMEON: Yeah, with the grading permit.
MR. CHUNG: It's in there, huh? Okay, we'll
MR. SIMEON: The NPDES permit is for the State. That's when you touch one
acre or more.
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MR. CHUNG: One what?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: One acre.
MR. SIMEON: One acre or more, if you disturb one acre or more.
MR. CHUNG: Oh, it's a State law.
MR. SIMEON: It's a State law, yeah, for the NPDES.
MR. CHUNG: Alright. Thank you.
MR. SIMEON: Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Now Council Members, are we ready to take a
vote? Okay. All in favor of approving Bill 36 at second and final reading, please
say "aye."
Vote on Bill 36: The motion to pass Bill 36 on second and final reading was
(Adopted) carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 36 is adopted. Thank you for the discussion. I think
we'll just go to the top of the agenda.
Return to Order The Chair directed the Council to return to the Order of Business.
of Business:
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of
RESOLUTIONS: Resolutions.
(Note: Items in this category were take up previously, out of order.)
Res. 121-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HAWAIIAN
SANCTUARY INC. FOR ITS PLANT ALOHA PROJECT
Transfers $1,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 5); and credits to the Department of Research and Development,
Agriculture Other Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 212
Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder
Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 121-19.
Seconded by Ms. David.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Would you like to speak to that?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is a good project by some interesting
people in my district. They're just trying to teach people how to plant and grow
food and be a little more self-sufficient. I ask for your support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. All in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 121-19: The motion to adopt Res. 121-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 121 is adopted. Resolution 122.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Res. 122-19: 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
HAWAII ISLAND CULTURAL AWARENESS PROJECT TO ASSIST WITH
EXPENSES RELATING TO THE 26TH ANNUAL KWXX HO`OLAULE`A
Transfers $1,500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 5); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public
Programs account.
Reference: Comm. 213
Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder
Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 122-19.
Seconded by Ms. David.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Go ahead.
MR. KANEALII-KLEINFELDER: This is a very wonderful event put on by
Chris Leonard and Kathy Leonard from KWXX in Hilo. We attend every year
and I help set up every year, and it always falls like the third Saturday or the
fourth Saturday of the month. Most people know what I'm talking about. I just
really appreciate this event, and I really appreciate what they do for the
community. So I'm very happy to have this resolution pass, and I ask for your
support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. All in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 122-19: The motion to adopt Res. 122-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Next is Resolution 123.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Res. 123-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO BIG ISLAND
RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL FOR THE
35TH ANNUAL QUIKSILVER/BIG ISLAND TOYOTA PRO-AM SURFING
TRIALS
Transfers $500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 5); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public
Programs account.
Reference: Comm. 214
Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder
Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 123-19.
Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Comment?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Again, another great event, especially if
you're a surfer. I hope everyone can make it down, and I ask for your support on
this as well.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. All in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 123-19: The motion to adopt Res. 123-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution is adopted. Moving to Resolution 124.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Res. 124-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HOSPICE OF
HILO FOR ITS 15TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF LIFE FESTIVAL
Transfers $1,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 4); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public
Programs account.
Reference: Comm. 215
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz
Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 124-19. Seconded
by Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I see that my colleague Ms. Lee Loy is
also introducing a measure to support this event. Hospice, now known as Hawaii
Care Choices, is very special to me and my `ohana. A couple of years ago my
grandmother, she suffered some kind of stroke and half of her body was
paralyzed. So we were at the hospital with her for about a week and we made the
decision as a family to move her to hospice. Unbeknownst to us, that was a
blessing in disguise, because she was a miracle case and actually was able to be
what I feel nursed back to life. So we got another year with nava and I feel it's
because of the incredible and thoughtful loving care that was provided at Hawaii
Care Choices.
So I wholeheartedly support what they do with the Celebration of Life Festival,
and happy to be supporting it and encourage my colleagues to support this
resolution. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. All in favor,please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 124-19: The motion to adopt Res. 124-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Moving on to Resolution 125.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Res. 125-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HOSPICE OF
HILO TO ASSIST WITH EXPENSES RELATED TO THE CELEBRATION OF
LIFE EVENT AT REEDS BAY BEACH PARK
Transfers $1,500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Parks and Recreation,
Administration Other Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 216
Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy
Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 125-19. Seconded by
Ms. Kierkiewicz.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any further discussion?
MS. LEE LOY: No,just I think hospice touches our lives, and we have to make
some really challenging decisions. So I'm just asking my colleagues to support
this resolution. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Okay, all in favor say "aye."
Vote on Res. 125-19: The motion to adopt Res. 125-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 125 is adopted. Resolution 126.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Res. 126-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO HALE KIPA,
INC., FOR ITS KA`I LIKE PROGRAM
Transfers $1,900 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 3); and credits to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Other
Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 217
Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy
Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 126-19. Seconded by
Ms. David.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Go ahead.
MS. LEE LOY: Just asking for my colleagues' support. Thank you.
Vote on Res. 126-19: The motion to adopt Res. 126-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Resolution 127.
Res. 127-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO `AHA
PUNANA LEO TO ASSIST WITH EXPENSES RELATING TO THE `OLELO
HAWAII `OE CAMPAIGN
Transfers $2,500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 3); and credits to the Department of Research and Development,
Business Development account.
Reference: Comm. 218
Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy
Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 127-19. Seconded by
Ms. Kierkiewicz.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion?
MS. LEE LOY: Absolutely, and I'm going to take a few minutes on this one to
strongly urge my colleagues to pass Resolution 127-19. I know we passed many
of these contingency resolutions for many special programs. But for the rest of
you, this one is really unique. It's more than a happy coincidence that this
resolution is before us at a time when Hilo is coming alive with the Merrie
Monarch Festival and celebrating the Hawaiian Culture in Hilo. I'm also pleased
to see our entire Council in the spirit of the festival with all of our lei. So thank
you so much for supporting the festival during this time.
I also shared earlier with you folks some of the `Olelo swag. So basically what
this resolution does is provide funding to `Aha Punana Leo in which they provide
different opportunities for businesses, individuals, food establishments,
governmental agencies, to identify that they speak `olelo Hawaii, and it's through
this everyday use and interaction with the language and stuff we do every day that
keeps the language vibrant, thriving and living.
Last year we celebrated the Year of the Hawaiian, and I've also seen some of my
other colleagues provide their contingency money for the 200th Celebration of
Recognition of King Kamehameha the 1st. So all of these things are all
encompassing around our language.
For me, when I was approached about providing funding for this program, it was
a little bit more intimate. For me it was a way for our Hawaiian speakers to
identify with others. Especially peers right here in government, in businesses, so
that they could see themselves in those leadership roles and know that the
language could be a part of them in community.
At the end of the day it just becomes the cornerstone of what makes us so very
special. So with that, I will be urging my colleagues to support this resolution.
Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you for that, Ms. Lee Loy. Any other comments?
All in favor,please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 127-19: The motion to adopt Res. 127-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 127 is adopted. Resolution 128.
Res. 128-19: 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 HAWAII
ARTIST COLLABORATION TO PURCHASE ART SUPPLIES AND
MATERIALS FOR KAHAKAI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Transfers $1,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 7); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public
Programs account.
Reference: Comm. 219
Intr. by: Ms. Villegas
Motion to Approve: Ms. Villegas moved to adopt Res. 128-19. Seconded by
Ms. Kierkiewicz.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any comments?
MS. VILLEGAS: I just ask for this body's support in this donation of funding to
help provide much needed art supplies for Kahakai Elementary School in
District 7. They do amazing work there, and they really stretch their resources to
their utmost. So this contribution allows for our keiki to have even more
extensive and creative experiences with art supplies. Mahalo.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. All in favor, say "aye."
Vote on Res. 128-19: The motion to adopt Res. 128-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Resolution 129.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Res. 129-19: 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
AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS FOR ITS HOME FIRE CAMPAIGN IN
HAWAII COUNTY
Transfers $1,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 2); and credits to the Hawaii Fire Department, Fire Prevention
Other Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 220
Intr. by: Mr. Chung
Vote on Res. 129-19: Mr. Chung moved to adopt Res. 129-19. Seconded by
(Adopted) Ms. David and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Clerk, I think we voted on Resolution 131. Did we
vote on 132?
MR. HENRICKS: No.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, then Resolution 132.
Res. 132-19: AUTHORIZES THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN
AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN
SERVICES IN ORDER TO RECEIVE GRANT FUNDS
Funds in the amount of$2,511,828 would be used for the `Ohana Zone—Keolahou
Assessment Center Program to develop, operate, and administer an assessment
center for homeless men that are transitioning to permanent housing.
Reference: Comm. 227
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 132-19. Seconded by
Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Comment?
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
MS. DAVID: Yes. I'd like to thank Sharon Hirota, who was very patient. She
was here most of the day, and had to go back to Hilo. She's enroute right now,
but she was here for questions.
This is pretty straightforward. The waiver out of Finance was requested so that
they could expedite receipt of funds, the State funds from DHS (Department of
Human Services). So I ask you for your support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. All in favor say "aye."
Vote on Res. 132-19: The motion to adopt Res. 132-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 132 is adopted. There's a companion to that
which is Bill 60. I guess we can wait till I get there. Resolution 133.
Res. 133-19: AUTHORIZES THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN
AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE, PURSUANT TO HAWAII REVISED STATUTES
SECTION 46-7, FOR A GRANT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT
Funds in the amount of$49,896 would be used for the North Kohala Coqui Frog
Control project to control and eradicate coqui frog infestations in the district.
Reference: Comm. 228
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 133-19. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Discussion?
MS. DAVID: Yes, thank you. Thank you, Director Ley, for being so patient. I
now you were here all day. You requested a waiver of this. Would you like to
just tell us really briefly the reason for the waiver request on this one?
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
(Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Diane Ley came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MS. LEY: Sure. Thank you, Diane Ley, Director for Research and Development.
This program, the County has been serving as the intermediary between the State
Department of Agriculture and the North Kohala community over the past three
years. The program funds are running out, or have run out I should say. So the
community since 2003, so the past 15 years has been effectively controlling and
eradicating coqui frog within the North Kohala District.
So they want to continue that good work and the department put forward funds,
the State Department of Agriculture put forward funds again to get the funds out
to that community again, to continue the work.
MS. DAVID: Thank you very much for that explanation, Director. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Just echo what Director Ley has said. The
North Kohala coqui patrol has really been very active and very aggressive as far
as trying to control. They have a few hotspots that they keep working on, but it's
a true community involvement, and they keep working on it. So a very good
thing to support. Thanks, I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: All in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 133-19: The motion to adopt Res. 133-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 133 is adopted. Resolution 134.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Res. 134-19: AUTHORIZES THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN
AGREEMENT WITH ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
Authorizes a one-year agreement to assist Hawaii County in its intervention of
Public Utilities Commission dockets, including Integrated Grid Planning,
Electrification of Transportation, Performance-Based Regulation, and rate case.
Reference: Comm. 229
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 134-19. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion?
MS. DAVID: I see Deputy Director Ron Whitmore in Hilo, and this was another
waiver request. So Mr. Whitmore, could you please explain briefly the urgency
of us passing this and waiving Finance? Thank you very much.
(Note: At this time, Deputy Research and Development Director Ron
Whitmore came forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. WHITMORE: Yeah, sure. Thank you, Deputy Director Ron Whitmore,
Department of Research and Development. This is an annual procurement that
we need to do to maintain the support we need from professionals to be very
active in a number of critical public utility commission dockets. The last contract
we had expired at the end of January, so we've been racing to renew, or not
renew, but to execute a new contract. There are three, and now four active
dockets, and it's critical that we have the expertise and support from Arizona
State University.
MS. DAVID: Thank you very much. Could you just explain "electrification of
transportation?" What is that?
MR. WHITMORE: It's the gradual transition of our ground transportation from
liquid fossil fuel based fuel sources to either electric, battery or fuel cell
technology, that are fueled by electric storage as opposed to liquid fuel. This is
critical because it has significant implications for the evolution of our electrical
grid as well as obviously dramatic effects on our broader transportation system.
So the docket is processed for considering helping the PUC (Public Utilities
Commission) consider the proposed electrification plan that was submitted by the
utility.
MS. DAVID: Awesome. Great. Thank you for that. Then I yield and ask for
your support. Mahalo.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. David. All in favor, please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 134-19: The motion to adopt Res. 134-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 134 is adopted. Resolution 143.
Res. 143-19: SUPPORTS THE DESIGNATION OF THE FOURTH WEDNESDAY OF
APRIL AS INTERNATIONAL DENIM DAY AS A PART OF THE COUNTY
OF HAWAI`I'S RECOGNITION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS
MONTH
Establishes that the County of Hawaii stands in solidarity with local and global
counterparts to address destructive behaviors that perpetuate sexual violence and
encourages all citizens to wear denim jeans each fourth Wednesday of April.
Reference: Comm. 240
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 143-19. Seconded
by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Go ahead, Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. So today is actually April 24�h, International
Denim Day. If everybody could please rise and show off the denim you are
wearing. I just, you know, I want to thank my colleagues and everyone across the
County and around the island for supporting this event. The movement began in
1999, and it was inspired by women of the Italian Parliament who started to wear
jeans to work after an Italian high court overturned a rape conviction of a 45 year-
old man who sexually assaulted his 18 year-old driving student.
I'm going to paraphrase here, but the court decided that because she wore really
tight jeans, she must have helped her perpetrator take them off And by helping,
she thereby consented. So the world was outraged and Denim Day was born. I
want to mahalo Mayor Harry Kim for partnering with me on this and issuing a
proclamation. The whole goal is to increase awareness about sexual violence in
our community, locally and globally, because it is still very prevalent.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
So thank you all for making a social statement with your fashion statement today
and wearing jeans or denim in solidarity with survivors and taking a stand against
the destructive behaviors that are basically perpetrated with sexual violence. I
was hoping that by taking this formal step to introduce a resolution of this nature,
we can then begin to spark conversations and boost existing or create new
collaboration about how we as a society can promote more respectful behavior
and also identify ways that we can better our justice system. Just to do better by
survivors.
I do want to put a special plug in to the Zonta Club of Hilo and the Prosecuting
Attorney's Office for all of their work for more than a decade in promoting
Denim Day here in Hawaii County. So I just ask my colleagues for their support,
and I thank you all for wearing denim on a Council day. It's really appreciated. I
yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Any other
comments? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, this is an issue that affects people that
I know. I think it can affect almost everyone whether you know it or not. So I
appreciate this gesture and whatever may come of this. I know people are aware
of it, but the more awareness that we can bring to this, the better. Because it's just
not okay. That's it. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Okay, all in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 143-19: The motion to adopt Res. 143-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 143 is adopted. Okay, Council Members.
We're going down to bills for first reading. I believe we've taken up everything
up till Bill 60.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Bills for
ORDINANCES: Ordinances (First Reading).
(FIRST READING):
(Note: Items in this category were taken up previously, out of order.)
Bill 60: 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 —Keolahou Assessment Center
Program account ($2,511,829); and appropriates the same to the Keolahou
Assessment Center Program—State account. Funds would be used to develop,
operate, and administer an assessment center for homeless men that are
transitioning to permanent housing.
Reference: Comm. 227
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 60 on first reading.
Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Comments?
MS. DAVID: Yes, Chair. Thank you. This is the companion to Resolution 132,
which we already approved. So ask for your support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. All in favor say "aye."
Vote on Bill 60: The motion to pass Bill 60 on first reading was carried by
(Approved) the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 60 will move to second reading. Bill 61.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Bill 61: 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 —North Kohala Coqui Frog Control
Project account ($49,896); and appropriates the same to the North Kohala Coqui
Frog Control Project account. Funds would be used to control and eradicate
coqui frog infestations in the North Kohala district.
Reference: Comm. 228
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 61 on first reading.
Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion?
MS. DAVID: This is just the companion to Resolution 133.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Bill 61: The motion to pass Bill 61 on first reading was carried by
(Approved) the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas,
and Acting Chair Eoff—7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and Poindexter—2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 61 moves to second reading. Bill 62.
Bill 62: 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 —Violence Against Women account
($39,197); and appropriates the same to the Violence Against Women account,
bringing the total appropriation to $98,197. Funds would be used for a Deputy
Prosecutor position in the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney.
Reference: Comm. 232
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Page 96
Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 62 on first reading.
Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any comments?
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. This was actually asked to be waived out of
Committee because of the need to expedite the receipt of funds for the domestic
violence prosecution, violence against women act. I thought Mr. Lee Lord was
going to be here, but I think this is pretty much self-explanatory, and I don't see
anybody in Hilo, so I just ask for your support. Thank you.
ACTING CHAIR EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Bill 62: The motion to pass Bill 62 on first reading was carried by
(Approved) the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas,
and Acting Chair Eoff—7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and Poindexter—2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 62 moves to second reading. Okay, Order of the
Day, Second or Final Reading, Bill 52.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Order of
THE DAY: the Day (Second or Final Reading).
(SECOND OR
FINAL READING): (Note: Items in this category were taken up previously, out of order.)
Bill 52: 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 Kealakehe Scrap Metal Yard Remediation
—State Revolving Fund project for $4 million to the Capital Budget. Funds for
this project shall be provided from State Revolving Funds (SRF). Funds would
be used to complete removal of debris to meet Department of Health
requirements.
Reference: Comm. 203
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: April 10, 2019
Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire
membership to amend, pursuant to
Section 10-6(e), Hawai`i County Charter
Vote on Bill 52: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 52 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and
carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas,
and Acting Chair Eoff—7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and Poindexter—2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 52 is adopted.
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Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Bill 53: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 16-29, WHICH AUTHORIZED THE MAYOR
TO ENTER INTO AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT FOR A
STATE WATER POLLUTION CONTROL REVOLVING FUND LOAN FOR
SOLID WASTE PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS; AND AUTHORIZES
THE ISSUANCE OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS OF THE COUNTY
OF HAWAII FOR THE PURPOSE OF FINANCING QUALIFIED SOLID
WASTE PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAII
Increases the original bond issuance from $6 million to $10 million for the
Kealakehe Scrap Metal Yard Remediation project.
Reference: Comm. 204
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: April 10, 2019
Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire
membership to amend, pursuant to
Section 47-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes
Vote on Bill 53: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 53 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 53 is adopted. Bill 54.
Page 99
Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Bill 54: 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 Public Works Pi`ihonua Levee project to the Capital Budget: United
States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service—
Federal($3,075,000) and County ($1,025,000), for a total appropriation of
$4.1 million. Funds for this project shall be provided from Federal Grants
Receivable ($3,075,000) and General Obligation Bonds, Capital Projects Fund—
Fund Balance and/or Other Sources ($1,025,000). Funds would be used to repair
damages to the Pi`ihonua Levee caused by Hurricane Lane.
Reference: Comm. 205
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: April 10, 2019
Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire
membership to amend, pursuant to
Section 10-6(e), Hawai`i County Charter
Vote on Bill 54: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 54 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 54 is adopted. Bill 55.
Bill 55: 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 —Priority Drug Analyses
Productivity Project account ($175,000); and appropriates the same to the Priority
Drug Analyses Productivity Project account. Funds would be used to purchase
upgraded drug analysis instruments with accessories and training.
Reference: Comm. 206
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: April 10, 2019
Page 100
Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Bill 55: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 55 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and
carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 55 is adopted. Bill 56.
Bill 56: 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 —Coffee Berry Borer Pesticide Subsidy
Program account ($60,000); and appropriates the same to the Coffee Berry Borer
Pesticide Subsidy Program account. Funds would be used to subsidize the cost of
pesticides used to combat the coffee berry borer.
Reference: Comm. 207
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: April 10, 2019
Vote on Bill 56: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 56 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
MS. DAVID: Chair? Could I ? There's been a request that we waive the
reconsideration hold-over period. I'm making a motion to waive the
reconsideration.
Page 101
Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on Motion to Ms. David moved to suspend Council Rule 15 to waive the
Suspend Council 5-day hold for reconsideration. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy
Rules: and carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. On to Reports.
REPORTS: The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Reports.
PC-17 NOMINATION OF DAVID HUERTA TO THE KONA COMMUNITY
(Comm. 194): DEVELOPMENT ACTION COMMITTEE
Requires Council
Confirmation by: May 3, 2019 (Section 13-4(1),
Hawaii County Charter)
Vote on PC-17: Ms. David moved to adopt Planning Committee Report
(Adopted) No. 17. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and carried
by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: The nomination of David Huerta is confirmed and we're
filing Communication 194. On to PC Report 18, Communication 195.
PC-18 NOMINATION OF KILOHANA HIRANO TO THE HAWAII COUNTY
(Comm. 195): CULTURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION
Requires Council
Confirmation by: May 3, 2019 (Section 13-4(1),
Hawaii County Charter)
Page 102
Hawaii County Council-10 April 24,2019
Vote on PC-18: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Planning Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 18. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and
carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Communication 195 is approved. Moving to Ag, Water
and Environmental Management Committee Report 5.
AWEEMC-5 NOMINATION OF DR. JOHN BURNS TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL
(Comm. 193): MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
Requires Council
Confirmation by: May 3, 2019 (Section 13-4(l),
Hawaii County Charter)
AWEEMC-5: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Agriculture, Water,
(Adopted) Energy, and Environmental Management Committee
Report No. 5. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by
the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Burns is confirmed.
REFERRALS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Referrals
FOR EXECUTIVE: for Executive Session.
SESSION:
(There were none.)
OTHER The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Other
BUSINESS: Business.
(There was none.)
Page 103
Hawai`i County Council-10 April 24,2019
ANNOUNCE- The Chair directed the Council toP roceed to the next order of business,
MENTS: Announcements.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, and before we take that motion, I would just like to
make one more announcement today. Besides that we've all been decked with
leis in honor of the Merrie Monarch Festival, but also that today is Administrative
Professionals' Day as was mentioned earlier. On behalf of all of us, I would just
like to thank all of our administrative staff in Hilo and in Kona, and throughout
the County for the work that you do. Mahalo.
MR. HENRICKS: I couldn't agree more. Thank you, Ms. Eoff.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, then I'll take the motion to adjourn.
ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, at 3:15 p.m., Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved
that the meeting be adjourned. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Richards, Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff— 8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Poindexter— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: The meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much,
Council Members, for your hard work today.
Council Approval:
JUN 0 4 2019
C ---
COUNTY CLERK
JH/ja
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