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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GREDC 2019/06/03 2018-2020 Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic Development Stn Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii June 3, 2019 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic ORDER: Development was called to order at 1:11 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Vice Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member (came in later) Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Ms. Karen Eoff, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Valerie Poindexter, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Thunderfoot: Comm. 300, comment. Shelly Mahi-hanai: Comm. 49.5; and Comm. 300; comment. Robert Sweetman: Comm. 300, comment. Paul Patnode: Comm. 300, in opposition. Recess: At 1:31 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 1: 37 p.m. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Our final testifier is Danette Godimes. GREDC-8 June 3,2019 Danette Godimes: Comm. 300, in support. Margaret Sevilla Shim: Comm. 300, in support. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Margaret. Nora, any other testifiers here in Hilo? Okay, seeing none, I am closing public testimony at this time. Mr. Clerk, if you could please read in Communication 49.5. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 49.5: HAWAII STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES' APRIL 12, 2019, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES From Council Member Valerie T. Poindexter, dated May 14, 2019. Motion to Close File: Ms. Poindexter moved to close file on Comm. 49.5. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: And the minutes are pretty self-explanatory. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Council Member Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thank you. And thank you, Ms. Poindexter. It's good to see minutes that are caught up, and feel like I'm talking about it in real time. I was actually more curious about the budget that is collected by HSAC. And I see some funds as it relates to the various conferences, but we're going to be walking into an HSAC conference, you know, a little later in June. And then Hawaii County will be hosting the HSAC conference in 2020. So what should this body understand as we get prepared to go through this HSAC 2019, and then getting us ready for HSAC 2020? MS. POINDEXTER: So tomorrow the new budget is going to come before us, and then you'll see. So what happens is there's a conference budget amount that you start off with, like Honolulu had their conference last year. So whatever monies came back from what they had earned or gathered from sponsors, or whatever was the net goes back into that conference account. And that was the start up for Maui. So now Maui is trying to raise sponsorships, you know, so that we can have a net for the carryover next year. Tomorrow on our agenda we're going to be discussing the upcoming budget, so you'll get to talk about that. Page 2 GREDC-8 June 3,2019 MS. LEE LOY: And then I had a question, because I know we hit a big hiccup with the HSAC website itself and then the conference, and getting information as it relates to the conference. Is there any discussion, or will there be any discussion tomorrow on how we could maybe learn some of the teaching moments there on what happened going into this conference? And how maybe we can maybe avoid that for our 2020 conference. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. And I think it was just unfortunately that website crashed. I think we had enough information on the new website to get everybody through with minutes. Everything was updated. The conference information as soon as we got it, it was on the website. It was always on the website. So it was good information, I think we did well with what we had. And then like you mentioned earlier, we had to catch up on the minutes. And this was unfortunately, you know the President at the time was Senator Kanuha, and he had his campaign and then moved into that. And then Maui had a shift in who got re-elected and not re-elected, and Maui was the secretary. So there again, so we expected that election year would of caused some backlog, and I thought we did a wonderful job in catching up. I think we're still doing a wonderful job in setting up things that—readjusting things from what was to now, I think we have improved it. So tomorrow we'll talk about the budget. But as far as the conference if you want more information, I emailed everybody. Plus it's on the website. So you can click a link, it's there. Any questions please feel free to contact Maui. Council Member Ashley Kierkiewicz will become, on July 1st° the Secretary for HSAC. So you have a lot time to start prepping and getting information for the next conference. So I should be the one to start trying to massage this, so that you know what to expect at the next conference. You're going to be right at the table come July 1st. So I think you have every opportunity to ask all the questions you want. At the HSAC conference feel free to call Council Chair Kelly King, you need her cell number and I'll get that to you and we can have those discussions. And you can meet with them on the challenges that they had in setting up this conference, the pros and cons of it. What may need to change at the HSAC? I don't know. You know, bylaws, what things have to change at that level. You'll be at the table, and in enough time to be able to prep for next year's conference. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. And you hit the nail on the head. July 1, we're going to have two new representatives there, Ms. Kierkiewicz, and then Ms. Villegas. And, you know, I just want to be a good host come 2020. And so this might be a prime opportunity for you folks to start at conversations, especially what we can do better. Learning the lessons from what the Maui conference experienced, and then going into 2020. Thank you, Chair. I yield. Page 3 GREDC-8 June 3,2019 MS. POINDEXTER: And know that I think it's going to be a fabulous, one of the best conferences around that has happened with HSAC. I think, anyway if you look at the agenda. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: The one we are hosting? MS. POINDEXTER: The one that Maui is hosting. But I think every island has its challenges, and it's all been good. But I think this coming conference is addressing a lot of things that we need to address. So thanks. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Ms. Poindexter. Ms. Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. I also want to second or third that, or whatever it is. That we're really excited as the Big Island to host the next HSAC conference next year. I'm personally excited to work with Ms. Kierkiewicz. And I'm really excited to go to the conference in Maui. I feel like we're all going to learn a lot, there's a lot of connectivity. For those of you that don't know, the HSAC conference in Maui that will be happening next week is focused on sustainability and climate change. And taking care of our culture and the `aina, and our oceans. So those are very, very relevant issues it sounds like, to all of our hearts. I just had a quick question that I was hoping you could help me with, but if it's more relevant for tomorrow that's fine too. If there's just listed here in the NACo (National Association of Counties)prescription drug and it's budgeted at $6,000, but I just wondered, what was NACo prescription drug? MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. Each island—we're part of the prescription drug program too, that we can participate in. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. MS. POINDEXTER: And so I have all that information that I can send over to you, so if you want to MS. VILLEGAS: So it's a benefit for counties of some kind, where we would pay in? MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, for all of the counties. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, great. Okay, thanks, that's just the question I had. I yield. Page 4 GREDC-8 June 3,2019 CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Any other questions for Council Member Poindexter? Seeing none, I'll take a vote to close file on Comm. 49.5. All in favor please say "aye." Vote on Comm. 49.5: The motion to close file on Comm. 49.5 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Chung— 1. Excused: None. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Mr. Clerk, at this time I am going to relinquish the chair position and ask that my Vice Chair, Council Member Lee Loy, assume the chair position as the next communication involves something that I have brought to the table. Relinquish Chair: At this time, the Chair relinquished the chair to Vice Chair Lee Loy. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair Kierkiewicz. Let the record reflect that I have assumed the chair. With that, Clerk, if you could please read in Communication 300. Comm. 300: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES AND DISCUSSION REGARDING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A WHISTLEBLOWER PROGRAM From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated May 14, 2019. Motion to Close File: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to close file on Comm. 300. Seconded by Mr. Richards. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Ms. Kierkiewicz, why don't you go ahead and lead this discussion, as it is your communication. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Hello everyone. I think as we all know in 2017 there was a report from the Legislative Auditor's Office that recommended a whistleblower program be implemented, in order to provide safe harbor for county employees and the public to report issues and concerns without any fear. Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with HR Director Bill Brilhante, Legislative Auditor Bonnie Nims, and Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Roth, to discuss implementation of this program. And I'm sorry that Director Bill Page 5 GREDC-8 June 3,2019 Brilhante is not here, he's actually on Oahu for negotiations. He like many of us thought that committee day was actually tomorrow, so he is available to answer questions tomorrow if we have any. But I'm going to do my best to provide a recap of the conversation we had. Last, I'm sorry, not last week, a couple of weeks ago we passed a budget amendment of$25,000 to fund a hotline that would be operated 24/7, 365. And it's that amount that is based on what the City and County of Honolulu currently pays annually for an independent third party, to take calls, categorize these calls, and route them to various agency conduits. There is a baseline cost for this service, and then a cost per call. To put things into perspective the City and County of Honolulu, they have about 1,400 calls in a month that go into this hotline. At which point they pay $25,000. So based on discussions that I've had with Director Brilhante, Bonnie Nims, and Prosecuting Attorney Roth, we've identified a potential process for how this hotline could be implemented. The hotline vendor would take calls, categorize them, and send them to a conduit that would be housed in Legislative Auditor's Office. The conduit would be a new positon, whose primary function is to manage this whistleblower program. And they would take on other duties of the auditor's office as time permits. The conduit would review categorized calls that are coming in from the hotline vendor, at which point the conduit will make determinations of what meets the threshold to be looked into. And in talking to Director Brilhante, he noted that a majority, 60 percent of the calls coming into the City and County of Honolulu hotline had to do with potholes. So we would want to be able to make sure that this conduit is able to discern what is a legitimate concern verses something that is not something that's going to be investigated or audited. So essentially the determination between a pothole or misuse of county assets for instance. The conduit would write a report with recommendations on next steps, and if there is a complaint that does not involve County Council, the recommendation will be sent to the Council for review and discussion. If the complaint involves a member of the Council, it would be sent to the executive branch for review and approval. This recommendation put forth by the conduit would include a range in terms of cost for the investigation or the audit. And so should the Council or executive approve the recommendation, the Legislative Auditor's Office would contract with a vendor on our professional services list to do an investigation. I would like to beef up the amounts that we have currently allocated for the whistleblower hotline program that is currently housed within HR. But to pursue this pathway for a couple of years, to see if it's warranted to hire on our own investigator part- time or full-time. Page 6 GREDC-8 June 3,2019 The conduit would provide a quarterly report of the kinds of calls that are coming in to the hotline to the Council. And the actual position title for the conduit is still being determined by Human Resources, and they would put forward a recommendation. Some other things that came up within our discussions,just in case these sort of things pop into your head. We would need to figure out how current HR and union protocols would be integrated into the review process. And also if there are any potential Charter amendments or code changes that we would we need to entertain. For instance under the Charter the Legislative Auditor's Office does audits, they don't have the wherewithal to actually do investigations. So these are things we would have to take into consideration as a Council. You know, I just first and foremost want to thank Director Brilhante for his help with this. But also to a very dedicated county employee who worked very hard, Gabriella Cabanis. She retired in December, but she worked really, really hard to do research into this program. And so I just want to say thank you, Gabe. I know you're live streaming out there. At this point, I can answer any questions that my colleagues may have. But I just want everybody here in the public to know that we are keeping top of mind, how we as a county can do better by the community. And by implementing this kind of program, we'll be able to increase government transparency and accountability and really find ways to help our operations run more efficiently and most importantly, restore public trust. So with that, I yield. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Any of my other colleagues? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfleder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is this meant for the general public to use, the hotline, or it's just for county workers? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: It's for both. The county employees and the public will be able to call into this hotline, 24/7, 365. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: For any complaint whatsoever in any form? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So the idea is if there is—say a county employee sees a co-worker miss using county assets, they will be able to report. Or if a member of the public feels that they weren't if they were maybe being discriminated by someone that worked at the county they would be able to report that without fear of retribution. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm just,just for the sake of saying it, is it not, it just seems a bit redundant. Because I know we have other hotlines for many of the things as well as the existing whistleblower programs, for just the county focused. For county employees only, which I thought was kind of the gist Page 7 GREDC-8 June 3,2019 of what we were talking about before. To more of a broad public and county hotline. It seems that we're stepping on other programs that exist. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Which programs in particular are you thinking about? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: There's a federal hotline to call for whistleblowing. As a worker I can call theI forget the actual name. But there's a hotline I can call as an employee if I feel like my employer's withholding things that I do as an employee. There's just a lot of different agencies that we can use already. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So this recommendation, like I stated in the beginning, was put forth by the Legislative Auditor. And so by implementing this program, we would fulfill the recommendations put forth in that. And if we're going to expect that our calls and concerns are going to be handled by federal and state partners in a reasonable timeframe, I think that's wishful thinking. So I think having something a little closer to home would be really beneficial. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And obviously our cost would be way more than $25,000 at that point. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So in preliminary conversations with Director Brilhante, he estimated that it would cost roughly $14,000 a year to contract a third party in order to handle the hotline. Which leaves us about $10,000 left, if our budget amendment passes. I am hoping that I will be able to work with Director Sako to identify funds to beef up that account, in the event that we need to pursue audits and investigations with a private investigator. It's seems much more prudent and fiscally responsible to do it that way, rather than to say let's create a new position and hire on an investigator. With that comes the salaries, wages, and fringe benefits that we would have to factor in for years on out. So just having a couple of years where we can test the implementation of the program seems more responsible from a fiscal standpoint. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So there'd be a sunset date on the program? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: The program hasn't even kicked off We're just talking about possible implementation at this point. And I'm still going back to the drawing board with the responsible parties to figure out, do we have to introduce a resolution? Are there code changes that we need to do? Are there Charter amendments that we need to entertain? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, I yield. Page 8 GREDC-8 June 3,2019 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: It's a work in progress. And we want to capture anyone's issues or concerns so that we can really refine it and make this something that everybody can get behind. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I like the overall idea. I agree people need somewhere to go to vent, or hopefully come with something very solid that they feel like they're not being heard on. My hesitancy would be,just creating a redundant program that steps on other programs that exist already and creating something that we may not be able to uphold our end, not having a full blown department behind it. Because how many calls did you say we're getting a month in Oahu? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Oahu gets 1,400 call a month, but they have over a million people there. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: A population teeters at around 200,000. Maybe a few hundred calls a month, but it really depends on how we take the next step as a county to address those concerns. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz, for the conversation. And again, this is the conversation, because this is the only venue that we can have a conversation. I completely concur with Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder's concerns from a fiscal standpoint. That being said, it's my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, we're the last of the four counties to implement this? Do I recall that correctly? Ms. Kierkiewicz? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I know that the City and County of Honolulu has a hotline. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And I do hear the concern from a financial standpoint. I do agree with you, expecting county problems be handled by the fells probably it's an over reach. So little closer to home. I also like the idea of the sunset. We're talking about starting a program to see if it's going to work for us. And undoubtedly it's going to have to go through a tweaking. So as we go through there having some sort of metric to be sure we can tweak it once it gains some tractions. So I like what I'm hearing, but I can appreciate Mr. Kaneali`i- Kleinfleder fiscal concern. I yield. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Anyone else? Well with that, I'll summarize. You know, I'm always supportive of starting a conversation, Page 9 GREDC-8 June 3,2019 and especially because this was actually brought to us by an audit. And to walls back to a comment Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder mentioned, there are—and I think it's the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) Office, which is a federal discriminatory office, right. So I actually envision this as filling the gaps, where it doesn't cross those types of thresholds at a federal level. But at least we have something a little closer to home. So with that, Ms. Kierkiewicz, I really do appreciate you bringing this conversation forward. And looking forward to future framework, and more iterations of the program. With that we have a motion to close file on Communication 300, all those in favor please say "aye." Vote on Comm. 300: The motion to close file on Comm. 300 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz–9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: With that, I think we're at the end of our agenda. Motion to adjourn. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. (There were none.) BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of ORDINANCES: business, Bills for Ordinances. (There were none.) Page 10 GREDC-8 June 3,2019 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 2:06 p.m., Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adjourn MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierlciewicz—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. LEE LOY: Meeting adjourned at 2:06 p.m. Thank you. Approved: Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair (Date) Governmental Relations and Economic Development Committee AK/rk Page 11