HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GREDC 2019/07/08 2018-2020 Committee on Governmental Relations
and Economic Development
9th Session
Hawaii County Building
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, Hawaii
July 8, 2019
CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic
ORDER: Development was called to order at 10:27 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by
Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair.
ROLL CALL:
Present: Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair
Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Vice Chair
Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member
Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member
Ms. Karen Eoff, Member
Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member
Ms. Valerie Poindexter, Member
Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member
Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member
STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business,
FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items.
PUBLIC ON
AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak to comment of Comm. 333, and
came forward when called by the Chair:
Dwight Vicente.
Shelly Mahi.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Any other testifiers, Nora? Okay, seeing none, we'll
close public testimony at this time and move on to business of the day. Mr. Clerk,
if you could please read in Communication 333.
COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business,
CATIONS: Communications.
GREDC-9 July 8,2019
Comm. 333: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY ANNIE SOKOL, HAWAII PARTNERSHIP
SPECIALIST OF THE LOS ANGELES REGIONAL CENSUS CENTER,
REGARDING THE UNITED STATES 2020 CENSUS AND COMPLETE COUNT
COMMITTEES
From Council Member Maile David, dated June 13, 2019.
Motion to Close File: Ms. David moved to close file on Comm. 333. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. And this morning I'd like to thank Ms. Sokol,
for her willingness to come here and give us her presentation. I actually requested
this because every ten years we go through a census process. And I just wanted
her to bring some information to the Council, so we can take it out to our
respective districts. Because I think this is a good way of an outreach since we
never did this, I think, 10 years ago and I for one needed more information. So
ladies, would you please come forward? And Ms. Sokol could you introduce the
rest of your people with you?
(Note: At this time State of Hawaii Partnership Specialist Annie Sokol,
Japanese Partnership Specialist Sharon Trix-Nakashima, and Big Island
Partnership Specialist Samuel Rezentes came forward to address the
members of the Committee.)
MS. SOKOL: Aloha everyone. Good morning. On behalf of our Regional
Director, Ms. Julie Lamb, I would like to thank each and every one of the
members of the Hawaii County Council; and Committee Chair, thank you for
having us. And also a special thanks to Council Member Maile David and your
wonderful staff for making this happen, facilitating this presentation today. We
are very grateful and honored to be here with you today, and we hope to partner
with you and make you our census ambassadors through your districts after this
presentation.
Again, my name is Annie Sokol. I'm a Partnership Specialist based in Honolulu.
I'm also a Tagalog speaker, so I also work with the Filipino Community. Along
with me today are my colleagues.
MS. TRIX-NAKASHIMA: Yes, I'm Sharon Trix-Nakashima, I'm also from
Honolulu, and I'm the Japanese Partnership Specialist for the 2020 census. And
today we're joined by our newest Partnership Specialist.
MR. REZENTES: Aloha, everyone. My name is Samuel Rezentes, and I'm the
Partnership Specialist here on the Big Island.
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GREDC-9 July 8,2019
(Note: At this time, Ms. Sokol provided a PowerPoint presentation to the
members of the Committee. For viewing of the presentation, see the DVD
copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office. A copy of
the PowerPoint presentation is made a part of the record, see Comm. 333.)
Recess: At 10:40 a.m., the Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 11:05 a.m.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you all for your patience. Power outage,
Island-wide. Let us get back to your presentation, I'm going to call GRED out of
recess at 11:05 a.m., and now you can go ahead on your presentation on the
census. Thank you.
MS. SOKOL: Thank you so much.
(Note: At this time, Ms. Sokol continued with the presentation to the
Committee.)
MS. DAVID: Thank you very much Ms. Sokol and Sharon, for coming; and also
Samuel, welcome aboard. I don't have any questions except one, that I just
wanted some clarification on what I was hearing. Does the census count people
that are off grid?
MS. SOKOL: Yes. We want to count everyone.
MS. DAVID: Okay, great. Because someone had mentioned that the off grid
population was not being counted. But I think for me in my district, there's a lot
of off grid people that really need to be counted. And it makes a big difference in
how we receive funding
MS. SOKOL: It does.
MS. DAVID: And that sort of thing perfect.
MS. SOKOL: Yes, that's when we really need your help, to help our enumerators
as well. And also connect with the off grid of communities.
MS. DAVID: That might be a little challenging, you know, I think that's the fact.
You're here and asking each one of us in our districts to help you outreach to get
that count. That would be great.
MS. SOKOL: Thank you, so much.
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GREDC-9 July 8,2019
MS. DAVID: Okay. Again, thank you so much, and I yield. Mahalo for your
presentation.
MS. SOKOL: Thank you.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Ms. David. Any other questions or
comments from my colleagues? No? On behalf of the Council, thank you so
much for taking the time to be here and share this important information. When
can we anticipate some educational materials or links to social media graphics
that we can share with our constituents?
MS. SOKOL: At the moment we don't have that yet. I believe it's being, you
know, they're working on it right now, developed. We will let you know, we'll
contact you after this, yeah, and send the link, or for any more helpful tips and
tool kits that you can use.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, yeah, that'll be helpful. And if there's
opportunities for us to localize the message further, because I mean Hawaii
County is unique, but the various communities within Hawaii County are also
unique and diverse. So we want to make sure that we're targeting the message
correctly, and help you. Because like my colleague Ms. David pointed out, many
of our constituents especially in the district that I and my fellow Council Member
from Puna represent, folks live off grid. They don't get mail delivery, and we
want to make sure that they're counted. Because it's critical to get those Federal
dollars.
MS. SOKOL: Yeah, and I think before I forget, it's really important as well to
work with the local community, because we want to make the census safe for
everyone as well. Safe for our enumerators, and safe for the communities. So
that there's no scam, nobody is like pretending to be like an enumerator and also
people will not be afraid to welcome a real enumerators into their community. So
there can be a much smoother census 2020. Thank you, so much.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. We're happy to partner, and I think we'll all
be serving as census ambassadors in the coming months. So just let us know
when the materials are available so we can post that out to our communities.
MS. SOKOL: Definitely. Thank you, so much.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. There's a motion on the floor to close file
Communication 333, all in favor please say "aye."
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GREDC-9 July 8,2019
Vote on Comm. 333: The motion to close file on Comm. 333 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.
CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you.
MS. SOKOL: Mahalo.
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.)
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Do I have a motion to adjourn the Committee on GRED?
ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 11:27 a.m., Ms. David moved to adjourn
MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter,
Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR KIERKIEWICZ: We are adjourned at 11:27 a.m.
Approved:
L
Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair (Date)
Governmental Relations and Economic
Development Committee
AK/rk
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