Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2019-06-05 2018-2020 Hawaii County Council 151h Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii June 5, 2019 INVOCATION: Pastor Mark Zier of Christ Lutheran Church gave the morning's invocation. CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at ORDER: 9:06 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, 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 Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of Allegiance. ALLEGIANCE: (At this time, Ms. Villegas led the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance.) STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, Statements FROM THE from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Julia Alos: Comm. 118.11, in support. Cindy Kester: Bill 31, Draft 3 (Comm. 118.7), in support; and Comm. 118.11, in support. Mary Begier: Bill 30, Draft 3 (Comm. 117.26), in opposition. Dwight J. Vicente: Bill 30, Draft 3 (Comm. 117.26), comment. Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Clerk, order of the day. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, THE DAY Order of the Day (Second and Final Reading). (SECOND OR FINAL READING): Bill 30: ESTABLISHES AN OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF (Draft 3) HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2019, TO JUNE 30, 2020 Draft 3 of the proposed Operating Budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, includes estimated revenues and appropriations of$584,967,629. Reference: Comm. 117.26 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) First Reading: May 22, 2019 and Comm. 117.27: From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated May 24, 2019. Increases the (Memo No. 1) Fund Balance from Previous Year account by $360,000, and increases the Council's Contingency Relief account by the same amount. (Note: The following were circulated: Comm. 117.30 from Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 3, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 30, Draft 3; Comm. 117.31 from Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated June 3, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 30, Draft 3; Comm. 117.32 from Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated June 3, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 30, Draft 3; Comm. 117.33 from Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated June 4, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 30, Draft 3; Comm. 117.34 from Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 4, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 30, Draft 3; Comm. 117.35 from Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated June 4, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 30, Draft 3; Comm. 117.36 from Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 4, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 30, Draft 3; Page 2 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Comm. 117.37 from Council Member Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, dated June 5, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 30, Draft 3; Comm. 117.38 from Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 5, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 30, Draft 3; and Comm. 117.39 from Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 5, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 30, Draft 3.) Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 30, Draft 3, on second and final reading. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. CHR. CHUNG: You know, before we go into discussion, we have Mayor Kim here. Mayor, did you want to make any kind of statement, or are you here to just observe? Yes, please. (Note: At this time, Mayor Harry Kim came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KIM: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, members of the Council. I was just upstairs meeting with various agencies including the State and private sector. And a very difficult problem for all of us, and that is the homeless situation of congregations in different parts of this island. And unfortunately, you know, that is becoming a very difficult problem. Not only a big problem, but a very difficult problem to address. In regards to this, I just wantedI know you have to, you know, what you went through yesterday and the days before, and I know the decisions are very difficult. But I'm here primarily to explain, and I don't want to use the word "defend" but it is that also. The positions within the budget that I ask of consideration to leave because of their importance to our whole program, and those are the positions in regards to IT (Information Technology) and Transit. The IT position of a deputy is something that has been discussed from Day 1, and the decision was not to put it before this because of timing and availability of finances. But please look upon that one position in IT as to how critical it is to almost all of the departments. We have good, I think, plans and dreams, even of how we're going to improve. And I think it's very tangible that, you know, we present it to you in time that you would like, because of the forever people discontented with us in regards to how we process these building permits and planning issues. And hopefully with this help from IT, they will help us do that. And that was always part of it, to improve. Because the technology, the expertise needed to do those things, we'll need someone from that, and that's what that Page 3 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 position was for. I think Deanna was one of those defending it too, because it would help her department in regards to doing things technologically that would help us make a better system, and so with other departments of Public Works. In regards to Transit, I don't think I have to elaborate anymore to any of you on what the situation was in Transit. And I think during the testimony, it was pointed out that at one time they only had three employees. You had management that was not trained. You just had positions that were not there in regards to being needed. And if you look at those positions, they are no different than anything I showed you before. Administratively, the departments are told that they are to come forth with what they consider priorities, not only with personnel but always that personnel must be related to the program. And if these are there, carefully reviewed recommendations on making the program better. As we all know with Transit, it was clearly defined that they didn't have this. They didn't have mechanics, supervision, etcetera. And how can we go forward, you know, without personnel to implement it? We're very lucky that the previous Administration, you know, that had most of the things completed was the baseyard. And that if some of you, I think, were there, didn't open it. It's a fantastic baseyard. Took a little longer to finish it, but it's there. And it's a good baseyard, but we need to have it staffed properly. And if you look at that, I'm sure people from Transit will come before you if necessary, or IT, and clearly explain the background of requesting these positions to us, to which we finally approved. So, I ask for your real careful consideration of the importance of that to the programs that I think you have been critical of, justifiably as far as the problems. And hopefully these are the things that would help us fix it. So that's all I really wanted, to come here and explain what these positions are. And I think a lot of thought and time was put into that. And like most of the things presented to you, you requested a plan,justifiably so. And I think you'll see that this is a comprehensive thing, with all the other things we're trying to accomplish. So thank you very much for this time. I appreciate it. CHR. CHUNG: Thank you. And if we have any more questions, will you be here or are you going to ? MR. KIM: I cannot be, I have to go. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, alright, but we have Deanna here. MR. KIM: I'll come right back if it's Page 4 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Alright, but thank you, Mayor. MR. KIM: Thank you very much for your work. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Anyway, discussion on our motion. Anyone wants to we have some amendments. MS. LEE LOY: Chair, if I might? CHR. CHUNG: Yes, please. MS. LEE LOY: I believe in times past, we had the Clerk read in a number of the various communications so we could all put it on the table and have a discussion about them all. I know there are some amendments that have some commonalities. I'll speak immediately to the IT position. I know Ms. Kierkiewicz and myself put in amendments related to that position. I put in a communication related to overtime, and so did Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. I do want some guidance on how we can begin this discussion, as far as maybe linking or talking about them in totality and then address some commonalities. And then dig in with Finance, and then the departments themselves. That's my thoughts. Thanks, I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Are you seeking some guidance from me? Because, I have been critical of the Sunshine Law and its prohibiting effect on our ability to coordinate efforts. Right? So the only thing I can suggest, and maybe I can get some input from other members of this board, is that whoever has an amendment that relates to someone else's amendment, bring it up, talk about it, and we'll kind of go from there. Put it on the table. MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Chair? CHR. CHUNG: Yes. MR. HENRICKS: So normally, what we would do is we would go in order that the amendments have been provided as numbered. There's only one to read in, technically, that's on the agenda. The rest are all available for discussion and voting. And then it's up to the membership to decide how it wants to handle matters that it believes overlap or kind of bend diagram each other. CHR. CHUNG: Why don't we start with the one that's on the agenda first. I think that's the easiest one. MR. HENRICKS: Okay. Page 5 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Comm. 117.27: From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated May 24, 2019. Increases the (Memo No. 1) Fund Balance from Previous Year account by $360,000, and increases the Council's Contingency Relief account by the same amount. Motion to Amend: Ms. Lee Loy moved to amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 117.27. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. CHUNG: Any discussion on that matter? Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah. Deanna Sako,please. We had this discussion. I know Ms. Kierkiewicz put together an amendment coming forward that increased our contingency money, and Chair Chung quipped, "It's coming from Fund Balance. It's an easy fund. The fun fund." But also, Ms. Sako, we were still retooling the numbers to make sure we had enough money in that. Because, I know Ms. Kierkiewicz' genuine concern is that, you know, we don't want to take out too much and then bow out what might be in reserves for other projects. So if you could help the rest of us understand what is available, where we are. I know some of it is in reserves. So, Ms. Sako? (Note: At this time Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SAKO: Good morning. Deanna Sako, Director of Finance. So right now, I had to quickly calculate where we were at after the last meeting, but I believe $21,345,000 is the revenue item that we're planning to utilize from Fund Balance. And that number won't be known until we close the books for this fiscal year. So we constantly are estimating it, but you know, things change at any point in time, especially now that it's effectively hurricane season. So I'm just saying, you know, we never know what can happen. So our projections are a little bit more than this, but until we close the books we won't know for sure. And then, you know, we do try to keep Fund Balance as high as possible so that, you know, we can meet the County Code requirements as well as our bond rating requirements. So, I think this was 360, is that right? MS. LEE LOY: So let me just ask a direct question. I heard you say $21 million is kind of earmarked. Is that an accurate statement? And so, what is ? MS. SAKO: Well I think where we left off with Draft 3 that we're on right now, we have $21,345,000 as the revised number in the budget. So with this amendment—$360 is the right amount—that would put us at a $21,705,000 total coming from Fund Balance, which, you know, is significantly more than last year. But, you know, we tried—you know, I'm always going to fight for "Don't use it" because we really do needI think what I have in the back of my mind is that last Page 6 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 ERS (Employees' Retirement System) increase, as well, that's coming up in fiscal year 2021. So that's sort of where I'm at as well, because I know there's future challenges ahead. But, yeah. I'm not sure if I answered your question. MS. LEE LOY: Maybe, and you can help the rest of us, because this year Fund Balance was really high because we were dealing with the various events. MS. SAKO: Yes. And so people didn't really have a chance to maybe do all the procurement and do some of the purchasing that they normally do. A lot of the departments wait till the end of the year to do some large purchases, because if an emergency comes up during the year, they want to make sure they have money to fund it. So this year, a lot of those purchases are going through. We're still in the process. We don't have all the bids back yet, so I don't know if they'll be over budget—under, I mean, over our expectation or under our expectation. But, you know, we do our best when we try to estimate Fund Balance. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Deanna. Thank you for that. For the rest of my colleagues, I'm going to start where Deanna left off This money was intended to be spent in our community, but because there were other events, the money wasn't infused into the community with the various projects. And I'm going to walls back to Ms. Begier's comment of sometimes we have to spend money to make money to save money. And so, grabbing some of this out of the Fund Balance and putting it into our contingency account is a way we can infuse those projects back into our community that maybe didn't see it happen when it was intended to happen because of the various events that were going on. I know Ms. Eoff mentioned that all too often people think our contingency fund is for projects or nonprofits that we have or pet projects that we have in our own district. But we also do use it and give it back to the departments to repair scoreboards, to help with various departmental projects. I really hope I can get my colleagues to support this, or some portion of it. It's a way we can get money back into the community and stand up even agency projects and partner with maybe new dugouts or Friends of the Parks programs;just create those synergies. With that I yield and would want to hear what the rest of my colleagues think about this amendment. Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Deanna. On our Fund Balance, could you go over that number again real quick for me? We have so many different versions, and I know we keep revising. According to what I have, and I heard different numbers because I know, rough numbers, I had a total Fund Balance of$32 million but that included everything from the GE (General Excise). Page 7 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. SAKO: Oh, yeah. I think you're looking at all funds, right? MR. RICHARDS: Correct. MS. SAKO: Yeah, okay. MR. RICHARDS: And we're talking about General Fund, Fund Balance. So, could you MS. SAKO: Yeah. I tend to focus on General Fund, Fund Balance. So when you hear me say it, I'm usually talking about General Fund, only because that's our main fund that we do all of our accounting in. MR. RICHARDS: Correct. MS. SAKO: But, yes, in total with all the various funds that you guys are looking at, there are 14 funds in the budget. There is $32.7 million to be utilized from the leftovers, basically, or the carry forward from these funds for the future year. So all of the funds, other than General Fund, that's actually money that's sitting in our Fund Balance right now that's actually left over from the previous year. General Fund is the only one where we try to estimate it, what this year's June 30'h balance will be. MR. RICHARDS: Could you give me that number again, please? MS. SAKO: So right now in the budget, if you still have the green version, it's $20.8 million. However because there were amendments at first reading, I believe that Draft 3 is $21,345,000 now. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. MS. SAKO: And then if this amendment was to pass at the $360,000, that would put us at $21,705,000. And I'm just saying right now our projections are a little over that, but there are still unknowns. And why we try to be conservative in our projections, I can't guarantee what the bids will come in and things like that. MR. RICHARDS: It's projections, yeah. No, I appreciate that. And then on the other fund balances, what's the intent of those? Are those just going to roll over to this forthcoming budget? MS. SAKO: They were used to balance each individual fund. So, you know, each fund has to balance individually. So like Highway Fund was one of the ones that used Fund Balance; I'm flipping back to that page. And so Highway Fund Page 8 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 and, like, Sewer Fund. So, in a lot of cases a lot of these funds are subsidized by the General Fund. So by utilizing the fund balance in the fund, then that's less money the General Fund has to provide. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And as Councilwoman Lee Loy said, the County was a little busy last year. So I can appreciate why we didn't get some of the stuff spent. So I, too, want to hear. I yield at this point. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, anyone else? If not, we have a motion on the floor. All those in favor say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 117.27 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Mr. Clerk, we have a number of other communications. Let's do it this way: We're going to take them one at a time, obviously. But if someone else has an idea or an amendment that relates to what we're talking about, then please at least bring it up. Just bring it up and we can discuss it. Okay, Mr. Clerk, go ahead. Comm. 117.30: From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 3, 2019. Decreases the (Memo No. 2) Information Technology Salaries and Wages account by $87,000, and increases funding in various accounts totaling the same amount to provide for a Clerk III position in the Department of Human Resources, a Legal Clerk II position in the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, and to provide equipment to the Hawaii Fire Department. Motion to Further Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, Amend: with the contents of Comm. 117.30. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I want to remind everyone that when we had the first day of our budget discussions, the Mayor made a presentation and he said that he's offering up this budget draft for our consideration; that the departments know what they need, so we could freely ask them to justify the Page 9 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 various supplementals. And so I took that to heart. And no offense to any of the departments, but I felt that the ways in which we were growing County government really needed to be balanced and looked at holistically. And so in my short time here, I've noticed that there have been a lot of last- minute requests put forth by IT. And I just feel really bad for Jules. I think that she's doing her very best to handle a lot of issues that she's inherited. There are a lot of HR (Human Resources) fires to put out. There is outdated hardware, network, and software that she is having to manage. And I give her a lot of credit; I really do. I give her and her team a lot of credit. And there is this position, the IT Technology Program Manager position, that is a recommendation that came out of the 2015 audit report of the department. But as part of that, there was a suggestion that a plan be developed to manage IT assets. I'm not saying that I'm not supportive of this Program Manager position that the Mayor has come here to defend. I think it's something that we can consider down the road after we have a plan in place. I get concerns about creating a new position and then this person being sucked into the day-to-day minutiae of putting out other fires. I want a plan. I want to be guaranteed that there's a plan in place that says this is the road map you have to follow. That transcends administrations. I don't want it to get lost as it has been. And so in looking at all of the needs that have been presented to us in the budget, I'm not scrapping the position. I temporarily want to unfund it and be able to provide support for other critical areas of the County. We're growing police by 44 positions, yet we don't think about how the work that police do is connected to prosecutors. We are going to have more arrests and burden the Prosecutor's Office by not giving them the support and positions they need in order to be able to handle the caseload in the justice system in a reasonable timeframe. We're also creating all of these new positions on an ongoing basis, hiring individuals in County, without recognizing the need to be able to support Human Resources. There's a lot of paperwork that's involved. And Bill Brilhante is here, and he can talk about how this position will be maximized to support all the different divisions and functions within HR. And with the leftover monies from this IT position, I want to make sure that we are increasing the amounts of money that Fire has to be able to swap out equipment at the various stations. So opening it up for discussion with my colleagues. I know that Council Member Lee Loy also has, I feel, similar reservations about funding the IT position. Later on, one of my amendments has to do with actually funding a plan so that we can evaluate and examine the hardware and the network and really put together a very good plan that can be followed and executed by an IT Program Manager in the future. So, Chair, I yield for now, and I look forward to hearing what my colleagues have to say. Page 10 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. I'm not going to be supporting this, because I really feel that if we need a plan to manage IT then we need the manager because that's how it's going to start. I don't believe that it'll be able to start with what we just have. And all of the things that the Mayor had said, you know, about the improvements on the different departments. We're not the experts in IT; none of us are. I don't think we all have any IT background. So, can I call Jules? Can I call you to the table? And then, Deanna—where's Deanna? Because, I wanted to know about one of these—here, it talks about funding the Prosecutors. I knowI thought we added a position. Let me start with Deanna. Did we add a position already? (Note: At this time, Information Technology Director Jules Ung and Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. SAKO: Part of the proposal is, yes, one new position for Prosecutors. MS. POINDEXTER: Okay, so this would add two more positions? MS. SAKO: To be a second one, yes. MS. POINDEXTER: Okay. But we can handle with the one more, I mean where's Mitch? I mean Mitch is not here, but MS. SAKO: I mean, you know, they continue to have overtime and need to address it. But I think, as I explained last time, I know we added a lot of Police positions. And my thinking is, it's going to take them a little while to staff those up. So the trickle-down effect would probably be the following fiscal year. I don't know that he agrees with me on that, but that was our thought process. MS. POINDEXTER: And normally that's what happens, right? It doesn't get from the get-go that you have all this extra work. Like you said, the trickle-down or it builds up. I'd like to give Jules a chance to explain how important this position is to her. MS. UNG: Good morning. Thank you so much for the opportunity to provide some justification in more detail about the position, in line with your thoughts that it takes very organized management and collaboration throughout multiple departments to get a sense of where we need to go. And to put this plan together, we need to build those relationships and establish that communication and have very tightly integrated interdepartmental planning. So right now, those relationships are in progress. We have very good rapport with the Mayor's Page 11 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Office, with Finance, and we're working with Civil Defense and Planning and DPW (Department of Public Works), R&D (Research and Development) to really get on the same page and create that long-term vision and strategy. So, having the capacity, the time, and the resources to maintain those connections and to have a broad oversight and understanding of what's going on in the County going forward is critical. So you can't plan in a silo. It's very difficult. But oftentimes, we're so engaged in putting out fires from day to day and so wrapped up in operations that it's difficult to devote the time to building those relationships and establishing that communication. So just to give you another example, you know, in the month of April, that followed an onslaught of attack from various national superpowers in nation states, nationwide and internationally. And we are partnered with State and Federal organizations to address the risk. But I was at a conference specifically to address this risk in Denver, Colorado. And meanwhile, we have Homeland Security who requires us onsite in Honolulu to justify our funding need. Now, this is put on by the same organization; one to address the risk of cyber security, and the other to provide the funding for cyber security. So I can't be in two places at one time, but that is what is required sometimes. So having that second person, having that backup available to be in two places at one time, and possibly more, is very valuable. MS. POINDEXTER: I just hate to see, you know,us kicking the can down the road because, like, a good example is transportation. We waited till the thing blew up, you know. I don't want this. IT is critical to our County government, I mean critical. And I think you should have more than what you have. So we've got to pick and choose right now where do we think the priorities are for the funding, right? And we've been a lot times kicking the can down the road on IT as well. I mean, we kept talking about things over the years in the budget of what we need to improve, but yet we don't have the money. So, I don't like the idea of taking money from that account to create positions. So that is not one that I would support. So I'll yield at this time. Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Thank you. Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Oh, thank you, Chair. And thank you, Ms. Ung and Deanna. Deanna, so these positions that are not yet created, taking the $87,000, that would be for the position of the Deputy Director for IT? MS. SAKO: The money is coming from that position, if I understand it right, but the two other positions would need to be created at a later date. MS. DAVID: Okay. So it's new positions being created by taking it from IT, okay. And what about the fire equipment? That would be just something to Page 12 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. SAKO: I didn't look carefully, but I think it just says, "fire station equipment." MS. DAVID: General? MS. SAKO: General, yeah. MS. DAVID: Okay. For me, I think in this day and age with cyber security and the threat of identity theft, I think the County has a responsibility to make sure that all our records and all our personnel and how we function is very important. I know we're pretty much behind the scenes and everything. I'm not an IT person, tech person, not to say that I don't agree that all these others, you know, Prosecutor's Office and, for that matter, HR needs, everyone really needs adequate staff in this County. How we got here is, you know, for me and my simple thinking, society on this island has grown so large in capacity that we haven't been able to catch up yet. And every year it's the same. And then we have Ms. Begier there who has valid points about the perception of people in our communities, mine included, in everybody's districts that are saying, "Cut the fat. You guys have too many people that you're hiring." But I've seen it work. I've seen how it is with the Prosecutor's Office. The girls work really hard. That happens all the time at the State, you know, at their circuit court. I mean they have clerks that work without—because they don't have enough staff I think it's a government issue, a government problem. I don't believe taking a position from a department that is in charge of our best interest and security is going to solve the problems that we have with staffing and this other level. So I'm not really, in my mind, seeing the logic in depleting a position that has been so deficient, a department that has been so deficient for years although the intention is good. But I'd like to hear from my other Council Members at this time. Thanks. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I have a similar amendment, which actually again removes the funding from this IT Systems Manager position but actually moves it into equipment. But speaking to the amendment at hand, I absolutely agree with Ms. Kierkiewicz. We have a number of police officer positions that are coming in, and we had a very robust discussion with the Prosecuting Attorney's Office in what I jokingly said "the killman program,"which is the Spillman program in which police has to enter all of this data which is then transferred over to our Prosecuting Attorney's Office in the clerk's office. And we heard about all of the overtime that's occurring over there. It's already occurring. I'm going to say it again: It's already occurring. The workload is Page 13 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 there at the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, and a portion of what Ms. Kierkiewicz' amendment does is address that. Now when we infuse new police officers, that workload goes up again. I also believe two years ago, this IT position we defunded at the last iteration of our budget. In my particular amendment, I want to see the money go to hardware and software. I don't know how many times I've gotten messages from IT that Laserfiche is down or the system is down. I, too, want to see a plan on how we can stand up better hardware and software, and dovetail that into our building permit system. We have a standalone system with the Police Department as far as computer software and networking programs, along with Prosecuting Attorney's Office. We need better hardware, and we need to start addressing the overtime that's being already expended in some of these departments. I am in support, again, of taking the money out. I am not deleting the position, nor does Ms. Kierkiewicz' amendment. I think the devil in the details will be where this money goes. I actually am beginning to really like Ms. Kierkiewicz' amendment, especially as it relates to the Prosecuting Attorney's Office in providing them another Legal Clerk II position. That's where I stand. I think there is a different way to address our IT needs, but we need to address the overtime that we're already seeing in our budget. I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Before I call on Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, I just wanted to make one comment. You know, obviously this amendment takes away from one department and puts money into other departments. I don't want anyone asking or putting, you know, the other departments on the spot, okay. We have all the information that we need. We got it from the departmental reviews. But I don't want to pit one department against the other on this one. I mean, you know, obviously that's what's happening here by the amendment. But I don't want to, you know, have Mr. Roth or Chief Rosario to come here and, you know, make a comment on this because we've heard enough. I just don't want to put them in that position, okay. Alright go ahead, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Deanna, how many increases has HR had in the last couple of years? MS. SAKO: In positions? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. MS. SAKO: I think there is not a lot. I believe there might be one in this year's budget related to work comp, but yeah, they have not had a lot of increases in recent years. Page 14 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: In their ask—what did we get earlier from the supplementals from—the supplementals, was there an ask for more? MS. SAKO: There was an ask for a Desk Clerk, I believe, yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and then Prosecuting Attorney, in the last couple of years what was their increase in staff? MS. SAKO: Not very many. I believe there's one in this budget. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: One in this budget, right. So, this would be another one. We talked about that. And then IT, when was the last time you had an increase in staff? MS. UNG: Not within my term. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How long have you been here? MS. UNG: Since December 2016. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So couple years, no increases. So we said we were going to talk about communications if they were in conjunction with each other. CHR. CHUNG: Sure,please. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So, we have 117.31 which is removing the same amount of money from IT to fund, which Ms. Lee Loy talked about already. And then we also have, on the back side, Ms. Kierkiewicz again asking for an increase in IT's OCE (Other Current Expenses) by $75,000. So I'm just going to go ahead and lump all those together into one. So, we're going to decrease by $87,000 to fund new positions, but later on we're going to increase by $75,000 and take away from the police. I'm bouncing, but I'm seeing we're moving $87,000 in salary and wages only later to increase by $75,000 in their Miscellaneous Contract Services. So I'm having a hard time with that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, if I could respond? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm not done yet. It may be that I think to achieve what we're trying to achieve, put all three of those together and find a good way of moving forward. I know you're unfunding the position, so it's still open. But I feel if IT needs that position and that's going to lead to better services, then I'm happy in that. But to come back later and add $75,000 to it seems funky, especially from where it's coming from. I have a hard time giving up Puna police. Page 15 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 And then, Deanna, if we take away one position and we increase by two, what is our personnel cost going to be when we increase by two? MS. SAKO: It would be a little bit more. ERS is based on a percentage of the total S&W (Salaries and Wages). So that shouldn't really change, because we're unfunding one S&W and increasing two others. But the only thing that might change is one additional health benefits cost. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Will be, yeah. MS. SAKO: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: What kind of cost will that be? MS. SAKO: I think they have here, like, roughly the $11,500 is one year of a two-party plan, which is normally what we try to budget since we don't know if someone's going to pick single, two party, or family. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is this $11,500, $4,000, and $1,500 ? MS. SAKO: I think they did the math to make it sync up. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Per person, or that's for the two new positions? MS. SAKO: This is actually kind of equating the two new ones to what was there. So, one additional health benefits but reducing the retirement and FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) because the total S&W is less than what we had budgeted for the IT. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so that would be a slight increase in our cost by taking on two employees over one. MS. SAKO: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And that's normal. That's just personnel; personnel is expensive. MS. SAKO: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, so I guess my discussion would be I think we need to pick between 117.30 and 117.3 1, because they're doing the same decreasing funds from IT, specifically to the IT Systems Manager position. Ms. Lee Loy's one is increasing their computer equipment by $87,000 and Kierkiewicz is going to go head in—kind of doing the same thing in a way but Page 16 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 increasing it by $75,000 later on. So I see them all kind of trying to do the same thing, so I'd like to get a smooth way of combining all three of these. And I've got to say I'm going to have a hard time giving up police in Puna to fund computer equipment, to yank from IT's System Manager position to fund new positions, although they may be needed. Maybe we could find a new source of funding for those two positions if that's something you really want to do. I yield. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, if I could respond to that? CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, go ahead, Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. I am also very supportive of having more police officers for the district. And in preparing for today's budget meeting, I made sure to meet with Chief Rosariosorry, Chief Ferreira of Police to fully understand where all of those positions are going to be deployed and when, wanting to know if he would be willing to make any concessions, knowing that we as a Council have other priorities for how we want to see County government run. He shared with me he has no problem with me pulling from the Police budget, because they are not actually going to be in a position to hire until March of next year. In checking with Deanna, the monies for Puna Police are funded for a full year. But if we don't hire until March of next year, that means we have nine months' worth of funding to be able to utilize. I think on the face, it looks like I'm trying to take away from the much-needed services of our district, but that's not the case here. I'm trying to make use of funds that are available to us. And I fully agree with Ms. Lee Loy that we need to put some money into IT hardware. But until we have a plan, we don't know what we're going to invest in. We need the plan first and foremost. We need to make sure that we are supporting other departments when we grow positions in other areas of County government. I'm going to leave it at that for now. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, thank you. Mayor, did you want to say anything? I mean I saw you come in. You can add to the conversation, this interesting conversation of ours. MR. KIM: I want to thank the Chairman for creating an atmosphere of not pitting one department over another, because that's very important. And it shouldn't be that way. I'm asking for confidence in the starting of this budgetary process since December of meeting with all departments to justify their needs. Every single department, I think, initially requested personnel, to be turned back initially to say zero until, fortunately through your actions, getting additional funds through the GET (General Excise Tax) especially. I can't think of any department that, you know, cannot come up here and testify to the workload and more personnel. Page 17 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 I disagree with certain things of a plan for specific, certain positons. But I'll always say this, of which I am proud of your employees of the County, they went through three months of IT Administrator, seven days a week overtime. All work was put aside. So, they do it on weekends. I can't think of any department that I had to literally reprimand to say, "More work done." I ask of you to seriously look at the need of Transit. You know I don't point fingers or blame. You know that's not what we want to do. And we made that a policy of all the departments. Our job is not to blame. Our job is to do what we can do to correct and fix, and that's what we're trying to do. I'll start with Transit. They gave you information, and I'll just give you information of how bad the situation is. A bus, I think, down to eight out of a fleet of 50 on the road. Most of it was because of maintenance problems. I think we lucked out in regards to a very good Administrator that is really getting things underhand and in control. But there's only so much you can do without the supervisor, mechanics, etcetera. I think testimony was given at one time they were down to only three. And worse, the Administrator that wasn't even trained for that position. Naturally it's going to go down. It was gradual then a fast climb down. And I think we're all in a very gradual climb up now, with a very good future in sight. But they need the personnel to do the work. In regards to IT, we have dreams in regards to what we should do in regards to taking advantage of technology. If you want to plan this, you know, there's a person to my right from Finance who would tell you how much they can use additional technical work to develop a better system through IT. That's one position that's been asked of by Finance, by Administrative in regards to what is needed. These are positions I can clearly justify, at this point, are needed to make us better. If for every position it was requested in regards to a department's request that's, like, "You have to give me a plan of how you're going to use that personnel," if I knew that, then I'd spend the time. But I thought a plan was not necessary because to me it was quite, you know, it was obvious what we have to do. There's not more I can say, except I ask for your trust in that these new positions were very carefully scrutinized. All of them initially was zero, with an even negative that we would even have to raise the lowly property tax to even meet current expenses,just to balance the budget of current expenses. Because, 75 percent of the things was not really in our control. I am proud of what you did in regards to the community meetings. I'm proud of the element of we went from .25 to .50. As I told you last time, it's mainly Page 18 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 because of your input that it was a local authority. Otherwise, we'd still be fighting the State, I think, maybe. I'm glad we didn't have to find that out. But that's why we're here, and we can make an increase in the budget. Yes, it is your responsibility to review all the changes and increases. Then I guess we must take the time to take a careful look at the departmental responsibilities. IT was there every single day of the three months because of the needs of the things we need just to keep up with the moving demands of what the line agencies need as far as information. Thank you for your consideration. CHR. CHUNG: Thank you, Mayor. Ms. Villegas, please. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Chair Chung. Thank you for being here, Mayor Kim and Deanna. I firmly support the new positions in Transit. I don't think we can get to where we need to go without funding those positions and providing the support that Brenda's asked for. We've got nowhere to go but up from here. And a brave woman that's taken on a department that was literally in shambles, I'm not going to tell her what she needs or how she needs it or why she needs it. I'm going to trust and give time for things to come to fruition in that department. Without the people to keep the buses running Point of Order: MR. RICHARDS: Point of order, Chair. We're not discussing this. CHR. CHUNG: We aren't, you know. MS. VILLEGAS: Actually I thought we were it was allowed for us to touch base on each of these topics as everyone else has. CHR. CHUNG: Hold it. Let me just give me a minute, okay. MS. VILLEGAS: And if that's the case, I'll go back to the other topic. CHR. CHUNG: Wait. Yeah, it's not really—we're kind of talking about the IT position and not really the Mass Transit one yet. That one can stand alone actually. So, why don't we take it up MS. VILLEGAS: It was kind of as a response to Mayor Kim. CHR. CHUNG: Right, he brought it up. And we afforded him the latitude, but let's MS. VILLEGAS: That's fine. I don't need the latitude. I can go back to the other topic. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, please. Page 19 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. VILLEGAS: I think that, as a County, we're sadly behind in our technologies. We're sadly behind in supporting our IT departments with the resources necessary to bring us into the 21" Century. I think every department struggles with that within the Administration. I know within the County Council we struggle with some of that. Part of it's being an isolated landmass. Part of it's being, you know, things don't always move fast around here and that's okay. However, with the current state of national security and State security, I personally find it incredibly necessary for us to make sure that our—we rely on this so much. If this goes down, what do we have and how do we do what we do? How do we communicate? How do we function our Civil Service programs? When I look at a woman that's obviously balancing a number of different hats and all these different circumstances, I want to see our County attract the best and the brightest. I want to see our County attract somebody who can bring us into the 21" Century. There are technologies. There are IT opportunities out there that could help us to skip through a number of the different steps or number of the different technologies or hardware or software. And I personally would like us to be able to utilize that and to have somebody in that staff that can help secure our County, all of our information, all of our technologies, and improve in general. So that's where I stand. And I don't see the piecemeal transitioning of these funds being essentially helpful. I agree that the Prosecutor's Office needs support. But as Chair Kierkiewicz said, if police officers can't be hired until March, then that increase in load would be and I know you guys are still already overloaded, but there is that kind of a time lag. But with the urgency of today and our need to catch up and be up to date, I find that having somebody in IT is more important and more of a priority from my standpoint. So I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Richards, did you talk yet? MR. RICHARDS: No, I haven't. Thank you, Chair. We are stuck in a little bit of a procedural challenge here. And I have to agree with Chair Chung of not being able to craft this, and I completely agree with his comments concerning the Sunshine Law of not being able to work out these details. Putting that aside, trying to get this worked out. Mayor, I can appreciate your comments concerning new positions going forward. What gnaws on the back of my mind continually is our unfunded liabilities going forward. Deanna—and I have to agree with what the Councilwomen to my right are discussing as far as rearranging funding. It's not that I don't think that we need state of the art IT, I'm just not sure if we're quite there, ready for it. And rough numbers, when we look at an $87,000-a-year position, what is our contribution for health and then pension going forward? Page 20 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. SAKO: On an $87,000-a-year position, it's roughly a little over $19,000 to ERS each year; $11,500 is an average for health benefits. And then another $6,500 to FICA and Medicare. MR. RICHARDS: So if I heard that correctly, $19,000 plus $6,500 plus $11,000. So, we're looking somewhere around $17,000 plus $19,000, so $36 MS. SAKO: Thirty-six thousand. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. So, it's $36,000 in addition to the $87,000. And this is where I start having heartburn when we start growing our roles, because it's not about the payroll next year. I'm concerned about our liabilities coming forward. And though I appreciate what Jules is asking for here and what we're discussing, my concern is that, what do we have, almost $1 billion of unfunded liabilities before us at this point. And though technology is very useful as an accelerator, in and of itself it doesn't solve our problems. That's where I'm stuck in this, and I do appreciate rearranging what we're talking about here. From a procedural standpoint, I'm still trying to figure out how we're going to take these three. And I do agree with Councilman Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. We actually have three that we're sort of discussing in concert with each other. And I'm stuck on increasing our liabilities to the County going forward, because we're not going to see the problem. It's that next generation that I'm concerned on. So, I'm going to continue listening. I yield at this point, Chair. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Just a thought. So we're taking away this IT position. That's what's on the board right now. If we take away that positon, it sounds like we're trying to get more equipment at the same time. So where did Jules go? Oh, that's all right. CHR. CHUNG: I just wanted to make one clarification. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes? CHR. CHUNG: And correct me if I'm wrong. But the communication that's not yet being considered but which we're discussing tangentially is, in my view, a competing MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Which one? CHR. CHUNG: It competes against the one that is being considered right now, which is Ashley's. Page 21 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: 117.31? CHR. CHUNG: Yeah. I mean we can talk about all of them, but what I'm saying is you mentioned using it for equipment. But actually what we have right now on the floor is taking away the IT Systems Manager position and then increasing Human Resources, fire protection, and the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, but we can still talk about all of those things, but that is what's being considered right now. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. CHR. CHUNG: They are competing, though, actually. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes, they are competing. That's why I'm looking at it in my brain. I kind of just put them all in at once. So, they're all in there one time right now. And I've got to clarify, too. Ashley's not taking away the position. She's unfunding it. CHR. CHUNG: Right. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So it's still there. It's still existing, but it's just unfunded. We're going to take those funds and put them towards something else. So I was wrong in taking it away. But it seems like—and actually I need Mitch. Mitch Roth, can you come up please? (Note: At this time, Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Roth came forward to address the members of the Council.) MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: When I visited your office, I remember your IT guys which I believe are two separate IT departments. Is that right? And they were asking me, like everyone else does, they wanted more funding specifically for more equipment, I think. You just got computers in. You needed software. You needed something, and I remember them asking me. So your IT department is separate? MR. ROTH: From the County IT, that's correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: If we increase your IT's funding for your IT department, would it equal a faster turnaround time for some of the stuff you have going on? For the, what is it called, a killman? MR. ROTH: For the Spillman? Page 22 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Spillman, killman? MR. ROTH: So first of all, it's Spillman. And I'll say that, you know, since our budget hearings, the Police have been working with us and trying to fix some of those problems with the system. We're still in the process, and there's a lot of work that still needs to be done. But we are communicating, and we are making progress to hopefully come up with some things that will help. We're not there yet. It takes a lot of work. As far as your other question, your question about IT, I'm kind of MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I just remembered the two guys in their little cubical with a bunch of scrapped computers that they were harvesting items out of to make your IT department run well. I remember listening to them, and I heard them. So I'm just visiting that we're touching on equipment for IT, versus a position, and I'm wondering if the money for that position would be better used as equipment for your IT department and her IT department, versus a personnel position. There's no personnel cost involved in equipment, but I don't know at what cost that's going to be for Jules. So I'm just looking at solutions for what we have in front of us. We're balancing equipment, personnel, new positions. And I'm just trying to get a feel for the IT Systems Manager position versus equipment and what would be a better use of that money. MR. ROTH: Yeah, I don't think I'm qualified to answer that question. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, switching out to Jules. MS. UNG: So talking about equipment, I mean one of the most pressing deadlines that we have at the moment that we've been discussing with the various IT departments countywide. So that includes Water, semi-autonomous; it has its own IT. Prosecutors, Police. They touch CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services). They're a little different as far as mission. And Auditor's qualifications, County IT, and then the Office of Aging, and Housing. So when it comes to cyber security, we all have to collaborate and coordinate our efforts. And then when it comes to planned obsolescence of Enterprise Operating Systems, such as Windows 7, there's a drop-dead date of January 241h 2020. That means every PC (Personal Computer) in the County that is running Windows 7 will now be running an obsolete platform by that date. So right now, we are pedal to the metal developing strategy and implementing plans to upgrade every PC by that deadline. And that's a very coordinated effort. But that is to give you an idea of the scope of projects that we have to manage and plan for on a day-to-day basis. If we have a dedicated person to coordinate all of these efforts and to maintain the relationships and communication between each department, we can make those Page 23 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 types of transitions smoother and more efficient. So it's not just a matter of equipment. It's not just a matter of a network analysis or a network audit. It's very comprehensive. It includes workflows, software applications, network upgrades, cyber security, HR Management going forward. So that's my take on it. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So equipment versus a manager? MS. UNG: I would say equipment would address a pressing need; however from my standpoint, it's not the absolute priority as we move forward and develop our long-term strategy. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How is your budget right now for your equipment needs? Are you short? MS. UNG: Am I short? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. MS. UNG: Well, you'll be hearing from us on June 24�h. We have a Council hearing to transfer funds, because we are short in 454 as far as equipment. We do need your approval to enter into a multi-year agreement for a virtual server system which will provide storage and capacity and server needs for equipment going end of life. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. KIM: Councilman, may I? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes, anytime, Mayor. MR. KIM: I think all of us here, especially Mr. Chung, has been here quite a while. The public's complaint about the slowness in processing of permits, I think Public Works and Planning have come up through Roy Takemoto and the department in regards to how to do it. I'm quite excited. I don't truly understand it, but basically what he's talking of developing where everybody would know exactly where the permit system is; developing a system in regards to multiple tasks will be done simultaneously, instead of from here hand carry to there. You know, those are all personnel kinds of things. Yes, I'm sure new technology, which I'm the most ignorant guy to ask, "What kind?" MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: A lot of us are. MR. KIM: You're not as dumb as I am. But in regards to the personnel that we counted on, IT to guide us. I'm sure Deanna can answer what plans she has or Page 24 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 dreams she has to modernize our things. And I know I'm, you know,probably killing it but equipment obviously is very important, but we need the personnel to do it for us. Especially in regards to those new ideas that we have. And these are not pipe dream ideas. I think everybody in Planning and Public Works are excited about doing this. Because first of all, it's going to take out a lot of labor time from their departments on an individual basis, to have this kind of technology helping us and obviously the public. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It's an age-old question; we're talking about equipment, personnel. And then I've got to say, sometimes it's not managers we need, it's more people. I found that in the field many times. I don't need someone telling me what to do; I need someone to do it. Not to put you on the spot and I appreciate what you're saying, is this positionobviously, we're looking at this position. So, is this position, like, crucial for you to maintain what's going on, and do you feel that way? MS. UNG: Yes. I believe this position would create more efficiencies in workflows, long-term strategy, implementation of hardware and software, and make life a little more efficient for those who are boots on the ground. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, I yield. Relinquish Chair: ACTING CHR. EOFF: Let the record reflect that Vice Chair has assumed the chair. Okay, and who was next? Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. You know, Councilwoman Poindexter earlier said that we can no longer kick the can down the road. And I'm just really confused, because this was on the table a couple of years ago. And I wonder where the leadership was and the priority was, because I feel that by defunding it then you kicked it down the road. You know, Mayor, you mentioned earlier we don't need a plan for personnel. I'm not looking for a plan for personnel. I'm looking for a plan for how we handle our IT infrastructure going forward. I'm still not convinced that another manager is going to help get us there. How many managers do we have in IT right now? MS. UNG: Two. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Out of how many in the department? MS. UNG: Twenty-one. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. So, two managers plus you, Jules, right? MS. UNG: Yes. Page 25 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. There was a reorganization in your department a couple of years ago? MS. UNG: Prior to my term. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Prior to you. Can you explain to this Council how that reorganization maybe helps speed into your vision? MS. UNG: So that reorganization has little relevance to this vision. This vision would put a PM (Program Manager) above the two current managers. Due to the expansion of services and the tight integration of technology with every single department and the rapid evolution of technology, we are in a much different place now than we were, say, five years ago or when that reorg took place. So, given the different environment, given the different needs, this position, I believe, is well justified for where we need to go and where we need to be moving forward. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Do you foresee additional reorganization within IT to continuously support where we need to go in terms of modernizing the County's IT systems? MS. UNG: Absolutely. In fact, within the past couple of years, we've had several position audits as the scope of work that's required to make things work from day to day has exploded. It's much different than when position descriptions were first created. So, we're working very closely with HR to make sure that the work that our staff does matches their position descriptions. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I didn't get a copy. I don't think any of us got a copy of the position description for this position. Can you just remind me what the duties would be? You might have said it earlier. MS. UNG: As a manager, primarily they would support me and they would provide oversight, direction, and guidance to the current managers in both systems support and user support. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So, a manager to manage the managers. MS. UNG: Yes. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Because, they're not capable of managing themselves? MS. UNG: Because, they are completely immersed in operations from day to day, and the amount of time and resources required to manage their separate divisions doesn't give them the time or capability to really coordinate centrally Page 26 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 and interdepartmentally. So, while they have a very focused scope over their divisions, we could use a lot more collaboration and integration between our departments as well as countywide. So, instead of people putting out fires from day to day and addressing operational needs from day to day, we have a broader oversight of departmental mission and a comprehensive understanding of what's going on countywide as well as with our State and Federal counterparts and continuity between administrations. So, I leave, smooth sailing. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I hear what you're saying, but I still think we need this plan. We need a document. We need a roadmap for how we get there before we fund a new position. I think it's more fiscally responsible to contract out and have someone come and do an evaluation, examination of the operations of how all IT for all of County functions together and to make recommendations on when we upgrade, how much that's going to cost and whatnot, before we hire someone to essentially manage that plan. MS. UNG: So, with an audit, there's always going to be an angle. With our annual financial audit, it targets a specific area which is mainly security over payroll and financial systems. So, that audit addresses that security need. With a network analysis or a network audit, a third party would come in and address the backbone. So, right now we're at a gig (gigabyte). We need to upgrade to 10 gig to accommodate the bandwidth needs of the County going forward. To accommodate all of the Cloud applications, primarily GIS (Geographic Information System), that is going to be the backbone, and what major software implementations such as EnerGov and such as the asset management system that DEM (Department of Environmental Management) is implementing are going to ride on. So even though they're Cloud based, they still have to integrate tightly with on-premise data and workflows. So, that backbone is critical, and that's got to happen. And we need continuity to oversee and make sure that happens. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: And we have the funding for the backbone? MS. UNG: You'll hear about it. Not this year. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Well, I'm sticking to my guns, and I think that I'm willing to support an IT Program Manager position in the future. I still feel very strongly about the plan and the need to be able to support other departments. The Mayor did give us direction to hear out those departments. And as the policymaking body, we can help decide and identify what the priorities are. And I'd like to think that this body looks at things in context and holistically. I fully support you. Page 27 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 I called you yesterday. We talked through this. And we're not scrapping the position, but it's something that I think we need to consider down the road after we have just a plan in place, a roadmap. This whole system that we're operating under is so incredibly flawed. I just see so many departments applying band-aids and butterfly stitches to problems, and really what we need is frickin brain surgery. The fact that we had several weeks to really comb through the budget and figure out what the priorities are and what we're going to do, it's madness to be operating like this. Anyway, I'm going to leave it at that. I know where certain individuals stand, but I'm still going to hope that my colleagues will support me in making this really important amendment. I do hear what you're saying, Council Member Lee Loy, in wanting to fund the hardware. And had we had our ad hoc committee, we would have been able to work out the various priorities together and move forward in a very smooth and efficient way. So, we'll see you, I guess, what you're willing to support. Relinquish Chair: At this time, Acting Chair Eoff relinquished the chair to Chair Chung. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Eoff MS. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is a dilemma because there are so many needs. And we can justify the different points of view right here, right now, and that's what we're here to do. But I definitely give the Administration and each department head and the Mayor a lot of credit for not just the last maybe six to eight months of analyzing where the needs are, but proposing the draft budget and this draft, and then our ability to amend it. That is all part of this process that I fully support. I believe that your position is very necessary, and we met and heard from you during the departmental reviews. And I was very convinced that you are the backbone to a lot of the departments' needs and to our staff's needs. And having your department run efficiently with the proper managers and the workloads so assigned that you're supportive and everyone else is supported, I find it difficult to take that and unfund that position. At this point in time, I think that—also, it's creating two new positions out of one position. Fire, of course, needs equipment, and I think there may be other ways to make sure that they have more equipment that is also very necessary. So I think, in this case, I won't be able to support this particular amendment. But thank you for all the explanation. Good luck in your department, because I do agree that improving our technology and providing those services to all the departments that you folks are responsible for is critical. Thank you. Page 28 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Director Ung, for your explanations again. And I, too, feel that I had enough information at the departmental reviews. I also want to note, Mr. Chung, I appreciate your statement earlier about this body refraining from pitting one department against the other because I really believe, although it is not our intent, in a sense it makes it really uncomfortable for us here to keep ourselves within that realm, especially when we have to ask questions. But what I want to say is I'm not here to say that I know more than what you guys have been through in trying to establish a good budget. I cannot see taking something from a department that's already been hashed out and discussed for months with the Administration. I appreciate the fact that I do not know all the details that go in to each department and how they come up with their budget. And I just have to sit here and see whether what is being asked and what the money is going to be used for will benefit the County as a whole. And so, for me, I'm satisfied with what has been presented thus far. And I will not support moving funds or defunding a position that is very well needed. Especially in my own mind from the departmental reviews, everybody was justified in what they wanted. And I know we all need more. But I leave that expertise to the departments and for all their hard work in the past. So, I, in good conscience, cannot support this. I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. So, in an effort to not pit agency against agency or amendment against amendment, I've just got to say this: I am with Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. I cannot get a manager. I want people, boots on the ground. And I am hearing what Ms. Ung is saying, but we need people to do the work, not managers to manage people. And I also heard something that's going to be forthcoming on a future agenda in which monies are going to be moved in. And here we go again, Mr. Richards, piecemealing silo legislation. We need an ad hoc. So, an effort to try and find solutions is what Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder is doing. And if we're not ready, there is an option for us in amendment 117.31 to hold it in that department and, at some future time, hear what Ms. Ung brings forward at the end of this month; work with Finance. If I look at the need right now so that we can reduce our overtime costs, that position at the Prosecuting Attorney's Office would leave 51,660 in that account. So, it might be a hybrid of taking a portion out of it, parking it. And I'm just going to tell all the freshmen here, this is what today will be like. It's going to be a long exhausting day. And if we move one Page 29 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 amendment in, it may adjust future amendments further down the list. So, everybody will need to strap in and start looking for solutions, looking at hybrid solutions, looking at this budget in totality, all of it. Maybe an option, Ms. Kierkiewicz, is to put this one on the table, and we can discuss others. That's where I am on this amendment. I cannot support funding this position. I am keeping the position even in my amendment. There's going to be time to fund this. And I hear you, Ms. Ung, about EnerGov. That's one that's near and dear to my heart for our building permit process. So, if anything, I'm sending a message to the rest of my colleagues. I want to either park the money for this position, park it and utilize it for the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, but that's about it. I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Instead of tabling this, though, why don't we just continue this discussion between you and Ms. Kierkiewicz. Because, these two measures are mutually exclusive of one another. And if further amendments need to be made in that regard, then let's kind of work it out right now. We're talking about, basically, this $87,000 and maybe extra amounts related to the IT Systems Manager. But we've got to get some conceptual agreements in place, I think. If not, we cannot really move forward. Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. I have a question regarding procedure, then. I think I agree with what you're saying because these two relate to each other. So, Mr. Clerk, would we need to read in Communication 117.31 at this point? MR. HENRICKS: We only read things in when they're on the agenda for that purpose. So, all the items that you see in your folder or those memos that are not on the agenda, they're just available for the MS. DAVID: So, we can discuss and crossover or—that's what I'mI'm confused because sometimes we can't MR. HENRICKS: The Council can discuss anything at the will of the Council. It takes a Council Member to make a point of order saying that the discussion isn't relevant to the motion that's on the floor. So, you folks will decide the parameters of your discussion through the Chair's first discretion and then, perhaps, through the rest of the Council making decisions. I think what the Chair had said earlier obviously is, in order to maintain an efficient flow of business, we certainly should do our best to keep the discussion to the motion that is on the floor. The fact that matters may overlap or, as we said earlier, use the word "complete" each other, so be it. You guys just have to recognize that as part of your discussions. CHR. CHUNG: Well, we're zeroing in on the $87,000 right now. Page 30 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. DAVID: Okay. CHR. CHUNG: Okay? MS. DAVID: All right. Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: Jules, I know that—anytime we hear "manager,"we think, "I going boss you around," or just not as a worker bee. And I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, the manager versus a regular person that they mentioned has their boots on the ground is their qualifications to get that title. So, what is the qualifications of just a person, a regular laborer? Because, I'm trying to distinguish the reason why we need this position. It's because the qualifications and the title of being a professional in IT comes into play. So, can you explain the manager qualifications versus just the regular worker qualifications? MS. UNG: Sure. So, what we'd be looking for is someone who has insight into both divisions who understands systems support as well as user support. So basically the hardware and the software, how they integrate, and how we can work together more tightly and more closely with each department and develop plans holistically for the County. MS. POINDEXTER: So, you're looking for someone with that management background to be able to create a good organization within itself. Correct? MS. UNG: Absolutely. And with the background and experience to facilitate a healthy conversation. MS. POINDEXTER: Exactly. And I truly believe that because a lot of times we have people put into administrative positions that we set up for failure because they don't have that administrative skillsets. And so, this manager, I know it's called a "manager"but it's a working manager. MS. UNG: Absolutely. MS. POINDEXTER: Right. So, we need to get that clear. I don't want the public to think, oh, we just keep hiring managers like, you know, but not worker bees. Because, they are the worker bees at a different level. MS. UNG: Exactly. MS. POINDEXTER: Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Villegas. Page 31 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. VILLEGAS: I'd like to call for the question. Motion to Call for Ms. Villegas moved to call for the question. Seconded by the Question: Ms. Poindexter. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Clerk, is this a non-debatable ? MR. HENRICKS: It is non-debatable. It requires a super majority. CHR. CHUNG: Oh, so, we have to vote on it, then. MR. HENRICKS: That is correct, if you recognize the motion. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, all those in favor say "aye." MS. VILLEGAS: I'd like to ask for a roll call? CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, go ahead. Vote on Motion to The motion to call for the question failed by the following Call for the Question: roll call vote: Failed Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Poindexter, and Villegas —5. Noes: Council Members Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, and Chair Chung—4. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: You need a super majority, right? MR. HENRICKS: That's correct. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, I think this deserves more discussion, quite frankly. I mean, it's just the overall idea, maybe not so much relating to this particular matter. But I want to hear discussions from Ms. Lee Loy and Ms. Kierkiewicz because we've got to get this thing squared away. And that's what's going to decide, I mean, well, determine how I'm going to vote on either this one or the next one. Can you guys please talk about this in open session? MS. LEE LOY: Chair, if I may? CHR. CHUNG: I mean, are you going to be voting for this, or are you going to be voting for yours? Plain and simple. Page 32 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. LEE LOY: With that option, I would vote for Ms. Kierkiewicz' amendment. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, so you're supportive of that. Okay. So, we have—at least we—okay. Ms. Kierkiewicz, you want to make another comment? We know where she stands now. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Well, I was going to suggest that Council Member Lee Loy and I work to create a hybrid of both of our amendments, but it's very clear that there isn't support for defunding the position altogether. I don't know what is palatable to my colleagues. I mean, there's a real divide in terms of how we move forward. IT is very important, but I think many of us recognize the need for an overarching plan to direct us in how we get to the future we want, which is an efficient system where we're not having to rely on people putting band-aids on outdated systems and having to fund overtime in order to make all of that happen. So, I would like to work with her in creating a hybrid version of both of our amendments, actually all of the amendments that have to do with IT. CHR. CHUNG: What's going to be the mechanism for that? How are we going to achieve that? I mean, now? Or should we take a recess, table this, or what's your thought on this? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Let's table this, and Ms. Lee Loy and I will work with Donna and staff MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Chair, a subsidiary motion cannot be tabled. Only the main motion, which is to adopt this on second and final reading, can be tabled. So, you would be required to withdraw the motion and perhaps bring it up at another time. CHR. CHUNG: Let me make a comment on this, if I may. I think, from what I hear, everyone is on the same page in terms of trying to improve our IT system. I think there's no question about that. I'm going to relate this to something that I had to go through with my boy. He's been trying to select, well, he was in the process of selecting a college, and I've got to pay for that, right? And so, I needed him to explain to me why he wanted to go to a particular college. He has to explain to me what is his track, what's his plan. Because, unlike when I was going to college and it was like $240 a semester, now it's much different and we don't have time to be goofing around here. And I told him, you know, I had to veto his choice because he didn't convince me why he wanted to go there. Something wasn't right. And I've got to tell you, Jules, something's not right as far as I'm concerned in terms of this manager's position. We could do it other ways. We could do it by a contract, perhaps,just to see how things go. But to add a hi-level management position right now, I'm Page 33 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 kind of—and I really took to heart what Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder said. I mean, he has such a great way of putting things. I'd like to see more workers than guys telling people how to work, right now. It's not to say that I'm against having this position, but I'd like to see how it would operate. You're telling us that things are going to be coming down the pipe, we're going to see something soon, but I don't know what that is right now. We could always add more positions, I mean. The best thing is add more managerial positions and things will get better. I don't believe that. I really don't. But that's my feeling anyway. I think there are a lot of things to be said about these other positions. We heard very clearly the need for different things—again, not to pit departments against one another—but I'm just not sold. That's my personal feeling. But anyway, you wanted to withdraw or ? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I'm going to withdraw. CHR. CHUNG: Matt, you wanted to say something? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's an interesting solution, would be to make this contractual. Can we do that? Can we make this position ? CHR. CHUNG: Then we save on the fringe benefits too and then we can see how this thing operates. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Then you can see too. You'd say, "Yes, this person is working," or we can say, "Hey, you've been back to say it's still not working; I don't know what's going on." But either way, we get to see before we lock in. And there's an end date to this person. You still get your person, but we have an end date that we get to deal with in case it doesn't work or it's not leading to—what is that word we use all the timemeasurables? So, in case it doesn't equal out to what you think or that person isn't achieving what you're wanting and we can see that and you can see that. So, it's kind of ato me, that's a nice hybrid solution. It's not taking away from you. It still gives you what you want. Mr. Kim, you still get your personnel that you've put into the budget. We get to see what comes out of it, and we're not locked into it long term. Can we do that? MS. UNG: I guess that would be a question for Mr. Brilhante. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Bill? Actually, before we go through all that, sorry, can we the Council decide that that would be something that we're for? Because, that's more important then. Because if we're not going to say "no," I'm not going to bring Bill up. I mean, if we're not going to say "yes," then we don't bring Bill up to explain it to us. MR. RICHARDS: Chair? Page 34 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Yeah? MR. RICHARDS: May I make a suggestion that we take a seven-minute recess? Let these two Councilwomen work out a quick hybrid that conceptually we could agree to, as Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder pointed out. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That was Aaron's idea, but I like it. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Kamelamela, no problem with these two ladies talking about stuff, right? MR. KAMELAMELA: As long as there's only those two. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah. Right. MR. RICHARDS: Only those two. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah. Okay. Let's take a short recess. MR. HENRICKS: Prior to calling for the recess, what is contemplated when we talk about a hybrid? Is it on a piece of paper? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes. MS. LEE LOY: Yes. MR. HENRICKS: We'll need much more than seven minutes. MR. RICHARDS: Not for the concept. MR. HENRICKS: That's why I ask what, when we're talking about a hybrid, is it a tangible hybrid or is it a thought-cloud hybrid? CHR. CHUNG: Well, let's just take a recess. MR. HENRICKS: Thank you. Recess: At 10:56 a.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 11:26 a.m. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. We're back on the record. Not everyone's here yet but we can continue the discussion. Ms. Kierkiewicz? And thank you for your hard work back there with Ms. Lee Loy. Page 35 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes. And thank you to Director Sako and Donna at LRB (Legislative Research Branch) and everyone's support. In order to keep peace among our County family, I'm going to withdraw this communication that I have forward. And after hearing everything that my colleagues have put forward on the table, Council Member Lee Loy and I are working on a hybrid amendment to be able to make sure that everybody gets a little bit of what they want. So that is being worked on. Chair, I'm going to withdraw and we can move on to the next order of the day, and we'll put the new amendment on the table when it is complete. Withdraw Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz withdrew her motion to further amend to Further Amend: Bill 30, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 117.30. CHR. CHUNG: Well we're all eagerly awaiting to see what you guys came up with. I'm sure it's a good product. Okay. So, Mr. Clerk, how about—let's go on to Memo No. 4. But Ms. Lee Loy is not here. How about, yeah, how about No. 5? Comm. 117.33: From Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated June 4, 2019. Decreases the (Memo No. 5) Overtime Salaries and Wages accounts for Fire Protection ($500,000) and Fire Emergency Medical Services ($500,000) and increases the Provision for Compensation Adjustment-General account by $1 million. CHR. CHUNG: Matt. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, obviously Sunshine Law is working because Sue and Ioh, sorry. MR. HENRICKS: Make a motion to amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with Communication 117.33, please. Motion to Further Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to further amend Bill 30, Amend: Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 117.33. Seconded by Ms. David. CHR. CHUNG: Matt. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So as I was saying, I actually would like to withdraw this communication because I like the content of Sue's much better. And obviously the Sunshine Law is working because we did exactly the same thing. So I'm going to withdraw Communication 117.33 at this point in lieu of Communication 117.35. Withdraw Motion Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder withdrew his motion to further to Further Amend: amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 117.33. Page 36 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Alright. Do we need any action on that? MR. HENRICKS: No. And for future reference you can just simply not make a motion to amend with it. It's just available. It doesn't have to be dealt with. CHR. CHUNG: But then it afforded him the opportunity to make that comment. MR. HENRICKS: Sure. Yeah. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah. MR. HENRICKS: You can look at it that way. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Jon. CHR. CHUNG: How about Memo No. 6, Ms. Kierkiewicz? Comm. 117.34: From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 4, 2019. Increases the (Memo No. 6) Legislative Auditor Salaries and Wages account by $74,388, and decreases the Puna Police-Salaries and Wages account by the same amount to provide for a position to investigate complaints associated with the Whistleblower program. Motion to Further Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, Amend: with the contents of Comm. 117.34. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. You know, recently we've had a lot of discussion about implementation of the Whistleblower program. And we have Director Brilhante here from HR if my colleagues have any questions. I kind of gave an overview of how we were looking to implement this. And so what I'm asking for is some monies to be parked in the Legislative Auditor S&W account in order to create a position to oversee the implementation of this program which I believe would help to identify potential fraud and abuse happening within the County. And it's really a way for us to be able, I think, to save money in the long run and restore trust within government by—with our employees and in our community. And so, I'm looking to pull from the police officer account after speaking with Chief Ferreira and consulting with Finance about the fact that these positions were funded for a full year but that they wouldn't be hired until March of next year. So there are monies available to fund one position. Page 37 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: So you're still going to decrease the Puna Police Salaries and Wages account by ? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That's what I'm looking to do. And I, you know, I would be willing to increase that, knowing that we still have to get the process and protocols in place for how we would implement the system. I'm willing to cut that amount back by a quarter or even half, knowing that it's going to take some time to implement. I'm opening it up for discussion. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So again, we are decreasing the Puna Police Salaries and Wages. I cannot get on board with that. After the amount of homicides, shootings, and the amount of rural roads in our district and the lack of police that we've had for years, I cannot in good conscience decrease salary and wages no matter how you justify it. Especially to create a position for a program that doesn't exist. So I'm going to vote"no." Sorry. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Deanna? Maybe I'm overreaching here, Ms. Kierkiewicz, but this $74,388, that number came from where? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That is based on the Audit Analyst positions that are existing within the Legislative Office currently. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you. And, Deanna, a position in the Police Department, all liabilities, the salary and wages, ERS, everything, what, for a rookie cop, what are we looking at? MS. SAKO: What is the salary or what is theI'm sorry, did you want the whole package? MR. RICHARDS: Whole package. MS. SAKO: So a rookie is roughly the same amount. I don't have it right in front of me. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. Just a ballpark. MS. SAKO: So the ERS rate, our amount would be $26,000 for the year. Plus the health benefits would be roughly $11,000, and they don't pay much FICA. So about $38,000. Page 38 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And by decreasing by 75—Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, do you happen to know off the top of your head how many positions are supposed to be funded in the Puna District with the new proposed increase? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: They funded ten new positions which equals out to three officers per shift. That's the reasoning. So you can decrease by one but you're going to start cutting into how many staff we can actually put in Puna. And after watching this year, I've got to tell you that would be a mistake. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And the—okay you know what, I'm going to hold right now and I'm going to yield at this point. I want to hear my other colleagues. CHR. CHUNG: Anyone else? MS. DAVID: I just have a question. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Yes. Thank you, Chair. I just had a question if I may ask Ms. Kierkiewicz, Chair? CHR. CHUNG: Go ahead. MS. DAVID: Alright. Thank you. In Council we, in discussing this, we funded this, right, in Council? MS. SAKO: The Legislative Analyst or the ? MS. DAVID: The Whistleblower program. MS. SAKO: Oh yeah, sorry. Yes, the Whistleblower at first reading was funded for $25,000. MS. DAVID: And that was yesterday's meeting? MS. SAKO: No. Two weeks ago when we were talking about the budget, we amended to add $25,000 to this Operating Budget. MS. DAVID: Okay. For this fiscal year, right, the $25,000? MS. SAKO: No, in this coming fiscal year. There's no money in the current fiscal year, I'm sorry. MS. DAVID: Okay. But we do have $25,000? Page 39 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. SAKO: Yes. We put $25,000 in next fiscal year's budget for the MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Hotline. MS. SAKO: Hotline, yes. Like the professional services, whatever you want to call it, to get somebody to answer all the phones for people when they call. MS. DAVID: Okay. And then, Ms. Kierkiewicz, I think I remember you saying that this hotline would be manned 24/7, and I think testifiers were asking whether it was strictly for the County or open to the public. And I think, if I remember correctly, it was for both? So a hotline for both. Okay. And so taking this from the police is—you know, as much as I agree to a Whistleblower program for the departments or for the County for that matter because our employees need some sense of security in case they observe things that they are fearful of bringing forward, I don't necessarily see how this will work for a County—open to the public because that will create such a burden on this program if it's directed to the general public. I think I see more than one staff person in handling something like that. Calls from everywhere are going to be coming in. How do we manage, and how do we investigate and respond to all those complaints from the public? And that's my concern. Because questions from the public, whether it's under this Whistleblower program, will definitely, I think, put the County in a position where if we don't investigate properly and fully then it puts us in a really difficult position. I can't see this being for the public as well as the County. So I'm going to yield for now because I'm having some real issues, No. 1, with the type of Whistleblower program this is including the general public, and the fact that it comes from the police. They funded Ka`u also for ten police officers. And those two, Puna and Ka`u, are just really in a dire need for police services. So at this point I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. You know, since we last discussed this was, I think it was on first reading. So we still need to go to second and final, right? Am I correct? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: One second. MS. POINDEXTER: We're going to go to second and final. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Which is right now. Page 40 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. POINDEXTER: Oh today's our second and final. So if this doesn't—okay, since we talked about it last time on the first reading, Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder brought up a good point about what we have already in place. The thing that wasn't in place is where the public was included. Because you have a lot of things in place for whistleblowers that you can call in, you know, be confidential about it. And this one included now the public. And I hear what Council Member Maile David is saying and I have to agree with her that, you know, what are we doing? Are we opening up the County to more liability because of calling in? I mean we have things in place already like the commissions and the complaints. Can't we work on how those complaints are made or if there's a possibility of a call-in line that is confidential that the public can call in and what kind of complaint can they put with the commission? I think at that level we've got to start looking at that because, you know, here we're saying we're going to fund that for $25,000. Now we're asking for $74,000, but we're not even ready to see how we're going to address it. Calls are going to come in, right? We may get, I think I heard that the last time,1,400 or something Honolulu came in on a month, right? The way our County is feeling right now and with all the testimony that was coming in, we probably will hit two to three thousand calls. I'm guessing, okay. How are we going to deal with that? Who's going to take all the calls? Who's going to do all the investigations? We're putting this law into place and we're not even ready. So at this time, you know, we talk about like our grant program, we've got to look at how the nonprofits can work together to make things better and not duplicate services. And what Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder brought up that time was a good point. We do already have agencies and our government involved with that. How do we work together with them to look at even if this would work? Did we meet with the Mayor and our Corporation Counsel to look at the liabilities that we would face, or what are the unintended consequences? So after thinking about this for much more, I'm not going to support this as well. Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. It's interesting that there are many questions now. There weren't any questions when I reviewed the process earlier this week. Maybe Director Brilhante could come to the table and maybe answer some of the questions that my colleagues have brought up. (Note: At this time, Human Resources Director William Brilhante came forward to address the Members of the Council.) Page 41 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: This was part of a recommendation brought up by the Legislative Auditor. There were a number of individuals including Gabriella Cabanas, who no longer works with the County, recently retired, who works very hard on doing the legwork to ensure that at some point our County would implement a Whistleblower program that would be available to County employees and the public. And seeing that this is an opportunity to affect some positive change with the budget, I wanted to make sure that we made it a priority and we sent a strong message to employees and the community and let them know, "If you have concerns, we are going to have a safe harbor for you to be able to report." And so the hotline would be managed by an independent third party. That is what I believe the plan is. And there would be certain thresholds and evaluations made by this potential new position where they would make recommendations to this body as to how we would proceed with evaluations on a personnel level or if there needs to be an audit of a department or whatever have you. So, Director, I'll leave it to you to just kind of answer some questions. Thanks. MR. BRILHANTE: Thank you. Good morning. And yes, it still is morning, barely. Anyway, William Brilhante, Human Resources Director. You know, Ms. Kierkiewicz is correct in that this is not just some l Ph hour, I guess, entity that we're trying to throw together at the last minute. As you know, the audit was conducted back in 2016. You know, results were found and recommendations were made. And this is one of the specific recommendations identified by the Legislative Auditor in the report, was the ability to provide, like Council Member Kierkiewicz said, a safe harbor for County employees. During the audit there was significant information related to or, you know, communicated to the Auditor that a lot of the employees felt pressure. They felt unsafe with bringing complaints or identifying, you know, situations regarding possible malfeasance, you know, with supervisors or the like. And therefore, they kept it to themselves and, you know, they didn't report. And as you know, that's even worse than—oftentimes that ends up being worse than the actual transgression itself when you allow bad things to happen over a long period of time. So with that in mind, a Whistleblower program, which is afforded under the HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes) for the State, is already in effect. But we didn't have any mechanism to provide that to our employees. So yeah, it's great to have that language in the HRS but if there's nothing for them to take advantage of, you know, what good is it? It's like giving, you know, Aaron's son or Chair Chung's son the keys to a car before he goes to his college and you never give him the car or vice versa, give him the car and never give him the keys. So with that in mind, we communicated, we did our due diligence, and we checked with all the other Page 42 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 jurisdictions. And like I stated earlier, I was surprised to find out that we're one of the few, if not only,jurisdictions that doesn't have something like this in place, you know, for their employees. And, you know, we touched base with City and County of Honolulu. They have had it for a while. Same thing with University of Hawaii and, you know, all of the college system, each of the campuses, and they're manned centrally. So we had discussions. We met two or three times with the vendor who provides services for both City and County and UH (University of Hawai`i). We raised our concerns. We indicated what type of fiscal parameters we're looking at and the like. And we found that, you know, the information we found for a third-party vendor to manage the program is somewhat affordable. The estimate is anywhere from, you know, $10,000 a year to $25,000 a year depending on the number of calls. The vendor anticipated for a jurisdiction like ours, we would probably run closer to maybe $14,000 a year. But it's clear, like Council Member Poindexter said, you know, initially there's going to be a spike. It's something new. Everybody is going to call, "I saw this, this, and this." For the City and County of Honolulu, the first year the majority of the calls were complaints regarding potholes, items to that effect. And they were handled accordingly. The vendor screens the calls. They do an initial investigation. They determine is this a valid complaint that should be forwarded to the County or not. And then, you know, something like the potholes, what Honolulu did was they got their information from the vendor or complaint of a pothole on Kunia Road, and that was sent to their, you know, Public Works or Traffic Division or whatever. And that's how that was handled. So I foresee something similar like that happening. But like you said, that's not the primary goal of this program or it wouldn't be, you know, to address those types of issues. It's a"good to have," but it's not part of the "must have." The "must have" is, you know, providing the safe harbor for our employees so that they can go back and they can feel confident that, "If I see something that's not right, I have a place to vet it to make the information known to somebody else, and that there is no fear that I'm going to end up in Siberia for the next 15 years of my County career." And I think that's what is pretty much the rationale and the justification for this program. MS. POINDEXTER: I have a question for CHR. CHUNG: Yes. MS. POINDEXTER: Okay. So you referenced UH. And what you keep talking about is employee specific. You're not talking about, oh, that somebody can call Page 43 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 and say, "Hey, this police, I felt police brutality or something. Can somebody investigate this?" I mean, because the public is thinking all of this stuff is going to happen. That's what, yeah, because that's what they came in and testified to. MR. BRILHANTE: Yeah. And that's part of the educational component we have. You know, right now there is a system in place where if there's alleged police brutality, the person is instructed to file a complaint with the Police Commission, and the proper investigation transpires. We do have a semi-formal Office of Complaints right now and that's in the Mayor's Office. We're constantly receiving complaints from the public regarding MS. POINDEXTER: Right. So the reason for what you guys wanted was employee specific. Am I correct? MR. BRILHANTE: That's the initial impetus for looking into this program. MS. POINDEXTER: Right. That I could support. MR. BRILHANTE: Well I guess as we delve more into this, the issue that arose which was brought to our attention is you publish a number to the employees, how are you going to stop the public from calling that number? MS. POINDEXTER: Well they can call too. But what I'm saying is if you include the public, they have different perceptions of what they can call in and complain and what they expect. Because the way this is written, it's for the public. And so when you looked atI mean when you heard the testimony, people have a different opinion of what this is going to be. It's going to be for them as the public. And especially, I mean, we had a lot about, you know, calling in about the police, what they were doing and blah, blah, blah. So I think the way it's written, I think we've got to be more clear on that because we're going to open up a can of worms and liability for the County if we're going to just allow the public and a free for all, and for what—we're not clear with them. We haven't been clear with them. And they were supporting this because they thought it was going to be for them. I'll yield at this time. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. I guess I'm very unclear on whether this program is employee only or if it's just for the general public because this keeps bouncing around and I've heard different things on every side. You said specifically just now, "for employees." You didn't say, "but" afterwards; you said, "and." So there's no recognition that this is a public-based hotline unless I'm completely misunderstanding what's going on. So I'm again, we're going to fundI'm just going to throw some numbers around real quick because I'm Page 44 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 thinking about this. So the Police Department in Puna had 42,000 calls for service in Puna this year. How many calls are we expecting again for this hotline? MR. BRILHANTE: I think the rough estimate is initially we're similar to Honolulu, I'm not sure, maybe 1,400 a month. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Fourteen hundred a month. So I got 42,000 calls for service for the Police Department and we're thinking about 1,400 calls a month. So 1,400; so 16,000. So we're saying that the need for this, even though it may or may not be for the public, most likely not for the public, the need for this Whistleblower program outweighs three times the amount of calls for police. That's what I'm getting from this. And again, I'm going to say "no." That is numbers. I don't discredit the Whistleblower program. That is good. And we do have other options. Like you said, we have a Police Commission. We have the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). We have so many different areas you can go to. If you're talking about the County employees needing to say something about their bosses or about bad Council Members or whatever it may be, then good, you know. That needs to happen. There always needs to be some kind of oversight, somebody who can say, "Yeah, you were right. You were not heard in this case." But for what this is, it's very general. It's very broad. And you're pulling from the Police Department to make it happen. If this is something really important to yousorry, I'm not supposed to get personal. If this was a very important subject and we need to fund this, then we should look at other places than Police. MR. BRILHANTE: May I respond to that? CHR. CHUNG: Yes. MR. BRILHANTE: Just quickly is, you know, if you preclude the applicability or the, you know, the option and you restrict it only to employees, then it's not going to address what it was intended for. Because, the fact is the reason this was identified was because there were allegations that the County hiring practices were askew, allegations. The people who were complaining were not County employees but were the people who didn't get the jobs. So if we're going to say no more public, then no sense have it, to a certain extent, because we're cutting off maybe the majority of the basis for the complaints to begin with. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So perhaps then another commission, the HR Commission. MR. BRILHANTE: We have an HR Commission. Page 45 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We do already? MR. BRILHANTE: And the reason I'm sitting here is because there's allegations that the previous HR Director might not have been up to par. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So the Police Commission exists. We have an HR Commission. How many more commissions do we have to deal with public complaints and private complaints, or with County complaints? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: (Inaudible.) MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Well if it's on a website, let me know or tell me. Because if this is an important program, break it down for me right now. How many commissions do we have existing already and yet we're going, well he's, you're asking, you're telling, so I'm asking you now. How many commissions do we have and why create another one? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I'm not asking to create another commission. I'm asking for this body to prioritize investigating cases where people have real legitimate concerns around fraud, harassment, abuse. And if you can't see the wisdom in that CHR. CHUNG: Okay, okay, okay. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: The public is watching. The public is watching and hearing what this body is prioritizing. CHR. CHUNG: Well MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: There are existing programs though. That is the point. And while this may be important, where you're pulling from has a very strong need as well. So this is being watched by the public, very understood. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Hundred percent agree, which is why I did my due diligence. I met with the Chief. He gave me his blessing and said, "Ashley, there's money there. Go talk to Finance." It was a hard choice for me to make. I certainly know the need for police officers, law enforcement in Puna. But I am also willing to put on some cojones and address some long-standing issues that have been embedded here at the County. CHR. CHUNG: Anyway. Matt, why don't MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Perhaps this needs a little bit more thought especially when you start to fund from certain places. Because although the Page 46 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 money may be there and the blessing may be there, that doesn't mean this is the only place to pull from. Your CRF (Contingency Relief Fund) could be applied to this if this is that important. CHR. CHUNG: Anyway MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah. Ms. Eoff. MS. EOFF: So, yeah, I don't think any of us are questioning the importance of a Whistleblower program. We all supported it. And we supported a funding for it in a previous vote, not to do with this amendment. Could you explain to me the difference between that monies and then bringing in this money? Same program? MR. BRILHANTE: Maybe Ms. Sako would be better to explain. I think,just me from a real layman's perspective, is the fact that the initial funding was in order for us to engage with a third-party vendor to provide the hotline. And my understanding is the issue in front of you today is for a position so that when the information comes in from the third-party vendor, that there is a possible issue regarding malfeasance. Then we have somebody within the County to conduct an investigation and look into it further. And the reason the Legislative Auditor's Department was identified is because they're independent from the Administration. So there's some autonomy associated with them and they already perform an auditing function, you know, within the County and all that. Ms. Sako will explain more. MS. EOFF: Okay. MS. SAKO: Yeah. So the $25,000 was the hotline vendor and that was funded through Fund Balance at last reading. And then this one is in salaries and wages. So, obviously an option is to change the funding source if that's what the Council desires. MS. EOFF: So the position that would be required in the Legislative Auditor Department is a $74,000-a-year investigator kind of ? MR. BRILHANTE: You know, there's been discussion countywide within the departments, you know, as we're trying to identify what would be the best place to house this. And we identified that an investigation position associated with this hotline would not necessitate, you know, a full-time individual to work there. So I think the Legislative Auditor stated that, you know, her staff always is overburdened with audit requests and they always have problems meeting specific-request deadlines. So it would be great if they could have a half-time position to associate with this. So we realized or we came to the conclusion and Page 47 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 the understanding that, yeah, if you funded a position, the understanding would be this position would be half time to investigate the whistleblower and 50 percent or the second half of the time to assist with ongoing audits. MS. EOFF: I see. So I think the problem lies in where the money is being taken from more than whether the position is necessary or not. And I'd like to discuss it in a different framework, I think, than this amendment too. So, yeah. I just wanted to clear that up. Thank you. MR. BRILHANTE: Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, I have a question. You know, you talked about having this Whistleblower program be available to the general public and it would address some things that happened before. But, you know, a person who was aggrieved by the Civil Service practices, they would have no recourse with the Civil Service or Human Resource—no? None whatsoever, huh? Interesting. MR. BRILHANTE: There is a mechanism for internal complaints. But, you know, that's a—it'd be through the County for hiring. But that would be a process in where they had to have exhausted all of their CHR. CHUNG: It would only be for employees. MR. BRILHANTE: It would only be for actual applicants. CHR. CHUNG: Actual applicants. I see, interesting. Yeah, and maybe just for Matt's information too, with regard to a lot of these commissions, whether it be Fire Commission, Police Commission, I think one the common complaints that we've had from the public is that, and also from commissioners, I guess, that they don't have powers to do certain things or to address some of the complaints from the public. And I know it's very frustrating both for the commissioners and for the members of the public. And, you know, I'm kind of anxious to see what the Charter Commission, you know, has proposed. But based on just what I've been reading, I don't think they really addressed that. But that has been a chronic complaint for years and years, you know, giving more teeth to the respective commissions, yeah. But anyway, thank you. Val. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. And the only way I would support taking anything from the police budget if the Police Chief is okay with this is it going to the Prosecutor's Office. Here, we wanted to fund the position. Because, then that's an overflow of police activity that they can beef up on whether it be ag theft or whatever cases that they're working on for Puna or whatever. But if the Police Chief is okay with that, I don't mind. The only way I would vote for taking Page 48 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 money out of the police budget is if it goes to something that's directly related to them which is like the Prosecutor's Office. So at this time it's not. So I'm still not supporting this. Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. And thank you all for your comments. Deanna, I hate pulling from Fund Balance all the time. But if we were to scale back some of the funding for this position and fund half a year, where could we find some additional funding? MS. SAKO: If it's half a year, which kind of makes sense because I forgot we still need to create the position and form it and all of that, there probably could be enough in Fund Balance. But I don't want that to be, like, open the floodgates for everything else, okay? But if it's downI calculated half would be $37,194. So if that's the amount, we could probably live with that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Chair, I'm going to work on an amended communication. CHR. CHUNG: Thank you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: But I want to send the message that I'm willing to do the work and have the hard conversations. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. So MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Formally, procedurally, Clerk, do I need to withdraw? Okay. I'm going to withdraw this communication and work with staff to make an update. Withdraw Motion Ms. Kierkiewicz withdrew her motion to further amend to Further Amend: Bill 30, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 117.34. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: What's the pleasure of this board? You guys want to take a recess for lunch or just work right through and then have lunch and celebrate afterwards? MS. DAVID: We've got to have lunch. Page 49 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Let's take a recess. Let's come back at about 1:15. Is that okay? Recess: At 12:03 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 1:34 p.m. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Lee Loy, would you like to do the honors by moving on one of your communications? Motion to Further Ms. Lee Loy moved to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with Amend: the contents of Comm. 117.32. Seconded by Mr. Richards. Comm. 117.32: From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated June 3, 2019. Decreases the (Memo No. 4) General Excise Tax Mass Transit Salaries and Wages account by $220,224 and increases the General Excise Tax Mass Transit Equipment account by the same amount in order to defund four new positions within the Mass Transit Agency and instead provide equipment for that department. CHR. CHUNG: Any discussion on thisoh, yes. Please. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I'm going to just take a few minutes because we heard a lot of impassioned push from the Mayor's Office about Mass Transit. This has been a department that has given us heartburn for a while now. And every single one of us has wanted to help this department. So I know how confusing this particular amendment looks coming from myself who has championed help for this department, for all of us who have voted for the GE to help fund this department along with a wonderful Mass Transit Plan and then even Director Ed Sniffen from State Department of Transportation who came forward and pushed for these four positions. So if you would just give me a brief moment to help you folks understand why I did this. CHR. CHUNG: And before you do that though, heartburn not caused by a present administrator, right? MS. LEE LOY: Absolutely not. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. I just wanted to make sure. MS. LEE LOY: Absolutely not. Thank you for that, Chair. Because Ms. Villegas did mention it briefly that everyone up here trusts Ms. Carreira to do the right thing. We also trust her expertise in leading this department. We all recognize she's very new on the job, too. But during our agency review and then subsequently during our first iteration of the budget, I had posed the question to Deanna Sako, our Finance Director, "Where is this money coming from?" And Page 50 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 she said, "GE." These positions would be funded by GE. And then I asked the question, "What happens if GE goes away?" We would have to absorb these four positions into General Fund or Highway Fund or someplace else if this funding source went away. Now keep in mind, this is the only time that this body can really act on positions and how they are funded. So this particular amendment does not delete the positions. It just moves the funding within that same agency, which meets what the Mayor and this Administration likes to do which is not pit agency against agency, keeping the money within the same agency. But I do feel strongly that this gives Ms. Carreira an opportunity to take a look at the entire department as a whole and look at other sources or other innovative ways to fund these positions. With that, I want to call Ms. Sako forward please. (Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to address the members of the Council.) MS. LEE LOY: Ms. Sako, please help us. And just to remind everybody, the GE Fund, when does it sunset, first question, and then what it can be utilized for. MS. SAKO: So the fund, well the whole tax will sunset on, I'm going to say, December 31st, 2030. And then it can be used for transportation-related items whether it's roads, transit, traffic type of things, traffic safety, those types of things. So anything transportation related. MS. LEE LOY: And that would include salary and wages, correct? MS. SAKO: Correct. For the positions related to those activities. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Deanna. And then, because this a specific or what we call a special fund, it's not like we can move GE money into the Beautification Fund or the General Fund, correct? MS. SAKO: Right. It's going to stay here in this fund to be accounted for. MS. LEE LOY: So we also heard about issues as it related to the Federal funding. So that's another source that Mass Transit—sources of funds that Mass Transit gets to help this department. Is that accurate, Ms. Sako? MS. SAKO: Yes. They also get Federal funds. MS. LEE LOY: So by my math, this particular department has Federal monies, GE monies, highway or fuel tax monies, and General Fund monies. Page 51 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. SAKO: Right now they don't really have any more General Fund money. We do account for their grants in the General Fund, but they're no longer supported by General Fund dollars. MS. LEE LOY: But they were at some point. MS. SAKO: They were prior, yeah. Prior to this year, yes. MS. LEE LOY: So they were able to tap into four different buckets or pots of money. MS. SAKO: Correct. MS. LEE LOY: So now I want to walls to the position. And I'll just talk about the Account Clerk. Is it possible for someone, for example, in the Finance Department, an Account Clerk in the Finance Department to share costs, do some of the work that they are assigned to in Finance while their payroll or their salary and wages could utilize General Fund and GE Fund? MS. SAKO: It's like we have some positions that are shared, funded by like a grant and General Fund or a grant and Highway Fund or something like that. And we reflect those in the budget that way. So if like a General Fund employee or a Finance employee was to help Transit, yes we could charge some of that time to like the GE tax or their S&W. I probably would have to talk to Corporation Counsel as to how much, you know, when you say like, "Could they still do some of the Finance work,"I think we'd have to probably have some kind of nexus to the transportation thing now that I'm, yeah, thinking about it. MS. LEE LOY: So like, for example, we had Federal monies and that grant. And administering that grant and making sure that we were reporting accurately, rightChair, a little bit more? CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, of course. MS. LEE LOY: That could be a nexus. MS. SAKO: Right. Something like that could be charged, yes. MS. LEE LOY: So you had an opportunity to look at this particular amendment. So again, for the rest of my colleagues, I'm not getting rid of any of the positions. I'm putting it in a fund which is an equipment fund which they could use to buy, purchase more buses or more equipment or at some future date, Ms. Sako, we could look at innovative ways where there is a shared cost in which, and it's my hope that this money could go a lot further. So I just want my colleagues to think Page 52 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 on that just for a minute. And I'm going to ask this one final question. Can you name a particular cost-shared position in which one department pays for a portion of someone's time even though they're in one department but there's a shared? MS. SAKO: So in general, like especially in Corporation Counsel, if there is a special funded department or like maybe Department of Water Supply, who's not part of our budget, then we do bill them for their share of the cost. MS. LEE LOY: Since I'm out of time, I'm going to yield to my colleagues. But I wanted to explain why it's not about getting rid of the positions, has nothing to do with my confidences with Ms. Carreira or her ability to run this department. I just wanted to slow this down a little bit and use this as an opportunity to look at other innovative ways to fund these positions because there's opportunities to tap into different sources of funding. Chair, with that I yield. CHR. CHUNG: You can talk some more if you want. Okay, well, Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. I'd like to call up our Transportation Administrator. (Note: At this time, Mass Transit Administrator Brenda Carreira came forward to address the Members of the Council.) MS. POINDEXTER: You know, I've heard, not only on this budget but the previous budget too, about how, you know, buses break down, we need mechanics, we don't have enough, blah, blah, blah. So looking at this, I just want to know what would you want? Would you prefer this money going into a bus replacement of Transit equipment, or do you need these positions to be able to, you know, not to be in compliance but, you know, you have that Mass Transit Plan. Your thoughts? MS. CARREIRA: For the record, Brenda Carreira, Mass Transit Administrator. So one, I need the positions. But, and I appreciate the fact that the money could be used for other things, but I wanted to update the Council on things that have happened about getting, procuring buses. So I'm hoping this will help you. With the current Federal grants that we have, that we got, two different grants, with the GET money that we just received this year that we need to spend, right now I ordered, or the specs. Now, things went out for 23 buses and vans that hopefully we would get by December or the first quarter of next year. And that's going to include five big 40-foot buses, four 30-foot buses, two 35-foot buses, eight paratransit vans. We also are going to get the hydrogen bus. We're just trying to figure out how that's gifted to us. And we're working on two more hydrogens. The hydrogens we might even get earlier. But that's not ours yet. So, okay. Page 53 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 What's also happening, which I have to turn in by this Friday, is the Federal Transit Administration,just last month, decides and said, oh, they have $423 million for a grant. And when I talked to Ryan Fujii, who's with the DOT (Department of Transportation) Planning, what I'm allowed to do is get two applications. One application, I'm asking for ten 40-foot buses, and he wanted me to do another application for one electric bus with three charging stations around the island. That was supposed to be part of a different grant that they have, but Ryan said why don't we try and get it under this. And I'm looking at other things for infrastructure for the hydrogens and stuff And so, with that and with the new contract, whenever that's awarded with Hele-On, that is going to allow me to completely replace all of the East Hawaii Hele-On districts. Because in the new contract, West Hawaii is going to be handled by the new contractor. Until I have the time, July for the next grants and other things that GET we can use to try and completely replace the Kona side. But that's not going to happen right now, but at least—all that would mean, all the Hilo-to-South Kohala routes, all the Pahoa routes, Keaukaha, Intra 1 and 2, Waimea, and Honoka`a for East Hawaii because, yes, we are low on buses. But that would allow me to completely replace all of those buses. And depending on what people tell me, whoever gets the bid, that they could get it here between six to nine months. Now I'm going faster than what the master plan says, okay, but I'm going to just say, "If I have the money now, I'm going to use it because I don't want to lose it and we need that." So with that in the background, I couldn't tell you that earlier because I had to make decisions of what we needed, where I'm going to get things, how it goes. And everybody has just been wonderful, the Feds and the State and the other jurisdictions. But today I felt that I could tell you that that's the direction I'm going. Some of them were doing the specs. And then Purchasing is working on, whatever, the proposal so that the bid. So not that it's all been—but we did all the specs. Cody, my Mechanics Supervisor, helped me with all of this so we could get all of this out. So, I knew what I was going to get because I plotted out how many routes we had and what we could do and what I could replace. Plus, I'm looking at, the new master plan was talking about some possible new routes through Saddle Road. And for those, I do need new buses for that because there is a concern about the grade. MS. POINDEXTER: The up and down. Okay. So basically that part is handled. So what you're needing is the people. MS. CARREIRA: The people. Yeah. Page 54 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. So I'm looking at the positions, you know, with the Account Clerk, definitely need, Automotive Mechanic, definitely need, Garage Supervisor, I mean, you're getting all this new stuff, you need. Administrative Services Assistant, that is? MS. CARREIRA: HR and the fiscal. It's like my Accountant and HR, which we don't have that which we're kind of borrowing Trixy right now. MS. POINDEXTER: Which you need. MS. CARREIRA: Yeah. MS. POINDEXTER: Okay. MS. CARREIRA: So, yes. That would be such a relief for me personally because for me, honestly, to try and do those things, and right now everybody's covering everybody else MS. POINDEXTER: Right. So with all of that that you've now given us, that report, then I'm not going to be able to support this. But I will support having you keep your positions. MS. CARREIRA: Okay. MS. POINDEXTER: Thank you. MS. CARREIRA: Thank you. And, Ms. Lee Loy, I understand that you never meant to subtract it because I know when I first looked at it I was like, "Okay." But I understand and I appreciate the fact of where you're trying to have other funds. My end goal, of course always, is all we're going to have is just a driver contract and we're going to take care of all the buses. That would reduce the bus rentals, and in that maybe would reduce perhaps in the future how much GET we really need once we get it. I don't want you to think that I wanted to hog the GET. It's just right now I'm in dire straits. But I'm hoping as we get more things, less buses going down, we can get more reliable safe transportation, our budget would be less so we could give more to it as highways are up. I'm just not in a position right now to do that. MS. LEE LOY: Chair, if I might? CHR. CHUNG: Yeah. Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. I think my calling missed the point. The point is the position stays, the funding stays. I just want to give Ms. Carreira an opportunity to look at all the different sources of funding in which she could still utilize the Page 55 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 positions but accelerate more dollars in that department. And I know it's shown in the equipment fund but they have the opportunity to take it back out and put it into salary and wages. But they could also put from Highway Fund, from GE, from the different pots of money. Am I correct with that statement, Ms. Sako? MS. SAKO: Yeah, I understand what you're asking to do. But yes, Transit would be able to transfer the money at any time they needed it, with Mayor's approval. MS. LEE LOY: Ms. Carreira, I have one question. You folks recently had an equipment sale. When was that equipment sale? MS. CARREIRA: I want to say May 23ra MS. LEE LOY: Just ballparking it, how much revenue was generated from that equipment sale? MS. SAKO: I honestly don't know. MS. CARREIRA: You know, maybe if we sold ten, it was $25 each. So $250, yeah, $250. I know for our buses, I don't know if it was 10 or 14, but I know it was $25 each. So at least ten, $250. Yeah, but those buses were really bad. I, yeah—you couldn't drive it. Maybe the van, I don't know. But they had to take it, I don't know, tow it or something. Yeah. I'm sorry. MS. LEE LOY: That's rather disappointing. MS. CARREIRA: Yes. But yeah, we MS. LEE LOY: But let me ask this. When a bus is purchased with Federal funds and we sell it, where does that proceeds go to? MS. SAKO: Typically we have to make arrangements in general for a grant. We have to make arrangements with the Federal government to see if like it's fully depreciated or whatnot. In this particular case, these buses were extremely old, rusted through, can see the ground, you know, type of thing. So these were not some of the better buses. But also I don't believe we had to return any money to the Feds either. MS. LEE LOY: If there was money, a bus was purchased with GE and we sold it, would it go back into the GE Fund or would it go into a different fund? MS. SAKO: Each—all the equipment that's sold is tracked by fund. So if it's Highway, it goes back to Highway; GE back to Highway, etcetera. Page 56 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Ms. Carreira, for that. Again, demonstrating that they have incredible amounts of flexibility with a number of sources of funding. And I'm just using this as an opportunity to explore those innovative options that this one department has. Again, I am not deleting the positions. I am parking the money in their agency in which Ms. Carreira can just slow down a little bit, look at the different options. And if she still wants to go back and grab it from the GE, she can. She can. Keep in mind, that fund may sunset and I'm just trying to set them up for success if that fund goes away. That's all. And this is the opportunity that this body has. Chair, I yield. Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Ms. Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha, Ms. Carreira. Thank you for being here. From my standpoint, I don't want to micromanage what it is you need. The GE is going to sunset in 11 years. I feel like that's a long enough period of time for you to have gotten your complete grounding and all of our systems up and running in their full capacity. I understand what my colleague is saying about transitioning these funds into another, basically, account while it's still accessible. However, I don't feel that that's my job to micromanage your department. It's my job to work with you and support you and provide what it is that you need. There will always be room for improvement. But I'm not an expert in the transportation department, and you have decades of experience and an understanding of what's necessary in order for you to be successful. So I won't be supporting this amendment and, you know, I'll be here to support in capacities as necessary but I don't want to micromanage your budget for you. I yield. MS. CARREIRA: Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Matt, did you have your light on earlier? No? Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. And, Director Carreira, thank you for that. For me, would you prefer that these monies stay where they are or would you, given that it's staying in your same department but a different line item, what is your preference? Would you like it to stay here? Because I would love to support what you need and what you feel is something that you could work with. MS. CARREIRA: Hold on please. Thank you for allowing me to consult with Deanna MS. DAVID: Oh no. Take as much time as you need. MS. CARREIRA: And so, what she's told me is it can be either way. The thing is I don't want to strap you guys too. But she was saying because it's within my particular thing, I can move stuff. You know, and I am very confident in her Page 57 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 abilities. So, it's so hard to say. I'd like to say I'd like to keep it this way but it is true that I could move funds within. And it's true what Ms. Lee Loy said. I just appreciate all the support you guys give me MS. DAVID: Right. And that's what I'm MS. CARREIRA: Whatever you guys decide. MS. DAVID: I know. And for me, I tend to support the way it is now because you have it, you know, sectioned out for specific—and I think if something changes in the next fiscal year, we can always readjust at that time. But I think since this is just a brand new thing, I'd like to allow you the time to work it the way you feel and we can revisit, you know, maybe the next budget session if things was working out. If they're not, then maybe we'll all agree to entertain a change that Council Member Lee Loy is suggesting. But for now I think I would like to allow you to do that. MS. CARREIRA: Okay. Thank you. MS. DAVID: Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Director, thanks for being here. It's no secret there's been no more critical person of Mass Transit than me. That being said, I will echo what Councilwoman Lee Loy has said, and I think I said it the first time I met you. I said I think we finally have someone that I have confidence has the ability to manage the position. I'm coming at it from a little bit different. You know, I've had a lot of different conversations and being innovative going forward. Mass Transit, I think it was our first budget cycle, I think we were supporting about $13, $14 million. And the intent was to put a million dollars more with no plan. And I was dead set against that. We are now looking at $22 million, but the difference is I have confidence that we are going to get things worked out. I like what I'm hearing. And when I say that, I'm talking about planning for the future. That's what we need to be doing, and we as a Council struggle with that. Now the other side. We also have to plan for the liabilities of the future. And when I look at the numbers, anytime we put in new positions, we assignI keep saying this—unfunded liabilities. And if I look at this, Deanna, again my cowboy mathematics here, we're looking at $11,000 roughly speaking for insurance. Is that correct? Health insurance. MS. SAKO: For medical, yes. Page 58 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. RICHARDS: And we'll stick to the big numbers. We won't get to the points, okay? And then for pension, I came up with as a high for the $68,000 contribution, roughly $13,000. Is that correct? MS. SAKO: For the one position? MR. RICHARDS: Yeah. MS. SAKO: I'm sorry, is that what you said? Yeah, that's about right. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. So I have from a $13,000 down to a $7,000 using approximately 20 percent contribution. So if I put all that together I get somewhere around $88,000 or $90,000, rough, contributions for cost of our employees. And I'm not arguing against the fact that we may need them. What I'm concerned about is the timing of needing them. And I do appreciate the fact of what Councilwoman Lee Loy is putting forth. Again, I'm the guy that didn't want to fund very much. But I'm willing to go and, I think one of the first questions I asked you, Brenda, was what do you think of the plan? And you gave an honest answer. You said, "You know, I haven't read it very well. I'm not sure yet." That was honest. You came back and said, "I think it's a pretty good plan." I don't disagree with you. And I think the metrics in there are supportive of us going forward. When you just talked about east and west which is kind of north east and south west, if you look at the island that way. You also talked about the, I'm going to use the term "express buses" between east side and west side. And I think we need to explore that. You also mentioned hydrogen. You also mentioned the electric buses, which is all in the right direction. I don't think we have the technology quite there yet to handle it all, but we have to be exploring all that, which comes back to this amendment of doing what we need to do. Deanna, when the finances are put from salary and wages into equipment, transferring them back, what is the status of that? Does that come before Council or is that MS. SAKO: It's just reported to Council. MR. RICHARDS: It's reported to Council. MS. SAKO: Because it's all within the Mass Transit Department, she can transfer funds with the Mayor's approval. And then that's part of the transfer report that comes to Council twice a month. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. One of the things that we as a Council are being questioned on by constituency is transparency. And we have heard enough about Sunshine, etcetera. And we've also heard a lot about adding positions. And again, I made this in a previous comment about we're looking at a billion dollars Page 59 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 of liabilities coming forward. When do we kind of slow that down a little bit? Now I think if we're delivering good services, it's easy to justify. We're not delivering good services yet. I have high hopes. But putting in more positions, I am very leery of that. I think Mr. Kaneali`i-KleinfelderChair, one moment. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah. Go ahead. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you. I'm leery of assigning a lot right now. I applaud the position of leaving it in the department. And I would ask, Deanna, that—I think I'm going to support this because I think that allows us to,pardon the pun, pump the brakes a little bit and be able to hold off on expenditures. And then if we need them, okay fine we transfer back if we identify it going forward. I don't want to remove the funding. But I want to park it someplace to make it happen. And then I would ask from Finance that when we make transfers even within the department, yes we get that report, but as a courtesy can we get an executive summary saying, "Hey, we're transferring this to move this forward"? Again, in an effort of transparency for our constituency, for everyone. So I'm going to be supporting this for the reasons I articulated. Not to take it away from you, Brenda, but I want to control some costs going forward because I'm concerned about the long-term costs. I yield. Thank you, Chair. CHR. CHUNG: Thank you. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm just trying to understand the movement a little bit better. So we're moving from we're just keeping the funds within the same fund. Same—so she can grab and go as needed. So I don't understand the purpose of that as far as sustainability of the positions. But can you explain or someone explain that to me a little bit? MS. LEE LOY: Let me give you the rails on why. Because this particular agency has different sources of funding. They get Federal funding, they get GE funding, and then they get fuel tax. Prior to us having the GE funding, they had to supplement their budget with the general funds. So when we moved in the GE, all of those general funds came out of Mass Transit because it is the most flexible fund we have. Our General Fund can go in any department in any agency. But our Highway Fund, our fuel tax, and our GE is very restrictive. It's very specific on what it can be used for. So because this one particular agency has different pots of money, I am just, as Mr. Richards was saying, slow down a little bit because you can still get that position which is being left but have three pots of money pay a portion of that one position rather than strapping this over just one fund. Because if we're not using all the funds, we can use the funds to accelerate this agency even further, which I really think is not micromanaging. It's not micromanaging this department. It's Page 60 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 giving them innovative tools. More tools in which someone we completely trust and believe in can be explorative of And if there's any duty that this body has, it's the budget. That is our primary purpose is to look out for taxpayers' money. I am looking at ways at accelerating their tax dollars rather than just keep it in one pipe. I hope that helps. Ms. Carreira, please jump in on this. MS. CARREIRA: Ms. Lee Loy, I understand exactly what you're talking about. I don't know if this helps or not. But when we put in for the four positions, one of the jobs that I was working on is the job descriptions, well, for the entire staff because that's been an issue. When I knew about this, we started with these four positions. So I just wanted to say we did prepare the position descriptions. We're already talking with HR. I'm going to make some other—we need some other approvals that we need to go through. But the only thing I was waiting for was the approval of the budget so that I could move forward because there's all these positions coming through so I could try and get into HR quicker so that I could fund all four positions. I don't believe we can do all of them at one time. But probably the first one would be the Administrative Assistant I and, you know, have the other three. Once I get the Garage Supervisor that could help me with the working supervisor, and the Administrative Assistant to help me with the Account Clerk. But we are prepared, actually we are, in my mind, prepared to do the four positions. So I don't know if this answers, as much as I'm saying it. So in my mind, I'm not looking to transfer funds back and forth. Because in my mind, I have the four positions. I didn't know about this amendment. But I just was saying I felt that was my responsibility. If I'm asking for it, I've got to get ready for it. And I will say I am or very close to it. Because what I wanted to do is work with HR with recruitment already, who I met with them yesterday. And they just needed to have the approval here, get the allocations. And I could even start developing the interview questions and the skills so that we would be able to start the interview process so I could at least get somebody fairly soon in July. But that's what I've been doing to try and do my part because this is what I wanted. So I don't know if that helps you guys but, yeah. Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Having it insorry, where was I going? But what is the achievement of having it in the same fund but in a different section? Is it allowing for grants to cover that? I'm just trying to figure it out because I'm not seeing it. I'm not making a connection yet. MS. LEE LOY: It just gives the department an opportunity to look at—and she said it best. If there's a position, clearly that admin position, she wants to move in, move the money in, make it happen. But for the other positions, maybe a Page 61 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 portion could be out of Highway Fund, GE Fund. She would end up with more money in her budget because of the shared costs. But also keep in mind, one of the positions is a mechanic position, right? Could be an opportunity. Again, it's just an innovative way to look at this budget, specifically in this one department in which—and I know they're borrowing people from DPW right now, right, because for that salary, they use the same sources of funding. So we could actually, perhaps, in some innovative ways help out another department because we're stretching the monies. Again, I'm just trying to give them the tools rather than use the same playbook of using the same funding mechanisms. Just be outside the box. This is the only time we can do that. So to answer your question, it's just moving money from savings into your checkbook. But if you don't have to take it all out because you have a second savings—and I see Ms. Carreira nodding. I'm hoping that this sparked a little bit more thought for her and her agency on how she can use monies and get more out of it. We had one testifier earlier this morning. You've got to spend money, right, to save money. She's going to get the positions. They stay in place. But she has a very unique opportunity with the different funding sources this department gets. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I yield for right now. Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. I think what you're trying to do is accelerate the rate in which we are able to achieve realization of the Mass Transit plan. Brenda, are you opposed to what Ms. Lee Loy is proposing? It seems to me that we'll be able to take some of the monies that were coming in from GET and make it go even further. I'm not sure if it's something that your department considered in creating these positions as funding them through different streams. And I think it's an opportunity that we have to be very proactive, knowing that this GET Fund could possibly sunset ten years from now. I mean it just makes sense to plan for the future, something that we don't always have the luxury of being able to do. MS. CARREIRA: Frankly, this wasn't something that I had been thinking of, this amendment. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: But it's getting you thinking. MS. CARREIRA: It's getting me thinking but I guess—okay, so the GET funds that we've used now, we can put into salary and wages and we had equipment. So all those buses I was talking about were just bus equipment because they're separated. When we looked at these four positions and then looked at the GET, Page 62 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 saying, "Okay, the salary and wages, well, they can be funded here." Because I was saying, "How are we going to do this?" They said, "Okay." Now, the Federal grants that I'm used to that I've been seeing, I will say, have never had anything to do with positions. It's always been either bus equipment or operations which, frankly, the operations I believe and, Deanna, please correct me, was to pay the contract, the bus rentals, right? Yeah. The very horrendous bus rentals. That's what we've been using that money for. It was not for new positions. I'm not saying we can't do it, but I am not, I haven't done it. And so as far as the fuel tax, that's for Deanna to look at. And the GET, we only got this January. Again, we're very thankful for that. So I know previous to this, if they asked—well, 2015, four years ago—for buses and stuff, didn't have the GET. They don't have, in a way, kind of the luxury that I've been blessed with now that I can look forward. But during that time because my question has always been, "Well, why didn't you get more buses? Why wait till 20157 And I finally came to realize it was because there wasn't money to do it. And I don't know whether it was recognized or not, but in my mind, I could be wrong on the history. But now we do because, well, we have to. That's part of it. And thank goodness for the GET, and thank you for all that you did because we wouldn't have that. Because if we didn't have the GET to get all these buses, I think it would be a whole different ballgame. You guys are going to be talking to somebody else and maybe whether you wouldn't have an Administrator. It would have to be taken up by an entire company willing to have all buses. I don't want to do that because it's such a beautiful, you know, baseyard and we can do it with these funds. So, I never thought of what other funding sources, whatever, frankly, that I could get these positions from honestly. I'm not sure what that would be. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: But to be clear, you don't oppose the kind of creative thinking Ms. Lee Loy is bringing to the table. I just, you know, our job as Council Members is to question and not accept things at face value. And so she's not getting rid of the positions. We're just looking at other ways, multiple ways to be able to fund it in perpetuity, right? Because these are critical positions that your agency needs to be successful. MS. CARREIRA: Okay. I guess my answer would be, I would prefer to keep it the way it is. So I don't want to go against Ms. Lee Loy to say it's not something. But at this moment, I would prefer it to be the way it is. But if you guys choose to do it otherwise, I'll do whatever you guys say. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Deanna, can you weigh in on this, please? MS. SAKO: So I think, either way, Transit's going to have the money to do the positions. And the one I've been most concerned aboutI know Brenda's Page 63 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 worried about all four—but I've been very worried about the Accountant/HR position because we do need to have somebody to carry on that work. So we just want her to be able to have a smooth transition. And so truthfully, we can live with it either way. There's pros and cons to each for us. But, you know, the way we budgeted is the way we planned it and we wanted it. But, yes, we can live with it either way. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So should this body approve the amendment and park the money in equipment, you can still transfer out and fund this administrative position immediately. And in the interim, look for funding the remaining three positions with other pots of money. MS. SAKO: If there's other pots of money available, she can look at that. And then if the position doesn't get filled, let's say for three months, then that money would remain in equipment that could be utilized, you know, for other areas in the, or match or whatever it is. But, yeah. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MS. SAKO: Yeah. Either way is fine. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. I think that's what we just need to hear is that there's an attempt to think a little bit differently than how we're used to. And if there's opportunity like we have now to move funds around to make money go further, I think that this body should really consider that. So thank you, Ms. Lee Loy, for bringing it forward. I yield, Chair. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Eoff MS. EOFF: Thank you. Yeah, I think you're telling us it's six of one and half a dozen of another or something but MS. SAKO: Yeah, pretty much. I stayed right down the middle MS. EOFF: But also Ipardon me? MS. SAKO: You know we're trying to stay down the middle. MS. EOFF: I know you're trying to be diplomatic and so is Brenda, but you already have imagined these positions being filled. And so to me it just seems kind of like extra work to have to move the money, you know, in a very—soon, right? And the GE, the surcharge, that extra income that we now have— pardon?—well, avepardon?well, anyways, it's affording us this opportunity, but we can only use it Page 64 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 for certain things. And your department is the main recipient of the GE funds. And being able to pay for these positions at this time, I think we—that's why I voted for it in fact. You said earlier that you already have a number of buses either on order or coming from other sources: grants and other Federal, State, whatever; a mixture of sources MS. CARREIRA: Mix. MS. EOFF: Which is great. But what you really need are these positions. I mean I don't think it's that big of a deal either way, too. I'm trying to feel what you're saying, and it seems to me like you would just assume leave it the way it is rather than make this amendment. It does seem simpler to leave it the way it is. And I really don't quite understand any giant benefit from changing to this other system. I mean I understand what Ms. Lee Loy was trying to do is to afford extra, maybe, time to think about other ways to bring in funding. But it seems like you were sort of set with your bus replacement and your, that line item probably more than we can even handle without making sure we have the personnel and the mechanics and all of these other people in place. So I don't know. I'm just a little either way too. But I think I'm trying to feel what you're really saying is maybe it's best to just leave the budget set the way it is on this one. Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. And you know when Council Member Villegas said, yeah, "I don't want to micromanage," I thought the same thing too. Because here we're saying, "We're giving you the opportunity, the tools but yet we'll tell you how to use those tools." It's like telling my husband, "You wear the pants in the house but I'm going to tell you what color." So, it's like we're kind of making it more complicated for you. And you've explained that you've already set the process of meeting with HR, doing the job descriptions, readying the time line of when you're going to have these positions. You wanted them in July. You're trying to move quick on this. You were doing the bus stuff You were doing multiple things at one time so that this would come together. This is the icing on your cake, is getting the money for your positions so you could now package this whole thing up and say, "Yay! I got it done!" So I don't want to restrict how it's done because I trust that you're doing it in the way we need it to be done. So I trust your leadership. So I won't be supporting this. I'll support you for your position money. Thank you. MS. CARREIRA: Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Anyone else? If not, let me just make a comment. You know, I have to, I'm listening to everything. You know, I have to agree that this Page 65 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 amendment makes things a little bit more complicated because there's an extra step in getting to the same place that we are without the amendment. But I think, and you know I haven't really spoken to Ms. Lee Loy about this, you know, because I'm kind of trying to digest this whole matter myself. But, you know, there's a new set of facts involved in all of this and it's the infusion of monies from the GET. That was never in existence before really. And it's going to force us to have to, you know, create paradigm shifts in the way we think. So if you want to look at the old way, yeah, we'll just go with the old way. That's fine because we're going to get there anyway. But I think what Ms. Lee Loy is trying to achieve is a different way of thinking now that we have this infusion of monies. And it's not just applicable only to this matter. But it's in the way we look at things going forward and the way we handle it. I actually am very much in support of the idea of changing the way we look at things and changing the way we do things. So this is really just a microcosm of that, yeah, even if it's difficult to digest right now. Sometimes whenever you have these paradigm shifts, it is difficult to digest and to accept. But look, you already said you could just move the money, you know, fund it anyway, right? Well the way I look at it, because we have the new money, it allows us to utilize different sources. So actually I think this might, you know, it might take a few more turns but it's probably in your department's best interest, you know. And I would hate—it doesn't really matter quite frankly, okay. This maybe is just an exercise in thinking about different ways of doing things. But I would hate for everyone to go home tonight and then say, "That was brilliant, actually. We should have done it." I actually do think it's brilliant. But you know, it just takes a little bit more brain exercise to kind of go from the old way to the new way. Same—we going reach the same result, yeah. What I'm worried about is this. Because a lot of our budget is driven by the infusion of new money, then we stack it with new positions. And that's what gets us into the problems that we've had in the past. That's what I'm worried about. And that's why we want you to take a real critical look at these positions. And if they're still needed, you have all the power to fund them even within the framework of what Ms. Lee Loy provided. So I'm going to be supporting. I just think it's very clever and it forces us to look at things a little bit differently. Not the old way, yeah. Thank you. MS. CARREIRA: Thank you, Chair. And I appreciate what you're saying, what you're all saying. And I guess for me, one of the last thoughts is these aren't positions I created. These are positions in the master plan that was approved by this Council last year, August. CHR. CHUNG: Right. No, but under Ms. Lee Loy's set up, you would be able to utilize different sources now. So it's not justI know it's real difficult to Page 66 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 understand maybe, but I think when we give it more time to digest, you guys will understand that. I don't want to use the word"leverage"because that's probably not the right word, but you can probably utilize, you have more options. This provides more options. But that's, whether it fails, passes, same result really right now. Yeah, Ms. Eoff MS. EOFF: I just had a question. With that thought in mind that maybe a position could be funded from various sources rather than just the GET, if we didn't change it in this way and you fund it out of the GET for now or the next fiscal year, in the future would she be able to pull from other sources like the Highway Fund or I'm not sure where else ? MS. SAKO: Well even now if we were going to, let's say, charge part of it to a grant or something like that, wherever it is we would do that. I mean if we can grant fund it, we'll grant fund it. If it's Highway Fund or whatever, we can make that happen. But the excess money would just sit in S&W. MS. EOFF: Oh, if we approve this for S&W. I mean if we approve, then it's stuck there until the next fiscal? MS. SAKO: Well I mean anything that lapses in the General Excise Tax Fund lapses into the General Excise Tax Fund balance. So they could either, you know, re-appropriate it for that purpose or a different purpose, you know, whatever. When we're preparing next year's budget, that's something we would look at. MS. EOFF: Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Mr. Richards, real quickly. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, real quick. Just to echo what Chair Chung is saying, what we're trying to do is develop fiscal oversight or thoughtfulness going forward. We need to develop the confidence. And just, like I said, if we just are doing that to be more thoughtful going forward. And I think the Chair communicated that quite well. I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Anyone else? We have a motion on the—Ms. Lee Loy, you wanted to say something? No? Okay. We have a motion to amend with the contents of Communication 117.32. You want a roll call vote? MS. LEE LOY: Yup. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Go ahead. Page 67 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 117.32 was carried by the following roll (Approved) call vote: Ayes: Council Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Richards, and Chair Chung—5. Noes: Council Members David, Eoff, Poindexter, and Villegas —4. Absent: None. Excused: None. Relinquish Chair: At this time, Chair Chung relinquished the chair to Acting Chair Eoff ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Motion carries and Communication 117.32 is approved. MS. LEE LOY: Chair, can we have a five-minute recess? ACTING CHR. EOFF: Sure. Okay, we'll take a five-minute recess, seven- minute recess. Recess: At 2:33 p.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 2:40 p.m. Relinquish Chair: At this time, Acting Chair Eoff relinquished the chair to Chair Chung. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. We're back on the record. Mr. Clerk, where are we? MR. HENRICKS: Well if we follow our order of events I believe we'll be on Memo No. 7, Communication No. 117.35 from Ms. Lee Loy. Comm. 117.35: From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated June 4, 2019. Decreases (Memo No. 7) overtime funding from all departments in the General Fund account by $8,339,607 and increases the Finance Salaries and Wages, Overtime account by the same amount. Motion to Further Ms. Lee Loy moved to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with Amend: the contents of Comm. 117.35. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. CHUNG: Discussion, Ms. Lee Loy? MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thank you. During our budget, and I believe Page 68 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder has a similar one which MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I withdrew it already. MS. LEE LOY: Oh, okay. But following that train of thought, what this amendment does is it just really grabbed everybody's overtime. This was a way to just highlight how much money in our budget is related to overtime. And I am open to any and all discussions related to this. I think it is another tool for us, because again it goes to Finance, in which we can really take a look at how this overtime money is being used and just, again, demonstrating back to our constituency and our taxpayers that we're watching the bottom line on this one. Chair, I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Anyone else? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah,just being a businessperson and watching hours, and being a manager and watching my crew's hours, and who's what, and what's what and seeing our overtime budget this year. Although we had some heavy—we had a heavy year, a lot of emergency response time. But either way, we had some very—we had three departments that were large, two of which were very large. And my communication I put forward was doing the same thing this one does, but this just really grabbed everybody and put them in the same pool. I think we need to get a hold of our overtime costs because overtime is time and a half, and that's a lot of excess money to be paying out. And coming with that is the personnel costs that coincide with those hours. So it needs to be grabbed and it needs to be fixed. And I like what this does and it puts us in charge of making sure that we can see when these overtime values are hitting high marks, and we have a chance to have a say in that versus it just being an open pool they grab from. So I support this. I like this. It's going to be a little bit more work for us and the department, but I think that work will pay off for the County in the long run. And this is a very strong, smart proposal. CHR. CHUNG: Thank you. Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. And thanks, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder for the start on that. Like you, I'm a small business owner and we pay attention to these things. Deanna, I have questions. I'm going to sound like a broken record today I think. MS. SAKO: Hello. Calculator out. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, get your calculator. Okay so, and I do commend Councilwoman Lee Loy. Again, we're trying to, I think I'm going to best Page 69 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 summarize it by, change the way we're thinking about approaching this. And for our viewing audience out there, overtime, that goes into calculation of our ERS and all that. Is that a correct statement? MS. SAKO: For employees hired prior to July 1st, 2012. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. So that does affect what we put into our retirement fund for older employees, correct? MS. SAKO: Our long-time employees, yes. MR. RICHARDS: "Long time," that's the correct terminology. Okay, thank you. Now I look here, budgeted for fiscal year 2019-2020 is $8.3 million. Then I look at the actuals for fiscal year coming up 2019 and fiscal year 2018, totals I have there are about twice that. Is—what was budgeted for this current fiscal year? Was it about $8 million? MS. SAKO: It's probably something similar. I don't have that specifically in front of me. But frequently what happens is a couple different things. One is our total overtime is spread out across different funds and this is just General Fund. And then in addition, lots of times the overtime need is created because of position vacancies. So sometimes the position dollars that are not being spent on that person are utilized for overtime. So, you know, if somebody leaves it might take a month or two to fill that position. So that money in that salary account might be used to pay for overtime, you know, for the person doing the work to get that job done. MR. RICHARDS: Okay so, you're saying this $8.3 million is strictly General Fund overtime and we have large—we have another $8 million in other funds of overtime? MS. SAKO: No. I'm saying part of the reason for the difference is because there's about $8 million in General Fund that's budgeted but also part of the reason is there is overtime in other funds. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And how much is there? MS. SAKO: So in fiscal year 2018, of the $16 million in overtime, $14 million was general funds. So that would leave about $2 million spread out over other funds. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And then if we budget 8 million and we have 14 in that case, where did that other $6 million come from? Page 70 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. SAKO: The budgeted positions, the regular S&W when there's not a person occupying that. MR. RICHARDS: So you're able to capture those dollars and use it for the overtime. MS. SAKO: The S&W as a whole as one, the S bucket. MR. RICHARDS: Okay so, and then last year, a bit of a wild card and we all understand that because everybody was to the firewalls working hard MS. SAKO: Yup. MR. RICHARDS: Can you explain to me, I want to run percentages. Don't make fun of me and my numbers. Looking at the different departments, we have a disparency in how much overtime is going to each department. Can you explain, like for instance, Public WorksI put a spreadsheet together. They were out there fixing the same roads all the time. We had, by my calculations, a little over 3 percent of overtime. Police had about 20 percent. Fire had 55 percent. I would think they would all be approximately the same. So how do we get there? Can you go fund by fund or is it—most of the departments are percentage points, and I would expect Police and Fire to be the same. So anyway can you explain that please? MS. SAKO: So in general, some departments don't have a big overtime need. The staff can get it done during the typical work week. But if you take Finance, let's say payroll has to get done on time, we have to file our payroll taxes on time, all of that. So if somebody's out sick, I might have to, you know, work people on overtime. But there's other departments that might work a 24/7 schedule. And so because of that, you know, if someone calls in sick they need to backfill that position. And so that's why some of the departments have higher overtime such as like Police and Fire where, you know, it's public safety related. So I'm not sure I got all your questions. But, you know, so public safety does have that. And then in terms of why some are higher than the others, some of it can be the contract and what's allowable to be charged. So we talked about rank for rank the other day with Fire. That's definitely a higher costing overtime because you're bringing in higher ranking people to work. And then also if Fire has to bring someone in because someone called in sick for their shift, that's like 24 hours versus if Police has to bring someone in because someone called in sick, that would be eight hours of overtime. So that's one of the reasons for the differences. Other than that, it's management and what's being authorized. But yes, on the last two years the overtime is higher than normal due to the disasters we've had. Page 71 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. RICHARDS: I understand this last year with the lava. That was just ongoing, and I got that part. The previous year, I'm struggling with that one. And Ilooking through here, can you explain? By the way, thanks for all these very large binders. There's a line item where we have scheduled overtime. MS. SAKO: Yes. MR. RICHARDS: Isn't that a little bit of an oxymoron? MS. SAKO: In the Fire Department. So yes, and part of that is because there's Federal laws like FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) that keep us accountable. So in general, an employee works 40 hours a week. And so all these nice Finance people work eight hours a day. But then you have, like Fire, where they have 24-hour shifts. But to make it work out into a 28-day cycle for them to work roughly 40 hours a week or, what is that, 160 hours in 28 days, it comes out short or at more hours than 160. So they are actually scheduled for four hours of overtime. But I believe that's in the base S&W because we know we're going to have to pay them that pay as part of their salary. But it's to account for that difference in hours. MR. RICHARDS: Okay now I have to get out my calculator and get my head around that one. I'll yield at this point. CHR. CHUNG: Anyone else? Ms. Eoff. MS. EOFF: Deanna, does this move have any negative repercussions for your ? MS. SAKO: I was hoping it came with another staff person. It, you know, like even Ted and I didn't really get a chance to talk about it, but it's definitely more work we're just, you know, monitoring. I haven't thought through the whole process of what the mechanism would be. But because it's in Finance, it would have to transfer it out to other departments. We would be coming back with, you know, several resolutions throughout the year to do that. MS. EOFF: I understand that would be extra work. I also see where that would be interesting and important for us to monitor. MS. SAKO: One of the things is that by the time we do the transfer, the overtime will have been worked already. And we're obligated to pay because of the collective bargaining unit contract. So I mean MS. EOFF: It'll be kind of like a change order thing MS. SAKO: There's definitely, like, you know, you guys will get to see it more. It will be a lot more public, you know, transparent, yeah. It's just that I don't Page 72 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 want there to be too much confusion that, you know, there might be able to be changes implemented going forward. But any overtime that's been worked where we owe it to the employee, we have to pay it. So you know, those payments will still have to made. So, yeah. MS. EOFF: That's sort of similar to looking at the change orders where we see them after they've already been approved. MS. SAKO: Right. MS. EOFF: But then I guess if we see something all the time that leads to a red flag for MS. SAKO: Right. Then you could comment and—right. And we can try and change things going forward. MS. EOFF: Okay, thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Anyone else? Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Real quick one to follow up with what Council Member Eoff said. So this will come before us similar to change orders. You'll have another report to us? MS. SAKO: Except that like for change orders and things like that, it's a report to you guys. Because I think it's being parked in the Finance S&W account for me to transfer between departments, it actually will take a Council resolution. MS. DAVID: I see. MS. SAKO: So it will take Council approval. MS. DAVID: For every transfer that you make, right? MS. SAKO: Mhm. So I'm thinking we would probably try to group it and do it, you know, periodically. But yes, I haven't sat down and thought out that entire process yet. MS. DAVID: You would have to have enough, like a couple, three months or so to compile a group MS. SAKO: Yeah. In the beginning of the fiscal year, we could wait a little bit. But as we get closer to the end of the fiscal year, we may have to do it more often. Page 73 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 It will also depend on, you know, hurricane season and other emergencies that may require overtime. So it's just, yeah, we'll have to play it by ear to see what's out there. MS. DAVID: And you're okay with this arrangement? I know you haven't had time to actually sit down and figure how this would actually work but MS. SAKO: So, yeah, I think the hardest part will be making sure, you know, I don't do any special projects with it or something like that. I'm just kidding. We could find a way. But yes, it'll definitely be a lot more work. MS. DAVID: Okay, thank you. I yield. CHR. CHUNG: Anyone else? Ms. Kierkiewicz MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Correct me if I'm wrong, Council Member Lee Loy, but the point of your communication was to point out the fact that we've got $8.3 million allocated for overtime. MS. LEE LOY: Yes. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. What percentage of this is contractually obligated for us to fund? Because we know we have a lot of overtime that we need to be able to pay for. MS. LEE LOY: Maybe I can help answer that. When I went through the entire budget, this was just overtime because there is another line item that's for like scheduled overtime, I think, wait MS. SAKO: I think that's actually in the 011 Regular S&W because we know we needed to just make them whole on their shifts if they work in that 28-day rotation. MS. LEE LOY: Right, so MS. SAKO: Unless I'm confusing them with Police and it's a 21 day. I'm sorry, yes. MS. LEE LOY: So this is just a portion of the overtime. I think overtime MS. SAKO: You would take like the 021, right. MS. LEE LOY: Right. And so I think the total overtime for the entire County budget is closer to $16 million. I've got to look it up. So we had a scheduled Page 74 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 overtime account. I did not touch that. This was above and beyond the scheduled overtime. So to answer your question, yes, to highlight overtime. But this isn't all the overtime for the entire $583 million budget. MS. SAKO: Right. It's primarily the General Fund. And then to answer, like, what is contractually obligated and whatnot? So there are many overtime provisions. And so if you work over eight hours a day, if you work over 40 hours in a week, there's different things that trigger that overtime. If you don't get enough hours of rest when you first come back to work, you know, you're on overtime. Things like that. So all of that is contractually obligated. If the question is more is it necessary, that's a different question. So once we've instructed our employees to work overtime, we're obligated to pay them by the union contract and everything. But there's times that maybe we don't have to ask them to work overtime if that's the question. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Yeah, I'm seeing over the fiscal years we have about, year-to-date for 2019, $17 million for overtime. And half of that, the $8 million, you're saying, is beyond contract. And so by parking it with Finance, you've directed individuals or individuals have been directed that they can work overtime and we as a Council just—what are we trying to achieve? I mean is it to just point out that there are needs for additional positions so that we're pulling back on overtime in certain areas? I'm just trying to understand the process. MS. SAKO: So each department has different reasons for overtime. So at Police, you know, why there's like a recruit class going on, we have the positions for those recruits to fill but those positions they're going to fill are currently vacant. We don't have officers in them. So if a certain district is short, you know, some of their staff are going to have to work overtime to fill in. So sometimes overtime is generated because there's just vacant positions. Sometimes someone calls in sick, you know. It's one thing for a Finance person to call in sick and maybe we don't have to backfill that position, but for Police and Fire that's different. They make those calls as to, you know, if they need the additional staff on shift to be fully staffed. So I'm not sure. Then like in times of emergencies, when people work, yes, a lot of people work overtime and we're obligated to pay them. But in a case of a large disaster like lava and Lane, then we're able to have FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) reimburse for 75 percent of that. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So departments are directing individuals to work overtime? And under this new process with the money being parked under Finance, we're just seeing it at this micro level where the money is going. We don't really have an option to say, "No, we can't. We're not going to fund that," because there is an obligation because the hours have already been worked. Page 75 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. SAKO: Right. Because of FLSA, we're required to pay them. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Yeah, we do have a lot of overtime, and I'm glad that we're looking at it in totality because I do have to say I was very concerned when Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder called out Fire in particular, especially EMS (Emergency Medical Services). We have a new ambulance for Puna, and I certainly don't want to be pulling money from ambulance, which this County with Fire and our State delegation worked really hard for. So I'm going to yield at this time. Thank you, Deanna. CHR. CHUNG: Matt, go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, Deanna, it sounds like by creating Council oversight on overtime that we will create accountability and transparency in every department. MS. SAKO: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Possibly start to see departmental changes in the way that we handle shiftwork and maybe even shift the way some of these bargainings are done so that we're not creating overtime and we're not creating positions that lead into overtime. Is that ? MS. SAKO: I can't guarantee what the outcome will be on every department. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Not guaranteed but at least we're giving it MS. SAKO: Yes. That's a possibility, yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We're giving it a body, yeah, so we can actually get there if need to and we want to. And I like this. To me, this is where you start when you start going through a budget. You start looking at your high costs that are unnecessary and this is one of them. So again, thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Richards, briefly. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Deanna,just so I have an understanding. What I've learned is in government, the labor laws are different than in private sector. So what constitutes overtime in County employment? MS. SAKO: So for any of our collective bargaining unit employees, anything over eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. So, you know, maybe that would be a Saturday or something like that for a typical Monday through Friday worker. There are additional, each bargaining unit contract is a little bit different. But there are other provisions in there that we are required to pay overtime. So one Page 76 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 might be less than 10 hours' rest. So an employee goes off shift, goes home, and sleeps for eight hours and comes back to work. But that was only an eight-hour break. Then, the first two hours are overtime because they weren't able to rest for 10 hours. There's provisions like that in each of the contracts. And I don't have each one memorized, but those are the types of things that would also incur overtime. MR. RICHARDS: So it's eight hours and then you're into overtime already? MS. SAKO: Yes. I mean we give people paid lunch and time off for lunch and breaks but their scheduled time is for eight hours. Fire is a little bit different with their 24-hour shift. So anything over the 24 hours in the shift, I believe, is overtime. But they have similar, although I don't remember how many hours of rest provisions, that if they don't get sufficient rest then the first few hours of their shift would be at overtime as well. And then I forgot one of our other biggies, which is work on holiday. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. Saying that, so I'm just trying to get my arms around. You said anything over eight hours. Not anything over 40 hours. MS. SAKO: Yes. So if myI take Finance just because it's a Monday through Friday, 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. But if my worker, employee already worked 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and then they stay till 5:30 p.m. to get the payroll done, that extra hour is overtime pay. MR. RICHARDS: And so our Police—and again part of this is for our people watching—our Police and our first responders, Police and Fire, are they scheduled for 160 hours a month? Is that what the target ? MS. SAKO: In a four-week period, yes. MR. RICHARDS: Four-week period. MS. SAKO: Police and Fire have little bit different FLSA provisions. But it roughly averages out to 40 hours a week, yes. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And then for the shiftwork, it's not the eight hours and then you hit overtime. It's the, whatever it is, 24 hours like for Fire. MS. SAKO: For Fire, right. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. Thanks. I yield. Before I yield, Chair,just real quick. I appreciate the fact because this is giving us the ability to talk story and get our arms around something. Again it's not for the short term, it's for the long term. I yield. Page 77 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Anyone else? Yeah, you know, actually this thing is not a real, I mean it's somewhat of a novel idea and hasn't been revisited by this Council for a number of years. But if I'm not mistaken, around 2008 and a few years after they did something like this. I don't know exactly what account they used. And it's really, it promotes transparency, accountability. That's all things that we like, right? And that's what we should be doing. So, you know, I think it's good. As Matt said, it's going to take a little bit more work, a little bit more getting accustomed to. Probably this is where the Administration is now going to have to hone its managerial chops a little bit more, not just in terms of managing the overtime but anticipating when they need to come up to the Council to ask for more overtime monies. But I think in the long run, it's going to be good, yeah. Alright we have a motion on the floor. All those in favor say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 117.35 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Next. Comm. 117.36: From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 4, 2019. Increases the (Memo No. 8) Information Technology Other Current Expenses account by $75,000 and decreases the Puna Police-Salaries and Wages account by the same amount to provide a comprehensive evaluation of information technology hardware and network to develop a long-range plan. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I've actually amended that communication and it's going to be for Memo No. 11 based on discussions with colleagues. So moving on to the next item. CHR. CHUNG: Which one is that going to be again, 117.39? No? Thirty-eight? MR. HENRICKS: We would like to maintain the order of the memos. And so I understand that you will not be using that memo. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That is correct, Mr. Clerk. Page 78 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. HENRICKS: Would you like to maintain the order and go to nine? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah. Comm. 117.37: From Council Member Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, dated June 5, (Memo No. 9) 2019. Decreases the Transfer to Capital Project Fund-General Excise Tax account by $10 million and increases the Interest on General Obligation Bonds-County account by $4 million and the General Serial Bond Reduction-County account by $6 million. CHR. CHUNG: This is Memorandum No. 9. It'sis everyone in receipt of this memo? It is 117.37. Wait, is that correct? Yeah. Okay, Mr. Richards. Motion to Further Mr. Richards moved to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with Amend: the contents of Comm. 117.37. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. Thank you, Chair. As we've gone through this, and again the numbers, we've had a substantial growth in our budget. And in looking at the increased revenue sides, one of the things that came from this is the GE funds. And specifically I focused in on the capital project fund where we had $12.6 million, $12.66 million. And one of the things that we as a Council, specifically in my community but I'm sure other Council Members will share the same, we have a substantial amount of money that goes into capital project funds and with not a whole lot of oversight or direction coming from us. And so I put this forth because again we're trying to get our arms around spending, trying to give confidence to the community, trying to get the transparency of what's going forward. So with that I put this forth, and I wanted to hear from my Council Members a little bit. But I also, Deanna, I'd like to ask you a few questions as far as opinions of this going forward. And can you explain this $12.6—actually in the whole capital improvement budget—if I can find my papers—it's actually $16.5 million. And we have $3.9 million from the Highway Fund and $12.6 from the GE Fund. Can you just go over that whole capital projects fund and explain what's going on? MS. SAKO: So, anytime there's like a transfer to capital project fund, that money is transferred to the capital project fund to do capital improvement projects, you know, larger scale improvement items. So in the Highway Fund, that amount is, you know, so many cents of the fuel tax that's transferred to the capital project fund. And that's the fuel tax ordinance that comes before you from Public Works Page 79 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 allocating out the funds, some to engineering, some to bridges, and then the local road improvements which is the part that's allocated to each district. So that money that's transferred, that $3.9 million, there'll be a fuel tax ordinance in the coming year, whenever it is, that would provide how that money is to be spent. I think they might do it in biennium periods. So I forget which year we're at, if it'll be this year or the following year. But that money is very structured, so to speak, and there's an ordinance. The money being transferred from the GET Fund to capital project fund, last year part of it was to accomplish the Mass Transit Master Plan for bus shelters and whatnot and then the rest of it was, at the time we came in to do the transfer, it had been not too long after Lane. And so we set aside part of that to be our match for Lane, road-type long-term repairs with FEMA or Federal Highways, whichever is the agency that funds that. So same thing for this year. About $3 million is set aside for Mass Transit to follow the Mass Transit Master Plan. I think they have a park and ride. I might not have that number exactly right. But park and ride, bus shelters, those type of things. Then we wanted to make up the difference for Lane because we have roughly $480 million in transportation-type projects, roads, bridges. And I confirmed that with DPW Director Yamamoto earlier today. So our match on that if it's FEMA, 25 percent of$40 million would be $10 million. So I believe we have $4 million in the current year that we transferred for that. So we would need another six roughly. So that brings us up to $9 million. The remaining part which would be, I think, $3.66 million was going to be assigned to DPW for whatever priority road projects they had going on. Like some of the money this year was used to start doing the planning for Ane Keohokalole Highway in Kona, the extension, Phase 3. MR. RICHARDS: So, in effect, some of this money you already detailed to get some things done? MS. SAKO: Yes. MR. RICHARDS: Let's go back to discuss Hurricane Lane again. Can you go through that again? You said MS. SAKO: So roughly, I want to say it's 3 or 4 million in the current year that was assigned to Lane so that we could get started on some of those, you know, projects. Some had to have temporary work done before we did the permanent work. And so then we need the additional, the rest of the $10 million. I don't know if they'll be able to spend it all in the coming fiscal year, but the money needs to be there so that we would be able to encumber those projects so that we can get going on the work. So that would be roughly another $6 million. Page 80 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. RICHARDS: Okay, which then you were thinking about $3.5 million and change for possibly other stuff going forward? MS. SAKO: Right. So typically we would, you know, ask Public Works what their highest-priority projects are. MR. RICHARDS: Okay so, one of my intentions on this is, again, to give fiscal oversight. If we look back to our funding that we received from our State Legislature, they were very adamant and very pointed that Council has oversight of the funding. And when I see these big numbers floating there, I get concerned that if we don't talk about them then they just sort of become part of and they start to, I won't say evaporate but somehow they just get spent. And so my intension is to have oversight on this. But I'm hearing what you're saying that I don't want to—well, you know, before I go any further, I want to hear from my fellow Council Members. I yield at this point, Chair. CHR. CHUNG: Well basically this isyou're trying to find monies for debt service, right? MR. RICHARDS: In part, yes. CHR. CHUNG: Right. Okay. And what kind of monies are we talking about? I mean, and again it's in anticipation of a bond float, okay. What kind of money are we looking at more or less? Deanna? MS. SAKO: Are you asking me how much $10 million will get you? Ten million, I probably should go run upstairs and put it in my handy-dandy worksheet. But it would be a significant amount probably and—let me go, can we take like a five-minute recess? CHR. CHUNG: No, that's alright. I mean because we don't have to calculate that now. But basically he's trying to beef up our capability of floating a bond, right? And it would be up to your department to determine whether, you know, our, what is that? MS. SAKO: Our bonding capacity. CHR. CHUNG: Bond rating will not be affected, right? But everything—and, you know, the whole thing about it, you know, maybe we can cut this short, because, you know, I'm certainly in support of something like this. The whole idea behind the GET was not to balance the budget. It was to be able to use monies for road improvements and transportation improvements. And if you do it via a bond float, now you're leveraging monies for, you know, to get more monies. And you know we all have projects in our district. I'm assuming this will be transportation related, right? Page 81 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. RICHARDS: Well, in, so coming back MS. SAKO: It has to be, yeah. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah. MR. RICHARDS: So, Chair, I may come back to that. Okay so, what I'm hearing is that the $10 million setting aside. But if Deanna is saying we've got an issue with this, and I'm hearing we have like $3.5 million that, I won't say they're encumbered or unencumbered, but we could talk about that. So, when we're talking about your bond float, what we're talking about is debt service. But let's go to the bonds for a second. I know we get very cheap money with the bonds. And I'm listening to Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder concerning debt, debt service, debt ratio. What is our bond—what would be our interest rates we're paying on our bond stuff right now? MS. SAKO: Anywhere between 3 and 4 percent. I think the market's coming down again. So hopefully it would be closer to 3 percent. MR. RICHARDS: Okay so MS. SAKO: Give or take. MR. RICHARDS: Three percent. And then for a, say we had $3.5 million or somewhere between three and four million. What are we looking at? What kind of bond could we float with that? MS. SAKO: That's why I really want to go stick it in a worksheet so I don't misspeak. MR. RICHARDS: Chair, could we take a five minute and I promise five minutes you'll be back in five minutes or MS. SAKO: Yeah. I have theI just have to pull up the spreadsheet. CHR. CHUNG: Wait. What is this for? MR. RICHARDS: She wants to run upstairs and give us a number. So can we take a five-minute break? And I promise it'll be five minutes. I'll set my timer. CHR. CHUNG: And then how much longer thereafter? MS. SAKO: Short. Page 82 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. RICHARDS: Short. MS. SAKO: It's up to you guys actually. Why am I saying? It's up to you guys. MR. RICHARDS: I mean, it depends on us. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Let's take a short recess. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. Five minutes. Recess: At 3:18 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 3:30 p.m. CHR. CHUNG: Okay we're back on the record. Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. And thanks, Deanna; ran back upstairs. So what kind of information do you have for us? MS. SAKO: So if we were to use kind of that unassigned portion of roughly $3.5 million, that would get about a $50 million bond. CHR. CHUNG: A what? MS. SAKO: Fifty million, five-zero. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. So, where I was thinking was with this money, as Chair Chung pointed out, we were trying to use some of this money to take care of our district and all and helping direct it. But it sounds like you have money, and I think Chair pointed out that if we bonded, we'd actually get in a better direction. If this goes through, how is that going to work for you? MS. SAKO: So, this would move the money to debt service and then we would still need to come back with a bond ordinance to get the approval to go out and borrow the money. And then, the bond ordinance is where the Council, if it so chooses, could look at the list of projects, amend, add, or do whatever, or you could give us guidance. MR. RICHARDS: So you told me that we had, you wanted three of this for Mass Transit and six to match. MS. SAKO: For a lien, yup. Page 83 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MR. RICHARDS: Leaving the three and a half there about. And so if this ordinance goes through, that causes some issues with your tentative plans for this money? MS. SAKO: If the whole ten gets moved, yeah. That wouldn't—the $2.6 might be barely enough to do Transit. But we would still have to find the match for Hurricane Lane, yeah. MR. RICHARDS: Well, considering that a $3.5 million would do a $50 million bond, if I pulled this back would we work together and come up with a bond strategy for the Council where 50 divided by 9 $5.5 million that we could detail to each district if we were to pull this back through the bond, that would leave the money for you to take care of Lane and all that? MS. SAKO: Yes it would. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. So now do I have your word, if I pull this back I will show up in your office next week and we work out those details? MS. SAKO: Yeah. I—and this will go forward to the Mayor. So, yes, I need to confirm with him too. But I don't think that will be a problem. MR. RICHARDS: Because what this will be used for is within our districts. So if we can do that, then we can deliver $5 million to each of our districts for road improvements. Does that sound amenable to my Council Members? Okay so with that CHR. CHUNG: Wait. Before you withdraw anything, can I say something though? MR. RICHARDS: You're the Chair. CHR. CHUNG: No, no. But I think in all fairness to the Administration, we've got to leave something for them too. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, so I wouldn't say $5.5 or whatever, you know, but maybe a smaller amount. And you can leverage it with, you know, put it on the STIP (Statewide Transportation Improvement Program) and do different things. There's all kinds of creative ways of doing things but we've got to—we cannot just take it all. I think it's not fair. MR. RICHARDS: Then, Chair, might I suggest that I go work with Deanna and come up with a plan and deliver it back? Page 84 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Yes. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And I will do that, Deanna. Let's keep it while the fire is hot. We'll talk story first part of next week and get the tentative road plan. MS. SAKO: Yeah, we can do that. That's not a problem. And so are you going to leave the lien? I mean do we, are you going to leave this? MR. RICHARDS: No. My intention to make it easier for you to go forward is I'll pull back this amendment as long as I have your word that we're going to work this out. MS. SAKO: Yup. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. Alright so with that CHR. CHUNG: She's retiring, you know, next week. MS. LEE LOY: July one. MS. SAKO: I wish. CHR. CHUNG: No, no, no. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, I'll see you in the office tomorrow. But all kidding aside, though, it's a little bit different direction but this is actually a great direction. So with that, Chair, I'd like to withdraw. So how do I do this? Do I just ? Jon's making that face. What do I need to do? Do I have to do it? MR. HENRICKS: Just withdraw. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. With that, Chair, I'm going to withdraw my amendment, my motion for amendment. And, Deanna, thank you very much. I'll be in touch very shortly. Chair, I yield. Withdraw Motion Mr. Richards withdrew his motion to further amend Bill 30, to Further Amend: Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 117.37. CHR. CHUNG: So now we have—that just leaves one or possibly two more matters to, okay. Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I think the Clerk needs to read in. MR. HENRICKS: Oh no, it's fine. You can go ahead. Page 85 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Oh, okay, I can go ahead with my amendments. Got it. Comm. 117.38: From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 5, 2019. Increases the (Memo No. 10) Fund Balance from Previous Year account by $40,130, decreases the Information Technology Salaries and Wages account by $47,000 to fund a contract position; and funds a comprehensive evaluation and long-range Information Technology hardware and network plan, a Clerk III position in the Department of Human Resources, a Legal Clerk II position in the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, and equipment for the Hawaii Fire Department. Motion to Further Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, Amend: with the contents of Comm. 117.38. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Chair, if I may? CHR. CHUNG: Go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. So, this morning we had a very passionate discussion about the various priorities that we as a Council see. And so in trying to keep peace among our Council family, wanted to make sure that we were honoring everyone's priorities in moving things forward. So what this communication would do is draw, per Deanna, some funds from our Fund Balance in order to achieve the following. We are able to fund the long-range plan that many of us feel is really critical to path forward for the IT Department. It funds a contract position for the IT Systems Manager, which we all agree is necessary but perhaps not as a permanent position just yet, kind of testing the waters and doing a couple of 89-day contract positions to feel it all out. And this also honors providing the support to HR and the Prosecuting Attorney's Office with the clerk positions. And then also there was a desire from Fire to increase its station equipment funds. So it achieves all of that by utilizing money from Fund Balance and the IT Programs Manager position. And I believe that Director Sako was able to consult the Mayor and Jules, and everybody is very happy with this arrangement that we have put forth. Happy to take questions from my colleagues. CHR. CHUNG: Anyone? Okay. MS. EOFF: I say good job. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Alright, if not we have a motion on the floor. All those in favor say, "aye." Page 86 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 117.38 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung–9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Thank you very much, Ms. Kierkiewicz. So do we have anything else? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: We have one more. CHR. CHUNG: We have one more, huh? Okay. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Whistleblower. I'm getting lots of texts right now about making sure that we fund moving it forward. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Alright. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I know I'm really hot on this. But I just, there was a lot of discussion in previous years and wanting to continue. Oh sorry. Motion to amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with the contents of Communication 117.39. Motion to Further Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, Amend: with the contents of Comm. 117.39. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. Comm. 117.39: From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 5, 2019. Increases the (Memo No. 11) Fund Balance from Previous Year account by $74,388 and increases the Legislative Auditor Salaries and Wages account by the same amount to fund a position responsible for investigating complaints associated with the Whistleblower program. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy. And what this amendment to the budget would do is—thank you, Deanna, for allowing us to draw some monies from Fund Balance in order to fund a whistleblower position within the Legislative Auditor's Office. Page 87 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 And so it's not saying that we will be able to hire for this position at the beginning of the fiscal year, but it does provide those funds when we are ready to implement this very important program for the County. Any questions? CHR. CHUNG: Any further discussion? There being none, all those in favor say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 30, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 117.39 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Thank you again. Is that it for the operating? MS. EOFF: We didn't do too much to the Fund Balance. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah. So what do we have to do now? MR. HENRICKS: We are on the main motion which is to pass Bill 30, Draft 3, as amended, on second and final reading. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Will someone make that motion? MR. HENRICKS: The motion is on the floor. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, all those in favor signify by saying, "aye." Vote on Bill 30: The motion to pass Bill 30, as amended Draft 4 to Draft 4, on second and final reading was carried by the (Approved) following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 88 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Congratulations, everyone. Now we go onto CIP (Capital Improvement Project). That should be pretty quick, right? Bill 31: RELATES TO PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF (Draft 3) FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2019, TO JUNE 30, 2020 Draft 3 of the proposed Capital Budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, includes 64 projects requiring a total appropriation of$241,840,000. Reference: Comm. 118.7 Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R) First Reading: May 22, 2019 and Comm. 118.9: From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated May 28, 2019, transmitting (Memo No. 1) a proposed amendment to add the Discretionary Projects —Council District 4 project in the amount of$100,000 to the Department of Parks and Recreation. ; and Comm. 118.10: From Council Member Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, dated May 28, 2019, (Memo No. 2) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Parks and Recreation's Mahukona Beach Park Renovation project in the amount of $2.55 million. ; and Comm. 118.11: From Council Member Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, dated May 28, 2019, (Memo No. 3) transmitting a proposed amendment to add the Waikoloa Road/Paniolo Avenue/Pua Melia Street Intersection Improvement project in the amount of $4.5 million to the Department of Public Works. ; and Comm. 118.12: From Council Member Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, dated May 28, 2019, (Memo No. 4) transmitting a proposed amendment to add the Kawaihae Road/Lindsey Road Intersection Improvement project in the amount of$4.5 million to the Department of Public Works. ; and Comm. 118.13: From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated May 29, 2019, (Memo No. 5) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Police Department's Puna Police Station project in the amount of$500,000. ; and Comm. 118.14: From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated May 29, 2019, (Memo No. 6) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Public Works' Puna Community Development Plan Road Projects in the amount of $400,000. Page 89 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 ; and Comm. 118.15: From Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated May 29, 2019, transmitting a (Memo No. 7) proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Parks and Recreation's Mountain View Gym and Adjoining Buildings, Roofing, and Gutters project in the amount of$200,000. (Note: The following were circulated: Comm. 118.16 from Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated May 29, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 31, Draft 3; Comm. 118.17 from Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated June 3, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 31, Draft 3; Comm. 118.18 from Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated June 3, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 31, Draft 3; Comm. 118.19 from Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 3, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 31, Draft 3; Comm. 118.20 from Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated June 3, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 31, Draft 3; and Comm. 118.21 from Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated June 3, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Bill 31, Draft 3.) CHR. CHUNG: May I have a motion? Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to pass Bill 31, Draft 3, on second and final reading. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, now we have some amendments. MR. HENRICKS: Yes. Comm. 118.9: From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated May 28, 2019, transmitting (Memo No. 1) a proposed amendment to add the Discretionary Projects —Council District 4 project in the amount of$100,000 to the Department of Parks and Recreation. Motion to Amend: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 118.9. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. CHUNG: Ms. Kierkiewicz. Page 90 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I mean this doesn't promise any funds but I just wanted my colleagues to know that there's a lot of work that needs to happen within District 4 to support recreational space of Poho`iki Beach Park. And I know that my fellow Puna Council Member has a number of Parks and Recreation facilities within upper Puna. And I know that many of the residents of District 4 actually happen to use the aquatic center and community center. So this is my way of being able to support a shared resource. There are many things that we would like to be able to do to beautify the community center and potentially paint some lane lines within the pool which would attract, I think, a lot of swim meets on various levels bringing economy to the area. So just asking everyone for their support on this. CHR. CHUNG: Alright. All those in favor say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the contents of Amend: Comm. 118.9 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Next. Comm. 118.10: From Council Member Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, dated May 28, 2019, (Memo No. 2) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Parks and Recreation's Mahukona Beach Park Renovation project in the amount of $2.55 million. Motion to Further Mr. Richards moved to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with Amend: the contents of Comm. 118.10. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, this is a re-appropriation for Mahukona Beach which is the harbor that is not a harbor in North Kohala, former sugar harbor. Paradoxically, or coincidentally, and unfortunately the pavilion there was just closed and it needs to be torn down and replaced. And so this is very timely to have this come forward. And we're going to have to seek funding to get this done. I ask for your support. Page 91 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Anyone else? There being none, all those in favor say, Ic aye. Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.10 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Comm. 118.11: From Council Member Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, dated May 28, 2019, (Memo No. 3) transmitting a proposed amendment to add the Waikoloa Road/Paniolo Avenue/Pua Melia Street Intersection Improvement project in the amount of $4.5 million to the Department of Public Works. Motion to Further Mr. Richards moved to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with Amend: the contents of Comm. 118.11. Seconded by Ms. David. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah. This is the intersection that you heard testimony this morning on. And this is the intersection going to Waikoloa Village. A huge amount of traffic comes through that area and there's been a lot of questions and concerns coming forward. And so this is a very high priority for our district. I ask for your support. CHR. CHUNG: Alright. No further discussion, all those in favor say, "aye." Page 92 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.11 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Comm. 118.12: From Council Member Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, dated May 28, 2019, (Memo No. 4) transmitting a proposed amendment to add the Kawaihae Road/Lindsey Road Intersection Improvement project in the amount of$4.5 million to the Department of Public Works. Motion to Further Mr. Richards moved to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with Amend: the contents of Comm. 118.12. Seconded by Ms. Eoff. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: This is the Lindsey Road by old Kahilu Hall now Parker School. And it's an intersection that is like we all have in our districts, a little bit weird. It comes in at a funny angle. And there's a safety issue. There's been a bunch of ideas put forth to increase our traffic flow since we have no alternative route. Some work needs to be done there. So I ask for your support. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Anyone else? There being none all those in favor say, Ic aye. Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.12 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 93 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Comm. 118.13: From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated May 29, 2019, (Memo No. 5) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Police Department's Puna Police Station project in the amount of$500,000. Motion to Further Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to further amend Bill 31, Amend: Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 118.13. Seconded by Ms. David. CHR. CHUNG: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I just wanted to invest and re-appropriate every CIP that was in my district. So I ask for your support for all of them. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Alright, thank you. No further discussion, all those in favor say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.13 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Comm. 118.14: From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated May 29, 2019, (Memo No. 6) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Public Works' Puna Community Development Plan Road Projects in the amount of $400,000. Motion to Further Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to further amend Bill 31, Amend: Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 118.14. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. CHUNG: Re-appropriation, right? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Re-appropriation. Page 94 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Okay, all those in favor say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.14 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Comm. 118.15: From Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated May 29, 2019, transmitting a (Memo No. 7) proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Parks and Recreation's Mountain View Gym and Adjoining Buildings, Roofing, and Gutters project in the amount of$200,000. Motion to Further Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to further amend Bill 31, Amend: Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 118.15. Seconded by Ms. David. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That Mountain View Gym needs new gutters and roofing. I guess they're falling apart. So hoping we can get some money towards this as soon as possible. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, all those in favor say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.15 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Page 95 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Comm. 118.16: From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated May 29, 2019, (Memo No. 8) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Public Works' South Kulani Road Improvements project in the amount of$1.5 million. Motion to Further Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to further amend Bill 31, Amend: Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 118.16. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. CHUNG: Matt. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: South Kulani Road improvements. It services thousands of people who live in Fern Acres, Hawaiian Acres, and much needed upgrades on that road would be wonderful. Hopefully we can see some actual allotments towards that in the future. CHR. CHUNG: All those in favor say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.16 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Comm. 118.17: From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated June 3, 2019, (Memo No. 9) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Hawaii Fire Department's Puna Regional Fire Station project in the amount of$300,000. Motion to Further Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to further amend Bill 31, Amend: Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 118.17. Seconded by Ms. David. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This one, again, I think this is just the pre- work for doing a fire station, as well as 118.13 was the same thing. Just looking to get those facilities in Kea`au when possible. I ask for your support. CHR. CHUNG: All those in favor say, "aye." Page 96 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.17 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Comm. 118.18: From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated June 3, 2019, (Memo No. 10) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Parks and Recreation's Kurtistown Park Improvements project in the amount of$1,150,000. Motion to Further Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to further amend Bill 31, Amend: Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 118.18. Seconded by Ms. David. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ongoing work to keep Kurtistown Park improving and more accessible to the public. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. All those in favor say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.18 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Comm. 118.19: From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated June 3, 2019, transmitting a (Memo No. 11) proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Parks and Recreation's Hawaiian Paradise Park District Park project in the amount of$2 million. Page 97 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Motion to Further Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, Amend: with the contents of Comm. 118.19. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Last year we were able to complete the master plan for the Hawaiian Paradise Park District Park. And last week I was able to meet with Parks and Recreation Director and Deputy Director, and the Mayor to talk about the vision for this park that is so needed in Hawaiian Paradise Park, which is nearing on 18,000 residents and no district park. So monies for this would actually be used to start the EA (Environmental Assessment) and preliminary sort of infrastructure phasing-in work for a much needed park in the area. So just asking my colleagues for their support. Very needed recreational space for the area. CHR. CHUNG: Anyone else? There being no further discussion all those in favor say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.19 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Comm. 118.20: From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated June 3, 2019, (Memo No. 12) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Public Works' Puna Connectivity Emergency Access Routes project in the amount of $11 million. Motion to Further Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to further amend Bill 31, Amend: Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 118.20. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is an ongoing project. It's been happening for years to try and create connectivity between this private Page 98 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 subdivision in Puna and across both Districts 4 and 5, if I remember correctly. So I'd love to see some movement from DPW on actually getting these done. And I know it's happening but just an allotment would be great,just saying. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. And maybe you can have a presentation one of these days MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. CHR. CHUNG: And the Council, yeah,just to get us up to speed on it, yeah? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: True. Yeah, because I'm aware but I'm, I guess, yeah. That would be good. CHR. CHUNG: Yeah, I mean because this might be a game changer if we can somehow find the money for it, yeah? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah. Thank you. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. Alright, all those in favor say, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.20 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. Comm. 118.21: From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated June 3, 2019, (Memo No. 13) transmitting a proposed amendment to re-appropriate the Department of Public Works' Puna Emergency Access Road Improvements (Hawaiian Acres)project in the amount of$1.1 million. Motion to Further Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to further amend Bill 31, Amend: Draft 3, with the contents of Comm. 118.21. Seconded by Mr. Richards. Page 99 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Matt. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Before I finish this last one which does happen to be "13" strangely enough, I'd like to say thank you to Danielle Amon-Wilkins for doing all these submissions over the last two days and for Donna for making that happen, for helping us hours on end. And with that said, again, this is the same thing, Puna emergency access road improvements specifically for Hawaiian Acres. Yeah, I ask for your support on this. Thank you very much. CHR. CHUNG: Okay, anyone else? If not we have a motion on the floor. All those in favor signify by saying, "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to further amend Bill 31, Draft 3, with the Further Amend: contents of Comm. 118.21 was carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung–9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion carried. We've come to the end of our—oh, we need to take action MR. HENRICKS: Let me check,just double check with staff After everything we're doing, we want to make sure that we don't leave anything on the dancefloor. We're good? I'm checking. We're good? Okay. So back to the main motion, as amended. CHR. CHUNG: Okay. We're back to the main motion. You know, let's do it by a roll call. How's that? MR. HENRICKS: Alrighty. I love it. Page 100 Hawaii County Council-15 June 5,2019 Vote on Bill 31: The motion to pass Bill 31, as amended to Draft 4, on Draft 4 second and final reading was carried by the following (Approved) roll call vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. CHUNG: Motion is carried. MR. HENRICKS: I know we're eager to leave but it would be remissent. Matt kind of—so I would just like to thank the staff for all of the work to prepare these documents. Not only the volume but the accuracy was spot on. And staying late, particularly Donna Eckersley, Susan Caseria, and LRB (Legislative Research Branch) for compiling everything, Council Services, our Deputy Aaron Brown coming on board and really providing a lot of good consultation and knowledge. Great team effort. Thank you everybody. Thank you, Support Services, Council Services. Fantastic work everyone. Thank you for that opportunity. CHR. CHUNG: Thank you. MR. HENRICKS: Deanna does not like gratitude. ANNOUNCE- The Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business, MENTS: Announcements. (There were none.) CHR. CHUNG: Could I have a motion to adjourn? ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 3:54 p.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Council Members David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Chung—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None Page 101 Hawai`i County Council-15 June 5,2019 CHR. CHUNG: Meeting is adjourned. Council Approval: AUG 0 1 2019 COUNTY---CLE JH/rk/tk Page 102