HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2019-12-18 2018-2020 Hawaii County Council
28th Session
West Hawaii Civic Center
74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
December 18, 2019
INVOCATION: Kahu Kealoha Ka`opua of Calvary Community Church in Kona gave the
morning's invocation.
CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawaii County Council was called to order at
ORDER: 9:10 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Karen Eoff, Acting
Chair.
ROLL CALL:
Present: Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Chair (via videoconference from Hilo)
Ms. Karen Eoff, Vice Chair
Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member
Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member (came in later)
Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member (via videoconference from Hilo)
Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member
Ms. Valerie T. Poindexter, Member
Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member (came in later)
Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member
PLEDGE OF The Acting Chair directed the Council to the next order of business, Pledge of
ALLEGIANCE: Allegiance.
(At this time, Ms. Poindexter led the Council in the Pledge
of Allegiance.)
PETITIONS, The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
MEMORIALS, Petitions, Memorials, Certificates of Merit, and Expressions of Condolence.
CERTIFICATES
OF MERIT, AND (There were none.)
EXPRESSIONS OF
CONDOLENCE:
STATEMENTS The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items.
PUBLIC ON
AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak and came forward when called by
the Acting Chair:
Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Kahu Richard De Leon: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
Juergen Canda: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
Bill 115 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
Cory Harden: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
Bill 115 (Comm. 605), comment.
Les Estrella: Res. 426-19 (Comm. 647), in support.
(representing Going Home
Hawaii)
Deanette Staudinger: Res. 429-19 (Comm. 650), in support.
(representing Bodacious
Women of Pahoa)
Michael Matsukawa: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605), comment.
Ana Kahoopii: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605), comment.
Albert Kahoopii: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605), comment.
Abolghassem Abraham Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
Sadegh: Res. 421-19 (Comm. 630), in support.
Nathan Gaddis: Bill 121 (Comm. 633), in support.
Becky Thurston: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
Bill 115 (Comm. 605), comment.
Noe Noe Wong-Wilson: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
Bill 115 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
Naomi Melamed: Res. 425-19 (Comm. 643), comment.
(representing
keepyourpower.org)
Daylynn Kyles: Res. 428-19 (Comm. 649), in support.
(representing Aloha
`Ilio Rescue)
Andre Perez: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
Bill 115 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Sharon Willeford: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
Res. 425-19 (Comm. 643), in opposition.
Jim Albertini: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
Ronald Fujiyoshi: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
Bill 115 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
Carolyn Pellett: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605);
Res. 423-19 (Comm. 634); and
Bill 115 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
Nelson Ho: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605), comment.
Deron Akiona: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605), comment.
Starr Kalahiki: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
Bill 115 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
Tiare Hewlen: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
Marion Guuschat: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
Bill 115 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
Francois Arlhac: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
Sandra Lehua Kamaka: Res. 403-19 (Comm. 605); and
(representing Ko Hawaii Pae) Bill 115 (Comm. 605), in opposition.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: We're going to take a brief five- to seven-minute recess,
and when we come back, although Resolution 403 is the first thing on the agenda,
I do have one quick item to dispose of so that our Fire personnel can get back to
work. Okay, so, thank you all. We'll be in recess.
Recess: At 11:05 a.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 11:18 a.m.
APPROVAL The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
OF MINUTES: Approval of Minutes.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Vote on Approval of Mr. Richards moved to approve the Minutes of
Minutes: November 20, 2019. Seconded by Ms. David and carried
(Approved) by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—6.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter—3.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: All right, we're moving on to Resolution 430.
Change Order As directed by the Acting Chair and with no objection from the Council
of Business: Members, the following items were taken out of order:
Res. 430-19: AUTHORIZES THE ACCEPTANCE OF A DONATION OF FUNDS TO BE
USED BY THE HAWAII FIRE DEPARTMENT TOWARDS THE
EXPANSION OF THE COMMUNITY PARAMEDICINE PROGRAM
Accepts a monetary donation of$125,000 from West Hawaii Community Health
Center, Inc.
Reference: Comm. 656
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 430-19. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: We have Michael Lam. Can you please introduce
yourself since you've been waiting this morning? Thank you.
(Note: At this time, Emergency Medical Services Specialist Michael Lam,
Hawaii Fire Department, forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. LAM: Good morning, Madam Chair, Council Members.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Good morning.
MR. LAM: My name is Michael Lam. I'm the EMS (Emergency Medical
Services) Captain of the Hawaii Fire Department, and I'll be more than happy to
answer any questions and discuss Resolution 430-19 pertaining to Hawaii Fire
Department's Community Paramedicine Program.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Council Members, any questions or comments?
Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Could you just give a brief thumbnail of how those funds are
going to be expended?
MR. LAM: Sure, absolutely. So, our partnership with West Hawaii Community
Health Center. The definition of community paramedicine, if I could get that up.
We're advocating for vulnerable populations who have become disconnected
from healthcare for any of a variety if reasons. These groups could include the
elderly, the medically fragile, the homeless, and high utilizers of the EMS system.
This program tries to identify these individuals, assess their situation, work as
their advocates, and find solutions that will improve their overall health and
wellness.
So, the $125,000 that's written in the MOA (Memorandum of Agreement), it has
a breakdown of various resources that we'll be using in our department
specifically for community paramedicine. It's broken down tothere's a vehicle
that will be purchased for the house visits. As we check on the kupuna and the
various groups, our fleet of vehicles is getting outdated. And so, it's for the
purchase of one vehicle. There is a subscription to Street Sense in our MOAs,
and that is a program that we use to track the high utilizers of EMS and then we
can put in our own reports or our own findings. Purchasing of durable medical
equipment, such as crutches, wheelchairs, walkers, nightlights, other items that
will help in reducing or mitigating fall risks and other potential hazards. And
finally, education and training with the Community Paramedicine Program.
We're still somewhat at its infancy, although we've been around for about four
years now. But whether it be through lack of funding or not enough personnel,
we don't have as robust a program as some of the other entities and other states
that we've been trying to shadow and copy off of.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you for being
here, and we appreciate the information.
MR. LAM: Thank you for your time.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: All in favor of Resolution 430, please say "aye."
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Vote on Res. 430-19: The motion to adopt Res. 430-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 430 is adopted. Okay, I was also asked to
take Resolution 425 out of order. I'm going to have to take about two more after
this one out of order.
Res. 425-19: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A LICENSE AGREEMENT
WITH SPECTRUM OCEANIC, LLC, TO ALLOW SPECTRUM OCEANIC,
LLC, TO ACCESS COUNTY OF HAWAII PARKS FACILITIES LOCATED
ON THE COUNTY OF HAWAII, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE PURPOSE
OF INSTALLING WIFI EQUIPMENT
The agreement would allow Spectrum to install and maintain free Wi-Fi service to
the public for up to one hour per day at six facilities.
Reference: Comm. 643
Intr. by: Ms. Poindexter
Approve: PRC-1
(Note: Comm. 643.55, from Council Member Valerie T. Poindexter dated
December 6, 2019, transmitting a proposed amendment to Res. 425-19, was
circulated. Comm. 643.56, from Deputy Corporation Counsel J Yoshimoto dated
December 5, 2019, transmitting a list of Spectrum Oceanic's hotspots on
Hawaii Island, was also circulated.)
Motion to Approve: Ms. Poindexter moved to adopt Res. 425-19 and Parks and
Recreation Committee Report No. 1. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Poindexter.
Motion to Amend: Ms. Poindexter moved to amend Res. 425-19 with the
contents of Comm. 643.55. Seconded by Ms. David.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Go ahead.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MS. POINDEXTER: This is just to add what Council Chair Chung had suggested
at the last meeting, that it's not up to one hour but at least one hour. I'm happy to
say that—I've heard, so I don't know if it's for sure but they have been talking
about some extended hours. So, I appreciate that.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you.
MS. POINDEXTER: Any questions?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any comments? Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Val, way to go because that's a real good point, and I
appreciate Council Chair bringing that up. It's about the connectivity and
availability for connectivity. And we've heard at our meetings at NACo
(National Association of Counties) that, you know, kids showing up in parking
lots, they kind of jump onto some sort of Wi-Fi anywhere so they can participate
in homework. So, I like that excellent move. I definitely support the amendment.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, any other comments? Ms. Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: I agree and validate the opportunity in providing the
technological services for people that live in rural communities. However, I do
want to acknowledge those who have spoken up with concerns about the potential
transition or ease of transition this might provide, and some fear associated with
5G. I want to validate those concerns and make sure the people understand that is
not what I would be agreeing to in this chair and with this opportunity to vote.
The purpose, the understanding, the reasoning, and the explanations that have
been provided to myself and this body do not incorporate a 5G web being put
over this island or incorporating those technologies for that purpose in this
capacity and in this situation.
I also had a number of constituents reach out to me about some concerns about
why we didn't have it in West Hawaii. And I was grateful to do some research
and find out that we already do have it in a lot of facilities here on the west side.
So, I recognize the need and, in some ways, the disparity of access for young
people, and we're talking about young people that need to get homework and
whatnot. So, this becoming something that Councilwoman Poindexter and a
number of other people have worked on for years in trying to meet the need of
these rural communities. So, I hope that can be taken into consideration by those
that have expressed that concern and that they can understand that myself and a
lot of others share that concern. So, with that, I yield.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Villegas. I'd like to draw your attention
to Communication 643.56, which provides us an inventory of hotspots around the
island in our parks and facilities. Okay, any other comments? Hilo? Mr. Chung,
you have your hand up? Okay.
MR. CHUNG: Thank you, Madam Chairman. I'll be supporting this based on
the amendment made by Ms. Poindexter. I looked over the DCCA (Department
of Commerce and Consumer Affairs) order, and it requires Spectrum, well, I
don't know if it required them, but they made a representation that they would try
to establish a thousand so-called hotspots throughout the State for underserved
communities. But I didn't see anything saying that it had to be an hour. So, I'm
hoping that our Administration, Corp. (Corporation) Counsel can negotiate
something that's suitable to the needs of our community.
Second, I wanted to actually touch upon something that was brought up by
Ms. Villegas. I kind of agree with her in a sense but in a little different way. I'm
not necessarily for or against 5G, but I just want to make sure that what we are
granting to Spectrum is not a commodity that they could either assign or sublease
to some other entity for other purposes, whether it's 5G or something else. So, I
just wanted to make that comment so that the Corp. Counsel can protect us in that
regard. I believe that this could be something of value, and we don't want it to be
used really to our detriment. So, thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Chung. Any other comments?
None? Okay, we're voting on the amendment right now. So, all in favor of
Communication 643.55, say "aye."
Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Res. 425-19 with the contents of
Amend: Comm. 643.55 was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. And now, Mr. Clerk, I need to ask you,
can we vote on the resolution, as amended?
MR. HENRICKS: We should suspend the rules to proceed if the Council is
interested in proceedinga motion.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Vote on Motion to Ms. Poindexter moved to suspend Council Rule 24 to
Suspend Council waive the holdover for the substantive amendment of
Rules: Res. 425-19. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the
(Approved) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, back to the main motion, as amended. Any further
discussion? Okay, seeing none, all in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 425-19: The motion to adopt Res. 425-19, as amended to Draft 2,
Draft 2 and Parks and Recreation Committee Report No. 1 was
(Adopted) carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
Vote on Motion to Ms. Poindexter moved to suspend Council Rule 15 to
Suspend Council waive the 5-day hold for reconsideration. Seconded by
Rules: Ms. David and carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Now, we can move on.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, before we move on?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yes?
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Return to MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Sorry to interrupt. Going back to Resolution 430-19,
Res. 430-19: there's been a request by Finance to waive the five-day holdover.
MS. POINDEXTER: We just did.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: For a prior resolution, for 430.
MS. POINDEXTER: Oh, prior, okay. I'm sorry.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah, for the paramedicine.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I think we intended to do that. You're right.
Vote on Motion to Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to suspend Council Rule 15 to
Suspend Council waive the 5-day hold for reconsideration. Seconded by
Rules: Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Thank you for that reminder.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Next, I would like to take Resolution 423.
Res. 423-19: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR
AND OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR MULTI-YEAR LEASES OF
REAL PROPERTY FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a seven-year lease agreement with two
additional five-year options with W. H. Shipman, Limited, for property in the
W. H. Shipman Industrial Park to construct a compost facility.
Reference: Comm. 634
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-92
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 423-19 and Finance
Committee Report No. 92. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David, Mr. Chung had asked to take this out of order,
so I'm assuming there may be somebody waiting in Hilo but I'm not sure.
MS. DAVID: I'll yield to Mr. Chung, but before I do, I just wanted to note that in
Committee this received a unanimous vote in Committee. So, Mr. Chung, I yield
to you if you need to say
MR. CHUNG: I didn't really have a comment. It's just that I have to leave at
1:15, so I wanted to be on board since this has been a long process. I'm really
proud of the Council for its efforts in getting this moved through. If we look
back, this was on the verge of being canceled, right? And if not for the Council
moving forward, I think this wouldn't have come to fruition. So, all of those who
were involved, past and present, I really wanted to congratulate and thank all of
you. Thanks.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none,
all in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Res. 423-19: The motion to adopt Res. 423-19 and Finance Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 92 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Okay. One more, Resolution 409, before
we go to the top.
Res. 409-19: ACCEPTS THE DEDICATION OF PARCEL IST (ROAD "A", KALUNA
STREET) AND PARCEL 2ND (ROAD "B", KEALII STREET), IDENTIFIED
AS TAX MAP KEY: 7-8-010:084 (POR.), SITUATED AT KAHALU`U,
KEAUHOU 1 ST, DISTRICT OF NORTH KONA, ISLAND AND COUNTY OF
HAWAII, STATE OF HAWAII FROM KAMEHAMEHA INVESTMENT
CORPORATION, A HAWAII CORPORATION
The landholder seeks to dedicate the roadway and all improvements for public
roadway purposes.
Reference: Comm. 615
Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy (B/R)
Approve: PWMTC-18
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Vote on Res. 409-19: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 409-19 and Public
(Adopted) Works and Mass Transit Committee Report No. 18.
Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the following
voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Mr. Clerk, can we take Resolution 422?
Res. 422-19: AUTHORIZES THE PAYMENT OF FUNDS OF A LATER FISCAL YEAR
AND OF MORE THAN ONE FISCAL YEAR FOR A MULTI-YEAR LEASE
OF REAL PROPERTY FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII, HAWAII FIRE
DEPARTMENT
Assigns the balance of the ninety-nine year lease to the Hawaii Fire Department
to operate its 9 Bravo Volunteer Fire Station.
Reference: Comm. 631
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-91
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 422-19 and Finance
Committee Report No. 91. Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion?
MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, real quick,just a follow up. This is kind of the end of a
long road getting 9 Bravo, which is a volunteer fire station, online and dedicated
over to the County. And last night, we heard them go because we had a range fire
out in the Waimea area. So, I ask for your support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor, please say "aye."
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Vote on Res. 422-19: The motion to adopt Res. 422-19 and Finance Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 91 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. I believe Mr. Richards wants to make
another motion.
Vote on Motion to Mr. Richards moved to suspend Council Rule 15 to waive
Suspend Council the 5-day hold for reconsideration. Seconded by Ms. David
Rules: and carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. I think we can go to the top of the
agenda now. Oh, we have someone waiting for 424 also. He needs to go back to
work. Mr. Clerk, can you read Resolution 424?
Res. 424-19: GRANTS A VARIANCE FROM CHAPTER 3, SECTIONS 3-5(a), 3-6(b)(3),
3-58(a)(2)(B), 3-58(a)(5)(B), 3-58(c), 3-59(a)(4), and 3-60(a), HAWAII
COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), TO ALLOW
CONSTRUCTION OF GROUND AND WALL SIGNS AT THE PROPERTY
LOCATED AT 75-971 HENRY STREET, KAILUA-KONA, HAWAII, 96740,
TAX MAP KEY: 7-5-004:007
Grants a sign variance to Kona Owner, LLC for construction of certain ground
and wall signs at the Niumalu Marketplace.
Reference: Comm. 642
Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy (B/R)
Approve: PWMTC-19
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
(Note: Comm. 642.1, from Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy dated
December 16, 2019, transmitting proposed amendments to Res. 424-19, was
circulated.)
Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 424-19 and Public
Works and Mass Transit Committee Report No. 19.
Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
Motion to Amend: Ms. Lee Loy moved to amend Res. 424-19 with the
contents of Comm. 642.1. Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. And really, yeah, it is just a housekeeping
and actually adds in the appropriate citation to match the title of the resolution,
which is a section in the Hawaii County Code 3-6(b)(3).
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor of amending with
Communication 642.1, please say "aye."
Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Res. 424-19 with the contents of
Amend: Comm. 642.1 was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
MS. LEE LOY: Chair, motion to suspend the rules.
MR. HENRICKS: Madam Chair, I think okay under this instancecorrections,
yeah? Corrects references. So, we can proceed without a suspension.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Clerk.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Then, anymore discussion on the main
motion, as amended? Seeing none, all in favor please say "aye."
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Vote on Res. 424-19: The motion to adopt Res. 424-19, as amended to Draft 2,
Draft 2 and Public Works and Mass Transit Committee Report
(Adopted) No. 19 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Resolution 424, as amended, is adopted.
Okay. Council Members, I'd like to go to the top of the agenda and take up
Resolution 403.
Return to Order The Acting Chair directed the Council to return to the order of business.
of Business:
COMMUNI- The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
CATIONS: Communications.
(There were none.)
ORDER OF The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions.
(Note: Items in this category were taken up previously, out of order.)
Res. 403-19: AUTHORIZES THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN
AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII, PURSUANT TO HAWAII
REVISED STATUTES 46-7, FOR A GRANT TO THE POLICE
DEPARTMENT
Accepts funds of$10 million from the State of Hawaii to reimburse the County
for overtime costs, supplies, equipment, and other expenses incurred by the
department in response to the protest activities related to the construction of the
Thirty Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea.
Reference: Comm. 605
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-88
(Note: Comm. 605.6, from Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder dated
December 18, 2019, transmitting an infographic of 2019 Traffic Fatalities for
Hawaii Island, was circulated.)
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 403-19 and Finance
Committee Report No. 88. Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Before we begin our discussion, Council Members, I
have a note that Chief Ferreira is in Hilo—Police Chief—as well as Deputy
Finance Director Steve Hunt for questions. Would you like them to come up?
MS. DAVID: Yes, please. I believe if we're going to start, then I'll yield to
Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder's questions and then I'll speak after.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay.
MS. DAVID: Okay. Mahalo.
(Note: At this time, Police Chief Paul Ferreira and Finance Deputy
Director Steven Hunt came forward to address the members of the
Council.)
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I see Mr. Hunt at the table. So, Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Aloha and then I want to
say mahalo to everyone who came today and provided testimony, much of which
was very compelling and some things they didn't know and things that I could put
together. So, thank you for being here. I appreciate that.
So, we got our agreement. We have the MOA in front of us that accepts
$10 million in State taxpayer money in the form of a State grant via a County
resolution, as required by (Hawai`i Revised Statutes) Section 46-7. There are and
were some serious concerns regarding the administrative procedure leading to the
creation of this MOA.
I hold firm on my belief that although we have been giving them away, the true
intent of Section 46-7 is to provide the Council and, therefore, the public input
prior to commencement of any project and/or agreement to be reached between
Federal, State, and County agencies. And just being aware of the impeachment
process, I was reading the Washington Post. The motto of the Washington Post is
"Democracy Dies in Darkness."
I do not agree with the MOA for a few reasons, and I need help understanding the
MOA. So, I don't know how we want to proceed,if it's Police, Corp. Counsel,
but I'm just going to start asking questions and whoever feels like answering can
answer. The first question is who created the document?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Would you like to have Corp. Counsel?
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, if Corp. Counsel would like to answer
or Chief or
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Kamelamela?
MR. FERREIRA: This is Paul Ferreira. I'm answering from Hilo. I'm Police
Chief Paul Ferreira. The document, I believe, was created by Corporation
Counsel and the Department of the Attorney General.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Do you believe or it was?
MR. FERREIRA: It was authored by them, both entities.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It was authored by
MR. FERREIRA: The Department of the Attorney General and the County's
Corporation Counsel.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Joe, do you agree?
(Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Joseph Kamelamela came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. KAMELAMELA: Good morning, Chair and members of the County
Council. Before I answer "yes," there is some background to this because I kind
of recall that on August 20'h there was a meeting with the Council. At the
meeting, we got a letter from Governor Ige. Governor Ige had indicated that he
intends to reimburse the police for overtime costs and also associated costs related
to the work that the police was doing up on the mountain, and some of those
associated costs related to equipment, meals, and whatever was going to be
claimed by the police.
As a result of that letter, I do recall a discussion by at least one member of the
Council, you know, try to see if could cover more than just the police. And so,
our office had made one attempt with the AG's (Attorney General's), you know,
to see if we can include other costs, but I couldn't because the intent at that time
as far as I recall since July was to only cover costs related to the police. So, that
took some time. So, we were working in tandem with the AG's to formalize the
agreement. So, that's how the document was created.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Why did you bring that up?
MR. KAMELAMELA: What was that?
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Why did you bring up the Governor Ige
letter?
MR. KAMELAMELA: Well, because that's the basis of this reimbursement
agreement. It's to immortalize what the Governor intended. And so, the
Governor has the money that was allocated to him to cover certain costs. And
also, the AG has money that has already been allocated through the Legislature.
So, based on what I know as to what the agreement is supposed to be back on
August 20th and then knowing that, as the executive branch to the State, they had
different pots of money to deal with. And so, that's how we worked in finalizing
the agreement.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. In testimony earlier, there
was a consensus that the material term was missing, the date. Why is the date
missing at the top of the agreement?
MR. KAMELAMELA: Well, sometimes it's the last person that signs that should
put the date. If you look at the agreement, the last signature is Clare Connors',
and it's dated. I think it's dated November I" of this year. So, knowing that date,
that would be the effective date of this agreement.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How come it wasn't filled in on the top?
MR. KAMELAMELA: You'd have to talk to the AG's because usually the way
that we work contracts, if the County is the last party to the contract, I would date
it. I would put the date. In this situation, if you look at the MOA, the last
signature is Clare Connors', who is the AG for the State of Hawaii. And you can
see next to it the date that she signed. And I believe it's November 1st of this
year.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You're correct. Deanna signed it
October 28th. The AG's office signed it November I". But Harry Kim
Ken Bugado signing for Paul Ferreira, and then Deanna Sako, sorry,
Renee Schoen, your Deputy, they signed but they were not dated. I was
wondering why their names didn't have a date following there. And I also
wondered why Ken Bugado signed for Paul Ferreira.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Although the Chief can speak on his behalf, if for some
reason the Chief's not there because sometimes the Chief is not at the office
then the Deputy would assume the duties and responsibilities of the Chief. So,
I'm assuming in this case that at the time the contract got to Deputy
Chief Bugado, the Chief must not have been present in the office when the
Memorandum of Agreement came in.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And as far as the dates for
Harry Kim and everyone else who signed the agreement not being there?
MR. KAMELAMELA: Yeah, it's not necessary to have it on that contract, but
there isif you want to know the dates of when they signed it, I could look at
that. But they all signed before November I". And generally, how it works is
that before the Mayor signs, we need the Police Department to sign, we need
Finance to sign, to certify that there are funds available. And once we check out
those things and check out some other things, then Renee would sign last in the
line of County officials. So, her signature would have been between Bugado,
well, after. So, from what I recall, it was October 28�h that the Deputy Chief
signed.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. It would have been good if they had
put the date next to their names, too, I believe. That would have been nice.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Yeah, we have a record as to the dates, but usually when
people ask for the agreement, we do not attach what's called a routing form. I'm
not too sure if people are familiar with that, but there's a routing form so that we
know, like, what needs to be checked out is checked out.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'd be interested to see that again.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Okay.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: You can send it to my email. So, really, this
was signed and done November I", so it really brings me right back to
November I"we had a signed, finalized agreement. And December 5�h, 4�h, it
cameoh, the 3rd, it came before the Council. Just following up on 46-7 and how
I believe I'm reading 46-7. So, as far as the MOA, if we were to adjust the MOA
or the resolution, let's say I amended the resolution today, how would that affect
the MOA?
MR. KAMELAMELA: Yeah, I am not too sure if it will impact it because if
you're recommending something that I would need to talk to, like, the Chief and
the Mayor
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: If we were to limit receiving expenditures to
what's been incurred to date and nothing further, but the MOA requires us to go
into an agreement with the State for five years, what would happen?
MR. HUNT: Steve Hunt, Deputy Director of Finance. So, if you're looking at
amending the limit of the funds—because really, what you're not doing is
appropriating and putting the entire 10 million. It's not a check we're receiving
for that amount. It's essentially a line of credit, if you will. It gives us a spending
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
ceiling that we can't exceed 10 million. But the reimbursements are submitted as
they're incurred. So, if you were to put a spending limit on that at the current
expenditures, that means for any future expenditures, essentially we're at risk of
absorbing internally, which may require coming back for budget amendments or
drawing down on General funds if the Chief cannot meet his budget.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: The MOA requires us to go into a joint
operation with the State for five years. So, if we were to limit that to what's been
incurred to date, we would not be entering into an agreement for five years. So,
would the MOA need to be adjusted?
MR. HUNT: I would defer to Corp. Counsel on the legal terms, but my layman's
opinion would be that if you're just removing the funding but everything else
remains intact in the agreement, then essentially we're still cooperating in the
joint effort but we're bearing the cost of doing it without reimbursement.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Anyway, so, I'm not sure if you need some background
information here, but this is a law enforcement operation. Usually whenever
there's joint operations, there are decisions that are made on the operational level.
And in a situation like this, five years was selected because we don't know what's
going to happen. And part of my hesitation is this, it's that people talk about
transparency and being open, but sometimes police would have to operate in a
certain way because if people start knowing what's happening, then the operation
being successful is lessened.
I mean, I understand there are other issues that's kind of involved, but I'm just
speaking strictly about the operational level. Five years seem to be something
that's reasonable because I don't know what's going to happen. The TMT (Thirty
Meter Telescope) might leave; I have no idea. But if the Governor decides to
move forward, I don't want to know what the plan is because I don't want to be
the person to leak as to when certain kinds of things are going to happen. So, at
least by giving these five years, you have this leeway.
I also want to add, too, since there were some discussions on the cost being
incurred. As soon as the Memorandum of Agreement was signed November I", I
understand that the County got a check for over $3 million on November 6�h.
When you look at the invoice, from what I recall, it was everything that had
occurred in July, because I did hear some testimony about some of the costs being
related, for example, due to a step up on the traffic enforcement. But the traffic
enforcement step up didn't occur, from what I believe, August 15'h. So, most of
the cost that had been already incurred happened prior to the step up in the traffic
enforcement.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: How were we reimbursed if we haven't
agreed to an agreement?
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MR. KAMELAMELA: Okay, so, what is your, no, it's like a grant. The
Governor's saying, "Here, I have money. I can give you this money because I
understand that the County doesn't have money in this situation. It's almost like
the Governor giving grants to the County in other types of situations, and we had
seen some of that when we had the lava eruption. That's about the closest that I
can see that the Governor has money. He has different pots.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Maybe I may have misstated my question.
If we're getting 10 million via a grant but requiring the County Council's consent
to the agreement for the resolution, how did we receive three-something million
dollars before this agreement without a 46-7 approval agreement?
MR. KAMELAMELA: Right now, we have a valid contract. It's up to the
Council as to whether the Council wants to void it. I mean, if the Council decides
to void it, then we return the money back. But right now, we had the AG sign off
on the contract too. And maybe there's some confusion as to who actually signs
the contracts because I heard some testimony about the Council not signing the
contract. In this situation, it's not the Council that signs off on the contract. You
don't see anywhere in the Memorandum of Agreement itself for a Council
approval. So, it can be complicated at times on how a government operates, but
given the situation that this whole County has faced, which is very difficult for all
of us.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I'm going to touch on something
different. Section 10-11 of our Code [sic] requires us to have a resolution for a
multi-year contract. The MOA is requesting for us to go into a five-year contract
for expenditure of funds.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Oh, yeah, that's a good question.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But the resolution in front of us doesn't talk
about a multi-year contract. I'm just wondering why 10-11 does not apply.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Yeah, because this isn't a multi-year contract. Usually
when this Council handles a multi-year contract, it's us spending money for a
particular, you know, whether it's projects, equipment. We see that, like, in a lot
of the lease agreements that we have. So, this is the County spending money.
This, as Mike Matsukawa had stated earlier, is kind of like a grant. The State,
through the Governor and eventually through the AG's, they said they're going to
give us money because this is a joint operation. Here it is. So, we're thinking it's
a good thing.
And to me, the question as to whether things are legal or not, that's not the issue
right now because I heard the retired lieutenant saying that things are unlawful.
People have different opinions as to whether things are unlawful or not, but I
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
really see nothing illegal as to what the police has been doing. They've been
doing what I believe is their duty, and yes, people will disagree with that. And I
heard a lot of heartfelt testimony on that. But I'm not here to really touch on
those things. I'm just saying we have this Memorandum of Agreement. It's
legal. The Council can decide what they want to do with it. If they don't want it,
then the agreement becomes void. We return close to $4 million back to the
AG's.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So, we don't need 10-11. It doesn't
apply.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Sorry for that long explanation.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: It's okay, Joe. It states in the document,
under Section 4, that the County is to remain responsible for justifying the cost of
the overtime police salaries and the accompanying staff shortages resulting from
the deployment of officers on Mauna Kea. Can you explain to me, or actually
maybe the Chief should explain this, "justifying." Because right now, there's a
very strong sense that what we're doing is not justifiable, and I'd have to agree
with that.
MR. KAMELAMELA: I'll let the Chief speak, but I do have a comment on it
too.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you.
MR. FERREIRA: Again, Police Chief Paul Ferreira speaking from Hilo. Council
Member, I'm looking at Item 3b, is what you're referring to?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: On page 13b on page 1 of the MOA, bottom.
MR. FERREIRA: Is that what you referred to?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes, 3b.
MR. FERREIRA: What that reads to me as I need to justify is to show
documentation that we have timesheets, salaries and wages that were expended by
us to have the officers up on the mountain. As far as justifying the existence of
the officers up on the mountain, it is our role as the law enforcement agency for
the County of Hawaii to be up there.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Well, it's more we're justifying the cost of
the officers assigned to respond to the TMT protest and for officers compensating
the staffing shortage. So, I take that to mean we're justifying the cost. It's up to
us to explain why we have officers up there.
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MR. FERREIRA: It's justifying the cost that we expended this amount of money
to have the officers staged at Mauna Kea access road and on the Daniel K. Inouye
Highway. And also if there are any expenditures on overtime of having officers
in the field assume regular duties in addition to their own to maintain the services
that we have down below.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: The background section of the agreement
offers that the purpose of this agreement itself is to ensure the safety and welfare
of the public. Can I have a little bit more latitude,please?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Go ahead.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So, 8,000-plus citations were given on ten
miles of the DK(Daniel K.) Highway in four months. If each citation was $100,
it's about $800,000. Those citation amounts go to the State judicial system. My
question is, what public safety concern exists to justify this manner of
enforcement? And please help me to understand how someone speeding by the
State park can be linked to what you consider protest activities.
MR. FERREIRA: I don't look at it as considered protest activities. That's why
it's not directly related to the protest. The officers that are up on the mountain are
providing security in support of the State law enforcement agencies that are there.
While they're there, they're doing traffic enforcement on the entire Daniel K.
Inouye Highway.
I know it was brought up during earlier testimony that (inaudible) or some
different descriptive that 8,000 citations would be issued on Saddle Road. What's
really appalling to me, or what's really disturbing to me is that we continue to
issue that many citations on Saddle Road, especially for speeding. What's even
more concerning is that we have 22 DUI (Driving Under the Influence) arrests
that occurred on Daniel K. Inouye Highway that would not have occurred had the
officers not been out there.
I know there was reference made to traffic fatalities that have occurred across the
island. Right now, we have a 22 percent decrease in traffic fatalities as compared
to last year. Now, had we not been up on the mountain enforcing those traffic
violations, I'm guessing, okay, if I can say that because we're not down here, we
have the fatalities, it's okay because we're up there, we didn't have fatalities on
Mauna Kea access road or on Saddle Road.
Again, yes, it is appalling that 8,000 citations were issued, but the real question
that I would have is why do we continue to issue that many citations? Why is it
still happening? We have publicized this up one side and down the other in the
media, telling people that we're up there enforcing. I get calls constantly telling
me thank you, as many calls as I get opposing my presence up there.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MR. KAMELAMELA: May I add certain other things?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes, Joe.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Because I want to address everything that you're asking.
In relation to your question, usually when we look at the terms of the MOA here
and it talks about justification, it's just that the police has to keep records to
ensure that whatever work they're doing is related to the activity involving the
TMT up there. And then, that's all that they're going to ask for. And so, I heard
the Chief just say that the step-up enforcement is not part of the cost here.
Another point that I wanted to make, and actually two more points to make. The
reason why the police is there—and we actually have court hearings on this where
we had someone sue the County, saying that our police shouldn't be up there. We
went to the circuit court; the circuit court ruled in favor of us. The reason for that
is that the Chief, under HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes) 52D, can request for help
in matters such as this dealing with potential issues, which we are seeing now.
And this is basically a protest. And it's a protest that's blocking a road that
prohibits the public to freely access, because I see it. I hear about it. I have
friends there. And so, it's under 52D.
And then, there's another section that the court's decision kind of relied on where,
in another section of the statute, it says that when DLNR (Department of Land
and Natural Resources) needs help, they can ask our police to come up, and that's
why they're up there too, because they're asked for help. And yes, there is
justification for the police being up there. The relation to the traffic situation, the
Mayor had a big concern of so many people crossing the road. It's a danger. So,
what does he do? He has lights put up there;put signs up so people can slow
down. And when he had enough money, he had people helping with pedestrian
control.
There is a need today for the police to help with the traffic situation because
people are on the Saddle Pu`u Huluhulu area, and people are going to be crossing.
And that's why the State left the traffic signals up there. That's why things are
left there to let people know to slow down, to keep people safe. I haven't heard of
anybody getting struck by any car crossing the road because the police, the Mayor
had been helping out. I don't know, but nobody died crossing the road. So, there
is a traffic concern because you know what the speed limit is up there? Sixty
miles an hour. Does it get changed at the intersection? No, because I saw the
sign. It says 60 miles an hour. So, traffic had to be slowed down.
And right now, I don't know who's doing it, whether it's the State or the County,
but you've got all those barriers up there to ensure the safety of the Ka Lahui.
They're up there. And had our police officers had used any excessive force
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
against the Ka Lahui? No. I haven't seen it. I haven't heard it. So, I don't know.
Maybe there has been, but nobody told me about it. So, there is justification for
the police being up there.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm going to respond to you, Joe, and then
I'm going to yield. I was there July 13'h, 14'h, 15'h, before there ever was even a
traffic signal there. I believe the Mayor is paying for the traffic signal currently,
and that is a cost that we are not being reimbursed for. Furthermore, the crossing
guards across the highway. There was never any police or State traffic guards
presented until months after it began. My question was, how are we justifying
police pulling people over for speeding by the State park as a response to what
we're calling protest activities on Mauna Kea access road? And I didn't hear an
answer as to how we're justifying that.
You want to put a police officer by Mauna Kea access road? If that is our M.O.
(Modus Operandi), okay. But when I drove over this morning, the only officers I
saw who were currently pulling someone over was in front of the State park.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Yeah, I wasn't addressing that. I just was addressing the
intersection at Mauna Kea. As far as the police, I've seen them where you said,
but that's an operational matter that II think if the Chief was to address that
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think the Chief should address that, I'm
hearing.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Yup.
MR. FERREIRA: Again, the presence of police up on Mauna Kea, up on
Daniel K. Inouye Highway has everything to do with the protest. We had
complaints of safety. Corporation Counsel Joe Kamelamela had brought up the
issue about traveling across the road. So, our presence as far as traffic
enforcement, how does it relate to the protest, the protest has caused an increased
volume of traffic to be traveling on Daniel K. Inouye Highway, to include
pedestrian traffic that has been going on at the access road at the Mauna Kea State
park.
Now, the officers are there at the Mauna Kea State park enforcing the 45-speed-
limit zone that is posted. You have vehicles that come and go from the
Mauna Kea access park that head to the protest site or going into the other
direction. We have no idea who is in that area. All of it is related to the TMT
protest because of the increased volume of traffic both pedestrian and vehicular
traffic—up in that area.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I drove this morning, and there were no
officers by Mauna Kea access road where the so-called protest is centered. But
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
two officers pulled somebody over in front of me as I passed the State park. And
you're telling me that is directly related to the kia`i at Pu`u Huluhulu, and I do not
see a justification.
MR. FERREIRA: We have no officers sitting directly at Pu`u Huluhulu because
we are not targeting protestors. We are not targeting supporters of the protestors.
We are just maintaining the traffic control on the entire Daniel K. Inouye
Highway.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. I'm going to yield for
right now; I have more questions.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Ms. Poindexter, I think you're next.
MS. POINDEXTER: We're talking about complaints and the traffic on that
Daniel Inouye Highway. I mean, we have had for years complaints about the
Queen Ka`ahumanu, we refer to it as Queen K Highway. And I got this map that
Matt printed out about the deaths before and after. But the before-deaths on
Queen K Highway is, I don't know if there's any record, but I'm guessing it is,
like, unbelievably high. And to let you know, my son died on that road too.
So, when we talk about the lack of enforcement on a highway that has taken so
many lives, that's Queen K—and still. And it's because of a lot of our employees
working at all of the hotels, going back and forth. That's a dangerous highway,
but you don't see the law enforcement that the amount of priority that has been
put on the Dan Inouye Highway to be put on another highway that has taken, I
would say, over a hundred livesI don't know what it is; I can look it up. I know
it must be very high.
So, to say that we need to be on the Dan Inouye Highway because of complaints,
with no disrespect to our Police Chief, that is a lame excuse of why we're on a
mountain that has a peaceful protection of our, they want to say "protest,"but it's
the protectors being there to protect our sacred mountain. And if we want to talk
about 10 million, then maybe some of the 10 million should be—you know, I
heard somebody testify about the cesspools. Go clean up the mountain with that
extra money if the State is concerned and want to be fair and say they care about
the mountain as well.
I've got to apologize to Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. I have a
regret from our last discussion, that I didn't vote"no"with you, because you were
exactly on point on what was happening. And for me to vote "yes" is like saying,
"I'm going to agree to up to five years of more harassment on the mountain."
And I want to thank Mr. Perez who came up and called me out on that "yes"vote,
you know, shame on me, that's right, for not thinking. Actually, when I voted
"yes" after, shortly thereafter I turned to Rebecca and went "Shucks, I should
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
have voted 'no."' And when we had testifiers come up and talk about this is
immoral, unethicalI think that was Becky that said that too—that's true. I feel
that. And I should know better.
Aunty Noe Noe Wong-Wilson said accepting the money is unconscionable and an
immoral action, and we need to take a bold step. And I heard that word "bold." I
remember Senator Lorraine Inouye calling us out and saying we need to be bold.
So, I'm going to take her up on that because I want to be bold now. And I want to
side to protect our mountain. It's not for sale. And shame on us if we agree to
continue to give money to encourage our law enforcement to be up there
concentrating their efforts when it needs to be concentrated on areas where people
are getting killed.
And you know when you talk about that intersection, it is the safest. I went up
there. It's a massive amount of people. But you know what? They're so in
control in making sure that people don't act out, people respect the law. I mean,
it's so well organized up there. Sometimes, I just want to go stay up there
because then you kind of feel safe, yeah. I mean, I'm serious. I mean, I went up
there, and I felt safe. It was like the safest place on earth, and yet we're sending
the police officers up there. So, with no disrespect to you, too, Joe, I don't
believe we should be up there. We're wasting our time and our money.
And the money that we're getting, that 10 million, is our money that we gave.
Now we're asking for it back. That's why I voted"yes" for it the last time
because I wanted the money back in our pockets. So, the State cannot say, "Hey,
I want to give you a grant." That's a grant that each and every one of you had
paid. It came out of our pockets. So, they're not giving us a gift. We gave it to
them already. And so, shame on us. Shame on us for developing this division on
our own island, Hawaii County. You think the Governor cares? It's not
happening on his island. Right? We're getting the division on this island.
So, right now, Matt, unless you put an amendment in, because I would support
your amendment to take the money that we already spent and took from our
people and give it back to our people. If you want to continue the Administration
and that MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) [sic], go get the money, the
5 million. Aunty Noe Noe said, "Hey, go build them their cultural center right
where they stay; right on their land, right on their area. Give the money to them."
They can teach the rest of this island or the rest of the State and the rest of the
world what peace is all about. I yield at this time.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. I'm actually glad I'm following Val because
the last time I followed Val, we talked about rocks in hard places. I like rocks in
hard places because people dig in and they get smart. And I'm going to take all of
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
that passion off the table. For me, Joe, it's always been about the process. And
for the last three years, I have said right here, "Good information helps us make
good decisions." But what challenge I have is we have a resolution and a bill that
shows up in Committee. We pass those out. The resolution only requires one
reading, but the bill requires two. And that process, that wonky process is what
the rest of our constituency is not trusting.
So, when Ms. Poindexter—and I picked up on it—Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, so
what if we amend? Right? Amend the resolution to reflect more of the
sentiments that the community is expressing. Because if the Governor said he's
going to reimburse us, even if we drop this right now, he gave us his word. He
will figure out a way to give, and like Val said, it's our money. It's the taxpayers
money.
And so, I'd rather try and find a way to amend the resolution, and I'll look over
here at the rest of my colleagues because we did it with the lava money. I think I
encouraged Ms. Kierkiewicz and Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder to amend the bill and
direct the Administration on how to spend the money, which is what
Ms. Poindexter touched upon right now talking to Aunty Noe Noe. Pay our bills,
but with whatever is left, make it work for the people.
But if we're not going to entertain a motion to either postpone this resolution and
amend Bill 115 with some type of exhibit, then I'd just rather end this
conversation. The process is wonky. It doesn't match, Joe; the resolution passes
today while the bill continues on. So, if we vote "no" on the resolution, it doesn't
have the tandem part. The bill doesn't have the tandem part, and we're done.
But if this Administration wants to work hard and listen to the sentiments of the
people and work with the members on the Council on a way to get the bills paid,
I'm open. And I'd actually like to try and move the rest of my colleagues in that
direction. If not, let's just move on with business, process is wonky, and maybe
we've got to even go back and write policy, amend our rules, amend our policies,
amend HRS so that the policy—and I say this all the time: There's a bright line
of expectation so that when people come and testify about what's before them,
they understand what the next steps are.
So, I'm going to leave it there and yield, but maybe just putting it out there
there are some options. And if that is an option, it's amend the resolution or
postpone the resolution to further amend the bill. And keep those things together
because once we separate them, we're going to be down an even more wonky
path. I yield.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Anyway, I understand where you're coming from. And
then just to dial it back just a little, I know that in the prior meeting, Deanna said
it was a holdover. And when you said that there's other options, of course there's
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
other options. Rather than making it 10 million,just make it to what Council
Member Poindexter said;just make it up to the amount that we spent already. So,
that's an option. That's an option out there.
Of course there's other options, but I don't like those other options because one
option is to defer, the other option is to do nothing. I don't like any of that
because I would rather have the money that we spent now. And like I said, I
don't know what's going to happen in the next two to four years. Nothing might
happen, too, but at least we'd get what we spent back. So, there are options.
Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David, I think you wanted to be next.
MS. DAVID: Mahalo, Chair. I really want to thank everyone that came today for
your heartfelt testimony and your valid concerns, because I need to express the
same sentiments of Ms. Poindexter. At Committee level, we had no agreement.
We had just a promise that we would get one, a copy of it. We were told it was
signed already, and then therein lies my biggest problem.
I look at this resolution and it's saying the resolution is authorizing the Mayor to
enter into that agreement. We did not authorize him at all. That's where my
problem becomes a real concern, is because while we're talking about how to fix
this, no, to me the underlying issue is how we got here. And how we got here is
not pono in my mind. And we are doing things after the fact. And I have to kind
of think that, are we covering something? Or is this something we're going to set
a precedence for, that government, as long as the reasons seem okay or there's an
urgency, that we ignore our laws and our process?
And so, while I'm listening to everybody's concerns, for me, I think, we got the
money already. I agree; the bill should be for what we already received. This
other stuff can go anywhere. Ten million dollars is a lot of money. My second
issue is the term of this agreement, Joe. It's open-ended. Five years? I'm
assuming that within this five-year period, that maybe the State will need our
County police officers to assist them in the construction convoy or the security
that will be required if they proceed with construction. So, we are going to be
held to a five-year term that I've never seen before.
So, while you call this a grant in some instances, and then in some instances you
call it an agreement, what is it? So, I think it's a grant. And as we do nonprofit
grants here on this body, we give you an amount, you give us receipts, and we pay
you. So, this agreement, to me, has no meaning except to, as you say, confirm
that the State will pay us back. And so, I think this says a grant. I mean, that's all
it is; it's a grant. So, this agreement that we're authorizing the Mayor to enter into
I think is mute. It's null and void because—that's in my mind—because we're
not authorizing him to do anything. He's done it already.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
And so, the main issue right now, in my mind, is this bill, and the bill and the
amount of money that came in. So, we got 5 million. And if we're at risk of not
receiving anymore, you mentioned the letter that the Governor wrote. He said
that he would—he's agreeing to pay us back for expenses, right? So, there's the
promise from the State via the Governor's letter in August that he's going to pay
us back.
And I really see the Police Department's position and I understand and thank
Deanna for explaining that whole process. If we do not do this and we do it just
for the amount that we received, it will take the Police Department a longer period
of time to get reimbursed because it has to go through Council approval. And that
might, not might, will affect their budget.
But to me, if we revise this resolution, it just doesn't sit well because we're doing
something that we're supposed to approve first. And maybe it doesn't mean
anything to anybody, but it certainly means something to me as far as we can just
do it. My time's up, but anyway for now, I'll yield. But that's my position, and
I'll yield to my other Council Members.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Let me check Hilo. Ms. Kierkiewicz or Mr. Chung, I
can't really see if you wanted to speak.
MR. CHUNG: Madam Chairman?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Go ahead.
MR. CHUNG: This is a long conversation. In some regards, I think we're getting
discombobulated on the matter. At the risk of further discombobulating the
situation, I'm going to weigh in on this one. With all due respect to
Ms. Poindexter, I don't know if it was by design or just by omission, but she
failed to say that I voted against this thing too, not just Matt, at the Committee
level. It was a 7-2 vote. Of course, my reasons were much different from Matt's.
And I never stated those reasons when we were discussing the matter, and the
reason for that was I really thought—it was really out of respect to Matt who was
doing all the heavy lifting in questioning Joe and others. I just voted my
conscience, and I went on my way.
But much to my chagrin or maybe disappointment or surprise, I was approached
by Star Advertiser Reporter Kevin Dayton, who is a long-time friend of mine, and
he really wanted something on the record, a quote. So, I gave him my feelings,
and they were different from Matt's. But we both agreeI'm assuming that Matt
will not be changing his vote that this Memorandum of Agreement is not in the
best interest of Hawaii County.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
There's some talk of the operational aspects being implemented by the Police
Department. And Chief Ferreira gave his position; he's just appalled that people
continue to be caught speeding there. And I respect that. But just like the whole
issue regarding the mauna, whether you're for TMT or against it, and protecting
the mountain, when you really look at it, there's really no right or wrong answers.
It really comes down to your perspective. The same thing with the operations; it
comes down to your perspective. I share Matt's perspective. I stated in the two
newspapers here that I view it, with all due respect to our law enforcement people,
it just seems, to me, to be a really high-priced speed trap.
Yesterday, when I was coming back from our Kona meeting, I abided by the
speed limit because I know, right? And sure enough, right by Mauna Kea State
park there were three police cars in that driveway area, and two were stopping
another vehicle. It's almost guaranteed you're going to see somebody stopped
over there whenever you pass that place.
This Memorandum of Agreement is dangerous to me. We always caution
ourselves against entering into things that amount to a blank check. Quite frankly
from what I've seen, this is, from my experience, the mother of all blank checks.
There's nothing in here that talks about 10 million, in the Memorandum of
Agreement, as far as I can tell. It's a short memo (memorandum). I kind of
looked it over. But yet, we keep on talking about the 10 million because I guess
that's what was agendized.
But I agree with one of the speakers here and some of my colleagues who have
talked about, well, it's not too bad if we can just get reimbursed for what we've
already expended up until that point. And I think we have been reimbursed. I
don't know if we've accepted the monies yet. But I think it was
Reverend Fujiyoshi who said, "We'll just accept the money for now and then just
stop the continued operations up on Saddle Road, the Daniel K." And I tend to
agree with that.
My position is I'm very much supportive of the TMT project. But more so, I'm
supportive of the rule of law. And there might be people who disagree with me.
They might say that the law is unjust. As far as I can tell, it is the law. And if I
saw some efforts in trying to open up the road, but not just the TMT people but
others, then I might be more amenable to something like this. I just don't see
anything happening. With that being the case, I have to vote against this. Thank
you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Anybody else has comments?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I have comments.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Ms. Kierkiewicz, go ahead.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. I guess I just want the Administration to stop
treating the Council like a rubberstamp. I feel like all the time we are getting
agreements after the fact and just have to go through the motions of approval.
And so, maybe we're going to have to take a look at some adjustments to the
Code or the Charter. But at the end of the day, it's very clear that the Council and
the community want information. And so, the Administration needs to keep this
in mind, I think, going forward before putting anything in front of us because
we're going to ask for the details. So, save yourselves the trouble, and just
provide us the information.
Something that Ms. Lee Loy said and I agree with that we've said all the time is,
we need information to make fully informed decisions because we have to be
accountable to the public, right? That's who we represent and who we work on
behalf of. And so, if the Administration had put something else before us, such as
getting reimbursed for the 4.5 million, I'd be more comfortable with that. And,
Joe, you said it's legally possible to make that happen. So, I'm hoping that you're
going to work on an amendment to these measures.
But I'm not okay with signing off on the 10 million because, as Chair Chung
pointed out, it is a blank check. No end in sight. No plan for how we move
forward, what the money is going to be used for. And I think five years is too
long to figure that out. It's way too long. Chair Chung and I, we like plans. The
Legislature, they're going to be convening in a month or so. They're going to
want a clear pathway for how we move forward before they put any more money
into this, and I have to agree with that.
We, the Council, we're the guardians of the taxpayer dollars. And so, without a
plan, without an adjustment to the proposed resolution or the ordinance, I'm not
going to be supporting this because, as presented, it's just not the best use of our
public funds. Chair, I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. Kierkiewicz. Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Interesting conversation and I think we're
wrapping a bunch of things together that, in part, need to be wrapped together but
also, in part, need to be separated.
First of all, Joe, I agree with you because I see this as a grant and funding coming
forth. And we accept grants all the time. I don't see it as a contract with the
State. Forward contracting without having details, I completely agree that we do
not do, and mass transit was one of those things that I voted against because that
was an open end and that was a blank check. That was not a good thing to do,
and thankfully, it was pulled back. But I see those two things as very distinctly
different. And I don't disagree that we need reimbursement for what we have
expended because we need the funds.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
One of my big things—it's no secret to the Council—is I like to feed hungry kids,
and this County has a lot of hungry kids. The best numbers I can put together,
one-fifth of our households are in what they call "food crisis," or not knowing if
there's going to be enough food. The data I've been able to collect is somewhere
around 140,000 kids last year had to go through a food issue. And obviously,
there's replication there because we don't have that many kids in our County, but
it highlights the problem. And so, when I look for funding, I'm very mindful of
supporting that.
Up on Mauna Kea, I've never disagreed with the fact that there's concerns there.
It's how we move forward. And going through all of that, I support going
forward with this to get forward. However, Chair Chung brings up an interesting
deal, and I'm all about procedure. I agree with Councilwoman Lee Loy, it's all
about procedure. If we do something that's procedurally inaccurate, I don't think
that's the right thing to do. I don't agree with Councilwoman Lee Loy concerning
creating new legislation to address each individual thing. Sorry, Sue. But I think
we make those decisions on a case by case, but it comes down to procedural.
My mind is I see this as procedurally acceptable going forward. It's a very
interesting conversation coming forward. And I value Chair Chung, as he is an
attorney and he brings that forth. But, Joe, like I said, I agree with you. I see this
as a granting deal. So, I'm on the fence on this. We need the funding.
And one shout-out to the Police Department. Chief Ferreira, you guys have been
doing a good job. You're stuck in a very rock-and-hard-place position;public
safety, while not being overly demonstrative. And for the record, there's been
choke speed traps along the Kona mauka road as I've gone through those. So,
there are other places as well.
This is not an easy situation. We need the reimbursement. We desperately need
that. But I also want this thing to move forward. And status quo is not what we
need to do. So, we have to make a change, and it's going to be a difficult change.
So, with that, I'm going to yield, Chair. Some interesting points have been
brought up on a procedural note, but we do need the reimbursement. So, with
that, I'll yield back to my Council Members.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Ms. Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: I'm baffled. I'm disappointed, and I'm a little bit embarrassed
by the inadequate explanations from our Corp. Counsel. And I continue to be told
in this position not to take things personally. So, I hope, Joe, you won't take that
personally.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Never.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. But it's baffling to me, and yet there have been a
number of decisions made within the Administration and leadership of this
County in the last few months that myself and a lot of constituents find baffling.
The fact that there is no authorization by the Council for the Mayor and the rest of
the members of the Administration to enter into this agreement has me
questioning why. Essentially, I go back to like how a kid would say, "Well, then,
why are they above the law?"
I've only been in office a year, but one of the consistent messages that continues
to be presented is a lack of trust for the Administration and contention between
Council and the Administration. And it's the goal for us to be able to work
together to serve our people. So, it is, once again, disappointing that that trust
continues to get broken and brought into question what the true intentions are, and
where the integrity lies. And that in itself is tragic for the health and well-being
of our County, for our community, for our constituents, and for people in
positions of, some might consider it, perceived authority or power. But it's
supposed to be leadership with courage, with dignity, with integrity, and with
poignant vision for an outcome. I take it to heart. Shame on me.
I was confused in the last round by kind of what was being questioned and how it
was being questioned. I have such gratitude and appreciation and respect for
Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and his leadership and his courage and his
determination to make an issue that was otherwise not necessarily included in the
format of authority of the County Council to bring it into these chambers where
members of our community, where the kia`i and constituents can come and speak
and be heard, and not just by us but by those in authority in the State, the rest of
the nation, and the world. And it is relevant and it is being watched by the rest of
the world, and it is time for the wisdom of our indigenous cultures to be returned
to and revered.
I'm also going to admit that I have a current frustration with the Mayor and the
claims to uphold stringent standards for legal terminology, liability, and
accountability for some other legislation that's been presented when this is so
obviously a failure in that capacity. There are pono ways to communicate, to
connect, to collaborate, and to move forward for a circumstance and a situation
that is so sensitive, that is so precedent setting. It would be even more imperative
to make sure that the is are dotted and the is are crossed in every form of the
process, which a number of members on this body are much more experienced
than I am. But fundamentally from a standpoint of what is pono and what is
leadership and the history of broken trust, I cannot support this. And it is time
that we are bold and we are brave, and we risk on the side of pono. With that, I
yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. Villegas. I think everyone's had a
chance on the first round, but I'm going to go back to Mr. Chung at this time.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MR. CHUNG: Thank you. I just wanted to clarify something, though. And I've
never been an apologist for the Administration; I think most of you know. If
anybody's been a bigger critic of the Administration or at least, you know, trying
to make an effort to balance the power between the Administration and the
Council, it's me. But in this particular situation, I think using the words distrust
and all of those things are probably misguided. And the reason for that is this:
We have done this before, where you have an executed contract and it comes up
to the Council and under the same language. And basically, what we're called
upon to do in those types of situations is to rates the agreement. So, we can vote
against it, and that means the agreement would not be approved.
I really don't know what happened, what gave cause to this thing being signed. I
really have no idea. But I, for one, do not believe that it's something worthy of
distrust towards Mayor Kim or the rest of his Administration inasmuch as it has
been done before.
And then another thing I wanted to point out is one way that this whole funding
arrangement could workI'm not saying that I support this idea—but we don't
need a Memorandum of Agreement, okay. The Police Department could continue
doing what they want to do up there at their peril, however, with the hope that the
State Administration will reimburse them. But that reimbursement, bear in mind,
needs to be approved by the County Council through an appropriation. So, that's
a huge risk, but there is a way. I'm not supportive of that arrangement, but I'm
just saying that there is a way. Okay, thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: I just kind of want to move this along. I think we've heard from
everybody. I think we have options. It's yes, no, amend, postpone, keep
everything together. I want to start having this body talk about what these next
steps look like. We have other items on the agenda. I've heard suggestions about
amending the resolution. I put on the table that if we're going to amend the
resolution, we're going to have to amend the bill. Staff is blowing up my phone
on where they need to be going if we're going to be hearing something. And if
nobody's ready, let's postpone to the next meeting because we will have had time
to have listened to one another, formulate some amendments, and move forward.
That's what I'm asking. I want to try to move this forward. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I'm not sure if that was a motion, or are you just
suggesting that would be the next step? I think I have a couple more people that
may want to speak before that. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. At the last meeting we
had, I did ask for some sort of an amendment. I thought that an amendment could
do well. To revisit this process just to make it very clear what happened: the
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
money was spent; an agreement was reached six weeks ago and signed; signatures
by the Mayor and the Finance, Corporation Counsel, the Chief of Police, and the
Attorney General all signed without our consent. Hopefully, I can revisit that to
explain that the agreement is to be made with the consent of the Council. And if
the consent is, "Here's the resolution. Please sign," I don't think the intent of
46-7 is being followed. However you want to look at that, that is how I feel.
And all of this procedural mess over less than 1 percent of our annual budget, as if
the County will fall apart if we don't get these funds tomorrow. And to hear
today that we've already received $3 million and it's sitting in an account, I go
right back to "Where were we,"which is what I asked from the beginning. Why
does the Council have no power and no say to uphold what our constituents are
asking for? And I asked that since August, and yet we didn't have anything. I
was told again and again, "You have no power." And I didn't find it funny. I
found it very frustrating, except to find that we actually were supposed to be
included from the beginning, which is our job.
And that's why I signed onto this job. I didn't sign onto it because I wanted to
help these kinds of things that we always do continue to happen. I signed on
because I seek integrity in the process, and I appreciate everyone willing to come
up and say, "Yes, we see the process. We want to show our integrity." Except at
the last meeting, we all voted"Yes, proceed. No MOA, we're good to go."
Today, I'm hearing the opposite. And no, Aaron, you did sign. I've learned a lot
from you, Aaron, and I appreciate that you said no to that. And I appreciate
hearing responses from the rest of the Council saying that "We agree we
shouldn't have said yes to the agreement."
Joe, you're appointed by our Mayor. Correct?
MR. KAMELAMELA: Confirmed by the Council.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Confirmed by the Council, appointed by the
Mayor. So, in this case, when I'm asking you for your opinion, your opinion
ultimately lies in making a good decision for your employer. I mean, it has to.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Well, we're looking at the benefit of the County.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: For the benefit of the County but under the
guidance of the Mayor.
MR. KAMELAMELA: That's not always the case.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Not always. And you've given me very
good advice. I've known you for a long time. But your boss is the Mayor.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MR. KAMELAMELA: No, I think of you guys as the boss too. So, when I heard
Sue bring up her points, I thought they were very valid points.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Not to be disrespectful, but when I'm
looking to you for advice, the advice I'm being given is going to be based on what
the Mayor and the Administration is wanting to do.
MR. KAMELAMELA: No. I've seen many situations like this where—it takes
work with the Mayor, Administration, and the Council sometimes, and this is just
one area,just another area that we can work towards a resolution of this issue.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Could you say that again, please? Joe, could you say that
again a little bit louder?
MR. KAMELAMELA: I sort of forgot what I said, and plus I have a cold. So, I
have a cough drop in my mouth right now. Whatever advice we give, whether it's
to the Mayor or the Council, it's the same advice. In some of those advice,
there's options. Now, I've been in a situation with Council where there were six
options, and they're all valid. It's depending on what option Council chooses
because it's within their duties and responsibilities, and the Mayor can pick
another option because that's within his duties and responsibilities.
So, I'm here representing the County. The advice that you ask for, they're the
same. The options have been explained, and I thank Council Member Lee Loy
for that. There are options. But you just shouldn't see me as being hired by the
Mayor because under our Charter, I'm appointed by the Mayor, confirmed by the
Council. And I can only be removed upon agreement by both the Mayor and the
Council.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I don't want to remove you.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Just to get your point that I think I understand where
you're going to, but just because I'm appointed by the Mayor—and I'm very
grateful for that, always grateful—but sometimes there are going to be
disagreements that I've had with prior mayors; I've had disagreements. And there
were prior councils that I had disagreements with. But all of those disagreements
were based on the office analysis of what the law is, and then we'd move forward.
So far, whatever the decision had been made by either the Mayor or the Council, I
think they all have been appropriate decisions that have been made.
So, I'm not too sure why you brought up me being appointed by the Mayor, but I
thought I had that explanation. My duties and responsibilities are to the Mayor,
Council, and the County.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. I cannot agree with the MOA. I
cannot agree to putting our County into this position for five years and saying that
our constituents are to be ruled by something for five years. I don't agree with the
resolution. Procedurally, I don't agree with the resolution, and I can't say yes to
it. I am open to an amendment to take back what we've already spent, but I want
to touch on something that I feel is important. When we all grew up, when we did
something wrong, whatever it may be, there was a consequence. And we all have
our stories on what that consequence and that wrong was and how we learned our
lesson. In this case, taking what we've spent from the State—and yes, it is our
taxpayer dollars coming right back to us in the form of a gift—but we will not and
there will not be a lesson learned from this. And those who feel wronged can feel
better that we didn't enter into the MOA, but we're still not learning anything
from this. We didn't listen. We haven't listened. And only now are we
beginning to speak up.
So, in this conundrum I kind of see us put in, it's do we teach the lesson, which
Ms. Lee Loy is always very apt to say? Is this a teaching moment for the
Administration? Do we say no, and now we are forced to figure out on our own
where to come up with all the money? Or do we say we want to accept what
we've already spent? And in no moment do I ever consider taking more to
consider this for five years. I never did, and I will not.
So, I think that's what this body has to do today, is decide whether we want to
amend or whether we want to just say no to the resolution and the bill. And I'll
tell you that from the beginning, I wanted to say no to this resolution. I want to
teach a lesson. And I'm new, and I'm a freshman. But I was taught from a young
age, if you do something wrong, you tell the truth and you learn your lesson. In
this case, if we say yes to any of this, I feel like the lesson is not learned and we
proceed because this is the way we've always done it and we continue to do this
and will continue to do this. And there's no guarantee that anybody in this room
will be here in five years. There's no guarantee in eight months that any of us
will be here. And not even the Mayor—and his name is the first signature on
there.
MR. KAMELAMELA: We could take out that five years as an amendment. I
don't know. I'm here to listen to what the Council wants to do. I mean, there's
different options.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I don't know how to move forward on this
because we can, one,just vote on the resolution, or we can postpone and go for an
amendment. But I'll tell you that there's not going to be a lesson learned if we
postpone this and say we'll deal with it in two weeks, which will be, what, right
after the new year? One lesson was learned, and that's where I'm at right now.
Can anyone on the Council comment to that in particular?
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Well, I haven't had a chance to comment, if
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: All right, Karen, yes.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, so, yeah, there seems to me that there's options,
and we don't know the proper way forward. But I listened to a lot of people that I
really respect, including Mr. Mike Matsukawa who told us not to take any action.
It seems to me that there's nothing in the—the first problem for me right now is
that the resolution and the MOA don't even match. One is the resolution is a
grant. It then cites a MOA. But in order to make them merge, we have to jump
through a lot of unknowns and we also have to agree to a MOA that gives us a
five-year period. There's nothing in either one that talks about $10 million. So,
that's the bill.
And we have already been reimbursed for outstanding costs that were invoiced.
So, I would say we either don't take action, like was suggested, or we vote "no"
on these two things until they come together as something if we—we may not
even need this.
MR. KAMELAMELA: I think we need something under
ACTING CHR. EOFF: We may need something.
MR. KAMELAMELA: It's just thatI mean, I've seen this happen in the past
where people don't pay attention to HRS. It's not the easiest statute to deal with
at times.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: But there seems to be too many questions right now on
all of our minds to support this.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Yeah, and there's a way forward. So, I'm willing to
work with anybody if you want to propose any kind of amendment.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yeah, but to take something that already is kind of flawed
and then amend it, I don't know how we would do that because it seems like we'd
have to do something to this MOA.
MR. KAMELAMELA: Yeah, so, that can be changed.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: But that wouldn't be us to do. This was done by the
Attorney General and your office. So, until we see something different there, I
don't see how this resolution could ever be really fixed. Okay, that's just my
naive take on it. But from the temperature of the Council, I don't think we're
moving forward today on this resolution. So, I guess it's up to one of my
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
colleagues to decide or to give us an option. If we want to just take a vote, fine.
If we want to postpone, we'd have to discuss that. I guess those are our two
options.
MS. LEE LOY: Chair?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Sorry. I just want to manage expectations because I saw a
communication with people needing to leave in ten minutes. I know you do. Oh,
I'm sorry, Aaron does.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Looks like—did Aaron leave?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, Aaron has left. So,we have eight members present.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Mr. Chung has left, I believe.
MS. LEE LOY: Does anybody else have to go?
MR. RICHARDS: Can I ask a procedural question?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Clerk, the difference between table and
postpone for our measures?
MR. HENRICKS: (Inaudible.)
MR. RICHARDS: Table for the day, postpone to the next meeting? Okay, thank
you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay, I will comment now. I think there's a bunch of
different reasons of why people have angst. And I don't think ignoring that angst
is the appropriate thing to do. Conceptually, it's been proposed by
Councilwoman Lee Loy with an amendment that may fix some of this. And
hearing from Corp. Counsel Joe that we do need some sort of legislative action to
come forth to make this thing work.
Councilwoman Lee Loy has proposed that a postponement to work on some
amendments to see if those might be functional to the Council for accepting what
has been done up to date may be the best option. And so, I want to put that out
there. Councilwoman Lee Loy is the one that initially offered to make the
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
postponement for amendments. So, I just want to put that out. We do need to do
something. Like I said, all of our concerns, they're not all the same concerns. So,
with that, I'm going to yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any other comments?
MR. CHUNG: Madam Chairman?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Oh, Mr. Chung, you're back.
MR. CHUNG: I'm back again, but if we wrap this up real fast then I can stay for
the vote. If not, I've got to split. But if I could weigh in on one thing, I think it
might be better just for the sake of giving information to the public. It looks like
this resolution is going down. And you could gut it, quite frankly, and then add
different language in there just to accept whatever amounts have been brought
forward by the State. But I think the better way to do it is just vote this down and
come up with a new resolution. That's my thought.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Thank you very much for that. I think some of us
over here agree with that. So, let's
MS. LEE LOY: Can go.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Would you like to just take a vote and—or do you want
to discuss?
MS. LEE LOY: Call for the question if that just moves us along, but I just might
comment.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. We have a lot of power right now, Matt. It's with
us. And yes, there has been an incredible amount of missteps. And Chair Chung,
like he said, we could just say no, and everybody hits the reset button with every
other option that was expressed on the dais today and by the community. And if
that provides a lot more transparency to our constituents, let's vote it down, start
again. If that's a teaching moment, that's a teaching moment. If that's the
consequence where we're going to have to wait to get repaid or reimbursed and
the department runs the risk, that's another teaching moment. Those are all rocks
in hard places.
And in the effort to maintain the transparency—because, that is our primary role
on the Council, is the money. It's always been about the money. So, I'm going to
stand in line with Chair Chung and say let's just vote it down, move on, hit the
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
reset button, and come back with legislation that the entire community can weigh
in on, understand the process and then agree or disagree. So, with that, I'm going
to be urging my colleagues to let's just say no, move on, and restart. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any final comments before we do vote? Are
you ready? Go ahead and vote? Okay, there's been a call for the question. I
think we're ready to vote anyway. Would you like to take a—we'd have to vote
on that if you do. So, she's not calling for the question. We're just ready to vote.
Would you like to do a roll call vote? Okay. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll call
vote.
Vote on Res. 403-19: The motion to adopt Res. 403-19 and Finance Committee
Failed Report No. 88 failed by the following roll call vote:
Ayes: None.
Noes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff–9.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Clerk. Council Members, would
you like to take a lunch break or a recess? Okay, we're going to take a lunch
break and resume at, say, two o'clock. Is that enough time? Oh,just one second.
Is there anybody who would like to just keep going and just take a short recess? I
guess we're going to take a lunch break. We'll be back at two o'clock. So, we're
in recess.
Recess: At 1:15 p.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 2:09 p.m.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, I'd like to call our meeting out of recess and
resume with Resolution 420.
Res. 420-19: CREATES TWO NEW TEMPORARY POSITIONS FOR THE HAWAII
COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION
Establishes one Community Service Program Assistant and one Community
Service Worker III position to support the Elderly Activities Division's paratransit
program for seniors.
Reference: Comm. 629
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-89
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 420-19 and Finance
Committee Report No. 89. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Are there any questions or comments?
MR. BROWN: Excuse me, Madam Chair?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yes?
MR. BROWN: I think Kona is still muted. We're not able to hear.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, I'm sorry. We were just about to take a vote on
Resolution 420.
MR. BROWN: Okay, thank you. Council Member Kierkiewicz is just stepping
into the Chamber now.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, perfect. All in favor of Resolution 420, please say
Ic aye.
Vote on Res. 420-19: The motion to adopt Res. 420-19 and Finance Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 89 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
Res. 421-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT
Transfers $12,320 from the Hamakua Police—Other Current Expenses account
and credits to the North Hilo Police—Other Current Expenses account to maintain
operations at the North Hilo Police Station.
Reference: Comm. 630
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-90
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Vote on Res. 421-19: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 421-19 and Finance
(Adopted) Committee Report No. 90. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and
carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
Res. 426-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO GOING
HOME HAWAII TO SUPPORT ITS KONA PUUHONUA WELLNESS
CENTER PROGRAM
Transfers $3,000 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 7); and credits to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Other
Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 647
Intr. by: Ms. Villegas
Vote on Res. 426-19: Ms. Villegas moved to adopt Res. 426-19. Seconded by
(Adopted) Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Res. 427-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO YWCA OF
HAWAII ISLAND FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF EXPENSES RELATED TO
THE 2019 FAMILY VIOLENCE SUMMIT
Transfers $750 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 9); and credits to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Other
Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 648
Intr. by: Mr. Richards
Motion to Approve: Mr. Richards moved to adopt Res. 427-19. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any comments?
MR. RICHARDS: This is self-explanatory. And everyone on the Council knows
this is the kind of thing that I like to support. I ask for your support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. All in favor, say "aye."
Vote on Res. 427-19: The motion to adopt Res. 427-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
Res. 428-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO ALOHA
`ILIO RESCUE TO SUPPORT ITS ONGOING EFFORTS TO SAVE
ANIMALS FROM EUTHANASIA
Transfers $3,500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 5); and credits to the Department of Research and Development,
Business Development account.
Reference: Comm. 649
Intr. by: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Motion to Approve: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to adopt Res. 428-19.
Seconded by Ms. David.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any comments?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I would just look for your continued support
for this. And if you so feel, please feel free to give to Ms. Daylynn. She's
wonderful. She takes a lot of animals off the street and out of the community, and
gets them back into homes where they are actually taken care of. And I didn't
understand that the animals that she takes is out of the Humane Society as well,
and then they actually report that their animals are adopted. So, there's some
doubling up as far as how that's reported, but in the end, we're getting animals
out of the shelter and into homes where they can continue. So, I very much
support her. She's wonderful.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Good work. Thank you. All in favor, say "aye."
Vote on Res. 428-19: The motion to adopt Res. 428-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
Res. 429-19: TRANSFERS/APPROPRIATES AN APPROPRIATION OUT AND FROM A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT AND CREDITS SAME TO A
DESIGNATED FUND ACCOUNT TO PROVIDE A GRANT TO THE FOOD
BASKET, INC., FOR THE BODACIOUS WOMEN OF PAHOA'S HO`OULU
NA KEIKI `O HAWAII BACKPACK PROGRAM
Transfers $2,500 from the Clerk-Council Services —Contingency Relief account
(Council District 4); and credits to the Department of Liquor Control, Public
Programs account.
Reference: Comm. 650
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz
Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 429-19. Seconded
by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any comments?
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I just want to thank Bodacious Women and Food
Basket for stepping up and making sure that our Puna keiki are taken care of over
the holidays. This backpack program is specifically for children who attend
Kua O Ka La School. And I know that my Puna Council counterpart is also going
to be supporting this program through additional funding. And I think we're all in
agreement, as Mr. Tim Richards says, in making sure that we address food and
security, especially among our keiki, where we can. So, looking for support from
my colleagues. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. All in favor, say "aye."
Vote on Res. 429-19: The motion to adopt Res. 429-19 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
BILLS FOR The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
ORDINANCES Bills for Ordinances (First Reading).
(FIRST READING):
Bill 115: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 19-73, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2020
Appropriates revenues in the State Grants —Mauna Kea Costs account
($10 million); and appropriates the same to the Mauna Kea Costs account. Funds
from the State of Hawaii would be used to reimburse the County for overtime
costs, supplies, equipment, and other expenses incurred by the Police Department
in response to the protest activities related to the construction of the Thirty Meter
Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea.
Reference: Comm. 605
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-93
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 115 on first reading and
adopt Finance Committee Report No. 93.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, we don't have a second, and my understand is this
bill will die, Mr. Clerk?
Motion to Approve MR. HENRICKS: Motion fails for lack of a second.
Fails:
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Then, we'll move to Bill 120.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, if I could just ask a clarifying question of the Clerk
or Corporation Counsel regarding Bill 115?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So, because this policy has died, can it still come back to
the Council this term?
MR. HENRICKS: Not in substantially the same form, and the Council ultimately
decides if something is substantially the same as something that failed.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: okay.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: What if it's just the total amount? Mr. Clerk, would that
be ?
MR. HENRICKS: I don't care for hypotheticals. We'll cross bridges when they
make themselves apparent.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. But it's up to the Council to decide?
MR. HENRICKS: That's my understanding. Perhaps with guidance from
Corporation Counsel and others to make that decision in a way that would be
considered somewhat ministerial.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Ms. Kierkiewicz, does that answer?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Does Joe want to weigh in? Is he there?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: He's coming.
(Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Joseph Kamelamela came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. KAMELAMELA: Joseph Kamelamela, Corp. Counsel. Good afternoon,
Council Member Kierkiewicz. The bill cannot come in the same form. So, it
could be changed. Something different could come up.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. And the amount of reimbursement, do you think
that's substantial enough?
MR. KAMELAMELA: You mean, to be different? Yeah.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah. Okay, I just wanted to make sure so we can get
reimbursed. Thank you, Joe.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Okay, now we
will move to Bill 120.
Bill 120: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 19-73, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2020
Appropriates revenues in the Fire Department Private Contributions account
($125,000); and appropriates the same to the Fire Department Private
Contributions account. Funds provided by the West Hawaii Community Health
Center, Inc. would be used for the expansion of the Community Paramedicine
Program.
Reference: Comm. 632
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-94
Vote on Bill 120: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 120 on first reading and
(Approved) adopt Finance Committee Report No. 94. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Bill 120 will go to second reading.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Bill 121: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 19-74, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PUBLIC
IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
JULY 1, 2019 TO JUNE 30, 2020
Adds the Public Works Banyan Drive Roadway Improvements project for
$500,000 to the Capital Budget. Funds for this project shall be provided from
General Obligation Bonds, Capital Projects Fund—Fund Balance and/or Other
Sources. Funds would be used for sidewalks, roadway widening, drainage, and
additional street lighting.
Reference: Comm. 633
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-95
Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire
membership to amend, pursuant to
Section 10-6(e), Hawai`i County Charter
Vote on Bill 121: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 121 on first reading and
(Approved) adopt Finance Committee Report No. 95. Seconded by
Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
ORDER OF The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
THE DAY Order of the Day (Second or Final Reading).
(SECOND OR
FINAL READING):
Page 50
Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Bill 113: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 19-73, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2020
Increases revenues in the Federal Grants —State Homeland Security Program
account ($164,500); and appropriates the same to the State Homeland Security
Program Fiscal Year 2019 account, bringing the total appropriation to $764,500.
Funds would be used to support efforts to prevent,protect and respond to
incidents, threats, and hazards within the context of terrorism.
Reference: Comm. 603
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: December 4, 2019
Vote on Bill 113: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 113 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Bill 113 is adopted.
Bill 114: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 19-73, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2020
Appropriates revenues in the Federal Grants —Local Justice Assistance Grant
(JAG) Program account ($76,444); and appropriates the same to the Local JAG
Program account. Funds would be used by the Police Department to purchase a
shooting simulator for its training program.
Reference: Comm. 604
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: December 4, 2019
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Vote on Bill 114: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 114 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Bill 114 is adopted.
Bill 119: AMENDS CHAPTER 25, ARTICLE 5, DIVISION 10, SECTION 25-5-102 OF
THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED),
RELATING TO PERMITTED USES IN THE"CN" DISTRICT
Addresses a drafting error contained in Ordinance No. 19-100.
Reference: Comm. 627
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz (B/R)
First Reading: December 4, 2019
Vote on Bill 119: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to pass Bill 119 on second and
(Adopted) final reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung— 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 119 is adopted.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Bill 122: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 19-73, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2020
Increases revenues in the Fund Balance from Previous Year account ($32,000);
and appropriates the same to the Transfer to Capital Projects Fund—Park
Dedication account. Funds would be used to stake and adjust an existing
easement of Phase 2 of the Waimea Trails and Greenways Project.
Reference: Comm. 635
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: December 4, 2019
Vote on Bill 122: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 122 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
REPORTS: The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
Reports.
PC-38 NOMINATION OF JUDY SIGRID HOWARD TO THE WATER BOARD
(Comm. 625):
Requires Council
Confirmation by: December 28, 2019 (Section 13-4(1),
Hawaii County Charter)
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
Vote on PC-38: Mr. Richards moved to adopt Planning Committee Report
(Adopted) No. 38. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
PSC-12 NOMINATION OF ANTHONY SUR TO THE POLICE COMMISSION
(Comm. 626):
Requires Council
Confirmation by: December 28, 2019 (Section 13-4(1),
Hawaii County Charter)
Vote on PSC-12: Ms. David moved to adopt Public Safety Committee Report
(Adopted) No. 12. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
Return to Bill 115: MR. HENRICKS: Madam Chair, prior to you calling for a motion for
adjournment, could we take just a quick recess? I just wanted to talk story a little
bit about Ms. Kierkiewicz' question. Before we foreclose any future options,
could we just consult with Corporation Counsel, have a quick discussion before
we adjourn this meeting? It would probably be wise. It's a good question. Maybe
a little more thought would be prudent before we close for the day. Just call a
quick recess, if you don't mind?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Sure.
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Hawaii County Council-28 December 18,2019
MR. HENRICKS: And have people stick around in case we need to do
something.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Council Members, please stick around. We're
going to just take a quick recess.
Recess: At 2:26 p.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 2:30 p.m.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Council Members, I'd like to, once again, ask for a
motion to approve Bill 115 at first reading. After consulting on this matter, it may
be better for us to preserve this bill for future consideration and consider
postponing it at this point. And so, I'd like to, once again, ask for a motion to
approve Bill 115 at first reading.
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 115 on first reading and
adopt Finance Committee Report No. 93. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
Motion to Ms. Poindexter moved to postpone Bill 115 to the call of
Postpone: the Chair. Seconded by Ms. David.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say "aye."
Vote on Motion to The motion to postpone Bill 115 to the call of the Chair
Postpone: was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David, Kierkiewicz,
Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—8.
Noes: Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder— 1.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, very good.
REFERRALS FOR The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
EXECUTIVE Referrals for Executive Session.
SESSION:
(There were none.)
OTHER The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
BUSINESS: Other Business.
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Hawai`i County Council-28 December 18,2019
(There were none.)
ANNOUNCE- The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
MENTS: Announcements.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Now, Council Members—
MS. LEE LOY: Chair?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Just a personal privilege. I just wanted to take the
opportunity to wish each and every one of you folks a very happy holiday season,
and even to those in our Administration. And all of our staff who work incredibly
hard, thank you. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. I would like to also say that to our
viewing audience and to everyone in the County. Have a safe and happy
holidays. Now, could we get a motion to adjourn?
ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 2:32 p.m., Ms. David moved to adjourn the
MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder,Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff–9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. This meeting's adjourned. Thank you,
Council Members.
Council Approval: JAN 2 2 2020
CO
JH/dg
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