HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN COUNCIL 2020-01-22 2018-2020
Hawai‘i County Council
th
30 Session
West Hawai‘i Civic Center
74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Building A
Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i
January 22, 2020
INVOCATION: Senior Pastor Bill Dierking of Kona Coast Baptist Church gave the morning’s
invocation.
CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawai‘i County Council was called to order at
ORDER: 9:12 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 Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder, Member (via videoconference from Hilo)
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
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. David 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:
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Frank Sayre: Res. 468-20 (Comm. 709), in support.
(representing the Daniel R.
Sayre Memorial Foundation)
Laura Mallery-Sayre: Res. 468-20 (Comm. 709), in support.
(representing the Daniel R.
Sayre Memorial Foundation)
Abolghassem Abraham Bill 131 (Comm. 701); and
Sadegh: PSC-14 (Comm. 691), comment.
Gerald Kosaki: Res. 468-20 (Comm. 709), in support.
(representing the Daniel R.
Sayre Memorial Foundation)
Armadeo Markoff: Bill 131 (Comm. 701), in support.
(representing Mainstreet
Pāhoa Association and Lava
Zone Museum)
Smiley Burrows: Bill 131 (Comm. 701), in support.
Wally Gallup: PC-43 (Comm. 689), in support.
Patrick Hurwey: Res. 431-20 (Comm. 657); and
(representing Habitat for Bill 132 (Comm. 704), in support.
Humanity)
Kimi Palacio: Res. 467-20 (Comm. 707), in support.
(representing Going Home
Hawai‘i)
Dwight J. Vicente: Comm. 708;
Res. 431-20 (Comm. 657);
Res. 432-20 (Comm. 658); and
Bill 126 (Comm. 646), comment.
Richard Ha: Bill 131 (Comm. 701), in support.
(representing Big Island
Community Coalition)
Recess: At 9:59 a.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 10:06 a.m.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Garrett Kim: Res. 466-20 (Comm. 705); and
(representing Hawai‘i Fire Res. 468-20 (Comm. 709), in support.
Department)
APPROVAL The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
OF MINUTES: Approval of Minutes.
Vote on Approval of Mr. Richards moved to approve the Minutes of
Minutes: December 18, 2019. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and
(Approved) carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas,
and Acting Chair Eoff – 9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries, and I would like to thank staff for getting
us caught up pretty much with the minutes. Okay, I’m going to go to the top of
the agenda, the nomination of Greg Henkel to the Fire Commission. Mr. Clerk.
COMMUNI-The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
CATIONS: Communications.
Comm. 706: NOMINATION OF GREGORY CHARLES HENKEL TO THE FIRE
COMMISSION
From Mayor Harry Kim, dated January 2, 2020, submitting for the Council’s
review and confirmation the above nomination.
Waived: PSC
Requires Council
Confirmation by: February 15, 2020 (Section 13-4(l),
Hawaiʻi County Charter)
; and
Comm. 706.1: From Public Safety Committee Chairperson Rebecca Villegas, dated January 14,
2020, requesting this matter be waived from the Committee on Public Safety to
the full Council.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Vote on Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to confirm the appointment of
Comm. 706: Gregory Charles Henkel to the Fire Commission.
(Approved) Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the following voice
vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas,
and Acting Chair Eoff – 9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
(Note: Ms. Bautista introduced the nominee. Council
Members Kierkiewicz and Lee Loy thanked Mr. Henkel for his continued
service.)
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I think that would be the end of the process. So
congratulations, Mr. Henkel, and thank you very much. Oh, Mr. Clerk, that
automatically takes care of Communication 706.1? Okay. All right, then, I
wanted to take the nomination of Mr. Mark Van Pernis next, but I think because
the Sayres are here and Garrett has asked to take that out of order, I’ll quickly
jump down to Resolution 466, oh, 468, or both of them. We can do 468 first.
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. 468-20: AUTHORIZES THE ACCEPTANCE OF ALL FUTURE DONATIONS FROM
THE DANIEL R. SAYRE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION TO THE COUNTY OF
HAWAI‘I
Provides authorization in advance of future donations to establish an expeditious
manner of accepting donations of possible life-saving equipment and training.
Reference: Comm. 709
Intr. by: Mr. Chung and Ms. David
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 468-20. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Chung, if you want to chime in, just holler out.
Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Chair Chung, would you like to go first, or will you defer to me
first? Your choice.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MR. CHUNG: Yeah, go ahead.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, and thank you, Chair. Mahalo so much, Daniel and
Laura Sayre, for being here and also Frank and Laura or, I’m sorry, and Mr. Kim.
I cannot really add more to what you folks have said earlier. Oh, you can’t hear
me? Now, you can. Thank you. Okay, I’ll start all over again. I want to mahalo
you folks for being here, and I really want to thank Chair Chung. Because when I
got that call from Laura one evening late—it was raining—I immediately called
Chair Chung. And together, after he investigated what was basically holding our
process up, he came up with this bright idea and asked if we could just jointly
co-sponsor this resolution to effectively speed up the process. I think that’s the
least we can do as a body. Because, what you folks do for our Fire Department
and the community already should not be held up by mere paper pushing.
So, I think this is a great thing, and I’m sorry we didn’t do it sooner. But if it
wasn’t for you, Laura, I guess this wouldn’t have happened. So, hopefully this
will make your job smoother and also the Fire Department’s. I congratulate you
guys and mahalo you guys so much for all you guys do, and I ask my colleagues
to support this resolution. Mahalo.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. David. Mr. Chung,
Chairman Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Oh yeah, just briefly. I wanted to thank Maile too, yeah, for
really expressing how important it was for us to find a better way on this matter.
And together we tried our best, put our heads together and came up with this
format. And it’s too bad that it took 22 years for it to happen. The Sayres have
been so patient over the years.
I just wanted to explain two facets of this, though. There is the last recital that
says, “No provision contained herein shall preclude the Hawai‘i County Council
from approving ceremonial resolutions ratifying the acceptance of donations from
the Sayre Foundation.” Because, there might be, from time to time, a very special
type of donation. I’m just going to make an example; a helicopter, for example,
that we want to do by resolution. So, nothing would preclude us from doing that.
Also, although it’s not stated in here, in the unlikely event that the County does
not or is reluctant to receive a donation, it does not preclude the Council from
moving on its own to accept the donation. I don’t see that happening, really. So,
we’re protected all the way around. When we’re dealing with potentially
lifesaving equipment, I think it’s prudent for us. It’s in the best interest of the
County for us to move as expeditiously as we can.
So I wanted, of course, to thank the Sayres. And, Maile, thank you very much for
all of your work on this. Thank you.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair, and thanks, Maile and Aaron, for coming
up with this way of going forward. I think we all laughed when we said we’re
actually making government more efficient, which is a little bit shocking. The
down side of this is we won’t get to see the Sayres as often. So, I thought if I
could vote against this, maybe we’d force them to come back all the time.
That being said, but to the point that’s something Laura’s said, we have jaws of
life sitting in a warehouse because they haven’t been officially accepted. And
when we got our new firetruck, the Bulldog, in Waimea, we had it over the
weekend. And I was holding my breath because what if we had a range fire? We
accepted it, and I think that thing went out within the next week. And so to the
point, you’re very accurate. So, Chair and Maile, thanks so much for coming up
with this modality.
I remember when I first joined the Council. Now Battalion Chief Bergin said,
“Do you know the Sayres?” And I said, “No.” He said, “You will.” Thanks so
much for what you’ve done for our County and for our community. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other comments? Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Yes, thank you, Chair. Echoing what all of my other colleagues
have said, what really stuck out for me, Laura, was the amount—$5 million worth
of assets—that you’ve infused into this community. I don’t know how to thank
you and Frank enough, really. This is really overwhelming, actually, on how
dedicated you are to not only our community but the families in it. So thank you,
guys, so much. And then, really for Maile and Chair Chung, attaboy, attagirl.
We’re getting efficient. So, thank you. I’ll be supporting this resolution.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Ms. Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha. Thanks for being here and all that you’ve done and
continue to do for our community. You have such gracious and generous hearts
with a perceptivity to identify not only needs but avenues to collaborate with
other organizations to gather resources and to allocate those to our department
that we are all so grateful for. The service of the men and women of the Fire
Department is exemplary in our community. And providing any and all of the
resources necessary for them to keep us safe is vital.
And I look forward to seeing you guys this weekend. Not only do you, through
the Sayre Foundation, support the Fire Department, but you support the
Shane Dorian Keiki Classic and the use of our island and their healthy activities.
And that is also really instrumental. And I know, speaking for District 7, that that
has been deeply and gratefully accepted, appreciated. And this year being the
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
th
25 anniversary of that keiki contest, I look forward to seeing you this weekend
and celebrating your legacy of aloha and generosity, commitment, and
contributions to not only the Big Island but to the children of the west side. So,
thank you so much. Aloha.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. Villegas. Ms. Poindexter.
MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, and I just want to say “ditto” to everything that was
said. And thank you so much for sharing your hearts and your compassion with
the lives of the families that you have touched—real important. So, we know how
big your hearts are and appreciate that you’re here on our island helping us. So,
mahalo.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, anybody else in Hilo?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, if I might?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. First, thank you, Chair Chung and
Council Member David, for putting this together. Great idea. Thank you for
making the process much more efficient so that our firefighters can get the
training and the equipment that they need.
As partner to a firefighter, I’m just incredibly touched that the Sayres are so
committed to our County, to the Fire Department, and to this community. I think
it’s a shining example of a very beautiful public-private partnership. So, thank
you very much for recognizing the various needs and working very hard to get our
incredible firefighters everything they need in order to continue to do the best job
for our County. So, thank you so much.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you.
MR. CHUNG: Karen?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yes?
MR. CHUNG: Can I just say one more thing?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Sure, Mr. Chung. Go ahead.
MR. CHUNG: This relates to what Tim brought up. This is something that Maile
and I were thinking about because we like seeing the Sayres come to the Council
every so often. And that’s why we put in that requirement that the County or the
Finance Department provide us, what was it, that they provide us some kind of
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
notice that the equipment or the donation was received. So, that would be put on
our agenda and then we could again see them and recognize them. We just
wanted to fast track the acceptance, that’s all. But we can still go through the
same process that we’ve been going through. But sometimes that process took
anywhere from a month to two months, and that’s really valuable time when
you’re talking about potentially lifesaving equipment or training. So, we’ll still
see them, Tim. Don’t worry.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Mr. Richards would like to say
something about that.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay. That made me scared, Aaron. I thought you were
going to vote against your own resolution and then that would put me in a
quandary. Thank you. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other comments? One more.
Ms. Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: This last year was my first time to be able to attend the
Sayre Foundation fundraiser, and I just want to commend you, having worked for
years in the events business hosting and participating. That was a phenomenal
event. And the joy, the camaraderie, the humor, and the heartfelt sentiments of
real collaboration between the community and the Fire Department and all the
lifeguards, and just getting everybody together to have an opportunity to really
celebrate together I thought was really powerful. So, thank you so much for your
continued support. It is not easy to throw a party of that capacity, and you guys
continue to do it with class, grace, and style. So, thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Before we vote, I would just like to
add, although there’s not too much more to add, but we really can’t say enough
about the work that the Sayre Foundation has done to provide the Fire Department
with much-needed equipment. And I just wanted to thank Chair Chung and
Ms. David for figuring this out so that we can expedite the acceptance of the
donations. But obviously, we want you to come so that we can thank you for each
and every donation, okay, ceremoniously. So with that, I would like to call for a
vote on Resolution 468. All in favor, please say “aye.”
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Vote on Res. 468-20: The motion to adopt Res. 468-20 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kanealiʻi-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 again. I guess we can just do
466 so that Garrett Kim can go back to work.
Res. 466-20: AUTHORIZES THE ACCEPTANCE OF A DONATION OF TWO BOAT
MOTORS FROM THE KUKIO GOLF AND BEACH CLUB
The donation, valued at $18,000, would be used by the Hawai‘i Fire Department’s
Kailua Station.
Reference: Comm. 705
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Waived: FC
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 466-20. Seconded by
Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion?
MS. DAVID: Chair?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: I would just like to thank Chief Garrett Kim for being here and
your explanation and your thanks to Kukio Golf and Beach Club. I think that was
a great thing for them to do, and it would really help you folks out. So, I just want
to shout out to them that we thank them very much for their donation and for
being here. Mahalo.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any other comments? Seeing none, all in favor please
say “aye.”
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Vote on Res. 466-20: The motion to adopt Res. 466-20 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas,
and Acting Chair Eoff – 9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries. Resolution 466 is adopted. Okay,
Council Members—Ms. Bautista, if you’re ready—I’d like to take another item
out of order, the nomination of Mark Van Pernis to the Leeward Planning
Commission. That’s Planning Commission \[sic\] Report 43, Communication 689.
PC-43 NOMINATION OF MARK VAN PERNIS TO THE LEEWARD PLANNING
(Comm. 689): COMMISSION
Negative
Recommendation: Due to a vote of 2-ayes, 5-noes,
2-absent
Requires Council
Confirmation by: February 2, 2020 (Section 13-4(l),
Hawaiʻi County Charter)
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Planning Committee Report
No. 43. Seconded by Ms. Villegas.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Bautista is here, and I’m going to turn the floor over
to her at this time.
(Note: At this time, Executive Assistants to the Mayor Rose Bautista and
Nancy Pisicchio and nominee Mark Van Pernis came forward to address
the members of the Council.)
MS. BAUTISTA: Good morning again, and thank you very much.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Good morning.
MS. BAUTISTA: Before I go on and have Mr. Van Pernis state whatever he has
to say, I just want to provide some information that gives us some guidance as to
how we go about vetting individuals, what we look at in applicants to have the
person nominated. So, the first thing that I want to do is read to you the purpose
of the Leeward Planning Commission. In it, it states that it is to advise the
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Mayor, the Council, and the Planning Director in all matters concerning planning
and land use matters to review and make recommendations regarding the General
Plan, subdivision and zoning ordinances, and other planning rules and regulations.
It is also to establish planning rules and regulations and to conduct public
hearings within the jurisdiction over here on the west side. So, it is a very serious
responsibility for anyone that we nominate to the commission.
Also, the fact sheet states what kind of qualities we should look for in individuals.
And as people who are respected by the community as being community minded
and oriented, someone able to focus on the community needs as a whole without
catering to special or self-interest.
Currently, we have seven members on the Leeward Planning Commission. We
have one who’s a realtor, one who is a land manager for Kamehameha Schools,
one who’s a union agent, another one’s a general manager for McCandless lands,
an archeologist, and also a retired real estate administrative assistant. So, what we
also do is we make sure that we’re looking for a diversified group of individuals
who come with various experiences and knowledge, and are able to represent
people or express the voices where different portions of the community. They’re
representing people in different parts of the communities.
So, when we vetted or looked at nominating Mark Van Pernis, we had to make
sure that we do everything we can that would fit, that he would fit as a member of
the Leeward Planning Commission. And we vetted him. And as addressed from
the last Committee hearing, there were concerns that he wasn’t vetted properly.
One being that there was a—it was discovered that there was a disciplinary action
brought against him, which we did not see initially, by the Disciplinary Counsel.
So, we looked at that. We ordered the report. We read it. And upon review,
basically what it boils down to in a nutshell was that he was disciplined for
harassment of a commissioner. He received a 90-day suspension. And after that
period of time, he was eventually reinstated again to practice law here in the State
of Hawai‘i.
Ever since then, there hasn’t been any type of discipline. However, if you look at
the records of the disciplinary board, you also will read that he was admonished
three times and that is the reason for, that’s what led to the 90-day suspension.
And what is interestingly enough, when you read that report, is the first
admonishment was actually based on a case complaint. This is a public record.
So, it was a case filed by Dr. Sayre, who happens to be in this room. But what’s
ironic and interesting about that is Dr. Sayre and Mr. Van Pernis eventually
became good friends regardless of that initial adversarial relationship.
And I’d also like to thank Dr. Sayre for sending in his testimony in support of
Mr. Van Pernis. I’m sorry, they left. I was just going to thank them for doing
that. So, that was one. That was the first admonishment, which was about
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
44 years ago. The others were also another admonishment, which the action was
about contacting the opposing party rather than contacting their attorney. So, he
was admonished again on two occasions, which date back 33 years ago and the
other 20 years ago. The latest one in 2003, which was the suspension, is about,
you’re looking at about 17 years ago.
So, we looked at all of that. And despite what might appear as though
something—it is serious because it is a discipline by the Supreme Court—it is
something that we could put aside because it was an action of Mr. Van Pernis in
representing his client. He did it as an attorney. It’s an adversarial type of
profession. And all good attorneys, as we know, will try to represent their client
zealously. That’s what all attorneys are taught in law school—to provide zealous
representation to your clients.
With that being said and then looking at what he’s done in the community—by
the way, you’ve received approximately a dozen letters of support stating what
kind of individual Mr. Van Pernis is, that he’s very knowledgeable, he’s caring
about his community. Mr. Gallup, one of the individuals who testified this
morning, indicated that he represents everyday people, not the big businesses.
The little people. Those who need it. And he’s done that for over 40 years. He
also volunteers with the Kona Court self-help desk where he provides pro bono
assistance to those who can’t provide attorneys going to court.
So, with all of that, we felt that he has the knowledge; he has the skillset. He
understands the laws pertaining to not only real estate but land use laws, contract
laws, a lot of the things that’s required for one who will sit on the Planning
Commission. So, Mayor Kim would like to actually thank Mr. Van Pernis for
continuing to move forward with his nomination because it’s people like him that
we would like to see on the Planning Commission.
So, I just wanted to preface before we have any questions regarding Mr. Van
Pernis to have that information before you. We did everything else we can to find
out about Mr. Van Pernis. And as far as what we’ve gathered, we feel that he is
the best person to be placed on the Planning Commission. At this moment, that’s
all I have to say.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Bautista. You can go ahead.
MS. PISICCHIO: Good morning. My name is Nancy Pisicchio, and I work for
the Mayor’s Office here in Kona. And the reason I’m up here today is Rose took
the liberty of mentioning me a couple of times at the Planning Committee meeting
two weeks ago in relation to this nominee. And the history I have with Mr. Van
Pernis is I’ve known him since 1993. And the reason I got to know him is I had
just moved here in 1992 from Oahu, and my husband and I sat around and ran the
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
farm for a year. And I started looking around, noticing the way land use seemed
to happen on this island, and it was beginning to raise some concerns and
questions in my mind.
And I didn’t know anything. I’d been on a boat. And I said, “Gee, things seem
kind of strange, the way they’re approved around here. I think I’d better start
getting involved in learning more,” but I didn’t even know who to ask at that
point. So, somebody gave me Mark Van Pernis’s name, and they said, “This guy
knows a lot about land use policy in this County. Why don’t you call him?” So,
that’s what I did. I called him, and I received some of his pro bono advice. He
gave me kind of a Hawai‘i County land use 101 overview that was very
informative. And I was pretty intimidated because he is very stern and pragmatic,
but it was also a really good foundation for me to get started on how to follow
through on learning more about what goes on here. And I was really appreciative
of that.
So, he’s partially responsible for my involvement because he kind of got me
started, and I thank you for that. I don’t even know if he remembers that because
I just sort of walked in the door cold. So then in March, he contacted me and he
said that he submitted an application to sit on the Leeward Planning Commission.
I said, “Oh, that’s great.” I said, “You’re the best one. Between your land use
experience and your willingness to volunteer in the community, you’d be
perfect.” So, I called Rose, and I started bugging Rose. I said, “What’s going on
with Mark Van Pernis’s application?” So, she said, “Well, there isn’t a seat
available till after December.”
So, I just kept on it, and that’s how she associated me with this applicant. It’s
because I really do think he would be really well qualified because he does have
such a deep understanding of land use policy in this County. He’s perfect for the
Land Use Commission. And also, he’s an ardent volunteer in this community for
all sorts of things. So, what more could you ask for in someone to sit on the
Leeward Planning Commission? Especially with the General Plan review coming
up and the things that are facing us, he hit the ground running, so to speak. And
in the last three years, he’s been on the Kailua Village Design Commission. And
I think, in your packet, there are two letters of testimony from commissioners that
sat with him in favor of this nomination. So, that’s why I’ve come in, and
Mayor Kim hopes that you’ll support him for the Leeward Planning Commission.
Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Mr. Van Pernis, would you like to say
anything at this time, or we can open it up to discussion from the Council
Members? I don’t think the mic’s on. I don’t think your microphone’s turned on.
Scott, can you—? Put it close to you. Okay, thank you.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MR. VAN PERNIS: Hi. In your packet is my explanation of the disciplinary
matters, and you’ll see that they really don’t at all relate to this particular job I’m
applying for. I think I can compare my work with anyone who was an active
attorney for 40 years. What I’d like to point out is the following: I believe I’m
highly qualified to uphold the General Plan and other current plans where
reasonably possible. I’d be but one commissioner working with all
commissioners to try to reach consensus.
As an attorney over the decades, I and my firm have represented more developers,
land owners, associations, and applicants than community organizations if there is
concern about public involvement. This includes big developments and those I’ve
been personally involved in as a partner of the (inaudible), such as Hualālai
Center and the Alohi Kai Oceanfront Subdivision. Of course, I’ve helped the
little guy too, which you may have heard about, and I’ve used my constitutional
right to express opinions. That may be why you hear about me too. But I want to
point out again that I represent developers or have as much or more than opposing
community associations.
Look at my high rating by Martindale-Hubbell, which was on the exact same
internet page as the adverse information which was referred to in the last hearing.
Why wasn’t that referred to? I have a good record as a commissioner with the
Kailua Village Design Commission. We passed or approved almost all
applications before that commission. Sometimes, they had conditions that the
applicants agreed to. Look up my letters of recommendation from fellow
commissioners. Look at the recommendations from those who have known me
for a long time: Dr. Sayre (see Comm. 689.10), Jeanne Hughes, Joel Cooperson
(see Comm. 689.3), Leonard Jose (see Comm. 689.6). There’s an interview with
Twigg-Smith (see Comm. 689.11) and others. Many of these letters were non
solicited but came out of the blue.
We’ll just listen to and follow the lead of those who know me well and for a long
time, like Maile David, like Karen Eoff—they know my work; they know my
qualifications, all of them—not those who don’t know me. I want to give back to
the community. I want to volunteer and work hard. You can see my experience
and qualifications as a commissioner, not as a partisan attorney. Kona will
benefit. I humbly ask for your approval. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Van Pernis.
MR. VAN PERNIS: I’d be happy to answer any questions.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. And before I open it to the Council Members, I
just want to apologize for not being here during the Committee hearing on this so
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that I could have added to the conversation. But I’m going to open it up now to
Council Members and then let me check Hilo, too, after. Is anyone here in Kona
that would like to speak? Okay, go ahead, Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Thank you, Chair. I’m going to go first because I
raised the issue. And so, my concern and what kept me skeptical about this entire
process, not only for this nominee but any other nominee, is how an applicant is
vetted. And I’m still waiting to hear from the Administration what’s used and, if
there are unfavorable criticisms, what the look-back period is. And that’s why I
said in the meeting I’m all for second chances. And I even acknowledged that
this Office of Disciplinary Counsel complaint was a long time ago. But for any
future applicant, are they looking at something 5 years old, 10 years old, 20 years
old? I still have to wait for the Administration to hear what those parameters are.
Yes, these are important boards and commissions and they do the work of
community, but, Ms. Bautista, I would hate to think that someone who wants to
serve community who may have had an unfavorable blemish on their record is
afraid to apply because we don’t have a bright line of process. Would you mind
sharing? Is it a look-back period of 10 years, 15 years, or is it cherry picked by
the Administration? That’s what I want to know. That’s what keeps me skeptical
because this stuff was not in our background material. And it didn’t take much
for me to find it.
MS. BAUTISTA: Okay. Well, first of all, when I took on this responsibility,
there was no guideline. Basically, whatever was reasonable. So, in response to in
terms of how far do we go back in vetting someone who might have any negative
past records, we’ve established—arbitrarily, Mayor Kim said anything within five
to six years. Okay, if there is anything within five to six years, don’t look at it, or
that’s the ones that we’d look at closely or put aside and just—basically, that’s the
guideline that was arbitrarily selected to determine whether or not we’re going to
consider them or not. It’s about five to six years.
Everything else is, like I said, there was no procedure. I didn’t come in with a
guideline that says, “This is what you need to do.” Like I said, I mentioned to you
what is in the fact sheet that determines the purpose and the qualities of an
individual that we’re going to put on this board and commission. So, we’re
looking for reasonable individuals respected in the community and someone who
is community minded. I read that to you. That’s my guideline that was provided
to me when I took on this responsibility.
But we go a little further than that. There’s things where we consider we will
look at the person’s background. Besides that, we will talk to individuals. I
googled—we google most if not all of the applicants. Okay, this one, like you
said, yes, it came up. But you know what? What I didn’t realize, it came up in
the second page and it’s not something that I caught when I stopped at the first
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
page googling. But I knew enough or heard about Mr. Van Pernis to know he was
someone who was respected in the community. I don’t know him personally.
I’ve heard of him, positive, especially as he has just served on the Kailua Village
Design Commission. He was very supported in that commission, and he was
nominated from that commission. So, knowing that from him and also talking to
several individuals, we had no problem selecting him, moving his name forward
and the Mayor making the decision that he would fit with this particular
commission.
MS. LEE LOY: So, you mentioned some of the technical training for this
particular board. You mentioned, I think, some people from the real estate union,
and a lot of them are technically trained. Was any consideration given for
someone who may not know nothing? Because if we’re looking for diversity and
we have a number of people who are technically trained, why not invite the little
guy who knows nothing? I mean, he’s built a reputation on representing the small
guy, why didn’t we go after someone who knew absolutely nothing and would
learn the process and bring that very vanilla lens to any valuation process? Was
any consideration given for that?
MS. BAUTISTA: If you recall and try to remember the rest of the nominees that
were brought forward, we have individuals who are new, who doesn’t have the
experience. Of course we look at that.
Point of Order: MS. POINDEXTER: Chair, point of order.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Poindexter.
MS. POINDEXTER: I think what’s on the—it’s the nomination of who’s before
us and not, I mean, I understand that some of us are concerned about how the
process is written, but I don’t think we’re—the discussion should be more on the
nomination. And if I think to talk about a process—
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Poindexter. I think that you’re correct,
and we should stick to the nominee and keep this discussion moving in the right
direction.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Ms. Poindexter. I think it’s
relevant. The process on getting on a board or commission to evaluate a nominee
is just that, the process on how we evaluate a nominee. So, I’m going to put a pin
in this. I have not been swayed partly because and actually mostly because I have
asked and continually asked. For us to make good decisions, we need good
information. And it had to get to this place for those questions to be answered.
I respect someone fighting for the underdog. I’ve done it myself professionally.
And so, this is not about the nominee. This is about a process. With all due
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
respect, Mr. Van Pernis, I’m going to be voting against your nomination to send a
signal back to the Administration: Give us a bright line of process. Because if we
give that to the larger community, more people may apply. And if this is what it
takes for everybody to understand—
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I’m sorry. Mr. Van Pernis, we’re not going to do a back
and forth right now. We’re listening to Council Members who would like to
chime in on this nominee. But before I go to Mr. Richards, who I think asked to
speak next, I just want to say that the application form are the only questions that
is required of an applicant to fill out, and people in the community are all aware
of that. And we don’t get that many nominees, so we have to take what we
choose from the applications that are submitted. And Mr. Van Pernis was one of
the several that were available to choose from at this time. So, I think that’s our
process for now. And if there is something that we need to do better on that, then
I think that would be a topic for another discussion. Mr. Richards, you can go
ahead.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. I think I’ll start by saying, Rose, the
Administration—I think all of us have echoed this—the quality of candidates that
the Administration’s put forth over the last three years since I’ve been on the
Council has been exemplary. I want to start by saying that.
Chair, how are we doing this? Is this a question and answer for Mr. Van Pernis?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: You are allowed to question the applicant.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you, Chair. This is different for me,
Mr. Van Pernis. I do not know you, and I did not know your reputation up until
this process started. I’m going to ask a couple of questions, if I may. Leeward
Planning or Planning is looking at our future, and I’m going to say in perpetuity,
meaning where we’re setting our stage going forward. And I need to hear from
you, what’s your vision of Hawai‘i County in the next 50 years? Where do you
think we’re going to be?
MR. VAN PERNIS: In 50 years?
MR. RICHARDS: Yes. I realize it’s short. I probably should talk a hundred
but—
MR. VAN PERNIS: I haven’t given a 50-year timeframe much thought at this
time, but I would anticipate that there would be continuing development as there
has been for the last 50 years, which would have to be reasonably regulated and
married to appropriate infrastructure.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MR. RICHARDS: Okay. A conversation on 50 years from now could be quite in
depth, and we could probably spend a couple hours here and still not scratch the
surface. Affordable housing opinion?
MR. VAN PERNIS: I think affordable housing depends on your definition of
“affordable.” I think that may need to be reviewed. But affordable housing is a
current component of large developments. I think it has to be addressed in some
reasonable manner. But in that way or another way, I think the County has
assumed and, thus, may have some responsibility in that regard.
MR. RICHARDS: Okay. We, as a Council, receive a fair number of candidates
we’re supposed to review. And as our Chair has pointed out, we’re given a piece
of information and we do some background checking and all. Yours came forth
and had some controversy swirling around it. I, too, am—I don’t get hung up on
previous problems. Usually if you stand for something, it’s because you’re
passionate about that, and I can admire that. And looking into it, I see resolution
there.
MR. VAN PERNIS: May I inquire—?
MR. RICHARDS: Hang on a second.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Excuse me.
MR. RICHARDS: Go ahead, Chair.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: In this process, we’re not actually in just a back-and-forth
dialogue, but if he asks you a direct question, you can answer. So, just wait for
the question.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. I can admire standing for something
because that’s what we try to do to make the needle move better. The interesting
thing that has come forth is I see the testimony and I see names in here that I
know and I respect. What the controversy is has brought out communications
from others to me of people I admire and respect, and they are not supportive of
you.
MR. VAN PERNIS: Excuse me, I don’t know.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Just wait for a question. We can’t really have this
process become a back-and-forth dialogue in an informal manner because we’re
in a formal parliamentary procedural meeting. Thank you.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. So, in this situation, what I’m doing is I’m
trying to balance between some of the names I recognize and some other names
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
that have contacted me. And the controversy has brought out the contact, which I
found kind of interesting. And so, I am struggling in identifying the bigger
picture on this. And with that, I think I’m going to stop right here. The people I
have been contacted by are not supporters of you going forward with the Leeward
Planning, and these are names that I have known and trust for many decades.
And so, the challenge I find here, I don’t disagree with what
Councilwoman Lee Loy is saying about procedurally—and that’s something,
Chair, I think we should probably review going forward. That’s at a different
time.
What this has done, though, has had quite a bit of contact from people that are
finding problems with moving this forward, and these are people I’ve sought
counsel on other things previously. So with that, at this point I cannot support
your nomination. I can see you are very much a community-minded person, but
our job as Council Members is to evaluate information coming to us and make the
best position and best determination we can. And at this point, the information
coming forward is a bit problematic. Chair, I’m going to yield at this point.
Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you very much. Ms. Poindexter.
MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, and unlike Tim, the calls that I received were very
positive and appreciated the work that Mr. Van Pernis has already done. A lot of
them have appreciated that he had the other side of the lens looking at it from the
perspective of how would this affect—I mean, the question was asked, “How do
you see things in 50 years?” And I think through his work, what other people
have stated was that he was looking ahead and looking at the impacts on
preserving our cultural heritage and making sure that things went forward, that it
was done in a right way so we could protect the future generations as well.
So, I had a lot of good calls on that. And like I said on my last vote, I did not vote
for him because I was waiting to hear from Council Member Eoff, whose district,
that’s the district she represents. A lot of times, we depend on that person, our
colleagues to let us know more about that person because they know that district
and their constituents and how they would feel about Mr. Van Pernis being part of
that.
And I can appreciate the Mayor bringing this forward. That’s Step 1. Step 2, it
comes before the Council. That’s a great balance because an administration will
always—they selected Mr. Van Pernis. I’ll respect that. And now we have a
chance to vet him at this level. So, I appreciate all the different comments coming
in. We may agree to disagree on it, but again, I’m going to rely heavily on
Council Member Eoff and from the emails and from the conversations I’ve had
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
with people who have worked alongside Mr. Van Pernis, and not even had
worked alongside but had appreciation of his ability to hold people’s feet to the
fire on what happens here in Hawai‘i County. So, we need that balance.
We cannot have rubberstamping because say our director says this, then we’ve all
got to follow. We need that other side to that. And if he comes across with the
heavy questions and—because, I’ve been there. I’ve sat in those kinds of
meetings where you appreciate the person asking the hard questions. Or whether
it is a personality we can deal with, hey. I had a father who was just as very
strong willed as Mr. Van Pernis. I can understand that. But he was a fighter, and
he always told me, “When you represent the people, make sure you fight for the
underdog.” So, I heard the term “underdog” used, and that’s what my father told
me because those are the people that fall into the cracks. So, Mr. Van Pernis, I do
appreciate you. I’m going to yield at this time to hear from Council Member Eoff
when she’s ready. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Yeah, I was going to give everybody a
chance on the first round before I chimed in as to the rules for chairing the
meeting allow. Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Aloha and welcome again, Mr. Van Pernis, for
being here and your patience. I think in the last go around, I think I was one of
two that voted for you. I expressed my experience and my personal relationship
with you over the last, what, 40 years when I first met you at the law firm that
hired you. And so, your role in planning started way back then. And I’ve
watched you and I’ve worked with you for many years in the legal field, so I
understand the concerns that are being raised. But my question or my issue, and I
totally agree with some of the things that Ms. Lee Loy is saying as far as
procedures, okay. We just did one earlier on trying to streamline a procedure, and
maybe this is another issue that we might look into.
The application process does not ask anything but have you ever been convicted
of a violation of law. A ticket that you disclosed, that’s a violation of law. I’m
not sure how deep we want to delve into people that are volunteering their time as
long as they’re not criminally charged with that. So, I’m sorry, yeah, I’m talking
about that because I want to support you based on what we get on your
application. And to me, that is what’s before me right now and based on my
personal knowledge.
And in the past, we’ve appointed people to commissions based on this
information and, more importantly, the position of the Council Member from that
district. And so, I put a lot of weight on my own reasons why I support you
because of your work in the Kona community. But I also put just as much weight
on the Council Member’s position on whether your appointment is, you know, she
supports it or not.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
So, we’ve done it before on people that do not know the nominee. We deferred to
the Council Member of that district, and I will do the same again. Not because I
want to just defer to her, but it will be based on my personal knowledge of you,
my working relationship for many years with you, and on the Council Member
from that district. So, at this time, I will continue to support your nomination as I
did in the past. And I yield at this time.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. David. Are there any comments
from Hilo? I can’t really tell. I’m just checking with Hilo. Anybody?
Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Thank you. I wasn’t here. Just like Ms. Eoff, I wasn’t in
attendance at the Committee meeting. I was on Oahu doing some legislative
matters. When I came back and found out what the vote was on this, it kind of
took me by surprise of course. I’m in a tough spot here because I’m an attorney
and Mr. Van Pernis is a member of that legal community as well, and I certainly
don’t want to—there’s just some professional courtesies that we accord one
another. But I’m going to tell you my concerns. But first of all, I’m just going to
start off by saying that I had made up my mind when I heard about what
transpired at the last Committee meeting, and I knew what the vote was. I think it
was, what, five against and two for. I still told myself that inasmuch as Karen
wasn’t there—and she is the representative of the district which Mr. Van Pernis
has been nominated for—that I was going the vote the way she voted on this
matter for two reasons. First of all—and I’m not saying that I’m going to
advocate my role as a decisionmaker just like Maile articulated, okay. But in this
particular situation, I was going to defer to Ms. Eoff, and I really haven’t heard
what she’s going to do today.
But it goes a little deeper too. Now that we have two planning commissions, far
be it for me from east side to tell the west side guys what they want in terms of
composition. But now, here are my concerns. As a member of the legal
community, I did get a number of calls from other members and they were all
from the west side, and I also, surprisingly, got calls from two former clerks—all
against. They gave me their reasons, and I explained to them that I would be
deferring to Karen. And I’ve been very upfront with them, and I’m being upfront
with all of you today. But what concerns me is the lack of contrition on the part
of Mr. Van Pernis in the face of these past transgressions on the legal level.
What really—and this is the first time I’m hearing all of this. And, Rose, I thank
you for bringing them up, but this thing about him contacting another party
without that party’s attorney present—now, I don’t know what the full
circumstances are there but, Rose, you’re an attorney and Maile’s worked with
lawyers and Val too—that is a no-no. That’s really bad.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Now, it’s hard for me to go after a fellow colleague because this could very well
happen to me too, but that is bad. And I would have hoped that Mr. Van Pernis,
in his opening statement, instead of saying those things didn’t relate to the job
he’s applying for, if he could at least have shown some contrition and said, “I
apologize. That wasn’t right, but let’s move on.” But, no, he took the aggressive
stance, and that kind of concerns me.
I know Rose talked about him being a zealous advocate, but you have to do it
within the ethical parameters of your profession. And that’s so important. Rose,
can I just ask you one question, please? And maybe I heard wrong, but you said
he was admonished for his harassment of a commissioner. What was that all
about? Maybe I heard wrong.
MS. BAUTISTA: No, the harassment was the result of the suspension, not the
admonishment.
MR. CHUNG: Oh, okay. Well, maybe if you can explain what that was about
then. What harassment of a commissioner? Can you at least lay out the
circumstances for that? I’m still going to vote for him if Karen votes for him.
MS. BAUTISTA: By the way, Chair, Mr. Van Pernis says everything is actually
explained in his letter (see Comm. 689.12). I’m not sure whether you had the
opportunity to read it, but it’s all explained in his letter that was submitted to all
members of the Council.
MR. CHUNG: Well, yeah, I don’t—is it in the folder? I mean, well, just help me
out. Why don’t you just explain it real quickly.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: It is in the blue folder.
MR. CHUNG: I mean, because he is going on a commission, right? So, I’d like
to know what kind of harassment of a commissioner led to a suspension of an
attorney. Is that too far afield, Madam Chairman?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Has anyone—I know you asked the question to
Ms. Bautista, but I think Mr. Van Pernis would like to refer to the letter that he
submitted. And would you like to ask him—?
MR. CHUNG: Where is that letter anyway?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Wait a second.
MR. VAN PERNIS: I so noted the impression of my letter that explained
Ms. Lee Loy’s reference to Mr. Gilpin’s complaint and the reference to the
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Hawai‘i Bar proceedings. I was advised to write a letter explaining it. I did so,
submitted it to Rose and the other people involved, and I was informed I think by
Wendy from Ms. Eoff’s office that that letter had been distributed to the parties.
MR. CHUNG: Well, that’s okay. This might take us too—
MR. VAN PERNIS: If it hasn’t been distributed, I have a copy I could read.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Van Pernis, I think we do all have the letter but
maybe haven’t had a chance to read it.
MR. CHUNG: Yeah, I got it. Ms. Kierkiewicz just handed me her copy. But
that’s okay. We don’t have to go through that. I mean, basically I’m going to be
voting for him.
MR. VAN PERNIS: (Inaudible) have the information that says the (inaudible) is
not correct. If they read the letter, they would have the correct information.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you.
MR. CHUNG: Well, anyway, yeah. Again, Ms. Eoff, I hate to put you on the
spot, but I am going to be deferring to your decision on this inasmuch as it is
something within your district. I wanted to make one comment, though, that I see
kind of interesting, and it relates to a lot of other matters. We had one letter that
characterized Mr. Van Pernis as a rabble rouser in a positive way. He’s also been
characterized as a person who is fighting for the underdog, and Ms. Bautista said
“zealous advocate.” These labels are all good labels, but they only go so far as
the person’s ability to follow through on those things.
For example, if you look at Harry Kim, it’s kind of interesting. I’ve always
known him as being an independent person who is for the underdog and doing all
of these things. And last week, he was characterized as a guy who was knuckling
under to big business, and that’s unfair. I just wanted to make—it’s a
commentary, really—labels are only as good as a person’s ability to follow
through on those things. So, I just wish Mr. Van Pernis the best. I’m going to be
supporting his nomination in deference to what I anticipate might be Ms. Eoff’s
“yes” vote. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Chung. Ms. Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Aloha, Mr. Van Pernis. I want to thank you for being here and
enduring this, some might call it rigorous but I would call it brutal, your continued
perseverance and your continued commitment to serve our community on this
commission regardless of the accusations and the challenges and the words being
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
put at you. I feel for you. Hang on one second. Thank you. One second,
Mr. Van Pernis. And I understand your passion and how difficult it would be to
sit and listen to things and not be able to respond in a conversational manner.
I find it challenging to appreciate communications that seem to say to somebody,
anybody under any circumstance that I’ve heard bad things about you but I won’t
tell you who they’re from or what they’ve said. That’s really a challenging thing,
so I apologize for your having to endure that from us. I have known you and your
wife since I was, gosh, a pre-teenager. You’ve worked hand in hand with a
number of leaders in our community in all different capacities, in all different
genres of our economics. And you have a tenacity and a voracious passion for the
future of West Hawai‘i.
I was just looking at something. We just celebrated Martin Luther King, the
holiday, on Monday and I was reminded that he was an activist and he was a
radical. And in some capacities, you emulate that with your determination to
follow through with things that you find to be just and beneficial. I challenge any
one of us to not have skeletons in our closet or not have had run ins with
somebody at some time. I know I live in a glass house, and I believe every one of
us on this Council does as well. So, I’m going to be supporting your nomination.
I apologize also to you for my—I was confused in the last Committee meeting.
There was just kind of a lot going on. And not having the representative of the
district which you would be representing provided some challenges. So, I’m
grateful for this second opportunity. I am extremely grateful for the letters of
recommendation and support that have been provided and that have been
provided by a number of highly respected, highly regarded members of our
community that I think is pivotal as a distinct example of your legacy of service
and your continued potential to serve on this commission.
So once again, I thank you for being here, for the determination, the patience, and
the graciousness that it takes to sit and navigate this process with all of us. So,
thank you for that, and I will be supporting your nomination. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Villegas. Any other comments from
Council Members? Hilo?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I was on the fence about this because
the Administration wanted to move forward with the nomination. But since our
Committee meeting, I’ve been inundated with calls and emails from individuals
all over the island that have had experience with Mr. Van Pernis, and they have
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
not submitted letters for fear of retaliation. So, I’m taking that into consideration
in my decision, and I’m very sorry but I cannot be supporting the appointment of
Mr. Van Pernis to the commission. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Anybody else? I think if there’s no
further comments from Council Members on this first go around, I guess I need to
chime in at this point. And thank you, Council Members, for all of your
comments and also wanting to wait until I could be here. And like I said, I’m
sorry I wasn’t here for the previous meeting. And we do have to take all of the
comments into consideration, but I feel that any person that we would vet this
thoroughly for any commission may have pros and cons. And I think in this case,
I want to support Mr. Van Pernis.
I believe that the diversity on the planning commission is one of the most
important aspects of a body such as that. They recommend to the County
Council. They do decision making on certain things. And as Ms. Bautista
pointed out earlier, we have realtors, we have union members. And I supported
all of these people. Maybe they wouldn’t have been my first choice in some
cases, but I felt all along that the diversity was an important part of the makeup of
a commission.
I think Mr. Van Pernis has served in various—I was looking at the application,
and I see that you were also a commissioner on the statewide redistricting. And
your participation on various boards and commissions, as well as your most
recent Kailua Village Design Commission, were things that I looked at. And I
was happy to see that there were letters and testimony from your fellow
commissioners in your last service on the Kailua Village Design Commission
because it indicated that you do work well in a group. I know you’re not afraid to
express dissenting opinion and yet you’re just one of many votes that lead to a
decision of a board like that.
So, I think it’s good to hear all the diverse opinions that may come forward. And
with the information and the knowledge, the background that you have, I think
some of your opinions are worth consideration even if there are some people that
may disagree with them. So, I’m going to—I don’t really like the burden of
everybody leaning on me and going along with what my decision is, but I
appreciate it on the other hand. But I think, Council Members, you should vote
your heart, and I’m going to be supporting Mr. Van Pernis.
One thing I would like to add, though, is in the future on your next opening on the
planning commission, I really hope you would look for an applicant that may be
female, young, maybe in a different capacity. So, I agree with that too, and that
would add to the diversity of this planning commission. But I see certain people
being termed out, and so I think we have an opportunity to look at some of those
kinds of people to join the commission.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
I will ask you for a closing comment, but I’m going to listen to the rest of the
Council Members first if anyone else has anything to say, okay. So with that,
Council Members, I know we’ve said a lot, done a lot, listened a lot. Would
anyone else like to add anymore comments? Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. And I do appreciate the fact and I agree
with what everybody said concerning the process and relying heavily on the
person within the district of whom we are approving. This is unusual for me
because, like I said, I received phone calls again from all over the island. And so
that’s why. I think our process needs a spooling up because there’s—we’ve got to
do something a little bit different. So with that, it’s just a comment. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Mr. Richards. Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, and Ms. Villegas is right. Tenacity, heart, passion,
it’s all there. It has never been about the applicant. For me, it’s always been the
process. With that being said, I’m going to stand by my vote. I’m voting “no”
because I want the Administration to know that we rely heavily on what’s coming
from them and then we take into consideration what’s being said by the Council
Member from that district. And it was awkward to find information about a
nominee that talks seriously about errors and omissions, that talks seriously about
recidivism. This is a pattern that was demonstrated. These are his peers that
would have saved everybody a lot of heartburn if we understood the process a lot
better where this awkwardness didn’t have to come out.
So, I’m pinging the Administration again. I’m going to be voting “no” to send
them a message. Let’s figure out an effective, efficient process that we can rely
heavily on in addition to the recommendation from the Administration and from
our sitting colleagues. Thank you, Chair, I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. And at this point, without continuing any
back and forth, Mr. Van Pernis, if you would just like to add maybe more to the
point of why you believe you could be a good commissioner on this planning
commission, I think we could end it with that.
MR. VAN PERNIS: Thank you for the opportunity. First of all, I want to point
out to the Chairman of the Council that the two recidivism factors that were
involved. The first was approximately four years ago with Dr. Sayre. Dr. Sayre’s
former wife in Michigan sent the children out to see Dr. Sayre for the summer as
per their divorce decree. I didn’t know Dr. Sayre at the time. Dr. Sayre did not
return the children when he was supposed to. The former Mrs. Sayre retained our
law firm to get a court order to get the children back. I went with the police to
avoid any problems at Dr. Sayre’s house and—
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Mr. Van Pernis, I hate to interrupt you and I
understand you want to explain. There’s always two sides to every situation, but I
think we—
MR. VAN PERNIS: Let me quickly wrap up this time.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: If you could just sort of summarize the end of that, I think
it’s—
MR. VAN PERNIS: The summary of that is that I went to the porch, got no
further; there were no kids there. We eventually got a court order to return the
kids and for Dr. Sayre to pay attorney’s fees. That was approximately four years
ago.
The other situation was that a party contacted me.
Point of Order: MS. POINDEXTER: Point of order, Chair.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Poindexter.
MS. POINDEXTER: In the closing statement, I think you wanted him to talk
about the nomination process. Like, I know we’ve gotten so far, you know, we’ve
let it go where it’s all mixed about the process and all of this stuff, and I think
he’s kind of diving into that part where we got all confused as well. So, let’s stick
to the nomination.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Poindexter. I would like to reiterate that.
I know it’s difficult to sit there and not be able to respond, but I think we do need
to keep on topic. We’re just not here to judge anything that happened 40 years
ago for your reparations and all of that. But I think, at this point, I for one would
just like to know that you’re committed to serving on the commission and that
you’re qualified in that regard.
MR. VAN PERNIS: I’m happy and want to serve on the commission. I’d point
out that I’m retired, not an advocate, and I assume all the negative comments are
from people who were on the other side of me as an attorney. I am no longer an
advocate. I am no longer criticizing development or promoting development. I
am a neutral commissioner who is trying to get things done. And I think that
those who may not appreciate my activities of 30, 40 years ago, they’re
anonymous and won’t come before the board, apparently. But I don’t consider
myself a Martin Luther King or any kind of radical or any kind, and even
supporting the little guy as everybody talks about. I’m neutral. I represent
everybody—the people of Hawai‘i and the people of this County. That’s what I
want to do, and that’s what I think I’m highly qualified to do.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, and I believe Mr. Chung also reiterated that,
that a lot of things can be said but we just have to stick to what, I guess, our hearts
tell us about a person and vote that way. So, I’m going to ask for a vote at this
time, and this would be to file Communication 689 and approve the nomination of
Mr. Mark Van Pernis to the Leeward Planning Commission. At this point, I’ll
have to take a roll call vote. Mr. Clerk.
Vote on PC-43: The motion to adopt Planning Committee Report No. 43
(Adopted) was carried by the following roll call vote:
Ayes: Council Members Chung, David,
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder, Poindexter, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 6.
Noes: Council Members Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, and
Richards – 3.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I congratulate you. Thank you for your willingness to
serve, and thank you, Ms. Bautista and Ms. Pisicchio, for helping us navigate this.
Thank you so much. We’d like to take a brief recess, and we would like to just
shake your hand and congratulate you. We’ll be in a five-minute recess.
Recess: At 11:36 a.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 11:54 a.m.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I was advised by the Clerk that since we had a roll call
vote on the last item regarding the nomination of Mark Van Pernis to the planning
commission, I should have announced the vote. So, I would like to say that there
were six “aye” votes and three “no” votes, and the “no” votes were
Ms. Kierkiewicz, Ms. Lee Loy, and Mr. Richards and the motion carried six to
three. Okay. Thank you. Now, I believe I’m going to take Bill 131. There are
people here in the Chambers, and I know Ms. Carreira and others may be in Hilo.
So, Mr. Clerk, can you please read in Bill 131?
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Bill 131: 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
Increases the Mass Transit Agency Hub and Spokes project by $1.45 million, for
a total appropriation of $2 million. Funds shall be provided from General
Obligation Bonds, Capital Projects Fund – Fund Balance and/or Other Sources
and would be used for land acquisition, planning, design, and construction.
Reference: Comm. 701
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz
First Reading: January 8, 2020
Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire
membership to amend, pursuant to
Section 10-6(e), Hawai‘i County Charter
Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to pass Bill 131 on second and
final reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I’ll go ahead and call on Ms. Kierkiewicz. Discussion.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, we have members of the Administration here, as
well as Mass Transit and SSFM (SSFM International, Inc.). So, I don’t need to
lead the discussion. I believe they have some things they want to share with
Council Members.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay.
MR. CHUNG: Karen?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yes, Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Before we call on the Administration, can I just say something
because I’ve got to leave in 15 minutes? I have a meeting with the Speaker of the
House, actually. So, may I?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Sure. You may go ahead and then let me know if—I’m
not sure if you’re planning to return or if you’d like us to try and finish this item
before you go.
MR. CHUNG: No. It’s going to be pretty involved, I think. But I really took
into consideration all that was said during the last go around at Committee, and
there’s both good arguments that were being offered. But my thought really is
this: As far as I can tell, this appropriation is not site specific. I kind of checked.
I could be wrong. Is it site specific? It is not, right? We need the appropriation.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
I know that some, maybe Matt in particular, might think that approving this
appropriation means that it necessarily will be that Aguinaldo property inasmuch
as that was the No. 1 on the priority list for the Administration. But I’m just
hoping that we can approve the appropriation and keep the discussion going.
Maybe Matt and Ashley can continue talking with the Administration in this
regard to selecting a site. If it is that corner property, then so be it. I, frankly,
think it’s actually good. It’s close to the school, not only Pāhoa school but also
HAAS (Hawai‘i Academy of Arts and Science). Very important.
I did take a ride down there at one time, and I saw so many kids hitchhiking. And
I didn’t go for this purpose. I had to meet somebody in the morning in Pāhoa.
And I was kind of wondering why are all these kids hitchhiking around there, and
they all seemed to be hitchhiking right over there at that corner lot. I don’t know
if you guys have been there. And maybe this was a one-time deal that, you know,
the only time that I went out there to Pāhoa early in the morning. But that seemed
to be the case, and I was kind of struck by that.
There was the Mainstreet people who came up today. I’m thinking this location,
actually, would create the kind of synergy that that old town needs. That’s just
my thought. And I know Roy, who’s a planner, spoke about the site and why he
thought it was good, and I just wanted to share my thoughts. But at the same
time, I want you guys to really kind of vet this thing. We want to fast track it
because I don’t think this appropriation should fail because of the issues that have
been presented. I just want the Administration’s assurances that you guys are
going to take a deeper look at this and make a real good decision, and that’s all.
Brenda, you have a real quizzical look on your face, but I hope you’re
understanding what I’m saying, right? And that’s all. That’s all I’ve got to say.
I’m going to have to leave very soon. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Well, thank you for that comment, and I think we
can get those questions answered as we move along here. So, would you like to
call to the table Ms. Carreira and whomever else is there to—I don’t know if
Finance Director is there—to explain this appropriation bill?
(Note: At this time, Finance Director Deanna Sako came forward to
address the members of the Council.)
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Good morning, Deanna.
MS. SAKO: Good morning. Deanna Sako, Director of Finance. I think as we’ve
said last time, it’s a bill to get the appropriation. We thought we had one. It had
lapsed. So, before they can move forward with any site, they need an
appropriation to be able to buy the land and then do whatever improvements are
necessary to complete it and make it into the hub.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
So, Roy is here. Brenda’s here. We have several people here. SSFM is here.
But the bill before you is actually the appropriation bill, as Mr. Chung said.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Comments, Council Members?
Ms. Kierkiewicz? Anybody in Hilo?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I don’t have anything at this moment.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Ms. Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: If I could ask Deanna Sako and perhaps Brenda. I’m a little
confused. I made a phone call yesterday because I wanted some clarification on
whether or not the appropriation was site specific or not, and I was told that the
appropriations are site specific for this particular piece of property. However,
Chair Chung just said that it wasn’t site specific. So, I’m a little confused, and
I’m hoping for some clarification.
(Note: At this time, Mass Transit Administrator Brenda Carreira came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MS. CARREIRA: Okay. Brenda Carreira, Mass Transit Administrator. The
quizzical look is I turned to Deanna because in my mind, we’re looking at the
Pāhoa Hub Site No. 6. When I talked to Deanna, appropriations are not site
specific and that’s my—so when I got the calls, in my mind I thought it was site
specific. But Deanna’s the Finance person, and maybe it’s just a term of words.
So, I turned to her, and she said, no, it’s the appropriations. But, you know, that’s
why I wanted to make that. So, that’s what I told people when they called me.
But I stand corrected.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Ms. Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Brenda. I appreciate that, but I apologize I
couldn’t hear that answer very well. So, what was the final determination?
MS. CARREIRA: According to Deanna—
MS. VILLEGAS: Deanna, could you answer that for me?
MS. CARREIRA: Oh, sorry.
MS. SAKO: My understanding was that the appropriation was not site specific
and then I went over to get the bill. So, the title is just “Mass Transit Agency Hub
and Spokes,” and I just wanted to make sure on the FIS (Financial Impact
Statement) that, yeah, there’s no site mentioned. So, it’s just the appropriation to
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
be able to move forward with a hub, whether it is in Pāhoa or elsewhere. But it’s
just to have the money available so that they can move forward with their hub-
and-spokes project.
MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, thank you, Deanna. So, if I understand correctly, voting
in support of this bill today does not necessarily indicate the support of this
specific site. It’s just supporting the allocation, or the appropriation of these
resources for a future hub-and-spoke mass transit facility?
MS. SAKO: Correct.
MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. Thank you, I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Along those same lines, Director Sako, is the
appropriation, then, for the hub and spoke, to purchase property? If this isn’t site
specific, some of the sites are owned by the County. So, I’m just wondering if the
appropriation is to purchase property, and what happens if the selection process
selects a piece of property that basically the County owns. That’s my first
question.
MS. SAKO: It can also be used for the improvements. So, the one site we were
talking about last time has some improvements on it. Some of the other sites, it
ranges but some have nothing. So, we would have to start from scratch.
MS. DAVID: I see. So that appropriation, basically, is not just to purchase the
property but for improvements once a site—
MS. SAKO: To create the actual hub—
MS. DAVID: I see.
MS. SAKO: Yeah, the infrastructure necessary for the hub itself.
MS. DAVID: I see. Okay. And then my next question. If the site selection—is
the site-selection process completed, or would that come before the Council, that
selection process? How does that work?
MS. SAKO: So, my understanding is that it doesn’t require Council action. And
we did do a site selection. We actually had it independently done. But I do
understand there’s concerns, and we can talk to Council Members if there are
specific questions about the site. But yeah, that’s separate from the appropriation.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MS. DAVID: I see. Okay, so that doesn’t come before us once this bill moves
forward. I’ll yield for now on my questions. Thank you very much, Director.
MR. CHUNG: Wait. Let me just clarify that. It doesn’t have to come back as
long as they don’t need more money. Because if the appropriation—
MS. SAKO: Correct, yes.
MR. CHUNG: Yeah, if they need more money for the purchase. For example, if
it goes up to 3 million, then they have to come back to amend the appropriation.
MS. SAKO: Yes, thank you for clarifying that.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Mr. Richards had a question or
comment. Go ahead.
MR. RICHARDS: Comment. Thanks, Chair. I think we all recognize that we
need to get something going in Pāhoa. And going through the process, I’m going
to support this because I really want to get some finances into Pāhoa, the greater
Pāhoa Town.
I was really intrigued by the comments made by Mainstreet Pāhoa. And looking
at the distance between what we thought we were voting on previously, it’s about
2,200 feet to the center of town. And then the other side, it’s about 4,500 feet or
4,000 feet. So, there is a distancing there. The bigger thing is, and I want this
thing to get out of Council and get moving forward because I know we have a lot
of trouble with our mass transit now, and I want to take steps going forward to get
things fixed for that side of the island. So, I’m going to support this. And—
actually, I’m going to let you ask that question. But I want to get this thing
forward because I think, you know, Pāhoa has been asking. We have funding
available. Let’s get some cash into Pāhoa Town so we can help them out and get
their economic rebuild going. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. You’re a process girl, and thank you for those
questions, Ms. Villegas. Because, the way I see it—and, Deanna, help me—is
we’re parking the money in this account to go look for a site. There has been—is
that correct, Deanna?
MS. SAKO: Yes.
MS. LEE LOY: There’s been some conversations, and a site has emerged
through an evaluation process. Is that correct?
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MS. SAKO: Correct.
MS. LEE LOY: But I also heard that if we move this appropriation forward, we
park the money. But when the decision on the site is made, it would not come
back before the Council. I see the rest of my friends over here nodding their head.
Is that accurate?
MS. SAKO: Yes, that’s correct.
MS. LEE LOY: How do we get assurances that it could come back and maybe be
heard in the mass transit committee? Because, that’s the other thing about this
wonky process. Finance is appropriating the money, but this is an issue for mass
transit. And so, even when we have—
MS. SAKO: I think it’s an issue, but I don’t want there to be any confusion. We
did an independent process. We didn’t check with any of the Council Members.
Maybe that was our mistake. But we tried to find something that was best suited
for the facility, as well as things that may help us in the future based on things that
have happened in the past, like the 2014 lava flow where we wish we had
property on that side. And that was very specific to that actual flow where it was
headed at the time.
But when we were trying to set up a police station and a fire station and other
things, we were trying to find property on that side. So, it actually met a lot of the
needs. But I’m saying we are willing to continue to work with people or Council
Members that maybe had some concerns about the site, but I think we’re also
comfortable with the site that was selected. But we were definitely listening to
comments that were made last time.
MS. LEE LOY: Okay, I’m going to yield for now. Thanks.
MR. CHUNG: Madam Chairman?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Chung.
MR. CHUNG: Did anybody else want to speak over there?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yeah they do, but—
MR. CHUNG: Okay, well, let them talk.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Ms. Poindexter.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MS. POINDEXTER: Deanna, you just said that you didn’t speak with any of the
Council Members. I’m kind of confused on how this came forward because it
came from Council Member Kierkiewicz when I would think it would come from
either Mass Transit Chair or Vice Chair.
MR. CHUNG: Let me explain that. Val, I think I mentioned it the last time. It
really falls upon me. It was my fault. When I saw this thing coming up, I didn’t
think there was going to be this kind of big controversy, right? So, I figured she
represents Pāhoa. I didn’t really realize that Matt also represents Pāhoa too. So,
out of courtesy, I asked her if she could introduce it. It wasn’t something where
she surfaced it or something like that. It really all falls on me, and I do apologize
to both you guys and Ms. Kierkiewicz for causing this kind of humbug. But that
wasn’t the intent. Okay.
MS. POINDEXTER: So, I would hope moving forward, and because the Puna
area is one of the biggest communities that is so underdeveloped, and they
definitely need our attention. So, I would hope that—because the last time what
kind of bothered me was Matt was saying he wasn’t knowing what was going on,
some things were confusing, some people had emailed us saying they don’t
approve of it. It just became a little messy because we rely on our Council
Members, my colleagues who represent those communities to let us know how
their community is really feeling because we don’t dive deep into their
community out of that respect.
However, we do receive emails and calls and stuff from their community, which
of course we respect and honor that and talk with them. But we heavily rely on
the representative there. And so, that was my disappointment on how this whole
thing—and thank you, Council Chair, for explaining that. Hopefully, next time
they can co-sponsor something or they have a meeting of the minds or whatever it
is because the bottom line is the people are the ones that’s going to suffer. So, I
appreciate all the work that they do, don’t get me wrong. Just the way this came
about and came forward, it was a little uncomfortable. So, I’ll yield at this time.
Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Poindexter. Did you have a further
comment in Hilo before I go back to Ms. Villegas?
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I do.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder. Thank you.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Mahalo, Chair. I’m a strong proponent of a
bus terminal in Pāhoa. The location is of great importance to me for the long-
term economic standing of Pāhoa and for the small businesses in Pāhoa, but
mainly for the ridership of the people who use our mass transit bus system.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
My frustration last time was for not being included in the actual decision to
purchase the property, and neither was the entire community. I called two
different offices yesterday, and I asked whether this was a site specific
appropriation. I was told by both that it was. So, I’m finding today’s discussion
interesting to say the least. Deanna, was there an appraisal done on Site No. 6,
which is Uncle Gilbert’s property?
MS. SAKO: There was, yes.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: So, there is an appraisal done on this
property already?
MS. SAKO: Yes.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: And was Purchasing asked to move forward
with the purchase on the property?
MS. SAKO: We are looking at it. We’re working on it based on, like I said,
independent evaluations that were done based on community meetings that were
done but that were not done by us. They were done by SSFM. So, there’s things
moving. But as I’ve said, we didn’t realize there were concerns.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: In our last meeting, Uncle Gilbert did say
that he had basically signed and was ready, and we were waiting on this
appropriation so that we could purchase, which was very clear. So again, I’m
going to ask again: Is this a general appropriation for a Pāhoa hub, or is it a site-
specific appropriation?
MS. SAKO: It is a general appropriation for any hub. It doesn’t even have to be
in Pāhoa.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Has there been an appraisal done on any
other site in Pāhoa, as there were seven sites listed? Because, I sat in all of the
meetings that were given to the public.
MS. SAKO: I’m not aware that there was, but—yeah, not that I’m aware of, but
some of them probably wouldn’t need an appraisal either.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Were there any County properties that we
own within a mile of Site No. 6 that we own as the County already that could
function, that are ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant that are
already paid and have all the infrastructure necessary to drop people off that
would cost the taxpayers absolutely nothing?
MS. SAKO: I don’t have the map in front of me or the report this time, but—
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Roy was nice enough to email us all the
information for all the located sites and all the sites that were talked about. That
didn’t come with the original bill either. I’m very aware of the process that
happened because I sat in the meetings, and I sat in on one of the last meetings we
had over here. I’m just interested to see how this came about. Because, what I
wasn’t aware of was the decision to purchase the property. And I’m also a little
disheartened when I’m looking at what’s in front of me and what’s being said
today that doesn’t equal. Some basic questions: What is the property class for the
lot that we’re talking about?
MS. SAKO: Hamana, are you in Kona?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Mr. Ventura is here. He’s coming up to the table.
(Note: At this time, Property Manager Hamana Ventura, Department of
Finance, came forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. VENTURA: Good morning, Council. Hamana Ventura, Property Manager.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Good morning, or afternoon.
MR. VENTURA: I believe—oh yeah, that’s true. So, I believe the parcel is on
residential.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: It’s residentially zoned?
MR. VENTURA: I believe so.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I looked up the property class last night. I
think it’s zoned commercially, but you can correct me if I’m wrong.
MR. VENTURA: Oh, okay. Sorry.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: In what words do we describe what a mass-
transportation hub is? What is it called when we actually—if we’re going to
install one, what would we call it?
MS. SAKO: Well, I’m probably not the best person to answer, but what my
understanding is, it’s a place where the smaller routes meet—
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Oh, sorry. What is the exact terminology of
what it will be called?
MS. SAKO: Maybe I’m not understanding the question.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MS. CARREIRA: It will be called the Pāhoa Hub.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I think it’s called a “mass transportation
terminal,” yes.
MS. CARREIRA: Pāhoa Hub. It’s not like the Moʻoheau Bus Terminal.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Excuse me, we really can’t hear if this is part of the
discussion. Could you guys speak up a little bit?
MS. CARREIRA: Okay, it is a Pāhoa Hub within the umbrella of the Mass
Transit Agency. It is not like the Moʻoheau Bus Terminal. It is not a Moʻoheau
Bus Terminal. It’s a hub, Pāhoa Hub.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: What property classes allow for the use of a
transportation terminal?
MS. CARREIRA: That, I’m going to have to ask Hamana.
MR. VENTURA: I would have to go back and double-check the Code, but it’s
currently zoned commercial.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you, Hamana.
(Note: At this time, Managing Director Roy Takemoto came forward to
address the members of the Council.)
MR. TAKEMOTO: Roy Takemoto, Managing Director. The existing zoning, I
believe, is residential.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Roy? Mr. Takemoto, could I ask you to pull the
microphone closer or speak a little louder because we couldn’t hear what you’re
saying.
MR. TAKEMOTO: Okay, sorry. I believe the existing zoning is residential.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Could you say that again? The existing zoning is
residential?
MR. TAKEMOTO: Yes.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MR. TAKEMOTO: Public uses, however, are permitted in any district with plan
approval. So in this case, the hub would be a permitted use with plan approval
because of its public use.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Let me just clarify that because I can’t hear really well.
If it’s for a public use, then you don’t have to rezone that property or any property
that—?
MR. TAKEMOTO: Correct. You don’t have to rezone.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Correct?
MR. TAKEMOTO: Yes.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yeah, okay. Thank you.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Has HDOT (Hawai‘i Department of
Transportation) been asked about ingress and egress to the site because it’s
located on the corner of two State highways?
(Note: At this time, Cheryl Soon of SSFM International, Inc., came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MS. SOON: Cheryl Soon. Hi. Happy New Year.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Can you state your name, please, and speak up?
MS. SOON: Cheryl Soon, SSFM.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: No, say that again, please?
MS. SOON: Cheryl Soon, SSFM.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay.
MS. SOON: Thank you. The existing egress is off of the County road. We have
thought that there would be benefits to also coming off the County road, I mean,
excuse me, the State highway, but that was not inquired of the State highway yet
until such time as you’re actually moving forward. But it can be accessed and
exited properly off of the County road.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: What County road?
MS. SOON: I’m not sure if there’s a name for it. The road going down to
Kapoho. The existing entrance.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Highway 132 or 130?
MS. SOON: 132.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Those are not both State? 132 is a County
road?
MS. SOON: I believe it’s a County road.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So, we can enter and egress, but they
didn’t actually want a feed off that intersection?
MS. SOON: Yes.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: That’s okay. Okay, that was my question.
And do we know what further buildout zoning for everything will be required of
that site? Was that taken into account?
MS. SOON: A layout was done to see how a hub would probably work on the
site as well as where you would put shelters, as well as where you might place a
restroom if you choose to have a restroom.
There are two existing buildings on the site which do not, well, lend themselves to
be used by the transit hub. So, the County would need to choose how those get
used, as offices or whatever, in which case they would need some parking
assigned to them. But I foresee the transit functioning at the opposite side of the
property where the existing facilities are.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Real briefly, Mass Transit Master
Plan. It’s on my desk. I read it front to back multiple times. Very important to
this. In that plan on page 68, SSFM lays out that Puna Kai was the desired place
for the hub or the terminal, however you are going to call that.
MS. SOON: Yes. At the time that we wrote the master plan, which was
completed in 2018, we were looking at—we never said that it was final that it was
Puna Kai, and we were in fact talking with you about Puna Kai being the location.
When we started conducting the public meeting in March, several other sites
came forward, suggestions from the community. And you facilitated some
meetings that I attended with Jon McElvaney.
The Puna Kai site started shifting in some ways in terms of our recommendation
because of two things. Number one, he was considering buying an additional
property across from where Puna Kai was being built, the property between that
and Mālama Market, which all of a sudden (inaudible) quite interesting. And then
he went dark. We never heard from him.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
The actual Puna Kai, which I foresaw it being part of the Puna Kai development,
actually when we talked to him, he went, not on his property, but behind on some
State lands. It became less attractive because of the distance through the shopping
center that passengers would have to travel to access the transit center. So, those
two sites, in talking to Mr. McElvaney, kind of started shifting, in my mind, in
making the recommendation.
As the sites for closer into Pāhoa Town, you kind of have this thing going on
between Puna and Puna Kai, I mean, Pāhoa and Puna Kai. What’s the center of
the community going to be? And the transit function should enhance Pāhoa
Town, but they’re serving the entire district. And so, it’s kind of a judgment call
whether drawing the transit center out of the town, what that does to the town is
kind of an amorphous thing, but it had some changes to it.
No one really wanted the big buses going through town. The town isn’t well
suited for the width of the road, but it is fine for the medium-sized buses. So,
those who were concerned if it was at either end about how you were serving the
town, it’s going to be served by the medium-sized buses anyway. We’re going to
start up a nice shuttle system. And so really, nobody loses. Everybody’s getting
better transit service. From MTA’s (Mass Transit Agency’s) perspective, the site
on Highway 130 allows that connection going straight from the transit hub to
Kea‘au and in to Hilo to be a much faster maneuver and less diversion off to any
other location. So, that’s where the recommendation came down at the end.
But in my report of the criteria that was identified of what we were looking at, we
try to be partially describing how each site fell on that criteria. And Site 6 was
not the top on every single criteria, and that’s something that we felt it was our
responsibility to layout to the County. Because at the time we wrote the report in
August 2019, we were making a recommendation to the Administration to
consider. At that time I said, “Well, if there’s still some uncertainty where you
want to go with this, my recommendation is go with the one that’s the fastest but
go ahead and lease it.” And that had been the recommendation of the report to do
a lease. But that can always be debatable.
A lease, you put in the investment for the improvements then maybe you move it
someplace else a few years later. It’s kind of a lost investment. So, these are
tradeoffs, legitimate tradeoffs.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Cheryl. I know you’re
knowledgeable on this, and we’ve had these discussions. The report that you’re
mentioning, the alternate-site report, I notice that your minimum requirements for
a mass transit terminal were two to three acres of land. The lot that we’re looking
at that we’ve already had appraised, that we’re appropriating funds for is 1.5 acres
of land.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
So, I’m noticing that our minimum requirements of what we wanted that
functions as a terminal that helps the economy of Pāhoa rebuild, we’re not even
meeting those minimum qualifications. And there was a note that you could do a
smaller piece of land as long as it was rectangular. And to me, these are
important things that we seem to have glossed over or someone has seemed to
have glossed over all of these basics that only, because I sit as the Vice-Chair of
Mass Transit, have I noticed the master plan called out a different location. The
PCDP (Puna Community Development Plan) says Pāhoa is secondary as a site for
a hub, Kea‘au being first.
Alternate-site report: Requires a minimum of two to three acres; although a
smaller lot can work, it would need to be rectangular. And a large part of the
community didn’t even know that there was a plan to put a mass transit terminal
there. There was discussion at the last meeting about the ridership of our mass
transit system, who this is designed for again. That’s why we’re here. But there
is this concern over Prince Kuhio Mall and different sites that we’ve used, for
graffiti and different kinds of people who use our system. And yet we’re fighting
to put that next to a high school and next to residents who have young children.
And I know some of them, and our daughters hang out. And their daughters live
there, and they’re worried that their daughters are going to have interesting people
climbing into their backyards in the middle of the night because mass transit hubs
function in different ways for different people.
So, my concern really is that there was a site determination that was done, and
there’s an appropriation here. Financially, I need to make a good decision for the
best output for Puna and for the entire County. We own properties already and
yet we’re pushing to appropriate funds to purchase a piece of land that is not, to
me, the most fiscally responsible decision that we can make. I’m not sold on
anything near Puna Kai. I just want to make a very good financial decision as we
move forward.
And, Chair Lee Loy, as you mentioned before, it was interesting that this wasn’t
put into the public works committee that you chair. And I would have expected
that this would have come into our committee first, instead of being passed
straight to Council.
I do understand there’s an urgency to proceed with this purchase and on which
behalf I don’t know where that’s coming from, but I believe this would have been
intended for committee so we could have a full discussion on the specific site
that’s being chosen. So again, I’m not against a terminal in Pāhoa. I’m not
fighting to not put one there. I’m just deciding and being the voice for the people
who live near the location that we’ve already appraised and for the people who
are going to be using our hub. Because, many of us do not use our mass
transportation system.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
It was interesting and great to hear that there is concern coming from Kohala and
from Richard Ha from Waimea and from different people who don’t live in our
district. And I take that into consideration, but this really needs to be a decision
that’s made by the people of Puna. So with that, I yield. Cheryl, unless you have
anything else to add?
MS. SOON: I would only just mention that the site size is two functions that
we’ve always looked at. One is the function of how the buses come in and out
and pick up passengers. The other is what amount of land you have left over to
do park and ride.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Yes. That’s a big concern of the PCDP as
well. Thank you, Cheryl.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. I have a question or a comment from
Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thank you. And yeah, Matt, I think part of this process is
the way our committees are set up. So, because this is an appropriation, it goes
through the Finance Committee. But you’re absolutely right; the matter is a mass
transit, public works issue, which makes me think just a little bit out loud that this
might have been better served if we did like a joint mass transit-finance
committee meeting because the subject matter is mass transit but the
appropriation falls into our rules with finance. And so, that’s why it went in that
route. It’s an appropriation.
And just to clear the air, that’s how all appropriations go. Even if it was for parks,
it wouldn’t go through, right. It wouldn’t go through Ms. Poindexter’s
committee. It would still go through finance. Maybe, Aunty Maile, you might
want to—because, it’s just part of our rules, right, the subject matters and how
they’re guided into the various committees?
So really, this was a function of finance. And just to bring a little clarity to that
issue, but maybe again it’s time for us to revisit our rules or maybe think to be
efficient like what Maile and Aaron did, and maybe convene a joint session
between mass transit and finance or a joint session between agriculture, water,
land, and finance so these things can be discussed together. But I just wanted to
share that. Thank you, I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any other comments? Ms. Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: So, it sounds like we started off in one place that should have
started off in another place, but yeah, and we’re still kind of in a hub and spinning
wheel. I just have a couple of questions here. One of them is regarding the report
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
on alternative locations for the transit hub in Puna that was provided. The report
was from August 2019, prepared for the Mass Transit Agency by SSFM
International.
And on page 8, right after the short-term recommendations, it says, “A permanent
decision. Resolve to make a permanent decision no later than 2022. From what
is known now, it is between Sites 3 and 6, but that could change as new sites
could appear.” Now, my kind of deeper question on that then goes to at our last
meeting, I was given the impression that we are under a distinct timeline because
the property owner wants to sell this property to the County of Hawai‘i and was
willing to give us another two weeks to come up with a decision.
So, I left with the impression that these finances, this money and this
appropriation, are directly to purchase this piece of property, and that was the
direction it was going. And we were under a timeline and push in order to make
that purchase, which, in looking at all of these other documents, doesn’t seem in
alignment with what we’re actually doing here today which is potentially
approving an appropriation. So, I’m not sure who’s best to answer this question
from me, if it’s somebody from SSFM, if you could explain what this permanent
decision then means. And then, also somebody from the County who can give me
some kind of distinct answer about whether or not if we approve this
appropriation, if what’s going to happen next is the property’s going to be
purchased because the timelines here don’t seem to intersect for what’s being
presented.
Hamana, is that best for you or—sorry, I’m looking at you because you’re right
here. Or would somebody—Deanna or Brenda or the representative from SSFM?
Or perhaps the presenter of this piece of legislation could clarify? Because, that
was my experience in our last meeting for the intention of the bill.
MS. SAKO: The intention was we were just moving forward trying to do hubs.
We came forward with the appropriation. We had been working on a property.
We heard there were concerns. We’re willing to try and address those concerns,
but we still need the appropriation to move forward and work on hubs. That was
our intention, and we’re still willing to work with everyone too. I don’t think
everyone’s going to—whatever site we pick, not everyone is going to be happy.
So, we’re trying to make the best decision for everyone.
MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Deanna. I appreciate that answer. I’m still
confused, though, because at the last meeting, we had the property owner there
and it was very much stated that we are under a time constraint to purchase this
piece of property. And so, we’re getting so many different answers about the
purpose of the appropriation, if it’s site specific or not site specific. I am having a
hard time, I guess, trusting that what’s going to happen if the funds are
appropriated that the decision—I guess I’m having confusion as to whether or not
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
the decision’s already been made on the site and the deal’s been made on what
piece of property is being purchased. So, can you tell me if that has been done?
Are there contracts already written up? I see the property owner’s here in
chambers. And the gentleman, I’m not sure if he represents the property owners,
but I’m just trying to get to the heart of this because what it says on paper is not
exactly what it seems is actually occurring.
MS. SAKO: So, we were asked to move forward with that property purchase, and
we did. We acted in good faith on both sides. And so, we moved forward with
the process, and we’re asking for the appropriation. That was kind of some of the
timelines and whatnot that were said last time. But we also have information and
are willing to lay out some of the different sites and the pros and cons of why or
to do additional work. We are trying to, I don’t know, make everyone happy I
guess, but it doesn’t always—
MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you for that even though that’s so impossible. I’m sorry
to hear that.
MS. SAKO: Yeah, I realize that now, yes. But when we were moving forward,
we acted in good faith. We had been asked to work on getting that site. The plan
did say to lease. I don’t think the owner was willing to do that at the time, so we
moved forward with purchase. And we’re just trying to move forward—
MS. VILLEGAS: Can I just interrupt you for a second and ask, who asked you to
move forward?
MS. SAKO: Administration. So, Mass Transit and the Managing Director at the
time. So, that’s what we were working under.
MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. Do my questions—am I explaining it to you
appropriately, Deanna, so you can understand my levels of confusion and concern
on—?
MS. SAKO: Yeah, I get where you’re coming from. And when we brought it
forward last time, it really was. It was just an appropriation, and that’s all I was
working on until concerns were brought up. But I think Brenda and her team and
the Mayor’s Office, everyone’s been just trying to move forward and help the
community. And we are willing to see if we can get an extension and look at it a
little bit more. But what I told you before is it is a very open appropriation. The
site doesn’t even have to be in Pāhoa. I knew we could move on to Kea‘au. I
mean, we could do whatever with the appropriation, but it’s an appropriation to
help Mass Transit move forward with their master plan. So, I just want there to
be certain that that part, it’s a very open appropriation.
MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MS. SAKO: The reason for the urgency last time was, yes, I mean, we were
trying to purchase that parcel. But we also hear there’s concerns, and we’re trying
to alleviate those concerns as well.
MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. So, however, like a relocation to another community
kind of is counterintuitive. I guess it just feels a little bit like the MOU
(Memorandum of Understanding), for lack of a better example; something is
signed and already going with the best intentions but then there’s questions and
it’s already happening. And then the explanation of the process. Perhaps this is
one of the common challenges of working with the legislative and the
administrative branch. And this isn’t even in my district; however, I recognize
the concerns by the leaders of the districts, the representatives of those districts,
and I appreciate your answering the questions and your patience and tolerance
with me on this. I still feel it’s kind of clear as mud.
I’ve gotten a lot of emails and concerns from people about just the nature of the
purchase of the property and the value of the property, and how that’s all
happening when it just doesn’t seem, by the report that we have here, that that just
kind of seems like the wheel came before the horse. So, thanks for your patience
with my questions.
MS. CARREIRA: If I can just make a comment because I’m listening to all of
this and then, two weeks ago, we were here. I think something’s clear—and I
apologize for what I thought was specific location is this one—if we don’t get this
appropriation, and that’s up to your Council, and the Aguinaldo part, the
expiration date ends or whatever, Site 6 is out. That’s really clear. And some
people may be happy, some people not, okay. Then, we’re going to look—we
have these other sites.
SSFM has been wonderful. We hired them to make this recommendation. There
were two community meetings. So, I just don’t want people to think we just
decided to do this. No. They gave the notices. We had the two community
meetings. We’ve had letters that came in. And so, there were these seven sites;
the recommendation came back.
At the time when I talked with Mr. Okabe, we thought a lease was still an option.
So in my mind, fine, whatever it is; unbeknownst to me that it changed. It was no
longer a lease. I was not even part of that anymore because Mr. Okabe and I
talked; this appeared to be the best location, okay. So, Hamana did what he was
asked to do, and you heard what Gilbert said. It’s okay. I mean, in my mind, I
just want to say it, transparency, Site 6 is good.
Yes, I’m way ahead of it. I’m two years ahead of what the master plan says.
Maybe if you guys feel this is not the time, that’s up to you guys. Fine. But we
do need an appropriation to do any kind of hub because it’s not just Pāhoa or
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Kea‘au, Kona, wherever it is going to be. But, yes, Site 6 is on the board, and that
is true. And if it’s not appropriated, then it’s off the board. That site is gone
unless Mr. Aguinaldo renegotiates, whatever that is, which that’s not to me. But
we had an expiration date. If he extends it, great. If he doesn’t—but part of it is I
am asking from this Council a matter of trust that what we’re trying to do is in the
best interest of the community. Because believe me, I’m never going to do
something that I feel is going to hurt the community.
Because with these community meetings, I relied on SSFM. We had people that
called. They wrote letters, talked to the Council people. I’m always happy to talk
to them. It’s always about the people serving the people. If you believe in some
ways that we’re not serving the community, then maybe you should vote “no.”
It’s not going to hurt my feelings. But I’m trying to do the best job here. When
this came up, my question was that’s why we only put the $550,000 that we had
appropriated earlier. Because I think at that time, we didn’t realize we might get
this property or these other sites earlier.
And when it came earlier, it was like, oh, we didn’t ask for enough money—
maybe that’s my fault when I was new. So, I said we had to determine how much
money to make the improvements, and we came up with a number and that’s why
we came here. So, it’s not a matter of trying to bypass any committees or
anything like that. It’s we want to move forward, but if we don’t, then it’s just
going to be, maybe it’s going to be 2022 before we get the Pāhoa hub—I don’t
know—after further investigation. But we did it with the best intentions, and I
believe that because I wouldn’t be here without it.
MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Brenda. I just really want you to know that I
firmly and am super grateful for you and what you’ve worked on and what you’ve
done. So, in no way is this a reflection of any belief or that your intention was
anything other than to serve this community. So, I just want you to know that
from the bottom of my heart. I’m not implying any of that through these
questions. I’m just trying to get a better understanding. And you’ve been asked
to carry the cart and the horse up the hill. So, thank you for gathering whatever it
is that you have been gathering and putting things forward. So, I just wanted you
to know that. Thank you.
MS. CARREIRA: Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. I think Ms. Poindexter had a comment or a
question.
MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. Earlier this morning our whole discussion was on
processes. And I think this whole process and what happened is what was
probably all of the confusion because we keep talking about site, and yet this is
about an appropriation, not anything about the site. But yet we keep bringing up
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
site. And I know, Brenda, you said that the decision—but then according to the
August report from SSFM or the Transit Hub in Puna, Alternate Locations,
prepared by Hawai‘i Mass Transit Agency and prepared by SSFM. Okay. So, it
says, “Permanent Decision. Resolve to make a permanent decision no later than
2022. From what is known now, it is between Sites 3 and 6, but that could change
as new sites could appear.” So, after this August date, when did—okay, so you
made the decision after this report came out, right? Correct?
MS. CARREIRA: Yes, I—well, I talked with Wil, yes.
MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, so you and Wil made that decision after this.
Because, I’m just trying to understand how it got to this point. And I know you
said that you’re not trying to bypass any committee, and that’s not your fault. I
think we are at fault at this point because, bottom line, it should have been in the
Finance Committee, and it should have been Council Member Maile David as
Chair of that committee introducing this bill. That would have saved a lot of
confusion, and stick to what the bill is which is the appropriation. Nothing about
picking a site or anything. So, it just got very messy.
So, I hope we learn from this because we do have rules that show the process on
who should be introducing what, when, and where. Like Council
Member Lee Loy had stated earlier, if it’s an appropriation for some Parks and
Rec. (Recreation) facilities, it goes to the Finance Chair. I don’t have a problem
that I’m the Parks and Rec. Chair and I want it under my name. I don’t need that.
It needs to go to the appropriate one.
So I think here, that is all messy and that’s nothing to do with Mass Transit and
SSFM. This is all on us. So anyway, I’ll yield at this time and listen more to
more discussion if we have any. But I just wanted to state that, Brenda, because
you keep taking it on, not your intention. It’s not your—this is all to do with us.
So, thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. Poindexter. I know Ms. David
wants to speak, but Mr. Richards asked to go next.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, could you put me in the queue as well?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Pardon me? You’d like to speak as well?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah. I’d be happy to go after Mr. Richards and
Ms. David. I just wanted to let you know my light was on. Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Do you want to go now? We have Council Members
willing to defer.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Oh, sure. Thanks.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I wanted to start with some gratitude first. I know that
SSFM and Mass Transit met with both Council Member Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder
and I early in our term to say, “Your community has suffered so much with the
lava flow. So, we are going to make getting a bus hub in Pāhoa a No. 1 priority.”
I didn’t think it’d happen so quickly. And I’m kind of here just a little bit
laughing to myself because we get frustrated when government moves slow, and
now we’re frustrated when government’s moving efficiently.
And I think the County has been able to move forward so quickly and it’s because
we’ve gotten the help of SSFM—a third party leading this process. And I can’t
claim to have been involved in leading this or it being a priority of mine because
I’ve been so busy trying to help my community recover from the lava flow,
chairing two committees, being the delegate to HSAC (Hawai‘i State Association
of Counties), moving on affordable housing stuff and other things. And so, I just
want to state that I’m very grateful for your work and your commitment to
helping Puna.
I read through the recommendation as well, and I remember being at these
community meetings. And I remember point blank stating I would love any
property that is a turnkey solution where we can get immediate service to our
Puna constituents. I’m going to stand by that. However, I did feel that there were
other sites that might be a bit more conducive to the permanent location of the
hub. And so, I’m wondering when and where in the process from the report
coming out in August where Site 6 was identified as short-term, stop-gap
measure, to now it being the permanent location.
So, I don’t know if this is a time to call up Roy to maybe explain the maps you
sent us and, from a planning perspective, why we’re moving on this being
permanent instead of it being a short-term solution. And I’m also very curious,
right, and I don’t know who to direct this question to: The cost of developing any
of the other sites, if the infrastructure is there, the timeline for that, what the
process is going to be, if there’s environmental assessments? I’d just like to
know, ballpark estimates, if there are other better sites in your opinion? What are
they, and what is the cost and potential timeframe to develop? I just want to make
sure that we’re supporting our community and getting them the reliable service
that they need because many of these folks are riding to the west side of the
island. And so, they need reliable transportation in order to get to work. I know I
threw a lot of questions at you.
MR. TAKEMOTO: Okay, Question No. 1 that I’ll try to answer is, when did it
convert from temporary to permanent? I was not part of that process, but I can
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
see the reasons for that happening. It has to do with answers to your second
question on the relative cost of the recommended Site 6 versus the other sites and
other factors that went into the decision. So, as far as cost, there’s basically three
types of cost: the acquisition, the design, and the site-work construction. All the
sites other than Site No. 6 would have to work with undeveloped land. So, the
design and construction cost would kick in.
The acquisition cost. There is a State land Site No. 3 and the County property
Site No. 5 where there wouldn’t be acquisition cost, but yet both sites would have
the design and construction cost. The recommended Site No. 6 has acquisition
cost, but it’s almost a turnkey with minimal improvements to get it up and
running. There would be additional investments to fully develop it as a transit
hub, but it would be with the existing development there. It would be a quick
conversion to make it functional as a hub.
Some of the other factors that come into play in the selection of this site. Besides
it being the lowest total cost when you consider acquisition, design, and
construction, it’s also the quickest to implement because of the existing
development there already that’s usable for this particular use.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So, Roy, I need you to repeat that for me. Site No. 6, you
said lowest cost when you consider acquisition, design, and construction.
MR. TAKEMOTO: Yes.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: All other sites, again—maybe you’re getting to that
ballpark figure, but this is the cheapest, most fiscally responsible is what I’m
hearing.
MR. TAKEMOTO: We didn’t specifically cost it out, but just knowing the
conditions of the other sites as being undeveloped, that would require full-on site
development. And this site is already developed. Then it would be total cost, and
we can provide that. We can go to Public Works if you want that documented
with specific numbers.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Roy, I think that would be helpful so that my colleagues
and I can feel rest assured that we’re making a good decision. I don’t mean to put
you on the spot. I know you don’t want to just pull numbers out of thin air. So,
thank you.
And then, in terms of location and just CDP (Community Development Plan) and
where we’re going with lava recovery, your opinion on Site No. 6 as well as other
locations that have been identified to potentially be a Pāhoa bus hub.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MR. TAKEMOTO: The major factor is its characteristic as a hub where you have
larger buses coming into the hub, and you have the smaller buses that would go
through the town and to the other subdivisions in Puna. There are two of the
seven sites. Two of them are on the main highway that wouldn’t require going
through the town with the larger buses. That would be Site No. 3 and this
recommended Site No. 6. And between the two sites, Site No. 6 is at a new
section, signalized, that would provide a safer pedestrian crossing. Site No. 3 is
not at an intersection and would require walking through the roundabout, I guess,
and walking a few feet to Site No. 3.
There is another factor that Hamana alluded to. During the 2014 event where
there was concern that access towards Hilo would be cut off by a flow on the Hilo
side of Pāhoa Town would cut off Highway 130 and Railroad Avenue if the flow
reached to the ocean. And the only other way to provide evacuation and access to
the town on the Puna side of that flow should it have happened would be through
the Chain of Craters Road.
And of the—if you look at the map that I provided, the blue lines reflect the
steepest descent of a flow from HVO’s (Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s)
analysis. And Sites 1, 2, and 3 would be cut off from a flow flowing on the Hilo
side of Pāhoa Town. You have the remaining Sites 4, 5, 7, and 6. Four, five, and
seven are right in the middle of town where the large buses would have to go
through the town. Site No. 6 is on the main highway.
So, that was kind of like our thought process on how we evaluated the alternative
sites. But I’ll come back with cost comparisons looking at the total cost,
considering the acquisition and development costs.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Roy. I appreciate that. Joanna, Cheryl, did
you guys want to add anything about the report analysis? I thought it was very
thorough. Okay, thank you.
Matt, I know you’ve had the flu, so we haven’t been able to connect. And I hoped
that we could have talked, but I’m wondering do we want to postpone so you and
I can talk story with the Administration? I want to make sure that Matt and I are
proceeding in a way that is unanimous for our shared region. So, what do you
think?
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I would like that. It’s important that we do
that, and I appreciate that. If this would have come about as a bill, it would have
been about six weeks ago that the conversation could have started. And so, I’m
just being clear. So, open line of communication. We’re neighbors upstairs.
We’re neighbors in Puna. I would greatly appreciate that, and I would look
forward to that.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great. My door is always open to you. I don’t know if my
colleagues have any other questions or comments for the Administration. I’m
happy to hear them out. And when that’s over, we can potentially entertain a
motion to postpone for a couple of weeks.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I couldn’t quite hear. Ms. Kierkiewicz, are you
proposing to postpone this?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I’m saying I can put that motion on the floor after I’ve
heard from the rest of my colleagues. I know that Council Members Richard and
David had some questions or comments. Matt’s been sick, and he and I haven’t
had a chance to talk story about this. So, I want to make sure that we are
proceeding unanimously in support of our community, and if we can just get more
information from the Administration. I mean, I’m fine with what I’ve heard, but I
want to make sure that he and I are working in partnership.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, sounds good. I’m going to take a couple more
quick comments and then I’ll come back to you, okay. Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair, and thanks for all the discussion. I’ll come
back to my initial comments that I want to get funding going out to the
communities so we can get this thing moving forward. I appreciate the fact that
Ms. Kierkiewicz and Mr. Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder are going to get together and get
this thing done and behind us. We are here as an appropriation, not as a
discussion for the site. And so, I think we have a process issue. That being said, I
want to move this thing forward.
And so, I appreciate what the representation from Pāhoa is stating, but I do want
to get the funding out there. I am concerned about timeliness and timing to get
this done. And if we postpone it, we’re going to delay things and kick the can
down the road, and I’m concerned about that. But I do also appreciate the fact
that both people from the greater Puna area need to get together and get this thing
worked out. So, I am inclined to vote against the postponement but move the
funding forward with the caveat that you guys get together and talk story. I have
a bunch of questions, but I don’t want to belabor this. I’m going to yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, well, thank you for putting that out there.
Ms. David.
MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Is Mr. Takemoto still in Hilo?
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Yes.
MS. DAVID: Okay, great. I just have one question, Mr. Takemoto. I think
earlier you stated that the property class for this parcel is commercial or
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
residential? Right. And then, I’m looking at the tax map information, and for last
year, its property class is commercial. So, not to ask for an answer right now, but
if we continue this, then maybe this is something that could be clarified before we
come back the next time because there’s a really huge difference in the taxable
value or the assessed value between the residential and the commercial classes.
So, that’s my only question. You don’t need to answer, but I just wanted to
clarify that you did say this was classed at residential. So, between now and next
time we meet, just a clarification on that. Thank you, I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. David. Ms. Poindexter.
MS. POINDEXTER: I have a question for Brenda about funding and going off of
what Council Member Richards had stated about wanting to vote this through and
get it going. And what I think some of the fear is, that if you vote it through,
boom, it’s just going to be the purchase. And here, Council Member Kierkiewicz
and Council Member Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder are willing to get together so that they
can go to their community, get this all worked out.
So my question, Brenda, is if there is a postponement, does that put anything in
jeopardy, or would the postponement be okay while our Council Members in the
Puna district work together with you to get the community all on board? I’m sure
they won’t all be on board because there’s always no absolute. So, can you
answer that?
MS. CARREIRA: I believe Site 6 would be in jeopardy because my
understanding is the seller was only going to wait until the end of this month.
However—
MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah, we’re back talking to a site. Because, I think where
we went all crazy over here is the bill is about an appropriation and about how
you needed it to—whether to use it not just for that site but it could be anywhere
around the island or whatever that is needed. So, maybe we need to table this,
and you guys need to talk with Mr. Aguinaldo to see if a postponement would be
a good idea. And that would be okay because I’m willing to vote for it to go
forward with the condition that nothing happens until our Council Members from
the Puna district are both okay with it going forward.
And that is where when you said trust you, I’m putting my trust in you when
I’m—so, I need to know if you would be willing—would it be a good idea or not
a good idea. But you’re not certain yourself, so that makes me not certain.
MS. CARREIRA: Yeah, I’m not certain because it would depend on
Mr. Aguinaldo and maybe—
MS. POINDEXTER: Right.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MS. CARREIRA: I don’t know.
MS. POINDEXTER: So, I know that Mr. Aguinaldo is here. I don’t want to
bring him up to the table. I would prefer you guys having a few, and he having a
private conversation and coming back. So, I’m wondering if we could hold on the
motion to postpone and just kind of make a motion to table this till the end of our
meeting. So, I don’t know how our Puna Council Members would feel about that.
I’d love to hear from them. Thanks. I’ll yield at this time.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Ms. Poindexter. Mr. Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder or
Ms. Kierkiewicz, would you like to table this till the end of the calendar?
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: For today?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yes.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I’m going to need more time than that, I’m
sorry.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Well, I think that question would just be whether we want
to go for postponing the whole bill to get more information prior to—
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Well, as far as just postponing this bill until
a later time?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yeah. I think all of us would love to see both Puna
Council Members have the opportunity to have more discussion and dialogue
with not only each other but the community so that there is more support for a site
before we appropriate the funds. So, we were wanting to postpone this
appropriation bill; however, we know there’s also a time-sensitive matter pending
on the one site. So, it just seems like maybe some back discussion between you
folks or between Brenda and Finance or something could take place in the next
few minutes, and then we could revisit it to see if it’s okay to postpone the
appropriation.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I believe so. I need to ask one question of
Brenda.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Go ahead.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Brenda, I think what I was getting from Val
is if we don’t approve this bill, do you lose the funding for a mass transit terminal
in Pāhoa?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: No.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Not at all, yes? There is a lot of fear in the
community that if we don’t do this, the money will get taken elsewhere. I don’t
know how that started, but I’m just wanting to alleviate the fear from the
community that if we don’t do this bill today, the mass transit terminal will
disappear from Pāhoa and everyone will lose and the economy will go into a
downward spiral and everyone will blow up and die. I just want to help alleviate
this concern for the community.
MS. CARREIRA: We can get the appropriation, but again, it’s for any hub. I’m
not saying that if we can’t go forward with this or whatever, that we’re going to
try some other—we will look at other properties, sure, but I cannot say that the
next hub that we build is going to be in Pāhoa. We’ve got to look for all the other
hubs too. But right now, there’s a property. It doesn’t mean they’ll never get one.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: But the Mass Transit budget in the SSFM
plan already has a budgeted detailed timeline for purchases and buildouts and
constructions built in. So, this bill being postponed or Site 6 being unavailable in
the future does not mean that there will never be a hub for Pāhoa, correct?
MS. CARREIRA: Correct.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay. That was a huge concern for the
community, and that’s a lot of the concern that I was getting, that if we don’t do
this today, it all falls apart and we lose everything. I wanted to alleviate that.
MS. CARREIRA: No.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you, Brenda.
MS. CARREIRA: Sure.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Um—
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Mr. Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder, go ahead.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I don’t know that I need time to go back and
forth. I don’t want to spend more time than necessary on this. I would like to
postpone it, and I’d like to have some kind of a communication conversation with
both my Pāhoa representative and with Mass Transit and Administration and kind
of take care of what I think should have been done in the beginning before a
decision was made, and to get numbers.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: You can make that motion. Anybody can make that
motion, and we can discuss it.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Roy, did you want to say something? Thank
you, Karen.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Yeah, Ashley was going to make the motion but didn’t
actually make it yet. Nobody did.
MR. TAKEMOTO: Yeah, I’d just like to make a couple of points. One is, when
there was mention of a process, we did go through the—had community meetings
and we had the findings of those community meetings incorporated into a
consultant’s report. And that is the typical process in this type of decision
making.
Second point is, if you—there was a suggestion to table it to the end of the day.
We can try and get 1) an answer from the landowner whether he’s willing to
extend, and 2) some real quick-and-dirty cost comparisons of the alternative sites
based on unit-cost assumptions, and then you can assess (inaudible) with this
information at the end of the day whether you want to go ahead and make a
decision or move to postpone it further.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I would like to see some very good
numbers. I would like to see that done. I think Ashley was right on point in
asking that when we’re considering a site, that all sites be considered equally, that
everything should be appraised equally and independently. And we should move
forward with the best decision that would be on multiple levels whether it’s not
just easy but whether it’s financially the best decision for the County, especially
when we already own parcels in Pāhoa.
And I can tell that there wasn’t a lot of headwork done on the construction.
Coming from project management and a construction background, I can see that
there was not a lot of background information gathered on what the cost will be
regarding purchase and construction, and just pushing towards one site in
particular. So, the most important thing in project management is getting all of
your stakeholders on board. That includes people both for and against the project.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Yes, Cheryl?
MS. SOON: I’d just like to add one additional dimension to the timing issue.
The buses to do the hub and spoke, the spokes will start arriving in February.
And it’s going to, as you know, take time to construct whatever site. And so, I
guess the sense of timing that I’m interested in is how quickly can a site be chosen
and the hub constructed so that the operations can get going and people in the
community can start benefitting from hub and spoke?
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I greatly agree with you. And I think being
smart, the County should look at what we already have that could function in the
meantime while we find the best site possible. When we have a County park and
we have other resources, and a lot of them being compliant in many ways,
including ADA, and we have a pool, there’s different things that we can use and
leverage in the County that wouldn’t cost us a dime to do immediately. And
that’s where the fiscally responsible side of me and the commonsense, logical side
of me is trying to be very thoughtful, sorry, for lack of a better word. So, thank
you, Cheryl.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: It sounds like we are all in agreement that we want to
build some consensus here. So, the best way forward may be to clear up some of
these issues and concerns.
MS. LEE LOY: Chair?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Building consensus. If we do postpone, we can postpone to the
next Council meeting. And borrowing from Mr. Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder, I think we
have an open communication with the Administration to report to us monthly.
So, we could use that as a vehicle for him to provide real good information on
Tuesday’s Committee, which would then lead us into Wednesday’s Committee
where this appropriation bill is going to get postponed to. I think we kind of have
a way forward and then that would give people two weeks, the Administration, to
talk to the property owner. I see it in my head. But it also—what I like to do is
give a hard deadline so everybody keeps working because we’re back to the
community’s waiting for something, and they are underserved. We all know that.
We’ve all admitted to that.
So, I heard Ms. Kierkiewicz mention it and then even Mr. Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder.
I’m really ready to entertain a motion from either one of them with that possible
framework going forward and/or also putting something on the Mass Transit
Committee meeting. Mr. Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder, we have different vehicles we
could use. So with that, I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Hello, Hilo? Anybody?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Hi, Chair.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Hi.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I just want to get indication from the Administration that
we’re okay to move forward as stated, postponing till February. But I think we
need to make a decision then. The community is waiting.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, I think that’s our decision at this point.
MS. SAKO: I think we’ve made all the comments. I mean, some of the sites may
be off the table if we wait, and that is your guys’ decision.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Brenda, did you want to add anything?
MS. CARREIRA: Just one thing. If it’s postponed, I will be on the Mainland
thst
inspecting buses from January 25 to February 1. So, if you could please excuse
me if you have a meeting during that time.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Got it. Okay. So, if we don’t move forward on this
appropriation today, we postpone, we could potentially lose Site 6, which puts us
in the position of other properties that are not developed. Is that what I’m
hearing? And Pāhoa will get service; we just don’t know when. Did someone
from the Administration want to state that for the record? Sorry. One more time,
just so that we hear it loud and clear.
MS. SAKO: Pāhoa’s hub is in the Mass Transit Master Plan. They will get
service. We were working hard to get it done now. I don’t know if we’ll lose
Site 6 for sure or not, but that’s definitely a possibility. So, if we have to start
with another undeveloped site, it will just take longer. And we’re going to go
evaluate the cost now and see how it plays out. I mean, we’ve done rough
numbers in our heads so that we’ve already come to this conclusion, but we can
get you better numbers.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Do you want to hear any of those numbers? Okay. Do
you want to do a motion to postpone, or do we want to vote on the appropriation
and then have a commitment from the Administration to talk about location at the
next meeting?
MS. POINDEXTER: Chair?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Poindexter, is it a point of order?
MS. POINDEXTER: Well, not a point of order, but Mr. Aguinaldo is willing to
come to the table about, you know, because we’re worried about timing and if
he’s willing to—
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah, I don’t think—sorry. I don’t think we need to get
into that. Matt and I just want to, sorry, have a quick conversation maybe about
what we’re going to do going forward.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I’m okay with moving forward, but not with
the appropriation when the Administration has the ability to purchase a specific
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
property without coming back to this Council. So, I would move forward as long
as there is clarity with everyone that there will not be a purchase of any property
after this is passed. And that is missing.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: So, are you saying that rather than postpone, you would
like some kind of commitment that if we approve the appropriation today, that
there wouldn’t be any movement on a purchase until you folks have—?
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: I would like both. I would like to move it to
the next meeting so I can get all the information in front of me so I can make—
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Oh, then it would mean a postponement, Matt, because
this is the second reading.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so I’ll postpone it. Okay,
postponement then, please.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: All right, Chair. Motion to postpone Bill 131 until the
February Council meeting in Hilo.
Motion to Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to postpone Bill 131 to February 5,
Postpone: 2020. Seconded by Mr. Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Discussion? Any more discussion? I don’t see
discussion.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Can I add that I really appreciate the
conversation today from all Council Members? And the amount of time that we
spent on this is large, but I think this is a very important step for Pāhoa. It needs
to be considered.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Okay, I’m going to take a vote. All in
favor of the postponement, please say “aye.”
Vote on Motion to The motion to postpone Bill 131 to February 5, 2020, was
Postpone: carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: Council Member Richards – 1.
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
Page 59
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Now, I just want to ask and poll the Council
Members before I move on if you’d like to try and make it through the agenda, or
would you like a lunch break?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I think we can make it through.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Over here, they would like a lunch break. Maybe
we’re older, I don’t know.
MS. POINDEXTER: The kūpuna.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Would you folks be okay with that if we took a half-hour
lunch break? Okay, it will be a fast lunch break.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Okay.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Sorry about that, but I had a
unanimous lunch break over here.
MR. KANEALIʻI-KLEINFELDER: Thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. We’re in recess till two o’clock.
Recess: At 1:26 p.m., the Acting Chair called for a recess.
Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 2:11 p.m.
Return to Order The Acting Chair directed the Council to return to the order of business.
of Business:
Comm. 708: REQUESTS TO INCREASE THE COMPENSATION AMOUNT TO
LEONG KUNIHIRO BENTON & BROOKE AS SPECIAL COUNSEL TO THE
DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES, HEALTH & SAFETY DIVISION,
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION BRANCH
From Corporation Counsel Joseph K. Kamelamela, dated January 13, 2020,
requesting authorization to amend the agreement by increasing the compensation
amount from $300,000 to $350,000.
Waived: FC
Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire
membership, pursuant to Section 6-5.5,
Hawai‘i County Charter
(Note: Comm. 708.1, from Human Resources Director William Brilhante dated
January 17, 2020, transmitting his written support, was circulated.)
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Motion to Close Mr. Richards moved to close file on Comm. 708.
File: Seconded by Ms. Poindexter.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I see Corporation Counsel Joe Kamelamela is here with
us. Would you like to go ahead and provide us with the background?
(Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Joseph Kamelamela came
forward to address the members of the Council.)
MR. KAMELAMELA: Aloha. Good afternoon, Chair and Members of the
County Council. My name is Joseph Kamelamela, Corp. (Corporation) Counsel.
First, I want to mahalo Chair Chung and Chair Maile David for having me waived
through the Committee meeting. And the reason for it is because, after Christmas,
I had a meeting with Director Brilhante. He’s the head of the Department of
Human Resources. And he had informed me that he was running out of money.
So, I asked him, well, what kind of help he needs. He said they didn’t have
enough money to pay whatever needs to be paid for the rest of this fiscal period.
So, I told him that in our account, I can transfer, later on, $50,000 so that we
could at least continue the services being provided by Leong Kunihiro Benton &
Brooke.
Now, back in November of 2015, the Council at that time had authorized them as
being special counsel to handle a lot of the workers’ comp (compensation) claims.
The amount at that time was $300,000. And as of January 13 when I talked to
Sommer, who actually works in the workers’ compensation branch, she had told
me now they’re down to about $2,000. And so, I was willing to help
Mr. Brilhante.
And the reason why we wanted to do this, both Director Brilhante and myself, is
because it’s mutually benefitting to our department and also to HR (Human
Resources). But it also, in the end, benefits the County because of the type of
service that had been provided by special counsel. And I will just read something
that Director Brilhante had sent to the Council dated January 17, 2020, just to
emphasize why he wants to have them continue as our special counsel. He states
that the assistance and guidance that special counsel has provided to the Workers’
Compensation Division has been invaluable, and this firm has served as special
counsel to the Workers’ Compensation Division for the last five years.
Now, in my discussions with Sommer who works there, on or about January 13
she had told me how many claims that they actually have that’s pending. It’s
between 300 and 400 claims. Yeah. And so, looking at that, looking at the work
that they have done, I’m recommending that the special counsel has provided
effective, efficient, and reasonable legal services for the County, that I’m
recommending that we increase the compensation cap by an additional 50,000.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
I’m now ready to answer, if can, any questions any Council Members may have.
Mahalo.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Kamelamela. Council Members, do you
have questions regarding this matter? Anybody in Hilo? I think Mr. Richards
would like to ask a question or make a comment.
MR. RICHARDS: Thanks, Chair. Yeah, I think, Joe, your explanation makes
sense for that expertise. And, Chair, I have a motion to make to help make this
going forward when it’s the appropriate time.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Is it okay to go on with discussion before we—
better to make the motion? Okay. Yeah.
Vote on Motion to Mr. Richards moved to amend the agreement with Leong
Amend: Kunihiro Benton & Brooke by increasing the compensation
(Approved) amount from $300,000 to $350,000. Seconded by Ms. Lee
Loy and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Now, we can go ahead and discuss the communication, as
amended.
MR. KAMELAMELA: No, that’s it.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Oh, now we can vote. Oh, okay.
MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Richards’ motion was the substance of the matter, and you
just approved the Corporation Counsel’s request to amend the agreement.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Oh, he just clarified what the—
MR. HENRICKS: No, he made a motion to amend the agreement, which was
seconded. You took a vote, and it was eight to one. So, the substance of the
matter has been decided by the Council.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. So, that closes the file?
MR. HENRICKS: Correct, yes. Yeah, just vote on closing file.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay. Then, we will take a vote on closing file on
Communication 708. All in favor, please say “aye.”
MR. KAMELAMELA: Thank you.
Vote on Comm. 708: The motion to close file on Comm. 708 was carried by the
(Filed) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, got it. Thank you. Okay, now we can take
Resolution 431-20.
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. 431-20: DIRECTS HAWAI‘I COUNTY TO STRATEGICALLY ADDRESS ITS
ESCALATING HOUSING CRISIS WITH URGENCY
Advocates a multi-pronged approach to significantly expand affordable housing
opportunities on Hawai‘i County, including the creation of an Affordable Housing
Fund, the establishment of a “Hawai‘i County Housing Coalition”, and the
development of a comprehensive housing plan.
Reference: Comm. 657
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz
Approve: FC-100
(Note: Comm. 657.18, from Council Member Sue Lee Loy dated January 16,
2020, transmitting proposed amendments to Res. 431-20, was circulated.)
Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 431-20 and Finance
Committee Report No. 100. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Would you like to go ahead,
Ms. Kierkiewicz? Discussion.
Page 63
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I have some remarks, but I know that Council
Member Lee Loy has a communication where she wanted to offer up some
amendments. So, happy to take a motion for that.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: We’ll do that first?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes, thank you.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, then I will turn to Ms. Lee Loy, and make sure
everybody has Communication 657.18 in their folder. Okay, go ahead.
Motion to Amend: Ms. Lee Loy moved to amend Res. 431-20 with the
contents of Comm. 657.18. Seconded by Ms. David.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: You can explain.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. At our last meeting, I had specifically listened to
Roy’s presentation. And in that presentation, the Administration identified six
barriers to housing: land, infrastructure, permits, construction, financing, and the
rent or sale price. In addition to those barriers, the Department of Public Works is
actually going through a comprehensive building review process. And so, I had
posed a question to Ms. Kierkiewicz and then Mr. Takemoto, if this was an
appropriate vehicle to offer in these amendments which identify the barriers and
puts some support and policy direction behind the Administration to help continue
to overhaul the building permit system. And so, in Communication 657.18, I
offer up both of those in “WHEREAS” clauses and then “FURTHER
RESOLVE.” Just some small edits. But I am asking for your support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, any other questions or comments about the
amendment? Seeing none, then, all in favor of amending with
Communication 657.18 please say “aye.”
Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Res. 431-20 with the contents of
Amend: Comm. 657.18 was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: We can go ahead and continue discussion on
Resolution 431, as amended.
Page 64
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
MS. LEE LOY: Chair, I believe we have to suspend the rules because we are
amending a resolution at Council. So, motion to suspend our rules.
Vote on Motion to Ms. Lee Loy moved to suspend Council Rule 24 to waive
Suspend Council the holdover for the substantive amendment of
Rules: Res. 431-20. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the
(Approved) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder,
Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards,
Villegas, and Acting Chair Eoff – 8.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Member Chung – 1.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Now, you can go ahead. You want to
continue or turn it back to Ms. Kierkiewicz? Okay. Ms. Kierkiewicz?
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I just want to mahalo my colleague,
Council Member Lee Loy, for offering up these amendments. I think it really
helps to round out the resolution. I’m also grateful to the Administration. I
wasn’t expecting them to make a presentation when we were in Committee, so
I’m grateful that they did that. I checked in with Roy about how we can move
forward on this resolution should it pass Council, and he talked about three
different ways we can support this initiative.
The Administration’s going to continue participating in the very robust
discussions that are happening through Vibrant Hawai‘i. They’re going to
identify and move immediately on projects that they think will have great benefits
to the community. And a couple of things that he mentioned were the community
land trust concept that he’s presented to us a couple of times, as well as
organizing a lot of the initiatives, which is something I’m really pushing forward
in this resolution so that we can have a very comprehensive and strategic plan for
how our County helps create more affordable housing on our island.
And I think it’s worth pointing out, I think all of us, we were at the Legislature for
opening day and we were looking at the headlines. And what’s remarkable is
how the Legislature and the Governor are working to really address cost-of-living
issues, and foundational to that is housing. And so, I think this resolution is very
timely, and it calls for what I’ve been pushing for all year, which is better
alignment. This resolution calls for aligning our stakeholders, our funding
mechanisms, our policy tools so really we can create a more efficient and positive
environment for standing up housing. So, I’m grateful to the Administration, and
I’m hoping that my colleagues will continue to support this important resolution.
Thank you, I yield.
Page 65
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other comments, Council Members?
MS. LEE LOY: Yes, Chair.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Echoing what Ms. Kierkiewicz mentioned, we were at the
Legislature last week and we did hear from a number of our State representatives
about really aligning a lot better, and this does provide that framework. But then I
also shared, while I was there, with our State Legislature that the County has to do
their part, right? And so, I saw that as a tool with the building permit process. So
really, we’re just trying to line up, just as Ms. Kierkiewicz has spoken, just using
our different bandwidth and our different spheres of networking to really help
accelerate what the Legislature is doing for us this legislative session.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other comments? Mr. Richards.
MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. And I do want to thank Ms. Kierkiewicz
for bringing this forward because it starts scripting the road map going forward
for affordable housing. We don’t have enough housing, period. I have six
projects in my district, and we’re hoping to get a couple of those really moving
forward right now. I think this is going to help.
I know this is a high priority for everyone. I know the Mayor, it’s a high priority
for him as well. And so, anything we can do to get this moving. We all know too
many families that cannot get housing because we don’t have the inventory to get
it done. So, I’m definitely supporting this. I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, then I
would just like to agree that it helps to make housing and affordable housing a
priority when all agencies and all levels of government start to focus. So, mahalo
for this. All in favor, please say “aye.”
Vote on Res. 431-20: The motion to adopt Res. 431-20, as amended to Draft 2,
(Draft 2) and Finance Committee Report No. 100 was carried by the
(Adopted) following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
Page 66
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Moving to Resolution—well, let’s say
431-20 was adopted. Resolution 432 is next.
Res. 432-20: URGES THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I TO ESTABLISH FUNDING IN FISCAL
YEAR 2020-2021 FOR A COMPREHENSIVE AUDIT AND ANALYSIS OF
CHAPTER 23, SUBDIVISIONS, AND CHAPTER 25, ZONING, OF THE
HAWAI‘I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED)
Seeks an appropriation of $125,000 for the purpose of funding a consultant for the
Planning Department to complete the audit.
Reference: Comm. 658
Intr. by: Ms. Kierkiewicz
Approve: PC-44
Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to adopt Res. 432-20 and Planning
Committee Report No. 44. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Discussion? Ms. Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I just wanted to thank the Planning Department for
collaborating with me on this. I just can’t state the importance of these Codes.
It’s zoning; we’re looking at land use. And with subdivision, our road standards
and neighborhood character. And so, the last time these Codes were reworked
were decades ago. And with the numerous amendments over time, I mean, the
simple reality is we have to take a hard look and do a refresh so that it makes
sense for how we want to be moving forward with our General Plan and our
Community Development Plan. So, this is the first step, and I’m hoping that the
Administration, with your support, will hear us and include it in the upcoming
budget. And so, pinging Deanna Sako. Thank you in advance for considering
this. Chair, I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, all
in favor please say “aye.”
Vote on Res. 432-20: The motion to adopt Res. 432-20 and Planning Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 44 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
Page 67
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Resolution 432 is adopted.
Res. 458-20: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A MULTI-YEAR HOUSING
ASSISTANCE PAYMENT CONTRACT WITH AINAKEA SENIOR
RESIDENCES, LLP, OWNERS OF AINAKEA SENIOR RESIDENCES, FOR
THE SECTION 8 PROJECT-BASED VOUCHER PROGRAM AS OFFERED
THROUGH A PUBLIC NOTICE DATED JULY 26, AUGUST 2 AND 9, 2009
Requests the Council to authorize the extension of the initial master agreement to
February 28, 2030, to continue providing rental assistance for up to 29 eligible
elderly participants.
Reference: Comm. 685
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-101
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 458-20 and Finance
Committee Report No. 101. Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Comments, Ms. David?
MS. DAVID: Yes. I just want to ask for your continued support. Thank you.
MR. RICHARDS: Ditto.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. All in favor, please say “aye.”
Vote on Res. 458-20: The motion to adopt Res. 458-20 and Finance Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 101 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: The resolution is adopted.
Page 68
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Res. 459-20: AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A MULTI-YEAR HOUSING
ASSISTANCE PAYMENT CONTRACT WITH THE PROPERTY OWNERS
OR PROPERTY MANAGERS OF SELECTED PROJECTS FOR THE
SECTION 8 PROJECT-BASED VOUCHER PROGRAM AS OFFERED
THROUGH A PUBLIC NOTICE DATED FEBRUARY 18 AND 19, 2019
Authorizes the Mayor to enter into a multi-year agreement for proposed voucher
projects at Kaiaulu O Kapiolani, Kaloko Heights, Papaʻaloa Elderly Housing, and
West Kawili Street Senior Project.
Reference: Comm. 686
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-102
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to adopt Res. 459-20 and Finance
Committee Report No. 102. Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Discussion?
MS. DAVID: I just ask for your continued support.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. On this resolution, all in favor please
say “aye.”
Vote on Res. 459-20: The motion to adopt Res. 459-20 and Finance Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 102 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: The resolution is adopted.
Page 69
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Res. 467-20: 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 HAWAI‘I TO ASSIST WITH EXPENSES RELATED TO ITS
EAST HAWAI‘I PU‘UHONUA WELLNESS CENTER PROGRAM
Transfers $7,500 from the Clerk-Council Services – Contingency Relief account
(Council District 3); and credits to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Other
Current Expenses account.
Reference: Comm. 707
Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy
Vote on Res. 467-20: Ms. Lee Loy moved to adopt Res. 467-20. Seconded by
(Adopted) Ms. David and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: I have to apologize. I think I was asked to take that on
earlier in the day but I forgot.
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 128: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 19-73, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2020
Increases revenues in the Federal Grants – Nutrition Services Incentive Program
account ($20,000); and appropriates the same to the Nutrition Services Incentive
Program account, bringing the total appropriation to $120,000. Funds will be
used for home delivered meal services for the elderly.
Reference: Comm. 687
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
Approve: FC-103
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Vote on Bill 128: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 128 on first reading and
(Approved) adopt Finance Committee Report No. 103. Seconded by
Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 128 will move to second reading.
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): (Note: Bill 131 was taken up previously, out of order.)
Bill 124: 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 Paniolo Avenue Rehabilitation project for $5.5 million 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 paving and rehabilitating Paniolo Avenue in Waikōloa.
Reference: Comm. 644
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: January 8, 2020
Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire
membership to amend, pursuant to
Section 10-6(e), Hawai‘i County Charter
Vote on Bill 124: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 124 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 124 is adopted.
Bill 125: 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 Plumeria Street Rehabilitation project for $4 million 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
for paving and rehabilitating Plumeria Street in Honokaʻa.
Reference: Comm. 645
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: January 8, 2020
Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire
membership to amend, pursuant to
Section 10-6(e), Hawai‘i County Charter
Vote on Bill 125: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 125 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 125 is adopted.
Bill 126: AMENDS CHAPTER 5, ARTICLE 5, SECTION 5-84, OF THE HAWAIʻI
COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO
ENERGY CONSERVATION
Updates the County’s Energy Conservation Code provisions by replacing the
2006 International Energy Conservation Code with the 2015 International Energy
Conservation Code, and incorporating 46 amendments to promote the design of
energy-efficient building envelopes and the installation of energy-efficient
mechanical, lighting, and power systems in the County of Hawai‘i, while taking
into consideration local conditions and providing options to mitigate increases in
the cost of construction.
Reference: Comm. 646
Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy (B/R)
First Reading: January 8, 2020
Page 72
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to pass Bill 126 on second and final
reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion?
MS. LEE LOY: No. I think we worked really hard on this. I really, again, have
to thank everyone from the Building Division, our legislative office with
Leslie Chow, and especially the stakeholders who really engaged. But I also
would like to take the opportunity to ping the Administration. As we begin to
adopt these new Codes, it would be wonderful to offer our County workers some
training to help understand these Codes a little better. So, as we move forward
into the budget, I’d like to see Deanna please try and find some funding for their
education and training on these new amendments. With that I yield.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, thank you. Any other comments? Okay, seeing
none, yes, I’d also like to thank everyone that put hard work into bringing this
forward. All in favor, please say “aye.”
Vote on Bill 126: The motion to pass Bill 126 on second and final reading
(Adopted) was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, Bill 126 is adopted.
Bill 127: AMENDS CHAPTER 12 OF THE HAWAIʻI COUNTY CODE 1983
(2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO THE PROCEEDINGS FOR
THE FORMATION OF IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS
Modifies provisions to increase efficiency and program flexibility to encourage
the formation of improvement districts.
Reference: Comm. 655
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: January 8, 2020
Page 73
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Vote on Bill 127: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 127 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 127 is adopted.
Bill 129: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 19-73, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2020
Increases revenues in the Federal Grants – Speed Enforcement account
($137,715); and appropriates the same to the Speed Enforcement account,
bringing the total appropriation to $287,715. Funds would be used for speed
enforcement operations.
Reference: Comm. 699
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: January 8, 2020
Vote on Bill 129: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 129 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Bill 129 is adopted.
Page 74
Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Bill 130: AMENDS ORDINANCE NO. 19-73, AS AMENDED, THE OPERATING
BUDGET FOR THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 2020
Increases revenues in the Transfer from General Fund account ($6,000); and
appropriates the same to the Homeless Taskforce account. Funds would be used
for outreach and engagement services in West Hawai‘i.
Reference: Comm. 700
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: January 8, 2020
Vote on Bill 130: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 130 on second and final
(Adopted) reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
Bill 132: 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 Office of Management Village 9 Homeless and Affordable Rental
Project for $4 million to the Capital Budget. Funds for this project shall be
provided from State Grants Receivable. Funds would be used for planning,
design, construction, and dedication of an access road.
Reference: Comm. 704
Intr. by: Ms. David (B/R)
First Reading: January 8, 2020
Note: Requires 2/3 vote of the entire
membership to amend, pursuant to
Section 10-6(e), Hawai‘i County Charter
Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to pass Bill 132 on second and final
reading. Seconded by Mr. Richards.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Any discussion? Well, since I wasn’t here for the last
reading, I just want to thank the Administration and all involved for continuing
pushing forward with this. All in favor, say “aye.”
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Vote on Bill 132: The motion to pass Bill 132 on second and final reading
(Adopted) was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: That completes the “Order of the Day.” Bill 132, then, is
adopted. We can move to “Reports.”
REPORTS: The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
Reports.
(Note: PC-43 was taken up previously, out of order.)
PC-42 NOMINATION OF NICOLE LUI TO THE HAWAI‘I COUNTY CULTURAL
(Comm. 688): RESOURCES COMMISSION
Vote on PC-42: Mr. Richards moved to adopt Planning Committee Report
(Adopted) No. 42. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter and carried by the
following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
PSC-13 NOMINATION OF BENJAMIN AGDEPPA TO THE FIRE COMMISSION
(Comm. 690):
Requires Council
Confirmation by: February 2, 2020 (Section 13-4(l),
Hawaiʻi County Charter)
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Hawai‘i County Council-30 January 22, 2020
Vote on PSC-13: Mr. Richards moved to adopt Public Safety Committee
(Adopted) Report No. 13. Seconded by Ms. Villegas and carried by
the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
PSC-14 NOMINATION OF DONNA MAE SPRINGER TO THE POLICE
(Comm. 691): COMMISSION
Requires Council
Confirmation by: February 2, 2020 (Section 13-4(l),
Hawaiʻi County Charter)
Motion to Approve: Mr. Richards moved to adopt Public Safety Committee
Report No. 14. Seconded by Ms. David.
MS. LEE LOY: Chair?
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Ms. Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Like at Committee, I’ll be not voting on this matter pursuant to
Rule 14.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Okay, I’ll excuse you from voting. Okay, then, all in
favor, please say “aye.”
Vote on PSC-14: The motion to adopt Public Safety Committee Report
(Adopted) No. 14 was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff – 6.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder – 2.
Excused: Council Member Lee Loy – 1.
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Hawai`i County Council-30 January 22,2020
ACTING CHR. EOFF: Motion carries.
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.
(There were none.)
ANNOUNCE- The Acting Chair directed the Council to proceed to the next order of business,
MENTS: Announcements.
(There were none.)
ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 2:42 p.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn the
MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Council Members David, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy,
Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and
Acting Chair Eoff—7.
Noes: None.
Absent: Council Members Chung and
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder—2.
Excused: None.
ACTING CHR. EOFF: This meeting is adjourned. Mahalo.
MR. HENRICKS: Thank you.
Council Approval: FEB 1 9 2020
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