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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GREDC 2020/06/03 2018-2020 Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic Development 21st Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawai i June 3, 2020 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic ORDER: Development was called to order at 2:01 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Vice Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member (via videoconference in Kona) Ms. Karen Eoff, Member (via videoconference in Kona) Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Valerie Poindexter, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (via videoconference in Kona) STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: (There were none.) COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 659.4: REQUESTS AN UPDATE FROM THE MAYOR'S OFFICE REGARDING THE ADMINISTRATION'S UPCOMING PLANS AND PENDING PROJECTS From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated May 13, 2020. Motion to Close File: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder moved to close file on Comm. 659.4. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is a monthly update. And Roy Takemoto is here from the Administrative section of our government, to give GREDC-21 June 3,2020 us a PowerPoint, I believe. And just glad we had set aside this time, and excuse my absences in the past and getting this on the agenda. There's a lot going on. Roy if you come up and break down what you got for us today. MR. TAKEMOTO: Roy Takemoto, Managing Director. Can you understand me okay, with the mask? Okay. Alright, thank you for the opportunity to address you folks again. Actually it's good timing, because back in the saddle, starting this month, this week actually. For the past few months CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Roy, huge favor, I'm sorry to interrupt. Could you pull the mic a little closer to you? MR. TAKEMOTO: Okay. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Or if you feel comfortable removing your mask you could do that as well. MR. TAKEMOTO: Yeah, okay. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: But just pulling it a little closer, so we can hear you. That would be great. Thank you. MR. TAKEMOTO: Thank you. (Note: At this time, Managing Director Roy Takemoto came forward and provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the presentation, see the DVD copy of the proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office, a copy of the PowerPoint is made part of the record see Comm. 659.5.) MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Roy. I love being able to sit down with the Administration and discuss what's coming, because I think it helps all of us stay a little bit more cohesive, in communication. I really appreciate that. Some of these ideas are great, I like that you're including us in how we can help spend the $80 million or help find ways to spend the $80 million. I know I'm sure all of us already are working on that, in our own ways. I'm going to open up to everyone else. I enjoy this, it helps me kind of feel where you guys are. And I love being able to discuss with you what we see, and what we need. So I'm going to open up from here, and I'll come back later. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Matt, for putting this forward so we can have the discussion. Val, go ahead. Page 2 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 MS. POINDEXTER: Yeah. You know, a lot of—of course the rededicated priorities is, I just see dollar signs, you know. And here tomorrow we're going to be dealing with the budget. So I'm trying to figure out ways the $80,000 can go to some of the things that we have in the budget, but that's another story. But what I was concerned about, is in the budget, you know, you said that we need to encourage food production, which is correct. So that means supporting our farmers, right? But when I looked at the Prosecutor's budget, we kind of did nothing with the Ag theft program. And that's because we're waiting for the state to give us money. So it's my understanding, when I called the position is not even there any more right now. It's like unfunded. That's a big concern, because, you know, I was going to look well where can I get$50,000 from? Pull it out of maybe some of the Mayor's activities or whatever, and try fund it or, you know, put money towards Ag theft. So I really would encourage that. Because when you see what's going on, you know, we want to encourage food production. But there's a lot of people stealing, stealing from people's farms. I just read a lot about what just happen out in the Puna area with somebody raiding coconuts and destroying their property. And the family having to go in and clean up. So I think it's real important that we start looking at funding. If we say we want to encourage food production, we need to help the farmers with some of the struggles that they're going through with Ag theft. So I really encourage you to start looking at that. And that's all I have for now, because the priority for the dispatch center, you know, is that priority over food production? It's something that we got to start looking what our priorities are. Can we hold off for another year on the dispatch center? Will that hang on for another year, that we can address some of the more grass roots projects that would help us live a sustainable life and the lessons we've learned from the COVID pandemic. I yield at this time. Thank you, Chair. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Val. You know Roy, I just want to reflect on that real quick. I don't know if you're able to talk a little bit about what Hamakua Institute is doing in convening partners around food systems. To kind of talk about how we can move forward in a really realistic and thoughtful and aligned way around our food systems. I believe they're working on a collective impact framework type plan to kind of make that happen. Do you have any additional information you could share? MR. TAKEMOTO: No. The Ag types of projects related to recovery, I would have to defer to Research and Development. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, great. Thank you. Before I go to Tim and Sue here, I just wanted to check in with our friends in Kona. Ladies, do you guys have any questions for Roy? Page 3 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 MS. VILLEGAS: Just a quick question. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Great. Rebecca, go ahead. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Roy, thanks for this great print out. And I can tell a lot of the thoughtful, really considerate time that has been put into this on top of everything else. I just really wanted to once again, point out that we have on this side a number of shovel ready, already funded projects that are waiting in the permitting process that would be great opportunities to stimulate the economy in that capacity. I will always value health over wealth, but taken into consideration some of these opportunities, I think that it's really great to have some low-hanging fruit. To be able to grasp onto and identify ways to get people working and money flowing as we continue to work on regenerating our economy in a circular economy. I also wanted to just say, I was so excited to hear you talk about the donut economy. Something I've been studying a lot about recently, and really find it extremely relevant especially to our life styles in Hawaii. And the way we do business, and the way that we interact and support one another. So thank you, for your progressive vision in that capacity and utilizing this model and bringing this into an applicable format as we navigate our way out of a crisis, and into a more stable future for our island home. So thank you for that Roy. I yield. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Rebecca. Karen or Maile, do you have any comments? MS. DAVID: No,thank you. Thank you, Chair. Just to say thank you to Roy for the presentation as Becca said. Mahalo. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Awesome. Thanks, ladies. Okay, back here in Hilo, Tim go ahead. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Thanks Roy. Where to begin, right? Things you've touched on ring clear with me. You're talking about affordable housing, you're talking about 201H and I agree that we as a county has to facilitate and not obstruct. And that is a big one Roy, you and I have had this conversation quite a bit. We have potential projects before us, and so I think cleaning that up,the process up, would be very, very helpful going forward. From the economy standpoint, we have the building; and from the housing standpoint we need the housing desperately. We don't need to go through those numbers now, but I think that's something that's near and dear. Val pointed out a real good thing about the Ag theft initiative. That was put forth. Our Prosecuting Attorney supported it, had state funding. And then again because of budget cutback that position I think is cut right now or at least it's on hold. But that's something that we can do a lot with, and they thankfully had changed that Page 4 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 crime from a misdemeanor to a felony. Which is important for us to go forward, if we're truly serious about the food production. Spending $80 million, it's my understanding we can't do much concerning actual infrastructure right now. But I like the idea of having all the planning done, have it shovel ready, set to go. And that's how our state's has been successful building some of these highways. I think for our nation coming forward, we're going to see reminiscent of the recovery out of the great depression. We're we going to have Public Works' projects coming forth, I think that's probably where we're headed with this and I want to be ready to capitalize on that. So I like what you're saying there. We talk about food, and you know me, that's agricultural, it's all about. We need to be more supportive in our policy for agricultural going forward. And setting up programs, I think it's pretty simple when it comes to agriculture. We have to have the land availability, we have to have the water availability, and we have to have the infrastructure. So planning for that infrastructure, I know the state talked about it long time. I think we can plan for that as a county, and then hopefully we can get some of either the state or federal funding to build the facilities at our ports, both airports and seaports,to handle our Ag commodities going forward. And then the other thing, we have to talk about is the transportation side for agriculture. So I'm on board, I'm listening very carefully. I think we can go through $80 million pretty quickly, if we start assigning some of the projects. But I don't want to take up my fellow Council Members' time because I want to hear from them as well. I like the tone of what we're going through with this, Roy. And the most paramount thing we can do is open up the economy to get us back to work. Which, the final question I pose, and I don't expect an answer, but on the west side our resort areas are tomatoes on the vine dying right now. And they're asking for some sort of initiative to move things forward. I know we talked about June 16, for relaxing the interisland travel. Then the overseas travel. I feel we're going to lose some of these resorts, if we don't figure out how to better support them. I'm throwing that out, I don't expect an answer right now. But deeply concerned about that, I know they're struggling. They have been very good as far as taking care of the people, they've kept their people on healthcare and it's cost them millions a month. But they been doing it for all the right reasons. But that's going to run out, and then what. So I like what I'm hearing Roy, we can talk story more about the agriculture. And we have that opportunity to retool our tourism, we have an opportunity to retool our agriculture. So let's get it done. Thanks Chair, I yield. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Sue, go ahead. Page 5 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Roy. During your presentation and correct if I heard this, you mentioned there's been some discussion already about using 50 percent of the $80 million. Is that—no? MR. TAKEMOTO: No, it would be disbursed 50 percent initially, and then another. So that's just the disbursement schedule. MS. LEE LOY: So just following that train of thought, so 50 percent. Are we still looking at the same expenditure categories that was presented to the Senate back in May, on May 15? I believe there was six categories. Is it a fair assessment that we're just going to kind of do half at a time, or are we going to assign more monies to different categories to stand up areas more quickly, which would then support a faster more efficient recovery. MR. TAKEMOTO: I believe the categories are flexible. They provided a framework that was kind of consistent among the various counties. But that is something I think we owe the Governor's Office in how we would be using the money. We have to do a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding), and I think part of the agreement is that we would present a plan. So that is something we can re-evaluate as far as the categories and the breakdown of the funding. MS. LEE LOY: Yes. Roy, thank you for that. Building off of that, because within those respective categories we had community assistance, public safety, Hawaii Island recovery initiatives, which also actually mirror and parallel some of the lessons learned along with the rededication of priorities. So you know, the childcare grants, the household grants, the technology improvements, those were already contained in those three respective buckets. And so I'm just trying to get a sense of from the Administration, is that the areas that we're going try and be frontloading with this 50 percent so that we can pick up on the back end with housing construction, equipment compliance, and some of the other cost associated. Is that a fair assessment? MR. TAKEMOTO: Yeah. Six months will come quickly. Yeah, so a lot of those, the bigger projects, the housing type for the homeless and all that, those would take slightly longer, but all within six months. So the sequence, the priorities in which we draw down, yeah, I think it would naturally flow out that the easier, the low-hanging fruits will be the ones that will be spent earlier on. MS. LEE LOY: And then which leads me into the dashboard, right? Because that's a way for us to track that. Because the other thing, the crowd sourcing tools, we saw that really affective with some of the projects nonprofit like Vibrant Hawaii was doing. So I was also wondering if there's ways to use those collaboration tools to also do geo fencing. And when I mentioned geo fencing, you talked about pot holes, right. So we could actually begin to click on this GIS (Geographic Information Systems) layer, and then identify through crowd Page 6 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 sourcing and then Geo Fencing real needs that could accelerate recovery in various communities. Is that something we could kind of gage towards? MR. TAKEMOTO: I wasn't quite following you on that. So we can talk off line with your ideas. MS. LEE LOY: And then my last question or just thoughts is, you know, the lessons learned. Roy, I always appreciate that, where we evaluate. But the core functions, and I'm actually looking at this and it mirrors a lot of what's just basically in our Charter. And so I was just wondering if there's ways that we can accelerate the core functions with Public Safety, Public Health, and infrastructure and drive that in a very succinct and synergetic way, basically mirroring that's what's available to us and our Charter. So that there is a cohesive look at how we apply these recovery monies, but line them up also with our State Legislature or even our federal funding. Is there a way to kind of bridge policy language between what we're trying to do, and what's contained in our respective Charter language? MR. TAKEMOTO: Yeah, given—it is covered by Charter, but Charter gets kind of broad. So what we're trying to do is, set priorities, yeah. So if you can help us within the framework of the Charter, within the resources that we have available particularly this $80 million. And the $80 million has to have nexus to COVID, yeah. So if you can help us be creative in establishing that nexus and prioritizing accordingly, that would be super. MS. LEE LOY: I like hearing that Roy. Thank you very much. Chair, I yield. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Aaron, go ahead. MR. CHUNG: Thanks. Roy, real quick question and, you know, if you can't answer that's alright. Because it's really not a county thing. You got any Intel as to what the state is going to do with the schools? MR. TAKEMOTO: No. But we have Maurice in our office is our county liaison to DOE(Department of Education). MR. CHUNG: Oh, okay. MR. TAKEMOTO: So he's right on top of it. And I think only today, probably this afternoon right now, he's there meeting with them. MR. CHUNG: Okay, I'll talk to him. So right now no indication though, yeah? MR. TAKEMOTO: No. He met with a few of them yesterday. And they all scrambling, to figure out a safe way to open the schools. Page 7 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 MR. CHUNG: Most likely the decision will be coming out of Honolulu though, right, on this one? Overall. MR. TAKEMOTO: Well, you know, that was what little bit surprising. We thought they was a tighter top down guidelines coming. But we're not too sure how detailed it's coming down from the top, and how much each school has to come up with their own real detailed kind of measures. MR. CHUNG: Oh, okay. MR. TAKEMOTO: We can give you an update through Maurice. MR. CHUNG: I'll talk to Maurice. Thank you, Roy. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks, Roy. Matt, go ahead. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Alright, so you talked about a dispatch center, and we also talked about a call center hub. One of the things we've been tasked with is being extremely creative on how we find a COVID response and apply it to things that could be needed. So when you're saying that we need a dispatch center, and you're saying that a call center would have been extremely helpful during COVID, and then you can put those two together, and maybe do something with that. That could be useful. I just thought about that as we were thinking, yeah. Yeah, again, I just want to say mahalo for putting this together. Like I said, we're all coming up with all different ways to spend $80 million. And we're going to be creative, and we have a limited timeline and some pretty tight requirements to follow. But small business community needs funds. I know a lot of our workers are working from home, or teleworking and we're discovering new ways to be sufficient, and I think that's good. It's also a pain in the rear, but it's good at the same time. So it's been interesting watching the way we respond to COVID. We've definitely learned a lot of lessons, and I just wanted to commend you guys for doing a good job and staying in communication with us. And we'll keep this moving going forward. And then I'm sure you'll see a lot of ideas come from this Council as far as what we should do going forward as well. But I'm guessing you'll see it more in political formats, verses one on one conversations. But thank you for your time Roy, I appreciate it. I yield. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Great,thank you. Anybody else have questions or comments? Go ahead, Tim. MS. EOFF: Chair? Page 8 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Oh, yes. MS. EOFF: Aloha. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Hi, Karen. Go ahead. MS. EOFF: Thank you. Hi. Thank you, Roy. I just been listening and trying to wrap my mind around all the inter-relatedness of this presentation, and to what some of the Council Members are saying. But basically I just wanted to add my thanks to you, and also a shout-out to Maurice who has been so responsive. There's a lot of kind of repercussions, I guess people having been cooped up for couple months and not able to go to the beach. And all of a sudden beaches are open, and people are in a way, I don't know if they're just over exuberant or restless or whatever it is. But it just seems like we are going to need some type of increased maintenance, and security on some of our beach parks, I would say. Because we don't want to see them deteriorate, and I know people are just kind of, like I said maybe pent up right now. But I've been called on quite a few incidents along the west side here on the beaches. Things that been happening, not too good. And there is no security there, I don t know how we can do better with that. It's not just the county, but it's the state too. And you know, without being overzealous and controlling people, but just to let people know it's not just a free for all out there just because we're opening things up. And I'm not quite sure how that relates to your presentation, but I needed to get it out. I don't know if you have any experience with this lately or response, but I just wanted to say that. But mostly just thank you folks for all the work you've been putting into getting us on track, and taking advantage of the resources that will be available to us. Using them correctly, and in a way we can make some really big strides, in a lot areas given that we're, I guess, responding with help. With money and ideas from all over. I see a real positive that we can get out of this, even though the economy will take a while to recover. But there's a lot of other areas here that we're going to start with excel in, because of this situation we're in. Mahalo. I don't know if you had an answer for the first part of my question. But that's okay. MR. TAKEMOTO: Yeah,just real quickly. We have daily reports by the lifeguards. So we know where the problems are repetitively, or where the hot spots as they pop up in different places. But how to respond to that is, yeah, tough. I know the hard one is like Hapuna, yeah? MS. EOFF: Yes. MR. TAKEMOTO: Which is a state park, so that one is complicated by overlapping jurisdictions. But yeah, the police, the lifeguards, our taskforce, Page 9 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 they're all trying to look at this issue to see the best way to remind people that we still have a risky situation around us, so they need to keep their distances. MS. EOFF: Okay, good. I'm sure everybody is becoming aware, like you said, the problem areas and hot spots. Not only for the social distancing aspects but just seems a little bit,just other reckless behavior or lawlessness or justI don't know. But I guess people will settle down, hopefully. Thank you. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Thanks, Karen. Tim, go ahead. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, thanks, Chair. And just follow up, Roy. Thinking about this and again, throwing things out. Parks and Rec maintenance, if there's some wayI mean that's kind of rebuilding for our future, for our health, and wellbeing of the community. So I could in my mind, definitely tie it in there. Park and Rec needs a lot of maintenance, and repair in their facilities. You talked about expanding the workforce in times of need. I think we've had a good example of that, with all this food initiatives and coming together. I think the volunteer workforce is there to get things done, and maybe when we get to the other end of this we can do a better job coordinating. I think Ash, can speak to this, I know I can and probably Matt. There is a huge amount of redundant effort that we could streamline. And maybe this is the time because it would be retrospective look at everything that happened and how we can do it better. And those are the comments that are made, trying to set up some of these programs, trying to figure out what people aren't doing. Because a lot of people are doing a lot of good stuff, but we have a lot of redundancy. And so I think you have that expandable force there, if we can coordinate that force. Maybe we can spend some money there. And this is way off the radar, but it's good for me and for Val's district. I've been contacted about people wanting to host ropings again, the horse roping, the cattle roping. And I put it before Director Wahjen, and certainly Parks and Rec. That's kind of a weird one. And no one is really going to talk about it, it's a small demographic. But it's again, reopening it up, and getting people back into things. So I'm throwing it out there, so it's on the table for conversation. I haven't heard back from Roxie as of yet. Okay, that's it Chair, I yield. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Anyone else? No. Roy, how are you? You look refreshed, I hope you had a good weekend. MR. TAKEMOTO: Thanks for asking. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah, I mean one thing I didn't notice in your slide deck was something about mental health and wellbeing. And I just hope that we can have some space around that as well, because this pandemic has taken such a Page 10 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 huge toll on our community. Especially Puna, which is still recovering from lava. So I really wish you well and I hope you're, I think you're doing tai chi and taking really good care of yourself. So if we could also consider that too as part of our initiative in supporting our county employees, but also finding ways to collaborate with partners in the community to encourage that. I just had a couple of questions. And just reflecting on how COVID has really exposed a lot of the fragilities within our society. Economically, within our health care system, within our educational system, within government, and our ability to do business and interact with community. It's really upended things, but I just feel there's massive opportunities for local government, for county to lead. Because I don't see a lot of that strong leadership, coming from national or even state arena. Or if it is, it's very patchwork. And so it's on us, you know, Council, Administration, to be working together, and doing it in a way that really honors the community, and is very community driven and government supported. You know, we're going to have to get used to doing a lot more, with a lot less. And with that, I think a lot of innovation is going to be bred. And we need to find ways to truly partner with our community on this, and create new systems of engaging. Especially as it relates to our civic infrastructure. And ensuring that everything we do is much more inclusive, and equitable and resilient, right. Like we don't just want to bounce back to what we had, because frankly I wasn't happy with what we had. You know, I want to be bouncing forward, and creating a really resilient community. So a couple questions I had were around you talked about I'm a process junky, and so can you just clarify for me the process for how we move forward with the $80 million. That's our allotment as a countyI'm sorry the Administration transmitted to the State Legislature the categories, the buckets of how, you know, a very brief sketch of how the monies would be spent. Now before we can spend any of that money, every time we have a project that we want to move on do we need to get their approval? Does the Council need weigh in? Can you just let me know or all of us know what that process looks like, and what the expectation our kuleana is as Council to help with any of that? MR. TAKEMOTO: That's a good question. And actually the best answer should come from Deanna. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MR. TAKEMOTO: So we can get back to you on that. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, I think maybe at the next Council meeting, if my colleagues are okay with this. I'm going to ask for a presentation on the CARES Act money. Just so everyone is crystal clear around what the parameters and Page 11 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 guidelines are for spending that $80 million. And I think that would be, you know, really important for the community to know as well. Okay, great. Thank you. You know, the other question I had was around, you mentioned childcare. So earlier today, I had a question posed to our Housing Administrator, because I noticed that with the mainstream and Section 8 housing grants that were coming in a portion was for Admin, and then there was a list of various things that the money could be expended on such as cleaning supplies, such as childcare for staff, and he said they weren't going to move in that direction. Yet I hear you're saying that is something you're considering. Now is that childcare for county employees, or is that childcare for community at large. Could you just clarify? MR. TAKEMOTO: When I mentioned childcare as part of the potential projects for the $80 million, it was generally for the county. To support economic recovery. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, so not for county big C, but for all Hawaii Island. MR. TAKEMOTO: Yes. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: To increase capacity and infrastructure around childcare in general. Great. MR. TAKEMOTO: You hit the, right on the head. It's to increase capacity. Because even before this pandemic we had it was very tight to find good childcare. And now that they have limits to the number of children, there's a need to even more capacity. So how do we get more ? CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Incentivized. MR. TAKEMOTO: Yeah. So that is the focus of what we are trying to look at in using this money. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, that's the only clarification I wanted to have. I wanted to make sure I got it right. Yes, and I just want to say that you, Deanna especially, Diane, your entire team has been so incredibly helpful. I know that we've worked together to quickly stand up a number of projects. And so that work continues behind the scenes. I'm really happy about just your team's willingness to work with us and to stand some things up. So thank you, I appreciate it. Tim? Anybody else, questions? MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, sorry. One other quick question, but it probably be a long answer. Have you convened a group to study the re-opening of tourism, and maybe reinventing tourism on the Big Island and what it might look like? Page 12 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 Including the stakeholders, the resort people, the concessions and things like that. And obviously you don't want to start out with 200 people, but we have that opportunity to make it look something very different. And a good friend of mine many years ago told me if we keep it real authentic, it will take care of itself. We also have to be mindful of too much tourism. I guess we have to strike a balance in there. But have you convened a group; and if not, I think we could use this funding because we're talking about retooling. And there's some great minds out there that could come up with some really good things. And you, know, we're talking about agriculture. Agriculture and tourism blending them together, seeing what we can do with that. Again outside the box thinking. Again Roy, you don't need to answer all of that now, but I'm putting it out on the table because I think this is the time we're supposed to do this. MR. TAKEMOTO: Research and Development has a tourism specialist, and she's been on it working with industry and adapting. She was actually trying to do a tourism strategic plan before the pandemic, kind of retooling, refocusing, lessons learned. Because if anything what she was trying to do before became even more evident of the need to reshape our tourism industry here on this island. So,just as we need to get back to you on the $80 million process, I think this is another one that we can add to the list. That we can report back, and see how the Council can also be involved in this reimagining of Hawaii Island's tourism industry. MR. RICHARDS: Yeah, because I fear if we don't get after it soon, the people that would come would start seeking other venues. And it's 40 percent of our economy, whether we like it or not. We are dependent upon that, but we have a chance to make way better for both sides, the tourists and the people here. Yeah, that would be good if we can talk story about that. Thanks, Chair. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thanks, Tim. Roy, one final question. Can this be an opportunity for us to really accelerate establishment of resilience hubs around the island as a way for community to support themselves, but also to create economy? MR. TAKEMOTO: As part of the economic recovery strategy, or you think ? CHR KIERKIEWICZ: I mean with resilience hubs, and hear me out, right? You know, there are just not spaces for people to gather as community, but you know, like creating makeries and all that kind of stuff too. But I'm also thinking as we adventure through hurricane season, I'm frankly worried about can we handle a hurricane on top of COVID? And I just think with resilience hubs, and having this spaces that can be activated to push out food and information to people, in the event that does happen, I think it's worth exploring. Page 13 GREDC-21 June 3,2020 Anyway, you know I'm a big fan, really excited about that concept. And so if you think this is something worth pursuing, I'd love to talk a little bit more about how we can move forward with that. Alright, I know we've overwhelmed you with our ideas. Thank you, Roy. I don't see any questions or comments. We have a motion on the floor to close file, all in favor please say, "aye." Vote on Comm. 659.4: The motion to close file on Comm. 659.4 was Filed carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member David— 1. Excused: None. MS. EOFF: Ashley, Ms. David is not in the room so you have eight ayes. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, eight ayes. Thank you, I appreciate that clarification. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. (There was none.) BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of ORDINANCES: business, Bills for Ordinances. (There were none.) CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, do I have a motion to adjourn? ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 2:59 p.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member David— 1. Excused: None. Page 14