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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-11-15 HCHA Approved Minutes Meeting of the HAWAII COUNTY HOUSING AGENCY Hilo, Hawaii November 15, 2019 Agency Members Present Absent and Excused Karen Eoff, Chair Valerie T. Poindexter, Vice-Chair Aaron Chung Departed at 1 :27 p.m. Susan "Sue" L. K. Lee Loy Ashley Lehualani Kierkiewicz Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder Arrived at 1 :24 p.m. Maile Medeiros David Rebecca Villegas (by video from Kona) Herbert M. "Tim" Richards III, DVM Staff Members Present Guest Presenters Diane Ley Kevin O'Neil Douglas Le Mark Chandler Duane Hosaka Alisa Hanselman Royce Shiroma Brandy Allen Amy Bautista Corporation Counsel Members of the Public John Olson Susan Kim Eoff: Hello? Villegas: Hi guys. Eoff: Okay, aloha everybody. Good afternoon and welcome to the special meeting of the Hawaii County Housing Agency. Were here in Hilo and we have present today for our Housing Agency, we have Councilmembers: Valerie Poindexter, Maile David, our Council Chair Aaron Chung, Ashley Kierkiewicz, I'm Karen Eoff and in Kona we have Rebecca Villegas. Aloha Rebecca. So I'd like to call the meeting to order. Today our agenda item is a presentation which is labeled as an overview training on the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery by Kevin O'Neil who is the Assistant Director for the Federal Housing and Urban Developments Disaster Recover and Specials Issues Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Division in San Francisco and we also have...he'll introduce himself...are you going to come to the table too? Chandler: I was going to let Kevin... Eoff: Let him...okay...we'll let Kevin introduce you at the right time...okay. And we have some people from our Mayor's Administration with us. So today were gunna do things a little but different, were gunna wait till the end of your presentation to hear some comments from the public so if everyones okay with that just stay tuned and hopefully if there's time we can answers everybodys questions. Okay. So you'd like to re-introduce yourself and go ahead... O'Neil: I'm Kevin O'Neil. I'm one of the Assistant Directors... Eoff: I'm not sure if your mics on...is there a light? Multiple: press the bottom...press the button O'Neil: There we go, okay...ahhh...it's on... Kevin O'Neil, one of the Assistant Directors in the Disaster Recover Special Issues Division. I am the new manager of the San Francisco Office. Our division went through some re-organization and instead of running everything out of headquarters in DC, now we have five regional offices around the country and so my office covers everything from North Dakota to Siena Mie. So we have the west and the pacific. So big region. So that's where I will be operating from. We do have some staff that just started...one person starting, another one down the road, that they'll working in Mark...that's Mark Chandler...he's the CPD Director...they'll be working from the Honolulu office with CPD, they'll be managing the pacific grants. So we have Brian Davidson is the one staff person we have there now and another one will be coming shortly. I'm gunna talk very generally about the disaster recovery program and I have to do a disclaimer this...the federal register notice has not been published so everything I say is theoretical and general. There's no specifics. Because the federal register notice has...nothing is positive until the federal register notice is published and things are official. So everything I say is general and theoretical. So I'm just go through this is the disaster recovery, its part of one of the reasons we did the re-organization is cause disaster funds have increased by about 45 billion dollars just in the last three years, about three four years around the country. All across...just...all across the country 30 states, territories, 28 local governments that receive disaster funding right now, actively. This is the history and actually one of the earliest disasters grants that HUD managed was the Iniki one here in Hawaii. We haven't been here in a long time but we will be back. Page 2 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 The disaster recovery process, and again, I guess, I should apologize, the disaster recovery experience for the last 20 years has almost entirely flood related...and hurricane, floods. The rare earthquake and so a volcano recovery effort is a brand new thing for HUD, so we'll be learning a little bit and applying what we can apply from other experience. The way the disaster recovery funds come through it's a special allocation, it's not an allocation...annual allocation, so when congress decides its necessary they approve legislation allocating funds for eligible disasters over a specific time period, 2018, 2019. HUD actually crunches all the numbers. We use SBA and FEMA application data to come up with the form of allocating the funds across the country, all the grantees across the country based on the unmet need. It comes out in the federal register we talked about. It gets published there, then it's official. HUD awards the CDBG funds to specific grantees generally a state and local...mostly states, sometimes local governments, who actually administer the grant programs. CDBGs basic theory of operation since 1974 is that the local government knows best how to spend the funds, so we create general perimeters but the actual uses are determined as locally as possible so that's the basis of our...we'II allocate the funds, the local...the grantee will decide what the needs are, and decide what response, recovery efforts are appropriate for their community. They create the plan then we distribute the funds according to that plan. Like I said we've been here since...disaster funds since 1992. We do have...the basis of our funding is the actual CDBG regulations but there's with the federal register we operate with extensive waivers and special requirements to respond to the flexibility of individual grantees, grantees needs, they'll be a lot of waivers that you'll want to explore to make the funding work best for your community. The CDBG-DR funds were recover not response funds, the "R" stands for recovery, not response and it really is long term recovery and we want things...you don't put back what was there, you decides what's best to be done...bigger, better, stronger is often the case with that long term recovery resiliency mindset. Our funds are meant to fill the gap that others funding sources don't reach, whether that's private insurance or other federal programs, we will fund the unmet. Our finds are available for the unmet...unmet need gap after all the other funding sources have come in. We don't replace other federal funding sources. So what HUD does after the grant agreement has...after the grant funds have been awarded is we review the actions plans, your decisions on how to fund the program. We provide guidance, technical assistance, either through DRSI staff or consultants and then we will monitor throughout the course of the grant Page 3 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 expenditure to see how you're doing and make sure that your in...your performance is...complies with all the rules, HUD rules and federal rules. Your, the grantees responsibility is to design and implement the recovery program according to how you have determined the needs to be and the best solution to be. You'll have to establish internal controls to make sure that your actually, the work your doing is in compliance with your requirements and if you have...if you pass money through to somebody else, you need to play the role that H U D does, watching over you, you need to watch over those sub...sub-recipients. And, that internal control process is a big part of getting ready to spend CDB(G)-DR funds. It can take a long time to get those procedures...policy, procedures, systems, in place because this is generally a whole lot more money, it's a whole lot more CDBG money then you normally get annually, a lot more. The speed that your spending money is going to be greatly increased. Generally our grants...the target is to have it spent in six years, not the activity is going to be complete but the disaster funds need to be spent in six years, that's the target. But when you apply to some grantees with large...large grants to spend all that in six years would be 12 million dollars a day so that's the kind of volume you need to think about. The adjustment from an annual program to a disaster program you're going to be spending a whole lot more money a whole lot faster then you have previously and the financial controls you have to be in place need to be much stronger to make sure that there's proper oversight of that. The capacity to manage the grant but also the capacity to manage the flow of funds is critical, essentially to keep the grantee out of trouble, really. You want to make sure your spending it right. If its determined that you didn't spend it right, it needs to be repaid from non-federal source so its best to do...get your system set up and take the time to get those set up right in the first place so that keeps you out of trouble down the road. And just like we provide technical assistance to...to the grantee, the grantees provide technical assistance to their sub-grantees, sub-recipients. Cause essentially you're responsible for all the money. If your sub-recipient is spending it, if they spent it wrong, you might have to tell them to re-pay it from non- federal funds but then we, when HUD looks at it, we need to make sure that they re-paid you or you re-pay us...you pay the treasury, not HUD...out of non- federal funds if there's any funds that weren't properly...eligibly spent. So the other things that the grantees responsibility is to review any project applications, make sure that activities are eligible. Ensure that there compliant with all...there special HUD requirements for your annual CDBG program, the section three, it's an employment...low income...employment target, all the fair- housing rules need to apply to all the DR funds as well, as well as the environmental rules. Page 4 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 And actually often times that's difficult for the...it's a challenge sometimes for like a public works department that doesn't usually spend CDBG funds or a transportation department that doesn't usually spend HUD funds, there are special HUD rules that requirements for contracts that they need to make sure they know about and follow them in their contracts. And then the grantee also needs to track the progress of how their spending funds, how their sub-recipients are spending funds to make sure the funds...your gunna complete the projects in time and meet the target completion deadline. It's funny, you look at a whole variety of disasters, whole different amounts of money from $100 million to $5 billion and there's a general rule, is kinda a flat bell curve but its six years. People spend...there money is pretty much spent in six years. You got a start-up period, you got three, four years where you spending a lot of money and then kind of as you complete projects it tails off. And if you're not...if you don't want to have a time limit on things, that tail can go on for years after that...after that six year target period. That's why I say it's important to keep tabs on your activities, make sure there all progressing, if you got an activity that's stalling out that's not going to happen in year three, you think about re-allocating those funds to another area that's...where there is high demand, money is being spent, you need to make those...there tough decision to make to pull money out of one program that's not performing and put it into another one that does but if you don't, you're out six years and that money can be jeopardized...in jeopardy. The action plan process, which is a large part of getting ready to spend the grant funds, you're going to be creating the action plan and the action plan process actually starts with a needs assessment. And before you develop...you develop your possible activities and you kind of...through your needs assessment and planning process you can narrow it down to the things that you're actually going to do. You have the formal citizen review comment on that completed action plan but it's the whole community engagement requirement that needs to be happening all the way along, from the beginning of the needs assessment through the development of the action plan. It's really important to have an active community engagement component to that to makes sure that, one, no matter how much your staff can collect data, there always going to miss...more likely than not there going to miss something and its good to have the community members involved...see what you've identified as the needs and see if they have additional things, I bet they will and then have them involved in the discussions that there's a broad and open discussion...transparent discussion on what all those needs are and how you're going to narrow down...the process of narrowing it down and what you actually going to spend the funds on. And it's important to have that really all the way through just to make sure that you don't get stalled in that process and maybe have to re-do it. Page 5 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 So once you have completed that action plan and completed the citizen review process, HUD reviews and generally accepts. We might ask you to do...you know, add some details here and there. We make sure the activities are eligible on there face and then with that we can generate the grant agreement and you can move into spending the funds. There is a parallel component...let me figure this out, yeah...there is a parallel component I was talking about earlier about getting your financial management processes and procedures in place, there's a timeline for submitting the action plan and us approving the action plan, but we don't sign a grant agreement until those financial management capacity standards are met. So often times you may will have an approved action plan but we can't get to contract until all your capacity and procedures meet the requirements and that can often take longer than the action planning process. But again it's to make sure the money is spent properly and make sure that you have control of all of the federal funds. So we sign the grant agreement...you guys sign the grant agreement, then we sign the grant agreement. Often times the grant agreements will have some special conditions, if in the process of generating that grant agreement, or the action plan, the financial standards we identify things that you need to do, but we don't want to hold up the grant agreement, then we'll put in the agreement...we don't want to hold up the spending of funds...for activities that are ready to go but we might say you need to do this within 90 days, fill this position within 60 days, not spend money on this program until you have policies/procedures fully developed, that sort of things will be in that grant agreement. The eligible uses of CDBG-DR funds it's a...well here's...this is the standard appropriations law, more often than not, this is the language that changes every time they do it, but this is a common language: expenses related to disaster relief. Long term recovery and restoration of infrastructure, housing and economic development. Very general. Each...all of the DR grants are targeted to specific presidential declared disasters areas...disasters. We have what are called most impacted and distressed areas. So if sometimes its towns or zip codes or if a state gets a grant is a county that is that most impacted and distressed area. 80% of the money needs to be spent in those areas. It has to be eligib...meet the standard CDBG eligibility criteria unless like I said there's one of those waivers. And in the CDBG there's a national objective that needs to be met, anything that's spent on an actual benefit, needs to meet a national objective. The national objectives...do I have them...no. It's low-mod benefit, urgent need and slum and black for disaster grants slum and black is rarely used so its mostly low-mod or urgent need and that's still with the tie back to the Page 6 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 actual disaster whatever that disaster was are the general criteria for disaster grant eligibility. Everything that you do has to tie back. You need to document and have a logical argument as to why doing "X" addresses the actual...the original event. Examples are rebuilding homes, infrastructure damaged by disaster or providing assistance to unaffected...affected business owners. Housing recovery with DR, there's to...a standard waiver that allows new construction, the CDBG generally doesn't allow new construction, but with the disaster grant you can spend it on new construction, rehab, re-construction, single family, multi family, home owner or rental activities, a whole variety of housing. There's very little housing activity that's not eligible. Infrastructure, again, this is repairing, replacing, infrastructure that was damaged by a storm but also with a resiliency component. So you might be doing some infrastructure that will...that will have a mitigating effect for future storms. And certainly anything you build, any infrastructure project, you want to be considering mitigation and resiliency so that you're making it...you're not just...like I said not replacing what was there before but making it bigger, better, stronger having a better long lasting positive influence in case of future events. So a lot of bridge and road repair, water and sewer, extending water and sewer to housing...new housing development. And there's even some flexibility for buildings of kind of local government or that sort of thing which is generally excluded from CDBG and DR it can be eligible. Economic development activities. This is a difficult way to spend DR money but that doesn't mean it's not a good way to spend DR money. There's the job training workforce development for a lot of the trades that you might need, construction trades that you're funding with the disaster assistance, you can include a component to train people, local people, to take those jobs and then they have that ability going forward. You can do loans and grants to businesses and improve commercial rental districts. Like I say, the tie back to the disaster, we talk about it a lot, it's an important thing, it a thing that sometimes gets missed and causes troubles down the road, so you need, like I said, you need to document an a logical argument as to why what you're doing ties back to the storm the original...or storm...whatever the original disaster was. Like I said we usually deal with storms and floods but...whatever the event is, you need to have a tie back to that. Restoring the housing infrastructure, the economy that was effected by whatever the disaster was. Ineligible activities is something that doesn't respond to the disaster. Anything, in all the appropriations laws, there's always little tweaks, special rules, so you need Page 7 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 to make sure that you read the appropriate federal register and make sure that what your doing doesn't violate anything in there. An activity that's ineligible for the...the CDB...standard CDBG regulations unless there's waivers...in that federal register notice or you apply and secure a waiver that gets published in a later federal register notice. And then if it fails to meet a CDBG national objective, that's for any non-admin and planning activities are exempt from the requirement to meet a nation objective but everything else needs to meet that low-mod benefit or urgent need national objective. And there are some special new national objectives related to relocation and buy-outs and incentives for homeowners to move to safer areas, its variations on the low-mod and the urgent need national objective. So generally and except when we came out with the special mitigation funding, mitigation...strictly mitigation activities aren't allowed but stuff that you doing, you need to consider mitigation and resiliency and what you're doing but you can't have unrelated mitigation effort funded with DR. It needs to still have that tie back to the funded...to the identified disaster. Let's see... I guess, yeah...FEMA...our general argument, usually, other agencies provide mitigation fundings, like I said just this last year...this year...we've been making mitigation...special mitigation funds available and the expectation is that will be eligible going forward but typically it hasn't been. Purchasing equipment is generally not eligible with CDBG funds. There's some special exemptions for purchasing equipments. People can buy fire trucks and equipment that can constitute all or part of a public service, that's the standard rule and equipment that's att...permanently attached to a structure and integral to a fixture is allowed. Generally where that comes into play in disaster is that you can't buy generators...small portable generators with disaster assistance money. It's a...so you have to bolt it to the ground. So there's a variety of...ahhhh, this picture...this is an interesting picture...this is in Dubuque Iowa and there was a creek running through the town and 100 years ago they capped it and they...they...they built a...they topped the creek, channelized it and put a top over it and built houses on top of it and every time it rained that neighborhood would flood so... so with this was in nat...RBD...NDR grant...this was a National Disaster Resilience Grant, they were able to take some money, open up that creek again and create a flood way on either side of it and it looks very nice...it's a nice park but it's a flood way and now it doesn't flood anymore when it rains. That's an example of a resilient activity. There are waivers that we can provide except for the fair housing labor standards and environmental laws. We do not have the authority to grant waivers but a, you know, there's a whole variety of waivers and like I've shared Page 8 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 with staff or I will share with staff a list of the other waivers that grantees have received over the last 10 years, just an example of what kind of things, special...special conditions individual grantees have needed to tweak our regulations to fit their conditions...and we really are very flexible, the whole point is to meet your needs and not to be held back by a rule that we have the ability to change. We want to be as flexible as possible so that you can follow through on your determinations of what is needed, what is the best way to spend those funds. This is kind of a list of some of the highlights of where other grantees have gotten in trouble in the past. The big thing is procurement...it's a lot of money flowing and making sure that the procurement is done properly there's always an interest in rushing and getting things done as fast as possible but if you don't do it right, it can cause a lot of troubles down the road. Make sure the CDBG requirements, there's contract...CDBG contract requirements that need to be in every contract, like a...like a due date, if your contract was something to do "x" you have to have a date for when "x" is going to be done, you can't leave contracts open ended. It seems reasonable. And just the procurements are often so large that it...it...it's can be more complex. The contractors, sub-recipients there all going to have requirements that they need to do and they might not be used to doing them. All the labor...labor laws, the environmental reviews that are required, that they might not know that they need to fill out, those need to be in the contract, and the grantee needs to be making sure that...that there's over...proper oversight of those contracts to make sure that they are doing everything they need to do. And then also you monitoring the contractors performance, sub-recipients performance. Cause it is so much money and if you make a mistake most people don't have a lot...a lot of money to pay...to pay back funds so you...you don't have a whole lot of tolerance for mistakes at the monetary level and you don't want to have to be paying things back and the way to avoid that is to be having that good level...high level of oversight of contracts and procurement to make sure that things are done properly. In fact in...this is relatively new for the disaster recovery grants, we require an internal auditor, independent internal auditor, operating within the program that reports to generally the Mayor or the head of a department that plays an additional oversight role, just to make sure everythings are going well just because the volume is big. I talked a little bit about financial policies and procedures, you need to...there's pretty detailed standards we have now that you have to accomplish up front...document up front before we actually enter the grant agreement but then also have to make sure that you follow them...and people don't follow their procedures...that's an often...often a problem that we find, is that we have great policies and procedures but in the actual fact, you didn't follow those Page 9 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 and that can get you in trouble, that happens fairly frequently. The other thing is the CDBG-DR funds are used to fund the gap and you want to make sure that we...the legislation wants to make sure our funds aren't being used for something that another source of funding also funded or could have funded. Cause were the last resort to funding and there's a duplication of benefits is what we call it and there's some pretty extensive federal register notice requirements on how to do that and what's required but that's an important thing to pay attention to...that you...that you do that, you document it and have it available. And then the whole costs...allocation of costs and time...everything has to be documented, absolutely everything. That your properly allocating staff time, any general operating expenses properly to the disaster if you're funding it out of the disaster pot, you need to properly do that. Which again, ties back to those financial...following your financial policies and procedures. We have a reporting system, DRGR. That you put your action...once you write your paper action plan you actually enter into this system, you set up all your activities and that allows you to report on those activities quarterly and you actually also draw your funds out of that system. And it ties the spending to specific activities, so you can track funding, we can track funding. We can use that system to measure overall performance of the grant and performance of specific programs within the grant. Let's see... With a...we...HUD comes out and does onsite monitoring and technical assistance throughout the life of the grant for the first several years of the grant we actually generally come our four...in person four times, do two TA visits and two monitoring visits. Generally we don't monitor until after you have the grant agreement signed but we'll be doing a fair amount of TA, there will be a lot of HUD staff involved in oversight of these funds. As, you know...after five or six years we might just be monitoring once a year, TA once a year but we'll be out a fair amount of time. So that is...that...that presentation. I spent today meeting with you staff, we've been having phone calls, pretty regular phone calls... Poindexter: Excuse me one second...madam chair can you ask them if it's okay to have this presentation available for all of our councilmembers especially those who are not here... Eoff: I've been...l've been asking but so far nobody's delivered us a copy... Poindexter ....yeah, because I had a hard time following... Page 10 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 O'Neil: Oh, okay, yeah.... Poindexter ....I mean I'm trying to follow you and take notes and stuff. O'Neil: This is available on our website. It's available to anybody. [https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/CDBG-Disaster-Recovery- Overview.pdf] Poindexter: Oh, I wish I knew that I would have had it printed. Eoff: I was trying to see if...could have printed out for us... Poindexter: I mean it's too late now, I mean you went through it but I want to make sure that all of the agency members have copies of it especially those that are not here. O'Neil: Yeah, yeah. I think I shared the link but its HUD exchange, there's a disaster recovery special initiatives has a page on the HUD exchange site and then this is one of the documents on the front page. You can find the link to this document on the front page. And actually that...the HUD exchange, the DR site on the HUD exchange has all sorts of useful information, tool kits, training documents, resources for disaster recovery grantees. It also have links to the other disaster grantees, active disaster grantees across the country...gets you to their website and you can look at...see what their doing...you can look at their documents, and the website as well, so it's a very useful, useful site. Eoff: Did you want to continue? Your finished? O'Neil: Ahhhh...that was the end of the presentation. Nah, just generally saying that...that, I was saying that...that today with staff we've been having conference calls with the staff for a while that will continue and will be showing up...l'm here as a quick visit today but will be back again at least four times a year going forward. There's staff in Honolulu, they'll be here more often than that but formally will have a...be out here doing formal TA, formal mod training at least four times a year. Eoff: Thank you. I think what will do is open it up for councilmembers or housing agency members unless you'd like to... O'Neil: No. No, go ahead. Ask. Eoff: ....have anyone else from your team present. And ah is that alright, councilmembers can ask some questions and then after that we'll open it up for Page 11 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 public comments and stands. Okay. Thank you very much. Councilmembers. Mrs. Poindexter. Poindexter: Yeah. You had stated earlier in the presentation that disaster recovery long term resiliency unmet, about the unmet need gap...so and you mentioned something about not having enough insurance or no insurance? Did you say something to that effect? O'Neil: generally like for example of a...if you're doing a house was damaged...residential rehab. There's an analysis needs to be done to see what other resources [are] available to fund that housing rehab...so insurance... Poindexter: so if they didn't have...okay, so if they didn't have insurance because insurance companies wouldn't give them insurance, then that is something that this would be eligible...the funds would be eligible for? Okay. O'Neil: Yeah. Yeah. Essentially that would say there's no insurance funds available...often times its insurance proceeds, maybe FEMA has funds lot of times... Poindexter: So if FEMA wasn't able to help them because you can duplicate the resources...what is paid out...there's duplication of funds... O'Neil: Yeah, often FEMA...FEMA will fund a portion and we will fund a portion. But we don't fund more than 100%. Poindexter: Okay. And then, I know that there was a school that was damaged. And then you said that if an infrastructure was destroyed then, you know, they could help with that, so would that charter school or private school could be eligible for re-building? O'Neil: Yeah. Yeah. Poindexter: Okay. That's good to know. Okay. And I think that's all I have for now. Thank you madam chair. Eoff: Thank you Mrs. Poindexter. Mrs. Kierkiewicz. Kierkiewicz: Thank you chair. Thanks Kevin... O'Neil: Sure. Page 12 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Kierkiewicz: ....Mark. And I appreciate the recovery team very much for organizing this briefing for the housing agency. I have about five questions that I wanted to just tick through with you. O'Neil: Sure. Kierkiewicz: ....First you mentioned a needs assessment and that DR allocations are going to be based off of what comes out of this assessment so I'm just curious as to what that looks like... O'Neil: There's...there's two different...two different points in the process. When HUD determines how much funding...who will get funds out of a...out of an appropriation and how much, HUDs policy development and research division gathers data from FEMA and SBA and calculates the unmet need and then they will create a formula that funds their thresholds and variety of factors to decide how much...who gets funded and how much. But then once you do have an award...award has been announced and a federal register, the grantee does a needs assessment for...more detailed needs assessment, cause you'll better information then just FEMA and SBA, you'll add additional flavor to that description of need and additional data and also the public engagement in that needs assessment and then your action plan follows, needs to follow on that needs assessment. Needs assessment informs the action plan. Kierkiewicz: Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you. Are there any restrictions as to where the money can be spent? O'Neil: Where it can be spent? Kierkiewicz: Yeah, we have different lava zones on the island... O'Neil: yeah... Kierkiewicz: ....and so rumors going around that money can't be spent in lava zone one and two. And so just looking for clarity around that. O'Neil: Ummm, yeah...it's kind of two different questions. You have eligible areas which is most impacted and distressed and I understand the whole county is...is been designated most impacted and distressed so from that level that could be spent anywhere in the county. Ummm...but there are areas where if...where HUD...it's like...the nearest example is a flood zone, we don't...HUD doesn't allow you to use HUD funds to re-build in a floodplain, in a 100 year floodplain unless you elevate it. And we generally discourage people from rebuilding in a flood zone but if you really have to, you have to have to elevate it. That doesn't fly with volcanos right? So if there's an area where it's... it's you can expect Page 13 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 these inundation zones, then you're not going to be able to spend HUD funds in that area. For...for new...to build something. Kierkiewicz: To restore? But to upgrade?... O'Neil: umyou talking about house? Or?... Kierkiewicz: ....or infrastructure. O'Neil: ....Infrastructure. Maybe a road...road but not...not residential? Yeah, go ahead. He's got more experience this...volcanos. Eoff: Okay. Please introduce yourself for us. Chandler: Hi. I'm Mark Chandler, the Community Planning Development Director for the HUD Honolulu field office. So HUD does have a lava flow policy. So it's based on zones. So zones one and two are not eligible for housing work. I ...we did go back and double check as a result of this incident on whether or not certain infrastructure work could be done because people don't live in the infrastructure, the issue is where are people living, right...if if you living in a lava flow one or two zone it's not an eligible area to build a house...for HUDs purposes...obviously the county has been allowing constructions in one and two but sorry no HUD monies in that area. As it applies to the road or public facility, for example, we have actually helped with some of your fire houses in some of those lava flow areas in the past with our regular CDBG money so that's a public facility, people don't live in it and so that's where it would be eligible. Other than that if you're looking for housing it's not eligible. Kierkiewicz: Housing's not eligible. Infrastructure maybe. What about a boat ramp? Chandler: Well if that boat ramp is a public facility?... Kierkiewicz: Yes. Chandler ahhhh, then it's possible. Kierkiewicz: Even if it's in lava zone one? Chandler: Now it it'll be up to the DR side of things as it applies to determining finally whether that particular activity will meet the requirements. But as it applies to just use of our restrictions regarding lava flows one and two, if that's defined as public facility, then it's possible. Page 14 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Kierkiewicz: Great. Thank you. A few more questions. Any chances of an action plan being rejected? O'Neil: Ummm no, well theoretically. Theoretically. More often than not...you know there's ten...when you submit it we have 45 days to approve or deny it and we work towards approving it, we'll work...there be a lot of back and forth, you know, filling in, answering questions and getting to that point. Generally, if you're not there, often times grantees will withdrawal it and they'll work on it some more and then re-submit it. I don't know that its ever happened but if we did reject an action plan all it does is start the clock over again you got 45 days to submit a new action plan, were never not gunna...you don't lose your money...its just we work till yes...we work till yes. But it may take longer than the allotted time. Kierkiewicz: Is part of submittal public comment? O'Neil: Yeah. Yeah there's...like I said there's a community engagement process, you need to be actively engaged in the community throughout the whole process but then yes, technically there's public hearing and public comment periods for that final action plan. Kierkiewicz: And in your experience have you...has public comment weighed in on your decision as to whether or not accepting the action plan or refining it? O'Neil: Yeah. Yeah. I mean if if a you have a comment that brings up a valid point and you're ignoring it, then were going to tell you, no go back and address that. If you got a comment and you respond...there's...your follow a comment with your action, your response...you describe what you did, whether you incorporated it into the plan or you explain why you didn't, then that's fine. Kierkiewicz: Okay great. Just a couple more. Examples of some eligible projects, activities for our situation. Are buy outs being discussed? O'Neil: Buy outs are often... Kierkiewicz: Temporary rental assistance? O'Neil: ....often. Yes. Yes. Kierkiewicz: Okay. All of that? O'Neil: Yes. Yeah. Kierkiewicz: What else? Do you think for our unique situation? Page 15 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 O'Neil: Theoretically? Yeah...its buy outs. Developing affordable housing in a safer area is a big thing. You can't...I don't thing dikes will stop lava flow so....flood experience, thinking of flood experience...ummm so yeah. Any...a variety of public facilities, infrastructure, roads, water and sewer to areas where you do want housing to happen that sort of thing. Developing multi-family housing also you have some affordable rental housing happens a lot. Job training activities. Again, it's harder but it's a good thing to do. Especially if you have a shortage of construction trades or even small business, you can do small business assistance to help them...operating funds, capital reserves they call it...operating reserves. You might need to promote businesses coming back or establish new businesses to serve the community that were lost because of a disaster. Variety of...what else....) mean some states have gotten waivers to spend money on tourism promotion, it's not a popular one but its theoretically possible so... Kierkiewicz: It's our number one economic engine here. O'Neil: Yeah. Yeah. Kierkiewicz: I have a sub-question about buy outs? Only applicable to lava zones one and two or anywhere on the island? Cause you mentioned that the entire island is eligible. O'Neil: Well the entire island is eligible... Kierkiewicz: okay. O'Neil: ....but to have a buyout you have to have a logical reason for why you're buying out those properties. So you would have to identify areas of highest risk and you would have an explanation...a rational for why you're doing buy outs. So in a dimension it's kind of hard to have a rational for buying out properties in an area where you're issuing building permits. Kierkiewicz: Thank you Kevin. Couple more. Do you think...you know my colleague councilmember Poindexter did bring up Kua 0 Ka La Public Charter School, helping them to resettle doing a property acquisition, is that something that could be funded by the DR monies? O'Neil: Poss...yea h... Kierkiewicz: Possibly. O'Neil: ....possibly. Yeah. Page 16 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Kierkiewicz: Okay. Last question. Based on your interactions with our county and recovery team do you believe that we have the internal controls, fiscal management in place to receive DR monies should the federal register be published say in the next 30 days? O'Neil: Do you have it? Nobody has it when they start. Kierkiewicz: Okay. O'Neil: It's a...everybody needs to develop it. Kierkiewicz: Do you think we're on track to build that capacity? O'Neil: The presentations I saw today and the conversations I've had over the last several weeks I think you guys are on...on the right path. But you know it can take I mean...it took the State of California six months so...its its its a lot of work to do. Kierkiewicz: Great. Thank you. Chair I yield. Eoff: Okay. Thank you. Any other...Mrs. David. David: Thank you Chair. I just have a few questions and thank you Kevin. I think this is for Mr. Chandler though? The lava zones one and two for HUD purposes, would not be eligible for HUD funding, is that what were... Eoff: For housing? David: For housing? Chandler: Lava flows one and two are prohibited for housing. David: So lava zone two extends all the way to South Kona and so the fact that this...the qualification for the funds is and island wide one, the housing does...would not apply to half this island. Chandler: Lava flows one and two has been implemented since 1974... David: Right. Chandler ....for the purposes of HUD programs being restricted. And you have been able to assist the island with many housing programs over the years just you haven't ever assisted in lava flows one and two. Page 17 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 David: And that...and that has been a real on-going problem because when you're talking about insurance, and if you don't have insurance then possibly the disaster relief fund can...can step in but in lava zone one and two, I mean South Kona is like almost 100 miles away from...from ground zero and people in lava zone two have an extreme hardship in getting insurance, homeowners insurance and...and the like and its because they've been designated in that zone, lava zone two, so who designates these zones, the zone areas as...because I think the last time there was a lava flow was in the...the three flows in South Kona in the 50s, right? So is there any possibility of re-designating the zones to be more realistic as far as...lava zone one, yeah, I can see that its right, who would... Chandler: So, so...maybe to help you on this... David: ....how does that work? Chandler ....I can tell you when Mayor Kim was Mayor the last term, when he was serving Mayor last time, he came in and asked for an allowance to build in lava flow two areas, our response from our secretary of HUD at the time, still would be now, is that no and if you want to change the lava flow zone areas go back to USGS cause there the ones that actually do all the work and figure out where these lava areas are gunna flow and ah so we did tell Mayor last time, said a hey were more than willing to reconsider but you gotta go do the work with USGS to get the lava flows maps redrawn. And at the time the county did not elect to go back to USGS to draw the maps and I can tell you that maybe now with what the incident occurred, maybe it was good the Mayor didn't go back and ask USGS to rewrite the maps. David: So its... Chandler: But clearly he can go to USGS and work with them and I don't know how long USGS' processes is to rewrite lava flow maps but that would be a call on there's...I can tell you the policy itself is a joint agreement between USGS and our office of secretary through HUD. David: And so the lines were drawn based on a USGS mapping? or, I understood that it was taken basically from a district, from an established zones already. No? Chandler: No. We didn't establish...it it is purely based on what USGS tells us. We...we are not the specialists in where lava is going to flow and we rely on the scientists to do that. Page 18 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 David: Is there any possibility of them revisiting...like you said the Mayor has to...it has to be generated by the administration to revisit a mapping that has been done more then 30, 40 years ago. Chandler: Yeah. Yeah. and...and...our...our position is...is that absolutely the Mayor could go back to USGS and ask them to revisit their mapping and then once...once its, if they do remap it, then clearly you can bring that back via USGS and the county would tell us and there would probably be another MOU or some kind of agreement signed between USGS and HUD. David: I see. Okay. Alright. Thank you very much. Chandler: Yeah. Eoff: Okay. Thank you Mrs. David. I'm just going to let everybody know that Councilmember Chung...Chung had to leave but Councilmember Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder has joined us. Mrs. Villegas do you have any questions from Kona? Villegas: No and am grateful Scott was able to print out the dec for me so I have that here. Thank you. Eoff: Okay good. Alright. Thanks for letting us know. Villegas: Of course. Eoff: Okay. Any other questions? or comments? Okay so we have a little bit of leeway today and I don't know if people have signed up to testify? Or okay, I could just...yeah, I could just take you...so will just need you to come to the mic if you have a question. Why don't we do that...take questions or comments from the public. And you won't be able to...l don't think enter into a direct question and answer with the presenters, but we can listen and then we can go ahead and address some of your questions right afterwards, okay? (in audible) Eoff: Oh okay. Well if you'd like to do a statement form. We don't have any staff sitting over there now but, or you can just come up one at a time and introduce yourself. Poindexter: Madam chair I don't know if somebody from Housing is here to help with...if they need record on the statement form maybe if somebody could sit at that table and instruct the people who are coming forward to do statements. Page 19 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Eoff: Okay. Thank you. Poindexter: Thank you. Eoff: Okay go ahead and introduce yourself and we'll kind of stick to our normal format of (inaudible) three minutes. Olson (Public Testifier): Okay. John Olson from Puna. Just an FYI Don Swanson published an update in 2015 on the eruptive activity of Kilauea over the last 3,000 years definitively by chemistry and going back 15,000 years more generally. So there is more updated data laying out there if you want to find it. I haven't actually had a chance to talk to him about it yet but. Beyond that everybody sitting here knows how we got to where we are in terms of the infrastructure that is in hazard zones one and two. The fact that we haven't come up with a plan to allow people who were not informed to withdrawal from the area has always been a bone of contention, certainly with me. As you all know I was...1 chaired the Puna CDP, the one that is standing at the moment. I'm very familiar with the area and the problem with it. The fact that the monies need to be spent in a way that benefits the people who are there and allows them to withdrawal if they choose to...l'm not here speaking for myself, my house went...but I was informed, I knew...I knew the dog I bought, I knew what the crack in the back yard meant, I'd gone up and listened to Don Swanson's lectures, I can't say the rest is true for my neighbors. They were not informed. And we all know how that came about. That is wasn't put on your deed at the time. That you are in a hazard zone...no one knew. The mass majority of the people who bought 20 years or more ago were uninformed. So we have an obligation to right that wrong. We have an opportunity here to do that. And I'm looking forward to working with you to make that happen. If there's any other thing I would like to have some input on is...we have the historical town of Pdhoa which is in lava zone two and to maintain that and make some improvements for the economy there going forward we need to find a way to do that. Not sink a whole lot of money in it, but while we have it, to preserve it. And it is an economic boom and get working as is in the CDP on a new economic zone for that area which is basically the new Pdhoa, which is on the other side of the line. And to that end, go look at our new shopping center. Thank you. Eoff: Thank you Mr. Olson. Also, Susan Kim. Hi. Kim (Public Testifier): Hi. Thank you for this opportunity. I'm not really familiar with the CDBG so I do have a few follow up questions for you guys mostly, not to Council. Eoff: you can...you can just ask them and then we'll try and address them. Page 20 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Kim (Public Testifier): okay. So following up on the lava zones one and two not being eligible, is the waiver applicable? Like can we use the waiver to do something in lava zone one and two for HUD issues or HUD funding?... Eoff: We'll clarify that after you finish. Kim (Public Testifier): ....okay. And then, the other question is because a lot of our infrastructure, roads, water...were kind of waiting for that to be recovered in the disaster area, I'm just wondering what the timeline is for the CDBG funds, if in fact the roads take another year, are these funds gunna still be available? And then just another tactical question, you said 45 day to approve the action plan and then what is the process and timeline for disbursement of finds? I think that's it. Thank you. Eoff: Okay. Thank you. Let me see of anyone else has further comments or questions? Would anyone else like to come forward at this time? Okay then gentlemen can you come back? Thank you. So I jotted down her questions but would you like to comment on those? One of hers was, you know you had stated that the HUD funds...that housing was not an eligible use; however, she was asking if there's a possibility of waivers?... in that regard for housing... (in audible) O'Neil: Lava...within lava zones? Chandler: So for the lava it's not...not something that we wave. Eoff: In the lava zone one or two there's no possible way? Chandler: but...and to clarify, it just...it's the housing, where people live... Eoff: right. Chandler ....so the infrastructure, even the one individual that mentioned businesses, if nobody's livin' in there potentially an activity could be addressed. Eoff: Right. I think we understand that public facilities was allowable, it was just housing for... Chandler: Yeah, and...and...and the department has taken the position, I can even tell you the words that our assistant secretary said at the time, I'm not gunna let somebody die there. You know. Page 21 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Eoff: Okay, so that wouldn't be one of the things that a waiver would be used for? Okay. Chandler: Yeah. When...when there taken that strong a position out of headquarters its...there not gunna waive it. Eoff: Okay. Her other question was, I think you did address it earlier but the timeline? One of them was she mentioned that were the 45 days period for approval or denial or to continue working on it might start the clock over but then after that what was the time for disbursement? O'Neil: I mean, once the action plan is approved and all the financial capacity checklists have been approved, signed off on, then we general a grant agreement pretty quickly, like in a week or two. But then once...that grant agreement is in place, that means you're able to disburse funds, you have to get your paper action plan set up in the DRGR system which allows you to draw funds and then you are able to draw funds...start spending money...drawing funds down as soon as you are able to. So depending on...on what you're doing and the specific conditions in the grant agreement, if if your...you're going to do a housing rehab program and at the time that you sign the grant agreement you don't have policies and procedures for a housing rehab program, you're not ready to spend money on housing rehab until you've done that. Poindexter: Madam chair can I ask another clarification question? Eoff: Mrs. Poindexter. Sure. Poindexter: Because you said the application, once you receive the application, HUD has 45 days to respond?... O'Neil: Action plan. Poindexter: An action plan. So in that action plan is that the financial management capacity standards already done and all of these other processes? O'Neil: Its two parallel processes. The action...the needs assessment leads to the action plan and our review and approval of that. While that's going on you should be doing your financial capacity improvements and documentation of that and it would be best if they both ended up being done at the same time but we can't sign a grant agreement until both of those are done. Page 22 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Poindexter: Okay. So...cause, I...I'm getting kinda confused, If I'm getting confused, I'm sure the pub...the...okay application goes in?... O'Neil: It not an app...it's an action plan. Poindexter ....it's an action plan, okay. So action plan goes in. so, we need the time to come...to develop that action plan... O'Neil: Right. Poindexter ....that's gunna take... O'Neil: Right. right. Yes. Poindexter ....that's where the time, yeah? it's not going be 45 days and you get it and you know, so the word 45 days, that's why it seems... O'Neil: That's just our...our time to review it...yeah. Poindexter: Right. So there's gunna be several months, and planning before that plan comes to you, then 45 days to respond. Am I correct? O'Neil: Correct. Poindexter: Okay. So I just want them to know it's not this whole 45 days it's...it's gunna be months... O'Neil: Yeah, yeah no you have...it's...it's generally six months... Poindexter ....generally six months. O'Neil: From the action...from the federal register notice...six months to your completing that action plan... Poindexter: Okay. O'Neil: ....and hopefully...you'll be...the financial stuff will be happening at the same time... Poindexter: at the same time. O'Neil: ....and we can approve them all at the seam time. Poindexter: Okay, so, yeah. 45 days is just your window. Page 23 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 (In audible) off mic discussions. O'Neil: Yeah, I mean when we publish a federal register there will be a date, number of days from that publication date when the action plan is due. Poindexter: Right. So our the...the Committee that's put together for this, they, I think for the public needs to get a timeline from them on what there acc...how much time their expecting...ahhhh...or you what kind of timeline their having to meet all of these needs to get you that finalized plan for approval. So that's another timeline we need to look at. Okay. Thank you. Thank you madam chair. Eoff: So when we're speaking of timelines you also mentioned that its...its preferable that bulk of the funds be spent within in a six year period but not mandatory? Right? O'Neil: Ummmmm, actually the most recent federal register notices have had that six year expenditure date but that's a HUD rule and HUD can waive that rule. And...and really its its to encourage you to spend it in those six years because otherwise you're...if you only have a little bit of money and it just drags out on forever its admin costs for you, admin costs for us and not a whole lot gets done. But if you have an activity that's funded, that's happening and you just haven't finished it, you know were not going to cut the money off at year six. Eoff: So during that whole time you're working really closely with our recovery team here? O'Neil: Yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah and we look at...l mean you guys should be looking...we look at it...in year four, we look to see, we took a hard look at where the money is being spent and where it's not being spent and you need to have a...there's a hard decision you guys get to make, as to do you want to pull money away from an activity that's not happening, not moving and re- direct it to an activity that is moving...so that you...you can...you can make use of all the funds. So. I mean if it comes to year six and you got a pot of money that you don't know what you're going to do with yet, it's kind of hard to...to ask for a waiver, an extension on that. Eoff: Okay, did you have a question? Mr. Kanealii-Kleinfelder. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: Hi good morning...or afternoon. Sorry I was late and I missed something in the beginning I'm sure but I do have a question regarding businesses. For businesses, my wife and I own a restaurant and a lot of businesses in Pdhoa, Hilo, across the island have taken...there's been a down turn in business, Immediately following the eruption, but continuing to today due to Page 24 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 tourism downturns, that's across the state actually, but more focused in Pdhoa to Volcano to Hilo and then you can even see it in our more touristy sections of the island like Kona. I know that there was loans and grants and programs but as I went down to talk to the people who would come to give presentations on what's available for us the focus was more on the employee in the business and making sure that the employees were covered than the business owners and a loan doesn't do a lot for a business, it's helpful, but it just creates a debt. So the grants look beautiful and we all want grants but how do business that are still in the process of recovery or are not existing anymore, how do we take advantage of CDBG-[D]R... O'Neil: Business assistance is an eligible expense. It's one of the more complicated ways to spend money but it is eligible. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: Sorry the...what was it? O'Neil: It's a more complicated way but it is eligible for DR assistance and depending...more there's limitations on what you spend it for. They often...its...its...and operating...operating fund...l'm drawing a blank on the name but...operating reserve sort of thing...cash flow fund, you really don't want to spend it on construction typically...they don't want to spend it on...businesses don't want to spend it on construction cause of all the additional requirements for construction, environmental reviews, and whatnot that have to happen so most people spend it for that operating reserve sort of thing. But it's eligible. People...grantees have spent money on that in the past. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: and...oh, sorry, your going to have to (in audible) the mic and speak a little bit louder... O'Neil: Okay. Yeah it is...it is...it has happened. It is eligible. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: So business are eligible for these funds and how would they go about... O'Neil: No the...the County needs to decide who their spending the money. We don't decide. So the County puts it in there action plan, if you guys want to have a program to assist local businesses, you would develop a program to assist local businesses. You would, y'all, work out all the details how you're going to do it, but it's possible. Grantees have done it. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: and that's...that's and okayed...cause I saw it in the back, it is an okayed use?... O'Neil: Ummmmhmmm, yeah. Page 25 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Kanealii-Kleinfelder: But...so it's up to the County to develop that plan and how we can help our small businesses recover... O'Neil: Right, yeah, yeah. HUD gives you perimeters of what you can do but the details of how you guys do it, what you actually do are up to you. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: Okay. And then. Has the State come to you and asked for funds for some of their state highways that were affected? Not at all? O'Neil: Not that I know of. Chandler: No they...they have not come to HUD for...besides that we allocate the monies based on the way congress tells us to allocate and the State is not in that pot. For our regular monies for CDBG and, absent of whatever the federal register notice says, I don't know that there in the pot right now its...that's what HUD headquarters will decide whose in the pot. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: Doesn't the funding usually go HUD to State to County? Chandler: If you're talking regular monies, regular monies in Hawai`i goes from Congress to HUD to the County's...Hawai`i, Kauai and Maui for CDBG money and Honolulu. For our other resources it does go to the State and then the State allocates out to the neighbor islands. (In audible) Eoff: oh, can you turn your mic on? O'Neil: It turned off again...sorry disaster funds go to designated grantees which is often a discussion between the State and Counties. Potential eligible grantees. More often than not HUD does fund to States but we do fund to Counties as well. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: Thank you. Thank you. Eoff: Thank you. Mrs. Kierkiewicz. Kierkiewicz: Thank you Chair. I guess it's a good thing that the federal register notice hasn't been published cause our consultants TetraTech is still working pretty actively to develop the action plan. Do you guys have any indication around when it could be published? I think we always get hints of its coming, its coming and then here we are...almost end of 2019. Page 26 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 O'Neil: I don't have a good answer to that at the moment. Kierkiewicz: Okay. And you mentioned earlier six months after the action plan or notice has been published to submit? O'Neil: The...the...from the federal register notice its 120 days generally... Kierkiewicz: Okay, that's what I thought, 120 days. O'Neil: 120 days, yeah. Kierkiewicz: So it's published, 120 days to develop and submit the action plan and then it triggers the back and forth review, ensuring we have the capacity for financial management...all that in place... O'Neil: Yeah. yeah. Kierkiewicz: Okay. Great. Thanks for clarifying. O'Neil: sure. Eoff: Okay. Councilmembers, any other questions? I guess were agency committee members. Mrs. Ley would you like to add anything? Mrs. Poindexter. Poindexter: I...I have a question for Diane Ley real quick. Yeah. Have we started working on an action plan or looking at, you know, what we need to get to that point to...once the notification comes out? Ley: This is Diane Ley I am the Director for Research and Development and I have with me Douglas Le, our last names are spelled differently, no relation. And Douglas is our new recovery officer. Le: Happy to take the question. Douglas Le, Disaster Recovery Officer. We have started to draft sections of the action plan. I think as Kevin and...but just several not the whole document. Understanding what will be required and what will be waived in the federal register notice for our allocation of funding will drive, you know, our program design and the types of activities but we know there's things that we can start working on as we've been waiting for the federal register to be published. And so we have been...started working on the bones of what are the financial capabilities aspects that Kevin discussed and also drafting some of the sections that we know...you know we know how much to date FEMA and SBA has provided to folks on our island. We know...we have damage assessments for housing, we can start plugging those in. Page 27 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Poindexter: And...and during this...all this process of talking about how were moving forward, your engaging community leaders from that area that is being affected, correct? Not...l'm not talking about councilmembers, I'm talking about grassroots community leaders? Le: Correct. There are many folks on our team, some for whom community engagement, working with folks in the community, community leaders, it's what they do everyday. And then others of us who also kind of participate in meetings, everything from the large speak out events that we've organized in the community to even one-on-one meetings, smaller individual meetings as well... Poindexter: Yeah. yeah. Le: .... so its been a lot of information. Us bringing on the consultants to work on the recovery plan and economic recovery plan is distilling that information into projects and understanding of the different funding sources and the different roles that both county and non-county stakeholders can play. Knitting it all together. Poindexter: Yeah. Cause I want to make sure that we empower those leaders because every time election comes around there may be shifts in administration and councilmembers and we want to make sure that they can still take that ball and keep...keep going, right? and not have to do a restart again because were restarting again... Le: Yeah, we share that goal. Poindexter: Right, so its about handing it off to the community because...l'm kinda not used to this where county government takes hold of it because when we had recovered in Hamdkua, on the...when the demise of the sugar industry, it was we worked with the community organization that was a 501 (c)3 and we empowered that and gave them all the support they needed to...to have that happen and the recovery happened. Cause we come and go, right? and they stay there so...so this is the first that I'm seeing government just taking control of that so I want to make sure that a big part of the community is on that recovery team and taking control of it, cause this belongs to the community. So, thank you. Thank you for letting me say that. Thank you madam chair. Eoff: Alright. Thank you. Mr. Kanealii-Kleinfelder. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: Coming off the business question. Do we have any business side to or grants or anything proposed as part of action plan? Page 28 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Le: Urn so the one section of the action plan that we've put pen to paper on has started with the housing program, so looking at buy-outs. Looking at business aspects of it, its...its...definitely somethings that's on the table and something we've been talking about internally corning out of the kinda needs assessment and opportunities assessment that our kinda of consultants whose leading the economic plan, the Institute for Sustainable(?) Development, they are pulling together. I've seen small business loan or grants programs work successfully, even with certain challenges, in other jurisdictions and I think there's an opportunity here in Hawaii County. I also think that part of it is, you know, understanding, of course, were the lava erupted and where kind of folks were directly displaced. But al...while also acknowledging that the economic impacts were felt island wide. And so, we look to work with business stakeholders, community members, you all as council leadership to land where we can with not only the CDBG-DR funding but also other fundings that may be available urn tied to a disaster or just leveraging these dollars to kind of catalyze other economic development opportunities. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: Yeah this, when we first started the discussion on how to recover from the disaster, it was very, Leilani, Pdhoa, Puna focused but it was realizing like we all realized very quickly that Volcano, had taken a HUGE economic hit... Le: Ummhmm. Right. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: ....to where there's between the short term vacation rentals to... ??: can't hear you. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: ....between short term vacation rentals to ah the lack of lava and the state...or the national park. And when we realized that it was an entire corridor that had been removed kind of financially from the picture maybe not a direct lava impact like Leilani Estates but you can see the impact now and it continues so. Although it would benefit us and the rest of the island, I mean there's very key areas that would benefit from a business approach. And being that business support a lot of workers and pay a lot of taxes it's in our best interest to help them out. Le: I would agree and really HUD did our island a favor by acknowledging that the mid-earned, the kind of most impacted and distressed area for these specific DR dollars would be...could be used island wide. So we have that...that area to look at. Kanealii-Kleinfelder: Okay. Thank you. Page 29 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Eoff: Anything else you wanted to add? No? Okay. Well this has been very, very informative. I think you've kind of cleared up a lot of things and opened our eyes to the way forward so I really appreciate you folks coming from San Francisco and from Honolulu. And is there anything in closing you'd like to say before we adjourn? O'Neil: Ah, no. I'm happy to have come... Eoff: Okay. You can come back to the mic so we can all hear. O'Neil: I'd...l'd never been to Hawai`i before so... Eoff: Wow, okay. A special kind of a disaster. O'Neil: Yeah. Now I just need...l've gone to 48, this is 49, I just goat get to Alaska one day. Yeah, no happy to be here, this is you know, nobody wants a disaster but you got one and so you have some opportunities to explore and to develop and hopefully address some...some bigger problems, bigger issues, you can find some bigger solutions that you can fund with the disaster so that your...your more resilient going forward and that really...that's the bottom line and were going to be around, a lot, and happy to help, that's our job, eager to help, we enjoy it. There's a great team and new people in Honolulu but in San Francisco and resources all the way back in DC that are very helpful. We do...we're pretty good... Eoff: We also have a great team that's been working very hard here too... O'Neil: Right. Eoff: ....so I would look forward to maybe updates to this housing agency or as things progress, that would be probably very helpful for us and for the general public. O'Neil: Sure. Eoff: Thank you. O'Neil: No. Thank you. Eoff: Okay, would anyone care to move to adjourn? David: So moved. Page 30 of 31 Special HCHA meeting November 15, 2019 Poindexter: Second. Eoff: Moved by Mrs. David and second by Mrs. Poindexter. All in favor say Ai. All present say Ai. Eoff: this meeting adjourned. Thank you very, very much. Meeting adjourned at 1 :55 p.m. Page 31 of 31