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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-12-16 KCDP Minutes FinalMitchell D. Roth Mayor Lee E. Lord Managing Director County of Hawaii PLANNING DEPARTMENT KONA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN ACTION COMMITTEE Aupuni Center • 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 3 • Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Phone (808) 961-8288 • Fax (808) 961-8742 Wednesday, December 16, 2020 Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER Zendo Kern Director Jeffrey W. Darrow Deputy Director This meeting was attended by members of all Community Development Plan (CDP) Action Committees (AC) in the County of Howoi'i. Bethany Morrison, serving os o non-voting Chairperson for the Island - wide Convening of CDP ACs, called the Kona Community Development Plan (KCDP) Action Committee (AC) to order of 4:06 p.m. Due to restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, this meeting was held via the Zoom interactive video platform. The following persons were present: ROLL CALL Action Committee Members Present: Charles Young (Chair), Shirley David (Vice -Chair), Marisa Bankston, David Huerta, Kari Kimura, Roselyn Molina, Janice Palma-Glennie, and Franz Weber. Action Committee Members Absent -Excused: Shane Palacat-Nelsen. Planning Department Staff: April Surprenant (Long Range Division Manager), Planners - Kara Bocher, Eric Cook, Rob Leasure, Keiko Mercado, Bethany Morrison, and Kamuela Plunkett. Hawaii County Council: Holeka Inaba, Ashley Kierkiewicz, Heather Kimball, Sue Lee Loy, Tim Richards, and Rebecca Villegas. Members of the public: Members of the public observed the meeting via the YouTube livestream. The livestream is available at https://www.Voutube.com/watch?v=6gp N6DOUel. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA: None. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEMS: Long -Range Planning Staff member Rob Leasure read into record the following written testimony, which were submitted in advance of the meeting. The parties who submitted the written testimony were not present. 1. Communication 2020-01 from Kupuna for Mo'opuna to convey an urgent call to establish a Hilo Community Development Plan. 2. Communication 2020-02 from James Sogi to convey that tourism should not be a top priority and that other local services, agriculture and hi -tech should be promoted for economic development. Hawai'i County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Page I APPROVAL OF MINUTES: None. BUSINESS: 1. Island -wide Community Development Plan Action Committee 2021 Planning Update: a. Status of Action Committee Memberships Long -Range Planning Staff member Keiko Mercado presented the status per CDP AC regarding the number of persons seated or in holdover status, and the number of vacant seats. Currently, North Kohala and Puna do not have sufficient members to meet quorum, and Ka'u is yet to be seated. In addition, Ms. Mercado requested that current AC members provide names of community groups and individuals who are actively working on community initiatives and may be interested in working with or serving on an Action Committee. b. Tentative Meeting and Communication Cadence Long -Range Planning staff member Kamuela Plunkett presented the proposal to hold quarterly meetings per CDP AC, plus two (2) bi-annual Community & County Co -Learning Series meetings (see topic c. below). The quarterly meetings will be tailored to address relevant priorities, including Chair/Vice Chair elections, a one-year roadmap of AC priorities to work on, capacity building, unfinished business, and updates from Long -Range Planning staff on island -wide initiatives. c. High Level Overview of the Framework being developed around a County and Community Learning and Communication Tool Ms. Mercado introduced the Community & County Co -Learning Series (C2CLS) concept, which is a bi-annual forum to include all AC's to share information, collaboratively identify solutions to community issues, and advance island -wide community resilience initiatives After the presentation concluded, Long -Range Planning staff member Bethany Morrison opened the floor to a Question & Answer Session: Status of Action Committee Memberships Q: How are terms affected by the hiatus, during which the ACs did not meet from September 2019 to November 2020? A: This is under review with the department and incoming administration Q: Will quarterly AC meetings be scheduled on specific days/specific weeks? When will they begin so that 2021 Chair/Vice Chair elections may be completed to allow them to work on setting agendas? A: Subsequent to this meeting, Long -Range Planning staff will solicit input from AC members for input on day of week & time of day that is best for members and community to meet via on-line platforms. The first quarterly meeting will be planned for late-February/March of 2021. Q: With quarterly AC meetings, will items that require a vote mean that at minimum three meetings over seven months will be needed? A: Yes, for items such as subcommittee reports, but we would explore alternatives within Sunshine Law according to the nature of the item to be voted on. Q: How will quarterly AC meeting and C2CLS agendas be determined? A: For quarterly meetings, in the same fashion as before where AC members propose items, and the Chair/Long-Range Planning staff structure the agenda. For C2CLS, AC members across the island will propose items and the Long -Range Planning staff will aggregate into an agenda and review with AC Chairs httys.llwww.ylannin,-.hawaiicounty.,-ov/home kona(a_)hawaiicounty.,-ov Page 2 Q: Certain community members applied for the Puna AC in March 2020, but no word has been given. What is the status of filling the vacant seats in Puna? Has the Planning Department understood that there were so many un -filled AC seats? A: Yes, vacant seats have been discussed with the in -coming administration, which vets interested candidates. There are approximately 145 vacant seats for boards and commissions (including ACs) County wide, which highlights the need for intensified recruitment. Q: There is a county mandate for a Sustainability Committee (unsure of the name) and believe that the ACs may be a good place to host subcommittees to explore sustainability priorities. What is the status of this concept? A: This is correct. The need for a Sustainability Committee was identified by the Research & Development Department, but it is not yet staffed. This question will likely be raised with the in- coming administration. Q: Will all AC members have each other's contact information? The CDP website contact lists are inconsistent regarding making email information available. A: Agreed. The Long -Range Planning staff will update on-line contact info and share this information. Tentative Meeting and Communication Cadence Q: Will subcommittee procedures change under the new meeting structure? A: Existing subcommittees will have no change to their procedures to ensure Sunshine Laws are observed. Q: What changes should we expect under this new way of working? Are the ACs and Long -Range Planning staff expected to have different capacities/abilities to support implementation? Will the Planning staff be there to support the ACs? A: Long -Range Planning staff share concerns about capacity to fully support implementation of AC priorities and are hopeful that the new approach to leverage community and county networks will resurrect momentum on CDP implementation. High Level Overview of the Framework being developed around a County and Community Learning and Communication Tool Q: How do we improve the communication within and among the ACs, and between the ACs and the County planning staff? A: The C2CLS approach is intended to reduce the amount of time elapsed between such engagements. It intends to allow topics to be raised and addressed more quickly in venues other than formal AC meetings. Other topics Q: Any thoughts on connecting ACs with budgets to implement CDPs? A: Previous administrations have considered this as part of CIP budgets, but it was never put into place. This will be raised to the new administration to consider providing capacity building opportunities and to organize community groups, but not relative to direct budgets for ACs to administer. Council members could consider other funding vehicles during their budgeting activities. Q: Will there be an opportunity to build a relationship between the General Plan and the CIP budget requests? A: The ACs provide suggestions to the CIP budget. Until the next General Plan is adopted, we continue to propose CIP requests based on the current General Plan. httys.llwww.ylannin,-.hawaiicounty.,-ov/home kona(a_)hawaiicounty.,-ov Page 3 Q: Are there plans to establish a Hilo CDP? A: This is an on-going budget request but has not yet been funded. The question of funding and staff capacity considerations will be raised to the new administration. Q: Coordination between Planning and other departments regarding CDP priorities has been a challenge. How can this be improved? A: We believe that the C2CLS approach will elevate certain priorities and provide opportunity for improving this coordination. Q: What is the status of the Kona Open Space Network (KOSN)? It is a fundamental component to delivering on the Kona CDP. We need to re-engage the Mayor on moving this forward. A: The KOSN was under development by the Mayor Kim administration. The KOSN requires a consulting contract to fulfil its scope and needs to go out to bid, but the monies remain allocated. Planning staff does not have the capacity to perform the consulting procedure, which will be raised to the new administration to determine if they will resume the lead on this effort. Q: When will we meet the new Planning Director? A: As he is newly appointed, we will work with him to address this forum in our next session. Q: AC focus should be topic based to draw more community member interest to serve and to participate in the process. How can this be done? A: Community energy should be spent wisely, requiring community, Council and County resources to work more aligned in defining these focus topics. Q: Lack of County capacity to support CDP implementation is disappointing. Hope that this forum will help the County leadership recognize and address this deficiency. A: As part of General Plan update, we are attempting to address topics that are of interest to island -wide community and possible sources of funding. Engaging Council members more in CDP implementation is also essential. Q: Community members are concerned by the lack of progress with the CDPs and in the County in general. For instance, the State awarded $1.5 billion to work on wastewater treatment issues but the money has not been requested by the county, thus not disbursed. A: We do not have an answer on this today, but these are the types of issues we encourage AC members to raise so planners can help identify ways to move forward. Councilmember Tim Richards: An RFP on this has been delayed during the COVID-19 impact and this needs to be resurrected. Q: Bill 217 will prohibit foot traffic into Waipi'o, raising an important topic that the AC could address, but not hearing conversation on this in the AC. As the ACs are advisory to the Director and the Planning Dept. has noted that the Director will not comment on this bill to the Council (rendering any advice moot), what then is the role of the AC? Can the AC pass a judgement on the merits of this bill to the Council? A: AC members should provide their comments to the Council, which may be done independently if this topic is not taken up by the AC. Q: Regarding FEMA money in the Puna area, what is the County's role to facilitate bringing together grass-roots groups to discuss ways to use this funding source? Zoom/on-line forums can broaden community engagement — with this approach continue after the pandemic? A: The Network Mapping that we intend to do with the ACs in 2021 intends to identify the groups that should be leveraged and engaged on AC priorities and brought together. We agree that Zoom httys.llwww.ylannin,-.hawaiicounty.,-ov/home kona(a_)hawaiicounty.,-ov Page 4 is useful and will continue during the first half of 2021 but will need to identify how it will be used once in-person meetings resume. The presentation and public testimony communications may be viewed and downloaded from the following website: http://records.hawaiicounty.gov/Weblink/Browse.aspx?dbid=1. PROPOSED AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: None. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 6:04 p.m. All Action Committee information can be viewed and downloaded from our website: http://www.hawaiicountvcdp.info/north-and-south-kona-cdp httys.11www.ylanninzhawaiicounty.-owhome kona(a)hawaiicounty.zov Page 5