Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutGMAC Minutes 3.19.24 FINAL DRAFT Game Management Advisory Commission County of Hawai’i Minutes – Final Draft Meeting Date: March 19, 2024 Time: 9:00 am to 11:00 pm Place: Zoom and In-Person 25 Aupuni Ctr., Ste. #1501, Hilo HI LT: Aloha, good morning, everyone, welcome to the GMAC Commission meeting for this month – I’d like to call this meeting to order. This meeting of the Game Management th Advisory Commission will now come to order. Today is Tuesday, the 19 - 9 am in the morning. This meeting is held at the Puna Conference Room at the County Building in Hilo on Zoom and live in person – Hilo only. Introduction of Commissioners, roll call. 1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL: 9:00 a.m. District 1 - Robert Duerr, via Zoom District 2 – Vacant District 3 – Rhon Leomana Turalde, Present, in person District 4 – Brian Ley – Present, via Zoom District 5 - Vacant District 6 – Vacant District 7 – Natalie Reynolds, Present, via Zoom District 8 – Cortney Okumura – Present, via Zoom District 9 – Justin Ackerman – Present, via Zoom Quorum Established with 6 in attendance. STAFF: Sylvia Wan, Deputy Attorney, Corporation Counsel – in person Barbara Kossow, Administrative Specialist – via Zoom Alexey Katko, Executive Assistant Aide – in person LT: Aloha! A couple of housekeeping rules – please make sure your phones are turned on silent mode, for all of us attending in person please remember to speak into the microphone loud so we all can hear over Zoom. Under HRS 92-3 – the Sunshine Law – GMAC may remove any person who they believe disrupts a meeting to prevent or compromise the conduct of the meeting. Testimony – those in person – if you would like to testify, please fill out the form and remember you have 3 minutes. For those on Zoom if you would like to testify on any agenda items, please provide your name and identify what item you would like to testify in the Chat and for questions for the public on Zoom – you may pose a question through the Chat, if you have, and we’ll write them down on the paper here. The questions may or may not be answered depending on how the Chair feels about the questions – questions are something that we usually ask but 1 because we are apprised of hunters and real action type of events sometimes, we will answer concerns or questions. Just remember the Zoom is recorded and we’ll let you know to be recognized to submit your testimonies. Mahalo. SW: I’ll just post a note for the record we have Secretary Barbara Kossow who’s appearing by Zoom and we have Alexy Katko as our IT person who is helping us run the Zoom application. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: February 20, 2024 Action: R. Duerr motion to approve the minutes of February 20, 2024. Seconded by L. Turalde. Motion carried by voice poll vote. Six ayes, no nays. 3. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: LT: OK. Mahalo everyone. And now we’re gonna move to statements from the public on any agenda items – let’s just remind everyone you have 3 minutes for each testimony, and we can start with public testimony, on agenda item number 4 and 5 by Gary Beales. Mr. Beales you got 3 minutes, thank you. GB: Gary Beales, resident of Hilo for 50 years, also a user of Wailoa Small Boat Harbor for same amount of time, U.S. Coast Guard Captain for 30 years and a retired schoolteacher of marine science at Waiakea High School. My concern here is the Wailoa Small Boat Harbor and lack of maintenance. The shoal in that has occurred at the entrance has been dredged over the years – it was first dredged in 1946 and has been dredged since then. Ah, it’s been about 7 years and at this point it is almost impossible for the rescue services such as the County Fire Department to get in and out of the harbor when launching a boat to aid people in distress. Personally, I see this as a lack of maintenance by DOBOR and at this time it appears that the funds have been released by the State and DOBOR and Land and Natural Resources are moving to have the dredging accomplished by July 2024 – approximately 6 months. This concludes the presentation I was going to give unless there’s further questions. RD: Hey, I have a question. Duerr – District 1. SW: Testimony is not a time for questions. RD: Ok, thank you. LT: OK, thank you Gary – next we’re gonna move to Laura Acacio– items number 4 and items number 5. LA: Aloha, Chair and members of the GMAC – thank you so much for your volunteer work, you know that it’s often unseen and there’s a lot of background to it so just mahalo you 2 and mahalo the staff for also being here to support the work of the people. I am Laura Acacio, I am a resident of Hilo former State Senator and I’m also on the Environmental Management Commission; however, I am testifying here in my personal capacity. I did attend a – and this is an agenda item 4 & 5. I attended a public meeting that was called by DAR last week Thursday, there was much concern about issues that are – that is really about an emergency situation costing livelihoods as well as emergency Coast Guard, Fire Department, as the previous testifier had mentioned – it’s really important to have this on the record for the GMAC as it needs immediate relief and we do know that and mahalo our area representatives for having – OK – if you can pause my time that would be great cause that’s distracting. Hold on one second, I need to regroup. Sorry about that. I would like to see if the GMAC is able and willing to draft an immediate emergency letter to the Governor, to DLNR Director Dawn Chang, and to our area representatives specifically Representative Todd and Representative Onishi who have been working on this issue already, to get immediate relief and recognize that our community is asking for that relief much prior to July as that is peak, you know, going into peak fishing season and I think a bigger concern here in the emergency side also is, you know, from Keauhou to Kawaihae is this was our only safe access to the ocean for our boaters and fishermen and just raising that level of immediacy because of the emergency based on livelihoods, I mean, it really brings in issues of folks that are at risk of being homeless, and being able to feed their families based on that livelihood, as well as if there is a natural disaster or some kind of emergency where folks needs to go out to sea or come in for that matter. And so, the request is to see if there can be immediate action and movement from the GMAC on that. I am well aware that folks on the GMAC know about this issue, but just really to be here as a voice for… SW: Your time… LA: … \[unclear\] not there, um, and lastly to ask our legislators to call an informational briefing with DLNR and DOBOR, to answer questions that were posed to DAR that were unable to be answered by DAR. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. LT: Mahalo. Mahalo for that information and testimony. Right. That was our fair member of the public testifying. And our last member is Mr. Stanley Mendes. Aloha. SW: If you would please show us your video and unmute Mr. Mendes. He’s on…(no answer) Chair, if you like, we can move on and… LT: OK. Since Stanley isn’t responding, um, let’s give him a couple of seconds… SW: No, he appears to have left the meeting. 3 4. COMMISSIONER REPORT BY DISTRICT: LT: Mahalo. Aloha. OK, sorry, looks like right after statements from the public I skipped over item number 4 – Commissioner Reports by district. I was a little too excited, ah, so right now, we’re gonna go back to item number 4 and start at District – 1 with our district reports. RD: District – 1, Duerr, thank you, Chair, the issue leftover from the last Chair’s request for the Piha letter, I reached out to Stanely Mendes if he is – if he has any knowledge of Piha. He didn’t, so still tracking down the hunters who actually use that area and what the situation is and then I will get with DOFAW and see if they can outline what the project is and where the area is. And then, a big mahalo for the update on the Hamakua side for Maurice that’s really good information. Yeah, Chair, ah, though it’s your kuleana for Wailoa – both our districts border it – Wailoa has become an emergency situation. Ah, as we saw from both Mr. Beale’s and from former senator Acacio, I would request that next month that we look to have – look a little deeper on this issue and put it on the agenda item. That being said, I’d like to make a motion – this is moving in real time – this is moving in real time – boats are bottoming out and there’s a real safety issue here, I’d like to make a motion – the motion reads like this… SW: What are you trying to do? RD: I would like to introduce a motion from District – 1. SW: For what? RD: Can I read the motion? SW: Well, you can’t have GMAC take an action on an item that’s not on the agenda unless you are trying to create a PIG. RD: Is the, ah, Chair, thank you very much. I’ll tell you this – the community is working with this with Miss Acacio , Mr. Beales and numerous other – University of Hawaii, and numerous other, um, local, HIFAC – Phil Fernandez’s group – the \[unclear\] fund – and the issue is this – that Representative Onishi and Representative Todd are being contacted about holding an immediate hearing on the dredgings with DLNR Chair Dawn Chang – and with Ed Underwood – administrator with the Department of Boating – and the issue is on 2 – the immediate emergency dredging and also the performance of Ed Underwood in DOBOR, and that’s my report. LT: Thank you, District – 2 is vacant. District – 3, Leomana. I’d like to start off my report with – down in Keaukaha this past weekend I was able to attend the Kuhio Festival and one 4 thing that the fishing community in Keaukaha is doing is getting back to all of our original place names for all of fishing holes. I brought some examples of the old names of the fishing spots in Keaukaha. Lokowaka which is over at 4-miles, Puhi Bay which is over here – you can look at it and then Pewe – a couple of other places is from Onekahakaha and so these are all of the original names of our fishing holes in Hilo – not every area in Hilo had a unique name but this was due to its high popularity and the fishes that we used to eat, and this led me to having discussions with the kupuna of the community and having these ideas of tracking the fish over stories and not just in real- time today because when I was a little kid down right across in Puhi Bay all of the fish used to come up right next to the road and talking to the kupunas at the event this past weekend I was able to communicate with people who knew of the population of the fish, who ate the fish down in Keaukaha and it seems to be – to me now – the population is at like 5% of what it was when I was five and six years old so I would like to encourage everyone around the Island in their district if you can – get together with the local community and find out the old names of your fishing holes or your hunting spots. Outside of this update, I did talk to the people a couple of times \[unclear\] who are marine biologists came down and was at the event and we were talking about the pump station – the pump station right now is still damaging all of the fishing in Hilo along the break wall and when the waves come up it takes all of that raw sewage and pushes it out all into the Honokaa coast and along the Keaukaha coast where most of our fish is and this kind of goes right back into the Wailoa situation where this past week I actually got to see a boat get stuck like live, with my own eyes and so this Wailoa situation with the dredging is really important to District number 3 because I am the, you know, I do come from Keaukaha and this is our fishing village and almost – the all the fish from the Island comes from this area right now because that’s where the boats can launch. Pohoiki is down – the next place to go is all the way down to South Kona. So, Maurice’s presentation with the boat ramps opening up will really relieve a lot of stress from Bay front and allow our fishermen to go catch fish. Another one is in the back of Panaewa – a lot of the Panaewa homestead is being bought up the last two years as we all know, and the pigs are running back out onto the road. On our property in Keaukaha I was able to see a 5% increase in the population of pigs, just because people are fencing their lines. It’s a common thing – always happening – I just noticed a high population of pigs at Onekahakaha Beach Park, and outside of that, that is my report for District number 3, thank you. Next up is District – 4…Brian Ley BL: (B. Ley) Can you guys hear me now? LT: Yup. BL: Oh, good, I wasn’t sure what the problem was. Ah, Brian – District – 4, I’d like you touched on, Pohoiki – they’re having a meeting on it – it’s been on for years so I don’t know the money comes and goes so I don’t know – it seems like, ah, been able to go fishing in \[unclear\] things – seems to be an issue on this coastline and, HB 1980 for anybody who go hunts dogs or owns dogs might want to look into it. It passed the 5 House – it’s gone to the Senate – it’s, basically an animal cruelty thing but they’re calling kenneling, putting your dogs on tie outs and trolleys – are gonna be considered illegal and the wording is kind of vague – the way I interpret it is that the DLNR would be all be held in contempt in felonies for withholding food and water from the animals – that’s also written in there – that not allowing food and, eh, excuse me, I’m working nights, I’m up early today so I’m still waking up. Ah, yeah, so it’s, you know, it’s a good idea about animal cruelty but like usual it’s ill written and vague and what interprets animal cruelty ‘cause I’ve known, you know, in the past I’ve had people yell at me ‘cause my dog was in the truck with the windows down and that’s, you know, the state is abandonment and I think it’s probably just for that so that’s just the bill that the people should be looking in to before it goes – then talk to your senator about that. And, the th pigs – they’re still an issue – they have the meeting coming up April 20 and basically it’s back to the thing – legislation, no snares, no guns, no hunting, no nothing and then we cry about why we got pigs, you know, it’s been an ongoing thing so that’s it for District – 4. Thank you. LT: Mahalo. Ah, District – 5, vacant, District – 6, vacant. District – 7? NR: Aloha, Natalie Reynolds, District – 7, I just want to say thank you for understanding my leave of absence at this time I have nothing to report, and Sylvia, I had a question ‘cause I’ve been out for a couple months – I didn’t know in regards to Laura Acacio’s request about drafting a letter – would that be – can I create a PIG to get right now or should I ask to do that in New Business? SW: Um, is it related to an item on the agenda? NR: No. So, then it would be New Business, correct? SW: Yeah, and it’d have to come on the next month’s… We can talk about it offline about how to add it. NR: OK. Thank you. LT: OK. Mahalo. Ah, District number 8? CO: (C. Okumura) … aloha everyone, I have nothing new to report in my district, however, I just – Abraham (Antonio) had brought up the bill that is making its way through the legislature regarding the – it’s HB 1691, which requires newly installed or modified individual wastewater systems that are near the shoreline or likely to pollute groundwater to include de-nitrogen fixation capacity and now it’s making its way through the Legislature. I guess it just passed out of Committee so I just wanted to urge everyone to keep track of this one as it goes through and hopefully, we’ll have something to report on that one next time that will – looks like it will impact our shorelines here on this Island so, anyway, thank you. 6 LT: Thank you, Cortney. All right, and last up sir, it’s you, Justin. JA: All right, Justin – District 9. The only thing I’ve got is just some comments from the public about the critical habitat that was designated at Puuanahulu and what that will mean for hunting in the future if anything gets changed. Just a note and they’re just concerned and the same folks discussing and commenting on their concern of that is the concern over SB 3196 and what that means for the families who use hunting to sustain themselves, using what could be banned rifles, they’re just concerned ‘cause they can’t afford to buy new guns and just curious what that’s gonna mean for themselves in providing food with the weapons they currently have, ah, that’s all I have for District – 9. LT: Mahalo nui. RD: Chair, could I ask a question? LT: Yes. RD: Yeah, District – 9, could you go into a little bit of detail on how this critical habitat moved forward and where we are with the situation. JA: Critical habitat for 119,000 acres has been approved and it is the Puuanahulu hunting area. RD: Now in – are you aware that it was initially PTA was responsible for some of these critical habitat areas and it was switched to a Game Management Advisory area? JA: Ah, yes, according to the articles I’ve read and that’s because of the training that happens on board PTA. Um, they’re not trying to limit the training they can conduct in the areas they can conduct it and as a 30-year retired vet I understand that. RD: Is there, Duerr, ah, one more question. Does it make sense that the Army gets a free pass and that hunters get a… (COH Parking lot security, Mel) Mel: Sorry to interrupt I wanna give a parking ticket to a truck that’s a Dooley it’s parked in a reserved stall 55. \[Unclear\] passes you are to put it on your front dash but park it in a metered stall. LT: (Unclear) Mel: Yes, there is but you’re in a reserved stall. The directions for those – you park in a metered stall, sorry… So go ahead and move it now before I give you a ticket. LT: Eh, kalamai for the interruption, ah, yeah, that was good to know. 7 JA: Good to know – public service announcement. LT: Yeah. JA: No, it’s not a matter of a free pass for the military vs. the hunters and the question is, it’s not been answered anywhere, and I can’t answer it – is what is the effect of Puuanahulu becoming a critical habitat area? And what does that mean for hunting? Ah, that’s the answer we need and it’s not written anywhere – it’s not any different than the rule change that just came out that was approved for Zone A, and then the other areas that are now have increased bag limits and extended hunting days that message came out yet it’s not been posted yet on DOFAW’s website so it’s just all interesting that the information flow is not getting to the public – the ones who need it. SW: Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan – Mr. Ackerman do you know what agency is supposed to be monitoring this area now that it’s been deemed a critical habitat? Is it changing agencies monitoring or? JA: I don’t, I’m assuming that would be - fall under DLNR, or, as the board change came under Bureau of Land and Natural Resources I don’t know. SW: OK. Ah, do you want to seek an opinion from DLNR regarding your question. JA: Yeah, that would be fantastic – some clarification is what’s needed. SW: So, you have two options – you can either try to create a PIG so that you along with somebody else can do that work or you can take it upon yourself to do that and whatever your results are either put it on the agenda by getting a representative to come presenting whatever the response is. JA: I’ll take it upon myself and reach out and figure it out. SW: OK. Great. So, you can talk to me offline about how to get that on the agenda whenever you get those results. JA: Thank you. LT: Right on, thank you for that. ‘Cause understanding how the military increases the size of the base and what they’re doing with the properties next to ‘em, I’m still trying to learn and understand the process of all of that too ‘cause those are all my hunting areas, I hunt all around the base my whole life and watching the road change and the base change and the lava flows – it’s really important to understand the migration of all the animals – thank you for bringing that up. OK, and that concludes our Commissioner Reports by district, and then no discussion on that. OK, we’re gonna move forward to number 5, subsection b. We’re gonna get an update from Jason Sanborn – East Hawaii 8 representative – State of Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission, East Hawaii Rep to present State GMAC updates. 5. NEW BUSINESS: a. Maurice Messina, Director, County of Hawaii Parks & Recreation to present, “2024 Update: Archery Activities and Facilities within the County, Hakalau Beach Park, Kolekole Beach Park and Laupahoehoe Ramp.” LT: Welcome, Maurice Messina, Director of County of Hawaii Parks & Rec to present the 2024 update on Archery activities and facilities within the County, Hakalau Beach Park, Kolekole Beach and Laupahoehoe Ramp. MM: Good morning, everyone, Maurice Messina, Parks and Rec Director \[unclear\]. Aloha. Thanks for letting me come in and have a chance to speak with you folks today. So, starting off with our archery. Right now, we have two recognized archery facilities and that is one at Waiakea Rec in Hilo and also in Malama Park. We do hold tournaments like the recent one we had about 3 weeks ago at Edith Kanaka’ole in Hilo and the last couple of days I’ve been speaking with our recreation directors across the island in trying to assess the need for more archery services throughout the island and it seems like they all want to bring more archery programs to each district and so what we need to do is we need to set-up maybe, a meeting with all of us and just find out what’s this, what’s the safest places in each district to do this. Now, for instance, I’m in Kona today and I’m gonna be meeting with Victor McDaniel who’s our Recreation Director for Kona and we’ve got a couple of different spots that he was talking about. He was even considering Greenwell\] Park near Yano Hall has a spot because of the backdrop and the berm in the back – he thinks that would be a good spot. So, and we’re open for suggestions that GMAC or anybody else may have as well but this is a good time for us to start speaking about this. We’re going into our next fiscal year and if there’s some extra funding that we need to support these programs this is the right time to be speaking about it. Are there any questions about that portion of this presentation? LT: Leomana, District – 3. I just have one question about the funding. How much does it cost to build one of those sites and run one of these archery ranges or archery parks? MM: Well, it all depends, like if it’s one of the archery teams they usually have all that stuff with them. At Waiakea Rec it’s, I mean, we just got – it’s just the targets really is all it is and it’s an enclosed environment, so I don’t think it’s very expensive at all, I mean, what are we talking about – I mean, I’m from Louisiana and the way we did it was hay bales and, you know… LT: Wood… 9 MM: Yeah, exactly. LT: Tree stump, yeah? MM: Yeah, so I don’t think – it’s not an expensive sport. I think the expenses related to the actual individual that is shooting, right, the arrows, the bows and all that but as far as our department is concerned it’s something that we can totally support. It’s not gonna be a big budget item for us – it’s just about where’s the safest place to do it and where’s the biggest need. LT: Is there concern about zoning? Can we do this in residential? NR: Agriculture – Natalie, District – 7. You can totally do it in agriculture. MM: Yeah, but I would also look at it like what we’re doing right now at Waiakea Rec. and that’s in downtown Hilo. Right, so… LT: Yeah… MM: I believe as long as we have a safe facility, you know, whether it’s indoors or outdoors, ah, I mean, Malama Park is also in Hilo and that’s, you know, I think it’s all just about safety – can we safely do it. LT: All right. Thank you. NR: Natalie, District – 7. Are we able to do an after-school program at the middle or high school level cause it’s a low risk at that point where it’s not the general population and if it’s an after-school program is it feasible to do that? ‘Cause there’s nothing really in the Kona side or even Kealakekua. MM: Yeah, and that’s why I’m meeting with Victor today, anything is possible. Before school, after school, during summer breaks, ah, do we want to implement this as an extra program during our summer fun sessions or winter intersession programs. The sky’s the limit, as long as we have people that are willing to do it, we can have a safe facility there’s no reason why we can’t implement all these programs at different times. NR: Natalie – District 7, the only reason why I suggest it after school, either like you said before or after – is that the Hawaii School District are teaching the youth nothing on survival skills and we’re on an island and, general kids don’t even know how to pick up a bow or shoot it, and I just think as a parent of young children it would be great to have even though my children do hunt and fish, but I just think of the lifestyle in Hawaii and everything the ancestors did prior to this – I think it’s a huge necessity or especially archery in general to have the kids learn, I honestly think they should be learning it as part of an elective but that’s just my 2 cents. 10 MM: So, Natalie, you’re talking about at the school? NR: At the school. MM: OK, well, yeah, that now would be a DOE program that wouldn’t be a Parks & Rec program. NR: But can you do it through the school as like a club or something? MM: That would all be – to the DOE, what they would allow to happen at their school or not. NR: Is there funding for that if you had to go through the DOE? MM: Right now, we don’t have any funding set aside but the thing is, Natalie, at our facilities we control it. We have the rules, we have, you know, everything else and I’m not sure if DOE if they even have the space to do that and I agree with you as an elective or something but that’s something that would be run through the school, we don’t have the ability to split up our resources, which is our personnel from their normal facility and have them go do stuff at another facility, except for things like track meets – where we don’t have tracks in our department. But we would rather if it’s something that our department is gonna be managing that it be in one of our facilities. NR: OK. I just didn’t know if the schools were an option as looking for another facility. MM: Yeah, we got the facilities, um, back to DOE uses a lot of our facilities just to support their programs as it is. NR: OK. Thank you. MM: You’re welcome. LT: Aloha, one more question about this subject. What is one thing that GMAC can do to help you push this forward as fast as possible? MM: Well, sounds like you guys got some of the expertise, um, we do have some folks like, for instance our business manager in the Parks & Rec Department – Reid Sewake – you know, his daughter – she does archery, he does archery. So, it would be helpful for us once we start identifying sites if we could have somebody from GMAC with this – with an archery background to come out and look at our facilities with us and see if they’re viable or not. 11 LT: Yes, sir. Just to make a comment on that – for the last five years I was sponsored by my sponsor’s \[unclear\] for bow hunting, actually, so once you guys get that in order you can let me know and I’ll more than willingly come up and check out these areas. MM: Awesome. Thank you. LT: Thank you, sir. OK. We can move on to the next one. MM: OK. So, let’s go to Laupahoehoe boat ramp, some real, good news – we met with Army Corps of Engineers two weeks ago and they have sent their letter up to Washington DC saying that they’re seeking approval for their 38-million-dollar project for the seawall. RD: Oh, wow, that’s awesome. MM: Yeah, so, ah, the head of Army Corps here in Hawaii signed off on the letter stating that with the amount of money that they see that they can mitigate all the hazards – if there’s any coral there that they can take care of that in the proper way, so they’re asking for max funding and the Army Corps in Hawaii met with us and they said they want to move forward with their project so that is real good news. That means that we may be able to do both projects simultaneously instead of just doing the boat ramp and then waiting for their funding to come through for seawall. We are setting up meetings right now with our Army Corps to talk about Laupahoehoe Boat Ramp and they Kahaluu Beach Park restoration work, so, once we have that meeting – what I can do is I can shoot a communication to GMAC, ah, just a simple communication if that’s OK… LT: Sure. MM: … with you guys to give you an update and if you need me to come on to explain it more I can this is really good news. We weren’t expecting that – we met down at Kahaluu Beach Park and they just broke it on us to let us know that they had sent the letter off saying that 38 million – the 38 million dollars project is something that they want to move on and we already have our funding on our side for the boat ramp and we are doing our scope of work in house already for that so… There’s nothing – I don’t think that there’s going to be much holding us back once they get their final approval. LT: All right. Mahalo. MM: You’re welcome. And so, any questions about Laupahoehoe Boat Ramp or Seawall that I can try to address for you guys? RD: Ah, Chair, I have a question. Maurice, ah, it’s not so much a question it’s just a big mahalo to you and Parks & Rec and everybody who worked on this – the County, the Mayor, that’s really great news. Thank you very much. 12 MM: Oh, yeah. I’m sorry one more thing to add, I checked this morning with our project guys and the scope and the contract is going through the change right now for us to get rid of the spears that were created with the rebar, so hopefully we can have that done within the next month, month and a half – get all those taken care of. And for those of you who don’t know the wave attenuation at the boat ramp, just a constant back and forth back and forth with the waves has made the exposed rebar almost into spears. We do try as much as we can to block off the pier and we do have – like there should be no swimming at the pier. Our understanding is there’s still nighttime boat launches and stuff like that so, instead of just leaving it like that – we understand that people are utilizing it – we’re gonna go ahead and take care of those in the interim until we can get the full project up. Any other questions for Laupahoehoe Boat Ramp for us? LT: No, mahalo. MM: OK. Great. Now good news – Kolekole Beach Park – we finally received approval through DOT and HECO for the installation of the electricity for down at Kolekole Beach Park. We ran into an issue about a month – maybe a month and a half ago - the poles and everything that HECO was going to use to bring the wires down to the park were unusable. There was a landowner adjacent to the park where we were gonna have to run wires through his property, refused to let us do that. So, we had to contact DOT to get approval to go underneath a bridge and all that has been secured, everything’s been taken care of, so, next week, March, HECO is gonna be down and they’re going to finish the installation for the electric. After that we’re gonna be doing our final permits for electric, building and water and by April 2, which is gonna be the following Tuesday after next week we’re gonna be able to announce our reopening date. Our goal is probably the third week of April is what we’re shooting for right now – the third or fourth week of April depending on how the permits go and as of right now, we don’t know of anything holding us back unless HECO runs into some issues next week. So, are there any questions about that? LT: Not for me. Thank you very much. MM: OK, and so Hakalau Beach Park. Same thing. Our goal is to open that next month as well. We’ve got a call in with DOT to meet down at the site with Public Works, DOT, our project guys – to go down and inspect the fencing that was put up prior to the closure of where they have the high levels of lead are concentrated – there were some fencing put up – there were signs – there was signage put up and so we’re supposed to be meeting down there next week in between the holidays and check the fencing out and seeing if it’s OK, check the signage. Public Works is gonna look at the road heading down and then we’ve got some of our staff – we got Skibs and some other folks who are gonna go down and help up when we’re – when all the fencing is ready to go and we’re gonna clear it up – get it ready for public use again. And if there’s any way that we can do that we’re gonna do that in the month of April as well, so the month of April should see beach access restored at Kolekole Beach Park and Hakalau Beach Park. 13 RD: Chair, Duerr, District – 1, I have a question. Maurice – DOT evidently had a failure with the vendor on releasing lead into soil – is that correct? MM: I’m not sure. You’d have to speak to DOT, on that one. RD: OK, so, as far as you know DOT has not come to you with lead being a problem in the soil? MM: Yeah, no, there is a problem with lead in the soil so, we’re in a lot of communication with Harry Takiue and Rob Lee, both who head the DOT for our island and it’s the same thing at Kolekole Beach Park, no, the lead has not been remediated from the soil so what we did is we worked with the Department of Health and DOT and identified the areas which were dangerous to the public and those high levels is what we fenced off RD: Right. MM: … so it’s the same thing at Hakalau. Those areas are fenced off ‘cause it may be three, four, five years before they can actually do their slow remediation. So, all we want to do is fence off those bad areas and re-open it to the public with proper signage. RD: So, Maurice, this is Duerr, District – 1, is our understanding that in fact the soil got there because DOT had a vendor working on bridges? Is that your understanding? MM: I’m not sure, I don’t want to speak without understanding. RD: OK. Great. Thank you very much. MM: You’re welcome. LT: No questions? Any more questions on Zoom? OK, I think that that’s the end. Thank you, Maurice, for this presentation, it really gave me an insight and scope, about the next two months coming up with all of the boat ramps opening up and everybody getting to go fishing again and I thank you so much. MM: You’re welcome. Thank you and you guys all have a good day. Aloha. b. Jason Sanborn, East Hawaii Representative, State of Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission East Hawaii Representative to present: “State GMAC updates.” JS: Aloha, Jason Sanborn, State GMAC commissioner. We had our first meeting last month – first in almost two years, actually, a year and a half or so – long time – so a lot of it was talking and planning our future meetings, um, so, I had asked them about some stuff that some people’s been asking me but, ah, \[unclear\] task force \[unclear\] probably in Puuanahulu, ah, Daniel K. Inouye area – that was asked \[unclear\] I brought it up to Jason 14 Omick, people are asking about the – I talked about the – where is the DLNR report of 2023 Palila bird – to report to Legislature – that wasn’t put out yet. I talked about the pheasant projects out on Stainbeck and Piha, that there was strong opposition from some of the guys that I talked to and also strong opposition to the SB 3196 it being very unconstitutional, um, and threat to our second amendment and democracy so – it basically – we’re banned pretty much 95% of all used weapons and guns, out there, so it's kind of a, yeah, it’s kind of a big one. And that was it – we just planned future meeting dates OK so, I wanted to get with you guys and ask what you – maybe we can get together later and ask you, Chair, what you guys need me to take to state level. LT: Yes, um… JS: Do you want to share that now? Can write notes… LT: Yeah, um, I just, I, I actually have some questions for you ‘cause I saw the Abe sent me some of the information and I just wanted to get basic things ‘cause right now we have Merrie Monarch coming up and the big, community that utilizes all of our plants and our native plants is gonna be on-island so I wanted to ask your update on the palila. I know I heard 200 in the meeting or something like that, yeah? Like the 200 being thrown around… JS: Yeah… LT: And there’s no official count… JS: I not speaking officially ‘cause I don’t know – I haven’t read a report – I’ve just listening to \[unclear\] apparently, it’s the lowest it’s ever been. It’s still dwindling. LT: Um-hum. JS: But that number is – I don’t want to say – but it’s, it’s, it’s the lowest it’s ever been from what I understand. LT: Yeah. JS: I hope not but, yeah, and, um, that’s what it sounds like it is. LT: Do you know if that has something to do with the base, the fencing, the water? In your professional opinion, you know, ‘cause us hunters we’ve got a different opinion… JS: Right. LT: … than what people see, yeah? So that’s what I really want to get to ‘cause we’re out there \[unclear\]. 15 JS: Professionally speaking as a hunter – many problems – cats, mongoose, the helicopter itself I have witnessed after they do as sheep eradication – nests on the ground from the actual helicopter trying to protect the bird. The tall grasses, the invasive grasses, invasive weeds. LT: If there’s one thing that we – that GMAC can do immediately – what is that one thing that we can do to help? JS: To help the… LT: To help figure out the extinction event that’s going on with all of our birds. So, I asked that because we’re fencing and then there’s the fire breaks on the base… JS: Right. LT: And then the critical habitat just expanded and then contracted and… JS: Right. LT: And so, all of these things, I don’t know what to do myself and so I’m just trying to ask other people what is something that we can really do. JS: I think the fencing is a problem, I think the eradication is a problem, I think there needs to be a – some sort of fair balance and what that balance is – I am also Hawaiian ancestry…I love all the birds, I mean, I wish they could all co-exist, yeah, of course we all know sheep was introduced as a gift over 200 years ago to the King, um, as much as I would love to see the birds perpetuate for eternity I do believe that we should not play God and if this bird’s time is up in its evolutionary time period as 98% of all living animals that have ever stepped foot on the face of the earth are already extinct – at least sheep is kaukau – food, but that fine balance I don’t know. I don’t know what that looks like – animals and the landscape, yeah, so… LT: Um-hum. For my point of view as a native about the birds, you know, as a scientist I follow the trend and the trend says it’s gonna go extinct and the rest of the birds. And so, my manao, my thoughts are how can I buy some time so that the community, you know, because of the last 100 years and what happened to the Hawaiian community – we don’t really have, um, people like us out there like, eh, we’re all gonna go extinct on our animals and our plants too – what do we do about ‘em. You know, is there something we can do as the Hawaiians to commemorate this in spiritual ways or in traditional practices or do we go up there and, you know, how do we let our people know – oh, all of our birds are gonna go ‘cause that’s my main reason for being here ‘cause I saw that just, calculating the numbers and I’m like, well, there’s gonna be an end date in the next five years then, hopefully I’m there to help guide our people… 16 JS: Right… LT: … and so that’s kind of my manao – like how can I give a little bit more time so maybe, you know, the Hawaiian community can come out – like Merrie Monarch and I get to explain to them this next month like, “Oh, the birds are…,” you know talk to the other experts, “…and the birds are gonna go extinct in the next year.” And so what are we doing about it as a people, and that’s – that was my thoughts about this update with the birds for next month and then even if you understand what a \[unclear\] is that – if you can give us an update on kind of the areas of the Island so that way, in the next week, I can let the Merrie Monarch Committee know – tell the people don’t go here – tell the people don’t walk into these forests, kind of give guidance. JS: Right. That’s the bird issue. I think what our kuleana should be is to talk about it – teach the – teach everybody about the birds and what the significance they have and what they have held and, if we cannot save the bird then, so be it, but at least let me know its significance and that alone – even though the physical bird might be – might go extinct one day – at least its significance and explanation will carry on without the bird being there at a minimum, about the ROD, you know, from what I understand it’s across the Island already, heavier, more heavier than others started out in possibly lower Puna, and then spreading – I have property out in Kealakekua – it is already Kealakekua and kinda sweeping around, I am a general contractor – I’m very hesitant about land clearing now and more so ‘cause of the ROD and stuff, so, even that knowledge about spreading that knowledge – try not to transport ohia and if they do pick the flower maybe do not – it’s customary to return it back to the same place you got it – I think maybe we should dispose of it elsewhere – maybe in the trash facilities, yeah, landfill. Hopefully there’s some OK with that, you know, amongst our Hawaiian community, just to not spread the ROD further and stuff so, they’re finding more and more about the – I don’t know everything about the ROD but there’s some people and task forces trying to find out – they’re trying blame pigs and stuff… LT: Yeah… Blame everything, yeah. JS: But not true because I specifically know how fenced areas with zero animals, zero pigs and ungulates still have ROD. LT: Yeah. JS: So, I don’t think they can… LT: Blame the… JS: … yeah, I don’t think they can blame the ungulate animals solely. 17 LT: Yeah, you know, I had a conversation with a couple of the foresters up Mauna Kea. We were just talking and, we kinda agreed on like 70% of just viruses on life overall – like if a something hunting, you know, it’s a community. 70% of the ohia are gonna just get taken out now under the number that we came up with and now I look around the Island and it’s about 70%, yeah? JS: Yeah. LT: Anymore questions? BL: Brian, District – 4. You guys still hear me? LT: Yeah. BL: Hey, as far as the palila – did anybody do any research as far as the – trying to talk here – ah, from the fire that we had several years ago – I know that they stopped the fires before it hit the critical habitat but we had massive amounts of smoke go through the critical habitat – did anybody do anything to find out about the study because I know birds are extremely susceptible to lung issues and stuff like that back to the canary in the mine and, ah, stuff like that, you know, even though they got these fire breaks if we still have fires going through there and the smoke – is that killing the birds ‘cause, I mean, the last numbers I heard was like 7 and then to be dropping down to these low numbers and are we even talking about doing anything else or are we just gonna keep doing the same thing that we’ve had for 50 years is – which is fence and eradicate and stop look at the real issue. That just seems to be, they see the numbers going down every year, but their solution is to kill more animals, put more fences up and that’s obviously – anybody that basic science knows that the sheep are not a problem and fire is the issue now – is anybody even talking about those things? JS: Nope. Yeah, I haven’t heard anything about the smoke – but it’s a very good point – I would like the – hope somebody’s looking into that, yeah. That’s a good one smoke inhalation is very detrimental to the birds. LT: Ah, any questions. Mahalo… Ah… RD: Chair, I’ve got a question… LT: Yeah. RD: Duerr, District – 1. Jason, how about Piha. Those hunters that really hunt there and what needs to be communicated to DOFAR about the Piha closing. JS: Mainly pig hunters in Piha Forest Reserve, I don’t know if it’s still on the table to talk about not fencing it. My understanding is it’s already allocated and already in the works, 18 I think, but, um, moneys-wise, not work wise, but, yeah, I can, I can probably, I know some hunters that hunt in Piha I can definitely ask. RD: OK, great. I’ll get \[unclear\]. Thank you very much. NR: Natalie, District – 7. Abraham has his hand up. LT: Ah, OK, um. Statements from the public – we have the former Chair Abraham Antonio on vacation. AA: Good morning. LT: E Aloha. AA: OK. So, regarding the palila bird – just remember we had Kanalu Sproat come in a while back about the birds and if they get, totally zero numbers, it’s still gonna take 50 years to take them off of the endangered species list, right. So, just keep that in mind. Giving this – we come to a zero count somewhere in the future – still going take 50 years to – for them to take it off the list, other than that – the ROD thing – you guys can reach out to J. B. Friday – he’s like the head guy that is researching with ROD and here I can send you his information if I didn’t send you it – you already - had this pretty much – good job you guys. Jason if you can give the Commission the report of the palila decline when Jason Omick gets it to you, that would be awesome and any other questions that you guys get for DLNR I know, Justin was asking I can share with you Jason Omick’s number, ah, and just reach out to him and he can cover the majority of your questions. He’s the head of the DLNR hunting program. And that’s all I pretty much get, I’m out doing a critical job right now so… Good job guys, ladies… LT: OK. Mahalo for that. Haia olelo. Um… Any further discussion for Jason over here, um, one more thing, you were asking if we can provide you with some information right now, if you just let us know what kind of information we can give you maybe some of the Commissioners can give you some of the things that…. JS: Right. So, my job is to hear the County – Big Island – voices of the GMAC and take that to the State level. So, whatever, however I can work for you guys… LT: OK, yeah… JS: … and community whatever message – what you want to have seen, depending on the, you know, your constituents and all that please, please let me know. LT: When is your guys’ next scheduled meeting? Yeah, there’s a lot of ideas but I kinda really brainstorm… 19 NR: Natalie, District – 7, can you repeat that, I didn’t hear the date. LT: It’s in, it’s in May. We don’t know the exact day yet he’s still looking. JS: May 7, tentatively right now. LT: May 7, 2024. \[Technical difficulties\] SW: There’s people who are not muted. I’m gonna mute them. LT: Mahalo. Maybe we can give you a fact sheet after next month’s meeting… JS: Yeah, sure. They’d like it as soon as possible then I can have – put it on the agenda. LT: OK, so, OK, yeah. Um-hum. SW: So, um, Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan – at this point what GMAC has ready to provide would be your quarterly report. LT: But we didn’t have the… SW: So, we will mention the ones that are coming up so I’m sure you’ll have some more quarterly reports that you could share up to that point… LT: Yeah. SW: … for the main meeting, um, second comment – Mr. Sanborn would you be willing to – is, is, one of the ways in which people can attend the main meeting – I understand probably in person is there also a Zoom? JS: Yeah, there is, and I can share that with you. SW: Yeah, can you please share that with Barbara. JS: Yeah, Barbara, OK. SW: Um, and then it can be a communication to GMAC. JS: Sure. SW: OK, and then I think that’s… 20 LT: Yeah, mahalo. JS: Then, we also have the minutes of the last meeting. LT: Oh, OK, yeah. JS: That’s available. Jason here again – they talked about – one thing they talked about too would be the positive things – what they talked about, I forgot to mention was, um, was Nicola Park from Kauai who was talking about back country shelters that they have a few back country shelters – I know aware if we have those here but in \[unclear\] areas back country shelters that the – I guess the State was building to just help the hunters as a place of refuge possibly like an over-nighter or something, you know, really simple, simple shelters. LT: Is that kinda like the, I mean, some of the cabins on Mauna Kea – it’s just a room… JS: Yeah, these aren’t even rooms, though. These are just elevated platforms with roof… LT: OK, yeah… JS: That’s it – open walls. LT: Kinda like our feeders over here just with a floor, yeah? JS: Yes… LT: OK. JS: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and those are kind of very popular… LT: They stay dry off the ground… JS: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and they’ve been proven to \[unclear\] it, you know, like help and save a couple of lost… ?: Do you know the cost on that? JS: I have no idea. And then, um, and then with Nancy Timko \[she is the board member doing work with girls per Commission minutes\] – Oahu – she’s Oahu Commissioner shared her involvement in first time girl hunters and, um, kinda big thing that she’s doing… A popular program \[unclear\] here and to respect hunters, you know, empower women, you know, weapon of their choice and kinda just being outdoors… \[unclear\] them and, you know, it’s not only the men can participate in this hobby-sport, cultural, you know, activities so women are rising in it too. 21 LT: Um-hum. Right, I have five daughters that I train…they all experts so…OK. If there’s no more discussion. Thank you very much for your updates and looking forward to seeing you next month. JS: Sure… 6. OLD BUSINESS: a. GMAC 2023 Third Quarter Report to Mayor Roth and County Council. LT: OK. We are gonna move forward. Next on the agenda is Old Business – 6a. GMAC 2023 Third quarter report by Mayor Roth, ah, to Mayor Roth, sorry, and the County Council to be reassigned. So, we had, um, a couple of our quarterly reports from 2023 not done. And so, we are going to re-assign them right now so we can get ‘em done and turned in with the first quarterly report for 2024 and that would make 3 at one time, right, or 2? SW: Third quarter, fourth quarter, first quarter – so three. LT: Three… thrd SW: So, I believe at this point 4 quarter is already assigned to Cortney. 3 quarter was previously assigned to Natalie, but she had to, um, she had her leave of absence for a moment, so you need a motion for re-assignment. rd LT: OK. Can we just check on the 3 quarterly report from last year, was that Natalie. SW: No, so, um, do you want to recognize Cortney, I think Cortney has something to say. LT: Ah, Cortney. rdth CO: Hi, guys, thank you, Chair. I, so, I had volunteered to just take on both – the -3 and 4 th Quarter Reports since I’m already, I was already working on the 4 quarter and I can go rd ahead and do the 3 quarter one as well, if that would be helpful and then if someone st else could take on the 1 quarter, that would be awesome. st LT: All right, thank you for the update, can for the 1 can we re-assign hers – ‘cause she has one, we’ll just re-assign the next one and we’ll move on to the next one, you know, can I make that motion or… SW: So, you can, either do this one of two ways you could have either done it by motion or she volunteered. So as Chair you can accept her volunteering. But you need to put that on the record. 22 LT: OK, Leomana, District – 3, Chair, I’d like to accept your volunteer to write the quarterly rdth report for 3 quarter, 4 quarter, 2023. Thank you very much for that hard work – I appreciate it a lot, you know these quarterly reports are really important – they are the communication we have with our County Council – without Mayor – with Jason Sanborn – this is how we prove what we did and this is how we ask for the things that we want so this is one of the things that in 2024 I’m gonna be hard on and I want everybody to be hard on this too because this is the way we get shit done. So, thank st you very much. Moving on to the 1 quarter report – I volunteer myself to get that done. SW: OK. And so that’s agenda 7a. b. Update on draft letter – Lobster Regulation to DLNR Aquatics by prior GMAC Commissioner Griffey. LT: Oh, um, sorry. Ah, OK, \[unclear\]. Sorry for moving forward. Um, I’m gonna move back to 6b. Update on draft letter lobster regulations of DLNR Aquatics by prior Commissioner Austin Griffey. So, I think where we’re standing with that letter is the letter was already drafted, written, approved and we just needed to… No? SW: No, it hasn’t been approved. LT: Hasn’t been approved. SW: So, I’ll just remind – I believe at the last meeting Cortney said she was gonna try to contact Austin to see where we were on the draft because Austin was drafting it – we weren’t sure where he was in that process, and it hadn’t been yet turned in. So, if you allow me, Cortney? CO: Ah, thanks, yeah, so I did reach out – I think I copied Leomana on that email, and, he didn’t respond and then I think Barbara had said she was gonna try to call him but I’m not sure if she was able to reach him? SW: So according to Barbara via her text to me, he did not reply back. So, at this point it’s up to the Commission if you’d like to set someone else to write that letter, it was detailed out in our minutes as to what the content of the letter should be. LT: Let me just get an understanding of whose – who is dealing with the same lobster in their district, I’m from District – 3, I don’t deal with lobsters, so I don’t really know and track the ins and outs of the situation. But if you guys are dealing with the same things in your own district on the opposite side of the Island, I think that would be good for one of you guys to, I mean, either accept the kuleana or move forward ‘cause this is a couple of months dealing with the letter and if… 23 SW: So, I will just note that the board had a PIG, had a report… LT: Yes… SW: … came back, made a decision as to what your advice was going to be specifically to – I think it was DLNR Aquatics… LT: Um-hum. SW: So that content should be located within the minutes… LT: The minutes, yeah. SW: And the letter could be drafted off of what was contained within the minutes. LT: Do we have a volunteer who would like to draft the letter? NR: Natalie, District - 7, I’ll draft the letter. LT: Thank you very much Natalie, we appreciate that, and all the lobster eaters do too. OK. Mahalo. Moving on to number 7 – New Business – 7a – GMAC 2024, first quarterly report to Mayor Roth and the County Council assignment. I’m just gonna volunteer myself for that right now, if there’s any objections, please let me know. No objections, thank you very much. RD: Chair, one, one - Duerr, District – 1, in, once these reports are in place, our task at hand is to advise our County, state and federal. I’m wondering if it’s appropriate that, that Chair or someone you assign actually gives and in person report to the County Council on what’s transpired in GMAC as related in the reports? LT: Mahalo for that. I agree I think, when we turn in these reports somebody should be at the County Council meeting, but, I mean, you don’t even need to say something that’s not of that just read it out, main agenda, main items, um… SW: Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan… LT: Yes… SW: I’ll just note as far as the Council’s agenda goes – we can make a request, but it is up to the County Council to determine their agenda. LT: OK. Yeah. SW: But we can make sure administratively that we put in that request. 24 LT: Yes, ma’am. Thank you very much for that. I think as the Chair it is the kuleana of the Chair or the Vice Chair to be doing these reports in person to County Council, to the Mayor and whoever, you know, DLNR, so if we have any volunteers I’m probably gonna go myself because that’s a responsibility but if we have any other volunteers who would like to attend, and take part of the kuleana off then we vote on if that’s appropriate? SW: OK. First off there’s – Deputy Corporation Council Sylvia Wan – there’s a couple of assumptions being made. LT: Yes. SW: OK. So, we have – the last report that we had – we did provide to Council – we did offer and suggest that it be on the agenda and that a member – a representative – the Chair – would be present. They, instead, decided to just accept it as a communication… LT: OK. SW: … as a communication to Council – they did not agendize it. LT: OK. SW: And, again, I’ll just note that that is their responsibility to determine what their agenda is – so our responsibility is to submit to them, let them know that we are available, or that the Chair, Vice Chair or whoever representative is available – if they want to agendize it and ask questions. So, if and when that happens, I’ll let you know and you guys can either decide Chair’s gonna go, Vice Chair’s gonna go or you can select. LT: OK. SW: But that is a question for a future date. LT: OK. Shoots, and, um, just a question. SW: Yes… LT: Leomana, District – 3, do we vote on that? You know how we were saying, um, if you speak on behalf of the Commission… SW: Yes. So, if you are going to choose somebody other than the Chair or Vice Chair to represent the, quarterly report – you would have to vote. 25 7. NEW BUSINESS: a. GMAC 2024 First Quarter Report to Mayor Roth and County Council – assignment. 8. ANNOUNCEMENTS: LT: OK. Yes, thank you ma’am. OK that’s clears up 7a. Moving on to number 8. Announcements, um, 8a – the next meeting will be held on April 16, 2024, 9 am at 25 Aupuni Street, Puna Conference Room, Suite 1501, Hilo, HI 96720. Um, can I just talk about something? Ok? SW: Is it an announcement? LT: No, I just wanted to say thank you to Abe and them. So, if Abe sent you guys the video on You Tube, they were able to… SW: Little off topic. You can say thank you. LT: OK. Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you to Abraham and Kanalu Sproat and Stanley Mendes – they were able to attend the DLNR meeting and they represented Big Island. I don’t know if you attended that meeting too. They got a lot of recognition from Dawn Chang, the chair, from all commission members, they made a name for themselves in, being the point of authority behind hunting, fencing and game management on the Big Island and at the end of the meeting everybody knew them by name, everybody knew what the GMAC was. Some of the commissioners and the chair of DLNR recognized us, an advisory commission and had a lot of good thoughts and then even, idea to collaborate on future meetings and situations. SW: OK. So, to clarify, Abraham Antonio and Stanley Mendes were prior Chairs… LT: Yes. SW: … previously on the GMAC Commission but not presently. LT: Yeah, previously, yes, and that’s why they were, you know, because they aren’t Commissioners anymore, they went to go speak on behalf of the public but, I just wanted to say Mahalo for that ‘cause watching that video gave me a lot of hope for the next year and our relationships with the County and the Department of Land and Natural Resources. So, thank you… Go watch it if you guys haven’t. If there’s no more discussion, can we get a… RD: Actually, Chair, could we go back to New Business # 7. 26 LT: Yes. RD: I have a request – last year it seemed that there was some issue with Commissioners’ contact being shared to other Commissioners. LT: OK. RD: Um, and I’d like to make a motion that if the Commissioners of GMAC can go to a secretary, Barbara Kossow… SW: No, no. So, you’re asking him to violate – you’re asking authority from the Chair to violate people’s personal privacy rights. You cannot do that. That is literally a constitutional violation. RD: OK. Thank you, thank you, that’s understood. I did contact Hawaii OIP on that – they have a different – I’ll look at it – or but the next situation is the bringing GMAC up aware of HCR… SW: That is not related to agenda item 7a. RD: This is New Business… SW: It’s not related to agenda 7a. It’s got to be agendized. RD: Is the agenda item New Business or is the agenda item, ah, 7a. SW: 7a. RD: 7a is the… OK. Thank you very much. LT: Mahalo. RD: Chair, I’d like to make one more request – next month that we put on the agenda a request for an internal complaint procedure for GMAC. SW: \[Unclear\] you can’t make that motion cause it’s not on the agenda. You can ask the Chair that question afterwards inter – like administratively, but you can’t have that request or motion in the meeting without it being agendized. RD: OK. That was New Business. Thank you very much. That’s all I have Chair. Thank you. LT: I’ll get with you later. Thank you very much. If there’s no more discussion, can I get a motion to adjourn this meeting? 27 a. Next Meeting will be held on April 16, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. at 25 Aupuni Street, Puna Conference Room, #1501, Hilo, HI 96720 9. ADJOURNMENT (11:00 AM): Action: A motion was made by N. Reynolds and seconded by C. Okumura to adjourn the meeting at 10:21 a.m. The motion passed unanimously by voice vote with 6 ayes and no nays. LT: Mahalo, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. What a great, amazing meeting. Mahalo. Respectfully submitted by, Barbara Kossow Secretary 28