HomeMy WebLinkAboutGMAC 4.16.24 Minutes Draft
Game Management Advisory Commission
County of Hawai’i
Minutes
Meeting Date: April 16, 2024
Time: 9:00 am to 11:00 pm
Place: Zoom and In-Person 25 Aupuni Ctr., Ste. #1501, Hilo HI
LT: Aloha everyone, good morning, I’d just like to call this meeting to order – aloha, the
meeting of the Game Management Advisory Commission will now come to order.
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Today is Tuesday, April 16. This meeting is being held at the Puna Conference Room at
the County building in Hilo and on Zoom, as well.
1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL: (9:05 am)
District 1 - Robert Duerr, Present, in-person
District 2 – Ralph Palikapu Dedman, Present, in-person
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 – Excused
Quorum Established with 6 in attendance.
STAFF: Sylvia Wan, Deputy Attorney, Corporation Counsel – in person
Barbara Kossow, Administrative Specialist – via Zoom
LT: Leomana, aloha, just some housekeeping rules – please make sure your cell phones are
turned off or on silent mode - for all of us who are attending in person please remember
to speak into the microphone clearly so the statements can be recorded. Under the
Sunshine Law GMAC may remove any person who willfully disrupts the meeting to
prevent and compromise the conduct of the meeting. Those in person, if you’d like to
testify, please fill out the public registration form over here on the table – over there –
for those on Zoom you can ask a question in a Zoom Chat. For those people you may
raise your question through the public statement registration form right there under the
orange form. Please know your questions may or may not be asked at the discretion of
the Chair. Thank you very much. All GMAC members are reminded that they will be
recognized at the appropriate times for questions and discussions. Mahalo.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: March 19, 2024
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Action: R. Duerr motion to approve the minutes of March 19, 2024. Seconded by
P. Dedman. Motion carried by voice poll vote with 6 ayes, no nays and 1 excused.
3. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS:
There were no statements or questions.
4. COMMISSIONER REPORT BY DISTRICT
RD: District – 1, Robert Duerr. Thanks, Chair. This month is pretty much been about the
Wailoa situation, it’s become increasingly shallow boats cannot make it out if they’re
large fishing boats, which are primarily boats from Pohoiki, but the other problem that
they’re having is that when you do make it out you’re sucking sand into your engine. So
DOBOR is aware of the situation but essentially has been late to the party,with boaters
who went to the legislature to get the dredging monies and when the dredging monies
were released last year, DOBOR was able to get a sanding permit from Army Corps but –
they waited to when there was an uproar from the public. However, that being said, we
met with Mayor Roth and this was a coalition of boaters and fishers and we met in the
Mayor’s Office and, attending was the Fire Chief Kazuo Todd, former senator Laura
Acasio, myself of the Wailoa River Association, Carl Shoiji for Hilo Trollers, and Mike
Tokunaga for Tokunaga Fishing Store and then Gary Beales for HIFACT. The mayor has
been very pro-active and back in March contacted the Governor on the situation.
Pressure was put on both from the public and from Mayor Roth to the Governor, so that
now DOBOR has received a permit except that they’re in the process of getting a
contractor and they believe that they’ll start sometime in June, early June. Mayor Roth
is not in town, he’ll be back in a couple of weeks and he said he will be following up.
That being said, there’s still some problems. Dredging has to stop for, I mean, \[unclear\]
for coral spawning which is from Mid-June to early July, and then in August the World
Sprints so paddlers around the Pacific will be coming so a lot of pieces are still in play,
quite frankly, \[unclear\] and fishers are not happy but as the Mayor says this is as fast as
he’s ever seen government move so that’s, that’s kinda where it’s at. The second issue
of District – 1 is Council Chair Heather Kimball is interested in working with GMAC to
find out how our report gets to the Council. So, she’s still open for the Chair meeting via
Zoom or others meeting via Zoom on how that goes down. The last issue is PR, which is
the hunting zone on the Mana Road, still following up on that. That’s it Chair. Thanks for
the opportunity.
LT: Mahalo. Do we have any discussion about that?
SW: No, no… Just reports…
LT: OK. Just reports, do we know if any of the Pittman-Robertson money goes towards
dredging rivers?
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RD: Chair, I’m of that investigative committee and we’re still moving forward. Quite frankly
we’re getting hung up with DLNR Dawn Chang had a request for some basic information
on federal funding for sportsmen which would include this. It’s become a black hole, oh
gonna wait – we’ll have that report done shortly, next month after that, yeah.
LT: Do we also know how much people from Pohoiki – how much boats from Pohoiki is
launching out of Hilo versus how much the Pohoiki folks is going towards Milolii or
someplace else?
RD: That’s a very good question, ah, you know, Chair, you know, that’s a very good question
and I can take a look at that. I would say that the most – the largest percentage of
commercial fishers are from Pohoiki, and I would say that Pohoiki’s at least, in the
weekday working boats at least 50% of working boats out of Hilo and maybe as much as
50% of the boats in Hilo are coming from Mapuna and Pohoiki.
LT: Thank you, moving on to District – 2, if you got anything that you know you just want to
update the community about District – 2 that has to do with any game animals,
migrations, watering, anything that affects your district having to do with game.
PD: (P. Dedman) Well, first of all I’d like to introduce myself for the history in front of your
concerns, mauka, makai. My concern was, when we say makai – does that district go
into the water or does it stop on high water mark? I mean, our concerns as a
Commissioner on fish and game does it go into the ocean?
SW: It does…
PD: So, we have jurisdiction into the water as well as the…
SW: As far as your recommendations to the related agencies that would govern those
waters, yes.
PD: Cause DLNR has that brown outfit that they deal with water up to the high-water mark
and the blue is the state, ah, the County, so I just want to know where our jurisdiction
stops – if it goes into the ocean.
SW: So, I… It goes more along the lines of the jurisdictions of the various agencies, so, um,
yes, you can make comments as to like if there’s fishing issues related to…
PD: Aquarium fishing…
SW: Yeah, aquarium fishing or just fishing for livelihoods you can report on that.
PD: OK.
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LT: I think what I came to last year was any space that holds game animals and I was trying
to figure out if, aquarium life or fish are considered game animals in Hawaii and this is
one of the legal – the terms that we still got to define, right, cause we don’t even have
game animals legally, we have invasive not native so I think we’re \[unclear\].
SW: So, I’ll just remind the Commission that it does include, um, the, any matter that’s
affecting the taking and conservation of aquatic life and wildlife. So, if what you’re
speaking of as into the water would affect aquatic life then it can be covered.
PD: So, every district that we represent goes…
SW: Out into the ocean…
PD: OK.
SW: Yeah. And that includes the streams. And the rivers and the streams and the lakes and
all that too.
PD: And those dealing with the shoreline and the rivers are more of a Corps of Engineers
input.
SW: Yeah.
PD: Right?
SW: Yes,
PD: \[Unclear\] you gotta deal with the Corps of Engineers.
SW: Yes.
PD: So, I just gonna have to introduce myself to my district – I’m a new guy – and I don’t
have a report about what their concerns are but I kinda have an idea and I’d like to
introduce myself and then work with my council woman of that district. Yes, ma’am,
that’s all I can say now.
LT: Mahalo, sorry for not introducing you – this our Uncle Palikapu Dedman – we heard a
lot about you just past couple meetings from the previous Chair and so on we kinda
know about you and everybody’s, you know, following you tube and heard couple
stories about you so thank you for joining the Commission, I appreciate it a lot.
PD: \[Unclear\]
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LT: OK. Moving on to District – 3, just as short update on District – 3. Right now, Shipman or
Kipimana or the different names that they’re going by at the end of District - 3, in the
Keaau area is fencing all way to makai from the main highway – a couple more fences –
pushing all of the wild pigs back into town, you guys, look on the Panaewa stretch both
sides are having clearing – these clearings are actually bringing pigs all to the main road
in these open areas that they can graze on night time. So night time there’s been a
couple of accidents with wild pigs on Panaewa stretch – going back into Hilo – with the
Keaukaha update on top of the sewer plant – it looks like the County is moving forward
with a update on the sewer plant dredging out new lines in the back of – I talked to a
couple of the workers - what you call it – the incident that I was covering with the 2.4
million gallons leak a year ago, I guess, is getting taken care of. I haven’t heard back
about he fix-it but I hear back and get an email that they’re working on it so I don’t
know what that means, ah, OK, the fence, the fish, and, another update going down into
our fishing area which is Keaukaha – Keaukaha is getting speed bumps put in mostly
because of the nene being ran over by Four-Miles so all the wildlife in Keaukaha they’re
very important, I guess, to the Department of Land and Natural Resources in putting in
the speed bumps – having the nene get ran over by Four-Miles was kinda like a huge
impact and since those 3 birds got killed they put up signs down the whole Keaukaha
stretch about Nene Crossing, ah, Nene Informational Booths, signs on that Four- Miles
and then now they’re implementing the speed bumps. I don’t know if that’s good for
the community or bad but it was one of the helping things to push that was running
over the birds, so, very important to keep track of the animals in Keaukaha, and then my
last update was kinda talking about the clearing of the Suisan Boat Ramp but that had
not – so that’s my update for today. Thank you very much and we can move on to
District – 4.
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BL: District – 4, Brian Ley. Ah, well we got no one on April 20 at the stables at Hawaiian
Beaches, Hawaiian Shores. They’re having the group to deal with the wild pigs, I know a
couple associations that got the representatives gonna be there and some other people
to talk about that and one thing I was discussed a couple of months ago about the
individual off Kaloli Point that was passing himself off as a DOFAW officer waving a
hatchet at people – turns out he really was a DOFAW officer but supposedly he’s not
gonna be seen on the Island anymore, so, I don’t know if that means that they fired him
or they just transferred him to a different island but, you know, grave concerns about
the background check of the State – these are people with guns and they’re out there
spewing propaganda and stuff like that – waving hatchets at the public so it’s a little
disturbing that our State people are doing this so… That’s the only report that I’ve got
from this so thank you.
LT: Mahalo for that report. Moving on to District – 5…
SW: Vacant and District – 6 is vacant.
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LT: OK, we’ll go straight to 7…
NR: Aloha, good morning, Natalie Reynolds, District – 7. In Keauhou I received – in regards to
Keauhou Bay I received some concerns from a fisherman who has been fishing down at
Keauhou for over 50 years. His main concerns are the parking issues that we are having
down there – the Wednesday market, which is getting way worse when it comes to
congestion and traffic, Kona is growing by leaps and bounds between the growth and
the tourism increasing – there is lots of issues when it comes down to Keauhou Bay as it
is not, it’s just not really technically a harbor – it’s just a launch ramp and it is being
utilized as a harbor is and I’ve witnessed it because it’s basically my home away from
home, that there’s a handful of issues that could be looked at by DLNR or DOBOR, we
need regulation down there – I’ve witnessed people going in snorkeling at night and in
the daytime – they get to walk in with their fins which is an issue for me as it can be a
problem as the coral is down below – whatever is there and that also creates issues at
night because they’re not lit up, they don’t have lights on so the boats and everybody
that’s coming from either along the fishing or the manta tours people cannot see them –
that’s gonna be an added issue. Additional issues in regards to the parking – if we have
limited spaces for parking – where boat or where trucks and trailers park and launch –
buses are now parking there to allow tourists go and experience Hawaii, which is also a
problem – it’s not lit up, um, I hate to say it but tourists do not pay attention to where
they are walking and they’re on their cell phones, they’re taking photos of everything
and it’s just – it needs to be somehow regulated. I don’t know how it’s going to be
regulated or who can regulate that because it is owned by Kamehameha Schools, and so
that’s where we’re at. There’s a lot of concerns for, um, you know, the locals – we just
want it kinda safe and slightly regulated. I don’t know how you can do that but it’s just –
there’s an accident waiting to happen. I’ve also witnessed people throwing rocks at
turtles. I’ve personally been asked for someone to have me take their photo by a turtle,
which I like to remind them that it is jail time or up to $100,000 fine and please be
respectful and know where you’re going and stay away from my turtles – not my turtles
but State turtles, um, but it’s – I don’t know if it’s education or what we can do but it
just seems like Keauhou there’s an accident waiting to happen and I don’t know what to
do about it. That’s it.
LT: OK. Mahalo nui. Do you have anything I can send to Kamehameha Schools – like an
informational pamphlet or maybe like a local non-profit working on this? Um, cause I
don’t think – my parents teach at the school so I’m sure I can figure out to get some of
the direction but where do I direct them to the learn about this other than our draft
minutes or?
NR: I, the only thing I would, I think we could do logistically is as a private citizen we can just
state, you know, our concerns about it because they do own the area, so I just think we
have to be careful. If your parents do work there I would be more than happy to write a
letter of my concerns because I am a resident in the area and I do go there frequently
for either fishing, family fun or volleyball, um, and, you know, as careful as the
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businesses that run there or as careful as the fishermen are over there – it’s just people
that come here do not know things or know to get out of the way of a boat. It’s really
interesting. All you have to do is be there one night and you’re just blown away.
LT: Yeah, I’ll…
NR: \[Unclear\] that’s what you said – I have no problem writing a letter and giving it to you to
send to your parents.
LT: If you can do that as a private citizen that would be amazing – I’ll do my best.
NR: OK. Cool. Thank you.
LT: Thank you, very much, um…
SW: Chair.
LT: Yes, ma’am…
SW: Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan – so Natalie, you can also talk to me off-line and
we can try if there is a State agency abutting that particular location that might be able
to get involved because I know it’s gonna be a bit, I mean, how do I say this, inter-acting
with a private entity is not quite within your jurisdiction but inter-acting with any of the
County, State or Federal agencies is – and I’m sure at some point it’s gonna cross over
into a State or Federal agency, so we can talk offline to figure out where that is…
NR: OK.
SW: ….and if there’s some avenue there.
NR: OK. Thank you.
LT: Thank you very much for that update. And moving to the last one for today…
CO: Aloha, everyone. This is Cortney, District – 8.
LT: Aloha.
CO: Aloha. Welcome to our newest Commissioner. Thanks for joining us and thanks for your
commitment to serve with us. We appreciate you. Just a couple of general
announcements, the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization is holding a couple of
virtual seminars to help residents prepare or for wildfire preparedness for your home
yard, family, ah, everything so – I can send the information along to Barbara to
distribute to the Commissioners. One is gonna be Thursday, April 18, ah, from 5:30 –
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6:30 pm and the next one is gonna be on Wednesday, May 1 from 12:00 – 1:00pm and,
ah, the next announcement is that the Kona Community Development Plan Action
Committee is holding a meeting today, actually, at noon at the Civic Center here in
Kona, for those interested in participating in the Community Development Plan which
affects all of us on this side. Um, and that’s today, April 16, at 12:00 pm at the \[West
Hawaii\] Civic Center. So that’s all for me.
SW: Sylvia Wan, Deputy Corporation Counsel. Cortney, do you have fliers for the other two
meetings that you’re talking about? Can you share those?
CO: Yes, I have fliers.
SW: OK. And if you share them with Barbara then she can get them posted onto GMAC’s
website.
CO: Perfect. I’ll send them right over.
SW: Thank you.
CO: Thank you.
5. NEW BUSINESS:
a. Discussion and Decision Making: Draft GMAC 2023 Third Quarter Report to Mayor
Roth and County Council, Commissioner Cortney Okumura.
LT: All right, thank you very much for your updates. Ah, nice to know what’s going on on the
Island. We’re moving to agenda item number 5. New Business, 5. a Discussion, and
Decision Making on Draft GMAC 2023 Third Quarter report to Mayor Roth and the
County Council by Commissioner Cortney Okumura. Did everybody get a chance to look
through that one – that was in – I got two of them...
SW: That’s the one page.
LT: That’s the single page.
SW: Front and back.
LT: By the way thank you for doing these – I know these are a little overdue. Oh, I like the
new outline style.
SW: Ah, Chair, I’m sorry. We need a motion if we’re gonna start discussion.
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LT: OK. Yes, sir?
RD: Yeah, Chair, Duerr, District – 1. I’d like to recognize that these reports are in,and I’d like
to make a motion that we accept them.
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SW: So, to approve the draft GMAC 3 quarter report.
RD: Correct. Then we can go to the second…
LT: Yeah.
RD: ….and then we’ll go to discussion…
PD: Second.
LT: OK. We got a second to that motion. Thank you very much. Now we’re moving forward
to discussion.
SW: I’m just gonna clarify for the record that the second was Mr. Dedman…
LT: Yeah.
SW: District – 2. Thank you.
RD: Yeah, nice job, I mean, a simple, nice job Cortney – simple and right to the point.
LT: Yeah, I like the style of this outline and these letters way better than the bullet point
style that I did, any objection?
CO: Yeah, I was trying to file a Robert – Robert’s – take Robert’s, ah, example, including the
synopsis for the – so it doesn’t include all of the different action items from each
meeting but I think it captures, you know, the main things that were discussed and the
main actions that happened so, which I, in my opinion might have a better chance of
getting read if it’s not quite so comprehensive.
RD: Duerr, District – 1. Now with this report, assuming that this report is accepted, you
know, one of our tasks is to get it out to, you know, local State and Federal officials.
How would we do that?
SW: Deputy Corporation Counsel, Sylvia Wan. So first off I’ll just note that that particular
question is outside the scope of the motion but, um, I will also just note for the record –
the way that GMAC promulgates or rather makes this widely known is that as soon as
it’s accepted – this draft included is posted on the GMAC website, it is also provided to
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the Mayor and it is provided to Council. So, it’s promulgated by being posted on to the
website it is available to anybody on the web.
RD: Would that – Corporation Counsel?
SW: Yes…
RD: Would that – so let’s talk more about an actual presentation in person on the Council
for example.
SW: We can make that request but it is up to Council to decide whether or not…
RD: Would that be in the scope of talking about this right now?
SW: No, it would have to be on the agenda. So, if you want to present it to Council it has to
be put on Council’s agenda and Council’s agenda is governed by the Council. So, we do
administratively provide this report through the appropriate channels but ultimately, it’s
up to the Council if they want to agendize it or not. So, I understand you’re gonna work
with Miss Kimball on that and that’s great. We internally, your staff, myself, and Barbara
will also work with Council staff on that, but again, like I said, it’s their decision.
LT: So that’s the end, ah, of our kuleana – is getting this passed and that’s it, yeah?
SW: Yeah, you have to pass it and then our administrative end is making sure Council gets it
and that fulfills your requirement under the Charter.
LT: OK. Amen. Now, do we do a roll call vote or?
SW: If your discussion is ended. Is there any other discussion?
LT: Any other discussion other than good job, all right, let’s get a roll call vote starting with
District – 1?
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Action: R. Durer motioned to approve the 3 Quarter Draft Report. Seconded by P. Dedman.
Motion carried unanimously by poll voice vote with 6 ayes, 1 excused.
RD: Duerr, aye.
LT: District – 2?
BL: Aye.
LT: District – 3, aye. District – 4, aye. District – 5, vacant. District – 6?
SW: Vacant.
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LT: Seven?
NR: Aye.
LT: And District – 8?
CO: Aye.
LT: All in favor say aye…
SW: I’ll just note District – 9 is absent and excused.
b. Discussion and Decision Making: Draft GMAC 0223 Fourth Quarter Report to Mayor
Roth and County Council, Commissioner Cortney Okumura.
LT: OK. Yeah. OK. All in favor said aye. This passes, Mahalo. All right next on the agenda is
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New Business, 5 b. Discussion/Decision making of Draft 2023 4 Quarter Report to
Mayor Roth and Council by Commissioner Okumura. Mahalo very much. Can we please
get a motion to pass this?
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Action: R. Duerr motioned to accept the 4 Quarter Draft Report as presented. Seconded by
N. Reynolds. Motion carried unanimously by voice poll vote with 6 ayes and 1
excused.
RD: Duerr, District – 1. I’ll make a motion.
LT: Well, we have District – 1 making a motion. Do we have a second?
NR: Natalie, District 7, second the motion.
LT: We have a second to that motion by District – 7, discussion? You know one thing I
always think about, um, is when I read stuff and this is from last year and we’re still
kinda talking about the same things, yeah, with like the Wailoa Small Boat Harbor still
going on. Just wanted to point stuff out that for me it’s important to look back at these
quarterly reports so that way I can kinda kick myself in the butt for not taking care of
this faster, ah, and that’s one of the examples for myself in District – 3, which is the
Wailoa Boart Harbor, which is a huge deal on this side ‘cause we’re talking about it
every single – every Commission and Board meeting, yeah, so… Anyway, that was my
discussion on this thing – wow – six months later same thing.
RD: Chair, District – 1, Duerr. At the heart of this issue is the division of boating and ocean
recreation.
SW: I’m sorry, yeah, outside the scope…
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LT: Yeah, mahalo… Anyway, sorry, I was about to point that out. All right, can we get a roll
vote to pass this? Starting with District – 1?
RD: Aye.
LT: District – 2?
PD: Aye.
LT: District – 3, aye. Four?
BL: Aye.
LT: Districts 5 and 6 vacant… District – 7?
NR: Aye.
LT: Last, ah, Miss Okumura?
CO: Aye.
LT: Mahalo, we have all ayes, um, five \[unclear\] – passes… Thank you very much for the
hard work. It looks amazing. I know this will definitely give us some attention, ah, and it
makes it a lot easier to present to the County Council, to the mayor and also for local
news media to cover. Thank you very much.
6. ANNOUNCEMENTS:
a. Next Meeting will be held on May 21, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. at 25 Aupuni Street, Puna
Conference Room, #1501, Hilo, HI 96720
7. ADJOURNMENT (11:00 AM):
Action: A motion was made by N. Reynolds and seconded by C. Okumura to adjourn the
meeting at 9:38 a.m. The motion passed unanimously by voice vote with 6 ayes and no
nays.
Respectfully submitted by,
Barbara Kossow
Secretary
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