HomeMy WebLinkAboutGMAC Minutes 12.17.24 Final draft Game Management Advisory Commission
County of Hawai'i
Minutes — Final Draft
Meeting Date: December 17, 2024
Time: 9:00 am to 11:00 pm
Place: Zoom and In-Person 25 Aupuni Ctr., Ste. 1501, Hilo HI
1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL:
District 1 - Robert Duerr, Present, in person
District 2—Taysen Wong Chong, Present, in person
District 3— Rhon Leomana Turalde, Present, in person
District 4— Brian Ley— Present, in person
District 5 -Vacant
District 6—Vacant
District 7—Vacant
District 8—Cortney Okumura — Present via Zoom
District 9—Justin Ackerman— Present via Zoom
Quorum Established with 6 in attendance.
STAFF: Inha Kandatsu-Kang Deputy Attorney, Corporation Counsel —in person
Barbara Kossow, Administrative Specialist—via Zoom
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Action: A motion was made by C. Okumura and seconded by B. Ley to accept
the November 19, 2024, minutes. The motion passed unanimously by voice
poll vote with 6 yes, and 0 excused.
3. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS:
None.
(Refer to agenda Item 9, Announcements, "b" for the process).
4. NOMINATION FOR CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR FOR 2025:
Action: A motion was made by T. Wong Chong to defer the nominations to
the February 2025 meeting, seconded by B. Ley. Motion passed unanimously
by voice poll vote with 6 yes, and 0 excused.
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5. COMMISSIONER REPORT BY DISTRICT:
RD: District— 1, We have the first three quarter reports done—in January we'll have the last
one and then we'll look to set aside that so that Chair and Commissioner Wong Chong
have bullet points to go in front of the Council. The East Hawaii —the Chair had made a
note in one of our meetings about Nile Tilapia and DAR put together a little note on it
and essentially, it's a big problem by the way you were right—they're big—and a world
record tilapia came out of Wailoa. Seventeen pounds. The East Hawaii Fisher's working
group which are in a number of other community members looking up Wailoa Pond and
the estuary from historic and present—some of the problems with the ecosystem and
how to try to work to the future. That's all I have.
LT: Thank you very much. I got a question— Leomana, District—3, 1 got a question about the
dredging [unclear] finished—do you know the overall price because I've been seeing it
on the Internet about 4.3 million.
RD: Yeah, four-point three they have finished. Essentially, what it looks like there was only
one bidder. Its cost came over what the bid was so technically they couldn't award it,
but what happened was the contractor came in at the lower amount of money and
while the project was moving forward, they found the additional money. The big
problem, the last thing that they dredged was the channel so that boats completely
missed last year's ahi season and while they were on site and, it just didn't make a lot of
sense. The only question left is how many cubic yards they actually dredged? So that
historically we have the prices for the last four dredging with cubic yards. Other big
issue is that there's a groin there that was put there to prevent the sand from wrapping
around the groin and coming into it. But the groin must be maintained. So, that's an
opportunity to go to Army Corps to be able to widen the groin so that you'd get an
excavator on it when it trucks—you could easily maintain it, right. The other thing with
DOBOR— Divisions of Boating and Ocean Recreation is the former chair is gone—a new
chair Megan Statts and she seems to be more reasonable in working with the
community in an outreach way. Yeah.
LT: OK. Thank you, District— 1. That's a good update on the dredging. Thank you. Moving on
to District—2?
TWC: Taysen, District—2, My report is basically still to understand what I said the last time.
Basically, a lot of community outreach on—through rather in person, my email as well
as my phone number—that's from past situations so that's why we have today's
presentations, the Makahanaloa Fishing Association, and the Aloha Animal Alliance.
Friends of Liliuokalani Gardens. Many concerns from the Panaewa District, Hamakua
and Steinbeck areas, feral pigs beign shot and left for dead and only taken for trophies,
onle the jaw with tusks are missing. It is becoming a big problem. I try and take a look
at it too—see how to mitigate that and then, of course, basically working with, Lili'o'
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and KT. It's not just the feral cats but production of the any [unclear], as well as our
public safety, yeah. So that's all I have right now.
LT: Mahalo. I saw the post about the—just leaving the animals bodies. Do you know what
kind of properties they're on? Is that on private property or....
TWC: County, some private properties, some public properties I know— I even heard of one
on Stainbeck— right near the check-in station was left.
LT: Mahalo for that update. Moving on District—3, that's myself. The biggest concern in
District - 3, is these wild chickens out of, I guess, you know, they're egg laying chickens
not the fighting chickens kind so it seems like people are getting egg layers and then a
rooster pops out and they get rid of ten of'em at a time so just watch out in District—3,
people are dropping off just groups of roosters— Rhode Island Reds. The rainy season
brings out all the pigs and down in Keaukaha where the Nene live—the pigs are out on
top of the road across Four Miles and same as always with the sewer plant polluting the
ocean, but that's it for District—3, and we can move on to District—4.
BL: Brian Ley, [unclear] finally we got an update supposedly February permits—they're still
waiting on permits but hopefully they're gonna start in February, but there was and also
an online petition to save the hot ponds and there was current legislation—just give
everybody a heads up—there's a slew of anti-gun bills—the most ridiculous one being
background checks on certain types of 3-D printers so just letting you know where we're
going down that and as a private citizen I spoke at the Na Ala Hele Trail thing last week
about the land between HPP and Hawaiian Beaches, if it is turned in to a public hunting
land that Na Ala Hele put in appropriate parking places for ATVs so we can access the
land properly to do a good number on keeping the pig populations down. If we could do
that and have adequate parking because I know that's an issue with a lot of the hunters
is access to the areas and being able to get in and get out—so we don't have the issue.
You go in half a mile to kill a big pig and then you can bring your ATV and get it out so
that's it for District—4. Thank you.
LT: Thank you, I think we should add this to one of our main focuses of [unclear] hunting
area because it seems like the past couple of years that district had to deal with the
most [unclear] with pigs, right, so I think this would be a good focus for us, when we go
to Oahu and we talk to the other legislators.
RD: Chair,just one note on Commissioner Ley's report. Na Ala Hele is funded by OHV
funding—Off Highway Vehicle—which gets funded to the tune of four million dollars,
which is off-highway fuel tax rebates. There has been a constant complaint that the trail
system is using it for their own good and neglecting the off-highway vehicles so there
needs to be a pressure point to make sure that the funding is used for where it's come
from.
BL: OK. I know somebody on the board, I'll bring that up and talk to them about it.
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RD: Yeah, OK.
LT: Thank you very much for that update. We can move forward to District -8.
CO: Aloha, so last month I missed the announcement that there was a public hearing that
took place on November 13 from DAR that was supposed to discuss proposed
amendments to the West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area Rules, and
basically what they're talking about doing in case anyone missed this. What they're
talking about doing is it's an extension of pakuikui moratorium —so that would extend
the current moratorium on taking pakuikui till December 181", 2026. The current
moratorium began on December 19, 2022, and it's set to end on December 18, 2024.
So, the Fisher Registration requirement for this post- moratorium would be for ten
years. This would include new registration requirements, monthly reporting and a
proposed bag limit of zero per person per day, and they're also proposing to add the
Milolii Community-Based Subsistence Fishing Area to the designated areas list, so
anyway, I think this is still in process— I wasn't able to find any information yet about
whether they've made a decision or if they're just still processing testimony being
received so hopefully next month I'll be able to report back on what was decided here
based off of the testimony that was submitted and that's all I have for District—8.
LT: OK, thank you very much. Any questions, concerns? Not seeing, all right, we're gonna
move on to the last one. Sir, District—9—that's you.
JA: Aloha, only thing for District—9 is I'm trying to link up with our new County Council
Member so I can discuss with him the shooting range that will hopefully one day God
willing, I'm into our district—stop laughing it's not funny, and the topic of the shooting
range I've been up at the range a lot lately, dialing in a new rifle and, it's a mess up
there,just tell everybody who goes up to the range—if you've got a pick-up truck and
you're bringing in all that lumber that you're shooting at, you can bring it home, so,just,
if you bring it in— bring it out—including the water heater that you like to shoot at, so,
someone's gonna shut it down and it's gonna be our own fault—just heed that warning
so... It'll end up coming one day, that's all I've got.
LT: Thank you very much, sir, yes, the rifle range—super important on this side, I think we
got to spend a little time on trying to figure out that issue. I agree that if we keep it
dirty— like everything—someone's gonna take it away. So, that'll be our 2025 —one of
our missions for next year.
6. PRESENTATIONS:
a. Blake McNaughton, President, Makahanaloa Fish Association, presenting,
"The Association Public Access and Assistance from the County for Fishing
and Gathering: County Easement and Access."
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BM: Yeah, mahalo for having me. I'm Blake McNaughton, I'm the president of Makahanaloa
Fishing Association, (slide starts) there's kind of our shoreline there and it looks kind of
small for you guys to see and all that. I'm sure that [unclear] afterward but that's one of
the historic maps we've been working on—on the right side is all the historical, you
know, Hawaii [unclear] the shoreline and then on the left is like [unclear] —still old
names but more the plantation style names and so on the very top of that map is, is
Kolekole Gulch and [unclear] down to just below Papaikou [unclear]. So,most of our
members, they're from those towns— Honomu, Papaikou, Pepeekeo, we have quite a
few from Hilo. We were birthed out of an agreement that was made in 2003 and that
was when Continental Pacific was developing the shoreline down side of Pepeekeo—the
sugar mill had closed—Continental bought it up on either side of the mill —about four
miles of the shoreline and they started putting up fences and gates and the community
said, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is our grounds and so thanks to the community at that
time they negotiated with Continental some accesses and, I'll kind of run through those
in a minute and give you guys a little more history of that because it's a long story but,
needless to say, one thing was promised and another thing now is being in a different
time, but that's who we're born out of that—and that fishing access committee that
was formed at that time is kind of our central core and so most of our members is from,
is from Pepeekeo in that area —that shoreline that they know but in 2019 we had a
meeting with a bunch of fishers and we started being like you guys are seeing more
places being closed off and said, you know, do we need to expand out from Pepeekeo
because we having this— Kolekole being closed for—was closed that out for 3 years and,
now we're seeing [unclear] closed things go up here and there and not three months
later, ah, [unclear] got gated off and still we haven't reopened that so at that point we
formed the Makahanaloa Fishing Association and the mission was really to preserve
public access—fishing access and cultural gathering access for that stretch of coastline
from Hilo out to— I think our farthest number is from Laupahoehoe, so I wouldn't say
we go that far, but that's really our mission and we've been struggling with that ever
since. We have— had some successes, I mean, it's been 5 years since then, we manage
three gates for access and change the codes regularly and so that's been going for 5
years. It's been helpful for property owners—we have one private agreement—that was
actually forced on them I guess, by the rules of the state being in a state conservation
district, and so they had to go out to community and put a fishing access in there so we
managed that one—it's just past 23 flats (ka Lae kohola)—a place called Ka'akepa. We
hold bimonthly aloha aina days, so every other month [unclear] on our shoreline and
usually get 20-30 guys to come down and cut grass—just kind of bounce around and
keep those accesses open and plant native plants and do that kind of stewardship. We
just got a grant from Hawaii Community Foundation for a capacity building grant and so
we're gonna use that to basically put towards a part-time coordinator and try help for
this advocacy piece and push the ball wherever—with the County or the state and with
private property owners and so I feel like we're growing and we're getting—figuring it
out where, where we need to push and who we need to talk to and, and forming those
relationships. We planted over 1,000 plants on the one shoreline— native plants, ti,
kukui, kamani, naupaka, niu, [unclear], ah, so [unclear] in five years. And then one thing
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that we really put forward is, is nominating properties for purchase by the County and,
and raising money to do that so one of the properties which I'll talk about in a minute, is
south of, of Pepeekeo Mill [unclear] and then the other one which we nominated this
year is Kawainui and so that's on the Onomea scenic route where that old white
wooden—whatever it is 6 tons bridge—it's on either side of that. It's makai of the road
—40 acres on either side and so, we're hopeful at some point that those get purchased
and preserved in perpetuity. That's really the mission of Makahanaloa and so those are
some of our successes. Do you guys do that at all? We're still figuring it out.
The next four slides [unclear]. Mostly plantation ohana whose guys is putting in like a
trail for us, yeah, there's some successes—on one of our Aloha Aina days, Dick Fraser
and Leila Dudley, and I'm not the next one—challenges—and this is something I know
you guys are familiar with so—the map is of that TMK that we nominated for PONC
purchase, that's—you can see Puu Honua at the top there—so it's about a mile of
shoreline—38 acres—and we'll talk about a little bit more. That was in 2021. So, here
we are in almost 2025. But just in general we have continuous problems with blockage,
lack of maintenance for our easements and this is for easements that our fishing trails
[unclear] that the community uses that nobody knows about and we just use and we
just help to maintain them —one of our guys said the access is overgrown and we go cut
it and some of'em are for County public access easements and so remember I said that
the County accepted or was working with us on, on this and so there's public accesses
where the County doesn't have a department to maintain those even though that
they've accepted responsibility for that maintenance and that's something I want to talk
to you guys about it and maybe we can figure out a process to do that. There's typically
little to no enforcement by the County despite the complaints— have numerous
complaints for the accesses just right north of Puu Honua where that big metal gated
subdivision is and, I mean, the last one they cut—illegally cut trees—dropped them in—
right on the shoreline. Called the state, called the county— no follow-up—we had to go
down there and clean up the wood—Zendo—the recommendation for a fine was ten,
you know, it can be up to $10,000 per tree—they got fined $2,000 for all of it and then
Zendo waived the fine because for whatever reason. We won't go there cause he's not
with us anymore, but, yeah, I mean, borderline corruption, if not outright. We don't
have a stable source of funding really. We're hoping that it if one of these gets
purchased that we can tap into those stewardship funds— no - that would be amazing
but, there's no—there's no pocket of money that we can get funded for this work
despite us doing a public good and so that's something maybe we can remedy, and
then there's no mapping of the trails for Hilo or Hamakua. During Mahele right, it was
too hard to run those, run all those gulches, right, and the main mode of transportation
was by canoe for that area so the surveyors never got out there so we have no map of
like, Na Ala Hele—we have no map of Ala Kahakai, we have, you know, even the railroad
which was built on a traditional trail doesn't have preserved access, right? It's private
property all over there. And so those are just some of the challenges that we face. We
really felt like we got [unclear] our side in COVID like whoa man—a bunch ainas got
bought up and, most of it is by people from, from not here and no offense to them but
they have no connection maybe with the fishers and the hunters of this area, so those
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are some of the big challenges we face and so just to give you guys kind of like point
study go to the next one. So this is Pepeekeo Mill side, you can see the mill right there
on the right side, in 1990 and this map was from Uncle LeRoy Mattos who's since passed
but you can see all the names that he wrote on the right side and this is the access that
he explained, back when it was sugar the ohanas, for better or worse, they weren't
great land stewards in a lot of sense but they did provide access to the community. You
could go where you need to, and I love hearing the stories of the old timers how they
would go down and they would really feed themselves and their families off of these
places. And so this is 1990, and so if you go to the next one—this was in 2004— if you
can scroll up—this was in 2004, post development—this was promised to the
community in terms of access and there was an additional agreement that they gave us
for vehicular access along the shoreline but this was what the access was supposed to
be and so you see all those orange spots is ways to get down to the shoreline, the
orange is vehicular, you're supposed to be able to drive down to the shoreline and then
walk along the shoreline—that's the blue—the blue is pedestrian—and so that was
what was promised in a map we have the document, of course, all of it is temporary and
revocable. The community at the time maybe didn't fully understand what they were
getting into, but this was what it was supposed to be. If you go to the next slide—you've
got to memorize that with your mind—or think back and forth—this is—in 2011—so 7
years after the subdivision was granted—approval —the County finally accepted the
access easements. Seven years—there was already houses there—the roads were
already put in and this is what they accepted. Quite different from what was promised
to the community and, it's a hodge podge of maintenance, some of it they said the
private property owners had to maintain, some of it they said, the County was going to
maintain even though they don't have a department to do maintenance for those kind
of things—and so, if you go down to the next one—this is—well this is 2021 connected
to the old slide—so it's even worse now but—this is like a current state of what you can
actually get to.
BM: The green is—sorry—that's like an old -the TMK that I overlaid on top of it, yes, so the
green has nothing to do with access but it's—there's no way you can access that unless
you get in, unless you can climb a rope or you trespass over private property and so this
is just, I think, a good example of what had happened, not just at Pepeekeo, right, cause
it's Pepeekeo shoreline or Makana shoreline but from Hilo out to Kohala and even all
around the Island— I'm hearing it from all the fishing guys that the accesses are getting
smaller and smaller and less and less and less and so I don't want to be one to complain
cause that's not my style, I try to find solutions so go to the next slide—this is kind of
what I'm proposing and what we're going to be working on a bit I think with our
coordinator position. So, number one is a dedicated County personnel member that's
dedicated to public access. Somebody that does not get caught up with the other
County responsibilities and is fully dedicated to helping us preserve those accesses and
looking at it in a wholistic way— I hear a lot of times our hunters is like, no, eh, they just
put up a house there, the guy fenced it—that was our trail to run up mauka to some of
our hunting areas. The County looks at it and the house is right in the middle of the trail
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—it's not by the hunting area and it's not by the road where the access is in the middle,
but because there's no map that says, eh, the trail runs here—the County let 'em fence
it, let 'em —they never put a public access piece in there—they never put the trail piece
in there because it's an isolated piece but then down the road if you want to put public
access in you no can —you can't connect the bottom to the top and so I think this person
would help us overcome a lot of that—there is a model on Maui, um, they hired a
cultural preservation person—so it's not a public access person— but just this lady
Jeannette is her name, she's employed by the County of Maui —she maintains the
database and map of cultural sites and she's responsible for when somebody turns in a
development application to build—she would check her maps, check her database and
see if there's a cultural site on here you guys have to ensure that there's a site
preservation plan so since there is this model that I think we could follow and tune it
more towards public access—you guys saw that map at the start so that would be a
good place to start is developing a private database— I don't have too much trust for the
County in terms of holding all that knowledge, I know that our fishers wouldn't want to
be like— hey, here's all our fishing spots— but, you know, if we could tag TMKs or
something like that and not for the exact trail and just like red flag it—something like
that and hold a private map or private database with whoever that hui was that was up
there in that district I think would be a good place to start and then what that looks like
in terms of a County database whether it's just red flags or and then once they put an
application in maybe the County person after that goes to that hui and says, OK, now,
where's the specific trail cause we're getting specific on this one—this person is
applying to build but...
?: As long the homeowner registers with them?
BM: It's as long as it's a permitted thing, yeah, for sure, is that what you're saying?
?: Yeah.
BM: Yeah, if it's unpermitted I don't know you gotta go old school that one, which we have,
but... Shucks, usually we try to go to the homeowner first but it's like—it's running
around— I feel it's like running around and just putting out fires—this person is putting
up fence here, this person is fence here... Yeah, so, if we can develop these systems I
think it would be a lot better and the other thing I would really like to see is a pathway
for funding this kind of maintenance that we're doing, particularly in cases where the
County has accepted— has totally accepted the responsibility for the maintenance of
[unclear]. We have a big problem with the state, right, which is our high-water mark—
they recognize the importance of fishing—they recognize the importance of shoreline
fishing, they recognize the importance of subsistence fishing, but then how do you get
to the shoreline?That is a right that is guaranteed to the people of Hawaii. It's in our
laws, it's in our constitution, it's in our SMA laws, our County SMA laws and so it's not
debatable whether that's a right, it is, and so how do we ensure that—we continue to
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have that right, and that we don't have to—we only get access 6 to 6—we have to walk
three or four or five miles to get to these places that we used to be able to drive to—it's
not right for our kupuna to have to do that and right now it's just piecemeal. Even if you
know something is going on, while half the time you don't, right, there's no
transparency in a lot of our systems too. I think this could akin to Friends of the Park,
so, our friend is over here KC right, and maybe we're friends of the shoreline or
something like that, maybe we're tapping into like a stewardship fund like the PONC is—
I'm not sure exactly the pathway with that but I think all of the laws are in place but if
we can help connect the dots and maybe hopefully you guys can help with that so,
that's two kind of proposals for you folks, if you guys can support or any connections
you guys have going forward I know both of these guys here and so we're not total
strangers to what you guys do and, we appreciate you folks and that's it. I think the last
slide is just a question slide and a list of our board members and my contact and email,
anything else -that's it, you guys have questions?
IKK: This presentation was sent to the Chat box for everyone to access and the members will
be getting a copy through Barbara.
BM: Yeah, it just came through on the...
LT: Thank you very much. I feel like presentations like this kind of hit a little more because
we got map outlines—the names of these areas as, you know, we all fish. Sometimes we
just do presentations of broad things [unclear], you know, but now we actually have to
see a specific area and the degradation of the map and all the promises, so thank you, I
appreciate that. Do we have any discussion from the Commissioners?Any questions?
RD: District— 1, Chair, one thing that the County said when we do the GMAC report that it's
open to the public and this would be a great opportunity to kinda segway into what you
guys are doing in front of the County and so we could coordinate that so that we know
like what our time limit—what our agenda will be when GMAC is in front of the County
Council and or key people who are not there with us and Blake guys are one of them.
LT: Yeah.
BM: Yeah, I'd appreciate that, I mean, Heather Kimball —she's on my speed dial and she's
been very supportive and, as well as some other County Council Members, but I think
having you guys' support and having, yeah,just coordinated, I fully agree.
TWC: Taysen Wong Chong, District—2. I'd like to give one—first off—applause especially with
the whole factor of the visual to where like the County promises stuff, I mean, it's not—
there's about, you know,just upkeeping with the laws that we have and the promises
but we as far as how you're saying, the maintenance workers would help with this
situation—we got our number two, yeah, public safety always number one so we're—
when we get this co-existence and someone can help maintain it's good for emergency
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situations that to have somebody down there in all, like how, like I was saying kupunas
cannot—who's gonna walk, right, basically one to three miles—to access—what's
gonna happen when an emergency happens, are people gonna run down there almost
three miles, by then it's too late. So, yeah, co-existence with the County and what the
association will be, definitely a plus, off the bat.
BL: District—4. Thank you for the presentation. Like I said, I really like the idea of a County
coordinator cause I know we've had discussions in the past with easements that are
supposed to go these hunting areas and it's county, state and everything else but then,
like you were saying, it gets in a gray area, it disappears and somebody builds and blocks
it off—it would be nice to have a County thing to work off these things if I could say in
the hunting and the fishing and the gathering community every year we're losing less
and less—it's harder to keep food on the table and get these things—we're looking at a
diminished resources and, everybody here knows what's going on—we've more people
showing up all the time and more people want to tap into it and we need to preserve it
and, have these accesses instead of everybody going to one little area cause that's the
only area you can get to, so... [Unclear]. Thank you for the presentation and hopefully
the County can step up and start doing the things you are suggesting and if we can help
you with - Leomana and I will go to the state legislature next month. If there are some
people that you would like us to talk to and twist their arm on stuff, we would be more
than happy to help you guys on that.
BM: OK. Great, great. Yeah, I think how the state and the County are working together
nobody's really available to solve that—for the shoreline because of these overlaying
mandates, right, cause the County probably in the high water up and then you have
private property on top of there and the state in the high water down and things, well,
that's not our kuleana. Well, it's not our kuleana but it is your guys kuleana so like
connect those two— I don't know how we can do that, but I think that coordinator
position could go a long way.
LT: Leomana, District—3, one thing that was good for me is being able to transfer this
information in the maps because it's something tangible, it's data, I can give on a sheet.
One thing that we do is letters of support other than just showing up in person and
talking, so if you have a data sheet with numbers. They love to see numbers - basic
mission statement so I can kind of understand what your plans, where you're trying to
go and it's not always talking to people who, you know, politics, and we all know it's a
game and you talk to people over there that prevents the people on that side, so maybe
we can go so we're up at the capital there's a couple of different areas of attack of who
we can get support from — now then it's not always the game management people or
the other people, sometimes it's people in conservation that wanna do laws or
something that we can go talk to but— like a datasheet or information sheet that we can
take and then pass on that would be amazing. Other than that, I got nothing left.
Anyone? Nothing seen, so all right, thank you, Blake, that's amazing.
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b. Lauren Turnbaugh Foo, Co-Founder of Aloha Animal Alliance, presenting
"The Feral Cat Problem in Liliuokalani Gardens, Banyan Drive, and
Community At-Large.
LL: I'm actually going to be presenting for Lauren. I'm Lisa Lane Cardin of Aloha Animals
Alliance, so thank you guys for having us today. I know this is a hot topic. (Slide—
presenting on Zoom). OK. So, like I said, I'm Lisa, Lisa and Lauren —we formed Aloha
Animal Alliance to really help empower people on organizations to help save and
improve the animals' lives. We are mostly focused on companion animals. How do we
best manage companion animals in a way that helps preserve all species, so, we're
gonna walk through one of the biggest problems, I think, in terms of animal welfare
here on the islands. I come from 20- 25 this year history in animal welfare on the
mainland and Lauren, my colleague, has been here on the Island for over 20 years and I
rely on her for a lot of the local specific information, so, we really formed with the idea
we have a MOU right now sitting in the County office to be the friends of organization
for animal control. We want to really focus on reducing shelter intake and improving
animal health, and we've gotten kind of four core areas where we want to support
Hawaii's pets and people, and these were born out of what you'll see on the last slide
which is a bunch of task force meetings that happened across the Island to identify sort
of the biggest problems in animal welfare. We found those to be lack of access to
information, so we have a vision for an information hub that we would like to put out
bettering access to care solutions, currently, and this is a mainland stat—only 30% of
Americans can afford an emergency or routine vet visit and I believe that that number is
probably even higher here in Hawaii. We really see a lack of community engagement in
the animal welfare problem here. There's sort of an idea that the government needs to
solve it and that doesn't really work anywhere. It needs to be a collaborative effort with
personal responsibility. And then our focus is really intake diversion programs so how do
we best keep pets out of the shelters— keep them with their people— keep 'em with
their colonies, etcetera.
Task force— I'm gonna say this really fast cause I want to spend most of the time on our
pet management plan. They had five community task force meetings where they looked
at and sort of distilled out what the top four issues were that were identified that were
repeating across all the districts. The view that there is overpopulation and lack of
affordable, accessible spay/neuter. We've got some groups doing amazing work but it's
not enough. Inhumane conditions for people, for pets and a lack of pet responsibility. I
think there's a lot of when you know better you can do better. So, there's a big role for
education to play in all of this and then education and lack of knowledge of how to find
resources and services. Everything is extremely fragmented and that has to do a lot with
how to just, where this organization is. The animal control division is relatively new. So,
people just aren't sure who helps with what and then perceived lack of enforcement of
laws no visibility of animal control responsiveness or access. Now, these were collected
about a year ago, so, I believe about that last one, the County is really working hard to
improve but here today I want to talk about community cats. I think, you know, a lot of
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people refer to community cats as feral cats but one of the things that's a key to
understanding is that cats that we're talking about that are free-roaming cats—there's a
span— right—a lot of the cats which are [unclear] that we're going to be discussing
today for the pilot project fall more on the friendly side. They're not necessarily
socialized, and they want to live in a home—they're used to being around people so
they're not truly feral. A lot of them are pets that have simply been dumped because
people don't have the resources to care for them. It's lack of affordable pet-friendly
housing, etcetera. The other thing I want to mention is, I'm probably gonna gloss over a
lot of things— I have shortened this presentation down, if anyone wants access to the
full presentation that goes more into depth, I'm happy to provide it after this
presentation. OK. Really briefly, this is just from thinking on cat population management
but I think a lot of people don't realize, so, animal control is spending about, I think just
about 3.6 million and really most of that money historically has been and most of the
other volunteer resources on this Island are focused on rescue and adoption, sanctuary,
these are the highest costs for intervention and they're not gonna give you the biggest
impact broadly on animal problems in your community. Studies have feted out and
realized that by existing the only cat population first—that's gotta be the lowest cost for
intervention and help keep pets at home— next is gonna be really focusing on trap,
neuter, return. And these are the two things that we're gonna talk about today. Aloha
Animals has been partnering with the County to kind of tackle the bottom level here a
little bit by offering free vaccines, etcetera, to improve health—we're hoping to expand
to spay/neuter, but let's talk about that kind of level of—we have been working with
stakeholders across the Island and Council to create a community cat management plan.
We have a pilot area designated that we would like to try this—so Council Members
came to us a couple of— I think we've been talking to them for about a year but recently
had us take a look at some cats that were down here where they have the canoe huts
and, they were, oh, can you kind of figure out what these cats are doing here and I was
like, well, sure we can trap/neuter and return those cats— but we look at them, there's
five or six maybe— but really what you have is this whole area is problematic, I'm just
gonna refer to it as kind of Banyan Drive—Wailoa River quarter for cats, and these are
problematic areas to have cats. I don't think anyone would argue with that—you've got
a sensitive watershed area, you have Nene, etcetera, it's not the best location to be free
feeding cats, and you're probably thinking oh, we know that T& R doesn't work. Well, I
will tell you twenty years in this industry implementing T& R managed programs in
locations—they do work but you—we have not had a well managed T& R program —we
have a lot of well-meaning people out there feeding cats but they're not necessarily
using best practices which has led to a lot of problems and then what I see is that
everyone ends up fighting and saying, I don't want T& R, I want trap and kill, and the
groups fight and nothing gets done and the problem has just continued to grow
exponentially till where we are today and so we're really working on a plan that—it's a
compromise—across all of these groups, so, probably no one's gonna be 100% happy
with the protocols and the things that we're recommending to be put in place but over
time they should drastically improve the community cat situation.
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This pilot is designed—we would designate safe cat feeding areas and shelter areas
within this defined project area to start. We are hoping that this is a pilot so that we can
then spread and adopt off island. We would designate those locations strategically away
from the most sensitive zones. We've been working with Jordan from Nene.org, I think
we have a meeting this week or next with the monk seal group—to really understand
those challenges and risks—and so we can how best mitigate and help preserve those
species as well. We want to reduce the impacts of community cat population through
humane on-going management practices. We believe this is gonna enhance the
protection of local wildlife, particularly the Nene, with these targeted interventions. We
want to strengthen our relationship with locals, businesses, and tourism industry by
mitigating the cat-related concerns. Everyday businesses are upset because there are
people feeding cats in a non-best practice way. And this is just creating all kinds of
problems. We want to do all —something that we can repeat—a community cat
program and event with a clear communication and education plan, like, I can't stress
enough that this is probably 50-50 on the groundwork of actually trapping, managing
the cat and 50%focus on the communication plan out to both the stakeholder groups
and the broader public at-large. So, what are we gonna do?The first piece is
establishing and implementing the best practices, so we want to collaborate with our
stakeholders. We've been meeting with a lot of these groups to sort of define and
standardize the humane management protocols for community cats. We have all these
best practices from mainland groups and international groups. There are some unique
considerations here in Hawaii and we want to make sure we understand those and
manage them. We have started some engagement with stakeholders like I said, but
really need to assume along targeted outreach strategy and involve—we've been talking
to a targeted group of feeders out there to get feedback on the plans that we've been
working with hotels like the Naniloa, in downtown Hilo, or in the Banyan Drive area and
start to bring in the broader community and let them know about the project objective.
Right now, we're in that sort of, prepare, for implementation phase, we're gathering
resources, we're creating the educational materials that will be both for the broader
public so we're gonna be creating play books that hotels can use to speak to their
guests, their employees, for the feeders and, or the broader public. So, the plan involves
—we are recommending implementation of a strategy that you can learn more about,
they've implemented in Miami and that is, we would have a registration and, education
that feeders, when I say feeders, I'm talking about volunteers in the community who are
feeding community cats. These individuals right now they're doing a range of things and
a lot of them really aren't great—they leave food in plastic bowls—they're putting it out
in the park which creates litter and things that blow into the water where they are
leaving food unattended and therefore Nene and other rodent like pests can eat up the
food. And then, we overfeeding cat feeding like I had talked to a number of people who
believe they are the only people feeding cats on Banyan Drive and I've talked to like six
people who've said that and I'm like, you all are feeding. So, we're probably
overfeeding which causes population explosion, it causes Nene to get to the food
etcetera. So, what we would do is anyone who wants to feed community cats would
need to go through specific training. That training then would offer them protection if
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they follow the rules that they agreed to—so that we need to abide by the practices,
and this would protect them hopefully from being cited. But we also, and there's an
enforcement component to that, right, we need to be enforcing those rules, making
sure that the feeders out there— have registered, taken that training. Knowing that
we're gonna be tracking the populations over time so that we understand—we'll have
registered colony managers who work on specific locations and within that quarter that
I showed you it's probably we're looking at five feeding stations and five like designated
groupings of cats, so be tracking them —a colony manager would be responsible for
notifying if a new cat enters into the colony—if that cat is not spayed or neutered after
this kind of mass trapping program that we're gonna do we would have a cat help desk
that those individuals could call into and receive help and further facilitate the spay and
neuter. Now, we are working—this is a lot, skip that slide—we are working on proto-
types for a Nene proof feeder for the cats. Right now we're working with—on a location
with the Naniloa and we probably need four other locations within this corridor to test a
—what we're testing right now is essentially like a chicken coop that comes up off the
ground a little bit—the—so that the cats could eat in there but it's low enough to the
ground that Nenes would not be able to enter underneath it, so we're testing that,
reporting back— I've also got a high school team who's willing to take a look at it to see
if there are more cost efficient or better designs that we could utilize in this cause we'll
probably need a variety of shapes and sizes of these types of structures, and so what we
want to do in this corridor is execute intensive trapping, sterilization, vet and return to
colony initiative. So, this mass trapping event would focus on the areas that we
indicated, and around the feeding stations there's probably maybe a four week period
before that where we'd want to begin feeding those cats on a schedule and migrating
them toward the designated feeding stations and out of some of the areas where we
don't want them today. And then, that would probably take about 4 weeks. We would
do a mass— probably three to four day trapping event, where we would trap the cats—
we have a county location that they're gonna allow us to work in to do the mass spay
neuter—we bring 'em back—and volunteers do that—you hold them for a couple days
to recover and then you re-release them in the designated feeding stations—they would
receive sterilization, vaccines and any vet needed, and we would have a testing protocol
for any cats that were suspicious for any sorts of problems because we want to make
sure we maintain a healthy population in the best way that we can. And then, beyond
the communication plan B where they, biggest key, the ongoing management strategy—
this is not a one and done—we need to establish and ongoing cat help desk to address
community inquiries and provide resources to individuals and businesses. We need to
register and train these feeders ongoing so that they're implementing the best practices
—they're agreeing to those and that they maintain the designated feeding stations and
probably maintenance needed on those overtime because of the kind of environment
that we operate in here. We'll be monitoring quality and health in the population trends
to assess the effectiveness of management efforts. I'm gonna meet with Jordan when
he's back next week from Nene.org— he's extremely bright— has already had some
methods for doing this and so we want to see how we can come together with those
and combine our resources to create effective tracking. And then we really need
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partnership on this piece and that's the enforcement and monitoring of the feeding
stations, the dumping of cats—there's gonna be recommended signage that we put out
—we may want to consider trail cams in some of these places, and really enforcing that
because what we see is there hasn't been a lot of pathways for owners that have free
roaming cats or pet cats that they can no longer take care of. The County doesn't accept
in their shelters—for the most part— healthy cats, right?The Humane Society does and
some of the rescues do but often people are put on a waiting list and people have bigger
problems and so sometimes they don't want to deal with that and then the cats end up
they're like oh, I saw a bunch of cats down at Liliuokalani or on Banyan Drive, I'm just
gonna take mine there because they don't necessarily feel like they have other options.
And then we want to ensure the continued access to sterilization services, medical care
and resources for maintaining healthy colonies. We need on this Island a place for
people to bring community cats on a schedule— like right now it's a very competitive
appointment based service, and that just doesn't work for community cats because
you're trapping them and you never know when you're going to trap them —we really
need something where on a couple days a week people can trap in their colonies and
bring the cats in without an appointment. It's sort of a drop off— but maybe it's
Monday, Wednesday and Friday—and we offer low cost or free spay/neuter on a drop-
in basis. Like I mentioned, we had a robust concept for the communication plan—we
would want to work directly with County employees so that we're all speaking the same
thing, DLNR, local hotels and their management, local businesses, the fears [?], the local
animal welfare organizations—so that everyone is on the same page and that's the only
way a project like this is going to work. We can't implement a project like this if we're
gonna have another entity citing people or telling them they can or can't do this. We
need to all work together to establish what is OK and what isn't and come to an
agreement on that and then work on the same language across all of the entities for
enforcement, and that's really ensuring that works this humane approach while
protecting the County's wildlife and tourism —wildlife conservation and tourism goals,
how you can help really adopt and support and enforce the best practices in T& R.
Happy to walk anyone who's interested in what we're thinking and then considering
other parameters that people may raise, here so that we can create sustainable
community cat management plans that's enforceable. Help us identify and maintain
safe feeding locations. So, I have one location approved on land that the Naniloa has
available for one of my stations, but I need to identify four more in that corridor that we
can work on and to support those feeding stations and sterilization efforts we're gonna
need some funding for this project. Lauren and I have scoped out a preliminary budget
— happy to talk to anyone on what that looks like—and then be an advocate once this
rolls out. If you see something, say something. Public monitor and report issues to
ensure the program's success—the welfare of the cats and the good of the community.
OK. So that was a lot. And I talked very fast, but I anticipate there are questions about
this, I know this is a somewhat contentious issue here in Hawaii, so I'd love to have
some time to hear from all of you. If anything I said didn't make sense, please ask.
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LT: Leomana, District—3, 1 just want to say thank you for your presentation. I don't know if I
like cats or not— I have a cat— me and my daughter we adopted a cat - but you know
the cat issues especially here in town— I live in this area and I've seen it my whole life—
the population grow, and so I just wanted to say thank you for your presentation and
giving me all this information on how we can, I guess the cheapest way forward, right,
that's what matters to me— because the cheapest way forward is the way that we can
make it work out so.
LL: Yeah,just to speak to that a little bit. So, [unclear] math, if you take what the County
budget is currently for picking up animals off the street and they do a couple of other
things, but primarily that's their role right now—is picking up free roaming dogs—
picking up free roaming cats—culling the strays that come in—if you just look at the
rough budget [unclear] are projected to serve in this year, you're looking at about 1,000
dollars an animal and that's only to get them to the point that you euthanize them or
return them back to an owner or push them out to a rescue who then absorbs the cost
of raising them for adoption, socializing them and marketing them. That's a far cost. It is
far, far cheaper to tackle this effort using volunteers and a community cat management
plan on the cat side. There are places that are doing the same thing with dogs, typically
not done in the US—although I know there are some communities who are talking
about it, but I think you have additional public safety concerns when you start talking
about free-roaming dogs.
LT: Yeah, right on, that's my main concern—just the finances cause I know when it costs a
lot of money it doesn't get done so mahalo.
TWC: I have a question, Taysen Wong Chong, District—2, you were mentioning about training
for the feral cat feeding situation, would that be for anybody?The reason why I ask that
question is because I feel like the feeding should not be acknowledged for the public
where the feeding training should be for the Alliance or for the members that's gonna
be involved with the whole structure—that way the—cause I know people who abuse
that authority—they gonna get trained—they gonna say, well, I did the training, and I
know it's gonna become an issue with that situation in the long run.
LL: That's a great point so we have a lot of people on this Island just feeding cats. We have a
lot of people feeding in inappropriate standards, so the training is probably gonna be
pretty broad, but they're not only getting the best practices, they're gonna have to
agree to a code of conduct and that's when we need help with the enforcement
because we're gonna have people who are not—who are gonna get the training and
maybe bend the rules a little bit. Initially, we're gonna need to be very public about
enforcing that, and you can have your—and probably put in place some standards that
if you violate this—you can have your registration revoked and then be cited for, for
feeding if your' not able to feed at those standards, and, so I think, yeah, we need to talk
about that, I mean, our plan is to get it out broadly, but need to be connected in our
communication network if they're going to be doing this, that would be one of the
requirements because there are gonna be things that come up— public health concerns
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etcetera over time—and we want to make sure that we're communicating well with this
group to teach them about what they need to look for in those circumstances.
TWC: But, again, the reason why I have that concern is because I would rather have somebody
that takes the training in being involved with the whole project, rather than just having
community— because like this—only off the subject a little bit with—it's like saying—
that feeding feral pigs is a problem as well, right, a lot of the guys [unclear] is actually
hunter gatherers they setting themselves up to later catch these animals but it's almost
like saying welcome, you know, welcome something like the hunters would feel —that's
this way— I'm looking at [unclear] for me—as a hunter/gatherer myself, we cannot do
the whole feeding process to set ourselves up, right, that's the rule get fined and stuff so
it's almost like what if I was a hunter, right, um, come up and they like, OK, do you guys
want to do this for feral cats why can't the hunters go and take the training on properly
feeding these feral animals and then,just doing that, so that's why I said like, I don't
think it should be welcome to anybody in the public, it should be actually welcome to
only people in the whole project management and then they're gonna be hands on
involved, that way...
LL: Yeah, I do I agree with that.
TWC: Yeah, that's all I'm saying.
LL: That's a good point.
RD: Chair, District 1, Duerr—where we are a game management advisory commission and
essentially our inter-action with cats, as far as what you're talking about would be
fishers on the shoreline and are there any negative impacts—if you have any of that
information that you could get to the County would be great. The other thing is the
major impact with feral cats— not community cats—with game management is with
birds—if you have any information on like how to get a census of a population in the
wild— how to maintain getting a feral population under control for wildlife—any of that
information you have would be helpful.
LL: OK. Yeah, we can put together a little bit more extensive information—that meeting I'm
gonna have with Jordan — he's really well versed in tracking and there's a couple of
different tools out there that we're exploring using for this, one of which is sort of like
an app on your phone so hunters who are out there who may encounter feral cat
populations that are not in well-traveled areas—this is something we'd love to do an
education presentation on and how they can submit that information, so that we can
begin to manage those. I think first we're probably gonna be focused on the more
urban environments, the parks and the wetlands, but then my understanding is there
are some populations of truly feral cats in some of the remote areas and I personally
have not explored those yet, but, am welcome to learning about them so that we can
figure out the best path forward for those.
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TWC: OK, Taysen Wong from District—2, 1 want to second on that—that actually would be
something good to work on with DLNR cause they do have the app and up and running -
if you guys could co-exist with them to where like we do see feral as a hunter gatherers,
myself, we do see feral animals such as the cats, right, in the mountains, lot of
designated areas that we go hunting so if something like that was to be implemented
into the apps that could co-exist with DLNR that would be very helpful because I have
taken a lot of pictures myself and it's become the question mark to where, who do I
send this to? Purchase that app I think would be a good thing it will be like an automatic
enter database, right, the moment...
LL: Awesome...yeah, that's exactly the vision so I [unclear] information is in the back of this
presentation—if that could get sent around and anyone of this group who has
information on locations before we get kind of the tracking software set-up, I'd love to
know that so we can kind of put it in the priority of things that we're gonna look at.
BL: Brian, District—4, How do you get away with the state allowing you to have these
animals cause I know we've lost thousands of acres on Mauna Kea cause there was a
video of a cat getting an endangered bird and we were talking about these feral cats—
even if they're well fed they're gonna be taking down Nene chicks and everything else
like that and we're constantly dealing with the state non-native invasive blah, blah, blah,
losing everything and it just seems kinda a little hypocritical. I appreciate what you're
doing, I have cats and blah, blah, blah, but, there's a time and a place for everything and
I don't understand how the state allows that but we're going through this native only
species things that we've got to eradicate everything else— [unclear] — I'm just a
[unclear] being killed—fences going up, thousands of traps per cats on Mauna Kea and
it's ineffective at the last week I saw three different sets of cat traps down the roads
hunting these areas, and we're spending fortunes trying to kill these cats and everything
and then, there's a time and place for everything. I don't know why the state and
County even allows these animals on the streets and catering to them —that's just my
personal...
LL: Yeah, I understand what you're saying, I do think it's worth noting that trap and kill has
just never been effective—you can't get broad public support for it and there are a lot
of unintended consequences that come from it and it becomes very, very costly, I mean,
there are studies that have been done in this book—in island environments and
mainland environments and the only proven way to have just well manage your cat
situation and reduce the population over time is well managed T& R programs. I
attended a presentation last night about what they're doing on Oahu, and they shared a
lot of successes from that on the stats of bringing down the number of colonies and a
cost for intervention. It was very, very promising. Now in terms of what the state will
and won't allow on their land, I think that still remains in question. I'd love to meet with
some of those individuals—also if there's anyone from DLNR on this call we would love
to work with you and collaborate, so, please take a look at our contact information and
reach out.
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TL: OK, Leomana, District—3, thank you so much,just cause of time we've got to move
forward, thank you for that presentation—one last point is I think that we should be in
contact and maybe have one of our commissioners go through the training not to be a
feeder—just to understand the process but we can email and communicate on that.
LL: Absolutely, I'd like to have you guys test it before it goes to the public and then point
out any concerns or additional like topics that you want covered, so, thank you.
LT: OK. Yeah.
IKK: You mentioned it before you'd like to circulate this presentation—you can upload it into
this Chat to everyone and also send it to Barbara Kossow. I'll send you a direct Chat,
with her email address or she can circulate it to the Commissioners.
LL: Yeah, I sent to Barbara, a fuller version, so that there's a little more definitions around
cats and of the background information that I think people might find helpful.
IKK: Yeah, and you can also send it through this Chat as well that way the members who are
attending can review... OK, thank you...
c. K. T. Cannon-Eger, President, Friends of Liliuokalani Gardens, a non-profit
presenting, "the feral cat problem in Liliuokalani Gardens and Banyan
Drive and the community."
KTC: Thank you, members. I don't know really why I'm invited, I am not a cat biologist, I am
not a game management person— nor a hunter, lately, although I have been a
fisherman, yeah. I'm a volunteer gardener in Liliuokalani Gardens. Friends of Liliuokalani
Gardens, which formed in 2012, we work under a memorandum of agreement, a
memorandum of understanding—with the County of Hawaii Department of Parks and
Recreation. We operate along three paths—we help with maintenance—that the
County employees are, either don't have time or money or expertise to do, so we help,
we manage approximately 1,000 volunteers over the course of a year's time. We also
assist in raising funds for capital improvements within the park, which by the way is four
gardens: [unclear] up at Kanukuokamanu Point overlooking the Wailoa River entry, Isles
which also goes along the coastline, Moku Ola which was added in 1933 and Nihon
Koen, so all four parks make up Liliuokalani Gardens. It's 24.67 acres, approximately 5 of
that is the pond—Waihonu —that dates back four to six hundred years. Anything that
happens on the land ends up in the ocean, you fishermen know that, so, what we do on
the land has to be done with care because it affects our life. We also work on
coordinating and co-sponsoring events that happen in the park— next week is Christmas
Lights Monday and Tuesday. And we have the Banyan Drive Arts Stroll, Koinobori,
Queen's birthday festival, floral design competition and then back to Christmas—those
would be ones that our organization deals with. We have a legacy here in this twenty-
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four acre park where Hawaiian honu is a 600 year-old refrigerator that's on the blink
right now. The last time that pond was completely dredged was 1964, after the 60s
tsunami. There's been some minor dredging of different areas of the pond but not
entirely. We embarked on a clean-the-pond effort, pond restoration as a traditional
fishpond, is our number one priority. So, since 2016 we've been allowed to go into the
pond and take out accumulated mud, muck, slime, sludge, whatever you're name for
those 3 feet of stuff at the bottom of the pond is—we've been removing it one 5-gallon
bucket at a time. We're up to 19,500 gallons of mud taken out of the pond. Two years
ago, we embarked upon a Genki Ball project to use the central microorganisms to eat
the sludge and the toxins. And that is showing some great impact, we tested 7 areas in
the pond for a year and then we expanded the entire pond. Cats have an impact on the
pond—with their feces and this impacts the Nene, the monk seals, the green sea turtles,
pregnant women. Spaying and neutering a cat is an effort I wholeheartedly support.
Returning a cat to a colony is something I'm very hesitant about because spaying and
neutering a cat does not get rid of toxoplasmosis—does not get rid of the hunting
instinct in cats for going after kolea, Nene, and other native birds. It's also this visual
permission to break the law—if somebody sees a car parked on the sidewalk in front of
the teahouse, they think that's a parking space and everybody parks, oh, he did it, I can
do it. So, this visual permission of seeing cats there—therefore it must be an OK place
for me to dump off my cat is very sad, it's very, very sad. To see humans treating these
animals like trash—to just be tossed away. There are some compassionate acts that
have severe unintended consequences. Fire ants really like cat food so then the cat goes
to the ball and is covered in fire ants and, blinded or cataracts from the fire ant bites.
We have a program to try and reduce the fire ants in the park—this is a public health
and safety issue, but there are certain places that cannot be sprayed because they are
too close to the pond —ironwood trees that are right on the edge of the pond, and
nobody wants to spray food. The damage we are seeing in the park is not only to the
human beings and to the wildlife, but also to park assets. Cats scratch and there are
trees that have had their bark shredded from cats scratching on the trees—the corners
of the teahouse have had to be renewed with new lumber because of the cats
scratching on every corner around the tea house. These are problems, problems that I
think can be solved, I'm very happy to hear about the potential feeding station that
would allow for cats and not Nene. Fire ants will still get in but one thing at a time.
We've been very happy with the involvement of Mr. Lerma and Nene.org with DOCARE
with the County and others in protecting our Nene. I know George Travelin [sp?] and I
think he's here with us on Zoom, I'm uncertain, I don't see all of the names there of all
of the participants— but he did provide a portion of this presentation, ah, view, and I
have one more here printed out—this is only a portion of his presentation on his
situation in Liliuokalani Gardens. The estimate is between 75-100 abandoned cats— I
won't call them feral. They're abandoned cats in Liliuokalani Gardens in various parts of
the park and the estimate from cat map, which is provided to you there—the link, and
QR Code—the estimate from cat map is between 377 and 521 abandoned cats in the
Waiakea peninsula. This is a problem to every enterprise on the peninsula, not only to
the park and to our wildlife.
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IKK: So sorry, would you send to our secretary Barbara.
KTC: Jordan did, I believe.
IKK: Oh, OK.
KTC: This is not my work this is Jordan's work.
IKK: Jordan Lerma?
KTC: Lerma, yes...
IKK: OK, and he's...
KTC: And he's travelling and not able to be here...
IKK: Barbara? Would you be able to send that in the Chat so everyone has access to can you
share a screen, whichever... Sorry, I just need everyone to have access to it.
KTC: Are there any questions?
BL: Brian, District—4. Thank you for your presentation, I know we've seen each other at a
lot of meetings, and I think this is something that we actually agree on the same thing.
Eventually everyone comes together [unclear]. Yeah, I appreciate it and, [unclear]
discussing earlier, the state is kind of [unclear] killing barn owls and egrets cause they
were caught killing one native bird and, in Hawaii if you get caught killing a native bird
that's just [unclear] these cats. There's a time and place for everything and like you said,
the perception that people dumping these in, [unclear], severe jail times that I'm tired
of these people dumping kittens and puppies on the side of the road and they just get
smashed cause they have no idea [unclear] like you said atrocious even though I hunt
and fish and have no problem putting a bullet in something, but, this thing is disgusting
and people need to step up [unclear] abandonment issues [unclear] creating havoc long
term but like you said people think it must be OK because they'll have friends [unclear]
yeah, so, I appreciate your input and everything else, so thank you.
KTC: Thank you. I appreciate the value of signage, but not everybody reads a sign. We have
Nene nesting in the park right now—the egg is expected to hatch momentarily—two
eggs—there were three but a leashed dog got away from its owner—trampled one of
the eggs—though one's gone but the smell of the trampled egg that had—attracts cats,
attracts mongoose, attracts thousands of flies—so there was a cleanup and return of
the eggs to the nest—done by the Nene—OK—this is not a human intervention
situation— Nene cleaned out the nest and returned the two eggs and they're assigned
to move the barricade on a small section of the path and there's a detour where you can
go around— people are walking right through it, so, I'm a fairly patient person—a long
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fuse— but there's a powder keg at the end and I have been known to yell at people in
the park. So, if I'm yelling at you, I want you to ask yourself—what did I do? I put caution
tape from the barricade to a tree, back to the barricade—out to another tree so it's a
little more visible. People are still walking over the lava coming down right at the nest
and that's where I'm —the Irish goes off—where do you think you're going?
And you have Jordan's entire presentation on there, what he was able to send me was
an abbreviated version which also offers a solution which has some precedent on the
Island of Kauai and he offers the cat manual protocol which would allow for reporting
feral colonies, truly feral colonies that you see when you're out hunting. We have signs
that say no littering, we have signs that say no smoking, we have signs that say alcohol
free park and you know what the number one thing I pick up in the park is? Cigareete
butts and beer bottles. It's— people paying attention to signs and adjusting their
behavior to what the law is, is a challenge. So, this is a challenge, and it will take the
community working together to meet it. Thank you.
LT: Thank you very much, ma'am,just closing this section up. We've got 15 minutes left and
a couple of things to run through real fast, yeah.
TWC: Taysen Wong Chong from District—2, K. T. I really appreciate you coming. I know you
felt like you wasn't an asset to be here today but reason why I invited you, I feel that
experience-wise in the park you was the best fit of the park presentation so if I had
anybody to come and talk to about the whole concerns of the park—you were the
person to have on board. I appreciate Jordan giving [unclear] cause I also spoke with
Jordan, giving the presentation in hand, ah, that's a big help but I just wanted to thank
you not just for coming today but also for what you do for the park as well, I've watched
that. Thank you.
KTC: Thank you, Taysen.
RD: Duerr, District— 1, K. T. —you're a model for community outreach and conservation.
Mahalo. This is something that we could— how you work with 1,000 volunteers to help
conservation and preservation and public access enjoyment— but the other issue is the
fishpond is a viable resource. A lot of people get bait and a lot of people fish there and a
lot of times it's the first access for young, keiki. We'd love to work with you on how that
model looks in the future. Is it tag and release. Are there sometimes that you can
harvest, how to get the access so that the flow is better and, I think this is something
that DAR and GMAC can help you with.
KTC: DAR has be very helpful. At the moment we're in the midst of fish survey in seeing
what's in the pond. There's the native Hawaiian seahorse in the pond. There's flounder,
little bitty flounder that big. As well as everything that you could think of. We're missing
some traditional, native Hawaiian fish because we're missing native Hawaiian limu
which does not grow in mud, it grows on rock, so repairing, restoring the pond is a
multi-year effort, getting rid of the mud, down to rocks so that native limu can be re-
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introduced, getting rid of the gorilla ogo, nobody eats it. So, it's a problem statewide.
Kaunakakai's beaches they just—they rake it up—off the beaches and take it for
compost. We've got a problem in the pond, which is going to impact the reef right
outside, repairing the walls all the way around the edge of the pond and re-introducing
[unclear]. We're already starting to see with our Genki ball project and physically
removing some of the mud, an increase in the fish populations. And we're giving the
small fish a place to hide. We're seeing as we remove the mud more springs are flowing
so Waiola and this is the life of that pond is to get those springs flowing back into the
pond. We've removed the mud from the Lihiwai Street side of the wall so now it's not
only the tide coming through the two makaha, it's also coming through the gaps in the
wall because the lower part of the wall is still traditional — no mortar. It's only the top
part of the wall next to the road that has mortar, so, yes, we're restoring the flow, trying
to get that exchange between the pond and the ocean happen. And there are two
kinds of opae...
LT: Nice, thank you very much.
KTC: Thank you.
7. NEW BUSINESS:
a. Commissioner Leomana Turalde: Introduction of the Mana Aina Award
(GMAC) to honor outstanding individuals or groups who have
demonstrated exceptional dedication to support the hunter-gatherer
community and protecting our natural resources. This award
recognizes efforts that embody the spirit of stewardship and respect
for the land and community.
LT: Introduction of the Mana Aina Award (GMAC) to honor outstanding individuals or
groups who have demonstrated exceptional dedication to support the hunter-gatherer
community and protecting our natural resources. This award recognized efforts that
embody the spirit of stewardship and respect for the land and community.
I have three awards that I want to implement on behalf of the GMAC and we're calling it
the Mana Aina Award series. This is a way for us to give back and acknowledge all the
hard work that people put in whether in their professional or personal lives to our
natural resources, to our hunter and gatherer communities. See the Mana Aina Award
nomination form —this is not the final draft.
The Mana Aina Award is a prestigious community recognition established to honor
outstanding contributions to the hunter-gatherer community for support for cultural
practices and efforts in natural resource management. This award seeks to celebrate
individuals and organizations to exemplify a deep commitment to preserving traditional
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practice, fostering sustainability when it comes to hunting and inspiring others to
engage in environmental stewardship. It is a symbol of gratitude and respect for those
who dedicate themselves to the protection and perpetuation of our shared natural
resources and our cultural resources.
That's a general overview; it doesn't need to be stated exactly like that—we can edit
based upon our ideas. Right underneath that is the nomination information—this is just
basic—the nominee, basic information, nominator information and then a description
and detail of contribution so you got to write a little. I know this is a community that we
work with our hands a lot but, we got to write some words so that way we can get these
nominations through. The number two proof of alignment with the award criteria
community engagement, stewardship, history and number 3—any supporting
documentation and number 4, which is the last one is our community support—so we
need 25 names for this nomination. This is a way that we can empower each other as an
expert or someone who is a leader in the field. You know, a lot of the hunters, the
gatherers—they seem to think of themselves as just general, basic people. Well, when
we actually have people with the most knowledge out there that know the most about
moss or Genki balls or people who spend their whole lives dedicated to managing the
resources. Anyway, I wanted to give back to the community from us—GMAC by giving
these kind of awards and nominations out. Accompanying the award is a letter of
certification—whether we got to pay for that out of our funding—or we could get the
County to actually make —you know how we were talking last meeting about the post
cards—same thing—instead of a post card you just put "certificate" and we use that
hard stock or whatever and we can all sign it and give the community something that
maybe we could afford to. Any discussion on this idea?
TWC: This is Wong Chong, District—2, 1 think this is a groovy idea, honestly, and not just to
recognize the individual but just to help GMAC's push and recognition as well for the
community. I especially like stewardship, and having the 25 names is especially like—
that's basically what we need to do with GMAC. We need to get out there more and this
is one of the ways that we can do that and, I second this 100% so, good job on that
Leomana...
LT: Thank you.
RD: Duerr, District— 1, yeah, nice job. This is the gonna work—the only question I have is
inserting under hunter/gatherer community. We pulled from our mission so, which
would include the preservation of subsistence hunting and fishing, as well as protecting
traditional and cultural gathering rights. As a basis of awarding it. The other question I
have is like, you know, the fifty community signatures, is that going to become a lot of
work. So, what's your thought on collecting the signatures?
LT: I think the signatures, ah, it's that 25—did I put 50 [unclear].
TWC: Fifty...
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LT: Oh, sorry, I put 25, ah I put 50, but there's 25 slots for names. That's a misprint right
there and I thought 25 — I was going according to the nomination papers for running for
County Council and the Mayor. So, if you're running for County Council, or Mayor, to get
your nomination accepted you need 25 signatures from your community.
RD: OK.
LT: So, I was kind of just following that basic protocol and just, to nominate the mayor—the
mayor needs 25 signatures so that would seem like kind of like a reasonable, if, I know
it's hard but to me it's like if it's someone of importance then there should be a lot of
people in support. That was kind of my attitude.
And then alongside of these there's a different Mana Lei Award because [unclear] this—
this is just my—we can vote on this every year—as every year we can have a different
letterhead with a stamp in the background emblem that has to go with the license plate
that we've been talking about but along with this is a professional recognition award,
that only the GMAC Commission straight up can nominate because it's for actual work
like DLNR workers or some sort of profession where it's not a community—you're
actually getting paid for this—community award— it's a little more prestigious [unclear]
be doing it for the community.
RD: Do we need a motion? I mean?
LT: Yeah. I'm explaining what it is so we can get a motion to accept this and then the last
one is a letter of recognition, special recognition from County Council and the Mayor so
if you are someone who does a lot and deserves a little bit more than the recognition
from GMAC we're also willing to write a letter of support to the County Council and the
Mayor for special awards and recognition from them, not only us. So, these are three
separate awards: the community, the professional and a letter of support to the Mayor
and County Council. So, three different tiers you could qualify for.
RD: Duerr— District— 1, what I love about this—when we were doing letters it was four
months to get this moving through, right, with our last 4 for Council. If we have a letter
—say we want to give a letter of recognition to K. T. and Blake—we can make that
motion today and the letter is done. A [unclear]letter of support or denial or something,
yeah? Right. I'd like to make a motion that we accept these three—with these three
letter awards that have been submitted by the Chair. So that's my motion.
TWC: District—2, Taysen Wong Chong, I second that motion, to acknowledge these three, you
know, awards that you have created Leomana, so, yeah, definite a good thing of this.
LT: OK. Thank you. We have a motion to accept the awards and a second and now we have
a discussion—this is part of the discussion, this is just to run it through you guys—
introduce—and then I can make the edits that we talked about and then come back
25
from the next meeting for a final draft to allow for this to go through, so that's just my
ideas of [unclear] the discussion.
RD: OK, so, we're ready— Duerr, District— 1, I'd like to make a motion that we accept these
three submittals for draft materials for letters that, that the Chair put in the suggested
edits, and he comes back next month with us for final approval.
TWC: Taysen Wong Chong, District—2, 1 second that motion.
Action: R. Duerr motioned for GMAC to accept the Mana Aina Award
Draft Materials with suggested edits as discussed to Chair Turalde who
will present a final draft at the next GMAC meeting, seconded by T. Wong
Chong. Motion passed unanimously by voice poll vote with 6 yes, and 0
excused.
8. OLD BUSINESS:
a. Budget: Discussion on allocation of budget and use for upcoming
legislative sessions.
BK: (B. Kossow, GMAC Secretary) We covered this the last time, but I'll cover it again. The
expenditure detailed report currently has $4,172.00 for fiscal year July 1, 2024 to June
30, 2025. We haven't spent any money. At the last meeting I informed you all that at
least one or two of you need to make an appointment to see the Managing Director or
Mayor to talk about the legislative travel which is coming up next month.
LT: OK.
BK: So, you need to get that done. I spoke briefly with Bill Brilhante who is the Managing
Director. And, so,just to let you all know, Bill served as an attorney for GMAC during
Tom Lodges' time as chair.
LT: Yes, ma'am.
BK: We need to get this going. Because approval is needed before any flight arrangements
are made. There is a standard operating procedure already in place for all travel for
County employees which includes our GMAC Commissioners. So, all we have on record
with accounting is Commissioner B. Ley. We need to set up a file on you, Chair. The V8
form was emailed to you. Please complete it and take the form upstairs to Kaycie in the
mayor's office. So that's a request for information to establish a vendor file for Chair or
anyone else on the Commission who will be travelling.
26
LT: Yeah, after, OK—just to confirm so the next step is request for vendor information and
then set-up a meeting with the Managing Director?
BK: Yes, Leomana —when you go upstairs—ask if you could set-up a meeting. His secretary
is Emarie and she was in the room earlier, right, while you were all setting up. She
knows about it—we spoke briefly about you all wanting to meet with Bill. All right. And I
won't get into all the details about receipts and all that. That will follow later.
LT: Yeah. Thank you.
BK: OK. All right, so that's all I have, unless anyone has questions.
LT: Nope, I'll definitely call you or email you this afternoon and after I check upstairs.
BK: OK. But this one is important so if you will get it done.
LT: Yeah.
BK: Thank you.
b. Discussion and Decision Making: Draft GMAC 2024 First Quarter
Report to Mayor and County Council, Commissioner Robert Duerr.
Deferred.
c. Discussion and Decision Making: Draft GMAC 2024 Second Quarter
Report to Mayor and County Council, Commissioner Leomana Turalde.
Deferred.
RD: District 1, Duerr- I'd like to defer this and suggest that maybe in January meeting we
have no presentations,just deal with business. Because one of the things was the public
inter-action group, report for Keauhou, which I think, the OIP Standard is the report is
introduced— no discussion—the next month that there's discussion and then the third
month that there's a final approval and maybe we could start that process, maybe we
could do our homework and pull things together at next meeting?
Action: A motion was made by B. Ley and seconded by T. Wong-Chong to
defer the Old Business b. and c. to the January meeting. The motion passed
unanimously by voice vote with 6 ayes, and 0 excused.
LT: Our meeting is after the Legislature opening session, I'd like a motion for a permitted
inter-action group to communicate outside of the meeting about the upcoming trip to
Oahu.
27
RD: Which is less than a quorum? So, we can have three members, less than quorum.
IKK: It should be at most 4 (maximum is less than quorum).
LT: OK. So, we can have four people. So, obviously we're gonna be part of that group.
Anybody wants to be put inside— permitted inter-action group—and this is just to
discuss the HRS, the bills and the political session coming up that we'll be going to Oahu.
All right, looks like we got it, right on, [unclear] volunteering? I appreciate all your hard
work and dedication. OK. Thank you. We don't need to vote on that, ah?Yeah, we gotta
vote? OK. Taking a roll call vote one more time...
(Let the record show that no one seconded the motion)
RD: Aye.
LT: One, two...
TWC: Aye.
LT: District—3, aye, District—4?
BL: Aye.
LT: District—8?
CO: Aye.
LT: District—9?
JA: Aye.
9. ANNOUNCEMENTS:
a. Next Meeting:January 21, 2025, at 9:00 am., 25 Aupuni Street, Puna Conference Room,
1501, Hilo, Hawaii.
LT: Yes, sir, thank you very much, all in favor of the political inter-action group so moving
forward to announcements. Next meeting will be January 21, 2025 - 9:00a —same time,
same place. And for the public, this is a big one, so next meeting we're not going to have
any presentations, we will conduct and handle our personal GMAC Commission
business, going over submissions from the public on things that they would like us to be
involved with and we can give them a landing page to send their information at
,B _r _ ra...[4gssow.«� .iac_ a .Y.e qr.
IKK: It's on the agenda.
28
b. From the Public: Please email .r:... ara..kosso......... _a. _ u.o n y... gy to
submit a request to do any of the following: (i) address a specific item on
the future agenda; (ii) announce past, ongoing or future events in the
County; or (iii) submit reports or concerns about their districts.
10.ADJOURNMENT (11:00 AM):
Action: A motion was made by L. Turalde and seconded by R. Duerr to
adjourn meeting at 11:05 am. The motion passed unanimously by voice vote
with 6 ayes, and 0 excused.
Respectfully submitted by,
Barbara Kossow
Secretary
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