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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01 LEPC Special Meeting Minutes 012126Local Emergency Planning Committee January 21, 2026 Page 1 Hawaii County LEPC SPECIAL Meeting Minutes Civil Defense EOC and via ZOOM January 21, 2026 Members Present: Gerald Kosaki/LEPC Chair, Lono Lindsey/Spec. Ops., Christopher Carvalho/HFD Ops., Matthew Ho/HFD East Hawaii Battalion Chief, Vern Hara/HFD EMS, Talmadge Magno/Civil Defense, Cyanne Becker/DOH Public Health Preparedness, Logan Rogers/PTA Military, David Cummings/Hamakua Energy Partners, Clifford Victorine/Mayor’s Office Members Present via Zoom: Ha Chi/HBMC, Alfred Leung/Pacific Biodiesel, Jordan Hara/PGV, Eric Honda/DOH, Logan Balingit/Dept. of Agriculture Pesticides Branch Non-Members Present: Jordyn Mantz/Fire Admin., Haley Miranda/PTA Military Non-Members Present via Zoom: William Jarret/Corp. Council, DOH HEER EP Members Absent: Sandor Finkey/HPD, Neal O’ Heron/BEI Hawaii, Casey Kishimori/HECO, Chris Leonard/Media I. CALL TO ORDER: 09:05AM Called to order. II. STATEMENTS FROM PUBLIC: None III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: IV. Lono Lindsey moved to approve August 14th minutes, David Cummings seconded, Minutes approved and passed. V. NEW BUSINESS: a. HFD Request for LEPC funding for the push-to-talk devices for Hazmat. i. Gerald Kosaki: This was a request submitted to LEPC from Lono Lindsey and Chief Kazuo Todd requesting help with funding the purchase of hazmat push-to-talk devices that make it easier to reach for their talk devices while wearing their hazmat suites. Lono would you like to expand on this? ii. Lono Lindsey: So currently we only have one device per hazmat station. What this device allows you to do is when you’re in full Level A suits, kind of like a Tyvek Suit, you don’t have good dexterity with your hands. It’s just a big button that allows you to activate the radio by hitting a part of your body instead of having to find the individual button on these smaller mics inside the suit itself. It just allows for better communication within the unit. We’re currently mismatched because we only have one communication device per hazmat company. That means Local Emergency Planning Committee January 21, 2026 Page 2 one person on the two-person entry team can communicate. These devices allow us to have better communication, better ability to access our radios. iii. Gerald Kosaki: Request from HFD to purchase 6 of these devices so that there is a total of four of these devices each at Kaumana and Makalei hazmat stations. These push-to-talk devices are from Motorola, and each device runs for about $1,600. So, for 6 devices it comes up to $9,990. However, with tax, shipping, and additional fees, the official request is for $12,000 just to buffer for that. 1. Jordan Hara: Motion to approve the 6 push-to-talk Motorola devices at $12,000. 2. Ha Chi and Talmadge Magno: Seconded. Motion passed. b. 2026 NATTPO Workshop attendance request i. Gerald Kosaki: NASTTPO is the National Association of SARA Title III program officials. We have this every year, and the main purpose of the conference is to get updated on the EPCRA Law. EPCRA is the federal law which is the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act. So, one of the main purposes of LEPC is to make sure that we’re in compliance with EPCRA law as well as the HCERS, Hawaii State Emergency Response Commission. So, every year I usually attend, because we have a grant that pays for the chair to attend this for obvious reasons called the Hazardous Materials Emergency Planning Grant. Every year we usually try to have a member from LEPC who is also afforded a chance to go. This year I have requested Talmadge to go as head of Civil Defense, which is very good because you have a lot of emergency managers over there at this conference for networking. 1. Jordan Hara to Kosaki: How many days is this conference? 2. Kosaki: Thisis a three-day conference with an optional fourth day to do a tour of one of the chemical plants in the area. So, I would say four. ii. Matthew Ho: Motion to approve the request to approve of $5,000 to fund travel to NASTTPO for Talmadge Magno. iii. Lono Lindsey: Seconded. Motion passed. c. 2026 Hazmat Continuing Challenge i. Gerald Kosaki: We had individuals identifies that were supposed to attend last year and were approved for LEPC funding and it was approved by the Fire Department. However, it was kicked back when it went through Department of Finance for not having the exact names, and HFD also needs to do a departmental memo to solicit interest. The process ended up taking so long that we ended up not being able to attend this conference. This year we wanted to start the process much earlier. The conference is September 8-11 in Sacramento and registration opens in June. Matt Ho and I have attended in the past and Local Emergency Planning Committee January 21, 2026 Page 3 can both vouch that this is a very good conference because of how many vendors attend that provide information on analyzing new equipment, DECON, identifiers, things like the push-to-talk devices, things like that. You can get a lot of information from this conference. I’ve also had one of the instructors at the Continuing Challenge reach out to me if I could present something regarding the 2018 volcano eruptions in Leilani Estates. I’m still considering, but they said if I do, they will cover the registration fee but not the flight. ii. Matthew Ho: I’ve attended a couple times over the last 10 years. The conference brings experts from all different fields, either it be propane, chlorine, ammonia, batteries…A lot of good courses and real world experiences. You can make lots of networking connections at this conference, and a lot of these people are willing to help you and let you reach out when you have an incident. Just because of how remote we are, we don’t get too many opportunities for good hazmat training here on the Big Island unless people come to the island. So, it’s always a good experience to go up there. iii. Gerald Kosaki: The people we identified who wanted to attend last year was Matthew Ho, Kalena Honda, Anthony Kim, and Lono Lindsey for HFD. We also offer to two LEPC members each year so if anyone is interested in attending for this year, please contact me before the next meeting. We will have to put it on the minutes to get approved. iv. Lono Lindsey: HFD will have to send out a memo to the Fire Department again to solicit interest before proceeding and confirming names for attendance again this year. Please put a hold on making a motion until the next meeting to confirm who will be the names attending for Fire Personnel. v. Gerald Kosaki: Okay. When it’s time, we’re expecting funding to be $4,000 per person, which is high and not going to be the actual cost, but just in case for additional fees. Once we receive the actual names of who will be attending, we will have them in the minutes and get the names approved for funding. vi. vii. Gerald Kosaki: Okay. When it’s time, we’re expecting funding to be $4,000 per person, which is high and not going to be the actual cost, but just in case for additional fees. Once we receive the actual names of who we will be attending we will have them in the minutes and make a motion for the names to be approved for funding. VI. ANNOUNCEMENTS a. None VII. NEXT MEETING: Thursday, March 12, 2026, 09:00-11:00. EOC confirmed for location. VIII. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting Adjourned at 09:30 AM.