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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-07-19 Enviromental Management Commission Minutes Minutes for Thursday, July 19, 2001Page 1 of 4 Return to: Home Page | Table of Contents | Commission Page ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION Thursday, July 19, 2001 9:11 a.m. Kona Police Department Conference Room 74-5221 Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i 96740 PRESENT:David Kimo FrankelALSO PRESENT:Peter Boucher, WWD Hugh OnoLarry Capellas, SWD Riley SmithGalen Kuba, Acting Deputy Director Barbara BellLester Ishado, Corporation Counsel Carolyn WitcherClyde M. Yoshida, Office of Housing Luana Jones  and Community Development Mack AsatoBill Moore Sam KawamuraKu`ulei Snyder for Councilman   Gary Safarik EXCUSED:Peter Martin James Flood Haaheo Gusman STAFF:Valerie Tanimoto Elaine Watai John Stubbort CALL TO ORDER Barbara called the meeting to order at 9:11 a.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JULY 3, 2001 MEETING Sam Kawamura motioned to approve Minutes of the July 3, 2001 meeting. Hugh Ono seconded. Motion was carried unanimously. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON ITEMS LISTED ON AGENDA Jim Flood, President of the Homeowners Association of Kamani Tree Subdivision. This 135 home subdivision eventually will need to be hooked onto the sewer and wondered if there was a schedule or proposed time. Would like to see it moved to a position where it’s done before realignment of Ali`i Parkway goes in so that we don’t have to pump up hill. When the Ali`i Parkway goes in, it’s going to cut us off from going directly to Ali`i Drive and we can’t go laterally because there’s a concrete flood control ditch between us and Ali`i Kai Subdivision. Peter Boucher indicated that Kamani Tree Subdivision is planned within 10 years for hook up to the sewer. As part of the highway design, as the final design gets wrapped up, the stubs for connecting across would be appropriate planning and when we review the plans for the highways that would be the kind of things that we would be looking for in future expansion. APPROVAL OF ADDENDUM AND/OR SUPPLEMENTAL AGENDA Hugh motioned to move Item 6 - Update from Housing and Community Development re: Grant Loan Program before Item 5 - Update from Wastewater Division. Carolyn Witcher seconded. Motion carried unanimously. Kimo said that the proposed scheduling of agenda topics could be discussed under Item 9. Barbara also wanted to make a comment on the SWAC’s meeting of July 3, 2001 and could be discussed under Item 8 or 9. UPDATE FROM HOUSING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT RE GRANT LOAN PROGRAM Clyde M. Yoshida, Office of Housing and Community Development, distributed Residential Emergency Repair Program (RERP) Fact Sheet. Basically it’s a loan program for low and moderate-income families. It’s federally funded so we have to comply with the income limits. The primary qualifications would be besides income is the families have to live in the home at least a year prior to application. There is a $250.00 application fee, which is used to do a title search and credit check. The program is basically for emergency repairs. At least 95% of the people who apply are applying to change their roof, plumbing, electrical, termite treatment. We had only one homeowner so far who applied to do only sewer hook up, but we had have other homeowners who used the program to hook up as well as do other home repairs. The maximum loan amount is $20,000.00 and the minimum is $2,500.00. There is a 3% interest but the program is deferred which means that there is no payment for 15 years, principal or interest. It’s a balloon payment at 15 years. The program actually benefits people on fixed income or people who cannot incur additional file://C:\Test1\minutes071901.htm6/22/2011 Minutes for Thursday, July 19, 2001Page 2 of 4 expenses and elderly who are on fixed income. We also have preferred terms for elderly person 62 years or older or handicapped person. They receive a 30% out right grant. As long as they remain in the home at least a year and comply with the rules and regulations of the program for that one-year period, they don’t have to pay back the 30%. The program has been in existence only for about 3 or 4 years. We had number of people pay back their loan. It’s like any mortgage loan program where we place a lien on the property. We do a title search. The title search would indicate who is on title and it’s that person or persons that’s required to sign the mortgage document. th After the 15 year if a homeowner can demonstrate that they are still low income, the loan could go on forever until it’s paid off. Deferred forever or until the property is sold, title is changed, or they refinance. The interest could exceed the principal at some th point unless we cap it up at a particular year. If a homeowner were to borrow $20,000 at the end of the 15 year he would be th required to pay back $29,000.00. $9,000 simply interest, not compounded. But at the end of the 15 year, it’s actually at the discretion of the administrator at that time what he would want to do. It’s not really spelled out in the rules but we are looking at amending the rules to increase $20,000.00 up to $25,000.00. The reason why we cannot exceed $25,000.00 is because of the new Federal rule regarding lead base paint. If you go above $25,000.00 then abatement of all the lead in the home is required. That is the new rule that would take effect as of September 15, 2001. When a homeowner wants to refinance their home, if the refinancing is to lower the interest rate or to take out funds to do additional repairs, we’ll allow that. But if it’s for a home equity loan and they want us to take second or third position, we won’t allow on a home equity loan because home equity loan you could use the monies to buy a car or do anything you want. We would determine eligibility provided that all the documents are in within a day or two. Title search has average any where from two to three weeks. What we’re finding within the past year that a lot of the smaller contractors are very busy. Homeowners are finding it very difficult to find contractors and we recommend that they get three quotes just so that they have a means of comparison. But even getting three quotes in Hilo has been very difficult. I would say anywhere from a month to two months provided that the homeowner can find a qualified general contractor. The contractor has to be licensed and we call DCCA to be sure that he has the proper insurance and proper license. We are looking at amending our rules to include a fully amortized program. The draw back with that is that our office does not have adequate staff to handle a monthly payment collection. We have talked to some of the banks and only Bank of Hawai`i was interested in servicing the loan. But the servicing of the loan would come at a cost a few years ago about $2,500 per loan, but that’s for the life of the loan. What they would do is treat our loan as if like any other loan providing year end statements, all the letters regarding delinquent payment and so on. That’s the primary reason why the program is a deferred loan. We just don’t have the staffing to do the monthly collection. We have had request from the younger families that they want to pay down the loan. Right now we cannot accommodate them presently. We just don’t have the staff to do that. Right now the rules doesn’t call for even partial payment. Presently we have approximately $400,000.00 that we can lend out. On an average we do around 20 to 25 loans a year. The average loan amount is about $12,000.00. We send out over a 100 plus applications a year. So it’s about 1/4 of what we send out that actually applied. The primary reason why a homeowner would not qualify besides income is that they do not have enough equity. For example, some homeowners in Hilo, their real property tax assessment has dropped and some of their mortgage is higher than the value of the home. We base it on the real property tax assessment. By doing the credit check at least you have some idea as to their credit worthiness but we have not disqualified any families because of bad credit. The Building Loan Program. The program is Federally funded so there are a lot of people who may not qualify because of their income. It’s set by Federal regulations. If the intent is to allow all families who need to connect, make the program available, then we may if we get County funds, then we could actually look at providing loans to a greater number of people for those people who cannot qualify because of their income. If we do take the next step and provide a fully amortized program that means that we have to send out monthly notices and collect monthly payments. We really haven’t looked at what kind of staffing we would need to do that. Kauai and Honolulu have similar programs. Maui does not have any kind of loan programs for rehab. UPDATE FROM WASTEWATER DIVISION Peter Boucher, Wastewater Division Chief, handed out maps that were color coded to note what properties are sewered, planned to be sewered within 2 years and within 10 years. Peter gave a power point presentation that consultants presented to Hawai`i County Council a couple months ago. Scope of Services - determine capacity assessment fees, commonly known as impact fees. Wastewater treatment plants - Hilo, Kealakehe, Kulaimano, Papaikou, and Kapehu. Serve approximately 6,000 residential customers, about 600 non-residential customers. Current monthly rate is $26.00, with no capacity assessment fees and connection charges. Capacity Assessment Fee. It is a one-time up-front charge paid by new customers connecting to the wastewater system. Typically paid prior to receipt of building permit. The amount of the capacity assessment fee is based on the capital cost necessary to provide the sewer system itself. file://C:\Test1\minutes071901.htm6/22/2011 Minutes for Thursday, July 19, 2001Page 3 of 4 Why adoption a capacity assessment fee now? It’s one way to assign the cost of capacity to those who are actually using the service. And it is a condition from the State through the revolving fund loan program that we adopt this loan program The capacity assessment fee is calculated by the equity approach and the incremental cost approach. Both are recognized to helping procedures. Methodology has been described in the American Public Works Association, American Society of Civil Engineers and the Water Pollution Control Federation. Equity Approach is based on historical cost to construct the system, minus grants and divided up. Based on this approach, for single-family residence, it comes out to $621 per residence. Incremental Cost Approach is based on estimated cost to construct. This is a much higher rate at $4,346 per residence. Purely from an economic standpoint, the incremental cost approach is preferred because it closely estimates cost to provide wastewater system capacity for new customers. Proposed capacity assessment fee implementation: reduce financial impact on existing residents. For single-family residential customers: For existing: equity approach. If zone residential and currently subdivided: equity approach used for first dwelling; incremental for second dwelling. For new subdivision: incremental approach. Proposed capacity assessment fee implementation for multi-unit residential customers: Existing: equity approach. If zone residential and currently subdivided: equity approach. New subdivisions: incremental approach. For non-residential: Existing: equity approach. Future construction: incremental approach. The non-residential wastewater flow would be estimated by guidelines and estimated flow. It’s been based on what Maui used in their capacity assessment fees similar to the City and County Design Standards. We also have a provision if a developer comes in and shows that’s not going to be the water consumption, it can be adjusted accordingly. The provision would allow the County to verify non-residential flows and collect additional capacity assessment fees if the flow exceeds the initial estimate. Connection Fees. Basically intended to recover the administration and inspection costs associated with connecting new customers. The proposed fees of $160 per connection, based on 4 inspection hours and 2 administration hours. Building Sewer Loan Program. As a condition of past federal grants, the County is required to extend the sewer connections and hook-up existing neighborhoods. Connecting an existing house requires the homeowner to pay for a "building sewer" (the sewer facilities on private property between the house and the property line). In 1992, the County Council adopted a guarantee loan program. The participation has been limited, maybe 2 inquiries and without any applications received. Based on the Proposed Building Sewer Loan Program, the County would obtain State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan and transfer loan proceeds to dedicated account in the Sewer Fund. The loan proceeds would be used to fund building sewer construction and cover County engineering and administrative costs. Loan proceeds would be paid to contractor. Homeowner would repay the County at the same terms as County is repaying the SRF, currently 3 % - 3 1/2 %. A lien is placed on the property until the loan is repaid. The building sewer loan recipient must sign a loan agreement, grant the County an easement for the alignment of the building sewer, sign a construction right-of-entry agreement and sign a waiver of liability agreement. DISCUSSION AND DECISION MAKING ON HAWAI`I COUNTY COUNCIL BILL NO. 57 REGARDING CAPACITY ASSESSMENTS Kimo motioned that we write a letter to the Council recommending adoption of Bill No. 57 and that three concerns be addressed. 1. Maximum build out. 2. Section 21.49(a)(2), that the word "served" be defined. 3. That the effective date be amended to read "after June 30, 2002." Hugh seconded. 7 ayes (Asato, Bell, Frankel, Jones, Kawamura, Ono, Smith), 1 nay (Witcher) and 1 excused absence (Martin). Motion carried. Riley suggested that we draft the recommendation letter that incorporates all of the changes, review the letter at the August 8, 2001 meeting, vote on it and then send it out to Council. DISCUSSION AND DECISION MAKING ON HAWAI`I COUNTY COUNCIL BILL NO. 58 REGARDING BUILDING SEWER CONNECTION LOAN PROGRAM Kimo motioned that Bill No. 58 be put on the agenda for the second meeting in August, Riley seconded. Motion carried unanimously. DISCUSSION AND DECISION RELATING TO PROPOSED WASTEWATER RATE INCREASE Peter passed out a Revenue Worksheet. Effective July 1, 2000, a single-family residential and multi-unit residential went up from $26 to $28. In July 2002, it went up to $30 and in July 2004 it went up to $32. This bill didn’t pass. On our last budget was assumed for upcoming budget for FY 2002-2003 that the rate goes up to $30 for residential and the non-residential is $25 per unit file://C:\Test1\minutes071901.htm6/22/2011 Minutes for Thursday, July 19, 2001Page 4 of 4 base rate and $4.05 per 1000/8000. Also recommended propose $0.50 per 1,000 gallons of reclaimed water which is a new rate and also propose increasing the private haulers rates to $35 per 500 gallons. This is what the Wastewater Division is proposing in order to make the books balance for the next four years without exhausting the equipment replacement fund. Peter will draft up the ordinance. Peter mentioned that Councilmember Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd has received some complaints about why the multi- unit residential customers are paying the same rate as a single-family residential. The City and County Design Standards assume four persons per unit in a single-family residential and assume 2.8 persons in a multi-unit residential. Peter recommended that the rates be adjusted to allow for that proportionate increase. It’s possible that the multi-unit stays that same as it is and the single- family are increased to $32 or so. Riley asked Peter to provide rates for other private wastewater systems on this island and also to include whether they charge connection fees. We need to see the total cost instead of the monthly cost. Kimo asked Peter to provide fact sheets for the draft ordinance. REVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION’S RULES AND REGULATIONS Lester Ishado, Corporation Counsel noted some few changes on the Proposed Rules and Regulations. On page 3, the word MINUTES needed to be underlined. Page 4, added paragraph 2(b)(iii) A statement of the substance of the proposed rules. Lester handed out the revised copies of the rules that were prepared by Pat O’Toole. Lester said that these latest versions of the rules are just a suggestion. It’s up to the commission to review, adopt, not adopt or change the rules. Kimo will review the proposed rules and red line what items will be removed and changed. DISCUSSION AND ADOPTION OF A MISSION STATEMENT Deferred to August 8, 2001 meeting. ACTION ITEMS Val to e-mail and/or mail out the letter dated July 3, 2001 to the Hawai`i County Council regarding Resolution No. 70-01. Riley suggested that everybody on the list should receive a copy of the July 3, 2001 letter to Hawai`i County Council re: Resolution No. 70-01. Clyde Yoshida of Housing will provide copies of the Residential Emergency Repairs Program Rules for Homeowners. SCHEDULING OF NEXT MEETING DATES, TIMES AND LOCATIONS Wednesday, August 8, 2001, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at the Hawai`i County Council Room. Wednesday, September 5, 2001, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at the Waimea Community Center (Park Building), 65-1260 Kawaihae Road, Kamuela, Hawai`i 96743 Wednesday, September 26, 2001, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at the Hawai`i County Council Room. ADJOURNMENT Riley motioned to adjourn the meeting, Hugh seconded. Motion carried unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 11:40 a.m. Minutes Respectfully Submitted by: ____________________________________________ VALERIE M. H. TANIMOTO Interim Environmental Management Secretary Return to: Home Page | Table of Contents | Commission Page ©Copyright 2001 County of Hawaii, Hawaii file://C:\Test1\minutes071901.htm6/22/2011