2013-37 Bates Testimony re SPP 1122

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Communication No. 2013 -37 .Aloha Kakou! My name is LJ Bates and I have the joy of being the Executive Director of Kalani H the State of Hawaii's largest retreat center. We steward 120 acres of beautiful `aina in Puna, hosting guests and volunteers from around the world, and we bring millions of dollars to the County of Hawaii and the District of Puna. As a social enterprise, we have become Puna's largest nonprofit organization, delivering over a quarter million dollars of services directly to our community, including 50 nature, culture and wellness classes each week, free or by donation, art shows, major festivals and events, many in partnership with the County, serving thousands of Hawaii Island residents. I say all this, not to boast about Kalani's success, but to draw comparison to our partners and neighbors at SPACE. We have faced similar challenges and struggles as an evolving nonprofit organization transitioning through various stages of development. We know well the challenges that SPACE presently faces, and wish to be a voice in the community which helps SPACE get the support and appreciation they need so they may continue their valuable contributions to our underserved d Although we have achieved so much after almost four decades of work, like SPACE, we are frustrated by the challenges surrounding the anonymity of occasional neighbor complaints and the monumental effort to make two very distinct communities happy. By this, I refer to our "internal" community of guests, staff &volunteers as well as our "external" community of neighbors. This is a challenge that often goes unnoticed and is a balancing act that truly requires the skills learned at the HICCUP Circus! Like SPACE, Kalani is eager to address neighbor concerns. The fact of the matter is that we cannot even begin to solve problems unless we are made aware of them. My Team meets on a weekly basis to bring up and address any community concerns and makes every effort to accommodate the concerns that we hear about. However, there is an inherent flaw in our County's system of logging complaints. As the accused, we are given no details on the time, date,, event, or person making the claim. (Airplane at Point example). As a result, we are often saddled with complaints that we never have the ability to l e or refute. This allows anyone to enter a complaint at any time, for any reason, and it simply gets logged and added to the collection, which is then held against the organization. Kalani has taken on the task of addressing this imbalance the best way we know how. A significant logging effort will be offered as our only source of proof that we are truly making every attempt to balance internal /external community