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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-04-15 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes Game Management Advisory Commission County of Hawaii Minutes Via Video Conferencing (Hilo – Kona) Meeting Date: April 15, 2013 Time: 6:30 p.m. Place: Hawaii County Building Puna Conference Room 25 Aupuni St., Suite 1501 . Hilo, HI 96720 West Hawaii Civic Center Council Conference Room A 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Hwy Kailua-Kona HI 96740 CALL TO ORDER : At 6:30pm by Chair Anthony "Tony" Sylvester. Quorum Established ROLL CALL: Tom Lodge, Willie-Joe Camara, Dwayne Yoshina, Rob White, Paul Bueltmann, Mark Bartell, Cleon Bailey, Tony Sylvester, and we have one vacancy to fill, eight of nine present. Also present, Bobby Command, Mayor’s Executive Assistant and Corporation Counsel Lincoln Ashida. INTRODUCTION OF COMMISSION MEMBERS Thomas “Tom” Lodge, District 5, 1 - year term, here to preserve, to promote and protect public hunting. Willie-Joe Camara, District 1 - 5-year term, same as everyone, here for the duration. Dwayne “Ike” Yoshina, District 2 - 5 year term, I’m here to serve, thank you. Mark Bartell, District 8, 2 - year term- this is all about game management, couple things, we have game animals, and the state got to recognize it to manage it. We need a place for them to live. We need a plan to manage them. We need people to execute that and we need funds to make that happen. That’s why I'm on this board. Cleon Bailey, District 9, 3-year term I concur with the commission's consensus. Robert "Rob" White, District 7, 5 - year term - I'm here to promote our natural resources being water and land, being hunted land, actually. Paul Bueltmann, District 4, 4 - year term - I'm here like everyone else to promote the use of our land for food and game ability. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 2 Anthony "Tony" Sylvester, District 3, 2 yr term - We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, we need to form our alliances and we need to stick to our goal, that’s our island way of life in hunting, fishing, gathering or other use of our public land. District 6 - Vacant Bobby Command, Mayor’s Office. Lincoln Ashida, Corporation Counsel GMAC is a Charter-created Commission. Therefore, the section in the Charter about eligibility for reappointment applies. For members who were appointed for an original 2-year term, and members who serve out an unexpired term of 2 years or less, they are eligible for a new, fresh 5-year term. So, guys who were originally appointed for 2-year terms actually can serve the longest (7 years total), assuming the Mayor reappoints them and they are confirmed again. PUBLIC TESTIMONY: Kerri Marks not to testify, here to record meeting, part of the media. Channel is called Occupy Hawaii. Search Game Management Advisory Commission in the State - go to Occupy Hawaii to search - will play on YouTube. Chair Sylvester : Thank you Kerri we appreciate your time. REPORTS/SPECIAL COMMITTEE: COUNTY COUNCIL RELATIONS Chair Sylvester : This is an item that probably should be under new business to actually formulate a plan, but I figure to put it under reports/special committee, but if someone makes a motion to provide an informational packet to the council and then we can figure out what to do after that. What happened was at the Council hearing on March 27, 2013 - they requested that we put an informational packet together kind of like some of the problems we are facing, possible ways the council can help us, and that way they can better, they may know things that we don't know, they can offer us assistance. I thought that this will be a good way to get started. Get all our issues down. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 3 Tom Lodge whipped together an example of something of what we could possibly do, easy to read, any section could be on a particular thing that we are taking care of and update it as we need to and I think it is something good. We update if we need to and use it to go the legislature. We have something that everyone is on the same page, if I can't make it, Tom can't make it, or any other member, we all can be on the same page. That’s what this council presentation packet is all about. Under that issue, I have a page of things we need to cover. But for the minutes, we will need a motion. NEW BUSINESS: 1.Discuss the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus specifically the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. C .Bailey : I move to organize this National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucus (NASC), seconded by P. Bueltmann. DISCUSSION : C. Bailey : I emailed everybody the literature on it [NASC]. So, you would have an opportunity to come up to speed to where we are at. Basically, it is a bipartisan Congressional Sportsman's Caucus and over the years it has grown into one of the largest most effective Caucus in the US Congress with 300 members in the House and Senate representing nearly every state. Ten states don't have Sportsmen’s Caucuses and Hawaii is one of them. But, there is also a Professional Congressional Sportsmen Foundation. They are the go between guys between public, caucus and the US Congress. Basically, after hearing press from the Hawaii hunters, fishers in and around my District 9 regarding the subject matter of how we the gatherers of Hawaii can protect and promote hunting, fishing and secure fish and wild life management through our state, specifically by and through Hawaii state law. And so, upon researching I came upon this Congressional Sportsmen's Caucuses that I just gave you a little summary about. And this Congressional Caucuses is a way for Hawaii sportsmen to secure legislation and funding for conservation wildlife management and access to other lands to replace lands taken away from sportsmen’s through Endangered Species Act. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 4 A folder was left with the mayor's office to pass out flyers to the public. The rest of the board members should have a copy. Just look at this National Assembly of Sportsmen's Caucuses. There is districts framework to support all the states caucuses. We are not unique in losing state lands to endangered species. They use networking. Just look at this National Assembly of Sportsmen's Caucuses, that's basically who the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation works through. You have different districts, the West, Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast the frame work of this assembly is to support between all the state's caucus. And basically, what they do is take situations, like problems that we have we're not just unique to these problems like losing land to endangered species or funding. What they do is use a networking system, where what works well in our state, how we were able to work with the legislator to overcome this obstacle and what they do is inter-feed us into each state that has that similar problem and then they can go into the legislative body and what they do is have a representative for that state which I think Hawaii needs its own representative that can represent us in the legislative level to passing bills in our problem trying to acknowledge game as natural resources. We tried together to have a Cooperative Management position with the state to manage our natural resources. I spoke to the Western Regional District, his name is Andy Treharne. I forwarded you guys the organizational material document, a pretty extensive document and it shows you how to go about obtaining a caucus in your state. Basically everything there is to do to set it up. They are only interested in coming in if it is a bipartisan, if it works in a bipartisan format. Everyone agreed upon all sides. Hunting and fishing is conservation. If the committee votes to move forward on this I could get more information to you guys or you could download what I forwarded to you earlier. T. Lodge . Did you get any response back from Senator Slom? C. Bailey : No, I haven't, and so what I did was, to bring everyone on board here, I just spoke about how the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, they really don't like coming into a state unless they have bipartisan support. We only have one republican congress person in our state. They are busy right now as we all know finishing up the legislation process. Mr. Andy Treharne expects to speak to him in May. I haven't heard back from him. So, I corresponded with him. He said, given Hawaii is a unique state, basically all Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 5 democrat representatives and senators. So, with that uniqueness they would overlook having to meet the criteria of having an even amount of democrats and republicans on this foundation, on this caucus. But to answer your question again, no, I haven't heard back from Mr. Slom. My understanding, it's not a deal breaker in moving forward on developing a caucus. Chair Sylvester : Any further questions. W. Camara : Is there a minimum, a little confused, it doesn't need to be an equal amount, one democrat and one republican is still equal. C. Bailey : There's not a set number they are trying to be fair to every party. Not just one having blinders on and driving the cart for one agenda. It can be better explained if you review the organization material. M. Bartell : Are these State Representatives or US Representatives? C. Bailey : They are State Representatives and usually a congress person. [Unclear]: So, these people actually will go to DC like Hirono and those guys or is this like Josh Green, or? C. Bailey : To be specific, I refer to the operational organization materials and basically they do have meetings, and I'm not going to tell you how many a year and they do get together with the other congressional congressman and they discuss, like our commission, they have perimeters that they have to follow by and budgetary concerns that they are addressed to and concerns from different congressmen in their states. W. Camara : I think what the confusion is this is actually a State Legislative Sportsmen's Caucus. We already have a Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus and that's separate. This is like three entities, one is, its foundation and the foundation is in- between the state legislature and the hunter. So, that's what the foundation does, it helps be the intermediate between the state legislators. Your concern was Sam Slom. He is in the Senate but in the House we have quite of few Republicans. Are you only talking about Senate, State Senate, or is it State Senate and House because we have other House of Representatives that are Republicans. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 6 C. Bailey : Right, that would be fine as long as we're showing that it is bipartisan effort. I think the criteria is there had to be 3 Republican and 3 Democrats. But, I can take your question or you can review the organization material. If you still have questions I can research it. W. Camara : How do you think the legislator will take this? Would they be supportive to this? Is this going to be a lot more work for them? C. Bailey : Andy Treharne spoke to Rep. Cindy Evans and she is open to looking at this and moving forward with it. I know, Tom knows probably a half a dozen congress people that are sportsmen friendly and they can be introduced to it as well. It's just something that talking to the public in my district and other districts to see what we can do. There's this mechanism out there that we are apparently not using because Hawaii is not part of this Sportsmen's Caucuses. So, when things slow down in the legislature, say after May when congress people have time to sit down and talk about other issues than if GMAC want to vote on moving forward on in investing on this we can set up an appointment with the Western Regional Manager and say Cindy Evans and some congress people that Tom knows and maybe do it on a conference call with the County Council Chairwoman Willy's office where the Council is on it as well and see where it matures or dies from there. W. Camara : In what capacity GMAC will be in this? Is there another agency that we work with or is this something we will do within the commission? This is for the whole public? I'm under the understanding that we are advisory. Are we going to be setting up these meetings? C. Bailey : No, actually if you look at the organization materials for this National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses, it’s actually a commission by itself and what it is; we like the public will have access. We'll have someone in the Capitol all the time, where say, like recently we tried to submit House Bill 104 & 105, we can go to them and they can help you through the process if you don't understand the legislature process and help you bring our bill to fruition. Our duty would be to bring the issues to that caucus and then they will present to legislature and back to us on how to do testimony or whatever that would be. Actually, they are the go between for us to speak to the congress people at the Capitol level, basically the liaison person between us and the Hawaii legislative body. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 7 R. White : From what I'm hearing doesn't sound like a bad idea. I would like to see a package of what they have to offer and what we owe to it. The history of what they have done or community they work and, or perhaps present the packet to the board. Chair Sylvester : Packet already received. Bobby Command will circulate to board. As an example, in 2008 more lands open for hunting. No Net Loss legislation passed in 9 states which ensured more than 8 million acres will remain open to hunting forever. As of June 2011, thirteen states have passed no-net-loss legislation that prevents state lands open to hunting and fishing to be closed without an equal amount of suitable lands becoming available for hunting and fishing access. I think that's something that Boyd [Indecipherable] really needs because we need to know where we are heading. W. Camara : I guess I’ll go along with Rob [White]. Cleon [Bailey] you said the Western Regional Director from the Western side may want a conference call with us. I would think that would be a good way. He can explain much more than you can, you’re learning as much as we are. Maybe he can obviously explain a lot better for all of us to understand. C. Bailey : I’m not going to divulge a lot of my time into this. I put it out there, the thought out there for you guys to have the materials to read it, to research it. I spoke to him [Andy Treharne] on the phone and he said he wanted to have a conference call between say a democrat and a republican legislator and myself and I told him I’m not really the person that should probably be picked from this commission. I don’t mind being there but at least the chair person or the vice chair person be there as well and that we do the teleconferencing at the council office with Councilperson Willy and that way the council also has an idea of what is going on as well. W. Camara : Good idea, he could bring us up to date and answer any questions. Chair Sylvester : Stress that Cleon [Bailey] request a conference call with the Western Regional person Andy Treharne along with the Councilperson Willy and others to bring us up to date and answer any questions. Read the materials that were forwarded to us and forward questions to Andy Treharne. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 8 D. Yoshina : Sounds like a lobby group an organized lobby group. What are our obligations and responsibilities of GMAC? Responsibilities downscaled to what these guys want to do? I don’t know how we justify this. T. Lodge : To answer your question [Dwayne]: How I think that this will benefit us? We have issues that we are developing. We have different things that we come across, we have ideas and most of what we do will require legislative response for a lot of it will. And by having sportsmen people in the legislature who are sportsmen and there are a bunch of them. A lot of them are bird hunters actually and a lot of them are fishermen. These people are already sympathetic to us so we can bring them the issue whether it is DLNR, whether land or no-net-loss which was offered to us at one time by the way of the hunters and was turned down. These are people I think that we can bring them the issue, the legislative issue and let them run with it. D. Yoshina : What would be our role? T. Lodge : Our role is to bring them the issue. They are not out hunting and tramping around in the forest and we are. We have our constituency who are running into these issues. This idea of the sheep, for example, why don't we have a place to put our sheep? We're coming up with the ideas. We are the only advisory group right now unified in the state - to me the others coming along if we're successful but we're it for right now. We can bring them these ideas for them to run with. Cindy Evans is a good example of somebody who has been helpful along those lines. I'm definitely for it. C. Bailey : Add comment to Tom [Lodge]toward Dwayne’s [Yoshina] question - when I introduced myself to Mr. Treharne in pen and in phone conversation, I let him know exactly who we are and I wrote down the proposed ordinance number 12-110 this body that we are and what facet we are and what we suppose to do. So, he does know who we are and what obligations to the state and the federal and the mayor as well. M. Bartell : A thought on how to proceed. I think it sounds reasonable, right? It would be great to get Andy [Treharne] on the telephone with this group by ourselves to explain in 15 minutes or less what this is all about, what he needs to make it happen Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 9 here in Hawaii I think will be really important. There may be senators and congress people that would be willing to sign up for this, some may take some arm twisting and that's where we come in, right? I think it’s worth our time. They tackled a lot of issues. You read through the list of what they tackled and how many states they tacked it and there's a whole lot of this that they understand and we don't. So, to the extent that we can actually make this happen here, I think it’s a big question mark, but I think the first step for us is to get a hold of Andy [Treharne]. D. Yoshina : I think this is a good idea I just want to know what the real relationship is. To build friendship, that's what we are trying to do. C. Bailey : Read flyer on the left hand side will answer what this group is all about. Back to commissar Mark I tried to explain to Andy [Treharne] that thought to talk to the whole commission and he said, no. We’ll talk to you and Senator Evans and a republican legislator and if then if the legislative body is interested in it then they will move forward on that. It's not something that I am completely devout in this. It's not my deal, the public asked what can we do to help us and I found this mechanism to discuss it and if we want to move on it. Chair Sylvester : Any further discussion, hearing none, all in favor of said motion. The motion was unanimously carried by a voice vote of all Commissioners. Tom Lodge’s report on meeting with Darlene Morikawa of the Hawaii 2. Visitors and Convention Bureau's "Focus on Group Marketing” Chair Sylvester : Motion to accept first, Tom. T. Lodge : I move that we accept the report. Seconded by C. Bailey Discussion: T. Lodge : I've been trying to move toward getting state hunting to be more involved in hunting, in hunting tourism. And I went to the Hawaii’s Visitor’s Bureau and they moved me over to the Hawaii Tourism Authority. So, I sent them an email and Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 10 outlined my ideas and questions to them. I got an email back saying that hunting is not in their template. That’s the mission that I am going to embark on further and again this the Sportsmen’s Caucuses is another way because these people are driven by the legislature and having friends in the legislature will help us move forward toward tourism in hunting tourism as well bring value of our animals to the state and realize that when you eradiate something you're wasting something if you go out and let somebody come hunted, you’re making a $1000 dollars [Indecipherable]. That's basically where we're at. M. Bartell : Question for Tom [Lodge]. I know you asked the hunting question, did they make any reference to fishing? T. Lodge : They said they did a survey, not sure who the target was. I can assume it was the local community in Honolulu is not a big hunting community of what they probably see every day. Their survey probably will develop a negative response. But people come here to hunt. They come here turkey hunting all the time. They go to Lanai and Onapaahua Ranch all the time. Chair Sylvester : The question was about fishing. What did they say? M. Bartell : Tom [Lodge] all of what you just said, I agree. I think people do come here to hunt. Mouflon sheep is a great example, with fewer places to hunt a Mouflon sheep, you want to hunt Mouflon you are a sheep hunter. You don’t have many options in the world. Hawaii does have the world record of Mouflon sheep was taken on this island. My question is in the conversation regarding hunted, do they promote fishing? T. Lodge : They do. I have never seen one. Hawaii Tourism they do the Commercial Fishing, Charter Fishing is part of their template but hunting isn’t. Mark [Bartell] volunteered to help Tom. [Indecipherable] C. Bailey : I also forwarded the commissars an attachment through this Sportsmen Caucus they have a lot of information on the State of Hawaii. I emailed an attachment to you. It basically tells how much money is generated to the state in hunting and fishing for licenses, and what not, is listed right down the line for anglers and hunters. This was for 2011 and they were saying that the total sportsmen that participated was 158,000 and there’s a 156,000 plus anglers, 22,000 plus hunters and Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 11 sportsmen spending for Hawaii was $37.4 million, Anglers $33.1 million, Hunters $13.7 million and it just list how many jobs were created and salaries. So, it’s a little bit of fed you could give the Hawaii Tourism and to say hey, this is a legitimate deal. I have a little highlighted box here that says, Hawaii Sportsmen that women supports $801,000, salaries and wages $130 million, federal taxes $27 million, state and local taxes $28 million, the ripple effect $404 million dollars. I don’t see how they can ignore this. Chair Sylvester : Okay, Cleon [Bailey], that’s good - Rob [White] do you want to volunteer for something? [Indecipherable] T. Lodge : I think some of that information was taken from the Sportsmen’s survey. And that information is actually an estimate based upon universal numbers that they have out there. If you remember I think I sent all of you the actual number of hunters the state has. The license that was sold in the State of Hawaii is actually 10,000 and they are using the 22 or 20,000 for a number of years which is just an estimate. So, if we go to the legislature saying we have 22,000 hunters here and it turns out we only have 10,000, its egg on our face. It would be nice to have accurate numbers. But, to the extent that hunting and fishing is an economic resource here. It is a big resource that is not being properly used. C. Bailey : In response to that I’m looking at 2012 Wildlife Revolving Fund. Just the hunting license alone is $152,000 and hunting guide license is $1,200 plus, game bird license $5,000 plus. So, the numbers are high. If you want when you address people, get it off their own numbers. If that’s what you want to do, if you don’t want to use. T. Lodge : We need accurate numbers. C. Bailey : It’s true you don’t want egg on your face. It’s not over estimated that way from the way I see it, but I’m not an accountant or a [Indecipherable] Chair Sylvester : For now, we don’t need to figure out the exact numbers. My question is - what do we do with this? Are we trying to present something to the Hawaii Visitors Bureau? Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 12 W. Camara : What I understand is putting the packet together to present to them. One thing that I know, I work with the National Wild Turkey Federation pretty close with them I’ve done a lot of media hunt with them. All these guys that come here to do their media shows they take their shots they call the tourism place personnel and one of the common dominators all the time they have a hard time getting stuff from the tourism authority. They take their own pictures and shots and everything to have in their shows and if you watch a lot of their shows especially when they come to Hawaii, the majority of the show is more about the landscaping. A lot of these guys try to promote the hunting here, but they do come by a little bit of resistance here. It takes time to send them the stuff. It takes some time, one guy that has really worked a lot with them to promote is John Sabati of Kona. He might be somebody you can fill out a little bit. He has worked with a lot of these guys. Every year we have at least two or three. We do promote a lot. I think it’s a great idea. P. Bueltmann : Is there a Hawaii Island Tourism? B. Command : Yes, George Applegate is the Executive Director of the Hawaii Island Visitor’s Bureau. There are possible resources available also through County Research and Development as well. You may approach them of what might be available. C. Bailey : I could not hear the outfitter or the source for reference information that Willie mentioned. Chair Sylvester : John Sabati C. Bailey : Good one. Tom [Lodge], I just want to mention that we have Patrick Fisher that has Safari Outfitting that works with T&T Networking. They’re always promoting Hawaii in all their shows that they do and always mention Hawaii and tourism board. He might be somebody to contact and ask how we can spread this to the rest of the chapter fishermen here. I know that Norm Isaac in the past had a local show here and he was always big in the Hawaii Tourism. He was able to use their logo and drop their name and maybe we can pick the ball back up again. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 13 Chair Sylvester : Any further discussion, hearing none, all in favor of said motion. The motion was unanimously carried by a voice vote of all Commissioners. Motion is carried. Anyone want to add anything? T. Lodge : I just want to confirm, Mark [Bartell], Rob [White] and myself. Chair Sylvester : Yes. D. Yoshina : I’d like to suggest the any motion made be repeated before the call to vote. M. Bartell : Could not hear a word on the Kona side. D. Yoshina : I’d like clarification. I’m really concerned about what are our responsibilities and obligations are because I’m not comfortable with being an advisory commission member and I think these are good ideas but I think we need to be [indecipherable]. I think we need to be careful about when we get into organizing. I have some reservations about our advisory status and how much pro-activity we have in say, organizing of certain things. The second question more of a statement to clarify a motion before we actually vote on it. Because while we all might understand what we are talking about, I don’t know how the public will understand. We need to clarify what the motion is and what we are voting on. So, in the future I would appreciate that. B. Command : Maybe, we could ask the mayor to authorize GMAC to XYor Z with that motion, maybe. I'm pretty sure the mayor will say go ahead. We would ask the mayor to authorize GMAC to look further into the matter. Pretty sure the mayor will say to go ahead and pursue further. T. Lodge : The three of us actually will have to approach the Hawaii Tourism Authority with a package of why we would like to pursue this, if can develop a dialog which is positive, then we would come back to the mayor at that point and want his blessing and move forward. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 14 D. Yoshina : I just want clarification since the public is watching and the motion need to be stated clearly so public understands. B. Command : So, repeat one more time the motion. D. Yoshina : Yes, in the future, up to now I’m good. C. Bailey : I concur with Dwayne [Yoshida] I always keep the proposal in front of me that this is basically an advisory position and so I try to make sure I’m always looking at that when I'm investigating something for some public member that asked me to look into something. I almost did bring up if we should ask if we should bring to the mayor before we ask anything further from Andy Treharne regarding this Sportsmen’s Caucuses. We're really not part of it. They (NASC) organize it themselves. It will be a tool for the public and the commission. We’re not promoting it. I just introduced it to this organization and asked how come we have no state representative. Chair Sylvester : Question: Lincoln [Ashida] do you see any problems in this approach. Reply: No. Thank you. Any further discussion? P. Bueltmann: Just some information sharing, picking up some different things mostly with invasive weed control. I have a report here. Sorry Mark [Bartell] and Cleon [Bailey], I’ll get a copy over to you if you want. The cover sheet covers the article course control and weed control with sheep and goats. One study was done in New Zealand and the other in Australia both similar to our area here. [Indecipherable] Invasive weed control is one with goats and sheep, pretty bad up the mountain. Fireweed control using the same thing, sheep and goat. One single solution, a cohesive management plan using both sheep and goats along with herbicide and other types of mechanical control. But just not one single solution for that, good reading and good ideas. We already know that sheep and goats keep down a lot of the invasive plants that are here already. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 15 D. Yoshina: I think this is the kind of stuff that hopefully we could get into this so that we could send a letter or recommendation to DLNR telling them that this stuff is out there and have you all read it and can you entertain this in your approach. And not to change the subject, but there was another matter that I thought we might want to take action on, and that is recently this guy Paul Banco - he was talking about the Palia project and I think Tom on his own wrote him a letter asking to see the report. I was wondering, did you get a response back? Maybe at next meeting GMAC could introduce a motion to say that GMAC would like to see the report from him so we can at least review it and come to some conclusion on our own. And take a stand and provide it to the public as I read parts of that report I thought it was a sell job for himself and his project is what it was, to be kind. Chair Sylvester : Thank you, Ike [D. Yoshina]. B. Command : Chair point of order: Lincoln, can a normal meeting such as this, during announcements, they introduce things to be spoken to be talked about at the next meeting. Like for instance the gorse project. L. Ashida : [Indecipherable] M. Bartell : Can’t hear on this side. B. Command : Lincoln said, yes, not a written rule, but okay. We cannot discuss these things at this meeting, but able to add to the next meeting agenda. M. Bartell : Potentially at the next meeting or some future meeting, I think it is important now that we have a new Big Island Manager that has been named to start understanding and developing a relationship with the DLNR members responsible for the Island of Hawaii. Earlier we decided we might want to get Jordon Jokiel to come to the council, commission, I also think we should get Lisa Hadway. Tony [Sylvester] I would suggest a couple of things. 1) A group of us should meet with Lisa Hadway (DOFAW Branch Manager) and ask her how she would like us to interact with them. 2) Bring forward a recommendation with her and how we would like to interact with DLNR on the island. Once we do that, I think we need to bring Lisa [Hadway] to our meeting and have a good in-depth discussion about what our issues are and where does DLNR stand - Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 16 Here are our priorities where does it map with yours. I think it’s incredibly important we have an understanding what their list of priorities are vs. ours and how we make movement against those. Chair Sylvester : Okay, will do. C. Bailey : In adding to this future discussion at next meeting, I really don’t want to waste time discussing issues frugal stuff. This issue against gorse, it is a Federal Mandate. When we talking about using ungulates on Mauna Kea there’s a Federal Mandate saying no ungulates. So this is kinda frugal. If we want to discuss at next meeting fine. As far as sitting down with the new manager Lisa Hadway, pretty much all of us know their position maybe I’m wrong and we know the hunters and fishers position. Whether or not we can come to terms it hasn’t being happening that’s why this commission was voted in the first place. Chair Sylvester : I think we have a new opportunity with new people present and this new commission that maybe we can achieve more hopefully so I definitely think Mark’s [Bartell] suggestion will be put on the agenda. D. Yoshina : I would like to second that, we need to hear from the horses’ mouth. What Mark [Bartell] said is very important to establish relationship to work toward the same goals. T. Lodge : I actually have a meeting with Lisa [Hadway] tomorrow at 1:00pm. My purpose in meeting with her is to get her vision of what she sees in the forest and what she sees with hunters, what her idea to get a feel of what her motivations are. She has some power but not much probably. We need to find out what her objectives are, her goals and how it might conflict with ours. They have a tendency to conflict with ours. The watershed is a good example. We have a document here that DLNR puts out for example, it’s a game management a resource management guideline - and it talks about what they’re going to be doing with the ungulates and the birds and everything else here on the island and then you look at the Watershed Plan that they have and the plan completely eradicates everything that they talk about in their Research Resource Management Plan. So, there are inconsistencies in DLNR’s own message to the public. And before we move Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 17 with them and start saying what we want, I’d like to find out for myself at least and I think the commission would too. What their vision is and what they want and we can find some way to meet their objections and their plan. They have not tried anything that has been offered them. As far as put the manholes in certain areas and see what damage they do, chronology or cataloging what goes on, so forth. I'd like to hear from her first to identify areas and go back to her with solutions. Chair Sylvester : Thank you, Tom. Any further discussion? C. Bailey : Could we think about adding topic of HAR 124 on next meeting? Chair Sylvester : We already have three items, four items already, so maybe the next one. Anything specific with the HCR you want to address immediately? C. Bailey : Written testimony, if you talk to your district people is due by the 19th of this month, and looks from what I read they can make a decision at the next DLNR board meeting. I know we are an advisory commission. Chair Sylvester: A hard one right now, I think we need to bring it up as an agenda item. C. Bailey : Maybe I wasn’t clear on that, I tied two things together. This is to announce that written testimony is due by the April 19, and get it out to your district that’s all. W. Camara : Still on new business. Chair Sylvester : Yes W. Camara : Another question, I’ve been getting a bunch of people from all over the place actually. Maybe just a question for Bobby [Command] actually. This is in regards to getting guns registered. I guess there is guidelines that people need to, when you purchase your gun or firearm you need to go and get it registered at the police station and I guess they are coming into some problems where I know that Waimea, Waimea Police Station is one and Kona guys like that. They are having them make an appointment to come in to get that done and a lot of these appointments take a lot longer than the 3 or 5 day period after you purchased your Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 18 firearm you need to get in and registered in 10-days. There are people who wait two weeks or more to get their permit to go in to fill out the paper and then measure the barrel and just to get it done. I don’t know who we need to address. I’m getting a lot of people asking me that question and what’s going on with the police station and even to get to go to apply for your permit to acquire a firearm is taking a long time. I mean, in one instance our turkey [Indecipherable] banquet we held the ending of last month. There are some people who purchased firearms -they still haven’t gotten it, to get their permit to acquire it. It is three weeks now. B. Command : It’s a manpower problem that was created by quite frankly, the shootings in Connecticut. There was a reaction people have and I’m not sure whether it is or isn’t but people are thinking that there’s going to be tighter controls on weapons. And, so a lot of people went out and purchased a gun. There was a big rush and that’s the problem. I have talked to the captain, AC and they are working on it trying to get more people in the office to handle the backlog. [Indecipherable] W. Camara : [Indecipherable] I was wondering how it, this was way before Connecticut. Technically, they are forcing us to break the law by not having the permits. [Indecipherable] C. Bailey : I think, Counsel Ashida can address, he probably heard. I heard on the news that they were going to extend that period because of the jam up just to avoid prosecution. I don’t know if Counsel Ashida heard anything about it. L. Ashida : No Chair Sylvester : Nothing at this time. R. White : You are right it has a lot to do with the shootings. But has also to do with funding which is why furloughs, the first Friday or last Friday of every month. So, Melody at the Kona Police Dept., they are working on getting somebody in the offices but it is long process. [Indecipherable] You are right, it actually started more with Obama being elected so, way before the shootings but because Obama is anti guns that’s when more guns started being sold and the shootings just further that. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 19 So, working on getting the funding but tricky thing because they are trying to reduce the amount of people in there and the expenses but they are weighing it out by how many people are buying guns. So, I’ll tell you this as far as the annoyance and the inconvenience for not being able to register your gun on time, as long as somebody at the Police Dept. who has the authority tell them that you have a set date to come in or whatever, then you’re okay. Because we get registrations all the time that are not exactly to par, they don’t have a picture on there or the address is funky or something, and we still hey, the Police Dept. put it out. It’s not my [Indecipherable] and we just have to accept it. It’s an inconvenience not to be able to use it but as being prosecuted [Indecipherable]. Chair Sylvester : Next meeting looking at Monday, May13, at 6:30 pm same place same time. PolyCom will be fine. Under announcements, might not be the right area to do it. But, I want to talk about the County packet but I got two things one was that I talked to Jordon Jokiel, he is th anxious to be with us. I’ll schedule him on the agenda for May 13. He has information that he would like to share with us also and we can ask him questions. I think that’s really good. He seems like a really nice guy to work with. The second issue of a concern, I don’t know where we want to go with this, just keep in your mind, I’ve being approached by several prominent hunters complaining that there’s too many pig hunting tourneys. In fact, three just this past month. They want to know if we can do something about this. Don’t have to decide on that right now. Just think about that for now. And last, the County packet - meet with Lisa Hadway - she is in support in ways to work with us to find new sources of revenues for the Wildlife Revolving Fund. Find private grant opportunities, marketing and state directed money. Okay, we need to come up with ideas that secure funding though the Wildlife Revolving Fund. How can the County Mayor and the Council help us with that? We need to set up a meeting with Senator Kahele and Solomon to gain support to increase money allotted to the Wildlife Revolving Fund. We are currently discussing that with Councilman Onishi and Representative Evans. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 20 Another one is work on our amendment SB 1166 for the next legislature session this will direct the percentage of the conveyance tax to the Wildlife Revolving Fund. What support can we get from the County Mayor and Council? And then the Habitat Conservation Plan in Puuanahulu and Puu Waawaa. The Endangered Species Recovery Committee needs to refer the HCP Plan to DLNR for approval - a big hold up right now. I asked if we could help in any way to support this effort and was silent so, don't know if we can. Long term plan or goal, this is where part of Paul’s [Bueltmann] sheep and [Indecipherable] Hawaiian Homes Land need to generate revenue from their Puuanahulu parcel. Suggestion was made to work with Deputy Chair Kia’aina to see if a land swap could be made for that parcel. Dept. of Hawaiian Home Lands would benefit to have a better parcel to generate revenue and State DLNR could gain by providing a place to hunt upland game outside a critical habitat. Of course, this is a long term plan, or dream or whatever. From Hawaiian Homes prospective, they need to generate revenue and they can't general much revenue with that parcel. DNLR would be interested in this. Continue our dialog with PTA Commander Eric Shwedo in regards to hunting opportunities in Kamoku and get a status with DLNR. How can the County Mayor, County assist? We talked about the possibly in opening days for youth hunt and tree planting in Kamoku. Can the County help support this effort with resources to do this? The reason I ask this, the County awarded $15,000 to the Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance. I'd like to know what that money is allocated for. So, it’s County funds going to the Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance. Finally, how can we get the County to improve an easement to hunting and gathering at Kapuakea Homestead Rd.? County was given an undeveloped easement as part of an approval to subdivide the area. No improvement to public access has been made. Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes, April 15, 2013 Page 21 So, these are things that we could incorporate, from my prospective, into this package or whatever else you guys may have. Thank you. Okay with that said, anybody else. C. Bailey : Under announcement just for feedback for the public is Counsel Ashida or you - is there any discussion on the recent lawsuit on the Hawaii County’s no band - no fly? Chair Sylvester : It would need to be agenized. If you want to talk about it, it will have to be on the next meeting. C. Bailey : I don’t care if we talk about it or not, the paper called me and wanted to know are they going to appeal it and I told them I had no information for them. Chair Sylvester : Lincoln [Ashida], can I ask you for any assistance with that. L. Ashida : I’ll let you know, what I can do is prepare an update, informational and I’ll blind copy to everyone. If you want to ask a specific question just reply to me, do not reply to all so we comply with the Sunshine Law. I’ll try to get something out tonight. Chair Sylvester : Any further discussion? Hearing none, motion to adjourn [Indecipherable] Moved and seconded. The motion was unanimously carried by a voice vote of all Commissioners. Respectfully submitted, Barbara Kossow Secretary ATTEST: Anthony H. Sylvester II