Communication No. 2022-04 -R. Smith Testimony to PD Dir. Kern

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Communication No 2022-00 R. Smith Testimony January 19, 2022 Mr. Zendo Kern, Planning Director County of Hawai`i Planning Department 101 Pauahi St., Ste. 3 Hilo, Hawai`i 96720 Testimony of Ruth A. Smith at the Joint Meeting for all Hawaii Island Action Committees Director Kern, thank you for joining the Action Committees of the Big Island today. We appreciate your time, your knowledge and passion for the well-being of our communities now and in the future. Briefly, these are my thoughts and my hopes for all our Action Committees regarding the substantial federal funding of $1 trillion from the infrastructure bill, passed with bipartisan support in the last Congressional session, and signed into law by President Biden. Hawai’i State is receiving $2.8 billion in the allocation among the 50 states. As you well know, this is an unprecedented influx of funds for long-delayed infrastructure repairs of roads and bridges, plus traffic infrastructure needed in areas of population growth. And it will be a very long time before we see this kind of investment again. That’s why is so important to take Right Action now. The funds will transfer from the State to the County of Hawai’i. I’ve not heard what amount of money is expected to be allocated to the Big Island. \[If you have a ballpark figure that you can share, please give us that information after my testimony, or now if you like.\] In the County of Hawai’i, the distribution of the funds will ultimately come down to Mayor Roth’s decision on which communities and projects get what and where. It is that process where I would ask you to advocate on behalf of the priorities that are well established in each area’s Community Development Plan regarding infrastructure and emergency preparedness needs. In Puna, Ka’u, Hamakua, Kona, North Kohala, and South Kohala, local communities worked diligently to research what actions were fundamentally necessary and to craft Community Development Plans that best prioritized the needs and desires of all our people for their future. The volume of work by many volunteers in each of our communities was substantial and decisions were well vetted. I’m asking that Mayor Roth respect the work that’s already been done and the priorities that have been established when making the decisions on the distribution of funds on the Big Island. Please emphasize the importance of starting with the CDPs infrastructure and emergency preparedness lists, which often go hand-in-hand, as the structural foundation for projects to fund. The lengthy mayoral review and delay of finalizing the County General Plan, now 8 years overdue, concerns me, as do negative public statements made by the mayor about the CDPs. He needs to honor the very democratic process used for the CDPs and respect the will of the people.