I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. September 16th. We're in the Kona, West Hawaii Civic Center, the 1 p.m. agenda for the committee on government operations and external affairs. I'm Chair Cindy Evans, Council Member for District 9, and with us in the Conna Chambers, I have Member Anaba, and shortly we'll have Member Vegas join us. In the Hilo Chamber, Chambers, I'm seeing Member Lee Loy, Member Kirkowitz, Member Galimba, and member Kagawada, and absent is member Galimba and member Connie Lee Kleinfelder. And so, Mr. Clerk, would you start us out? Thank you. Before we proceed, I just noticed that Hilo was trying to make contact with us, and we could not get their audio. So perhaps we need to address that with our system. Hilo appears to be muted. Can we get try Hilo again? Can someone from Hilo please try to speak through the microphone? Can you hear me now? Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Just want to make sure we had good connection. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kerr. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Galimba has joined us and I believe you meant to say Councilmember Kimball is present in here. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, member Galimba and member Vegas have joined us. Thank you. And member Kimball. Thank you. Mr. Clerk. We don't have any testifiers here in the corner chambers. Mr. So do we have testifiers on zoom or courtesy sites, please? Thank you so much, Mr. Clerk. Madam Chair, we do have a couple testifiers via Zoom, but I didn't want to note that we do not have any other testifiers in your remote sites. So if it's okay, I'll start with our Zoom testifiers. The first of which is Christie Duarte testifying on Resolution 630 to be followed by Shaina Kokilo. Christie, if you could begin, you'll have three minutes if you could just reintroduce yourself as you begin. Mahalo. Aloha, Chair Kimball and Hawaii County Council Member. My name is Christie Duarte and I am the Chair of the Hawaii Humbert Task Force created by Act 32 2019. I'm also the board president of the Hawaii Humbert Collective and organization with the largest voting membership of licensed midwives across the state. In addition to our licensed midwife membership, our membership includes over 30 more birth practitioners. First of all, I would like to thank the Ho A County Council for their ongoing support over the past years through the passing of Resolution 57-23, and also by including this issue as an H-SAC legislative priority last year for the 2024 session. I'm here to testify today in full support of the draft bill that is included in resolution 630-24, which seeks to regulate midwife licensure. In the five years that the midwifery licensure program has been in effect, not one native point midwife has yet achieved licensure due to continent-based schooling requirements that are highly preferential to people from outside Hawaii. With the mid-war mid-war with free licensure program set to sunset in June 2025 legislation must be passed in this session for the licensure program to continue. The bill draft in this resolution expands access to midwifery licensure increases accessibility for reproductive health care access, especially in rural areas while still protecting reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy and traditional and customary practices. Five years ago, act 32, 2019 stated it would allow a woman to choose where and with whom she gives birth, and that by the end of the three year period, the legislature would incorporate all birth practitioners. Being the chair of the Hawaii Home Birth Task Force created in that act, I can say that significant efforts have been made through proposed legislation every year since 2020. Sorry. every year since 2020, sorry. In February, 2024, the Center for Reproductive Rights Native Hawaiian Legal Corp filed a lawsuit challenging Hawaii's Midwifery Law, HRS 457J, on numerous constitutional grounds. Then in July, 2024, the court issued in order to prohibit the state from enforcing, threatening to enforce or otherwise applying any penalties against these individuals. The case is moving forward toward a full trial. 30 seconds please, 30 seconds. Okay, thank you. So this case is still moving forward toward a full trial, which is set to be scheduled late 2025, early 2026. This year's legislative session is super important and it has the ability to address the key concerns raised in the lawsuit through the bill language in resolution 634. Mahalo for your support and I will be available if there are any questions. Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. Chair your next testifier isaina Kukila to be followed by Chuck Flarety. Shaina, if you could just reintroduce yourself as you begin, you can unmute yourself. You'll have three minutes to provide your testimony. Hello. My name is Shana Kukila. I'm zooming in from Hilo Hawaii. And I am writing in support of the resolution 630-24 budget priorities. In particular as it relates to midwife licensures. I have written testimony on file for you folks. I also want to reiterate my concerns about including the disabled and any of your budget priorities. In particular emergency preparedness. I want to make sure that our disabled community is prioritizing these these ways because a lot of them are left out. They're in rural areas, remote areas. So we need to have a very detailed plan on how they can access emergency services should they have to. The last thing I want to say is number 10 on prioritizing and promoting safe routes to school. I think it should be part of an overall plan to make schools safer, such as preventing bullying, addressing trafficking, drugs, homelessness, and lockdowns caused by a number of reasons. So I do appreciate you giving me the time. Mahalo. Thank you so much for your testimony. Chair, your next testifier is Chuck Flarety testifying on resolution 610 and 630. Chuck, if you'd like to begin, you could unmute yourself. You have three minutes per agenda. I don't please reintroduce yourself. Mahalo Riley. Aloha, my name is Chair and members of the committee. The Sierra Club of Wyoming Group gives strong support for resolution 610-24. This is a long-do overdue resolution. A few complaints were as universal as those heard by the public and it's attempts to navigate the county website and it's supporting software. The county website and it's supporting software are likely the greatest single impediment against public participation in the legislative process. The process of downloading, printing, working with the downloaded documents is a cumbersome process and it's often a further restricted by the apps on the tech devices that individuals are being used. So we're designing and proving the county's website to place legislation in all relevant documents and testimony. In one location, we'll greatly increase the public's ability to participate and engage in the legislative process as well as being able to provide more useful and inform testimony to the county council and its committees. Switching now to resolution 630. I can. My home chair Evans. My name is Jack Flarey speaking on behalf of Sierra Club. Why I'll in group. Sierra Club is asking that you add to this legislative package. HB 2629. House draft to. And to remove. House bill 1542 House draft to Senate draft one. The reason we'd like to add HB 2629 HD 2 is because it establishes a homeless services special fund. It allows counties to apply for matching funds for the affordable home ownership revolving fund for housing projects that are subject to their perpetual affordability requirement. It increases the conveyance tax rates for certain properties establishes conveyance tax rates for multi-family residential properties exempts from conveyance tax that conveyance on real property to organizations with certain affordability requirements certain on profit organizations and an owner occupant occupant or better occupant of the prior property. And it also allocates collective conveyance taxes to affordable home ownership revolving fund homeless services special fund and rent willing revolving fund and amends allocations to the main conservation fund and mental housing revol allocations to the lane conservation fund and housing. Revolving fund. We would like to pose inclusion of HB 1522 because the role and use district allows for minimal lot sizes of one half acre while the agricultural and use district is allows any lot less than one acre. They have I created unknown impacts on density and. The man's on public infrastructure and utilities. The rural and use district has far greater number of allowable land uses there by creating unknown impacts of the over to the overall quality of life in communities. It was the requirement for forming or forming activities for properties currently in the ag land use district which cause an increase in market value of properties move to rural thereby impacting the cost of a decent act lands and relative on tax assessments and the trap general plan for poses to add over 20.25 thousand acres of land to rural on that's compared to the current while at the same time are moving over 400,000 acres of land on and from the current general plan is not to the current. So for those reasons we would like to request that you remove HP 1542 and I'd like to be 26. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for your testimony. At this time I'd like to reach out to two individuals in the Zoom room under the name Chris Sparber and Christy Swofford. Chris Sparber and Christy Swofford, if either of you would like to provide testimony at this time, if you could please unmute your mics. Again, asking if Chris Sparber or Christy Swofford in Zoom would like to provide testimony, this is your chance, you could unmute your mic. Hearing none, Chair, at this time, I believe those are all the testifiers you have. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, I would like to move out of order and hear resolution 630-24. Check me see if there's any additional testimony for resolution 630-24. Hearing none, resolution 630-24 proves the Hawaii County Council legislative proposals and priorities to be considered for inclusion at 2025 Hawaii State Association of Counties legislative package includes proposals relating to the regulation of tobacco products, state land use boundary amendments, denitrification of individual wastewater systems and regulating midwife licensures, and 10 policy priorities relating to increasing funds for emergency preparedness, extending the county's search of general excise tax, lowering the cost and expanding the availability of insurance for homeowners and businesses, advancing the timeline and providing more funding for cesspool conversions, workforce development, regulating agricultural tourism, expanding access to mid-wifery licensures, gain management of wild ungulates, promoting producer responsibility for solid waste, and prioritizing and promoting safe routes of school and reducing most kimble. Chair, I'm motion to approve resolution 630-24 and forward to Council with a favorable recommendation. Second. We have a motion on the floor to approve Resolution 630-24 and forward it to the Council with a favourable recommendation offered by Member Kimball and seconded by Member Kagawada. Member Kimball. Thank you. I'll speak to the main resolution in a moment which is our procedural step to pass potential legislative items to the H.Sac Executive Committee for consideration in the H.Sac package. But before I do it that I'd like to actually introduce the amendment that's in your folder. So that's going to be motion to amend Resolution 630-24 with the contents of Communication 1043.2. Second. OK, one moment. I think it's the big fat one. 1043.1. No, that's 0. Okay. One zero four three point one. No, that's. Point two. Point two. Yep, there it is. Okay, it is very big. Thank you. Do I have a second? Okay. Yes, I second. Okay. I have a motion to amend resolution number No. 630-24 with the contents of Communication No. 104-3-2 offered by Member Kimble and seconded by Member Kagawata. Member Kimble. Thank you. So what you'll see before you in this amendment is a proposal to move some of the items that were listed as legislator priorities to actual bills. And the reason for this is we are on a strict timeline with this resolution. And in order to meet the deadline for referral, we have to put it through with the legislative priorities, but we were able to complete the bills before the hearing today. One of them in particular is in the amendment, it's number six, the draft bill to extend the county search charge of the general excise tax to 2040. And I wanted to invite our mass transit administrator up to just share a few words about how important the GE search charge has been to the county with respect to mass transit. So, administrator, if you don't mind coming forward. I'm just going to go to the next slide. Well, thank you. I'm Victor Kendall and I'm addressing Madam Chair and the members and with the administrator of Mass Transit Agency. I've been here with the county for just over a year and I've learned a lot about the community and the needs of the community and a little bit of the history in regards to some of the needs and how they're being met today. With the funding having been sourced in the highway division previously, our budget was pretty limited. And when this cut converted over to get, it allowed us to expand our service a great deal. And so I wanted to just touch on what I see is being a great need in the community. And when I think about the needs of the community, I think about the most basic needs as far as transportation and all over the island. I see that people are in need of that transportation. And I know for a fact that at this time, we're well short of meeting that need in spite of a lot of effort and work to get there. Our budget is probably doubled in about four years and that's allowed us to start programs such as the shared ride taxi, the bus for free, for the bus for both fixed route and parod transit. It's let us work with Ban Poole for people who are grouping together to cartpool from their home to their work. We've been working on the last mile, first mile concept with Hi-Bike at some place. We work with currently Roberts as our vendor for all of our operations, including equipment and operators. It goes on and on all of the things that have been allowed to happen over the last few years because of this. When I look to the future and I think of the mandate to be looking at converting our fleet to zero emissions, that's a monumental need. And it's an expense that really isn't even accounted for on your current budget. So I think when I look to the future, that's an ongoing expense that we've committed to. I could probably go on, but I think I just want to go back to what I said at the beginning, and that's learning about our community and what the needs are and how I personally feel like it's difficult with all of the challenges that we have in place and I've really taken to heart the need of a lot of people, people in my community that live next to me. And I recently had made a change in whatever routes and was surprised that even though it was a little number of people on that route that we made a change, it directly affected people who depended on that transportation. And I think of how critical it is for these people to be able to get from point A to point B, get their children to school, honor, transit system, et cetera. And I'm open to whatever questions. Thank you so much, Administrator. So again, this is in this amendment, one of the bills that we're adding that was a legislative priority, but now it's actually in a bill template. And as those are my colleagues that were here in the council when the G extension was or search charge was passed, it was a battle. But it has definitely had a significant impact on our community and the ability to provide public transportation. So look for your support, adding this extension bill. The other two bills have to do with a request to increase the timeline for certain priority one, priority two, assess pools and provide funding resources for folks to do that conversion. And then the third bill has to do with regulating agricultural tourism. This has to do with enabling the county to put restrictions with respect to overnight stays on agricultural properties, which we don't have the authority to do. So I ask for your support with this amendment and then when we get back to the main motion I will be happy to discuss the other pieces of legislation. Thank you. Okay. Do we have any further discussion? And hellow? And hellow is anyone helo, is anyone going to weigh in hearing none? And, and Kona, we have member of the Agus. Yes. I suppose this is to the maker. Just concerned or actually more of a process question, one of the testifiers testified in support of the addition of another piece of legislation and the removal of one of the pieces of legislation on this list. And I just was asking for clarification as I don't believe I think the timing for any additions or removals is passed. Is that correct? Mayor Sponshire. Yes, please. Member Kimbo. We will need to pass this out of committee today and send it to council at which point additional amendments could be made, such as that suggested by the testifier. We would have to then wave our rules so that we could continue to move it on. We do have to get it passed and out of our hands by the next council date. Okay. Thank you for that. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, we have a motion, all in favor? All right. Any opposed? Okay, Mr. Clerk, you have eight in favor and member Connolly Klein-Felder excused for adopting communication number 1043.2. Which is an amendment. the dot-2. Yes. All right. Back to the main motion. And Council Member Kirkwitz has additional amendments to just to make folks aware. But I did want to just run through the list real quick of the other items. So we have under the bills to be submitted, the preemption with respected tobacco products. This is a resubmital from last year. Draft the draft bill with respect to the boundary amendments. That was the one that was brought up as a potential concern. There's a lot of interest in having a process that does not involve the NUSE Commission for the County to make certain land use boundary amendments from Ag to Rural on smaller lots. I will say that don't think we've arrived at the perfect solution for this but that's something that we would like to have a process for at the very least. The next item is with respect to denitrification. This is a bill that we did try to get through again last year has to do with ensuring that where people are still putting in septic systems, these are coastal areas and areas with particular porous substrate that they do have de-nentification attached with those that does add a nominal cost to the system, but in areas where we're having rapid development like Millile E, we are not going to be able to get a wastewater system in place as quickly as the development is happening. So this will at least prevent some nutrients from getting into the near shore waters. I'll leave the midwifery licensure to Council Member Coggy-Watta that was one of her submissions. And that covers the bills. I will yield the floor at that time but happy to take questions any more detail. And I know, like I said, Council Member Kirkowitz has some additional legislative priorities to add. I yield, Chair. Okay, I suggest we take up the amendment. Member Kirkowitz. Chair, can I just quickly jump in as a couple sentences on item four, just to finish that out? Okay, Member Coggo, water please. Thank you, thank you, Chair. Just, you heard the testifiers on the bill. Really, this greatly affects our county, I'd say, to a greater extent, even than other counties in that we have so much rural land and so many folks giving birth that are very far away from our hospitals. And so we also want to make sure that people have their native and customary practices that they can be part legally of their birth plan and practice and we don't want to make this easier to licensure everybody, but also to include those who haven't been able to access the licensure process in the past. So looking for people's support on this. Thank you. I yield. Thank you. Member Kerquits, do you want to take up your amendments? Thank you. Thank you so much. I move to amend resolution 630-24 with the contents of communication 104 3.1. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion to amend for with the contents of communication 104 3.1. Second. Okay, we have a motion to amend Resolution 630-24 with contents of communication number 1043.1 offered by member Kirkowitz and seconded by member Lee Loeway. Member Kirkowitz. Thank you, Chair. We have a really excellent list of legislative priorities that the counties would consider advocating for once the session starts. I wanted to offer up three additional priorities for counties to advocate for. One of them being support for food security and access to locally produced foods. At last week's planning conference, I was able to moderate a conversation about sustainable food systems on Hawaii Island and across the state. And some really excellent recommendations came out from these folks that have dedicated their lives to ensuring that here on Hawaii Island, we are becoming more food sustainable. And so, Rep Kirsten Kahaloah was in the room, and she really appreciated what she heard so we can count on her and our senator, coming more food sustainable. And so, Rep Kirsten Kahaloah was in the room, and she really appreciated what she heard, so we can count on her and our Senator Tim Richards to be advocating for supporting those who nourish us, nourish our community, so wanted to elevate that as a priority. We are also realizing what we've known and need to increase support for public safety, particularly around access to mental health resources. I recently had a conversation with Chief Judge Administrator Bob Kim to talk about how the judiciary could support the efforts of the Council and prosecutor's office in establishing community courts on Hawaii, E.I.L.I. I'll be inviting Councilmember Kagiwada into these conversations because I know that she expressed interest in wanting to have this model available to folks in her community. I've also alerted our Judiciary Committee chair a reptarness about our interest to do something like this on Hawaii Island. So just trying to make sure all of the stars align in that regard. And so adding support for mental health resources community court to this package is essential. And finally, I think we all have heard about squatters in our various communities. It's hard to really identify what we can do here on the county level. There might be need to be some changes within Hawaii Revised Statutes. And so not quite sure what a bill would look like at this point, but did wanna elevate this as a concern for all of us, county and state to start taking a look at. So happy to answer any questions folks might have, but do appreciate everyone's favorable consideration to adding these priorities to our shared legislative agenda. Thank you. Thank you. In Hilo, any member comments, questions? Chair. Yeah, Chair Kagawada. Thank you. Just a couple of comments. Very supportive of 11 and 12. Interested in 13 or the third one you talked about. Just yeah, not really visualizing what that might look like. I was just wondering if you had a champion at the state level that's expressed interest in this or just any thoughts on what you might be thinking there because I'm just trying to wrap my head around what that might look like. Chair if I might. Yes, please, member Kerguets. Thank you. I'm having meeting scheduled with members of our West Hawaii and Hawaii Island Bar Association to understand residents on this island are having a very difficult time with folks that should not be on their properties. We also have more than 40% of our properties owned by non-Havai Island residents. And I have on a weekly basis folks calling me saying there are people that should not be inhabiting properties homes next door to me. It is the activities that they are engaging in are detrimental to the character of our neighborhood, are detrimental to businesses. So it's really about ensuring that we are holding property owners accountable for the kinds of activities that are happening on their property. There's obviously going to be extensive community consultation around what those solutions could look like. But right now we are brainstorming what exactly we would like to do based on what is happening on the ground. Thank you so much. And I can see how this is kind of springing from some of the legislation you brought for earlier about making sure we had contacts for all properties on the island. So understanding that. But with this one, I just I think, there are there are lots of ways it could go so looking forward to seeing how it might might play out and and what we what we could and should be doing around this so thank you looking forward to learning more. I yield chair. Thank you. Here in Coda, any nope, nothing here, anyone else in Hilo? Seeing none, hearing none. We have a motion on the floor, all in favor. Wait a second, do you want to? Yes, yes. Yes, I just wanted to mention that as it relates to, I'm sorry, I lost it here. I do not support. I have challenges with removing the state land use commission from participating in our agricultural, I think that there still needs to be that oversight. Chair, this is not part of the amendment. Yeah, member, we're still a little. Oh, I'm sorry. We've got three items that have been added in the amendment office. Gotcha. I'm confused myself there. Gotcha. Sorry. Now we can go back to the main. Okay. Okay. So we have a motion on the communication number 1043.1. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, you have eight in favor and member Coneley, Kleinfelder excused. And we're back to the main motion. Now, do you have member of Yegas? Yes. You know, this is a big and predominantly great packet of legislation that would be sent forward. And basically what we're saying is we approve of these things to be prioritized as a whole. Unfortunately, I find and we found this in other pieces that come before us for other projects that there are certain things within it that aren't, I don't have full agreement with, and one of them is number two, and I do think that I appreciate the efforts being made to try and tap dance on a razor blade on how we manage I found re amendments from agricultural to rural districts and whatnot, but I feel pretty strongly that we're opening a Pandora's box that we're not aware of the long-term consequences of that. And I've seen too many examples of this, even the current system being manipulated to the special benefit of certain people at the expense of authentic agricultural usages. So I just have some, I have some concerns on that, but I just wanted to put that out there even though I'm aware that as a package it needs to go together. I do appreciate the bringing forth council member Kirco-Witz of your legislation related to increasing food security and access to locally produced food. So I see. I have questions about how that's counterintuitive to have pieces of legislation here once what might threaten that and ones that is asking for the people to be able to perpetuate those activities. My other concern with the package is the inclusion of some constituents have come to me with concerns about the denitrification option. I'm no expert in this but the concerns were that this would add a $5,000 expense and still not bring the desired solution. So I'm just stating that out there for the record. But as a whole, I will be supporting this package moving forward. And I want to thank the testifiers who came before us today, advocating for midwifery and moving forward with allowing women to practice what women have done for millennia. So anyway, I yield. Any further discussion? Okay, I just wanted to weigh in and say, yeah, who? Sue. Okay, Member Liloie, please. Yeah, Thank you. To Member Kimbo and Kirkkoitz and to the body. I just really appreciate a very holistic approach at the legislature. I mean, I've done this a number of times in the past and we've seen some of it get picked up and others haven't. But what I really do like about our way item package is that it presses on all the important pieces of our island and highlight them. Specifically, what I do like is, you know, the idea of expanding our GETUX. I just think about where we were just a few short years ago with our transportation and it really did transform our transportation system here on Hawaii Island. I think it is a great model that we should take up to the legislators and demonstrate how the money was really effectively put to good use along with transforming our communities. In addition to the food sustainability and the security piece, I think that really does go nicely hand in hand with our land use designations. I think it creates a beautiful picture of home role. Oftentimes to take that big large step from ag to urban is very challenging but with the small parcel sizes and going from ag to rural and partnering that with our food sustainability goals is a perfect marriage. And so to everyone who contributed to this package, I really do look forward to what good things we can do in the next legislative session and in full support of this package. I yield. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, I just wanted to thank everyone for putting this package together. It is very holistic. I think it's great to send messages to the legislature like what our interest area is. I'm not sure I totally support every single one of them. Having three new bills at the last minute where we're not getting any input and testimony from the public always wonder about process and making sure we have transparency to the public, but it's got a long ways to go and it is part of the bigger package of all the county council or all of the county coming together counties and determining priorities. So appreciate everybody's work. We have a motion on the floor all in favor. Any opposed? Thank you Mr. Clerk. We have eight in favor. Remember Coneley Kleinfelder excused in forwarding our bill to the council with a favorable recommendation. Okay, next let's go to item number six. Communication 1030. Any testimony of the communication 1030. Hearing none, communication 1030, a nomination of Burke Billingsley the committee. On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the On the the council with the favorable recommendation. Second. Second. Thank you. I have a motion to close file on communication 1030 and forward to the council of the favorable recommendation and nomination of Burke Billingsley to the Veterans Advisory Committee. It's been offered by member Nava, seconded by member of the Agas. As to the administration, are you in? Yes, I am. There you are. My part is a lot of Chair and Council members. Good afternoon. For my part is a lot of executive assistant to Mayor Rock. We are pleased to be nominating Burke Billingsley of District 9 to the Veterans Advisory Committee. Mr. Billingsley has been a resident of the State of Hawaii for a couple years now. He was honorably discharged from the United States Air Force and he is here. Thank you so much for hanging out to our nominees, all of our nominees. And Mr. Billingsley is just really excited and eager to serve in this capacity and we're delighted that he even put in his name. I'm gonna let him share a little bit because he does have an extensive educational and experience as well, employment experience as well. So Mr. Billingsley, if you are confirmed, you will serve a term ending December 31st, 2020-28. And Council members, your favorable confirmation is requested. Mahalo. Thank you, Mr. Billingsley. Would you like to offer comments? Hi, Aloha. And Mahalo, council members for having me today. Been lit as as one of kind of said, I've been living here for nearly two years. Recently relocated from HPP over to the west side. I am a disabled veteran. As she said, I was discharged from the Air Force for I flew fighter jets and eventually went to law school. Why is our home? We have been looking for opportunities to serve our community and our county. And when I saw that this opening was available, I reached out to Mayor Roth to see if this would be a possibility for me to contribute. As a leader in the military, I had experiences with individuals that worked for me, that with PTSD and other suicide issues. So I really hope to be able to contribute to our veterans that we have here within the counting, which is extensive, and to bring those issues to the fore, as well as the other initiatives that the Veterans Advisory Committee is working towards. So, Mahalo for having me today. And thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Members in the discussion? Chair Evans? Yeah, member Kirkowitz. Thank you. Mr. Billingsley, thank you so much for your service to our country. You know, totally impressed by you. Law degree, master's degrees, US Air Force. I mean, you are someone that has a huge heart for public service and service to our community. So thank you for choosing to call Hawaii your home and finding a way that you can continue your dedication to service in this way. I'm curious to know if there's any particular project or initiative that you'd like to advocate for. should you be confirmed to this advisory commission? Yes, Mahalo. As I was saying, I don't know that we've done enough to highlight the issues of suicide in the county. I know the state has several initiatives that have been put forward, but I think that there's, you know, given the large numbers of veterans that exist on both all over the island, I think that this is something that can be elevated beyond what it currently is. Thank you for that. I think September is suicide awareness or prevention month. Yes. So I appreciate you highlighting that particular issue. And I'm looking at Council Member Kimball. This might be something that we might want to consider elevating as a legislative priority. Within our H.S.A.C. package, we can reach out to the Veterans Advisory Commission to see if there's some sort of legislative effort. We can be doing on the state side to just increase awareness of the issue and advocate for more resources to support those who have given themselves so selflessly to our country. Thank you again for being here. I will be supporting your nomination. Thank you again for being here. I will be supporting your nomination. Wow. Thank you Chair Ailed. Thank you. Any other member? Okay, if not, Mr. Billingsley, thank you for serving our country. And it's really nice. Do you represent any district nine, which is the district that I represent. So it's really great to have North and South Kohala have a voice at the table because we do have veterans, quite a few veterans. We have a quite few that are very older veterans. We also have a lot of Vietnam veterans and of course we're getting new veterans all the time and so You know the issues need they need attention and it sounds like you really wanted to get and do that so thank you very very much Thank you So all in favor for the nomination I any opposed mr. Clerk you have eight in favor. the nomination? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, we have eight in favor. Remember, kindly, Kleinfelder excused. Thank you, Mr. Billingsley. Thank you. Aloha. Here's one of your testimony for communication, 1-031. Very none. Communication 1-031, nomination of Ken Hoyle to the Kylo Ability Design Commission. Herme, I'm actually deraughted. August 28, 2024 requesting the Council of you on confirmation. Chair, motion to close file on communication 1031 in forward, nomination of Ken Hoyle to the council with a favorable recommendation. Okay, I have a motion on the floor to close file on communication 1031 and for the nomination of Ken Hoyle to the Kyloov Village Design Commission to the full council with the favorable recommendation. It has been offered by member Anada and seconded by member of the Agas. Any discussion? Oh, yes, Poemaine. We are pleased to be nominating Ken Hoyle of District 8 to the Kailu Village Design Commission. Ken earned the Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from St. Mary's College. He currently serves as the center director for the Hawaii Small Business Development Center's West Hawaii office, and he's been a resident of Hawaii for the past couple years. Mr. Hoyle, show cases, has commitment to enhancing aesthetics, community growth, and experience through his active role on the Economic Development Committee of the Conoco Halle Chamber of Commerce. I've confirmed he will serve a term ending December 31st, 2026. And your favorable confirmation is requested. Mahalo. Thank you, Mr. Hoyle, are you available? Oh, please. If you'd please come to the table, he's here in Kona. Would you like to offer some comments? Thank you, Mr. Hoyle. Hello. Hello. I'm just checking that. You can hear me. Good. Yes, I'm very checking that you can hear me good. Yes, I'm very excited to be considered for this role. My interest here is, you know, my day job is helping small businesses grow and drive investment in the local communities here in West Hawaii. I would like to further that by expanding into promoting and promoting more development within our community, but also trying to keep the unique culture of Kaidu, Akona. We don't want to look like somebody we aren't. We really want to retain this community that I really, really have embraced and care for greatly. And I feel at this, absolutely. I feel at this committee I can really make an impact and continue to support the great work everybody's doing. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Members, any discussion? Member Nova. Thank you. Yes. I see that you are a resident of District 8 so I'm just hoping that you can continue to contribute to the good work. We did get a presentation this morning from Ross Wilson for the Pellow Village Improvement District and seeing that we can continue to support the businesses and upkeep the face of the village both for locals and for those who are visiting. So thank you for your willingness to serve. Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? Okay, see you none. We have a motion all in favor. Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight in favor. Remember, kindly, Kleinfelder excused. Thank you, Mr. Hoyle. Mahalo. Welcome. Okay, Mr. Clerk. So any testimony for communication, 1032. During none, communication 1032, nomination of Rick Porter to the Fire Commission from Mayor Mitchell-Deirottated August 28, 2024, requesting the Council's review and confirmation. Chairwoman. The motion to close file on communication 1032. Second. We have a motion to close file on communication 1032. Second. We have a motion to close file on communication 1032, nominating Rick Porter to the fire commission, offered by member Gullimba, seconded by member Anaba. And so to the administration. I'm sure it can be clarified that the motion is to afford a favorable recommendation rather than to close file. Oh, sorry. To send favorable recommendation of Rick Porter to the fire commission to the council with a favorable recommendation offered by member Glimba, targeted by member of NABA. Thank you, the administration. to the Fire Commission. Rick earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and has been a resident of Hawaii for the past 25 years. He is currently a partner at Paradise Salsa and previously owned the commercial real estate brokerage, Goldstone, Realty and Finance. The devastating fires in Maui sparked Mr. Porter's interest in a enhancing fire protection within his home district of Ka'ul and the county of Hawaii. His extensive personal and professional experience equips him to be a proactive and effective contributor to the board's decision making process and if confirmed he will serve a term ending December 31st, 2028 and your favorable confirmation is requested. Mahalo. And Mahalo, Mr. Porter, I believe he is there in the Conoconso Chamber. Mr. Porter, would you like to come forward? Thank you. Thank you. Would you like to offer comments? Thank you. Good afternoon. Members of the council. The genesis of this was a conversation I had with member Glimba trying to get a fire hydrant in our community, which we have none. And she suggested that there was an opening and that I might be interested in becoming a member of the Fire Commission and help with some of the issues that they had in the Kaua District. After viewing the tragedy that went on in Lhina and seeing the wildfires there, it just was soul-searching for me. We have had several fires in CAU. I watched them from my little eye and I can see the smoke and I can see the burning going on down there and it just causes lots of problems. I'm told that there's a lot of defective fire equipment in in CAU in perhaps other areas of the county and I'd like to participate and see if we can't set that right. and perhaps other areas of the county. And I'd like to participate and see if we can't set that right. Thank you. Member Glimba. Thank you, Chair. Yes, and thank you so much, Mr. Porter, for stepping up and doing this important volunteer work. And I promised you that together we could work on those issues that having your voice there at the Fire Commission was going to be very, very helpful in addressing the issues about the Fire Hydrants and as you said, the equipment and facilities in our district for the fire department. We will need to work with the water department, but I feel like if you're there on the fire commission, and then we can talk to the water commission. So thank you again so much for being willing to really take this proactive approach and stepping up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other member? Yes, Chair. Member Kergerwitz. Thank you, Chair. Mr. Porter, thank you for joining us. Love yourself, by the way. Vickson, occasionally from Sac and Sabre, KTA. So wonderful. Thank you so much for your interest in serving on this particular commission. The commission's really important. You do a review of the department's budget before it is considered by the Hawaii County Council. So in addition to taking a hard look at the operations budget, I also request that you ask to see what the capital improvement projects the CIP priorities are for fire. I bring this up because last night there was a text message that was sent about the personnel at YKS station, station two, not in the region that you live in, but important because these are folks that are on rescue specialists. They were being relocated to the high, high fire station because the building was deemed no longer safe for personnel. Many, many, many of our counties, fire stations are in such or condition. It's hard that we're able to sleep at night knowing that folks that put themselves out on the line to be there every single day to run through fires and save people in our community are having to call that their home away from home. So I hope that one of the first things that you request as a member of the Fire Commission is to get a briefing not just from the Fire Department, but our Public Works is building division to see how they are working together to coordinate getting our firefighter personnel into spaces that are safe. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. I appreciate your service to our community, I yield. Mr. Anaba. Yes, thank you, Mr. Porter, for being here. Just wanting to confirm, I know you live down in Co. And our fire commission meets every other month Usually alternating between corner and Hilo and wanting to confirm that you Intend and are able to make those meetings Yeah, I can rework my schedule around and We can I'll make sure that we have coverage. Perfect. Thank you so much and thank you for your willingness to serve our community, especially down in co-chair. I yield. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yes, Chair. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes so much. Mr. Porter, thank you. Yeah, love that salsa too. But I really do appreciate that you already have a focus with the fire hydrant in addition to what Member Gilemba mentioned. I would love to challenge this commission. There are a number of grant opportunities in rural areas to provide water. And so I would love to see members of this commission opportunities in rural areas to provide water. And so I would love to see members of this commission lean in a little harder to just see if there's opportunities to seek grant and funding using our role designation out there along with understanding the need for just better assets in that area. In addition to echoing Councilmember Kirkowitz, I think there is a need to take a deep dive into all of our fire assets that house all of our fire fighters and come up with a rating system of Goodfair poor and then start to really invest in capital improvement projects for our firefighters. And again, other sources of money, whether it's a bond float or our fair share contributions that are available to planning department. I think there are ways to really get some of these assets to help that they need. Looking forward to supporting your nomination to the Fire Commission and all the good work that you can do there that you have already identified. Thank you, Mr. Porter, I yield. Okay, any other discussion? Okay, seeing none. Well, thank you so much for volunteering. It's, you know, the RFIRE department. There's so much, there's the training, there's the equipment, there's the, clearly the relationship between the fire and the police and working together. And the other side of it we don't talk about is we think of fire but we do have the EMTs you know and they're so important to our community when people need help so just appreciate you're willing to sum the more people that we have we need people to build the capacity so we can you know really seek the grants and to really more than importantly to me is to prioritize and the attorney general of the state just issued their line of report this last week It's something that would be worth looking at because they looked at all the things the fire department was doing and the police department Was doing in the board of water supply and how it all came together and who was talking to him and it's a really good lesson in coordination Which is what I saw when I looked at that report so Thank you so much again, and we have a motion on the floor all in favor All right many opposed Mr. Clerk you have eight in favor and member kindly Kleinfelder excused Thank you, Mr. Clerk, you have eight in favor and number kindly client-felder excused. Thank you, Mr. Porter. Congratulations. Is there any testimony for communication 1033? Very none. Communication 1033 nomination of Charlotte Thompson to the Conor Community Development Plan Action Committee from Mayor Mitchell D'Aurote August 28, 2024. Requested the Council's review on confirmation. Motion to close file on communication 1033 and for the nomination of Charlotte Thompson to the council with a favorable recommendation. Mr. Clerk, we have a motion on the floor to close file on communication 1033 and to to the council with a favorable recommendation. Mr. Clerk, we have a motion on the floor to close file on communication 1033 and to forward to the full council of favorable recommendation for the nomination of Charla Thompson to the Cona CDP Action Committee offered by member Anaba, seconded by member Beegas. To the administration. I am pleased to nominate Charlotte Thompson of District 7 to the corner community development plan action committee. Shala has been a resident of Hawaii for over 37 years or for 37 years and is deeply committed to serving our growing community. As a self-taught photographer in the owner of Shala Photography, she brings valuable skills that will greatly benefit this committee. Her patience, attention to detail and creativity, position her to contribute innovative ideas for the community development plan. And if confirmed, she will serve a term ending and it looks like this is a mistake so I need to fix this. Not made 31st but December 31st, 2025. Your favorable confirmation is requested, Mahalo. Thank you. Charlotte Thompson, would you like to offer comments? Hi, council members, I am Charlotte Thompson and like she like put my Puma Kai said I've been a resident for actually almost 38 years now and part of the community. I have a real heart for for city and county planning. I think in another life I might have chosen that as something that I would have done as a career had I had I understood a little bit better what where my motivations are grow up in a community that was very well planned so that when I go other places, I appreciate good planning and I notice things that aren't well planned and my heart kind of goes, uh, when I look at the Conna community, we are in such a critical place right now that we don't want to make mistakes. We want to do the right thing for our community to make it the best that it can be. And that's where my heart is. I've got a pulse on the community because I'm photographing a lot of soccer kids and football kids and school kids. I integrate with their families and get to overhear some pretty interesting conversations about what they need in the community for their kids. And that's where my heart is. Thank you. Number of beigas. Hi, Charlotte. Hi. Nice to see you today. Thanks for being here. And thanks for verbalizing your heart. You have been a servant leader in our community and utilizing your skill set in photography to participate and contribute in so many ways which I love that you mentioned. That's become an avenue for relationship and having your finger on the pulse. You've raised two daughters here and have a number of grandchildren and are looking to the future of this place. And we are paying the consequences of a lack of planning over time and the consequences for lack of infrastructure. So I will be supporting your nomination today. I really appreciate in your filling out of this form. The first thing you wrote was you're very interested in creating open spaces and green spaces to beautify and serve the community as our town grows and we all know it's growing but that is something it has a topic that is front of mind for the CDP Action Committee and as they work with the Open Space Network and put those things together. So I look forward to seeing your vision for those opportunities come to play and I trust that that's your truest intention. I guess we both know we're still gonna grow and there's gonna be in fill and it's not gonna remain the sleepy little town that it was 38 years know, 38 years ago. It already isn't, but we really have to have appropriate planning with authentic priorities that align with green spaces and a place that our children's children's children not only could afford to live here but would want to. Right. So I'll be supporting your nomination today. Thank you for being here. I yield. Thank you. Any further discussion? No. Seeing none. We have a motion all in favor. Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, we have eight in favor and number kindly client builder excused. Thank you Charlotte Thompson. Is there any testimony for communication? 1034. Hearing none, Connecation 1034, nomination of Douglas Ume Motto to the Homakua Community Development Plan Action Committee from Mayor Mitchell D'Aurote, August 28, 2024. Request in the Council's review and confirmation. Chair, motion to close file on communication 1034 and for the nomination of Douglas Uemoto to the Council with the favorable recommendation. Okay. And motion to close file on communication 1034 and to forward to full council favorable recommendation on the nomination of Douglas Uemamoto to the Hama Kua CDP Action Committee offered by member Anaba, seconded by member, V.A. Gus, member Kimple. Well, first of all, pull my administration. Yeah, it's okay. Actually, unfortunately, over the weekend, I received an email from Mr. William Motel, who said that he had accepted a job, and because of that, he's not able to serve. So I will be submitting a withdrawal this afternoon. Thank you. Thank you. So Mr. Clerk, Should I put a fourth motion to withdraw the nomination? Chair prior to the motion to withdraw. If I could speak on the matter. To have a second. Oh, okay, there's a motion. Okay. So she wants to speak. Okay, please. Remember Lee Loy. Yeah, thank you, Chair. Just an offering to the administration. There is a Hawaii Revised Statute that actually allows for any individual who wants to serve in the capacity of a border commission, the opportunity to work with the employer. And so I know that this individual made a choice about their employment. I have no idea what other things are in play, but I never want to be. I never want us to discourage a possible candidate that because they're working that they would be unable to serve. And I'll be more than happy to share that HRS with the administration in an effort to find and fill these positions that they can't be penalized. The employer cannot penalize them for their willingness to serve. It's kind of no different than, you know, going to court and serving on jury duty. But I just wanted to offer that as an option. And maybe in your bullet ex there to talk to certain candidates. Because I know that oftentimes they're like, well, but I'm busy working when do they meet? So thank you for allowing me to share that. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, point of order, advice. What do I, so in the past, when the administration has determined or candidate, or not, I mean, he's determined that their unwilling weren't able to serve. We just asked the administration to draft the memo to clearly officially withdraw the nomination. So it's not to unintentionally have the person approved due to the time constraints and Ms. Bartolome indicated she be issuing that memo this afternoon. So Mr. Nava just needs to withdraw his motion and the matter would be disposed of off the agenda. Thank you. I withdraw my motion. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, a communication 1034 motion has been withdrawn. Is there any additional testimony for resolution 610-24? Hearing none, resolution 610-24 requested a director of information technology and the county clerk to improve the functionality of the county website to promote public access to the legislative process. Seek's improvements to better enable the public to view and 610-24 to the council with a favorable recommendation. Second. Okay, so Mr. Clerk, since I'm the author of the bill, I'm going to transfer this over to member Anaba to chair. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 10 p.m. I'm assuming Chair. There's a motion. Actually, Councilmember Evans, would you like to make the motion? That's fine. There's a motion. I mean, I'll accept it. Go ahead. All right. Move by Councilmember Lee Loy. And who was the second there? Councilmember Glenba. Thank you the second there? Councilmember Glemba. Thank you. So motion by Councilmember Lee Loy, a second by Councilmember Glemba to approve resolution 610-24 and 4 to Council with the favorable recommendation. Councilmember Evans. Thank you very much. Members, I'm asking for your favorable support of this. It's coming from a place of serving as state representative and looking at the effort put in by the public access room to really build a website that was very user friendly and offered information to the public that was really readily and easily available to them. And when I have this idea I called up Mr. Ubank who's here today if you'd like to come up to the to the desk here and asked him what he thought about the ability to develop something like what they have on the state's website And also I talked to the county clerk and asked him You know about putting something together that we put on our website that would really make it so easy for people to follow bills and legislation and resolutions. The introducers, the votes, where it sits, dates, click on it, you get to the bill. I mean, there's just so much that it was so easy to follow legislation that I really was hoping that that we could develop that transparency and easiness of the public to be able to access this. And they both have felt that it was possible. And so with that, I would like to turn it over to you, Mr. Ubank. And I think you've been working on it already. So please tell the council about your thoughts on this. Thank you. Absolutely. Council members, good. Thank you. Absolutely. Council members, good to see you all again. When council member Evans came and introduced this to the department, I've thought back and thought, you know, this couldn't be possible within the department without the support of the council in previous requests that I've made for employment or I'm sorry positions that I've requested. So I really want to thank not only council member Evans to put staff into this proof of concept. We've gotten that staff. We have a web administration staff on in-house now, which shows that the support is here. We don't have to go outside to get this taken care of. We can take care of it in-house. But that's thanks to the rest of the council here for our previous work. Councilmember Evans has also stated that we've already started and we have. But what we want to do, we've reached out, of course we've received Council Member Evans, concept and ideas, took that into account. We've also worked with the County Clerk staff and gotten ideas from that perspective. And not only that, I've reached out to some members of the public, friends, family, et cetera, who would commonly look at this information and ask, can you tell me where you would find this on the county site? Nobody really could. So this is an excellent opportunity to make this a transparency, this make these tools available to the general public and can be accomplished within our own staff at DIT. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Aya. Thank you, Councilmember Evans. Going, check in over in Hilo any discussion? All right, thank you. Mr. or Council Member Evans, this resolution. Just want to also suggest, as you are doing this work, that you engage in some community outreach and feedback on the website. I think in my time here at the Council, I've seen stuff that works for me, works for my staff, but then I talk to members of the community and it doesn't work for them. So I think there's a real need for some diagnosis here, directly with the citizenry, so I just encourage you to take some time to do that. Thank you. Mojalo, Council Member Kimball. Thank you, Council Member Evans, for bringing this forward. There's a motion on the floor. All those in favour? Affording, resolution 610-24 to Council with a favourable recommendation. Please say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8, aye. One excuse. Council Member Coney on the E. Klein filter. That brings us to the end of this agenda. So this meeting is adjourned at 2.16 PM, and the Finance Committee will begin at approximately 3 PM model.