Aloha, Kakahiyako. Welcome to the 14th session of the Hawaii County Council. This is a special meeting specific to our operating and capital improvement budgets the date today May 22nd, 2025. We're meeting here at our Heelow Chambers at the Hawaii County Building and To start us off this morning at the Decolon Pastor Ron Brab of Calvary Chapel Hilo to provide our invocation. Sorry. Father God, we thank you so much for your presence here. I thank you for these men, these women, their desire to really be a blessing to this community. We thank you that you put us here at Hawaii and Lord I pray that you would just pour your spirit upon them Lord that you would give them supernatural wisdom and knowledge of all the things that are set before them each and every day. In Lord that they truly would be a blessing not only to this island, but to all the islands. So Lord, again, reveal yourself to them, and lead them, and make them sensitive to you. So Lord, as they are a blessing to this community, and to one another, Lord, I pray a blessing upon them and to the whole state of Hawaii. So Lord, I just commit them into your hands today and your precious name Jesus we pray. Amen. Mala Noe pastor with that calling this meeting to order 902 AM. Mr. Clerk, roll call please. Councilmember Galenba. Here. Councilmember Hustis. Present. Councilmember Coguata. Here. Councilmember Conelli Kleinfelder. Councilmember Kirkowitz. Present. Councilmember Kimball. Here. Councilmember Onishi. Present. present customer Vegas Cherry now. Oh, cherry. Cherry now. You have a members present. You have core. Thank you. Would you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. With that statement from the public, please. Thank you so much. Chair, noting that we do have a couple testifiers in the Y-Mail site. We'll start there before coming to our testifiers here in the Heelow Chamber. So Kendra, if you could lead us off with your testifiers in Y-Mail, please. Thank you, Mr. Arasali. First, we have Cl Clarence Bayberg. Clarence will be testifying on Bill 32, followed by Barbara Bell, who will be testifying on the CIP budget and specifically at this time item 159.45. And third we have Randall Glick who will be testifying on communication 159.41. You'll have three minutes for each of your testimonies. I will be tiny so I'll give you a 30 second morning. Thank you very much and please reintroduce yourself as you begin Mrber your first. Hello, I'm good morning. My name is Clarence Bayber. My business is Island Urb's. I am my farmer here in Hawaii. I've been in Bokashi for the last 30 years for the Big Island. I see a dire need for our water cleanup here on the Big Island and it needs to start with overflow challenges and be prepared for them in case our sewage treatment plants fail like they did on the Wago. We cleaned up the ROI canal with this effective microorganism technology. We can do the same thing for the big island. We need to handle our sewage. This is our major pollution. We need to handle our sewage at source point because opposed to consolidating greater problems. All of these challenges need to be prepared for just like we're hurricane prepared. We should have Volkoshian Han in case there is a spill currently in the current system. We also need to restrict flow into the current system by establishing composting toilet, dehydrating toilets. There are numerous three-canister systems that can be installed in homes that are going to be very efficient, and then we are never consolidating our waste at all. And once we can get down to a number of people that are actually using the current waste system that is treatable. We can still use that system, but we need to wean off of any of these systems that consolidate our refuge. We definitely want to see our waterways cleaned up as well, just like on a wahu with an alwai canao. We want to see our reefs reestablish. We don't want people getting sick and ill from swimming at our beautiful beaches, which are currently polluted by human waste. This is almost a like a third world mistake and we need to take this challenge on hand and for a tenth of the cost or less, we will probably beat this challenge and it can be done very quickly because people can build their own systems They can be inspected monthly or annually to make sure that they're being effective We've also seen pool co a place that showed it's hurt many years ago It has gotten worse that seems to be a great place to start another one is Humbles in Town of Kailu, O'Connor. We have already started some projects at four seasons. Many years ago, did a great water cleanup with N-Hill and Ponds. There are current projects in Hilo now also in occupating waterways there for cleanup. We would like to see this implemented sooner than later. And again, save a lot of money, a lot of time, and not have a chance of an overspill in the next five years. Let's get there to it right now. And we can take care of this problem. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Weber. We appreciate your testimony very much. And as a reminder, we have Barbara Bell testifying on the CIP budget item number 159.45. Barbara, you'll have three minutes for your testimony. I'll give you a 30-second warning. Please reintroduce yourself before you begin and thank you. Okay. Hello. Excuse me. My name is Barbara Bell. I'm speaking on behalf of the Pueco Ferris Community Board of Directors in support of a 1 million CIP appropriation. Excuse me. First, I would like to thank the CDP South Cahalla Action Committee for unanimously voting to send the CIP letter request, which is in your packet and which Councilmember Hustis will be presenting later. Their support means a lot to our community and we've been working on this project in cleaning up the recovery for 12 years. So we love that they helped us out. We are asking that you approve the 1 million CNP appropriation for Revolving Fund to be used for community initiate and cesspool closure through construction of wastewater collection line in the Pueblo Co area, South Cahalla. This is an urgent need to address severe reef degradation caused by on-siteage systems. Trinity volunteers are working diligently on the clear recommendation from the counties, regional wastewater master plan for Puroco and other communities within South co-haul, which is was done by ACOM in last year 2024. It was clear, get the wastewater off of the reef and they suggested a new low-pressure sewer line. So you all know how important coral reefs are to our environment, our economy, and our culture. Home, there's over 7,000 species, 25% of which are endemic. They provide nursery grounds from marine life cultural sustenance, billions in tourism revenue annually. Pukos' reach health underpins for South Cajal of resorts. Moniquea, Western, Hapuna, Albert, Albert, Shmanani, Albert, and Fairmont working. So this is not just important for tourists and recreation. It actually sustains Hawaiian culture through fishing and collecting. That's a big deal. So coral coverage in Foucault has plummeted from approximately 7% 50 years ago to around 7% today and the number one stressor for the reef is wastewater contamination. Decades of scientific studies confirmed a trend, and urgent action is needed to avoid irreversible collapse before below the 5% threshold of coral coverage. So we're getting close. We don't have a lot of time. It's predicted within 10 years on the sleep. But there is hope. Nature can heal herself and work has also begun with another bunch of dedicated neighbors to harvest healthy corals that have broken off the reef. They're doing a nursery project. So we're preparing to get the wastewater off the reef and then to rebuild the this coral noob sheet. So the CIP request would launch a revolving fund. So this will help a pukou and pukou for reefs initially, but it is also for all the other communities that are in similar predicaments as us because the upfront costs are quite large. So we would like to form a community facilities district for Pueco. Once it's in place, the loan or grant would repay in a fund. So it's kind of a win-win. We're totally happy to lead the way to be the blazing path, whatever, but we do need your help. So we've raised this up. I'm sorry. Okay, my time is up. Thank you very much. We urge you to become a full partner, boss. Thank you very much for your testimony. And finally today from your White Maia site, we have Randall Blif. Randall is testifying on communication number 159.41. Mr. Blif, you will have three minutes. I'll certainly give you a 30 second re-writer when your time is coming close. And please reintroduce yourself before you begin. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, huh? Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak this morning. My name is Randall Galeik. My wife Susan and I are three dogs living in Waikel, Lowe Village. We've been here since 2021. Prior to that, I always thought that spread like a wildfire was just a fingery speech. With six months after we moved here, along with 12,000 other residents, we had to evacuate. I'm sure notice. The wildfire was spreading. Fortunately, we lived close to the Hulu evacuation road where we were able to get out. Let me state the obvious as clearly as it possibly can. None of us wants to be incinerated in our cars while in gridlock and white-glower road, panneal avenue or the Hulu evacuation road. And none of us wants to be displaced from our homes. None of our business owners want to see their establishment go off the flames. To the best of my knowledge here are the facts. From more than a decade in fact back to 2008, there have been discussions about building a second evacuation road. At that time the county's plan called this a very high priority to prevent the loss of life. Our previous mayor and the county promised that a new road would be built for as any new development. There has been a will continue to be new development but no road not even affirmative commitment. It's been determined that the village has a 100% higher risk of a wildfire than anywhere else in the US, even higher risk than Alina. Recently, Hawaii Public Radio Polish Historical informing us that Trump has eliminated funding for a wild-like prevention work around Wikelow's high-risk power lines. That is a big deal. At this point, no level of government has ever allocated any money for the second row. Recently, I attended a meeting of the Wikelow Safety Advocates. I was very disappointed to learn that the focus was to support Council and Hustasis amendment and that the project was married in political issues, funding issues and delays. Also that few if any preventative measures have been set in motion from lessons learned from the Lahain of. After that and after all this time a tragedy that caught the attention of the entire world, if this amendment is not approved lies our risk and somebody likely to be lost in next time. And still right now no timeline exists for commitment, funding or target date for completion of the project. This is what residents want to know. Very simply, we need to get the money in the bank in a written timeline. We have a real life, we have a real life or death situation here. Lahaina has served to raise awareness of the risk to people, pets, homes, and businesses. I don't think I can state the urgency for this anymore clearly or directly. Right now, the budget draft does not include funding for design or engineering for the second row. I ask that you approve this amendment and put the completion of this road on the fast track among all the initiatives the county is it. Mahalo for your time. Thank you Mr. Glick. We thank all of our testifiers this morning and Y-Man. Thank you chair. Those are all the testifiers we have at this time. Thank you so much chair at this time we'll transition to all our testifiers here in the Heelow Chamber all of which who are testifying on Bill 32 in some form. First of which is Aslan Chalker to be followed by David Foster. As in when you begin if you could just reintroduce yourself you'll have three minutes you can turn the mic on by hitting the green button at the base of the mic. Aloha Terry Naba, Vice-Chairone She and members of the council. My name is You're going to be here to test if I can. Aloha, Terry, Naba, Vice-Chaironee, She and members of the council. My name is Aslin Chalker. I'm grateful to be here to test if I before you all again. I'm a long time resident of Waikoloa Village. Today I'm testifying in support of communication 159.41 to amend Bill 32 draft two. First, I want to express my thanks to councilmember Houston for bringing forth this amendment. Thank you for coming to our community and listening to our pleas. Thank you for recognizing the urgency and giving 7,500 residents an opportunity and a fighting chance before inevitable disaster strikes. The week that my daughter turned one, we fled the mona roadfire under mandatory evacuation. Now she's almost five. She's learned to swim, started school, learned to write her name, but she's also learned to fear because as hard as my husband and I have tried, our anxiety has spilled over. And at four years old, she has asked more than once, mama is wildfire going to take our house. And I don't know what to tell her. One year ago yesterday, Governor Josh Green, former mayor Roth, H.D. Director Sniffin and other dignitaries came to Waikaloa Village to break ground on a new emergency evacuation road. One year ago, the community was cautiously optimistic. We were promised the road would be done by quote next year. And as we mark one year since that groundbreaking with nothing to show for it, I am begging you to not let another fire season pass without any action. Please pass this amendment and give the Waiklou community enough hope to allow us to take a deep breath for the first time in a very long time. To the council, Mahalo for your time and your service and your commitment to our safety and we are counting on your leadership and humbly ask for your yes vote on this amendment. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for your testimony. Chair, your next testifier is David Foster to be followed by Serena Hernandez. David, when you begin, if you could just reintroduce yourself, you'll have three minutes. My name is David Foster. I'm a resident of Waikaloa. And like Aslan, I'm speaking in support of the amendment to the budget to add $2.5 million to the Waikelowa arterial. I want to open by thanking Councilman Hustis for sponsoring this amendment and generally to all of you for giving it your serious consideration. the days, dark days of the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill was asked, would America do the right thing and come to Britain's aid? And Churchill responded, America always does the right thing after exhausting every other possibility. For the last two decades, administration after administration has stubbornly pursued every other possibility but the obvious one. A county-sponsored road consistent with its responsibilities for infrastructure and public safety. Today you have the opportunity to put those wasted years behind us by approving this amendment. You will have the enduring truly the enduring gratitude of the Wagonal community and the knowledge that you did the right thing in this critical moment. Mahalo for listening. Thank you so much for your testimony. Chair, your next two testifiers are Serena Hernandez to be followed by Matt Chaukert. Serena, when you begin again, if you could just reintroduce yourself, you'll have three minutes. Aloha, Chair Inaba, Vice Chair Onishi and members of this council. My name is Serena Hernandez and I testify before you not only as a resident of Waikolo Village community, but as someone deeply committed to the safety, resilience and future of Hawaii. I support communication 159.41 to amend bill number 32 draft 2 and begin initial efforts for engineering design and environmental review for Waikolo villages long awaited much needed second two lane arterial road. Our world is changing as we have seen in Waikoloa wildfires are no longer rare or seasonal. They are persistent, intensifying and increasingly destructive. And while this is a statewide, nationwide, and frankly global issue, this particular community faces unique vulnerabilities that demand urgent action. Since 2008, the YKLOA population at risk has increased from 5,000 people to 7,500 with new housing to accommodate over 2,000 new residents expected by the end of this decade. Our infrastructure has simply not evolved with this growth and has put a really dire strained on our residents. Investing in infrastructure is not just about prevention, it's about protection, preparedness, and peace of mind. While $2.5 million is a significant investment today, the cost of not acting is far greater than the cost of this preparedness. Every dollar we invest in prevention, including infrastructure, saves millions of dollars in disaster response and recovery. We've seen this firsthand from the recovery of Lahaina. I urge this leadership body to prioritize funding and assist in making meaningful progress to the development in Waikolo village. Let us be proactive and not reactive. Let us lead with foresight and not hindsight. Our community deserves to feel safe, to be safe, and to thrive in the growing in the face of growing environmental challenges. Mahalo for your time, your service, and your commitment to protecting our future. Thank you so much. Chair, your next testifier is Matt Matt Chalker to be followed by Bob Yonke. Matt, when you begin, if you could just reintroduce yourself, you have three minutes. Aloha, Terry Naba, Vice-Chair Onishi, and members of the council. My name is Matt Chalker. I'm the executive director of wildfire safety advocates of Waikoloa. We've met before, but today I'm here to talk about priorities. changed dramatically during a very challenging time when my wife and I became parents in the summer of 2020. We became parents during the worst viral pandemic in a century, while stuck inside our house, which is built on an old lava flow, surrounded by invasive grass, tucked well away from the county seat of a neighbor island, the Jusso happens to be the most remote landmass on the planet. To say we were isolated is an understatement. That long isolation, however, gave us a gift. The chance to form a unique and deep bond with our child during the most formative time of her life. We ask her often, what is mommy and daddy's number one priority? I literally did this this morning with her. Her immediate response is always to keep me safe. That long isolation also gave me personally a particular loneliness. While it's an absolute joy and pleasure to watch nearly every waking moment of a child's first two years in person, a distinct lack of contact with other adults did damage to my social skills that I'm still recovering from. An apology to anyone that's been caught up in that mess in the past couple of years. Punctuating the monotony of domestic life were two foundational events, a two foundational events that shifted my personal psychology and priorities further. First, the 2021 monorod fire that led to the evacuation of the village, and then the 2023 fires in Lahaina. Both are well-documented and you not be recounted right now, But for me, the experience of evacuating into traffic jam with a one-year-old and then watching more than 100 people burn to death in a similar traffic jam, very closer to a birthday, distilled, avoiding that exact scenario as my fundamental priority to protect my child. I will continue to pursue every avenue available to me to accelerate construction of this second road until it is completed. The first step in completing the road is committing money to it. That's what I'm asking you to do today. I'm asking you to demonstrate a shift in the priorities from the county. I began my long and frustrating experience of trying to get some answers on behalf of my kid back in August of 2023. We don't need to recount that whole experience, but trust me, that lack of social grace is well on display throughout the entire time. Throughout it, I was consistently told that the developers were taking care of it. The problem is, they've had 21 years and have shown up with nothing but broken promises and publicity stunts. They're just sick. I simply't believe them until they write it down and contractually agree to it. I am not alone in my concerns. You have the testimony from the community. If there's one thing in this quest to solve, it's my loneliness. I have many, many allies in the community and we are all asking for the same thing. Write it down. Put some skin in the game. The ideal scenario here is and always has been a public-public-private partnership crossing multiple levels of government. The problem has been a first-actor issue. The time is now, please write it down, nor press conferences. Mahalo. Thank you so much for your testimony. Chair, the last registered testifier we have is Bob Yunki testifying. Bob, when you begin, if you could just reintroduce yourself, you'll have three minutes. My name is Bob Yonke. I'm a resident of Waiklo village. Mr. Chairman and members of the council, we appreciate your consideration of Councilman Husses's amendment to add funding in the budget for getting this second road in Waik Lewis started. I wanted to put that budget item into perspective. Overall, this project is expected to cost somewhere in the area of 25 million. So what the councilman has asked you to do is to start simply funding the engineering work that's needed to get ready for construction. But I wanted to put that 25 million into context so that you could have an understanding of how we look at this. The 25 million is roughly the cost of the revenues generated from Waikolo village and white clow a beach on an annual basis. Our residential... The revenues generated from Waikolo village and Waikolo beach on an annual basis are residential real estate taxes are 14.5 million two years ago and the commercial real estate generates at least another 10 million. So what we're asking for is one year of tax revenues from our community to build this road to save the lives of our community. This project was adopted initially in the 2008 community development plan for the village. Over that 17 years since then, when this project was first flagged as a quote, very high priority for the village, this white lower area contributed somewhere between 300 and 350 million in tax revenues to the county. Assuming that 200 million of that is for operating budget, we've contributed about 150 million for capital investments, but we've not received 150 million of capital investment in our community. So for us to step up now and say that we're asking you to commit one year of our tax revenues to build this road, is we're not asking the rest of the county to pay for us. We're asking you to take our revenues over the next four years and commit one year of those revenues to making. 30 seconds project happen. And the other thing that the county should keep in mind is that if you if we have a major fire that destroys most of the village you're going to lose that $25 million revenue stream that annual revenue stream. And so the cost to the county you know it's going to take eight to ten years to rebuild this community if we look at what's happening in the lineup. The loss to the county, you know, it's gonna take eight to 10 years to rebuild this community. If we look at what's happening in the line, the loss to the county is far greater than the investment that we're asking you to make. So our lives are in your hands. Thank you so much for your testimony, Chair. We have one more testify here in the Heelow Chamber, Fran Cobb, testifying on Bill 31. Fran, when you begin, if you could just reintroduce yourself, you'll have three minutes. Hi, my name is Fran Cop, and I live in Heelow in Kailca. And I'm opposing the budget as it's being presented now. We spend everything that we take in and we come to this point as a result of many years, 2030, 2030 years of not really developing an economy that supports us. And is it ethical to award you guys a 27% raise last year when we are essentially insolvent? And during COVID, the money that the federal government gave us gave the county to help with COVID was spent. Okay, I don't know how it was spent, but now we're in a position where you guys want to award yourself $70 million to help you pay for COVID while you had it a paycheck. And the people, the small business owners who were forced to shutter their homes, their businesses didn't get this kind of support. They're not getting that. We need an audit on this budget. We don't know what our debtedness is. They're not transparent in the budget. And why is the Kale Kaha wastewater.A.W.A.W.A.S. Water Program, the maintenance? Why has it been deferred for so long that now it's an emergency? And it's doubled the cost with no explanation of why it's being doubled. This will lead to insolvency, which will really hurt any business owner, any property owner, because 80% of our taxes come from property owners. So you keep on pulling from the same people without developing an economy. We can't exist like that. And so this sets us up to become bankrupt, just like it happened in Stockton. And we can't go on doing this. We haven't, we're not auditing what we're doing and it's not transparent to the public. Maui, on the other hand, they have like, they're only spending 50% of what they're doing. So somehow they're able to, you know, be fiscally strong, but we aren't. So we're not, we're continue to do things that are not helping us for the future, for now. And we're going to end up becoming bankrupt. and then the creditors, the people who want our money are gonna take the things that are most valued and that's like the Armonica aquifer. We can't afford to do business like we're doing business. Thank you so much for your testimony. Before we end public testimony, I just wanna check in our Zoom room with the number of individuals in there. If there's anyone in there who'd like to provide testimony, this is your opportunity. If you'd like to, please unmute and let us know. Hearing none, chair at this time, those are all the testifiers you have. Thank you, Mr. Clerk, please read and build 31 and communication 158.16 and bill number 31. Jeff too. We'd like me to hold off on one 5 8.17. Yeah, we'll wait. So go ahead. Okay. Bill 31 establishes an operating budget for the county for why for fiscal July 1, 2025 to June 30, 20, 26. From mayor seeking all ameta dated February 28, 2025, transmitting for consideration the proposed operating budget for the county why for the fiscal year in June 30, 20, 26, the balanced budget includes estimated revenues appropriations of 937, 740, $40,741 represents a proposed 1.8% increase compared to fiscal year 2024-25. This is introduced by customer or kindly client folder by request. Public hearing was held May 22, 2025 on this matter. Communication 158.16 from Mayor Seeking, all I made it made May 5, 2025, transmits bill 31 draft 2. Reflecting an increase in estimated revenues appropriations of 15 million, $528,398 over the first draft, higher than anticipated or expected row property tax collections, and proposes corresponding funding adjustments. Bill 31 draft two establishes an operating budget for the county for the fiscal year July 1, 2025, due to the 30, 20, 26. Draft two includes estimated revenues and appropriations of $953,000.,000, excuse me, 903 million, 268,000, $169 introduced by a Consumber Connolly Climbator by request. And we have Communication 158.17, also known as memo number one, from Consumber Heather Elkimble, dated May 14, 2025, transmitting proposed amendments to the General Fund by increasing fund balance from previous year revenue count by $20,000 in increasing grants and on profit organizations expenditure count by the same amount for the 2025 to 206 by by granted a disbursement. Chair motion to approve bill 31. Moving back on to member Conelli-Eclimb-Felders. Seconded by Council Member Calimbo to approve Bill 31. Persuading to Article 10, Section 10-2 of the Hawaii County Charter. The mayor has submitted an amended operating and capital improvement budget on May 5th. Just a reminder to the Council and to the public that we have to amend draft one with the mayor's proposed draft two before we can discuss any of the amendments that are before us today. So Council Member Conelli Klein-Felder, motion please to amend bill 31 with the proposed draft to as submitted by the mayor via communication 158.16. So moved, Chair. Move back Council Member Conelli Klein-Fel seconded by council member, Kirkowitz, to amend Bill 31 with a proposed draft to as continuing communication 158.16. We do have our managing director and our finance director here today. So, we'll give them the opportunity to present the difference in draft two before we take that vote to amend two draft two. And I would like to take this opportunity the presentation that is about to be presented by the administration is containing communication 158.19. Good morning, managing director. Good morning, Chair Inaba, Vice Chair Onishi and fellow Council members. Thank you very much for allowing us this opportunity to give our presentation today. First and foremost, I'd like to present that Mayor Alameda is regrett, him not being able to be here this morning. He would love to be here. Any opportunity he gets to meet and just have this discussions with the full council is an opportunity he doesn't like passing up on. Unfortunately, we're making, you know, we're scheduling his agenda for three months in advance. You know, yesterday we were scheduling meetings for September. So unfortunately, you know, that's the predicament we're in today he has another commitment that he wasn't able to change. Going forward, I'd just like to say, I didn't know our first presentation was only preseason. So had we known that, maybe we would have brought the reserves in much earlier. Unfortunately, going forward, we understand. And we just would like to, you know, again, just start our presentation. So we have Diane here. Well, I'm sorry, I'm managing director William Branty. Good morning, Council Member, is Diane Nakagawa, Finance Department. We are happy to be here today. We thank you for our departmental budget reviews. We took a lot of that into consideration with our amended budget and a lot of discussions have continued with the department and we thank them for their hard work. But we are in a good place today with our amended budget and happy to share with you what we've added so. Do we have the uh can we put our part point? Oh sorry sorry I should no matter thank you. Okay I got it yeah thank you. As we know, we've been in this position now, this administration has been, we're in our fifth month. We're completing our fifth month and we've done our assessments and our evaluations and our stated goals when we initially started have not changed. You know, we're looking, you know, so much of what we notice with county facilities and county programs is, you know, the can has been kicked down the road. So our primary goal right now is relates to repair and maintenance, to existing facilities and infrastructure. Our second goal is, as stated, is public safety. It's first and foremost, our community, our citizens have to feel safe and they have to feel comfortable in their own communities. And you'll see that there's been some allocation for that in our proposed budget. And finally, we know one of the things I do during my free time, which I've noticed within the last five months have been much less. But my free time, I coach the Waikia tennis team. And one of the things in Hilo, this outside activity, I'm always concerned about what's the weather. And I can see we may be on the court, we have eight courts, I have 20 plus players on the court. And I'll look at, I'll often look at the horizon to see if there's a rain coming. Are the, are the clouds dark? Is the sky dark? You know, and I make assessments as to what we do at practice. Same thing we're doing here. You know, we're making a determination as to what the future is bringing. There's so much uncertainty right now with the federal government, but everything we're hearing from the governor and from the other mayors is the situation is manageable. You know we haven't been afforded or we haven't had any communication with the federal government which would you know cripple us and I think you know that that's our mindset going forward but we don't want to just you know sweep it under the rug. you know it's. So what we want to do is we're preparing the county for future years. And that's what this budget represents. The proposed budget is approximately $9.53 million. $953 million. I wish it was only $9, but $953 million. And of that, it's only a 3.5% increase over last year's budget. And that's the smallest increase we've seen within the last five years. And I think that's very conservative and it's physically responsible. and that's the term I'd like to use going forward today. We've had even though we're increasing the budget by 3.5%. It's only we've we're experienced we've received a 1212.7 million increase in our real property taxes. So that's a 7% increase in estimated real property taxes. And that's the offset with the 3.5%. Again, going forward, we want to be less dependent on the fund balance. So that's reflected in a decrease of $4.3 million in our fund balance. Again, this slide indicates the $1.7 million increase. And there's also a increase of $7.3 million, primarily due to the mass transit grants that we didn't, that weren't reflected in our initial submission. And the good thing about those grants is those funds can be utilized by MASH Transit, both for purchasing of new buses as well as operational. So that gives us a lot of flexibility with those funds. Everything, you know, they always say it's not how much water goes in the bucket. When you're trying to fill a bucket, it's how much water leaks out of all the pukes. And that's called expenditures. You know, as a... So we say it's not how much water goes in the bucket. When you're trying to fill a bucket, it's how much water leaks out of all the pukas. And that's called expenditures, as it relates to the county. So with that, our expenditures, we've had 50% of our proposed budget is related to salary, wages, benefits. And again, even though we have that significant expenditures with Seller and Roaches. We still have proposed projects for each Area which would benefit the county and our citizens. The project is a very important project. would benefit the county and our citizens. The which you know would benefit the county and our citizens. The primary notable expenditure is a transfer to ICIP of $10 million. Repair to facilities for Department of Public Works is $1 million and provision for for compensation is one million dollars and Our public safety expenditures is 633,000 some of those Some of those would be for example our capital improvement projects would be the pop-up law a new cover play court and the Honoka Park Restrooms and improvementsments, that's where Miss Kimball in District 1, District 2 is the Hilo Skate Park, Miss Kajiwata, the Wong Stadium Turf Improvements and the Kua'a Field Conferred Station and Concession, that would be District 3, the Isaac Hollywood Beach Park Improvements, HPP Master Plan Design, that would be District 4. District 5 is the shipment park, you know, fencing. District 6 would be the Pahala and Naleh who both field lighting, the Clarence Lomone Park, a new cover playground for that area. And District 7, Kailal Park, New Conferred Station, and Concession Stan, you know, at O.D.'s Airport, Kylo Park, and Rewruffin and Floring repairs in that area as well to the gym. District 8 is Kwanai-Eke Beach Park Conferred Station. District 9 is the the Waimia Community Center,-roofing and improvements and the Mahukona Beach Park Master Planning Design. So one million of the discussion review on recruitment and retention incentives are incorporated in that as well. So we've been in discussions with HR. We know we have a currently we have a lot of vacant positions and not only do we have a lot of vacant positions but we want to incentivize so that we can retain our good you know employees who are performing well and that's a million dollar you know expenditure for recruitment and you know incentives to address those concerns. Again, the second item of priority is our public safety. In the original budget submittal, we indicated an increase of three police officers for HOPE and in our supplemental, in our final budget, we identified three police officers for the PUNA district and you can see that's reference there. Also, you know, that's for police and then for fire, three clerk positions, one fire fleet and facilities manager and we're transitioning three part-time water safety officers to full-time water safety officers. Again, you know, briefly touched upon the federal funding update and I just want to say, you know, again, just re-emphasize that, you know, the impacts of the federal funding, you know, decreases right now are minimal. That would be the best way for me to describe it. But we do have three areas that we were hit. And like I said, they weren't significant hits. But first was the RSVP program through parks. But we've identified funds and we're continuing the funding, although we lost the original federal funding. we're continuing with county funding. The VISTA program was lost as well, those positions, but those positions were already funded by an outside source. And so they're paid through the AmeriCorps program. And then finally was the Coastal Zone Management positions at planning, but those funds haven't been permanently removed. They're just on a temporary hold. So we're hoping that best case scenario of that funding source comes back next cycle. A lot of what our budget is is predicated on, you know, responsible fiscal practices. And I think our finance director, Diane, has been doing a fabulous job, you know, managing the budget. You know, when we look at the Hoi County Code, the requirements for, you know, you know, fiscally sound budget under the white county code as well as the government finance officers association GF O A requirements, you know, Fiscaly Sound Budget under the Hawaii County Code, as well as the government finance officers association, GFOA requirements, you know, the provisions are to have a fund balance of between 5 to 15 percent. And this current budget is indicating a fund balance of 10.4 percent. So it's higher than the average, and I think it's again, fiscally sound moving forward. I'm happy to, we would be happy to answer any questions you may have going forward. Again, thank you very much for your time. I know this is not really sexy area of discussion or information, but I know it's important and you know we take it very seriously all you know my joking aside and so I'd be happy to address any questions you may have. Thank you managing director again we're on the motion to amend from draft one to draft two. Are there any questions or discussion on the proposed draft to Vice-Charmishi? Thank you, Chair. Just wanna say, I really appreciate all you guys hard work and how you guys are doing the budget, getting the needs that the districts need, right? And through the first hearing director you know, director, Nakagawa listened to all our concerns and also, you know, being back to administration to make sure that you guys had some changes for us. I really appreciate that. And also, you know, I want to say how he folks, how the administration and also the finance director, he saved the fundings, like the fundings, like getting the departments to not be wasteful spending. And to me, that's great on the administrative side. And that when I look at that, it's like we we're looking at the future, right? And down the road, and like, we don't know what's going to happen with the federal governments and so forth. But so we always need that extra cushion, right? And so I was, when I was on a concert, we always was thought like not to attack the fund balance, right? Because the fund balance is there for purpose, right? And so it was like you look within the budget and you do your cuts, you minus here, to plus here, and so forth. But I'm hoping that we continue that way, that it's operated. But I really want to say but thank you very much. And to that mayor couldn't be here. It would be great to hear him to say, give his speech. It's probably much more enjoyable speech. It'd probably be much more enjoyable speech. But thank you very much. I'll show us delivering it. Thank you, Vice Chair Onishi. Further discussion on the amendment to draft two. Council member Kaguato. Thank you, Chair. Thank you both for being here, and I know this is a lot of, it's a heavy lift to do all this. So thank you and for working on this second draft. Managing Director, you said that of the The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The but um our fund balance. Can you explain that a little? I'll just give you the tip of the iceberg reasoning, but I'll allow finance director to come in when I'm done. But historically, when we've looked at previous budgets, there's been a lot of reliance on utilizing the fund balance in subsequent years to balance the budget. And that's something we thought from a fiscal responsibility perspective that wasn't a sound practice going forward. So we made an affirmative decision to reduce that reliance on the, you know, the fund balance, and to be more, to be able to perform and provide services within our means. And so although we have, we've had an increase, it's a significantly less increase, 3.5%, than what the revenues have shown a 7.5% increase. So that's our attempt to be less reliant on the fund balance. And if you'd like to add that. Yes, thank you, Council Member, Haji Paral. So one of the things that we looked at is every year and that when we do the budget, there is fund balance in the current year that we use. And in looking at the trends over the years, and I think this has been something that the council has mentioned as well when we bring our fund balance report, how much is used in the current year. And it has been increasing. And it's been increasing as our revenues have been increasing. And what we're looking at as we propose a status quo budget early in the year, it is with, it is the intention to stay within the revenues that we collect. And in doing so, we would like to be less reliant on that fund balance carryover. So you'll see it in the budget, like last year, you'll see the 37 million. So the thought here is to become less reliant on that rainy day fund and be able to use the rainy day fund for times of revenue shortfall or other uncertainty items that may come up. So less reliant, rely on the revenues that we have and not continue to increase the current near fund balance, but actually decrease the current near fund balance to get us to kind of where we were maybe 10 years ago instead of you know, continue to rise to 37 or 40 million. Okay. Understood. That makes a lot of sense on a regular year. And I appreciate managing director, you're saying that you know, you've spoken to the governor and other mayors and you don't have any concerns going forward around federal cuts or you don't think they're going to be significant or you're not worried. But I don't know if you read the article on the front page of the white Tribune Herald yesterday about snap benefits. 40,000 of our people on this island, sorry, will be affected by the proposed tax cuts that the federal government is right now deciding on because of their their stamp benefits. This is food for our cakey. Food for our cakey, food for our kupuna, food for our veterans are disabled. And to not consider the fact that there is no way our state with putting aside $200 million extra dollars for their rainy day fund for potential federal concerns is going to help our 40,000 people on this island if they experience over a third of their food benefits cut every month and not have a plan for that and not say that when our revenues went up 7% that we're not going to put some of that extra aside but we're going to reduce our fun balance really concerns me. In addition, have you know our major wastewater projects coming up that are going to put us in debt with bonds for the next foreseeable number of years. So I just don't understand why we wouldn't be looking at this increase of revenue and you know I love providing these wonderful projects for our community that are so needed, wanted, promised to them and so I totally get it. We have to do that. But when we got this increase to not consider putting a portion of that increase aside, either in one of our rainy day funds, it just really concerns me that this could be major, major hurt for our island and for our people. So yes, I appreciate, you know, the projects, the funding, all the extras that are being distributed to the districts, but I am really concerned for what this could mean for our struggling families on this island. So maybe there's another plan that's not evident right here and I'd love to hear it if you're able to share how I'm not seeing it right here. Thank you. Thank you very much for the question. Council member Kajiwata. I'll rest assured as I alluded to earlier. the issue with the potential loss of snap benefits has not gone unnoticed. And we as a matter of fact, just this past Monday during our meeting with the governor and the three other, you know, county mayors, that issue was first and foremost on the agenda. It was priority number one. And we had a lengthy discussion with the governor regarding that. And the state does have a plan in place and the county is following suit. And you know we're not going to I think one of the one of the outcomes from that discussion was we really don't want to scare people. We don't want to bring fear to people's lives and we we, you know, in our previous testimony, we heard today about the impacts that the Lahaina fire has had on our Keki in the community. And so we want to be mindful of that. You know, we have these discussions, oftentimes they're behind closed doors, but you know, rest assured, it's, you know, like I said earlier, it's not being swept under the rug, but we just don't want to cause unnecessary fear at this point in time. And we see a lot of that because that's what sells papers. That's the media's job is to sell papers. So they want to incite fear because that's going to cause somebody to go out and buy a newspaper or turn on, you know, whether it be Fox News or CNN. And so, you know, unfortunately, that's what's, you know, transpiring in, you know, nationwide right now. So with that, there is discussions, high level discussions with the governor. The governor is having high level discussions with the president as a matter of fact, you you know, he flew up to Washington DC just, you know, the other evening to continue those discussions. And you know, we're preparing for, you know, almost like what's the old boy scout slogan prepare for the worst, but hope for the best. That is what we're doing right now. and you know, I'll let the provide additional number information more specifics as it relates to that year question. Thank you. And thank you Council Member for your thoughtful comments in question. I just wanna clarify, the fun balance reduction is really adding to our fund balance. I just want to be clear on what that means when we reduce it in the budget, what we're doing is keeping it in our fund balance. When we think of our rainy day fund at the county here, we look at our fund balance and our budget stabilization fund. Our budget stabilization fund in code has certain criteria around it regarding revenue shortfall and what can be done. So there's a balance there, but then there's also our fund balance. And what we're doing in this budget is not programming that, but keeping that in fund balance. As you know, if things come up during the year, that's available, if and so which the administration and the council work work together if in those times of need. So we're actually adding in this budget with the extra revenue instead of programming that with with the departments and all the other needs we've actually reduced that and that's actually in the fund balance. So it it is a place that we're looking for more reserves. It is our reserves account between our fund balance and our budget stabilization So I just just wanted to clarify it's not really a reduction It is keeping it within fund balance to use in our reserves in case something does come up So what is that number that you would increase? If that one is the 4.3 million 4.3 million Okay 4.3 million to help 40,000 people on our island isn't gonna go very far So that's just sorry the 4.3 million is in the amendment that is not the fun balance amount Okay Okay, but the fun balance amount is only 10.4%, I think you said, percent. Is that correct? 10.4. So the 10.4% is the general fund expenditures of our general fund expenditures. So if you look through that, you can see where our fund balance and our budget stabilization kind of walk you through the math the 188 million. Then we look that our 25 year adjustment of 70 are proposed 26 of 44 and that's the remaining 74 million is our fund. This is about what we've been at the 10.4 over the past. I mean, that's what you've kind of tried to keep. Yeah, well, we've been a little higher, but, you know, we've had other obligations in this year that I brought us to this 10.5. So basically, we don't have anything really extra than we normally would in any other year. Well, in the past, in last year and this current budget, we've added additional $5 million in budget stabilization, which our requirement is 250,000, which we've done over the years. But in order to build these funds and build this reserve last year, we did 5 million. This budget also proposed an additional 5 million in budget stabilization, as well as trying to keep the fund balance as high as it is by, you know, in this, again, in this amendment putting that back. But we're really just keeping pace because our overall budget has been going up as well and our revenues have also been going up. The percentage is also a different thing because it's based on the general fund revenue. The fund balance also has increased over the years, but the percentage is dependent upon what the general fund expenditures are and that's correct. All right. Well, as you can see, I'm a little bit concerned about some of our most needy folks on our island. So I appreciate that. I'll wrap up. I do appreciate all the work you're doing. And I just hope we continue to keep this in mind as we go forward and think about what we need to do to be ready. Thank you, IEL. Councilmember Crog it's... Thank you, Chair. Thank you, managing director, finance director, and to everyone that's really helped to pull this budget together. It's no easy task. You know, I just wanted to quickly weigh in on the conversation that we're having here about food insecurity and just cost of living here in Hawaii is astronomical these days, and so things like snap benefits and WIC are a critical lifeline for many of our local families just to get by. You know, when I take a look at the budget and everything that you have presented, the allocations are based on what we are mandated to do in the charter. And I think that the county is not meant to solve all problems and to be everyone savior. Don't want to disregard the fact that there are many folks that are in need of food support. So we have to think creatively about how we help to be part of the solution. We can convene conversations with food hubs, resilience hubs, local producers that exist here on our island and think about reaching out to Hawaii Community Foundation, local philanthropy, many of our wealthy manufacturers that live here on island to see if they can co-cure. I don't know if the solution is always for us to be drawing down our fun balance, but I think we as the county can serve the role of convener and find ways to pull all of that support together. Sarah Freeman within R&D is very connected within folks that work in ag systems. So again, looking at this as an opportunity to not just feed people who are needy, but thinking about how we really increase our food security and resilience, because that's really key at this moment with so many things happening nationally and globally, we really need to act with a sense of urgency to increase our security and resilience. Just really quickly, though, getting back to the budget, want to mahalo you for your investment in the Pune community with the addition of officers and lieutenants. This district is shared by Councilmember Canaley, E. Kleinfelder and myself, and we've seen an increase in population, but also criminal activity in the area, so we appreciate this additional support. I had a question you mentioned earlier managing director the loss of funding for coastal zone management and I wanted to just ask planning if you guys wanted to weigh in about what this potentially means for our county and also I noted in this updated budget the reduction of positions related to the vacation rental fund. And what exactly that is going to be meaning for us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, Bethany Morrison, a long-range planning program manager for the Planning Department. Thank you. Good morning, Bethany Morrison, a long range planning program manager for the planning department. For our coastal zone management budget, we received notice that we are not guaranteed funding come July 1. been making adjustments to the budget to accommodate for that. Within that budget there are six planning positions. There's also a budget for travel and equipment costs. And so given the fact that there's no guarantee come July 1, that we have those funds, we've been making those adjustments to the budget to accommodate for that. Bethany, these are state or federal funds. Those are federal funds. Okay. They pass through the state like many of our federal funds do and so that notice that we received was from the state office of planning and sustainable development. July 1st is right around the corner. So what sort of adjustments are being made internally and any current folks going to be impacted by this or repositions within the department? We had discussions with HR with this situation moving forward and it was unfortunate but we had to to initiate RIFT procedures, which are set forth in our collective bargaining agreement. So there have been some movement of personnel and positions. Nobody's lost a position. They've just been transferred to their previously held, transferred back to their previously held positions. And I may, and I misspoke in that, or you know, I wasn't, you know, I didn't communicate clearly. We haven't lost the CZM funding. Those funds have just been placed on hold. And like Bethany said, and you know, Plannis has been doing an outstanding job, you know, addressing this situation. And like Bethany said, there's just no guarantee that we're going to get the funding come July first. And so the work for the protection and management of our coastal zones, will that also be passed because of this positive federal funding? How is that playing out? We are still mandated to state law to do our SMA, our special management area, permitting and protection of our coastal zone management. So we just have to, of do it within our means and hope that funding gets restored. It is challenging to plan for something and not knowing if and when we might get that funding back. So that is a little bit of a challenge for us right now. Okay thank you for the update and then the vacation rental positions. I believe I saw a reduction of three. I'm I am less able to answer questions on that but we can get unfortunately our director is in a mediation meeting right now I'm not able to attend but I can don't worry see you alert. Yes, okay. I think it that information for you. Okay. Thank you. Question for R&D. I think I saw Deputy Ben here. A couple things noted in the budget. The elimination of a hybrid vehicle program. I recall a resolution this council adopting last term regarding the acquisition of various So I'm just a little bit more focused on this electric vehicle. So. So curious about this program being eliminated and then the it was noted the discontinuation of a business development section program reallocating $75,000. But I'm curious to know also what program was discontinued. Good morning, Dennis Lynn, Deputy Director for Research and Development. So the first question. So when we came in and we were starting to assess the costs of those vehicles for the hybrid program, it was initially supposed to be five electric vehicles. It was the hybrid vehicles and it's electric. And the cost was just not feasible. Based off of the proposal that was given to us. So we decided in discussion with finance to halt that project. Those funds were then reallocated in this current budget under impact grants. To answer the second question regarding the business development funds, the 75,000 was part of the AmeriCorps program. That was actually some training funds as well as a cost share that the department had participated in. How it works is that just be soft of how many AmeriCorps VISTA applicants come into our program, some of it is cost share, some of it is fully funded by the AmeriCorps program, but because the program got cut, those funds now go away. That's very helpful to know. Thank you for that. And then Deputy Director, did you want to weigh in and all about the conversation we were having earlier about food resilience and working within the county's ability and our means to just increase food security? Sure. So as you said, we do have a food systems specialist as well as multiple staff working on food systems and agriculture. One of the things that is being worked on is a food systems plan for the county of Hawaii and that plan should be completed in 2026. From there we would have some action plans on what can be done within our powers. I believe we also have an emergency food plan that was developed during and following the pandemic. I feel like we're in an emergency crisis situation now, so maybe we should whip out that plan and see what we can do to start implementing that. Okay, thank you. Thank you. I add to that. Absolutely. You know, you touched upon Council Member Kerquhoetz, you touched upon a very key point as it relates to government. And that's, county government should not be what majority of the population relies on. County government is here to assist, but we're not the primary provider. And you raised a good point, and the county is exploring, and we are actively encouraging and building relationships with our private partners, food basket, for example, or as a matter of fact, just by way of example, just this past Monday, there was a resiliency conference with that vibrant Hawaii put on a bit volcano and they brought delegates throughout the state. And those are the type of components, those are the type of resources that the county has to foster those relationship. And we have to promote because that's what we're gonna need to be successful, not only in times of disaster, but in times of uncertainty. And I agree with you. We are in a period of uncertainty and we do have to look to take an advantage of all this relationship building that has been taking place up until this point going forward. So thank you. Thank you, managing director. Thank you, Deputy Finance Director. Could you just weigh in a little bit more on the budget fiscal specialists that you are requesting this round please? Yes thank you for the question Councilor Corkowitz. Kind of a dual role in this budget specialist as you know we have a small but very mighty team that I must thank and appreciate Ted and Lisa for the work that they do that is our budget team of very mighty. Yes, very mighty team that I must thank and appreciate Ted and Lisa for the work that they do. That is our budget team of two. I'm too much. Very mighty. Yes. Very mighty team of two that does go through the preparation of the budget each year. So this is more in line to bring it to what we need in order to support this effort, but also where you're looking at our grant management system, something that's also added in the budget. And in order to do that properly and effectively, we do need that extra staff resource to not just get it started, but to be able to monitor and assist the departments. Now, you know, a lot of the grant management will stay with the departments, but the system itself, we're looking at still exploring, we have to go through procurement, but the system will be something that we will manage in finance and work with the departments in order for them to have all the information and the reports and things that are needed that we've talked a lot about both for those looking for grants from the county and also for grants that we receive. So that is the need for this budget specialist position. Great, thank you. And then for DEM, in full support of the additional abanav vehicle coordinators, and then the regulatory administrator is not to help become compliant with our consent degree with the EPA. It is. As you know, our administrative or of consent documents have a lot of different requirements and deadlines. And it really, it needs more resource and attention to be able to just manage all the things that the county needs to do and the deadlines we need to make. So that is to support DEM and the county in this effort. Great. Thank you. Also in full support of the Fire Department's fleet and facilities manager going to be a great support to the battalion chiefs that currently have to, you know, coordinate all of that. And then I see Charmaine back there. Appreciate all of the positions that are going to be created within parks and rec. Our folks work really, really hard to maintain the hundreds of recreational sites and parks we have on Hawaii Island. So definitely in support of that. And then managing director, just chair wrapping up real quick. Thank you. 100% agree with you. I think over time we have become too reliant on government. And so if there are ways in which we can build capacity and a sense of agency and community, I think we're going to be stronger and better off for it. Thank you, I yield. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Kimball. I believe Councilmember Gillemba-Header-Light-Ampire. Oh, okay. All right. I will start actually responding to Councilmember Krickford's question about the STVRs because Director Darrell and I have been talking about this a little bit. If you recall, the positions were added last year because we anticipated Bill 121 to pass which would have increased the revenue into the STVR fund. With Bill 47 going through one of the things that's distinctly different there is that those funds collected through 47 would actually go to the general fund. And so at some point working with Diane and Director Darrow will have to figure out if those positions actually end up in finance because they're now taking the registration or if we move the funds into the short term vacation rental fund, there's just some uncertainty. So the fact that they weren't going to be funded because we're not bringing in that revenue to the short term vacation, we'll open this why they are being taken out now. And there'll be some movement later on, but we're just not ready for it right now with this budget. I wanted to just quickly weigh in on this conversation that we've been having, taking to heart very much what you've said director about instilling fear, right? My husband who I love very much and you've met is one of those that reads the headlines of the New York Times and goes, oh no, the world is burning and I'm like, well did you read the article? And you know some of this with the federal funds, you know, it's kind of pass-pull for chambers. And there's a lot of robots still in the way. And I think it is important to be cautiously approaching this, understanding that nothing is done until it's done. And there is an intention to instil fear out there. And so I appreciate that sentimentality. And I also agree with Council Member Kirkwood's assessment that we, the council don't have to be, the county don't have to be everything. We don't have to solve every problem. In fact, I think if we do step in and solve problems that aren't technically ours, we set a precedence for us to always have to solve those problems. And we've seen that, right? We've seen that in the growth of county government since the county was founded. So I think that the cautious approach looking at where we fill the gaps and where we are more restrained is appropriate. I will say that on balance, you know, the reason that the charter requires us to have a balanced budget is because we should not be collecting anymore than we need to provide the services that were obligated to need to provide. I still think overall we are underfunded to provide the services at the level that we need to, because we have the biggest challenge of being a geographically large island with a relatively small tax base. And that is going to always be a constraint for us, to adequately fund all the, we need more fire stations than every county. We need more police officers than every county. We need more parks and parks, facilities than every other county. And yet we don't have the population that the other counties have. So I'm always inclined to invest as much as we can with the understanding that we do need a rainy day fund. We do need a fund balance for emergency situations. I've only got one budget amendment right now, but there are a couple of other things that I'd like to have further discussion with you about because I think we need to make those investments particular around the food security piece. Because I do think that is a way that we've built some infrastructure. We've built some capacity that if we fund it adequately, we can actually really make a significant difference. And that's largely thanks to the efforts through the Bill Bet. Better grant that we got. I think there's a lot we could do there that if we just invested a little bit more in, we could really make some significant improvements. The other area again is public is public safety, right? And I think that there has been that dedication to do that. And I think there's probably a few more things we could add there. So we do have another reading of this. And I hope in the inner varying period, we can have a deeper dialogue about some of those potential changes. Thank you. We'd be happy to have further discussions with you in particular areas. And what I just want to touch upon real quickly is, I've been fortunate to work with former mayor and defense director, Harry Kim. And I remember during the numerous emergencies that we had to respond to up its civil defense, his primary goal in objective, no matter what the disaster was or what the extent of the disaster was, was to ensure that our community had a sense of calm, a sense of confidence, and we were able to remove the fear. And that was always his number and priority. And I think when, although we're not, this know, this isn't a natural disaster, we are in, you know, a sense of somewhat, you know, uncertainty and, you know, there's fear in our community. And I think the primary purpose of government should be to install, to instill, you know, confidence and stability. And so I couldn't agree with you anymore on that. I'll just add to that. Thank you councilmember for your comments. I just wanted to add, you know, this much of it is very thoughtful in another way. And that is really looking at what we add and the resources that we have are available to do the things that we add. We have a lot of vacancies. There may be position needs, but we're looking at with the departments, through the mayor's guidance, on all those positions and vacancies, and are they appropriate instead of just adding positions to the budget? And when it comes to other initiatives being added, we really are taking a look at the resources the county has to effectively implement them. You know, in a lot of places we are struggling with those vacancies and there's a lot of, you know, staff members that feel a little bit overwork. So we really are taking a look at, can we do the things that we add to making sure that that is also thought about before adding anything else to the budget. Let me just make one more comment. Yeah, absolutely appreciate that. We've had some offline conversations about really evaluating some of our processes and procedures to see where there's opportunities to modernize change organizational structure to improve our ability to deliver with less. And I think that that's a valuable thing to do. Government tends to be like a hammer crap, right? And you just keep adding stuff on stepping back for a moment and taking time to take stock of whether or not you've actually organized things and have an infrastructure internally to deliver the most effectively and efficiently. I think it's important and I appreciate that the department has done that so thank you. Thank you Councilmember Gilembal. Thank you. So yeah, I mentioned as you director of the food basket and I think that is a terrific partner. We started a program with them to help farmers and I'm hoping we can continue that so maybe we can bring that up next time to help with that because I think it's an investment but it just multiplies. The other thing that I think we're doing around agriculture is working with UH and the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience now. So I think that's a really great way to break down silos and to leverage resources. Moving on to questions on this budget. The other fund that we have that we put money into is the disaster and emergency fund that was created, I think, by the charter not too long ago and we put five million into that as well. I was wondering what number and what the balance is on that and also what would trigger us or allow us to be able to use that whether it would have to be some kind of like declaration of emergency or if it would be what a political emergency qualify to be able to use that funding. Thank you, Council member. Um, for the question, the fine balance on disaster emergency fund is 16.7 million. Um, I don't have the exact language in front of me, but we can quickly pull that up today during that time. I don't think it's a declaration, but there is, there is language that outlines a criteria in which this funding would be used and we can definitely share that with you. Okay, thanks. Yeah, so that's like another way that we're not necessarily, although we say we're a balanced budget, we actually are putting money away to help with things. It's just that we're, we are required to do a balanced budget, but it doesn't mean that we're not thinking about the future. I just wanted to say that because there was a testifier that had that I think is reading our balanced budget requirement to be that we're just what is that like living by the skin of our teeth, which is not necessarily the case. Thank you for that. I did have one question about other miscellaneous, there's a replacement fund reserve which has funding, it's sewer fund and housing fund, and I'm just wondering what that is. I didn't really notice it before. Consumer, do you have a page number? I don't know that there are page numbers on this. So it's the last page that's like this before it turns into the last horizontal before it turns into vertical. If you would allow us a few minutes we could we could definitely look for that. Sure. In the interim section 10-17 of the away county Charter speaks to the disaster and emergency fund, specifically subsection B if anyone wants to see the permitted uses. And there is a, we will continue to add to that fund until it hits 20 million dollars. So we are getting close that, it's after this question of the administration. If additional 1% is going to be added. We're going to need a lot of more time too. Okay. Councilmember Gallimba, perhaps we can come back to this. Is there any further discussion on draft tool? Councilmember Houston. Thank you, Chair. I'm a Hall of Management Director. Director of Finance. Thank you. And I also want to thank our budget team, Administrator Shrei, and Specialist Tata. So thank you for your work on all of this and the effort that you put into it to bring it before the Council. So Mahalo, Mahalo, and me. A couple of questions already been asked about, kind of tracking on the federal side of things. So I appreciate I appreciate those questions and watching that as it unfolds at the national level. I know the director you're looking at, other things, but I do have some questions for you too, so I don't want to distract you too much. I'll start off with a managing director if that's okay to speak a little bit more broadly on requesting additional positions across the board for public safety, all these different avenues. And I was just wondering if you could provide just an overview of our current status of positions regarding vacancies and now we're requesting 30 new positions and how that kind of folds into the mix of the challenges we have within our hiring process and the work you're carrying out at the administrative level to kind of add into that complexity of things. Thank you very much, Council Member Huesius for that question. You know, one of, and you know, I made representations to this body previously when we did our draft once a middle, you know, the budget and it related to the fact that we have approximately 600 or so vacant positions within the county and it's very concerning to the administration so much so that you know how we made a special task force, HR task force and we've been meeting you know not as regularly as we would have liked but we've been meeting throughout you know this period of time from our previous submittal and you know we've had specific information provided to us from the HR director as it relates to, you know, approximately 100 and so unfunded positions, you know, a couple hundred positions which are currently vacant. And I think what we've identified right now going forward is that if there's a specific need for positions within the department, it's incumbent on the departments to submit their request to fill to the HR department. And, you know, and just, and we're not blind to the fact that, you know, there are some positions that that maybe the PDs haven't been updated in nearly 10 years. And that there may be some requirements for the PDs which are outdated and those restrict or inhibit our ability to recruit for that position. So we're going through that process. We're trying to scale that process down. We're trying to scale and expedite the hiring, the duration it takes to onboard our employees. That being said, not all of those positions are what we identify as possible, critical need-type positions. And what this budget represents is the creation of positions that would probably be more classified as critical need for each department. Maybe they don't have a particular vacant position that we could reallocate to cover the service or that job function. So our proposal is we've considered those type of external impacts. And we've looked at possibly reallocations, movement, and the like. And at the end of the day the positions we we identified as creating our you know Like I said critical need type you know positions Thank you appreciate that thank you managing director I'm like I switched over to the opioid settlement monies. From my knowledge on this, we've had challenges with the disbursement of the county from the state of the opioid settlement monies. We have made some progress in either acquiring our share in that. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. Okay. I can actually respond to that if the chair would like me to. Okay. Can I also add that are departments that are not here are also monitoring. So if there is a question that comes up, they'll be right and happy to get here in a in a few. So. Okay. Thank you. We can put it in that one for now then. In regards to the retired senior volunteer program with parks. Just just looking for just a little clarification on that. And I know I was grateful to attend the celebration, the event, the luncheon with fellow council members earlier this year. That program's entirely being cut at the federal level, so we're kind of shifting a little bit within the department. What does that look like internally for you? And do we have to scale it down a little bit? Okay. Good morning, Charmeen Felipe, business manager for Parks and Recreation. So yes, AmeriCorps decided to not fund the Hawaii County Program. This affects the next three fiscal years. That's the cycle of the program. But we do have county funds that were already kind of the matching to the federal amounts. All four staff members were county-funded positions. This past year we've had two retirements and so we have two staff still on board and we are putting the hiring on pause for now to fill the other two positions until we get word, you know, if we qualify or if we get selected in the next cycle, then we can boost up the staff as well. But for now, the program will run at a lower capacity. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Holi. I appreciate that. Thank you, Charmin. A question for Director Nakagawa, then. Thank you. If you could, you know, one of the large decreases our debt service fund, And if you could explain the adjustments that were made to get to that level of a decrease, but then also, I think we're also planning for, probably an uptick on that, I would imagine, with some of the larger projects that we're anticipating. So what might that look like kind of going forward? Dipping down $7 million. So, what is that, what is that doing now to us and all those adjustments? Thank you, Council Member Husses. I really appreciate the question and the opportunity to talk about this particular area. You know, when we did the original estimate in March, we were in right in the middle of our bond issuance, which was authorized by council last year. And during that time we were still going through the different financing options that the county has in order to issue the $150 million. And so one of the things that we looked at and worked very closely with our financial advisors on the best approach is we did a 25 year amortization instead of a 20 year, which lowered the debt service in the current year. Now for a project of this size and magnitude and the duration of life of the project, this was very appropriate to do for the 25 year amortization, where we can do the 20. We will continue to do so just to minimize the long-term debt. But you are absolutely correct. We have been reviewing and analyzing the specific wastewater improvements that are necessary and mandated, and it will require along with our other county needs an additional issuance of debt over the next several years. And so one of the things we have done is program out based on today's schedule of financial needs in these projects when we would issue additional debt and how by how much. So we've looked at a schedule of issuance over the next five years, and we've looked at what a debt service could be. Now there are many factors that could come into play to what that would be, the interest rate that we have, the amortization length, and how much we intend to borrow at the time. It's not an easy exercise, and I would say that, you know, I would give you these numbers but caution that many factors can play in the final numbers that we do have. We also have to be very careful not to issue the debt too early. So we've been working very closely with our projects to know the timing and our spend rate that we're going to have. So we shouldn't be borrowing what we're not able to spend in the three-year time requirement of the debt. So one of the things, like I mentioned, we did a 25-year amortization, which would lower our debt service for next year. We went ahead and programmed out additional issuance over the next five years based on our needs. And our debt service could increase. We're looking at 26, 27 potentially to 81 million. Sorry, 81 million. Again, thank you. Again, many factors could be included and be happy to walk anyone through the analysis that we have in the information we have available today. 81 million, 27, 28, 93 million. It could be a little lower based again based on amortization and potentially between 94 and 101 million in 28, 29. So these are number, you know, these financial models that we've been working on and estimating our debt service is something we have been continually evaluating over the last year. Knowing that we have significant obligations coming up and this debt service is a significant expenditure that we will have to manage in our budget. And let me just let me profess that by just saying this is if we're going to continue to look for other funding sources, right? We would go after that. This is this is looking at if the county would have to fund this through our geobonds. Yeah. Yeah, so it could decrease if we find other funding source. And if the amount changed. Thank you, Director. Manager Director. I may have just had also, you know, coincidentally, we just had this discussion yesterday with the Director, Amsegawa. And you know, he brings such a wealth of knowledge to, you know, to our administration. And the discussion we had yesterday was, and I'm just going to analogize it to, when you build in a package home from HPM, they'll set specific times where the homeowner will have to pay, maybe during the completion of the foundation, or the installation of the roof or or the completion of the framing. Those are points in time in a construction contract in which we have to make a payment. The owner has to make a payment. And Diane has been very mindful and has been very instrumental with us going forward as to maybe from a fiscal standpoint, we have extended the time in which the roof is going to be completed. The wastewater treatment facility or the framing will be done because what that does is it. It allows us the opportunity to take advantage of time before these higher payments, loan repayments will have to be made because we don't really oftentimes we don't make payments on some of the items until we take the draw. And so Diane has been and West have been very instrumental in ensuring that we take advantage of the time, you know, benefits associated with that. Thank you, managing director. And then if I could pivot back to the question on opioid settlement monies, thank you, Deputy Director for returning. Good morning, Dennis Land, Deputy Director for Reci certain development. So could you repeat the question very? Absolutely. Thank you, Deputy Director. So it's really just my limited experience kind of on the private sector and the nonprofit area about the challenges we've had receiving the county share and the opioid settlement monies. And if that, if we've made some progress and get in that allocation for the county. Yeah, so thank you for your question. And so we actually just got a check from the state regarding opioid settlement funds last week. Okay. I'm waiting for the dollar amount from my office to get back to you guys on, but the county of Hawaii gets approximately 18% of the total pot of funds that the state gets. And as of April 1st, 2025, the county anticipates approximately 3.8 million through 2038. is a slow process of getting all the funds to the county anticipates approximately 3.8 million through 2038 is a slow process of getting all the funds to the county but in this fiscal year 2526 it's gonna be 1.157 million so 1 million 157 thousand dollars last week's Check them out was 925,000. Last week's check-em-out was $925,000 that we got. Our department is working with the mayor's office through executive assistant Aaron Simura and Yoshi, in my office on the RFI initially, to just gauge what the capacity of our community is in terms of what the alaboy uses for the opioid settlement funds are. It's a very exhaustive list of what it can be used for. It's about four pages worth of alaboy uses. So they're working through that to figure out what kind of uses we want to see as a county. After our RFI goes out, then we'll look on drafting the RFP. Thank you. Appreciate those details on that. It just seems that we've had my limit experience. We've had challenges getting the money here to the county in the past, and maybe I'm wrong, but so what steps can we take to kind of ensure that this is kind of a in total of the duration of the funds kind of last? Yeah, so the difficulty was because we never had an official document with the state to get all the details into one place. So this year we were able to amend the MOA with the state to get everything on paper indicating what the percentages are, how it's going to be dispersed and whatnot. So we actually have that document signed now and that is just a matter of dispersing the funds as they come through the state. Thank you for doing that. Appreciate that. The last question I had chair if you if you don't mind, is Councilmember Kirkowitz asked about the hybrid vehicle program. So this kind of refers to R&D a little bit, but it's a bigger question to the county at large because we are, so we're seeing that kind of sunset there for R&D, particularly with the hybrid vehicle program And from just the brief knowledge and conversation I had is we have we've gone after over time specific grants for specific vehicles for specific departments. So those vehicles are very much tied to more or less that department. So there's limited use for some of our vehicles across the county. Maybe it's only a park's vehicle, and then DPW needs a vehicle, but we can't use it, or whatever the case may be. So really the question is, revisit this idea of a county fleet of some capacity of some sort, and then maybe pushing to that model of electrification. I don't know, these public conversations are probably happening at R&D side for sure, because we are seeing this jump and increase and needs for fuels, because our fleets are driving everywhere. Cars are going everywhere, maybe because we look at animal control, they have to drive all over the place. We have some of these limitations on our county vehicles. And then having come back for new vehicles every couple of years because we've we've run them into the ground. So just trying to see and just a general question about do we have any kind of projected plans for county fleets, how we how we care for vehicles, how we regionally use them or whatever your thoughts are on those. And happy to hear any of those. Yeah, so I can't speak about the county-wide fleet initiative, but I can talk about what the current limitations are of having a county fleet that is electrified, is that we don't have the charging infrastructure. And so currently there's state has monies from the federal government under the Biden administration for the Nevy charging stations. So the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Act provided funds for each state to build fast charger charging stations at selected locations across the island. Right now we're going through the initial phases of getting a MOA with the state to do that. There's still no conceptual planning phases working with Hawaiian Electric and the State Department of Transportation on those. In terms of our county facilities, it's working out how many charging stations do we need to sustain a large fleet that we have and it has to be all across the island, right? So we do have a contract with the Stamley Partners to look into proposals on installing additional charging stations, but until we get to what the larger scale of that is, we won't know what that costs and how we can lay that out. But I'll let Manning Director and Finance Director talk about the larger fleet capacity as a whole. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Deputy Director Lin is correct in that, know as we assess the situation with Transitioning to electric vehicles hydrogen vehicles it it came you know abundantly clear that you know when we did the cost benefit Analysis the cost associated with the infrastructure needed for a electrified you program within the county was going to be astronomical. And estimated amount of over $200 million. And monthly. Monthly. Monthly. And so we just, Mary Al, you know, assessed that and we just didn't think it was a prudent decision to continue with, you know, moving down that road. So we've also had discussions regarding hydrogen, you know, hydrogen vehicles and, you know, that again, it's a great resource, it's a great alternative source, but we don't, the information that's been provided to us at this instant point in time is maybe that's a future type of resource that we can utilize down the road. And so, you know, hydrogen, although it is there, it's not going to really meet our immediate needs. And so what we're really looking to do and what really looks attractive to the county is to move in the direction of more hybrid type vehicles in which the necessity for charging stations or our lessons are demand on fossil fuel. You know, for the fuel consumption, the gas is lessened as well. So that looks like an area in which we're going to be, you know, moving forward with as far as a future of vehicle purchases. But we'd like to see that, you know, right now, mass transit is bringing in four buses. But again, four electric buses, but then due to the del, you know, as to the area they can service, it's only going to be limited to Pauha, you know, that area. So, you know, these are concerns that we have, you know, often what we do is that cost benefit analysis and, you know, moving forward, there may be some moving pieces in regards to that situation. Thank you, Manager Director. Real quickly, Councilmember, one of the things that we've also been working on as we've talked about is the utilization of technology. So through public works, there is a fleet management system that is working on being implemented just to get a handle on a handle on these types of, you know, looking at the regenerating reports and age of vehicles and vehicle utilization, just to better be able to understand our needs and prepare for them more accurately. Also that the idea of a car pulling type system for the county has been discussed and that was actually the intent of this. And I'm sure it's still Something that we would be considering for those departments that only need vehicles every every once in a while So a couple different things just wanted to make you aware of Thank you so much. Thank you chair. Are you? Thank you? Councilmember Kimbo. Yeah, thank you Just a minor point of clarification around the opioid settlement the MO MOA that was finally signed, the state gets 85%, we get the counties as a whole, get 15% of the opioid settlement funds of that 15% we get 18% as Deputy Director Lynn said. So, but what I will say is that that is, we're actually kind of distinct from most of the other states across the country in getting that small of a percentage. That's largely because we don't manage health care within the county and many other counties do. But it is probably something we should consider discussing further about getting a larger percentage of that because at a meeting we had in DC we are significantly lower than most of the other states in terms of the amount of money going directly to the counties. I will say that the state has issued some primarily through the Fentanyl Task Force and our county through that entity and through that partnership is really leading the way on the Fentanyl Response, particularly with the Narcan distribution, the education pieces, the connection, they really embedded themselves in the community and built those relationships. So when we did a survey across the four counties, we are really leading the way, but it's been coming from the state's portion of the money being directly funneled to entities in our community. Council member who's just had make me think of one other question, have we signed the contract yet for the Healow-Waste Water Facility? We have. Yes. And so we are the have there been any changes to what the expected cost of that is going to be or we still said at this time that we have not had any changes in the contract and the NTP was issued in February. The NTP. Oh, and the notice supersede. Right. Okay. All right. Thank you for that. Thank you. I can't remember a kindly. Thank you, Chair. Dan. Thank you very much. Thank you. You're welcome. Mr. Brade, thank you very much. You're welcome as well. What I appreciate is you listened to each and every one of us. You listened to community. You've had meetings since the beginning, since Mr. Almeen has walked into office. You have made changes in the budget that directly affect each and every district. And you've listened to each and every one of our constituents, you've listened to us and you've made changes that are appropriate that fit within the scale of what we have as far as real property taxes that go in the direction the mayor wants to go and there's been action, there's been movement to date and I appreciate that. So thank you. Thank you. You know, we heard daily from Mayor Alameda. And the point is called geographic equity. And that's one thing he instills with everybody throughout the administration. And I think the community appreciates that. We ran on that political point. And now the community has seen the effects and the commitment to that. So I appreciate hearing it from you because you represent an area that oftentimes is underserved. And so for you to comment and you know comment us for doing that, it means a lot to us. So thank you very much. Thank you. Ayo, Chair. Ayesha, Onishi. Thank you, Chair. Just talking about positions, again, I just wanted to go and work here where, you know, I always took the budget and talking to their Nakagawa about thinking outside the box of how we can get more positions or field, right? My question is, I don't know if you folks know this, I might have to go to HR, but when there's an already existing position, that is not failed. What is a timeline of failing that position? And what is like, who is the most responsible agency, I that is doing the process? For example, say Parks maintenance had a position and it was not a field. To me, it's an existing position, there is already a PD and everything like that. Why can't the department of HR go out? Well, our main HR opens it up, gets the applicants, right? Sends it to P and R. Their HR, it does the evaluations and picked the qualified person and boom, move the people forward. May I respond to that? You were there before. Thanks Vice Chair Unishi. It's a process that has been recently had to be revised, the hiring process. I'm sure everybody's familiar with the audit that took place several years back and, you know, we're not pointing finger, we're not blaming anybody, but there were some concerns raised by the county auditor as related to the hiring process. And so the current situation now is in order for a department to fill a vacant position. The first item that has to take place is a request to fill needs to be submitted to HR. HR gets that request to fill. They evaluate it and then they forward that. So no, it's an existing position. So what do you got to evaluate? Is there, right? They're're evaluating as to whether or not, oftentimes it's almost like a checks and balances. There may be some misunderstanding, there may be some requirements that are missing in the request to fill. The PD may be outdated. And so that is the component that's the necessity for that document to be submitted to HR, because that's what they do. They do a quick vetting of the request, and they make sure all the ducks are lined up, all the eyes are dotted, all the teeth are crossed. And then that document gets submitted to me, and I review it. And then once we're completed with our review, I believe there's a physical component, that's prior to the request to fill. And it goes back to the to HR and they proceed with the recruitment. And the initial recruitment is we have to run a ad, you know, we can get it listed on Neo-, we run an advertisement. And then the proposed applicants submit their information and though that information gets vetted by HR, their recruitment division. But I thought now when they apply, their application is already processed to see if you're qualified or not. There's two parts to the application. The general application requests information regarding general applicability to form employment with the county. And then each specific job has what's called a supplemental application and those are questions that are specifically addressed to the performance and the duties, for that particular position. So an applicant, although previously, they may have filled out the general portion of the application as it relates to each specific job, then those supplemental questions come into play, and those are vetted separately. And like, direct and I, we talked and then you mentioned to me about having positions, certain positions that you needed. So you folks know that position, what kind of qualifications and so forth that that you need. And so now, and it's a new position, so you're going to request that to HR, then they're going to do their investigation, they're going to look at, I guess, nationwide, to make sure that this isn't a position that's been someplace there and this and that. But to me, if the department has what they want, what they need, that position, we should process that faster. And get it done because we also talk with the director about thinking outside the box, which is giving incentives. It's great you folks have that. But? But like also you like Kauai, they don't pay their medical, right? To help getting more workers. And we talk about how West Hawaii are not getting enough, like applications. And it's because of the cost, right? Also, we got us a looking at, and I mentioned this time and time again, childcare. We have young, you know, parents that cannot work because of childcare. So we as government, we've got to start looking at doing that. The hotels on the west side, I understand at least one of them is doing that already for their employees, right? Because they see that as a problem. So they want their work as a company, it's because of their young children, they don't want you to watch or it's cost them too much, that that's why they're not coming to work. It sounds like you've been secretly attempting our task force being in the park. Because those are three of the specific issues and areas that we have been dispossed. Oh, for real. And we are wanting to address and they are points of, you know, there are priorities. You can see in this budget, we've set aside a million dollars for recruitment and incentive within you know for employees because you're right. childcare is an issue and we would love to be able to provide childcare for our employees But unless you initiate that discussion, you'll never get done. Right. You know and same with the medical you know the cost for medical insurance That's good discussions. Because then too, you know, we talked about the fund balance, but because of all those positions that is funded, that accumulates to the fund balance, correct? That is correct. Yeah, and so I remember back then when we were in 2008, we had to unfund a lot of the positions to even balance our budget. So this is something reversed when I'm coming back my first year term. We have more and we get more money, but it's really interesting on how this budget, but I really appreciate, like I said earlier, on how you folks are working, especially you director, Naka Gow, thank you. Okay, I yield. All those in favor of amending bill 31 with the contents of Communication 158.16, which would make it draft two, say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries, eight aye is one excuse, Council Member V. Agas. Let's move on to amendments. Mr. Clerk. Nothing for me to read in council members may make their motions. Thank you. As in order of the memos. Ms. Kimball. Thank you, Chair. Motion to amend Bill 31, draft two, as amended with the contents of communication. One, five, eight, point one, seven. We'll be back, Council Member Kimball. Seconded by Council Member Glimba to amend Bill 31, draft two with the contents of communication, one, five, eight, point one, seven, Council member Kimball. Yes, thank you, Chair. If you noticed the other day when we submitted the report from the ad hoc from the ViVi grant program, we came out $20,000 over the 2.5 million. As we were going through the list of applications that we had decided to fund based on the criteria, We got to the end where we were just what were we 30,000 shy. The next in the list was a $50,000 ask for a program that I think we all really support right now, food basket, and so we decided to go ahead and request that that program be funded and then put forth this budget amendment to just cover that gap above the 2.5 million. So I have discussed this with the finance department and have their approval. I don't see director here anymore to affirm that, but they were comfortable with that budget amendment. So ask for everyone's support. Thank you, Vice-Giarn, Shiong, and Edmund. I'm just going to make a comment where I'm not going to be supporting this because then we're not like being physically sound where we're keeping within our budget, and we're going over budget. And we do expect our other departments, well, or we depend on our administration not to go over budget. And so I would recommend that if we wanna increase that other 20,000, it comes out of the Council's services budget and not from the fund balance. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion on the amendment? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Seven, aye. One excuse. Council Member V.A.G. One, no. Vice Chair O'Neill, she, the budget is amended. With the contents of communication, 158.17. Council Member Calimbo. I am. Thank you, Chair. I brought forward this amendment at the request of the fire chief, but he's let me know that it is not required. So we would join this amendment. Thank you. Thank you. Any other amendment right now? All right, seeing none. Can we take the vote on Bill 31 as amended? On the motion to pass Bill 31, draft two, as further amended on first reading Councilmember Galenba. Aye. Councilmember Houston. Aye. Councilmember Coguana. Aye. Councilmember Cullin, Kleinfelder. Aye. Councilmember Kirkowitz. Aye. Councilmember Campbell. Aye. Councilmember Oñishi. Aye. Councilmember Villegas. Cherry Nama. Aye. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I Bill 32? Hearing none, Bill 32 relates to public improvements and financing of their out for the fiscal year July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 from Mary C. Kimo-Alameda dated every 28, 2025, Transmany Proposed Capital Budget for a Fiscal Year 2025 to 2026 and the capital permits program for the next six years from fiscal 2025 to the 26 through 2030 to the 31, which includes 81 projects quiet total appropriation approximately 555 million dollars, which 500 14.6 million dollars are intended to be funded in a whole part by bonds. 36.7 million dollars to be funded by federal grants and 3.7 million dollars to be be funded by community benefits, benefits assessments or other sources. This is introduced by Connolly Clientel, by request. First reading, excuse me, public hearingless held on May 22, 2025. With Connication 159.40 from Mayor Seeking, Alamita, dated May 5, 2025, transmitting Bill 32, draft 2, which adds total of 84 projects and an increase of 48 million dollars in appropriations or appropriations over the first drafts Bill 32 draft to relates to public improvement and some funding to their own for the fiscal year. I won 2025 due to 30 to 206 draft to requires total appropriation of 600 3 million 15 thousand dollars at which 515,000, at which $532,000, $586,000, are intended to be funded in the whole part by bonds, $36,000, $75,000, $2,000, to be funded by federal grants, $30,000,000, to be funded by state grants, and $3,677,000 to be funded by if they need benefit assessments or other funds. This is also introduced by Council Member Carly Clive Elder by Request. We have four communications. 159.41, memo number one, from Council Member James E. Houston, stated May 13, 2025. Chair, I'm sorry. by Councilmember Carly Cliveholder by request. We have four communications, 159.41, memo number one, from Councilmember James, the Houston State of May 13, 2025, transmitting a proposed amendment to add the Public Works Department's Wike Low Artorial Road, Comma Coa Dry Project, and the amount of $2.5 million. Communication 149.42, memo two, from Councilmember James, Houston State of May 14, 2025, transmitting a proposed amendment to add the Public Works Department's Ponyola Avenue Whiting Project in the amount of $1 million. Communication 159.43, memo 3, from Councilmember James Houston stated made 14, 1025 transmitting amendment to a real appropriate the Parks and Recreation Department's call to the swimming program's project for $5 million. And lastly, communication 159.44, memo 4 from Councilmember James Houston made a May 14, 2025, transmitting a proposed amendment to reappropriate the Parks and Recreation Department's Spencer County Shuty District Park Improvements and Expansion Project for Council on May 5th and we do need to amend draft one with the mayor's proposed draft two with the contents, containing communication 159.40. So with that, so moved by councilmember Coney Lee Kleinfeld, seconded by councilmember for Gilemba to amend Bill 32 with the proposed draft to submit it in communication 159.40. Director anything to add at this time or we are good with the first presentation to also cover capital improvement. We do have Jeff Darrell our planning director here to answer any questions. We don't have a presentation on the CIP, but if there's anything planning is here. Thank you very much. Any discussion? Councilmember Panylee Kleinfeld there? No. Seeing none, all those in favor of amending Bill 32 with the proposed draft to as contained in communication 159.40 B.C.I. Any opposed? Motion carries seven eyes. Two excuse, Council members, Coguata and V.A. guests. We are on draft two now and we can take up our amendments. Chair motion to amend bill 32 draft two with a contents of communication 159.41. Well by Council Member Houston second and by Council Member Glimba to amend bill 32 draft two with the contents of communication 159.41 Council Member Houston Thank you, Chair. It's an honor to bring this amendment forward on behalf of the community. You've heard testifiers speak to this, speak to the challenges of a growing community and the lack of infrastructure. It's set. This particular project and any sort of additional infrastructure projects have kind of set on the sidelines for a long time for the white clove community. And this effort is to really push forward engineering and studies, plans and kind of take the first step as the county for our responsibility for the leadership that we have for our community members of nearly 7,500 White Claw residents and a growing community with our affordable housing project with private development, with expanding park spaces, a future library for the community. So as we grow deeper in that area, this is a responsibility that we have as county to make a step forward. I will also note that the state through their CIP process and representative Tarnas and Director Sniffin came to an agreement early on in their session to provide some funding for intersection on the Makai side of of this future roadway along Queen Cottonwood, Ohio. But they didn't really see the county's priorities aligned. So we need to match that request by stepping forward. It doesn't really speak to the amendment, it doesn't really speak to the and the build out of the road. And that's a future conversation we have to have. And I would hope that the studies here and funding we have for this project would provide some more feasibility and understanding as well as the potential private partnership, public-private partnership with landowners in the area. So there is that potential there. And those have been ongoing conversations for a long time. but we do have a responsibility as county to protect our residents so I grateful for the support and any feedback as we make this process thank you thank you council member kindly line-found there yep thank you chair I have a question for you mr. Dau I'm glad you're here actually today you cannot underscore the importance of secondary roads, connect the routes, emergency access routes, alternate routes, and communities, especially given what happened in the Hina what we saw on Monorold, what could happen in volcano, what could happen in Puna, what could happen all over anywhere in the world? Should an emergency or disaster happen? As I've sat in this chair and I've seen what happened to Puna, given that the density has increased and there was no infrastructure required of the subdividers back in the 50s, 60s predating all of us in government some of us, I don't know. But with that said, looking at what Mr. Houston is wanting to do for his community, understanding the need, was there never a requirement of the developers to actually put the infrastructure in place to build the second road, knowing exactly what they were going to build in Waikaloah. Was that never a thought or never a requirement of any subdivision approval of any planning decisions that they actually be required to put these roads in? And forgive me if I don't know the background on this, not my district, but just wondering as I look for guidance on where to go with my vote on this today. Sure, thank you council member Coneyilly, Clyde Felder. Good morning, Chair Inava, Vice Chair Onishi, members of the Hawaii County Council, Jeff there with the planning department. This project, the entire, I'll begin with this specific project. This has been ongoing for quite some time, I believe, back in the 90s. There was a planned unit development. It was amended in 04, planned unit development, 0404. And that planned unit development, there's been a number of amendments. The latest amendment has a condition, condition number seven that speaks to the developer either doing one of two options. One was to put a Malcolm Achaid to Lane Road from the back of the subdivision to Queen Kahu Manu, Highway or to do four lanes for Paneolo. At this point, there's been discussion for some time now regarding the Tulane Malcolm Okai connector road. And And again, because of the great need, that's obviously with what has happened at Lahaina. This has come to the forefront. There currently, my understanding is there is what is called a community facilities district application that's been submitted. We're working through that, which will include money or improvements, including the Malcolm Achaio Road, as well as other improvements within the subdivision. So that's ongoing. This will obviously help with moving this forward faster. I'm not sure how long it will take to go through the CFD process. As far as the overall review, there needs to be a better requirement in the subdivision code for connector roads, connectivity as well as accesses. There has been subdivisions that have been created without this connectivity requirement. Community development plans have been approved that have put emphasis on the requirement of continued connectivity as well as the general plan. We are in the process of updating the subdivision plan that is going to be one of the key differences or updates to this plan is this requirement for connectivity, making sure that there's viable options for access, not just one way and one way out type of situations. That is refreshing to hear that is being worked on. and I want to dive into policy on that side of the fence but thank you for that. So I think my question then is why is the county paying for what the developers should have done in the first place? I this is a request being asked for by a council member of the district. We have been working with the developer for a period of time. I would, my guess is that it's not fast enough and they would like to see things happen faster. that would be my guess, but ultimately, as I mentioned, the condition said that they have to do one of two things. It looks like the developer is working with the county to do both the four lane improvement, as well as the Malcolm A Akai. Anything we can do to increase the speed of getting this done would help, including any money that could be provided for engineering studies. If the county ends up, and I think this has always been one of the concerns from the beginning, when the county gets involved with building new projects, new roads, you are required to have to do an environmental impact statement or an assessment. In this case, it would probably reach to the level of an impact statement, which could take delay things for years. So sometimes they work out a public private partnership to work with the county, but to allow the developer to do the improvement. And at that point, they can work right through and start construction as soon as they get their requirements done in archaeological inventory survey for the creating permit and then being able to secure funding to move forward with studies and construction. Who's the developer? My understanding the owner is a person named Charles Summers. There's been different entity names, Waikuloa Heights, Keo Kei-Lani. Currently I believe Nani Kai is one of the names being used, but ultimately the owner is Charles Summers. Is he continuing to develop in the area? Yes. He's in phase one which is the first phase subdivision. So beyond that, I haven't seen any plans. Just phase one. Is it the same developer who's created the density that we're now having to create alternate relics for? No. Is it a different developer? No, I mean, he's one developer. There's been multiple developers throughout Waikelos subdivision. He owns the rear portion where the potential is great to increase the density in that area that I mean everyone sees that if the density continues to increase without that ability to have an alternative access, again, it would just overwhelm it even worse than what it is now. Has there been any private funding that you're aware of from Mr. Summers towards the construction of the roadways? That's what's currently being worked on through the community facilities district application. Okay, so there's a section in the the FIS that is for private grants or other kinds of funds, even for fair share and park dedication that kind of funding, which should be, I would think to the tune of a fairly large amount given the amount of Houses that have been built in the area that these kind of funds are dedicated for the fair share funds I would I would I would hope that they're there But just I mean to I guess my question really is back to the maker actually for mr. Houston's you, things that have been asked of me in the past were when we fill out the FIS. To make sure that we do our best to add in funds that are available from the private side or from the state. And so for this, I see a city government bond, a county government bond, but no, no mention of state revolving funds or private funds that are available or fair share funds. I think those are worthwhile as far as reviewing upon working with the FIS. And then for Mr. Darrell and I guess to Mr. Summers out there somewhere wherever you may be. What I have found in my district, and I don't wanna harp too much on this, but when we allow, we create density, or whatever it is that we're gonna create, and we allow for that to happen, but we make no requirement for the improvements that lead to public safety, or minimal requirements, or we make exemptions that lessen the cost of the development itself for the developer and then we come back 20-30 years later and we have to pay for that as taxpayers then we've actually done a disservice in the beginning and we're doing a disservice now. A direct example of that is the shipment intersection. It's a kind of a plan, I felt there. Just for example. Shipment intersection, sorry, shipment industrial arrows allowed bookkeeping concessions to limit the cost expense that would be off of the developer. Come back 20 years later, the state taxpayers paid to improve the intersection in its ruined traffic in the area. So it's an example of the back and the fourth in decades of time and what we should be doing in County in my opinion. So I'm going to vote no against this today. I think you can understand my reasoning. It's not that I don't agree with the community. It's not that I don't see the need It's that I don't like the direction and where we're stuck And I hope to see something beautiful come for the department for the subdivision code to handle things like this Thank you for the time. May you'll come to remember Kimball Thank you. I have a couple questions for councilmember used to spit. I'll start with you director to hear us since you're at the table already. Councilmember County Lee Klein, folder mentioned fair share. Is, I don't know if you know how much, but are there any fair share funds available to be dedicated towards this effort to your knowledge? I don't have the numbers in front of me right now in regards to available fair share for roads. Bethany is something. Bethany has it. Yeah. I would like to mention that Waikoloa area in itself was re-zoned back in 1969. And there were no conditions as part of that massive rezoning. Typically we see a fair share condition. Unfortunately this was during that time that they just rezoned areas without that. And shameless plug this is something at some point we should all look at for impact fees so that we can have the money to be able to do these much larger projects. It's a difficult direction to go through, but once I think we get through it, it will open the doors for us to do these major infrastructure projects. Just to clarify, so fair share funding, we account for it by district. And so for the South Cahalla district, that includes Waikoloa. For the road's portion, we have 46,000 and some change available for funding. You drop in the bucket. I think that the impact fees discussion and as well as kind of building up of what Councilmember County Lee's kind of filter is saying about developers doing more upfront and then of course the whole issue of making affordable housing projects and deferring some of the infrastructure costs by paying it for ourselves. That's a broader discussion that I think is very important to have, especially with the reason or the revisions to chapter 25. That's all I had for the planning. Thank you. I'm not surprised to hear that there's a little available in that regard. Councilmember Houston, so I see that in FY 2627 there's a state CIP there that would be dedicated towards discussion, I'm going to ask all my questions at once so that I can just yield and then you can respond. So is that actually committed and is there any matching component that is required on our part? Secondly, there was comments from the testifiers about how there was a groundbreaking event. And like, OK, so I apologize. I don't know the area better I should. But so we're still trying to identify a location. Can you clarify for me why there was a ground? What was broken? What ground was broken and why? And what has been done thus far? Or are we just starting at zero here with this? Those are my two. I'm going to support this because I do think it's critical for this area, but I'd like some just for my own notification and some clarity around those two points. Yeah, Council Member Eustace, thank you Chair. Thank you Council Member Kimball. I appreciate your support on this. I have some other things to say as well, but I'll just, you know, when my time comes back the 1.66 from the state CIP, that was committed this last session, but the state are legislator for the region and director Sniffin decided to table it for future endeavor, future request because the county wasn't ready, because the private developer or the partnership with the county wasn't ready. So that's the challenge. If the county is not willing to do it, if we're not willing to do it for on behalf of our residents, then the state's not going to come to the table. So Director Sniffin is committed to getting funds going after the federal dollars, whatnot to make this make this happen at least that state connection piece. So that's the commitment there, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00, $1.00,, the general plan, chapter five, the South Qualis CDP. So this has been since that document 2008, longstanding priority for the community. And there has been some, you know, past road studies. There was a, I mentioned the 2006. There was a road study looking at many different alignments and alternatives, even with the Daniel K. Noeh Highway extension from Mama Hall Highway to Queen Kaumunoo Highway. They even identified some routes. We identified other routes in a general plan, the fourth coming general plan. So those were all kind of mapped out there in, you know, on a map. It does not really define the alternate road study kind of shows a little bit more of alignment about potential alignments very at a granular detail. And then some of those discussions have happened with the private landowner and the developers in the area for what is possible and what lands to kind of traverse through and all that. So there have been some cursory sort of alignments discussed, but in terms of, as Director Daryl says, if we take that step forward with county dollars, public dollars, it would probably trigger these environmental impacts. So that's one thing to consider, but it's a very important that we are putting our foot on the ground and marking that line saying this is this is responsible that we have as a county. The ground breaking was an interesting one because it was in partnership with one of the developers, the community caught wind of it after the fact for the most part. There were state legislators there that governor was there. I think maybe director Siffon was there possibly two if I remember correctly. But the so there was state leadership there. There was county leadership there at the time too. And there was trying to seal a commitment with the developer and they the developers has been in progress of working on an emergency egress road similar to what exists on Hulu street so in Waikolo village is already in existing one way egress road and that's that's what the developer was trying to bring forward as well. So my knowledge, some of that with their work has been held up with Shifty State Historic Preservation. Primarily because they did not seek the appropriate permits and approval. So there's been some kind of working backwards on some of that. But that's only like a gravel road. It's nothing of permanent. So this is really seeking permanency to a road to alleviate strain on the growing community. I hope that. So the gravel road, which I am aware of, that is not identified as the one that this money will go to to do the planning. We are still trying to identify the location for this money. And do the proper analysis and studies, feasibility analysis, those sort of things. Yes. I hate to see us in every way we so much already, and we still haven't got to step one. You know, the private, I can't release, I don't know all their figures, but it's possible that they've invested time and energy in dollars into what they're presenting for the community. And there have been probably some study and work done by the county, but it need to kind of it needs to coalesce and needs to actualize into a project. Thank you. Councilmember Houston, you still have the floor. Was there anything else you wanted to add right now before I go to vice-Chairone. Thank you. I just want to first, you know, and thank the community for you've seen the testimony come across. You've heard it time and time again, so you know that the concerns are there. And also just to piggyback after Mr. Cunningly Klein-Felder on your, you know, putting some of the onus on the private developer, we also have a responsibility as a county because we're currently building an affordable housing project there in that area. We are also have a large swath of land as a county. And that's listed in another project in the CIP list as Kamakoa, Nui, and some road development there. So we have a stake in the safety for the projects that we build out in that area too, for different demographics in the community, from the private developer side and the homes that they're building, but also that we as county are pushing forward for the affordable side, the workforce house inside, and all that we're gonna be projecting on the areas going forward. So we all have the irresponsibility of that area. So thank you, thank you Chair. Thank you Council Member Houston, Vice Chair Onishi. Thank you Chair. Very interesting. Wow, it's history. I mean, I can't believe what I'm hearing. So, director, with these county projects, requirements for the county to do these affordable housing, what is our responsibility or what are we going to hold these projects to for roadways and for emergency access and all that. Is there any conditions? Are there any, I apologize, Vice Chair Nishie, clarification. Are you asking if there's any conditions in regards connected to the affordable housing project? Yes, our county project. So typically our affordable housing projects are exempt. We come through either through a 201-H resolution or in this case of what we call a 46-15, which basically exempts them from pretty much anything and everything. But even with that, when you do see the layout of the project, there's what appears to be a connector that is open to establish connectivity if anything was to go Makai. And I believe, and council member Houston can correct me, the layout of the proposed Malcolm Makai wrote was going to do a detour and connect to that particular access road. But my understanding was only a temporary connectivity. The main connection would be to the back of the subdivision. Once it was completed, which could take a long, long time. I mean, this is a large area that would require a lot of development. So that's my understanding in regards to connectivity or connections or conditions with the Affordable Housework Project. Okay. Miss Doosness, would you want to make a comment or give more information? Could you just ask that question for more time just for clarification? Well, it's just that with these county projects, so it's being waived this requirements, and so it might go like, I would be a concern, right? Because we're adding in more density, right? And then like you see, we're adding to this problem. Absolutely, and I've had this conversation with, I didn't measure the cost of, yeah, I'm about, you know, the capacity we're adding into that north end of the village. So there is that concern for sure. I mean, when we're adding density and capacity in area, we need to match that capacity with infrastructure. So there has to be, yeah, some give and take on some of those things. And we've had this conversation about, if you add it to a project, what it means to affordability to. So that's something we have to consider. I know, but we also got to consider about the health and safety also area residents right and so Director Darrell so that approval of these different projects was it done like previous council councils are we referring to the affordable housing houses yes much earlier okay okay and it's been a place for a little while to the affordable housing. Yes. Yes. Okay. Much earlier. Okay. Okay. And it's been a place for quite some comments. You know, of how, like, it's mentioned about how we lack of infrastructure. It's the body of the previous councils that approved these projects, not thinking about the long term., like the 10, 20, 30 years from now. And so that's why for me, I wanted to put in something for flooding within the fair share. And I believe fair share is great. Maybe we need to increase the amount per unit. So that way there's more funding. Because impact is great too, but impact also impacts like for schools. So like for example in Kalekehi, the 2000 homes, the developer was supposed to work with the DOE if that's not mistaken to put in a school. And I think that's part of all the rising of the costs so they couldn't do the project, right? So I think that we, and I will support this amendment for you folks, because I cannot believe that they did a groundbreaking, didn't do the proper, I guess, research or like getting the proper permits. I mean, how can you do a groundbreaking when you don't even get the proper permits? That's crazy. And the county was there, the state was there. They all, with the shovel and dig that that ground and then you find out that Something went wrong. Yes, I mean I cannot believe that but it happens I guess but yeah, so Hopefully and like you say in the general plan, there's gonna be a new project that going have to connectisions? Correct. That's our general plan talks about providing connectivity. That's of you know our main general direction but more specifically our subdivision code that we're currently working on that is a very focused area that we are updating to make sure that that is going to be implemented across the board and subdivisions. And sorry, Chair, we're kind of going off. So what the present subdivisions are not going, we cannot like demand them to do it or we, or can we? We have some flexibility, I mean, we, but it's, there are times that we battle with trying to provide connectivity because people like their particular, but they don't want more traffic. Right. And so, we need to codify it so it's a requirement. Yeah, okay, good, thanks. I'll support this. Thanks. Thanks for bringing it up in the history. Council Member Kagiwara. Thank you, Chair. Just real quick, I'll be supporting this amendment mainly because I think that when people's lives in our county are at stake, regardless of who's responsible, what entity is responsible for maybe fixing the issue, we still need to step up as a county. And we can do everything we can to work with those entities that we think are responsible, and I'm glad hear that that's continuing on and that you're you are continuing to work with the developer but we can't just you know say it's their responsibility and lock away so I'll be supporting. Thank you. Signal for the lights on. Thank Thank you, Council Member Hustis for bringing this forward. I think it just reminds the Planning Department commissions and this council to pay attention when we're approving developments in making sure that conditions and infrastructure are imposed to ensure that we're not in the situation we are in right now. So there's a motion on the floor to amend Bill 32, draft two with the contents of communication 159.41 which is to add the Waikaloa arterial role Kamakoa drive for the amount of 2.5 million All those those in favor, be safe. Aye. Any opposed? No. Motion carries, seven eyes, one excuse, Council Member V.A. Guest, one no, Council Member Connelly, the client filter. The amendment passes. Thank you, Chair. Motion to amend Bill 32, draft two with a contents of Communication 159.42. Well, by Council Member Houston, seconded by Vice Chair Onishi to amend bill 32 draft two as amended with the contents of communication 159.42. Council Member Houston. Thank you, Chair. Appreciate their support on this amendment as well. This is not as a high of a priority request, but it does match the growth of that area. It's kind of in that same area we've been talking about with a comical workforce housing and the future development on county parcels. This is just request to expand a two lane road to a four lane road that would match the continuity of Paniolo Drive, Paniolo Avenue, excuse me, to that vicinity in that intersection. It's less than a one-mile stretch that exhibits flooding issues and could also provide a hardened structure for fuel break if necessary for this fire prone community Hoping not to see that of course, but it would match the rest of Poneolo Drive And address a couple of Hazard issues in the area as well as kind of match the demand and need for For infrastructure with the outgrowth of that area of the community. Appreciate your support. Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries seven. Eight aye is one excuse, Councilmember Villegas. Chair, I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do curcuit's vicinity. Seven eyes, two excused council members, curcuits and be a guess. The amendment 159.42 is approved. Chair, a motion to amend bill 32, draft two of the contents of communication 159.3. Four three. Moved by council member Houston, seconded by Council Member Calimba to amend Bill 32, draft two is amended with the contents of communication. 159.433, Council Member Houston. Thank you, Chair. This is a re-approachement for repairs, major repairs to the Kohala Swim Pool, one of our older swimming pools on the county that has been really band-aided and fixed by community members. Public, sorry, parks and rec is aware of the issue, administration is aware of the issue and would need substantial dollars to make the appropriate repairs to the facility. Appreciate the support. Thank you. by Cherni Shee, does this include all ADA? It's major repairs to the pump-facil pumps and water lines and so forth. I don't know, necessarily, about the ADA compliance, but I'd have to speak to Parks and Rec more about the issue. It's major repairs, so a pump has been failing for many years. because for because like for in-hilo, NES pool was renovated to make it 88 compliance. So something to talk to them about. Thank you. Yeah. Council Member Kimbo. Yes, thank you. So, Director, with this project and the subsequent one. The next one, are these? I know that there's money in the CIP for just general repair and improvement stif facilities. Is there a need to break these out specifically and It's it I was gonna ask a question on the previous amendment in terms of like once once we approve these capital additions to the capital improvement budget How does that work in terms of prioritization? So two questions there. Council Member, to your first, to your second question about prioritization, once these are added to the CIP budget and appropriated, it is really the administration and the mayor's evaluation through speaking with the departments and the community and council members about what what priority in which the county will complete these projects. To these specific amendments, parks and recreation is here. Both of those are underway and in design. Various stages and Charming can correct me, but those are on the list for improvements that we're working on. And this is just a reappropriation in the CIP. Okay, so these were already the in progress through these line items, not the repair maintenance. General C. These were already in progress through these line items, not the repair maintenance. So general CIP of the department. Do you see my- To your question about the general repair, those are usually smaller projects that the department can kind of tackle with just smaller. Once it comes to design and a bigger project, then those are usually identified in the CIP. But smaller ones are usually for the repairing maintenance budget. Okay. Councilmember Houston's on this one and the previous one, the amount that you're identifying for these, those are numbers coming from the department or. Council Council member Hughes, this. Thank you, Chair. Appreciate the question. This figure is a reappropriation. So this is exactly from what was lapsing. So this figure was pulled right from a laps report. The previous one was in conversation with DPW to answer your question. Okay. Yeah. I know it's a little uncharacteristic, but I was interested in the $5 million number for a mile worth of road, and I'll talk to Director, Acting Director, I was, you know, after about that. But I wonder, I limited knowledge about this particular project, but I wonder if 5 million is enough given some of the conversations I've had about similar issues at the Hunnicah pool. So, yeah, I mean, we can only come back in a minute, but I'm just wondering if that's the right number. You know, just speaking with our Parks and Recreation Department, once we get through design, we'll have a better handle on the actual cost. And like you mentioned, pools around the island are having some challenges in, and so we could better assess those types of funding amounts as we move forward.. Okay. Thank you. I yield chair. Councilmember Kagi-Water. Thank you, Chair. For parks. I'm just wondering if you could tell us why parks allowed this project to lapse. I guess if it was like why did parks allow this to labs? Thank you. Sharmin Felipe Business Manager Parks and Recreation for the Kohales swimming pool. It's still in the design phase. It does also include ADA improvements so it's not that we're not So it's not that we're allowing it to lapse. It's going through the process and needing more time to complete the project. For the Kalani Shudi District Park, it involves estate funds. Sorry, we're just on the poor right now. We'll get through that. Thank you. Okay. So, I guess I'm still not sure why you didn't just, why you allowed it to lapse if you are still, you know, obviously working on it. If you're in the design page, you're still continuing to work on the project. So when they're appropriated, they're given an expiration date. Right. And that expiration date is coming to. And so we just wanna make sure we extend that expiration date. So you asked that you are in agreement with the council member that there's, okay, that's all I needed to know. Thank you. All right, are you? Further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of amending bill 32 draft to as amended with the contents of communication 159.43 This is for the Kohala swimming pool repairs a reappropriation of $5 million all in favor Please say aye any opposed opposed? Motion carries with seven I's to excuse council members Villegas and Crickwits the amendment 159.4 three passes. Chair, Chair motion. Councilmember Huston, please continue. Chair motion to amend Bill 32, draft two as amended with the contents of communication 159.44. Booged by Councilmember Hustont, second by Council Vice Chair Onishi. Let's see. Council Member Hewstedt. Thank you, Chair. This is a reappropriating funds for the Spencer County City District Park for expansion of recreational fields. There is currently a CIP request in the budget for very specifically a community center evacuation shelter at the same facility, but these are funds specifically for the recreational side. The project in the park itself has, part of it's been both part of first phase as we built out and this would kind of help kind of move the process along funds that would be lapsing appropriate in funds that we're lapsing. Thank you chair. Thank you discussion on this amendment. That's not her Kagi Wata. Thanks. So parks again. So, just to understand understand money is already been spent on this particular project or not. This is new money that is not a continue it says for a master plan. Do you have funds that have already been spent on design or anything like that already. So with this project, the design is being covered by a nonprofit organization and that's already been executed. We're just waiting for the final report and then to get the cost of what the project is going to look like. Okay. And you asked for, I guess, to the maker. Thank you. You've asked for CIP, but you do not have that. It doesn't look like at this point. And if you do get that, will there be a match that's required? There has been some discussion, thank you Chair. There's been some discussion with state partners and private landowners around the area to foresee and match what has been to make it consistent with the regional master plan, the regional park master plan. So these are just making sure that we have, that we're allowing and giving parks the opportunity to expand the play in recreational facilities there. So this money would be the match, you wouldn't have to come up with extra money for a match. You know, it's hard to say. These are funds that I saw in the LAPS in report that I just wanted to reappropriate so that we don't lose that opportunity and you don't have to come back as a new project entirely. There is progress on a very specific aspect of it, a community shelter, emergency shelter, community building, but these are really for the play fields and just didn't want this project to last. Okay, sounds like a good project. Thank you. I yield. Further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of amending Bill 32, draft two is amended with the contents of communication 159.44, reappropriation of funds and the amount of $5 million for the improvement and expansion of Spencer Kalony's shooting district park. Please say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries seven eyes to excuse council members, Kirkowitz and V.A. Guis. Thank you chair. One final amendment for today and I appreciate everyone's patience here. But motion to amend Bill 32, draft two as amended with a contents of communication 159.45. Moved by a council member. Use this second. I'd like council member Gellimba to amend Bill 32, draft two as amended with the contents of communication 159.45. Councilmember Houston. Thank you, Chair. This one is a little bit different than the others you've seen. But we had one testifier earlier this morning from the Pueco community. A lot of you know about the challenges in our reef areas and lowline coastal communities. And there's an opportunity here to support community. And this would be, you know, there's also myself with the community working with Director Nakagawa and Department of Finance as they pursue different avenues of funding. This would kind of initiate some initials phasing for designing survey for a sewer and sewer improvements to sewer in that community. There are opportunities to work with the private landowners in the area. You know yesterday we, well was yesterday was actually on Tuesday. We were looking at the valuation of a lot of our properties across the island taxable assessments for land and land and facilities. You know across South Cahalla one of the one of the line items in there talks about our valuation of our resort communities and value that's $1.9 billion for the entire county. South District 9 alone carries about 1.2 billion of that value. So there's a relationship we have with our residential communities, our resort communities in the health and benefits of our near-shore reefs and as mentioned by the testifier, the health of the reef is struggling drastically. So we have an opportunity to take that step forward and take responsibility and improve some of the situations along our coastal communities. So this is asking $1 million to go towards a survey. Now there are some interesting conversations with the community members and the community groups, specifically Pueco for Reefs about establishing a revolving fund that could be potentially used by other similar communities in this sort of scenario. And that's something that we'd have to work with the Finance to kind of establish that and work with all of you to kind of see how that kind of that plays out at the county level. They are pursuing funding from USDA as an opportunity for construction purposes. Now one of the and also working through a community facilities district to kind of pay off those loans and so forth. So that's something that that communities will need to take on and explore. We do have to provide some sort of analysis at the county level for the homeowners that would be most affected by a CFD and those sort of impacts on those homes. that like long, long 16 residences there. So we have to consider that in the equation and willing to work with our finance department. and those sort of impacts on those homes, like long as 16 residences there. So we have to consider that in the equation and willing to work with our finance department on how do we make it equitable in that community there. But there's some work going on behind the scenes with this community nonprofit, Pucco for Reefs with the Department of Environmental Management, as well as finance department to find solutions in that area. And I'm happy to be a part of that conversation and help that process move forward. And it would really be setting a precedent of what they're looking at to find solutions in that area. It's a small community and they have an opportunity to connect with existing wastewater facilities in the resort community. So there is an opportunity for a public private partnership in that area. And taking this step forward, you know, moving the needle on this would hopefully help pull in the state as well. There are state facilities in that area that should be a part of this conversation and part of this process with boat ramp, with a number of public parks, public beach parks in the area that should eventually be connected to some sort of sewer system in that area, to eliminate any of the challenges and detriment to our reefs. So thank you for your support and welcome any questions you might have. Thank you. Council member Kimbo. Yeah, so just, so I'm crystal clear, the intention is to use the community facilities district to create the revolving fund that this money will be sourced from. Is that am I understanding that correctly or is that another? So the kind of the experts here at Barbara Bell and Roy Tuck and Modo are kind of working on this with the community nonprofits. And it really be to establish a revolving fund at the county that they could pull from for the design of the sewer system. and that would, you know, repeat, repaid, and other communities companion. It's still like a work in progress about what that lens looks like. But this is the approach that they want to take that could establish some sort of revolving fund here with a county for similar sort of wastewater replacement systems. Okay, so the sorts of funding into this revolving fund is not actually identified, but with this amendment, just basically creating that bucket for it to go in to be directed towards this project in the future. Correct. And the Community Facilities District that chapter mentions revolving funds but we've never, I don't know, we need kind of need to explore that a bit further as an opportunity. Yeah. I'm curious in particular because I have another CFD project that's kind of in the early stages. And there's a lot of information about that process, so appreciate this opportunity to understand it a little bit. And so at this stage, there's really, with this project, no clear plan about who will ultimately own manage and operate the system that is installed. This is still more directly, more directed towards the planning about the potential process. If I, again, I'm just looking for further explanation about the description of the project. Is someone here from Department of Environmental Management? Chair, I can speak to it, especially. Yeah, I wanna try and avoid as much of this back and forth as we're just, but go ahead, Councilmember, use this. Thank you. The Wastewater Facility is privately owned. American, Hwy American Waters. The sewer line would be owned by the county. And there are components that the private landowners would have a component of that system that would tap, that would tap into it. There's a responsibility that the private landowners would also have too, but the sewer line would be in a county right of way. Thank you. I believe we have someone joining from corner chambers, the EM, anything to add at this time, regarding Councilmember Campbell's questions. So, my name is Chris Carver, wastewater division, acting, Acting Chief. Thank you, Council for having me today. Councilmember Kimbo, could you please just to make sure I understand correctly you're asking for information as to operation and maintenance of that facility or did you want additional information about the project itself? Yeah, I'm just looking for some additional clarity around the program description that's being provided to us in the amendment. And specifically to what extent some of these decisions have been made particularly will we be building and owning and operating the collection. I do understand that it's potentially going to go to the the monolonies wastewater treatment plant. Is that in, is that decision official? Yeah, I just like some clarity on the current status and then what, what decisions have been made in terms of the long-term operation and maintenance and ownership? Yeah, so at this point, I would say this whole CFD process is more of a conceptual, at the conceptual level at this point, there are a lot of questions about who will own and operate the system and things that I think we still need to address. However, per the FIS chief that, you know, I see it looks like the funding is for, you know, design and planning and the details of the CFD ownership operation would be worked out as the project progresses. Okay, thank you for that clarity. The only reason I show any hesitation is because if we are ultimately not going to own this collection system or like any part of it, the appropriateness of spending county funds towards that, but then you're creating this bucket for the revolving funds so that it's a little convoluted. I'm gonna support it just because I think it sounds like a necessary step to just create this bucket. But I do wanna go maybe more into detail with you in the department, particularly because we're having some conversations about other areas. And if we have a consistent approach, I think that's going to be best for all of us. So thank you. Thank you, Council Member Kimbo. Council Member Coneyley, Klein, Father. Deputy. What is your role? Acting Ways for a Division Chief. Acting Chief, thank you for your time this morning. Was any of the EPA consent decrees? Was any of that regarding the Poucault sewer system that are already or have been discussed in the past year or five years year, five years? So in terms of the applicability of any AOCs to this specific project, we're required to overall as a community have a plan for wastewater management. So the way that this community would fit into that is that we would need to address how to manage the wastewater within that plan. Now there's a portion of the AOCs that are specific to capital improvement projects and no capital improvement projects for this area were identified. Really? Why is that? So the reason is is that the overall state of our facilities needs to be addressed and the focus of the AOCs at that time were to address non-compliant or unaddressed maintenance issues. And you see that in the Nantes, which is ongoing non-compliance with the large. And then you also see that with the CIP projects with respect to Hilo, Papai Co. Kulai-Mano and other specific identified. Is it because this system, do you say the system is private to the own? Are you talking about the Pueco area? Yes, correct. No, it didn't have to do with being privately owned per se, but what it had to do is, you know, the set pools and those type of of infrastructures need to be converted by 2050, which is a state mandate, but the EPA consent degrees focused on generally existing facilities for CIP related projects. Now planning level, Pueco, is contained within the requirement for the county to identify how we deal with our wastewater as a whole. Sorry, I'm a little confused. Maybe now it might just be me that is there an existing sewer system in Pua Co? So in Pua Co. So from my understanding is that you have on-site disposal systems? Yeah. On-site being individual septic systems or cesspools? Correct. Okay. Just like the rest of our island, we have that everywhere. Okay. So. And so as far as the AOCs are concerned, right, we need to have those on-site cesspools closed by 2050. So the AOCs require us to come up with a strategy, right, and overall wastewater management plan. So that's the part of the AOC that touches the Pueco community. Okay, I mean, I could I think I could apply that AOC to any and all cesspools across the island and my misunderstanding something. No, but that's how it would impact or apply to that community. It also applies to the SES pool in my front yard as well. But in terms of a specific CIP project, none were identified for Pueco. OK, so this FIS we're looking at is specific for the Pueco sewer improvements for a million dollars. But there's no existing sewer system. So this is to create a part of funds that will help people address cesspools in the area. I would say yes. Okay, to the maker, I mean, it was the intent. I mean, understanding this is district specific, but understanding we have island-wide problems. I'm trying to grasp the end. Well, intelligence clear, actually. That's okay, Chair, thank you. Thank you. Just may be clarifying like any project across our island that would require significant resources from the county to either improve or create new. We need a CIP project in our CIP budget and that's what all of these amendments here today are doing. Is there any further discussion? all those in favor of amending Bill 32, draft two as amended with the contents of communication 159.45, the addition of $1 million appropriation for the poor costs or improvements. Please say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries seven ayes to excuse council members, cur members Kirkowitz and V.A. That brings us to the end of our amendments for the capital improvement budget. So we are back on our main motion. Any further discussion on bill 32 draft to as amended? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries, seven aye's to excuse council members, curcuits and VA guests. Bill 32 as amended to draft three passes. First reading, our second and final reading of the budget is scheduled for Thursday, June 5th, 2025, beginning at 9 a.m. here in Heel Chambers. Thank you all. Our meeting is adjourned 12, 16 p.m. model.