Welcome to the 11th session for the Committee on Finance today is May 20th, 2025. It is 9 a.m. on the dot. Thank you for joining us today wherever you may be. Our meeting today is being held in the Hawaii County Chambers of 25 up Pune Street. We also have members joining us in the West Hawaii Civic Center in Kaila, Kona. I'm calling this meeting to order, Mr. Clerk. Let's see. I have to my left. House member in Glimba. To my right, I have Council member Hagiwara, Council member Kukuwitz, Council member Inabwa. Who's joining us in Kona today? Wack of the Aegis. All right right. In Kona, we have our council member, Rebecca V.A.G. Mr. Clerk, absent today is or excused is council member Kimbo, council member O'Neill and council member Hussis. With that, let's go to public testimony, Mr. RSL, if you would please. Thank you so much, Chair. Just noting that we do not have any testifiers at your remote sites. We do have a couple testifiers via Zoom. The first of which is Riannan Chandler Yao testifying on Resolution 181 to be followed by Claudia Roar. Riannan, at this time, if you could unmute your mic, you'll have three minutes to provide your testimony. If you could please reintroduce yourself as you begin because I believe I messed up your name. Aloha and good morning, everyone. Mahalo, my name is Rianan Tadeh, each and her EL. I apologize, I'm actually here to serve as a support or for questions when the item comes up for the agenda later I believe there will be a presentation by Glenn Sockle my apologies. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much for the clarification And with that our next testifier is Claudia Roer testifying on resolution 180 and 181 Claudia when you begin if you could just reintroduce yourself, you'll have three minutes per agenda item. If you clearly transition, if not, it'll be three minutes total. Thank you. Hello. I'm Claudia Roer. I live in Helo Hawaii. I live my property extends to Coloneano-Oli and right on the other side is Heelot Bay. I'll begin by speaking on 180. This is not a very large amount of money, but my attention has been brought to the fact that there isn't necessarily a formal request for this money from the University of Hawaii Department of Tropical Agriculture. I understand now that the staff at R&D can put out these requests for the council to approve funding for what they may refer to as a project or the communication may say that it's for specific things, but there's no formal agreement. There's no grant. Is this the way we do business? I would think this would be illegal and this would lead to things where money disappears. Remember how we lost millions of dollars in the community housing fund. I do not understand how this is responsible government. It's not that the projects lack merit. It's the way that they're proceeding to fund these. I'm going to move on to Bill 181. And in that bill, I did research, I called and spoke to Glenn and found out that there was no formal request for the money. There is no grant, even though the communication speaks of a grant under background or something, but it's proposing an aquaculture park in Hilo Bay. How big is this aquaculture park? How many acres is it going to cover? How many different leases will it cover? How many private citizens will be able to participate and use this aquacultural park? I would like to know the physicality of this park. Is it attached to the city? I think it's it interfere with voting? What about the views from my property? Well, I'd be staring at it. I live just down the street from the Pacific aquaculture and coastal center, research center. And I've talked to them before. I know what they're about. It's a good program. I'm not saying it doesn't have merit, but we don't just give money to people, a single person without paperwork, without an EA. It is illegal for the R&D to propose to give out funds for permits. You can't give the money to get a CDUA permit. It's basically saying that county is being a community partner on this project of building an aquaculture arc in Elobe. This is a huge thing. And this was premature. There is no grant. There is no formal request for these funds. And I'm not putting down Rihanna. She might have a very good project in theory, but- 30 seconds please. This is not the way we do business and I don't know that much about exactly which laws are involved, but I do know a single staff member should not be able to give away one quarter of the agricultural budget for R&D, for this project where there is no formal request or grant. Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony and chair noting that Cory Harden had requested to provide testimony but is not present. Those are all the testifiers you have at this time. Thank you, Mr. Arselli. Thank you for your testifiers this morning. Mr. Clerk, please let the record reflect that Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Hussis have joined us. And it's called Mr. Brown for the rest of the day. Mr. Brown, thank you for being here today as well. Miss, let's go to our first order of business please. Last chance for anyone who wants to testify in communication 23.12. Please speak up now. Hearing none, communication 23.12 report of fund transfers authorized April 1 15, 2025. From acting controller Wilson Criter dated April 24, 2025. Chair motion to close file in communication 23.12. Second. Motion by Council Member Corkowitz and a second by Council Member Houston. Two close file on communication 23.12. Council members, discussion. Council member Kirkwoods. Thank you, Chair. Is there anyone from planning to speak to the transfers for the Kilauea CDBGDR funding? I think it was noted that Douglas Lane and Data Medina we're going to be joining us on Zoom. I'm just going to make assumption here that the transfer of funding a little over $100,000 has to do with the voluntary housing buy-up program, but I just wanted to confirm that this transfer was in fact for that. I will connect with them offline. Thank you, Chair. I appreciate it. I yield. Thank you, Chair. Hello, officer. They are great to see you. I just wanted to confirm that the transfer is in fact for the continuation of the voluntary housing bioprogram. a little over $100,000 is being transferred into rent, landing buildings, and then overtime for staff. Good morning, Councilor Carcobuit, and Council, does this not delay with the planning department? Yes, these are transfers that we are requesting are to essentially balance our budget from the overall CDBG DR grant that's providing the Bioprogram to meet our actual expenses. As members of the council, well, no, we've been working on this grant for the past four years. And as we work toward this completion later this calendar year, we're catching up in terms of the administrative cost that we have to be able to close out the program with a balanced budget relative to where the needs are at this point in time. They are within the administration of our funds and very specifically in the administration of the grant wants to ensure that when we spend money we have the money available to us which is why this step is really important and we appreciate your support so we can keep the program going. Thank you, really appreciate those additional details and it's music to make ears to hear that the program is going to be winding down by end of calendar year. Thank you for your hard work on this program. Next question I have is for research and development. There was a transfer of $177,000 out of destination management, tourism promotions, energy, County Resource Center into various miscellaneous contracting accounts. Hello, Deputy Lynn. Again, just wanna confirm the nature of this transfer. I believe it's to support the round of impact grants that are indeed recently completed, but please feel free to provide additional details. Good morning, Council members. Dennis Lynn, Deputy Director for Research and Development. Yes, this is the transfer of funds for the impact grants. What you see from the first portion of all these different accounts, these were funds that were not not encumbered during this fiscal year that we saw that could be used to help supplement our impact grants. So originally we only had a set amount of impact grant funding, but we said, there's all these funds that weren't used. Can we use that to get money out into the community? And that's how we added on additional funding for the impact grant applicants. And that's how you make an impact. It's great. Thank you for those. Thank you. I appreciate it, Chair. I. Thank you. How's everyone? You say? Thanks, Chair. Oh, Deputy, you can say that. So what you're saying is that some of these funds, contractual services were never spent. Correct. And why is that? I do not know. That was under the previous administration when we got in, when we did our first analysis of where the financials were, this is what we found out. And by the time we had come in, the impact grants were already posted and published for applications. So with the fiscal year ending pretty soon, we were like, what can we do with these funds? And that's what we decided to do was move it into impact grants to get the funds into the community. And so this, like some of the money going towards agriculture is that for this agriculture thing? Not this round. No. That's really on previous. Yeah, this is a, withaculture project, that's a new project that we're exploring. Yeah, but that funding is coming from this fiscal year. Not necessarily the next upcoming fiscal year, 2627 or 2526. Sorry. OK. OK. Well, just hoping that the department does ree-evaluate you guys budget again, because there is some spending that, you know, I don't agree with you folks. And so just to let you folks know how I feel. Thank you. Thank you. And just for clarification, when it says miscellaneous contracts, that's just how the budget is created. Impact grants fall under miscellaneous contracts, but it's not an actual line item. Yeah. But then it's just like, there's a lot of money left over that could have been used for certain situations in this. Like destination management tourism problems. Correct. I mean, that's what we need. Correct. And as I shared with the council during our budget presentation, Nobody in the department knew what the budget looked like except for the director. Yeah. And as I shared with the council during our budget presentation, nobody in the department knew what the budget was looked like except for the director. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Checking my corner. Okay. Sorry. Council floor is a closed file on communication 23.12. Signal for the discussion. Motion is on the floor. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight members in favor. Ms. Kimball being excused. Oh, we have seven members in favor. Mr. Hustis and Ms. Kimball being excused. Miss Kimble being excused. Oh, we have seven members in favor. Mr. Houston and Miss Kimball being excused. Next item, please. If anyone would like to testify in Communication 73.6, please speak up now. Hearing none, Communication 73.6 monthly budget status report for the month and the January 31, 2025. For finance director Diane Nakagawa, dated May 1, 2025. Transmitting the above report for suit into section 6-6.3, each of the Hawaii County Charter. Chair, motion to close file in communication 73.6. If I motion, my Council Member Kirkwoods, and a second, my Council Aynah Abbot, to close file on communication 7 3.6 in your discussion. To the finance department, thank you. That's January. I'm getting there. Okay. Seeing no for the discussion, motion is on the floor. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have seven members in favor. Mr. Miss Kimball being excused. Next item, please. If anyone would like to testify in Communication 127.1, please speak up now. Hearing none, Communication 127.1. Third quarter report of uncapitalized donations generated one through March 31, 2025. for Finance Director Diane Nakagawa, dated May 2, 2025. Transmitting the above report, pursuing to Resolution 538-24. Chair motion to close file in communication, 1-27.1. Motion by Council Member Kirkwood, seconded by Council Member Nava, closing file on communication, 7, 0.1. Any discussion? Hearing and seeing none, motion is on the floor. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clark, you have seven members in favor. Mr. Houston, Mr. Kimball being excused. If anyone would like to testify in communication 2, 7, 1, now. Here again on communication 271, real property assessment certification for the 2025-2026 tax year. For finance director Diane Nakagawa, dated April 25, 2025. Transmitting of the above report for suing to section 19-90D of the Hawaii County Code, indicating a total net taxable real property value of $55,336,572,000 dollars. Chair, motion to close file in communication, 271. We have a motion by Council Member Kirkowitz and a second by Council Member Ray Naba to close file on communication 271. Any discussion? Is real property here today? Mr. Joe Thank you for being here this morning sir Lisa is in corner or no no Lisa today Okay Just real quickly. What is the what is the value of taxes that is I mean we're in excess of what we assume correct. So what we catered to is just administrative or property tax. So what was certified is the valuations. That's where U.S. Council comes in to determine the tax rates that are fixed to those values, which in turn results in revenue. Okay. So do we have an expected revenue increase or is that coming? Given that the certification, all things considered equal, given that the certifications a little more than 7% above what was last year, that you can account that there's a possible increase. Okay. We don't know that number yet. I would probably defer to the finance director on that. I thought you might pass. Yeah, again, we don't get involved in the discussions on revenue. That's for good reason. Our assessments are 100% of markets, so we kind of remove ourselves to a certain extent in order to ensure our integrity with that process. Okay, thank you. Thank you Mr. Joe. Finance director Nakhir Gowah, thank you. Yes, good morning, council members. Diane Nakagawa, finance department. Council member, I believe your question is, will we see an increase in our revenue projections for the fiscal year 26 budget? Correct. Correct. Yes, we will. We will be first reading on Thursday. We'll go over that into a presentation. I believe it's about 12.7 million increase in revenues from real property tax. Okay, and this is our, because we have our estimated total which builds our first round of budget discussions that we're facing our revenue forecast upon. So this is 12.7 million over what we forecasted for 2526. So this is 12.7 is an increase over our March-Semitile. So in our March-Semitile, we work with the estimates from real property tax as we get closer to what is presented to you today. We have our certification and then we make adjustments normally in the May-Semital which we will which was turned in and submitted and we will talk about on Thursday as well but yes it is an increase from March approximately 12.7 I believe. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Appreciate it. Mr. Joe which district brings in the most property taxes? That would probably be we're very much Westway centric in regards to valuations as well as revenue so that probably be South Kohala and North Kona side. South I'll have North Carolina. Yeah, that's all that time. Okay, thank you. Can't smell a crick-a-witch. So that probably be South Koala and North Koana side. South Koala and North Koana. Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay, thank you. How's my record with? Thank you, Chair. It's just an administrator Joe. I'm looking at the number of appeals less than last year. Wondering if you could just provide a high level overview of the nature of the appeals. And we're 100% of these appeals addressed. Did folks rescind their appeal? How did all of that play out here? So the appeals that are included with the certification, those are the appeals that have been filed. Okay. And generally, as most people are well aware that we're in an increasing market. So we've seen our appeal numbers drop as people understand that their assessments are increasing along with the market. Those appeals have not been addressed yet. So they're by code, have to be filed by April 9th of every year. We've have border review and we just got a new member so thank you very much for confirming that member. Very important process. The appeal process starts in July, yeah, in earnest. And it'll go through the next few months from there and at that point that's where the cases are resolved. And I think there's a follow-up report to the council about the correct resolution of these appeals. Correct. So at the end of every appeal session there's a report that's provided to council the overview as to the appeals and some of the recommendations from the board themselves. Okay great thank you very much. I yield. Thank you. Council Member of the recommendations from the board themselves. Okay, great. Thank you very much. I yield. Thank you. Councillor Buegues. No, I'm all good. Okay. Okay, seeing no further discussion. Motion is on the floor. Thank you, Mr. Joe, for your time. Yep. Council, motion is on the 40 close file on communication 271. Seeing no further discussion. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight members in favor. Ms. Kimball being excused. Resolution 180-25, please. If anyone would like to testify in resolutionolution 180-25 please pick up now. Hearing none Resolution 180-25 authorizes the mayor to enter to an agreement with the University of Hawaii Office of Research Services. It allows the county to provide a $14,805 grant to the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to support its master food volunteer program. Introduce my council member, Connie Lee Klein, filter by request. Chair, motion to forward resolution 180-25 to the council with a favorable recommendation. Second. Motion to the council member, Kirkowitz. Second, everybody, council member, Annabla. Two forward resolution, 180-25 to council with a favorable recommendation. Council member, is this discussion? Councilmember Kirkwood? Yes, thank you chair. Just wanting to see who from R&D will be. Okay, Sarah. Hi, Sarah. Okay. If you could just introduce yourself for the record and speak to us about this partnership with CETAR that you are coordinating and also if you could explain what a master food volunteer is for us. Sure. Sarah Freeman, Economic Development Specialist and Food Systems. A little bit about the program. It is aimed to be similar to the master gardenener program, where folks go through a training program and then are able to provide volunteer services. I think there was a identification that there is a growing need for providing food and nutrition education out into the community and these other types of services that are often requested through grant programs and that we need more folks that are able trained and able to provide these services to community. So a program like this would train 10 volunteers a year roughly to deliver cooking, workshops and education programs and to ensure that there's equitable local food access programs to community. So this would just be increasing volunteer capacity to provide these types of services to the community. So the funding is to train the volunteers. Is there additional funding to support the delivery of the workshops, the educational programs? I also see here revitalizing promotion of Hawaii grown products. Is there again additional resources to kind of stretch this program's reach? Do you want to find a deferred to Maria? Absolutely. Absolutely. Some of those more specific questions? Yes. Maria, please introduce yourself for the record. Thank you for joining us. Hi, Maria. I'm an extension agent with UHC Tire. So right now we are already delivering these types of programs myself through through partnerships with groups like the Food Basket, and we obtain grants and other funding sources to support our work. We also can get donations from, say, Helo products, other farms to provide ingredients for these products, or for these events. They are, so there's a lot of different funding sources that we pull on to provide the supplies for these things. I also do have funds available from the university every year that I use to support that for things like buying ingredients. And I do already have equipment that we have purchased through other grants that we can provide to these folks who would be delivering the programs. So cobbling together a lot of different sources. We also are working with the Heel Coalition from HiFi to develop what we're calling a healthy food fund, which would be a pot of funding that would be available to these volunteers when they want to purchase ingredients to do these events. That's awesome. Thank you. So you've been running this program for a number of years. Are you able to kind of talk to us about the reach and the impact you've had? So we have not run this program yet. This is to develop and launch this program in the state, although it has been run successfully in other states and have found, I think, one in initial assessment, found a thousand-fold return on investment for one of the universities that was running it. What I have done is partnered with community organizations to deliver food education programs that focus on local products. So we have, for example, a team cooking program. We do it boys and girls clubs that's focused on using debucks eligible produce. We have a food introduction series We do in elementary schools that's focused on locally grown produce So all of these programs which are food and nutrition education are also focused on promoting and teaching kids and families to To choose these local products when they go to the grocery store Okay, great and then if somebody was interested in becoming one of the 10 certified volunteers, how would they go about registering? And I'm gonna assume it's free to participate. It is. And they can contact me directly. The timeline we have right now is that we would start recruitment for this cohort in November. But I'm already starting to make connections with folks who have people in their organizations who might be interested in participating. So please, if you have anybody who might be interested in learning more or joining us, they can contact me directly and I can put my contact information out there for folks. And then how long is this training cohort set to last? Do you start recruitment in November and how long is a training program? So the program would start in about January February and last approximately two months and then they would begin their service portion so they would be doing a sort of internship where they would be able to serve with for example the food basket or food distributions community meals to learn from folks who are already in this space doing the work. And then they would begin to deliver their required service hours after that point. Okay. Thanks for being here. I appreciate the details. I yield. Thank you. Councilman Broney. Thanks, Chair. So my question is you're seeing that you work with the food basket and because I just met with them with the Cocoa Harvest and they needed funding, they need this, they need that. Listening to what you're explaining, why can't you work with them more closely because they need help within providing that services and I think with that Cocoa Harvest, which they go out to the farmers and help them in harvesting their extra, you know, I guess products, and then they offer it to the public for free, right? So if you help them with providing, I guess, the resources of volunteers, because they also needed volunteers to help stay, I guess, station after going to be their sites that people can come to pick up. And so at that time, this program that you're seeing that could be done could be done there too. So I would say I would recommend is that E-Folks reach out to them first, work with the food baskets since they're there. And you said also earlier food baskets, I mean these volunteers would work with food basket to get more knowledge correct? Yes, they would be one of the service sites. So for example, once people are trained, one of the opportunities they could have is to go work with Cocoa Harvest and support them as a volunteer. Right. Okay. Okay. And does food basket Cocoa Harvest know about this? That's going on. Yes. Okay. Yes, we've been working with them closely and we've collaborated on several programs delivering food education with them. And that's partly where this project came from is that we need more support to deliver those programs and also to potentially provide training to folks who already work for them or volunteer for them so that they're better able to deliver those kinds of educational programming as part of their existing work. Okay because meeting with them within the last months they never mentioned about this program so So I'm very surprised to hear it now. You're gonna see something. I think that the Food Basket has many programs and I think they're just, you know, specifically meeting. For regional Kukou Harvest. They're just specifically meeting on Kukou Harvest. Specifically. And I think that while Kukou Harvest does partner, you know, they train their volunteers and have that specific program where this is very specific to, I mean, is training volunteers but also really focused on nutrition education types of programs. So it's definitely within partnership. And we have also the Hawaii Island food alliance that the county helps facilitate and many conversations that include Cookew-Harvest, the food baskets,Tar, and other partners, and they've also given feedback on this program. I understand that, but I'm just saying that when I met with them for the past, you know, months, they never mentioned about this. And so they've been requesting funding from my contingency funds, right? So I'm really helping them in connecting them with partnerships to get their food stands, or vegetable stands built. And they need it like three right now in a pilot project in the district. So they've been able to give some time to this. Yeah, so Veshero and Issue, we actually did provide an impact grant to the food basket for exactly for co-cool harvest as well. So it's not that we're not supporting food basket. It's, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that I wasn't aware. It was never, it was never mentioned to me when I met with them about this program that you folks have. And also maybe other grants that R&D is offering for co-co-arvis. That's what I'm seeing, okay? So it's interesting to know so I'll be going back and contacting them to find out more information and getting like especially the people that they wanted to have at those stands. Yeah. So if I could just speak briefly. So Cocoa Harvest is one of the programs of the food basket food basket We don't work with them very closely We do however do some programs that use the produce that they collect I work more closely with the debucks program and we have been doing a number of different food education programs with them to help promote their program and promote the local farmers to have produce no, I understand I mean like I just say I'm just focusing on just the cocoa harvest, because you mentioned about the food basket. Yes. So the food basket would be one of our potential parts. Yes, I understand. After we launched the program. Yes, I understand. Thank you very much. Thank you. Are you old? Thank you. Alas, I'm Rick Alaguerre. Thank you, Chair. Deputy Deputy Director Lynn, please stay. I just wanted to give you a chance to maybe speak, I think it's relevant to this and the next item coming up just about how R&D operates with, you know, as far as going into the community and trying to promote things that maybe need a jump start or need a chance to get going in order to take off and then be something really helpful for the community. Can you speak to that? Yeah. So, you know, as Director Medina and I will come in, our goal for R&D is to be at the ahead of innovation, right? If there's innovative projects that would spur economic development within our community, that's what we're looking for. You know, the projects that come through impact grants, some organizations are very large, and the money that we provide them for through the grants, maybe just to give them a little bit of seed money to start that initiative. Others, maybe smaller organizations, that this may be their larger pot of funds that they start that initiative. Others may be smaller organizations that this may be their larger pot of funds that they start a program. Our job is to help build capacity. Our job is to help people scale up so that these projects after our funds are gone can continue going into the future. We're not here to fund organizations in perpetuity, but we're here to provide them the basis, the foundations, so that they can start a program within an organization. It may not be their main program. It may not be the most profitable program that they have in an organization. But every application that comes in for our impact grants is to make a dent in our, is to make a impact, right? So this program is to teach people how to utilize our food systems so that we have more food sustainability, more security in our community. With the aquaculture one, it's really trying to figure out how do we diversify our economic streams here in our community. Right? What would have thought that we could have a possibility of growing big island oysters, right? Just how we have big island abalone, you know, we have the Kampachi farm, but we're trying to figure out different ways to diversify. And how to get those, just explore it. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But we wanna try see, either through the EAs, either through the these feasibility studies, going through the process, how effective, how capable is this organization gonna be to scale up, is gonna be profitable, how do we incorporate local community that would manage the centers? That's kind of where we're at. We're here to pilot. We're here to assess and just try to see how we can help organizations scale up. Okay. Great. And can you just talk a little bit to these couple of initiatives that are slightly outside of like your impact grants and how that works and if there are any kind of guiding principles that you're still using for these that you would use for any grant or the impacts, the impact grants and other grants so that we can just let the public know that this is just not like you're just throwing money out they will and you really are really being intentional with these funds and that you have some ways of making sure that they're responsibly utilized. Yeah, so as we look at different requests that come into the office, and we get different requests from people who wanna come in and say say, we want to do concrete with algae to You know, have this great idea for energy sustainability We're trying to figure out is one are you in our community? two You have to expertise the local expertise to build it up here on the island and then we we assess other factors such as infrastructure. What is then going to be the community involvement and Glenn can speak to the broader vision of how that that center is going to look like. But as kind of the aspects that we're looking at is that we want to fund things that's within our community. We're not looking for outside investors who have this great grand idea of bringing 20 million dollars to the island, but it never happens. We've met every single request that comes in and some of these projects have been in the works for years. It's just up to the point where now they feel like it's a great time to do it. And you know with the aquaculture park it's really we're doing the Hewlett watershed study. It's coinciding with that. Just to kind of see what the what the effects would be if we incorporate a water filtering type of bio valve species that could help filter out the water. I mean that that would definitely help with a watershed you know decontamination process right. So that's kind of where we're at you know we we're always looking at pilots, we're always looking at local knowledge and whether or not it really resonates within our community. Great so just, how did these two come to you? Were they requests from the community or are they things that you've been discussing in house? Like you said, because you are working on the Helo Bay watershed project or any of those kind of things. I'm trying to get this because the public already brought this up. And I want to make sure that the public has enough information to understand the process. Yeah, go ahead, Sarah. Sarah Freeman, County Foyve, Fudson and Economic Development Specialist. I think for the first one that we were discussing the Master Food Volunteer Program was a part of our impact process, just to clarify. and just in relation to also what R&D funds, we have goals and objectives and so anything that we're supporting has to fit within those goals and objectives and help move forward those things in the community. And within our impact grant, for agonfood systems, we did revise our application of a year to be more specific and get more detailed information of understanding how there was community involvement in the process and designing and developing this and also the understanding of those types of impacts that could be a bit more clear. And so for this one specifically, it came through impact grants. It is aligned with our goals and objectives through this area in our department and it has been vetted through various community conversations through Hawaiian food alliance and other spaces. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. I guess the last question to you, Deputy, the public purpose clause that we try to deal with to all of these meet the public purpose clause as far as you're aware. We mean that they benefit the public. Yes, absolutely. Okay. And do you have a way of getting feedback and following where the funds are actually spent after you provide them? Yes. We have strict monitoring that we do for our grants. Right. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And I appreciate understanding more the processes from these particular grants. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Gullima. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I just wanted to say that I'm very happy to see this working C-TAR and County working together and not in silos because I think that's really important in order for us to make progress on greater sustainability and resilience in our food system. As a food producer, I do know that food education is really important because people don't necessarily know how to use the food that's grown on this island. People, you know, have gotten used to just making Simon or something like that. So it may seem silly to have to teach people how to make food, but it actually helps to increase the viability of local food producers because then the consumers want to have the produce that's grown or in my case meet on this island. And it also is I think almost like a seed for value added businesses from sort of that side of folks and knowing can turn that education potentially into startup businesses. So there's a lot of value in this I feel. And thank you very much for bringing it forward. Thank you. I was memory Naba. Thank you, Chair. Deputy Director Lynn, in your view, this resolution before us today, what is its main purpose? Is it to grant the funding or is it to... This resolution specifically is just for us to enter into a contract because C-TAR is part of the university system. So whenever at a county does an intergovernmental agreement, we have to go through Corp Council to get agreement done and drafted. So that asks really the first step of what we're doing here is getting that approval from the Council to enter into that agreement. All right. And for this specific area of C-TAR, I mean mean how many agreements do we have standing with them at this time? As of right now I believe it would be two if we if we go along with this one. Okay I'm wondering from a legal standpoint, I think a lot of times we're getting hung up on perhaps the amounts here, especially with the public testimony received around these as well. I'm not sure corporation council and finance if you folks want to review how we're wording this because if the main point is to enter into an agreement but the language contained within the resolution is referring to monetary contributions to these different organizations. It seems to muddy the waters a little bit when And I think the at least for this resolution relating to authorizing this funding Doesn't require council approval So hoping we can kind of iron that out and separate whether The amount requires approval or not because in the view of the department right now It has nothing to do with money and only to do with an agreement. So can we please review that across all departments. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Lynn and Miss Freeman. And who is that line who's joining us today? It was Hampton. Hampton. I'm interested more in the research and development is funding the development of a program. Correct? With C-TAR. It's a partial funding. Partial funding. Because when we do an impact grant, they have to have a matching amount. So this is just part of their overall budget. Beautiful. So UH, you know, the state is providing half the funding to do this program as well, not the county sponsoring the whole thing. Yeah. Okay. And then the food volunteers. Sorry, I'm just I'm thinking about this, these people that we're going to pre to this program. Master food volunteers. Is that is that a degree of certification? We what is that from Cedar? It's a certification. So I've 10 certified master food volunteers. Okay, and then there's goal is to go into the community. I think it's one per district, but there's ten of them. So one per district is what I read in the B-52. Correct? That is correct. And then there's going to be the intermediary between food producers and community, provide cooking demonstrations, teach people how to cook, make recipes using local produce and and other things, correct? Correct. I don't know if an intermediary would be the best term for them. They are outreach and education and so they would increase demand for local food products through their education programs which might include cooking demonstrations, food tastings, in-school education programs and other related work. Okay, and then they will... Do they have a cost from the end of the program? Is this the development of a program? Or is this paying for 10 individuals to graduate? I was certified a couple of years. They are not paid. It is free for them to participate, but they are not paid. And part of that is because we want to maintain the sustainability of this project and paying people to do the work would not be as sustainable. Okay so we're gonna spend roughly I mean our county portion is 15,000 roughly 14,800 and five dollars. We're gonna have 10 volunteers created. Yes although I think that I would emphasize that the outcome here is not necessarily the number of volunteers is the development of the program, which will then be able to go on and train many other volunteers. 10 is just the number that we have started with for this year, given that we will be developing this new program and all the curriculum will be adopted. The format, everything will be worked out in this pilot year and so going forward we should not need any at this point we do not anticipate any further funding needs from outside sources to support this going forward if that makes sense. That does it's's helpful. I guess I'm, I'm drawing a line between. Is it 14,805 dollars to create a program or is it 14,805 dollars to certify 10 individuals or is that two separate things? They we are certifying individuals as part of this pilot round, but the focus is on the development of the program and all of the elements that make that a reality. So that's the curriculum, the format online, the system for delivering everything, the development of a local food training module which is specific to the big island to make sure that we are providing people with up to date and accurate information about the products that we wanna promote and agriculture on this island. So all of those pieces, I think, are the focus of this development and then we are training 10 people as part of that pilot. And then reassessing, making revisions and going forward to be doing this as an annual program, the way that the Nester Gardner program now runs in the University of Hawaii system, which has been running successfully now since the 80s. Okay, okay, that makes sense. Thank you. That was helpful. Sorry if I missed that earlier. I was just walking through it myself and my brain. Okay. Thank you very much. It's happened. Miss Freeman, Mr. Van, thank you. Sure, one last question. 1000, I'm very uneasy. So you mentioned it's a pilot project. So if it is successful, will C-TAR still need to continue getting funding from the county? At this time, I don't anticipate a need for funds, and the university expressed their support for this program and we've discussed the possibility of them providing some funding to give us, for example, a program assistant to help us keep running. So at this point, no, we don't anticipate needing additional county funds to run this. If we did, we would probably be looking for different funding sources to say expand, because the plan is to pilot this on the Big Island and then expand it to- If we did, we would probably be looking for different funding sources to say expand, because the plan is to pilot this on the big island and then expand it to the rest of the state. Okay. So just for the record then, this could be a possibility of just a one-time funding. So public can know that it won't be a continuous funding for the next five years maybe. Okay. Yes. Yes. That maybe. Okay. Thank you. Yes, that is the deal. Sure. Thank you. And, and Cherrick, let me just add one thing. The total budget for this project is $29,610. So we're providing $14,000 of that. It's roughly a little less than half. Yeah, perfect. Thank you, Mr. Red. Okay, any further discussion? Hearing and seeing none, motion is on the floor. Two forward resolution 180-25 to council with a favorable recommendation, all in favor. Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight members in favor. Miss Kimball making excuse. Next item, please. If anyone would like to testify in resolution 181-25 please speak up now. Hearing none resolution 181-25 authorizes the mayor to enter into an agreement with the University of Hawaii Office of Research Services. Allows the county to provide a $125,000 grant to the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resource Center for permits and preliminary research to develop an aquaculture project in Hilo Bay. Introduce my council member, Carnegie Client, and Florida by request. Chair, motion to forward resolution 181-25 to the council with a favorable recommendation. I have a motion by Councillor Merrick Kirkowitz and a second by Councillor Merrick Glimba 2, forward resolution 1, 8, 1,'s two five to Council of the favorable recommendation. Mr. Deputy Director Land and Mr. Salko please go ahead when you're ready. Give us an overview. Thank you. I think you said my part earlier, but I'll let Glenn or agricultural specialists give you the history regarding this project and how it came to this point today. Good morning. Glenn Sako, Economic Development Specialist, working with the agricultural industry. I worked with the Department of Research and Development has supported the Pacific Aquaculture Resource Conservation Center in the past with an experiment in Hilo Bay regarding the Bivalve experiment. And it was through this experiment that we started talking, I was talking with Dr. Maria Haas, Director of the Center, and also, Rianne, as you heard earlier. And so we were talking about the opportunities for Bivalve production in the Bay. And at some point, there was this, I guess, a realization or a discussion that the average person who wants to raise oysters would not be able to handle, I don't think, the time and resources needed to get the permits to grow oysters in the bay. And so the thought was, you know, we should set up something like the state ag parks where you have the permits in place. It's managed by an entity. A private citizen could join the, let's say if a cooperative is managing that park, that average person could join the cooperative sign up for lease, pay for whatever that lease amount is, and get their equipment, learn how to grow oysters or bivalves or limo with that matter, and participate in an economic development project that would help to also bio-remediate our waters in Hilo Bay, train the youth to participate in aquaculture, which is the second largest agriculture industry in the state. And that's how some of this started moving forward. And the realization was that we would need funding to go through this process. We have some preliminary data we need to collect. It's a process that will take time, but we need to take the first step at some point. And the idea was that all of you could someday look out your window and see the first open water by the of Orelimo production in the Bay. Thank you. Thank you. Council members. Council member Calguillaura. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for bringing this forward. Just wondering, is there any, I guess you haven't entered into the actual agreement, because that's what you're asking for here. But could you please, when you do so, make sure that the Pacific Agricultural and Coastal Resource Center does collaborate or communicate with the folks working on the Helo Bay watershed project so that those two work together and not at odds with each other because I think there is going to be a lot of work coming out of that end of things. And this is almost like a potential solution to the plan that they're putting in place. So it's a little bit putting the cart before the horse, which I think it's okay, but as long as they communicate really well. So this is just a request from me personally if you could make sure that when you do start to discuss the agreements that you put in there somewhere that they will work or they work collaborate in some way with that group So that we don't waste our time in our funds doing something that might not be in sync Okay, I'm very much supportive of this. Thank you so much Thank you Thank you chair Thank, Mr. Saco, Davidi Lin and all the folks that you know were involved in this. It sounds like it took many years to get to this point, but there are still many, many years ahead to actualizing this aquaculture park. And I love the idea of it being modeled after the stake park where there are are leases permits available to folks that are interested in pursuing this kind of work. I'm interested if Rianna is still on Zoom if she's able to speak to the role that ViViola waterkeepers will be playing in this project. Aloha council member thank you so much for your question this is Rian and Chandler you all. Bye bye, all the water keepers has partnered with UH Hilo in implementation of seven different oyster projects throughout the state and you know unfortunately due to COVID and other challenges over the past year we have ended by Viola but in effort to preserve a lot of the gains that were made during that time of focusing on our near-shore waters and our water quality. I've continued to do some of that work around education and outreach regarding the potential for bio remediation to be used to address some of the watershed pollution that we see. And so I now work closely with Dr. Maria Haas and have been talking with Glen Taco about the potential for the the ability of our beautiful shellfish and lemongroup to support the restoration of the waters of Helo Bay. We did spend a lot of time as you know council member Kirkowitz testing the water with Helo Bay water keeper. And so we do have results from the past. We'd like to compare that to current results and other results from the University of Hawaii that have been taken from the area. Unfortunately, we are a little bit feeling in the gaps of the Department of Health, who just frankly does not have to staffing and resources to provide the type of information that I believe our public needs both for recreation and for public health. And so the information that we are seeking through this project is really about assessing the health of both the the water itself to carry the shellfish and lemoo in the future. And also whether or not we should be apprehensive about shellfish and lemoo that are growing in the bay. You know, in a perfect world, I think the Department of Health would be doing tissue analysis on our different marine resources and being able to communicate to us the public health impacts of ingesting those things. But as we all know, the Department of Health does not do any tissue analysis and does not do regular public communication about the specific health of different regions. And we do see fishing occurring in high volume in our shorelines and especially in Helo Bay. And another opportunity of this proposal is to really determine whether or not that is, I guess the word is advisable, whether that's healthy for our families, and if it is determined that the water cannot support our seaweed and shellfish as proposed, then it allows us to take actually a big step back and look at how the water quality may be impacting the health of residents that are relying on Hilo Bay for subsistence. So I wanted to also note that Hilo Bay, when we talk about Hilo Bay, we are looking at the Bay inside the break wall in terms of this study because of we understand the legacy, both contamination and the fact that the water doesn't circulate as well as it should because of the tsunami wall. But when we're speaking about the potential for both fire remediation and aquaculture more broadly, I think that that goes to the entire Hilo Bay region even outside the wall, where you all know there are very beautiful fish plants and other resources along the coast that have been supporting traditional forms of aquaculture for a very long time. And so as the council member noted, we will definitely be working closely with the watershed group as it is taking up its new new Kuleana to look at the Bay and working in cooperation with those efforts. But I definitely appreciate everybody's thoughtful consideration. We do not want to take any steps that would be, you know, in any way offensive or, you know, not in alignment with what is the needs of our community or our environment. And so I appreciate you giving us the opportunity to speak today, Mahalo. Thank you, Rianan. I mean, I just, it really, it warms my heart to know that you're involved because you do have so much experience and expertise working in this space. And I just appreciated all the additional details about this project. So it sounds like this idea is viable. This funding will allow for further research to see, is it truly viable without having a negative impact on public health and the environment? So it really sounds like a proof of concept. When Rianan was talking about some of the testing that would be occurring, do we already have the permits to do that sort of testing, the growing of the oysters and Lima in smaller quantities? Or is that something that we're going to be doing as part of this process? Who issues that permit to, by the way? Is that Army Corps of Engineers or like? Thank you, so I'll remember. Yes, so the university is working on a parallel project, which is a feasibility study, to take a look at just exactly what we talked about. The shellfish and the lemoo to grow in small quantities, only for a feasibility of their both growth of their both growth potential and their tissue sampling. And so from there we will be able to take a bigger step forward. There are not permits needed for the testing per se, but there are permits needed, as you mentioned, for the Army Corps of Engineers to be able to approve a small mooring buoy that would be in the Bay subsurface so that it is not in vessel traffic. We have consulted with the Coast Guard with the Department of the Office of Coastal Lands, which protects the Coastal Zone and conservation lands. We have SAP, which is a special activity permit with a DLNR. We have a plant quarantine permit. These are the permits that we maintain through UH. This is separate from what the request is before you today. And I don't want to muddy the water at all, but I just wanted to explain that we do have some preliminary steps going through the university. And what Glen Soko is proposing today on behalf of the county would be a step forward on this based on the gains and research and data produced with the university in the preliminary study that I just mentioned. Thank you so much for your question, Mahalo. Thank you. Mr. Sakal, when do you anticipate this research and analysis project to be completed by? You're talking about the current. I mean, with this. So it talks about the $125,000 securing permits conducting research and analysis. When will that wrap up? When will we get a report to know if this is something that we're going to be pursuing or not? Okay, so if this resolution goes forward, part of this, as Rihin had mentioned, is to unpiggy backing on their current research to expand it, otherwise as far as permits. Part of it, as I put in this scope of services, who would involve looking into any economic environment assessments that that would be needed. And the thought is that, you know, because we're on a one-year, typically it's a one-year country, we may not be able to finish all of this within the year, going to the permit process. So, I would have to get that. But we would have an update or a progress report, you know, for the council. And we would probably take about two years, hopefully based on Reann and his experience in going through this whole process right now. Okay, thank you. Appreciate you both for being here. I yield. Thank you. Councilmember Ronny-Sche. Thank you, Chair. So, would anyone know about the research that they did many years ago, like in 2010? No, this Pacific, I'm sorry, Pacific Agriculture Coastal Resource Center. Is that the facility that is at the old State Waste Water facility by Puibé. So back then, there was a doctor from the university or professor that was looking into studying about cleansing the water at Hilo Bay using oysters. And that was the discussion back in like 2010 when I was on a council. I met with them before. Is this the same project that you folks are looking for in moving this forward? Are you referring to director Hopkins? He was there, Kevin Hopkins was there, but had someone else, a lady, that was talking about the ways. And then she also had, at the time got involved, or got representative Jerry Chang, if I'm not mistaken, involved in the discussion about this project. Yes, that might be Dr. Hauss. I don't know if she is. Maybe Dr. Hauss connects. Yeah. Hi. Can you introduce yourself? And was it you who we met with way back and you talked about this whole thing about the oysters cleansing the beef run? Yes, hello, hi everybody. And thank you for that question, council member. So my name is Maria Haas. I serve as a professor of aquaculture at UH Hilo. And I am based at the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center, which is at the Old Wastewater Treatment Plant. So yes, I think I'm the person you're referring to and we did meet many, many years ago. So this is actually part of a kind of an evolution of an ongoing, I guess, efforts since about 2010 when we started a statewide initiative to try to start shellfish farming in Hawaii as a state, and of course we focused a lot of our efforts here in Hilo. So we did start looking at the Bay in about 2012, where we started doing the first experiments with Pacific oysters. One of the interesting things we found was that the Pacific oyster actually has the highest documented growth rate in the world in Hilo Bay. So they grow very quickly there. So that kind of gave us hope that, you know, it would be an adequate place to grow oysters, but also our native species. We have over 220 native species of shellfish in Hawaii, and a lot of them have not been fully tested for either aquaculture or for restorative aquaculture. So since this again, so this has been going since about 2012 and it's been leading up to our current research and then the initiative that's being proposed by R&D. I hope that answers your question. But my question too is why is it taking so long? Because there's a lot of unknowns and a lot of steps we have to go through and also working with multiple species. So again, we have over 220 species we could potentially be using in Helo Bay. Also the other thing that's kind of think is interesting is that we started off with shell fish. We were really thinking about Lemo at the time and so Lemo is kind of a recent addition to the idea that we could be hopefully capturing and recycling nutrients that are in Helo Bay. So we're working with Dr. Carla McDermod, who's a renowned marine plant specialist. She's in the Marine Science Department of UH Helo. So we started doing that about two years ago and she has actually developed land-based culture methods for about five species of our native Limo. So what is it taking a long time? Well, because of partly because of funding, but we also had a long hiatus and our efforts because of COVID. We really couldn't be active in the bay for about three years and then we didn't have funding. So we just got a new grant, a small grant that lets us continue some of this research. And then again, we're trying to revive this and work with R&D to expand it to include more people that could potentially benefit from this effort. You know, I understand what you're saying, but you know, every time people use COVID as an excuse of these delays. I mean, we need to stop using that term ready and just move on. But like you said, it started in 12. COVID came in in what? 19 or 18 right? 19. So that's seven years. Then COVID is gone after what? 22, 21. No, it's another three years now. So, but I do support because back then I did support what your ideas was. And I felt it was great, right? And guess another, what is that? Entity that we can use to help simulate our economy. But the other thing I wanted to ask, and I don't know if Dr. Houss, you would know, or I don't think R&D might know, because this is back then, they had a study about how to cleanse, he'll be front. And that was about breaking sections of the brick water. Whatever happened to that study? Councilman, my understanding was that that was a study put out by the Army Corps of Engineers. And that I think it, if I recall correctly, it was like it wouldn't make the impact that they were hoping for. And therefore it did not move forward beyond that study. And who initiated that study? Was it like Doug State or the county requested army corpse to do it? Well I think at that time if I recall correctly I think it was under when Merck came on his second time. Yeah, so maybe County we should be looking into it again like to see other alternatives because like you said they did do a research but maybe they could look into something better that can help cleansed area. I mean they must must have, I don't know if they'll just focus on one issue or one solution, but maybe we can request to see if they can go back and see if there's other solutions. Like for example, of the mouth of the Swiss that open area, right? I mean, the sand, the sediments that accumulate there, there were studies done that there were other options to deal with that problem because supposedly, all that comes around, the coast comes into the bay, comes around along the big front area and then it settles right there. So then they put that little brick water, right? Supposedly supposed to stop that, but it never did. Right? And now nobody doing anything about it again. Right? So I just kind of looking at that on that part. We talk about this development, but have you guys ever looked into NELHA, having this project done in NELHA? I have not met your energy. So I have not by have a board meeting with Nellhut at 2 o'clock today. And I can ask for some historical inquiries about whether or not that was feasible on the conocide. Yeah. Because you know, they also make sure about growing limo. I know like certain limo that you need to have water movement of water right so if we have it at Hilobet in Hilobet I don't know if that would work because like I've seen where in Nelha they did raise like certain hemorrh for I guess medical purposes and then also my client with Big Island Abolone they raised the certainly move for the Abolone to eat and the water always had to be moving right so you have some tips? Yeah well I wanted to add to your question about you know if we considered using now high as a sight. The idea The idea for having it in Hilo Bay was that we wouldn't have any inputs aside from your time in labor because it's out there in the ocean, which would naturally be the source of food for the oyster or bivalves or and the other part is that the whole idea was to have the community or the small private citizen be able to participate in an upper culture venture, whereas with Nauha is a larger business operation that we saw as well as resources. I have to go against that because they had experimental projects done at NOAA, like for example, the Octopus, but it never went through. You knew about that? Yeah. There was also something small. Yeah. Right. Also, there was pushback, right? But then, but there also the where they can offer for experimental projects right but I don't to me it's a great idea like I said from before I always supported this so I will continue to support this but it's just that to look at different options and I can mention before about limo to my other say certain ones you did you do need that movement of the water to, I guess, grow and expand. So something that research and development should maybe talk into these other stuff people who are you partnering with to kind of make them understand or they should know. And so don't go doing the same thing over and over, right? Get more, move forward. Okay. Okay, well, we do have Dr. McDermott, who Dr. Hall has had mentioned, who does work on that. Lee Mo. Okay, thank you. Are you okay? Thank you. There. How's my review, I guess? Yeah, just a couple questions from here from Kona. Lots of great questions from my colleagues. Thank you so much. We've gone over a lot of the things that I had wondered about. I had some concerns based on the testifier and some of the questions they raised. I guess my first question would be, it's been implied by some of the testimony that the University of Hawaii aquaculture people were the last ones to be informed. And can you confirm what the process was and how this is moved forward and that there is authentic alignment in the funding and the project. Thank you for your question. Council Member Vying is I think as we've discussed here it's been an ongoing collaboration with R&D and PACRAC or University on this project regarding the oysters and just cleaning of the helo bay. So I don't think that University was the last one to know because they've been the ones providing us with the input to scrap this proposal. But I think we also have the university online that can also answer any questions, but that is my understanding. I also vice I got it. I just I just needed to ask the question because it even put out there by some concerned constituents. Is there an EIS necessary then to move forward with this project? There will be an environmental assessment done. So that's one of the first steps that needs to be done before we can even apply for permits. Great. Thank you. And I do appreciate councilmember Onishi bringing up NELHA and all the facilities that are there. I have myself visited the Limao propagation projects down there and there. We have such a diverse island with such diverse ecosystems on land and also in the water by what. What will thrive in these arenas. I'm really excited to hear about the potential to use oysters and other shellfish to clean Hilo Bay, which is in dire need and has been for years. I don't want the concept of filter feeding shellfish to in any way dilute or give the impression that the continued pollution of the bay should be allowed. These little critters can only clean up so much. So I just want to keep that top of mind as we move forward with decisions being made about what happens on land, how it affects the bay. And I'm not sure if Leemoo, as Council member Onishi was talking about, would be able to thrive in that kind of an ecosystem because of the water. But I am grateful for what's being done here at NELHA. And I think because of the diversity on our island, there is opportunity for us to utilize all, both of these spaces and it would be nice to have something both on the east and the west side that is moving us forward, not only in keeping our oceans clean, or cleaning them up from what we have done so far, but also propagating Native Hawaiian Limeu species which have value economically, have incredible value for our health and well-being as humans and other species and being potential food items, additives for other creatures. So thank you for your work on this. I believe all my questions have been answered, and I'll be supporting this moving forward today. I yield. Thank you. Galsmover, good to go. Thank you. I also commend this project, I think, developing just a diversity of food sources, potential food sources, it's really, really important. Going forward, I just wanted to add a couple of data points, like people speaking of Nelha, there actually is a business there, Kona shellfish that actually produces brewed stock for oysters and it's kind of a sad story in a way and it's a great, it's a fantastic business it's wonderful that we have it but the reason that we have it is because most of that broodstock gets shipped to the Pacific North West where they are no longer capable of producing their own native bro stock because the water is not cold enough anymore. So it's kind of a climate change story which is very sad, but also an opportunity for our island to have some economic development. And the other data point is that Kulu A Ranch has a very successful program selling oysters out of their local ESO. There is folks that we can learn from on this. So, thanks very much for bringing this forward. Thank you. I was with Brinava. Thank you, Chair. Deputy Director, you're going to ask you the same question on the last one. What is the intention of this resolution? Same intention is to enter into a contract or agreement with University of Hawaii. That's the first step. Before we can even allocate funds, anything, we would have to go into that contract with the University of Hawaii because it's an intergovernmental agreement. So is it your intention to be back here with a different resolution to authorize the $125,000 grant? Correct. At a later point, yes. Okay. I'm seeing where we could do both in one step so perhaps we can speak offline. I don't see where there would be disagreement based on the conversation that happened today. So let's review that. And then I think I just had some conversation and a corporation council making sure that if that is gonna be the approach that we do have our title and our enacting clauses accurately reflecting that we are giving funds because it seems that way but it's unclear at this time. So let's touch base before council. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Is Miss Hall still on? Yes, yes, I'm here. Beautiful. Does the university or do you know if there's been a right of entry granted for Helo Bay by University of Hawaii? It wouldn't be granted by the University of Hawaii. We for our research, we've applied for permits to do our activities in in Helo Bay. Is that what you meant? That is what I meant. Is that with DLNR? Yeah, so there's multiple agencies. Yeah, so one is DLNR, there's DAR, and then we have the other permits that Rian and Chandray Yal mentioned earlier, like special activities permits, you know, and so forth. Okay, and those have been applied for, those have beened by the LNR. We're still we're still in the process of getting the final approval and I think Rian and Chandler Yal could probably comment exactly on exactly where that is right now. No that's okay I just wonder if you made those steps. Were you aware or did you follow the... sorry I'm just giving me to the top hold on. Get you the right name. The project that Maui took on in the Maui Harbor, Maui Nui Marine Resources Council doing the same thing. Yeah, so that was very similar. So that was spearheaded by Rianne when she was with the ViViola Hawaiian water keepers and we did supply the oysters for oysters for that so it is very it's fairly similar. What was the outcome of that study? I think they also have de-cisted and holding oysters probably I think because of funding although I'm not really sure exactly why. They did show good growth there was some mortality there probably because of freshwater runoff but they did did have a I think a pretty good long phase of success with that. Okay. I should point out there's been multiple sites around Hawaii including the oyster farms that we've supported the establishment of. So it's this is not exactly it's definitely proof of concept in moving towards feasibility assessment, but we're not starting from zero. I mean, we do know that oysters, very species of oysters do grow well in different conditions and Hawaiian waters. I agree. I was thinking about what you said. I was looking over some of the research that's been done to date. And I'm more making the statements to the department as well that this isn't the first time this has been done. It's been done across the state. I think more so as we discuss today watershed restoration. Looking at some of the past comments I think from yourself miss out that. Filter feeders like oysters won't solve the pollution crisis in Yule Bay. They may be a piece of it, but the more important problem is addressing cesspools. It's a great way to focus public attention on the issue. Agreed. So, we have an idea that has potential. We also have proof of concept that's been done across different counties in similar circumstances, maybe in a different watershed environment. We have a potential for economic stimulus. And I like all those components, just making sure that we're all on the same page as we put $125,000 towards something that may or may not have already been done in different places, but liking the idea, if that makes sense to the department. Is there any one entity, actually let me start with this. Is there an agreement already? Do you have an MOA? Because it's not with the document that we have. And I love it way. I'm gonna enter into an agreement. But we don't have it. We're in the process of drafting something, but there's no agreement yet. Okay. And the reason I'm asking is the idea from Council Member Aynaba, which is, how is there been a grant provided to another party, not potentially the Pacific aquaculture and coastal resource center, is that correct? It would be the University. It was directly to the University. Directly to the University. To this program to do the work. OK, so not a third party. Not a third party. OK, that's good. So one of the first things they did, not first. One of my big projects I ran for my previous work was the shellfish operation in Hylian Paradise Park. And they actually grow oysters for the rest of the world and ship them out and as we put on the solar system I got to see their entire operation really cool really neat and amazing what they do out there in Paradise Park using well water that they popped through the lens of our fresh water in Paradise Park and gone to saltwater and are pumping that up to run their tanks. Very interesting, but I didn't realize how much of an economic impact they have in a place like Paradise Park to the rest of the world in the oyster industry. So that was incredible. So seeing us move the direction, I like it. But I'm also wanting to make sure we're not focusing on one entity through around roundabout way because I don't like that. Okay. Okay. That answers all my questions. Thank you. Councilmember, is there any further discussion? Beautiful. Thank you very much. Ms. Haas, thank you very much. Rihanna and Mr. Van and Mr. Saku. We have a motion on the floor. Two, four, resolution one, eight, one, dash two, five to council with a favorable recommendation. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight members in favor. Thank you very much. Kimball being excused. If anyone would like to testify in resolution one 182-25, please speak up now. Hearing none, Resolution 182-25 authorizes the mayor to enter into an agreement with the state of Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation. allows for the receipt of $1,977,568, of federally derived funds to be used towards the Kuokini Heights of Affordable Housing Project, introduced by Council Member Kahneli Kline, for the Byable recommendation. I have a motion by Council Member Kirkowitz and a second by Council Member Galimba to forward resolution 182-25 to Council with the favourable recommendation. member Kirkman. Thank you chair. Administrator Costa are you going to be speaking on this one? Great to see you. Thank you. Just want to note that this resolution we are receiving $1.9 million from the federal government, the Home Art Program, your office solicited some RFPs for this funding. Didn't get any application. So a decision was made with the approval of state HHSDC to utilize these fundings for affordable housing rental units, Yes. 100 of them. Yeah. In Kona, Kua Kini Heights. Yes. Am I missing anything? No. Okay. And then how long will these rentals be available to folks? So it's a 20 year agreement, affordability agreement. That's what you're asking. The $1.9 million will go towards these rental units. This is offset certain costs. Yep, so this is development. This is a project in Kailuakona above those, anticipating breaking ground this year, 100 units. this is this is additional subsidy with light and other funds. Great. Just another piece in the capital stack. Yes. And then is there a list of individuals that are waiting for housing in this particular area that meet the qualifications for this kind of housing unit? So this, so when this property is developed property is developed and ready for getting close to lease up, they'll open a wait list. Got it. Just an existing wait list. It would be section 8, but this is not section 8 housing per se. So they'll open a wait list and there will be interest. 60% in below AMI. Got it. Great. I'm just going to make note of that here. Thank you very much. In full support. Thank you, Chair Eald. Thank you. Here. Yes, Cosmo Rodriguez. Yeah, I just want to thank Administrator. Sorry, my head is not feeling great today. Thank you to the Department Housing for falling through it this I'm very excited. This was the project that came before us a few years ago with Makuni from the AHA group. And I'm really grateful to see that this funding has come forward and surely moving forward with this project. So thank you for all your work, administrator Costa. Yeah, I hope. Thank you. Council Member, how are you? Thank you, Chair. Also very supportive. Just a couple of questions on the timing of things. So this was originally something that you went after several years ago and got, is that right? And then you're trying to get it out the door. I take it as soon as possible. My understanding is that this home project, the home program is potentially going away. Is that correct? And then is there any possibility that this money can be clawed back from the federal government or once at what point do we know it cannot be clawed back? I guess that would be my final question. The funding is secure. We need to appropriate by September to utilize these funds and our home funds are allocated to us every three years. So it's on a three-year rotation federal to state HFDC and so this is part of the past this past allocation. So this is the 2021 but you're getting your part in 2025 as part of that three-year. Okay, got it. Okay, and it's secure as it is right now, there's no possibility of that. Okay, and is it true that the home project may be going away? I have not heard that. Okay. Yeah. I have not heard that home will be going away. Okay, but this funding is secure. Yes. Okay. Terrific. Thank you. I'm very supportive and happy to be seeing that we'll be getting, um, you know, it's a 20 year affordability. I hope we can think about, you know, potentially extending that after that period and I know that it's it's something that we've been thinking about and talking about. Um, but yeah, good that it's at least 20 years to get us going and happy to be seeing that there'll be 100 units for people over on the Kona side. So forward. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Ms. Costa, thank you for being here today. What happens at the end of the 20 years? Just remind me. Yeah, so I'll be retired by then. But hopefully we'll be. Yeah. You know, so this is a light tick project. I'm not really familiar with what happens with light tick projects after 20 years, but typically they can renew their light tick funding and they can extend affordability past the 20 years. That's typically what I see in our multi-family housing that they don't necessarily go to market. Yeah. Yeah. I'll follow up with you after it. Yeah. Thank you. Chair. Councilmember Villegas. Yeah. If I remember correctly when McCunny came and presented to us, the plans were for longer than 20 years for this project. I want to say 60 years, but I may be misquoting. But if I remember quickly, that was one of the things that made this project even more exceptional was she was taking on a longer time frame to ensure that these units remained in circulation in an affordable capacity. OK, thank you. Thank you. OK, I'll follow up with you. I'll leave it Ms. Costa. Okay, any further discussion? Here again, saying none. Motion is on the floor. Two four resolution, 182-25, two council with a favorable recommendation. All in favor? All in favor. Any opposed? Mr. Clark, you have eight members in favor. Ms. Kimball excused. If anyone like to testify in resolution 183.25, please speak up now. Hearing none, resolution 183-25 authorizes indemnification of current and former county employees named as individual defendants. and then some known as Aaron Mosul Yoshida at all V County of Hawaii at all civil number three CCV-23-0000038 against all damages assessed. Introduced by Council Member Kaniyid Kline, for a by request. Chair, motion to forward resolution 183-25 to the Council with a favorable recommendation. Motion by council member Kirkwood, seconded by council member Galimba, two forward resolution 183-25 to council with a favorable recommendation. Miss Harold, thank you for joining us today. I want to give us a brief overview and then we'll go to questions if there are any. Sure, thank you council member member Connelly, Klein Felder. So just as a matter of background, you're familiar that with Deputy Corporation Councils coming to Council seeking a settlement authority and we go to Councils executive session for that. Today we're here to get approval through Councils adoption of a resolution as Hawaii County Code 2-188 requires for the county to indemnify six individual county employees or former county employees that were named as individual defendants in the Yoshida lawsuit. We're seeking a resolution allowing county to pay for on behalf of those individual defendants the settlement amount that was agreed to. And really what this resolution does is it finds a public purpose in paying public monies for these individual. Now, let me just talk about what the difference is between suing the county and a county employee in their official capacity versus suing a county employee in their individual capacity. When a county employee is sued individually, what the plaintiffs are alleging is that the county employees acts, went beyond negligence, went beyond the scope of the official capacity, and were done basically with malice and reckless disregard. And so in those instances, the conditional privilege, which is provided to county employees acting in their official capacity as immunity from negligence, that no longer applies. Because what plaintiffs are alleging is that the county employees weren't just negligent, they were worse than that. And so the plaintiffs are looking to go to the individual's pocket book. This resolution or resolutions made under 2-188 determine four different things that allow the county to find a public purpose. Allow Council to find a public purpose for the spending of these monies. Okay, thank you very much. Questions from the council? Mr. Anishin? Thanks, Chair. For my discussions, I think it would be better if we went to an executive session for these questions that might ask. So it's my recommendation that we go into executive session. Okay. I'm just going to check you on Mr. Brown. We have our next committee started actually 8-10 minutes ago. How would you like to proceed with in just understanding Mr. Onishi's request? That's up to the body. I think we could table some of this. Enter the next committee and take up some of there and hopefully have fine time within the schedule to get back and bring it back to the table however we also have to consider we have the public hearing at 5 p.m. today for our budget so you know there's there's a lot in the agenda today that's kind of up to you and how you guys want to do that. Okay um to Mr. Anisi and to the, this will be heard again at Council, correct, Mr. Errol? Yes. On the fourth, I believe, of June. Okay. So Mr. Unisey, maybe at that time, we can do it, especially. Or maybe Chairkin Agendaise, the executive session for this discussion. Yes, if we need to get into executive session account so we can do so. Okay. Thank you Okay, thank you mr. Oniss. You see thank you miss her Yes, okay. Thank you for understanding our schedule today and that we're a little behind mr. Inala. Yeah, just quick question. So making sure I understand we are paying on behalf of those individuals that we, this resolution is trying to indemnify correct. But that amount that was already authorized is what shouldn't have come before because that amount already was approved and is covering those people. This is separate, this this resolution is separate from the actual amount. It's irrespective of the amount and there was a the it's a little awkward in this case because of the timing in the lawsuit and when the settlement conference was scheduled. I would of course prefer to have this indemnification resolution before to have that happen before, but I did not have enough time to have the two hearings. So it's a bit of an anomaly and I intend to not have this kind of I intend to bring these types of resolutions well in advance of trial or settlement conference in the future. Okay and if this body should choose not to pass this resolution that has an effect the ability of the county to go and give out the funds as was negotiated. Correct. In the settlement negotiation. Yes. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you council members for the discussion. Ms. Harold, thank you very much. On the motion to forward resolution 183-25, council members, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight members in favor. Ms. Kimbo being excused. If anyone would like to testify in Bill 54, please speak up now. Hearing none, Bill 54 means ordinance number 24-33 as amended relating to public improvements in financing thereof for the fiscal year July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. Appropriates excess fuel tax revenues collected from fiscal year 2022, 2023, and 2023, 2024 to the following projects totaling $1493,554.75 roadway projects, $448,663 bridge inspection repair, $298,710.95 and local road projects, $746,777.37. Funds for these projects shall be provided from fuel tax revenues in excess of what was projected in order NANCE 23-18. Introduced by Council Member kindly, Klein, for the by request. Chair, motions of forward bill 54 to the Council with the favorable recommendation. I have a motion by Council Member Kirkowitz and a second by Council Member Inava, 2 forward bill 54 to Council with the favorable recommendation. Thank you for joining us today, Council Member Luas. Hi, good morning. What are our uncertainties? Just real high level summary and we'll see if anyone can say. Yes, of course. So we are requesting to appropriate these access revenues from fiscal year 23 and fiscal year 24. Basically that means that we received more revenues than we had budgeted for. So in order to use these access funds, we need to ask for appropriation. When we do requests for access funds, or the way the money is divided is reflecting the original ordinance, so 2014-18. So we use the exact same projects with the exact same percentages and we did the 50-50 split between the highway division and our engineering division. Thank you, Ms. Caluoloz. Questions from the council? Council member Kirkwoods. Thank you, Chair. Oh, Ms. Kaluha Lewis. How come it's many years after the fact that we are realizing that we have excess fuel tax revenues? Yes. So normally we would come earlier in the fiscal year due to a lot of other projects and a lot of things happening. We did not come to council until now. Ideally, it would be as soon as the books close for the last fiscal year that we would come and ask to appropriate the funds. Okay, so this is excess funds for two different fiscal years? Yes. And then they are being applied to programs that were identified for fiscal year 2324. According to the original ordinance 2418, yeah. I don't know the status of these projects, but say a project is done? Yeah, so I think it's beneficial that we do have those kind of, for lack of a better word, generic kind of projects in the engineering. So if a specified project is completed, we could always do a project that falls under the more generic categories. And course, peaving is always an ongoing effort by the highways division. Okay, that's helpful to know. Thank you for being here. You're welcome. Thank you. How does it matter? Use this. Thank you, chair. Hello, morning. Could you just talk to me about the breakdown and the local road improvements and how you break down those percentages across, across the districts? Yes, so the apportionment formula is based on the total road mileage. Okay. So it's the percentage of road miles in TMK district equals the percentage of fuel tax revenues spent. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you. Council Member Vegas, anything? Aloha, thank you. Yes, just a quick question. As I look through, I mean, this is good news that we have more money in corrections instead of having less. I wondered, what would there be a process? There's a road in Kona, Roa Poynciana that has been pointed out to me a number of times. It's a direct artery route, Malcolm, a chi between the lead drive and the highway, connects up to Loco. There's a school there. There's a very large church. And we can follow up offline, but I just wanted to put this in there. I wondered what the process would be in requesting that that road be considered for some of this funding that would be, I think, call it North Kona. So the way the projects are prioritized, I believe also for the pleaving and for the engineering is we have a software, I think it's called Mandeli, Mandeli, something like that. I apologize for not knowing that off the top of my head, but you can definitely reach out to our director and let him know your concerns. If it's not just resurfacing the road, it would probably fall more within engineering scope of work. Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate that clarification. I'll reach out to director Azvedo, or yeah, Acting Director Azvedo. Yes, thank you so much. I owe. Thank you. Ms. Kudolos, these funds are only applicable to projects that occurred within the fiscal year. The funding was collected or in excess of, or no, can go move forward into other projects in the current fiscal year and beyond. Yeah so that would be so if there are so in the exhibit there are specific projects but if we have upcoming roadway projects, bridge projects that are in the works for this coming fiscal year we can definitely use use the funds. Okay, I think I'm just, I like the conversation because the funds were in excess, meaning that our revenue forecast for the fuel tax was actually under what it actually was. Yes, so when we, when back then, when they forecasted the revenue, we came in over what was anticipated. The actuals were over what we anticipated. The actuals were over what we anticipated, yes. Correct. I think it's funny because I think there's a high-ruch meeting happening right now with a discussing the impact of electric vehicles and its decrease on our fuel tax revenues being brought in. Yeah, so that's definitely something that I myself have been trying to, you know, watch out for and see how those would impact our fuel tax. Like with anything else with forecasting and budgeting, especially like with these excess funds, of course we can use it, its revenues we already received and belong to the county. It's when we go into the increments, we strategize so that we're not spending money that we don't have. So if there is any changes to our forecast for fuel revenues, fuel tax revenues due to high-rock will probably err more on the side of caution when actually allotting some of the forecasted revenues. We usually don't like to allow before we receive. Thank you. You're welcome. Good, Council members. Seeing nothing further, motion is on the floor. Thank you, Ms. Kool-Adois. Thank you, folks. Two or four, Bill 54, two, counsel of the favor. We're recommendation, all in favor. Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight members in favor. Ms. Kimball being excused. Bill 55, please. If anyone would like to testify in Bill 55, please speak up now. Hearing none, Bill 55, the man's ordinance number 24-32 as amended. The operating budget for the county of Oval Eva Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2025. Appropriates revenues in the federal grant's home American Rescue Plan Program account,,977,568, and appropriates the same to the home American Rescue Plan projects account, $1,817,225, and home American Rescue Plan Administration account, $160,343, to be used towards the Cookeany Heights Affordable Housing Project, introduced by Councilnelly, Klein Felder by request. Chair, motion to afford bill 55 to the Council with the favorable recommendation. Motion by Council Member Kirkwood, Seconded by Council Member Huse this to four resolution, sorry, four bill 55 to Council with a favorable recommendation. All any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight members in favor. Ms. Kim will be excused. That brings us to the end of our agenda. Seeing no further business. We are adjourned. It is 10.54 a.m. to the public. We'll be back in a few minutes to start the next committee.