I'm going to be back. Hello. Welcome to the 45th session for the Committee on Finance today is October 1st, 2024. It is 9.36 a.m. This meeting is being held from the Hawaii County Building at 25th of Pune Street. And we also have members joining us from the Kona Chambers as well. I'm calling this meeting to order. Mr. Clerk, can you do a roll call for me? Council member Evans. Here. Council member Galimba. Here. Council member Inaba. Bill. Council member Kagiwata. Here. Council member Kirkowitz. Present. Council customer Kimball here Don't so member Lee Lai Conce member V. Agas Chair Yep chair you appear to have online members and attendants. Thank you, mr. Any tax sheet it Public testimony mr. RSL if appreciate it. Public testimony, Mr. RSL. If there is any. No testimony at this time. Okay. That's where I think it started then. We have all of our lovely people joining us this morning. Thank you for being here. Mr. Kirkless-Kotuz, resolution 634, please. Resolution 634-24 authorizes the marriage into a multi-year agreement with Hawaii and telecom incorporated for a centrex biz plus service with a Hawaii police department, Hawaii fire department, and authorizes the marriage into a three-year agreement at estimated cost of $22,875 for the police department, $11,730 for the fire department for the new joint communications center located at 540 Kupuna of Place. Introduce Mr. Connelly Kleinfeld or by request. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, we have a motion please. Chair, motion to floor resolution 634-24 to the Council of the favourable recommendation. I have a motion by Councillor Mauer Kirkowitz and a second by Council Member Kimball, 2-4 Resolution 634-24 to Council council with a favorable recommendation. We do have joining us today members of our department. I'm going to the council for any questions. Cone up please let me know if there is anything that you like to add. Thank you. Seeing no discussion resolution six34 is on the floor. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have nine members in favor. 635, please. There's any testimony for resolution 635-24. Hurry, none. Resolution 635-24 authorizes the Maritant into a multi-year game with diagnostic lab services incorporated for blood collection laboratory services. Authorizes the Maritant into a three-year game with an estimated cost of $500 per year to provide blood collection laboratory services for the Hawaii Fire Department to be in compliance with its blood-borne pathogenes infectious disease exposure guidelines. Introduce Mr. Connelly Kleinfeldt or by request. Thank you, Mr. Hendricks. Chair, motion support resolution 635-24 to the Council with a favorable recommendation. Motion by Council Member Kirkowitz. Seconded by Council Member Lee Loy. Discussion on the measure. Hearing and seeing none. Motion is on the floor. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clark, seeing none opposed. We have nine members in favor. Affording resolution 635-24 to council for the favorable recommendation. Is there any testimony for resolution 636-24? During non-resolution 636-24 authorizes the merit into an agreement with state of Hawaii Department of Transportation, pursuing to provide by statute section 46-7, for granted the Contrib Hawaii Mass Transit Agency, allows to receive a $1,145,230-9-$1,000 federal UI funds to purchase Americans with disability accvans to accommodate the increase in ridership with the Paratransit Program, introduced Mr. Connelly Clifelter by request. Chair, I motion to forward resolution 636-24 to the Council with a favorable recommendation. Motion by Council Member Kirkowitz, seconded by Council Member Caluioata, 2-4 resolution 636-24 to Council with a favorable recommendation. We have the administrator here today. Could you come up and give us a brief overview, Mr. Candle? I think this is a nice opportunity for a county. Thanks for being in. Hello, how council members. Administrator Candle. Give us a little background on it. So 1.1 million dollar grant for smaller buses? It's a more of a fan, a small-ish bus fan that is equipped with up to 380A compliant secured positions in a ramp. We account our very old fleet of seven vans that are teetering on the brink of trying to keep up and maintenance issues. And we've had to take some steps just to keep them maintained, increasing the transmission changes, et cetera, in order to kind of keep up with the wear and tear. And so we've been struggling with that a little bit, but we have a solution in the near future. And then this also would be a step towards not directly these fans, but allow us to use our older fans and kind of refurbish them and start introducing at least some measure of the micro transit that we want to be looking at in about a year. So these funds were applied by the previous administration to get the grant. And so we're just asking to be able to be approved to move forward into that plan. Thank you very much. Council members. Council member Evans, go ahead. Thank you. I see that you had to put in matching amount. It came out at what account did that come out of your matching amount? That hasn't been decided and there's a couple of options to be able to do that. We do have the ability to do that. It's also a possibility that given the length of the grant that we would actually do that in the next fiscal year as part of our budget planning. Oh, okay. Good. That's good to know. The other thing is there's 10. Can you give us an idea? Are you... So what I read, I'll back up a second. What I read was our county is going to have about 20% of its population over the age of 6 years, 65. It's coming up here shortly. So this is really timely that you're doing this. So my bigger question is, knowing the demographics of the island, will we see these 10 dispersed kind of everywhere on the island and will be depend on your demographic kind of zeroing in on where the need is. Yeah, so mostly our issue is the current fleet is very aged and we have been looking for solutions to attend to that. Part of that is probably refurbishing those and probably reusing those in our micro transit when we get the replacement fans. So it's not a great expansion to what we have, but it's a lot of flexibility when it's coupled with the aged fleet as backups. So there are some key areas that we're looking at that we would like to consider expansion into and I think of ocean view and Waikoloa village in particular because I know that there's some needs there. I think that we, most other areas are pretty well served with our current distribution. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Administrator Crandell, great to see you. I'm looking at the B-52 and it says here that there's a growing number of ridership in the Parachransit program. I wonder if you could elaborate and share with us how many folks you are serving through this service. I don't have the specific number, but I know that over just the year that I've been here, we've almost doubled our ridership and paratransit. It is definitely- Give a range. I don't recall the top of my head. No worries. If you could send us that information, that would be extremely helpful. And then are these vans specialized or are they something that are readily available and can be shipped to us as soon as this request for funding is approved? I'm just wondering how quickly we're able to get the vans from I'm assuming the mainland, apply our branding, and then in service here on Hawaii Island. We would estimate about nine months between putting it out and receiving. So we have another related purchase that we're in the middle of right now. So this is on top of that and that's kind of the roadmap that we'd be using and we've done all of that kind of groundwork already. So we're pretty familiar with the process and the timing. So it looked like about nine months. Great. So about summertime next year, we'll have ten new para transit fans in operation. Yes. Excellent. I will be supporting this. I know that you do a lot of service in the Pune community. And so thank you for ensuring that everybody, every ability has access to this critical transportation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Mugleba. Thank you. And I just wanted to thank you and your team for the work that you do driving in this morning pulled out next to a bus in Pahala that was packed. And so you know definitely that service is needed probably even could use more. I know partly it's kids going from ocean view to school, but there are also adults on it as well So I know that the services is very very well used in this area So thank you so much for your efforts to continue to make that possible Thank you. I We have been working on trying to reach out to some of that community locally in regards to the school children and the impact that they're having and working with the Department of Education to get them qualified to be on some of those buses as well so it's a little more evenly distributed. But that's an ongoing issue. Thank you. I'll just remember how you want to. distributed but that's an ongoing issue. Thank you. I'll remember how you want to thank you, Chair. Thank you, administrator Candle, for this work and for being here. Just wondering at one point I thought there was some discussion about the paratransit buses being electric. Did that, am I imagining that? That was never part of the discussion or? It is part of the discussion. We do have the time to work with that and the need right now is critical. So we do have the goal of being zero emission by 2035. It's very front and center in our mission. And I think that you said electric, I think of zero emission, because I think that the area is kind of evolving, including hydrogen and some options that I'm hearing about. So we definitely have a lifespan that's within that time period that we'd be looking at replacing these in a logical time frame that would still allow us to meet our 2035 goal. Okay, so but there was never any discussion about potentially making these zero emissions. We did talk about that and then there's an expense and a delay in manufacturing and some other factors that make it currently less desirable to pursue right now. Okay. Okay. Well, I think when we can, we don't need to keep that 2035 goal as the old, I mean, if we can do it sooner, especially if we can start to transfer, transform our fleet. It seems like the sooner the better. We do have, um, on order to be delivered in mid spring for battery electric fixed route killing buses and we're working on an expansion of our fixed route battery electric bus fleet. OK, great. OK, thank you. I'll be supporting. Thank you. How's the river gimbal? Yeah, two quick things. The finance director has informed me that the account is one of the general excise tax equipment accounts that is available for matches transit, which is where the matching funds will come from. And I think to your question, Council Member Kauywata, I believe we were awarded some climate pollution reduction fund money for electricransit budget through application. And that went through R&D. So I'm not sure what the status of that is, but that was a different funding mechanism that we have been awarded. We definitely have a lot of opportunities. We also have a number of grants that are waiting for us to get into. And it's definitely something that our team is working on right now. Thank you. Thank you. Very good, Mr. Candle. Looking at the state's climate change portal, they actually, one of our goals is 100% zero emission public government-owned transit bus fleets by 2030. That's what they put on the website. I know you're right about the 2035. I think that's the general overarching idea, but they're actually listing a 2030 for government-owned bus fleets, which is interesting. So that might have to speed up our process there. Really excited about this grant. This puts funding directly into the county to help our ADA requirements and getting our folks in need of the services, more access to services. This is beautiful. And I really appreciate your team jumping on this and getting it done and if we can see results in a year that's amazing. So thank you for bringing this in front of us and appreciate your time. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, we have the motion on the floor. 2-4 resolution 636-2-4 to council with a favorable recommendation. Council members, all in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have nine members in favor. Mr.. Mr. testimony for Bill 210. Hearing none, Bill 210 men's order number 2432 as amended operating budget for the county O'Aay. For the fiscal year in June 30, 2025, provides the requisite of the federal grant section 5339 Formula Rule and small urban account, one may in 145,000 $239. And it will purface the same to the section 5339 Formula Rule and small urban buses account. Funds used to purchase Americans with Disability Act Bands to accommodate the increasing ridership with the Paratransit Program and should just Mr. Connelly climb out of the request. Chair motions afford bill 210 to the council with a favorable recommendation. Motion by Councilor Rekirkoit, seconded by Councilor Rekoguioata, forwarding bill 210 to council with a favorable recommendation. Any discussion? Councilmember Kirkwoods. No chair, this is just a companion measure for the resolution that we just approved. Thank you. Anything else, councilmembers? Hearing and saying none, motion is on the floor. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight members in favor. Miss Kimball being excused. Bill 211, please. Is there any testimony for Bill 211? Very none. Bill 211, amendments, order number 2432, as amended, operating budget for the country for the way why for the fiscal year in June 30 2025 Chris Revs on the federal grants American Rescue Plan Act local assistance and tribal consistency fund account $32,922.96 and appropriate the same to the American Rescue Plan Act local assistance and tribal consistency fund account for total appropriation of $832,920 and 96 cents26 funds used for any government purpose other than allowing activity introduced Mr. Connelly Klein-Felder by request. Chair, motions of forward bill 211 to the Council with the favorable recommendation. Motion by Council Member Kirkowitz, second by Council Member Leigh Leigh, to forward bill 211 to Council with the favorable recommendation. Any discussion? Council Member Evans. Yeah, thank you. Director Nakagawa, please. So I noticed in the letter that's attached, transmittal letter, it says that the funds come from the United State Department of Treasury to be used for any governmental purpose other than a lobbying activity. Well, any is a really broad statement. Is there a, has administration come up with a list of how they're going to spend the money? Yes. Good morning, council members. Diane Nakagawa, finance department. So the local assistance and travel consistency fund was authorized under ARPA, the American Recovery Plan Act. It is different than our state and local fiscal recovery funds. When we received these funds, we did put it in the budget. In the last, for this year, we appropriated it in the budget for 800,000. We actually received 832, 922, 96. This is the extra appropriation of 32,000. These are very flexible funds as you just read in the description, any government purpose other than lobbying. And it doesn't have, there's no deadline to expend the funds. However, we have been working with our police and our fire departments on an initiative to get AEDs in our public safety vehicles. So that is the plan for this funding. Okay, just a suggestion. When you do a transit, I don't know, Chair. If you do a transmittal letter, if you can tell us how you plan on spending that would be because then it would be a public record. If we have that information, we'd be happy to put that in. Thank you. We have not gone through the procurement process yet, so that is still in process. Thank you, Dr. Pat. Okay. Seeing no further discussion. Motion is on the floor. Two, four, bill two, one, one. The council with a favor. We're recommendation. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have nine members in favor? Let's go back to communication 14.14 please. So any testimony for communication 14.14. Hearing none. Communication 14.14 monthly budget status reports for the month's ended July 31, 2023. Through the month ended January 31, 2024, Prime Minister Director Diana Cagallo dated August 30, 2024, transmitting the above reports, pursuant to section six, six point three, each of the Hawaii County Charter. Motion to close file on communication 14.14 please. It's a move. Thank you. We have a motion by Council Member Lila. And a second by Council Member Kimball, closing file on communication 14.14. Thank you for being here today, Director. I wish you go ahead and then we'll go to questions that there are any. Sure, thank you, Chair. So we do have this item here with our six monthly budget status reports. Just want to acknowledge the fact that this is rather late. We had some challenges over the last year. Primarily did a staffing. We are back on track. We were down in a count-on-5 for over a year, and we just hired an assistant controller, so that is a brand new position. It is not our intent or expectation that these be this late. We understand this is a valuable tool for you to look at our county budget, and we will get back on track. The pre-limp through June 30th, 2024 will actually be submitted or was submitted yesterday. So you'll get those as well. But just wanna acknowledge the fact that we're working to get better. We are looking at our challenges and finding ways to be more efficient. We understand the deadlines and how important they are. But these are here for you and again, we look to just get back on track. Thank you Director. Thank you Director. I just want to take a moment to acknowledge and express my appreciation for your honesty and humility. Your team is working incredibly hard, also navigating IT transitions, and I had some interesting conversations during our H.Sat conference with a gentleman who is working with the company working on that. He had such a high level of respect and regard for your team for having worked with such obsolete software for so long. He called it like working with an abacus. And I just, you know, I take that, you know, for what it is, but it's not a negative reflection. It's actually such a testament to the work that, and the work load and what you've been able to accomplish with unfortunately, out the necessary technology and infrastructure to support a finance department. So in my humble six years here, there have been a number of times when we have gotten our reports a little bit late. And so under the circumstances you guys have been a number of times when we have gotten our reports a little bit late, and so under the circumstances you guys have been working under. I just want to say thank you and we appreciate you and I'm really looking forward to you having like what is it when you go to middle school you have to go to a scientific calculator, instead of an abacus or something. So I'm excited for how much, ideally, easier your world is going to be, even though it's a heavy lift in the interim. So thank you. I think all of you and your team. Thank you. We appreciate that. Thank you. I also remember, I also just like realize, yes, how difficult it is to produce these on paper, big stacks of paper for us and I appreciate that but also I'm also looking forward to not getting them in a sense because I feel like there could be much more efficient ways to get the same kind of information. So appreciate all the work that goes into getting those to us. And also just hoping to soon have a conversation about a more efficient way to, for you folks to produce them and for us to have the efficient information. Thanks. Thank you. That was my very humble. Yeah, I'm going to build on council members, go home as much as I know how much work you put the staff put into these. I'm not sure how useful they are at the end of the day, if I'm honest. It's not like we can change anything. When it's happened, it doesn't inform our decisions going forward, maybe, to a certain extent. But I would strongly suggest, as you guys are implementing your new system, that we sit down and maybe it's through communication, and we've done that a couple of times. What do we need as far as reporting? And it's not just these reports, but it's the change order reports and the transition of position reports and I'm sure these were all mandated at one point or another. I think it behooves us to evaluate the entire list of reports that we're requesting from finance and either retool them so that they are easy to create and useful or just continue them and provide another way to access that information on an as needed basis. I just feel strongly that we need to work smarter and not harder when it comes to the budget questions. And yeah, I don't want to diminish the hard work that I know everybody put into these reports, but I think we should work together to get them into a format that can be produced more timely and is more constructive for our deliberations. Chair Kimball, really appreciate the suggestion and openness to look at the tools we actually utilize. So we've had this discussions internally just over the week on on these monthly budget status reports and how One the new system can make things a little easier both on reporting and then more on visuals But also having more discussions on making things purposeful and useful so we're very open to the discussion So that we can use our time wisely and allow you to have the tools that that you need as well as well as the public so thank you for that Thank you. Council member... Did you already? Council member? Council member Levi. Oh thank you. I was going to stay out but everybody is jumping in. I think there's two sides of this conversation right you guys are doing an excellent job with the equipment that you have, but I also think that council has to be very thoughtful on what they need. And so I'm gonna renew my request, multi-year, lease is at the top of the list. So we can see that spend down into future budgets, but to the point that Ms. Kimball is making, you know, we also have to be very thoughtful about the information that helps us make the good decision. So in that conversation, if members of the council really could express what they're looking for, that would be incredibly helpful. And I'm trusting that the equipment that you guys are getting as far as the different funds can help comb out like some high-level conversations that help us make great decisions. Thank you Councilmember Lee Loy. Just to let you know that report will be ready for budget and probably much sooner it is already drafted so we're just refining it but thank you. Thank you Chair. Thank you Councilmember Chair. Thank you. Councillor Ravitz. Thank you. You know I know that this monthly report is very critical to the administration and running the county. I think for some council members that like to get into the nitty-gritty detail in the numbers If they know how to read these type of reports, I think they're very enlightening. It'd be nice to have them available. I'm not sure you needed a printable and delivered to my office, but I do think having them available to those council members that really like to get into that kind of detail. Because it is accounting and bookkeeping and you know some people really they like that you know they like to dig into that kind of detail. I think it's important to have it available to the council but you know for some of us you know it's maybe just too much information but if I feel there's a department that I'm concerned with, this monthly budget report is very helpful. So it is a wonderful tool and I'm really really glad you do it. I've seen people use these if they're really really good at it, they just flip through it and they can instantly see where there's problem areas just by the numbers. I just, again, I'm not, you know, maybe next time around if I'm re-elected. I mean, I think you just learn. The more you do this, the more you learn about the detail and how to use the detail that teaches you kind of maybe where the areas are, the need improvement. So I appreciate the work. It looks, it's a heavy lift. I'm really glad that we have a new fiscal management system being put in place. Clearly this needs to be digital. And I think things will change and make a much more transparent for all of us. So I hats off to, I mean, that was a heavy lift. My question was, yeah, December of 2023, we're getting now. That really stood out to me. Why is it taking so long? So thanks for explaining it. And timeliness, I think will really help make a difference for the decision makers. Thank you. I yield. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Director, I'm then appreciating Miss O'Shiro. Correct. Thank you. And in your recent hire, I'm not sure how parks are like this feeling right now, but Mr. Sawakia, thank you. You're very happy to have assistant control to read Sawakia joined finance department. I'm just, I mean, recognizing through we're asking for information and better ways of doing it. And I think I say this each year, but your department usually doesn't ask for more personnel and more positions. And I think that is imperative to really review what you need as a department to ensure that you can get the work done. You're kind of our core in our county because you handle the finance and that's where the funds come from. That's where they go to that's how we make our budget. Having you appropriately staffed in your department appropriately staffed is imperative to ensure that we run well. So ensure this year that you have the right amount of positions going forward as we look into our next year's budget. And then I appreciate you folks trying to catch up. And I do appreciate these. Thank you, especially come May, June, basically spring. I was looking at the budget. I really utilize those to see where we are in each department, how much funds they've spent down and where their budget stands so I think those are incredibly useful tool so thank you. I appreciate your time today thank you for getting that done and trying to catch up but that we have the motion on the floor to close file on communication one four dot one four. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have nine members in favor? Motion carries. Let's go to bill 214, please. So any testimony for bill 214? Hearing none, bill 214, men's order number 24-33 as amended relating to public improvements and financing thereof for the fiscal July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. Increasing environmental management, heal a wastewater treatment plan, rehabilitation, replacement project by $160 million, bringing the total appropriation to $226 million. Those of this project provided from the General Bigation Bondsonds, Capital Fund projects fund, fund balance and there are other sources and we use to renovate the Healow waste water treatment plant and introduce Mr. Connolly Clive Elder by request. Motion please. Motion to approve bill 214. Second. And third council with favorable recommendation. Motion by council member Kimbo. And second by council member Liloi to approve bill 2-1-4 and four to council with a favorable recommendation. We have the director here today joining us in the Hewlett-Shambers to round out our conversation. We also have a presentation I believe. Did you want to go to that presentation? Now Mr. Munsor. Oh wow, okay. Do you want to, do you want to, do you want to do you want to do you want to make it? Do you need time to get anything together? Are you good to go? Okay, okay wonderful. I hope not That would be yeah, that would, that's like a mouthful. A director and deputy, thank you for being here today. Please go ahead when you're ready. And you also have the support of the finance director here. Good morning and thank you. Push the mic, introduce yourself and go ahead. I'm gonna be here. But let's start the stuff good, let's start this off good start this off good good morning and thank you for the invite and I just want to thank each one of you for the last three four years going through the challenges and the projects for our department and the county. And successfully, we all now able to deliver on this massive, great project for the community. So with that, I was just gonna go through some of the timeline. So in 2021, we were able to complete the conditional assessment for, you know, a handful of our waste treatment plans. Heal was one of them. And then at that time, we were able to allocate $5 million to kind of start the design process. In 2022, we started kicked off the planning and design work and we had limited funds but we were able to do more work and analyze the site more in a comprehensive manner. So design phase one at that time was to include digester and headwork components. And to my left, that's the project of phase one. You could see the contract itself as special provisions and the plan. So it was limited to certain components. Well, in 2023, we bid it out. When we bid that project out, it came at $177 million, which is about 70% over the estimate. To the county's best interest, the project was canceled and we got together with the consultant and we expanded the scope of that project. To the plans and the contracts as you see on my right side. So that's the 2024 project that went out. We got very competitive bidders. We got three bidders submitted bits on this project. The low bid came within 26%, the highest came within 66% of the estimate. And the good thing about it, we only going to have one contractor doing the entire work, so we don't have to have multiple contractor, finger pointing, and possible litigation. This whole process was also in work with EPA and the Department of Health as well. We created great relationship with these regulatory agencies and we were able to negotiate a countywide AOC. Within that AOC the required construction start was agreed on to be August 1st, 2025. So we ahead of schedule. We can with the idea that we complete construction by June 30th, 2035. This project is about five to seven years, so it's going to get us way ahead of schedule. This is a layout to kind of give you a visualization as well of bit one, bit two, and the upcoming bit that we're working on next year. So the yellow represent what was in the original bid number one to my left. The blue was the expanded scope. So the project to my right included the blue and yellow together. The green is what we work and currently on to improve the secondary treatment and that will be coming to you probably within a few months. Director, what is the green? I'm sorry, go back. What is what's the green? The green is secondary treatment component. So what you see here is the biotsric line filters, which is the media, plastic media that does the treatment of the effluent. That's going to be replaced with what we refer to as gas, conventional sludge at conventional activated sludge. So it's more of, you know, nitrification, de-nitrification process to control the ammonia nitrogen exiting the facility. Okay, and covered under one of the two phases already separate. Yeah, it's covered. No, the green one is going to come to you. It's not covered under the yellow one, please. Okay, thank you. Robin? Good morning. Robin Bauman, the business manager. This next slide shows us what Bill 14 does in terms of our CIP appropriation. We currently have 237 million appropriated. We also have the 110 million that was appropriated in the current 2425 CIP budget and Bill 14 is requesting to increase that by another 116 million, Bringing the total appropriations to $463 million. That is our current estimate for the total project cost, which includes this bid to that recently open as well as what you saw in the green, the future bid. And that includes all of the planning, design, construction, and engineering services during the construction. At the bottom, in addition to the 463 million, we do have an appropriation of 30 million from SRF funding that would be available to us if SRF funding becomes available. That would help to free up some of the bond authorization. That is in addition to the current SRF authorization that we have for 17 million. So if SRF funds become available, we'll be coming back to you requesting authorization to borrow through SRF, which is a better form of financing, better interest rates. Just for the public SRF is. Well, state revolving fun. Thank you. With that, I just would like to go over the next steps. Bit to procurement. So authorization of sufficient funding, complete evaluation of bid and additive alternatives, awarding of bid and construction management contract. So after we do that, hopefully we also come to you with the future procurement of that green area, as I mentioned. And our intention is to have construction completed and a facility in full operation within the next five to seven years. Thank you. Thank you very much, director. Go to Council, and Deputy Director. Council member, questions. Council member Evans. Yeah, good morning. It's a lot of work. Interesting kind of the way this has been managed. Normally, there's value engineering. It's just kind of shocking how you said it came 70% above what you thought it would come in at. So before you went out to bid the first time around, didn't you have it? Didn't you have value engineering and have a sense of what the cost would be before it went out to bid? Council member, it's a great question. The answer is yes. Unfortunately, the county of Hawaii had never had these huge projects. Seeding in county, they're doing more than we do. We haven't had a wastewater treatment project for the last 30 plus here. So it was based on an estimate and also based on who was going to bid for it and the first time we only have one bidder. So it's hard to evaluate when you only have one submittal. So we didn't know how to came at multiple bids, then we couldn't know where the market value is. So yes, we had contractor on board, we have consultant, we have a lot of expertise and experience staff when we did it. So do you feel like in the future, if you have only one bid, you're just uncomfortable with one bid. So that's, it could happen again. It could, it's uncomfortable and also we have, when we received the bid, we decided what is the best interest to the county of Hawaii. We evaluated the bid, but we also understood that we have another project which at that time was bid number two, coming up, tailing the bid number one. So if you combine them together, you're going to get more favorable price and that's what we did. Yeah, I like the, personally, I like the combination of phase one and two and getting the bit on it. But you're also coming up with a rough estimate on the green portion, which is phase three. So you're willing to, you're willing to throw a number at it, not knowing what the bit will be. And so your asking is to fund something that you think it might be worth that. So should we be funding the third phase of it now? Can we not wait and come back and amend it? Or when will you go out to bid? I mean, is it premature to fund phase three when we don't know when you're going you go out to bid? I mean, is it premature to fund phase three when we don't know when you're going to go out to bid for it? Well, we know we're going to go out to bid soon because under the AOC, when he to start construction, August 1, 2025. So our intent is this, the future which is 2025, it's almost at 70% design complete. So we finalize in the package as we speak. So the idea is going to go out on the streets early next year. When we do estimates, we do it to the best of our knowledge and our expertise, experience, consultants that grow engineering our five-finite, forcing companies so they do end projects all over the country. And they have a construction division within their organization that assists us as well. It just seems like you're asking us to pre-fund something that hasn't gone out to bid and you just mentioned that we have to do something by August 20, 25. It's almost like saying, we're telling you what we're willing to do before we even go out and ask for people to tell us what they're willing to do. So we're kind of showing, I mean, we're kind of stacking, maybe the design. I'll have Robin talk more, but remember, the project already started. We in the design phase are so we need to also cover the design cost. So go ahead, Robert. Yeah, one thing I just wanted to point out is, this is the appropriation. The funding is separate. We're not looking at the funding that future bid right now. But typically before we do go out to bid, we do seek appropriations. Which is what we're willing to, what we are willing as a county to pay. Before we even go out to bid. I know I always have a little bit of, that always kind of bugs me a little bit when we show our hand. This is what we're willing to do and we don't even know what it costs. So yeah, that's always been a little rough of mine, but I mean, I know it can be a practice. But, you know, so switching off that, let's talk about that we have to do this because we're under the EPA mandate. How does that really play into this third green phase? When do we really have to start on that to meet whatever our EPA requirement is? Each of the bids are contiguous in a way because each supplement itself. So the green phase is the actual tree multiplication de-nachification of the effluent before discharge. So you have to have all component for it to succeed and work in compliance. Take in one component, we have to 20, 35 for all county-wide AOC, but the plan is do it now. You delay it later. It's going to cost you more and we've saved it. So the green phase basically didn't go out, but when you went out to bid, you just didn't have your documents. You weren't ready to go to make a complete package to go out for bid. That is correct. We didn't have enough time. I just want to thank our consultant on our staff. You've seen them out of work. That type of work sometimes takes five to ten years just to get to what we got in one year. From environmental, from going through the permitting, from going through the Department of Health, shift the designer, making the technical decision right on the spot, and that's what you got in one year. And usually that takes. And we're under contract with what engineering firm that did that? Corolla. Engineering. OK. So are we OK with that contract? Are you going to come and ask for more money? For that contract. As Robin had mentioned, there is money included into the construction management and engineer support during construction. But as far as the design, the design has been completed. Thank you, Chair. Are you? Thank you. Talks me, Gregor Leva. Thank you. Well, just when I thank your team for being able to put together such a huge project in a short amount of time, and I know, under a lot of pressure, we have multiple projects in the air as well. And I can see the value in having gone to a more complete package, 126 versus 177. I think it was, that's a big difference. And hopefully it will be a better project overall. I did have a couple little questions. What's the capacity per day of the project when it's done? I guess now, versus what it's done, is there going to be any increase in capacity built into this? Or is it more or less the same? When we talk about the wastewater treatment capacity, the plan is designed and permitted to handle 5 million gallon per day up to 13 million gallon per day, including infiltration and flow coming to the plant. What this project allowed us to do to become more efficient in the treatment and to replace things that is, you know, it's broken, things that is not functioning. So eventually, when we finish rehabbing some of our short collection system, that will allow us to gain more capacity as we reduce the amount of inflow going into the source system itself. And also we will be coming to you to change our current code. Our current code allows us to follow City and County standard and it's very very conservative when it comes to evaluation of the Gallimburg Day used during the design process. So we could save about 20 to 30 percent if we do it pertaining to the county of Hawaii. So we're working on that as well. So I could see even with the five NGD, we're going to end up gaining 30% capacity in changing the code itself. That's a really good idea. I know it's come up in discussions around other wastewater situations, like especially in areas on catchment where it's like, we were talking about this in the Middle East situation of how we did do 60, was it 60 gallons per day and like nobody's doing that much there? So I think that's a really good idea. Obviously it's different here, but I think it's similarly folks on Hawaii Island. And thanks to Paola Nala community when we first started that's exactly what we did we looked at the water uses because it was designed with a tin factor. I mean litter we knocked it down from 600,000 thousand out per day to about 60,000 gallon per day. That's a huge difference. Thanks. I was sitting next door next to, I think his name is Roger over there and city and county. Yeah, Roger. Yeah. So I got to ask him a few questions about their wastewater system there, which is obviously just multiple times larger than ours. And also, the amount of money that they're having to put into their system is mind-boggling. I mean, their secondary system, he's budgeting, I think he said $2 billion for secondary. So it kind of makes our as large as this is and is painful as this is for our county, I think it is right that the sooner we get it then it's not going to go down in price. So to be expeditious and get it done is multiple benefits for lower costs and also to not get in trouble with the EPA. The final thing I just wanted to ask, is there any chance we can get any other federal funding for these projects? Like when we were at NACO, there was a lot of talk about infrastructure dollars. Yes, we never gonna stop chasing federal money and grants. Like what Robin had mentioned, there's 30 million dollars in state revolving fund and we're gonna continue every year, every week trying to find opportunities. Okay, thank you very much, I yield. Thank you, Cosmo Rickenbo. Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to move into executive session to have some conversations with our finance and environmental management director, because we have an acting legal agreement, the AOC, and contract negotiations around this project. I think it would be good to enter and to a executive sentient to discuss our duties and liabilities with our attorneys. I do have a second. Mr. Clerk. Necessary. There's a motion to enter into executive session. We have a second. Make a call from Ricardo Guarada. Okay. Discussion on entering into executive session. Okay. Hearing and seeing none. All in favor? Any opposed? Nice quick. You have nine members in favor? We are recess. Okay. We are back from executive session. Councilmember Kimbo, if you could, or is that calling this meeting out of recess. Councilmember Kimbo, please summarize the conversation that we had in executive session, please. Thank you, Chair. So the executive session allowed us to consult with the county's attorney with respect to contracting issues relating this particular project as well as our liabilities with respect to existing AOCs and pending lawsuits. Thank you. Okay, council members, further discussion with the department. Other questions that there may be. Okay. Yeah, council member Evans, go ahead. Yes, I just I just wanted to hope that. When this contract, when this contract is finally settled that my concern area that I'm looking at is obviously change orders, but more importantly, as this moves forward, really hope that we support the department with staffing to make sure that that we monitor on a regular basis what's really going on and also that people will have the knowledge because I do believe we're challenged being in an island state a lot of times materials become unavailable that we expected and they will ask for substitutions. So I think you're gonna have to have some staffing to really be able to, as this moves forward, make sure that the county has that expertise. So I just wanted to make that of record. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. How's the work going for us? Thank you, Chair. I'm going to be very reluctantly supporting this. I feel you've, there's really no choice here. We've been painted into a corner. This is a requirement that we have to solve for. I feel like this process has not been very transparent. I'm worried about how much this is actually going to cost us. This is one of the many requirements in the AOC and it feels like there's no end in sight. I know you folks are doing your job. I really do. I have tremendous respect for the volumes of paperwork, the scoping that you had to do for this project. This is not easy. I'm sure this is very difficult to try to figure out. How do we make sure that we are taking care of business and making sure the work gets done? I just want the work to get done. I don't know if I have 100% confidence in the contractor that's been selected. I do have concerns. I can't recall a major county project where we have finished on time and on budget. And I just have to put that out there. I want to make sure there were avoiding any sort of environmental disaster here, right? So I'm going to be supporting this, but and Director Nakagawa, I think it's really important that going forward, we have to be able to balance the many needs of our county. Environmental management is just one of the many essential services that we provide. I think about our roadways, I think about other infrastructure, I think about fire stations. There are so many challenges and we have to find a way to balance it all. So I just, I had to say that because I'm walking in, I was a no. But I know how incredibly important this is, but I'm going to expect from the department at some point this year, early next year, just understanding what we're getting ourselves into. And I need to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I really do. I need to see how this fits into the larger grand scheme of things and to understand what this is going to cost us. Thank you. I yield. Thank you. How's my memory coming? Thank you, chair. I just want to say that I'm really proud of this body and this administration for finally getting this done. It's incredibly challenging and it's going to be hard for everybody. I think you know we know we're gonna have sacrifices going forward because we have to do this but I'm incredibly proud of this group for knowing the buck stops here. We have to do it. So thank you for doing this and I'll be supporting. Thank you. That was my review. Yeah. I spent more time talking about poop in our wastewater, nighttime in office, then almost any other issue. Really difficult and challenging time to be a member of this body and both in the administration because these are issues that were caused by decisions not made by this group. And by putting off of taking care of the things that needed to be taken care of and having seen even just what a small waste water project cost for a community because of gang cesspools, how that price doubled, I believe, in the five years that there was a delay on that. I firmly believe from experience that the price of this project would also do the same if we put it off any further. So thank you for the work that you did for your visual and tactile example of the stacks of paperwork and the reports that you had to put together. None of this is easy. None of this is glamorous per se, but wastewater can be sexy. Because we think our reef ecosystems are priceless and sexy and those fish and those coral ecosystems deserve the chance to thrive and grow because they are our forests of the sea. They are also pivotal to many of our economic drivers for our community. So I'll be supporting this. I also want to thank Finance. You know, one of the things I'd said years ago was an A-plus bond ratings awesome, but sometimes that grade isn't as important as getting the things that have to get done done. And so thank you for your leadership in balancing those very elusive, great points as far as money goes in these projects. And I think, you know, this is gonna be my call out to the community as we move forward with these contracts and to our business owners and to the people and the organizations that end up with this contract, you're accountable to our community, to our people, to the future of this island and this home, for your integrity, for your diligence, for your utilizing every penny of the hard-earned money, of the people of this place to ensure that these projects get built out, ideally under budget, within timeframes, but that we all hold pieces of accountability to one another as we move forward with these things. and by remaining connected and staying pono, do we have the opportunity to break cycles of mistrust with community and to ensure that as we navigate our way out of what is a shits norm, we can end up with cleaner water, cleaner land, and that our moopuna is moopuna's moopuna can swim in clean oceans and still enjoy the coral reef ecosystems and the fish and drinking water in our aqua first. So thank you for your help today and bringing this forward to Asai. Thank you. Okay. Director, thank you for the discussion today and Ms. Bellman, thank you. A couple of brief questions. Who's a project manager for this project going forward? That's the staffing shortage. Currently we have Mark Grant. He's been managing the design. Where's Mark? Thank him. In addition to him being managing Halo, which is as you see in Great Project, he was also, he's still managing in Pahal and Nalaih, who in many other projects. So, staffing is my priority and I just need to make sure that we get the support. So, we have on-site project manager at the Hilo that could come in, start, catch it up. And we can also have the consultant that did the design to stand by providing engineering services because they did the design. So if there's substitute or some metals, they'll do the review concur with the on-site project manager. So we work it on it. Hopefully, I know we started late, but it's just, um, staffing has been very, very hard to get. Mr. Gratt is going to be sticking around. He better. To the longevity of the project. He better. Now he's a great asset to the county and to the communities. He's just doing a great job and he's going to continue with, he's currently the acting D.B.D. Chief so He's gonna continue Hopefully well We'll get we get him some help Okay, mr mr. Grant. Thank you for being here today Just in having watched different projects books of the county. I there's a lot of this is gonna be on Your shoulders is what you're director there there could be there will be changes in personnel over the the county. There's a lot of this is going to be on your shoulders as well. Your director there there could be there will be changes in personnel over the the years coming if this is a five to seven year project that is going to be something along the lines of a 30 year facility. Then we want to ensure that this project is done in a very efficient and a very mindful way. So a lot of this responsibility may and well land on you. So from listening to that, you have our support. You have the administration support, but also just if things go wrong, and I'm sure this will be something along your desk. So thank you for being here. And Thank you for your time and energy so far and please keep up with your work that has known what you need. And then to the department, what is the expected lifetime of the facility? Most of wastewater treatment plan, you could up to 50 years if it maintained correctly and, you know, annually periodically depends on the component. Components lifespan usually 15 to 20, like if you have major pumps motors. The building structure itself, this time around, we're going to treat actual concrete to prevent corrosion, so we're going to have a better lifespan on the concrete. Okay, so we've learned the lessons and those lessons are being incorporated into our design and our facility this time around, correct? Yes, yes, we look at lifespan and maintenance and flexibility as well. Okay, who's our consultant? Corolla engineering. Okay, based. They all over the country, but they're based on Honolulu, their main office for the state of Hawaii and the background and construction of this type. Basewater. Design. Basewater design. Yeah. How long have they been in business? They've been, oh God. They've been around for a long time. I don't know the exact years, but they've been around for a long time. Okay. And then the contract was awarded? Not yet. Yep. Okay, and then the contract was awarded. Not yet. Okay. Okay. You talking about the contract for construction. Yes. Yeah, not yet. Okay. Okay. That was helpful. I think I have more questions, but more related to the bond. So I appreciate the overview. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for bringing all the documents. And we didn't go through it word for word, but your work is clearly shown. And then to Mr. Grant, lots writing on you, please let us know. Let your people know over the years what's needed to be this. Yes. Becomes a legacy project that we can all stand on. Thank you. OK. Council members, anything further? Okay, see no. We have the motion on the floor. Two forward bill, two on four, two council with a positive recommendation. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight members in favor? Mr. the cost of various improvement projects. This fixes the form, denominations, and certain other details of such bonds provides for the sale to the public. And authorize a taking of other actions relating to the issuance and sale of bonds. Authorize the issuance of a $250 million in general migration bonds to fund certain capital and food projects and clean construction of the Hiloway Sutter Tribum Plant, Parks and Recreation, Americans with Disabilities Act projects, planning design for a county morgue, and will control shelter repairs, central fire station repairs, and maintenance of other county facilities. Introduce Mr. County Climbolder by request. Motion to approve bill 215 and 412, Council with a favorable recommendation. I have a motion by Council Member Calimba and a second by Council Member Kimbo to approve bill 215 and forward the Council with a favorable recommendation. What the finance department if you can lead us off, walk through the bond and what's in front of us and then we'll go to questions from the Council. Thank you for Councilmembers. Continuing on our discussion on our last item. Oh, yes, Diane Nakagawa, Finance Department. Thank you for that. I'd also like to introduce Chris Nakano, who's our county treasurer. Chris has been an integral part of planning as we move forward to appreciate his efforts. So the item in front of us is our bond authorization primarily for the Hilo wastewater treatment plant project as well as other wastewater commitments looking into some of the design for these other projects. You know, as we mentioned, with this $150 million bond authorization, we're looking at 14.5% of our authorized, but unissued and our debt service is 8% of our issued debt, which is within our GFOA guidelines, which is below our 15% of expenditures. So, what we're here today to look at, if you look at the exhibit, primarily as we discussed, heat-always water treatment plant and design for other facilities, but we also have some projects under Parks and Recreation and public works, both Director Messina and Director Paziar here today to discuss some of the projects on their list as well. Really want to just say appreciate the discussion about the significance of the projects we have ahead. And also the discussion about other county, all the other county priorities that need to happen. And just want to reiterate that our team, our finance team, it is evaluated knowing just the significance that it plays. Right. And our challenge is ahead. So the time and attention we take to looking at what is best for the county and the timing of it has been taken into consideration in these projects. But as I said the other departments are here to talk a little further. I just wanted to give you a little bit more details on some of their projects so they're happy to talk about that as well. Thank you. Take calls from others. Council member Kimbo. Yeah, I'm just wanted to disclose that I think it is in the best interest to recuse myself from decision making on this as there are a couple of projects that are potentially contracted by my husband's architectural firm. So I'm going to recuse myself on decision making on this one. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Evans. Yeah, looking at your projects, these are projects that they would be almost safe shovel ready. But are these projects that have already gone through a kind of a planning design and what you're doing is trying to get us money so you can roll out the construction part of it? Yeah, Councilman Bravins, thank you. Great question and I'm sorry I missed that in the introduction. But one of the things leading up to the formation of the list is discussions with the department really on what's going to happen now between the next six to 12 months. These are projects that are ready to go. So these are the immediate needs of the department. And that's why they're on this list. They're ready to get these things done. And I noticed, you know, public works is there's parks and recreation, public works, and then the wastewater treatment plant. Is there there was no other discussion of the other wastewater projects on the island? I mean, it's not, I think there's other ones too, but it doesn't appear on here. There's no money for that. As we've discussed, there are other wastewater projects that are on our list. And so the other facilities that's mentioned in the exhibit is really to look at beginning the design on some of those projects. So we wanted to make sure beginning the design on some of those projects. So we wanted to make sure that was enough money to start those projects. Okay, so CIP will cover design. Yes. Okay, that's really good to know. And I noticed that you went with repairs. I don't see anything on here as a like build a new animal shelter. It's like you're just repairing. And so there's no like new projects. This is all repair maintenance pretty much. Yes, and we have specific questions we can call of our other departments. But unfortunately we are at a place where a lot of our facilities are aging and these repairs and maintenance are necessary to keep them operational. So those are, that's the focus to keep them operational. All right. So I'm going to assume Steve Pauzi would you like to come up here, Zach? I just want to thank you for the latitude, Chair. Just a question. So there was a matrix and a determination of functionality and potentially dangerous if we didn't repair them. Did you go through some matrix? I just curious how you step up your priorities here. Yes, Steve Pousy, Director of Public Works. So we have a CIP list and we just recently went through a review with finance. And we've got two buckets, right? We have the building division and we maintain and we build facilities for the county and then we have engineering and that's more geared towards roads and drainage and bridges and things like that. So I would tell you that we went through a ranking for each bucket if you will and It developed a list of priorities, but to get back to your Earlier question you were talking about are we doing maintenance? Are we doing new? So generally speaking, we purchased, as an example, we purchased an animal facility, animal control facility for the East Side, and it needs lots of work. So the animal control shelter repairs are associated with that. We have one on the West Side, which also needs work. So it's repairs and maintenance. The same thing with the fire side, which also needs work. So it's repairs and maintenance. The same thing with the fire stations, right? Central fire. We are presently under design. We have an architect on board. Was that what you were ready for? Yes. Yes. We have an architect on board, and we have three sections with work on ceilings, work on the hose tower, work on the roof repair. So, the only one that I would say in my mind on this list, we were asking about new things is, and I'm not quite sure. I know we have money in this bond to work on the temporary morgue. And then we'll be looking at a long-term morgue as well. And that'll be something where we'll be doing the design work and the upfront, I call it front-end loading, but all the upfront work, the design, as well as the permitting, the A, A, A, all of that kind of stuff. So that would be incorporated. That would be the one project I'm thinking of out loud that is just kind of like a brand new project that would just really be focused on the design and the upfront money right now. Okay, thank you. I kind of assume maybe that you did have stacking like a matrix on how you determine what rose to the top. So I appreciate the comments. Thank you. Okay. I yield. Thank you. Council member, I call you out. Thank you. Just a couple things. One is Thank you, Director Pasey. I you know these things obviously have been outstanding for several years and really appreciate these coming to the top of the list. But you did talk about the buildings, department, and the roads. And I don't really see anything here for roads unless there's something under repairs and maintenance for roads. So one of the previous or maybe two of the previous bond ordinances, head specific money called out for bridges and for the contribution of our, the county's contribution to projects where we might be receiving 80% funding from the state or 75% funding from FEMA. So the one road thing that comes to my mind here, and I'm not quite sure if it's explicitly called out, is I think you're aware that we're doing drainage work or drainage studies on the west side. The recent flooding a few weeks back also opened our eyes to a few more areas. So whether we specifically have money in this bond or not, it's another, if you will, infrastructure need that in order to solve problems, we need to understand what causes the problem. So I would view it as like upfront study work, again, maybe not specifically called out here, but that's part of what the engineering folks are working on. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah, like I said, I'm supportive. Obviously, these are all things that we have to do. So thank you, and yeah, I'll be supporting. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Kergo-Witz. Thank you, Chair. Dr. Nakakawa, how are we tracking all of this? You know, I'm looking at ordinance 2395, $180 million bond float. Then, ordinance 2331, 127 million. Each of those has a 100 million dedicated to Halo Waste Water treatment. This one that we have in front of us, $109 million for Hilo, there are a list of different projects. So in morning, Hawaii County Building Employee, this is Poemai-Kaii Bartolome with the Mayor's Office. This is a test of our building's broadcast system. If this were an actual emergency, we would provide information and advise you on the appropriate action to take. Again, this is only a test. When you hear the testing of the broadcast system in your office, please email Sire's Jonathan to verify that you heard this message. You will be informed of any conditions that will be affected your safety. Have an amazing day on purpose from the office of the mayor of Puyho, Calco, Aloha. Forgot first of the month, we have our emergency tests glad to know that the assignments are working. Okay, Director, there's a number of other projects that I see here that were also included on the other bun ordinances, 88 projects, up when he sewer, animal control, miscellaneous repair and maintenance, public safety. However, how are you tracking the appropriations across multiple bonds? And how do we know the status of these projects? I love funding stuff, but you know what I love better? Getting it done. Gotcha. Council member Kirkowitz, so that's a great question and there are a multitude of oversight on these projects and different bond ordinance. And I just want to take a second as you mentioned. We have come before council and appreciate the support over the last several years, about every year for about 100 million in bond authorization. And as Director Pawsie mentioned, some of the other critical projects have been on these bond ordinance. And so those, that is partially the reason why some of those are still yet to be completed and some of the more immediate needs are on this one But the list that you're talking about so also 2241 you go back down another hundred million for wastewater with the with the last three there were about 300 million for wastewater and And wastewater related facility so some of that was used for design. Some of that was used recently executed a contract for Pahala collections, so that dipped into that 300. So this additional 109 is needed for the Helo Waste Water Treatment Project that we just heard about, but also to continue with design of the other commitments that we have. So there are Chris in Treasury sitting beside me. He has some oversight over looking at all of the bond ordinances and what has been issued. Our accounts division also tracks. Anytime there is an allotment request, so if there's the bond authorization, the department will come through and say, now our project is ready, so they submit an allotment request. So if there's a project on the list, they'll submit that. It'll come to the finance department. We'll go ahead and look at our spreadsheets and look at what has been already committed or allotted and we'll go ahead and approve the allotment, so carefully track what we have used from these different bond ordinances. So between our accounts division, the departments themselves, our treasury division and continue us oversight, that is how it's tracked. Now, I will admit, it's not in the easiest, prettiest report format for us to distribute. They are tracked in various areas in our financial system and in spreadsheets across the department for a county. It's helpful to know that we're tracking it internally. I guess just as you know members of the public, right taxpayers are putting the bill on all of these really critical projects. I think folks just want to know how much is actually going to take and when they can expect the work to get done and if there are any delays or challenges along the way, finding a way for that to be communicated by the departments but also finding a way for that to be communicated by the departments, but also information being available for them to access online. And I'm hoping that the financial software that you've invested in will be able to help with that, that storytelling piece that's so important. Yeah, and I think we need to continue to look at other tools at our recent CIP meeting Director Pazui shared what they use as a public facing tool to seed project status. And I think we can look at different options and maybe making that more countywide and comprehensive as we look at all of our CIP projects and just better display information on where we're at. I think at the end of the day we just want to see that our money is being and just better display information on where we're at. I think at the end of the day, we just want to see that our money is being well spent and there is return on investment and improvement to quality of life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Director Nakagawa, what is the total money we've allotted? Let's start actually, let's start with the previous question. What is our total debt service budget for this year? So we have 62 million in the general fund. That's for current fiscal year. Fiscal year 2425. Okay, and then for next year. Projected. So in looking at our projections with the authorization of the 150, we look to increase our debt service between $7 and $10 million. OK, so about $70 million. I would like to mention that in our budget kickoff, because we are already starting budget kickoff, we have factored in this estimate up with the spawn authorization. Okay, good. Thank you. Of the projects listed, we had parks and, you said parks and rec was available. Director Messina's in Kona. Okay. What do we do, Director? I'm Macina. Is that you? Good morning. Good morning. I'm Mauricio Messina, Parks Director. Thank you for being here today. Can you give us a rundown of some of the projects you're hoping to address under the 1690s authorized in this pond? Yes. under the 16 million that's authorized in this bond. Yes, so the first set of projects that we're looking at, we're looking to pretty much near in the end of our obligations with our ADA projects. We have one more project to start, and that's Millie Beach Park. We're finishing up, Heel Maintenance Bayshard, and we got Pa-Hallis Swimming Pool, that's also being worked on. In fact, our staff is out there meeting today with the geotechnical engineers for that. The other ADA projects will include by me a park playground, a Oco park playground, that's in Waikoloa and Greenwell Park, Yannohall playground and Captain Cook. And we filled that with this last bond authorization, that should pretty much put us over the hump. It's been years and years and years waiting to get to this point. And we just have in the one more obligated project besides the playgrounds. We're going to pretty much near the end of this. The other projects are our current park project, Wai-Kia-Uka. We've got the community center is going up now. We've got KL community center. We want to do the design on that. KL community center is on its last legs. And we want to try to get ahead of it a little bit by going and completing the design. That's also goes down as a senior center. And we're. We just don't want that building or we don't want to have to close the building without being ready to go show already with it like the finance director was talking about. Also looking and we're going to be designing the bathrooms at Old Airport, Kaguya Park, while Hino bathroom that's currently out of commission in Nalaehoo. We got the Civic renovation project that we need to shore up a little bit more to make sure that we can complete that project between the two Mary Monarch events starting next year. And then the last one is the home cost women pull repairs. We were able to shore up the the pump room and it gave us about a five year extension on the shelf life there and so we need to go ahead and finish the design on that. So this is pretty much the biggest part of this for us is going to be the finishing up the ADA projects. That's amazing. At first glance, I was trying to figure out where these projects were going to occur and a lot of them are rehabilitation and a lot of our facilities are based in Helo. So it looked very Helo-centric but as I've listened to the discussion today I'm hearing that we are looking to improve all different parts of Ireland. I think that's wonderful. I'll be honest thank you for that overview, Director. I appreciate it. Maybe welcome. We have about 130 active projects, Island wide right now. And they hit every district. We are doing our best to make sure, you know, we got equitable distribution of all of our projects throughout the island. Beautiful. Okay, Drew, let's say back to Director Nakagawa. So you mentioned this, I think we're in executive session, but what is our current percentage as far as our debt? Excuse me, we're at 14.5% of authorized, but on the issue and our debt services 8% issued debt. So 8% of our expenditures. And then of the 14.5, I think we talked about 15 being our limit so we're pretty close but again we're looking at 8% being actually authorized correct. 8% of issue debt that's correct. And you're comfortable at that level? We are comfortable as as mentioned we also continue to pair a debt down each year. Okay, and then looking forward a year or two at least, hard to know the future, but our debt service being about 70 million projected, are we comfortable with that moving forward? I know we cannot tell the future, but just be able to look at what's happening here. Right. So so there are of course things that could change as we get to that point, but we are already looking at projections for the next bond authorization. and we're still within our limits there. As of today with what we know, with the budget we have as that is called. Those are the projections we've made for, just even the next authorization. Okay. And then I mean going back to the previous bill for the U. water treatment facility. What is our current amount of funds we have under the bonds? Like we spoke about three different bonds we had just spoken to for Councilor Ricker Quitt's question. What is our total amount we've allotted for the project. So a lot it is different, but under the authorized bonds, as we discussed, the previous three had 100 million in authorization for wastewater, so 300 million. This one will include 109 million in authorization, so at 409 million. So 409 million. Okay, are we expecting to be appropriating, sorry not appropriating, are we expecting more bonds, any more funding needed for these projects? So we will continue to come back as we needed. We're expecting as we have been over the last several years to come back about once a year, maybe sooner if needed. Thank you. I'm back about once a year, maybe sooner if needed. How concerned are you about the 15% gap? If I'm looking a year, two or three ahead. Maybe cap is not the right word, but how concerned are you about that number? So the concern is, as we're all concerned about, and that is just the the mounting number dollar amount of projects that we need to invest in. So in looking at that yes there is a concern but our our effort will be placed on looking at the timing of these and doing what's right within our limits. So as as we move forward we'll continue to talk about what our revenue stream can afford, and we'll bring those discussions forward with those prioritizations of projects. But I think we're all concerned with the amount of the dollar amount of projects that we have in front of us. I agree. I think lastly, and you touched on this a little bit, is the planning department is the driver of our CIP projects. I mean, that really is their Kuleana. It's outlined in our charter and our code. And Diana and I have had this discussion on the council floor and she has educated me many times. So I think it is incredibly important as we start to look at us hitting this 15% arena that as we look at projects and we're balancing equity for our community, really highlighting the need for planning the apartment to find a way of providing the council and the community what projects we're moving forward with and why. And I've asked for that in this previous budget cycle and there really was nothing from the department so I cannot highlight that enough. So thank you for mentioning that in our discussion today. Okay, thank you very much for your time today. Thank you for having your stuff here and Questions from the council council member the way Thank you chair. I Think I think all of our hands and feet are a little sweaty up here and You know, I share this all the time. I've been around this work for a long time and this by far has my hands on feet really sweaty. I am absolutely in support of this. There are so many projects that we have kicked the can down the road and this is what it feels like to make right all of those business decisions that were made in the past to make it right. I do have a question and I apologize if my colleagues may have asked this, but in the middle of this conversation, a little bit of storytelling, I had to step out and take a call because my car is in for repair. And it's gonna cost a lot. So I had to tell my kids, sorry, not Disneyland this year for Christmas. So it made me think about what is that off-ramp or exit strategy? Like I'm hearing loud and clear, we're gonna put in program management. We have fiscal oversight We have a number of people keeping the post on the on our projects What if we just don't collect enough revenue? What is that exit strategy because I'm looking at these projects and they're all very needed? How do we walk back some of the projects that are on these bond authorizations so that we can, sorry kids, we're not going to Disney on this Christmas. Is there a process for that and what does that look like? Because I'm guessing you guys will come and tell the council. But how is that business decision made? And again, in total support of this, but I know every single one of us is examining this to keep it on time, on budget and deliver projects that are just so absolutely needed in our community. I'm just asking that off question about what happens if it's just out of control and we got to walk something back. So thank you, Councilmember. I think the key is really continuous and constant oversight and having these discussions. You know, I know we just discussed the CIP oversight with planning, but I think, you know, we are one county with one goal to make sure that we serve our community the best we can. And so one of those areas is looking at it and we appreciate the support of ACIP manager. And that will be in the finance department, but that we were asking the questions about just as you discussed, how do we keep a better pulse on these contracts collectively, not just within DPW or within planning, but from a county-wide perspective. And we have really high hopes for this position to just keep inching us forward in having that oversight. And those will sort of, those will answer, get us in a better place to answer those questions, to provide the information necessary to potentially make those hard decisions of things we'll need to stop or be deferred to another time. So that's the plan on that. Thank you. I know that was one of the key investments we made with this last budget cycle and maybe there's a way and we've heard it needs assessment right of all these projects and a decision matrix on how are we picking them but I also think there's got to be a way to bump that or backstop that against key components of our charter and there's five things public health and safety waste both solid and water, and paving our roads. And maybe we can integrate some of that into our decision making, especially our CIP projects and not being a big fan of dump them all out. And let's reassess of them. Thank you for helping me walk out the exit strategy or the exit wrap just in case. In support, look forward to all these new things coming online to help us keep these projects on time and on budget. I yield. Thank you. Any further discussion? Okay. Just a, you know, last note. Thank you to the minutes. Any further discussion? Okay, just a, you know, last note. Thank you to the administration for taking these on. These are big heavy projects and it takes a lot of courage to actually push for this level of debt, but also to look down the line and look at what hasn't been done and actually take a step towards doing it. So well done Thank you. Okay, we have the motion on the floor 2 4 built 215 to the council with the favor of rock favorable Recommendation thank. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, we have seven members in favor. Two members, well, one member excuse and one member, council member Kimball recused. That does bring us to the end of our agenda. Seeing no further business, we are adjourned. It is 12.09 p.m.