you Thank you. Good morning everybody. Good morning. Welcome to April and welcome to the seventh session on the committee on government operations and external affairs. Happy to have everybody here this morning. My name is Jen Caguata. I'll be chairing this committee here in the Hilo Chambers. We also, let's see, we've got everybody here except for, okay, let's do a roll call, Mr. Clerk. Good. Ms. Calimba. Here. Mr. Hustis. Here. Mr. Houston. President. Mr. Inablaugh. Eyl. Mr. Kahnelid Kleinfelder. Ms. Kirkowitz. President. Ms. Kimbo. Here. Mr. Onishi. President. Ms. Vegas. Eyl. Cherkagiwara. Here. Cherkagiwara. and attendants with Mr. Cunley Kleinfield or Absin. Wonderful, thank you. All right, we're going to take the item number six which will be moved to the bottom of our agenda because we may need to extend that discussion. So Mr. Clerk, could we please go ahead with any testimony? Thank you so much Madam Chair. Just noting that if we do not have any questions, we will be able to move to the bottom of our agenda because we may need to extend that discussion. We Mr. Clerk, could we please go ahead if there any testimony? Thank you so much Madam Chair. Just noting that if we do not have any testifiers at your remote sites, noting that we do have a couple of the nominees in our Waimea remote site, we do have one testifier here in the Heelow Chamber, Tim Colo Coliquio, testifying on Resolution 105. Tim at this, if you'd like to come up to the front table, we could take your testimony. You can hit the button at the base that I'm like to turn it on. You'll have three minutes if you could just reintroduce yourself as you begin. Yeah, you can just pull that right to you. OK. OK. There you go. Good morning, can you hear me? A little closer maybe. Good morning. Perfect. Thank you. Good morning, my name is Tim Collicchio and I'm the owner of Trinity Plumbing and we're on Lay Lonnie and also I am the CEO of United Community Outreach, which is a nonprofit we started and that's based here. In my time here, I've kinda noticed a couple things and I'm trying to put some things together to kind of, I'm sorry, I'm nervous, to try and get some income going, what I wanted to talk about was, so regarding the, I know we've been talking a lot about the affordable housing and then, and I'm thinking to myself, well, who can afford, who can afford this affordable housing? And so in, you know, learning since I've been here for a couple of years now, obviously the pineapple and the sugar cane industry has gone and I know that a lot of these people are struggling here just to even make ends meet and then I did look up the GDP of Hilo and that's agriculture and tourism while I kind of just hit on the agriculture if that's not existence there's not much for these people to do. The ship does come here every Tuesday. So one of the solutions I had was a job fair. Every three months we have a job fair and we encourage people to do working interviews maybe where they in within eight hours they know if they're a good fit for a company or not as opposed to putting these people on paper How much time do I have? Putting them on paper anyways, and then within three four days they quit and then leaving a lot of these businesses high and dry I have a guy he's a He's a man drove over at At Long's and he gets called in all the time out of eight people scheduled only to showed up and then that leads to a lot theft and other stuff like that. The big one I'm trying to push for, I've talked to multiple people. I want to try and get a Bayfront market. I think I ran this by Dennis last time I was here. We need to try and do a Bayfront market on a Friday. We have so many talented people here with all kinds of skills and merchants and stuff like that. that and I've heard countless stories where they have to drive over to Kona and if they don't have a good day, it barely covers the gas and then they come over here. I mean, we have this beautiful property here. The other thing I want to touch on is I don't think it's fair that the 1% of drug addicted people are kind of just taking over that area. 30 seconds please. So that's what I want to work on. I like to, you know, I think we need to have a site meeting at this point. I mean, I've talked to Dennis. I've talked to Kimo. He called me. Yeah, we'll talk stories someday, but I think right now we really need some action. The other last thing I'm proposing is a day labor hiring center. That's how I learn plumbing where we have people. you bring your boots in a lunch and you're ready to work that would probably keep some of the rippers out of people's yards and the theft down. My neighbor did get robbed and I did reach out to Ashley. I know you're busy but this wasn't that long ago. He was actually home and got robbed. His son's a police. Thank you so much for your testimony. Yeah. Three minutes ago. I want to say as I did speak with the Thank you so much sir, I'm sorry, but we'll have to move on. Okay, thank you so much. Chair, our next testifier is via Zoom. minutes. I want to say as I did speak with the sergeant at thank you so much sir I'm sorry but we'll have to move on. Okay. Thank you so much. Chair our next testifier is via zoom Chuck Flarity testifying on resolution 104 Chuck at this time if you could unmute yourself and reintroduce yourself you'll have three minutes. I don't know how. My name is Chuck. I'm calling on the resolution 104-25. Let me begin by stating that I trust and respect the federal and state local law enforcement officers and employees that are located in Hawaii. My personal concerns directly relate to the documented and likely additional undocumented actions of high level of island federal agency leaders. The past two weeks have provided a sufficient information to us all to prove that current federal administration has committed and is committing numerous illegal acts and violation of U.S. constitutional acts. All residents of the United States of America, whether legal or unlegal, have constitutional rights, including the right to do process and the right to free speech. However, the current administration is increasing elic knowing these rights and is taking actions that are not being disclosed to the American people or their elected representatives. I would like to note that there's an existing MOU in place that was effective in 2015 to my knowledge that agreement is in effect. And it states in part that nothing in this MOU should be construed as limiting or impeding the basic spirit of cooperation which exists between these agencies. And that's what I think refers to the two detainees that occurred recently in our county in which the police department cooperated with immigration officials. So that the basic point of my testimony is that we're this committee is facing an unprecedented legal environment in American history. Never before that federal ministry of agencies so willingly and intentionally not complied with the rule of law in the Constitution. Among these committees important responsibilities is to protect and maintain the health safety and welfare of this county. Therefore, it's imperative that this committee defer resolution 10425 until such time that this committee can reasonably be assured that the current federal administration has begun to comply with the rule of law, the US Constitution, and federal court orders. I also submitted late testimony that goes into more detail about the documented instances of noncompliance with the rule of law and the Constitution of Rights. Thank you very much and I wish you all the best. Thank you so much for your testimony. Chair, those are all the testifiers who registered. We do have one person in the Zoom room who we do not recognize. I'd like to call Lisa Tango. If you are wishing to provide testimony at this time, this is your opportunity. Again, Lisa Tango, if you'd like to provide testimony, this is your opportunity. Feel free to unmute if so. But if not, Chair, those are all the testifiers you have at this time. Thank you so much, Relly. All right, Mr. Clerk, maybe we get started with communication 1-9-8. Communication 1-9-8. Nomination of Ben C. De Laudido to the Homokuo Community Development Plan Action Committee. For Mayor C. Kimo Alameda, date in March 12, 2025. requesting the council's review and confirmation, confirmation required by April 25, 2025. Thank you. from Mayor C. Kimo Alameda, dated March 12, 2025. Requesting the Council's review and confirmation required by April 25, 2025. I have a motion, please. Chair, motion to close file and communication 189 and send the nomination of Ben DeLauio Dow to the Hummaku SEDP Action Committee with a favorable recommendation. We have a motion by Council Member Kimball and a second by Council. Excuse me, Member Hustis to send or to close file in communication 1 9 8. All right. Did you get that Mr. Clerk? I'm sorry. We had a motion by Council Member Kimball and Executive by Council Member. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Mr. Alameda, please introduce your nominee. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Council members. Chair Kaguata, mic Alameda executive assistant to the mayor. On his behalf, it is our honor to present to you Communication 198 nominating Ben Si Dalarwidao of council district one to the hama kuah community development plan action committee. Through getting to know mr Dalarwidao I've learned that he was born in the mid 1940s in the Philippines. Coaian Isabella to be exact. I've never been but I've googled and from what I what I can see, it's a very charming place filled with lots of character, just like Mr. Delawi Dal here. He moved to the United States in the mid 1960s, Rhode Island to be exact. One of the first things he did while moving to America was enlisting in the United States, maybe as he says. He's very proud of his 21-year and two-month service to this country. In 2005, he moved to Hawaii, Ireland, and has been boots on the ground, a fierce advocate for Hamakua since. He's extremely passionate, and I'll just share a brief story to highlight the type of guy that he is. He recently had a meeting about two weeks ago with temporary administrator for Mass Transit, Zach Bergham, where he went out there in Puppa, E. Cole, boots on the ground, showed him exactly where we need a bus stop. He's like, my wife or my partner catches the bus here every single day. We need a bus stop here for her and patrons who ride our bus, something to be proud of. And that's just one little example of the type of guy that he is. So when he came saying, I want to serve. The Hamakua Community Development Plan Action Committee would love to have you, I think. So here we are today, Madam Chair, our honor to present to, Ben Delawi Dau. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Elamida. And Mr. Delawi Dau, I'm sorry, I'm supposed to allow me Dau. Delawi Dau. Mr. Delawi Dau, would you please press your button on the bottom there till your red light goes on? Go ahead. And then yeah, please tell us a little bit about yourself. Good morning again. And so it's a nice, it's an honor to be with you guys today. And my service, I'm just so proud that I was able to serve the United States maybe. During that number, and I did the best of I can. 6 years I had listened to Navy in the Philippines, it took two minutes for us to process our paperwork. Because we are in a war of footing at the time. And so I was able to join, went to the bootcamp, and six years as a steward, that's the time when our government and field-building government agreement between us, we are old steward. And you know what steward means. We serve the officers only with a black people. I've been there. I feel it, but it doesn't matter for me as long as I survive and feed my family. So I'm just proud to serve that six years as a steward. For that six years I worked for the full captain of the ship. Person wants to work, I took care of him. And the last two years as a steward, I served a two admiral commander, Navy cruiser, destroyer, false for the whole Atlantic. I took care of those two admiral. And so after that, admiral, sumo came in. Your Filipinos can take any job you want as long as you are qualified, meaning you have to be a US citizen. For a job you want to go. But anyway, I did my part. I changed my job to do some pattern making. If this thing breaks our machine, I'll make this out of wood, anything that will create like that. Just like that. And give it to the foundry, they melt the metal. Give it to the machine shop, they machine it, bingo, you got a product. And you can have the ship under way or way. So I changed my job for that. So I'm just proud to serve this country. For 21 years and two months I had perfect attendance, five good candaka words. I had two Navy achievement made up for serving and the I don't. Communication. So I'm just proud to be here to do some productive, I have a positive mental attitude, that's my attitude when I joined the Navy, and I'm here in America. So I'm here, try to serve and do something positive for this community that we have. I'm gonna try to do the best. I'm gonna try to do the best I can. Just like what I serve during the Vietnam, during the Navy, my career. And thank you for being here and I'll be working hard for you guys for anybody especially Hamakua. Thank you thank you Mr. Laudido we really appreciate that statement and we'll see if the council members might have comments or questions for you okay so thank you for the statement councilmember Kimble. Thank you and thank you so much Ben for putting your name forward for this and I don't think I need to do this But I want to encourage my colleagues here to support spend nomination obviously very passionate And really importantly he represents South Hilo portion of the district which we don't have representation On the humbacola CDP at this time, but what one thing I will say about Ben is every event, every community meeting with the mayor, with the council, whatever he's there, he shows up, and he participates. So I'm very excited to have you on the CDP action committee and again, thank you for putting your name for it. Thank you very much. You're a sincere. All right, thank you. Any other comments or questions? Yes, council member Kirkowitz. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. De Laue del. Can I just call you Uncle Ben? You can call me Ben or? I really appreciate that. I'm half Filipino. My family emigrated from Sarat Iloco, Snorte. Sarat. Yes, and my great-grandfather toiled in the Ola-Ashugar plantations and I think Filipinos really embody this sense of gassat, where you make sacrifices for your family, for future generations, and you truly embody that. I really appreciate it hearing your personal story of your resilience, of your resourcefulness, and love knowing all the ways in which you contributed to our country, and our community, someone in the Navy as a farmer as an entrepreneur, and I think you're going to be an excellent addition to the Action Committee, and I will be supporting your nomination. Just the Agnina and Maramex Salamatpul. Maramex Salamatpudin. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Council Member, yes. Yes, I did know what she said and but I won't be as eloquent. I am obviously not a Filipina. So I have the utmost, utmost gratitude and respect for your commitment and values, your work ethic and your determination for service above self and taking into consideration the betterment of the collective whole over just your own. And to serve as a steward for men who were serving really powerful, challenging roles in Vietnam, but that support role is just as vital, because for them to be able to make the decisions they had to make, they needed to have someone as their advocate and covering for the other things in life. And I thank you for that. And as I see the sparkling face of a young woman behind you, is that your granddaughter? No. You said she's... Oh, well, your youth commissioner. Okay. Well, either which way, it serves as a reflection of what a man, of your legacy, of leadership, is creating and inspiring in our youth. And that, I believe, is what we need more than anything else right now is to inspire our youth, to gather them in and to imprint on them the benefits of serving for the collective good over the personal game. So just her sparkling face, while you can't see it, it's just a radiant shining light behind you that is a testament to what your leadership will provide for the homo-cool community and the city p-action committee will be fortunate to have you all be in full support. I yield. Thank you for the comment. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. Anybody else? Councilmember Gohamba? Also, I want to thank you very much. Appreciate it. Alright, anybody else counts member, Golemba? I also want to thank you for stepping up very much. And as the other half Filipino on this council, just, you know, you just embody that the strengths of Filipino people but also wanted to, you know, kind of like my father, like you both understand the kind of racism that you've had to just take, but it hasn't really made you better. But you know, acknowledge it without being better and actually turning it into something good. So, and, you know, also in this time, embodying how much good folks that migrate do. So, I just wanted to thank you for it. Thank you, Dan. All right. Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much and we're going to go ahead and take the vote now. All those in favor? Please say aye. Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have eight eyes and one excuse Mr. O'Connelly-Cline-Builder. Thank you so much. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be with you guys today. Thank you so much. Mahalo. Hello. Yes, please Mr. Clerk. Communication 199. If anyone would like to testify in Communication 199, please speak up now. Hearing none, communication 199, nomination of John P. Komitani to the Environmental Management Commission for Mayor C. Kimu Alameda, Data March 12, 2025. Requesting the Council's Review and Confirmation by April 25, 2025. Mr. Alameda. Oh, sorry, I'm need a motion please. Chair motion to close file in communication 199 and forward the nomination of John Komatani to the Environmental Management Commission. I have a motion by Council Member Kimble and the second by Council Member Houston to forward the nomination of John Komatani for the Environmental Management Commission to counsel with a favorite recommendation. And do we have any testimony? Additional testimony. Yeah, I'm just this. And for the record, Council Member Connie Lee Klein-Felfield has joined us. Do we have any additional testimony? Okay, Mr. Alameda please introduce your nominee. Hello Madam Chair, is our honor to present to you communication 199 nominating John P. Komitani of Council District 9 to the Environmental Management Commission. Mr. Komitani was born and raised on Oahu in the late 1940s. He graduated from the Mid Pacific Institute in Honolulu in 1967, went on to study at McAllister College in Minnesota where he achieved his Bachelor of Science in Biology. From there, he came back to Hawaii and asked himself, how can he serve, which is when he became a certified first responder. He saved lives on Oahu. He moved to North Hawaii, where he continued to save lives. It is at that time where he transitioned into teaching. Thank goodness, Mr. Komatani went into education and retired as a science teacher at Kohala High School. In addition to that, he is an active volunteer in the Kohala community with the Kohala food basket, the North of Aihaspis, and the Kohala Lions Club before they went inactive. It's been a pleasure to get to know Mr. Komitani. We feel he is extremely qualified, highly skilled, and we are hopeful for a positive confirmation. Back to you, Madam Chair. Thank you so much, Mr. Alameda. Mr. Komitani, would you like to say a few words and introduce yourself? Yes, my name is John Komitani. Oh, excuse me, Mr. Komitani, can you try to really speak up because it's a little far away from the mic I think. Yeah if you could get closer to the mic that would be great. Thank you. Good morning my name is John Cometani. Is that? That's perfect thank you. I'd like to thank my co-alameda and consulment uses for giving me this opportunity to come before you. I'd like to thank my fellow Alameda and Councilman Houston for giving me this opportunity to come before you. My wife and I have been residents of North Koala for over 35 years. And I've been fortunate to have two careers. The first being a paramedic for 25 years and the second being a high school science teacher in Kohala. I've always felt that it's almost a duty to try to give back to your community and I've kind of tried to follow that throughout my years that I spent on the big island. When we first moved here, my job, first job was at Koala Hospital. And I was overwhelmed by the openness and the friendliness of the people I met. This community has been very welcoming to my wife and I, and I just feel it's necessary to give back something to the community. I have two daughters. The oldest is an administrator for school system in Sacramento. A youngest daughter is an administrator for school system. In Sacramento, our youngest daughter is an attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency at the Boston Field Office. We sent them away to college with the hope of them broadening their experiences, but that broadening kind of led to them not being able to come back to the islands to support themselves. And so hopefully one day when they decide to retire, they'll move back here and even before that hopefully they might be some jobs for them that they can do. I guess that's about it. Once again, thank you very much to the council members for letting me up here before you and have a good day. Thank you, Mr. Komatani. Please stay, stay, stand by. We have some, probably some comments and maybe some questions from the council here, okay? Mr. Hustis, go ahead and start us off. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Alameda. Thank you, Mr. Komatani, for being here with us today. I just want to recognize the sacrifice and the volunteerism and the work that you give for our community. The dedication you have for our co-holic communities, our island community, the junior wife, our bastions of the co-holic community. So I really applaud you for the work and all that you give to our community members and really the compassion that drives you forward every day on the relationships you've built in the community. So thank you for dedication. Thank you for, you know, the commitment to our communities here. Thank you. You're welcome. Anybody else? Council member Connelly Klein-Poder. Thank you, Chair. Mr. Komitani, why the interest in the Environmental Management Commission? Well, when I was at the high school, I thought physical science and basically, physical science is basically anything that's not alive. So the weather, the environment, and basically the non-living world around you is basically what I was into. And especially in the last seven to ten years, the quality of the environment around this has really been going through some changes. And I'd like to do my part to address some of these changes that are appearing on our horizon because they're not going to go away. And hopefully I can do something to make the environment a better place for everyone. Thank you. What are your thoughts on the landfill on the corners of the island? Well, a landfill is kind of like nobody wants one in their backyard, but they are a necessity and they have to go someplace. And then it becomes a matter of you can't make everyone happy. You can try, but if a decision has to be made, people are going to be upset, people are going to be frustrated, but I think if the groundwork and the homework before the decision is made thoroughly, then that's the decision that has to be made and no matter where on this island that the landfill has to go I just hope a lot of thought goes into it because it's something that can't be ignored. Okay thank you have you heard of the lawsuit between the county regarding the Honoka Oh, wastewater. No, I have it. Okay. What are your thoughts on reuse of R1 and R2 water? Water is probably the most precious natural commodity that we have and thankfully Hawaii has seems to have right now adequate water supplies but with the growing population and the increase on water usage water is going to be a very big issue in the future I think anyway anyway. And unfortunately, it becomes a very emotional issue as well. And once again, it involves a lot of data collecting, a lot of transparency, I think, and dialogue between the players that are gonna be involved with this move. Thank you. That was a thoughtful answer. Last question for you. Do you think teachers should be paid more? Definitely. Good idea. For me, Chris, after being involved in the public school system, if somebody in their 20s came up to me and expressed that interest in becoming an educator. I would really try to question them as far as their motives, because everything kind of can look very rosy on the outside, but when you're in it and you're in the trenches with other students and other teachers. That's when I realized how critical education was and it needs to be supported very much because without education, there's not a whole lot left. Thank you very much sir. I'll be supporting your nomination today and thank you for everything that you've done in the community. Just looking over your community service record. Appreciate your time this morning. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Count. Anybody else? Questions or comments? Oh, seeing none. Mr. Komatani, thank you so much. What is your feeling on, or what are your thoughts on recycling and how we do recycling here on this island right now? Well, I think the way things are going now recycling is inevitable. I mean, despite all the new technologies that are being put forth daily for the person recycling is probably the best thing going and hopefully development of other technologies that can enhance or maybe even replace recycling. I think a lot of effort should be directed into that area but you can't get away with waste. You can't get away from recycling. I mean it's part of the program. Okay, thank you so much. One more question. I have a child that goes to Macalister College. What do you think of? What do you think about Koo, the Highland Cow, the new mascot? Well, college was many years ago and what I saw the winner, I don't blame the cows for not wanting to go outside. I went up to the mainland as kind of a sorry I'd freshman and all I old was a Zippo Park and it was kind of a rude awakening to go from Hawaii to the Twin Cities because it gets cold over there. Thank you yeah it's been a rude awakening for my child as well. So thank you so much. Thanks for putting your name forward. We're gonna go ahead and vote now. All those in favor of closing file and communication 200 and sending, sorry, 199 and sending the nomination of John Komatani for the Environmental Management Commission to the full council with a favorable recommendation. Please say aye. Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, you have nine ayes. Thank you, Mr. Komatani. Thank you. Communication 200, please. If anyone would like to testify in communication 200, please speak up now. Hearing none, communication 200. Nomination of Rebecca Kovehi Inaba to the Leeward Planning Commission for Mayor C. Kimo Alameda, dated March 12, 2025. Requesting the Council's review and confirmation required by April 25, 2025. Mr. Alameda. Oh, sorry, we need a motion, please. Chair, motion to close file on communication 200 and for the nomination of Rebecca Kaveki-Enaba to the Leeward Planning Commission to the Council with the favorable recommendation. Second, we have a motion by Council Member Kirkowitz and the second by Council Member Villegas to forward communication 200 to Council with the favorable recommendation. Mr. Inaba, Councilmember Inaba. Oh, yes, Chair. Before Mr. Alameda introduces, I do want to disclose that the applicant or nominee before us is my mother. I did review the nomination with Corporation Council and with the Planning Department and found no reason that it couldn't be agendized. And with that, I have taken a proactive step to get a informal opinion from the Board of Ethics to give advice. Should there be any conflict of interest in how to proceed with that when that happens or if that happens. But with that I'll be recusing myself from the discussion and the vote. Okay, thank you. All right, Mr. Alameda. Yes, thank you. Mahalo Madam Chair, it is our honor to present to you communication 2-00 nominating Rebecca Kavehi-N to the Leeward Planning Commission representing the judicial district of North Kona. Ms. Inaba was raised in Kona. It is where she will wahala and plan to later rest. She is a true daughter of West Hawaii. She has a strong record of service, right? So if you just take a look at the at, I believe the last number I counted was 27 pieces of testimony in support of Ms. Inaba's nomination. That is a reflection of her strong record of service. She volunteers with the very impactful Daniel Sair Foundation, which we know gives back time and time again for decades and future generations beyond. Ms. Inaba is extremely qualified. She's highly skilled. She has a diverse background that encompasses government service, that encompasses strategic planning, and of course a unique characteristic of being a pilot and a flight instructor. To that, she's a first native Hawaiian wahine, to found and operate in certified part 135 aircraft carrier, also known as mokulele airlines. We appreciate her stepping up. She's a proud mother, one who's actively raising servant leaders. Thank you for that. And most importantly, she's boots on the ground. She understands the values, the heritage, the challenges, but most importantly, the opportunities of West Hawaii. And therefore, we are honored to have her replace Ms. Mahina pace on dork which is leaving a huge void and we feel that she would not only fill that void but carry the Leeward Planning Commission into the future. Mahalo Madam Chair back to you. Thank you Mr. Alamey. Miss Inaba, please introduce yourself further and tell us about yourself. Sure, good morning, esteemed council members Kovehi Inaba. First and foremost, I am a mother. I think the greatest achievement that I've had in my life is along with my husband. So I've worked really hard to raise three strong, independent children who are now giving back to their community. My oldest daughter is Kiliha Inaba. She's a firefighter in paramedic here with the County of Hawaii. Holika is my middle child, a councilman in chairman here with the County of Hawaii. And my youngest is Makakua, who just graduated from college and is now working for the Ritzkart den Waikiki. Cool thing is, they all pay in their own bills and that's a really good thing. It's a very good thing. Excuse me. As far as my professional work, you know, I started my first business as a pilot and a flight instructor with start in the air lines and I didn't go to college. I graduated from Cornell, Illinois, high school and kind of forged my way in life, starting with Mokulele, I learned a lot there. And we ran that for quite some time, over 11 years before somebody reached out to see if they could purchase the company. From there, I went on to start a marketing consultant firm, Cooper business partners, of which I still run now. And also within that time I started a women's fitness center, one of the first in only 24-7 center, as well as serving with the quality of Hawaii as the R&D director here. I now am the CEO ED for the year 2020, and I must say that with everything that I had, that I've done leading up to this time in my life, this has been the absolute most rewarding. I realized that all that I've done before that, has given me the experience and the confidence to know that I can move forward. It's like that's not my first rodeo. So I'm thankful for all of the experience and time, the experience that time has provided to me. And so now is the ED of your 2020, we do a multitude of things all very well community related through all kinds of different programs, through enrichment, education enrichment, we have a Mala, we have a VAA, and we are now preparing to build corners, another preschool for corner, to incorporate four classrooms. We have received funding from the State DOE for that and a lot of support. I feel that at this time of my life, I'm in a position that have a capacity to give back. And so I was I've been honored with Mayor Alameda asking me to serve in this position and I feel that I'm ready. Most of my volunteer time was especially when the children were younger, very Hawaiian immersion related. I had a lot to do with that. And of course, moving through that, a lot of other volunteer action and time too. One thing that I'm doing right now as a volunteer is senior mediator with West Hawaii Mediation. And the reason that I did that, it's been a little over seven years now, was because I realized that I could use some help in learning how to better listen and to be that person to listen and bring people together. I knew I needed that help. And so seven years later, I feel that it has really helped me to be in that position to bridge community gaps, gaps, listen to both sides and help to find common ground and make good solid decisions for our community. Other than that, I mean there's a lot more I could share but I think that's it, Raynaval, more than happy to take any questions you folks will have. Thank you so much Miss Nava. With that, any questions or comments from the a dios Council Member Villegas. Aloha, Kavehi. And I often forget that your first name is Rebecca. Thank you for your willingness when tapped by the mayor and this administration to step into this role and to fill a really big void that was being created by Mahina Paisanthwarts, terming out. And with the full acknowledgement of the potential challenges that might lie ahead due to your relations, that sounds weird, being related to our current chair. And I think it takes incredible courage and dignity to do the due diligence and to find out if there are any viable points of conflict when it comes to the gallery of a person serving on the Lee World Planning Commission who is a relative directly related to somebody that serves on the council. So thank you for not shying back from that but taking this as an opportunity to educate community and the council and the administration of the viability of people serving in these roles even when they are family related. I would love to ask Corp. Council, Renee, shown so that my colleagues on the council can hear from Corp. Council if there are any viable legal conflicts that we should be taking into consideration. And I also just want to point out that, you know, the concerns about nepotism and family relations when it comes to serving in public office in my experience have been related to somebody getting a position because they are related to somebody else. And I'd like to point out in this, this woman is more qualified than many of the candidates for the Leeward Planning Commission, commission, then we have seen in my years of service here. Choresma reflects that. The caliber of the people who have provided testimony for her service reflect that. If you note the names and the positions and roles that those people hold, I believe that under any other circumstance, if we receive testimony from those kinds of people, we would be floored and be completely confident in the support. So I just would like to point out the irony here is we have a person who is incredibly capable, qualified, willing, and the only reason for opposing her nomination is that she happens to be related to somebody that serves on our council. That's when I would just encourage you to question that because the concerns about nepotism tend to go the other way, which is somebody's not. I mean, that's the reason for nepotism issues, right? Is that somebody's not qualified, but they're just getting tapped because they are relative. What this is, this is in fact the opposite, somebody that is completely and unilaterally qualified and in what I have heard in any coconut wireless is that the only concern would be that this nominee is related to a member that serves on our council. And with that, I would ask for legal advice from Corp Council. Good morning, Renational Corporation Council. So thank you for the question. When the ask for legal advice from Corp. Council. Good morning, Renational Corporation Council. So thank you for the question. When the nominee was submitted to the council, I did, Mayor's Office did ask whether or not there was a conflict of interest. I did review the ethics roles, the fair treatment section, the conflict of interest section, and did not see any conflict with a nomination or a person sitting on a border commission that is related to a county officer or employee. You know, there are, I guess recommendations that come from the Leeward Planning Commission that is sent to this body you know the nominee or any member of that planning commission is one member of seven and then again this body this body, you know, the chair is one of nine. And so given those, you know, facts, I did not see a conflict of interest. And the other thing is that I think steps have been taken to try to mitigate any conflict of interest by what I heard, the chair saying that he had filed the ethics petition. And so that I understand is scheduled to be heard at the next meeting. Fantastic, thank you. So what I'm hearing in my lay woman's term of non-legal eases, there is no direct conflict as far as our laws are. Okay. Fantastic. Thank you for that. Well, okay, I've had the opportunity to watch you transition Laopua 2020 and from a fledgling, struggling, had the potential to become. And I've watched you transform it into a thriving space that serves our Lahui that gathers people for experiences and events and learning that elevates the long-term benefit of Kailu Akona and the West Side of the Big Island. It has become a hub of positive impact. And I've seen your legacy. And I've seen your history of leadership in a diverse number of fields and with a diverse group of community organizations. Yes, I'll be wrapping up and so I just thank you for your courage and your willingness to step forward and serve in this role and I will be whole heartily confirming and voting in support of your nomination. Thank you. Council member Glynbun.ba. Thank you. Go ahead. Right into the mic. So you can all hear you. A second, a lot of what you just said. Council member Vegas in terms of having absolute respect and appreciation for your accomplishments, for your generosity, for your contributions to the community. I understand the difficulty of filling Mahino Paisa and Dorgee's position. So I understand some of the reasons for this nomination. However, I've been struggling with this. And so I've actually brought this up to people that I know interest in a sort of hypothetical way without names, just positions. And the response that I get is concerned. So it's not just me. And I know that there's no log against this, and there probably shouldn't be. But as we are seeing norms are just as important as laws. And for me, if we were in another year, I would support your nomination wholeheartedly. But we are here now, and I think that it is not a good practice or policy to concentrate power. I think we've had that in the past on this island and it has led to some decisions that I think are regrettable And so as a matter of policy practice President and not least optics I can't support this nomination, but With all the love to you. Thank you, Council Member Kimball. Thank you, Council Member Glambo and Council Member V.A. Guest, for articulating your positions. Similarly, I cannot think of somebody more capable, eminently qualified, and to Councilmember Viegas' point, looking through the testimony, supporting your nominations, you have some strange bedballows in there, folks from the HuliPack and the HLPC, right? People that you never think would talk to each other, and maybe that speaks to your mediation background, but it certainly speaks to your connectivity within the community. But I say same as Councilmember Glenbaugh, you know, when this came forward, I told you this when we ran into each other, it's not felt good. And talking to some folks that do have concerns, this has never happened before. Just so folks know I did do a little bit of research. There's never been this type of situation. Any other committee, I think, would probably be okay. It's that there's just this relationship between the planning commissions and the council where decisions are forwarded from the planning commissions up here, which I think makes it unique. Additionally, with respect to the county's liability and the potential for lawsuits around land use and decisions of the planning director, right? That is another area where I think there's potential for concern. You know, I agree with Councilmember Gillimba that norms are important, perspectives are important, the optics are important. What I'm going to suggest is this and unfortunately, Councilmember Inaba, can I participate in this discussion to share with us the petition put before the Board of Ethics. But at a minimum, the next Board of Ethics meeting is the 23rd. This nomination needs to be acted on and finalized by the 25th. We don't have a council meeting that day, but my argument would be that this situation is so extraordinary that we need to agendize this before the Board of Ethics both to weigh in and to make any recommendations about recusals that you may have to make or cherry naba may have to make in the future if this nomination were to go forward. We have absolutely the ability to stand by a special meeting to have that final hearing on the 25th. So I'm you know again you are eminently qualified would be a wonderful wonderful representative on this board but I do have the concerns about the optics. I do have concerns that, regardless of corporation counsel's input, that there are some times that you would have to potentially recuse yourself. There are other potential issues there in terms of county's liability that I would want assurances from the Board of Ethics on before we proceeded. So with that, I will be voting unfavorably today, but that is the recommendation I have to the rest of the body if the votes are in that direction. Thank you Council Member Kimball. Other members? Council Member Kirkowitz. Thank you Chair. Mrs. Zinaaba, I'm going to call you Antica Vecchi because that is how I know you. I'll be supporting your nomination. You know, I'm really reflecting on what my colleagues have shared, but I think that there are sufficient guardrails in place to protect the integrity of the decision-making processes both within the commission and the legislative branch. All of our discussions or deliberations or decisions are made in a public arena. And the only thing that I can think of where you may have to recuse yourself is if you are in the planning commission, is if there is a financial element with a project that's before you that you need to make a decision or recommendation on or you were a consultant, right? Or it is your property. And... element with a project that's before you that you need to make a decision or recommendation on or you are a consultant, right? Or it is your property. And I have the utmost faith and trust in you to abide by the processes and procedures related to ethics and recusals. So I'm not worried about that. What I'm looking at is I'm evaluation, evaluating who you are and what you bring to the table. You are more than your achievements, which are incredible. And every little girl here on Hawaii Island should be looking up to Antica Vahey because you are a remarkable woman. But you're more than all that. It's who you are as a person. How you show up for your community without being asked because you recognize a need and you have the talents to make community better. You as a mother and entrepreneur, as a mediator, these are the skill sets. Native Hawaiian, Wahine. These are the many hats that you wear that I think are valuable perspectives that are necessary on the planning commission as we navigate what West Hawaii, what Hawaii, Ireland look like not just today but future generations. So I'm proud to be casting a vote in favor of your nomination and know that you will be a wonderful addition to this body. Thank you, I yield. Thank you, councilmember. Councilmember O'Neal. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Kavi. I just had one thing that went to ask you about is that if you are confirmed, your thoughts on day- properties that are being awarded to the beneficiaries are not subdivided. So what is your thoughts on that process? You're talking about this is a property land that is not subbed, that divided. Yeah, and they're being awarded to beneficiaries, like with one TMK, but getting like 50 lots on that one property, like for example, down in Salt Point, going down to Salt Point on left hand side, just below the water tank, there's like 5,000 acres. There's like 25 acre lots that has only one TMK. One TMK. And so if the department would come to the planning commission, like I wanted to hear your thoughts on what, you know, what would you decide or what would you kind of do? Okay, thank you for that question. I am unsure of how to answer that right now because I don't know the specifics. But what I would do would be to lay everything out in front of me. I understand that as planning commissioners we have a toolkit that's pretty robust. and it includes the charter, the code, general plan, CDPs. Of course you have DHL and all these other things that kind of flow in and around that. I would really have to do some research on that first to understand what that looks like and why that's even been done. There's a lot of things that DGTL is doing that people have questions about and they're all different. And I think they all need some attention. But I would want to do the research to understand how it even came to be. So I'm sorry I can't answer your question directly. But as a commissioner, I will use those tools to educate myself. Would you like if you're on the commission would you be able to like help with the processing of the subdividing of those properties to make it legal for the beneficiaries? Personally, yes. I probably would not because I don't see myself as a commissioner as one. I see myself as a commissioner as a body. So if that was going to be something that was requested of the body perhaps, which I'm not sure would even fit, but from a personal standpoint, from a commissioner standpoint, I probably would not. I feel like that would be a conflict of interest. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I yield. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Council member Houston. This is a question for a corporation council actually. If you could come back, please. Thank you. It was briefly mentioned some of the items that the applicant or Council Member Naba might have to recuse himself. Do you know of things that what can you share with us now? I know there's a request before the Board of Ethics as well. And you've kind of looked at it. But what would the members have to recuse themselves from the discussion between the process and the pre-safegger as it goes from the LPC to council? Would Council member Naba have to recuse himself from particular items as well if the decision was made on LPC or would it be the other direction at the lower level. You know, truthfully, I could not think of a situation where there would be a recusal on either side because the decisions that are being made are as a body. And the decisions here are made as a body. So the recusal would be if Miss Inaba has any type of, you know, interest in part. What council member Kirkwood's invention? Yes, yes. Okay, yeah. Okay, thank you for coming. Other than that, I just, you know, I mean, maybe there is a situation, but I just could not think of any right now and I think that You know that can be fleshed out more at the board of ethics, but I really couldn't perceive of a situation where there would be a need Okay, you know I could be wrong, but I don't see one. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate the clarification I know it's kind of been rehashed a little bit, but thank you for that. Thank you, Councilmember Hustis. Councilmember Connelly, you're calling, builder. Thank you, Chair. Good morning. How you doing? Good, thank you. Interesting discussion so far, yes. Yes. You reached out to me a couple times via email. I did, yes. I did not respond. Sorry. I like to have the conversations here. One thing I know about you, Kaviki. Can I call you then? Is that okay? Yes. The first time that I think I met you, I didn't really meet you. You're at council and you provided testimony on whatever it was. And you've done that a number of times, but I remember thinking to myself Who is this lady? Honestly as a who is this because your testimony Was succinct and thoughtful and it was said with such Such expressive language that denoted not only an understanding of the concept that we are getting at, but a further understanding of the political ramifications and the back on information that one would need to know to provide the testimony. And that in itself spoke to me of you're a smart driven mom Who came in a may time to make Dr. provide testimony that day to us to not sway us, but just to provide us with information that was helpful, given your experience in different facets of our community. And I was, I really do remember that moment because it just highlighted to me your ability to have a conversation and make comments to a body in a polite manner that was very educated. And just for that reason alone, I would say yes to you being on the Leaver Planning Commission. It's not everyone can do that. I mean, I listen to things all the time, come here front of us for nominations and such. And you ask a simple question, I've had one word answers. You know, what do you think about the mass transit administration? How could we make it better? Yep, that was a great one. So today, this thing to you, I mean, we're talking about your ability to serve with some of the things that are brought up today. I think those are good things to have in mind, but I do see a clear separation between the two bodies. Could they overlap in some means? Yes. Would that lead to a conflict of interest? Maybe. I wonder what the word of ethics truly could do if they did find that there was a possibility of yours and calc membrane albus overlap in two different bodies. I really would question what would happen from the border of ethics to my understanding to date and having sat here for six years and having been in front of them and having also watched the proceedings for different issues that have come up. So my attention today is to say yes to your nomination, your business owner, your mom, you've lived your whole life, you have made good children to my understanding. But I've also seen your, I've seen your manaw provided to the county and you've also spent time in this county and you've put a lot of effort into it. So that's my intention today. I have a couple questions for you and then you can go from there. Planning commission, land use, what is your long-term vision for the leeward side of our island when it comes to development, housing, infrastructure? Things that are going to come for our view. What do you see this vision of yours, of your home in 20, 50 years, which would be your grandkids, or maybe your grandkids, grandkids. Thank you for the question. The vision has to be thoughtful, mindful, with balance, both in understanding, what responsible development looks like at the end of the day. I'm thankful to understand that I have tools again. I'm going to keep going back to that because as somebody new to this, I realize it's going to be there's going to be a learning curve for me, which is why I'm thankful for those tools. So I go back and it's one thing for me to think about what it looks like and again, I don't want it to look like Maui. I don't want it to look like Honolulu. I think that most of us can agree to that. The question is, what does a general plan say? Because many voices came together over a period of many years to make that happen. With the CDPs as part of that also. But there's one more, it was one more part to that now and that's the voices of today. And I'm really glad that I had a chance to sit down with director Darryl and his deputy, Michelle On, to kind of flesh some of these things out for them to help me understand What my role would be as a commissioner and how I would go about doing that Because one could say I wanted to be like this or I wanted to be like that It cannot be what I want it has to be fair and balanced and Utilization of those tools for me is key. It's also a safety net for me, I feel, because if a lot of these decisions just just remained with us as commissioners as far as what our mona and what we feel is right and what we feel is wrong, that'd be pretty stressful. But I feel that it's up to us to look at these tools and to hear the voices of today and to try and find the balance. So in direct answer to your question, what do I see the quote-unquote looking like? Why I can say I don't see it looking like Oahu and Maui. I see a balance of some development there. Mostly a lot of it are people. It's like where are, you know, how do we build to take care of the issues that we have with regards to affordable homes, affordable housing, homelessness, all that kind of stuff, it all kind of ties in. So my first go to would be development for our people. What does that look like? And again, I just go back to that general plan again. What does it say? And then what are people saying now? So that's my answer to that. I hope I answered your question. I run it away. It was pretty good. It wasn't as good as a testimony provided, you know, a couple of years back. That was pretty good. Well, where do you live now? Sorry, if I can ask you. Yes, I live in Cornell. You're an actress, but it's not. No, no, right above Costco. in that area and the Kala area. Yep. Okay. Something was said to me a long time ago, and I express it here frequently. The best form of affordable housing that we can build right now to take care of our people is Hawaiian homes. Would you agree? For Hawaiian people, yes. Yeah. Well, that was my lovely buzzer. It seems to be short these days. Thank you, Council Member. But I will be supporting your nomination today. And, um, H is in here to discuss and go on about the Board of Ethics and the possible conflicts. And I said I was just the word possible because there's been nothing to do provided this as it is a conflict of interest. Thank you and I appreciate the transparency of it all. I'd like to see it too. It's important to me. Thank you. Are you all chair? Thank you. Council member Kimball. Yeah. Thank you. The Corporation Council, I had a question, follow-up question quickly. Since I can't ask my colleague, are you aware of the contents of the position to be oE on this matter? Do you know what the actual request for decision is from them? I would say I can't, I saw it. you know, actually the board's rules treat the all petitions as confidential unless and until it's heard in an open meeting. And so that's all basically it. So you can tell me anyway if you, I'm sorry. You can tell me anyway. And then I have to kill you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Spicy. Right. Well, okay. So, um, so I want to reiterate, this isn't about you. And, and, um, Miss Anapa, and, and, you know, if this were Matt's wife or Ashley's sister or any other relative before us, I would have these same questions and concerns. And it's actually aptly pointed out, you know, the financial interest is definitely one factor in the potential and it's potential conflict. And I don't think that place comes into play here. But there is another component of ethics rules that talks to the ability to make an unbiased decision when there is a relationship. And for example, there was something that came before us that had to do with my neighbor, who I know well. And so I recused myself from that decision making because I did not feel able to make a non bias decision in my role even though I'm a member of the board. And I want to make sure clear to my colleagues and to you that this is about protecting the institution and protecting both the institution of the planning commission and the institution of the council. And that is why just one more time I want to recommend that regardless of what happens today, moving us to council, that before we make a final decision on this and there is the opportunity to do that, we wait for that Board of Ethics decision. If that doesn't happen and I assume I know the answer to this, if we were to get a Board of Ethics decision that this might be a problematic nomination, I presume that you would withdraw from the Planning Commission if it happened after your nomination. Can I just be clear what I'm asking? If this were to be heard and issues were raised by the Board of Ethics. The nomination had proceeded. Would you be willing to remove yourself in the board if the Board of Ethics said that that was going to be problematic? I know it's a hypothetical and I don't typically like to ask hypotheticals, but in this case I feel it's necessary. And I'm so okay with that. Thank you for that question, because there could be nobody worse if I will say than me in nitpicking little things. Excuse me. Council members, can you please not have side conversations during this? Thank you. In nitpicking little things to make sure that transparency is always there. So by all means, I mean, I wish we'd have the ruling before today, you know, but it's not in my place to go to that board. So if they were to rule that it, I mean, very clearly that there is a conflict. First of all, I wouldn't have a choice but to remove myself, but just from a standpoint of doing the right thing, I would. So yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. Can I just interject, Council Member, Kim, just to follow up on your very quickly? Okay. Sure. Your board of ethics questions. I. I do You know know that they do have a practice of looking at the entire Situation and then prescribing if necessary Guard rails or situations where people should Come back to them Yeah, yeah, I know I yielded but just just go on to that quickly. I think that's what I'm looking for here from the Board of Ethics. It's not only kind of a yes or no, this is okay, but also if we need some prescription of guardrails about behaviors moving forward because of the relationship between the Council and the Planning Commission, I think that's equally important here. So again, just reiterating it would be my preference to say at some point, to have the petition and I will file my own with this recommendation in addition to the one that was filed since I don't know the contents of that to make sure that we have all of the concerns addressed. Thank you. Thank you. Council members, we're going to allow second time round, but please keep it short and to the point add new information. Thank you. Council member V. Agas. Yeah. Thank you, Chair, for allowing me to have my time. I suppose it's a question for you, Renee. I'm sorry. You're playing musical chairs. It's my understanding and from my experience that council members already have, there's no information that a council member wouldn't have access to about things happening with the Leaver Planning Commission, correct? That's correct. All the documents are public. Oh, that's correct. And same with council, other than our confidential things. So there is no, unless it was a specific agenda item that for some strange reason had something to do with both people on each of these You know the council and this commission Otherwise everything was all public information anyway, correct? That's correct with the exception of you know confidential attorney client Communications or executive session matters great. Thank you because I feel like that's something that the public may not understand is that there already is this opportunity for any one of us to participate in the Leeward Planning Commission and hopefully more people do in the meetings and testifying and for us as council members to participate. So the relationship between the potential candidate for the Leward Planning Commission and a Council member doesn't provide any extra access. It doesn't provide any extra anything. Correct? Correct. Fantastic. So I just wanted to state because I, you know, in my years of working with Chair Inaba and in my own times of frustration and passionate, really having belief systems about some of the things that have happened here that I didn't agree with. Some of the words of wisdom that have come from Chair Inaba have really been like surrender and the beauty of not being attached and the belief in that karma and the future would take care of people if their decisions were not ponal and in the greater good. And I take that to heart and I see that in the legacy of your family and the way that you all navigate your paths in leadership and whatever arena you're in. The values, the principles and the priorities remain fair and balanced and the decisions being made for the collective good over personal gain. And I want to recognize and validate that there is full accountability within all of you for the repercussions of any decisions that may be compromised and that you don't have a history. There are no circumstances of this, but that you're stepping forward and being willing to serve in this kooliana. I just want to say that I honor that and I trust. And that's not something I can do all the time here. And for members of this council who's districts aren't directly impacted by the Leeward Planning Commission, I would also like to bring forward that, you know, as a member who is affected by the Leeward Planning Commission, I do ask for that to be taken into consideration because the decisions made there affect my district directly. Yes, the general plan will be devoted on by Leeward and Windward, but as a council member directly impacted by my district by the decisions of the Leeward Planning Commission, I do want to point that out that I feel like I have extra stake in the game. So with that I yield. Thank you. So council member Cunnelly, Kleinfelder, and then council member Gellimba, please. Second round, keep it tight if you can. Thanks. Thank you, Chair. Mr. Clerk, is there a limit on how many times a council member can speak in a meeting? I don't think there's a limit. We can go back and look at the rules. The chair has some discretion on that. And of course, the body themselves can help regulate by making a motion to call for a question and things of that nature. But there are no. Thank you. Let me see Naba. What was your role in the Caldys? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. in a motion to call for a question and things of that nature. But there are no. Thank you. Am I synable? What was your role in the country over the years or how many roles have you had in the county actually I've just had one role and that was the R&D director back in 2015 okay how many years were you directing? I'd say close to two. Two years? Yes. Yeah. Thinking of what's been said today, we had a fairly combative nomination of one of our for ex directors, Mr. Kern, was no longer with the county. And in that process, as we discussed the best way to keep everything above board, he ultimately had to submit to the council a complete list of any and all of his past business associates, companies that he worked with, people he did work for. So in his role as a planning director, there was no, there's no room for error in anything that could be assumed as a conflict of interest. but maybe something along those lines would be helpful to the council if it comes to that. Just putting that out there and thinking how we've seen things like this before. I'm not saying this is the same. I'm just saying that was one outcome and a solution offered at a previous nomination hearing to provide kind of the high level transparency that I think is being requested. If it's awful, it's awful if not. Again, supporting your nomination today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Glemba. Thank you. Um, Corporation Council. Kitty, come up here very briefly. Very quickly. Sorry. Getting your steps. And I'm not, I'm not even sure that this is 100% your question, it may be a board of ethics question, but just I was just thinking offhand of a situation where I would think that recutal would be appropriate, but maybe I'm wrong on this and the situation would be should a council member have a piece of legislation that needs to go in front of the planning commission and that council member has a family member on the planning commission would that be a case where recusal would be recommended I guess Corporation Council sorry, please reintroduce yourself just so for the record sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, to speculate, but I'm sure that that might be a situation where there could be an ask or certainly a disclosure, but I cannot see legislation that would be proposed by any member of this body that would so involve any type of interest that is prescribed or protected by the ethics cult. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'm going to say a few things and then we're going to go ahead and take a picture. Very quick. This is in regards to Matt's question about the committee. My understanding is at committee level council members are allowed to ask as much questions as they want because as the whole body, what we want to have everything worked out at the committee level because when we go to the council, we want it to move smoothly and faster. So this is the time when we make all our questions and our discussions. So to me, we shouldn't be or chairs shouldn't be limiting members of this body, time limits, or even how many times you're speaking. Because this is at the time where we work on everything. We work on autocane. So that is my understanding of why we have this community. Thank you. You can pass a rule about that. Thank you very much. Okay. We're going to go ahead and I want to make a few comments and ask a few questions. Thank you. Thank you for being here. I mean, I think Miss Ename you embody Manawa Hine. I mean, you have really been, you know, you are a pillar of the community and you've been involved in so many things. So thank you and thank you for putting your name forward. You know, I understand as a parent that your very first thing you talked about is that being a parent and raising your kids is your number one thing that you care about and that you're proud of. I think you said in your, you know, you've said before that this is your number one thing. So important. I also know that you're not going anywhere. This is your community. As you said, you're born here. You plan to live your whole entire life here. And so really appreciate that. And, you know, the testimony that we got from so many different people, I agree with all of it. You know, really you are a stellar candidate for this. My concern is, as we talked about, you came and we did have a conversation before this, my concern is the, not necessarily just a conflict of interest, but the appearance of conflict of interest. And I have to say, I felt very uncomfortable today, even having this discussion with your son as our chair sitting here. He has discretion over pots of money that he can dole out to different members of this body or not. He has discretion about a lot of things as chair and to just even have this conversation with him sitting here is really uncomfortable. And that is not your fault. I think that the administration should be a little more aware that maybe this isn't the best time to be doing something like this. I support you 100% when your son is not on this body. So, you know, there was said earlier, you know, in any other circumstance, you would be a shoe-in and I agree with that, but this is not unfortunately any other circumstance. So I support you, I support your work, I support your involvement in the community, I really want you to be involved. And I hope we can figure out a way to do that. But I will not be supporting this right now. If it does go forward, I, and it seems like it might, I would second Council Member Kimbell's option of hearing from the Board of Ethics before final, just because that doesn't put you in such an awkward position then. And if since I didn't mention the administration, I would love to give the administration a chance to, because I have nothing at all against your nomination. It really is just the circumstances that we are putting here. So Mr. Allen, if you have anything you want to say on behalf of the administration response to that, I saw you came back up. So yeah, go ahead. As I stated earlier, we are honored to nominate Missy Naba We think that you know her Ohana service to our island community is noble and It's not our never you know it's um I Mean you know we think she's highly skilled she's extremely qualified. There's nothing more to it. Model. Thanks just to follow up on that. Why is it now or never? Yeah, no it's like not all right so like not all was like yeah it's like kind of what would you feel you know it's I'm so sorry it's kind of no got it. I did it's an expression, but yeah, okay. Thank you, but absolutely and as I said I would love to have you on seated on this body and I would fully support you being seated on it when your sign is not on this body. So thank you. All right, with that, let's see, do we need a And the council member Kimmel? Do you? Do we need to make some? Oh, sorry. Clerk. Sorry. Mr. Clerk, if we want to add a recommendation that we have a special meeting, does that happen after or before the vote on this matter? Chair, if I may. Yes. I would suggest just proceeding with the vote out of committee right now and then when we get to council we can I will write a motion. Thank you. Is that okay? Miss Point of Order? Yeah. I'd like to hear the answer. Yeah. From the clerk. Absolutely. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, I think the two separate things we have a motion on the floor right now that we need to deal with and that's taking the vote right now in committee And then we can have further discussion on a possible Special meeting I think that's a separate issue that We can talk about and have discussion on Okay Thank you all right, but that we're going to go ahead and take a roll call vote, please. On the motion to forward the nomination of Rebecca Kovey-Naba to the council, to the council with a favorable recommendation, Ms. Kalimba. No. Mr. Hustis. Aye. Mr. Yudh-Naba is excused. Mr. Kylie Kleinfelder. Aye. Ms. Kirkowitz. Aye. Ms. Kimbo. No. Mr. Onishi. Aye. Ms. Villegas. Aye. Chair Kaguaro. No. Chair, you have five votes in favor. Three nos, Ms. Calimba, Ms. Kimbo and yourself, the motion moves forward the council with a favorable recommendation. All right. Thank you so much. We'll move on to the next item. If anybody would like to testify in communication, two, zero speak up now. Hearing on Communication 201, nomination of Josephine Jojo, Tani Moro to the South Kohala Community Development Plan Action Committee, from Mayor C. Kimo Alameda, date in March 13, 2025, requesting the Council's review and confirmation, confirmation is required by April 26, 2025. We have a motion, please. Motion to close following communication, 2-0-1 and for the nomination of Josephine Tanimoto, 2-0 Council with a favorable recommendation. So good. We have a motion by Council Member Inaba and a second by Council Member Hustis. All right, Mr. Alameda, please introduce your nominee. Mahalo, Madam Chair. It is my honor to present to you Communication 201, nominating Josephine, Jojo Tani Moto, Council District 9 to the South Kohala Community Development Plan Action Committee, Aloha and T Jojo. T Jojo was born on Oahu in 1950. She relocated to a Va'ia island in 1974. She recently retired from the hospitality industry. Auntie Jojo has served on the South Gohalla Community Development Plan Action Committee before I believe former Mayor Billy Kinoi appointed her in her previous service. She is a former leader of the Kailapa Community Association in Kauai High, Hawaiian Homes. She is a proud beneficiary of the Department of Hawaiian Homes lands. And she is looking forward to returning to her service on the South Kohales CDP Action Committee. Back to you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Ms. Tanimoto, would you like to say a few words and introduce yourself? Aloha. Mahalo for the opportunity to speak. I'd like to thank the mayor and the county council for this opportunity. I moved to Kauai High when Hawaii announces awarding a lease way back about 40 years ago when the area was still watershed and the streams did run water, the cultures were flowing water and there's been a lot of changes since then in the community. But my concern is that the CDP document is split into four districts. Kauaiha is not represented for a few years now. And Kauaiha needs a little bit of attention. we need to be able to have a safe table. Usually all of our natural resources are being impacted water like the gentleman that spoke before me is a huge concern for our community in Kauai High. And we need to be at the table to help the community in that way. And Kauaihi does not include only Kauaihi home lands. There's a lot of lands for the whole instead, but it also includes other land owners. And but the big thing is traffic because we host a quiet harbor on Tulane traffic. And we have six bridges in our community that are historic. And that seems to be the only way in and the only way out. So when you speak to evacuation, quite high, doesn't have one. So I have some concerns over the last 40 years that I think that the CDP can help our community. Just as they the other three wine mill, white, aloe and porco. So I would appreciate your support in my nomination in that respect. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ms. Tomi Nagah. Councillor Hustis, would you like to kick us out here? Thank you, Chair. Mahalo, Mr. Alameda. Mahalo, Mr. Tani-Moto, Auntie Jojo. Thank you for stepping forward and wanting to represent the South Gohalo communities, but specifically, Kwaihai. I know you've attended many meetings across the district for many years, voicing the concerns of the Kwaihai community. So I do appreciate your commitment, your engagement with community to really bring the issues of quiet high forward. So thank you for one step forward and look forward to supporting your nomination. Mahalo. Thank you, Council Member Hustis. Anybody else, comments or questions? Council Member Connelly, Klein, builder. Thank you, Chair. Corporations and Council, I I need your help for something. Mr. Tony Moto, I'll be with you in just a second. Thank you for your time today. But he said, he said, just a minute. Yes. I'm sorry, I apologize. I do have one in government and that is hearing me too. Everybody speak up as loudly as you can right into the mics. Thank you. Mr. Oun, just given today's discussion on the back of Ms. Tony Mothel's application. One of the references she listed is Diane Caneali, which is in fact my auntie. So, wondering given today's broad discussion on ethics and other things, if it would be in my best interest to recuse myself or if it is okay for me to vote. And for reference my at the melco do live in the Kailapur Community Association and I love them so. Well, you know, I mean, I guess, pursuant to your rules, you're making that disclosure of potential, I guess, relationship. I, you know, don't see a conflict of interest in you voting on the nominee. I don't. Maybe you want your aunt and uncle could have not so nice things to say about the nominee. I don't, maybe you want, your aunt and uncle could have not so nice things to say about the nominee. But just on the face of being referenced there, I don't believe that there is a conflict. Of certainly, you may want to act out of the abundance of caution and recuse yourself from the vote, but that's up to you. Okay thank you, Mr. Tony Motto. I'm going to ask a few questions and I do appreciate your time today and I'll speak loudly. So you live in the Kyloff or Community Association? I will get this uh uh peria before my next B problem. So you live in the Kalapag community association correct? Correct yes. And then uh Dino Dino Roger and Diane Kaneli oh yes I do and the name sounds familiar okay good they're good people by the way thank you no something you said is interesting you said used to be water that ran through the Kylappok community 40 years ago, but doesn't today, is that correct? Yes. That's very interesting. That should be looked into it now. So one of the things that my aunt has brought up numerous times is the lack of water in some of the areas in South Koala district. And some of the references you've made today, I think really do speak well to your being on this committee to make sure and ensure that the folks in South Koadalaj as well as some of the Hawaiian homelands that has yet to receive county water after decades of back-and-force between county and state agencies should be rectified. So I appreciate you coming in today. I'll be supporting a nomination and Giving God's good grace at some point County water will be brought into the Kailapa community So you stop being four times the rate of water supply from the Kohala Ranch where you've purchased currently producing water from for the Hawaiian homes development there in Kailapa. So thank you for your time today. I'll be supporting your nomination and I will do my best to speak up for the rest of the day. Thank you, Mr. Animoto. Thank you, Councilmember. Anybody else? All right. With that, we will take a vote. All those in favor of closing file on Community Communication 201 and sending the favorable nomination of Josephine Tani Motto to the South Kohala-CDP Action Committee. Please say aye. Any opposed? We have seven eyes, Mr. Clerk, with Council Members Inaba and Vegas excused. Communication 202, please. Thank you. If anyone would like to testify in Communication 202, please speak up now. I do. I'll make your brief. Hello. Three minutes. Okay. Thank you. Starting now. 30 seconds. We're all good. I just wanted to say, you know, I've had the pleasure to get to know Paige Tominaga here who is the eighth grader at Kamehameha Schools, Kula Vina Middle School. I met her on a field trip at this building in late February. She came with her eighth grade class and, you you know doing my service talking about the youth commission. She was asking very pointed questions to the point where after she asked for my card she was emailing me about the youth commission before she even left the building. So I'm like at my computer like girl are you still here and she's like yeah we're doing a tour I'm like oh my god here is the youth commission application she filled it out that night. Unfortunately we were doing a tour. I'm like, oh my God, here is the Youth Commission application. She filled it out that night. Unfortunately, we were locked with our appointments. I'm so happy that Council Member O'Neighe interviewed her. And she's here today as a product of Council Member O'Neighe's appointment. So I am in favor of this amazing nomination by Council Member O'Neighe, Mahalo Council Member. Thank you. Was that testimony or is that your introduction? Testimony. Okay, great. Go ahead, Mr. Alameda, you now have, oh, sorry, we don't have a, okay. We actually just close file, yeah. So I'm gonna read in the, the more, and then we guys can have a motion on the floor first. So if anyone likes, Anyone also like to testify please speak up now.. Okay hearing none. Communication 2-0-2. Appointment of page, Tomminaga to the Youth Commission from Council Member Dennis Fresh, Onishi dated March 13, 2025. Chair, motion to close file in communication 2-0-2. We have a motion by Council Member Kirkowitz and a second by Council Member Hust Houston to close file and communication to Mr. Alameda. Go ahead. No, no, this is actually a Councilmember Oñishi's appointment. Okay, go ahead. Just Councilmember Oñishi. Go ahead. Page go first. Oh, okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. Okay. No, so okay. So this is not a Merrill appointee, right? This is a council member a council district three appointee So yeah, So this is not a Merrill appointee right this is a council member a council district three appointee So yeah, so this is them. I'm just here in full support of this appointee. Okay. Thank you Councilmember Onisha you don't wish to introduce the page Introduce it. Okay. Go ahead miss Tommi Naga Hello, good morning. Thank you for having me. Thank you for allowing me to be here. I'm an eighth grader at Comma Met School of School of Wino. And I really want to be on the East Commission because I really want to see the youth in the county and the district do well, whether it's through school or with social life. I would just want to see the youth thrive so they can do what they want to do in the future. feature. I'm an active member in the Civil Art Patrol and I'm just rescaling off and wanted to come. life. I would just want to see you know the thrive so they can do what they want to do in the future. I'm an active member in the Civil Arpeggio and I'm just recently gotten promoted to Kenneth Technical Sergeant so with that it's like a lot of service work and integrity and like just a bunch of discipline. Like I said I'm very honored to be here and I think that's all I can say for myself. Good thank you. That's wonderful. Go ahead Mr. Nishin. I just ask my colleagues to support page Tomminaga to the Youth Commission and now you see how government works and operates, right? So you might have second thoughts about being, you know, on as an elected official, right? But I really appreciate that you step you forward and like I mentioned to you when we were meeting about how you know this body needs to get more information on what is needed by our youth especially like I mentioned to you like the ones from like 21 to 18 years old because they're still under age and sometimes we don't even look at those ages right because we look we look at like 17 and below, right? Getting them activities, especially sports activities, right? And you're an athlete too, so I like that. And so I look forward to, you know, anytime you have questions or you need help or, you know, anything, just let me know. Oh, let my office know. But thank you for stepping up. Wonderful. Thank you, Councilmember Oñishi. Councilmember Vegas. Thank you, Chair. Aloha and welcome. And seeing your face and your intentionality, as we already today have had to navigate some challenging circumstances, I will wholeheartedly support your nomination and just also want to express my gratitude for your willingness to step up, to step in, to lean in, to speak up, and to share. You are the future, and you are the reason I serve, and you will be the future of this place or wherever you decide to land. But this willingness that you have to serve and to lean in even when things are challenging is it's deeply comforting. At a time when a lot of young people are feeling disheartened and that the system at hand can be a futile one to try and navigate. So thank you for your willingness to do this and I wholeheartedly support your nomination or I'm grateful. And is this your your mom with you here today? Your grandma, beautiful grandma. Congratulations grandma. Thank you for supporting her and her journey of service to our community. I hope. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Connilli Klein-Poder. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for being here this morning. They did a good to see government working interestingly enough this morning. The Youth Commission has been, I think, meeting two now. With mixed results, I would recommend walking in. You have some clear goals and what you'd like to accomplish. I sat in on a couple of the meetings myself, not only having to meet the way that board meetings run and having some of the Corporation Council lawyers present to help make sure everything's done above board, which almost seems a little bit extraneous for you folks to do the business that you do, but understanding that we have our rules in the county. Coming with what you're looking to have done, and I mean, I'm really supporting you today, but just be ready to be part of that team. They have a lot of good ideas. There's been a lot of back and forth with different things they want to approach. But I really do see the role in the Youth Commission is coming back to us and letting us know, and letting the administration know where the youth wants to see our county go. And I love all the ideas and of the brainstorming, but today I haven't seen a lot of action goals come out of the commission. So if you need assistance you need anything please lean on us lean on Dennis or anybody else here to help you get the support you need to start really lifting up that committee and getting some things back to us so let us know what we're doing right wrong or what you want to see as far as the youth. It's a wide range to I think it's 14 to 24 years old. So you have a very interesting makeup of both age and and everything else. So look forward to seeing what you do. Have those goals in mind when you land and then be ready to make some movement. And I do apologize I think for, for the last. If you go command my school, is that right? Yeah, you probably had to see my ugly banners on the way to and from your school every morning and every afternoon, I apologize for that, but it's just part of the job. Not thank you for being here this morning. First of your time and have fun and get some stuff done in the community. Okay? Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Do you want to say something? Thank you very much. Yeah. I'm just grateful to be here. So. Great. Councilmember Kirkwood. Thank you, Chair. Page, it's so nice to meet you. It's so nice to see. I'm glad that you were able to have the opportunity to be here to witness government in action. I think today is especially important because you got to see how your elected officials work through disagreements in a public space where we are able to engage in constructive dialogue and to engage with one another with civility, professionalism, and aloha, which I think is really important because when we get involved in political issues, sometimes things can get very emotional and so I hope you take away that we are folks that get along, sometimes we don't always agree, but we want what's best for Hawaii Island. I'm so glad that you were proactive in reaching out to Uncle Micah about wanting to be on the Youth Commission. Sorry, Uncle Micah, your uncle status now. I put for the Charter Amendment to create the Youth Commission. I had a number of opportunities in high school, actually, where I got to intern for Mayor Harry Kim, the first time he was mayor. Fell in love with county government. And thought, wow, how wonderful would it be to have more youth in the future have opportunities like this. You know, you talked about, it was mentioned here in the communication that you might have ideas for future events for youth commissioners. I would love for you to kind of share what you're thinking with us to see how we might be but to help you. So like something I want to do is like yes of course social life for teens but you know it's like this whole like I wouldn't say a concept but it's like you know being able to get out there and meet new people or be social not just like stay out at home online all day or just like being able to get out there and you know connect with people you know make new friends and see how other people think and learn because I you know it's like a bunch of jobs and the future requires social life you know you have to be social with people you have to figure out how to work through disagreements you know like you mentioned you know how you need to connect and be able to talk with people comfortably. So, you know, just being able to get people out there and, you know, get people together. That's something I wanted to do. I love that. And meeting more peers around the island would be wonderful, identifying beautification projects, public artwork projects that you folks can be doing together. Those are wonderful. If you had to describe Like the number one or two issues that you feel youth are facing today. What do you think that would be and how would you solve it? so I guess like one of them would be definitely this social matter, but another one is like Mental and physical health, you know, there are people who are going through mental challenges where they can't do their best in school because of something mental that they're facing where they it's a mental illness or just like you know having a rough day and people don't understand that and then that relates to the social aspect where it's like you know I can't make the friends I want to make because of this issue so I guess like that those are the main two. That's great. I'm so impressed by you and you're only in eighth grade. I think you're going to bring tremendous value to the commission. Please see all of us as a resource. Your council member, council member Onishi is a huge supporter of Parks and Recreation and youth development. So definitely hit him up. We are in budget season. So we're gonna keep a lot of what you have said in mind as well as your fellow commissioners because we wanna make sure that you have all the tools and resources you need to take action on your ideas. Thank you for being here today. Thank you, Yulchair. Wonderful. Council Member Ynubba. Thank you so much for your willingness to serve. And I just wanted to share some of the opportunity, at least within the liquor department, they do have funds available for community outreach programs. So if that's something that is of interest to you, or maybe some of the colleagues you may have on the youth commission, that might be an opportunity for partnership with director Takase and being able to establish whether it be an event or some type of outreach surrounding liquor and prevention, especially among youth, but just a recommendation to offer now. And thank you again for being here, Sherry Oden. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Connelly Klein-Felder. Oneder. One follow for you because I kind of look to you guys to look at big issues not just have fun issues. Did you drive two and from command and schools from healer every day? I'm going to catch the bus. You catch the bus. How's the traffic going two and from healer to command and schools? Well in the morning it's not that not that bad because people are still waking up and then care all kids don't have to go to school yet. So it's not that bad in the morning, but in the afternoon it can be kind of hectic. The cat now. Those kind of issues are things that the youth commission can look at too. And that leaves in heavily towards what we talk about and what we look for, we talk about future for Hawaii County. So don't be afraid to dive into the big stuff and take that on as you the commission because you this is an interesting place for you to be. And so lean on us as needed. But thank you. Thank you, Council member. All right. Council. Sorry. I know that Council member Canaley E.feld or didn't mean this, but social issues, mental health issues, are big issues. These are massive issues that are youth are having to deal with. And so yes, traffic is something that we have to deal with. That's our job here as legislators, but I don't want you to feel as if mental health issues are small and insignificant because they're not. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for that clarification. All right. With that, I'll just say a few words. Thank you for putting your name forward and for being so gung-ho. It's wonderful. I did want to, as the person who's been able to work with the Youth Commission in this past their first year, they've only been operating for one year. I just want to say a few things that they have accomplished because I want to make sure that everybody knows that the Council, the Youth Commission has testified both at the state level and at the county level on issues that are really important to them. They've also really been involved in some conferences and for they volunteered their time to help other younger students in some some conferences and some other activities and events happening around our island. One of the issues that we've had and this is I really have to say a huge thank you to council member Onishi for getting you on board here is that we just have not had a quorum which means we don't have enough people to actually hold a meeting and so that's one of the main reasons that there have been kind of stops and starts. So I really appreciate you coming on board. I know you'll be at every meeting you possibly can be and appreciate Council Member Nishie for getting her name out there because we have 15 spots and we have to have a minimum of eight people every time or we can't hold a meeting and we haven't been able to hold a meeting because we haven't had enough people. So thank you for jumping on board. Appreciate it so much. And with that, there's no need for us to approve your nomination. You are approved and just vote to close file on this communication. All those in favor, please say aye. All right. Way to go. Thank you thank you so much sure that was nine eyes thank you please skip down to resolution 105 if anyone like to testify in resolution 105 please speak up now thank you page.. During non-resolution 105 adopts the 2025-2029 County of Hawaii Consolidated Plan and 2025 Annual Action Plan for the County of Hawaii Community Development Block Grant CDBG Emergency Solutions Grant ESG Home Investment Partnerships and Housing Trust Fund programs, and authorizes the mayor of the county of Hawaii to execute and submit the consolidated plan and annual action plan, and all other related documents to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD. Includes countywide housing and homelessness needs, assessments, funding goals and priorities. It must be adopted prior to receipt of annual CDBG and ESG allocations from HUD, introduced councilmember coggy water by request Thank you, may I get a motion please motion to forward resolution 105-25 to council with a favorable recommendation of a motion by councilmember inaba second by council member v. agus to forward resolution 105-25 to council with a favorable recommendation. Do we have Royce-Sheroma here? We lost her have to move on. Royce, if you're around, we need you for this item. Please join us. We've already introduced the item. We're ready for you. Go ahead, Mr. Shoroma. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for joining us, Mr. Shoroma. So yeah, please give us some background and introduce this item. Royce, Shoroma from the Office of Housing and Community Development. The resolution before you guys is for the submission of the Consolidated Plan consolidate plan and annual actual plan to HUD. This is one of the requirements in the federal regulations in order for us to receive for the county to receive any federal funding from HUD for CBG home housing trust fund ESG and many other funds that may be associated in the future. And the Constellate Plan covers for a five-year period. This is the first year of a new five-year period in which we are providing HUD, our goals and priorities of what we feel we should be doing with the HUD funds that we'll be receiving. And we have a deadline to submit to HUD which is May 15th. And in order when we submit this, we'll be notified from them whether basically it's approved and will be funded for the 2025 Federal funding for CBG. Okay, thank you. We have this very large document. This is the document you're talking about, right? And it's tabbed in some areas. Are those the things you wanna highlight for us? And do you wanna quickly maybe just highlight some of those items? Yeah, sure. So in the beginning, I don't have the copy, sorry, I left it. But basically, it's part of the executive summary in which we summarize that this five-year plan will provide HUD with what our goals and priorities are. And the high priorities that we've specified in the plan includes affordable housing, public facilities, infrastructure for in-supportive housing, compliance with federal mandates, providing homeless, prevention and services, public services, economic development, and disaster relief. And we also have a low priority, which is mainly the parking facility sidewalks and non-residential historic preservation. We try to encompass everything so when we receive applications for the RFPs every year we're able to at least make sure that their scope matches our cuts on their plan. Thank you. The second tab after the summary you have here, it looks like exhibit A project cut. Exhibit A project cut. A list. Oh, list. Okay. Project list. Yes. I'm okay. Anything you want to highlight there? This is basically the project list is what we are projecting to fund using the 2025 allocation from HUD. And if you see the projects here, Archive Corner, Mental Helcuhua, Oli, Akaki Rento Housing, Archive Hilo, those lists of projects ranked the highest when we did the most recent RFP. And our allocation each year roughly is about 2.6 with 100,000 of program income with that we anticipate, which told us2.7 million. And those are who we are submitting to HUD, our selection for the CDIBG funds. Okay. I think everybody's scrambling a little because it's a very big document, even just this summer. It is. We just got it. So, it's as we are like kind of frantically paging through. And in the meantime, we have applicants here also from Arcofilo, Arcofcona, and I think online, there may be Metuhokokua. And for Oulie is our community development office to answer any questions if you do. Okay. Penum chair. Is it possible as he goes through different exhibits that we can question? Yeah it sounds like maybe we can go ahead and do questions now. Maybe not go through all the exhibits and and then if he has things he can add. Okay Mr. Shremmas is out all right with you. Okay, so if you have questions right now. Okay, go ahead, Mr. Council member Onishi. So CDBG projects that you have listed. Number five is administration planning and fair housing for $500, $500,000. I mean, what is it for? It is mainly. It's for staff salaries. And what is the breakdown? I'm sorry. What is the breakdown? Mushi is, you know, majority of it will be associated with SNW, which is roughly about 40% 60 percent. And the balance will be covering operational costs in the in our Hilo office and our corner office. We also are funding for housing initiatives in there. We fund also contracts used as for grants management software. We do share cost in the office, which is considered like a overhead cost and to cover electricity and rent and those kind of things all is part of that budget. But now with this CDBG to funding also goes to purchase other, for example, fire, like fire vehicles, correct? So at this awarding, your folks are not doing that. If we purchase fire, wildland fire trucks, for example, or we have purchased ATVs for some fire stations, those are part of program project cost. So they need to still apply for the funding to us. And then we'll award basically if their project is selected. But it's all one part. Yes project the balance of like 2.2 million would be considered project costs. Okay so everything will be based on that. Okay so because I met with Finance Department and we looked at housing to write and then they had about like all 69 or 64 of your positions is all federally funded. Majority of, yes. Yeah, and so this half a meal is part of that funding that goes towards all the staff in office. Yes. Yeah got it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember. I think be I guess with. Oh, sorry. County Lee Kleinfield. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sherolma. Just reading through this questions. What what how or who provided all the info for the housing needs assessment? The housing needs assessment is based out of our housing study that we have contracted SMS software, SMS consulting services. And it's a statewide study. Hawaii County is a part of that study as well as all the other counties and the sitting county, DHL. That study was funded in 2023 through events that happened with SMS. Basically, they're no longer, the Hawaii office is no longer there. They have, we have contracted award research to finish. We are looking at getting that study completed, hopefully by June of this year. And I think the numbers in there are used by not only housing, but a lot of other departments as well, you guys, on the statistics. So housing needs assessment is part of that study itself. So I get a second question then, SMS and word. Who did they talk to? They use various methods in these needs. They might reach out to community members or they might do surveys for the needs. I know they did phone surveys, they did mailings throughout the community. I'm not sure what the sampling size is but that's how they gather the information. Do you, Does housing have that information available? We have a draft, but it's not finalized, so we are not receiving that information yet. For that reason, when we do the Consolet plan, we make a note that it is still a draft, and the data for this is based on the older the 2018 housing policy study. So what we will we will update it once we release get it released in June. So what we're looking at today is actually based on the 2018 yes because we cannot use numbers that have been released yet yet We've been going back and forth and I think because of the change between SMS and word research it has really impacted the Actual study the result of the current study okay, so that But the housing needs assessment information in this packet that you gave us is outdated because some of it is dated 2024. Some may be taken from the community studies through the Census Bureau. You know a lot of them may be pretty much just picking chose from the website just to get some of the information updated as much as we can. But based on their contract, the main areas of the housing needs, some of the geographic demographics of the different household, It's like that. It's based on the houses' study. So one interesting thing I found in the housing needs assessment and their household needs was ethnicity. I found it very interesting that the ethnicity of most of the folks who are requesting or have a need or wait. Can you speak to that? One more time. Can you? I'm just looking in the housing needs assessment. Household needs, at the different ethnicities that provided a response I'm guessing to some of the questions that were put out, you know, has one or more for one or more of four housing problems has none of, but for the most part, although it says otherwise in this report. It's interesting, this is what caught me. Pacific Islander's face elevated housing needs proportionally while white and Asian households remain notable in terms of absolute numbers. Disproportionately affected groups. Pacific Islander's face the most consistent and severe disparities across all income brackets followed by Asian Hispanics. But in every section that I read on, white has the highest numbers of one or more of four housing problems. I'm trying to wrap my head around. Yeah. It's two different things that are being made. Yeah, it's two different.. The data set shows that one way, but the verbiage put in the report points the other way. Yeah. I have to look at that. And then the final exactly what that could mean. So maybe based on the old numbers and, you know, it's something that we have used the older report for. Chair, is the status-stition person in the room? Can I respond to what's being presented there? Just for the number kind of high-client order. So the absolute number would be the absolute count, the number of individuals versus the proportional count, which would be of all of the native Hawaiians that responded or Pacific Islanders responded. The highest proportion of that total number had the need. So if you have a greater population of white, you're going to see a greater absolute number. But if you have a smaller population of native Hawaiians, they're going to have a greater proportion. I like it. I like it. I think that also speaks to my point that I'm trying to make though. It's when we're addressing housing, cost of living, and everything else that we hope to do in this county to address the people who live here. And we see a smaller population of native Hawaiians being disproportionately effective because they are a smaller population. For us, some of the other ethnicities that are not native, we're seeing more numbers coming in for them as needing things from the county for housing, homelessness, that kind of thing. So it's an interesting parallel to look at as we look to address the housing crisis and how we choose to address it. Just think that I caught my attention as I went to the support. Can you maybe, Royce, if you can help me with this, speaking to cost of housing versus more housing? So I see it mentioned here and there in the report. How does this report or this resolution kind of address those that difference? It kind of determines what the need is currently at this point in time. And what type of characteristics are part of the need itself are part of the the need itself. It'll break it down by the area, the district, and that in comparison to the inventory that's available also. It has to kind of bohan in hand in which to determine what our the Kauai County's goal and how we should approach the increase in that getting that goal. I agree. I agree. I think that should be closely... closely. I should definitely be high on the list as we consider what direction we need to go to address our housing crisis. Yeah. I think it's something statewide, you know, that has been a priority. So we're looking at what the actual inventory is and what the need is. Agreed. Okay. So when I heard today, these are old numbers. Not that we're just voting on what's being presented in front of us, but this is a draft. It's working. Yeah. We'll update it as soon as we get the new ones. Yeah. So I think that's an important note for everybody. And then just for the department as you guys move forward just looking just I'm watching real carefully as far as how we address housing need Yeah, so that's I think that's an important note for everybody. And then just for the department as you guys move forward, just looking just, I'm watching real carefully as far as how we address housing needs. What do you have in the name? Okay. Sorry, I stand corrected. The number is actually based on the, which is a comprehensive housing assessment study from the, I stand corrected. The numbers are actually based on the which is a comprehensive housing Assessment study from the census From the census. Yeah, so because we put in wait for the numbers for the from the other one Housing policy study. Yeah. Okay, so the census which is more dependent on who sends in their census differently. Census data and that sampling size. And, you know, yeah. Sorry about that. No, no, no, that's OK. I think it's good for us to kind of know what we're looking at and where this information came from. What we decide on is good, but where the information comes from, more important, I think. Yes, very important. Thank you, sir. I yield, Chair. Thank you. Council member Houston. Thank you, chair. Thank you, Mr. Sieroma, for presenting this to us. My question is more about the anticipated funds, with some of the changes at the federal side with HUD and potential changes there. And you do make note that these selected projects, their dollar values and those figures, could for them specifically. What do you, yeah, please, what do you kind of see and what are your sense right now anticipating 2.6? What is your sense right now on some of those changes or potential changes? Well, based on what has happened recently in which they passed the continued resolution up until September 30 of this year, which is the actual budget that funds this 25 CDBG program and there were no decreases that I know of. So that in itself we can estimate that it'll be close to the 2.6 million. However, the 26 which comes after after October 1st, because of the federal fiscal year, is questionable. We're not sure what's going to happen in the future. But as far as this one, we're confident it'll be close to the 2.6. We might be a little bit less or a little bit more. It depends on how HUD divis it up. Got it. And if it were to change it all, how do you make the determination on which of these selected projects has a decrease? We go by the actual ranking of how we awarded these funds. And if there were any funds that based on the budget that we have not funded, it could be arch of healer that we never funded 100% and will provide the additional funds to them. Okay. I think that's all I have for now. Thank you, Chair. Sure. Anybody else questions? Council member Karkowitz. Thank you, Chair. Hi, Mr. Shurama. Nice to see you. I just want to make sure I'm getting this right because we see the five-year plan every five years. So what we are doing today is approving one the consolidated action plan which lists the projects you are awarding the CDBG funding. Yes. Okay that's one component. That's one component. Yes. And then the second component is the five-year action plan consolidated plan., which sets the blueprint for what housing will do to increase housing opportunities for residents here. Using HUD, housing and urban development monies. Beyond CDBG, what other funding is available? we, for us, we are only receiving the office-wise or us as our division. For the office, we have numerous other federal funding, section eight, housing choice vouchers. A lot of them are voucher related, but nothing is really for housing development. Well, we have the affordable housing production fund. On the HUD side. On the HUD side. No development dollars are coming from HUD. That remains to be seen if HUD will even exist next time we talk about housing plans. But it's to kind of tee up what we are anticipating doing as OHCD. Yes. Okay. Taking advantage of funds as they become available. The Hawaii Housing Planning Study that you mentioned that SMS was doing historically and now Ward is doing. Ward is a bit behind because they're catching up and we can anticipate this being published in the summer. Yes,, we as councilmembers, be able to engage with Ward in any capacity, you know, doing town halls, helping to get surveys out there. I know that there's a lot of science around getting out information and having an accurate sample. Yes. But are there opportunities for us to weigh in at all? For this particular plan, but in the future, when we go out and do another housing policy study, it may not be more. Is it a policy study or a planning study? I want to make sure I'm understanding what the deliverable is. It's a planning study here, but then you hear who is doing some policy analysis as well, which is interesting. Yeah, so hopefully maybe the next round we we go out, we make we might just partner with the university because it might be a better fit, you know, instead of doing separate studies. Okay, and this planning study, the housing planning study gives us a sense of housing needs in real time, what the market is saying and doing, what folks can afford. And the idea is that information helps to drive changes to or introduction of new policy. Yes, policies, you know, county level and using hard federal funding also. Yes. Okay, that's great. And I just want to note for my colleagues, because we just got this very thick packet today this morning. But page 94 of the plan was really interesting because it talked about barriers to affordable housing, negative effects of public policies on housing and residential investment, lack of resources, certain regulations, zoning, land use, permitting regulatory delays, building code impact fee, lack of a clear and consistent long-term affordable housing strategy, which I know that administrator Acosta said she would like to see done sooner rather than later. Renters and landlords lack of information and awareness and then lack of home ownership opportunities. So this is very valuable because there is an ad hoc that is meeting right now to study not only changes to chapter 11 but what we might need to direct other county departments to do to be part of the solution. So just calling out page 94 in case folks are interested in helping being part of the solution. I'm going to be in full support of what you're putting forward here. I really want to thank the nonprofits that have applied and are being funded. You know, I see Robert here with Archiveel. Thank you for being a huge support to our community. All of these organizations are, I wish there was just more funding to go around because everybody that applied is so worthwhile. Thanks for doing great work, Royce, you and your team. I look care. Thank you. And just back to Mr. Shoroma, I know you have some folks here both online and in person. Did you want them to say anything? Are they just here to answer questions? Yeah, it was mainly for if there are any questions. And you know. Do you want to just quickly introduce who is available? So if people have questions. Sure. We have Robert over here from the Arcofilo. And we have Michelle over here of the Arcof corner. Okay. Parting. I was going to mention my staff also. Oh yeah. And the back over there. Hi. And let's see Linda. Okay, and then online we've got. And online we have Christy from Mental Health Cucua on the left, bottom left. We have great payton over there on bottom right for mental health Okua also. Okay, so if any council members have questions for any of these? It looks like Mr. TJ Estoling in the panel. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, thank you. From OECD community development office. Great. Okay, so if anybody has any questions for these folks or further comments or questions for OHCD. All right, I, Mr. Connie Lee, Klein, better, yeah. Thank you, Chair. Mr. Shamba, just looking back on this over there. Sorry, looking back and I'm going back to the beginning of the document provided. So the CBDG funds, looks like most of it is going towards, I mean for the most part, wastewater treatment facility upgrades. Is that right? On a lot of these? Those things could be the need during this RFP process, the highest need based on their applications that came in and that was the reason why we're funding and it just so happen It's it is wastewater related Scopus services scope. Okay Why why do all these facilities need to be upgraded? That's a question maybe the Applicants here, you know, I because I'm not sure if it was due to non-maintenance or it was just an older system itself, yeah, the needs should be upgraded such as the Arcafcona. Yeah, I either of our arc folks want to speak to the facilities that we're upgrading. Yeah, it looks like Ark of Kona has the cesspool conversion improvements. I didn't want to put rice on a spot. I think you'd probably be better to answer. But he'll put me on this. Please reintroduce yourself for the record. Yes, hello everyone. Michelle Kuh, I'm the president and CEO of the Arcacona. And we provide services to people with disabilities in all nine of your districts. We're an island-wide nonprofit organization. And our project is the funding that we request it here is for phase two of our project, which is phase one is currently in progress. It is to renovate our group home in Captain Cook. The group home is an independent living program. Also for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, it's a five bedroom home. It's licensed by the State Department of Health Office of Healthcare Assurance. It was built in 84 so it's a little old or and so and also the rent for these tenants they have a lease and their rent is subsidized by HUD So this home it was time to start doing a renovation to More efficiencies and so forth. So right now we have currently changed out all of the jealousy windows. They're all now vinyl sliders, sliding glass door. We're in the process of renovating two of the three bathrooms. One will have a walk-in shower so that will add more accessibility to people with disabilities. and also changed out all of the interior lighting. So more efficiency there as well. Our second phase because it's a 40-41 year old home it's currently a cesspool and so we're converting doing that conversion over to septic and and then also renovating the kitchen and replacing the flooring. Okay, thank you. This is the Kona Crafts Group Home cesspool conversion. Yes. What is, do you know the cost of the cesspool conversion itself? Well, our total budget is probably going to be roughly about 50,000 in another year possibly more. To do that conversion? So the 200,000 that is being awarded potentially so a quarter of that will go to the cesspool conversion. Yes, and then also the kitchen. We also, and the flooring. So we also included in there. There's on half of the lot, there is from an old handshake 40 years ago, there is coffee on half of the property. And it was part of our sheltered workshop back in the day when we still had a sheltered workshop. So the coffee farmer that is there were also going to be working with him to potentially move the coffee out and plant some fruit trees and so forth so that our participants living in that home it's actually their home. Yeah. Yes. Thank you thank you for that. Okay thank you. All right thank you. Okay rice. Okay, rice. Yeah, it's not interesting. In parallel with the county doing a lot of its wastewater treatment facility upgrades that the focus for OACD, for this specific CBDG grant program was more wastewater treatment. That was funny. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Are you all right? Anybody else with questions, comments? Go ahead, Councilmember O'Neill. Thank you, Madam Chair. Questions? Who did the evaluations for awarding all this funding? Basically, we have a, basically we have a committee that do the evaluation, maybe it can be prizes of three of our staff members in the house that reviews it and basically it's because the complexity of these type of projects and the requirements for the CDVG program itself. We're on a time timeline because we need to get the results in a certain time manner in which we need to develop the action band normally every year. So this group that you have that evaluates this every year? Yeah, it does every year. It's the same people. So you guys don't go and rotate or try to get different members or no, we normally do use those three. By requirement, we are not required to do an RFP every year to select projects. However, because accounting wanted to do a transparent and fair process in selecting nonprofits or government agencies to do to award these funding, we decided RFP process will be the best. So you're saying that HUD doesn't require the counties to go, and so it could just award to anyone. Not anyone, but they need to see the projects. But within whatever your guidelines are. Yes. But then by doing the RFP, it kind of makes it more open. Open and fair. I think we think. And my last question to you, so out of that was awarded agencies, were there multiple times that they were awarded? Some have been awarded different phases, yes. The reason for them breaking it up is we have a particular deadline in expenditures using HUD funding. Every year we need to spend at least 50 to 80% of the allocation of prior years in order for us to be awarded future funding. So sometimes the awarding that you folks would provide is basically like in phases. Yeah. A lot of it has to phase it in a way that they can complete the project, majority of the project within a point of year. Continuing getting funding to continue completing the major Yes, yes, yes. Okay, so that means by doing that, that means other nonprofits or other agencies are not able to get some funding from this. But they may not get it every year for that phase. It could, there may be other agencies that couldn't get the prior year be awarded. We're not going to favor certain nonprofits or the other ones. I've seen in the document this shows that I guess you folks look at, well it'd be done, the project will be done within a year. Right, and if it's not done within a year then you guys cannot use it as a bad mark where maybe that project might fall apart. They'll get less points overall. Yeah, correct. OK. Well, I see that was on last one. But the last one, I'm going to be sending you to an email about the administrative breakdown. Yes. Or if you can provide me that. Just send it. Yeah. We can get our finance person to create a financial. OK.. Thank you council member. Anyone else? Go ahead council member Connelly, Kleinfelter. This is a quick one. So does looking at the numbers 18.5% went to administering by OACD of the total funds to possibly the of the total allocation the estimated total allocation. Yes. Is there limit to 20% 20% yeah, okay. Thank you. Are you sure? Anybody else? Okay. All right. I think we're gonna go ahead and vote on this. I haven't had time to delve in so maybe when it gets to council I might have a few questions but I'm I'm I think we're good to vote at this point. So back to all those in favor. Where are we? Oh, resolution 105-25. All those in favor of adopting resolution 105-25 and sending it to council with a favorable recommendation. Please say aye. Any opposed? We have eight in favor, Mr. Clerk, with councilmember Glimba being excused. Thank you so much. Can we please go on to bill 21? Any testimony for bill 21? Hearing none, bill 21 amends chapter 2 Article 15 of the White County Code in 1983, 2016 edition as amended relating to nepotism. As provisions and definitions consistent with standards set forth in section 4-13.2, the where I advise statutes which are intended to provide for fair and impartial hiring personnel on contracting practices within the workplace introduced by Councilmember Campbell. This is Post-Poen, If February 4 to the 25, there's an emotion of floor by Councilmember Campbell. Second of my Councilmember Glamour to recommend passage of bill 21 on first reading. Thank you so much. We already have a motion on the floor, Councilmember Kimball. Yes, thank you. So as you may recall, we asked the Board of Ethics to weigh in on this particular proposal. I do want to mention we have HR, deputy Patel here, as well as Auditor Benner. I know there were some questions about why was this being introduced and the potential impacts on folks already employed in the county so they can respond to those questions specifically. But we did get feedback from the Board of Ethics. They had their meeting and on the 28th and we were hoping to have a formal official letter from them by today, but they had to cancel their last meeting. So I have the draft guidance and then there was quite a bit of discussion in the meeting itself, but we should have, again, their next meeting is on the 23rd, so as this moves through we should have the official signed. But I would like to move forward with the amendment as recommended by the Board of Ethics, and then I can explain how that aligns with their recommendations are. So motion to amend bill 21 with the contents of communication 9.1.1. We have a motion by Council Member Kimball and a second by Council Member Houston to amend resolution. I mean, Bill 21 with the contents of the combination 9-1.1. All right, go ahead. Thank you. So, first of all, just to start as far as some clarification, the HIRS refers to relative. Because of the reference to immediate family throughout the code, we have to actually define that term. So it's not ideal, but what guidance was given to us per the board of ethics was that they they wanted to use the same language as in this section of HIRS. And so this amendment puts in the identical language as the HIRS with the exception of the HIRS refers to immediate family within the definition. So we had to take that out because it would make sense for the definition of immediate family to refer refer to immediate family. So there's just some dramatic editorialization there. The other recommendation made by the Board of Ethics was they did not like the specific call out within the HIRS to adoptive practice. practice in the Hawaiian custom of Hanyi, because they felt that there were other informal adoption practices from other cultural backgrounds that should also be considered in this and calling out particularly the native Hawaiian practice was exclusionary. And so that has been changed in here to refer to informal adoptive practices. That's the end of the phrase there, as opposed to specifically calling out the native Hawaiian practice. So that's the basis of the amendment. Again, the big differences here we are just pulling in the HRS definition. The HRS definition does not include second cousins, which was the request from Councilmember Unishin. I'll let him speak to that. But again, this is the recommendation from BLE. And again, I cannot share the letter with you because it's only draft at this point, but we will have that before we make our final decision on this. Thank you. Thank you. On the amendment, and Council Member Onishi, I don't know if you want to speak to this since it does no longer include the language you had requested. Anybody else on the amendment? Council Member Inaba. Thank you. I did get to watch that hearing and I'm just trying to cross reference the definition. It's not exactly the same. I'm just wondering if the maker can explain why we're not using the same definition if it was recommended by the board. Thank you. I think can you re-explain that? Yeah, thanks. Yeah. Because we are not defining relative and we're defining immediate family, There's some inconsistencies between how it is written in the HRS versus how we need to write it so it matches up. But context from the standpoint of the relationships that this identifies, it should be identical. I believe in our amendments referencing fast. identical. Is that I believe in our amendments referencing foster sibling and I'm not seeing that in the HRS version. Is that intentional? Yeah. Yeah, the this is this is um in in the phrase is phrasing from board of ethics. They're taking out adoption foster care and Hawaiian custom muffin eye and replacing with informal adoption practices. And so that's being re-referenced in the definition itself. Okay and then can you just remind us, sorry I might have missed the why we're not just using the term relative as it seems to capture a bigger net of folks rather than immediate family members? Yeah, it's because of the references throughout the code that are tied to this definition. It would require significant amendments across multiple chapters to align it and other documents outside of the code. Okay, thank you, Chair Yod. Anybody else have any comments and questions on the amendment? All right, seeing none. All those in favor on amending Bill 21 with the contents of communication 91.1. Please say aye. Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, we have nine eyes. Bill is amended back to the main motion. Any questions comments? We've got some other folks here that can answer questions From our auditor or from HR Councilmember Onishi the floor is yours. Thank you Madam Chair. No, I just was going to say something about the comment that was that our ethics board, I guess, wanted to follow more or less the HRS, but as for the county because we don't really have one and we're creating one, we could make it more restrictive. So by having the board say, oh, let's follow HRS, they should, like maybe take some of our recommendations and also add in it. And so that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? As we get our siren gone here? No. Council member Kim, we'll go ahead. Yeah, I'll just confirm what Council member Oonishi is reflecting reflecting is that we certainly have the ability to be more restrictive than is dictated by the HRS. As we deliberated last time, we saw the BOE's opinion, so I encourage folks to evaluate this further and see if there are any additional components that we want to introduce as amendments but yes absolutely possible. Thank you. Council upon you, Lee Klein-Beller. To the maker, what was the... are we the amendment? No, we already passed the amendment on the main line. Thank you. Thank you. What was the... What was the drive for this bill? You know, Tyler better. Our auditor is probably the most articulate person on the purpose of this amendment. And if you don't mind auditor, I'd love to have you just describe the intent. Sure. Thank you. Good morning. Why do you come to building employees? They're at the very office. This is a test of our building's broadcast system. This were an actual emergency. We would provide information and advise you on the appropriate actions to take. Again, this is only a test. Would you hear the testing of the broadcast system in your office? Please email Ryan Chong of the Safety Division to verify that you heard that their dismissal should be informed of any conditions that may affect your safety. Thank you and have a wonderful day today. Hello. Thank you. Go ahead, Mr. Auditor. Thank you. Aloha Council members. My name is Tyler Benner. I'm with the Office of the County Auditor. I'll be speaking briefly on Bill 21 to provide background context for your consideration. In a closed-net community relationships run deep and often span generations. It's understandable that people want to see that those who they care about succeed and at the same time, we have a shared responsibility to ensure that public employment is rooted in fairness, transparency, and trust in the process. Under HRS 76-1, the merit principle is clear. Individual should be hired and retained based on their ability to conduct ability, based on their ability, conduct and performance. Subsection 2 calls for impartial selection through competitive, fair and practical tests. A quick timeline for context. In 2013, the mayor's office in D.H.R. formed a staffing review committee, SRC, to review hiring decisions. Departments were instructed not to proceed with hires without SRC approval. However, the SRC raised concerns that it bypassed competitive recruitment by favoring certain persons of interest. And the SRC was disbanded in 2017 under a new administration. Due to concerns from the public and staff, our office conducted a 2017 audit of hiring practices. One key recommendation addressed the need to prohibit inappropriate hiring practices. In 2022, we launched a fraud waste and abuse hotline which began receiving allegations of bias hiring. We followed up with a second audit and identified opportunities to strengthen oversight, to find nepotism and address familial relations and required disclosure of potential conflicts by interview panelists. At that time, Corporation Council advised aligning with state law, which did not yet define nepotism. Since then, HP 717 was enacted explicitly addressing the issue. In May 2024, we published findings from a specific investigation. Supervisor failed to disclose a family relationship with a candidate. That same supervisor administered a field test prior to interviews without clear procedural guidance. Only the relative received a complete and exceptional score. As a result, they were the sole candidate that advanced to interview. This raised concerns about how easily the process could be manipulated in the absence of proper controls. The Roth administration responded with a memo issued May 30, 2024 reinforcing expectations. Still, today, the only mention in epitism in the county code applies to nonprofits receiving grants, not internal county operations. That double standard deserves attention. Our office believes Hawaii County should be by example with strong clear policies to ensure hiring is fair, free from conflicts, real or perceived. And it's not about limiting opportunity, it's about protecting it. It's safeguard staff reputations, promotes public trust and strengthens our ability to serve the community. So thank you for your time and consideration of this. Thank you, Mr. Banner. Precise is usual. Okay, I like that. Like what you just said, that was good. We had discussion this morning. The scene, these two bills, two things lying in the same committee on the same day was interesting. See if at least. So this is 2017. Where this originated from? The original HR audit took place in 2017. Yeah, were you here in 2017? No, that wasn't you. Yeah, no, I conducted the follow up and not the original audit. Okay, and in the follow up You found something in 2022 the follow up saw that the human resource department had implemented all the Recommendations that were made in the initial audit, but there were additional gaps that needed to be filled in order to cover these elements. Interesting. Okay, this is one of the issues that was found in your audit. So when we made that recommendation, we said there was implemented and then to further strengthen have these additional elements. Okay. Okay, thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you. Councilmember, anybody else? All right. Seeing that, we can go ahead and take the vote. All those in favor of approving bill 21 and sending it to the full council with a recommendation please say aye. Any opposed? Mr. Clerk we have nine eyes. Is there any testimony for resolution 104-25? We're in non-resolution 104-25. Authorize the mayor to enter governmental agreement with the federal bureau investigations to support their continued cooperation with the White Police Department for the safety of the county of Hawaii. Authorize the White Police Department to enter an updated memorandum understanding to to continue interagency collaboration to identify and target for prosecution criminal enterprise groups responsible for drug trafficking and money laundering introduced by customer I remember a cog you want to buy request. Have a motion please. Motion to floor forward resolution 104-25 to council with the favourable recommendation. We have a motion by council member Inava and a second by council member Glimba to forward resolution 104 to council with the favourable recommendation. I believe we have, who do we have here? We have our HPD folks over in Kona, and we also have our Deputy Corporation Counsel here in Hilo. So who wants to kick it off over there in Kona? Do you want to kind of give us an outline of why this is being introduced? Please introduce yourself. I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can hear you. Well, good morning and thank you for having us. I am Captain Ed Byton of the Vice Division for the White Police Department. And I've asked my lieutenant to join me today from the west side, Eric Jackson, as he will have the day-to-day oversight and operational control over working with the FBI for drug investigations. The oversight's real simple are relationship and long-term collaborative with the FBI for this sport specific MOU focuses on drug traffickers, criminal enterprise and drug distribution into the state of Hawaii and it's It's something that's so important to our community as you know, I've had the opportunity to pass to brief the Council on Fentanyl and the illegal narcotics that come in and impact our community so much. The FBI has supported us through that with assets of financial resources like overtime training criminal analysts to help us look at national level organizations all the way up to the prosecution of these subjects in the federal court system. Thank you so much for that introduction of this resolution. Council members, we got a confidential copy of the MOU itself. for that introduction of this resolution. Council members, we got a confidential copy of the MOU itself in our files. If you have any specific questions about this MOU, I'd suggest that we go into executive session so that those can be discussed freely. So if anybody would like to go into executive session, maybe now is the time. Do you have anybody that has interest? Council member Gellima. Thanks. I don't think we need for my comments. I don't think we need to go into executive session. I just wanted to say that I actually found this MOU to have many specific clauses that I would have liked to see in other MOUs, so I personally don't have a problem with this MOU. I think it's very well written. Anybody else with comments that do not necessarily speak specifically to the confidential document? Please be able to speak yes, Councilmember Beagas. Thank you. Thank you, Captain Biden, for being here. Having had the opportunity and the privilege of working with you over the last few years and supporting the work that Vice has done to crack down on fentanyl coming into our county. The great conversations that we've had and how you've been able to educate me on the pivotal relationship between county police work and the resources and expertise of the FBI and the federal government and how that has been directly connected to ensuring the seizure of pounds and pounds of fentanyl and the elimination of that potential for that fentanyl to infiltrate our community. You know, I have my own set of concerns as I continue to watch what's happening in the national arena as it relates to organizations. Unfortunately, also including the FBI and the potentially unlawful note lack of procedure, what not. I suppose for me wrestling with this Captain Biden I come back to my trust for you and once again trust for our police department and for the work that you do and the partnerships and the alignments that you've created and the relationships and the value systems by which you have been a leader in our police department for decades now. And for me, that brings me a sense of peace and the ability to support this MOU moving forward. I, like my colleague, appreciate the very specific and articulate terminology used in this MOU, which I feel like not only protects our community, but it protects you and our first responders and public servants within the police department from being compromised or being asked to do something that's not in your sphere of responsibility or what should be your priorities. So myself will be supporting this today, but I wanted to give some credit to the reputation, the leadership, and the positive impacts that Captain Biden and his Vice Team and those they work with have had on our county, our community and the future health and safety of our people. So thank you once again Captain Biden. Appreciate you. Thank you, Councilmember. Anybody else? Questions, comments? No? Okay. All right. Thank you so much, Captain Biden, for bringing this forward and for giving us the opportunity to see the MOU itself and see the language really do appreciate that. It looks like we are ready to vote with no further ado. All those in favor of adopting resolution 104-25 and sending it to council with a favorable recommendation. Please say aye. Any opposed? Mr. Clerk, we have nine eyes. Thank you all so much for your time today with that. No further agenda items here. We will finish up and the time is 1159. Thank you.