HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-12-2011 PH re bill no 2390- PUBLIC HEARING
JANUARY 12, 2011
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
JoAnn A. Yukimura, Chair, Housing/Transportation/Energy Conservation &
Efficiency Committee, on Wednesday, January 11, 2011, at 2:12 p.m. at the Council
Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following
was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Jay Furfaro, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2390 — AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2010-705, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE
FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY REVISING
THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL
FUND ($575,000.00 — Kaua`i Bus services expansion),
which was passed on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the County
of Kauai on December 15, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on
December 22, 2010.
The following communications were received for the record:
1. James Gerard Trujillo, email dated January 10, 2011.
2. Nicki Lorayn Pignoli, email dated January 10, 2011.
3. Anthony Allen, email dated January 9, 2011.
4. Davie McReynolds, email dated January 6, 2011.
5. Deborah Burggraff, telephone message dated January 3, 2011.
6. Jamilee Carter, email dated January 10, 2011.
7. Maria Walker, email dated January 11, 2011.
8. Marj Dente, email dated January 11, 2011.
9. Pam Lightfoot Burrell, email dated January 11, 2011.
10. Sylvia Partridge, email dated January 11, 2011.
11. Tracey Schavone, email dated January 11, 2011.
12. Carol Hart, email dated January 11, 2011.
13. Kathleen Luiten, email dated January 11, 2011.
14. Kathlen Lee, email dated January 11, 2011.
15. Tracy Tucker, 2 emails dated January 11, 2011.
16. Caren Diamond, email dated January 11, 2011.
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17. Karen Matsumoto, dated January 11, 2011.
18. Stephen Taylor, email dated January 10, 2011.
19. Kirsten Jackson, email dated January 10, 2011.
20, Cherie Haffner, email dated January 11, 2011.
21. Randall Blake, Executive Director, Kauai Path Inc., email dated
January 11, 2011.
22. Neil Clendennin, email dated January 11, 2011.
23. Collette Althouse, email dated January 11, 2011.
24. Mary Lu Kelley, email dated January 11, 2011.
25. Elli Ward, dated January 11, 2011.
26. Linda Bristol, dated January 11, 2011.
27. Kay Naito, dated January 11, 2011.
28. Rita Culi, dated January 11, 2011.
29. Frances Sagadraca, dated January 11, 2011.
30. Pacita Jimenez, dated January 11, 2011.
31. Arsenia Koerte, dated January 11, 2011.
32. Flora C. Visitation, dated January 11, 2011.
33. Consolation Manera, dated January 11, 2011.
34. Carmenia Natarte, dated January 11, 2011.
35. Justina F. Pinero, dated January 11, 2011.
36. Cristina Morden, dated January 11, 2011.
37. Marina Balagat, dated January 12, 2011
38. Elia Lagoc, dated January 12, 2011.
39. Betty Bell, dated January 11, 2011.
40. Diane Rosenkranz, email dated January 11, 2011.
41. James "Kimo" Rosen, email dated January 11, 2011.
42. Colett Welch, email dated January 10, 2011.
43. Kelsey Gaetjens, Communities Putting Prevention to Work, State of
Hawaii Department of Health Student Intern, dated
January 12, 2011.
44. Kurt Rutter, RN, MSN, Nursing Instructor, Kauai Community
College, email dated January 12, 2011.
45. Jason Yaris, email dated January 12, 2011.
46. Bob and Louisa Wooton, email dated January 12, 2011.
47. Kim Headley, email dated January 12, 2011.
48. Jodi Drisko, email dated January 12, 2011.
49. Fred Dente, email dated January 12, 2011.
50. Rebecca Miller, email dated January 12, 2011.
51. Brenda K. Viado, Kauai Branchy Administrator, Vocational
Rehabilitation and Services For the Blind, dated January 12,
2011.
52. Malama Kauai support letter dated May 2010.
The hearing proceeded as follows:
PAT GEGEN: Good afternoon. Thank you very much for this
opportunity to testify. My name is Pat Gegen for the record. I am here in support
of the expansion of the bus. To me it hits on a couple of major issues. One, when I
drive in Kalaheo looking at the bus stop, that's where a lot of middle school kids are
dropped off, a lot of the high schoolers, and they're getting on the Kauai Bus to get
them closer to their home. So it definitely is assisting our younger people. I'm sure
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we will hear testimony today where many seniors rely upon it, and yet, the way the
bus system is structure, it limits the amount of time we can go somewhere and stay
somewhere. When there's meetings in Lihu`e at night, I'd love to ride the bus in,
but the meetings usually don't end by 7 o'clock, so therefore I'm stuck, I have to
drive the car. My wife uses the bus, she works at Kauai Medical Clinic, and it's
very convenient for her. The bus stops about a mile and a quarter from our house,
we get her there, she rides the bus in, and if I've got any errands to run, I get to use
the Prins. So we're helping eliminate some of that carbon footprint that we're
increasing. I know for myself, when I was in college I relied on the bus heavily. I
didn't have a car, wasn't able to afford one, but I was able to stay at school until 10
o'clock, do my studying that I needed to there, I actually worked on campus, so I
could still get home in time and it was ready at 6:30 in the morning. I really look
forward to the bus expanding even further.
The last point I'd like to make is that the cost of gasoline is continuing to rise.
We still have not hit the same levels that we were at two and a half years ago. I
don't know if you've looked at your energy bills, but we're at 37.6 cents a kilowatt
hour. Everybody panicked when we hit 42; it's just been a slow climb. The same is
happening with gasoline at our pumps. What you will see as this continues, just as
we saw two and a half years ago, is we're going to see ridership increase. And doing
this expansion, going until 10 o'clock, and making it available on Sundays, is only
going to help a lot of people who are less advantaged, who maybe don't have two
cars for their family. I think it's very much a social justice, social equity type
of issue.
The last point I want to make is expanding the bus is a very important
element of the Kauai energy sustainability plan. I'm behind many elements of the
sustainability plan. I do question some of them, but the expansion of the bus is
definitely one that I think is necessary. I'm looking forward to the day when you're
actually looking at putting a gas tax on so we can really expand the bus and get it
so more people will take it. So again, I support the expansion of the bus, and I
thank you for this opportunity to testify.
DONNA SCHULZE: Good afternoon, and thank you for having this
chance to speak out. The reason a lot of people are not here today... I'm Donna
Schulze, I live in Mlauea, I moved here in 1972 when there were no buses, no
stoplights, no condos, no traffic, but that's all changed. If it wasn't for the bus, I
couldn't go shopping once a week, I would not be able to swim anymore because the
health club in Princeville closed down, so now I have to take a bus that takes 22
minutes from my house to Kapa`a to swim, which I can't on Mondays, they're closed
on Mondays, but the YMCA pools close 7 days a week, as you know, from 5:30 to 8
pm, so I have to go when they're open, and it takes me an hour and 15 minutes to
get to YMCA to swim. But the business office of the bus has told to get on the bus
and don't get off when you get to the shopping center. Donna, stay on the bus and
when you go down towards the YMCA, the bus will drop you off.
Ms. Yukimura: Donna, can you speak a little bit farther, then we
can hear you better.
Ms. Schulze: Thank you. Since the bus had to go to KCC and
turn around, they'll simply stop and drop you off at the YMCA, and that's not a
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regular bus stop. Thank you. Lots of good help here. And that was their idea. I
would never has asked for that, because that's super service, and I can't tell you
how great it is to be able to get on the bus and go places to see your friends. I can go
anyplace I want to go, except at night I cannot go to any concerts on the college
campus. I can't go anyplace on a Sunday. Even though the pool's open on Sunday,
there's no buses on Sundays, so I can't swim on Sundays. So if you change things
and have evening buses and Sunday buses, I can go swim again six days a week. I
can't tell you enough about the men who drive the buses. They're the most
courteous men, well trained and considerate I have ever seen. Today I rode the bus
out, and the bus driver said, Donna, please ask the members of the county council
how many of them have ridden the bus to work at least one time. Hands up. How
many have ridden the bus one time to get to work? I'll go back and tell him a
couple. Just try it once. The bus is not on time if there's bad traffic, but they never
leave anybody behind. I can tell you three wonderful stories of considerations the
bus drivers have done on the bus which was not in their job description. And so
after a while after I get done praising the bus service and the prices, twenty dollars
a month, what can you do for twenty dollars a month? You can ride the bus. We
need paratransit on Saturdays. Like when I go to the race sponsored by the Y on
the 22nd, I have no way to get there on the bus because the first bus leaves at 7:30
and the race starts at 8, and the race is at Kilohana, and I'm in Kilauea. So how do
I get to the race for the YMCA, which will be more than 28 years on this island the
22nd. I have to find somebody else to drive me. I hope I find somebody. If you look
at today's paper, you'll see a picture of my dog Patches. It says, come run with
Patches. I hope Patches and I can get there, because Patches cannot ride the
bus...yet. I dream of that. That could happen eventually. I know that only dogs
are the service dogs, but at times I would see the bus drivers so accommodating (I
usually sit right behind them), and one day we were coming home on the last bus to
go to the North Shore, and that last bus leaves at 6, last bus for the North Shore.
And I go to a meeting two nights a week. That meeting starts at 6, so if one of my
members of my club doesn't drive me home from Lihu`e to Kilauea, I cannot go to
my YMCA meetings, because the bus leaves at 6, and our meeting doesn't start till
6, but that will change if you allow them to drive in the evenings. I don't mind
riding in the bus at night, but...
Ms. Yukimura: Donna, three minutes is up. If you can summarize
please.
Ms. Schulze: I will go sit down and come back and tell you couple
stories if you allow me later.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay, thank you. Thanks very much, Donna.
KELSEY GAETJENS: Good afternoon Councilmen and Councilwomen.
I'm Kelsey Gaetjens. I graduated from Kauai High School in 2009. I am now
studying at Williams College for Public Health. Right now I'm back on Kauai. I'm
a student intern at Communities Putting Prevention to Work with the Department
of Health. So the day after I got back from Massachusetts on break, there was an
article in The Garden Island and the concern, Bill 2390, about the expansion of the
Kauai bus to 10 p.m. and to Sundays. And so this is really exciting to me, because I
had ridden the Kauai bus for five years now, and it's a great bus. It goes all over
the island, which is really helpful for me, and it's definitely the most comfortable
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bus I've ever ridden on as far as public buses go. So I just want to thank you for
what you've done with the Kauai bus so far.
However, over the last five years when I've been riding the bus, there have
been some things that I wished had been changed. I live in Lihu`e, my mom's a
single mom, and we have one car in the family. When I started riding the bus, I
would say the beginning of high school, I didn't have a license, and so I largely
depended on my mom for rides, which wasn't really always feasible. And so I began
to catch the Kauai bus a lot, and usually this was to go to Po`ipu and the south side,
but there was some problems. Monday through Friday the Kauai bus only runs I
think a total of five times from Lihu`e to Po`ipu, and so if I was going to go I would
have to leave at around 7 o'clock in the morning, which is pretty early for me during
high school. And so I called the bus. And when I tried to go on Sundays to go to
church in Po`ipu, it didn't run then, and so I would have someone drive from Po`ipu
to Lihu`e to pick me up, and I would have someone drop me back off in Lihu`e when
it was done, which was a really large inconvenience for me, and I know a lot of other
people have the same problem. And then I got to Po`ipu, and the last bus running
back would be at 5 p.m., and so anytime I went I would have to come back before
then, which is pretty early. And so when I went to Po`ipu besides that, I would go to
the K51oa bypass, and what it is is it's a stop on the side of the bypass, which is just
kind of—it's still on the bypass, towards the end, but it's a patch of dirt and grass
that's right along the side of the road, and it's also a bus stop and just a sign that's
planted on the road kind of with buffalo grass overflowing and weeds there. And
when I went to the bus stop to be dropped off, I would cross the intersection, and
then when I would come back before five, I would hope that it wouldn't rain,
because there really wasn't anything there besides the sign on the side of the road.
And so the largest parts of this for me were that I had a really hard time getting to
and from Po`ipu, and I depended on the bus, and I also wouldn't be able to get back
on Sunday.
Ms. Yukimura: So that's the three minute buzzer. Are you able
to summarize?
Mr. Gaetjens: I'm just about done, if that's all right.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay, great.
Mr. Gaetjens: And so I would love it if the Kauai bus were
expanded to 10 p.m. on weekdays and also to Sunday. And I would also love it, I know
the people of Kauai would love, if we could see the bus 20/20 that Mayor Carvalho had
talked about in his inaugural address, and just have larger frequency so that people who
wanted to ride it and needed to ride the Kauai bus could. Thank you.
Ms. Yukimura: Any questions? Thank you very much, Kelsey, for
coming today.
BARBARA CURL: Good afternoon Chairman and Councilmembers.
My name is Barbara Curl for the record, and I'm here to express my sincere
appreciation of all of you, and also the mayor and the administration, for moving
this forward, because this is really important, as I've been here 20 years, so I've
been watching for a long time the different things that happened. And during Iniki
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I was here, and the bus all of a sudden expanded in what it was able to do and take
care of people, and I saw so many people, including myself, really depend on it. And
then we went back to our old patterns again. And so besides taking care of the
students and the seniors and the people who have some disability in whatever form,
the bus is extremely important to people. It's an extension of their life, it's an
extension of their connections out into this community. People like me are a hard
sell. Like two of you raised your hands have taken buses to work. So it's a major
decision, but I was...been thinking about it, and particularly since you're expanding
it, and I'm saying that because of sustainability and our really need to do this, I
need to re-examine my own commitment to this. And so for those of us that don't
have to take the bus, but to encourage us to make it a choice, would be a really big
help, because there's a lot of us in this category. So my commitment to you is
because of your commitment to the community to expand this bus that I...the hours
and the days, my commitment is to make sure that I am more of a regular bus rider.
And that is something that I guarantee for you and for myself and for the
whole...the whole commitment to sustainability, taking care of our people and
allowing more things to happen on Kauai, more people to participate in community
activities and things that are offered. Thank you very much. It's good to see you.
Happy New Year to all of you.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you very much. Any questions? If not,
thanks very much.
How wonderful to have a young person. Thank you for coming. Of course we
had Kelsey too.
IAN COWDEN: Hi I'm Ian.
Ms. Yukimura: Can you give us your last name?
Mr. Cowden: I'm Ian Cowden, and I ride the bus like 5
to 6...like 5 to 10 times a week, because my parents are divorced, so I have to go to
home school with my mom, and then I have to go all the way back to my dad's, so I
ride it a lot, and then I have a whole bunch of friends at different places, so I ride
the bus a lot. And I have a bus pass. I got to get a new one. I just... Well, Sunday
there's no buses, and then kids do want to go a lot of places on Sundays. It's not
just you can't do anything, so you will want to go to the bus, and then there is no
bus, so then you got to like try to ask people for ride, but not like... It takes hours
to actually go places, so then it's like great having the bus on Sunday. And then if
it's like at 10 p.m., kids sometimes like if you're like not used to spending the night
at somebody's house, they want to catch the bus or something later, so then if it
went till 10, which I probably wouldn't catch if it was at 10, but I would go different
places. And if I had to grab something at my mom's house and then have to go back
to my dad's, I could be able to do that. It's just great having it to be at 10 p.m. And
then it's just like 6 o'clock is a little early. Maybe you want to go surfing, and then
you're in Kilauea, and you want to go surfing in Hanalei, so then you go down there.
And then you leave at like 6 and then you don't have a ride, so then you have to go
all...you have to like stay someplace and then catch a ride again. So I would just
love it to have at like 10 p.m. at the end, and thank you guys for having the bus.
The bus is very useful, and I can do a whole bunch of...more stuff. I have more
freedom, so thank you guys.
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Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. Just a minute, Ian. Any questions? I
actually have one. If you use the bus to go surfing, do you have a surfboard or a...
How do you do that?
Mr. Cowden: Well, my dad lives in Hanalei, and then I have
Hanalei surf company where I can go to get a surfboard, so...
Ms. Yukimura: I should have thought of that.
Mr. Cowden: Thank you guys.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, I just want you to know that there's someone
who has volunteered to fabricate a surfboard holder for the bus. So we're going to
start looking into that, because not everybody has a dad who has a shop with
surfboards in Hanalei.
Mr. Cowden: And we did talk about the bus on KKCR a couple
months ago too. So thank you guys.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you very much, Ian.
BEN SULLIVAN: Thank you Council for this opportunity to testify on
behalf of the Kauai bus. My name is Ben Sullivan for the record, and I'm happy to
see all the support that is here in the community for the bus. I am testifying
representing Malama Kauai today. I recently started with them, and we've done a
lot of work with them in the past. We're big advocates for the bus. As you may
know, we submitted testimony during the last, budget session that had a lot of
community representation on it, and I'd be happy to resubmit that if you'd like to
see it again. But it has a very long list of names of organizations and entities across
the community that support expanding the Kauai bus service.
So there's several points I'd like to make today. We are, as an organization,
very pleased to see that the administration and hopefully the council here today in
going forward to supporting this expansion for the Kauai bus. We view the current
expansion as an excellent way to create a greater social equity in our community.
Obviously, people that don't have an alternative are now opening up opportunities,
whether it be on a Sunday or on an evening to get around in our community and
experience things they should have every right to do so.
The next point that I want to emphasize is that I think we're at a point where
we really need to transition our thinking about the Kauai bus. I think for a long
time we have seen it as a social equity issue, but I think that we can now begin to
look at it as real economic lever and a real social lever, something that's going to
really enable us to do better as a community. And by that, I mean to save money; to
stop the flow of oil money leaving the community, to reduce the expenditures that
we all have to make on cars, to start to hedge down this notion of every man,
woman, and child has an automobile on the island, and get it down to one car per
family, as Mr. Gegen mentioned, and to really just drive home this idea that we can
make the bus a real and reasonable alternative, and that's within reach.
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So I would implore that you give consideration to go beyond what is currently
on the table, and to look at some of the items that we had included in our testimony
from last summer, which included increased frequency morning and evening during
peak commuter times, and also increasing the frequency of Saturday and Sunday
service to be comparable to that of what is offered Monday through Friday, not
because it's a social equity issue, but because it's an economic issue. We do this and
there will be more money circulating in our community, there will be people better
off, there will be alternatives. As we expect hard times to continue, many people
forecast that we're not at all out of the woods, although obviously the county is in a
good position due to their prudence over the last few years, but we need to keep
being smart with our money, and this is one way to do it. So I would really love to
see Council give consideration to those additional items, and to recognize that as
good as the expansions that are on the table currently are, it's not likely they're
going to drive a real big increase in ridership. Because right now you're
just...you're accommodating that already have to use the system, but we're not
really giving a huge incentive to those who would otherwise drive a car. We can do
that. Those items have been looked at and hopefully they'll be continued to look at
in the future. Thank you.
Ms. Yukimura: Did you get all of your testimony in?
Mr. Sullivan: I think so, yeah. Mahalo.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay, we might ask who wants to come back after
everyone else has spoken. Thank you. Oh, a question.
Mr. Bynum: I'll try to be quick. I think Pat said current
surcharge...KIUC surcharge, fuel surcharge, 37 cents right now. Do you know?
Mr. Sullivan: It fluctuates with the price of oil, obviously, so I
don't know what it is today, but that's about right. Yeah.
Mr. Bynum: So it's like creeping up, you know.
Mr. Sullivan: It is. Yeah, oil have been hovering over 90 and
kind of in that range for a while.
Ms. Yukimura: For a barrel?
Mr. Bynum: Last time we had this rapid increase and everybody
freaked out, and now it's almost back to those levels again, but it's happened over
the last year, so we're not like freaking out yet. So thanks for your testimony.
Mr. Sullivan: Thank you.
Council Chair Furfaro: Just for everybody, the Council's position on
expanding the bus ridership and so forth is part of the Council's sustainability plan;
it's not focused only on the money that's here, but strategies that continue to
expand the bus. It is in our sustainability plan.
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Mr. Sullivan: Thank you. I recognize that and appreciate that as
well. Thank you very much.
ALICE PARKER: Alice Parker, and I had submitted a memo earlier,
that handwritten memo, but I want to add some things as far as bus service. For
one thing, I take it from Wilcox Hospital up to Kilauea gym every Monday for sure.
I mean that's two dollars as opposed to I figure about four dollars a gallon, 48 miles,
what's that, four times twelve...no, no, something like that. I don't know, about
four bucks, whatever, I forgot my arithmetic cap.
Ms. Yukimura: Depends what kind of car you're talking about.
Ms. Parker: It gets about 20 miles per gallon. So anyway, that
really helps, and most bus drivers are great. There's one who's really obnoxious,
but I can put on the radio, and then she hits the bumps hard, I can nestle
against...with the seatbelt on. The other thing is my friend Jacqueline Schoening
who volunteers in front of the Moikeha building and a lot of other places, depends
on the bus for transportation. She also...she's just turned 85, I believe, and she
works at Costco demonstrating all day Saturday, and then since the buses stop at 3
and she gets off around 4, she has to walk home to Lihu`e Townhouses, unless
somebody gives her a ride. She also goes to karate classes on Sunday and depends
on the ride there, because after the classes she's in no shape to walk home, even
though she walks all over Lihu`e and the place. So she really needs extended bus
services. I was thinking back to...I commuted to work in downtown L.A. and I
lived 27 miles away, and the bus charge was dependent on the zones you lived in.
The basic charges...see I'm talking 13 years ago. The basic charge was $15, and
then there was more per zone, so I paid $42 a month because I lived three zones out.
So you might consider that. If the transportation company needs more money, just
increase the fares for the longer runs. And thank you for increasing the runs.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, Alice.
KEN TAYLOR: Chair, members of the Council, my name is Ken
Taylor. I don't know if some of you are aware, but when my wife and I moved to the
island, we made a pact that we would do the first year without an automobile, and
which we did, and then rode the bus and I had a bicycle. I wouldn't have an
automobile today if the bus was better service than what it has been, and I
appreciate this step, and it's a small step, and I suppose it's the only way we're
going to move forward with getting a better service. But as previous speakers have
said, the economics of having the bus available to families, young families especially
that are working and having to struggle maintaining two automobiles and working
two and three jobs, if they can get rid of just one automobile, they could put
equivalent to about $50,000 a year in their pocket, which would better their quality
of life in many different ways. So I think that there are a lot of benefits for
improving this, and as I say, I wouldn't have an automobile today if we had had a
better bus service. And after driving for over 50 years and giving up the
automobile, it was a big step for us, but we did it. And as we got more accustomed
to it, it felt good. It was something that was really important for us to help in our
little way to better the environment and so on in the community. So I really
support moving forward with this activity, and as has been said before, we need to
take even bigger steps, and the sooner the better for everybody, because you can
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count on the price of oil going up and staying up, and at some point in time not even
being probably available. And it's...for old folks like myself, some of the problems
that are coming at us aren't going to have major effects on myself, but when I look
at the young folks, like this young man here and others around the community, I
really feel that we're shortchanging them in many ways. And I think this is just
one step in the right direction. So I hope that you'll all see fit to move this forward.
Thank you.
Ms. Yukimura: thank you very much.
LAUREL BRIER: I'm happy to be redundant. I'm glad to see there's
such, and I think there really is huge support. Laurel Brier. I think there is,
whether people use the bus or not, I think there is just widespread support for
expansion of the bus. And I did bring a copy of that letter that was submitted that
Ben referred to with 35 different agencies on it, from the community college to
Wilcox Hospital, to child and welfare services, to all kinds of organizations, and I
know we gathered those signatures in just less than a week, because it's easy.
People do support it. But I am here today on work time for vocational rehab,
because I know personally that many, many of our clients depend on the bus in
order to work, and that's how they're able to work, and right now we've been limited
to jobs that don't go past certain hours, or have to find employers that are
accommodating. So it does make a big difference in people's lives that ables them to
give back to the community.
I have testimony from our office on that behalf too, and thank you very much.
I think it's a huge positive thing to start off the year with here. Thank you.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you very much. Anybody else would like to
testify? Okay, Alice.
Ms. Parker: Thank you. Alice Parker for the record. As Laurel
mentioned, companies are supporting bus pass and using the bus. When I lived in
L.A., the county...and I think the county here does too, is subsidize the monthly bus
pass. In Los Angeles, they substituted...the paid for the basic monthly pass, and
then people who lived more zones out paid the difference. So if we could get the
companies onboard to pay basic, or at least part of the basic monthly pass, that
would help the employees too, and the companies could say look, we're green.
Thank you.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, and they won't have to provide as much
parking either. Ben, you want to finish up?
Mr. Sullivan: I apologize for coming up again. I know you want
to get through this, and there's a lot of support. One thing I was remiss in not
mentioning is with a lot of...
Ms. Yukimura: Did you give your name?
Mr. Sullivan: I'm sorry. Ben Sullivan for the record. With a lot
of other people in the community, I serve on the State of Hawaii department of
transportation LRLTP, which is the long range land transportation plan community
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advisory committee, and we had our first meeting a while ago. And they opened up
the meeting, the consultant and the State DOT, and I may get the figures wrong,
but I suspect you know the situation. They opened up the meeting and basically
said, we're 30...20 or 30 years behind in our infrastructure, and we're ten billion
dollars short. So the point I want to make that I didn't make in my original
testimony is whether we want to stay in our single occupancy or not going forward,
and many people do, I realize that, it's not a choice. We don't have the means to
continue the transportation system that we've perpetuated in the past. We can't
afford it. So I think what we're faced with and what a great opportunity you all
have is to consider just a really vigorous expansion of this bus and to see how people
respond. We need to find out. We need to see how we can lure more people to the
bus, make it more attractive, whether it's surf racks or more frequency, more bus
shelters, promotion through employers, all those things. It's going to require some
money, but I think that's the perspective we have to take. I won't take any more of
your time. Thank you.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you very much. Any questions? If not,
thank you very much, Ben. Is there any more testimony? If not, thank you all for
coming and taking the time to share your thoughts with us.
Mr. Bynum: I thought... Donna, did you want to come back,
Donna?
Ms. Yukimura: Okay, please. So it will be another three minutes.
Ms. Schulze: When you ride the bus... I'm Donna Schulze from
Kilauea. When you ride the bus, you expect the bus driver just to drive the bus and
do his job, but sometimes he does things that are not in his job description. Like
one day I was on the bus and I went to the health club right before it closed, and
Lani and I... Lani has a service dog named Sue. We had finished our swimming
and waiting outside for our paratransit bus. So suddenly the girls from the health
club came out and said, Donna, the bus company just called up and said your bus
broke down, you're going to have to wait a while. So Lani and I and the dog said,
okay we'll wait. But to and behold we only waited 10 minutes, and here comes a
bus. I thought, what has happened. Apparently the bus office called the bus driver
in Hanalei who was on his way back from Hanalei to Kilauea, and he said divert
your route and stop off and pick up Donna Schulze and Lani and his dog. So the
city bus comes and I was amazed, and so was Lani. And we got on the bus and the
bus driver said who are you, he did not know me, please tell me where you live in
Kilauea, I'm taking you straight home. I show my bus pass, and he said, Lani
what's your dog doing here. Lani showed him the dog's I.D. card. Okay. He took
both of us to our houses, and then proceeded to take everybody else home too, and
that was a citybus. Now that is the"kind of people you got working in our office.
One other time I was on the bus, the last bus going north, and we were
almost to Anahola, and this lady jumped up in the back, this elderly lady said, oh,
oh, oh, you missed my bus, what am I going to do, what am I going to do. The bus
driver stopped, got on the phone, I'm behind him, I hear him talking. He called the
bus office. They said, leave the lady on the bus, go to Hanalei, remember you have
to come back empty, you don't pick up anybody, and then drop her off where she's
supposed to be. And I got up and I said to the people on the bus, you hear what just
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happened, and everybody applauded the bus driver. Now see that's... They don't
leave you. You can be half a block away running, and he'll wait, the bus will wait.
They don't leave you. They don't leave you stranded. They are very considerate.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, that's really service beyond the call.
Ms. Schulze: Yes indeed.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you for sharing those stories, and we do
want to acknowledge the bus drivers and the...who's the one in the office that also...
What is it?
Ms. Schulze: They accommodate your every need.
Ms. Yukimura: Dispatcher. Thank you. I'm sorry. Yes, the whole
system that responds to make sure that we take care of our bus riders.
Ms. Schulze: It's actually called super service.
Ms. Yukimura: Super service. Thank you, and I hope they're
listening. We really appreciate their service.
Ms. Schulze: Thank you for what you're doing.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you also, Donna.
Ms. Schulze: I just want everyone to remember who started all
this. Years ago, a lady named JoAnn Yukimura got the bus thing going and people
thought, what is she trying to do, and look what happened.
Ms. Yukimura: I've often been thought crazy. But anyway, thank
you very much for coming, everyone, and thank you to the mayor for introducing
this bill, and this is only the beginning. So we'll see you back here when our next
advance will be on the table. Thank you very much. With that, thank you
members. This part of the hearing is closed.
There being no one present to testify on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
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