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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1-25-2011 Special Council Meeting MinutesSPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 The Special Council Meeting of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by Council Chair Jay Furfaro at the Council Chambers, 3371 -A Wilcox Road, L3hu`e, Kauai, on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 9:08 a.m., after which the following members answered the call of the roll: Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie Chang Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura Honorable Mel Rapozo Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura Honorable Jay Furfaro, Council Chair APPROVAL OF AGENDA, Ms. Yukimura moved for approval of the agenda as circulated, seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried. INTERVIEWS: Chair Furfaro: Nakamura. The floor will recognize Councilwoman Ms. Nakamura: I'd like to just recuse myself from the first item that's on the agenda. I have an outstanding contract with the Department of Water and it's one (1) of those projects that I'd hoped to finish by last year but did not get completed. (Ms. Nakamura was noted recused from the Council Meeting.) Chair Furfaro: Okay thank you. We'll call you back and I believe the first interview will be of my colleague and friend who has served with me on the Council and our birthdays are one (1) day apart, Mr. Kaneshiro. BOARD OF WATER SUPPLY: ® Daryl Wayne Kaneshiro, Term ending 12/31/2012 DARYL W. KANESHIRO: Good morning. It feels different to be on this side of the room but at the same time if I may... Mr. Chair I want to give my Happy New Year to each and every one of you Honorable Councilmembers and for your successful campaign, I know how hard it is to campaign. As many of you know I've been involved in campaigning and have been a Councilmember for almost eleven (11) years. I want to really thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here today. Basically I approached the Mayor and talked to the Mayor about serving on the Board and I particularly like the Water Board. If you can recall in 2000, I was the one that shepherded the General Plan through the Council and at the same time following that in 2001 the Water Board also adopted their 20/20 plan, so I'm familiar with some of the projects they have ongoing and I want to be able to help the Water Department implement their water structure or infrastructure plans to meet the needs of the General Plan. 2 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 I'm also very familiar with some of the CIP projects that the Water Department has gone before State Aid particularly I remember in several years ago there were many projects for improvements for affordable housing and you know just to give you an example, out of a forty -six million dollar CIP project asking for State aids, State Grant and Aids, thirty -three million was for affordable housing. So these are areas we want to work on and finally for me, I've helped and worked as the Finance Chair of the County Council to work on revenue bonds. We were successful and been able to get good interest rates based on the revenue bonds that we went in for sixty million dollars for our side and the Administration and also the sixty million dollars for Department of Water. I'm very familiar with some of the projects, the CIP projects that the Water Board has on the books to try to accomplish some of the goals of meeting the 20/20 plan so with that... Chair Furfaro: Very good overview. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Very good overview. Let me open up questions to the members. Members? If not... Ms. Yukimura: Ah? Chair Furfaro: Oh you have? Go ahead. Ms. Yukimura: Well welcome back. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Ms. Yukimura: You can't stay away very long? Mr. Kaneshiro: You know... since I'm on pension I thought I might volunteer and give some time back to the people of Kauai. Ms. Yukimura: Well you know in the form you filled out, the last question is please indicate why you're interested in serving and what you understand to be the primary duties of this appointment. Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah. Ms. Yukimura: And you got the answer to the second part perfectly. Mr. Kaneshiro: Oh. Ms. Yukimura: Which is not what most... not all applicants do... to manage and operate the Water Department, to supply to the public based on Boards General Plan, Mr, Kaneshiro: Right. Ms. Yukimura: That's like perfect, so I was going to ask you about... the first part of the question... why are you interested in serving but you just explained that... 3 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr, Kaneshiro: Thank you. Ms. Yukimura: So thank you very much. I guess I have a more difficult question but the... I'm aware that the issue of the Grove Farm treatment plant... Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes. Ms. Yukimura: Is an issue that will be coming before the Board. Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes. Ms. Yukimura: May I assume that with your son working for Grove Farm and your wife working for Aqua, that you will be declaring a conflict of interest? Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely. Ms. Yukimura: And recusing. Mr. Kaneshiro: You have seen me serve on the Council for twelve (12) years, almost twelve (12) years, if I felt that there was any conflict, I recuse myself from any issues that were involved. Ms. Yukimura: Okay. And do you have... well I think you highlighted what you would like to shepherd or watch over and that included implementing the 20/20 plan and also looking at the CIP, well the CIP which is related to it. Mr. Kaneshiro: To the 20/20 plan, absolutely. Ms. Yukimura: And you mentioned affordable housing? Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely. Ms. Yukimura: So is there anything else that you'd like to highlight as you. Mr. Kaneshiro: And I think you know for myself coming from the agricultural community or from the agricultural perspective as a farmer or rancher, I want to be sure that we'll be able to keep those areas you know, in rural and being able to have the farmers accomplish what they want to do in their goals in trying to achieve and save the farm and being able to get water. I know it's a big dream but if we start working on it now, it can be done. Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Alright I have no other questions. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Ms. Yukimura: Thank you very much. SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING Mr. Kaneshiro: members. Chair Furfaro: Mr. Kaneshiro: January 25, 2011 Thank you Chair, thank you Honorable Mr. Bynum has a question for you. Oh okay. Mr. Bynum: Daryl thanks for being willing to serve, I know you expressed interest in the Water Board in the past so I wasn't surprised to see this and I appreciate it and I know you'll... you're in a good position to support that because you know about the finances being the Finance Chair, what the recent bond float and with Mr. Craddick in the audience, I'm going to ask you to help me or help us track the bond. Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely. Mr. Bynum: That the Water... and I think the Water Department historically does a good job in putting their CIP projects out and I know there's another sixty million that the Administration has to put out. Mr. Kaneshiro: Right. Mr. Bynum: And I know that the Water Department might be anxious to help us if we get in a bind but you know on our side I want to track that sixty million. So don't look at that covetously... is that a word? Don't covet that money because the Administration's going to get it spent. Mr. Kaneshiro: Well I'm not going to worry too much about the Administration side, you have seven (7) good members here, Councilmembers, but I'm surely like to give you all information I can as we work through the Board side, the Water Board side and see how we're doing with our bond floats and how we're coming along with our CIP projects, absolutely. Mr. Bynum: I know you'll be a real asset to the Board, thank you. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Mr. Chang. Mr. Chang: Thank you Chair. Daryl thank you for again continuing your work with the community, we want to thank you for stepping up and inquiring on being on the Board of Water Supply. I know you know this Board, I know you know the responsibilities, I know you know what the General Plan is coming down the road so we just wanted to thank you for taking the time and continuing to be involved with our county. I just wanted to say that I respect you for... if in time and need to recuse yourself with issues in regards to Grove Farm and I guess maybe something may have slipped by me but I didn't realize I heard Councilmember Yukimura... your wife at Aqua so... I don't know if you did get married but I wanted to say congratulations. Mr. Kaneshiro: Well you know I would have invited you to the party when I do. You're invited. SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Chair Furfaro: Valentine's Day is right around the corner. Mr. Chang: I didn't know congratulations was in the works but I wanted to say aloha to you and,I knew it was meant to be, thank you Chair. Chair Furfaro: Daryl, I want to personally thank you for stepping forward. You and I served quite a few years here on this Council, your understanding of the mechanism associated with the bond, with our CIP programs will be a big plus for the Water Department. I do want to share with you although I approached this a little different than Mr. Bynum, I think we have an excellent County Engineer in Mr. Dill who's come up and in fact he has several certificates and degrees dealing with fluid engineering, he'll be a big asset as well working with your general... Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes. Chair Furfaro: Manager there, as well as the fact that you know we were willing to stand behind a pretty significant amount of money for the Water Department because I think this Council as you pointed out, you know we're well aware of the urgency but I kind of put it the other way around... we have three (3) years to spend that money and then it starts to collect some penalties so I guess the only message I'll share with you is, a very aggressive plan is going to need all the Water Board members to stay on top of it so that there are no financial consequences in a way of penalties in the end. Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes. Chair Furfaro: As that money is associated to the bond float. Thank you very much and I certainly will be supporting you on the vote which will be coming up tomorrow so. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you for that Chair and you know going over some of the minutes of the Water Department, the other Board members are very aware of the three (3) year timeline too. Because it came up many times as the... we're moving ahead to float bonds. Chair Furfaro: Again, thank you very much for stepping forward for the County of Kauai. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you and I really don't know how Wayne came in there somehow, my mom probably thought maybe I might be using cowboy boots for the rest of my life and that's why make it close to John Wayne or something... but guys it's usually Daryl W. Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Kaneshiro. May I ask the Clerk's desk to read the next appointee or nominee. Ms. Nakamura was noted back in the Special Council Meeting Clerk's Office: Glen Takenouchi. 6 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Chair Furfaro: Good morning Glen. You are up for the Cost Control Commission and I would like to ask you if you can just introduce yourself for the record and give us a little background and your current role. COST CONTROL COMMISSION: ® Glen H. Takenouchi, Term ending 12/31/2013 GLEN H. TAKENOUCHI: (inaudible- mic off) Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Do we have questions for Glen? Councilwoman Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: (inaudible- mic off) I'm happy to see your name proposed here, this is going to be your first term or... on the Cost Control? Mr, Takenouchi: Correct. Ms. Yukimura: Okay and you served before on the Charter Review? Mr. Takenouchi: Ms. Yukimura: Commissions system? serve. Mr. Takenouchi: Ms. Yukimura: Mr. Takenouchi: Correct. So you're familiar with the Boards and I'm a little familiar, yes. Yeah, well thank you for your willingness to You're welcome. Ms. Yukimura: I know you were really helpful when we were working on the solar water heating bill and I appreciated your efforts there. And I do think your business background is going to be really helpful on this particular position, in Cost Control. So I guess the question I'd like to ask is... are there any particular areas of interest that you have, that you'd like to look at in the County or... and I mean you don't have to have any... but I'd just wondered if, just being a citizen and by observation you might have an area of particular interest or concern? Mr. Takenouchi: I don't have any at this time, any particular interest at this time but I'm sure as I get into the meetings of the Cost Control Commission, there will be... Ms. Yukimura: Mr. Takenouchi: Ms. Yukimura: Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo: Yes. Some areas. Good, okay that's all I have. Mr. Rapozo. Thank you Glen. 7 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Takenouchi: You're welcome. Mr. Rapozo: The Charter Review Commission and Cost Control are quite different you know and I'm assuming you had an opportunity to review the Charter, that article 28 that governs the Cost Control Commission? Mr. Takenouchi: Yes I did. Mr. Rapozo: The Cost Control Commission, many people are not aware of what that Commission does and I just wanted to make sure that you're aware that it is quite a powerful Commission. Mr. Takenouchi: Yes. Mr. Rapozo: In fact really powerful in a sense that your Commission has the ability or authority to direct the Mayor to submit a bill to the Council, he doesn't have an option to say no, he has to submit it. And I think a lot of people... in fact when I first got elected to the Council the Cost Control Commission wasn't even active and I heard that many administrators don't like that Commission because it basically has the ability to cut a lot of the expenses to the County. You know I personally as a Councilmember rely, hope to rely anyway on that Commission because it really takes the politics out of finance and budgeting. It takes a strong political will to raise fees and it takes a strong political will to cut services but there's Charter requirement mandates that that's what your Commission does so I guess my question is... are you willing and prepared to tackle these issues, more specifically to section 28.04 which is reviewing personnel cost, travel and all of that stuff... I mean it's very difficult, especially when the public has this perception that we have so much money, and I just got a call this morning from a constituent who's very upset that the cost to get a driver's license renewal went up twenty bucks, from twelve to thirty -two, he's employed by the State, he gets furloughs, and yet all he sees this County doing is spending more money. So I just want to make sure and have no doubt that you are willing and able but I want to make sure I hear it that you are committed to making sure that that Commission, while you're there, takes a serious look at our expenditures to make sure that there is no duplications of services? Mr. Takenouchi: Yes I am committed to doing that. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you very much. That's all I have Mr. Chair. Chair Furfaro: (inaudible- mic off) ...position in a hotel, in that project the responsibility became a project release that gave me a definition not just of the total cost but the cost associated in that project for design, utilities, dry wall, actual hard construction, and it's appropriate to have that because you're going to add the numbers that are broken out in those particular areas, you're going to add them to the capital's value of the hotel. You build certain amenities for the Golf Course, if you're going to do a release of improving the cosmetics of the Golf Course, you know that has certain value and should be summarized as so, so if we have a overrun in design, we understand where the extra cost flows. If we have an overrun in the cost of putting in a new transformer, we have an understanding where the cost was. We don't do that right now and it's always been bothersome to me because I'd like to know when we overrun and there's delays, what those cost are actually related to, to what component of the project. And also going forward, 8 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 the detail of when we raise the fees for something like a driver's license, we have an understanding that we are recovering our cost and does it cost us thirty -five dollars to produce a driver's license, manpower, a written test, laminations, photographs and so forth... you know... we never know, we never know. We get these suggestions and as of yesterday at 10:00 I understand that I'm going to pay 0.10 more for a diet Pepsi as a new tax. You know this is very interesting times financially. But I think one of the things that we need to know from the Cost Commission, whether if we're spending money on a capital improvement or we're spending money on revenues associated with golfing, we have some justification, that's what I'm looking for, and leaving us an audit trail to find out where we went astray. I just wanted to share that with you because the Golf Course is a huge challenge for us, it's lined up as an enterprise fund in which it's supposed to carry its own debt -that will never happen. We don't even identify, when we put in the new sprinkler system, we didn't even identify, as they just explained to us, a separate capital improvement that actually raised the value of the Golf Course as put on the books as an asset. We're expensing it as an operating cost. Unbelievable to me and yet we know it's an enterprise fund and we keep adding these improvements, as if they've got to be paid back in green fees and concessions from the renting carts. We need to find a good understanding and if it's not going to be a enterprise fund, we need to so state. And if it's going to be an enterprise fund, we need to know what we can actually expense to that capital budget and what is just booked as an improvement and asset to the County. So you've got your work cut out for you. Mr. Takenouchi: I understand. Chair Furfaro: And I'm very pleased to have you serving, Glen. Mr. Takenouchi: Well thank you for that (inaudible), that's how we run our projects in private business, so I hope that I can bring that experience to the County. Chair Furfaro: Just what I wanted to hear. Councilwoman Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: Yes, I'm thankful that the Chair raised the issue of the Golf Course because that has been a subject of the Cost Control Commission and more recently came up in the audit, our financial auditor's report to us. So my question is what are your thoughts about the Golf Course, should it be an enterprise fund that where we work to make it more businesslike and more self - sufficient? I guess first of all I should ask if you are a golfer? Mr. Takenouchi: The answer to the first question is yes. Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Mr. Takenouchi: The answer to your immediate question I guess was yes, but actually I think I need to find more information first before I can answer that question well. Chair Furfaro: Fair enough answer. Ms. Yukimura: Okay, no preliminary thoughts? 9 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Takenouchi: Ms. Yukimura: Chair Furfaro: No. Alright, thank you. Councilwoman Nakamura. Ms. Nakamura: Thanks Glen for being willing to serve. I just have a comment because one of the things we looked at as reviewing the furlough situation was to receive the listing from the Administration on the amount of overtime that just in the first six (6) months of the fiscal year and we'd be interested in looking at I guess this past year would not be a good example, in previous years overtime expenses and what's driving the high overtime in some of the Departments. So just wanted to throw that out as a suggestion. Mr. Takenouchi: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum. Mr. Bynum: Glen thank you very much for being willing to serve, you're going to be an outstanding member of this Commission. Mr. Takenouchi: You're welcome. Mr. Bynum: I just wanted to echo what Councilmember Rapozo said that when you read the Charter the Cost Control Commission potentially has tremendous power, it can go all kinds of directions you know it's pretty wide open field and I'm excited about the growth of the Cost Control Commission how serious the current members have taken their job and I think you'll be a great addition. Thank you very much. Mr. Takenouchi: Thank you. I appreciate it. Chair Furfaro: Any more for Glen? No? Glen thank you very much and I certainly will be supporting your appointment to the Cost Control Commission. Mr. Takenouchi: Thank you very much, thank you for your confidence. Chair Furfaro: Okay, next. Clerk's Office: Laurie Yoshida. COST CONTROL COMMISSION: • Laurie Lynn Koike Yoshida, Term ending 12/31/2012 LAURIE YOSHIDA: Good morning. Chair Furfaro: It's nice to have individuals come up back to back dealing with the same questions but I think we should start by having you introduce yourself a little bit for the record. 10 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Ms. Yoshida: Okay. I'm Laurie Yoshida and good morning. I know all of you. You wanted background I think that's what you asked for every candidate? Chair Furfaro: Just a brief. Ms. Yoshida: Okay. I was actually born and raised on Oahu but lived on Kauai since 1994, so going on seventeen years now. Of course I'm married with a 21 year old son and a 12 year old daughter. My son has moved back, so he's back in the house. Currently I'm self- employedfunemployed. As you all know the change of the State Administration I am no longer at the Governor's Office, so I'm rebuilding my self employment business. Previously I've been at the Chamber, I've been self - employed, and of course at the Governor's Office for eight (8) years. Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Councilwoman Yukimura, do you have a question? Ms. Yukimura: I sure do. Hi Laurie, you look a lot more relaxed now that you're not in the Governor's Office, but thank you for doing a good job there, and I think yours is a perfect appointment given your background as the Governor's Representative. I just wondered that if with your background and knowing a lot about citizen complaints and so forth and concerns whether you have any particular area of interest with respect to your, what would be a new oversight in County Government? Ms. Yoshida: I don't think I have a particular area in terms of a specific department or I think it's more just overall looking at the services that the public, you know there's the services that the public sees and then there's the services that they don't see, and we've all been through cuts lately and it's just making sure that I think that we find ways to cut what doesn't compromise our economic recovery and the services that we are providing. Services that of course are mandated as well as services that are needed, you know, things like building permits, things that if we low them down too much, we actually hurt ourselves with some of the economic recovery. So it's just looking at an overall balance like that. Ms. Yukimura: It's really good to hear that because I think in cost cutting that's exactly the other side of the spectrum that you have to be aware of and conscious of or else it becomes self defeating. Ms. Yoshida: Right. Ms. Yukimura: And Councilmember Nakamura's question about overtime, you know raise that question... in terms of okay you get furloughs but then if you get a lot of overtime and I know her question went beyond that. Ms. Yoshida: Ms. Yukimura: Right. Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Any other questions of Laurie? Mr. Rapozo. 11 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Rapozo: Glen was up. Ms. Yoshida: Mr. Rapozo: Ms. Yoshida: Laurie, I wasn't sure if you were here when Yes. Oh so you heard my question? Yes. Mr. Rapozo: And I'm assuming that you're willing as well to take a look at tough cuts and realizing that that is the goal of the Commission is to reduce government spending and as long as I've been involved with this County, we've never done that really... there's been some cuts here and there, but as far as reducing by eliminating duplication of services, I really haven't seen that. I think the size of government continues to grow as we speak, and I'm just hoping that the Commission can take a look at that and really hold this County accountable to the positions that we create because it does provide a huge expense increase to this tax payers. Like I said earlier, with the gentleman that I spoke to this morning, you know the perspective is really bad yeah because the furloughs are out and there's families who are really struggling and when they watch these Council Meetings or read the newspaper, all they're seeing is this County continues to spend more money. Ms. Yoshida: Right. Mr. Rapozo: So I just wanted to make sure that every Commission member or every Commissioner understands that it's their duty that they take a look at cutting the duplication. I mean if it's a duplication of service, then nobody loses. Ms. Yoshida: Right. Mr. Rapozo: There is no impact to the service. Ms. Yoshida: Right. Mr. Rapozo: And I think that is where I would ask this Commission to seriously look at because you know it's obvious that there's many duplications that... not just in the County, but in the State as well, and that's pretty much all my concerns are and I just want to thank you for agreeing to serve. It is a very important Commission and we should utilize that Commission in the most effective way and try to cut government spending as we head into tougher times. Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Rapozo. Any other questions? Councilmember Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: I guess I should ask you the same question I asked Glen, which is do you have any thoughts about the Golf Course being a enterprise fund that at least would be self- sufficient or even make a profit like it used to many years ago? Ms. Yoshida: Well first of all I'm not a golfer, so... but I understand that game somewhat but not necessarily the operations. I do know that 12 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 when golfers talk, they know every hole... they know where it is, which way it turns and all of that and so and they know when the greens are good and when they're not and all of that kind of stuff... I'm not a golfer. So I would need to really review the operations, the financials, to really be able to make the determination on whether it is something that can be self - sufficient or not. At this point, without reviewing that, I wouldn't be able to answer one way or the other, but I would be willing to at least take a look and see and look at those numbers and determine. Ms. Yukimura: Are you aware that in government, I don't know in State but in County there's several other what are called enterprise funds, so that's the Water Department, in some counties it is the Solid Waste Division and the Sewage or Waste Water and they're in the case... well under EPA you know there are certain requirements to make sure that you get enough fees to run the operation otherwise you don't have good waste water services. Ms. Yoshida: Right. Ms. Yukimura: Which are far more impactful than not having golf services, I think... I don't know... but anyway there's that whole concept in municipal government about enterprise funds and how they run. They tend to be those areas that need to be more businesslike. Ms. Yoshida: Yeah and I think in County and State Government there are several entities that are supposed to be self - sustaining whether they are truly especially in economic times like this you know it's another question and whether they can be and I think we've as a society we're used to expecting that we pay our taxes and that there are services that are provided either at reduced or no charge, and there may be some instances where we do need to look at more pay as you go, and pay as you use situations, but again I would need to look at the various programs and their financial situations because the other side of that is even if you want an inch to that, you don't want to do it in one fell swoop and you know, Ms. Yukimura: Right. Ms. Yoshida: And make increases so huge that people can't afford them so. Ms. Yukimura: Yeah and there is a thought that for example the Golf Course has no reserve funds, you know like we're talking about even the County having reserve funds, and when we don't have that you have problems because you may not be able to actually maintain the golf funds as needs to be maintained for operations. And the Golf Course has always come running to the General Fund, but given the circumstances of State and County finances that may not be an option always. Alright thank you. Chair Furfaro: Councilwoman Nakahara. Mr. Bynum: Ms. Yoshida: I'm going to Mr Good morning. Nakamura? Chair Furfaro: Excuse me... Bynum and then 13 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Bynum: Thanks for your willingness to serve. Did the Mayor's Office approach you about serving? Ms. Yoshida: Yes. Mr. Bynum: Okay and you heard the earlier comments, the Cost Control Commission has tremendous potential, they've done a good job, come from basically non - existent to bringing some every interesting things forward, but you have broad latitude there of where you know you can focus but under the Charter you basically... the Mayor shall bring your proposals forward and it's a pretty significant potential, the way to put things on the agenda pretty assertively. So I'm sure you'll do a great job but it's an interesting Commission but it's got a nice diversity I think and you'll add to that. Thank you. Ms. Yoshida: Thank you. Ms. Nakamura: Hi Laurie. You know the short time I've served on the Cost Control Commission it came apparent to me that really where you can... people who have the best knowledge on where to cut cost is probably at the middle managers and guys in the field and somehow and you know I really had the time to explore it or look at what kinds of processes we could have used to kind of tap that information knowledge and advice, so I just wanted to throw that out as something that I really feel that that's where we can bring about changes if people feel you know empowered to help us. And it may be happening now but you know to find a way to make that happen. Ms. Yoshida: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo did you have a question? Mr. Chang. Mr. Chang: Laurie I just wanted to say thank you for stepping up and you know you had a nice long ten (10) year in government so we just wanted to say thank you for volunteering your services, this is a very, very important Commission and I notice that Mr. Takenouchi is still here, which is good because you both, could hear the questions from the Council, where you can both hear each other's responses so I believe what's really good is that, from this point on, I think there's going to be a really nice bond between the both of you. And you know new ideas and concerns that we have here, you can bring it back to your board so I want to thank you for serving and welcome you back into the community and the limelight if you will. Thank you. Ms. Yoshida: I've got a whole six (6) weeks off. Chair Furfaro: Laurie, I want to say thank you very much for stepping forward.. I do want you to know I'll be introducing a bill that I've introduced in the past but did not get enough attraction with some of the members and I think part of your cost are associated with the fact that we need to understand the revenue portion. I've always thought the Cost Control Commission should be the Cost Control and Revenue Commission so that you can work closely with our Audit Department on what the appropriate fees are when it comes to other than property tax. I think that's always been something that should be looked at. I also fully agree with Councilmember Nakamura and I'm sorry I referred to her as 14 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 201.1 Nakahara, I apologize but I had some tuition refund from school that was dealing with but... the fact of the matter is now that we have an auditor, one of the things that I certainly want to promote for the county is the fact that somewhere in the Audit Department we have a staff planner, someone that lets us know when the work load is becoming equal to the task that we feel that number of people should be accomplishing and that's along the line of staff planning and right sizing, not cutting. I'm sure there's areas you know we need some evaluation from and she's absolutely right, some of the best ideas come from the middle managers so on that note I wanted to say and we need to get a control on overtime now in the county especially with furloughs ending, so that should be a target item as well but you're perfectly matched with your background to be involved in this. I will be supporting you when we vote tomorrow. Ms. Yoshida: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Thank you very much. Clerk's Office: Jose Diego. BOARD OF REVIEW: ® Jose Ricardo da Silva Diego, Term ending 12/31/2013 JOSE RICARDO DA SILVA DIOGO: Chair Furfaro: Good morning Jose. Mr. Diego: Good morning everybody. Chair Furfaro: I'm glad to see you're here and willing to step forward here on our Board of Review and I'd like you to introduce yourself if you could and give us a little background about your current role and I believe you currently serve on this Commission? Mr. Diego: Not currently, I was in a different Board, served on a different Board. Chair Furfaro: Okay. So why don't we start with that Jose? Mr. Bynum was noted excused from the Special Council Meeting at 9:45 a.m. Mr. Diego: Sure. My name is Jose Diego. I'm a Real Estate Appraiser here on Kauai, I've been appraising real estate on Kauai since 1988. Moved here in 1978, nine (9) year old, went to Kapa`a School and (inaudible) since then and definitely want to give back to the community, I think that's an important aspect for every citizen and I'm honored to be here and I'm looking forward to serving on that Board. Chair Furfaro: Thank you. I want to note for the record that Mr. Bynum had to leave, he does have an excuse and I'm sorry he's not here for this interview. So members if you have any questions, I have a list in a few that I'm interested in, if you have any I'll give the floor to you? Councilwoman Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. Aloha Jose. 15 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Diogo: Hi JoAnn. Ms. Yukimura: I see on your application that you're on the State Tax Review Board? Mr. Diogo: Yes. Ms. Yukimura: Okay so I thought at first that you meant it was our County Review but it's actually a separate and State... Mr. Diogo: Correct. Ms. Yukimura: Well I appreciate your willingness, that's already, is a lot of service and your willingness to sit on the Board of Appeals is additional. I do believe that you understand, I mean I think your take here on your application that your job would be to review tax appeals in a basis manner is an accurate rendition of your duty. My question is you do appraisals, will there, will this put you in some conflict situations where you have clients coming before you? Mr. Diego: If I'm following your question correct, I have had people ask me to represent them against the County and I have never taken those assignments, I just refuse to take on those assignments and I don't feel that I would be in a conflict of interest in that sense. Ms. Yukimura: Okay, you may have to check with the Board of Ethics if you represented them just in doing an appraisal. Mr. Diogo: Correct. In typically an appraisal have a purpose and intended use and if somebody wants to use an appraisal that was done for financing to you know grumble about their assessment, that's up to them, I can't control that but if the appraisal is intended for such use then I do believe it would be a conflict of interest. Ms. Yukimura: It may be a conflict of interest just that you have a financial relationship with the person appearing before you as, before you sitting as a board member. Mr. Diogo: Actually almost all the appraisals that are ordered now are ordered through what they call an appraisal management company, there's only three (3) lenders here in Hawaii that order directly. Rarely do we get people ordering an appraisal on their behalf, it's usually the lenders the appraisals, so there is no client connection to borrower, the client is actually the lender, so I'm not sure if that would... Ms. Yukimura: I think be a factor in making a determination. But it's probably something you need to clear before the Board of Ethics because conflict of interest isn't necessarily something that we determine ourselves. Mr. Diogo: Correct, I agree with you. What's interesting too and what I wanted to add is a lot of the appraisals that I do, I know most of the people because the island is only so big. But my motto has always been to provide an unbiased impartial service to my client and I adhere to that strictly. 16 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Ms. Yukimura: I don't doubt that but conflict of interest goes beyond that, it doesn't get cleared just because of the person's intention. Mr. Diogo: Correct. Chair Furfaro: Excuse me before we go any further, may I just pose that question to the County Attorney? Ms. Yukimura: Surely but I don't know if the County Attorney can answer it right now? Chair Furfaro: I'm not asking him to... Ms. Yukimura: It's probably more appropriate... Chair Furfaro: I want to say that I'm referring to the County Attorney because I want him to encourage the process that maybe there's a need to check in with the Board of Ethics and that's why I'm asking if he'd like to before Jose, excuse me if I called you by your first name. Mr. Diogo: That will be fine. Chair Furfaro: Before you go too far with your response. If you don't mind... Ms. Yukimura: Sure, that's fine. Chair Furfaro: I'll give the floor to the County Attorney. ALFRED B. CASTILLO, COUNTY ATTORNEY: Yes for the record Al Castillo, County Attorney and thank you Council Chair, I was going to try to interrupt the interview process anyway because the first of all the... going through the interview process, we have to be objective and what is relevant here is number one (1) what are the position requirements and sometimes the questions out there that are posed doesn't give the person that's being interviewed the necessary tools to answer the questions because number one (1) the question is what are the position requirements, what are the position requirements for being on the Board of Review? And second to that is where or not this particular candidate has the capacity and the capability to fulfill those requirements, so sometimes the questions goes pretty much beyond that scope. Now in terms of conflict of interest, in what the Board of Review does and with what this candidate will be asked to do, then to be fair to this candidate is basically if there is a conflict situation, to just throw out the general question about conflict is unfair to this candidate. To say this is what you do, this is what you'll be required to do; do your duties as an appraisal /appraiser raise a conflict of interest? Now a conflict of interest situation, that in itself I know what the Board of Review does and Mr. Diogo does and if there is a potential conflict, I am very sure that the Boards and Commissions will be questioning the County Attorneys Office regarding the alleged or the potential conflict. So to be fair to this candidate, I would say throw out the factual consideration, the factual circumstances and thereby this candidate will be able to answer the question regarding conflict. Right now it's really too general. Chair Furfaro: Thank you Mr. County Attorney. Councilwoman Yukimura, you have the floor. 17 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Ms. Yukimura: Thank you very much. My questioning on along these lines were not to say that there is a conflict or not but because of your background as an appraiser that there might be a potential conflict and just the Board of Appeals doesn't necessarily, I mean excuse me... the Board of Ethics doesn't necessarily the one that initiates a request and in fact I believe under the Charter regarding ethics, each person has the obligation to raise the ethics question if there's a potential conflict and so it was just to raise that with you so that you're aware that it may be an issue in some of your decisions or work on the Board of Review. At the same time when there's a potential for conflict of interest, there's also the wonderful background that you have that would really enable you to make your decisions with a lot of knowledge and awareness in terms of property values and how they are assessed and how they're made, how evaluations are determined. It's an asset as well a potential red flag that you just need to be aware of. Mr. Diego: I understand. Ms. Yukimura: Yeah so I appreciate your willingness to serve and I think that your background will enable you to serve well especially with the intention that you do it in an unbiased manner so thank you very much. Mr. Diego: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Thank you Councilwoman. Any other questions of Jose? Jose, I do want to say that I think I will summarize you know there is an obligation on your part especially with the outstanding background that you have, you know there could be a possibility but we do as Councilwoman Yukimura pointed out, we leave it up to the individual. Your talent is extremely important to us at this time because you know the County tax base in total has changed with wide variations since 2006 -2011 although we know we're somewhere on the upbeat, the Council and the Administration are trying to jointly establish some type of reserve program, I know you were sitting in the back and heard some of these questions so you know that's also triggered by the fact that if the general evaluation of real estate whether its commercial, residential, and/or hotels are somewhat in a liberal flex here, and we're not sure which way it's going, it's good to have people with your talent on that Appeals Board so. Mr. Diogo: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: I want to personally thank you and you know the ethic question is it individualize... I don't think we have any more questions Jose at this point so thank you very much. Mr. Diogo: Thank you everybody. Chair Furfaro: Okay we have another candidate for Cost Control Commission? Clerk's Office: Brant Fuchigami. COST CONTROL COMMISSION: ® Brant Shoichi Fuchigami, Term ending 12/31/2013 BRANT FUCHIGAMI: Hello. 18 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Chair Furfaro: How's it Brant? Mr, Fuchigami: Hello. Chair Furfaro: Thank you for being here on time, we're one (1) minute ahead of our own schedule and you were in the audience, so that's great. Brant, I'm going to ask you if you could just give us a little overview of your background, will you introduce yourself for the record. Mr. Fuchigami: Okay. Chair Furfaro: And we'll start from there. Mr. Fuchigami: I'm Brant Fuchigami, born Seoul South Korea, raised on Oahu, moved to Kauai 2005, and I'm the Manager at Gamme Home Care. Chair Furfaro: Very good. And you are not currently serving on the Cost Control Commission? Mr. Fuchigami: No. Chair Furfaro: Okay very good. I'm going to see if we have questions as people are looking at your application and resume, so Councilmembers? Mr. Rapozo. Mr. Rapozo: Hey. Mr. Fuchigami: Hello. Mr. Rapozo: Brant thanks for agreeing to serve. Mr. Fuchigami: No problem. Mr. Rapozo: I think you were here when I was talking to Laurie... Where you here or you came in after? Mr. Fuchigami: Just walked in. Mr. Rapozo: Oh you just walked in, I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention. Okay anyway I just wanted to make sure you know the Cost Control Commission is a very powerful Commission, I'm not sure you had the opportunity to review the Charter. Mr. Fuchigami: Slightly, yes. Mr. Rapozo: As it pertains to your Commission but it is quite important because the main focus or the main goal of that Commission is to cut government spending, county spending and looking at the duplication of services or whatever else that you folks feel that could benefit the county so. The other component to this Commission is the fact that your Commission has the authority to create any measure that the Mayor is required to forward to this Council as an ordinance and that is quite powerful if you think about it. I don't 19 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 believe any other Commissions have that. The Charter Review Commission to some extent can get things on the ballot for Charter Review but as far as getting a cost cutting measure on this floor to reduce spending that is quite a powerful authority. So I just want to make sure that you are aware of that and you are willing to look at that because I know you're in business. Mr. Fuchigami: Yes. Mr. Rapozo: You run a very successful operation and you cannot do that if you have duplication of services, you cannot maintain any kind of business in today's economy if you have that duplication of service. What I'm hoping that this Commission will look at is the staffing of the County and looking where are these duplications and if because the objection is to cut spending without cutting services... especially the vital services of public health, public safety, and so forth, but in reality if you cut a duplicated service, then you're really not impacting the county. Mr. Fuchigami: Right. Mr. Rapozo: Unfortunately somebody obviously may lose a job and that's not a good thing either but your role isn't about that, you know this county isn't an employment agency, it really is to provide core functions of government which is public health and safety and so forth. Just wanted to make sure you are aware of that and that you're willing in fact to... it's politically tough to do a lot of the things that your Commission is expecting to do and I just wanted to hear it from you that you're willing to do that. Mr. Fuchigami: I am. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you very much. Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Anyone else? Councilwoman Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: Yes, good morning. Mr. Fuchigami: Good morning... Ms. Yukimura: Thank you for your willingness to serve. It's really encouraging to see somebody from some business step forward because you folks have to work with the bottom line all the time and government doesn't necessarily have to and it's, we learn a lot from small businesses so your input and perspective is going to be very helpful. I was just wondering what you understand to be the primary duties of the Commission that you are applying for. Mr. Fuchigami: From what I understand it's just kind of gathering information and kind of watching how the County is spending money and how to; I guess manage it or spend less yet accomplish the services that are still needed. Ms. Yukimura: Right. That's very good and so if you look at the processes and methodologies and practices, we don't want to cut them out to the extent that they cut out vital services but we do want to cut the cost where they 20 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 may be wasteful or could be done more cost efficiently. That's a very useful function and that is the function of the Cost Control and I wish you luck as you. Mr. Fuchigami: Thank you. Ms. Yukimura: As you engage with the other members in that, thank you very much. Chair Furfaro: Nadine, go right ahead. Any other questions? I think you know... Ms. Nakamura: Just a quick question because earlier we were talking to some of the other candidates on the Cost Control Commission and we were talking about you know to find ways to cut cost. A lot of times it's the guys in the field, the middle managers who... you know in the county there's so many levels of bureaucracy and by the time you talk to the Department Head, they may not really know really what are the ways to cut the cost you know at the field level or in the Division or Branch level, so do you have any ideas on what kinds of strategies we can use to kind of get ideas from kind of the rank in file? Mr. Fuchigami: I would say to get input from people that are in the field or just above that know that situation and that can point out specifically where possible and where the certain area that they know for sure that can be cut but with a good reason why and how it is being spent or not spent at all. Ms. Nakamura: Yeah, yeah. That's good, thank you. I think those are the kinds of things, that kind of outreach at you know I think it's going to be needed at some point to really get to where you can cut cost. Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Mr. Chang? .. I just want to say that I think your comment was good for me when you said spend less, get more. I like that very much and that is the intent. Just looking at the possibilities of how much we get for our money and are we using standard specs but I do want to say you know the Cost Control Commission has to ability look into those kinds of controls. Control... not to control the project but to make sure the appropriate controls are in place that we are using the appropriate staffing, that we getting the right materials, that we're... if it's a seasonal thing, we're doing it at the right season. (inaudible) in the rainy months you know... Mr. Fuchigami: Yes. Chair Furfaro: Those types of things are also parts o£.. thank you very much for stepping forward especially for someone with his own small business. Councilwoman Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: I think I want to ask you the Golf Course question... the Golf Course is one of our County's operations and we're subsidizing it by over a million dollars a year I think... and so there's a question as to whether we need to have a goal of making it into a self - sufficient fund and I wondered if you have any thoughts about that? Mr. Fuchigami: Um. Ms. Yukimura: Are you a golfer? 21 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Fuchigami: I do golf; I have golfed recently but... like what part of the Golf Course or what operations are you trying to... Ms. Yukimura: Well we're not looking at any parts particular we're just looking at the overall operations. Mr. Fuchigami: Ms. Yukimura: Um. And... go ahead. Mr. Fuchigami: I don't know right now until I can see more I guess or learn more about it. Ms. Yukimura: Very good. Mr. Fuchigami: Sorry, Ms. Yukimura: Okay, thank you. Chair Furfaro: Okay on that note, thank you very much and I look forward for your participation on the Cost Control, Mr. Fuchigami: Chair Furfaro; Clerk's Office: Thank you. Pat? Charles Stack. CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION: m Charles Patrick Stack, Term ending 12/31/2013 CHARLES PATRICK STACK: Aloha Chair, Councilmembers. Chair Furfaro: Aloha Pat. Mr. Stack: Thank you for allowing me to be here today. Chair Furfaro: Well thank you for being on time and we're running a little bit ahead of schedule. Pat I need to disclose that I know you from the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity during the eighteen (18) years that I was President, so I know your work style and I'll keep my questions to a minimum. Mr. Stack: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: You're currently, . on the Charter Review Commission? Mr. Stack: Vice Chair. Chair Furfaro: Vice Chair and I'll leave the questions to the members here. 22 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Stack: Thank you sir. Chair Furfaro: But if I could have you introduce yourself one more time and give us a little back ground. Mr. Stack: Patrick Stack, Charter Review Commission. As far as background, I've lived here with my wife and children and five (5) grandchildren for seventeen (17) years and during that time I've served as Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity. I've maintained and operate a practice of mediation and arbitration and I've trained many of the KEO arbitrators or excuse me mediators. Aside from that I try and donate what time I have to my family and community in that order. As far as and I don't know if you have all the information or you have more there but. Chair Furfaro: I know a little bit more there such as having a Wall Street background and Stockbroker and so forth, if there are any more you'd like to share with us. Mr. Stack: I'm not sure I put it on that paper but I'm currently an arbitrator with the New York stock exchange, I'm registered as an security exchange commission mediator and the newly federally created (inaudible) which is the financial industry neutral resolution program which (inaudible) the NESD and all these other acronyms but in short my specialty has to do with finance. Chair Furfaro: Thank you Pat. On that note I will surface some questions. Members? Mr. Rapozo. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you very much for continuing to serve, I know we've had discussions about possibilities about mediation and county... in litigation and one of the things even on the Charter Review Commission, you know I think it's something worth exploring with this County. It's something I plan to look into even further once I get settled a little better here on the County Council but I think your background and your abilities to allow us to minimize the cost of litigation through arbitration and mitigation I think are points that we should definitely look at and maybe in fact being part of the Charter Review Commission discussion at one point or another, but I definitely look forward to you being on the Commission and having a discussion again real soon. Mr. Stack: Hallelujah. Chair Furfaro: Councilwoman Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: Yes, thank you. Hi Mr. Stack. You were Executive Director of Habitat, not any... not at this time? Mr. Stack: No, I was Habitat... I was actually the Executive Director in Transition. I don't want to bore you with a whole lot of details because our Chair here today knows even much more about it than I do, but it was a transition time. Habitat Humanity had fallen on hard times and they were in debt to the tune of over one million dollars and so the Board of Directors authorized me to essentially either put it down in form of a bankruptcy or raise money and get it buyable and going again. So I was only Executive Director for about a year I 23 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 think, maybe a year and a half. But I would characterize my involvement as financial and not pounding nails. Ms. Yukimura: Oh well that's an important financials the way to keep the pounding of nails going. Mr. Stack: Well we had your Chair to thank for keeping Habitat for Humanity alive. Ms. Yukimura: Well thank you both. Chair Furfaro: Quick summary, he was our Transitional Executive Director for that purpose and I'm very happy to say that when I stepped down there's actually cash in the bank and one hundred and eight houses have been built. Ms. Yukimura: That's a remarkable accomplishment, so congratulations and thank you both. Now just for my point of reference, have you called me before to talk about mediation and arbitration? Mr. Stack: A number of years ago. Ms. Yukimura: Yes. Mr. Stack: When I was arranging or setting up the (inaudible) at Hawaii Pacific University for mediation training, you and I had the pleasure of sitting next to one another on Hawaiian Airlines and we discussed meditation the whole trip. Ms. Yukimura: Okay, yes. Mr. Stack: And we were going to talk about it further but that didn't happen. Ms. Yukimura: Alright thank you for making the connection to this vague memory I had in the past. And you've been serving now; this is... will be your second term on the Charter Commission? Mr. Stack: I've been... I've served the entire year in 2010 as a replacement for a Councilperson that left and I'm not even sure who that was. Ms. Yukimura: (inaudible) is what we have in records. Mr. Stack: But our first meeting in 2011 was last night and we started to set forth the agenda. Ms. Yukimura: I see, okay. So you've had one (1) year on the... Mr. Stack: One (1) year experience. Ms. Yukimura: On the Commission. 24 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Stack: I'm not exactly a seasoned Council... or a Commissioner. Ms. Yukimura: But you understand the basic role of the Charter Commission? Mr. Stack: I think I do, yes. Ms. Yukimura: Yeah. How do you understand it? Mr. Stack: I see it as an organic document that allows the people of this county in jurisdiction to determine how they want to be governed, it's pretty simple statement, and I could go into greater detail if you like. Ms. Yukimura: No, that captures it. I guess the thing that I would like all Charter Commission members to understand is that their work is so fundamental because it is the fundamental governing document of the County and so you know you are like the founding fathers who wrote the constitution in that respect and it's also hard to change. I mean it's not something like you can make a... you know introduce a bill and get a change done in two (2) months. You have to get the vote of the public and the you know so you have to be really, you have to really think long range and big picture. And realize how important the work is, I mean you can't just put anything before the public to vote on because they don't always think about what they're voting on and so it has to be a certain screening process I think between you folks and the Council to make sure that there's been a lot of thought in terms of what we're putting before them for a vote, even before it comes to a vote. Do you have any thoughts about any areas that you think the Charter Commission should address this year? Mr. Stack: The most fundamental change we would like to implement this year and I say we collectively for the other Commissioners is to look at the infrastructure of the document itself. Many cities in the United States have crumbling infrastructures and we all know that and it's going to become more and more of a topic going forward but our document our County Charter is no different. It needs to be introduced to modernity, needs to be modernized and changed, and to that end and especially well to that end last night we determined that we wanted to go through the entire document and make sure it's gender correct, make sure that prepositions and commas are in the right places, it's really horrible work to do... but it needs to be done and I think this not being an election year was a great opportunity for us to tackle that. So our first order of business is to polish up and make more readable of that document. Ms. Yukimura: That sounds like an excellent goal and you read Councilmember Nakamura's mind because she's been telling me, how do you read this thing, it's hard to read. Mr. Stack: I agree. Ms. Yukimura: And there are mismatches and there have been piecemeal additions so the rationalizing and synchronizing of the Charter would be a good goal. Thank you very much. Mr. Stack: Thank you. 25 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Chair Furfaro: Councilwoman... Nadine we'll go to you and then... you're good with that, okay we'll go to Councilmember Kawakami. Mr. Kawakami: Thank you. You know I just, not a question but just a comment, I want to thank you guys because I witnessed that this last session you guys actually brought some of your meetings out to different areas of the community so it's a good way to lead by example and so just thank you on that little comment. Mr. Stack: Thank you for noticing it and it's our intention to continue that kind of transparency and education for the community. Mr. Kawakami: And I have complete faith in your willingness to do what's right because I've witnessed also firsthand your Commission having to make some tough polarizing decisions in the light of a lot of pressure so I want to commend you guys for being able to go forward and make those tough decisions too. Mahalo. Chair Furfaro: Mr. Chang: Charlie thanks for sitting o kind of interviewed you for said it was very transparent. who was. Mr. Stack: Mr. Chang did you have something? I just wanted to also make a comment, n the Board, it was just one fast short year ago that we your first term and we as Councilmember Kawakami I think it was yourself, Commissioner Ted and Jo Guy Correct. Mr. Chang: Also new in that process that you folks took the process out into the community but is there something that you learned... in the... you know maybe one (1) or two (2) things that you learned that you never thought that you would have to be kind of responsible for that shocked you or you want to share your experience? Mr. Stack: Well... yes right now so many things swimming through my mind that I'm trying to think of the one that's most salient and that probably is... that word transparency again. As a small business man in this community I kind of read the newspaper every day but really didn't understand what was going on, and in the last year now that I've been on the inside as a doer and not a watcher, I have the greatest respect and admiration of how the county's run, and who frankly who runs it. I know that may sound a bit patronizing to you but I have the deepest respect and regard for the people running our community and the politics that they're in. That's what I learned and I've learned that you can make a change and the easiest change that can be made in this county is through the Commission that I serve on. Takes very, very little... it only takes five percent (5 %) of the registered voters to put forth a change on the ballot and that's a pretty easy thing to do. Five percent (5 %) of the registered voting public is less than two thousand people and if you have a whole year to get signatures... well now I'm straying here, the point, the answer to your question is I'm really impressed with how the government works. And it surprised me, it sounds negative now but I just assumed everybody was doing things for their own benefit and I found out that that's not the case. Chair Furfaro: I'm going to go to Councilwoman Nakamura. 26 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Ms. Nakamura: Thank you. I want you to come back when Hoike is on to repeat that. I just wanted to thank you for taking on the task of modifying our Charter, I think that's really important and I'm glad you're taking that on with the Commission. I just hope... is this a two (2), four (4) year term? Mr. Stack: I believe it's three (3) years. Ms. Nakamura: Three (3) years, then in three (3) years with your background you will be appointed to the Cost Control Commission. Mr. Stack: We'll see. Chair Furfaro: Councilwoman Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: Your response to Councilmember Chang just raised a question for me; do you think it should be that easy to propose a change to the Charter? Mr. Stack: Absolutely. I think it should be easier as a matter of fact. Last night we had comments from the public demanding that we do things the way they would like and it all had to do with access, to change, those are my words not theirs but the access to change can come from the Mayor or it could come from you, or the Commission that I serve on. And the easiest route for change I think or at least arithmetically is through the Commission, is to make a ballot change. Ms. Yukimura: Oh. Mr. Stack: And so I suggested in my testimony that was given last night that we consider maybe one percent (1 %), maybe ten percent (10 %), I don't know if five percent (5 %) is the right number, I don't know if that makes the bar too low or too high. And that's just something I think we have to hear from the public upon. Ms. Yukimura: Well I mean the Founders of the Constitution didn't feel the change to the Constitution should be that easy and nor did they always think that the majority will was, there were things in the Constitution that protected minority rights you know that's a major part of the Constitution of the United States. I would ask that actually all members of and this isn't... because quick change and thoughtless change is not always good for the community so there's a reason for the process that it goes through several levels in our... in the Legislature couple Houses, that's just to change the law of the statutes which are of a lower level than the constitution which is a fundamental document that supposed to govern the structure, the basic structure of government so I would just take a look at the constitution because the Federal Constitution because that is the counterpart at the Federal level to the Charter at the local level. I don't think it was intended to change that quickly or there was safeguards against thoughtless change or change that is impassioned by the time but not looking at the long range or looking at protection of certain values. So it's just my thoughts. Please respond. Mr. Stack: At the risk of taking issue with you that I would like to point out that the Constitution of the United States is grossly different than a County Charter. The Constitution of the United States has to do with 27 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 justice, the seventeenth (17th) word of the preamble of the constitution is justice, we the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union establish justice, so our founding fathers were primary concerned in what they regarded as justice which is a nebulous term in itself but I think our County Charter is far more specific to our needs than the concept of justice. I would like to think that. our County Charter has to do with fairness, equity and not justice... they're two (2) different things. Ms. Yukimura: Well it has to do with structure as I mean the Constitution of the United States has to do with structure as well as our Charter, you know who makes the decisions, the separation of powers, etc, etc... so there's a lot in both documents. Yeah? Thank you for your thoughts, I love a rigorous conversation and I'm sure we can have more later. Mr. Stack: Good. Ms. Yukimura: And I appreciate the sharing of your thoughts this morning. Mr. Stack: Thank you very much. Chair Furfaro: Pat as I said in the beginning because I had a working relationship with you, very challenging and but mutually beneficial for the community and the outcome was good and I want to thank you for your previous service and let you know that you will have my full support when it comes to acknowledging your reappointment to the Commission. Mr. Stack: That means a lot, thank you. Mr. Rapozo: I got to ask you something? Chair Furfaro: Oh Mr. Rapozo has a question for you. Mr. Rapozo: Pat thanks and I agree with you the difference between the Charter and the Constitution is, there's a huge difference... the Constitution's civil rights and our Charter governs the operation of the County, I agree with you. There is one (1) concern though because currently initiative and referendum cannot affect the budget. You know you cannot obviously go out and get one percent (1 %) of the voters to pay no taxes. Mr. Stack: Correct. Mr. Rapozo: And as well as zoning, there's some zoning issues that need to be run through the public process which is this body here, so I'm assuming that as far as the changes to the Charter by the public, by the numbers of signatures or whatever, you still maintain the Charter requirement that it does it or the Charter restriction that it should not affect the budget and finance of the county, as well as the zoning... is that? Mr. Stack: Absolutely. Mr. Rapozo: Okay. Me SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Stack: We're not here to, our Commission or I should speak for myself, I'm not a Commissioner on this Commission in order to make change for change sake. I just think that government should be as visible and as understandable as possible for everybody that votes for everybody that cares about this place that we live, and so I'm not suggesting that we just allow the public to just throw things forward willy- nilly, there needs to be a thoughtful process or there needs to be as earlier mentioned a thoughtful process for the long term and before I cast my vote or deliberate on any of these issues, I use what I called my five (5) year plan. That is I try to project myself out five (5) years and imagine how this affects the community we live in. I take it very seriously and I don't believe in change for change sake. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Pat again... Councilwoman I do want to agree this is not intended as a discussion on the initiative and referendum which is solely on the control of the Council for zoning and finance for public safety but I will recognize you again as I've done my summary. Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. I just wanted say that if you lower the power to the number of signatures needed those changes could be made easily. The changes that restrict initiative and referendum to non- budgetary, that could be changed by Charter amendment initiated by five hundred (500) people if you set that signature level and so could the change be made in terms of other restrictions that Councilmember Rapozo... oh zoning... they could... the zoning power could be given to initiative and referendum. Mr. Stack: public. Ms. Yukimura: things that sound really good. Don't forget it has to be voted upon by the Yes and the public often votes for those Chair Furfaro: Well rather than bore you, those issues have been settled with the Supreme Court it's called the Sandy Beach Initiative which does not allow the public to manipulate zoning. Mr. Stack: Right, Chair Furfaro: That is in our parameters. Pat again I want to wish you a Happy New Year and although it's late, it's good to see you again. Mr. Stack: Great to see you too. Chair Furfaro: Thank you very much. Mr. Stack: Thank you for the great work you guys do. Chair Furfaro: Okay we are on our 10:30 interview. Clerk's Office: Kathleen Clark. BOARD OF ETHICS: ® Kathleen Ann Clark, Term ending 12 /31/2012 29 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 KATHLEEN ANN CLARK: Good morning. Chair Furfaro: Hi Kathy. Kathy, I'm going to ask you to just introduce yourself and give us a little background and we'll start from there, I'll recognize Councilmembers to direct questions your way but please, the floor is yours and you can introduce yourself and give some background. Ms. Clark: My name is Kathy Clark and I am a nurse by profession. I have done many, many things in my nursing career but my greatest achievement is my position at present which is President CEO... Chair Furfaro: Excuse me; I'm just going to ask one of the staff members to get the mic closer. Ms. Clark: Oh I can move it. It might be me and by the way I do have really scratchy voice today so I'm sorry. Anyway I am a nurse and now I am President and CEO of Wilcox Hospital and President of the Wilcox Health Foundation. I've been a nurse for thirty -five (35) years and I've lived on Kauai for the last six (6) of those years and I don't know what else do you want to know about me? Chair Furfaro: And you're a graduate of Leadership Kauai, Ms. Clark: I am, that's right. That's the most important thing I forgot. Chair Furfaro: I'm sorry I had to put that in there.. Ms. Clark: It's true, that made me what I am today. Chair Furfaro: Councilmembers questions for Kathy? Councilwoman Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: Yes thank you Kathy for your willingness to serve. I know how busy you are so I also know what a big contribution this is. And you identified perfectly what the role of the Board of Ethics is in your application, so thank you for that. I wondered if you could tell us why you think the Ethics Board is important to the County? Ms. Clark: I'll take it back to what I do, I think that doing the right thing is the most important thing that we can contribute and so we have ethics in medicine, we have ethics everywhere and making sure that we follow those ethics are extremely important in helping us make the right kinds of decisions. Ms. Yukimura: Okay, thank you. That's what I wanted to hear. The decisions are not often to make and you haven's; been here as long as the other Ethics Board Appointees, .I mean I told them it might adversely affect friends and acquaintances and it's still may in your case even though your shorter stay on Kaua`i... residency on Kauai but I presume you're used to making tough decisions? Ms. Clark: I am and in my role you don't have a lot of friends so I mean you kind of keep yourself distant from the people that you manage ac SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 and you know when you impact a thousand people lives every day, it kind of helps you keep that separation. It's probably an advantage that I'm not long term resident and don't have lots of close friendships here. Ms. Yukimura: Well good and I appreciate again your willingness to serve, thank you very much. Chair Furfaro: Any other questions? Mr. Rapozo, Mr. Rapozo: Just a real quick comment, Kathy you have a lot of friends. Ms. Clark: Well thank you. Mr. Rapozo: And thank you very much for what you do. Ms. Clark: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: Any other questions? Ah Kathy thank you very much for being here. I know you and your role at the hospital as well as your role in doing community service and I just want to thank you very much, you have my support on this appointment. Thank you. Ms. Clark: Thank you and thank all of you for what you do every day. Chair Furfaro: Next. Clerk's Office: Guy Croydon. FIRE COMMISSION: • Guy Spencer Croydon, Term ending 12/31/2013 GUY SPENCER CROYDON: Good morning. Chair Furfaro: Good morning Guy, how are you? Mr. Croydon: I'm fine, thank you. Chair Furfaro: Nice to see you. Guy, I am... you are a reappointment and so I'm just going to ask you to give us some background, some of us know you are an airline pilot living here on Kauai and you're involved with the Fire Department especially through this recent acquisition of a emergency flying vehicle. So why don't you introduce yourself for the record and then I'll turn the questions over to the Council body? Mr. Croydon: Very good. I also have a scratchy voice, I apologize. My name is Guy Croydon, I was born and raised here in Hawaii, been a resident this time in Kauai for twenty -six (26) years maybe and I worked... I used to work for Aloha Airlines, they went out of business, I worked for Korean Air for a few years and currently I'm unemployed. I was asked by Bryan Baptiste to be on the Fire Commission, I believe I served a two (2) year temporary assignment and then I'm in the three (3), the end of a three (3) now. I think I learned a lot working in the Commission, we didn't know what the Commission was supposed to be all 31 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 about when we first started and we had to develop all the rules for ourselves by looking at other Commissions and things. As far as my involvement with the new helicopter, it's very minimal because as a Commission, we're more of a Board of Directors and we don't get too involved in the day to day operations of the Department, that's our Chief who would be equivalent of the CEOs business. We do evaluate the Chief and we do watch what's going on but that was pretty much their task to take care of the aviation business. It is nice to have a little aviation background to understand what's going on though. Chair Furfaro: I guess you know that's one of the reasons I mentioned that knowing that you're more like the Board of Directors for the Fire Department, the reality is, your aviation background when it comes to safety, precautions, health and wellness in the flying world is probably a great value to the Commission so on that note I'll ask members if they have questions? Ms. Yukimura: Hi Guy. Mr. Croydon: How's it. Ms. Yukimura: Good to see you, Happy New Year. Mr, Croydon: Thank you. Ms. Yukimura: You know the last question on the application is what do you understand to be the primary duties of your appointment and I just wondered if you could, you made allusion to you folks being the first Commission and sort of feeling your way in terms of what you needed to do but maybe you could give us your understanding. Mr. Croydon: My understanding is that the purpose of our Commission is to be sure that our county is provided with the best possible fire services available and the way we do that is by observing and asking questions when we question something and we evaluate the Chief on an annual basis based on the goals of the Mayor and the Chief as they set them and in the hopefully unlikely event of our Chief no longer being our Chief, we would be instrumental in deciding who would be the next Chief and I hope it doesn't happen while I'm the Fire Commissioner. Ms. Yukimura: Good, thank you. You know one (1) of the duties is to hear complaints of citizens concerning its department or personnel and if the Commission deems necessary make recommendations to the Fire Chief on a appropriate corrective action, have you folks had any complaints? Mr. Croydon: Actually the only real complaints that we would deal with would be complaints about the Chief in particular or the Department as the whole. There has been no complaints along those lines and any other complaints which would be against employees, etc, etc... if it did come to the Fire Commission, we would refer it to the proper positions in the chain of command of the Fire Department, we don't deal with, actually there's been no complaints that I know of in the Fire Department because people are always happy when the firemen show up because they're always showing up when there's a problem and they're fixing things. What few complaints we've heard about and we do hear about the complaints, have been about lifeguards because they're in the public's eye and they're out there on the beaches, and people sometimes perceive them as doing 32 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 things that they don't think they should be doing. Again those complaints in particular would be dealt with in the proper chain of command. Our duties are to deal with complaints about the Department as a whole and /or directly about the Chief. Ms. Yukimura: So do you have a process for complaints, I mean is there a form that people fill out? Mr. Croydon: Yeah actually I believe there is a form. I've never seen it because we've never gotten any complaints, which is kind of nice considering I've been in position for four (4), five (5) years. Ms. Yukimura: And you don't have any process, I mean I'm just of the Police Commission which I think has a process of dealing with complaints? Mr. Croydon: You know actually we never had to broach that topic. Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Mr. Croydon: And actually right now we're just completing our process for getting a new Chief or how we're going to evaluate the process of getting a Chief so if the situation were to arise, we will be prepared. You know just setting down the basic rules of the Commission took us over a year because we're starting from scratch, you don't know where you're going. Thus far, like I said there have been no complaints that we've had to deal with. Ms. Yukimura: So, I mean in the rules you could have had a process for complaints, it's you know it's a common subject... Mr. Croydon: Yeah, well I think. Ms. Yukimura: Rules. Mr. Croydon: Our process thus far has been that unless it's a specific complaint about the Chief and I believe we did go into it to the degree that in our rules we created the opportunity to sign or hire an investigator to look into any wrong doing, etc... Ms. Yukimura: That's good. Mr. Croydon: Yeah but the main thing was that which complaints will we consider looking at and if a complaint comes to us, how do we deal with it. We would pass it on to the Administration or if we need to look into it, we would have the opportunity to utilize outside investigative services. Ms. Yukimura: Yeah, I mean I'm not asking these questions because there are a lot of complaints, I just actually in reading the powers and duties (inaudible) of the Fire Commission was interested to see that there were and I mean I don't think anybody is thinking that there needs to be any change in leadership in the Fire Department but to have these procedures set up for the... I mean it's just part of setting up the infrastructure. 33 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Croydon: Ms. Yukimura: Mr. Croydon: lot of things. Yeah. For... Well like I said we're still trying to set up a Ms. Yukimura: Yeah. But I do have another question; there was no complaint about that issue of alleged private use of the boat? Mr. Croydon: Fire Department, not... Ms. Yukimura: Mr. Croydon: Ms. Yukimura: Mr. Croydon: Commission. Ms. Yukimura: That had to do with internal affairs of the Yeah so... It's not within our... So there wasn't any public complaint? There was no public complaint to the Fire Yeah, okay. Alright, thank you very much. Mr. Croydon: And also in the event of that one, had we gotten received a complaint because of the nature of the complaint it would again go into the chain of the Fire Department to look into. Unless there was some kind of evidence that the Fire Department rules or whatever were at fault for it. Ms. Yukimura: Okay, I mean there's actually potentially an ethics charge, use of public property... but... okay, thank you. Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo. Mr. Rapozo: Thanks Guy for coming back again for another term. Mr. Croydon: Yeah. Mr. Rapozo: I guess my question along that line is, is the other islands set up the same way the Commission that they don't investigate complaints? Mr. Croydon: You know, actually we have just started meeting with Fire Commissions, actually we're trying to get the other County Fire Commissions to get together on a more regular basis. There's been individual meetings between myself and a Maui Fire Commissioner and other Kauai Fire Commissioners with certain Fire Commissioners but their rules are quite a bit' different, I can't speak as to their particular rules with respect to complaints. The last meeting we had was here on Kauai, we've had some representatives from the Big Island and Maui here and we also had... the Maui Chief and... or no... we had the Big Island Chief and the Oahu Chief here but the topic of discussion had to do with processes that were used by the other counties and us with respect to the evaluation of the Chiefs and/or how to hire and/or fire a Chief. Based upon the way 34 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 they do things, I can tell you the difference between Maui and the Big Island are extreme so, I couldn't tell you in specific how they deal with or if they deal with complaints. Mr. Rapozo: Okay, I'll follow up as well but I think the intent of the Commission was to have that civilian oversight and involving the complaints and I know the Fire Department probably will never, I won't say never but rarely will get a complaint but if there is a complaint from the public regarding lifeguard attitude on the beach or whatever and the complaint is filed with the Commission then the whole purpose like the Police Commission is to have the independent investigation to remove the perception of the cover up. So I'll follow up as well and see what the other Counties are doing but I do believe in the discussions that we had early on when they were contemplating the Charter change was in fact the Fire Commission was to act similar to what the Police Commission does. Sounds like you have the Administration part of it you know, the Chief, the review and so forth but I think that component if in fact a complaint is filed, which like I said will never happen, but if it does then you have that vehicle in place to do what needs to be done. Thank you very much. Chair Furfaro: Councilwoman Nakamura. Ms. Nakamura: One of the other duties of the Fire Commission is to as necessary to review the operations of the Department and to recommend improvements to the Chief, so I was just wondering if there's any areas where and you know, in the coming year you think need some improvements, has the Commission talked about any areas.where any improvements may be needed? Mr. Croydon: In general we basically review the operation every month. We look at what the budget is doing, what training is going on, etc., etc., and I believe that's, in my opinion is that the Commission feels that the Fire Department is being run very well and... excuse me... I don't believe that there's anything that we can tell the Fire Department that they should be doing differently at this time. Chair Furfaro: Any other questions? Roy thank you very much for your time and for being here. I want to point out a couple things that I think I would like to make sure that the Commission doesn't leave off the radar screen, you know during my time on the Council, you know we have purchased new equipment over the last ten (10) years, we've done at least six (6) trucks and including a mini unit. Recently you got the support of the Council for the helicopter, we've got jet skies out there, we have built storage facilities whether it's in Hanalei or Mana but Koloa and Kapa`a, the new Fire Stations, we made sure for the purposes of insurance evaluations that the staffing is appropriate at the stations that there's at least three (3) men on vehicles and when I first came on the Council we had twenty -seven (27) lifeguards, we now have forty -two (42) and eight (8) seasonal but we can't seem to do anything with Queens Bath. And I ran the charge on that, I know there's differences of opinion with the County Attorney but that is a seasonal swimming pool and that is... I've gone to the Visitors Bureau, I've gone to the Legislature, and I've gone to ask that we find a way to do repair and maintenance from the Engineering Department during the season, and the County Engineer has the authority to do that, but it is accountable for a lot of our losses. Please keep that on your radar screen, my position has not changed to make that a seasonal one but I needed a little bit more Kokua in the sense of the Commission. 35 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Croydon: Okay. Chair Furfaro: We keep getting people to reduce loss, loss of life, loss of visitors, and we'll continue to do so but I think also if we recognize the dangerous location, even the walk down needs regular maintenance but we keep getting caught in this thing between County and State authority. We have the buoys out in the ocean as an option where people don't swim to shore, they swim away, and I've come and testify in front of you folks and I'm a water safety instructor, instructor... I teach WSI guys at the City and County of Honolulu and I always thought of myself as a pretty good waterman, but that's an area that I would like the Commission to continue to stay focused on. Mr. Croydon: First off, I'd like to thank the Council for supporting the Department along with the Police Department; they're very critical items on the Council or the County's agenda. Thanks to our Chief while the County was flushed with capital we brought our Fire Department into the 218t century and a lot of state of the art stuff. It's thanks to you guys and the Chief, again a big part of what we look at is the water safety, we review the water safety task force information to us on a regular basis and we're really happy with their getting State funding for the Ke`e Beach Lifeguard, from the State, considering that's a State Beach but we are aware of the fact that we also have the highest drowning in the Nation if not the World so it's very much on our radar as well. Chair Furfaro: I just wanted to point that out I mean you've gotten much support because you folks as a Commission and I salute the Chief in the efforts in doing that but you know we lose a half a dozen people along that coast a year, it should be closed... I mean the access and the response is extremely difficult and I know we put our own staff at risk when they come out by jet ski from Hanalei and that's another part of that formula for being proactive about safety. The other thing I do want to know is when you folks get together with your budget, I want to tell you because I plan to support you again Roy, I want to see Police, Fire, Civil Defense and the Prosecutor's Office... I want you folks to look at the possibility of having one (1) public information officer that deals with you folks, with your needs and your public communication effort. We approved somebody last year and he got moved into the Mayor's Office again, now there are three (3) people there. We need you folks to take the position that says Fire, Police, Water Safety, County Attorney... the Prosecutor's Office, I mean you have to have somebody to reach and turn to... Mr. Croydon: You're speaking of some entity to advocate for us... Chair Furfaro: I'm talking about a person that is jointly reporting to the Fire Chief and Police Chief when we have a fire. When we have a road closure from smoke, when we have assault investigations going on, when we have shortage from Public Health about water, we have a drowning you know somebody that has to be connected... there's three (3) people in the Mayor's. Office now. I would like there to be a person which was the intent last time. So you know I'm voicing a little bit of my frustration and I'm studying the Charter right now, every time we put somebody in the Department, it seems to be moved. The reality is, the intent of what we hear from the Commission, the intent of what we hear from the Police Commission in trying to Kokua, it's hard to put the money in and see it used somewhere else. Perhaps we have to put some provisos when we put the money in but... 36 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING January 25, 2011 Mr. Castillo: Council Chair? Chair Furfaro: Yes. Mr. Castillo: I'm sorry. Excuse me for interrupting but we're going far afield from the objective that's on hand. The interview has to be objective and to be clean and legal the interview cannot have impartiality and basis within the interview itself. I just wanted to remind Council. Chair Furfaro: Okay. My Attorney has advised me that I have gone too far but you know what this is really passionate with me and he's advising me so here's the question that I would pose to you in your interview, would you support a public information officer assigned to Police and Fire as a Commissioner? Mr. Croydon: Yeah, I would. Chair Furfaro: Thank you, you answered my question. Thank you for the caution Mr. Attorney. And I believe... does anybody else have anything? If not, it's good to see you. Thank you very much. I think we're adjourned. ADJOURNMENT. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:57 a.m. Respectfully submitted, PETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk /ds