HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-09-2010-Doc15878BUDGET & FINANCE COMMITTEE
FY 2010 -2011 Departmental Budget Reviews
MINUTES
The FY 2010 -2011 Departmental Budget Reviews of the Budget & Finance Committee of the
Council of the County of Kauai, was called to order by Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, at the Council
Chambers, 3371 -A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, on Friday, April 9, 2010 at 9:56 a.m., after which the
following members answered the call of the roll:
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami
Excused: Honorable Dickie Chang
Mr. Kaneshiro: Good morning and sorry for the delay; we've been having
some technical problems with our contracted Hoike television series. I also wanted to give notice
that we are having a video streaming by volunteering of The Garden Island newspaper. They
volunteered to do this, so at this time I would like to call this budget review session into order. We
have a quorum. We do have an excuse for Councilmember Mr. Chang, who'll be joining us later.
With that, there's a process that I wanted to set forth, and basically it's for the public or those that
are wanting to make testimony, you have an opportunity to do so, and also I wanted to explain the
process that we're following, and we've done in previous budget sessions, and it's also for my
colleagues. Basically, as I mentioned earlier, Hoike will be televising the budget overview, so the
mayor will make his budget overview, it will be televised by Hoike. And I did send a memo out on
March 8, and the memo was transmitted to all councilmembers on the schedule that Hoike will be
televising. As I mentioned, for public testimony, all testimonies on the budget will be taken upfront
before we go ahead and conduct our review. We'll have it upfront. The public will be allowed only to
testify on the budget matter relating to the specific departments scheduled for that day. So again,
we have a posted notice and agenda, and for today, just as an example, we'll be reviewing or have the
mayor's overview, then we'll have office of economic development, office of the county attorney, and
the prosecuting attorney and victim witness program. So the public will be allowed to speak upfront
and make testimony; we'll allow the public to do so. And for my colleagues, once the department has
completed their review and the council has conducted its questions and answers and so forth with
the departmental personnel, before you know, we move on into the next department, the review
department that we just did will ... the personnel will be excused. So I want you to know that we're
not going to have each department just sit here throughout the whole budget process. If
councilmembers come up with questions that would relate back to that department, you can write it
down, get it to me, and then you know, we can try to resolve those issues with those questions. But I
don't want the department really staying here from first thing in the morning all the way to end. I
mean it just doesn't make sense, because they have a lot of things they got to do too, so ... and plus,
you know, we're separated about a mile or two now, so we're a little farther away than previous
times. So preferable, write your questions down, we'll get it to them, rather than try to call them to
come back here. And as in the past, you know, we really don't review the departments line by line,
or item by item, and we take the departments as a whole, as we've all done before, and again if
there's questions that come up, write it down. We'll try to get the answer back as soon as we can. In
fact, I'm going to try and work with the administration to get many of those back pretty fast. One
more thing I wanted to bring up for my colleagues is that the issue of the county furlough plan will
• APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 2)
be addressed on a separate day. We tentatively have that scheduled for April 20, so once we set the
time and date and confirm with the administration, it will be ... we'll have a proper notice and agenda
on this item. So please if you could, try reserve your questions for the county's furlough plan for that
specific date. Okay, so any questions with that before I begin and call the mayor up? Mr. Furfaro,
go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Committee Chair, I understand your statement as it relates
to the bargaining agreements and the furloughs and so forth, but can I assume that I could just in
advance address the question; I don't need the answer, but that'll come up on your planned April 20
meeting?
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's correct, April 20.
Mr. Furfaro: I might find myself asking a few questions related there, but
not looking for the answer.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, and if, you know, as we go through departmental
reviews, and if things like this pop up, write your questions down, so I can get it too and we can
address that when we come to the April 20 meeting. So you know, we can move ahead and keep on a
schedule. Mr. Bynum?
Mr. Bynum: And also regarding furloughs, I want to honor the ... your
chairmanship and how you want to handle it, but I know I had questions regarding furloughs for
each department member. So when we follow up on the 20th, my expectation will be that department
heads are here to address those questions.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Bynum: And not just, you know, one... not just the mayor's office, but
the departments can address their particulars on the 20th.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah, and as I stated, you know, we can make it easier with
the departments also that if you have some questions, go ahead and get me the questions too so we
can really see specifically what department needs to be here at what certain time and schedule that
too, rather than just having department heads sit around and we don't have any questions for them,
so... And I appreciate that, Mr. Bynum, and we'll go ahead...
Mr. Furfaro: May I clarify my statement? My comments, Mr. Bynum, I'm
talking about the general process of the negotiation, that kind of questions. I still anticipate
individual department questions, but overall, what that umbrella is.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other questions for the chair on the procedures? If
not, I'm going to call the mayor up, and good morning mayor. We'll have the mayor present his
overview at this time.
OVERVIEW
Mr. Kaneshiro: Good morning Mister Mayor.
BERNARD CARVALHO, Mayor: Good morning, good morning.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Aloha Friday.
• • APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 3)
Mayor Carvalho: Okay, so budget and finance chair committee chair
Kaneshiro, members of the county council, good morning and aloha.
(Everyone in unison) Aloha.
Mayor Carvalho: Yes, it's nice to start aloha Friday with aloha. Before I start
on my overview, just wanted to express to you folks how very challenging this whole process has
been for all of us, and I really want to emphasize that I truly understand the challenges we all have.
And this budget that is before you for your review and discussion, as my responsibility as mayor is to
provide you with a balanced budget, and we've done that. Now the discussions begin, individually
for myself, along with our individual department heads, and I just want to say that our individual
departments have really tried their best to meet the requirements that we set forth and my overview
will show you that. I also want to make mention that we tried to look at all areas of the budget and
see how we could really find a balance between the different areas, whether it be cutting here,
adding here, services here, and so on. So it was our intent as a department, as a administration, to
really sort through all the different areas and seek every way possible to look at ways to balance the
budget, and at the same time, offer the balance and the opportunity for our people of Kauai and
Niihau.
Our total operating budget for this fiscal 2011 is 146.2 million, which is 5 percent lower than
fiscal 2010, and 7 percent lower than fiscal 09, so we've been in this process, as you can see, with the
overall operating budget. We broke it down into different areas, like I mentioned earlier, different
teams. A commitment to reducing expenses, of course at the forefront, gaining efficiencies, at the
same time maintaining core services, focusing on key initiatives that we feel is very critical in how
we move forward, and then building a foundation for greater stability in the future. So those are the
areas that we were very mindful of as went step by step in our marathon meetings that we had,
numerous meetings, to get to a budget that we can talk about. As you all know, revenues
reduced 6.4 percent from the current fiscal year, and our real property taxes of course down 9.6
percent, or 8.7 million dollars. So again, the valuations and all the different issues that we have to
have before us have been definitely looked at. And at the same time, our fined cost increases in the
overall budget with the health and related costs at 2 million, and the collective bargaining raises for
SHOPO and our firefighters at 1.2 million. So that's a fixed cost.
Some of our cutting measures that we looked at and I believe we just cannot cut, cut, cut,
that's why we had to really look at a good cross section. of areas and options so we can find that
balance that is so critically needed in moving forward. We did talk and I appreciate the discussion
on the furlough program that we are really looking into right now in trying to sort through all the
different options per department, and I appreciative that we're able to defer that full discussion to a
later date, because there's so much information, and we're all working closely, not only within our
own county, we're talking to Maui and Hawaii and Honolulu counties and our staff really working
with them and to see how we can collectively address this overall part in what we're trying to do. So
it is in the budget. We did submit for a 2 -day furlough, so the plan right now is addressing a 2 -day
furlough, and with the estimated cost savings of approximately 4.3 million. So I'll leave that for now
and move on to the next area.
We looked at short funding positions. We asked and seeked within our departments to hold
off on hiring of positions that we felt fall into this area. So in other words, short funding means that
we wouldn't be able to hire for the first quarter of the fiscal; hire would begin like October 1, which is
the second quarter. And so some of the position would fall into that particular category, if you will,
and so we were able to really sort through some of the positions that fall into this area, resulting in
approximately $400,000. So again, these positions would be available for beginning the hiring
process in October.
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APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 4)
Dollar funding vacancies. Positions exist, obviously, but there's no salary provided. We don't
lose the position, the position is there. Our current year budget, we've dollar funded 35 positions.
We'll continue to dollar fund and look at that process next year. We will add an additional 13
positions under this particular area as we look at ways and try to really look at not cutting... being
very mindful of the service and the output that is so critical in many of the operational parts that we
do as service to the community. But these are the positions with a total of about 1.8 million in this
particular area.
Mayor and appointed department heads. I did say from the beginning, we're not seeking no
raises, and with a savings of approximately $160,000. Debt restructuring, we did a one -time savings
of 8 million; we look at how to manage ourselves with the different projects that we have. Solid
waste overtime reduction, we look at that as well, and again, trying to look at a good cross section of
ways to really look and manage and be accountable to what we need to do. Our current services
would go down from a 7 day to 6 days, or shut down the refuse stations one day a week, and going
from a 10 -hour workday to an 8 -hour workday. And again, working closely within our departments
to see how that would ... how we can manage that, and that's going to be an impact on the
community, so we really need to look at how we're going to manage that. But we felt that this will be
an area that we could really move on. So again, the 7 days per week would go down to 6 days, and
10 hour workdays to 8 hour workdays. The landfill would remain open 7 days a week, but however,
we would also reduce from a 10 -hour workday to an 8 -hour workday. And again, so just wanted to
make sure you folks are clear on that.
Our training cutbacks, trying our very, very best to address our training opportunities and
making sure that our staff has that option and opportunity through technology and trying to see how
we can really manage ourselves with ...through technology via videoconferencing, by phone, or
whatever it would take to look at our cost cutting measures regarding training, and partnering with
other State agencies who can really help us follow through on the training aspect, around 50,000 or
so. A reduction in the special counsel budget. I really proud of our attorney's office. We have
assembled a great team of attorneys who help all of us in our daily operations, our daily business,
and we assembled a good team. We've only twice needed special counsel within this time, so we've
saved $285,000 there. And I share with you some of the amounts so you can see how we're trying to
hold here and move here and try to touch here, every little bit matters, especially in this critical
critical time. Our summer intern program, we put a hold on the summer interns program, not
summer enrichment, formerly summer fun, summer intern, which is the interns that we hire to
service the county departments. However, I did want to continue with the cost sharing program.
And this cost sharing program, we have 15 positions where we the county would partner with the
business community and share in the cost of that particular intern's salary. So it'll be half -half,
fifty- fifty. I did speak to some of the businesses and have showed... hopefully we can all work
together and really get our young people home and I always tell them it's not about the money,'it's
about the experience that you're going to get down the road. So we can really work in partnership
and hire these young interns, we the county, you the business, whatever business. I believe that this
could help our efforts to address our young people, and at the same time, cost have a savings there
within our budget.
I want to move into our efficiency measures. We talked about our cost cutting measures, now
we're going to go into efficiency measures. Our automated refuse collection, we're going to begin that
service coming up July... mid -July /August. We just had a ... we were able to secure all the
information, working closely with the UPW team. We're servicing 3200 households in the Lihu`e
area, followed by a roll-off of an additional 3200 households in the Westside, whatever part of the
island as we need to roll it out. The benefits, of course, would be less manpower per route, cover
routes is more expedient, it's about quality and efficiency, and at the same time reduce worker's.
compensation and possible industrial claims. So there's a whole mixture of things there. But to me,
APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 5)
you know, by having this great opportunity also allows more resources and additional support
elsewhere within the organization. So that's a good thing.
Our CIP program management, very, very critical. I really want to get a good grasp on our
CIP program. There's so many projects that are funded but have been not able to move, and so to
begin with our CIP project management program, we did put out and went out for a 60 million dollar
bond float, which we received, of course through the efforts of our team from Kauai made up of you,
committee chair Kaneshiro, and all of our finance team. And so going over to San Francisco to relay
our message and deliver our message. Now, okay, so we got the 60 million, now what? We set the
criteria to our department heads, and in order to make this listing of projects within this 60 million
bond float, we set a timeline of two years. Within a 2 -year period, we'd like to have these projects
moving. Now moving means what? You can down every step of the way, and I'm hoping that we can
detail that out as we begin our discussions, but the overall message is that we need to get a better
grasp on our projects. In our bond float projects, which again is a total of 60 million, a mixture of
infrastructure upgrades, facilities, etc., etc. within the particular package. It'll help obviously the
whole emphasis here, the idea, is to get these projects out so we can create jobs, jobs, jobs, and that's
where we wanted to stimulate the economy. We're trying to do it with support from outside, whether
it be the federal government or what have you, but what we going do to take care ourselves home as
well in managing ourselves to get those projects moving.
Proposing a new position, yes, there's a new position within this budget which will help us, I
feel, overall. And I'm saying overall countywide projects, not just one particular department, will
help us to really give a good oversight and management and understanding and follow through and
commitment and tracking of all the different projects that we have on the table as we speak, and we
need to make a good concertive effort I believe to make sure that we detail those projects and give
you the councilmembers the information that you need on a quarterly basis or whatever it is. And I
going say that in order for us to keep on track on this critical process that going help not only us
internally as far as we moving, but of course the people in getting jobs out there. We began the
process already internally of using PID document process, which is a project information document.
It's a standardizing how we manage our projects, and within this form, the bottom line is the form or
this particular process will detail out each and every project down to the background, the scope of
work, the budget, the timeline, the who, what, when, where, why, the goals, the objectives, I don't
care if it's a bridge, if it's a roadway, if it's a pavilion, if it's a restroom, if it's a park facility, every
project will have to be detailed out so we as decision makers will be able to look at that information.
Now it's critical that we take this program and this type of format and have someone follow through,
update, so we have hands -on information on each of the projects that we set forth and we say we
going to do. So this particular process has begun. We're working through it. There's lot of kinks
along the way, but my message to our department heads and our chief executives is that when you
walk in the door for our budget sessions, make sure that your PID information is in place. When I
asked about Opaekaa bridge, that Opaekaa bridge is going to be ... this is the timeline we've set, this
is the funding stream, State, federal, STIP. If not, where is this project going to start, when is it
going to end, where is the design/build, where does it go to construction, how does it lay out. The
entire picture of one step at a time in order of us to be held accountable for the projects that have
been sitting for so long, and I not pointing fingers at anybody. All I'm trying to do is see how we can
bring it to the forefront so when we make decisions collectively that we can make decisions based on
information before us. So I'm really strong on that, and I think that we need to really be up on that.
In addition to the 60 million that we have in the bond float, we have an additional 40 million
in CIP general fund projects as well. So my message to our team was to, okay with these particular
projects, tell me which projects that can be completed from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011, which a
one year period. How far along is this project, where do we need to move funds from one project to
the next so that this one can be finished and hold off on this one because this one can't be finished,
and what other resources do we have so we can move these projects up the list. So there's a track
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• APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 6)
here. There's a 60 million bond float. There's a 40 million track here for CIP general fund projects,
and then the other stuff that just comes on a daily basis. By the way, we got to be very mindful, and
I'm telling our staff, and I'm very mindful, yes we have many projects, but we also got to be very
mindful of our daily operational concerns and responsibilities, the daily operational stuff that comes.
So we trying to balance all of that, but not lose sight that you may have your daily needs and wants
and how we got to address that, and that's critical, but we cannot forget this too. So it's how to
balance this two critical management pieces so it moves and doesn't stop, that's my main concern in
moving on how we manage and how we move on our CIP management program. And I saying that
all planning, you got to fill out a PID too, because I want to see where is this at, what is the next
step, where's the CZO coming out, how far along are we, where's the general plan update, what is the
part of the general plan and where is it laid out so we can understand in order for us to make
decisions. And so it's critical and we're trying to relay that message to our team members how
critical it is because it's difficult for you and I, councilmembers and all of us, to make our decisions
and then the output to the people. So I'm really wanting to stress that, and it will...
And now, the next ... the last part of that, so you got the bond, the general fund, now you got
the projects that I ask them, and tell me which projects just cannot, just cannot, mayor, it just
cannot happen. Okay, now those are the projects we need to look at for outside support, and I want
to look at that too. So there's the balance about an in in -house what is realistic, and then what is
that outside professional support we can get to at least get these projects on the road, and then we
can punt it back to some of our key leaders... team members to move on it. So there's this whole
process in place that is so critical in us addressing what we need to do in how we manage ourselves
in addressing our overall concerns and commitments to these projects. It's critical.
So the next part is the hybrid vehicles, and so I'm really happy that we're able to secure ... I
believe was 15 or 14 new hybrids as we move into being more efficient, and we also have a new bus
coming online now. So I told... working closely with our transportation agency to look at what is on
the road, should be looking at more hybrid buses. So we're going through a trial period right now,
but the point being that we are looking at being as efficient as we can in all areas. go the cars, the
training of our auto shop, just met with them the other day, they had concerns about training. So we
need to look at that too overall as we move forward in dealing with our efficiency program.. County
facilities renewable retrofits 1.5 million in our CIP budget. Very shortly we'll be placing photovoltaic
retrofits on our county building ... Piikoi, and so that's one step, and I'm sure you folks know about
that one. We also ask in the budget for an additional $600,000 from our parks and recreation
Spouting Horn fund to allocate that for two neighborhood centers to upgrade and retrofit those
centers as well, because I felt that that's another way of addressing our parks and recreation
facilities and using some of that funding to get us up to standards in that area. So that's it within
the budget. We will complete the Lihu`e civic center, plus the two neighborhood centers by next year.
I want to get that moving.
Performance contract, office of economic development will lead the way to engage an energy
service company. Yes we did a study, but I want to know park lights, parking lights, lights that are
on and off, lights that are night lights, what are our energy efficient overview, and the good, good,
good contract and study on how we're going to really look at managing what is the true output of
responsibilities we got to follow up so we can make good decisions. An RFP will be issued this
August and we need to implement new efficient technology so offset the cost of financing, installing,
operating, and operating that technology. So it's all of this stuff that is happening all at the
forefront, and try to see how we can manage ourselves through this particular study.
The next area is revenue enhancements. Now Kauai doesn't really charge for many services,
we're kind of... and we all acknowledge that. So in order to find that balance, we looked at two
measures in this fiscal year 11. The first one is a vehicle registration fee. Kauai's the only county
that does not impose this fee. The proposed fee is $12 per year for the counties, which would give us
APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 7)
an estimated $919,000 based upon this vehicle registration fee which we the county do not assess at
this time. Driver's license renewal. This is the last time this fee was adjusted was in 1987, 23 years
ago, the increase of a dollar fifty per year to four dollars per year, six -year renewal twenty -four
dollars. It would bring us approximately $200,000. So again, it shows you trying to balance it out.
You raise little bit here, you cut here, you add here, you efficient here, and all the different ways to
look at a balanced approach as we move to the next level. Our annual revenue stream for this
particular is around $200,000 for this particular fee increase.
Some of the critical projects I just want to make mention. Number one, the landfill siting.
Working closely on that, we'll be revealing what we need to do shortly. I did say get dates and stuff,
but it's been very tough on this and at the same time wanted to really manage this and look at this
and make sure I have all information in place before we come out, and that's been a challenge, but
we're going to make it happen. Our diversion efforts, the purchase of additional home composting
bins, funding for electronic recycling, which was a great, great thing that happened this past months
that happened, and we're going to continue with that. Extending the curbside recycling, we had it in
there for six months; in the budget we have it for a year. And I felt that we needed to extend that to
give us more time to manage that, look at it, dissect it, look at the post, pre - survey and post survey
and get the information so we can look at how we manage ourselves and move forward. We also
added in a additional solid waste specialist position I. We felt that we needed to add a little more
support there as pressure with all the different concerns and issues and diversion programs and
solid waste and all that big things that are happening within this particular division. So we felt that
by keeping the people we have, moving people up in place where they deserve, moving them in places
that going help them and enhance them and keep them moving in the areas that need to be and
providing the support from the bottom is so critical, and I felt that we need to empower our in -house
staff first and look at giving them the support that they need, teach, coach, and help as we move
forward towards this critical part of our overall operations with this solid waste.
Oh, and another part, in an effort to do outreach to the community, trying to work with the
different groups and organizations who have major concerns regarding recycling and diversion
efforts, a $20,000 opportunity in a grant to a nonprofit entity who chooses to be part of this overall
plan and program, and giving the community now a chance to step to the plate and see how they can
work with an opportunity like this to encourage partnership, encourage working together, and
understanding how important that their role... They're saying, you know, there's lot of concerns out
there, so this is the chance now, I felt, to offer that. In a way, it will be a win -win for all, so there's
a 20,000 opportunity there for nonprofit entity.
Helicopter lease. I support that, we support that, I believe it is critical for training,
certification, safety, done. And that's just my overall stance on that. Food sustainability initiatives,
a Kauai beef... raised beef program. We did supply $42,000 grant this past year, and we looking at
an additional 30,000. The idea of really getting to the point we're going to have our own processing
facility. So important again in supporting our ranchers, but they need to have that at the foresight
and make it real. It's been in this talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, so let's work it as a team and with all
the different ranchers in place, the task was to get them all at the table first, and I believe we've
done that, so I hope we're on the same track. So looking at how to support our ranchers, and that
facility is so important to help us move in our efforts to do locally grown processed beef.
A Kauai grown program moving very well, good partnership. The Kauai logo is already
done, ready to move out, $20,000 grant included for marketing and outreach, locally grown produce
in stores, being very mindful of our mom and pop stores, and our new stores that are popping up, and
how we going really incorporate this whole new program within the various markets and businesses
throughout our community.
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• APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 8)
Coast erosion studies. We have two studies in there. I'm funding for the Kapa`a and Po`ipu.
Now as you all know, there's all this issues regarding erosion that's happening around our island, so
we really wanted to take a good look at that. It was to begin to be very mindful of our erosion issues
countywide, so it's in there. And then finally, the CIP, the 40 million I talked about, from insulation
of new playgrounds at parks. I'm hoping that one day all of our parks, every single park, will have a
playground, some kind equipment for people, because people need to get out and walk and be part of
the community, even if it's a passive park, some kind of equipment that can help stimulate our
families and our neighbors to come out and just talk story, and will be ... even if it's a small area. So
let's look at that. Design work for critical bridge bridges. We have an important need to address our
bridges on this island. Water is another big issue that we need to be very mindful of, so looking at
neighborhood center upgrade, lighting retrofits, and of course being in compliance with our ADA
improvement work is another part that is encapsulated in all of this. So I thank you so much for
your time. I really want to say I look forward to respectful and healthy discussion as we move
forward. Our team members are ready and willing, and they'll be coming up shortly in individual
sessions with you folks, but I really thank you for your time and your efforts, and really working
closely, Councilmembers, to see how we can really move and get things going, and making sure that
we can give you, and I'm very strong on this with our staff members, the information you need,
upfront and open, and then go with that. And it's challenging our administrative team right in back
of me to make sure that it's not this and that, it's just information that is so critical to be upfront
with. So thank you so much committee chair Kaneshiro, and again, I look forward to healthy and
respectful dialogue and conversation and talk story. Aloha.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you very much, Mayor, for the overview of the county's
and the mayor's proposal. With that, I will open up question from my colleagues on the mayor's
overview. Mr. Furfaro, go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you committee chair. Mr. Mayor, I want to say to you
I thank you very much for the overview you gave, and I do want to pledge my support to, you know,
the outline you've given to us today, and I think you're correct —it's one that we all need to work
closely together with, and it's going to be a difficult, difficult period. I do want to take a moment if I
can just to touch on a few things. I don't need to get into discussion ... I want you to be aware that I
will be pursuing as we go into the next two weeks with a certain group of your department heads and
some of the things I would like to participate and help out with where I can. First of all, I think your
approach to get the $60 million bond money and the 40 million in CIP into the economy of this
county is extremely important, and we need to be working on our 9.7 percent unemployment factor.
So I think you point out our opportunities there. There are a couple other opportunities that I do
want to ... and there are challenges as well. In finance, I was seeing the material today, Hawaii is up
to almost 8 percent of foreclosure rate in the housing market —that concerns me that we might find a
number of delinquencies as it relates to taxes, and we perhaps need to be prepared on what our steps
are on collection and making sure that documentation has occurred with those financial institutions
that we can certainly achieve moneys that are owed to us before they move on and getting a hand of
other people. It's a very unfortunate situation, but I think by the time we get to a 90 day notice
we've got to move a little quicker than we have in the past, just under the circumstances that exist
right now. Enforcement will also be an issue both with building, both planning, and so forth, as well
as this unfortunate collection piece. So maybe something we should consider and I'll be talking with
the county attorney there, we might want to look at the possibility of assisting him with another
attorney that could be specifically earmarked to help on enforcement and collections as we go
through this difficult period. I just wanted to share that with you.
I also want to say we have an opportunity with the recent charter amendment with the
county auditor, which is actually established as a liaison under the legislative body of the
council... which is the council, and you know, their mission certainly would be to piggyback right into
your plan on the project management issues that you describe, which are way overdue in my opinion,
•
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APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 9)
but in fact the auditors could be a very key part of that. Their staffing, though, will be and should be
the oversight of this council. You know, it's like looking at Marion Higa's department in Honolulu,
her budget isn't necessarily under the jurisdiction of Governor Lingle. She kind of functions
independently and reports to the legislature, but they can be of tremendous asset I think going
forward in helping you in that project management oversight.
On the labor negotiations, and as I said to the chair, these are some of the questions I'd be
looking forward to in our ... (April 20 did you say ?) ... April 20 session. Could you expand on that or
somewhat expand on that when we talk about how do we declare who are essential staff? I see
you've addressed part of that in your approach on the 6 -day work in the wastewater and so forth, but
how is that functioning like with the water department and so forth. I would like to know, you know,
what did your administration negotiate jointly with everybody, and what is left for our ability to
really negotiate some side agreements on what you think and the council thinks are some essential
positions, you know, especially when it comes to public safety, water, and health on our island. And
I'm very glad to hear you touch on that, but I would like to hear more on April 20.
` You touched on the helicopter acquisition, and yet I don't think we actually got a timetable
on the cash needs in the initial deposit, is there a manufacture timetable once we place the order,
and so forth. And yet I know we earmarked some money for the balance of this year, but I would like
to ... when we get to fire, I'd like to hear a little bit more of that. And it is my understanding and I
think you confirmed with the 1.2 million for public safety and police and fire that they still have one
more year on their contract, and I guess that's the number you calculated is the impact of police and
fire. I would also like to point out, and I just offer this as something we may want to discuss. We
have $900,000 budgeted for the general plan update. I personally think we have a number of things
in the current general plan that the community wanted implemented and certain controls put in
place, and the council has been working on exit strategies with ADUs and so forth. My question I
might pose is do we need to initiate that cost on a new general plan or would we initiate maybe a
contract for half that amount of money and actually review the plan we have now and see what has
changed and what we have to fix. I just would like to share that as an opportunity to save some
money. I mean we have an award - winning general plan; maybe it needs a review rather than a new
plan, and the State code only says we need to review our general plan every 10 years. It doesn't
necessarily mandate that we have a new general plan, but we do need some refinements, I believe,
because things have changed.
You touched on the bargaining unit pieces, but I'd like to on April 20 hear a little bit more on
how we're approaching appointed employees, people that are not covered under HGEA and UPW;
appointed positions that I think we need to be very appropriately doing a level playing field for all of
those employees. If it's a 7 percent reduction in salaries and so forth, then you know, we should be
looking at that across the board. I think that was the percentage overall you indicated that was the
operating cut, 7 percent. So I just use that for the discussion.
On the revenue cycles, there is opportunity for us to diversify our economy a little bit and I
would like to probably pursue this a little bit more with Mr. Costa as it relates to a packaging plant
for beef produced on this island. I think we have slaughterhouse, but I would like to see an
opportunity to focus on maybe exporting some Kauai products in those areas. I think we have a
presentation in a week on a update o the energy plan, but I would strongly recommend on your
comments dealing with energy that we need to have an idea on the baseline, the total kilowatts
consumed from government operations, so that when we find this person that's going to help us
manage and control that, we first have a baseline to do the comparison and monitor how we
are improving.
I like this idea about the short funding —see if we can postpone certain things for 90 days,
but I don't want to shortchange us either, and I heard that clear in your message about maintain
• APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 10)
certain services, so that's going to need some more scrutiny, I think, department by department. But
overall I wanted to thank you for your presentation and let you know you certainly have my support
in any way I can help on the council to accomplish the goals you've outlined for the county of Kauai.
Thank you Mr. Mayor, thank you chairman.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Anyone else has some questions for the mayor?
Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Good morning, Mayor.
Mayor Carvalho: Good morning.
Mr. Bynum: Thanks for being here today and appreciate your presentation
very much. It's a very unique budget year for all of us, and but we have to start the process, and
you've made some assumptions in your budget in terms of... So I just want to point out a couple of
those, maybe give a heads up on some of the questions I have, not that you necessarily need to
answer them now, but and ... but the first thing is you presented a proposed tax rate that sees no
increases or changes in the current tax rates at this time. And that's different than other counties,
many of whom have already done rate changes or ... because when we look at ... as you've eloquently
said, making sure we have a base level of services that doesn't fall below a certain area and deal
within our resources, and the choices are basically cuts or revenue enhancements, and you've
announced some of those in terms of the licensing and fees. But you know, our biggest revenue lever
is property tax, and last term we had a property tax reform proposal that looked to do a
comprehensive overview, and I think during that... and from my perspective unfortunately that
didn't pass. But during that discussion, I think it was clear to everyone that there were areas where
there wasn't as much equity as necessary in terms of the way we do taxation. So you know, I know
in the future and in this budget year not knowing what the legislature is going to do with our TAT,
and your budget assumes that it remains at last year's levels. We're all hoping that's the case. I
really appreciate that the mayors and the administration have made our argument to the legislature
that it's reasonable and appropriate that we maintain a portion of the TAT because visitors impact
our services. So you know, those are some of the unknown things — exactly... So I'm assuming,
mayor, that changes in revenue, changes in the way you cut are all part of an open process, right.
Because if the legislature reduces our TAT that's a big hole we have to fill, and I don't know that we
could fill it all with cuts. The... so I will have questions about revenue, especially as we go into the
second round of this.
In terms of the CIP projects, I couldn't be more thrilled on your attention that the
administration has paid to the CIP projects and the initiative that you're announcing. I will have
questions about this position you're suggesting, where it's housed, at what level it is, what their
scope of work is, that kind of thing, but to have a comprehensive overview of our CIP projects is long
overdue, and I very much appreciate the initiative of the administration that you've already taken,
and to have that as one of the few new positions seems logical. You know, without going into details,
I just looking at the CIP budget, just as one example, you know, Isenberg park bathroom
improvement, I believe that's been on the schedule for 5 or 6 years, and so your efforts to say wait a
minute, who's responsible for this, what's the timeline, if it's not viable let's get it off this list, you
know, and prioritizing is very much appreciated.
I also am going to have a lot of questions about personnel, because it's a difficult year,
because... and I applaud the initiative you took last year at reducing our workforce, dollar funding
positions, freezing positions, but I think it's very important for our employees, for our community
and for the council to have, as we go through this process, a clear idea where are there vacancies and
what is the administration's intent in terms of filling those vacancies. You know, I'm coming from
the assumption that a dollar funded position anticipates that it's unlikely that position will be filled
APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 11)
during the current fiscal year, that a short funded position, you know, that won't... clearly won't be
filled for three months of the fiscal year because there won't be funding for it. But you know, one of
my questions, does that mean that department heads can count on when the funding is in that they
can hire that position. The vacancies that are fully funded but we have vacancies, you know, can the
department heads hire those positions, because it's difficult to do new hires at the same time you're
asking employees to cut their hours, and it's logical to me and (inaudible) would say hey just keep me
working, don't fill this new position, right. So I think for that it's important to get clarity with that,
and I'll be seeking that during this budget process.
You know, I certainly had questions for each department member related to how they would
implement furloughs, and I'm going to honor our budget chair saying that he set aside special time
for that. But I said earlier that my expectation is that when we have that discussion that
department heads will be here. Do you agree with that?
Mayor Carvalho: I agree the overall presentation.
Mr. Bynum: And my question was when we have that presentation, will
department heads be here to address their specific departments.
Mayor Carvalho: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Yes, thank you, and also, I believe my understanding is that
are contract negotiations with HGEA and UPW allow us to implement up to two days furloughs.
They don't require us to implement that level of furloughs, is that correct? And so just to piggyback
on what Councilmember Furfaro said, to have a clear understanding, because we have public safety
issues where I would ... I'm assuming that we won't have furloughs in some positions, because of the
need to keep us on the standard of public safety. And so having clarity about what positions get
furloughed and what don't are important in that. So those are my comments, and overall I'm very
pleased with the administration and the council last year being proactive to deal with these difficult
economic times and putting us in a little better place than we might have been if we didn't move
soon, and I really appreciate your leadership on that. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Anyone else, or any other members have a question for the
mayor or would like to comment on the mayor's overview? Mr. Kawakami go ahead.
Mr. Kawakami: Thank you Mr. Chair, thank you Mayor. A couple comments.
I'd like to begin by saying God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, to
have the courage... to have the courage to change the things that I can, and to have the wisdom to
know the difference. And that being said, there are going to be many things that are out of our
hands. For the most part, losing some of our revenue in the forms of TAT, we can do what we can do
by lobbying and having a voice, but for the most part, when it comes down to a vote, we have no
votes, and so the things that we cannot change, we must be willing to accept. Now the things that
we can change, we must maintain the courage and to have the wisdom to know the difference, so
that we can allocate our energies towards moving towards a positive result for the counties, and I
want to thank you for maintaining an open discussion with the council for answering our questions
when we have questions, and for being very transparent in your spending.
A couple comments, I want to also thank you for giving us an overview on expense reduction
and efficiency improvements. Those are the low hanging fruit. Before we contemplate raising fees
and drawing more money from our public, I think we need to address the low hanging fruit, and from
my opinion, it is an expense reduction and efficiency improvements. How do we cut expenses? How
do we capitalize on being more efficient? How do we build upon our strengths? How do we address
our weaknesses? How do we capitalize and seize opportunities during these tough times, to be able
APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 12)
to seize the opportunity, and how do we nullify our threats. These are all questions that we must
ask ourselves during this process, and we must always have in the forefront of this, in the front of
our minds, that the reality is that the initiatives that we embark on are built upon the backs of our
working class people, our working class families who have had to ask the same difficult questions,
who have had to make the same sacrifices in order to maintain a balanced budget within their own
households. So let's keep that in the front of our minds that every dollar we spend is borne from the
blood, sweat, and tears of our working class people, and we must be responsible in our spending
moving forward. Let us also not forget the simple fact that even though the nation, the nation and
the world's economy may be improving, because of the delay we are in quite a different situation,
especially with some of our revenue at stake. So we must be always cognizant of our spending. We
must spend every dollar like it's coming from own pocket, because these are money and dollars that
are from the pockets of our working class people. I want to thank you for coming with a budget that
shows some of your efficiency improvements. I want to thank you for looking at where you could cut,
because those are very difficult decisions to make. But the right decision, yeah, the right decisions
are oftentimes not the most popular decisions, but they are necessary to strengthen our community,
they are necessary to get us out of this rut, and it takes courage, and it's going to take courage to get
through this.
So we'll be going through your budget. We'll be asking ourselves the same questions that you
have had to contemplate, and we will also be looking at ways where we can become more efficient,
and where we can cut expenses. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any other members have any comments or
questions for the mayor? Mr. Chair.
Council Chair Asing: Thank you. First of all, Mayor, thank you very much for the
overview. I share all the same concerns that... excuse me. Thank you Mayor for your overall
overview, and I guess we have some work cut out for us, all of us, both yourselves and ourselves. I
share the same concerns as you share, together with councilmembers. On the area of furloughs we
will be discussing that I believe on the 20th of April, so I won't go into any detail either. But I do
understand that there has been studies done on the mainland, especially in California, which shows
that furloughs may not be savings; it may be more costly than savings, and these are actual studies
that have been conducted in California with their recent problems on furloughs. And the question
and like I ... all members said, we don't need the answer right now, but I am not sure whether the
furlough process has been cleared legally with the unions, I don't know. You probably know much
more than I do, but I'd like to have an answer to that question later on when you go through that. I
also notice in your budget message, which was dated March 15, looking at priority projects.
I note that, and I'm going to read it: landfill siting activities, following our two public
meetings in Kalaheo last year, we will continue with landfill siting activities. I expect to make an
announcement in the next 30 days regarding what our next steps on that process will be. This to me
has been a long, long, long ongoing problem, the landfill siting issue. And so I would want to have
some clarification as to exactly where we're going, and I note that, you know, you have the next 30
days, which this is dated March 15, so I will be expecting something soon.
Other than that, it's ... I know it's going to be a very challenging year, and I will be looking
forward to working closely with you and administration. I would have one suggestion that I'd like to
make, and that is when the departments come up to make their presentation that they give us a copy
of what they're reading from. It's difficult to sit here and start writing down things that the
department or yourself have on hand with you and try to follow, when in fact you have the
information, and if we have it also, it's just easy to follow and we can check off and put our remarks
on as we go along, so it'll be easier to work together. Other than that, I don't have any other
comments. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
• • APRIL 9, 2010
OVERVIEW (Pg. 13)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Anyone else wanting to comment? If not, Mayor,
again, I thank you for your overview, and you also have my (inaudible) that especially with tough
times like this that we'll be working closely to bring whatever services and come out with the best
budget we can. And I know, you know, it's going be real critical over the next 30, 40 days which the
legislature comes up with their proposals, and we all need to be mindful that there could possibly be
a shortfall in this current budget that you submitted to us. But in all respect, you know, I win ... we
will work closely with you as we've done in the past to come out with a real good balanced budget
that we can make, you know, all of this reality come together for the people of the island. Thank you
very much, Mayor.
Mayor Carvalho: Mahalo to all of you. Aloha.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We're in recess at this time. Take a 5 minute recess.
The Mayor's FY 2010 -2011 Budget Overview concluded at 10:58 a.m., and there being no objections,
the Chair recessed the reviews.
APRIL 9, 2010
MAYOR'S OFFICE (Pg. 1)
The budget reviews reconvened at 11:16 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
(Mr. Chang was noted excused. Mr. Furfaro was noted present at 11:20 a.m.)
MAYORS OFFICE:
DARYL KANESHIRO: Budget review session will now come back to order.
Before I have the Mayor's Office come up and do their presentation for the Mayor's Office, I'm going
to open this up for anyone that would like to give testimony. Is there anyone here in the chambers
that would like to speak on the budget review issues that we will be going over? Again it's the
Mayor's Office budget, Economic Development, County Attorney, Prosecuting Attorney, and the
Victim Witness Program Departments. Anyone here wanted to speak on that today? I see none; we
will proceed with the budget review session at this time, Mayor's Office Mr. Heu you have the floor.
GARY HEU, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: Thank you Committee Chair, good
morning Committee Members for the record my name is Gary Heu, Administrative Assistant and
this morning I am here to discuss the Mayor's Office budget. The Mayor is absolutely a tough act to
follow and he's just discussed the Hundred million dollar operating budget with you, hundred fifty
million dollars I'm sorry hundred million dollar CIP budget and so the discussion on our tiny little
operation pales in comparison. What I handed out was a communication from Mayor Carvalho to
Council Chair and Council members regarding our Mayor's Office budget. I'm not going to read
through it but I just want to point out that the Mayor's office budget reflects the overall intent of the
Mayor's desire to reduce overall expense by seven percent. What we've done is in the Mayor's Office
Administrative Operations, we were able to realize an expense reduction of about Two hundred and
forty thousand dollars, which represents a sixteen percent expense reduction over a current year.
For the overall Mayor's Office budget which also includes the Boards and Commissions operations,
equal access and youth programs, we were able to realize a Two hundred and sixty seven almost a
two hundred sixty eight thousand dollar reduction, and that translates into approximately eleven
point two percent. Again I think what the Mayor wanted to do was to lead by example and that his
office and his operations were able to attain that seven percent reduction that we had asked for
across the board from all of our administrative departments. As the memo continues you're able to
see certain areas that we were able to take those reductions and then, and one thing of note and
which is what the Mayor talked about a bit in his message was the fact that we had a dollar funded
position in the Mayor's office. What we've done is we have transferred salary funding from Public
Works, anyway as I was saying the bullet point number five basically just real briefly indicates that
we've taken the dollar funded position we fully funded it I believe at about seventy eight thousand
dollars. The purpose of that position, it really is a Capitol Program Manager position and what I
would like to do is when we come back to have a discussion on the overall CIP budget which is going
to be in a couple of weeks, what I proposed to do is come with a comprehensive justification for this
position and also a documented discussion in terms of how it is that we proposed to on a going
forward basis manage the overall capitol program for the County. As it has been indicated by both
by the Mayor and Council member Bynum and others that it is truly a crucial issue and I think that
what we're looking at or what I hope to show you folks when we come back for that discussion is
truly the kind of return on investment that we anticipate getting from putting that seventy eight
thousand dollars in support of this position. So in a nutshell those were the significant budgetary
items in the Mayor's budget for this year, they all roll up to again that eleven point two, expense
reduction that I identified when I first started out and I would be more than happy to answer any
specific questions that you might have about the Mayor's office budget.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay thank you Mr. Heu. As Gary stated we will be
discussing the budget Managers position when we take up the CIP budget. So if you have some
questions you can probably write the questions up and I can get it to them and once we have the CIP
budget review he will be discussing that position. Other than that any members have any questions
for the Mayor's budget overall for his office. Mr. Furfaro.
• • APRIL 09, 2010
MAYORS OFFICE (Pg. 2)
JAY FURFARO: More of just a comment. Gary I'm pleased to see that we are
going to get more information on this Capitol improvement project manager. I think that one of the
things we have to realize is that much of the stimulus money that we get will also and have been
getting a scrutinize documentation of its spending. Should I assume that when we get to the CIP you
will be able to talk to us about the actual project release form and what it's going to be looking like.
Is that something we're going to see when we get the CIP?
Mr. Heu: Yes I think the intent would be to show you folks an example
of what we are attempting to implement, and just as a side note I mean you folks have been hearing
a lot about this acronym PID and it really has taken a lot of time and energy just to get us to where
we are now. Although I think we would all acknowledge or at least those of us who are aware of what
this PID attempts to do, we acknowledge that it's a good step but I also want to caveat that it's a
very tiny incremental step in terms of moving us to where we want to be. It really is a document that
is it's a lead in document to a very, very large, large process so we are just starting down that road
and I would anticipate it's going to be a number of years before we are able to realize a true capitol
program Management system. Which is I think is long overdue for the County but at least we have
taken that first step and I think that's encouraging.
Mr. Furfaro: I think whatever accruement you want to label it with but at
the end of the day it's about managing the project completion inspects and the monies associated
with it. Clearly it's nice to start with the end in mind but also here with the end in mind I would like
to say that we need to comply with general accepted Government practices for accounting. We have
an Audit department now and I think Mr. Rezentes might blink when I say this but the reality is
with our own internal audit department, we may be able to only to an outside contracted audit once
every two years if we are doing this correctly which is all that our charter requires us which could be
another Four hundred thousand dollars of savings so I just wanted to throw that out. Thank you
Chairman.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Bynum, go ahead.
TIM BYNUM:
Mr. Heu:
Mr. Bynum:
Commissions Administra
be under his leadership?
Okay, do any other members have questions for Mr. Heu?
Good morning Gary!
Good morning.
You are kind of reorganizing some also that John, Boards and
for John is going to be the drug program and ADA Coordinator are going to
Mr. Heu: Right that has happened during this fiscal year.
Mr. Bynum: It's already happened?
Mr. Heu: Yes, we didn't make the financial transfer of accounts but
from a supervisory stand point that has taken place already so that John, I mean the mayor's office
they still in other words the drug prevention program and the equal access program still falls under
the Mayor's office. It is just within the Mayor's office they have moved to the direct supervision of
Mr. Isobe.
Mr. Bynum: Okay and is there a rationale for that change?
Mr. Heu: I think it's just a matter of looking at the overall operations
and there was a time where they reported directly up to me, but right now on a daily basis I oversee
APRIL 09, 2010
MAYORS OFFICE (Pg. 3)
thirteen departments and agencies. So just to give them the attention that they need we have made
that switch.
Mr. Bynum: So it's more than just proximity.
Mr. Heu: Yes it is.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, and In the Mayor's budget the Forty thousand dollar
line item for anti drug programs is gone, if we are cutting the entire Forty thousand?
Mr. Heu: I think if you look at under Boards and Commissions, if you
look under Boards and Commissions there should be special projects for Thirty eight thousand.
Mr. Bynum: Oh okay so...
Mr. Heu: So that moved with Theresa.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, good answer. So it's not in the Mayor's Budget because
it just moved to a different category.
Mr. Heu: Yeah so you've got the Administrative budget and that you've
got Boards and Commissions so it's moved and it's now located under Boards and Commissions.
Mr. Furfaro: And on some of the special projects you've made kind of are
these cuts I haven't done the math. Are they percentage like a straight percentage?
Mr. Heu: Okay so now you're going back to special projects under the
Mayor's office.
Mr. Bynum: Right.
Mr. Heu: Yes primarily we looked at as a general rule for our outside
non - profits we reduced those allocations by about twenty percent. There are other line items under
special projects such as Employee Council where we cut significantly more than that so yeah just for
special projects alone we reduced that line item by Fifty six percent a total of a hundred and seventy
one thousand dollars.
Mr. Bynum: And that leads to my next question which is we decided
against funding a DC lobbyist?
Mr. Heu: Currently that's how w sent the budget over and I think that
was one route that we grappled with and I had an offline discussion with certain Council members
you know talking about I mean there might be the possibility that come May 8th we might say that
we may want to fund that line item but at a reduced level. Part of what lead to that decision was the
sort of relationship building that is taking place between our Mayor and certain Congressional
members as well as their staff and trying to see where in a time where we're looking at cutting cost
seeing if some of those functions that our lobbyist currently performs can't be picked up with our
existing resources and then using our relationship or the Mayor's relationship with our
Congressional delegation as a way to otherwise perform some of those functions that a lobbyist
would perform. I know that Council member Kawakami also spent a bit of time in DC and was able
to meet with our congressional delegation and we feel that now might be the time especially when
we're looking at opportunities to reduce expense and do things in a different way that would overall
save us money that these are things that we might want to consider. So that's why when we sent
over the budget on March 15th we decided, we determined that at that point and time we would
• 0 APRIL 09, 2010
MAYORS OFFICE (Pg. 4)
remove it from the budget and allow ourselves additional time to talk between now and may 8th and
to see if it might resurface that as a reduced expense or we will continue to leave it out of the budget,
but certainly we are more than happy to have that discussion on the floor with Council members.
Mr. Bynum: I mean this has a history and I felt in the past that at first it
wasn't well handled and there wasn't a good collaboration between the Council and the
Administration. When we hired the Ferguson group I felt like all of those issues largely got resolved
and that was a real asset to the County. I appreciate your answer in terms of the relationships that
are being developed and the really capable work that Council member Kawakami has done as our
intergovernmental person and so I don't want to diminish those things at all but it's very powerful to
have someone as competent as the Ferguson in DC looking out after our interest and I have been
very supportive of that. I was surprised to see that cut in your budget and for that cut you said the
fifty six percent the line share of it is right there, and does that fifty -six include the transferred forty
thousand?
Mr. Heu: Ah let's see.
Mr. Bynum: Doesn't matter. Never mind.
Mr. Heu: Yeah I would have to look. Quite possibly though.
Mr. Bynum: I just wanted to express my concern about that and hopefully
we have ongoing dialog, but that didn't come because you were unhappy with the services provided
by our lobbyist?
Mr. Heu: No in fact we got a really good working relationship with
the Ferguson group. They have been in our assessment very, very efficient in the way they get the
work done. They are able to work directly with them in getting the information they need, getting us
a place where we can get an agenda packaged. They know the ropes in terms of all the forms and all
the processes you need to go through to get to an agenda that is and can be called official and can be
submitted to Congressional staff and be taken seriously. So they have done good work.
Mr. Bynum: It's like only one year and that's the kind of thing might bear
fruit over time even more fruit and with one. There in the right place at the right time with the right
information just one time can make a huge difference. So thanks for that answer you are also happy
with the product that we have gotten from them.
Mr. Heu: Yes in particular the upfront work that they do in helping us
to put the package together.
Mr. Bynum: I don't want to belabor this but also we have a Congressional
team of four and twenty five percent of that is going to change this year so we don't know who it's
going to be and those will be new relationships and so hopefully we can discuss this more in the
future.
Mr. Heu: Sure.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Let me say this also, concur with Mr. Bynum in fact Mr.
Kawakami and I are having dialogs ongoing dialogs with the Administration about this particular
position too so. I guess as we move along through the process we will be addressing the issue more so
that did pop up too and I just wanted to point that out.
Mr. Heu: And I'm sorry but going back to your question. That Forty
thousand is included in the reduction that's shown.
APRIL 09, 2010
MAYORS OFFICE (Pg. 5)
Mr. Bynum: So some of the changes in the Boards and Commissions ,
budget the increase are about transfers not new positions? Or are there new positions in Boards and
Commissions?
Mr. Heu: � I think...
Mr. Bynum: Or is that separate and we are not discussing that now?
Mr. Heu: Oh we can discuss that. There was a separate sheet that was
passed out that deals primarily with positions and so in terms of expense there is no additional
expense relative to salaries. You will see that the third position down Commission Support Clerk,
Position E -63, that position is funded at a dollar because it will in fact be funded by the Department
of Water and what that was if you look on the very last sheet of that handout you will see that our
Boards and Commissions Administrator is working closely with the Board of Water to help them
through a transition period in their staffing. So we have the position and they will fund that position,
I think it actually outlines the dates for which that position would be used. It would be no cost to the
General fund so salaries and well as benefits all comes from the Water Department.
Mr. Bynum: But these other positions, Project Specialist, Data Specialist,
are those new positions?
Fund.
right?
Mr. Heu: Those are positions that are grant funded. Grant funded.
Mr. Bynum: Oh grant funded.
Mr. Heu: Yeah grant funded so again they don't show up in the General
Mr. Bynum: I that there's four really competent support people their
Mr. Heu: Right.
Mr. Bynum: And that remains the same?
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Councilmember Kawahara.
LANI KAWAHARA: Thank you budget Chair. Good morning Gary.
Mr. Heu: Good morning.
Ms. Kawahara: I had the same concerns when I saw the DC lobbyist wasn't in
the budget and I'm glad to hear that both budget Chair and the other council member is looking into
that and trying to dialog with you. I understand that there is a relationship building and networking
between the mayor and different departments here, but we all know how swamped and how huge the
Congress is and how little voice we have from this distance. I would be curious to know and
again it was just our first year that we had them and the reports that they did send to us I found
useful. I am curious about what if we saving money on that, how much money would we possibly lose
by not having them there to alert us of hey? Especially with ARAA funds, any kind of special
• • APRIL 09, 2010
MAYORS OFFICE (Pg. 6)
programs that there actually thinking about us when it pops up there, that we would be alerted too
versus us not having them and us missing that kind of opportunity. How did that figure into your
possible decision to not have them in the budget?
Mr. Heu: Well again when we were looking at again the various
opportunities to reduce expense this absolutely popped up as one of those that we had to look at.
How do we mitigate not having somebody on the ground and you know with eyes and ears wide open
looking for all the opportunities for our little County. I mean I really think that if we go forward with
no lobbyist, no DC presence and it's going to be incumbents upon people like myself and other staff
members to get a lot closer with the Congressional staff. We have relationships with Representative
Hirono and her Chief of Staff Ann Stewart out of Honolulu. We maintain fairly close ties with
Senator Inouye's Chief of Staff down here Jennifer Sabas and Alan Yamamoto. We would just have
to kind of re- double our efforts to make sure that we are totally plugged into them because obviously
staff members, I mean at that level do have to hold alive that knowledge and information that is
very useful to the Counties. Whether or not they will always have the time to advise us when things
are popping up versus us having to initiate the discussion I mean I think that's what it's going to
take. We are going to have to keep more tightly plugged in with them and communicate a lot more
often with them.
Ms. Kawahara: The Ferguson group didn't only network with those offices
our delegations there; they were hooked into all of the budgeting and all of the information coming
out of every office and whatever meeting they were having about distribution of funds, working with
our delegation and your people having to bird dog things that are happening on a daily basis that I
think would be difficult for you on top of what you're doing now plus the fact that we're not going to
get much money from the State anymore. The only other money resource would be the Feds and
obviously the hundred thousand dollars for the contract would be something and I'm glad that you're
looking at it but my concern is the balance between what we're going to lose in money opportunities
that you would never even know to ask about that could come up and usually do come up during a
session.
Mr. Heu: The other way is that we get a heads up, is that we are on
distributions for various Federal Agencies, EPA, Department of Agriculture and so as grant
opportunities come up a lot of times before they are even available to the public we are getting a
heads up so that another means of getting information. We also have in the County within the
Finance Department a Grant Administrator, now Wally and I have talked very briefly about the
potential of looking at that position being used to you know I think you know Ann wouldn't occupy
that position and I think she does do the scan in terms of opportunities that are starting to surface
but again we would have to keep her a little more plugged in or make sure she is a little more
plugged in to be looking for those opportunities. There is no doubt that you know the money that we
have spent on a lobbyist has been helpful and I can't say that it hasn't been, that's not the reason
that we're proposing to pull the plug. We definitely see value but again when we have to look at
reducing cost I mean we got to look at things that we don't normally do.
Ms. Kawahara: Are you able to provide us with a return on investment type of
thing on that specific contract?
Mr. Heu: We probably could.
Ms. Kawahara: Like what we got out of it and not just the contacts but actual
information that leads to something that came to flourish for the County.
Mr. Heu: Yeah we could attempt to do that but I'm not sure if you can
make a one for one comparison because some of the funding that we may have received during the
year that we had this lobbyist on contract might have already been in the pipe and it just came to
APRIL 09, 2010
MAYORS OFFICE (Pg. 7)
flourish during that particular year. We would have to go through and do that kind of analysis but
we could attempt to do that.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. And again it is something that should be on the table,
so I'm glad it's there. Just the overall infrastructure of having a whole company there to do it versus
you guys having to handle what's here on a daily basis plus having an ear open as to what's
happening in DC again with the State where it is and the Federal Government seeming to have
looking out for Counties a little more. That's my concern, so thank you and should I write and have a
request sent?
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Ms. Kawahara: Chair?
Mr. Kaneshiro: We will go ahead and send a request from you Lani on that.
Ms Kawahara: Okay and can I still ask about programs, the other special
programs?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes.
Ms. Kawahara: I did notice this new youth congressional intern and I think
that's new for Seven thousand, if you could tell me a little bit about that?
Mr. Heu: Yeah this came out of a HCOM initiative so the Mayor's got
together and felt that it would be good to collectively support sending an intern from each of the
Counties to Washington DC on an internship basis and so that's what that reflects and it's not the
total cost. I can't recall I can get more detail on the program.
Ms. Kawahara: Yes please.
Mr. Heu: Yeah and I'm not sure the exact duration of the program but
this would help to defray the cost it's not fully funding a particular intern position.
Ms. Kawahara: What age level or what target group are they looking at?
Mr. Heu: I believe but I'm not going to say. Let me go get the detail on
it and that way you will be very clear.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay thank you. And I see the continuation of the sister city
program.
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Mr. Kawahara: And I see George over there reacting so I'm going to want
more information on that I think.
Mr. Heu: Okay and then maybe on your request if you can just be
specific in terms of what it is that you want.
Mr. Kawahara: I do, I have written down some specific questions that I will
send over. I don't think I will ask them here but I will have them more like exactly what we get out
of it kind of what the value is of it.
Mr. Heu: Sure.
0 APRIL 09, 2010
MAYORS OFFICE (Pg. 8)
Ms. Kawahara: How long it's been in place? And yeah what we've gotten out
of it in returns and whatever.
Mr. Heu: Okay.
Mr. Kawahara: Thank you very much. Thank you budget Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright, Mr. Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: I just want to make sure I can follow this audit trail on these
two positions a little bit. For the Commission Support Clerk that Mr. Bynum talked about earlier, do
I recall that this was transferred from golf a year ago?
Mr. Heu: Oh no it was just transferred very recently let's see no it
would have been within the last month or so and maybe even more recently um let's see April 1st.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay so it is recent then?
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay I just wanted to see if there's, so if there's savings here,
where is it showing up because this is now telling me that it's transferred from golf but the future
one is going to be funded by water.
Mr. Heu: Yes there is no savings per say because it was a dollar funded
position within golf.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay.
Mr. Heu: All we're doing is using the position.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay I got it. I was looking for it from the last year and I
couldn't find it so I got it.
Mr. Heu: Oh okay right.
Mr. Furfaro: And let me ask you whether you used the acronym for the
forms or so forth as we're dealing with capitol project management? On this capitol project manager
position, the narrative indicates that he's going to be funded by some grant monies.
Gary Heu: Really let me see.
Mr. Furfaro: At least that's how I'm following it.
Mr. Heu: Ali narrative, where are you referring too?
Mr. Furfaro: I'm reading item 51-12 of the expanded narrative utilizing a
vacant dollar funded position and funding from a vacant position in Public Works Engineering to
create a CIP Project Manager position and support all CIP projects from our department and
agencies. So when we get grant monies'that go into engineering for a specific project if you recall we
were going to earmark ten percent of projects to help fund this project manager in the past. Is that
no longer the case?
APRIL 09, 2010
MAYORS OFFICE (Pg. 9)
Mr. Heu: Not for this position yeah it's going to be a hard dollar funded
position.
Mr. Furfaro: I just wanted to get some clarification and you did remember
I think the Council agreed that if we had a project that was Two hundred thousand dollars we would
earmark a contingency fee to help fund a Project Managers Position.
Mr. Heu: That would be for more really you would be talking about
Project Management / Construction Management.
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah that was the results of our discussion on Kilauea gym.
Mr. Heu: Right, this is a much higher level type of thing to oversee the
entire capitol program.
Mr. Furfaro: I'm not talking about a specific grade I'm trying to find out
the money.
Mr. Heu: Yeah, Yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: So there's no possibility that you're going to earmark some
capitol project monies to actually contribute to his fee? This is going to be a budgeted item?
Mr. Heu: That's correct. What you're talking about is definitely going to
be considered to in terms of how we manage specific projects, so what you say is true in that respect
but relative to this specific position no it's going to be a hard cost.
Mr. Furfaro: Are we currently still practicing that?
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: With projects and whether it's something with roads in Puhi
or something with the senior center's being up grated as planned and the Mayor's plan, we are still
doing that?
Mr. Heu:
Mr. Furfaro:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Bynum:
Mr. Kaneshiro;
Mr. Bynum:
Mr. Heu:
Mr. Furfaro:
Mr. Heu:
Max Klutke was the chair.
Charging back to projects, yes.
Okay, Thank you.
Okay, any other questions for the Mayor's office budget?
Real quick.
Okay, Mr. Bynum.
There still an Employee Council yeah?
There still Employee Council yes.
And who's in charge? Do they have officers?
Yes they do have officers and my last recollection was that
0 APRIL 09, 2010
MAYORS OFFICE (Pg. 10)
Mr. Bynum: I'm just very supportive of the Employee Council and their
efforts and the things that they've done and it's been really good for the County I think.
Mr. Heu: Absolutely.
Mr. Bynum: Looking forward to Halloween every year.
Mr. Heu: I will let them know.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright thank you. Mr. Chair.
KAIPO ASING: Yeah Gary, first of all I do share the concerns of Council
members regarding the Ferguson group but through my research and my discussions with the
Administration and others. I am convinced that the move that you're making now is a prudent move
in spite of the economic conditions that we have now. So I don't have any questions I think that it's
something that we do or don't do and in looking at the plusses, minuses, benefits, etc, I agree with
the move so I don't have any questions on that. I do however have, I agree with the capitol program
manager it's not a question. I do know that about five years ago we did bring in a person from the
outside to do exactly that. That was the reason we brought him in and five years go by and all of a
sudden we now need a program manager. So what happened is the concern? So you bring him in for
that purpose and it was all CIP projects as I understand it. Reporting to the engineers office that's
my understanding and then now we do this. I agree they should be one to follow all the CIP projects
but we had one and all of a sudden, he is doing something else. I just want to express that concern
that we had it before we realized then the need to track all of the projects and to identify and to
make sure we know where we are all the time but it just disappears and he changes and does other
things. So I just wanted to leave that with you. Other than that I don't have any questions, thank
you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. With that Gary we will come over with a written
request.
Mr. Heu: Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So again we will take that up when the CIP budget comes up.
Mr. Heu: Great.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Give you some time to look at the questions that we posed by
some of our Committee members today.
Mr. Heu: Okay great. Thank you very much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you very much Gary. Do we members want to start
with Economic Development at this time? I know we're going to have to break for lunch at about
twelve o'clock and the simple reasons, twelve thirty we got until twelve thirty is that correct?
Mr. Furfaro: Is our schedule until twelve or twelve thirty?
Twelve o'clock.
Mr. Kaneshiro: It is scheduled until twelve.
Mr. Asing: Why don't we do as much as we can?
APRIL 09, 2010
MAYORS OFFICE (Pg. 11)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, why don't we do that because and I apologize for this
because we were actually an hour behind schedule because of the technical difficulties we had earlier
with Hoike. Mr. Costa.
The Mayor's Office departmental budget review concluded at 11:54 a.m., and there being no
objections, the Chair recessed the meeting.
APRIL 9, 2010
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on April 9, 2010 at 11:55 a.m., and proceeded as follows
(Mr. Chang was noted excused.)
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:
DARYL KANESHIRO: We will continue with the budget review process. We have
Mr. Costa here from Economic Development, Department of Economic Development. And you have
the floor.
GEORGE COSTA: Mahalo. Aloha Chair Asing and Council Members, George
Costa, Director of Economic Development for the record. I submitted a summary that you can follow
along as I do my presentation. For the Office of Economic Development we have a small department
and when we started the budget process our goal along with the Mayor's goal was to start with a
seven percent reduction and the final budget that we submitted has been reduced by thirty seven
percent from this year's fiscal year budget or a savings of six hundred seventy eight thousand, two
hundred eighty five dollars, most of the being the five hundred thousand visitors stimulus program.
If you take that out we actually have a reduced budget of thirteen point four percent or a hundred
and seventy eight thousand dollars. I also provided a summary which takes our budget and breaks it
down to salaries and benefits and then the operating expenses and most of that being grants as you
can see in the 2011 section on the left hand side. Forty -six point two percent of our budget is in
grants that we had administered. I just noticed that on the set of columns to the right of that it's
actually 2010 and I noticed the percentage column that should also be 2010. As far as our staffing
besides myself the department has one Administrative Assistant, five Specialist and three of the
specialists are funded by the County General fund and two Specialist are funded through grants
either by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations or DBEDT and the County Funds about
thirty percent of their salaries and benefits. As far as any major changes to our budget in the Salary
Department, those are unchanged accept for the nine point three percent reduction for our furlough
contingency at that equates to about Thirty five thousand dollars. For operating expenses overall
expenses were reduced to about fifty one percent and the majority of the expenses are in the
Tourism, Agriculture and Film Industry. As I mentioned grants comprise a little over forty six
percent of our budgets compared to sixty three percent of our budget this year.
In Tourism as I mentioned we do not have the visitor's stimulus program like we did this
year as we feel that the Kauai hotel and condo timeshare's are holding their own. We went from
double digit losses in January.- June of 2009 when compared to 2008 and we ended the year with
actually a slight increase. Recent reports show a slight decrease in our hotel occupancy but then
again if it weren't for the visitors stimulus program we would probably be in a lot worst shape that
we are today. As a side note Sue Kanoho and I are going to be sending a request to the Council to
present our findings and results from the first phase and we actually waited until we got some of
those results back and shared it with our Resort Manager's to see how the program affected them
and what we can do to make improvements to Phase 2 and we will be providing you with more
details when we come back to Council at that time. Getting back to the Tourism section of our
budget, we will continue to support the Kauai Visitor's Bureau Consumer promotion grant and that
has been reduced from presently a Hundred and forty five thousand dollars to seventy five thousand
which helps promote local events. In the area of promotional materials the Office of Economic
Development provides Kauai, the County of Kauai and Kauai made logo items and gift bags for
County staff, businesses and Residents that travel off Island or to the Mainland to attend business
functions and they help to promote our Island and that where a bulk of our promotion material
expense goes too.
Another area is Special Events grants and we are receiving a lot less support from the HTA
for local events and so this special events grants category or line item helps to support the events
0 0 APRIL 9, 2010
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Pg. 2)
like, Kauai Challenge volleyball tournament, the Kauai Marathon and Senior Softball Tournaments
to name a few. As far as airport greetings that's another area where HTA will not be supporting us
this coming year and we feel the airport greetings is an important program and we're requesting
that we fund that with a Fifty thousand dollar grant to continue and help support our local
entertainers and provide music at the Li-hu`e airport primarily in the evening from about 7 pm -9 pm
where a lot of our Mainland flights are leaving. Having been at the airport several times over the
last month I see that the lobby is full of our passengers and our visitors and it's there one last dose of
Aloha and Kauai aloha spirit that they get before they board there flight home. I think it's a very
worthwhile program. As far as the area of film under trade show, we have an expense of thirty four
hundred dollars this has been reduced but basically those moneys will help Art Umezu our Film
Commissioner when he goes to a once a year event in Santa Monica California where all of the
Hollywood producers have an expo. We feel at that one time event that Art attends helps to bring us
what we're going to be experiencing or are presently experiencing for major Hollywood productions
on our Island. We feel that its money that is very well spent Where Art is physically in the presence
of these Hollywood producers and promoting Kauai as a destination for their movies. We also have
promotional expenses of about Fourteen thousand and these are on Island events when those movie
productions are here on Island we have moneys to help support with either promoting or help
scouting locations and promotions.
Another area that is part of the Office of Economic Development is obviously Agriculture. We
have various agricultural grants amounting to a little over One hundred and sixteen thousand and
that's down a little over Thirty five thousand from this year but those grants help to support various
AG initiatives. This includes the County Farm Bureau, the Kauai Agricultural Initiative or (KAI),
the papaya infestation facility and the East Kauai water uses cooperative which maintains our
former sugar plantation irrigation systems as well as the Kauai Cattlemen Association slaughter
house facilities and the tropical flower association to name a few. Also we have a category that we
have as emerging industry support and that's about Seventeen thousand dollars and those are grant
moneys that we help to support the emerging, six emerging industry clusters such as food and
agriculture, sports and recreation, high technology, culture and arts and renewable energy. Some of
the examples of grants although we don't provide a lot of money to these organizations it does help
them with their events and one recently was (KB) or the Kauai Bee Keeper's Association, where we
provided them a Five thousand dollar grant to help them with the monitoring of bee traps to help
prevent the spread of the Varro mite. The KB Organization works together in conjunction with the
Department of Agriculture because their inspectors and their staff has been reduced drastically so
KB has volunteers and they use these moneys to help either for transportation or purchasing
additional traps or Community outreach.
The other area in the main part of our budget is other Community support and as you know
we have supported the food bank and they do a fantastic job. I know Judy Lenthal originally was
advised that we weren't going to support her because she would be on her own but because of the
good job that they do for our community we've put a Five thousand dollar amount in here to help
support them once more. We also have the YWCA Family Violence Shelter and Sexual Abuse
Treatment Center, those numbers have been reduced from this year presently, but we feel those are
two important programs that we want to continue to support. The rest are other operating expenses
that we have in our department. Advertising, we have money set aside for Kauai made which assist
over seventy small Kauai businesses and there is advertising for film again to be in trade
publications for the film industry and under airfare we have a small contingency of funds to help
with Administrative Tourism and film travel cost either to the Mainland or within the State. Along
with that a little over twenty five hundred dollars of per diem for those travels and about eleven
hundred dollars for car rental again to be divided up between the Administration, myself, Tourism
and film and then printing cost and about thirty eight hundred dollars of office supplies. That is
basically it. Again we're a small department and I feel we do very good work and I just wanted to
take this opportunity and just a few minutes to acknowledge the staff that we have. Tourism is
• APRIL 9, 2010
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Pg. 3)
Nalani Brun and I think Councilmen Bynum had asked about the County Employees Council which
Nalani is a part of and she's a big asset to that and she is this year's chair for the County Employees
for the Visitors Industry Charity walk as well as is going to be assisting myself with the Kauai
Marathon again aid stations. In film again Art Umezu is one busy person these days, you know we
have four major film productions either on the Island or about to be on the Island to start movie
production and there's even a hint of a fifth production that maybe showing up on our shores within
this year.
Our Agricultural Specialist is Bill Spitz. He has many years of agricultural experience and
he is assisting me with the various initiatives that we're undertaking right now specifically in the
Kilauea Ag Park, the Papaya Infestations Facility, our Kauai Grown program and initiative we are
also working on is support in the Cattlemen Industry, the beef industry.
Also we have Glenn Sato our Energy Specialist who works on Various projects and his going
to be awarded an award by the Kapa`a Rotary who's I think this is their second or third year of green
initiative award and we submitted our nomination from County Government on Glenn's project
which he worked with the Robinson's Family, State, County Agencies and the private sector to
install a volt able take system on the Island of Niihau for the Niihau schools so they have
refrigeration now and they can have fresh produce and another part of that project is that he
installed a water maker that produces fresh drinking water off of condensation then that water
maker is operated from the PV system. That nominee when to the rotary and they have selected
Glenn as government awardees and that should be coming up in a couple of weeks.
As far as workforce, Jan Miyamoto is our work force specialist and she works diligently with
the Workforce Development Board and many leaders in our business community to help continue to
provide job opportunity for our residents.
On a quick note to also recognize Brenda Martin who is our Administrative Assistant, Kent
Hirokawa who is our Department Accountant and he's being funded by a tourism and workforce
grant, as well as Christine Akono who is our part -time clerk and she's also funded with grant money
from the Workforce and Tourism grants. And that's basically our summary for the Office of
Economic Development. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you very much Mr. Costa. Mr. Kawakami, go ahead.
DEREK KAWAKAMI: Thank you Finance Chair, thank you Mr. Costa. For the
cattlemen's association grant, does some of that funds go towards what is that Daryl that processing
plant that you've been having discussion on or?
Mr. Costa: Right now this year's grant, does funds went to the slaughter
facilities on the Island. Mac Medeiros, Mac Andrade I'm sorry and Willy Sanchez and I visited both
those plants to see what kind of improvements they need to make just to be in compliance with
Federal regulations. This year the moneys that we have in the budget that we are requesting are to
assist us with putting an initiative together to look at a finding an area where we can build a
slaughter, chill and processing facility. One of the ideas instead of a large facility there's this mobile
facility that is being used on the Mainland that may suit our needs initially and so that's where does
funds that we're proposing will be used for.
Mr. Kawakami: Well that's very promising to hear especially in light that
from my experience one of the biggest challenges from the other end yeah from the Retailers side and
from talking to some of the Hotel and Restaurants is how do we break down that beef. On the
Restaurant and Hotel side they are paying premium labor prices and for them to break down the
cattle into the cuts that they need is going to be expensive. From the Retailers stand point I mean
0 0 APRIL 9, 2010
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Pg. 4)
that Butchers job is almost like a lost art. I think within our Company there are very few people that
know how to take a carcass and break it down into the cuts that consumers see on the shelves. I
think one of the biggest challenges and we're addressing it and moving along is for ranchers. How do
you store it? How do you break it down so that we can start utilizing that local beef? On another note
along the same lines, what about a shipping, packing and processing plant on the Ag side for the
farmers that is growing produce? Are we moving towards initiative in that light?
Mr. Costa: Besides the papaya disinfestations facility you know that
interview that's been to that building, that's a lot of space there and that has been one of the ideas
but it's not any formal presentation that we're making right now but it is an idea that we're
exploring and looking at. This infestation facility would be a good location to not only process the
papaya but also other local fruit where we can ship off Island and export.
Mr. Kawakami: Yes because I know when we look at our line items it's very
expensive to keep produce chilled especially for a small farmer. If we can eventually move towards a
cooperative approach perhaps and maybe that's not the best option I think the farmers would know
better than I but to eventually move towards something where we are providing some of the tools
necessary to actually boost Ag especially when we talk about branding and marketing. Packaging is
a huge hurdle for many of the farmers. I think when we look at some examples like Kilauea Rain
Gardens and Kunana Goat Cheese they are excellent examples of net marketing and packaging and
branding and it opens up a lot of avenues of opportunity to boost the Ag sector. Thank you for your
response and thank you for working with these industries because that is clearly the direction that
we need to be headed if we want to stimulate the economy, Mahalo.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Furfaro:
JAY FURFARO: Yes first of all I want to thank Mr. Kawakami for those
comments. I do understand that the papaya infestation facility is still not operational?
Mr. Costa: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: Do we have a goal? Do we have a deadline? Do we have
a target?
Mr. Costa: Well the goal was last month and I worked very closely with
organization right now that is basically in charge of that facility. It's the Kauai Farmers
Development Corp, which is a nonprofit organization comprised of Roy Oyama, Terry Sekioka and
other members. We have actually completed two tests under the guidance of USDA and both tests
have passed. What the USDA has required us actually we were scheduled to do a certification test
this month actually next week to get properly certified and once that's done then the plant is open.
Mr. Furfaro: That's good for me George thanks.
Mr. Costa: Okay, okay.
Mr. Furfaro: If there's anything more we can do please let us know. I think
as Mr. Kawakami mentioned if we get the papayas going then we can look at other opportunities for
other products. I'm glad that you are close to it and then of course the comment on the cattleman's
efforts in the slaughter house and so forth. I really think one of the other pieces as mentioned
whether it's for Hotel institutional packaging or for the retail items is you know we need to expand
that to get some crawl back packaging available so we can export some of this stuff. If I can shift real
quick, do you see any changes in the grant program from the Department of Business and Economic
Development? Are you feeling pretty confident that they won't be any more slices there?
APRIL 9, 2010
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Pg. 5)
Mr. Costa: I have had personal conversations with Ted Peck of the
energy section and he assured me that his confident that the funding that he presently provides will
be there.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay and that's good because our energy personnel comes
from that grant and at least the majority of him. Thank you for acknowledging all of your people I
think they are all doing a great job and you have a new home thanks to the Council funding, a new
Workforce Development Office's and they've turned out great. We need to be thinking how we can
service more people because parking is an issue there.
Mr. Costa: It is an issue.
Mr. Furfaro: It is an issue there and now that we're not walking up the hill
we are struggling with that a little bit so I just want to point out that it's a great new facility and
thanks for all the assistance there. On the visitor's side, your numbers indicate the One point four
percent increase. I saw the statistical information for February State wide it's up Three point four
percent and the ADR (average daily rate) is closer to three bucks in February. I assume you will
share some information on those new statistics when you come back to talk to us about the marathon
and some of the other particular parts, but that is good news. Food bank, other committee support, I
got a letter from the Salvation Army as the Treasurer and is there a second food bank coming
to Kauai?
Mr. Costa: I'm not aware of that.
Mr. Furfaro: You need to be aware of that because I think we gotta treat
the food banks equally. This letter was telling us at the Salvation Army that the Hawaii food bank is
planning to come back to Kauai and I think they left about 95 or 96 after the hurricane so I just
wanted to make that note. Didn't last year we make a contribution to the Red Cross? Was that in
your community support effort?
Mr. Costa: No that might have come under the Mayor's Department.
Mr. Furfaro; Okay, it's under the Mayor, for some reason I thought and it's
still there at the Mayor's office or it might not right Mr. Bynum?
TIM BYNUM: Yeah I think it's reduced.
Mr. Furfaro: But there is something there for the Red Cross?
Mr. Bynum: Yeah it's reduced by Five thousand.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, and last question. HTA, are they out of the funding
business? They're taking Fifty thousand from events. They're taking Fifty thousand out of the
airport greeting.
Mr. Costa: Well I must say at least we have I have Nalani here in the
audience and she can maybe add to that but we have at least Four hundred and twenty five
thousand from HTA for events and festivals on the Island. It's down from previous years but it's still
a lot of money that helped over thirty one events on the Island.
Mr. Furfaro: Well I think you know where I was heading there looking at
these two bullet points as a Hundred thousand that's gone, but we can still count on funding these
0 APRIL 9, 2010
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Pg. 6)
grant funding for our cultural and historical events, dance festivals and so forth, there is still moneys
for that?
Mr. Costa: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: And I see Nalani shaking her head. Okay, thank you
Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other questions for Mr. Costa? Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Mr. Furfaro asked my question about you know so our
signature events none of them are threatened to actually not have them right? So it's just a reduced
kind of support?
Mr. Costa: The funds are reduced somewhat but we are still able to help
a lot of these events.
Mr. Furfaro: Those are super win win you know they really stimulate the
visitor and set us apart from other destinations and are consumed by many local people as well,
including myself. I want to make sure I have the Mokihana Festival to go to.
Mr. Costa: If I could just add with these tough economic times besides
those events do help stimulate our economy, but they also help stimulate our senses and help keep
positive things happening on the Island like feel good events and that's what we need during these
times too.
Mr. Bynum: Absolutely, so I would like to acknowledge Nalani's great
support of that and I had a great opportunity to work in Economic Development and for a small staff
they really do a lot of unique and exciting things so I appreciate your report very much. Regarding
the snap program or the Kauai food bank program, is that I don't have an analysis of how the
funding went year to year. Is that the same amount as last year?
Mr. Costa: No I think she got Fifteen thousand last year and we got... let
me stand corrected I have...
Mr. Bynum: Was it Fifteen thousand last Year?
LANI KAWAHARA: Kauai Food Bank was Twenty thousand last year.
Mr. Costa: Twenty thousand.
Mr. Bynum: That's a pretty significant cut, I'm glad there is still
something in there. I know initially we said eh this is a onetime thing and you gotta find a way to
keep it going but that program has brought huge amounts of food resources with federal money and
so we can talk to Judy about what are her plans to keep it alive. I think it's important.
Mr. Costa: I just want to say to the Mayor's credit because I think I do a
pretty good job at holding the lines so when Judy started lobbying me earlier this year... I said Judy
we told you last year that this was the last time so I'm sorry there's no money but the Mayor was
compelled to put something in the budget.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We also said that at budgets before. Part of it was their choice
and part of it was their request. Mr. Bynum.
• • APRIL 9, 2010
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Pg. 7)
Mr. Bynum: Yeah I just got last year's budget and I'm also concerned
about the YWCA funding. It looks like it's a pretty significant cut in our support and I know there
dealing with huge State budget cuts as well and there's just a certain level we can't let it fall below.
We can continue to have dialog about that but you know...
Mr. Costa: And I agree, Ranee Hamilton has done a wonderful job and
she has been lobbying me to you know.
Mr. Bynum: I'm sure she has and you know the irony is the down economic
times make it more difficult for us to fund but it puts a huge burden on their services. Domestic
Violence and Sexual Assault increase intense in economic times as does the need for food stamps and
food. That is the difficult thing as Social services are being nailed right and left by the State and you
know it's fortunate for us. Maui is really struggling with that because they have a lot more County
Funding of those types of programs and it is the States responsibility. I am proud of the County of
Kauai when it stepped up when the State has kind of gone too far whether it's Civil Air Patrol or
Koki frogs or in this case the shelter and the food bank. As we go through the budget process we will
look at that really closely and I appreciate you trying to get something in there and trying to seek
that balance. Also maybe in the future we can get more and not today but in the future more about
the Kauai grown program. That has a pretty substantial funding and you know this is kind of a
follow up Kauai made program and Kauai made I think has been a really good effort and I believe
that initiative came from the Office of Economic Development to begin with right? You know those
are again the kind of not a huge amount of money in terms of our County budget but it may be a
really large impact. I just don't know that much about where Kauai grown is and that's kind of in
process yeah, so maybe in the future we can have an update about that.
Mr. Costa: Okay.
Mr. Bynum: And that's all my questions for now. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes Council member Kawahara?
Ms. Kawahara: I just have a quick question.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead you have the floor.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, just if you could help me understand that says usually
a match for ATA funding. All of these things under this list are grants that the County gives out and
the ATA matches them?
Mr. Costa: What are you referring too?
Ms. Kawahara: Page 63 at the very top, usually a match for ATA funding or is
that from... oh that's from up above from the Fifty thousand yeah, or that's part of something else?
It's the second line from the bottom paragraph.
Mr. Costa: Oh the airport greetings.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah okay so it's not ATA funding for this stuff
underneath it?
Mr. Costa: No.
0 APRIL 9, 2010
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Pg. 8)
Ms. Kawahara: Because page 63 says usually a match for ATA funding and I
thought all of these things...
Mr. Costa: Oh no.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay and I'm glad to see that the sunshine market is still
getting a substantial amount of money so that's great. My questions was that when the other
Council member was speaking about the meat processing facility, does the County have a
commercial kitchen that helps with product enhancement?
Mr. Costa: The Neighborhood Centers have commercial kitchens.
Ms. Kawahara: Is that somehow funded at all by the County?
Mr. Costa: It comes under Parks and Recreation.
Ms. Kawahara: Parks and Recreation, okay.
Mr. Costa: But it's not being used per say as for commercial ventures and
interestingly enough I am working with John Lekevich of the small business development center.
Looking at business incubator, commercial kitchen type opportunities there is several on the Island
it's just not used for commercial purpose to help small businesses and entrepreneurs right now.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, that I think the only questions... Actually as all of
these are listed under agriculture and you have different funds, there are grants that you give out or
are there already ideas about what your projects are gonna be or do they submit beginning the fiscal
year in July?
Mr. Costa: They submit their request or their programs, like a good
example would be the East Kauai Water users Cooperative. Basically those moneys will go to
maintain the irrigation systems that are out there, they continue that work. As you mentioned the
sunshine market goes to help pay for the monitor the sunshine market money and that grant is
administered by the Garden Island RCND.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay great. I just want to thank you because you are always
really forthcoming and have all your information that's really easily digested so I appreciate that.
Mr. Costa: Thank you, I continually have to acknowledge the staff.
Ms. Kawahara: And I know you never sleep.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay we're going to take a break for lunch so, if we have any
other questions?
Mr. Bynum: Can I have 30 seconds?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Question or comment? What I would like to do is if we have
comments maybe we can save some of the comments for later but if you have a question for Mr.
Costa I will go ahead and grant you the 30 seconds.
Mr. Bynum: I will do it off line, that's okay.
• • APRIL 9, 2010
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Pg. 9)
Mr. Kaneshiro: If not again you know as I stated we need to write some of the
questions down that you have as people and through the discussions we have through committee
members. Questions may pop up you know it may pop up as we have some discussions and such but
just because of time I think it's good to get those questions out, right those questions down and we'll
make sure that we get the questions over to the Department heads so we can get the answers back.
Mr. Furfaro: Chair, are we only doing a 45 minute lunch?
Mr. Kaneshiro: No we're going to take an hour lunch so if it's okay with the
Committee at this time I would like to recess this budget review process and we'll be back at 1:35
and at that time we will be starting with the County Attorney's Office. Okay, thank you very much
we are in recess.
The Office of Economic Development departmental budget review concluded at 12:33 p.m, and there
being no objections, the meeting was in recess.
APRIL 9, 2010
COUNTY ATTORNEY (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget reviews reconvened on April 9, 2010 at 1:39 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
(Mr. Change was noted excused.)
Mr. Kaneshiro: The Budget & Finance Chair will call this budget review back
to order. At this time we have the County Attorney's Office, Mr. County Attorney, good afternoon.
AL CASTILLO (County Attorney): Good afternoon. For the record Al Castillo, County
Attorney. First of all to start off I'd like to say that what you see behind of me is basically the
Attorneys that are... have the opportunity to serve all of you, the County Council, the Council
Services, the County Auditor in every aspect of what you do, all the research that you ask for. First
of all I would like to all up the First Deputy, Amy Esaki... where is she? Okay never mine...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay go ahead.
Mr. Castillo: Mona Clark, come sit here please. Well just... to begin with
last year I started off addressing all of you and you know talking about filling in the positions, our
new positions... and which we did and what I would like to do is to introduce to you the Attorneys
that have assemble that we have been able to assemble at the Office at the County Attorney. Mona
Clark is in charge of the Housing Agency, in charge of the Agency of Elderly Affairs, she does
contracts, conveyances, she Heads the... or provides services to the Boards of Ethics, Salary
Commission and the Committee on the Status of Women. Her counterpart who is not here, Jennifer
Winn basically, basically... the reason why I say counterpart is because what we try to do with the
County Attorney's Office is to cross train and have a team type of approach so that at least you have
somebody to cover for you and knows what's going on. Jennifer Winn does, she heads the Office of
Economic Development, the County Transportation Agency, the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney,
she's involved with collections and contracts, litigation, Real Property Tax appeals, she serves on the
Board of Appeals for Tax, she sits on the Police Commission and the Charter Commission, I would
like to say that in terms of who are the legal guys for Ethics questions for the Charter questions, it
would be Mona Clark and Jenifer Winn.
And I'd like to call up... where's, where's Amy? You got to sit on this side please. And I'm
doing this so that the people of Kauai also know... that our... the First Deputy at the County
Attorney's Office is Amy Esaki, she brings forth, for me, the institutional knowledge that I don't have
and the reason why I don't have it is you know, I was a Prosecutor from 1982 to the end of 1996 and
did my private practice for twelve (12) years thereafter, so Amy fills in the gaps where I wasn't there
with the County. She heads the Finance Department, the Parks Department, the Cost Control
Commission and the Board of Water Supply and she was with the Board of Water before and I'm
glad that she's your First Deputy with the County Attorney's Office. Thank you.
I'd like to call up Ian Jung and Michael Dahilig and what I've done, what I've done here at
your County Attorney's Office is... this is, they actually engage in cross assignments because both of
them head the Planning Department and the Public Works Department. Ian is primarily if the "go
to" person for Planning would be Ian and the "go to" person for Public Works would be Mike,
however they share equal responsibilities. It's a very volatile, those are very volatile Departments
and both Ian and Mike Head the Planning Commission, on Ian's side he does Land Use Commission,
Historical Preservation Commission and he also is involved in litigation. Mike in addition to
Planning Commission, he is in charge of the Building Board of Appeals, the Public Access, Open
Space, Natural Resources, Preservation Fund Committee, the Open Space Committee, contracts and
litigation. As you will note we do have more litigators in our office I think now than we've ever had
in the past. Thank you.
• • APRIL 9, 2010
COUNTY ATTORNEY (Pg. 2)
Mauna Kea Trask and Marc Guyot. Mauna Kea Trask is to the left of me, Marc Guyot is to
the right. Mauna Kea Trask is in charge of the Liquor Department, Fire Department, Liquor
Commission, Fire Commission, he does labor arbitrations, workman's comp, unemployment and also
is one of our litigators. Marc Guyot, he heads the Department of Personnel Services, Civil Service
Commission, Mayor's Advisory Committee for Equal Access, ADA Legal Compliance, Labor
arbitration, work comp, unemployment and also litigation. I guess Mauna Kea and Marc like myself
were Prosecutors in the past. Thank you.
Justin and Andrea. Justin Kollar and Andrea Suzuki. Justin heads the Kauai Police
Department and when I was up here last year one of the things was where is Justin going to be
physically... you know basically he does report at the Office of the County Attorney in the round
building but every day he's at the Kauai Police Department, he does everything that you need to do
in terms of supporting a Department like being the attorney... I mean he does employment,
litigation, contracts and he is helping with the accreditation process with the Kauai Police
Department and you know, that's a big task. Andrea is the newest person that has come on board,
she heads the Department of Water and she does the same thing employment, litigation, contracts
and everything you need to do with Water and as you all know it's a big task. Thank you.
I just wanted everybody to know the team that we've been able to or... put together. The
Office of the County Attorney is very, we're focused on financial responsibility and like I said before
when I came in last year we had thirty -two (32) Special Counsels on board and this past year what
we had to do is we had to ask for assistance with two (2) Special Counsels and the reason for that is
we couldn't get away from it is because we had to... there was... in both cases we couldn't get away
from the conflict of interest and we had to go outside. You know we've developed litigation teams, in
the past years in District Court, we've been able to collect fifty thousand eight hundred
dollars ($50,800.00) in shared appreciation cases, we've... we are going to collect some two hundred
twenty -five thousand dollars ($225,000.00), however what I'd like to add is accepting more cases, and
accepting more responsibility that takes away from the need for Special Counsel, it does place more
time and effort on the Office of the County Attorney. We do have a lot of work, all of the
Departments create a lot of work for us, a lot of research, they need a lot of guidance, not only the
Department I mean the Department would be one (1) side but the... for the entire county which
again I have to say it's... it starts from and from this very room I mean, providing the support that
we all need the County Council that's a lot for us to be doing. Now the reason why I bring that up is
we are aware of the financial difficulties that face our county and streamlining our budget is not an
easy task.
Like everyone else we've been asked to provide services with less money; however, I'd like
you to know what I'd like everyone to keep in mind that we need to have reasonable expectations and
that's why I say keeping the cases in -house expecting us to do the litigation that is required out there
demands more of our attorneys and with more work means more attorney time, more support staff is
needed. What I would like is as we keep providing services is my wish is what I experience as a
Deputy Prosecutor way back when, when I was the First Deputy there under the Prosecutor Ryan
Jimenez, the... I guess the youngest Deputy that we had served at least ten (10) years for the
County. It would be great if the attorneys that you see here today serve at least that many years
because not only will we have a force to be reckoned with I mean... everything will be consistent and
the level that we will be able to provide as each year goes by, it's hard to value that. However that
being said... keeping deputy's and providing the necessary training for the deputy's is something
that's very important, we can be patient, we can cut our budget but then you know, we got to have
reasonable expectations so. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you for that Mr. County Attorney, I'll go ahead and
open this up for questions by our Committee members. Mr. Furfaro.
• •. APRIL 9, 2010
COUNTY ATTORNEY (Pg. 3)
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Chairman Kaneshiro. Mr. Castillo first of all
thank you for having all eight (8) of your legal team here so that we can relate to their particular
responsibilities and areas that you assign to them and that's very appreciative. I would like to send
a question over for a later response but I would like to know how our Department (inaudible)
actually match up to other Counties here in the State just to see a comparison of our staffing levels, I
think that's extremely important. And I concur with you how important continuity is especially in
the legal arena where time and exposure gets us a history and an application where people then
understand individual style you might say and effectiveness so I do concur with that. And I also
want to concur that you know I do look at the county receivables and we find ourselves in a lot better
shape financially in the collections arena but now in the State of Hawaii with eight percent (8 %)
foreclosure rates in the State and interest rates raising again, it's going to be something that we
need to stay very close to. I would also like to say that one of the areas that we as a county and as a
county team get ourselves into a little criticism; it's about... not just planning area enforcement but
building code enforcement, financial collection enforcement and I have mentioned this to the Mayor
when he made his presentation to us this morning that the Building Department and the Planning
Department might be handling the same issue but there isn't kind of one person that is legally
available to them so that they don't contradict each other things like the issuance of Special Permits
and Building violations, I would think that we might be at a point especially as we start to do some
of the litigation in -house that from an enforcement standpoint it almost might behooved us if we're
going to improve to have another attorney who would be in particular in working on enforcement
issues because they crossover, you know, they have Building over here that has an issue, they may
make a decision that kind of contradicts the Planning Departments outcome on the same violation
and I would like to hear from you, it doesn't have to be today on maybe that's the next step in our
County Attorneys Department is to have somebody that can be a resource on permits and violations
and so on.
Mr. Castillo: And Councilmember Furfaro it almost seems like you were
there at our coordination meeting when I sat down with the Deputy's and with some of the
Department Heads regarding exactly what you're talking about. Because when I came on board one
of the things that first of all I had to manage the assignments, make sure that people got cross
trained I had to determine the strengths and weaknesses of our departments and identified where
we were weak at and this area of enforcement, especially in the violations. You know we've found
that there is really no established policy, no coordinated effort and we have been working diligently
towards having a policy, making it standard so that everyone knows what is expected and yeah so it
seems like you know, it's amazing because what you're telling me is almost like you were there at
the meeting.
Mr. Furfaro: Well I wasn't... but...
Mr. Castillo: Yeah I know, I know.
Mr. Furfaro: I have dealt consistently for the last seven and a half years
with issue that come up in our various whether it's Public Works about Building violations, whether
it's in Planning regarding permit violations you know it is consistently does come here that I think
we need to find a way to constantly make improvements and I think you understand my point that
you know, you don't want the Building Department to believe they have a settlement which actually
conflicts with the outcome of what the Planning Department said the permit was there... there needs
to be this person that's kind of... there for the Building Department, there for the coordination of
these issues I mean we can put bigger fines in all of the ordinances but we got to collect them to.
Mr. Castillo: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: And we got to correct them.
• • APRIL 9, 2010
COUNTY ATTORNEY (Pg. 4)
Mr. Castillo: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: I would like to say I certainly you know support anything that
you present to us that talks about how we're going to put more teach into enforcement.
Mr. Castillo: Okay and we're already addressing that and we will have
something to present to this Council.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And as the County Attorney stated you know we've seen some
of that take place Mr. Furfaro...
Mr. Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We draft ordinances and look at different ordinances that
come before us now it's beginning to become more consistent as to rules and reg's and so forth... so at
the same time, you know it's an ongoing process that we're doing to and...
Mr. Furfaro: And I concur and that's why I said you know I look at the
receivables and I know we're consistently making improvements but we might be at the point with
other issues in our county now that we might want to expand on.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And I really appreciate your profile of all your deputy's and
attorney's because it shows that you have them in all the different Departments and it shows that
you know we're all trying to work to come up with the best way to resolve many of these issues so I
really appreciate that.
Mr. Castillo: Thank you. You know I... my staff, I'm the luckiest guy, I
really believe that and it makes my job very easy and... to have energetic, dedicated people behind
me.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And, and you know County Attorney unfortunately for us the
Charter specifically states that we have to balance an annual budget so...
Mr. Castillo: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So I can't do one for ten (10) years.
Mr. Castillo: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Just so you know.
Mr. Castillo: Yes I understand.
Mr. Kaneshiro: But thank you for the many efforts that your attorneys and
you are doing to make this county a better county. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: So Chairman.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead.
APRIL 9, 2010
COUNTY ATTORNEY (Pg. 5)
Mr. Furfaro: I will submit to you a question...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: As for that comparison of staff to the other counties in
Hawaii.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright and we'll forward those questions unto you, you'll
have it written and forward it unto you. Any other questions for the County Attorney's Office?
Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Thanks for the presentation Al and I just wanted to make
sure that... I know I've shared it with you and hopefully you past it on that in my dealings with the
Departmental people, I've been hearing a lot of positive things about the support they are getting
from the County Attorney's Office whether it's Housing or Public Works and so if you didn't past that
on, I'm hearing good things from the people and I think you know your office has areas that are kind
of high profile and the community knows a lot about but the vast majority of the work I think that's
comes out of your office is not high profile and it's pretty volumes and so I'm really appreciative of
that work and have been patient as request I make take some time but because I know that you're
doing your best job. Couple questions... when I saw that there was two hundred eighty -five
thousand dollars ($285,000.00) less in Special Council, I thought I might see a request to fund the
law clerk that's dollar funded or an additional attorney's position or you know, because I think last
year our discussion was if we can bring the Special Council down and bring some of these things in-
house that as you said today, it would require more resources so, but it's kind of like we cut that
there are no additional request in this budget that I see.
Mr. Castillo: We actually cut from last year and it's because we're
committed to... well basicallv we're sensitive to what's aoinLy on out there in our community_
Mr. Bynum: And I got to... I don't want to read into anything of what you
said but I got a sense that you're somewhat concern about whether you have enough resources to
provide adequate training.
Mr. Castillo: Well do that because yeah... because if we are expected to
provide a certain level of expertise and a certain level of work, and then it's hard to provide that level
if we do not have the ongoing training and our training budget right now is... I would say is
adequate for the times, and I'd just like to keep it that way.
Mr. Bynum: Okay thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any other questions from our Committee
members for the County Attorney's Office? If not, any comments? Go ahead Mr. Kawakami.
Mr. Kawakami: Thank you and thank you for the last statement about being
realistic and (inaudible) and where we're at with our economy right now. I know you could have
easily try to request more money but you know everybody's on the slab right now, taking some chops
at their budget, the Prosecutors, yourself and you're addressing our situation realistically so thank
you for making our job a little bit easier also and we'll try to do our part and make your job a little
easier by staying out of trouble.
Mr. Furfaro: Well said.
Mr. Castillo: Thank you, I appreciate that.
• 0 APRIL 9, 2010
COUNTY ATTORNEY (Pg. 6)
Mr. Kaneshiro: If not, Mr. County Attorney thank you very much, I
appreciate all of you being here today and I know we had... Jenifer Winn couldn't be here today.
Mr. Castillo: She's sick that's why.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Just wanted to recognize her again so thank you all and...
Mr. Castillo: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And if we have any further questions, we're going to go ahead
and have those questions forward on to your Department.
Mr. Castillo: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: As we go through the process there may come... some of my
members may have some questions that come about so we're forward those questions to you, okay?
Thank you. At this time I think we need to take a short recess because our next Department is not
here yet, so we'll take a five (5) minute...
The County Attorney departmental budget review concluded at 2:06 p.m., and there being no
objections, the meeting was in recess.
0 • APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on April 9, 2010 at 2:29 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
(Mr. Chang was noted present. Council Chair Asing was noted excused.)
Mr. Kaneshiro: The Budget & Finance Committee will again, I will call this
meeting back to order to start the budget review process. For the record Mr. Chang is here,
Councilmember Chang and also Mr. Asing, Chairman has been excused for this part of the hearing,
he had to... he had another engagement to go to so with that I will... go ahead, let's see start with
the Prosecutor's Office and good afternoon.
SHAYLENE ISERI - CARVALHO (Prosecuting Attorney): Good afternoon Chair
Kaneshiro, member of the County Council, it's a joy to be back here once again, it's a little bit
different sitting on this side of the table then on the other side of the table. I'd like to also at this
time thank the staff that I have here today which is Cindy Johnson, she my Departmental staff
assistant and will be readily available to answer any question that the members may have as well as
Jamie Chung whose our grant coordinator, they heard... they rushed to prepare the presentation, we
were not informed until about 7:00 this morning that we were on for budget hearing today, I called
the Mayor's Office at 7:00, spoke to the Mayor at 7:12, it was at that time that I learned that we
were required to be here and so it is quite (inaudible) that we had prepared this presentation, if
there are further questions that arise from this presentation by all means, I'm available by phone
and email and you can reach me that way.
I did some basics, I also notified the Council staff, I called Mr. Kawakami to inform him that
we would be running a little late because we had just got a notice that we were set to be prepared to
present you what we are requesting for our budget.
The Prosecuting Attorney's Office is an elected office, accountable to the people of Kauai.
The rest of the Attorneys serve as exempt employees. We also have various types of clerical staff
that we use as support services. We service a huge numbers of members in the community, victims,
defendants, services providers, judiciary and by serving defendants I mean a lot of defendants call
our office inquiring about their court date and the status of their cases which we provide as well as
the Police Department and the Sheriffs Office that act as support services. We receive hundreds of
calls a day and emails, we also handle over four hundred (400) cases a week. We have an office of
approximately thirty (30) employees that includes all of the staff, the attorney, the clerical staff, the
grant coordinator, service investigators, and process server.
Our office is unique in at certain respect and that we are responsible to handle all criminal
cases except those of which we have a conflict of interest in. We are prohibited by law from hiring
special counsel when a complex case occurs. And therefore the quality and the level of experience of
the attorneys that we hire must be at a very experience level because we would be responsible for
handling those cases, it is very rare for our office to have a conflict of interest, especially now with
the budget cuts at the Attorney General's Office which usually would prosecute conflict of interest
cases, they have scrutinized and in fact we have not had really any felony cases that they have
handle. We handle those cases by what we call a term of art in the law community as Chinese wall
and what that does is that that attorney, if there's a conflict in the office, another attorney in the
office handles the case but the case is totally locked up in the drawer of that particular attorney
where the other attorney that has a conflict, has no access to. We are also unique too, the economy
really has an inverse relationship with our workload, when the economy goes bad, and our caseload
escalates and we will see as we go through this presentation that just the crime on Kauai as well as
across the State and the Nation has increased exponentially because of the financial crisis, people
are doubling and tripling up in homes, there is not privacy, loss of jobs lead to assault and behavior
and the like. What we have seen is an escalation in violence. The severity of these types of crimes
has increased usually in the past we would see assaults that would be engaged with fists, and now
• APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 2)
we're seeing machetes and guns, where cars and non - occupied... tourist cars and hotels were broken
into, now we're having residential homes from Hd`ena all the way to Kekaha being broken into. We
also have a numerous amount of Hotels that are being broken into with tourist that are actually in
the hotel themselves at the time that the break in occur. Clearly these intrusive types of offensives
are occurring on a daily basis here. It's affecting the health and safety of human lives. We have had
a numerous amount of accidents and homicides if you have read in the paper, we've taken an active
increase in ensuring that the roads are being kept safe, that speed limits are being looked at to be
reduce where we can to again increase the level of safety of our resident's and nonresidents on the
road. Crystal Meth continue to be the drug of choice, it continues to permeate and effect negativity
of course every household on Kauai whether it's a relative, a friend, a friend of a family, clearly all of
us have seen the kind of negative impacts that drugs especially Crystal Meth have done. We have
also seen a huge peek in the amount of prescription drugs that are being used, especially by our
teenagers and those in the Middle School. As we have discussed when I first took office back in
December of last year, one of the primary objectives was to try to bring charges, we had a huge
backlogged of cases that we addressed and continue to address. We have grants that require us to
review cases immediately and no longer than thirty (30) days that is a benchmarked that we've been
able to keep in at least ninety percent (90 %) of the grant moneys that... grant... I'm sorry activities
that we have place as benchmark. It is though extremely difficult with our small staff and the
continually increase in the number of cases.
Just to give you an idea of the difference and the types and the amounts of cases that we
have received, if you look at Circuit Court and Circuit Court are the kinds of cases where you would
have felony cases anywhere from murder, property crimes, burglaries, entering into, motor vehicles,
assault seconds, robberies, property crimes, credit card thefts, identity thefts, those are your felony
type of cases. You also have misdemeanor jury demands on a abuse type cases, restraining order
violations and misdemeanor assaults. But in the type of felony cases, just in the Circuit, if you look
at the figures the amount of cases that was started, the amount of cases that were filed, we filed over
a hundred more cases just in the Circuit Court level and then when you look at the total case load
from the Administration before me and the current Administration, a thousand fifty -nine cases,
versus fifteen hundred cases, so about a fifty percent (50 %) increase in cases just on the felony level.
What I'd like to point out in these types of cases well if you look at Juvenile there's been almost a
hundred fifty percent increase and the total amount of Juvenile cases that we've handle. We
initially had filed cases of a thousand one hundred, we filed two thousand two hundred, the total
cases in the prior Administration was one thousand six hundred fifty -one, last year alone, we filed
four thousand one hundred cases, again a hundred fifty percent increase in Juvenile cases filings.
District Court, this is District Court, Criminal cases... these would be your criminal property
damage that were under a hundred dollars, theft under a hundred dollars, we also have assault
thirds where there's no substantial bodily injury, we increase cases and this shows an eighteen
percent (18 %) increase in just the Criminal cases. When we deal with traffic criminal cases, your
DUI's, or we now refer to them as OVUII's and we look at reckless driving and intention to driving
and driving with suspended licenses, those types of cases. There were over twenty thousand cases
last year again this is in the District Court section. So when you look at the total amount of volume,
it's really exponentially increased and just to give you an idea of the amount of increase, for example,
here we... the way that stats are figured is based on a single case or date of incident so if there is a
single defendant, he enters into a house, burglarizes a house, steals a wallet from one of the
residents from the steals in the wallet there's a credit card, uses the credit card at Wal -Mart, they'll
be five (5) or six (6) cases generated from that because what will happen is you have the burglary,
that includes the victim of the house that he entered into, the owner of the property that the theft
has taken place, each owner has to come and testify as to each item that was taken, so in all these
cases you would multiply especially with for the property crimes and then they use that credit card
that they stole, that's another criminal offense and if the value of the item that they used that credit
card on was over three hundred, that's another criminal offense. And so you can see how there's this
snowball effect and this is representative of only one (1) incident but in that one (1) incident, you
0 • APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 3)
might have five (5) to ten (10) witnesses and you might also have five (5) to ten (10) or even twenty
(20) additional charges. If you again look at this the numbers that increase more than one and a
hundred fifty percent times and yet our level of staffing has not increased to handle this additional
caseload.
I think what's important, I know when I sat on the Council, I always to look at what was the
other counties, how were they handling this type of increase in crimes because clearly as I indicated
crime has increase exponentially not only in our county but in other counties, in the entire State and
in other counties and the rest of the Country. If you look at the amount of attorney's that we have
for Kauai based on our population and this was the last census that we have in 2005 number that
we had, there was a population of about sixty -two thousand (62,000) and we only had less than six
(6) attorneys, currently right now fifty percent (50 %), almost fifty percent (50 %) attorney's are grant
funded. So the county pays for here less than six attorney's and this includes the attorney, the
Prosecuting Attorney, myself as well as the First Deputy so there's really only three and a half
working attorney's in essence is what compared to other jurisdictions because on Hawaii and Maui,
the Prosecutor does not handle any caseload where here I handle a full caseload and in fact I was
just preparing for a... I do all of the sex assault, child sex assault cases, as well as the murder cases,
I just was preparing for a jury trial on a sex assault that's on Monday, we also have a juvenile sex
assault on Wednesday, next week I have another sex assault case that's coming up for trial and in
two (2) weeks another sex assault case that's coming up for trial. And so clearly our staffing needs
are tremendous and we have been deficient for a very long time especially when the increase of
caseload and imparity when you look at the different counties, Hawaii if you even multiple and
made Kauai double of its... or compared to Maui at a hundred and thirty -nine thousand, if you
doubled the amount of population and increase our staff double, we should have at least ten (10)
county funded attorney's to be on parity to what Maui and Hawaii has had. And the question has
always been posed in other counties, their looking at trying to induce furloughs on different types of
occupations and even on the attorney's, here we would simple not be able to absorb that cost when
you look at how deficient the amount of attorney's that we currently have. We already have five (5)
court rooms that operate on a daily basis. And the attorney's including myself are in court every day
Monday through Thursday, Friday's are usually furlough Friday's at the Circuit Court which allows
us time to interview the cases... interview the witnesses for our various cases. But a lot of time is
spent on the weekends trying to run down your witnesses and interview your witnesses. Again you
know Kauai five point seven five attorney's, Hawaii has twenty -seven attorney's and Maui has
twenty -five attorney's.
Our Legal Clerk Staffing again totally deficient when you look at the amount of population
and imparity with the neighbor islands counties of Hawaii and Maui. The county funded positions,
we have six point four five county funded positions, again if you double that to be on parity with
Maui County, Maui County has about twenty -five, so even if we doubled to or added three (3) more
positions, we would clearly be way deficient compared to Maui. If we tried to parallel with the
amount of population that we would have in each county. Hawaii County has twenty -two, again
Kauai County has six, not even seven (7) Legal Clerk positions.
Grants... as I indicated earlier we have about fifty percent (50 %) of our attorney's are by
grants. About a third of our staff is set on grants, so again our office is very unique from other
Agency's because they do not rely as heavily on grant funding as we do, we already as I will show in
one grant have had a serious reduction in the amount of grant funding that we've received. Property
crime prosecution, domestic violence, each of the grants and this is by language of the grant, we are
limited to requesting grant funds for these types of programs for only a four (4) year period, this
grant started before I came in, the end date for these grants on the property crime is December 31,
and the domestic violence on August 31, this is the end date, that means we can't apply for... we are
prohibited from applying for grant funds to substantiate these two, if do not have continued... county
funding for these programs, these positions will be lost because the maximum term we can apply is
0 0 APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 4)
four (4) years and this is the end date of the four (4) years. It does say like how when we had the
COPS program, I know a lot of the Councilmembers are familiar with that, where the Police Officers
have placed cops in the school, they receive funding for a period of three (3) years and after the third
year, the county is expected to follow up likewise, this is the same scenario, the justice assistance
grants which is similar to what the COPS grants were, is that they are used to support and pilot new
initiatives only, so after the four (4) year period, the forty -eight (48) months, we are require to obtain
county funding or seek other funding for these types of programs. If we look at the next slide, this is
the career criminal prosecution unit and what's unique about the Career Criminal Prosecution Unit
is that this is the only unit that is dictated by law, this under HRS Chapter 845, it requires each
county to setup a Career Criminal Prosecution unit, the State partially funds it, of course not
entirely. If we look at the funding, in 2006 -2008 they gave the Career Criminal Prosecution unit a
hundred and sixty -six thousand, last... in 2008 -2009 it went up to two hundred and five thousand,
and last year it went down almost fifty percent (50 %) to a hundred seventeen thousand dollars. This
year, currently we had gotten word that it was going to be cut about seventeen thousand from last
year, over a hundred thousand dollars from the year before to a hundred and one thousand however,
this is still in the conference Committee stages, the House proposal is that it be cut further to eighty -
four thousand, the Senate proposal is fifty thousand. This Career Criminal unit again is one of the
unique units that are set up by the State, it's one of those unfunded mandates by the State, they
require you to setup this unit, but they don't provide sufficient funding for you to operate this unit.
What is a Career Criminal? A Career Criminal is treated differently than any other Career Criminal
because it doesn't distinguish between the volumes of the crime; clearly they commit crimes, a lot of
these while they're on probation or while they're on parole for other prior offenses. But the
distinguishing factor of a Career Criminal, it doesn't distinguish between doing only property crimes,
doing only offense against person crimes, it is indiscriminate to the type of crimes that this person
commits. They traverse all boundaries, they commit in one incident, property, drug, assault, firearm
cases... a lot of times that would be familiar scenario where we would have a person get caught with
Crystal Meth, they do a search warrant on the car, they find a firearm, it's a loaded firearm, we
found out that this person is been on probation before... so these are one of the types aside from the
murders and the sex assaults, one of the highest, serious kinds of the criminals that are at the
utmost danger and therefore you can see the value in making sure that this unit is preserved
especially that its dictated by Statute except that again it is one of those that the State has decided
on reducing its funding quite significantly from last year and again this year.
So what have we been doing as a unit that basically I came in office you know about a year
ago in trying to restructure, I was here before the County Council last year, where I already started
because we had in January a meeting with the law enforcement coalition which is comprise by all of
that Prosecutors, all of the... for each county the four (4) Police Chiefs, the Department of Health,
Department of Public Safety, as well as the Attorney General's Office, and we were given a
presentation by the Attorney General Mark Bennett that in fact we were already we were going to be
looking at over a two hundred million dollar deficit and we were directed to make cuts where we felt
that we could make cuts without compromising public safety. And this was here where we did an
analysis of the amount of Victim Witness Counselor's because we had five (5) Victim Witness
Counselor's and when we compared them to the other Counties, we were two and a half times more
Victim Witness Counselor positions given the population than in any other county and that was
where we felt that we could afford at that time because of the (inaudible) cases, we could afford to
not fund those positions and this was again with a proactive role in trying to restructure the office to
ensure that the office would still function despite the cuts. By doing that we really saved, and I'll go
into our salaries, the amount of money that we saved with that restructuring of those two (2)
employees'. We have also for the first time when we took office charge a fee for discovering
documents. What this entail was previously all of the Xeroxing of all of the police reports, the time
that it took, the maintenance cost of the machine and the toning, etc., was born by the Prosecuting
Attorney's Office, and we made discovering for everybody, every defendant, every... if the court's
wanted it, every defense attorney, we did all of the work for that and it was only when I took office
9 APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 5)
that we decided to charge a fee for these discovering margins which has resulted in numerous
savings financially but also the time it gave up each Clerk on average about two (2) hours of their
time in not having to make this discovery available without any charge to the defendants and the
defense council. Expert Witness fees, previously there was a lot of Witnesses been flown in,
unnecessarily you know, there were thousands of dollars that we spent in expert fees and other
Witnesses flying in, we took a proactive role again in limiting the Expert Witnesses. And doing a lot
of conferrals over the phone as oppose to having them fly in, and saved a lot of money there and it is
reflected if you look at the amount of money that we spent for the commodity section for... to take
care of Expert Witness because we did not fly in a single Expert Witness during this entire year. We
took advantage of free training opportunities, and I say free... free to county where it was paid by
JAG funds or the Juvenile Justice grants or things like that that would pay for the training so that
our attorneys" were (inaudible) of the current laws and movements of the types of cases that they
were handling but again it did not result in cost to the county.
If you look at the salary savings that we engaged in from 2009 to what is projected, the
amount of salaries that we saved, that were attributed to our office but through succession planning
and hiring quality employees at less salaries, the first year we saved already, and by the
restructuring of the office over a hundred and sixty -one thousand. This what is projected for this
year is two hundred ten thousand and than in next year eighty -three thousand and this includes the
salaries, salaries would include as indicated below you know premium pay, social security, health
fund and all of the benefits that are associated with the salary cost. Especially important again we
had talked about succession planning, it was very difficult when you first come into office to have an
attorney that goes to court not knowing the court system or the specific unique operations of the
Kauai Court system because it is very much different between counties as it is different between
different State's. So what we encouraged was to have people who are qualified that were waiting to
pass the BAR, that had licenses in other States, so they already practiced in other States, but at a
serious reduction in salaries so they were... they came in law clerk salary but they were able to build
during this time relationships with the Police Department, Sherriffs Department, as well as again
the Court Personnel. That made it a lot easier than having an attorney come off the plane and start
practicing because they do not have the luxury of time and having to engage in relationships with
the Court Staff or the Police Department because their constantly in Court.
Regarding the furloughs at this time, the concern that I have and I would raise initially was
that there was a reduction of a hundred twenty -eight thousand five hundred in our budget, at this
time... I do not know what that is attributed to, I do not know what the formula was in order to arise
at that figure. I had some preliminary discussions with the Mayor, he has indicated to me that there
is no definitive formulated plan at this time but he is committed to meet with me next week to go
over this issue and therefore until I have that discussion, it is something that I'm not going to be
going through. What I am trying to bring to the Council's attention is of course the current under
staffing regardless of what the furlough plan is and that it would be at this point, the service it
would be again difficult for us to maintain the level of hours that our attorney's and staff are
working without compromising public safety because we are so deficient as it is with the amount of
staffing needs that we are seriously wanting. Our Department is one of public safety, like both
Police and Fire you know it's very essential that our office keeps functioning twenty -four, seven, why
is this? Because we cannot predict when crime is going to happen, it's not like any other offense I
mean when it happens you need to be there. There are also specific constitutional rules that we are
required to follow, one is that they are required come to court within forty -eight hours of the date
that they are arrested, we need to be there. We have... or else they gets released from custody and
that has happened in several cases, unfortunately because we were not able to get the police reports
in time, to make sure that these people were arraigned within forty -eight hours, it has actually cut
down to twenty -four hours when the court did their furlough plan because they were not opened on
Fridays, so if a person was arrested on a Wednesday, we'd be forced Wednesday afternoon at 1:00 we
had a hearing and I mean we have an arraignment and then at 1:00 of Thursday we're required to
0 APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 6)
t
have all of our witnesses present to put on a preliminary hearing to establish probable cause to keep
that person in custody. Again it's very difficult right now when we look at the Police Department
because the Police Department are not going to experience any furloughs, they're under a contract
that they will be getting seven percent I believe as negotiated, if the police is out there, the only
thing the police can do is arrest the person but the person cannot be held in custody until our office
files the paper work with the court, in order for them to be held in custody so it defeats the purpose
that the police are out there arresting people if our office is not there available to prepare the paper
work and to get it filed within the timely fashion. We are also experiencing a lot of problems with
cases because we are required to bring cases to trial within a period of six months or the case gets
automatically gets dismissed, that has been a problem in the past and consistently now with staff
shortages we will be experiencing, we've been trying to work over hours, a lot of extended hours our
attorney's work anywhere from seventy to eighty hours a week and so it would be again extremely
difficult if we do not get any additions to support the increase in the crime that has already taken
place.
Conclusions... we were given a directive by seven percent, it was evident by what we had
proposed that it's really impossible for us to do it without again compromising public safety. We also
have the added problem because we have time limitations in order for us to prosecute cases,
constitutionally. We are looking at, at this point if we do not have additional staff that is provided,
that we are looking at limiting our ability to prosecute the petty offenses because we need to
concentrate on the most serious offenses which is the felony offenses, so at this time without the
resources or additional resources provided, we may see a point which has happen actually on Maui
where the public defenders refused to represent people because they didn't have the necessary staff
and the court was appointing attorneys, here we don't have that luxury, what will happen is that we
would not be able to... we would have to prioritize the type of cases that we prosecute and these
petty misdemeanor cases are those that are of a lesser severity but clearly very important from a
victim prospective and a community prospective. But again with these unfunded mandates and the
cuts and the grant funding, we simply cannot handle as much as we would like to do it, with the
current staffing that we have. And that's the end of my testimony, so if you have any questions by
all means.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you for that. I want to thank you also on the part
about where you're going to be meeting with Mayor later to discuss about the furlough plan and I
know you weren't here earlier but I did mention before we started our hearings that in April, we
haven't posted, we're going to post a time, when we're going to be bringing that discussion before this
body.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: Oh great.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So and I appreciate...
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: That would be wonderful.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And I did speak to my colleagues in that regards to so at that
time we will probably spend the day having discussions as you know...
Ms. Iseri- Carvalho: Thank you, I appreciate that Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright at this time...
Mr. Furfaro: Chairman, I think you should let her know, you tentatively
blocked April 20th.
APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 7)
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's correct.
Ms.Iseri- Carvalho: April 20th?
Mr. Kaneshiro: I don't have the time down as of now, but we're working on
that and it will post as an agenda item.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: And maybe we could ask... I think what has been a problem
in the past has been that... because the Prosecutor's Office is an independent office although
sometimes the Council and other's may see it as an arm of the Administration, they send the
Administration notifications and because we are not on their email list, we don't get a lot of the
documents that go to the Administration and so that probably is why we were not notified of today's
hearing...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: So I would ask the Council if there's any meeting set, to send
it directly and we have prosecutor@kauai.gov is real easy and we check that. So that might be the
best way for us to get notification.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And I apologize for that mix up and I want to really get your
hats off to your staff for putting...
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: Excellent staff.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Getting this information to us...
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: They skip lunch too.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And I thank you for that and we'll see that we get the
communication's over, especially an agenda items that the... brings in the Department's that the...
to the Council so thank you for that. I'll open it up at this time for questions or comments at this
time. Mr. Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Shaylene thank you for the presentation.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: You're welcome.
Mr. Furfaro: I... you got a lot of good statistical information in there and I
assume that we will be getting a copy of your PowerPoint?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
Mr. Furfaro:
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Furfaro:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
You have.
Oh I do?
You do.
Yes we do. Sorry about that.
Oh! I put it over there, I'm sorry.
Yes we have it here.
• • APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 8)
Mr. Furfaro: I was stuck doing the math. Okay so I mean there are some
very interesting for example if you look at some of these numbers, you basically had about a twenty -
seven percent increase in your filings compared to previous years, previous office but in the Juvenile
section, you had a hundred sixty -four percent increase in cases... that is... that is very concerning
especially after you told us what's going to happen with some of the Justice Assistance Grants, and
could you expand on that a little bit more for me... there's a four year period that we're going to be
exhausting that application?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: That's correct. Yeah, so if you look at the... what happen is
that we actually would have, we have one more year to apply and that's for the continuation from
July 1, yeah July 1, 2010, we were fortunate because we actually had expended our time in one of the
grants when we had recovery funds, so they gave us that but they didn't count that twelve (12)
month period, so they actually gave us an additional year. But we have been told, actually time and
time again that the grant funding is seed money I mean it's basically meant as to do new initiatives
and then it's up to the County to support that program and continue with funding.
Mr. Furfaro:
Justice Assistance Grants.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho
Mr. Furfaro:
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
well... minimally State funded.
And I did, I did define that as the right program right, the
We have, yeah... yeah.
And then there was one (1) more...
CC the Career Criminal, that's the one that's State funded...
Mr. Furfaro: Okay very good, thank you Mr. Chair... I'm going to submit a
question for the April 20th question... I have no more for now I do want to ask a question as it relates
to something that came up in Economic Development. We have... we, the County of Kauai fund
some of the support for women shelter and sexual abuse...
Ms. Iseri- Carvalho: Hold on.
Mr. Furfaro: (inaudible) program, I'm sorry... sexual assault and we
contract that out but we have in the past funded about ninety -seven thousand dollars ($97,000.00)
total for that and I think in our Administrative adjustments, we might be looking at lowering that at
about twenty -five thousand combine but it seems from the case load that you read to us, we are
experiencing a lot of these violent assaults and sexual assaults and I'm very concerned that the State
is doing the same...
Ms.Iseri- Carvalho: Yes...
Mr. Furfaro: With their portion of the funding, so I might be sending over a
question about some statistical information on assaults on women and this sexual abuse on the
island so I'll send that over to the Chair.
Ms.Iseri- Carvalho: Definitely.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll go ahead and forward those questions over to you and
give you some time to research and get back with some answers for us.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: And that was one of the things you know, when we come in as
an individual department, we have access to of course our you know budget for your department and
• • APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 9)
in fact it was bought to our attention by the Finance Director that there were other funds that were
coming out from Economic Development and so we followed up to see, ensure that we weren't
duplicating the services that were being, the funding that were being provided from Economic
Development and the funding that was being provided by the Prosecutor's Office as a sub - grantee.
We... their funding on what we provide to the YWCA is going to be cut about fifty percent (50 %) so
it... for last year we gave family violence shelter to provide crisis services, fifty -five thousand
(55,000), this year we're expecting to give twenty -four thousand (24,000). Our sexual assault
treatment program was forty -five thousand (45,000) and again these are to provide services that our
office are unable to provide, we talked about the crisis counseling, especially... and the twenty -
four /seven hotline and the immediate again services that they provide. On the 2010, it's twenty -two
thousand (22,000), so approximately fifty percent that we used to provide, we won't... we can't afford
to provide that to them this year.
Mr. Furfaro: And like I said I think first blush, the funding from Economic
Development is planned to be down about thirty percent (30 %), so I'll send out a question on
statistical information.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
ahead Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara:
you.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
Okay. Any other Committee members with questions? Go
Good morning Prosecutor Shay
Shay is fine.
I don't know what to call
Ms. Kawahara: It's good to see you here. I remember last year when you were
here about the same time, we were discussing the Hoku system and how you guys were being
upgrading to something else, was... is that... was that going to be upgraded that you were going to be
able to get more and more specific statistics?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: Yes. It wasn't... it was the same system but what had happen
is that because IT was not involved in the creation of the system, they were not familiar with how to
abstract data so we were imputing data in the pass Administration but weren't able to abstract the
data. What we did was we are able to abstract the data but what was happening is that the was the
stats were being counted in the past, was not the way the grants required the counting to be done, so
we had to... in fact we flew in Charles who came from Honolulu Prosecutor's and he adjusted that
and worked with Mabel from IT and we are able... what we did was to ensure that the grants was
being, I mean the stats were being calculated correctly is we actually hand counted for a six (6)
month period on the DV... do you have the DV stats? And we actually hand counted to match with
the system to ensure that the data that was being pulled from Hoku was the information that was
required to be counted by the grant and we've done that, so we've provided that last six (6) month
report for the DV grants... the ones that we counted, we provided that as a check list to the AG's
Office which is the (inaudible) grant person and you know we've been pretty successful, we actually
had a ninety -six percent (96 %) conviction rate on domestic violence cases.
Ms. Kawahara: That's great, that's really good to hear. So it also helped you
determine how much of your staff was doing work from grant work, how many are staffed by grant...
Ms.Iseri- Carvalho: Yes.
Ms. Kawahara: And...
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: Well only the grant.
• • APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 10)
Ms. Kawahara: Would you be able to provide us a breakdown of the staff here,
the percentage breakdowns on what's on grant funding and what's on County funding.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: Yeah. We actually have it here.
Ms. Kawahara: Is that something I have? Because I have this... Did we get
something else?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: So I have this chart here and I can tell you on the county
funded, the grant funded we have the four (4) funded attorney's, the clerical staff, we had four (4)
clerical staff we had one (1) investigator and one (1) victim witness counselor.
Ms. Kawahara:
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
Ms. Kawahara:
Mr. Furfaro:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Ms. Kawahara:
grants...
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
Ms. Kawahara:
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
grants. Fifty percent are A
Thank you.
So ten (10)...
So we'll be sure to get copies for...
Copies for all of us.
Can you make that available to us?
Because I know that I saw a lot of the funding comes from
Right.
And that you use that...
A third of the funding, a third of the funding from our office is
ttorney's, pretty much.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. The other questions I had... does it also share with us
what positions you have vacant?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: Yes it shows on that form. You made a copy?
Ms. Kawahara: The one that... getting copies?
Ms.Iseri- Carvalho: Yep.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay and is there a percentage that at the top of your head
how much percentage of your positions is vacant?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: We actually have one (1) position that is vacant which is the
First Deputy position.
Ms. Kawahara: Oh okay.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: The other vacant position is one that is reserved because it's
an attorney position and we only have funding for a law clerk, so if you look at position number 9093,
that position is reserved... is it (inaudible)?
• • APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 11)
Ms. Kawahara: Law Clerk, 9093?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: 9093, yeah.
Ms. Kawahara: Is 105, okay yeah... there's...
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: Yeah so you see...
Ms. Kawahara: So that's vacant.
Ms.Iseri- Carvalho: Yeah.
Ms. Kawahara: Reserved?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: No that that position is filled right now.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: But one of these 43 or 44, I can't remember which one is the
one that it has to be reserved, she is anticipated to pass the bar in July and we need that position
open so there's no break in service and she's able to go from a law clerk into an attorney position.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay I'm familiar with that kind of stuff. When you get them
fresh right out. Okay... the other question I had because last year there was a fifty thousand
anticipated higher claims due to turnover in appointed attorney's was fifty and this one is twenty -
five...
Ms.Iseri- Carvalho: Yeah.
Ms. Kawahara: So that goes to? What is that money for, when you have a
turnover?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: It's when they claim unemployment.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. And then last year was larger than this year, you're
not expecting the same amount of turnover?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: No. What usually happens and this is a projection based
upon taking on a new Administration so there's a certain percentage that people calculate as to when
a new Administration comes in, they put all their new people that the people that leave are going to
be entitled to certain kinds of unemployment compensation.
Ms. Kawahara: I see, okay.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: And so because this is the second year of the term we don't
expect people to be as high as the initial term when everybody was basically was... except for like
two people were given resignations.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay great and when we were here last year we were also
talking about the trending towards more serious crimes and more crimes themselves, so it's seems
like that did come to pass and you had said that you expected that your attorney's and your office
would be able to handle it with the people you had in place so is that still...
• • APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 12)
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: No... I actually asked for attorney positions last year... they
were not provided but I asked for them because I said we could not do with the increase that we were
expected to have, however last year... we did not... I was here six (6) months before I came for the
budget so the budget was already preplanned six (6) months of my budget had already been spent
before I got into office. But I did ask for two (2) attorneys and I didn't get it so... and that was again
predicting the amount of increase and the trends that were happening across the country. This
budget I did provide you the stats that panned out with my prediction.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. And then I'm going to probably have question later on
this stuff, so thank you.
Ms.Iseri- Carvalho: Sure.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay any other Committee members have questions? Go
ahead Councilmember Chang.
Mr. Chang: Thank you. Good afternoon Shay. Prior to you taking over in
2008 referring to page six (6) and seven (7) in regards to the County funding Deputy Prosecuting
Attorney's and the legal clerk type positions, would you know offhand in 2004 and perhaps in 2006
what those figures may have been? Because obviously you're blow us.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: I think it was the same.
Ms. Chang: But it was the same?
Ms. Iseri- Carvalho: It was the same, I don't think they had increases in their
positions... because I believe we did run the numbers and that's why when we did the parity with the
other islands because their trend was I believe was increasing because once you get off the grant,
you're required to sustain yourself, yeah after the four (4) year period. But we'll be able to provide
that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll have that question written.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: And I believe I actually inquired of Peter to provide that
information which he did so, I know that information is ready available.
Mr. Chang: Obviously the numbers just shoot out with the comparison
between Maui County and Hawaii County, so can they keep up? Are they presently keeping up with
their work load and in other words, their obviously not working sixty or seventy hours a week or
more per...
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: I believe all attorney's work really, really hard especially at
the Prosecutor's Office but they are able... I mean if you look at Maui's budget which is what half a
billion dollars compared to you know ours which is a hundred fifty -three million last year, or the last
year that I was here. I mean there's a humongous amount of county money's that they have that
they have attributed to you know public safety so they've been able I believe to sustain given the
amount of Real Property income that they received but I think all around we have what we call
HPAA meetings which is the Hawaii Prosecuting Association of Attorneys and it consist of all four
(4) Prosecuting Attorneys from the counties as well as the US Attorney and the Attorney General
and pretty much everybody is experiencing difficulty, it's just that as we've discussed it they're
saying that they are more readily to absorb a reduction should there be one because they have
• •
APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 13)
already you know three (3) times as much positions then we do for the amount of population that
they have to serve.
Mr. Chang: You know an interesting that you sat where we sat in fact you
use to sit here, I think...
Ms.Iseri- Carvalho: Yeah.
Mr. Chang: I'm honored. You remember when your predecessor was
asking for things way back when and of course you're asking for things now, are there similarities or
was your predecessor asking for...
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: You know...
Mr. Chang: Staff?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: I think there was...
Mr. Chang: I mean with urgency at that time?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: I think that there was a difference because there were loss
funding, grant funding so it wasn't as if they were able to utilize the four (4) years of funding.
Because there were concerns with providing stats, one of the concerns that I learned was because the
Prosecutor's Office did not have the ability to comprehensively track the cases that comes into our
office and all of the grants requires you to provide statistics and it's impossible for you to do if you
don't have a system, and they never had a system I mean I worked their four (4) years before the
last... I mean eight (8) years before, so for the last twelve (12) years that we've been there, they have
not had a data tracking system, what they did have was... they were literally hand counting and ask
Jamie... every time there was a grant it was so inefficient because she would have to count all the
numbers, hand count all the files, they were kept on index cards, and she would have to go through
the index cards to track every type of disposition which took an huge amount of time and they
weren't able to do that and so a lot of the compliance with the grant funding that they did have, they
weren't able to comply with the requirements and so there was I believe a lack of continuation of
grant funding. Here... we have utilized every opportunity of grant funding, we've got the highest
amount of grants. Last year before the LEC commission which is the Law Enforcement Coalition
Commission that reviews all of the stimulus grants, out of... we had three (3) applications that we
provided, our office and we were granted funding for all three (3), no other agency had received that
amount of success for grant funding. Last year alone, we received over a million dollars in grant
funding because we aggressively pursued grant funding. And so that's where I think was a
difference in whether we want to come to the county initially to fund these positions or do we want to
exhaust every other opportunity that the Federals are providing, Federal grant moneys are
providing and that's where the difference is, we've been able to sustain a lot because we've been
using our grant funding positions which is fifty percent (50 %) of what the county has in order to
sustain the additional caseload but when you look at it now it's almost impossible given the
percentage increases that we've had in crime.
Mr. Chang: And of course obviously economically 2004 and 2006 were
happy times...
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: Good year.
Mr. Chang: Every thing was good, a lot of people had money well to
commend yourself, Jamie and Cyndi when we look at page eleven (11) with your salary savings and
• • APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 14)
the projected savings that's totally... very close to four hundred sixty thousand dollars so,
congratulations on that. Chair, I don't have any extra questions, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
questions?
Okay. Any other members of the Committee have any other
Ms. Kawahara: I had one (1) more because I forgot about... You know last
year we were talking about...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay you have the floor.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Budget Chair... Last year we were talking about
twenty -four /seven and I see that you have on -call attorney's and wireless phones so you're still
twenty -four /seven for the Police?
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: What we have now is that...
Ms. Kawahara: (inaudible)
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: Yeah we are available no matter what time they want to call,
they have my cell number. They... sometimes choose to call and sometimes not but we are available
to the Police Department.
Ms. Kawahara: And at that point do you folks process stuff or you just take
the call, write it down and then come back to it during the day.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: No the Judges are actually on -call twenty- four /seven because
you have a... what you call a probable cause packet, it has to do be done within forty -eight (48) hours
and if you have a weekend... for example if you... if a person commits a crime on Friday evening and
it's a Holiday, you have to get to a Judge on the Sunday or else that person will be released
from custody.
Ms. Kawahara: So not to you but to a Judge.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: To... to a Judge first and then... usually what happens if they
would call us to review the packet to ensure that all of the elements of the offense have been met and
then we'll send it over to the Judge, so the Judge doesn't have to do that and then the Judge signs
that packet and then the first thing that we come back to court, if Monday is a holiday on Tuesday
we have to arraign the person already and then from there we have forty -eight (48) hours to bring all
our witnesses to establish a probable cause hearing.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay so that's functioning well between you and the Judges
because you get called by the Police then you got to do something to get to the Judges.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: We... we function. We're doing the best that we can... you
know some days you have twelve (12) people get arrested over the weekend and some days you have
two (2) you know it just... and that's the difficulty and the uniqueness of our office is that you can't
predict when crime is going to happen and so yeah you know some people might say well maybe we
can stagger or but you really can't because if you have one (1) attorney there there's no way that one
attorney is going to handle twelve (12) felony cases over a weekend period.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay thank you.
• • APRIL 9, 2010
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY (Pg. 15)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay? Thank you for that. With that the Chair will be also
forwarding a question to the Prosecutor's Office and if possible what I would like to see is that
instead of population, some of the cases. Cases that Hawaii County handles, Maui County handles,
in comparison to how many attorney's they have. So if it's a possibility that will also help us as we
go through the deliberation process but I'll go ahead and get a letter over to you or question request.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
Sure.
In that regards...
And, and...
Mr. Kaneshiro: And I see by population and so forth but you know at the
same time many of this can help. You know in our deliberation process when we see the cases
involve.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho: We actually have I believe Jamie from the Judiciary where we
can show you the aggravated assaults amounts...
Mr. Kaneshiro: For different counties and stuff.
(inaudible) so I'll send that over just to give a heads up.
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Ms. Iseri - Carvalho:
Sure.
That will help us out
Okay alright. If not thank you very much.
Thank you. I appreciate...
Mr. Kaneshiro: For being here today and I want to I guess thank the staff for
putting this PowerPoint together, very good job and with that I'm going to recess this till Monday
morning, so we'll be back here Monday morning where we'll be taking on the Fire Department, so
we'll recess till 9:00...
The Prosecutor's Office/Victim Witness departmental budget review concluded at 3:23 p.m., and
there being no objections, the meeting was in recess.
0 •
APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on Monday, April 12, 2010, at 9:08 a.m., and proceeded
as follows:
Mr. Kaneshiro: Is there anyone in this chambers wanting to speak on this
item today? We'll be covering the fire department, liquor department, civil defense agency, Kauai
Humane Society, personnel department. Any written testimonies? If not, good morning. We will
start with the fire department. Chief? You have the floor, Chief, good morning.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
ROBERT WESTERMAN, Chief, Fire Department: Good morning Budget Chair and
Councilmembers. You have my written presentation ... let me pull mine out here. I'm not going to go
through and read this thing. I'm going to go through and do some picking and choosing, in the
interest of brevity. Our current budget this year is what we consider as an absolute minimum. In
all areas of the budget we have reduced some, and in some cases we have eliminated other area.
After the seven percent pay increase and the increase in OPEB, the other post employment benefits,
our budget reflects an eight percent increase over the previous year. We have reduced the operating
budget by twenty -one percent, before funding the helicopter services, which then increased the
operating budget by twenty -five percent. We added no other large capital equipment to the budget,
and we have dollar - funded five firefighters and one senior clerk in this budget currently in front of
you. However, in the May submittal, we will be coming back with only three firefighters
dollar - funded. And the reason for that is we just got word from FEMA on our SAFER grant (we were
holding back on hiring) and were informed by them that we had to maintain those levels of
firefighters, if not, we would have to refund the entire grant amount. Currently, that stands
at $392,000 received from... .
Council Chair Asing: Chief, can you hold on just fora short while. The items that
you're reading there, can you have us make a copy of that so that we can follow you and it's much
easier, or...
Chief Westerman:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Chief Westerman:
Council Chair Asing:
Oh, it's in the budget message...
Page 7.
It's in the budget message, I'm sorry.
It's in page 7.
Chief Westerman: Yes, it's on page 2 of 7, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, and I ... near the
bottom of page 2 of 7, the last paragraph. I apologize.
Council Chair Asing: This is what you're reading from, then?
Chief Westerman: Yes.
Council Chair Asing: Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And in the back, page 7 of 7, you have the ... you have all the
positions (inaudible).
Chief Westerman: All the positions, yes.
Council Chair Asing: Okay, thank you.
•
0 APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 2)
Mr_ Kaneshiro: ...that you can refer to. Okay, continue, Chief.
Chief Westerman: Alright. As you can see... I'd like to go on to the next page
then and talk about our responses. And during the calendar year of 2009, the fire department
responded to 4614 calls for assistance. That's 202 calls less than 2008, and that seems to be where
we've stabilized over the last two years. I won't reference all of the years, but as you can see, we're
about a four percent in the last two years. We're attributing that to a couple things: like we
expressed last year, we no longer respond to the ... to the cruise ships for the medical calls, because
they're just doing a transfer of care, and then we attribute that additional 200 to the downturn in the
economy and less tourism on the island. But in the aggregate, in calendar year 2009, we
responded 55 percent of the time in less than five minutes to all fire calls. Even though that's four
percent faster than the previous year, it's still behind where we want to be and where we need to be
to achieve our accreditation. Our response calls for medical assistance was 95 percent in less
than 10 minutes, an improvement of one percent over the previous year. For our rescue calls, we
responded 85 percent in less than 15 minutes, an improvement of 20 percent. And part of that has
been ... part of that makeup isn't that we've gotten there any faster; it's the way that we've been able
to retrieve the data out of the computer system, and I'll talk about that a little bit in a little bit more
detail later. We have instituted a daily staffing to a five firefighter minimum in Hanalei whenever
possible to help reduce (inaudible) liability. In Hanalei, as you know, it's a large response district
and with... all the way to Hd'ena to Kilauea, and a lot of times they get back -to -back calls and we
have to split the unit. So by having minimum staffing of five down there, we're able to remove the
truck and send it to a medical call at least, so that we have the AED medical assistance while we
wait for the ambulance to arrive. And we do this by simply adjusting the staffing islandwide and
occasionally using overtime.
The new helicopter operations will also improve the response time for rescue significantly by
putting us into the air faster. As the chart indicates, we're still outside of our 80 percent goal on fire
responses. As we progress through the next few years in our strategic plan, we'll evaluate these
numbers and use our newly acquired ARC GIS software and GPS mapping software to evaluate
these options. Part of that too is the new CADS. We're getting ready to do the RFP reviews for the
CAD system that the police department is buying, and a lot of that improvement in data collection,
time response, time on scene, will go significantly to us being able to better say where are we getting
in the right time, where are we not getting in time, and help us adjust our strategic plan.
Moving on to page 4, you can kind of see the graphics of where we stand in all of the areas as
far as our response times, and the line of where we'd really like to be, and we're still responding
about 65 percent of our calls to EMS. And in comparison to the last two years, our response time
seems to be tracking ... the average response time is slightly higher than last year. Until we get the
Kaikea(sp ?) station built and staffed, and the Kapa`a station relocated, we're still going to have
about the same response times in that district. We still continue to lose ground with the large
increase in call load and as the population spreads. Again, that's kind of been stabilized with our
tourism going down and our construction industry slowing down.
Previous years, through the hard work and eloquent wordsmithing and steadfast
determination of our firefighters, we have written several grants. We've been awarded over 3.8
million dollars in various grants that supported the department directly and assisted with vehicle
and equipment replacement. Again, as we now are with the SAFER grant, the savings in the next
year will be over $250,000 of salaries directly funded by the grant. We now have the new SCVAs
online, the driver simulator was awarded, and the MDT which has been purchased and completely
installed, and we're just waiting for the CAD system to come online, that will help us with our
accountability and safety for our firefighters.
APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 3)
As you move down near the bottom of the page, you know, it's identified in our strategic plan
and to fully comply with seventeen ten, we're still short by several positions: three operations
battalion chiefs, special operations battalion chief, public information officers, and education officers,
a driver aide to assist the battalion chief. To improve the safety of our water safety officers
operating on the jet skis, we require additional WSOs in each of the three jet skis towers to insure
minimum staffing of three WSOs, although we did not put any of those in the budget this year.
Conditions of our facilities worsen and relocation of the Kapa`a station is upon us as we not
necessarily start construction now, but also complete construction of the district 2, Kaikea station.
The training center is still needed to provide adequate space for classroom for recruits and seasoned
firefighters, and provide acreage for co- locating the fire -burn trailer /driver simulator emergency
response operations course. The headquarter space is inadequate for the staff to operate together at
full efficiency, but thanks to the council, we are finishing up our design on the headquarter space in
Piikoi, which is doing really well, and we're just about ready to put the stamp on. This is the final
design, and that will provide the much - needed training room space, and also with that, we're going
to co- locate an alternate EOC location in that training room space, so in case they lose use of the
EOC over in the police facility, it can come over to the Piikoi building. And plans are moving
forward to include the alternate dispatch in that facility.
. We'd also like to thank the administration, public works, for doing some renovations on
Waimea, Hanapepe, Kapa`a fire station with new paint, new apparatus, floor paint, new hose racks,
and this will extend the life of the aging facilities. So they did a tremendous in this last year really
doing some renovation work in those facilities. Safety of the firefighters and safety of the public; we
had people slip on our apparatus (inaudible) floor, so it was extremely important that we got those
floors repainted and got them with the grid in and so people wouldn't slip and slide. But mostly, it
extends the age of those facilities as we work through the next 10 years of replacing aging buildings.
Without really getting into the budget discussion, as we move forward and stated earlier,
many of our budget decisions were based on our five twenty -year plan, and our past efforts, like our
vehicle replacement schedule, I'm proud to say that we have no major pieces of apparatus or light
vehicles included in this budget, an indication that the apparatus replacement plan is working. As
you know, those vehicles are very, very expensive, and over the last 4 of 5 years, with the help of the
administration and the council, we were able to replace our entire fleet, also using some grant
funding to assist in replacement of some of our vehicles, and at some very, very significant cost to us
in our budget.
The fire department's 2011 budget request is $20,513,225, and this includes the increases in
the negotiated wage and associated items, plus the increase in OPEB funding, and the current
proposed furlough. The budget distribution shows a significant difference in the operating budget
versus salaries or other related items, basically 91 percent of our budget is salaries, leaving
minimum funding for operating items. And as we continue to try and save, the impacts on services
will become more and more crucial as we have less funds for things like bandages, gasoline, and
toilet paper. Even with the dollar funded positions, any next steps towards further reductions could
have a significant impact on services.
Now, what has the department done to help make up for those shortfalls? Everywhere that
grant moneys are available, we've used them to improve our services, replace our equipment, provide
training and support programs. Since 2007, we have purchased through the homeland security
grant three rescue vehicles for $462,000, communications command vehicles, radios, portable
repeaters, upgrade network connectivity for voice over IP and the EOC to the tune of $1.3 million.
Cyber security upgrades for $100,000. Homeland security grant mobile data terminals for $280,000.
Homeland security grant additional turnout gear for $108,000. Homelands security complete change
out of our SCBAs for $375,000. CERT program $35,000. Volunteer assistance grant for wildland
• • APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 4)
firefighting $140,000. By the way, we just got notification from the State that we'll get an
additional $36,000 on the $50,000 for the next year, so the last couple years there's some increased
fundings have come through where they have passed that on to us. CDBG replacement of
(inaudible) jaws of life for $78,000. CDBG rescue trucks for $250,000. Assistance to firefighter grant
for the burn trailer $250,000. Assistance to firefighter grant driver simulator $285,000. We are also
the recipients of the national fire academy grants for training, State grants for training, homeland
security grants for training, for over $150,000 in overtime and travel cost. This training was
on- island, within the State. And out -of -State travel training for hazmat, first responder, bomb
awareness, records management system, fire prevention, arson awareness, and investigation
training, just to name a few.
Now we will continue the wave awareness and visitor education, Kauai explorer dot come,
junior lifeguard, and CERT community emergency response program this year, however, at a
reduced funding level. Funding for these programs is critical to providing our citizens the
opportunity to work together with the department in supporting lifesaving education and disaster
preparedness program. And again, our major apparatus replacement schedule, there is no major
apparatus being replaced this year.
And then finally, on the last page you have a outline of the positions that we have that are
currently open, when we intend to staff those positions, or if we intend to hire this year, and at the
very bottom of the page, the four WSO positions that are funded by the State, so they're grant funded
by the State. That's the only positions that we have that are grant funded. So in a nutshell, that's
kind of where we are in our budget presentation, and then we're willing to take any questions that
you might have.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, with that, member, any questions for the chief?
Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Good morning Chief. Thanks for the (inaudible) and, you
know, setting a good example for giving us a (inaudible) written report. Thank you very much. I'm
just going to go down the list of (inaudible) and try to be real quick. Dollar funded five firefighter
positions and those (inaudible), so has there been an analysis of how much of savings there are in
dollar funding those positions, if there's impact over time on the other side. I'm coming from the
assumption that overtime hours costs more than regular firefighter hours.
Chief Westerman: Any time we don't fund a position ,yes it has an impact on
overtime. It just depends on how many we don't have at any give time or in any given shift on any
given day. Because we have more or less one body per station to allow for one person to be off in
every station every day, so we try and manage that with 8 people off a day. So now that we will have
three now instead of five, the impact will be very minimal. And again, it goes to how we will staff
our fire stations on a daily basis. If we don't use any overtime and we're able to staff all the stations
and staff Hanalei for five for a day and that means we might move Hanapepe down to three for a
day, we might do that to avoid the overtime cost. We try and maintain the four (inaudible) manning,
if you remember, and that's the justification for our overtime and our rank - for -rank schedules is to
maintain that safe level of manning for initial response. Will it have impacts? But the impacts will
be minimum compared to the hiring cost at this point. Will I love to have every single position filled
every single day? Absolutely.
Mr. Bynum: And just looking at the list, is there a reason that the five
dollar funded are all on the west side?
Chief Westerman: No. Only because that's where the positions are right now.
When we assembled this for the council, it just so happens that's where the positions are right now.
• •
APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 5)
When we do have our shortfalls, we will probably have three of them on the west side, and that's
because the proximity of the stations together. Where if we short -staff Hanalei, then we have to
move more people to Hanalei on a daily basis, if we're already short - staffed in the Westside where
the stations are closer together where we would pull our crews from, therefore the staffing is
already there.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, and I understand that that doesn't mean the west side
will be short staffed...
Chief Westerman: Absolutely, absolutely.
Mr. Bynum: Because you'll make the movements as required by the daily
situation yeah. Okay, thanks for answering that. Could you explain back -to -back out of district call
increase in Hanalei district.
Chief Westerman: Yes, that's... you know, that's been going on for couple years
and why we have chosen to increase the staffing levels on a daily basis at Hanalei out of the other
crews. Because the district is so large and because they go on such a huge variety of calls, I won't
say it's routinely, but more often than it has been in the past. They could be on a call. An example
would be a rescue in Hanakap3`ai. It may have the engine and the rescue truck all the way down to
the far end of their district. Then if we get a fire or a medical call back in Princeville, then we have
to bring the crew all the way from Kapa`a. Now Kaikea will go a long way to help in that situation
where we'll be able to move up a company or a partial company to go into their district, but right
now, if we were to move up Kapa`a, then we would now leave our largest district unprotected without
services. So when they get that back -to -back call by having five firefighters, three on the engine and
two on the rescue truck, they can break away the rescue truck to come back, or stay into their
district, if they know it's going to be a long call. And back -to -back means they're out on a call, and
then another call comes in. And again, as big as their district is and as big as their call load is
getting. Also, we have the issue of the bridge closure, so again it was just closed the other day, and if
we send the engine across or we send the truck across, if we don't have enough firefighters
remaining behind, then we end up shifting firefighters all the way around the island.
Mr. Bynum: Moving on to ... you mentioned a couple times the relocation of
the Kapa`a station. We know about Kaikea, but I ... the Kapa`a station remains yeah?
Chief Westerman: It remains right now, yes.
Mr. Bynum: So there's no specific plans for relocating that station at this
time? Have we identified a site or...
Chief Westerman: We have been looking at several sites. We actually had some
very good conversation right before the downturn of the economy with department of Hawaiian
homelands in some areas that they were going to be developing on the Lihu`e side of the bridge,
which would really set our district in half, which is what we're trying to do, but of course that
development has gone on hold, so we're back ... kind of back to square one looking for the best place to
relocate that station, and then finding the economy to build it.
Mr. Bynum: So when you say the relocation is upon us, you mean we
really need to figure it out.
Chief Westerman: We do.
0 APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 6)
Mr. Bynum: Not that we've identified a site and it's going to happen soon,
right?
Chief Westerman: Right ... well we have identified a couple, but it's just that,
again, the economics of the department of Hawaiian homelands, which would be the best place to
relocate, we would then have to pretty much be the developer for the whole piece of land and
increase the cost, so...
Mr. Bynum: And then something we talked about some last year and you
mentioned in where it talks about large increase in call load and population spread, I asked last year
and I thought you had a pretty good answer about whether the fire department has input on land
use decisions and how it impacts your services. And I just ... you know, we're... we've entered a new
era where planning is happening less in silos, and there's more integration — administration is
contemplating perhaps applying for a grant to do a kind of integrated transportation- housing -land
use planning. I hope that that comes to fruition. I know they're exploring that possibility, because
we used to do these things kind of not thinking about all of the impacts of these decisions. In the last
year we've had four... close to 400 new ag subdivisions, which I know are difficult for you to service.
And so, you know, I'll put this in form of a question, but I know ... I recognize it's also a comment, that
I'm hoping that the fire department is involved in those land use discussions and in land use
planning, you know, with letting us know what the impact is on services, the cost of service delivery,
you know, response times, that kind of thing.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I would like to take that up as a separate agenda item,
think. You know, it might even ... we could have some really long discussions on that possibility.
Mr. Furfaro: It should be noted that currently the fire department does get
circulated every application to review at this point, but I think your question is much broader
than that.
Chief Westerman: And that pretty much was going to be my response. We do,
and you're right, and most of it is in the tube that we get it.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll send it in writing, probably put it on another agenda
item, as we get to discuss land use items, Mr. Bynum, if you don't...
Mr. Bynum: You're right. I think that's something we need to talk about,
but I hear the short answer is you are focused on those issues and providing input.
Chief Westerman: Yes sir.
Mr. Bynum: I think my last question has to do with...
Council Chair Asing: Let me try to answer that. You know, when you say focused
on that, I mean you're mandated, you have to do that, because it is sent to you anyway for a
response.
Chief Westerman: Yes sir.
Council Chair Asing: So you're... it's not whether you like it or not, it's a mandate.
Chief Westerman: Absolutely... And we do. As the plans come through as we
do, but again, like the chair has stated, we could spend some time in discussing how maybe that is
0 •
APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. ')
managed and maybe other inputs or, you know, updates of the plans might help us achieve better
development.
Mr. Bynum: I'd like very much to have that discussion. If it's not
appropriate today, that's fine, because...
Mr. Kaneshiro: I've already mentioned that, Mr. Bynum. So go ahead with
your next question.
Mr. Bynum: During the recent tsunami warning, was CERT activated?
Chief Westerman: Yes, and the north short CERT, the Princeville CERT team,
10auea CERT team has been practicing as part of their routine, of all things, the tsunami
evacuation, only because they know in their community they get all of the folks coming out of
Hanalei for the evacuation of vehicles. So they had been working and planning that for several
years, and one of the first things that PD had asked us is if we could activate CERT and make those
folks available to help them park all those cars. Because essentially that's what it was —was turning
couple fields into parking lots, and it would have taken several police officers, where the community
could help out, and they did, they did a very good job, very, very good job.
Mr. Bynum: So am I correct in assuming that's kind of tailor made for
CERT support, that kind of situation?
Chief Westerman: That's one of the things, yes, that CERTs in the community
can do; absolutely.
Mr. Bynum: And I just ... you know, last year one of my concerns was that
the volunteer position at the fire department went away, and you made a strong commitment to
CERT at the time, and so I just want to... I have to ask this question. You know, has the CERT
effort maintained its level of importance and resources since the loss of that position?
Chief Westerman: Well, I feel it has. We've done several things since then. We
have a firefighter that's assigned to that; he's a CERT coordinator. He also has ... we got five
firefighters trained as CERT instructors, and we're providing CERT training through them through
the department. He continues to interact with them on a daily /weekly basis. I mean he's available
to them, he has his own desk in the office, his own cell phone, and is very interactive with the
community, and he's actually who we called as soon as they said they want to activate CERT,
because he's the one that knows how to get a hold of everybody. So we're ... I think we're keeping the
same level intensity in the program.
Mr. Bynum: So the CERT training and identifying new members and
moving them through is all continuing?
Chief Westerman: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: And part of the reason I ask is I used to go to CERT events
couple times a year, and I haven't been invited to one.
Chief Westerman: Right, well we haven't done any quarterly ones. We've been
working just in each of the communities. It wasn't getting as big a draw as we thought it was going
to get, and it would get maybe 10 or 15 out of the 200 some... 320 now that we have. So we've been
trying to focus in each individual community what they want to do in their community.
• ` APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 8)
Mr. Bynum: Okay. So short version is you continue to have a commitment
to the CERT program.
Chief Westerman: Yes, absolutely.
Mr. Bynum: And it's adequately resourced. Thank you very much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Mr. Furfaro, go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, thank you. First of all, Chief, thank you for the fine job
your department does in our community. I want to say I'm extremely pleased with all of the things
you have accomplished over the last few years. I will start by asking, do you know how far along
they are exactly with the Piikoi design concept for you to move back over, and do we anticipate when
that might actually happen so we might have a chance to save some lease rent?
Chief Westerman: Well first of all, thank you for the kind words, and yes, we got
some very fine men and women doing great jobs in the fire department. Actually, I just... the
engineer and myself are pulling our hair out trying to hit the design deadlines and get those done,
and I think the last discussion over the door in my office is done, and so I think we're done with the
design. I did ask Ken the other day if he still felt we were going to make the timeline for finish of
construction, and he feels very confident that we will make that. So the design is done. There are
some issues that will come up as we go through. Again, we tried to incorporate the EOC and the
alternate dispatch, and that alternate dispatch is a bigger gorilla than we thought the monkey might
be. So we're going to press on with our design that we have now. We're providing them the space,
and then they're going to work separately to make that happen. So what I did was I gave up space
in the building for them to house it, and now they'll be able to go on with their separate design.
Mr. Furfaro: And that was your decision?
Chief Westerman: Yes, because otherwise we're going to hold up the design at
this point. They're ready. They're just, you know, they got to figure out how big their gorilla is going
to be and maybe how small it's going to be for the space that's available.
Mr. Furfaro: Over the years we have done staffing increases for the fire
department that ultimately for the safety of the crews, and also for the overall homeowner insurance
rating, we got to a point that we actually improved our rating. In this budget, are you satisfied that
there will not be any insurance revisions as it relates to homeowners qualifying for the best possible
rates?
Chief Westerman: Good question. I feel that if the ISO came back this year and
did their evaluation of the island of Kauai as far as fire services are, this budget will maintain the
current service ratings that we have with ISO.
. Mr. Furfaro: And for your personnel, are we at a staffing level that for the
firemen themselves, we are meeting safety requirements?
Chief Westerman: Yes.
Council Chair Asing: Councilmember Furfaro, Chair, can we handle this like if
there is a same question, a follow -up question, so that we can clear it?
Mr. Furfaro: Understood.
• •
APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 9)
Council Chair Asing: I wanted to follow -up on the question that was asked by
Councilmember Furfaro regarding the time element for moving into the new area. So I did not get a
response, an answer to that, on when.
Chief Westerman:
telling me, and that should be...
Council Chair Asing:
Chief Westerman
Council Chair Asing:
Chief Westerman
Council Chair Asing:
Chief Westerman:
Council Chair Asing:
time when exactly. So 14 months.
Oh, we're about 14 months from moving in, that's what Ken is
So that target date of 14 months is...
Should be July of next year.
in fact accurate and it is 14 months from when?
Today.
From today?
From this timeline, yes. That's like July of next year.
Okay, that's what I was looking for. I was looking for the
Chief Westerman: Well, I don't have an exact date, and you know, we can get
back to you with that when we finally get the contract for the actual renovation to be done. But like
I said, the conversation I had with the engineer the other day, he feels that the amount of work
that's got to be done, he can get a contractor to complete it within the timeline that you have set
for us.
Council Chair Asing: Okay 14 months, good. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: As you said, that is the original plan.
Chief Westerman: Yes, that is the original plan.
Mr. Furfaro: And then I didn't have anymore questions regarding
firefighter staffing and its impact on our homeowner insurance rating. Did anybody have...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Anyone had questions about that, the impact? I think the
Chief answered it, so...
Mr. Furfaro: Also then on your equipment, especially your big items,
during the time that I've been on the council, we have responded to your request about new
equipment, and you know, the replacement of the fleet and so forth. And I heard you say that we're
on target. Did I hear you right that all of our primary equipment is fairly new now?
Chief Westerman: Yes sir
Mr. Furfaro: And do we have the best of the older equipment. held in
redundancy? We have one or two engines in backup?
Chief Westerman: Yes sir. We have three, and we are trying to staff... not staff
one, trying to equip one so it's an immediate full response, and then the other two are standby.
• • APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 10)
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. When Mr. Bynum asked this question, I almost chimed
in, but I just want... regarding the eastside plans, I understood that when department of Hawaiian
homes looks at developing those areas south of Wailua river on the Lihu`e side, we would be able to
work with them on a additional station at the appropriate time. But I was always under the
impression that the Kapa`a station would remain active, but we would look at something up in
Wailua homesteads?
Chief Westerman: Well, we did some additional reviews of going up Wailua
homesteads. The problems associated with going up Wailua Homesteads is the ability to respond to
the rest of the district in a reasonable amount of time. Once you pull it off the main street, so to
speak, you get off of main street and you put it up in the community, you pretty much then only
serves that community, because the time—the time response times now become extended by coming
down the hill. Everything beyond, like the Kintaro's area and going towards Wailua and going
into... towards Lzhu`e now becomes extended because we've actually moved Kaikea going more north.
Mr. Furfaro: But I always understood in the scenario that Wailua got a
station, Wailua homestead. The fact of the matter would be that the Kapa`a oceanside would be
restored and renovated until such time that we're able to do something with Hawaiian Homes. Is
that not the case?
Chief Westerman: Well, that can be the case, absolutely. And we did some work
on it just months ago...
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, but that's basic...
Chief Westerman: But that's basic (unaudible)...
Mr. Furfaro: ...esthetics, repair, so forth.
Chief Westerman: Yeah, absolutely.
Mr. Furfaro: I'm talking about just some upgrades to the station. But I
wanted to make sure I clarified that. I'm only talking about the Wailua station, if we are able to
keep ... is that fire unit two, in Kapa`a.
Chief Westerman: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: That is an option?
Chief Westerman: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Future discussions, I guess. You said salaries were 91
percent of your budget.
Chief Westerman: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: I assume you meant salaries and benefits.
Chief Westerman: Absolutely, I apologize. Yes, it's salaries and all other related
items that are related to salaries.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, because with the help of Mr. Rezentes, this council has
stayed focused on making sure that all of our potential liabilities dealing with benefits have been
0
APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 11)
funded. On your five firefighters that you have dollar funded, and I'll send this over via Jade with a
question, I want to match up some of these numbers for the positions that you have, and what you
have identified as Hanapepe station, Kalaheo, and Waimea, because in the 09 -10 budget, the council
identified $184,000 of salaries for those five positions, and now we're ... I'm assuming those are the
positions that were identified as being dollar funded? And I'd just like to get some verifications on
the position numbers as it relates to your narrative. So I'll send that over as a question, if I can?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: Have you made any comparison on where we're at with the
previous year's overtime versus what you're anticipating for overtime in this new budget? If you
haven't, I'm going to ask that that be done as well. I'd like to see the value of those five dollar
funded positions as their ability to offset any cost in overtime. And clearly, the difference on
overtime is not the actual funding of the first straight time hours, it's only the half time that's the
premium, and so we can only compare it, you know, to the savings against the premium portion
(inaudible).
Chief Westerman: And you bring up a very good point. If you're only talking
about the half time, the half time takes twice as many hours a full time salary to make up for that.
Mr. Furfaro: So I would like to see just a little comparison year to year.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Anyone else has any questions on those dollar funded
positions? We can have some discussion on that right now. Okay, continue. Any other questions?
Mr. Furfaro: No, actually I've gone through the line by line items in the
chief's budget, and you know, pretty much that's all I had, and I'll send over those questions on the
position numbers.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. I have a question for the chief. So in regards to some
of these positions, so through the recruitment process, we were able to fill vacant positions if the
positions become available?
Chief Westerman: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Through the recruitment process you'll be able to find
qualified people to fill some positions?
Chief Westerman: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I needed to ask that question because there's some
departments that come in and ask for dollar funded positions, and at the same time, some, I'm just
saying as an example, that they have problems trying to find personnel to fill those positions.
Chief Westerman: We have a current list of still remaining 40 people that have
qualified in the last 6 months... actually the ... the 8 we have came off that list.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright. Thank you. Any other questions for the chief?
Mr. Furfaro: I have one more question for him.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Furfaro.
• APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 12)
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Chief, as it relates to water safety, can I assume
that the position that you've taken in your budget is those positions that we currently have, not new
positions, but they are ... they should be considered as necessary positions?
Chief Westerman: Absolutely.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, even when it comes to daily coverage and so forth?
Chief Westerman: Yes sir.
Mr. Furfaro: That is how I interpreted your presentation, and you're
confirming that for me now.
Chief Westerman: It takes everybody we've got in ocean safety in order to
provide the service that we're providing now today.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, and you know, I was only talking about current
positions.
Chief Westerman: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Asing go ahead.
Council Chair Asing: I have a question on page 4, the middle of the page, you
mentioned 3.8 million in various grants that you've been awarded I guess for the year, and my
question is, it appears by what you have written there, like you have people in the department that
are writing grants, am I correct?
Chief Westerman: Yes sir.
Council Chair Asing: How many people do you have writing grants?
Chief Westerman: Five, maybe six.
Council Chair Asing: What are they doing besides that, I mean...
Chief Westerman: Being firefighters. They ... we have some very dedicated
firefighters that help.us as we look... every grant opportunity comes up, to do research on the grants,
and then write the product. The SAFER grant is a good example of that. Kihpaki Vaughn, he did a
very good job on that one. We have Captain Lake, he's done tremendous jobs on the assistance to
firefighter grants...
Council Chair Asing: Okay, why don't we do this. Thank you. Maybe I'll send the
question over and you can give me the... give us the information on the grants that were written and
by who. The reason I ask that question is I believe we have in the budget, we have had in the budget
for years, one grants person, and that grants person was originally to be housed in the police
department, and they moved it to Civil Defense, and I think that's Elton. And supposedly, he was
supposed to be the grant writer for Civil Defense, Fire, and Police. So what I'd like to find out is how
many grants has he written for the fire department versus how many have you done by yourselves as
a department.
i •
APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 13)
Chief Westerman: And in that vain, I'll let you know that Elton Ushio is a big
part of our grants program; he absolutely is.
Council Chair Asing: Yes ... well, should be; that's why we funded that position for
that purpose.
Chief Westerman: But if you just look at what we're doing, he couldn't handle
just us. He's going to need help somehow, and so that's how we do it.
Council Chair Asing: Good, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Good. We'll follow -up with a question from the Chair on that.
Mr. Bynum you had a question for the chief?
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, I missed it... and we're going to have a separate
session, I understand, to talk about furloughs, but I want to say that I was very surprised and am
concerned that water safety officers are scheduled for furlough in your budget. I was just very
surprised, and I'll follow -up with those questions later, but I have real concerns about that, just
because they're HGEA. I see that as kind of an anomaly. In my thinking, and this is the question,
in my thinking, water safety officers are an integral part of the department, like firefighters. And
why they're in HGEA, you know, I don't know all the answers to that, but I just thought we were
going in to this being clear that public safety officers were not going to be subject to furloughs. So we
can follow -up on the 20th.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah, we'll have the discussion on the 20th. We're going to be
discussing about the furloughs and we'll come up with a notice, an agenda item on that. Any other
questions for the chief? Lani.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. Good morning Chief. Thank you for all your
department does. I had a quick question. I'm looking at the annual report from last year, and I was
curious about the ocean safety bureau that we're just discussing. Is the water safety officer have 29?
Is that something that's accurate? ...of authorized personnel?
Chief Westerman: I don't have the number off the top of my head, I apologize.
Ms. Kawahara: But it's quite...
Chief Westerman: But all of our ocean safety water safety officer positions are
full, yes.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Chief Westerman: We have 45 current positions in ocean safety.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. If I could... because you have a ... if I could just get a
listing of how they break out into your different bureaus, operations I guess, training and research
bureau, fire prevention bureau, and ocean safety bureau. If I could get a breakout to see how that
looks, because in our budget yeah, it's just a full list of all positions and not broken up by bureau.
Chief Westerman: Oh, okay. We can break out the whole department by bureau
and provide that to you. Yes.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you.
• APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 14)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for the Chief? At this time I wanted to
bring Mr. Rezentes up, if you don't mind, Chief And if we have more questions after Mr. Rezentes,
we'll call you back up. But you can sit, you're welcome to be right there next to Mr. Rezentes. Okay
Mr. Rezentes, you have the floor.
WALLY REZENTES JR., Director of Finance: Wally Rezentes, Director of Finance, for the
record. I'm not sure if I heard the question or the response correctly with regard to the Kaikea fire
station and the Kapa`a fire station. I just wanted to clarify that the plan was, with respect to
Kapa`a, was to look at long term options of locating it on Hawaiian Home property, the future
development of Wailua, as Councilmember Furfaro stated. And that the plan was to do that,
maintain Kaikea, relocated Kapa`a, and it was not to locate a station up in the Wailua homesteads
area. I believe the fire department some modeling of response times from the Wailua homesteads
area and it made a lot more sense to locate it on the highway frontage location. So I just wanted to
make that clarification, if I heard myself ... if I heard incorrectly.
Mr. Furfaro: I think... if I may respond?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead, absolutely.
Mr. Furfaro: I think a lot of it was based on the fact that department of
Hawaiian Homes would need to be a partner if we got there, but in the meantime, obviously I would
think, and even at the fire commission level, there would be some discussions, because department of
Hawaiian Homes now also knows for them to go forward, they have to deal with partners. And it
seems that if they're deferred 6, 8, 10 years, we're obviously going to have to do something to
upgrade Kapa`a, you know. And I just wanted to voice my concerns, and I think at one time, or at
least over the 7 years I've been on the council, there was this consideration for Wailua
houselots ... I'm sorry, Wailua homesteads, but at that time the modeling had not been done that
referenced, you know, is there going to be any call savings times and so forth. But I would hope in
the near future this becomes a discussion on the agenda of the fire commission. Thank you
Mr. Rezentes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Bynum, you had a question for Mr. Rezentes? Go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: Just a follow -up on that to make sure that the community and
I'm clear. The Kapa`a ... we have the new Kaikea station coming in. The Kapa`a station right now
continues to operate and will continue to operate in the foreseeable future, and we're looking at
some... potentially sometime mauka of the Aloha Beach Resort area, right, in that land. Is that
correct? But in the meantime, Kapa`a will continue to operate.
Mr. Rezentes: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other questions for Mr. Rezentes? Mr. Chair.
Council Chair Asing: Wally, you know, I'm not sure whether I'm correct or not, but
I believe that I am. One of the primary reasons for moving to Kaikea was because the Kapa`a fire
station was in a tsunami inundated area and that there were federal funds involved, and with the
move, the reason for the move, was that as a primary reason. And once the move took place, the idea
was you should be taking the so called tsunami zoned area fire department out of the picture. I
believe it was tied to federal funds. There was reasons that were used. And if we start to take our
reasoning, somebody takes our reasoning apart, you said because of this you're going to move here,
you make the move and you continue to operate there, I believe we may be putting ourselves into
jeopardy. So I want you to follow -up, because as I recall, that was the primary reason for that move.
0 0
APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 15)
Mr. Rezentes: If we are able to move to the Hawaiian Homeland site or
another site that's out of the tsunami inundation flood zone, our intention would be to close down
Kapa`a...the current Kapa`a station.
Council Chair Asing: Yeah, Wally, while I understand that and you may be correct,
all I'm saying is that I believe that the move to Kaikea was because it was tsunami inundated, there
was federal funds involved, and once you did the move, you were supposed to take down the Kapa`a
station. Anyway, food for thought. Think about it, go do the research, and I think you need to look
at it carefully, because I believe that was the reasoning that was used. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Mr. Rezentes? If not, any questions
for the chief?
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah, just one more.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you budget chair. The quick question I had was the
not to exceed dates for the contracts for the State and Federal grants come up on June 30, 2010. If
you could just help me, does it ... do you get another grant and loan automatically, or does the county
pick it up?
Chief Westerman: Well, it depends on the State budget. It's a grant with the
State budget to provide those water safety officers. As far as we know, it's currently in the State
budget, and we will renew our current grant contract with them to extend them at some time once
they pass their budget. But that's the current end date right now.
Ms. Kawahara: So right now they are in the budget and you're keeping track
to make sure if we need to call them to say ... if they yank it out, right?
Chief Westerman: Yes. We're just waiting on the State to pass their budget,
because it will be whatever the bottom line budget is. If they take it out of the budget, then we'll
have the issue of ... they're not funded with general funds in our budget; they are funded with State
grant funds in our budget.
Ms. Kawahara: So technically, if something... if they do bad things at the
State, make bad decisions on that, then we would have to ... you would come back or we would need to
make sure it gets in the budget for the general.
Chief Westerman: Yes.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. And because he brought it up, Councilmember Bynum,
about the water safety officers and the furloughs, I'm concerned about that also. So if you could give
me a percentage breakdown of the salaries for the fire suppression and ocean safety as it percentage
of the whole ... all of your total salaries, what it could be. Because obviously I see here that it's a
substantial and ... yeah, it's a substantial bureau, and to consider it not necessary or having to be
staffed all the time, I wanted to see how much money we're putting into it to show how much
commitment there is to that particular bureau.
Chief Westerman: We can do that.
0
APRIL 12, 2010
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 16)
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, because it's very important that I think we recognize
that it's a substantial and important aspect of your services. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other committee members have questions for the
chief? If not, seeing none, Chief, thank you very much for being here, along with your staff.
Appreciate that and your report.
Chief Westerman: It's our officer training program, is why they're here. Okay
thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you very much. At this time, if we have liquor control
here, so we're... Are you fully staffed? Are you going to make the presentation later on, Mr. Honma,
just say yes or no. If not, I'm ... just to determine how long we're going to take a recess. We're going
to take a 5- minute recess at this time and then we'll continue.
The Fire Department budget review concluded at 10:03 a.m., and there being no objections, the
meeting was in recess.
•
APRIL 12, 2010
LIQUOR DEPT. (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on Monday, April 12, 2010, at 10:25 a.m., and
proceeded as follows:
LIQUOR DEPARTMENT
Mr. Kaneshiro: We have Mr. Eric Honma from the liquor department.
Mr. Honma, you have the floor.
ERIC HONMA, Director, Liquor Department: Good morning Council Chair Asing,
Committee Chair Kaneshiro, and members of the council. For the record, my name is Eric Honma. I
am the director and chief investigator for the liquor department, and as you notice, I don't have an
entourage like the fire department. If I brought that many people, nobody would be back at the
office right now. I guess I'll begin my budget presentation by going over the request for information
from the council chair regarding positions. The highlight for my department I guess for the coming
year ... well at the end of this year there will be a vacancy, and it's a good vacancy in the sense that it
is a result of retirement. Senior investigator Shimatsu will be retiring after some 30 plus years as
an investigator with the department, and so we have already commenced the process to fill the
vacancy, which is anticipated to be on May 31. We have already... we received permission from the
administration, as well as personnel services. We have gone out to recruitment. We have identified
candidates, and next week we will be conducting interviews, and we anticipate that the vacancy will
be filled on June 1, the first day that it's open, and I think that's partially due to, I believe two years
ago I explained to the council the succession plan that we had put in place, and so in anticipation of
his retirement and through the process, we have been able to train, as well as you know internally be
able to promote from within. Since it is a pending personnel matter, I'm at this point not able to
release any names, but we do have a qualified candidate that will be filling the position, and the
succession plan has allowed us to have a very seamless transition. Vacancy May 31, and we will fill
the position on June 1, and so we're happy with that, because that position is very key to the
department. Not only does that person TA to my position when I'm on other business, but that
position also is in charge of licensing and does all the investigation on all the license applications as
they come before the department, also reviews all of the promotional requests from manufacturers,
retailers, wholesalers, and insures that all of the federal and State laws are met with regard to any
kind of promotion that the retailers do. And so that will be the highlight for me.
Also distributed as part of the budget recap, the administration has requested that all the
departments look to, you know, obviously reducing whatever budget allocation that we're able to
achieve, and we do have a county attorney position that was attached to our budget which was not
filled this year due to, you know, the obvious economic considerations. So that funding 100% will be
credited to the license fees for the coming fiscal year as part of the budget reallocation, so it will go
back to the license fees. For the coming fiscal year, we've decided not to fill that position and also
dollar funded it, in anticipation of the licensees, you know, having difficult time in subsidizing our
department's budget. Also in the air fare general area, as well as per diem general, we were able to
realize some savings. As it happens, coming fiscal year Kauai will be the host for our annual State
conference of liquor commissions, as well as the host for the State liquor investigators conference. So
we were able to realize some savings in that part as far as travel, as well as per diem. And so with
that, I'm open to any questions that the councilmembers have. Don't all raise your hands at once.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay committee members, any questions? Mr. Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: First of all, thank you for the overview. On some of the
operating expenses that you deal with your inspectors on, we do ... they travel with county vehicles or
their own vehicles?
Mr. Honma: Their own vehicles.
• APRIL 12, 2010
LIQUOR DEPT. (Pg. 2)
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. So when I look at this reimbursement line on gasoline
and so forth, even though it's their own, are they traveling with a county gas card?
Mr. Honma: Yes, they are.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. But I see almost ... I actually I see no increase
anticipated for fuel cost this summer.
Mr. Honma:
Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: And this is typically the ... we're within four dollars of last
year's budget and this year's budget. Do you think that's realistic, Eric, (inaudible) that type of
gasoline.
Mr. Honma: Yes it is, because with that amount, we still do not use the
entire budget amount. We had... not padded it, but two years ago when the gasoline increases
started to come around, we did increase our budget. Based on my monthly analysis, on the ... we get
back from the finance department, we are on budget and we will probably use about 70 to maybe 72
percent of our budgeted amount for this coming fiscal year, so I feel safe and comfortable for next
fiscal year.
Mr. Furfaro: So even if this number came down a little bit, you feel there's
a contingency to cover the cost.
Mr. Honma: Yes.
Council Chair Asing: Councilmember Furfaro, can I follow up on that question?
Mr. Furfaro: Sure.
Council Chair Asing: Exactly how is it handled? The gasoline is from the county?
County provides the gasoline...
Mr. Honma: Yes, it is from Senter Petroleum.
Council Chair Asing: ...for the private vehicle.
Mr. Honma: Yes.
Council Chair Asing: And then what do we pay them, though?
Mr. Honma: The investigators have a $300 a month auto allowance, as
well as the county also picks up their liability insurance for using their vehicle for official work. So
the $300 a month covers for wear and tear of the personal vehicle, and on top of that, we also ... the
county picks up, the department does, the gas. So each of them have a gas card and they're able to
go to the three Senter Petroleum centers to fill whenever they need, and we keep a record of how
much gas they draw, and based on the weekly miles that they travel, we have a check and balance
that the senior investigator does to make sure that they're drawing not more than actually what
they report they need. So it's based on, you know, we have a record, a base record of how many miles
per gallon each of the investigator's vehicle uses, and so on a weekly basis, the senior investigator, in
reviewing the weekly report of the investigators, will check to insure that they draw no more gas
than they actually are using, based on their daily reports.
•
•
APRIL 12, 2010
LIQUOR DEPT. (Pg. 3)
Council Chair Asing:
So actually it's the $300 allocated, plus the payment of the
vehicle insurance policy.
Mr. Honma:
Yes.
Council Chair Asing:
So that's what they get in return.
Mr. Honma:
Yes, instead of using ... you know, as opposed to we buying the
vehicle and it becoming a county fleet.
Council Chair Asing:
Dould there at any time be that they could exceed that $300
figure because they traveled more?
Mr. Honma:
No, that's a fined amount.
Council Chair Asing:
That's a fixed amount.
Mr. Honma:
It's a fixed amount that's negotiated between HGEA and the
department as a monthly reimbursement ... not a reimbursement, but a subsidy, if you will, for them
using their personal vehicle in lieu of the county purchasing a vehicle and becoming a fleet vehicle.
Council Chair Asing:
Okay. Is that by contract you said?
Mr. Honma:
It's a memorandum of agreement.
Council Chair Asing:
Between the union...
Mr. Honma:
And the department.
Council Chair Asing:
And the department.
Mr. Honma:
Yes.
Council Chair Asing:
Okay, thank you. So now it doesn't seem to show up in your
budget as a line item for contract or professional fees or insurance. So the insurance reimbursement
for their cars, does that show up in administration
and general in the finance department? What
line item is that?
Mr. Honma:
No, it's part of the auto allowance. Everything is covered in
the auto allowance.
Mr. Furfaro:
Okay.
Mr. Honma:
We just have one line item that encompasses both.
Mr. Furfaro:
So their insurance naming us co- insured is in that line item.
Mr. Honma:
Yes.
Mr. Furfaro:
And the actual proof of the co- insured, that page is in your
office, or where would it be kept?
•
• APRIL 12, 2010
LIQUOR DEPT. (Pg. 4)
Mr. Honma: They submit their ... I believe it's semi - annual policy to the
department. When they submit that, we will cover their... reimburse them for their portion, and we
retain that as...
Mr. Furfaro: And you retain that?
Mr. Honma: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. I have no more questions committee chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You have other questions? Go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you budget chair. Good morning Mr. Honma. I'm
looking at the latest information we have for the gross liquor sales at the consumer level from the
annual report that's the latest one we have from you and it's going down. Is that still accurate?
Mr. Honma: We anticipate it will level off at this point. There was
approximately 9.5 percent decrease from 2008 to 2009...I believe it was 8,800,000, which was
obviously anticipated.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. My question is because your department is one of the
most interesting departments to me, because you're ... I learned that you're kind of self- sustaining by
your fines and everything else and your licenses. So my question is, are you still self - sustaining if
these continue to go down, or you know, they're at a lower level now and balancing out?
Mr. Honma: We will be fully funded.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, so all the money for the training and trips and stuff
is... goes into the general fund, but comes back out because it's your general moneys that go into the
general... or you have a separate fund yeah.
Mr. Honma: We have a separate fund. Nothing goes into general fund.
Liquor department has its own separate fund. Whatever remains at the end of the year is credited to
the licensees during the budget process, and then we only collect ... we will assess them the difference
that we need.
Ms. Kawahara: So the budget that you submit isn't general fund budget
then... moneys.
Mr. Honma: No.
Ms. Kawahara: It's liquor fund... separate funds.
Mr. Honma: Yes.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you very much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other questions for Mr. Honma? Mr. Chang go
ahead.
Mr. Chang: Thank you chair. I think this is more in the light of curiosity.
You said that we're having a statewide conference here? I mean you don't have to travel, but it's
going to be on Kauai.
APRIL 12, 2010
LIQUOR DEPT. (Pg. 5)
Mr. Honma: Yes. Every year there is a state conference of liquor
commissions, as well as a state investigators conference. And if like HSAC, it rotates.
Mr. Chang: So both are here this year?
Mr. Honma: Yes.
Mr. Chang: What would those dates be?
Mr. Honma: I believe we are still negotiating it, but we are looking at
mid - November for the liquor commission conference, and October for the investigators conference.
Mr. Chang: And how many days and how many attendees you...
Mr. Honma: It's two and a half days, and as far as liquor commission,
adjudication board members and industry members, we'll average between 85 to a hundred per
conference. And the investigators one, they will have normally about 30 to 35 investigators, because
again, they're coming from all of the islands.
Mr. Chang: Okay thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Bynum go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: This is also in the realm of curiosity. Does your commission
have anything to do with advertising of alcohol banners, offsite advertising, that kind of thing?
Mr. Honma: No, that's basically..if it's... I'm sure you're referring to, you
know, the Bud Light and the Coors when you see advertised. That is basically through the building
division sign ordinance.
Mr. Bynum: I'm just not a fan of liquor logos on ... or offsite advertising for,
you know, happy hour and ... but that's not your department; that's a sign ordinance issue.
Mr. Honma: As long as it's consistent with federal regulation in regards to
sanity and those kind of things, it basically falls within the purview of the building department and
their sign ordinance.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, because I... In the State of Hawaii you don't have
ban ... you don't have billboards.
Mr. Honma: No.
Mr. Bynum: And those are billboards to me when you put a liquor logo on
there. So but that's not your kuleana, so...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, with that...
Mr. Furfaro: I got one more question. So Mr. Honma, when I read the
reimbursements to hotels, it looks... If I recall right, they estimate their quarterly sales?
• • APRIL 12, 2010
LIQUOR DEPT. (Pg. 6)
Mr. Honma: No. We did away with that two years, so now they only report
to us on an annual basis. We give them between June 1 to July 30 to report to us, at the close of our
fiscal year.
Mr. Furfaro: So it's one time annual now.
Mr. Honma: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay.
Mr. Honma: It was kind of cumbersome for both the department, as well
as the licensees, to have to do it on a semi - annual basis.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, I'm good.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. No other questions for Mr. Honma? With that
Mr. Honma, you're excused. Thank you very much for being here this morning.
We're going to take a short recess, and we're trying to get civil defense to be here, and we'll
soon reconvene right after that. We're in recess.
The Liquor Department budget review concluded at 10:40 a.m., and there being no objections, the
meeting was in recess.
APRIL 12, 2010
CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on Monday, April 12, 2010, at 10:55 a.m., and
proceeded as follows:
CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY
Mr. Kaneshiro: We have the Civil Defense Agency up at this time. With that,
I will call Mr. Mark Marshall up. You have the floor, sir.
MARK MARSHALL, Administrator, Civil Defense Agency: Good morning Council. Good
to see you folks in your new nice new digs here. Congratulations on that. Looks good.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, civil defense issued us a presentation earlier. Is
that the one we're going to... Is that the most current one, Mark?
Mr. Marshall:
Mr. Furfaro:
Mr. Marshall:
Mr. Furfaro:
Council Chair Asing:
Mr. Furfaro:
Yes.
Same one, okay.
Yes sir.
Thank you.
Which one is that, Jay?
It was put in our mailbox last week.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll make a copy and have that circulated. I have it here.
Anybody else need a copy? Hold on for a few minutes so we can get a copy... our committee members
can get a copy of it.
Mr. Marshall: I'm not going to read you my mission statement or the
department overview, but I would like to start with your request for personnel additions. There's no
new personnel additions. If you look at our huge organizational chart, you'll see I'm the emergency
management officer, I have a plans... a new plans and operations officer, Elton Ushio's prevailed in
that interview process, which vacates his position as grant coordinator, and then I have Karleen
Abalos as my secretary, public safety secretary, and I have two grant funded positions that are from
homeland security moneys. One of them takes care of mostly the books and contracts and stuff. The
other, Gregg Morishige, takes care of training and exercise, among other duties of the homeland
security money. So that's pretty much where we are with our personnel setup. I have deferred
filling the grants coordinator's position until October so that I could realize part of the 7 percent
reduction in my budget as requested by the administration. And so if you look at the spreadsheet
portion of it that I omitted but finally got you a copy of, it shows you the difference. The delayed
hiring would save 33,200 in the categories of obviously salaries, social security contributions, and
retirement contributions in that. So the total savings comes out to 41K, 500 and 95 dollars. So
that's how we gave back the 7- percent that was requested from us.
Mr. Furfaro: So this 41,595, that is what the mayor references as his
strategy to short fund — postpone the hiring.
Mr. Marshall: Correct.
Mr. Furfaro: By two to three months, he said to us it would be quarterly.
• • APRIL 12, 2010
CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY (Pg. 2)
Mr. Marshall: Right, so that's... my assumption is that this would start in
July (inaudible).
Mr. Furfaro: So we'll fill this in October then.
Mr. Marshall: Correct. And then that's what I indicated in the little
narrative that I wrote. Then there's a pie chart that shows 42 percent is salaries and wages, fringe
is another 24 percent, and then it shows the rental and fixed cost ... when we pay the rent on all of the
radio police sites for our 800 megahertz system, we control the contracts and pay those leases on
those sites, and we also pay the light bills on the sirens. There's not an actual meter on them. KIUC
figures the value of draw of that electricity and gives us a flat rate, then we pay monthly on that one.
We also have been doing about 50 or 60 travel requests for different federal/State travel, so we need
some money in our account to certify... (inaudible) the travel; it's all reimbursed by federal
government, but we have to have the money upfront to make the travel purchases, the tickets and
rent -a -cars and flights and all of that stuff, and that's why ... that travel is not just for the four civil
service employees in my agency. That's pretty much all I have in terms of a presentation for you.
There's not much here in a 500K budget.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, with that, Mr. Chang.
Mr. Chang: Thank you. Mark, you were saying that you pay the
electricity for the sirens? What sirens were you making reference to?
Mr. Marshall: Well, we have 54 outdoor warning sirens. About half of those
are solar, so they don't require any electricity from KIUC. The other half do, however, and they
charge batteries so they're ready all the time to sound sirens. The sirens are owned by the State,
and we have an agreement with them to obviously sound them and employ them if we need them in
an emergency. We test them first working day of the month at 11:45, and we pay ... our portion is
paying the electrical bills on those sirens.
Mr. Chang: So do all of them work?
Mr. Marshall: Again, we test them monthly. Last month we had about 5
or 6 failures for varying reasons. It either can be power supply, which would be our side, or the
electronic side, which would be the State side, and that includes the 800 megahertz radio that fires
them, and then the inner workings of the sirens to get those to turn on.
Mr. Chang: So if they don't work, it's minor or additional cost to get them
rebooted or...
Mr. Marshall: There's (inaudible) additional cost to us. What we do is we
identify it to the State civil defense technicians who come over quarterly and they leave tools and
ladders and things here in my shop. They go out and they take out hit list, a punchhst of failures.
Sometimes we don't have the ability to contact somebody to do the groundtruthing that the thing's
actually fired, so we'll put a ... if you see our reports, it'll say NC, which means no contact. NS means
that no sound, that we got verification that it was supposed to sound and it didn't on that occasion.
And I've got to say, when we employed them for the Chile earthquake, we had about 5 or 6 that
failed at that point, but I got really good response from that, particularly because we had coupled it
with connect CTY and done the public notification. So anybody that's listed in the phone book
automatically would have gotten a call. It's an automatic in on that one. And then we had
another... about 5,000 people that signed up their cell phones or SMS text messaging or hearing
impaired devices like TDY and stuff like that, or had it emailed to their computers or their phones or
whatever. We got nothing but raves and good reviews on the employment of that, and that is a $50
APRIL 12, 2010
CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY (Pg. 3)
line ... $50,000 line item in my budget for continuing that service. It was purchased by the State
originally as a pilot for us, and then we picked it up subsequently. We're in the process of re- bidding
it, so we're not sure which vendor we're going to get, but we're in that process and trying to get that
(inaudible).
Mr. Chang: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, thank you. Mark, you're feeling comfortable about short -
funding the actual grant person for that 120 days?
Mr. Marshall: Am I comfortable with it?
Mr. Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Marshall: No.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay.
Mr. Marshall: You wanted me to be honest, right?
Mr. Furfaro: That's the only way to be. But you know what, I prepared to
ask that question, because we're saving 120 days, the reality, we could be shortchanging ourselves on
some opportunities.
Mr. Marshall: We're trying to do the best we can with what we have.
Mr. Furfaro: I understand. I just needed to ask that question. I don't
know how you calculated your fringe cost if you're delaying these people for 90 days, but you know, I
look at the fringe benefits as being a percentage of the total salaries. The way you laid it out here,
J actually a percentage of your total operating cost. But if you match it up, your benefits are going
from last year of 48% of payroll to 56.7. 1 mean it's not a lot of money, it's about 10 grand, but 10
grand is 10 grand, and if you have, you know, this change of people, there's certain people that are
coming in at first year, you know, they're just beginning to earn benefits. They're not benefits that
are already in existence. So could I ask you to just check on that how you came out? I know there's
line items from medical to insurance right down the line, but...
Mr. Marshall: My understanding is it is a 56 percent benefit package.
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, that's what you have for this year, 56.7, but in the
previous year you had 48.2. So one of them is...
Mr. Marshall: One of them is... What happened was Clifford Ikeda retired
in August, so we obviously stopped paying that salaries and wages and his fringes, so that... off the
top of my head...
Mr. Furfaro: Then no bother, you've answered my question. Some of that
is related to retirements, some natural attrition in your department. Okay.
Mr. Marshall: Yes sir, I think that... Off the top of my head, I think that's
what's going on.
• APRIL 12, 2010
CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY (Pg. 4)
Mr. Furfaro: That does make sense. And your variable costs are pretty
much the same as last year. May I ask, when it comes to rental contracts equipment and so forth, is
everything pretty secure? I mean do we have agreements on rental cost for facilities and so
forth that...
Mr. Marshall: Pretty much. I have two of them that ... two radio lease sites
that I still need to negotiate contracts on. One is with Hawaiian Homeland, and I don't expect that
to be a terribly expensive one, and the other one is with Grove Farm, and I've been in contact with
the vice president, Michael Tresler, about sending me a contract to get that up. I've asked him again
to hold that static and make it ... I usually ask for five year term or longer, but I've asked in this case
that he do me a two three -year contract with a ... where we are now and maybe a one percent gain on
that, and let's renegotiate as things look brighter for us in the short term.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, so you feel pretty comfortable that these rentals and
other fined costs you got a handle on it...
Mr. Marshall: I believe so.
Mr. Furfaro: ... and we're not going to see a deviation from what's
presented.
Mr. Marshall: No, and we figured in the incremental cost on some of the
contracts that we know are already going to pop up on us, whether it's through this fiscal year or
moving forward, and we've kind of figured that in.
Mr. Furfaro: And then the same question for utilities. As we're getting into
the summer, July, August... you feel comfortable you're going to be able to stay within your...
Mr. Marshall: I think so. We actually don't pay the electric bill at the police
station; that's done by finance, I believe. We pay for the historical county building, our portion of the
alternate EOC there, and also the historical society is on our meter as well.
Mr. Furfaro: I'm really surprised to hear that, because the ... that building
actually has a trane air conditioning system that can actually re- demand, whether it's on the
electrical power for the chillwater pumps and so forth, but your piece goes to ... it will show up in
finance. Is that...
Mr. Marshall: For the...
Mr. Furfaro: (inaudible)
Mr. Marshall: Where our office is, yes.
Mr. Furfaro: It will show up in that one.
Mr. Marshall: I'm pretty sure it's there. It's not in my budget (inaudible),
but my electric costs are for the sirens that I talked about, and then the historical county building.
And I used to have ... we have a small meter on the Mahelona storage. It's been turned over to KPAL
for their athletic endeavors, but it's real small. It usually hits a minmum of the $25 minimum.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Do you have an idea of what your kilowatt hours are
that you actually get charged for here?
APRIL 12, 2010
CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY (Pg. 5)
Mr. Marshall: We did look at that bill at one point, because you were last
year asking to see a reduction in that, and we found that when we put in the two dehumidifiers, one
of the office area, the one down in the alternate EOC that it dropped the monthly bill by about 900 to
a thousand dollars, just with that, and we were able to kind of keep the mold at bay with
dehumidifying those rooms.
Mr. Furfaro: I think they also programmed the trane air conditioning
system to get a better handle on the temperature there as well.
Mr. Marshall: And I understand the new system will be a true central air for
the entire building, including the basement area.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Well Mark, thank you again, and I just want to thank
you for the recent emergencies and your response team was just excellent. Well thank you for all of
your (inaudible).
Mr. Marshall: The outcome was particularly favorable.
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, the outcome was favorable, but it seemed we were in a
position where everybody was well- informed and everybody needed to be where the plan called for
them to be.
Mr. Marshall: Thank you for those kind words, we appreciate it.
Mr. Furfaro: I have no more questions.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Good morning Mark.
Mr. Marshall: Good morning.
Mr. Bynum: This might be a naive question, but the budget says salaries
are 215 and your spreadsheet says 238, can you explain? It's probably me missing something.
Mr. Marshall: You're looking at the salaries line?
Mr. Bynum: I'm looking at the salary line and the budget says 215,876,
and the salaries line in your yellow says 238.
Mr. Marshall: It's an excellent question. I wish I had an excellent answer
for you.
Mr. Bynum: I was anticipating ... this 238 includes your grant funded
positions?
Mr. Marshall: No, it would not. That would just be county funded positions.
Mr. Bynum: So I just noticed a difference...
Mr. Furfaro: Well, one of the notices I may point out is, when I asked him
if starting in October, but if you look at the narrative, it might have had some exceptions, because it
says two to three months; it doesn't give you something real affirmative as to when the hiring occurs.
• • APRIL 12, 2010
CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY (Pg. 6)
Mr. Bynum: I think I may have just figured it out.
Ricky Watanabe: It doesn't take into account the lapse provision ... I mean the
furlough provision.
Mr. Bynum: I just figured that out by doing the math. So your 238 does
not include furloughs, right.
Mr. Marshall: Yeah, sorry.
Mr. Bynum: What happens to grant funded positions if the office is closed?
Mr. Marshall: We've not determined that yet. I've asked the question, but I
don't have an answer for you at this point. My problem... my dilemma there is that if I don't pay
them, I lose the money. So we're trying to figure out a way to either have them work more hours
during the 8 -hour day and then pay it that way, or some other contingency, but we've not had that
full discussion.
Mr. Bynum: So these grant funded posi ... if the off... If you don't pay them
you lose the money.
Mr. Marshall: If I don't. spend it. I mean there might be a possibility for me
to re- budget it and get permission from the State to re- budget it and spend it on something else.
Mr. Bynum: Not to mention losing the productivity.
Mr. Marshall: Well that's, I think, the key point there is, you know, lose
productivity without people on the job.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, we haven't discussed that much, but we'll discuss it in
the future.
Mr. Marshall: And I've asked that question of the administration, and I
think they're wrestling with all, not just obviously my little agency. So we're going to be actively
engaged in that solution of what we would do if we do furlough.
Mr. Furfaro: Could I just follow up on that? So you know we're going to
have an additional day on April 20 to discuss that?
Mr. Marshall: Correct, I heard that I was needed to be ... attended to that
meeting.
Mr. Furfaro: And your narrative that says two to three months on this
postponement, whatever it relates to the 22,000 credit that's on the line item.
Mr. Marshall: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, that's not reflected in the budget.
Mr. Furfaro: No, it's not, yeah, and the narrative is kind of not ... it's not
two months or it's not three months. It's somewhere in- between.
• • APRIL 12, 2010
CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY (Pg. 7)
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, because that two to three month was a choice you made
in terms of reducing your thing, as opposed to one that shows up in our budget.
Mr. Marshall: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: I think we're going to have a long day on the 20th, because my
list of questions is getting longer and longer, so you can anticipate some of those questions.
Mr. Marshall: I look forward to that discussion.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Again, I would recommend to committee members to forward
those questions to the administration, rather than waiting for that date to have the discussion and
pop the questions to the administration. Any other questions for Mr. Marshall? Go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: Good morning, good to see you here. When you were here last
we had discussed that one radio site lease, it was just about coming up for a renewal, and this is the
one that's about ten times more than any of your other sites, and I see there wasn't any success in
finding an option... another option for that or asking for a reduction in comparison to all the rest of
the fees that are charged anywhere else on the island. Could you go through that with me a little
bit?
Mr. Marshall: Yeah, we negotiated with Bank of Hawaii Trust, and that site
is pivotal to our 800 megahertz system and hosts a small footprint there, but I can't over - emphasize
how critical it is to our overall system. In scouting around and looking for other areas, site
development of a communication tower in this county is ... I don't even have a good enough adjective
for it, but it's really hard to ... and very expensive to try to develop, even if you could get the permits
to develop a suitable site for that. What they did do is do a short -term contract with us for a three
year period, kind of similar what I was saying with Grove Farm in that they held the lease fairly
static. I think there's maybe a one percent gain over the three year contract, and we'll renegotiate
when things are better.
Ms. Kawahara: Now the thing is the footprint is the space that you have your
equipment on that they're allowing you to lease, right?
Mr. Marshall: Right, and there's a tower as well. That's really where the
money is is up in the air in the tower.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: So you have six positions, two grant funded, four are county
funded?
Mr. Marshall: Correct, including my position.
Mr. Bynum: And in those four county funded, that's 100 percent county
funds or are there federal funds...
Mr. Marshall: No they're a hundred percent county funded.
•
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
• APRIL 12, 2010
CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY (Pg. 8)
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah, thank you. You know, we had that exercise for the
tsunami thing which turned out to be really good. So your agency is the one that does civil air
patrol. Is that the ones that go out and fly around the island and tell the remote area, people that
might be there?
Mr. Marshall: That's correct. They actually have two planes here --one
dedicated for Niihau and one for Kauai. We ... you folks actually put ... help me, 50,000? Yeah, we
cut it in half this year. Last year's budget you gave them 30,000; they didn't nearly expend half of
that, so we cut that after consultation with the commander here, Roger Cares, who by the way is also
the wing commander for the State. He's the top commander for the volunteer statewide, but he
happens to also lead the Kauai civil air patrol. He concurred that they could live with that amount
of training money. It actually pays for fuel and some of their communication requirements through
that that moneys had dried up traditionally from the State. So we picked that up. He asked me to
share with you that we have the most pilots qualified to fly tomorrow than anybody in the State,
including Oahu. So we have a dozen or so here, where the other islands like Maui has one or two,
Oahu has like 6 or 8, and he touts that ability because of the moneys that council gave them for
their training and for their ready... and yes they ... on that Chile earthquake, they flew three sorties
for us, one right at daybreak, and then right at the first siren sounding, came back and fueled and
then flew another one. Response from around the island of people, fishermen, and kayakers, and
campers, indicated that they understood what the planes were doing. They actually signaled back
with flashlights, which I thought was kind of interesting, from the ground to the pilots so that they
knew that they had gotten the message, allowing them to continue around and people fled... We had
about 800 people all the way up at Koke`e. If you're really scared of a tsunami, that's the place to go
up to. But it means that our effectiveness in our notification and warning was on the (inaudible)
side of doing that. We're just cautious that we don't want to over -warn people and overuse our
connect CTY, because then people won't pay attention to it. So I think as it stands now, it worked
out really well with those folks. They also sent us some pictures of people camping on Niihau, and
they also got the message and figured out what's going on. In subsequent photos or images that they
sent back to us, we can see them all loaded on a huge truck and making their way inland. So that
makes me feel really good on an island that I've never been to and would really like to do some
inspections and, you know, worry about those souls that live there. As you know, the Robinsons are
very guarded and have said that they don't need my services; they'll call me when they need me, and
we've kind of left it at that. But we saw that this was effective from afar, and we were also in
telephone contact with Bruce and Keith Robinson as well on that morning.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay great. Well I'm glad to see that that's still in here and
it's sufficient for the upcoming fiscal year. Thank you. Thank you Chair.
Council Chair Asing: Mark, what is your understanding of the grants coordinator's
position? When I say what is your understanding, I'm talking about the responsibility towards other
departments.
Mr. Marshall: We go after the federal funding from homeland security and
from fema, the federal emergency management agency. In some of those grants, it's already
earmarked a certain portion goes to law enforcement, to KPD, and then certain portions would go to
fire activity, and then others are kind of general funds that could help. We've helped things with
public works, with several other agencies besides police, fire, and ourselves. So it really depends on
which grant and what the intent and the target of those grant funds were.
• • APRIL 12, 2010
CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY (Pg. 9)
Council Chair Asing: Okay. I think my question is... It's really... I believe when
the position as funded, it was intended to do three departments: civil defense, police department, and
fire department.
Mr. Marshall: That's correct.
Council Chair Asing: So the question I really have for you is, is your interpretation
the same...
Mr. Marshall: That is, yes sir it is.
Council Chair Asing: You will be doing grants for the three departments.
Mr. Marshall: That's correct, and in some cases, we administer the funds
from cradle to grave and do all the reporting and all of the invoicing and everything. In other cases,
they have identified in either fire or police, and so we work with either massaging their submittals or
working up budgets and stuff like that, but the money remains in their ... in the police or fire budgets,
and so we don't administer those funds.
Council Chair Asing: Okay, then let's just send over a question on, you know, the
number of grants that you've conducted and the total amount and to which department did the funds
go to.
Mr. Furfaro: May I add on that?
Council Chair Asing: Yes, go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: And Mark, that's the reason I asked at the very beginning,
the value of that position being short - funded for three months, because I have the same
understanding as the Chair —that grant position supports the other loss prevention departments like
police and fire, so it's not only short funding the person in your office, it's leaving us a little bit of a
vacuum on what we can apply for police and fire as well.
Council Chair Asing: Yes. Okay, that's the question I had. I also want to, again,
commend you on the work that you've been doing. I did have an opportunity to spend some time
when you did the tsunami statewide, and I thought that was just a very tremendous undertaking
and very successful. It was very interesting to hear the governor trying to coordinate statewide with
other agencies, and it got a little sticky at times, very sticky as a matter of fact, between decision
makers and I just want to commend you. I think it went off real well.
Mr. Marshall: Thank you for those kind words and I appreciate it.
Council Chair Asing: Very good, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other questions by committee members? If not,
thank you very much Mr. Marshall.
The Civil Defense Agency departmental budget review concluded at 11:31 a.m., and there being no
objections, the meeting was in recess.
APRIL 12, 2010
KAUAI HUMANE SOCIETY (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on Monday, April 12, 2010, at 11:31 a.m., and
proceeded as follows:
KAUAI HUMANE SOCIETY
you all.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, Dr. Rhoades? Good morning.
REBECCA RHOADES, DVM, Kauai Humane Society: Good morning, aloha, thank
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay you have the floor. You may proceed.
Dr. Rhoades: So unfortunately I couldn't get anybody else here in this quick
notice, so I'm here to present on behalf of the Kauai Humane Society for our budget request for fiscal
year 2011. And first off, I just want to say that our partnership with the county of Kauai is very,
very important to the Kauai Humane Society, and I feel very important to the community. We're
asking that our funding be kept the same as it was in fiscal year 10. We can't at this point accept a 5
percent decrease, which just causes our deficit to be even greater. I did get approval at our last
board meeting to use approximately $200,000 of society funds to supplement our county work. In
response to the letter that was presented to you all by the mayor on what the mission or what they
were looking at for fiscal year 11 was looking at creating... you know, taking the challenge of our
economic times and turning it into a ... an opportunity with more efficiency, more focus, and more
sustainability. And I'm here to say that we've been doing that since we opened our new home
in 2001. We came from that small shelter in Salt Pond and have really expanded into an animal
care resource for the community, and I can testify to the fact that we are very efficient with every
dollar. We're very focused on our mission, and we're more sustainable every day. And I gave you all
a list. I'm hoping you all received our testimony, but I've ... in leading the organization since 2001, we
have looked at every opportunity to create ways to make money at the humane society for programs
that are within our mission and that are also programs that weren't available on Kauai before to try
and support the animal owning community and the animal community, everything from opening a
quarantine center here for the State department of ag back in 2002, to most recently one our newest
programs for KIUC is the save our shearwaters pickup rehab and release program. But everything
we do and have added on are fee based programs to help support the care of our facility, to help
promote our mission, and to help share the cost of what it takes to operate that facility, which is
primarily used for the county work. We're good partners.
We're good partners with our government agencies, everything from a house fire where
there's pets involved, we'll respond for the fire department, to civil defense when there is a disaster
and people need a place to evacuate. We're there for their pets and we can even facilitate housing
people if need be, and we are on the public shelter list for a hurricane evacuation shelter, to helping
the police department with something that comes up in the middle of the night if there's
a ... somebody that's arrested that has a dog, we pick up the dog, if there's a car crash, there's pets in
the car, we pick up the pets, as well as the cockfighting bust where we picked up the birds. But we
are available twenty- four /seven. We've really evaluated and we continue to evaluate our operations
to see how we can save money, and we did reduce our energy use by 30 percent, and we were
fortunate to be able to install a photovoltaic system.
Another thing we did that I hadn't mentioned was we did do a review of all our insurance
programs, our insurances here. In the last six months we've gone out to bid and we've saved 30
percent on our insurance for the upcoming year. The big news for us that happened since I met with
the mayor is that we lost our wonderful partnership with Nutro food company where we've had free
pet food donated for the shelter animals since the mid -90s. It was a program that got started on
Oahu that was for all the humane societies, the four humane societies on each of the islands; we're
• APRIL 12, 2010
KAUAI HUMANE SOCIETY (Pg. 2)
not affiliated, but they worked this program. Due to the economy, they pulled that program. It was
the only one of its kind in the US. There's no other program like it where it was provided for free.
We are negotiating with Hawaii megacore and the Iams food company, as well as Hills & Science
Diet. All four of the humane societies are negotiating together, but we know there's going to be a fee
or a minimal cost; we're never going to get it for free again. We did pay shipping on all of that food
prior ... the previous program, but we actually got the food for free, and it was just the best deal, and
we're... It's a biggie for us. That's another... that gave us about a $30,000 value of pet food per year
to feed the shelter pets, and so that's something that came very unexpected.
I think the other thing is ... then I'll finish up, is just that we couldn't do what we do without
volunteers; they supplement us hugely. We're always about volunteers and having... recruiting
them, training them, and having them help us do our work both at the shelter, the thrift shop, in the
community— really, really important. We are a core service. There's really nothing else out there for
people. Veterinarians don't do our kind of work. We're public safety, we're animal welfare, we feel
we are a core county service, we do need to be open daily, and we do need to have staff available
twenty- four /seven. So we respectfully request that our funding be reinstated for 2011, and
thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Furfaro go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Dr. Rhoades, I just want to make sure that I got
the numbers here correct. In previous years (09 and 10), the county funded ... my notes indicated
$655,617, and if that is correct, we reduced your budget by $32,780.
Dr. Rhoades: That's the request for this year coming up?
Mr. Furfaro: Yes.
Dr. Rhoades: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Or 10 /11.
Dr. Rhoades: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, so if that is the case that the number that should have
carried over here on this piece should have been $623,000. Your worksheet shows us at 595.
Dr. Rhoades: That's the county money for the animal care and control
services. The next line is $60,000 that's given to us for the spay /neuter program by the county. If
you put that together, it comes out to the 6...
Mr. Furfaro: 55.
Dr. Rhoades: Right, correct.
Mr. Furfaro: So your budget is showing at the 595,617 and the 60,000, your
budget is showing no reduction.
Dr. Rhoades: That's correct. We're asking for no reduction.
Mr. Furfaro: And the 5 percent is what you've been in discussion with the
mayor at is a change of $32,780.
Dr. Rhoades:
Mr. Furfaro:
Dr. Rhoades:
budget was a 5 percent decrease.
APRIL 12, 2010
KAUAI HUMANE SOCIETY (Pg. 3)
Correct.
That's what the mayor has expressed to you?
Yes. That's what I saw that was presented to you all in the
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. And then the number that's actually in the county
budget, I might need the finance director for a second...
Mr. Kaneshiro: It's 623.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, but does that include the spray(sic) and neutering,
Wally, or does that appear somewhere else? That's 116, okay. So the number we are chasing is
the 32,700.
Dr. Rhoades: Correct.
Mr. Furfaro: I just wanted to get to that point that...
Dr. Rhoades: It's confusing. Sorry for putting it in that way.
Mr. Furfaro: Well, it's... when you compare it to PNLs, they're not often
lined item exactly the same. The pet food promotion you were telling us is going to end here, that
was about $30,000?
Dr. Rhoades: Yes sir. It's been...
Mr. Furfaro: Just call me Jay.
Dr. Rhoades: Okay. Yes Jay, it's been about $30,000 a year.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, so that's 30K you're going to lose there. May I ask that
with your board of directors, this subsidy that they transferred, it looks like it must have come from
your reserve account and so forth?
Dr. Rhoades: Our operating account.
Mr. Furfaro: That's $200,000?
Dr. Rhoades: Yes sir. Yes Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: And what other programs are not doing as well as expected
that indicate that you may have to transfer that kind of money, or what programs are you providing
that might be excessive compared to what you thought they were going to be?
Dr. Rhoades: Well, I think if you look at our history, we subsidize the
county work an average of $152,000 for many years, and we just went through the formal process
this year to recognize that with the board. And we take it out of all of our operating, income and our
expenses, to make up the difference. I think that we're flat; that's the best way I can describe it, as
to how we're running now, our fees for services, nothing's really grown, and our contributions are
down. More people are giving, but just smaller amounts, but we're fairly flat, and we've budgeted for
next year to be fairly flat. But every year we run ... we do run a deficit for the county work.
\_ J
0 APRIL 12, 2010
KAUAI HUMANE SOCIETY (Pg. 4)
Mr. Furfaro: So that is obvious here that like many nonprofits, your
contributions on the revenue line are down as well.
Dr. Rhoades: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: And Dr. Rhoades, you have an idea, and my compliments on
your reducing your electric consumption, your utilities, but in providing... on the path, and if you
don't have the information maybe in the future we could get it, all of those people are pretty much
volunteers that are replenishing the bags and doing work there. But what do those supplies actually
cost the humane society for what you provide on the path? Do you have an idea?
Dr. Rhoades: Five dispensers that we put in on the path, we ... they look like
we're switching them out about once a month, there's two boxes per dispenser, so it's 10 times... It's
about a hundred dollars a month.
Mr. Furfaro: So total.
Dr. Rhoades: You know, once the dispensers got put up. The dispensers
were... and then we changed them to the little ones. So the supply of the bags themselves is about a
hundred dollars a month.
Mr. Furfaro: And would you say another 2,000, including the stands and
everything? Would that be about right?
Dr. Rhoades: To do...
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, to do it for a 12 month period and...
Dr. Rhoades: That's probably a little high, actually. I don't think it's
that much.
Mr. Furfaro: But you had to purchase the rotating bag stands the first
time around.
Dr. Rhoades: Right. But I think that's a little high. And you know,
depending on what happens with that, we would be happy to continue and put in more of those. We
think that ... we put some in at the airport where the pets come off the plane, we help stock that, it
enables people to do the right thing, and I think that that's something we feel is really important, is
to enable people to do the right thing, and those bags make a huge difference.
Mr. Furfaro: And then here on the program donations and so forth, do I
interpret this little narrative here includes restricted funds that you are actually using other moneys
right now to focus on your spray(sic) and neutering?
Dr. Rhoades: Yes, the spay and neuter program is really an important
program to prevent... to save cost and to prevent more homeless pets, and we did get a bequest, and
we have put that money in there to help, and we're expanding that program. The mobile ... we have a
mobile feline fix program that's going around the island, which his being paid for through donations
and bequest moneys. The spay /neuter program at the shelter for free that we negotiated with the
council many years ago, I can't tell you exactly when, we provide for low income pet owners free
services at the shelter.
APRIL 12, 2010
KAUAI HUMANE SOCIETY (Pg. 5)
Mr. Furfaro: Can I assume that that difference from your planned budget
to your approved budget in 2010 is about $24,000 difference, higher, and do I relate that to the fact
that you've expanded sprayed(sic) and neutering on this island?
Dr. Rhoades: Yes, and the income is coming from the bequest, if that's what
you're asking me.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes. That's where I was going with that, thank you. Thank
you Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Mr. Kawakami.
Mr. Kawakami: Thank you. Thank you for all the work and the services you
provide for the county. A couple questions. You've touched upon them in the past, but I need to
know what core services for the county will you be able to maintain with this decrease in the grant,
and which ones are going to drop off.
Dr. Rhoades: If we suffer the 5 percent decrease, we'll most likely ask the
county to take over the dead animal pick -ups on the public roadways. You have people on the road
and we could focus on our other county services and give that up.
Mr. Kawakami: Okay, so that's the main one that we're looking at losing with
the 5 percent. That being said, all the other county services are, and you should let people know
exactly what you do, because a lot of people may not realize the work that you put in to the county.
So why don't you go ahead and let us know what it is for the county that you provide as far as
services.
Dr. Rhoades: Alright. We basically respond to requests from the public for
nuisance animals, dogs and cats. We enforce the dog leash law. We enforce and we patrol for stray
dogs on the island. We assist people with nuisance cats by offering them traps, and then we pickup
and remove cats. We'd have to hold all the animals. The dogs ... by the dog law, we have to hold the
animals at the shelter for a certain number of days so that people have access to recover them if they
are their pet, and then we make them available for adoption. Those that qualify as a compatible as a
pet, we make available for adoption. We investigate every dog bit on the island. We enforce the
dangerous dog law, the leash law, we also enforce the State animal cruelty law. We pick up dead
animals on the roadway, small animals, dogs and cats. We provide... so we're the pet lost and found
center for the community. We're an adoption for the homeless animals in the community. We
respond to complaints of animals in the community. And we respond to emergencies regarding
animals in the community twenty -four /seven.
Mr. Kawakami: Thank you. That's quite a list of services they provide, and I
want to send a letter... a question over to the administration side as to how much it would be to
implement from the county standpoint the dead animal pickup if it is now going to be a county
function. You know, that being said, I want to thank you and the volunteers for all the services you
provide, and that raises some questions that the taxpayers themselves are going to have to
contemplate, and we as decision makers and holders of the purse strings are going to have to
contemplate while we maneuver through these tough economic times. The tough question is are we
willing to pay more? Are the taxpayers willing to pay more? And if not, if we're not willing to pay
more, are we willing to live with less services. Are we going to be willing to live with less services,
and what will government look like and how will we operate after the recovery of this economy. And
just to give you snapshot is a reality as to what we're dealing with on the county level as far as
revenue projections, revenue projected is expected to be down 8.8 million or 6.4 percent. So let's
contemplate this with the 5 percent reduction in the grant funding for the county. We're expecting
0
APRIL 12, 2010
KAUAI HUMANE SOCIETY (Pg. 6)
revenues, and these are just projections, but it will give you a slight snapshot as to what we're kind
of dealing with, is expected to be down 8.8 million or 6.4 percent from fiscal year 2010. Real property
taxes, yeah, the revenues are expected to drop 9.6 percent, or roughly 8.7 million, okay. The golf
course fund is down 537,000, or 25.6 percent, more than a quarter percent down. The highway fund
is expected to decrease by $900,000 of 7.5 percent. The solid waste special fund is expected to go
down $752,000, or 19.8 percent, almost 20 percent. While expenses, like health fund and related
costs, are expected to increase 5 percent, or 2 million in fiscal year 11. And to top it off, if the senate
version of the TAT takeaway has legs and moves forward and they cap it at the 50 percent, we're
expected, yeah, to come up with another 6 million dollars. That's going to be an additional 6 million
dollars on top of everything else that I just listed. So as much and as hard as it is as a decision
maker to not just find the 5 percent that we took away and just give it to you and say here, we are
faced with these extreme challenges and we need to be realistic as to our approach. But I want to
say once again, thank you for the services you provide. I'm glad that you had an opportunity to let
the people know exactly what you're doing for the county, but at the same token, you know, we sent
out a memo to our workers putting them on notice for a potential two day a month furlough, which is
huge, which is huge. So we have a tough job, you know. The value that you give the county, yeah, is
you know, action speaks louder than words, so I want to thank you for that. But at the same time,
we're strapped financially, and so for me, and I'm speaking for myself only, I'm looking at all these
challenges we need to overcome, and you know, right now from where I'm standing, it's a big hurdle
to climb. So no promise is being made, you know, but I also want to make a point that the 5 percent
in reduction is consistent with the 5 percent that, you know, the operating budget has been cut from
fiscal year 2010 also. So it's not above and beyond what we're expecting from ourselves also. So if
we could just send that question over to the administration as far as what it would take, what the
costs are, what the manpower is, if we need to start implementing this dead animal pickup.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely.
Mr. Kawakami: Mahalo.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Dr. Rhoades? Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Hi. Do you know how many deceased animals you pick up or
roughly?
Dr. Rhoades: I want to say it's like an average of 30 a month ... (inaudible),
one a day.
Mr. Bynum: So 3 or 400 a year. And you know, if we speculated if the
county was responsible for that, who would most likely be picking up deceased animals?
Dr. Rhoades: I think it's your maintenance people, you know. I see
the ... it's State highways and county highways. We partner with State. We pick a lot of them up for
them because we're out there anyway, but they will pick up some of them. Part of the plus to having
us do it is then it gives closure for some families, because we scan them for a microchip. We contact
people if we know it's their pets, and it'd be great to have that continue. If we have to give it
up ... plus we dispose of them at our facilities in our crematorium, and my guess would be the county
would take them to the landfill versus not having to pay us to use the crematorium. It's the one
thing that's not a critical animal welfare issue, and that's why when we look at our services as to
what we can give up with a 5 percent decrease, we felt that the animals deceased, that's something
that we could have the county do since you do have county road maintenance people on the road
anyway.
APRIL 12, 2010
KAUAI HUMANE SOCIETY (Pg. 7)
Mr. Bynum: So based on your answer, regardless of whether the pickups
continue, there'd be the loss of that closure and also the proper handling of the bodies.
Dr. Rhoades: Right. We did ... I did when I worked on Oahu, we actually
trained. They don't do the pickup through their animal control department at the humane society.
The road people pick it up, and we did train them and put scanners in all of their trucks, and then
they send in a weekly report so that we could advise the public if their pet was picked up, or they
would take calls as well. That's probably one of the bigger issues. Less than 20 percent of the pets,
that's off the top of my head, but few of them are owned; many of them are feral cats or unowned
cats. The dogs primarily have an owner, but the cats are mostly feral cats, unowned cats.
Mr. Bynum: I just appreciate that sensitivity, because for many people
that pet is a member of the family.
Dr. Rhoades: Absolutely.
Mr. Bynum: Closure's an important issue, and I know the humane society
will be sensitive to that. So thank you.
Dr. Rhoades: You're welcome.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Dr. Rhoades? Mr. Chang.
Mr. Chang: Thank you Chair. I guess maybe on an unrelated note, you
can educate us. How many, sadly, pets do you have to euthanize per week or per month, and what
would that in terms of cost or ... what would that run, ballpark.
Dr. Rhoades: It's hard for me to just give you a ballpark number on that.
The average stay of any pet at our facility is a week, that's the average stay. Adoptable dogs, we'll
keep for as long as we can, months, and cats, but sadly, the cat population, most of the cats we
received are unowned, feral, or don't belong to anybody, and we have sad statistics on placing cats or
returning cats to owners. Less than a half percent of cats are chipped, are returned to their owner,
and they don't qualify to be made available for adoption, so many of them are euthanized, by far the
majority of them are euthanized. Dogs, we have a lot more success with. I would say that
approximately 80 percent of the dogs we receive are either returned to their owner or adopted into a
new home. But we are receiving an average of about 19 animals a day; that's what the numbers are
on Kauai, and that's a lot of animals for our small community. That's why spay /neuter is really
important.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. How you doing with your efforts to get a ... find a food
supplier? I know... How you coming along?
Dr. Rhoades: I tried to touch base because I got an email from Wally over
the weekend, and I have no news yet, but it's sounding very positive. And my guess is they will give
us a shelter feeding price, and so hopefully, you know, we won't be paying $35 for a bag of 40 pounds
of dog food; hopefully we'll get something like 15...10 or $15, but you know, that program we had was
just a gold mine, and that's where we're going to be spending some. Whether it's $30,000 worth, I'm
not sure. I mean I don't think it'll be ... we'll have to spend that much, but I know we're going to have
to spend some minimum fees for it. And the other side of the whole pet food thing is you want
to ... we take... We go around the island to Costco, Kmart, WalMart, we go around and pick up bags
with food all the time, but we give it away to the public for free. If you're managing a high volume of
pets in our facility and we fed them different food every day, we would need a lot more labor to deal
with management of diarrhea and issues related to that. You want to feed a quality food, the same
0 APRIL 12, 2010
KAUAI HUMANE SOCIETY (Pg. 8)
food, and it helps manage the health and care of the animals. And I know that's... when we're
dealing with hard times, we're dealing with hard times, so I understand all of that, but it really
saves money to feed the same food and a minimum quality of food.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Seeing no further questions, you know, I just wanted
to say what Councilmember Kawakami spoke about, and we don't know until after the Leg, you
know finally is completed as to where we're going to stand. But if as he indicated, there is a 50
percent cut, 50 percent cut is coming out of this budget, because it's already in there. We ... the
administration put in $12milhon of TAT funding in here, so you see the difficulties that our
committee members have also, you know. So we all try to work closely and see how we can resolve
this issues, but the sad part about this is that we had to put ... the administration had to put the
budget together, you know, as required by law and by charter, and Leg, I not certain they'll be done
by May sometime? April? Almost the end of...beginning of May, so... And we just got to be cautious
until we see where we're at.
Dr. Rhoades: And we're very grateful and we appreciate that and totally
understand the challenges that we all face in the county. We're a really unique partner. I think that
you don't see many partners like the humane societies on all of the islands providing these
government mandated services, as well as law enforcement, and we give a really good bang for the
buck, and we get swept with this broad brush. But as one of the comments in my testimony, if you
looked at ... we're competitive with ... our compensation package for our employees, what we're doing
at our place, is fairly competitive as that related to other non - governmental organizations. But for
every dollar you spend on us, you get a lot of service, and I totally respect and empathize with the
challenges that we all face in the county, but we are asking that we be kept flat, because we
understand that issue. But we are very different from the other county departments. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Do we have personnel here? Okay, we'll take a 5
minutes break, and then we'll... Committee, do you want to take personnel since they're on their
way and we can move along with our budget review process?
Council Chair Asing: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We're on a 5- minute break.
The Kauai Humane Society budget review concluded at 12 Noon, and there being no objections, the
meeting was in recess.
APRIL 12, 2010
PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on Monday, April 12, 2010, at 1:21 p.m., and proceeded
as follows:
(Mr. Bynum was noted excused.)
PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll have our final department up for today, which is the
personnel department. Malcolm, go right ahead.
MALCOLM FERNANDEZ, Director: Good afternoon. Well last year we gave away 11.5
percent of our budget, and then this year, you know, we're really stuck in giving away any much
more. So if you look at our budget, the take away really is in the area of our salaries. I think the
furlough is built into the salary reduction and our personnel clerk II position, it wasn't fully funded,
it was funded at 75 percent. So basically we have the same budget as last year, minus the salary
take aways.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, is that your presentation? Again, he doesn't have a
handout, just to let you know, committee members. With that, I'll just open it up for questions.
Mr. Furfaro, go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, good afternoon. Malcolm, thanks for being here.
Position number 2107, clerk II, is that the one that's partially funded?
Mr. Fernandez: No, that's the next one down, 2111.
Mr. Furfaro: Oh I see it, okay. And then potential reduction for your
department as proposed by the mayor is the 52,070 as it relates to staff furlough.
Mr. Fernandez: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: Have you done for us, and we had this come up in civil
defense, or who would do this for us when we have an idea of what the percentage for countywide
roughly the department costs are for benefits now. As you know, we put a lot of those things in the
individual departments now. Is it possible if we made that request along with finance that you folks
could do that percentage estimate for us, whether it's... because we've had some as low as 48 percent,
some departments. We've had some as high as 57 percent, and it seems, considering everything
equal across the board, you know, whether it comes from social security, health fund, retirement
investment could be a little bit of a variance, but we should know what the actual benefit line should
be for all departments in relationship to their salaries. Is that something if we send a request over
you could...
Mr. Fernandez: Generally I would say that finance would be the one to
calculate what the benefit calculations are and the percentage.
Mr. Furfaro: Well I would like to get you involved simply because on the
civil service side, I don't think there's anybody other than your department that understands that
sequence of benefits as well as you folks do, and that is one of our challenges. We need to get an idea
about the non - service positions that are actually administrative, but they could be administrative by
appointment and so forth and not go through the civil service process. But I would think all benefits,
and everybody should be treated equally, so I'm going to make that request, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, we'll have a written request sent over.
0 0 APRIL 12, 2010
PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT (Pg. 2)
Mr. Furfaro: We'll send that over. If you could go through that for us...
Mr. Fernandez: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: ... along with finance, I would appreciate it.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright. Any other questions for Malcolm or Mr. Fernandez
while he's here from any other committee members? I want to state for the record that Mr. Bynum
is excused for this afternoon session. Anything else? Councilmember Kawahara, go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: I'm looking at the annual report. It says there was a contract
awarded to ACUMED(sp ?), and is that in here at all or does it come through something else?
Mr. Fernandez: The contract aware to ACUMED(sp ?) was ... the study was
completed already.
Ms. Kawahara: Oh okay, it's completed. And you were able to get your report
on what would be medical standards?
Mr. Fernandez: That's correct.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, and that was just a one -time expense.
Mr. Fernandez: Right.
Ms. Kawahara: Let me ask you about the ... it says that in March you decided
to go paperless last year, and how's that working out?
Mr. Fernandez: We're still not there yet. There's a ... you know, it's a want -to,
but it's a ... you have a lot of applicants who are not computer literate, and that's the problem.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, that would be my concern is that you would be reducing
your pool of applicants because not everybody has access to computers. So you are kind of in a
transition place and you're still keeping up with the paper stuff. Okay. And is that what that
NeoGov thing is? Is that part of manual... it's an annual maintenance fee for NeoGov?
Mr. Fernandez: That's correct. NeoGov is a system that we acquired, and in
order to keep on going and using the system, we pay that fee.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, and that's hooked up to the State, or is it just county?
Mr. Fernandez: It's with us ... with the county of Kauai.
Ms. Kawahara: It's just the county of Kauai system...
Mr. Fernandez: County of Kauai system, but the State has a similar... they
have also contracted out NeoGov.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Mr. Furfaro.
• • APRIL 12, 2010
PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT (Pg. 3)
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Kaneshiro. And so as we go down further into
these line items, do you use someone as an outside consultant to assist you when we come upon
negotiations, labor negotiations? I mean do you use an outside firm?
Mr. Fernandez: Not normally. Usually if we have questions in negotiations,
the State as a body, including the counties, would, you know, if they needed a consultant, then we
would all go in together.
Mr. Furfaro: I just noticed, because as I look on page 2 of your piece, you
have no money in there for air fare, per diem, and so forth. But then when you get away from
identifying or isolating the air and transportation costs, you throw into a line item here a bunch of
things for $10,000. It included collective bargaining and the actual negotiations, and that's why I
asked if you used outside services. You then have air fare in here, per diem, lodging, auto, and then
another line for collective bargaining, and then quarterly contract meetings (I assume in Honolulu),
and then a joint labor management agreements (I guess on reviewing the status of things). Why in
your department do we not break out travel, including airlines, meals, airport transfers, and so
forth? Why do we throw it all into negotiations?
Mr. Fernandez: I don't know. I think maybe you have to ask finance as to
why they throw it there.
Mr. Furfaro: In a typical year that we have upcoming negotiations, and I
know by ... this is the last year of the police and fire labor contracts...
Mr. Fernandez: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: And you'll be going over for that.
Mr. Fernandez: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: And typically, how many trips is that for Honolulu?
Mr. Fernandez: It varies. I mean I can't say for sure how many trips it'll take;
depending on the issues, if we have a whole lot of issues to resolve beyond... First of all, within the
jurisdictions themselves, State, counties, and you know, we have to vote and decide which proposals
need to go before negotiations. If there are not many, then there are less meetings.
Mr. Furfaro: But it could be as many as a half a dozen.
Mr. Fernandez: Could be, yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: And again, that's just another reason that rather than throw
everything lump sum here into collective bargaining negotiations, personally I would like to see
travel broken out. I mean even the government rates for airline is, you know, it's 168 bucks
roundtrip just to Honolulu for an individual person, and you know, your travel could be as much
as 4, $5,000 in a year that we're doing negotiations. But it's just kind of lump- summed here, and you
did say you're not using any contract services, right, for helping with the negotiations? I mean we
don't have an employee ... a need for a labor employment contractor to participate in the negotiations,
right?
Mr. Fernandez: Yep.
• • APRIL 12, 2010
PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT (Pg. 4)
Mr. Furfaro: So Mr. Chair, I might send that over and ask if we could
break travel out of this line item called collective bargaining negotiations.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll send a communication or ... question in that regards so
it'll be easier for you to break it down. So we'll send it over to you.
Mr. Furfaro:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Thank you.
Sure, go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: I'm not sure this is (inaudible). This special counsel and
special projects here that have year -to -date encumbrances (inaudible). I'm just curious that it's
zeroed out in this year's budget. (Inaudible)
Mr. Fernandez: It's an ongoing thing where you know, we'd have in there
actually special counsel, included training like workplace violence, substance abuse, sexual
harassment prevention, and so forth. And special projects included the medical profile that we did
with ccumed, and I think some pre - employment questions that we had.
Ms. Kawahara: So it's possible that you would have, again, training
that would...
Mr. Fernandez: Well, I mentioned that in our meeting with the
administration that I put zero in there, but then I really felt that there was a need to do sexual
harassment training, and that you know, we had done at least preliminary talks with the State who
would be able to do it most cost effectively for us. But you know, as far as showing any moneys in my
budget, I said that there was need, but then it could in finance's budget that that could come out of
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, so I'm ... so if I was to be sure that we were making sure
that all county departments were getting sexual harassment training, there would need to be a line
somewhere in finance or here, and is 2,880 a good indicator of what that would cost if the State was
helping you, or we just paying them to bring...
Mr. Fernandez: I got to defer to Tom, because then we did this the other year
with the State, and I think it cost us about three grand. He said under, but just to make sure that
we have enough, I would say about three grand it would take to do it.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, because I do think that's important as a cost saving
measure, definitely, for anything that we can avoid by just having people trained on what's okay and
what's not okay, especially in that area. So right now it's zero though.
Mr. Fernandez: Right now it's zero.
Mr. Furfaro: I think ... if I may add on to that?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go right ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: I think what first of all Councilwoman Kawahara's question
about identifying this line, perhaps this line should be special projects training, and that maybe we
should have some kind of a narrative on what we believe we're going to accomplish, you know,
workplace violence, sexual harassment, you know, maybe it should be identified there. And I believe
this other line, special counsel, that is referencing to legal advice?
• • APRIL 12, 2010
PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT (Pg. 5)
Mr. Fernandez: No, projects was actually the medical profile and that kind of
thing that we not having this year. Counsel referred to the training portion that we've had in
the past.
Mr. Furfaro: And what I'm saying is in the labeling those two lines, to me
it's backwards, it's reverse. I think if we need or we find ourselves needing outside legal counsel for
something dealing with employment law, that would be a line item, and that special projects really
reflects training and it should summarize with some kind of narrative on what our training business
plan should be for the year. That is my summation of it and how I think it should be. I mean you
should have a business training plan for HR.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah, because there isn't one, right, yeah?
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, right now there isn't.
Ms. Kawahara: So yeah, I guess we're asking if there can be a training line,
huh, because as a personnel office, you're responsible for all the departments in the county and
making sure that they're all being trained or at least have received information on what the statutes
are and the laws are and acceptable behavior in the workplace. And does... being able to train them
on that should be something that I would think might be important to have a budget for, so I'm just
going to say that and keep an eye out in finance to see if it shows up there. Is there something I
should look at specifically or talk to Mr. Rezentes about what it would look like if they put a line
in finance?
Mr. Fernandez: I think you should talk to Wally on that.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, because you generally have to go through and
everybody signs off that they received this or they received that, right, a policy on this.
Mr. Fernandez: That's correct.
Ms. Kawahara: And that happens and you have to do that regularly. And
training is a regular thing also. Is there any fundings or grants that come available for training like
for specifically the State statutes and other things?
Mr. Fernandez: No, general in ... on training, generally it's been... the training
budget has been in the mayor's office, and I think it moved to finance, if I remember correctly.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. I'd like to follow up on that with finance to see...
Mr. Kaneshiro: You can get the questions out so we can have Mr. Gary Heu
up here to answer some of that. Let me just see if we have more questions for you first before I call
Gary up. But Gary, you can take a seat here in the meantime. You have a question Mr. Chair?
Council Chair Asing: Yeah, it's a follow -up of councilmember Kawahara's question
about training and your responsibilities. You know, I'm a little hesitant on saying it, but I believe
that, you know, your department is not functioning the way I guess most of the larger firms, let's put
it that way, function as far as personnel. A lot of the work is really being done by the departments
themselves, training, as an example, you know, while I believe, like Councilmember Kawahara that
you know, you should kind of be overall, but that's not the way the county functions. Am I correct?
Mr. Fernandez: That's correct; this is why we have DPOs in the departments.
• • APRIL 12, 2010
PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT (Pg. 6)
Council Chair Asing: And that's, you know, we need to really clarify that, because
that's not the way the county functions as a personnel department. It is just different. For me, I had
great difficulty understanding it when I, you know, got into the county system and got used to that's
the way it is, but it is an entirely different... You really... What you really have is you have many
personnel departments and not one. It's just the way it is. So ... and you, again you correct me if I'm
wrong, but that's the way I've known it to be for years. I don't agree with it, but that's the way it is.
So I think just as long as we all understand that's the way it's designed and is functioning today.
Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You have a question for...
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, I just... I want to say that within your realm, there
should be a certain continuity on oversight of these department personnel offices. I mean there
should be some compliance about workforce violence, there should be compliance about sexual
harassment, there should be compliance that when a review is done on an appointed employee, the
fact of the matter is there is some oversight. If not, we can't get to the point that we're consistent
with policies, and I think the chairman has said as much. You know, he doesn't necessarily agree
with how it's currently being handled, but he does agree it is different. And then the other
departments focus more on the kind of training that they have in their department for their specific
role. Planning would have training on smart growth, you know. Public works would have training
on safety issues, you know, that are pertinent to their department. But there might three of four
overall regulations about fair employment that has to be consistent across the board, and your
department is the one that has the oversight. You cannot pass, you know, workforce violence onto
just the department head. I mean there has to be a format laid out that everyone, we can be
assured, is getting training that meets the minimum requirements at least for the county. And so
that's what I'm talking about in there, and I think the chairman agrees that it should be something
like that and it should have your department's oversight, and I think we need to get there.
Mr. Fernandez: And I think ... point to the fact is that we have done that. And
you spoke about the workplace violence, and our department did take the lead on that and we
followed up with the training on that.
Mr. Furfaro: Good. I would like, and I'll send that question over there, this
money that is here for special projects, I think it should reference specific training that should be in
your business plan. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, with that, Gary, you wanted to add something?
GARY HEU, Administrative Assistant: For the record, Gary Heu. No, it's just that
what Malcolm said is correct that the dollars for training for the general population, the general
employee population, is ... resides in finance. And so as an example, if there was some sort of...
We've been doing some customer service training for the past year, year and a half, again, we provide
that training to all of our departments and agencies, and so those... that funding comes out of that
pot that's in finance. If we have training such as the type that Malcolm has referenced, that pot of
money is also available for that sort of training. We've used that pot of money for general computer
education type of classes, so those ... again those are types of trainings that are non - specific and ... to a
department, and are available for a request. So you know, if there are certain compliances types of
training that all of our managers need to go to or that is for the general population in terms of
employees, those funds can be tapped, and a request simply needs to be made to the finance director
to access those funds. So it's not a matter of so much of where the funding resides. If, you know, we
work with DPS and certain types of training are identified as critical in a given year, then certainly e
can again tap that pot of funding for those purposes.
• • APRIL 12, 2010
PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT (Pg. 7)
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, I would like to add to that. But Gary, I want to make
sure we understand. Tell me where the money is, and if I need to transfer this 15 grand somewhere
else, I'll transfer it, but there is training that is of the utmost importance to all departments that just
because the money is out in finance, I don't want to dodge the question as to who's taking the
responsibility for it? You know, whose kuleana is it, you know. And to me, that kuleana for that
type of important training should come under the jurisdiction of Malcolm, especially ... to a
degree, right?
Mr. Heu: I mean I don't think there's a disagreement there.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. And then there needs to be a training business plan. I
want to know what he's going to accomplish with that money, you know, sexual harassment, you
know, workforce violence, fair treatment with promotions and so forth, even some basic
interpretation of the foundation of the supervisor's role in reducing grievances as it comes from
understanding the bargaining unit, you know, and that's nowhere here. It's line item in finance and
it's nowhere in the narrative or anything, and that's how, today, corporations function. I mean they
have a business training plan that people take responsibility for, and I think we need to be there.
Mr. Heu: Yeah, and I think that's a fair request on... Obviously
something like that might not be shown in the actual budget submittal, but I think a request to see a
training plan is not a unreasonable request, specifically, those types of compliance issues that come
under personnel services.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any further questions? Lani go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: I fully agree with Councilmember Furfaro, because that's
exactly what I'm thinking of —the whole oversight is something that's very necessary. The fact that
this is ... this money is nebulous —where it is, where it goes, what it's used for, it concerns me, and I
do want to be sure that I see something specific to federal, State, county compliance issues and
training issues laid out specifically designated each year, and not something that's in a general pot
in finance. Because I've been amazed. I've been ... I mean we get... of course it comes to us, the
council, when we get lawsuits and things on things that may have been really basic things that we,
you know, should have known how to do if we had training. Of course there's always going to be
somebody that doesn't listen anyway or understand, but to reduce that would seem fiscally
responsible to have this money laid out specific for training purposes, especially for those kinds of
compliance things. So in my... I guess I would like to request also that there be a line designated
specifically for compliance issue training as relates to personnel issues in ... specifically I guess most
that come off is workplace violence, fair treatment, and sexual harassment. That's probably a yearly
thing, because it's come up this last year, and it's going to come up again this year, so does it seem to
you that it's a annual thing that is done?
Mr. Fernandez: Not necessarily annual. Periodically, you know, you may
want to do stuff every other year or so rather than doing the same thing with the same people all the
time, basically, unless you get new blood coming in.
Ms. Kawahara: Good, okay, because I would be willing to do that and support
that. So even if you stagger it so every other year there's this one and every other year there's that
one, right. Okay, thank you so much.
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, even if it went to, you know, two, three years and it was
laid out in a business plan that we could look at and say okay, this money is earmarked and here's
E
• APRIL 12, 2010
PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT (Pg. 8)
the plan, because you know, Councilwoman Kawahara is exactly right, when it gets to the point that
it may not have been handled in the best way, it actually ends up in front of this body.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, with that, any further questions for personnel office?
We know that the money is there someplace, so that's the good part about this budget process,
money is in there, and by your letter, you know, we'll request for more information as to specifically
some of the uses of it. Okay with that... If not, thank you very much, Malcolm.
Mr. Fernandez: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And this budget review session is recessed `till tomorrow
9 o'clock.
The Personnel Department departmental budget review concluded at 1:50 p.m., and there being no
objections, the budget reviews was in recess.
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened at 9:12 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
(Mr. Bynum was noted excused.)
POLICE:
Mr. Kaneshiro: Budget review session is now called back to order. We will be taking
the Police Department followed by the Office of County Attorney and followed by the Office of the
County Auditor. We'll go right through again whatever presentations or reviews we can take from
each Department and if not we'll break at 12:30 for lunch. Again as we go through the process, if
we're finished early with the Police Department, we'll start with the next Department and we'll carry
the same procedure on through the rest of the Budget review session. So actually lunch break would
be about 12:30 or earlier if we get done earlier. Good morning Chief Perry.
Oh I'm sorry I said County Attorney? County Clerk's Office, we already did County
Attorney. So we'll be Police Department, Office of the County Clerk and the Office of the County
Auditor. Good morning Chief, you have the floor you may begin with your presentation this
morning, welcome.
DARRYL D. PERRY (POLICE CHIEF): Aloha. Budget & Finance Committee Chair
Darryl Kaneshiro, Vice Chair Asing and Committee Members. My name is Darryl Perry the Police
Chief for the County of Kauai.
(Mic —not on- hard to hear)
Mr. Perry: Before I begin I'd like to say upfront that I support the Mayor's
proposal however I do have a few concerns that I would like to share with you...
(Peter turn mic on)
Mr. Perry: ... which brings me to my pledge that I made to Chair Asing last year.
He challenged me to fill out our vacancies. He said "good luck because it would be the first time that
it would ever happen" well sir you're absolutely right we tried everything...
Mr. Asing: Don't feel offended, you're talking about a person who's been in the
game for a little while.
Mr. Perry: Okay.
Mr. Asing: And that's what I seen, that's history and history has taught me a lot.
Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Did he buy you the lunch?
Mr. Perry: Which brings me...
... again we understand there's a need to cut cost but we'd like to
present another viable option that would the positions for four (4) months so we can go ahead and
without going through the money bill process, we're asking perhaps if we could fund the position for
four (4) months from March to June, this will give us enough time to do the background checks and
get all the paperwork that's necessary to bring on these officers. However the savings would only be
two hundred and eighty -four thousand dollars ($284,000.00) because the funding for four (4) months
would be approximately a hundred and forty -two thousand dollars ($142,000.00).
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 2)
Mr. Furfaro:
Chief excuse me do I read your budget currently the only dollar
funded positions that I see in here are those of the civilian positions? All officers positions in here,
there's none that reflect the dollar funded. In the staffing guides. Page sixty -five (65) to sixty -nine
(69). I'm sorry Chairman
if you don't mind I want to get some clarity on that.
Mr. Asing:
I think you're right Jay.
Mr. Furfaro:
I'm right yeah?
Mr. Asing:
Well it looks, that's the way it looks.
Mr. Perry:
Sixty -nine (69), page sixty -nine (69).
Mr. Furfaro:
Yeah from page sixty -five (65) to sixty -nine (69).
Mr. Kaneshiro:
I don't see it either.
Mr. Perry:
On page sixty -nine (69) on the bottom... I mean on the mid.
Mr. Furfaro:
But those are all civilian.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Those are all civilian positions.
Mr. Furfaro:
So I just wanted to make sure that the eight (8) that we're been ask to
evaluate, they do appear on your staffing list but they seemed to be fully funded? Or are they just
vacant?
Mr. Asing:
Wally what page?
Mr. Furfaro:
I see, I see but...
Mr. Asing:
Are you making reference to?
Mr. Furfaro:
But they got the four hundred and seventy -four thousand (474,000)
rolled up.
WALLY REZENTES, JR. (FINANCE DIRECTOR): Four twenty -six (426).
Mr. Furfaro:
Four twenty -six (426) rolled up. Page sixty -nine (69).
Mr. Asing:
Four twenty -six, one, three, six (426,136)?
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Okay I got it.
Mr. Asing:
This one here?
Mr. Furfaro:
It's actually budgeted.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Yeah what they would usually do is they would come across and have
a dollar amount...
Mr. Furfaro:
Right.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
But they put it at the end on this... and okay we see it now. It's just
the way it was setup.
0 •
Mr. Perry: Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We were used to just going straight across.
Mr. Perry: Right across, right.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You know and see it there.
Mr. Perry: Actually...
Mr. Kaneshiro: For that particular position.
Mr. Perry: Actually when I first went through it...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah.
APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 3)
Mr. Perry: Pat had to point it out to me because I didn't see it either so.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So that's the confusion but we see it as what you did, you just lump
the whole thing at the bottom part. Okay you may continue Chief.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Thank you Chairman.
Mr. Perry: The concern I have also about staffing is a retirement, anticipated
retirements and if you look at the back of your handout I mean way in the back, the last page, I put
in an illustrated list it looks kind of something like this. It looks something like this. And what I did
was starting from this year, this is a snapshot, up there is a snapshot of what we have here. For this
year we're looking at eight (8), possible eight (8) people who are eligible for retirement. If nobody
retires then the following year in 2011, we're looking at nine (9). And again, so on if nobody's retires
by 2012, two (2) years from now, we're looking at potential of nineteen (19) people, correction
eighteen (18) people. Actually I got the numbers... it supposed to be nineteen (19).
Mr. Furfaro: I counted it's nineteen (19).
Mr. Perry: It's nineteen (19) it's supposed to be nineteen (19), I have the
numbers wrong. So from 2012 to 2013 there would be nineteen (19), if nobody retires and it will
increase as we go through 2015. So in 2015 if nobody retires and you know that's won't happen
people will retire along the way. We're looking at in about five (5), twenty -seven (27) retirements.
So and that's why it's so important that we continue with our recruitment efforts as we move
forward.
Added to that, I'd like to bring to your attention our current beat structure because it has
implications on our Personnel. This is what our beats look like January 1, 2010. Last year we had a
new beat realignment Committee convened and what it's made up by district commanders, dispatch
supervisors and recon section with the express purpose of preparing for the future. As you know in
the past thirty -five (35) years only two (2) beats were added to the County while the population more
than doubled, vehicles more than tripled and has additional demands have been place on KPD
primarily on dispatchers, patrol officers, investigators and administrative support personnel. In
other words, all of us. More demands are being placed on this body also. The alignment Committee
first created five (5) districts and then added eleven (11) new beats based on future population
growth, calls for service, and geographic distance, and the reason why we added that in is because
for officers safety and community safety with respect to response time to crisis situations. Also in
the back I added for you the beat realignment project and it's a projection on how the beats will be
implemented in phases. For example in 2010 we created four (4) new beats, two (2) in Lihu`e and
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 4)
two (2) in the Kawaihau Districts for a total of four (4). By 2015 we'll create two (2) more additional
beats in Koloa, one in Koloa and one in Hanalei. 2020 an additional beat in Kawaihau, another beat
in Lihu`e, and finally in phase four (4), 2025 we're looking at three (3) more beats an additional one
in Kawaihau, Lihu`e and Koloa. So this is a projected twenty (20) year plan, the next Chief or
whoever takes my place won't have to reinvent the wheel, the beats will already be in place by the
time he gets in there. But... or he or she gets in there and all they will need to do is to begin to
create that beats and fill them. This is just an overview of District one (1) and it encompasses
Kuamoo Road to the Tunnel of Trees. District one (1) is in the Lihu`e area. Beats one, five, two (152)
and one, five, four (154) are currently vacant. In fact all of the new beats that we created in Lihu`e
and in the Kawaihau District are vacant because we don't have personnel to fill those positions. But
as soon as we do, we'll be able to plug them in right away. This is for the Kapa`a District, proposed
districts it runs from Moloa`a to Kuamoko Road, beats four, five, two (452) and four, five, four (454)
are not filled. Now you're probably wondering why the beats numbers are like that? Four, five, zero,
(450), four, five, four (454), four, five, two (452) instead of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) the way it's right now, the problem with the structure the way it was
then is that if we created a beat eleven (11) in Lihu`e and a beat twelve (12) at Kawaihau and so
forth the numbers would be all over the place. So we placed them in districts and within that
districts, we created these beats numbers and you notice that there's a space between beat four, five,
one (451) and four, five, two (452) if we wanted to plug in four, five... I mean four, five, zero (450) to
four, five, two (452) if we wanted to plug in four, five, one (451) we could do that, we could put it
right in the districts without any problems. So how are we going to fill those positions, I understand
and again economic situations, so what we've done was submitted for grant through the ARRA Act
and also for Community Police in Services Grant. One with Senator Inouye's Office, which is on the
bottom there, requesting six (6) officers for one (1) year which include equipment and training for
approximately one point two (1.2) million dollars and on the top on is ARRA Act, we asked for four
(4) officers for three (3) years for a little over a million dollars. There was a billion dollars in this
funding, seven thousand (7,000) Police Department's applied, only one thousand (1,000) were
selected. Hawaii, Maui and KPD was not selected. HPD was and they got five point one (5.1)
million dollars for twenty -one (21) positions. But we're still in the hunt, our application is still in
there in case one of the other Department's decides to pull out or they don't need the positions. We
just don't know where we are in the pecking order of those thousand (1,000) Departments. So we're
trying our best to get additional funding from the Federal Government with the help of these
programs.
The next concern I have is with facilities and I'd like to talk about the need in a not too
distant future to upgrade our facilities and we'll start on the west side and work our way east. The
first one is the Waimea Substation, but before we begin I'd like to take you down to memory lane.
You remember these songs "Bridge Over Trouble Waters", "Close to You ", "Cracklin Rose" by Neil
Diamond, these songs came out in the 70's and if you look at Neil Diamond then and what he looks
like now, he's aged a little like all... us have and if you were born back in the 70's, today you'd be
about 40 years old, which about... is how old the station is. And right now we have four (4) officers
per -shift assigned at the Waimea Substation and all together we have twenty -eight (28) officers in
the district. This office is cramped it's right on the boarder of the flood and tsunami zones. So what
are the plans? We were asked to go ahead and look for help through the community, look for funding
and look to find a location. And while we are more than happy to do that, we're not experts in the
field, in those fields. We're not experts in planning these types of projects, we are not familiar with
the procurement process but we have tried and so far nothing has occurred in the last forty (40)
years and it has not been through a lack of trying, through all the Administrations before myself so
we looked at other ways and one of them was to renovate the old Waimea dispensary, the Federal
Economic Development Administration gave to the Kauai, Economic Development Board one point
two (1.2) million, they were going to use it in other projects which fell through so we look at this, this
is an opportunity and the Administration looked at it as an opportunity to help KPD out but we
needed an additional seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,000.00) for renovations. Easter Seals
stepped in and said they would help but then again, their priorities shifted so it is unknown with the
status of this plan is but we do know for certain that we have to proceed if we are moving forward by
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 5)
September 30, 2010. With that said we still submitted for the CIP budget and this is approximation
ten million dollars ($10,000,000,000.00) for a ten thousand (10,000) gross square foot building.
Somewhere out on the Westside that is out of the flood and Tsunami zones and we also submitted
with that again the PID's so hopefully we'll be considered for selection for the Waimea Substation
and these are some pictures that I'm not proud to show but this is the reality of the conditions that
our officers are working under. So let's move East to the...
Mr. Furfaro: Before we do can I ask something?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go right ahead Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: So Chief are you telling me that the Waimea Dispensary is not an
option anymore?
Mr. Perry: I have not.
Mr. Furfaro: I saw plans that Housing's open house which showed a floor plan for
the Waimea Dispensary including lockers for the officers, a small support kitchen, evidence area, is
that not an option?
Mr. Perry: Yeah I saw that too and but right now... the last information that I
received was that Easter Seals, I'm not sure if they're still moving forward on this but I know they
had other plans I think on another neighbor island. And I'll explore that further.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Rezentes wanted to add something. But you had seen that plan
too right?
Mr. Perry: I have.
Mr. Rezentes: Yes, Wally Rezentes Jr., Director of Finance. I just wanted to
mention that there is a grant through the Federal Government that looks like is going to be
administered through the Kauai Economic Development Board that will provide funding for the
reconstruction if you will of the Waimea Dispensary site. I know that the Kauai Economic
Development has looked to Easter Seals as being the prime tenet to manage the property or to
receive the property but it is the intention of the Easter Seals and Kauai Economic Development to
include the Police Department, Waimea Substation as a major tenet there and I know they had a few
discussions on layout with the ,respected Police Department staff and I not exactly sure where they
are right now but as of a couple of weeks ago I was inform that they're still going to move forward
with the development or redevelopment of that facility to include the Police Department. So it's an
option that we still have you know and we hope to continue working with those groups as well as the
EDA on that possible solution.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll send over a communication on that to but if possible probably
what we'll do is handle this in a Committee Meeting that would be the place to handle it and have
that discussion in Public Safety probably.
Mr. Furfaro: We'll put it in Mr. Kawakami's Committee.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah. So that's a heads up Chief.
Mr. Perry: Okay thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: That we're going to have further discussion on that.
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 6)
Mr. Perry: Thank you Wally.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay continue with your presentation Chief.
Mr. Perry: Next we'll move East to the Kapa`a Substation and all of you have
seen the Kapa`a Substation its small, it's also cram and it presents safety concerns to our officers.
We use this office for our report writing evidence and in some situations we have bring suspects
there to be interviewed. So what are the plans? Instead of waiting Lt. Mike Contrades has taken on
the task, instead of waiting for a new building, taking on the task of getting temporary facility but in
the long term we're looking at also a new permanent substation. We anticipate particularly out in
that side Kawaihau District population, growth patterns, are both residential and commercial and
also with that comes criminal activity so. We also submitted CIP and submitted PID for the Kapa`a
Substation and its very similar to the Waimea Substation proposal. We are not sure where we are
on the priority list on that. Now back to our main Police Headquarters, less than in 2002 this facility
is about eight (8) years old and we have some security issues with that... with this structure but I
won't go.into that however I'd like to make you aware of certain concerns we have that are in the
process of been being mitigated and the first being our evidence room and our cell block and squad
room. The primary concern that we had here when I first got to the Police Department, when I was
first appointed was they had mildew and mold concerns within the evidence room. Several delays to
hash out responsibilities for repair cost have taken place but right now improvements are being
made and we're correcting the electronic and mechanical system so that we can control humidity and
ventilation. This is a cell block where just recently incarcerated suspect broke the sprinkler fire
head and flooded the cell block and report writing room. Fire sprinklers were fixed but since I've
been here, we've had three (3) floodings in that area. Some of the suspects are incarcerated
individual would plug up the toilet and the water would flow and we would have to clean it up. So
we are asking for and this is just for your information we're looking at mitigating the circumstances
by putting drainage in the cell blocks themselves. I don't know if it was a major oversight of part of
the cost cutting process but we need to get draining systems in our cell blocks, or else situations like
this will continue to occur. And for your entertainment purposes unlike the song "raindrops keep
falling on my head" by BJ Thomas, I wasn't expecting just recently where a centipede almost fell on
my head from the ceiling and we called the Department of Public Works and they sprayed. So these
are just some of the issues that we are facing at our new Police Headquarters and I'm sure they'll be
mitigated.
Now I understand that we can't depend entirely on the County funds so we have reached out
to the State and Federal Government to assist us in our mission which brings me to grants. While
the Police Department is one of the biggest cost items for the County, we've looked in other areas for
additional funding to accomplish our mission. And these are some of the grants that we currently
have. These grants are more in focused with our drug prevention, drug enforcement activities.
These grants deal with crime prevention and alcohol and tobacco operations.
Our concern also is focused on traffic issues, so we have grants from the State for alcohol
checkpoints for example speed enforcement and seatbelts. For the E -911 wireless board as allocated
one hundred and seventy -six thousand dollars ($176,000.00) for three (3) dispatch positions. We also
receive money through the Homeland Security Grant that is managed by Civil Defense, Mark
Marshal in the amount of three hundred and thirty -seven thousand dollars ($337,000.00). Again
with the E -911 wireless board for our GIS services two hundred and eighty -nine thousand dollars
($298,000.00) and the last one is a biggie, this is for the next generation for our system in dispatch
over five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) and the Deputy and I went to the board and with the
corporation of the other county Police Departments we beg them, pleaded for this money and we
were... the money's is committed to KPD so right now the Deputy is working very hard with IT and
other Departments in the County to get the SFPs done so that we can get the venders to start
working on our CAD System. Apart of the three hundred thirty -seven thousand dollars
($337,000.00) from the Homeland Security Grant is going to be used for our redundant Dispatch
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 7)
System that we're working on with the Finance and they're helping us out to have our system in the
Piikoi Building next to the new EOC and that's an area where we need right away. We also have is
something goes wrong with our Dispatch system right now we have a drop and run where we can go
to IT and they'll be assisting us so those areas in under control. So total funding that we're looking
through grants is approximate six point five (6.5) million dollars. This does not include money we
cease through Federal and State forfeitures of property that fall under the HRS and Federal
guidelines you know like our drug bust for example. But the money's can't be used to supplant
things such as pay for personnel or associated cost, it can only be used for equipment purchases and
training and one example is the Kapa`a Substation temporary module that Lt. Contrades is working
on. I also wanted to share with you the good news. The good news is that of our in addiction
programs with drugs we took down several major drug trafficking organizations here on Kauai. We
broke up two (2) major burglary rings; we still have issue with property crime. It appears that we
have control of it but we have some major cases where people were victimize and we continue to look
for these groups that are working together to victimize our residence so it's a ongoing process. As
soon as we put a group away another kicks over. We are also looking at our cold cases at old
homicides; working with the training general's office. And our youth programs especially our KPAL
program is moving forward we have the youth facility that's coming up in Mahelona, that's great and
we have many volunteers and a lot of donations coming in for that. We continue to do our alcohol
and tobacco stings. Last year we hired fifteen (15) new police officers, we filled out our domestic
violence intervention coordinator position. We created our an Honor Guard for special events. And
again as I mentioned April 10 we're looking at filling at least ten (10) positions with new police
officers and our employee misconduct is at an all time low. Also we have County Attorney Mr. Justin
Kua helping us with our accreditation process in assisting in legal matters. In our community Lt.
Miyamoto handles our Neighborhood Security Watch Programs and Officer Darla Higa is working
with Mr. Kevin Manse of the Honolulu Community College with Explorer's Program and that has
been very successful. Just yesterday I met with several of our Chiefs, the other four (4) Chiefs and
their Deputy's and we talked about APEK, APEK is coming up in November 2012 and the reason
why I mentioned that is because they'll be State of heads and so we'll be part of this program. We
already have a liaison and have soon as the announcement came up, we had a liaison meet with
Honolulu Police Department and we will be moving forward on that. The reason why I mentioned
that is because next year's budget, the 2012 budget will have to look as possibly increasing our
funding because we're going to have a spillover and we don't know whether or not the Fed's or the
State is going to reimburse the Counties right now there's no indication that there's going to be any
type of reimbursement. The total cost is anticipated to be twenty -eight million dollars
($28,000,000.00) to put on the (inaudible). With talking with Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha,
he already has an entire section working on this project.
And last... well almost last but not least. SWTP stands for what is the plan, so what is the
plan? A General's strategic plan is in place as we speak but it has to be revisited. The very near
future I'm moving toward having an independent audit of the Department to assess the internal
structure and staff and requirements to be with the current demands and future demands that will
be place on KPD. We'll ask our auditor to evaluate the three (3) other,Police Department's contrast
and compare operations and make recommendations on how to better service the community by
being more efficient and productive. But I will need the help of our community, the Mayor's Office,
County Council and the Police Commission. A little story about that statement... as a major of the
juvenile services division with the Honolulu Police Department I had a Caption who was working
towards his master's degree, to help him out I agreed that I would take some of his work load so that
he could finish his courses and not have to worried about additional pressures. After about two (2)
months I asked him "how was it going" he said he stopped attending classes, when I asked about our
agreement he said "that's your plan, not mine" my plan was to help him get his master's degree,
while that was not his plan he said that was my plan. This taught me a valuable lesson that we
should not assume that everyone is on your side even if they agree. Likewise, if I don't get the
support of the community, the Mayor's Office, County Council and the Police Commission then all of
this planning will be a waste of time. There are too many great strategic plans sitting on selves
collecting dusk. So I'm going to need everybody's help to move KPD forward. So again mahalo for
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 8)
your time and we can continue going over the budget and who's that handsome guy on the left side
there, that's looks like Councilmember Kawakami? That's it... for the PowerPoint presentation,
thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay thank you Chief. With that I can see it's a very long term plan,
there are some accomplishments that can be done you know currently with the budget but overall
this seems like a very long term plan that you have for the Department.
Mr. Perry: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So... and again I want to tell you... congratulate you on moving the
Department (inaudible) have been able to accomplish some of the things that we were trying to or
wanted to accomplish but at the same time we are limited of funding to a year to year basis so I
would like to have my Committee Members also focusing on that, we can see the long term plan that
you have for your Department but at the same time we need to look at the present needs, what we
have right now. What do we need to do right now? So for me one of the first questions is you stated
that currently with the dollar funding you are not able to recur because of the dollar funded?
Mr. Perry: When the time comes we won't be able to offer them, give them a job
offer if those positions are dollar funded.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay... but at the current time though you still have five (5)
vacancies or six (6) vacancies under your current program.
Mr. Perry: - Yeah we'll have...
Mr. Kaneshiro: So you have money there available.
Mr. Perry: Right.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Until those vacancies are filled.
Mr. Perry: At the... when we filled those ten (10) position, we'll have ten (10)
vacancies left.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Perry: But if we dollar fund those positions, that would be eight (8) positions
that would be dollar funding so the rest so that would leave only two (2) vacancies left if we dollar
fund the eight (8) positions. Of the ten (10) that's going to be leftover, eight (8) are going to be dollar
funded which would only leave two (2) left.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Because through our pass experience and I told the Chair that we
probably touched on that but we're found that you always had a vacancy in the Department no
matter how through the process so you're telling us now that if we fund you this amount, we won't
have that?
Mr. Perry: If you?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Fund you the full amount that we won't have that vacancies
occurring? Because we always have vacancies. And money's are there.
Mr. Perry: Well we have... we have twenty (20) vacancies now, we'll have ten
(10) left, we're looking at filling those other ten (10) positions if there are no retirements in the
future. Now if those ten (10) vacancies, eight (8) of them are dollar funded that leaves only two (2)
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 9)
vacancies, only two (2) vacancies that are fully funded. So what I'm saying that I was informed by
Personnel that because these positions are dollar funded you cannot offer a job two (2) positions that
are dollar funded, that's what I was informed.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay we'll send a communication.
Mr. Perry: That's what I was told.
Mr. Kaneshiro: That regards and does anyone else have any questions in that part,
just about the part by where we mentioned not being able to recruit and so forth based on that? Mr.
Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: So Chief in your report the value of those eight (8) vacancies is six
hundred and eighty -two thousand dollars ($682,000.00)?
Mr. Perry: No it was four hundred and...
Mr. Furfaro: Four twenty -nine (429).
Mr. Perry: Yeah four twenty -nine (429).
Mr. Furfaro: What was the difference between the four twenty -nine (429) and the
(inaudible)?
Mr. Perry: That would be the... well the... what I'm saying is if we fund it for
four (4) months then it would something like a hundred and... the cost would be a hundred and
twenty -eight thousand, something like that.
Mr. Furfaro: So you were talking about.
Mr. Perry: So that number would be reduced.
Mr. Furfaro: If we short funded.
Mr. Perry: The eight (8) positions instead of fully funded but perhaps?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Wally did you have something in regards to the discussion?
Mr. Rezentes: Yes. I just wanted to mention that I know there may be a disconnect
here but it is correct that they have eight (8) dollar funded positions however if the Department is
able to find the funding sources to make up the gaps either for the short funded nine (9) month
funded positions or the dollar funded positions, they can do so. So there may be a disconnect that we
need to work out amongst us.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Right and that was my understanding.
Mr. Rezentes: Right.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Because you have money's in the Department.
Mr. Rezentes: Right and just as I think earlier on the Chair as mentioned his
knowledge through history, being around the block and I just wanted to mention you know a couple
of facts yeah? In 2008 Fiscal Year 2008 the Police Department's budget was one million... I mean
nineteen million eight hundred thirty thousand eight hundred ninety dollars ($19,830,890.00) of that
amount they lapsed one million nine hundred eighty -one thousand nine hundred seventy -three
• APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 10)
dollars ($1,981,973.00) so that's ten percent (10 %) roughly that they matched, so there's flexibility in
how you manage the operation administratively...
Mr. Kaneshiro: For those positions.
Mr. Rezentes: And you know I'm pledging to work with the Police Department, I
know they're in a transition now you know from fiscal standpoint, administrative standpoint but
there's a ten percent (10 %) lapsed there. In the year ending June 30, 2009 similarly the budget was
twenty -one million two hundred eighty -nine thousand three hundred eighty -seven dollars
($21,289,387.00) and they lapsed two million twenty -five thousand ninety -five dollars
($2,250,095.00) so it's nine and a half percent so roughly they're running in the nine and ten percent
laps range but within the operation there are some flexibilities to maneuver money's around as
things happen.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Correct.
Mr. Rezentes: As vacancies etc.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And that was the concern I had because I saw that there was always
going to be vacant positions available, they're not going to be filling all the positions, you got some
retirements going on so there are still money that you could recruit but what the Chief had pointed
out was that Personnel said they won't be able to recruit on dollar funded.
Mr. Rezentes: So there maybe some disconnects that we got to...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay well you know through our experience we've always known that
there's always money's here and there. Okay on that note I have one more question if all those
positions are filled let's say that you're going to recruit get those positions going, would that drop
your two million dollar overtime?
Mr. Perry: Probably not. And the reason why I say that because currently, I did
some research on our current staff authorize strength, our authorize strength is a hundred and fifty
(150). But when we compare this with the other Department's population to officer ratio, even with
our maximum strength we're still down over twenty (20) officers when you compare it with Hawaii,
Maui and Honolulu population to officer ratio. So the work is there, the work is here so we will
continue to do this work, so I don't anticipate our overtime, there will be some reductions but it won't
be a lot of it.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay and that has always been a big issue with us, the overtime
because I see it in this current budget it's up... it's at two million dollars ($2,000,000.00) right? So.
We can have further discussion later. Any other?
Mr. Furfaro: I just wanted to point out and for this overtime rate Chief at the end
of the year you'll only have forty -eight thousand dollars ($48,000.00) at the current trend?
Mr. Kaneshiro: I see that right now because I saw how much they spent so far. Well I
was just wondering though if you had more personnel would that reduce you know if you fill those
positions because he said his entire needs of filling those positions. Okay any other questions for the
Chief? Mr. Furfaro go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: So Chief, I this is for Wally as well maybe, so the number I came out
with the six, eighty -two (682) Chief let me revisit that that's actually that's reflecting a hundred
ninety -five thousand (195,000) in anticipated furloughs which we're going to defer until April 20th
meeting? That's where the six, eighty -two (682) came from?
0
Mr. Perry: Correct.
• APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 11)
Mr. Furfaro: Did we anticipate in the order of consistency with public safety and
welfare, did we anticipate a furlough number for the Fire Department equal to this? When Fire was
up here yesterday? I mean I made my point on my feeling to the Mayor that when it came to the
public safety Department's Civil Defense, Fire and Police that that's the last place we should visit
but did we do the same for Fire?
Mr. Rezentes: The civilian staff for Fire, yes the furloughs were applicable to them.
But for the firefighter's, HFFA union employee's, no.
Mr. Furfaro: And that's an addition to the civilian positions being dollar funded?
This one, ninety -five (195) is also... that's only the furloughs, that's not the dollar funded positions?
Mr. Perry: Oh I see yeah the two (2) day furlough?
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah.
Mr. Rezentes: The two (2) day furloughs excludes the sworn police officers.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay any other questions regarding personnel? While we're on
personnel right now? We'll take the personnel side first. Mr. Asing?
Mr. Asing: Yeah let's see Chief, you didn't cover this at all and it was bought up
several times I believe I bought it up last year or the year before and that is the police reserve
program, nothing has been looked at or reviewed or any recommendations, do you see that as a value
to the Department that could assist in your operations so that you would free up some of the officers
for other types of work?
Mr. Perry: Ali.
Mr. Asing: Just been brought up many times.
Mr. Perry: We've been in...
Mr. Asing: We use to have the program a number of years ago and I thought that
it was working well because it just gave you additional men power at different times more so in
emergencies, any and all kinds of emergencies that you might have as an example the Tsunami
warning where you had to have officers just all over the place doing things that, reserve type officer
program would just free up all of your, well not all but a great number of your officers from doing
that type of work and the reserve officer would be handling that so I'm just asking is that program
not worth exploring or is it something that you don't see at the present time, it's something that
could be worked into your operations?
Mr. Perry: Yeah I believe and I used to be in charge of the reserve officer
program at HPD, I oversaw that program, I understand the benefits that come with it and we have
talked about it, we just haven't been able to move forward yet. Right now with all our vacancies at
the Administrative positions, when we make the promotions we move forward, that program along
with other programs we look at for moving forward but right now at the Administrative level where
it needs to be, needs to start. We have it, we have a whole program on the backburner right now but
we need somebody to grab it, take it and run with it. So it's just a matter of time but the way things
are in the Department we're just not able to get to it yet. And we will in the future.
Mr. Asing: Okay thank you.
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 12)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions by Committee members on personnel? We're
okay on that? I wanted to move on to the fleet part, I do have a question on the fleet part so... do you
have a schedule like the Fire Department has?
Mr. Perry: A maintenance schedule?
Mr. Kaneshiro: No.
Mr. Furfaro: Vehicle replacement.
Mr. Perry: Oh vehicle replacement.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Where you replace so much as you move along. Do you have a plan
like that? Because the Fire Department has a plan so you don't come and hit us for a million of
dollars all at once, you have a plan where you know it's stretched out over a period of time where you
replace so much vehicles, so much vehicles, vehicles, and keep that replacement going so you don't
have some in the ten (10) year cycle. That's what I'm asking?
Mr. Perry: We have... what we did have a fourteen (14) vehicle replacement plan
every year. But for the last couple of years we haven't been budgeted for that vehicles.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You were not budgeted for it? You requested...
Mr. Perry: Last year we didn't and the year before...
Mr. Kaneshiro: You requested for some vehicle replacement but you weren't budgeted
for it, is that what.you're saying?
Mr. Perry: That is correct.
Mr. Furfaro: I'm sorry Mr. Chair I remember last year we were waiting for some
definitions on were we going to look at more personal vehicles.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Oh that's right.
Mr. Furfaro: Versus you know staying on that fourteen (14) year cycle and I don't
know what happen.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And that may have thrown off the cycle of what we're proposing, I
remember. Okay.
Mr. Perry: But there some hiccups in here to.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Because you came up with a plan of doing a different way of how to
manage it so we don't have to be buying so much fleet. Okay thanks for that reminder Mr. Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: I think that's how we got to the eight (8).
Mr. Kaneshiro: To where we are at right now. Because of that... we fall back. Okay.
Mr. Perry: I'm glad you bought that up because we are having difficulties with
the implementations of this program, there's a cost savings here.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 13)
Mr. Perry: But getting to where the details... that's where (inaudible).
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah we'll come up with some other communication we'll probably
take that up at a Committee meeting rather than have that discussion here but I'm glad that Vice
Chair bought that up because of that it put us back on the plan of what we call a major apparatus
replacement schedule. Okay any other questions on fleet.
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah I just wanted to say I mean it was always my understanding
that once we made a decision you know on the individual lease vehicles for the individuals and as I
remember right we were talking about a full stash of vehicles for the Police Department and I think
in the pass I think it was ninety -eight (98) vehicles and none were supposed to be over seven (7)
years of age. I think that was the goal that we talked about and on that maybe forty (40) or fifty (50)
would have become personal lease vehicles which would have adjusted the replacement...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Got it.
Mr. Furfaro: I think we should send that question over.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah we'll send that over to him and then have more discussion on
that. I'll start it off also.
Mr. Furfaro: I have one more question. Chief from a standpoint of the mechanic on
the lease?
Mr. Perry: On the...
Mr. Furfaro: I mean on the fleet, that's a short, you said that's currently in the
budget as a short funded position?
Mr. Perry: For next budget, yes. Nine (9) months.
Mr. Furfaro: Nine (9) months instead of twelve (12).
Mr. Perry: Yes. And Mike is a contract hire right now so he's been helping us.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay thank you I just wanted to ask that question on fleet
maintenance. Oh and what do we do maybe Finance know this when the car reach a point, do we get
some kind of a savage credit, or and where does that salvage credit get reported? Does that go back
into your Department or does it go back to General Fund.
Mr. Kaneshiro: , Maybe Wally can answer that Chief.
Mr. Rezentes: The Purchasing Division would handle the transaction and they
would sell it, the proceeds of the sale would go into Miscellaneous Revenues and ultimately would
laps into the following fiscal year.
Mr. Furfaro: So that's what I would refer to as the salvage credit, so it doesn't go
back into the Police Department. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay I wanted to move on a little if I could on the facility side and the
reason I say that is because you know I know you had it on your slide about the evidence room and
so forth but in the 2008 and 2009, we budgeted five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000.00) to do
some of those repairs so you know it may take a little longer to do it but I want you to know that the
Council and us provided the money to do it so it's not that.
APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 14)
Mr. Perry: And we wanted to do it.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Well the money's there, somebody got to do it. What I'm saying is
that you know if you come before us, we're looking at right now is what do you need to get this done,
what money do you need to get that done? Now I'm looking back here and I'm seeing the five
hundred thousand (500,000) that the Council passed in the CIP budget 2008 and 2009 so. Now if it
wasn't done from now I mean can't blame us, it's not our fault, we appropriated the money so I just
wanted to make that clear because there's some points that came up there and showed that we didn't
fund some positions, we didn't give you some money to do this but in reality you know we have it
right here, the Council took action when you asked and we provided it.
Mr. Rezentes: With respect to the evidence room repairs, we did go out to bid. We
are very close to signing off, one of the issues was as result of during the construction period there
was a requirement to have the evidence secured in a proper way and that would have resulted in
overtime cost. The Police Department had requested funding for the overtime cost from via money
bill and I informed them that they do have money's internally to reprioritize overtime and I'm
willing and able to show them how we could accommodate that but I think we're very close with
working it out where we can sign off on the contract, deal with the additional overtime that we'll
be... would result as the result of the construction that would be taking place.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Mr. Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: I'm just as surprised as Committee Chairman Kaneshiro because I
was very active in searching out a temporary evidence room talking to the train people about an
adjustment to the air conditioning system because I was familiar with it because perhaps had the
chill water set too high it was contributing to the mildew problem and so forth and we put a
substantial amount of money there so I'm a little surprised to hear where we're at, I'm not repeating
this but I mean we thoroughly looked at it and that's why we came up with that number.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Well and that is why when I see the slide I want to make sure that
you know that if we hadn't fund it then we need to look at it in this current budget but if we funded
it and it's not done well that's a different issue. What I want to focus on really is what do you really
need to make yourself able to fulfill some of your goals at least for this current fiscal. That's what
I'm looking at because we're strap for money let me tell you right now. And you know that.
Mr. Furfaro: I just... I just wanted to say that...
Mr. Kaneshiro: I understand that.
Mr. Furfaro: Because we provided the money because we know the value of...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes and we did.
Mr. Furfaro: And the temporary facility.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And Chief you know we've always done that, we have a history of
funding whatever needs, you come in here and ask us (inaudible) always done that. So it just
bothers me when some of these pop up and yet we gave five hundred thousand (500,000) in
2008/2009 so what we're focusing on right now is what do you need, you know. I understand that
some of it wasn't done well you know.
Mr. Perry: And a lot of this is for informational and awareness.
Mr. Kaneshiro: My concern is currently and I don't want to get into that discussion
here is show us what you need to make some of your goals achievable that's what looking for.
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 15)
Mr. Asing: You know I just have to add you know I went so far as going into the
building and I'm talking about the not the mold area, I'm talking about the temporary cite and that
we're supposed to move in which is adjacent to Big Save in the Piikoi Building and we looked at that
site, walked with the Engineer responsible for the renovation of that so you know it's not only supply
the money but actually going there and looking at the site.
Mr. Furfaro: I think we were all involved in this.
Mr. Asing: Yeah everybody was involved, we put the money there but I'm not
sure whatever happened... evidently it just never got done.
Mr. Perry: If I could do the work, I would have done it like yesterday but there
are other people that we have to work with and sometimes it's not as easy as providing the money.
Mr. Furfaro: Well the Building Department hasn't come in front of us but I can tell
you it is on my list when they come.
Mr. Asing: You know I went so far as to travel to Honolulu special to look at
their evidence room that's how far I went, you know.
Mr. Perry: And I appreciate that and you also came into the Station.,,
Mr. Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Perry: And looked at other things that were of concern.
Mr. Asing: Okay thank you.
Mr. Perry: So I appreciate that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: The other part I was a little concern about is because you talked
about the cell block bathrooms and you showed the bathrooms overflowing and so forth but was
that... you said it was caused by prisoner's or whoever was in there.
Mr. Perry: Yeah the sprinkler overhead .wasn't protected when they initially
designed the building it wasn't protected.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So they.
Mr. Perry: Yeah they wack it or punch it and it breaks.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Oh okay but those, other than that I mean you have...
Mr. Perry: What we don't have is a drainage system in there and that's causing
the problem. There should have been a drainage system in the cell block for situations... well they
shouldn't had the sprinkler system like that in the first place but the toilet... they plug the toilets up
and all the rubbish overflows and then we have to clean it up. And that's why I'm thinking why was
there such an oversight on this? The design should have included drainage in the cell, something as
simple as that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay so it's a design issue.
Mr. Perry: Or maybe a cost cutting issue, I don't know.
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 16)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah because you did...
Mr. Furfaro: It's called valued engineering, it has no value.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Anything else on facilities that we would like to have some discussion
on? Derek?
Mr. Kawakami: Thank you Finance Chair and thank you Chief. As far as the Waimea
Dispensary site, I've been in conversation with Mattie Yoshioka, KDB and also the Field Rep of
Senator Inouye's Office so things are moving along. Last discussion I think they're still looking at
some other funding avenues for this project but it would present a an ideal opportunity because from
my understanding Easter Seals would kind of like a landlord and they're looking for the Police
Department (inaudible) a low cost or no cost lease and just looking for somebody to contribute in the
form of care in the area of maintenance so ideally that would be ideal situation for our Police
Department and also for the Easter Seals and when we look at the public private partnership, that
would be a great example of that coming together (inaudible). Another thing I don't know if you are
going to get into some of the other avenues of funding, while we're on funding.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Well I'll open it up now. I just wanted to go over some of the key
points that the Chief pointed out you know fleet, personnel and facilities and so forth but we can
open it up.
Mr. Kawakami: Well on the National level, I sit on the Board of Director's for the
National Association of Counties and you know I sit in the Public Safety steering Committee's and
one of the overwhelming challenges is interoperability and so I know the Administration and
working with the Ferguson Group and also with us to have put on a concerted effort to lobby for
money to deal with interoperability and as far your radio... the radio's that you guys use the two -
way radios and so on and so forth so this is just one of the things where we need to see if the funding
will come through. I know Captain Yagihara is also been working day and night on that issue also
so kudos to him, to the Administration for kind of seeing that, so we will be posting some updates as
they come through.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay any other questions, we'll open it up. I just wanted to follow
first because of the presentation and then now we can open it up to any other questions. Mr. Furfaro
go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Chief your Department has had great success with a six point (6.2)
million dollars worth of grants especially for (inaudible) are you aware that in the Civil Defense
budget they're proposing to short fund the grant writer?
Mr. Perry: No I wasn't aware of that.
Mr. Furfaro: And that grant writer is the one that supports Police and Fire right?
Mr. Perry: Correct.
Mr. Furfaro: Am I correct?
Mr. Perry: Correct.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay so I mean, it bothers me in a time that we would short fund a
office that had six point... that was one of your questions wasn't Chair?
Mr. Asing: Yes.
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 17)
Mr. Furfaro: You asked them to list... Civil Defense to list the accomplishments
through grants and you should be aware of that that it has been proposed to only fund that position
for nine (9) months as well. And I do want to let you know I do sympathize this dollar funding on the
eight (8) officers after looking at your continuity plan because you know there needs to be some time
and exposure for these officers as we go to replace 2011/2012 so I do sympathize with you on that
request and we're going to have more discussions on the morning of April 20th, am I correct
Chairman Kaneshiro?
Mr. Kaneshiro: On the furloughs?
Mr. Furfaro: On the furloughs?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: So just to let you know we're going into further discussion.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes.
Mr. Asing: Jay, I believe Wally was... Wally were you trying to make some
clarification on the?
Mr. Rezentes: I just wanted to make a comment Vice Chair Furfaro mentioned that
there was a short funding of the grant position in Civil Defense, I just wanted to let you folks know
that the same individual is there in a different capacity and still is supporting that function in that
short period that we're short funding exist and then also you were talking about the facilities
planning for the Police Department, I know that I just wanted to mention that I know that the
Planning Department and Police Department, Justin Kollar and Officer Contrades is working on
Special Permit as well as an EA for the site in which the Police Department is looking to house that
facility so I know there's you know progress in the works and they're progressing to final solution.
Mr. Furfaro: Well I'm very glad to hear your answers to that I just wanted to make
sure that the Chief was aware that, yes this same person is there at a different capacity but in going
to a new capacity, it brings up new duties so you should be aware of that.
Mr. Asing: I think I just want to add to that and Wally, the grants person that
was hired to do that function has moved into another position and so that position is currently
vacant and to find someone who's specialty is grant writing is not simple and easy. You don't have a
lot of people out there that you can hire as grant writers because that's... it just takes time, effort,
training and so I ... I'm not sure on that rationale for moving that individual to another capacity and
not functioning in the capacity that he was hired to do. So I'll leave it at that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll send a communication in that regards. Any other questions?
Go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Budget Chair. Good morning Chief thank you for your
great presentation. I'm looking at the patrol service bureau section for small equipment and I just
want to verify or get some clarification on the increase on that section for the small equipment.
Mr. Perry: What page are you on?
Ms. Kawahara: Eighty (80)... seventy -eight (78).
Mr. Perry: Seventy -eight (78).
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 18)
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. And I know there's been interest in the tasers and in that
program and last year you had budget twenty (20) tasers with camera's and I was curious if you had
gotten those and if these tasers here are additional or are they just the same ones.
Mr. Perry: No these are additional.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Mr. Perry: We received the other tasers.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay and if you could... the digital audio recorders would that be...
are they replacements or what do you use them for?
Mr. Perry: These are for cases that officers take pictures.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Mr. Perry: And they are part of the evidentiary documentation of particular
cases and so these are for the officers when they go on the road or when they do interviews.
Ms. Kawahara: So if you could just tell me a little about the additional twenty (20)
and the need for them.
Mr. Perry: The additional twenty (20) tasers?
Ms. Kawahara: Yes.
Mr. Perry: Sure. Right now our plans are to have our... all of our patrol officers
that are on the street be trained and supplied with tasers. These tasers... again the benefits are that
in cases where the person or the individual is violent, in cases where there maybe if the taser was
not there, we may have to use deadly force and these tasers will be a secondary weapon so that we
won't have to use that. And it showed in documentation and in studies that this not only saved the
individuals for more injury but also saved the officers so we're using the tasers is an additional tool
for our officers so that they can be safe, so that the person they encounter can be safe. And that's the
plan in a nutshell.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah I'm not questioning that having them, I just wanted you to be
able to address the issues and why you're getting them. And the next one I had a question is on page
seventy -nine (79) also in the patrol service bureau for the laser handheld speed detectors, these are
replacements and two (2)... so are these additional ones or is this the same one's from last year?
Mr. Perry: No these are replacements of the old ones. We had instead of laser's
at one time, we had radar laser's and the models are being updated consistently, so we're replacing
the old ones that are and we're updating... so these would be replacements for the old ones.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay so you have a replacement process for the laser's each year
then?
Mr. Perry: Correct because technology improves and there's counter measures
for some companies that make counter measure so that when you shoot the laser it will register at
zero.
Ms. Kawahara: Yes. And we actually have people that have use those, find them on
the internet and buy them.
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 19)
Mr. Perry: Well I was talking to an individual from BMW and he had a client
that wanted that installed on his car and I said "don't do that."
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Mr. Perry: Yeah but there's counter measures out there.
Ms. Kawahara: And the next one was page eighty -three (83) and if you could just tell
me the 2010... oh it decreased because the big money was last year two hundred (inaudible) so it was
a decrease from last year I guess in maintenance fees so that's a good thing. That's not really a
question. So when you get the new tasers, is it included for training, additional training for the
officers that do get those?
Mr. Perry: Yes.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah. Okay and where... do you know where in this budget that sits
for the training?
Mr. Perry: For the training? No I don't.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Page seventy -five (75).
Ms. Kawahara: Okay I think that's it, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Jay go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Just because I know we're kind of close to this first review wrapping
it up but Chief how are you doing with your plan to get the Department credited? Are you on the
target that you set for yourself, is there something that needs to move along a little quicker or?
How are you doing with...
Mr. Perry: We are a little behind schedule but you know we just got Justin
over... Justin and he's helping us in that process, we're changing our policies and procedures to be in
alignment with the Kelia Standards and we're moving slowly in that direction. What I need to do
and what I'm going to do actually is as soon as we're able to make promotions and the reason why
we're taking so long with the promotions is because we had issues in the past concerning the process
and we went into arbitration... we're looking at doing it by IACP standards which is International
Association of Chief of Police Standards best practices throughout the country and we will be doing
an assessment center. Once that that type of promotional process is in, then that would be able to
last us forever because we'll be changing it like all of other Departments' but the initial onset of
getting that promotions processed in is taking a long time. To answer your question when we do get
the promotions done, I'm going to assign a Lt specifically to work on the Kealia Project and we need
somebody to do that fulltime, it's not a part time, it's not something you do while doing your patrol
duties. And it's has to be done fulltime. I already touched basis with Terry Kong, he's a Caption
with the Honolulu Police Department, he's also an evaluator for the Kelia Program so he will be
coming in working with the Lt., and moving in that direction so right now we're a little bit behind, I
wish we were more ahead. But one of the concerns that I had and again it's no fault from the
Council I mean you guys been great, you guys supported us all the way with funding and the like but
our facilities, I can tell you right now it's not going to past, it's not going to past mustard. So we
need to get those areas going. That would be one of major stumbling blocks for to get credited.
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 20)
Mr. Furfaro: We might send over a communication that deals with some of the
concerns you have with the facilities on this and has Justin from the County Attorney's Office, is he
moved over and he's there now...
Mr. Perry: Yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: To support you and work on the standards.
Mr. Perry: Correct.
Mr. Furfaro: And as well as support legal questions that come up from the
Department right from your office.
Mr. Perry: Actually he's right... right outside my door. So it's great. Because
he's right around the corner and I don't have to... I can just yell from my office.
Mr. Furfaro: I just knew that was the discussion last year.
Mr. Perry: It's been great. He's been really good.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay any other questions for Chief and the Police Department? If
not, we'll probably send some follow up questions if anything Chief and again I appreciate you being
here, I appreciate the job you're doing and you know... because you know we are all in tight budget
resources. And we'll see what we can do.
Mr. Asing: I just have one (1) comment you know in your PowerPoint you make
reference to the TAT bill with Senate at fifty million (50,000,000) and the and House at ninety -four
(94), when you put fifty million (50,000,000) and ninety -four (94) you know people will maybe miss
interpret that that fifty (50) and ninety -four (94) is total for all islands, so you know it's not...
Mr. Perry: Right.
Mr. Asing: It's not fifty (50) and it's not ninety -four (94), for us...
Mr. Furfaro: It's eleven (11) and a six (6).
Mr. Asing: Yeah it's eleven (11) and six (6) so the real dollars to us is... is much
different so I just wanted to clarify that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And you know that's the difficult (inaudible) see you know as we come
back with the Supplemental Budget because as you know the Leg will not be over (inaudible) and the
bond, we don't know what's going to happen. Currently twelve million dollars ($12,000,000.00) is in
this budget (inaudible). Until we really see what happens, the proposal on the floor is to cut that in
half right, which would cut out six million (6,000,000) from this total budget right now. Which was
the five percent (5 %) cut that everybody need, every Department needs. We're being very cautious
too so just to let you know.
Mr. Perry: And again I just like to restate that the Council have been more
supportive I mean you guys have been terrific in helping KPD move forward and all of the employees
of the Kauai Police Department are appreciative on that and we look forward to working with all of
you in the future.
• • APRIL 13, 2010
POLICE (Pg. 21)
Mr. Kaneshiro: And you seen as we go through and sometimes you come up... you
have to come before us (inaudible) appropriated (inaudible) moving along, come up and tell us what
you need and you know we've been there to help find the sources... the procedure takes a little longer
as you stated when the real need comes up, we will always be there to address that. Chief thank you
very much again.
Mr. Perry: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: With that we'll take a ten (10) minute recess and have the next
Department up it will be the County Clerk's Office.
The Police departmental budget review concluded at 10:49 a.m., and there being no objections, the
meeting was recessed.
• •
APRIL 13, 2010
CLERK (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened at 11:05 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
(Mr. Bynum was noted excused.)
CLERK:
Mr. Kaneshiro: Budget review session is now called back to order. We will go to the
next Department, with that Mr. County Clerk Peter Nakamura, you have the floor.
PETER A. NAKAMURA (COUNTY CLERK): Good morning Budget Chair, good morning
Council Chair and members of the Budget and Finance Committee. I provided a brief overview of
the Fiscal Year 2010 -2011 budget for the Office of the County Clerk. And I'll just go through it
briefly. Overall for the fiscal year 2010 -2011 the operating budget of the Office of the County Clerk
represents a de minimus point zero five (0.05 %) decrease which approximates out to about two
thousand and ten dollars (- $2,010) over the previous Fiscal Year operating budget. However, it must
be noted that this decrease is largely due to two (2) major factors:
We have incorporated the overall nine point three (9.3) decrease in across - the -board
salaries as a result of inclusion of two (2) furlough days a month equivalent to one
hundred sixty -eight thousand four hundred and twenty dollars ($168,420) salary cost
reductions, this equates to a hundred forty -eight thousand nine hundred ninety dollars
($148,990) reduction for the Council Services Office and nineteen thousand four hundred
thirty dollars ($19,430) for the Elections Office. And I create a small chart that shows
the amounts.
The second factor is we're looking at the non - recurrence of the one -time cost associated
with relocation of the Council and Council Services operations to current interim
facilities. We just wanted to add a caveat at this point is as we're still moving towards
becoming fully - operational, we anticipate additional costs could be realized which may
impact the office's Fiscal Year 2010 -2011 operating budget in terms of more costs.
As far as Council Services the Council Services Fiscal Year 2010 -2011 operating budget
reflects a four point one percent (4.1 %) decrease of approximately one hundred twenty -five thousand
five hundred and nineteen dollars (- $125,519) over FY 2009 -2010 Operating Budget. As stated
earlier, this decrease included the proposed two (2) days furlough a month cost reductions. Other
decreases were offset by increases in the interim building lease and other fixed costs.
For the Elections Division in light of the upcoming 2010 Elections, the Elections Division
Fiscal Year 2010 -2011 operating budget has experienced anticipated biennial budgetary increase of
eighteen percent (18 %) or one hundred twenty -two thousand five hundred and nine dollars
($122,509) in spite of the inclusion of cost reductions associated with the proposed two (2) furlough
days a month. This is due in large part to two (2) factors:
1. Hiring of six (6) seasonal Temporary Election Clerks (TECs) for varying employment
periods of between six (6) month (2TECs), three (3) months (1TEC), and one (1) month
(2TECs).
2. Increase in normal election year operational and supplies costs such as: printing; mailing
( +$11,000 -bulk & reply mailing; +$9,000- absentee mail costs).
One State legislative matter that may an impact on our election expenses is the status of
HB2397 SDI, which proposes to move the date of the primary election to the second Saturday of
August and requires nomination papers to be filed not later than 4:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday in
June (effective January 1, 2050). This bill is currently being scheduled for conference committee. If
this bill is enacted, we are discussing the possibility of hiring TECs budgeted for Fiscal Year 2010-
2011 earlier in order to effectively implement election deadlines which be moved up as a result of
this legislation.
APRIL 13, 2010
CLERK (Pg. 2)
That's about it Budget Chair are there any questions?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Briefly than you know because of the Election Year you see the
budgetary increase of eighteen percent (18 %) but the main factor because this is an Election Year, so
this is not a recurring thing every year, just for Committee members, I think we all understand that.
Okay let's see I'll go ahead and open this up for questions by Committee members. Okay go ahead
Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: So Mr. Nakamura, I see we've identified all of our positions and
identified a potential of one hundred forty - eight, nine, nine, zero (148,990) for the furlough
discussion, am I correct?
Mr. Nakamura: That is correct Vice Chair and that includes... in this first round in
the budget we incorporated the Administration's proposal which includes elected Councilmembers as
well as appointed, contract and Civil Service employees.
that.
Mr. Furfaro: So non -Civil Service, appointed Administrative people are all part of
Mr. Nakamura: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. On page two (2) and I think Mr. Kaneshiro said it best here,
with the temporary hires during the Election Session, can you... is that why this line you know we're
trending to end the employee benefits at about a hundred and eighty -two thousand (182,000) based
on nine (9) months at a hundred and thirty -seven (137) but we seemed to have a bigger number in
there then we're trending, is some of that related to the temporary hires for election?
Mr. Nakamura: I'm sorry budget Chair if you could?
Mr. Furfaro: The line item I'm looking at is zero, five dash ten (05 -10), I'm sorry
zero, five dash twelve (05 -12) other post employ benefit?
Mr. Nakamura: Oh other post employ benefits.
Mr. Furfaro: It seems a little then it should be.
Ms. Kawahara: Which page is that Jay?
Mr. Furfaro: I'm on page...
Mr. Nakamura: You're on page fourteen (14)... oh
Mr. Furfaro: Page twelve (12).
Mr. Nakamura: I'm sorry page twelve (12).
Mr. Furfaro: I think we need to look at that number Mr. Chair and if we can send
that over as a question.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: I'm sure it might be related to the...
Mr. Nakamura: To the temporary elections.
• •
APRIL 13, 2010
CLERK (Pg. 3)
Mr. Furfaro: Temporary hires for elections but...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright.
Mr. Furfaro: I would like us to take a look at that.
Mr. Nakamura: Just for your information Budget Chair and Vice Chair one of the
things... one of the cost that for that impacted us in this Fiscal Year which we did not anticipate is
the increase... the trend in the Unemployment Benefits, I think what had happen was with the
Federal Stimulus at the Federal level what they did was they extended the period that a person
could collect unemployment benefits based on the unemployment rate within the State so what
happen was when we had budgeted, it was prior to that legislative coming into effect and I'm not
quite sure, I'd have to check to see what it is for Hawaii but I believe it's now extended to about
ninety -nine (99) months if you're above nine point five percent (9.5 %) unemployment so what happen
is as a result of that we were carrying some liability from the previous election and with the Federal
legislative to extend that period we anticipated no we were hit with unanticipated increases in the
unemployment benefits.
Mr. Furfaro: The next thing I want to ask is, is the Council's airfare down from
previous... yes it is.
Mr. Nakamura: Yes. We've... in terms of for the Council, Council Services budget we
dropped airfare, per diem and the like. I think one of the things we tried to do is go through the
budget and follow as a guideline the Administration's policy of reducing budget by approximately
five percent (5 %) but in our case because of the election cost and some of the cost associated with
relocation, that we're still kind of not real out of the woods yet, there are offsets to that so we
couldn't achieve that percent increase with the incorporation of the... with incorporation of the two
(2) days a month furlough though, we did hit about a four point one, six percent (4.16 %) decrease in
just the Council Services side budget but again like you stated Vice Chair it was offset by the
eighteen percent (18 %) increase in the Election Division budget.
Mr. Furfaro: And I see yet for discussion there has... we haven't yet touched on
any other allowances for Councilmembers?
Mr. Nakamura: No. That was not part of the budget.
Mr. Furfaro: (inaudible) discussion.
Mr. Nakamura: No.
Mr. Furfaro: Committee Chair, I'm fine.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Any other Committee members have questions for our County
Clerk? Okay. We can follow up with questions if we do and I want to note that Tim Bynum is
excused at this time so he might have some questions.
Mr. Nakamura: Thank you Budget Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you very much. At this time we'll take a five (5) minute recess
and get ready for the next Department, are they ready to go?
The Clerk's Office departmental budget review concluded at 11:15 a.m., and there being no
objections, the meeting was in recess.
APRIL 13, 2010
AUDITOR (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened at 11:15 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
(Mr. Bynum was noted excused.)
AUDITOR:
Mr. Kaneshiro: Budget review session is now called back to order. Mr. County
Auditor, you have the Chair so it's all yours. You can start with your presentation.
ERNESTO PASION (COUNTY AUDITOR): Budget and Finance Chair Kaneshiro and
Committee Members, for the record Ernesto G. Pasion, your County Auditor. I have provide the staff
to distribute to all of you a copy of my PowerPoint presentation and my text, so let me start.
"In November 2008, the voters passed a Charter amendment establishing the Office of the
County Auditor as an independent department reporting directly to the County Council. I was
installed as the first County Auditor in September 2009, and hired my first staff member in
October 2009."
In this presentation I will explain the budget of the Office of the County Auditor.
"The Auditor's budget is based on the audit requirements of the generally accepted
Government Auditing Standards (GALAS or the Yellow Book). Conformance to GAGAS is required
by Charter section 32.02. D., which states that "the County Auditor's audit activities shall be subject
to quality review in accordance with applicable government auditing standards." In order to pass
the quality review standards, the Auditor's Office operates under the strict guidance of its procedural
manual, which is designed to meet GAGAS standards. Out procedural manual is substantially
identical to the manual used by the City and County of Honolulu, which was in turn based on the
procedures of the Hawaii Legislative Auditor.
The GAGAS requirements are federal directives dealing with the independence of the audit
function and quality control of fieldwork and reports. GALAS requirements make certain that high
quality government audits are conducted uniformly, and with safeguards, so that the audits are
conducted with competence, integrity, objectivity, and independence.
Therefore, the budget provides for the two (2) audit professionals necessary to conduct
independent reviews under the quality control requirements of GAGAS and the procedural manual,
funds for continuing education mandatory under the GALAS, and sufficient funds to engage
specialty expertise, when such expertise is not present in- house. The budgeted resources will enable
the Auditor's Office to pass the GAGAS peer review mandated by the Charter.
In addition, the Auditor's Office is part of a network of state and municipal auditors whose
work is relied upon by the federal government to ensure fraud, waste, and abuse do not occur using
economic stimulus or other federal funds. This responsibility to the federal government cannot by
performed without GAGAS compliance.
Staffing_ proposed in the originally- submitted budget
The projected staff size for this office is four (4), consisting of the County Auditor, two (2)
audit professional and an Analyst. The two (2) professional are the minimum required to perform
audits under the quality control and accuracy requirements of the GAGAS and the office's auditing
manual. A minimum of two (2) audit professionals is necessary so the audit results can be checked
by an audit professional who was not involved in the audit. The real measure of adequacy of staffing
and budget is in comparing the staffing and costs of other auditor's offices. The projected staff size
APRIL 13, 2010
AUDITOR (Pg. 2)
compares favorably to the County of Hawaii, which has six (6) staff members, and Honolulu which
has eight (8).
The per audit hour cost in our budget also compares favorably. In Fiscal Year 2008 -2009, the
City and County of Honolulu published four (4) audit reports at a net audit hour cost of eighty -one
dollars and thirty cents ($81.30). County of Hawaii published two (2) audit reports for a net audit
hour cost of sixty -four dollars and twenty cents ($64.20). With our projected number of audits this
FY, our average net audit hour cost is eighty -one dollars and forty -seven cents ($81.47), which
compare very favorably considering we understand the other counties do not fund any of the fringe
benefits, which are fifty -nine point fifty -five percent (59.55 %) of payroll in our case. Our eighty -one
dollars and forty -seven cents ($81.40) per audit hour average cost includes all benefits and costs in
our budget, except for consultants. This rate also is much lower than the average rates for outside
auditors, which a recent quote showed to be one hundred eighty -two dollars and sixty cents
($182.60).
Non - salary line items
• Training, travel, and travel - related
• The funds for training, travel, and travel - related costs are set at the minimum level
to meet GALAS requirements of eighty (80) hours of continuing education over two (2) years for each
auditor.
• Dues and subscriptions
The main items in this line item are funds for continued membership in two (2)
national auditing organizations, the Association of Government Accountants and the Association of
Local Government Auditors, fees to maintain professional credentials, and periodicals and
publications to start an auditing library. We will also use on -line subscriptions and references to
reduce costs whenever possible.
• Consultant services
The consultant services line item includes the costs of the financial and single audits,
engineering consultants, special counsel, investigators, and subpoena costs to be used in the
unfortunate case we are prevented from access to information for audits, or if an audit discloses
potential fraud. Along with other municipal auditors, we have been asked to report any instances of
fraud or wrongdoing on economic stimulus projects to the federal government.
The last item under consultant services is for financial and forensic auditors, which will be
used to hire outside CPA services, including IT or forensic auditors as needed.
Equipment and supplies
The other costs in the budget are the equipment and supplies necessary to start and operate
the office. The addition of a "Lease" line item is included to provide for office space. Our lease is
temporary until appropriate space within a County -owned building becomes available. We are also
requesting six thousand dollars ($6,000) in this item for electricity costs.
Budget cuts
A twenty -one percent (21 %) cut was made to our proposed budget. In addition to the salary
cuts to account for furloughs, the funding for the in -house CPA position was reduced to one dollar
($1) and sixty -five thousand dollars ($65,000) was cut from the subaccounts in the Consultant
Services line item. Since our budget was designed to meet GALAS requirements, it is safe to say
that these cuts will affect our ability to comply.
• APRIL 13, 2010
AUDITOR (Pg. 3)
Auditor's request
The request of the Auditor's Office is to restore the funding for the Consultant Services to full
funding. The addition of the funds will enable the Auditor to remedy the elimination of the second
audit professional position, by converting and foregoing the Analyst position, or by outsourcing.
Although this restoration falls short of the full budget restoration, we will also be carefully
examining additional options to deal with the shortfall, such as reducing the number and/or scope of
audits that will enable to be GAGAS compliant with the reduced funds.
We are also requesting six thousand dollars ($6,000) to pay for electric utility expenses under
the "lease" line item.
Since we were hired last fall, the Audit Manager and I conducted extensive research and risk
evaluations on approximately twenty (20) audit subjects, and drafted detailed audit plans for
ten (10). The ten (10) will be further evaluated, and form three (3) to five (5) will be included in
the 2010 -2011 work plan, depending on resources. Also depending on resources, we hope to be able
to include two (2) non -audit projects in the work plan. The actual work plan will be filed as required
by Charter, once the available resources are known. The filing will take place in June, after the
budget is finalized, consistent with the practice in other jurisdictions.
Benefits of the audit function
The audit function provides many benefits to the citizens of the County. Audits provide
factual information to County policymakers and the public. Financial audits tell us the financial
condition of the County. Performance audits by the County Auditor provide information about
specific programs, so they can be evaluated.
Audits can also identify inefficiencies and fraud and other risk. The Institute of Certified
Fraud Examiners estimates that seven percent (7 %) of the typical entity's annual budget is lost to
fraud along each year, so if the County's exposure to fraud is not detected because there is little or no
internal oversight, the County may be experiencing losses of twelve million nine hundred fifty -nine
thousand and eight hundred dollars ($12,959,800) or more due to fraud and inefficiency.
Unlike outside auditors, our permanent presence in the County means the County Auditor
can continually make certain recommendations to improve efficiency and lower costs are not ignored
or set aside for other priorities. For example, we are able to track the department's progress and
remind them of their commitments to implementing the recommendations.
Audits also identify opportunities to help departments work together effectively. For
example, will a centralized personnel function work better than the current system?
The reports of all audits performed by my department are public, and posted on our website.
This enables the community to have access to the same information we provide to the County and
the Mayor. The audits and the non -audit projects provide many benefits to the County decision
makers and the public.
Why audit now?
Hard economic times require us to improve the efficiency of our public services. Some
important reasons to audit now are one (1) identify inefficiency and waste and potential new revenue
sources and two (2) to quantify the effect of budget reduction measures such as furloughs and freezes
on the bottom line, taking into account any effects on productivity, morale and fraud risk.
APRIL 13, 2010
AUDITOR (Pg. 4)
Conclusion
It has been shown all over the nation that a municipal auditor's audits and projects can
produce significant efficiencies and savings, as well as transparency and reassurance to the general
public that their tax dollars are being spent ethically, competently, and appropriately.
This is the first full year in the life of the Office of the County Auditor. We ask that the
Council strongly endorse the importance of the internal audit function, especially in these difficult
times, and ask for your favorable support for the budget necessary to complete the program.
This concludes my presentation I am open to any questions.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay questions by Committee members? Jay go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. May I just take a moment to read this. This is the
Charter amendment as it was presented to the voters. This is to establish within the Legislative
Branch, the Legislative Branch an Office of the County Auditor to be headed by a County Auditor
who shall be appointed by the County Council and shall serve for a period of six (6) years and
therefore until the successor is appointed. The Salary Commission shall fix the salary of the County
Auditor and the County Council shall by two, thirds (2/3) votes of each membership may also remove
the County Auditor from the Office at any time for any cause. So we have an auditor, your
Department now as its presented to the voters, I think it's an important time for us to have this
option but I'm not sure starting off Ernie that we should've first go to each Department you and your
staff go to each Department and share with them what your mission is according to the Charter.
Mr. Pasion: Ali.
Mr. Furfaro: Have we done that, have we plan to do that? I mean go into Building
and tell them what your role is. I don't want anybody to fear the Auditor I want them to undekstand
the Auditor Department.
Mr. Pasion: To comply with established protocol between the Legislative Branch
and the Administrative Branch, we have sent a communication to the Mayor and a copy to the
Mayor's Assistant that we are willing to go to each Department and provide orientation about the
function of the County Auditor's Office.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay...
Mr. Pasion: And in ah...
Mr. Furfaro: Okay let me say it again, not request you NEED to do that. They
need to know your function.
Mr. Pasion: But...
Mr. Furfaro: This is a message I shared with you (inaudible)... But they need to
know your function.
Mr. Pasion: But the established protocol again between the Legislative and
Administrative Branch is that you have to go through the Mayor...
Mr. Furfaro: Well I appreciate the fact that you sent a communication over, I'll
send a communication over that I would like to see a schedule, I would like to know when he's
APRIL 13, 2010
AUDITOR (Pg. 5)
presenting his role to the Building Department, to the Parks Department and so forth so that they
understand his role. I think that's really important.
Mr. Asing: Jay can I?
Mr. Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Asing: Can I follow up on that I think what the Auditor is trying to say is
that they sent a communication in attempting to work with the Administration on providing that
service and I think it is a good, fair way to do it. And have the Administration respond in what they
feel is the best way to do it and work together with the Auditor's Office, I think that's a fair and good
way to start.
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah. But I want to make sure we start that way.
Mr. Asing: Yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: And I don't want people to interpret a visit from the Auditor
Department as them against us you know it's not that way, it's for the mutual benefit of the whole
County and I do understand your point, there is protocol here.
Mr. Asing: Yeah and I...
Mr. Furfaro: It is now March... No April...
Mr. Asing: And I think what the Auditor is trying to say is he does not feel it is
within his jurisdiction to tell the Administration what they're going to do more than advice and work
with the Administration so that there is a good working relationship between them...
Mr. Furfaro: I understand that you know in my life I have gone through many
audits, I know the parts and the first things I do is make sure that auditors have an opportunity to
visit with the controller, the Chief Engineer, the Purchasing Department and we understand what
we're trying to accomplish. So but I understand the point about courteous here...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Can you...
Mr. Furfaro: But this is the opportunity just to say that that should happen.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Can you get a copy to the Council of what you requested?
Mr. Pasion: I don't...
Mr. Kaneshiro: And then we can follow up on it.
Mr. Pasion: Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay?
Mr. Pasion: Well we did that in mind that fact that although we are an
independent agency attached to the County Council, we also believe in the separations of powers
between the Legislative and the Administrative so that's the reason why... we are aware of the
established protocol between the two (2) Branches and that's the reason why we did it that way.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay that's fine.
Mr. Furfaro:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Furfaro:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Furfaro:
Mr. Pasion:
But...
Just send a copy of your request.
Is APRIL 13, 2010
AUDITOR (Pg. 6)
Send a copy over to us because at some point...
And then we can follow up we realize that.
You're going to have to send to us your audit plan, right?
Right.
Mr. Furfaro: And accordantly it's due to us by June. You're going to do three (3),
four (4) audit of the Departments it's you that determines you know that that priority list, I guess.
Mr. Pasion: Right.
Mr. Furfaro: We can make suggestions but it's you that needs to determine that.
Could you given the fact and I heard you that you need a CPA in your office, I heard that. Could you
give me an idea of how the auditor's Department can actually save us in your opinion through this
staffing some operational savings? 1
Mr. Pasion: Well as you know we are part of a network of audit jurisdiction,
Nationwide and so we have access to their websites and all I can say is that since we haven't done
any yet you know we're eager to start with the proper staffing, I can say that we looked at auditor
jurisdictions and close by in the Honolulu, the City Auditor the Management Practices of City
Owned vehicles and they found some cost savings there. They also audited their electricity costs in
consumption and management and they made recommendations and they made some savings there.
They also audited selected management issues of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and in the
mainland we looked at the City of Austin Texas they audited their information technology project
management and also in Arlington Texas we looked at their (PC) card or Procurement Card audited
PC Card audit. And also in Albuquerque New Mexico they managed they had a management of
audit of issuance and benefit costs and made some recommendations there. Also in Denver Colorado
they had an audit of Citywide Contract procurement process. In addition audits can increase a
person's dollars by identifying new or under collected sources of revenue. In Austin Texas they did a
franchise fee audit in Dallas Texas they audited the inappropriate tax exemptions and delinquent
property taxes. For here looking into you know Building permits and you know things like that.
Audits can also save operational dollars by identifying fraud and other risk like in Arlington Texas
they audited their cash handling management. So these are the things that audit jurisdictions are...
have done and like I said we belong to Association of Audit... Accountants and Auditor's and so we
have access to their websites and we can look at what they have done and see if it applies to us.
Mr. Furfaro: I just want to say I you know because of what you will provide to us
for a plan, I can support us having a CPA on the staff but I wanted... and I didn't hear items such as
reviewing our overall budget as it relates to benefit costs. You know that's something that we really
should be looking into. Just in the last three (3) days here we've had percentages of payroll budget
going forty -eight (48) as high a fifty -nine percent (59 %) seems to me we need to see if can be a little
more consistent in that budgeting.
Mr. Pasion: Yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: I think you were here when the Police Department and the discussion
lead to them to be about nine, nine point five percent (9.5 %) maybe... or budgeted contingencies than
• • APRIL 13, 2010
AUDITOR (Pg. 7)
necessary. In my line of work if we budget more than five percent (5 %) it should be no more than
five (5) and certainly under ten (10) when you do the budget if not it leads to a larger surplus but it
also prevents us, if we don't get into that margin up to five (5) to ten percent (10 %), it prevents us to
putting money... I think Councilmember Kaneshiro said this in to areas that we need extra staffing
so you know it's got to be tweaked.
Mr. Pasion: Well Councilmember, Vice Chair the Council in pursuant also to the
Charter has the prerogative to as a Resolution to submit to us which items be... you want us to
pursue as far as audits. And maybe one of those would be...
Mr. Furfaro: And your obligation is to provide to us the plan of what you're going
to audit each year.
Mr. Pasion: Yes we looked at the City and County of Honolulu and they earliest
that they have was June 1, the latest was June 29 after their budget was approved.
Mr. Furfaro: And how do you see your Department handling issues that deal with
the requirements now that we have all this sustainability money and stimulus money with a CPA
could your office meet the criteria for those audits or is that something we still have to...
Mr. Pasion: It... we have added fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in the (inaudible)
consultant fees budget Vice Chair that will be handled by our outside auditors. (inaudible) that will
be doing all the at least fifteen (15) projects that have been funded by the American Reimbursement
Recovery Act.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay and that's in your budget that fifty thousand (50,000)?
Mr. Pasion: Yes. Yes Vice Chair.
Mr. Furfaro: To cover the American Recovery's requirement.
Mr. Pasion: Right.
Mr. Furfaro: (inaudible) the detail, is that (inaudible)?
Mr. Pasion: We have consultant with them and they gave us that estimate to us
and so that's why we included that amount in the budget.
Mr. Furfaro: And how many federal programs we have like that fourteen (14)?
Mr. Pasion: Well so far we looked at, at least fifteen (15). At least fifteen (15) that
will be included in the single audit for next year because they will involve the 2009 -2010 funding.
Mr. Furfaro: Are you competent in the fact that we can comply to what is referred
to as the Yellow Book standard for audits?
Mr. Pasion: Provided that we get the sufficient funding for my staffing.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay.
Mr. Pasion: Because like I said it's a you need to have two (2) professional
auditor's to audit one that's assigned and that do the independent review.
• APRIL 13, 2010
AUDITOR (Pg. 8)
Mr. Furfaro: But I just want to make sure you also understand that I certainly
believe you need a CPA in your staff, I don't know how much more your staff should grow until we
see your report as to what we can accomplish.
Mr. Pasion: Right.
Mr. Furfaro: And what other savings that it would be so. I look forward to that
presentation and it looks like you and your team have given this a lot of thought, so thank you for
your PowerPoint.
Mr. Pasion: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay any other Committee members have questions for the County
Auditor Department? None? With that Mr. Pasion.
Mr. Pasion: Thank you and we're looking forward to...
Ms. Kawahara: Oh I don't have a question but I have a statement.
Mr. Pasion: Oh.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely.
Ms. Kawahara: Oh okay. Yeah just I didn't have a question so I didn't raise my hand
but I just wanted to welcome the Auditor's Department to the County and I'm looking forward to the
work that your proposing to do and I'm hoping that you will be able to help us a lot with increasing
efficiencies and making sure that there's not unintended waste or definitely with the issues of
furloughs and morale, I'm looking forward to having discussions with you on that as it relates to
morale and possible increase in I guess what you had discussed as fraud, right?
Mr. Pasion: Right.
Ms. Kawahara: Because of that. So welcome to the County and again I'm hoping to
have good things come from your office and help us become a very efficient county agencies because
that's definitely looking for and I think what the... people wanted to do with the amendment to the
Charter so I'm looking forward to that and thank you for your budget.
Mr. Pasion: You're welcome and thank you Councilmember.
Mr. Kaneshiro: With that thank you Ernie, you're excused. We're going to recess this
Budget Review Session until Thursday April 15 and we're going to begin at 9:00, we'll be taking the
Housing Agency, Agency of Elderly Affairs, Transportation Agency, Finance Department and
Planning Department so we have a whole schedule of Department's to review starting Thursday,
with that we're in recess.
The Auditor's departmental budget review concluded at 11:46 a.m., and there being no objections,
the meeting was in recess.
• 0 APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on April 15, 2010 at 9:15 a.m., and proceeded
as follows:
(Ms. Kawahara was noted present at 9:28 a.m.)
HOUSING AGENCY:
Mr. Kaneshiro: Budget review session is now back in order. Let the record
reflect that Mr. Furfaro, Councilmember Furfaro will be a little late today he will probably be here
after ten o'clock. Also for the record note that Mr. Bynum is just stepping in and Lani will be here
shortly probably in 2 minutes. I'm going to go ahead and start the review process. Again I want
Committee members to know that we're going to move right along so if we're done with housing will
bring in the next department and go on to the next department and then break for lunch at 12:30,
Ok? With that any questions about that schedule Committee members? If not we have the Housing
Agency here this morning and it's nice to see you again Mr. Jimenez. I just saw you yesterday after
our session. People should know that we had a session that ran almost until about eleven, eleven
thirty last night. So anyway we are all ready to go and hear Housing make their presentation so Mr.
Jimenez you have the floor.
EUGENE JIMENEZ, HOUSING DIRECTOR: Budget and Finance County Chairman,
Kaneshiro and members of the Council. I thank you for allowing this opportunity to appear before
you to submit our 2010 -2011 operating budget. Before I begin, I just had wanted to talk to you about
some very important deadlines, which we are all faced with, and I'm hopeful that all of you were able
to submit your tax papers or you have until twelve o' clock tonight to submit your tax papers so
please get that in order.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Don't remind us. Thank you.
Mr. Jimenez: Okay I think it's important that you know I give you some
general information relative to the functional responsibilities of the Housing Agency. We all we deal
almost daily with each other but it's good as a reminder to let all Council members know how we are
organized and it relates directly to the budget as to how organization and we are, I repeating too
much... organized. Anyway, first of all we are the County Housing Agency is comprised of two
divisions. The first division is called the Housing and community development division, under this
division headed by the Housing Development Coordinator, Gary Mackler. He has responsibilities for
oversight for the home program which is monies that are received from the federal government for
the development of affordable housing and other housing related activities. Under this division you
also have the block grant program which I wanted to thank the council yesterday for approving our
2010 request to you by way of resolution. Also under the neighborhood stabilization program, this is
under the development division and under this division we also have a property management
functions which primarily oversees some of the rental projects. Although we do have a property
manager that takes care of it we have over sight responsibilities. We also have under the
development division and accounting staff the housing and community development revolving fund,
which are funds that are acquired by the agencies by way of sales and some other projects, which I
put back into the community to build additional housing units. The second division, the stand -alone
division is the section eight which all of you are aware of. It's called the housing choice voucher
program, it's the rent subsidy program and we presently have seven hundred units on the contract.
Just for your information we pay out an estimated half a million dollars per month in housing
assistant payments, so you know this is a very viable and important program for the housing agency.
Both of these programs, the section eight, the housing choice voucher program and the block grant
program has been in existence since the mid seventy's. So you know these are long standing
problems that have given us a steady stream of income and as we go through the budget what you
• • APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 2)
will see is how we have utilized some of these monies to be able to fund the activities and fund the
staffing and fringe benefits for much of the staff.
Last but not least we have an administrative division which I am head of which has the
responsibilities to plan, develop, coordinate the activities and the functions of the housing
department. Myself as the housing director, I have a secretary and there is the accounting function,
which I will introduce some of my accountants as we move on with this budget hearing session. We
also under the administrative function have responsibilities for human relation type programs, the
EAP, vacations and alike. You know again I have been criticized in the past for bringing my
entourage with me whenever we have a council session but I just wanted to explain to the
councilman that you know in coming up with this anticipated budget there has been no less than
four meetings with the supervisory staff. I place a lot of responsibility on them. They are responsible
for their budget, their revenues and also expenses. I can generally tell you what the housing agency
is all about, the different programs but the knots and bolts are really handled by my staff and I want
to give credit to them. They are very hard working and with that I would like to introduce them. I
have here two of my accountants Avis Hirahara, and Fay Kimura, please raise your hands. The
section eight program manager is Sandy Kaauwai, Sandy. And the development coordinator in
charge of the development section is Mr. Gary Mackler, Gary. And you probably saw her wondering
the halls yesterday my block grant program manager is Jo Shimamoto. Before the start of this
meeting I submitted to you a handout, which I thought it would make it easier for you to understand
our budget. You know we do have a twenty page budget, which I am hopeful that you received its
dated March 12. We also received from the chairman, both the chairman of the council and the
chairman of the budget and finance committee are request relatively to our staffing patterns I just
wanted to address first before we get into the nitty gritty. Number one, the agency is comprised of
thirty staff. We have three dollar funded positions as proposed in the Budget. All staff of the county
housing agency are contractual employees with a contract period beginning July 1 and ending on
June 30 so annually we have the personnel evaluations prior to the close of the fiscal year, but all
staff are contractual employees. I mentioned previously that for the next year we do have three
dollar funded positions. The last question had to do with, what funding source does this position
hold? In page two of the communication dated April 1St you have a listing of all twenty or so
positions, twenty or twenty five positions that are either partially funded or fully funded by federal
resources, none county general fund resources. I would like to draw your attention to the submittal
that was given to you this morning, the cover page is titled "Kaua`i County Housing Agency 2010-
2011 Operating Budget." If you look at attachment (A) which is the second page, it's a pie chart that
just shows you visually that our total funded is in the amount of sixteen million, six hundred thirty
nine thousand, three hundred fourteen dollars. Out of that, sixteen percent or two point six million is
for administration and almost fourteen million or eighty four percent of our budget, goes directly into
programs. I see Tim is trying to find it it's a separate submittal that was given this morning. Okay
wonderful, wonderful. If you look at the attachment (A) just gives you a overview as to what our total
funding is, how much goes for Admin and how much goes towards programs. The second page
attachment (B) well it's the last page of the transmittal, has a fiscal year 2010 funding which is the
present fiscal year. On the bottom is fiscal year 2011 funding which is the anticipated funding for
the next fiscal year. It just gives you a general idea as to where the source of funding is coming from.
As you might note in the present fiscal year it was one percent but after we ran the thing, the
general fund is almost zero percent because less than one percent. For this coming fiscal year the
general fund is estimated at three percent. The rest you can just see as to what the other funding
sources are. At this point in time are there any questions you may have before I move on?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any questions by committee members? As you can see many
of the programs are through federal programs and other, in fact in the thirty positions I believe we
got about twenty three positions coming from outside sources, Right?
Mr. Jimenez: That's correct, yes.
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APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 3)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, so committee members are clear on that, any questions
on personnel at this point? Okay I mean we are going to have some discussion on that I will go ahead
and allow you to ask him the question and if you can't answer it we will have the follow up on this on
the 20th in regards to furlough. But if this will give you a heads up, Mr. Bynum go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you, Committee Chair. So of your thirty employees,
seven are general fund? Seven are County funded positions and twenty three are from other funds?
Mr. Jimenez: You noticed that I have to look back and check with my
accountants.
Tim Bynum: That's okay it's a big agency Eugene.
Mr. Kaneshiro: They have a list on the handout, on the second handout.
Mr. Jimenez: Okay you know that question will be answered as I move
forward. I have a summary sheet depicting all the staffing and their funding so we will be able to
see.
Mr. Bynum: I want to know, I mean my general question if not today or
later on the 20th. What is our intention with people who are not, County funded in terms of
furloughs? Are we going to furlough federally funded employees?
Mr. Jimenez: Yeah, I guess we will be having that discussion on the
20th
Mr. Bynum: Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay so that's a heads up and we will come with a written
request for that question so to say.
Mr. Jimenez: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So you will be prepared when we have that discussion on the
20th okay.
Mr. Jimenez: Okay, so let's move on. The first page of the transmittal which
I submitted to you this morning had to do with the funding, present year funding 2010 -2011. Also
well the anticipated funding for the next fiscal year and the present fiscal year and the differences on
the third column. You all have this? Okay and to make it easier what I tried to depict here is the
variances. What we did was look at all of the different funding sources and to show you whether it
was a debit or a credit or a plus or a minus in terms if the amount. If we move to the general fund
you notice that the general fund has been decreased by one hundred ninety seven thousand, six
hundred fifty seven dollars, you can read the reason for the decrease but primarily it has been
because we have shifted a lot of the general funded positions from present year to federal funded. So
that equated to a twenty six percent decrease of the general fund. Moving on, HCDRF (Housing and
Community Development Revolving Fund) there is an increase of Three hundred thirty eight
thousand, four hundred forty dollars. This was primarily because of some reallocations with staff,
some decrease from a position to a lower position and also an increase in the home buyer loans. As
we give out loans we do receive revenues back to continue the program so that was primarily the
reasons for the increase of Three hundred thirty eight thousand. The next fund is the Kalepa Village
fund which there is a decrease of Twenty one thousand, seven twenty eight, and primarily because
this was a renewal year for the property management for that project. We also, we go out for request
for proposal and come back and there was a decrease for the property management contract that we
3
• • APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 4)
have with the property manager. That is same for Pa'anau Village, the Hundred sixty thousand,
eight zero nine decrease primarily had to do with the repair and maintenance. We have done some
repair work on the doors the project has been painted so we didn't have to have additional funds or
an increase amount for repair and maintenance for the Pa'anau project. The next fund is the home
fund which is a federal fund and we have a decrease of Seven hundred twenty four thousand which
is primarily a decrease in the total project which was funded under that program. Under the block
grant you see that we do have an increase of Hundred eight thousand, eight ninety nine and for this
tear we were expecting at least close to Nine hundred thousand dollars. I'm just using general
amounts but the increase is primarily again because of the home buyer loans and some projects that
are in the process of being awarded and so this is an addition. Under the neighborhood stabilization
program there is a decrease in projects of three point six million, due to expenditure and obligation of
June 20. Although we did receive funding of four point nine million dollars we are expanding those
monies and that's why there is a decrease of that, we don't have the four point nine million anymore
but there is a decrease. Under the section eight program there is almost a half a million dollar
increase and as a reasoning for that increase salaries and benefits are now hundred percent funded
by the section eight program. There is an anticipated increase of over Three hundred thousand for
the HEP payments which are the Housing Assistance Payments to Landlords. Okay if you look at
the budget sheet which was submitted on March 12 on page one I think that was what Councilman
Bynum was referring too. This is an explanation of all thirty staff which we have and it also shows
the funding source which I think is very important for you to realize that a lot of the staff is funded
from more than one source. That's why it's been so important with the amount of federal programs
that we have many times the restrictions and the requirements are not the same. For instance for
our home buyer programs, we have programs which we can sell homes to lower income households.
Eighty percent of the median or below under the NSP program is hundred twenty and below so
that's why I place a lot of responsibility and I give a lot of credit to the accounting staff who has to
track all these funds. We do have Monthly reporting and just last Month we did have, last Month we
had a monitoring visit from HUD and it was a clean slate so you know the staff is doing a good job
and I commend them for that. The next so the first page, page one has to do with our operating
budget summary for the coming fiscal year. What it does is you not only have the staffing but you
have also programs with a grand total on the bottom for each of the different programs that we
administer. Okay if we can move on. The next page, page two and three are just our general fund
line item budget. What we have included are three fiscal years so you have an indication as to the
decreases and the increases. We have fiscal 20009, 2010 and proposed fiscal year 2011. As you may
know from present fiscal year to the next under ah we have a decrease of for employees under the
general fund we have a decrease from no its personnel and other expenses of present year is Seven
hundred sixty two thousand, eight hundred forty dollars to a decrease of five sixty five, one eight
three. This is primarily because we have shifted a lot of that into other funding sources. If you turn
to page four we have the housing and community development revolving fund with anticipated
revenues for the upcoming year of two point four million. We have some salaries subscribed to that
program and we are anticipating a total budget from the revolving fund
Of two point four, seven million dollars. If you look at the sheet that we discussed previously you
can see why some of the major differences you know the variances. Okay moving on to page six,
seven and eight has to do with operating budgets for some of the rental projects which basically are
the amounts that are necessary to fund the operations of the project. If there are any specific
questions we will be able to answer but this is just what it takes per our management contracts to
run the various projects. We go out to bid for this, are there any questions.
Mr. Chang: Eugene, is Pa'anau full?
Mr. Jimenez: My understanding is that it's ninety five percent occupied.
Mr. Chang: And Kalepa also?
11
APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 5)
Mr. Jimenez: Kalepa is at one hundred percent. They are a hundred eighty
units there at Kalepa.
Mr. Chang: So is that wait listed?
Mr. Jimenez: The wait list is still there but it's a hundred percent occupied.
And as you know as part of our program we offer a police officer to stay there free of rent but they do
have to pay a down payment and they pay the utilities, so we just made a choice for Pa'anau and
offer Kalepa that there will be a police officer. Okay the next page eleven but starting on page ten is
the home investment partnership program. Under this program, the home partnership program it's
a part of a consolidated plan which covers five years and every year we come up with a budget. We
have an anticipated funding for five years then every year we say okay we going to spend x amount
for this year we anticipate. For the present fiscal year we had approved one point nine million for
next fiscal year we anticipated One point two, zero four million dollars under the home investment
partnership program. Okay Moving on, I don't want to take Elderly's time but moving on to page
thirteen we have which you are familiar with the community development block grant program . In
here you see sources of revenue total revenue anticipated for next year's One point four million. You
know I stated previously that we anticipated close to Nine hundred thousand for the program this
fiscal year but these additional funds are from primarily program income that goes back into the
program. Anyway revenues that arrive by ways of income, goes back to the program that started off
the whole process. Again I wanted to thank you for approving the resolution we will be funding eight
projects over the coming year under the block program. Okay last, not last but on page sixteen the
next program is the neighborhood stabilization program and we initially had funding in the amount
of Four point seven million dollars. This was primarily to undertake two major activities and you
know we have come before you on several occasions. Number one is for the purchase of foreclosure
homes so you just approved yesterday the purchase of four homes, three under the NSP Program and
one under the block grant program. We are trying to move these programs along and initially we had
some problems with trying to purchase homes just because of some of the program requirements but
we are moving along with that. Under this program besides the purchase of foreclosed properties
we have just issued the contract to Shioi construction for the development of three homes. These are
county owned properties, two in `Ele`ele Nani and one in Waimea so this will be three bedroom two
bath homes and should be completed within six months. We will be utilizing our home buyers list to
have people, some of our clients move into these homes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So the homes will be for reselling to the market.
Mr. Jimenez: The homes that we building right now?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes.
Mr. Jimenez: The new construction? Yes, for whoever is on our affordable housing
list. We have Three hundred sixty seven people on our home buyers list.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So not necessarily for rental?
Mr. Jimenez: No, it's for sale.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Turning it around, fixing it up and selling it at a reasonable price.
Mr. Jimenez: Correct but these are for the foreclosed properties.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes I understand.
• • APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 6)
Mr. Jimenez: For this new construction property it's the same thing we will be
selling it to individuals on our home buyers list, which are primarily lower income and first time
home buyers.
Mr. Chang: Eugene is it Three hundred and sixty seven or a Hundred and sixty
seven?
Mr. Jimenez: Three hundred and sixty seven. And you retain your number on the
list. We call maybe the first hundred or the first two hundred and if they are not interested then we
move on to the next but you remain on the list. Theoretically the whole idea with this home buyers
list is that they are buyer ready. They went through the home ownership class and so they are ready
to go.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So it's a list that is held there?
Mr. Jimenez: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Then you check with some of them.
Mr. Jimenez: Correct. Any new people, is put on the end of the list.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Those are the ones that qualified through your program right?
Mr. Jimenez: Or conventional financing also. They have an opportunity depending
on their annual income whether or not to seek bank financing as opposed to some of our home buyer
loan programs. Okay another program that has been with the county for many, many years is the
section 8 program which is called the housing choice voucher program which is being administered
by Sandy Kaauwai. Many of these programs were not, is not we have had to take some drastic
measures in maintaining the program because we did receive information from HUD initially that
we were going to get cut form this so we had several options. One option was to not fund anymore
people which we are not anymore but we had to maybe decertify some if I may use that term. People
that are already on the program but what we've done is through sandy's actions what we've done
today stands possible trying to maintain what we have under the program which is seven hundred.
We did have a hearing a couple of days ago in changing our admin plan where in the past what has
happened was that some of the clients had a minimum payment of, anyway what we were requiring
some of the tenants was to pay a little bit more in order to retain their voucher. There are also some
other cost saving measures which sandy has implemented in order to keep the program viable and to
keep the amount we have on right now. Just for your information we have a thousand people on the
wait list for the section 8 program. Ladies and Gentlemen, that ends my presentation I'm open for
any questions or for any specific information you may have for our program. I have my staff ready,
willing and able to answer any of the questions which you may have.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay with that Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Gene, thank you very much. I want to open by saying that since I
have been involved with the county council I have a warm feeling when I deal with housing because
it's been consistently responsive and..
Mr. Jimenez: was it during the summer hours? I'm only kidding.
Mr. Bynum: I have been impressed with the agency overall whether it's CDBG or
HUD or the various programs. When I ask questions, there are answers and the presentations that
are made here are good so I just want to make those comments. Overall I see it as a very strong
0
• APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 7)
agency with really good people and then having a few questions. For the coming year are we still
engaged and is there funding for the home ownership classes? Are we continuing that program?
Mr. Jimenez: Yes we are.
Mr. Bynum: Okay. And that funding is in the budget? And then NSP I know, I
know NSP has been a challenging and you have these deadlines of June. Are we going to make all
the obligation deadlines?
too.
Mr. Jimenez: We are really, really trying hard and we are hopeful that we are able
Mr. Bynum: And if we don't?
Mr. Jimenez: It goes back to a general pool. What HUD has done is to call for
backup projects statewide, should any of the county jurisdictions not be able to utilize their funds
than they are able to fund something else so we would like to keep it on Kauai. But it is what it is.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah and you want to keep it on Kauai.
Mr. Jimenez: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: So I suppose after June we can get a report about how we did Right?
Mr. Jimenez: Sure.
Mr. Bynum: in retrospect, was it a good decision not to go for NSP 2 funds?
Mr. Jimenez: Yes I think, well in looking back I think when I have test the staff in
trying to really get this program going but they were things that cropped up beyond our control. The
pressure was not only from HUD but also from the other jurisdictions because they were having a lot
of difficulty too. Maui also which primarily had the same type of program except its being
implemented by a private nonprofit. But we are hopeful that it will work and we are everyday
working on it and that's why you are seeing a lot of the offers going right now that are coming before
you. I think at that point in time we had to concentrate on NSP 1 and you know NSP 2 which was a
lesser amount you know we didn't want to bite off more than we could chew.
Mr. Bynum: So the answer would be yes in retrospect that it was a reasonable and
good decision. You're not saying oh I wish we would have gone for it.
Mr. Jimenez: No, No.
Mr. Bynum: Okay I appreciate that answer and I know that the other counties are
also struggling with that and so there is a possibility that there will be excess funds and nobody has
backup projects. Is that correct?
Mr. Jimenez: I think there are some backup projects maybe, Jo.
Mr. Bynum: Do we have projects?
Mr. Jimenez: We do have back up projects for the block grant program because of
the timing issue.
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• 0 APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 8)
Mr. Bynum: Good morning Jo.
Ms. Shimamoto: Good morning. For the NSP program we do not have any alternate
projects. The program was not set up that way, however if we're not any jurisdictions that are not
able to expand their funds the state is looking state wide and they have called for alternate projects.
Even if we don't use the funds on Kauai they will be or they are poised to take those funds and use it
at least in the State of Hawaii.
Mr. Bynum: Do we know that status of the other counties, whether they are...
Ms. Shimamoto: At this point my understanding is that everybody is struggling to
meet the requirements and expand the funds.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah I have heard the same thing so I am just kind of curious. You
may not know the answer that ah, yeah we can save that for later. I appreciate the efforts for this
NSP program and I know we have had good news because it's been on our council budget and things
are happening with it so that's all my questions about that. I do have some questions about...
Mr. Asing: Can I follow up on that? What's the major problem with that?
Mr. Shimamoto: We have two activities, Kauai has two activities. One is that Eugene
mentioned the lot development and that is not a problem that is going. We have a deadline of June
2010 to expand that Four point nine million so by entering in a contract with Shioi Construction for
the construction of those three homes, the funds has been obligated. Once they are obligated, not a
problem we have the time to expand with acquisition of the foreclosed homes we have in resale. It is
not that easy to purchase the foreclose homes that meet the requirements of the NSP programs. For
example when they do an offer they are required to not purchase a foreclosed home for more than
one percent less of the appraised value. My understanding from what the team tells me is the timing
of all these things, it's a competitive process. It's not only the county putting in a bid for the home
but its other individuals that want to purchase that home. The county is sort of, we have an extra
challenge because we have to go through what the team calls a platform through the county and that
has been worked out and massaged that all the departments are cooperating. The county Attorney's
office is looking at it and Finance is looking at it and understanding what is required by the program
so they are trying to move it along as fast as they can. They may need to come before council too.
Mr. Asing: Is there some method that you're using or could be using to track
these units, available units so that you can get the information more timely rather than from the
back door finding out about the availability of some of these units.
Mr. Jimenez: Chairman Asing, we have set up a process with the various banks.
We cannot, these foreclosed properties are REO's comes from the banks that is one of the program
requirements. It's not like individuals wanting to save their credit or whatever, so we have
established relationships with the various banks to let us know what the foreclosed properties are
becoming available. But again it has to be within a price and even though we put an offer... Say the
offer is accepted, what happens is that the appraisal will have to come no more it has to be one
percent less than the appraised value.
Mr. Asing: Eugene I think I'm more interested in when do you get the
information. I'm the bank now and unless I get the information to you, you will never know right? So
I'm saying is there some tracking system that allows you to timely get this information?
APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 9)
Mr. Jimenez: Well what happens is that we and prior to the implementation of this
program we wrote to all of the agents the real estate agents that this program is coming. See the
bank hires their own real estate agents there's been question as to who are you guys dealing with
and all that because I use to be involved with that in my previous life. So the agents know about this
program so the banks wanting to sell these units hire various real estate agents or companies and
we have a connection with them as to how... We have looked over twenty or thirty already,
properties to get two, three, four which we so we have been very diligent in following up on any
properties and it's Island wide so the ones that we got approved yesterday was one in 10auea, one in
Kawaihau, one in `Ele`ele. So it's statewide and we have established a relationship with the agents
that are hired by the banks to market these foreclosed properties.
Mr. Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Just sticking with NSP for a minute I recognize the diligence and you
know unfortunately the foreclosure problem on Kauai is not as dramatic as it is on the mainland
where I'm sure the NSP programs are having no problem identifying properties they probably have
hundreds to choose from. Even though our housing market has been difficult and a lot of people are
struggling it's not near the fall out that has happened in some jurisdictions on the mainland. So I
really appreciate these efforts and I Have been tracking this and I think you guys have been doing a
good job and hopefully we will get as much done and I trust that you'll do as much as we can before
the deadline comes. I am just curious about where the feds might change or but we are just this little
Hawaii and this is a huge national program.
Mr. Jimenez: I would be remiss too if I didn't state that I really appreciate the
assistance that we have had from the council. You have been very open with some of our programs
and you know some of them we haven't agreed on all but by in large I really appreciate the
cooperation that we have received from you guys. Whenever we come up with what you may consider
off the wall programs or projects but I thank you for that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Do you have another question?
Mr. Bynum: I have a question about HUD. Moving to HUD, you answered some of
the questions Seven hundred current participants and a Thousand on the waiting list. I know in the
past it's been difficult to there's been circumstances where people had vouchers but there was no
available properties in the price range they could afford. I would assume that's gotten better?
Ms. Kaauwai: Yes it's gotten much better. We are a hundred percent leased up and
all of our money is being used. We did get an increase in funding this year of about Seven hundred
thousand dollars, but because of the way the economy is that's probably just going to be enough to
maintain the people that we currently have on.the program.
Mr. Bynum: I mean I was a little scary to hear a few minutes ago that maybe
there were current recipients that might have had to be de- obligated or whatever the right word is,
but we have avoided that somehow sandy?
Ms. Kaauwai: Yeah we have, in May of last year they gave us the amount of our
2009 calendar year budget and they had cut it fairly substantially. The first five months of last year
we have been taking people off the wait list trying to lease people up like crazy and then in May they
told us by the way we're going to be taking all this money away from you. So at that point we were
about five months behind the game, we had successfully leased up a whole bunch of families but now
they took away our money and our HEP cost had risen because we had put all these people on the
program. At that point we had to back paddle and start taking some measures to try and get our cost
6
• • APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 10)
down knowing the economy was down or on the way down. It was necessary to go in and change our
administrative plan to take some measures that would insure that no families were being
terminated off the program. That did require some families to pay a little bit more than they were
paying before but we haven't had to terminate any families as of this day.
Mr. Bynum: And that parts of interest to me to because in the past I thought HUD
set a rental rate and it was not okay for the recipient to pay an additional amount. Like if you can't
find a rental at this rate it was against the rules in essence to say okay HUD pays x amount and I
supplement that. Has that changed?
Ms. Kaauwai: Generally tenants pay about thirty percent of their income for rent.
That is, the way that the formula is calculated is that they use the fair market rents that they
determine and then we choose a percentage either above or below that to determine what the
maximum amount we are going to pay for bedroom. They can get a bigger unit or a more expansive
unit but that is the max that we will pay and it's been like that and it's still like that.
Mr. Bynum: One other question and I think you already answered this so we are
not having the circumstance where people have a certificate and can't find a rental.
Ms. Kaauwai: No we don't have any outstanding certificates at this time.
Mr. Bynum: Because of the decrease in the rental market?
Ms. Kaauwai: Correct, well what we're seeing is which is really good is a lot of our
participants which maybe weren't in such a desirable area are now able to move they are still able to
move and they are able to move to nicer units for lower cost.
Mr. Bynum: Oh great, that's maybe the silver lining for some people.
Ms. Kaauwai: Exactly.
Mr. Bynum: Last year there was a lot of attention and I think you guys tried to
work on this about maybe the economy changed us to where the landlords are saying "No HUD" and
I just wondered if you had anything to say about that situation now or is that history.
- Ms. Kaauwai: Yeah it's reciprocal and we have seen it before and there is a ton of
rentals out there now. Everybody is calling us saying that they want to list our property with you
whereas before when there was more tenant supply then demand it was the opposite way.
Mr. Bynum: You made some effort to educate landlords because some of them
didn't understand that the program really was a benefit to them.
Mr. Jimenez: Yeah and I would just like to mention that several weeks ago Sandy
and I did a workshop with the realtors and the principal brokers. There were about fifty or sixty
people there and this was the issue about advertising, no HUD and by in large what happened was
there was a consensus among the brokers and the owners of this real estate companies that they
should encourage renting to HUD. Under the program the property managers or the owners are
responsible for putting in the tenants not us. We give them the voucher we tell them ok based on
your family size you choose your unit, and the whole qualification is done by the landlord so you need
to do your diligence in getting desirable tenants in your unit. It was a good meeting and we also met
the week before with the property managers, the major property managers in trying to tell them that
this is a good program so it was very positive.
10
APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 11)
Mr. Bynum: And I very much appreciate that answer that was exactly what I was
hoping to hear that you continue the education and outreach effort and I think that's the end of my
questions.
Mr. Jimenez: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other committee members have any questions for the housing.
Go ahead Lani.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you budget chair, good morning. Your budget is one of the most
complicated and I really appreciate all of the worksheets that you give us because it really helps
clarify. I wanted to just acknowledge how well you guys manage so many different funds, and I also
want to acknowledge the fact that your answer to council member Bynum. I am very thankful that
you advocate so strongly for these people and workforce housing and affordable housing.
Mr. Jimenez: Well if you look in the back here in the gallery and you look at my two
accountants they are primarily responsible to put this together and to keep track. When the HUD
auditors come, it's not you know we have had a lot of history with that so we anticipate anything
that we feel is not right and we make corrections as necessary.
Ms. Kawahara: Yes definitely, excellent work because it's really complicated with all
the different funds and how you guys are paying salaries. I also wanted to acknowledge the fact that
you are very aggressively looking for those foreclosed homes and it does sound like you have a
mechanism that alerts you as soon as everybody else is alerted to foreclosed homes. I wanted to say
that people should know that you are competing with just the general public as a government agency
with parameters that are really stricter and make it difficult to move quickly. I am glad to support
whatever you bring up to us that you need to buy quickly in order to put in into our inventory.
Mr. Jimenez: I appreciate that and one of the good sales mythology that we're using
is cash sales.
Ms. Kawahara: They like that.
Mr. Jimenez: So now they are waking up.
Ms. Kawahara: That's good. So my question is actually about the NSP program grant.
There in the past it looks like there was maybe right now it looked like they had to zero out about
Six thousand dollars. I'm wondering, what it means to the CDBG week activities, the housing
surveys and the technical assistants for the upcoming year?
Mr. Jimenez: Which page is that?
Ms. Kawahara: Seventeen.
Mr. Jimenez: Let me open up my folder.
Ms. Kawahara: And if you picked those up in some other way with different funding?
Mr. Jimenez: Okay and what was the number?
Ms Kawahara: Housing support services GDBG week activities, housing surveys and
studies and technical assistance.
11
• • APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 12)
Mr. Jimenez: Page 17?
Ms Kawahara: Page seventeen of this one, towards the bottom.
Mr. Jimenez: We're on page seventeen?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Seventeen on the bottom part where it shows housing support study.
Ms. Kawahara: Technical assistance and CDBG week.
Mr. Jimenez: Okay what has happened is that we've shifted some of the expenses
to a different process. Just for your information we've been getting a lot of request for current data
for housing relative to housing needs. I just wanted to let you know that effective after July 1st there
will be a statewide housing needs assessment, and Kauai is expected to come up with their portion
so we can be part of the statewide housing survey but then add some money so we can do for Kauai
only. So you know that will be coming forth and we have budgeted that under the NSP program for
that. All of this we will continue although it may not seem that we will continue with the CDBG
week housing surveys which I just touched up on. In terms of the fair housing you know there is five
hundred dollars budgeted but on the end of this month we will be having our fair housing workshop
which will be at the Piikoi building. We invite the general public and also a lot of realtors are signing
up for them as to the new laws relative to fair housing and we will be giving you notice as to when
that workshop is, the specifics of this workshop.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, so I m hearing that those housing surveys and studies and
your CDBG week activities though there showing zero out here you're getting then funded from
somewhere else?
Mr. Jimenez: Correct.
Mr. Jimenez: And earlier the housing director stated that a lot of the zero's have
been shifted to other, different areas and different programs.
Ms. Kawahara: I heard that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: It's not necessarily washed away.
Ms Kawahara: Okay, I wanted to know about the specific ones. Thank you, Budget
Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And like I said he explained that on his presentation when he started
the presentation.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you very much.
Mr. Jimenez: Thank you very much, and if there are no other questions I
appreciate you listening to us with all this.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Wait we have some more questions. No, you do are you serious? I was
only joking.
Mr. Bynum: Very Quick.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead, we started a little late with him anyway.
12
0 APRIL 15, 2010
HOUSING AGENCY (Pg. 13)
Mr. Bynum: We don't want it to be easy. I just actually maybe it's just a comment
but looking closer at your budget those federally funded positions are in this budget slated to be
furloughed so I will follow up with written questions regarding that. This is a general question.
Regardless of the downturn in the economy and the decrease in rent and housing cost, In your
opinion is there still a large gap in affordability for housing on Kauai between meeting income and
what housing can be purchased at?
Mr. Jimenez: My answer would be yes. Number one, even if people are able to
afford some of the so called affordable housing units there is reluctance on their part because of the
economy and they are not sure about their jobs and all that. There is still a gap. There maybe people
that qualify but they are very hesitant at this point and time.
Mr. Bynum: And so it's still very important for people on Kauai to go to your home
owners education programs, get on the list so when opportunities become available to them they can
take advantage of them.
Mr. Jimenez: That's correct, Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you, thank you very much.
Mr. Jimenez: Thank you very much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you and your staff for being here today. We will go on to the
next department committee members. Is that the pleasure rather than taking a break? Okay, thank
you again housing.
The Housing Agency departmental budget review concluded at 10:15 a.m., and there being no
objections, the meeting was in recess.
13
i r
APRIL 15, 2010
AGENCY ON ELDERLY AFFAIRS (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on April 15, 2010 at 10:13 a.m., and proceeded as
follows:
(Mr. Furfaro was noted present at 10:25 a.m.)
AGENCY ON ELDERLY AFFAIRS:
DARYL KANESHIRO: Elderly Affairs welcome, good morning.
KEALOHA TAKAHASHI: Good morning and thank you for this opportunity. I have Azi
Turturici our accountant here as well.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay you have the floor you may begin with your
presentation on this budget review session.
Ms. Takahashi: Okay. We sent ahead our budget review and for item number
one we don't have any new positions or changes to any existing positions. Item number two
regarding the vacant positions as a RSVP Director and the Program Support Technician, we do have
we will be filling Program Support Technician and the start date will be tomorrow on the 16th. We
are presently recruiting for the Director. Item number three we have as requested the list of those
employees who are federally funded or State funded.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Ms. Takahashi: And then I have two charts for you, the bar graph which
shows our salaries. In comparison for this current year and next year and the comparison with
benefits and operation for a total variance of a minus One hundred two thousand and...
DICKIE CHANG: Kealoha, I'm sorry can you hold on for one second?
Ms. Takahashi: Sure.
Mr. Chang: Sorry they don't have the handout.
Ms. Takahashi: Okay we'll wait.
LANI KAWAHARA: I didn't go to my box. We didn't go to our box.
TIM BYNUM: So while we're waiting, the Director position is the RSVP
Director?
Ms. Takahashi: Yes, yes.
Mr. Bynum: I want that job.
Ms. Takahashi: Yeah it's a fun job.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Let me make a comment here.
Ms. Takahashi: Yes.
1
0 0 APRIL 15, 2010
AGENCY ON ELDERLY AFFAIRS (Pg. 2)
Mr. Kaneshiro: You know these handouts were handed out quite awhile ago
so, I would advise my committee members that to keep your handouts together with the departments
so as we start with the departments...
Ms. Kawahara: Of course, of course Budget Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I mean Lani...
Ms. Kawahara: Of course you are absolutely right and I have all of them right
here except for that one.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright.
Ms. Kawahara: So thank you for your reminder.
Mr. Kaneshiro: All I'm saying is that many of these handouts are handed out
ahead of time. We have asked the questions, if you look at it we sent the questions out quite awhile
ago and you know it bothers me when I have to recess the meeting because some of the Committee
members don't have the items that was passed out or handed out to the members. So we are in
recess at this time.
Ms. Takahashi: We have the variances in comparative to the 2010 and the
white bar graph as the 2011. You have the variances for salaries, benefits and operations for a total
of One hundred two thousand and four hundred ten dollars. The pie chart just shows the similar
information but we have it broken down with the percentages of what that looks like in comparing
the 2010 with 2011.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright, is there anything else you wanted to add to your
presentation? You know if you look at your total, there is only two pages actually looking at the
budget so we don't expect too many questions regarding the budget itself. I will open it up to
Committee members if they have anything for Elderly affairs and in regards to the positions. Mr.
Bynum. Do you have something that you wanted to ask?
Mr. Bynum: Thank you for the great work and I think the RSVP program
is great and whoever gets that job is very lucky.
Ms. Takahashi: I know I want it myself.
Mr. Kaneshiro: The Chair does have a question so you have the floor chair.
KAIPO ASING: I just have a question on, why the two positions have not been
filled for eight months. Eight months is quite some time so is there a reason we have two vacancies
that are not filled. Why? Is it difficult to find people is that the reason or is there other reasons?
Ms. Takahashi: For the Director, the Program specialist RSVP Director was
just put out in March so I haven't received any of the applications that were qualified yet so we are
still waiting on DPS to forward that information over.
Mr. Asing: Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, with that go ahead Lani.
2
0 0 APRIL 15, 2010
AGENCY ON ELDERLY AFFAIRS (Pg. 3)
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Daryl. So are you going to be maintaining all of
the services you had last year with this fiscal year?
Ms. Takahashi: Yes.
Ms. Kawahara: Yes. Okay that's all I wanted to know thank you very much.
Ms. Takahashi: I wanted to thank the Council also for supporting our
programs and supporting our agency. Thank you so much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You have a question? Go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: The recent Federal grant for kids fit..
Ms. Takahashi: Exactly, we don't know all of the details yet or if in fact we
will be receiving money but we are scheduling to meet with Dr. Ball later this month. Hopefully we
will have good news.
Tim Bynum: Thank you very much.
Ms. Kawahara: I have one more thing.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions? go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: It's not actually a question. Can I make a statement!
Mr. Kaneshiro: Is it in regards to Elderly?
Ms. Kawahara: Yes.
Mr. Kanesbiro: Okay.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. Thank you, I just wanted to thank you for your
graciousness and patience while we looked for our papers on your budget. I also wanted to share
with you that I had a co- worker who needed to use the services, your elderly services for respite care.
I want to tell you that it made a big difference in his life and his Mothers and I think it's a definite
service that you provide to the Community and that's why I wanted to be sure you were still
providing all of the services despite the cuts. Thank you.
Ms. Takahashi: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Furfaro, go ahead.
JAY FURFARO: Good Morning Chairman Kaneshiro and to my colleagues.
First of all I apologize for you have my excuse letter but I wanted to apologize to you folks as well. I
had an appointment with the County Attorney that was there for a long time and it involved some
other individuals and I apologize for not being here.
Ms. Takahashi: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay with that no further questions by Committee members
and thank you very much. You are excused.
3
0 0 APRIL 15, 2010
AGENCY ON ELDERLY AFFAIRS (Pg. 4)
Ms. Takahashi: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Committee members, you want to move right into the next
agenda item.
DEREK KAWAKAMI: Yes please.
Mr. Kaneshiro: The next agenda item and we'll have the Transportation
agency up. Please make sure everyone has their handouts.
The Agency on Elderly Affairs departmental budget review concluded at 10:28 a.m., and there being
no objections, the meeting was in recess.
4
0 0 APRIL 15, 2010
TRANSPORTATION AGENCY (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on April 15, 2010 at 10:28 a.m., and proceeded
as follows:
(All seven members were noted present.)
TRANSPORTATION AGENCY:
DARYL KANESHIRO: As a procedural process, I would ask the Committee
members as we move along you know through this process previously we had to check with staff if
we had any handouts previously and sometimes I realize that handouts come out when the
presenters are here. But the procedure would be simpler if one would check with staff just to make
sure that whatever the agenda items are, we have a list here of all the different departments that we
will be reviewing so this is a part of our review process to check with staff to make sure if any
handouts were passed out in the morning or previous to the meetings that you received those
handouts, okay just for procedural process I would really appreciate it. With that, good morning!
JANINE RAPOZO: Good morning.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You have the floor.
Ms. Rapozo: Okay, good morning Chair Kaneshiro, and members
of the County Council. Janine Rapozo, Executive on Transportation for the County Transportation
agency. Thank you for allowing us to go over our budget submittal for the fiscal year 2011. Just a
quick note, first of all on our current year budget and what we have done this year with limited
funding that we have currently. We did do some enhancements to our service so that we can continue
to make our service better. Back in September, we did start our park and ride service at five
locations around the Island and in order to keep in very low cost we partnered with the Parks and
Recreation Department. We were able to use some of their sites that are not as highly utilized during
the workweek but more utilized on the weekend so it was really good win, win. We established sites
at Kekaha tennis courts, Waimea ball field, Hanapepe multipurpose building, Kalaheo Neighborhood
Center and the Kapa`a ballpark. In conjunction with that we did start some express routes so that
people could get to the park and rides and from those locations they could come straight into Lihu`e.
That has been going on since September as well. Aside from that, we have established a few new bus
stops in order to try and get more ridership, so in the past fiscal year, we have started bus stops at
the Hyatt Hotel, at Island School, at the Haraguchi Farms, and we started one at the Courtyards at
Waipouli, which was a housing project that was just completed. Aside from that we have also
implemented a six month and twelve month bus pass program which people can now get a little
more of a discount if they purchase more passes at one time either a six or twelve month. We have
also been implementing more schedule holders at bus stops to try to be a little bit more user friendly
with our riders. Recently, actually yesterday we got our first hybrid bus, yes yesterday so we hope to
put it on the road by next month after we do all the prep work and see how that goes so we can see if
we can get some cost savings from that and we can invest more in those types of vehicles. Aside from
that we also got thirteen additional vehicles, some of that through the ARA funding this past year.
That's kind of what we've been doing in a nutshell this past year. Going to our next year's budget I
did give a handout which is a one page handout with two pie charts on the top and a bar graft on the
bottom. Basically what the first pie chart on the left highlights is that what our total budget is and
that the general fund is in blue. It represents about Seventy -five percent of our entire County Budget
and the recipe made up by Federal funds. Kind of small and really light there is a revenue area there
where we do bring in some money to help to offset the cost of our service which is Six hundred
thousand dollars. What we did on the right side chart is basically is basically show you where the
general fund money goes too, which is primarily half of it goes to salaries and wages another twenty
five percent to benefits and then operations take up the remainder. The bottom bar graph basically
shows our difference from current year to next year's proposed budget. We do have a decrease in our
0 APRIL 15, 2010
TRANSPORTATION AGENCY (Pg. 2)
budget from current budget of Four Point two million dollars to Three point eight million dollars and
the bar graph shows where that cuts have come from. The first one would be from our furloughs and
the other cuts are coming from our operations. First of all we decreased our vehicle match basically
because we were able to purchase most of our vehicles this past fiscal year with the additional ARA
funds. By doing that, what we did with our Federal money is the Federal money that is normally
allocated to buy those vehicles in the next fiscal year. We moved that to repairs and maintenance so
that we could decrease our repair and maintenance budget in the general fund for the upcoming
year. That is how we were able to come up with our cuts without affecting service for next year. That
is basically in a nutshell what we're doing and where we're going.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Great. I will open it up for questions by Committee
members. Go ahead Mr. Chang.
DICKIE CHANG: Thank you budget chair. Janine, the first page that
you were reading off of with the express buses and the bus stops and the park and rides, do we have
a copy of that sheet?
Ms. Rapozo:
Mr. Chang:
can get that information.
Ms. Rapozo:
Mr. Chang:
pertinent. Thank you, Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
No I don't it's just notes that I have.
Okay I wanted to double check. You- don't mind if we
Sure.
That you rattled off earlier because that was very
Mr. Furfaro, Jay go ahead.
JAY FURFARO: Thank you. I actually like it when somebody can
report statistics and data from memory that tells me you are close to the operation, congratulations.
Ms. Rapozo: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: I'm trying to point myself in the right direction here.
Do you have your Federal grant number from last year?
Ms. Rapozo: We actually have three Federal grants that come in
annually, all from Federal Transit Administration.
Mr. Furfaro: But it is one total right?
Ms. Rapozo: Correct, correct.
Mr. Furfaro: Do you have that total from last year?
Ms. Rapozo: The total amount?
Mr. Furfaro: The total amount of those Federal grants.
Ms. Rapozo: I don't have that.
Mr. Furfaro: You don't, okay. I might send that over in a question.
• •
APRIL 15, 2010
TRANSPORTATION AGENCY (Pg. 3)
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Furfaro:
Five hundred thousand or Six?
Ms. Rapozo:
Mr. Furfaro:
Ms. Rapozo:
Mr. Furfaro:
Okay.
When I look at your footnote here, is that number
Six hundred thousand, six hundred thousand.
How does that compare to last year?
Or current year?
Yeah.
Ms. Rapozo: Current year. We're expecting this year to get in
about Five hundred fifty thousand dollars so we expect to get fifty thousand more next year.
Mr. Furfaro: So that's the eight months actual, plus what you're
kind of forecasting for the rest of the year.
Ms. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: So were going to be up about nine percent in
collection. That's good, that's good. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other questions by Committee members?
Go ahead.
TIM BYNUM: I just looked through your report and the way you
kind of very innovatively are trying to expand services and your response to the Community is
admirable. If you were able to expand services, do you have a priority of where you would go first?
Ms. Rapozo: We usually look at our transit advisory committee for
recommendations and at the last meeting they were saying late night before Sundays, so that would
be where we would be looking.
Mr. Bynum: And I totally agree with that. I was going to lobby you
a little bit and say, I know it doesn't have a big return on investment or increase ridership that much
but as we have more and more people dependent on the bus and for them to be equal participants in
Community events and meetings and they need to be able to get home and so I appreciate that
priority because I know they may be pressured to go somewhere else. My next question we had a
presentation yesterday from energy sustainability that advocated some increase revenue and putting
a portion of that into the bus. Are you aware of those proposals?
Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Actually I was working with Doug Hendricks for
those actual proposals, yeah.
Mr. Bynum: Oh great. Good job I want to see the hybrid bus. The
Mayor you know I've heard him say he's going to do an evaluation about the cost benefit analysis
about whether we want to continue with that so that's also very wise to put in on the streets on
Kauai and really monitor that. Thank you very much.
• • APRIL 15, 2010
TRANSPORTATION AGENCY (Pg. 4)
Ms. Kaneshiro: Any other questions by Committee members? Mr.
Furfaro?
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Bynum for raising the question with
Mr. Hendricks presentation yesterday. I just want to share with you that one of the things as
Chairing that in planning, I'm probably going to be introducing a resolution that as certain
chairman's of certain committee's to meet with people in those components to make sure what we're
hearing and what was presented you know you have an opportunity to come into the council so I just
want to share with that. Certainly Councilwomen Kawahara and maybe Councilman Chang will be
visiting with you to get more feedback on the Energy and Transportation Plan.
Ms. Rapozo:
Mr. Furfaro:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
LANI KAWAHARA:
ridership up or down?
Okay, great.
Thank you Mr. Chair.
Okay. Councilmember Kawahara.
Thank you Budget Chair Kaneshiro. Tell me, so is
Ms. Rapozo: I have that too. Actually from 2008 -2009 ridership
went up Thirty percent almost a hundred thousand trips and currently we are still seeing ridership
creep up as gas prices continue to creep up as well.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. Congratulations and I think you're one of the
more or real responsive to the community and agency that is really responsive to the community. I
would give kudos to your committees, the transportation and advisory committee as they seem to
really have their finger on the pulse of what the community needs. Thank you for your hard work
and thank you for working your budget so that what I heard is that you will be able to provide and
maintain the services that you have now so that's really great to hear. I know it's a lean budget so
staying even is something that's actually very admirable, thank you very much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Bynum, did you have a question?
Mr. Bynum: Yeah I was looking at this budget sheets and I
couldn't find the drivers. Am I missing a page or are they federally funded?
Ms. Rapozo: No, there on page 173.
Mr. Kaneshiro: 9298, they are all together.
Ms. Rapozo: 9298, actually right under the utility workers that
whole bunch of numbers.
Mr. Bynum: Oh I see it. I was looking for a long list. So in the
current budget proposal drivers and dispatchers are subject to furlough?
Ms. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Okay well I will have a follow up question about how
would you do that and maintain the level of service for our furlough meeting.
Ms. Rapozo: Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
DICKIE CHANG:
presentation with Doug yesterday.
was that a discussion?
APRIL 15, 2010
TRANSPORTATION AGENCY (Pg. 5)
Alright, go ahead Mr. Chang.
Thank you Chair. Janine I missed out on the
Was there a plan to try to incorporate surfboards on the buses,
Ms. Rapozo: We had that discussion with Doug and I can't
remember if at the final recommendation he put that in or not, but we were looking at cost, liability
and risk and everything and all of that. We had that discussion but I can't remember whether we
finally wade out everything and made a decision as to which way we were going to go. It is
something that we continue to look at as a possible enhancement to the service.
Mr. Chang: Okay, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other questions by committee members? If
not, thank you very much.
The Transportation Agency departmental budget review concluded at 10:41 a.m., and there being no
objections, the meeting was in recess.
APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened on April 15, 2010 at 10:41 a.m., and proceeded
as follows:
(All seven members were noted present.)
FINANCE DEPARTMENT:
DARYL KANESHIRO: Do you want to take a break a five minute break or anything
and then we will move right into Finance at this time.
KAIPO ASING: No, no.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Hopefully we can take up Finance before lunch.
Mr. Asing: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You want to do it now? Finish up take a break and then take
Planning after lunch? Is that okay with the Committee?
Mr. Asing: The sooner the better.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Mr. Rezentes, good morning how are you today?
WALLY REZENTES, DIRECTOR OF FINANCE: Good morning.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You have the floor.
Mr. Rezentes: Good morning Finance Chair, Kaneshiro and Council
members. I believe you have a copy of my presentation, since it's relatively short I will read it for the
record. The Department of Finance is happy to present to the Kauai County Council it's budget for
fiscal year 2011 of Eleven million, six hundred nine thousand, four hundred thirty nine dollars. I
would like to first take this opportunity to say that I am very proud with the efforts of the Finance
Department team members who have been working very hard and diligently with Les during these
difficult economic times. I believe that our team members will continue to step forward, step to the
plate and work hard in the upcoming fiscal year knowing that they will similarly have limited
resources and less time to accomplish the task that are before them. The Department of Finance
Mission Statement is to provide effective and efficient financial services to the people of Kauai and
to all that we serve by establishing and maintaining a financial system that can properly account for
its activities and financial position. The Department of Finance provides services to external and
internal clients in the following areas. Finance Accounting, Real Property, both Assessment and
Collections, Treasury, Motor Vehicle Registration, Drivers Licensing, Purchasing, Budgeting, Risk
Management, Information Technology and I failed to mention Payroll Services. I am proud to
mention a couple of recent accomplishments of our team. First as you know the Department of
Finance team members has assisted in the Counties efforts of obtaining the highest credit ratings in
county history, specifically with the joint efforts of the County Council Finance Chair, Kaneshiro and
the Administration. We were able to obtain the following ratings: Standard and Poor's AA,
Moody's AA3, Fitch & Co AA -. Each of these rating agencies has gone through different or has their
own set of methods in which they rate municipalities and their own rating system so it's not an
across the board rating system that you can cross compare. As a result of these improved ratings, the
tax payers of the County of Kauai will be able to save an access of Two point nine million over the
life of the bonds that we recently sold. As a result of taking advantage of the bill America bonds and
the recovery zone economic development bonds, versus tax exempt bond programs tax payers will
realize a savings of about Ten point seven million. I have also included an attachment which is on
• • APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 2)
the next page that comes from our bond underwriter I (not a word) that explains some of the savings
that resulted. Secondly, through the efforts of our small but proficient accounting team and fiscal
staff members throughout the county, we were able to obtain the Certificate of Achievement for
Excellence in financial reporting this past year from the Government Finance Office Association. I
am proud of our team members as to prove you can still accomplish a lot with less if you work
together. I also wanted to recognize the efforts of now retired accounting systems administrator
Myles Tone, who took on the task of early adopting GASB Statement 54 in Fiscal Year 10. GASB's
intent with this Statement was to provide users more consistent and understandable information
about each fund's net resources by further detailing and classifying fund balances. We were one of a
few municipalities who opted for early adoption of this program. The Department of Finance's Fiscal
Year 11 budget is Four point eight percent or Five hundred eighty five thousand, seven hundred
forty two dollars less then it's current budget of Twelve Million one hundred ninety one thousand,
one hundred eighty one dollars. The second attachment I provided also details an important area
that the Finance Department is involved in and that's our insurance program and It's a comparison
between our program as well as that of the other Counties and the State of Hawaii. I believe the
most important comparison that I wanted to share with you is between the County of Kauai, and the
State of Hawaii because of how lawsuits and settlements can be structured based on liability
insurance coverage and retention levels. We will have continued discussions with the County
Attorney's, and our insurance broker as to how we should position ourselves in the upcoming
insurance program cycle. Major areas of budgetary changes are included on an attached excel
spreadsheet, I did not include the changes in salaries and benefits in this spreadsheet due to the
many divisions within the department. Overall, salary and fringe benefit reductions in' the
Department of Finance totaled $775,151, which represents a 9.9% decrease. As far as positions the
Department of Finance intends to keep vacant the following $1 funded positions: Tax Clerk, Drivers
License Examiner/Inspector, a Risk Management Officer, Payroll Specialist, Courier 11. If
circumstances arrive where we feel it may be prudent to hire, we will consider doing so after
identifying internal funding sources. We intend to fill however the IT Specialist IV position, GIS and
IT Security and the GIS IT Security Administrator position. As you are aware we have proposed two
revisions in our Drivers Licensing and Vehicle Registration Programs. I see our County Treasure
Dave Spanski just walked in and he is here to explain the details of this proposal if you would like to
hear the plan that we had put forth in the budget.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any questions for Wally overall before we need Dave to
come up, or would you rather have Dave come up?
Mr. Furfaro: Oh no my questions are with the presentation so Wally I'm on
the last sheet a lot of the big items that show us comparisons and variances, Those that are in
brackets, meaning that it is less than the previous year?
Mr. Rezentes: Less than the current year yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Or less than the year we are in now. So we got, Six hundred
and fourteen thousand dollars, we are doing better than the previous year. I was still adding this up
but it is roughly let's see one thirty, two seventy, three twenty, five forty five, it's almost a wash
yeah.
Mr. Rezentes: Yes, I am these items that I listed here was just line items
that I thought would be a good reference, a good highlight. It doesn't represent all of the variances.
Mr. Furfaro: I like looking at those that are more than Twenty -five
thousand in variance and it looks like it comes out to a wash.
Mr. Rezentes: Roughly.
2
APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 3)
Mr. Furfaro: May I just ask a question pertaining to your April 20 meeting.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely.
Mr. Furfaro: Wally when we get into the April 20 period on evaluating
what's in the budget for furloughs, could I ask you to just show us one day furlough means?
Mr. Rezentes: Sure.
Mr. Furfaro: Since we're not looking at big payroll numbers here.
Mr. Rezentes: The number is approximately, One point two million.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Maybe if I could see that I would appreciate it. The last
quick question I have is, on the helicopter for the Fire Department. As we approve some monies and
ear marked um for this year, there were like three options on the aircraft itself. I can't remember the
name of the aircraft or the equipment number that we identify but, what is the financial picture as it
relates to reserving that helicopter? Do we have to place an order and put a down payment this year?
Could you just explain that a little bit more to me as it relates too how we are handling the money
we approved this year, or is that money really due next year? I just want to get clear on that.
Mr. Rezentes: My understanding is the Fire department personnel are
putting together an acquisition packet if you will. It includes some of the monies that are available in
their present budget that the Council had approved for them. It also contemplate receipt of lease
financing as well as grant financing that they are working out through State Civil Defense and these
are homeland security funds. I think what we are; the Finance Department is currently assisting
them in the lease financing portion. We are estimating, we have an estimate of what the lease
amount will be net of the grant proceeds and the funding that the Council had already approved. I'm
sorry I don't have the details but I know that my Finance Accounting Team is working on a portion
of the acquisition package and the Fire Department is working on a different portion of the
acquisition package. I can provide further details to you. I know that this morning they were on the
phone with the manufacturer of the helicopter. I think everything is coming together but we have
not yet ironed out all of the details.
Mr. Furfaro: If you recall on the first day I mentioned to the Mayor that I
will be pursuing a little bit more information on that. You know just in my past practice I didn't ask
the question of the Fire Department because I would think of the big item purchases and variances
and I would rely more on finance for that. If you can at some point show us on the particulars related
to the lease, the deposit requirements or what you refer to as the acquisition, I would really like to
see it.
Mr. Rezentes: Okay. I can tell you that I think since the Fire Department
had the discussion with Council members. They believe well we believe that we will be in a position
of using less County funds and leveraging more federal funds that was presented to you folks. What
was presented will look a lot better from the Counties per strings.
Mr. Furfaro: I think we understood that when we had that discussion but if
I could put that in a question.
Mr. Kaneshiro: What we need to do is to address the question to the Fire
Department. I think it's in the Fire Department Budget?
3
• • APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 4)
Mr. Furfaro: No, I understand it's in the Fire Department but I want to
clarify what I said. He is the Chief Financial Officer of the County and I would like to have
something that he looked at.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I understand but what I need to do is we need to get it to the
right department and the department in turn will work with Finance to get the answers.
Mr. Rezentes: We will definitely work with them.
Mr. Furfaro: I will send the question over through Mr. Kaneshiro.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: . Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: With that, Mr. Chang.
DICKIE CHANG: Thank you. So Council member Furfaro, I guess that question
should that question also add as to how you are going to fit the helicopter.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I don't want to get into too much discussion on this matter
right now. Like I said it's in the Fire Departments budget, so what I think we need to do is go ahead
and send some of the questions and direct it to wear the budgeted amount is currently and they can
work with Finance and give us some answers. Is that okay with Committee members?
Mr. Furfaro: No that's fine and then delivery date will be the question.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes, absolutely. Councilmember Kawahara:
LANI KAWAHARA: Thank you. Good morning Wally. I think we discussed this
last year but if you could review for me the risk management officer and the dollar funded. The risk
management officer, does he provide advice on what types of things? Like possible litigation? What
does the Risk Manager do?
Mr. Rezentes: He works closely with our County Attorney's office on and our
third party administrator and broker on workers compensations, issues and I know they have at
least a minimum of quarterly meetings and often times a lot more than that. These meetings occur
with all the departments that have employees with existing workers compensation claims. He also
works with our brokers annually on placing our property liability access work comp insurance
programs in place by providing them with all the relevant data and information that is required. He
insures that there is timely filing with the respective state agencies that require certain
documentation to be submitted annually. He looks and works with our broker also as to the levels of
insurance that we should consider having and also provides or organizes and puts together training
programs that are relative to the risk management program. I think every year we have at least one
or two training sessions for Employees County wide that he works on and he procures the services of
outside consultants to provide those training opportunities to our staff.
Ms. Kawahara: So it sounds like he has oversight of all kinds of different
departments. Meaning he works with all different departments with their legal issues.
Mr. Rezentes: Yes, definitely it traverses over. Yes definitely.
APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 5)
Ms. Kawahara: Okay so your Risk Management Officer is dollar funded? Or
you have a Risk Management Coordinator?
Mr. Rezentes: Yes we currently have a Risk Management Coordinator that
is staffed. We have a dollar funded Risk Management Officer presently that we held vacant for a
couple of fiscal years already.
Ms. Kawahara: What is the difference between the Officer and the
Coordinator? Are you getting Risk Management Quality work? Same work as you would out of the
Risk Management Coordinator?
Mr. Rezentes: I think some of it is similar and I mean obviously if we had
more resources to support the program we could probably enhance what the Risk Management
program does. I think because we have it vacant it probably pulls more resources from myself and
maybe others on my team as well as the County Attorney's office and various Deputy County
Attorney's who support Risk Management. It is a team effort, definitely.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, well I appreciate you guys working to do that. I guess
my next question is. Does not having a Risk Management Officer for a couple of fiscal years impact
the counties liabilities in different places? Does it give us an increase chance of being sued?
Mr. Rezentes: I don't know if I can say that. I think if I got to say that if we
did not get the support that we have been getting from the County Attorney's Office in Risk
Management areas perhaps yes, the answer would be yes. I have been here long enough and I have
been through a few County Attorney's already that the level of service, have varied depending on the
focus and the resources given to that department. Right now we are fortunate to have had the
equivalent full time number of employees in the County Attorney's office increase so that has helped
us and helped the other departments provide the other services that we provide. At this time, if you
asked me ideally what I would want, definitely I would want to fund all my positions. At this time
with the support that we are receiving from the County Attorney's office, I am comfortable and I
believe the focus in Risk Management is adequate.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, what would be the total amount in the budget if there
was a Risk Management? How much is that?
Mr. Rezentes: I think roughly salaries, benefits maybe 130/140k.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, and is it an appointed position? Is it EMS, I don't know
what EMS is.
Mr. Rezentes: No, it's a civil service. Well I should say the way it's in the
budget now it's a Civil Service position.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you. Just a few more questions, so the Risk
Management Coordinator, I'm asking because we got the lawsuits coming down for different things
and I'm assuming that a Risk Management Coordinator, Risk Management Officer would be in place
to try and oversee that so that those things done happen. That's what they do right?
Mr. Rezentes: That's part of the job, definitely.
Ms. Kawahara: I'm particularly looking at training programs for Department
heads. My next question is that last year you guys had a Nine thousand dollar line item for back log
of office work plate files which was regular overtime. Does that still continue this year? The same
5
• • APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 6)
back log? I'm looking at in the Motor Vehicle Registration area. There was a Nine thousand dollar
regular overtime life.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Dave can you come up please.
DAVID SPANSKI: I'm sorry, your question again.
Ms. Kawahara: In your Motor Vehicle regular salaries page, I'm looking at
2010 so I'm trying to find it in my 2011 it just carried over the same Nine thousand dollars. I was
just wondering how that works and if it's an ongoing project?
Mr. Spanski: No. Overtime in Two thousand an actual was Eleven
thousand dollars. Overtime actual in 2008 was Eighty three hundred. Overtime actual in 2000 was
Ten Thousand. Overtime actual in 2006 was Ten thousand four hundred. You want me to keep
going? It's a constant and what that is, is a Month end okay every month end you go to close out that
month on the last day of the registration you go to close out that day. When you have absenteeism
we have to close and we still have to balance at the end of the day so there will be some overtime
there.
Mr. Kawahara: Absent, you mean when people are absent from work.
Mr. Spanski: Yes, for example. The front counter works at a equivalent of
six and I mean there are six heads but they work at the equivalent of four point eight or five over the
year. That's just a count for covering absenteeism and every month in overtime.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay and those you are trying to meet at the end of the
month is certain regulations that have to be met.
Mr. Spanski: That's correct. We have to close out we have to get the mail if
its mailed in we have to get it out as soon as possible. At the end of the day we stay open until 4:30
and the girls are still there processing until 4:30. They also have to close out and we have to balance
the end of the day's books.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. Thank you very much, very complete.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions? Chair Asing.
KAIPO ASING: Yes. It's kind of a follow up and I happen to agree with
Councilmember Kawahara regarding the Risk Management Officer. Wally for me it's just a concern,
I hope you look at it because the Council has always placed high priority on the Risk Management
process area so it's just a concern and I wanted to let you know. At the same time I had a question
mark on that and I see on the bottom your GIS and IT Security Administrator position and I put
good on that so plus and minus so that's my comment, Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We will follow up on a question on that in regards to
Councilmember Kawahara and also Chair Asing and this will give you some time to meet with the
County Attorney and have some discussions and come back with some answers on that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Bynum.
n
APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 7)
TIM BYNUM: I have several questions but I will start with Risk
Management as well because I just want to clarify my mind. As I recall Wally you lobbied for this
position and we never filled it, right? It got in the budget but never got filled.
Mr. Rezentes: Right.
Mr. Bynum: I also believe that the answer to the question is would it save
us money?
Mr. Rezentes: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: I mean we have significant cost and disability claims and law
suits related that the risk management, a row bus risk management program could really address.
Outside the experience of having to work for the County Twenty five years ago, as a supervisor and
we had a very extensive risk management program which required training of each employee that
supervisors were audited each year to make that their employees got the training and we could show
the cost benefit analysis very dramatic. I am hopeful that we will get to a point where we can realize
your vision of making that more row bus thing. I want to recognize your initiative a couple of years
ago pressing for that and I hope can get there sometime.
Mr. Rezentes: To be honest with you. That was for the Risk Management
Officer, that was really the emphasis behind my statement that if circumstances arrive would we
feel maybe prudent to hire we will consider doing do by identifying funding sources. To be honest
with you that sentence there that I mentioned I had the Risk Management officer in mind and it is
in the back of my mind that it is a priority.
Mr. Bynum: Right, and I know as the Chair said because we sit through on
the Council those cost from disability claims and law suits and so on you know there is a dollar and
cents issue but it is also about the quality of the experience of employees and keeping them safe and
protected on the job. I just wanted to recognize your initiative on this in the past and if we can find a
way and that would be a pretty high priority. I also agree with the Chair and I had some questions
about that IT positions because I think we currently have one person focused on GIS and so if you
are intending on filling that position, would that make that program stronger this position? And are
there other positions that we hope to fund eventually for GIS?
Mr. Rezentes: Yes, right now that would be the position that we are focusing
on in trying to hire. As you know there is another GIS Analyst and I'm not sure exactly what the title
is that's within our planning department. We have one on our side in IT that concentrates county
wide and one in Planning that is more for support for the planning department.
Mr. Bynum: I think that also is a very strong and valuable tool that we
haven't totally realized yet and will help make us more efficient and save money and so I'm glad to
see that those are moving. I had a question about insurance? I was surprised frankly to see a
reduction in cost for liability Insurance and so is that because we had a bigger deductable? I mean
did we have a different policy that has less coverage and that's why we realize the savings?
Mr. Rezentes: Yes and it's been a little harder to place in the present market
. I know the last go around and I'm sure that Council member Furfaro in his private sector
hat understands the technicality of the insurance market. It has been a lot more difficult to place
our liability as well as our property insurance programs and I think you folks have read national
headlines of how the insurance market has gone over the last year or two. There are just not that
many companies to entertain insurance levels and risk the size of the county, so often times they are
7
0 APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 8)
willing to take smaller bites of smaller segments of our program. I want to go back to this statement
of coverage's and if you look at the limits of liability between the County of Kauai and the State of
Hawaii , if they are larger potential claims they could involve both the County and the State of
Hawaii. When they look at settlements of law suits or claims they often look at limits of liability as
well as SIR levels, retention levels. If you see on the bottom section, our limit is actually higher than
that of the State of Hawaii and our SIR is lower. In times of a settlement say the County and the
State are most equally liable they don't necessarily look and getting the same amount from us and
then the effect to the County of Kauai we have agreed ability to fund the settlement than they do if
you look at our insurance program. Sometimes we need to look at the levels of how much coverage
we have in comparison to the State. These are some of the things we are working on with our County
Attorney's Office and our Broker to ensure that we position ourselves correctly as far as coverage and
retention levels.
Mr. Bynum: So part of what you're saying is that if we have a better
insurance package we might get hit harder in a joint civil suit or something.
Mr. Rezentes: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: I Can you explain the term "Employment Practices Liability."
Mr. Rezentes: I care not to, I would rather have someone else with more of a
background in it then I do but its relative to cost that could be incurred from a result from employee
lawsuits, employee exposures etc...
Mr. Bynum: I believe our retention amount has changed there?
Mr. Rezentes: Yes and that increase of a quarter million were due to our
inability of placing the policy at the lower retention level at a reasonable price. We did have to up the
self insured retention for that program.
Mr. Bynum: I think maybe not in budget but I really want to look at this
issue of Employment Practice Liability and Employment Practice Cost. I think that's also related to
some of the answers we got from personnel even though I wasn't here. Risk Management, Training,
Employment Practices impact the Counties cost, so we will save that for a future time. I have a
growing list of questions for the 20th related to furloughs but I asked the Chair if I could ask a couple
really brief over view questions or maybe heads up questions. You said to Council member Furfaro
that one day it was one point two and I heard that from you a couple of months ago but then I also
heard last week that our savings with furloughs was four point three. I don't understand for two
days furloughs and the overall budget, is it two point four or is it four point three?
Mr. Furfaro: Wally you did your duty but we would like to see it
summarized because I think some of the difference might actually be calculated in some of the
accrued benefits too, so we need to have it broken down.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We will go ahead and get those questions written up but why
don't you pop that question anyway so they can be prepared to come back with answers for us when
they meet again on the 20th.
Mr. Rezentes: Yeah I know we did receive the posting for the 20th and I
didn't go through the entire list of questions I'm not sure if that was one of them.
• • APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 9)
Mr. Bynum: There's more coming and a part of what and I don't
understand and I'm writing these questions about savings and fringe especially retirement. I don't
see how we can reduce retirement because of furloughs so I will send over the questions.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Good questions. And I hope we will be sending questions up to
you in that regards. Go ahead Mr. Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: I want to concur that the list for the 201h is growing so I
presume we should plan for the whole day.
day.
Mr. Bynum: I'm wondering if we don't need to plan a call back day for that
Mr. Kaneshiro: Well, we will see once we get into that part of the session.
Mr. Furfaro: Just a real quick question. The fact of the matter your total
earned wages for any one year, if you had loss twenty four days in furlough there is in fact though
other benefits?
Mr. Rezentes: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay so your retirement contributions are based on the fact of
your gross earnings for that period?
Mr. Rezentes: Gross earnings gross wages?
Mr. Furfaro: Wages.
Mr. Rezentes: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Well yeah for me it will be earnings and for us it's our wages.
So yeah we need to have a breakdown that reflects that. Two items that I have just two items.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay you have the floor.
Mr. Furfaro: The training funding is increasing in our plan but overall I
would like to see from some mechanism, what our training business plan is. What are we focusing
our attention on? The other piece I'm just going to share this with Councilwomen Kawahara and I'm
sure you remember my presentation on loss prevention. This was two years ago and you came back
with your presentation but I'm approaching this a little differently. When we have the discussion
about filling that position, The Council would like to know, what are the goals before just identifying
job title search and so forth? So I will share this with you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: I think the goals of what we want to accomplish and so we can
measure any savings is important.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you for this.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you, go ahead Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you budget Chair. This one's for Dave because I like
hearing him talk.
E
• 0 APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 10)
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's why we kept you here Dave. You wasn't going to get
away easy.
Mr. Kawahara: I wanted to say that I was looking at the Motor Vehicle
Operators license and I had received a call from a senior regarding the pass structure. It didn't seem
to match up that the seniors were paying more for their licenses every year because of the structure.
I'm glad to see and the way I looked at it seems like she was correct but now I see in this change that
everything is equal, it's all four dollars and times the year their eight birthday, fourth birthday,
second or first.
Mr. Spanski: Correct.
Ms. Kawahara: Prior to that it seemed like the seniors were paying a little bit
higher at one point because they were doing every year while other people were doing second years
or different years.
Mr. Spanski: Right and it just goes upon their age. Seventy two plus so if
there is a Doctor's note attached when they come in then there's more things they will have to go
through, they may not get it. They may have to test again, they might have to take a driving test
based upon a Doctor's recommendation or they may not get a license based on a Doctor's
recommendation.
Ms. Kawahara: I'm not questioning the getting of the licensees, it was just
that they were paying Four dollars every year and the other people were paying and it wasn't
matching up so it was more of a cost.
Mr. Spanski: Well and we never changed our rates.
Ms. Kawahara: So now it's great, it's equalized.
Mr. Spanski: Yeah so we're not inconsistent that way.
Ms. Kawahara: Great thank you for doing that and recognizing the little
discrepancy, thanks.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright, with that thank you. Dave I kept you here for a
reason because I wanted to recognize you for being one of the team members when we went up there
to do the bond flow. Dave Spanski is the treasury was also there along with Mr. Rezentes, the Mayor
and Mr. Costa from Economic Development. Even though they weren't a question for you I was just
going to keep you for awhile so I could recognize you Dave.
Mr. Spanski: Thanks but my motto is hoof prints not news prints.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other comments or questions for Finance?
Mr. Furfaro: I also want to thank Dave, his work and so forth. I also want
to thank him for agreeing to periodically actually coming before the Council and giving us a visual
update on the treasures report like you did about two months ago. In this volatile time in the market
and so forth it's good to have a professional like Dave to actually make a presentation to us so, thank
you Dave.
10
• APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 11)
Mr. Spanski: Yeah so hopefully you will never have to see my name in n
newspaper.
Tim Bynum: Maybe today. Maybe we will get your name in the newspaper
today. Because this is appreciate Dave time and I am appreciative of it and earlier when Council
member Kawahara had a question you were like, boom, boom, boom, boom and that's the way I
experienced you when you come here you are on it. I also assume that you are pleased about the
changes in Drivers License because I believe we were well Drivers Licenses were costing us more.
Mr. Spanski: Right. If nothing is done for every amount of remittance or
revenue dollar we take in we expand free. Based on general fund versus general fund, six employees
that are covered by the general fund and with the drivers license revenue approximately if you
spread it out in a trend analysis again you know there was a cycle change back in 1994 and it went
from a four year to six year so we were losing approximately Seventy five thousand dollars in those
two years because of the cycle and we never adjusted our rates.
Mr. Bynum: Right so I believe some Counties have a contribution to the
general fund for their licenses
Mr. Bynum: Right so I believe some Counties have a contribution to the
general fund for their license fees and we have a minus so hopeful we can turn that around with the
Mayor's proposal this year.
Mr. Spanski: Well we will almost just about break even.
Mr. Bynum: Well that's a reasonable goal.
Mr. Spanski: If we maintain the request that was put in.
Mr. Furfaro: I have one more question. This is for Wally. Wally after we
ran the experimental method of payments electronically for services. There was this one year period
when we introduced it that we incurred certain costs associated with providing that convenience. Is
that training period complete and are we now recovering fees associated with electronic capturing?
Mr. Rezentes: I'm glad I can dish that'one to Dave.
Mr. Furfaro: Are we pau with the experimental time?
Mr. Spanski: Well I don't know if it was experimental time because back
in 2007 we started the program. At that time it was determined that the County would pick up the
convenience fee.
Mr. Furfaro: We understand that for one year.
Mr. Spanski: No.
Mr. Furfaro: No, no, no. We understood that for one year.
Mr. Spanski: Okay but that's not how it played out.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay so where are we?
11
• • APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 12)
Mr. Spanski: Okay, where are we now? Is that the customer now picks up
the fee. If they pay with a accredit card and they have a hundred dollar bill, they pay the internet
provider two dollars and fifty cents for their costs and infrastructure processing the payment and
that's two dollars and fifty cents. If you pay and your bill is a hundred dollars the credit card fee is
two point two percent, so now that's another two dollars and twenty cents. Let's say it's five dollars
so now the payer will now pay one hundred plus two fifty plus two dollars and twenty cents. Prior to
that it would be a hundred dollar bill, the consumer would pay the hundred dollars but we would net
only ninety five.
Mr. Furfaro: I want to clarify something. I go to a teller a ATM
machine and it's not my bank, I pay two dollars and twenty five cents to do that transaction for the
convenience that I don't have to go all the way back to my branch at Territorial maybe I shouldn't
say what my branch is. The reality is it was presented to us in such a way that we needed to have
this experimental time so people would use the convenience to save gas, save time, save transport
and so forth. Also at the same time it allowed us to build kind of a market segment of the
Community that would make things convenient. I don't think I could go to First Hawaiian Bank or
Bank of Hawaii or any of the major banks and say, you know what I need to waive my charges for
the convenience. But we did it for the first year and if I recall it totaled for the County about Seven
hundred thousand dollars.
Mr. Spanski: Seven hundred nineteen thousand, nine hundred and
forty -six dollars.
Ms. Kawahara: I knew you would know.
Mr. Furfaro: I had my carrot juice this morning too but now we need to say
to them that you save transport you save time and you save gas.
Mr. Spanski: Correct.
Mr. Furfaro:
And we provide that convenience for paying certain fees. Are
we there yet? Is that what we
are doing now?
Mr. Spanski:
Yes we are doing that now.
Mr. Furfaro:
I appreciate that Dave.
Mr. Spanski:
Yes they are covering the fee and they are picking up their
own convenience.
Ms. Kawahara: Good.
Mr. Furfaro: Well we are providing the convenience. The other choice is
that they can drive in and pay at the counter.
Mr. Spanski: That's correct thank you.
KAIPO ASING: I have a follow up question to that. What does the trend
show? Does the trend show it going up more payments or leveled off?
Mr. Spanski: Well we've been doing it since the beginning of January it's
kind of dropping. For example overall with motor vehicles and real property and sewer, we had a
12
• APRIL 15, 2010
FINANCE DEPARTMENT (Pg. 13)
sixteen percent use rate at the peak. Now we are back down to twelve so it's coming back down for
the last three months so it's coming down. They are opting to either mail it in or drive in.
Mr. Asing: That's what I was trying to get at, there is some cost.
Mr. Spanski: That's correct.
Mr. Asing: And I'm not sure...
Mr. Furfaro: Well it's a hard number and you got to remember that we
have twelve percent now paying that had to come in, in, the past.
Mr. Asing: I understand that. I just wanted to know what the trend is
and the fact and the plus and minuses on both sides. Both to the County and to the Community
member, that's all I'm trying to do. Get that out and get that plain so that there is an understanding.
Mr. Spanski: Sure.
Mr. Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Spanski: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: You summarized it very well on both sides.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright thank you. Dave I think with the last two questions
we will probably get your name in the newspaper now because he is still here writing even though
you didn't want to.
Mr. Spanski: Why don't you guys just raise my raise?
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's a good one.
Mr. Spanski: Base it on performance.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Have a good one. Thank you very much Finance. With that we
will take a ten minute recess we have the Planning Department here and we will go with
planning next.
The Finance Department departmental budget review concluded at 11:30 a.m., and there being no
objections, the meeting was in recess.
13
APRIL 15, 2010
PLANNING DEPARTMENT (Pg. l )
The departmental review reconvened on April 15, 2010 at 11:46 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
(All seven members were noted present.)
PLANNING DEPARTMENT:
DARYL KANESHIRO: Budget review process now called back to order. At
this time we have the Planning Department, Mr. Ian Costa, and all three of you are up here.
IAN COSTA, PLANNING DIRECTOR: It's still morning so Aloha Kakahiaka Council
members.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Good morning.
Ian Costa, Planning Director for the record and with me is Imai Aiu, Deputy Planning
Director and Myles Hironaka, our long range Planner extraordinaire. Hopefully you all got handed
out our Budget Summary and I would like to just cover that. At the very top we do have an overview
and I will take the time briefly to just read our overview. In order to meet the initial administrative
budget preparation guidelines in other words or a seven percent reduction in the 2010 budget the
planning department reduced its proposed 2010 - 2011 budget by Hundred sixty nine thousand from
the current level of funding. An additional reduction of hundred and nineteen thousand is proposed
to address the furlough program lowering the total budget by thirteen percent, for a total of Two
hundred eighty nine thousand, two hundred ten dollars as compared to the 2009 -2010 Planning
Department Budget. Non furlough budget cuts are based on reduced salaries, reduced fringe benefits
costs, reductions in travel and special research. Despite the overall cuts the UHC Grant Program is
being retained at a funding level of ninety seven thousand nine hundred and fifty eight dollars.
Immediately after that overview we have our responses at least to the initial three questions that
council had opposed to everyone. The first being a list of all new positions or changes to any existing
positions indicating contractual or civil service salary and division. We are not proposing any new
positions at this time or any changes to existing positions. Number two a list of current or
anticipated vacant civil service and contractual positions. Duration of vacancies and expected date of
filing, these positions so we list seven currently vacant positions and two anticipated vacancies in the
very near future. The Planning Department is in the process of working with the Department of
Personnel Services to advertise and or fill via internal movement on all vacant funded positions as
soon as possible as such we plan to advertise for a range of planner positions which includes
planner 1 through planner 7 level positions. Number three a list of contractual positions funded by
the State or Federal grants and the contract period. We have three grants or funds, the first being
coastal zone management program, this is a continuous grant program based on the State, County
fiscal period and has been ongoing since the mid 1970's. It is One hundred percent State and
federally funded and provides funding for four of our positions to implement the CZM, SMA and
shoreline set back policies. Our proposed budget request to the grantor is Two hundred eighty seven
thousand, seven hundred twenty one dollars and we do have an attachment that breaks that down.
Our second grant is a certified local government program which is the funding we use for our
Historic preservation program and the Kauai Historic Preservation Commission.
JAY FURFARO: Excuse me which position was that?
Mr. Costa: The CLG or the certified local government program. It
just supports some of our projects as well as the Kauai Historic Preservation Commission, we do not
have a Historic Planner position. This program does not entail any positions and has been ongoing
since the late 1980's because the federal program passed through the State Department of Land and
Natural Resources and from to time provides funds approximately Fifty thousand for preservation
projects. In consultation with the Kauai Historic preservation review commission, SHP (State
0 APRIL 15, 2010
PLANNING DEPARTMENT (Pg.2)
Historic Preservation Division and the national park service. Projects that have been under
consideration include updating the counties historic resource listing and preparing nominations
forms for the state or national historic register conditional evaluations for selected sites and
expanding the preservation website and training and reference resource materials. The last of these
grants or funds is the open space public access program. In 2002 the charter was amended by
creating a public access open space and natural resources preservation fund which receives a
minimum of half a percent of certified real property tax each year. Ordinance number 812 was
subsequently passed which established a new commission and provided that five percent of the fund
could be used for administrative cost estimated at Nineteen thousand and eighty five dollars and we
have an attachment for that proposed budget as well. As in previous years approval of these
programs are requested to continue, County participation in these grants program and or programs
and to expand such funds to fulfill the objectives and purposes as set forth in each of the grant
programs. That pretty much concludes our overview anyway and we can respond to any questions
you have.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay with that Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. In the staffing area you anticipated vacancies
with the salaries we got today in our memorandum here, even though you show these retirement
dates may I assume that these positions in the way of dollars are reflected through your
whole budget.
Mr. Costa: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. So for the purpose of continuity with these retirements
in June and May you do plan to fill them and they are reflected as being fully funded for the year?
Mr. Costa: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: For one dollar funded positions, are there any of those
positions that have been vacant or will be vacant for the third proposed year? In other words, does
your budget reflect these vacant positions that this will be the third year that they are vacant?
Mr. Costa: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Could you tell me which ones they are. That means we are
currently functioning without them.
Mr. Costa: I believe those would be the first three. The two Project
Managers and the Planner five position.
Mr. Furfaro: Have we been soliciting for those positions in the last three
years?
Mr. Costa: Yes we have. The dollar funded Project Manager position,
those are tied to the development plans so we have not recruited for those separately up to this point.
Mr. Furfaro: What do you mean by development plan? You mean the
Community development plan?
Mr. Costa: Yes and those are specifically tied, I believe to the Lihu`e
Development Plan as well as the Koloa so we have not recruited for any of those at least for the
current projects that we have been working on.
2
0 APRIL 15, 2010
PLANNING DEPARTMENT (Pg.3)
Mr. Furfaro: On those I will just send over a question asking for those
vacant positions if they were implemented and tied to specific community plans. What would be the
dollar value associated with that? I will send it over in a question. On the open space program, your
narrative indicates well first of all the Nineteen thousand eighty five, is that the half percent of the
projected r floating tax revenue?
Mr. Costa: I believe that's five percent of the anticipated tax revenue.
Mr. Furfaro: So we're anticipating at least Three hundred and eighty one
thousand dollars being earmarked for the fund?
Mr. Costa: Correct.
Mr. Furfaro: The nineteen thousand in the narrative, it could be used for
administrative cost. I want to tell you that the funding of the full time planning position came two
years ago with myself and Council women Yukimura, specifically that we understood that the
nineteen thousand eighty five should be used specifically to help administrative cost for the
commission. We had a presentation from them yesterday and we were asking what work has been
done from the county attorney and or appraisal on the proposed lands that they identify on the west
side at Salt Pond. When I said to them, have we launched an appraisal for the next targeted item I
certainly feel that we need to do it. That money is available to them to ask the county attorney to
solicit an appraisal and I think we also need to know that when we go to acquire community lands I
think it's subject to the county engineer to revisit the items especially the access site to make sure
it's safe access and so forth and they may need to be some money to do some research on that. That
is what that money is intended for, it said it could be used for but it should be used for and I just
wanted to say what I believe that intent was. And just out of curiosity and I wanted to thank your
department for giving me the schedule early on for this year that targets some completion dates for
things like the CZO, Community Plans and so forth. We did have to visit some additional money
recently, may I assume in your forecast the rest of this year that we are good on money for that eight
completion dates that you concurred on? Do you foresee us coming back at this point in time for any
additional money to complete those tasks?
Mr. Costa: No.
Mr. Furfaro: No, okay Thank you and I will send over that question on the
three vacant positions.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, Chairman Asing.
KAIPO ASING: I have a follow up question on both the Project Managers. Are
you saying then that if you do not do the community development program, then you don't need the
project manager? It was just tied into that.
Mr. Costa: Yes.
Mr. Asing: So you don't do the project? You don't need it anyway?
Mr. Costa: That's correct. Those were specifically tied to help manage
those projects.
Mr. Asing: Specific to those plans?
APRIL 15, 2010
PLANNING DEPARTMENT (Pg.4)
Mr. Costa:
Yes.
Mr. Asng:
Okay thank you. I just wanted to get that clarified and thank
you Councilmember Furfaro for asking the question.
Mr. Furfaro:
I wanted to say that if they trigger those plans I want to know
the cost of those positions.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Right and we will be sending over a request in that regards
for this project manager and to what plans and so forth.
Mr. Costa:
Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
As Mr. Furfaro said. So we will have follow up questions
for you.
Mr. Costa:
Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Bynum.
TIM BYNUM:
Okay so just so I understand, the two anticipated vacancies
are the two planners that we recently
are leaving?
Mr. Costa:
Yes.
Mr. Bynum:
So in addition to that there's a planner seven? So there are
two planner seven positions? One that's retiring in June, and one that is funded for nine months.
Those are two different positions?
Mr. Costa:
Yes but the planner funded the vacant position reflects up the
retirement of our long time planner Ricky Tsuchiya.
Mr. Bynum:
I'm sorry.
Mr. Costa:
Ricky Tsuchiya.
Mr. Bynum:
Oh.
Mr. Costa:
And then the anticipated planner is Bryan Mamaclay.
Mr. Bynum:
And I thought they were out of here already.
Mr. Costa:
No Bryan is still with us.
Mr. Bynum:
And so the one that's funded for nine months is Ricky?
Mr. Costa:
Yes.
Mr. Bynum:
Is he back on contract?
Mr. Costa:
His contract just ended and he is kicking and screaming and
refusing to get another contract. But he still is assisting us if you will.
4
0 APRIL 15, 2010
PLANNING DEPARTMENT (Pg.5)
Mr. Bynum: So that will be a challenge for this year some real quality
institutional memory.
Mr. Costa: Yes it's a critical position for us. He serves a personnel
manager, fiscal officer and he also manages the three commissions we have in addition to our grant.
Mr. Bynum: Those are big shoes.
Mr. Costa: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: So good luck with that.
Mr. Costa: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Hopefully you won't have any other people go miles
earn. Also I'm very pleased that you are maintaining the sea grant position even though the
individual has recently gone.
Mr. Costa: Yes. Jim has essentially left and we have spoken to the sea
grant program and they will diligently fill his position, but we anticipate that it would be vacant for
probably two to three months hopefully not longer. They have committed the assistance of the other
sea grant agents. They have one on Maui, one in Honolulu so they have been put on notice to assist
us when we need it I guess.
Mr. Bynum: And in that department you have experienced it as being a
positive asset for the department?
Mr. Costa: Yes, particularly with bridging and working with some of our
other agencies in making sure that generally other agencies are at least informed on coastal
processes and issues but also help guide them in getting permits before they do something.
Mr. Bynum: I really appreciate the individuals that work in the
community and bridging that.
Mr. Costa: Yeah and that's what that position was meant to do as a
grant position.
Mr. Bynum: So it really has worked well and hopefully we will get an
individual as dynamic as Jim.
Mr. Costa: Yeah particularly that position has worked closely and
supported the Department of Parks and Public works.
Mr. Bynum:
going with Shaylene and Jay
well.
Mr. Costa:
as well as a partner.
Mr. Bynum:
positions currently filled?
My recollection is it was kind of a council initiative to get that
I think that really pressed that and I'm pleased it really worked out
It helps keep our relationship with the University of Hawaii
The individuals that are doing enforcements are all of those
E
0 APRIL 15, 2010
PLANNING DEPARTMENT (Pg.6)
Mr. Costa: Well we had one of our inspectors, planning inspectors move
over to the TVR inspector position. I believe that we had a trainer and I think he was hired probably
six or eight months ago but there is no vacant position.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for the Planning Department by
Committee Members? Okay no more questions. You have the floor Mr. Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: I just want to say how very pleased I am Mr. Costa with your
selection of Myles and your team of three that we now have in place for the long term and the
concept associated with someone keeping an eye on the future potential projects its impact as how it
relates to infrastructure funding and so forth. The two ladies aren't here today but pleas I just want
to say how very pleased I am. I also want to say how very sad I am about Jim's departure, I think in
the short time he was here he made some very very valuable contributions, and I want to say in
advance between you and your Deputy you know we can't lose focus on some of those issues dealing
with shoreline and erosion. I know you are up for the task and I just want to make a comment on
those two items.
Mr. Costa: Before Jim left one of the things he has helped us on was to
take that recently completed coastal erosion study and to prepare our draft ordinance amendment
which we will be bringing to you shortly.
Mr. Furfaro: Well thank you very much gentlemen.
Mr. Asing: I have a quick follow up question.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Chair.
Mr. Asing: On that study Ian, is it completely done and so it's fully
implemented? When I say implemented I'm saying that the charts and everything is all done.
Mr. Costa: We have all the data and the maps. We just need to get those
adopted through an ordinance amendment to the shoreline set back ordinance.
Mr. Asing: Oaky good thank you.
Lani Kawahara: I have a question.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: I just wanted some clarification if I could please. On page 59
"Special Council" is that just a shift because of the work that our own county attorney is doing and it
goes into his budget? Any cost for "Special Council'?
Mr. Costa: You mean the reduction?
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah from almost half a million to zero yeah for the year to
date it was half a million and now its zero requests. I'm just curious as to how that works.
0
APRIL 15, 2010
PLANNING DEPARTMENT (Pg.7)
Mr. Costa: It varies from some degree but very little and that is some
funding that we have always put it in our budget for special circumstances or special hearings or
hiring of hearing officers and alike. We had to basically look at cutting wherever we could to meet
the seven percent and so should we would need to come to council honestly as we should there be
cases that we would need to go out and secure special council. And again that is special council in
respect to any special hearings that we may have. We recently over the last year have a hearings
officer for the one boat yard in Hanalei and have been lucky to have the attorneys we have and the
willingness of the commission to work through the vacation rental appeals, as of this budget
proposals we are not budgeting for special council and would need to address that as needed. It's
very difficult to anticipate what that cost would be.
Ms. Kawahara: Right, it's just kind of glaring yeah because we know we spent
Four hundred thirty seven thousand last year and.....
Mr. Costa: Last year was more than I have ever seen spent.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah and now it's not in your budget at all but we're going to
need to deal with it as it comes up so that money is going to come from somewhere.
Mr. Costa: That's right.
Ms. Kawahara: It's just not going to be reflected in this budget total for your
department.
Mr. Costa: That's right. So I mean that just shows I guess how lean our
budget really is as it comes down to positions now.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah okay, that's something I will keep in mind thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for the planning department regarding
this budget review. If not thank you very much Mr. Costa, Imai, and Myles.
Mr. Costa: We will respond to any questions you have.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We will forward any questions if the committee members
come up as we move along through this process for your department.
Mr. Costa: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: With that before recess in this meeting I want to announce to
you that tomorrow we will start with Parks and Recreation Department and also with the
Department of Public Works and again those are two large departments, so if I can inquire with our
staff if we had handouts passed out earlier and if we didn't possibly we will have some tomorrow
before we begin our session. We are in recess until 9:00 tomorrow morning, that's it.
The Planning Department departmental budget review concluded at 12:12 p.m., and there being no
objections, the meeting was in recess.
7
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget review reconvened at 9:13 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
(Mr. Kawakami was noted excused.)
PARKS AND RECREATION:
Mr. Kaneshiro: Good morning. Budget review session is now called to order. Let the
record reflect that Mr. Kawakami is excused and he'll be joining us later this afternoon. We'll start
with the Parks and Recreation Department this morning so Mr. Leonard Rapozo and any of your
other staff that you want to bring up here.
LEONARD RAPOZO: Good morning. For the record Director of Parks and Recreation
Lenny Rapozo. I have my backup over here in case you give me any hard questions I cannot answer.
I just like to introduce the Fiscal Division Lynn Kuboyama, Eddie Sarita from the Convention Hall,
George Ahlgren who's in our Parks Maintenance Chief, I saw... well I thought I saw Mel here...
everybody...
Mr. Furfaro: He's just right outside the door.
Ms. Kawahara: He was here.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay he probably taking his break you guys stressing him out. So
Mel is out there. And then Craig Carney and Susan Honjiyo from the Golf Course and Cyndy
Duterte Recreation Division.
Mr. Chang: What about the birthday? Birthday guy.
Mr. Rapozo: Today is not his birthday yeah. Today is Aloha Friday but my Deputy
Kylan Dela Cruz.
Mr. Furfaro: Your birthday is tomorrow?
KYLAN DELA CRUZ (DEPUTY DIRECTOR): Long ways from now.
Mr. Rapozo: So before we passed out our budget comparison from last year to this
year included the percentages of decrease for the Golf and Parks and Recreation Department.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Is that your presentation?
Mr. Rapozo: That's my presentation.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay...
Mr. Rapozo: We were tasked, the Department was tasked with reducing by seven
percent (7 %) but after the furloughs were also included after we made our seven percent (7 %) the
increase of the decrease I'm sorry was greater than seven percent (7 %) and basically what we did is
we took current operations up until six (6) months and we saw what expenditures were and we've
been trying to streamline and try to cut as best as we can knowing where we are today and we based
our cuts on current activity within the Department but yet we were still able with these challenges
you know to do some nice things through this past fiscal year like you know through partnerships
with Public Works, County Attorney, our Department, Transportation we did the park and ride
which we've... I know you were busy on Monday with budget but it kind of (inaudible) at Kalaheo
Neighborhood Center that we did some in -house work that probably saved the county over a hundred
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 2)
thousand dollars ($100,000) in doing a park and ride facility that increased the parking, we put in a
parking with what was officially known as the mud -bowl at Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
Concrete, we have eight (8) new stalls including an additional ADA that wasn't required but we
thought it would be a good idea to add it, lighting and we're hoping that it would be the hub of the
parking right on the Westside. During park and ride, traditionally during the day and then it
becomes an additional facility parking at night and on weekends so... what I tried to illustrate here
is that despite the challenging financial times that we are having, we are working with other
Departments within the County to continue to get projects done. So I just wanted to share some of
those... That's probably one of the highlights of our accomplishments as well as maintaining all of
the other facilities.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay with that I'll open it up for questions by Committee members.
Mr. Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: I have some but I'm still doing the math.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. We're still working on some math. So overall than your
biggest decrease came about through what areas?
Mr. Rapozo: In the Parks budget?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah.
Mr. Rapozo: It would be salaries and through salaries and for one... that is
because we had retirements and we dollar funded positions for that, we had long term employees
that left public service and also the second would be operations and that includes equipment that we
had to put off.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay because I see you have about a one point three (1.3) million
dollar difference from the previous budget.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: For your Department.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And then you say that the large contribution to that is because of the
based on salaries and so forth of the furlough plan and dollar funded positions.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct. At the Golf Course our biggest reduction again has come
from operations and salaries. And that is not because we have lost anybody but just through the
furlough and needed to reduce operations to meet our goal of seven percent (7 %).
Mr. Kaneshiro: Explain to me than if I'm looking at... you have like a park security
officer dollar funded the reason for that?
Mr. Rapozo: Park security.
Mr. Kaneshiro: If you look on your budget page one, forty -seven (147), parks security
officer.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 3)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Especially in times like this you know now days when you have I
guess lower unemployment... higher unemployment rate and so.
Mr. Rapozo: We... we lost three (3) park security officers.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay? One of them transferred within that Division to another
position and two (2) of them left government service so each Division also was mandated because the
Department was mandated to cut seven percent (7 %) each Division, which they fall under the Fiscal
would have to have met that goal.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So you're feeling is that it will take awhile before you fill those
positions?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes number one (1).
Mr. Kaneshiro: That because you had like you said, people move to different
positions.
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah and because we needed to accomplish that seven percent (7 %)
then we just had to, we got to try to do without and hopefully that puts the additional responsibility
on the other five (5) park...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay... but.
Mr. Rapozo: Well eventually going be five (5) but we now three (3).
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah you have some vacant positions...
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: There currently now.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And you're feeling is that it's going to take a little while to fill those
positions and once you fill those positions and if the need arises where you need more park security
officers then the dollar funded allows you to do that. Is that?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Is that the main reason?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct. Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Mr. Bynum?
Mr. Bynum: Did you send over a staff... most of the Department's I think we
asked that question for current staffing, current vacancies, did you send a separate report?
Mr. Rapozo: . No. I don't think so.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I didn't see it. I was just going off of the.
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 4)
Mr. Bynum: So current status on park security officers is how many, we have a
supervisor and how many officers currently employed?
Mr. Rapozo: We have three (3) officers employed, and the vacancies is a supervisor
position and two (2) staff positions, security officer one (1) positions. We are in the process of hiring
a entry level security park officer, park ranger and we are in the process of filling the supervisor's
position.
Mr. Bynum: Internally?
Mr. Rapozo: Internally.
Mr. Bynum: And so that will free up another park one (1)?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: So you're intent to staff all but one?
Mr. Rapozo: The intent would be... in the end when all the movement is completed
and we've hired we'll have five (5) with the dollar position still there not being filled.
Mr. Bynum: So that would mean one (1) being hired, one (1) that will move to
supervisor and then you'll hire one (1) more?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct, correct.
Mr. Bynum: Okay thank you and (inaudible)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Lenny the items that I'm going to share with you right now is similar
to what I shared with the previous Department heads and maybe, maybe we need to put in on the
Tuesday question as it's been consistent with benefit comparisons. Your current operations under
your eight (8) months actual, four (4) months going forward your benefit line is fifty -one point three
percent (51.3 %) of your total salaries and wages and it's twenty -six percent (26 %) of your total
budget but we had comparisons from forty -eight percent (48 %) last... in the current year for the
percentages of benefits related to payroll and everyone seems to be going up maybe five (5) to six (6)
points in the budget and you're now forecasting fifty -six point three (56.3) so you're benefit line is
going up more than ten percent (10 %) over this year, while your payroll based on the numbers you
gave us, the payroll is dropping nineteen percent (19 %) so clearly and I had a little bit of this
discussion with Mr. Bynum yesterday, clearly as payroll drops and furloughs get reduced your
exposure to contributions are based on actual hours worked. And Lenny like I said you know it
might be a formula somewhere because all of our employees, their contributions in the way of
benefits, retirement fund and so forth is based on the actual dollars forecasted to work, we're
forecasting a reduction in payroll but a percentage to payroll increase on benefits and I think we just
need to know what that is because this is, this is the fourth (4th) day I kind of caught that maybe we
need to actually understand things like medical premiums you know we already heard that we had a
twenty, was it a twenty -four percent (24 %) increase on (inaudible) and so forth but it just an
interesting scenario. You're actually controlling the productive payroll by nineteen percent (19 %)
but your benefits compared to total is going up ten percent (10 %) so I think we need to look at that
Mr. Chairman and maybe on Tuesday.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. We'll send a communication.
APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 5)
Mr. Rapozo: Good point.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Questions out to the Administration in that regards. Mr. Bynum?
Mr. Bynum: And just to follow up on what Mr. Furfaro is saying it's not just
through Parks but all of the...
Mr. Furfaro: It's everyone.
Mr. Bynum: And I think a large part of this impact is furloughs and that we're
getting less productivity from workers but the fix costs, the medical are staying the same and so you
know we're paying increase cost there but getting less productivity in terms of services the
community and that's one of the impacts of furlough I think. And I think Mr. Furfaro, myself are
trying to get a handle on you know what are the factors that play to that, is it increases in benefit
cost you know, it's not true, it's not just Parks, it's all the Departments maybe it shows up a little
more because you have a large staff and that kind of thing.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You know when I go through your budget you also show some Park
care takers as dollar funded, would that be the same reasons that apply to that where because you're
trying to fill positions and so forth and then...
Mr. Rapozo: Those dollar funded positions are just to make the seven percent (7 %)
mandate that we're able to do.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Rapozo: And those particular positions are hopefully in areas that we felt that
current staff would be able or have to pick up the slack and maintain more than what we're... doing
more with less.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And you see where I'm coming at... I'm not a... specially these hard
times right now I'm not a strong advocate of adding positions or putting funding into the positions
but I think it's important that especially in tough economic times like that, we'll find that we have
more uses in parks. People need to get out there and...
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Get their frustrations you know by taking family member to the
park, so I want to make sure that we're still able to keep that service. I don't want you know it's
important that we be able to do that because you know what I mean right?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes definitely.
Mr. Kaneshiro: As unemployment rate gets high and then people are starting to be
out of jobs (inaudible) maybe they need to spend more time in parks and...
Mr. Rapozo: The parks...
Mr. Kaneshiro: And I really want to hope that... we were focusing on that that we
can maintain the park to the level that is satisfied for them to use because it's the most frustrating
thing if you go there and the bathrooms are plugged up and you know the place is not cleaned and
just being in this situation nowadays...
•
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah.
• APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 6)
Mr. Kaneshiro: There's unemployment and all these other things that's going on and
tough times so you feel good that you can maintain it?
Mr. Rapozo: You know Councilmember Kaneshiro, I came from the ranks.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah.
Mr. Rapozo: And I worked to where I am today.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely.
Mr. Rapozo: And so I've always... I've been to the baseyards and I've shown the
budget to our guys and I said guys it's tough, you guys got to make up the difference of what we don't
have and I'll be the first one and I'm always the one to praise the... our workers because knowing
that in Parks Maintenance we down seven (7) positions and they maintain the parks to level it is
currently and to see on the travel channel that Po`ipu Beach Park is ranked number six (6) and they
said it's a well maintained facility, I got to give... take my hat off to the people out there doing the
work knowing that personnel resources is short, it could be better for them. And I just explained to
them, we have jobs it's tough hang with us together, we all going hang and do this together guys, I
hear it and I got to give them all the credit for maintaining the parks the way it is.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And I really thank you for that Lenny.
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And in fact not only I, all seven (7) of the Councilmembers here, seven
(7) of us, we appreciate that thought you know we like to give our hats off to the employees too.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes definitely.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Often times like this to people got to realize you get more use of the
park and plus vandalism goes up and those are things that are very hard for us to control also right
so I wanted to make sure with park security in different areas like that we'll be able to at least give
the services and provide that service and I realize that to you know nobody can predict where
someone going to vandalism some park do this and it happens you know and it's sad but it happens.
But I really want to congratulate you guys for the great job.
Mr. Rapozo: Thanks before you do...
Mr. Kaneshiro: (inaudible).
Mr. Rapozo: Before we get to the next question, can I just add one thing... you
know and the people who clean parks also realize they can go in and clean a comfort station and the
next guy that comes in can just do one mess in that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I know, we understand.
Mr. Rapozo: And then we get the call and we call out there and they go back and
do it again.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We understand.
Mr. Rapozo:
appreciate what they do, i
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Rapozo:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
why I said (inaudible)
• APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 7)
You know so for them, they take a lot and they put out a lot and I
)r we all appreciate in our Department what they do.
Okay and I... we all know it's tough times and...
Yeah.
For your Department to still achieve those accomplishments that's
Mr. Rapozo: It trickles from up here because I tell them and they get down and
make sure it gets carried out so everybody here, we all do it together.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Good job Lenny. Mr. Furfaro go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Lenny, I just want to reiterate, the question I asked about the payroll
benefits and so forth is a question that we already sent over...
Mr. Rapozo: Oh okay.
Mr. Furfaro: But I think you know the question we might want to deal with Mr.
Kaneshiro is maybe the second part of this question is you know can the Administration maybe try
to reconcile the Department for us, just because there are large gaps here.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: And did I hear correct that you had plan to reduce your budget by
seven point nine percent (7.9 %)?
Mr. Rapozo: It was seven percent (7 %).
Mr. Furfaro: Seven percent (7 %). But yet your narrative reflects your budget
comparisons, your budget is almost down thirteen percent (13 %).
Mr. Rapozo: Correct um.
Mr. Furfaro: Is that...
Mr. Rapozo: The initial...
Mr. Furfaro: Is that something you feel comfortable with?
Mr. Rapozo: Well the initial director was seven percent (7 %), we did that and then
they took out the furlough for two (2) days, furlough from the budget which increased it to what we
have there. `
Mr. Furfaro: So it's seven percent (7 %) without the furloughs?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. And in this plan, I'm just going to put a few items on the radar
screen... we had talked about under Mr. Kaipo Asing's recommendation the potential of us
identifying an Eastside park for a dog park, d6 you still have that in your plan.
r�
U
• APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 8)
Mr. Rapozo: Actually yes we started communication with the community.
Mr. Furfaro: Good. We also I understood were going to do some things with the
new Kapa`a Ball Park as it relates to, I think one year we were buying materials, the next year we
were going to expand locker rooms or something, is that one still in your plan Lenny?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. Actually it's in our CIP budget the new locker rooms, and shower
facility.
Mr. Furfaro: But a lot of that work was actually the finish work was going to be
with in -house personnel or?
Mr. Rapozo: No initially was community yeah but it's taking too long and we
decided that we want to bid it out and offer it to contractors to complete.
Mr. Furfaro: If we bid it out... wait a minute... I was of the impression that we
already acquired the materials.
Mr. Rapozo: Some of it. Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: So that's a true statement the contractor would bid off of certain
materials that we already providing?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Got it. Got it. And did we ever address the bathrooms for the disable
to expand at Isenberg?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes we will be going out for bid... oh I think we have gone out for bid.
Mr. Furfaro: We have gone out for bid?
Mr. Rapozo: Um I think... did we select contractors for Isenberg bathrooms?
(inaudible — talking to someone behind him in the audience) Yeah it's... we're moving within the
next fiscal year to complete that project.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay.
Mr. Rapozo: It's going out to bid.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay those are the ones I just want to make sure we're on still on
target and I want to thank you and Mel in the back for keeping those you know the locker rooms and
the expansion of Isenberg bathrooms keeping those in the radar screen.
Mr. Rapozo: Even Peter Rayno's one, we've awarded Peter Rayno's ADA.
Mr. Furfaro: Like I said I just wanted to name a few that I've been dealing with
over the last couple of years and make sure they're still a blimp on the radar screen.
Mr. Rapozo: Yep, yes sir.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay thank you Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Anyone else have some questions for, of course Tim go ahead.
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 9)
Mr. Bynum: I'll start with the maintenance to, I saw some things in the press
recently about maintenance you know it's always been bad at county parks and I want to say that I
totally disagree with that. I think that the maintenance has improved steadily for a number of
years, I think you could have made that statement in the past, seven (7), eight (8) years ago but I
think the Administration has done a really good job of bringing up maintenance to an adequate level.
I think it's a little freed at the edges right now and difficult because of vacancies but I really admire
that work that our workers are doing to step up as you've said to maintain that maintenance at best.
We all like better maintenance, we all like our park restrooms to look like the one at the bank but
you know that may not be realistic but so I just wanted to say that I disagree but I also would like to
see the kind of report we got from other... from the other Department's about the current status of
the workforce, not just the budgeted but where they're vacancies and what the intentions are to fill
them so we can send them over in writing.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah. I'll send over the same questions that I've sent to some of the
Department's.
Mr. Rapozo: We have that available.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll forward it.
Mr. Bynum: Right but more generally I want to know when I look at your budget I
see positions that are dollar funded and I understand that's true in all the budgets but can we
assume that positions are fully funded that you intend to hire?
Mr. Rapozo: . Definitely.
Mr. Bynum: Okay and so you have a green light to hire funded positions?
Mr. Rapozo: No.
Mr. Bynum: Okay so I'm confused by those two (2) answers? I see it funded in the
budget you intend to hire.
Mr. Rapozo: At some point... the vacant positions right, we have vacant positions
and there's a freeze in hiring and there vacant but it doesn't necessarily mean there vacant, we're
going to move it down to a dollar funded position. The dollar funded position was down, was done so
we can make our seven percent (7 %) mandated. If at some point in this current... next fiscal year if
things drastically turn for the better and then that hiring freeze is lifted than we will be able to hire
those vacant positions that are funded, the dollar funded one of course we won't be able to because of
the dollar and then we would have to take that up either during the next budget cycle.
Mr. Bynum: Right and again this isn't just Parks...
Mr. Rapozo: Right.
Mr. Bynum: I don't want you to feel that I'm targeting this question at you but you -
know that's... it's hard for us to get a handle on what our workforce is when there are positions that
are dollar funded, that I understand is probably not going to get hired this year right? And so that's
a clear message to the Council, hey these are the vacant positions we're not going to fill but other
positions that we're funding if we're not going to fill them, why are we funding them right? It be a
lot easier if we understood that eh if the position funded, the Department's have a green light to hire.
But that's not the case and so it makes it hard for us to answer continuance about you know why
certain things are not happening or what the impacts of the economic situation and so in all
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 10)
Department's I would really like that analysis but these are the positions that are currently vacant
and these are the ones we're hiring, that we have the green light on and these are the ones that we
have a red light on. It's just hard to tell and then especially when we're looking at telling workers eh
you're going to work two (2) fewer days a month and then we hire a new worker in the same unit and
so I don't... I know we're going to get into that in depth on the twentieth (201h) but so if it's possible
to have a list in say caretakers, we have you know thirty (30) caretakers, ten (10) vacancies, one (1)
is dollar funded you know two (2) are dollar funded but the other... the other ones that are vacant
can you hire or not? I don't know if Gary Heu's here but that's the kind of questions... I think the
Council has a right to understand what the workforce intentions are. And then I have some specific
questions Chair about budget items... So if I could move on?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay you can move on.
Mr. Bynum: I didn't know if you wanted to stick with personnel first and then
move to...
Chair?
Mr. Kaneshiro: I think do you have any questions regarding personnel matters Mr.
Mr. Asing: (inaudible mic off)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Asing: (inaudible mic off)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay with that I believe Councilmember Kawahara had a question.
Ms. Kawahara: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Regarding personnel matters.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Budget Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright you have the floor.
Ms. Kawahara: Good morning Lenny and Kylan. I also want to eco all the
Councilmember's appreciation of the work you do. You have a vast kingdom of all kinds of different
services and different properties that you have to manage and keep track of. I've never actually had
a bad experience in any of our parks so I think you're doing a great job with everything. The
question that I have I understand I'm trying to find out when we switched over to the county
maintenance of the driving range.
Mr. Rapozo: The County Maintenance of the driving range?
Ms. Kawahara: When you took over the driving range, revenue and the balls yeah?
Mr. Rapozo: Oh okay.
Ms. Kawahara: Can you tell me what the... how did that change your staffing? Did
you have to add somebody, what was your impact on your operations, budget wise and personnel
wise?
Mr. Rapozo: I think budget on... Deputy Kylan Dela Cruz can answer that.
• APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 11)
Mr. Dela Cruz: Currently we have two (2) part times yeah... part time positions to
pick up the balls in the driving range.
Ms. Kawahara: Did they have to be hired on after you took over that?
Mr. Dela Cruz: No they were already hired even before I came on board.
Ms. Kawahara: Were they doing something else in the Parks and Recreation
Division? Or were they brand new positions or empty positions that you filled just for the driving
range? I guess my question is when we got the driving range did we have to staff it as an extra
staffing?
Mr. Dela Cruz: That is correct but... I don't know the actual history as far as...
Ms. Kawahara: Oh okay.
Mr. Dela Cruz: As far as that particular...
Ms. Kawahara: Oh okay.
SUSAN HONJIYO: What happened is the concessionaire was not paying his rent for... it
was a long time so we finally took action and we closed the Pro -Shop and we took over handling that
business including the range, we also sold all his products that he had left in the Golf Shop and so
we ran the Golf Shop for him, we did all the club rentals and the driving range and we hired his
employees so they weren't out... and we hired them in our office but we still needed two (2) people to
pick up the range balls, so we hired two (2) part timers and when the concessionaire went back in,
when we redid the contract we kept the range because the range made a huge amount of revenue
and we just rented out the Golf Shop itself and the rental was an insignificant amount to our budget
and we did that because we didn't want to have the problem again of having a concessionaire that
didn't pay the rent. Especially since the balls, we didn't realize until we took it over how much
everything really... How profit we were making and so when we put out the bid again, we decided to
keep the range and all that profit and we hired two (2) part -time workers and we bought the
equipment and it's been really good since but one of the part -time workers have left, so we just have
one (1) part -time worker, we dollar funded the other part -time worker and we have six (6) hours of
overtime to fill that position, the one that left.
Ms. Kawahara: Oh okay the added overtime...
Ms. Honjiyo: Right, right.
Ms. Kawahara: The driving range seventy -five hundred (7,500).
Ms. Honjiyo: So we using our janitor which is the lowest paid person to that
position yeah?
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Ms. Honjiyo: So she works six (6) hours overtime on Saturday and Sunday to give
the other part -time person two (2) days off.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. So my next question is if I could get a breakdown of just those
two (2) positions, I know ones... one is dollar funded, I see the other one in here as fifteen, six, zero,
six (15606).
• 0 APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 12)
Ms. Honjiyo: Right.
Ms. Kawahara: Could I just get... may I just get the breakdown of the salary and
benefits and fringes for that person, since they're part -time do they not get that?
Ms. Honjiyo: So the part- timer...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Hold on. For Committee members, Councilmember Kawahara is
referring to page ten (10) of the budget in the Golf Course Section.
Ms. Kawahara: Sixteen, three, eight, six (16386) and I guess maybe you guys were
going to send over a communication of all the positions but I was wondering what the benefits and
fringes were, I think its nineteen (19) positions, nineteen, eighty -five (1985).
Mr. Rapozo: You wanted the (inaudible)?
Ms. Kawahara: Actually..
Mr. Rapozo: The grounds helper?
Ms. Kawahara: The grounds helper. I said it... I miss spoke. The sixteen, three,
eight, six (16386).
Ms. Honjiyo: Right.
Ms. Kawahara: So we took a cost, we added a cost with two (2) part -time helpers
when we took on the driving range but we're making money on the driving range?
Ms. Honjiyo: Yeah the driving range makes a lot of money.
Ms. Kawahara: And if you could, could you tell us what that is?
Ms. Honjiyo: Okay the amount is, okay let me...
Mr. Rapozo: (inaudible)
Ms. Kawahara: Yes if we could do that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: If you don't have it right now, we'll send a question. Or you have it?
Ms. Honjiyo: Okay. The range... July through December made thirty -six
thousand, eight hundred thirty -six dollars ($36,836) and for the whole year, we'll make seventy -six
thousand, three hundred ninety -six dollars ($76,396).
Ms. Kawahara: Okay thank you for that. Is that something we already have? Could
I get a copy of that? May we get a copy for everybody?
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll request that.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay what's it called?
Ms. Honjiyo: I did a revenue projection for...
Ms. Kawahara: Revenue projection.
0 0 APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 13)
Ms. Honjiyo:
As of March 2010 on how the Golf Course is doing.
Ms. Kawahara:
Okay great.
Ms. Honjiyo:
Because the revenue projection submitted earlier was all with that
high increase rate and we weren't hitting the marks so.
Ms. Kawahara:
Okay.
Ms. Honjiyo:
So I redid another one.
Ms. Kawahara:
Okay thank you.
Mr. Furfaro:
(mic not on)
Ms. Honjiyo:
July to December of 2009.
Mr. Furfaro:
(mic not on)
Ms. Honjiyo:
Right for the... that's the actual figures.
Mr. Furfaro:
And then you're trending out to seventy -six thousand (76,000).
Ms. Honjiyo:
Right for the next... for this last half of this fiscal year.
Mr. Furfaro: (mic not on).
Ms. Honjiyo: Right.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. Wait I forgot what I was going...
Mr. Kaneshiro: We can come back to you. Mr. Bynum did you have a question?
Mr. Bynum: Yeah.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay and then Lani when you.
Ms. Kawahara: When I remember, okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I'll recognize you.
Mr. Bynum: Regarding, under I don't know what page it's on but it's called what
the overall but we funded K -PAL and the Head Start Summer Program and I see cuts to K -PAL and
the Head Start Summer Program and you know is that in dialog with those programs whether they
can sustain their services.
Mr. Rapozo: We're asking K -PAL to put that line item in their budget. In the
Police budget.
Mr. Bynum: The well it's still a line item, it's just reduced by a thousand right?
So.
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah.
APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 14)
Mr. Bynum: They're going to put that thousand into the Police budget?
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah. Well we're asking them to, eventually to take that whole
amount that we asked to move it over but for next year.
Mr. Bynum: But that's in dialog with K -PAL?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: And the Police Department?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: And with the Head Start Summer Program have you had discussion
with them about whether they can maintain their program with a five thousand dollar ($5,000)
budget cut?
Mr. Rapozo: Ali no.
Mr. Bynum: So it's just a union lateral decision to cut it.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: Because I see it as a program that complements our summer fund in
that it keeps kids below the Summer Fun age, engaged in healthy, educational activities. And so
summer fun we intend to maintain our current level of service? That's a question?
Mr. Rapozo: You mean in terms of accepting applications for participation in
Summer Fun, definitely.
and...
Mr. Bynum: Yeah I haven't looked in here at the budget but the budget is similar
Mr. Rapozo: Yes we...
Mr. Bynum: So the capacity would be similar?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: So that's good. So you know I guess I can talk to the Head Start folks
about whether they can continue their program with this cut. There's also a line item that's actually
an increase in that in that category because there's a line item if I read it correctly ten thousand
(10,000) for speed and quickness that's a new grant that we haven't funded.
Mr. Rapozo: Page one, fifty -one (151)?
Mr. Bynum: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: For Committee members, Mr. Bynum is on page one, fifty -one (151).
Mr. Bynum: It's just those three (3) items that are under this amount that really
went up by two thousand (2,000) one of the few places you could look in comparison budget and see
0 • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 15)
an increase but it seems that there's a new project that I hadn't seen funded before, speed and
quickness, can somebody give me any information about that?
Mr. Rapozo: That was a program that was done in the pass and they did it with
different sports entities like soccer, football, baseball and...
Mr. Bynum: I think in the past this has been in the drug...
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah they administered, they got a federal grant so I believe that is
something that we're looking to see if we can bring back.
Mr. Bynum: Bring back?
Mr. Rapozo: As a County. I believe the last one was federally funded, they got
money's from the federal to do that and then we looking from the County side maybe offering
something similar to that.
Mr. Bynum: And I'm not objecting but I just want to understand the history of
that and so maybe we can send a question about speed and quickness, where it's been funded before
and how it showed up in your budget. But I will express a concern about the Head Start Summer
Program and you know I'd like us to determine you know in the past they came and said basically if
we cut the lowest certain level they just could not sustain it and that would create difficulties for a
lot of families I think that you know may have older kids at Summer Fun and they're relying on this
you know to kind of get through and... Then I can't find it, I had it a minute ago but there's
substantial cuts moving to something different. Substantially reductions in lease payments for
portable restrooms at various parks and I don't... you know it's like their very... some are the same
and others are cut dramatically so.
Mr. Rapozo: In the restroom?
Mr. Bynum: Yeah.
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah we just completed our contract for that and we got, George did a
good job in...
Mr. Furfaro: Negotiating.
Mr. Rapozo: That's the word. Negotiating.
Mr. Furfaro: We did a better job in negotiating through George.
Mr. Rapozo: Exactly. Instead... George you want to explain it because you do it
well.
Yeah why don't you explain because he found something within the contract that helped us
to reduce the cost.
Mr. Bynum: I like reduce cost. I just... I mean that's just the overall question are
we reducing service?
GEORGE AHLGREN (PARKS MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS CHIEF): No we're not,
we'll probably be improving service.
Mr. Bynum: So substantially less money and improving in service, that's sound
good to me.
APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 16)
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: I don't need to go line by line and say is it the same service at Wailua
Motorcross Track, is it the same service at Wailua (inaudible) it's the same or better?
Mr. Ahlgren: That's correct. We're restructuring some of the terminology in the
contract that allowed us to get a better deal for the service that were always been provided.
Mr. Bynum: What a great answer because it's a substantial cut in price and so I
was afraid that I was going to hear oh no we're cutting, we're not going to have the ADA one or we're
going to have one (1) instead of two (2) or something like that.
Mr. Ahlgren: It's more to do with the ones that are agreed upon to be situated all
year around versus the ones that we had to have on on -call basis, we just move some of those around
because the ones that we would have be called out and then taken away and called out and taken
away are, as you can understand from a providers point of view, much more expensive. If you can
put a portable potty out there and just leave it there and service it, it costs the vender a lot less and
so we just looked really critically at where it was that we were saying put it out, take it away, put it
out, take it away... and just said put it there and just leave it there and we saved a ton of money.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah I can see that.
Mr. Ahlgren: That's just restructuring.
Mr. Bynum: So I'm glad that I asked this question because it really highlights
careful management and there's no reduction in service so it maybe an increase that... that's a great
answer. And then I just can't let this go by without saying, I sent over written questions some time
ago regarding the eleven (11) acre sports park and the status of the position, well let me backup
because you have a confused look on your face. You know there's been a long time and a strong
advocacy from the Kapa`a Business Association and others to address some of the use sports needs in
Kapa`a and its linked and related to the use of Kapa`a Beach Park and I think you know this history,
we currently have one (1) soccer field in active use at Kapa`a Beach Park and you know that requires
us to have an eighteen (18) foot fence right on the highway and landscaping and so for a number of
years and there's a strong constituency behind this saying you know we would really like to see
Kapa`a Beach Park be at the town park without obstacles to walk into the park and have it be a
more passage use and do a redevelopment of that area from the Police Station to the cannel, it's the
heart of the Kapa`a Town and to have it be a more of a passage town park but also an understanding
because of our lack of field space that that one field is important for our youth and so I believe we are
in the process of developing an eleven (11) acre alternative in Kapa`a, I think we spent a lot of money
on it and I want to know where that status of that project is and are we going to move forward you
know we just recently had newspaper press about need to maintain that fence that we've looked for a
long time to try to take down, it will be a shame to spend a lot of money on a fence that you know
and so I sent those questions in writing several months ago and I haven't seen a response and I've
asked for that and I just, I need to say that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I don't expect to have that discussion here on the floor this morning
so are we saying that we're going to send a communication back out to them, perhaps put that on a
Committee Meeting? Perhaps. Okay because I think that would be more appropriate just follow up
with our Chairman of Parks and Recreation of the Council and have her... whoever it is follow up
with the question here because I think that would be a much longer discussion than the discussion
we're having in finance issues at this point in this Department. Is that okay with you Mr. Bynum?
9 APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 17)
Mr. Bynum: Yeah that's fine. Because I just been looking through the budget
looking for where... are there budget items to move that project forward so.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I'll allow you to ask that question.
Mr. Bynum: Aren't there budget items to help move that project forward?
Mr. Kaneshiro: At this point, if there is in this budget or CIP or anything?
Mr. Rapozo: I'm sorry?
Mr. Kaneshiro: The question Mr. Bynum asked was that it... do you have anything in
this budget currently you know projected to do that part?
Mr. Rapozo: For the eleven (11)... no.
Mr. Kaneshiro: At this point? Okay.
Mr. Rapozo: No.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And that's fine, we'll come with a communication like I said through
the Committee and have those discussions on the Committee floor in a regular Council Committee
level. Mr. Chairman had a question, Mr. Asing.
Mr. Asing: Yeah it's not really a question, it's more kind of a answer to the
question that was just asked and that's about the Kapa`a Beach Park and the new park, etc., the
bottom line is just money period. That's all it is and there's a long history to that. Let me give you
an example and I'll make it short. That beach park area when we abandoned that park for park
facility usage, we abandoned that park and that park was supposed to be just an open park, not a
park used for park purposes as far as recreation, it's an open spaced park. That is what the park
was designed for but what happened over time is the emphasis on soccer was so strong that the
expansion of all of the leagues cause us to say but we don't have enough place, places to hold events.
So we need to go back, take the park away from open space, leisurely type of operations into now a
full usage park. It was just a matter of money, we did not have enough money to acquire land, to
develop new parks for soccer fields, baseball fields, etc., so that's what it is. It falls back on how
much money do we have for available facilities to expand a recreational purposes. So that's a simple
money problem. How much money do we have? And we just did not have enough money to acquire
space so we said there's an open area, let's take it back, no more open area use it for recreational
purposes. So that's really the answer.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Thank you for the Chair and as stated I will or have Parks and
Recreation Committee or one of the Committee's readdress that question through Committee,
whether than discuss it here, like you said because you don't have it in the budget anyway at this
time. Mr. Bynum go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: And I just wanted to concur with things Council... or Committee
Chair said earlier that parks are wonderful thing for people of Kauai and you know when we have
leisure time that parks is our best alternative to enjoy environment we live in without paying a lot of
money you know it's a really important thing and I think we've done a really good job in parks over
the few years I've been... we spent a lot more money in creating the Parks Department but I still feel
that it was a good move and look forward to the expansion of our park facilities as our population
increases because we have needs and the Chair just illustrated one on why we're kind of jammed up
with adequate sports field and so I just want to thank you a lot for the good work I think that the
Parks Department does and our employees stepping up when they're fewer of them now.
APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 18)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: Going back to the Golf Course and the driving range, before we took it
over and the Pro Shop was handling it, what was the percentage of cut for him and then the County?
Mr. Rapozo: Susan you have that? Before... you wanted to know what?
Ms. Kawahara: So how long ago did we take it over?
Ms. Honjiyo: (inaudible)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Can we, can we have you up? And we're back to the Golf Course page
ten (10).
Ms. Kawahara: Just for the driving range yeah.
Mr. Kaneshiro: ; And eleven (11) in our budget.
Ms. Honjiyo: Okay. When the concessionaire that we had to shut down, that was
Kawailoa Ventures Larry Lee Senior and since then the County took it over and then we put out the
contract, we've had three (3) concessionaires since that time already so it's been a really long time
but ten (10)... at least well this concessionaire is a five (5) year contract so than it could be fifteen
(15) years ago.
Ms. Kawahara: Oh okay I thought it was recent change.
Ms. Honjiyo: Oh no this has really... was during Kusaka Administration I think. I
can't remember who was the Mayor... I think it was during her Administration.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Ms. Honjiyo: So it was a really long time.
Ms. Kawahara: And this is a question about the same thing, has that made it more
difficult to get bids because I would have suspect that the driving range would be one of the things
afloat the concessionaire, concessionaires because they might be depending on that a lot and I know
we need the money but maybe they're... you know how would there be a give and take?
Mr. Rapozo: According to Susan this is the third (3rd) concessionaire since we've
taken it over so.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah.
Mr. Rapozo: So it's been out to bid without the driving range on three (3) occasions
and this is the third (3rd) concessionaire.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay so you haven't had any difficulties getting bids without the
driving range.
Mr. Rapozo: We are going to be going out for bid this year, calendar year that that
current contract is up in September so.
Ms. Kawahara: But the pass three (3) weren't hard to get?
a • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 19)
Mr. Rapozo: It appears not.
Ms. Kawahara: The concessionaires weren't hard to recruit?
Mr. Rapozo: It appears not.
Ms. Kawahara: Without the, driving range.
Mr. Rapozo: No.
Ms. Kawahara: One more question about driving range so when you took it over your
staff took on new duties and you were still able to maintain your other services? Okay, okay great
thank you. And I wanted to know about I think he can answer it. Do you have a regular rotation for
the program for the picnic tables and I'm wondering when the two (2) picnic tables were going to be
looked at?
Mr. Rapozo: It was just repaired, we got information that it was in there were
some broken parts.
Ms. Kawahara: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: And... it's been repaired.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah.
Ms. Kawahara: And the paint on top of it? So fixed? Okay.
Ms. Honjiyo: I think we put...
Ms. Kawahara: I was there about three (3) weeks ago.
Ms. Honjiyo: (inaudible)
Mr. Rapozo: We fixed in- house, fixed the picnic tables and she just put in a work
order to have it painted because the renovations that took place on the Club House, that was part of
what they should have done but didn't complete so.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay thank you. I didn't mean to get so small. The other question I
had was to do with fencing and how do you... where in that... where in the budget is that? For fence
because I seen fences along the parks that aren't passive because there's one in the Homesteads
because hit the fences with their cars and I'm just amazed how often do you have to replace them
because it's quite.
Mr. Rapozo: As damage occurs we take the money out of the park trust fund.
Ms. Kawahara: Park trust fund, okay. I think that's it for now and I'll be asking
about the personnel thing related to the driving range and the overtime.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Bynum has a question regarding the Golf Course.
0 APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 20)
Mr. Bynum: While you're up there. So we currently have three (3) concessionaires
at the Golf Course right?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: The Club House, the restaurant and the cart management.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: And which one of those is up this year?
Mr. Rapozo: Actually all three (3) of them, we're in the process of the carts in
deciding which direction we're going to do with the carts and the restaurant the Pro Shop is due in
September.
Mr. Bynum: So I wanted to... I don't think I got to say this the other day when we
were talking about the changes in the Golf fees, you know I looked closer at the budget and I really
appreciate your comments Lenny about and your concerns for those concessionaires. Those lease
fees are not a big money maker in terms of our budget but they're really important for the quality
and the experience for local and visitors and you know so I really appreciate it that you had a bigger
view of the whole operation you know not just a dollar and cents view.
Mr. Rapozo: Right.
Mr. Bynum: But looking at the customer experience. Hopefully we continue to be
good landlords for those concessionaires, so they provide a quality experience.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: And I appreciated that there was a bigger focus than just the dollar
and cents.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: When we actually applied to be concessionaire... oh put in a bid
especially for the restaurant, do you require experience in Food and Beverage?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. Three (3) years.
Ms. Kawahara: Three (3) years. Okay do they have to submit any business plans?
Mr. Rapozo: (inaudible)
Ms. Honjiyo: They have to submit the three (3) years experience.
Ms. Kawahara: Three (3) experience okay I was just curious.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Jay, you had a question go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes thank you. Lenny I want to let you know... a little follow up on
looking at some of my notes there is no confusion on my part they... K -PAL there is no number that
shows up in the Police Department.
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah.
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 21)
Mr. Furfaro: Just so you know, so I just wanted to reconfirm that, nor in any other
Administrative areas does Head Start show up...
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: So the money that's identified there is actually between the two (2)
programs is down about eight thousand dollars ($8,000) from the previous year so it's something that
we should put on our radar screen.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: I also want to say that... compliment George here, we will no longer
use the term what we cut, quite frankly it's a pure savings and I think we want to make sure that we
use the term savings and for Councilmember Kawahara, I should point out I looked at the cost
centers associated with the range balls and we probably, our cost centers are nineteen thousand
eight hundred dollars ($19,800) on that thirty -two thousand dollars ($32,000) amount of revenue and
that's based on the staffing that you shared with us what was allocated and so it is now a profit
center of about ten thousand two hundred dollars ($10,200) for six (6) months period.
(inaudible)
Mr. Furfaro: Yes I got the overtime in there but I call it... you don't even have to
look at overtime. If you had the regular two (2) people there, you would have the straight time cost
already in the budget so you only look at the half time as the premium pay and yes it's in that
number so it seems quiet sensible for us to continue collect range balls.
George thank you again, I really pleased with the savings.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah me too.
Mr. Furfaro: And not losing any portable potties.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay Mr. Asing?
Mr. Asing: Yes let me if you don't mind it maybe a little off but I've been around
a little bit and because I've been around a little bit I have an idea of the entire operations of the Golf
Course, I think we need to start with what kinds of services do we the County want to provide the
public? What kind of services? Now with that comes a business and the county is in a business now.
But we also want to serve the public so what we end up with we have businesses like the Golf Pro
Shop, the driving range, the cart concessions, the restaurant and we also bid out and have the
businesses come in and if these businesses do not make any profit at all then we lose all of that. And
the service to the public now is gone. Can the county do all of these things? The County cannot.
And so in one instance when the golf Pro Shop was not operating profitably, because of that what
happened was that you cannot make a profit and if you cannot make a profit that means that maybe
the contract should be worked out so that he can maybe at least he can make some profit, yeah? And
all of these negotiations that need to take place, is very difficult and that's why we have the kinds of
problems that we have today. As an example, times are good... everybody makes money, restaurant
makes money, the Golf Pro Shop makes money, driving range, the County has a good play so
everybody's happy but when times are bad, we need to make these adjustments and that the bottom,
that's all it is. It's operations and management of the entire program and it's not difficult, what we
have now is because of economic times we have these difficulties, the business don't make money, we
have to make adjustments. So I think this is a long history and we need to understand the full make
up of the Golf Course, what it was intended to do to serve the public, everybody's happy when times
are good, everybody makes some money so I think you know when we start sharpening up into pieces
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 22)
and the county tries to get everything, that won't work either. You know the businesses have to
make some money too.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Asing: So we have to consider that. What kinds of services do we want to
provide the public and I know what .you're going through and we need to help you to help the
businesses to help the community and everyone. It's a big piece of pie.
Mr. Rapozo: Right.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay any other questions for Mr. Lenny Rapozo? Or any of his
Departments that Committee Members wanted to have discussion on or have questions about? Mr.
Furfaro?
Mr. Furfaro: I more interested in our progress on the locker rooms for the Kapa`a
Field and if we could have something in Mr. Bynum's Committee in the future to give us an update
because it's been about two (2) years.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: I would like to get some more info on that project.
Mr. Bynum: Either my Committee or Lani's.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Or Lani's, Parks.
Mr. Furfaro: Well Parks, Building... one of them.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah either one.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay we'll do it.
Mr. Rapozo: Put it in Parks.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Bynum go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: I asked about the Summer Fun, I just you know it looks like most
Departments made some minor... you tried to cut where you can and in terms of... but the services
that the Recreational services that we provide whether it's (inaudible) or other programs, we're
maintaining that level of service. Is that correct?
Mr. Rapozo: That is correct and you know we also try to be creative in reducing
recreation maybe this is the classic example going back to the golf yeah? We have a golf program,
Summer Golf Program yeah so in trying to meet our goal we spoke to the Pro Shop who is a
professional golfer, he's going to continue that program, he's going to take that program, he's going to
charge the fees, hire one (1) more guy because we hired him as a contract to do the golf program with
his knowledge to teach the kids the golf, so he's going to take the and run it out of his Pro shop
thereby we reduce our cost in our Recreational Division. So he's going to take that program so yes
there's some reduction but the service is not lost. There program is not lost. We looked at another
to continue the... to continue the program for the kids.
Mr. Bynum: Right and you know I just wanted to... I suspected that was the
answer and I appreciate that it is. Thank you Cyndi for all your hard work.
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 23)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other question by Committee members? With any of the Parks
and Recreation Department or any Committee members have questions for Mr. Sarita or Convention
Hall or any other Department?
Ms. Kawahara: Just the Veteran's Cemetery.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Oh okay.
Ms. Kawahara: We purchase... you guys purchased a lot of equipment.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah that falls under you.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah it does, interesting yeah? We were worried last year about the
cemeteries and maintaining the Veteran's one, we bought a lot of equipment for all the different
Departments and I just wanted to know how it went because I'm sure it's much better after you
purchased the equipment and did everything you needed to do.
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah Kylan works closely with the Veteran's Cemetery.
Mr. Dela Cruz: (inaudible) purchase of the equipment, we actually added more
services to the service itself for the families.
Ms. Kawahara: Good.
Mr. Dela Cruz: We have since purchased the lowering system, the lowering device
with the canopy that covers you know at the plot itself to cover for the services itself. We're still in
the process of procuring that tamping for the... to make sure the ground is... we have less... where
there's sinking of the soil and you know... and we're working closely with the Office of Veteran
Services in which they provide the vaults for us which is a plastic container that reduces the amount
of settlement to the soil to yeah.
Ms. Kawahara: I just want to thank you for all that you do over there. Makes me
proud that you guys are with the county, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Tim do you have something?
Mr. Bynum: So the two (2) issues... one (1) is the improvements to the
maintenance and the continue right? And is that correct?
Mr. Dela Cruz: That is correct with the procurement of our (inaudible) that we
recently... not too long ago we received it reduced the amount of workload with Public Works, we
working more independently as well as using that to work on other projects within the Parks
Department.
Mr. Bynum: And part of that at the Cemetery is working on getting the
headstones aligned properly and lined up properly.
Mr. Dela Cruz: That is correct. We're currently working with the Office of Veteran
Services regarding the leveling, that's more of an internal issue where we're working with the
Veterans to continue on with leveling because there is continuous settlement issues especially in the
old area of the Cemetery, there is a... you can't really align it, in the past it was eyeballed so you can
only do with so much but it would still have misalignment but in the new side, we do have pins, it
was surveyed so we do now have proper alignment for that area.
•
• APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 24)
Mr. Bynum: Thanks for your ongoing efforts there.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Jay?
Mr. Furfaro: My questions are more along the line of are we regularly in touch
with the Executive Director of the State's Office of Veterans Affairs, the gentleman that came over a
year ago to speak to us about the short coming and the confusion about what our share of funds were
from the State? Can anybody tell me...
the...
Mr. Dela Cruz: We just recently...
Mr. Furfaro: How?
Mr. Dela Cruz: That is correct. We just recently had meetings with Mark Moses, he's
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Moises, yes.
Mr. Dela Cruz: Right he's the Director of Office of Veterans Services.
Mr. Furfaro: State Director.
Mr. Dela Cruz: So we're regularly communicating and we reduced a lot of the
miscommunication in the... that was in the past.
Mr. Furfaro: And all the issues about our fair share of funding and expenses that
we can draw on not on our budget but on the Veteran Affairs budget is in your opinion all understood
by both parties?
Mr. Dela Cruz: That is correct. We did clarify on our recent meeting as far as the
Columbarium and the response was... because you have DOD engineers and (inaudible) as well,
that's associated with these improvement projects and we've been all in lined in communicating to
get those things done.
Mr. Furfaro: I mean clearly our Veterans deserve the full attention to you know
the maintenance repair items that deal with their final resting place but there seem to be confusion
coming out of the State's Office and Mr. Moises as to which money's we could draw on and what
government agencies role is into help support us on the maintenance role but you feel comfortable
now, all of that is ironed out with Mr. Moises?
Mr. Dela Cruz: Yeah we've been going and having a regular discussion and we've
been ironing out all those issues.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay when you say regular discussion would that include maybe
someone from your office meeting from the State Office say twice a year?
Mr. Dela Cruz: That is correct. We just recently had a meeting last month, the DOD
engineers, DAGS, as well as the consultants that they were going to hire to do certain projects at the
Veterans Cemetery as well as Mark Moises coming down and meeting at the Veterans Cemetery to
discuss those issues.
Mr. Furfaro: And were we able to include the officers and Board members of the
Local Veterans Chapter...
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PARKS AND RECREATION (Pg. 25)
Mr. Dela Cruz: That is correct.
Mr. Furfaro: (inaudible).
Mr. Dela Cruz: Kauai Veterans Councilmembers.
Mr. Furfaro: Than let me compliment you for that initiative and keeping those
communications open, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay? Any other questions for Parks and Recreation? If not I'm
going to recess for ten (10) minutes and have the Public Works on the next agenda.
The Parks & Recreation departmental budget review concluded at 10:29 a.m., and there being no
objections, the meeting was in recess.
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget reviews reconvened on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 10:52 a.m., and proceeded
as follows:
(Mr. Kawakami was noted excused.)
PUBLIC WORKS
DARYL KANESHIRO: Budget review session is now called back to order. With that
we will start with Public Works, Mr. Donald Fujimoto you have the floor.
DONALD FUJIMOTO, COUNTY ENGINEER: Okay, thank you. Last year we were
tasked with cutting all of our cost to absolute minimum and therefore this year it was even a harder
challenge to see how we could hold the line and decrease the budget to meet the Mayor's goal of
seven percent. After several real deep and I guess on looking at it in every possible way to see how
we could make those cuts while still balancing and keeping important priorities to address safety
health and welfare issues. With that said this budget and I again I have to qualify that this budget
reflects the two day furlough and that issue will be discussed on April 20. With that said, I would
like to go through a detailed analysis of our budget by covering several sections in this order.
Administration and fiscal will be first. Automotive and maintenance shop will be second.
Engineering will be third. Building Division 4th, Waste Water will be 5th. Highways 6th and Solid
Waste will be 7th, so we will break it down into seven sections.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay and Donald we're going to proceed and probably break
for lunch at 12:30 and then whatever departments we will go ahead and take um on throughout the
rest of the day so just to let you know.
Mr. Fujimoto: Okay, so anyway, with that said we will start with
Administration and really, an Administrative budget reflects again primarily cost savings a
treatable to a three -day furlough. It came down to two pages and page one for Administration which
we actually had a map decrease of Forty one thousand, eight hundred fifteen dollars with a net of
four point four percent reduction and a fiscal net deduction of Seventeen thousand or four point nine
percent and again those changes again reflect no changes other than a two day furlough. Any
questions on those sections? And there were some minor adjustments on the fringes that are just a
requirement.
JAY FURFARO: Minor adjustments to what?
Mr. Fujimoto: To the fringes. I guess health fund contributions, retirement
contributions, workers compensation. There were some minor changes in those categories.
Mr. Furfaro: And are you comparing those to the current year?
Mr. Fujimoto: Last year, yes. And if you want, I can go on a detailed
breakdown in the case of Administration, the first line item regular salaries... there was a decrease
of Fifty six thousand two fifty.
Mr. Furfaro: Oh, I have that. We have that.
Mr. Fujimoto: Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Can I ask a question on the Project Manager. You have both
of those on dollar funded those positions?
•
Mr. Fujimoto:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Fujimoto:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Fujimoto:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
on right? I mean overall projects.
• APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 2)
Excuse me.
The Project Manager positions?
Which position is that?
Right there on the Administrative side on the top.
Oh, okay yeah.
And that would be for overall projects that Public Works take
Mr. Fujimoto: Right, right CIP projects or projects that would have funding. .
The intent was that we could hire a Project Manager from a CIP type project and pay for that
position through that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: I think that's the previous agreement we had Mr. Chair that
they would have money in the project in a contingency for the Project Manger hiring.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay and I just brought that up because we have so much
coming out through the CIP and the Bond Float and a lot of projects coming up but we won't get into
discussion on that right now, later on we can talk about that.
Mr. Fujimoto: So any questions on the Administrative side?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Administrative side Committee members?
LANI KAWAHARA: Yeah it is I do about the Project Manger. Did you just say we
couldn't talk about that?
Mr. Kaneshiro: No all I said was that...
Mr. Furfaro: It just explained how it gets -funded -Lani: When -a- project
would come...
Ms. Kawahara: No, I know that but I was curious with how that matches up
with the Project Manager the Mayor was talking about funding. It says that it was coming from
Engineering.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, I will let you ask the question.
Mr. Kawahara: Okay so we do know that the mayor in his report said that
they were looking at funding a Project Manger. It says that it will be from a vacant dollar funded
position in the Mayor's office and funding from a vacant position in Public Works Engineering will be
utilized to create the CIP Project Mangers position.
Mr. Fujimoto: Okay yes can we defer that until when we discuss
engineering?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay that's fine.
0
Mr. Fujimoto: Thank you.
n
U
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 3)
Mr. Kaneshiro: It's just that because it was here under the Administrative
side but that's not a problem.
Mr. Fujimoto: Right, right.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Ms. Kawahara: Actually, I don't say okay you say okay.
Mr. Fujimoto: I think that would have been more appropriately addressed
with the Administrative budget.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Oh, okay so we're back to you now?
Mr. Fujimoto: Yeah, no when I say Administration not Public Works
Administration, the Mayor's Administration.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Oh, okay, alright.
Ms. Kawahara: So yeah, that's a good question.
Mr. Kaneshiro: When you referred to Administration I wondered because the
Mayor is already done you know.
Mr. Fujimoto: Well that's really the proper place to have asked the question.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright but for what you have in this budget is what Lani and
I have asked.
Mr. Fujimoto: Yes under the present Administrative budget, yes it's not
reflecting that position.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Tim...
TIM BYNUM: I guess this might be the right time to ask this question.
Thank you very much for this report regarding vacant positions and this is exactly what I had hoped
to see. I just want because it has the vision, the position vacant and it has this to fill date as so I
want to know if you have the go ahead from the Mayor's office to go ahead and fill these positions on
the to fill date?
Mr. Fujimoto: Excuse me but what was the question?
Mr. Bynum: You gave us this report about vacant positions, right?
Mr. Fujimoto: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Some of them are dollar funded and some of them it has this
is the kind of report I really wanted to see so thank you. It has the date the position became vacant
and the to fill date, so can I assume you have the okay from the Mayor's office to fill these positions
on those dates?
Mr. Fujimoto: That is my understanding.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 4)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any questions for the Administrative side if not we will move
right into your next department.
Mr. Fujimoto: Okay and sorry but we have an Administrative kind of broken
down by Administration and fiscal. Were there any questions on the fiscal side? It was kind of
straightforward similar type issues. The only real changes are the two -day furlough.
budget.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah we see that. So what he referred to is on page 133 of our
Mr. Fujimoto: Okay with that said, I'm going to turn over...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Hold on one second Donald let me just check with my
Committee members, hold on. Are we okay? Can we move on? No, no that's fine, were you okay with
the Administrator?
Mr. Furfaro: I was just looking and I want to make sure I get this right.
I'm going to look and maybe I can come back. There is a proviso in the budget that relates to Mr.
Bynum's question about hiring the dollar - funded position that I'm not happy with. I believe that
some of those positions when they get funded they should in fact also come back to the Council.
Mr. Kaneshiro: The project Managers positions you're talking about?
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah but I read it once in here and now I can't find it.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay we'll get back to that.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: With that, Committee members we're going to move into the
automotive section, is that okay Public Works at this time?
Mr. Furfaro: Yep.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Are we all on the same page?
Mr. Furfaro: And what page is that?
Mr. Kaneshiro: I'm not even on that page but I want to make sure we're all on
the same level.
Mr. Bynum: Yes, yes absolutely.
Mr. Kaneshiro: When you find the page, let me know what page your own. I
don't know because with Public Works we have a whole bunch of pages here.
Mr. Fujimoto: The next section would be automotive or page 190.
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 5)
Mr. Bynum: 190? Now that's what I wanted to know, thank you.
Mr. Fujimoto: Yes 190.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And it's only because your budget is so thick so we have to
jump here and there to find it.
Mr. Fujimoto: Yeah, sorry.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I just wanted to make sure we are all on the same level to
move on. Okay we can begin we're on page 190 of the budget. You know if I could request for the
members to hand this out to the rest of the Committee members.
Ms. Kawahara: What is that?
Mr. Kaneshiro: You have it all with the schedule reflecting the pages?
Ms. Kawahara: Oh.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay sorry about that. Why don't we do that this was they
can just reflect to that page. Sorry I wasn't trying to hide anything from you guys, I couldn't find the
page either.
Ms. Kawahara: You weren't prepared.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay we're on page 198. You have the floor and at the same
time, we will have this handout so we can reflect to the pages and the department.
DWAYNE ADACHI: Good morning Dwayne Adachi, Automotive Division.
Ms. Kawahara: Good morning.
Mr. Bynum: Good morning.
Mr. Adachi: We were able to cut two percent of our operating budget from
the previous year. Majority of the reduction was due to new equipment purchasing so our main focus
is just fleet maintenance and extending the useful life of the vehicles we have now which reflects an
increase in our repair and maintenance of equipment. Otherwise, there are no significant changes to
the operation and we have no plans to implement any new programs at this time. If you guys have
any questions, we can answer those for you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay I will go ahead and open it up for questions by
Committee members. Go ahead Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: Mine is very short I just appreciate the automotive
department and the mechanical function within engineering for keeping the longevity of much of our
fleet and I just want to say thank you very much.
Mr. Bynum: I think I will be quick too. This is the second year that your
supervisor position is dollar funded?
Mr. Adachi: It is.
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 6)
Mr. Bynum:
Is that tough for you?
Mr. Adachi:
It is very. Well we're hoping to fill that position soon.
Mr. Bynum:
The supervisor position?
Mr. Adachi:
Right.
Mr. Bynum:
Is it dollar funded?
Mr. Adachi:
It is.
WALLY REZENTES:
Yeah we're in the process I mean it's already been approved
and we are in the process of going
through.
Mr. Bynum:
So the supplemental budget, this one will be funded then?
Mr. Rezentes:
I believe so.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Yeah because currently you have it dollar funded.
Mr. Adachi: It is.
Mr. Kaneshiro: On this budget. But you have that position available right
now to recruit right? I mean that position vacant.
Mr. Adachi: I have other vacant positions also within the shop.
Mr. Bynum: I mean this report has those vacant positions right?
Mr. Adachi: I have a vacant welder's position and a vacant body men
position.
Mr. Bynum:
So two body man?
Mr. Adachi:
Those are fully funded-yeah.
Mr. Bynum:
Yes.
Mr. Adachi:
Actually one...
Mr. Bynum:
One is short funded.
Mr. Adachi:
Yeah because that person is retiring soon.
Mr. Bynum: The welder.
Mr. Adachi: One of the body men.
Mr. Bynum: Oh okay. Well the welding position says you can hire 10 /1 and
that would indicate it is short funded in the budget.
Mr. Adachi: Right.
• APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 7)
Mr. Bynum: I just have a couple of questions actually. I already asked the
one the supervisor and I know that's a key position for your operation and so I'll assume that in the
supplemental budget that won't be a dollar funded position if you got the go ahead to hire.
Mr. Adachi: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: If you hire and please help me remember, parks got a small
engine equipment person a few years ago and that took so you're not doing those small engine
repairs at your shop?
Mr. Adachi: We do some because roads division has a lot of small
equipment that we maintain for them, but majority of the equipment that belongs to parks is being
maintained by that parks mechanic.
Mr. Bynum: I didn't ask parks but that's still a functioning, that was a
good move right and it relieved some of the backlog.
Mr. Adachi: Definitely it was.
Mr. Bynum: So just a general question, when equipment like that comes in
is the turnaround rate acceptable in your opinion right now?
Mr. Adachi: You mean for parks or for roads?
Mr. Bynum: No for roads, I mean just generally overall.
Mr. Adachi: That alleviated a lot of the workload from my mechanics and
now we have a quicker response time.
Mr. Bynum: But we don't have equipment that comes into the shop that is
waiting on an ordinary length of time for repair?
Mr. Adachi: No.
Mr. Bynum: Okay and I don't want you to answer this today so we may
have a follow up later in the upcoming months to get an update on the biodiesel?
Mr. Adachi: We discontinued the biodiesel program.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah and I want to get more...
Mr. Adachi: I can tell you right now the biodiesel created a lot of
unanticipated problems as far as mechanically.
Mr. Bynum: Right.
Mr. Adachi: We've been running into unusual fuel problems and
equipment failures that we haven't experienced in the past and it's directly contributed to the
biodiesel. I'm not sure if the quality of the fuel that we obtain on this Island is inferior, I cannot say
that but I know since we introduced biodiesel into the fuel supply we have been experiencing a huge
amount of fuel system problems. I can no longer afford to run biodiesel until we find out what the
problem is.
•
Mr. Bynum:
Yeah and I had heard that.
0 APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 8)
Mr. Adachi: Right now we're in the process of trying to break this down
and evaluate exactly what happened and where the problem is coming from. Until we can do that I
cannot afford to jeopardize the fleet.
Mr. Bynum: Right and that's prudent. And you are already answering a
question I already had and that was what lesson we can learn from that.
Mr. Adachi: That was a painful lesson.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah I can see that on your.face.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I can see it with your passion.
Mr. Adachi: Well at least we tried and we went down that route but...
Mr. Bynum: No and that was very admirable.
Mr. Adachi: Until we can find out or smooth this thing out. I'm not sure
that we will revisit biodiesel anytime soon.
Mr. Bynum: Right, so I just know that we have plotted your initiative in
terms of giving it a shot and so we should try...
Mr. Adachi: You know one of the problems is the availability of biodiesel
on this Island is limited.
Mr. Bynum: Right.
Mr. Adachi: We have only one supplier and to obtain biodiesel from an
outside Island would cause us to incur extra expense that the other Islands wouldn't have to. We
would have to go out of our way in other words to bring outside biodiesel to this Island.
Mr. Bynum: Right: And -you- know- I- iust-want us to and I- don't mean today
but find out what we learned from that because we just had an energy sustainability presentation
that recommended we make a major investment into biodiesel and have that be a fuel for the future.
So we have that pragmatic reality that you experienced so I appreciate the initiative.
Mr. Adachi: No but too now at one time biodiesel was cheaper then diesel,
at one time. Diesel cost have come down now significantly and is cheaper then biodiesel. So from a
financial standpoint it's no benefit to us actually.
Mr. Bynum: Right and I just want us to learn those lessons and that
caution for other bigger reasons so thanks for answering those questions.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Anyone else or Committee members have questions for the
automotive section of Public Works? None at this time...
Mr. Adachi: Thank you.
• APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 9)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Okay now we will go back to Engineering, is that
the next and we are on page 134, 134 of the budget handout.
WALLACE KUDO, CHIEF OF ENGINEERING: You got my Engineering budget plan
for fiscal year 2011. We can go down to the bottom page, bottom half of the page and...
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, before we go there can I just reference to my
earlier question so everybody knows at the same time that there is a budget proviso here that deals
with the dollar - funded positions and process.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: That process for the dollar - funded positions does include us
they do have to come back. If they have money that they indentified somewhere there then certainly
they can submit it by a letter that they have the money from another position but if it is not one then
they need to either come back either through an amendment of the budget or a money bill.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: But I heard earlier from some of the engineering people that
they thought it was already approved through the Mayor and item 17 clearly clarifies the process for
filling the dollar position.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright, okay. Continue Mr. Kudo.
Mr. Kudo: Okay going to about the bottom half of this engineering
budget plan that was prepared by me. I would like to go over the paragraph and it says that "budget
changes are due to staffing changes which were prompted by the resignation of three full time
employees in the engineering division." It lists in April and May of 2009, three positions were
vacated and have since been filled with 2 CE5's and a Project Management Program Coordinator. In
April of 2009, a CE6 resigned and the position was downgraded to a CE5 and filled in January 181
of 2010. In May of that same year a Construction Inspector II resigned and the position title changed
from Project Management Program Manager and filled in July of 2009. The same Month of May in
2009 a Construction Inspector resigned and the position was upgraded to a CE5 and filled on
March 16th 2010. We have four vacant dollar funded positions and I have it listed there as a CE5, a
CE2 vacant and temporary project funded, Construction Inspector II contract and a Construction
Inspector 1 contract. Because of the demand for personnel is depending on the number of projects
that may occur the phase of the project and the size and complexity of the project the engineering
division needs to be afforded the flexibility in regards to filling staffing requirements to include
hiring and as well as releasing the dollar funded positions as needed and or retaining consultant
management services for the projects that exceed current staffing time and work restraints. The
budget amount in engineering is responsive to the project loading. Salary adjustments indicated a
decrease in expense allocated with the thought that some of the expense may not entirely kick in
with the project for fiscal year 2011. Most of the projects assigned to engineering to date are planned
for design only. Construction is expected to occur the following year or soon after.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay that was a good explanation because if not like when I
first saw it, it kind of pop up to me for some questions so now I understand the situation. Committee
members, do you have any questions on that part of the budget that Mr. Kudo just laid out?
Mr. Bynum: Yes I do.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Tim.
• 0 APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 10)
Mr. Bynum: There is a really good statement in this written thing that
says division needs afforded flexibility in regards to filling staffing requirements. That paragraph, do
you currently have that flexibility?
Mr. Kudo: We will want that flexibility in concurrence from the Council.
Mr. Bynum: I'm sorry.
Mr. Kudo: We will want that flexibility from the Council and your
approval.
Mr. Bynum: Right so if you come back to us...
Mr. Kudo: Yes we would come back to you.
Mr. Bynum: But currently to you feel like you have that flexibility? And
hopefully we will provide it when you ask for it but currently do you feel like you have that
flexibility?
Mr. Kudo: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you. And so and that's where it gets a little confusing
and I understand it and I think it comes up in building too where, we have these things that are
dollar funded but they are contract right so there maybe even a body in those positions right?
Mr. Kudo: That's correct.
Mr. Bynum: And so with the one dollar funded CE5 that you have, is there
somebody in that position or is it a through a vacancy?
Mr. Kudo: That's through a vacancy.
Mr. Bynum: And I was concerned the last couple of budgets about
vacancies and the engineering vacancies and primarily from my perspective because those are often
positions that help move CIP projects right?
Mr. Kudo: That's correct.
Mr. Bynum: And so and I have this overall concern about moving CIP
Projects when the Council or the County funds a CIP project I would like to see that moving. We've
had a lot of dialog with the Administration this year, there proposing this funding position and as
Council Member Kawahara said that they are reallocating funds from public works. Would that help
move CIP projects further or will that lost of that position slow things down?
Mr. Kudo: Well we would have somebody assigned to that project and he
would be on top of it.
Mr. Bynum: So that, but the CE5 position that is dollar funded that's not
the one their moving?
Mr. Kudo: Can you repeat the question again.
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 11)
Mr. Bynum: Do you have one CE5 that's vacant and is dollar funded?
Mr. Kudo; that's correct.
Mr. Bynum: I guess I will put it this way. Not having that person on
board, is it slowing down CIP projects?
Mr. Kudo: Not at this time.
Mr. Bynum: Not at this time, okay thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay any other questions for Mr.? Okay Council member
Kawahara has a question?
Ms. Kawahara: Are you able to explain how the Project Manager that's in the
Mayor's budget came out of your engineering department and where it is? Or is this project
management because you just hired one for your department, Project Management Coordinator?
Mr. Kudo: We have a person aboard yes.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay so where did the Mayor or Administration get money
from your engineering department to make that other position?
Mr. Kudo: I would like to refer that to the Administration.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes we're going to send...
Ms. Kawahara: But it was from his budget.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We're going to send, I think previous to that Mr. Fujimoto
also wanted us to refer that question to the Administration.
Ms. Kawahara: Oh yeah okay sorry he did I'm sorry and I apologize.
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's Okay so we can scratch that anything else for this
department, the Engineering Department? Go ahead Tim.
Mr. Bynum: Wally so your department reviews plans for private
development to make sure that they meet County standards and you coordinate County projects both
right? And is the volume of private work way down, staying the same, do you still have significant
amount of projects you have to review?
Mr. Kudo: Yes we have several subdivision projects big ones like Grove
Farm and there's another one which is Habitat for Humanity in `Ele`ele. We also have a consent
decree projects like K61oa Cliffside and K61oa Town Shops and we still have pending projects with
the Kaloko Reservoir. We're kind of busy we are not sitting down on our okole and just waiting for
things. Yeah we're busy.
Mr. Bynum: I know you're busy; I was really wanting to know are you too
busy? Are you adequately meeting the demand in your opinion right now?
Mr. Kudo: Yeah it would be nice if we could get rid of some of the
workload.
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 12)
Mr. Bynum: Alright, thank you Wally.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay Committee members, any other questions for Mr. Kudo?
None okay thanks Wally.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Wally, and Wally Thank you for all the good work.
Mr. Kaneshiro: With that, Building Department. We're on page 136.
DOUG HAIGH, CHIEF OF BUILDINGS: Good morning Doug Haigh, Building Division.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Good morning Doug.
Doug Haigh: Like the other departments we reflect a two -day furlough in
our salaries and pretty much the balance of the savings in the Building Division budget in on our
R &M projects, where we significantly cut back on the amount of R & M projects for next year. We
have about a ten percent reduction in the total budget for the Building Division.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Chairman. Gentlemen I want to let you know and
I don't necessarily want to know all the details but I sure want to express, when the police chief was
in front of us we are still struggling the evidence room at the Police Department. We set aside
monies for that and I spent time with the air - conditioning people, the Chairman went on a trip to
Honolulu to get an evaluation of the best possible way to address the problem in the building. I know
Mr. Haigh was following up on some I'm going to refer them as warranty issues. How close are we to
getting this fixed before we actually have to go in and fix the Piikoi Building to its permanent
configuration?
Mr. Haigh: We resolved the overtime issues for police employees to be
there during the work and that was a key issue that hung us up for awhile. We just gotten the
feedback from the Police Department on reviewing the records of the workers and some of the
workers were not cleared so we just need to finalize having adequate number of workers who are
cleared to start construction. We are hoping to start construction within a month, hopefully soon.
Mr. Furfaro: If we do not in a month start the repair work in the building,
would you give us a red flag and come back to the Council and tell us why we didn't meet that
deadline?
Mr. Haigh: I will have the Administration advise me on how to do that.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, I will take it from there. I will advise the
Administration if you don't start in a month if they can give us a report.
Mr. Haigh: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: If you don't start in a month, if they can give us a report. I
will take care of that Doug but you can see what...
Mr. Haigh: I understand your frustration.
0 #
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 13)
Mr. Furfaro: We put a lot of money into this a couple of years ago and the
fact of the matter is I'm now wondering if the temporary solution is going to actually fall behind the
permanent solution.We might save some money that way, but I will send a communication.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll get a communication over in that regards.
Mr. Haigh: Actually that was it.
KAIPO ASING: I just want to follow up on that.
Mr. Haigh: Yeah.
Mr. Asing: We start and one month is to do what?
Mr. Haigh: Is to, we are renovating the ventilation system in the crime
lab and we're renovation the ventilation system in various specific areas of the evidence storage. We
are providing monitoring controls that tie in to our energy management system so that we can
monitor temperature and humidity throughout the storage area. We have already done initial
improvements to the evidence storage area which greatly reduced the amount of mildew that has
occurred.
Mr. Asing: Wow let me get this clear then. We are not going to do any
work in the Piikoi Building to provide temporary space.
Mr. Haigh: The temporary space in the Piikoi Building was completed
over a year ago.
Mr. Asing: And have they moved into that area?
Mr. Haigh: I think they made the decision that they didn't need to move
into that area.
Mr. Asing: What was that again?
Mr. Haigh: They did not have to significantly move evidence from the
police head quarters to the temporary space but you need to address them on that decision.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay Doug I don't want to get into the discussion in this
Finance part.
Mr. Asing: That's enough for me.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We will come over with a communication and bring this on
Public Works Committee and have that discussion in the Committee Meeting.
Mr. Haigh: Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Furfaro, go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: I just want to say only if they done start on repairing, I just
want to make that clear. That is separate only if they don't start but if there's a separate issue that
the Chair has then we need to address. Mine is going to be addressed only if they don't start.
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 14)
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's fine and those communications will come through the
proper committee chair to the Administration, anything else for the Building side under budget? I
noticed that you have a lot of vacant positions coming up on 6/1 does that mean people are retiring?
Mr. Haigh: Yes we have a significant level of retirement occurring within
the code enforcement section of the Building Division, and we are working with the Administration
coming up with a plan to be able to fill those critical positions as soon as possible.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So I see one, two, three, four positions.
Mr. Haigh: That is correct, its real scary right now.
Mr. Kaneshiro: All retiring about the same time?
Mr. Haigh: Yes once Don Lutao went they all wanted to leave.
Mr. Furfaro: Well we just bring Don back.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Just done have him leave.
Mr. Haigh: I think he wants to retire.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Tell him he can't leave
Mr. Haigh: We wish but he has parents he needs to and personal reasons
too.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright okay I just wanted to be clear on that and I see the
dollar - funded positions there. Committee members... Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Just a couple of quick questions. Don is one of a long list of
unfortunately long list of senior County employees that are retiring this year that have provided
really good service. Don along with Ricky in Planning and people like that are really going to be
missed. A few years ago in the budget we had Community Center improvements, are all of those
projects pau?
Mr. Haigh: Yes. The only one that are kind of related to that is the
Kapa`a Neighborhood Center Lanai addition and that one is under design. That one id under design
and construction money is not funded at this time.
Mr. Furfaro: Oh it's an addition to the building?
Mr. Haigh: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: And it's in design now?
Mr. Haigh: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: I was walking out there this week talking with people saying
you know there's this and I didn't know the status of that so thank you for that. I was just talking
with Community members about this concept of putting a Lanai and that would just be a wonderful
addition to that facility and increase the public use of it. Hopefully when we have design we will find
money for that someday. But the rest of the projects are done?
that?
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 15)
Mr. Haigh: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: And in the correct budgets we don't have similar projects like
Mr. Haigh: No we do not.
Mr. Bynum: We're kind of laying low on that kind of thing for now.
Mr. Haigh: We're doing bare bones maintenance with this budget.
Mr. Bynum: I see that and so the other question I had was that the
Building Division had kind of a work order process for a long time that I think is really efficient and
there was discussion about expanding that.
Mr. Haigh: Well actually what has occurred is that we converted our
work order system from a spreadsheet based developed in house to one that's within our AS400
System? I am not to be perfectly honest I haven't gotten up to speed myself on it but it is and all our
work orders are going through that system and I'm not sure how it's been implemented with the
other Divisions of Public Works.
Mr. Bynum: So I know, was it Brian that developed the spreadsheet to
begin with?
Mr. Haigh: Brian and I both worked on it.
Mr. Bynum: And if we asked him whether the AS system was an
improvement, do you know if he would have an answer or do you have an answer?
Mr. Haigh: I would have to get back to you on that.
Mr. Bynum: And whether that has been used by other divisions, you are
not aware of?
Mr. Haigh: That's correct I'm not aware of.
Mr. Bynum: Well I appreciated that you had that in the past when nobody
else did cause when there were questions there were answers because it was all right there so thank
you and I will ask somebody else whether it got implemented' in other areas.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, go ahead Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes and earlier in the parks discussion. I always thought the
Kapa`a Park with the new football field and so forth was pretty much going to be done in -house and
you know we're still dragging on the locker rooms. Unfortunately for us when we have the ball clubs
there whether it's Lihu`e or Waimea visiting as the visiting team, we are no longer going to do the
locker rooms in- house? I understand that they indicated it's going to go up for bid?
Mr. Haigh: My understanding it was going to be a volunteer project in
the Community.
Mr. Furfaro: Not as the clarification we got today.
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 16)
Mr. Haigh: Okay, there was never to my understanding I never knew of
an intent to use Building Division personnel to build it. We would have assisted the volunteers with
technical things but...
Mr. Furfaro: You use the word "ASSIST" I use the word "HELP" to me it's
one in the same but it was that we bought the materials, we're going to have volunteer support and
guidance from building and so forth. Let me ask you since you are telling us that it's going out to bid
now. Is that something that you're involved in looking at the building scope and so forth?
Mr. Haigh: I have not been involved in that project, I assist Parks
Department on a as request basis.
Mr. Furfaro: I don't think we could do anything within six months so it
sounds like the next time the Waimea or Lihu`e team comes to visit Kapa`a we'll probably have to
use the armory again for lockers and so forth. I'm going to send a communication over I just if you
don't mind Mr. Chair I would just like to know where we're at on that and really who's doing it, has
it gone out to bid and do we have plans to look at? Thank you Doug.
Doug.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Doug at this time? If not, thank you
Mr. Haigh: You're welcome.
Mr. Furfaro: Oh I do have one more question? If we did purchase material
which I believe we did, where is it?
Mr. Haigh: The Parks Department would be managing those materials.
Mr. Furfaro: They have it?
Mr. Haigh: Yes that would be my understanding. We have not purchased
the materials through the Building Division, it's possible they may have purchased it and are storing
it in our base yard but I am not aware of that.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, then I will follow up on that: Thank -you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay members, will take wastewater now. Will take
wastewater and see how it goes with this department and I think we're going to be just about ready
to break for lunch. If not after wastewater, just to give you a heads up. So look at all the way in the
back of our budget, all the way in the back. Its under sewer, it's not under wastewater, it's under
sewer. You through us off on that one we were looking for waste water.
ED TSCHUPP: Yeah Historically the Division has been referred to as Sewers
Division.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I like wastewater better then sewer.
Mr. Tschupp: So do I...
ED TSCHUPP, CHIEF OF WASTEWATER: For the record, Ed Tschupp with the Waste
Water Division. I did a quick little summary recap thing that was sent over and this is sort of the
highlight section. Our operating budget proposal is for Nine point two eight Million that's about four
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 17)
point four less than current fiscal year. The major changes are the effect of furlough which I have to
say is a little questionable because some of our operators, I mean you just can't shut down on Friday
you know.
Mr. Furfaro: You are twenty -four seven.
Mr. Tschupp: We're twenty four seven so that has yet to be determined how
much actual savings you know from the furlough will really show up but that's another discussion I
think.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah we will have further discussion with that next week.
Mr. Tschupp: We also, we are very dependent upon electricity and
electricity pricing as everyone knows that 2 years ago it really spiked so actually I think this year we
were looking at our budgeting from the year before and since electricity has been much less
expensive this year than last we went ahead and took some funding out of this year's proposal. If oil
goes to a hundred and fifty dollars a barrel than we are going to probably be hurt.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We all will not only your department so don't feel bad about
that.
Mr. Furfaro: Do you know what it is right now? Is it at ninety or what is it
at now?
Mr. Tschupp: This morning when I looked on TV it was at like Eighty - three.
It has been running in eighty -five, ranges pretty consistently for the last few months.
Mr. Furfaro: Thanks Ed.
Mr. Tschupp: We look for some repair and maintenance type expenditures.
There is the numbers pretty much across the board we're showing a reduction in most categories.
The employee benefits category which is where things like the other post employment benefits show
up is the only one that really has any kind of an increase from last year and that's things that are
not within the control of the Department of Public Works. We're not providing for any new programs,
we are retaining the full funding rather than dollar funding for the electrician and the operator
vacancies that we have in the hopes that we will actually be able to attract and recruit those
electrician and operator people that are pretty scarce and haven't shown up at the hiring offices
doors. We are not looking at any kind of reduction in services and the final note here is that as I
believe this Council has been briefed on that we are working on a rate proposal that would not go
into effect this next fiscal year but would actually start a schedule of increases with the following
fiscal year. So we are hoping to enhance our revenues somewhat but not this upcoming year. I realize
that we are not really talking about capital improvement programs at this point but we are
proceeding with those items that are in the bond fund and most of these items listed here are getting
pretty close to going out to bid. That's the overview.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, Jay go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: I thought we approved last year for you to have some
redundancy in some of your critical electronic components and so forth to build up a back up. Did we
not actually get some of those items?
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 18)
Mr. Tschupp: Those things tend to show up as either maintenance and
repair type items which there is a lot of equipment that we're continuing have to replace and
upgrade so we have a bunch of major pumps, so every year we schedule for replacing a few of them.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay but you don't have any actual pumps one or two sitting
around as a redundant back up plan?
Mr. Tschupp: Well we have more a vehicle kind of pumps. We've got two
good size like 6 inch pumps so if we have a pump go out at a pump station we can plum that in and
connect it then when we get the pump replaced we can then take it back to the base yard.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay and then did I read your power point presentation on
your certified operators and I forget what levels there are, but there like one to five right?
Mr. Tschupp: One to four.
Mr. Furfaro: One to four. Did I read that slide right, even if you have those
vacancies you're going to leave that funding in the budget?
Mr. Tschupp: So far we have been able to persuade the Finance Department
to allow us to retain the full funding for the electrician and the operator 4s.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay so they are in there whether you have those certified
operators positions or not, the funding is there?
Mr. Tschupp: That's correct we have been short by two or three grade for
operators relative to our requirements and I'm happy to report that through in house training we
have actually this year have had two guys who have been able to qualify for provisional grade four
status and have received there temporary licenses so that for the first time at Wailua, Lihu`e and
`Ele`ele we have two grade four people. We're not anticipating a big batch of retirements but there
are at least a couple of guys that could go anytime they want and we're back to really having to find
more grade four people to keep the Health Department happy.
Mr. Furfaro: Also I want to apologize that some of us, you know the
Chairman you know we had an excuse to go to your Westside blessing because at 3:00pm we were
still-in session. I am very glad that the Chair was there representing all of the Council, but as it
relates to the energy cost associated with the preferred terminology "Waste water facilities." Is there
any chance that we can start looking at systems that provide enough power to run the plant?
Mr. Tschupp: There are some opportunities for energy type systems
alternative energy and I'm glad you mentioned the Waimea project because as Council Chair Asing
was able to attend it was a very nice ceremony and that project with ARRA funding is moving
forward and so it was I thought it was a very nice and the contractor did a terrific job at putting
together the ceremony. That project is installing photo voltaic and its expanding the plant so there is
inherently more energy demand with more flow and upgrading to R1 also takes more energy, but
with the addition of photo voltaic on that project we are trying to at least try to offset some of that
increase power bill if not actually make a dent in our current power bill.
Mr. Furfaro: No we are all very pleased and happy that the Chair was able
to be excused to be there and the photo voltaic is a big plus, but I think it's something going forward
in our energy sustainability plan that any type of solar voltaic, converting steam or anything that
could help us reduce those energy cost in the long run help us reduce the cost we pass on to the
waste water consumers.
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 19)
Mr. Tschupp: I will observe that and we have been working with Glenn Sato
over in the Economic Development Agency. He is working to try to put together a package, a
performance contract under the program that the State has established which does allow for things
like alternative energy. I think for example the new solar panel on the roof of the new structure out
at KCC was a program that the State did through that system. Glenn is looking at going through the
list of energy service providers in the fairly near term to begin the procurement and I think in
wastewater there are actually several opportunities. For one thing we do have some property that
may work for solar at the Lihu`e plant. We do have the anaerobic digester which means that we have
a source of methane gas, that's the only plant that we have methane potential because the other
plants don't use anaerobic they use aerobic digesters. There are some efficiency things if we can do
even through instrumentation, being able to monitor things like dissolved oxygen can then maybe
allow us to ramp down the blowers that provide the oxygen. An energy management system is
certainly something that rI think is obviously where we need to go and I think that energy services
kind of accompany bringing them on board because they have the expertise. Part of our EPA funded
project at Waimea actually the USEPA sent a consultant out one of their consultants out to the
Waimea plant and did an energy audit for us and which is just about final. I got the draft a month or
two ago and they found some opportunities in things like lighting and some equipment retrofits but
that kind of audit is really a biggy for us.
Mr. Furfaro: Well I'm very pleased that we have someone of your caliber
and your technical experience because it's a living thing this plant and you and your staff certainly
do a good job for us. As Chairman Kaneshiro mentioned, we do need to look closely at Tuesday's
furlough plan for a couple areas. Water runs twenty -four seven, wastewater comes back twenty -four
seven. So we need to visit those and that will be on Tuesday but thank you for your presentation. Mr.
Kaneshiro, thank you very much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Ed? Ed reflecting on your budget or
looking at your budget for the Waimea wastewater plan, I don't see any additional operators and so
forth but that is based because the project is a long project so by the time you know because I noticed
for all the other wastewaters you have several operator assistants and so forth. Is that based on
because the project is a long project before the completion, is that correct?
Mr. Tschupp: That's correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And we're only looking at this budget for 2010 -2011?
Mr. Tschupp: That's correct and I think at the end of the project when the
contractor is ready to turn it over we will need additional staffing. I'm sure that it will become
reclassified as a grade 4 plant and right now it's a grade 3 plant so staffing will have to go along with
that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, Tim go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: You will have to help me if I get some of this terminology
wrong but... You came and shared with us about a project that put well I will use your term "Bugs"
into the system even the delivery system. I wondered if you could give me an update on if that
happened and how's it going?
Mr. Tschupp: That hasn't actually gone anywhere yet and that is quite
frankly a reflection of I don't have.I have had plenty if things that have taken higher priority within
the Management of the division then pursuing that. I think that the Contractor is still very
interested and it will involve an agreement that essentially a use agreement and I think that might
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 20)
be administrative with the Finance Director but I'm not sure. I just have not had time to keep that
one on track I wished that I had more staff.
Mr. Bynum: You have a dollar funded Civil Engineer 6 position right?
Mr. Tschupp: Yes.
Mr., Bynum: That's been vacant for some time right?
Mr. Tschupp: It's been up until recently it's been hard to recruit Engineers,
licensed Engineers and I'm very happy to hear that Engineering Division has been quite successful
ion doing that.
that.
Mr. Bynum: Well you stole Val from them so... I'm sorry I shouldn't say
Mr. Tschupp: Before my time.
Mr. Bynum: Oh was it? Okay so that projects on hold then until you can
find time to do it?
Mr. Tschupp: That's correct. Getting the Waimea project through the
procurement process in time to capture those funds was where I had to put my energy.
Mr.. Bynum: Well and I have learned more about waste water than I
thought I would ever learn from you and I appreciate that and that project was kind of cool so I hope
we get around to it. The other thing that you briefed us on was line capacity in Uihu`e that is kind of
near peak now and will get alleviated by a project that Grove Farm is working on. Do you know the
status of that project is?
Mr. Tschupp: Not really anything more than Grove Farm has a
responsibility to work on that as part of their development so that will follow their pacing of their
project.
Mr. Bynum: And so our line that would be impacted by that was near
capacity- is-that... are we okay with that?
Mr. Tschupp: Until Housing starts being actually constructed that would
then add greater flow then the status quote right now is fine it's the additions that will trigger the
need for their actions.
Mr. Bynum: And the additions are likely to come from future Grove Farm
developments and part of that addition is to do that new line right?
Mr. Tschupp: That's correct. We have planning conditions on Grove Farm's
master plan area's that say "You Shall."
Mr. Bynum: And then a number of us attended the dedication for the
expansion of the Uihu`e Waste Water plant, I haven't been out there is that proceeding on schedule?
Mr. Tschupp: We actually got a letter from the State Health Department
and this pretty hot off the presses saying that from their perspective we are now creating our run
water.
•
Mr. Bynum:
Mr. Tschupp:
need to celebrate that a little bit.
Mr. Bynum:
you can drink right?
Mr. Tschupp:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Bynum:
• APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 21)
Hey congratulations that's good.
Yeah that was last week I got that letter. And we probably
Well you let me know when the celebration is. Our run water
No I wouldn't drink it.
Give it to Tim first. Well Tim can sample it first.
Our run water you can irrigate aerial?
Mr. Tschupp: Yes you spray irrigate in places like landscape medians and
certain... its much less restricted.
Mr. Bynum: I apologize for that imagery. Thanks for your good work Ed.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Ed? If not Ed, thank you very much.
At this time Public Works informed me that Highway is here so we might as well keep moving on
and take Highway, so we'll start with the Highway Division. We're on page 176 of our budget.
RYAN NISHIKAWA, CHIEF OF FIELD OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE: Ryan
Nishikawa with the roads. For our budget the major areas where there have been cost changes are in
the area of salaries and that's because of the furlough days that have been accounted for. Other than
that the major changes are in the supplies for our sign and road maintenance, road - marking crew,
there is an increase of Sixty thousand dollars. We had last year budgeted were cut the budget was
cut and we had only forty five thousand which normally that budget was in the neighborhood of a
hundred and five and what we found was that the forty five is absolutely not enough for us to
purchase our materials for signs and road markings so we brought it back up to where it was the
previous year. The other major line items change was in other services in the road maintenance
other account. We added a Five hundred thousand dollar line item for tree trimming in Maluhia
Road in the tunnel of trees. Basically that's the major changes in our line items in our budget.
that?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Dickie Chang.
DICKIE CHNAG: Thank you, can we get a copy of that, do we have a copy of
Mr. Nishikawa: No.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We don't have the one that you have we have an overall from
Public Works with all the different departments. So let me ask this, when your mowing how do you
do it. Do you have districts now where you have so many mowers for each district? Or do these guys
take care of a certain strip of road and so forth? How is that accomplished and if you do have enough
equipment to do that?
Mr. Nishikawa: Yeah well right now we have sufficient equipment based on
the number of men we have. It is still by districts and they're not assigned just certain areas within
the district. They are doing it by the entire district and they go on a rotational basis throughout the
district.
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 22)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Jay you had a question?
Mr. Furfaro: I got to ask about my two pet projects just if there's enough to
cover it. First of all from the States low income housing the pathway going up to the middle school,
has that been addressed yet?
Mr. Nishikawa: We have removed the wooden walkway and put some base
course to make a pathway and we plan to do on top of that a concrete walkway.
Mr. Furfaro: You have that earmarked as a project that you're going to be
doing?
Mr. Nishikawa: We will probably be doing it in house but we want to schedule
it when school is out. We were going to try and do it during the October... spring break but this year
they went back to the old schedule and it was only one week instead of two.
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah but I think we have a break sometime after May Right?
Mr. Nishikawa: Summer right?
Mr. Furfaro: Well you know it's very, very difficult to have those people
going up the side of our road there to get to the Middle School, so I would want to ask you to keep
that on your radar screen if we are doing it in house. The other one is the crosswalk by Sueoka's that
crosses the street to the plate lunch place, there's something wrong with how people come out of the
gas station and boom the gas station is right there.
Mr. Nishikawa: On K61oa road?
Mr. Furfaro: That is K51oa road right? Let me ask my K61oa friend.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah that would be K61oa Road, Poi`pu K61oa road. Is that
what you are referring too, right by the gas station?
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah.
Mr. Kaneshiro: That would be K6loa,PoVpiz road.
Mr. Furfaro: Right but when you get towards Sueoka's, there's a crosswalk
there right? and it just comes right up on people, isn't there some symbols like some zigzag line or
something that alerts people that pedestrians are coming up there and that's just a matter of
painting and signage.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I think the one you are talking about is the one that goes to
the dispensary, the sidewalk right there as you make a right when you're coming down that corner,
is that the one?
Mr. Furfaro: No this is the crosswalk right outside Sueoka's snack bar.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah, Yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: That's the one.
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 23)
Mr. Nishikawa: Okay we'll take a look at that.
Mr. Furfaro: I have gone there some time to eat my lunch and I see people
that come up on the traffic so quick that it's actually a little dangerous in my opinion. So I would
hope that those are in house projects that can be done despite the furloughs.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Well they have the money in the fund. In this budget so that's
the main part of it. Tim you had a question?
Mr. Bynum: Were you done Mr. Furfaro?
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, those two items I was worried about.
Mr. Bynum: Well I will start by following up on the middle school. I didn't
quite understand. Where there was a wooden stair step, they are going to replace that with a
walkway?
Mr. Nishikawa: No what we did was we removed the wooden steps and along
the concrete curb we put base course just to stabilize the area where the kids could walk. We intend
to put a concrete walkway on top of that because you know the...
Mr. Bynum: To make that are we going to rebuild the steps or...
Mr. Nishikawa: No we're not.
Mr. Bynum: It will be a concrete walkway in lewd of...
Mr. Nishikawa: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Okay and that also shows a pet project for a slightly different
reason for me I like to use that term which is you know the roundabout went in there and it's a State
project, they didn't make any accommodations for pedestrians and you know the people we have big
housing there and a park right across and you know the kids that walk up to the Middle School but
lots of kids go over the skate park and Kapa`a new park. The State put in retrofit because of
complaints a pedestrian walk around the roundabout but it doesn't connect on either end, it doesn't
go to the housing nearby and it doesn't go to the park .It has a lot of foot traffic and I know you're not
responsible for that necessarily but that's just a high value area. Where I would like us to see us
actually connect to where people are using it and also just as a side when the State put that
pedestrian in it didn't meet any design standards of roundabouts. I don't think it's safe because it
puts a pedestrian crossing at the same juncture of where the cars are merging so while they are
looking to merge you know and that is contrary to any roundabout standard they always put the
pedestrian crossings back so that drivers aren't addressing traffic and pedestrians at the same time
and I know that's the State that did that so I'm not being critical at all. I don't know if that's a roads
project or a Public Works project but to connect that pedestrian walkway to the housing and to the
park on the other side is something I would like to see get on the radar screen and then I will move
on to a different question. When I look at your Admin budget Ryan you have two very key positions
dollar funded. I mean you have your highways and construction maintenance supervisor a EM
position that's been vacant for how long now?
Mr. Nishikawa: Two and a half years.
Mr. Bynum: And also basically you have three high level Administrative
positions for roads division and two of which is dollar funded.
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 24)
Mr. Nishikawa: That's correct.
Mr. Bynum: Different than other departments so you must be really doing
a lot of overtime or something. Is there any plans to fill you have a Civil Engineer seven as well
right?
Mr. Nishikawa: That's correct. Yeah it's been a while and we were in the same
situation as sewers and engineering, they were not very many licensed qualified people that were
applying for the jobs.
Mr. Bynum: So it was difficult to fill for a time and now you can't fill it
because there's no funding for it.
Mr. Nishikawa: Well that's true and also engineering is our primary division
and whatever for me we should be supporting them and filling their positions first. Hopefully they
don't take all the good ones.
Mr. Bynum: There's sacrifice all over the budget but it's unusual to see
two am I wrong about this Ed?
ED RENAUD, DEPUTY COUNTY ENGINEER: For the Superintendent we have a TA
person.
Mr. Bynum: Temporary.
Mr. Renaud: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Okay so somebody is fulfilling those because that's a key
position for the roads division. I warned you and I also want to put this on the radar screen and it's
become a new thing that I been learning about and reading about and I started to ask questions but
I would like you to consider and I will probably do a communication regarding paint striping and let
me get more systematic. You have a unit that does signs and road markings right?
Mr. Nishikawa: That's correct.
Mr. Bynum: The road marking I learned in every County except ours has
moved to this thermal application of tape or it's different and I read a lot about that in the last six
months. When I found out we weren't doing it because I believe it's much safer and in the long run
much more cost effective. When you paint something it doesn't have as much reflectivity, it's not as
where it degrades pretty rapidly the old school way which we are still doing right?
Mr. Nishikawa: Right.
Mr. Bynum: And so you have to replace it sooner and the then during the
life of it it's not as safe because it's not s visual and so I would hope that we could generate plans to
move into that technology and I will be asking if you could give me information about what the cost
would be to get that equipment and have us go from painting to this ore advanced technology. I just
wanted to give you a heads up about that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions?
Mr. Furfaro: I got a statement but I don't need an answer today but I need
an answer on Monday but I want to throw it out. We're going to do CIP on Monday and on the ballots
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 25)
on the Island wide resurfacing. I would like to make sure we know what has been in (inaudible) so
when we talk about the CIP of the actual roadway.
Mr. Nishikawa: Alright.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay that's a heads up.
Mr. Bynum: I don't want this to sound like criticism either but it's your
division that's responsible for maintenance on curbs and gutters and sidewalks and those kinds of
things?
Mr. Nishikawa: That's correct.
Mr. Bynum: I brought this up several budgets ago but some day I would
like us to revisit the idea of street sweepers especially at least for our downtown like Uihu`e. I'm not
trying to be critical because I know given current resources it's really difficult to keep that up but for
people with disabilities when the sidewalks is covered with debris and it's not passable and I
periodically get this comment especially in Uihu`e about gutters that stay dirty so long that weeds
grow in them. Again I understand given the current resource that's very difficult so I don't want it to
come across as criticism but hopefully that is something we can try to address into the future and
particularly in terms of accessibility. I think in the future I might be sending you an e -mail just to
alert you when people have accessibility things because I know you can t be aware of it all the time.
That is a concern and I just wanted to share that I get pretty frequently unsolicited from citizens.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions?
Mr. Furfaro: The State has a street sweeper. The other night when we left
because we left here awfully late they were operating in Kapa`a. I don't know if they were prepping
for paving but Kapa`a was recently re -paved and they had the street sweeper out. Is that a piece of
equipment we could share? Have we ever had shared equipment?
Mr. Nishikawa: Not that I'm aware of.
Mr. Furfaro: But the State does have the equipment?
Mr. Bynum: I think Airports has the equipment too but we don't have one
right? The County doesn't own a street sweeper?
Mr. Nishikawa: No we don't.
Mr. Bynum: We use to.
Mr. Nishikawa: Yeah I know. I remember when I was a young kid I remember
the street sweepers in Hanap6p6 town but somewhere along the line I guess the County gave up that
program.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah and I don't want to belabor this but you know in Kekaha _
and Waimea where we have curbs and gutters and in Uihu`e, Hanap6p6 even if we had one they
could spend a couple of days in Kekaha then spend a couple of days in Uihu`e. Someday I know that's
not going to happen this year.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay thank you guys. Committee members you want to move
on to solid waste?
• • APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 26)
There being no objections, the meeting was recessed at 12:47 p.m. The departmental budget reviews
reconvened at 2:09 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
PUBLIC WORKS
DARYL KANESHIRO: Budget review session is now called back to order. At this
time we will continue with Solid Waste, I believe Solid Waste has a presentation they wanted to
make. You can proceed.
ALISON FRALEY, SOLID WASTE PROGRAM COORDINATOR: Thank you Council
members. Okay so we have another presentation for you on Solid Waste assessment surcharge. Okay
I don't think this thing is working. Sorry guys alright let's try this again.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Again members just for your information were going to be
touching on this a little because some of this will be covered. There are some items that will come
back in a supplemental project report to get the program going or moving. There will be some
funding items and I just wanted you to be aware of that and the reason why were going to start
touching on this area.
Ms. Fraley: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, you have the floor.
Ms. Fraley: Alright an overview of the presentation. We are going to be
justifying the solid waste assessment surcharge while we are going that route. We have the proposed
charges, the proposed exemptions, which is subject to the solid waste assessment, the population of
our billing database, maintenance of that database and also the next steps for moving forward. We
had met with you folks individually about doing a user fee for solid waste collection and now we are
considering charging a solid waste assessment surcharge for collection services as allowed in Hawaii
Revised Statutes 342G -61. The advantage of an assessment is that we can use the real property
billing system and that will significantly reduce our start up and annual cost to administer the
program. The plan implementation date is in July of 2011 and that is based on a March 15, notice
requirement for our tax law. So here are the propose assessment surcharges, there's a baseline
charge for solid waste collection service and that would be six dollars per month per serviceable unit.
The purpose of this charge would be to recover the cost of operating our refuse transfer stations and
that would include the cost of transporting- that refuse to the landfill. Then there would be an
additive option for curbside collection service at six dollars per month per serviceable unit and the
purpose of that charge is to recover the cost of curbside refuse collection. So the cumulative charge
for additive would be a charge of Twelve dollars per month.
We have proposed exemptions to this assessment. We have considered how the assessment
will impact the group of taxpayers that pay very low taxes due to existing real property exemptions,
low- income exemptions at fifty percent of the assessment is recommended and that exemption would
apply to those receiving a low- income exemption under real property taxes. Minimal exemptions
would simplify the process of implementing and ongoing administrative processes for that program.
It's not cost effective to implement administer a complicated exemption system for such a small
revenue source. Also as noted in the prior slide there is a break that is already built into the system
so if property owners don't want to receive the collection service they won't have to pay for it. Next
this is how we propose who's subject to the assessment. It would be all serviceable residential
benefited properties and those would be habitable dwellings within our service area for collection.
Properties in non - serviceable areas would not be subject to the charge, so those would be the multi
unit dwellings and who are already paying for collection through their association fees. A charge of
twelve dollars for curbside collection services would be for all serviceable benefited properties on
APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 27)
each TMK, and on inhabitable dwellings such as barns would not be subject. Habitable but
unoccupied dwellings would be charged that baseline fee of six dollars per unit and additional
charges will be applied when extra curbside collection service is requested, so if they wanted two
bins for example.
This is how we proposed to populate the billing database. Our division solid waste would
obtain a master list of the TMK's and addresses from real property and then we will use the master
list to identify all the benefited properties that are currently receiving service as well as those
properties that aren't receiving service from us. We will send out customized notices in advance to all
the property owners letting them know what we're going to be charging them and then the owners
would be able to file forms if they want to opt out of the curbside collection service and just pay for
the baseline or if they wish to modify the number of collection services their receiving either up or
down. For maintenance of the system, we would make changes to the database only during the
additional registration period and then every six months. Cancellation fees or changed fees would be
charged under the ordinance. The exception would be registration of new accounts, if someone
wanted to sign up midstream we would pro rate the assessment up to the next billing cycle and then
the new account and they would get the services immediately. So our next steps are that we plan to
submit the ordinance reflecting these changes by the May 8 submittal and then during that
submittal we would have a budget request for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to start the
program. That would be for one staff person who would administer it as well as their office
equipment, then the required upgrades to the real property billing systems are about seventy seven
thousand dollars initially and then we would have the software training cost. That concludes
our presentation.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah again that's just a short presentation to give you a
heads up on the supplemental budget that will be appearing before us in May. I will go ahead and
open this up for questions by Committee Members at this time.
JAY FURFARO: This is just a round number, Troy or Alison we have about
thirty four thousand dwellings in the County of Kauai, how many of those currently get service?
TROY TANIGAWA: Currently we service approximately twenty three thousand,
three hundred, between three hundred and four hundred residential units.
Mr. Furfaro: So twenty three thousand four hundred?
Mr. Tanigawa: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay that's a pretty good size number thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Mr. Chang.
DICKIE CHANG: On the population of billing database, they wish to modify up
or down? What does that mean?
Mr. Tanigawa: That means that down would be to discontinue curbside
collection service or up would translate to somebody wanting an extra bin.
Ms. Fraley: Or also opting for service if they have multiple units on their
property. Some units may want some may not depending, like if a property owner has renters they
could discuss it with their renters whether or not they need the collection service and then opt out if
they want to for those units.
• 0 APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 28)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Bynum.
TIM BYNUM: Thank you for your presentation and I just want to point out
a couple of things. One is that this is consistent with the recommendations of the intergraded solid
waste plan and it's never good news when we have new fees but, I like the way you're doing it. You
have been really thoughtful about it I think by putting in the exemptions and by also incorporating
another recommendation as pay as you throw kind of mechanism. So if folks want to dispose I
assume that the extra bin would be for a disposable bin?
Ms. Fraley: Well this isn't pay as you throw yet, that would be down the
line when people have access to curbside diversion options but I guess in the sense that they was
producing way more trash than anyone else they would have to pay for that. They would have to pay
for the second bin.
Mr. Bynum: I just appreciate the presentation and I am inclined to be very
supportive of this.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions or comments, again the implementation
date for these proposals is not going to be coming out in this next budget. The implementation date
to do this is 2011, but as we go along with this budget there will be some cost items that appear and e
comes up before this can be initiated in 2011 so I wanted to make that clear.
Mr. Furfaro: That's calendar 2011?
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's July 2011.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay July fiscal.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Fiscal so it won't at all occur during this period but there will
be some cost as you put things together and like you know as stated by them we still got an
ordinance we have to work on and it may take a while and so forth. The idea of following what the
solid plan the intergraded solid plan recommended and you know the possibility of getting an
ordinance out at that time is what their looking at at this point. Mr. Chair!
KAIPO ASING: Yeah I have lots of questions on this so I won't be asking the
questions today because I don't-think-it's -appropriate at-this -time anyway because this is a whole -
new ball game. A whole new ball game meaning today it's zero and then you're going to start off with
the six dollar minimal. Am I correct?
Mr. Tanigawa: Correct.
Mr. Asing: So I pay nothing today but as soon as this program goes into
effect I will pay six dollars a month starting as a start starting point. So I am not going to get into
any details right now because I think this is an ordinance that you will be proposing and there's
going to be a lot of work done during that process so I will just hold off on my questions. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other Committee Members wanted to comment or have
questions. Go ahead Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: Just a blanket kind of answer here so, the minimum would be
seventy -two dollars a year?
Mr. Tanigawa: About.
0 APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 29)
Mr. Furfaro: Okay and we talked about the mechanics of the building and
so forth could be pretty labor intense, so did I hear that you're thinking would be to the tax bill and
the seventy -two dollars a year would so up on the tax bill?
Mr. Tanigawa: That's correct property tax bill.
Mr. Furfaro: So we will see our property tax bill as I'm thinking right now
the six dollars amount or the seventy two dollars a year which will be broken into two billing cycles
and then whoever signed up for whatever options there will be another line.
Mr. Tanigawa: That's what I gather, that we will have a section of that
property tax bill and the information on the charge will be line item.
Ms. Fraley: And I want to point out that after the minimum charge it will
be half of that for those who have low - income exemption on their real property.
Mr. Furfaro: I saw that summary.
Ms. Fraley: So it will be three dollars per month for those folks.
Mr. Furfaro: I saw that you can qualify for that credit and I'm just
thinking in terms of the collection; keep it as simple as possible.
Mr. Kaneshiro: When you come about with your ordinance we will have a lot
more discussion on this and I know the Chair and many of us will probably have a lot of questions as
we move through the process. I think this was one of the points that Mr. Furfaro was trying to make
is that you will probably show how it's going to be done on that area and so forth so we pretty much
have a better understanding as the process moves forward. Currently again because of the
supplemental budget coming before us as I mentioned, to get this in motion will take some funds and
they did do an illustration as to what the supplemental budget will contain. The total amount is
about a hundred fifty thousand dollars as we move forward starting the next fiscal so. Okay any
other questions for Troy or Alison?
Mr. Furfaro: No but I have a question for you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes sir.
Mr. Furfaro: When do we plan to visit the supplemental budget,
about when?
Mr. Kaneshiro: May 8.
Mr. Furfaro: May 8.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yep may 8th. It has to come back.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay that's only three weeks away.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And that will be after I believe the legislature is pau, and
then we will know the status of where we're at that point. Currently we are all up in the air
until then.
• 0 APRIL 16, 2010
PUBLIC WORKS (Pg. 30)
Mr. Furfaro: Oh I see it right here on the last page, last page May 8.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay Ricky told me that because May 8 is a Saturday we will
get it on a Friday May 7, is that right? Around May 7th? Well anyway I think May 8 is on a Saturday
so I'm not going to be in the office on Saturday so just a heads up. In the ordinance, there will be an
ordinance that comes to us. The hundred fifty thousand will be in a contained in a supplemental
budget and if you have some questions now it would be good to go ahead and get some written
questions out to them. And then basically it's a hundred fifty thousand that you see and we can start
some dialog with that and give them a heads up. When we come back with the supplemental you
know and this is why I didn't want them to present this now so in case you have some questions that
come up about the supplemental budget at that time, it will give you the opportunity to get your
questions to them and they may be able to have some answers at that point. Anything else members
of the Committee? Alright if not we're going to recess this Committee until Monday morning and at
that time we will take up CIP, starting with CIP so I believe Public Works will be back here and
whatever departments we need to discuss the CIP.
Mr. Furfaro: So Monday the CIP.
Mr. Kaneshiro: It's 1:00, it's scheduled for 1:00, it's already scheduled.
There being no objections, the Chair recessed the meeting at 2:27 p.m.
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 1)
The departmental budget reviews reconvened on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 9:20 a.m., and proceeded
as follows:
(Mr. Kawakami was noted present at 9:33 a.m.)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Budget Review session is now called to order. Let the record
reflect that we do have Mr. Kawakami will be joining us later on but we do have a quorum. We're
going to be taking up the CIP budget today. In your folder members on the front part of your folder
there's also a CIP handout, so if you open your folder, look in the packet in the front part and that
was what was presented to us when the budget was presented to us. There are some handouts that
are now been circulated so at this time I'll have staff go ahead and circulate the handouts to all
members. I believe we have three (3) handouts so members before I begin can you check if you have
the three (3) handouts, there'll be three (3) handouts. Okay we need one (1) more here, Jay he has
two (2). So there's two (2) in black and white and one (1) in color, okay? They just handed it out this
morning so... the only handout we had earlier was what we had in the budget, in our budget handout
when the budget was originally handed out to us. Okay? We're ready to begin, we're all... you all
have the handouts from the Administration? Mr. Furfaro?
Mr. Furfaro: So I have all the three (3) handouts.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: (inaudible — mic not on) relating to Capital Improvements.
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: Got it.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah that was already included in the handout originally.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Yeah that was in the book.
Mr. Kaneshiro: When the budget was presented.
Mr. Furfaro: Got it.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. With that... yeah... it's in the front part... it's actually
what we got handout was an ordinance number and bill number so... yeah correct... that was
already in there. Okay? Yeah... right there... okay with that Mr. Gary Heu you can start your
presentation on the CIP.
GARY HEU: Okay thank you Budget Chair, Budget Committee members,
good morning. For the record my name is Gary Heu. I have with me this morning our Finance
Director Wally Rezentes and a support cast too numerous to name at this point in time but as you
can see we have personnel from the various agencies so that when we get to that portion of
discussion where people want to talk about specific projects we'll have the people who are closest to
the ground on those projects available for that discussion. First of all I want to thank this
Committee and thank Councilmembers for your past support of our Capital Improvement Program
including most recently working together with the Administration to get that sixty million dollars
worth of new bond projects approved and funded and so again thank you very much for your, for your
support on that. I guess the way that I'd like to approach the discussion this morning is that I'd like
to take a few minutes upfront to just in general discuss the capital improvement program and what
our vision as we move forward for that program is. And that will include, I know there's been a lot of
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 2)
discussion recently about PID's or and I think there's even some confusion as to what the acronym
means, as best that I can determine it's a Project Initiation Document, but I'll go into a little bit more
of that in a few minutes. And I would also like to discuss... take a moment to discuss how we're
going to... we propose to manage the capital improvement program including what you all have seen
in your budget in the Mayor's Office is a position which would actually have oversight out of the
Mayor's Office of the capital improvement program. Once I'm done with that I'm going to turn the
floor over to our Finance Director and he will do an overview on the various funds that roll up to the
hundred million or so that is our capital improvement program. Once Wally is done with that, than
we will move into a discussion on some of the projects that are, that are closest to us in terms of what
are those projects that we intend to move forward within the next fiscal year. As you folks know
capital projects often times extend over a number of years in fact if some of you have been long
enough you will see that they extend over many, many years. So we like to focus our discussion on
those projects that are the most real and that we will be working on over the course of the next fiscal
year. So I return to that comment I made a second ago about sometimes we see capital projects on a
list for many, many... many years and I guess upfront I would like to acknowledge that the capital
program is always a (inaudible) type of animal to manage. And historically there are times where
we downright have not done a very good job in managing that program, the CIP. But at a time like
now where we have so many people who are out of work on this island and throughout this State and
across this Nation, the capital program takes on a more significance in our everyday lives because
what a lot of these projects represent are real jobs for people in our community. And to that end, it's
really good news that we were able to be successful in terms of our sixty million bond float, which
brings our total for our CIP proposed budget up to a hundred million or so. One of the guidelines
that we used in determining where to draw the line on that sixty million was... the Mayor put out a
directive that anything that was going to be included in the sixty million dollars worth of projects,
had to be... had to be projects that we were ready to make significant movement on within the next
two (2) years and if in fact a project didn't meet that very basic criteria than it should be held out for
consideration in a future bond sale.
So let me talk for a moment about our vision for how to better manage our capital program.
Again the PID that's been discussed before is simply the smallest of components in terms of us
beginning down a road which I believe will take us years to ultimately implement. But it's a good
first step. Because what that project initiation document does for us is it puts down in writing
specifics in terms of what we can expect a project to do, how we intend to do it, how we intend to
fund it, the timing of the project and um... so it kind of forces us to put a little bit more skin in the
game because it's not coming before you and just verbalizing something but now we have a document
that will be part of a larger process in terms of how we, how we manage. And I'd like to turn this
capital program management system that we ultimately want to move towards and the PID is
simply the first step in the developing that. Ultimately what I think has been discussed and that we
envision is we envision a capital program management system that would ultimately... review and
approve proposed projects online, we could do a lot of this stuff online, archive a lot of this
information online. As you know we've got some fairly large projects that we come across... that we
come for approval on but within those projects there are different components that we may look at in
the future into establishing unique work orders numbers for to better let us track and monitor the
various components of a larger project. Again we envision electronic work order review and approval
process, we envision a work order tracking system as part of this comprehensive way that we
proposed to manage the capital program. This work order tracking system as envision would allow
us to provide real time financial updates. It would provide real time variance updates it would
provide online work order status, review capabilities. It would provide online work order revision
and budget approvals. Currently the way we manage the capital program and it's not to, it's not to
be critical of a process that's been historically used but it can be fairly convoluted and this vision
provides for a system that once implemented and like I said this would be years in the making, this
is not something that we go down to you know CompUSA and pay a hundred bucks and plug it in
and it's up and running. This is going to take a lot thought, it's going to take a lot of effort, it's going
a
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PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 3)
to take a lot of education and it's going to take buy in from all of the people who are involved in the
capital program.
So I guess now will be a good time since I'm talking about the capital program management
system to go over one of the documents that was handed out to you and this is, this is this sheet right
here, mine has a blue bar on top, yours has black because we didn't do color printing. But as you can
see that's, this is the PID this is the much discussed PID it's a Project Initiation Document and this
is where it all starts from. The directive that the Mayor gave awhile back was that no project would
even be considered for funding unless there was a PID submitted for that project and I think we
pretty much held to that, to that request. And what I've done was... this is a sample and I pulled it
as a sample because I think it's a document that was well done. And this is a work in progress in
terms of using this project initiation project document and so there are certain people, there are
certain entities that are further along in terms of embracing this and... and providing real accurate
and quality information and there are certain entities that we are still you know, it's a work in
progress we're still working on getting better information because the bottom line as you folks know
as decision makers, we're only able to make decisions with the best information that's provided to us.
And my assessment was that this particular document was very well done so as you can see it starts
off with a project title and then it provides some background, and I think most of you sitting around
the table are pretty familiar with this particular project because it's been before this body a number
of times for discussions. In the next section it states the purpose of the project. It goes on to list
various milestones or objections for the project. Talks about the project scope, some of the
deliverables, any identifiable strengths, it talks about... there's a section that talks about
assumptions that are made as this work is being proposed. It provides a business case in terms of
the project benefits it provides a description of the type of funding that we're seeking to accomplish
this work. It breaks out the cost, it does a... these should all do a cost benefit analysis and then
below that you'll see that it does a risk analysis. It identifies who the major players are, who are
involved for moving the project forward. And then it goes on to show a project organization chart, so
again who's involved and where they are in the organization. It goes on to show a schedule in terms
of how we intend to accomplish this and again it reiterates who the resources are from a county
perspective who are involved. So again this is a document that the Mayor's been talking about, this
is the first step forward in our proposed capital program management system and along with that
what we're proposing in our current budget proposal as again as you folks are aware is at, at the
highest level within the Mayor's Office, we identified a position that was previously dollar funded,
we shown that as being funded at the I believe it was seventy -five thousand and some change to
actually create a position for a capital program manager and...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Hold on one second.
Mr. Heu: Sure.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I think Mr. Furfaro had a question regarding this Project
Initiation Document.
Mr. Heu: Okay, okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So let's address that, then we'll move on.
Mr. Furfaro: I just, I just wanted to say I'm very pleased to see us moving
in this direction Gary and if I could... I mean many of us in private business knows this as a
preliminary project release. You obviously have a few things that are different for example, if we
were building a new swimming pool at a hotel, we would have to show the owners a return on the
investment, you have it over here as a business case, an area that you documented so forth and in
the organization you have who's project and so forth, but I guess this is still a work in progress.
• PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 4)
Mr. Heu: It is... absolutely a work in progress.
Mr. Furfaro: So could I ask, isn't the intent of this and I know that's how
preliminary project releases work with me in the past... we're doing a thirty -five million dollar
renovation in a particular hotel, preliminary project release, when it goes around those that are
responsible for certain components actually have a little place where they sign off and date that they
are in agreement that what's in the proposal, i.e., the front office manager, the property engineer,
the controller, finally the General Manager and off it goes to the owners, where it gets... yes we've
seen the scope, we seen the purpose, we've seen the rationale on the return of investment and then
you get the stamp of the approval of the owner, in this particular case our owners are the tax payers
so I guess that's my question at first blush here... is it your intention to actually have these different
individuals identified in this project structure, they will actually sign that they acknowledge some of
these summary and proposals.
Mr. Heu: Well I think that's a real good question... because I don't
think that currently the mechanisms necessarily in placed that have allowed that to happen and I
think that's all part of as we step our way through this to get ourselves to a real comprehensive
capital program managing system, that those are things that we would need to consider. I think you
folks have heard in previous presentations by certain Department Heads about the fact that in fact
they are taking the lead on certain capital projects and feel that maybe they're not the best, you
know they are not properly suited to take on that type of activity and to a certain extent, that maybe
right so I think that all plays into the ultimate as we look at a comprehensive system and process to
implement, I think we need to take all those things into consideration. So in other words are the
current owners of a project, will they be the... will they be the people who are driving the project two
(2) years from now or will this system that we're trying to implement create to better way to manage
that overall. So again I think the questions that you're, the question that you're posing falls into
that, that's all part of it.
Mr. Furfaro: It's only really a suggestion you know and I don't want us to
abuse the term kuleana but it is individual's kuleana to acknowledge that if we put five hundred
thousand dollars ($500,000.00) in for a project that deals with solar heat recovery, that they kind of
acknowledge that yeah this is a reasonable amount, reasonable square footage to produce this kind
of generation of power and so forth because you know the worst thing that can happen to you is you
send this off to somebody and the project assumptions are wrong and somebody says well I never
agreed with it either, you know? So today going forward and we talk about your kuleana, I think
even Mayor Baptiste had a program called kuleana, so I'll just tell you how very pleased I am to see
this being drafted I would like to just like to offer that as an input but it's a great first step Gary,
thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Gary you may continue.
Mr. Heu: Yeah...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Unless someone has some questions in regards to the PID?
Mr. Asing.
Mr. Asing: Yes. Gary I don't have a question really on the intent of the
program and I don't believe that we should go into it now and I don't intend to but you know let me
just give you an example on the even the implementation of this program, one of the biggest
questions that will come out and it will the community will get very, very involve in it and that big,
big question is who will be qualified to get this farm lots? We talking about nine (9), nine (9) lots...
So we talking about nine (9) lots, is it for the island? Is it for the community? Who is it for? The
selection process, who gets qualified, is it a lease program, is it a purchase program, how long, what
• 0
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 5)
are the terms... you know I don't expect all the answers because I believe that you are following the
Maui farm program, if I'm not mistaken but there are lots of concerns and I hope that you know all
of those concerns are being looked at fully and be addressed and I'll just leave that and I don't need
answers now but just to express the concern and how important it is beside the concerns raised by
Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Heu: Sure and that's fair...
Mr. Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Heu: And when we get into the project discussion later on in the
morning, if you want to have more discussion...
Mr. Asing: No I don't...
Mr. Heu: We have our Director here.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And, and... Chair is correct we don't have to have the
discussion today, this was just a sample...
Mr. Heu: Yeah.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Of a project or PID, you could have used the different road,
you could have used something else so I'm not going to have any discussions on that today but I
guess this is just a typical example that as projects come along, there will be some discussions in
different areas and so forth...
Mr. Heu: Absolutely.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And I agree I like this idea about the PID and it shows us and
its straight forward showing who managing and how the money is going to be spent and the results.
Tim you had a question for the Administration?
Mr. Bynum: Good morning Gary... just this, I have a assumption so I want
to make sure it's correct that this PID form will feed into this spreadsheet that you worked out last
time you were at Council that -kind of summarize all the projects by category that's still happening
right?
Mr. Heu: It doesn't magically do that right now but...
Mr. Bynum: Some day it will magically do that...
Mr. Heu: But the intent is, yeah... once we're able to fully implement or
as we move through the implementation process that that will become available and they'll be a
direct tie.
Mr. Bynum: So this is still a active document? Something that you're
keeping updated?
Mr. Heu: That is, that is a document that... yes that gets updated... I'll
be very honest with you Councilmember, you know I've made certain representations the last time I
was on the floor to talk about CIP and really ninety -five percent (95 %) of our focus on CIP has been
trying to pull together our bond projects, our propose CIP for this budget and attempting to
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 6)
implement the PID process and I mean that has really kept us pinned down relative to where our
resources were in terms of managing because I think once we're able to move forward on this, once
we're able to make the commitment to implement a capital program management system, and put
the resources behind that, I think all those things will fall into place and yes someday I envision that
this document will feed directly into a spreadsheet that we previously handed out so that when
updates are made it's not a manual update that somebody has to go back and do it on a excel
spreadsheet but because it's part of a system those things as well as the financial... financials get
updated automatically. Because right now to update a spreadsheet like that, you would be going to a
number of different sources to pull information from to go back and manually update something like
that, so... I think you can see where we're currently are and kind of get a sense of vision of where we
want to be and... but like I said I would agree with anybody who says this is a good first step but I
would also reinforce that it is the tiniest of first steps and there's a long way to go before we fully
operational capital program management system.
Mr. Bynum: Okay so just to clarify because I think this was... I don't
remember the exact date but at least six (6) months ago...
Mr. Heu: It was late, it was late 2009.
Mr. Bynum: Right like October, November...
Mr. Heu: November, was it?
Mr. Bynum: And so... but I think this was well received by the Council
and at the time we said that you know this would be a living document that would be updated and be
available to us and you know... so I hope that's the case, we suggested adding one (1) column maybe
eliminating some for our purposes that weren't necessary in terms of the presentation... and so I...
I'm sort... I'll own it, I'm invested in this being an ongoing living document so and I hear that it is.
Mr. Heu: It's still alive.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah and then eventually like you said the technology can get
to the point where it's self- generating. Thank you.
Mr. Heu: Yes... okay so um... continuing on in the discussion again
sorry... that's my wife ringtone also so I thought she maybe was sitting back here, back of me
somewhere.... Where was I? Oh, the project manager or the CIP manager or capital program
manager um... what's happen is as the organization has evolve, I think that there was probably a
time where ninety -nine percent (99 %) of capital projects fell under Public Works, that is today no
longer the case. And because the county organization has evolved. And so we really feel that an
investment of seventy -five thousand dollars ($75,000.00) or so to provide the highest level of
oversight for our capital program is what's needed especially as we start moving down what I believe
will be a long road to implement the actual program management. And therefore we proposed in the
budget that position and we feel that seventy -five thousand dollars ($75,000.00) or so when
compared to the hundred million. dollar budget, CIP budget that is collectively ours, that we are
collectively responsible for, is a good return on investment if in fact we can truly show that we're
better able to move projects forward. Now in a way I'm saying trust us, fund this position and this
will happen. You know I think I had some offline discussions with certain individuals and said hey
look, you know hold this accountable and fund the position for a reasonable amount of time and if in
fact we cannot deliver and this does nothing to improve how we manage and move our projects
forward then stop funding the position but what I would ask is that again you fund the position for a
reasonable amount of time to allow us to have the opportunity to be successful and because I think
it's a great opportunity and I think we're all looking for ways to manage this capital program better,
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 7)
I think we all acknowledge that it can be managed better but currently you've got, you've got our
capital programs spread out over numerous departments and there's no one (1) authority that it falls
under, there's no one (1) resource that has enough capacity to be able to focus the attention that it
deserves, that a hundred million dollars deserves in terms of assuring that our capital is being spent
well and that our capital is being put behind projects that are truly moving and getting people to
work in our communities so, or in our community so... again I would, I would ask that you folks look
favorably upon our proposal to fund that position. I think that the position would not only manage
the ongoing projects but I think is going to be a very large driver in trying to move this PID down the
road in terms of implementing the components of a capitol program management system that need
to be implemented in order to get us to a place where we have a mechanized way of managing our
capital program. This individual would also be responsible for those monthly meetings that I had
previously proposed that we, we have met numerous times on the capital program but they haven't
been the types of meetings that I'd envision that I came to Council previously to discussed in terms
of just the set capital program meeting every month to go over specific projects to get status and to
have people at the table who are going to be able to clear the log jams or the road blocks that are
impeding a given project, so on a monthly basis we would have an awareness of that. On a daily
basis this capital program manager would have that kind of information. So .again I think that you
know there are people who would loved to have seen this stuff happen before, would love to see this
happen faster but we come to you today with this proposal, we hope that again you would look
favorably upon it and again collectively we were able to realize a capital program that's, that's better
managed.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Gary when you come up with a, you know position
description, can you make a copy for us... I would imagine you would have to come up with a position
description as you go out for a recruitment process.
Mr. Heu: Yes, absolutely.
Mr. Kaneshiro: This would also help us as you know Committee members will
have a copy of that.
Mr. Heu: Absolutely.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I'll open it up for questions, Mr. Bynum go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah I... I have several specific - questions but I (inaudible) by
saying that in December of 2... yeah last December when the Council... when the new Council came
in I became Chair of Public Works and you know I asked, and I think my experience of my first term
was we look at the CIP budget and you know periodically I'd say what's the status of this project?
You know... who's in charge? Is it moving? How long has the funding been there? And it was very a
frustrating experience because you know the answers weren't easily forth coming and unfortunately
sometimes the answer was well the funding has been there two (2) years and nobody's assign to it
and we haven't got a clue when it's going to begin and so you know what I asked for at that time was
an overview of the CIP projects that just gave basic information like who's the project manager,
when did the funding come, when is the expected start date, you know... what are the major steps
and you know that really took a good part of a year and I really appreciate Gary that you
acknowledge as you have this morning that our management had become fragmented and wasn't
really you know... didn't meet your standards as a manager... is that fair to say?
Mr. Heu: Yep.
Mr. Bynum: Okay and so I appreciate this effort very much. Because
that's why I think this document was so well receive but it took nine (9) months to generate and
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April 19, 2010 (Pg. 8)
that's why the focus on you know... let's keep it up, let's not have to go through this process every
time you know we turn our attention to... and I see the follow through and culminating in this
position request. And so I... you know I'm inclined to be supported of that but I still have a number
of questions. The people who manage a lot of these CIP projects are often engineering or level people
that get paid more than the salary that you're suggesting for the person who would manage this
program so, what kind of individual are you looking for to fill that position? Not an engineer I
assume at that funding level is this somebody who's experienced with procurement and knows the
county system well and can you know... what is it that you're looking for?
Mr. Heu: Well I think that's a fair question, I think number one (1)... I
think we are looking for someone who has a lot of experience in terms of managing capital projects.
Who has an understanding, a basic understanding of how the process works and the process could
be different then Alexander & Baldwin, to you know... to the Electric Company, to certain the county
and government. Someone who has some familiarity with government capital programs would be
desirable though not necessarily necessary I'm sure you could find someone from the private sector
who was in project management. Who could probably pick you know some of the stuff out fairly
quickly. But it's... yeah... I mean we're... the person that we're looking for has to have a certain
degree of operational knowledge but I think the person that we're looking for also has to have a wide
array of skills including some outstanding interpersonal relationships skills because I think anybody
who's worked in the county long enough knows that you could have creditable, technical skill set
and if you're not able to work well with you know many different individuals across the various
entities that this position will need to work with, I think that will be a challenge so I think there's a
lot of things that I personally am looking for from this particular individual and it would range from
again operational knowledge, which would include everything from a certain amount of engineering
knowledge to financial knowledge including procurement and then again be a outstanding
communicator.
Mr. Bynum: It's just I mean my concern is that we have some really
talented people in the county that know how to move projects that are good at it and if this position
just becomes you know a (inaudible) to those individuals and not an assistance, you know that would
be an unfortunate outcome. You know when you were talking about you know... meeting on a
monthly basis you know, increasing accountability, tracking the projects, all of that works really well
and you know the questing in my mind is do you need you know... a talent management kind of
position to just do that paper work in which case seventy -five (75) is too much, or do you need
somebody who really knows the procurement and how to move projects in which seventy -five (75) is
not enough. So you know if the position was hey we're going to put in a kind of a... you know.... I
don't know the right term but... is this making sense what I'm saying? It's like... it could be at the
level of managing the project and keeping you know Chairing the meetings and moving things
forward and tracking but the county ability is really is going to come from the Administration from
yourself or the Mayor you know who analyze and the Council to a some extent who analyzes how
these projects are moving and the priority so I just trying to wrap my head around... who's that right
person that doesn't get in the way of the (inaudible) project manager's we have and at the same time,
provides assistance. I just wanted to express those concerns.
Mr. Heu: No and I understand. I mean you know... I envisioned even if
we have this position that they'll be times where Wally and I are sitting in those meetings but the
reason why we think it's important that the position be in the Mayor's Office is to give it that
authority and brought oversight the numerous department's that are involved in the capital-
program.
Mr. Bynum: And I think you know... you already outlined that it's not just
the Public Works' issue anymore that it's the Parks Department and Planning and other people
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 9)
doing projects that it needs that kind of comprehensive overview so I'll be interested in how it
evolves and what Councilmember Kaneshiro said about...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Progress.
Mr. Bynum: Progress... you know program description...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah... position description.
Mr. Bynum: Position description... yeah... because that's...
Mr. Kaneshiro: So you'll get that to us before you know... before we finalize
the budget so. Okay any other questions in regards to the position that Gary talked about?
Ms. Kawahara: I do. I just need some clarification if I could? Some
clarification... if I could?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely.
Ms. Kawahara: Gary good morning, I'm glad that you guys are going to be
doing this kind of project initiation thing because it... because like you said there are people that
have wished that it would come on... have come online earlier. This came up when we were talking
with Engineering, they have a project management program coordinator line in their budget and
then there's... the one that you are talking about, the Executive Assistant to the Mayor EM -5, is that
the one?
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Ms. Kawahara: So what's the difference and why is there one (1) in
Engineering being funded for the same amount?
Mr. Heu: The one (1) in Engineering is described as what... I'm sorry?
Ms. Kawahara: The Project Management Program Coordinator.
Mr. Heu: That may be, the position maybe just looking at very, very
specific projects to actually be the manager for a project versus someone who's going to have
oversight over the entire capital program.
Ms. Kawahara: So like a contract kind of position that just comes online when
there's a project ... a specific project?
Mr. Heu: I mean... Yeah, I mean that would be similar to, I believe,
someone who came on specifically for a specific project to manage a project or a set of projects. And
again, that's much different from what we're contemplating in the mayor's office relative to being
responsible for the overall program. Yeah.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, I just wanted to understand the differences and I think
you've explained that. Thank you.
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April 19, 2010 (Pg. 10)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Gary on that? If not, Gary, you have
anything else to add on the CIP? I know Mr. Rezentes is going to present some other parts for us.
Any other highlights?
Mr. Heu: I think that's pretty much what I wanted to cover with you
folks. I guess I would just want to... One last thing is that I know engineering was... engineering
division was before you folks on Friday, and I would just like to reiterate that ... I mean historically,
engineering has been... You know, it's interesting because engineering performs a number of
different functions, and ... but one of those functions really has been to help to get capital projects
moving and onto the street. And I think I would acknowledge that the engineering division is
something that we need to play close attention to and I'd like to reinforce what I believe was stated
on the floor on Friday, which was resources are an issue and will always, you know, will always be
an issue in terms of our ability to get projects off the ground. And I think what was posed in the
budget is ... or in the budget discussion was that there are some dollar funded positions in
engineering, and when we feel it's appropriate, we will be back before this body either to ask for
additional funding for those positions and /or I believe on the floor we've talked a number of times
about a concept called program management, which is another way to avail yourselves of resources
to move projects forward. And it's a fairly... I should say it's a new concept. It's a new concept for
the county, but it's something that we've had a number of different discussions internally. We're still
trying to vet the concept. The one agency that is the furthest out in front relating to having
embraced this concept and moving forward with it is the State department of transportation- airports
division. And so we're kind of right now kind of looking at what they've done, seeing how it's enabled
them to move some of their major projects forward, and it's something that we'll continue to look at.
But I guess I wanted this body to know that we are committed to providing or at least requesting the
necessary resources to allow that division to be successful in carrying out its mission.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And go ahead, Mr. Chair.
Council Chair Asing: Yeah, I just want to finish up on the project manager. I just
want to comment if I may?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Council Chair Asing: Gary, you ... the administration has my full support on the
project manager, no question in my mind. And I guess you and I know, because we've been through
it. As an example, when Hurricane Iniki hit this island, what happened? We had the whole island
almost out of service, yeah. At that time we had Honolulu coming in and had a group, yeah, which is
really the project manager, and this group managed the entire island of projects that was coming up.
So I know the value. I understand it perfectly and I support that. I only hope that the follow
through is there and then you can get it done correctly. That's my hope, but as far as the concept,
the idea, you need it period, because what we have today is we have really the public works
department that is really handling it, most of it anyway, and it's fairly fragmented. So you will have
my full support. As a matter of fact, you know, I don't see any support staff for that position. If
you're going to get it working, one man is not going to do it. You need support staff to do it right. So
I just wanted to make that comment and let you know where I am on the feel of the position, no
doubt you need it. But I only hope that you follow through and make sure that it's done correctly.
With that, thank you.
Mr. Heu: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. With that, are you going to have Mr. Rezentes
come in and do his part of the presentation?
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 11)
Mr. Heu: Yeah, I didn't realize he left ... oh, there he is, okay. So I'll
turn the mike...
Mr. Bynum: Gary, one last thing.
Mr. Heu: Sure.
Mr. Bynum: Just to be clear, you talked about the position that's in the
budget, but you also talked about exploring... outsourcing project management to consultants... or a
portion of it.
Mr. Heu: That's at a much different level, though. Yeah.
Mr. Bynum: Bu that's what you were just referring to...
Mr. Heu: Program management.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, program management. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you Gary. With that, Wally.
Mr. Rezentes: I think my part will be real quick, hopefully. Just as an
overview, you know I think Gary had mentioned earlier that, you know, our CIP budget this year,
our proposed CIP is nearly $100.6 million. A large portion of the hundred point six million is from
our bond fund as a result of our most recent bond issuance. The bond fund is approximately 73
million of the 100.6 million budget. Our general fund CIP is about 15.9 million. Highway fund
is ... highway CIP is 8.8 million. Our sewer trust fund is 1.1, and our parks and playgrounds special
trust fund is approximately 1.6 million. Today we were going to try to highlight some of the nearly
hundred projects that are listed in our CIP fund. We're hoping first to start with our department of
public works, in the various divisions, and then later have our parks and rec department come in
and explain some of their projects. The project list that we gave you that looks like this, you know I
just wanted ... you know, basically we provided this to give you an idea of the projects that we want to
talk about that will likely happen in the 2010/2011 timeframe, so these are the projects that will
likely hit the streets before some of the other projects. It may not be all of the projects that you may
wish to discuss with public works, but you know, we wanted to highlight... or parks, or whatever
other department first, but we wanted to highlight these projects.
As far as the construction dollars, please don't look at that, that is not accurate. You know,
the intent of this was to, you know... I had a conversation with the finance chair over the weekend,
and you know, he felt that, you know, knowing... he felt that it was important to kind of concentrate
on the projects that, you know, we're going to see going forward sooner than later, and then
hopefully, you know, that can be at least a good basis or a good starting point for your CIP
deliberations.
Mr. Furfaro: So Wally, do I understand you, you want to start with the
prioritized list?
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's correct.
Mr. Rezentes: Yeah. We wanted to...
Mr. Furfaro: (Inaudible)
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 12)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Because most of these projects would start to come about
starting the 2010 and (inaudible) moving to the 2011 CIP budget.
Mr. Furfaro: And obviously it could impact the lesser priority items,
especially if we're not focusing on the dollars.
Mr. Rezentes: I sent our parks department back to the office, because I felt
that, you know, we're going to spend some time on the public works division projects, and then, you
know, move into theirs, I don't know, maybe after lunch. I'm not sure, but I wanted to start with
public works wastewater, then building, engineering, solid waste, and then move into the parks CIP
projects after that. You know, again, please don't look at the dollar amounts, please, you know, just
look at the construction start date numbers which we recently went through with the departments
about... about a month ago. Without further adieu, I'll have...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any questions before Wally calls up... Are you calling up the
department to do the presentation and their CIP?
Mr. Rezentes: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Priority project list. Okay, any questions for Wally before
that? If not, go ahead Wally.
DONALD FUJIMOTO, County Engineer: I'd just like to ask the council, I guess, which
way you want to do it. I guess the intent was to cover these priority projects, but would it be possible
to also ask any questions on that section, and then they can leave after they're done?
Mr. Kaneshiro: What's that again?
Mr. Fujimoto: If you have any other questions on the CIP project for the
division...
Mr. Kaneshiro: For that different department.
Mr. Fujimoto: Yeah, then they can leave after they're finished.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Oh okay, that's not a problem. We'll cover wastewater and
then if there's things that pop up as we go through that is not on this list, so anything that comes
within wastewater that is under the CIP, I'll have my committee members ask the questions if they
have a question. If not, we're going to forward the questions to you anyway at a later time.
Mr. Fujimoto: Okay thank you.
EDWARD TSCHUPP: Good morning. Edward Tschupp, wastewater division. The
short list of the priority projects for wastewater includes the four projects— `Ele`ele improvements
and renovation, islandwide SCADA, which is supervisory control and data acquisition, it's an
electronic instrumentation system, Lihu`e wastewater treatment plant chem lab renovation, and
Wailua wastewater treatment plant improvements and renovations. Those are the four projects that
are listed.
Mr. Furfaro: Can I ask a question? Could you quickly tell us the capacity
of these four plants? Then we can relate capacity to dollars. (Inaudible) What is the capacity in
`Ele`ele with the improvements.
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PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 13)
Mr. Tschupp: These improvements at `Ele`ele are much more renovation
retrofits, so it's not adding capacity. The plant capacity... design capacity is point 8 million gallons a
day. Currently the plant's operating at about 600,000... little bit more than that, so there's a little bit
of capacity available in that community.
Mr. Furfaro: The Li1hu`e plant.
Mr. Tschupp: Lihu`e plant is operating at one point 2 mgd, and its capacity
is two and a half mgd. So that plant is in good shape. One of the ... this particular specific project is
that the Lihu`e's lab is a lab facility that provides islandwide support to all the plants, and that's
essentially the baseyard for our chemists and it's in need of some renovation.
Mr. Bynum: And it's located at the Li-hu`e wastewater...
Mr. Tschupp: It's physically located in a building at the Uihu`e plant. The
Wailua plant is ... its permitted capacity is one and a half million gallons a day. Our facility plan said
that we would be better off to consider it to be a one million gallon a day plant because of
redundancy issues and reliability issues, and it's currently operating around 500,000 gallons a day,
which is actually considerably lower than a few years ago. A few years ago it was operating closer
to 700,000 gallons a day, so we've had some reduction in flows. As a function of fixing the Leho
Drive pipeline and also I think our customers have been cutting back on water use as an economic
thing. That serves the hotels ... a lot of the hotels in the Kapa`a area, and I think that they're... we're
seeing actual reduction in flows based on economy.
Mr. Furfaro: Occupancy.
Mr. Tschupp: And occupancy.
Mr. Furfaro: And then Waimea, when it's complete it will be ... just so I can
write it in.
Mr. Tschupp: Point seven mgd. Presently design is point three, and
the ... it's been operating at about 80 to 90 percent of that point three.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair.
Mr. Tschupp: Starting from the `Ele`ele improvements, this is a two point
four million dollar package of improvements that take care of some of the equipments that have been
around for a while. The plant was last expanded in the mid -90s, but there were things that weren't
changed out at that time, like solids handling equipment and so on. We actually have broken this
into two phases because we had a ... the 25 -year old generator blew up and is irreparable, and so
phase one is to replace that generator. The consultant has advised me that they will have the plans
set available to go out to procurement by the end of this month ... for the generator. So we'll be
executing on the generator replacement, 400 kW generator, as the first step, and then the rest of the
package will go out, and that'll be things like equipment replacements like solids handling
equipment. So it's not adding to capacity. It is tied to the facility plan recommendations for the near
term improvements from the facility plan effort that we did a couple years back.
Islandwide SCADA is a $4.2 million project. This would integrate and tie all the pump
stations by radio or telemetry to their plant and pick up all the different motors and pumps and
pieces of equipment that are situated at all the plants and pump stations, and basically put them all
on the same platform so they'll be viewable from anywhere. And the design is in the 60 to 70 percent
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 14)
range at this point. I'm expecting the pre -final design package submittal in about a month ... or
perhaps June.
The chem lab renovation, actually we're ready to go over to the finance department's
purchasing division to put the bid documents together to go out to bid. We've already run those
plans through the building division for preliminary review for building permitting purposes. So at
this point we're just in need of a contractor.
Mr. Furfaro: On this one, all the design work is done.
Mr. Tschupp: The design work is done for the chem lab. Wailua is another
project where we've broken the project into two phases. Phase one is expecting the pre -final
plans... we're actually reviewing the preliminary plans right now. The pre -final plans are expected in
a few months, and so ... and that's for phase one. Phase one is replacement of some pumps, a
replacement of the solids handling device, replacement of some blowers, and doing some demo of a
building that is in need of being demo'd. Then phase two will be a package of improvements that
does a lot more redundancy type improvements. Again, kind of tied to the recommendations from
the facility plan for the near term work.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Any other questions for Ed?
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair. Just tell me real quickly, in `Ele`ele
now, until such time that the emergency power generator is there, when we have a power failure
right now, what happens to the plant, and do you have some way to retain waste until such time that
the power... How do you handle that now?
Mr. Tschupp: Right now we have a mobile 400 kW generator wired in. We
have several mobile generators; our biggest is a 400 kW. We've got that as a backup system. The
actual concern or the, you know, in a risk management perspective, the risk is that if one of our large
generators at one of the bigger pump stations were to go down, that backup generator, the mobile
one, is the one that we would ideally like to be able to send to wherever it's needed, and right now it's
tied down at... We've got a bunch of other smaller generators, but the number of 400 kW kind of
mobile generators on the island I believe is probably two, ours and the department of water has one.
Mr. Furfaro: But the way you wired this larger one right now, you do have
some form of backup redundancy for `Ele`ele.
Mr. Tschupp: Yes, it's wired through a transfer switch, so that if KIUC goes
out, which happens from time to time, it switches over.
Mr. Furfaro: It kicks on.
Mr. Tschupp: It kicks on the generator.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Derek, go ahead.
Mr. Kawakami: Thank you. In all fairness, if you're not ready to answer these
questions, I can send it over and you can come back, but in regards to the Wailua wastewater
treatment plant, what are the long -term plans? Are we going to eventually look at moving it out of
the tsunami zone? We're putting 2 million into it. And if we were deciding to eventually move it
somewhere else, what's the approximate cost, what's the approximate time period that it would take
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 15)
to design, get the permits, build it, put into action, and what would happen is a tsunami were to hit
and take down that Wailua wastewater treatment plant? We can send it over and you can come
back later on.
to you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's a heads up on questions that will be coming over
Mr. Tschupp: Okay. Can I touch on some of those things briefly?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Of course. Absolutely.
Mr. Tschupp; Per the mapping, the tsunami mapping, the plant is actually
not shown as being within the tsunami zone. There are areas around the island where we have
pump stations that are in flood zones, but it's more of a ... it's not like a rapid flooding kind of; it's
more of a inundation flooding. Moving a plant like that is ... it's a significant effort, and it would be
extremely expensive.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We don't have to go into details now.
Mr. Kawakami: My apologies. It may have been a mistake on my part.
Maybe I was thinking of something else instead of the treatment plants, so my apologies on that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Because if it's in a VE zone, then it's a more critical zone,
right. And I believe what you're saying, it's not at this point.
Mr. Tschupp: My understanding is that the plant itself is not in the
tsunami zone as mapped.
Mr. Kaneshiro: - That's fine. Okay.
Mr. Kawakami: As mapped.
Council Chair Asing: I cannot help but comment on that. I think, you know, it's
kind of a technical thing when you say, you know, it's not in the zone. We all know that. I mean,
just look at it where it is. It's less than a hundred yards from the shoreline. Not in a tsunami zone?
I mean let's be real.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Zone areas, Mr. Chair, critical to VE to, you know... FEMA
has a way of doing the ... and could be because of the reef or a mile out, and you know, there's
different scenarios. So I don't want to get into that discussion now. I think if we need to, we can
come up with a communication and send it, but at this point... Okay. Any other questions?
Mr. Kawakami: Just one more, one more.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead.
Mr. Kawakami: This is the `Ele`ele improvements. We going to be spending
2.4 million, and that was just ... what was that, renovations we were saying; it doesn't add any
capacity.
Mr. Tschupp; That's correct.
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 16)
Mr. Kawakami: But this is a recommendation that we start with this
approach first before we add capacity to it?
Mr. Tschupp: Yeah. The facility plan identified some stuff that we should
do, you know, near term, and that's basically what we're working on. Included in that was replacing
the generator, and then, you know, we signed the contract with the consultant and the generator
blew up. So it was a timely recommendation. The capacity increase for `Ele`ele, right now we're
looking at ... it's kind of at the 75 percent time, which means that we need to be thinking about doing
a plant expansion, and we've kind of dialed that in as something it'll probably be in the... around the
end of 2015 is when we'd be going out for design for the next phase of expansion of that plant. Those
kinds of plant expansions, we probably go another 400,000 gallons a day capacity, and the number
we've been kicking around for budgetary and planning purposes is, if I remember correctly, around
$16 million for the expansion. Meanwhile, there's equipments that have been around since the plant
as developed in the 70s that are on the end of their replacement cycle, so that's what we're
doing now.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Tim?
Mr. Bynum: I'm just curious why the Waimea plant is not on this
short list.
Mr. Tschupp: The Waimea plant is not on the short list because the funding
and contract and everything is in place and it's rolling.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, so it's because it's ahead of this.
Mr. Tschupp: It's ahead of this.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, great. Good answer. Regarding... back to `Ele`ele for a
minute, I see the county just acquired 75 acres in `Ele`ele to expand affordable housing. Can you give
me a ballpark of ... I mean could we build out housing on 75 acres at fairly high density and have
capacity? I mean how many homes does a hundred thousand gallons a day service?
Mr. Tschupp: For single - family homes, we'd be looking at 400 gallons per
day per residence, so 250 single family homes would be a hundred thousand gallons per our
standards. So with Habitat's next phase, or you know, the 120 that Habitat is proposing, that's
going to chip away at our remaining capacity. As the county develops the affordable... the 75 acres,
it'll be important that we coordinate the timing of the development plans for that parcel so that we
can, you know, start the design and get going on the expansion in a timely fashion. So we make
plans projecting, well probably around 2015 is when we're really going to need to start looking at
that expansion. There could be something that would come up if we push the 75 acres faster than
we're anticipating at this time. You know, two years ago when we did the fac plan that wasn't even
on the table. So you know, we try to stay ahead.
Mr. Bynum: I appreciate that answer. So there is a formula how much
apartments, certain businesses, you know, you can predict that. You know, I wasn't a huge fan of
acquiring 75 acres in `Ele`ele, but one of the main reasons I heard that that was a good idea was
because of wastewater capacity, and you know, what you're telling me is that the capacity isn't as
great as I had assumed it was based on those assurances that, you know, one of the reasons we
looked at that area, besides the availability of land and a willing owner and good prices, those are all
big factors too, but you know, was that there was water and wastewater capacity for that expansion.
And I believe, you know, A &B probably has some residential expansion in their long -term plans
as well.
E
•
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April 19, 2010 (Pg. 17)
Mr. Tschupp; We've talked with A &B and they've kept us apprised. They've
got a subdivision pending in the industrial area near the plant, bordering on the plant. We've talked
to them about reserving some property for expansion. We've talked to them about having, you know,
them participate in an expansion for their project needs instead of them building a separate plant.
Going back to the discussions on the 75 acres, I remember Mayor Baptiste asking, you know, how
much capacity would we have at the `Ele`ele plant, and you know, we had that discussion about,
well 250 houses is 100,000 gallons a day. He said, do you have a hundred thousand gallons a day,
and I said yes we do, and we still do.
Mr. Bynum: Right, you have two ... two hundred thousand, right?
Mr. Tschupp: We've got 200,000 at present.
Mr. Bynum: Alright, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other questions for Ed? Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: Ed, as we go forward and actually treating and getting our
plants to R -1 capacity, and no you can't drink it, are we getting... are you planning for all of the
appropriate technical treatments with ultraviolet rays and... we're getting more and more away from
chlorine, are we not?
Mr. Tschupp: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: That's all I needed to hear. So that's all in the... that's all on
the radar screen.
Mr. Tschupp: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Thank you Ed. At this time we'll
have... Donald... building division?
Mr. Fujimoto: Before we move to the next section, I just like to explain
couple things. Well first of all, again as Gary explained, you know, managing these projects over
time was a real challenge, and as we move forward, you're going to notice that some of these projects,
like the second to the last item under building, Piikoi building renovation, is actually a special
project that Ken Teshima handles. He himself handles about 6 major projects. So rather than just
jump all over the place, I'd like to stick with building division, and then I'd like to briefly just go over
a very valuable document that we also handed out, and this was provided by Clint Saiki, our fiscal
administrator. This is a real valuable tool. This is the one that has all this breakdown. And
basically, this has every CIP project that's reflected in this budget, and it's real easy to look at. The
main thing is to understand is it's broken up by divisions, but page 8 and 9 is really the changes that
occur from last year's budget to this year's budget. And so the question about the Waimea
wastewater, if you look at page 8 under wastewater, we show that Waimea sewer expansion we
actually withdrew the amount from the bond float because we got the SRF funding. And so that
kind of explains all the projects and where we're at. So anyway, if you have any questions on this
particular issue, what I'd like to do is for now Doug will be up. He's going to talk about the projects
he has, and he also handles more projects than just building, you know, because he's been so
effective. And so he's going to be touching on some of those priority projects which includes the bike
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 18)
path. So anyway, the questions that you can ask him are those specific questions he's going to talk
about, as well as anything under building section.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, so are we changing the scope here with what Donald
just said? Donald, for us, you have 45,560,000 that are the administration's primary goals in this
budget year.
Mr. Fujimoto: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Right. We're doing this budget year.
Mr. Fujimoto: Right, right.
Mr. Furfaro: But are you telling me that Doug is going to come up and talk
about all building...
Mr. Fujimoto: No, no. He can answer any other questions you have and...
Mr. Furfaro: Got it...
Mr. Kaneshiro: If we come to...
Mr. Furfaro: If we have a question...
Mr. Kaneshiro: ..about the bike path.
Mr. Fujimoto: yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: In other departments.
Mr. Fujimoto: Right, right.
Mr. Furfaro: Got it.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Because he's pretty much, you know... (inaudible)
Mr. Fujimoto: Page 4 on this sheet...
Mr. Kaneshiro: We go it, Donald. Because of Doug's role; it's not only
building department. Okay, Doug.
DOUG HAIGH: Good morning. Doug Haigh, building division. Going directly
to the mayor's priority list, the first project, ADA building division facilities, this project we finally
got to the point where we're down to our ADA remedial work in relationship to the projects that were
on the transition plan. And that project has gotten delayed. We are not starting construction next
month. More likely we'll be starting construction around September /October. We have a contract
hire architect who's been working on all our ADA projects, and he had some other priorities to jump
on. Parks had ADA projects going out to bid and... Once we get into bid and construction, those
become priorities that we need to focus on because there's a real quick timeframe we need to apply
our efforts to, so I allowed him to work on those and delayed him on our transition plan remedial
work.
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 19)
The next project, civic center ADA improvements. This one is moving forward, and this
schedule... it's about right. The mayor put together a task force. We have a task force that's helping
the building division on this project helping making the key design decisions. And last week we
finalized review of the conceptual design and we're ready to move forward into the final design.
Mr. Furfaro: Could you give us a little bit more of the scope on this,
Mr. Chair.
Mr. Haigh: Okay. What we're doing is two things. One, we're taking care
of ADA issues that were identified in the transition plan and the Lihu`e civic center. We're
enhancing it to a much greater degree to really create connectivity, and we're also doing it in a way
that's sensitive and consistent with, as much as possible, with the Li1hu`e civic center site master
plan.
Mr. Furfaro: I see. Okay, got it.
Mr. Haigh: Historic county building is under construction. You folks are
over here; the contractor's over there. .
Mr. Furfaro: Are we still looking like 14 months?
Mr. Haigh: That's reasonable. It's a 12 -month contract.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Can I ask a specific question about that building? All
the drainpipes are in the corner of the building? They're encased in the corners?
Mr. Haigh: That's correct. All the existing drains are within the concrete
walls. Part of our renovations, we will be abandoning the drain lines that are within the concrete
and putting them in ... to the exterior. And we're doing it in a way that's sensitive to the historic
character of the building.
Mr. Furfaro: Well I'm more worried about the issue with the drainpipes
being in the wall with all the mildew problems we've had. So you're going to abandon that and put
in a more contemporary design for roof top drainage and gutters or...
Mr. Haigh: We will be putting the drain lines exterior of the building
wall ... to exactly to avoid that mold problem, our historical mold problem. But yes.
Council Chair Asing: Doug, I guess I'm going to go back to the ADA building
division facilities. I guess they're tied together with the civic center ADA. You know, do we
have... only because I believe that the first one is tied to that ... the lawsuit that we had.
Mr. Haigh: That is correct.
Council Chair Asing: Now do you have a list of all of the things that we were
required to do or we had planned to do?
Mr. Haigh: Yes, we do.
Council Chair Asing: Okay. I'll send over a separate question so we can get the list.
And my reason for asking is it's been so long that I hope that we complete them so that we don't get
another suit filed. Thank you. I'll send the question over.
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 20)
Mr. Haigh: Any other questions concerning historic county building?
Kapa`a baseyard renovation. This is a facility that we received from department of transportation
from the State, and it was a mixed gift, because there was tremendous deferred maintenance, and
these are metal buildings in Kapa`a, an area that is ... has a very aggressive corrosion environment,
but we have a good consultant onboard. We hope to have the design done and let's see here,
baseyard, they're saying 3/31 construction ... actually we're hoping that we make it. Construction
started little bit sooner than that ... now that the bond money's available. And we're looking at ... with
that facility, parks and recreation will have facility there, our roads division, and the building
division is there, and also we're looking at moving the paint booth for the auto shop there. So this is
going to be a critical facility for public works, and we're also going to be partners with our friends at
parks and recreation.
Mr. Bynum: So that will be the parks baseyard?
Mr. Haigh: That is the goal ... is to move the parks baseyard, because
there was a movement toward doing elderly housing where the existing baseyard is for parks and rec
in Kapa`a town.
Mr. Bynum: That's currently still in use, though.
Mr. Haigh: It's still currently in use.
Mr. Bynum: Okay thank you.
Mr. Haigh: You're welcome. Cesspool conversion project. This is a one
that's been particularly difficult closing out. We had pollution at Lihu`e auto shop where oils had
been directed to the cesspool, and we've been having a real challenge getting our plan and getting
the pricing in line. Hopefully within the next week or so we'll be able to finalize that and then move
forward, and it's going to be a two -step process. First we're going to have to do more exploratory and
see how extensive the pollution has traveled. Hopefully... It can go either... It's two ways. It can go
where it's very minimal, or it can go where it's very major. We actually have more funds available to
us through our SRF loan that was designated for this project than what's shown, but that we're
moving forward on.
As Donald mentioned, Piikoi building renovation project, Ken will pick up on this when you
bring the engineering division up. He's been managing that project to date.
Police evidence room. We talked about this last week. We hope to start construction within
a month, and expect to have the project completed within four months. The other project on this list
here that I'm managing, the Lydgate/Kapa`a bike path phase A project, we have gotten our federal
funds obligated for the project. We're finalizing the four construction drawings, and we hope to go
out to bid within a month or so. And those are all the priority projects on the mayor's list.
Mr. Bynum: So on the Lydgate path, it's realistic that work starts in this
calendar year?
Mr. Haigh: Absolutely. Oh...
Mr. Furfaro: So when you say calendar year, you mean before December 31
of this year?
Mr. Haigh: Yes.
i •
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 21)
Ms. Kawahara: Are you not doing the Lydgate campsite ADA?
Mr. Haigh: Oh, that's on the parks one. You want me to go over the
parks ones ... Okay, thank you for bringing that up. I'll pick them up. Okay, Lydgate camp sites
ADA. Our procurement package is ready, but we're going to delay until July 1 to start the
procurement process since this is not one of our key priority projects, and right now the purchasing
division is very busy with priority projects; it's the end of the fiscal year, so from March through
June 30 they have a deadline, and they don't accept any new projects unless it's really a high priority
project.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Tim.
Mr. Bynum: So we're going to miss another summer, but will it be ready
for next summer?
Mr. Haigh: We have scheduled the project to do that, yes. We don't
expect this to be a big problem to get done. As soon as we go out to procurement, it'll move forward.
And from there it's full speed ahead. Another project that the building division is managing for
parks department, the Hanalei courthouse renovations. This one will not be meeting this September
date. We're sending the notice to proceed out for design, and the design contract's also going to
include the permitting, the SMA permit, so we're figuring at least a year before we start the
procurement. So realistically, that should be 2011 for the Hanalei courthouse.
Mr. Furfaro: And the final outcome of the Hanalei courthouse best use is?
Mr. Haigh: We're setting it up as a neighborhood center is how we're
designing it.
Mr. Furfaro: Good.
Mr. Haigh: And we will have community meetings when we get
into... further into the design, and make sure we're getting feedback from the community as we move
forward.
Mr. Furfaro: But that has been finalized. I know the options we looked at
included even a small substation for police and fire when the bridge floods and so _forth,_ but we're
looking at a community center.
Mr. Haigh: That's my understanding. Brian is managing that, but that's
been my understanding ... but I'm not intimately involved.
Mr. Bynum: Brian Inouye?
Mr. Haigh: Brian Inouye, yes.
Mr. Bynum: And is part of that plan supplying public restrooms for the
park across the street?
Mr. Haigh: Well, we'll have public restrooms in the building; we're
bringing them up to ADA compliance. It'll be up to parks how they manage those restrooms.
Mr. Bynum: It's been something I don't think has ever been resolved, but
we have youth sports playing in that park and no restroom facilities.
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 22)
Mr. Haigh: Yeah, I used to go there with my kids for soccer, and I
remember having to go to the beach before I...
Mr. Furfaro: Go to the pavilion, but I think -we also need to remember, we
only lease that park for one dollar a year; that is not our property. And I would tell you something
else, many people think there's two Russian Forts on Kauai; there's three. That is Fort Barclay that
is partially in Waioli park.
Mr. Haigh: And then the last one will be the Lydgate pond repairs. That
project's moving forward. We're right now in the SMA permit process for that. Let me find it on my
list here. So we're hoping to complete design and the permitting process by September and start
procurement in September, and start construction in the first quarter of 2011.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, can we go backwards for a second? I thought the
question as leading up to are we building something in a park that we lease, but I don't think we
finished Mr. Bynum's question. When the courthouse becomes a neighborhood facility, will the
bathrooms be available for public use. That was the ... I thought was the question.
Mr. Haigh: My answer to that was the parks department will be
managing the facility, and they'll be making the decisions on when and not to open up their
restrooms.
Mr. Bynum: Do you know if the design allows the entrance to the
restrooms without going into the center?
Mr. Haigh; We are just starting the design process. If...you know, that
would be a good thing for us to be reviewing during the design process, and during our public
meetings, that would be an issue that I think the public would be interested in.
Mr. Furfaro: So we'll put it on our radar screen.
Mr. Bynum: Without belaboring this, it's been something that has been
discussed for a long time. There was some discussion about partnering with Hale Halawai, the
community center that's there.
Mr. Haigh; Actually, I ... we went all the way through where we had a
facility almost designed there, and at the last minute the lease agreement kind of fell apart with the
owners. So yeah, it's been on the radar for a long time trying to solve that problem, and I agree very
much with the concept that here's a real opportunity to provide something for the park and for the
users, and would be a benefit to the community. But we are a assisting agency, and we rely on the
user agency to finalize how they want us to do their facilities.
Mr. Furfaro: So we're clear, I just want the question on the radar screen for
the Hanalei community. They may not want bathrooms that are publicly accessed 24/7, but it's a
question that needs to be on the radar screen.
Mr. Haigh: And you might bring it up with them this afternoon when
they come. Okay, and then I touched on the Lydgate pond repairs project.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other questions for Doug on CIP building projects?
If not, thank you Doug.
Mr. Haigh:
You're welcome.
L-1
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 23)
Mr. Fujimoto: We're going to split up the public works engineering and
roads by the two division. So we're going to address roads first since we have only three projects.
Mr. Furfaro: Donald, will bridges come under roads?
Mr. Fujimoto: No, that... primarily all under engineering, the big bridge
projects.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, where will bridges come in?
Mr. Fujimoto: Well, the three items under roads right now, I believe, is the
first, road resurfacing, Kapa`a ocean study, and Moanakai shoreline design. Kamalu bridge repair.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, but in the middle of the year is when we get the roads
listing of which areas are going to get resurfaced; we won't see that for another couple months, right?
RYAN NISHIKAWA: Good morning. Ryan Nishikawa from roads. Actually there's
four projects on the list that has been assigned to my division. The first one is the road resurfacing.
And I believe Councilman Furfaro had asked during the operation(sic) budget about the balance
remaining in the funding. Based on the funding... if the appropriations for this year was approved of
roughly $7.9 million, we would have roughly $5.4 million balance. We just had a bid opening last
week for about $2.5 million, so the balance would be 5.4.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you for getting that for us.
Mr. Nishikawa: As far as the listing of projects that you had just made
reference to, we should be getting the list of roads that we propose to resurface to the mayor
sometime within the next two weeks. So after I believe he reviews that, it should be coming up to
the council for council review.
The second project is Kamalu Bridge. Kamalu Bridge project is a project... it's a erosion
control project. The riprap under the bridge part of it on the Kapa`a side bank has washed away and
it needs to be replaced to protect the abutment... primarily the abutment.
Ms. Kawahara: This is by Yokotakes?
Mr. Nishikawa: No, this is the bridge that crosses Opaekaa stream. It's a
concrete bridge. It's a fairly new bridge built probably in the 70s.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thanks.
Mr. Nishikawa: The next project is the Kapa`a ocean study. We are in the
process of executing the contract with the contractor. It should be hopefully be executed within the
next few weeks; it's already with purchasing for distribution.
The Moanakai shoreline design permit, that's the Moanakai seawall, we already have a
contractor onboard. The notice ... oh no contractor, the consultant onboard, the notice to proceed was
issued I believe late in April.
Mr. Furfaro: Ryan, is this Oceanit?
0
Mr. Nishikawa: Moanakai is Sea engineering.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 24)
Mr. Nishikawa: Oh, I take that back, excuse me. Moanakai is RM Towill.
Kapa`a ocean study is sea engineering. Any questions?
Mr: Chang:
bridge? Is that...
Ryan, did you let us know what the status was with Kamalu
Mr. Nishikawa: Oh, Kamalu Bridge, we are looking... going through
the ... checking with agencies as far as the permitting requirements. We have got the response from
Corps of Engineers. We need to next touch bases with department of land and natural resources to
find out if they have any concerns. So once we can clear the permit requirements, or if any are
required, you know, the plans, the construction plans are fairly straightforward.
Mr. Chang: So we might be able to start by the end of the year.
Mr. Nishikawa: As long as the permits ... they exempt us from the permits. So
far the Corps has exempt us under their nationwide... I believe that we should not have a problem
with the department of land and natural resources.
work?
Mr. Chang: Thank you Ryan.
Mr. Furfaro: And Ryan, that is repair and maintenance, R &M, and erosion
Mr. Nishikawa: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: That's basically what it is.
Mr. Nishikawa: Yes, it's nothing new. It's just a repair work.
Mr. Furfaro: And you're not handling the Keapana Bridge... that's not one
of your projects?
Mr. Nishikawa: No, it's not.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. I have no more questions.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you Ryan.
Mr. Furfaro: We look forward to the road list. When did you say? Middle
of May?
Mr. Nishikawa: By the end of this month I'll have to the mayor.
Mr. Furfaro: So we'll forward in the middle of May then. Thank you Ryan.
Ms. Kawahara: If you guys could help me, that list is a list that's... but it's not
randomly selected, yeah. They're routinely in place...
•
Mr. Furfaro:
(inaudible).
Ms. Kawahara:
C�
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 25)
They review the aging, and the last time paved, and the usage
Okay, thanks.
KEN TESHIMA: Good morning. Ken Teshima. I want to give you an update
on that Piikoi project. It is the renovations for fire administration. That project has a very, very
tight commitment by the administration to the council of April of next year. There's an error on your
spreadsheet. It says construction start and it indicates April of 2011, and that should be June of
2010; the expected completion is April 2011. The notice to proceed for the design work was
February 24, 2010, expected completion is June 30, 2010, it's a (inaudible) design timetable. I'm
trying to push this as much as possible and trying to get some procurement documents ready as best
as we can without, you know, some of the boilerplate stuff so that as soon as the design is done, we
can go into construction and advertise for the construction to get it slightly under a year construction
timetable. Is.there any questions or concerns about the scope or...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Chair Asing.
Council Chair Asing: I have a question on the Piikoi building renovation. What
does that include?
Mr. Teshima: It is predominantly for fire administration. This
particular... this three and half million construction line item.
Council Chair Asing: Fire only.
Mr. Teshima: Fire only. I've been asked to, however, recently incorporate
by the administration the... making provisions for police dispatch, and that has been added. Sort of
burns my clock a little bit, but...
Council Chair Asing:
Mr. Teshima:
Council Chair Asing:
Mr. Teshima:
So it's not fire only, then.
Yeah, that's right.
It's fire and police dispatch backup?
Yes, alternate - police dispatch.
Council Chair Asing: I had heard and maybe I'm in error that it may be used for
backup for civil defense. Am I in error?
Mr. Teshima: No you're not.
Council Chair Asing: I'm not in error?
Mr. Teshima: No you're not.
Council Chair Asing: Okay, will you explain please.
Mr. Teshima: We're creating a room that's going to be used both for fire
administration training and adding provisions, whatever infrastructure we can, to use it as a
secondary EOC.
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 26)
Council Chair Asing: I guess I'll send the question up, but I'm a little bit concerned,
and because we have a civil defense backup. Today I believe we have it down in the basement of the
county building.
Mr. Teshima: Yes sir.
Council Chair Asing: So we have a backup there and we have another backup that
is being planned. I mean I think we need to work together to find out exactly what we want to do
and what we're actually doing.
Mr. Teshima: Sure.
Council Chair Asing: It does not seem right that we have two backups.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll follow that up with a question probably in the public
works committee, and then have some further discussions held in that committee. Because looks
like that's the appropriate committee that can address that... either that or safety.
Council Chair Asing: That's fine.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll have the Chair make the decision, but it will follow up
with a question. So could either be in public works or safety.
Mr. Teshima: Sure. Any other questions with Piikoi?
Mr. Furfaro: Are there any contingency plans in this dollar amount to
provide for offices for the county auditor?
Mr. Teshima: No.
Mr. Furfaro: No.
Mr. Teshima: No.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Alright. Mr. Wally Kudo.
WALLACE KUDO: Wallace Kudo, chief of engineering. I'll be taking a remaining
part of the public works engineering and roads. Kokee Road is in the design phase right now, and
it's primarily to fix about a 4 -mile stretch from Waimea Canyon Drive, south of that intersection
about 4.3 miles south of that intersection. It's primary to stabilize the road base. The road base is
failing and we plan to do something like a full -depth reclamation. Right now it's a federal aid
highway project, so the county is putting up 20 percent match on the project, and 80 percent is
federal highway funding. We plan to ... it's subject to federal highway. It's one of those American
reinvestment recovery act project, so it's like a ARRA project. Depending on funding, this project can
be ready to advertise and hopefully to do that by October. We're going forward with federal highway
and State to get our PS &E approval. PS &E stands for plans, specs, estimates, so before we can
advertise the project, we need to cover all the environmental impacts and permitting requirements.
Once we get that from federal highway and the State, we can go ahead and advertise the project.
Mr. Furfaro: Wally, does this number reflect our 20 percent or the total
expense of the project.
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 27)
Mr. Kudo: This appears the total project cost.
Mr. Furfaro: Total project. So our portion is one million.
Mr. Kudo: Yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
Mr. Kudo: Going to the next project is Kapahi Bridge. Kapahi Bridge,
Opaekaa Bridge, and Puuopae Bridge, as well as Hanapepe pedestrian bridge are all on federal
highway project... bridge projects, and we currently have gone through the consultant selection
process. We're going into the planning and design phase, and so at the end of that spreadsheet you
don't have a construction date, so it's all dependent on the completing the design and planning
process.
Mr. Furfaro: So the funds we're looking at here are simply planning and
design.
Mr. Kudo: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
Mr. Kudo: Twenty percent is county match, and 80 percent is federal
highway.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay Tim.
Mr. Bynum: Regarding the Opaekaa and Puuopae Bridge, those are ... we
have consultants that are going to do design, and that's going to involve community meetings, is that
correct?
Mr. Kudo:
and design.
Mr. Bynum:
community?
Mr. Kudo:
Mr. Bynum:
Mr. Kudo:
Mr. Bynum:
the consultant.
Mr. Kudo:
outreach on those projects.
Mr. Bynum:
Before that it's just a hiring the consultant to do the planning
And -part of_ that _planning and design is engaging the
That's correct.
...per content... what's it called?
Contact sensitive solutions.
Solutions, yes. Okay, so that phase you're in now is getting
That would be part of their scope of work, to do a community
And the consultants aren't selected yet.
•
• PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 28)
Mr. Kudo:
They have been selected. We've gone through the selection
process.
Mr. Bynum:
So we know who the consultants are for those projects?
Mr. Kudo:
Can I defer that, because we haven't really gotten a response
from the consultant whether they going to accept the project.
Mr. Bynum:
Okay, I can wait on that.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Jay.
Mr. Furfaro:
Wally, I just wanted... So of these four bridge designs, are
our 20 percent is roughly $160,000.
These are the total design and planning costs?
Mr. Kudo:
Those are the planning costs, yeah.
Mr. Furfaro:
Total.
Mr. Kudo:
Total, planning and design.
Mr. Furfaro:
And our portion is 20 percent.
Mr. Kudo:
Yes.
Mr. Furfaro:
Thank you. And may I just go right to Keapana Bridge?
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Yeah, go ahead.
Mr. Kudo:
I haven't gone down to Keapana Bridge. Let me explain.
Mr. Furfaro:
Well that's the next item, so...
Mr. Kudo:
There's a misnomer in the Keapana Bridge. Actually it's
Hauaala Road ford crossing.
Mr. Furfaro:
Oh, okay.
Mr. Kudo:
We have a ford crossing there that was damaged during the
recent December rains, and so we've
gone through a emergency procurement process where we're
going to do the in -house design, and hopefully we can fix that bridge.
Mr. Furfaro:
Okay, because in visiting that area, you get up to about 200
yards and there's signage already saying that the road is closed.
Mr. Kudo:
That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro:
So there's road work and bridge work.
Mr. Kudo:
It's to repair the ford crossing. Actually it's not a bridge, it's
just a culvert that has been damaged.
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 29)
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, may I say this? A road that goes over a tunnel that
allows water to go through...
Mr. Kudo: Yeah, it goes over a culvert and let's the water flow through
it, and in inclement weather, the storm flows would overtop the roadway and flow over the road.
yards.
Mr. Furfaro: But the road itself approaching it is closed for about 200
Mr. Kudo: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: And so those residents currently, I assume they come through
the back? They come from the Spaulding side of the plantation?
Mr. Kudo: Yeah, there's another road that comes back from Kealia Road
back towards Kapa`a town area, and that road is a dirt roadway, and there's a big drop -off on one
side, I think. So during inclement weather it's kind of slippery.
Mr. Furfaro: So that's what I'm asking. That's what those residents are
using now...
Mr. Kudo: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: Are we doing any kind of temporary repair and maintenance,
because it is... I didn't go there when it was real wet, but...
Mr. Kudo: There is a question as to who owns that dirt portion of the
roadway...
Mr. Furfaro: Oh, so is that one of those roads in limbo?
Mr. Kudo: It could be one of those roads that are in limbo, yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, what does the county attorney office say if we just try
to do some temporary patchwork so... Have we asked them that question?
Mr. Kudo: We haven't asked that question.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Thank you Wally. Thank you Mr. Chair. I'm going to
send that question over, if you don't mind.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
ED RENAUD: Ed Renaud, public works. To answer Jay's question, that
road, Jay, is with the county attorney's office, and I've been trying to use that road so that, you know,
it's a... It's wider than two roads, but right now it is in the county attorney's office and they're trying
to work it out with the major subdivision landowner.
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, that's what I just asked Jade if we can get a question
over to the county attorney. You know, there's ... I think we just need to have an understanding that
we're providing some kind of alternative access to those residents and it's reasonably safe, so... But
thank you, Ed. Thank you Chairman.
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 30)
Mr. Kudo: Any questions?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any questions for Wally? I guess he covered most of the
bridges we have here listed. Anything else that you wanted to question him about? Go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: Wally, you're not doing the ocean study?
Ms. Kawahara: No, Ryan just did it.
Mr. Bynum: - I'm sorry.
Mr. Kudo: I believe that's Ryan's project.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, sorry.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You can send a communication or a question over if you want
to. We'll address that. Okay anybody?
Mr. Furfaro: No, I'm good with Wally. Seems like you're on top of
Keapana, so... Thank you Wally.
TROY TANIGAWA: Good morning Councilmembers. Troy Tanigawa for the
record. Solid waste division has three projects. The cell 2 or second phase of the Kekaha landfill
expansion, Kapa`a transfer station improvements, and Kekaha host community benefits. We'll
address each project in that order. Starting off with... The Cell 2 expansion will follow pretty much
the same type of work that we're doing in cell 1, except there's no new leachate lagoon. We'll have a
bottom liner involved, a leachate management system, which will connect up to the new leachate
lagoon we built during the cell 1 expansion. That landfill expansion is anticipated to another 3.2
years of additional disposal capacity to the facility. I open it to any questions.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: So cell 1 is not on here because it's already going, right?
Mr. Tanigawa: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: And the composting facility and materials recovery is not on
here because?
Mr. Tanigawa: It's part of the bond float. Those projects are funded, but I
guess they're not listed because you know, it was a choice to discuss these three projects.
Mr. Bynum: So those aren't priority projects then?
Mr. Fujimoto: They are. My understanding is that the administration put
on the projects... shovel -ready stuff, more construction.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, but we can ask questions... We're only asking
questions on this list?
Mr. Kaneshiro: No, no. We wanted to ask questions on that first, and as
stated earlier, if there are other questions you wanted to ask within the CIP project but solid waste,
we can go ahead and address that. So right now, in fact when we started, we said we were going to
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 31)
use that schedule. So as soon as we're done with the department we can release the department
head, rather than staying here. So if you have any questions in regards to what solid waste talked
about, cell 2, Kapa`a transfer station improvements, Kekaha HCP first, and if not, then we'll move on
to other solid waste questions.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, I have other solid waste questions.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any? Derek, go ahead.
Mr. Kawakami: Just to clarify, the 80,000 for Kekaha, that's host community
benefits, it's not a habitat conservation plan, because it says HCP, so I wasn't sure.
Mr. Tanigawa: Yeah, that's a typo. Should be HCB.
Mr. Kawakami: That makes us nervous, you know, if we got to do another
HCP.
Mr. Furfaro: It is correct on the capital budget for CIP, but it's not correct
here. Thank you for pointing that out.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other members have questions regarding what...
Mr. Tanigawa: Cell 2.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Just on the three first, and then... Go ahead, Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: So where are we ... as a follow -up to Mr. Kawakami's question,
where are we on determining the appropriate contributions in a formula for contributions going into
host community benefits. I was under the impression we're doing a study that potentially would
even suggest that a dollar number be put in to each tipping fee going forward, and we were doing a
study to that effect?
Mr. Tanigawa: The study was completed, and by that study there was a
recommendation based on what's been done elsewhere in the United States that have implemented
HCBs was a dollar per ton to be set aside for these types of special funds.
Did I?
Mr. Furfaro: And you know, I'll apologize in advance, I didn't see the study.
ALLISON FRALEY: Yes.
Mr. Fujimoto: Can I clarify that. The study was done and it gave a
recommendation of a range. It did not specify any particular amount.
Mr. Furfaro: So was that in the R.W. Beck piece?
Ms. Fraley: No, that... Go ahead.
Mr. Tanigawa: The study was prepared by AE Comm.
Mr. Furfaro: By who?
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 32)
Mr. Tanigawa: AE Comm, and it was formerly EarthTech that was acquired,
and they're now AE Comm.
Mr. Fujimoto: You know, there's two actually independent study on HCBs.
There was actually a piece that was done together with the landfill siting also with the MACLS.
Mr. Furfaro: So Donald, on these two studies, are we going to have an
opportunity to discuss them in a council meeting going forward?
Mr. Fujimoto: Definitely, yes. In fact, the...
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, that's all I needed to know.
Mr. Fujimoto: Right.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, Tim.
Mr. Bynum: On the HCB, and we can wait, but I'm a little confused now.
We had a initial big chunk of change, right, and then 80,000 in last year's budget.
Ms. Fraley: Yes, yes.
Mr. Bynum: Is there another contribution in this year's budget?
Ms. Fraley: So this year's contribution was 80,000 again, and that's based
on one dollar per ton on the estimated landfill tonnage.
Mr. Bynum: So that was just an administrative decision...
Ms. Fraley: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: ...to propose that. And then is the solid waste division out of
the HCB decision making process? Like who's managing that?
Ms. Fraley: There is a handful of county representatives that have served
on a community advisory committee, and so we've had 8 meetings, and the advisory committee has
completed their meetings, and now the administration is waiting for a recommendation from the
committee on how they want to spend the funds. So we've been working with them in that capacity,
and we're awaiting the recommendation. So that's how the... The recommendation is for how they
would spend the funds that have been allocated for fiscal year 2009 and 2010 for a total of $730,000.
So this 80,000 would be used to perhaps continue to fund those projects that are recommended if
they're short funded, or else we would be working with the advisory committee to see if they'd be in a
more of a long term capacity or if we'd need to have a new advisory committee in place to recommend
how those $80,000 and funding moving forward would be spent at Kekaha.
Mr. Bynum: And who is the... Who's taking the lead from the county
on ... in these discussions?
Ms. Fraley: We've been working, as I said, with a team of county
representatives from the mayor's office and from the attorney's office and from the solid waste
• PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 33)
division. Thus far there's been a team, but we've been working closely with the mayor's office who
were the ones ... the mayor appointed the advisory committee.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, I just... I've said in the past, it's just my opinion that
you guys shouldn't be ... you know, that's not your job about these kind of things. So I hope the
administration's taking the lead and... You know, remember we had the huhu at the council couple
years ago, and it was like wait a minute, this is our team that does all of these CIP projects, how did
they get involved in this thing. So yeah, I guess team's better than what we had.
Ms. Fraley: Right, well because it's a solid waste issue, you know, it's in
our budget, so...
Mr. Bynum: Right. Okay, thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, I may have to break early to catch up on a
meeting, but I'll be back. I just want to say, I was always on the impression that the discussion of
how much is going into the fund would be based on some recommendations that comes to the council,
and you now have two groups making those recommendations. Secondly, although the mayor
appointed the advisory committee for the host community benefits, I would think no different than
the open space commission. The money is identified, it's accounted for, and when it comes to
earmarking those projects, the spending of those moneys, the presentation just like the open space
committee, is made to the council. So...
Ms. Fraley: I believe a presentation on the recommendations from the
committee is forthcoming to the council.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, so it's forthcoming.
Ms. Fraley: Yes, yes.
Mr. Furfaro: I feel better already. Thank you. It is forthcoming. It's the
recommendation, Mr. Chair, but to think that they wouldn't come to us is not acceptable.
Council Chair Asing: I'm not even sure that the setup of the board is... and the
decision making is straightened out, so to speak.
Mr. Furfaro: Well let me summarize my comments again. I would expect
that the recommendations come in front of the council, I would expect that if you got the host
committee set up as an advisory group that there's some set of rules...
Ms. Fraley: Yes, there is.
Mr. Furfaro: ...whether they be bylaws that have been reviewed by the
county attorney, and then when it comes to the recommendations of actually earmarking the funds,
that presentation is made to the council. And I'm assuming that is what's happening. And if I'm
wrong in my assumption, please tell me now.
Ms. Fraley: No, you're not incorrect.
Mr. Furfaro: So are we going to see the bylaws? I'll put that in a question.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I think this should be handled on committee level.
• • PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 34)
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, yeah.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Not in my finance... My recommendation is if we have
questions like this, we'll send it to the committee and have the committee chair, you know,
appropriately set a committee meeting...
Mr. Furfaro: I will send that question over then to the committee chair.
But you know, we're talking about earmarking money in the budget here, and I'm not even sure
we've got the parameters set up on how it works.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I think we've set up the part about earmarking. Previous
councils ago stated that we'll give so much to earmark the host benefit.
Ms. Fraley: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: The procedures, as you are stating, is correct, we haven't
really, you know, set up that whole procedures and so forth, and which I guess they're working on it
right now. So what we've been doing is we've been putting money into that fund, you know, as from
the discussions we've had from several meetings previous to this, you know, couple years ago. So
there's money going in to this fund, and I believe it's money that is bearing interest for them too,
until we get and they decide, you know, what are the projects...
Ms. Fraley: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: ...that are priority to them. I think the biggest problem has
been the community coming together to make a decision. So I don't want to discuss that here in my
finance committee at this point, but I would say that...
Mr. Furfaro: I understand your point, but I want to say I was on the
council when we earmarked the first 600,000.
so forth
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's correct, and we're still are earmark...
Mr. Furfaro: I was the finance chair then as well.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And we still are earmarking every year, but...
Mr. Furfaro: But who's determining what that earmark is? I have no idea.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I think it's been predetermined by the amount of tonnage and
Ms. Fraley: Yeah, well it was a dollar per ton for the last two fiscal years.
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's correct, absolutely.
Ms. Fraley: I mean including this one coming up.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely. How we're going to charge for it is a different
whole issue that we need to discuss further, but we're not going to get... Basically, the...
Mr. Furfaro: I'll send that as a committee question to public works.
• PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 35)
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's correct.
Mr. Furfaro: Got it.
Mr. Kaneshiro: How is it, you know, out of so much tipping fees or whatever,
but currently we've earmarked this based on tonnage, and it's... So we're just putting this money
into this fund. I know it's being held in a interest bearing account right now until more discussions
can be held in your committee. Anything else in the three categories that were priority project list.
If not, I'll go ahead and open it for anything else in the solid waste CIP list that I think Tim had a
question on.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, I have a few.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Bynum: Regarding the composting and the MRF facilities, what are
the status of those projects?
Ms. Fraley: They were just funded with the new bond float, and at this
time we are considering the possibility of public /private partnerships for both of those projects, and
that route would potentially accelerate our timelines and would reduce the county's, you know,
burden as far as the cost for the projects if we could enter into a public /private partnership. So we
are considering those options. If that does not work, we will be continuing with what we had
previously planned, which is that the county would be responsible for siting and for funding those
facilities in full.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, so we can talk more about that later, I guess. That's
the first time I had heard of consideration of public /private partnership, so... And I think there were
some legal reasons why we... I can't remember. We'll follow up with that later.
Ms. Fraley: Okay.
Mr. Bynum: I wanted to ask about the waste reduction consultant
services. What's the status of that? As I recall, there was a contract out for our... around 125 and we
have a proviso on the rest of that money.
Mr. Tanigawa: So far, that consultant is performing their scope of work doing
the ownership analysis. There aren't any plans or any discussion right now to use any of the
remaining funds (inaudible).
Mr. Bynum: So we haven't received... The consultant's working on the
project now.
Mr. Tanigawa: They are still performing, yeah.
Mr. Bynum: And you could send us a scope of work.
Mr. Tanigawa: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: And you have a project completion date on that... an estimate?
Mr. Tanigawa: The contract was I believe for 180 days, so they're are roughly
about two to three months into their existing contract.
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 36)
Ms. Kawahara: And who is it?
Mr. Tanigawa: It's R.W. Beck.
Ms. Kawahara: It is them, okay.
Mr. Bynum: They're the solid waste guys. Is it Bob? Is he involved?
Mr. Tanigawa: It's a different division in the company.
Mr. Bynum: It's a big company.
Mr. Tanigawa: Energy ... yeah. They deal with more... these guys deal more
with the energy projects.
Mr. Bynum: Great.
Ms. Kawahara: I do have a question about that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Lani, you had a question?
Ms. Kawahara: Can I? Yes. What is the difference between this one and the
plan that we got from Bob?
Mr. Tanigawa: This is a more detailed ... a more focused study looking at
ownership options for waste reduction facilities, as opposed to a general integrated waste
management plan that encompasses the entire solid waste management function.
Ms. Kawahara:
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay members, any other questions in regards to the CIP
funding under the solid waste projects? If not, thank you very much. Donald... I guess we covered
most of the solid waste areas, so are there any other questions that members have regarding the CIP
budget under solid waste? Okay, if not, very good, Donald. With that, Wally, you're up again. Is
parks ready to do their presentation on the CIP budget? I'll take a 5- minute recess.
Mr. Rezentes:
Yeah, five minutes might be good.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Good. I think it's a good time for us to take a recess until
parks department gets here. Five or 10 minutes, whatever it is.
There being no objections, the Chair recessed the meeting at 11:34 a.m. The meeting reconvened
at 11:53 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Mr. Lenny, how are you today.
LEONARD RAPOZO, JR.:
be real good.
With that, we have the parks and recreation department up.
Well, in the interest of time, get me out of here real fast, I'll
Mr. Kaneshiro: Now that you said that, we will keep you here longer.
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 37)
Mr. Rapozo: For the record, Lenny Rapozo, director of parks and
recreation. I say the things only people think about.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, Lenny, I guess we have your handouts. You can briefly
go over your priority project list for the CIP, and then if... There were some parts already covered
under the Lydgate campsite, Hanalei courthouse renovation, Lydgate pond repair, so those were
already covered by Doug. I'll give you the opportunity to highlight your CIP project priority list.
Mr. Rapozo: Well, as Gary has testified earlier that within the two years
that we float the bond we want to move the projects and complete those projects, so definitely the
priorities are the projects that are being part of the bond, which would be the Kamalani playground,
the Lydgate ... I'm sorry, the Kapa`a stadium improvements, the Hanamd'ulu beach park comfort
station, veteran cemetery, Hanapepe Cliffside basketball court, the removal of the ADA access
barrier removal, the lighting retrofit, Lydgate campsite, the park ADA, the bleacher replacement,
and the Hanama`ulu/Hanapepe ADA improvements. So those are priorities to complete that within
the next two year cycle of the bond.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I'll open it up for question on any of the priority project list at
this time. Committee members, you have any questions on the project priority list for parks and
recreation? We'll also open it up for parks and recreation CIP list, so if you have other questions or
anyone has questions on that, this is your opportunity to do so. And if not, we're going to be
following up with some questions, you know, as we go through this project list also. So don't think
you're going to get away that easy if I excuse you now.
Mr. Rapozo: I didn't expect to. I didn't expect to.
Mr. Kaneshiro: But you know, it's... and we're glad to see lot of these projects
here. I think that's what we're all looking at. If you take the committee members like us and we
just look at all this, you've got park improvement projects covered throughout the whole island, from
the west side all the way to Hanalei.
Mr. Rapozo: Right.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Lani, go ahead, you have a question.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you budget chair. Good morning Lenny. Can you tell
me how you selected these and what the difference, because some of these I hadn't seen on a previous
list, and was there a previous list and were there changes made from a previous list of priorities?
Mr. Rapozo: Some of them were on previous lists, for instance, Kapa`a
stadium locker facilities. That was on a previous list, but that was a community build situation
where the county would provide the materials and the community would build it. But that project
has lagged, yeah, has been taking a long time. We have some materials there, but the project is
seen ... you know, the community will do it when they can organize and they can get everybody there,
and whoever the lead person that knows the contracting business will move the project along. And
so but now with ... the mayor wants to get it done, so then it becomes reprioritized and more moneys
got put in so that we can go out for bid. And so now it's on this list, so that may have been on
another list with a different set of circumstances, and then we're moving it forward.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, and then any other just like that that have changed?
Mr. Rapozo: Doug spoke probably about the Lydgate campsite, yeah?
E
Ms. Kawahara:
Right.
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 38)
Mr. Rapozo: These are projects that are ready to move, projects that are
realistically ready to get done, and so some of them are ready to build out, others of course we going
be moving forward within the next ... be completed within the next two years for sure.
Ms. Kawahara: What's happening at the cemetery... veterans cemetery,
because we were just talking about that the day before.
Mr. Rapozo: Well, we're looking at the pavilion area. We're looking to do
the entrance area, and upgrading the fencing and the entrance way. If you remember the entrance
of the cemetery had a metal gate and then over the top there's some design, well that went, so we
looking to redo that again. Also, the pavilion is in ... needs to be upgraded, disrepair, it needs some
painting and all of that. But the first question we need to look at is the structural integrity of the
pavilion, so Kylan's been working with the veterans and they've got a consultant onboard to, number
one, look at the ... the pavilion became the priority in that whole scope of that project, because you
know, people have burials there, people have services there, memorials there during different
significant holidays we have stuff there, so it's important that we get that particular structure up to
par, whether it's painting, upgrades, whatso... They're looking at the structure first, the structural
integrity first, and then come up with the plan to move forward to at least address that part of the
veterans cemetery, and then everything else will follow after that.
Ms. Kawahara: Then let's see... The Kekaha Gardens, if you can tell me
about that, and the Hanapepe Cliffside basketball.
Mr. Rapozo: Kekaha Gardens, there is a dedicated park within the new
Kekaha ... what is that, Hawaiian homes area, and the conceptual design has been done. I believe we
are going through the design process for the rest of it; we've made some corrections on it, and we just
want to complete that park for the community over there, which would...
Ms. Kawahara: That's going be a passive?
Mr. Rapozo: No, it's going... baseball, soccer, comfort station, a little
pavilion, a playground area. So we want to move forward with that.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Mr. Rapozo: The Hanapepe basketball court is just to improve Hanapepe
Cliffside park with a basketball court.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, those were the main ones I wanted to ask about.
Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead.
Mr. Chang: Thank you Daryl. You know Lenny, just for my own
education, maybe you can help me out here. Of the projects we have listed here, how many ... what
percentage is in -house and what percentage did you contract out?
Mr. Rapozo: Right now, all the projects here will be contracted out. I'm
sorry, I take that back. I'm sorry. Kaumakani pavilion is a community build project. We going
provide the materials, and I just had a brief meeting with the uncles up there last week, and they'll
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 39)
be probably ready to go at the end of June or so ... July, with that to move that project to get
that going.
Mr. Chang: Yeah, because a lot of the projects is like one month, and then
the next month, and then the next month, and the next month, so it seems as though in 2010 there's
a lot of projects that are going on. You know, earlier Gary Heu was over here and talking about a
project manager just to follow these projects through. Are you ... is the parks and rec managing these
projects on your own?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. Certain ones we are. The Lydgate one, public works will
manage that one. The ADA compliance stuff, public works will do it. But the other ones is through
the planning and design division of parks and rec, which would be Mel and his team under his
leadership, they pretty much manage our stuff, yes.
Mr. Chang: Okay, so you're monitoring it, you're comfortable and
confident that the work will be progressing, because there's a lot of projects, like boom, boom, boom.
Mr. Rapozo: There is a lot of projects. Our plate is full for Mel and his
group, so yeah, he has a lot on on his plate... well, his division has a lot on its plate, yeah.
Mr. Chang: Okay, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Lenny?
Mr. Rapozo: Excuse me. Councilmember Chang, the Hanapepe basketball
court is going to be done in- house, design and construction.
Mr. Kaneshiro:
Tim.
Mr. Bynum: On your priority list is the Kamalani pavilion. I don't have
questions about that, but on the CIP project there's 150,000 for Kamalani playground. What's the
scope of work for that?
Mr. Rapozo: Kamalani playground on the?
Mr. Bynum: It's on your CIP budget.
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah. I see Kamalani pavilion.
Mr. Bynum: No, that's on the priority list, but...
Mr. Rapozo: Just the pavilion... it's a pavilion. 150 is coming our portion,
and there's a hundred thousand coming from the insurance, yeah, so a total of 250.
Mr. Bynum: I see, so this is a typo then on this sheet. On this sheet it says
playground, but that's the same project right?
Mr. Rapozo: Yeah.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, that's it.
PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 40)
Mr. Kaneshiro: Got it, I see that. Any other questions for Lenny by
committee members. If not Lenny, thank you, but I'see your plate is really full. I mean you talking
about 16 bond float projects and another 22 park projects... park and playground trust fund projects.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's quite a bit of projects. In fact your projects almost took
up two pages, which is great. Which shows that, you know, we're really focusing on trying to take
care of the parks throughout the island, and that's great.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. Mel's division has its work cut out for them,
and yeah.
Mr. Bynum: The Kekaha Gardens, this is design money, not construction
money?
Mr. Rapozo: Design and construction.
Mr. Bynum: Design and construction. So yeah, I'd like to see more
information about that, but that can happen later.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, we'll send a request in that regards that Mr. Bynum
stated. Any other questions for Lenny? If not, I guess anything else on CIP that committee
members had questions about? If not, thank you. I thank the administration for being here to do
the presentation of the CIP budget. I believe that if there are questions, we'll follow up with written
request, and with that, I'm going to recess this meeting `till tomorrow at... Hold on one second, let
me just get some procedural clarifications here. Procedurally we are concluded with the
departmental review, so all the departmental ... so different departments have come before us, we're
finished with that, with the CIP today. Tomorrow we'll be taking the call- backs. If there's any
call-backs and also some discussion on the furlough plan, right? And that will start at one o'clock
`till whenever. Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: The furlough discussion starts at one o'clock?
Mr. Kaneshiro: That's correct.
Mr. Bynum: And if it doesn't conclude tomorrow?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Then we'll make a decision and see where... We can conclude
it. I can go all night. I don't have a problem. So depends on the committee. What are the questions,
and we'll see if the departments has the answer for it. We'll ask the questions and we'll see if they
can answer (inaudible).
Mr. Bynum: Okay, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I don't have any problem about when we're going to stop. It
depends on the questions and answers from the departments, and we will schedule that process as
we move along. Okay with that, we're in... Again, we've sent questions over to them earlier. So do I
adjourn this part or recess? Okay, so the departmental review that is posted before you which
started from April 9 to the 19th is adjourned, and then now we'll go back with the new notice. We
have a notice here which calls for a callback and also for discussion of the furlough plan. Is that
correct? Okay, just for procedural process.
F,
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PUBLIC WORKS -CIP
April 19, 2010 (Pg. 41)
The CIP budget review concluded at 12:08 p.m., and there being no objections, the departmental
budget reviews was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Aida Okasaki
Wilma Akiona
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Darrellyne Simao
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curie Chow