HomeMy WebLinkAboutP-0107.01-16 Council Minutes 02-2010- •
COUNCIL MEETING
February 3, 2010
The Council Meeting of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to
order by the Council Chair at the Council Chambers, Historic County
Building, 4396 Rice Street, Room 201, Lihu`e, Kauai, on Wednesday,
February 3, 2010 at 9:50 a.m., after which the following members answered the call
of the roll:
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro (present at 9:55 a.m.)
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
EXCUSED: Honorable Tim Bynum
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:
Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of the agenda as circulated, seconded by Mr. Chang,
and unanimously carried.
MINUTES of the following meetings of the Council:
Council Meeting of December 16, 2009
Council Meeting of January 6, 2010
Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of the minutes as circulated, seconded by
Ms. Kawahara, and unanimously carried.
COMMUNICATIONS:
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Furfaro: Next item please.
PETER A. NAKAMURA, County Clerk: (clearing throat) I'm sor...I'm
sorry Mr. Chair. Next items are matters... on page 1 of the council's agenda are
matters for receipt, communications C 2010-21, C 2010-22, and C 2010-23.
C 2010-21 Communication (01/04/2010) from the Chief of the Building
Division, Department of Public Works, transmitting for Council information, the
Building Permit Information Reports for December 2009:
(1) Building Permit Processing Report
(2) Building Permit Estimated Value of Plans Summary
(3) Building Permits Tracking Report
(4) Building Permits Status
Mr. Furfaro moved to receive C 2010-21 for the record, seconded by Mr. Chang, and
unanimously carried.
EETI • - - ~ u .
COUNCIL M NG 2 Febr ary 3, 2010
C 2010-22 Communication (01/07/2010) from the Purchasing Division,
Department of Finance, transmitting for Council information Fiscal Year 2009-
2010 Second Quarter Statements of Equipment Purchases, pursuant to Section 18
of the Operating Budget Ordinance B-2009-690:
(1) Statement of Equipment Purchases per Budget Ordinance
B-2009-690
(2) Statement of Non-Budgeted Purchases via Grants and Others
Mr. Furfaro moved to received C 2010-22 for the record, seconded by Mr. Chang,
and unanimously carried.
C 2010-23 Communication (01/08/2010) from Leila Fuller, Chairperson,
Board of Ethics, requesting Council consideration for an amendment to Chapter 3,
Article 1, Kauai County Code 1987, as amended, relating to the Code of Ethics:
Mr. Furfaro moved to receive C 2010-23 for the record, seconded by Mr. Chang, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter's on page 2 of the council's agenda is
communication for receipt, communication C 2010-24.
C 2010-24 Communication (01/14/2010) from the Director of Finance,
transmitting for Council information, the Schedule of Fund Balances for the Fiscal
Year Ended June 30, 2009, pursuant to County Charter Section 19.14: Mr. Furfaro
moved to receive C 2010-24 for the record, seconded by Mr. Chang, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asmg: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next communication C 2010-25, Mr. Chair, I
believe there's a request to defer this matter.
C 2010-25 Communication (01/20/2010) from the County Auditor,
requesting Council approval of a 3-year lease term with an option to extend for 962
square feet of office space for the relocation of the Office of the County Auditor.
Mr. Furfaro: Move to defer. I want to say something, though. I
assume this deferral is based on the auditor's department temporarily operating out
of conference room space right now, but the intent is to have the administration
look for the appropriate office space, so move to defer.
Mr. Furfaro moved to defer C 2010-25, seconded by Ms. Kawahara, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matters are matters for receipt,
communication C 2010-26, C 2010-27, and C 2010-28.
C 2010-26 Communication (01/25/2010) from the County Auditor,
transmitting for Council consideration an amendment to Ordinance B-2009-690,
relating to the Operating Budget of the County of Kauai for the Fiscal Year July 1,
2009 through June 30, 2010, to transfer $16,444.00 from the hne item entitled
"Consultant Services" to a newly established line item entitled "Building Lease"
COUNCIL MEETING • - 3 - • February 3, 2010
within the Office of the County Auditor to lease 962 square feet commercial space
for the remainder of the 2009-2010 fiscal year: Mr. Chang moved to receive
C 2010-26 for the record, seconded by Mr. Kawakami.
C 2010-27 Communication (01/22/2010) from the Director of Parks &
Recreation, transmitting for Council consideration, a draft bill amending
Chapter 19, Article 3, Sections 19-3.2 and 19-3.3, of the Kauai County Code 1987,
relating to playing fees and regulation of play at the Wailua Golf Course:
Mr. Chang moved to receive C 2010-27 for the record, seconded by Mr. Kawakami.
C 2010-28 Communication (01/22/2010) from the Director of Finance,
requesting Council consideration of a resolution authorizing the creation of a
Countywide "Recovery Zone" for the purpose of facilitating and complementing the
County's 2010 General Obligation bond issue (Bill No. 2343): Mr. Chang moved to
receive C 2010-28 for the record, seconded by Mr. Kawakami.
Chair Asing: Any discussion?
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, I just want to make some discussion on item
2010-28 to make sure that we understand the intent here is to receive with...at...at
the opportunity to develop a recovery zone. This is potentially to give us a better
tax position with our upcoming bond. And I do believe that the recovery zone
identifies the entire County of Kauai which will deal with declaring our recovery
needs in economic value, including housing, job opportunities and unemployment.
Chair Asing: Yes, thank you. Any further discussion? If not, all
those in favor say aye.
The motion to receive items C 2010-26, C 2010-27, and C 2010-28 was then put, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matters are matters for approval. First
matter for approval is communication C 2010-29.
C 2010-29 Communication (01/13/2010) from the Prosecuting Attorney,
requesting Council approval to expend Office of the Prosecuting Attorney (OPA)
Regular Salary Funds (Account # 001-0401-513.01-01) to supplement salaries for
grant-funded attorneys: Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2010-29, seconded by
Mr. Kawakami, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter for approval is communication
C 2010-30.
C 2010-30 Communication (OU13/2010) from the Executive on Aging,
requesting Council approval for the following:
(1) to receive and expend contract funds of $6,195.80 for the time
period February 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010, from the University of
Hawaii, School of Social Work, to develop the Aging and Disability
Resource Center (ADRC), and
COUNCIL MEETING. - 4 - • Februa 3 2010 .
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(2) to indemnify the University of Hawaii, School of Social Work.
Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2010-30, seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously
carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: At the top of page 3, Mr. Chair, for approval is
communication C 2010-31.
C 2010-31 Communication (01/15/2010) from the Director of Housing,
requesting Council approval for the following:
(1) lowering the leasehold purchase price of Apartment No. 5,
Apopo Hale located at 4914 Aliali Road, #5 (Unit 5, Por. of Lot 14,
Por. Kapa`a Homesteads, 4+~ Series, Kapa`a, Kauai) from
$201,500.00 to $129,000.00, which reflects the leasehold value of
the property in today's market; and
(2) authorizing the County Clerk to sign legal documents related to the
property acquisition.
Chair Asing: Can I have a motion to approve?
Mr. Chang moved to approve C 2010-31, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro.
Chair Asing: Any discussion?
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, I just want to confirm that some kind of
estimate or appraisal was done to get to these prices. You might...Mr. Clerk, would
you know that?
Mr. Nakamura: Yes, it's my understanding that there was and the
copy of the appraisal's on file.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? If not, all
those in favor say aye.
The motion to approve C 2010-31 was then put, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter for approval is communication
C 2010-32.
C 2010-32 Communication (01/20/2010) from the County Engineer,
requesting Council approval to accept a donation of approximately 1,000 cubic yards
of cold planed pavement material from Grace Pacific Corporation, estimated value
$22,100.00, to be used in various future Department of Public Works projects:
Mr. Chang moved to approve C 2010-32 with athank-you letter to follow, seconded
by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
• •
COUNCIL MEETING - 5 - February 3, 2010
Mr. Nakamura: Mr. Chair, if we could move communication
C 2010-33 to the end of the agenda until after the executive session briefing.
Mr. Furfaro: So moved.
Chair Asing: We'll move this to the end of the agenda. Next item
please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter is communication C 2010-34.
C 2010-34 Communication (01/28/2010) from Derek S. K. Kawakami,
President, Hawaii State Association of Counties (HSAC), requesting Council
discussion and action on the following proposals that were approved by the HSAC
Executive Committee on January 19, 2010:
• Approval to consolidate the proposed 2010 HSAC Legislative
Package Bill (HB 2018 and SB 2059) with the Hawaii Council of
Mayors (HCOM) Legislative Package Bill (HB 850, HD1 and
SB 2175) relating to having County representation on the Hawaii
State Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF) Board
of Trustees.
• Approval to support the HCOM Legislative Package Bill (HB 849,
HD1 and SB 2174) relating to having County representation on the
State of Hawaii Employees Retirement (ERS) Board of Trustees.
• Resolution to urge the Governor and State Legislature to Maintain
the Counties' share of the Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT).
Chair Asing: Thank you. What I'd like to do is I'd like to turn
this over to the...Councilmember Kawakami, who is the President of the Hawaii
State Association of Counties. So with that, Councilmember Kawakami.
Mr. Kawakami: Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. And you know what,
we have a sheet that was circulated, kind of explaining the timeline and basically,
what happened was HSAC had a bill to add a representative from the counties to
the EUTF board, that's a health and benefit trust fund board. And just for
everybody's information, this...this trust...this trust board, the total contribution
was $551.7 million of which $128.6 million were contributed by the counties. So we
contributed $128.6 million to this board, yet we have no representation. So any
changes to the health benefits literally leaves the counties in the dark.
What...what has happened is we had a bill, HCOM had a bill which was very
similar. The biggest change is that instead of adding a representative as what
HSAC's proposal was, it just substituted one of the governor's appointees to an
appointee from HCOM. So the Hawaii Council of Mayors would choose a county
representative to sit on this board and represent the counties when these
important decisions are made. The proposal at hand is...is a work in progress.
It's...it's...the efforts between the mayors and the councils to work together, you
know. And so the proposal is to come to a unified piece of legislation and the
proposal, yeah, is that HCOM would select a representative and the confirmation
would come from HSAC. So that vehicle would mean that the name would be
floated to HSAC. HSAC would then...the Executive Board would approve it, of
which that name would be sent to all the respective counties for approval and all
counties would have to approve. So that's the gist of...of the first one.
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COUNCIL MEETING. - 6 - • Februa 3 2010
The second one is very similar. HCOM has a bill and it's to add a
representative to the State of Hawaii Employees Retirement Board of Trustees, so
it's the same scenario. We have no county representation and that...that process
would be identical to the EUTF Board of Trustee appointment.
And finally, I'm asking for your support from HSAC's efforts to adopt a
resolution to urge the governor and state legislature to maintain the counties' share
of the Transient Accommodations Tax and I think that's pretty self-explanatory.
So, if you guys have any questions, I'll be happy to attempt to answer them. If not,
I think that this is pretty straightforward.
Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, I clearly understand the negotiations...
BC, Videographer: Check your mike.
Mr. Furfaro: I clearly understand the negotiations that have
been going on and I wanted to thank you for representing us so well,
Mr. Kawakami. I...I do believe, as I understand it now, the group of mayors will
now look at identifying a particular candidate. The confirmation of that candidate
will come from the counties' councils jointly through the committee that you are the
president of.
Mr. Kawakami: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: And I...so...so much appreciate that we're going to
have that kind of influence. It's unfortunate we couldn't get to the point that we
had our own without the mayors, but it is progress being made.
The other one, I wholeheartedly support this resolution urging the governor
and the state legislators to maintain the counties' share of the TAT tax. I want to
share with my colleagues, we need to make a statement as a body. I...I do not look
favorably on individuals acting in the sense of going to the media and so forth and
pointing fingers at certain legislators. That is totally ineffective. What is effective
is that we jointly let the legislature know our need to keep our share of the
Transient Accommodation Tax. And even if we don't succeed this year, with
perhaps changes in the overall leadership at the governor's level, perhaps we can
have someone who is more sympathetic to understanding the values of keeping
these taxes in our coffers. It is...it is disturbing that certain influential and
powerful legislators that were pointed out in a media piece may interpret those
comments poorly and could jeopardize our long-term position. And here we have an
opportunity with, some patience, to send our message jointly, rather than knowing
whatever the outcome is, later we might have to go to them individually and ask for
funding of other individual pro...projects. This gives us a very solid statement and I
would encourage us all to support it.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Council...Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you, Council Chair.
Chair Asing: (cough) Excuse me.
• •
COUNCIL MEETING - 7 - February 3, 2010
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you, Council Chair. I just wanted to thank
Councilmember Kawakami for his work on this. I think it addresses...the first two
issues address really good points that the county had no representation on either of
these boards, of which we contribute, as you said, a lot of money. So, I appreciate
you taking that on and HSAC doing that.
And I also want to say that I'm in strong support of the resolution to
maintain the TAT. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Mr. Kaneshiro: I...if I may, Mr. Chair, I wanted to concur with our
vice chair, you know, vice chair's comments is that even though the paper printed it
in some manner, as a member of a council here, I want to say for the record that for
us, we haven't taken a position as such and that what Mr. Furfaro has stated is true
is that we will still work diligently to try to make sure that the legislature have us
maintain or try to convince the legis...from not taking the TAT tax. But at the
same point I think we should all do it with all seven members rather than each
person try to make their own opinions and, you know, do statements to the paper
expressing in some way how they felt. And I also would .appreciate i£..if he...if any
one of those members was speaking for themselves, I would appreciate if the paper
would so note so, rather than say, you know, he's a member of a council, so. Just to
set the record straight, you know, I wanted to have that cleared that, you know, just
because one of...or someone puts something to the editor, in no way that reflects all
of our intention and way how we communicate to the legislature. Thank you with
that Mr. Chair.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, I believe we have
Mr. Mickens. The rules are suspended.
There being no objection, the rules were suspended.
GLENN MICKENS: Thank you, Kaipo, for the record Glenn Mickens.
Just a question. Derek, I really appreciate your fighting for the people here on
Kauai with your HSAC. Regarding the TAT tax, supposing that all the counties do,
obviously, and I don't see any reason they wouldn't, vote to keep the TAT tax as
much as Jay's pointed out we need it, desperately need it. Who makes the final
decision on that? Can the...can the...can the governor override the...the counties'
wishes to keep that tax or can that...or who...who makes...who makes that call?
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Kawakami, may I answer that please?
Mr. Kawakami: Sure.
Mr. Furfaro: It is a legislative piece primarily, Glenn. The state
legislature not only determines our share of the TAT, but they also determine of the
dollars put in that fund, what actually goes to fund the Convention Center and so
forth. And that is done by the legislative body. They determine that.
Mr. Mickens: The whole body.
Mr. Furfaro: The whole body.
Mr. Mickens: Okay.
COUNCIL MEETING. - 8 - • Febru 3 2010
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Mr. Furfaro: And in that legislation, they determine it by what
is our portion of the pot. So we first need to understand that currently we get 14.2%
of the pot by the legislators saying that is our fair share.
Mr. Mickens: 14.2% is our share that we keep.
Mr. Furfaro: The legislature says that's how much of the pot we
get.
Mr. Mickens: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: ...after they pay the transi...the Convention Center
and the HTA funding. What is left, they determine that that is our fair share. So it
is possible by speaking as a body we could not lose the entire thing. They could
introduce legislation that reduces our share down to 10%.
Mr. Mickens: So they can take the 14.2% if they so choose. The
legislative body, they can go ahead and take that 14.2 from not just us but
what...from the rest of the counties also?
Mr. Furfaro: The formula, and I could be wrong, is pretty much
as such. After the two operating accounts I just spoke of, what is left, 44.5% goes to
the City & County of Honolulu, I believe, and these are round numbers out of
memory, 19% goes to Maui, 18% goes to the Big Island, and 14.2 comes to us. And I
think they base it on the number of visitor units in their counties. That's what I
think. But that allocation is determined by the legislature. So, by doing a joint
resolution with all the counties, we are basically asking them to consider how very
vital those funds are for us to maintain the visitor (inaudible).
Mr. Mickens: Sure.
Mr. Furfaro: Clearly the fact that parks, public beaches,
recreational areas are operated by the counties, and we need that share because of,
besides the public use, there is the visitor use. So, that is one approach. The
formula can be changed by the legislature introducing that bill. Certainly the
governor then has the ability to earmark in her package if she wants to even do that
at all or...or suggest that the whole piece go away. But of course, the legislature
also needs the majority vote to veto if the governor chooses to do something like
that.
Mr. Mickens: And does she have the power then to be able to
override the legislative part of it. If the leg...if she needs that money to balance the
budget...
Mr. Furfaro: I will refer to the fact that that is in the state
constitution of which I'm more familiar with the county charter. But I wanted to
make sure you understood how we got there.
Mr. Mickens: Right, right.
Mr. Furfaro: And don't give up hope that if they take some, they
could leave the rest for us based on a legislative formula.
Mr. Mickens: But as you said we do need though 14.2% to keep
running our government here, right?
. • •
COUNCIL MEETING - 9 - February 3, 2010
Mr. Furfaro: Well, that's our current share. But I want to make
sure you clearly heard what I said.
Mr. Mickens: Yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: We need to look uniformed, uniformed. It doesn't
help us when we portray aggressive and powerful legislators as doing something
because they have that power. We needed to say that in a message, not only as a
body for the Kauai County, but as all county councils. And I think that's what
Mr. Kawakami has worked out for us in this resolution. Whatever the outcome, we
want to be on understanding terms...understanding terms with the legislature
because we used to, before the TAT tax and I think Mr. Asing knows this better
than I, we used to get a county subsidy solely at the discretion of the legislature. So
we need to make sure they know it's an important issue and we want to work
together as a whole body.
Mr. Mickens: Is that subsidy part of the TAT tax?
Mr. Furfaro: That was...no, no. Well, that's how they see it.
The subsidy went away from the state once we began taking...
Mr. Mickens: I see.
Mr. Furfaro: ...our portion of the TAT. But before the TAT, we
used to get an allocation to the counties. I hope I've answered your question.
Mr. Mickens: Yes, thank you very much, Jay. And again, thank
you, Derek. Hope you can...keep voicing your opinion there so we can get that TAT
tax.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, Councilmember Kaneshiro.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Glenn, I...I also wanted to add that recently, you
know, the governor has changed her position where her current...well previous
budget sessions she had supported the counties keeping the TAT. But if you look at
the situation they're in right now with a $1.4 billion deficit, she has changed her
position also. And I know, you know, she originally came from Maui County as a
mayor and she probably realized how hard it is for the other counties to be able to
balance their budget without that moneys there, but at the same time she took a
strong position also that they want to raid the TAT, so.
Mr. Mickens: And that was basically my point too asking
whether she can, in fact, override the legislature and decide she wants to take that
point fourteen (.14) from Kauai and all the rest of them. She can wa...can she do
that? Does she have the power?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Well, I...I believe she can, but she's taken a
different position now where she's saying we need to take it too. The governor has
made that, you know, statement, so...
Mr. Mickens: Okay.
COUNCIL MEETING. - 10 - • Februa 3, 2010
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Mr. Kaneshiro: ...at the same time, but I think it's a good dialogue
and it's important for people like you and everyone here that hears this that we
need to contact our legislators and, you know, even the governor too and let them
know how important the TAT is to us.
Mr. Mickens: By calling Gary and calling...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely, absolutely.
Mr. Mickens: Okay.
Chair Asing: Okay, with that, Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Glenn, I...I'm...I'm going to take the portion of the
allocation...I'm going to xerox that page for you. I was off by maybe half a point or
so forth but that's the general allocation.
Mr. Mickens: That's okay.
Mr. Furfaro: And...and the other thing I want to share with you
is, you know, we have our legislative team. I quite frankly think that, you know,
Senator Hooser in the Senate and so forth, I mean they were looking at our portion
of the TAT last year.
Mr. Mickens: Right.
Mr. Furfaro: Our legislative group and Senator Hooser's made it
very clear he doesn't favor taking it. But we have, you know, we have those four
that last year suc...successfully kind of headed this off, you know. And I...I didn't
want to go without recognizing last year's efforts by our legislative team and in
particular...
Mr. Mickens: But then I do presume Honolulu has a greater voice
than Kauai, right? So, if they...they take it away, they still control more than we
do, right?
Mr. Furfaro: I...I...I think that's true, but what we want to
make sure is we have a resolution that sends a message to our legislative team.
That's...I got to tell you Senator Hooser's been very successful in this last year, but
it tells our team, here's our position, we want to work with you and you then have to
work for tho...with those other what's so-called influential teams.
Mr. Mickens: Sure.
Mr. Furfaro: We want to make their job reasonable and objective o
too...
Mr. Mickens: Right.
Mr. Furfaro: ...by doing this legislation.
Mr. Mickens: Right.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
- - • Febru 3 2010
COUNCIL MEETING 11 ary ,
Mr. Mickens: Thank you, Daryl.
Chair Asing: Thank you. The meeting is called back to order.
Any further discussion on this item? Councilmember Kawakami.
There being no one else wishing to speak on this matter, the meeting was called
back to order, and proceeded as follows:
Mr. Kawakami: I just want to add too, that, you know, I stated
before when we came with the legislative package that we're really getting back to
our grassroots as far as HSAC's mission and it's to be an effective liaison between
state and county governments and there's many avenues we can take. Some people
ask, you know, why we're not introducing more bills. That's not the approach we
wanted to take at this time. We wanted to remain focused, like the laser beam, on
the issues at hand and to be a resource for our state representatives and senators.
And you know, everything that went around the table is all...is all very true. You
know the people of Kauai, the people of the State of Hawaii, they don't want the
finger pointing, yeah. They don't want the blame game. They want...they want
solutions. They want problem solving and I think the worst thing we can do is
jeopardize that line of communication at this time. I mean our line of
communication between the state and counties are pretty open right now. You
know, when things come up that affect the counties for the most part, they seek
some data from us. How is it going to affect the counties? And that's truly what we
envisioned as HSAC's role, is to be that liaison, to be that source of information, to
be seen as a resource and I'm just asking that we, you know, continue to foster that
open communication with them. We realize they're in a difficult position. I think
Vice Chair Furfaro brings up an excellent point, you know. All our Kauai
delegation with Representative Morita, Representative Sagum,
Representative Tokioka and Senator Hooser all fought hard for Kauai County and I
really want to say that Representative Tokioka really...he took this issue last
legislative session and he made it a priority and he fought hard to preserve that for
the counties in spite of the fact that there are tough...they're faced with some of the
toughest decisions that they're probably going to make in their life while they battle
this economic downturn. So I just want to give a big mahalo...a big mahalo to all of
you because you guys, you know, all sent in testimony. You guys all had your voices
heard and so, thank you very much and we look forward to the continued support as
we move forward. Mahalo.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: And Mr. Chair, I just personally also and I think all
the members here want to thank Councilman Kawakami for his fine work in his
first year, which...with HSAC, and I just want to say thank you very much.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Councilmember Chang.
Mr. Chang: Thank you, Chair. You know I...I appreciate
listening to this dialogue and I want to start it and end it by thanking our president
of our HSAC, Kaua`i's own, our fellow Councilmember Kawakami. I don't really
realize if people know how hard he works and, you know, goes back and forth to
Honolulu. But interesting names that popped up, we talked a little bit about
Representative Tokioka and Senator Hooser and Councilmember Kaneshiro
mentioned that of course our Governor Lingle used to be the mayor of Maui, but I
think if we go a little further, if I'm not mistaken, she was also a Councilmember of
Molokai. And there are a lot of people in the state legislature right now that
COUNCIL MEETING. - 12 - ~ February 3, 2010
understands the counties and the plight of the counties. But one of the things that I
hope the general public realizes is that many of us on this table here have bona fide,
true personal great, great hanabutta day relationships with many of the members
of the legislature and our senate and they're going under so much pressure right
now that to me it's very rewarding when you would go up and just shake hands and
hug somebody and hold their hands and ask about their families and not really be
full on aggressive because they know what we're going through, they know what
we're asking for and I think as our president here with HSAC has said, together
unified with all of our counties, this is the right way to go at this, by being together
and by being as one because I believe that the state knows what our plight is if we
lose the TAT tax and of course we won't know that for several months, but we still
have to aggressively hope that we can keep, you know, certainly a portion if not all.
But we'll continue to work on that together as one...as one voice and, you know,
again, I do want to end it because you know for the first year for
Councilmember Kawakami to be the president of HSAC, I have to tell you, on a
personal note, I know that he is working diligently and I want to, you know, say this
in public, Councilmember Kawakami, you are working very, very hard and you
make Kauai real proud because whenever we talk to our legislators, they pass it
down to say that you know you're giving your best effort for not only our council
floor here, but certainly for the members of Kauai and Niihau, so thank you very
much, Councilmember Kawakami.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, Councilmember Kawakami.
Mr. Kawakami: Well, thank you, but all the mahalos are a little
premature because we gotta wait and see if these things pass and that we save our
TAT and if we don't, then you know what? I might be fired from my job. But...so
you guys putting the pressure on, but you know it would behoove me to also leave
out the HCOM, yeah, the council of mayors. They've been working with HSAC and
we really appreciate it because, you know, sometimes, you know, it would be easy to
have friction, but that's not the case with HCOM. I think we both recognize the
need to come to compromise and they've been working diligently and, you know, the
whole staff on HCOM, our mayor Bernard Carvalho, he is...he's up there working
his butt off also, so, you know, as well as all of you guys, so thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion. If not, I just
want to add a few things. I concur with all of the things that were said this
morning regarding this issue. I...I'd also like to say that I don't think that many in
the public realize also that besides trying to get and do this with a team effort,
which we are trying to do and have been doing all along, there are many members
of this council that have sacrificed themselves going over personally at their own
expense to meet and talk to legislators. I'm talking about key legislators to try to
convince them to do whatever they can to preserve the TAT tax and I'm not sure
that the public knows that, you know, many members of this council have gone over
there on their personal time as well as time for council to meet with key members of
the legislature to try to persuade them to retain the TAT tax for us, yeah. It's not
going to be easy. It's a very, very difficult, difficult situation. Knowing the
condition of the state right now, the decision making is completely with the
legislature. It's in their hands. And whatever they say is what is going to happen
and we need to work together with them and just explain our plight and the
problems that we face and we need help too. So with that, thank you very much. I
don't believe we have a motion. Am I correct?
Mr. Nakamura: We don't have a motion yet, Mr. Chair.
- - ~ Febru 3 2010
COUNCIL MEETING 13 ary ,
Chair Asing: Can I have a motion to approve.
Mr. Nakamura: Mr. Chair, just for the record, I wonder if the
council could take these matters item by item for approval?
Chair Asing: Why don't we take the first item and we'll do the
three items, so the first item, please. Peter, why don't you read the first item and
then we'll have the motion and the approval process.
Mr. Nakamura: The first item from the Hawaii State Association of
Counties is approval to consolidate proposed 2010 Hawaii State Association of
Counties Legislative Package Bill (HB 2018 and SB 2059) with the Hawaii Council
of Mayors Legislative Package Bill (HB 850, HD1 and SB 2175) relating to having
county representation on the Hawaii State Employee Union Health Benefits Trust
Fund Board of Trustees. This would be a proposal to consolidate and support joint
Hawaii State Association of Counties and Hawaii Council of Mayors legislation.
• Approval to consolidate the proposed 2010 HSAC Legislative
Package Bill (HB 2018 and SB 2059) with the Hawaii Council of
Mayors (HCOM) Legislative Package Bill (HB 850, HD1 and
SB 2175) relating to having County representation on the Hawaii
State Employer-Union health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF) Board of
Trustees: Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of this item, seconded by
Ms. Kawahara, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter in the Hawaii State Association of
Counties package for approval is a request to approve support of the Hawaii
Council of Mayors Legislative Package Bill (HB 849, HD1 and SB 2174) relating to
having County representation on the State of Hawaii Employees Retirement
System (ERS) Board of Trustees. This would be a proposal to add this issue to the
HSAC, Hawaii State Association of Counties package and to support joint Hawaii
State Association of Counties and Hawaii Council of Mayors legislation.
• Approval to support the HCOM Legislative Package Bill (HB 849,
HD1 and SB 2174) relating to having County representation on the
State of Hawaii Employees Retirement (ERS) Board of Trustees:
Mr. Furfaro moved to approve this item, seconded by
Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item.
Mr. Nakamura: The last matter from the Hawaii State Association
of Counties is a request to endorse the resolution to urge the governor and the state
legislature to maintain the counties' share of the transient accommodation tax.
• Resolution to urge the Governor and State Legislature to Maintain
the Counties' share of the Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT):
Mr. Chang moved to approve this item, seconded by Mr. Furfaro,
and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: With that, we are through with communication
2010-34. Can we have the next item, please?
COUNCIL MEETING - 14 - ~ February 3, 2010
Mr. Nakamura: Next item is a claim. This is communication
2010-35, which is a claim filed against the county by Alex Sagucio.
CLAIMS:
C 2010-35 Communication (01/20/2010) from the County Clerk,
transmitting a claim filed against the County of Kauai by Alex Sagucio for his son's
loss of personal property, pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the County
of Kauai: Mr. Furfaro moved to refer C 2010-35 to the County Attorney's Office for
disposition and/or report back to the Council, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matters for approval are committee reports.
" From your committee on Planning, committee report CR-PL 2010-05.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
PLANNING COMMITTEE REPORT:
A report (No. CR-PL 2010-05) submitted by the Planning Committee,
recommending that the following be received for the record:
"PL 2010-1 Communication (12/30/2009) from Councilmember
Tim Bynum, requesting time for a presentation by Keith Nitta on
Bill No. 2339, relating to Development Standards in the Open District,"
Mr. Kaneshiro moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: From your committee on Public Works/Elderly
Affairs, committee report CR-PWE 2010-02 and CR-PWE 2010-03.
PUBLIC WORKS/ELDERLY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE REPORTS:
A report (No. CR-PWE 2010-02) submitted by the Public Works/Elderly
Affairs Committee, recommending that the following be received for the record:
"PWE 2010-1 Communication (01/21/2010) from Tim Bynum,
Committee Chair, requesting agenda time for "Zero Waste Kauai" to provide
a presentation regarding the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan
Update (Resolution 2009-71),"
Mr. Chang moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and
unanimously carried.
A report (No. CR-PWE 2010-03) submitted by the Public Works/Elderly
Affairs Committee, recommending that the following be approved as amended on
second and final reading:
•
COUNCIL MEETING - 15 - February 3, 2010
"Resolution No. 2009-71, RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE
INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN UPDATE FOR THE
COUNTY OF KAUA`I,"
Mr. Chang moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and
unanimously carried. (See later for Resolution No. 2009-71, Draft 1)
Chair Asng: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter for approval are resolutions. First
resolution is Resolution No. 2009-71, Draft 1.
RESOLUTIONS:
Resolution No. 2009-71, Draft 1, RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE
INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN UPDATE FOR THE
COUNTY OF KAUAI: Mr. Furfaro moved for adoption of Resolution No. 2009-71,
Draft 1, seconded by Ms. Kawahara.
Chair Asing: I believe we have an...let's have Glenn up first. I'd
like to suspend the rules, Glenn.
There being no objection, the rules were suspended.
GLENN MICKENS: Thank you again, Kaipo, for the record Glenn
Mickens. You have a copy of my testimony, it's not long. Let me read it please for
the record. I basically support Reso. 2009-71 and approve of it even more with Tim
and Lani's floor amendment, which I like very much. I completely agree with this
addition to the reso that states, "Prior to encumbering any additional funds or
implementing any actions relating to waste-to-energy, the full extent of the council's
diversion potential shall be developed and assessed." And in my opinion I still can't
understand why this administration and this council does not embrace the wise
words and direction that John Harder wants to go to solve our solid waste problems.
In fact, why doesn't someone in authority find the 1994 integrated solid waste plan
that John helped to structure, maybe upgrade it and put it into action. I talked to
John a little bit about it and he said, I don't know, he didn't know what happened to
it. It was on a shelf someplace probably gathering dust. Again, I'm not trying to
criticize the R.W. Beck plan as it had some good material in it, but from my
observations, they seem to be leaning heavily on the waste-to-energy concept,
whereas the more recent view is to use the three Rs: reduce, recycle and reuse,
which John advocates. As John said, other municipalities such as Maui and
San Francisco are diverting 60% and 70% of their waste, whereas we are asking to
go to 35% in five years. I believe that we are diverting about~Tay you can correct
me-25% now, so increasing this amount by about 10% in five years, for me, would
be unacceptable. In summary, I can only say that this county is extremely
fortunate to have a true solid waste person like John Harder volunteering his
expertise to alleviate our waste problem. Why not hire this man and really rely on
his guidance? Any questions? I'm not...you know, I'm not a...
Chair Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Mickens: I'm not a spokesperson for...for John Harder. I'm
just (inaudible)...it's just my...I know I sound like...
COUNCIL MEETING. - 16 - • Febru 3 2010
~'3' ,
Mr. Furfaro: When we...when you say why don't we hire John
Harder...
Mr. Mickens: Yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: ...and solve it, and then the next voice you say
you're not an advocate?
Mr. Mickens: No, no, no, I mean I'm not his press agent or
something. I just...I only know him from a distance and I've seen what he's done. I
saw him under a...before under JoAnn's administration as a true solid waste
expert.
Mr. Kaneshiro: After the hurricane.
Mr. Mickens: After the hurricane, yeah, whatever. But you
know, I know that he cleaned up Saipan and I know he's been on Maui and he's got
some...well, you heard his...I don't have to go and he wanted...his testimony was
here before this council and I think he has the expertise to really help us bury
ourselves out of this hole. But to say that, you know, the plan now going from what
25% to 35% in five years? I...I just think that's ludicrous.
Chair Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Mickens: Thank you very much.
Mr. Chang: I've got a question for him.
Chair Asing: Yeah, go ahead.
Mr. Chang: Thank you. Glenn, in your testimony it says that
John said that other municipalities such as Maui and San Francisco, so let's just
say Maui, are diverting 60% to 70% of their waste. Is that...are you making
reference that they're...
Mr. Mickens: Just to his testimony. I thought I heard him say
that Maui was up to 60% and San Francisco is now up to 70% of diverting their
waste.
Mr. Chang: As we speak?
Mr. Mickens: Yeah, well I thought that's what I heard. I could be
wrong, but I thought I heard John Harder say that, yeah, and I think somebody on
the council was asking, what was the time span that like Maui is up to 60%. I...I
didn't hear that.
Mr. Furfaro: Because there wasn't an answer.
Chair Asing: Go ahead, Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes. Oh yes, I'm sorry, my apologies.
Mr. Chang: I just...I just wanted to...because our...if I'm not
mistaken, our consultant had...because I remember asking how do...how do they do
60% to 70% and we're at this conservative 35%.
•
COUNCIL MEETING - 17 - February 3, 2010
Mr. Mickens: Right.
Mr. Chang: And he...he seriously doubted that they would get
up to 60% to 70%. So, I'm just...my question, I guess, was I was asking to you,
you're not saying that as we speak Maui is diverting at least 60% right now.
Mr. Mickens: No, I thought, Dickie, I thought that's what I heard
John make that statement that they were diverting 60%, maybe, but you know, if
I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But what you're saying then that Maui is not diverting 60%
at this stage of the game.
Mr. Chang: As we speak I don't believe so.
Mr. Mickens: Okay.
Mr. Chang: I don't even think that they're anywhere close to
50%, but again I could be wrong and we can find out.
Mr. Mickens: Right, right.
Mr. Chang: Thank you.
Chair Asing: Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: I think you realize that someone from the council
asked the question, I think you know it was me, okay. I compared the two plans.
Here are the differences. There is a thought out there that the Maui plan is 70%.
That is not true. The Maui plan is 60%.
Mr. Mickens: John said that, Jay. He did...he
corrected...somebody said 70, he said I said, he said 60.
Mr. Furfaro: Let me...let me...let me share that again because
you're saying it again here perhaps it gets confusing for people. The Maui plan is
not 70% is how I directed it at John and John agreed with me. That question came
from me. I compared the plans. I reviewed it with solid waste. Their plan is 60.
Mr. Mickens: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: Their plan has no time agenda tied to that 60. He
concurred with me. It doesn't say 60 in five years, 60 in ten years, it just says the
goal. I suggested that we might do a separate resolution that identifies our plan as
maybe needing to go to 50, put some more reach into it. But our plan is about
complying to the state requirement to give afive-year plan updating the old plan,
okay, updating. This is not a new plan. The state requires to update our plan every
five years. I agree that maybe we should be looking, in the future with more
discussion with public works, about being more aggressive and 50% for ten years or
something of that nature. But the first thing I wanted to correct was the Maui plan
was 60% and it's not date specific. It is not date specific.
The other particular piece, I think and John agreed, is we talked about our
curbside recycling and so forth, and they also say they are not looking at a pilot
program, they want to see us get started. Our problem is we've only funded for a
MRF, we don't have one. So, we needed to maybe do a comparison if we collected
recyclables and we had to send them to the mainland.
COUNCIL MEETING. - 18 - ~ February 3, 2010
The other part of our plan is there is high emphasis on diversion and
recycling, but waste-to-energy comes in as a third option. Do we want to close that
door now? Tim's resolution said close it for five years. I don't think this council has
the authority, quite frankly, to pass resolutions for more than the year that this
body is in office. We can't direct a policy that two elections from now a new council
might see differently. I don't know if that's a wise approach. Therefore, I thought
in terms of amending that to say we should consider, that was Dickie's and Tim's
amendment.
The other thing is we need to closely watch the Energy Sustainability Plan
we have and as we talk, that plan is changing because of public input. Fifty cents
on fuel is probably very unrealistic, but let's let those individuals that are
participating in that say to us what is the real reach. Eight to nine percent subsidy
for the bus...not enough, you know, so we got to massage that, especially if we're
charging a subsidy. It said 40...45 megawatts of water, that's what the plan said
from hydro. That's a...unobtainable. It's probably more like 22. So why would we
want to start closing doors on other options no matter how unpopular they are.
Now as to hiring John, he can apply. That's not this council's...he can apply.
He could solicit support letters of recommendation, not necessarily appropriate, but
he could. But that's an administrative decision and I just want to clear that with
you, Glenn. That...that's not our council's decision.
Mr. Mickens: What...what diversion rate are we at now? Are we
at 25%? Is that what we're diverting now?
Mr. Furfaro: I...I think we're somewhere in-between there, but I
think John is correct. The biggest part that we can get to quicker deals with how
we handle green waste.
Mr. Mickens: And you...I presume you wouldn't be satisfied going
from 25 that we are now, in five years to 35.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Mickens, did you hear what I said and I said it
that day too? I would maybe look at maybe a resolution that takes us to at least
50...
Mr. Mickens: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: as a policy statement.
Mr. Mickens: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: But we're talking about the plan not being the final
item, but the delivery of the package is required of us by the state.
Mr. Mickens: But that's what R.W. Beck's recommendation...
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, and I also will correct you, you said R.W. Beck
was $600,000. It's not, it was $300,000, you know.
Mr. Mickens: For this particular plan.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes.
COUNCIL MEETING - 19 - February 3, 2010
Mr. Mickens: But not before. We gave them seven years ago...
Mr. Furfaro: I understand, but...
Mr. Mickens: ...another $300,000 and they (inaudible) after that.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Mickens, let's talk about apples and oranges at
another discussion. We are required to update the plan. The old plan cost us
$300,000.
Mr. Mickens: Right.
Mr. Furfaro: This update, which is mandated to us, right?
Mr. Mickens: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Now, I don't want to disagree with you. I think
Mr. Harder is a very talented guy. I think waste...Zero Waste has a lot to offer, but
that decision needs to go through to the administration. Our goal here is to say
here's the plan as they laid it out. It is an update, but it is not, as I was talking
about the Energy Sustainability piece, it's not absolute right now.
Mr. Mickens: Right.
Mr. Furfaro: It...it's got to be tweaked. I agree with that. But if
our hydro statement is too high, well, that's got to be tweaked, you know. If our
diversion number is too low, that's got to be tweaked. But we can do that by
making a policy statement for each council. So, I'm not disagreeing with you, but
I'm trying not to close all options. This is a big issue.
Chair Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Mickens: Yeah, well, I'm...I agree. I think you're right. I
don't think any option should be closed. I just thought that R.W. Beck was more on
the waste-to-energy burning process than the current attitude happens to be.
Chair Asing: Thank...thank you, Glenn.
Mr. Mickens: Then, okay, thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: I hope I clarified your...
Mr. Mickens: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: ...items.
Chair Asing: Is there anyone else who wants to talk on this
item? If not, I'd like to call the meeting back to order. We have a motion to
approve. I believe we have an amendment.
There being no one else wishing to speak on this item, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
COUNCIL MEETING - 20 - ~ Febru 3 2010
~'Y
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yes, Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity. I do
have a floor amendment. As noted on the record, I wasn't here when the current
resolution was passed. I was out-of-state, we were doing county business and now I
would like to introduce my amendment and basically, it's the floor amendment that
has been circulated. So at this time I would like to introduce an amendment and
have a second on it.
Chair Asing: Thank you, can I have a second to the amendment.
Mr. Chang: Second to...for the purpose of discussion?
Chair Asing: Yes.
Mr. Chang: I second the motion.
Mr. Kaneshiro moved to amend Resolution 2009-71, as shown in the
Floor Amendment attached hereto (Attachment No. 1), seconded by Mr. Chang.
Chair Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, with that, basically my amendment
specifically states that when we talk about waste-to-energy I did not want the
possibility of leaving the options not open. As Mr. Mickens just stated before he
left, we need to have the options, we need to look at options. And basically my
amendment allows this to happen with waste-to-energy. It specifically states that
"Be it further resolved, that prior to implementing programs relating to waste-to-
energy, the County's diversion potential or impact to the landfill capacity should be
reevaluated." So, basically, it leaves the option open and I believe, you know, we
need to do that as...and I can tell you again, Mr. Mickens made a statement
agreeing that we need to have options open and you know, nobody knows what's
going to happen 6 years from now. Nobody knows what's going to happen 12 years
from now. There may be some, you know, really innovative way where the cost of
changing or doing waste-to-energy is not as high as what was shown to be...as what
the report shows to be. You know, there may be many other circumstances that
could occur. We could be hit with another hurricane. I mean, we don't want that to
happen and then all of a sudden all of our recycling efforts we've been doing and
we're hit with non-recyclable items. Are we not looking at something like this? Are
we not looking to reduce the diversion efforts to the landfill? I think, you know, my
amendment is not a very...if you look at it, it doesn't...it gives the opportunity...it
gives us the opportunity to continue to look for options and I believe that...I read
the amendment that was introduced prior to me introducing this amendment and if
you read that amendment closely, basically it says that prior to encumbering any
additional funds or implementing any actions relating to waste-to-energy, the full
extent of the County's diversion potential should be assessed. What is the full
extent? I don't see an answer to that, so I think my amendment is a good
amendment that would leave those options open for the people of Kauai.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any further discussion?
Councilmember Chang.
Mr. Chang: Thank you. Councilmember Kaneshiro, for the
benefit of those that are in the chambers and the viewing audience, can you once
again slowly read your...your amendment, please.
• • 2 1
COUNCIL MEETING - 21 - February 3, 0 0
Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely, Mr. Chang. My amendment specifically
states that "Be it further resolved that prior to implementing programs relating to
waste-to-energy, the County's diversion potential or impact to the landfill capacity
should be reevaluated."
Mr. Chang: Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any further discussion?
Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you, Chair Asing. Councilmember
Kaneshiro, I was wondering if you could tell me what the difference was between
assessed and reevaluated and why you changed that...why you're proposing to
change that.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Why I think because...you could use assessed, but I
felt that reevaluated would be a good way to look at whether our landfill capacity or
how big of an impact it is. Whether assessed or reevaluated is an issue, I have no
problem with changing back to assessed if need be. I mean, it...it...in particular,
you know...I have no problem with either way.
Ms. Kawahara: Oh, okay, just curious, and I'm not done. The
other question I have is because you're taking out the encumbering any additional
funds...for what reason...and...because you put programs in instead? Is that why?
Mr. Kaneshiro: I think I stated my position that in case we get hit
with something that we never know what may happen, this here, when you pass a
resolution like this, now regardless if, you know, the intent is to look at other
options, it prohibits the administration or the council for looking and evaluating
other options or even putting money or additional funds if there are other options
that need to be.
Mr. Nakamura: I...I'm sorry, Council Chair. I wonder if we could
ask...if we could take a short recess. We...we just have a...we have to replace a...
Chair Asing: No problem.
Mr. Nakamura: Yeah, and we can take the...the caption break...
Chair Asing: We'll take the caption break now, thank you.
There being no objection, the Chair recessed the meeting at 10:46 a.m. The meeting
reconvened at 11:04 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Asing: The meeting is now called back to order. We have
an amendment on the floor. Is there any further discussion? Yes,
Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, as I mentioned earlier, you know, I...I...I'm
close to the energy sustainability piece that we're working out in committee and I
think as they in Mr. Costa's office got feedback, you know, it certainly was to
identify the need to evaluate, you know, a lot of those...those numbers, especially
when it came to production. You know, I think that plan said 12...12 megawatts
was coming from biomass, 40...42 coming from hydroelectric, 18 potentially from
photovoltaic. It didn't include wind, although we perhaps will have something on
COUNCIL MEETING. - 22 - • February 3, 2010
the council agenda that talks about wind in the agricultural areas, and it did not
touch on waste-to-energy. That's not...those wind and waste-to-energy is not in
those...but it is an ongoing development and these things are constantly being
reevaluated. And I think the feedback that they got from the community indicated
that, you know, hydro might be too high, photovoltaic with their recent
announcement may be too low, but it is a constant evaluation, and so I actually like
the choice of the words that are in Mr. Kaneshiro's amendment and I also like using
the terms on programs. What I just mentioned with, you know, biomass and hydro
and...you know, they all have their...their issues. I mean, obviously hydro has
issues that deal with fish and snails and wind has its issues with wildlife, you know
fowls, birds under...with...under federal regulations. So, I like this. You know, I
don't think we're at a point and that's why I changed the shall to should last time
around because I think, you know, there's a constant reevaluation here to come out
with the best item. So, I kind of like the choice of the words that you put in your
amendment, Mr. Kaneshiro.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: You know what mister...
Chair Asing: Any further discussion?
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah, I didn't get to finish before we went to that
thing.
Chair Asing: Go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Oh, I'm sorry, let me extend you an apology.
Ms. Kawahara: No, that's okay. No, it wasn't...it's not your fault.
Mr. Furfaro: I...we came back from recess and I raised my hand.
I'm sorry.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah, I know, thank you, thank you. Just
a...just...I wanted to ask, so we're taking out any terminology relating to additional
funds. Is that right? For using to...as a purse string.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Are...are you asking me a question or you're
making a statement?
Ms. Kawahara: I guess I should address it to the chair and ask you
if I can talk to Mr. Kaneshiro.
Mr. Kaneshiro: No, no, I'm just saying, is that a question?
Chair Asing: You can do whatever you want to do.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah, so what was the importance to you for...for
having that taken out specifically because obviously it was important to you to
remove it and change it instead to programs.
•
COUNCIL MEETING - 23 - February 3, 2010
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah, I don't think we should put it to a point
where that no additional funds should even go to, you know, these areas if need be.
I mean, what is the purpose of that? Why...can you explain to me your purpose
then of encumbering any additional funds?
Ms. Kawahara: To not encumber, yeah, before...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah.
Ms. Kawahara: Mostly because I think it's a stopgap measure, so
that we have a stopping point to, as you say, reevaluate what the waste stream is
before we even put in our limited resources or moneys into anything else that
might, you know, be an option. I again, I know you weren't here, but it did...
Mr. Kaneshiro: - So...
Ms. Kawahara: ...come about whether or not there were options.
Mr. Kaneshiro: All right. So let's say we need simply to hire
someone to do a real small reevaluation. Under your current amendment, that
would prohibit that.
Ms. Kawahara: A reevaluation of the waste diversion program.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely.
Ms. Kawahara: No, it says...it's specifically connected to waste-to-
energy. The encumberment would be specifically as it's stated in the amendment is
specifically for waste-to-energy.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Absolutely and that's what I'm saying. Under your
amendment, this would prohibit any reevaluation process to happen.
Ms. Kawahara: Of what?
Mr. Kaneshiro: If you read your amendment, that prior to
providing any additional funds, before we can reevaluate...
Ms. Kawahara: Uh-huh.
Mr. Kaneshiro: That prior to do any of that, you know, I think this
should be left where we could do that so we can reevaluate. What if you need...
Ms. Kawahara: Unless...unless
Mr. Kaneshiro: ...you need to hire someone to reevaluate the
process?
Ms. Kawahara: To reevalu...my...I guess my...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Where are you going to get the money from?
Ms. Kawahara: I'm confused because we're talking about...
COUNCIL MEETING. - 24 - • February 3, 2010
Mr. Kaneshiro: I'm talking about finance (inaudible), where are we
going to get the money from to do that?
Ms. Kawahara: What are you wanting to use the money for? To
reevaluate what?
Mr. Kaneshiro: If you want to reevaluate any of this? What about
the diversion potential?
Ms. Kawahara: No, that is part, that's part of what's in before we
spend any money. The reevaluation comes in before we spend money. Just as...I
don't know...because best practice...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Can we have staff please maybe meet with Lani
and exp...
Ms. Kawahara: No, no, I...I can read. That's exactly what it says.
Mr. Kaneshiro: All right, well fine.
Ms. Kawahara: The amendment says, before you...
Mr. Kaneshiro: How you interpret that and how I interpret...okay.
Ms. Kawahara: ...look at anything related to waste-to-energy...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah.
Ms. Kawahara: That's when we will say, we would like to have a
reevaluation of the waste diversion process and how much is being diverted.
There's a total difference between a program...spending a program for waste-to-
energy study versus a program to evaluate at five years how much diversion we're
going to have.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Well, you know, I feel comfortable...
Ms. Kawahara: So that's my...that's my wonder.
Mr. Kaneshiro: ...thinking about, you know, how we can handle
this. You interpret it differently. I interpret it different. Who knows what council
we're going to have here then that can interpret it into a strictly different manner
that says because there aren't any money appropriated to do any of this, we can't do
that. So, I'm real basic. You know I'm thinking in basic terms, I'm just, you know,
I'm not a layman.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, so...
Mr. Kaneshiro: I think we should just call for the vote.
Ms. Kawahara: I...I'm curious. Does everybody under...is
everybody under the impression that...that you can't do a study of the waste di...of
the diversion of the waste?
Chair Asing: Councilmember, are you through?
COUNCIL MEETING • - 25 - • February 3, 2010
Ms. Kawahara: No.
Chair Asing: Go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, I want to continue.
Mr. Kawakami: You just asked a question, so.
Chair Asing: Go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: Forget the question. My understanding is that this
is something...we're just trying to say before we move on anything that includes
waste-to-energy that we actually assess what has happened in five years with the
waste diversion program. It's quite simple. So, my question was exactly that. Why
wouldn't we want to stop before we do a big ticket item like waste-to-energy study
to evaluate where we are in five years with the waste diversion program? We have
business people here and I thought that...I don't know...I would like to be able to
know exactly how much we've diverted before we even look at anything else to be
able to tell what are the things we can do. I also don't understand this idea that the
amendment from last week took away options. So, I...I don't under...I guess...yeah,
I don't understand why we need to change it because it's pretty straight forward.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, thank you. Councilwoman, let me...let me
share with you last week's conversation. I had not previously seen that amendment
until it was actually passed out, and...the one introduced by Mr. Bynum.
Ms. Kawahara: (Inaudible) you weren't here?
Mr. Furfaro: No, I...that's the first time I saw it.
Ms. Kawahara: Oh, okay, yeah, me too.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, and Mr. Bynum looked across the table kind
of looking for me to second it, and if you recall what I said was I'm not going to
second anything I haven't been able to read and digest. After what I saw in that
piece, it said we shall not spend and I'm not sure in my mind I'm deviating from
what the plan said we should do to maximize diversion, but at the same time, I
couldn't agree that I shall support not spending any money going forward. And I'm
a pretty smart guy when it comes to money, you know. I...I see the plan as one that
really says we've got to do all these things first, okay. And so now, within that time
I offer to amend Dickie's and Mr. Bynum's amendment to say should...
Ms. Kawahara: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: And I agree with should, but I think these two
words here, looking at all programs, which, you know, we haven't completed yet
with the energy sustainability study we've got in motion at the same time versus
what we just have in the solid waste plan. So I like these words, you know, looking
at all programs and reevaluating. To me that reevaluating is for...for everything,
including...I mean I don't know where the two lines cross diversion and the landfill
COUNCIL MEETING. - 26 - • February 3, 2010
getting full quicker than we know. So, I just say I'm more comfortable with this in
saying, yeah, this gives us the options to reevaluate the landfill, the programs, the
sustainability plan, you know, it's all in there and I guess I would say and I think I
said this last week, why would we want to tie our hands with the word shall not. I
would think we'd want to leave our options open. That...that's where I'm coming
from, Lani.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any further discussion?
Councilmember Kawakami.
Mr. Kawakami: No and this is good discussion, but you know, for
me it was always about keeping the options open, yeah. I mean if anybody recalls,
you know, we had an HSAC convention on Kauai that we hosted of which we had
two companies come in and give us a briefing on the emerging technologies in the
waste-to-energy field and solid waste management process that's going through and
we had a company called Z-gen that came in and you know, they said that the
models are scaling down, they're getting smaller, so it may be one day appropriate
for a small community like Kauai. You know, after we divert everything, what do
we do with the end result? And so it may be appropriate. But the movement, the
studies...have to begin now because it takes a long while, you know, to even get
these things permitted. I mean, we're all going to be, you know, if we're lucky to get
re-elected, we're going to be termed out before any movement happens anyway. We
had a company called Z-gen come in, we had a company called Waste Management
come in, give a presentation, and based on EPA, Environmental Protection Agency,
waste-to-energy in the United States avoids the release of 30 million tons of CO2
per year. So these are all factors in that we should be considering.
You know the other factor, when you look at the big picture, is we have this
landfill siting community advisory group that may or may not be instructing the
department to go and look into these other technologies including waste-to-energy.
And so, you know, what are we going to do? Disregard the advice from a community
advisory group? No, we cannot do that, you know.
And I want to go back to the...the title of this plan, the Integrated Solid
Waste Management Plan. Integrated means combining or coordinating separate
elements so as to provide an integrated whole; to bring together or incorporate parts
of a whole and that means that the diligent thing to do is look at all technologies,
even technologies that we do not want to look at, and that's where I'm coming from.
And you know, whatever the language may be, that's the process.
You know, I don't know, I don't understand where the sentiment comes in
that the county is moving towards waste-to-energy when you look at all the
programs they've been implementing, and the county has been moving towards
diversion. I mean, you look, they just purchased a whole bunch of reusable bags
that they handed out to our residents. They had the home composter program to
provide free composters for people to divert some of that green waste. We've got a
curbside recycling project. And then allocate money for a study and all of a sudden
it becomes that the county is moving towards waste-to-energy. You know, to look at
it, to look at every technology is the diligent thing to do, okay. So that's where I'm
coming from.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, Councilmember Chang.
COUNCIL MEETING • - 27 - ~ Febru 3, 2010
Mr. Chang: Thank you, Chair. I wanted to let
Councilmember Kaneshiro know I...you were on business travel last week and you
were making reference to Councilmember Kawahara's amendment. I just wanted
to let you know when we were in committee last week, Councilmember Kawahara
was asked to co-introduce this with Committee Chair Bynum, but, you know, just
for the record, Councilmember Kawahara was...is not a member of the Public
Works/Elderly Affairs Committee, so I was asked and I did introduce this
amendment. So, it was an amendment by request for myself, but I do want to just
make mention about the wordings over here since I was the one that introduced it.
As we talk about what we want to do or what we want to change, one of the things
that we did is we used the word...substituted should versus shall and one of the
things that I put in the amendment was should be assessed and we did have a little
conversation regarding whether or why are we using reevaluated instead of
assessed. But in my understanding I right now see that reevaluated is a better
word based on the fact that in my understanding under normal circumstances if
something is being assessed, there may be a need to then hire an outside consultant
because it's something that needs to be assessed. So, for myself personally, with
your amendment I believe that I'm very much more comfortable with the word
reevaluated versus assessed. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any further discussion. If not, all those
in favor of the amendment, say aye.
Mr. Furfaro, Mr. Kawakami, Mr. Chang, Mr. Kaneshiro, Chair Asing: Aye.
Chair Asing: Opposed, say no.
Ms. Kawahara: No.
Chair Asing: One no. Thank you, motion is carried.
The motion to amend Resolution 2009-71, Draft 1, as shown in the
Floor Amendment introduced by Mr. Kaneshiro, was then put, and carried by a vote
of 5-1-1 (Ms. Kawahara voting no and Mr. Bynum excused).
Chair Asing: With that, can we have the next item please?
(Inaudible.)
Chair Asing: Oh, I'm sorry. We're back to the main motion as
amended.
Mr. Furfaro: Move to approve the main motion as amended.
Mr. Chang: Second it.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, any discussion please? Yes,
go ahead, Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: I want to thank Councilmember Kaneshiro for his
amendment. I personally think that it kind of waters down the amendment that
was done previously so that we would have a, you know, a distinct line between
making sure that we did our diligence and made sure that everything that needed
to be evaluated was evaluated as related to where we will be in five years when we
get to five years what the diversion would be. I'm not in...I'm not in agreement that
COUNCIL MEETING - 28 - • February 3, 2010
that amendment took away any options. Like Councilmember Kawakami was
saying, all options need to be considered and I agree with that. There's...there are
all kinds of studies and new technologies coming around so it may be appropriate at
some point to do waste-to-energy just as Mr. Kawakami has said. What
I'm...guess...I'm going to come down to is that we have very limited resources and
limited funds, as we all know, and I'm just focusing on doing, putting what we
need...the money we need into first all the three Rs, learning what our diversion
actually is before we step onto a next step. In...in the whole big picture, I don't
think we're ignoring any other alternative. I disagree that we're...we're dropping
options if we left this the way it was, but obviously the votes going to go that way.
I...I've, of course probably I have to, I'm going to approve the whole thing, but it
troubles me that...I just...that there doesn't seem to be an understanding that
there's just...we would like to have a sure idea of what our diversion is before we
put any money into programs or studies and again, it doesn't limit our options. I
mean when people go shopping, you know what's out there and you look at what
you're going to buy, but it's...the options are still there, but you want to know
exactly what you're going to buy first and what you need. So, what we need first is
to know how much diversion we are making before we move anywhere else. Thank
you.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, Councilmember Kaneshiro.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you members for
moving my watered down so-called amendment through, but I believe that if you
look at the original amendment, it specifically prohibits waste-to-energy. Because
in that language if you look at the language carefully, it specifically states that you
need to look at the full, f-u-1-1 extent of the county's diversion potential. And no one
in their right mind here I guess, you know, I mean no one can even identify what
does full potential mean. To me, when you say a cup is full, that means it's 100%
full and not half empty, you know, basically. So we're using language like this.
We're using that until we prove that 100% of the extent of the county's diversion
potential is met, we cannot look at other options as to waste-to-energy. And I
believe, you know, if that's what I need to do with a cup of water, water it down a
little so we can understand it, then I think this is what I was trying to do, you
know, trying to make everyone understand in layman terms the difference between
full and the difference to think that we should have some half cup with options.
Thank you for that, Mr. Chair.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any further discussion?
Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: I...I would...I brought this up last week and I want
to reintroduce these comments. These comments deal with my reference to the
previous council in our general approval of the $57 million capital program that
when it came to solid waste and in particular the money we allocated there was
$8 million for diversion programs, the landfill siting, and so forth. We made it very
clear that the proviso said this did not include any moneys for the
energy...waste-to-energy facility, that there was a proviso of $325,000 that would
require the administration to come back to the council. So I just want to point out
that still exists, that was introduced in November 4, 2006, it was approved in
January. So, there...there is another piece to this that exists and that was
Bill No. 2160. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any further discussion? If not, roll call.
• •
COUNCIL MEETING - 29 - February 3, 2010
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2009-71, Draft 1, as amended was then put, and
carried by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro,
Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Bynum TOTAL - 1.
Chair Asing: With that, can we have the next item?
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter is a resolution, Resolution
No. 2010-18.
Resolution No. 2010-18, RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CREATION
OF A RECOVERY ZONE UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF THE AMERICAN
RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009 FOR THE PURPOSE OF
ISSUING RECOVERY ZONE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BONDS;
DESIGNATION OF THE LOCAL SUBALLOCATION OF THE VOLUME CAP
WITH RESPECT TO THE RECOVERY ZONE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
BONDS TO GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI:
Mr. Furfaro moved to adopt Resolution No. 2010-18, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro,
and carried by the following vote.
FOR ADOPTION: Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro,
Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None 'TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Bynum TOTAL - 1.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matters are Bills for First Reading. The first
bill for first reading is Bill No. 2346.
BILLS FOR FIRST READING:
Bill No. 2346 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 3,
ARTICLE 1 KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED RELATING TO THE
CODE OF ETHICS: Mr. Furfaro moved for passage of Bill No. 2346 on first
reading, that it be ordered to print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for
the second Council Meeting in March 2010, and that it thereafter be referred to the
Committee of the Whole, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro.
Chair Asing: Any discussion? Yes, I'd like to suspend the rules.
There being no objection, the rules were suspended.
ROLF BIEBER: Thank you, Council, Rolf Bieber. Just quickly, I do
support this bill. We put this together while I was on the board of ethics and
essentially it's a housekeeping item. The code said that the board was required to
have an extra meeting during the year to go over all the disclosure statements and
I think it's sufficient what the board of ethics does by...by taking it within each
meeting monthly and doing the disclosures that way. So, I do support this and in
case I'm not here for the public hearing, I just wanted to give you that information,
so, thank you.
COUNCIL MEETING. - 30 - ~ February 3, 2010
I
~i
Chair Asing: Thank you. !I
Mr. Furfaro: May I ask a question?
Chair Asing: Yes, go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: So was it the intent o£ ..to take that spare meeting
solely for the purpose of reviewing disclosures from councilmembers, all boards and
commission members and so forth, but you would dedicate a certain meeting just to
those reviews?
Mr. Bieber: That's correct. The additional meeting would be
strictly for disclosure statements.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, thank you.
Mr. Bieber: Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to
speak on this item. If not, the meeting is called back to order. We have a motion on
the floor. Is there any further discussion? If not, roll call please.
There being no one else wishing to speak on this item, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion for passage of Bill No. 2346 on first reading was then put, and carried
by the following vote:
FOR PASSAGE: Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro,
Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 6,
AGAINST PASSAGE: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Bynum TOTAL - 1.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Mr. Chair, with the deferral of item C 2010-25 on
page 2, if we could ask for a deferral of this bill also.
Bill No. 2347 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND ORDINANCE
NO. B-2009-690, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING BUDGET OF
THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2010 BY REVISING THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY AUDITOR IN THE GENERAL
FUND: Mr. Kaneshiro moved to defer Bill No. 2347, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Last bill for first reading is Bill No. 2348.
Bill No. 2348 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 19,
ARTICLE 3, SECTION 19-3.2 AND SECTION 19-3.3 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY
CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PLAYING FEES AND REGULATION
OF PLAY AT THE WAILUA GOLF COURSE: Mr. Furfaro moved for passage of
Bill No. 2348 on first reading, that it be ordered to print, that a public hearing
COUNCIL MEETING • - 31 - • February 3, 2010
thereon be scheduled for the second Council Meeting in March 2010, and that it
thereafter be referred to the Parks/Transportation Committee, seconded by
Mr. Kaneshiro, and carried by the following vote:
FOR PASSAGE: Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro,
Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 6,
AGAINST PASSAGE: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Bynum TOTAL - 1.
Chair Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: May...may I have a moment just to...privilege
here.
Chair Asing: Personal privilege? Go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I guess we should talk
in terms of the second week of March because that is the...that is the month we're
moving to our temporary headquarters and that's why the date is kind of a...kind of
a moving target. Am I correct?
Chair Asing: Yes, you are.
Mr. Nakamura: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, can we have the next item
please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter is a Bill for Second Reading,
Bill No. 2336, Draft 2.
BILL FOR SECOND READING:
Bill No. 2336, Draft 2 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTER 16, ARTICLE 20, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED,
RELATING TO THE TRAFFIC CODE: Mr. Kaneshiro moved for adoption of Bill
No. 2336, Draft 1 on second and final reading, and that it be transmitted to the
Mayor for his approval, seconded by Mr. Furfaro.
Chair Asing: With that, all those in favor say, aye.
Ms. Kawahara: Wait...wait...
Chair Asing: Before we do that, I'm sorry, we have an
amendment, I believe. With that, Councilmember Kawakami.
Mr. Kawakami: I move to approve the amendment as circulated.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I second the motion on that.
Mr. Kawakami moved to amend Bill No. 2336, Draft 2, as shown in the
Floor Amendment attached hereto (Attachment No. 2), seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro.
COUNCIL MEETING. - 32 - • February 3, 2010
Chair Asing: Okay, any discussion, we're on the amendment as
circulated. Is there any discussion on the amendment?
Ms. Kawahara: Can I get a...5-minute...to read it through, please,
recess? Thank you.
Chair Asing: We'll have a short recess and then we'll have the
public up first.
There being no objection, the Chair recessed the meeting at 11:32 a.m. The meeting
reconvened at 11:44 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Asing: The meeting is now called back to order. With that,
Lani, do you have a question?
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you, Council Chair Asing. I appreciated the
break. I guess, mister, Councilmember Kawakami is going to tell us a little bit
about the amendment, yeah?
Mr. Kawakami: Sure.
Chair Asing: With that, Councilmember Kawakami.
Mr. Kawakami: Okay, so I'll give you just a brief history on why
this has come full circle. We originally, yeah, the original bill before we even had it
on the floor had the language that the use of a two-way radio while in the
performance and scope of work-related duties shall also be an affirmative defense to
this ordinance, and that was removed before this bill even hit the floor. And the
reason why it was removed is because the City & County of Honolulu was facing
challenges from drivers that were using push-to-talk technology and claiming that
it was atwo-way radio, and that they were at work. So they were circumventing
the law with these devices and claiming that it was atwo-way radio and since then
we've done things like exempt CDL drivers. We had a meeting with the police
department and the trucking companies so they could explain exactly what two-way
radios entail. And the basic thing is that, you know, two-way radios are work
related and majority of the communication comes from dispatch from the land base
out to the driver giving them instructions and it's not necessarily the driver talking
story or even communicating back. Most of it is coming from dispatch out, so the
driver is still focused. They're just getting instructions saying, hey, instead of
Anahola, you're going down to Hanapepe now, and so that is why we came to a
consensus with the commercial truck drivers.
Since then we've done some research on the whole push-to-talk technology
and based on commercial mobile radio services defined by Title 47 of the Code of
Federal Regulations Part 20, push-to-talk technology does not constitute atwo-way
radio, so the argument would be, as it seems, moot if somebody would try to argue
this in the courts. So that being said, the bulk is to add in the use of a two-way
radio under performance and scope of work-related duties shall also be an
affirmative defense to this ordinance, okay. Anybody have questions on that?
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you for the work on...
Chair Asing: Go ahead.
COUNCIL MEETING - 33 - February 3, 2010
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you, Councilmember Kawakami, for the
work on the bill and getting all the questions answered.
Mr. Furfaro: Let's vote on the amendment.
Chair Asing: Okay, with that, we have the amendment on the
floor now. All those in favor of the amendment, say aye.
The motion to amend Bill No. 2336 was then put, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: We're back to the main bill as amended. Any
discussion? If not, roll call please. Oh, I'm sorry, the rules are suspended. My
apologies, Mr. Taylor.
There being no objection, the rules were suspended.
KEN TAYLOR: Chair and members of the council, my name is
Ken Taylor. For the most part, I think this is a great bill and needs to be adopted,
but as I've said in the past, under Section 16-20 item (b) the use of mobile electronic
devices for the sole purpose of making a 911 emergency communication shall be an
affirmative defense for this ordinance. Again I'll say that when there's...when
there's a problem at hand that requires a 911 call, in most cases driving the
roadway it would be an automobile accident. I don't think that is the time that a
person should be worrying about doing something other than driving and...in the
few minutes it would take to pull off to the side of the road in order to make that
911 call in a safe manner certainly makes more sense. I mean I see people all the
time when...in...during emergency activities they get shook up, they...their...they
don't have their faculties all together, and this is not the time or...or the...an item
that should be exempt. It just should not be. And...I...otherwise, Ihave no problem
with the bill, but I think that should be eliminated. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Is there anyone else? If not, I'd like to
call the meeting back to order. We have a motion on the floor. With that, the
motion is to amend and do we have any further discussion?
There being no one else wishing to speak on this item, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
Ms. Kawahara: We did the amendment.
Chair Asing: We completed the amendment, yeah. We're back to
the main motion as amended. My apologies. Okay, with that, any further
discussion.
Mr. Chang: Yes.
Chair Asing: Go ahead, Councilmember Chang.
Mr. Chang: Thank you, Chair. I want to show my support for
this bill and we had a lot of testimony from many people out there that sent their
testimony in regards to various other states that banned the bill that there was no
evidence that it stopped people from having accidents and there was no, I guess,
scientific proof or no...no history that the banning of the cell bill would prevent any
sort of accidents itself. You know when looking at this bill, it was a bill that the
COUNCIL MEETING - 34 - ~ February 3, 2010
police department requested getting on the agenda to our Public Safety Chair
Kawakami and I would have to say that being on the road and using the phone
quite a bit, you know, people on Kauai realize that if there's any sort of accident,
heaven forbid it's a minor accident, heaven forbid if it's a serious injury or perhaps
even a fatality, whether you got one accident or not, here on Kauai, it... the
minimal is you're going to tie up and tangle road and traffic in any given part of the
day for hours and hours and hours and hours and if a little thing like using the cell
phone or texting the phone or whatever you're doing to be distracted can be
prevented, I am all in favor for this safety. And for those that are out there that
may not agree with this particular bill, I would have to say on a personal note I do
use the phone a lot and the phone is my...pretty much my...my mode of business
and also entertainment. I like to talk and I like to, you know, do business while
we're doing that, but I think it's a very, very good bill and I'm willing to go without
the phone.
Just as a reminder, we did meet with Captain Scribner and Chief Perry as
well as Stephen Girald and Ron Victorino, and Mr. Girald and Victorino assured us
that every 90 to 120 days, the...many of these truckers have to go to class. So
they're very, very safety oriented and they did reassure us that many of the
truckers if they do need to use...call the phone, will use the phone while they're, you
know, parked and ready to get out to their next destination so that they can at least
give an ETA.
But I do want to remind the public whether they're truckers or private
citizens that we all need to safely pull on the side of the road and your ignition
cannot be running. Your car has to be turned off and the key needs to be out of the
ignition just for safety purposes. And I think what we all need to do is as much as
we can, please abide by this law because it's hard enough for the police oflicers to
detect any use of the phone, but it's, you know, certainly hard enough to ticket
because a lot of people will maybe perhaps protest the ticket. But the bottom line is
that this is coming as a request from our police department and safety is the key
issue right now and if we can alleviate any minor or major or perhaps any sort of
fatal accident, I'm all for it. So I'll be supporting the ban of our cell bill. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any further discussion? Yes, go ahead,
Councilmember Kawakami.
Mr. Kawakami: You know, it's just to...just make a small
clarification. This...this never came over as request from the police department. I
went and told them that I was going to introduce the bill, so small clarification.
Chair Asing: _ Thank you.
Mr. Kawakami: And, you know, we didn't reference it, yeah,
but...just so people getting the right information, hands-free devices, although
they're not a proven safer alternative are still, under the definition of this
ordinance, allowed. So a couple clarifications on that last statement.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any further discussion? If not, roll call
please.
The motion for adoption of Bill No. 2336, Draft 2, as amended was then put, and
carried by the following vote:
COUNCIL MEETING ~ - 35 - ~ Febru 3 2010
~`Y ,
FOR ADOPTION: Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro,
Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Bynum TOTAL - 1.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, can we have the county
attorney up, please?
There being no objection, the rules were suspended.
ALFRED B. CASTILLO, JR, County Attorney: Good morning, everyone,
Al Castillo, County Attorney. I'm looking for guidance here. Do you want me to
read all of these?
Chair Asing: Yes, why don't we do that, please.
Mr. Castillo: Okay, thank you. In reference to executive session
ES-420, 421, and 422:
ES-420 Pursuant to Haw.Rev.Stat. §§92-4 and 92-5(a)(4), (6) and (8),
and Kauai County Charter section 3.07(E), the purpose of this executive session is
to provide the Council a briefing on Krstafer W. Pinkerton v. Countv of Kauai,
Kauai Prosecutors Office, et al., Civ. No. 08-00222 HG/KSC (U.S. District Court,
District of Hawaii) and related matters. This briefing and consultation involves
consideration of the powers, duties, privileges, immunities and/or liabilities of the
Council and the County as they relate to this agenda item.
ES-421 Pursuant to Haw.Rev.Stat. §§92-4 and 92-5(a)(4), (6) and (8),
and Kauai County Charter section 3.07(E), the purpose of this executive session is
to provide the Council a briefing on Kauai Springs, Inc. v. Countv of Kauai, et al.,
Civ. No. 07-1-0182 and Kauai Springs, Inc. v. Planning Commission of the County
of Kauai, Civ. No. 07-1-0042 and associated matters. This briefing and consultation
involves consideration of the powers, duties, privileges, immunities and/or liabilities
of the Council and the County as they relate to this agenda item.
ES-422 Pursuant to Haw.Rev.Stat. §§92-4 and 92-5(a)(4) and (8), and
Kauai County Charter section 3.07(E), the Office of the County Attorney requests
an executive session with the Council to provide the Council a briefing, update, and
to request authority relating to the case of Jane Doe v. Countv of Kauai, EEOC
Charge no. 486-2009-00268 and related matters. This briefing and consultation
involves consideration of the powers, duties, privileges, immunities and/or liabilities
of the Council and the County as they relate to this agenda item.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, before I call the meeting
back to order and have a motion, what I'd like to do is open it up to the public. Is
there anyone in the public who wants to speak on these items? If not, I'll call the
meeting back to order and have a motion, councilmembers, to move into executive
session.
There being no one wishing to speak on these items, the meeting was called back to
order and proceeded as follows:
Mr. Furfaro moved to convene in executive session, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and
unanimously carried.
COUNCIL MEETING - 36 - ~ February 3, 2010
Chair Asing: Thank you, we're going to move into executive
session.
There being no objection, the Chair recessed the meeting at 11:58 a.m. The meeting
reconvened at 3:41 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Asing: This council meeting is now called back to order.
With that, we have one more item on the agenda and that's on page 3, item 2010-33.
Mr. Clerk, could you please read the item.
RICKY WATANABE: C 2010-33.
COMMUNICATION:
C 2010-33 Request (01/22/2010) from the Office of the County Attorney for
authorization to expend up to $50,000 for special counsel's continued representation
in Kauai Springs, Inc. v. Countv of Kauai, et al., Civ. No. 07-1-0182 and Kauai
Springs, Inc. v. Planning Commission of the Countv of Kauai, Civ. No. 07-1-0042
and related matters.
Chair Asing: Thank you, can I have a motion to approve?
Mr. Chang moved to approve C 2010-33, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and
unanimously carried.
ADJOURNMENT:
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:43 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/wa
i •
ATTACHMENT NO 1
February 3, 2010
FLOOR AMENDMENT
Resolution No. 2009-71, Draft 1, Relating to Adopting the Integrated Solid
Waste Management Plan Update for The County of Kauai
Introduced by: Daryl Kaneshiro
Amend Resolution No. 2009-71 by amending the 11th paragraph to read
as follows:
"BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that prior to (encumbering any
additional funds or] implementing [any actions] pro rg ams relating to
[Waste to Energy the full extent of] waste-to-ener~y the County's
diversion potential or impact to the landfill capacity should be
[assessed] reevaluated."
(Material to be deleted is bracketed. New material to be added is
underscored.)
•
ATTACHMENT NO. 2
February 3, 2010
FLOOR AMENDMENT
BILL N0. 2336, Draft 2, Relating to Mobile Electronic Devices
Introduced by Derek S. K. Kawakami
Amend Section 1 to read as follows:
"SECTION 1. Chapter 16, Article 20, Kauai County Code 1987 is
amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as
follows:
"Sec. 16-20._ Use of Mobile Electronic Devices While Operating a Vehicle.
(a) No person shall operate a motor vehicle while using a mobile
electronic device.
(b) The use of a mobile electronic device for the sole purpose of
making a "911" emergency communication shall be an affirmative defense to
this ordinance.
(c) The use of a two-way radio while in the performance and scope
of work-related duties shall also be an affirmative defense to this ordinance.
(d) The following persons shall be exempt from the provisions of
subsection (a):
(1) Emergency responders using a mobile electronic device
while in the performance and scope of their official duties; and
(2) Drivers possessing a valid amateur radio operator license
issued by the Federal Communications Commission and using a
half-duplex two-way radio.
(e) As used in this section:
"Emergency responders" include fire fighters, emergency medical
service technicians, mobile intensive care technicians, civil defense workers,
police officers, and federal and state law enforcement officers.
"Mobile electronic device" means any hand-held or other portable
electronic equipment capable of providing wireless and/or data
communication between two or more persons or of providing amusement,
including but not limited to a cellular phone from a Commercial Mobile Radio
Service as defined by Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 20,
1
ATTACHMENT NO 2
text messaging device, paging device, personal digital assistant, laptop
computer, video game, or digital photographic device, but does not include
any audio equipment or any equipment installed in a motor vehicle for the
purpose of providing navigation, emergency assistance to the operator of the
motor vehicle, or video entertainment to the passengers in the rear seats of
the motor vehicle.
"Operate a motor vehicle" means to drive or assume actual physical
control of a vehicle upon a public way, street, road, or highway.
"Two-way radio" means a Private Land Mobile Radio System as
defined by Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 90.
"Use or using" means holding a mobile electronic device while
operating a motor vehicle.
Any person convicted or found liable of violating any provisions
of this section shall be subject to a maximum fine of fifty dollars ($50).
(g) Any person convicted or found liable of violating any provisions
of this section while operating a motor vehicle in a school zone or construction
area as defined in HRS Section 291C-104 shall be subject to a maximum fine
of one hundred dollars ($100)."
(All material is new.)
V \CS OFFICE FILES\AMENDMENTS\2336-fa 2-3-lOmtg dskk (revised).doc (ys)
2
I
COUNCIL MEETING
February 17, 2010
The Council Meeting of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to
order by the Council Chair at the Council Chambers, Historic County
Building, 4396 Rice Street, Room 201, Lihu`e, Kauai, on Wednesday,
February 17, 2010 at 9:56 a.m., after which the following members answered the
call of the roll:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro (present at 10:20 a.m.)
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
EXCUSED: Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami
Chair Asing: Please note that Councilmember Kawakami is
attending the state legislature and Councilmember Kaneshiro will be here shortly.
With that can we have the first item please?
PETER A. NAKAMURA, County Clerk: The first item is approval of the
agenda.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:
Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of the agenda as circulated, seconded by
Ms. Kawahara, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next item is approval of the minutes of the
following meetings of the council:
MINUTES of the following meetings of the Council:
Special Council Meeting of January 5, 2010
Public Hearing of January 6, 2010 re: Bill No. 2340
Special Council Meeting of January 21, 2010
Council Meeting of January 21, 2010
Public Hearing of January 21, 2010 re: Resolution No. 2009-71
Council Meeting of February 3, 2010
Public Hearing of February 3, 2010 re: Bills Nos. 2241, 2242, 2243, 2244, and
2245
Mr. Bynum moved for approval of the minutes as circulated, seconded by
Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Mr. Chair, at this time, there's been a request to
take up, on page 7 of the council's agenda, Resolution No. 2010-27.
r
COUNCIL MEETING ~ - 2 - ~ February 17, 2010
RESOLUTION:
Resolution No. 2010-27, RESOLUTION ABANDONING ACCESS ROAD
OFF LAUGHO ROAD, KALAHEO, KAUAI, AND AUTHORIZING THE LAND
TRANSFER TO THE NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN, KALAHEO,
KAUAI, HAWAII
Chair Asing: Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve?
Mr. Furfaro moved to adopt Resolution No. 2010-27, seconded by Mr. Chang.
Chair Asing: Any discussion? If not...go ahead,
Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Although I knew this was actually on the third
page, I wasn't aware, recently, we were going to move it up to the first part of the
agenda, but this is a small end of Lauoho Road that amounts to about 6,000 square
feet that actually is at the end of the botanical gardens and it really was intended to
be transferred to us for future use, but returned if there was no designated use. So
I would strongly urge that we move forward to approve this transfer.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion,
councilmembers? If not roll call.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2010-27 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kawahara, Asing TOTAL - 5,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kaneshiro, Kawakami TOTAL - 2.
Chair Asing: With that, can we have the next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: On the first page of the agenda, we have
communications for receipt communication C 2010-10, communication C 2010-25,
and communication C 2010-36.
Chair Asing: Um...
Mr. Nakamura: I'm sorry, Council Chair. These are
communications for approval. First communication is C 2010-10 for approval.
COMMUNICATIONS:
C 2010-10 Communication (12/24/2009) from the Fire Chief, requesting
Council approval to fund the cost of the acquisition of a public use helicopter via a
10-year lease to be used to enhance and support search and rescue, firefighting,
ocean safety, training and other services of the Kauai Fire Department and other
departments in the County of Kauai: Mr. Chang moved to approve C 2010-10,
seconded by Mr. Furfaro.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, any discussion on that item?
Mr. Furfaro: I...I have some discussion.
COUNCIL MEETING • - 3 - • February 17, 2010
Chair Asing: Yes, go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, although this indicates that we will fund
this for the remainder of this year, and then move towards a 10-year lease, I...I
have not seen anything and I don't want to necessarily postpone this, but it...do we
have an out? Do we have a termination clause into any period of the lease? I
thought that was possibly a reasonable question to ask.
Chair Asing: I would...I would suggest that we put this to the
end of the agenda.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay and we can pursue that question.
Chair Asing: Yeah.
Mr. Furfaro: That's the only thing I (inaudible).
Chair Asing: Thank you. Well, why don't we do this then, let's
move this item to the end of the agenda and before we do that, I'd like to open it up
to the public. Is there any...
There being no objection, the rules were suspended.
(Inaudible -voice from the gallery)
Chair Asing: Hold on.
Mr. Furfaro: You need to come up to the microphone.
Chair Asing: Come up to the mike if you...
Mr. Furfaro: And he's asking for public comment now, if you can
follow what we're doing here.
ROB ABREW: Well, normally what we do is the communications
are received and they're discussed when the resolutions come up. But when
Mr. Furfaro started discussing it, I didn't know if we were going to discuss it now or
later. That's why I raised my hand.
Chair Asing: Look, it is your prerogative on what you want to do.
So I am opening up this to the public so that you maybe able to speak on this item.
Mr. Abrew: I'll wait till the resolution.
Chair Asing: You're going to wait for the resolution. All right.
Thank you. With that I'd like to call the meeting back to order.
There being no one wishing to speak at this time, the meeting was called back to
order, and proceeded as follows:
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, I also want to point out, maybe the
audience didn't quite follow this, this is a communication that we need to approve to
receive, so therefore, that was the motion so.
• - - • F r 17 2
COUNCIL MEETING 4 eb uary 010
Chair Asing: Okay, thank you. Anyway, this item will be moved
to the end of the agenda for discussion...
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair Asing: ...purposes. With that, can we have the next item
please. I'm going to suggest that the next item, C 2010-25, I'd like to defer this
item. So...
C 2010-25 Communication (01/20/2010) from the County Auditor,
requesting Council approval of a 3-year lease term with an option to extend for
962 square feet of office space for the relocation of the Office of the County Auditor.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, I understand that there is an effort by
the mayor's office looking for temporary accommodations for this office space...
Chair Asing: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: ...as we speak, so your suggestion is to defer, and I
would hope that eventually also we would understand what areas that we've
earmarked for their permanent offices.
Chair Asing: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: So that would be a move to defer and I will make
that.
Mr. Chang: Second it.
Mr. Furfaro moved to defer C 2010-25, seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously
carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter is for receipt, communication
C 2010-36.
C 2010-36 Communication (02/05/2010) from the Mayor, requesting
Council consideration and confirmation of the following appointments and
reappointments to various Boards and Commissions for the County of Kauai:
(1) Building Board of Appeals
Duane Curammeng - lst complete term (Electrical Background)
ending 12/31/2012
Glen Taba - 1St complete term (Building Background) ending
12/31/2012
(2) Charter Commission
Joel Guy - 1St complete term ending 12/3U2012
(3) Civil Service Commission
Ryan de la Pena - 2nd complete term ending 12/31/2012
(4) Cost Control Commission
Michelle Swartman - 2nd complete term ending 12/31/2012
• •
COUNCIL MEETING - 5 - February 17, 2010
(5) Fire Commission
Linda Ka`auwai-Iwamoto - 2nd complete term ending 12/3ll2012
(6) Planning Commission
Caven Raco - 2nd complete term ending 12/31/2012
(7) Police Commission
Ernest Kanekoa - 1St complete term ending 12/31/2012
Mr. Chang moved to receive C 2010-36 for the record, seconded by Mr. Bynum, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: On page 2 of the council's agenda, communications
for receipt C 2010-37, C 2010-38, and C 2010-39.
C 2010-37 Statement of Condition of the County Treasury as of
December 3, 2009: Mr. Chang moved to receive C 2010-37 for the record, seconded
by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried.
C 2010-38 Communication (02/10/2010) from Councilmember Kawakami,
providing the Council with written disclosure of a possible conflict of interest
relating to Bill No. 2342, as he serves in various capacities in the HSK Corporation,
a company which owns property in the project area, and is thus recused from any
discussion, deliberation, etc., on Bill No. 2342: Mr. Chang moved to receive
C 2010-38 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried.
C 2010-39 Communication (02/11/2010) from Council Chair Asing and
Vice Chair Furfaro, requesting Council consideration of a draft bill appropriating
$350,000 for the Black Pot Expansion Project (land acquisition): Mr. Chang moved
to receive C 2010-39 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously
carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: At the bottom of page 2 of the council's agenda for
approval is communication C 2010-40.
C 2010-40 Communication (01/14/2010) from the Fire Chief, requesting
Council approval to donate the Fire Department's ISI Self-Contained Breathing
Apparatus (SCBA) to the State of Hawaii Airport Crash Fire as the Kauai Fire
Department has recently acquired new Scott SCBA packs for the entire department
through a federal grant: Mr. Chang moved to approve C 2010-40, seconded by
Ms. Kawahara.
Chair Asing: Any discussion? I'd like to suggest that we have
the attorney's office work with the fire department to have the state provide
indemnification for us. So with that...
Mr. Furfaro: I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, I didn't quite catch. Were you
asking that the state indemnify us on the trans...
Chair Asing: Yes, yes.
TI • - - • F 17 2
COUNCIL MEE NG 6 ebruary 010
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, very good, I had the same...
Chair Asing: Okay, any discussion? If not, we have a motion to
approve and we're asking that the attorney's office work together with the Fire
Department to have the state indemnify us. What we don't want to have is we don't
want them to use the equipment, have some failure, something go wrong, and then
we are held liable. And that's the reason for asking for the state to indemnify us
when we give a gift of this nature. So with that, any further discussion? If not, all
those in favor of the approval, say aye.
The motion to approve C 2010-40 and have the county attorney's office work on a
provision for the state to indemnify the County of Kauai was then put, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: On the top of page 3 of the council's agenda, for
approval, communication C 2010-41.
C 2010-41 Communication (01/20/2010) from the Director of Housing,
requesting Council approval to decline the repurchase of Unit No. 601 Hookena at
Puhi, located at 2080 Manawalea Street, Lihu`e, Hawaii 96766, and to issue the
owners aone-year waiver of the County's repurchase right effective the date of the
Council's decision, thus permitting market resale of the unit. for a period of one
year.
Chair Asing: Can I have a motion to approve?
Mr. Chang moved to approve C 2010-41, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously
carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter is a matter for receipt on page 3,
communication C 2010-42.
C 2010-42 Communication (01/27/2010) from the Chief of the Engineering
Division, Department of Public Works, transmitting for Council approval a
resolution for abandoning the access road off Lauoho Road, Koloa District, at TMK:
2-3-009:034, and authorizing the land transfer to the National Tropical Botanical
Garden, Kalaheo, Kauai, Hawaii: Mr. Chang moved to receive C 2010-42 for the
record, seconded by Mr. Bynum, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter for approval on page 3 of the council's
agenda, on communications C 2010-43 and C 2010-44, Mr. Chair, there are
executive sessions scheduled for these items, if we could move these to the end of
the agenda?
Chair Asing: Okay, if there is no opposition, we'll move it to the
end of the agenda. Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter for receipt is communication
C 2010-45.
• •
COUNCIL MEETING - 7 - February 17, 2010
C 2010-45 Communication (02/11/2010) from Council Chair Asing,
requesting Council reconsideration of Bill No. 2336, Draft 3, relating to mobile
electronic devices, which was unanimously approved at the February 3, 2010
Council meeting: Mr. Chang moved to receive C 2010-45 for the record, seconded by
Mr. Bynum, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter for approval are legal documents,
communication C 2010-46.
LEGAL DOCUMENT:
C 2010-46 Communication (01/15/2010) from the Director of Parks &
Recreation, requesting Council approval to secure ashared-use path easement at
the Kauai Shopping Village (TMK 4-4-3-08:14) in exchange for a parking and
pedestrian access easement at Waipouli Drainage Canal.
1) Grant of Reciprocal Easements Agreement by and among Kauai
Beautiful Island I, LLC; Kauai Beautiful Island II, LLC; Kauai
Beautiful Island III, LLC; Kauai Beautiful Island IV, LLC; Kauai
Beautiful Island VI, LLC and Kauai Beautiful Island VII, LLC, all
Delaware limited liability companies, and the County of Kauai that
the County shall convey to Kauai Beautiful Easement "P-1"
(Waipouli Drainage Canal) for vehicular parking and access and for
pedestrian access purposes, and that Kauai Beautiful shall convey
to the County Easement "BP-1" (Kaua`i Shopping Village) for
bicycle and pedestrian access purposes.
Mr. Bynum: Move to approve.
Mr. Chang: Second it.
Chair Asing: Mr. Clerk, can we take the three items at once?
Mr. Nakamura: Yes.
Chair Asing: Why don't we do that.
Mr. Nakamura: That was the first legal document. The second
legal document on page 4 is a grant of easement.
2) Grant of Easement by and between the County of Kauai (grantor)
and Kauai Beautiful Island I, LLC; Kauai Beautiful Island II,
LLC; Kauai Beautiful Island III, LLC; Kauai Beautiful Island N,
LLC; Kauai Beautiful Island VI, LLC and Kauai Beautiful Island
VII, LLC, all Delaware limited liability companies (grantee),
granting a perpetual non-exclusive easement "P-1" for vehicular
parking and access and for pedestrian access purposes (Tax Map
Key No. (4) 4-3-008-013).
Mr. Nakamura: And the third legal document is a grant of
easement.
• •
COUNCIL MEETING - 8 - February 17, 2010
3) Grant of Easement by and between Kauai Beautiful Island I, LLC;
Kauai Beautiful Island II, LLC; Kauai Beautiful Island III, LLC;
Kauai Beautiful Island IV, LLC; Kauai Beautiful Island VI, LLC
and Kauai Beautiful Island VII, LLC, all Delaware limited liability
companies (grantor) and the County of Kauai (grantee), granting a
perpetual non-exclusive easement "BP-1" for a public park, which
shall contain a bicycle and pedestrian path and be part of the
County's park system (Tax Map Key No. (4) 4-3-008-014).
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that I'd like to have a motion to
approve all three of the items.
Mr. Bynum moved to approve all three legal documents attached to C 2010-46,
seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next legal document for approval is transmitted by
communication C 2010-47.
C 2010-47 Communication (01/28/2010) from the Director of Parks &
Recreation, requesting Council approval of the Quitclaim Deed to secure a portion
on Niulani Road and Ala Road (TMK: 4-3-009-054) for construction of a portion of
the Lydgate-Kapa`a Bicycle/Pedestrian Path project.
• Quitclaim Deed:
Grantor: BANK OF HAWAII, a Hawaii corporation, successor by
merger to Hawaiian Trust Company, Limited, as
SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE under that certain inter vivos
Trust Agreement executed by Lillian May Clayton
Brewer, dated February 6, 1964, as amended.
Grantee: COUNTY OF KAUAI, A POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF
THE STATE OF HAWAII
Property Description: (Kaua`i) 4-3-009-054
Mr. Bynum moved to approve the legal document attached to C 2010-47, seconded
by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next communication...legal document for approval
is communication C 2010-48.
C 2010-48 Communication (02/05/2010) from the Director of Housing,
requesting Council approval to close the purchase of a 75-Acre Parcel in `Ele`ele,
Kauai, Tax Map Key (4) 2-1-1:27, pursuant to the Disposition Agreement of
November 19, 2009, between McBryde Sugar Company, Limited, and the County of
Kauai, to include the following:
(1) Approve closing the purchase of the 75-acre parcel and authorize
the County Clerk to execute the Warranty Deed;
• Warranty Deed With Restrictions and Covenants: McBryde
Sugar Company, Limited, a Hawaii corporation (Grantor) and
County of Kauai (Grantee), Property: Tax Map Key (4) 2-1-
001:027 (por.)
. • •
COUNCIL MEETING - 9 - February 17, 2010
(2) Authorize the County Clerk to execute the License Agreement for
the continued use of the property by McBryde Sugar Company,
Limited, for agricultural purposes until the County needs
possession of the property, or any portion thereof, for the purpose of
providing affordable housing;
• License Agreement by and between the County of Kauai
(licensor) and McBryde Sugar Company, Limited (licensee)
regarding the real property being portion of Tax Map Key
No. (4) 2-1-01-27
(3) Authorize the County Clerk to execute the Assignment and
Assumption Agreement and the Assignment and Release
Agreement as acknowledgement that the County of Kauai has been
notified that McBryde Sugar Company, Limited, is engaging in a
section 10311ike-kind exchange.
• Assignment and Assumption Agreement by and among
(i) McBryde Sugar Company, Limited, a Hawaii corporation
(Assignor); (ii) T.G. Exchange, Inc., a Hawaii corporation
(Assignee); and (iii) the County of Kauai (Transferee)
• Assignment and Release Agreement by and among (i) T.G.
Exchange, Inc., a Hawaii corporation (Assignor); (ii) McBryde
Sugar Company, Limited, a Hawaii corporation (Assignee); and
(iii) the County of Kauai (Transferee)
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, can I have a motion to
approve?
Mr. Chang moved to approve the legal documents attached to C 2010-48, seconded
by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter is a claim communication C 2010-49.
CLAIM:
C 2010-49 Communication from the County Clerk, transmitting a claim
filed against the County of Kauai by Eric M. Wedemeyer for damage to his vehicle,
pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the County of Kauai: Mr. Furfaro moved to
refer C 2010-49 to the County Attorney's Office for disposition and/or report back to
the Council.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Can I have a second to that motion?
Mr. Bynum: Second.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any discussion? All those in favor say,
aye.
The motion to refer C 2010-49 to the County Attorney's Office for disposition and/or
report back to the Council was seconded by Mr. Bynum, and then unanimously
carried.
C IL MEETI • - - •
OUNC NG 10 February 17, 2010
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matters for approval are committee reports.
From your committee on Budget & Finance, committee reports CR-B&F 2010-02,
CR-B&F 2010-03, CR-B&F 2010-04, CR-B&F 2010-05.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
BUDGET & FINANCE COMMITTEE REPORTS:
A report (No. CR-B&F 2010-02) submitted by the Budget & Finance
Committee, recommending that the following be approved:
"C 2010-10 Communication (12/24/2009) from the Fire Chief,
requesting Council approval to fund the cost of the acquisition of a public use
helicopter via a 10-year lease to be used to enhance and support search and
rescue, firefighting, ocean safety, training and other services of the Kauai
Fire Department and other departments in the County of Kaua`i,"
Mr. Bynum moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Chang, and
unanimously carried.
A report (No. CR-B&F 2010-03) submitted by the Budget & Finance
Committee, recommending that the following be approved on second and final
reading:
"Bill No. 2345 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE NO. B-2009-690, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE
OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF
HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30,
2010, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS
ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND (Acquisition of a Public Use
Helicopter via a 10-year lease),"
Mr. Bynum moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Chang, and
unanimously carried. (See later for Bill No. 2345)
A report (No. CR-B&F 2010-04) submitted by the Budget & Finance
Committee, recommending that the following be approved on second and final
reading:
"Bill No. 2343 - AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE
OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI FOR
THE PURPOSE OF FINANCING CERTAIN PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS
AND REFUNDING CERTAIN BONDS OF THE COUNTY; FIXING OR
AUTHORIZING THE FIXING OF THE FORM, DENOMINATIONS,
AND CERTAIN OTHER DETAILS OF SUCH BONDS AND PROVIDING
FOR THE SALE OF SUCH BONDS TO THE PUBLIC,"
Mr. Bynum moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Chang, and
unanimously carried. (See later for Bill No. 2343)
A report (No. CR-B&F 2010-05) submitted by the Budget & Finance
Committee, recommending that the following be approved as amended on second
and final reading:
• ,
COUNCIL MEETING - 11 - February 17, 2010
"Bill No. 2344 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. B-
2009-691, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE CAPITAL BUDGET OF
THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
JULY 1, 2009 TO JUNE 30, 2010, BY REVISING THE REVENUES AND
APPROPRIATIONS IN THE BOND FUND AND THE GENERAL FUND
(CIP),"
Mr. Bynum moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Chang, and
unanimously carried. (See later for Bill No. 2344, Draft 1)
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: From your committee on Public Works/Elderly
Affairs, committee report CR-PWE 2010-04.
PUBLIC WORKS/ELDERLY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE REPORT:
A report (1Vo. CR-PWE 2010-04) submitted by the Public Works/Elderly
Affairs Committee, recommending that the following be approved as amended on
second and final reading:
"Bill No. 2341 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTER 21, ARTICLE 7, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, RELATING TO
INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT,"
Mr. Bynum moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Chang, and
unanimously carried. (See later for Bill No. 2341, Draft 1)
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matters for approval are Resolutions. First
resolution for approval is Resolution No. 2010-11.
RESOLUTIONS:
Resolution No. 2010-11, RESOLUTION AMENDING RESOLUTION
N0.2007-97 TO REPLACE AND CONFIRM THE APPOINTMENT OF A
MAYORAL APPOINTEE TO THE SALARY COMMISSION (Sheri S. Kunioka-Volz,
First Term, replacing Dawn Murata): Mr. Furfaro moved to adopt Resolution
No. 2010-11, seconded by Ms. Kawahara.
Chair Asing: Any discussion? Yes, go ahead,
Councilmember Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Mr. Chair, thank you. I just wanted to take this
opportunity to thank those folks that are stepping up to volunteer for the County of
Kauai. I also want to acknowledge the Department of Boards and Commissions,
which seem, to the best of my knowledge, to have resolved the issue about releasing
to the public the portion of the applications that are appropriate to be released to
the public and, you know, so I wanted to appreciate their responsiveness in creating
a process by which it accomplished that goal. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any further discussion? If not, do we
have a motion to approve the first one?
COUNCIL MEETING. - 12 - • February 17, 2010
Mr. Nakamura: Roll call.
Chair Asing: Okay, roll call please.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2010-11 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kawahara, Asing TOTAL - 5,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kaneshiro, Kawakami TOTAL - 2.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: On Resolution No. 2010-19, Mr. Chair, if we could
get a motion to defer this pending interview?
Resolution No. 2010-19, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
APPOINTMENT TO THE BUILDING BOARD OF APPEALS (Duane Curammeng):
Mr. Furfaro moved to defer Resolution No. 2010-19 pending interview, seconded by
Ms. Kawahara, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next resolution for approval is Resolution
No. 2010-20.
Resolution No. 2010-20, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
APPOINTMENT TO THE BUILDING BOARD OF APPEALS (Glen Taba):
Mr. Furfaro moved for adoption of Resolution 2010-20, seconded by Mr. Chang.
Chair Asing: Peter, where are you now?
Mr. Nakamura: Resolution No. 2010-20.
Mr. Furfaro: Glen Taba.
Chair Asing: That's not to approve. Oh, okay, okay, any
discussion? If not roll call please.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2010-20 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kawahara, Asing TOTAL - 5,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kaneshiro, Kawakami TOTAL - 2.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next resolution for approval is Resolution
No. 2010-21.
Resolution No. 2010-21, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
APPOINTMENT TO THE CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION (Joel Guy):
Mr. Furfaro moved to adopt Resolution No. 2010-21, seconded by Ms. Kawahara,
and carried by the following vote:
•
COUNCIL MEETING - 13 - February 17, 2010
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kawahara, Asing TOTAL - 5,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kaneshiro, Kawakami TOTAL - 2.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next resolution on page 7 of the council's agenda,
Resolution No. 2010-22, if we could get a motion to defer this pending the interview
schedule?
Resolution No. 2010-22, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION (Ryan de la Pena):
Ms. Kawahara moved to defer Resolution No. 2010-22 pending interview, seconded
by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next resolution for approval is Resolution
No. 2010-23.
Resolution No. 2010-23, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE COST CONTROL COMMISSION
(Michelle Swartman): Mr. Furfaro moved to adopt Resolution No. 2010-23,
seconded by Mr. Chang, and carried by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kawahara, Asing TOTAL - 5,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kaneshiro, Kawakami TOTAL - 2.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next resolution for approval is Resolution
No. 2010-24.
Resolution No. 2010-24, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE FIRE COMMISSION (Linda Ka`auwai-Iwamoto):
Mr. Furfaro moved to adopt Resolution No. 2010-24, seconded by Ms. Kawahara,
and carried by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kawahara, Asing TOTAL - 5,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kaneshiro, Kawakami TOTAL - 2.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Resolution No. 2010-25, Mr. Chair, if we could get a
motion deferring this pending the interview?
Resolution No. 2010-25, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION (Caven Raco):
Mr. Furfaro moved to defer Resolution No. 2010-25, seconded by Mr. Chang, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
COUNCIL MEETING. - 14 - ~ February 17, 2010
Mr. Nakamura: Next resolution for approval is Resolution
No. 2010-26.
Resolution No. 2010-26, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
APPOINTMENT TO THE POLICE COMMISSION (Ernest Kanekoa): Mr. Furfaro
moved to adopt Resolution No. 2010-26, seconded by Mr. Chang, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kawahara, Asing TOTAL - 5,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kaneshiro, Kawakami TOTAL - 2.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: The next matters are Bills for First Reading,
Mr. Chair. We have Proposed Draft Bill No. 2347. I believe...
BILLS FOR FIRST READING:
Proposed Draft Bill No. 2347 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
ORDINANCE NO. B-2009-690, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL
YEAR JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2010 BY REVISING THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY AUDITOR IN THE GENERAL
FUND
Chair Asing: I'd like to have a deferral on that. Can I have a
motion to defer, please?
Mr. Chang moved to defer Proposed Draft Bill No. 2347, seconded by Mr. Furfaro,
and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter, bill for first reading is Proposed Draft
Bill No. 2349.
Proposed Draft Bill No. 2349 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE NO. B-2009-691, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE CAPITAL
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL
YEAR JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2010, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS
AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE SPECIAL TRUST FUND FOR
PARKS & PLAYGROUNDS-HANALEI DISTRICT: Mr. Furfaro moved for
passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2349 on first reading, that it be ordered to print,
that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for March 17, 2010, and that it
thereafter be referred to the Budget & Finance Committee.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Can I have a second to that?
Mr. Bynum: Second.
Chair Asing: Any discussion? If not, roll call.
COUNCIL MEETING - 15 - February 17, 2010
The motion for passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2349, that it be ordered to print,
that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for March 17, 2010, and that it
thereafter be referred to the Budget & Finance Committee was seconded by
Mr. Bynum, and carried by the following vote:
FOR PASSAGE: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kawahara, Asing TOTAL - 5,
AGAINST PASSAGE: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kaneshiro, Kawakami TOTAL - 2.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matters are Bills for Second Reading. First
bill for second reading is Bill No. 2341, Draft 1.
(Mr. Kaneshiro was noted present at 10:20 a.m.)
BILLS FOR SECOND READING:
Bill No. 2341, Draft 1 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTER 21, ARTICLE 7, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, RELATING TO
INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: Mr. Bynum moved to adopt Bill
No. 2341, Draft 1 on second and final reading, and that it be transmitted to the
Mayor for his approval, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and carried by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara,
Asing TOTAL - 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kawakami TOTAL - 1.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next bill for second reading is Bill No. 2343.
Bill No. 2343 - AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF
GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI FOR THE
PURPOSE OF FINANCING CERTAIN PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND
REFUNDING CERTAIN BONDS OF THE COUNTY; FIXING OR AUTHORIZING
THE FIXING OF THE FORM, DENOMINATIONS, AND CERTAIN OTHER
DETAILS OF SUCH BONDS AND PROVIDING FOR THE SALE OF SUCH
BONDS TO THE PUBLIC: Mr. Furfaro moved to adopt Bill No. 2343 on second and
final reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval, seconded by
Mr. Kaneshiro.
Chair Asing: Thank you. I believe we have an amendment?
Mr. Nakamura: Next one.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Next one.
Chair Asing: Oh.
Mr. Kaneshiro: 2344.
Chair Asing: Okay, with that, any discussion? If not, roll call
please.
COUNCIL MEETING - - 16 - February 17, 2010
The motion to adopt Bill No. 2343 on second and final reading, and that it be
transmitted to the Mayor for his approval was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara,
Asing TOTAL - 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kawakami TOTAL - 1.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter is a...next bill for second reading is
Bill No. 2344, Draft 1.
Bill No. 2344, Draft 1 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2009-691, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE CAPITAL BUDGET OF
THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
JULY 1, 2009 TO JUNE 30, 2010, BY REVISING THE REVENUES AND
APPROPRIATIONS IN THE BOND FUND AND THE GENERAL FUND (CIP):
Mr. Furfaro moved to adopt Bill No. 2344, Draft 1 on second and final reading, and
that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro.
Mr. Kaneshiro: And I do have a floor amendment. Basically again,
this amendment was just for corrections on the way...I guess we had some errors in
numerical numbers. But this really is just to correct that. It's not changing any
projects or anything.
Chair Asing: It's a...
Mr. Kaneshiro: It's just a numerical, technical number that we had
to make some corrections on. So, if anyone needs this, we can pass it out. I saw
some people in the chambers raising their hands, but it's basically a numerical
correction or technical error when additions were made.
Chair Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So with that, I would like to have it amended.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Can I have a second to that motion.
Mr. Chang: Second it.
Chair Asing: Any discussion on the amended version? If not, all
those in favor say, aye.
Mr. Kaneshiro moved to amend Bill No. 2344, as shown in the Floor Amendment
attached hereto (Attachment No. 1), seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously
carried.
Chair Asing: We're back to the main motion as amended. Is
there any further discussion on the main motion as amended?
Mr. Kaneshiro: If I may?
Chair Asing: Yes, go ahead.
•
COUNCIL MEETING - 17 - February 17, 2010
Mr. Kaneshiro: I just wanted to add that members of the
committee and all of us are finance committee members, but we did have good news
yesterday. We got our bond float ratings from the three different companies, Fitch,
Moody, and Standard & Poor, and I want you to know that, perhaps the
administration will probably come out with a press release, but we went up. So,
that's real good news for us. As you can see the many economic hardships that
other counties are facing and the states are facing, for the County of Kauai to have
a bond rating move from previous years up shows that, you know, that we've been
doing some real prudent and I guess real good fiscal work. So I want to con...really
thank my committee for that, all of you are my committee members, all seven of
you, and I know I probably let the cat out of the box a little early, but I mean that is
really good news. Because what now can happen is that we can go out, we can start
floating our bonds. Because our ratings went up, we can probably get a few
percentage points drop. So when you talk about millions of dollars, especially in a
bond float issue of $120 million, any small percentage is a big amount of savings to
the county and also to the department of water. So with that, I thank you all as
members for being fiscally, responsibly, you know, fiscally responsible. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Mr. Furfaro: Yes.
Chair Asing: Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: I do want to say this. This is very, very good news
as Councilman Kaneshiro shared with us. We will let the mayor announce what the
actual rating would be, but the point here is we've moved up a notch. I think it
reflects several years of the actions we have taken. We've made improvements in
our audit, we have made sure our employees' funding benefits are in line, that we
have managed the surplus, and the fact of the matter is we've all worked on this
over the years, but in particular I want to say to Mr. Kaneshiro and all of us on his
committee and the administration, that's excellent news. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Councilmember Chang.
Mr. Chang: Thank you, Chair. I'd like to thank our budget &
finance chair, Mr. Kaneshiro. Thank you for working extremely hard and going up
there to San Francisco along with Mr. Rezentes, Mr. Costa, and of course the mayor.
That's very, very good news. I know that you guys worked really hard on it and
thank you for giving the credit to the council, but I think we should certainly thank
our budget & finance chair, Chair Kaneshiro, thank you very much.
Chair Asing: Councilmember Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: And I know this is a matter of us patting ourselves
on the back, but it really is warranted because I've been on the council three years
and last term, with leadership from the chair and from our then finance...budget &
finance director Furfaro, we made tough decisions that other municipalities in
Hawaii didn't, particularly fully funding our retirement obligations. So basically,
you know, for the sake of the public, you know, it was really tempting to do what
the other counties do and just fund those as they go, which would have meant a lot
fewer dollars, but it would...it was a bad decision for the future in that we would
have been creating a situation for a future council somewhere down the line to have
really cumbersome obligations on the...and impacts on the budget. And so,
COUNCIL MEETING - 18 - • February 17, 2010
it's...you know, we swallowed hard, made that decision with the recommendation of
the administration and, you know, took a different course than other counties and
this is the payoff that will save the county, taxpayers and the water rate payers
money right now. And the decisions we made will create (sic) us from having a
fiscal time bomb in the future on those issues. So it's really good...it is, you know, a
good reason to pat ourselves on the back because we made those difficult decisions
and it's having an immediate payoff. So, thanks to the leadership.
Chair Asing: Thank you, any further discussion?
Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you, Chair Asing. As a new councilmember
I also wanted to thank our budget & finance chair and the current councilmembers
and the previous councilmembers that worked so hard to get us in the position that
we are now. And this is definitely excellent news because I'm understanding that
we could be in much dire straits if we hadn't done...if you hadn't done what you had
done in previous years. So thank you to the current council and the previous
council that made those difficult decisions because we're in a little better space now
going into the budget coming up. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah, I just wanted to add that I really, you know,
do take my hat off to the administration too. I mean the mayor being there,
presenting, you know, the outlook, as the mayor was there and Wally Rezentes and
Dave Spanski and also, you know, Mr. Costa, who talked about the economic
conditions of the island and so forth. But I mean all of those efforts together
working with the county council has, I think, been real fruitful and I think it was
really impressive, especially if you're sitting there and you're making the
presentations between...before these three companies that are known for ratings, to
give credit ratings throughout the state and federal, counties and so forth, is that I
think they were quite impressed at the way we worked together and came to points
as to how we're going to achieve, you know, certain deficits and so forth. So I really
need to thank the administration too and it was a really good experience for me. I
have never been to making a presentation before, especially companies like Moody,
Fitch, and, you know, you talk about Standard & Poor, and make presentations to
let them know and see fiscally where we are, you know, is quite stressful. But at
the same time, we're very pleased with the results and as I said, they, you know...if
worse came to worst, if we held our credit rating the way we had, it would be great
for us. But to hear that we went up a point or so, that the credit rating really went
up, I mean it's fantastic news especially when you're sitting there and they're
talking about all the ratings that have gone down and I mean you're talking about
nationwide, you know, you're talking about big cities, Los Angeles, California, and
all those places. So, you know, it's good news for us. I think so. We'll wait and I
know the administration will, you know...I didn't want to take the opportunity and
jump the gun, but since we're on the bond issue, and this is actually our last
discussion on the bond issue as we go out to start selling the bonds, but in reality,
it'll bring us better interest rates and at the same time savings to the people of
Kauai.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Mr. Furfaro: Yes.
Chair Asing: Councilmember Furfaro.
• •
COUNCIL MEETING - 19 - February 17, 2010
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to also acknowledge
what Councilman Kaneshiro had mentioned. Leading up to this, yes, there's
several years of work and so forth, but you know, the...at the end of the day, it is
about the presentation and how you put, for lack of another term, the window
dressing on the presentation. The presentation is very, very key and for the general
public, you know the payoff is actually in the future. As we get a lower rate on the
amounts that we borrowed, we actually have less of our future revenue going to
actual debt service and that's where the future savings are. So, again, hats off on
the presentation. I know it was a very big part of selling our goal of getting an
improved rating. Thank you, Mr. Kaneshiro.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Ms. Kawahara: I forgot to thank the administration.
Chair Asing: Yes, go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: I forgot to thank the administration.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I did.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. Thank you, administration and
mayor's office.
Mr. Furfaro: I referenced them when I was talking about the
presentation.
Ms. Kawahara: I forgot, though.
Mr. Furfaro: So, it was done by the administration.
Ms. Kawahara: I forgot, so thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, I'd just like to add that I
want to, you know, also thank the mayor, the administration, and our budget chair.
You know our budget chair Kaneshiro talked about the meetings that they held in
San Francisco. I had the opportunity many years ago to attend one of those
hearings and meetings, and it is stressful. What you're doing there is you are
selling yourself and if you do not make a good presentation, then your chances of
selling yourself may not prove fruitful. I can give you an example of one of the
statements by one of the people that we made presentations to on the state of
California. Because of the different kinds of laws that they've passed there, it was
very difficult for them to get a good rating. It's not easy, but I just want to thank
everybody for that presentation.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Chair, if I may.
Chair Asing: Yes, go ahead.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I just wanted to add one more thing. You know, the
rating system has really changed. Previously, before we had this economic
downturn, even though you had a lower rating, you could go out and buy an
insurance. You can go out, go buy an insurance to raise your rating up, and in some
counties, you know, it makes sense, right, because you're floating millions and
millions or even billions of dollars. So you buy an insurance to bring you at a higher
COUNCIL MEETING • - 20 - • February 17, 2010
rating, even though you pay this much on the insurance, you'll probably save
because you got a lower rating. But that is not existing anymore. That's gone. So
it's all based on financial responsibility.
And I just wanted to add and tell you a funny story on my experience is that
when I went up there I didn't get the information from the administration that we
had to be in a certain type of uniform. So I wasn't ready for that. I didn't bring
with me an aloha shirt. I was supposed to have an aloha shirt and kukui nut lei.
Fortunately for me, I borrowed from George Costa. It was a little larger, but I had
to tuck it in and put a jacket over and make it look like it really fit. But we all
dressed in Hawaiian attire and we were all dressed with a kukui nut lei as we made
the presentation. So I think that was rather unique, so. But you know, for me it
caught me a little off guard. I could have (inaudible) borrowed Dickie Chang's aloha
shirt and that might have fit me perfect at that time.
Chair Asing: Thank you. With that said, roll call please.
The motion to adopt Bill No. 2344, Draft 1, as amended to Bill No. 2344, Draft 2,
and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval was then put, and carried
by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara,
Asing TOTAL - 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kawakami TOTAL - 1.
Chair Asing: With that, what I'd like to do is take a caption
break now. We're in a caption break.
There being no objection, the Chair recessed the meeting at 10:34 a.m. The meeting
was called back to order at 10:48 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Asing: The meeting is now called back to order. With that,
Mr. Clerk, can we have the next item?
Mr. Nakamura: Mr. Chair, before we hi...before the council
entertains the next bill, Bill No. 2345 on second and final reading, I think we still
have the communication from page 1, communication C 2010-10 for approval prior
to passing this bill. So if at this time, the council could entertain
communicatio...approval of communication C 2010-10.
C 2010-10 Communication (12/24/2009) from the Fire Chief, requesting
Council approval to fund the cost of the acquisition of a public use helicopter via a
10-year lease to be used to enhance and support search and rescue, firefighting,
ocean safety, training and other services of the Kauai Fire Department and other
departments in the County of Kauai: Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2010-10,
seconded by Mr. Chang.
Chair Asing: Thank you. What I'd like to do is suspend the rules
now and is there anyone in the audience who wants to speak on communication
C 2010-10?
There being no objection, the rules were suspended.
• •
COUNCIL MEETING - 21 - February 17, 2010
Mr. Abrew: Aloha, Rob Abrew for the record. The council asked
the fire chief to answer six questions and those six questions were answered. I just
have a couple questions to think this totally through. When the words "we hope
with proper ma.intenance," well if we're going to spend $2 million and we use words
"we hope it's going to do this," to me that's not fiscal responsibility.
My second question is has the county pursued putting out an RFP
nationwide, putting some standards in and asking if there are any companies in
this country that can provide us this service that meets FAA standards. I think
that would be the prudent thing to do because I believe there are companies out
there that would love to come put a base in Kauai, send their employees over here
on a monthly basis, and we would have professional services.
My third thing is if the county wants to go into the aviation business by
having their own helicopter, the paperwork is unbelievable. If we have a hangar
over at the airport, any person in the county that wants to visit that hangar has to
get FAA approval to go on that tarmac because it's going to be on the tarmac. So in
order to go through that gate, you have to have the FAA approval, if it's an FAA
approved (inaudible). If we put it on the helicopter pad, then that's not the truth.
The second thing, just doing a little calculations on page 1 of their pie chart,
there's 32.5 instances between 2005 and June 2009. So as an average of four years,
we're having 32 rescues per year or 32 needs for the helicopter per year. That
cost...for those four years that cost this county $550,000. If you divide that by four,
the yearly cost is $137,693 with the way we're doing it now. Like I said, if we put
an RFP out and ask for conditions, we might get that down cheaper without the
county going into the liability issue.
That's all my concern is. Let's think this thing out entirely, let's make sure
we have the approval of the grants we're seeking or the funding we're seeking.
Once all that's in place, then that's the proper time now to come and ask for money,
once everything is approved and put in place and finalized to go ahead. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to
speak on this item? If not, I'd like to call the meeting back to order.
There being no one else wishing to speak on this item, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
Chair Asing: We have a motion to approve. Is there any further
discussion? Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Mr. Chair, I guess what I want to have
them...because this is to approve their ability to begin negotiations on a lease and
with the great news we had on our bond rating from Standard & Poor's, you know,
the reality is in a few years, we could actually maybe purchase this equipment and
so my focus is on making certain as they go into the lease negotiation if we approve
this, the fact that they look at things like prepayment because we could come across
CDBG moneys in future years, we could get grant money from FEMA, you know,
those possibilities all exist. So I just wanted to make that point. You know, we can
have further dialogue on this during budget time.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Councilmember Kaneshiro.
COUNCIL MEETING. - 22 - ~ February 17, 2010
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah, I just wanted to add that I know we had a
previous speaker, in fact the speaker just stated about, you know, we should look at
other options and if we look at what the fire department did, you can go back to
2005 when they started doing studies on this. And it would show you that in order
to get away from FAA regulations we would need adouble-engine helicopter.
Currently just for us to lease the helicopter that comes out of Pacific Missile Range
because it's not a military helicopter, it's owned by a private company, costs us
anywhere from $5,000 to $6,000 or even higher per hour. It's adouble-engine
helicopter. That would fit our requirements. But, you know, when we talk about
rescue, when we talk about adouble-engine helicopter going inside some crevices
and some...Wai`ale`ale or steep...you know, real close areas like that, I think we
might have a problem. And you know, to me, it seems like it'll be much more
expensive to meet FAA requirements with adouble-engine helicopter for us to be
even able to train our personnel. What we're trying to do now is get this helicopter
so we'll be able to train our people and I think that's the most important thing for
me as I move forward and we go ahead and appropriate moneys like this. You
know, we need to train our people to be able to do the rescue and work diligently
with the helicopter or the pilots to be able to do the rescue. So, you know, I want
people to understand that there's ways that we can get, you know, or have the FAA
approve a certain type of helicopter, but again, it's much, much more costly as a
study has shown and if...I know the fire department has done several studies, the
2005 is one I can point out at and more recently, you know, they've hired some
consultants to look into this, so at the same time I feel secure that as we move
forward and move in this direction, there'll be better training for our rescue
personnel and at the same time we'll be able to do safer rescues for people in need.
So, with that, I'm supporting this bill and voting for approval.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Councilmember Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you, Mr. Chair. This weekend the Garden
Island did an opinion piece that I believe the title was "Good Idea, Bad Timing" and
I want to say that that's right where I started with this. It's like good idea, but boy
the timing is really bad for us in terms of our budget and to be honest, I looked for a
way that we could continue our current practices and, you know, not make a serious
fiscal commitment. But our fire chief is one of our outstanding department heads
and he really does his homework. He's very transparent and responsive, and you
know, we looked at this at every angle, and I came...you know I learned some
things that our current practices were less than acceptable to me in terms of the
need, and so...but I looked, you know, every way I could to say, not now, you know.
But I came to the conclusion that the responsible decision, as difficult as it is, is to
move into a situation where we have a dedicated public use helicopter, something
that we're the only county that hasn't had and because public safety and I think
almost everybody agrees, you know county is about public safety in roads and parks
and in kind of that order. And, you know, it's just our obligation to make sure our
firefighters are safe, that we have appropriate emergency response. I appreciate
some of the concerns that I've heard in the community. You know, most recently
and I may have, in some of the things I said, confused the case because I was
interested about if we were going to make this big purchase, what other county
needs could be met, particularly with the police department, and that may have
come across that there will be some frivolous use of this facility and I feel very sure
that that's not going to occur. It's not a toy to play with. It's a serious tool for
public safety and there...but there are some limited instances where other
departments, when appropriate with the right kind of guidance from the fire
department, could avail itself of that and it would be in the public's interest. So,
COUNCIL MEETING • - 23 - • February 17, 2010
you know, I appreciate the Garden Island's situation or their opinion because it's
kind of where I started with the process, but through doing the due diligence that I
saw from the chief, from the other councilmembers, I've come to the conclusion that
we really don't have an option, that the responsible thing to do is to move in this
direction. So I also will be supporting this. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Councilmember Kawahara, did you
have a comment?
Ms. Kawahara: Yes, thank you, Council Chair. I will be supportin
this also for many of the reasons that have been brought up by Councilmembe g
Kaneshiro and Bynum. But I too had a little bit of a struggle with it, but our fire
chief is one of the best department heads that we have. He does his homework, he
is prepared to answer all questions that anybody ever has on any of the projects
that he brings forward to us. He is more than forthcoming and the reports that he
did present us and all of the information that he gave us pretty much showed me
that what we've been doing up to this point has literally been...and excuse the pun,
but we've been winging it. If we want to be a pro...have a professional
rescue...rescue team...professional rescue department...if we as a county are going
to perform at a level that a county is supposed to perform at, and that our
community and visitors and everybody that comes here is to expect, this is an
investment that we do have to make. It is a lease investment and it is to end up in
a purchase. So, with the business minds at the table and all the people that we've
discussed this with, I believe that all the options have been gone over and it's a
necessary choice that has to be made because we have been operating on a less than
optimal basis in many regards, and having this equipment is critical. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Councilmember Chang.
Mr. Chang: I just want to say that I am in full support. I think
like every...hello...
It's on.
Mr. Chang: I think...I know that I am in full support. It was
very interesting. I think a big part of the topic of discussion was the ability, if we
are going to be able to hold onto any of our transient vacation taxes. But I am
actually pretty blessed to be living next door to one of our fire and rescue, so I got
firsthand some of the pretty hairy stories, the psychological stories and I think the
article that Mr. Bynum makes reference to, there was...I think it was dated
February 13th. But the whole page, the front page was covered with helicopter
issue, helicopter issue, helicopter issue and I think one of the quotes that Chief
Westerman said was, you know, it's basically the last straw. It was the last straw
to say that we gotta do something and it is for the safety of our first and foremost,
our fire rescue team, our...safety of our people, and I had a very interesting
conversation.
There is a very popular surf spot on the island of Maui known as jaws and
jaws is a big, big, big, huge wave, and one of our residents Laird Hamilton told me
that he, his body, his shoulders, his legs and everything was pretty much beat up,
but there were about seven, eight, nine, maybe upwards to about a dozen jet skis on
the rocks. They lost control, beat up, too much wave action, and he told me that
he...he went and towed in with David Kalama, they were partners. And he said he
COUNCIL MEETING. - 24 - • February 17, 2010
would never go out with anybody except David Kalama. And I think that's the
relationship that we have to get with our pilots and with our firefighters. There's
this continuity with trust with one another that you trust them.
And of course you could go out and ask other people to come out and bid, but
if you don't have what is referred to many times as local knowledge with the winds,
the trades, the clouds, the variations about different things, how the winds and the
currents push within the caverns and canyons. It's long overdue and I think it's
going to be a great thing for this island of Kauai and in many, many cases, you
know, Councilmember Kaneshiro mentioned when he was there in Waimea Canyon
and saw the people rescued, you know, seconds and minutes seem like hours and
days. So it's long overdue and it's something that we definitely need to get our
people trained and get them in...coordinates with the rest of our state. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? If not,
Councilmember Kaneshiro.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah, I just wanted to add that, you know, I think
this would allow us to be able to go forward in pursuing grants from Homeland
Security and other areas such as CDBG; it's always played an important part for us.
And you know, we started this off...if you think about it, if we're going to just think
and not think out of the box, we wouldn't have all these fire engines and fire
stations in every place, on every...you know, almost in every major town because
you don't have a fire every day. At the same time, you know, we put our resources
to the best uses that we can and we went out and we secured grants. We secured
grants for fire trucks, we secured grants for fire apparatus, so I think this is a new
step on how we've been able to do that. And I think, you know, we need to think out
of the box a little bit. Sure we don't have a rescue every day, but let me tell you if
it's your brother or your sister that needs to be rescued or your mother or your
father or your grandfather, you'll really appreciate that one time we have good
trained personnel, we have good rescue personnel, and a helicopter pilot and
personnel that know what they're doing. So, you know, that's what the whole
difference is about. But again, I feel confident, you know, in the years that I've
worked with CDBG, Homeland Security funds and so forth that we strive and work
towards that, we can get some funding. So, at least that will help us reduce the cost
overall and if worse comes to worst, the main part is that we got our personnel and
our fire people trained to do the job.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? If not, I just
have a few comments. I will be supporting this with reservations. I guess, the
timing issue is a big major issue for me. I do have reservations. I made that
statement earlier when we were in the committee meeting. I would have wanted
the third option of the presentation by Mr. Myers further evaluated. There was no
column that I could look at to make a determination as to whether his proposal
needed further study and maybe we should have looked at that closer, but I will be
supporting it with reservations. So with that, can I have roll call please. Oh, we're
on the communication. All those in favor say, aye.
The motion to approve C 2010-10 was then put, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: With that, next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: We're back on page 8 of the council's agenda, under
bills for second reading, Mr. Chair. This is Bill No. 2345.
• •
COUNCIL MEETING - 25 - February 17, 2010
Bill No. 2345 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2009-690, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING BUDGET OF
THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2010, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND
APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND (Acquisition of a
Public Use Helicopter via a 10-year lease): Mr. Kaneshiro moved to approve Bill
No. 2345 on second and final reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for
his approval, seconded by Mr. Furfaro.
Chair Asing: Any discussion? If not, again I'll say I will be
supporting this with reservations. With that roll call please.
The motion to adopt Bill No. 2345 on second and final reading, and that it be
transmitted to the Mayor for his approval was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro,
Kawahara, Asing TOTAL - 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kawakami TOTAL - 1.
Mr. Nakamura: Next matter is a Bill for Reconsideration, Bill
No. 2336, Draft 3.
BILL FOR RECONSIDERATION:
Bill No. 2336, Draft 3 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTER 16, ARTICLE 20, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED,
RELATING TO THE TRAFFIC CODE
Chair Asing: Thank you. Can I have a motion to reconsider?
Mr. Chang: Move to reconsider.
Chair Asing: Can I have a second?
Mr. Furfaro: Second.
Mr. Chang moved to reconsider Bill No. 2336, Draft 3, seconded by Mr. Furfaro.
Chair Asing: Thank you. All those in favor say, aye. Any
discussion first? If not, all those in...
Ms. Kawahara: Actually...
Chair Asing: Yes, go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: Yes, I did want to know what the...what the
amendments were...coming from and why were they being made. That's all.
Chair Asing: Oh, okay. Do we have the amendments?
Mr. Chang: I believe the amendments have been circulated.
COUNCIL MEETING - 26 - • February 17, 2010
Ms. Kawahara: Mm-hm and is there some discussion on how these
came about?
Chair Asing: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: This is Mr. Chang's amendment and (inaudible)...
Chair Asing: Well, let me do it this way. Yes, the administration
had some concerns regarding this and they had some concerns regarding the
language. It was not clear enough for them and they wanted to have more
clarification and have what they thought would be clearer language so that is really
the only reason for the amendment.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Chair Asing: I can tell you for myself I felt comfortable because I
will give you an example and the example that I use is that I've been, you know,
associated with basketball officiating for years and years, many years and what you
will find is and we use the term game law in basketball officiating, and you will find
many times that you take a rule or in this case a law, and you look into an area
where you feel that's where it is, it's described in that area. But there are many
times it is not in that area. It is covered, but it is covered in another area in the
rule. In this case here, this law that we're passing now gives the exemption in
another area. So if you look in that area, you will find it. And so they wanted
clarification and that's the reason for it, so I agree that...with the clarification. So
with that, we have a motion and to bring it onto the floor, we need the motion to be
passed first on the reconsideration. So let's have a vote on that. So, all those in
favor say, aye.
The motion to reconsider Bill No. 2336, Draft 3, was then put, and unanimously
carried.
Chair Asing: Okay, we now have the item on the agenda and
with that, can I have a motion to approve so we can discuss?
Mr. Chang moved to approve Bill No. 2336, Draft 3, seconded by Mr. Bynum.
Chair Asing: Okay, now we can discuss. Let's do the amendment
first, okay, move to amend. Can I have a motion to amend?
Mr. Bynum: So moved.
Chair Asing: Can I have a second?
Mr. Furfaro: Second.
Mr. Bynum moved to amend Bill No. 2336, Draft 3, as shown in the Floor
Amendment attached hereto (Attachment No. 2), seconded by Mr. Furfaro.
Chair Asing: Okay, we're on the amendment, now the discussion
on the amendment. Go ahead, Councilmember Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: I just want to confirm with staff the highlighted
section of this amendment is the new language, and that's correct and...
•
COUNCIL MEETING - 27 - February 17, 2010
Mr. Furfaro: (Inaudible.) I see that as language that was in the
lower section defining what could be used and it was moved into the definition part.
Am I correct?
Chair Asing: Councilmembers, if it helps you, we can have the
county attorney up. Would you...
Mr. Furfaro: I'd like...I would like him to come up. I just want
to make sure we didn't add, we moved it.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah, I want to...
Chair Asing: Yeah, okay. If it helps, can we have the county
attorney.
There being no objection, the rules were suspended.
Chair Asing: For Councilmembers, the county attorney's office
worked on this amendment.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair Asing: So with that, we have the county attorney up. Yes.
Councilmember Furfaro, you have a...some questions for the county attorney?
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, I just wanted to get some clarity. Actually, it
was Mr. Bynum's question, rather than being added, we just moved this and I'm
going to read what we moved "a two-way radio or Private Land Mobile Radio
System as defined by Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 90, when
used for business purposes, shall not be considered to be a mobile electric
device...electronic device." That's now moved in the definitions.
JUSTIN KOLLAR, Deputy County Attorney: Correct.
Chair Asing: For the record, your name so that we have the
captioner in Honolulu that can pick it up.
Mr. Kollar: My name's Justin Kollar, deputy county attorney.
Chair Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Welcome.
Mr. Kollar: Thank you, Council Chair and members of the
council, thanks for the opportunity to come and answer your questions about this.
Yeah, after the prior version of this was passed, there was some conferral among
the different agencies who are responsible for implementing and enforcing this, and
after...you know, including the judiciary, the police department, people inside the
administration, and other concerned parties, and what happened was there was a
consensus reached that there could be a little bit more guidance provided to the
folks that are charged with enforcing and administering this section and
particularly, a lot of businesses, the workers are stretched very tight and if it's the
intention to exempt the use of these devices, we would be better served by making
that clear up front in the statute rather than putting, you know, hard working
drivers and people in the situation where they're going to have to take time out of
COUNCIL MEETING. - 28 - • February 17, 2010
work and write letters to the court and spend time contesting citations that we
really don't intend to punish that conduct in the first place, so. We feel that this is
a good way to address all those concerns.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any questions for the county attorney?
Councilmember Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Mr. Kollar, I think this is the first time you've been
at county council, yeah?
Mr. Kollar: That's correct.
Mr. Bynum: Welcome.
Mr. Kollar: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: And I know that you're the deputy attorney
assigned to the police department, so...have I got that right?
Mr. Kollar: A good chunk of my time is there, yes.
Mr. Bynum: Okay and so basically this is just making it more
workable, but it doesn't change the intent of the bill.
Mr. Kollar: I don't believe so. I think this just makes it a little
bit easier for the police to know in what situations they should be writing citations,
for the judiciary to understand how to apply the different defenses and exemptions
that are set forth in the statute and that's...that's basically the intention of that
amendment.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you very much.
Mr. Kollar: Sure thing.
Chair Asing: Thank you, with that, go ahead,
Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: Do the revisions increase...increase the number of
people that are exempt?
Mr. Kollar: I...it...
Ms. Kawahara: Or types of people that are exempt?
Mr. Kollar: All it does is it specifies that when an officer stops
somebody and is looking at writing a citation that if the person is (1) on the job and
(2) using atwo-way radio as the federal regulations define that, they shouldn't issue
the citation to that person. Whereas before they would have issued the citation and
then put the burden on the motorist to come in and say, no, I was at work, I have to
do this, my employer requires this. So it doesn't actually change who is exempt and
who is subject, it just kind of clarifies that we don't want to put the burden on those
people to have to go and spend the resources and time fighting a citation that we
don't intend to make them subject to.
•
COUNCIL MEETING - 29 - February 17, 2010
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, actually that's great clarification. Thank you
very much.
Mr. Kollar: Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Councilmember Kaneshiro.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So do we have a definition of Title 47 of the Code of
Federal Regulations, Part 90?
Mr. Kollar: Correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Can we see that? Can you make that available?
Can we take a couple minutes' break just to review that?
Mr. Chang: Chair...Chair, actually would you like me to read?
Mr. Kaneshiro: You have a copy of the federal regulations?
Mr. Furfaro: He wants the federal regulations.
Mr. Chang: Oh, okay, okay (inaudible).
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah, I'm looking for Title 47 of the Code of Federal
Regulations, Part 90. I don't think everybody understands what that is.
Mr. Kollar: I...I think...we have...
Chair Asing: Let's have a few minutes' recess while we look at
the regulations. Can you make a copy of that for all councilmembers.
There being no objection, the meeting was recessed at 11:18 a.m. The meeting was
called back to order at 11:22 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Asing: The council meeting is now called back to order.
With that, Councilmember Kaneshiro.
The rules were still suspended.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, if I may, for clarification purposes then it's a
mobile service between base stations and land mobile stations. So basically, if you
have a base station and you call back to the base station, and do communications,
that would work. So, a question for the county attorney then would be that it would
be pretty difficult to call one trucker to the next trucker without going back to the
base station. Is that correct?
Mr. Kollar: That's the idea that if they're using this to
communicate back and forth involving a dispatcher and the dispatch would relay
messages to the other units in the field, that would be the conduct we're intending
to exempt.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, I just want people to be clear too about it,
that...that you know, it's where you have a base station at your office or wherever,
call back to the base station and at the same time have a message relayed from the
base station to the next driver if need be. So it's not at any time direct
j
COUNCIL MEETING - 30 - February 17, 2010
communication between two drivers saying to turn around and so forth because if
you do that, then you're not going back to the base station. You'll probably get
tagged. Is that correct?
Mr. Kollar: That would be correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, so...okay, I got it. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you very much.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you.
Chair Asing: With that, I'd like to call the meeting back to order
and I believe...do we have a motion to amend? Okay. With that, go ahead
Councilmember Kaneshiro, you had a question?
The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows:
Mr. Kaneshiro: No, no, I'm ready.
Chair Asing: Okay, we're on the amendment now. All those in
favor say, aye.
The motion to amend Bill No. 2336, Draft 3, as shown in the Floor amendment, was
then put, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: We're back to the main motion as amended. Any
further discussion? Councilmember Kaneshiro?
Mr. Kaneshiro: I just wanted to point out that for people to be
clear, that means that you can't even use your cell phone in any way to
communicate at all. I mean even if you're in the business or you're driving and so
forth, perhaps you may need to use the...what they call that, Bluetooth? Is that
correct?
Mr. Furfaro: Use a Bluetooth.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Or is something...
Mr. Bynum: Or hands-free device
Mr. Kaneshiro: Or a hands-free device, right. I think, you know,
there's a lot of misconceptions out there as to how we can still communicate and
how we can get business done. For my side, it's mostly about business, you know, I
agree about, you know, texting and everything else, but I don't want to, at this time,
you know, interfere with commerce. But I believe this is a situation with this bill
passed, you would need to have some kind of a hands-free type of communication
and I...and I've seen how that works. The Bluetooth or whatever they call that, if
that's the right word I'm using, I'm not a...
Mr. Furfaro: It's the right word.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: Bluetooth.
•
COUNCIL MEETING - 31 - February 17, 2010
Ms. Kawahara: Hands-free.
Mr. Furfaro: Hands-free.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, and hands-free, it can even call the number.
All you got to do is mention "call Mr. Furfaro" and it'll call it. So you don't have to
be there dialing and it'll dial Mr. Furfaro, so. So I want you to know that there are
some technologies out there, that businesses can still achieve what they want to do
and you know, I know it's an added cost...it's an added cost to the company, but at
the same time, you know, that safety is...o£..everyone else, including drivers, is
what we're concerned about. So just to give you an idea, you know, I'm not
promoting anything at all, but I...that is one way you can achieve being able to
communicate, especially for businesses, so I was really concerned about that. But
I've had the experience of seeing how it works and it can work, so. Again, you know,
I might vote with reservation because I don't like putting some of this burden on the
businesses, but we'll see when it comes to the final vote.
Chair Aeing: Thank you, with that Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, before we actually vote, I want to ask one
question of the county attorney. As we have this bill, this bill was moved to
reconsider by Mr. Chang. We opened the bill up, then we introduced this
amendment with the federal regulations and so forth. So now the new bill passes
today, February 17+x. Does that change the enforcement date now to be May 17~
because it goes 90 days from the date of the passage of the bill?
Ms. Kawahara: Great question.
Mr. Furfaro: No, but is it now May 17+x?
Chair Asing: Hang on, why don't we do this. Can we have the
county attorney up, please?
There being no objection, the rules were suspended.
Mr. Furfaro: Either one of you. I just want to make sure for the
public, we're clear on the enforcement date. Is it 90 days when we pass the bill
or...which now is not February 3rd, it's February 17~, or is it still pending the
mayor's final approval?
ALFRED B. CASTILLO, JR., County Attorney: Good morning.
Chair Asing: Good morning.
Mr. Castillo: All Castillo, county attorney. It's upon 90 days
after the execution by the mayor when it becomes law.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, so then could we make certain that there is
some kind of a public information because there are at least a week here that the
mayor could have not signed the bill, but it's from the date of his signature, right?
Mr. Castillo: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: That determines the enforcement date.
COUNCIL MEETING. - 32 - • February 17, 2010
Mr. Castillo: Okay, so you just wanted the public to know that?
Mr. Furfaro: Yup, but I also want to make sure that the
administration, you know, if he signs it next week...
Mr. Castillo: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: It's that date that starts the clock running.
Mr. Castillo: Okay.
Chair Asing: Perhaps we can send a communication to the
mayor's office so that they can disseminate that information through the public
information officer.
Mr. Furfaro: I was actually taking advantage of that question
since we see Beth Tokioka in the audience and public communications actually
come under her umbrella, so that's the reason for the question. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, the meeting is called back
to order and is there any further discussion than Councilmember Furfaro?
The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows:
Mr. Bynum: Thank you, Mr. Chair, for...and the county
attorney, for clarifying this language and it's good that we get it right, and that the
police department's been consulted. I also was assured by staff that
Councilmember Kawakami, who is representing us on Oahu today, he introduced
this bill and that he is in the loop on these changes and in concurrence, so thank
you very much.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion?
Councilmember Chang.
Mr. Chang: Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to, if I can, thank
all the people that previously gave discussion and you know, there were a lot of
people that are so appreciative of the ban, of the cell phone bill and I think there's a
few that had concern that there wasn't any scientific explanation as to whether it's
going to save lives or not, but yesterday I was flipping through some channels and I
caught the end of the Oprah Winfrey Show. And she was mentioning that
6,000 people died of crashes involving distracted drivers using the cell phone and
that was about 16% of the nation's traffic fatalities and with the 6,000 people that
were involved in fatal crashes, there were approximately 500,000 that were injured.
And they mentioned that. the uses of cell phone has the same effects of having a
blood related alcohol level of 0.08% which is a legal intoxication and they also did
have a survey that about two-thirds of the people in 2009 admitted using a cell
phone. And some of the states, as we all know, we have many people...many of our
youngsters now in drivers education, a lot of them rely on cell phones and texting,
but as of now, there's about nine states that banned cell phones in its entirety for
the juvenile drivers. So, you know, there are those that will say that perhaps we
should all be able to use the cell phone. I have to say for myself, much of my whole
life is hanging out on the cell phone and that's really my means of business,
relaxation, whatsoever, but I do believe it's a very, very good, good, good law and
one too many accidents whether it's fatal or not, can be distracting, can...as I
• •
COUNCIL MEETING - 33 - February 17, 2010
mentioned earlier, just miles and miles and miles of traffic, hours and hours and
hours of delay, so this is a bill that I totally support and I think we should be proud
of passing the bill. Thank you.
Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? If not, let me
read something to you and Mr. Chang took the air out of my balloon.
Mr. Chang: Sorry.
Chair Asing: Let me just read it, "Millions of people text, talk
and email on their cell phones while driving. A recent survey finds that 71% of
people between the ages of 18 and 49 admit they text or talk on the phone while
they drive. If you think you can call, text and drive at the same time, you cannot.
That message you can't wait to send could kill. Distracted drivers is an epidemic
that is sweeping our county, claiming lives and destroying families.
"Oprah's message for you.
"In September 2008, a Los Angeles commuter train conductor missed a red
light while sending and receiving more than 40 text messages. His packed train
collided head-on with a freight train, injuring 135 people. The conductor and
24 others were killed, making it the second worst commuter train crash in U.S.
history.
"Weeks later, a school bus carrying 21 students was rear-ended by an
18-wheel semi-truck. The bus was pushed more than 200 feet before bursting into
flames. Twenty students escaped, but 13-year-old Margay Schee was killed. The
truck driver admitted he had been texting and hadn't seen that the bus was
stopped."
And it just goes on and on and I won't read the rest. But the statistics are
there. It's dangerous and I'm glad that Councilmember Kawakami put this bill in
front of us. So I will be supporting it. Thank you. Councilmember Kaneshiro.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I guess, Chair, then with the statistics that you and
Mr. Chang had put out really changed my reservation to an affirmative vote.
Chair Asing: Yeah, you know, I'm not going to read the rest of
this, but there is some touching, touching stories and the stories that I read to you
are like industrial, commercial related type, but there are types of stories of
children, you know, in smaller streets riding bicycles that were killed by people
texting. So it's the neighborhood also. It is not the highways, but it is the
neighborhood types also. So with that, roll call please.
The motion to adopt Bill No. 2336, Draft 3, as amended to Bill No. 2336, Draft 4,
and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval was then put, and carried
by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro,
Kawahara, Asing TOTAL - 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kawakami TOTAL - 1.
Chair Asing: With that, I believe that we need the county
attorney up.
COUNCIL MEETING. - 34 - • February 17, 2010
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Mr. Castillo: Good morning still, everybody.
Chair Asing: Good morning.
Mr. Castillo: Council Chair, I will read all of the three executive
session numbers. This is Al Castillo, county attorney. Thank you, BC. I'm going to
read ES-424, 425 and 426.
ES-424 Pursuant to Haw. Rev. Stat. §§92-4 and 92-5(a)(4), (6) and (8),
and Kauai County Charter section 3.07(E), the purpose of this executive session is
to provide the Council a briefing on Kathleen Ah Quin v. Countv of Kauai,
Department of Transportation (USDCT) Civ. No. 08-00507 JMSBMK and related
matters. This briefing and consultation involves consideration of the powers,
duties, privileges, immunities and/or liabilities of the Council and the County as
they relate to this agenda item.
ES-425 Pursuant to Haw. Rev. Stat. §§92-4 and 92-5(a)(4), (6) and (8),
and Kauai County Charter section 3.07(E), the purpose of this executive session is
to provide the Council a briefing on Wavne R. Daniel, et al., v. Kodani and
Associates, Inc., et al., Civ. No. 08-1-0006 (Fifth Circuit Court) and related matters.
This briefing and consultation involves consideration of the powers, duties,
privileges, immunities and/or liabilities of the Council and the County as they relate
to this agenda item.
ES-426 Pursuant to Haw. Rev. Stat. §§92-4 and 92-5(a)(4) and (8), and
Kauai County Charter section 3.07(E), the Office of the County Attorney requests
an executive session with the Council to provide the Council a briefing, update, and
to request authority relating to the case of Jane Doe v. Countv of Kauai, EEOC
Charge no. 486-2009-00268 and related matters. This briefing and consultation
involves consideration of the powers, duties, privileges, immunities and/or liabilities
of the Council and the County as they relate to this agenda item.
Chair Asing: Thank you. With that I'd like to call the meeting
back to order and have a motion to move into executive session.
The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows:
Mr. Furfaro moved to convene in executive session, seconded by Mr. Chang, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: We're going to move into executive session and we
have two more items on the agenda, and we will be taking those items up after
1:30 p.m. We also have a certificate for Mayor of the Day, Ms. Kelli Oride, at
1:30 p.m. So we will now be moving into executive session. Thank you.
The Chair recessed the meeting at 11:38 a.m. to move into executive session. The
meeting was called back to order at 2:48 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Asing: This council meeting is now called back to order.
With that, Mr. Clerk, can we have the two remaining items on the agenda.
Mr. Nakamura: Council Chair, we're back on page 3 of the council's
agenda on communication C 2010-43.
COUNCIL MEETING - 35 - February 17, 2010
C 2010-43 Request (02/08/2010) from the Office of the County Attorney for
authorization to expend additional funds up to $25,000.00 to engage special
counsel's continued representation in the lawsuit entitled Kathleen Ah Quin v.
County of Kauai, Department of Transportation (USDCT) Civ. No. CV 08-00507
JMSBMK and related matters: Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2010-43, seconded
by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: Next item please.
Mr. Nakamura: Last matter for the council's approval is
communication C 2010-44.
C 2010-44 Request, (02/09/2010) from the Office of the County Attorney for
authorization to expend additional funds up to $20,000.00 to engage special counsel
to represent the County defendants in Wayne R. Daniel, et al., v. Kodani and
Associates, Inc., et al., Civ. No. 08-1-0006 (Fifth Circuit Court) and related matters:
Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2010-44, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and
unanimously carried.
Chair Asing: There being no other items on the agenda, the
council meeting is adjourned. Thank you.
ADJOURNMENT:
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:49 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/wa
i ~
ATTACHMENT NO 1
(February 17, 2010)
FLOOR AMENDMENT
Bill No. 2344, Draft 1, Relating to CIP Budget General and Bond Funds (GO Bond
Issue)
Introduced by. Daryl Kaneshiro (By Request)
Amend Bill No. 2344, Draft 1, to correct typographical errors as follows:
1) Amend Ordinance No. B-2009-691, Section 1, to read as follows:
"Section 1. The several amounts of Revenue Fund Balances, Special Trust
Fund for Bikeway Fund, Special Trust Fund for Parks & Playgrounds, Bond Fund,
Development Fund, Highway Fund (CIP), Sewer Fund, General Fund (CIP),
estimated for the fiscal year July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, are hereby provided and
appropriated to the funds and for the purposes as set forth in Section 2.
BIKEWAY FUND $ 21,672
BOND FUND [30,581,667] 91,216,982
DEVELOPMENT FUND 533,100
GENERAL FUND (CIP) [19,150,730] 11,796,965
HIGHWAY FUND (CIP) 6,742,392
SEWER TRUST FUND 168,165
SPECIAL TRUST FUND FOR PARKS
PLAYGROUNDS 1,634,074
TOTAL ALL FUNDS [$58,831,800] $112,113,350"
2) Amend Ordinance No. B-2009-691 by amending the Bond Fund line item for
Hanapepe/Waimea Levees, as contained in SECTION 2, to read as follows:
"Hanapepe/Waimea Levees 1,147,315"
3) Amend Ordinance No. B-2009-691, GENERAL FUND (CIP) category of
projects line item for Hanapepe/Waimea Levies, as contained in SECTION 3, to
read as follows:
"[Hanapepe/Waimea Levees 1,147,315]"
. •
ATTACHMENT NO 2
February 17, 2010
FLOOR AMENDMENT
BILL NO 2336, Draft 3, Relating to Mobile Electronic Devices
Introduced by Dickie Chang
Amend Bill No 2336, Draft 3, in its entirety to read as follows:
"SECTION 1. Chapter 16, Article 20, Kauai County Code 1987, is
amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as
follows:
Sec. 16-20._ Use of Mobile Electronic Devices While Operating a Vehicle.
(a) No person shall operate a motor vehicle while using a mobile
electronic device.
- (b) The use of a mobile electronic device for the sole purpose of
making a "911" emergency communication shall be an affirmative defense to
this ordinance.
(c) The following persons shall be exempt from the provisions of
subsection (a).
(1) Emergency responders using a mobile electronic device
while in the performance and scope of their official duties; and
(2) Drivers possessing a valid amateur radio operator license
issued by the Federal Communications Commission and using a
half-duplex two-way radio.
(d) As used in this section:
"Emergency responders" include fire fighters, emergency medical
service technicians, mobile intensive care technicians, civil defense workers,
police officers, and federal and state law enforcement officers.
"Mobile electronic device" means any hand-held or other portable
electronic equipment recognized by the citing officer or other witness to be
capable of providing wireless and/or data communication between two or
more persons or of providing amusement, including but not limited to a
cellular phone, text messaging device, paging device, personal digital
assistant, laptop computer, video game, or digital photographic device, but
does not include any audio equipment or any equipment installed in a motor
vehicle for the purpose of providing navigation, emergency assistance to the
1
ATTACHMENT NO. 2
operator of the motor vehicle, or video entertainment to the passengers in the
rear seats of the motor vehicle A "two-way radio" or Private Land Mobile
Radio System as defined by Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations,
Part 90, when used for business purposes, shall not be considered to be a
"mobile electronic device".
"Operate a motor vehicle" means to drive or assume actual physical
control of a vehicle upon a public way, street, road, or highway.
"Use or using" means holding a mobile electronic device while
operating a motor vehicle.
(f) Any person convicted or found liable of violating any provisions
of this section shall be subject to a maximum fine of fifty dollars ($50).
(g) Any person convicted or found liable of violating any provisions
of this section while operating a motor vehicle in a school zone or construction
area as defined in HRS Section 291C-104 shall be subject to a maximum fine
of one hundred dollars ($100).
SECTION 2 This ordinance shall take effect three (3) months after
its approval."
(All material is new.)
2