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Home My WebLink AboutP-0107.01-16 Council Minutes 05-2009- J , COUNCIL MEETING May 6, 2009 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, May 6, 2009 at 9:06 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 Honorable Lani T. Kawahara Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Mr. Kaneshiro moved for approval of the agenda as circulated, seconded by Mr. Kawakami, and unanimously carried. MINUTES of the following meetings of the Council: Council Meeting of April 22, 2009 Public Hearing of April 22, 2009 re: Bill No. 2306, Bill No. 2307, Bill No. 2308, and Bill No. 2309 Mr. Kaneshiro moved for approval of the minutes as circulated, seconded by Mr. Kawakami, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? PETER NAKAMURA, COUNTY CLERK. The next matters are matters for receipt on page 1 of the Council's agenda which are communications C 2009-161 and C 2009-162. On page 2 of the Council's agenda... I am sorry. Just on... the receipts are on page 1 Mr. Chair. C 2009-161 Communication (04/01/2009) from the Purchasing & Assistant Contracts Administrator, transmitting for Council information, the Fiscal Year 2008/2009 Third Quarter Statement of Equipment Purchases: Mr. Kaneshiro moved to receive C 2009-161 for the record, seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried. C 2009-162 Communication (04/16/2009) from the Director of Personnel Services, transmitting for Council information, the following classification requests A ~ ~ ~ COUNCIL MEETING. - 2 - • May 6, 2009 which the Department of Personnel Services will be reviewing and taking appropriate action: • Fire Department, Position No. 614 (Reallocation of Present Class of Lifeguard to Water Safety Officer II) 'I • Fire Department, Position No. 2527 (Reallocation of Present Class of Water Safety Officer II to Water Safety Officer I) • Fire Department, Position No. 240 (Reallocation of Present Class of Water Safety Officer II to Water Safety Officer I) • Fire Department, Position No. 2521 (Reallocation of Present Class of Water Safety Officer I to Lifeguard) • Fire Department, Position No. 741 (Reallocation of Present Class of Water Safety Officer I to Lifeguard): Mr. Kaneshiro moved to received C 2009-162 for the record, seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: At the top of page 2, we have communication C 2009-163. C 2009-163 Communication (04/22/2009) from Councilmember Tim Bynum and Councilmember Lani T. Kawahara, requesting the Administration to be present to give an update regarding the erosion and water safety issues at Po`ipu Beach: Mr. Nakamura: I believe we have a request from the Administration to defer this matter for one meeting Mr. Chair which has been circulated. Chair Asing: Thank you. Can I have a motion to defer? I believe there is a communication. Prior to that, Councilmember Bynum? Mr. Bynum: I just want to acknowledge the Administration had talked with us regarding deferring this for one meeting, so I will make a motion to defer. Mr. Bynum moved to defer C 2009-163, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next matters are matters for approval. On page 2, communication C 2009-164. C 2009-164 Communication (04/07/2009) from the Prosecuting Attorney, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend $8,340 of Federal Highway Safety Funds from the State of Hawaii, Department of Transportation, to be used towards travel and training for Deputies to gain knowledge and skills relating to vehicular crimes: Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2009-164, seconded by Mr. Chang. . ~ • COUNCIL MEETING - 3 - May 6, 2009 Chair Asing: Any discussion? Mr. Furfaro: Yes, I do also want to point out that I actually looked at this schedule training. It is for several sessions and one actually takes them back to the East Coast, to Philadelphia, so well justified. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye? The motion to approve C 2009-164 was then put, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next matter for approval is communication C 2009-165. C 2009-165 Communication (04/09/2009) from the Mayor, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend funds in the amount of $9,813 from the Hawaii Community Foundation's Housing/Community-Building Stronger Communities and Families Grant to implement the Parent Project® program in Koloa for residents of the Kawailehua and Pa`anau Village (State and County affordable housing projects): Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2009-165, seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item Peter? Mr. Nakamura: On communication C 2009-166, I believe there has been a request to move this down the agenda Mr. Chair. Chair Asing: Yes, move to the end of the agenda. With that, next item please? Mr. Nakamura: On the bottom of page 2 for approval communication C 2009-167. C 2009-167 Communication (04/27/2009) from the Prosecuting Attorney, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend $335,000 of Federal funds from the Recovery Act: Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant Program Category VII, Supporting Problem-Solving Courts, to be used towards establishing a Community Prosecution Program: Mr. Kaneshiro moved to approve C 2009-167, seconded by Mr. Kawakami, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? COUNCIL MEETING - 4 - • May 6, 2009 Mr. Nakamura: On page 3, the top of page 3 for approval is communication C 2009-168. C 2009-168 Communication (04/30/2009) from the Fire Chief, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend the Assistance to Fire Fighters Grant (AFG) to purchase a Fire Truck Driving Simulation System which the cost estimate of this project is $263,785 which the AFG would cover 80% or $211,028 and the County would be responsible for 20% or $52,757, and will be shared by the Kauai Police Department, Public Works Department, and Transportation Agency: Mr. Kawakami moved to approve C 2009-168, seconded by Mr. Furfaro. Chair Asing: Any discussion? Ms. Kawahara: I have a question. Chair Asing: Yes, go ahead. Ms. Kawahara: Is the $52,757 something that is already budgeted and not coming out the reserve? Chair Asing: I believe so. Do you want more information on this item? We can always send it to Committee, but it is in the budget. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you for clarifying. No need. Chair Asing: Any other questions Councilmembers? Concerns? If not, all those in favor say aye. The motion to approve C 2009-168 was then put, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next item is a legal document for approval. LEGAL DOCUMENT: C 2009-169 Communication (04/14/2009) from the Director Parks & Recreation, requesting Council approval to secure ashared-use path easement at the Sea Shell Restaurant Parcel (Tax Map Key No. (4) 4-1-05:14) which will provide adequate room for safe access from Wailua Beach to Papaloa Road as part of the Lydgate Park to Kapa`a Bike/Pedestrian Path: 1) Grant of Easement by Coco Palms Ventures, LLC, conveying Easement "A-1," Wailua Houselots, 3rd Series, to the County of Kauai for bike/pedestrian path purposes (Tax Map Key No. (4) 4-1-05:14): Mr. Bynum moved to approve C 2009-169, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro. • • • COUNCIL MEETING - 5 - May 6, 2009 Chair Asing: Hang on please. What I would like to do is suspend the rules. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. GLENN MICKENS: Thank you Kaipo. For the record, Glenn Mickens. I have a short testimony regarding this, communication. I have the document that the Clerk's Office was nice enough to give mean 11 page document. Anyway, let me read it for the record. I am not good at reading these easements maps, but in looking at the 11 page document along with the map, it appears that a lot of the County's time and work went into gaining use of 268 square feet of easement, A-1... just to get adequate room for safe access from Wailua Beach to Papaloa Road. When we talk about the millions of dollars this path is costing us, (we the taxpayers), must wonder how much of this cost includes the hundreds, if not thousands of hours that Doug and all the County people have put into it. This document alone involved our Mayor, Director Rapozo, Deputy Director Dela Cruz, our County Attorney and his staff, surveyors, the landowner and Phil Ross, notary publics, our Finance Director, and who knows how many secretaries all to gain access of 286 square feet of land. And we still haven't finalized according to Kylan where the path will go along Wailua Beach with a proposed dream of a boardwalk in the sand. This type of structure was brought up when the path was when... Kaipo,. you remember this because we had a long discussion (inaudible)... going in front of the golf course, so they could keep from using golf land was brought up when the path was going in front of the golf course, along the ocean, and it was disguarded. Can you imagine the maintenance cost of this type of structure set in the sand along Wailua Beach also. The proposal to make Papaloa Road one way which I see that the mapping showing that... not this particular map, but another map shows that, but the path hasn't been finalized, and if getting just 286 square feet of land is involving this kind of time and work, what will the rest of it cost? And, you know, that the people that fought having the path go in front of their condos which they stopped, they will again fight having their street made one-way which they are trying to do with Papaloa, and then they are going to go down there by Kintaro's Restaurant, and they are going to put another signal up there. So now we are going to have three (3) signals within about aone-tenth of a mile radius. Let's get real and stop spending millions of dollars more for a project that isn't needed particularly in this terrible economy. If I read any of this 11 page document wrong, I apologize, but that is the way I read it with all the notary stamps, and the people that were involved in the thing. So am I correct in saying that we are out trying to get 286 square feet... that is the only piece of easement that we are talking about? Chair Asing: That is one of the pieces, yes. Mr. Mickens: So I do have it right. Okay, unless there are any questions, I appreciate it Kaipo. I just... ET ~ - - • ` COUNCIL ME ING 6 May 6, 2009 Chair Asing: Any questions for Glenn? If not, thank you Glenn. Is there anyone else? JOE ROSA: Good morning members of the Council. For the record, Joe Rosa. I still haven't heard anything (inaudible) environmental impact study on the area in the back of the Foodland and Safeway on that bike path. You know, it is a critical thing because when the State DOT had plans for the highway... the alternate route that would include a new Wailua Bridge, that was a critical area because it had to do with the wildlife... (Inaudible) and wildlife. And, you know, wetlands are getting scarce and when I did work while with the DOT back there when there was the proposed canal that is back there, there is water nearly everyday, and it was about three (3) feet. Now when you talk about... you are going to fill that area... I don't know what the height is going to be over there because the water elevation is about... from two (2) to three (3) feet at times. Now what kind of fill you are going to get there to kick that out of the water or the swamp... is it a six (6) feet fill? I know it is ten (10) feet wide, but that, when you make a fill, you don't fill it vertically, you have to slope it, and at times, to get a good slope, you go one and a half to one (inaudible). ALFRED B. CASTILLO, JR., COUNTY ATTORNEY: I am sorry, Mr. Chair, you know, I have to interject because... Al Castillo, County Attorney for the record. I am sorry, but I think the subject matter what we are supposed to be talking about is the easement, and I think this is going far from the easement at the Seashell Restaurant. I don't know if it is proper for me to interject, but... Chair Asing: Why don't you hang on. Let me take it from here. Thank you very much for the information. With that, can you stay on course please. Mr. Rosa: But, actually, what I had to say was to do with that path in that section anyway. The easement... I see that, again, either the State or County government, they are doing things that... all lead to a problem and that is going to be at that intersection there. Even though you are going to put a single light, you know, within a mile area, there are going to be three (3) signal lights. Kamoa Road, Haleilio, and that so called road there. That is going to be a stop, go, stop, go, and you are not going to solve this problem of the traffic. And I am pretty sure those hotel people are going to object to it like they did for the path (inaudible) businesses because people... tourist won't come in to find and it is a problem because, on Kauai, there are a lot of inadequate signs of designation for hotels and places of points of interest. So make it a one-way ain't going to help it, and to me, that thing there should just be (inaudible)... and they should work more closely with DOT because you have a traffic congestion and it is not going to help it. Chair Asing: Thank you Joe. • • COUNCIL MEETING - 7 - May 6, 2009 Mr. Rosa: Thank you. Chair Asing: Is there anyone else? If not, I would like to call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: Do you have a question for Joe? Mr. Bynum: No. Chair Asing: The meeting is called back to order. With that, Councilmember Bynum. Mr. Bynum: I just wanted to say that this 286 feet as Glenn pointed out is for passage. One of the advantages of this kind of path system is safety for our citizens when they are walking from, you know, from one point to another. And the environmental assessment for this phase of the bike path has been done for quite some time and it is available to the public on request. I think it is at the libraries, so that is it. Chair Asing: Good. Any further discussion? Let me echo the sentiment of Councilmember Bynum and I guess to both Joe and Glenn, you know, we are trying to make the path as safe as possible, and on recommendations by the engineers, the feeling is we need this additional space, it is not County owned, so we need to acquire it, and that is the reason for safety. I agree totally with Councilmember Bynum and we need to make our area as safe as possible, so that is the reason for this. Thank you. With that, any further discussion? All those in favor say aye? The motion to approve LEGAL DOCUMENT: C 2009-169 was then put, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: The next item please. Mr. Nakamura: The next matter is a claim... communication C 2009-170. CLAIMS: C 2009-170 Communication (04/16/2009) from the County Clerk, transmitting a claim filed against the County of Kauai by Norman J.N. Holt, Sr., for damages to his driveway, pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the County of Kauai: Mr. Furfaro moved to refer C 2009-170 to the County Attorney's Office for disposition and/or report back to the Council if necessary, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. • • . COUNCIL MEETING - 8 - May 6, 2009 Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next matters for approval are Committee Reports. COMMITTEE REPORT: BUDGET & FINANCE CONIlVIITTEE REPORTS: A report (No. CR-B&F 2009-09) submitted by the Budget & Finance Committee, recommending that the following be approved on second and final reading: "Bill No. 2306 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. B-2008-672 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2008 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2009, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND ($500,000-Kauai Visitors Bureau Economic Stimulus Grant)," Mr. Kaneshiro moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. (See later for Bill No. 2306) A report (No. CR-B&F 2009-10) submitted by the Budget & Finance Committee, recommending that the following be approved on second and final reading: "Bill No. 2307 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. B-2008-672 AS AMENDED RELATING TO THE OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2008 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2009, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATION ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND ($300,000- Consultant Services-Special Counsel)," Mr. Kaneshiro moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. (See later for Bill No. 2307) A report (No. CR-B&F 2009-11) submitted by the Budget & Finance Committee, recommending that the following be approved on second and final reading: "Bill No. 2309 A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SUBSECTION (a) OF SECTION 21-9.2 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE, 1987 RELATING TO INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT," Mr. Kaneshiro moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. (See later for Bill No. 2309) • • COUNCIL MEETING - 9 - May 6, 2009 Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: Next matters are bills for second reading. The first bill for second reading is Bill No. 2306. BILLS FOR SECOND READING: Bill No. 2306 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. B-2008- 672 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2008 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2009, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND ($500,000-Kauai Visitors Bureau Economic Stimulus Grant): Mr. Furfaro moved for adoption of Bill No. 2306 on second and final reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro. Chair Asing: Any discussion? I'd like to suspend the rules. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Chair Asing: With that, Mr. Taylor? KEN TAYLOR: Chair, and members of the Council, my name is Ken Taylor. I passed you a document this morning that I sent to Gary Heu and the Mayor. It is actually about an article I sent out to all of you last week showing the problems with plastic water bottles. You might ask what has water bottles got to do with this issue on your agenda today, but if you go down to the bottom section of the first page of my document, it talks about the economy. I strongly believe that a ban on plastic bottles, bags, and Styrofoam containers would also be very, very good for our economy. The County is about to spend $1 million in two (2) parts which is the issue before you today, the first part of that. A ban on plastic bottles, bags, and Styrofoam containers would be written about, talked about all over the country as well as around the world for many, many years. It would be talked about over and over as the communities look to do the same. You could not afford to buy this kind of publicity and you would still have your million dollars to do something special for the community people of Kauai. In times of economic downturns, we must do... take good care of ourselves as well as our money... it is called working smart. I have seen talk about San Francisco's banning of plastic bags all over the Internet from Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, and all over Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Who knows where else? Kauai has an opportunity to reduce their ecological footprint, and at the same time, benefit our economy. Awin/win for today's population as well as the benefits for future generations, so I am opposing spending this $500,000 on this activity, and I am suggesting that you move forward with banning these things, and getting free publicity, and at the same time, benefiting the well being of the island. And I think you would get a lot more bang for your buck. If you are going to go with this process instead of doing it the way • f . COUNCIL MEETING - 10 - May 6, 2009 that it is being proposed. I believe what you should be doing is offering vouchers to individuals that want to come here to the island and let them pick up their voucher when they arrive to move forward, that way you know exactly how many heads you put on the pillow. I don't see anyway possible to track how this money is spent or what benefit will come from it under the current circumstances. I would suggest not moving forward with it and there is an opportunity to do better. Thank you. Chair Asing: Thank you. Is there anyone else? George? GEORGE COSTA, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Aloha Council Chair Asing and members of the Council. Good morning. George Costa, Director of Office of Economic Development for the record. I am here this morning and want to say mahalo nui loa for your support. You know, I understand where Mr. Taylor is coming from. We have a lot of concerns for our environment for the island. This is one area... the visitor industry main economic engine needs support and we appreciate your support and on behalf of the Kauai Visitors Bureau as well. To address Mr. Taylor's concern as far as tracking, it won't be an easy task, but we are confident that in working with the tour wholesalers, we can come up with marketing codes that when these visitors do book their vacation, it can be tracked. It is going to take a lot of cooperation and collaboration between the wholesalers, between the various destinations or hotels and condominiums that they stay at, so it will be an islandwide effort. You know, the coupon book that we referred to hopefully will address their retail section of our business community, and get them to participate as well. They will be offering discounts, you know, for their services and their product, and we will really rely on them to do tracking from the retail portion. So, again, you know, we feel very confident that this will help our economy if anything to stabilize the visitor industry, but it has been shown that the visitor industry does affect all facets of our community. You know, we are very confident that this will help our island and in the future, we will also be able to look at other areas to help our economy as Mr. Taylor mentioned in energy, in agriculture, and those areas that are also very important. So, again, I just want to say mahalo nui loa for your assistance. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any questions Councilmembers? Mr. Furfaro: Yes Mr. Chair, since this item stretched into just economic development as well. On a personal note of privilege for the Council, George, will you please note for the agricultural presentation that you have in Kilauea for the Northshore this evening... Mr. Costa: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: That all members of the Council will be addressing posted public hearings this evening, so we will probably not be able to address the farming opportunities that you organized. Thank you Mr. Chair. . • . COUNCIL MEETING - 11 - May 6, 2009 Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions? If not, thank you very much. With that, Sue, do you want to say anything? SUE KANOHO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KAUAI VISITORS BUREAU Aloha, Sue Kanoho, Executive Director, Kauai Visitors Bureau. I just wanted to say thank you for hearing us during these meetings. It has been our honor to come to you and ask for this help and I really appreciate the support that has been given so far. The community and the visitor industry really extends their aloha and mahalo to you because at this time, it is getting tougher. I just got notified that Mark Resorts has just closed, so we are still experiencing as Jay had said, even if we have a stability on the (inaudible), we are still going to have a little bit of a downfall for Kauai. So I appreciate any support that you can give us right now. It is really critical and I just appreciate everything that you have been doing for us. Mr. Bynum: I had a question. Mark Resorts? Can you give me more detail? Ms. Kanoho: Mark Resorts manages Pali Ke Kua, Pono Kai, and some properties... individual condo units on the Northshore, so it is a management company more than anything. The owners still own, but... Mr. Bynum: So there will be a change in management? Ms. Kanoho: Yes, so we just got notification and I was actually just sending that out before running over here. Mr. Furfaro: Actually, I just want to caution everybody. Sue, it is very unfortunate... last month, we had one of our hotels going to receivership, today this is another scheduled. Mark Resorts, just so everybody understands... if your statement is clear to everyone, their website is closed down. They are not taking any new bookings. Ms. Kanoho: Correct. Mr. Furfaro: They actually operate as the rental portion of the resort condominium, their Association of Apartment Owners (AOAO) are still in tact. Ms. Kanoho: Correct, owners are still there. Mr. Furfaro: I just want to... and make sure that we caution everybody... I am sure that other operators will come to assist, but it is not something we want to have on the front page of any media that points out the closing of a resort operator, but it is the rental aspect and not the Association of Apartment Owners. COUNCIL MEETING. - 12 - • Ma 6 2009 Y Ms. Kanoho: Correct. Mr. Furfaro: And I think their website has closed down now too. Ms. Kanoho: Their website is down, their 800 number is down, so Jay points out that other people will step in and assist them, so those people will be handled... we also lost a wholesaler a couple of weeks ago as well. Other people stepped in to help with that and properties stepped up with special rates to help those people as well. So the business still continues, it is just that some... as many as we might have had before might not make it all the way through. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions? Councilmember Bynum? Mr. Bynum: I just want to make a comment that you triggered me talking about Pali Ke Kua. That is a condominium property that has been in Princeville for, I don't know, a long time, but I have had friends and family stay there in the past. For many people, the opportunity to spend time at Pali Ke Kua is like a vacation of a lifetime. It is just the... in the most incredible setting and such a fantastic place. So, you know, we are in tough times, but we are going to come back because it is so special and some of our properties are so special, and it is an experience of a lifetime for people, so... Ms. Kanoho: Castle Resorts have been helping and I am sure that other properties will step up if need be, so it will get handled, it is just that it is another blip on the radar screen of certain companies not being able to carry on through current times. Chair Asing: Thank you. Sue, would you like to expand a little bit about the headline that I saw on the lowest occupancy rates since tracking began in the 1980's I believe. Ms. Kanoho: Well, I will try, but Mr. Furfaro is probably better at that than I am. Currently, you know, less people means less heads in beds, so that is our challenge right now of trying to get more people back to our kind of healthy number of people. So what is happening is, anybody that is experiencing in both hotels and condos are experiencing less people are coming. Actually, the message and I don't know if anybody saw the news this morning, but they are talking about the affordability of Hawaii right now. And so everybody has really got that message front and center to say, you know what, if ever there was a time to come to Hawaii, it is now because of some of the great rates that are available. So when you see low occupancies like that, that means we have less people coming and there are less people using those areas, those resorts for that. We still have other... we have vacation rentals of course, and we have timeshares of course. So from what I understand, most of them are also experiencing downturns. I am not sure, Jay, if • • COUNCIL MEETING - 13 - May 6, 2009 you have heard on the timeshare side. I haven't heard a lot on that, but I do know that the hotel, vacation rental, B&B, and condo side are very much challenged. Chair Asing: Okay, thank you. Mr. Furfaro: And I would just like to point out the fact of the matter is people whether they are in the resort condominiums section, interval ownership through resort hotel, what we need to realize is a hotel room night... when you see a dropping as much as it has, a hotel room night is highly perishable. It is not like being in a restaurant, you didn't sell "x" amount of steaks there, they are refrigerated for future sales, and so forth, and other commodity for that matter. A room night if gone empty tonight is gone. Ms. Kanoho: Right. Mr. Furfaro: It is highly perishable and the, you know, the good news is I think this money is going to help us as it looks like the N1H1... Ms. Kanoho: H1N1. Mr. Furfaro: Oh, I got it backwards. I am sorry. It seems to be stabilizing. The fact of the matter is that the value message gets out, and hopefully the value message helps us not necessarily gain more visitors arriving everyday, but because of the value, they stay longer, and therefore, they fill more room nights. It is extremely important and I am worried about the news about with the _ wholesaler closing on the mainland. You know, this recent resort piece because it will have an impact on people's hours, and their work opportunity. Ms. Kanoho: It does, it does affect. Mr. Furfaro: We need to ask you to be managing this situation which are typical (inaudible). Thank you Sue. Ms. Kanoho: So I think if... the support that you will give us, it really is going to be much more focused than we normally are on trying to bring people right now, so this is going to be a very intense program that we are going to do instead of being up here for branding and awareness. We are going to be right down here with the properties and the activities on bookings, and working very hard for that. So that will be our goal and we will give it 110%. Chair Asing: Good. Anything else for Sue? If not, thank you very much. Ms. Kanoho: Thank you Councilmembers. Chair Asing: I'd like to call the meeting back to order. COUNCIL MEETING. - 14 - • May 6, 2009 The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Mickens. Chair Asing: Oh, I am sorry Glenn. The rules are suspended. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Chair Asing: With that, Glenn? GLENN MICKENS: Thank you again Kaipo. For the record, Glenn Mickens. I just want to say that I do support this bill 2307 (he means 2306). I appreciate all the hard work that Visitor's Bureau... that Sue and George through his department have done on this thing. I also highly support what Ken just said too that... I think before we appropriate these kinds of funds, I think the bigger picture should be looked, the voucher thing, and as Ken was pointing out, the disposal of different things on the island. I think we can better address the problems if we look at the big picture first. Again, I don't want to demean from their good participation by these people that are trying to do everything they can to get this engine running. I can well appreciate that, but anyway, I just want to say that I do support 2307, but I really support what Ken says and do. Thank you Kaipo. Chair Asing: Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: I have some for Glenn. Chair Asing: You have a question? Glenn? Mr. Furfaro: Yes Jay. I too think that Ken brought up some great points and I do want and will extend an opportunity to connect the two (2) of you to some hotelier on the island. A lot of people do not realize that the hotels do work very hard to deliver the message on recycling, on reuse, and even as we often talk about housekeeping personnel and food service and so forth. We tend to forget that the hotels do employ some very highly skilled individuals. Information systems people that can keep a lot of data, the monitoring of consumption of utilities, their program with their IT, understanding of peak demands, circulating pumps, lights... they employ a host of carpenters, plumbers, mechanical people that deal with bottle collection that is often recycled into asphalt. They have programs that deal with housekeeping from letting them take bottles to be recycled, and many of them keep a large accounting staff that, you know, monitors those types of usage including even simple messages of asking visitors to use towels twice to reduce demand on the laundry service and so forth. So I would be happy to arrange something where you visited one of the hotels... there are some real leading hotels here on Kauai and I think there is often things that we can continue to do, but there is a program within the hospitality industry that promotes that and with the COUNCIL MEETING • - 15 - • Ma 6 2009 Y ' Chamber of Commerce. You know, I am a recipient of the first green star award that promotes these issues about bottles, plastics, and I think Ken brings up some very good points. There is a very large concern about a floating (inaudible) rubber and hypalon, and all kinds of other plastics right here in our Pacific Ocean. Mr. Mickens: I know you've got enough expertise in the hotel industry most of your life, so I wouldn't have to check a program like this. You are saying.. . Mr. Furfaro: I just wanted to point out that the resorts are very aware of some of the things that Ken brought up and I think the idea of us thinking about banning plastic bags. Maui has a bill that goes into effect in 2013 I think. Mr. Mickens: And the other thing you brought up about the voucher part, but I thought that was excellent as far as tracking... completely tracking what bang we are getting for our buck. I thought that was a... Mr. Furfaro: As we talked about wholesale networking and so forth, but I also think the coupon book that Sue talked about and I know Ken wasn't here last week. The coupon book will kind of run parallel to those added values. Mr. Mickens: True. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair. Mr. Mickens: Thank you Jay. Chair Asing: Thank you. Is there anyone else? If not, I would like to call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: Do we have any further discussion Councilmembers? Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you Mr. Chair. As Budget & Finance Committee Chair, I will be supporting this ordinance. When this ordinance was first presented to me and we looked at the possibility of using the funds from unappropriated surpluses, I did have some concerns in that regards. In fact, I held a bill back for about a week or two (2), so I could have more information as to what the program was going to be like, and how the program was going to be able to accomplish what we needed to see to uplift our economy. At the same time, we had some feeling and we had some notices from our Leg that perhaps our TAT funding was also going to be cut. And that was a big concern for me as the Budget & Finance Chair because at that point, you know, the unappropriated surplus or any money that we had would play a very important factor for us to be able to carryout COUNCIL MEETING ~ - 16 - • Ma 6, 2009 Y the services that the County needed to provide. But as we have moved on and the presentation became more vivid as the Kauai Visitor's Bureau presented their presentation... as Mr. Costa did the presentation, it showed us that the industry was rapidly declining. Within the period of weeks, you know, we have seen many layoffs, we have seen some of the hotel industries going through receivership, and that was a big concern for me. And I want to tell you that I really respect Councilmember Kawahara's feeling about this bill and when we first started, I had the same type of feeling, but as we have moved along and we started to see... hopefully, this positive impact that this amount of moneys would bring to us, the $500,000 would bring to Kaua`i's economy, I felt confident that this might be also a wise move to go ahead and spend that kind of money to uplift our economy. Again, you know, in all respect to Councilmember Kawahara, coming from an ag sector also, you know, I appreciate her concern about putting more money for ag and different types of industries besides just tourism. So I needed to express that and perhaps through the Committee meeting, people may have had the different impression of my support for this bill, so hopefully, Ms. Kawahara will still give us some thought and maybe support this bill also. If not, I totally understand her position, so with that, thank you Mr. Chair. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? With that, Councilmember Chang. Mr. Chang: Thank you Mr. Chair. First of all, Ken Taylor, thank you very much for bringing up the interest and the concerns about Styrofoam plastics, plastics, etc. Just to piggyback on what Glenn was talking about a little bit and Councilmember Furfaro. Many of the hotels have these little... like a little mini kiosk on their tables that will talk about conserving lights, conserving hot water, you know, not using hot water unnecessarily, and there are areas that you can put your towel that will indicate that you need another towel. If you feel like hanging up your towel and reuse the towel, that is fine. But many of the hotels when you walk throughout the public areas, mainly the elevators, you will have recycling bins right there in front of the elevator, so when the guest leave, and when the guest come back, it is very convenient place for them to discard the recyclables. One of the things when... Ken's letter that he had to us regarding San Francisco about many different people from Canada, Amsterdam, and different places recognizing recycling, many visitors come to Hawaii or Kauai, and I think they honestly believe that we are real far behind as far as recycling is concerned, and that is why the visitor industry is trying to keep up with that norm because for a lot of people, recycling is just a way of life for many, many, many years. With all that being said, I just want to comment on the fact that I think I am very blessed because in the outside Chambers of the Council, I have a pleasure of, you know, working briefings at the Marriott, doing luaus at Luau Kalamaku there at Kilohana and at the Sheraton. So I have a very unique opportunity to probably meet a minimum of a thousand guests a week. I talk to them no matter where they are from. Are you enjoying your experience, you are having a great time, what are some of the highlights, and I chat with them knowing that they are having a great, great COUNCIL MEETING - 17 - May 6, 2009 experience, but I think more importantly, I also do work directly with over 100 employees and indirectly with over 100 more, and now that everybody is on pins and needles, I think that the aloha spirit is on an all time high, and I think everybody is working that much extra to give that aloha experience, to give that experience to our guests, and to our visitors, because we want them to speak good of us. They want us to come back and be repeat visitors, but with this marketing effort, that in your face effort, I think a lot of the people that are coming to Kauai will now become our sales people. When people see this on the Internet or people see this in their publications, they are saying, oh yea, I went to Kauai, and the experience was great, the people were beautiful, it was a great time, and, you know, in my opinion, I believe that everyone is aware of how important the visitor industry is. I believe that we are at an all time high as far as the aloha spirit is concerned because everybody is obviously concerned about keeping their jobs and really trying our best to raise the levels of visitor expectation, and the numbers simply because we want our friends to get back in that employment line also because they are many on a daily basis that is sadly losing their jobs, and it is all up in the air. So there is a great feeling out there and there is a great sense of care and urgency, so I will sincerely wholeheartedly be supporting this bill, and I really want to thank you folks for your comments. Mahalo. Chair Asing: Thank you. Councilmember Kawahara? Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Chair. I wanted to say that when I first was getting briefed on the plan for the $500,000 for the first part and $500,000 for the second part, I was really pleased to have Mr. Costa with us and have Sue Kanoho working together. And I still... I think they have given us a premiere marketing program that would be worth the money that Council is considering doing. As I thought about it though, I did have issues and concerns that I believe I brought up in Committee meeting, and perhaps because it is a budget thing, and it is my first budget, it seemed ironic that we were looking at line items and trying to save money on our services and our programs that we weren't going to be able to keep if the TAT was going to be taken away or just the cut because our revenue is decreasing. So with revenue decreasing and services being looked at to be reduced in moneys or reduced in actual services, it became a more difficult decision. I still believe that tourism is our number 1 industry. I believe that I have read statistics that 40% of people are employed directly or indirectly through the industry. I also recognize the fact that Council Chair had spoken about the hotel occupancy in Hawaii at a 22 year low in the papers. And the question that I had about whether or not Council had given money before to hotels or anything like that, it seems like we did it in 1991 for Iniki. So this is... I think this is unusual and I think I have raised my concerns. I do believe if we do have this money in surplus... no, reserve, there is money that I believe that we could use it for. We had to zero out our recycling coordinator, we are looking at social services, enhanced fitness programs for seniors that may be cut... there is just a lot that $500,000 could do for people directly here that we would see because I understand the difficulty it is going to be to track and measure what they are going to have to track and measure. It does • COUNCIL MEETING - 18 - May 6, 2009 depend primarily on the support and willingness to work with that measurement program... it depends on the visitors to actually do it. So I want to say that the tourism and visitor industry is our number one industry. We do need to look at what our social services and what our budget was... what we were doing before we had this and cutting services or lowering services, and also the diversification of industries that we should be supporting as easily and with as much capital that we have. In recognition, yes, those different industries aren't going to be as sophisticated at first... at the very first look because tourism has been huge and it is very sophisticated, but we have to start somewhere. When we are talking about ag, farming, and stuff like that, it is not going to be a sophisticated thing. There is retraining, there are all kinds of infrastructure that has to be put in, so it has to be done, and I am saying that when we know this industry cycle is up and down so much, it is incumbent upon us to be able to not rely on it singly and primarily. I have no idea yet how I am going to vote, but I wanted to be clear that I support the visitor industry 100%. I am so happy that we do have Sue Kanoho at the Kauai Visitor's Bureau because she has a special understanding of what Kauai is and also how people want it to look, and she is able to work it in with the visitor industry. I only wish maybe there were fewer beds that she would have to fill making her have less headaches, and have to work so hard. And I appreciate George Costa and I thought it was a really... he became our Director of OED at this point, so I think, with that, then my statement is in the Committee hearing, I think I have done. Thank you. Chair Asing: Thank you. That was a little bit. With that, any other discussion? Mr. Kaneshiro: I can see a future Budget & Finance Chair. Chair Asing: Okay, with that, I just want to make a few comments. I don't have any reservations at all, any. You got your number 1 industry, what do you do? It is down, down, down. You know, what do you do? You've got... if you can stop Lebron James, you got a chance to win. That is the number guy. If you stop Kobe Bryant, you have a chance to win. Those are the number 1 types of people out there, so where should you put your emphasis? That is where the emphasis is and in my opinion, you know, the tourism industry is whether we like it or not. You know, I have to tell you that I got on this Council... the reason I got on is because of my opposition to the tourist industry at one particular time on what was happening to the island. The over development, some of the things that was going on, I got very involved. You know, I filed two (2) suits against this County. You know, one of the suits happens to be one of the hotels that is existing today and it is (inaudible) problem, but, you know, I think you need to put things in perspective, and if you got your number 1 industry that is in trouble, what do you do? Doing nothing is not going to help and, you know, we need to just protect the number 1 industry, so I don't have any problem at all moving forward with this. With that, roll call please? COUNCIL MEETING - 19 - May 6, 2009 The motion to approve Bill No. 2306 was then put, and carried by the following vote: FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 6, AGAINST ADOPTION: Kawahara TOTAL - 1, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next bill for second reading is Bill No. 2307. Bill No. 2307 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. B-2008- 672 AS AMENDED RELATING TO THE OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2008 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2009, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATION ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND ($300,000-Consultant Services-Special Counsel): Mr. Furfaro moved for adoption of Bill No. 2307 on second and final reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and carried by the following vote: FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 7, AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The last bill for second reading is Bill No. 2309. Bill No. 2309 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SUBSECTION (a) OF SECTION 21-9.2 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE, 1987 RELATING TO INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: Mr. Kaneshiro moved for adoption of Bill No. 2309 on second and final reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval, seconded by Mr. Chang, and carried by the following vote: FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 7, AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: With that, we have one item left on the agenda and what we will do is we will have... this afternoon, I believe we have a certificate at 2:30 p.m., and right after we take the certificate, we will take the last item on the agenda. So we are in recess until 2:30 when we get back, we will take the certificate, and .after we do the certificate, we will take item number C 2009-166 which is the communication from the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. COUNCIL MEETING - 20 - ~ May 6, 2009 Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Chair, can I also make a note that we have a public hearing scheduled for 5 o'clock this afternoon here in the Chambers, and this would be for our Operating Budget, the Capital Improvement, and also the Real Property tax rates. Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, we are in recess. There being no objections, the Chair called for a recess at 10:08 a.m. The meeting was called back to order at 2:58 p.m., and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: With that, Mr. Clerk, can you read the item please? Mr. Nakamura: The last item on today's agenda is on page 2 of the Council's agenda which is communication C 2009-166. C 2009-166 Communication (04/22/2009) from the Prosecuting Attorney, requesting Council approval to: 1) Apply for, receive, and expend Federal funds for the Kauai VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) Expansion Program in the amount of $193,208; and 2) Indemnify the State of Hawaii, Department of the Attorney General. The funding received will be expended on salaries, fringe, operational expenses, and training cost for the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Victim/Witness Program (Use of these funds will be for the term commencing on August 1, 2009. Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, what I would like to do is suspend the rules and have the Prosecuting Attorney up please. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. SHAYLENE ISERI-CARVALHO, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY. Good afternoon Council Chair, Council Vice-Chair Furfaro, and the rest of the members, and my prior colleagues, good afternoon. Mr. Furfaro: Good afternoon. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Thank you for giving me this opportunity to be present today. As we know because of a lot of the issues of the financial economic forecast, as I mentioned in budget, we have been taking many opportunities, and we have already on your agenda today, three (3) opportunities regarding obtaining funds for grant funding that would otherwise use moneys that the County would not have to supplement with. We hope that we will be successful with that. What I would like to do is just show a history of how this funding came about and why we are requesting this funding to go to certain purposes. With that, VOCA stands for IL ~ • COUNC MEETING - 21 - May 6, 2009 the Victims of Crimes Act. It is an expansion program. It is, as I mentioned, 100% grant funding which means that there is absolutely no County funding involved in the application of these funds. On December 1, I took office and at that time, many of you remember that I gave my Inauguration speech, and explained my strategic plan that was clearly different from the plan that the prior Administration had at the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. I believe this was the true method of success of this office that we take this office out of the doldrums of having so many cases and victims unserved to take us out of that and become a successful unit. So our first goal was to restructure the office in teams. We operate under the `ohana concept meaning that we all consider ourselves family members, that we have specialized teams. This is something that is... specialized units, something that is advocated by the National District Association of Attorneys, by the Hawaii Prosecuting Association of Attorneys, by the Law Enforcement Coalition. Anytime that your office is able to do vertical prosecution on all of your cases, that is clearly what every office should do. It is unfortunate that in a• lot of bigger jurisdictions, they aren't able to do that simply because of the volume of cases, and the number of personnel that is involved. Vertical prosecution, many of you may not know what that concept is, but it is something that is very familiar under the law. Basically, it is a managing policy that designates the same specialized prosecutor and victim witness advocate to handle a case from the time the case is charged until disposition. This management style is extremely successful as it reduces the amount of times an individual or a victim has to recount the traumatic incident that that person goes through, and it, of course, builds a much more trustful enduring relationship between the parties. Our second goal was to create a community prosecution unit. That is on the agenda which I believe you approved. This community prosecution unit would act as a problem solver. It is different in that it does not create cases that go to the court. What it does is it offers diversion programs on petty misdemeanor cases, non-violent offenses. Currently, we have the drug court program that is a diversion program. We have a bad check restitution program, we have teen court, we are starting to implement an adult court diversion program with collaboration of Hale `Opio as well as the YWCA. Thirdly, we needed to create an investigation unit. Again, this was spelled out in my Inauguration speech of December 1 of 2008. And what happened, as we all know as we sat here (I was here for four (4) years), and every year the Police Department came in and explained to us that they were unable to serve bench warrants, they were unable to serve penal summons cases. So these cases were routinely getting dismissed because we have only 48 hours on a case that is in custody to bring forth a charge or else the defendant is released. We have only six (6) months in order to bring that case for trial whether it is a murder trial, sex assault trial, a property crime case, we only have six (6) months. The delay in not bringing those cases mean that the Judge does not have any opportunity but to dismiss the case. This was clearly a problem that was articulated for the four (4) COUNCIL MEETING. - 22 - ~ Ma 6 2009 Y years that I was here, and clearly a problem that existed when I took office. So on December 1, we inherited approximately 4,000 legal documents that were unserved, hundreds of cases from misdemeanors to Class A felonies of attempted murder, sexual assaults, and other violent crimes dating back from 2004 up until I took office had not been charged. There were literally cases thrown across offices, on floors, on tables, behind desk, behind file cabinets... it was really a crisis situation. We had learned during this period that victims were being re-victimized over and over again. They would make a complaint, nobody would return their phone call, they would call back again, they would find out later that the case was dismissed. There was no interaction between the attorney, the clerk, or the victim witness counselor with the victims. This was in numerous amount of cases as the cases had not been charged. One of the major problems in the operation or efficient operation of the office was that there was absolutely no comprehensive data base system that existed that tracked where these cases were in court or what victims were involved in each case. There was no system setup to tell us what the next hearing dates were. Basically, the office relied on the court who would send a court calendar the day before, so there was not much preparation time to know when these cases were coming up. This really provided a problem when we started applying for the grants because we were unable to prove reliable data or statistics to show the measure of the success of the grants that had been in place nor what kinds of goals we could establish without this system. We definitely needed this in place and within in two (2) weeks by the benefit of Lori Wada, my First Deputy, in knowing Peter Carlisle and coming from that office, he had us... he allowed us to bring over his IT person. We had been working with the IT Department here in the County for over four (4) years, and could not get a system established. What happened here is that the developer of that software came in and in a matter of two (2) days, setup the system where we are now able to track every case, every attorney assignment, every victim witness assignment... when the case is new, hearing date is upcoming, what was the disposition on the hearing that had already occurred. We also, as part of this implementation policy, hired an investigator. We had, as I said, 4,000 documents. We are currently, from December 1 until present, up to date on all the cases. That means in District Court, Family Court, Circuit Court, felony cases... we do not have a single backlog of cases. We have processed over 160 felony cases within a period of four (4) months. And so, right now, what we are doing is trying to go back on the older cases, older sex assaults, older attempted murders and robberies, to try to bring those serious offenses before the statute of limitations expires. So we have been very successful. The investigator, with the collaboration of the Kauai Police Department with the new cases that we have charged and went to grand jury... out of the 160 plus cases, we have only... we are down to 10 arrest warrants that haven't been served. Having 90% service rate is phenomenal in light of the fact that in the past four (4) years, we consistently added on new cases that were not being served, and cases were getting dismissed. COUNCIL MEETI ~ - NG - 23 May 6, 2009 We also, as indicated earlier, on page 2 of your agenda, applied for a community prosecution grant to increase the level of diversion programs. Okay, so how do we implement this strategic plan of trying to be more efficient with less. Basically what happened because of this `ohana concept, we merge the office, and these transition plans have been consistently conveyed to the current staff back from July when I learned that I was not going to get opposition. And so it has been a transition process since July, and we had always felt that the Prosecuting Attorney's Office should be one office meaning that there should not be a separate office and I will go further once I go through this presentation to actually explain the structural, our organizational chart that we have managed to change. But previously, we had two (2) divisions as you saw in the budget. We had an Office of the Prosecuting Attorney that oversees asub-program which is the Victim Witness Program. What we have done is merged all of the budgetary issues all into one office, and we have physically changed the operation of our office. In our office, we used to have segments, all Victim Witness Counselors in one area, Legal Clerks in another area, and Attorneys in another area. We structurally moved so they would be more convenient for the victims as well as for the attorneys that they would be put into nucleases meaning separate teams. So each team has a type of specialized case that they handle which is depicted on the chart that I will address at a later point. But, basically, we have a murder felonies division, we have a property crimes persons division, we have a family court/sexual assault and DB crimes, a career criminal and property crimes division, a drug and traffic, juvenile and drug court, and a district court division. We are seeking to establish two (2) more divisions which is the crystal methamphetamine crimes, as well as the community prosecution unit. So that was structurally moving staff, so that the attorney would have direct access to the Victim Witness Counselors as well as the Legal Clerks. That would allow for more efficient operations and also integration... that the Victim Witness person didn't have to call a different number to get a Victim Witness Counselor. By virtue of setting up this unit, anytime you call the Legal Clerk or the Victim Witness Counselor or the Attorney, they would be able to provide you all of the services available to a victim. The legal process, the court dates, the kinds of victim witness compensation, restitution, victim impact statements, and all of that could be done by the unit. _ Again, these are specialized attorneys. We all know, you know, if you got cancer, you don't want to go to a doctor that specializes in general practice, you want to go to a doctor that specializes in that kind of crime. Exactly what, again, the NDAA and all of the law enforcement coalition agencies support which is the specialized unit teams which we were fortunate enough to have been able to do under my Administration. We also equalize the unbalanced staff assignments. There were Victim Witness Counselors that were doing work basically providing cases out of the arrest log. That stopped. Our office does not take cases that do not come to our office from Kauai Police Department, so there were many cases that came through the arrest log that never reached our office. And, yet, we were going out... our Victim Witness Counselors were going up and calling up victims COUNCIL MEETING - 24 - ~ Ma 6 2009 Y identified in those arrest records to create a case. That was going beyond our jurisdiction. Our jurisdiction occurs when a victim becomes a case that is active at the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. And so we stopped that and we reassigned all these attorneys to make sure that there was a Victim Witness Counselor to make sure that Victim Witness Counselor for every felony case, there was a person that a victim could have direct access to. We also stopped the work that they were doing. For years, I understood that the Victim Witness Counselors had an agreement of doing the work of the Adult Probation Division, and I spoke with the supervisor and stopped that work as well. So there were a lot of these extra duties that they had burdened themselves with that clearly was not County level work and did not really assist our office in assisting the needy victims that we needed to address. What I have here is a chart by County. The amount of victim witness people assigned and I hope you can see that, but... okay, so on Oahu, Kauai, up until our reorganization had the highest amount of ratio of Victim Witness Counselors to Attorneys. They also had the highest amount of Victim Witness Counselors via population, and these are the numbers that they measure as far as the services being afforded to the County. So if you look on Oahu that has a population of about one million, they have a Victim Witness Counselor to service 45,000 people. They basically have a 5:1 ratio. On Maui where the population is about 145,000, a Victim Witness Counselor services approximately 24,000 people. On the Big Island where a population of 175,000, a Victim Witness Counselor... per Victim Witness Counselor would service 14,000. If you look on Kauai, we would have a Victim Witness Counselor that would service our 64,000 population... 12,738, so about 13,000 which again is a 2:1 ratio. We had, again, the highest amount of Victim Witness Counselor, and that is why they had this opportunity to do all of this other extra work that were not necessary for our office. In fact, didn't have to be done by our office to the determent of the other victims that needed more services of our office. So we had the highest amount of ratio and what we did at this point, simply by the restructuring where we eliminated two (2) Victim Witness Counselors, and we are asking for a Clerk. We basically are still providing services that are far beyond what Oahu and Maui is providing because we have a 3:1 ratio, and we are providing one Victim Witness Counselor for 21,000 victims. So the only County that we... as far as Victim Witness Counselors per population is the Big Island, but Big Island, of course, needs a lot of Victim Witness Counselors because they have two (2) divisions (one in Kona and one in Hilo), and that is the only disparity. But even despite that terrain up on the Big Island, Kauai still, before this restructuring, had a 2:1 ratio of Victim Witness Counselors to population. The next page is... what we have here is the funding that was provided from 2007 to 2010, and if you look here, you will find that the County, in 2007 and 2008, provided $140,000. This was the budget from the Mayor. 2008 and 2009, $120,000, so there was a reduction in $20,000, and this upcoming year, there was a cut from the $120,000 to $90,337. So there was an additional cut of $26,000. What we have provided here which is what we are requesting to utilize funding for the grant... initially, we provided $58,000. In 2008 and 2009, $64,000, so as the funding for the • COUNCIL MEETING - 25 - May 6, 2009 County went down, the Prosecuting Attorney before myself as well as now, realize the essential service that the YWCA provides that our Victim Witness Counselors are unable to... by their job description and by the times that they are employed at work. One of those things that we have advocated for, for several years was the 24/7 hotline. That was the line that was going to be cut, the crisis line, and you will see more impact in services. We just received a document from the Sex Assault Treatment Center regarding their funding cuts, that they have been advised that will take place beginning 2009. And basically what we are going to see is that there is going to be a lot of cut in services because of these funds, and we do not want to see an increase in sex assault cases that go with victims not being served. So, really, if you look at the total amount for 2007 and 2010, there was a decrease of 37% from the County, Prosecuting Attorney's Office for the past two (2) years, and then myself for this year in concurrence with the former Prosecutor of providing funds for the YWCA, there was an increase of 43%. So over the last three (3) fiscal periods, the Y's contract of what we are requesting is a simple 6% increase despite the level of clients which have exponentially increased at the YWCA. Alright. If we could get... I think at this time because my last slide is the ending. What I will do is if I could ask permission of the Chair to approach the organizational chart that would better explain it. I may have a... if I may approach? Chair Asing: Go ahead. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Okay, so the first printout that we have here is the organizational chart that exist pre this fiscal year and actually... it incorporates some of the changes that we have already made from December 1, so what we did here was set up... initially, this is how the Prosecuting Attorney's Office was as a separate division from the Victim Witness program. We have here where the attorneys were only accessible in the sense to the Deputy and the First Deputy. The Clerks were in one division and the Victim Witness Counselors were in another. So the office was very segregated both physically and in operation. And this is the Victim Witness Counselors where right now we have a Victim Witness Director that is an EM position, and then we have two (2) Victim Witness Advocates that come under that one Director. So what we did to make more with less I guess we would say, and to allow more efficient processing of cases, and to allow specialized units which everyone agrees that that is the best way to approach cases is... right here, we have all of our units. Within each unit, there is an integrated Legal Clerk and Victim Witness Counselor. So we have a Victim Witness Counselor that does offense against property, we have a Victim Witness Counselor that does domestic violence, sex assaults, and any domestic violent related cases. And then we have a director that is responsible for direct victim services to make sure that she covers whatever balance of cases that do not fall in the other two (2) categories. Drugs and prosecution unit, we don't have really any victims in drug and prosecution. COUNCIL MEETING. - 26 - • Ma 6 2009 Y Normally, it is the cop and doing a CI (Confidential Informant) buy, community prosecution is cases that do not go to court, so we won't need Victim Witness Counselors. District Court is, again, where we are utilizing a lot of this diversion programs. We are going to lessen the load in District Court, but the Victim Witness Director that we hope to do direct services will be handling really 'the small cases here which is the petty misdemeanors and misdemeanors, and then assisting with the few, fortunately, murder cases that we have up here. So we have allowed for a more balanced and specialized unit. We have currently on this side all of my administrative staff, and then we have here, the Investigative Services Unit which will assess all of these units, and then we can go to the next one. Just flip it over. So that was, in essence, the restructuring and when we talk about the impact of services with the decrease in funding that is already recognized to be coming. We have, already, reports that have been generated based on this funding reductions on the statewide sexual violence services. And, basically, these are the consequences if we cut services. We will look at weekend sexual services will impact victim's ability to get help, reporting of sex crimes will most likely not happen, it will impact law enforcement's ability to identify sex offenders, it will impact the Prosecutor's ability to seek justice for sexual assault victims. It will impact the safety and well-being, really, of everyone involved. When we look at directly... because of the impacts that... and the fiscal reductions that were done already, this is something that they were required to do by island, a 20% reduction, and each island that provided sex assault services were required to submit a plan on the reduction, and what kind of impact of services that they are going to have. But if you look, Kauai is highlighted up there. We are hoping that by this additional funding that they will... and we have discussed this that they will not reduce access to the 24/7 crisis hotline. So that is why, here, loss of services, this is why it is open because they, by agreement, which is one of the things that the Councilmembers have brought up have... I need the laser. Oh, this one is laser too. Okay, so here, this was one of the crucial things that I wanted to make sure that would continue to happen is to assure that we would have 24/7. I can tell that I am very passionate about sex assault cases as I have prosecuted them while I was at the Prosecuting Attorney's Office as a Deputy. Basically, prior to having this kind of services and integration with various law enforcement personnel as well as community members and social... social workers, we had less than a 20% conviction rate. When we had these integrated services in place, we were able to increase the conviction rate of sex offenders that were going away for 40 plus years to 97%. That is big. I can tell you that since the last four (4) years, it has gone extremely down as far as the conviction rates, and we need to beef up the level of services that we provide. Here, our Victim Witness Counselors are unable to provide a 24/7 hotline and that is what the "Y" provides. Crisis counseling for victims and this is where it is going to be impacted. We do not provide crisis counseling. We are unable to... it is not in their job description at the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, so we rely on the "Y" to provide these services. It would definitely reduce response to community COUNCIL MEETING • - 27 - • Ma 6 2009 Y regarding sexual assault cases. We, again, are not qualified, our Victim Witness Counselors, to provide therapy for victims. This is where the "Y" comes in and this is where they are going to have the loss of services. It is going to reduce outreach to under-served populations. This is crucial, this multi-disciplinary teams that we had discussed where we are all involved in the prosecution of the case. This is what makes cases successful and given the budget cuts, this is where they are taking away money from. Prevention programs, they also do that at the "Y" that we do not do. Prevention education in school, they expect and hope by 2011, they will be able to continue to do that. Reduce public awareness on sexual violence... all of these cuts as we see down here will seriously impact the safety of the community when sex offenders are allowed to go free and victims will not get the services that they need. Based on... so, again, this is the impact on the YWCA provider, so I am humbly asking that you approve our request to get 100% funding from the State that will not get any funding from the County. Based on this principle, our principle has always been pono kaulike, that we are here to provide equal rights and justice for all. In all decisions, especially in frugal times, we must exercise our fiscal responsibility and be objective in using our specialized skills to develop innovative and efficient operations that maximize our resources to do more with less, without ever compromising the safety of the community. These funds that come up .from the stimulus package are definitely in the right direction. We are very... a lot of these grants are competitive. We would like to see that these funds be approved by the Council for us to apply because the quicker we apply, the quicker we can use the funds to get the services that this community needs. Thank you Council Chair and the rest of the Councilmembers. Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Councilmembers, you want to come back to your seats please? Are there any questions Councilmembers? Councilmember Bynum? Mr. Bynum: Thank you for the presentation. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: You're welcome. Mr. Bynum: The last chart with the potential reduction in services, where is that data from? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: That is from the sex assault treatment providers. The master contract for statewide sexual violence services. Mr. Bynum: And they collected the data to talk about the impact of potential State budget cuts, is that correct? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: That is correct. COUNCIL MEETING. - 28 - ~ May 6, 2009 Mr. Bynum: Because we know the State has had a really difficult time this year and a lot of social service programs are experiencing budget cuts. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Well, even on the County. I mean not only the State, but the County is facing a lot of difficult times too. Mr. Bynum: I am aware of that, so SATC is Sexual Assault Treatment Centers and they kind of help coordinate or collaborate among all of the counties for these issues, so there is a collaborative team at the AG's Office, SATC... the County Prosecutors and the non-profits on various islands that work together to address victim services. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Then they also got Department of Health. Mr. Bynum: So that team this year worked together to... like most people, make their case to the State to minimize budget cuts as much as possible. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Councilmember Bynum, all I can say, I am not part of that organization, the sex assault... this was information given to me on behalf of the YWCA, so any statements that you have regarding their organization and how they came up with the numbers and the cost would have to be addressed by them. Mr. Bynum: But you were just giving us the impact on different islands and Kauai, and this came from SATC, is that correct? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: It came from SATC, yes. Well, it actually came from the "Y." I mean SATC didn't give it to me directly, this came from the YWCA when I asked them what would be the impact of cuts or any loss of funding. Mr. Bynum: So victim services in Hawaii have a number of different funding sources, right? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: I would assume. Mr. Bynum: Right, and you know, and I will turn this into a statement. I mean, though, the victim service providers in the State of Hawaii have been in a collaborative team for many years coordinated by the AG's Office and SATC. And like your Grants Coordinator knows that, they are part of the team, so we could ask her that question. You know that, right? There is this collaborative group that works on victim services. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: I think everybody knows that. That there is a collaborative team... we all want to work and help victims. • COUNCIL MEETING - 29 - May 6, 2009 Mr. Bynum: So some potential funding for victim services come from County budgets, State budgets, Federal grants, community fundraising, all those sources, is that correct? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Councilmember Bynum, what we are here for is for services of my office. What other victim services that they get from other agencies is totally irrelevant to me. I am looking at how it impacts my office which is the Prosecuting Attorney's Office and the victims that come through the legal system. Of course you realize that the other agencies also address victims that do not come through our office. Mr. Bynum: Of course because not all victims are related to a charged crime or to one that the Prosecutor is going to prosecute. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Uh huh. Mr. Bynum: Your grant, as you pointed out for a number of years has funded the YWCA which is kind of a frontline social service agency for victim services on Kauai. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Uh huh. Mr. Bynum: And so, you know, but that is not their only source of victim funding. They have VOCA grants that come to the Prosecutor's Office... they also have VAWA grants, right? Which is the Violence Against Women Act grant. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: I think Councilmember Bynum, again, I would say that pursuant to the agenda item, we are only talking about the VOCA grant. We are not talking about any other VAWA.grant or anything like that. I don't have any information regarding that. Chair Asing: Councilmember Bynum, can you stay on the VOCA grant. This is the VOCA grant that is on the agenda. Stay on the VOCA grant. Mr. Bynum: Council Chair, we are talking about victim services to the people of the County. Chair Asing: No, we are talking about the VOCA grant. Mr. Bynum: And this issue about staying on the agenda gets applied selectively. I sat through this Council for two (2) years when Ms. Iseri- Carvalho was on the Council, and she was given wide latitude to discuss various issues. COUNCIL MEETING. - 30 - ~ May 6, 2009 Chair Asing: Councilmember Bynum, stay on the VOCA grant otherwise I will cut you off, and you will not be able to participate. I am giving you an opportunity to stay on the subject matter. The subject matter is the VOCA grant and that is the subject. Mr. Bynum: And rigid compliance with this agenda is not practiced equally on the Council and I would like the latitude to discuss victim services and how they are impacted. Chair Asing: No, no, you will not. Mr. Furfaro: Point of order, may I ask for a recess. Mr. Furfaro moved to recess, seconded by Mr. Kawakami, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: We are in recess. There being no objections, the Chair called for a recess at 3:30 p.m. The meeting was called back to order at 4:14 p.m., and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: With that, can we have the County Attorney up please? There being no objections, the rules were suspended. ALFRED B. CASTILLO, COUNTY ATTORNEY Council Chair, members of the Council, Al Castillo, County Attorney. Good afternoon. Chair Asing: Good afternoon. Mr. Castillo: I would just like to remind everyone like I did this morning. If we stray a little bit from the agenda at hand, then I do have to... we do have to break it and stay on track, so I would ask that, you know, when we have the testimony here and the questions that come from the members... we are right now C 2009-166 and this is in regard to the Prosecuting Attorney asking to... making a request regarding the VOCA funding, so if we can stick on that, then we will be okay. So are there any questions? I guess not then. Thank you very much. Chair Asing: Thank you. I'd like to call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: With that, Councilmember Bynum? Mr. Bynum: I am done. _ • • COUNCIL MEETING - 31 - May 6, 2009 Chair Asing: Okay, so is there any questions? Mr. Furfaro: I have a few. Chair Asing: Go ahead. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair. Shay, I just want to go and revisit some of your points so I understand. I think whenever there is any restructuring in any organization, there is this period of time where people have to clearly understand the rationale for the changes and so forth. So I just want to revisit a couple of things. First of all, you talked about this... and I remember hearing at the inaugural this restructuring of the office talking in terms of vertical prosecution. So... and not being... you know, other than the basic hotelman's law, I am not real keen on understanding the vertical prosecution. So do I interpret that as saying the way that you have restructured the department from the opening complaint until the end of the process, it is now handled by the same attorney. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: That is correct. Mr. Furfaro: And when we talk about creating a community prosecuting units, that is in terms of making sure that felons, assaults, rape victims, and so there is a team for that unit that outreaches? Could you explain that a little bit? There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: I am sorry. Community prosecution would only deal with non-violent petty offenses like criminal property damage, trespass, bad checks... writing nego... negotiating a worthless instrument. Any of those non- violent offenses would be, we hope, sent to this adult program of diversion that they would engage in community service, that they would give back to the community that they offended. For example, if you had a crime that occurred in Kealia, what happens now is that community service... when you go see a Judge, you can do your community service in Hanapepe. What I would like to see is restorative justice that where the offense occurred is where you give back, and that can be done by our office as part of our diversion program. Mr. Furfaro: Okay, I misunderstood that portion as it relates to, perhaps, this merging of the victim witness teams. I thought they were working with specific victims of specific crimes with specific attorneys. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: They are except not with... I mentioned not with the community prosecution unit because those cases would not go to court. Mr. Furfaro: Okay. COUNCIL MEETING. - 32 - ~ Ma 6 2009 Y Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Those are cases that do not follow the traditional role of case processing. It is a problem solving unit that occurs without going to court. Mr. Furfaro: And this may be one that I... you brought up, but I want to make sure that I understand it. This schedule here that you laid out for us which reflective the ratios compared to different counties, I just want to make sure that I am reading this correctly. In your organizational structure, you have... we have a County population of 63,689. Ms.Iseri-Carvalho: And that would be page 7 for the rest of the Councilmembers. Mr. Furfaro: Oh, yes, I am sorry. Thank you. We are going from... we are remaining at the same level... 101/a attorneys... the ratio is now a 2:1 ratio where it will be under your restructuring 3:1, and what you are portraying to us is, that is still within the ranges of the other counties. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Yes, that is actually even higher than Maui and higher than Oahu. Mr. Furfaro: I do have to tell you. I take credit with understanding Maui because it is multi-island. I mean they have to have to staff on Lanai, on Molokai, and they do have different crimes statistics, but it is in the way that you are structuring it, similar to the Big Island. Ms.Iseri-Carvalho: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: And still a better ratio than Oahu. Ms.Iseri-Carvalho: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: Okay, and now I would like to get a better definition on this. The hotline services for what you refer to as 24/7. 24/7 is for specific assaults and crimes against women and the 24/7 hotline is a hotline that is in the Ms.Iseri-Carvalho: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: Okay, and how does that relate to I guess the arrest log? You know, so people calling the "Y" for an assault, a sexual assault, and so forth.. . Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Or suicide also. • • COUNCIL MEETING - 33 - May 6, 2009 Mr. Furfaro: And we are trying to get it to the point that there is this, you know, 7 day, 24-hour coverage. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Uh huh. Mr. Furfaro: Now, how does that information get conveyed to the Police Department? I don't have enough knowledge to understand that. Ms.Iseri-Carvalho: There are instances where a victim does want prosecution and there are instances when a person does not. The "Y" takes any victim regardless whether or not they want to engage the services of law enforcement. If they do, they provide... for example, they have a Domestic Violence Coordinator now at the Kauai Police Department. That coordinator is immediately contacted and the detective or patrol officer is response to the victim to get the necessary information and do the necessary investigation. But there are many times the victims at that point in time do not report. Basically, there are to get crisis counseling, they are there to get medical treatment... we, in collaboration with the Police Department, and the Prosecutors and the YWCA do sexual assault examinations that are done by a forensic team. So there are these multi-disciplinary services that are offered to the person via the "Y" because they are the only organization on Kauai that offers 24/7 services. Mr. Furfaro: So, you know, that is why you are implying that, you know because these services are offered, this money is directed to the "Y", but in my mind, I am trying to make the connection whose responsibility it is. If, let's say this victim wants to file a complaint and are they... is it now the "Y" making contact with the Prosecutor's Office? Is it the "Y" making contact for the Police Department? How does that work? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: It would be up to the victim. The victim, especially in a sex assault case, if they've been assaulted by a male, a lot of times they don't want to engage in talking to a male, so they don't go through law enforcement, they talk to the counselor, they go with the Domestic Violence Coordinator, and they try to hook up an investigator who is qualified in dealing with these kinds of cases. So it all depends on what type of victim you have, but anytime a victim wants to report an offense, that is directly made to the Police Department. The Police Department, on these cases, have a mandatory policy of sending to the Prosecutor's Office every sex assault or domestic violence cases even if it is found unfounded meaning that they didn't find enough evidence to prosecute, it is still being reviewed by our office. Mr. Furfaro: I see. You know, those are... in my time in understanding the victim witness programs and so forth, I have always made kind of safe haven at a hotel that I managed to have victims return to testify and so forth, but I never... it is still not clear for me under standard operating procedures between police, the "Y" and the Prosecutor's Office... who's taking responsibility to COUNCIL MEETING. - 34 - • Ma 6 2009 Y see that that victim, if they decide, I want to prosecute, I want to press charges, and obviously, the quicker it is done, the better. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Definitely. You know, 85% to 90% of the cases of sex assault are delayed reporting, so it is very difficult to prosecute these types of cases, and that is why it is important to have these kinds of crisis and immediate services available. As far as the responsibility, it is everyone's responsibility. It depends on who is the victim goes to first. If they go the "Y," the "Y" will make the necessary connections because we all belong to amulti-disciplinary team. If they feel comfortable enough to go through law enforcement, law enforcement has a card, they give them the YWCA card. If they want to do a sexual assault examination, that is done... the Police Department houses it, the examination room, in the Police Department, so there are these integration of services with service providers, and law enforcement. Our office really doesn't get involved until a case is generated meaning a... there is an allegation of a crime being committed and a police report is forwarded to our office. A complaint will never come to our office with us doing the investigation. It will initiate at the Police Department. Mr. Furfaro: And that is where the log is kept? . Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: The arrest logs are kept there. Mr. Furfaro: There? Ms.Iseri-Carvalho: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: Okay, I am sorry not to have a better understanding of that process. Now during the budget meeting and we talked about this VOCA grant, it is still your intention as other opportunities for funding becomes available to support victim witness programs and so forth to pursue... even if it is jointly, pursue with other counties, all sources of funds to offset the staffing needs? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: That is correct. We are in constant contact with the AG's Office. There has been numerous amount of funding that has come available and each funding has a different eligibility requirement and different deadline when you have to turn it in. So it is very difficult trying to keep track, but we have established for the island of Kauai our coordinator as the coordinator for law enforcement. So KPD and us... all of the grants go through our coordinator which is Jamie who is here. We have other grants that, you know, will be coming up that we have also applied for. Mr. Furfaro: Okay, _I guess that is the other... (inaudible) especially in terms of victim witness and so forth as grants become available. You know, it is clearly within your jurisdiction and not the Council on how you structure your organization and I appreciate the fact that you put this here on the board CO IL MEETI • - 35 - • M 6 2009 UNC NG ay , today, but at the same time, we need to look at things that provide opportunity because, you know, funding resources are limited, and we have to pursue those, and at the same time, there is a real need for the whole County to really communicate to people that may get affected in reduction. The rationale of the changes, we need to understand, but at the same time, we have to understand that the individual Division Heads... I think that is the appropriate term, that is all within their prerogatives. Okay, and thank you very much for continuing to pursue, you know, these funds, and I guess today, I have a better understanding on how you are merging victim witness staff to accomplish the goals that you were elected to accomplish as Prosecutor. So I do really want to make sure that we understand the measurements and the arrest log and, you know, how we interact with the Police Department, and how the YWCA certainly services the needs, but also the reporting. The reporting is the measurement. Thank you Mr. Chair. Chair Asing: Any other questions? Councilmember Chang? Mr. Chang: Thank you. Can you tell us about the staffing of the YWCA? Are they like fully staffed or are they ready for this influx o£ because in the Kauai VOCA expansion project on page 1 of C 2009-166, everything leads up to... with the economy, more crime, more drugs, more assaults, and what have you, how, how... if we are leaning a lot on the YWCA, how well staffed are they? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: I guess we are leaning on YWCA, but we are also taking on an extra load at the Prosecuting Attorney's Office as well as the Police. I mean, we were initially providing 24/7 attorney services up until last month. We were providing all these trainings and meeting with the Police Department, ISB Division (Investigative Services) every week, so everybody has been having to put in a lot more hours at work. I mean, our office is constantly working on Saturdays and Sundays, and the attorneys don't get paid any overtime, neither do the Clerks. There has not been a single person that got overtime since I started. So, you know, it is unfortunate the situation that we have with the economy, and I can tell you as far as the "Y", they are hurting, they are hurting really bad. It is statewide, all of the non-profits are in that situation, but because the "Y" provides a function that no other agency on Kauai is able to provide with the quality of service that they provide. For me, it is a priority that the continued funding which has been the priority of the County Council because it has funded since before I even was at the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. I know they are hurting. I know they are asking for staff reductions which they had to provide as part of their 20% cut, so I know they will be losing some staff at the YWCA. Mr. Chang: So when they are providing their service at 24/7, like if someone were to call at 11 at night or 4 a.m. or what have you, is that a recording or is that a live... Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: No, it is a live body. In fact, I believe you have a person sitting behind you that is working as a Legislative Analyst that used to COUNCIL MEETING. - 36 - • Ma 6 2009 Y actually man the phones 24/7 (Lianne Parangao). She did an excellent job while she was at the "Y". Mr. Chang: Because when we were going through the budgets, I think we had a little bit of a discussion and if you can just refresh my memory. In the chart on page 7 that we are making reference to, you know, with the anticipation of, you know, perhaps more need for victims of crime, can you remind me... like I am looking at, right now, when we had four (4) positions for Victim Witness Counselors, and then we are now going to be restructured down to two (2). Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: As far as the services, we are actually providing , more services than the five (5) put together is because of this restructuring in specialized units. A lot of the work, the calling of the witnesses, etc. are being done by the attorney. The attorney calls all of the witnesses, informs the victim witness people, and when they have a meeting with the victims that come in, the Victim Witness Counselors now are requested to be present during those interviews. And so there is a lot more information sharing that didn't happen before. What happened is Victim Witness used to have their own files, the attorney had their files... the attorney never knew what victim witness did, victim witness never knew what the attorney did because their files... victim witness had their files locked up and the attorneys did not have access to those files, and that is why we centralized the system into teams because the head of each individual unit is the attorney, and the attorney had direct access to all of the information, and so does the Legal Clerk, and so does the Victim Witness Counselor. So everyone now is integrated as opposed to being segregated and that is part of the specialized team concept. Mr. Chang: So, obviously, you are comfortable and confident with your staffing? Ms.Iseri-Carvalho: At this point, I have asked for... I will be comfortable depending upon whether you give me the positions that we had requested in the County budget, there are other positions that we had requested that we have not, I think, received finalized word on with respect to attorneys. I asked for creation of that. I also asked for an investigator, a process server to assist, again, serving those 4,000 legal documents plus. There is definitely a need for different areas and different types of positions to address what is currently the issues that we are facing with this upcoming fiscal year. Mr. Chang: Thank you. Chair Asing: Councilmember Chang, I kind of gave you a little bit leeway on going outside of the parameters, but I want you to remind you to try to stay inbounds. Thank you. With that, any other questions? Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. I know we both agree on the importance of providing witness services and victim services. I was looking at the • • COUNCIL MEETING - 37 - May 6, 2009 application for this to apply, receive, and expend the Federal funds. Had you mentioned before on one of the other ones that you couldn't use the moneys to fund personnel? Are you allowed to fund personnel under this VOCA, this particular one? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: We actually are funding. We are funding a Victim Witness Advocate and a Senior Clerk under this VOCA. Ms. Kawahara: That is what I am reading. So I had thought that I heard something on one of your presentations that you couldn't do that, but, obviously... Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: That would be an error if you heard that. Ms. Kawahara: Oh no, it was on one of your presentations. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: I can tell this is... you cannot do attorneys, that is what you cannot do. Ms. Kawahara: Oh, okay. So this is a Victim Witness Counselor and a Senior Clerk. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Right. Ms. Kawahara: So it was just for attorneys, thanks. Thank you. The other question that I had was... the project is going to use unpaid volunteers. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: I am sorry. Ms. Kawahara: The other question that I had is that under personnel you were going to use unpaid volunteers? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Some of them. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, how do you... I deal with volunteers a lot in the various libraries that I worked at, could you tell me how you deal with confidentiality and especially in sensitive cases with these unpaid volunteers. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: They have volunteers over at the "Y" that are unpaid and our contract goes to the "Y", the "Y" makes that determination, and they provide a report to us. So at this point, they would be able to provide you the kind of personnel that they have as far as unpaid personnel. Ms. Kawahara: So this portion is assigned to the "Y"? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Yea, we don't have unpaid volunteers that work directly under us. COUNCIL MEETING. - 38 - • Ma 6 2009 Y Ms. Kawahara: So that makes sense that is why I was worried. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: No, we don't do that. Ms. Kawahara: And you were discussing about how the ratio of Victim Witness... what is the ratios for victim... this one, the one that you said that we had the highest ratio. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Yes. Ms. Kawahara: Is that necessarily a bad thing? Maybe we had one of the best programs and the other people would be struggling to get that ratio. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: It is a great thing. I would love to have ten (10) Victim Witness Counselors and so would other people. I would love to have four (4) more attorneys. I would love to have four (4) more Legal Clerks. It is that we had to shift because we were bottom heavy, meaning we had Victim Witness Counselors that come in on a case, and because we have so much cases that we had to charge that didn't have any victims attached to those cases. Remember when we. talked about this extensively during budget that we were bottom heavy, and we needed to address that which is why I submitted to the Council money for request for Legal Clerks because our complaints were getting filed timely or even addressed, that is why we put in moneys... requested moneys for Attorneys and for Clerks because that was where the real need was. But if you feel that we should have money placed for Victim Witness Advocates, then put in $193,000 because that is how much two (2) of them cost. Ms. Kawahara: So you got rid of $193,000. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: No, that would be inaccurate. What we did was we reallocated those funds to maximize the services to victims. Victims in general, not just victims that we would address at the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. We needed to address people that needed crisis services, people that needed therapeutic services, people that needed prevention... all of those items that I listed, those are the kinds of things that we needed to address that our office do not provide at all. Ms. Kawahara: Okay. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: And with the Victim Witness Counselors that we do have, they more than adequately cover all of the services because a lot of the services they were doing were cases that were not prosecutorial related. It was for adult probation, it was outreach for law enforcement, but not for prosecutors on a charge case. • • COUNCIL MEETING - 39 - May 6, 2009 Ms. Kawahara: Okay, so from five (5), you went to two (2) and one Director, is that correct? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: No, we had one Director and four (4) counselors. We had one Director and two (2) counselors. Ms. Kawahara: So one and two (2) now. 2007-2008, I was wondering if it was in this same situation and you had two (2) counselors and one Director, would you have been able to handle 728 victims? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: In 2007-2008, I don't know what the situation was at the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Ms. Kawahara: No, I mean, in your opinion with two (2) counselors, yea, that you have now, would you be able to handle 727 victims? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Oh, I think they may handle even more than that. Ms. Kawahara: Okay. I wanted to be sure that wouldn't be overwhelming. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Yea, we also have... the Director does not only do administrative duties. The Director also, I believe it is 30% of her job is to do direct victim services, so she is in the chain of providing services to victims too. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, not really more supervisory stuff? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: A lot of the supervisory stuff have been reassigned and a lot of the input of stats which was a major part of her job was reassigned, so that the clerk could do it. It is better to pay a $20,000 clerk to input the stats, than pay somebody $73,000 to input stats. Ms. Kawahara: That seems to make sense. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: So it is getting more for your money. I mean when you look at how frugal our office has been and reallocating the resources that we have and understanding the fiscal responsibility that we have, we are at this point handling twice as much cases with less amount of resources by providing at least 50% to 100% better victim services. Ms. Kawahara: The budget that was submitted though, was the same as last year, so when you... I asked this the last time. The $101 million whatever for the Prosecuting Attorney. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Are we talking about VOCA funds or are we talking about a... I am sorry. COUNCIL MEETING - 40 - ~ May 6, 2009 Ms. Kawahara: I just... when you say you have less resources. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Oh, we definitely have less resources. Ms. Kawahara: As in money? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: As in attorneys, as in bodies. I mean we started off with five (5) attorneys where they had 10.5 attorneys. We are still at eight (8) because two (2) positions we didn't get filled and we have no funding for. So, right now, we are operating as a deficit of two (2) attorneys. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, and you don't count the other VOCA, the Victim Witness service providers as a loss? Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: It is not a deficit. We have been able to provide those services with the attorneys stepping in, in doing a lot of the work, and the other Victim Witness Counselors not doing the work of Adult Probation, and not doing the work of outreach and going off of the arrest logs. Ms. Kawahara: Alright, just one more question because my main... and I know your main concerns are being able to service victims and not have them be victimized again by the system. The trend as Councilmember Chang had mentioned is that crimes are going up and I believe... I am looking at an Attorney General report that says, our index prime rate increased 11.3% in 2007, and the violent crime rate rising .7%. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: On Kauai? Ms. Kawahara: Uh huh. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: I can tell you as far as the statistics, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of those statistics because I was not present at the time that those statistics were presented. And I can tell you that we had no data base tracking system, so I don't know how those numbers were derived. Ms. Kawahara: This is from the Attorney General's Office... Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: They get the numbers... no, the numbers come from the Prosecuting Attorney's Office to the Attorney General. Ms. Kawahara: Right. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: As I said, there was no tracking system, so I do not know how those statistics were developed, so I cannot vouch for the accuracy of those numbers. COUNCIL MEETING - 41 - May 6, 2009 Ms. Kawahara: They are just the statistics that I have and they seem pretty authoritative, so I just wanted to mention that I was noticing that they are going up, and I also notice that Kauai had the highest, I think, ever rape cases for that last year. So my concern is that we are able to address the crimes that happen and be able to service the victims if it increases because of your merging. Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Well, this is an integrated process. Just because the "Y" comes in initially doesn't mean when the Prosecuting Attorney's Office enters a case or charges a case that they YWCA walks out of the case. I mean they were concurrently with the victim because there are different kinds of services that are provided by the different types of agencies. Our office does not provide crisis counseling, it does not offer therapeutic counseling, there are a lot of services that are offered by the "Y" that we are not qualified to provide that is why it is not a matter of one or the other, it is both needs to work collaboratively together to assist the victim because the needs are varied of the victims. Ms. Kawahara: Yes, I think it is really clear you have qualified people for one thing, YWCA, and other people qualified for other things in your office. What I was addressing was the general upturn in crimes and the possible increase in victims. So it sounds like you... Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: There is definitely going to be an increase in crime. We have seen it many times before. Whenever the economy goes down, there is an inverse relationship with crime, and it will definitely go up. And should the need arises at some later point that the crime rate has escalated to a point that our office can no longer service the victims adequately, I will be back here to ask for a money bill. At this point, I do want to... with the limited funds available to make sure that the funds that are provided are going to the agencies that can provide the most services to the community and to the victims, and that is what our purpose is here for to look at the big picture, not to look at us as an individual office, but as the big picture, what kinds of agencies can provide services that we cannot provide. That, at this point, is the only agency here is the YWCA with respect to these types of services that I have listed. Ms. Kawahara: Okay. I think that was... I had one more question, but I don't remember what it was. Chair Asing: Are you through? Ms. Kawahara: I can't remember what my other question was. Thank you. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions Councilmembers? If not, thank you very much. What I would like to do is open it up to the public now. COUNCIL MEETING - 42 - ~ Ma 6 2009 Y Ms. Iseri-Carvalho: Thank you. Chair Asing: I am not going to call the meeting back to order, I am going to open it up to the public. Is there anyone in the public who wants to speak on this item? If not, I will call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: With that, is there further discussion? I'd like to have a motion to approve. Mr. Chang moved to approve C 2009-166, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro. Chair Asing: With that, any discussion? Councilmember Bynum? Mr. Bynum: Thank you very much Chair. After meeting with the County Attorney, he encouraged me to make my discussion and points during the... when we call back to order for discussion, so I will do that now. What I want to talk about is... and during the last hour or so, we talked about impact of funding cuts statewide. We talked about the total restructuring of the Prosecutor's Office, we've talked about 24/7 hotlines and how victims get their cases reported, and I think it is appropriate for us to have a broad ranging discussion about victim services on Kauai, and how they are impacted by the decisions we make related to this grant and others. So, you know, the Prosecutor presented the County General Fund budget in her presentation... what the County General Fund had contributed over the last three (3) years. So the point that I wanted to make is that the victims of crime services are integrated in this State over... for many years in a collaborative effort with Prosecutors and non-profits, and the Attorney General's Office, and that they are funded by a variety of sources including County General Funds, Federal funds as the grant that we are talking about here that is a VOCA (Victims of Crime Act)... that is Federal money administered by the Attorney General's Office to the Prosecutor, and then often onto the non-profits. There are also State funds that are in... in our Prosecutor's Office and for victim services at the "Y" and other places. So we have County funds, State funds, Federal funds, and, you know, the "Y" does a lot of fundraising. The community gets money from the, you know, the charity walk and other sources, so this is an extraordinary difficult year that is why Shaylene is talking about the impact of funding cut statewide and the potential for that. And there has been... you know, we are waiting for this budget year to settle down, the State just passed their budget. We don't know exactly what those funding cuts are going to be. I asked the YWCA to make a presentation here and they are working on it to say what is the cuts that they are actually going to receive, not what they might get, or what they would receive, and they are preparing that. But what they basically said is that we don't know yet because we are waiting for the State funds to settle. So this is an extraordinary year where everybody knew that the State was going to be hard pressed, and there 1 COUNCIL MEETING - 43 - May 6, 2009 may be a lack of funds, and all kinds of services including victim services, and for that reason... what we do know about this VOCA grant, and I would like to pass this out right now to our Councilmembers. Anybody else would like to see? This is about the grant that we are talking about. Last year, the VOCA grant and the Prosecutor's Office funded two (2) full-time equivalent counselors... Victim Witness Counselors, $64,500 went to the YWCA, and there was a small change for other things like travel and stuff for a total of 186. This year, the VOCA grant has actually gone up from 186 to 194 or 193 right in that range and the proposal is to fund .55 of one Victim Witness Counselor, a new position of Senior Clerk, to send $100,000 to the YWCA, and about $7,000 for furniture and other items. So at least in the Federal funds, the VOCA grant has gone up and that is good news. You know, but the way this impacts the budget of the Prosecutor's Office and the YWCA... (inaudible) that is one source of funding. There are also State funds that we are waiting to hear and this year, there is the recovery act. The American Recovery Reinvestment Act that is sending significant funds to the State of Hawaii with the explicit reason that they know that this is a tough year, and that State's may have to make budget cuts. So President Obama, we've heard him say many times that these funds... these recovery funds are to save and create jobs. So in VOCA, we have $557,650 coming to the State of Hawaii to be distributed to make up any shortfalls that may happen from State funds and are from County cuts if County's are strapped and can't fund their positions. Also, we have a Violence Against Women Act or VAWA grant of over $1 million for the State that funds the YWCA and other victim services statewide. Now those funds are here in the State and they haven't been distributed yet because we are waiting to see how the State budget filters down over the next couple of weeks and to get that information from the YWCA and (inaudible)... are they actually going to get these cuts or are they going to be okay, but the purpose of these funds is number 1 priority, and it says that in the grants is to maintain the current level of services, so to make whole. So the State is going to make those decisions not on a formula for each island, but based on each island's needs. But as we sit here today, that hasn't been decided because we don't know what those needs are. I think and I agree with many things that I heard today. I worked as a victim advocate for 25 years and a therapist. I worked for the YWCA for five (5) years and I think the YWCA is an incredible frontline service agency, and I would be very disturbed if they had cuts that required a disruption of the, you know, any of these services. Luckily, we have other potential sources of funds to do that with the explicit purpose of maintaining a current level of services and we may as a State have additional funds to expand services to victims. I am sure that we will all celebrate that. So... but, unfortunately, we have already... we are not going to preserve the two (2) jobs that have been cut here on Kauai. That is not going to happen and even though we have funds explicitly set to do those. It is not clear that the "Y" will have cut or that they will even need the $100,000 that is placed in here. Now they may and we will know that in a week or two (2). We will know what their funding is and whether they need the County to put in additional funds. The COUNCIL MEETING - 44 - ~ Ma 6 2009 Y Prosecutor talked about the County of Kauai General Fund that was 140 in '07-'08, and went to 120 in '08-'09. That $20,000 reduction was because the YWCA told us that we don't need all of these County funds. Our other mix of funds is sufficient and we all admired that. They came to us and said, hey, we know the County funds have other purposes and other needs, we don't need that this year. (Inaudible) or the reduction in General Fund is the current proposal, but we haven't made that decision yet either. That happens next week, so what this network statewide is doing is waiting to see the impact of the State funds, how they will use this $1.7 million of victim funding to make sure that all services remain whole... that is their first purpose and I believe that it would be wise of us to defer a decision on this grant for a two (2) week period or a four (4) week period... this current VOCA grant runs through June 30 or July 30, and it is not due until June 30. I am just saying that we should wait and see before we make a commitment what the statewide network does, what the YWCA's needs are which they are more than willing to share with us. And because it is possible that we could use some of this VOCA fund to fund the current Victim Witness positions that are in the budget and not have any impact on the YWCA in any negative way and I would be the last person in the world to want to impact the YWCA. I mean that was my employer for five (5) years. I was one of these department heads, but if we can do that and have funds for the Legal Analyst at the Police Department that impacts public safety, you know, that will be a choice that we will have much more clarity on in as little as a week or maybe ten (10) days, so I would strongly encourage that we support this grant wholeheartedly, but defer judgment on this specific use for a couple more weeks. Based on that, I'd like to make a motion to defer. Mr. Bynum moved to defer C 2009-166, seconded by Ms. Kawahara. Chair Asing: With that, we have a motion to defer. All those in favor say aye? The motion to defer was then put, and failed by a vote of 3:4 (Councilmembers Furfaro, Chang, Kawakami, Asing voting "no." Chair Asing: It does not pass. We are on the motion to approve. Any further discussion? Mr. Bynum: Again, I feel like it would be prudent of us to wait and not make this commitment because we may be able to preserve County resources for other priorities, but I accept the judgment of my colleagues... what I will say... what I would also like to say is that... as I pointed out earlier, today we had... we discussed many things that were not rigidly applied to this VOCA grant and, you know, I asked for statistics from the Prosecutor's Office about Victim Witness program over the last five (5) years. I asked that the Victim Witness Coordinator be present here today to give us the person who has been running this program for 15 years to give us their impression about the impact on victim services of the choices that we make here. I think that victim services are very important COUNCIL MEETING - 45 - May 6, 2009 and understanding what the choices on this VOCA grant, how it impacts the delivery of services to our citizens is a very appropriate discussion for this grant. And I really worried about this kind of rigid application of got to stick with the agenda. You know, we live in a world where things are integrated. This affects this, and that is... I am sure why the Prosecutor came and talked to us about the impact o£ potential impact... the funding cut statewide. I was trying to say, hey, that is the statewide network that works collaboratively. No one in that network has made their final decisions about the disposition of their funds other than us today. I don't think that that is prudent, but I also don't like the application very rigidly of what is on the grant and what isn't. I mean I don't think is equally applied and I am going to continue to discuss that in the future. So thank you for your patience with that discussion as well. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye? Can we take a roll call vote? Do you want to say something? Mr. Kaneshiro: If I could Mr. Chair. Basically, you know, for me, I am looking at a grant that is coming from the Federal and I want to... Federal has an impression that we are trying to make the best use of grants that do come to us. I can see Mr. Bynum's points about when it comes to as how you budget it and so forth, but, for me, when you look at the grant that is before us, you look at the money that is before us, I think it is prudent for us to be able to approve the money that is before us and however the department comes out with their strategy, and their strategy implementing these grants would be left to the department itself. I believe that I heard of a vertical prosecution in a system that the Prosecutor felt that there will still be more communication from the time the crime starts all the way to the finish, so there will be an integrated time where the victim will also be able to communicate with the attorneys and the counselors. So I feel confident that... in some ways that this money will be spent in the right area, but we don't know what amount of moneys are coming down from this stimulus plan. I know that Mr. Bynum pointed out $55,750 coming to the State and another million or so coming to the State against violence against women act. The bottom line is that we don't really know what really is going to come to the County and I think when we finally see those (inaudible) coming to the County, then we can get into more discussions and perhaps at that time, the Prosecutor also will have a different means or different inside as how to spend this money and possibly even include more personnel. So at this point, I am confident with the presentation that she made that the way this money is going to be spent for this particular grant could satisfy what the Prosecutor's Office goals are, so I will be supporting this grant. Chair Asing: Thank you. Councilmember Bynum? Mr. Bynum: Thank you Chair. I just want to... I am... I think I have already stated that I certainly want us to have a VOCA grant, I want us to fund victim services, but I am concerned about a grant that for many years has funded County positions, you know, being used for other purposes other than that, COUNCIL MEETING - 46 - May 6, 2009 and, you know, how it impacts our budget deliberations and decisions. You know, last year during budget talking about the Prosecutor's budget, Ms. Iseri-Carvalho said that if these positions had been funded... grant funded for many, many years, I know I will not be supporting having it done by taking over from the County because I think there are many other competing interest for County funds. And I agreed with that then and I agree with that now. So I probably am going to vote "no" on this and I know that it will pass, but I really beg that we look at the impact of the choice we are making on grant... on our County budget which will come up before us next week. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? I will be voting to support the VOCA funds on how it is going to be expended. I did have an opportunity to review the last eight (8) years of VOCA funds and in my review, there is a little difference in opinion and the method used and the expenditure. I 'I think by the presentation made by the County Attorney (sic), she has structured the operation in a different manner and the manner that she feels comfortable in the administration of the office is, in my opinion, her call. I will not get involved in doing the administration's work by saying what you can hire for and spend money for. I believe... when I looked at both this funding here, the 2009-2010 VOCA funding and I looked at the 2008-2009, the differences are not that great in my opinion when I look at them and put them side by side. I was going to put a PowerPoint up and describe this, but I do not feel that it is necessary, so I will be voting in support of this. With that, roll call please? The motion to approve C 2009-166 was then put, and carried by the following vote: FOR APPROVAL: Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 5, AGAINST APPROVAL: Bynum, Kawahara TOTAL - 2, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: There being no other items on the agenda, the Council meeting is adjourned. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:03 p.m. Respectfully submitted, PETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk /lki • • SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MAY 13, 2009 The Special 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, May 13, 2009 at 8:37 a.m., after which the following members answered the call of the roll: Honorable Dickie Chang Honorable Jay Furfaro Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro Honorable Lani T. Kawahara Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair EXCUSED: Honorable Tim Bynum APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Mr. Kawakami moved for approval of the agenda as circulated, seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Can we have the first item please? PETER A. NAKAMURA, COUNTY CLERK: The first matter for approval is communication C 2009-171. C 2009-171 Communication (05/04/2009) from the Director of Economic Development, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend the following U.S. Department of Energy EECBG (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant) funds through grant applications to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service, pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), and requesting indemnification relating to the County's receipt of these funds: 1) $267,900 grant funds from the Department of Energy which the Administration will be applying to fund a photovoltaic power (PV) system for the new Kealia Fire Station. (Direct formula grant) 2) $576,000 in ARRA grant funds from the Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service which the Administration will be applying to fund a 64 kW photovoltaic power system for the Lihu`e Civic Center's Pi`ikoi Building. (Competitive grant) 3) $600,000 in ARRA grant funds from the Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service which the Administration will be applying to fund a lighting retrofit of County facilities from T-8 lamps to super T-8 lamps, T-5 lamps and/or LED lamps. (Competitive grant): SPECIAL COUNCIL M~TING -2- May 13, 2009 Mr. Kawakami moved to approve C 2009-171, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The second grant for approval is C 2009-172. C 2009-172 Communication (05/04/2009) from the Prosecuting Attorney, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend the following Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG), pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), and requesting indemnification of the State of Hawaii, Department of Attorney General, to establish the Drug Prosecution Unit (DPU) in the amount of $117,000 which will be expended on salaries, fringe benefits, training, and office supplies for the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. These funds will be expended for the unit from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010: Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2009-172, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro. Ms. Kawahara: Are they here to... I have a question for the Prosecutor's Office. Chair Asing: Okay, you have some questions? Ms. Kawahara: I just wanted to check. Chair Asing: Okay, with that, the rules are suspended. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Chair. This one is to establish a drug prosecution unit? JAMIE CHONG, GRANTS COORDINATOR, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY'S OFFICE: Yes. Ms. Kawahara: And is this for a new position, one salary position? Ms. Chong: Yes. Ms. Kawahara: And then after this expires on June 2010, would the County pick up another position to... Ms. Chong: Currently, we would continue looking for grant funds. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, and this is an annual... this is an ARRA, so it might not be an annual one. 5 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING -3- May 13, 2009 Ms. Chong: But the JAG program also has a local solicitation that they do every year, so this would be one of the number 1 grants that we would go for, for this unit. Ms. Kawahara: Okay. Do you have a... okay, that is good enough. Thank you. Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, I would like to call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye. The motion to approve C 2009-172 was then put, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: On page 2 of the Council's agenda for approval is C 2009-173. C 2009-173 Communication (05/04/2009) from the Prosecuting Attorney, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend the following Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG), pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), and requesting indemnification of the State of Hawaii, Department of Attorney General, to establish the Domestic Violence Prosecution Unit (DVPU) in the amount of $72,000 which will be expended on salaries, fringe benefits, training, and office supplies for the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. These funds will be expended for the unit from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010: Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2009-173, seconded by Mr. Chang. Chair Asing: With that, I would like to suspend the rules. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Chair Asing: Any questions Lani? Ms. Kawahara: You know what, I am going to have the same questions for all three (3) of them whether they are going to- be... they are new positions and whether they are going to have to be funded. Chair Asing: Okay, the rules are suspended now. V SPECIAL COUNCIL METING -4- May 13, 2009 There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Ms. Chong: For both the domestic violence and the property crime, these units have already been established. They already have positions and the current people in the positions have been there for a couple of years. Again, we would again continue looking for grant funding through the JAG program. Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you. Chair Asing: Thank you. The meeting is called back to order. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye. The motion to approve C 2009-173 was then put, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The last grant for approval is C 2009-174. C 2009-174 Communication (05/04/2009) from the Prosecuting Attorney, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend the following Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG), pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARR.A), and requesting indemnification of the State of Hawaii, Department of Attorney General, to establish the Property Crime Prosecution Unit (PCPU) in the amount of $122,000 which will be expended on salaries, fringe benefits, and office supplies for the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. These funds will be expended for the unit from December 1, 2009 to November 30, 2010: Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2009-174, seconded by Mr. Chang. Chair Asing: With that, Lani, do you have any questions? There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Ms. Kawahara: With this same thing, these... all these are for positions and then... the (inaudible)... I wanted to ask the... so while the new money coming in for positions, none of these were available with the... to do with VOCA, would that be right? Ms. Chong: No, these are... VOCA is completely separate. Ms. Kawahara: Totally different, okay. I just wanted to confirm that. Okay, thank you. • • SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING -5- May 13, 2009 Mr. Kaneshiro: I have just one small question. Chair Asing: Yes, go ahead. Mr. Kaneshiro: You have enough funds from... because I see this starting from December 1, 2009 to November 30, 2010, so in the current budget, you have enough funds. Ms. Chong: We do have enough funds. We also currently do have a grant that goes all the way to November 30, so therefore, we have... we started the funding on December 1. Mr. Kaneshiro: Alright, thank you. Chair Asing: Thank you. I'd like to call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: Any further discussion? If not, let me just say, Councilmembers, you know, this is an age old problem. When I say age old problem, we encourage the departments to look for grants, so that we can get services. And it is the age old problem of you seek out grants, you get the grants, and whether you continue with the program is dependent upon whether you can get grants or not. If you cannot get grants, then you will come to the Council and ask for money, and it is now decision making time for the Council on whether we think that it is, you know, in our best interest to retain these types of services and we can afford it. If we cannot afford it, then simply we will stop the program, but it is something that we always encourage the departments to do to go out and look for grants and try to get additional services to the County. With that, any further discussion? Councilmember Furfaro? Mr. Furfaro: This is kind of a follow up on your comments Mr. Chair. For the freshman members of the Council, there is a grant summary report available to us through the Administration, and in my first time on the Council seven (7) years ago, I was really surprised at the amounts that we administer through our operating programs... it is... well, we recently approved a $206 million Operating Budget and CIP, and almost 40% of our other income actually comes from grant opportunities that the Chair has pointed out. But I did want to share with you that there is a record and history of grants kept by the Administration and I want to acknowledge all departments that pursue those amounts. Thank you Mr. Chair. Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye? r 4 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING -6- May 13, 2009 The motion to approve C 2009-174 was then put, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: The meeting is now adjourned. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45 a.m. Respectfully submitted, ~ i~~ ~ PETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk o -• COUNCIL MEETING May 20, 2009 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, May 20, 2009 at 9:50 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 Honorable Lani T. Kawahara Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of the agenda as circulated, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. MINUTES of the following meetings of the Council: Special Council Meeting of April 29, 2009 Council Meeting of May 6, 2009 Public Hearing of May 6, 2009 re: Bill No. 2310, Bill No. 2311, and Resolution No. 2009-32 Special Council Meeting of May 13, 2009 Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of the minutes as circulated, seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried. COMMUNICATIONS: Chair Asing: Next item please? PETER NAKAMURA, COUNTY CLERK: Mr. Chair, at this time on page 3 of the Council's agenda if we could... a communication for approval C 2009-186. C 2009-186 Communication (04/30/2009) from the Fire Chief, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend $104,800 or 80% from the Assistance to Fire Fighters Grant (AFG) to purchase a Combination Fire Safety/Sprinkler House Trailer and the Kauai Fire Department will be responsible for 20% or $26,200 for a total of $131,000 which include tax and shipping: Mr. Bynum moved to approve C 2009-186, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. . , COUNCIL MEETING - 2 - ~ May 20, 2009 Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: At this time Mr. Chair, if we could go to page 4 of the Council's agenda for communication C 2009-163. C 2009-163 Communication (04/22/2009) from Councilmember Tim Bynum and Councilmember Lani T. Kawahara, requesting the Administration to be present to give an update regarding the erosion and water safety issues at Po`ipu Beach: Chair Asing: With that, I would like to suspend the rules. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. JIM O'CONNELL, U.H. SEA GRANT PROGRAM ON KAUAI: Good morning Councilmembers. Chair Asing: Good morning. Ms. Kawahara: Good morning. Chair Asing: Go ahead. For the record... Mr. O'Connell: My name is Jim O'Connell. I am coastal geologist from the University of Hawai`i's Sea Grant Program and I am here primarily at the good graces of the County because that is primarily where my funding comes from. I am here to assist the County in all coastal related matters. Chair Asing: I understand that you are going to do a PowerPoint presentation. Mr. O'Connell: Yes, this morning, I have a PowerPoint presentation. I was asked primarily just to do an overview of the County's proposal to do some restoration down in the Po`ipu Beach Park area. I am here to basically to summarize what that project is all about. Several members of the Administration should be here any moment to answer questions that... about the logistics in terms of funding and timing. I am going to primarily talk about the technical aspects, but that is the primary reason I am here is to provide technical information and technical assistance to help design and implement and monitor shoreline projects. So I will primarily be focusing on the technical aspects of the Po`ipu Beach Restoration Project. Chair Asing: Good. Thank you. Mr. O'Connell: So I will do my PowerPoint presentation. COUNCIL MEETING - 3 - May 20, 2009 Chair Asing: Okay, go ahead. Let me... Councilmembers, you want to step aside? Mr. Furfaro: I have a question first. Chair Asing: Go ahead. Mr. Furfaro: Jim, could you tell me, is there... more specifically what portion of your presentation will be with loss prevention and water safety. Mr. O'Connell: I am primarily going to talk about the... primarily it is sea and restoration project, but folded into that project is the... we will also be addressing one of the primary public safety issues in terms of swimmer safety in the Po`ipu and Wai`ohai area. They are directly linked which I will show you in just a moment. Mr. Furfaro: And you are aware that the Kauai Ad Hock Committee on Water Safety has many times promoted the fact that there should be contributions from the hotels in the Po`ipu area for the staffing of additional lifeguards and water safety. Are you aware of that (Monty Downs group)? Mr. O'Connell: I did attend the water safety conference. I believe it was about two (2) months ago and that was brought up at that conference. You know, there are very few... I am a former lifeguard myself, but there are very few although some of the prettiest beaches that do have lifeguards and water safety personnel there, but there are a lot of beaches that don't. And I would have to agree with you that a lot of the resort areas do have some of the most densely populated beaches in terms of use, so I think a topic of great interest. Mr. Furfaro: I will concur with you on that and I myself am a water safety instructor or was when I was a little thinner and had more hair for the City & County of Honolulu. But we did give a model to the Hotel Association with Hapuna Beach and the Hapuna Prince Hotel who actually have responsibilities with the hotel guest as well as the public access beach at Hapuna. Is that going to be any part of your presentation? Mr. O'Connell: No. I believe the Fire Chief was invited to talk about... primarily about water safety itself. I am primarily... I am a coastal geologist by training, so I am primarily going to be sticking to that. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you for clarifying the water safety portion of what is on the agenda. Thank you and I will move now. Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Jim? r COUNCIL MEETING - 4 - May 20, 2009 Mr. O'Connell: Again, I want to thank the County Council and the County of Kauai for providing the funding to the Sea Grant Program at the University to... that allows my presence here to help and participate and assist the County in all... you know, as I said, coastal related matters primarily dealing with coastal processes and coastal geology, shoreline change, and storm mitigation matters, and so forth. I am primarily here to talk about the Po`ipu Beach Park area and two (2) issues that are actually directly related which I hope I will make that point in my PowerPoint presentation. One is the erosion of the Po`ipu Beach Park area and in that Po`ipu Beach general area and also directly relating to that is the water safety issues. There has been a number of rescues down in the Po`ipu Park area and to the west as well, and that is directly related to the loss of sand... the erosion as the result of the hurricanes that we had particularly in 1990 and a chronic erosion as well. So I am going to link the two (2) of those... the coastal erosion and water safety in a proposal that the County now is moving forward... it is primarily moving forward through the efforts of the County Parks Department who is spearheading the beach restoration project down this area. So I am going to address two (2) issues. One is the erosion of the Po`ipu Beach area, but particularly we are going to focus primarily on the Po`ipu Beach Park. The County park itself in terms of erosion... both chronic erosion, the annual erosion that we are seeing and maps since the early 1900's and also the swimmer safety issue primarily the loss of that little sand spit connecting Po`ipu Beach Park with Nukomoi Point. Just to familiarize yourselves and the audience just to get an overview of the area here. This is 2006 aerial photograph above the Po`ipu Beach area. It is either the Po`ipu Beach Park, the County park is right here, we move over to the Wai`ohai, Koa Kia, the Kiahuna, and the Sheraton, so that whole area there is an area that we are going to address. I wanted to introduce a geologic term that now is gaining great focus around the country in terms of managing shoreline areas and that term that I wanted to introduce is what is called the littoral cell. I am going to show you an example of that littoral cell in a minute and that is one of the reasons why I showed you this whole area here starting with the Po`ipu Beach Park area moving over to the Sheraton itself. In terms of addressing the first issue which is coastal erosion, the University of Hawaii has just recently completed a shoreline change mapping project for the entire island of Kauai. Through the efforts of Dr. Chip Fletcher at the School of Ocean and Environmental Technology, he now has... he will be coming actually in June to meet with the Planning Commission to present this shoreline change data. But as you can see and I am going to show you examples of this in just a minute. Sorry about that. What Dr. Fletcher has done with his staff over there is he has mapped the entire shoreline of Kauai in terms of what has happened in terms of shoreline change primarily mapping erosion since the mid 1920's. These data are now on his website although he is calling it still draft data although the analysis is done until it is accepted by the County because the County paid the (inaudible) of the funding to do the shoreline change mapping. But if you go on the website, the University of Hawai`i's website to the School of Ocean and Environmental Technology, what you will find is... if you just did a search for that and searched on coastal erosion maps, you will find this diagram here. Now on the COUNCIL MEETING - 5 - May 20, 2009 website, if you click on anyone of these boxes here, what will come up is a map of that area showing you what the shoreline has done since the early 1900's whether it is eroded, whether it is accreted, whether it is moved back and forth, but these data are now available on the website. I had mentioned the term littoral cell. I want to introduce this term here because this is something that all the States in the country now are managing the shoreline. A littoral cell is the equivalent to a watershed. It is basically the end points within in which sand moves back and forth and on and off shore. So if you can identify the end point of a littoral cell, you've got a management unit. As I mentioned, very similar to a watershed unit. Most of Kaua`i's beaches are little pocket beaches... Wailua, Kealia, Donkey Beach, the area down on Po`ipu which I will show you in just a minute, but we can identify the end points with sand is moving back and forth and on and off shore. If some... if a homeowner or a County wanted to do an action within one section of the cell, that is going to have a direct impact adverse or positive to another area in that cell. So what you want to do is you want to manage the shoreline based on the in limits of these littoral cells because one action in its cell will have a reaction somewhere else in that cell. So it is important to know what your neighbors and what is happening down drift in these littoral cells. So if we do go to the area of interest today on the southshore, we can identify a littoral cell here which includes the Po`ipu Beach Park area all the way over to the Sheraton and you can see that Mahawena Point is one end of the cell here and I am not sure if I am going to pronounce this correctly, but the Kamilo Point on the other end here, but this is a littoral... this could be identified as a littoral cell. You can see all the small little pocket beaches... sandy pocket beaches in there and you can see the sand, the light colored offshore. These are little sand pockets offshore. So what happens in one area of the littoral cell could very well have a direct relationship to any of those on the beach within that cell. So it is important to look at the entire cell when you are doing one project which in this particular point, we are looking at the Po`ipu Beach Park area. This is an example of the shoreline change map for the Po`ipu area on the southshore that we will find on the University of Hawai`i's website. This is a shoreline change map identifying... (inaudible) all the area from the Po`ipu Beach Park area all the way over to the Sheraton here. So I am going to show you a close up of this in a minute and show you exactly what these diagrams are depicting, but you can see offshore of anyone of these shoreline change maps around the island. What you will see is a histogram here. This histogram shows whether it is eroding which would be the color red or priding which would be the color blue. So these shorelines go back to... as I said, 1920's all the way up to 2007, so this tells us what the shoreline has been doing. Now this is basically just the... this is a subsection of the sandy beaches within that littoral cell within the Po`ipu Beach area and you can see starting over here, we have the Po`ipu Beach Park area. Since 1927 and there is about... I believe there are 11 shorelines that will map between 1927 and 2007, so there is actually... I believe there are 11 shorelines that will actually show us where the shoreline was in 1927, where it was in 1940, where it was in 1950, 1978, 1990, ~ • COUNCIL MEETING - 6 - May 20, 2009 and the early 2000. So it shows us where that shoreline is and then what the scientist do is they will draw a line, a transept perpendicular to all the shorelines and calculate what the shoreline has been doing in those short term increments, and then give us a long term average erosion rate for the entire timeframe. So, for example, in the Po`ipu Beach Park area, since 1927 looking at those 11 shorelines, the Po`ipu Beach Park area has been eroding at approximately one (1) foot per year. Now we know that shorelines don't erode at one (1) foot per year. They don't erode at an average rate. They will fluctuate seasonally which I have seen significant changes seasonally. If we have a storm, there will be a large pulse of erosion, but what we do for geologist, for the management purposes, is to look at what is happening on an annual rate. For example, the new County ordinance that was passed last year is based on shoreline change rates particularly erosion. What we've got to do is average what the erosion rate is over that entire timeframe and then calculate where the shoreline will be 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 50 years from now based on that long term average. So the Po`ipu Beach Park area has been eroding at approximately one (1) foot per year. If we go over to the next sub-cell within that major littoral cell, we see that in front of the Wai`ohai... we've got an erosion rate since 1927 of about .3... it is actually between .3 and .5 feet per year. Moving over to the Kiahuna area here and the Sheraton, again, we've got an erosion rate of approximately one (1) foot per year and that is what this histogram reflect here. This line here is a -1 erosion rate here, so you can look at any area around the island to determine what has been happening with the shoreline since that timeframe. We are primarily interested, at the present time, in the Po`ipu Beach Park area. So we focus in just on this area here, again, the Po`ipu Beach Park area which is this area here. Here is Nukomoi Point and it has been eroding about one (1) foot per year and a slightly less erosion rate over here at the Wai`ohai area. There are geological reasons why one is eroding faster than the other. I don't have time to get into that at the present time, but we will, in a report, as we go through the planning for the project for the Po`ipu Beach Park restoration. So we are talking about two (2) types of erosion. One is the chronic erosion, that annual erosion that is happening due to waves and currents, but specifically and importantly for these areas here is storm damage. Now Hurricane Iniki overtopped the entire beach. The sand made it all the way to the road and to the other side of the road, so the damage... the alterations to the beach that are being caused by these hurricanes and these periodic storms are very important. Now you notice that I didn't... I hesitated to say the word damage to the beach because when you get a storm, it is not damaging a beach, it is a natural process. What the beach is trying to do is the beach is trying to move landward as sea level rises, the beach needs to move landward. If you don't let the beach move landward... for example, putting a seawall up or a revetment, the beach will eventually narrow and pinch out and eventually as you have seen around the island, I think in front of a lot of the revetments and the seawalls that you have lost the dry beach. That is because that beach is eroding. It is eroding, but it is trying to move landward to maintain its width. If you stop its migration landward, you will eventually eliminate the dry COUNCIL MEETING - 7 - May 20, 2009 beach and that is one of the issues we need to deal with when we are talking about seawall and revetment, and bulkhead construction. So one of the prime issues here is because this beach is eroding, we have old fill that was put in several decades ago, we have a lot of boulders exposed on the beach, and it doesn't appear as if it is a... as great an experience using this beach as it is for other beaches where you just have sand, and you don't have the fill and rocks exposed. Moving further down, I believe this was Kiahuna... I think I made a mistake and said Wai`ohai. Say that again? Mr. Bynum: Kiahuna. Mr. O'Connell: Kiahuna, excuse me, yes. It was Kiahuna. I made this mistake... these are photographs that were given to me courtesy of Tim Bynum here, but what we are talking about here is in Kiahuna, the shoreline erosion rate is about a foot per year or less, but this primarily being caused by storm. You can see in the year 2000, here is a boardwalk that was put in front of the Kiahuna. In the year 2000, you can see that the sand was healthy, it was up to the boardwalk, but we go to 2009, here is what has happened to the boardwalk. Again, the beach is eroding during storms, it is trying to migrate land, but it can't because we are trying to stop it in its present location. So as a result of (inaudible) annual erosion, you can see what has happened just in nine (9) years from the time that boardwalk _ was first installed, and this is what it looks like now. The boardwalk has since been removed because it was a public safety hazard, but, again, thank you Tim for providing these good demonstration projects about the short term storm erosion. These are two (2) more photographs again of a boardwalk... a perpendicular boardwalk to the beach in the Kiahuna area. Am I saying that right Tim? Mr. Bynum: Kiahuna. Mr. O'Connell: Kiahuna. Again, Tim provided these photographs to me as a good demonstration of what is happening in this particular area due to erosion, but you can see that the sand is at grade at this boardwalk here, and if you go to 2009, you can see that the sand has actually dropped anywhere from three (3) to four (4) feet. So we are losing a lot of sand in the area and making it a slightly less pleasant experience for the beachgoers here. I wanted to address a little bit of swimmer safety as well because this is directly related to erosion of the beach. So we talked a little bit about erosion, I talked a little bit about swimmer safety now, and then I will talk about the efforts of the County primarily to the Parks Department and the County Council involvement on the restoration project itself. But in terms of swimmer safety, talking to the lifeguards down there and just watching... I have gone down there quite often to look at the conditions down here, but one of the primary reasons why there are so many rescues down here is, one, of course the beach just west of the park is very heavily used by both island folks and visitors as well. But because of the elimination of this sand split that usually exist between the Po`ipu Beach Park area and Nukamoi Point, there was (inaudible) to COUNCIL MEETING - 8 - ~ Ma 20 2009 Y put there at one time. When that sand split disappeared as a result of Hurricane Iniki, there were very, very swift currents that now move through there. So as folks are coming to here, they are trying to get out to Nukomoi Point and there is a very, very strong current, and some of the swimmers are being swept off their feet, over into this area, and from talking to a couple of the lifeguards down there, there has been a significant increase in a number of rescues just to the west of the Po`ipu Beach Park area. This is an example from the air. The reason why these currents are being significantly increased here... this was in December 1990... just before Hurricane Iniki... you can see that here is the Po`ipu Beach Park area, here is Nukomoi Point... you can see the sand split here. As 75% of 80% of the year, we have the tradewinds coming from the west. When the tradewinds come from the west, we have a current that is being setup because the wind is creating waves and the waves are creating currents. So the current is primarily going from east to west traveling along the southside of Kauai, coming into this area, coming into the Po`ipu Beach area. So what we've got 75% to 80% of the time of the year, it is this current that is moving along here right into the Po`ipu Beach Park area. Now when there is a sand split connecting Po`ipu Beach Park with the Nukomoi Point, the current is significantly... the current strength is significantly reduced, but after the. hurricane as you can see up here in 2006, that sand split connecting Nukomoi Point has disappeared. It has tried to come back, but there is not enough sand in the system, in my opinion, for the tombolo which we call a tombolo... that is the (inaudible) that connect the end. So we have this very, very swift current moving to the Po`ipu Beach Park area, people trying to walk out to Nukomoi Point and being swept off their feet, and they are going into this area again being rescued here. Again, the report from the lifeguards and the Fire Chief and the water safety folks could address this much better than I, but there are, I guess, a significant increase in the number of rescues just of the west. And this is just the ground photograph showing the phenomenon that I just explained. We've got this swift current moving through here right into the Po`ipu Beach park area, continuing down here, and here is where that sand split... what we call geologist call a tombolo. It used to connect Nukomoi Point with the beach and that no longer exist, so that current is rapidly escaping from the Po`ipu Beach Park area to the west and catching swimmers by surprise. This is the area here. There has been some rocks that have appeared recently. I believe probably in an attempt to slow the current velocity, but there is still a very, very strong current. There are warning signs, they are warning swimmers that there is a strong current, but if you went down there on a Saturday or a sunny Sunday afternoon, you will find that people disregard these signs and they continue to want to go out there and get a nice view back to the beach itself. So the goal of the safety project, basically, and again, I am going to relate this right to the sand replenishment project. The goal is. basically to try to reduce the volume and the strength of that current, so that we can make... have the swimmers be a little bit more safer and reduce the number of rescues in that area. But, again, I ' ~ • COUNCIL MEETING - 9 - May 20, 2009 think the Fire Chief and water safety personnel can answer those questions much better than I. So when you have an erosive situation here crossing a less pleasant experience on the beach... we've had a water safety issue as a result of the loss of the sand, the erosion... we have a number of alternatives, we can do nothing, and again, we need to decide which one to do, but do nothing would continue to have an unpleasant experience on the beach as well as the safety. (Inaudible) with the seawall which is generally a reaction to a homeowner who has a building that they want to protect. These two (2) are what we are really looking at here in terms of the restoration of the Po`ipu Beach Park area. We can either relocate, meaning that we could relocate the beach a little bit farther landward, and create a wider dry beach which would be a more pleasant experience for the beachgoers, but that would not alleviate the situation in the near shore area or on the beach face itself. We have this fill and we have the rocks exposed. The preferred alternative that we are looking at now is to add sand to the beach... what we call beach nourishment. So what we are looking at here is if we can add sand to the Po`ipu Beach area, compatible beach sand, we have awin/win situation. We can probably solve both problems because if we are going to put a significant volume of sand in the Po`ipu Beach Park area, in order to retain that sand and make it cost effective, we are going to have to slow the current velocity here, so that the sand that is placed on the beach isn't immediately lost in the next storm or the next heavy wind or heavy wave episode. We are going to need to not necessarily close that off, but to partially close it off, close the currents down, so we can maintain the sand that the County is proposing to put on the beach. At the same time, if we can reduce the current velocity, we are going to alleviate or at least reduce the swimmer safety issue as well. So the proposal right now before the County and, again, and this is being spearheaded by the Parks Department, and I am working with Lenny Rapozo and Dave Caylor, and Mel Nishihara, and others at the Parks Department who are moving forward on this project now. But what they are looking at now is to address it in three (3) phases. Phase 1 would be a sand nourishment project... adding sand to the Po`ipu Beach Park area in the volume of slightly less than 500 cubic yards... the reason we are looking at less than 500 cubic yards is, two (2)... one (1)... we can do it relatively quickly so to speak in terms of adding large volumes and 2, the DLNR has a small scale beach nourishment process. If you were to add less than 500 cubic yards of sand, we can expedite the timeframe for permitting through the State and you get the sand hopefully on the beach fairly quickly. Phase II, we are looking at adding approximately 6,000 cubic yards of sand, and then phase III, we are looking at a long term project. Sand on the island is a commodity. There is not a lot sand... beach compatible sand readily available, so Phase III which I will talk about in a minute is looking for sand in the near shore area just on the other side of the reef. And I will say in my work along the eastern seaward of the United States, a cubic yard of sand generally cost in the vicinity of eight (8) to ten (10) maybe $12 a cubic yard. I come to the island here and sand is COUNCIL MEETING - 10 - ~ Ma 20 2009 Y anywhere between $150 and $200 a cubic yard, so sand is gold on this island. Sand is gold and we should really look for its highest and best use. In terms of cost, it is an incredible difference between the mainland and on the islands here. So, again, we are looking at Phase I. Phase I is just under 500 cubic yards of sand, so we can go to the small scale beach nourishment permit process hopefully relatively quickly. We have also got permits that are going to need to be obtained from the Planning Department as well, but Phase I, we are looking at about 499 shall we say cubic yards, and then 6,000 cubic yards for Phase II. The sand is readily available right now. The sand is available from the... you can help me out on this word as well... the Kawaiele Wildbird Sanctuary which was created by the DLNR just several years ago. The excavated sand... this is old (inaudible) dune beach sand that was excavated to create a wildlife or a wildbird sanctuary. Well, that sand now was given to the County and it is being stored at the Kekaha Landfill, so what we have worked out or what the Parks Department and the Administration has worked out is to be able to obtain approximately 6,500 cubic yards of that sand from this bird sanctuary to be used for beach and recreational purposes. So what we are doing is Phase I and Phase II. Phase I is basically we just want to rebuild the dune and you will see it in the subsequent picture, but it was in the other pictures as well. There is a scarp of about two (2) to three (3) feet in the dune in front of the lifeguard stand at Po`ipu Beach. So what we want to do first is with this small amount of material... this 500 cubic yards of material is basically build a small mountain of sand, a small dune, to cover over that scarp. The scarp is a hazard to people who are trying to get to the water, so we just want to basically do a nourishment project for Phase I. Phase II will be the larger project where we will actually extend the beach out slightly, and create a slightly wider dry sand beach and cover some of the fill and some of the works that are presently on the beach itself. Yes, a scarp... this is Phase I... here is the scarp here. This is where we want to build the dune. This was done in 2005 and I will show you a picture of that, and that was about 500 cubic yards as well in 2005. But here is what we are trying to do. What we want to do is we want to cover... build a dune right in this area here... the County Parks Department wants to build the dune right here, cover up this scarp, so that people don't have to jump down or walk down here, take a chance of falling, plus when we have that dune there, people walking over the dune and small waves will eventually take that sand and actually put it in the beach, but all the sand is going to be placed mauka of the high waterline. As long as you can stay above the high waterline, we won't have the permits with the Army Corp of Engineers, we more than likely won't have to go to the State Department of Health as well, as long as we are staying above the high waterline, and that is the plan. Here is what .the project looked like in 2009. There was approximately 500 cubic yards of sand that was placed in 2005 as well as an experiment to see how it worked. You can see that as folks walk over that and small waves lap up here, you can see even here... that was 2005 and about eight (8) months later, you can see ' ~ • COUNCIL MEETING - 11 - May 20, 2009 that there was a scarp that had reformed as a result of waves, but you can see that the sand was actually migrating onto the beach itself covering over the fill, covering over the rocks, and making it a much more pleasant experience for the beachgoers. Just another picture of what it looks like now and hopefully what it looked like in 2005, and hopefully what it will look like within the next year, but the Parks Department can talk a little bit more about the timeframe itself. That is what we basically want to do is cover that over. In Phase II, we want to add approximately 6,000 cubic yards of sand. Again, we have about 6,500 cubic yards of sand from the Kekaha... being stored at the Kekaha Landfill. Phase II is going to be a lot more expensive and is going to take a much longer timeframe in terms of permitting. More than likely, there will be an environment assessment, we will have to go to the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as the Department of Health because some of the sand, more than likely, will be placed seaward makai of the high waterline in that larger project, but that will create a beautiful wide sandy beach for beach goers itself. Now there are two (2) ways we could do that. Again, we could just put the sand on the beach itself, and, again, maybe supplement the dune material that may have eroded away from Phase I. We would be placing the sand on the beach and covering over some of these rocks that you see here, some of the fill over here, and making it a much more pleasant experience. We could also extend the dry beach itself a little bit into the grassy area to make it a wider area, a wider plan form for folks to spread out and enjoy the beach a little bit more. Phase III, as I mentioned, sand... there is not a lot of beach compatible sand readily available on the island... anywhere from $100 to $150 to $200 for a cubic yard of sand. It is incredible, so what we are going to do on Phase III is we are going to do a sand on the outside of the reef. A lot of the sand in the... here is the reef here. A lot of the sand here on the dry beach and then in the inter-tidal area here, and the sub-tidal area. During storms, that sand will move along the shore just like I had showed you. When the strong currents... when the long shore currents are moving along the shore, eventually, the sand will be pulled offshore during a storm due to large waves... particularly the shape of the wave will pull it offshore. When they pull it offshore, it ends up basically on the outside of the reef. So we believe that there are large sand deposits, beach compatible sand deposits on the makai side of the reef, so what we want to do in Phase III is try to search for beach compatible sand deposits, and do a long range study of some of the more important beaches on the island that may need sand in terms of tourism, tourism dollars, and the enjoyment of the island residents themselves. Basically, this has been done on the island of Maui and to a degree on Oahu as well, but they did do extensive studies on the eastern shore of Maui to find these sand deposits, and this is basically just a map showing what the results of a sand search study in the offshore area. These... the technicians and the scientists are using side scan (inaudible) profiles... it is a proven technology that can show you where the deeper sand deposits are, beach compatible sand deposits are, so this is COUNCIL MEETING. - 12 - • M 20 2 ay 009 the sand deposits on the eastern shore of Maui, and that is precisely what we are going to try to do look for here on this other side of Kauai. You can also get the thickness of the sand (inaudible), so you can actually calculate a volume of sand that is available there, match it to a beach after we do some studies, and one of the reasons why I am here is to go around the island, study the beaches, determine what beaches are most important to the island in terms of what the County Council may think, what the Parks Department or DPW may think, but identify the important beaches and why they are important. (Inaudible) for these sand deposits and then determine what beaches you may want to supplement sand for, so that would be Phase III. In terms of where we are right now on the Phase I project, particularly the Parks Department has been working diligently in trying to move Phase I forward which is the 500 cubic yards of sand. We have already done the sand sampling which is required by the DLNR and the Planning Department... done the sand sampling both at Po`ipu Beach and at the Kekaha Landfill to determine the compatibility, to determine whether the sand grain size is relatively similar which... it needs to be relatively similar and preferably a little bit courser, but you can go a little bit finer as well because it is a mix of sandy beach. Both fine sediments, sand grains, and medium and course grain sands as well. We have already done the sampling and we have found out that there is a compatibility between the sand that is at the Kekaha Landfill and the beach. itself. We have researched the Parks Department just with my assistant, but they are spearheading it again. We have done research on the past project history, what happened to 2005, how long did the sand last, did it work? At the present time, the next step, the important step is we need a survey, we need a topographic survey in order to get a certified shoreline from DLNR. We also need to go to the Planning Department to get an SMA minor permit to the DLNR for a small scale beach nourishment permit... whether there will be water quality monitoring, we are not exactly sure. We need to talk to the Department of Health, but as long as we keep it... the sand above high water in particularly above the spring high water. Chances are we may not have to do the water quality monitoring for Phase I, but we will definitely have to do it for Phase II. And the beach replenishing work itself... at the present time, I believe... and again Lenny Rapozo can answer this question and others from the Parks Department. I believe the beach replenishing work for the Phase I which is the 500 cubic yards of sand will be done by the County which will save significant cost and hopefully quicken the project, and we do project oversight in terms of monitoring the sand, how long it will last, where it is going, and use that basically as a test case for the larger project to ensure that the larger project... the 6,000 cubic yard project was actually going to be beneficial which I am convinced right now that it will be. That is about all that I have for the project in terms of summary right now. Chair Asng: Thank you Jim. Councilmembers, do you have any questions for Jim? Councilmember Bynum? COUNCIL MEETING • - 13 - ~ Ma 20 2009 Y Mr. Bynum: Good morning Jim. Thank you very much for that rapid fire and (inaudible) presentation. I know that your delivery style is rapid like that because you want to share a lot of information. So you mentioned the kind of prior... when we are having beach erosion, that is a natural occurrence and sometimes we can retreat right? That is maybe the preferable thing where there is room is let the ocean do its stand. Have I got that right? Mr. O'Connell: Yes, I mean... as I mentioned, I don't use the word damaged to beaches even after storms. Damage happens to build things, damage doesn't happen to the natural system if human beings hasn't altered it to a point. So it is a natural system where the beach and dunes and the shoreline is actually trying to move makai... excuse me, mauka... it is trying to move landward and I won't do it here, but in terms of sea level rise, you know, there is a prediction now that the sea is going to rise within the next 100 years more than likely two (2), possibly even three (3) feet. As a result of that, our entire shoreline is going to want to move landward and if we try to halt it, you are going to narrow the beaches, so that is a planning process that I think we all need to be cognizant of, and really start addressing it seriously. Mr. Bynum: And I think that was the motivation for the Council to pass the shoreline bill last year to say that as human beings, we need to take into consideration these changes. But human beings do things that interfere with that natural process, right? So we build buildings close, we plant grass, and take out dunes, and how does that impact, you know, a situation like this? Mr. O'Connell: In terms of removing dunes and planting vegetation? Mr. Bynum: Right. Mr. O'Connell: Well, dunes are a source of sand for the beach during storms, so if you can keep your dunes naturally or even supplement them for that matter if you have a high density public use beach. When a storm comes and removes sand from the dune, that sand actually ends up on the beach, and sometimes in the near shore area, and it helps reduce the wave energy, it helps keep the dry beach wide for recreational purposes, but it also reduces wave energy, and helps protect landward areas. So preserving dunes, it is critical if you want to maintain your dry beaches, and you want to help protect landward areas. In terms of planting vegetation, you know, there is a prohibition of planting vegetation seaward, makai of a certified shoreline. So if you know where the certified shoreline is, you know that line is there, but how often do you really know where the certified _ shoreline is, but vegetation... but vegetation can go both ways. Vegetation will trap, help trap wind blown sands. A lot of States around the country encourage waterfront homeowners and owners of waterfront properties to plant vegetation to help trap windblown sand to help build the dune volume and keep the sand from blowing more mauka where it wouldn't be lost from the system. There are a lot of COUNCIL MEETING. - 14 - • May 20, 2009 States that actually encourage planting vegetation to help supplement and help build the dune system as long as you don't build (inaudible) the vegetation makai of the certified shoreline or thereabout and interfere with the public rights to use the beach itself... then it couldn't be a very beneficial process... Mr. Bynum: So depending on where you plant the vegetation and what type, it can be beneficial or it can be problematic. Mr. O'Connell: It can be problematic in terms of public access, particularly to the beaches of Hawaii where the citizens and the visitors have a right to enjoy the beaches here. I came from a State most recently where private property... owned a home to low water. There are six (6) States in the country where the private property owner owns to low water. You don't even have a right to even use that dry beach. You can't even walk on the dry beach. You can only walk in the intertidal area if you have a fishing pole in your hand, a pair of binoculars, or you are hunting, fishing, fowling, and navigating. You can't stop even in the intertidal area, so to have beaches like I see here in Hawaii is an incredible pleasure to be here. And, you know, maintaining public access in Hawaii is a tremendous benefit both to the island residents and the visitors. Mr. Bynum: So you have outlined the three (3) phases of this plan. The third phase is identifying these offshore sources of sand, so we don't have to truck it in, we can get it nearby from the ocean, is that correct? Mr. O'Connell: That is correct. Mr. Bynum: And tell us about that mechanism. How does that happen? If we identify the sand, how would we move it into the ocean area to protect the beach and keep it wide? Mr. O'Connell: It is a question of... once we identify that the offshore sands... how then... what is the mechanism to get that sand up on the beach? It is a very common practice on the mainland doing beach nourishment... basically adding sand to the beach by hydraulically pumping it from the sand source up onto the beach itself. It is a proven technique. Actually, about two (2) years ago on Kuhio Beach on the eastern shore of Waikiki, there was approximately 10,000 cubic yards of sand that was pumped from about 2,000 feet offshore up onto Kuhio Beach. As an experiment to see whether or not it was feasible in the State of Hawaii to be able to pump. Hydraulically pump near shore or offshore sand sources up onto the beach itself, and the project was considered a success, so that has already taken place. There has also been a beach nourishment project on Maui on the Spreckels fill area on the northshore of Maui. That sand was actually trucked in and placed and shaped to match the contours of the beach itself, and that was written up in a journal article as a success project as well. So we have the experience on Oahu, we have the experience on Maui, now we just need to make sure that we have positive experience on Kauai and maintaining the most • • COUNCIL MEETING - 15 - May 20, 2009 important beaches you folks could identify. So it is basically hydraulically pumping it up and then just shaping it to the contour of the beach itself. It can be problematic in terms o£ and you need to know... and recognize this upfront. If the sand is placed makai or seaward of the high waterline, there are a lot of marine organisms, important marine organisms particularly in the shallow near shore areas that are highly protected and should be protected. So we need to make sure that when we design these beach nourishment projects that were not going to adversely impact a number of the marine organisms, particularly the reef organisms. So we have to be very, very careful in terms of designing a beach nourishment project to ensure that it is a win/win situation both for the marine environment and for human beings to enjoy the beach as well. You will find that out when we go through the permitting process how vigorous the monitoring and the review of the sand... larger sand projects like Phase II will have to go through. Mr. Bynum: So Phase I and II address kind of the sand issues at Po`ipu Beach right now and make it a more pleasant beach experience, cover up some of the rocks and stubble, but it doesn't address tombolo issue and the current that you discussed earlier, is that correct? Mr. O'Connell: And that is correct. The swift current velocity as a result of the loss of that tombolo... that sand connection between Po`ipu Beach and the offshore rock. At the present time, Phase I, we will more than likely will not address that because we are trying to get this project through... as an experiment to ensure that it is going to work and learn from it. In the Phase II project, the 6,000 cubic yards of sand, we will have to have the engineers look at the wave climate, the current velocity and determine what we can place there to supplement the tombolo. It may be sand... it more than likely will be some temporary erosion control measure. It could possibly be, for example, along that tube or (inaudible) which is a geotech style fabric filled with sand. We may use that as a temporary measure to slow the current velocity to try and maintain and keep the sand on Po`ipu Beach as long as possible. What we don't want to do... it prevents that sand from slowly leaking through and over where the tombolo would be, so that it can feed the rest of that littoral cell, and that is the natural process. The natural process is to allow the sand to move along that entire cell and during storm, it moves offshore... some of it may come back on, so we want the engineers to model and design something to replace the tombolo, but we don't want to completely close it up because we want to make sure that we are feeding the entire cell, so that the other beaches will receive some of that sand eventually as well. Mr. Bynum: So Phase III contemplates a study for this littoral cell to determine the parameters of doing that kind of work long term? Mr. O'Connell: Correct. Mr. Bynum: And so that takes time I assume? COUNCIL MEETING. - 16 - ~ Ma 20 2009 Y Mr. O'Connell: That would be several years in the making in terms of getting a consultant on board, making sure that they are qualified and have the right equipment. They are actually... we do have... the County... the Building Department has a project out at the Kapa`a Shore right now to do precisely that. They have already identified a contractor, we have had several meetings with the contractor, and that is to Ryan... that will probably take place within the next... begin within the next six (6) months or so. So they have already identified the consultant from Honolulu who has the equipment to go out and identify some of the sand deposits. They are doing that primarily as a long range vision from the Kapa`a Beach Park area in terms of if we have a major storm where we lose some of that sand, perhaps there will be sand deposits available to hydraulically pump up there to maintain the Kapa`a Shore. We should learn a lot from that process that we will be able to apply in the Po`ipu Beach project, Phase III. Mr. Bynum: So the County has already embarked on kind of this long range visioning about how to manage our shorelines in a way that protects the environment and also keeps our beaches in a recreational and usable state, and pleasant for visitors and people who live here. So, I mean a summary of what I am hearing you say is that adding sand into the system is the preferable route whether it comes up trucked over land from sources in Kekaha or brought offshore... that is kind of the management practice that other islands and other States are using to address the shoreline. Mr. O'Connell: It is a proven methodology to be able to provide both the storm damage and flood protection to landward areas, and at the same time, generate a wider recreational platform for people to enjoy as well. And just to address one of your comments, yes, I think the island is... the Council and the Administration and the agencies on the island here are very progressive. Looking for sand sources offshore, looking to do beach nourishment, passing the setback ordinance... the setback and coastal protection ordinance, these are very progressive measures that (inaudible)... have traveled around the country. I have seen what other States are doing and I think the island of Kauai is being very progressive and proactive, and I think that is going to pay dividends in the future... in the near future as well as the far future. Mr. Bynum: I know that we are all really appreciative of your presence here, the Council last time supported your position, and it is great to actually 'see something that we talk about happen. Mr. O'Connell: You can thank the Administration because they are really the ones who are really... Mr. Bynum: Absolutely. Mr. O'Connell: I am assisting them. They are really (inaudible) and moving the project forward. • • COUNCIL MEETING - 17 - May 20, 2009 Mr. Bynum: And I really appreciate that collaboration that is occurring and, you know, just one last thing is that if we don't do this, we know that, from the study, that the situation is not going to improve on its own. The last resort to protect is the shoreline hardening which causes beach loss in the long run. Mr. O'Connell: Yes. Mr. Bynum: So that is something that we are trying to avoid because, so thank you very much for your presentation and answers. Mr. O'Connell: Thank you for your support as well. Chair Asing: With that, Councilmember Kaneshiro? Mr. Kaneshiro: Jim, on one of your slides, you showed that since 1927 Po`ipu Beach has been eroding at about a foot a year on the average. I believe one of the slides showed that. When was the most rapid erosion taken place? Could you tell by your study? I know you said over the average from 1927, but there has to be a time when there was the most rapid erosion taking place whether it was after Hurricane Iwa or Hurricane Iniki. Do you have any facts to that or any studies that show that? Mr. O'Connell: I will very soon. When Dr. Fletcher turns the shoreline change database over to the County, then the project will be complete. I have asked him to give me the data that is behind the data. In other words, what he is going to present, basically is a summary... the long term average annual shoreline change rates, but we've got... depending on the area of the island between nine (9) and eleven (11) shorelines, so to answer your question for any area around the island, once we have that data, we will be able to look when we had rapid erosion, when we even had accretion in certain areas. And one of my roles is to identify those areas and then try to figure out why areas were eroding and why areas were accreting. So if you have areas of interest around the island, once we have this data base, a simple request to do an analysis of an area, I will be able to answer that question directly. Mr. Kaneshiro: And the follow up to that is that because in 1991, the tombolo on your slide was present and it seems like after 1991... soon after Hurricane Iniki I believe, but tombolo was slowly starting to appear. You know what, discipline... in other words, the water starting taking its toll and was any thoughts given about the breakwater that is in the small baby pond area being that it is too high, and that it might be causing the rapid acceleration of currents shooting across? Because I believe prior to that, during Hurricane Iwa time or even prior to Hurricane Iwa, the water used to flow right over where the baby pond was where you have that rocks... we could surf right over it before. Currently, I know that it is high and I am not sure if you have any thoughts or studies maybe given COUNCIL MEETING ~ - 1 - • 8 May 20, 2009 into that? That the height of the breakwater might be causing some of this strong currents to push forward towards the Wai`ohai area? Mr. O'Connell: (Inaudible) observation... yes, I think that breakwater may be causing some of the issues there in terms of increasing the current velocity coming through there. That little breakwater was rebuilt... I am not sure of the year, but it was after Iniki. It was built slightly higher and there are some suggestions, and I would like to see this pursued further myself, but I think that may be accelerating the current velocity going through there resulting in the loss of more sand than would naturally be lost, and possibly affecting that tombolo as well. And the Phase II project, because it being the 6,000 cubic yard project, we will have the engineers... they are going to have to model that area. They are going to have to take current measurements, they are going to have to model the wave climate, and at the same time, we will have them do an analysis of what the impacts of that breakwater are in terms of increasing currents and increasing waves. But my preliminary investigation suggesting that it may very well be impacting and causing higher current velocities in that area. Mr. Kaneshiro: I was just wondering about that and even some of the old timers, you know, the old fishermen who say that in all the previous years from the 1950's, 1940's, the water always used to just flow over. And in the '60's or early `60's, we could surf right over it on high tide, and now I guess after 1991 or after Hurricane Iniki, they let it build higher, and suddenly you see all of this happening. Like you said, the tombolo problem that we are having. Mr. O'Connell: When the waves overtop that breakwater, you have actually dissipated some of the wave energy and actually slowed the current velocities because it hit the rocks and then overtopped it. Now it is not. Whenever you constrain water or even air for that matter into a more narrow area, it generally accelerates the velocity, and I believe that is what is happening there. But on the flip side, Daryl, because it was raised, it created this little quiescent area for small children to be able to play in and be safe. So if they did lower it, so we are going to have to look at a balance and look to folks to make the final decision. It is more important to have that area completely safe or is the impact significant enough where a suggestion to be lowered again, and that is something that we will be looking at in Phase II. Mr. Kaneshiro: Well, that was where I first started to swim anyway, so it must have been safe in those days. I wasn't a good swimmer when I first started, you know, everybody goes through that where you go in there and kind of play around in the baby pond. The water used to come right over and we used to have fun kind of hiding behind the rocks, and let the water flow right over you. Mr. O'Connell: It is more realistic too. If we are going to have to learn how to swim, you don't want to learn, you know... • • COUNCIL MEETING - 19 - May 20, 2009 Mr. Kaneshiro: It is best place to swim because you can just stand up, you know, in case anything happened. You know, paddle around, but stand up, but anyway... just one follow-up question if I could. I noticed on the slide, you said that there were some rocks put in the tombolo area, has that caused any effect at all... has that slowed the current flow? I probably heard you say "no", but somehow, some menehunes put some rocks. Mr. O'Connell: I am not familiar with the introduction of what happened there. Mr. Kaneshiro: But have you had any results or any... from that regarding currents? Mr. O'Connell: I wasn't here when there was nothing there, so I don't know when they really appeared when we could look at aerial photos to determine that, but I am not familiar with how or when they came there because I wasn't here when the rocks were not there. I can only look at it presently and say that the current velocity at the present time even with some of those rocks there is still pretty significant. I have kayaked through there and... at the right time of the tide or the wrong time of the tide, that current could be, I would suggest, anywhere from two (2), maybe four (4) knots which were... somebody was trying to walk across there could be pretty dangerous, but I am not familiar with the history of when those... when they appeared and why. Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, thank you. Chair Asing: Any other questions for... go ahead. Mr. Bynum: I just... what Councilmember Kaneshiro is talking about kind of the local knowledge I heard from him and from other people and there is probably a lot of wisdom and to have local knowledge, but I know that the County understands that in this day and age, we have to really... like you said, get the proper permitting, do the proper studies to kind of set the baseline for changes that we make, but the study that we are contemplating in addition to finding offshore sand, would kind of address all of those potential remedies, and make recommendations. Is that correct? Mr. O'Connell: Yes, we will probably do that in Phase II, before Phase III although I would like to see them move in tandem, but in terms of looking at the kind of velocity what we may want to put in that particular area, we will address that in Phase II for sure. Mr. Bynum: So the things that Daryl is suggesting may be part of the solution in the long run. Mr. O'Connell: Yes. COUNCIL MEETING - 20 - • Ma 20 2009 Y Mr. Bynum: But we have to be cautious what menehunes do because we can have unintended consequences. Mr. O'Connell: I think we need to be cautious of the menehunes, but we don't see them, so we don't know when it happens. It would be equivalent to the Boston leprechauns. Mr. Bynum: Thank you. Chair Asing: Any other questions for... go ahead. Mr. Furfaro: The tombolo as well as Nukomoi Point area, has there been... has the archaeological question been answered if that is not a significant part of any of the heiau complex in Po`ipu? Mr. O'Connell: To the best of my knowledge, we have not addressed that problem yet, but I am confident that will be addressed before anything is done including Phase I. But in Phase I, basically, it is just that small dune covering the dune scarp, but I think it is important to... Mr. Furfaro: Answer my question. There has not been an archaeological query if that is part of any of the complex? Mr. O'Connell: To the best of my knowledge, no, not yet. Mr. Furfaro: And the Administration has allocated I think $150,000 in this budget? Mr. O'Connell: The funding issue is something that I tried to stick (inaudible). Mr. Furfaro: Any conversation with them? Mr. O'Connell: I am unclear of the funding Jay, so I can't really answer the funding question. Mr. Furfaro: I am just... Mr. O'Connell: I am sticking with the technical aspects. Mr. Furfaro: Understood, and in the technical aspects, when some of the questions came about regarding the long term goals and how we are going to achieve them especially in Phase II and III, I have heard responses that indicated that it is future funding. How far off? Two (2) years... I mean we have an EA, may have an EIS, we have an SMA, we have an engineering study, we have to • COUNCIL MEETING - 21 - May 20, 2009 have an understanding of what has happened with the tombolo. We have the question about, is this an area (inaudible)... we have those questions that actually need to be addressed before Phase II. Do you have any idea from the experiences that we have had on Oahu and Maui what some of those cost might be? Mr. O'Connell: For Phase I, it is going to be completely done, I believe, by the County. We have the sand already. In terms of Phase II, I am trying to get a handle on the cost differences between what I have experienced on the mainland and what I have experienced here, and I am finding out that there are (inaudible) of magnitude more expenses on the island, than I am familiar with. So I would have a cost estimate in my head for (inaudible) Phase II or even Phase III if I were anywhere on the mainland. So I am rapidly trying to get more familiar with what the cost are here. I do know that offshore sand study in Kapa`a is in the vicinity of $300,000 and that was... Mr. Furfaro: I was leaning on what you said. We have the experience and knowledge from Oahu and Maui especially on some of these projects where they did some offshore vacuuming of bottom sand. I think they did that at Ho`okipa and some of those areas. Is Sea Grant able to share any of that information with the Administration? Mr. O'Connell: Yes, the Kuhio Beach project on the eastern portion of Waikiki, that was actually done by the DLNR themselves. That was approximately 10,000 cubic yards of sand pumped from about 2,000 feet offshore. That was about $500,000 and that was... they had a prior contract... Mr. Furfaro: ' I don't need to know. I just want to make sure for the future that these are things that are shared with the Administration. Mr. O'Connell: Oh yes. Mr. Furfaro: Because, you know, you are saying that these decisions will be made jointly with the Council, but obviously, we have to do something there, but I think we need to understand all the moving parts, all the components in Phase I. It sounds like Phase I, you are banking on the fact that you will not have to do... you will... I guess you are placing your hopes on that you are only going to have to do a minor SMA if any for Phase I. Mr. O'Connell: Those are preliminary discussions between Parks and Planning, yes. Mr. Furfaro: I mean, that is... Mr. O'Connell: Preliminary discussions, yes. COUNCIL MEETING - 22 - • Ma 20 2 0 y 0 9 Mr. Furfaro: But that is what we are hoping on. It will be a minor SMA and that, obviously is driven by the cost of the work, and then it seems Phase II, Phase III, really raises a lot of these other engineering permitting cost that we should have some exposure to... might help us make the decision what way we go. Mr. O'Connell: Right. I can provide you with the information on the Kuhio Beach project. Mr. Furfaro: I don't need it. The Administration needs it. Mr. O'Connell: Okay. Mr. Furfaro: Parks & Recreation, they need somewhere to go for some, you know, qualified cost in Hawaii. Mr. O'Connell: Well, that is something that I am... actually, when I was sitting there, I was thinking if we've got some experiences on the island as well, I think I should put that into a report for anybody to be able to look at, and that will be one of my plans. I will have that as soon as I can get that together. Mr. Furfaro: You knew I was raising the question for everyone and it is not a report that I need, you know, I think we need to have a clear understanding on what the maximum exposure could be on something that includes all three (3) phases. Mr. O'Connell: Right, okay. The best I could do would be, again, as my role here is to generate all the... together, all the technical information from any beach restoration project on any of the islands and put that and have that readily available for anybody, and that is a good suggestion. Your comment will make me move even quicker on it. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you and I know you give great urgency to that question. Have you ever recapped the 2004 fill and how it kind of disintegrated over a five (5) year period what the cost of that project was on the short term solution and what it might have averaged out over these years as far as understanding the yearly cost of replenishment. If one of the options is just going to continue to replenish until such time that we can find all the funds, it would be important for us to know what that cost impact might be, let's say, in five (5) year increments. Mr. O'Connell: We have all the... Dave Caylor and myself and others at the Parks Department have been combing all of the files that we could get on the 2005 project, but I haven't run across any costs, so I am just looking at... I am looking at the technical aspect, so I can't answer your question in terms of cost. • COUNCIL MEETING - 23 - May 20, 2009 Mr. Furfaro: Somewhere, we have to find out what those costs were. Mr. O'Connell: Most definitely, yea. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you and thank you for an excellent presentation. Mr. O'Connell: Thank you. Chair Asing: Any other questions Councilmembers? If not, I believe we have... are we going to have Lenny, are you going to be making a presentation? Thank you Jim. Mr. Bynum: Thank you Jim. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. LENNY RAPOZO, DIRECTOR OF PARKS & RECREATION: For the record, Director of County Parks & Recreation Lenny Rapozo. What is being passed out before you is the timeline that we have been working with to give you and those involved with this project some idea as to how long it is going to take to have the sand placed at the beach park. So the first page is a written description of the timeline, but the second page is the graph of what... the visual graph as to what we have done so far, what we are in process of doing, and where we are going. The purple is the actual beach replenishment and we are targeting September 15... between September 15 and September 20 to have everything in place and the actual work being done for the sand to be placed on the beach. We are currently in the application process and we are currently working on completing the application for the SMA minor permit as well as the SSBN permit application and review. But what is very apparent and, again, it is part of our learning process in doing this project is that what we do need is the certified shoreline survey and certification. So the different colors... there is a legend on your right side. Green being Parks & Recreation, the red be Planning, and so forth. Before any of those permits can be issued would be a certification of the shoreline, however, those applications from what we have been told may be submitted during the survey process. So we are moving forward in getting those... securing those permits. Chair Asing: Councilmember Furfaro? Mr. Furfaro: Lenny, thank you for a very complete flow chart on this first phase, but I guess I am making an assumption and I want to make sure that we are all pretty clear on... we are, like I said, earlier to Jim... we are probably banking on a minor SMA? COUNCIL MEETING - 24 - ~ May 20, 2009 Mr. Rapozo: We have had the discussion with Planning and it looks like it is minor. Mr. Furfaro: And you are going to have some cost to certify the shoreline? Mr. Rapozo: Correct. Mr. Furfaro: And we are hoping... we know the sand is free that we take. 1VIr. Rapozo: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: And we are hoping that sand meets some kind of a qualify control test? Mr. Rapozo: The sand and sampling has been done by Glover and it does meet... Jim has been the lead on that and it does meet... it is compatible to the beach, but what will need to occur is it needs to be sifted and washed before it . is placed on the beach, so the compatibility is there, correct. Mr. Furfaro: So then the cost would be... I am very glad to hear that the quality is good... the washing and the delivery of the sand would be another incurred cost. Mr. Rapozo: We plan to use in-house Public Works to assist us with the delivery and Parks & Recreation's equipment assets that we have to place it on the beach, so hopefully to minimize that cost. Mr. Furfaro: And then if that is the case, can I make a request that we document our in-house staffing and equipment use, so we understand what we the overall credits that the department should get for this one time project if we are going to do some of this (inaudible). You know, we just came out of budget and I want to say that I saw a number of only $150,000 for the sand project. Mr. Rapozo: Actually, that was more towards leaning towards the study. Mr. Furfaro: So do we have money budgeted for the SMA minor and do we have money budgeted for the certified shoreline? Mr. Rapozo: No, we will be looking at what we currently have in some of our accounts and with the partnership hopefully with the private sector to help with the cost of this project. COUNCIL MEETING • - 25 - ~ May 20, 2009 Mr. Furfaro: So as we approach the end of the year, the cost for . the SMA minor and the shoreline certification might come out of what is considered surplus reserved funds? Mr. Rapozo: Yes or with a partnership with a private entity. Mr. Furfaro: May I ask why you may have taken the date of September 15 as the start date? Mr. Rapozo: Well, we looked at the process, yea. The process and, again, this timeline has been revised maybe three (3) or four (4) times because, again, we are learning the process with the permitting. And initially, we looked at the process and it came about... we want Yto get the sand as quickly as possible on the beach, but we looked at the process and it looked like September 15 to September 20 is when we can move forward with the delivery of the sand. During the process, we have found that the application process might take a little bit longer, but we are hoping that the review process will continue to remain the same and looks that way. We have a... we built in a window in there for any problems that may come up, so we are confident that September 15... between the 15th and the 20th, that we can make that delivery down to the beach park. Mr. Furfaro: And I just assume that this critical path has been discussed with the Po`ipu Resort operators? Mr. Rapozo: Correct. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much Lenny. Mr. Rapozo: Okay. Chair Asng: Thank you. Anything else? Tim? Mr. Bynum: Good morning Lenny. Mr. Rapozo: Good morning. I just want to start by saying that I am very appreciative of the Parks Department moving on this and, you know, giving it priority and doing a good job so far. I really appreciate it. Mr. Rapozo: Thanks. Mr. Bynum: And I have a series of questions because this whole issue goes back many years and it may be more appropriate at the Administration level about parks, right? So you just let me know. So this is for Phase I... we are involved in a similar kind of effort for Phase II, is that correct? COUNCIL MEETING - 26 - May 20, 2009 Mr. Rapozo: Well, based upon Jim's discussion, right now Parks is our phase is to get the sand on the beach. Jim is working on the other stuff for Phase II, and as he needs us to be involved with our Planning Department in Parks, then we will get involved, but he is definitely working with our Parks Planner for Phase II. Mr. Bynum: I mean we have 25,000 cubic yards of sand at Kekaha that came from the excavation. Mr. Rapozo: Correct. Mr. Bynum: And initially DLNR, you know, gave us permission for that sand for beach nourishment and recreation purposes, but now some of that sand is... a bulk of that sand is going to be used at the landfill. And what the 6,500 is what is designated to be used for beach nourishment and (inaudible)... have I got that right? Mr. Rapozo: Correct. Mr. Bynum: Okay, and so, you know, and beaches... sand is a huge commodity. Luckily we have that, we already possess it. Do you know anything about... I think there is going to be further excavation and the potential for more sand from DLNR. Is that being pursued to your knowledge? Mr. Rapozo: I don't have any information on that. I am sorry. Mr. Bynum: Because it is such a valuable commodity and one of the things that got my attention back on this even though I have tried to track it for a long time was, you know, the sand really being used for the landfill purposes rather than its originally intended purpose. And I think for Po`ipu Beach Resort and for those of us who were looking at beach nourishment was like, well, wait a minute, I thought that sand was for... but I understand that sand is a commodity that the County needs to use where it is appropriate, so maybe I will ask that question of the Administration of whether other potential sources of sand. In terms of the Phase III project, the budget has $150,000 for the study, but we estimate that it will cost $300,000. Is there any sense of where that additional funding will come from at this point? Mr. Rapozo: Well, it is in our proposed budget there right now and until it is finalized, but I think we need to collectively discuss the possibility of having it in a form of a grant and maybe a matching grant. Mr. Kaneshiro: Matching funds. ' . COUNCIL MEETING - 27 - May 20, 2009 Mr. Rapozo: To put it out there as a grant and hopefully somebody will help us and whatever else moneys they may need. They may need to have to find the moneys to help us with the study. Mr. Bynum: Well, I think (inaudible) supportive of the idea that we collaborate with the State eventually, hopefully with the Po`ipu Beach Resort Association, the HTA, you know, for contributing to these needs. You know, I certainly have been having dialogue with our Legislature about planting seeds for the future because on Oahu the DLNR and the State is partnering with visitor industry for projects, so that is certainly a model that we want to look at. But, short term, we have the sand washing and other potential cost that were exploring the possibility of private entities as you mentioned contributing to that. Is that correct? Mr. Rapozo: Correct. Mr. Bynum: And I think that collaboration is great. My concern and I may address it with somebody else in the Administration is that it takes the County six (6) to eight (8) months to procure a consultant to do a study. The study itself will take eighteen (18) months to two (2) years, so a very ambitious timeline would be two and one-half (2 1/2) years before we had the results of that study and could move. So I am very interested in finding the source of the funding for that study and hopefully not having to wait two (2) years to find the funding, and then wait two and one-half (2 1/a) years more, then we are five (5) years down the line. So, you know, and I know you may not have those answers right now, but it is great that we have Parks Department with a Park Planner and the staff to work on these things. Thank you very much for moving forward. Mr. Rapozo: They are doing a good job. Mr. Bynum: Yes, absolutely. Chair Asing: With, that... Mr. Kaneshiro: I believe on our budget, the $150,000 is a matching fund, so we need to aggressively go out and find some other matching funds to be able to meet the standards of the full funding. I am not sure if this is part of the subject and if I am going a little bit off of the subject, you can stop me Mr. Chair, but I believe... Tim brought up a pretty good idea... the County side would take so much time for procurement, so speaking about a grant might be the way to go. You know, but we haven't addressed that in the current budget. Currently, I know we had it there as a matching fund, $150,000, and we can find some other matching funds from different organizations, but, to me, the grant way is the way to go. We grant it out and have them do the study. This way we don't have to go through the long process of the procurement process, so that is... Anyway, I don't want to get into too much more detail into that, but you brought it up, you talked about it... I heard you mention about the grant, and you talked about the timeline. IL MEETI ~ - 2 - COUNC NG 8 May 20, 2009 Mr. Bynum: So you are saying that we would use our $150,000 to grant to someone else to do the study? Mr. Rapozo: A matching. That is a discussion that I think we need to have a little bit more. It is in the proposed budget, but I think those are some of the ideas that were coming out instead of we funding the whole thing. So that is a discussion that we would like to have with you folks as well as the Administration. Mr. Bynum: And who would be potential entities that we would grant those funds to? Mr. Rapozo: At this time, I don't know. Maybe the Sea Grant, I don't know. Mr. Kaneshiro: Anyway, I don't want to take this time up as, you know, those are budget issues. So he mentioned it and I know that Lenny mentioned it, so thank you Mr. Chair. Chair Asing: You know, we have to take a caption break now. Lenny, are you having anybody else up? Mr. Rapozo: No, unless you guys want them. Chair Asing: Okay, then with that, why don't we just have the caption break now. Ten (10) minute caption break. There being no objections, the Chair called for a recess at 11:09 a.m. The meeting was called back to order at 11:25 a.m., and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: What I would like to do right now is let me just... Lenny, since there are no questions for you from other Councilmembers, let me just do a short slide presentation. With that, let me just do it. Let me turn it over to you while I do the presentation. Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Asing, the floor is yours. Chair Asing: Thank you. I want to just put up two (2) slides and I just want to express my concerns about the things that we do or don't do regarding shoreline replenishment. I agree with the replenishment program. I agree totally with that, but I would want to caution the County on being sure on what we do. With that, put on the first slide Peter. This happens to be Kekaha. This point here is the Kekaha Small Boat Harbor right here and this entire line here, this is... Peter... this is Davidson's Point here. Now, the erosion rate in this area is about and we don't have to show that... is about 2.4... I am sorry, about 2.1 foot loss COUNCIL MEETING - 29 - May 20, 2009 erosion rate per year. That is the average between this point and this point here. So it is quite great and if you compared the Po`ipu area, the Po`ipu area was about one (1) foot per year roughly and this one here is two (2) feet per year. But the important thing that I would like to point out is, remember now this is the small boat harbor here going towards Kekaha, so you have the erosion rate of about 2.1 foot per year. Now let's look at the complete opposite side of the harbor. Again, see the small boat harbor here. This is the small boat harbor and on the opposite side going from the small boat harbor towards... that is the Waimea River, so if you look at this section here, this section is the complete opposite. It is accretion and the accretion rate in this particular area is huge. It is 2.4, so it is a huge amount and according to the study, apparently what Dr. Fletcher is saying is that the structure of the harbor is what caused either/or. Now when I say either/or I am talking about either accretion on one side and erosion on the opposite side. So I bring that up because I want to make sure that whatever we do does not affect some place else. Now with sand replenishment, that is not a problem, but whatever we do in the ocean, as an example... you can turn on the light now and you can knock the screen off. As an example, we do know here at the small boat harbor, what was done there affected someplace else either/or plus or minus... either accretion or erosion. Now, we do know, as an example that in `Aliomanu, there is and we have records that show seawall built, we have erosion problem, loss of property, one (1) house completely in the ocean was taken down. We know that. We know that in the Kapa`a area, dredging work was done in the ocean. The dredging work affected the Kapa`a Beach Park area... our loss was one (1) restroom facility in the ocean taken down. So all I am saying is that I agree with replenishment of sand, but let's be careful on what we do, so that we do not affect other areas. We also had another example of that in the Wailua Golf Course area where we had the wall that was put up which caused erosion down the line. So, again, it is just a word of caution, but I agree that the way that we are progressing, I think it is a good way to go. But I bring this up because I think it is important for us to be sure that we look at what has happened before, what we have done, and the consequences that we face. So with that, Lenny, do you have anyone else who is going to make any presentation? Mr. Rapozo: No. Chair Asing: If not, thank you very much. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Members, do you have any questions of Mr. Asing before I turn the meeting back to him? Mr. Asing, I turn the meeting back to you. Chair Asing: With that, Glenn? There being no objections, the rules were suspended. COUNCIL MEETING - 30 - May 20, 2009 Chair Asing: Thank you Lenny for all your hard work. GLENN MICKENS: For the record, Glenn Mickens. Thank you Kaipo. I appreciate Jim and Lenny's fine presentation. I think it is very informative. I guess I have a couple of questions in relation to these. The sand, why does the sand on Kauai cost so much more? He said $200 a cubic yard as I think here as compared to the mainland. To me sand is sand. Maybe you can answer it, maybe Jim can answer it. Why does DLNR have to monitor the type of sand we put on our beaches whether it is fine or course? And I know all the permits and• everything you said have to be gotten for doing this, but sand is still sand whether it washes from the ocean or washed up on the beach or we are pumping it out of the ocean onto the beach. So I am not sure why that has to be. The cost part of this thing... the total part of... Jay, you know, pretty much went into this. The $150,000 was going to be for study. You know, we seem to have a habit of putting on these papers what the price is, but it doesn't easily say that is the study, you know. We still haven't got to the figures of what the total cost is going to be for this project. From what Jim is saying, it sounds like it is going to be huge or whatever it is going to be. And, you know, again, if the people want to, they want to fund this type of thing, fine. And the other question, when you... I presume that this study is going to show this. If you go out and... the beaches that he was talking about to replenish themselves and the other beach he was talking about like at Po`ipu, one (1) foot a year you are losing. That is considerable. Are we going to take that beach and go ahead and put the replenished sand out of the ocean back on that beach and keep on doing it? It is going to be a tremendous cost, but, again, I guess if the County wants to fund it, that the people want it rather than have it wash away, but the beaches that he was talking about where the sand replenishes itself, it comes back in every year. Like even down at Kealia Beach, you go down there in the Winter time sometime, the rocks are this high along there and where does those rocks ever come from. Summer time you go back and they are completely gone, so it replaces itself. So I guess I presume then if I am right that they will go ahead... the research will show which of the beaches is going to be the ones that replenish themselves and which beaches are going to have to have the sand pumped onto the things. Anyway, these are just a few of the questions that I had. Chair Asing: Councilmember Furfaro? Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Asing. I will try and answer a couple of your questions and just a reminder that I am answering your questions, and I am not asking any new ones. First all, the Department of Land & Natural Resources by the constitution... when land accretes itself as Chairman Asing has pointed out on the map, the rules are accreted land actually goes automatically into an open category on land classification and becomes under the control of the DLNR. A perfect example of that was the Hanalei River mouth that the Mayor... that Mayor Baptiste had to work through the Department of Land & Natural Resources to give us a right to enforcement on the accreted lands. Secondly, because it is COUNCIL MEETING • - 31 - ~ May 20, 2009 under DLNR, they have the authority and require these SMA permits and so forth for work and the contribution of any material is subject to their standard of testing, and that we need to comply to. Mr. Mickens: Is that the washing too that you are talking about Jay? Mr. Furfaro: Yes. Mr. Mickens: Why is that? Why do they have to wash that sand? Mr. Furfaro: Because it needs to meet a certain quality level and I do not have the chemistry to explain that portion, but it is under the realm of DLNR. Mr. Mickens: Okay. Mr. Furfaro: Okay, the third portion is... the questions that I was asking the Administration more focused on Phase I which they are now expressing to us they are doing in-house. They are doing the trucking in-house, they are doing the washing in-house, and they will incur only an SMA minor permit, as well as certification. Mr. Mickens: How much is that SMA minor permit... what is it? Two hundred thous... Mr. Furfaro: It is not that kind of money and we will probably see a money bill for that. Mr. Mickens: Okay. Mr. Furfaro: The Phase II and III is what the study is driven and that was the clarity I was trying to get. None of the money in the study is dealing with Phase I, and I think they answered that they will be looking for major grant money Glenn. The fact of the matter from engineering study, permitting, SMA major, an EA, and all of those particulars will add the cost, but that was not the phase that they are moving forward on and we have encouraged Jim to share with the Administration the similarities and cost that were driven on Maui and Oahu beach properties. I hope I have answered some of your questions. Mr. Mickens: Yes, you have. Thank you Jay. Chair Asing: Thank you. Mr. Mickens: Thank you Kaipo. COUNCIL MEETING - 32 - • May 20, 2009 Chair Asing: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to speak on this item? Jody? JODY KONO-KJELDSON: Aloha Council Chair Asing and members of the Council. I am Jody Kono-Kjeldson with the Po`ipu Beach Resort Association. It is a member based organization of about 150 businesses on the southshore and I am here to share our concern about the health and safety of our beaches particularly Po`ipu Beach. Over the years as you have seen in the presentation, we have seen serious degradation to the beach park and it is affecting not only the aesthetics and the quality of the beach and ocean experience, but also the safety... more importantly, the safety for residents and visitors. We would like to thank really the Mayor and his Administration and the County Council for focusing attention on a project that has been stalled for nearly three (3) years. We are strongly supportive of a short term, mid-term, and long term solution for the plan and encourage you to support this as well. We are willing to contribute to the solution of this project and are looking forward to ongoing dialogue with the Administration on how we can make that happen. So we just like to thank you for your time and consideration and for bringing attention to this issue. Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, Councilmember Furfaro? Mr. Furfaro: Thank you for being here to testify Jody. It seems from the testimony from the Administration that Phase I... as you know, I have requested them to keep track of our own internal cost, but when you say willing to contribute to its progress, may I interpret that, that might possibly mean that any financial studies that are required for Phase II and III, that the association may be willing to participate especially in the pursuit of grants and... can I interpret that? Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Actually, let me clarify that. We have been in communication with the Administration about Phase I. So in Phase I, we are talking about possibly financing a shoreline certification study and/or the sand washing, and that has just been the dialogue for the short term. Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: We have not yet gone into the discussion for the mid and long term, but I am... you 'know, you can assume that there will be some partnership from PBRA or the hoteliers on the southside. Mr. Furfaro: I appreciate your clarification on that, so the minor SMA and/or the shoreline certification for Phase I, there is a possibility that you are willing to participate with the County in maybe sharing some of those costs? Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Correct. We have a board meeting on June 2 at which time Jim and Dave are both coming to present and we are going to talk about that possibility. COUNCIL MEETING • - 33 - ~ Ma 20 2009 Y Mr. Furfaro: Thank you for clarifying that for me. Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions? Councilmember Bynum? Mr. Bynum: Hello. Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Hello. Mr. Bynum: Thanks for coming today and your willingness to be a partner and, you know, one of the things this year... there was a study about the economic impact of beach loss and it was focused on Waikiki. Are you familiar with that? Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Vaguely familiar, yes. Mr. Bynum: You mentioned that the... kind of the visitor experience there at Po`ipu is somewhat degraded from where it was ten (10) years ago. Have you noticed that the beachgoers are shifting where they land on the beach for their recreational experience? Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Absolutely. They are shifting further down the beach and a lot of times... we have received quite a few letters from returned visitors saying that Po`ipu Beach is just not the same, so they are finding themselves looking for other beaches or other islands to visit because Po`ipu Beach was their favorite place to vacation to and now it is not just the same experience. So that has definitely affected... Mr. Bynum: I heard that from visitors on the beach down at Po`ipu, but you have received letters to that effect. So we are already having an economic impact from beach loss at Po`ipu Beach it sounds like. You know, we didn't talk a lot about that today, but, you know, there is the experience on the beach for the visitor... impacts their choice and that was the study that the University of Hawaii did that said the potential economic impact of beach loss was in the billions literally and the study which is available... you know, ask people if there was less beach, would you be less likely to come. It was a very interesting study because visitors from different parts of the world said different things. But the largest response was that the beach was a huge part of the reason they were here in the first place and if the beach experience was degrade or too crowded or... so my own observation at Po`ipu... it is one of our premiere beaches obviously. COUNCIL MEETING - 34 - • May 20, 2009 Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Uh huh. Mr. Bynum: But if you think about it, there is not a lot of beach in Po`ipu. It is not like Kekaha or Hanalei where there are huge beaches and so in front of the Wai`ohai, it looks like Waikiki sometimes. I mean there are people covering almost every square foot at times, so do you agree with my observation? Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: I do. And, you know, it is interesting... we did a study of our visitors on the southside and asking them why they chose Po`ipu or what drove them to select a property on Po`ipu and the number one thing was the beach. Beach environments and especially for families because I think Po`ipu offers a variety of recreational activities whether you want to surf or kayak or go to the kiddy pond... there is really something for everyone. It is blessed with great weather as well, so it really is a critical component to our industry. Mr. Bynum: Thanks for being here today and your willingness to partner. Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Absolutely. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Chang: You know, Jody, recently we met in regards to this sand discussion and recognizing that Po`ipu Beach Park was voted the number one beach in the U.S.A. in 2001. You recently had a travel writer or a publication or someone that did not physically come to Kauai that wanted to present an honor in regards to Po`ipu Beach and I remember you were saying that you didn't want to be around or you didn't want to take the picture because it would be a embarrassing situation. Can you tell us about that or follow up with what that conversation was all about. Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: We got a phone call from a Parks & Recreation ' magazine saying that they wanted to honor Po`ipu Beach Park with an award for an esteem park in the U.S. and they asked for someone who had expertise on the beach environment and someone who could talk about what changes had been done to the beach over the years. I wasn't comfortable talking about that and, you know, in all honesty, the beach is not what it used to be. And if Dr. Beach would come down and try to give us that same award in 2009, I am not sure we would get that award that we got five (5) years ago. It is just something that concerns us and something that I think needs to be taken cared of for our residents and visitors. Chair Asing: Good. Thank you. Any... Mr. Chang: And I have one last question. When we met with Dave and with Lenny a couple of weeks ago, I think we were waiting on some of our answers in regards to the chart. In regards to the 6,500 cubic square yards, the i • COUNCIL MEETING - 35 - May 20, 2009 first phase, 500, did we ever get an answer... remember during that whole washing process and separating the finer or the course that will match Po`ipu, did we ever get an answer that we would get a net 500 cubic square yards when things are separated, washed, sifted, etc.? Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Not to my knowledge. That has not been confirmed. Mr. Chang: That is the goal to make sure that we get the total 6,500 cubic square yards? Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Net, yes. Mr. Chang: Thank you. Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: That is our goal. Chair Asing: Maybe I can assist a little bit. I believe that you will get the 500 no matter what it takes. In other words, we will get the sand and after it is sifted, you will get 500. Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Thank you. Chair Asing: That is the question. Is there anything else for Jody? If not, thank you Jody. Ms. Kono-Kjeldson: Thank you. Chair Asing: Anyone else who wants to speak on the item? If not, I would like to call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: Can I have a motion to receive? Mr. Furfaro moved to receive C 2009-163 for the record, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro. Chair Asing: Any discussion? Councilmember Bynum? Mr. Bynum: Thank you Mr. Chair. I am very appreciative of us having to this presentation today and I want to just share some of my thoughts regarding some of the history of this. I am thrilled that we are moving forward on what Jody has indicated a project that seems stalled. And I am very appreciative of the Administration and the Parks Department and Mr. O'Connell for getting this on track. This is, to me, a very important issue for a number of reasons. One is just the quality of the recreational experience. We all love Po`ipu Beach Park. It is unfortunately not the same beach that it was. You know, I frequent the beach park COUNCIL MEETING - 36 - • May 20, 2009 and it is not the same quality of recreational experience and if you go down there now, people aren't really using the beach park area very much. They are moving down in front of the Wai`ohai into what is the narrowing beach and we just opened a new property there. We are all thrilled with that, but there is less beach and as those pictures that I took in 2000 and again in 2009, they are very dramatic that the changes that are occurring there. It also has the concurrent kind of safety issues in terms of where the rescues occur and the seriousness perhaps of the rescues. And then this is this overlay of the economic impact of beach loss and, you know, it is sad to say that we are already experiencing that and Po`ipu is a critical and important part of our economy. For all of those reasons, I have a sense of urgency about moving forward with this because we know that nothing moves quickly in the County of Kauai or in any County. It is just that government time is slow. I like some of the ideas that I have heard today about partnering and perhaps getting the beach study done through anon-profit or through another entity because I have some experience with that at Lydgate Park about the public/private partnership helping us use our funds more wisely and to expedite that process. You know, in terms of cost, Jim said that sand is $150 to $200 a cubic yard. You know, even if it were $50, you said that the moving 10,000 cubic yards at Kuhio cost $500,000. Well, if you were purchasing the sand at $50 a cubic yard, 10,000 cubic yards would be $500,000 just for the sand, and not including the cost of moving it. We got a strong example of that this year when Public Works came to us and said that the 25,000 cubic yards that we have stockpiled was in the way of the lateral expansion of the landfill and they needed to move it. They were going to move the sand from Kekaha to Wailua and just moving it was... I think it was $750,000, so that brought up some issues like, well, wait a minute. This sand was intended at least a significant portion for Po`ipu Beach, so we raised those questions. Then as things unfolded, it turned out that we were going to use the sand at... for the expansion of the landfill and then that raised some red flags I think for Po`ipu Beach Resort Association who said, well, wait a minute, I thought that sand was slated for us. So we... and the State indeed gave us that sand with the intent that it be used for beach nourishment and recreation. You know, I know that our needs at the landfill are great and we made a decision as a County that I accept that... the bulk of that sand is going to be used at the landfill and the 6,500 that we are discussing is what has been set aside for Po`ipu Beach and I am really appreciative that those things are moving forward. My biggest concern is about the study... the Phase III that really looks at the littoral cell, looks for sources of offshore and gives us the ground work that we would need to have a solution or a bigger or longer term solution to address the tombolo, to address the safety issues, and to come up with a management plan to keep this incredible asset at the state that we need for our economy to be. And so I am very hopeful that we can find from some source, you know, in the relative near term to get that study going because it takes several months to procure the study. The study itself will take 18 months to two (2) years, so at the best case scenario, if we had the funding today, we would be three (3) years off before we could actually look at making any significant change on Phase III. And more likely COUNCIL MEETING • - 37 - • Ma 20, 2009 Y longer than that, so, you know, I am appreciative that there is $150,000 in the budget... that is about half of what we need and there will be a partnership. We know and we have that commitment from the Po`ipu Beach Resort Association, but they don't have hugely deep pockets. The State has done the projects at Kuhio Beach, they set aside $2 million into a beach nourishment fund is likely going to be used in Waikiki, so we have that precedent. So I think in the long run, you know, this beach management issue will be something that is a partnership with the State, perhaps the Federal government, and those are things that I am looking into and working on right now. But in the short run, the resort association is looking at contributing to sand washing and shoreline surveys and may not have the resources to fund that study at least in the short term. So I hope that we can be creative and find that source of that funding because if we delay that study for two (2) years and then it takes two (2) years, we are six (6) years down the line and we haven't really addressed the issues which are there right now today. So I am very appreciative for this time today and I think we will collaborate as a community to get this job done, so thank you very much. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other discussion? If not, do we have a motion on the floor? Mr. Furfaro: I made the motion to receive. Chair Asing: With that, any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye. The motion to receive C 2009-163 for the record was then put, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: We are back on page 1 of the Council's agenda. Communications for receipt on page 1 is communication C 2009-175, communication C 2009-176 and on page 2, also communications for receipt... communication C 2009-177, C 2009-178, C 2009-179, C 2009-180, C 2009-181, C 2009-182 and on the top of page 3 communication C 2009-183. Chair Asing: Can I have a motion to receive? C 2009-175 Communication (02/04/2009) from the Chief of the Building Division, transmitting a request to amend Ordinance No. 857 by correcting inadvertent errors (i.e., typographical errors, citation of sections, etc.) which would amend Chapter 12 of the Kauai County Code 1987, entitled "Building Code": Mr. Kawakami moved to receive C 2009-175 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. COUNCIL MEETING. - 38 - • May 20, 2009 C 2009-176 Communication (04/14/2009) from the Chief of the Building Division, Department of Public Works, transmitting for Council information, the Building Permit Information Reports for March 2009 that includes the following: 1) Building Permit Processing Report 2) Building Permit Estimated Value of Plans Summary 3) Building Permits Tracking Report 4) Building Permits Status Mr. Kawakami moved to receive C 2009-176 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. C 2009-177 Communication (04/27/2009) from the Director of Finance, transmitting for Council information the Period 9 Financial Reports -Statement of Revenues as of March 31, 2009: Mr. Kawakami moved to receive C 2009-177 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. C 2009-178 Communication (04/28/2009) from the Executive Assistant, Kauai County Housing Agency, transmitting a request to amend Chapter 6, Article 9, of the Kauai County Code 1987, as Amended: Mr. Kawakami moved to receive C 2009-178 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. C 2009-179 Communication (04/30/2009) from the Director of Finance, transmitting for Council information, supplemental information pertaining to the estimated reduction in real property tax revenues as a result of various tax relief measures enacted by the County Council: Mr. Kawakami moved to receive C 2009- 179 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. C 2009-180 Certification (05/01/2009) by the Director of Finance of the 2009 Real Property Assessment List within the County of Kauai: Mr. Kawakami moved to receive C 2009-180 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. C 2009-181 Communication (05/01/2009) from the Planning Director, transmitting the Planning Commission's recommendation to amend Condition No. 10 of Ordinance No. PM-31-79 (Moana Corporation) as directed by Condition No. 2 of Ordinance No. PM-2001-354, to obtain access to Po`ipu Road (Kiahuna Land Company and Po`ipu Town Center, LLC, Applicants): Mr. Kawakami moved to receive C 2009-181 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. C 2009-182 Communication (05/04/2009) from the Director of Personnel Services, transmitting for Council information, the following classification requests which the Department of Personnel Services will be reviewing and taking appropriate action: • Fire Department, Position No. 791 (Reallocation of Present Class of Fire Fighter to Fire Fighter Trainee) COUNCIL MEETING • - 39 - • Ma 20 2009 Y • Fire Department, Position No. 780 (Reallocation of Present Class of Fire Fighter to Fire Fighter Trainee) • Fire Department, Position No. 776 (Reallocation of Present Class of Fire Fighter to Fire Fighter Trainee) Mr. Kawakami moved to receive C 2009-182 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. C 2009-183 Communication (05/05/2009) from the Housing Director, transmitting for Council consideration a Resolution to authorize the filing of a Substantial Amendment to the Kauai County 2008 Action Plan of the 5-Year Consolidated Plan to HUD, to expend funds under Title XII of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Community Development Block Grant Program -Recovery Act (CDBG-R): Mr. Kawakami moved to receive C 2009-183 for the record, seconded by Mr. Furfaro, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: At this time, we are on page 3 of the Council's agenda which is communication C 2009-184. C 2009-184 Communication (05/06/2009) from the Mayor, submitting his supplemental budget communication for Fiscal Year 2009-2010 and proposed amendments to the budget bills: Mr. Kaneshiro moved to schedule public hearing for May 27, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. and thereafter refer to the Special Council Meeting on May 27, 2009 at 8:45 a.m., seconded by Ms. Kawahara, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: Next matter for receipt is communication C 2009-185. C 2009-185 Communication (time stamped-05/05/2009) from the Director of Finance, transmitting for Council information, Statement of Condition of the County Treasury as of March 24, 2009: Mr. Kaneshiro moved to receive C 2009-185 for the record, seconded by Mr. Bynum. Chair Asing: Any discussion? Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, as we read the Mayor's message and I think this is my second request. I was hoping that the Council staff could reaffirm what my request was that each quarter that we receive the Treasurer's report as mandated by the Charter, that they give us a comparison from the previous report. I would like to see that during these challenging economic times if they could actually give us that variance report comparing the previous quarter with the quarter report that they are giving us now and show us the variance. I would like to make that request again for the next quarterly report. COUNCIL MEETING • - 40 - • May 20, 2009 Chair Asing: So noted. Mr. Nakamura: So noted Mr. Chair. Chair Asing: Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye. The motion to receive C 2009-185 for the record was then put, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next matter for approval on page 3 is communication C 2009-187. C 2009-187 Communication (04/30/2009) from the Prosecuting Attorney, requesting Council approval to expend $2,250.72 of their State Asset Forfeiture Funds (Account #251-0401-513.62-01/Small Equipment, Project A08101) for the purchase of six (6) file cabinets: Mr. Bynum moved to approve C 2009-187, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The matter for approval on page 3 is communication C 2009-188. C 2009-188 Communication (05/08/2009) from Derek S.K. Kawakami, Hawaii State Association of Counties (HSAC) Vice President, submitting for Council approval the HSAC Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Proposed Annual Operating Budget: Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2009-188, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: At the bottom of page 3 Mr. Chair on communication C 2009-189 and if we could move this to the end of the agenda until after the executive session. Chair Asing: So noted. Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next item on page 4 of the Council's agenda for approval is a LEGAL DOCUMENT: C 2009-190. LEGAL DOCUMENT: • COUNCIL MEETING - 41 - May 20, 2009 C 2009-190 Communication (05/04/2009) from the Chief of Field Operations and Maintenance, Public Works Department, requesting Council approval to indemnify the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and to execute the First Amendment to Right-Of--Entry No. 344 with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in order to access their property for the purpose of an emergency by-pass road allowing the public to traverse the former Wailua cane haul road when Kuhio Highway is shut down due to a vehicular accident or emergency repairs: 1) First Amendment to Right-Of--Entry Permit No. 344 (ROE 344) by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for granted use for the County of Kauai for the period of five (5) years from April 22, 2009 through April 21, 2014: Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2009-190, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro. Chair Asing: What I would like to do is suspend the rules at this time. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Chair Asing: With that, Glenn. GLENN MICKENS: Thank you Kaipo. For the record, Glenn Mickens. You have a copy of my testimony and I would like to read it for the record and for the viewing public. My opinion is way past time that this so-called emergency bypass road be made operational to all through traffic. Since Hawaiian Home Lands is already giving permission to use this property as an emergency road, when Kuhio Highway is blocked, why not ask them permission to say road to be used full- time. A former writer for the Garden Island, Bill Legro once wisely said that it would be a good idea to fully pave that road, make it one way going south bound and make Kuhio Highway one-way going north bound. This would eliminate the head on collisions on Kuhio plus the bypass could be made wide enough to funnel cars in both directions if Kuhio were closed. I believe that Mayor Baptiste cut the ribbon for usage of this road three (3) or four (4) years ago. But, as you know, accidents and fires along Kuhio Highway have happened and this bypass has not been operated. We must stop looking at our needs on Kauai through the wrong end of binoculars and address the big picture. We desperately need more alternate roads on Kauai and here we have a chance to get one. The road is already there, the cane haul road and instead of thinking emergency bypass, let's go after Federal funds that Governor Lingle is talking about and make it a true bypass as was done with the Wailua bypass road that has been in success at alleviating traffic on Kuhio. Examples of how badly we need more alternate roads on Kauai, were seen when that Ka Loko dam broke. Kuhio Highway was cut off so that the people on the north side of the break had to pay huge helicopter fees to catch their flights back to the mainland as you people all remember. And even more recently a two (2) or three (3) car accident on Kuhio Highway by Kealia Beach backed traffic up miles waiting for the accident to be cleared. They had no way... they couldn't get by that, you know, little fender bender really and it wasn't that big of a deal. The DOT is COUNCIL MEETING. - 42 - • Ma 20 2009 Y going to spend $20 million to add one lane to Kuhio from Coco Palms to the bypass road to supposedly alleviate traffic in that area. With one new signal going in by the low income housing and two (2) signals already there at Haleilio Road and Kuamo`o Road about a quarter of a mile, how will that one lane ever ease traffic for $20 million. Our money especially now is extremely finite, so why not use it for a true bypass from the river to Hanama`ulu? We must look at the big picture before we continually reach and push that "go" button. Again, basically, I am just saying that, hey, I think we've got a chance here to do something with that bypass road. It has been talked about over and over and I read the thing saying that is made now, you know, for temporary emergency bypass road. But I am just saying, can't we investigate and find out to be able to open it up because we obviously... we have to have more roads to go from point A to point B on this island. You cut one ribbon off of that main highway around this island and we got big problems. Thank you very much Kaipo. Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, I'd like to call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye. The motion to approve LEGAL DOCUMENT: C 2009-290 was then put, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next matters are claims on page 4 which is communication C 2009-191 and C 2009-192, claims filed against County. CLAIMS: C 2009-191 Communication (05/11/2009) from the County Clerk, transmitting a claim filed against the County of Kauai by Caren F. Diamond, for damages to her vehicle, pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the County of Kauai: Mr. Furfaro moved to refer C 2009-191 to the County Attorney's Office for disposition and/or report back to the Council, seconded by Ms. Kawahara, and unanimously carried. C 2009-192 Communication (05/11/2009) from the County Clerk, transmitting a claim filed against the County of Kauai by Sherri Silva, for damages to her vehicle, pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the County of Kauai: Mr. Furfaro moved to refer C 2009-192 to the County Attorney's Office for disposition and/or report back to the Council, seconded by Ms. Kawahara, and unanimously carried. COUNCIL MEETIN • - 43 - • M G ay 20, 2009 Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next matter are the Committee reports. COMMITTEE REPORT: BUDGET & FINANCE COIVIlVIITTEE REPORT: A report (No. CR-B&F 2009-12) submitted by the Budget & Finance Committee, recommending that the following be approved as amended on second and final reading: "Bill No. 2308 A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 19, ARTICLE 3, SUBSECTION 19-3.2 (b) AND SUBSECTION 19-3.2 (i) OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO INCREASING THE PLAYING AND DRIVING RANGE BALL TOKEN FEES AT THE WAILUA GOLF COURSE," Mr. Kaneshiro moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Furfaro. (See later for Bill No. 2308, Draft 1) Chair Asing: Any discussion? Yes, Councilmember Kawakami. Mr. Kawakami: Thank you Council Chair. I do have a floor amendment. Mr. Kaneshiro: We will do it on the bill. Mr. Nakamura: We have a motion and a second. Chair Asing: Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye. The motion to approve CR-B&F 2009-12 was then put, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next matter on the top of page 5 is a resolution • for approval. This is Resolution No. 2009-44. RESOLUTION: Resolution No. 2009-44 -RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE FILING OF A SUBSTANTIAL AMENDMENT TO THE KAUAI COUNTY 2008 ACTION PLAN OF THE 5-YEAR CONSOLIDATED PLAN WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, TO COUNCIL MEETING. - 44 - • Ma 20 2009 Y EXPEND GRANT FUNDS UNDER TITLE XII OF THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT PROGRAM -RECOVERY ACT: Mr. Bynum moved to adopt Resolution No. 2009-44, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and carried by the following vote: FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 7, AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next matters are bills for first reading. BILLS FOR FIRST READING: Proposed Draft Bill No. 2314 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 12 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE-1987 ENTITLED "BUILDING CODE": Mr. Kaneshiro moved for passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2314 on first reading, that it be ordered to print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for June 16, 2009, and that it thereafter be referred to the Public WorkslElderly Affairs Committee, seconded by Mr. Kawahara, and carried by the following vote: FOR PASSAGE: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 7, AGAINST PASSAGE: None TOTAL - 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next draft bill for first reading is Proposed Draft Bill No. 2315. . Proposed Draft Bill No. 2315 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND ARTICLE 9 OF CHAPTER 6, KAUAI COUNTY CODE, 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE HOUSING REVOLVING FUND: Mr. Kaneshiro moved for passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2314 on first reading, that it be ordered to print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for June 16, 2009, and that it thereafter be referred to the Economic Development/Housing Committee, seconded by Mr. Kawakami, and carried by the following vote: FOR PASSAGE: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 7, AGAINST PASSAGE: None TOTAL - 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. COUNCIL MEETING ~ - 45 - • Ma 20 2009 Y Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: Last bill for first reading is Proposed Draft Bill No. 2316. Proposed Draft Bill No. 2316 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND ZONING CONDITION IN ORDINANCE NO. PM-31-79, RELATING TO ZONING DESIGNATION IN PO`IPLT, KAUAI (Kiahuna Land Company, a Hawaii limited partnership; and Po`ipu Town Center, LLC, Applicants): Mr. Kaneshiro moved for passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2314 on first reading, that it be ordered to print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for June 16, 2009, and that it thereafter be referred to the Planning Committee, seconded by Mr. Bynum. Chair Asing: Any discussion? Mr. Furfaro: Yes, Mr. Chair, since this will be in my Committee, I want to make a special note at present. The original ordinance in 1979 may have some conflicts with an amended ordinance in 2001. I would like to move forward with scheduling the public hearing, but I would like to at least ask the County Attorney to look at any possible adjustments that we need to make on those two (2) ordinances. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? If not, roll call please. The motion for passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2316 was then put, and carried by the following vote: FOR PASSAGE: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 7, AGAINST PASSAGE: None TOTAL - 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next item is a bill for second reading which is Bill No. 2308, Draft 1. BILLS FOR SECOND READING: Bill No. 2308, Draft 1 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 19, ARTICLE 3, SUBSECTION 19-3.2 (b) AND SUBSECTION 19-3.2 (i) OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO INCREASING THE PLAYING AND DRIVING RANGE BALL TOKEN FEES AT THE WAILUA GOLF COURSE: Mr. Kaneshiro moved to approve Bill No. 2308, Draft 1, seconded by Mr. Bynum. COUNCIL MEETING. - 46 - • May 20, 2009 Chair Asing: I believe there is an amendment. Councilmember Kawakami? Mr. Kawakami: Thank you Mr. Chair. There is an amendment that has been circulated. Basically, it was brought to my attention by the Parks & Recreation Department that had inadvertently put in $18.50 as the amount for the twilight daily rate for non-residents. The amendment changes that amount to $30 which reflects half price for daily rate for non-residents. And that being said, that is the gist of the floor amendment. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any discussion on the amendment? Was there a motion? Mr. Mr. Kawakami moved to amend Bill No. 2308, Draft 1 as circulated, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Any further discussion on the amendment? All those in favor say aye. Is there any discussion on the main motion? Councilmember Kaneshiro? Mr. Kaneshiro: I have one Mr. Chair. I know that for the twilight daily, somehow there wasn't any rate put in for the super senior, so I am not sure of what the charges would be, but for me, you know, as a super senior, I would say that they should be free and not even at twilight time. If they want to play, it be zero, but I just wanted to note that for the record. I don't see, like I said, a break here and I am hoping that the Administration won't charge them, you know, a super senior rate or a senior resident rate, so I just wanted to note that for the record. Chair Asing: Any further discussion? Yes, go ahead Tim. Mr. Bynum: I am just... we looked at the fees for the golf course. I am pleased that we created along with suggestions from the golf community and that the Parks Department supported... created a super senior rate for the first time and kept the fees the same as they have been. Last week, this Council concurred that we keep the junior rates at $1.00, so it is not to have an obstacle for our junior golfers. I think we will probably follow up with a discussion because we had questions that I think are being sent over about where we go if anywhere from here in the future, and I am looking forward to those future discussions about... and getting the answers from the Administration regarding our enterprise fund for the golf and then eventually having the discussion amongst ourselves about the (inaudible) policy, but I think this rate increase was intended to be for this year without looking at the future. (Inaudible) that I assume that we will do that in the future and I am glad that we came to a consensus on how to go this year. F • • COUNCIL MEETING - 47 - May 20, 2009 Chair Asing: Okay, any further discussion? Councilmember Furfaro? Mr. Furfaro: Chairman Asing, I have sent over five (5) questions that will not prevent me from voting for this bill, but those five (5) questions deal with the discussion we had at the meeting. There was no adjustment for the visitor rounds in their forecasted formula. The question about peak times as well as the definitions of twilight and so forth that I think need to be eventually looked at a future time, but I did send over those same questions earlier. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? If not, roll call please. The motion to approve Bill No. 2308, Draft 1 as amended was then put, and carried by the following vote: FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 7, AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: Can we have the County Attorney up? Mr. Nakamura: At this time Mr. Chair, there has been a request on page 6 of the Council's agenda to defer executive session item ES-385. ES-385 Pursuant to Haw.Rev.Stat. Sections 92-4, 92-5(a)(4) and (8), and Kauai County Charter section 3.07(E), the purpose of this executive session is to provide the Council a briefing on the Charter amendments adopted in the 2008 General Election and other related matters. This briefing and consultation involves the consideration of the powers, duties, privileges, immunities and/or liabilities of the Council and the County as they relate to legal ramifications and/or requirements and/or claims and/or potential claims relating to this agenda item: Mr. Furfaro moved to defer ES-385, seconded by Ms. Kawahara, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: We have the County Attorney up now. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. ALFRED CASTILLO, JR.: COUNTY ATTORNEY Good morning Council Chair and Councilmembers. I am assuming that we are going to go... I am going to talk about the 189 first? COUNCIL MEETING - 48 - • Ma 20 2009 Y Chair Asing: No, ES-384. Mr. Castillo: Okay, 384. Chair Asing: On page 6. Mr. Castillo: Okay, I got it, so this is for executive session 384. ES-384 Pursuant to Haw.Rev.Stat. §§92-4 and 92-5(a)(4)(6) and (8), and Kauai County Charter §3.07(E), the purpose of this executive session is to provide a Council briefing on Gerard R. Bosma, et al. v. James H. Pflueger, et al., Civ. No. 08- 1-0052 (Fifth Circuit Court); Ronald and Gina Calisher v. James H. Pflueger, et al., Civ. No. 07-1-0106 (Fifth Circuit Court); Bruce Fehring, Individually and as Special Administrator of the Estates of Aurora Fehring, et al. v. James H. Pflueger, et al., Civ. No. 06-1-0082 (Fifth Circuit Court); and Bette Midler, et al. v. James H. Pflueger, et al., Civ. No. 06-1-0110 (Fifth Circuit Court) and related matters. This 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: With that, I would like to call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: Can I have a motion to move into executive session? Mr. Kaneshiro moved to go into executive session on ES-384, seconded by Mr. Bynum, and unanimously carried. There being no objections, the Chair called for a recess at 12:15 p.m. The meeting was called back to order at 1:35 p.m., and proceeded as follows: Chair Asing: With that, I believe we have one more item. Mr. Nakamura: Council Chair, at the bottom of page 3 of the Council's agenda which is a communication for approval. C 2009-189 Request (05/14/2009) from the Office of the County Attorney for authorization to expend up to $250,000 from the special counsel account to continue to retain outside counsel to represent the County in Gerard R. Bosma, et al. v. James H. Pflueger, et al., Civ. 08-1-0052 (Fifth Circuit Court); Ronald and Gina Calisher v. James H. Pflueger, et al., Civ. 07-1-0106 (Fifth Circuit Court); Bruce Fehrin~, Individually And As Special Administrator of the Estates of Aurora Fehring, et al. v. James H. Pflueger, et al., Civ. No. 06-1-0082 (Fifth Circuit Court); and Bette Midler, et al. v. James H. Pflueger, et al., Civ. No. 06-1-0110 (Fifth Circuit Court) and related matters: Mr. Furfaro moved to approve C 2009-189, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. ` N IL MEETI ~ - - COU C NG 49 May 20, 2009 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 1:36 p.m. Respectfully submitted, PETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk /lki SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MAY 27, 2009 The Special 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, May 27, 2009 at 8:45 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 Honorable Lani T. Kawahara Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of the agenda as circulated, seconded by Mr. Kawakami, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Can we have the first item please? PETER A. NAKAMUR,A, COUNTY CLERK: The next matter is a communication for receipt communication C 2009-184. C 2009-184 Communication (05/06/2009) from the Mayor, submitting his supplemental budget communication for Fiscal Year 2009-2010 and proposed amendments to the budget bills: Mr. Furfaro moved to receive C 2009-184 for the record, seconded by Mr. Chang, and unanimously carried. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next matters for are Committee reports. COMMITTEE REPORTS: BUDGET & FINANCE CONIlVIITTEE REPORTS: A report (No. CR-B&F 2009-13) submitted by the Budget & Finance Committee, recommending that the following be received for the record: "B&F 2009-4Communication (5/14/2009) from Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Budget & Finance Chair, transmitting the Budget & Finance's proposed amendments (+/- sheet) to Resolution No. 2009-32 (real property tax rates), Bill No. 2310 (Operating Budget), and Bill No. 2311(CIP Budget)," SPECIAL COUNCIL 1V~ETING -2- ~ May 27, 2009 ~ Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. A report (No. CR-B&F 2009-14) submitted by the Budget & Finance Committee, recommending that the following be approved as amended: "Resolution No. 2009-32 RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE REAL PROPERTY TAX RATES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 TO JUNE 30, 2010 FOR THE COUNTY OF KAUA`I," Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. (See later for Resolution No. 2009-32, Draft 1) A report (No. CR-B&F 2009-15) submitted by the Budget & Finance Committee, recommending that the following be approved as amended on second and final reading: "Bill No. 2310 A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO THE OPERATING BUDGET AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 TO JUNE 30, 2010," Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. (See later for Bill No. 2310, Draft 1) A report (No. CR-B&F 2009-15) submitted by the Budget & Finance Committee, recommending that the following be approved as amended on second and final reading: "Bill No. 2311 A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 TO JUNE 30, 2010," Mr. Furfaro moved for approval of the report, seconded by Mr. Kaneshiro, and unanimously carried. (See later for Bill No. 2311, Draft 1) Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next matter for approval is a Resolution. RESOLUTIONS: Resolution No. 2009-32, Draft 1 -RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE REAL PROPERTY TAX RATES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 TO JUNE 30, 2010 FOR THE COUNTY OF KAUAI: Mr. Kaneshiro moved to adopt Resolution No. 2009-32, Draft 1, seconded by Mr. Furfaro. SPECIAL COUNCIL M~TING -3- May 27, 2009 Chair Asing: Go ahead. Mr. Bynum: Thank you Mr. Chair. Oh, I will wait for the budget. Chair Asing: Roll call please? The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2009-32, Draft 1 was then put, and carried by the following vote: FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 7, AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The matters are bills for second reading. First bill for second reading is Bill No. 2310, .Draft 1. BILLS FOR SECOND READING: Bill No. 2310, Draft 1 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO THE OPERATING BUDGET AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 TO JUNE 30, 2010: Mr. Kaneshiro moved for adoption of Bill No. 2310, Draft 1 on second and final reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval, seconded by Mr. Furfaro. Chair Asing: Any discussion? Councilmember Bynum? Mr. Bynum: Thank you Mr. Chair. This is our budget for this year. It was a fascinating year. My third budget and a difficult year for the entire State and entire country. I wanted to start by acknowledging our Budget & Finance Chair Daryl Kaneshiro for shepherding us through this difficult year and also our staff who worked really hard, particularly Jade Tanigawa and Stephanie Iwasaki and Ricky Watanabe who worked late to get us through this process. It was really tough year because of a reduction in County resources and revenues, and I think we've made a lot of sacrifice and did a very fiscally prudent budget. You know, one of the... you know, we have dollar funded 53 County positions and those are positions that are important to our County to provide services, but in this difficult time and they weren't filled with warm bodies. They were positions that we could hold off, but those are in my view positions that are important to the long term efficient'operation of the County. The Administration deferred a lot of maintenance items and equipment purchases which we can get away with for a year or two (2), but eventually it would come around to being a difficult situation for the County because we want our workers equipped with the tools that they need to do their jobs SPECIAL COUNCIL ETING -4- • May 27, 2009 appropriately. The positions were particularly difficult. There were three (3) that I personally felt like we should seriously consider continuing. One of which was the Police Legislative Analyst for the Police which the Mayor put in the supplemental budget, and there was unanimous approval for it. The other was the Recycling Coordinator and we chose not to go forward with that position, but I am hopeful that in the course of the year, we will see the need for that because of our need to address the solid waste issues. The third position which I didn't really bring up on the floor, I didn't make an effort, but I am really concerned about an engineering position for a Civil Engineer, and the reason is because I think our need to put forward our capital improvement projects and expedite that as quickly as possible. The County of Kauai has over $100 million of capital improvements already funded and approved waiting to get to the bureaucracy and on the street. And with unemployment around 10%, I think this is a very important time for the County of Kauai to put forward those projects in order to employ our people and get them to work. We just saw in the Garden Island this week that in the construction trades where those jobs would likely be created or many of them that the entire State is hurting. In the future as the Chair of the Public Works Committee, I hope in a few weeks to have a review of those CIP projects and an update from the Administration regarding their efforts to get them out to bid and get people back to work. So that engineering position is a position that would help through that bureaucracy, but I know the Administration... it is important to them as well, and so hopefully we will have more dialogue about that. By and large, I thought we did a good job as a County addressing the budget. We collaborated and worked together and got through a difficult year. So thank you for being able to make those comments. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other comments Councilmembers? Councilmember Furfaro? Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. I would also like to also extend my courtesies for the staff who was very flexible during this period, documented the discussions, and, you know, we had certain demands during all of the meetings, but I, again, want to be very complimentary of the work that was prepared, the narrative that is associated with the Operating Budget itself. I want to thank Councilman Kaneshiro for a job well done. It was reported in the media that the fact that we only made about $11,000 worth of changes from the first draft to the second draft, but the reality is... what I think needs to be mentioned is the excellent response from the Administration during the budget meetings. Many, many items were discussed in the first draft as Mr. Kaneshiro brought us through this process and the Administration heard us and they made the appropriate changes, so when we actually got the final draft as outlined in the Mayor's budget message for the fiscal year 2009-2010, it was reported that there was only about $11,000 worth of changes. I do want to note the many things that the Administration heard during the dialogue especially in the area of the social programs from our request to increase Food Bank opportunities to fully fund our ' previous share of the Red Cross when the second draft came back to us. The • • SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING -5- May 27, 2009 responses were very positive from the Administration and I also want to compliment Mr. Asing. I know those points were also driven home by his comments. There are a couple of things as we talk about the Operating Budget that we now have put in place, but we have to manage. There is comments regarding the kilowatt hour management going forward. As we all know, fuel prices are rising as well. We talked about the timeliness of the Treasurer's report actually showing us the variances that we need to look at quarterly by Charter. We have made some drastic changes over the years with the Building Department and Doug Haigh... what we now have building permits that are aged and show us the flow through. We get better idea of the potential additional revenues by construction projects. Of course, another one we need to watch is... as the Finance Department under Mr. Rezentes adjusted our share of the TAT, we need to continually monitor those revenues when they come in as our share. So my message on the Operating Budget is... we are looking towards the staff both here as well as in the Administration to do all they can to help us monitor the expenses that have been identified in this budget. Also, again, I just want to thank the Mayor's Office for responding to some of the needs with the social programs that we are refunded after the first draft. Thank you Mr. Kaneshiro. Chair Asing: Thank you. With that, any other comments Councilmembers? Councilmember Kawakami? Mr. Kawakami: Thank you Mr. Chair. I just want to say thank you to the staff and also to the Chair of the Budget & Finance Committee Councilmember Kaneshiro, our Council Chair, and also the Councilmembers that have been through the budget process before. I just have to say that the staff really impressed me because going through our first budget, it is a huge binder and it can be a labyrinth of numbers that start to just look the same after you review them for days upon days. And whenever there was a question, there was always an immediate response. They knew exactly where each line item was. If there was something that I thought was missing out of the budget, they were quick to point it out. So I just want to say that they made it so much easier to work with having such good support, and with that being said, that is my only comments. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any other comments Councilmembers? Councilmember Kaneshiro? Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you Mr. Chair. I just, again, I know this has been echoed before many times, but I just wanted to thank the staff and the Administration being able to work together with us to put this budget together. We know it was a very difficult budget for us because we knew about the money constraints and the economic downturn. But, again, you know, I have to give the credit to each of my Committee members also. Mr. Chang with his many years in the visitor industry. Mr. Furfaro with his hotel management experience. Mr. Kawakami has been able to be on top on what we call... looking at the public SPECIAL COUNCIL ~ETING -6- • May 27, 2009 safety, his concerns with the KPAL programs. And with Lani Kawahara going green talking about the Farm Bureau being able to... these are things that we started to implement. We are doing it ourselves. Even though it is a small amount of money, we fund it, we are trying to set an example of how we are also trying to conserve energy. Mr. Bynum on some of the talks he had about coastal erosion and he had brought that up and I know that was a bigger issue for him. And, of course, with Mr. Asing's 26 years... I believe almost 26 years of working on the budget every year has been so much of a valuable information and being able to give us a lot of knowledge as to the history of being able to put a budget like this together especially... I think Mr. Asing would agree that this might have been one of the most difficult budget for us to have worked on when we talked about fiscal constraints. So my hat goes off to each and everyone of them and I just wanted to note for the record and this is just for the record, but I would like to have this on the budget message that... it has to do with the Planning Department side. With the Planning Department, I wanted to note for the record that I know that we have had some discussions in regards to how they could apply and receive and expend coastal management funds and so forth. So I want to make it clear so the finance is clear, Planning is clear, so we can still be able to proceed, and to be able to meet the goals of the Planning Department. Basically, the Planning... my comment would be that the Planning Department is authorized to apply, receive, and expend coastal zone management certified local government and open space program for grant funds as set forth in the budget submittal of the department. So I want to make it clear that it is set forth by the budget submittal of the department, and therefore, to proceed in that manner. Again, with that, my hats... well, I don't have my hat on today, but... I always wear it during the weekend, but goes off to the staff, the Administration, Wally, the Mayor, and Mr. Heu... and to be able to put something like this together, I would have never have been able to do it without the six (6) other compadres that I have here that worked so hard to be able to stick together, and come up with a plan that I think we put a good budget together that we would be able to fulfill the needs of the community for this year. Thank you Mr. Chair. Chair Asing: Any other comments Councilmembers? If not, I just want to echo what everyone brought up. I thank the staff for their hard work, that Councilmember Kaneshiro for his leadership, and for the participation of all Councilmembers in all of the actions that was taken. Also, the Administration for their cooperation and help in getting the budget together. I have always mentioned that the single most important item that the Council makes every year is the budget. That is the single most important item. That is our guide on where we go from the budget period to the end. So I want to just thank everyone. I would also like to express my gratitude and mahalos to the Legislature, you know, for not taking away our TAT. Had we lost that, that would have been, you know, $11.8 million that we would have to make up, and that was just a tremendous amount to make up if we had to make that up. So there was a lot of hard work done behind the scenes. I know many of you have testified at the Legislature. I know ~i' 1 ~ r SPECIAL COUNCIL M~TING -7- • May 27, 2009 that Councilmember Kawakami was present at many of those meetings, and our Legislators are working hard to retain the TAT. The one word of caution that I can use that have been expressed in our deliberations is next year, would could happen next year, and this budget reflects that. This budget is not a one year budget, this budget is looking forward to next year. What happens next year, so with all of that, I just want to thank everyone for their hard work. With that, roll call please? The motion to adopt Bill No. 2310, Draft 1 was then put, and carried by the following vote: FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 7, AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: Next item please? Mr. Nakamura: The next bill for second reading is Bill No. 2311, Draft 1. Bill No. 2311, Draft 1 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 TO JUNE 30, 2010: Mr. Kaneshiro moved for adoption of Bill No. 2311, Draft 1 on second and final reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval, seconded by Mr. Kawakami. Chair Asing: Any discussion? Councilmember Furfaro? Mr. Furfaro: Yes, and I think this would be appropriate in following up on your comment just recently made about the Operating Budget. This comment being focused on the ordinance to approve our capital improvement plan. Obviously, there is and going to be some deferred maintenance over the next few years as we go through these difficult cycles of economic times and the uncertainty on our revenue share in future years from the State. I do also want to say that when it comes to some of the capital items for the Planning Department, we do have an understanding that we will get a summary report in my Committee on or around the 10+~ of June for those nine (9) projects covering from the CZO to the important ag lands. But it will be about 60 to 90 days before we actually see the Administration's final summary of the bond float which will make moneys available for certain projects. And at the same time, I did want to make certain that we understood that to accomplish this task before us this year, there was some maintenance deferred items. There are hopes to get some other improvements focused on in future years such as Kapa`a Pool improvements with the pump, house and so forth. There are hopes that when we do finally see a version of the bond float, we will be able to do some reimbursable for the Black Pot application that we are using for the Open Space account, but I do want to say that some of these J SPECIAL COUNCIL ~ETING -8- • May 27, 2009 extensions of certain repair and maintenance items were necessary to get us where we are at in today's Operating Budget, and there will be further discussions when the Administration is submitting the bond float which will represent a number of capital projects. Thank you again Chairman Kaneshiro. Chair Asing: Councilmembers, any other comments? Councilmember Bynum? Mr. Bynum: Yea, I just want to... you know, from the Public Works point side of this, I just want to say that, you know, there are a number of projects that I think will be online in the next few months, and I am very pleased about that because of... you know, this is really... the Federal government has engaged in stimulus because of our economic situation and the County of Kauai is a recipient of some of those stimulus funds, and the Administration is applying them appropriately where possible, and we are seeking those to see that Kauai gets their fair share. But the County of Kauai also has funds available and this is probably the best time for County government to put those projects online because of the bids we receive will be better than they were a few years ago because of... you know, potential bidders are anxious for work, you know, so we will get a better bang for the buck for those funds. And for the funds that we have already set aside, and so as I mentioned earlier, and I will be asking the Administration as Councilmember Furfaro is doing in Planning to outline their plans in a reasonable timetable to also do that for our CIP projects some of which are backlogged two (2), three (3), four (4) years, and we need to look at our system about how to get those funds on the street and working to put our people to work. Chair Asing: Thank you. Any further discussion? If not, I just want to echo all the things that were said by Councilmember Bynum and Councilmember Furfaro, and also would like to urge the Administration to put an extra effort to try to get our Capital Improvement Projects moving. We are kind of behind normally and we need to put some extra effort at this particular time. So with that, roll call please? The motion to adopt Bill No. 2311, Draft 1 was then put, and carried by the following vote: FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Chang, Furfaro, Kaneshiro, Kawahara, Kawakami, Asing TOTAL - 7, AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL - 0, EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL - 0. Chair Asing: There being no other business on the agenda, the meeting is adjourned. SPECIAL COUNCIL ETING -9- May 27, 2009 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:10 a.m. Respectfully submitted, 1 - . Y \/~--- 1. PETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk