HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010 Public hearing-Doc4064• •
PUBLIC HEARING
JANUARY 6, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Jay Furfaro, Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, January 6, 2010,
at 1:37 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street,
Liliu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2340 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO
ZONING DESIGNATIONS IN ORDINANCE NO. PM-229-91; KILAUEA,
KAUAI (County of Kauai, Applicant),
which was passed on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the County
of Kauai on December 2, 2009, and published in The Garden- Island newspaper on
December 10, 2009.
The hearing proceeded as follows:
Mr. Furfaro: Just to give the councilmembers a little history on
this, this was the downzoning of the commercial property on the mauka side in
K-ilauea, and unfortunately, at the time we processed this applicant for the
downzoning, there was an error in certain map lines for the zoning map. The State
land use map as well as the general plan map have been corrected. This zoning
error on the outline needs to be consistent with the two previous maps, so this is
coming back to us to be heard for the purpose of correcting the map, and eventually
will catch up with the earlier pieces on general plan and State Land Use
Commission. I would like to ask if there is anyone in the audience or the applicant
if he would like to give any testimony. I think this is the piece that has now come
back to us from the planning commission, am I correct?
Mr. Nakamura: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: And therefore, this will then go to committee, and
then will then be completed and aligned up with the other two maps. If can have
you introduce yourself as the applicant?
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MICHAEL KAPLAN: Sure. Mahalo Chair Asing and Councilmembers.
My name is Michael Kaplan. I am the project manager for Anaina Hou, which is
the development for this site, and I did just want to let the council know that the
owner of the property is in favor of downzoning from industrial to open zone. And
just wanted to give you a quick update of what's going on on the project. We are
currently constructing a miniature golf course with botanical gardens and a park
and ride on the upper portion of this property. We do hope to be finished with
construction and open toward the end of summer. We do also have a use permit for
a nursery for plants and gardening supplies. We are currently not constructing that
facility right now, but it is in our plans in the near future to build that as well. As
far as the rezoned portion of the property, we are proposing an outdoor
amphitheater that can be used for concerts, weddings, and variety of other
community events, as well as an indoor theater for movies, theatrical productions,
also be a host for business conferences. And we do plan on also having a certified
kitchen at the facility so we can serve food at the variety events that we're hosting,
and also rent out that space to local producers so they can make their products
certifiable. Basically, the goal of this facility is to create amulti-use venue for the
north shore for any type of public or private event. Mahalo for your time. You have
any questions?
Mr. Furfaro: I would like to correct the statement I made earlier.
They are the property owners there and the developers. The county, in correcting
this, is actually the applicant, so... Mr. Bynum?
Mr. Bynum: Thanks for coming today, appreciate it.
Mr. Kaplan: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Nice to hear the update. I just have one question to
ask. The amphitheater and the theater that you mentioned, when it was developed,
what would the capacity be...like audience capacity?
Mr. Kaplan: Around 250 people.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Mr. Kaplan: You're welcome.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Chang: I'm sorry. Two hundred fifty people for the
amphitheater, but the indoor theater is different, right?
Mr. Kaplan: Yeah, sorry. Just to qualify that, we will have
about 250 seats for the indoor theater. With the outdoor amphitheater, since it's
sort of like a hillside, we do plan on having around the same amount of bench
seating, but then there'd also be a grassy area, which I guess if there was a big
event going ,on, you could expand that. But as far as actual seating goes,
around 250.
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Mr. Furfaro: So it's 250 plus the lawn...
Mr. Kaplan: Plus the lawn.
Mr. Furfaro: Plus the lawn...
Mr. Kaplan: Correct. So for the lawn, you could also do, if
someone's hosting a wedding, you could set up a tent there, or if you have a luau or
something, you could set up tables and chairs. So it definitely can expand to a
larger facility if needed.
Mr. Bynum: I'm looking forward to going to a hoike.
Mr. Chang: Is the amphitheater like a...like the Waikiki Shell,
like there's an elevated stage... and the hill, so you got great views...
Mr. Kaplan: It's definitely not in the scale, first of all, of the
Shell. We are dealing with a 25 foot height limit on the north shore. So the good
thing about this parcel, just to familiarize the council, there's a top tier and then
there's a big sort of hillside, and then a bottom tier. And what's great about that is
that's going to, even though we're going to have a 25 foot building, you won't be able
to see it from the highway. So that's going to be great for the north shore; we're
going to keep the view planes intact and all that.. What's also great about the
hillside is it kind of creates this sort of natural bowl shape, if you will. There will be
some earth work that would need to be done, but we're more going for like a rustic
feel, more lawn seating, and the stage would actually be more at the ground level,
and then you'd be looking down on the stage.
Mr. Chang: And the garden... the nursery and the garden,
that's a...you can buy plants and fertilizer and a hose and tools and...
Mr. Kaplan: Correct.
Mr. Chang: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chang. I want to reconfirm earlier,
the intent for the commercial kitchen is to allow, by application and for a fee, north
shore farmers, the agricultural community, they could produce jams, jellies, things
associated with agriculture production.
Mr. Kaplan: Correct. Whenever the...if we're not having an
event where we need the kitchen, we would love to get as much use out of it as
possible, and anyone who's willing... We haven't established what the fee would be,
but anyone would be willing to rent out the space.
Mr. Furfaro: The intent is to let the local agricultural people
who...
Mr. Kaplan: Correct. We've talked with a number of different
people who are...they need a certified kitchen to be able to make their products.
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Mr. Furfaro: And I guess this would be a location that, for the
north shore not having a community center, this could be a .place to have a local
wedding reception and so forth.
Mr. Kaplan: Correct. Often
community, if they want to have a fundraiser,
Hotel, they have to be inside; this would give the
shore, but definitely Kilauea as well, a venue spy
goal. is the more events and different types of
better. We're open for anything.
if I know just form the Kilauea
they have to go to the Princeville
community...well the whole north
ce. And you know, like I said, our
activities we can have there, the
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Are there anymore questions of this
particular piece? Yes, Mr. Chang.
Mr. Chang: Mike, also you mentioned that. you mini golf course
should be opening early summer?
Mr. Kaplan: Toward the end of the summer. We're currently
constructing it right now. Weather's been good, so it's been moving along. If we hit
some rains, it might delay us, but as far as right now, toward the end of the summer
we hope to open.
Mr. Chang: So that's 18 holes?
Mr. Kaplan: Correct. It's a... It's putt-putt.
Mr. Chang: Yeah, putt... So you got a score card, maybe water
features, and...
Mr. Kaplan: Yeah, there'll be water features... This isn't like a
typical boardwalk style with like windmills and props. We're calling it landscape
golf; it's all like sort of undulations and turns and... you know, there's some fun
aspects to it as well, but we also have these botanical gardens, the goal of which is
to sort of immerse yourself in Hawaiian flora, and what we want to do is tell the
history of Hawaii through the course. So for example, like the first couple holes
we'd have native species of plants...I mean tell a little bit about the geological
creation of the islands and the flora before any human arrival, and then we tell
about the...or show the Polynesian species of plants for the next couple holes and
tell about the Polynesian discovery, move on through plantation style plants like
sugar and pineapple and guava for K-lauea, and then into like a Chinese and
Japanese gardens focusing on some of the immigrants that came to the island. So
it's...you know, it'll be fun and hopefully beautiful and a little bit education as well.
Mr. Chang: Have you folks like...have you established... You
thought about a rate for the course?
Mr. Kaplan: We're .thinking... I don't want to... don't hold me to
this, but maybe around twelve dollars for the regular rate, but we would have a
Kama`aina rate as well.
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Mr. Chang: Thank you. Congratulations.
Mr. Bynum: This is the golf course I can be competitive with
you, right?
Mr. Chang: I can cheat.
Mr. Furfaro: Are there anymore questions of the property
owner? Mr. Chair, did you have anything? Okay, I'm going to go ahead and thank
you. There's no one else in the audience? Is there any written communications, on
this matter?
Mr. Nakamura: No written testimony Mr. Vice Chair.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, so thank you very much.
Mr. Kaplan: Mahalo. Thank you Council.
Mr. Furfaro: And I'll close this public hearing.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:48 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
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PUBLIC HEARING
JANUARY 21, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Tim Bynum, Chair, Public Works/Elderly Committee, on Wednesday, January 21,
2010, at 1:46 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice
Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
RESOLUTION NO. 2009-71, RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE
INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN UPDATE FOR THE
COUNTY OF KAUAI,
which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on December 16,
2009, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on December 23, 2009.
The following communications were received for the record:
1) Chad Deal, EcoBroker Certified, Kauai Tropical Properties, President,
Kauai Developers Council, dated January 17, 2010
2) Pamela Lightfoot Burrell, dated January 2010
3) Linda Silva, dated January 21, 2010
4) Pat Gegen, dated January 21, 2010
5) John Harder, Zero Waste Kauai, dated January 21, 2010
6) Arnold Leong, dated January 21, 2010
7) Bonnie P. Bator, dated January 20, 2010
The hearing proceeded as follows:
Mr. Bynum: So this is a public hearing, which means this bill
has passed first reading and will be in the public works committee starting next
week... I'm sorry, that's right, it's unusual. This is a resolution, so it was referred
for public hearing and will be in the public works committee for further dialogue
next week. Is there any registered speakers?
Mr. Nakamura: Yes, we have registered speakers, Mr. Chair. We
also have written testimony that has been circulated.
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Mr. Bynum: Thank you. If you could call the first speaker,
please.
JOANN YUKIMURA: Committee Chair Bynum, Chair Asing, members of
the Council, aloha. For the record, my name is JoAnn Yukimura. Chair Bynum, I
have a PowerPoint presentation that is more than three minutes, but less than six,
and I'd like to get permission upfront, or I'll come at the end of the agenda if you
would prefer.
Mr. Bynum: If you feel like you can keep it in the six minutes
that will be fine.
Ms. Yukimura: I think I can cover three and a half slides per
minutes.
Mr. Bynum: We'll start the six minutes when the first slide
comes up, and let's give councilmembers a minute to relocate. Hold on just a
second, JoAnn. Let's get people settled, and then we'll start the six minutes.
Ms. Yukimura: So the title of my presentation is zero waste or
landfill lament. What choice will we make in the integrated solid waste
management plan, which is before you today. We know that we don't want this
choice-the old of way of buy, use, throw away, because it is a dead end. It's a dead
end for us and it's a dead end for planet earth. We want the other way, which is
reduce, reuse, recycle to the max, also known as zero waste. Why? Because it's less
costly than waste to energy, other high tech solutions, and the landfill. It's more
sustainable and environmentally friendly, and creates job and businesses, and
provides local products and keeps the money in the local economy. I want you to
really concentrate on the last two-creates jobs and businesses, provides local
products, keeps money in the local economy, because as you know, in this economic
downturn, that's really what we need.
The basic premise of zero waste is that waste is not waste. It is a resource
and it's a whole new way of thinking, because if waste is a resource, the worst place
for it is in the landfill or in the incinerator. So let me show you this quote. If the
volume of paper that was burned or buried in the United States in 2005 would have
been collected and recycled instead, China would have paid U.S. businesses two
billion dollars. That's Pete Grogan formerly from warehouse now from
international paper. I think Chair Asing heard him speak when we had our zero
waste conference. If you see this photo, you should be seeing dollar signs, but on
Kauai, most of our paper is going into the landfill. Around thirty-five percent of our
waste stream is paper. If we change our system, we could be making money rather
than costing taxpayers.
Another produce from waste is this: eco-compost. It's made on Maui. It's
made from sewage sludge and greenwaste. It supports a business that grosses two
point two million dollars a year, and hires 14 people. It keeps local dollars in the
community. It happened because of government initiative and actually, the
gentleman who helped to make it happen is in this room, John Harder, and it
wouldn't have happened without small business entrepreneurial innovation and
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excellence. This is another waste produce made from recycled plastic. It makes up
fourteen to fifteen percent of the waste stream going into Kekaha Landfill, but we
need a collection system if it's going to...if we want to use it as a resource. Another
one, glass makes up three to five percent of the waste stream, and about 10 tons a
year go into Kekaha; it could be making beautiful glass dishware like this if we had
a new system.
Becoming a zero waste community will require a system change, because we
have to change a multitude of habits in terms of how we live, work, and play. We
have to change our habits at home, our business systems, and our processes to go
away from the old (buy, use, throw away) and go into the new (reduce, don't create
unnecessary or harmful waste in the first place). And if we take, you look here, if
we take these cloth bags to the market, we won't create the plastic bag waste in the
first place (this is a county bag; mahalo to Alison Fraley and others). We need to
reuse, find another home for those things that we no longer want or need. The pair
of pants that I'm wearing today came from the Humane Society Thrift Shop. That's
an example of reuse. Recycle-turn discards into their next useful life. This is my
mixed paper recycling basket from my home, containing cookie containers, q-tip
containers, beer cartons, etc., and it can be turned into products like paper towel,
pressboard, and other things. So the new system needs to reverse the incentives
and disincentives, because the present system supports waste and discourages
reuse, reduce, recycling. For example, for your next rubbish pickup at your home,
you could put out one can, and your neighbor could put out 10. But you pay the
same amount for that service the way the system is set up now. And you get
curbside service for your trash pickup, but you don't get it for your recycling; you
have to go through additional actions. So we have to change the system so that it
supports zero waste behaviors and makes throw away actions pay their full cost.
So zero waste system requires new laws, pay as you throw needs a new
collection system, the three can system of dry recyclables, food and wet recyclables
in the second can, and trash in the third. And it needs new infrastructure-
materials recovery facility to take the dry recyclables, sort it, and put it together for
sale, a municipal composting facility to take your food and wet recyclables, even
sewage/sludge, and turn it into good soil conditioner, a center for hard to recycle
materials where you can bring your hazardous waste or your computers any day of
the work week, and a construction demolition debris center.
So system change is the county's kuleana. No individual or business can do
it. To change this system, you need a clear vision of the end in mind. You need a
sound strategic plan of action, which is this integrated solid waste management
plan which we're discussing today, and you need adequate staffing and money to
implement the plan. This is where the problem begins, because right now the
proposed end in mind is zero waste plus waste to energy, and you can't have
enough...we don't have enough money or staffing to do both. Is that my time up, six
minutes? Okay, I have three more slides, I think.
The strategic plan aims only at thirty-five percent diversion when between
paper, food waste, yard waste, plastics, we could divert sixty-nine percent. And the
thirty-five percent diversion makes waste to energy necessary at a cost of
about $125milliori, which we cannot afford. And then we need qualified staff and
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adequate money to implement, but our recycling coordinator position has been
vacant and unfunded for a year, much of our money's being spent on ill-designed
landfill studies and even awaste-to-energy study, I think it was 200,000 that was
encumbered two years ago and could have been encumbered instead for a materials
recovery facility. So these are my specific recommendations, and this is basically
my last slide.
Our end in mind should be zero waste, period. Our strategic plan should aim
for seventy percent diversion by 2017, seventy percent in seven years, ninety
percent by 2020. The material recovery facility and the composting facility and pay
as you throw should be in place by end of next year. Curbside recycling should
happen in the following year, because then you have all the parts for successful
curbside recycling in place. And then we need a construction debris facility and
center for hard to recycling materials by 2012, and then we need qualified staff and
adequate budget to implement... And actually, if we follow the staffing and budget
recommended in the plan...sorry, my last line was cut out...we would be okay, if we
followed it. And so that's the end, thank you very much. Any questions?
Mr. Bynum: Thank you very much, JoAnn. We'll give people a
chance to settle and see if there are any questions.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Committee Chair, is it possible you could
JoAnn Yukimura for a hard copy for all councilmembers of her presentation?
Mr. Bynum: Would that be possible?
Ms. Yukimura: Surely:
Mr. Bynum: Okay, thank you very much. Any other questions
for JoAnn? If not, thank you very much for your testimony. Next registered
speaker is John Harder.
JOHN HARDER: Good afternoon Committee Chair Bynum and
members of the Council. Thanks for the opportunity to speak here today. My name
is John Harder, and I'm representing Zero Waste Kauai.
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me Mr. Harder, do you have a presentation
or can we go back to our seats? You don't have a screen...
Mr. Harder: No, I don't have a screen, yeah. Hopefully
next week. While the proposed integrated solid waste management plan update
makes some excellent recommendations, the assumption that maximum diversion
level cannot exceed thirty-five percent is extremely conservative and limits the
implementation of an aggressive diversion program. Maui County's recently
completed integrated solid waste management plan estimates a 60 percent
diversion level. The Big Island just recently proposed a resolution integrating zero
waste management into their integrated solid waste management plan. Based on
the latest generation of collection and separation technology, and the strong
demand for recovered materials in developing countries, Zero Waste Kauai feels
that the diversion rates as high as 70 percent are easily achievable. Based on
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national averages and waste characterization data collected in other Hawaii
counties, the quantity of construction and demolition waste that R.W. Beck
identified in its waste composition analysis is extremely low. Most communities
estimate 20 percent of their waste stream is construction demolition waste, rather
than the six percent found in R.W. Beck's study. The Beck waste composition
analysis was limited to a single week, rather than four seasonal weeks spread out
over a year to reduce the possibility of skewed results. This problem with the
percentage you see in D. waste in the overall waste stream could have resulted in
significant design and operations cost impacts on the overall solid waste
management system, especially on any proposals for incineration, which cannot
handle C and D waste. If somebody was putting out a bid there that said it can
handle a certain number of tons of waste that you found out that a greater
percentage of that was construction demolition, you might have some problems.
There are several significant conflicts and contradictions between the
proposed plan and the administration's current implementation schedule. The most
glaring difference is the county's proposal to begin a pilot curbside recycling
program prior to developing adequate processing capacity-that is building a
modern state-of-the-art material recovery facility. Although we applaud the concept
of curbside recycling and look forward to it, we feel this pilot project will have a
limited impact without the proper infrastructure in place first. Then rather than
moving immediately into a pilot curbside recycling program, the plan calls for the
implementation of curbside greenwaste collection.
Mr. Bynum: John, you completed your first three minutes.
Would you like to take the additional three now?
Mr. Harder: Yeah, I should be a couple more.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, go ahead.
Mr. Harder: ...calls for the implementation of the curbside
greenwaste collection, which makes much more sense in terms of the existing
on-island processing capacity for greenwaste and the use of the manpower and
vehicle which would be freed up by automation. While the plan delegates waste to
energy to the later stages of implementation, the county appears to be moving
ahead with the feasibility planning prior to developing other more critical elements
of integrated waste management system. Should an aggressive diversion program
prove capable of exceeding the limits assumed in the plan, waste to energy would
not only be unnecessary, but economically unfeasible. The plan notes that many
small waste to energy facilities struggle to remain economically viable. In addition,
information gained by the...from the Big Island recent request for proposals
and Maui County's integrated solid waste management plan update indicates that
those capital and operating costs would be far greater than those estimated in the
Beck report.
Finally, problem for siting the waste to energy facility can be a significant
barrier, oftentimes difficult to overcome. If, as happened on the Big Island, after
spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of precious time to implement
a waste to energy facility the system proves economically unfeasible, we will have
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lost valuable time in implementing diversion and consume previous landfill
capacity. The plan discusses education and awareness as essential elements in
implementing the diversion programs, yet the county has failed to fund the vacant
recycling coordinator position, the staff position primarily responsible for developing
and implementing a public education effort. The plan proposes development of a
hybrid pay as you throw system, providing incentives to recycling and disincentives
to waste disposal. That the county appears to have allocated little or no staff or
funding to what will be along and involved planning and implementation process. If
we're serious about following the integrated solid waste management plan and
making recycling really work here on Kauai, our laws, budget, and staffing should
reflect such priorities. While the proposed integrated solid waste management plan
update makes some significant recommendations towards maximizing diversion,
the plan and the county budget needs to be revised with commitment to maximize
diversion and to implement an aggressive zero waste strategy. Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Any questions for Mr. Harder? Councilmember
Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you John. I was interested in 3A of your
testimony, just in a few short three minute, could you...or less, could you tell me
what that would look like, rather than when...rather than moving immediately to
pilot curbside recycling program? You said that use the manpower and vehicles
which will be freed up by automation. What would that look like?
Mr. Harder: A good example of that is what they did in
Honolulu. They went into automation back in the last 90s, started automating all
their collection systems as the county is now planning on doing. As they did that,
basically every automated truck has a driver and that's all, so you free up the two
guys on the back, and you got a new truck. So you free up your old packer truck. So
what they did is use those two guys and the old truck to go around and pick up
greenwaste, and they had people put out greenwaste either in cans or in bags, and
it was no additional cost, no additional manpower cost, no additional vehicle cost,
because those were already there. There was additional gas to get the trucks
around, but in addition, there were already facilities and there are already facilities
here on Kauai that are processing greenwaste. So you don't have to, like we do if
we went into curbside without a MRF, we're going to have to shift mixed recyclables
in a dedicated container over to Honolulu, you know, and ship the container back
and fill it up again. So the idea is use the free manpower and the freed up vehicles
to start collecting greenwaste, which is much easier, rather than pushing ahead on
the curbside recycling side.
Ms. Kawahara: All right, thank you. It sounds like, though, you
could do both in parallel?
Mr. Harder: You can. It's going to cost you a little more money,
and money's always an issue. Since you don't have a MRF, you're going to have to
ship those recyclables, mixed recyclables...
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Ms. Kawahara: Oh, I see. You're saying the cost of the recyclables
is additional. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you Committee
Chair.
Mr. Bynum: Councilmember Furfaro?
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, Committee Chairman. John, may I ask, the
testimony that you read us today, does it vary much from the written submitted
testimony you gave to us on December 16?
Mr. Harder: No. It's pretty much the same.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Other questions of Mr. Harder? If not, thank you
very much for your testimony.
CONNIE CLAUSEN: Good afternoon. Dickie, I don't have any bags with
me this time, sorry. And my presentation... My name is Connie Clausen. Thank
you for letting me speak to you. I am a member of Zero Waste, and I hope I'm going
to represent them well. I basically want to reiterate everything that they said, John
and JoAnn. And I want to let you know, JoAnn, that I actually have you beat. I
didn't think about it, but the socks I have are leftover from my mother, last visit to
the mainland, the jeans I have came from Habitat for Humanity, the shirt I have I
got at a yard sale on the weekend, and this jacket is a hand-me-down from a
girlfriend. I don't know how that happened.
Mr. Furfaro: May I compliment her for buying, as a board
member of Habitat for Humanity?
Ms. Clausen: All right. Oh, I love that place.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. I'd like to thank you for purchasing
from our shops in there.
Ms. Clausen: Absolutely, and we donate to there too.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, I have had the privilege of seeing their
revenue generated by reuse and recycling.
Ms. Clausen: Yeah, indeed. Yeah, thanks Jay. So the comments
that I have are that I am glad that we have this plan, I'm really glad that we have
a plan to look at and discuss and comment on, and there are some things that need
some improvements. Certainly the assumption that we can only divert 35 percent
is way, way low. We can do a lot better than that. I've set up recycling programs at
a local credit union and a local bank, and our first year at the credit union we
diverted 48 percent. So that's just one year of education and training, so I know
that we can do better than that. And I think there needs to be more of the zero
waste management procedures and guidelines and part of the plan. There's
principles involved to zero waste that don't seem to stand out in the plan. So we're
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suggesting that the diversion rates could be 70 percent, and that is very achievable
and so I would like you to consider that number. Certainly the construction
demolition, their numbers are way low; they don't even match the actual national
standards. Nationally, the communities can recycle and reuse up to 20 percent
from construction waste, and R.W. Beck is saying we can only do 6 percent. That
doesn't make any sense to us. Plus, there are businesses that we know of on the
mainland that have been created out of recycling these construction debris
materials, so there can be more jobs in that area also.
I have a problem with the pilot curbside recycling program. I think curbside
recycling is great. I hate the name pilot; don't know what that means. But again,
it's...what's the word? I don't want to say it. It's backwards...and there's another
word that goes in there. You really have to have the facility... I'm on TV, right?
You have to have the facility to take the materials to before you can get a big
program going to collect the materials. It just doesn't make any sense. There's all
kinds of people here who can help the county to come up with ways to set up a
materials recycling facility and get people going to it, and then we have our phase
one curbside recycling program.
Of course you got to know we don't support waste to energy. That just goes
against the grain of anybody who supports zero waste or reuse or recycle or reduce.
So add my name to that too. It's economically infeasible. It doesn't make sense,
especially if we can get people really doing the program. If we can get people
looking at the new system, as JoAnn said, and not just buy and throw away...
Mr. Bynum: Connie, your three minutes have expired. Would
you like to sum up, or...
Ms. Clausen: I will sum up, yes. I love the pay as you throw. I
think that is the way to get people to understand what's...what we have to do here
on this island, and it can raise money for the island too, and the other thing is
education. Education is what we need to teach people how to do it. When I started
with the credit union and the bank, people didn't have a clue. What? You can save
magazines? You can recycle magazines? They didn't have a clue. We can do that,
and phone books and all the things that nobody thinks about. So anyway, I
recommend the plan. I think it's a good plan. There are some revisions that we
have to work on, and I hope that you'll take the comments from the Zero Waste
guidelines as part of it. Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Clausen? Being
done, thank you for your testimony.
Ms. Clausen: Sure.
BEN SULLIVAN: Hello Councilmembers. My name is Ben Sullivan,
for the record. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. I do appreciate your
efforts on this, and I realize that we have all been looking at and studying this issue
for quite a long time in the community, and I know you all have done a lot of
reading and a lot of research and listened to a lot of testimony. There's several
points about this plan that I'd like to underline and give my own views on.
8
• •
One... and I think there's agreement on this. I think we all agree that 35 percent is
nowhere near a high enough target for diversion, and I think we're all willing to say
hey we can get better. I believe the plan should state an aggressive goal for
diversion, because when you say 35 percent and then you get there, you get lazy.
We need to reach... This is a big issue. We can do much better. I think we also
need to remember that in doing so, we need to stay within the priorities established
in the State law with regards to solid waste management -that is diversion first,
then incineration, then landfilling. And I think not just the statement of order, but
a statement of order and priority means we spend a greater amount of money on
diversion than we do on incineration, and than we do subsequently on landfilling. If
we spent...if we considered near the kind of capital we're talking about for a waste
to energy incinerator on a diversion scheme, I don't think we'd even have to have
this conversation, because we'd get to 70, 80 percent in a few years. And I think
that if we do anything else, it potentially is a violation of State law. Per this plan,
I'm very eager to see the council, knowing the difficulty of this move towards taking
revenues that's used for solid waste management out of the general fund revenues,
out of the tax base, and getting it to a fee based system, a pay as you throw system,
I think we...I suspect we all agree and recognize that people throw away right now
with no recourse. They put as much on the curb as they want to, and of course that
doesn't offer any check, any kind of market balance as to what people are going to
do and how they're going to manage their solid waste. Yeah there's some challenges
there, but I would speculate that on this often mentioned issue of, you know, will
people throw into the gulch, will they do things, and how will we enforce against
that, I think it's easier to recycle and to sort than it is to get into your trash and
make sure this is not going to be tagged with your name...oh, I can't throw away
mail because somebody's going to find it in the gulch, I can't throw away this
because someone's going to recognize it as mine. There's a greater effort in doing
that than it is just sorting your trash. So I don't think that that problem is as big as
we perhaps make it out to be.
I think I closing, I'd like to say that we shouldn't obligate our community to
an expensive and inflexible solution. And I don't think we should even consider
waste to energy. It should not be on the table, period, today, in this plan. If we
need a plan in 10 years for waste to energy, okay. It's successful in places where
they burn the residual 10 percent of a waste stream...places like Sweden where
they do everything to recycle everything else, and then they get in there and they
burn what absolutely can't be used for any other purpose. But it doesn't make sense
to burn things that we can use in another way. The energy capture is inefficient,
it's grossly expensive, it's polluting. So in closing, I think in the context of this
recession and the context of economic difficulty, I would ask you to consider that
giving people an option to make simple changes to their behavior to save money is a
really critical thing, and if we choose to move forward on a path that allows that,
we're doing the best service for the community. So thank you for the opportunity
to testify.
Mr. Bynum: Right on your three minutes; good timing. Any
questions for Mr. Sullivan? Thank you for your testimony.
KEN TAYLOR: Chair, Council, Ken Taylor. So much good things
have been said by previous speakers that it doesn't leave us a lot of good things to
9
• •
say. But this is a good starting point, but I just don't think that this plan quite
brings it all together, and I think the...to move forward with a good plan, it has to
include a recycle coordinator. And without that, it's very difficult to see how the
current staff can put it all together. And the MRF has to get put in place, and we
have to just make a commitment to the fact that we're either going to go down the
road and recycle, and reuse as much as possible, or we're going to go down the other
road and not do any of these things, which is going to end up costing us a lot more
money. And I believe as somebody said earlier, there are some good things in this
plan, but there's some good things missing in this plan. And hopefully, as you move
forward and deliberate this issue and listen to the testimony from the previous
speakers, you will realize that there are some changes that need to be made, and
hopefully you will spend the time now to get the plan in proper order, and I think
spending the time today will save us much in the future. So thank you very much.
ALICE PARKER: Hi, good afternoon. Alice Parker. I echo the earlier
speakers. I think they did an excellent presentation. And I think the issue of
educating the staff is primary. I know that we have a problem on the island with
recycling knowledge and the implication of the cost and the health dangers of not
recycling. I'm thinking of landfills in the California area. You see circling sea gulls
and aromas rising and perhaps we need an artist to graphically describe this as
opposed to recycling, so we don't have as much as that. We don't need another
mountain Kekaha landfill there. And the other thing is, I haven't seen anyone
address how to dispose of these batters, the double A batteries, triple A, and all.
I've gone to the recycling center; they say no we don't handle it, all you can do is
toss them. I don't like to put that mercury and alkali and whatever else is in there
in the landfill, but we have no other resource to put them. An another issue is Sun
Village does recycle. We recycle aluminum cans and glass, newspaper, and plastic,
and I believe we have a contract with the adult retired community to pick up. And
so there are community groups who can help, but we do need a county staff.
Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Thanks Alice. Any questions for Alice?
Ms. Parker: Any questions, or do you have any offers of how to
dispose of batteries? I mean car batteries they will take, but they won't take the
little ones.
(Inaudible)
Ms. Parker: They won't take them. I've been. there. They said,
no, we don't take that.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, thank you.
Ms. Parker: Okay, thank you... and I apologize.
ELLI WARD: Good afternoon Council Chair, members of the
Council. My name is Elli Ward, and thank you for this opportunity. I want to say
first that I agree and support the prior testimonies, and one of the thoughts that
came across my mind was, you know, we have a wealth of information and
10
knowledge from the prior people who have testified. It seems like we really don't
need outside consultants that we pay, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars
for. Anyway, just an aside. I would like to focus on the recommendations that the
integrated solid waste management plan update makes regarding the importance of
public education and the development of a pay as you throw system. Efforts are
being made to promote the concept of 3-R, reduce, reuse, recycle islandwide. Every
time I make a trip to the recycling bins and find them almost filled to capacity, I
think that the message is getting through. However, when I drive through my own
neighborhood and my friends' neighborhoods, I wind up shaking my head as I
witness evidence to the contrary.. Many households put out not only multiple 32
gallon trash cans, but extra large plastic bags next to the cans, there's some boxes
also full of trash, and smaller plastic bags. There are households that are aware,
however, their numbers are few compared to those who continue to produce
excessive garbage that worsens our landfill problems. There definitely is a need to
increase awareness and to educate every family member regarding the urgent need
for everyone -to reduce waste. Our county needs to be more aggressive and find the
means to institute a process in place. There also is definitely a need to get every
citizen's attention and historically, what has worked is hitting people where it
hurts-their pocketbooks. The government has the ability to change its citizens'
behaviors by imposing taxes and fees. In our present economy, everyone objects to
any mention of taxation. However, let's not forget that positive changes in behavior
have been achieved by this. Think of the tobacco tax, the click-it-or-ticket
campaign, requiring IDs when purchasing alcoholic drinks, and many more with
goals to protect health, safety, and save lives. I support the pay as you throw
system, increased education so every islander practices the 3 Rs, and our county
instituting a system in place, with the required staffing, such as a recycling
coordinator, so we can protect and care for our island. Let us set a goal of at
least 50 percent diversion and stick to it. Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you Ms. Ward. Any questions? If not, thank
you for your testimony.
DAVID MAKANA MARTIN: Thank you Mr. Chair and Councilmembers
for this opportunity to give comments and submit questions regarding the
integrated solid waste management plan, and mahalo to John Harder and Zero
Waste Kauai for their very insightful and timely comments and recommendations.
Mr. Bynum: Can you state your name for the record, please.
Mr. Martin: My name is David Makana Martin. Since I came to
Kauai in 1997, I've been active as a taro farmer, and expanded my interest into
areas that includes...
ALFRED B. CASTILLO, JR., County Attorney: Excuse me, sir. Al
Castillo, County Attorney. Could you please remove your hat? Thank you.
Mr. Martin: I am currently investing a lot of my time and
resources into soil improvement projects, so I'd like to bring some focused attention
to how this plan and how the current county administration will address waste
stream recovery reduction for agricultural purposes, both now and into the future.
11
i
Would you please ask the contractor R.W. Beck representatives to summarize how
they have evaluated and integrated agricultural needs, uses, and values into the
plan and its recommendations, and to provide more specific details as requested.
Zero Waste Kauai is a strong advocate for clear goals that inspire action. Please
heed their recommendations.
On the subject of percentages and targets and goals, I'm really sitting here
wondering if the time for debating goals and targets hasn't passed us by, or if
maybe it's not immediately upon us. As we sit here, there's this perfect storm
brewing off the west coast of the United States. USGS calls it a storm of historic
proportions. I've heard several references to biblical proportions. Several weeks
ago I read that water allocation cutbacks in California were threatening major
collapse of the agricultural soil structure. Now there's a storm coming. This is the
food belt for most of the United States and for here in these islands. So where is our
food security? I think the message is clear-grow food here and facilitate the
processes and resources to do so. Hopefully success in these efforts will place
waste... a waste to energy facility so gar on the backburner that it disappears and
we'll be able to feed ourselves and possibly others in these uncertain times. The
recycling coordinator, and I think beyond that, to develop a system of community
waste and educational coordinators, not just centrally located, but in around the
different communities, we have waste facilities that receive waste, the greenwaste,
all this stuff, we're talking about a MRF, all these things that we got to do before we
actually start to sort and use these things. I mean our facilities are there and can
we begin in several weeks to clarify our sorting systems? We can write that into our
plan, but what does it take to coordinate public works and agricultural endeavor?
Those are the things that I'd like to see addressed in this plan, and before this body
and the administration, and I would like to see immediate action.
I've read several requests from Zero Waste Kauai to do many of the things
I'm talking about, so we're not talking about inventing new wheels, but we aren't
really doing that much about it. The way I see it, not much of an indication of any
kind urgency, but I do feel it myself and I would like to spread that around.
Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. But it looks like the testimony you
gave us is available electronically?
Mr. Martin: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: May I request a copy?
Mr. Martin: Yes, I will send it.
Mr. Furfaro: I also wanted to point out to you that I do not think
that the time to discuss these issues are beyond us. The process here is we have a
public hearing where people can give testimony, and then this information goes into
Mr. Bynum's committee. Some of us do acknowledge the question that's...for
example, Monday morning I have a meeting with the consultant. Yeah, I feel 35
12
percent is too low, and I'm going to pose that. For my support, it has to be higher.
Can it be zero? I'm not sure, but it certainly can be more than 35. I also think, you
know, some of the testimony about public education is extremely important. The
Council did not reject the position that was there before the overall management of
the plan; it was the administration that did not want that position filled at this
time. And so therefore it was dollar funded. But the line item does exist in the
budget, and those are things that we'll pursue in Mr. Bynum's discussion. Also
about the curbside recycling and so forth, yeah, it's a big issue for us for a MRF,
whether it's a MRF that's sorted when it comes, or whether it's a dirty MRF and we
sort it at the facility. That question will be posed. But the dollar savings on the
curbside recycling, until we got definition there, there is, and I'm sure we'll discuss
it in Mr. Bynum's committee, there is a question about the excessive payroll and
benefits cost we have right now for the manual pick-up collection, and the stress
we're putting on the employees on the fact that, you know, they need the right tools
and the right equipment, and hopefully we'll get some funds savings. I'm not
supposed to answer a lot of those questions during public testimony; it's your turn,
but I just wanted to reassure you, I would like a copy of your electronic dialogue
today, but those are the kinds of things that are on the horizon. I just wanted to
reassure you.
Mr. Martin: And I also was hopeful that maybe the contractor
may be here. I didn't know. Public hearings sometimes the contractor will be there
and answer questions, and I was hoping that might occur. So that's how...why I
posed it in the...
Mr. Furfaro: And I guess I'm trying to answer you that way.
Typically in a public hearing, we should not have that much dialogue with you. It is
just to collect public information I preparation of Mr. Bynum's committee meeting.
But I do believe we have another option with the consultant... one more time.
Mr. Martin: Well, that's very encouraging, and I'll be happy to
be available. I think looking at the numbers is really important, but I think how
we're actually currently using, because when I go to greenwaste in, you know, to our
waste disposal facilities, I do see so many resources that could be used for your, you
know, soil improvement projects, terracing, erosion control, and it's like I see them
rolling out to, you know, a landfill. And when I know I...just a chipper or something
grinding up some of the stuff in the bed of a pickup truck can make a huge
difference in my ability to improve soil and grow stuff. So I'm really trying to
encourage this-well what can we do now? The goals are really I think important
for a plan, but I think that really the now...I just really want to see that dialogue
get more active.
Mr. Furfaro: I hope I answered a few of your questions, but I
won't carry on any more dialogue. Thank you Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Any other questions? If not, I just quickly want to
thank you for your testimony, and I'm please that you brought up two issues. One
is the connection between solid waste issues and agriculture and the potential for
the...or to address soil quality issues, and you know, JoAnn touched on that with
the ability to create quality soil amendments. And also, you know, I hope that you
13
feel differently a year from now about our sense of urgency, because I share it and
it's a difficult time for us to implement anything that has new high cost involved,
but in the long run the cost will be much greater if we don't. So thank you for your
testimony today. And just to clarify, the consultant is scheduled to be here next
week at the committee meeting. He's at the end of his contract, that's probably
assuming we pass the plan eventually, or pass the resolution. We probably won't
see the consultant again after next week, so...
Mr. Martin: So get your questions in now?
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, this is the time. Thank you very much. Is
there anyone else present who wanted to offer testimony? Glenn.
GLENN MICKENS: Thank you, Tim. For the record, Glenn Mickens.
only have a couple of words. Kaipo, the Lakers are playing today 3 o'clock.
Mr. Furfaro: It's not on the agenda.
Mr. Mickens: All the speakers have done a fine job of giving you
valuable information. For me, I would let John Harder propose a plan for our solid
waste problem, and implement it. John cleaned up Saipan and is a true solid waste
expert. Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on R.W. Beck to give us some
information that has many flaws? Pay John whatever it takes for him to do the job,
and he has the expertise to do it. That's my testimony. Thank you Timmy.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you very much.
Mr. Mickens: Don't forget, Kaipo...
Council Chair Asing: Thank you, Glenn.
Mr. Bynum: Is there anyone else further who would like to offer
testimony? Seeing none, this brings this public hearing to closure. See you all
next week.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:36 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
14
• i
PUBLIC HEARING
FEBRUARY 3, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Dickie Chang, Vice Chair, Public Works/Elderly Committee, on Wednesday,
February 3, 2010, at 1:35 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building,
4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2341 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTER 21, ARTICLE 7, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, RELATING TO
INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT,
which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on January 6,
2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on January 19, 2010.
There being no one present to testify on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:36 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
'~~-
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
~~ _ ~ • •
PUBLIC HEARING
FEBRUARY 3, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Jay Furfaro, Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, February 3, 2010,
at 1:37 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street,
Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Tim Bynum
Recused: Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2342 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING
REGULATIONS, PROCEDURES, ZONING AND DEVELOPMENT PLANS
FOR THE LIHU`E TOWN CORE AREA AND ESTABLISHING
EXCEPTIONS, MODIFICATIONS AND ADDITIONS TO CHAPTER 8 AND
CHAPTER 10 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987,
which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on January 6,
2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on January 19, 2010.
Mr. Furfaro: Before I go to any testimony, it is the intent of my
committee to schedule a workshop on this particular item. It is tentatively
scheduled for February 16 here in the Chambers from 9 to 12 o'clock. This is not
confirmed at this time, but this is the intent of the committee chairperson. I want
to make time available for Lihu`e citizens and businesses to participate in a
workshop on this plan. So that is the intent of the committee chair to post that
workshop. It will also be my intent to send notice to the building department, as
well as the planning department, to encourage them to participate, and I do know
at this point, I have Councilman Kaneshiro's confirmation that that date works for
him. So on that note, Mr. Clerk, may I ask is there any written testimony?
The following communications were received for the record:
1) Neil Clendeninn email dated January 31, 2010.
2) Palmer W. Hafdahl, AIA, President, Kauai Association of Architects,
dated February 3, 2009
1
.. - • •
The hearing proceeded as follows:
BARBARA CURL: Barbara Curl. I have just one quick question,
Chairman. On...Is there any possibility of altering the date of the workshop, like
one week earlier, like next week?
Mr. Furfaro: We have looked at the date of...the 11tH.
Unfortunately, I believe this chambers and other space is taken by other public
commissions. Our first intent was to look for February 11. Subsequently, we do
not...we don't have any authority to bump anyone who had previously...
Ms. Curl: You've got seniority, though, somewhat, Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: So we are going to focus on that to get the clearance
of dates as well for Councilmembers.
Ms. Curl: Okay. We've been anticipating in whatever form
you all decide to discuss this, and I had been postponing going to help some seniors,
and so this is just a personal request, because I'd love be there and hear and also
testify. But if I can't, I know I can write.
Mr. Furfaro: I'm very sorry, and we certainly will accept written
testimony. We're holding February 16 on the calendar.
Ms. Curl: Just wanted to ask the question. Thank you all
very much.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Barbara. Anyone else in the audience
that would like to speak on this item?
Mr. Nakamura: Vice Chair, just for the record, if we could please
note that Councilmember Kawakami is recused from this matter.
Mr. Furfaro: I will. Let it be so recorded that Councilman
Kawakami has recused himself from this hearing. So noted. No one else? Very
well, we will make certain we have public posting of the workshop, and again, it is
my intent to provide time specifically for the citizens of Lihu`e to participate in this.
On that note, I will close my public hearing.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:41 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
r~
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
2
• •
PUBLIC HEARING
FEBRUARY 3, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
February 3, 2010, at 1:41 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building,
4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2343 - AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE
OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI FOR
THE PURPOSE OF FINANCING CERTAIN PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS
AND REFUNDING CERTAIN BONDS OF THE COUNTY; FIXING OR
AUTHORIZING THE FIXING OF THE FORM, DENOMINATIONS, AND
CERTAIN OTHER DETAILS OF SUCH BONDS AND PROVIDING FOR
THE SALE OF SUCH BONDS TO THE PUBLIC,
which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on January 6,
2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on January 15, 2010.
The hearing proceeded as follows:
DAVID CRADDICK, Manager and Chief Engineer, Department of Water:
My name is David Craddick, the manager and chief engineer for Kauai Board of
Water Supply. I know we're very much in support of this bond, because we asked to
have you include it, and very refreshing to be working with the county on doing this
to help keep the cost down for our ratepayers.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you for that. Any questions for
Mr. Craddick? If not, thank you. Anyone else here wishing to speak on this bill or
item? If not, so noted. With that, this public hearing for Bill No. 2343 is
now adjourned.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:44 p.m.
Res ectfully submitted,
\ -~
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
•
PUBLIC HEARING
FEBRUARY 3, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
February 3, 2010, at 1:44 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building,
4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek 5. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Tim Bynum
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2344 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2009-691, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE CAPITAL BUDGET
OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL
YEAR JULY 1, 2009 TO JUNE 30, 2010, BY REVISING THE REVENUES
AND APPROPRIATIONS IN THE BOND FUND AND THE GENERAL
FUND (CIP),
which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on January 6,
2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on January 15, 2010.
There being no one present to testify on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:45 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
~~
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
PUBLIC HEARING
FEBRUARY 3, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
February 3, 2010, at 1:45 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building,
4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2345 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE NO. B-2009-690, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE
OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI; STATE OF
HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30,
2010, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS
ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND (Acquisition of a Public Use
Helicopter via a 10-year lease),
which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on January 6,
2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on January 15, 2010.
There being no one present to testify on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:48 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
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PUBLIC HEARING
MARCH 17, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Jay Furfaro, Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, March 17, 2010,
at 1:42 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street,
Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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 (present at 1:48 a.m.)
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2346 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
CHAPTER 3, ARTICLE 1 KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED
RELATING TO THE CODE OF ETHICS,
which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on February 3,
2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on March 5, 2010.
Mr. Furfaro: Hello everyone. Councilman Asing may join us
later... Council Chair Asing; he is a bit under the weather this afternoon, as I was
earlier in the week. We will be starting our three public hearings, and the first bill,
may I ask it to be read?
Thank you very much. Mr. Clerk, may I ask you, since this is a public
hearing, this provides the public an opportunity to give testimony to the council. Is
there anyone associated with the ethics board that has a presentation for
the council?
Mr. Nakamura: Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Furfaro: Not at this time. Thank you very much. Are there
members from the public that wish to speak on this particular bill, 2346? If there
is, please come right up. Excuse me, there are no cell phones allowed in the council
chambers for any business; you need to go outside. I'm very sorry. Appreciate
your courtesies.
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ROB ABREW: Aloha Councilmembers, Rob Abrew for the record.
I don't know if I have the most current one, but I got the one that was passed out
last month at the ethics meeting, and it has a bunch of language that looks like it's
being changed, but I'm not quite sure if it is. And concerning the issue that was
highlighted earlier about the annual meeting, I have no problem with the board of
ethics doing these on a monthly basis, as they would like to do, and get rid of the
thirteenth meeting per year. But when they do...in this reading, they're taking out
the word "annually" and not putting that word in, I would only ask that the new
current language would include at least review every document once a year. And
the reason I ask that, because if a financial statement or disclosure statement is put
in by a board and commission member, it might just be looked at once, and for three
years it would not be reviewed at all, and that... In our charter, one of the
requirements for the board of ethics is to review them regularly to look for changes
or alterations or any kind of new features. So if we put the word "each one must be
done annually," I think that would better work, instead of just leaving it blank,
because I don't think there's anywhere else in our charter or in the rules that
require it to be done annually. The other... a couple other just look like
housekeeping members is under the definitions, they want to define an employee.
The last word they have "but excluding councilmen." I think it would be respectful
to everyone to put the word "councilperson" or "councilmember" in those places so
we're not gender specific, because there are other than councilmen here. And I
think under... excuse me, three point one three (3.13), number 10, I think the
wording that is here that I have has been modified at the last ethics meeting and
clarified with the...with some new language. So I would...just based on what I
have, I would think those things would need to be looked at to make sure in the
final bill we're not eliminating those; we're making sure the correct language is in
there. That's all I have. Thanks.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. Again, this is a public
hearing. I forgot to ask the question-Mr. Clerk, is there anyone from the public
that has actually signed up?
Mr. Nakamura: No registered speakers.
Mr. Furfaro: Is there anyone else in the audience that would like
to speak on this item, please come up now.
ROLF BIEBER: Thanks Jay. Rolf Bieber for the record.- Just want
to concur the point from the previous speaker that I do believe that that language
"annually" would benefit in going over the disclosure statements. As a board of
ethics member, you know, I think we did a good job with the bulk of the disclosure
statements that we received. I don't think that it's necessary, I spoke on before,
that we have that extra meeting; however, I wasn't sure as a board of ethics
member if we were actually covering all the disclosure statements or not. So if
there is the language in there that says yearly, we would...that would allow us the
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knowledge that we covered all the disclosure statements within a year, without
having the meeting. So that's really about it. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Rolf. Is there anyone else that would
like to give testimony on this public hearing for Bi112346? If not, I am going to close
the public hearing on that item.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:54 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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PUBLIC HEARING
MARCH 17, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Lani Kawahara, Chair, Parks/Transportation Committee, on Wednesday, March 17,
2010, at 1:54 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice
Street, Lihu'e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2348 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
CHAPTER 19, ARTICLE 3, SECTION 19-3.2 AND SECTION 19-3.3 OF THE
KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING . TO PLAYING
FEES AND REGULATION OF PLAY AT THE WAILUA GOLF COURSE,
which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on February 3,
2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on March 5, 2010.
The following communications were received for the record:
1) Wyn Hansen notes.
2) June Araki's testimony (undated).
The hearing proceeded as follows:
BRUCE CUNNINGHAM: That's not my best side, the left side. My
name is Bruce Cunningham, and I just...for a point of information, I'd like to know
who the city officials or what bodies are the city officials composed of, who made the
price hike last July 1St. Is it correct to say that those...that decision came from a
combination of the park and rec, cost control, the finance department, the city
council, and the mayor? Is that correct?
Mr. Furfaro: Let me explain to the... In our charter
amendment, we have a cost control commission.
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Mr. Cunningham: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: The cost control commission expanded some of their
work this year, which introduced a revenue portion as well. So the
recommendations on the fees... Now they would have had public input for that
particular piece, which included finance and parks and recreation. That
recommendation then goes to the mayor by charter rules, and what was laid out in
that charter amendment then comes to the council to be voted on. But the input of
the plan was stimulated from the duties of the cost control commission.
Mr. Cunningham: Cost control, but then everybody had decision
making power in the end, so to speak.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Cunningham: Yes, okay...
Mr. Furfaro: To accept or deny the recommendation.
Mr. Cunningham: Right, okay. I just wanted to get that clear. Now
I'm a nonresident, but unlike nonresident tourists, I'm a partner in a piece of
property here on Kauai, so I pay taxes. But the enormous afternoon twilight rate
increase of over 100 percent starting last July 1St where a 10-play pass... a 10-play
pass used to cost $135. It went up to $275; that's over a hundred percent. That
decision failed to differentiate between nonresidents like myself who own property
here or are part-owners of property and nonresident who come as tourists. So I
think that's... That was a little unfair. I think that the people who own property
here who are nonresidents should get a little more of a break than those who don't.
Now, I'm 73 years old and a senior citizen living on a fixed income, and to
compensate for the tremendous increase in the golf prices at afternoon twilight at
Wailua, I now play Wailua a few times a month and Kukuiolono for nine dollars
around much more. So in essence, the Wailua golf course has lost money on me. I
like to play Wailua more because it's a beautiful course, it's a championship course,
but I can't afford it. And then that also means that when I'm not at Wailua, I'm not
buying breakfasts, I'm not buying at the snack bar, I'm not buying in the pro shop,
I'm not hitting balls, and I'm not buying a beer after I play, so that's another loss for
the golf course. Now I'll try not to be long-winded; I'll be as fast as I can.
Now the rate increase, I believe, was ill-conceived in that the people who
made it, the county officials, did not take into consideration the economic times (you
know, people losing their homes to foreclosure, which is still happening), people
losing their jobs, people losing their healthcare, and they didn't take that into
consideration when raising the prices so high, plus they didn't take into
consideration why tourists play golf. They play golf to pass time. A lot of them are
not what you call avid golfers. They only play it to pass the time. And when they
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walked up to the desk this year and said I'd like to give you my twenty dollars to
play and to rent clubs and to rent a golf cart and to... so on and so on, they said all
that's doubled from last year. So in essence, what was done with this price increase
was asking the nonresidents to pay more, a hundred percent more, and play less,
because what has not been mentioned yet is that the fact one hour of time in the
afternoon was taken away from us. So instead of starting at two o'clock and being
able to finish before dark in the wintertime, they now changed it as of July 1St to
three o'clock, when you cannot finish. But let me just add a caveat to that. Because
after July 1St at two o'clock in the afternoon Wailua became a ghost town, and the
people with whom I played could tee-off at three o'clock on the shortest day of the
year, December 21, and we could still get 18 holes in finishing in the dark, because
nobody, literally nobody, was in front of us, and of course nobody was in back of us
pushing. So the policy was a failed policy, and I just want to, and you're probably
all familiar with this, the October 26 garden isle says at the bottom, county officials
now considering lowering the cost for visitors or nonresidents playing Wailua golf
course after a recent fee increase, July 1, was determined to have reduced visitor
play. So the county officials themselves have admitted that three and a half months
after the price increase went into effect, especially for twilight play after two o'clock,
it had failed. And yet the price was not changed, and it has not changed since
July 1, but I must say that as of February 1, the hour was given back to us. I don't
know how it was, if it was done with an amendment, or some lawyer said it was
okay, or discretionary power was given back to the golf course, I don't know. But we
do have it. We now tee off at two o'clock instead of three o'clock, but it's kind of like
after the...I guess you call the chicken's out of the coop, because by February 1, it
was getting lighter and lighter, and to give us that... and you could almost finish,
even if you had people in front of you if you started at three o'clock. But anyway,
that's neither here nor there, that hour was given back to us. So that's... I guess
that's about all... Oh, one more thing. The golf course has lost, I figured out,
perhaps I'm wrong, I figured out that the golf course lost from July 1 until at least
February 1, because the in... giving us back the hour, more people are...
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me, sir. Excuse me just a second.
Ms. Kawahara: I'm sorry, we're trying to figure out our timer.
I'm sorry.
Mr. Furfaro: Yeah, they're trying to figure out the timer. You
get six minutes to testify, and she's attempting to get it figured out so she knows
how much more time to give you.
Mr. Nakamura: Committee Chair, there's one more minute in the
six minutes.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you, you got one minute.
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Mr. Cunningham: Oh thank you. I figured out from July 1 to at least
February 1, and perhaps beyond that, the golf course lost approximately five
to $600 a day with people not playing and not, you know... So you times that by 30,
that's $18,000 a month that the golf course lost. Over a period of six or seven
months, that's almost a hundred thousand dollars. So I think it was a failed policy,
and I would like to see the price come down and be more reasonable; maybe a fifty
percent increase in the 10-play pass, instead of a hundred percent increase. That
seems to be more reasonable and more fair. I guess that's it. Thank you very much.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Mr. Cunningham, and also thank you
for verifying that the twilight hour was replaced...
Mr. Cunningham: Pardon me.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you for verifying for me that the twilight
hour to two o'clock was replaced.
Mr. Cunningham: As of about February 1 it was brought back from
three o'clock to two o'clock.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, great.
Mr. Cunningham: So we can finish 18 holes if there were a number of
people playing, which there have not been. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you.
WYN HANSEN: Greetings, my name is Wyn Hansen. I'm a
disgruntled citizen from Kilauea, and I'd like to note that I do not see park and rec
here. Is that true?
Ms. Kawahara: No, I don't see them here.
Mr. Furfaro: First of all before you go any further, the
administration across the street, all offices, finance, parks and recreation, public
works, they do have this streamed into their office. So they could be there.
Mr. Hansen: Well, I think they should be present. I mean this is
really a major important issue.
Mr. Furfaro: Sir, I want to point out to you, at a public hearing
in our procedure, the public is allowed to testify. In a committee meeting which this
will move to, then the department heads are here, and the council can ask
questions.
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Mr. Hansen: Well, if I was the director of park and rec, I would
be here. Anyway, the reason I am here today is twofold. One is the mayor stopped
me on the street back in May of 2009, shook my hand, looked me in the eye and
said, if I ever have any concerns, just give me a call or stop by my office, my door is
always open to you. Then just before July 1, 2009, an article appeared in The
Garden Island, county works on customer service skills, Mayor Bernard said, "I
encourage the public to fill out survey cards, that to deliver excellent customer
service is a priority for his administration, Ithink it's important that our one on one
interactions with the public are positive and productive." I said to myself after
these two experiences, this guy is right on. Well little did I know, customer service,
you got to be kidding. Customer service, god help us. Customer service, you better
believe they need training-now.
I would like to cover five areas. I will read article section... article 3,
section 19 dash 3.1, declaration of the purposes and intent. Two, initial
recommendations to stop the long history of incompetence, three, some history of
our golf course mess, four, budget, five, suggestions and questions. Number one,
here's the second sentence of the county code section 19 dash 3.1 as follows: the
primary intent of this article is to enhance the promotion of the sport of golf for the
good of all the people of the county. On July 1, 2009, Dela Cruz, deputy director of
park and rec, posted a bill on the bulletin board of the golf course that said twilight
begins at three o'clock, period. This is when I began my quest to right some wrongs.
The price increase, I probably could not change, but this Gestapo move by the park
and rec is something I could put my watchdog teeth into. Was I willing to pay more
for less? Park and rec never consulted with the staff or the concessionaires on this
bill they posted on the bulletin board. My initial recommendation to stop the
present incompetence to stop the loss of more money and fix the mess we are in,
because it just didn't happen by accident, is to fire Rapozo and Dela Cruz. These
guys know very little about how the golf course runs, they are not golfers, the staff
have never been consulted, pro shop or restaurant or bar were never seen or talked
to before the mess, during the mess, or now, with one exception, Susan, who they
ignored initially. And with minimum knowledge, these guys made decisions and did
not make decisions that directly affected the mess we are in today, even after they
were alerted to the mess because of their pseudo rule changes, they failed to do
anything, so was like a passenger on a sinking ship alerting the first mate...
Ms. Kawahara: Sir... Hi. I finally heard my beeper, so when
that... I heard my beeper, so there's three more minutes. Thank you.
Mr. Hansen: So was like a sinking ship where the... alerting the
first mate Rapozo where the hole was, and Rapozo does not tell the captain
Bernard, or the owner city council, or the taxpayers the passengers, that the ship is
sinking, and complicitly lets the ship sink. At this point, my question is, what
qualifications were these guys hired and who hired them? These guys have no golf
course management skills, no staff relationship skills, no budget skills, no
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promotional skills, because the twilight change and the cost increases, these guys
cost us a minimum of $28,000 lost revenue per month after month after month for 8
months, totaling $224,000. These guys are glaringly incompetent. In fact, they're
minus incompetent. Rapozo said oh it's cost control's fault for raising the prices. I
say it is the responsibility of the director to be on top of things-the budget, his staff
who he neglected to consult, doing research and directing cost control, which I
understand is a voluntary, he should be directing them, then the things that are not
working to get on it and fix it as soon as possible. He did nothing but blame others.
As soon as I found out that twilight rule was misinterpreted because of a
typographical errors, I went over to Rapozo and said, type it over and change the
rule back and people will start playing twilight again. He said I can't do that, I
would have to run it by the lawyer, and being an amendment, public hearing, I'm
not going to do that, the rule stands. Can you imagine the arrogant ignorance? So I
called (inaudible) Councilperson, got an appoint...made up an amendment...gave it
to (inaudible), discussed the mess she was not aware o£ In fact, Mr. Cunningham
contacted Mr. Bynum and they didn't know that this was happening either.
Mr. Furfaro: I will correct you on that, sir, at the end of
the meeting.
Mr. Cunningham: It was out in the (inaudible). Rapozo should have
been a fast track a long time ago. Rapozo three times got an amendment and verbal
petition and got signatures. I met with Rapozo and was ignored, wrote a petitioner
letter, circulated at the park and rec, Councilmembers, sent it to the newspaper. I
talked many times to Susan and the restaurant last year and other staff members.
They said their hands were tied, they know I spoke to from the top of the county to
the bottom, (inaudible). The budget. I acquired the golf course budget and wanted
to go over some items. Rapozo wasn't interested in. Furthermore, he said that's up
to the cost control. I have been director three times-school for boys, YMCA,
and others...
Ms. Kawahara:
Mr. Cunningham
Ms. Kawahara
Mr. Cunningham:
Mr. Kawahara:
Are you wrapping up?
...budget and staff. Yes.
Thank you so much.
...made a mockery of both.
Thank you.
Mr. Cunningham: I want to point out we're paying $35,000 for sand
imported from Taiwan. I said we could find some sand somewhere else...
Ms. Kawahara: Another six pages...
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Mr. Cunningham:. (inaudible) he did not want to discuss this. When I
asked what the $555,000 other costs and service, he said he didn't want to argue
about this. He said... Well look, I spent seven months on this and I get six
minutes. I want to finish. I spent a lot of time on this, more time than you people
have, and I get six minutes. You're going to have to pull me out of the chair.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Mr. Cunningham: You just shrug. I also point (inaudible)...
Ms. Kawahara: I am requesting for Mr. Wyn the document so we
can have his full testimony. Call the committee back into session. I'm requesting
that Mr. Cunningham give me his testimony to be sure that I have his testimony,
it's submitted, and give it to all the councilmembers.
Mr. Furfaro: She will take it right here.
Ms. Kawahara: We'll take it from you. Thank you. I do want to
agree to clarify that the bill is back in front of us, whatever the issues that citizens
have brought up to us. So we heard you loud and clear and that's why the bill has
been placed here and we're looking at doing something to address the fees, and also
I'm glad to hear that we've worked on twilight hours. I believe we still have more
people coming to testify. Mr. Clerk?
Mr. Nakamura: Next speaker is Glenn Tamagawa, followed by
June Araki.
GLENN TAMAGAWA: I'll wake everyone up. On behalf of myself as a
concessionaire at the golf course, once you have... At Wailua golf course is a gold
mine, as you know. You know how much money the golf course makes and how
much, at the same time, it is not making. Mr. Furfaro just mentioned something
about ATM machine at the golf shop. I've consulted the bank, but obviously the
bank would like to have more control coming in and out of the golf shop in order for
that to happen. That's the reason why I don't have that there. At the same time, I
would like the county, instead of having greater admission at the registration office,
there have been people come to the golf shop trying to buy stuff and get cash back.
I'm not set up for that, so I can't do that. There are a number of times where the
tourists come into the golf shop and said, how come you don't have a credit card
machine. I'll talk to them about that.
Mr. Furfaro: A correspondence went over to I.T. asking that
question. Mr. Chang and I were totally surprised that it was not a way to capture a
credit card at the golf course, as well as the ATM. If somebody wanted the cash,
they had to drive all the way to Hanama'ulu to the 7-Eleven. We were surprised.
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Mr. Tamagawa: I have a credit card machine, but I'm not set up to
give out cash. A credit machine at the registration office would be a great help to
the county for sure. For myself as a concessionaire, I hope this ordinance is passed.
My business at the golf shop is solely based on the tourist. There are a lot of locals
that come to the golf course. Saturday and Sunday is the slowest day at my golf
shop. Right now I'm closed on Saturdays but open on Sundays, and Sundays
through Friday, being slow on Saturdays does not allow me to stay open as I would
like to stay open, because of the fact that as mentioned, it was a slow day of the
week for myself in the golf shop. Other than the other concessionaires were
probably the busiest for them. Probably the other ordinance that's before you
concerns the tourists getting their I.D. and there's been a lot of talk around the golf
course about tourist coming in with their I.D. and saying... They don't live here.
How come they have an I.D. That seems to be a problem and I hope in the
ordinance, this will be passed that more of the tourists will be looked at as tourists
and not as residents because they live here and issue them a driver's license just as
easy as it is, it seems to me at the moment. I know this isn't on there, but I would
encourage you, as well as the county parks and rec, to stop by the golf course, check
things out, see how things are going, talk to the concessionaires, which you
obviously depend upon to run, to be there for the golfers. One entity or area that
actually needs a lot of help is the restaurant itself. Restaurant itself can definitely
do a lot of...
Ms. Kawahara: Three minutes. Thank you.
Mr. Tamagawa: ...restaurant itself can... is in need of definitely
some repairs, major repairs. I think to have it dependent on the concessionaire
itself to fix things up... I don't think the county has ever gone in there to fix things
up as far as maintenance-wise or of the coolers or refrigeration or things along the
line like that. It just seems to be falling apart lately. So but I encourage you, each
of you, and the county parks and rec to stop by the golf course, check things out, see
how things are going, talk to your concessionaires, see how things are going, instead
of waiting for a problem to arise and us to come to you. I just hope that after today's
meeting that everything would pass in the ordinance and that hopefully we'll be
much happier. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. If you could just stay for us... I just
wanted to let you know that we're aware of the issue with the I.D.s and it's a
statewide problem where tourists are getting a second license, and I know from the
State level, when I last spoke to them that they have issues, they are not clear on
how to handle it. They are getting the second licenses easily, so it's something that
we do have to deal with. Thank you. Chair.
Council Chair Asing: Thank you.
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Ms. Kawahara: I'm sorry, comment?
Mr. Tamagawa: I have more comments.
Ms. Kawahara: I'm sorry. I'm talking to my councilmembers,
thank you. I'm sorry, you're not recognized. Mr. Kawakami? I'm going to recognize
Mr. Kawakami.
Mr. Kawakami: Thank you. I just want to clarify so that... You
know, the ATM machine, is that your responsibility to go get one? You tried to get
one, but the bank would like to see more traffic going in the shopping-parking
component of a business? Because you know there's independent contractors right
now. If the bank is not going to supply one, there are different venders you might
want to inquire of them, because they make the money off the surcharge. I know
their fees, initial fee to have it in the shop can be quite high yeah. You might want
to see if there's opportunity there. But you bring up a good point onto credit card
machines, because a big market of golfers golf to negotiate some kind of business
transaction, and a lot of the businessmen will not go to Wailua because they cannot
use a credit card. So they cannot really write it off as a business expense. So you're
losing that market right there. As without having a credit card machine, that's a
good point you brought up to think about that kind of thing. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Councilmember Bynum?
Mr. Bynum: Thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Tamagawa: Sure.
Mr. Bynum: How long have you been at the golf course?
Mr. Tamagawa: Since 2005.
Mr. Bynum: I used to frequent Wailua golf course and I think
your admonition is correct. In my case, I haven't been there for too long and
checked it out because I believe it is an extremely wonderful thing for the County of
Kauai to have. I just wanted to let you know that the questions I'm asking because
I think all of the testimony we heard is correct that there was certainly unintended
consequences. But the questions I'm asking whether we can, in this bill, do two
things: one is allow the golf course to set the twilight times and not have it be part
of the ordinance, and the other is to, I'm not sure if we can do this, but I'm
inquiring, is to set the fees, give them...empower them within a range of these, so
they can respond to changing market conditions, In fairness to Mr. Rapozo, it is
really difficult in the county to change things. We've got to do a bill and do these
public hearings and go through time. So I don't know what the answers I'll get, but
I'd like to be able to give them a range because the economy changed and I think
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private courses reduce their rates, put in twilights, make them more competitive
with Wailua, and we need to be able to change with those market conditions as well.
So I just want to say that I apologize for having not met you sooner. I feel really
remiss that concessionaire since 2005 and we haven't met.
Mr. Tamagawa: I've seen you around.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you very much.
Mr. Tamagawa: Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. We have further... Councilmember
Chang.
Mr. Chang: Thank you actually. I just wanted to let you know,
hopefully she will be released... As far as the ATM machine, I think it's going in,
because when you say the banks, there's not enough action, they don't know
because when the visitor or business person comes, I think they're relatively
shocked that you don't have an ATM, number one, or credit card machine. I think
we're working on that, but to me, the worse thing about it is when you finally find
Wailua, whether driving in the traffic from the north or driving from the traffic
south or west, when you finally get to the golf course, you're shocked to say you
either go up north to Foodland or Safeway or you cut back to Hanama'ulu and look
for the 7-Eleven. That's just a bad experience directly from the start. In regards to
the license, as Councilmember Kawahara was saying, it's a statewide problem. Oh
my God I lost my license, just landed...there are ways that are being looked at
presently, such as where is your voter registration for primary election or the
general election, and other ways to do that, and you might have some ideas about
your motor vehicle registration. But if you're a local resident, get to the visor of
your car or glove compartment versus you don't have a motor vehicle registration in
a rental car, but you would have it in your transportation. So there are things that
are being addressed at this time. So hopefully, we can help yourself and the rest of
the vendors here at the golf course. Thank you for what you do. I know it's been
tough. It has been.
Ms. Kawahara: Any questions?
Mr. Nakamura: Next speaker is June Araki, followed by Susan
Yamamoto.
Ms. Kawahara: I have a list here that I'm going through, and
people get to go first because you had your time. My timer... Identify yourself.
JUNE AR.AKT: June Araki. I came here because of the section 2,
number 8, senior Kauai residents. I feel that they should leave the ordinance as is
for the senior and super senior category. The driver's license should not be added as
10
one of the requirements for the lower rate. It is my understanding that the senior
rates were originally created to help our local kupuna. They felt they should be
given the lower rate during their retirement years as after having paid state taxes
all of their working lives. I think it is a privilege that they have rightfully earned.
It's nice seeing the kupuna coming out for exercise, fresh air, and socializing with
their friends. In the past, nonresident seniors have benefited from the lower senior
rate that should have been reserved for the local kupuna. The smart ones who
know that they are not full-time residents have willingly agreed to pay the sixty
dollars monthly resident card. They know they are still getting a fantastic deal. It's
just a handful that still insist on getting the super senior card even if they do not
qualify, they have not voted and have not filed a Hawaii tax return. There was one
golfer tried to get the super senior card by repeatedly coming to the golf course to
see if one of the cashiers would give it to him. In frustration, he asked to see the
boss and made the mistake of saying remember me, Mr. X from California? He
didn't even realize his error until it was too late. Another gentleman asked for five
day nonresident card when he was told he no longer qualified for senior card. He
didn't wait to hear he qualified for a monthly resident card with the driver's license.
Customers claim they don't drive, only to sport an out of state license when they
open up their wallets. There are blatant examples of dishonesty. Out of state
golfers boasted that their new licenses are hot off the press. More and more
nonresidents are finding out that they can qualify for cheap golf by changing their
driver's license to Hawaii driver's license. Some even have Hawaii driver's license
with a mainland or international address. Some transplant locals have even
encouraged their mainland friends to get a Hawaii license while they are here so
they could qualify for the local rates. Changing the requirements for the handful
that grumble should not justify the change. The burden of Hawaii residency status
should be borne by the person, not the government. The golf fees were raised last
July and now they are trying to lower the nonresident rate. By allowing the driver's
license as one of the requirements for the senior and super senior rate, you are
further lowering the revenue. How do you justify a nonresident qualifying for a
senior...super senior rate just because they have a Hawaii driver's license? It
appears that it is being done at the expense of the regular monthly resident
cardholder. Why should the legitimate local resident pay sixty dollars a month to
play when the senior nonresident qualifies for the twenty-six dollars or forty dollars
card under the new proposal? Shouldn't you be fair to the local residents who pay
their taxes and support the local economy the entire year? The residents as defined
by the State tax law is every individual domiciled in Hawaii for more than 200 days
during the taxable year. It is someone who resides in Hawaii for other than a
temporary or transitory purpose. Having a Hawaii driver's license does not make
you a Hawaii resident and should not be included to prove that they qualify for the
senior and super senior rates.
Mr. Furfaro: Could we get a copy of her testimony?
11
•
Ms. Kawahara: We would like a copy of your testimony and our
clerk will help you with that. Thank you.
Ms. Araki: Thank you very much.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much.
Ms. Kawahara: Could I ask you a quick question, please? Do you
have any idea or constructive idea about what should be used instead of a driver's
license? Do we have something else that's officially generated by government that
will qualify somebody as a resident saying that they're here more than 200 days or
that they're permanent resident.
Ms. Araki: You have the State tax return.
Ms. Kawahara: State tax return, yeah. Tax return will do that.
Ms. Araki: Nonresident files state tax returns? Nonresidents,
if they do have some income coming from Hawaii, would be filing (inaudible)
resident.
Ms. Kawahara: Residency that we show state tax returns at
the office?
Ms. Araki: It is one of the requirements now. By putting in
the driver's license for the senior rate, you open it up again to nonresidents being
able to qualify for a rate when they're not residents. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Any of my Councilmembers have a question?
Mr. Furfaro: Chairwoman, I would like to just point out for the
audience, this is a scheduled public hearing, we try to keep the Q and A at a
minimum, because from the public hearing, we're going to get a general overview of
the issues when the bill comes up. The bill will come up in your committee, I
believe on Apri17. That's the date for the audience that will be in Councilwoman
Kawahara's committee. I will limit my questions or at least my massaging the
misinformation to a minimum. We should only be accepting testimony. My
curiosity gets the best of me. So thank you for letting me do that.
Ms. Kawahara: I have on my list, Mr. Furfaro is exactly right. Do I
have anybody else?
Mr. Nakamura: Next speaker is Susan Yamamoto followed by
Larry Blow.
12
•
SUSAN YAMAMOTO: My name is Susan Yamamoto. I'm here as a golfer.
I've been golfing since `97 and I'm not a senior or super senior according to the age,
and so I'm talking on the driver's licenses to prove residency for the seniors and
super seniors because then the snow birds or nonresidents would be qualifying for a
lower rate than I'm paying. I don't think that's fair. Right now, I think they can
qualify for the fifty dollars rate which is what I pay, and I'm for that if snowbirds
(inaudible). But as far as adding on the four or the Hawaii driver's license for the
senior and super senior, that part I'm against and hoping that you will think about
it and really consider that when you vote.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you very much. Any other testifiers on that?
Mr. Larry Little. Did he decide that he wasn't going to? Do you still not want to?
Mr. Bloom? Okay.
LARRY BLOW: My name is Larry Blow. I live in Kapa'a. I want to
just mention one thing in regard to lost rounds at Wailua. Obviously, some of the
rounds were lost because of the raise in the rate. We also have fewer tourists. So if
you don't have tourists, you don't have tourist rounds. At first, I became interested
in Wailua seriously when they had the meetings this last fall. In regard to the
rates, I became aware of the difficult financial position of the golf course. Wailua is
a treasure that has to be reserved and financed, and reason I wanted to speak today
is to make you aware of the large amount of money that's being lost because you
have nonresidents paying resident'~rate. Many of the nonresidents as Susan stated
are actually paying lower rates than some of the residents, and this makes for a
very sensitive issue. Visitors are coming here, 3 to 5 months in timeshare or
whatever conditions. They pick up a driver's license and they get the resident rate.
Fact of the matter is they're not paying the rate they are expected to pay.
Regulations, rules and regulations, in order to work need to be uniformly enforced
and they need to be followed. If you don't follow them, and if it's not uniform, you
might as well not have a regulation. Irregularities that I've noted: I've played with
golfers that have (inaudible) driver's license. They say that they just use their
Kauaiian driver's license to get their local rate while they're here. I've played with
other national ties that are not American citizens that get the local rate. They have
family here. They register a car that they use while they're here with their family
and they get a driver's license and they get the local rate. One local resident for
unknown reasons even encourages nonresidents to go get a driver's license. If you
want to get verification for that, you can check that out with the marshal at the golf
course. He's seen this in operation. With this proposal, what we'll do, we'll make a
bad situation worse.
Mr. Nakamura: Three minutes committee chair.
Ms. Kawahara: Three minutes left.
13
Mr. Blow: Thank you. In the wording, it says income tax,
voter registration, or Hawaiian driver's license. The word "or" makes it an
alternative. It should not say "or." You'd be better off to have no reference to
driver's license at all. That would be my first recommendation, but definitely,
change "or" to "and." That makes it a multiple verification for residency. If you
don't start collecting the rates and the amounts that you're expecting to collect, your
deficit will increase. That will mean that you have to do one or two things: raise the
resident's rate, which is difficult but could be done, or be a bigger burden to the
taxpayers which is extremely difficult. The deficit will remain if you don't collect
what you're expecting to collect at Wailua; it needs the money to maintain the
quality of course that it is.
Ms. Kawahara: ,Thank you. Comments. Thank you very much. Is
there anybody in the public that has not spoken on this bill yet? If not, I will
adjourn this committee hearing. Thank you.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:34 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
~~~~
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
14
• •
PUBLIC HEARING
MARCH 17, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
March 17, 2010, at 2:34 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building,
4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2349 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE NO. B-2009-691, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE
CAPITAL BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII,
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2010, BY
REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE
SPECIAL TRUST FUND FOR PARKS & PLAYGROUNDS-
HANALEI DISTRICT,
which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on February 17,
2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on February 24, 2010.
The following communication was received for the record:
• JoAnn Yukimura, dated March 16, 2010
The hearing proceeded as follows:
Mr. Kaneshiro: Before we take public testimony, I want to make an
announcement that we will have a special budget and finance committee meeting on
March 22, next week Monday, at 8:30 on this bill number 2349, and let me explain
why the reason for that, is that yesterday we received correspondence from Holly
Smith, who is the coordinator for Legacy Land Conservation Program, and the
requirement regarding matching funds for this year's legacy land projects, all
documentary evidence and matching funds are due on March 31. Unfortunately for
us, our next scheduled public or Council committee meeting won't be 'til April 7, and
1
• •
so we are pushing this item out to bring it on the agenda again for Monday at 9
o'clock in the morning, or 8:30 in the morning, sorry about that, 8:30 in the morning
on the 22nd, and thereafter, we're going to have a special Council meeting to
deliberate on this matter. So again, for public notice, I wanted to give that
information out. With that, Mr. Clerk, do we have any written testimonies? I
believe I have one in front of me. Is that the only one that I have right now?
Mr. Nakamura: That's correct, Mr. Committee Chair, one written
testimony. We do have registered speakers.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you for that. Are you prepared to call up the
first speaker?
Mr. Nakamura: Yes, Mr. Chair. First registered speaker is Bill
Chase, followed by Jennifer Luck.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you for that. Mr. Chase, you have the floor..
BILL CHASE: ~ Thank you. I'm Bill Chase, the president of the
Kauai Public Land Trust. Long before the days of Kalani Tai Hook, what came to
be known as Black Pot Beach Park has played an important role in recreational,
economic, cultural, and spiritual lives of the many peoples of Kauai, an importance
beyond the daily lives off our residents has been recognized as well. In the 90s,
then Governor Cayetano recognized the Statewide importance of the area, then
President Bill Clinton included the Hanalei River as a national heritage river, and
in 2008 and 2009, the State Legacy Land Commission has made this expansion
project one of their top priorities. On behalf of the people of Kauai, our visitors and
rich history of this area, the Kauai Public Land Trust has been working tirelessly
exploring countless options making repeated efforts and offers over the course of a
decade to begin the long overdue expansion of this beloved park. As a voice of the
community, the granddaughter of Kalani Tai Hook, Cathy Ham Young sat before
you last year as a reminder of the community's ongoing and active commitment.
She is here again today as you have questions later on. We now have a unique
almost blessed opportunity to finally begin. A lot has happened in the past year-
opportunities lost, new opportunities found. We still have a supremely committed
landowner. We still have your already powerful commitment in last year's' funding,
and with the bill before you, the opportunity to give the State some much needed
encouragement to crown our efforts by releasing the dedicated funds it has already
awarded to this project. And yes, most of the work is still to come. There will be
more land to acquire, inclusive planning to engage in, more funding to secure, and
this will require determination, creativity, and patience. ,But it has to start
somewhere. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your very speedy consideration of
bill 2349. The board of the Kauai Public Land Trust will be honored to talk with
any and all of you about this opportunity, the larger vision it serves, and how we
2
•
can all continue working together to help honor our past and build our future.
Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Chase?
Mr. Furfaro: First of all, county working supervisor Kalihu also
is the steward acknowledged by previous Mayor Baptiste. I do want to share that
for the land trust benefit, the finance chair of our committee has acknowledged that
we are going to have posted on Monday after our budget introduction, we are fast
tracking a special posted meeting to come out of his committee for the 350,000. Yes.
Subsequently right after that, we will have a special Council meeting, which I
signed off on yesterday, to do that step. So it goes in front of the full Council as a
full Council meeting. I do want to be very honest, we are in a position that we
cannot earmark these funds indefinitely, and so correspondence went from my
committee as planning to the State that basically says the sequence here is we move
on these commitments so that you have them before March 31.
Mr. Chase: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: On March 31, that represents the $350,000. We
already have earmarked 1.850 in the open space committee. Yes, this then gets
conveyed through the state legacy fund to the head of DLNR, I believe. They
transmit our action today.
Mr. Chase: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: She then transmits the action to the board, the
board +then .transmits the substantial evidence of funds to the governor, the
governor has until June 30 to sign off. We need to be very clear that if nothing
happens by June 30, we will not have the ability to just hold on to those funds until
something happens.
Mr. Chase: We understand that.
Mr. Furfaro: We have taken this 350,000 from the North Shore
parks fund and we have earmarked open space money, but we would also like to say
if there's anything that we can do, to send correspondence, Ithink the chairman has
mentioned, Mr. Asing has mentioned, if we have to do a resolution to demonstrate
our commitments and so forth to the governor to get this executed by June 30, we
would be more than glad to do it. But you need to give us some of the particulars
and we have to openly honestly share with you how long we could sit there with this
money for this project.
3
• •
Mr. Chase: We understand that, and again, we appreciate the
enormous logistics that have to be going on behind scenes in the public eye, but
there's a lot of fast tracking that's having to happen here.
Mr. Furfaro: All publicly posted.
Mr. Chase: Absolutely. Thank you for that special meeting.
Never a good time to remodel, but I guess that's why things are getting postponed.
We will also be working at the level to get information to the public to help convey
to her the deep importance of this area and the amount of work that has to, that's
gone into this that shows the level of commitment here.
Mr. Furfaro:
date.
Mr. Chase:
deadline. We'll know.
I needed to reiterate the June 30 need to happen
There's a deadline, the bad news is there's a
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any questions for Mr. Chase? If not, thank you
very much. Can I have the next speaker.
Mr. Nakamura: Next speaker is Jennifer Luck, followed by Cathy
Ham Young.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Jennifer, you have the floor.
JENNIFER LUCK: Good afternoon, Councilmembers. For the record,
my name is Jennifer Luck, executive director of Kauai Public Land Trust. Before
reading my testimony, I would just like to thank all of you and indeed to the Council
staff for working so hard on fast tracking this and working with the State deadline
of March 31. We can't tell you how much we appreciate your support of this project
thus far and all of the work that you put into ensuring that we're doing everything
possible and within our power to make sure that this actually happens and this
property gets acquired. So thank you again on behalf of the KPLB. I thank you for
your expansion of Black Pot State Park. The efforts to require the Hodge property
has truly been a collaborative effort between the county, Kauai Public Land Trust,
and Mr. Hodge. As you know, working on acquiring a lot next to the pier from
Mr. Hodge in 2008... at the time the property was listed for sale for 4.5 million,
Mr. Hodge generously agreed to sell the property to us for 3.3 million. With the
support of the county parks and recreation department and the office of Mayor
Carvalho, we began immediately raising funds for the purchase a year and a half
later. We're now finally close to securing all moneys necessary to expand as much
as well as the park. To date, we have secured 1.85 million as Councilmember
Furfaro said, from the county open space fund. As you all know, recommended
for 800,000 in funding from the Legacy Land Commission and Board of Land &
4
Natural Resources. This is all contingent on the remaining 350,000 being secured
by March 31. Once we heard this deadline, we re-approached Mr. Hodge and he
agreed to reduce his sales price further by 300,000 to $3 million. That's the sales
price we're working with now. To ensure the State's requirement is met, we
respectfully request your support of bill number 2349, earmarking 350,000 to
purchase the Hodge lot and expand Black Pot Beach Park. Thank you again.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any questions?
Ms Luck: Thank you again.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any questions? Thank you. Next speaker please.
Mr. Nakamura: Last registered speaker is JoAnn Yukimura. I'm
sorry. Cathy Ham Young. I'm sorry.
CATHY HAM YOUNG: Good evening. Aloha. Good afternoon. Mahalo for
everything. That's all I want to say ,because Bill and Jennie has already said what
needs to be mentioned. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart, and I know
that my dad will be so happy to see the work that's happening. There are so many
activities going on there right now and I hope that it won't be overtaken before we
get the money. As I see, we have so many problems there right now. We have not
enough parking space, people are just overrun by everybody, and at one point they
wanted to close a part of the beach which allows... Right now, all the older people
are getting out to enjoy the sunset and do whatnot. I have no problem for that. I
have seen good behavior. As I see, we are trying to help the county because I know
of lack of funds that they have and trying to support the workers there and trying to
do the best they can. So I've been trying to tell everybody whatever rubbish you
have, please take it home, take all the bottles and cans, because you can make
money, and that's where I make money too. So I'd like to thank the Bill Chase and
Jennie because of the hard work, and Barbara Robeson and all the rest of the
workers, and all of you people, mahalo too much. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Last speaker please.
Mr. Nakamura: Next speaker is JoAnn Yukimura.
JOANN YUKIMURA: Councilmembers, JoAnn Yukimura for the record.
Thank you for this opportunity to speak in favor of bill 2349. I speak both as the
director of Kauai Public Land Trust and as an individual citizen. Every summer
during my childhood, our family camped on Hanalei Bay or somewhere in Ha`ena.
Perhaps we were among the first vacation rental users. I learned how to dive from
Hanalei pier, and every day we would swim and fish and snorkel all day long, and
then we would play cards and music all night. I could not ask for a more wonderful
childhood memory as, and Chair Asing was here earlier, if I have memory, he has
5
far more and same as Aunty Cathy, also Councilmember Furfaro, and I'm sure
every one of you has some memories of Hanalei Bay, and the many, many local
people and residents have used that park for years. It forms part of their fabric of
life. So and then we have the visitors, countless visitors, who use that park. Fast
forwarding to the present, I remember the dismay that the Kauai Public Land
Trust board felt when the fences went up around the Hodge property. We thought
we had lost that property forever. The lot is available today, still for purchase by
the county, so I want to thank you, Chair Asing and Council Vice Chair Furfaro, for
introducing this bill which will enable us to finalize all of the moneys and which will
enable us to save the Legacy Land moneys, the 800,000 that the state will be
contributing toward this purchase. I also want to thank budget
chair Kaneshiro and Chair Asing and Council Vice Chair for accelerating the
timetable for the committee meeting and Council meeting next week, and I want to
thank the entire Council for the earlier passage of the $1.85 million. Without that,
we wouldn't be where we are today. And finally, thank you to the heroic staff who
has had to scramble and help us, and all of those who has had to scramble with all
of these difficult timetables. I also want to thank John Hodge the owner of the
property who is making the property available at a hugely discounted price. It is
community-minded landowners like Mr. Hodge who is making it possible for Kauai
Public Land Trust to secure and expand places of heart, which is our mission, for
present and future generations. Finally, mahalo to Mayor Carvalho and his
administration for the support of this effort. And lastly, actually, I want to thank
the colleagues on the Kauai Public Land Trust board for their tireless efforts.
Future generations will thank each one of you for approving bill 2349 and it will be
a legacy that you can truly be proud of. Thank you very much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: .Thank you. Any questions for JoAnn?
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. It's been my privilege.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Is there anyone else who hasn't had an opportunity
to speak that would like to make comment or public hearing on this matter? Seeing
none, public hearing is now adjourned.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:52 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
P ERA. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
r
6
PUBLIC HEARING
APRIL 14, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday, April 14,
2010, at 2:00 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice
Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2347 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
ORDINANCE NO. B-2009-690, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE
OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF Kauai, STATE OF Hawaii,
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2010, BY
REVISING THE OPERATING BUDGET OF THE OFFICE OF THE
COUNTY AUDITOR IN THE GENERAL FUND ($16,444 for relocation of the
Office of the County Auditor),
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on March 3, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on March 19, 2010.
There being no one present to testify on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:02 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
~~ ~ ,lam
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
~ ~ • •
PUBLIC HEARING
APRIL 14, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Jay Furfaro, Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, April 14, 2010,
at 1:49 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street,
Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the. following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2350 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
CHAPTER 8, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, RELATING TO ZONING
DESIGNATION IN WAIMEA, KAUAI (C. Ahko Inc., et al., Applicant),
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on March 17, 2010, and published in The Garden Island
newspaper on March 25, 2010.
The hearing proceeded as follows:
WALTON HONG: Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of the
Council. -For the record, my name is Walton Hong, representing the Applicant, C.
Ahko Inc. With me in the audience is Dr. Ahko, who is the president of C. Ahko
Inc., and his wife Diane. We really don't have anything to say. I think the record
speaks for itself. What we're trying to do is have this lot owned by the Ahko family
for literally decades rezoned from Open to R-4. For some reason in 1972 when the
comprehensive zoning ordinance was enacted, this lot is immediately next to the
Waimea Park, and this lot and the park were the only parcels of record left Open
zoned. Everything around there was zoned residential R-4. I suspect the reason for
that was in case the park needed expansion, it will be easier to expand the park
with an open zoning designation than to condemn, if you will, a residential zoned
lot. The record will show the parks and recreation has indicated that they have no
plans or desire to expand the park, because of its limited use at the present time.
And all we're asking is that we get the same zoning as everybody else in the area,
., ..
and that's about it in a nutshell. I'll be glad to respond to any questions which you
may have.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. I think some of us have in fact read the
planning commission's review, and references this as continue as a passive park.
This is a public hearing, so we won't be going through the particulars, but let me see
if there is any councilmembers, for the public hearing before this goes back to my
committee, that have any questions. None? Thank you ~Mr. Hong. Is there anyone
else in the audience that would like to speak on this item? Okay, please come
right up.
JUAN WILSON: My name is Juan Wilson. I live in Hanapepe
Valley. I'm somewhat aware of this project in that I was trying to assist some
people with...were looking into the benefits and disadvantages of rezoning this area
R-4. The use of this land is as open space land. There's a horse on it, there's
grazing areas, there's rural type uses of it. It's the kind of use I would want to see
happening in Hanapepe Valley...excuse me, in Waimea Valley, in that it is
something that could easily be... something we'll need more of, and that is land that
is useful for growing food, it's in a valley; it's near water. Making this a dense
urban area will be very profitable to the family that owns it. I don't think it will be
in the benefit of the community in general to have more hard surface in that area.
There is a flooding issue there. It's low land, there are neighbors that have
problems when water is high, and this will require more runoff and more fill and
less natural use of the landscape than there is now. Thank you very much.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Wilson. Anybody else in the
audience? If not, I'm going to call this public hearing to a close, and this will be
reposted in the planning committee in a future date.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
,.
• •
PUBLIC HEARING
APRIL 14, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday, April 14,
2010, at 1:55 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice
Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
1. BILL NO. 2351 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2009-690 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR
THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2010, BY
REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED
IN THE SEWER FUND (<$171,957>-Unappropriated Surplus Fund
Equity; <$171,957>-SRF Loan Payments),
2. BILL NO. 2352 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2009-690 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR
THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2010, BY
REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED
IN THE GENERAL FUND (Solid Waste Fund),
3. BILL NO. 2353 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2009-690 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR
THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2010, BY
REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED
IN THE GENERAL FUND (Golf Fund),
which were approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on March 17, 2010, and published in The Garden Island
newspaper on March 25, 2010.
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The following communication was received for the record:
• Bruce Cunningham (undated), regarding Bill No. 2353.
There being no one present to testify on these matters, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
'~,.\
P\ETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
• •
PUBLIC HEARING
APRIL 14, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Lani T. Kawahara, Chair, Parks/Transportation Committee, on Wednesday,
April 14, 2010, at 2:03 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building,
4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2354 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
SECTION 19-1.3 AND SECTION 19-1.4 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY
CODE 1987, AS AMENDED RELATING TO PARKS AND RECREATION,
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on March 17, 2010, and published in The Garden Island
newspaper on March 25, 2010.
Ms. Kawahara: Mr. Clerk, can you tell me if we have any written
testimony?
Mr. Nakamura: We have two written testimonies that were
submitted, and we've circulated earlier testimony.
The following communications were received for the record:
1) Fran S. Azeka, DVM, dated April 13, 2010
2) Roberta McBride, dated April 14, 2010
3) Wendy Raebeck email, dated April 13, 2010
4) Marta & Jeff Hulsman email, dated April 13, 2010
5) Carolyn Lum email, dated April 13, 2010
6) AnnMarie Hamilton email, dated April 13, 2010
7) Barbara Gail Liddle email, dated April 13, 2010
8) Tammi Oshiro email, dated April 13, 2010
9) Email from ottoson@hawaiiantel,net, dated April 13, 2010
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10) Judith A. Buckley email, dated April 13, 2010
11) Ashley LaRusso email, dated April 13, 2010
12) Amy Chun email, dated April 13, 2010
13) Lilly, Sam, & Kiwi Dowling email, dated April 12, 2010
14) Cheryl Lee Kubota email, dated April 12, 2010
15) Stacy Iwai email, dated April 12, 2010
16) Paula Alquiza email, dated April 12, 2010
17) Tigerlilly Zietz email, dated April 12, 2010
18) Tracy Majerik email, dated April 12, 2010
19) Jan Underhill email, dated April 12, 2010
20) Tonci Hoshide email, dated April 12, 2010
21) Leilani Sim-Godbehere, D.V.M. email, dated April 12, 2010
22) Sally Armstrong email, dated April 12, 2010
23) Audrey Bokes email, dated April 12, 2010
24) Darlene Nena Costales email, dated April 12, 2010
25) Marjorie Lewis email, dated April 12, 2010
26) Jodi Matsumoto email, dated April 12, 2010
27) Jack Yatsko email, dated April 12, 2010
28) Nancy Lindeman email, dated April 12, 2010
29) Rick Shaw email, dated April 12, 2010
30) Norman Sagar email, dated April 12, 2010
31) Pat Finberg email, dated April 12, 2010
32) JJ Leininger email, dated April 12, 2010
33) Corinne McCabe email, dated April 12, 2010
34) Marilyn Mach email, dated April 12, 2010
35) Elaine Schaefer email, dated April 12, 2010
36) Ranaella Steinberg, DVM email, dated April 12, 2010
37) Natalie Haneberg email, dated April 12, 2010
38) Robert and Judy Smith email, dated April 12, 2010
39) Susie Wood email, dated April 12, 2010
40) Richard Emens email, dated April 12, 2010
41) Bob and Maria Prosser email, dated April 12, 2010
42) J. Christal Krysler email, dated April 12, 2010
43) Donna Rice email, dated April 12, 2010
44) Ruthie Schultz email, dated April 12, 2010
45) Nicki Pignoli email, dated April 12, 2010
46) Yen Upson email, dated April 12, 2010
47) Ginny Merdes email, dated April 12, 2010
48) Barbara Wiedner email, dated April 12, 2010
49) Sarah Bernston email, dated April 12, 2010
50) Sandy Thomas email, dated April 12, 2010
51) Joy Ortiz-Zimmer email, dated April 12, 2010
52) Phil Fudge email, dated April 12, 2010
53) Daniel Schmidt email, dated April 12, 2010
54) Julie Black email, dated April 12, 2010
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55) Ginger Hilke email, dated April 12, 2010
56) Ron Margolis email, dated April 12, 2010
57) Erik Pendleton email, dated April 12, 2010
58) A. Larry Wharton email, dated April 12, 2010
59) Fran McDonald email, dated April 12, 2010
60) Mindy Smith email, dated April 12, 2010
61) Larry smith email, dated April 12, 2010
62) Sunny-Wyanne Bunyan email, dated April 12, 2010
63) Andrew Vea email, dated April 12, 2010
64) Tom & Kelly McGannon email, dated April 12, 2010
65) Email from djohnson57@hawaii.rr.com, dated April 12, 2010
66) Tennille Melcher email, dated April 12, 2010
67) Suzanne Thompson Pond email, dated April 12, 2010
68) Kevin & Kathleen Case email, dated April 12, 2010
69) Robert Nesti email (2), dated April 11, 2010
70) Coreen Sarabia email, dated April 11, 2010
71) Gina Calisher email, dated April 11, 2010
72) Junior Illanez email, dated April 11, 2010
73) Kumi Fisher email, dated April 11, 2010
74) Cherie Pipkin email, dated April 11, 2010
75) Tony Sarabia email, dated April 11, 2010
76) Rev. Caroline Miura email, dated April 4, 2010
77) Roberta McBride email, dated April 4, 2010
78) Colin Marsh email, dated April 4, 2010
79) Anne Pecoff email, dated April 4, 2010
80) Marcella Marsh email, dated April 4, 2010
81) Elaine Valois email, dated march 27, 2010
82) Chad Pacheco, President, Kauai Search and Rescue, dated April 12,
2010
83) Julie Werner email, dated April 14, 2010
84) Carlos Jorge email, dated April 14, 2010
85) Melissa Mojo email, dated April 14, 2010
86) Dr. Becky Rhoades, Executive Director, Kauai Humane Society, email,
dated April 14, 2010
87) Jennifer Linton Bloom email, dated April 14; 2010
88) Barbara Gibbs email, dated April 14, 2010
89) Laura Skrbec email, dated April 14, 2010
90) John Burger email, dated April 14, 2010
91) Blake and Sandy Salmers email, dated April 13, 2010
92) Katalin Terdik email, dated April 13, 2010
93) Danie McReynolds email, dated April 13, 2010
94) Walter Zentgraf email, dated April 13, 2010
95) Rosalie Gordon email, dated April 12, 2010
• •
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, and prior to that? We have 118 written
testimonies as public...on the public log. Is that correct? Okay. I just want to
mention, then. Okay, so we're here today to discuss the dogs on the multi-use path.
I wanted to take this moment before I ask for public testimony to share with you
that we do have 118 pieces of testimony in support of dogs on the path that we've
already received, and the clerk has told us that we've received two other testimonies
today. Let me also mention, and I want to explain this, because there's been a lot of
questions about the survey which was on our communications today. I was hoping
to get the survey to the public today; however, the parks director asked for a
deferral. So with that, I know there are a lot of questions, and I apo...I do want to
tell you that we've been working hard with the director of parks to try and get that
to you. I want to share with you exactly what the council is doing, because I think
we all do know that this ordinance is going to be expiring May 31, so it's very time
intensive. I want to share with you that I went as the chair for that committee,
went to a February 25 meeting where I was able to see the survey, and in
consequent meetings, I didn't want to discuss it because I wanted the department
director to bring it up. So again, we are waiting for that report. So on February 25
I went to that meeting, and soon after that, it was another meeting or discussion on
the side, the director and his deputy had told me that they would be submitting a
request to come in front of council within the first week of March. So when it came
around to the first week of March, during the second week of March we hadn't
received anything, I submitted a request to them officially...well, first I think I
officially just emailed them and said, well I was expecting this to come and it hasn't
arrived, will you be able to present it as we discuss, and the answer was, no we have
not, and they were ready to...waiting to distribute the entire package regarding this
matter. Now what the entire package is is the survey itself, and I believe the
recommendations and the plans that the director and the recreation department
want to take on this particular ordinance. So all in all, what I've been asking for is
the survey, but in deferring to the director, he has always said that he wants to
have it as a package.
I again asked on March 18, at the suggestion of fellow councilmembers to
send an official memo to the director and to the department and administration
requesting that if we could please get the survey, because I do think it's important
for the public to be able to view that, and there have been so many questions about
it, including people that were on the task force that have worked really hard, really
hard on it. So on March 18 an official, more official document was sent to request if
they could please, as it relates to this chapter 19, section, article, blah, blah, blab
that we are facing a trial period deadline on May 31, could I please see it.
On April 12, within the council itself, I've asked my fellow councilmembers,
again talking and relating about the deadline that if they have any amendments or
any concerns, could they please bring it up with our staff so we could work on
amendments prior to hitting the committee date. This is the public hearing. The
next one would be the committee date. So I again am preparing...trying to prepare
• •
us so that we're ready to go, because I really...this is an important piece of
legislation for a lot people. And yesterday at 7 p.m. we received a request from
administration and the director to defer sharing the shared use path survey again.
Their request is to present it together with the recommendations from the
department. So I was a bit disappointed at that, but I...what I can do is request,
and what the administration does is up to them. So I wanted to be sure that
everybody understood that, and I'm seeing that there are a lot of people there, and
they weren't people that testified in the previous public hearings, so I am wondering
if we have any people signed up. Oh, let me suspend the rules, and...
Mr. Furfaro: Before you suspend the rules, may I have moment
of personal privilege?
Ms. Kawahara: Sure, Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. There are 118 people that have
responded that I've picked up on my email, and I'm guilty of only answering
about 17 of them, okay. So I want to make clear, if any of you have them... We are
in the heat of budget, and every day we have new items that come up, including
today's concern from the governor on the funding of the employee health system. So
for those of you who have my response at this time, please feel free to share it. On
the second note, I want to make clear in my mind here that the chairwoman, we are
not talking about working on the bill before we get the presentation, because in my
email response, I've made it very clear how I'm feeling about it, but I wanted to
reserve final comment until I saw the presentation. So I just want to make sure I
understand that's your intent-not to work on the bill in advance of the
presentation, but when we get the presentation.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah. I was hoping, again, to have the
presentation so that we could discuss it and hopefully we would have information to
help us work on the bill.
Mr. Furfaro: Well Councilwoman, I want to thank you for the
moment of personal privilege, and I'm sorry I can't get to all of you at this time, but
feel free to share for those of you that have heard from me. So thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Councilmember Furfaro. I believe
Councilmember Kawakami had his hand up. No? Okay, Councilmember Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: I just... if we're going to talk about clarity, I want
to be clear also that it is...this is a difficult time for the council because of just our
routine business is pretty intense. It was originally my intention and hope to
introduce this bill in January, so we could be done before the budget process, but
the request was to collaborate with parks department. And in the meeting, they
announced their intention to send communication to the council for a presentation
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on March 17, and I, in collaboration, introduced the bill on March 17. I thought
that be really nice, we'd hear from the parks department, we'd have the bill on the
agenda. So just to add that a little bit. So I'm glad that Councilmember Kawahara
gave a timeline. And in fairness to parks department, you know, it's common to ask
for deferrals to get everything lined up. So what should happen is next week this
bill will move into committee where we begin deliberation, and we'll have the
presentation, and hopefully the order will be as you said, Mr. Furfaro, with the
presentation prior to the committee work. So thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Councilmember Bynum. Again, I just
want to restate though that there is supposed to be an evaluation to consider the
outcome of the data collection prior to the expiration of the trial period, which
was...which is the intent of the ordinance, and I'm sure the intent of the
administration, and definitely my intent to be able to be ready and ahead of that
expiration date. I do have... I think I'm going to suspend the rules now, and I have
a list here of ...oh, I just got it...of 18 speakers signed up, and if I could get some
guidance and actually just overview of how many minutes each person can get.
Mr. Nakamura: Yes, Committee Chair. It's three minutes per
person. What we can do is call the name of the person who's up to testify and the
person following them.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you. So is everybody aware of that
parameter? So three minutes and...because it is such a long list, we will be sure to
get through all the people on the list, so we'll do the three minutes. If you could
call... And I'm going to suspend the rules, and if we could go ahead. Thanks.
The hearing proceeded as follows:
RON WILEY: For the record, I'm Ron Wiley, I can't help it.
Thank you. Thanks to all of you. I don't know if I can fill three minutes. Can I talk
for three minutes? I'll do my best. First of all, I want to acknowledge this full
house here. This was formerly Hale Kauai; today it could be Hale Ilio-dog house?
Maybe. Thank you so much, and your difficulties are acknowledged. This group of
people all have jobs. Some of them have two jobs, or some are retired, and so they
have difficulties too. It's a difficult time. Tomorrow's tax deadline. People are here,
they have something to say, they want to thank you, I think. I believe many of
them will thank you for this trial period, a very wise thing actually. To me that
trial period has proven beyond a shadow of doubt, including this past Sunday
when 200 people and their dogs, not more than two each, maybe we'll say
conservatively 250, 275 dogs, all at once proved that they can walk on the path with
bicyclers and walkers, many not knowing what was going on on Sunday, without an
incident. I want to thank Lani Kawahara for being there, Tim Bynum, I know you
all have busy, busy lives, couldn't all be there. I know that Derek Kawakami...look
at that great body now, is running daily or close to it on the path. I'm glad to see
• •
him out there. Jay, you're invited to come take a walk with us some time. Oh Tim
also, as a matter of fact. A fantastic period, but it has... it cannot sunset. You must
not let this sunset. Folks now know clearly and concisely that they have a privilege
to walk their dogs, get their exercise, get it safely. Laura and I live in a place where
we can't walk safely, there are no sidewalks, there are no curbs, we walk our dogs in
the street. I'd hate to think about the liabilities there for the county, some day. But
thank you so much for your consideration. We appreciate what you're doing here
for us. Don't let this law sunset. And we can share the path. It's amulti-use path.
It will be used for travel, it will be used for exercise, it'll be used for walking our
dogs. Mahalo. Thank you.
MARCIA McPHAIL: Aloha County Councilmembers. For the record my
name is Marcia McPhail, and I just want to thank you all so much for the privilege
of being able to take my dog on the path. Just had my parents visiting me here for
four weeks from Boston. Dad's 80, Mom's 79, they're up at the crack of dawn, they
do their power walk, so I told them about the multi-use path, and they absolutely
loved it. I especially loved it because I went with them, and I got to take my dog.
It's a very special privilege and I don't want to lose it, and mahalo nui loa. I look
forward to the future of using the path in a responsible way. Mahalo.
JUDY XENOFOS: Aloha and thank you for this opportunity. My
name of course, you've heard it, it's Judy Xenofos. My dog's name is Tita, and I live
in Kapa`a. Where I live there are no sidewalks, there are potholes and a gutter.
There are cars all the time behind us and swinging around us. The only safe place
where I can walk and have my dog walk with me is on that pathway. And I have to
let you know I don't usually talk about this, but I am mobility impaired. Here I use
a cane to get in and out from my car to the building. On the path I use a walker. It
allows me to walk far and faster than with a cane. There is no other place that I
know of where I can go with my walker and my dog and walk on a flat, paved, wide
path where I feel safe, where there are no cars, no fumes. The only thing that ever
gets in my way is a wild chicken, and nobody's making any stink about the
chickens, and neither am I. That pathway has definitely improved my health. My
doctor's orders are to keep moving and to keep walking, and that's the only place
where I can go and walk continuously. And with my walker, if I tire, I can pull
over, put the little seat down on it, rest for a few minutes, and then continue. I see
many, many other elderly people. I see other people who are disabled, and I think
also important is that I see tourists. There are lots and lots of tourists who walk on
that path or ride their bikes that they rent, and I cannot tell you how many times I
have been stopped by them and asked permission to let my dog be petted, because
they miss their dogs back home. I think it's good public relations, it's good for
health, it's good for seniors, and we all, all the dog walkers that I have seen, are
very, very considerate. We stay to one side, we pick up the poop, I even pick up
chunks of glass that I see in the grass or on the pathway. I think it's a very
important thing to continue the use for dogs, and I hope, I pray, and I beg please let
this keep going. Thank you.
• •
JONI LESSER-BENTON: Thank you for allowing me to speak on this
particular topic. My name is Joni Lesser-Benton. I'm a licensed clinical social
worker, and I'm a member of the health and mental health communities on this
island. I have personal experience, not only emotional health, but managed to
keep...lose and keep off 12 pounds in the last 18 months. My physician is happy.
My husband is happy. And my Jack Russell Terrier is also happy. In fact, she is
deemed one of the most calm Jack Russell Terriers that people have ever met, and I
believe this is in part because not only of our clear guidance with her, attention and
nutritious food, but because she receives plenty of daily exercise. And I can only
think that the efforts to allow us to encourage our population to participate in
physically and emotionally healthy activities can promote good health in a time
when medical attention is so limited in our area. And I thank you for your time,
your consideration, and hope that you will continue to encourage good mental and
physical health in our community by extending the use of this pathway for our dogs
and the rest of our community. Thank you.
JAN WOO: Good afternoon. Thank you very much for seeing
and talking with all of us. My name is Jan Woo, and as you can see, I walked on
Sunday and I walk on the path weekly with my dog, and it's a wonderful privilege to
be able to walk on that path. I thank you all for allowing this temporary period of
time, and I ask very strongly that it be continued for health reasons, for dog
reasons, and for everyone's ability to meet new people and to participate. Thank
you very much.
Mr. Chang: Excuse me. Madam Chair, can I make a suggestion
please?
Ms. Kawahara: Are you going to talk about the mike?
Mr. Chang: Yes.
Ms. Kawahara: Please.
Mr. Chang: I was just going to say that because we're in a new
building and this is the largest group of people we've had, we're testing this
ourselves also, so if the speakers can get a little bit closer to the microphone, I think
everybody can hear, including our staff and councilmembers. Thank you. Thank
you Madam Chair. (Inaudible from the audience.) You sound like you don't need
a microphone.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Councilmember Chang.
ELLIS BROOKS: Good afternoon everybody. Is that close enough?
My name's Ellis Brooks, and I'm here representing myself. I live in Koloa. I'd like
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to thank everyone responsible for getting the initial trial period going, so we could
have a chance to see how it worked, have an opportunity to have folks walking their
dogs. I personally don't get over to it very often. I was there Sunday. It was a
beautiful day, beautiful thing to see, people out there playing around, roller skating,
jogging, and walking their dogs. I really came here with no intention to speak and
no prepared comments other than I'm wholeheartedly in favor of a bill that will
extend the right, the privilege to walk dogs along the full path...the full length of
the path. Responsible dog owners should be allowed to walk their dogs along there.
I don't have any statistics, but I can tell you from personal experience, I know this
ain't the mainland, thank God, that's why I live here, but I traveled to the mainland
occasionally, I've been on dozens of similar paths in cities and States all across the
country. I've never been on one that didn't allow dogs. When I'm there, I'm one of
the tourists that an earlier speaker spoke of, missing my dogs, and petting the dogs
of other people walking their dogs along the multi-use paths around our nation. I'd
just like to ask...thank everybody again and ask you to please do what you can to
pass the bill. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Mr. Brooks. If I could take a moment
while the next person's coming up. If everybody could remember to turn off their
cell phones? I've heard two go off within the last three minutes. Thank you,
CHERYL KANZLER: Good afternoon. Thank you for allowing me to
speak on behalf of Mr. Lucky, my dog. I bring a little different perspective here
about the safety of walking where I live up in the homesteads. There are no
sidewalks, etc., but in addition, a lot of people up there let their dogs run free. I
always walk my dog on a leash. He was attacked by a Rottweiler, and tumbled, and
I got in there and tried to separate them. So I became very nervous about walking
my dog on leash and realized that down on the bike path it's very safe for us there.
No one there abuses the privilege. Everybody keeps their dogs on leash, and I find
it rather interesting to me that this is a big issue, and I understand that, but I also,
so many times I see dogs running free in the county parks down there, and they're
off leash and they're big dogs, and I never do that, and there doesn't seem to be a lot
of attention paid to that when those dogs are running free, or when I go up on a
hiking trail, dogs are all off leash up there running free, and we all follow the rules.
We're on 6-foot leash, we have our poop bags, we're scooping and pooping and
picking up, and yet when I go to some parks, I see them all running free, but nobody
seems to care. So I really urge you to allow us with this privilege. We're all doing
the best we can to take care of our dogs, clean up after us, and for me, it's a safety
thing for my dog too. So thank you very much.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Ms. Kanzler.
CHERYL KUBOTA: Good afternoon, I'm Cheryl Kubota. I see a lot of
familiar faces here. I want to thank you for letting use the multi-use
path...bringing our dogs. I actually got...I have two dogs now. I'm one of the daily
• •
users that either bicycle or walk our dogs, and I've lost 25 pounds doing it too, so get
out there and exercise. It's really nice to see that many people out. I used to walk
with my girlfriend June Layosa, who's a ex-police officer, when it was still cane road
with a lot of potholes, very deserted. We were like...I could count less than 10
people out there, so I would never go alone before. But now I feel, you know, it's
safe, because there's so many people, it's visible, it's kept real manicured, pretty
much manicured. And I... my husband wanted to come, however he's working hard
at Pono Market, Ken Kubota, and so we... On behalf of my husband and myself, we
humbly and we respectfully request that you pass this bill, and I stand by my
testimony sent in via email. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Ms. Kubota.
Ms. Kubota: Thank you for your time and consideration.
GLORIA NAKEA: Hi, my name is Gloria Nakea. My husband and I
and my daughter Christiane, we participated in the walk on Sunday. It was
beautiful. As it's been said before, there were no incidences of any kind of dog
biting or aggression. I must say, we live in the homesteads, and I do not feel safe
walking my dog, climbing Sleeping Giant, or even walking the neighborhoods. I've
had three dogs since we've been living on Kauai for the past 30 something years,
and two of them have been attacked by other dogs while I was walking in my
neighborhood while in the homesteads up on the roads there. So I feel very safe
walking on the path. Now we can't walk our dogs at Lydgate, which is a beautiful
place to be. That saddens me. The only place left, actually, is that beautiful
multi-purpose path. It is a blessing to this island. I've always felt that from the
very beginning, and now I urge you please to pass this bill and give us all the
happiness that we can enjoy and we can expect living in paradise here with our
dogs. Thank you very much.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you.
DR. KA`ANI BLACKWELL: Aloha. My name is Dr. B, or Ka`ani
Blackwell. I have the privilege of living and working here on Kauai. I'm a
university professor in teacher education and have been a... am a permanent in
Kapa`a. We have two cats and a dog. The cats could care less about the bike path,
but the dog thinks he owns it, and with that ownership comes responsibility. Not
only do we pick up after him, but my dog somehow, named Lucky `ilio, has taught
his master, which is my husband Paul Blackwell, into taking a cloth and cleaning
spray and using lots of elbow grease and removing graffiti from all the white
guardrails. He does that every time. We're hoping that people will learn here on
this island to love our `aina and respect that bike path, but until a lot of the hands
that are sort of not busy learn that. We as dog owners are very responsible and
proud people with regard to that bike path. It's part of the community, it's part of
ownership, and it's part of responsibility. I hope that you will seriously think about
i •
making this a permanent bill 'that allows the dogs and the owners to use that
pathway. It is criminal almost to not do so. Thank you very much.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you doctor.
RANDY BLAKE: Aloha. I'm Dr. Randy Blake. I want to thank you
all for allowing me to come and give my testimony. I am also the executive director
of Kauai Path, and we have a vested interest in building paths and pathways for
both people and bicyclists. At our last board meeting we passed a resolution in
support of this bill. We think it's prudent that we go ahead and open the multi-use
pathway for its entire length at one time, instead of having to come back, and as
different segments open, approach the council for permission to bring our dogs on
the path at that point. So I think the concept of getting this passed so that we have
the ordinance stated that as the shared use pathway expands and grows from
Kapa`a to Lihu`e that we don't have to come back and address this issue each time
as new segments open up. Secondly, as a medical doctor, we are finding, the
evidence is becoming clear, I think you can see from testimony today also the people
are getting healthier using this pathway. We also are finding medical evidence to
support the people who have their dogs with them are more likely to walk with their
dogs than if they choose a upright human companion...two-footed human
companion. So we can say that it be nice if we just had people with walking
buddies, but we're finding out that the four-legged walking buddies do a better job
in getting us out on the path and exercising us versus some of the two-legged
companions that somehow make excuses and don't show up. I also have a dog,
Cesar, and Cesar is...also believes he owns that part of the pathway. As he rides
down from Kapahi, he is in fits of excitement. He is in joy, whining until that door
opens and he can get on his leash and start walking me down the path. So I want to
thank this opportunity to come before the council. I want to thank Councilman
Bynum for his putting this resolution or this bill in front of the council, and I want
you to know that we're...I'm in overwhelming support of it from a personal reason
and from a public health standpoint. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Dr. Blake, the study that you spoke about about
people doing much better and keeping up and maintaining their exercise routine
with dogs...
Dr. Blake: Yeah, we've posted reference to that on the Kauai
Path. The website, if you'd like, I can get copies and submit it as testimony for the
council.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Dr. Blake: Thank you.
•
PATTI SEARS: I'M Patti Sears for the record, and thank you so
much for opening this path up as a trial period for the period it has been. I've
regularly been on the path with my little Shitzu-Malteses and feel very, very safe
walking them there, where I don't feel safe walking them any old place on this
island. They're small little dogs, 10 pounds and under, and it's just not safe walking
a little tiny dog any old place on this island. I was out there Sunday myself also,
walking with about 200 plus other dogs and their owners. It went very smooth.
The only fecal matter I saw on the path was from chickens, and we were out there
picking that up. We're trying to keep it as clean as we can. I've been the path many
times. It's very, very clean. We're picking up litter, everything that's that's along
there that's not supposed to be there. Everything went smooth. All the dogs got
along. It was a social thing. You see your friends walking on the path. You
exercise two miles each way, four miles roundtrip. I lost weight, 10 pounds already
walking that path. It's a health issue. I wouldn't go on the path and leave my little
dogs at home. I'd feel guilty. I could never go out for exercise and leave my little
doggie sitting there looking through the window knowing they want to go too and
they need exercise too. Thank you very much for your time. I urge that you keep
this path open for all the island people to use. We really, really need this. My sister
goes camping on the mainland every weekend in their fifth-wheeler. They take
their two little dogs with them. They're allowed to go on all the county parks; they
just have to be on a leash. It works very smoothly. Families get out. They enjoy
the outdoors more, and we need that healthy kind of environment here. Thank you
for your time.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Ms. Sears.
HOLLY RUDINOFF: Hi, I'm Holly Rudinof£ Thank you, and I just want
you all to know I have two daughters and a dog, and this whole process of the dog
path being open for the 18 months, it's a learning thing for my girls, and oh boy will
they be upset if they can't walk their dogs on the path. So I just want to thank you
and this whole process, and I sure hope to see it pass, and you know, I'm a nurse on
the island also and I do know the therapy of walking your. dog, and I just want to
thank you. So I'll make it quick because I know there's more after me.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Holly.
EDWIN GUTIERREZ: Good afternoon. My name is Edwin Gutierrez, and
my wife Diane and I just recently moved to the island of Kauai in January of this
year, and we stay up in the Kapahi area. And as you can see, I'm two days early
from Aloha Friday, so please forgive me for my attire. I am an aspiring electrical
contractor here on the island; I'm in the process of getting my license, and I'm also a
Christian pastor. We own three dogs, three big dogs, and we are responsible dog
owners, along with our colleagues here today, and we love our dogs. And I've
noticed a lot of the folks on the island, they keep their dogs locked up in cages in the
backyards. Well you know, our dogs love inside and they're big dogs. You know,
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they're all 100-pound dogs. So with that, I just want to point out some bullet points
for you all to consider, which will be greatly appreciated. Number one, there is a
park close to where we live. We live close to the Otsuka place...furniture place up
in Kawaihau, and...but guess what, there's no dogs allowed up there on the park.
So you know, we respect the laws and stuff, and walking... I would prefer to walk
my dogs around my neighborhood, but my wife, she's the one, she's the dog walker,
you know, and she likes to go down to the beach. But for her sake, you know, there
are a lot of unexpected dangers, just like everybody already said them, echoing what
everybody has said about there's no sidewalks, there's lots of potholes, and not only
that, there's...you know, there might be a loose dog running around, you know, and
they just come up to you and you don't know how they're going to act. And also, you
know, a lot of cars, the roads up there are narrow, you know, and we, you know, you
want to walk opposite traffic so you can see if a car is going to hit you, at least, you
know, so you can get out of its way. And like I said, there's no designated sidewalks
or walking areas. On the dog path by the beach, that's a controlled area at least,
and like everybody's saying, it's a safe place to walk, and everybody, you know,
keeps the dogs on leashes, whatnot, and obeys all of the signs, and I think we have
more serious issues than, you know, trying to decide whether we should keep this
dog path passed or not, you know. So with that, I thank you for your time and
consideration. Aloha.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. Thank you for coming down.
DR. BECKY RHOADES: Aloha. This is Dr. Becky Rhoades speaking on
behalf... or on behalf of the Kauai Humane Society, thank you for allowing me to
testify. You know, when you think of dogs on Kauai, and there are issues with dogs
on Kauai, we're the organization that's called nine times out of 10. One of the
things that this trial period we were hoping would do and has done is created a
huge awareness, promotion, and education of good dog stewardship to our
community. More people know about leash law, more people know about dog
licensing, more people know about the responsibility picking up poop. You know,
it's been huge, and that was why one of the big reasons for wanting to have this
allowed in public on the multi-use path is to promote good dog stewardship. Kauai
has a rural nature to it, a semi-rural nature to it, yet we live in high dense areas,
but people think they live in the country, so they let their dogs run loose like they
live in the country, which is not even appropriate for living in the country. We have
a lot of work to do. This is really helping. The trial period has shown. Throughout
the trial period we have experienced good voluntary compliance of the rules by dog
owners, excellent monitoring and management of dog waste by the volunteers and
staff, adequate enforcement of the new rules related to the dogs, and strong support
for responsible dog walking on the path by the community. We want it on all
multi-use paths, county designated multi-use paths. You start creating no dog
zones, dog zones okay, no dog zones on a shared use path system, it's really
confusing, very confusing to the public without... It's just so confusing. And then
what happens as a result is good dog stewardship is punished, and it's the model
•
we're trying to create. There could be a good dog person, has it responsibly leashed
poop bag, 6-foot leash, doing the right thing, but they get punished because they're
in the no dog zone. We've shown it can work. We strongly encourage on behalf of
our membership of 2,000 Kauai people at the Kauai Humane Society and also on
behalf of serving as the county dog control agency, we strongly urge you to pass this
ordinance and allow responsible dog walking on the county multi-use path.
Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Dr. Becky.
Mr. Furfaro: Chairwoman, I had a question for the doctor.
Ms. Kawahara: Dr. Becky, if you could come back up? Thank you.
Councilmember has a question.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Dr. Rhoades. I just wanted to check in
with you on one particular issue. I mean you and I have already met. I think you
have seen my position, and certainly I don't think, as we look at these areas, we
have to come back every time. But I think there is other members of the community
that we have to, you know, recognize what some of their concerns are. And one of
those that seem... I've been on the path, despite what Ron said. In fact, my last
recent trip was with my daughter who was the LEED planner for Wilson Okamoto
who designed the path. But there seems to be an awful lot of confusion on the
signage. You know, when you talk about clarifying, I mean I certainly plan to share
that with the parks department. But would you concur with me that it's hard to
regulate because the signage is so difficult.
Dr. Rhoades: Right, and I think because it was a trial period,
maybe we didn't invest in the signage that we really needed to have. But the
community heard it as dogs are okay on the path, that's how they heard it. They
didn't hear it that it's only this part of the path, not this part of the path. There's
been a lot of tickets served, and it's tickets served to people that were being
responsible. We want tickets served to the irresponsible people, and I would love to
see the fine a thousand dollars. I don't care about the fine. I think the fines are
important, but we don't want to be punishing people that are doing the right thing.
And I think there are issues regarding State jurisdiction, county jurisdiction; we've
never got into that. We serve them no matter... as the... I serve citations myself. We
serve them whoever's jurisdiction, and we've won them in court, but the county
rangers only...once it reaches the beach, they don't want to touch them, and there's
loose dogs all over the beach, so it's very confusing. I think there's some work that
needs to be done. Collaborating with State, county, parks, KPD and the Humane
Society to help with it. But signage is a huge issue, but again, you know, I don't
know the answer to it, but if you start going no dog zone and dog zone, it's
confusing. It's really confusing. And I think we are responsible. I think that the
law works, the leash law, the 6-foot lead, the two dogs per person. The rules are
working, and the rules are good. During the trial period it was a good set of rules to
promote, and I think they're working and I think it could be shared.
Mr. Furfaro: Well thank you. I just wanted to get your opinion
on the confusion that exists in the current signage.
Dr. Rhoades: Yes, it's very...very bad.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Councilwoman.
Ms. Kawahara: Certainly. Oh; Councilmember Chang has a
question for you.
Mr. Chang: I also did have a question. During this trial period,
the Humane Society has a newsletter that you send out?
Dr. Rhoades: Yes.
Mr. Chang: Is that like quarterly?
Dr. Rhoades: Um-hmm.
Mr. Chang: So from the beginning of this trial period to
perhaps like the latest newsletter, have you been using that as a tool to educate,
and things are going right, and these are some of the things that, you know,
perhaps were asked or were not asked. I mean has that been an effective way of
publicly educating not only your association of 2,000, but people on Kauai
in general?
Dr. Rhoades: Absolutely. You know, we touch a lot of people
beyond... We touch a lot of people on Kauai. They call us for an animal issue.
We've been monitoring the path up `till...through about the end of February, we had
an officer out there every day, completing a report, some section of the path every
day. We do a lot of contact with the public and a lot of education through schools,
the newsletters, through activities at the Humane Society, love a dog day, as to the
event that just happened this past Sunday, to educate the public about what are the
responsibilities with dogs. I think that this has really worked to...I mean think
about the way it was before, okay. I mean that cane haul road, okay. Those dogs
manure everywhere, I almost said it, I'm sorry. Dog manure everywhere, loose dogs
everywhere. We still have some loose dog issues. I'm the first person to say it about
our residential areas and some of the beaches, but it's so much better. It's working,
and that's what we want to be promoting.
Mr. Chang: Thank you doctor. Thank you Chair.
u
u
Ms. Kawahara: Certainly. Thank you Dr. Becky.
Dr. Rhoades: Okay, thank you.
MICHELLE BLAKE: Good afternoon, I'm Dr. Michelle Blake. I'm a
retired physician. I'd like to thank you all for the privilege of having the trial with
the dogs. Many people don't realize it, but I am disabled, and walking with my
dog... excuse me.
Ms. Kawahara: Take your time.
0
Ms. Blake: ... is one of the few outdoor activities that I can
enjoy. It's much more enjoyable to walk with my dog. I feel safer with my dog. The
only problems that I've had on the path have been with unleashed dogs from
irresponsible dog owners, and that didn't happen because dogs were allowed on the
path. It happened because irresponsible dog owners are irresponsible regardless of
what conscientious dog owners are allowed to do. I encourage you to pass the law so
that it doesn't sunset, and that the privilege continues and is extended for the full
length of the path. It's better for the health of the community, is better for the dogs,
the dog's owners. It's certainly a showplace on Kauai for visitors to come here. And
despite the delays that you've had, I hope that you're prepared to act to pass this
law, even if you don't get the results or the report from the parks department,
because it's obvious to me that this is what the public wants-is to be able to have
their dogs legally on the path. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you.
BEV BRODY: Good afternoon and thank you for hearing my
testimony. My name is Bev Brody and I work for the University of Hawaii as the
get fit Kauai coordinator for the island of Kauai, and I'm here to strongly, strongly
urge you to please pass that bill that will allow dogs not only on the portion of the
path that is allowed now, but on the entire path, and Lydgate, and any other park
path that we're going to build on this island ever. And one of the reasons why...I
mean it's so obvious. I'm so touched by the people who have talked about...the lady
in the walker, that is amazing, her doctor has said you're doing something well.
This is a health matter, this is a fitness matter, this is... this is what's going to make
a healthy community, and our dogs have taken the place of personal trainers. One
lady said it and I'm going to agree is... and that it is... and Randy said it too, it is
very easy. If it is raining outside and you are scheduled for a walk and Tim Bynum
or someone is your partner, and they're like it's raining, yeah you're right, okay we
won't go, we won't go, and you don't go, and you can shove it off. But when you've
got afour-legged friend sitting there, you can't just shove that off quite as easily,
and when there is a safe place to walk, this is going to also encourage people to go
and walk. So I am totally in favor of dog walking on the path, the entire length of
the path, and I think that what we need to do and what you have the capacity of
doing is in order for Kauai to be the healthiest place, we need to remove barriers
from stopping this place from being healthy, not put them up. So I am urging you,
please pass this bill, fully, fully support this bill, do not let it sunset. It's too
important. And I also agree with the last speaker, if parks and rec doesn't come
through with this report, I think you've heard enough, you've had 118 other written
testimonies, this is how the county feels. Please pass it with or without that.
Thank you very much.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Bev.
AMALIA GRAY: Hi. My name's Amalia Gray, for the record. I'm
here in support of the dog path. I have a dog. We've been walking the trail since it
was a cane field for almost 10 years, and it's kept him really healthy. It's helped me
lose weight. We are very respectful to the other travelers on the path. Some people
have like friendlier dogs, and the dogs like to sniff each other and say hi, and the
people that know the limits of their dogs, they hold back and they have them on the
leash, and they're respectful of that. And I really hope this bill passes. I'm here to
represent some friends of mine that weren't able to come. A lot of new moms on the
path with their dogs helps, you know, get off that pregnancy weight and get us out
of the house. It's inspiring for my family to come and, you know, take the dog for a
walk while I'm trying to whatever, do laundry, and you can say oh go down to the
path, it's beautiful, take the dog. And so I'm glad that I was able to.make it today.
It shows how important it is to me and some friends of mine, and I just really hope
this bill doesn't sunset and that the dog path is expanded as the path is expanded to
all the way around the island one day, and it'd be great. So that's what I wanted to
say today. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you, and thank you for making time to
come down.
WENDY RAEBECK: Aloha, Wendy Raebeck. I obviously haven't been
out there lately. I don't really have... I just basically concur with everything
everybody said. I'm an avid user of the path. It's a whole society out there. It's
awesome. It's evolved into a really wonderful thing from, you know, just few people
to a very dedicated bunch of healthy animal loving energetic litter picker-upper
people, and you know, I think that this demographic dog owners is probably the
most important demographic of the path. We're, you know, like everybody said, I
mean our dogs won't let us not go. So we got to go, and we're always going to be out
there. And it's really important to... for us to have more access, because it, you
know, it's always going to be beautiful, but it gets a little tedious kind o£..you kind
of feel like you're doing laps after a while. So it would be...you know, we kind of
miss...there's so many places that we can't go, and once the path continues, we're
going to want, as the years go by, we're going to really want that variety. And I also
think that...I also think that it's going to be very taxing on the island at large if
there's only one place for dogs. It's going to be tough for parking, and it's just going
to make that one area like the dog area. So I think we really need to open it up. I
think everybody wi11...I think we're all going to look back and realize it's very, very,
very good, smart thing to do. So thank you. Thanks to listening to all of us.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Wendy. That's, I believe, the end of our
people that are signed up to speak, but I'm sure we have people still out there that
would like to speak. If so, please raise your hand and we'll recognize you when you
come up...or you recognize yourself.
KEN TAYLOR: Chair, members of the council, my name is Ken
Taylor. I have had dogs all my life until I came here to the island. I had to have my
dog put to sleep just before I left the mainland. I had him all ready to come,
and... anyway. I don't see in the near future that I will be getting a dog, but I've
been very supportive of the path ever since the beginning, and I've testified many
times in favor of the path. I've been totally shocked and surprised that there has
been any question that dogs should not be on the path. I just hope that you all will
see fit to move forward with approving whatever is necessary to open the path up
completely to all the responsible dog owners. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Ken. Anybody else? Please don't be
shy, and we're taking all statements. Thank you. I have another speaker.
All opinions...
SANDY TUTTMAN(sp?): Hi, my name is Sandy Tuttman. I'm a registered
voter and a dog owner, and I used the path before it was a path, and I've used the
path since, and I find that like many of the speakers today said it improves their
health. One thing that wasn't mentioned is the social opportunities it provides for
people on Kauai that are very limited unless you're attending bars or other places
of gathering. The dog park and the bike path are another really healthy place to
meet your people, other people in the community. And like one other speaker said, I
encourage you, despite the survey that we're awaiting on, to go ahead and really do
something really healthy and good for the community and brings people out
together. It...like other speakers said, the tourists love it. I can't go 50 yards with
my dog without tourists coming up going, oh your dog's so cute, I miss my dog.
They want to pet her. I mean I can barely get my walk in in time without all the
people stopping me to pet my dog. So like they said before, it encourages, you know,
the interaction with tourists and promoting our island, and if you like our dog park,
be sure to check out this park, or another thing. We have opportunities to promote
our island with the tourists. And so again, I encourage you to open the path all the
way up so we can all enjoy that beautiful coastline of Kauai. Thank you for
your time.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. Okay, anybody else? Seeing no hands,
I want to recognize all of the people that came, all of the people that stayed through,
and the people that have left for coming out to discuss this important issue in the
community. I do...I didn't. realize he was behind me, but I am very happy to see
Gary Heu here from the administration, and he has been listening. So we are
hopeful, again, that we will be able to get the stuff that we need to move forward.
Do my committee members of any councilmembers have any... anything...
Mr. Furfaro: This is a public hearing; we shouldn't have
discussion (inaudible).
Ms. Kawahara: Okay. And with that, nobody else wants to speak, I
will close the public hearing for the parks and transportation committee on this bill.
This committee is adjourned, thank you.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 3:01 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
~~
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
`~ ,
• •
PUBLIC HEARING
MAY 5, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday, May 5,
2010, at 6:17 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 337.1-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai,
and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
1) BILL NO. 2358 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTER 23, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED,
RELATING TO CONCESSIONS AT SPOUTING HORN,
2) BILL NO. 2359 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
SECTION 17-1.1 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, RELATING
TO RENEWAL FEE FOR MOTOR VEHICLE OPERATOR'S
LICENSE,
3) BILL NO. 2360 - A BILL -FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
SECTION 5-2.4 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, RELATING
TO MOTOR VEHICLE CERTIFICATE OF OWNERSHIP AND
REGISTRATION FEES,
which were passed on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on March 22, 2010, and published in The Garden Island
newspaper on April 21, 2010.
The hearing proceeded as follows:
STEVE LAURYN: Good evening Councilmembers, my name is Steve
Lauren. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you tonight. I've been part of
the Spouting Horn program for 13 consecutive years as a vendor. The merchants of
Spouting Horn hope you'll find it refreshing that we are not here to ask for money,
but to be allowed to continue contributing it. One of the opportunities Spouting
1
• •
Horn affords you is the chance to meet and visit with hundreds of visitors each week
and to hear about their experiences visiting our island. For what it's worth, over the
years I found that that connection is really what makes Spouting Horn a special
place, and I found in the past year or so while trying to explain to some of our
repeat visitors who ask why we may be closing down that Spouting Horn is perhaps
an attraction or cultural feature that helps to set Kauai apart from some of the
other islands. The opportunity to browse and find goods and gifts offered in an
informal setting by the ocean offered by folks just like themselves, to talk story, and
maybe do some haggling and find some deals. This somehow seems a good fit with
Kaua`i's reputation as an island where the people are friendly and welcoming and
not too formal. I'd also like to point out that Spouting Horn keeps some 50 people
working or in employment, and that that employee payroll falls somewhere
between 400 and 500,000 per year. We also support local crafters, jewelry makers,
and artisans. And my estimate of this support for just Kauai island alone is 350
to 400,000 per year based on and extrapolating from my own support of those
businesses. Collectively, at the end of our current we will have paid around 80,000
in county property taxes, 850,000 in excise taxes to the State, and as you know, our
rent contribution to the county is currently about 488,000 per year, or about 2.4
million for the duration of the contract. I would simply like to add my voice to
Mayor Carvalho's and to those who feel that Spouting Horn is good to many of the
'people on Kauai, good for the county, and good for our visitors. Thank you very
much for your time and consideration in this matter.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions by committee members?
Ms. Kawahara: Is that written testimony in our packets?
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah. You have a written testimony that you want
to submit to us also? We can make copies of it.
Mr. Lauryn: It's a pretty rough copy.
Ms. Kawahara: I like the numbers that you were giving us.
Mr. Furfaro: You got 6 days. You can resubmit it if you want to
clean it up.
Mr. Lauryn: Can I do that, because I've got some chicken
scratch...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Absolutely.
Mr. Lauryn: How do I get it to the...
Mr. Furfaro: You can just get it down here to council office...
2
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll have staff help you with that. Next
speaker please.
DALE SUTTON: Good evening Councilmembers, my name is Dale
Sutton. I've been out at Spouting Horn for 25 years. It's a good place to have a
business. It's wonderful to be part, of all our visitors. Steve Lauren pretty much
covered everything that I wish to speak on, especially the numbers. Because we
have contracts with the county, our contribution is a given. Every month you are
guaranteed that money will be coming in from us. The only other thing I really
want to stress is please don't forget our families. Don't forget the people who rely
on these businesses, and how far reaching that can be. And that's all. Thank you
for your time.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions? If not, thank you very
much. Are there any other speakers in this chamber that wanted to speak on any of
the notice of public hearing that was read by our clerk? If not, this public hearing is
now adjourned.
There being no further testimony on these matters, the public hearing
adjourned at 6:24 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
~~
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
3
PUBLIC HEARING
MAY 12, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday, May 12,
2010, at 1:46 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice
Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2362 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2009-691, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE CAPITAL BUDGET
OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL
YEAR JULY 1, 2009 TO JUNE 30, 2010, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS
AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE BOND FUND
(Hanapepe/Waimea Levees),
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on April 14, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on Apri128, 2010.
There being no one present to testify on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:48 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
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PUBLIC HEARING
MAY 5, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday, May 5,
2010, at 5:04 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai,
and the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
1) Bill No. 2356 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO
THE OPERATING BUDGET AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR
THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 TO JUNE 30, 2011 (County of
Kauai Operating Budget),
2) Bill No. 2357 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR
THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 TO JUNE 30, 2011 (County of
Kauai Capital Improvement Projects Budget),
3) Resolution No. 2010-33, RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE
REAL PROPERTY TAX RATES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1,
2010 TO JUNE 30, 2011 FOR THE COUNTY OF KAUAI,
which were passed on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on March 22, 2010, and published in The Garden Island
newspaper on April 9, 2010.
Peter A. Nakamura, County Clerk: Also, pursuant to Section 5A-6.3, the
Kauai County Council hereby announces its intention to fix the real property tax
rate for the fiscal year 2010 to 2011 on May 26, 2010, at 9 a.m. or soon thereafter, in
the Council Chambers located at 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e.
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The following communications were received for the record:
ol. JoAnn Yukimura, dated May 5, 2010
.~2. Marion M. Higa, State Auditor, testimony dated May 5, 2010
/3. Diane Zachary, testimony dated May 5, 2010
J4. John Harder, Chair, Zero Waste Kauai testimony, undated
a5. Andrea Brower, Malama Kauai, email dated May 4, 2010, with
attachment
6. Linda Dobra email dated May 5, 2010
/ ~7. David Sutton email dated May 5, 2010
/8. Nancy Merrill email dated May 5, 2010
/9. KAUAI DROWNINGS (1970-2008) map
The hearing proceeded as follows:
MARION HIGA, Auditor, State of Hawaii: Thank you and good afternoon.
Mr. Chair and members of the council, it's my pleasure to appear before you this
afternoon. I was asked to give my perspective a bit on and congratulate you on the
adoption of your charter amendment that creates for the first time a council... a
charter-authorized independent auditor for the County of Kauai. You've now joined
Hawaii island and the City & County of Honolulu in having your county auditor in
the charter, and I'm pleased to see that you've replicated many of the provisions
that apply to my office, and I believe that a good deal of the theory that underlies
the independence for my office is something that will serve you well as you proceed.
I was asked to give you a little bit of biographical background just to give you
some perspective, and I'm happy to say that my grandfather and my father were
Hanalei residents. My grandfather had a rice farm up in the valley. My dad
learned to swim in the Hanalei River because his brother threw him in and he had
to learn to swim the hard way. As a result, he was at one time on the University of
Hawaii swim team. So I have my Kauai roots.
I have also been with the office of the auditor, you should know, since
January 1971, which is 39 years. I have been the State Auditor for 18 years now. I
am now in my third of the 8-year terms as provided by the Constitution. Now the
fact that you have put your auditor in your charter is akin to my position being in
the State Constitution. Amongst State auditors, it is a big deal to be in the State
Constitution. Among county auditors, the same could be said for authorization by
county charter. I am further delighted that you have added provisions in your
charter for the independence and the powers of your county auditor, such as, full
access to information, authority to issue subpoenas, removal from office requiring a
two-thirds vote and cause, and a 6-year term of office, among others. You should
know that at the time my office was created by the 1950 State Constitutional
Convention, the theory for the auditor's term being longer than that of any elected
official was to insulate the auditor from individual attack from any elected official,
and you have done the same. Congratulations.
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This is, I think, philosophically because in government auditing, the power
and independence of the audit entity, the independence of the individuals who work
in those offices, and the audit processes themselves are key to the credibility of the
auditor's conclusions and recommendations. And to do that work according to
standards that the office subscribes to or that a charter mandates that the office
follow, which is your case, makes for a strong foundation for worthwhile audit work.
Section 32.02 of your charter wisely requires that your county auditor shall conduct
or cause to be conducted all audits in according with government auditing
standards. And without going into too much detail, I would point you to the fact
that there is this document, which is in fact the government auditing standards.
This is promulgated by the U.S. Comptroller General. I have sat on his advisory
council for the last four years, and we are responsible for the July '07 revision.
Once you subscribe to this, you are bound to its requirements. There is a very
strong ethical chapter in this now. There is a strong requirement for independence
of your entity, as well as the work, and that means that you have to have enough
people on your staff that one can check on the other's work, or part of your office can
check on the other part of the office's work. Someone who did not have anything to
do with an audit then must check the validity of all of the supporting
documentation-that is what is meant by independence, an independent review of
the work that supports the report.
So you have general standards of independence, competence by staff, there
are requirements for 40 hours of continuing professional education, for instance. I
have the details laid out in my testimony; I won't go through all of them.
Most of our work results from legislative requests. A few we initiate
ourselves. I also contract out all of the financial statement audits, except for the
university and the hospital corporation audits. So our budget is somewhere around
eight plus million dollars. Six- million of that is in the financial statement audits.
I see that your auditor's responsible for Kaua`i's audit of all county funds and
accounts, as well as performance audit. That's a good thing to have both
performance and financial audits under the same jurisdiction. Most of our
management audits are done in-house. I have a staff of 25. Most of my staff have
advanced degrees or certifications, so they come from accounting, law, journalism,
business ad, public ad, etc. My staff are at-will employees, as I think your charter
provides as well. They have the benefits of public employment, State employment,
but it takes special people to work in an audit shop. It's not easy work. But I think
there's something that appeals that's more than just adequate compensation. We
feel working in audit shop we can make a difference. We can make a difference in
lives. We can make a difference in government. But, adequate compensation
doesn't hurt. It helps us to attract people and keep them on our staff.
My legislature has been very supporting of our budget, and although we've
had to take some budget cuts in the last two years, it's given me the flexibility to
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spend as I see fit and as we need. I know you'll be considering the budget for your
county auditor's office, and to the extent that you might need some help, your
auditor may need some help that we can help them with, I'm more than willing to
help. I understand, you know, there's a huge difference in size. So to the extent
that we can do some... say IT work with you, we can... if you can send your people
over, or we can send our people over for training, we can help you do that as well.
Sometimes 40 hours of CPE a year is a tough requirement to fill if you're a small
office. I have done some training in the Pacific jurisdictions, and I understand that
it's sometimes tough in small jurisdictions to hold to the principles of independence
and accountability, but I think you've made a good start here. So to the extent that
we can help, let us help you. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you for that. I gave you the full six minutes.
Usually we go 3 minutes, 3 minutes, but I've taken the opportunity as chair to grant
you the full six minutes.
Ms. Higa: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Let me see if any of my committee members have
questions for you. Any committee members? Mr. Furfaro, go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes, I do. I want to say thank you very much for
coming over.
Ms. Higa: My pleasure.
Mr. Furfaro: It's very, very nice of you to be able to put it in your
very tight schedule, and we're kind of at an early learning curve in our audit
process. But it sounds like you are very pleased with the charter amendment that
we had got a audit department kicked off in our county.
Ms. Higa: Oh absolutely. It's to be congratulated.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you, and I look forward to our people being
able to work closely with you from my support position. But I'd just like to ask you,
from a standpoint of what you think. Our county is a 149 million operating budget
and about 60 million in capital improvements a year and other related
non-operating expenses, what's your feeling about what our staffing level should be?
Ms. Higa: Well, you know, I started with the auditor's office
five years after it was established, so I don't know the very early history, but I know
it started real small too; I think it was Clinton Tanimura and maybe two staff. But
given the current independent standards here and the kind of review you have to
have of each other's work, you have to have at least two people at the review level-
one who did the work and one who didn't who can review then independently all the
support, which means all the working papers. So you need a minimum of two, plus
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your leader, because your leader should really not be in the trenches actually doing
the audit work; the leader should have the vision and be able to step back and see if
the message is the appropriate message on every one of the reports, as well as
dealing with the ordinary things that you would have to have when you're setting
the tone at the top. So I think you would need at minimum, three. And assuming
also that they, like it or not, may have to do even the report production themselves,
which I wouldn't recommend, but it you couldn't spare any more dollars than that...
You are otherwise spending expensive dollars for support work. So ultimately, you
might be better off having three professionals and one support staff. That's a better
way to spend your money than three support staff, all three of whom who might be
doing secretarial work, if that's what it takes to produce a written report. Because
ultimately... and that's another requirement of the standards-you must have a
written report.
Mr. Furfaro: And there must be narrative along with the
financial document.
Ms. Higa: There should be, yes. There should be something
that supports the work.
Mr. Furfaro: Let me ask you. Along those same lines and now
given an idea of the size of our operating budget and our CIP projects, would you
feel... See, our charter mandates that we have an audit, an outside audit, at least
every two years. My thinking is let's say a department of four people could possibly
internally audit four or five of our departments a year, and they're going to be
required to present us their plan I think in June, I'm not sure, but I think that's the
way we've got it lined up. We have one more year on a full outside audit schedule
for next year; it's already on a contract, but given the fact that we have this 18
months to get staffed up and geared up, what would be your reserve comments on
maybe going to a two-year outside audit versus spending- contracted money-in
addition to our audit department have an outside auditor every year. Would you
think a $200 million operating corporation could in fact do an audit outside every
other year if we had an internal audit department?
Ms. Higa: It might depend on the nature of the source of your
funds. There may be some federal requirements where you cannot avoid an annual
audit. So I would hate to give you a general statement that you can absolutely go to
a two-year cycle. So I think you'd have to see what those requirements are first.
Also with the ARRA money coming down and the ARRA requirements which are
more stringent than ordinary federal requirements, I don't know if you dare afford
missing a year, if that's the case.
Mr. Furfaro: Very good points. Very good points. I appreciate
that, and obviously with a number of good projects we have, with stimulus money
coming from the federal government, they have stipulations on very complete
narrative and detail to how that money is being spent.
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Ms. Higa: Yes. Unfortunately, from the State auditor
community's perspective, there is no money appropriated in the ARRA
appropriations for State audit costs. So as much as we fought a battle last summer
with congress, we did not succeed. There was enough of a...I don't know if it was an
oversight or deliberate, but JO got $25 million to audit ARRA, but the State audit
community got nothing. I guess it says something about our lobbying efforts.
Mr. Furfaro: I just have two more short questions, if I can.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, go ahead Jay.
Mr. Furfaro: In our financial policies going forward, and for
transparency with the public, I guess I'm wondering, you know, at the end of the
year it is wise and prudent to, you know, send up a general fund reserve, as well as
having, and we don't have it now, but as well as having kind of a contingency
reserve in the year for the year. Would you concur that it might be prudent for us
to say have of only our operating funds a 15 percent general reserve each year, and
maybe a two percent reserve for emergencies in the year for the year. Do you have
any comments on something established as such?
Ms. Higa: I'm afraid I don't, because that borders on finance
theory and finance principle, and we don't really opine on those things. Not that I
opine myself anyway, because I'm not a CPA. But I'll give an example of even if you
set aside money, it's how you manage that money that may count more than
anything else, and you're probably well aware of the dust-up that my office had with
the governor's office and the department of budget and finance recently in the last
several months over their management of a billion dollars of the State's money that
was set aside for investment purposes, because it was like extra cash. And it's a
million dollars that's now stuck.
Mr. Furfaro: Well I think we recently, under the leadership of
our finance chair, we were able to get our bond ratings adjusted upwards...
Ms. Higa: Oh, good for you.
Mr. Furfaro: Because of our prudence in having a reserve, but
another item I'm concerned with is in these very difficult times, we don't set aside
another small amount for emergency responses in tight fiscal years.
Ms. Higa: Well, it's a legitimate concern. Because of the
problems that the State has had as a result of the student loan auction rate
securities amount and the fact that relative to other jurisdictions we invested very
heavily, unlike virtually anybody else, two of the three rating agencies went down
in the opinion of the State's management of its money. So it did have a
consequence. The other one of the three did not go down, but we don't know yet.
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We know it will soon be...it's already been written down, but the next write down
could be '08...no, for the '09, fiscal year 09 is another $140 million write down. So
the original one billion dollars that we put in to these student loan securities are
now valued at about $750 million, so they've lost about a quarter of their value. So
you know, it says something about holding things in reserve.
Mr. Furfaro: Well, I did want to ask you that financial
philosophy, and you know, I'm very happy to report that our finance chair and our
financial administration, we actually got our ratings to go up, and so...
Ms. Higa: Oh, good for you, unlike the State.
Mr. Furfaro: But I'm very concerned about a second reserve in
the year for the year. But thank you very much for being here with us.
Ms. Higa: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Ms. Higa, thank you very much for being here. I
admit to being a fan.
Ms. Higa: My pleasure.
Mr. Bynum: I like those dust-ups. I think a little dust-up now
and then is a good thing, so...
Ms. Higa: Well, it seems like it's been pretty much the
whole 8 years, but then that has happened with every governor, so it's just...just
because we serve different masters.
Mr. Bynum: Just the...first of all, I appreciate your willingness
to give us support and help, and be able to rely on...
Ms. Higa: Sure. It's your money too.
Mr. Bynum: It's all ours, right. But I did have a specific
question. One of the sentences in your testimony says, most of our audit reports
result from legislative requests or mandates.
Ms. Higa: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: And in what circumstance is there a mandate?
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Ms. Higa: Oh, there are laws that say that every so many
years we have to audit OHA, for instance, or Hawaii Tourism Authority, or if there
are new regulatory programs put up. Sometimes that legislation will say that in
three years we're to go back and look at whether they did what they were supposed
to do.
Mr. Bynum: That answers my question. You know, because one
of the things I like about the way we're structured, I think if I have it correctly, is
that this body can make requests of the auditor's office, citizens can make requests,
the administration can make requests, but the final decision about that is with the
auditor, and that's part of the independence. Because, you know, that same
sentence says legislative requests, and so the mandates are something different,
and thank you for that explanation.
Ms. Higa: Yes. There are also other provisions, such as a
proviso in the budget bill, so that under say an act that's in the session law, that's
the executive budget, there are provisos at the end of the monetary sections that say
provided that, and there's a reference to an appropriation, and it'll say, for instance,
provided that of program ID such and such, to do such and such, there shall be a
management audit of whatever. Because that is law once it's signed by the
governor, that's also considered a mandate to us, so that is not a legislative request,
that is a legislative mandate. ,
Mr. Bynum: That's helpful. And then when you discuss peer
reviews, is that a way that you can assist the county in the future as well is being
part of a peer review?
Ms. Higa: Yes. Actually, the interpretation in the yellow book
is you would go to an organization that has a peer review program. So in most
county jurisdictions, they go to the ALGA, the association of local government
associations, which is Honolulu's case, and I believe Big Island will be doing that as
well. We go to either these national State auditors association or the national
conference of State legislatures. But I can help you prepare for a peer review,
because there are certain things you can do to forestall a negative peer review.
Certainly we can help this county to do that.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you again for being here today.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions by committee members? You
have a question? Councilmember Kawahara go ahead. Not a question?
Ms. Kawahara: Just a statement.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Sorry, but this is a public hearing. I'm sorry. If we
have any other members have questions to pose for Marion Higa? If not, thank you
very much for the testimony.
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Ms. Higa: Thank you for inviting me. Good luck.
Mr. Kaneshiro: At this time can I have the next speaker.
STU BURLEY: Good evening Mr. Chairman and members of the
board... or the county council. I'm so used to saying board, sorry. A couple of weeks
ago I was at a meeting over at AARP and I heard a statement made...
Mr. Chang: Stu, Stu, hey Stu. Excuse me, can you introduce
yourself?
Mr. Burley: Pardon?
Mr. Chang: Can you introduce yourself?
Mr. Burley: Oh, I thought I was introduced. I'm sorry.
Mr. Furfaro: No, you have to introduce yourself so... the
translate... captioner...
Mr. Burley: Okay. I'm Stu Burley from Lawa`i valley.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Stu.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Continue.
Mr. Burley: ~ I was at a AARP meeting over in Lihu`e here and I
heard a statement and it somewhat bothered me a little bit, because of our situation
here on this- island. In the operating budget there was a position for recycling
coordinator, and that position has been downgraded to a recycling specialist, and
the new position would end up being at a level one entry, or slightly above level
entry, which being a manager all my life, it sounds like that isn't the type of
position that you would want in there in dealing with the recycling and the solid
waste program that...the solid waste problem that you have here on this island. So
I'd like to ask you to possibly reconsider that position and upgrade it to a recycling
coordinator, or what I'd really like to recommend is you do what I call a risk
management risk assessment of the difference between a recycling coordinator and
what the responsibilities would be, and the recycling specialist. In thinking about a
specialist and a coordinator, a specialist probably, in my mind, would sit in an office
and answer telephone. A coordinator would probably get involved a little bit in the
community solid waste program. What I'd really like to recommend is to consider a
recycling manager. A manager with a degree in environmental science or
environmental...in the process in there someplace, because a manager would get
more involved in the design and implementing situations that could better Kauai
and help out all the citizens here on Kauai, and also be a step in the right direction
9
•
in the solid waste program.
specialist to a higher grad
Thank you.
•
So my request is if you could reconsider that recycling
e to coordinator, but actually to recycling manager.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you for that testimony. Any questions by
committee members? If not, thank you very much. Next speaker please.
JOHN HARDER: Good evening Committee Chair Kaneshiro and
members of the council. My name is John Harder, and I'm here to testify on the
proposed fiscal year 2010-2011 solid waste budget. As most of you are pretty much
aware by now, I'm the chairman of zero waste Kauai. We're a local nonprofit group
advocating sustainable solid waste management practices. And earlier this year we
testified in support of the basic elements of the county's integrated solid waste
management plan, emphasizing that while all of the components necessary to
achieve significant levels of diversion were contained in the plan, it was imperative
that the administration follow through and provide the resources necessary to
implement those projects and programs. While the administration's inclusion of a
new recycling specialist position in the proposed public works budget seems to be a
positive step in providing the necessary resources, zero waste Kauai feels that
bringing another recycling specialist onboard rather than hiring experienced staff to
provide the leadership and direction necessary would actually be counterproductive.
The recycling specialist is essentially one step above an entry level position and will
require considerable training and oversight by the solid waste development
coordinator that's Allison Fraley before that new hire becomes productive.
At a time when the recycling coordinator position remains unfilled and the
program is overwhelmed with existing and proposed projects, bringing an
inexperienced staff person onboard would be an additional burden on the solid
waste program. With the integrated solid waste management plan update recently
completed and requiring implementation and the proposed curbside recycling
program on the horizon, what is really necessary at this point in the program is
hiring of a trained and experienced staff person. Zero waste Kauai requests the
council consider upgrading the administration's request and fund the refilling of the
vacation recycling coordinator's position.
Also, in addition to bringing onboard additional staff necessary to expedite
the elements of the plan, the integrated solid waste management plan calls for the
construction of a materials recovery facility, or MRF. The plan makes it clear that
development of adequate processing capacity is essential to making curbside
recycling work. We feel that rather than spending unnecessary time and money on
additional study that the county should use its limited funds and resources to move
ahead and develop the conceptual design for the facility and select the site. Once a
conceptual design has developed and a site selected, the county could use local
engineering and construction firms to enter into adesign/build contract, saving time
and keeping the money in the local economy.
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Mr. Kaneshiro: I'll go ahead and extend the rest of the testimony
another 3 minutes, Mr. Harder.
Mr. Harder: Another issue with the proposed budget is there's
no mention of planning or resources dedicated to moving beyond the proposed pilot
curbside program. When does the county move into the next phase. How long will
it take to expand curbside to cover the entire island? Shouldn't this be addressed in
five-year budget projections? This lack of a projected timeline, plus the time
required to develop the processing capacity necessary to manage the increased
levels of recycling leave the vast majority of the island's residents dependent upon
the existing recycle drop-off system. I'm sure you've all heard from numerous
constituents, as have we at zero waste Kauai, that the existing system is
inadequate. As the community will be most likely dependent upon drop-off bins for
an extended period of time, we recommend that additional funds for the expansion
of the drop-off program be included in the budget.
Last, we feel that the county needs to move forward much more rapidly in
developing a central composting facility, a facility which can manage an expanded
range of organic material. Again, this is a major element in the updated integrated
solid waste management plan, and it's also an important element in the
conservation of our limited landfill capacity. This project is just one more important
reason that requires the skills and expertise of a recycling coordinator. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Members, any questions for Mr. John Harder? Go
ahead Councilmember Kawahara.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you finance chair. Hi John... Mr. Harder.
You know, I have had these questions about the recycling specialist versus the
recycling coordinator, and also about the very thing you're talking about here about
new hires and when they become productive. Can you help me figure out in my
mind if there's a difference between any type of new hire that comes in? Aren't they
both going to be needing to get up to speed, and what the difference that you're
considering in getting up to speed as a recycling specialist meaning, because you
seem to think that it's going to be easier for a recycling coordinator to get up
to speed.
Mr. Harder: Generally, the experience level that's required for a
recycling coordinator, besides the education and training required, that the
experience level is 4 to 5 years of management level experience in recycling field.
So even though you bring in a person from outside, as the county did couple years
ago when they brought in Bill Tarman-Ramcheck, these people are experienced in
the general concepts that are going on and can pick up the ball and run with it
much faster. I think Bill was an excellent example of someone who could come in
and do the job. Problem ending up being that Hawaii was too far away from his
home. But I think that that level of experience will allow the person to move a bit
faster, know the ropes, know the government ins and outs, the things that you have
11
to do. The other thing is the recycling specialist, even at best, even once trained
and, you know, ready to go is not going to be able to manage large contracts like
development of a MRF, development of the composting facility, will not be able to
expedite the curbside recycling program as it moves into second and third phases.
A lot of that burden will still be pushed back onto Allison, and she's, you know, not
her but her position is already overwhelmed as it is. So I think it was spelled out
pretty clearly in the plan, in the implementation section of the plan, that in the first
year of the plan they were supposed to hire three new people-a recycling
coordinator and...well no, they assumed that the recycling coordinator would be
onboard, because when they started the plan there was a recycling coordinator. So
without a recycling coordinator, I cannot see how the county could expeditiously
implement the critical elements of the plan.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you. Another question was I'm interested in
the central composting facility and your statements that we'd prefer to move more
rapidly in that. Could you help me. Is there somewhere out there that gives like a
cost analysis that I could look at and how much that would cost and all the actual
moving parts of what it would do to make one start.
Mr. Harder: I'm not sure if there was any real cost in the plan
that were that close or that accurate. I think that would be probably the first job of
a recycling coordinator, somebody that was given that job, to start finding out what
land was available, what kinds of arrangements could be made with landowners,
get some idea in talking with existing composters as to what cost would be for those
types of programs. There are programs in the State that are doing those kinds of
things, so you can get some ideas. But I couldn't give you any right now.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you. Thank you budget chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Bynum, go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: Mr. Harder, thanks for your testimony today. I
wasn't going to ask a question, but prompted. You know, because...so in your view,
the integrated solid waste plan that we just recently adopted, to be consistent with
that we need a recycling coordinator?
Mr. Harder: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: And so to not have that position is inconsistent
with what the plan is recommending and assumes. Is that correct?
Mr. Harder: Yes. And in addition as I mentioned, the plan
actually calls for the initial major project, you know, it be started up in the first
year of the implementation of the plan, being the MRF. And to design or oversee
the design and construction, the site selection, all of those things, you need
somebody that's got some experience with material recovery, government
12
• •
acquisitions of property, government contracts, and all those kinds of things. So
you know, I don't see the MRF happening in a, you know, a reasonable period of
time without someone, as Stu said, to manage the contract. I mean we need... and a
recycling coordinator can be a manager, is a manager, it's just called a coordinator,
but we need somebody who can manage programs, not just give out information and
educate people.
Mr. Bynum: I know we sometimes get hung up in titles, but the
bottom line is the budget reduces that position by $19,000 and so to save $19,000;
we're not going to perhaps get the level of expertise that we need. So I'm very
uncomfortable with us diverting from the plan, you know, right out of the gate. So
thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Harder: Can I respond on that just briefly? The $19,000
that person will have the capacity to...or should have the capacity to oversee some
critical and fairly large contracts, design contracts, implementation plans, you
know, curbside recycling, those kinds of things, the MRF. So having adequately
trained and experienced staff onboard to manage those contracts could save the
county much more than $19,000 in the first year.
Mr. Bynum: I would tend to agree, but you just get a different
level of expertise and experience for that much less money. So thank you for your
testimony.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, any other questions from committee
members? If not, thank you John. Next speaker please.
DIANNE ZACHARY: Good evening. I'm Dianne Zachary. I'm the
president and CEO of the Kauai planning and action alliance, and our nonprofit
organization_is really grateful to the-mayor-for his continued support by including
us in the 2011 budget. The county has been a great partner of ours. Since our
organization started in 2003 we have worked very closely together on a number of
issues. The proposed funding level for the coming year is $28,000, a 20 percent
decrease from this current year-and from previous years. In the year ahead, one of
the things that we're going to be working on is something that we really rely on
county funding for, and that's the third edition of our community indicators report.
So we'll be starting that in the fourth quarter of this year and continuing on for
publication in...at the end of June of next year. So this...the county funding is
really important for us to be able to do that publication.
We also use county funding for some other projects as well, so to give you a
sense of how county funds have...were used by KPAA, I gave each of you a copy, I
hope you got it, of our 2009 annual report. For every dollar that we get from the
county, we have been able to secure ten dollars in other government funding or in
private funding. So the county funds have really been leveraged to get the
additional support that we need to operate our organization. So one of the things
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that we have found is that nobody wants to be the first one to fund a project, but if
we can say we have secured some county funding as our initial funding, then we're
able to get other people onboard for funding. So it's been really instrumental and
we're very appreciative of that.
I'd like to move to a different topic but the still the budget, of course, and take
this opportunity to comment on one of the other items in the proposed budget, and
that's the $800,000 that has been requested to update the general plan. As you
know very well, the last plan was adopted in 2000 and an update is called for
every 10 years, so here it is 10 years later. There's a number of aspects of that
previous plan that may still be really relevant today, and it may be tempting to
reduce the amount of funding in this economic time and do a more minor update of
the plan. But I'm asking you to maintain that funding level of $800,000 that was
requested, and I want to give a rationale of why I'm suggesting that. There's really
been some advances in our thinking over the past few years about how we do
community design, how we do community planning, and also there have been
changes in the world situation since the plan was adopted 10 years ago. Our
vulnerability as a remote island became way more obvious a couple of years ago
when the cost of fossil fuel increased so dramatically, and more recently we've seen
a loss of jobs and an increase at the same time in food prices. We're realizing
how...that how we utilize land and design communities can have a really significant
impact on our resource use. So with our next general plan we have an opportunity
to create a new planning model that explicitly builds on the principles of
sustainability and smart growth, and that incorporates a set of metrics to determine
how we're doing. The plan needs to provide a way to get feedback so we can change
direction quickly when it's needed. It can utilize GIS and modeling and other tools
to help decision makers such as yourselves and the community understand the
impacts of proposed policies and projects. Such a plan would honor the island's
character and the uniqueness of our individual communities, while at the same time
providing the policies needed to increase livability and conserve resources. So a
new plan needs to set a clearer path for implementation by setting priorities and
timelines. So it builds on a number of things, it needs to get clearer, it needs to
make sure that it's really accountable to our community. We might call this new
document our general plan for sustainability, or a green general plan, or who knows
what the title will be. Ultimately it might just be the general plan. But one of its
goals really needs to be to help us decrease our vulnerability. If we don't take the
opportunity to take this direction now, it will be at least another 10 years before we
can take this important step.
So as an organization KPAA believes in good planning, just as importantly
we believe in making sure plans are implemented, so we need...so that needed
action occurs. In this uncertain economy, you have a big job in setting the budget
for the year ahead. I don't envy you. But it has the opportunity to impact Kauai
not just in the coming year, but for decades to come. Thank you very much.
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Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Committee members? Mr. Furfaro,
go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Dianne, thank you for being here. Thank you for
all you do in our community as well, it's very much appreciated. I remember we
visiting on this last budget time. Previously we allocated $32,000...
Ms. Zachary: Thirty-five thousand.
Mr. Furfaro: Thirty-five thousand.
Ms. Zachary: Has been the steady amount since 2003.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, and it's reflected currently in the mayor's
budget at 28, I think.
Ms. Zachary: That's correct, yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Without kind of deviating from the bulk of the
money that's earmarked there, your community indicators is roughly what cost of
your budget every year? Is it...
Ms. Zachary: I tend to look at the project over atwo-year period
because it's atwo-year project. It starts this year, it goes in to our next fiscal year,
and the total cost is about $70,000.
Mr. Furfaro: Seven zero?
Ms. Zachary: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: We're getting a pretty good deal there.
Ms. Zachary: Yes you are.
Mr. Furfaro: I also want to ask. You know, we have several
things going on simultaneously here. For example, we have our energy
sustainability plan which touches on transportation, we have the update of our
CZO, we have the important ag lands, kind of all going on, but all of them are not
going to come to a conclusion kind of at the same time, and I just want to say, that
was one of the reasons some discussion had occurred on perhaps not doing afull-
blown review of the general plan, but wait for those components to be completed,
and then get them embossed into a general plan update. I just want to share that
was part of the thinking, because we've got all these moving parts on there that
maybe we didn't want to, you know, duplicate in these tough economic times. But I
appreciate your comments about trying to preserve that 800,000, but some of the
thinking earlier was that with IAL and the CZOs and the energy and transportation
15
plans all being updated, it might give us an opportunity that have kind of a better
feeling of how we merge all the plans into an overview. But your comments are well
taken about preserving the $800,000.
Ms. Zachary: Thank you. If I may respond briefly. One of the
things that I did recently was make a list of all of the plans that either have just
been completed, are in process right now, or are planned on the horizon. There
are 23 that I am aware of, and I'm sure I don't know all of them. It's a lot of plans.
And one of the things...the concerns that I had is I considered this was that we're
developing plans kind of independent of one another, and they don't necessarily
have a common framework. And if we began work on a general plan that included
sustainability principles, it would build a framework that the various plans that are
either underway or are coming can draw from and build on.
Mr. Furfaro: Well, I believe your number, because in the
beginning of this year I summarized just in my committee, and we got...we have 9
plans going on in planning at the same time. Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts, I
agree. But thank you for that comment as well. Thank you Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Go ahead Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Are you aware of the... about the county's
investment in GIS?
Ms. Zachary: Yes, absolutely.
Mr. Bynum: That really is kind of coming to fruition just in the
next few months.
Ms. Zachary: I'm very excited to see it.
Mr. Bynum: Because I think that's a tool, along with that will
help us do that integration so these plans don't sit in silos and not talk to each
other. So I appreciate your comments. Also, just...you've done the measuring of
matters how many times?
Ms. Zachary: We've done two editions, so it's the third edition
that we're going to be working on.
Mr. Bynum: I couldn't remember if there was a third...you're
working on a third.
Ms. Zachary: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: But part of the value of that is having the snapshot
and looking at the changes.
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Ms. Zachary: Looking at changes over time.
Mr. Bynum: And that's been helpful for the last two, so I concur
with Councilmember Furfaro that it's a bargain. So thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you very much. With that, may I have the
next speaker please.
PAT GEGAN: For the record my name is Pat Gegan. Thank you
Council Chair, Committee Chair, and Councilmembers for allowing me to testify
this evening. You've got a difficult task ahead of you, there's no doubt about it.
You've got a big budget, a lot of needs out there in the county, and dwindling funds.
I just want to welcome you to my world too, so we know where you're at. I've given
testimony over approximately the past year regarding specifically two issues. That
has been waste, regarding like the bag bill, working on the three-Rs, the recycling,
reduce, re-use, as well as a lot of testimony around energy, energy sustainability,
looking for those types of things. Those are the two issues I'd like to just briefly go
over.
First, regarding the integrated solid waste management plan, again, I
commend you for having the good plan, having a good plan in place, but can we try
to follow it as best as we can. I concur with the people who spoke earlier, Stu, John
Harder, regarding can we upgrade that recycling specialist to a coordinator,
somebody who has a little bit more jurisdiction, a little bit more oomph in their job
status, who can try to move us towards getting a MRF sooner. I do believe that that
is one of the most important critical elements of the plan out there, so that we can
do a good three-R type of plan.
The next thing I'd like to talk to and it was something that was in the energy
sustainability plan, I haven't seen the final, I have seen some of the slides with
their final draft, but my focus is really on the bus, okay. This evening I would have
liked to take the bus, but I don't know how late I'm going to be here. I ended up
driving the Prius instead. My wife uses the bus. She works at KMC and they pay
for half of her bus pass every month. It's fabulous. I get her down to the bus
station in the morning, then I've got the Prius to drive instead of driving a truck
around all days. Days when she's got the Prius, if I can I take the bus. Like I said,
if we can expand service, fund it a little bit better, especially in these hard times for
Kauai residents, the bus is becoming much more important. I mean the ridership
numbers show that. So anything we can do to try to implement that, get it better,
get fewer cars on the road, I think is a good thing. So those are the two issues that
I'd like you just to consider looking at and trying to fund fully. And again, it's hard
to increase funds when everything is dwindling, so I know you really have to take a
look at some of those core services that the county provides, and waste is a huge
one, as well as transportation out there. So thank you very much.
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Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions? Go ahead
Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Pat, thank you for being here, and you
know our challenge is, and we just got a update and revisiting on our revenues. We
had a $153 million operating budget the previous year, and now that number is
at 147. So you know, we're looking at all of these components. I did want to share
with you, on the energy and transportation sustainability plan where we're at, just
so that you know, we're looking at a resolution that will identify certain committee
chair people to pursue these recommendations. For example, we'll be talking to
Councilmember Kawahara who handles transportation to specifically look at some
of the key components that are in the plan that reference the expansion of the bus.
And fortunately for us, every year for the last three years we've been able to expand
the bus, and now we've got a much more viable piece that's in a test mode piece of
equipment that's more energy conscious. We also are working with the
administration on some incentive pieces that are in the plan as it relates to the tax
base for encouraging other types of energy investments to come in, but by enticing
them with some kind of understanding about a seven year return on investment
with their tax base where they invest. So that's what's happening with the energy
sustainability plan. And you know, most important is, you know, we're at a point
that we have to really evaluate our reserves right now, and that's why I brought the
subject up earlier, because although our legislative team did a wonderful job in
keeping $11.8 million towards us from the transient accommodations tax, you know,
we have to find ourselves first of all thanking them, and I mean the whole
legislature, but secondly, being prepared. If the economy doesn't turn in a year, we
may have to have a firmer and more transparent understanding of what do we put
aside as a reserve. So you're right, our job's pretty tough based on the presentation
made to us by the mayor.
Mr. Gegan: Definitely.
Mr. Furfaro: But those parts are still on the horizon, and there
will be time to participate. So...especially on the sustainability plans.
Mr. Gegan: Wonderful. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. With that, can I have the next
speaker please.
Mr. Nakamura: Mr. Chair, prior to calling the next speaker who
will be speaking on the Spouting Horn concessions issue...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Do we have Mr. Downs also signed up to speak?
Mr. Nakamura: Yes, we do have Dr. Downs...
18
Mr. Kaneshiro: On the funding issue?
Mr. Nakamura: On the funding issue, yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: We'll go ahead and recognize Mr. Downs at this
time, then I'll have you read the other notice of public hearing.
MONTY DOWNS: Good afternoon Council Chair and Committee
Chair and Councilmembers, and Happy Cinco de Mayo. This isn't where I thought
I'd be on my day off on Cinco de Mayo, but really appreciate the opportunity to
testify today. My name is Monty Downs. I'm a ER doctor at Wilcox Hospital and
co-chair of the Kauai water safety task force. I gave you all the map, kind of our
infamous...I guess we could call it our Kauai drowning map, and there's a lot more
information on it than we can cover in three minutes. But there's a couple things I
want to point out.
Mr. Kaneshiro: You have six... six minutes.
Dr. Downs: Couple things I want to point out. One is each dot
is a person, is a mother, a father, a son or daughter, husband or wife, so the second
thing though I'd like you to look at is the box in the upper left corner here which
compares traffic deaths to drowning deaths, and since 1990 we've had 166 drowning
deaths as compared to 144 traffic deaths. These are numbers that I'd get from the
police department, official numbers, and that's the basis for the statement when you
hear me make the statement-drowning is the number one cause of trauma deaths
on Kauai. That's where I'm coming from. The ocean is relentless, and I feel that
we have to be relentless in our attention to it to try to make it safer for our people
and for our visitors. I applaud the county tremendously for all the work that... and
financial commitment the county has made towards increasing lifeguard services
over the years. When I came here in the 70s; I believe there were 3 lifeguards on
Kauai, in the 80s there were 11, and now we have 45. So... and I'd love to be able to
tell you that along with that our drowning have gone from 9 a year to 3 a year; I
can't tell you that, we're still like, say the ocean is relentless, and today it's out
there with its rip currents and waiting for its next unsuspecting victim. So
basically my testimony is to not furlough lifeguards, and to consider them as
essential public safety workers on the level with police and fire who aren't getting
furloughed, and I'm glad they're not getting furloughed. Their union set up does not
allow them to be furloughed at this time, and while the lifeguard union set up
makes them extremely vulnerable. But my feeling is very strong, the lifeguards,
with these numbers I've shown you, are as essential as police and fire and in public
safety, and should not be furloughed.
If the day comes that police and fire are furloughed, I will certainly actually
withdraw my testimony and accept lifeguards along with the other public safety
officers. But at this point I feel that lifeguards deserve to be on the same page.
Thank you.
19
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Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay, with that, I'll go ahead and open it up for
questions from my committee members. Mr. Furfaro go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Chair. Monty, first of all, thank you for
all you do for us in our community when it comes to water safety; I've sat that in
past years and I sincerely wanted to say that again.
Dr. Downs: You're welcome.
Mr. Furfaro: I do want to point out to you, though, you're correct
that there are no furloughs anticipated in the fire department and/or the police
department in this current submittal of the budget. But that is based on the fact
that they have one more year on their negotiated contract, but it doesn't mean that
in this current budget, they have 8 positions that are unfilled and they're only
dollar funded. There's 8 police officer positions at one dollar, and the same with
this new recruit class of firefighters, there are 8 positions. I totally agree with you
about public safety as it goes along with police, fire, the lifeguard staffing, as well as
civil defense. I mean those are the principal duties in government providing that,
but we are attempting... If you take from our audit a... our surplus of $32 million,
you know, everybody thinks it's a very big number, but the reality is the 32 million,
14 of it starts this current budget. In other words, we've taken from there to start
the current budget. Then we also are suggesting an emergency $2 million to be set
aside for other upcoming unexpected totals, and then we find ourselves going to a
very low reserve of may eleven and a half percent for next year. But it still leaves
us a small amount at the end, and I think we would like to, and I'm going to say it
again, thank the legislature for preserving our TAT. But I think we're trying to get
to a point that we can look at maybe getting furloughs down to one day, but it's very
premature at this time, because as they certified the tax income for this year, we
lost another $460,000, which is not public yet, but you know tax roll dropped us
another half a million dollars. But I did want to say that there are these police and
fire vacancies that are only dollar funded, and I will do what I can to support those
areas-lifeguard, police, fire, civil defense, because they are critical duties of
government, and I hope you can be assured that I'll try to do whatever I can in
those areas with life safety.
Dr. Downs: Well thank you. I want to reiterate what other
speakers who are testifiers have said today, and that is I don't envy your position
making the budget decisions that you have to make in this economy. So just want
to make sure that I say what I feel I have to say. The ocean's relentless, and I have
to be relentless, and we're working on a lot of different levels trying to do what we
do, including volunteer projects that have very thankfully been extremely successful
this year, and as well as the government funded...tremendous government funded
support. So my...in a way my...what I'm asking for, yes it's dollars and cents, but a
lot of it's also philosophical~ommitment to this essential public worker.
20
•
Mr. Furfaro: But you heard my statement-I will do in those
areas what I can. But let me ask you, what is the outcome with the State on the
Ke`e funding for those shared lifeguards?
Dr. Downs: It's day to day. I have not heard that they're taking
the money away, and o£..asked our State legislators, representatives and Senator
Hooser, to please watch this with an eagle eye, but I have... at least I can say that it
hasn't been taken away. So every day it goes by I'm cautiously optimistic that we're
not going to lose the funding for Ke`e.
Mr. Furfaro: And thank you for recognizing this council that
over, at least the 8 . years that I've on the council, we've gotten the life safety
department up to 44, I think...44 or 45.
Dr. Downs: Forty-five, yeah... and equipment is just incredible,
really.
Mr. Furfaro: Jet skis and storage... But thank you for
recognizing that. Thank you Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you Dr. Downs for your testimony today.
Are you aware that during the budget hearings the administration said they intend
to furlough every HGEA and UPW member for two days, regardless of their
job duties?
Dr. Downs: Yes, I am.
Mr. Bynum: And_so Lfind that-very interesting that we wouldn't
look at what their responsibilities were, what their operations entailed, before we
would make that decision, and it was kind of based on, well you know ,we want to
keep everybody in fairness. But I think you pointed out really well that water
safety officer peers, they're fire fighters...they're in the fire department, and their
peers are not subject to furlough, and so I want to... I also want to thank you. I
like the word you're using-relentless, because I think it applies to yourself as well
in that you've been relentless in your advocacy for this issue in so many ways, and
you kind of made reference to the water safety apparatus volunteer project that has
paid real dividends this year, and that is something that perhaps we couldn't do
that needed to be in the volunteer spirit. So I'm very appreciative of those. But I
want to let you know that the public safety workers, and that's...the public safety
workers at the police department that work in the jail cells, the water safety
officers, and the dispatchers are my top priority to try to address in this next budget
session. I don't think it is wise at all to furlough them at all. So thank you for all
your efforts.
21
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Dr. Downs: Thank you. Could I respond a little bit? Yeah, I
was very sorry...I think that testimony was April 20 and I had a real job that day,
so I wasn't able to testify at that...where it came about the HGEA two furloughs
and UPW. I do think there's a basis by which to exempt lifeguards from other
HGEA workers. Number one, when the strike took place, and I think it was in 1994
or something like that, the lifeguards were not allowed to strike, so... And the
second thing I point to that makes them different than other HGEA workers is
they're subject to mandatory drug testing, so there are ways in which lifeguards are
already separated from other HGEA members, and I'd love to see, even though I
have a lot of friends that are HGEA while collar workers, I would also like to see
lifeguards separate in this furlough matter as well.
Mr. Bynum: And Dr. Downs, you make a really good point I
hadn't thought of that in '94 when there was a strike we said, hey wait a minute,
some of you are essential to public safety and you're not going to be allowed to
strike. But now we're making a provision based on fiscal matters, and we're not
making that same distinction about... That's a really good point. I worked for the
State of Hawaii at that time, and I was deemed an essential worker, and I wasn't. I
was not an essential worker, so some of those decisions were political, and so that's
a really good point I hadn't thought o£ And if you think about, it's like, you know,
the logic applied in '94, it should apply as well now.
Dr. Downs: Well, I hope so. Yeah.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Any further questions for Mr. Downs? Questions?
Mr. Furfaro: No, I want to make a statement. I want everybody
to be reminded that the provision of striking has been taken away and (inaudible).
Mr. Kaneshiro: Yeah, but I don't want to get into that discussion at
this point.
Mr. Furfaro: I understand, but I want to be sure we're pointing
out the current status, not the 1994 status.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So...I mean you know, the issue on the table is
what Mr. Downs has talked about about, you know, concerns about the lifeguards.
Mr. Furfaro: I understand, Chair, but I want you to know that
Mr. Downs pointed out as if the lifeguards were isolated, and that is not the case
in 2010.
Mr. Kaneshiro: With that, can I have the next speaker please.
Okay. So on the budget side I would like to note for the record that I do have some
22
written testimonies. A written testimony from Andrea Brower, Linda Dobra, also
written testimony from David Sutton, and Malama Kauai, and JoAnn Yukimura.
So we will make that part of our record today for public testimony. At this time
Mr. Clerk, can you read the other three bills of notice of public hearing that we have
before us this evening?
There being no further testimony on these matters, the public hearing
adjourned at 6:17 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
23
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PUBLIC HEARING
MAY 12, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Lani T. Kawahara, Chair, Parks/Transportation Committee, on Wednesday,
May 12, 2010, at 1:39 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building,
4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
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
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
Resolution No. 2010-34, RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE
ACQUISITION OF THE FEE SIMPLE INTEREST IN LANDS REQUIRED
FOR PUBLIC USE, TO WIT: THE PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE PATH
WHICH CONSTITUTES PART OF PUBLIC PARK SYSTEM, SITUATE AT
WAIPOULI, DISTRICT OF KAWAIHAU, COUNTY OF KAUAI, HAWAII,
AND DETERMINING AND DECLARING THE NECESSITY OF THE
ACQUISITION THEREOF BY EMINENT DOMAIN,
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on April 14, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on April 28, 2010.
The hearing proceeded as follows:
GLENN MICKENS: Thank you, Lani. For the record, Glenn Mickens.
I've read through this resolution 2010-34. For informational purposes, and Jay or
somebody I think will be able to straighten me out on this, if I read this correctly,
going through the resolution, lot 1, 12, A, and H, that's one of the acquisitions
(18,301 square feet, 851, 678, and 20,521). I came up with a total of 40,351 square
feet on that particular issue. Then you got lot 46, 47, 48, and 49 (7,059, 8,897, 726
and 342), about 17,024 square feet. And then you've got lot H, J, K, and L, for a
total of about 1204 square feet. Am I correct in assuming that...we're saying
roughly acre and a half of property here is what's going to be condemned. Am I
looking at this right? For condemnation, we're going to have purchase that much
property to do it. And if that is true, I see nothing in this resolution showing
• •
money-wise what it's going to cost to acquire this land to condemn it. Can
somebody enlighten me on the monetary value and if I'm correct in what I'm
assuming. I tried to look at those maps, but I can't interpret those maps. The
things are small, and I'm not sure exactly where they are and everything, but it's
not easy looking at those little tiny maps they got showing where the properties are.
Mr. Furfaro: I'll try...
Mr. Mickens: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: ... if the Chairwoman would allow.
Ms. Kawahara: I was going to ask if any councilmembers wanted to
address it.
Mr. Furfaro: So in a condemnation, you need to establish the
benefit for public use, and at which time you would hope you would come into a
friendly condemnation that the property is...there is agreement that the public use
is reasonable, is appropriate, and you could tender an offer. If it's an unfriendly
condemnation, then obviously it would require some additional action and appraisal
of fair value and discussions with the court. So that's how it usually works. But the
proof for public use is of utmost importance.
Mr. Mickens: Then am I correct in my assessment of this,
about 60,OOO...little over 65,000 square feet...
Mr. Furfaro: Well you know, I went to public school in Hawaii,
Waianae elementary. If you're telling me those are the appropriate numbers, then
on its face value, I'll take your addition as being correct.
Mr. Mickens: Okay.
Ms. Kawahara: I can be sure somebody gets back to you with the
total square footage, if you like.
Mr. Mickens: Well, okay. Then the big question is how much,
what are we paying for it.
Mr. Nakamura: Madam Chair, if that concludes Mr. Mickens'
testimony, we can get that information for the committee meeting.
Mr. Furfaro: It's in page 2, and I'll give it to him later. It's a
very generous amount.
Mr. Mickens: Page 2 on this resolution, or...oh something you
got, okay.
Mr. Furfaro: I'll share that with you.
Mr. Mickens: Okay, appreciate it.
Ms. Kawahara: So we'll be sure to get that information to you.
Mr. Mickens:
Thank you Lani.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you Mr. Mickens. Anyone else in the public
wishes to speak on this issue or matter? Seeing none, this public hearing is closed
for the parks and recreation. Thank you.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:46 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
~~
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
•
PUBLIC HEARING
MAY 26, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, :Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday, May 26, 2010,
at 8:30 a.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the
presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
C 2010-130, COMMUNICATION (05/07/2010) FROM THE MAYOR,
SUBMITTING HIS SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET COMMUNICATION FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2010-2011 AND PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE
BUDGET BILLS,
which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on May 19, 2010,
and published in The Garden Island newspaper on May 20, 2009.
There being no one present to testify on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 8:33 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
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,,_~
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
Bryan J. Baptiste, Mayor
County of Kaua i
•
PUBLIC HEARING
MAY 26, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Jay Furfaro, Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, at 2:00 p.m.
at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of
the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2361 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
CONDITION NO. 19 OF ORDINANCE NO. PM-2004-370 RELATED TO
THE KUKUI`ULA WORKFORCE HOUSING,
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on April 14, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on May 11, 2010.
Mr. Furfaro: For those in the audience, just a reminder, it is a
park...in a public hearing, the participants can actually give us testimony; it is not
for us to digest anything other than the questions of findings of opinions here, and I
would ask the clerk, do we have any written testimony?
Mr. Nakamura: No written testimony, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, may I ask, do we have anybody who's signed
up to speak at this public hearing?
Mr. Nakamura: We one registered speaker, JoAnn Yukimura.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, thank you very much. JoAnn, please
come up.
The hearing proceeded as follows:
s •
JOANN YUKIMURA: Chair Asing, Committee Chair Furfaro, members of
the Council, my name is JoAnn Yukimura. I'm here today to speak in opposition to
Bill 2361. It seeks to reduce the buyback period on affordable housing built by
Kukui`ula from 90 years to 25 years. I was on the council when this bill was passed.
I voted for it precisely because of the bold 90-year buyback, which provided for
affordability in perpetuity and therein addressed the long-term impacts of the
Kukui`ula development on land and housing prices in the Po`ipu/Koloa area. Unless
we create permanent affordability, we will never be able to effectively address
homelessness and the need for affordable housing. This is probably the single most
important factor in solving the housing problem on Kauai. As you know, the world
is the market for Kauai real estate, and Kauai could become a place for only the
rich if we don't have housing that is insulated from the market. Our job as the
county is to provide homes where people don't have to mortgage their lives for a
decent place to live, not to give them a windfall on taxpayer or developer subsidy.
One example of developer required housing for working families on Kauai was built
on the north shore, and working families and single moms were able to buy homes
in a very desirable place to live for a little over a hundred thousand dollars. Ten
years later, they could sell the property for $600,000. There's no way that that
housing would have gone to families like themselves who were helped by county
subsidies. I have no objections to people making this kind of windfall is it's their
own money that they used to buy their houses in the first place, but when you allow
this to happen, that precludes other families like themselves from getting housing.
If the houses aren't protected by the market, they won't be affordable after the first
sale into the market. When the Kukui`ula development is built out, it will be a very
expensive community. It will greatly increase land and housing prices in the
Koloa/Po`ipu area. It will become exclusive by virtue of economics. Yet by smart
growth principles, it's important to have low and moderately priced housing in the
Po`ipu/Koloa area where workers can walk or bike to work. It's not like these places
where you have to work are going to disappear after 25 years. The only way to be
able to have such housing is to protect them against speculation with a buyback
provision. Twenty-five years appears very long, but in fact it's very short.
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me JoAnn, I just want to make...that's
the 3-minute mark, but I'm going to go ahead and extend you the additional three
minutes.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. It's actually at 25 years when you will be
desperately wanting affordable housing for people in the Koloa/Po`ipu area.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. May I ask members, do you have any
questions of JoAnn... Councilwoman Yukimura? Will you be submitting your
testimony in writing, or do we already have it?
Ms. Yukimura: No, I have not.
~ •
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, are you prepared to give us a copy so we
can...
Ms. Yukimura: No. You don't want this copy, but I will prepare it
and submit it in a couple days.
Mr. Furfaro: May I ask that you do that in the next 6 days?
Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. You have no other
comments.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: May I ask... That was the only signed up? Is there
anyone else in the audience that wishes to speak on this item? If not, I'm going to
call this public hearing back to order with the members and so ask to conclude
this meeting.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:07 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
n; - ~~ •
PUBLIC HEARING
MAY 26, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Tim Bynum, Chair, Public Works/Elderly Committee, on Wednesday, May 26, 2010,
at 2:07 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the
presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2363 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
CHAPTER 25 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, AS
IT RELATES TO SEWERS,
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on April 28, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on May 11, 2010.
Mr. Bynum: Is there anyone present in the Chamber who would
like to speak on this matter? Mr. Taylor.
The hearing proceeded as follows:
KEN TAYLOR: Chair and members of the Council, my name is Ken
Taylor. I have a question I hope that you can clarify this issue for me is. It's my
understanding that some of the bond money that was just acquired or in the process
of being acquired is what's paying for the sewer upgrades in Waimea, and my
question is, is the community out there going to be repaying that debt service, or is
it going to be an islandwide payback?
Mr. Bynum: Normally public hearings aren't for questions and
answers, but the wastewater treatment plant, as I recall, is both ARRA and county
funded, and these sewer rates go, I believe, to the... are for all of the users and go for
the ongoing maintenance of the system, not for this capital improvement. So...I
1
hope I answered your question, and that's to the best of my knowledge as we
sit here.
Mr. Taylor: I guess I was just trying to figure out, is it the
people in Waimea that are on the sewer system repaying the debt, or is it going to
be the whole... since it was bond money, as I understand, part of the bond money
was generally a bond that covers many different things, takes care of everything in
the county.
Mr. Bynum: Getting assistance from our knowledgeable staff,
the users of the sewer system pay for the sewer system, including the wastewater
plants and...
Mr. Taylor: Including the upgrade.
Mr. Bynum: I believe so, but it's not just the ones on the
Westside, because we have wastewater systems in other parts of the island.
Mr. Taylor: I'm just getting at is I don't think it's right for the
people in Kapa`a, for instance, that are on sewer help pay for the sewer problem in
Waimea. I think the Waimea folks should be paying for that sewer, and if that's not
the case, then I have a real problem with this whole process. Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Furfaro: May I help you, Mr. Bynum, just to...
Mr. Bynum: Go ahead.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. The money for Waimea, part of it is federal
moneys, and part of it, you're correct, has been attached to the bond. The bond debt
is also scheduled by reducing other expenses to save us about $300,000 of interest
each year. But the people that are on the sewer system, and for the departmental
operating cost, not only the operating cost but also the revenue stream that comes
in, they are attached to a fee for the department. So I hope that answers your
question. But you were correct, Ken, some of it is federal money, some of it is
bond money.
Mr. Taylor: Thank you for that clarification.
Mr. Bynum: Is there anyone else in the Chambers that wishes
to speak on this matter? Seeing none, this public hearing is adjourned.
2
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:12 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
'~ ~%~_
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
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R" •
•
PUBLIC HEARING
JUNE 23, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Jay Furfaro, Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, June 23, 2010,
at 1:45 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the
presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2364 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTER 8, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING
TO THE COMPREHENSIVE ZONING ORDINANCE (Relating to
Single-Family Transient Vacation Rentals),
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on May 26, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on June 7, 2010.
Mr. Furfaro: Before I start, I'm Jay Furfaro, I'm the chairman of
the planning committee of which this bill is being heard. We do have a special
guest in the audience. Brandon, would you mind coming up, introducing yourself?
He is here to earn his government and civics badge, I believe. Why don't you
introduce yourself real quick and tell us your intent. Please sit. Go ahead Brandon,
introduce yourself.
BRANDON IIDA: I'm Brandon Iida.
Mr. Furfaro: Pull the mike a little closer to you, Brandon Iida.
Mr. Iida: My name is Brandon Iida. I'm in Boy Scouts
Troup 148. I'm taking the citizenship in the community badge.
C~
Mr. Furfaro: Well, we're delighted to have you here for the
public hearing, and if I need to document your attendance, you let me know.
Please, you can go back to the audience. Thank you Brandon for being here.
I want to again share with the audience this is a public hearing, and during a
public hearing, we have an opportunity to take testimony from you on the bill, and
not necessarily as Councilmembers engaged in discussion, but rather, take
testimony during the public hearing. So that would be the point of today's hearing.
The following communications were received for the record:
1. Barbara Robeson, dated June 23, 2010
2. Marj Dente email, dated June 4, 2010
3. David R. Houston, dated June 23, 2010
4. Barney and Julie Feinblum email, dated June 23, 2010
5. Sky Roversi-Deal email, dated June 22, 2010
6. Chad Deal email, dated June 22, 2010
7. Lee Roversi and family email, dated June 22, 2010
8. Gerald Shinn email, dated June 22, 2010
9. Robin Lyons, dated June 22, 2010
10. James Piretti, dated June 22, 2010
11. Peter Giovale email, dated June 22, 2010
12. Michele Hughes email, dated June 22, 2010
13. Lorna A. Nishimitsu, Belles Graham Proudfoot Wilson & Chun, LLP,
dated June 21, 2010
14. George Volker (2), dated June 14, 2010 and June 21, 2010
The hearing proceeded as follows:
GLTY CROYDEN: Good afternoon. My name is Guy Croyden. It's
nice to see all of you. I really didn't prepare for this; it's kind of a last minute thing.
I'm kind of surprised that I'm the first person speaking. But I'm just here to give
you my opinion on this bill. I believe that the bill as it is written, appears to me to
be a fair bill. In my opinion, the previous vacation rental bill was an over-reach
with respect to...excuse me...the provision pertaining to building violations.
Nowhere else in the State are businesses put out of business because they have a
structural violation. There's laws in place, State laws and county laws in place,
that already address that issue, and those are not grounds for putting a business
out of business. In my opinion, the grandfathering law that's in place that allowed
for vacation rentals to be grandfathered, the intent was to protect businesses that
were in place and legally doing business as a legal entity. And initially in the
process o£..as I watched the county council work on putting together the law, they
had pretty much a pretty good law, I thought, and it was in the eleventh hour, last
minute, a big change was added in, and I think it only was floored for a matter of an
hour maybe, and then it was pushed through. And in my opinion, I'm not an
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attorney or anything. I believe that the law as it stands is an over-reach, and it
puts out county at jeopardy for lawsuits. I would hope that the current council
would think fairly, as opposed to simply thinking in terms of what might be popular
in terms of garnishing votes or anything else like that. I know that sometimes
these issues come up and it's the popular thing to move one way or the other, but
one has to look at the law and think about fairness to the people that the law
affects. And I appreciate the time, and I wish my thoughts were a little more
organized, but I hope you understand where I'm coming from. Thank you very
much.
Mr. Furfaro: Chairman has a question for you.
Council Chair Asing: Yes, I... You make reference to the law, what you
call the law. Are you aware that there is a attorney general's opinion that it is
illegal to have vacation rentals on ag zoned lands? Are you aware of that opinion?
Mr. Croyden: You know, I'm not speaking particularly about the
ag zoning, but the provision that I'm focused on is the last minute change that was
amended on the original proposed law that caused...that basically stated that the
transient vacation rental had to be in accordance with all provisions of the law,
zoning ordinances, etc., etc., etc. And as far as my knowledge of the laws pertaining
to the vacation rentals on ag land, I don't know the particulars.
Council Chair Asing: Thank you, appreciate that.
Mr. Croyden: Thank you, Kaipo.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Clerk, before you call up the next speaker,
maybe I can have a minute just to encapsulate the purpose of today's public
hearing. First and foremost, the county's general plan implied, and it is a document
that should be reviewed every 10 years with the citizens, and I was fortunate to
serve on that committee as well before I was transferred to Tahiti. The reality is it
pointed out that certain transation...transient vacation rentals began operating
outside the visitor destination area. The county of Kauai has a visitor destination
area that permits this zoning. In 1999 there was a county attorney opinion that
was made public and often references...is referenced as the Kobayashi opinion, and
that opinion said, although there are zoning issues in place, the fact of the matter
that certain portions of the law really were directed at multifamily units outside the
VDA that did not qualify for vacation transient accommodations, and therefore, it is
recommended that the appropriate legislation action tighten up those
opinion... that opinion.
3
In 2002 and with the support of the chairman of the council, we funded a
stakeholders committee to review that issue within the county's general plan. And
the general plan did not come out and say to terminate it; it came out and said we
•
need to regulate it. There are some existing laws on the books, especially as they
related to agricultural lands, and there's two parts to this bill today. There is some
modifying processes that are in the hands of the planning commission that deal
with those units on residential land outside the vacation rental areas. And the
other particular piece that this addresses is the fact that vacation rentals are and
should not be allowed, according to some interpretations, on agricultural land. The
reference that was just recently made was made on a document submitted on
August 19, 2009, from the attorney general's office, of which five points were made.
This document was brought to our attention, and in fact, most oftenly is read
on two sections where activities by the land use commission control on vacation
rentals on ag land have some definition of accessory use, and I'll read the section
that is not often referred to in number 3, that the law allows special permits to be
issued for unusual and reasonable uses, although these items are not defined and
the potential impact of farm agricultural activities are not defined. The region that
this is relevant to is determining whether the use is unusual and reasonable and
consistent with the objectives of Chapter 205. There is no directive to the counties
to affirmatively analyze these special factors. But it also is noted that the county
can regulate activity in the ag zone that are under 15 acres. And my interpretation
of what the message was in the goals of the general plan was to draw a line in the
sand and go forward by restricting any further proliferation. This meant those
people, in my mind, who paid taxes both GET, the transient accommodation tax,
needed to demonstrate that they could apply for a special use permit that fell under
the unreasonable...the unusual and reasonable use of this land. That doesn't mean
that was the primary use of the transient vacation; it could be an accessory use.
Some people define accessory use as being the barn. Other people define accessory
use as the complement of revenue that goes against the farm, and it is certainly
recommended that farm activity exists. So it is the goal of this bill, in my opinion,
to draw the line, have everybody declare their position for those that were actually
operating legally prior to the March 7, 2008 date. So there's two parts in this public
hearing, and the piece that I read...just read to you is the short answer on page 2 of
the attorney general's commentary. We have often heard from others about item 1
and item 2. We have rarely heard about this exception in item 3 that I just read.
Item 3 further goes on in page 14 of this definition, it goes on to say there are some
classifications that need to be considered by special use permit that deal with fair
and reasonable use, and that may trigger a special use permit. So I wanted to make
sure that we all understood after we kind of got some distraction as to the purpose
of this bill.
The bill then came back to us with recommendations from the planning
commission that said that there should be some consideration, but farming activity
should be the primary function of that ag parcel, and the vacation rental use permit
should be considered a secondary use for the land, not a primary use. So I hope in a
quick scenario I've given you the highlights of what is in this piece. It is available.
I'm referencing item 3 as reported by the attorney general, and I'm also referencing
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our general plan document whose intent was to stop the proliferation going forward
since the date we passed bill 864; okay. So we're not going to get into a lot of
dialogue, but I want to make sure, as some of you, the first time I've seen you here,
you needed to know what we're referencing, but also, it is your time to talk in terms
of your testimony in support or against this bill. So I think I got most of that
correct, mister attorney, if there's anything you want to clarify for me before I 'go on
to take public testimony. I'm directing... Were you okay with everything that I
said? To the county attorney's office... Were you okay with everything that I just...
AL CASTILLO, JR., County Attorney: I was.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, and I'm seeing a couple of other deputy
attorneys acknowledging that in the back of the room. Okay. Thank you very much
for the courtesy. Mr. Chair...
Council Chair Asing: Yes. I have some objections to your, you know,
bringing out your analysis of the case and picking up different sections. And I
would hope that we would not get into that area. Now, my intent when I questioned
the original speaker was to the point, and when I make reference to the point, I'm
saying that the speaker mentioned the law, and I wanted the speaker to be aware of
the fact that there is an attorney general's opinion which I consider the law, and
that's the only reason I made reference to that and not going into detail about the
particular opinion. So I don't think that, you know, we should get into that depth,
because it is your opinion of... and it is also your opinion of the general plan.
Now, the general plan is not law. The general plan is a guideline, so I want
to make that plain. When you make reference to the general plan, the general plan
is not law; it is merely a guideline and to be used as such, and stated in the general
plan's preference(sic) area. So thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chair, let me extend my apologies if you felt
that I breached the area, but I do need to share with you and I started in my
testimony, in previous testimony here, only the first two portions of this
general...the attorney general's opinion had ever been read into the record. I just
wanted to make that clear. And secondly, the general plan is a ordinance which is
voted on, so... On that note, I extend my apologies to the chair if I breached my
role, but let's move on to the public testimony.
THOMAS BEEBE: Aloha. Good afternoon members of the council.
I've come today as I have on previous occasions... I'm sorry, my name is Thomas
Beebe, and I manage a vacation rental on the north shore that is on agriculture
land. My interest in this topic is is my livelihood, but I also believe that we're all
seeking a fair solution to this problem, and it seems like there are many nuances
that complicate it, one of which, of course, if the dedication of agriculture land, and
what areas are ag land and why they're ag land, and if it's realistic to farm on these
• .
lands. The property that I manage is not suitable for agriculture-the soil is
terrible, the exposure to the ocean makes it very salty. I've been nurturing an
orchard on this property for 9 years now, and I have trouble producing good fruit.
It's expensive. Amendments are expensive. But the property, when... I don't own
the property, but as I said, I manage it, and when the owner purchased the
property, he purchased it from somebody who had an ag dedication, so there was a
commitment to agriculture through that dedication, and I've done my utmost over
the years to try to fulfill that, and also in hopes that there will be a fair solution to
this ongoing problem that have been aware for years.
So I'm here today just to express my strong desire for a solution. This bill
seems like a good solution. There's certainly...I think more important than just
solving it right now is reevaluating our agriculture lands and deciding where it's
realistic to grow food for the island or wherever, and where there are other uses
that, you know, they can be valuable to the island. I feel that over the many years
that I've met and greeted visitors from the mainland, I've given them an experience,
given them fruit, although sour citrus sometimes, I've given them a great
experience sharing my love and knowledge of Hawaii and Kauai, and I feel that it
would be a loss if vacation rentals, especially in rural areas, were made illegal. I
understand that officially some opinions are that they are already illegal, but we've
paid taxes for many years and we've done what we could to follow the letters of the
law, and I believe that the fair solution would be to grandfather in the existing
vacation rentals and to... as Mr. Furfaro said, to stop the proliferation. So I hope
you'll consider a solution that is reasonable.
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me, are you aware that the State has
mandated a review of important agricultural lands currently, and we do have a
committee appointed working with the planning department to make some
recommendation? Are you aware of the important ag land activities?
Mr. Beebe: I am. Yeah, I'm eagerly awaiting the results.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Thank you for your testimony, and
we'll call the next speaker.
JONATHAN CHUN: Good afternoon Mr. Chair and members of the
council. I'd just like to offer my short comments in support of the proposed bill. Oh,
my name is Jonathan Chun. Thanks. Just like to offer my short comments in
support of the proposed bill. This bill, while not perfect in any regards, it's a good
effort at a compromise. It doesn't make anybody... everybody happy; there are some
people that coin to "I think it doesn't go far enough, one way or the other." But I
recognize it for what it is-it is a fair compromise to allow persons that have
property on ag land, existing...existing TVRs on ag land, to at least have a fair
forum to decide whether they should continue or not, and that's all we're asking.
From the very beginning, on the client...the clients that I've been representing,
•
that's all we've been asking, just a fair opportunity to show that we have been doing
a TVR, for the past so many years, even before the bill was...original bill was
passed, and that is a fair situation for the neighborhood. It doesn't guarantee...this
bill does not guarantee that they will get the TVR,, but it gives them a forum, and
that's all we're asking-to give them a chance to present their story and their
position in a fair tribunal. And that's why I reason, on behalf of my clients, we will
support...we do support this bill. I am open to any questions if the council
may have.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Mr. Chun...
Mr. Chun: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Yeah, I...what I recall of your testimony and
for 864 was repeatedly you coming and and saying not that we should allow TVR,s
on ag but that people who are currently existing should have an opportunity for due
process to determine whether they are legal under State law.
Mr. Chun: Correct.
1VIr. Bynum: Have I got that correct?
Mr. Chun: Yes, and that's been our position... at least my
position all along in my testimony in front of the council. We're not...this does not
open the door to any new people. That door was closed when the original ordinance
was passed. All we're saying is that people who have been doing TVR,s in the past
before the ordinance...the original 864 was passed, they should be given an
opportunity to show that they are a valid use that should be allowed in the ag
district. If through this process the commission and ultimately the courts decide no,
then so be it. That's what the proper answer should be.
Mr. Bynum: So this bill does accomplish that-allowing people
to apply and go through the process at the planning commission.
Mr. Chun: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: And the process that they go through will have to
determine whether their use is legal under State law, is that correct?
Mr. Chun: Correct. Under this proposed ordinance, they'll
have to show, at a minimum, at a minimum that is a fair... unusual and reasonable
use under ag... in the ag district.
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Mr. Bynum: And so in your opinion this bill does not legalize
vacation rentals on agricultural land.
Mr. Chun: No. It does not open the door to new issues. It just
allows them to apply for a State special permit.
Mr. Bynum: Because the county does not have the authority to
override the State law, right?
Mr. Chun: No.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, are you familiar...
Mr. Chun: In deference to the county attorney, but I don't
believe the answer would be yes.
Mr. Bynum: In your opinion,...I'm asking your opinion.
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me, Mr. Bynum, (inaudible) also I would
like to stay very true to the fact that this is, rather than a Q&A period for us, I will
allow a few questions, but not to have dialogues specifically at this public hearing,
but to let the public speak.
Mr. Bynum: I'm asking the witness his opinion, so...
Mr. Furfaro: I don't think he's a witness. I think he's here for a
public testimony.
Mr. Bynum: Well, the testifier, excuse me. Yeah, we didn't
swear you in.
Mr. Chun: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Are you familiar with the attorney general's
opinion that's been referenced here today?
Mr. Chun: Yes, I've read that, and I believe the
Councilmembers have also read that.
Mr. Bynum: And in your opinion, does that... does that opinion
from the attorney general say that all transient vacation rentals on ag land
are illegal?
Mr. Chun: I would probably defer to the county attorney on
the proper interpretation and reading of that attorney general opinion. I really
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don't want to... In all deference to you, Councilmember Bynum, I don't think...I
don't think the council should listen to one way or the other what my opinion is on
that, but I think the county attorney's opinion would matter in terms of what the
attorney general said or did not say in his opinion.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, thank you.
AL CASTILLO, JR., County Attorney: Council Chair, may I make a comment
regarding... I know we've been discussing the opinion on the attorney general's
opinion, and you know, I would caution everyone. here to understand that that is an
opinion. And right now, what's been...what is happening is I wouldn't want anyone
one person to be picking out any phrase or any sentence that would bolster your
argument. I think I would like to... for this body to hear testimony, rather than
everyone talking about the opinion or some case law or statute. I think that is in
the province of my office and if the council wants guidance regarding the law, then I
will be able to do that and guide the council in executive session. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: To the county attorney, I would honor your request.
I just felt; and I would like to point out, that after the first person that testified and
the fact that previous people have read from...testifiers have read from portions of
the attorney general's statement, I felt it was important to summarize the purpose
of this public hearing, and we will attempt to stay on target with the
public's testimony.
Mr. Chun: Thank you Mr. Chair... I mean I have the opinion,
but like you said, you know, we can pick out portions one way or the other, you
know, to support what I have to say or to, you know, or to against what other people
have to...you know, but that... Is that constructive, you know, and I think at this
point in time really, the best thing if you have questions is to consult the county
attorney on that.
Mr. Furfaro: Well, since the county attorney is my attorney and
represents others, but I think it was important to point out that there is that
interpretation. I believe this is a public document.
Mr. Chun: Right, and that's fine. I mean I just said from my
perspective on that question from Councilman Bynum, you know, I didn't want to
get involved in that kind of discussion.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Mr. Chun: Thanks.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Does anybody else have any questions
for Mr. Chun? No? Jonathan, thank you very much. The next speaker please.
•
Mr. Chun: Thank you very much, Chair.
LORNA NISHIMITSU: Good afternoon Council Chair and members of the
council. I previously submitted like a 4-page letter, and I'm not going to read it into
the record. I just want to summarize our support bases, you know, on behalf of our
clients for this draft bill. What happened two years ago was we have a special
permit process and a use permit process so that people could apply to the planning
commission to do uses that their lands were not outright classified for or zoned for,
and the ordinance removed the right only as to this class of ag TVR. operators to
apply for a special permit and a use permit. And we support your attempt to allow
them to go through the vetting process with the planning commission. You know,
the planning commission will consider the testimony of neighbors and other people
about whether there are impacts created by these proposed uses, and will vet those
impacts and try to mitigate them through conditions. You are giving them no
greater rights than Kapa`a Middle School had when it applied for its permit to put
up the middle school on ag land, because there's nowhere in this State where
schools are outright permitted. Many of our churches have to go through the special
and use permit process because there aren't enough zoned lands that are large
enough that allow those unusual and reasonable uses. And that's all we're asking
that this council support, give them the right, not all of them will make it.
And the second thing, the most important thing is, these people who are
engaging in ag TVR, uses will also have to engage in agricultural activities, because
the lands are classified agriculture. The only request we had made was to do a little
revision on the draft language, because if you have a lot that is less than 5 acres in
size, you cannot immediately petition the real property division for dedicating that
lot. They consider it too small, unless you have five consecutive years of engaging in
that same agricultural activity and proof that you've engaged in it. So you
might...what you would do is you would foreclose some people who have been
engaging in agricultural activity but haven't reached the level of dedication yet. I
also have a client who is doing agricultural activity on the common element of an
agricultural CPR, because the limited common element where the home is located is
too small and too sloped to engage in that. Real property rules do not allow
dedication of the common element, even if the association of homeowners is fine,
you know, go ahead and do your ag use and dedicate it. So we just ask that as long
there is a non-dedicable agricultural activity, that these TVR, operators also be
allowed to apply for the special permit and go through the hearing process with the
planning commission. Thank you.
Ms. Kawahara: If I had specific questions on two of her items?
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Mr. Furfaro: Yes, if you had a question for her.
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Ms. Kawahara: Is that okay? You know, your... are you... In your
letter to us, your testimony, I'm having a hard time understanding. Are you
comparing schools and churches to TVR,s, saying they have equal...equal weight as
a reasonable use?
Ms. Nishimitsu: I am saying that there are certain uses which are
not outright permitted under zoning and land use laws, and in order for them to get
established, they do have to go through the public hearing process and get the
special and use permits from our planning commission, and sometimes the land use
commission if the lot in question is more than 15 acres. I'm not saying they're the
same kind of use. The planning commission will make the decision about whether
each proponent's application proposes an unusual and reasonable use for that
particular locale.
Ms: Kawahara: Okay. Is there...what does commercialization play
in any of that?
Ms. Nishimitsu: Well, commercialism plays into anything where
rent, I guess, is collected, which also involves long-term rental of agricultural
homes, and this... You know, nothing is being done...you know, that's kind of like a
silent thing; nobody wants to deal with that. But the fact that rental income is
collected from rental of the homes is no different than income that is collected from
the sale of agricultural products. I mean it's, you know, this society is driven by
economics, and I guess the difference is the amount of money, and I don't know how
this council would want... if this council would want to get a handle on that 'and try
to regulate how much money can be earned from rental of homes, rental of
commercial buildings, or sales of agricultural products.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, and the second question was I noticed you
were talking .about the comment element and the limited common element. So
you're asking us to consider allowing the CPR that decides to put, like in Po`ipu
they have their little turf farm yeah, and the CPR'd lands or all the other little
parts that don't do the turf. So you're saying... You know, the bill right now only
the little part of that whole CPR lot would be allowed for common use and
dedication, but you're asking for every single lot that's in that CPR that doesn't
happen to have that little turf on it to be considered.
Ms. Nishimitsu: I think what would have to happen is that the
planning commission would listen to the testimony about who is engaging in the
agricultural activity on the common element, with the consent of the association,
and who is deriving the income from that agricultural activity, if... and determine
whether under all of those circumstances it is fair and reasonable to allow that TVR,
operator to get a special permit to engage in transient vacation rental use, because
that agricultural activity on the common element is linked to that particular limited
common element.
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Ms. Kawahara: Okay, because we've had... common elements been
brought up before, and they're very...I'm...I just have serious reservations about
common elements on CPRs for ag. So I just wanted to clarify that that's what
you're talking about, is allowing that common element to be used as a part of the
dedication for each...
Ms. Nishimitsu: For all of the limited common... I think the owner
or the applicant for the special permit has to have satisfactory evidence for the
planning commission to agree that that agricultural activity on the common
element is linked to that limited common element, not that it's going to give
everybody else a free ride into getting a special permit for the transient vacation
rental activity.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you Vice Chair.
Mr. Furfaro: You're quite welcome. Is there anymore questions?
Lorna, thank you very much for your testimony. Next speaker please.
GEORGE VOLKER: Good afternoon council, my name is George Volker.
With your permission, I would like to read from my two letters that I've submitted
as testimony regarding this. They're short; they're a page each.
Mr. Furfaro: I will extend you a total of 6 minutes for your
testimony. Go right ahead.
Mr. Volker: My first letter is dated June 14, last week. Dear
Council Chair Asing and Councilmembers, in the interest of preserving our
agricultural lands and supporting our existing visitor industry, I wish to express my
opposition to bill number 2364 which proposes to allow transient vacation rentals to
operate on State agricultural lands. Ostensibly, bill number 2364 is intended to
correct shortcomings of ordinance number 864 with regards to nonconforming TVRs
operating on agricultural land. However, ordinance number 864 needs no
amending and is correct as it stands. Pursuant... quote, pursuant to HRS
chapter 205, no nonconforming use certificate shall be issued for any single family
transient vacation rental located on land designated agricultural by State law.
That's from ordinance number 864.
Ordinance number 864 does provide for instances where, quote, the applicant
has a special permit under Hawaii Revised Statutes section 205.6 which specifically
permits a vacation rental, and the permit was secured prior to the enactment of this
ordinance. That's in our existing ordinance number 864. It is bill number 2364
with its aim to give legitimacy to prior illegal use, which runs afoul of both HRS
chapter 205 and the county mandated farm dwelling agreement. The farm dwelling
agreement clearly precludes owners from using a farm dwelling as a transient
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vacation rental. Also, like ordinance number 864, the farm dwelling agreement
acknowledges special permits if they were granted. And most important, the farm
dwelling agreement requires that the farm dwelling owner indemnify and hold the
county of Kauai harmless from any and all claims. This is a recorded agreement
that becomes a covenant which runs with the land.
Bill number 2364 is merely a ploy to legitimize illegal vacation rentals on ag
land in the guise of amending, quote, particular provisions, unquote, of ordinance
number 864. Bill number 2364 violates the purpose and intent of HRS chapter 205
and violates the mandates of the farm dwelling agreement. It defeats the use of
State agricultural lands for agricultural purposes, and it diverts visitors away from
visitor destination areas and away from existing legitimate transient vacation
rentals.. This bill does not serve the best interest of Kauai. I urge the council to
vote no on bill number 2364.
Then in my second letter dated June 21, this is more addressing my own
personal observations regarding transient vacation rentals on ag land. Dear
Council Chair Asing and Councilmembers. As stated in my previous letter dated
June 14, 2010, I oppose bill number 2364. My opposition to this bill stems from
both the legal standpoint and from my own personal experience. In 1999 my wife
and I purchased unit one of an undeveloped 3-unit agricultural CPR. We planned to
build a house, retire, and supplement our retirement income with produce raised on
this unit. We cleared the land, put in a road, water lines, utilities, and built a
modest 2-bedroom home. Since then, the other two units have been bought and sold
three times each. The current owners of the other two units both operate illegal
transient vacation rentals. These owners have never consulted us or asked for our
permission.
Blissful waters on unit 2 is a two-story 4-bedroom house with pool that rents
for $400 per night. Dilly dally on unit 3 consists of a two-story house, guesthouse,
and pool, and boasts four accommodations ranging from $115 to $185 per night.
That's a total of $620 per night. Neither the house nor the guesthouse has a
certificate of occupancy. In May 2008, I approached the other two owners as a
co-owner and citing ordinance number 864, asked them to stop operating their
illegal TVR,s. One owner immediately called me a bad neighbor, and the other
owner asked if I was drunk. Both of these owners continue to operate their illegal
TVRs, both now live on the mainland. For the last two years, my wife and I have
endured a relentless onslaught of tourists, construction crews,, film crews, wedding
receptions, birthday parties, and large family gathering complete with sound bands
and live DJs. We have listened to a continuous parade of rental cars coming and
going day and night, loud voices, door slams, car alarms, and parties late into the
night. We have had to install signs and a chain just to keep cars from turning
around in our front yard.
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In July 2008, I filed a complaint with the county planning department. I filed
a second complaint in April 2010. As of today, both TVRs continue to advertise and
operate. Transient vacation rentals to do not belong on agricultural land. They are
disruptive to the rural community. They encourage land speculation at the expense
of local land ownership.
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me just a second. That's the 6-minute
notice, but I'm going to let you continue please.
Mr. Volker: One sentence. They do not support the use of land
for agricultural purposes. I urge the council to vote no on bill number 2364.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much, especially for both of your
written testimonies. May I ask, within your 3-unit CPR, are there no covenants
amongst the individual lot owners that deal with noise (inaudible).
Mr. Volker: The condominium documents do, you know,
prohibit illegal use. If I wanted to pursue that in a civil matter if I had the
wherewithal, I could.
Mr. Furfaro: You've answered my question. I just wanted to
make sure that we do know that within the documents of those CPRs there are
various conditions in each association.
Mr. Volker: Yeah, they're prohibited from engaging in illegal
activities, which doesn't seem to deter them at all.
Mr. Furfaro: I appreciate your written testimony, George. Let
me see if there's any further questions.
Mr. Bynum: Thanks for your testimony, George.
Mr. Volker: You're welcome.
Ms. Kawahara: I wanted to thank you, because you actually sent in
a real life farm dwelling agreement in your testimony.
Mr. Volker: Yeah, my own.
Ms. Kawahara: Yeah. If I could, I'm not sure how this got to us, if
you dropped it off yourself?
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Mr. Volker: I did.
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Ms. Kawahara: Oh, okay, because I would have wanted to contact
you, but I'm glad you're here. So if next time you can put information on the
documents that you send in. I looked you up in the phone book, though, and was
going to call you.
Mr. Volker: You can.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay.
Mr. Volker: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Next speaker I believe is Shawn Smith, am
I correct?
SHAWN SMITH: Good afternoon. Shawn Smith. I'm just here...I
won't go...I won't need your 6 minutes, I won't even need your 3 minutes. Just here
to put my name on the list of being in support for this. I'm just going to reiterate a
couple other people that came up and said that the things that I just want to point
out is there was a vessel for people who have done this and who have done this for a
long time, who have paid their taxes and are supplementing the economy to
continue. And like Lorna said, there's still many obstacles those people have to
face-going in front of the planning commission, getting approvals there, and like
Jay mentioned, waiting for the important ag lands, is a very strong component that
we have to wait to see, and also there's still many things that can happen. But let
the people that have been contributing to the island on so many different areas of
the economic side of it continue. They do it the right way. They fill out all the
paperwork. They do it legally. They should be allowed to continue. And as the
gentleman before me sat through, it doesn't make a difference who's in the house
next to you. You very well could live next to a family who's just as loud. It's unfair
to say that people visiting are the ones that are making all the noise. I live next to
a family that makes noise all the time, and they live here fulltime. So I don't...I
hate to throw that emotional side into it in any kind of deliberation. So I hope that
we can all kind of sit down to a fair and just solution. There's a lot of wonderful
families here who not only live on the mainland part-time, but also live here and
rent their properties, and it's an important survival tool for them, as well as all the
other families that are involved in their production of their business. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Annie, you're next I believe.
ANNE PUNOHU: Aloha. My name is Anne Punohu for the record.
I'm going to talk about how I personally feel about this, and some of my own
personal experiences, and why sometimes I get really angry. When somebody
comes up and says they can't grow an orange tree so they get to have a vacation
rental...if that guy would have called me, I could have farmed his land and given
him a ton of crops in 6 months. But nobody calls me for land, do they? If I had had
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a piece of land to farm for the last 30 something odd years that I have lived here
and I could have been able to put my hands in the soil and I could have been able to
do what I do best. You know, I could have been able to much better support my
family and raise my part-Hawaiian children much easier than I've had to do for the
last many years. But like everybody else, because I didn't own land and I couldn't
afford it and I was working for plantation and other things after the hurricane, I
had to go work for K-Mart or for Costco or for the hotel or in tourism. I'm kind of
really upset right now because I think it is so unfair that people like myself cannot
produce the food that this island could use to be completely self-supportive when
there are people sitting behind me who have all the advantages and all the benefits
and have the land but were too incompetent as a farmer to make the land work.
The land on the beachside is very fertile if you know how to farm and if you know
what to farm. My only acception(sic) to people being able to do activities on
agricultural and to have people come is for one purpose and one purpose only, and
I've made this statement very many times-for education, for cultural reasons. If
you're a kalo farmer, you should be able to have people come on your land and learn
how to perpetuate the...because I'm a taro farmer. All my entire family grow kalo.
It is so important. That is something that is worthy, valuable, important, and when
I read this bill and it said, you know, an unusual purpose or whatever that was so
unusual, that was the one thing that I thought I could agree with is that yes, that is
unusual, and that is important to have the culture represented well in agriculture
and the right for people to come on the property and to learn how to perpetuate it.
And in my opinion, if I had land, I would plant ulu, I would plant lauhala because
we need to have our own weavers here, I would wauke because we are getting
overrun with tapa from everywhere else in Polynesia... There is value to that, yes.
There is no value, in my mind, of having people buy the land that they should be
farming for the express purpose of having it be a little blessing waters, whatever,
thing to put up. I don't agree with that. Aloha no.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Ann. The next speaker I believe is
Lonnie Sykes(sic).
LONNIE SYKOS: Good afternoon. For the record, my name is Lonnie
Sykos. I moved to Kauai 7 years ago. I have been and I am a farmer, and I also
have been and I am engaged in agriculture. And there was a truth spoken by a
housewife in Illinois which was printed in the Garden Island in 6/10 of this year,
which is what prompted me to come speak today. Everyone is doing it, that's just
politics in Illinois, nobody knows right from wrong because everyone is doing it and
getting away with it. Mrs. McGowen quoted is a self-described housewife.
Everyone is doing it. I lived in Hana, Maui, for 25 years. My calabash aunt sold me
her home in her ahupua`a, and for $50,000 I was in ag business. I took a chainsaw
and I cut 5 acres of guava and African tulip trees down on the most marginal land
you can imagine and created a very successful tropical flower business. Lie number
one about everybody is doing it is small parcels of land and parcels of land that are
not declared as prime land are unsuited for agriculture. The truth of the matter is,
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in this State today, almost all diversified agriculture takes place on marginal lands
because there's no good land available. Just like on Kauai, you have hundreds of
thousands of acres, I think, tens of thousands of acres of prime ag land sitting there
and the ag businesses are forced into the marginal lands. If you want to kill
agriculture entirely, then make the value of the land based on the value of using the
land not for agriculture.
I have a question for the county council which I don't expect them to answer,
because it drives to the heart of the legal issues in this. A statement first, as a
taxpayer, these people that have TVR,s on ag land, if I understand correctly, they
need hotel zoning. I don't understand correctly. They need some type of a zoning to
engage in a business activity that is not agriculture. You cannot engage not in an
agricultural business on ag land. Part of the issue here is are the term farming and
agriculture synonyms.
Mr. Furfaro: Lonnie, that's 3 minutes, but I'll let you continue.
Mr. Sykos: And I'll wrap this up. If they're synonyms, then
when you mow your yard you're engaged in agriculture. Right? Oh, and thank you.
I was very impressed by everything that you had to say. When I was farming, when
I owned my house, Iwrote-off the packing shed that I built in my carport, I
wrote-off the land that I actually used, Iwrote-off the improvements engaged in
agriculture, but because I had an outside job and my wife at the time had an outside
job, we could not write-off the bedrooms. We could not write-off the living room.
They were not solely for agriculture; it was our home. So to me, looking at this
issue, the county needs to decide, which is a huge legal issue, can you build on ag
land improvements that are not related to agriculture. And then when you say,
well geez what is that mean, my observation is the ultimate arbiter in this is State
law, federal law, and federal tax law. And so when I was farming in another county
and in other States, we were never led to believe that we could go create
non-agricultural improvements on land that that was prohibited on, and if you
wanted to make improvements, you needed to be able to write them off. And so my
question for the county is, shouldn't everything that is an improvement on ag zoned
land be part of a business, therefore, should it not be a business expense? And it's
up to the IRS and the owner as to why the owner would choose not to claim the
exemption on their taxes. This cuts to the heart of all the homes that were built on
ag land, and the people that...even if you have a $35,000 cash flow, right, are you
going to go in front of the IRS and justify writing the mortgage and all your farm
expenses and all that in which your business plan doesn't show you're going to be
making $350,000 in a few years to justify it. And so for all the taxpayers, for
everybody who's not doing this, we get stolen from us the opportunity to engage in
agriculture, and the land and the ability to engage in agriculture has ended up in
the financial pockets of the people not conducting agriculture. Real war going on
here, and the war is between whether there will be small agriculture in the future,
or whether all the land will sit here waiting for its best use, which is single family
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dwellings. So thank you. You guys inherited a horrible tough issue to deal with. I
apprec... even though I disagree with you all at times about things, I hold you all in
the highest regard for being willing to sit here and take the heat in public. Right?
God bless you all in these very difficult decisions you have to make.
Mr. Furfaro: Lonnie, thank you for your testimony. Let me see if
there's anybody have any questions. And I think you did hit on the fact that, you
know, the Hawaii administrative rules are very, very vague in many of these areas.
Mr. Sykos: Oh absolutely.
Mr. Furfaro: And we find ourselves needing to come to this...
Mr. Sykos: Cleaning up a long history of events.
Mr. Furfaro: Let me see if there's any questions. None? Lonnie,
thank you very much.
Mr. Sykos: Thank you very much.
DAN HEMPEY: Good afternoon members of the council. My name
is Dan Hempey. As you know from previous incarnations of this bill, I represent
KAVA, which stands for the Kauai Alternative Vacation Accommodation
Association, and they asked me to come and express their support for this bill, and
I'll keep it very short as well. We've previously submitted lots of written testimony
with respect to this bill's predecessors, and also the current ordinance, and so we
would incorporate that. You've heard our legal arguments ad nauseum at this
point. Just at this point we'd like to say we support the bill because we believe it's
fair and it's the right public policy, and it also will make county law consistent with
State law. And we believe it's fair, because it simply would give people an
opportunity to apply for a special use permit under State law. We're not saying
they get the permits here today; we're saying they can apply and make the case
under State law that they ought to be able to continue their pre-existing use as
connected with a farm.
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me. Thank you for clarifying that there is
no intent for any approvals today. The intent is they can demonstrate their case to
the planning commission...
Mr. Hempey: Exactly.
Mr. Furfaro: ... on this bill.
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Mr. Hempey: Exactly.
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Mr. Furfaro: I just want to clarify for (inaudible).
Mr. Hempey: And that's what I'm trying to say as well-we're not
approving any. We're not asking to approve any TVR today, and in fact you've
clearly limited any possible approvals to TVRs that existed prior to the...
Mr. Furfaro: March 7th date.
Mr. Hempey: Right, under 864. And finally, we think it's good
policy because it promotes farming, and that's the point. You know, we're talking
about a limited number of transient vacation rentals that existed before 864, and
it's our position that allowing them is much... How to put this? Promoting farming
and allowing them to continue farming, which is supple....when they need the
income supplement for a TVR is a good policy. The point is it's...we believe it'll
allow to promote farming, it will create farm employment, and that's more
important than legislating who sleeps upstairs. That's all.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Hempey, let me see if anybody has any
questions. Councilwoman Kawahara, you had a question? Go ahead.
Ms. Kawahara: Thank you, yes. When you say it promotes
farming, I just...we've just been hearing people come up saying they have TVRs and
they can't farm. Is there a ratio of how much is income comes in from the TVR
versus how much income comes in from the farming that makes it allowable?
Mr. Hempey: I think that's what needs to be put before planning,
if you pass this, when people apply, so the planning commission can make an
informed decision-is this really a farm, or is it a TVR in disguise. What I vision,
and I hope it's right if this passes, is that those relatively few people that were
running TVRs before are going to need employees to work the farm, and because
they can do both at this point; and they'll be able to afford it.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, so there's no real way of saying that the
farming has to have more income than the TVR.
Mr. Hempey: It seems to me. I mean I certainly can't speak for
everybody at KAVA, but it seems to me that's a case by case basis, and I think we
got to trust our bureaucrats to look at it and make a decision whether this is a scam
application or a real application. But again, my position is here coming here and
saying we believe it supports farming, and it's also fair, and a lot of these people
started...let's face it, a lot of people started TVRing after a previous county attorney
put in writing that that was okay.
Ms. Kawahara: Okay, thank you.
• •
Mr. Furfaro: Is there anyone who has not testified for the first
time that would like to testify now? If there... Barbara, please come up, and could
the staff get other people to sign up? This would be the last opportunity for those
that are here to add on.
BARBARA ROBESON: Thank you Councilmember Furfaro, and I'm sorry
this is incorrectly addressed; I have the procedure incorrect.
Mr. Furfaro: No, it's quite alright. My office is right next door to
his, so...
Ms. Robeson: Great, very good. Barbara Robeson testifying again
today on behalf of protect our neighborhood `ohana, which is comprised of residents
living in the Wainiha and Ha`ena area. And again, providing rele... as I've testified
recently, providing relevant and informed testimony is very difficult without
knowing what the true motive behind this bill is. Hopefully throughout this process
as it moves forward, many of these question and assumptions that I currently have
will be answered. First I'd like to talk about the original purpose of the bill 864
and 870...we11, 864 as of March 7th 08 stated...it described the purpose of that
particular bill as, quote, single family transient vacation rentals are occurring at a
greater rate and inflicting a larger impact on the community of Kauai than was
ever anticipated in the county's original CZO. The uncontrolled proliferation of
vacation rentals in residential and other areas outside the visitor destination areas
is causing significant negative impacts to certain residential neighborhoods. And
the purpose of the bill is to promote a high quality of life for all people on this island
to preserve the residential character of the neighborhoods.
So my question is, how does this proposed new bill support the original
purpose? On March 10, 2010, the cover letter for bill 2355, which resurrected the
existing transient vacation bill ordinance, stated the intent was to, quote, clarify
standards and permit processes for regulating alternative visitor accommodation
structures and operations in residential, agricultural, open, and resort zoning
districts...that was clarify standards. But when bill 2355 appeared on the April 27,
2010 planning commission agenda, it stated that the bill related to the
improvement of standards to regulate alternative visitor accommodations and
structures within the agricultural, open, residential districts outside of the
designated VDAs. So which is? Is it to clarify, or is it to improve the standards,
and how does this new bill specifically accomplish this? The justification and the
details should be provided to the public, and how can major deletions of the portions
of the current bill, the one that's in effect right now, achieve the goals that I
previously outlined?
We believe this proposed bill is premature, and to avoid the further...to
further compounding of existing problems, we believe that a county audit should be
conducted before moving forward. An audit could include the following actions:
•
investigate the process whereby the current TVR, applications and permits were
researched, and document how the information was verified before those TVR,s was
approved, and also disclose any internal issues and/or problems that should be
solved or corrected before moving forward.
Next, identify any errors and omissions that occurred as part of the
procedures and processes for approving current TVR,s, if such procedures exist. And
finally, clean up any existing problems before further complicating them, before
compounding current errors, and before increasing the complexity of enforcement on
applications that, for example, submitted false and/or incorrect information.
The conclusion-solve the problems first before creating new ones.
I've also attached my testimony as of March 17, 2010 which contains
comments and questions on this topic, and then I do have some additional questions
that I hope as this process moves forward that you Councilmembers will address
and answer. Number one, what is the true motive behind the current bill? Number
two, who drafted the original March 10, 2010 bill 2355? Number three, how will
this new bill clarify standards and the permit processes? Four, how many new
TVR,s will this bill create that are outside the VDA? Five, can a new TVR,
application have a building, zoning, flood, and SMA violation and still get a new
transient vacation rental nonconforming use permit? Six, how will this bill ensure
that new TVR, applicants don't provide false information on their applications and
sworn affidavits? Seven, how much longer will the general public continue to
subsidize alternative visitor accommodations, i.e., TVR,s currently don't pay
commercial property taxes or commercial rates for county services. I know that was
addressed a month ago in this meeting, but still, it's on the front burner. And
number eight, are TVR,s spot-zoning without a zoning change?
I think that's all, and I do thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Mr. Furfaro: Barbara, I want to say that I didn't have the last
page, the one you were reading from. So...and I don't promise response to you at
today's meeting, but I never got the questions you read from.
Ms. Robeson: Can I give them to you in the future?
Mr. Furfaro: Absolutely. You can do that. Barbara, and I want
to thank you for pointing out that the question about property taxes are in fact in
my comment last month, I think I made it publicly...
z~
Ms. Robeson: Correct.
Mr. Furfaro: I am working with Steve Hunt basically to find out
at the conclusion of all of this that there may be a new tax category for those that
are successful.
Ms. Robeson: I'm going to keep bugging you.
Mr. Furfaro: Well, I would be glad to meet with you and Steve
Hunt over coffee, so that I can share with you what we're doing. But we have to
remember, it deals with a completely different chapter, and so we cannot commingle
(inaudible).
Ms. Robeson: Oh I know. I'm just putting it out there, as I
said before.
Mr. Furfaro: But I'll be glad to have a cup of coffee with you and
Steve Hunt.
Ms. Robeson: Thank you very much.
Mr. Furfaro: Let me see if there's any more questions.
Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Barbara, thank you for your testimony, and I would
appreciate getting those, when you can, the questions in writing, because I was
trying to write them down and you were going quick.
Ms. Robeson: Oh no, I'll send them to you. If I can email, I'll do it
that way.
Mr. Bynum: Yes, please do, and but I did want to answer
a couple.
Ms. Robeson: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me. Before you do, I need to make a call at
three o'clock, and I'm going to ask the chair to run the meeting `till I come back. I
had a three o'clock quick conference call.
Mr. Bynum: I'll answer two, and then the first one you said...
Ms. Robeson: I can read them again.
L"_
Mr. Bynum: - What was the motive... and I'm only for myself,
speaking for myself, okay. What was the motive for the bill? The motive for the bill
from my perspective is to make sure that the law is correctly applied. Okay, so I
• •
wanted to answer that. The...regarding taxes, I just want to point out that last
term, as the last term came to a close, we had a comprehensive tax bill that we
worked on for many months that I supported that would have taxed according to
use as opposed to zoning. And so it would have accomplished taxing the use of any
zoning category as a vacation rental differently than it... as it currently is, and so I
think the... Those are the two that I remember that I can answer. And I also want
to take this opportunity to say that I have always agreed with most of the problem
statement related to transient vacation rentals. In the history of this there's been
moving testimony, including from George today, about difficulties that can occur
from transient vacation rentals. I agree with George that transient vacation rentals
should not be happening on agricultural lands, and as of March 7, 2008, no new
vacation rentals on agriculture lands will be created legally. This whole discussion
is what do we do about the people who ordered their economic life around what
clearly as the status quo prior to the council finally answering that question,
because the problem was glaringly apparent in 2000. Why did it take until 2008 to
regulate going forward. So that...but I...so I agree with much of the problem
statement, and I'm glad that we have brought some clarity on at least this issue.
And then regarding agriculture lands, there is, in my opinion, very little
clarity about what you can and cannot do. And if I should be fortunate enough to
remain on this council, I intend to systematically try to address and bring truth and
clarity into our land use policies, because clearly in many instances, that does not
exist now. But I do believe that this bill was a step in that direction... the bill... the
original bill that finally said, from this point on, here's some clarity. And I hope
that the community has clarity that you cannot create a vacation rental outside of
the VDA on ag land or residential or any other zoning category unless it's in that
designated visit... So thank you for allowing me to use this opportunity to answer a
couple questions, and also make a statement. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. And Barb, I will attempt to .answer those
questions. Thank you.
Ms. Robeson: I'll send them to you.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. I have four more speakers, and I just
want to confirm that there's nobody else that... This is the third opportunity to sign
up. If not, we're going to call up Chad Deal. ,'
CHAD DEAL: Aloha Council, Council Chair and councilman and
one councilwoman. My name is Chad Deal. I could probably sit here for a week or
two and discuss this with you. I would love to. I have...I come from both a personal
standpoint, also business standpoint, but I would like to say that in... I am in
support of this bill because I feel that it does allow for the fair treatment of both
pre-existing and ones that are no longer to be allowed on ag land, the TVR,s on ag
i3
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land. As I said, I can get into a whole personal thing, which I won't do, because I
don't think that's what we're here for today.
Mr. Furfaro: And you only have six minutes.
Mr. Deal: And I only have six minutes, so I'm going to take
less than six minutes and I'll call it quits right now and just say that I am for this
bill, I think it treats everyone fairly, and it allows for regulations, and it treats each
one on their own individual level because they will have to go in and apply for a
permit if they have been pre-existing. I'd like it to go further and say that... I'll
take this another 30 seconds or so. I don't feel that it's right to limit it to just those
that have been doing TVR,s on ag land. I think...I've traveled around the world and
I know as many of you have. I've also stayed on farms, active farms, where they
have supplemented their income through tourism. My daughter just spent
Christmas, last Christmas, in Italy and she was put in charge of the baking for the
farm, which had 60 people staying on this farm, an agro-tourism farm in Italy. So it
exists around the world. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for people who are
coming to our island to enjoy the ruralness of the island, and the lifestyle, and to
interact with local people, rather than staying in a designated tourism area. That's
all I have to say, unless anyone has any questions.
Mr. Furfaro: Chad, let me ask that question...
Mr. Deal: Yes sir.
Mr. Furfaro: ... if there is anyone that has questions of Chad? If
not, thank you very much for your testimony.
Mr. Deal: Thank you very much for your time... and you have
a very difficult decision.
CAREN DIAMOND: Good afternoon Council, Caren Diamond. I'm sure
by now you know that I do not support this bill. In my testimony today I am going
to address the parts that do not deal with the agriculture part, and because I think
that's the part that is so confusing. And you know, we have...this Council, the last
Council, had passed ordinance, you know, the TVR, ordinance, and challenged the
planning department to implement it. What happened? Does anyone know? We've
had no transparency, no accountability, no ability to look at the records, no ability
to know who got approved, the rules never got approved, planning commission has
approved every single application that has come before them even though planning
department has given zero information along with the request; it just always says,
we recommend you approve these, and they all say, yeah, yeah, okay fine, we
approve. So if you're hoping that whatever you do here today has any meaning, give
up that hope. How can it happen (inaudible), unless you as the Council hold the
planning department to some kind of accountability. If there is no accountability,
~~ .
• •
why do we continue on? So I think your job as the Council is to do an audit, see
what happened to the first part of this ordinance. How can you give them more to
do until you do that?
The north shore was one of the most spectacular areas in the entire planet. If
you guys talk about law and you talk about ordinances, the north shore was never a
resort, not ever. And if you look at the special management area, it has overriding
protections. If you're going to do a business in our residential area, you need a use
permit. So everyone who's here... not here today, but who is saying, oh yes we've
been legal all along, where is the use permit? There is a procedure available. I
don't see why this county is acting like their hands are tied.
Now the inspections seem problematic, so we take that out of the law. Okay.
No more. No need to have inspections. Okay, well the rules were problematic, so
we'll take that out. Okay, what was problematic to comply with the federal flood
ordinance: Okay, never mind, never mind. The CZO too, okay, why should we
bother complying with our county zoning ordinance? So what are we doing here?
Why bother writing any laws if there's no need to comply with any of them?
So to sum it up, the accumulated impacts to the north shore are devastating.
So if you approve this bill that's going to add more to it, what is that going to do to
the north shore? You guys think the north shore is an appropriate resort? You
think that the place that has tsunami warnings and has been devastated two times
in recent history is the place to put our visitors, and never mind the federal flood
ordinance? There is zoning, and the whole parameters of how we had our visitor
destination areas is in place, and if you wanted to do a resort unit, then there is
that use permit that we talked about that you could have gotten or could get. But I
don't support you changing the law as this bill is to just allow everyone and
everything to come in and essentially turn the north shore into one big resort,
because it is the north shore that is the most affected here. So I hope you will do
your due diligence-ask for an audit before expanding any other part of this
ordinance. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Are there any questions? No? Thank you Caren.
Ken Taylor please.
KEN TAYLOR: Chair and members of the Council, my name is Ken
Taylor. I want to just say that I'm not in favor of this particular bill the way it's
written that it should move forward. I agree with the issues that were raised by
George and by Barbara and by Carol. I think it's time, I think it's time for the
County to start looking. I hear rhetoric all the time as we want to save agriculture.
Agriculture cannot afford to pay more than 10, 12, maybe $15,000 per acre at the
most. When you start allowing these kinds of activities on ag land, it raises the
price, the value of the land, to a point where a small farmer can't afford to exist. I
think that if you're going to consider moving forward with this bill, you should
25
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include in it that... something like a minimum of 70 or 80 percent of the total income
off of that land should be derived from agricultural activities, minimum. That's
easy to verify. That's easy to take care of. If that's not happening, it's not an ag
operation, and what it really boils down to is that it's strictly somebody bought some
land and built some vacation rental opportunities on it. And so let's call a spade a
spade. If it's going to be ag land, let it be ag land...by percentage, major percentage,
and that the supplemental part of that ag land then be considered as vacation
rental, but not the other way around, not the majority of the income from that land
be vacation rental operation and the supplemental being agriculture. That doesn't
solve our problems at all. So I really hope that at this point in time you'll not move
forward with this bill as it's written. Take another look. I think it was Carol
indicated, and I think it was others also suggested, doing a complete audit of the
whole process as we are where we're at today. Then after the conclusion of that
audit, have the opportunity to digest it, look at it, and then possibly re-write this
document. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Taylor. I would like to make note to
correct the record. I said that I have four sets of testimony, I have five. But I also
would like to indicate that if Caren said that she submitted testimony, I do not have
that, and could you tell me...you did not. Okay, thank you. And then the last
speaker we have for today is Mary Paterson, and I'm very sorry to have you as last,
but that's the way the sign-up sheet got to me; somebody's got to be last.
MARY PATERSON: Thank you very much for doing this very difficult
job. This is certainly not an easy topic. I'm actually...I'm just here as a bystander.
I've been on the island for 23 years. I've earned and tried to farm several... Oh,
excuse me, my name is Mary Paterson. I farmed a few small pieces of acreages, no
more than five acres. I know how difficult it is to do it. But I'm' really thinking that
instead of looking back and blaming everybody that's been doing the thing maybe
illegally or not illegally, there's still some concern about which is which. I think we
need to look forward, and I think this bill does look forward at how to deal with
what we have and how to move forward and how to regulate those. The bill is not
saying it's opening the door to every ag nonconforming use that's wanting to do
vacation rentals. It very specifically says, we're only dealing with the ones that
have already applied. And so I think we should really approve the bill. I'm very
much in favor of it. I think Mr. Bynum's done an extraordinary job of trying to put
together a bill that pleases both sides, which I think is a very difficult thing to do.
It's certainly not going to be easy for many of these nonconforming TVR,
use...applicants to even get their nonconforming use approved, because there may
be things that are within their applications that are not going to pass some other
situation. But I think to me, though, the strangest thing is that a lot of these places
got a license to do business from the State, have been paying their taxes to the State
and the county all these years, and all of a sudden it's oh, you've been doing this
illegally. I don't quite understand how you can be given a license to do business in
one place, and then be told that it's illegal in the other, and the county's been using
L~°
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the money all this time. That confused me a little bit, and I'm sure maybe
somebody can answer that.
But anyway, I actually represent a lot of vacationers who come here, and so I
know a lot of them like to stay in places that are not necessarily within the VDA.
Bed & Breakfasts for instance, or some of the larger properties that are available to
them, many of which are actually on small acreage that have been CPR'd, and so
they're not in any position right now to do agriculture of pretty much any kind,
because it's either on a cliff or their house has taken up the flat lot space, whatever
the situation. There's many of those that I think need to be looked at as far as
being rezoned in the future. I know this bill doesn't address that, but I do think
that they should comply with any inspections, and that they should be given the
opportunity to apply for a special use permit, which is what this bill is all about.
So I would love to see... I agree with a lot of things on both sides that have
been stated here today. I really do. I respect both sides of the case, but instead of
looking back and seeing what's been done, I think we need to look forward at what's
going to be happening in the future, and I think that this bill goes a long way in
saying let's regulate what's here and let's not continue with the proliferation of
TVR,s outside the VDA. So I really appreciate very much you being here, and I'm
willing to answer any questions you might have.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much, Mary. I just want to make a
statement to clarify something. The taxes are all collected by the State. We get our
distributed share, but transient accommodation, general excise, go into the State
coffer, and then by legislative activity, they send us our share, which we almost
recently lost. So I just want to make sure we're square on that. And the fact of the
matter, this bill does not address bed & breakfasts, never did, and bed & breakfasts
are not here. And obviously, you know, we cannot stop the process of this bill here.
It's gotten on the agenda. It will be going to a committee for. work, and hopefully at
that time we'll be able to respond to some of the questions that came up in today's
public hearing. But this will end the public hearing today on this item.
Ms. Paterson: Then if I may just rebut to your comment. There
seems to be to me that there needs to be some sort of a communication between the
State and the County. If you're applying for a permit and a license and your
property is on ag land and you're applying for a license that the county says isn't an
applicable use, then why would you be given the license? I don't understand that.
It seems like there's a breakdown in communication between...
Mr. Furfaro: I need to clarify my statement. The county does
have jurisdiction on items less than 15 acres that do not go to the land use
commission for zoning changes. So I'm sorry if I just kind if skimmed over that.
But I was really focusing on them. They collect taxes, and then they make a
distribution to us. Okay?
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Ms. Paterson: Did that... that didn't really answer that last
question that I had, did it?
Mr. Furfaro: I would like to say that I believe it did, as we get
into the working committee and we reference some of the things that came in the
county attorney's opinion, but it's really been something that by request of the
Chair, we hadn't planned to discuss today.
Ms. Paterson: I understand.
Mr. Furfaro: And so I'm trying to be as respectful as I can.
Ms. Paterson: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: But that would be part of the response to you-we
do have jurisdiction on parcels less than 15 acres.
Ms. Paterson: Okay, thank you, and thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: On that... You have a question, Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Mary, thank you for your testimony. I appreciate
you looking forward, okay, because... and so I want to know, you're clear, though,
that this bill does not allow anyone to apply who can't demonstrate that they were
operating prior to March 7, 2008.
Ms. Paterson: Absolutely. I think that's the very clearest thing,
and that's why I think a lot of the other people are saying, this is just opening it up
to anybody applying for a nonconforming use, but it doesn't; it specifically says,
those people who've already been doing business for a certain period of time, and it
was prior to the March 2008...
Mr. Furfaro: March 7, 2008. We reiterated that a couple times.
Ms. Paterson: So it is not open. It's not open to everybody. It's
just a... Really, does anybody have any idea of how many numbers we're talking
about? It's not a huge quantity of applicants. I mean I'm not even sure if I know
what the number is, but it's not a huge amount, and if they're looked at case by case
basis, if there are some people who've been... submitted their applications and they
put false details on those, then absolutely they should be prosecuted. But those who
have legitimately tried to do their best and to follow the laws of paying taxes and
getting the permits and they've been doing it for this period of time, I personally feel
they should be grandfathered in, but I know that that's not part of this bill either.
•
Mr. Bynum: Well, I wanted to thank you for your testimony and
that focus going future. And you answered my question about whether you're clear,
because I agree with you that going back and pointing fingers and blaming is not
productive. I think anybody who has followed this knows that there are plenty of
people who were dismayed at the notion that what they were doing was illegal,
because it was clearly the status quo. If there's a culprit here, in my opinion it's
government, because we never provided that clarity. And even when the problem
statement was clear, it took us 8 years.
Council Chair Asing
Mr. Bynum:
now, okay.
Council Chair Asing:
than statements.
Mr. Chairman...
But I'm glad to hear you say that you're clear to
How about we stick to questions, rather
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me, your time and question and the time
directed at Mary is finished. Thank you Mr. Bynum. Thank you Mr. Chair for the
reminder. Mary, I will let you go. And on that note, the only one that wanted to
raise their hand again who had not given extended over three minutes, Ann, you
may come up again, and I'd like to close the hearing after that.
Ms. Punohu: Okay. Aloha everybody. I'm not going to take six
minutes, but...
Mr. Furfaro: You're not going to get six minutes; you're going to
get another (inaudible)...
Ms. Punohu: Okay, so I'll just...
Mr. Furfaro: You got three.
Ms. Punohu: Okay, let me go then. Lani, remember how you
were talking about what constitutes farming, what kind of thing can we look at? In
my opinion, the more I hear about this, the more I think about it in my mind, the
connection between the farm worker housing bill and this bill is absolutely
connected. If these guys don't come in and they don't need farm worker and they
don't need farm worker labor, well then they're not farming, are they? Also too in
the farm worker bill, there is a limit as to what money...you set a limit already as to
what constitutes the need for agriculture labor. That way I think that that would
also be a good litmus test for this situation as well. Also too, there are federal
guidelines that clearly state what is ag, and what is not ag, and if you really have a
problem with it, I'll come out, I'll go out, and I'll tell you if they're doing ag or not.
I'll be happy to help you with that. Okay, aloha.
2`[
3D `
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Ann. Is there anyone who I did not
extend more than three minutes that would like to speak a second time? Guy, you
can come up please.
Mr. Croyden: Yeah, I'm Guy Croyden, you saw me a minute
ago... or a few minutes ago. Just a couple of points. It's always alluded that all
these vacation rentals are owned by people from the mainland who don't even live
here and don't run their money in the county here, and that everyone that applied
for vacation rentals was approved. I agree-the due process that the planning
commission used to decide whether you agreed, or that whether you're legal or not
legal, was rather subjective. There was not real clear guidance or guidelines as to
determining, well is this proper use or not proper use. And just as many people
were hurt and disapproved as people who were approved. Maybe the numbers isn't
exactly the same, but there are people that are local families that got disapproved
because their structure was not in local compliance. And even that may have been
questionable. Either there was no outstanding violation, with the government
saying you're in violation of your structure, and you got disapproved. So it was very
subjective, and I just wanted to make it clear that I don't believe any other
businesses get shut down because they have a structural violation, without being
cited by the laws that pertain to structure violations, and allowed to fix the
violation. I also believe that, you know, it's not opening it up wide open to a
plethora of new vacation rentals starting out there. You know, there's a limited
number that were in business up to this point. And I also agree that, you know,
there's a real problem. We have enough land here on this island to do diversified
agriculture and probably support most of the State, but the big problem is the large
tracts of land are being held by corporations from the mainland and who knows
where else, and it's land that's fallow. You know, if the county really wants to
promote agriculture here, what they need to do is somehow craft bills to leverage
these big landowners. Rather than making new subdivisions and new tracts of land
and new...leverage them to allow the land to be farmed by people who want to farm.
I'm sure there's obviously lots of people who want to farm, but it has to be made
affordable; the land has to be made affordable. Only the people that own the big,
big tracts of land are the ones who are going to make it affordable. The little people
who are doing vacation rentals on their land to try and supplement their... not all of
them, but I know some, are trying to do farming. Whether they're doing vacation
rental or not is not going to make the big picture different here on Kauai. And I
also would like to see Kauai remain the way it is. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: That was your second three minutes for your
testimony. On that note, I am going to close this public hearing, and this will
appear on a future committee meeting with the planning committee. So that date is
tentatively set for July 7. Thank you very much. This public hearing is complete.
31
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 3:27 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
("~
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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•
PUBLIC HEARING
JULY 14, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Tim Bynum, Chair, Public Works/Elderly Affairs Committee, on Wednesday,
July 14, 2010, at 2:02 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e,
Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2365 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
SECTION 21-1.3, SECTION 21-2.1, SECTION 21-2.2, SECTION 21-3.2
SECTION 21-3.3, SECTION 21-7.3, AND SECTION 21-9.1 OF THE KAUAI
COUNTY CODE 1987, RELATING TO INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE
MANAGEMENT,
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on June 9, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on June 19, 2010.
There being no one present to testify on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:04 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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PUBLIC HEARING
AUGUST 11, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Tim Bynum, Chair, Public Works/Elderly Affairs Committee, on Wednesday,
August 11, 2010, at 1:50 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e,
Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2367 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
SECTION 21-9.1, AND SECTION 21-9.3 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY
CODE 1987, RELATING TO INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE
MANAGEMENT,
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on July 14, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on July 23, 2010.
The following communication was received for the record:
• Glenn Mickens testimony, dated August 10, 2010
The hearing proceeded as follows:
GLENN MICKENS: Thank you Tim. I've read .this bill 2367. I have
some questions and need clarification about the bill. I know this is a public hearing,
but you know, maybe somebody will want to...Jay? Maybe one of you... Tim? will
want to see if you can answer of my questions, but it's up to you. But let me read it
for the record. I think a lot of members of the public probably have the same
questions that I have and they may want to hear this. In the bill under b, it says
residential refuse collection assessment. All properties in the county that are
classified serviceable for refuse collection services provided by the department shall
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receive a refuse collection assessment according to the schedule below. Manual
curbside collection assessment for up to three receptacles six dollars.
Question. If four receptacles are put out, does that mean that one won't be
picked up, or will they charge another six dollars for the other receptacle, and who
does the paperwork? I know it's going to involve a lot of work someplace along
the line.
Question. Who decides if the receptacle pick up is to be manual or
automatic? If automatic, a 96 gallon receptacle is only six dollars like the manual
container. Wouldn't it be cheaper to use it and not the manual one?
Question. Many people, including my wife, recycle everything they can and
only use one container for pickup. Where is the incentive for the person using one
receptacle over those using three or the 96 gallon container if all are charged only
six dollars?
Question. If people take their trash to the transfer station, are they still
charged a six dollar fee?
Question. By some method (I'm not sure how.) residents are now paying for
trash pickup, whether it's in your property tax bill or what, I don't know. Since this
bill says that everyone will now be charged at least six dollars per month on their
property tax bill, does this mean whatever previous tax we paid for pickup will be
eliminated?
Question. Some places on the mainland use the pay to throw method. This
would seem to be a more efficient way to get people to recycle, as it incentivizes
people to recycle as it will cost more to throw more. I don't see that bill 2367 does
this as written. I thought that JoAnn introduced a resolution or some idea that she
had about this; brought it up before, but I don't remember what ever happened to
that. But I do think it's more efficient than what this bi112367 is.
Question. When will the MRF be up and running, and shouldn't it be ready
before we get into more and more recycling?
And last question. Is the automated pickup working in the pilot stage, and
are all the bugs taken care of to implement the project as noted in bill 2367. I
haven't seen much about it in The Garden Island...in the paper, so I don't know how
this project thing is working. So again, I know that this is a public hearing, but I
didn't know whether anyone would try and answer these questions.
Mr. Bynum: Okay. Thank you Mr. Mickens. Any questions for
Glenn? If not, I'll just say that these are all good questions; they're some of the
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same questions I asked, and this is the administration's bill, and it'll be on
committee next week, and it'd be really, I think, more appropriate for them to
answer these questions, and we will pose them.
Mr. Mickens: At the committee?
Mr. Bynum: Yes.
Mr. Mickens: Okay, thank you Tim.
Mr. Bynum: Anne?
ANNE PUNOHU: Aloha. Anne Punohu. I have a question to ask for
the committee. Is that... When is it supposed to be?
Mr. Bynum: This is public hearing for this Bill.
Ms. Punohu: Okay. I have a question that I would like to be
answered. As a public housing resident where we all put...we're a multifamily unit
and we all put out rubbish cans. You really don't know whose rubbish cans or
who... some of us have spray painted on it, you know, our unit numbers. I have a
question if we're going to have to pay as public housing residents and low income
residents for... for it.
Mr. Bynum: Don't take this to the bank, but many... much of our
refuge collection is done by private companies. And usually in multifamily units,
it's with Garden Island Disposal or someone like that, and so I don't think so.
Ms. Punohu: Mahalo.
Mr. Bynum: Anyone else ,want to testify on this bill? Mr. Rosa.
JIM ROSA: Good afternoon members of the Council. For the
record, Joe Rosa. Well, I'm one of those people that have this new refuse collection
going on as of July the first. What I can say is I don't think it's working any faster.
From what they say, they work faster. They used to become before 6:30 to pickup
my trash. Today they came five minutes late. When they first started out, it was 9
o'clock...9:15. It doesn't seem to be going any faster. And those container bins that,
being that they coming at this later time, the residents in my area are not able to
put it away. They stay right on the edge of the highway there. It can cause,` you
know, some kind of accident or some kind, and who's to be responsible? I know in
this pamphlet here it says that you put it out before 4:30 a.m. and remove it as soon
as possible. But if the truck delivery come picks it up after 8 o'clock or so and a lot
of the workers...homeowners go to work, who's going to put it away? You say it's
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going to be faster, but it's slower so far. I haven't seen it done any faster. Another
thing, I was down at the refuse collection station down here at Ahukini, and
apparently you people ordered atruck-to me it's a lemon, because it can't even
dump the loads over there. They have to dump it outside on the apron of the
unloading station there, because it's a dump and it cannot go up in the building
itself. So it's dumped out on the apron and they have to push it all the way to
pay loaders...all the way to the back where it goes into the big trailer to haul it
away. So much money was spent on a truck that is not being fully used. I told the
guys down there, hey get a picture, turn it in to the union, because they should have
something that can be used to its fullest, not come there and it's going to waste
about five minutes just to unload the whole truck, which is about 30 plus feet.
From my judgment, it's a long truck. But you know, moneys being spent, but yet,
you know, this thing is not a complete... to me, a complete study wasn't made. And
like Glenn mentioned, the fees for six dollars, why should we ,pay more? They do
less. I don't know what happened to the helpers from the truck. Where they
working? Job elimination, all this kind of stuff. And a lot of the people saying that
it's too big for them. And all your dos and your don'ts. The rules in this circular
that was sent out to the homeowners that are on this program.
Mr. Bynum: That's three minutes, Mr. Rosa, and did you want
to wrap up?
Mr. Rosa: Okay, three minutes, three minutes. I know
(inaudible) three minutes. Nobody else get no extra minutes. But as it is, please
look into it. We don't need no fees being raised, because we in Lihu`e we pay for
everything-sewers, fees for this here, it's kind of being unfair, and a lot of the
people are retired in my area. So six dollars is six dollars, sewer fees is sewer fees,
we all pay. So think about it. We never did have it... And sewer fees supposed to
be in our property tax that we pay, so you utilize your property tax fees and stretch
the dollars a little bit more. Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you. Mr. Rosa, there's a question from
Councilmember Furfaro.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to be able to give a
real recap for Mr. Rosa. And Mr. Rosa, this is a public hearing, so not a lot of
discussion. In a nutshell, solid waste runs us about twelve million dollars a year.
That's the number right now we pay-12 million. From tipping fees and other
collections fees and so forth, we offset about four million. So the general fund is
covering about eight million dollars each year. The idea of curbside pickup and so
forth is one where we had an investment. For example, even in the sample...this
special program, we invested about $400,000 into the actual equipment that would
be picked up and transported and so forth. And I'm not justifying anything; I just
want to give a clean picture of how this thing is working. Now in return, we are to
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save labor production rather than have the manpower to huki each container in the
current trucks. But there is no staffing reduction as I know it, but there is an
opportunity for us to reduce overtime cost, because now there are this automated
procedure that would allow our manpower to cover more areas in a normal regular
scheduled work period using the existing force and hopefully having some savings
from overtime, and also taking the burden off of the property tax that this six
dollars would also go against the cost of operating that. So hopefully it will be able
to preserve the integrity of the property tax, and this extra revenue will help keep
us in a position where, for solid .waste, we can keep property taxes in check,
although there is this other fee. Now, in States like California and so forth, you get
a property tax bill, and then you might get an add on for the school district, which
we don't here in Hawaii; you might get another add on of a fee for waste removal,
and that's pretty much how this concept is being set up. So in a nutshell, we
operate...our operating costs are about 12 million, our offset from tipping fees and
so forth right now is about 4; it leaves us a balance of about 8, and the contributions
made from the monthly collection fee will help offset that, hopefully not seeing us
transfer as much money from the general fund. Now that wasn't a question
Mr. Chair. I just wanted to give a real quick recap for Mr. Rosa.
Mr. Bynum: Okay. Thank you Mr. Rosa.
Mr. Rosa: Yeah, I have a question on what Jay had to say.
You mentioned overtime, Jay. Previously...
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me, Mr. Rosa. I want to let you know, we're
not supposed to get into this (inaudible) `till the bill, but I just wanted to say I don't
have all the facts about preservation...
Mr. Rosa: Yeah, well my question has to do with the overtime.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay... But I do know how it's being proposed to
us that there is no manpower reductions. The savings might be in the fact that
rather than people working in three-man teams and so forth, they'll be working in
smaller teams...
Mr. Rosa: Just one.
Mr. Furfaro: That's right.
Mr. Rosa: One driver.
Mr. Furfaro: That's right.
Mr. Rosa: You had three before.
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Mr. Furfaro: That's why it's called automation. But those other
guys will service areas on a more timely basis. So your point is well taken about the
time, but we're going to wait for public works to give Mr. Bynum a report on this
pilot program. All I was trying to share with you is that's how it's supposed
to work.
Mr. Rosa: Yeah, that's why, you know, people that's asking
me about it, and I... That's why when you mentioned overtime, Jay, I know they
used to work on the huki pau, especially they get it down .(inaudible). So where
overtime comes in? That's the question I want to know.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you Mr. Rosa, and we'll ask those questions.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Rosa, and I just wanted to respond
to you. Good questions, and I just wanted to give you a quick overview, as you said
there are many individuals that have questions about this.
Mr. Rosa: Right, but people are asking me about it, so that's
why I brought this question up. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Good questions, good questions. Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you. Anyone else here like to testify on this
bill?~ Seeing none, this public hearing is closed.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:06 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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PUBLIC HEARING
AUGUST 11, 2010
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A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
August 11, 2010, at 2:06 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e,
Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2368 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE NO. B-2010-705, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE
OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF
HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JLY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011,
BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN
THE GENERAL FUND ($220,000 -Council Services),
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on July 14, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on July 22, 2010.
There being no one present to testify on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:07 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
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PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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PUBLIC HEARING
AUGUST 25, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Vice Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, August 25,
2010, at 1:37 p.m., at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai,
and the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
EXCUSED: Honorable Jay Furfaro
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2366 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
CHAPTER 8, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, RELATING TO VISITOR
DESTINATION AREA DESIGNATION FOR WAIPOULI, KAPA`A, KAUAI,
HAWAII
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on July 14, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on July 22, 2010.
The following communication was received for the record:
• Walton D. Y. Hong testimony, dated August 25, 2010
The hearing proceeded as follows:
WALTON HONG: Thank you. For the record my name is Walton
Hong representing the applicant Kauai Kai Associates. Excuse me, I'm losing my
voice. As you know, this bill requests the extension of the existing VDA one (1) lot
over since the existing VDA ends right at the boundary line of this particular
property. For those of you that are familiar with the Kauai Kai Apartment, it's
right across of Safeway, very non-descriptive, if you're not looking for it, you'll miss
it. However these two (2) properties have been in transient vacation rental use
since either 1969 or 1970, predating the CZO. Unfortunately, when the VDA
boundaries were established, it was missed totally... and it ended right at their
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boundary line. Further, subsequently, Kapa`a Shores petitioned and was included
in the VDA boundary, but I suspect that they were more than three hundred (300)
feet away, so my client was never given notice of the .change and they didn't come in
at that time also. Now that they are looking at what their opportunities will be as
their existing timeshare program on the project will be winding down, they have
determined that they need to at least be included in the VDA because the structures
on the property are really slated for transient use, they don't have full kitchens,
they're actually studios with a pull out door that they can be used like a second
bedroom if need be. As I said, since the early 70s this project has been used for
timeshare and transient vacation rentals and they would just like to continue the
use once their timeshare program ends. They would like to preserve their options
for those types of use. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Hong? If not,
thank you Mr. Hong.
Mr. Hong: Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Anyone else here to testify on this agenda item?
Seeing none, the public hearing on Bill No. 2366 is now adjourned.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:43 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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PUBLIC HEARING
AUGUST 25, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order
by Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
August 25, 2010, at 1:43 p.m., at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road,
Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
EXCUSED: Honorable Jay Furfaro
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2369 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. B-
2010-706 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE CAPITAL BUDGET OF THE
COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY
1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND
APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND ($70,000.00 -
Hanapepe Bridge Pedestrian Walkway Repairs)
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on July 28, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on August 10, 2010.
The following communication was received for the record:
• Hanapepe Professional & Business Community Association testimony,
dated August 25, 2010
The hearing proceeded as follows:
ABBY SANTOS: Aloha.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Aloha.
Ms. Santos: Hi, I'm Abby Santos and I'm speaking for the
Hanapepe Professional & Business Community Association. We gave you written
testimony, but I just wanted to read it for the record... my group back there said we
should do that. So... Mahalo Councilmember Kaneshiro for introducing Bill No.
2369; and to the Council for your attention at this Public Hearing and for your
ongoing support of this important historical community investment related to
funding for the restoration of the "1911 old Hanapepe River Bridge" project. There
are photos attached, if you wanted to look at the bridge or actually, how it looked
before we painted it. As the photos clearly illustrate, the years have caught up with
the Bridge and it has fallen into disrepair and funding is critical to its restoration.
In 2008, the Hanapepe Professional & Business Community Association
started an organized effort to bring attention to the plight of this wonderful Bridge.
We found support in the Hanapepe Community and the County Administration and
today Bill No. 2369 has come to you for consideration. We are so pleased that the
Council has the opportunity to join the effort by providing the funding to make the
restoration a reality.
We all know how charming the "1911 old Hanapepe River Bridge" is and we
have a common experience of waiting on one side or the other for a car to pass
over... it brings us back to a time when life was simple and unrushed. By
providing this funding you will ensure that generations going forward will continue
to experience the simple beauty of Kauai and the charm of Hanapepe Town as
found in the "1911 old Hanapepe River Bridge."
This Bridge has deep cultural significance to the Hanapepe community and is
the historical link between East and West Hanapepe Town. On Earth Day 2010, No
Ka Oi Landscaping, the Hanapepe Community Association, led a community
project, Joining Together East and West Hanapepe with Aloha.
The goal was to clean along Hanapepe Road, clear the way to the Japanese
Cemetery and paint the Bridge. Just a little facelift to the area. This project gave
us a glimpse of how the bridge improvements would directly enhance the Hanapepe
community and Kauai as a whole. We are so pleased and rewarded that the effort
is moving forward.
Looking forward, the Hanapepe Professional & Business Community
Association is planning an event in Spring 2011 to celebrate the centennial of the
original bridge construction. With this Council's funding support, we anticipate the
restoration project will be completed by Spring 2011. The planned event will
complement the annual Hanapepe Orchid Fair and the Hanapepe Arts Council
exhibition. We are excited to know that we have the support of this Council.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you Abby, any questions by Committee
members? If not...
Ms. Santos: We also just wanted to make one (1) other comment
that the county has... since we did our Earth Day project, they've been very helpful
and have taken a lot more care of that side of town and have been mowing the grass
and watering the bouganvillias for us, so it really looks a lot better and we
painted... when we painted the bridge, there was graffiti on the bridge... so the
community kind o£.. they kept it pretty clean. It's really nice, so thank you very
much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Anyone else in the Chamber that
wanted to speak on Bill No. 2369? Please come forward and state your name for
the record please.
DOROTHY HAYASHI: Dorothy Hayashi from Hanapepe, Hawaii.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you.
Ms. Hayashi: First of all I wanted to... well I'm sure we're going
to get your support because this is a project that has been festering in our
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community for many, many years. I'm very happy to say that this Administration
has responded positively to us, we were able to get together with the County's
Engineering Department at least three (3) times. At first, it was kind of
confrontational because we were waiting so many years to have this project done,
but then after we sat down and we're able to talk, talk it out... we finally came to a
compromise and I think this is a win-win situation for the people in Hanapepe that
need to use this road. From the Valley, this road comes directly out from Hanapepe
Valley and is a vital link for the people of the Valley and also from Hanapepe
Heights. When you know there is traffic congestion, or if we wanted to just go into
the town, this is the simplest way. This road has been our first road in Hanapepe so
we didn't want to see this bridge destroyed, so we're very happy that the effort is
being done to restore this bridge and we would like to ask for your support of this
project. Thank you very much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you very much, any questions for Kako?
Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Thanks for coming today... Will part of this include
restoring the pedestrian access as well?
Ms. Hayashi: Yes, that's a compromise that we came to. We
didn't realize the history to all of this and through the County's Engineering
Department, we were able to... they drew plans and they really went overboard to
show us what could be done, so we'd like to thank them also.
Mr. Bynum: Great.
Ms. Hayashi: At this time, we would like to thank everyone but
especially the guys that came down three (3), at least three (3) times to speak
directly to us.
Mr. Bynum: Nice.
Ms. Hayashi: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Nice to hear about win-win and compromise yeah?
Ms. Hayashi: Yes.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak on
this item regarding the Hanapepe Bridge Pedestrian Walkway Repair? Welcome
and please state your name for the record, thank you.
ELSIE GODBE: My name is Elsie Godbe, I think Kako kind of
covered a lot of it but anyway I'll read what I wrote... Hanapepe is not a plantation
owned town, it developed with small business people and I'm sure you've heard
many times about how great it used to be. One of the busiest and liveliest towns in
the old days. Now, mainly owned by descendents of the original owners who come
out to support things for development or restoration and preservation and are
already too tired or too new, to the town to come out to these hearings. So we're not
here to ask for money for new development, we're here for repairs to our hundred
year old bridge that is the main stay (inaudible) of the town. I've been in the main
street program about twenty (20) years ago and the goals then are the same today...
so far repair and restoration have been... have been done again by the small
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business owners and the ranchers to their own properties and the town has
improved, but slowly. Now that. we have funding available to repair our hundred
year old bridge, please approve it. The County, the Mayor, the Engineering
Department, the Department of Public Works have worked together... I mean the
community has worked together on this project. After several meetings, although
we wanted the design of the building as it is today, the "1911 bridge" did not have
the elevated pedestrian walkway. Also, the design would have required ADA
improvements and would have ruined what we wanted to save. So the information
from the County... with the information from the County we decided to repair it to
its "1911" original design and thank you and please release the funds.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you for your testimony. Any questions by
Committee members? If not, thank you very much. Anyone else in the Chambers
wanting to speak on this item? Seeing none, this public hearing is now adjourned..
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:53 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
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PETER A. NAxAMURA
County Clerk
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PUBLIC HEARING
AUGUST 25, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order
by Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
August 25, 2010, at 1:53 p.m., at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road,
Lihu`e, Kauai, and the pesence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
EXCUSED: Honorable Jay Furfaro
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2370 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2010-705 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE
FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY REVISING
THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL
FUND ($76,000.00 -Contribution to Solid Waste Fund)
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on July 28, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on August 10, 2010.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
\`,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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PUBLIC HEARING
AUGUST 25, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order
by Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
August 25, 2010, at 1:55 p.m., at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road,
Lihu`e, Kauai, and the pesence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
EXCUSED: Honorable Jay Furfaro
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2371 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2010-706 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE CAPITAL BUDGET
OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL
YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY REVISING THE
SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL
FUND ($400,000.00 -Project Contingency)
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on July 28, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on August 10, 2010.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:56 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
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PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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PUBLIC HEARING
AUGUST 25, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order
by Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
August 25, 2010, at 1:56 p.m., at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road,
Lihu`e, Kauai, and the pesence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
EXCUSED: Honorable Jay Furfaro
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2372 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2010-705 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE
FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY REVISING
THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL
FUND ($822,391.00 -Solid Waste Fund; $603,121.00 -Sewer Fund)
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on July 28, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on August 10, 2010.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:59 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA -
County Clerk
/ds
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PUBLIC HEARING
AUGUST 25, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order
by Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
August 25, 2010, at 1:59 p.m., at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road,
Lihu`e, Kauai, and the pesence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
EXCUSED: Honorable Jay Furfaro
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2373 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2010-705 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE
FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY REVISING
THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL
FUND ($200,000.00 -Sewer Fund, `Ele`ele Main Replacement, Waialo Road
& Highway)
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on July 28, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on August 10, 2010.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:00 p.m.
Res ectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ds
i •
PUBLIC HEARING
AUGUST 25, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order
by Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
August 25, 2010, at 2:00 p.m., at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road,
Lihu`e, Kauai, and the pesence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
EXCUSED: Honorable Jay Furfaro
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2374 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
ORDINANCE NO. B-2010-705 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE
OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF
HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30,
2011 BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED
IN THE GENERAL FUND ($95,000.00 -Solid Waste-Host Community
Benefit (CAC Process))
BILL NO. 2375 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO.
B-2010-706, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE CAPITAL BUDGET OF
THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011 BY REVISING THE BUDGET
PROVISIONS (Kekaha Host Community Benefits accrued interest account)
which was approved on first .reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on July 28, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper
on August 10, 2010.
The following communication was received for the record:
• Bruce Pleas testimony, dated August 25, 2010
• Brenda Jose testimony, dated August 25, 2010
The hearing proceeded as follows:
JOSE BULATAO, JR.,: Thank you Mr. Kaneshiro. My name is Jose
Bulatao Jr., for the record. I am here as a private citizen in my capacity as a
private citizen, I want to make that clear. First of all I would like to thank the
members of the Council for due diligence in responding to the request emanating
from the community to introduce these bills so that the work on the HCB allotment
fund may proceed... primarily with the opportunity for the members of the
community to be empowered and to have an opportunity to be involved in the
process that continues. We have asked as a community to keep the community
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informed about the mechanics of the funding so that the community may be apprize
as to what the expenditures are and anything relevant to the finances of the HCB
funding allocation. We are entirely grateful and I speak as a community resident
for that opportunity to have the community residents be a part of the decision
making process. This has been something that was a sticking point from the
community's perspective and to have been given that opportunity to be participant
in the process is appreciated. Thank you very much.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Bulatao? No
questions. Thank you. Anyone else wanted to testify on these two (2) bills 2374 and
2375? Good afternoon and please state your name for the record.
EVELYN OLORES: Good afternoon Councilmen, my name is Evelyn
Olores, I'm here to speak for the community of Kekaha. I would like to thank this
Council for putting up more money so that... I'm seeing at this time that our
community members are getting empowered by all these money's that we're looking
forward to spending, especially for the community. I have here in my hand which
we never had before survey's that I went to the school to do, with the kids. It's
interesting to note that these kids came up with their own ideas as to how they
would spend the money. You know the teacher's went... were very cooperative, in
fact if they couldn't tell us in words, they drew pictures and colored it. A couple of
the things that they came up with was a skateboard park, skating rink, more
playground equipment, a place where they could go swimming... swimming pool,
you know and one (1) thing was interesting is you know Mr. Kawakami, they said
we only have two (2) stores in Kekaha... they want more stores... but it was really
interesting to see this kind of thing. This survey to me was better than the survey
that we sent to the adults because in the adults survey, they said... oh isn't that the
County's kuleana, isn't that the State kuleana, isn't that DLNR... but the kids came
up with, "if I had one (1) wish, I wish we had a swimming pool" and if you didn't
have a swimming pool, what would you like... a skating rink. Those things came
up but and more and more... I'm getting different things from the community, we
also have community input in their own words, so having the community get
empowered to tell us, instead of we telling them... would you like this, or that, etc.
They're coming back and telling us, this is what we want. So I'm thankful that this
Council would give us a little bit more money so we can come back and say... okay,
this is what the community really wants because we have it all here, in black and
white and the kids have it in techno color, let me put it that way because they
colored their pictures. So I'm hoping that the Council will give us this money and
give us a little bit more time so we can go back to the community and come back
again and say okay we're ready to tell this Council and the County and the Mayor
this is what the community really wants. Thank you.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions members? Thank you
very much. Anyone else is this Chamber wanting to testify on this item?
BARBARA BULATAO-FRANKLIN: Good afternoon everyone. For the
record my name is Barbara Bulatao-Franklin. I just have a question... we have
discussed this within the community and they are curious as to the possibility of
having interest accrued retroactively from 2008 for the eight hundred and ten
thousand dollars ($810,000). I would just like for you folks to be able to think about
that and to see if there is a possibility to do that. I'm open to any questions you
might have.
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Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions by the members of the
Committee? If not, thank you for your testimony. Anyone else wanting to speak or
publicly testify on this item. Seeing none, this public hearing is now adjourned.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:11 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
~-
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ds
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PUBLIC HEARING
October 13, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Jay Furfaro, Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, October 13, 2010,
at 1:40 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the
presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2376 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTER 8, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING
TO THE COMPREHENSIVE ZONING ORDINANCE,
which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on August 25, 2010, and published in The Garden Island
newspaper on September 27, 2010.
JAY FURFARO: We're going to go ahead and call into session this
Council session for the purpose of a public hearing, a public hearing that deals with
the proposed shoreline amendment setback bill proposed, and I'd like to ask the
County Clerk if you could read that item. Thank you very much. Before I suspend
the rules, I do want to express to those of you that are in the audience, since this
will be referred to my committee in planning, I do think it may be a good idea when
we go into committee meeting to also see if we can't get Dr. Fletcher down to
participate in a workshop, especially since most of the work for the maps are maps
that were submitted as a result of the study that we funded with him. I think it's
very important for us to have a mutual understanding of the interpretations,
especially on what determines the building's setbacks, the footprint, and what we
currently have in the CZO that indicates that a minimal building footprint can be
as up to 2100 square feet without any variances. But I did want to share that with
the speaking audience as we take testimony from them, and the intent. This goes
into committee, and my intent is to see if we can coordinate a workshop. So on that
note, I'm going to suspend the rules and ask the clerk, do we have any people or
persons signed up for testimony?
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Mr. Nakamura:
Mr. Furfaro:
they will give testimony?
u
We have three registered speakers, Vice Chair.
Could you read all three names in the order that
Mr. Nakamura: First registered speaker is Carl Imparato,
second registered speaker is Caren Diamond, and third registered speaker is
Barbara Robeson.
Mr. Furfaro:
Thank you very much.
The following communications were received for the record:
1) Carl Imparato, Sierra Club Kauai Group of the Hawaii Chapter, dated
10/13/2010
2) Thorne Abbott, dated 10/12/2010
The hearing proceeded as follows:
CARL IMPAR,ATO: Aloha Councilmembers, my name is Carl Imparato,
and today I'm speaking on behalf of the Kauai Group of the Sierra Club. We
submitted some detailed testimony, and what I'd like to do today, though, is to
provide just an overview that focuses on two particularly bad changes that are
being proposed to the existing shoreline setback ordinance. One is to 8-27.1a, which
would exempt all sorts of development from all of the county's shoreline setback
standards, and the other is 8-27.3c, which would exempt development from having
to comply with erosion-based setbacks if those requirements would result in a
buildable footprint of less than 2100 square feet.
I'd like to start with the second problem here now. Let's take into typical
example here. Suppose someone has a 10,000 square foot lot that's 100 by 100 feet,
and it's located on the shore where there is a one and a half foot per year erosion
rate. Now that's not an atypical erosion rate; there are a lot of places that have
that. Under the existing setback law, they would have to be set back 40 feet plus 70
years times one and a half feet per year, which is 145 feet. That makes the lot
appear to be pretty much unbuildable since it's a hundred foot depth lot. But also
remember that at one and a half feet per year the entire lot would be makai of the
shoreline during the lifetime of the development; it would be completely inundated,
and in that case, all public access would be lost, and this doesn't even take into
account climate change and sea level rise. So, you know, there's a problem with lots
of that nature. But under the existing ordinance, there's a variance procedure, and
under that variance procedure, you have a requirement to basically set back the
proposed development as much as possible and go down to a 1500 square foot
footprint if necessary. So that would result, that variance process, in the
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development being set back about 75 feet on the hundred-foot lot. What this
proposed change to the ordinance does is it says, oh we don't do that anymore, we go
to this table and you only have a 40-foot setback. With that 40-foot setback, in
just 27 years there'd be no public access at all, because the shoreline would move
back that far. 5o what we have here is a strange thing where the very lots that
should be set back the maximum possible distance instead get set back under the
proposed change here, the minimum possible distance. Instead of going back 75 feet
in this case, they go back 40 feet from the shoreline, and that's a real problem, and
it's really endemic to the whole procedure that's proposed in 8-27.3c. I'd also like to
point out that if you even just say well what about one foot per year erosion rate,
that's the average erosion rate along the shores on Kauai. Still a large percentage
of the lot would be exempted by this process, because basically a one foot per year
erosion rate means you have to set back 110 feet, and then that means that the lot
doesn't qualify to go into the erosion rate based setbacks, and they automatically go
to a 40-foot setback. So there's a real problem with that part of the bill, and we
hope that you'll give consideration to striking that proposal.
The second thing I want to mention is the direct exemption from the entire
law that's proposed by 8-27.1a. Now supposedly that's for cases where you have
developments that are so far back from the shoreline that there should be no reason
why they...
Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me, Carl. I just...that was the three
minutes. I'm going to give you your other three minutes now. I just want to point
that out. Go ahead.
Mr. Imparato: Thank you. So there are cases where clearly a
development is on a 500-foot deep lot, it's 300 feet back, and maybe it shouldn't be
subject to going through all of these procedures. But if something is going to be
exempted, it's really...we have to be dead sure that that development would be set
back at least 40 feet plus 70 years worth of erosion rate beyond the .shoreline, and
we have to be dead sure where the shoreline is. The changes that are proposed in
the bill are very broad, they're vague, and basically they lead to a situation where
someone just gets a good lawyer who just is going to argue that the setback won't
interfere with public access, the bill doesn't say public access for a hundred years,
one year, 40 years, and basically what we're going to end up with is a whole bunch
of exemptions here, and when a development falls into that category, none of the
setback law applies to it. So this is also a very problematic change that you're being
requested to look into on the shoreline setback ordinance, and I hope that you'll give
some thought to a different way of approaching the problem of determining what
should be exempt from the going through the procedures of the shoreline setback
law. You know, there's an argument that can be made that we should be giving
more discretion to the planning department or to the planning director or to the
planning commission to handle these kinds of exemptions, but I'll say I don't feel
very comfortable about that when going back to the very first thing I talked about,
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this bill came from the planning department, it came through the planning
commission, and still, within it it has the proposed exemptions that basically take
and allow projects that should be set back the maximum amount to be set back the
minimum amount. If the planning commission isn't looking at that in detail and
passing these proposals on to you for consideration, then I can't say that we would
feel very confident giving discretion to the planning department and the planning
commission to basically enforce this law in a way that protects public access. So I
hope that you'll give some real consideration to those two proposals in particular,
and if possible, if you do have something like a workshop also, then to look at other
ways in which we can actually strengthen the law. And I thank you for your time.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Carl.. May I ask, you heard my
suggestion as this is going to be referred to my committee that I will pursue a
workshop? Are you in favor of that?
Mr. Imparato: I think that's an excellent idea, both because we
have these concerns and because a workshop would allow us to look at some ~of the
problems in the existing law which could be ways we could strengthen the law.
Mr. Furfaro: And I do want to see if we can get Dr. Fletcher
here, since we are dealing with, you know, maps that are the result of his studies.
So you do favor that, then?
Mr. Imparato: It's... In fact I think it's an excellent idea. I
appreciate it.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Are there any questions of the individual
giving testimony? If not... Oh, go ahead.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So your assumption is that this bill actually does
not take the 500 feet law, because to me, this bill is really, you know, covers up
to 500 feet.
Mr. Imparato: When you say covers up to 500 feet, I wasn't sure
what you're...
Mr. Kaneshiro: Correct, of£..from the shoreline. This bill
specifically, you know, even if you're not abutting the shoreline and you're 500 feet
you're going to put something up, this bill still covers that too.
Mr. Imparato: It covers... You're correct, it covers properties that
don't abut the shoreline but are within the 500 feet.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Correct.
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Mr. Imparato: But ironically, the proposed change to 8-27.1a says
that for the properties that actually abut the shoreline, they can...the applicant can
make demonstrations that would allow the applicant based on the topography and
the distance of the improvements to the boundary to move away...
Mr. Kaneshiro: I see what you're saying.
Mr.Imparato: That's the irony. It's the ones that abut the
shoreline that escape, and the ones that are beyond-that are 500 feet from it-
don't escape.
Mr. Kaneshiro: I'll get a clarification from the planning
department, because my belief is that this bill covers everything, whether you abut
or you're within the 500 feet of the shoreline. So you know what I'm saying? So...
Mr.Imparato: I understand. Maybe that's what we need
clarification on.
Mr. Kaneshiro: The intent, I think, was that anything that is
over 500 feet where you have some circumstances where it could be even a half a
mile away and they still would have to get a shoreline certification, and I don't
think that's the intent that you would agree to that too. I know that. So we'll go
ahead and send a communication over to make sure that this bill covers everything,
you know, whether you abut or you're right on...within the shoreline.
Mr. Imparato: Clearly. I think we're in agreement as to what
should be done; the question is how to do it.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you.
Mr. Imparato: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Councilman Kaneshiro, we'll go ahead and
incorporate that communication over to planning. Does anyone have any other
discussions or questions for Mr. Imparato? Is that you Mr. Bynum?
Mr. Bynum: Yes. Thank you for your testimony, and I'm going
to look forward to the workshop, and I am also going to suggest to the chair that... to
find out if Dennis Huang is available for that workshop as well, because he was
very helpful in his testimony in formation of this bill to begin with. And then
maybe we can structure that workshop in a way that if your comments take longer
than six minutes, we can accommodate that as well. Okay?
Mr. Imparato: Appreciate that.
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Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: I will intend to. My intent is also to see if we can
also encourage someone from the Seagrant Program that we had involved in this to
participate. Carl, thank you for your testimony. Our next speaker?
CAREN DIAMOND: Good afternoon Councilmember. Caren Diamond.
Mr. Furfaro: Good afternoon Caren. Before I go on, you did hear.
my plan is get this in committee, then try and set up a workshop from committee
with participation with Dr. Fletcher and representation from the Seagrant people.
Ms. Diamond: Thank you. That's an excellent idea, and I fully
support that.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you.
Ms. Diamond: I think that'll help address a lot of these issues and
problems that are in the bill, and it'll be especially helpful to have Dr. Fletcher here,
because it really confuses me reading this bill and where the title is saying that
we're going to implement the coastal erosion rates, when actually this bill does the
opposite. It does not implement the coastal erosion rates. It instead allows for an
alternative, and it's really confusing in how it does it, because in two different
places it says two different things. One place it says... it adds the building footprint
to it where you have to consider the building footprint with the coastal erosion rate,
which is completely erroneous, because you're supposed to figure out what your
coastal erosion rate is, and then what your buildable area is, and then you do a
building footprint that fits into that. It doesn't work the opposite way, unless you're
really trying to create calamity on the coast.
But there is another section in here that then says, well if the minimum
building footprint doesn't fit, then you use the table. And so it's confusing-in these
two places it says two different things. But if you were to use the existing
ordinance, it was really well thought out, and it already addressed vari...it allowed
for variances, and it allowed for the house size to be reduced, and the setbacks and
the front yard and the side yards to be reduced. It also indemnified the county and
allowed for no armoring forever, and you know, disclosure had to be apparent. And
these kind of things are important on the coast, especially because what we find is
the person who gets these permits and builds the structure is not~the person who
actually ever lives in the house, because we have what's called flipping here. And so
they take that house as right up as close to the ocean as could be, and then they sell
it, and you have some other completely unsuspecting person who thinks that their
county approval and county building permit would mean that there is some level of
safety in that structure, when in fact it doesn't really exist. .
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And you know, the problems in our coast, and if you look at Wainiha and
Ha`ena, the old structures are all set back. They're all really far back. They're still
far back. But the new structures are right... as close as you can get to the ocean.
And so I don't understand why the county would want to, instead of implementing
the coastal erosion rates, they would allow, you know, a proxy to happen and allow
larger structures than actually fit on these lots to occur. And I'd urge you to look at
the existing bill and how these problems were taken care o£ And you know, the
reason the table was put in to begin with was because the coastal erosion study is a
very expensive owner's thing for a landowner to have to do. And the table was put
in so that someone could develop along the coast before those erosion rates occur.
But now that the county has them, it would be really foolish for the county to say,
well we know that the erosion here is this much, but we're going to allow you to put
your house here anyway...because we do know that's how beaches are lost-it's
development too close to the ocean. And it leaves one of two choices, you armor and
lose the beach, or you lose the property. Either way, you're setting up the entire
coastal system for failure, both for the landowners and for the public. And so it's
really important that the things that are in this bill don't diminish the existing
ordinance, don't give people loopholes that, you know, that unfairly put their houses
at risk, and the people in them at risk. Our coastal hazards are real.
I'll look forward to the workshop to go over the rest of the problems in this,
and I will thank you guys for actually having experts come that can help make the
implementation of the coastal erosion rates a reality. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: I just want to make sure. We will, in a week, have
the item in my committee for planning, and in that committee we'll work out the
details of getting over people for the workshop, and then scheduling a separate
workshop.
Ms. Diamond: Excellent.
Mr. Furfaro: So I just want to make sure we're clear, don't
expect the workshop next week. What we'll do is we'll use the committee time to
plan the workshop.
Ms. Diamond: Okay, good. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: ~ -Let me see if there's any questions. Anybody have
any questions? None, thank you.
Ms. Diamond: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: I think our next speaker is Barbara Robeson.
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BARBARA ROBESON: Thank you Chair Furfaro and Councilmembers.
Barbara Robeson for the record. I'm very much in favor of a workshop. When I
started reading the bill, I had a really hard time understand...well, I didn't
understand it. And so to have Carl and Caren help me understand it was very
useful to me, but when I first had the opportunity to take a look at it, I wondered
what the basis for the amendments to the existing bill were. And when I talked to
some folks in planning, my question was, was there a particular study or report that
came out of Dr. Fletcher's maps that were online, and I was unable to find out if
there was or wasn't. So I'm hoping that maybe that could be one of your questions,
if there's an actually study, because if there was a study, is it available to
the public.
On the other hand, if only maps were used to amend this bill, then who in the
planning department, or how did those maps get translated? What was the
expertise of that planner who took the maps and translated them into language for
the ordinance? So those are just some questions that I still have, and hopefully
through the workshop I'll have a better understanding, because right now I have a
big question mark. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Barbara, and that is my intent, is to get
from planning, who submitted these amendments, some understanding of what we
may have gotten from Dr. Fletcher that may have triggered these amendments that
they're submitting, and also a time for us maybe just to have a summary of the
complete study itself. So that is in the intent.
Ms. Robeson: Okay, thank you so much.
Mr. Furfaro: Are there any questions of Barbara? If not, thank
you Barbara. I don't believe we have any additional speakers, and on that note, I
will go ahead and adjourn this committee... Well, I will adjourn this public hearing
on the shoreline setback bill. We are now adjourned. Thank you.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:01 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
/ao
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PUBLIC HEARING
NOVEMBER 10, 2010
•
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday,
November 10, 2010, at 1:37 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road,
Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani T. Kawahara
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
1. Bill No. 2381 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2010-705 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR
THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY
REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED
IN THE LIQUOR FUND ($450,000.00 - Claims and
Judgments/General Liability),
2. Bill No. 2382 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2010-705 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR
THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY
REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED
IN THE GENERAL FUND ($79,555.00 - Salaries, Prosecuting
Attorney's Office),
3. Bill No. 2383 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2010-705 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR
THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY
REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED
IN THE GENERAL FUND (Solid Waste Appropriation, Other
Services $50,000, Computer Peripherals/Supplies $2,400 and
Controlled Assets $4,900),
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4. Bill No. 2384 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE
NO. B-2010-706 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE CAPITAL
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR
THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY
REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED
IN THE GENERAL FUND (Kapaia Swinging Bridge $40,000),
which were approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the
County of Kauai on October 13, 2010, and published in The Garden Island
newspaper on October 21, 2010.
There being no one present to testify on these matters, the public hearing
adjourned at 1:42 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
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PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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PUBLIC HEARING
DECEMBER 15, 2010
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Jay Furfaro, Chair, Committee of the Whole, on Wednesday, .December 15, 2010,
at 1:48 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the
presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Dickie Chang
Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Jay Furfaro, Council Chair
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
BILL NO. 2385 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
ORDINANCE NO. B-2010-705, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE
OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF
HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30,
2011, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS
ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND ($90,211- County Auditor),
which was passed on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the County
of Kauai on November 10, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on
November 25, 2010. `
The hearing proceeded as follows:
GLENN MICKENS: Thank you again, Jay. For the record, Glenn
Mickens. Regarding this bill 2385, Ernie's (I presume) asking for another 90,000 for
another person or persons in his... Anything my friend Ernie wants to do to get
that auditing department up and running I completely support. I haven't delved
into anything else, except I trust Ernie, and if he said he does need somebody to be
able to get this thing up and running, I can't wait. I think it's really great that
we've got this auditor's department now. I think we've been waiting a long, long
time to get an audit going. Anyway, I completely support it, Jay. Thank you
very much.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Let me see, Mr. Mickens, if there's any
questions. Glenn? ...if there's any questions of you. Does anyone have questions?
There are none. Thank you, Glenn. Mr. Taylor.
KEN TAYLOR: Chair and Members of the Council, my name is Ken
Taylor. I too agree that these funds should be forthcoming for the auditor's
department to hire this person to move forward. You have to remember that a
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couple years ago the voters of the community voted in favor of establishing this
activity, and I think it's most important that after the community has spoken to do
what's necessary to get it up and running. So I support moving forward with
this resolution.
Council Chair Furfaro: Any questions of Mr. Taylor? Thank you very
much, Ken. Come right up. Oh, Alice. I'm sorry Alice, why don't you come up. I
saw only your fingertips over Glenn's head.
ALICE PARKER: Alice Parker for the record. I want to say, as a
reformed auditor myself, we definitely need an auditing office, and I think you've
picked the perfect person to do it, because I worked for two months under Ernie,
and he is brilliant, and I don't over... say that anyway, because he's a very sharp
guy. He's very conscientious. He does... making sure that everything's right, and
he's the right person to be auditor. If he says he needs somebody, he needs
somebody, because he doesn't spend government money foolishly. And the only
mistake he made was putting this haole in the charge of the rice cooker on election
day, and he'll never do that again.
Council Chair Furfaro: Thank you Alice
LONNIE SYKOS: For the record, my name is Lonnie Sykos. Good
afternoon Mr. Chairman and Council.
Council Chair Furfaro: Thank you Lonnie. Good afternoon.
Mr. Sykos: I too am speaking in support of the funding
for the...
Council Chair Furfaro: Lonnie, hold on just a second, we might have a
technical problem. He's got the phone ringing again. Are we okay or are we offline?
We're in recess while we're offline. Okay we're good to go. The technical issue is
resolved. Lonnie, you have the floor.
Mr. Sykos: Thank you. I'd like to speak in support of funding
the auditor's request and or requests, if I understood what's being asked for her.
My view is that for every dollar the auditor can save the county, it probably replaces
between five and ten dollars of income that we would have to generate. His
activities simply lead us to best practices in how to save money versus having to go
out and generate new revenue. Since you're in this, the auditor's very important.
He's also a leader for the exercise of civics, which pathway in civics the county
chooses to pursue, and I would encourage the county in all areas to pursue best
practices. And so this requires going out into the world and learning what best
practices are for the various activities that the county does, and auditors, by
definition to be an auditors, are focused on best practices. I'm very happy to see the
funding that's occurred for him, and I hope that he gets everything that he needs,
because ultimately it will save all of us money. Thank you very much.
Council Chair Furfaro: Thank you Lonnie. Anybody have any questions of
Lonnie? No. Thank you very much Lonnie. Is there anyone else in the public that
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would like to testify? No. Okay, again I just want to say that this is a public
hearing on this particular item. It's a request that funds two additional people for
the county auditor for approximately seven months, and we have the detail if you'd
like to see it, but I will close this public hearing. Thank you.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing
adjourned at 2:57 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
PETER A. NAKAMURA
County Clerk
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